Category Archives: Personal

AT&T Uverse Review

Posted by on May 7, 2009 Comments Off

Today was a long time coming.  I haven’t had cable / satellite service for the past 7 months because DirecTV decided they didn’t want to service my home with HD service — so I canceled all of my service with them.  I’ve been dealing with over the air (OTA) DTV.  It hasn’t been bad, but it is incredibly limited; only 5 or 6 English language channels.  After 7 months I finally received word that AT&T Uverse is available in my area — I immediately jumped on it.

I placed my order on Tuesday and had an 8 – 10 AM install window just two days later.  I decided to go with their Uverse TV 450 package with their 18 mbit/s internet package, I left off the phone service since I already carry several cell phones.  Thursday rolls around and I’m at home waiting for the installer.  I selected the first available install time for the day hoping that I wouldn’t be caught up in a later day install where there’s generally delays.  10 AM rolls by and the installer still hasn’t arrived.  I end up calling dispatch to see where the installer is.  A nice gentlemen informs me that it looks like my install slipped between the cracks and he was attempting to find a free installer.  20 minutes later an installer calls me and will be at my home in 30 minutes.

Sure enough he shows up, very polite and gets straight to work.  Finds out that the initial work he did on the pole needed some tweaking so he took off for 20 minutes.  Comes back, everything checks out and then starts to plug in the gear.  In approx. 45 minutes he has everything up and running, gives me a quick run down on the features, hands me his personal cell phone number in case something isn’t up to snuff and takes off to his next job.  I must say the TV quality is very nice.  HD is crisp and clear — no pixel tearing.  Video on demand is smooth and works as expected and the DVR functionality on the receiver and online is seamless.

Next I took the internet for a spin.  Amazingly I was able to pull down 20 mbit/s and upload hovered around 2 mbit/s.  As advertised speeds and it seems very consistent.  I downloaded a weekly video series this evening and was amazed with the speed at which the file came down off the net.  Steady at 1.5 – 1.6 MB/s.

AT&T Uverse

Overall I am very impressed on day 1 of AT&T Uverse.  If you have Uverse available in your area, I’d recommend it over DirecTV in a heartbeat.

SxSW Music

Posted by on February 24, 2008 Comments Off

I haven’t had a chance to check out South by SouthWest in person due to scheduling every year. However, I’ve always snagged the music. Robert Scoble points to a torrent that has all of last years music in it (almost 800 MP3s). The music is available at no cost — which the artists have all agreed to. Check out Robert’s post for more details.

I’m fortunate enough to be on an under-utilized Gig-E to the net. I was able to pull all 3.5 GBs down in under 45 minutes. Check out my previous post showing some of the speed goodness :)

Air Canada Maple Leaf Lounges

Posted by on February 10, 2008 1 comment

I traveled to Montreal for the weekend to see friends and my sister who I haven’t seen in over 6 months.  The family visitation was tame, but visiting friends sometimes gets a little crazy.  Needless to say I didn’t get as much sleep as I would have liked.

I decided to travel back to Houston on Air Canada.  They’re a partner with United, so my Red Carpet lounge access carries over which is really nice. The women who was checking my credentials at the door noticed that I was dragging ass a lot.  She turns to me and asks if I’d like to take a nap and she would make sure that I was awaken 30 minutes before my flight to freshen up.

I thought for a second as I was clearly confused.  I could just set my alarm, although I’d probably sleep through it and if my flight changes at all I’d be screwed.  So I took her up on her offer and would you know it, my flight changed and she let me sleep right up until 30 minutes before my flight.

For international travelers, this is by far a nice to have service.  It made my day and kept me productive the rest of the day after a power nap.

Thanks Air Canada!

Microsoft Outlook 2007 is junk

Posted by on February 3, 2008 1 comment

Today I was searching the net looking for an answer on why Microsoft Outlook 2007 insists on completing an integrity check after each start complaining that I didn’t shut down Outlook properly–when I close Outlook properly every time I’m finished using it.

I ran across a post by Stan from lijit with the 67 reasons why Outlook sucks.  If you use Outlook on a daily basis, you can relate to each one of his points at one time or another.

The Gut (not my stomach)

Posted by on January 29, 2008 Comments Off

I just finished reading The Gut by Jack Welch (former CEO of GE).  The book can be a little slow at times but overall, a great read if you’re interested in GE and the accomplishments of Jack Welch.  I’d recommend picking up a copy.  Once you get into it, you’ll rip through the 400 pages in a couple days.