Entries from November 2007 ↓

An old geek joke says there are 10 types of people in the world.

Those that understand binary and those that don’t.

The same can be said of this shirt.

Wishing to be friends is quick work, but friendship is a slow ripening fruit.  ~Aristotle

Over the last couple of weeks, I have spent a few days with my lifelong best friend. First, he came to visit me and we spent a couple of days engaging in the manly pursuit of big game hunting (deer). Then, over the holidays, my family and I visited Eric and his wife, Barbara, at their home for a day, where we engaged in the manly pursuit (even though Barbara knows more about college football than most men) of watching college football.

It takes a long time to grow an old friend.  ~John Leonard

Eric and I grew up into manhood together. We became good friends just out of high school and were best, hang-out-every-day friends for the next 10 years. Since then, we have lived in different states for the last 15 years, trying to visit each other a couple of times a year. Despite the geographical and chronological distances in our friendship, I know that with a single phone call and no questions, Eric would be at my doorstep to lend a helping hand. And he knows the same of me.

Friends are relatives you make for yourself.  ~Eustache Deschamps

I suspect that at first we liked each other because of shared common interests or possibly shared traits that we like in ourselves. But, I wonder if friendships deepen when people begin to see traits in the other person that they wish they had themselves. In Eric’s case, I’ve always admired his spontaneity and adaptability to change. Since I’ve known him, Eric has had multiple careers including machinist, sailor, high school teacher, salesman, real estate investor, hair stylist, camp counselor, and a few others I can’t recall offhand.

Friendship… is not something you learn in school. But if you haven’t learned the meaning of friendship, you really haven’t learned anything.  ~Muhammad Ali

In the long run though, I think true friendships are created when a casual friendship accrues a critical mass of shared experiences. Put another way, the shared experiences reinforce the friendship until they become a buttress making the friendship truly strong. To carry that analogy further, not only do the shared experiences buttress the friendship, but the friendship buttresses us against the stresses of life. Which leads me to one last friendship quote for a regular reader — and you know who you are…

A good friend is cheaper than therapy.  ~Author Unknown

And  the saga continues…

Again, I received a phone call from Todd, my local telco field service technician, asking me to check my DSL download speed. Again, it was less than 2 Mbps, far below the promised 6 Mbps download speed — and far below the current speeds I enjoy with my cable-based broadband connection.

This has been going on for 3 weeks now. And the saddest part is that the technical personnel for the company responsible for delivering the service, can’t figure out the problem. I suspect they’re trying to diagnose a kludgey system that was crufted together as a stop-gap, "me too", answer to the cable company’s broadband service.

I’m still playing games with my telephone company trying to get satisfactory performance from my new DSL Internet connection.

My local telephone company field technician called today and left a message requesting that I check my DSL download speed again, saying that the problem should be fixed now. I did. It isn’t.

The saga continues.

So my local telco field technician, Todd, came out to my house this morning. He hooked up his equipment to the box outside my house and reported a good strong signal there. He then came inside the house and and plugged his equipment into the jack I’m using for the DSL modem and reported a good strong signal there also. He said I should be receiving 6Mbps download speed. He then hooked up his laptop to the DSL modem and ran a speedtest; he got about 1.2Mbps. Now, he’s feeling really stumped and I’m feeling joyously vindicated.

BTW, the DSL modem does have a built-in, primitive firewall but it was not enabled. Todd was surprised at that and said they should always be enabled as no unprotected PC should be put on the Internet. Again, I am intoxicated with a surge of vindication.

Todd tries another DSL modem with the same results. He says there must be a problem up the line with "the programming" in the switch. He also tells me that I’m the first 6Mbps customer on this switch. He sends the problem back to the guys responsible for the programming and says he will give me a call later when they have resolved the problem. Todd then leaves about 10:45 AM.

About 4:00 PM, I receive a call from Todd. He reports that they have now set up my programming exactly like another customer that is using (and receiving) 6Mbsp download speed. He asks me to try another speed test and call him back. I do so with the same results.

So, here I am exactly 2 weeks into my attempted use of the telco’s high-speed DSL service and they still have not delivered their product. In fact, they can’t figure out why they can’t deliver their product. Even if they find and fix the problem, this fiasco does not bode well for when I experience service problems in the future.

Quality in a product or service is not what the supplier puts in. It is what the customer gets out and is willing to pay for. A product is not quality because it is hard to make and costs a lot of money, as manufacturers typically believe. This is incompetence. Customers pay only for what is of use to them and gives them value. Nothing else constitutes quality. –Peter F. Drucker

I’m a big reader but right now I think my reach has temporarily exceeded my grasp. I normally read books serially, one book at a time. However, all of sudden, I’m reading multiple books at the same time.

My current list in no particular order:

• The Quark and the Jaguar by Murray Gell-Mann
• Conceptual Blockbusting by James L. Adams
• The Art of the Start by Guy Kawasaki
• Captivating by John & Stasi Eldredge
• Moving Toward Stillness by Dave Lowry
• The Way of Sanchin Kata by Kris Wilder
• Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain (1st edition) by Betty Edwards

Hmmm…after reviewing the list, I have sudden yen for an escapist novel.

My partner and I drove by a Sharper Image store today and, being the gadget geek that he is, he just had to stop and browse. As he remarked, Sharper Image is a chain built completely on products you will never need. Items such as the "rainproof" electronic meat fork with built-in thermometer. Or the lighted pepper grinder. And, not too far from the atomic clock that was 1.5 hours behind the correct time, was a true sign of the apocalypse. Of what possible use is a ropeless jump rope? If there’s no rope, then it’s not really a jump rope is it?

I guess this gimmick is for people who can’t count jumping jacks.

This post is part of a continuing saga of my travails with the local telco, trying to establish reliable and speedy DSL service. And, yes, I gave up on the counting in French.

My local service technician, Jeff, just reported that he had reprogrammed my DSL modem and asked that I check my connection speed now. I did so and am getting a download speed of 1.8 Mbps, nowhere near the 6Mbps I’ve been promised. During our conversation, Jeff mentioned that the DSL modem actually has a firewall built into it; something none of the other "technicians" ever mentioned. Even so, he admitted that I would not need to hook up a computer directly to the modem.

After the test, he said he would refer the ticket to a "field service technician" who should pick up the ticket by tomorrow afternoon and begin work on it. Supposedly he will trace the connection from the telco’s central office to the connection box on my house. I asked if he would be informing me of what he found. Jeff said probably not, that if the field tech found a problem he would just fix it; and if he didn’t find a problem, he would refer the ticket back to Jeff who would then call me again.

Is anyone out there taking bets on the outcome?

The way to a customer’s heart and wallet lies in how well we initially serve our customers and recover from poor service. Unknown

As I’ve blogged before here, here, and here, I’ve been enjoying wonderful customer service from my local telephone company regarding my slow DSL speeds …………………….. (long Borat-esque wait here) ……………………………………….. NOT! In my last post on the subject, the service technician had left a voice mail saying that my download speed should now be 6Mbps. That was Monday, November 5. Of course, the speed was not 6Mbps, it was only about 1Mbps. The technician didn’t leave a callback number, nor did I have a trouble ticket number. I sure didn’t want to endure the telco’s outsourced technical support call center again. So I went online to the telco’s site and found a form to Submit a question or trouble ticket. At 9:39AM on Monday, November 5, I submitted a request for them to reopen my trouble ticket and send a service technician to my house to diagnose the problem. The telco’s site promises a response within 24 hours. I received a response at 11/08/2007 02:02 PM — 77 hours later. And what was their belated response?

Response (Avel P.) - 11/08/2007 02:02 PM   
Thank you for using Windstream’s Support E-mail System.  We would like to thank you for being an Windstream customer, your service is very valuable to us.  The problem you report is not easy to fix over email.  We suggest you contact our helpdesk at one of the numbers provided and we will be happy to troubleshoot with you.

Windstream strives to provide the highest level of service and answers to every question.  Please contact us at 1-800-990-4449 (dial-up) or 1-888-292-3827 (broadband) if you have any other questions or further assistance.

Sigh.

Resignedly, I call the broadband technical assistance number, a.k.a. the outsourcing of Hell. This time I talk to "Jim". Jim begins taking me through the exact same customer management and technical diagnosis scripts that I endured for hours last week. Damn, but these support people are trained to the point of becoming automatons. However, Jim surprisingly readily agrees to reopen my previous trouble ticket, but as he’s doing so, we are disconnected. Recall that I was disconnected last week when talking to this same support center — a support center for a telephone company.

Sigh.

I call back. This time I’m apparently connected to a different call center. "Andrea" answers the phone and she has an American accent. And, in sharp contrast to the over-the-top politeness of the other support personnel, Andrea has a very brusque attitude. She begins to insist that I disable all firewalls and plug my computer directly to the DSL modem. I still can’t believe that this is the technical support of an ISP suggesting I plug an unprotected Windows-based PC directly to the Internet. A quick Google search reveals all sorts of articles about the inadvisability of doing just what Andrea is advising me to do. When I refuse to do so and instead ask that she reopen my previous trouble ticket, she flatly states that she cannot help me unless I cooperate with her request. I ask to speak to her supervisor. Andrea says she doesn’t have a supervisor (how convenient) but that she’ll connect me with a "senior technician".

Now Vestil (sp?) gets on the line. Vestil is very polite but he also insists that I plug a computer directly to the DSL modem. Again, I refuse. Vestil then tries to tell me that he will not be able to help if I don’t comply with his request. I tell him I will not be able to continue as a customer with his company if he doesn’t comply with my request and send a service technician to my house! I told Vestil that his company is unable to deliver on the level of service they promised and now that I’m informing them of the problem and asking that they fulfill their obligation, I’m essentially being told "tough shit". I also asked him to provide a solid technical reason for why I should risk an unprotected computer on the Internet; of course, he could not provide a reason.

After much wrangling, I finally told Vestil to forget it; I wanted to cancel the service and receive a complete refund. Now he starts backpedaling, saying he really wanted to help me, they valued me as a customer, yadda yadda yadda. I told him it was too late that he had just lost my business. Finally, I’m connected to the billing department which, I’m told, will cancel my service and provide me with a refund.

Instead of billing, I’m connected to what I’m calling the "customer retention desperation department". Joyce comes on the line, and she’s good. Joyce is obviously well-trained and skilled in sales. She immediately tries to connect with me by telling me she lives in a nearby city and has visited my area many times. She asks why I wish to cancel my service and listens with an attentive and empathetic ear. And despite my knowledge that this is a technique for me to spend my frustration and make me more manageable, damned if it doesn’t work. Yes, Joyce weaves her magic and talks me into giving them another chance.

Even so, Joyce did provide a few concessions. First, my service will be free for two months while I try it out. Second, a technician will be here Tuesday morning (my first available time slot), between 9AM and noon, to fix whatever the problem may be at no charge. Finally, Joyce provides me with her direct telephone number as a point of contact for any problems; I guess my file has been marked as a customer in need of special handling — at least, I hope so.

So, in spite of myself, I’m giving the telco one last chance. At this point, I have spent 6 hours dealing with this stupid issue. At my billing rate of $150/hour, that equates to $900 or, as my business partner pointed out, 60 months of the $15 savings the telco is supposed to provide me over cable broadband service. And I swear, if they don’t fix it this time, I’m submitting a bill for my time. I know they won’t pay it, but it’s the money of the thing, not the principle.

My partner was recently awarded his first degree black belt in Danzan Ryu Jujitsu. In order to achieve his shodan level, he had to demonstrate his knowledge and proficiency in 160-odd techniques (throws, chokes, joint locks, etc.). While I was congratulating him, he made the comment that now he can go back and explore those techniques in more depth; he feels he has achieved a breadth of knowledge and now wants to deepen that knowledge. As a middle-aged martial artist, I appreciate the mental and philosophical aspects of the martial arts as much as the physical aspect, and Scott’s comment echoed an essay I had just read by Dave Lowry in his book Moving Toward Stillness. Lowry tells the story of when he was young judoka (judo practitioner) witnessing the award ceremony for 5 new shodan black belts. Acting as one of the proctors and attending the ceremony was an extremely high ranking judo practitioner. Each of the testers congratulated the new shodans and gave bits of wisdom. Lowry recalls how he listened intently to see what words of wisdom the master would impart to the new black belts.

"You have taken a big step forward. Now, I hope you will take a big step back."

Many teaching systems use a "peel another layer" or cyclical approach to learning. Although a system may appear to be linear as students progress through a series of ranks such as belts in the martial arts or grades in school, in actuality most systems are layered and cyclical. Recall your grade school years; every year you studied the same basic subjects (the 3 R’s plus history), but each year was another layer of depth and understanding. When you graduated college, you had a broad knowledge of your subject field. But you weren’t an expert until you garnered a few years of real experience and had internalized the lessons learned in school. In fact, the practice of putting the lessons to work forces you to take a new view of the lessons, and provides a new perspective into their meanings and truths.

The martial arts are similar. A beginning student progresses through the ranks in a seemingly linear fashion, learning new techniques, katas, and movements. However, even though the student is eventually competent with advanced techniques, he/she is still expected to practice endless repetitions of kihon (basics). As they become more accomplished martial artists, the constant repetition of kihon leads to a deeper understanding and internalization of the art –peeling another layer.

Watch a class of beginning karateka practicing punches and you will see a group of students performing the gross motor movements necessary to perform a punch and, in fact, they may be able to throw an effective punch. Watch a group of first degree black belts performing the same techniques though and you will see a huge difference; there is no doubt that a shodan is able to throw an effective punch. While the beginner thinks at the surface layer of hitting a target with his fist, a shodan has discovered and internalized a number of layers of knowledge about the technique; solid stance, elbows in close, rotate your fist at impact, relax until the moment of impact, strongly chamber the non-striking hand, power flows up from the floor, snap the punch back, etc.

Even so, the shodan is not an expert. Achieving shodan rank is an important rite of passage but, in fact, a shodan is considered to have a thorough grounding in basic technique and ready to begin serious training. The gap between a shodan and second degree black belt (nidan) is as large as the difference between a white belt and shodan. And the difference is not so much one of breadth of knowledge as it is depth of understanding. The difference between shodans and nidans performing the same techniques is palpable, just like the difference between beginning karateka and shodans.

I suspect this pattern is prevalent in most endeavors. Most accomplished musicians probably warm up by practicing scales and basic exercises on their instruments. I imagine they compose songs in a layered fashion; revisiting the song and adding nuances with each iteration. Artists learn a breadth of techniques and mediums, and become true artists when they begin to weave their technical skill with an understanding of the interplay of light and composition. Magicians will eventually learn a huge library of tricks and will concentrate on the nuances of performance. Writers imagine a general plot, compose an outline, and develop a story through layers of drafts.

So, where am I going with this somewhat rambling post? I don’t know, but I feel as if I’ve peeled a mental layer while writing this entry.

P.S. Congratulations, Scott.