Continuing on this theme, it looks like peeps elsewhere are sticking up for Microsoft. Just read the comments from this Engadget post on Shuttle’s new Windows Media Center PC (the Shuttle XPC M1000).

In the comments a troll called Victor posted this:

Posted Jun 3, 2005, 8:17 PM ET by Victor

Now why would you put your home entertainment in the hands of Microsoft? Why people use their crappy software boggles my mind.

and then this:

Posted Jun 3, 2005, 8:17 PM ET by Victor

Now why would you put your home entertainment in the hands of Microsoft? Why people use their crappy software boggles my mind.

Then most of the next few posts slam Victor (but remember, don’t feed the trolls!)… so at least some folks are giving Microsoft a chance based on their products.

Hey, a whole lot of things about a whole lot of Microsoft’s products could be improved, but most work fairly well. And they are innovating: Tablet PC, Windows Media Center, PDAs, Xbox 360, RSS feeds in Halo 2, etc. etc.

I’m sure that you all have heard the news that SBC is offering DSL service for $14.95/month. Of course, you still need to have a phone line which costs a minimum of around $6/month. But whatever, $21/month is a pretty sweet price for broadband. In addition, SBC has a “professional” package that offers 1.5-3.0 Mbs for $24.99/month, but with the required phone line it’s more like $31/month. You can view the SBC rate plans here.

However, the sweetness stops as soon as you call SBC to order DSL. Since I am moving, I don’t have the required phone line that they force you to “bundle” with DSL. In fact, you can’t even order DSL until you have the phone line. Ugh!

So I go through the hassle of signing up for a phone line with the absolute minimum of service, only to find out that the phone line won’t be active for another 5 days. Jeez, so it’s going to be 5 days without broadband before I can even order broadband. That $31/month for the pro service is starting to not feel like such a bargain.

But it gets better. Two days after I ordered the phone line, I get a call from SBC saying they need me to fax a picture ID to them in order to install the phone line. It turns out that even if I could fax them the ID (I can’t do it today since I am busy moving and can’t get down to Kinkos to use a fax machine), they have delayed installing the phone line. The timer has been reset, so it’s another 5 days from today at best (for a total of 7 since I placed the order) that the phone line would become active. Then I can place the order for DSL.

OMG! And once I get the phone line, I have to go back and order DSL. Once you do that, it takes SBC something like another 5 days to ship the modem to you. Add all of this up, and it’s gonna take two weeks to get broadband from SBC.

Fuck that. I called up Comcast, and in about two minutes with no faxing of picture IDs, I’m having broadband installed the day after tomorrow.

Guess who just won the DSL vs. Cable war at my new pad?

Well, they are selling the crappy townhouse that I live in, so I’m moving. Posts have been slow as a result (obviously). In addition, my main computer has some “issues” I think are power supply related. At times it doesn’t even turn on… at others it turns on for a while and they just powers off. Lovely!

I’ll be logging onto Newegg.com in a bit to order up a new power supply — I sure hope that’s the problem.

Update 2005-06-03: Strike Newegg.com and insert Directron.com. Directron has much better product information, and their site is more organized. This made it much easier to order the right power supply unit — one that supported SATA drives and modern processors.

I’ve ordered from Directron (and Newegg) a bunch in the past, and both are great. Newegg has faster shipping to California, but has state tax. Directron is slower in shipping (coming from Texas I think), but no state tax.