Review of Pandora's "Pandora One" Service
I've been a fan a Pandora's service in general. I recently heard about Pandora's Pandora One service (currently priced at $36 per year). I've been a longtime supporter of XM (now Sirius XM). After the merger, it seems like the various genre channels can't seem to find themselves. This is a void that Pandora fills much better. A primary account on XM can range as high as $180 annually when billed monthly, an additional radio account can cost $84 annual when billed monthly. $36 annually doesn't seem like much in comparison, and certainly not for better refinement on the genre of music you may be looking for.
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Voice Over IP (VOIP) Providers Compared
You can find this information in many places on the web, nevertheless I thought I'd compile my own guide. I referenced a ranking listed on Wikipedia for the most popular services. I then visted web sites for each of these companies to get current pricing information.
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Online Investment and Trading Services Compared
Recently, I wanted to diversify some funds I had invested. I've been involved with the market before, but like many people, I had my financial ass handed to me in 2002. I wasn't even someone who invested in risky dotcom businesses. I had invested in trustworthy, reliable stocks. However, as I'm most familiar with technology - I invested in technology. Technology stocks were dragged down by the failed dotcoms. Hence, I started a four year trial separation. I'm giving the market another try now.
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Nettica's DNS Services
Previously, I made mention of using a domain to your High Speed Internet IP address. At the time I was using DynDNS services. I had a one-year agreement for $24.95. When I started getting renewal notices, I noticed that $24.95 was seemingly kind of steep for the service. I could understand if I was a high traffic site requiring a lot of DNS lookups, but that's simply not the case. I'm using this for nothing other than personal use.
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D-Link gets their product info on website right!
A week or two ago, I posted a complaint that I was heavily disappointed with a new Linksys Router I had tried out. After browsing this week's Best Buy ad, I wound up looking for product specs at D-Link's website.
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Mapping a domain name to your High Speed Internet account
I have an always-running Linux server on my home network. It acts as a file server for various files, streams audio through my network, and acts as an anti-spam Email proxy. Sometimes when I'm at work, I feel compelled to access these files. Sure, there are ways I can remember my semi-static IP Address that my cable provider offers me, but I thought I'd drop $8 at GoDaddy and map a domain to my account.Continue reading "Mapping a domain name to your High Speed Internet account" »
At Cox, We Look for new and innovative ways to frustrate you...
So I had my TiVo season passed to pick up episodes of "Call for Help" (with Leo but from Canada) - and noticed my cable box wasn't tuning G4; no channel was present and I was getting the general "unauthorized" message - yet all other digital channels were in tact. There's a possibility my cable box may be having minor issues, but I'm going to jump to the conclusion that Cox didn't want to pay some new licensing fee to Comcast (which owns G4). G4 is probably demanding new premiums (having replayed-to-death leftovers of Star Trek: TNG from SpikeTV now in their arsenal).
Don't get me wrong. G4 is a miserable shadow of what TechTV/ZDTV used to be. I don't know why anyone would think it was a good idea to use the lesser-known of the two brands for the identity when G4 bought TechTV. (SBC is calling themselves AT&T now, for example.) But whatever Cox's logic is for yanking the channel is probably the worst of ideas.
Another thing Cox did to piss me off: I was an early adopter of their "Premiere" Internet service, paying an extra $15 a month for an extra 5 Mbps. I don't know why, there was no need for me to do so really. I guess I just wanted a bigger number. Now, they've upgraded the "Preferred" service to 6 Mbps, meaning I'm still paying $15 a more for a mere 3 Mbps more now. In other words, if there was any incentive for me to keep paying the Premium - I don't really know what it is now.
Way to run off customers, Cox.
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