jack

The NTL engineer just came. He seemed fairly competant. And after ringing NTL five times I am connected. (Every time switching between customer support and technical support entails ringing back and explaining the problem to someone else, and waiting in a queue. OTOH when I was disconnected by my mobile going out of signal, they did ring back!)

A few thoughts:

* Perhaps some inter-departmental communication would be nice.

* There is an installation CD. But if connect to the modem with ethernet not USB you don't need it, you just need to go to an IP address. If that was published in the little book or mentioned by the engineer it'd be a lot simpler.

* There are many dire warnings about not connecting to the modem before you use the installation CD. Is this because it's hard to talk someone through reinstalling a USB device if it goes off early? Because ethernet chatter would cause NTL to disconnect you? What? If I knew, I might be able to connect with less hassle.

* "Please open internet explorer."
"Will firefox do?"
"Internet explorer is better."
*sigh* "Hold on"

To give them credit, I think firefox *would* have worked. The installation seemed to be plain html.

* And the tech was good about speeding up the explanation when I showed I knew what ipconfig was, and clear instructions "Click start, click run, press c, press m, press d, click ok..." before that.

* But: "What is the IP address?"
"192.168.0.1. But it was configured to that specifically for a previous network. Would you like me to change the setting to 'install an IP address automatically'?"
*mumble* "That may have been left by a previous connection. Please try again."
"Yes, it would have been. OK, the IP address from the modem is..."

I fixed my bike

Well, not quite. It has a slow puncture. But it's rideable, just. The wheel seemed to have several faults stemming partly from my lack of practice. Lots of punctures. Inner tube doubling over inside the tyre and popping up as rabbit ears. Valve being twisted and not entering pump. Which were mutually causing -- I think a partially flat tyre being ridden on managed to double the tube. A rabbit ear catching on a strut causing a puncture. A valve leaking air. Time for gel tyres, but at least I can cycle to the shop.

Made, ate and enjoyed caesar salad

Quite nice. I think my objection to lettuce stems from it not having interesting stuff on. God, I really am a vegetarian now :)

Bought universal remote and headphones

Just a couple of toys that make my life a bit easier.

Retuned TV

Putting all the available channels at the start, so I don't have to scroll past 20 shopping or blank channels to get to ITV3. And I get E4 and abc1 which I didn't realise, which have some cool stuff on.

Got an interweb

Why am I constrained to call it that horrible ironic name?

And NTL seem to have changed their customer line slightly. Despite the frustration of being asked repeated and patronisingly why I didn't try their website (*does* their online customer enquiries work?), there were a few good things: an estimate of how long I'd have to wait, rather than "we are experiencing an 'unusual' volume of calls"; I was disconnected and they called me back, when I expected, since it was 5.02, I'd be lost; ok music and slightly less annoying adverts; helpful teleoperator. Though I have to take friday PM off, damn.