Linksys Skype Phone, Strike Two

Amazon took back my defective CIT400 Skype phone, and sent me a new one - they even covered shipping - they rock. Linksys, you rosuck.

The new phone arrived; I plugged it in (in defense of Linksys, the setup is easy, it only takes about 10 minutes to set the phone up), and it worked. An hour later, I went to make a call, it was hosed again. Exactly the same way as the first one was (a series of beeps when trying to go off hook, "UNAVAILABLE" when trying to view contacts).

I figured I'd give tech support another try; not by phone, I learned my lesson there. I sent them an email:

I have a brand new CIT400. It worked fine for the first 2 hours, now I'm not able to do anything with it. If I try to go off hook (land line), I get a beep beep beep sound. If I try to view contacts, it says "UNAVAILABLE".

As I said, it worked fine for 2 hours. The phone says my skype status is online. I can ping the base station (192.168.1.103); I can also view the web pages for the phone.

They responded in the promised 4 hour window, with this:

I understand you have problems getting busy tone on the CIT400. I suggest upgrading the Operarting [sic] System of the CIT400 and observe if it fixes the problem. Make sure also that the contact you're trying to dial is not in use and this will result hearing a busy tone on the CIT400.

Uhm, thanks for the phone tutorial. I didn't realize that I couldn't call someone who was already on the phone. How about if they have call waiting?

I think not... I'm not getting a busy signal - I get a series of beeps. I said that in my original email. Ok, you can't read. That's fine. Do you know your product? What operating system should I upgrade? The one on my computer? No, I don't think so - my computer is not attached to the phone.

What? You meant that I should upgrade the firmware for the phone? Ok, fuckhead, where do I get new firmware? Did you look on your website to see if firmware was available? No, I thought not. There is none. I can download one of three manuals (none of which say what to do when the phone says it's "UNAVAILABLE" yet still talking to the base station.

Does anyone know someone at Cisco I can discuss their incompetence with?

On an unrelated note.. I'm now wondering if the problem with the phone is that it can't handle when someone (me) sends it a ping... Time will tell - it's been sitting home alone all day, if it's not hung when I get home tonight, I'll send it a ping and see if it gets hosed again.

Linksys Support, Swing and a Miss, Strike One

Alas, the honeymoon is over. My new Linksys CIT400 Skype phone is having problems. Little things, like needing to be rebooted to make a phone call. The manual suggests "checking the cables" - I checked them, they're fine, now what..

Call support, of course. I did (after three unsuccessful attempts to use their online chat facility - Stacey 12088 just didn't want to chat, I guess).

Their support team was something else. A guy answered the phone immediately, after some diagnosis, he said "I think it's defective, let me transfer you to someone who can help you return it." Then he went away for 5 mins. He came back with a new guy; the new guy said "I'm Joe's team lead, I'll transfer your call to customer service" and then he went away for another 5 or so minutes.

Jason came on next; he was going to help me. He took down the trouble ticket number, then went off to retrieve the ticket (again, "please hold for 5 minutes"). He came back, he couldn't find the ticket. He read the number back to me, it was wrong.. Grrr.. So I corrected him, off he went again (this time asking for 8 to 10 minutes, but I talked him down to 5 minutes, we made a game of it, I said "it's 6:11pm PT, you have til 6:16, go" - he didn't like our game).

Jason came back, still couldn't find the ticket. He read back the number again. The same incorrect one he had read the first time. I called him an idiot, in a nice way though (I thought it was nice anyway, but hurt his feelings. I apologized, he went off to find the new ticket number.

He came back again. He read the information from the ticket. He then asked who my phone line provider was - I thought that odd, but went along (AT&T). He then said "oh, ok, we have an agreement with AT&T, you need to call them to get the phone fixed?

Excuse me? I don't see where AT&T comes into this at all. It's a Linksys phone. I bought it from Amazon. Sure, AT&T provides my phone line, but the phone line isn't a problem, as demonstrated by my using it for 90 minutes while talking to you Jason.

I lied. I told Jason I used Southern Bell (is there even a Southern Bell anymore?). Wouldn't you know it, Linksys has an arrangement with Southern Bell as well. I tried very hard to convince Jason that he had to be wrong, to no avail. He pointed out that he's been doing this for two years, so he must know what he's doing.

I knew there was a reason I didn't like buying things online!

My New iPhone!

No, not the Apple iPhone.. I picked up a new Skype phone the other day from Amazon (my new favorite online shopping place). I bought a Linksys CIT400. This is one of the many Cisco devices being marketed under the name "iPhone" (though my box didn't say "iPhone" on it anywhere!).

It's not your typical Skype phone. Most of the ones I've seen require a computer and USB (I have both, but didn't envision them becoming a part of my home phone solution). I was looking for something that was both a landline (like my current phone) and could do Skype (the future in voice calling :), and, of course, was cordless.

There was a phone from Netgear that was similar, but didn't quite cut it (it didn't allow contacts that were only landline-based), along with a couple that weren't available yet (one from Philips comes to mind). I suppose that's just as well, everything else I own has a Linksys logo on it :)

The phone is cool - plug in a couple of power transformers (one for the phone's charger, one for the base station; note to Linksys - it would have been great if the base station had an integrated charger so there was only one power adapter), plug in an RJ11 cable (landline), and an ethernet cable; and you're off.

Voice quality seems pretty good, though so far I've only called my voicemail and listened to/left messages.

About the only downsides so far are:

1. The extra transformer; though I imagine there are some people who would put the base station somewhere besides their kitchen counter so they'd need a separate charging dock
2. The included ethernet cable was yellow. It would probably look good in a '70s kitchen; but I don't have a '70s kitchen (nor, I suspect, do many '70s kitchens, I suspect, have ethernet ports)
3. Additional handsets for the unit are not available yet - damn..
4. It doesn't double as a TV remote
5. It's not an Apple iPhone :)

Been There, Done That

And once again, the government has proof that someone else is out to get us. In this case, senior government officials believe that Iran is supplying Iraqi insurgents with weapons. Right, sure. Like the title says, been there, done that. Do the guns have labels that look like this:

Made in ChinaIran

Thanks for playing along, there are some nice parting gifts for you backstage.

Second Life, meet Skype; Skype, meet Second Life

For those not familiar with it, Second Life is a MMORPG (massive multiplayer online role playing game). I know, I know, purists will argue that Second Life isn't a game; that's fine, you say potato, I say potato.

Skype, I'm sure everyone is familiar with - Internet phone service on the cheap - computer to computer calls for free, unlimited domestic (US and Canada) calling for $29.95/year, various plans/rates for calling the rest of the world, etc.

I've been playing (take that purists!) Second Life for 6 months now. For me, playing Second Life consists of signing in, searching for a place that has "camping" and then sitting in place for hours on end, all the while getting paid in Second Life's currency (Linden Dollars).Typically I make $8L/hour (note to congress: this is higher than minimum wage, even after the proposed hikes which were shot down).

Linden dollars can be exchanged for real currency (cold hard cash, cabbage; the conversion process is not easy, certainly not for the non-Internet savvy, but it's doable), the rate averages around $267L to $1USD. So my daily camping about $0.72USD. Here's the math (you can skip this section if numbers scare you):

$8L/Hour * 24 hours/day = $192L/Day
$192L / $267L/$1USD = $0.72USD

Do you see where this is going? That $0.72 is real money, cold hard cash; cabbage if you will. Why not put it to good use, right? So I did. After only 42 days of camping, I had accrued enough cash to pay for my annual Skype unlimited calling plan (more math: $29.95 / $0.72/day = 42 days). And, what's more, as I continue to camp in Second Life, I continue to accrue money (eCapitalism in action!). I can plunk that $0.72/day down on SkypeOut minutes - it'll buy me over 34 minutes to destinations around the world. Killer deal, don't you think?

All without putting up a penny of my own money, all without getting up off my ass. Ahh, the Internet...

Survey Results

Well, the results are in. The top ten things that bother Bay Area drivers are..

1. Improper Merging 19%
2. Roadboulders: slowpokes in fast lane 17%
3. Cell phone users 16%
4. Carpool cheats 12%
5. tailgaters 9%
6. No lights on in rain 8%
7. Speeders 7%
8. Not using blinkers 4%
9. Drivers who don't stop on right turns on red 2%
10. Pedestrians, bicyclists who ignore the law 1%

Roadboulders - I love it. That would be me! Driving in the left lane (is there a difference between the left lane and the fast lane?) and doing the speed limit. I guess I'm a roadboulder because I understand what the word limit means? Merriam-Webster says:

1 a : something that bounds, restrains, or confines b : the utmost extent

It's the law - the law says the speed limit is 65mph, so I drive 65mph. Is that wrong? If I was driving a police car doing 65mph in the left lane, would I still be a roadboulder? No, I thought not.

How about if we compromise - I won't call you an idiot for not knowing what the the word limit means (I'll still think you're an idiot) and you'll stay off my ass when I'm in the left lane doing the speed limit (feel free to gesture at me all you want though - turns out, I don't care). Deal?