August 31, 2015

Dish Network SucksDish Network Sucks!
<rant>I'm not the only one who thinks that Dish Network sucks. Check it out. Do a search on "Dish Network Sucks", you'll find many links to like minded people. Do a Google search on "Dish Network Sucks" - When I did (27 Jun 2019), Google returned > 2,150,000 results (Unfortunately Google results these days are only 15% accurate (in my opinion/experience)). My experience with dish network started when I decided to provide some satellite TV for my mother. She used to live out in the woods (the north woods of North-Eastern Wisconsin, and there was no cable provider in range of her home. So, I thought I'd be a good son and sign her up for some satellite TV. Well, answering an add in the newspaper, I ended up getting a completely different package than the one that I thought I was getting. The reseller (Enjoy Better TV) made it sound good in the newspaper, but the reality was really something else. I didn't get the number of channels I thought I was getting. I didn't realize I was dealing with a reseller until later (when I noticed that things weren't what I expected). I didn't realize all the 'Hidden' conditions, fees, and restrictions until after they installed the equipment at my mom's place.

I've written about Dish Network in the past, but a recent incident has once again invoked my ire. Why does Dish Network suck so badly (in my opinion)? I've had nothing but problems since I signed up. The service is for my mother. I had Dish installed at her house. She lives way out in the woods, and without some sort of pay service, she wouldn't have any TV (without an expensive antenna and mast set-up). So much for the 'Digital TV' transition. It transitioned me right into some expensive monthly recurring charges. If I had to rate the things I hate in life on a scale of 1 - 10, Dish Network would rate up there as number 2 - Right after 'Paying my taxes'. Since signing up in 2008, the price of my 'basic' service has risen from appx $25.00 to more than $50.00 for the same 'basic' service. Their customer service Blows! Every time I have to call them my blood pressure goes through the roof. I wonder if anyone has sued them for 'Emotional Distress'? I'd like to dump them*, but I doubt that Direct TV would be any better. I usually have to deal with the Dish 'Customer Service' two or three times a year. I dread the occasions when I have to call them, but it's inevitable. They're going to screw something up - It's a guaranteed fact of life. My billing, my service, the hardware - It's always something. I really wish there was some kind of competition in this industry. What other choice do I have? My mother lived in a very remote region, and cable was out of the question. She was too far from the television broadcast facilities, so she couldn't get the broadcast signals, and you can't watch TV over telephone dial-up. My only other choice was another satellite provider, but I truly can't imagine another service being any better.

The latest incident involves another bane of the American Consumer - Forced Arbitration. I recently received notification from Dish, that I can't sue them. An 'Important Notification Regarding Addition of Arbitration Provision and Other Changes to your DISH Residential Customer Agreement'. I saved the document (redacted my email address), just in case there's any lawyers out there who would like to examine that offensive piece of legal mumbo-jumbo. Of course I read the entire thing. I did my best to comprehend and understand the document.

Basically it's another attempt by a big corporation to take away my constitutional rights. Have you heard of the 7th amendment to the US Constitution? That's the part of the Constitution where you're entitled (Yes - If you're a citizen of these United States, you actually have some rights) to a jury trial. It's in the Constitution, and it's one of the reasons why we had a revolution - That's right 'subjects' of various European states decided that it was so important that they revolted from English rule (where the citizens weren't guaranteed a trial by jury) and demanded certain rights. Many of those rights are now guaranteed by our Constitution. Of course you do have the right to willingly give up those rights. That's what Dish Network wants me/you/their customers to do.

In the event of a dispute with Dish, they don't want you to have the rights guaranteed by our Constitution. Instead they want you to settle with them 'out of court'. They want you to go talk to 'Joe' - You know, Joe. Joe from the 'Official Arbitration Firm'. Joe's job is to make sure that a just and equitable judgement is rendered on the behalf of both parties. i.e. Arbitration. The legal speak in the email says that I can opt out of the 'Binding Arbitration' - Provided I jump through all the hoops that Dish has set up. Yeah right - That's not in the Constitution. I should have to take actions in order to 'maintain' my constitutional rights. My rights are guaranteed by the Constitution.

Regardless, I took the offered 'Opt Out' option. It took some effort. I complied with their 'requirements' to preserve my constitutional rights. I completed the 'Dispute Resolution Notice', and mailed off my completed form (Opting out) to their legal department on the 30th of August, 2015. I provided written notice to Dish within 30 days of notification. According to Dish: "Your decision to opt out of Section 12 will have no adverse effect on your relationship with DISH or DISH's deliver of Service(s) to you." Just in case you're wondering why they're doing this - You might have noticed (you can do a search on the internet if you don't believe me/want more info) Dish is getting sued; left and right for various breaches of contract. Consumers don't like getting screwed. When Dish says or does something that injures a customer (financially), they tend to sue. Yes - They exercise their constitutional rights. Dish doesn't really like this. It takes time, money, and they frequently lose. The result? They don't want you to exercise your rights. Just like a lot of other companies, they've discovered that some people are willing to give up their constitutional rights for some small measure of convenience.

<sarcasm>Supposedly the 'arbitration' firms hired by these big corporations are 'independent' and 'unbiased' - I don't know about you, but I'm biased towards the company that pays me... I like getting paid for doing my job. As long as I do what my employer wants me to do, my employer keeps paying me. It's an arrangement that suits both of us. Why don't these big corporations just skip the 'independent' arbitration charade altogether. Since it's 'legal' to eliminate your constitutional rights through a 'forced arbitration' clause in a contract (like the one between Dish Network and me, or the one between you and your cell phone carrier), why don't we just make it 'legal' for corporations to 'pay' the judges directly? There's no need to pretend that we're getting any 'justice' through these forced arbitration clauses, let's just allow the corporations to pay the judges directly. That way I'll get my constitutionally (see Bill of Rights and First Amendment) guaranteed right to sue, and the corporations will get what they want. A guaranteed right to 'Never be wrong'.'</sarcasm>

PS: Just in case you were wondering - The above paragraph was intentionally written in a sarcastic style. It's a finely honed form of expression used by Americans when we sense that we are getting screwed. Unfortunately, even though I wrote the above article in a sarcastic style, it's entirely true. We're all getting screwed by the banks and large corporations (normal for profit banks/corporations) in this country. They don't give a damn about their customers.

Are you a Dish customer? Did you bend over and allow Dish to 'remove' your constitutional rights? I really feel sorry for those who 'Just didn't bother' - In other words, they didn't bother to tell Dish; 'Hell No!' - By doing nothing they 'Opted In' to the removal of their constitutional rights. Oh how I hate Dish Network!</rant>
*The good news? In the first half of 2016 (May?), my mother moved to an area where she can get cable. I no longer pay for Dish. Hooray. I was able to ditch Dish. Now I only have to deal with a giant greedy cable company...
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seventh_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution>
<https://constitutioncenter.org/interactive-constitution/amendments/amendment-vii>
<http://www.cohenmilstein.com/cases/273/dish-network-class-action-lawsuit>
<https://www.dish.com/downloads/legal/arbitration-opt-out.pdf>
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dish_Network>

Dominos.com hates the .name TLDDominos.com hates the .name TLD:
<rant> In July of 2015, I encountered one of those frustrating 'Glitches' of the Internet age. Top Level Domains - There's a lot of them. When they were first established, there were just a handful of domains. You're probably familiar with most of those generic Top Level Domains - .com, .net, .org, .gov, .info (and a few others. This limited set of TLDs made it easy for programmers and web site authors to write forms. You know, a form where you might enter your email address. Enter your email address here: <notarealaddress@example.com> - The code then checks to make sure that your email address matches the 'known' top level domains. If someone had entered <notarealaddress@example.con> the program/form would throw up an exception or error message. Great! That prevented people from making mistakes. Unfortunately the Internet Standards are constantly changing and the number of top level domains has exploded since the 80s!

Fast forward (from the 80s) to 2015. The Dominos.com website tempts us with pictures of Yummy pizza and a promise of delivery within 30 minutes (or the pizza is free?). That sure sounds good to me. I like pizza - Do you like pizza? I'll bet you do! So I endeavor to sign up for an account. Of course this is only a one time thing. You know, set up your account. Your name, your address (so they can deliver), your credit card info - I sure hope they're website is secure... And an email address. Sounds simple - Right? Not! What if you've got an email address like this one: <yummypizza@vaessen.name>? (Don't bother scraping the address, it's not a real address stupid spammers).

That's a problem. The code on the Dominos.com website doesn't allow for the full set of top level domains. By 2015, the number of top level domains had exploded. As of today (26 Jun, 2019), there's actually more than 1000 TLDs. How could a programmer keep up? I'm not sure, but the Dominos.com webpage should surely accommodate the .name TLD, which came out in 2002 (fully operational). I've owned the vaessen.name TLD since 2004. The .name isn't all that unusual, there are certainly some TLDs that are more esoteric/exotic, but the Dominos website wouldn't allow me to register with the .name TLD. I reported the problem to Dominos, but they seemed unaware of the fact that there were TLDs beyond the standard .com and .net domains...

After struggling with that issue for more time than I cared to, I switched to a different email address. I also own vaessen.net - So it didn't take much time to craft/create a new purpose built email address ending in .net - Of course the web form accepted the .net TLD - Come on Dominos, get with the program. I wonder if they ever managed to expand their acceptance of TLDs?

That's not the end of my Dominos dilemma. After approximately an hour of struggling to simply establish an account with the Dominos.com website, I was finally able to order my pizza! Hooray - That means I should have received my pizza in a little under 30 minutes, right? Wrong - For some unexplainable, inexplicable reason. My pizza didn't arrive until nearly 1 hour later. How do I know how long it took? Well, the Dominos website actually has (had back in 2015) a handy counter that started counting when your order was placed.

The timer ticked away. Ticking, ticking, ticking. Taking way too long! My pizza didn't arrive as a fresh and tasty pie. It arrived as a soggy, luke warm lump. I complained online, and requested that the local pie shop not know who complained - Because you know, they don't make much money (those who bake and deliver the pizzas), so I certainly didn't want a disgruntled employee taking his/her anger out on my next pie.

The result? Some brilliant manager at Dominos decided that they should notify the local Dominos shop. Despite my desire that my name not be involved, they went ahead and credited my account so that the next time I get a pizza it's on the house... Yeah - That was brilliant. Not! Now I can't order from that Dominos. I'm sure they've got my name on the black list (I've seen the movie 'Waiting'). My next pizza just might contain some extra ingredients. Even if they don't have/know my name, I'd rather not take the chance.

Woe is me know Dominos for now. How long should I wait? How long would you wait, before tempting fate?</rant>
<https://www.eurodns.com/blog/gtlds-email-addresses-and-universal-acceptance_now_1000_internet_extensions/>
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Top-level_domain>
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.name>
<http://archive.icann.org/en/tlds/>

August 15, 2015

Akinetochronism Mailing ListAkinetochronism Mailing List:
In July of 2015, a particularly well worded and insightful email (on the topic of 'No Time') inspired me to finally go ahead and create that 'No Time' mailing list I've always promised myself that I would eventually create... So I did! Over the years, numerous people have expressed strong interest in this topic. So much of an interest, that they actually send me email messages. Now there's a way to continue that conversation, and extended it to a broader audience. 

I've set up a mailing list where we (as a group) can discuss the concepts of 'Akinetochronism'. I've got this crazy idea that there's no such thing as time; or motion. Yes, I'm serious. It's a deep topic, and I've discussed the idea with many people in one-on-one conversations. Now that I've created a mailing list, I've invited a large group of others to participate in that conversation. If you are so inclined, you too can join the mailing list and participate in a broader and more extensive conversation on the topics of 'no time' and 'no motion'.

What is 'Akinetochronism'? Well, it's a coined word (suggested by a correspondent) based upon Greek linguistic roots: A - Against or Antithesis of; Kineto - Motion; Chron - Time; Ism - Philosophy or ideology. Put it all together and you get 'Against the notion of time or motion'. It's not just a word. It's a crazy idea that 'Time' and 'Motion' simply don't exist. Not just that they don't exist in the physical sense, but the idea/belief/philosophy that they don't exist at all. That they are simply illusions 'created' (by our unsophisticated senses) so that we can more easily comprehend a far more simple and at the same time more complicated reality.

The mailing list is a place where a group of us can come together in order to discuss the concepts and ideas regarding the rejection of these illusions called time and motion. It's a topic that many people are interested in, and I thought others might like to join the mailing list in order to engage in conversations and discussions that focus on the fallacy of time & motion. Upon creating the list, I invited 207 like minded individuals (people I've discussed the 'no time' concepts with previously) to the mailing list.

To join the mailing list (it's a Mailman mailing list), simply send an email to: <akinetochronism-subscribe@robsworld.org>
Or, sign up online at: <http://robsworld.org/mailman/listinfo/akinetochronism_robsworld.org>
The archives are available as well: <http://robsworld.org/pipermail/akinetochronism_robsworld.org/> 

Music CollectionHot Jams in August:
Here's a list of some of the music I recently acquired. Where do I get all this stuff? For the long story on my music discovery efforts, see my music page. After rdio was shut down (in Dec of 2015 (yes this post was written in the 'future')), I searched for an alternative streaming service, but the only thing that made sense (given price, catalog, service, support and my existing preferences) was Apple Music. I signed up for a 3 month free trial in December of 2015, and I've been a subscriber ever since (I recently (in April of 2019) signed up for the $99/year plan (saved myself ~$20.00)) - Thank you Apple; for not raising your prices (as of Apr, 2019) since the service began (going on 3 years since June of 2015). For now, eMusic is my primary download service (even though it's catalog has shrunken severely - No major labels, and the minor labels seem to be disappearing on a daily basis). Apple Music is my primary music discovery service, but I certainly can't afford to buy my music from the iTunes Music Store, and the other major players - Amazon and Google both think that the outrageous prices that Apple charges are o.k. Really? - $1.29 for a single track!

Artists want you to Hear their music - If you like it, you'll buy it; or maybe you'll buy some concert tickets - That's where bands really make their money. The major labels of the music industry want you to pay for their product. - letting you hear it for free is contrary to their business model. Well, guess what? I won't buy the music if I can't listen to it first, and no one listens to the radio anymore (because of all the advertising, interruptions, lack of new music and lack of information - you can never figure out who/what is being played) The major labels are killing themselves with their restrictive distribution and dissemination policies. If you like new music, you can do a web search to find your favorite artist's web site, a new music web site, or an archive of free music. Free music is available - Legally! Don't believe the propaganda of the major labels - Not all free music is illegal. You can legally download and listen to all sorts of music for free (Have you heard of Pandora, Presto, MySpace, SoundCloud or DashRadio?). I download (purchase) most of my music from a couple of commercial sources (eMusic and iTunes), but I occasionally download tracks (legally) from various websites, newsgroups and blogs in order to satisfy my craving for music. If only I had enough time in the day to listen to all the music that I want!

Here's a listing of some of the music I legally downloaded - and paid for!

eMusic monthly downloads:
Every month I download ~50 tracks from eMusic.com. This month (August of 2015) I downloaded 54 tracks (from eMusic) at the low cost of $23.26. Despite the published standard member cost of $22.99, I only pay a $19.99 monthly fee. This makes the tracks extremely cheap - That's right I didn't actually pay $23.26, that would have been the price if I purchased tracks at the standard member's price (still cheaper than iTunes). If you're on a monthly plan you get a discount over the non-member prices (which average $0.89 per track). When you purchase an entire album you get an additional discount. Plus I get a discount for being on a special plan (as a member) - I've been 'Grandfathered' with additional credits since I'm a long-time loyal member (since 2006). As a subscriber/member, you save plenty over the likes of iTunes, Amazon and Google. I only paid $19.99 for my $23.26 worth of downloads. The price for these tracks came out at ~$0.37 per track - Way less than the cost on iTunes or Amazon. If you bought these tracks on iTunes you might have paid approximately $70.00! An eMusic non-subscriber/non-member would have paid nearly $48.00! - That's approximately 30% less than iTunes, and I saved approximately 70% over the iTunes cost!

* Si Sauvage - The Suburbs: (10 tracks) A favorite band since the 80's. This particular album was released in 2013. It's the first new release by this band in 27 years! I had no idea that the band was still recording albums. This band (from Minneapolis, Minnesota) has reunited and released a new album. The horns and piano work are great. Unfortunately the Suburbs are no longer available on eMusic. I guess I'll have to go to Apple Music if I want to listen to some of their other albums (I own five albums, including the self titled A&M release from 1986 - which isn't available from Apple). The band released this album (Si Sauvage) independently. I like that - No deal with a recording studio, so they aren't getting screwed by any major label.
* AM - Arctic Monkeys: (12 songs) A favorite band that I've been listening to since 2013. I wish I had heard of them earlier. I've only got two albums and an EP by this band. This is their fifth album. It's got some definite West Coast hip-hop vibe and the base is kickin' it on many of the tracks. Superb writing makes for an excellent album. As expected, this band is no longer available on eMusic.
* Working Girl - The Members: (16 tracks) This band was formed in Surrey, England back in 1977 - The birth place of Punk Rock (England in the 70s). The Members have been a favorite of mine sine the 80s. It's not your traditional Punk, but this 'New Wave' British band definitely hit the right spots back in the late 70s and early 80s. The Two-Tone White Reggae sound carries their albums, and I'm still diggin' it, these 30+ years later. Like all good things from the 80s, this band has mounted a comeback. In 2008, a version of the band resurfaced for some live tours. Then the band proper came back to the studio and recorded new albums beginning in 2012. This is the only album I own, but astonishingly there are some additional offerings on eMusic. I've added them to my 'Wish List' hopefully they'll stick around long enough for me to grab them.
* Chomp More - Pylon: (16 tracks) Another favorite from the 80s/90s. This band was formed in Athens, Georgia, in the late 70s. Unlike their compatriots: R.E.M. and the B52s, Pylon never saw the same success. Their angular, noise infused, jangle pop was far more attuned to the art-pop underground. The guitar work is outstanding. The lyrics sparse. The experimentation always on the cutting edge. Pylon broke up in 1983; then reformed in 1988. I've got two of their albums, and thankfully, there's a few more available on eMusic - As I mentioned earlier, this was never a very popular band. The link here leads to Discogs. They seem more interested in keeping an accurate database than selling anything.

Unlike some music outlets, eMusic doesn't have any DRM and they don't insert unique track id's into the ID3 tags. Their terms of service are consumer friendly. eMusic allows you to burn as many CDs as you like (If you like to do that) and copy downloads to an unlimited number of your computers and portable MP3 players (because I still do that - I take my music with me on an iPod). At less than $.50 a track (I'm currently paying $19.99 for $22.99 worth of downloads per month - I'm on a grandfathered plan that new members cannot get) you can't really go wrong. You don't have to be a member/monthly subscriber to access the site or buy music, and the membership prices (per album) are compared to the non-member prices right up front, so you can see how much you save as a monthly member. eMusic offers a really good value for your download dollar. iTunes and Amazon still charge more. eMusic offers more music for your money, and the variable bit rate recordings make for exceptionally high quality recordings. If you still want, demand, need, your own copies of the music - Check out eMusic.

These are some of the items I added to my music collection during this month. Since revamping my music collection back in September of 2005, I've been slowly adding, revising and updating the collection. If you have a comment, question or correction regarding my music collection, please don't hesitate to send me an email. Please keep in mind that my collection isn't for sale, and I'm not interested in giving you any copyrighted materials. I'd rather not go to jail for music piracy. :-)
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_on-demand_streaming_music_services>
<http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/technology/2008/07/emusic-lets-the.html>
<https://www.robsworld.org/music.html>
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EMusic>