I signed up when they started the no contract thing. I don’t like contracts. Today I visited the site, and they told me to renew or upgrade. No idea why as my price is good until September. Regardless, I took a look. There was no option to renew. I could only downgrade or upgrade and all at a cost to me. How can this be when competitors will do just about anything to get me back? I was recently thinking of just getting internet and GoogleTV or Roku, but Cablevision/Optimum is so cheap for me that even that would not make sense in the end. Here was the lovely chat I had with Verizon.
Agent Tim has joined. (15:08:43)
Tim(15:08:48): Thank you for choosing Verizon and visiting our chat service. I will be happy to help you today.
For quality & security purposes, your session is recorded and may be monitored or reviewed. Please do not provide sensitive information such as social security, bank account or credit card numbers. May we view your account information, including the services you subscribe to, so that we may assist you during this chat with respect to available Verizon products and services? You may deny us permission, which will have no effect on your current services. Under federal law, it is your right and our duty to protect your account information. May I have permission to review your account?
ERIC(15:09:29): hi
Tim(15:10:09): Hi. How can I help you today?
ERIC(15:10:46): Well. I visited the site and it asked me to upgrade or renew.
ERIC(15:11:09): I clicked more info, and my options are to upgrade or downgrade and still pay more money.
ERIC(15:11:32): it seems there is no 15MB internet now, but every option still cost more.
Tim(15:12:09): I understand and I understand your interest in the packages.
Tim(15:12:19): Yes, 25M/25M is now the lowest speed we offer in new packages.
Tim(15:12:29): I can check for the lowest package price now.
Tim(15:13:55): Thank you for your patience. I am checking on your question for you.
ERIC(15:15:36): okay
Tim(15:15:57): Now, the lowest priced package is the 25M/25M Prime HD package with Digital Voice and it includes free Showtime for $109.99/month with a 2 year agreement. You get a $250.00 Visa gift card with that offer too.
ERIC(15:17:02): is their a contract associated with that?
ERIC(15:17:20): oh yeah you said that. sorry
ERIC(15:17:51): so basically, you give me 250, i get less channels, and over the course of 2 years, i pay that $250 back.
Tim(15:18:42): If you choose that package. Unfortunately, what you have now is no longer available as a new package to renew.
ERIC(15:19:06): so your costs go up while the competition’s costs have gone down
Tim(15:20:16): Unfortunately, we don’t have a lower price.
ERIC(15:20:44): if your hands are tied, i understand. i do like your menus and everything better than cablevision, but knowing what i do now, i can’t even see letting this run out to the point where i have to upgrade.
ERIC(15:20:57): okay well, it is what it is.
ERIC(15:21:04): thanks
Tim(15:21:29): Do you have any further questions I can assist you with today?
ERIC(15:21:38): no thank you.
Tim(15:21:48): Thank you for choosing Verizon, we appreciate your business. If you have any additional questions, please do not hesitate to contact us again.
Tags: Cable, Cablevision, Fios, Optimum, TV, Verizon
Posted in Home | No Comments »
Posted on 16 May '12 by Eric B, under Home. No Comments.
There is a hack out there now which originated on droidrzr.com to get a dev release of ICS for my RAZR MAXX, but everyone seems to be crediting XDA Developers as the site. It is not.
So far so good. I like it a lot. VPN now works without root, but it still asks for it. I also now regularly get messages on the screen that it was denied. For some reason it likes to try to get it every time your connection changes in anyway. Antek App Manager and Calendr both seem to have broken now too. Hopefully that gets fixed.
Supposedly the official release will be in a few days, but I am starting to doubt that for a few reasons.
Tags: Android, ICS, phone, razr
Posted in Computers & Gadgets | No Comments »
Posted on 2 April '12 by Eric B, under Computers & Gadgets. No Comments.
No, it didn’t really ruin my life. It just changed a scene I loved for so long, and not for the better. The only real upside is that it has drawn a lot of new people, but on the other hand, most of these new people are looking to “rage” while fueled on horrible chemicals.
By now everyone has heard Dubstep, they just might not know it. Some big name producers have had some commercial success with video games and advertisements, and there is also a lot of generic Dubstep in commercials as well. Verizon, McDonalds, car brands, North Face, etc. Dubstep is a genre of Electronic Dance Music that is typically produced at a 140bpm tempo, but the beats are half-time. This leaves the listener feeling less energetic than traditional EDM at the same BPM, like House and Techno and a lot less than Drum and Bass with its 175ish BPM and plenty of drum hits. It was pretty boring, and didn’t catch of for quite some time. Then more recently the (bass) drop has bean built around more fast, hard, and abrasive samples to induce excitement from the listener because of the lacking percussion. This is something you either get or you don’t. I usually don’t. This is not necessarily the “wub, wub, wub” that people refer to either. Sometimes its even just high pitched insanity. Melody is often a thing of the past now. The genre went form melancholy to maniacal.
When Dubstep first hit the scene, I gave it a shot. I listened to a bit of it here and there online, and first heard it played out on a boat party back the fall of 2006. People on the boat were talking about how Dubstep was about to blow up, but it did not would not in with the way it sounded at the time. I thought it was quite boring, and I was surprised to later find out that it was born out of the UK Garage scene, which I rather enjoyed despite its lack of prominence here in the US. I thought it would die off just as fast.
A year or two later, it did gain some ground. I was putting some of Skream’s radio shows on my MP3 player, and downloading a few things hear and there, like Jakes’s off the wall tunes, and Jokers signature sounding tracks with a bit of what I can only call a old school West Coast flavor. With the exception of Joker’s tracks, I really don’t know what I was thinking. Most of it was just rubbish with over the top oscillator tweaking. I think that actually was the appeal at the time though. Both my (now) wife and I got over it real quick. Meanwhile, Rusko was making some big tracks. Babylon Volume:1 featured Cockney Thug, which was pretty big. I rather liked it. The two record EP also feature Love is Real, an amazing UK Garage track. Despite all of this, Dubstep was still not being played anywhere big really. Starscape was not what I can only describe in the years to come as “infected” with it yet. It also had no real place at WEMF in the late summer 2008.
However, it was in 2008 when Drum and Bass producers started making some notable Dubstep tracks. Chase and Status released Eastern Jam, which got a lot of attention. Nero also released This Way, which was also quite popular. Both went on to produce two huge full length albums. First came Chase and Status with No More Idols, after which they formed More Than Alot Records, which would feature Nero’s hugely successful Welcome To Reality. Yes, they spelled it “Alot.”
In 2009 one of the members of Chase and Status spun a set at Starscape to help spread the Dusbtep infection that year. The set was pretty good, but largely disappointing because it was beat for beat the exact same set I heard from a big Valentines Day party in the UK several months earlier. I wonder if they didn’t just press play on a CD and fake the whole thing. It would not have mattered. Dubstep was in full swing attracting an epic shit ton of new kids to the scene of Electronic Dance Music, a term that could soon be used quite loosely. They wouldn’t know or care what the DJ did. Despite not really having a stage for Dubstep or big Dubstep DJs that year, at several points throughout the festival, it could be heard at the same time on every single stage, which I found quite annoying. The infection was spreading fast.
It was around this time that Dubstep was changing. The samples were becoming more and more abrasive and attracted kids full of angst, and by sheer numbers, these kids were changing the face of the scene.
By Starscape 2010, it grew enough that they had a whole stage for it, and yet again it could be heard on every single stage at the same time over and over again. Skrillex had hit the scene and attracted a ton of real young kids. With no real age restrictions the place was packed. Dancing was a thing of the past for the most part. Tons of teenage kids on research chemicals everywhere. One young girl tried selling me what she said was ecstasy for $35. That is a heck of a lot of money for what I doubt was even real if I was even into that. I was turned off enough by what I saw around me that it was time to close the Starscape chapter of my life.
In 2011 I had the return of WEMF to look forward to. The ticket prices were more than double what I paid in the past with no line up even being mentioned yet, but I didn’t care. By now people like Rusko and Skrillex who I later found out both happened to be booked were playing complete noise, but I still didn’t care. There were so many other great DJs to go for., old friends, memories of great crowds, and that vibe that I missed so much. WEMF would not even be happening again if not for all the Dubstep fans. I looked around the first night, and I never felt so old in all my life. 3 years with no WEMF and the influx of new kids will do that. Then I started to notice how cracked out people were. I don’t know what was going around, but it looked bad. Andy C was a huge disappointment as he kept dropping what people call Drumstep, a sub-genre of Drum and Bass with the boring half time drums of Dubstep.
This year the ticket prices for WEMF were even higher, but they sold out in record time. This gives me an idea of the type of crows that will be there. Still no line up, and they keep jacking up the prices. Unless something amazing takes place, I am breaking the long standing tradition of attending. I am not ready to let go, but it seems I have to.
Electric Daisy Carnival is coming to NYC this year. Well, it is really in NJ. I bought tickets for that, and it sold out real quick as well. Partial line up is out, and its not a bunch of Dubstep. I am thankful for that. However, the lineup as it stands now seems like it is just another Electric Zoo, which is comprised of commercial EDM that kind of sucks. Hopefully it will change. If not, I guess my festival days are over. I am not leaving the scene, its been leaving me for quite some time now.
It is not like I don’t enjoy a lot of the new music out there. I would actually have went to see Nero at Roseland had I known before it sold out. Its the attitude of the new people, the crazy prices, the influx of bad music, the lack of good new Drum and Bass, and the good producers all switching over to Dubstep that suck. I will still have great nights out like tonight at the World of Drum and Bass versus Darkroom. The funny thing is, Darkroom is a Dubstep crew with their own room tonight that is largely responsible for the night even happening, but if it was not for the world producing the same bad sounding Dubstep tracks over and over again, the Drum and Bass room DJs would have a lot more new records to choose from.
Tags: DnB, Drum and Bass, Dubstep, Dubstep Sucks, EDM
Posted in Music, Raves | No Comments »
Posted on 16 March '12 by Eric B, under Music, Raves. No Comments.
Going to the World of Drum and Bass versus Darkroom tonight. I must be getting old, because I should be a bit more excited than I am. This is one of the biggest things to hit DnB in years. I think the last time I saw a line up as enticing was at Stereotopia back in 2001.
DJ SS never disappoints, Crissy Criss trumps his pops Kenny Ken who was here the last time they did the WoDnB tour in NYC, and Bailee has been selecting some of the best tunes for Radio 1Xtra since the dawn of time. I somewhat wish Tali was coming out, as she did LA last night, but Warren G is classic. I don’t really have much to say about Subzero or Greenlaw, but I should have a strong opinion after tonight. I love a good live performance.
Okay, you know how I said I should be more excited, well now I don’t think I could be.
Luckily, I have this 4 hour mix from Crissy Criss to hold me over. http://www.keepinitcriss.com/downloads/mixes/CrissyCriss_QQMix_2012.mp3
Tags: Darkroom, DnB, NYC, WoDnB, World of Drum and Bass
Posted in Music, Raves | 1 Comment »
Posted on 16 March '12 by Eric B, under Music, Raves. 1 Comment.
I was out at a club wearing a jacket that I love with tiny pockets, and my phone fell out. Supposedly it was turned in, but the venue cannot seem to find it.
After a week of watching the phone and seeing it was never turned on, I have not given up hope, but I ordered a new phone. Despite swearing off Motorola after the Droid X received some buggy updates, I got the Razr Maxx based off of reports directly from Motorola about it receiving an update to ICS by the end of Q2 and its battery life. Right after I opened the box, Moto released a time line that showed that there is no date set yet, and it is likely it will not come out until sometime after July. The Rezound gets it soon, and the Nexus already has it. In the end though, I wanted the battery life on a slim phone. I am enjoying it so far. Much more responsive than the DX was.
Step one was to look for updates and see if I could root after said updates. http://vulnfactory.org/blog/2012/02/11/rooting-the-droid-4-a-failed-bounty-experiment/ Did the trick. Time to load up free wireless tethering and some back up applications. To hell with the ROMs people make. They tend to break something. Lastly, I will remove the junk that this phone is filled with. I thought the DX had a lot of bloat, but wow. It was nothing in comparison to the crap on this one.
This time I will back up my back ups, though I plan to seldom even take this phone into any bars or venues with me considering my track record of losing phones lately.
There is also a alpha release of ICS that is being developed by the user community since Moto sucks. Hopefully that will be ready soon.
Tags: phone, razr, razr maxx, Root
Posted in Computers & Gadgets | No Comments »
Posted on 16 February '12 by Eric B, under Computers & Gadgets. No Comments.
