Posts Tagged ‘Comcast’

MSNBC conflict of interest web article

MSNBC writer just happens to use Comcast as example of company wronged by Twitter

Here is a post on the Big Money section of the MSNBC web site. which claims to be about companies that make the best use of Twitter. It rambles on for a bit about how they chose 12 companies to focus on setting up an expectation of graphs and numbers and other such wonkish delights.

The numbers never really appear but eventually we get a section on Twitters recommended user function, where Twitter are, in effect, giving their seal of approval to certain accounts and the apparently arbitrary nature of the whole process. OK, the writer may have a point, addition to the list can literally make a seven figure difference in the amount of followers that a company or individual will garner. Still pretty wonkish stuff.

But then we get to this:

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Comcast to take over NBC? apparently C…

Comcast to take over NBC?

apparently Comcast are on the verge of gaining a majority share in NBC and all of it’s cable interests.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/11/15/nbc-broadcast-pioneer-pre_n_358302.html

Something about the owners of the content and the owners of the means of delivery being one and the same makes little alarms go off in my head. Would Comcast have control over content? Will Olbermann and Maddow still have shows on MSNBC? Lots of questions

More Comcast downtime

More on the company that we laughingly refer to as a cable service provider.

I am keeping a very unscientific log of Comcast’s downtime here in Indiana 46383 for my own benefit as well as anyone else’s in the area who needs a rough record for any reason.

The service went down at 11.55 PM last night, July 24th and was still down at 00.30 today. It was back on by 7.00 AM this morning. I have  no idea how long the outage lasted as I was asleep when it came back on.

On calling Comcast  I got the standard ‘down for servicing’ message. Great the way that they go out of their way to announce downtime in advance, unless of course they have no clue as to when this downtime is likely to occur which I suspect is the case.

If you are looking for potential phone, internet or TV cable suppliers and have an option, do yourself a huge favor and avoid this outfit.  Any money you save will be lost on time on the phone to the company, your cellphone of course as your land line probably won’t be working. You will also get thoroughly teed off at not knowing how movies and your favorite shows end and if you rely on the internet at all well, good luck with that.

Comcast Downtime Watch

I am keeping a very unscientific log of Comcast’s downtime here in Indiana 46383 for my own benefit as well as anyone elses in the area who needs a rough record for any reason.

The service was out (telephone, TV and Internet) at 7.15 AM this morning and came back on at around 8.00 PM. I have no idea of how long it was down before this time other than that it was still up at 11 PM last night.

I called Comcast and got a prerecorded message to the effect of there was ongoing maintenance and service would be patchy (my paraphrase). No indication as to how long this situation would last, no surprise there – Comcast  rule number one- never commit yourself so you can never be accused of not delivering.

It also begs the question of how on earth their infrastructure could be so crappy and so lacking in redundancy that downtime would be required. Whoops forgot, they plough all their spare cash into wall to wall advertising to people who are already unfortunate enough to use their product.

Other Comcast watch posts

Comcast Faces FCC Sanctions for Blocking Web Traffic

From Wired

Comcast, the nation’s largest cable company, violated federal guidelines when it blocked and degraded Web traffic, the head of the Federal Communications Commission will announce Friday.

No comment from me other than to say that this is a really important decision with a probable impact of many of us that rely on services provided by the ISPs to make or partially make a living.