More on Episcopalianism and Homosexuality

On the same subject, also from the NYTimes:

In Virginia, the two large churches are voting on whether they want to report to the powerful archbishop of Nigeria, Peter Akinola, an outspoken opponent of homosexuality who supports legislation in his country that would make it illegal for gay men and lesbians to form organizations, read gay literature or eat together in a restaurant.

Insane.

Secession Among Episcopal Churches Over Homosexuality

Latest idiocy on the religious front. From the NYTimes:

Two large and influential Episcopal parishes in Virginia voted overwhelmingly yesterday to leave the Episcopal Church and to affiliate with the Anglican archbishop of Nigeria, a conservative leader in a churchwide fight over homosexuality.

Remind me again why homosexuality is so taboo in most faiths? No, I mean, really... In Christianity, the arguments citing Biblical text seem spurious at best, given the fact that all source text in the Bible is of questionable origin, authorship, and authenticity, and that today's popular editions of the Bible have been heavily edited for at least as long as there's been a Bible.

But, hey, I'm not really trying to get into that here, although I'm always open to a discussion about historical documentation (sadly, that's true.) Instead, I'll just sign off with mentioning that I was raised an Episcopalian, and based on the congregation in which I was raised, this insipid anti-homosexuality crap would not stand.

VOIP Vendors Suck (this means you, Verizon)

And now, some anger from another site. Mark Gibbs at Network World posts reader complaints about the truly shoddy service offered by Verizon, and some idiotic account mangling courtesy of Vonage.

I've used Verizon VoiceWing (Verizon'sVoIP) for the last 7 months. My conclusion is that VoIP is an absolute fraud! Performance is just awful. Calls are dropped regularly. Voice quality is generally okay, but seems to be sensitive to the voice (certain voices break up pretty badly). Call setup is a problem. After I dial a number, the delay varies. Hangup detection does not work reliably. It has been down for hours at atime...

...When I complained, they said that they aren't responsible for what the Verizon VoIP people do. None of the three groups (ILEC, DSL and VoIP) have any communication with each other. In fact, the Verizon VoIP people announced that they do not support the Netgear router that the Verizon DSL provide.

Ha ha ha! Classic Verizon.

Link

Time Warner's Lousy Service Continues

I am so furious at Time Warner Cable's truly mediocre service that I've reconsidered everything positive I've thought about them over the past five years I've used them. They've successfully burned all of the goodwill they generated with fairly problem-free Internet and cable service with two months now of idiocy.

Today marks the second month after we've moved in. A month and a half after we got cable -- since Time Warner couldn't let us do it ourselves, inexplicably, and it took them over two weeks to haul their asses out to plug in the damn digital cable box.

That cable box has since been manfunctioning regularly -- especially nice when you only have a few hours of personal time on the weekend, and you'd like to spend it watching Rome. Inevitably, what you end up watching is "PowerTV Guardian" -- some aspect of the digital cable box's operating system.

We've called these idiots several times to troubleshoot this. They sent someone out last week, but they didn't show up until after their appointment, at which point, we weren't available. Of course, Time Warner operators claimed that the technician HAD shown up on time. (I've got the message on my answering machine to prove that they didn't. Morons.)

We're still waiting for them to come by to fix their cable box. Of course, this entails taking most of a day off from work to sit at home while they DON'T COME.

Time Warner Cable deserves to lose everything it has unless it can resolve service issues like this immediately. Why not have technicans come by your place after hours -- you know, when you might actually be home? Or, why not have them keep the appointments they make? Of course, that's probably too costly for Time Warner -- gotta keep those shareholders happy.

Evidently, It's Not *Your* Internet, World

The Times goes a bit into the current situation with ICANN. For those who don't follow this sort of thing:

Icann [sic] was created at the Clinton administration's behest as a private-public alliance to oversee Internet addresses. Although Icann says it is advised by more than 80 nations and has had citizens of many countries on its board, it operates under a memorandum of understanding with the Commerce Department.

Icann was founded with the intent of becoming an independent or "denationalized" group. But in June, the Bush administration backed away from that plan, saying in a "statement of principles" issued by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration that the United States had the right to maintain oversight of Icann indefinitely.

And folks wonder why non-English-speakers, particularly from outside of North America or Europe, are having a tough time getting with this Internet thing. Let's not be responsible for ruining another great, global initiative.

Link: http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/14/business/14register.html

Company Uses Courts to Clamp Down on Activist

Isn't this always the way?

"A Canadian stay-at-home mom of 3 recently created a website to report on environmental problems around her neighborhood. The general public and governmental workers lauded her for her efforts. The environmental Ministry spokesman was even quoted as saying 'Obviously we can't have staff everywhere all the time, so we depend on the public out there as surrogate eyes and ears for the ministry'. However, not everyone was quite as happy, as she soon found out, when one company decided to sue her for libel to the tune of $2 million." [From Slashdot]

Naturally, the normal course of action here is for the company to make the court process so lengthy and expensive that the mother can't afford to continue. It's a travesty that this fact, rather than the facts of the case, doubtless will be the basis for its resolution.

Bad User Interface, Vol. 1

I despise it when applications place an annoying start-up screen right in the middle of your display -- even if you launched the application in the background.



So much for whatever I was trying to type, eh? I just have to wait until it finishes loading. Sigh. Would that with the press of a button, the developer -- or, more likely, the marketing person -- responsible for this would receive a quick and much-needed beating every time anyone is forced to suffer through this.

Verizon's Nickel-and-Dime Shenanigans

My girlfriend and I just got a landline phone in our overpriced new apartment in Hell's Kitchen. It's to be used solely for the front desk to call us when we have visitors or packages. I got the cheapest package available -- less than $10 a month. It will be the first non-cellular service I've owned in more than five years.

Of course, leave it to Verizon to tack on a slew of hidden charges that appeared only on my first bill -- charges that they conveniently neglected to mention when I registered for service.

I had been notified about their $16 Service Order Charge when I first ordered service online. The rest of these fees were a mystery.

As a result of this, my first month's phone bill went from less than $20 to $100. Surprises include:

• a $12.25 "Premises Visit Charge" -- of which I'm skeptical, since no Verizon employee came to my apartment, and since the phones actually worked before I set up service, it's unlikely that they had to send someone to my building to switch on service.



• an equally frustrating $39.00 "Line Charge" -- which it's unclear how this differs from the Service Order Charge.

Keep in mind that this is for phone service that's around $9.00 per month. A rep I spoke to at Verizon said these were unavoidable one-time fees, but was unable to explain them in any real precision.

And the telcos wonder why people are leaving them for Internet-based services. Idiots. They and their stockholders deserve everything bad that happens to them.

I also like how I also get to pay a $7.47 FCC Line Charge fee every month, which is only a dollar less than the cost of my actual service. To hell with the FCC, which hasn't actually looked out for the interests of consumers, or attempted to foster real competition, in ages.