Fun With Passwords, etc.
Because I was sure the ATT DSL signup procedure was going to download tons of shit I don't want and reconfigure everything to have either the ATT or Yahoo logo on it, and change how everything works, including its color, I interrupted the registration procedure at the screen where they required me to tell them my gender (probably because they were going to serve up a page of fashion and hair tips rather than politics and technology). Then tried to establish a dialup connection and discovered that the account had only been partially set up and was in a strange state that could only be unravelled by calls to tech support.

The SBC/ATT merger is still so fresh that one side doesn't know what the other side is doing, I guess. And the help screen (that keeps telling you that you have to start all over again with the installation CD) sends you to the wrong online address.

I remember helping another friend set a DSL connection up. Big letters on one package said DO NOT USE THIS CD, which I thought was hilarious.

Their tech line works with voice recognition commands that you have to scream over and over again to have them understand (maybe it was the fan in the background). Is this supposed to be friendlier than a touch tone menu? Perhaps. At least you get to scream at them in frustration until the computer itself gives up and makes you type a numeric choice.

But was surprised that I didn't have to sit in a queue waiting interminably for help, and that when the help came it did indeed work, so I can safely leave town (and dump the old Compuserve account that I've had since about 1988).

SO that's what you get for trying to break the system and not be a girly girl like they want you to be.

Speaking of breaking systems, since it's been too hot to go outside have been playing freshly (and hungrily) downloaded games. Favorite so far feeds the geek in me, called Hacker Evolution. You get to issue unix-like commands and scan and ping and cat and ls and bounce off servers all over the fake globe to hack a global conspiracy network (you are apparently one of the good guys in the future). Get your nerd on!
- posted by Cynthia @ 11:07 PM | | | Link |