The Diary of A Simple Man

After unending hours in live chat, and on the phone, and with technicians remoting in to my system, my ESP All-In-One Printer/Scanner/Copier still crashes every time I try to scan. The latest joke is that they are going to send me a CD of their software. Given that their level-2 technician remoted into my system and personally uninstalled the software and then downloaded it herself and reinstalled it, I am trying to understand why this would help. How could a CD version be MORE up-to-date than an online version which is available to their own technicians?

I used to love Kodak, no lie. They made rock-solid high-speed duplicators, back when I was running the copy center of a large law firm. And I appreciated their recent honesty policy about toner, which is why I recommended them to so many people. But now? I'm getting really, really pissed off at them.

A copy of a post this evening from the Fuitadnet forums.

Subject: SpamAssassin again

After several months SpamAssassin went down again on my account this morning. 3,000+ spams per day are now spurting into my inbox.

I am...concerned.

So, I've been off the Fnet forums for a while. Is everything good here now? Did service improve dramatically, thanks to those new extra-qualified staffers?

Jeeze, that's strange. That sounds kind of sarcastic. I didn't mean it to come out that way. Time for me to get some sleep.

Between you and me, I've got to admit something: I did mean to sound sarcastic. Well, not initially, but somewhere in the middle I lost my patience. Could you tell?

A thread I started in webhostingtalk.com has become extremely interesting. Current and former employees of my webhosting company are ripping into each other. It's very educational, to say the least!

Email went down again last night, around 7-8pm. I got online with a support person and they got it back up around 1PM today. But all email sent to me during the hiatus was apparently lost.

No real explanations of any of this have been given.

My site and email are back up this morning.

Which reminds me, I am going to back up my site RIGHT NOW.

It's amazing how hard it is to go to sleep with my site and email still down.

If anyone needs to reach me, email:
pmaranci
(at)
yahoo
(dot)
com

Bog, I really hope they fix it before I wake up. BTW, I posted a message on the forum and at least two other people are also having this problem.

As of this evening I am no longer able to receive email, and my site is DOWN - all the way down. I have opened a ticket.

I am very concerned.

Is there anybody out there?

Today marks the 60th day that SpamAssassin has been down on my account. Sixty days of

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I have been forced into the spamosphere.

I can't take it. I can't take it.

I am losing my mind.

5,400 per day...and counting...

This is a followup to "Getting In Trouble Again".

I wasn't banned, and the "Super Moderator" didn't apologize - I was basically told to chill out.

I found that a bit offensive, because I wasn't...um...not chilled, whatever the hell that means. Still, it seems wiser to let it go. As I've gotten older, I've gotten less and less interested in conflict.

On the other hand, my temper still surprises me sometimes. Yesterday some idiot started beeping and gesturing at us from his car, and I was instantly in a state of berserk fury. I found myself snarling, and smacked my fist into the palm of my other hand with what was, to me, amazing speed. I don't normally do that - in fact I never do - and it wasn't a conscious decision.

Apparently I scared the guy, because he took off. At the moment, I half-hoped he'd stop his car and get out, because I was spoiling for a fight.

Damn good thing he didn't stop, though. I'd probably have broken my hand, and almost certainly would have been arrested.

Okay, no. I would probably have yelled a bit, and then backed down. But who knows? I still surprise myself, sometimes.

On a totally unrelated note, I just finished re-reading Leave It To Psmith by P.G. Wodehouse. I hadn't read it in twenty years, and was surprised at how good it was. It's remarkably funny, and there are no dull spots at all. I found myself laughing out loud frequently. Amazing!

I posted this over in the Fuitadnet general support forum, but for no sane reason I've decided to post it here as well. The poll doesn't work, of course, but if anyone actually feels like voting, feel free to do so in comments.

Thank you for your inquiry. Please wait for a site operator to respond. You are number 1 out of 1 customer(s) ahead of you.
You are now chatting with 'Manish'
Manish: Hello
Peter Maranci: Hi. I'm checking on the status of ticket #HNT-48024-770. No account on my domain has been able to receive email for the past 24 hours.
Manish: How can i help you ?
Peter Maranci: Has there been any progress on this ticket? I cannot receive email, and I cannot open the support ticket page, so I have no other way of knowing what's going on.
Peter Maranci: I have finally received a bounce message, if that would help.
Manish: i check the ticket
Manish: we are working on that problem
Manish: when we will fix the problem we will update you via ticket
Peter Maranci: But I can't view tickets!
Manish: we are making some updates to ticket system , that's the reason you are facing problem with ticketing system
Peter Maranci: Is there any ETR? For the ticket system OR the email problem?
Manish: not sure
Peter Maranci: That's it then? Just wait?
Manish: sir as senior techs are working on that problem,that's the reason i am unable to tell you ETA
Peter Maranci: Not much I can do about that, then. Goodbye.
Manish: Bye sir

Poll
Should I have been:
A. Ruder?
B. More polite?
C. Funnier?
D. More stubborn?
E. Speaking Armenian?
F. Masturbating?
G: Other?