More photo magic

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Another fun animal photo

...again from Broadband Reports: Here you go. Cute and funny all once.

License Plate Watch 1

I saw the following California personalized license plate on a car in front of me at a traffic light,: "REVOLT".

There was nothing else on the car that indicated what that was all about!

Astronomy Picture of the Day: A Web Site Review

NASA runs a web site called Astronomy Picture of the Day (aka APOD), which every day has a different photograph or image that is in some way related to astronomy.

Most of these pictures are of objects in outer space or areas of outer space. These are frequently absolutely astounding, such as this recent image, which is titled "The Busy Center of the Lagoon Nebula." Wow, just wow.

As is acknowledged in the site's FAQ, they do occasionally rerun images (especially when new information about older pictures becomes available on the web). Perhaps the most impressive fact about the site is that it has been running continually since 1995 (as documented by the archive). That has to make it one of the oldest continually updated sites on the web, which is pretty astounding in and of itself.

For anyone with any amount of interest in astronomy or outer space, daily visits to APOD are a must.

Cable modem replacing slickness

My Internet service is the Road Runner service as provided by the San Diego franchise of Time Warner Cable. Recently the cable modem I had received at the start of service has been acting up - randomly going offline for long periods. Not seeing anything on the Roadrunner help web site or on the Road Runner forum at Broadband Reports that indicated any kind of network problems occurring in San Diego, I finally made up my mind last night that the problem had to be the modem itself.

I had previously seen comments on the Broadband Reports forum that Time Warner Cable franchises do allow Road Runner customers to bring malfunctioning modems into their offices for replacement, so I decided to do that this morning. The local office is reasonably close to where I work, so I drove to the office from work mid-morning.

The exchange process could not have been simpler. I walked into the customer service lobby, and had to wait just a few minutes to speak to one of the reps. I put the bad modem on the counter, said it was malfunctioning and I wanted to replace it. The rep said OK, brought up my account on her computer and went through procedures on the computer to deactivate that specific modem and then to activate the replacement on the local Road Runner network. She then had me sign a form to acknowledge the exchange, and I walked out with the replacement in hand, which is now connected and working perfectly as I type up this post.

The big surprise in the process is that the rep gave me the full package of hardware they provide when someone starts service: in addition to the modem, I also got a new power supply, a new ethernet cable, and a new USB cable! I had assumed I would simply get the replacement modem, so being given the full package was a very nice surprise. The power supply and ethernet cable I have been using since I started on Road Runner are still working fine, so I'll just put these new ones in storage for possible future needs.

So, the entire process to replace the bad modem was a good experience. If this new modem eventually starts to misbehave, I will definitely not hesitate at that time to hustle it into the local Time Warner Cable office as early as possible for another replacement exchange.

Another follow-up

In this post I had written about the termite infestation throughout my condo complex, and the resulting special assessment being charged each unit for treatment. I also noted that payment of the assessment would be spread out over 12 months, but I was sort of tempted to inquire if the whole thing could be paid at once just to get it over with.

Well, the monthly bill for the normal fees arrived in my mail yesterday, in which I expected the first of the payments for the special assessment to be included. So, I was very startled to find that apparently someone in the billing process had made a mistake and assigned the entire assessment amount to the bill!

I'm sure the management office will be getting plenty of calls complaining, but I am seriously considering going ahead and sending in a check for the billed amount before the probable corrected bill gets sent out. Like I noted above, I think I'd just like to get. it. over. with!