Bent Corner

I strolled over to Geek News Central the other day to see what Todd was railing against these days. Big surprise, he is upset about how the FCC will handle the auction for the 700 MHz frequency spectrum. That’s the area of the frequency spectrum currently used by old fashioned analog broadcast TV. Starting in 2009, TV stations wont be broadcasting analog signals on the 700 MHz spectrum and will instead be forced (kicking and screaming) to switch to broadcasting a digital signal on frequencies other then the 700 MHz range.

This leaves the 700 MHz spectrum open for other things such as cell phones or wireless Internet. Signals in the 700 MHz spectrum can travel up to four times farther then signals transmitted on the current wireless frequencies. They are also better at going through walls and they don’t kill bees like microwave cell phone frequencies do.

Some have been advocating that the entire spectrum should be completely open-access. The FCC announced that only a third of the 700 MHz spectrum will be open-access.

This is what Todd had to say:

I am severely pissed off. Sure, the rules state that the spectrum must have Open Devices and Open Applications but the FCC threw out the baby with the bath water when they reversed course on what could have been the most positive wireless spectrum development since the invention of the radio when they closed the door and are going to allow CLOSED SERVICES and CLOSED NETWORKS.

I am truly unhappy and I hope you are as well. I encourage you to pick up the phone and call anyone and everyone you know with influence and tell them how you really feel about this.

The problem is that the majority of Americans are quite content with these companies getting their way every time. It is beyond criminal to say the very least.

I don’t know who exactly Todd is accusing of criminal activity. Is it the FCC? Verizon? Sprint? Google? How about AOL? They don’t have a stake in this, but Todd often sets his sights on AOL, even going so far as to encouraging people to sell off all their shares in AOL. Never mind that AOL is part of Time-Warner and there is no such thing as AOL stock.

Who exactly then is the criminal here? I really don’t know. I left a comment on his blog yesterday asking just this very question, but it never appeared. Todd is one of those bloggers that runs a CLOSED SERVICE blog. He personally must approve each and every comment that appears. I can only assume that is why most of his blog posts have 0 comments. Maybe people are leaving comments, but their comments don’t pass muster.

I’ve never really understood why some bloggers feel the need to engage comment moderation on their blog. What are they afraid of? That someone will disagree with him?

The ironic thing about this is that he is all for openness when it comes to radio frequencies, but not when it comes to the comment section of his own blog. That’s kind of sad.

Does Todd know what throwing out the “baby with the bath water” means? I don’t see how the expression actually applies.

I called Capital One the other day to close out a credit card I had with them. The card was paid off last November and we don’t use it anymore. It turns out closing out a credit card with Capital One is a lot like closing out an America Online account, only worse. After navigating one automated menu to another, I finally got a real life person.

Even though I selected the option of closing my account, he still asked me what he could do for me. I told him I wanted to close out my account. He asked me why I wanted to do this as though it was any of his business. I told him because I wanted to. He asked what I thought was the most important feature associated with a credit card.

I told him ones that were easy to close.

He proceeded to tell me about some other cards they offer that have airlines miles or cash back gimmicks. I told him I was not interested and I just wanted to close the account. He then told me that before he could close out my account, he was required to read something to me. I told him that I wasn’t interested and that I just wanted to close the account. He told me that he could not close my account until he read to me. He proceeded to stumble through a prepared statement from Capital One. When he got to the part stating I would be charged all applicable fees until my balance reaches zero, I cut him off. I reminded him that my account has been at zero dollars since last year. I was about to tell him that I even destroyed the cards last year when he interrupted me to say that my account had not been paid off since last year. He said that my account had not gone to a zero balance until November 2006.

I pointed out to him that was last year.

There was a long pause on his end of the line. I imagined him looking at his calendar with his head cocked like a dog hearing a strange noise. He finally admitted that I was right. Before I could celebrate my small victory, he started to read to me again from the very beginning. When he again got to the part about my account continuing to be charged all applicable fees until the balance reaches zero, I cut him off again and asked to speak to his supervisor.

After being on hold for six minutes, a woman came on the line informing me that she was a supervisor and she asked me how she could assist me. I told her that I wanted to close my account. That my account already had a zero balance and I no longer wanted it to remain active. She told me that she was required to read a statement to me. She then proceeded to read the very same retarded statement the other representative did, except her reading skills were even worse then his. Not that I knew that was even possible.

She couldn’t even pronounce the word applicable. She tried three different times to get it out, failing miserably each time. I think I made things worse by asking her to repeat it.

If I cannot close out my Capital One account unless one of their representatives reads something to me, Capital One ought to hire people that can read.

When she finally finished stumbling through the prepared written statement from Capital One, she advised me that my account would be closed in 30 days. I told her I wanted it closed out immediately. She said that was not possible. I asked her why. She said that it was a rule of Capital One. I asked her for a confirmation number or something similar to show that I had indeed called to close my account. If I learned anything from America Online it was to always get a confirmation number when canceling. She informed me that a confirmation letter would be mailed to me. Fine. That’s not what I asked for, but why be picky?

Before hanging up, I asked her to try to say applicable again. I got the feeling she didn’t think it was funny.

I honestly cannot see why somebody would purposely choose to go out and spend money on a Zune mp3 player. Microsoft’s lame attempt at producing something to compete with Apple’s popular iPod mp3 player. I understand that Microsoft felt the need to once again go out and copy something another company first came up with. Once they realize consumers like whatever another company was able to come up with on their own. It’s what Microsoft does.

They “created” MSN when they realized people liked going online with AOL. They “created” Internet Explorer when they realized people like accessing the web with Netscape. They saw how scary popular the iPod was so they “created” an mp3 player of their very own.

Microsoft doesn’t so much as create as it does mimic. In the case of copying Apple’s popular mp3 player, they seem to have done a poor job. Worse then they normally do when they copy something. They actually chose to make one of the three available colors brown. Who does that?

Just who do they expect to go out and buy a Zune? People that have lost bets and must now do something both stupid and humiliating? Are iPods banned somewhere in the country that I’m not aware of? One of the reasons iPods are such a killer piece of hardware is because it meshes easily and seamlessly with iTunes. Microsoft has Windows Media Player. Ouch.

I’m sure there are some Microsoft loyalists out there that will run right out and buy one of these things. I just cannot imagine anyone really wanting one of these Zune players more then they would an Apple iPod.

Microsoft’s Zune Only Looks Simple [Washington Post]