Tag Archives: Comcast

Cable’s Failures

Posted on by renmiked

Today I received a notice in the mail that Comcast will be raising our cable by about %6 in the next few months. In our house we only have the Expanded Basic service and no boxes. We do not have digital or HD service. We watch HD via the over the air signal from the local Philly stations and have two HD Tivo that we record on. In our cable bill we are paying for at least 25 stations we NEVER watch a minute of programming on. We also have a Netflix account and watch quite a bit of Netflix Instant Watch. Because all of the cable and satellite providers refuse to offer a-la-carte programming I am seriously considering cutting back to an even more basic service and watching shows via the internet.

Cable providers refusing to allow you to choose which stations you actually want to receive is akin to going to a restaurant and being forced to purchase the left-side of the menu, even if all you want is soup and salad. I asked @ComcastCares why a-la-carte service was not available, I was told that they simply do not offer the service at this time. Now, if it were a technology issue, the answer would have simply been we are not capable of offering that at this time. Last year we lost G4 from our service. This was a channel I actually watched, so why couldn’t I give up FOX News, Lifetime, Style or one of the other nets I don’t want in exchange.

All I want is to pay for what I watch. I would just like the cable/satellite providers to offer real options and stop keeping networks that people don’t want afloat. I will seriously look at this in my household over the next few months and see which channels we actually watch.

2009 The Ridiculous…

Posted on by renmiked

Here are a few things I found ridiculous and embarrassing during this year.

The Jon and Kate Obsession:

Really, were these folks important enough to be reported on by legitimate news organizations?  They had a bunch of kids, so what?  Also, to expect a couple of people from central PA to be media savvy enough to deal with the paparazzo coverage and the gossip sites is just silly.  Yes they came off poorly but that this story captivated so many is sad.

Tea Baggers… err I mean Partiers

There will always be people who inherently do not trust government, and no matter who is in power they will argue for less government.  That however seems to be only a fraction of these folks.  The vial racism that is displayed and not addressed by the politicians that attend these rallies is the most disturbing part to me.  I can understand the lies that people like Palin, Beck and Armey throw out there, they just want to rile people up for their own gain.  That is part of the system no matter how seedy it may be.  I know there is know way to reason with this group, I just hope you don’t see anyone take their vitriol to the next level.

NBC and Jay Leno

Has it ever been more apparent that a company was looking to strip costs in order to be sold?  They gave up the entire week at 10pm in order to save cash and ultimately be bought up by Comcast.  What comes from the Comcast deal who knows, but I don’t hold out high hopes.  I assume their best hopes for the Leno move were that a group of viewers who do not want to stay up late would tune in to see Jay at ten but that doesn’t seem to have materialized.

Twilight

I saw the first movie with my wife and it was like watching a mediocre CW show on the big screen.  Pathetic.

Roman Polanski Supporters

Plain and simple anyone who supported or signed a petition in support of this child rapist is a piece of shit.

The Beatification of Teddy Kennedy

Great, he was in The Senate forever.  I just don’t get how you make up for being responsible for someone’s death and NEVER paying the price.  Note: Not being able to rune for President is not paying a price.

That’s a few of the things that rubbed me the wrong way this year.

up next: Things that inspired me in 2009