theWrightLife.com » Technology

Technology and the Big People

Dustin Wright — Wed, 25 Jul 2007 23:00:29 +0000

You know, not to be full of myself, but I do know a lot about technology, and computers in particular. When I call tech support, it is because I have a question of a technical nature that I require support with. I usually don’t contact support, or sales, or any other company or division for fun, because as most of you know, talking to most companies and using their customer service or tech support requires the greatest of patience. Patience that I would rather reserve for more important things.

But, from time to time, I have to seek support from somebody who should know their product better than me, and it seems like that this is rarely the case. Not that I know everything, but that tech support rarely is technical and is usually designed for questions like “how do i get the cup holder on my computer fixed”, “You mean the CD-Rom?”. You know, those types of questions. Or, even if this isn’t the nature of your question, they treat you as a 19th century person who has been dropped in the future. “Look on your desk for the gray thing with a tail, we call that a mouse…”

Anyway, tech support drives me crazy. Here’s a chat conversation I just had with a tech support agent about signing up for service with them. I guess it was too hard of a question, or maybe I didn’t ask it correctly or something, but immediately after that conversation I called their 800 number and got an answer in about 30 seconds.

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You are now chatting with ‘Martin N.’

M: Thank you for contacting IPOWER Live Chat. How can I help you?

D: i am looking to sign up an account with you for a business

M.: Hello Dustin

D: i have a domain already: anywebaddress.tv and would like to transfer it to your service

M: I’ll be happy to assist you.

D: i just want to make sure that I can do that and make it the primary domain (for pop3 etc.), your sign-up page doesn’t give me the option to transfer the .tv extension

M: So as I understand you want to purchase the hosting account at ipower , right?

D: yes, i have an account already, and i would like to purchase a new account for another company

M: Dustin, please refer the following URL for get more information about hosting plan: http://ipower.com

D: my question is, is there a way to transfer my current domain: anywebaddress.TV to a new account with it as the primary domain for pop3 and other features. i have an account with you already: thewrightlife.com, and I have pointed a few domains to it, but I can’t do email with those domains, I need to make sure that the .TV extension can come over and I can make it the primary so that I can have email

M: Please refer the following URL for more information about domain transfer Registration: http://ipower.com/domain-names.html

D: ok, i’ll make it simple. Can i transfer a domain with a .tv extension? there is no documentation about that

M: No you cant not transfer .tv extension domain. But you can purchase the hosting plan for this domain.

D: i can purchase a hosting plan for anywebaddress.tv?

M.: Yes

D: do you have a link to a page where i can do this, all the pages i have seen do not give the option of signing up with anything other than a TLD (com, net, org, etc)

M: Please refer the following URL for see the our hosting plan: http://ipower.com

D: lol, please refer to the following url to see that the option to use a .tv extension is not there: https://secure.ipower.com/cgi-bin/hosting/pro.cgi

M: Ok… You can not transfer .tv extension.

D: ok, lets review – >
     M: But you can purchase the hosting plan for this domain.
     D: i can purchase a hosting plan for anywebaddress.tv?
     M: Yes

M: Dustin , please refer the following link for purchase hosting plan: http://ipower.com/webhosting.html

D: you know, i would appreciate that if you don’t know the answer to my question that you would tell me, and not keep directing me to links i have already seen that do not contain the answer. that’s why i contacted you.

M: You can register your domain with us using these extensions com .net .org .biz .info .us

D: then what did you mean when you said i could sign up for hosting with anywebaddress.tv. Was I able to 5 minutes ago, but not now?

Martin N.: Dustin , please contact to our billing department they will assist you in a better way about this issue…

D: lol, thanks for trying

M: Thank you for contacting IPOWER Live Chat. Enjoy your day. Good-bye.
Chat session has been terminated by the site operator.

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Maybe I should have asked Rachael. And yes, I know, my chat etiquette and grammar may not be the best, but did you see Martin doing his best Borat impression?

Let me know about your experiences or stories you have heard.

Technology and the Little People

Dustin Wright — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 22:44:55 +0000

I think it’s amazing how fast subsequent generations learn to deal with the technologies of the previous generations’ and invent ones of their own. Although this has nothing to do with a newer version of tv or music or anything fun like that, I just had one of those ROTFLOL moments (Rolling On The Floor Laughing Out Loud, according to http://www.netlingo.com/index.cfm). Rachael just figured out that our home phone has a bunch of different songs that it can play for its ringtone. Not that Alina and I were loosing sleep over whether or not our phone had this feature, but having had the phone for a couple of years Rachael was the first to discover this feature. Even funnier was the fact that Alina liked the new tone and asked Rachael to show here how she changed it and Rachael did. LOL. I laughed and laughed watching my two year old show her mother how to change the ringtone. So, look for a new section coming soon to our website devoted to tech support hosted by 2yr old Rachael.

Multimedia

Dustin Wright — Fri, 06 Apr 2007 15:12:50 +0000

My creativity is limited to what I can code or do in photoshop, but there is a whole bunch of content out there that other people have produced that is really good stuff. I am going to try to include some of the videos (and music and pictures) that I find from around the web, so that you can see some of the items that have impressed me. Anyway, if you have any cool multimedia links, send them my way and I might post them.

New Stuff

Dustin Wright — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 22:31:45 +0000

Obviously, I have given this website a new look. Wordpress, the blog software I use, makes the process of a new look pretty easy to achieve. So, every once in a while I like to change up the look to stay dynamic and not get dull. I am also in the middle of adding some new features to make it easier and more fun to stay connected with you. I am trying to make the site a little more involved (kind of like a small community site), where you can come and participate, not just read what I have to say.

One of the first things that I have added are forums. I think that forums provide a neat way that we could build friendships and encourage each other through contact during the week. There are two areas of the forums. The first is a public area where anybody can post without registration, and the second is a private area for registered people only. The private area is designed to keep private information private, for example, you could feel comfortable talking about something that you are struggling with in life, knowing that your trusted friends will reply to you without getting some random guy come to the website and make fun of you. I encourage you to check it out.

I also, as always before, really encourage you to comment on the posts. Let’s try to make these things a discussion.

Also, if you are interested, I am going to open the site up a little bit and allow more people to be authors and post material. If you are interested, email me. I’m also planning on registering a new domain for the site as well, so if you have any suggestions, let me know.

TheWrightLife.com Turns 2

Dustin Wright — Sat, 04 Mar 2006 00:32:38 +0000

Just this past week our website has turned two years old (it sure doesn’t seem that long, but it has been). I probably would have forgotten about it, but my hoster (the place that stores my website) didn’t. You see, just like any other business out there, my hoster wants to make money. I was paid for two years and when it hit that mark they disconnected the site. So, if you tried to access the site this past week and it was down, that’s because my hosting company was wishing us a happy birthday. Anyway, I just re-upped for another year, so there will be plenty more updates to come.

Thank you for your interest over these past 2 years and I hope that we can do more to keep you updated and interested in the coming year.

Gaming Helps Aging?

Dustin Wright — Mon, 13 Feb 2006 12:23:03 +0000

There is an interesting article about video games and their effect on the brain at theglobeandmail.com
Here is a excerpt:

A body of research suggests that playing video games provides benefits similar to bilingualism in exercising the mind. Just as people fluent in two languages learn to suppress one language while speaking the other, so too are gamers adept at shutting out distractions to swiftly switch attention between different tasks.

Website Updates

Dustin Wright — Fri, 03 Feb 2006 01:44:10 +0000

I have made a few changes to the website (obviously), and have had to update some things. I changed over to a newer version of the blogging software (Wordpress 2.0, if you are interested), but when I did I was forced to make some changes as some of the modules I was using did not work well with the new version. Anyway, I think I got it under control now.

I have posted some new pictures (of Rachael’s first Christmas and Birthday), as well as redone the Photo Gallery, as it was one of the things that was not working right when I switched over to the new version. Anyway, check out the new pictures and let me know if you like the new site.

A Guide to HDTV

Dustin Wright — Fri, 06 Jan 2006 00:28:17 +0000

The following link might not be too interesting to everyone, but I thought I would highlight it as it is a good explanation of HDTV and the display technologies and how they work. This is the kind of stuff that I do at work, but I haven’t seen an article that so concisely describes how HDTVs work than this one. And yes, it is on an XBOX site, but high definition gaming has a lot in common with high definition TV. Give it a look if you’ve got some time.

The TeamXbox.com Guide to HDTV

Got My PC Going

Dustin Wright — Tue, 25 Oct 2005 17:22:09 +0000

My Laptop died last week; a sad and unnecessary trdgedy (“stop being so dramatic”). Anyway it’s dead and I got the hard drive, so i don’t care anymore, at least I was able to get my PC going (although setting it up in the apartment severily limited our space, but it’s here and I’m happy. Anyway, sorry about no posts for the week (at least I had a good excuse).

Laptop Dead Again

Dustin Wright — Sun, 16 Oct 2005 16:20:13 +0000

I have been struggeling with my laptop’s power cable for a long time. In California I had it repaired 2 or 3 times, but it never stayed fixed. A few minutes ago the power plug inside the laptop broke off inside the laptop, and as I write this the battery is dying (sounds so dangerous). Anyway, I’m going to try to set up my other computer (for which there is no room in the apartment) or get my laptop fixed (which could be expensive). Anyway, I hope to be able to post again soon.