Due to an unforeseeable family emergency, I will be gone much of this week. I’ll be working all over the place, home, office, and in-between.

The only major thing that will be affected is optional stuff. That will have to wait. Sorry about that.

And yes, our (now monthly) Silicon Valley WordPress + Coffee Meetup will go on as planned.

Yes, I have been tweeting quite a bit, and some of the content of that has slipped through the blog. I’ll try to keep that more in-balance going forward.

But, to avoid any more slipping up, I’ve added a Twitter widget to the right side of the site, right below the link to my contact form.

And, with that, I’d like to continue the discussion on Twitter. Do you want to see more twitter integration across MechaWorks sites, or less? We’re pretty disconnected from Twitter as it is, we are considering a slow expansion of that integration…

Or… You’re (not) ready already with Comcast…

The reason I wrote this article, in full detail: I hope Comcast reads this. I hope it’s passed around in their halls quietly. I hope they look at this and it gets slipped under each and every VP’s office door. I hope they all see that these are the systemic problems plaguing their customer service perception. If they don’t, they’re destined to replace Sprint in the halls of companies with permanently-poor customer service opinions amongst consumers…

I had a fun 79 minutes on the phone with Comcast today. No, that hour and nineteen minutes of my life wasted is no exaggeration.

For months now, seven in fact, I have been trying to get Comcast to activate my modem in the Silicon Valley. Brace yourself, I own my own cable modem. Not shocked? Well, the folks at Comcast seem to think I’m from another planet.

Here’s the issue, in a nutshell. I bought a DOCSIS 2.0 modem, and used it with service in the Sacramento Valley. I then moved to Silicon Valley, where I tried to activate the modem. Enter the disaster…

Comcast, from day one of my relocation was unable to put the modem on my account. Comcast first claimed that my modem was leased. Uh, no. Then they claimed it was on another active account. My old “active” account. I told them to check the old account. Sure enough, the modem wasn’t leased and the account was closed and paid in full.

Then Comcast blamed (Comcast) Sacramento’s billing market for not releasing the MAC ID of the modem. Okay, fine right? Hand me a leased modem and waive the lease fee for the couple of days to get the issue fixed? And, to their credit they did. The problem is, they didn’t fix the issue.

Every month, I would call in and ask for an update on the issue. Nobody would know there was an issue. They would then just issue a leased modem credit for the next month and say “we’ll handle it.”

Well, nobody has handled it. Lather, rinse, repeat the next month. I tried all the paths, even going so far as to have the store manager put his hands in his face and apologize for Sacramento’s market not doing their job.

Eventually, after getting a leased modem credit month after month (all six months of my reduced service rate), I cancelled and switched to U-Verse.

Much with other dysfunctional-company deployment issues, every department or team has a different name for similar processes. Some say the Billing Department, some say “another system”, and others say “the warehouse.” In reality, it’s all the same location, but when people in your own company can’t understand the terminology of another department… that has me running for the sell button on my portfolio. And no, I don’t and never have owned shares of Comcast.

Now, four months later Comcast came back with a new offer: They’re finally discounting a tier above the entry 6 or 12 mbps tier (that speed depends on if your market has gone DOCSIS 3.0 yet) and they offered me 16 mbps (pre-PowerBoost) for $34.99/month, for a full year. So, I cancelled U-Verse and switched back.

And, that brings us to today’s Comcastic debacle. I tried desperately to get someone at technical support to “own” the issue. Basically, the tech was sympathetic, going as close as he could to admitting this was a disaster, knowing he was being recorded. Finally, his supervisor (after many pestering, and being put back on hold after getting refusals) did indeed agree to own an issue. I had to dig deep, call them drones, stuff I don’t like to do to other people to get their attention.

Still, seven failures in a row shame on you. Eight failures in a row, shame on me. I expect them to fail at this effort yet again, at which point I’ll wrangle another store manager to fall flat on his/her face. My next final step is an FCC complaint. I am no fan of the FCC telling companies how to be capitalistic… but Comcast has a monopoly on the cable lines, and I’m more than fine with the FCC forcing a company to resolve internal company issues.

The fact that two billing departments, over seven months, can’t talk to one another, is about as insane as having regional billing departments in the first place.

I hate to be crass here, but please, if you work for Comcast, don’t post here telling me how bad you feel, and how you see this all the time. I’ve stopped caring. If you do really care, contact me and either own the issue, or get someone in Comcast to own the issue.

That’s right. Unfortunately, Sprint just informed me that Vista SP2 and Windows 7 will not work with the Sprint 4G demo cards handed out at the Open Developers Conference.

The reason is that Vista SP2 and Windows 7 are not compatible with the older Sprint SmartView included on the demo CD. That version of SmartView is custom-coded to these Sprint 4G Franklin U300 cards. And, to add to that, these U300 cards carry a different firmware (likely so they can all be deactivated at once when the trial period is over at year’s end).

I have been told that they are working on a solution, but it is difficult since these cards are “in the wild now.” Sprint did tell me that it is also difficult to solve because they have to coordinate with Clearwire and Franklin on a fix.

The best advice I have been given is to call the WSTS team in a few weeks, using the phone number included in your Sprint 4G demo kit. I would suggest calling now as well as in a few weeks, if you are in that situation. The more people that report to Sprint that their apps require Vista SP2/7 (or have already upgraded all their systems… like me…) the more likely they’ll implement a fix.

And, of course, if you can, hold off on updating to Vista SP2 and/or Windows 7 until this gets solved. Updating SmartView to 2.27 from sprint.com will not fix the issue, as the public version of Sprint SmartView will not communicate with your demo card.

Presumably, after the trial period ends, this will be solved anyways as the cards will no longer be on a demo period. I expect Sprint will issue an updated SmartView that flashes the firmware on these cards to the same firmware as a standard-issue U300.

In case you didn’t hear, Sprint was handling out Sprint 4G cards (with free service until the end of the year) like candy at the Open Developers Conference… much better than Halloween treats.

It’s a bad economy. You’ve got stuff you want to get rid of. After talking with others, one thing I noted in common with other nerds: We’ve got a lot of stuff to sell.

So, I decided to announce a challenge. In one week, who can unload the most gadget clutter?

Hence, I’m challenging each and every one of you in the online community to a great eBay selloff. All your stuff to unload, versus all of mine. May the largest amount win.

There’s no prize here, except the satisfaction of a cleaner home, less crud gunking up the works, oh, and all that new money in your wallet that appeared out of nowhere.

Also, there’s a psychological factor in this challenge. I hope it motivates some of you out there to do what I’m doing… cleaning house tech-wise. In this economy, it’s just the most cogent thing you can do, and rivaling others with tech stuff is a great way to keep you pouring over all those goods.

Why eBay? Granted, from my own postings you can tell I’m not their biggest champion out there. But, comparing Craigslist listings isn’t easy. Posting your eBay user ID and auction listings, is.

The challenge kicks off Monday, November 9, and runs for one week. I encourage setting up auctions to run for seven days (the maximum without any additional fee from eBay) to allow people to see how you’re stacking up to others.

Plus, who knows? You might just find something that you want to actually buy from all these nerds…

Pontiac and the IIHS haven’t exactly gotten along very well over the years. Not only has IIHS been a bit unwilling to review Pontiac exclusives like the Solstice, but they’ve also held out on the exclusive-to-America G8.

Well, after doing some digging, we have some results. The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety posted rear crash ratings for the G8 on their Pontiac rear crash page.

Unfortunately, these don’t give the whole picture. The IIHS considers very few cars to be good or even acceptable in a rear-end collision. They have been a bit more liberal in their ratings for SUVs, but that’s understandable considering the design of an SUV.

The real problem is that this could leave a bad picture in the mind of people looking for a G8. Not that GM cares really, since they’re a rare breed. But, since the G8 is in every way safer than a G6, and the G6 does in the end get a Good front and Acceptable side impact rating… you can rest assured knowing you’re not less safe in a G8.

On a side note, I can see why the IIHS would only do rear impact tests. Each test requires killing a G8. There are only 80,000 G8’s in America. That means paying a lot of money to crash-test a limited car (that never really got a chance to sell in a good economy, but anyways…). Insurance companies care a lot more about rear-impact tests, because they cause more injuries (whiplash, etc) and insurers are more defensive about them in general.

It would have been nice though to see the G8 shine in the side-impact tests. Just the added sheet metal versus a G6 could have given it a Good rating.

Chevrolet confirmed to me today that the Volt will always be able to charge, even if your local utility company doesn’t want it to.

Smart Charging is a hotly debated topic today. Many believe it is necessary to help keep power grids online, faced with ever-increasing demand. Opponents feel that it adds an additional layer of onerous government control, allowing governments to control when and how you life your life. Smart Charging, in power emergencies, can allow utilities to control thermostats and large utilities, reducing their effectivity or shutting them down completely. Utilities and companies like IBM argue that this could even be used to modify consumer behavior, to be better for the environment. Conservatives and libertarians oppose this kind of government “lifestyle shaping.”

Yesterday, a CNET article ran demonstrating OnStar’s EV lab technology for the Volt. It casually noted that the Volt will be in constant communication with the utility company, allowing them to decide when the Volt would be charged via Smart Charging on the OnStar network (in order to get the “best rate” as utilities switch to per-hour charging times for consumers).

Obviously, this got me a little outraged, as originally the first-gen Volt wasn’t going to have this kind of control from your utility.

So, after a couple of messages of concern to that effect, GM responded to me personally. The 2011 Volt will have Smart Charging, but you will always be able to tell it to charge immediately, even in a power emergency. Smart Charging on the Volt will never ignore the commands of the consumer.

Let’s hope GM keeps it that way. The Volt needs an Emergency Mode that lets you access its remaining battery power, not an Emergency Mode that lets your utility company… disable your car. That’s the last Volt I’ll suggest to a consumer.

Right outside of Apple Store Santa Clara. I could tell it was a genuine Blue Screen of Death instantly from the code. But… this could make for a good marketing strategy.

Bonus points for diagnosing the BSOD and finding the best solution.

I had to vaporize all cookies in Google Chrome today, because Google kept defaulting to www.google.com.pr instead of allowing me to switch back to www.google.com.

It appears this problem is mostly limited to anyone (and everyone) that pulls up Google while traveling to Puerto Rico. When you travel, Google loads up the in-country version of Google Web Search. When you travel back home, it’s supposed to realize you’re back, and switch back to the default launguage.

I believe the problem lies in that Puerto Rico is both English and Spanish, so Google doesn’t realize when you travel back to the mainland, that you’re in a different American English territory. As such, the options to reset the default Google.com (per their help page), all fail.

Unfortunately, deleting the Google cookie is the only way to work around this that I’ve found consistently successful. And, since web browsers are now made to be overly-simple in handling cookies, I’ll spare you the 20 step guide and tell you to just erase all cookies and you’ll be back to normal. Hopefully Google will offer a help page, with an option that does this just for their own (broken) cookie.

I personally don’t think ICANN should have issued Puerto Rico a nationality suffix in the first place (since, well, it isn’t even a state), as more and more of these similar issues are sure to pop up, as the internet continues its perpetual growth…

We’re going to begin the rebrand to Newsroom Network this week, in-line with our plan to have it completed by year’s end.

CheapenGadget.com will be the first site to get rebranded, with an all-new name as well. What’s the new name? Well, you’ll have to wait until later this week to find out.

Since it’s all still part of MechaWorks, the corporate site for Newsroom Network will come near the end of the transition. Some of you have asked what this will mean for the flagship PhoneNews.com, and I can answer that briefly; very little. Aside from taking into account the new links, and integration from future changes… there’s nothing to the end of the year that we’re going to dramatically change on the site.

For PhoneNews.com, we’re more focused on expanding the cashback system (the #freepre was just a taste of things to come). And, of course, we’re working hard to launch our (first) new secondary editions of PhoneNews.com, PhoneNews.com Nerds & PhoneNews.com Wired.