Wednesday 2 October 2002

Pic of the day: "Perhaps I'll set up a 24hrs webcam and convert to nudism ..." Picture taken with my new always-on camera. (The raised spots on my skin in various stages of pigmentation are not cancerous, according to my dermatologist. They are usually harmless, except that they make it harder to notice actual melanoma if I get those. Eventually much of my body will be covered in patches of what looks like large warts in various colors. Is that cool or what?)

Non ADSL day

So today was the day when I would get ADSL, according to the letter from Telenor. Or rather today they would switch my phone line from ordinary to ADSL. They may well have done so by now, much good it does me.

For more than a week now I have had this slip at home, a notice from my post office about a package waiting. This is the second such package; the first contained the tiny network adapter for USB, which shall connect my computer to the ADSL broadband. There was a timely warning not to connect it to the phone line, as this would destroy it. The connectors seem to have the same physical shape, so I might have done that if not warned. Or if functionally illiterate. Or distracted. Overly eager. Point is, I suspect there are damaged a few ADSL adapters this way. It's not like the warning was standing out or printed on the outside or anything.

Well, where do I connect the network card? To the splitter. Where is the splitter? Light knows. I ordered a "do it yourself" package, but that's not what I fetched at the post office. To my disappointment, there was only a small webcam.

Not a bad word about webcams. Perhaps I'll set up a 24hrs webcam and convert to nudism ... OK, that would probably not work. Perhaps I'll set up a 24hrs webcam and point it at the screen; that would be far more interesting.

But I would have preferred the splitter.

***

Now don't get me wrong. I am not angry, distressed, irritated, down or blue. It is a small stupid thing that doesn't affect me emotionally. Besides, the disappointment of not getting the stuff on time (it was originally scheduled for September 14) is compensated by yet another verifiable proof of my worldview.

Telenor is not only the biggest telecoms company here in Norway; it is also a former monopoly and still owned mostly by the Norwegian state. (They had the good grace to sell out a minority post of the shares just before the major stock market plunge. An advertising campaign targeted common workers. They bought the shares, then saw them plunge. This is good on so many levels: It imposes an extra tax on people who trust their government.)

Still, I don't mind. I like Telenor's pricing policy. Their ADSL is cheaper if you don't download much. Why would I download much? I am not excited by porn, and my history and basic nature as a creator makes me averse to piracy. I don't actually need broadband at all ... I just want to stay online without paying national call rates per minute. And sometime this month, perhaps I will. Gonna call them tomorrow ... during office hours, of course.