Yep, the club of all who have been given the run around by our telephone and broadband providers continues to grow! The kind of nonsense where everyone at the disservice provider shrugs their shoulders and tells you that nothing can be done until you have pulled out all your hair and have to struggle with barely suppressed homicial tendencies is happening to more and more people. A few of us manage to publicly air our grievences … Gearhead readers may recall my random DSL service disconnetion by AT&T/SBC/Call ’em what you please back in January (I wrote about it here, here, here, and here). A friend of a friend by the name of eeka blogged her travails in dealing with Verizon. I’m sure I can speak for all of us in wishing her the best of luck because we know she’s going to need that and a lot of alcohol. This underlines my Backspin column this week arguing for a national broadband policy that defines minimum standards of performance and service. The sheer waste of time that follows these kinds of service provider idiocy are staggering. You want to see America become the third world of telecomms? Just leave things as they are. Related content reviews Gravityscan, keeping WordPress sites safe If you want to keep your WordPress site free from hackers, you need Gravityscan to find the vulnerabilities By Mark Gibbs May 24, 2017 4 mins Security how-to Raspberry Pi, ultrasonics, and music Building a theremin with a Raspberry Pi using an ultrasonic distance sensor By Mark Gibbs May 19, 2017 4 mins Computers and Peripherals news What's in your home's basement? Bet it's not a mainframe. Collecting vintage computing gear should have its limits ... but not in this case By Mark Gibbs May 14, 2017 2 mins Computers and Peripherals reviews PodPi makes STEM education exciting! Problem solving with electronics, code, and cartoons. School wasn't this cool in my day. By Mark Gibbs Mar 29, 2017 4 mins Smart Home Podcasts Videos Resources Events NEWSLETTERS Newsletter Promo Module Test Description for newsletter promo module. Please enter a valid email address Subscribe