How long does it take to transfer a phone from one place to another? It should be one day.  In reality it was 10-12.  Last time I moved it took one day to transfer the phone so I expected that to happen again.  Here’s what actually happened:

One week before

Called Verizon to transfer phone and DSL on moving day.  Verizon says dialtone will be available by 5:30 on moving day.

Moving day – Wednesday

Around noon, I get a text saying the DSL is hooked up.  No dialtone.  I call Verizon and they says their records show the dialtone should be active and their line test says all is well. If I want I can make a service appointment to have them come and look in person.  The next appointment is in 6 calendar days (3 business days).  Verizon says they will come sometime between 8am and 7pm.  Seriously?  You want me to wait home for 11 hours?  And it’s not like I can work remotely as the problem is the internet.  After complaining, they changed the window to four hours.  (8am to noon)

Day 7 in new apartment – Tuesday

Around 10:30, I get a text that “my problem has been resolved.”  I don’t have a dialtone and haven’t seen/heard from Verizon all day.  What kind of resolution is this?  I call Verizon whose repair department says their records show that the problem is resolved because they did something downstairs and if I want them to come back inside my apartment, I have to make another appointment.  The next service date is in 7 calendar days.   After 150 minutes on the phone (much of which was spent on hold), several phone calls and a number of people/departments, I learned the problem was that Verizon took my new apartment number but put it with my old address.  Maybe that apartment got my dial tone.  I don’t know.  The only solution is to start over and place a new order.  At this point, I’m mad.  We wasted a week just to get to where we should have been on moving day.  New estimate is by 5:30pm.  Tried at 5:45 and no dialtone.  When I called Verizon, I learned that while repair people can visit until 6 or 7pm, phone contact is open 8:30-5:00.

Day 8 in new apartment – Wednesday

Called Verizon at precisely 8:30am.  (Turns out hold times are shorter then.)  There is no record of my order from day 6.    Sounds like the agent forgot to press save.  Guess what?  The only solution is to start over and place the order again.  This time my estimate for a dial tone is in 24 hours.  Plop in the middle of the work day on Thursday.

Day 9 in new apartment – Thursday

Called Verizon at 1pm.  I didn’t actually know it wasn’t working this time, but past experience indicated this was unlikely.  The rep in ordering agreed it wasn’t done (confirming my guess) and said she will ask around and call me back “in a few hours” so I don’t have to wait on the phone.  Conclusion they will try to activate it remotely by 5pm and will place an order for DSL which got lost amongst all this for Monday – the earliest day possible.  I checked at 6pm and 10pm.  No dialtone.

Day 10 in new apartment – Friday

I woke up at 6am and had a dialtone.  I’m guessing this means some sort of reset happened at night.  Still no DSL of course.

Day 12 in new apartment – Sunday

I tried DSL Saturday evening and Sunday morning.  It could see the network but not connect.  Which is the expected behavior before DSL is activated.  Then at 9pm. I had a steady light on the modem which means DSL is working.  And hear I am online.

Conclusion

I still need one of the two phone jacks fixed.  I called a private electrician to do it.  Mainly because I don’t believe Verizon will come.  And the private person gave me a specific date and time based around my availability unlike starting with this eleven hour nonsense.  And remember that Verizon wants to sell you FIOS.  I suspect they put more of their good people on FIOS.  Because I only spoke to one person who really knew what she was doing in the 8+ hours I spent on the phone with them.  The only saving grace of not having home internet was that I worked late everyday because I was on the phone with Verizon during the work day and didn’t get my work done by 5.

While I’ve had troubles with Time Warner as well (currently having an ongoing discussion about the DVR), they at least know how to transfer your service on day 1.

I just completed the “final” for Stanford’s free online course – ai-class.  Ironic to post this the day after Stanford dropped their bid to come to New York.  It was taught by two Stanford professors - Peter Norvig and Sebastian Thrun.  I’ve sprinked my impressions througout the description.

How I found out

I found out from a student on the Stuyvesant high school robotics team.  There was also an article in the New York Times in August.

Why I took it

The topic sounded interesting.  I went to graduate school online and participate in the online forum coderanch.com.  I know that I enjoy learning while having the opportunity to discuss (or read discussions) from my classmates.  And I was very curious how the experiment in a massively distributed class would work out!  It went well.

How it worked

My measure of success

I know a lot of things I didn’t before the class started.  That is *much* more important than the score.  While I did buy a used copy of the 2nd edition of the textbook, the class itself was free (and buying the book was optional.)  When I started, I figured I would try it and see if I wanted to stay with it.  Every week I learned a lot and it was enjoyable so I stuck with it. I enjoyed learning the theory.  In particular liked how it applied to robotics and language processing.

How I did

I’d like to repeat the part about learning being the important part here.  When one says that someone often chimes in “oh, that’s just because you didn’t do well.”  So I’ll share that my average is in the mid 90s.  (Not including the final which isn’t due yet.)

My comments to the upset people

1. If you got something wrong, don’t make excuses. Getting it wrong is about learning. Even if it about communication.  Even if the “communication error” was at the Stanford end.  In the real world you communicate with people or unclear and ambiguous.  It’s a valuable life skill.
2. Making mistakes it good.  Especially in a situation where it doesn’t matter.  I like to say that I’d rather make mistakes on CodeRanch than it work because the effects are smaller. Same thing here.  This doesn’t count towards your job or degree/GPA.  The only thing that matters is what you learn.  Getting something wrong makes it memorable.

What’s next?

They ended the class with a little humor such as a quiz question “did you understand?” (yes is the correct answer) and a homework question asking how Stanford did in the  2005 DARPAUrban Challenge (they won – an accomplishment the instructions should rightfully be proud of.)

A lot more courses are being offered next semester.  See the full list at class central.  I signed up for Human Computer Interaction and Software as  Service.  Two might be too much but I’m not clear on how much they overlap since the # weeks isn’t specified.

Other opinions

A lot of people wrote comments on the web.  My favorites:

1. a perspective from Association for Learning Technology
2. Seb Schmoller’s weekly comments

We all know that sharing technical information in a clear (and ideally visually appealing way) makes it more memorable and understandable.  I saw a perfect example of it today with the electronics example of making a 555 timer.

What most descriptions do

1. Tell you what you need so you can start out with supplies.
2. Provide an overview
3. Provide a circuit diagram

What blows me away

The graham cracker 555 timer.  It has everything that really belongs in the 555 timer:

• 555 chip – chocolate looking thing in middle
• 9 volt battery – chocolate looking thing on lower left
• three resistors – marshmallows with color stripings.
• 1 microfarad capacitor – candy in top right
• LED – red jelly thing
• Wires – blue and red frosting

How do I use this?

Remember tech documentation doesn’t have to be boring.  The Head First series uses cartoons.   The Developer’s Notebook uses journaling.  Manning usually uses stories and jokes.  All of this serves to keep us engaged in the material as we read.  If our brains are paying attention, we learn more.

What I didn’t tell you was that the wiki page was written by a high school student.  Don’t lose that skill after you graduate.  We need more tech writers who remember being fun fits in!