Got rid of cable

[Scott]

I'm pretty happy about that. We bought an antenna and a Roku. I think we're going to have to get rid of the phone to really save any money though---switch to an internet phone service. With Comcast, we had about two thousand channels, and it was all just crap.

[Joyce]

I can't wait to get rid of my cable. I have the bundle so I get the internet, cable and landline. I'm not interested in the cable at all and I've informed Mary that when she graduates high school, I'll either get rid of it all or she can get a job and pay for the internet. I would like to keep the landline but the only person who calls is my dad and telemarketers.

[Scott]

We're not really saving any money because we have the landline and internet. I bought an "Ooma" so we can get phone service over the internet, so we'll be down to just the internet.

Trouble is that all my mother watches is MSNBC all day. It was on when I left for work this morning and it's still on now. And I have to pay $40 a month for Hulu to get it on Roku. You can get it part of the time of Pluto, a free Roku channel. I had hoped that if she didn't have MSNBC for a few days she would be freed from it and wouldn't feel the need to watch it constantly, but no such luck.

I'm still glad not to have Comcast anymore.

I got a call from a strangely belligerent scammer. He had called before and talked to my mother telling her he had a refund for her. She didn't fall for it. I don't know why he called here again, but I answered the phone. He asked to talk to her. I said, "Who's calling." He said it was Richard. I asked who he was.

"I am Richard!"

"Who are you?"

"I told you my name is Richard!"

"I know, but who are you?"

"YOU DON'T NEED TO KNOW WHO I AM! I WILL MAKE YOUR LIFE HELL!"

For some reason, the scammers suddenly stopped calling a few days ago. I'd get at least two calls every morning, but they've stopped for some reason.

[Joyce]

That reminds me of the time I got a phone call from someone claiming to want to extend the warranty on my car. I asked where he was calling from and he told me from the “car company”. I believe that’s what he said. Now I could tell from caller ID that he was not from Ford Motor Company so I asked him flat out “are you calling from Ford?” He said “yes I am “. I asked again “You are calling me from Ford Motor Company??”

Click! And they never called me again.

[Scott]

All I get is calls from Microsoft who need remote access to the computer. Oh, and whatever credit card company I have. And people who need bank account information so they can pay me a refund I have coming. But mostly it's calls where no one's there and they wait for me to say something so they know if the phone number's real.

Now I'm sitting here watching Modern Family on Hulu which I only have because I got rid of cable. I keep forgetting how annoying those Halloween episodes are where they all spend a fortune on costumes and decorations.

On the Halloween episode of The Beverly Hillbillies, rich people just gave out inordinate amounts of candy.

[Scott]

Man, I love not having cable! TV is so much better now.

But the stuff streaming on Netflix isn't very good and Filmstruck is shutting down at the end of the month.

Just watched a lovely movie, The Match Factory Girl, about a mistreated young woman in 1989 Finland. Minimal dialog. You get to see how matches are made. I rather liked the ending, but I won't give it away.

SPOILER: Click to show

{Spoiler}
She kills everyone.

[Shane]

Nov 11, 2018 17:27:49 GMT Scott said:

All I get is calls from Microsoft who need remote access to the computer. Oh, and whatever credit card company I have. And people who need bank account information so they can pay me a refund I have coming. But mostly it's calls where no one's there and they wait for me to say something so they know if the phone number's real.

Now I'm sitting here watching Modern Family on Hulu which I only have because I got rid of cable. I keep forgetting how annoying those Halloween episodes are where they all spend a fortune on costumes and decorations.

On the Halloween episode of The Beverly Hillbillies, rich people just gave out inordinate amounts of candy.

I've had a few calls from those "Microsoft" scammers. Unlike some other people I know in IT, I don't have the patience to play cat and mouse with them, and just hang up. My boss once told me a story about how he kept one such scammer on the line for ages by playing very dumb. A bit like an IT version of Columbo. Eventually, he got bored and let slip that he was working on a Linux machine, not a Windows one. The scammer got the picture and hung up.

I read an article on this subject some time back, in which the author listed some of the more creative responses that people have given these scammers. My favourite was the guy who told them that he didn't actually live there, and that he was just burgling the place.

[Scott]

I've said unkind things to them a couple of times and then felt bad.