Smile, Power Is Good

The sadistic idiots from the power company (which, incidentally, has a stupid smile as a logo) are it again. So, after going to bed at nearly 2AM, I was woken at 4:30AM again due to another power cut.

One of the PSU fans is again making a godawful noise, and there is a non-computing gadget called a freezer (you know, where your food is kept) that woke us up at 6:30AM when the power was restored.

I can get by on very little sleep, but this is absolutely ridiculous.

There is, as usual, no public notice that work is being conducted out of hours, nor will I dare even try dialing their call center outside "normal working hours" to figure out what it is. Not bad for a company that, in its mission statement, purports "to guarantee high quality service exceeding our customers' expectations and ensuring their loyalty".

Loyalty? Hah. Does the word monopoly ring a bell? And you will notice that the word "reliability" isn't on that page. Their mission statement is somewhat correct, though - taking out power to an entire city block for two nights in a row (or more, I bet) is, in a somewhat twisted sense, exceeding my expectations.

In corporate-speak, it might even be a "best practice" they wrung out of many workshops with other power suppliers in Third World countries, banana republics and suchlike.

Minor Update: Not only did the call center not know about any unscheduled work in our neighbourhood (apparently scheduled maintenance can only be legally done on Sundays), there was a rash of broken car windows. Liability, alas, is not something that sticks over here...

Off to work, then.

Incidentally, 10.3.9 seems to have subtly broken , which now freezes when my iBook resumes from sleep. Wonders never cease.

This struck a bit too close, too: