JTMacc99

Copper wire landline phones are the ones that work without power, but if you've got a phone that needs to be plugged in to power connected to the copper lines, which is what I think we're talking about with cordless phones, it still won't work. All internet phone (VoIP) plans, whether it be bundled up with internet from the Comcast's of the world, or separate plans from companies like Vonage and RingCentral, are just another thing you can do on the internet. If the internet is down, phone is down. It can be hooked up to the phone jacks in a home, so it looks and feels like old school phone, but it's not. And you should feel free to get on Verizon's case about the battery not holding a charge. If they provide you with equipment as part of your service, they should provide you with equipment that works.

The landline telephone technology doesn't go out if power goes out. It's also probably in pretty good shape if there are big cuts in the fiber networks. So your landline phone might work perfectly well when loss of power and fiber cuts disrupt cell service. The biggest problem with using your landline phone when cell service is disrupted, is that you might be trying to call somebody's cell phone.

I think there will still be great ideas or great entrepreneurs (turns out, I don't know how to spell entrepreneur by the way) that will make this show worth watching. I will say this, however, I barely made it through the introduction of this episode without thinking "I'm not watching this one." All I needed to see in the first 30 seconds were clips of energy drink pitch, somebody with $2,000 of sales, and hysterical sobbing guy. If Shark Tank was trying to get ME excited about what was about to happen, that was the opposite of what they needed to do.

I don't have any skin in this game. I have friends and relatives who are Steelers fans. When their team wins, I am happy for them. So with that disclaimer, I will offer this. I saw the Steelers week 1 beat the Giants. They looked great. Ferocious defense, efficient offense. I was not shocked they won their first ten games. The next time I saw them was that AWFUL Wednesday afternoon game against the COVID stricken Ravens. They should have won that game by three touchdowns, but instead they just outlasted the Ravens. The general media take on the game was that the Steelers were just off their game from all the waiting. But after that, the Steelers were on national TV a couple more times while they finished the season 1-5 including that loss yesterday. Let's be fair, since that Ravens game, the Steelers have been one of the worst teams in football. The freaking Jets won more games than they did. And it makes sense: They struggled to make up for multiple injuries to star players They started to get some seriously shaky play from the offensive line The quarterback play wasn't great Which to be fair, was partially a result of the OL and many, many drops from his WRs and TE In other words like I've been saying, I think the Steelers became an honorary member of the NFC East. And not like the Redskins, more like the Cowboys, where you can see the star players on the field, but they keep losing anyway. The AFC playoffs are super interesting right now. The Chiefs have been letting everybody hang around in games with them. Let's see if the Browns coaching staff can come up with a plan to get the lead on the Chiefs and then hopefully for them make a play on Defense at the end. And Bills - Ravens? Grab some popcorn.

To be clear, of the 14 teams in the playoffs, the Ravens are a clear 13th on my list of teams I'd like to see win the Super Bowl, behind only the Redskins. So perhaps it is me who is terrified of the idea of them tearing through the playoffs and winning the championship. To be fair, since they played that awful Wednesday game against the Steelers*, they haven't played a very difficult schedule. So let me re-evaluate my opinion @Carey They got the perfect get healthy game next against the swiss cheese Dallas defense where they ran for 294 yards. Next was a division game against the Browns where they ran for 231 yards and scored 47 points, BUT they did give up 42 points and almost 500 yards, so maybe against a good offense in the playoffs they could get outscored. This was the only good offense they played at the end of the year, and they did NOT do a very good job stopping it. They crushed the Jaguars. Not much to say about that game. Everybody did that. They beat the Giants 27-13, and what is notable about that game is that they ran for 250 yards. The Giants had a top ten rushing defense this year, and they went through them like a hot knife through butter. It was impressive. Of course, the Giants offense was so inept that the Ravens were under no pressure to pass the ball, which should not be the case in the playoffs. And they wrapped it up with 400 rushing yards against the Bengals. So maybe their hot streak is a product of their schedule as much as it is them getting hot at the right time. * By the way, after that game against the Ravens, the Steelers went 1-4, had a hard time dealing with the loss of multiple star players to injury, shaky offensive line play, less than stellar play from the QB, who was not exactly helped by multiple dropped passes from his receivers and tight end. In other words, they became an honorary member of the NFC East. Welcome aboard!

So the NHL announced that they sold the naming rights to the temporary divisions for 2021. First, I absolutely love that they did this. The NHL doesn't print money like the NFL, or fall ass-backwards into money despite themselves like MLB. So good for them to figure out a way to pick up a few extra dollars in a way that doesn't cost the fans anything. Second, here they are: Scotia NHL North Division Honda NHL West Division Discover NHL Central Divsion MassMutual NHL East Divsion Third, I am super sad that the it's not the Tim Hortons NHL North Division. Super sad. I think they'll have some logos on the players' helmets. Again, as far as I'm concerned, NASCAR the hell out of them to make whatever money they can make. I want to see Alexis Lafreniere post game interviews in Madison Square Garden with the kid saying, "We played a smart game. I was fortunate to get a goal in the FedEx second period, and we gotta give Iggy a lot of credit for getting the Capital One shutout tonight..."

Giants fan here: I'm perfectly okay with them not making the playoffs at 6-10, even if it was partially due to the Eagles playing a regular season with no intention of winning. (Which TBF, the only real thing that will come out of that decision is that the veterans on that team will have a bad taste in their mouths about the team when the 2021 season starts. As if they didn't have one already.) I'm pleased the Giants beat the Cowboys, because, hell yeah I want to beat the Cowboys. Don't care if it cost them a couple draft spots. More importantly than all that, I'm going to say it here because I want it on record: The Baltimore Ravens should terrify every single one of the other AFC playoff teams. They have found their groove at exactly the right time, and I can see them beating anybody in the AFC, and destroying the NFC representative if they got to the Super Bowl.

I always change out the clothes I slept in and into my work sweats.

Hard for them to make money on $8.00 a month*, so I'd assume it'll go up at some point. The Broadcast TV Fee will definitely go up as soon as they know how much the broadcast networks jacked up their rates for 2021. * Although as long as you're also an internet customer, they may be okay with leaving the service fee for TV fairly low as long as you're paying directly for the cost via the Broadcast TV Fee.

This is what is generically called the Local Broadcast package. Most, if not all, cable and satellite companies offer this package. Here's the deal on it: The amount of money the programming costs for that package (how much Comcast collects from you and sends directly to CBS/FOX/ABC/NBC etc.) is probably around $20 in 2021. In 2020 it was probably around $16. So your basic 25% rate hike year over year. Which is what the main broadcast networks have been doing for the last 10 years. It's criminal, but they get away with it because it's buried in the cable packages and has Comcast's name attached to it. The Service fee from Comcast might be something like $10 going up to $30 after promo, but I'm pretty sure there is also a "Local Broadcast Surcharge" on the bill, which will itemize that programming cost. This package is typically sold like a utility, where the bill says "here's how much our fee is, and here's how much you're paying directly to the content owners." The main reason it is hard to find is because the contracts Comcast has with all of the major media companies limits the number of customers they are allowed to have in this bare bones package. What that means is that in their contracts with the, for example, FOX cable companies (Fox News, FX, local regional sports networks) FOX stipulates that all of those cable channels MUST be carried on at least 85% of Comcast's total video customers in each and every area. So that means that if more than 15% of Comcast subscribers in an area drop the standard cable package for just the local broadcast package, Comcast will be in breach of contract with FOX and subject to onerous and punitive penalties. And that's why it's hard to find on the Comcast website. They're probably close to if not over 15% in some places.

Honestly? Not really. (FWIW, I work for a cable company.) Selling TV is a nightmare, the media companies (Disney, FOX, Warner, CBS, etc.) hold ALL of the power, jack up the rates at multiple times inflation rates every year, demand contractually that their networks MUST be carried in basic cable packages and not à la carte, and it's up to the cable companies to tell the customers "Uh, your bill is going up $9 this year. Technically, we're not keeping a single dollar of that increase, but we know you don't care because it's our name on that check you write every month." The sooner the media companies force everybody to drop TV with their relentless rate hikes, the better. I can then take back all of the bandwidth that TV eats up, and turn it into 10 Gigabit up and down internet for anybody who wants it.

I tried to take a Christmas picture of Norm while he was sitting on my lap. He was smiling, the lights and stockings on the fireplace behind him. It was a perfect picture. He did not cooperate...

Lord Luna Deviled Eggs of Lowe's here.