ISPs have a long way to go still, but Free.fr is on top

This article describes what ISPs should be like and encourages you to write to your current ISP to encourage them to improve.

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2009/12/the-coolest-isp-in-the-world.ars

How to make a WIFI repeater using a Linksys router

I use a WRT54GL as a router for my Flow internet feed. It is flashed with DD-WRT. It gives excellent to good wireless coverage throughout the inside of my house. It is placed at the center of the house and the walls are plastered bricks with a skeleton of H beams. The reception outside is not great as expected but still available. My house is a rectangular shape with the long side being west-east. I was able to see my wireless network from a window in a house that is over 500feet (about 153m according to Google Maps) away from me using a laptop with wifi and also on a Nokia e66. There is a line of sight from the room with the access point in my house to the other house. The reception was very weak and the connection dropped frequently but was still there.

The output on the access point is the default 70mW in DD-WRT. Using a WRT54G router also flashed with DD-WRT, I made a repeater following the instructions on the DD-wrt site (http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Repeater_Bridge). Initially I could not get the repeater to do it's job and I had the encryption on for the wifi network. I turned encryption off and it worked and then when encrytion was turned on it was still working. Each time the wireless network was modified I had to join/link the repeater to the wireless network. I did all the testing at my home, close to the first access point, so in order to know if the repeater was doing it's job I used a laptop that was cabled into one of the repeater's ethernet jacks. The repeater has a static IP address so it is easier to work with. I did have the problem of buttons not working when chenging settings in DD-WRT with Firefox(3.5) and when I used Internet Explorer(8) the buttons worked. The reason why I made it a Repeater Bridge and not a plain Repeater is because I want the machines that see the repeater to be on the same subnet, so it can share files and resources as a regular network. I can see computers in either house in the other on the network. In the stats of the repeater it reports 8-14% reception of the first acces point. It does fluctuate regularly between these values, I can only guess it is because of environmental differences or cars and people in the area. I now get excellent reception all around the house with the repeater.

 In order to set up the repeater I just have to plug it in and once it sees the first network it will 'boost' it automatically. I only plug it in when I need it as I do not want my network seen or causing interference needlessly. The first router is the DHCP server and it serves IPs in the normal manner through the repeater. I use the repeater with a Nokia 5800 for wifi internet but the ethernet ports are also available for connecting a computer like normal. The network allows for roaming now, so if I decide to go from one house to the other while using wifi, when one access point gets too weak and if the other access point is giving a strong enough signal for the device to pick up, it will switch automatically. A couple packets may be dropped during the switch but applications can usually recover easily. Take a look at the DD-WRT site (http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Repeating_Mode_Comparisons) for a comparison of the different available modes.

The wireless throughput is theoretically halved but I cannot tell the difference from the repeater or the first access point as my internet connection is nowhere close to the maximum wireless throughput. Big files will not be transferred wirelessly so this limitation is not a problem.

Don't Buy Into the Illusion of Batching : Discovery News

Don't Buy Into the Illusion of Batching : Discovery News

Posted using ShareThis

Fix a Scratched CD

Here is what WIRED.COM has to say about it 

Nathan "Flutebox" Lee and Beardyman @ Google, London, VERY COOL MUSIC

Nearly run off the road, again

Monday morning I was nearly run off the road from a man (young african male) in a green 323 who insisted he had to come into the fast lane after tryin to overtake me on the left. My reaction was to pull away from him ofcourse. Had I thought about it I would have stayed my course and let him hit me. I would love a new paint job on my car. He did get to come in front of me and I let him know I was upset. Before I could realise to take note of the number plate he was gone.

This morning the driver of PCC 7750 was in front me in traffic and he needed to throw a bmobile prepaid card out the window into the middle of the road. The car had very dark tint so I did not see who was driving. I am guessing the rubbish inside his car was getting to him and one more card would be too unbearable, I understand how he would feel in that case but littering is never an option.

IBM ThinkCentre A50p - Shared System Memory, Be careful what you mess with!

I just formatted an IBM ThinkCentre A50p 8194 and installed WIndows xp on it and installed everything and it was working smoothly with the drivers from IBM website. I have done this to this same model of pc many times before with the same result. This time however I went in the bios and changed properties for the Video Setup of the Intel 865G Graphics Chip. The 'Shared System Memory' was 16Mb and I made it 32Mb.

Now whan I try to log in I get a 'User environment' titled window saying "Windows cannot load the user's profile but has logged you on with the default profile for the system. DETAIL - Insufficient system resources exist to complete the requested service." This window has a count down timer for about 30 seconds after which it will disappear if you do not click OK for it to close. This is followed by another prompt titled 'userinit.exe' that says "Application failed to initialize properly (0xc000012d), Click on OK to terminate the application." and then an OK button. All you can do is click OK on this window and then a blank screen with the pointer shows up indefinitely. The system still responds to ALT-CTRL-DEL and you can restart or log off and try to log on again. If you do try to log on again, some buttons or text disappear each time you try to log on until you eventually get no response. Changing the value back to 16Mb in the bios fixes this problem.

This is another example of how one setting can mess up a system but not permanently.

Windows 7 Ultimate, 2 thumbs up!

About 30 minutes ago I started the install of Windows 7 Ultimate on an
oldish pc, specs to come later. The install went as smooth as on a
much more high end system I did a couple weeks ago, specs to come
later. So far the system is very responsive and feels nice. The
onboard gpu looks well to me. I definitely recommend upgrading to win
7 once you have a machine not more than a couple years old.

Black friday (Thanksgiving ) Sale soon

Every year in the US there is a sale on everything?? with some small discounts and some giant ones. I plan to take advantage of it for computer parts. Some of the hype is about nothing as sometimes regular sale prices are just highlighted but there are genuine discounts to be found.
Some links about the day are listed below

 Wikipedia

 

 Amazon.com
 

 

Other ads


If you have any more post them up in the comments

Latest issues

This week the 6 massive poles that went up on the south side of the Claxton Bay flyover were taken down. I have not heard any news about it but I am afraid to ask how much the entire effort cost us. Also there was never any crash barriers put up around it so I guess the must have realised the danger and moved the poles entirely(yea right). I saw one car run off into the center ditch a couple hundred feet before the poles, on the north bound lanes. It would have added to the countless other tragic accidents that could have been avoided with very little thinking both from the government and the public.
There were some reflective strips to help see them at night, the street lights in the area do not work and have been out of order for years. I hope the holes in the ground were properly covered or filled because that is another danger for cars and people.

Apparently Courts is in party mode because they are inviting you to go down and celebrate the launch of Window$ 7, and if you do(according to a radio ad) you have a chance to win an Apple ipod. I laughed when I heard this ofcourse, but it IS a free ipod...

The last deadline given for the use of the old TnT passport was Dec 31st 2009. Many people still do not have the new machine readable passport and have valid old passports. These people can use their old passports and visas as usual until sometime in 2012. They should still start the process of getting the new passport but there is no need to worry about the imminent deadline. I checked with travel agencies and an immigration worker to confirm this. Also, when they get the new passport, visas in the old passport which are still valid can still be used. When traveling, the new passport will be stamped but the visa from the old book needs to be presented. If the old and new passport were not stapled together at the immigration office you can staple them yourself. It is a very good idea to do this, one less document to worry about misplacing.

Digicel is the greatest

For summer this year my mom went to Canada and used her Digicel phone there. The cost was sky high and afterward I regretted letting her do it. Twice she reached the acount limit and had to wait a couple days each time for the balance paid to show up in the account so she could use the phone again. A few weeks after that when I got the next months bill I was shocked to see it say I had the same amount I had paid for foreign calls now as extra credit in the account. Yes, Digicel was saying that the calls made in Canada did not cost me anything. I called then maybe three eparate occasions to confirn that there was no mistake and each time they insisted I was in good standing. The last of these calls was really to find out why when I checked the current bill via *120# on the handset it was saying I had an outstanding amount but when I spoke to an agent it was a credit in the account. They said the credit was correct and they would send a signal to correct the amount on the handset. The amount on the handset said I owed them money until the next cycle when I went back to the regular package price. So for the next billing cycle, september mayb, the handset was still saying (and currently also) that I have outstanding money, but the last electronic bill and CSR told me I have credit in the account.

Also, the e-bill I got in september said said I had a little over $200 credit. The bill I got in october said I have just over $120 credit. So Digicel billed me $80 only when it was supposed to be over $300. I called to query this today and the CSR said there is no problem with my account. I did not mention to her that the handset still says I have an outstanding amount. I think I did my part and queried the issue and was told there was no problem, so I think I will just accept
the situation.

THANKS Digicel!

Good Dell Deal

Vostro 1520 deal
(Upgrade to Vista Home Premium to get free Windows 7 Upgrade later)

http://configure.us.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?amp;cid=fast_Config&dgc=IR&lid=V1520ci&c=us&cs=04&kc=6W300&l=en&oc=bqcwcbz&s=bsd

Starting Price $910
Instant Savings $382
Subtotal $528

Another TSTT screw up/scam?

I am trying to call a number in England and I am not getting through. I tried all the different prefixes I could think of that might work but none did. The clip that sometimes played when I dialled the number wrong said to dial 6411 to get to the operator, so guess what, I dialled 6411. Now I explain my problem and the girl says that she cannot help me, I need to dial 0 form a land line, I said I could not get a land line right now then she said call 824-8788 and they could help me.

Remember, it costs $1TTD to call 6411, but 824-8788 is free. So when you have a message saying call the tolled number, I cannot help but think they are trying to make money deceptively, but I MAY be wrong here, just may be.

 

I say 'another' in the subject because I am fed up with the BS automated responses you have to fumble through to wait 10 minutes to talk to real person via 824-8788. The most annoying thing is that the system asks you what number you are calling about (yes sometimes is automatically recognises the number) and to press '#' or something to confirm the number. This is followed by a 10 minute wait listening to ads, then the first thing the CSR asks you is 'What number are you calling about?'. But I just told 'you' the number I am calling about, why do I have to repeat myself? Waste of my time TSTT.

Cannot access my Gmail contacts

This sucks, no chat in gmail and no auto complete in addresses. I only noticed this about 11.00am today, and I hope it doesn't last too long. There is an error message on the top that says "Gmail is temporarily unable to access your Contacts. You may experience issues while this persists." Here is a screen shot of it in my account.

One great weekend

So this was one of the best weekends ever. Friday night was well spent with some friends at a secret location for a fun party. Everyone had a blast. I can't say anything else. Saturday was sleep and relation. Sunday was sleep and then rounds for Eid. The best sawine was from the stop by Usine. Today is more sleep and I don't know why, but I'm happy. I hope you ppl are too.

Approximately 30% off Dell Studio laptop

Amazing Dell deal for US customers

http://configure.us.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?c=us&cart=ActiveCart&cs=19&ecomm=ecomm2.dell.com&fb=1&id=8c27efdd-4ce6-4cf8-b876-500c301bac0c&l=en&oc=dndobm3&vw=list

How to install Windows XP Pro on a HP 6910p and 8510p laptop with SATA hard drive

Windows XP does not come with sata drivers which allow it to see the hard drives recent computers. This first dawns on many people when they try to install Windows XP on a machine with a SATA hard drive and it is unable to find a hard drive to install on.With SATA Native Mode enabled, windows will either crash when you try to install it of will not see a hard drive to install to. SATA Native mode must be turned off in order to allow windows to install properly and it can be turned back on after the installation is complete. With this enabled all features of SATA are used which gives the drives more speed and they can use less power.

To allow installation of Windows do the following:
- Press F10 to enter the BIOS,
- Go to the last tab: System Configuration,
- Select 'Device Configurations'
- Press down to 'SATA Native Mode' and set to DISABLE
- Press F10 to accept
- Go back to the first tab: File and select 'Save Changes And Exit'
- Press F10 to accept.

After the installation is complete you can install the appropriate drivers found on HP's website for your laptop.

Before you re-enable SATA Native Mode in the BIOS you need to give windows a SATA driver to be able to see the hard drive when you change the mode.

In order to add the driver, follow the instructions on this page.

Points to note:
To open the command prompt
- Go to Start, select Run.
- Type cmd and press enter
- To go to a new location in the command prompt type use the 'cd' (short for 'change directory') command. eg. typing "cd c:\ryan" will move you to the 'ryan' folder under the root 'c:' folder.

For the 6910p laptop I used sp41383 from the hp site. The driver folder became visible when I extracted files from the executable I downloaded from the site. This means I could skip the command prompt step in the instructions and go straight to updating the driver in Device Manager.
The Model which I have is Intel(R)ICH8M-E/M SATA AHCI Controller, I do not know if this is the only model on controller used on this model laptop. Most likely you have the same model. If you choose another model, you will get a BSOD. Switching SATA Native Mode to Disable and booting with the 'Last Known Good Configuration' will let you go back into windows and choose the correct model controller.
For the 8510p I used sp36334 from the hp site. The driver folder was not visible after I extracted files from the exe file so you have to do the command prompt step in the instructions on the link.
I found that selecting ANY model controller from the list and shutting down, switching SATA native mode on (or leaving it on if you already have a possible wrong controller chosen), and then starting windows will work and will allow you to boot normally into windows. You can then go back into the Device manager > IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers > Update Driver... section and do the same steps as if you want to add the driver initially, except now in the window where you click 'Have Disk', the 'Show compatible hardware' checkbox is ticked and there will only be different versions of Intel(R) 82801HEM/HBM SATA AHCI Controller. Selecting the latest version (first in the list) and clicking next let the correct driver install.
While working on the 8510p, I forgot to enable Sata Native Mode immediately after I installed the Sata driver. This gave a flash of a BSOD and the machine restarted itself to the list or boot options. Selecting 'Last Known Good Configuration' let me go back into Windows normally and try to install the driver again. I repeat, as soon as the machine says it has to restart and shuts down, as soon as the prompt comes up to enter the BIOS, be sure you go in and enable SATA Native Mode.
Any time I got the BSOD I was able to get back into Windows by disabling SATA Native Mode in the BIOS and then choosing 'Last Known Good Configuration' in the boot menu.
It may be possible to slipstream the appropriate SATA drivers and boot and install windows normally. I tried doing it but was unsuccessful, please let me know if you get through with slipstreaming.

This was written with help from :
http://forums13.itrc.hp.com/service/forums/bizsupport/questionanswer.do?threadId=1057792&admit=109447627+1252340962934+28353475

and

http://mytechweblog.blogspot.com/2007_10_01_archive.html

I just tried to fill in the gaps for my specific models of laptops. This will work for a lot of other computers, desktops and laptops with slight differences in accessing the BIOS and also the titles inside the BIOS. The appropriate SATA drivers must be downloaded from the manufacturer's website.

Current Bmobile My Lime Prices

If you are like me and could not find the current my lime promotion rates then here they are. I called *100 and had to speak to a CSR since the rates were also not found on the automated section.

 

From 7am to 6pm it is $1.30 a minute for the first 3 mins then 57mins free

From 6pm to 10pm it is $0.65 a minute for 3 mins then 57 mins free,

From 10pm to 7am it is free 

SMS is $0.01 per txt  all day

 

Also note, to add a number to My Lime, send a text to 5463(LIME) with the words 'add 555-5555' with the number you want to add instead in the text. To remove a number text 'drop 555-5555'. To see what numbers are on your list, text 'query'. Up to 5 numbers can be added. You will receive a txt message confirming each action to the account. It takes a few hours for the number to be added. Exactly how long, I do not know.

PING!!!

Rainy season means FLOOD boye!

I passed through a couple spots that had drain water crossing the road today. It was across the southern main road between Point Lisas and Marabella. This was about an hour after there had been a heavy downpour that lasted about an hour. I do not want to see what happens when there is rain all day. Hopefully something is done to help the water run off faster, but I will not bet on it.

Achieve 500 watt power supply installation

I just installed an Achieve 500 watt power supply (model #AX500.N) in an HP d530C tower. The new p/s was $110(TT) at Supertech in Couva, no arguing with that price. The ratings on the label are +3.3V 28A, +5V 45A, +12V 25A, -12V 0.8A, -5V 0.5A, +5VSb 2.0A, Output 500W. The old p/s was an odd shape and the holes on the new one are different from the old one. Also the old unit made 240 watts. The tower being fed had one HD, one CD-ROM, one floppy drive, and one motherboard with everything on board.

Looking at the back of the tower, only the right side screw holes lined up properly on the p/s and case. The left side holes on the p/s were slightly inside the inner edge of the opening for the exhaust fan on the ps. There was enough space to let the screws go in and the head of the screw to catch the edge of the case and secure the p/s. The Achieve unit is shorter/flatter then the old one so there is now a half inch space below the p/s and the opening for the p/s fan on the back. I left the space open but I am considering taping the space to encourage air to be pulled in from the openings at the front of the case. So far it runs nice and quiet, no hiccups, and I don't expect to see anything coming up soon.

Flow digital hookup

I got a digital connection from Flow today and the whole thing took about 3 hours. All wires were switched out and there is now a splitter box on the side of the house. All the connections have to be made directly from the box, no joins on the wire between the splitter box and the tv. If I take an internet connection another looonng line has to be run from the box to the opposite corner of the house where the computer is... wait a minute I can just run the internet connection to the middle of the house where I have a network switch and feed the house from there. The remotes I got are the watered down ones with a more grid like spread of buttons. The bigger remote had a better layout, but the technician said he did not have any big remotes. Also, he asked me if I had any triple 'a' batteries for the remotes as they do not come with any. I found that was total rubbish and told him I did not have any, and he replied that he would check his car for any. He did return with a pair and said even if he did have another pair he could not give them to me since the Company does not supply them for all remotes. We pay them how many thousands a year? and we can't get $5 batteries...

The picture is very clean and the sound is sharp as well. I have not noticed any channels which are much louder or softer than the others, so no big surprises when flipping channels. I hate how there is a pause between when I change the channel and when the sound and picture starts to move. A frame does come up as soon as I change the channel but there is a pause and silence before things move. There is also a question of how I can get HDTV quality from the coax, or RCA connectors at the back of the digital cable box since there are HD channels available for additional cost.

29th July -
So far so good for the digital connection. I did not get the remotes switched yet, hopefully soon. There was one day last week with a few channels not showing, I cannot remember what the message was exactly, temporarily unavailable maybe?? This was around the same time some channels were showing 'garbage', or parts of different frames mushed up and you could not see anything really. The tv guide is a definite plus. A couple channels do show with dull colours and some boxy/pixelated images but only for a short period and some people may not even notice it. Is it that poor reception still affects quality of digital data? hmmm

I'm trying to download apps to a Nokia e66, but in order to load apps with the data cable I have to download and install Nokia PC Suite, so i go to the site, fill out my details and download the exe. The first thing the app does is go online and search to see if a new version is available. YES there is a new version available... so apparantly the download page is not updated to ver 7.1.30.9 which is what ver 7.1.30.8 is downloading now... sigh @ u Nokia

Now the hard part...

I opened my 42 inch DLP tv today because there were a few dozen white spots on the screen. It really sucks that the tv is only one year old and dying. It turns out that the mirror device is dying, the mirrors are not working, or stuck on or off, I could see the bad mirros on the chip when it was at the right angle to a light. Now I have to go run around and look for the replacement part which ofcourse is not available down here. This is the hard part, tryin to figure out where to get the hopefully more dependable part that will give me a lifetime as it is supposed to and not one more year.

On the road today

I was driving to San Fernando today on the manahambre road and a female driver in a new 5 series came up behind me. I could tell she was being aggressive because she came up fast to me and was sticking close to my tail. Yes, she and her cousin?/sister? in the front passenger seat were hott but it was no excuse to drive recklessly. Eventually she did overtake me, at a point where there was a junction on the right and possibly a car coming out, so a bad move on her part. I had to slow down as she passed otherwise I imagine it could have ended up like the incident with the coke truck. What was worse was that she was now sticking to the car in front of me and trying to overtake him but there definitely were not spots coming up where she could safely do it. A couple times he had to stop pretty suddenly and she managed to see him in time. This is nothing against female drivers, because I have seen bad male drivers also, but she was driving recklessly. She didn't seem drunk, more frustrated and in a big hurry with too much power and no where to use it. At one point on the road there were cars parked in the left lane and enough space for 2 cars to still pass on the right, but you have to notice that cars are coming from ahead and so keep to the left as much as possible for them to be able to pass. She didn't notice the cars coming up and kept comfortable space on both sides for just her. As the cars reached her she did have to move to the left but she did so poorly, she still had space on the left, but could not use it as she was now too close to the car in front her to move. The oncoming cars had inches to spare but did manage to pass and the couple drivers I saw looked at her directly through the untinted windows and laughed/smiled because they knew she was wrong and could pay for it by losing her rear bumper. After that hiccup she continued to chase the car in front her and a few seconds later I lost sight of them. I hope she reached her destination safely, but more because I didn't want to see that car being damaged than her safety.

Coming back home tonight at 10.00pm there were maybe 10 male and female police in uniform stopping cars and pulling some over. The van in front me had only the right side lights working. I noticed that the officer in the middle of the road was looking into the vehicle passing and then at the back of the car as if he was looking for something, I could only guess he was checking lights at the back. As the van passed, it was waved along to go ahead through so I wondered what about the lights? The officer did look at the back, but I'm not sure he noticed the left side was out as a car's headlight from the rear left of me was showing up on that corner of the van. Just the van's luck? The area was not under a street light so lights definitely were likely to play some tricks. I was waved along also, but all I could see the exercise doing was causing traffic, because there were many other routes to get around it and it looked as if they had the big clipboards used to write up tickets, but why? If I was drunk, had a weapon, was carrying drugs how could they tell. All they were doing were ticketing people with bad headlights? A friend told me a couple nights before they made people peel window tint off at the same spot at the same time of NIGHT. These officers still do not have a light meter to determine if a certain shade is legal, let alone do it by eye at night. I did notice a new banner at the tint and graphics shop in the town with the word 'legel' where they advertised tint, I am sure that does not mean you cannot get the illegal shades, which is what the police should be attacking, the tint shops, not the people after they spend money and have to take it off and go buy another coat.

TSTT using VOIP for helpdesk?

I am on the phone talking to an Indian "Alan" about getting an additional email address on my Blink account. First you get to talk a local CSR and she said she could not hear me so I had to repeat myself a few times. She transferred me to Alan who asked me if I was on a cell phone, but I am on a landline. I was hearing him properly but he was not hearing me. To tell him the address I wanted I had to spell each letter out and some he did not understand so he replied with : ...R as in Romu(never heard this word before), I as in India, L as in Lima....

Coming to the end of the conversation now and I did miss a second of sound when it went silent mid sentence.

Im inside the gmail powered account now and i see "This account is open in 1 other location (121.XX.XXX.130). Last account activity: 2 minutes ago." so Alan was in there with me. I did have to call a few times because I did not send an email with the proper info to get the account created, but for this problem I am satisfied that they did their job well.

Another point is that I hate TSTT's automated section where u have to dial a number to get different sections. A couple of them do not say press 0(zero) for a real person, but you can do this. I also hate that u have to listen to the recording telling you that they are open 24hrs a day on the phone now, although if u press a number it will be recognised, for anybody else who calls as often as I do and has the numbers memorised.

Also some sections asks you to enter the number you are calling about, and after you enter it you go to a real person who guess what- asks you what number you are calling about. This time though I did not have to type the number in, it was recognised and read to me so it picked up the number I was calling from and the Indian guy knew my number, but not sure if the Trini guy knew it.

TSTT Family Plan

Talked to a trini TSTT CSR this morning, ofcourse the first thing was she asked my name so I told her. Then I asked about the details (that they didn't put in the newspapers or on their site ) of the plan such as:
1. What happens to your currentt package and unused minutes for the current cycle?

Halfway through the convo my name changed to Andy and stayed like that. Hopefully the info is correct.
The current package is made VOID. This is for everyone joining or owning/managing a Family plan. All unused minutes are discarded and she could not say what happens if you try to switch in the middle of your cycle, if you would pay for just used minutes or by the fraction of the cycle gone or anything like that. She recommended you switch a couple days before the end of your invoice date on the bill so that not too many minutes are wasted.

2 . When does the "Additional rate after the 3rd minute" apply

?

This only applies if you have exceeded your packaged minutes.

Also, if members forward calls to someone outside the plan they will be charged for the calls. No mention of the cost. If calls are forwarded to a fellow member, it would be free.

Link to CATCH info

LINK to Tstt plan details in PDF

Thank you for the compliment

Today I was driving on the connector road between Usine and Cipero roads going from Princes Town to San Fernando. I was not in a rush and was going an average speed. A Coca-cola truck came up behind me and while it was there it didn't seem like anything sinister. On a part of the road there is a stretch where the truck tried to overtake me even though there was a car going the same speed not too far ahead of me and there were oncoming cars in their own lane. I was aware of the truck trying to overtake me and also that the cars were coming so I assumed the truck would back off and not try to fit where it couldn't between me and the car in front me. He tried to fit anyway and I saw the truck coming at me as he tried to merge back in and I slammed on the brakes and was missed by what had to be a couple inches. Whenever something like this happens I always think of this as the other driver saying "I KNOW you have amazing reflexes and you drive a car with tremendous traction, so let me give you some practise".

Behind the truck is a number to call "How's My Driving? 800-COKE". Silly me called it and got to talk to a female security officer that could not speak proper English. I told her what happened, gave her the plate number of the truck (XXF 8115) and she said
1. She doesn't think the company has a truck with that number plate.
2. She is not really the person to talk to about it and I could not speak to anyone else as they had all gone home.
3. She does not know why this number is on the back of a truck because it is the 800 number for Coca-Cola.

Unless there was some plot with hijacked/decoy coke trucks going on, I think I did the right thing when I called. I will call again in the morning to talk to someone who can hopefully help me.





I called again the next day and spoke to another guard who was also the Complaints department. The first complaint i made was about the truck incident itself.
The second complaint was about the guard from the day before. I told her the three point the previous woman made and she said
1. She cannot possibly know all the trucks the company has (no DUH!)
2. It was very unlikely that everyone had gone home at 3.20pm
3. She agreed the number was there so complaints could be made, and all she could do was submit my complaint and nothing more.
I really hope this does not happen to anyone else.