Hey, I bought a UPS for my computer, and it got its first use the very next day - we had two tiny brownouts (like 1/2 second each), and it zipped right through them fine, while other things around the house briefly ceased and sputtered. Hooray! Looking at the grey sky and lightning flashes outside, today might be another chance for it to shine! I just don't get the weather here. It's kind of nice except for the roads falling apart.
And a followup on the wonders of Earthlink. After giving them a month and half to refund the money that I was told on two separate occasions would be refunded in 7-10 days (but the second time he started out trying to tell me I only deserved a partial refund... until I ripped him a new one), I got fed up and contacted my credit card company to have the charges reversed. They responded promptly and effectively and I got my refund in under a week. I didn't know that initially though, since I wanted to go online today and discovered that my dial up account wasn't working. It said "invalid username/password". I thought that was odd! So I called up a new dialup company, that luckily Google Desktop found in my web cache (just last week I had been seeking alternatives to Earthlink to switch to, once this fiasco was over). I signed up, got online with the new account (FAR cheaper, and personal service), and went to check my credit card account, because I had a suspicion. Well, what do you know? The very same day that I find my Earthlink dialup not working, is the very same day that my refund has appeared in my account! Which is nice, because I was paid in full for the dialup - the refund was for satellite service which I of course never received, hence the desire for a refund. So those vindictive weasels just yanked my account out of spite, and kept the half month or however much I've already paid for. Spite for what? For
finally getting the refund they told me twice I would've gotten a long time ago. Nice, huh?
I'm actually really happy though - I got my money back at last ($600, I was kind of missing it...), and at the same time, I got my Earthlink account cancelled without having to deal with them on the phone (which would've been 10 minutes of "Are you sure you want to leave? But we offer..."). I guess I better call up anyway though, to make sure I'm not going to get billed still. I wouldn't be surprised.
Moral:
Do NOT use Earthlink.
