A Smartass Education

So I’ve been living in Prauge for a month and a half now.  At a certain point when i settled in I decided to start watching my favorite tv shows again.  To do this I was downloading torrents.  However I was still not content.  It was faster to just watch the videos on hulu. 

I started messing with all sorts of proxies and things, and eventually I figured out how to get all of them to work.  So I thought I would share.

Last.fm:

They don’t technically lock you out, outside of America.  They just give you a “free trial” and then start charging you $3 a month or so.  Considering how often I use last.fm I would probably pay this, except I found it unfair that they were only charging me because I was abroad. 

Pandora:

They won’t even bother trying to pay for people outside of America to listen to music.  It’s not as good as last.fm, but a lot of people still use it and get shafted outside of US.

BBC:
I felt like watching some BBC news at news.bbc.co.uk and those bastards wouldn’t show it to me.  News!!! come on!?  It’s all agenda driven filtered nonsense anyways.  Come on, I know you have seen the movie Network.   There are no longer nations, only corporations.  The TV tells you what to do, how to dress, how to think, dress, eat etc…

Hulu:

Now I run a video site like Hulu myself, but as easy as my site makes it to find good avi movies, it still sucks for new TV Shows.  They just get deleted too quickly, everywhere except hulu.   Hulu is first “legal” TV streaming site to be successful because there aren’t that many ads at this point.  Well this was the hardest one to get working.

Ok, that’s all about the sites.  Now to the tutorial. 

Install IP-Hider.  You get that?  That was the entire tutorial.  Okay with more detail:  Install it, open it, click the country you want to be from and that’s it. 

One note:  Hulu’s website still wouldn’t load for me with this, it worked fine didn’t gripe about country but it timed out trying to load the video.  So along comes Hulu Desktop.  Which is much nicer looking and working than their website anyways.   Just download that and it will load just fine with IP-Hider running. 

Also note that Hulu is very persistent in trying to block outsiders.  If you just go on with anonymous proxy they will bitch at you for it.  So when you see the fancy options to make yourself anonymous and turn privacy on as well.   Don’t do it. 

For everything besides Hulu if you just can’t bring yourself to use IP-Hider or it stops working, the TOR network works wonderful.  I could make a writeup on that if anybody wants it.  Though their website explains it pretty well.

I will also mention that this method works today.  As of July 14th 2009.  Blog posts get outdated as people seem to not pay attention to when they find my old time sensitive tutorials.  This works great now, but might not work by the time you read this, but I’m sure somebody will make a comment to that effect.

Enjoy, being slightly less screwed over by American bureaucracy today than you were yesterday.

Back in 1999 I made these cool mp3 cd’s that auto played when you put them in the drive.  I kept making a lot of cd’s so I didn’t want to make a new playlist every time I made a new cd, yet I needed the playlist to make all the music on the cd autoplay. 

Well it’s been a long time since then and I forgot how I made the auto generating m3u fie.  So I googled it, and I could not find anything on it.  I knew that I had done it in one short line when I made it.  Yet typing a path and  *.* or *.mp3 didn’t seem to work now.  It just loaded garbage in winamp.

Well I was annoyed and knew it could be done so I kept messing with it until I remembered how I did it.

To make an mp3 file for an entire directory you open up notepad and type . Ok in case you didn’t get that you open up notepad and type . (it’s a period).  That’s it.  Then you can double click that playlist and it will open up and play everything in your current directory.  Now if you are anal like me all your tracks are named 01 Track Name.mp3 02 Track Name.mp3 etc.. so they will all play in order too. 

Now I know what you are thinking, you want to play multiple directories, not just the current directory.  To do that you just need to type the path of the folder(s) you want to play, but be careful you DO NOT put a forward slash after the directory name (this is what was screwing me up before).

So lets say I have a folder called Tom Waits and inside that I have all his albums and I want to play all of his albums.  I open notepad and I can type a period and save it in the Tom Waits directory and it will play all the content in that folder.  Now lets say I only want the albums called Alice and Rain Dogs. 

Then I would type:
Rain Dogs
Alice

I would save this as an m3u file (Make sure you pull down the Save As Type thing below the file name and choose *.* so you don’t save it as playlist.m3u.txt)  and walah a playlist that plays both those albums and it does it with only one 2 lines. instead of 30+ lines to put the individual song paths in. 

Now I wanted a playlist that plays EVERYTHING in my EVERYTHING Else directory.  That was why I did this.  So I just opened notepad and made one line that said EVERYTHING Else and I saved it in my Mp3s directory.  By doing this I am able to make a playlist that even when I add new content it automatically adds that new content. 

I have seen all sorts of really complex scripts that the entire purpose is to recursively go through a directory and look for new stuff to add to an existing playlist.  All they had to do is type a path without the trailing forward slash and it’s a valid playlist file.

More Examples:
Lets assume there is a playlist file in my Mp3s directory called lovedalbums.m3u.  I right click on that file and I tell it to Open With > Notepad (browse if you don’t have that option and look in windows directory for notepad). 

Inside (F:\Mp3s\lovedalbums.m3u) it says:
EVERYTHING Else\Johnossi\2005 – Johnossi
EVERYTHING Else\Infected Mushroom\2007 – Vicious Delicious
EVERYTHING Else\Eve 6\2000 – Horrorscope
EVERYTHING Else\No Doubt\1995 – Beacon Street Collection
EVERYTHING Else\Less Than Jake\2008 – GNV FLA
EVERYTHING Else\Fastball\2004 – Keep Your Wig on
EVERYTHING Else\Eddie Vedder\2007 – Into the Wild
EVERYTHING Else\Ben Folds Five\1995 – Ben Folds Five
EVERYTHING Else\Beatles\2006 – Love
EVERYTHING Else\Amanda Palmer\2008 – Who Killed Amanda Palmer
EVERYTHING Else\Michael Lee Firkins\2007 – Blacklight Sonatas
Various Artists\Donnie Darko (Complete bootleg)
Various Artists\Elizabethtown
My Compilations\2004 – What’s Left of Me\Absolution 2.0
My Compilations\2004 – What’s Left of Me\Beautiful 2.0
My Compilations\2008\Haunt Me

Ok I probably didn’t have to put that many, but you should get the point now. 

Recap:  In Notepad type a period and save as playlist.m3u to add full directory.  To add individual ones add the paths without a trailing slash. 

Enjoy

Step 1) Index all things and make it easy to access, ease people into using this with a search engine that helps people find what they want and a catchy slogan like “Don’t Be Evil”.

Step 2) After building trust with your market convince them to use your open source software. In case they aren’t using it, buy majority of startup software and social networks that they are using. Further direct their focus by getting them to use Chrome and telling everybody it is a web browser, despite being a world domination app.

Step 3) Get your software on all types of media. We will start with showing them a taste of our “browser” and then a couple weeks later we will have every single mobile company using our open source operating system and development platform (Android).

Step 4) Use the “Google Network” that was built by 3rd party companies using our open source software and mobile devices to link all communications together and use all the media devices and world domination software in place on more than 75% of the global economy.

Step 5) Control “truth”, information, media, advertising, and define facts.

Today I tested 2 different beta browsers. Internet Explorer 8 Beta 2, and Google Chrome.

Finally browsers are starting to evolve at a faster rate. Firefox 3’s “awesome bar” has become a must have feature that other browsers are working to clone and CSS support is starting to not suck quite as bad.

So first is Google’s new browser “Google Chrome”. It’s a mashup of Safari and Firefox, and wow is it fast. I mean things that work slowly on my site on a crappy laptop work much faster with this new browser. Google, being smarter than Microsoft, has opted to keep the browser open source and let a community of people develop it just like Firefox. This means, that though there are currently no extensions for the browser, there will be.

Firefox is the best browser because in it’s core it complies to standards, and then it lets people extend the functionality of the browser in a zillion different ways with add-ons. So now that Google has come along with a similar product, and they have sped up page loads and JavaScript execution.

Google Chrome has a coupe of slick new features, like clicking Shift+Esc will open a “task manager” just for the browser. It shows you the memory and cpu usage of each tab and process like flash. You can then end those processes. They extend this further by making each tab it’s own “sandbox” where one tab does not effect the others. So if a tab crashes, none of your other tabs will crash. That alone is worth the prices of admission.

Another plus for me was how right out of the box I didn’t need to install any plugins. Flash worked, the DivX player worked, Java worked. My thought is that they just copied the plugins directly from my Firefox install and are able to use the same files. I also dig the “new tab” thing showing links and screenshots of all your most visited pages.

Web Developer Note: Acid2 Test = Perfect, Acid3 Test = 77% (Firefox only gets 57%).

I haven’t had any crashes with this beta browser yet either, which is very odd. It wasn’t able to load my OGM movies, but then again, on my x64 vista it took me an hour of dicking with Firefox to get those to load, due to the badly made plugin installer that doesn’t understand how to install itself in a “portable browser”. In Firefox when an OGM movie doesn’t load it often crashes the entire browser.

Both Google and Microsoft have added features to their browser that we will refer to as “porn mode” since it lets you browse the internet with out leaving records of where you have been. This is helpful since with the new way address bar’s are working you can almost always find your way back to someplace you have previously been.

So next I was going to give my personal views on Internet Explorer 8 beta 2, however when I tried to install it on vista x64 I was told that this operating system is not supported.

For shame Microsoft. Even if it’s 32 bit you can still make a 32 bit program run just fine. I am amazingly disappointed by this. Especially since this is your second beta. So instead of talking about their new features I will go off of what I have read about it.

Basically Microsoft has taken their “copy a good idea and make it better” to heart, and have taken to copying such features as the awesome bar and improving it by listing the URL next to the site name that it finds.

Now, I love copying and improving. So many people bitch about things getting stolen from one thing and stuck in another, but that’s what allows us to evolve. Why re-invent the wheel? Just make it last longer and not go flat.

What I want is for them to “copy” the CSS support from other browsers to their browser, because though all computer guys and web designers (real designers, who don’t use FrontPage) will use Firefox or another standard compliant browser. End users will still use whatever their computer comes with that has the word internet on it.

I run a website where I would think people would be smart enough to use Firefox, yet 80% of my traffic is from Internet Explorer. Now I will forgive you all for it since a large majority of you are at schools and offices where you cannot install things.

All Microsoft needs to do to stop being hated by web developers is 3 things:

1) Proper CSS3 support. I mean seriously you are talking in your blog and writeups about how you fully support CSS2.1 now, but who cares. I want CSS3 so I can start making vertical lines and have drop shadows under my text.

2) Open Extension format. I realize that Microsoft doesn’t like open source, and I respect that as a developer. However you can just make a SDK for add-ons, since most of the best “features” of Firefox are only there because we have added them of our own accord.

3) Remove Active-X. I don’t care how many websites use it. Those sites have ways for people to view their content in other browsers. This is the main reason people get infected with the old trick: “You are infected with spyware. Click here to remove”. Then it installs a program that adds more spyware while pretending to remove some of it.

Right now IE8 is still a beta, and browser betas are lousy. The Firefox 3 beta was garbage at supporting already existing things like JavaScript and plugins. So all I can do right now is hope that Microsoft will pull their head out of their ass and do the 3 things I listed. Then I will not have to spend an extra 3 hours on every new page I design just trying to make an Internet Explorer workaround for some positioning bug.

For now, Firefox is still king. However I foresee Google adding extensions and other web applications and then becoming the best browser. It’s already faster and doesn’t crash.

Download: Google Chrome | IE8 Beta 2

Ok so load a page with a bunch of images. Then go to the address bar and paste this in:

javascript:R=0; x1=.1; y1=.05; x2=.25; y2=.24; x3=1.6; y3=.24; x4=300;
y4=200; x5=300; y5=200; DI=document.getElementsByTagName("img");
DIL=DI.length; function A(){for(i=0; i-DIL; i++){DIS=DI[ i ].style;
DIS.position='absolute'; DIS.left=(Math.sin(R*x1+i*x2+x3)*x4+x5)+"px";
DIS.top=(Math.cos(R*y1+i*y2+y3)*y4+y5)+"px"}R++}setInterval('A()',5);
void(0);

It won’t move all images, but a lot of them will start floating around. Works on a majority of sites (though not well on my main page due to how I position them.

The best place I found this to work was on my own myspace profile in firefox. It’s cooler in firefox since I have all of the images hidden underneath my background. So with this trick it brought all the pictures of friends and junk in my comments up and made it float.

Try it. Go to: http://myspace.com/trimidum then paste above code into address bar and hit enter.

Today I just found the world’s greatest RMA process (Seagate if you are wondering). It took me absolutely no searching around and I was done in 2 minutes online without talking to anybody and it even printed me a label. I have NEVER seen something go so smoothly, so it got me thinking about all the other things that could be done better but typically aren’t. Things that we just accept as being crappy.

Below is a list of some of the things that could be easilly fixed just by a change of standards. Sorry if it gets a bit long. I will color the sections so you can just read about the ones that might annoy you.

"The Scene" and how they release files: Ok, I have been using torrents for years and have found no other viable option for multiple file distribution. However at this point (assuming you are in a country with good internet) speeds on the internet are SOOO fast that if I download a torrent with an avi file in it and I am impatient I can prioritize the order the pieces download in and watch it while it is downloading.

However if some stupid release group sticks that one avi file into a 30 part rar file; not only can I not watch it but I 1) run the risk that one of the rar files will be corrupt and the file will not extract and 2) I have to waste more space and time extracting those rar files. Then because of that I am VERY unlikely to keep seeding it, since those rar files are only wasting space on my already overcrowded hard drive.

Rars were a fantastic idea back in the late 90’s because it let us download things from websites using our dial-up modems. It WAS a fantastic way to do it. However now, it is totally worthless.

Next, if I download a driver, I want JUST the driver. People who are not computer savvy are not downloading their own drivers anyways, they are just calling their sons and asking them to fix the problem for them.

So if I download a driver for an HP Printer (notoriously aweful / slow driver install with tons of bloat), I want a zip file with JUST the essential driver files and no install file, and no extra software. I want my operating system to be able to just look in the folder and find the needed files and be done with it.

I do mobile pc repair and if I get called out to a customers house for a problem with their HP Printer, I have to advise them that even on their brand new computer it may take up to 2 hours to install their printer due to the retarded detection process and other crappy software that it forces you to install.

HP is not the only one at fault here, ATI and several other companies make lousy install files that are required to make a piece of hardware work.

Slow installs that install into multiple directories and register files all over the place and registry: Look, if I install any of the Adobe CS3 apps on a super fast computer it will still take me FOREVER to install the files. The reason being is they are trying to be "helpful" since you might run multiple adobe programs so it is making a "shared files" directory and then registring the components with windows so it knows that they are there.

This however is NOT helpful. I own over 6TB of hard drives, and while this may not (yet) be the standard, hard drive space is increasing and we no longer need to "share files" between programs.

If you were to make an install file and had every single file required to run the program install itself into one directory, then the program will open and run properly. So what if you install another program that needs the same dll file etc…

Most of the apps I use are "portable" and are kept on my keychain, so that when i go to fix a computer I do not have to install a bunch of crap on other people’s computers just to fix their problems. By centralizing every file that is needed in the program directory, installs would only take seconds and if somebody wanted to take the program with them they could. Ok, so it’s a paid for program and you don’t want them stealing it. No big deal, they paid for it if they move to another computer they will have to type in the license key again.

At the very least you should just change the install menu so that instead of having "typical and custom" installs, it should have "portable, typical and custom". This way if I want to have all the files shoved in one directory I can do so, and the rest of the ignorant people can install it the way you want them to.

RMA process: As I was saying earlier, Seagate has an amazing process. Somewhere along the lines they must of realized that they didn’t have enough customer service reps to talk to every single person who says their hard drive is broken. Sure, some of those drives are not bad but they give you a 5 year warranty so all you have to do is enter your serial number and it then tells you how long it is under warranty. You click next and it asks you if you want to return the product, and offers you expedited shipping for a fee as well as the option to upgrade your return. Declining any of these your return is free and it instantly spits out a label for you to print out with your return address and the RMA mailing info and then gives you a PDF as an optional read for properly packaging and shipping the item back and advises you that you will get a new drive or else it will be low level formatted.

Wow. It was so simple. I didn’t have to sit on a phone while some guy from India asks me stupid questions about what I have already done. It just says, send it back and we’ll send you a new one.

I recently used Intel’s RMA process as I was told it was simple. Takes awhile to find the part replacement area, but when you do you still have to call in and wait on hold. Then you have to go through 50 some steps that you have probably already done just so they will give you an RMA #. Now they did give me one, however they didn’t give me the address. They said they would email it to me with the instructions etc.. Well I never got that email. So I didn’t have the address to send it to. Now a couple weeks later when I got around to it I called back and got it (by having them fix the email address and re-send me the info again…).

This was rediculous. If my stuff is broken, send me a new one. Don’t even pay somebody to help me troubleshoot it. If it’s not broken, send it back to me. It’s still cheaper and better for your customers than having them sit on hold to talk to somebody who might not know anything beyond the policy manual.

Okay, next since I mentioned being on hold I thought that could change a bit too. No, I am not going to be unrealistic and think I can get away from a long hold. Instead I am going to be MORE realistic and say that if I want to talk to a real person I am willing to wait longer. So all I ask on this is that when I call I am presented with 3 options:

Press 0 to talk to a real person, however be advised that there will be very long hold.

Press 1 to go through our automated troubleshooting service.

Press 2 to leave a message, however be advised that it may take up to 24 hours for your call to be returned.

Press # to repeat your options or * to disconnect.

I actually have a giant blog post already just to help people to talk to a real human being. It gets a lot of traffic because people hate clicking buttons forever.

If we have to be on hold, then let us just sit on hold, and while we are doing it don’t have any interruptions for the music. Don’t care if it’s crappy music or not, just music and no "your call is important to us".

Then since I have taken the effort to wait on hold for 30 minutes, don’t you DARE disconnect me or dump me to voicemail. I don’t care how bad your queue #’s are for the day. I choose to wait, so let me wait.

Video On Demand. You are just doing it wrong. Look at my website as an example. People want video on demand, and they are willing to pay for it. However it just has to be in a really convenient form.

By this I mean that if I pay one on demand service like ps3 or apple tv to download a movie or a tv show, I want to then be able to copy that tv show onto my hard drive and move it to all the other gadgets I have. To do this the download needs to be in a standard format with no DRM garbage. I want a DivX or an H.264 file to download and I want them to be in a standard avi enclosure.

Music should be in an mp3 format. Yes, better compression like aac has come along since mp3, however it never became a standard and it cannot be played on every device I already own, so i want it in mp3 format.

If you are not going to give people content in these formats, then a good number of those people will pirate the media. It’s not because they want to be "bad people". It’s because you are so paranoid that if you give them a nice easy to use format, then they will use some other service/player. Or they will turn around and distribute the media they purchased since it doesn’t have protection in it.

Well that’s going to happen no matter what format the media is in. However it’s just like somebody breaking into your car. Not everybody is going to do it, but eventually it’s bound to happen.

I’m sure I will think of more things like this, but for now if I write any more you will loose your attention span and stop reading it.

Woot, Firefox 3 is out, and not just a shitty beta anymore.

Seems to work quite well and most of the extensions I use still work. Well, the ones that didn’t I “forced” to work with “Mr. Tech’s Local Install” which has a “make compatible” option that removes the version number of the extension and makes everything work.

Well, I will be making a “Pimp Your Firefox” article on here sometime and will go over all the best extensions, but for now just download FF3 and Ad-Block.

Good Times,

You know I like my tutorials to be short… embarrassingly short in fact. Well this one will take the cake.

To install shit on your iPhone the easy way install newest firmware 1.1.1 at the time of this writing and then go to: http://jailbreakme.com phone.

THAT’S IT. Ok technically you have to click a link at the bottom of the page when you get there, but that’s IT!!!~!!!

Doing this will install an application called Installer on your phone, which will let you install a TON of other applications. I recommend “Sketches” and “Labyrinth” highly.

So I was work and had reason to reference some British words… I thought it would be worth posting them to the site because I enjoyed it.

• ACCOMMODATION in the sense of lodging is singular in English
  and plural in American English
• ADMIRALTY in Britain is the Navy Department in the U.S.
• AGRICULTURAL SHOW is a State or County Fair.
• AIRY-FAIRY means superficial in a disparaging sense and
  is roughly "fanciful"
• ALLOTMENT is a small rented area for growing vegetables
  or flowers away from you home.
• ANORAK is an Eskimo word for a windbreaker or parka.
• ANTI-CLOCKWISE is counter clockwise.
• ARTICULATED LORRY is a trailer truck.
• ASSISTANT – short for shop assistant – would be a salesclerk.
• AU PAIR is a foreign girl who lives as one of the family in return for helping with the children. Enables "foreign" girls to learn English in a family environment.
• AUBERGINE is an EGGPLANT
• BACKBENCHERS is a Member of the House of Commons who is
  not the Minister.
• BAD PATCH means a rough time
• BAGS OF is slang and means piles of – usually referring
  to money.
• BALACLAVA is a woolen helmet named after the site of a
  battle in the Crimean War
• BANGER is slang for a sausage
• BANK HOLIDAY is a LEGAL HOLIDAY in the U.S. Apart
  from Xmas they are all different in Britain
• BARGE POLE is a colloquialism for a ten-foot-pole
• BARRACK is to demonstrate noisily in public e.g. as in
  ‘boo’
• BARRISTER is a TRIAL LAWYER
• BASH is to hit as in ‘bang’
• BATH in Britain becomes BATHTUB in the US
• BATH OLIVER is a dry biscuit eaten with cheese
• BBC the British Broadcasting Corporation
• BEARSKIN is a high, black fur hat worn by Guardsmen
• BELT UP is slang for shut up
• BILL is what one asks the waiter for and in the US becomes
  CHECK
• BIRD is slang for ‘girl’ although in the US DAME would
  be closer
• BIRO is a ball-point pen
• BISCUIT is a CRACKER or a COOKIE
• BIT used where Americans would say "part"
• BITTER is a type of beer
• BLACK TIE is Mess dress or tuxedo
• BLOCK OF FLATS is an apartment building or high-rise tower
  block, or a large house converted to flats
• BLOKE slang for man
• BOBBY is a police officer
• BOG toilet
• BOG-ROLL toilet roll
• BOILER is the furnace
• BOLLARDS are barrels
• BONNET is HOOD when referring to your car
• BOOK as a verb to reserve rooms or theater seats
• BOOT is the TRUNK of your car
• BOOT SALE is a flea market or yard sale
• BOX television
• BOXING DAY is the first week-day after Christmas
• BRACES are SUSPENDERS which as an English word means
  GARTERS
• BRASS PLATE is the equivalent of a SHINGLE
• BUBBLES & SQUEAK is cooked cabbage and potatoes combined
  and fried
• BUILDING SOCIETY is a savings and loan
• BUMBAG is the same as our fanny pack
• BUNGALOW is a single story house detached house
• BUREAU is a writing desk with drawers and a lift-down flap
• CAB-RANK is a taxi-stand
• CALL-BOX is a telephone booth
• CAMIKNICKERS are teddies
• CAMP BED is a COT which in Britain is used for a
  baby’s CRIB
• CANDYFLOSS is cotton candy
• CARAVAN is a trailer
• CAR PARK is a parking lot
• CASHIER is a TELLER
• CALICO is muslin
• CALOR GAS is bottled gas
• CASTOR SUGAR is finer than granulated sugar but not as
  fine as icing-sugar
• CATS EYES are surface road reflectors
• CHAR is slang for tea – the drink
• CHAT UP is slang for handling someone a line especially
  to get to know a girl
• CHEERS thanks; also used as a toast before drinking; also,
  "see you later"
• CHEMIST is a DRUG-STORE
• CHESTERFIELD is a sofa
• CHIPS are FRENCH FRIES
• CLINGFILM is Saran wrap
• CLOAKROOM is a half bath
• COACHES are buses
• COFFEE, WHITE, WITHOUT is coffee, cream, no sugar
• COLLEAGUE is a co-worker
• CONVENIENCE is a REST ROOM
• CONVEYANCING is buying or selling properties
• COOKER is a stove
• CORNFLOUR is cornstarch
• COSTUME is a swimsuit
• COURGETTE is a ZUCCHINI
• COT is a small child’s bed or crib
• COTTAGE traditionally a pretty, quaint house in the country,
  perhaps with a thatched roof (although the name is stretched nowadays
  to encompass almost anything except a flat), may be detached or
  terraced
• COVER NOTE is an Insurance binder
• CRACKING great ("What a cracking bird!")
• CRICKET is a ball game to which Americans have no equal
• CRISPS are potato chips
• CUPBOARD in Britain is CLOSET in the US
• CURRENT ACCOUNT at a bank is a CHECKING ACCOUNT
• C.V. (CURRICULUM VITAE) is a resume
• DAME in Britain refers to a lady who has been knighted
• DAY-RETURN means a ROUND-TRIP ticket usually on
  the railway
• DEMERAEA sugar is the brown sugar usually on the tables
  in pubs, not at all like our baking brown sugar
• DETACHED is a house that stands alone, usually with its
  own garden
• DEVIATION is a detour
• DIARY is our calendar/date or appointment book
• DINNER JACKET is a TUXEDO
• DORMITORY is a multiple bedroom usually found in boarding
  schools and is NOT a barracks
• DRAUGHTS is the game of CHECKERS
• DRESS CIRCLE in the theater is the FIRST BALCONY
• DRESSING TABLE is the equivalent of the American DRESSER
• DRESSING GOWN is a ROBE or bathrobe
• DUAL CARRIAGEWAY is a DIVIDED HIGHWAY
• DUMMY is a pacifier
• DUSTBIN is a GARBAGE CAN
• DUSTMAN is a garbage collector
• DUVET is a eiderdown quilt
• EARLY-CLOSING is an infuriating custom of shops closing
  one afternoon a week
• EARTH as a verb and as an electrical term equals to GROUND a wire
• ELASTOPLAST is BAND-AID
• ELEVEN is a FOOTBALL or CRICKET TEAM (from
  the number of players)
• ENGAGED is what the operator says when the telephone line
  is BUSY
• ERNIE is ‘electronic random number indicator equipment’
  and selects Premium Bond winners
• ESTATE AGENT is a REAL-ESTATE BROKER
• ESTATE CAR is a STATION WAGON
• EX-DIRECTORY is a UNLISTED TELEPHONE NUMBER
• EX-SERVICE MAN is a VETERAN
• FAG is a cigarette
• FANCY DRESS is costumes
• FANCY DRESS PARTY is a costumes party
• FEN is swampland or marsh
• FIRST FLOOR in a building is SECOND-FLOOR in the
  US
• FISH-FINGERS are FISH-STICKS
• FITTED applied to carpets means WALL-TO-WALL
• FIZZY DRINK is pop/soda
• FLAN is an open sponge or pastry case with a fruit or sweet
  filling
• FLANNEL is a face-cloth
• FLAT is an APARTMENT usually one floor
• FLEET STREET is a colloquialism for the PRESS
• FLEX is an electric cord
• FLY-OVER is an over-pass
• FOOTBALL is rugby, not American football
• FORTNIGHT means two weeks or fourteen nights
• FREE HOUSE associated with a Pub means it can sell any
  brand of beer it wishes, it is not linked to any specific brewery
• FRINGE (HAIR) is BANGS
• FULL STOP is the black dot at the end of a sentence called
  in the US a period
• GAMMON is ham
• GARDEN is the property outside a house which in the US is a YARD
• GATEAU is a type of layer cake
• GEARBOX is TRANSMISSION
• GEAR-LEVER is GEARSHIFT
• GEORDIE (pronounced JORDY) is a native of Tyneside and
  also the dialect he speaks
• GEYSER (GEEZER) is a water heater
• GIVE-WAY as a road sign means YIELD
• GLASS is CRYSTAL
• GONGS are slang for military medals
• GOVERNMENT means administration and refers to the people
  currently running the country
• GENERAL PRACTITIONER (GP) is a internist or doctor
• GREASPROOF PAPER is wax paper
• GREEN BELT is a no-building zone around a town or city
• GREENGROCER is a fruit/vegetable store
• GRILL as a verb is to BROIL
• GUILLOTINE is a paper-cutter
• GUMBOOTS are rubber boots
• GUMSHIELD is the same as a mouthgaurd
• GYMKHANA is a local Horse Show
• GYM SHOES are SNEAKERS
• HABERDASHERY is pins, needles, ribbons, thread etc. : and
  is what you ask for in a shop
• HAGGIS a traditional Scottish dish made from a sheep’s
  inside
• HAIRDRESSER is a man or women’s ‘barber shop’ or ‘beauty
  shop’
• HAIRSLIDE is a barrette
• "HALF" when addressed to a bar-tender means a
  half-pint of beer
• HALF-TERM is a mid-term vacation of short duration
• HARD CHEESE is tough luck
• HAT TRICK is a cricket term for taking three wickets by
  three successive balls but it is often to any triple triumph
• HAVE-A-BASH means give it a try
• HAVE NO TIME FOR means to have a low opinion
• HESSIAN is burlap
• HIGH STREET preceded by ‘the’, is the American Main Street
• HIGH TEA served late in the afternoon usually contains
  a cooked item such as eggs or sausages – this is not to be confused
  with ‘tea’ or ‘afternoon tea’ which is merely a cup of tea with
  a cake or very small sandwich
• HIRE PURCHASE is to buy on an installment plan
• HOB is an installed gas, electric range top
• HOLIDAY is a vacation although the university still uses
  vacation for the time after term finishes
• HOMELY is simple or unpretentious and not the ‘ugly’ meant
  in America
• HOOD of a car is known as ‘BONNET’ in England but
  of a cloak or coat is still the same
• HOUSEMAN in a hospital is a doctor or ‘intern’ in America
• HOOVER is to vacuum
• HUNDREDWEIGHT is 112 pounds and 20 Hundredweight are in
  1 ton
• HUNT an Englishman hunts fox or deer but shoots game birds
  or rabbits
• ICE on menus means ice-cream
• ICING SUGAR is similar to our powdered sugar
• IMMERSION TANK is a hot water heater in a house
• INTERVAL is an intermission
• IN TRAIN means coming along as in ‘the work is progressing’
• IRONMONGER is a hardware shop
• JAB is a shot or immunization
• JAM is what Americans would call jelly
• JELLY is what they call Jell-O
• JERSEY is a sweater
• JOINT (of meat) as in Sunday Joint is a piece of roast
  meat
• JUMBLE SALE is a rummage sale
• JUMPER is a sweater (or woolly, or jersey), the American
  ‘jumper’ is a pinafore dress
• JUNCTION is an interchange on motorway
• KEDGEREE is a dish of fish, rice and eggs and often served
  at breakfast
• KETTLE (FOR HOB) is a tea kettle
• KIOSK can be a news-stand or a telephone box
• KIP sleep ("I could do with a kip" or "He’s
  kipping on the sofa.")
• KITCHEN PAPER is paper towels
• KNAVE is a jack in playing cards
• KNICKERS underwear for women
• KNOCK BACK DOUGH is to punch down dough
• KNICKERS are ladies’ underpants
• ‘L’ plates are large red ‘L’s which a person learning to
  drive must put on his car
• LACQUER is hair-spray
• LADDER in a stocking is a ‘run’ in America
• LADYBIRD is a lady bug
• LAGER is beer
• LANDLORD in a pub is the inn-keeper
• LARDER is a pantry
• LAY A TABLE is to set the table
• LAY-BY is a roadside parking area at the side of the road
• LEADER can be a newspaper editorial, the leading counsel
  of a team of lawyers or the first violinist in an orchestra but
  NOT the conductor as is popular in America
• LEMONADE is Sprite, 7UP
• LETTER-BOX is a mail-box
• LEVEL-CROSSING is a grade crossing
• LIFE GUARD is a member of a regiment of the Royal Household
  Cavalry
• LIFT is an elevator
• LINE on a railway means track
• LOO can be an 18th century card game or a lavatory or bathroom
  or whatever you wish to say
• LORRY is a truck
• LOUNGE SUIT is a business and NOT clothes for lounging
  in
• MAC is an abbreviation for macintosh or raincoat
• MAKING CONTACTS is networking
• MAGISTRATE is very close to a justice of the peace
• MAINS is an electric circuit box
• MAISONETTE is an apartment on 2 or more floors
• MAJORITY as a voting term this equals a ‘plurality’ in
  American terms
• MANCUNIAN is someone from Manchester
• MANGETOUT are snow peas
• MARKET many towns have a weekly market day with wares on
  stalls (booths) in the open air – the right to do so goes back
  hundreds of years & the AA book lists them all – so does a
  list available from my office
• MARROW is a very large zucchini
• MARTINI is vermouth – if you want a Dry Martini ash for
  a Gin & French
• MASH is mashed potatoes
• MATCH is what two sides play on a sports field and is equal
  to an American game
• MEAN is tight-fisted or stingy as opposed to the American
  ‘cruel’ or ill-tempered
• MEWS HOUSE is a hose that’s converted from old stables
  or servants’ lodging (usually 17th or 19th century) and is the
  town equivalent of a genuine cottage
• MINCE or MINCED MEAT from the butcher is chopped meat of
  hamburger however MINCEMEAT is chopped apples, raisins etc. Which
  goes into a mince pie
• MOOR is open land often with heather
• MOTORWAY is a Freeway
• MORNING TEA is often served in your hotel room before you
  go down to breakfast
• MUFFIN is a small, spongy cake served toasted and buttered
  – do NOT confuse with the American ‘English Muffin’ which does
  not exist in England.
• MUSLIN is cheesecloth in America but American ‘muslin’
  is calico in England
• NAFF tacky
• NANNY is a child’s nurse
• NAPPY, a corruption of napkin, is a diaper
• NETS are sheer curtains
• NEWSAGENT shop selling newspapers
• NOTECASE is a billfold
• NO ENTRY is wrong way (traffic sign)
• NO OVERTAKING is no passing
• NOTICEBOARD is a bulletin board
• NUMBER PLATE is a license plate
• OFF HIS ROCKER is out to lunch
• OFF LICENSE is a shop which can sell alcohol all day but
  it must be taken away or consumed ‘off’ the premises
• OFF-THE-PEG refers to ‘ready-to-wear’ clothes
• OPHTHALMIC OPTICIAN test eyesight, prescribe glasses, and
  diagnose eye diseases
• OPHTHALMIC MEDICAL PRACTITIONER treats eye diseases, test
  eyesight, prescribes lenses
• OUT OF BOUNDS is equivalent to the American term ‘off-limits’
• OVERLEAF is the reverse side of a page as is P.T.O. (please
  turn over)
• OVERTAKE is a driving term meaning to pass another car
• OXBRIDGE is a portmanteau word for the ancient universities
  of Oxford and Cambridge
• P45 is a pink slip
• PANDA CAR is a small police car
• PANTOMINE has no American equivalent and is an English
  Christmas entertainment based on a fairy-tale with a lot of modern
  singing, dancing and humor – it is not mime
• PANTS are underpants in American – the English equivalent
  of American pants is trousers
• PARAFFIN is kerosene – American ‘paraffin’ is paraffin
  wax or white wax
• PASTRY CASE is a pie crust
• PASTY is an individual pie as in Cornish Pasty
• PAVEMENT is sidewalk
• PERAMBULATOR shortened usually to ‘pram’ is a baby-carriage
• PETROL is gasoline
• PILLAR BOX or POST BOX is a mail-box and its painted
  red not blue
• PLAIT is a braid when applied to girls’ hair
• PLASTER is a band-aid
• PLIMSOLLS are shoes such as American deckshoes
• PLONK (SLANG) is wine
• PORRIDGE is oatmeal
• POLYFILLA is spackle compound
• POPPERS are snaps
• PUDDINGS (the term) can be used to group all desserts whether
  it is cake, pie, ice-cream, custards. British puddings are not
  like our custard type "Jell-O" pudding
• PRANG (in a car) is a fender bender
• PREMIUM BOND is a Government Lottery Bond which has no
  interest
• PROVISION is accrual
• PUB is a public house which is a bar with an English atmosphere
  which cannot be defined in this small space – go an see one
• PUB WITH ROOMS – is similar to an inn
• PUSH-CHAIR is a child’s stroller
• PYLON is a high tension tower
• QUEUE as a verb it means to stand in line – and woe betide
  you if you cut in
• QUID (slang) is a one pound note
• RED INDIAN means an American Indian – ‘Indian’ alone means
  a native of India
• REDUNDANT is to be released from a job
• REEL is a spool
• REFUSE COLLECTOR is a garbage man
• REGISTER OFFICE is a marriage clerk’s office
• REMEMBRANCE DAY is November 11 or the nearest Sunday and
  is Veteran Day in America
• RESIDENT is the name for a person registered at a hotel
• RETURN TICKET is a round-trip ticket on a train or bus
• RING ROAD is a circular route around a town
• RING UP is to telephone
• ROAD WORKERS is road construction or road repair
• ROUNDABOUT is a traffic control or a merry-go-round
• RUBBISH is garbage
• RUCKSACK is a backpack
• RUNNER BEANS are string beans
• SACK is to be fired from a job
• SCONE is an American soda biscuit and its eaten with butter
  and often jam and cream
• SCOTCH EGG is a hard-boiled egg in sausage meat
• SELLOTAPE is scotchtape
• SEMI-DETACHED is a duplex or two-family house
• SEND DOWN means to expel from University although it may
  indicate only a temporary absence
• SERVIETTE is a napkin
• SHANDY is a drink made from beer and lemonade
• SHEPHERD’S PIE is a dish made from minced beef and potatoes
• SILENCER of a car is the muffler
• SISTER in a hospital is the head nurse of a ward
• SLAP-UP four-star, excellent-refers to food
• SLATE is to express a harsh criticism
• SLIPROAD onto a motorway is a ramp
• SOLICITOR is an attorney
• SPONGE BAG is a toilet kit
• SPONGE FINGER is a long, soft, sweet cake or ‘lady-finger’
• SPROUTS is Brussels sprouts
• SQUASH is a fruit drink
• STALL in a market is a ‘booth’ but in a theater is an orchestra
  seat
• STARTER is an appetizer
• STONE referring to weight is 14 pounds
• SUBWAY is a pedestrian underpass
• SUMMERTIME is when daylight saving time is in effect
• SUPER means ‘terrific’ i.e. splendid
• SURGICAL SPIRIT is rubbing alcohol
• SURGERY is a doctor’s office
• SUSPENDERS are garters
• SWEETS are candy
• SWISS ROLL is a jelly roll
• TA informal thank you
• TABLE the verb means to submit for discussion (the reverse
  of its American meaning)
• TAILBACK is a line of traffic
• TAKEAWAY is carryout
• TALLBOY is a highboy
• TAP is faucet
• TARMAC is pavement
• TATTY is shabby
• TEAT is a nipple for baby’s bottle
• TERM is one of the three educational parts of the year
  – roughly like a semester
• TERRACE HOUSES is a row of 3 or more usually 2 or 3 stories
  high
• THEATRE in a hospital is the operating room
• THIRD PARTY INSURANCE is liability insurance
• TIGHTS are pantyhose
• TIN as a food container is a can
• TOAD-IN-A-HOLE is a dish of sausage ‘bangers’ in batter
• TO PINCH is to steal
• TORCH flashlight
• TORY is a member of the Conservative party
• TRAINERS are sneakers
• TROUSERS are slacks
• TUBE in the subway
• TWEE is arty
• UNDERDONE referring to meat is rare
• VACUUM FLASK is a thermos bottle
• VAN is a small truck
• VAT is Value-Added Tax. Similar to sales tax in the states
• VERGE (OF ROAD) is the shoulder
• VEST is an undershirt in Britain not the American meaning
  of a ‘waistcoat’
• VILLAGE is a small town without a mayor and usually with
  under 3,000 people. In the UK can be a handful of houses with
  a church and a pub, or a larger settlement with shops and community
  center
• WASHING UP LIQUID is dishwashing liquid
• WASHING UP POWDER is laundry soap
• WC stands for "water closet", in other words,
  the toilet
• WELLINGTONS are rubber boots named after the Duke of Wellington
• WHISKY is Scotch
• WHISKEY is Irish
• WHITEHALL is a collective word referring to the government
  because so many government offices are located around the road
• WHITE SPIRIT is alcohol
• WINDSCREEN is a windshield
• WING of a car is the fender
• WIRELESS is the original term for radio and is often used
  by older people
• WOOLLY is a sweater
• WRITTEN OFF (CAR) is "totalled"
• ZEBRA CROSSING is a striped pedestrian crossing
• ZED is the letter ‘z’ (or "zee" as pronounced in American English)

Everyday that you call Cox High Speed Internet, you hear a message that was re-recorded that day saying “as of today [insert day] many customer in Arizona are currently experiencing difficulty getting to many large website, we are aware of the error and our technicians are blah blah blah”. I’m sure it’s in more than AZ that they are recording this message but don’t know how deep the rabbit hole goes.

Now I was pissed at them for a few days because they lied to me and said they hooked up my internet when they really didn’t… when they finally fixed it I was good to go to be able to see all the websites, while my neighbor who is screwed into the same exact cable splitter can’t get to most sites.

So I went and figured out why I am better than everybody else.

I use different DNS. Yep, though I start on their server I jump to different DNS servers than everybody gets when they connect to Cox. I have 2 very different alternates in fact. So all you need to do is hardset your Internet Connection’s DNS to what I use and your problems should be solved.

Primary DNS: 208.67.222.222 (this is from opendns.com you could also use 208.67.220.220)
Alternate DNS: 4.2.2.1 (this and 4.2.2.2 have worked FOREVER)

If you don’t know how to do this then you simply need to open the Network Connections Folder > Right Click on your Network Connection > choose Properties > Highlight (TCP/IP) and choose Properties > Click ‘Use the Following DNS Server Entries’ and enter the numbers.