I am in the process of moving from Denver to Boulder, and through that process called Comcast, with whom I have been a customer for years (and a big customer, paying for phone, internet and cable - all the friggin channels cable, well except the Spanish channels, because, seriously, they are in Spanish), to move my service to my new house.

Everything was very smooth. In fact, I got disconnect and reconnect dates that were closer together than I would have if I did it online. (next day to disconnect and the day after to reconnect - online was a 3 and 5 day minimum).

I bought a TiVo series 3 a year ago or so, and never hooked it up with cable cards. I figured, since I was moving and having a technician out to my house, I would have them install a couple of cable cards as well. The nice man on the other end of the phone informed me that Comcast had discontinued cable card support about four months ago. Rather than fighting with the gentleman, I let it go, and decided to email Todd Vernon, who has spent a lot of time with Comcast, TiVos and Cable Cards.

My email to Todd:

From: Micah Baldwin
Sent: Tuesday, January 22, 2008 6:11 PM
To: Todd Vernon
Subject: Comcast discontinued Cable Cards?

They just told me that they are not delivering any more cable cards because they don?t work with TiVos correctly.

Todd’s email back:

From: Todd Vernon
To: Micah Baldwin
Sent: Tue Jan 22 21:31:04 2008
Subject: RE: Comcast discontinued Cable Cards?

http://falseprecision.typepad.com/my_weblog/2008/01/comcast-turns-o.html

-t

“Oh lord,” I thought to myself, “I just wanted to know if I needed to ask for something special.”

Over the course of the evening, I began receive emails from Todd. The first was a forward from a nice lady at TiVo indicating her willingness to help out.

Todd,
THANK YOU for the heads-up.
I’m going to put our people on it!

Thanks again!
shanan

I figured that would be the end of it, but having been a TiVo customer since 1999-ish, I was glad to see the response. (Side note, TiVo’s main office is is Alviso, CA, which is near San Jose. It is also on the way between my parents house and my grandparents house, and Stanford University, where my mom and dad worked. Every time we pass that building, my mom says “Hi! TiVo!” and waves. Me? I shake my head in shame.)

But, no, this snowball was picking up steam:

A nice rep from Comcast wrote to Todd:

Mr. Vernon,

I am reaching out to our leadership staff in Colorado to have them review the interactions that Mr. Baldwin had regarding obtaining cable cards for his Tivo. We have not discontinued cable cards. In fact we have been working with the consumer electronics industry to create new products and a new method of allow devices to have 2 way connects so they can receive guide data and On Demand/PPV. The technology is called Tru2Way. We will also be offering a Tivo DVR based on our own Motorola DVR box. We have begun rolling this out in the Boston area. More information regarding these enhancements is available on our website:

http://www.comcast.com/ces/

I will ask our team in Colorado to reach out to Mr. Baldwin so he can obtain his cable cards.

Frankly, when I first saw this was from Comcast, I was mildly surprised. But once I read it, I was extremely disappointed. Here is the issue: I was told that the cable cards were discontinued, and were unavailable. Here is Comcast’s response? “We are sooo awesome dude, because at CES we said we are going to have these super cool cable cards that one day, bro, you will be able to use 2way. Like old skool pagers, man. We call the bitchin’ technology Tru2Way! We are so web 2.0, because we dropped the ‘e’! Dope shit, right? Oh, and by the way, bro, fuck the stupid cable cards and the $800 TiVo you bought, cuz we are all bro’d up with TiVo and putting their wack software on our rad Motorola boxes. But since you threw down, I’m going to hook up your boy. Righteous!”

I dont care at all what is going to be released. I, mean, I do, but Tru2Way has been discussed for almost a year, and TiVo and Comcast for more than two. The kicker? TiVo on Motorola is being testing in BOSTON only. So, Im supposed to cheer for Comcast for releasing something that I will be able to use in the future, yet I am moving in a couple of days and just want to use technology that I purchased and a service I pay for monthly?

Frankly, if there was a better alternative, I probably would use it. But, Comcast does internet, phone and cable right, and I am happy to shell out $200-$300 a month for the use of their services. Just, please, dont treat me like I am an asshole and an idiot, and just tell me the truth when I try and deal with your service centers.

How hard is that?

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Over the past month or so, I have struck up a “twitter”-ship with the Queen of Spain, Erin Kotecki Vest, who along with being a highly read mommy blogger, an evangelist for PhoTrade–a photo sharing site, an active leader with BlogHer, and the Huffington Post (whew!), Erin is also a rabid Michigan sports fan. Specifically, a Detroit Red Wings fan.

So, with the budding rivalry between my home town team of the San Jose Sharks being put to the test last night, I bet Erin on the game. The prize? The loser had to write a blog post about how great the opposing team is. The final? Well, perhaps this might be a hint: RedWings 6 - Sharks 3.

What Erin may not have remembered is that my father grew up in the town of Albion, MI, playing pond hockey and attending Albion College, where there is still a Baldwin Hall named after some relative (at least thats what my grandfather told me, but he also told me we were descended from one of the Knights of the Round Table).

Erin, I will be writing about the greatness of Steve Yzerman and the Detriot RedWings, but I am not sure if it will be quite what you expected…which, most anyone can call you, might be the only consistent thing about me…but I think you will appreciate this, because its about moms and family.

I was born September 25, 1971, in Fort Collins, CO, to a 21 year old recent transplant from Israel and a 23 year old Philadelphia man. Both were children of the ’60s, and had their own beliefs about life and raising a child. Unfortunately, those didnt mesh, and when I was about a year and half, my mom, newly divorced, decided to move to Oregon by way of California. When stopping in California to visit friends, my mom realized that she had found a good place to raise me, and we settled in East Palo Alto.

As my mom started back into the dating scene, she began dating a neighbor, who had a roommate who had recently moved out to California from Albion, MI with his grandfather. One thing lead to another, and at the age of 5, after about 2 years of dating, Richard Baldwin asked me at our tiny wooden dining room table in our dimly lit kitchen if he could marry my mom, Dafna. Given that all the positive memories I have prior to age of 5, and that my parents have now been married for more than 30 years, Im guessing I said it was ok with me.

After a quick weekend trip to Reno–where the story is that my mom lost everything at the slots and my dad won everything back at the blackjack table (this would be their pattern for the next 30 years)–I had a complete family. What I didnt know, what that Rich was the second oldest of five kids, and there was an entire family to meet in Albion. So, we took a trip.

My first memories of Michigan were standing in the foyer of this gigantic 100 year old house holding my mom’s hand, standing next to my father and seeing my new grandmother (Rich’s mother) smiling at me. Soon, as I was to learn later was also the norm, it seemed like a million new relatives came pouring out of the kitchen area to greet us.

My grandfather was (is) a gregarious man, World War II Vet, and still practices law in Albion (of course he doesnt have a website. He still communicates via fax). A good midwestern guy, Grandpa Baldwin has a quick wit and smile I have always admired, and as a University of Michigan Law alum, he taught me a healthy respect for the Maize and Blue and a friendly hatred for MSU (and of course, Da Ohio State).

My grandmother, who was beginning her fight against breast cancer that she would lose when I was in high school, was one of the most loving and genuine people I have ever met. She never considered me anything other than her grandson, and treated me as such.

Its no surprise that her father, Grandpa Hub would be as loving and accepting. And, it was from Grandpa Hub, that my love for Michigan sports (and cherry cordials) began. We would sit in his room and watch the Tiger and Lions lose, or the RedWings win (often enough). We talked about players I had never heard of like Bobby Layne and Gordie Howe. I remember getting him a book about baseball pitchers, and when we turned to a page on pitchers from 1906, he remarked about the first game he saw that year.

Over the years as I grew older and began to move around the country, I became more and more of a “homer,” following my home town San Francisco Giants (they had a minor league team in San Jose, which was my actual home town), the Golden State Warriors, and in 1991, the only real professional team in my home town, the San Jose Sharks.

It took a long time for the Sharks to become a decent team, and during that time the Red Wings have won 3 Stanley Cups and 8 Division Titles. The Sharks? 2 Division Titles and ZERO Stanley Cups. The Red Wings have won 708 games during the Sharks existence, the Sharks themselves have won 467.

Erin’s love for the Red Wings is well placed, having also seen its roots in family, and the Red Wings are clearly the better team. But, quietly, and without much fanfare, I will continue to honor the memory of Grandpa Hub and Grandma Baldwin, with a smile and a twinkle after every Tigers, Lions, Big Blue, Red Wing, and Pistons win.

Today I tweeted about it being a week of lasts (moving out of Denver and all that entails) and a week of firsts (moving into Boulder and what that brings). That always creates that feeling in your gut that is a mix of excitement and fear; trepidation and anticipation; knowledge and faith.

So, here is one of my lasts. The last time I write this post in the house I have lived in Denver for the past three years. Perhaps thats why its almost 6pm, and it sits unwritten.

Two Types of Time… - Peter, who is unapologetic about his ADHD, writes that with ADD there is two types of time: “Now” and “Not Now.” As an person with ADD (and frankly if you saw Peter and I together, you would understand the importance of the “H”); I have a hard time understanding this concept. Frankly, for me, there is one type of time: “Now.” Nothing else exists. Maybe thats what Peter meant? To show you how ADD I am, I read that line, pondered it for awhile and never read the rest of the post, which is about the speed of information online.

Lemmings…Cliff…Oops - Have you ever known someone for a number of years, and then just found out recently that they have been blogging for almost as long? Such is the case with my friend Matt Mantey, and his blog The Internet is Just a Fad. One of the top internet marketing folks I know, Matt’s blog is a great resource on the subject.

On Burning Out - Andrew is one of my favorite people, with the rare mix of gumption, idealism, charisma and intelligence. While the effort he has put into StartupWeekend has certainly been an example of this, his personal blog has been a little “dry” over the past several months. Now I know why, Andrew has learned the first lesson of entrepreneurship: You always burn out.