Listening to the Voices in My Head

I have been trying to watch Curiosity Stream for the past week. I keep getting either the dreaded 403 error, or "Sorry, there was trouble with the playback" Then 2nd message is a "Well, no shit, Sherlock" message, but I took it on board, and submitted yet another cry for help from Curiosity Stream tech support.

For the 4th time, I gave them my system stats, whether hardwired or WiFi, what app version (this one's funny, because they don't MAKE an app for Windows 10 or Windows 7 for that matter. You have to use webbrowser.) and a speed test.

The first three times I have done this, I didn't hear/read didn't squat back from them.

Maybe this time will be different, but I am not going to hold my breath. As I have said time and again, I look good in blue, I don't think I would look good hypoxia blue.

I found my old Windows 7 phone, and its spare battery, so decided to charge it up, and see what I can do with it over WiFi (no sim chip in it)

It charged up very quickly and I started putting it through its paces. Sadly, there are some things that no longer work, because Zune, the desktop software you used to be able to use to update programs, no longer works. Microsoft shut off Zune's access to the servers sometime around June/July 2019.

Be that as it may, other programs were working fine. I fired up my Kindle app and at first, all seemed well. It started to sync, cancelled the sync, deregistered itself, and deleted the books I had on the device. Ok, this intrepid device user went through the usual "register your device", and it failed. I tried again, and again, and again, meticulously making sure every letter/character in name and password was correct and it was. But kept getting "Email and password not recognized". BUT I could login via the phone's internet browser. Time for TECH SUPPORT! I start a chat, and I explain the situation. I was clear and succinct so I wouldn't be wasting any time. Even though I told the person, designated by the letter P, that everything, even the Microsoft Store, said I had the app installed, it wouldn't work. My question was "Did Amazon discontinue support for the Windows Phone version of Kindle App?"

P said no, and insisted I check MS store to see if it was there. It was. He insisted I try to login, over and over. The, P's bright idea was to switch my location, even though I told him NOT to. Well, he did (that lead to a different bunch of trouble). Even so, still same "email and password not recognized" message. After P fiddling around with things, telling me to try things, and if I didn't get back to him in 60 seconds he would discontinue the chat (I reamed him about that, telling him it takes longer than 60 seconds for MS Store to launch, to search for something and get a result. He pseudo-apologized for that), for a solid 90 minutes, P finally tells me that Amazon no longer supports or has available for download the Kindle App for Windows Phone*. Ok, I will admit, I textually, without swearing, lit into him for not finding that out and telling me earlier. I also told him to put my Amazon setting BACK to the way they originally were. (Although I live in Australia, I am U.S. citizen. I opened my Amazon account in the US over 20 years ago. Yes, I know there's an Amazon Au, but their selection sucks. Can't get the ebooks I want on the Amazon AU site, so not ditching my Amazon US account) Ended chat, gave honest if low rating. Turns out the little $hit didn't put my settings back. So, none of my echo dots/alexa settings worked anymore.

I admit, it was late, and I was in no mood to go searching for reason/solution, I started another Amazon help chat regarding Alexa devices, with support person, Amir. I explained I was living in Australia, but had opened amazon account when I was in the US and wanted to keep it that way. He fixed the issue in under 30 seconds. I profusely thanked him for his friendly, quick service, ended chat, gave 5 star ratings across the board.

Turn the clock to this morning. I download my email, and find almost a dozen of emails from Amazon regarding needing to use a ONE TIME PASSWORD for my device. Huh what? LIGHTBULB. I tried to login into Windows Phone Kindle app. Waited. Checked email, and ta da! There was an email about needing to use OTP to for my device. BACK to the Windows Phone, typed in the OTP, and guess what? Kindle App works just fine. Why P, or other tech working there don't know about this? Good question. Now I can at least use my device for ebooks.

Next thing, I'm checking to see if I can use it as a portable audio book device. Wish me luck!

Now I know why some animals gnaw their own feet off to escape.  I have done EVERYTHING short wiping the hdd (or throwing it out the frigging door) to fix whatever the MS Tech support did to 'help', and nothing is working. Cumulative updates will NOT install.  Bluetooth that worked perfectly, and is a signed drive, will NOT INSTALL! Microsoft says it's an Asus problem, Asus says it's a Microsoft problem. Both companies are quick to fix the blame than fix the f*cking problem!  I managed to fix the Taskmanager not working all by my lonesome. Seeing as my surface pro had the same build of Windows 10 as my desktop did, I copied the exe file from it, to my desktop, copied it to the proper directory, and TADA!

Please, don't offer advice, I don't need it. 

I have been using Forte Agent since version 3.  Now it's up to version 8.  When I had a tech problem with it, I used to be able to submit a ticket, explain everything I had tried, and get good tech support.

Last year, the person I suspect was the programmer/owner of the program retired. Now, if you have a support issue, you are shit out of luck. Even if you tell them you've read the FAQ, surfed the net, checked forums for hours with out any result, what you get is copy paste BS from the FAQ. (most recent was an issue with a problem removing old addresses from address book. The useless advice was a direct copy and paste from the FAQ, even though I told her I had already read it)

Why? This excuse really rankles:  Since they don't charge much for the software, they will no longer provide second tier (aka info not on the useless FAQ).  There is no plans for any updates, either.  Sooner or later, this email program, without any updates, will no longer be usable with email services.

Switch to another email program? Sure, but the only way you can export your address book is in a convoluted XML file, which can't be imported into another program with any semblance of order. 

So, I have some work to do, to manually input all the address from one email program to another.  I'll have to keep forte agent on my system though, because of years of correspondence, and Forte only IMPORTS messages, it doesn't export them.

I have been getting an odd message when I send certain emails with Forte Agent. And I scoured the internet for about a week, looking for a solution. Didn't find one, so did what any person would have done.

I submitted a support request.

To say I was shocked at the reply is an understatement.

Hello Sandra,

Sorry, I haven't seen this error message before so I am unable to help you
and unfortunately we no longer provide second level support.

You could try posting your question on the following group:

alt.usenet.offline-reader.forte-agent

Regards,

A** B***
Agent Team

My reply:

Yes, it is unfortunate. And rather shocking, as I have gotten tech support for other issues with Forte Agent. Nor did I ever receive any notice (and you have my email address) regarding this. Rather shoddy on Forte's part.

I don't subscribe to any Usenet services. I've used Forte Agent since v3x or what it 2x, and this is the first time I have heard that you no longer provide tech support for your own software. As someone who used to provide tech support, I find this rather... well, insert any term you want.