T-mobile lost a customer yesterday. They did because of something so silly, so marginal, they will never deal with it and it’s will be a slow leak for them until they address it. Simple enough, AT&T offers calling from the US to the UK for $0.08/min. T-Mobile is $0.28/min. That is not a small difference when my wife calls the UK 90-120 minutes a month. I asked T-Mobile if they would offer me a better rate. They said it was “industry standard”. I told them that that was not the case and that “industry standard” is pretty much 0 cents because smart people use skype and get video at the same time.

Hell, even businesses trunk their phones inter-office over IP and save thousands of dollars. Some companies even let you dial in, get a dial tone and call out across the IP phone wan as a local call in another country. That’s a serious perk. I hear in India there are serious restrictions on toll-saver that is directly related to government revenue so they want you to dial in International LD so they can charge you high fees.

So we go to AT&T who I’ve been with forever other than the short stint with T-Mob. We got a decent deal and two wicked Sony Walkman W580i phones. They’re light, have tons of themes, play all kinds of ringtones, have all 3 IM clients, take micro 1GB cards so they’re real Walkmans. On top of that, their desktop software is, and I am not kidding, very good. In fact, it’s great. a 4 out of 5 only because it’s a little wonky in flow but still good. The phone, I dont understand why USB is not a standard. So the conntector is clunky and makes you use special cables. That’s dumb, you’re locked into chargers instead of being able to punp-up on someones spare USB port. Weak. But otherwise it’s nice.

We’ll probably end up paying a little more with ATT for the first month but when we get back from the UK we’ll dial down the phones to only hers with Intl dial. Either way, we got a good deal on the UK calls and the phones are sweet. I might keep this for a little while.

The benefit of a blog is that 1. I am not obligated to post and 2. I don’t answer to anyone but the preferment record of my commentary on the Internet. That lasts a lot longer than a yearly review.

I received a blocked call today on my cell phone. One eyebrow raised I answered it:
“I’m [unintelligible] and I’m going to compete on American Idol, tell me if I’m good [starts to sing]”
I hang up.
Phone rings
“why did you hang up on me? Was I that bad? -[starts singing again]”
I hang up.

So, I have the phone in my hand after a few moments of reflection and I have a few thoughts. First, this could have been legit and I could have had an opportunity to lay into her (she was a terrible singer) with a bit of wit. Second, why did I waste a good opportunity in general to poke fun at someone who is actually ASKING for it. I am ashamed. Not only am I ashamed for not doing it but that I, for a moment, was enticed by the remote possibility that my momentary spotlight could reveal a bit of unique wit and I’d be made famous. Mind you this whole thought process from wonder to annoyed to regret and so on happened in a split second.

I think. No, scratch that. I know that this insta-famous for no good reason instant-gratification reality show sinkhole only furthers our complacency as a nation. It makes us more lazy and puts us more and more at a disadvantage.

All of this I gleaned from a prank call.

I may need to leave the house. Good thing I go to work in the morning.

wondering if re-installing Vista is just a waste of time

I buy newer technologies. I don’t live at the bleeding edge buying Aisia-only GSM phones and laptops from Dynamism but I do keep up more than most. I also jettison old technology like a house guest that has overstayed their welcome.

Take, for example, the VHS. I had a few older tapes and a player around that I kept for a few years only because I needed to encode them to XviD. And one day two years ago, all the tapes got converted, edited encoded and turned into files and even a few DVDs. No sooner was that done than the tapes and co-conspirator VCR sent to the bin without ceremony. In fact, I was a little embarassed that it took me so long to get around to encoding them. I had some family event tapes for at least 5 years before I encoded them. I guess the false starts put me off a few times and some henky converting software irritated me but when it came down to it and I got the stuff on my computer, I was able to distill most of these entities into about 22 minutes each which is what a 30 minute TV show is once you remove commercials. It’s also about as much as one person can sit for before showing how bored they are.

Your wedding might have been special to you but you never sit through the raw footage. In fact, it struck me, the reason most video is shot and never watched is because people never edit or complete post production. So most people take their raw footage and watch it which is like watching raw news tapes, long boring and lots of dead air / shots of feet, walking, waiting, never edited re-takes etc. Sony has a good editing suite for $99 that is about as easy and powerful as you can get for a PC without going for pro stuff.

But back the the original point and what seeded it. There is a neighborhood garage sale today and the place is swarming with bargain hunters. Sadly, my neighborhood is full of people with lots of cheap trinkets and no taste who may, if they are lucky, take home about $30 each. I was surprised at what people thought would sell. What amazed me the most, of all things was the VCR and what my waif said; “Why today, May the 3rd 2008 did someone decide ‘that’s it, I’m done with the VCR’”.

I have to agree, why today? I think I know the answer. Considering all the other shit people had out on folding tables, the VCRs out there represented the valueless garbage people were trying to sell and the weirdos who might actually buy it.

Where has it been my whole life. WHo knew I could go on this long and not know about the most amazing desert thing EVER, Kozy Shack rice pudding.

My wife grabbed up a small container of the stuff at the store today and the name rang a bell, it was on one of those “how it’s made” shows. I like rice pudding so it made sense to pick up a little tub.

All I can say is OMG. It’s hard to now mow through the whole tub. But I managed not to. Barely.

shopping for insurance is, simply put, irritating X 10 to the 7th.