AI Helps Me With Memories

When I was a little boy, there was a movie that I watched. I only had a few memory fragments to go on. I've asked my dad about it it and he didn't know. I've talked about it with friends and they didn't know. I even search google and didn't come up with anything promising. What I had was this:

• A father, mother, and their young boy is thrown into a water well by a gang.
• This feels like a post apocalyptic scenario giving me Mad Max vibes.
• The gang takes the daughter.
• I remember hands gripping barbed wire until they bled.
• I remember the father climbing out of the well and I assume the rest of the movies is about him finding his daughter.

Well I ran that through Chat GPT and it was able to find it---Cyborg. It is a Jean Claude Van Damme movie from 1989.

I want to see it but I'm not holding out hope that I'm gonna find it on any of the streaming services that I have.

Since that was a success I tried a new one:

• It was an anime cartoon. It was similar to Robotech.
• There was a dome on a character's hand.
• The dome was important as if it was an energy source or a weapon.

It didn't seem like much to go on but it found it! Lensman from 1984. And yes, the Robotech ties are evident. Check it out at the 12:55 mark.

Went back to Windows

See also: "Going back to Windows?"

It didn't take me long to pounce on a discount for the Surface Laptop 7. What did I get for $1500 from a list price of $2000?

• 32GB RAM
• 1TB Storage
• Snapdragon E Elite processor
• 13.8" display

I'm getting reacquainted with Windows. I haven't owned a Windows computer since Windows 7. I hated Windows 8 so much that it contributed to my move to Mac. There was some pain trying to use Mac OS but I have been largely satisfied. The ecosystem and the integration between my Macbook, iMac, and iPhone have been impressive.

As I started up this new laptop, I was hit by the... junk. There is a lot that goes into setting up a new computer. With this one, it wasn't just answer a few questions and then you're in. There was a lot of downloading and installing involved. Then when I got in, I had to take out the programs that I didn't want. Download the ones I wanted and log in to my accounts. Some of them, I had forgotten passwords and had to do resets because I just haven't had to do them on my Apple devices.

Setup is mostly complete but as I go through the days, I'm sure there are going to be programs and web accounts that I have forgotten.

But Jesus Christ... the ads! Ugh. 

Going Back to Windows?

 See also: "Oh. This isn't going to work out like I thought."

My 2015 Macbook's last days appear to be arriving. The battery is shot, a speaker is blown, rubber feet are gone, the screen gasket is gone, and there are no more software updates coming. I now have to start thinking about a replacement.

My absolute hatred of Windows 8 was what drove me to Apple. I work with Windows 10 at work and I've since calmed down about it. I'm still not a big fan of the tiles but I can work with it. Personally, I haven't had a Windows computer since Windows 7. I'm strongly leaning in going back since I already have an iMac. It's be nice to have two computers using the two different operating systems.

I don't need to make an immediate decision. I will probably wait a few months, though. 

Internet, Bread, and a Thai Restaurant

I’ve been receiving junk mail from AT&T advertising that fiber internet is now being offered at my address. When I check their website, it says that fiber is not available at my address. I made a call a couple weeks ago and spoke to customer service. Apparently, the website is wrong and fiber is available. 

I think I will call AT&T tomorrow. For a similar amount than what I paying now, I can get almost twice the download speed and ten times the upload speed. What I am worried about are the costs to transition from Comcast to AT&T. 

*   *   *

I made bread for the first time. I didn’t care for the results. Practice makes perfect, though. I’ll be trying again. 

There was some left-over dough left. I thought what the hell-maybe I can make an elephant ear. Ummmm… not quite. 

*   *   *

I had a craving for some Panang curry for dinner. I drove to my favorite Thai restaurant and I saw that it was boarded up. I knew immediately what happened because it happened once before—a car plowed into the restaurant. 

The owner has always talked about retiring to Thailand with his wife. I fear that this might be the end. I’m sad because his wife made fantastic curry and satay chicken.

Throw Money at It. Inkjet and Laser (LED) - Why Not Both?

I have not owned an inkjet printer since I left college in 2004. It was some cheap Lexmark that I would always buy cartridges for but I was glad I had it so I didn't have to go to the computer lab for prints. Now looking back on it, I don't know why I did that since I had an allowance of "free" prints baked in from my tuition fees.

I have had access to laser printers ever since then even though I didn't own one for myself until five years ago when I moved into my new house. I got the cheapest monochrome laser from Walmart - the Brother MFC-L2685DW. Fantastic printer. The only thing was that it didn't have color and at the time, I wasn't going to pay big bucks for a color laser printer.

Recently, I bought into the hype around tank printers. I was attracted to the prospect of having a smaller printer, finally being able print in color, and ink refills were sooooo cheap in comparison to the cartridges. I watched and read some online reviews and noticed that people were saying that their prints were so sharp. So I thought maybe the technology has progressed enough that I could buy a new printer. With some of my tax return in hand I got this:

Epson ET-3850

The Epson EcoTank ET-3850. $299 from Costco.

I set it up, easy peasy and started some prints. Then the regret came. 

When it came to pictures, it was good. I've never had a printer that could print photos like I got from developers. The colors were off from the pics that I see on my computer but that wasn't any different than I experienced when I sent my pics to be printed by professionals.

When it came to printed text, I hated it. The text still had this fuzzyness that I couldn't get over. Also, despite, my efforts to calibrate - I could still see the misalignments.

So I resigned myself to keeping the two printers and I would decide which one I needed based on what job I had. 

Now what follows may seem dumb to you and I get it. I think it's dumb but I'm a lot happier for it.

I got a bonus at work. $1,000. I took $353 of it and got the Brother MFC-L3720CDW. A color "laser" printer. It's not really a laser printer. It's similar but the principal difference is that it uses LEDs rather than a laser to create an image. Please see this video by from Technology Connections.

Brother MFC-L2685DW (monochrome) and MFC-L3720CDW (color)

So how does my Epson and Brother compare?* Glad you asked.

Text

Epson

Brother

You can see that there is a misalignment in the line containing, "John Turner was Prime Minister," on the Epson. Also, look at the apostrophes and how much more crisp they are on the Brother.

Color

Source file

Epson

Brother

Picture

Source

Epson

Brother

For pictures, I'm happy with the Epson and prefer it for that alone. However, with my type of usage of printers--I'm far more happier with with the Brother LED printer. I print documents that may have pictures or use color in them. I've always had pictures printed by 3rd parties and I rarely have that done. Also, there are long stretches where I don't print - that's a danger with inkjets. Ink will dry and clog.

You know you and I'll leave you to decide which one you rather have. As for me, I'll probably keep both. I mean they are already paid for!

*Scans are at a resolution of 1200 dpi.

Setting Up a New Computer Still Sucks

 

I've had my macbook for almost seven years now. It has been the longest serving computer I have ever owned and I believe that I got my money's worth out of it. Lately, the battery has noticeably degraded. The rubber gasket lining the display is coming out. But more importantly, I have been playing with the last 10% of the storage. I'd fill it with files and then transfer them over to an external hard drive. Whenever I would look into the storage, I'd always be bothered by how much "other" data was sitting there.

Even though it is a year old, I decided to get an iMac. I've been wanting a desktop for a while and I've been debating for a couple months now on whether I should pull the trigger. Yet, I would also think that I should get another macbook and purchase an external monitor and keyboard. I'd look on the Apple website make out a bunch of orders and then click out of the page--not wanting to pay for it. But one day, as I was looking at the refurbished catalogue, I decided to stop wasting time and do it.

I got it yesterday and started the process of setting it up. I didn't want to transfer everything from the old mac to the new one. I didn't want that "other" data coming along for the ride. So I transferred what I could. I made my personal settings on the iMac. I downloaded some of the programs that I used like Office and Dropbox. It took up most of the day.

I've since wiped my macbook and updated the macOS to Monterey. I intend to keep it light, with just the programs that I need to use while out traveling. At least now, I have a lot more storage available. 

Replacing your iPhone 6s Battery? Maybe call first.

My iPhone 6s suffers from unexpected shut downs. From what I can tell it happens when it is cold and when my battery has a good chunk of it expended. The last time this happened was yesterday when I was at the Reindeer Dog Parade in St. Joe. I had just under 70% left and my phone died. Once I got back to my car and plugged it in, it came right back.

Apple is aware of the problem and has a battery replacement program for limited batches of iPhones—ones made around September and October of last year. My phone qualifies for a replacement so I made an appointment with my local Genius Bar at the direction of Apple’s own website.

If you happen to have a qualifying iPhone 6s, go get that battery replacement but learn from my experience. Call the Apple Store and ask if they are going to be able to service your phone there at the time you go. It will save you a car trip. I made my appointment, drove forty minutes to Mishawaka (It was our first snow and you know how everyone freaks out), and checked in. The Genius looked over my phone, asked me a couple questions, checked the eligibility, had me sign a work order, and told me to come back in a couple of days. They didn’t have the replacements. Perhaps Apple could have saved us both some time and told me this before I drove all that way.

iPhone 6s - I love you. I hate you.

Thanks UPS!

My iPhone 5s quickly became one of my favorite phones that I had ever owned when I bought it two years ago. As weird as it sounds, I was ready to ditch it the first chance I got had the iPhone 6 met hopes. When the 6 came out, I was excited for NFC and Apple Pay. What kept me from buying it, though, was that the camera was still stuck at 8 megapixels. Apple's offering wasn't enough to make me want to spend money on them... well at least on their iPhone. (Some of that money that I saved went on to buy my laptop.)

So this year for the iPhone 6s, Apple upped the camera to 12 MP and introduced some other features.  I got online and ordered one and was fortunate to be able to get one on launch day. So here are my thoughts:

Camera
The bump up from 8 MP to 12 MP is welcomed. I haven't noticed too much of a difference between this phone and the old one when it comes to the overall picture quality. Photos still look fantastic until we get into low light situations. 

Live Photos
Pictures taken with this mode on will also take video and audio capture along with a snapshot. It will make your pictures come alive! I think that most people will think that this is a gimmick. For the most part, they are right but I've already used this on little kids and pets and I welcome it. I may not be using it all the time, but it is an awesome choice to have.

3D Touch
Critics seem to think that this feature is more worthwhile than Live Photos. They may be right but in my experience, I have not used this very often. I'm already accustomed to doing certain actions the old way. Mostly, I've only been using the peek and pop when I am in iMessage and want to look at the picture attachments.

Apple Pay
This is pretty darn awesome. I love being able to pay for things with tap/hover of my phone. It's unfortunate that acceptance of these types of payments are not everywhere. Most notably, Wal-mart.

Storage Options
Apple offers 16, 64, and 128 Gb options when it comes to storage.  With 12 MP photos, 4k videos, and an OS that takes up lots of room, getting a 16 Gb phone is not a smart idea. I opted to spend the extra $100 and get the 64 Gb option.

6s or 6s Plus
I thought about getting the 6s Plus because of its use of OIS in the camera but also the bigger battery. However, I am always by power and OIS by itself wasn't enough. I opted instead, for a better form factor. The Plus is a little to big for my tastes.

While I love this phone, I also hate it. The design is rather horrible with the antenna lines and protruding camera module. Mostly I hate the price. I had to pay full price in order to keep my grandfathered unlimited data plan with Verizon.

Oh. This isn't going to work out like I thought.

I've been spending the past few hours getting acquainted with my new computer: a MacBook Pro. Although I have used Apple computers before in school, this is the first time I have owned one. While growing up, my dad would not even consider an Apple computer due to the price. A PC running Windows was more than adequate in his mind. I actually agree with him but since getting an iPod, and then an iPhone, I have been sucked (somewhat unwillingly) into the Apple ecosystem. I suppose the novelty of trying a different OS--and Windows 8 causing me to gag every time I see the UI--helps matters.

It's only been a few hours and so far there hasn't been much that has thrown me.  However one thing that I miss right off the bat is Windows Explorer and how it shows the file path. I'm not seeing that in Finder. There is something that serves the same purpose but if I use that, I loose the icon views and the ability to see pictures. Maybe there is a work around that I haven't discovered yet.

The biggest thing that I failed to think about was my music. Right now, my entire library of music is on my PC and accessible through iTunes. When I bought my first iPod, I consolidated my music files and threw them into iTunes. When I thought about getting a MacBook, I thought it would be great that I could use iTunes and sync my iPhone up with my mac.  Everything would be hunky dory because that's how good it is supposed to be in the Apple ecosystem. The thing that I just realized is that if I move my library onto my laptop, I will not be able to listen to my library on the PC which has awesome speakers.

If I keep the music on my PC, then I will still have to connect and sync my iPhone with it. If I put the music on my mac, then I will loose access to those great sounding Bose speakers that I have.  I wish I could put the library on an external hard drive and both computers would have access to it. Perhaps this is possible, I will have to do some research on it.

2015 Macbook Pro vs 2003 Toshiba Something

Look how thin it is. Crazy that Apple has even thinner models.

Osama’s Death Causes Annoyance

I was surfing the net last night when word about Osama Bin Laden’s death started leaking out and that President Barak Obama was going to make an announcement. My twitter feed started going mad with updates. I immediately posted a tweet and facebook update on the matter and as the event when on I watched the television and the social updates roll in and it was interesting to see the reactions of my friends, followers, and those I follow.

The first round of reactions came from my Air Force buddies and could be basically summed up with “America! Fuck yeah!” I was basically in with this group. Hearing about the death of Bin Laden is a psychological boost. It’s been almost a decade with this guy in the back of our minds and largely symbolic of the mess that we are in the middle east.

The second round came from a couple sober friends that were quite disgusted in how a lot of us were reacting. They thought it was disgusting on how we were cheering over a person’s death. I suppose that’s a fair enough point but I have never subscribed to the idea that all life is precious or that a death of a human being—even the most monstrous—of us, should not be something to smile over. I think, though, that there is something more than just whether a man like Osama Bin Laden is alive or not. The death of John Doe down the street does not elicit the same kinds of responses in people that Osama’s does. As a result, I feel quite comfortable with my feelings of relief and happiness that something negative is gone. What undiscovered country we will move into now is another matter.

The third round, and my turn in getting annoyed, came when some people posted this:

A HUGE THANK YOU to our military, who have sacrificed, died, suffered, and worked hard, to fight people like Osama Bin Laden. YOU are the ones we thank. YOU are the ones who deserve ALL CREDIT. Thank our military for bringing due justice for those lost on 9/11 and all the victims around the world who suffered from his commands. Copy and paste if you agree...

Don’t get me wrong, I have a huge respect for our armed forces but I was getting annoyed by people with this sentiment which seemed to spread. While this operation would not have been possible without the military, it kinda gets me on to a peeve of mine that really isn’t a part of this story—and that is some people’s treatment of the military (and members) as a sacred cow. But anyways, I just think that something like this is insulting for all the others involved. Does not President Obama get some credit for making the elimination of Bin Laden a priority? (Something that was dropped by Bush administration, BTW) Does not the intelligence agencies get some credit for cultivating leads and providing intel?

Oh well, the social feeds have died down and are reverting back to mundane things like gas prices. I will still be looking forward to more information on the ops as well as the fallout. Will we see counter attacks? What is going to be politicized? We shall see.

My short time with the Droid X

As promised, here is a more in length review of my new cell phone, the Droid X.

I’m not gonna bother too much with the specs, just my reaction to them. If you want to know the details, click here.

First of all, this phone is pretty big as you can see and initially I thought that this might be a problem since I have considered my BlackBerry Storm to be as large as I’d want to go. Actually, the size has not been an issue at all. It’s thin enough that it slips into my pocket easily. Not being able to carry it around in a pants pocket is really the only worry I have when it comes to the size of any device. The 4.3 inch screen is great for browsing. Funny, though, when it comes to typing on the virtual keyboard in landscape, it can seem too big as your fingers require a lot of travel.
Radio reception, I have found has been excellent. Where I live, the Verizon signal was poorly picked up by my BlackBerry Storm and I have even suffered a couple of dropped calls. With the Droid X, the signal is sometimes lost but usually hovers around the mid-range of my bars and has always stayed there while using my phone for data. I have never dropped any calls as of yet.

Talking on the phone has been great. No noticeable issues have come up when it comes to talking. The multiple microphones used for noise canceling does appear to work. I have held a conversation in front of my speakers playing music at a moderate volume and the person I was talking to didn’t realize it when I asked. I do not like using the phone’s dialer and I especially miss having an autosearch and complete feature when beginning to type out a person’s name or number. I’m hoping a software update comes out to fix that. Also, there are issues in tying contact information from various social networking sites as well as being able to manage them—for example sorting by last name or overriding contact names.

Battery life is not spectacular but I don’t expect too much with smartphones anyways. I have not seen a smartphone yet that can survive beyond two days without some serious power management. That said, the battery does last me all day. I usually disconnect it around 0730 and with my level of usage (moderate data and a few minutes of phone calls), I am usually at the 40-50% mark by the time I charge it up around 2300-2400. In the interests of disclosure, I do keep Bluetooth, Wi-fi, and GPS turned off but I can toggle them on and off easily when needed by an application.

Camera and video recording capabilities I found were of lower quality than I expected. Images in the camera comes out soft and often times blurry. Performance outdoors in light, both clear and cloudy days were acceptable with good color correctness. HD video in 720p was alright but it records at 24 frames per sec and the choppiness is noticeable when the phone is moving or a subject is moving fast.

Photos below can be clicked on to enlarge.

The phone does have a panoramic feature that does pretty well in my opinion. I may not be using my photosynth account for a long time.


Pictures taken in low light conditions, I have noticed, come out blurry and or soft. There is steady shot mode, however, that tends to mitigate the effect as seen below:




Out of the box, the camera defaults to widescreen at 6MP (I think) but it does go up to 8MP as you can see here.

I am having issues with media but I’m not sure if that is because of ignorance on my end. With my BlackBerry, it knew the difference between files that I put on there for ringtones and what I put on there to listen as music. While I can designate a music file to serve as a ringtone, it will also show up in my music playlist. When it comes to audio notifications, I can’t seem to designate anything other than the sound selections that was already preloaded. So sadly I have to get rid of my Star Wars Star Tours Chime.

This phone does come with a good amount of bloatware, which I despise especially since I can’t delete it. I don’t know why Verizon does this but it freakin’ pisses me off. Although they remain in my apps drawer, I have removed things like the BlockBuster and VZ Navigator from my home screens. Apps that I do want, however, I have been able to get from the Android Marketplace pretty easily.

Motorola’s new Motoblur (not Motoblur) widgets work okay. It’s not nearly as polished as HTC’s Sense interface but is usable.

Overall, I’m happy with the phone and would probably still make the same decision if I had to choose between today’s offering with Verizon or really anyone else.

Did Droid X Mark the Spot?

Not quite.

A couple days ago (when I could actually walk), I purchased a Droid X as I was eligible for an upgrade and discount pricing. I’m not going to do real review on it just yet. I haven’t yet settled into normal use of the phone and I’d like to do that first so I can better judge how this phone responds to my needs and expectations. First impression is that I do like it but it does have some quirks and inadequacies.

The biggest pro is that the antenna picks up a cell signal a lot better where I live. Since moving into the apartment with my BlackBerry, the service has been somewhat unreliable with it going between 0/5-3/5 bars, and always fluctuating between 1 and 2. This is where I have experienced my first dropped call- on my end- on Verizon’s network. With the Droid X, I have noticed better reception, and I have not lost signal.

My biggest complaint is accessing contacts in general. First, it pulls in contacts from all your social networking accounts and I can’t delete them. So I end up with this funny feeling of carrying a contact list containing people like David Blue, Sean Bugg, or President Obama because I follow them on Twitter not because I know them personally. Second, with such a huge as contact list, it would be nice that there would be an autofill option for the phone dialer where I can just start typing in a contact name and it would fetch the number for me but there isn’t. Lastly, I can’t always control the contact names. For example, Roy’s contact name is not his real name but his twitter handle and I can’t get that overridden so that comes up as “Roy.”

Before I bought the phone, I scoped out some review sites. I also check out what people were saying about it on twitter.

A lot of people were complaining about the size. They don't get much sympathy for me. Did they not realize this when they bought the device?

There were also a lot of complaints about the battery life. Even with my more-than usual fiddling with it, I'm at 12 hours with.... hmmm... 50% charge left which is what I would expect for a smart phone quite honestly. I haven't had a multi-day phone since my E-815 which was just a run-of-the-mill flip phone.

Another complaint was the UI which I would agree, isn't the best. I have trashed most of the widgets but some are useful. It's definitely not as polished as HTC's or as easy to use as the iPhone but I still find it a couple steps up from my BlackBerry, so I can blind myself to that criticism just a little bit. :P

I've got to take another dose of pain pills now. I’ll probably post some more thoughts next week.

<<--See also: "Considering Giving it Up to the Cloud"

I should choose who gets to see my penis.

Considering that the government, despite their promises not to, are saving pictures of people going through these body scanners, I would like to bring in with me a sign that says, "Objects in scanner are bigger than they appear." Or... I'll just opt for the pat down.

I remember when they actually blew stuff up as well.

I went to the Chicago Air & Water Show yesterday. You may remember a post about it last year when I met up with a fellow blogger.

My only costs: train tickets at $21.90 and parking: $1:00

Please feel free to click on the pictures to enlarge them.

Walking down Michigan Avenue on my way to the beach by Oak Street.
Aerobatic maneuvers. There were a number of acts similar to these. A couple solos and duos. One memorable one was a small bi-plane. The pilot addressed the crowd through the radio. The guy must be a big fan of the Austin Powers series as he was throwing around “Yeah Baby!” left and right.


B1

A pair of Black Hawks.

KC-10

Here are a few Blue Angels flying out from the Loop.
These two were flying upside down doing a close pass of each other. It was amazing enough to cause the woman in the foreground which buried her face into her husband’s side just moments after the pass was completed and this photo was shot.

Bringing My Phone Back

Hey, does anyone remember this:

The music in this vid was one of many ring tones that have been wiped clean off my phone.

Yesterday morning my phone booted up to an error screen and I could not reset it with a battery pull. After fiddling with it all day and getting nowhere I took it the Verizon kiosk in the mall. They referred to one of their actual stores. Then those people sent me home telling me to update the software. I was not happy with their customer service. Although they seemed willing to, ultimately, provide me with a replacement, they wanted me to see if I could figure it out on my own.

When I got home their suggestion of downloading software to the phone didn’t work. I spent a few hours on it and got nowhere. Fed up, I left it connected to my computer and when I came back a few hours later it had somehow connected to my computer and I was able to restore it to factory settings.

Luckily I have my contacts backed up. A lot of media got deleted, mostly but that’s no big deal. I can replace the few ring tones that I liked anyways. I’ll probably be personalizing the phone over the next couple of days. I didn’t realize how customized I had it.

Really, I’m just glad that I don’t have to buy a new phone or go through the hassles of submitting an insurance claim. I can still wait until my renewal window is open or when my contract is up.

Considering Giving it Up to the Cloud

See also: --> “Well, I needed a new handset anyways,” and “I want to be a Crackberry addict!”

I should have more pressing things to worry about but lately I have been considering what phone I will get when I am eligible for my upgrade—in three months. I haven’t made a decision as to whether I should continue with BlackBerry or move onto a handset carrying Android.

I do like my current phone, the BlackBerry Storm, but as it ages, the shortcomings are becoming more apparent. The messaging capabilities have been top-notch and I have valued its ability to sync up to Outlook but the memory is low and applications are bare bones in comparison to their counterparts made for Android or the iPhone. I don’t know what has changed by the in the past few days, but my phone hasn’t been syncing properly. My calendar entries created on Outlook shows up hidden on my phone. Entries on my phone don’t sync to Outlook.

Outlook has always been my manager of emails, events, and contacts. I have been hesitant to switch over to Gmail completely. I’m not comfortable putting up what I would consider sensitive information up into the cloud. I like to know where that data is—in a computer tower that I can destroy whenever I want. Should I move to Android, it looks like I will have to give it all up to the cloud. It could be a good thing as syncing issues shouldn’t be a problem and well it’s free unlike Outlook. I just have to get over the psychological hurdle of letting my data go.

Maybe when the MaxiPad comes out.

When the iPod Touch first came out, there were a number of people that I knew that wanted one. The only arguments that I can remember were over the price and that the touches had nowhere near the storage capacity of the more classic iPods. It took a few months but I managed to scrape up some cash and buy a first gen iPod Touch and I have loved it ever since. Now the iPad has been formally introduced and I’ve decided that this isn’t a product for me. At least not yet.

I need the iPad to primarily serve as a mobile interface with my computer. Whether I am connected directly to my computer network via Wi-Fi or through a cellular data network (3G). My computer is a desktop and if I am in my living room and I want to look something up, I take my iPod or my BlackBerry out of my pocket. I don’t bother going all the way to my room. And that’s fine for just looking at stuff on the net. Sometimes, though, I want to access files of my computer. There might be a song drifting through my head, or maybe I want to add something to my word document that I use for this blog. I’m just not sold yet that this can be a seamless interface.

For right now, I'm holding off but yes, I think I might be a second or third generation adopter as more features and capabilities are added.

C'mon! I know what you're trying to do.

Verizon sent me an email this afternoon informing me that they have lowered their all-you-can-talk plan from $99.99/month to $69.99/month. Instead of making me excited, it kinda ticked me off. You see, other small carriers have extremely better plans even if they aren’t national carriers. Walmart actually has their own phone (through Tracfone) that offers unlimited talk, text, and data for $50/mo and it’s non-contract. So I am glad that Verizon is lowering their prices, seemingly in response to the competition, but something smells fishy.

Forget the fact that I am on a family plan but before I modified my plan, I would say that I had a bare bones plan:

39.99: 450 minutes. (Unlimited night, weekends, and in-network mobile)
5.00: Text plan (250 txt messages)
29.99: Unlimited* Data (BlackBerry)

For each category above, I got the lowest offered. That was sufficient for my usage. I could use with less talk time and more texts but bottom line was that it was enough.

Now Verizon is dangling the new all you can talk and text plan for $89.99. But as far as I know, all the other tiered pricing points are staying the same. For those customers who are on the second or third tier plans, if they are willing to throw in a couple more bucks every month, they could make an easy jump. That is what Verizon is banking on.

To move my sister and I over to unlimited would be an extra $15/month. It’s so tempting. So that’s why I’m pissed. Just lower all the other damn plans Verizon. Sheesh!



*Verizon’s contract actually reserves the right to cut you off after 5 gigs.

I Got It. Umm… Anyone else?

Do you have Google Wave? If you can imagine a mashup between email, online forums, blogs, and God knows what else, that’s Google Wave. The simplest way that I can describe it is a piece of paper sitting on a table and around it sit people who can write on it, glean info off of it and more. Google’s new product has some great potential. I like it but I’m not using it.

Like Gmail that came before it, Wave was a limited release. Wannabe users had to score an invite, either from Google itself or from a user who already has it. The difference with Gmail, though, is that use of Wave is limited to people who have Wave. With Gmail, you got the product and could correspond with people who didn’t. Not so with Wave.

Yup. That’s what I see when I log into wave. Not a whole lot. Very few of my friends have gmail accounts to begin with and even though I put out a message on facebook saying I have invites, not one person wanted to sign up. That leaves me with no one to wave with. That list in the picture is deceptive. Wave will scan through every contact you’ve ever emailed and let you know that they have wave too. Doesn’t matter if you still talk to them or not. The first one, I have waved with so he’s the exception. #2 down on the list is a coworker that I only talk to every once in a blue moon on facebook. #’s 3,4, and 5 are old and former bloggers that I haven’t heard from in ages. And the last one is actually the person I begged off my Gmail invite from.

I like wave but if none of my friends jump in with me, it’s really no use to me. I have to wonder where Google will be going with this.

Black Friday? Really?

I thought that my sister and I were going to try and join the morning masses for Black Friday. There were some very nice bargains but there’s always that fine print that says there’s only a limited quantity available so you have to really be cut-throat if you are going to get them. I’m not a person who likes to deal with crowds but I think it would be fun to do at least once. Black Friday is a beast that I would not tackle alone. Nope, I would have to have my sister with me! But… she chickened out.

We didn’t join the crazies. Instead, we left at a leisurely 11 which is about the time when all the door buster hours end and the longer sale periods start. We’d still be able to get some deals but the discounts wouldn’t as substantial. As we left our parents’ house, Dad said that if we were going to get Mom anything, to go for an MP3 player as hers has recently broken. Hers was a Chinese iPod rip-off that her company gave her. Instead of going with a regular MP3 player or Zune, we are going to give her an iPod nano. I am confident that she will find the iPod and iTunes easier to use.

Knowing how Apple operates with their pricing, I knew that getting an iPod at Walmart would be just like getting one from any other location with one difference: going to the one in Niles would be more convenient than going to the one in Mishawaka. Still, I was expecting quite a crowd and was surprised when there wasn’t one. In fact, the place was probably just as busy as it would be on a normal Saturday morning. My old internship supervisor noted the same thing.

Lunch was at a Japanese bistro—Soho in the new Heritage Square. I was very impressed and will blog about it next.

A trip to Target didn’t yield much. That place was picked over. The parking lot was full and people were packed in, particularly in the electronics section. Many of the DVD slots were empty. All but the most expensive GPS units were gone and that disappointed me as I wanted to get one for Dad.

Next up was a trip to the mall. The parking lots were full and I thought my sister was out of her mind to want to try and go in there. But we did and we made our way to Bath and Body works where she went and did her thing. I don’t buy those kind of products so I just held the bag and followed her around as she sniffed and judged a multitude of lotions, candles,--basically anything that gives off a scent.

Our last trip was to a grocery store to pick up some fancy cheese as I will be making some French onion soup. Last time, the soup was a little on the sweet side but still good. Hopefully it will be even better tomorrow.

In the end, it didn’t seem like a productive day. Only one gift was purchased-the iPod nano for our mother. But we are getting Dad the GPS unit. We just ordered online. It was available and it was still heavily discounted. Based on what I saw today, I don’t think that this was a great Black Friday. But then again, I live in one of the most depressed areas of the country (hell, MSNBC has the Elkhart project) so my observations are probably skewed towards a negative Black Friday than what the nation might be experiencing as a whole. While places were busy, it wasn’t that much worse than any other regular holiday.