Feeling good about tomorrow.

Need I say more?

Posted in: Life, Music,

I've been doing some research about switching my wireless provider so when it comes to the end of my current contract I can seemlessly carry over to my new provider. So in preparation I called and verified what the process is. For any cellular/wireless provider "porting" is the term for switching your number from one provider to the next. In the technical section, I read that porting wireless-to-wireless should technically only take 2-3 hours. However it is fairly typical for it to take 1 to 2 days. The only exception is that porting a landline to wireless can take 1 to 2 weeks.

So 2 days before my contract it over I sign up for my new service and make it so the new flip-phone should arrive the day after my service ends. Now when I check the status it says the porting will take 5 days. How wonderful. So I then think back to listening to all the service reps. One said that its very simple and if I purchased with them, they'd make it seemless with no days of lost service. One rep told me that I'm better off taking an extra month with my current provider and just waste the money, to make it easier. And the last one, which I foolishly beleived, well, she laid out a nice plan without any hiccups. Well, hiccup, hiccup, hiccup.

So if Verizon has the best consumer satisfaction, and if Sprint has the best nationwide coverage and if T-Mobile has the most anytime minutes -- well some of them have to have the worst of something. Man cell phone companies really suck, but realistically I don't talk much anyways so I'm better to lose service for a few days rather than paying twice for one month.

Posted in: Technology, Stuff,

To better serve my readers (all 3.5 of you), I'm splitting off all my Linux related content to my new Linux only blog: Linux with Doubts (don't worry I'm using WordPress this time around). I'm somewhat skeptical of several aspects of this marvelous OS, and hence the title. I hope to focus my main site more on me and this new blog on the boring stuff that makes me a geek. We'll see.

Posted in: Website, Technology,

This was actually a response on Jeff's blog, but it got so long that I decided to post here instead. Anyways for anyone who doesn't know, more and more lawsuits are being given to peer-to-peer software companies and consumers alike. Even Apple is under pressure from the Industry to raise prices.

I'm normally much more passive on this topic, but lately I've been getting terribly frustrated at the obvious BS coming out of the likes of the Recording Industry and Motion Pictures Industry. They keep claiming that initial production costs keep media (CD, DVD, etc) prices high and that piracy compounds that. I don't get it really. CD's ARE NOT THAT EXPENSIVE TO PRODUCE. They've been around for 20 yrs, you think they would have figured it out by now. Look on Billboard's charts - CD's are still selling at their full (rediculous) price. Furthermore, outside of promotion costs, most movies CAN cover expenses at the box office - I remember paying $3.25 once upon a time. Fine it costs $10 now, and for the cost of a family set of tickets, you can purchase a handful of DVD's or a good boxset.

To me this boils down to money and politics. Obviously none of the bigwigs want their revenue streams interrupted and hence the best aproach is stifling competitive innovation via litigation. Money rules here. And, although I do beleive in capitalism, I also think that regulation is very important. But nobody is regulating tyrannical monsters like the RIAA and MPAA. Instead we have DMCA laws which give them MORE exclusive power. Even before that, both these groups could sue for copyright infringement, piracy, etc., -- only now the burden has been placed on the defendant (you and me) to defend ourselves, while they get unfair legal powers. Money rules the rule makers here.

And the Apple thing irks me further. I was never a fan of iTunes, but I did think that $0.99 was a *seemingly* fair compromise. Have you seen the price of a CD single? So if the distribution costs HAVE NOT RISEN, why should Apple have to raise prices? In fact I was waiting for them to go down a little in cost. Oh well. I am really behind Steve Jobs here, I really hope he sticks to his guns.

Something really needs to be done before the corporate stranglehold on technology spins out of control. The Clinton administration missed a great oppertunity for consumers, and I know now that the Bush administration has other priorities. So, maybe internet advocacy and a better educated populace will try to fight back, however futile that may seem.

Posted in: Philosophy, Politics,

Over the past two days I've been getting weird emails intended for somebody else. Now I wouldn't normally think too much of this, but these were unique. I think all 3 people who emailed me were looking for uniquely different persons.

The first one was an invitation to give an audition for a presentation on some sort of abstract skill for a Princeton Review session in Dallas, TX. Things like "cooking bread", "how to order food in french" or "finer points in annoying people". or Since it was only a mock session, I didn't need to have anything special prepared. ... Now, we all know how many abstract skills I can teach, but right now I'm not prepared to take time to visit Texas.

The second one was from someone in florida who wanted to make sure my kids and I had a good time in Germany. His interesting parenting recommendaion was to make sure they watch Pulp Fiction. Mmmm, I'm in the mood for a "Royale with Cheese". ... Achtung! You have the wrong email.

And the third (for now) was an aspiring Latina model from Chile who sent me her resume and some samples from her portfolio hoping for some work. Seriously! I'm NOT making this stuff up. Anyways, she was decently attractive. It took me sometime to translate the spanish, but in the end, my professional opinion was that modelling is NOT the way to go. ... I may tell her that someday, if I ever learn spanish.

So even if the email isn't for you, it doesn't make it spam. Sometimes reading someone else's mail might just give you that laugh you were looking for.

Posted in: Life, Funny, Internet,