Tag: wireless
what to do, what to do (ongoing)
So here I am, writing a blog post from my Blackberry and wondering about jumping to Verizon for the Curve, or waiting for the Blackberry Storm, or maybe something else.
Renewing with T-Mobile won’t happen due to poor Customer Service and other woes (MMS – picture – message support has been suspect at best) and the costs to upgrade are ridiculous.
AT&T wireless is out too. Their Data-Only plans are not only unclear but potentially full of hidden costs.
Verizon Wireless – while more costly per month – is heralded wherever I ask. So now it’s a question of wait-and-see or get something usefull now.
I am leaning towards the latter, though the former may be a true option by tomorrow (as there is a presentation by RIM tomorrow).
W-T-F Wi-Fi Blame Game
I am not an IT guy. I am not a professional network administrator. I am not even an able bodied person. I’m a month off friggin’ head surgery for God’s sake!
With that in mind, I would appreciate it if someone would stop saying “You don’t, you can’t, you don’t, you won’t” and other such bitching and complaining when the wireless network at home goes down. I see the problem, I do what I can to fix it, I apologize for shit getting in the way. Now say thank you, bow before me and respect me.
The only WON’T or DON’T in this bitching fest is the willingness of certain residents in my home to learn shit about a home wi-fi network. Someone with better eyesight, someone with a brain that he won’t use. Someone who defaults to others because he’s a lazy misanthrope.
I’m sick of being blamed. You don’t like my shit or how I do it? Do it yourself.
K.I.S.S. Laptops
What’s the deal with new laptops being packed with as much shit as desktop computers?
How come there isn’t a line of laptops with basic stuff — maybe 1 GHz of processing power, a gigabyte of RAM (because you want applications to work quickly and a fast proccessor won’t do it alone), a small hard drive (6-20 Gigabytes), wireless access, a nice screen size, etc?
Notebook computers weren’t originally designed to have everything and anything on them but they’re becoming that way. For some of us who want mobiel processing power — they’re starting to have too much while we’re only looking for certain essentials while on the go.
And before anyone suggests that people just by used or refurbished (or off lease) — remember that in most of those cases, you can’t get a fresh battery with the device or one guaranteed to hold a charge.
Wire(d)less
My annual forray to the West Coast is approaching fast. Yep, it’s been a year since I went to Los Angeles last and I’ll be heading back to the City of Night in early October. While the schedule is nothing I haven’t done before (Tampa to Dallas to LA and back again in 4 days, same hotel that I’ve stayed in the last 2 years) there is a bothersome logistics problem I need to solve between now and my departure date.
Basically it’s some form of communications between LA and home.
For the first time since 2001, I need to stay connected with things back home. Certain groups and parties are counting on the ability to get-in-touch with me so I can do some work while away from the Bay area. That’s good, that’s fine. This isn’t a vacation after all. Also I need to stay in touch with family so I don’t show up on a milk carton if no one hears from me in 12 hours or more (yeah, the fam gets frantic if I don’t stay in touch).
So what are my choices?
I’ve looked at older laptop computers being resold on Ebay and by Dell itself as a possible solution — though my hotel doesn’t offer Wireless access, nor are their dataport connections free. I’ve been casually looking at the Danger Sidekick 2 – which would give me both IM and Internet access while on the go — but I’m not so keen on the huge purchase costs as well as a nice large monthly fee to keep the thing usable.
My Ogo is a joke — barely holds a charge, and I canceled the account anyway. Most other IM devices are extra costly…
I’m in a land of wonderment, without much cash to throw around and solve my dilemna.
In the Lap of Apple
I just bought a Laptop…. An old one at that but it’s an atempt to move forward in the mobile generation.
And it’s an Apple.
As someoen who’s been a PC user since his old man bought one about 15 years ago, I’ve only had brief interludes with Mac’s. Not just that but I’ve had zero to no experience with laptops as well. I’ve wanted to try out laptop technology but I haven’t. I’ve wanted to take advantage of wireless access points when traveling but I haven’t had the chance.
With plans on doing Press stuff at the St. Pete Times Forum this year, having a laptop will be a necessity. i’m just hoping this little baby is going to work out great.
Bye Bye T900, hello Ogo
Well, after sending the T900 TalkAbout back to who it belonged to, I was hit pretty hard with wondering “What now”with regards to my wireless future. Should I go out and just get another T900? Should I look into something else like the Danger Sidekick II from T-Mobile? Or was there a cheeper and simpleer solution out htere that was an upgrade of the T900 and yet wasn’t filled with too many add ons, mediocre service and foreign support.
That’s about when I went into 7-11 and was introduced to AT&T Wireless (now Cingular) and their Ogo messenger.
It’s not the neat little small device that I am used to with the T900… but then again it isn’t limited to just sending emails / text messages at 1 message per 500 Characters. It does Pop3 email, it also can be configured to get both AOL IM messages and Yahoo messages so you can chat realtime depending on how your strong your signal is.
While it’s not a cell phone and certainly isn’t for those who rely on the phone – it fills a niche with me.
Black Tuesday
Besides just being depressed (tis the season, ho ho ho to guess-who) I find out hwo bad I’m screwed when it comes to the new pager I now have in my possesion…
I don’t know if anyone still regularly reads der Stonegauge but a couple of weeks ago I reported that my original Motorola T900 text messenger was lost while I tooled around Long Island, New York. I bought a new pager off ebay while in New York and I thought all would be rectified by now.
Wrong.
The replacement pager I bought arrived about 2 weeks ago and I found it broken — not working – when I tried to use it. That itself was discouraging. I contacted the guy I bought the pager from and he told me I coudl return it. Good enough – I sent the pager back and got a new one as a replacement. That oen arrived yesterday and I’v been through hell finding out how screwed I am right now because of this thing.
I talked with my wireless company all afternoon trying to get the pager hooked up but they couldn’t “Locate” the thing because it was on another system. OK, fine. I was frustrated at this and sent myself a text email just because I could…
I didn’t expect to get the response email but I DID. It showed who my hosting company was, and I decided to contact them first thing in the morning about getting this thing ironed out.
Well, here’s the problem. I contacted Arch Wireless this morning (the hosting company) and gave them the pager number, the serial number and the Cap code and what did they find out? That they couldn’t release the pager because it was not registered with them. It was registered with a TV station in Boston.
Like a TV station would give a shit about a pager and transfering ownership to an individual? 🙁 Suffice it to say, I am lost and have no clue what I am going to do from here.
WiFi Wierdness
No Exit: There goes the neighborhood
So, I’ve taken to taking advantage of the sophistication of my new neighborhood by driving around it (my neighborhood) at a very low rate of speed until my laptop picks up a wireless network. Then, in true loser form, I sit outside somebody’s house in my car for long periods of time.
Note to self – secure WiFi Network in home — STAT.
'Texted' Out
Damn you Metrocall / Weblink Wireless!!!
I start a conversation with my friend Michelle around 5 PM on Friday through my text messenger. “Hey Hey” with Michelle’s standard “Howdy” response.
Well, after that Howdy from my AFI loving friend, I couldn’t send nor receive messages from anyone on a cellphone all weekend long (still the case at 11 PM Sunday). I was able to receive email like normal, I was able to get messages from the Internet, I was even able to set up getting messages from my scarcely used AOL account on the pager but I couldn’t do text messaging with Cellphone users. Bummer to be left out of touch with friends like that. It made me want to replace my pager with something like the Sidekick… Oh well. 🙁
