oneof.us

[Originally posted at my other blog: http://iworkwithcomputers.com]

So recently the interwebs told me that AT&T will be releasing a tethering plan for the iPhone, and it will cost an additional $30/month to do so, and it will have a 5GB/month bandwidth cap.  Really? Is that really necessary?  Currently, my monthly bill is about $175 for two lines with unlimited data, and unlimited text. Just those two services combined is an additional $45/month.  Now, if I want to tether my iPhone to my laptop, I have to pay $30 more?  Why am I paying for unlimited data if I can’t get unlimited data all the time?

This reminds me of a breakdown I saw a while back between text message costs vs data transfer costs.   Most phone companies charge $0.15 per text message (if you’re not on a text message plan).  A typical text message may be up to 1KB in size, so, it’s about $0.15/KB. Alright, now for data plans. Most data plans charge $0.002/KB on capped plans (read unlimited data plans).  My question is, why on earth are text messages worth more than regular data, such as email, or web pages?  Answer: Probably greed.  Which leads me to believe that this tethering fiasco is just another grab for money on AT&T’s part.  I’m already paying for unlimited email and web browsing on my phone, plus additional cashola to get unlimited text messages. Now they expect me to pay $30 for a tethering plan, and cap it at 5GB/month?  How about this: I jailbrake my phone, install a free tethering app, and pay you nothing more. Sound good? Great! Done!

Emily and I were bound determined to try and cut back on our specialty coffee habits, and try out a

cartridge-based coffee maker, such as a Kuerig or a Tassimo.  After some hunting around for the available flavors of each, we decided we wanted the Tassimo, but, could not find one in stock anywhere.  Store after store only had the display model available, so, at Target, we asked if we could buy the display, and sure enough, we could, *and* they took an extra 30% off the sticker price.

After loading up on some “T-Discs” (the flavor cartridges needed to make the coffee, espresso, tea, or hot chocolate) we headed home to make our first cups.  I would be remiss to leave out how geeked we both were to try this new appliance… We were *very* geeked!

Emily tried out a latte (had a T-Disc for one shot of espresso, and another T-Disc for the milk) and it was pretty good for a ~$0.75 latte that took less than 2 minutes to make.  Satisfied with the quality of the latte, I decided to try out the black tea, and once again, I was impressed, and once again, we both geeked about it some more.

A lot of local grocery stores carry both the Kuerig and the Tassimo cartridges, which is nice, but Tassimo goes a step further and lets you order your favorite coffees, and teas. The orders include free shipping and they will auto-ship your favorite flavors every 4 weeks.  After we figure out what our fav-flavs are (shut up) we will most definitely sign up for this method of T-Disc acquirement.  I haven’t looked in to Kuerig’s site, as they might offer the same “deal”, I just haven’t looked in to it.

All in all, I’m pretty excited to try this idea out for a while.  Sure, it may cost more per pound than regular coffee beans, but, I don’t like to “make” my own coffee (hence why I go out to Starbucks, Local Mocha and Biggby so much), so the convenience of this contraption making it for me is worth it, in my book.

So, here it is. Wordpress on the iPhone. Are you not entertained?

Brace yourself, it’s gonna be a bumpy ride/rant.

So I’ve been an on again, off again Windows Mobile user for a while now.  My first device was running Pocket PC 2003 (Dell Axim) and I really dug it.  But, my problem is that it’s a terrible platform.  Yup, that means I really can’t stand anything about it.  I realized that I’ve been tolerating it for the past five years, and that’s about the most acclaim I can give it.

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When a recent movie’s opening scene has a gopher in it, and the movie’s title is not “Caddy Shack 6: Return from the Fringe”, you *know* that it’s only going to get worse from there on out… And it did!  “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” is what you get when you let three, on-the-verge-of-senile Hollywood types write, direct, produce and star in a major motion picture. BARF!

When I first viewed a trailer for the movie a year or so ago, I had hope and I was excited. A few months ago I read, on a Burger King cup, I believe, that one of the characters (Indy’s sidekick) was named “Mutt”.  “Are you kidding me?!” was a popular phrase of mine at the time.  Mutt, why is he called Mutt? Maybe because he’s got a sordid past? Lame!  It’s as childish and obvious as those Mr. Men cartoons of the 70’s.  If his name is Mr. Forgetful, I wonder what his character traits are? GROAN!

On to special effects.  They seemed to be added with the mindset that “I own ILM, might as well throw as much CG in this movie as possible. People love CG, right?” POPPYCOCK!

You would think that lame one-liners, obvious plot twists, pointless side-characters, and an over-use of the exclamation “Jooooooooooooooooooones!” would prove that these former behemoths have just lost touch with their audience, but, you’d be wrong. I would say that 80 to 90% of the audience loved the movie, and laughed at all the slapstick comedy and punchy-dialog. To that, I once again yell, “Are you kidding me?!” UGH!

I had a great deal more fun and enjoyment ranting against the movie in the theater parking lot, than I did sitting through the entire spectacle… So, the point I’m trying to make is, THIS MOVIE IS TERRIBLE!  I know this rant won’t change your mind; good for you for not being a sheep, but, I really hope you don’t enjoy it. If you do see it, and you think it’s a great movie, don’t tell me, because I’ll think so much less of you as a person :p

Oh, and guess what, THERE ARE ALIENS IN AN INDIANA JONES MOVIE! I’m not even lying… Aliens…

(Thanks for the pic idea Emily!)

Tommy B finally got me a CD with my fav song, “All My Friends”. Check it out!

Tommy B - All My Friends.mp3

(192Kbps, 6.17MB)

If you’re going to stream it, by pressing the play button to the left of the link, allow for some buffering time once you click “play”, otherwise, right click and do a “Save As”.

So, while taking a break from work today, I was playing Rainbow Six Vegas 2… Yeah, I’m a gamer, wanna fight about it? Anyway, while trying to rid the Vegas Strip of terrorists, I was shooting at a baddie who was hiding behind a column. On that column was a fire-extinguisher, so, I shot it and it burst into a puff of whatever is inside of extinguishers. This, in turn, temporarily blinded the terrorist, making it an easy take-down. Once I downed him, I got an in-game achievement, “Killed a visually impaired opponent +3″

“Wait, what?!” (continue reading…)

While chatting with my brother and his girlfriend, the topic of funny commercials came up. One that was mentioned was a recent Heineken commercial, taking place at a bar. A guy buys a drink for a girl at the bar, then said girl walks away to give the beer to one of her guy friends. Of course, the buyer of that beer is a little upset, and that’s where this conversation began.

There is definitely something to be said about the phrase “Men are from Mars, Women are from Crazytown.” Not that there’s anything wrong with that (continue reading…)

Some more tunes that you should also download, listen to, and love… Otherwise you better come to terms with your communist-sympathizing ways… Commy!

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