Ridiculous technological failures + Rocking the Commute

[rebeccmeister]

So today, Friday the 13th, is International Winter Bike to Work Day. It was not as cold this morning as yesterday morning (21 degrees F), but nonetheless I practiced my Balaclava Substitute Wrap:



Of course, then my glasses started to fog up badly, so I let the scarf fall back down. Plus, I was too warmly dressed again - sweating by the time I reached work.

Today I rode in along the Antelope Creek Trail, which is a longer route but the sort of scenic experience that causes one to grin upon arrival instead of slouching along through traffic lights. I have to detour to the east to hop on the trail, and then ride along Vine St. to get in to campus, but it looks to be a worthwhile route.

scrottie and I tried to have a Skype date last night, which failed utterly. I got to see a blurry image of him for about 30 seconds total. We couldn't even connect via a voice call, so eventually I had to resort to tapping out textages on the smartphone. The tapping is somewhat easier and faster than the dumbphone (plus, texts can be longer and don't cost money), but my index finger gets tired after a while. I learned that the tiny "E" next to the cell signal indicates that my data connectivity is basically one step above nill. And even then its dropping in and out of connectivity. I think I'm going to have to go back to shopping for phone plans, as the TMobile coverage in this area is wretched. The UNL guest internet login lists the following set of carriers for the area: Alltel PCS, Alltel, AT&T, Bell South (Blackberry), Bell South Mobility, Bell South, Bell South SMS, Bell South Wireless, Cingular (GSM), Cingular (TDMA), Cingular Wireless, Cingular, MCI Phone, MCI, Metro PCS, Nextel, Sprint PCS, US Cellular, Verizon PCS, Verizon.

I still dislike Verizon. Any of you have thoughts on any of these other carriers?

Comments

[dichroic.livejournal.com]

No thoughts on carriers but as far as texting goes.... I'm finding that the voice recognition on my phone has gotten reliably accurate. Half the time now, at least if I'm in private, I just hit the little microhphne next to the virtual keyboad and speak my text instead of typing it. Usually I have to correct some spelling or punctuation (though it does pounctuate, if I remember to say "period" or "question mark") but that's much faster than typing out the whole thing.

[twoeleven.livejournal.com]

What's wrong wither Verizon?

[rebeccmeister.livejournal.com]

I strongly disapprove of their stance against privacy.

[evaleastaristev.livejournal.com]

Do you have wireless? If so, you should be able to connect the smart phone to that, and be able to do all the DATA things like Skype with the phone inside your home.

Just a thought :)

[rebeccmeister.livejournal.com]

Part of the original plan with this phone was going to be replacing home internet with phone data. Clearly that hasn't worked out as I'd hoped! :-P

So now I am hoping the next-door neighbors will be interested in splitting internet.

[(Anonymous)]

I have AT&T, which has done me well. $78/mo for unlimited text & talk & 1G of data. You might want to check into whether the university has any discounts with any of the providers. For instance, I get 15% off AT&T's bill thanks to TAMUS.

prrsss...