Archive for March, 2007|Monthly archive page
My bad luck…
Leave a CommentI can’t believe the bad luck I am having with my phone these days. I just got a new Motorola Q from Verizon and already am having the same issues as before. I have been having the following things happen on each device I recieve:
1. System Errors–At least once per day, I have to reset the device due to error messages while using the messaging programs (email and text messaging)
2. Scroll wheel–Very slow response/doesn’t activate 1/2 the time when screen is sleeping.
3. Keyboard–The keys have to be pressed very hard in order to get the response on the screen. Many missed keys when typing.
4. Service–The service on the device is poor. Rarely is the phone showing full service, this is a departure from the previous Verizon phones I have used. My phone has no service where my wife’s phone is good. I also experience dropped calls more than with other Verizon phones. I have done the update of the software (to the AKU2 pack), done the PRL (*228) update, done a master reset, and installed no third party software.
My view of the phone is that Motorola has dropped the ball with this one. In talking to the CSR today, he mentioned that if this one didn’t work any better, they would be sending me another one. I’m not sure what else to do but keep hoping that I get one without these issues. Outlook doubtful…
The Cell Phone Junkie Show #42
The Cell Phone Junkie Podcast #42 33:07
Show Notes
We liked the format of the last show, so we continue it this week by talking about News, Devices and Software in the cell phone industry. SMS seems to be the topic of the day, and Mickey finds a phone just for him!
News
The 10 commandments of cell phone etiquette
Texting While Driving
SMS Messages maybe subject to interception
Cell Phone Companies Killing WiFi? – Opinion
Spectrum issues related to mobile communications
Solar Charging for your cell phone – Do the green thing.
Photo Radar cameras also fine cell phone users
Palm Responding to iPhone
Cingular unlocking phones for free?
Devices
HTC announces S710 with Windows Mobile 6
Blackberry 8300
Link 3
Blackberry Pearl goes red, so does the Treo 680
It’s a Mickey phone!
Software
Yahoo to be bundled on Windows Mobile HTC Devices
Dropped List
More getting out of your contract options
Cell Phones Most likely safe for hospitals
5 free SMS services
How to Contact us:
602-903-4116
How to Listen:
510-495-6352
712-432-3031 show number 183933
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A new phone is on the way!
Well don’t get too excited by the title, it’s just another Motorola Q. I’m starting to have issues again with my keyboard, scroll wheel and error messages/resets. This happened to me with my first Q, so yes, this will be my 3rd. I’m hoping that I am just getting units that seem to wear out early, but I don’t know if I am that lucky…I guess though if this one doesn’t work out, Verizon has a 3 strikes rule!
A Note To Employers: 8 Things Intelligent People, Geeks and Nerds Need To Work Happily
I found this article through Digg.com. I liked it so much that I wanted to post it. I find most of them true of me! Thanks to Justin Walton for posting!
#1. Let them work when they want
Geeks work almost every moment they are awake. They are online before they go to the office. They are home working after the office closes. They work weekends. They are even sometimes working in their dreams. Employers should understand this and more importantly appreciate it. Don’t force geeks to work 8 – 5 if there is no real need other than “company morale.” Meetings are one thing, so is socializing with coworkers, but a relaxed office schedule will do wonders for the contentment levels of your employed geeks.
#2. Let them work where they want
Geeks prefer to have a couch around to nap on if they are tired. Some like no windows, others want to stare out into a city or landscape. At home, geek’s offices are usually more lived in, more comfortable and enjoyable than anywhere else in the world. This is because they love what they do, and they do it so much of the time they need to be comfortable where they do it.
#3. Let them control their lighting
There is nothing more annoying than working in bright crappy fluorescent lighting if you prefer to work in the dark, or vice versa. Geeks usually have sensitive eyes from staring at CRT monitors for too long. The last thing you want is your geeks to have headaches. Most geeks aren’t very pleasant to work with when they have headaches.
#4. Let them wear headphones
Geeks are experts in the arts of “focus.” Focusing takes removing all unnecessary distractions from your environment and creating a state where nothing else is going on but what they are working on. The harder the problem they are trying to solve or the more creative they have to be, the more they need to focus. Headphones, or simply a lack of ringing phones and talking sales people allow geeks to focus much easier.
#5. Do not expect them to wear a suit
Geeks find arbitrary activities that lack real and meaningful purpose, a waste of time and energy. This includes attire. Most companies today are aware of this and even practice casual dress so as to make everyone more comfortable, but geeks are a special case. “Suits” (the kind of person) usually represent a business man who lacks most things other than a nice smile and great negotiation skills.
#6. Do not make them participate in company events (unless you are sure it is geek-friendly)
Most geeks will not be jumping up and down with joy to attend a company party to celebrate the local football team, unless of course there is beer, and they can hang around and talk to each other about geeky things. Keep this in mind when planning company events. Geeks like to have fun, just not the same kind of fun as your typical non-geek.
#7. Do not hold a lot of arbitrary meetings that could have otherwise been handled through email or IM
This one is important. Like I said, geeks need to focus to be happy and able to focus. Nothing is more of an interruption than someone walking into their space unexpectedly and saying “hey do you have a minute?” The answer is usually going to be a disgruntled “Sure.” The truth is geeks are fine with attending planned meetings (and will happily be there if the meeting is really a necessary one for them to attend in person), but are usually most happy communicating through email and IM. These forms of communication are most appealing to geeks because they do not interrupt you, and polite geeks will even respond with a quick “hold on a sec, I’m in the middle of something.” Email and IM are recorded, searchable records of conversations. They are efficient and to the point. This also makes geeks happy. Geeks can discuss anything through email and IM and will usually be more willing and thorough with their response. Face to face meetings are important, geeks know that, but I would guess that 90% of conversations and meetings held face to face, would be more efficient and end with happier people, if they were held in a recordable, written, virtual space.
#8. Do not make them do anything other than work
This one isn’t completely accurate all the time. Geeks are team players, but they are also easily insulted by being given a task below their level of expertise or outside of the scope of their position. They’ll do it, but they won’t be totally happy. This includes: answering phones, taking out trash, going shopping for company supplies, and “filling in” for a sales person.
I hope this summary helps employers further understand the world of geeks, and how to keep them happy. I also hope this helps other geeks out there approach their employers with a list of what they need to work happy.
Go Daddy DDoS attack
So some of you may have been wondering why you were not able to get on The Cell Phone Junkie or this site yesterday. Turns out, Go Daddy was hit with a massive DDoS attack for about 4-5 hours. Here is the story all about it! Good news is, they got us back up and running by the early evening yesterday.
http://www.cbronline.com/article_news.asp?guid=D137B95B-B05A-4838-A584-CD1DD71DDE26
The Go Daddy Group Inc has been hit by a massive distributed denial of service attack that took down many of its customers’ websites and other services for several hours.
The company, the largest registrar of internet domain names and one of the largest web hosting providers, said it was the subject of “large-scale, sophisticated attacks” that lasted four to five hours.
Services hosted at one of the company’s data centers suffered sluggish or zero response times as a result. Its other data centers were unaffected.
GoDaddy chief information security officer Neil Warner told us that the attack was a SYN flood that targeted a particular under-protected service. We have agreed not to name the targeted service, at the request of GoDaddy.
Other services that are hosted at the targeted data center, including many customer websites, were also affected.
“This was a little different for us,” Warner said. “Usually when we see a DDoS, somebody’s mad at a particular hosting customer… We’re probably always under a DDoS attack of some kind.”
The attack started at 6.50am Arizona time but it was clearly not, as some had speculated earlier in the day, a technical glitch caused by the unusually early switch to Daylight Savings Time in the US.
It’s not beyond the bounds of possibility that the attacker chose yesterday morning to attack because GoDaddy had been criticized in the media on Friday for its unclear position on patching its servers to the new DST schedule.
Under recent US energy legislation, DST, in which the clocks “spring forward” one hour, was pulled forward to March 11, the second Sunday in March, rather than the first Sunday in April, which this year is April 1.
GoDaddy is based in Arizona, a state unusual in that it does not observe the switch to DST.
Warner declined to speculate on the motive for the attack. His team is poring over packet captures to see if they can determine the source or motivation.
Dozens of bloggers and web forum posters complained yesterday that their websites had gone dark for one or more hours. Some claimed to be losing money due to the downtime.
According to Warner, the affected service was seeing 70,000 packets per second at the height of the attack. For comparison, that’s about 20,000 more packets per second than the SYN flood that took down The SCO Group’s website in 2003.
Ordinarily, the GoDaddy infrastructure would be able to handle such an attack, but the attacker appeared to have found a weak spot.
A SYN flood is a well-documented form of DDoS attack that exploits the three-way handshake involved in setting up a TCP-IP conversation.
In normal TCP-IP handshakes, the computer initiating a connection sends a SYN, for synchronize, packet. The recipient sends back a SYN-ACK, or synchronize acknowledgement, to which the sender responds with an ACK, for acknowledgement.
In a SYN flood attack, the attacker spoofs the IP address of the SYN packet’s source, so that SYN-ACKs are never responded to, and the victim’s resources are tied up managing tens of thousands of bogus sessions.
Warner said his security and network teams managed to contain the problem and put preventative measures in place to mitigate future attacks.
Mobile Blogging
One thing that i have been looking to do for a while is to blog on the go. I found the way to do it finally, but unfortunately this doesn’t allow for much content insertion. I’m of course noticing that I may mis-spell a few more words than on the computer by doing it this way.
None the less, this is still a lot of fun!
Fun at the Angels vs. Rangers Game!
One thing I love about Phoenix in March (besides the mid-80′s temps) is that you get the chance to see multiple baseball teams play in the Spring Training games. We went again this afternoon and watched the Angels play the Rangers
Here are a few photos of the action!
DST begins tonight!
Well, not that we use DST here in Arizona, but I read this post from Steve in Boston and it made me think about it. Just a reminder to the rest of the country to spring ahead tonight before you go to bed!
The Cell Phone Junkie Show #41
The Cell Phone Junkie Podcast #41 44:06
Show Notes
We’ve got a lot of items to cover from the last 2 weeks, so we grouped the stories together based on topic. Hear what sales reps from each of the carriers have to say about ways not to get burned by them. Also, some new devices out there and software that you may want to check out!
News
T-Mobile banning 3rd party software
Sprint to compete by offering Unlimited plans
Confessions of:
Motorola M900 for emergency workers
Devices
Motorola RIZR Z3 coming to T-Mobile
Toshiba G500 Windows Mobile Device
StarTAC back with StarTAC III link 1 link 2
Software
Microsoft Outlook Mobile Manager 2.2.0.0
The missing sync for Mac OS X and Blackberry
Dropped List
Is Verizon really looking to buy Alltel?
VZW MobileTV link 1 link 2 link 3
Verizon ups number of text messages in packages
$20 TXT plan on Verizon gives 5000 messages now
Cingular rolls out unlimited M2M messaging for $5
Another out of your Verizon Contract
Cingular/AT&T Class action law suit
Man with Cell Phone obsession after motorcycle crash
How to Contact us:
602-903-4116
How to Listen:
510-495-6352
712-432-3031 show number 183933
Vote for the show at PodcastAlley.com
The Mobility Today Podcast is back!
Dave and Steve are back and they are discussing what is going on in the mobile arena. They have both been doing a lot of traveling but the good news is they are back so head on over to Mobility Today and check out the latest Podcast.
Show Notes
Steve and Dave just don’t digg the Imate Jaq3
Unofficial Windows Mobile 6 ROM for Dash
