One thing that makes cellular users crazy is the inability of their providers to turn off text messaging. While younger folks are texting at a rate that baffles most folks over 30, many older folks don’t want it, don’t need it and get upset to the point of stroke when they’re told that their service provider cannot and will not remove the ability to accept text messaging from their cellular service. To add insult to annoyance, the cellular companies charge you for these unwanted messages after they’ve told you that the can’t remove the feature.

Very simply, you’re mad at the wrong people. It’s not the cellular companies that make it impossible to remove the text messaging feature, it’s your federal government.

The Telecommunications Act of 1996 to be exact.

Now…you may say, “But Timmer, that Act was never ratified.” and you’d be right.

However, the FCC in its infinite wisdom still took the part of The TCA of 1996 which said that telecommunications companies could not restrict telemessaging services and ran with it anyway. The idea being that if those messages were restricted, that would be an infringement on the senders’ First Amendment rights.

There isn’t a customer service rep working for a cellular company today who doesn’t WANT to turn off your text messaging. Believe me when I say that as much as it annoys our customers, it annoys us just as much. We don’t like being told what low-lifes we are or that we’re in cahoots with the texting spammers or what a scam it is. We don’t.

It is nice to be able to tell everyone that you’re mad at the wrong people though, and that word is getting out. Apparently the FCC is getting tired of cellular customers calling THEM to complain about it and there’s hope that by the end of the summer, we’ll be able to turn off those annoying messages for those folks who have no use for little messages on their phones.

UPDATE:  The more I read about this issue, the less the above explanation holds water.  I’m on my weekend, but I’m going to be speaking with the person who offered this explanation to me come Monday.  I’m not going to take it down though.  I’m going to leave this up as a reminder to do more research BEFORE I put up a post.  Thanks to those of you who chimed in and made me look closer at this.

Okay, so summer is right around the corner and if you’re shopping for new cell phones, now is the time to start looking for that new phone that you’ve had your eyes on for the past few months. Prices are coming down on a LOT of phones from all of the cell phone companies.

But…wait…if the prices are coming down on all of last year’s hot models, doesn’t that mean that new models are getting ready to be introduced?

Yes.

So, before you drop $19.95 on last year’s newest and best thing, keep in mind that this year’s newest and best phones are getting ready to be introduced. And no…after a certain amount of time, you won’t be able to return that cool phone from last year to get the newest and shiniest new toy that’s just come out.

Patience. Do some research. Check out the plethora of cell phone blogs and see what your carrier is getting ready to introduce before you jump on all of those inexpensive phones that the cellular companies are trying to unload before the new ones come out.

I know that iPhone has been burning a hole in your brain since it was introduced, but keep in mind that some of the companies that aren’t AT&Cingular are looking to introduce their Google Android Phones in the upcoming year. You all know that I’m an Mac-head. I wouldn’t give up my MacBook Pro for any other laptop out there. However, while I lust after an iPhone as much as any Mac Fanboy, I also know that the Androids are going to be the most customizable communications devices that we’ve ever seen. Third party applications will be the norm on these “phones.”

Remember, most companies give you discounted pricing on phones after you’ve had a phone for one year and then huge discounts at the two year mark. (Coincidently when your contract is about to expire.) If you’ve got a phone that you’ve had for two years and have that huge discount available, do you want to use it for a very cheap phone that’s going to be outdated by the end of the summer, or do you want to use it to bring down the price on a full blown communications device?

Me? I want my phone to be my phone, my iPod to be my iPod, and my laptop to be my laptop. I don’t think any of the comm devices out there or that are getting ready to come out take care of all of those tasks as well as the individual devices do…yet.

Of course, none of these new “all in one” devices are good without the features to support them. Check with your provider to see what the price is on the features that you want/need on your device. Some features are bundled. You can get internet/email/text messaging all for 19.95 with some devices, while others only have internet and email for 19.95 and you have to add an additional texting package. Some devices are less expensive (coughBLACKBERRYcough) but their features are going to cost you more. The sleek “grownup” device may be what fits your look, but the device targeted at the younger crowd, often have less expensive bundles that take care of all your needs.

What do I think of the Sprint “everything for 99.99″ plan? I think that’s the last ditch effort of a telecom to increase it’s customer base before they sell to another company. Unlimited talk, unlimited text, unlimited internet and email all for 99.99 simply isn’t fiscally maintainable for very long.

Having said all that, don’t look for the cheap or free or cool phones, look at what you need and then check with the wireless telecoms to find out what the total cost of ownership over a year is going to be. A couple hours worth of research can save you hundreds of dollars in you personal comm budget. And just a warning, if you’re going to start texting anytime soon, or give your teenager the ability to text, make sure you give yourself and them enough messages to last the month. The thing about text messaging is that the more you do it, the more you do it.

Now THAT was a good movie. It wasn’t a good comic book movie, it was a good movie. Just go.

I have to confess, one of the reasons I liked it so much is that Iron Man flies exactly the same way I fly when I have flying dreams. I know, sounds weird, but true.

Oh, and if you want to know what possible sequels may be coming out, stick around until after all the credits have rolled.

Update: While I was watching BSG last night, I had a brilliant flash of the obvious that Iron Man is a good Science Fiction Movie. That’s what makes it better than some of the other comic to screen stories that have come out recently. Plausible story, realistic human interaction, and current technology pushed to heightened capabilities. I also remembered thinking when I was in high school, that Iron Man’s armor was directly “borrowed” from Robert Heinlein’s “Starship Troopers.”

Okay, I’m done geeking out for the week.

Today Beautiful Wife, Boyo and I took a long drive up into the mountains to say goodbye to one of our oldest and dearest friends. She has a real name, but for the sake of anonymity, I’ll refer to her by one of her sillier nicknames, Bambi. No…she was never an exotic dancer, she just played one on AF Dormitory White Boards. No…I won’t elaborate on that at this time either. Suffice it to say that she and my wife left me a note one day that got me razzed for weeks after.

Anyway…our friend Bambi passed away a couple of weeks ago. We’d known her almost 20 years. Now, I don’t have to tell you military folks how rare and wonderful it is to have a friend who stays in touch with you when you leave. I mean everyone SAYS they’re going to stay in touch and you might get an occaisional Christmas card, but you know, out of sight, out of mind. Bambi wouldn’t put up with that. She stayed in touch. From me in Korea, to us in Germany, Hawaii, Colorado, Nebraska, and Wyoming…to us finally coming home last year. Bambi was our friend. She stayed in touch. While I was in Korea, she let Beautiful Wife crash at her place when she got too lonely missing me. Whenever we came home, she “borrowed” Boyo to go to movies, McDonald’s, the dollar store, you name it. I’ve got to say, quite honestly, she was a much better “Aunt” to our son than my sister or my wife’s sisters.

Now she had health problems. I’m not going to go into details, but she was getting better. She’d lost some weight, she found a job that she loved and was able to show up every day she was supposed to. She was happier than we’d seen her in a very long time. She was supposed to come over to watch reality shows and have dinner with Beautiful Wife and Boyo (I still work nights) but she called and said that she wasn’t feeling good, she’d be over the next week.

Her brother found her a few days later. She’d passed in her sleep.

So we went to her funeral today. A very nice ceremony in a small chapel up in the mountains, followed by a shorter graveside service. Bambi’s brother had asked us if we knew what the “The Reggae Version” of “Over the Rainbow” was, because Bambi said that was one of her favorite songs and after a bit of scratching my head I figured out it had to be the Bruddah Iz version of “Over The Rainbow/It’s A Wonderful World.” I burned a copy for the family and they played it at the graveside. If folks hadn’t been crying yet, the tears were fully flowing now. The kids and some grownups were also blowing bubbles (per Bambi’s request) through their tears and the scene was kind of silly-sad and surreal. Just like Bambi would have wanted it. We completely forgot how Bruddah Iz closes that song. He sort of does a Hawaiin scat at the end. Sort of silly, kind of whacky. Me and Beautiful Wife got the giggles. So did a couple of other folks though they covered it better than we did. Bambi loved that part of the song, did a silly lil dance to the “Hoo hah, coo coo cha chuwhaw.” and that’s all we could picture in our heads. She got us…one last time…just like a good friend should.

AcipHex? Beautiful Wife and I both just looked at one another and she said, “Did that commercial just say ass-effects?”

I wonder if that’s a side effect?

Words/Phrases you’ll start using after watching certain Sci/Fi Fantasy Shows:

BSG: Frak. Fraking, Get Fraked. Skin job. Toaster.

Firefly/Serenity: Shiny. Gorram. It’s broken…can’t be fixed. You can’t stop the signal. I aim to misbehave.

Buffy/Angel: That would be wrong. Gives me the wiggins.

Farscape: Frell, Frelling, Get Frelled.

Star Trek: Beam me up.

Those are just off the top of my head. Add any that you use or have heard used and I’ll keep building on this.

Inspired by this post over at Rachel Lucas’

More Lifted From The Comments:

Stargate SG-1: “Indeed!”

Stargate: “I have no idea.” “Unscheduled Gate activation!” “Cree!”

X-Files: “Disturbing on many levels.”

(If you’re not following American Idol, this will make no sense, carry on.)

How in the name of all that’s holy can you take on Lord Andrew Lloyd Weber and NOT do something from Jesus Christ Superstar? You’re the rock guy! “Heaven on Their Minds?” “Simon Zealotes?” “Damned for All Time?” I’d have been highly amused if you’d have tried “Herod’s Song.” Or maybeeeee, I dunno, “The Rum Tum Tugger” or “Mr. Mistofelees” from Cats? There’s at least a rock beat in those.

“Music of The Night?” Really? The Phantom? I mean you pulled it off but come ON!

Well, at least you performed a song written for a male lead. I thought Jason and David were a tad confused but tonight absolutely proved it. A man…singing “Memory?” I had to listen to the original Broadway cast version just to get that baritone version out of my head. It’s just…wrong.

But dude…seriously, you’re the rock guy. I was counting on you.

I received an e-mail from Ken Meyers over at Operation: A BIT OF HOME.  They’ve completed one DVD lending library for our folks in Iraq and they’re working on another.  When you’re doing your Spring Cleaning, take a good look at your old DVDs and see if you can’t send a few to our folks over there.  And don’t worry about whether or not it would be appropriate…military folks love Disney movies and other kid’s fair for the sheer escapism.

This post over at Wizbang by Jay Tee (one of the only bloggers I still read regularly) received this response from me:

Thank you so much for putting my favorite shows online.  Once I found out my cable company was charging me $20.00 a month for the “convenience” of a DVR I dropped it like a sammich with a roach for a garnish.  I work nights.  It’s nice that I can watch a show after it’s run without having to set up an old VHS recorder.

I know I’m exhausted so I’m “altered” but I’ve got to say that kid David Cook is one hell of a singer. I hate the song Billy Jean with a passion, but what he did with it? That was sweet.

I know this probably sounds silly to many of you, but we need your prayers. Our Hemingway Cat, Miko, has managed to somehow open a gaping wound in her chest. I’m taking her to the humane society to see what they can do for her, but I’m pretty sure she’s septic and quite frankly, we can’t afford to have much done so there’s a good chance she won’t be coming home.

I haven’t felt quite this helpless in a very long time. The family’s heart is broken. We just thought she was grumpy about the kittens which is why she was hiding out. She was even rubbing against my legs while I was doing Tai Chi like she always does. It wasn’t until I picked her up and she growled at me that I saw what was going on.

Been up all night. Had her crate next to me with my fingers in the bars so she knew I was there and could rub against them.

I feel terrible.

UPDATE:  The good people at our local humane society say they can fix her!!!!  It actually looks much worse than it is and it would even heal on its own  with anti-biotics, but they’re going to be able to repair it at about a quarter of the cost I was anticipating.  I’ll be letting those vets take care of her and all our pets from now on.  I’m a complete sap for our animals.  I’m a complete wreck after the past ten hours.

the song stuck in your head is that insipid “FreeCreditReport.com” jingle. The one where they’re in the seafood restaurant? Yeah, that one. All through Max’s walk. Yeesh. Have to grab a good CD for the drive to work.

In other news, E.D. Hill on Fox News just said, “…a tawdry triangle of trists and tricks.” The Spitzer thing. Shouldn’t that line be on The Cobert Report?

Area Tap Water Has Traces of Medicines

Tests Find 6 Drugs, Caffeine in D.C., Va.

You just can’t add anything to that.

Is it just me, or does the current news of Al Queda looking to attack America again seem just a little too convenient? I mean, I assume that they’re always looking for a way to hit us again, but to have it make “the news,” during an election year?

Maybe I’m being cynical, but this just seems to be a bit too convenient for the Republicans and it’s a bad idea if that’s what they’re thinking.

I know we’re facing an ongoing threat but let’s keep that perspective. Dragging out that threat when it’s politically convenient is even more cynical, and it’s insulting.

There’s supposed to be a high of 50 today and it’s already 42, on the 6th of March. We could have snow next week, or it could be up to the 60s.

While it’s warm down here in the valley, up on the mountains, the snowline hasn’t started to shrink.

I can walk Max through our neighborhood and our older neighbors who are all getting their gardens ready, wave and say hi. One gentleman sometimes walk over to give Max a pat on the head.

There are horse pastures in our residential neighborhood…with horses. There’s also some on the way to work. I’m a city kid by birth and nurture…this delights me.

If there’s a traffic jam, SUVs actually drive over curbs to get to a sidestreet and get out of the way.

Everyone here gets out of the way of emergency vehicles. Everyone.

Most of the time, people drive exactly 5 miles over the speed limit, cops, exactly 10…it’s not wise to pass a cop…or to speed up when you’ve got one behind you…get out of the way even if their lights aren’t on…and if you do get pulled over, dont’ even think about the word “entrapment.”

At art fairs and other such events, the VFW and Veterans Against the War will set up booths right next to one another and you can watch them just have a conversation. No yelling. Just differing points of view discussing things.

It’s fun listening to people from Southern California bitch about the weather…when it’s in the 40s.

You can get huckleberry flavored jam, syrup, pie, all with real huckleberries…I like huckleberries.

B Dubya asked a good question in a comment on an earlier post:

Timmer!
Serious question to an industry insider…
Why is it that cell coverage in the US is so spotty, when Europe and even Arabia are totally covered? What would it take to get the US system on a par with even the third world in this area?

And Occam’s Razor gets applied. While the U.S.A. was busy replacing our old, mostly copper cable, communication’s infrastructure with new, expensive, fiber optic cable in the 1990s, when cell phones were still kinda bulky and sort of a fad, the rest of the world basically said, “Hell, we can’t afford that fiber optic stuff stuff and we’ve got these new cell phone thingies, let’s just put up a whole bunch of cell phone towers instead.” That’s why countries that basically had crap land line service even 10 years ago, now have cellular communications infrastructure that beats ours to hell and back. There are some places in Europe that STILL haven’t switched to fiber and if you use a landline, you’re not going to believe how crappy the sound is. They’re basically still using cable that was laid just before or after WWII.

Add to that the fact that most countries have ONE cell phone provider, often run by the government, that provides one kind of service that everyone has, while we in the U.S.A. have about four big companies and multiple little ones, all competing for coverage and bandwidth, and you have the situation you’re bemoaning. Not all the cell phone companies play nice with one another either. If you’ve got a Brand X phone and are closest to a Brand Y tower, you may get signal off that Brand Y tower, but the Brand Y customers are going to take priority over you and your Brand X phone.

In short B Dubya, the U.S.A. could afford upgrading to fiber optic while many places in the rest of the world couldn’t, so they started building cell phone towers en masse instead of laying fiber. Most of the U.S.A.’s cell phone companies are working hard to play catchup and are learning to play nice with one another because they’re learning that customers don’t care it’s because Brand Y’s tower is down, I’M not getting service where I want it. We should have almost full coverage on all major highways with very few “dead” areas by the end of the decade, but because our companies all are competing for a market that’s rapidly becoming saturated, they’ve been concentrating on covering more densely populated areas first and slowly expanding to suburbia and rural areas. Cell phone towers are cheaper than fiber, but that doesn’t make them cheap. You’ve got to have enough customers paying a bill in an area to justify adding and maintaining a tower somewhere. You also have to have landowners that will agree to let you put a tower on their property.

For the past few weeks, I’ve been considering voting for Barack Obama. Thought it would be nice to have a President who could put a full paragraph together without making words up to express himself. Thought maybe four years of an inexperienced executive with a vision might be good for the country. Shake things up a bit. The problem is, I started paying attention to his campaign and started reading some off the political blogs again. Not many, just a few. In the past two days the folks on the right have jumped all over Michelle Obama for a couple of sound bites:

Tues, Feb 19:

What we have learned over this year is that hope is making a comeback. It is making a comeback. And let me tell you something — for the first time in my adult lifetime, I am really proud of my country. And not just because Barack has done well, but because I think people are hungry for change. And I have been desperate to see our country moving in that direction and just not feeling so alone in my frustration and disappointment. I’ve seen people who are hungry to be unified around some basic common issues, and it’s made me proud.

Okay…I know that others have already beat this thing into the ground and some of the comments I’ve seen on blogs and heard on the news have been over the top when it comes to beating this lady up. Let’s just keep to the words she said. She’s most proud of us when we’re hungry for change. Hmmm. I’ve been proud of our country many times in my adult life, not so much when we’ve been hungry for change, but when we’ve faced adversity and come together to overcome it. I haven’t been excited about “change” since Boyo got out of diapers, and that was because I could stop changing. Regardless of what she was saying or trying to say, it was really a dumb thing to say if you’re trying to pull in the center or just right of center.

And then there’s this bit from a speech she gave at UCLA:

Barack Obama will require you to work. He is going to demand that you shed your cynicism. That you put down your divisions. That you come out of your isolation, that you move out of your comfort zones. That you push yourselves to be better. And that you engage. Barack will never allow you to go back to your lives as usual, uninvolved, uninformed.

Again…I’m not going to go as far as the far right is taking this, but come ON. I admit, that on some level, especially talking to a college crowd, it’s inspiring. Give the kids some direction. However (comma) on another level, for someone who wants less government in their lives, it’s just plain creepy. This isn’t JFK having me ask myself what I can do for my country, this is our president “demanding” that I shed my cynicism and “never allow(ing)” me to go back to my life as usual? Really?! Ummm, with all due respect, now that I’m a civilian again, I’m not that interested in my president demanding anything of me, thanks though.

Senator Obama is right. Words are important. “Hope” and “change” are powerful words. They’ve taken him very far. The problem I think, is that the Senator’s wife is giving us a peek behind the curtain of hope and change and some of us aren’t as hopeful or eager for that kind of change.

First, go read this post.  I’ll wait. I need a fresh lemonade anyway.

Done? Cool.

First of all let me say that for someone who doesn’t work in the telecom industry that it’s very easy to think badly of T-Mobile after reading that story. Hell, if I didn’t know what was really behind what happened there, I’d be just as peeved. But the whole story isn’t there and I think it needs some clarification.

Okay, so the events that took place happened in January of 2008. Let me double check, yep, by the information that’s provided, that seems correct.

What most people don’t know is that back in December of 2007 the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) passed stricter Customer Proprietary Network Information (CPNI) regulations that all U.S. Telecoms have to abide by. Before those new regulations it was pretty easy for anyone to call in, give their name, confirm the name on the account, confirm some personal information, and they’d get full access to that other person’s account. Since the new CPNI standards went into effect, that’s no longer the case. The FCC decided that only the account owner (the person who’s name is on the acount), or the people that the account owner had designated as Authorized Users on the account, may have access to the account information…which would include access to buying a phone in that person’s name. Apparently in the past, unauthorized folks just called up, ordered a phone, charged it to someone else’s account, mom’s, dad’s, daughter’s, and off they went with a new phone and no one was the wiser until the bill showed up.

If any of those T-Mobile employees had allowed that girl’s dad to buy a phone for her on her dead husband’s account when the dad wasn’t an authorized user they would have been guilty of a federal crime.

I don’t know about the T-Mobile employees, but I wouldn’t be willing to go to jail for anyone, no matter how bad their situation.

I realize that it’s easy to hate cell phone companies, trust me, I work for one and I think it’s absolutely scandalous that they just don’t give away cell phones and forgive every bit of overage that customers accrue through ignorance or apathy. It’s like they’re in business to make a profit or something. (sarcasm…in case you missed it) In this case though, they did exactly what your government told them to do.

“Monica Lewinski’s ex-boyfriend’s wife for President!”

It’s just so wrong that it makes me giggle.