i have a 6-month old that has been sick the past few days. ordinarily he's a great kid and just hangs out, never cries, keeps on a schedule, sleeps through the night, etc. but we found his weakness: being sick.
our little guy has had a cough that my wife describes as sounding like he's 'barking like a seal' and he is not a happy child. the past two nights he has slept probably a total of 45 minutes. bless my wife for staying up with him while i sleep.
this morning i had an early morning trip so i relieved her about 4am to try to get him to sleep -- finally got him down at 4:30am and he was asleep still when i left at 5:45...hopefully she'll get some sleep.
man, sick sucks.
this weekend lisa and i went skiing with some friends at sunrise park in the arizona white mountains. this was the second ski trip i've taken and needless to say, i'm a big time beginner...spending most of my time on the bunny hill or the easiest green run! i brought my zune with me for the trip, thinking i'd play it while skiing and have some rockin' tunes to listen to as i go down the slopes.
well, i found a few problems in that concept (not zune specific). i wired it up my shirt so that it wasn't in my way and that was ideal. the problems, however, were not so easy -- when with a group, everyone tends to talk to each other, even on the lifts, etc. having music in general made me 'that guy' who was always saying "what?" i just wasn't a part of the conversation when i had it on. i resorted to a one-ear experience so i could hear my surroundings...then the music sucked a bit. the biggest problem was gloves. i couldn't take them out of my ears, i wasn't able to easily change songs or put it on pause or change the volume. gloves suck.
anyhow, while i had my zune, my wife had her iPod shuffle, which was a gift from some friends of ours. man, that is a killer device for these scenarios (the ones where you just want music to be playing). it was light, she could clip it anywhere, etc. here's how she had it:
the buttons were okay enough that she could press them through her jacked most of the time...but it still wasn't easy.
so for this test: zune: 0, ipod shuffle: 1. but that's what i expected to be honest...there's no way the current zune form factor is conducive to recreational activity.
i've been a vonage customer for about 2 years (28 months according to them). all-in-all i was satisfied with the service. sometimes the quality wasn't that great, but as a technical person i understand latency, etc. however, vonage still doesn't pass the mother-in-law factor test from a quality and reliability standpoint...i think VOIP technology is there, but if you are relying on a 3rd party (ISP) for the connectivity, it can become troublesome.
at any rate, as part of the new year, i've been just generally looking for ways to 1) cut recurring liabilities and 2) remove some hardware from the home office. i decided vonage was something i didn't need anymore. so i called to cancel.
yikes. i didn't think it would be that painful.
vonage: why are you wanting to cancel today
me: well, just trying to reduce some costs
vonage: you've been a member for so long, are you sure you want to cancel?
me: yes, thank you
vonage: can i talk to you about different rate plans
me: no, just want to cancel and eliminate a cost
vonage: would you consider reducing the rate plan to something more affordable?
me: nope, just want to cancel and eliminate a cost
vonage: so what phone will you be using then?
me: well, one of the 3 that are already in my home probably, i just want to cancel
vonage: why not use vonage as a backup?
me: because i just want to cancel.
vonage: have you considered asking a friend or family member about using your vonage account?
me: nope, just want to cancel
vonage: what about a co-worker
me: i'm not interested in reselling my contract, just want to cancel
vonage: okay, please hold for 2-3 minutes while i note your account
me: (thinking) 2-3 minutes [which it did take] to 'note' my account...yikes
it was really a painful cancel process that i hadn't experienced before in other cancellations i've done. vonage cancelers beware!
looks like joe has partnered with spidynamics to deliver some great webcasts on ajax security, a much needed topic as we continue to see more ajax-developed web sites.
here's the titles he's offering:
well it looks like the <possiblyrenamed>Phone from Apple might hit some snags. first there is the lawsuite filed by cisco (good commentary from cisco general counsel here) about the trademark violation, and then the news is starting to trickle out.
first, the "OS X" maybe isn't so OS X as promised. according to a VP Q&A session it is similar to how iPod uses OS X...a psuedo subset with no open APIs. this likely may mean that no user-installable applications will be allowed...snag for Apple in my opinion.
the screen also uses the same polycarb as the ipod -- and remember the reports of screen scratching and durability? hmmm...wonder if this will have similar issues given the surface area. wifi syncing -- nope. what?! well according to apple, nope. blah.
