| Comments

one of the cities closer to me has just announced completion plans for their city-wide wireless access capabilities.  the first in my state, tempe, finished last year and i think has been a success.  i think this is great how these cities are demonstrating innovation in services to their communities.  wifi is pretty much a utility in the cities now for their residents and businesses.

what was interesting, i thought, was that these are not the major metro city in the state — that one is still lagging behind.  i guess the bigger the city, the bigger the role of giant, wide, sticky red tape.

is your citi wifi? www.wazmetro.com

| Comments

Crazy delicious

my team got me this shirt in celebration of my first year w/msft.

if you have no idea what it means, move along.

| Comments

had dinner with some folks at mobile/embedded last night and of course geeked out on smartphones.

i hadn’t heard of it until last night, but now i want this

Samsung i320

as i look at the specs, it is GSM quad band — and with my recent move to verizon, i’m out of luck.

verizon: please carry this device!!!

| Comments

i’ve been a t-mobile customer for 9 years.  i’ve been a happy t-mobile customer for 9 years.

i just got a treo 700w phone about 2 months ago.  i’m now a verizon customer.  dropped t-mobile in a heart beat.

why? i just completed doing an msdn webcast on my laptop, using my treo as my wireless modem.  i had outlook running, syncing emails in the background, and livemeeting open, with over 200 participants and also chose to stream the audio via internet instead of dialing in.  i had no hiccups, no wait times on repaints, etc. — it was as if i was on a lan line.  the speed was amazing.

it didn’t dawn on me until i was done that i just spend an hour online, doing various online activities (some background, some not), and streaming audio/video without a blink of latency.  unreal.  verizon really has nailed the wireless data market.  in various areas i’m getting 1MB speeds.  with my t-mobile data service i’d max out at 160KBPS…not bad for email activity, etc. — doesn’t even hold a candle to the speeds i’m getting with verizon.

do i like being forced into a handset selection (verizon is CDMA and doesn’t use GSM/SIM cards)?  absolutely not.  it pisses me off actually — i think consumers should be able to have their choise independent of carriers…after all, my home carrier doesn’t force me to use their home unit.  regardless, i can’t argue with the data network that verizon has put out there first.  will the others get better?  i’m betting on it.  but i’m also betting on verizon trying to retain their share and making it even better.

i like the treo — it’s a bit heavy, but in reality to the device i was previously using, isn’t that much different in size.

so instead of “can you hear me now” — they should add the “can you download it now” tagline — unbelievable.  awesome.  convenient.

| Comments

anyone who knows my woes with fulton homes knows i hate terrible customer service — even if things are my fault, there’s no room for customer service.

let me share some tag lines with you:

  • Better Service…Get the ADVANTAGE!
  • The Service YOU Deserve

now, my check engine light came on in my car.  it’s out of warranty, but in prestine condition (that is one good thing about snowbirds ;-)).  so i have one of those diagnostic OBD tools and it tells me some things are wrong with the secondary air injection.  i know computers.  i don’t know engines.  quite frankly, the only reason i have one of those OBD tools is because the geek in me thought it would be cool to diagnose my own problems [and then go to someone else anyway to diagnose/repair].

i digress…

well, i didn’t really feel like paying the dealer labor fee (US $170/hr), so i thought i’d find a non-dealer shop.  everytime i look cheaper i always remind myself ‘you get what you pay for’ but i always try anyway.  i found two service centers that would service my car — their slogans above.  i called both.  i assure you neither lived up to their slogan.  i implore you — if you use a tagline…at least have your front-line people assume they live up to it!  based on the 5 minute phone call and the jackasses at each place telling me it would take 4 hours to just *tell* me what was wrong (note: my OBD tool told me in < 3 minutes), i don’t think i’m going to get ‘the service I deserve’ if i go to them.

there’s something to be said about higher prices — the 170/hr place (i’ve been there before) gives me a free loaner car, will diagnose immediately and usually fits it in the same day to fix.  do i end up paying more?  questionable.  if i saved headaches and time, probably not.