Some Things Never Change...

For about the past 10 years I have used Comcast as my service provider, and cannot say enough good things about it. I absolutely loved their services and would highly recommend them

During that time, I had a very fleeting relationship with another company, America Online. I never much went for them; their company treated clients as if it were doing them a favor by allowing them to pay for mediocre service with a terrible performance record. Their business became 100% focused on servicing their advertisers, often at the expense of the clients.

Well, as misfortune will have it, I am moving to an area that is not serviced by Comcast. It will be traumatic for me! Over the last two days I have investigated the possibility that AOL had actually progressed.

It has not. In fact, it's worse than ever. I tried sending an email through them. I got redirected to some "AOL Challenge Page" where I guess I had to prove I was a human or something. The funny thing is, AOL has all these "SPAM-blockers" in place, yet my AOL account continues to be the source of the most spam emails out of all of my accounts. Anyway, the challenge page did not load. I got an error page. I went to their Home page at AOL.com. That page is down. (How the hell does a company of that size allow its homepage to go down?)

Well, this is mostly meaningless venting. I cannot believe how backward AOL remains in this day and age, and needless to say I will not be employing that amateur shop as my ISP. I'm sure some kid with one server in his garage would be more reliable than this joke of a company.

I'm checking out Optimum Online now.

The Things...

After the next Academy Awards in March, we'll start seeing movies in contention for next year. I have not seen "Avatar" just yet, but I'd like to, because I'd be showing support for some quality filmmaking, as well as watching a good story. I saw "The Hurt Locker" and was definitely taken with it. Tough story, well done.

There are a few things I'd like to see changed in the movies going forward. Some tired, old items I could really do without, in theaters and TV.

Let's retire these things and see if we can keep the creativity flowing:

• Do we really need to have closeups of people drooling in their sleep?
• Stop with the ridiculous shots of guys in Speedos. It's been done to death
• Bodily-function humor. That stopped being funny in about the 3rd grade. Enough already
• Vomit. We get the point without sharing the whole experience

I'd like to see some scary movies that are actually scary, not just a compilation of cool special effects. Thrillers like "Silence of the Lambs" were such a great experience. Think about what goes into the story, not just how you can hang the ending in order to set up 300 sequels.

I know that my particular demographic isn't the most attractive to Hollywood, but there are some attempts in Hollywood to make a film like "Shutter Island" worthwhile for adults. I hope they can get a trend going: Well thought-out, written stories that are great from beginning to end. These kinds of films make for some great viewing.

I love movies, and have always considered them among my favorite pastime. I once was an avid collector of pop music, with a ridiculous amount of albums, tapes and CD's in my possession. I cannot remember the last time I bought a CD. I mostly pick and choose from single tracks on iTunes because I can't recall one entire CD I'd be enticed to own. I don't want this to be the case with films.

A Study...

I think there might be one study we haven't commissioned yet, but which might prove very valuable. There are people out there who see any and every situation as an opportunity to be offended, cause trouble, and just generally make life miserable. You know the type: they could make Disney World a sad place to be. Their sole purpose in life is stirring up trouble.

I'm thinking if we can identify this gene and neutralize it, we might all be a little better off, no?

Life's Little Moments...

Love it when you kneel down a second and find something like a pebble, or worse, a thumbtack.

Brittany Murphy Dies

Brittany Murphy Story

This young actress died overnight in LA. I remember watching a few of her movies with my kids. Her films included "Clueless", "Uptown Girls" and "Don't Say A Word.

Another life ended too soon in Hollywood.

It's Boots Season!

Joy

There is something missing in my life at the moment. It is something that no one can give you, nor is it something that someone should give you.
It is joy.
I'm not talking about love, or wedded bliss, or contentment. I'm talking about an abstract. This kind of joy is rarely expressed. It is entirely internal. It's not the kind of joy that you share in and of itself. It's not a mutual feeling. It's the kind of joy that motivates us to do things that bring joy to others. It's a feeling inside that comes back every morning with the opening of your eyes. That feeling of being, that feeling of not only being glad to be alive, but of being grateful for the gift of life. It's something that makes you get through rough times with the same resolve that helps you appreciate the good times.
It's such a simple concept. It's something that should be so easy to hold on to. Life is a gift that we're not always wise enough to appreciate while we are alive. Life is a source of so much regret when that joy is missing. Life is a treasure that we relish every minute of when that joy is with us.
Worry doesn't change things. Yet we worry a lot more than we care to admit. Things don't get better because we worry about them. Life gets better when we act in a strong, positive way. The ability to do as much, I believe, stems from having that joy.
It's so hard to get hold of something that when we have it, we don't know that we do. This joy I'm talking about isn't a tangible. When we look for it, we don't have it. When we have it, we don't do enough to nurture it, and we can lose it without trying.
I want it back. I know that this particular feeling can't be given back. Even by those who would wish it for us. I guess it's a natural process, much like breathing. It's not the only thing in life. But life is so different without it.
Wish me luck.

Back Up!

A few years ago, I discovered a device called the T-Mobile Sidekick. I loved it immediately. It was a phone, PDA and camera. It had the usual features: calendar, address book, photo album, notebook and task list. While those were great features, an additional feature was online backup. Anything I entered into my Sidekick was immediately backed up to an Internet server, which eliminated the need to sync up the device to a computer. I could use a web interface if the device wasn't available; the interface was a mirror of everything on the device.

Another very attractive item was that this device was not Palm OS based, and more importantly, had no Microsoft-related software, functions or features. That meant a 1000% increase in reliability in my eyes.

No Microsoft? No Windows? Count me in!

I grew to heavily rely on the Sidekick. I never missed a birthday, an appointment, I had well over 1000 phone numbers, home addresses and email addy's in that device. The operating system was powered by Danger, Inc. and I loved the platform. I could count on one finger the amount of times I encountered any trouble with the OS. Microsoft Free, that's for me.

Well, unbeknownst to me, about a year ago, Danger Inc. sold out to Microsoft. It was a very quiet merger. And one that I didn't keep abreast of. That was a major mistake.

In the technology world, be it phones, smart phones or computers, the wisest advice is "back up your data!" I do that fairly religiously. And with the Sidekick, I had instant backup of every detail.

However, the largest (not to be confused with the best) software provider in the world, King Microsoft, seemed to not heed its own advice. As I mentioned, it took Danger in as a subsidiary.

Well, last Saturday evening, Danger/Microsoft encountered a major server failure. Suddenly, everyone who had a T-Mobile Sidekick had no data. No emails, address books, calendars. Over the course of the next few days, T-Mobile did its best to offer damage control and information regarding this catastrophic failure. Danger/Microsoft said nothing. There was not a single communication made, there was no mention of the failure on the Danger website. The behavior was quintessential Microsoft Business-As-Usual.

What the biggest mistake turned out to be was, Danger/Microsoft had no backup of its server that failed.

No backup. Imagine that.

Fast forward one week. T-Mobile (not Danger/Microsoft) issued a statement that basically said, what you have now is what you'll get. Most, if not all, of the data that was lost was permanently gone. Danger/Microsoft's failure was our loss.

And never a word from Danger/Microsoft. Not a peep, bit or byte. Why should they issue anything? They don't care about their customers. For every one they lose, there's another one lining up to take his place.

Danger/Microsoft committed an error that was on the same intellectual level as a builder forgetting to put cement in between the bricks.

It was a big problem for me personally. I had foolishly relied on a Microsoft product a lot more than I should have. Anyone with any real technology savvy will tell you that Microsoft is a disaster. That's why people in the know use Mac's, they run Linux systems for serious computer applications. iPods rule the music world, despite Apple's occasional Microsoft-like customer relations. The only reason I haven't gotten an iPhone for myself is that the provider here is AT&T, the only company I can think of that equals Microsoft in ineptitude and total disdain for its customers.

Had I known about the Microsoft involvement, I'd have dumped that Sidekick a year ago and would be writing something silly about me tonight instead of something stupid about Microsoft.

I thought I was smart choosing a product that provided backup, real-time, 24/7. I was dumb relying on a product that was powered by a Microsoft division.

I lose.

If you're thinking of choosing T-Mobile as a provider, consider this experience. It was an event that was exclusively related to the Sidekick devices...this time. There are a lot of products out there running on Windows Mobile. Microsoft has its fingers in a lot of pies these days, and we all know how messy that can become.

Buyer beware.

Although, I have to note, the data service is tied in with Microsoft, so I'm not surprised that an outage could last this ridiculously long.

I'm just curious how a tech company, in this day and age, does not have contingencies to avoid a multi-day outage. TMobile's data service has been down 2 days.

I forgot where this goes, lol. How's your day going, folks?

Can Even Do This

I can even add photos. I'm soooo excited. Ok last silly post, I
promise.

Like this?

I hate not being able to keep a blog on a regular basis. I read when I
can, but writing is getting to be such a problem because of time
constraints. I'd love to do it like this.

Would it be very annoying if I kept my blog going on the fly by using mobile services to post?

Burgery

Ok so I might say something like, "I'll grab a burger at McDonald's. Ya want one?"

Some people don't like McDonald's. Fine.

Normal Response:

"No thanks, don't care for McDonald's."

Psychotic Response:

"McDonald's, are you kidding me? I wouldn't eat that crap with YOUR mouth. Do you know what kind of garbage they put in there? Cow hooves, chicken feet, are you kidding me? That stuff is poison! McDonald's is a Communist company!

Please.