Chaosbutterfly

Just a short note.  I am riding home and took this out the bus window.  Hope everyone has a great Labor Day weekend!

They let me out of my contract without the penalty since they pretty much had screwed me over and there isn’t 4G service in my area yet to replace it.  I’m happy.  That’s $60 a month I don’t have to pay any longer.

BBC News – Paul Allen sues tech giants over patent violations.

Can you say “Patent Troll?”  I knew you could.

The US patent office is in such a need for reform.  It’s to the point that serious creativity and the ability for new ideas to be put into new technologies in this country is at threat.

Should We Clone Neanderthals?.

It sounds like the beginnings of a bad SF movie, doesn’t it?  After the news came out that someone had actually sequenced the Neanderthal’s DNA the question had to be raised eventually.

I got this email this morning saying that they have capped my air card unlimited wireless data services at 5G.  It’s not like I didn’t know that they may do it, but damnit, I bought unlimited and my contract is going to expire anyway in October.  So why can’t they wait and be evil in October?

I looked at my usage.  I was already past 4G and and I have another 3 weeks before my “minutes” renew.  Gawd I use a lot of data.  It must be all that internet radio I listen to.  That and all the podcasts and internet tv, netflix etc.   I guess now I need to tether…

I had a conversation with their “costumer service rep” online.  That was interesting.  The guy must be in India.  Check this out, and I managed to be really polite with him, not like I wanted to.  I guess my good southern upbringing kicked in:

At least for now.   My stomach can’t handle it.  I discovered some of the problems I had were actually symptoms of a possible ulcer or other stomach problem.  And most started with the introduction of coffee.  On the plus side, I’m off the caffeine addiction and I’m feeling hugely better.  I’m currently drinking chicory right now and I’ve come to like it.  Odd as that may seem.  I’m glad I made that large order, it’s hard to find chicory that’s not mixed with some coffee these days.

I heard this morning on NPR that KUHF is buying KTRU’s frequency to broadcast classical music 24/7.  My problem with this is that I really like KTRU, and there is no other independent eclectic student run stations here in Houston.  The students were never asked what they thought of this and the whole thing is being done without any regards to the student body’s opinion.  They have a website up about saving the station and I have a link to the KUHF story below.

KUHF article

Save KTRU.

From 1890: The First Text Messages | Sunday Magazine.

How about a little 19th century L33t 5p33k?

I’ve been doing a little genealogy research and discovered one of my ancestors, my Great^4 Grandfather, had been a private in the Confederate army in Arkansas.  He wasn’t however, a private for long…he lasted 5 months.

In fact, it was hard to find anyone there who hadn’t deserted. The war was brutal and that particular winter was unusually cold. I’ve read a bit of the history of the regiment he was in and they lost around 60% of their numbers in battle. In fact, it’s a good thing he did desert when he did.  Just 4 days later, Sherman’s army surrounded the fort he was at and pummeled it for a day with Union Navy gun boats and artillery.  All of his regiment was captured and all the enlisted men were marched north to Camp Douglas, Illinois, one of the worst of the Northern Prisoner camps.  Around half of them died during the winter of small pox and pneumonia.   He missed all of that and made it home to father a bunch a kids.  It is likely I wouldn’t be here if he hadn’t done so.

I get the impression that he decided he had enough of the war and went home to his very young wife, my great^4 grandmother who was only 18 at the time.  A few years later he packed up the rest of his extended family and moved them all to Texas.  This is how my family ended up in Glen Rose.

Ok, so this weekend I managed to get my Sprint HTC Hero to tether.  I figure if they have the software built in to the OS, it must be ok to use it.  Right?  I hope so.  It turns out the phone gets higher transfer rates than my Sierra Wireless Sprint Air Card.  The dedicated air card is old, I just had to change out its lithium battery, but it still works so I’ve been reluctant to upgrade it.  I’m like that with tech, mostly because I’m on a budget while I pay of stuff.  I am also on a contract with Sprint on that air card so I can’t do anything but use it until that contract is out.  So I’ll use that card for a few more months.  The only real downfall to tethering to the phone is the fact if I get a call, I’m off the internet.  So, just call me on Skype, if I have the phone un-tethered, it will transfer anyway to the phone.  If I am abusing my phone in a tethering way, it will go to Skype where I can answer it and stay online.

That brings me to another thing.  Fring, the mobile multi-chat/voice app that worked on my phone that until a few days ago, used to do Skype.  I loved this service, it really allowed me to make phone calls while Skype is too snootie to let it’s own app work on stuff other than Verizon, Fring happily would oblige.   Now Fring is in the middle of some sort of childish tiff with Skype, so I downloaded Nimbuzz.  Well… Fring really does indeed have a beef with Skype in that now Nimbuzz seems to be a victim of Skype’s non-admitted wrath.

Skype, stop trying to please the big cell phone providers.  Just relax that sphincter and let everyone download your app or use your service.  It’s better not to piss off your users.  You don’t want to wind up like the record companies.

Thank you.