Videos galore

I met one of the Sensepost guys today and his blog lead me to this video, which lead me to this even more interesting video.

 

Parallels support impressed me

I was floored today to receive a call from the Paralles support team.  They called to see how the software was working out for me.  This is probably the first time I purchased a piece of software and the vendor called to make sure things were working well.

I told them I enjoyed the software but that switching between applications using the Coherence mode was not easy.  The support person let me know that they were aware of this and had a fix for it in beta right now.  They reminded me to use the “check for updates” periodically and that the fix should be available in 2-3 weeks.

How many support people know enough about the applications they sell to give you an answer like this.  Wow!

 

Favorite Dilbert of all time

This has to be my favorite Dilbert cartoon of all time.  I laughed when I read it and every day for a week when I re-read it.

 

Indie movie

I rejoyed watching Four Eyed Monster on YouTube, but didn’t donate or buy any of their stuff. I feel a little bad. I gave $2 to a stranger on the street out of guilt but didn’t give $3 to these artists who worked and then hoped for money.

The movie made me remember making mixed tapes, writing letter, sending emails, and chatting online. The mode of communication is slowed down and requires the speaker to think about what they say before saying it.

I really enjoyed this movie.

Update: ok, I ordered the DVD.

 

Nerdcore Culture

Check out what Episteme.ca has to say about nerd culture. If anyone has a playlist they like of nerdcore culture tunes let me know. I want to load up my iPod and jam to them.

Ok, just subscribe to Radio Free Hipster…

 

T-Mobile Dash – my new phone

I finally broke down and ordered a new phone so I can receive email directly to me anywhere-anytime. (I hear Chipmonkey groaning.)

I decided on the T-Mobile Dash over the Blackberry and other PDAs because it had what I wanted. Took me toiling over C-Net reviews, personal reviews, and the difference between Microsoft Mobile Pocket PC vs Smartphone edition (sheesh).

I picked the Dash because it has a nice screen, full keyboard, Wi-Fi, still rather small, camera, and most importantly the T-Mobile data service is the cheapest hands down. I can get full data service for $39/month and that includes T-Mobile hotspot access. I already pay about $30/month just for this so it’s a huge cost savings.

Also, thanks to Microsoft and their friends and family plan I got the following:

• $300 off the phone (final cost after $50 mail-in rebate is $50)
• No activation charge
• 1 year contract (instead of 2 year)
• Free 2-day shipping

I was sold. The phone was basically free, I’m not locked into unreasonable contracts, and the monthly service is reasonable (especially because I have access at T-Mobile hotspots.) Also, living in California I can test the phone for 30 days (instead of 20 in other states) before I decide I really want to stick with it.

I was a T-Mobile customer for 5 years before switching to Cingular, who proceeded to fleece me numerous different ways. I’ll be happy to switch back.

Anyone from T-Mobile want to make a “switch” commercial? I’m the first in line to speak up.

Update: The Consumerist reminds us that Cingular is evil. I also wanted to let you know about a bug in the T-Mobile Dash. I called customer care today who told me that the Volume Touch Strip has a manufacturers defect that makes it totally useless.

If you are on the phone and someone else calls your current call will be disconnected if the touch strip is active. You don’t even have to touch it to make this happen, it just does. What was their solution? Disable the touch strip.

Now, this sounds strange, but the only solution to keep your calls from being disconnected when someone else calls you is to disable the touch strip. I asked why it is there in the first place. They claim that it works… they just recommend you disable it.

 

Netvibes might be my new homepage

I check my blog stats incessantly, too much if you ask me. Recently one site has been hitting my blog and I could not figure out what it was. The site is called Netvibes and the reason I never knew what it was is because I disabled cookies for that site. The moment I enabled them the world opened up and I understood.

Netvibes might be my new homepage, replacing Google.

 

Apple vs. Dell

Last night my brother called me, which I love, and we talked about the next version of Parallels for the Mac.  He was telling me that the next version will work with BootCamp for running a guest OS.  This means you can install Vista on a BootCamp partition and then use Parallels to access its applications via the Mac OS.  Pretty nifty.

He also brought up the fact that Macs are very over priced.  For the equivalent systems he can get a Dell for $800 whereas the same Mac would cost $3000.  Can anyone justify this?  I can’t make a business decision to go with a Mac if they cost more than 3 times that of an equivalent Dell.

 

Email addresses so bad you cry

I laughed so hard I cried when I read this post on “E-mail Addresses It Would Be Really Annoying to Give Out Over the Phone“. I won’t even reproduce them here, you really have to see them for yourself.

I still can’t get the sound byte out of my head as I imagine someone trying to give these out over the phone to a customer service representative. You know how they sometimes ask you to verify your email address? I’m smiling ear to ear.

If you still need more laughs check out all the lists by Timothy McSweeney.

 

Netvibes might be my new homepage

I check my blog stats incessantly, too much if you ask me.  Recently one site has been hitting my blog and I could not figure out what it was.  The site is called Netvibes and the reason I never knew what it was is because I disabled cookies for that site.  The moment I enabled them the world opened up and I understood.

Netvibes might be my new homepage, replacing Google.