William Reardon’s Blog

That’s it, I’ve joined the cellular-only pack. I’ve given up the land-line and am relying exclusively on my cell phone for voice communications. I still technically have a landline — I have a contract getting me the “Pro” level of DSL for $18/month for until Feb, but I called SBC today and have them deactivate everything else. No CallerId, no 3-way calling, no long distance, no “local long distance” (whatever the hell that was). In the end, it’ll save me about $40/month and what I pay SBC now is cheaper than what it would have been to add Internet onto Cable, so I’m fine with it.

What finally pushed me over the edge? Well, a few things:

• About two months ago, my answering machine broke. Not a big deal — I’ve had it for, what, 8 years? It used a cassette tape for Pete’s sake! When trying to replace it, I learned that’s pretty uncommon now. In fact, even just an answering machine by itself is pretty uncommon. My only choices at Fry’s where a full-fledged automated telcom system or a combo cordless/answering machine for ~$100. Screw that. I just want an answering machine.

• A few weeks ago, the static on my cordless became more pronounced, to the point where I sometimes couldn’t hear the person on the other end. (It was fine on the wired $7 Walgreens phone, so I know it wasn’t the line.)

• I looked at my most recent phone bill and noticed I pay ~$20 for DSL, ~$20 for the long distance plan, and ~$20 for “normal” service. In other words, ~$40 for a bunch of crap I hardly use.
  

With all that — a new answering machine, a new phone, on top of close $40/month — I decided it just wasn’t worth it, so goodbye SBC.

It’ll be interesting to see how telephony has changed in about 50 years, if the big telcos are still around, and if so, in what form. They clearly have to change as they’re built on a model accustom to having a monopoly. Customer service is usually pretty bad, adding/changing options is fairly complex, typically require some kind of satanic bundling, and worse, in most cases, to change anything, you can’t do it yourself online — you have to call in, wait on hold, etc.

Personally, considering the abuse they’ve dolled out to their customers , I’m hoping SBC/AT&T will be out of business.

Whatcha you want Natalie?
To drink and fight!
Whatcha you need Natalie?
To f*ck all night!

http://youtube.com/watch?v=l7qlXQ-EriI

As Sang no longer sends out links of the crazy shit he finds online, I find myself to being simply one of the unwashed masses checking out Fark. Still, there are upshots, such as this post.

The post in of itself is great (adding to the irony that MoveOn is based out the city that recently voted against US Armed Forces recruiting in high school, as if serving your country is bad), but the true gem was in the comments:

When we acheive victory in Iraq, the Iraqi people win, the US wins, the Republicans win, the Democrats win, and the world wins.

If we were to lose, the only winners would be the terrorists and the Democrats.

A BIG congratulations to Dave, Diana and, as of 2pm , their newborn baby girl, Aurelia!

From the pictures she looks absolutely adorable. I’m already back in Chicago for Thanksgiving, but I’m looking forward to meeting her when I get back!

I’m blogging from Burbank airport, as I’m about to head off to the Webmaster World conference for a couple of days.

If you’re reading this, find me & say hello! (I’ll be the walking lighthouse, possibly wearing a YPN t-shirt if I remembered to bring it.)

A lot of people complain of the huge size of the British Museum. What they don’t know is they let you take naps in the Egyptian coffins.

Mr. T Raps.

I lived through (and loved) the 80s, so I’m not casting stones, but, dude, what’s up with the shorts? Maybe Eddie Murphy was onto something after all.

• If you’re a touch-typist, being in a country like Austria, where they reverse things on the keyboard, like the ‘y’ & ‘z’, move the @ sign, etc., really fucks up your game.

• Looks like I won’t be eating chicken in a few days.
  

If you’re doing a linux/mac dual-screen hack using x2vnc and OSXvnc and notice some lag, the following may help:

sudo /usr/sbin/sysctl -w net.inet.tcp.delayed_ack=0

Anyone know how to make this permanent on a mac? It seems to be ignoring /etc/sysctl.conf.

The downside to working near an Apple store is the barrior to picking up one of these tomorrow is quite low.