The short version: your cellphone carrier is probably tacking on several dollars worth of unnecessary fees to your bill each month. Do that for millions of customers and watch the money roll in. They have no incentive to stop these practices unless they begin to feel the heat from their customers. Here’s how:
For those who don’t have/use a data plan (i.e., no web browsing, app downloading, etc.)
Call their customer service line and setup a data block. Be persistent and stick to your guns should they suggest alternatives.
Examine your bills for extraneous data charges. After you get that data block, ask about a refund for those charges. Once again, be persistent (but polite).
Anyone with a cellphone can participate in David’s “Take Back the Beep” campaign:
Read through some of David’s “Take Back the Beep” blog posts (just so you know what you’re talking about).
Submit a polite complaint with your carrier via the channels listed below.
Here’s where to send your complaint (Sprint already lets you remove the message):
For those who have been on either side of a technical support interaction, this skit may be all too familiar. Courtesy of Norwegian Broadcasting (NBK).
Bad product naming aside, I was blown away by the video footage shot by Canon’s upcoming SLR in the short, “Reverie“. The video immediately takes on a film movie look, with depth-of-field shots and gorgeous color and detail in low-light settings. More after the jump.
A co-worker released a new version of the software that I help support; the occasion reminded me of this internet classic:
Top 10 things likely to be overheard from a Klingon Programmer
10. Specifications are for the weak and timid!
9. You question the worthiness of my code? I should kill you where you stand!
8. Indentation?! – I will show you how to indent when I indent your skull!
7. What is this talk of ‘release’? Klingons do not make software ‘releases’ Our software ‘escapes’ leaving a bloody trail of designers and quality assurance people in its wake.
6. Klingon function calls do not have ‘parameters’ – they have ‘arguments’ – and they ALWAYS WIN THEM.
5. Debugging? Klingons do not debug. Our software does not coddle the weak.
4. A TRUE Klingon Warrior does not comment on his code!
3. Klingon software does NOT have BUGS. It has FEATURES, and those features are too sophisticated for a Romulan pig like you to understand.
2. You cannot truly appreciate Dilbert unless you’ve read it in the original Klingon.
1. Our users will know fear and cower before our software! Ship it! Ship it and let them flee like the dogs they are!
I am infatuated with simplity: reading Unclutterer, Zen Habits, Paul Graham’s Stuff… purging my cubicle, cleaning out the garage, and maybe even picking up around our home office (the worst den of disorganization). We are paring down the amount of stuff we own. Nothing radical yet, but just a little here, a little there.
Yesterday was the first chance I’d had to play around with Yahoo Pipes: wow. The UI just blows me away for a web app, and that’s just the UI; the application itself is also solid. As Dave Brondsema and I wired, transformed, and otherwise massaged data from a variety of applications, I started to wonder how I might be able to use this in my job.
This past weekend I had the pleasure of attending BarCamp Grand Rapids. For those scratching their heads, BarCamp is an international network of technology conferences; they’ve held these events in places as varied as Belfast and Bangalore. It’s basically a chance for anyone interested in technology to get together with others in their area and talk shop.
AppleInsider has learned that Apple’s popular line of iMac personal computers are about to undergo a substantial facelift that will showcase striking new industrial designs aimed at leaving both competitors and onlookers smitten.
And that’s news… how?
“Apple’s new design is aimed at mediocrity and blending in.” “Apple’s design goals included being as ugly as possible.” Now that would have been news.
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