Well, it is official!

I have an iPhone 3G in hand!

Here is how it went down:

7/10/2008
9:00 PM: Arrived home from work. Was exhausted from long day. Fixed myself dinner.

10:30 PM: Headed off to bed. Tossed and turned.

11:00 PM: Beth (my wife) made it home from her jewelry party.

7/11/2008
2:30 AM: alarm wakes me.

3:00 AM: Enroute to ATT Store

3:15 AM: Arrival at ATT Store. There was a group of approx 8 people there (some were just haging with friends). We added our names to the official unofficial list. We were number 7 & 8. I didn’t exactly know what to expect, as I had never done anything like this before.

4:00 AM: We decided to watch “Meet the Robinsons” on a mac book pro. I provided AC power with my inverter and Wifi intenet to others in line through my WinMo phone.
6:00 AM: One by one, other people started showing up. Total line count was approx 22.

6:30 AM: Store manager arrives.

7:00 AM: Store manager asks us to form an “official” single file line. There are approx 35 people in line. He also starts taking info on his clipboard, I.E. your name, which phone model, what plan, etc. It is at this point the realization hits that there might not be enough phones to supply demand. There was at least one person from the back of the line who was offering cash to switch places so he could get one of the 16 gb models. Rumors had circulated all morning that they only had 20 iPhones, but ATT would not give out any info.

7:50 AM: They start letting groups of 4 into the store.

8:10 AM: It is our turn!! We have a few moments to handle the display models while waiting on the next available rep.

8:40 AM: We both walk out of the ATT store, Beth with a 16G White, and I with a 16G Black iPhone!! The line had grown tremendously! It was huge!!. We had got 2 of the 4 remaining 16G models. Onve inside the store we learned that they received ten 16G models, and ten 8G models.

All in all, it was a good experience. Our phones activated fine, I guess it was before the activation system failures of the day. I am sure the Apple store experience was better. I think it was a bad move on Att’s part to withhold the number of the units at the store from the poor people waiting in line, just so they could get orders for direct shipment of the phone later to the customers. I think some people figured it out on their own and left the line at drive to the nearest apple store 2.5 hours away.

Oh, and BTW! I LOVE my iPhone 3g.

Please don’t hate me. Remember, it is only a phone.

Comcast Doubles Upload Speed !

At least here in Central Virginia . . .




Just checked and now I am getting right at the 2 mbit upload rate! The upload rate was the biggest reason that I originally upgraded to the higher speed service. I was on the 6 mbit / 384 k and upgraded to the 8 mbit / 768 k service. This makes it cost effective to drop back to the new 6 mit / 1 mbit service.

However the speedtest.net test I just did reports lower download rates!?!

As much money as I am sendng comcast, I should have 16 mbit / 2 mbit service!

This got me thinking about what my usage levels are, here is a table showing my bandwith totals for the past several months:



Note: July and March are partial months.

BE CONTENT?? Are you kidding?

I have really wrecked my future. When I was a kid, while I was spoiled, I didn’t get EVERYTHING I wanted. I would drool over Estes rockets in their catalog. I would spend hours looking at the Sears catalog. We didn’t have a computer, and this was before the phenomenon called the world wide web hit. Like a typical nerd kid, my mind was stuck on rockets, airplanes, telescopes, radios, helicopters, etc. I would dream of robots that would do everyday tasks. Problem was I didn’t have any money.
In my teenage years, I worked for my uncle at his slaughter house. I had a source of MONEY! My parents didn’t instill the necessity to save money, and I bought stuff. Now, I must say, that I am not placing any blame on my parents. It was my choice. They didn’t encourage the habit. Looking back, they didn’t approve, and I didn’t listen to their guidance.
Quite quickly I had collected quite the collection of Legos, and various toys. The age of the internet did not help matters. It opened my mind too many possibilities. I progressed to higher paying jobs, and with the increase of pay came the increase of stuff.
The years from age 18 to 25 brought nearly every childhood dream / desire to reality.
Radio Controlled Airplanes, Helicopters, Cars / Trucks. Ham radios. Metal detectors. High Powered Rockets. Computers. Laptops. High speed internet. Cell phones. PDA cell phones. Telescopes. Digital cameras. Video cameras. The list could go on and on.
I must admit a few things. I didn’t get hooked on credit. If I didn’t have the money, I didn’t buy the item. Thank goodness for that! Also I am happy of the fact that the money that I spend at least went into tangible things, and not wholly into services. At least I have something to show for my horrible habits – even today!! Many items have since found their way through Ebay, on to others.
While the past 10 years have yielded lots of stuff, I have emerged without debt! This I am very thankful for! Unfortunately I also didn’t have and real savings either.

Thanks to the recent Dave Ramsey Financial Peace University course that my wife signed “us” (i.e. ME) up for, it has helped break the bad habits and help remove the hand from my face so I can see further into my future.

It has helped me understand where our money is going, and now for the first time in my life I have a sense of financial control. To some, Dave Ramsey may be an extremist out of touch with the “real” world. But the things that I have learned in his course have broken the chains in my life holding me back from a decent future.
The lifestyle that I was living was not indefinitely sustainable.
Now that the blinders are off, I can see the horrible disease called discontentment. I see it in others lives everyday. It is disgusting. I understand that true needs do exist. However, once a person grasps that “things” will NEVER bring contentment, your view of life will change – For the better!

If there is one thing that I would want you to take from this rant it is this:
“If I could only get that software, or that computer, or that iPhone . . . Everything will be fixed. . . I will have arrived”
It is a lie!! Don’t let it run your life!!

Come on over! It’s nice over here!!

Deep into the iPhone decision 2008:

When the first iPhone was released a year ago, it was before my conversion (My mac conversion). I was content with my windows pc's. I overlooked their quirks and issues. As a loyal Windows Mobile pda/phone carrying nerd, I have owned an Audiovox PPC-6700 , and currently a HTC Titan.

A little background:

My computer skills started on an Tandy 1000HD. It had an 8086 processor, a 10 MB hard drive, and was running dos 2.11. This was in the mid 80s. My grandmother had purchased this machine brand new costing over $3000, for the family business. It sat neglected and unused for many years.

Packard Bell 386sx-33. 486dx4-100. Pentium 90. These are the computers that I had access to in the 1990's.

Then came 1999. The first computer that I personally owned, was a dual processor pentium 466 mhz that I built using the Abit bp6 motherboard. Later, I purchased Windows 2000 so I could utilize both processors.

I had not seen an apple computer at any point during this time. When my grandmother bought that Tandy 1000, she had looked at the apple and the Tandy, and if I was told correctly, she chose the Tandy instead of the Apple based on the fact that the Tandy had a hard disk and the Apple didn't. She didn't know ANYTHING about computers. Maybe the psycho Radioshack salesmen were better than the Computerland salesmen. I do know that computerland closed it doors before I was old enough to remember drooling over computers. With that, as far as I know, the only apple outlet near my hometown dissapeared.

Fast forward to 2007.

The first iPhone release. Whoopty-Doo. Look at all the crazy people. They were paying hundreds of dollars for a phone that was VERY limited. Sure, you could resize a photo by pinching. But could you download and install a super cool satellite tracking program, so you could determine when an amateur radio satellite was coming overhead? Could you edit a Word, Excel, or Powerpoint file?
Yet people flocked to the iPhone, even with these deficiencies. Why?
After my vista fiasco, and then the introduction of my Mac Mini, the curtain was lifted.

Sure, you might loose a tiny bit of the functionality you were used to, but you gain so much more.

1. I don't have to "reboot" all the time to "fix" things.
2. Strange cryptic error messages do not popup. (i.e. A Fatal Exception, or Illegal Operation . . .)
3. I don't have and Antivirus/Malware/Spyware program hogging my processor / emptyng my wallet.
4. I don't have to jump through hoops when I "attempt" and new hardware install.

Basically it comes down to this:

Everything a Mac does, it does well. Things are intuitive, not cluttered.

I have been responsible for 4 macs being purchased in the last 6 months by loyal pc users. (maybe I had a little help from Microsoft's Vista, who knows? ;) )
So now we get down to the subject at hand:
I am getting an iPhone based on my experiences with my mac. I don't expect the iPhone to have every feature, capability, or freedom that my current Windows Mobile pda phone has. BUT!! I look forward to having a phone that is more stable, and just plain works.

Would you give up a little to gain stability? What is more important, features or Getting Things Done?

And after you dive in, the water is great. It is nice over here!! Come on over!! I promise you won't miss a thing!! REALLY!

My Father-in-law on TV!

Here is link to the blog post on my Brother-in-law's blog.

Check it out!

http://www.ear-fung.us/2008/06/dad-on-tv/

coming soon . . . iPhone 3G

I've been busy and haven't posted the news:

I am going to get an iPhone 3G!

AT&T doesn't have the greatest network in the Lynchburg Virginia area, but I think that the iPhone features will tip the scales. I have been looking to combine cellular service with my wife to save a buck or two, and also since the whole "Mac" conversion, I have been wanting an iPod.

We looked at the cost of the pda/phone devices on sprint, and we were going to have to put out nearly $800 one time and ~$175 a month for 2 pda phones. (one for me and one for my darling wife)

Looks like for less money we will be getting more with the iPhone.

Now only if AT&T had 3G service here . . .

New Tractor Pulling videos on Youtube

Just dropping a note to say that the latest tractor pulling video from June, 13th at Franklin County Recreation Park have been uploaded to Youtube. I have several videos on youtube. One way of finding them is by going to youtube and searching for CVATPA

Otherwise:

My Indiana Jones Spoon!

Nothing special, I think every box of mini wheats have one in it.

I felt like a little kid! Silly and sad, I know.

My dad and the tractor pull sled slam!

I was out of town for the weekend and missed the tractor pull in South Boston, VA.

Today I was informed of some of the events that occurred there!!!

WOW! These guys ARE crazy. Here's a still frame of the video I was sent.



Video courtesy Memory Lane Videos

WRT54G router os

I am a huge fan of the third-party linux firmware available for the variety of broadcom based routers.

I started originally with the offerings of sveasoft, many years ago, and for the past 2.5 years have fully deployed dd-wrt on the wireless routers that I administer.

Tonight, I have turned a new page, by installing Tomato, on my personal router. I was initially drawn to it for its simple clean light feel. But now I am consumed with its bandwidth monitoring capabilities.

Granted, with the recent crackdowns in my local area by Comcast on "Network Abuse", I think that I might keep an eye out for my usage.

If you have a Tomato supported router, I would suggest looking it over.