Not Emo Enough

So I bought one. The original title of this web page was supposed to be sarcastic, but it turned out people took it serious. I have moved this blog to another one. Kr5is blog 3.0 is located at thesilent5.net. I figure the title of my blog should really have something to do with me. I’ll be writing my thoughts and complaints there from now on. This one will be retired after a while then maybe brought back as something, but I think I just might let the domain die and go the way of so many before it. To DNS heaven.

Please change you Bloglines, RSS feeds, and bookmarks to the new domain!

Well, yesterday proved to be a roller coaster of a day as far as the much anticipated iPhone 3G announcement went. I have recently became an apple adopter, but it has been something I planned to do for a long time.

Growing up, and keeping an eye on the options of personal computers, I never understood the reason to have a Macintosh product in my home. Nothing seemed to be compatible with anything I used at home or school. The endless resources of programs that were available on a standard PC, running a Microsoft operating system, were not available on a Mac. That may be an ignorant statement, however for me personally it was a valid statement. I first became interested in the world of Apple when I used one to record a score for a musical at a studio at BYU. I always understood the advantage of using a Mac for multimedia like music and video. I have always know that to properly use ProTools to record my own music I would need a Mac. I never had the money for that so I had no reason to make the transition.

Then I bought an iPod. I was very impressed with the design, and how clean and easy it was. I began to feel like I had sold Apple products short all these years. I mean how can I possibly question a company that brought us devices the Newton!? In all seriousness, Newton aside, I was really considering my next computer purchase to be an Apple computer. I saw wonderful products like the MacMini roll out of the mill. I wanted one before they were even released. I kept watching eBay for PowerBooks in hopes I could get one at a decent price. No such luck. Then one day the MacBook was released with an Intel based processor. I took a second look at the Macintosh line, and found that for what I do with computers I was more capable with a Mac than with a Windows machine. I finally joined the Mac club earlier this year when I purchased a MacBook Pro.

I bought an iPhone the day it was released. I have never been happier with a mobile phone, and again I was blown away by the design and and capability. I did wish it was 3G, but it has been a great device for me for almost a year now. The things I felt were hard to swallow about the iPhone was the AT&T prices that had been set for the iPhone plans. I can’t say I didn’t expect this from a greedy phone provider like AT&T but I had a little hope for the plans to be more affordable. I mean $59 dollars for 450 minutes, unlimited data, and only 200 text messages!? If I wanted unlimited text messages I would have to pay an additional $30. Total $90. With my previous carrier, that price would have got me 900 minutes, unlimited text messages. So I investigated further. Fortunately I have friends who prefer cheaper phone plans too. We all decided to join a family plan which will allow the entire family to get unlimited texting for the same $30 that I would have had to pay for just my line. Once it was all setup and completed I payed $58 dollars a month after taxes and fees to use an iPhone. All 4 iPhone users on my family plan got that rate because we spread the text equally between the 4 iPhone users and another person on the plan not using an iPhone. What I ended up with was 1400 shared minutes of which we use 1100, unlimited data and unlimited text messages. I feel that $60 dollars a month is a fair price. I have been happy with that price, I was a bit pissed that I got nailed with activation fee’s which are retarded and won’t be discussed in this article, but probably should be at another time.

Skip ahead to yesterday. It had been highly rumored that an iPhone with 3G capability would be announced at this year’s WWDC. Along with it there had been high hopes of more functionality to be included in the new iPhone. I personally had hoped for copy/paste functionality, along with the ability to send video or picture messages. Not that hard to program and definitely no need to upgrade the hardware for it. My hopes were dashed during the keynote speech which turned out to be a really long infomercial on the games and crappy programs that people can now put on the phone. They ran right past the place that I hoped would take the most time. New or modified features on the phone were briefly mentioned. Things like a new scientific calculator, which I won’t use, bulk email deletion, the App Store and Exchange integration which we already knew about. Where is flash integration in Safari, internet tethering, or themes and springboard icon mods? I wasn’t too impressed with the new features, and the only thing I would look forward to was faster mobile browsing. The $199 price tag for an 8GB iPhone 3G looked really nice, but I had this feeling that it was too good to be true.

As it turns out it was too good to be true. I visited Apple’s web page, and saw the line that says, “Phone, iPod, and Internet in one fast 3G device. Starting at $199*.” Did you see the asterisk? I sure did. I explored a little further only to find this:

The fine print will get you every time. The phone is only $199 for people that sign a new 2 year contract. I had hoped that I could just buy my iPhone 3G outright and not have to extend my contract, which I look forward to being out of a year from now. I had began to weigh the possibility that I might extend my contract when I read this.

All iPhone 3G customers are required to have one of the new data plans and qualifying voice plan.  Customers intending to use the iPhone 3G for access to corporate e-mail, business applications, or access to corporate intranet are required to activate with Enterprise Data Plan for iPhone.
…
Data Pricing will be as follows:
Consumer Data Plan (must be added to qualified voice plan):
$30 - Unlimited Data (E-mail/Web), includes Visual Voicemail

Enterprise Data Plan (must be added to qualified voice plan):
$45 – Unlimited Data with personal and corporate e-mail, web, includes Visual Voicemail

There are two things wrong with this:

1.  Data is $10 more a month than it was previously.

I don’t believe that newer technology should be more expensive as a service just because it is better.  I know a lot of ISP’s and mobile providers like the one i’m complaining about that disagree based on their track record.  I understand cost of providing a service, but when the means of delivering the 3G technology are identical to the 2G technology why are we being charged 50% more for it?  Because it’s better?  Shouldn’t you charge the same amount and let the consumer move in the direction of the better technology?  I know, how un-Capitalistic of me to suggest that.

2.  If I want to use Exchange Active Sync using the same Unlimited 3G internet they want me to pay $45 a month?

How is that justified?  I own my own exchange server.  I own my own iPhone.  There is a program on the iPhone called Active Sync that is payed for along with the iPhone.  Everything is payed for on the hardware and software end.  Now all I need is a means to communicate.  That is where the 3G comes in.  If I am already paying $30 a month for unlimited use, why would using 3G to work with my Exchange email cost $15 dollars more a month?  It’s the same internet as 2G, 3G, DLS or Broadband.  There is no magical internet network called Enterprise.  The same amount of data will be transfered using POP3 instead of Exchange.  There is nothing different about how the information is being transmitted and received over the 3G network, but for some reason AT&T feel they have the right to charge me for it.  I call Bullshit.

For those reasons I probably won’t be updating to the new iPhone.  I will most likely be leaving AT&T come June 2009 and I will unlock MY iPhone and use it with T-Mobile.  Better prices, for the same shitty service.  I’ll only be down 3G, but It’s not worth it to me to be ass-raped by AT&T.

I know that nobody but a few people care about this, but I think some things need to change.  These companies already over charge us for these services.  See GThing’s blog on the True Price of SMS Messages for more of what I mean.

AT&T has a chance to keep me as a customer if they would drop the need to screw me out of the extra $15 to have 3G and Exchange.  Oh, they’re not even charging 2G or EDGE users extra to use the Exchange integration of the iPhone, which will be available to me at the same time as the iPhone 3G.  God AT&T pisses me off.

I enjoy many things on the intertubes. I usually spend my day searching for new articles to read and fancy things to appease my short attention span. For example I was bored yesterday trying to read cnn.com. Everything seemed so stagnant. The world is in chaos, blah, blah, blah, blah. Even the infotainment (yes CNN has it too) was lamer than usual. Wikipedia was useless ^{[citation needed]}, I beat it last week. I had to take on an article about Cold Fusion all while being sideswiped by the filmography of Darren Aronofsky. It was an epic battle and I took some losses, but ultimately I became the wiki master.

Today I wanted to share with you something I occasionally turn to in order to lighten my mood or take my mind off of the fact that our two party political system is ruining our country each day.

And now your moment of zen:

Oh how it would be to be back in my glory days as a Starship Captain! I’ll have to tell you about those adventures another time.

Here is another:

Both of the images I have shared with you are created and distributed by Echo Sphere.

I may be nerdy for posting Star Trek inspirational posters, but my spirits sure are lifted! Now on to the next adventure the interweb brings me. Perhaps I will complete all of xkcd!?

I heard each of these statements yesterday in no particular order.

• The Media in the world is sinful.

• The world wants you to be wicked.

• The rest of the world is without compassion.

-Thank you for the idea, Steve.

I went to California this weekend, but not without a few troubles. My license was expired, and Delta refused to take my bags. I already had a boarding pass, and if I had not been checking a bag, I wouldn’t have had this problem. Unfortunately for me, I can’t stand travel shampoo and I can’t bring that through security. I ended up missing my flight on Thursday night and had to leave the next morning. Please read my complaint letter to Delta Airlines. Let me know if you think I’m right or wrong. Before you read, I believe personally that it’s wrong that the airline requires government ID to take your bags or check in. I could carry on and check in online and never have to show my ID to a member of the airline.

April 14^th, 2008

To Whom It May Concern,

My name is Kristofer Harrison, a recent Delta Airlines ‘valued’ customer. I am writing you to inform you of the experience of service you offered your ‘valued’ customer on the night of April 10^th, 2008. I had travel arrangements to fly from SLC to SMF on Delta flight DL 1189 at 9:25 PM. I arrived at Salt Lake City International Airport at 8:00 PM that night.

I had 1 bag to check and had already checked in and obtained a printed boarding pass via your online check-in feature which was great! Very useful and I am grateful for the email notifications. I proceeded to drop off my bag to a woman manning a baggage drop off location. She was extremely friendly, and looked at my boarding pass and Utah State Driver’s License. To my surprise my License had expired on my birthday. She said that she can’t take my bag. I was sort of confused, but she told me to go to the desk and have them help me there. So I proceeded to the full service desk to speak with a representative there, and possibly speak with a supervisor. I expected I would get a different boarding pass with the dreaded ‘SSSS’ on it. I had heard of my friends experience traveling with an expired license in which they had to do additional screening in order to enter the sterile area of the airport. After I had waited my turn in line at the full service desk, I informed your representative, a very kind Indian woman, that I was directed here because my license had expired. She quickly informed me that I will not be flying. I said, “Wait, why not? Is this a new TSA policy that I was not aware of?” She said it has always been this way. She asked me for other ID’s. All I had was a Visa card, a PADI Diving License with photo , and a Costco card with a very bad picture of myself on it. It was very apparent that I am in fact Kristofer Harrison. She said she didn’t know if she could accept these as identification. I understand that, but I still failed to understand why I couldn’t go through additional screening and board my flight. She said that the TSA would not let me through the check point (a lie). I asked for a supervisor to come and explain this further. Your kind representative made a call on the red phone (which amused me when I immediately thought of the Bat-Phone from the old Batman series) to ask for a supervisor. We waited for 5 minutes and a supervisor never came. She then went to another representative to inquire about my situation. She came back after a moment and asked me for my other cards that I had. She took them to the other rep, and came back saying that they will need a second form of government identification, perhaps a Social Security Card, Passport or Birth Certificate. I don’t have a passport seeing as I’m an American citizen and have never felt the need to leave our fine borders. Who honestly carries their social security card or birth certificate with them? I used to carry my social card until a government worker at the DMV told me not to. Ironic. She told me that she can give me a flight in the morning and I’ll have to come back with the other ID. She even told me that if I was flying home they would let me board, and I’m sure, give me a nifty boarding pass with the ‘SSSS’ on it. I said fine, and she moved my flight and printed a new itinerary card for me.

Let me inform you right now that I know it was my fault for not realizing that my driver’s license was expired. Had it not been I’m positive this would have been a pleasant experience for all of us. I realize my fault, what I need you, Delta Airlines, to do is realize is your fault in the situation. I am the proud son of a government employee who happens to work at Salt Lake International Airport as a TSA employee. I left the counter with my new itinerary in hand and immediately called my Dad to ask him about TSA policy. He informed me that the TSA requires additional screening for passengers with expired licenses, but they are ALLOWED TO FLY. I was left thinking, why has Delta taken it upon themselves to screen me? I had proven without a doubt that I am Kristofer Harrison, and that I had paid for transportation to Sacramento from Salt Lake City. It was up to the TSA to screen me, my luggage and make sure I was clear to go. It was clear that if I had not checked my bag, which contained more that 3 ounces of hair paste, toothpaste, and cologne that was a gift I’m not willing to part with, that I would have been able to fly. I resigned this battle at 9:00 and was forced to drive home, which is an hour from the airport, attempt to sleep then get up at an indecent hour to be on time for an 8:40 AM flight. I intentionally purchased my ticket for the night before so I wouldn’t have to wake up at 6:00.

The following morning I arrived at the airport at 7:40 AM with my expired driver’s license and birth certificate. I checked in at the Delta kiosk where I had my boarding pass printed. No ‘SSSS’. I proceeded to the baggage drop, where another very friendly representative greeted me. He took my bag, boarding pass and ID. Then to my shock, he took my bag! I didn’t have to show him my birth certificate. I waited through the security line and was greeted by an unusually chipper TSA TDC (Travel Document Checker). He looked at my license and told me that since it was expired that I needed additional screening, I then said I had my birth certificate, he looked at it, and checked with another TDC, but informed me that I will still need the additional screening. I told him I was fine with that and then he wrote with a pen the ‘SSSS’ on the boarding pass. I proceeded through the checkpoint and ended up being thoroughly search by a person who knew my father. All together the TSA gave me a better experience than Delta Airlines did. I had been put on a very cramped SkyWest Connection flight where I didn’t have a window seat, and the AC wasn’t powerful enough.

Furthermore, on my flight home my ID was never mentioned, but as expected, I was a selectee again. I respectfully request a response that is not some “our policy” response. I need to know why it is a policy in the first place if it really is. Not only did this event inconvenience me, as a result I was forced to arrange other travel arrangements from the airport when I arrived in Sacramento, costing about $50 because of my late arrival. Please respond to this letter as I will be publishing it in a public forum and sending it to you. I will be continuing to write until I get an accurate and appropriate answer.

One last thing. A quick Google search for ‘TSA expired license’, pulls up numerous scenarios in which people were able to travel with an expired license after additional screening. There is even a link to the TSA web page which gives you information about the security process. I think it may be good for your Airline execs to look at it, and stop unnecessary policies, which are hurting the reputation of the airline.

I have learned 2 things from this experience. 1) Make sure my ID is not expired when I fly. 2) Never fly Delta Airlines until I am certain this doesn’t happen to anyone again. Delta is the only airline I know of that has this policy. You have a very talented flight staff but your ID policy, if there really is one, is ridiculous. Isn’t the right to reasonable means of transportation a protected right in this country? Why was I (Profit $) an exception? Why was your staff, (Overhead -$) misinformed about TSA policies? What are you going to do to rectify the situation, and make sure nobody experiences what I experienced again?

Respectfully,

Kristofer Harrison

On a more political note, I’m happy to have a federal standard in Airport security, but a good portion of the policies in place are ridiculous, especially the expired ID one. Just because it’s expired shouldn’t make it invalid as ID, it should make it invalid as a right to drive, but that is it! It’s becoming more difficult and stressful to be a law abiding citizen. When those planes ran into those towers it did a lot more than scar us and make us mourn. Liberty died a little that day, and has continued to die more and more with each step we take towards ’securing’ our citizens. There is no such thing as safety in this world.

Woke up to a brand new skyline
We licked our wounds and mourn the dead
Swallow the story hook and sinker
Is that what we meant when we said
That we never would forget?

Are we fools and cowards all
To let them cover up their lies?
Cause we all watched the buildings fall
Watched the scales fall from our eyes

A fire burns beneath Manhattan
Still we breathe with broken lungs
We act like none of this matters
Is that what we meant When we said
That we’d sing what must be sung?

Are we fools and cowards all
To let them cover up their lies?
Cause we all watched the buildings fall
Watched the scales fall from our eyes

We want justice
Scream from the roof
We want justice
We want the truth

You never know what you might find when you sit down and have nothing else to do while surfing the intertubes. Recently the Salt Lake City area was added to Google’s Street View. I have heard reports off and on, about people getting upset about being able to see into the windows of houses and cars. I find this funny, and I don’t plan to get up in arms about it at all. Here is an example. I decided to look at my parent’s house. I grew up there and lived there for 11 years of my life. So I put my little Google buddy on the road in front of my parents house and find a fairly high resolution photo of my house, which also contains a picture of my dad strolling across the yard. Click here to see it. I had to laugh. I immediately called their house and got my brother on the phone and had him click on the link I emailed him. It took a minute to explain how to use the Google Maps page, but he figured it out, and had a great time clicking Eastward and getting a clip of my dad walking. I don’t know how my dad feels about it yet, but I also found this. This is my apartment, and my green Chevrolet pick-up truck is parked in front. I obviously don’t mind the fact that you can find these thing on the internet about me. I have given out two of my personal addresses here by posting those links, and if anyone wants a free Kris show, then just ask. After all, you can’t rape the willing.

It’s been fun to look at all sorts of things from the cars-eye view, in my local town. I actually found my truck in two separate places, at work and at home. I have been hearing people complain about ‘what ifs’. What if my boss can prove I wasn’t sick because he saw me on Google maps? What if perverts (apparently like me) go around looking for faces on Google maps? You know what? You’re just as safe as you were 10 minutes before you found your photo, and can you hear the sound of nobody caring? Plus if you are faking sick you deserve to get caught. If anybody is looking to stalk you, or is out there looking for targets on Google maps, they won’t get far. The photos aren’t updated enough to be of any interest, and there are plenty of other tools out there to help out the stalking population… Like MySpace.
Keep in mind that this is all my personal opinion, and I haven’t paid very much attention to the controversy if there even is one. I don’t know what legal ramifications might really be in store for Google or the people they photograph. But I have had to wonder, why? Why is this tool available? The only real answer I could hear Google giving that I would believe was, “Because we can!”

Doctors are sadists who like to play God and watch lesser people scream.

***

I saw a great film last night, one that I think deserves a lot of recognition.  I would love to go see it again.  Miranda and I were trying to decide what to go see when we decided to go see Juno.  Fox’s latest Searchlight release.  I have to say when I see the Fox Searchlight banner displayed at the beginning of a trailer or film I tend to get really interested.  Some of my most favorite films come from this Distributer / Production Company.  However production company is a loose term in this case, seeing as most of the films they distribute were picked up after the festivals had their way with the films.  Fox Searchlight Pictures in general has a great library of films that have been distributed through their system.

Without Searchlight most of us may have never seen, Garden State, Super Troopers, 28 Days Later, Little Miss Sunshine, and yes, Napoleon Dynamite.  Now I know that some of my readers will say that we could have done without some of the films, and I’m not claiming that they are perfect, but I’m usually impressed with the movies that come out of the Fox indie orifice.

Juno was no exception, and I’m secretly pulling for Ellen Page for the Best Actress Oscar Award.  The last time I saw a character so well portrayed was Kevin Spacey as Lester Burnham in American Beauty. The story was so well put together that the film must have almost directed itself.  Not to say at all that director Jason Reitman had to just show up, his influence and craft are subtle in the film but clear.  I will recommend this film to anyone who enjoys comedy and can find some humor in the more serious moments in life.  A+

So today is the 28th which is not only the 1 month mark till my birthday, but it’s also the day I pay my phone bill each month.

I’m fortunate enough to only pay about $55 and have an iPhone with unlimited text messaging since I’m on a family plan with 4 other peeps. So every month on the 28th, I hop on over to attwireless.com and pay my bill. I usually at that point check out how many minutes have been used and how many we have left collectively. This month and last month we used a lot and we’ll probably go over this month. Thank the AT&T god for rollover minutes. Anyway, it’s also fun to see how many texts have been used on the plan too. The following is what I found when looking at someone else’s text totals:

I blocked out the names to protect the innocent, and obscene.

This second image is our total text usage for the month of December (which isn’t over yet):

Don’t let me forget this guy:

Holy Crap! Did you see how huge that guy is high that number is?

Have you ever met someone who sent over 100,000 text messages in a 31 day period!?!?!? I can proudly say now that I have, and I have touched that person. I bet I can even get an autograph if I wanted one.

In all fairness I’m sure this is a glitch, but if it’s not and the bill is delivered with that number on it, I will laugh till milk comes out my nose, then submit the bill to the Guinness boys and see what we qualify as. Maybe a new category. Most SMS messages sent and received in a month. I bet some kid in Japan already has that record, but I bet his pet robot does most of the texting for him. Please in the name of J.I.F. Extra Chunky Peanut Butter… Comment!