Tag: cellular telephone

Greetings from ORD

Six O’Clock is just too early to get up. That puts me on the outs with most of America. I’ve always been a night person – even as a kid. Now, as an adult working second shift, it’s even more ingrained.

It had been foggy on the drive home from work last night and there was still a smudge in the air as I set out this morning. I-91 is normally lightly traveled during my works hours. That is changed at 7:00 AM. There was traffic but it moved smoothly up through Hartford and then into Windsor Locks where Bradley International is located.

It was an opportunity to tune around through morning radio. My friend Bob Lacey, who I met my first day in radio in October 1969, is syndicated, so I tuned around looking for “Bob & Sheri” out of Charlotte. Other than a few days spent in Charlotte itself a few years ago, I hadn’t heard them.

The show is great – woman friendly and FCC friendly. I caught a segment with an improv comedian from Florida. It was funny, thought there was probably more in studio laughter than he deserved. Studio laughter is important because it telegraphs to the audience that you’re funny. I’m serious. It creates a shared experience when you’re listening to the radio alone. As much as we hate ‘canned laughter’ or sweetening on sitcoms, it’s tough to watch them without it.

I found Bob and Sheri on “The Beach” from Long Island. As I drove north the signal faded around Meriden. Bob will be glad I finally listened.

I parked the car at a remote lot and started to pull my bags as the cell phone rang. No matter what I do, no matter how I set it, the cell phone reverts to the same ring… the sound of an actual bell. Most of the time it’s in vibrate only mode, but in the car, out of my pocket, I need the noise.

It was Helaine calling. She had been looking online and United didn’t have a flight with the number I had. Not only that, they didn’t have a flight to Chicago at my time! I told her not to worry… though how was I to know?

At Bradley I approached the United counter and was greeted by a large man with a huge bandage on one finger and that same arm in a sling. He was a fan, greeted me by name, and helped me get what I needed. I always hope at that moment of recognition the words, “and we’re putting you up front today” will follow. It did not. But, he was very nice and the boarding pass process went smoothly.

I’m not sure what happened with my flight number… and seat assignment. My boss, also traveling today, and I were supposed to have adjoining aisle seats. Instead, we’re both in the middle, deep in the upper teens on a flight other than the one listed on our reservations. The flight is overbooked by two.

There is a pecking order to seat assignments. Most casual flyer’s don’t know this, most business flayers do. The seat I’m in is normally reserved for someone’s aunt who flies once a year. Frequent fliers, of which I am currently not, are on the aisle and by the windows and much closer to the front.

The girl, sitting to my left, quickly fell asleep, leaning her head against the bulkhead and her butt toward the armrest. I wish I had retractable elbows. Though both of my ‘neighbors’ are slim, I’m really jammed in. This must be horrendous for someone who is large.

I had casually checked the Chicago weather over the last few days. Originally it looked like thunderstorms might coincide with my arrival. I remember circling Bradley a few years ago as a thunderstorm crossed the field. The pilot came on the PA system and said a thunderstorm was there and, “we don’t do thunderstorms.”

Now, the forecast had changed. By the time I left Connecticut, the front had already crossed through Chicago. In the terminal, with my boss and two others from our sister station in Springfield, I mentioned that it would be a bumpy flight and probably a rough landing (winds were predicted to gust at 50+ mph).

As I write this, we’re in the middle of the bumpiness. The plane has been shuddering as if we’re on a very rough road. A few minutes ago, the pilot came on the PA again, illuminating the seatbelt sign at the same time and telling the flight attendants to sit as well. It’s tough to type when the keys are moving away from your fingers.

He didn’t know if the turbulence would be light or moderate. I extended that for him as I listened to include severe. So far, the turbulence has been far short of that.

Soon we’ll be in Chicago. With no checked luggage, the trip to the hotel should be easy.

Off To Chicago

I’m on my way to Chicago tomorrow morning for a few days. It’s work related, and though it’s not nefarious, I don’t think I can talk about why I’m going.

Hopefully, on my way home I’ll say it was valuable. Right now, I’d rather not be going. But, I’m going with an open mind.

As I packed, I thought about how much of home I was taking with me. I’m taking a laptop. The hotel, right in the center of the city, has high speed Internet access in all rooms and Wifi access from the lobby. Still, I double checked to make sure my modem would work should it be necessary.

I have grown addicted to email, to writing in this blog, and the web in general.

I’m also taking my cell phone. This is such a recent change in our societal norms. It used to be, if you were in Chicago, you were in Chicago… and difficult to find. With cell phones, I’m a local call, no matter where I am.

Earlier this year, while I was visiting my family in Florida, someone called from work asking me if I could be in early to be in a tease. I explained I was on the golf course in West Palm Beach.

I’m not sure if that’s a good or bad thing. But, it’s my choice to take the phone, so I must be leaning toward good.

I’ll also be taking the digital camera, plenty of memory, and a cable to move images to the laptop. Since I’ve never really spent any time in downtown Chicago, I’m looking forward to getting as many shots as I can. Right after I get home, the camera is going to the hospital for a pixel that’s always on.

Chicago’s most recognized landmark is the Sears Tower. But, to me, nothing says Chicago more than the succession of bridges over the Chicago River. I remember seeing that image every week on The Bob Newhart Show.

Considering I won’t be home until midnight tonight, I’m leaving awfully early tomorrow. I’ll be leaving the house around 7:00 AM for the shlep to Bradley. At the moment fog and rain seem probable. In Chicago thunderstorms might show. By the end of the weekend, there’s the chance of snow.

I’ve gotta remember to pack my open mind.

No Phone Service – The Epic Returns

Helaine went out this afternoon. While on the road, she called. No problem. Later, on her way home, she called again.

Busy! Except, of course, it wasn’t.

It seems like yesterday, but it was the end of September when last our phone died. What a helpless feeling. The phone is our lifeline to health and safety in a way that computers or a cell phone can’t approach… at least not yet.

I immediately went down to the basement and plugged a phone into the network jack, where the phone line enters the house from the street. Dead. The problem was somewhere outside, and so the responsibility of the phone company.

I am much more upset about the way my local phone company, SNET (actually, they are now a very small part of a very large national company and have dropped SNET for SBC) handles outages like this than the outage itself. It seems as if someone said, “We’ve already inconvenienced Geoff… why inconvenience us too by sending someone out on Sunday?”

As far as I can tell, nothing at all was done about this problem today. Nothing.

The last time this happened to me, I made it clear that I thought it was wrong for the phone company, once it knew of an outage, to let a line continue to ring busy – as opposed to a recorded “out of service” announcement.

No change. It still rings busy after being reported.

In 2004, to a child with an elderly parent, a phone that’s busy for hours means the possibility that someone is ill… or worse. If my parent’s phone was busy for hour after hour, I’d call the police to check it out. This is an uncaring policy which must be changed.

Though you can see the status of your repair on-line (a feature I found to be worthless and wrong back in September) you can’t report the outage online. Nor can you easily even get the number to report the outage! Their website lists 611 for residential repairs – a number that won’t work if you’re using a cellphone to make the call, or if you try to get someone out-of-state to make the call for you (as I did today – contacting a friend in Florida via Instant Messenger).

We still have no cell service from the house, but at least our current phones allow you to call 9-1-1 using another carrier’s towers. That service is only available about half the time. The rest of the time the phone is looking for a Cingular tower that’s not there.

The current automated estimated repair time is 01:00 PM Monday.

New Tricks With My LG-G4010 Cellphone

A few days ago I was kvetching about buying a cable for my cellphone (LG-G4010), only to find out it did nothing. Yes, it was the right cable, but it came without software.

I’ve spent the past few days trying to find the right program to ‘speak’ to my phone. It wasn’t a pleasant experience nor an easy chore. There is nothing on LG’s US site or Cingular’s site to help.

I started searching through Usenet, my perennial favorite for tech info. After I struck out there, it was on to the more esoteric cell phone sites like Howard Forums.

There are cell phone hobbyists. That was a major surprise. Unlike PC’s, which started as wide open systems, cellular phones have been locked down almost from the beginning. It’s much tougher to hack and fiddle with your phone than your PC.

Most of the postings concerning my phone were cries in the dark, like mine. Where can I? How can I? Many weren’t answered. Some were, but often with cryptic references to previous posts concerning other phones.

Over time, I started to see a few posts talking about software for my phone from LG’s Russian website. I went only to find… it was in Russian! All Cyrillic type, much of it images (which can’t be searched or translated by machine). It seemed the answer to my problem might lie on that site, but I had no way of knowing, or even knowing where to navigate.

I fired off an email to Alex Moskayluk. Alex and I met on the net. I don’t know him well. I do know, and I hope he’s not embarrassed or bothered by this characterization, that he’s a geek’s geek. The mere fact that Alex’s review of a highly technical programming book sits on the front page of Slashdot is irrefutable proof. More important in this situation, he speaks Russian.

Within a few minutes, his reply sent me to the LG Russian site and a free downloadable file. It is actually made for another LG model, but it works just fine on my phone. I could now peer into the internal phonebook and make changes. It’s a lot easier entering someone’s name and number on a computer keyboard than the phone’s number pad.

Next, I hunted around and found a program that allowed me to add new ringtones. I’m not sure I want my phone to ring as the 20th Century Fox or Simpson’s themes, but it can!

What upsets me is that all of these programs are in English – even though they’re pointed to in Cyrillic on the Russian LG site. So, why aren’t they available here in the states from LG? This is all about customer satisfaction.

Now there’s only one piece of software I’m looking for. I need a program to allow me to get rid of LG’s annoying ‘wallpaper’. I don’t need to replace it – just turn it off!

Addendum – Mark Osbourne has written and pointed out that I didn’t post the links. He’s right, and here they are:

PC Sync version 1

The entire software list

This is all in Russian, which I can’t read. So, I can’t vouch as to whether this software is licensed or legal where you live.

Be Careful What You Buy!

As I’ve mentioned before, I have an LG-G4010 cell phone from Cingular. The phone is very small and sits in my pocket at work. What’s not to like?

I thought it would be fun (in my geeky, nerdy way) to interface the phone with my computer. I’d like to change its wallpaper (OK – eliminate its wallpaper) and better manage my phonebook.

An all out search for the cable to connect the phone and computer turned up nothing… until last week when one appeared on eBay. It wasn’t expensive, so I bought it.

The package came yesterday. The cable seems sturdily built. It is actually a generic USB to serial port converter with an LG-G4010 connector on the serial end. You probably already knew that.

You’ve seen similar packaging on other products. It screams – this was originally done in Japanese – we know you won’t buy it unless it’s in English – we’re not going to really spend a lot of time translating.

The cable came with a CD which contains the USB driver and software for other phones. There is no software for my phone!

As best I can see, I have a lovely cable which connects my phone to the USB port of my computer, but nothing to do past that point. If there’s software available for my phone, I can’t find it. But I’m looking.

Even if I can’t get it to work, it won’t be a total loss. I was raised by a wire and cable collector, and I am one as well. There are no bad wires. There are no bad cables. I have never – will never – throw one out.

Hey, you never know.

The Cult Moves South

Early this morning… well, early for me usually, but I got up… Helaine and Steffie piled into the car and set out for Toms Rivers, NJ to see Rick Springfield. The house is very quiet. I’m seeing how long I’ll stay in pajamas. It could be all day (though the siren song of Dunkin’ Donuts is calling my name).

I told Helaine I’m inviting college girls over. Her thought is, they’ll ask me if I went to school with their dads!

At times like this, I really miss Ivy the dog. Ivy was never a ‘licky’ dog – overly affectionate. Ivy’s charm was her self assured, quiet manner, as she stayed by your side (as long as you didn’t move around too much). Petting a dog is therapeutic.

A just heard from Helaine and Steffie on the phone. Though the concert is later tonight, they’re at the hotel, meeting and greeting the other rabid fans (aka the cult members). Some of them are committed beyond any level I can imagine; taking in dozens of shows, across the country, every year.

It’s all mind boggling, and I’m started to come to the realization that Rick Springfield isn’t the only act that gets this kind of adulation. I remember, 25 years ago, a friend working for Barry Manilow who told me similar stories (though at a much smaller numbers). The Grateful Dead was famous for their legion of traveling fans.

As Steffie and Helaine walked toward the lobby, walking in the other direction was Rick and his road manager Ronnie. Helaine and Steffie said hello. Rick complemented Steffie on her necklace. For them the day is off to a good start.

I have given them my Fuji digital camera. Some critical functions of this normally manual camera have been preset. Tonight they will use it to snap photos and document the trip. Steffie has taken great ‘in concert’ pictures before (here and here). I hope she’ll do that again tonight and get a little more confidence as an artistic photographer.

At the same time Helaine will be holding a cell phone up, catching the music for another fan who couldn’t make the trip this time. That is dedication in action.

CNET Reviews My Phone

I subscribe to CNET’s cell phone reviews. I’m not sure why. It was interesting reading them while I was shopping around. I should cancel it now.

Today, around three months after I got it, CNET reviewed my cell phone, the LG-G4010. It wasn’t mentioned in the review, but it should be noted that LG stands for Lucky Goldstar. I’m not sure how much confidence is built by having Lucky in your businesses name!

I have a love/hate relationship with this phone. It is as tiny as any phone I’ve ever had, and lightweight. It sits in my pocket most of the day at work. The vibration is strong enough that I seldom miss a call.

There are very few accessories for this phone. I’d like a clip to carry it on my belt. There is none. I’d like a data cable. There is none.

I’m afraid, though physically robust, the phone’s software is not. From time-to-time the phone forgets where my phonebook is stored. Is it on the SIM card? Is it in the native memory of the phone itself? Set it – it forgets it! The numbers aren’t gone, just lost. But, if you’re in the car, pressing a single speed dial number to reach someone and the phone says that entry is empty, you’ve been inconvenienced. It’s doubly true if you no longer know someone’s number, just their speed dial entry.

I’ve set the ringtone, only to have it revert to some other ring tone! This happened during my stay in Florida. I tried to use the least outlandish tone. What I got was the sampled sound of a bell from an old phone. I must have reset this feature a dozen times without success.

Astoundingly enough, the phone doesn’t have one feature that I though every cell phone had. There’s no way to have it wait while dialing. With all my previuous phones, voice mail meant pushing one button, waiting, pushing it again and hearing messages. Now, to get voice mail, I hit the first button, but must dial all the other codes myself – even while driving. That’s not right, since this seems like such a mature feature. Let’s call this ‘forgetware.’

The phone’s grayscale display features a wallpaper pattern. I’d rather not have it. Too bad. There’s no way to turn it off. It can be changed, but not turned off. Strange.

Last, but certainly not least is the manual. The manual is so beautifully designed and printed that when I originally had trouble following what it was saying, I though the problem was mine. This seems like a manual that might have been written in Korean and then poorly translated into English. Whatever the story, it’s a puzzle. I’m surprised Cingular let this get by since it increases their support costs.

All this being said, I still like the phone. I’ve learned to work around some of its weaknesses (like lack of external display) and enjoy its diminutive size. I had read some people complain of short battery life, but that’s not been a problem for me.

Of course there’s still no cell service at home. I am hoping Cingular is successful in its bid for AT&T and that it is AT&T’s cell site that I hear (but can’t use) from my house. That would be huge.

The Vegas term for this is ‘parlay’, a series of bets, each of which has to come true for you to get the payoff. Parlay players seldom win.

Cell Phone Deal – The Final Chapter

This is the (hopefully) last in a series of entries about my cell service. If you’d rather read the whole series from the beginning, click here.

Hold your calls, we’ve got a winner… or more succinctly, we’ve eliminated most of the losers. I re-signed yesterday with Cingular for National GSM service.

A couple of notes and observations are in order. This took an unbelievably long time. I’m not talking about yesterday at the store – which did take forever – but my decision making process. The cellular carriers make this maddeningly difficult.

First and foremost, you have to read each and every thing that you’re being offered and not offered. The cell companies know what they’re offering (well, sort of) but most of us don’t. While I was in the cell phone store yesterday, I watched customer after customer move up to the desk, like lambs to the slaughter. The salespeople offered and sold plans and conditions that weren’t understood by the customers. And, the customers, with little choice, signed on without much thought.

In my case, this is a $2,000 commitment – 2 years of service for the three of us – and I wanted to be sure everything was acceptable… or as acceptable as possible.

Most customers don’t know the difference between GSM or TDMA or CDMA, but these distinctions can be very important in deciding what you’re getting. The companies offer beautifully named national or regional networks, and then never disclose what these networks are… or are not. The maps I’ve seen continue to paint a nearly seamless blanket of coverage, which isn’t true.

The company that actually runs the Cingular store needs to reconsider the paper flow through the store. Forms had to be filled out by hand and multiple phone calls made to get my account set up. It’s 2003 – these forms should be computer generated and authorizations automated. I was in the store for nearly 2 hours. Some people, who waited in line while I was being taking care of, left.

As I wrote earlier, when a plan says no roaming fees, that still doesn’t mean you can use any signal your phone can hear. It used to be, if you were out of range of your plan, your phone would latch on to whatever it heard, and you’d pay for that privilege. But “no roaming” doesn’t necessarily mean that call is now free. It often means that call can no longer be made!

The best example is here at home. My phone shows a very, very strong signal (probably from T-Mobile or AT&T). If I try to make a call, the phone says “Emergency Only” and spits me back to the main menu.

As far as I can tell, I now have a comparable number of minutes, nights beginning at 7:00 PM, some sort of national coverage (though still no coverage here at home) and three new phones for a little less than I was paying. And, I extracted 3 free months of service, 2 of the 3 phones, and a waiver of the activation charge by getting on the phone with the Cingular company agent (thanks Kendrick Alexander) and asking for it (the folks in the Cingular store don’t really work for Cingular).

Helaine and I got LG G4010 phones. They are incredibly small with a stubby, fixed antenna. I have been pouring through the manual, looking for a way to use my company’s voicemail with this phone. That means adding a pause during the dialing sequence. As far as I can tell, you can’t do it. If that’s true, this would be the first cell phone I’ve ever seen that can’t perform this function.

If the manual wasn’t translated from some other language into English, the person who did write it should be ashamed. It is disorganized and confusing.

Steffie got a much fancier Samsung S307. It has a color display and more toys. I was proud because she wanted it and was willing to part with her own (hard earned) money to get it.

There was another company I had considered going with. Oh heck – it was Sprint. I didn’t go because of what I considered the very high cost of the phones and higher cost for monthly service. But really, the clincher was their move a few years ago (quickly rescinded) to charge for calls to customer service! To me, that showed a corporate culture that didn’t value the end user the way I want to be valued.

I would be 100% happy with Cingular but for one small problem. There’s no service here at home. Judging by the folks at their store, Cingular thinks it has coverage here. They recently put a cell site at Quinnipiac College, less than 2 miles away. But, it is blocked to me, and most of my neighbors because of Sleeping Giant Mountain. If they would have moved the site off campus, they could have killed two birds with one stone – putting coverage on campus and into this area and I’d be really smiling.

New York City Trip Report – Day 3

Click here, or on any photo to see my album of photos from this trip.

Lots to talk about as we finish our three days in New York. But, before we get to the day, a little housekeeping.

First, there’s the question of Internet access. The Millennium Broadway doesn’t have high speed access. In this day and age, that’s inexcusable. I knew it coming in. The location was our most pressing concern. Still…

The first night, I used dial up and got a fairly decent speed. I haven’t used dial up regularly in a long time. I don’t want to get used to it again.

The Sony Vaio laptop I brought along had a WiFi 802.11b card in the PCMCIA slot, so I tried to see if it would find anything. Zip from the desk. I moved the laptop to my lap and sat by the window. With all the buildings surrounding our hotel you’d think there would be some activity… and there was.

Using Netstumbler, I started looking at what I was hearing. First, most of the activity is concentrated on channel 6, which is in the middle of the band and probably the default for most access points. It was for mine (though I’ve since moved it).

Much of the traffic is WEP encrypted. That’s smart. There was a cluster of encrypted AP’s, all with ID’s that made me think they were owned by Bertelsmann Music Group. There were other encrypted transmitters and, a few that were open and in the clear. They just weren’t very strong.

Thursday evening, I was able to send and receive my mail using an AP that identified itself as Apple and then a cryptic series of digits. Probably an Apple AirPort. I sent myself an email through that AP to see the actual IP address. It was routed using road Runner, which is the time Warner cable modem service.

When the weather turned rainy on Friday, I was no longer able to connect to Apple or any other in the clear AP’s.

Over time, we grew to dislike our little room. It never really seemed clean and had some stains in strange places that weren’t right. The bathroom floor always seemed dull, even after the maid had visited.

I still don’t know how a hotel becomes 4-star. Is it self assigned?

Finally, I made an interesting discovery, looking at our window on that rainy Friday morning. There were weeds and moss growing on the top of an air conditioner unit. I am unsure if this unit is associated with the hotel or an adjacent building.

Now, with all this said, it’s on to Friday. It was a rainy day – the antithesis of Thanksgiving. Thank heavens the parade was yesterday!

Helaine and Steffie wanted to do some shopping and go to lunch before we headed back to Connecticut. We left the hotel and headed toward Macy’s. Being a good weather oriented family, we were prepared with the proper outerwear.

Macy’s isn’t too long of a walk, so we headed out to Broadway and then downtown, toward 34th Street. As you leave Times Square, Broadway is a monotonous series of cereal box office buildings with first floor storefronts. It is an area without much charm.

Macy’s is located in Herald Square. I’m not sure how it got its name. It might be a similar story to Times Square, in that there was a New York Herald (which, by the time I was growing up was the Herald Tribune, and whose Sunday supplement was New York Magazine).

Macy’s is probably unlike any other store you’ve ever seen. Its two buildings cover a full city block with 10 stories and over 1,000,000 square feet. Above the 4th floor, the metal escalators give way to wooden ones that must be fifty years old. The store is beautifully decorated for Christmas.

Since Macy’s attracts so many shoppers, it also attracts its fair share of everything else. By the time we got there, there was already a TV crew with a microwave truck from one of the local stations. I also saw a reporter/photographer team from a Spanish newspaper and a long photographer from Women’s Wear Daily.

There were also protesters. I’m sure this isn’t isolated. Macy’s was being picketed by animal rights activists, who themselves were corralled into a small pen, shouting about animals being killed to make fur coats. Outside the front entrance, a lone woman railed on about Macy’s policy of racial profiling and how they had a prison in the basement. If she was changing hearts, it was impossible to see. No one seemed to pay her any mind.

As Helaine and Steffie went shopping, I walked through the area. It’s not a really thriving shopping district, though there is a lot going on. The area holds Penn Station, Madison Square Garden, and The Empire State Building.

Across from Macy’s, in a microscopic triangular shaped park, Yahoo had set up four laptops with wireless Internet access and was extolling their shopping site. Everyone I saw who entered their little promotion won a hat… except me.

I met the girls at the base of the down escalator, and we left the store and hopped on the subway. We were heading to Greenwich Village to Jekyll and Hyde – a theme restaurant with a SciFi/Horror bent.

Getting off the subway at Christopher Street, we headed into Sheridan Square. Up ahead was a theater that has been the home to the long running “Naked Boys Singing”. Hey, it’s Greenwich Village – don’t be surprised.

I had actually been at either Jekyll and Hyde or the restaurant next door back in the mid-60’s when Bob Weiss’ family took Bob and me to see Jean Shepard do his live Saturday night broadcast on WOR. For a kid who idolized Shep, that was an incredible experience. I wonder what happened to bob. I probably haven’t spoken to him since 1966 or ’67.

Maybe I was a little tired, and ready to go home, but Jekyll and Hyde was not that great for me. I had a pretty good turkey club tortilla wrap, while around us, figures mounted on the walls came to life. At the same time, some jerk at an adjacent table made loud cell phone calls. Across the way, a little girl was celebrating her 4th birthday. I wonder if Jekyll and Hyde would cause her nightmares to help remember the day?

We hopped the subway and headed back north. While I looked at the “Rodenticide” sign, Steffie had a ‘wildlife’ spotting on the tracks. Obviously Rodenticide only works so long.

By the time we returned to the hotel to pick up the Explorer and head home, it was nearly four. I reached for the claim check… but it wasn’t there! We did find it, in my coat which had been left in storage with the bellmen.

The trip home was pretty easy. The day after Thanksgiving may be busy at the stores, but it’s less than pedestrian on the Connecticut Turnpike. Manhattan to our house took a little less than two hours.

During our stay in New York, I took nearly 500 photos. On Thanksgiving alone, I snapped nearly 1 GB worth of images. We all had a great time. Our anniversary will go in the books as a happy one. The Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade will be a lifetime memory.

As I type this, early Monday morning, Priceline has just sent me a survey, asking about my hotel. I told all.

Click here, or on any photo to see my album of photos from this trip.

Speared Against The Flu

Last week, the television station offered free flu shots. I signed up and then promptly forgot about it when the magic day came.

So, today, following in the footsteps of my wife and daughter, I drove down to my doctor’s office. I call him Steve. He wants to be called Steve. He’s been my doctor for almost 20 years… so Steve seems right.

Helaine, on the other hand, feels better medicine comes from someone with no first name other than ‘Dr.’

There’s really no way I could know if he’s really a good doctor, except to know that he’s smart… and smart counts for a lot in medicine and everything else. And, he’s a good person with a warm heart. There aren’t too many other people I’ve trusted with my life for nearly twenty years. I have never had a second thought.

His outer office was crowded… others getting their shots.

I remember, as a kid, Dr. Levy’s office back home in Flushing. Sidney Levy, MD was our family physician. His wife was his nurse and pretty much ran the place. His office was built into his house. You couldn’t go to Dr. Levy without sitting for hours in that cramped waiting room. It always seemed like there wasn’t quite enough oxygen to go around for everyone there. And, if you weren’t sick when you got there, you could be sure someone with something comkmunicable would be sitting close by.

Dr. Levy was the first person I ever knew who had a Mercedes Benz. He called it his Moishe Benz. Being Jewish, back in the 60’s, there was still a certain uneasiness in buying German.

There were already a mother and her grown daughter when I got to Steve’s today. The daughter was doing business on her cell phone. Unfortunately, she was doing it at a level high enough to include everyone else there. After a few minutes another mother – adult child combo walked in. She was hacking away. A Dr. Levy flashback.

It didn’t take long before it was time to get my injection.

Here I am, 53 years old, and I still panic over the prospect of getting a shot. I have often thought, “How can people become IV drug users? How can anyone take a needle for a good time.”

Hopefully, I won’t get the flu this year. And, hopefully, the soreness in my right arm will soon be gone. Did I mention, I hate getting shots.

Weird Cell Phone Ad

As you might have read, I continue to anguish about who will win my cell phone business. As of yesterday, Cingular has turned on a new “GSM only” tower at a college about 1.5 miles away. There’s a chance it’s blocked by a hill, but probably not. I can get a pretty good deal with Cingular, though I’m unsure of its current GSM coverage. Without coverage here in my house, there’s no deal.

But, I digress.

I was watching TV and a T-Mobile cell spot came. They were selling phones with built-in cameras (someday in the future, I will look back at this blog entry and find it quaint), which of course is the current big deal. But, the two locations used for photos were a locker room and a concert hall!

Correct me if I’m wrong, but should we be encouraging people to take pictures in locker rooms? Even concert halls usually ban any kind of photography.

Of course, maybe this is their point. to try and build the market by giving us fresh idea in how to be invasive.

The Cell Phone Quandary

In my years as a cell phone customer, I have used Lynx (owned by local phone company SNET before they were bought by SBC, and before Cingular), BellAtlantic (pre-Verizon), AT&T and now Cingular.

They all have their strengths and weaknesses (except AT&T, which in my opinion only had weaknesses). Unfortunately, none of them provides a signal here, where I live. After last month’s landline phone outage (four days without 911, among other things), cell service here seemed like a necessity.

It’s a suburban neighborhood with a rural feel. There’s plenty of population density with spendable income. There’s certainly a place to put towers (the company I work for has a site on a hilltop, with a TV antenna already there).

As far as I know, there are only two companies with a signal that covers my house, Sprint and T-Mobile. I know T-Mobile’s coverage through the rest of this area is awful, so they’re out.

Today, I borrowed a phone from Sprint. They lent me a high end Samsung with color web browser and camera. As far as I can see, having the web browser is close to worthless. The camera might have some application, but it’s pretty rudimentary with 640×480 resolution.

Here’s the real breakthrough. For the first time ever, I made a cell call from home while walking around! Signal strength was 1-3 bars and the call quality was fine. Using the phone while driving my normal route produced a workable signal everywhere except the final 3/4 mile hill to my house… and then it came back.

I’d sign with Sprint in a second, except, they have the world’s worst reputation for customer service. There was a time when they attempted to charge their customers to call and speak to them!

In order to get what I want, I’ll probably have to sign a two year deal. I’m scared to do it if they’re the devil.

Meanwhile, with cellular number portability about a month away, I will hang tight and wait for what I consider an inevitable price war. My contract with Cingular is up October 26th and for the first time in my cellular career, I’ll be in the drivers seat.

Fixing a Phone – Driving Us Crazy

The phone went out yesterday during very heavy rains. This is understandable. I’m not thrilled, but I understand.

Yesterday, SNET said we’d have service today (and we very well might). But when Helaine took Steffie to school and there was still no service, she was concerned, so when she went shopping, she called repair with the cell phone.

The automated service said: “Thursday.”

On to the live voice. “It’s a widespread outage”, the voice says. “They’re working on it now. It will probably be repaired today.”

I would have written about none of this, except about 15 minutes ago, the phone starting ringing every once in a while. Sometimes a short ring. Sometimes a long ring. Sometimes a few rings.

Picking up the phone left us with the hum and clicks we’ve had for the past day. Sometimes, buried deep in the static, I heard the reassuring warble of low frequency ring voltage.

They’re testing and fixing. Great.

But we have to go to the phone each and every time it rings and make sure they’re fixing and it’s not a real call.

During this time, anyone calling our home has received a busy signal. No “out of service” recording. Just busy. You’d think there’s something a little more descriptive they could use?

DSL – Damned Slow Loading

This should be a Sunday entry… but installing DSL on my friend Steve’s computer took 4 hours, including a few on the line with tech support (using up my entire cell phone battery in the process).

I went over,after the end of another vicious round of thunderstorms, at about 8:00 pm. It was wet, but the air was starting to have the feel of lowered dew points.

Steve is running Windows 98SE on a somewhat older Pentium. He has plenty of RAM. I know, because I put it in (and RAM is usually the best, cheapest way to speed up and rejuvinate an older PC). Because he has sensistive information, and because (like most users) he’s a bit petrified, he has Norton Anti-Virus, Disk Washer, and other stuff strewn around.

I’m sure they have a purpose, but I have never seen any of this stuff be anything but trouble. And, an unwary or un-savvy user can still bring viral infection right in.

Doing any installation, such as DSL, pits your installer versus the Norton’s of this world, who are trying to keep new programs from getting in!

The installer CD crashed, or more accurately, locked up twice. Each time it was re-run, it went a little further. Then, well into the process, Windows complained that we had too many tcp/ip devices (a sure sign something was screwy, since we certainly didn’t have more than the modem and NIC installed).

By the time Earrick at SBC tech support in Houston was on the line, the install program had become unresponsive, even from a restart. All of Earick’s suggestions brought new and different error messages, many of which he had never seen before.

We finally uninstalled the NIC and tcp/ip protocol entirely. Then rebooted. Then manually reinstalled the PPP software. We must have rebooted 25 times tonight; no exaggeration.

Finally, success. Steve will send a nice note to SBC because Errick was excellent and patient. But, this is further roadkill on the information superhighway. A DSL installation should be totally painless, quick and easy.

Why isn’t all the intelligence needed built into the DSL modem? The most you should need is an ethernet connection… not all this passwording and configuring.

Anyway, bottom line was, it’s fine now.

As soon as we were done, Steve wanted to check his mail. So, he clicked to connect via modem. Old habits die hard. But, he’s probably not alone is not understanding how all of this is routed and connected, and that the phone pop he normally goes in on is no closer to his mail than this new DSL connection.