Tag: eBay

Cell Service: Like A Bad Marriage

We are getting set to firm up our cell service for another two years. In many way our relationship with the cell company is like a bad marriage, kept together for the sake of the kids.

This installment of the “Cell Phone Saga” comes about because of Steffie’s phone. It’s been dropped on its head enough that it should be bandaged, or have its antenna in a sling. Sometimes it spontaneously shuts itself off. On other occasions some of the keys don’t work.

Since I had some questions about this month’s bill, I gave Cingular a call. Is it possible they’re trying to obfuscate what the bill contains? I was always good at math… even on the math team… but their bill baffles me – all 24 pages of it!

There is no bill we receive which is more detailed or confusing… or voluminous.

After we straightened out my billing misunderstandings I asked about getting some new phones. It seems my line is eligible, but Helaine and Steffie’s are not – at least not until September.

How can that be? We all got our phones at the same time. I’m not going to complain because like Monopoly’s “Bank Error In Your Favor,” I think September probably is the correct time.

With a little “creative accounting” Steffie can get my new phone and I’ll wait until September to get her scheduled replacement. Helaine, who is ambivalent about the whole thing gets a new one too. She and I currently have tiny LG G4010’s.

I have written about this phone before.

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.

Steffie wants a Motorola RAZR phone – in black, thank you very much. She’s paying – it’s her choice. It’s a very stylish phone which gets good marks from most reviewers. Its camera isn’t quite up to state-of-the-art resolution and it plays back video though it can’t record it.

The RAZR is Bluetooth enabled and, looking at eBay, well supported with after market products including a data cable and software (eliminating the need to run up your phone bill to move photos to your PC).

We headed to the Cingular store to pick one up, but they are in demand and out of stock. There will be some next week, which is when Steffie will return. Then, I’ll watch Steffie’s experience and see if that’s the phone for me.

There are times I think I’d rather have a PDA type phone, like a Blackberry or Treo. I like the idea of email and IM from anywhere, but there is the geek factor. Those are hip holster phones you wear, not pocket phones.

Helaine says with one of those on my belt I will be as nerdy looking as is humanly possible. She does not mean that as a compliment!

Meanwhile I have time. No new phone for me until September.

It looks like getting a new phone might be as difficult as understanding the phone bill.

Greetings From Ventnor City

I’m writing this from the kitchen of my friend Peter’s condo in Ventnor City, NJ. Honest, there is a Ventnor City, NJ… just down the road from Atlantic City. The people here call it Ventnor.

My journey started after work Friday night. Knowing I have no organizational skills, or willpower, going home after work would have just meant an extended period of putting off going to bed… so I set out for Peter’s house, in Cherry Hill, NJ at 11:35 PM.

That was a good idea because traffic was light and I made it in just under three hours. Not bad. EZ-Pass is good on the NJ Turnpike, making the trip even easier.

I didn’t relish the idea of a long drive but I had my cell phone along with the earpiece I seldom use. I knew if I got my Cousin Michael on the phone from California… well, let’s just say Michael is never at a loss for words.

That’s a good thing because I enjoy talking with him. Between Michael, Melissa and Max (their son) I kept busy through the Bronx, over the George Washington Bride and well into New Jersey. Finally I gave up because my ear was getting sore.

I also decided to run a ‘science experiment’ during the drive. I put my laptop in the front seat, powered by an inverter, working off the car’s battery so it would last the whole trip. The laptop had a wireless network card and GPS receiver hooked up and ran a free piece of software call NetStumbler.

As I drove along, sometimes every few seconds and sometimes only a few times an hour, a little sound went off and the computer would log the presence of a wireless access point. Some were password protected while others would have gladly (OK – gladly is overdoing it) allowed me to connect to the Internet or anything else behind their firewall!

After I return to Connecticut I’ll try and publish some lists and maps to show you what got logged. It was very interesting to me and I tried disparately not to look at the computer screen as I sped along at 70 mph.

I made it to Peter’s house around 2:30 AM. For me that’s the shank of the day. For Peter, it’s the middle of the night. He woke up and let me in. He even nuked a few burgers for me!

Saturday morning started with a visit to his nephew’s baseball game, breakfast at a deli and then a trip to the Jersey Shore. Peter recently bought a 2005 Acura RL and we felt it was necessary to test all the buttons&#185.

Some parts of the car, like the XM Satellite Radio, were interesting. Peter and I agree the XM ‘decade channels’ play too many marginal songs (not hits) – probably an effort to avoid repetition and there’s no real ‘oldies’ channel as such. I did find the comedy channels interesting and am envious of his ability to hear every baseball game… though as a non-sports fan he will listen to none.

When a car is packed with gadgets, as this one is, there are things which seem superfluous or a little over the top. If, instead of touching a button, you’d like to wait five or ten seconds and hope your command is understood, you can tell the car’s climate control system to turn down the fan or adjust the temperature. Using the button is easier!

Mostly this is a sweet car and I enjoyed the ride to the shore.

Though sunny, today was blustery and cool. Still, we decided to take a walk down the boardwalk. The water was rough with spray coming off each breaking wave. The beach, as you might expect for April, was empty.

As we walked the beach, we ran into a flock of tiny birds. Though they do fly, most of the time they scamper on the sand, chasing the waterline in and out with the waves. They’re looking for food, I’m sure, but they were fun to watch because they’re totally in sync and choreographed perfectly.

There is no outward sign of communications between these birds, but they must know what the others are going to do. They change direction on a dime and never bump into each other!

Tonight we had dinner at the Tun, near the Atlantic City Convention Center. I’m on Atkins (again), so I told my waitress I’d rather not have the potatoes with my meal. Could she substitute something else? “How about French Fries,” was her reply.

The steak was very good and there was plenty of it. There was no Splenda for my coffee (a recurring theme of late), so I pulled a pack from the stash in my wallet. This is what 54 year old guys carry in their wallets instead of condoms.

After dinner we went to the Tropicana to see a comedy show. The Comedy Stop at the Trop has been there for at least 25 years. Recently it moved to nicer quarters in the hotel’s new wing called The Quarter. In fact the whole addition is very nice, somewhat reiniscent of the shops at some Vegas casinos.

We stopped in the Spy Store where I found some items going for many multiples of what the same thing sells for on EBay. I wasn’t expecting bargains, but this was a little ridiculous.

The comdey show itself was good and the comedians fine… at least that’s my impression from the audience reaction. Maybe I just wasn’t in a comedy mood tonight?

&#185 – There is a button that Peter just can’t figure out. If you have any idea what the “DISP MODE” button does, drop me a line.

Quick Trip To Help

Christina DeFranco, who used to be a reporter at the TV station, gave me a call, asking if I’d help with a fund raiser for her kid’s school – Pine Grove Elementary in Avon. Their auction, silent and live, was scheduled for this evening at the Avon Old Farms Hotel.

First impression. This was the best dressed, best put together group of parents I had ever seen.

Considering it was for an elementary school, this was a huge turnout and everyone seemed to be having a good time. Hopefully, they raised a lot of money. There certainly were more items than I’m used to seeing for a silent auction.

So, you might ask… what did I do there? My best explanation is, I play the part that, in the Catskills, was called “tummler&#185”.

Actually, it’s something I enjoy doing. I go around from auction table to auction table, trying to get people into the spirit of the event, trying to get more bids, trying to get higher bids.

Tonight, the microphone wasn’t really working well, which made it tougher. Still we got through it all. Especially since EBay, people wait around, trying to get their bid in at the very last moment. I try and move them along.

The only problem tonight was the distance. This was a 45 minute drive in each direction with only the time between shows available to me.

I’m glad I was able to go.

&#185 – tumm

The Computer As An Auto

I am a computer hobbyist. This is neither good nor bad – just a fact of life. I’ve been attracted to them since my first touch of a keyboard in high school circa 1967. This computer I’m typing on, and the one next to it, were built on my floor from parts – some ordered for the projects, others that I had lying around.

I remember my friend Jerry Emdur in Cherry Hill, NJ, who owned an Imsai 8080, a very early personal computer. It really couldn’t do anything – but it was very cool.

For years, I have subscribed to Computer Shopper. It was, at one time, the great builder magazine, published every month. I used to feel guilty when the mailman delivered it. It was heavy as a brick and as thick as the Manhattan Yellow Pages… OK, almost as thick.

Back then the ads were for little specialty houses. Some sold custom built computers, others components. There were even actual designers and manufacturers selling down at the retail level. All these people knew we were on to something that would be big. They all wanted to be involved.

I’m not sure if he advertised in Computer Shopper back then, but this was the age when people like Michael Dell could start a company in his college dorm, correspond to customers via CompuServe – and sell a PC to my friend Peter in New Jersey.

Dell is huge, but so many of those companies are no longer around. It’s very sad.

Today, the Computer Shopper is a shadow of its former self. I just got a 166 page issue today. If I remember correctly, they were often 10 times that size. There are more articles, or at least they stand out more without the deluge of ads. Most of the editorial content is how to and hobbyist, versus business, oriented stories.

Missing are the page upon page of ads. Often they were long lists in tiny type of things I just had to have – but wasn’t going to get just yet.

I suspect most of those companies failed during the dot com bust. Many have probably just moved to EBay, where the cost of doing business is much lower.

I miss the ads.

Hey, this isn’t TV. I’m not getting a random mix of adult diaper and Viagra spots. These were targeted ads for products I was interested in. And, I figured the more ads, the more non-advertising content. That wasn’t necessarily true.

The problem with this kind of magazine today is that computers are commodities. You get one right off the line. They’re made to be mass produced. You can buy off-the-shelf hardware that’s fast enough for any application and buy it for less than you’ll pay to build it yourself!

I won’t be surprised if some day soon my ability to build my own machine is taken away, victim of digital rights management or some other tough to control power of the PC. When it’s just an appliance, in every sense of the word, I’ll feel we’ve lost something.

My Fried Motherboard

I took a very close look at my Soyo motherboard tonight. I think I see the problem, and now know why my main computer died.

In the photo to your left, in the highlighted circle, is part of a diode. A diode is like a switch, allowing current to pass in one direction and not the other. That particular diode is ‘fried.’ It no longer goes to the pad on the motherboard where it used to be seated. So, now it passes current in neither direction!

I have checked on eBay and there is someone selling this particular motherboard. In fact, he has 10 of them – each for $40. I have written, asking if he’ll ship 2nd day or overnight.

Of course, once I get the motherboard, I’ll have to remove the old one and install the new. It is possible my problem is caused by something else and this fried diode is a symptom, not the cause. In that case, I’ll probably be out the $40 and still without my computer.

One last note. The lovely photo of the burned part was taken on my Fujifilm S602Z and then transferred to my Linux machine (I’m typing on it now). The photo post processing was done on Gimp V2.0, which is sort of like Photoshop – but not as good. And to me, certainly not as familiar to operate. Oh, it’s also free.

Building a New PC – Almost

Why would anyone want three PCs at home? I’m not talking about the machines shared with my family. These are my computers. Granted, two of them are discards; computers deemed too slow by others.

I have done most of what I could to optimize these older machines. They’re loaded with memory and unnecessary processes are shut down. You still can’t make a silk purse from a sow’s ear, but you can get a lot closer than most people expect.

The laptop, a Pentium II 300 MHz model, is my road machine. It’s got a wireless card and is often downstairs in the family room (especially if I’m watching TV and playing poker). It is sometimes sluggish, but never enough to be a bother.

The second desktop is also a P-II 300. Well, it was until a few days ago.

I wondered if it would be possible to bring this machine into the 21st century without spending much cash. TigerDirect was having a sale where the net cost (after rebates) of a motherboard, fast processor chip with fan, and memory was only $99.99. I decided to give it a try.

It took about three days for UPS to deliver my package. Looking in the box, everything was there, in its original packaging. So far, so good.

Fearing the 256MB RAM stick that came with the kit wasn’t enough, I went to Staples and bought another 256MB. It was $30, after rebate, bringing me to $130.

What is missing in a deal like this is a great deal of documentation. There were no instructions with either the CPU chip (an AMD XP 2400) or the fan. There was a sticky label on the chip’s packaging saying, in essence, “you break it, too bad.”

Instructions don’t seem like a big deal, but mounting the fan isn’t totally intuitive and a thermal compound paste (included) has to be applied between the fan and chip.

My first step was unplugging the old motherboard, unscrewing and removing it from the case. No problem. It came out really easily.

Since the computer industry standardized motherboard sizes, my new ATX board should fit exactly where the old board sat. It did. A new plate fit between the case and motherboard, allowing the external plugs for video, audio, mouse and keyboard to be accessible. So far, so good.

Each individual peripheral, like a disk drive, has to be wired for both data and power. It sounds tougher than it is. There are distinctly sized plugs for each operation. It’s tough to go wrong, though it is possible if you’re not looking, to put some plugs in backwards.

The manual for the Soyo motherboard was well illustrated and easily led me to the right sockets on the board for all these cables. I did have to call AMD to try and figure out how to set an on-board jumper. I was on and off the phone in two minutes.

AMD, if you’re listening, I’m impressed.

It took a bit over an hour on the kitchen table before I was ready to plug it in. I lugged the case upstairs and plugged it into my KVM switch. KVM stands for keyboard, video, mouse. All it means is I can run two computers from one set of devices. Hitting the scroll lock key twice toggles my keyboard, mouse and monitor from one machine to the other. It’s pretty simple, saves space and lots of money.

The system started to power up, but the normal beep as it’s getting ready to go was replaced by a continuous tone for a few seconds and then… silence. The machine shut itself down.

Uh oh. I took a look at everything under the hood. Something had to be wrong. I didn’t see anything out of place. So, I went to Soyo’s website and searched out my problem.

Someone had described a similar outcome for another motherboard. It hinged on the safety circuitry not sensing the cooling fan on the computer chip. Sure enough, my fan was plugged into the wrong socket.

Though the fan was spinning, keeping things cool, the motherboard’s circuitry though it was just an extra fan, not the one necessary to keep the chip operating. I moved the plug and bingo, it booted.

I spent the next few hours going through a bunch of different operating systems, trying to decide what I wanted. I loaded Windows XP and two different flavors of Linux.

Since I was aiming to keep the cost down, I went with Linux. Specifically, it’s “Mandrake Linux 10 Community,” a close-to-production release. It’s free! I actually downloaded the installation disks the night before and burned them onto Cd’s. Unless you play games or run some very specific applications, Linux is fine. There are browsers, email programs, graphic design software, etc. Most of it them are free.

I find it a little more difficult to get answers to Linux questions, because I know fewer people who run it than Windows. But, I am constantly ‘mitchering’ with my machine, and that brings up situations most users wouldn’t get into.

I went to bed a happy man. My machine was humming along. This ugly duckling was now the fastest machine in the house. Life was good. And then, I woke up.

Hitting the power button brought nothing. No noise, no lights, nothing.

I had built this system in an old case with an older, weaker power supply. I can’t be sure, but my best estimation is the power supply was stressed with this new configuration. As it cooled, it broke down. A digital multimeter across the power pins showed no voltage anywhere.

My goal here was to keep costs down. Now, with the extra RAM, I was already $30 over my original cost. I could have spent $60 at CompUSA or Circuit City to get a new supply, but decided to log onto eBay and see what was available.

For $20, including shipping, I bought a 420 watt supply to replace the 230 watt model I’ve surely fried. It’s coming from California, so I’ll be without this machine for most of – maybe all – of the next week. My $100 machine is now $150.

Still, if the power supply is the problem, and if it boots up right away, this will be a great investment. For $150, a computer someone wanted to throw away, will be a screamer. And, I did it myself. It’s no big deal.

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.

John Mayer

This is weird!

We bought 4 John Mayer tickets, but they were in a terrible location. So, since the show’s a sellout, we’re selling them on eBay and using the proceeds to buy 2 better tickets. So far, so good.

Except, tonight one of my co-workers bid on them!

If they weren’t already on eBay, they’d be hers… but I’m sort of locked into the auction.

Here’s an article from the Waterbury Republican American about John Mayer… and me (a little)

What does the singer John Mayer remember most about his childhood in Connecticut?

“Geoff Fox,” he says, referring to the longtime WTNH-TV weatherman.

“I remember waking up on winter mornings, looking out my window and seeing eight inches of snow. Then Geoff would instill hope that the next day of school would be canceled.”