AT&T Redemption
Jun2
I previously wrote about my woes with AT&T. I’m happy to report that they’ve done the right thing!
After a horrible exchange with their email support team, I called and spoke with a woman who reassured me I was eligible for the regular upgrade. She informed me I’d have to visit an AT&T store though.. but that’s not a problem.
So tonight, after waiting 30+ minutes for an associate, I ordered my iPhone 3GS! It’ll be delivered in 7-14 days. 
AT&T.. Why Must You Upset Me So?
Jun3
I’ve been an AT&T customer for years. And by years, I mean 12+ years. I was an old AT&T Wireless customer back in high school and early college, and then Southwestern Bell/Cingular, and now AT&T again. I’ve not had any complaints with them.. until now.
Flash back to two summers ago. I’m attending TBA/TODA/TCDA with Director’s Choice. Upon my return home, Monica has a surprise for me — the newly-released Apple iPhone. Such a great wife, isn’t she?
So for those keeping track, that was July 2007 — a month after the iPhone was released. So at that time, my contract was renewed for another two years.
Summer 2008 arrives and we move to the DFW Metroplex. Just like most people would, we head to our local AT&T store (company store, not an authorized retailer) to have our phone numbers changed. Turns out, AT&T tells us it’s not as simple as changing phone numbers. Reason being — we’re changing markets. So we can either keep our old Lubbock numbers or set up a new account in the new market. We opt to set up a new account so that our phone numbers can be local. In the process, the we were on at the time was no longer offered, so we were forced to change plans.. and conveniently, the price was $10 more per month. Frustrated but without options, we proceed.
June 2009 — Apple announces the iPhone 3GS. I would love to get one, and Monica says I can.. remember, I have a GREAT wife. 
I log into our AT&T account online and discover I’m not eligible for an upgrade. I realize this is because AT&T is considering Summer 2008 as when our contract started!
So let me get this straight.. First, AT&T made us open the new account to only change our phone numbers. Secondly, AT&T forced us to change plans and give them $120 more per year because our plan was no longer available. And now thirdly, AT&T is screwing me over by not honoring when my original iPhone was purchased. Hell no.
I’m not complaining about AT&T requiring early upgrade fees. I fully understand subsidizing and the costs associated with that. I have absolutely no problem with that.
But in my situation, I should not be punished for what AT&T forced upon me simply because I wanted to change my phone number. I’ve heard horror stories and experiences from friends and coworkers concerning AT&T, and I always came to AT&T’s defense. After this though, I’m not too sure I can do that anymore. AT&T has severely disillusioned me.
I have not yet contacted AT&T to see if anything could be done about the situation. If any AT&T employee reads this, I’d love nothing else to be able purchase an iPhone 3GS and extend my contract for another two years from now. I have no problems with that. But there’s no way in hell I’m paying an early upgrade fee when I do not feel it’s applicable to my specific situation.
My Life
Mar0
No, this isn’t an entry about Billy Joel.. It’s been quite a while since I have actually blogged about something meaningful, so I figured tonight would be a great night to write.
Where to begin..
Monica is now out of the first trimester and into the second. All is going well, and we’re looking forward to the big sonogram in six weeks. Just as we did (or didn’t) with Katie Lynn, we’re not going to find out the baby’s sex. So few things in life are truly a surprise, so we are just going to let the baby’s sex be a surprise. To keep up-to-date with baby news and goings-on, feel free to use subscribe to the RSS feed or just follow our updates over at tomandmonica.com.
Katie Lynn continues to amaze me. She’s growing up so quickly; it’s hard to believe she’s already sixteen months old. She’s enjoying her day care, her friends there, and her teachers. I love the social interaction and skills she is developing at this young age.
Wrigley is doing so much better. For those that don’t know, she had ear surgery a couple years back to resolve a condition affecting her ears. The surgeries went well but, in the end, did not seem to stop the condition. The vet in Lubbock said this was normal, so we took the “professional’s” word. When we moved to McKinney, we naturally had to find a new vet. Our new vet took a look and in five minutes knew there was a problem and how to treat it. The vet also diagnosed Wrigley with hypothyroidism, so she simply has to take one pill with her food.
Work is going great. Site5 was recently bought out by a couple of industry veterans. I had known that was the plan for quite a while, so naturally there was this sense of uncertainty. I’ve got to say though.. I could not be happier how things have turned out. Ben and Joel are exactly what the company needed, and I’m excited to be a part of the “new” Site5. I do miss working with the old owners and CEO, but luckily I still get to chat with them on a frequent basis as they’re all great friends.
I turned thirty last week. My wonderful wife planned a great surprise party for me. I had a great time, and are thankful for my family and friends that attended.
I’m still loving the MacBook that I bought back in October. I recently purchased an Acer LCD monitor to use while working. I used one back when I worked at DC, and I had forgotten how much I loved having one.
I’ve somehow gotten addicted to Twitter.. it’s even linked to Facebook. Who would have thought that I would be so into this whole social networking scene after being anti-MySpace for so long.
Instead of writing some corny summation paragraph (oops, too late), I’ll just end with some great pictures.
iPhone OS 2.0 Evaluation
Jul4
Now that the iPhone OS 2.0 is out, time for me to write my evaluation.
I’ve previously listed (here and here) my wishlists, and it looks like some of them have actually been resolved:
- BCC ability — fixed by Apple!
- Distribution List ability — still MIA.
- Mulit-client chat (YIM, AIM, Jabber) — still MIA as one client.
- Contacts having own home screen icon — fixed by Apple!
- SSH terminal with bookmark support — MIA and likely will remain that way.
Two out of five isn’t bad!
The AppStore is awesome though. Apple Remote is flawless, and the Facebook and MySpace applications work as expected. WeatherBug is a nice addition as well.
Of all the improvements Apple made, there are two that stick out (in addition to the above two already listed):
- Ability to delete/move multiple emails at a time
- Multiple calendar support
All in all, OS 2.0 is a great step forward. I can’t wait to see what 3.0 brings!
Safari, Firefox, Camino.. Oh My!
Apr1
From an earlier blog entry, I’ve already explained my personal browser war. I have finally made a choice after a few software updates as well as finding some very helpful plugins.
My browser of choice is now Safari 3.1.
First off, to address Safari’s inadequacies I outlined in my previous post:
- WordPress released version 2.5 which fixes the TinyMCE issue.
- I realized that I didn’t have that many Firefox extensions installed; and those that I did I found suitable Safari replacements.
- Having to export and import my bookmarks when they change in order to keep my iPhone up-to-date was a major pain. Using Safari obviously fixes that natively.
- I no longer use Outlook Web Access, so this is a moot point.
- GreaseKit — the Safari port of the Greasemonkey extension.
- SafariStand — various enhancements including color coded source viewing.
The two plugins require the SIMBL application to be installed.
I have two Greasemonkey scripts installed: Show Password onMouseOver and Spelling Cow all text fields.
My question to those reading this — which Greasemonkey scripts do you find indispensable?
My iPhone Software Wishlist (SDK)
Mar0
Everyone has their list; here’s mine:
- Multi-protocol Chat Client. Hell, if I had my way, Adium would be ported ASAP!
- SSH terminal with bookmark support.
- Real Address Book – not a section of the phone.
I guess my earlier suggestions and wish list still apply as well, but those need to come from Apple.
Anatomy of a Twitter Replacement
Nov0
Twitter seems to be all-the-rage in the tech circles these days. When I was trying to find an easy way for Monica and me to update Katie Lynn’s website, I decided to give Twitter a try. It worked well usually, but I noticed the external javascript calls slowed down page load time dramatically. Additionally, customization ability is lacking. I loved being able to send a text message to update the site, but I wanted the ability to email updates as well.
So I set out to find a replacement. I thought that would be simple.
Boy was I wrong.
I searched for a long time and finally found some very basic framework. Luckily, I’m not too shabby with PHP and was able to write everything I wanted:
- Accept text messages, emails, and web submissions.
- Parse the text message/email into variables.
- Insert the variables into a MySQL database.
- Display records any way I want.
- Allow people to subscribe to receive an email upon a new update.
- Load fast!
I then wrote an extremely easy admin interface to be able to edit the entries.
There are five main files to the application:
- Parser – as the name indicates, it parses the text and email submissions.
- Admin – all admin functions including posting via web.
- Notifier – emails subscribers upon all new updates.
- Subscribe – as indicated, performs the subscription action as requested by the visitor.
- Unsubscribe – as indicated, unsubscribes a subscriber upon their request.
The beauty of my system is that it does not need a cronjob. Instead, I simply piped an email address to the parser script’s full path.
And voilà!
I have a nice, simple Twitter replacement.