I try to be "GREEN": Flashlights with rechargeable batteries I owned were demonstrating seriously diminished performance (they had a right to, they were ~10 years old). I opened one up to see what sort of battery it had in it, and was pleased to find, that instead of an impossible to replace proprietary battery, it was powered by 4 "AA" batteries. I went to a local Walmart where for a reasonable price, they had Kodak brand batteries, which I put in the flashlight, and the flashlight is now better than new. Similar flashlight here.
Next, what does one do with old NiCad rechargeable batteries? AT&Ts' web site says they will accept them as part of their recycling program. One minor glitch. My local company owned store rudely refused to accept said batteries.
I just sent an email to the Store manager, and everyone up the chain of command at AT&T reporting that incident. I made sure to include Steve Jobs, the local media, and Greenpeace, so they'll know about ATTs' efforts at being "GREEN".

IPhone and WiFi networks: Last week you may have read stories claiming the iPhone was causing problems for Duke University's WiFi Network. Duke after checking it all out found the real cause! Cisco !

Story here.

Vacation in Miami and Bahamas I'm about to head off to some nice beaches, and for a moment I thought I saw the Continental Airlines Deathstar emblem on the Tail of this plane on the beach.




Actual plane story here:

More on U-Verse : Seems like its unanimous. No one likes U-Verse, the TV service over phone lines from AT&T. Local newspaper technology columnist pans it here. He failed to mention it's capped at 6.0 mbps for dsl, despite using a 100 mbps pipe. Also failed to mention that Comcast TiVo hasn't seen the light of day yet. Also failed to mention that 6.0 mbps dsl is widely available on regular phone lines now, it's called dsl Elite, and I can vouch for it, I have it, it works and its great and it's cheaper than Cable.
Last person I knew who canceled their U-Verse, then found out it took them a week to get the regular dsl back up and running, and further their U-Verse installer had bollixed up ( sabotaged?) their Dish satellite wiring in their attic, requiring an Echostar service call.

iPhone Sales - First Weekend

Late Saturday I said Apple's iPhone sales would blow past 300,000 Sunday.

I was wrong.

The Los Angeles Times says the correct Final Number
for the three day weekend is:

525,000

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-iphone2jul02,1,4774908.story?ctrack=1&cset=true


By Sunday every California Apple store was sold out of iPhones ! ! !


AT&T didnt remember the lessons of when Porting started 3 years ago, and some Activations got delayed over porting issues.

If you live on Dixie Farm Road, but Verizon goes to PORT you and
you told the computer you live on Dixie Farm Rd, it wont match !!!

And with AT&T stripping all discounts from Account and refusing to
allow iphones on Business Accounts, I wonder if the real reason is:
Is Apple getting 10% of all Service revenue from iPhones rebated?
And since there is no discount for signing up for 2 years, maybe the $150
discount one might have traditionally got is going to Apple.


LATE NEWS July 2 : WooHoo - AT&T will give me free access to its WiFi hot spots since
I have High Speed dsl from AT&T. Story here. Almost reason enough to get iPhone.

Followup July 4 : all Texas Apple stores are now sold out of iPhones. By now
we learn most folks having trouble activating their iPhone, it's due to one cause -
USER ERROR. Some want to activate on a business account - which AT&T isn't allowing and told everyone that. Others submit data that won't allow a credit check, or insufficient or incorrect information to Port a phone number from a different cellular carrier. Turns out it's not AT&T's fault in most cases in the small minority of cases where activation doesn't take only a few minutes.