PCS/Cell Deadzones

For information on deadzones, you can check out this website. http://www.deadzones.com/ This site lists reported dead zones for cell and pcs services in most metro areas.

Handspring Treo 300 Sprint PCS info

This is a freeform of my thoughts about the Treo and Sprint, so it's not a report, just my experience with my device and its service.

I encounter at least 50% signal strength almost anywhere and 100% near signal tours. Once in awhile I get less than 50%. Since it's PCS, that doesn't affect speech quality all that much...though maybe you'll have sometimes clipping. The only connection problem I encounter is during peak usage, where I'll briefly can't dial out to a phone on another service for a minute or so right around 5:00pm. Actually, i'm not entirely sure this is Sprint's fault since this has happened with only one of my friend's phones using verizon. I don't have any in-service problems at all.

I've used voice calls up the pennisula, in SF, up the East Bay, up 580, 680, 880, 17 (in cover areas), 101, 280 and 85, Los Gatos, West San Jose, Campbell, South San Jose, East San Jose, Cuptertino, Salinas, Monterey, Santa Cruz, Modesto and along I-5. I-5 itself is somewhat spotty. The is no data/internet available in sparse areas along I-5. I haven't tried data/internet useage in Modesto, but pretty much everywhere else. It's about the same speed as current dial-up, and can be faster at times and slower other times. There are breaks in connections sometimes, but you won't notice unless you are on big complex websites for awhile (like roaming around Amazon.com can be frustrating, but checking local movie listings or driving directions is usually problem free.)

I found that the Treo is being treated like a PC in terms of usage and customer service, but like a phone in terms of purchase and replacement.

If you go with the Sprint version, you'll get free unlimited data usage [yes, unlimited internet], but you'll need to install your own internet browser (and SMS add-on software for text messaging if you want to send text messages). (There is an internet browser included which does not recognize JAVA.) The SMS on Sprint phones allows incoming, but not outgoing, so u need add-on software to activate the outgoing ability. Cingular version of the Treo comes with full SMS on board already, but I think they are still charging for all data/internet usage. As far as the internet goes, once you have a JAVA enabled browser, you'll be able to access most of the internet. I haven't seen any Palm OS internet browsers that support Flash5 animations yet.

As for e-mail, you can set it up to directly access your work e-mail under the "Business Connection" option. I don't use this cuz I don't wanna clutter up my PDA with work emails. I also don't download Outlook emails during hotsync'ing, but it's automatic if you set it up that way. I do use a POP3 email account from Yahoo on my PDA for direct access to private emails to that account wirelessly. I haven't encountered any problem with this, other than the fact that the PDA doesn't come with a POP3 account already.

There's software that can allow you to fax documents from you PDA as well, but I gotta wonder who really needs that.

There's a ton of shareware/freeware available for Palm OS which will work on the Treo. I recommend staying away from "Hacks". Everything else works pretty good. When I was experimenting with hacks, i had regular hard and soft crashes. Since I stopped using them, I've had no hard crashed at all, and only rarely have soft crashes. That's pretty good considering I have over 50 applications on my device.

One more note about usage: The phone can handle more than one of certain wireless activities at a time, but it will hiccup if two different incoming events arrive at the same time (such as a phone call and a text message). You can recover pretty quickly though and doesn't even cause a soft crash.

So, to recap, the phone/PDA can voice call, text message, instant message, internet, e-mail and fax. You'll just need to download the software to fully enable certain abilities. And Sprint hasn't had bad service for my particular usage.

Anyways, that's the long and short of it.

What's been going on??

Well, just stuff. Nufin too exciting right now, and nufin on my mind. Maybe soon though. la la la

The Transporter

The Transporter Fun filled flick. Dude kicks ass and then more ass, and then more ass! Of course, it's got its ah-come-on moments too, like when Frank hot-wires a Mercades...psst, you can't hot-wire Mercades! lol How the girl got into the Mercades on her own while still being tied up to a chair is beyond me too. Oh, don't fret too much about the sudden custom changes in the middle of the action either. :) Ok, so I had to turn off my brain while watching. But if you can do that to, you'll enjoy it once. I won't be buying the DVD though. My highest honor for a movie is to buy its DVD. If I buy the DVD of your movie, it's like getting two thumbs up from Siskle and Ebert. Siskle is no longer with us, so that's a tall order to fill. :)

California Election 2002

Here's my planned votes on Props:

Prop 46 Housing and Emergency Shelter Trust Fund Act of 2002.
Yes Needed attention to our social needs.

Prop 47 Kindergarten-University Public Education Facilities Bond Act of 2002.
Yes Needed attention to our Public Education system.

Prop 48 Court Consolidation. Legislative Constitutional Amendment.
Yes Needed update to Constitution.

Prop 49 Before and After School Programs. State Grants. Initiative Statute
No Goes too far to control funding. Reduces flexability of the lawmakers to apply funding to immediate needs.

Prop 50 Water Quality, Supply and Safe Drinking Water Projects. Coastal Wetlands Purchase and Protection. Bonds. Initiative Statute.
No Goes too far to control funding. Too many special interest items for one law.

Prop 51 Transportation. Distribution of Existing Motor Vehicle Sales and Use Tax. Initiative Statute.
No Goes to far to control funding. Reduces flexability of the lawmakers to apply funding to immediate needs.

Prop 52 Election Day Voter Registration. Voter Fraud Penalties. Initiative Statute.
No Creates unnecessary Election day confusion, Making election fraud easy.

My planned votes on State positions: (I'm not listing party affiliation because I'm not affiliated myself and am not taking a canidate's party as an important point)

Governor – This election’s puppet master is Gray Davis.
Gray Davis Fought off the fowl stench of the corroption from White House’s Texan interests. Effective administrator. Raising economic clout of CA on world scene.

Lieutenant Governor – Fairly uninteresting offerings.
Cruz M. Bustamente First elected official to sue Texas energy companies for price-gouging us
Also considering: Kalee Przybylak Balanced social views which may be best adminstrated by the Lt. Gov. office (though not the Gov.’s office itself).

Secretary of State – Most canidates seem infatuated with stamping out voter fraud with little regard for another other issues.
Kevin Shelley Ideas and efforts are most relavent in the voting process and in social issues.

Controller – See there are two L’s in “Controller”! ::Yawn::
Tom McClintock Very aggressive stance on Corporate/Government corruption.

Treasurer – Uninteresting position, but…
Phil Angelides Appears to be the most active of all the canidates in matters of protecting tax dollars and making money for the State.

Attorney General – The only canidate that isn't a radical right or radical left is the incumbant. Scary!
Bill Lockyer The incumbant is doing a good job.

Insurance Commissioner – Interesting position to be on the ballot.
Gary Mendoza Record of taking on HMO’s.
Also considering: John Garamendi First Insurance Comm, with proven record.

Superintendent of Public Instruction – A nonpartisan position.
Katerine H. Smith Seems the more experienced of the Canidates, though her “Moment of Silence” thang is a bit quirky.

Yeah, it's been awhile...

I don't have a computer at home anymore...last one died, so I've not had as many opportunities to log on to the internet and update my blog. So here I am. Updates? A few months ago, someone (chop shop) ripped my emblem off my car so now I finally got that fixed. There was layoffs at my work last week. That was a stressful week in general. I got a new toy...Handspring's Treo 300 with SprintPCS phone built in. This toy is more useful than I imagined, and I imagined it being pretty useful. :) I have been waiting for someone to make a combo phone/pda/wireless internet with a color touch screen for years now (literally), and now it's finally here. I love it. SprintPCS services haven't given me any problems. Some say their customer service sux, but I haven't encountered a need for to talk to them yet, so hoping! lol

On the Treo 300, I've loaded Word/Excel clones, games, SMS messaging (SprintPCS doesn't provide outgoing SMS by default so I found a third party software that does the job), programs, contacts from outlook 2000, etc.

So that's pretty much the story for now.

Ok, Sarah, consider yourself mentioned. LOL Just kidding. I hope the best for you and your new b/f. :)

Damn what a weekend

A had a good weekend planned out with various friends. Only problem is that everything fell through, so it ended up sucking. :(

Front Business

I went to a Chinese restaurant with some co-workers for lunch today. It's kinda hidden. The service is completely horrible. No regular napkins at all in the place. When I asked for some, they gave us cocktail napkins with a logo from old restaurant that used to be at that location. The food is so-so. The place itself had limited seating that did no fill the dining area (if you can call it that). The place even had a rather inviting back door to the kitchen area which we mistakenly entered first. The place just had the feel like its primary business was not to be a restaurant. So we started thinking it was a front for a crime syndicate like the Triads. lol

Great Presidential Quotes

Dispite any great deeds, here is what they are really remembered for. This is my list, and if you have any suggestions to fill in missing presidents, e-mail me so I can update it.

Truman: "To hell with the Japs!"
Nixon: "I am not a crook!"
Ford: "Oops!" ::thud::
Reagan: "Huh?"
Bush Sr.: "Read my lips, no new taxes!"
Clinton: "I did not have sexual relations with that woman."
Bush Jr. "We must stop these evil-doers."

Just a report really.

Music in the Park had Stroke 9 last week. I left my yearly company picnic year to get there in time to catch them as your set started. Met up with Steph and Miriam and other friends. I don't let loose and just drink usually, but I wasn't driving and I haven't do it in awhile, so I just drank all I could in the afternoon and evening. Had lots of fun in the downtown San Jose event.

This week, my friend has been having some guy problems, so I've been hanging out with her and she's feeling better now. Today, I'm at work late, but not working...it's a weekly thang for our department called Darts Night. Beer and Pizza! Can't go wrong with that. lol

Funny, I'm writting about last weekend when this weekend is only a day away. lol

Last weekend, it was good. A friend of mine is heading out today on a 4 month tour with his band. So, last Friday, we had a party at his place to celebrate. Definitely a diverse mix of co-workers, college buddies and friend's friends. Later that night, we ended up at a beach and shot off some big fireworks. Got back around 4:00am. Next stop: Santa Cruz! Met up with some blogger buddies. Hey there Imelda for setting it up. Dave, Jillian and Marcie! Had fun down at the boardwalk, and I kicked ass at Laser Tag. Dang, this makes me wanna go Paintballing again soon. Maybe next month. A friend has a home business and goes to the Farmer's Market around this area to sell her goods. I ran across her at the Campbell market on Sunday, so after I got my shopping done, I helped out for awhile. After that, I just relaxed at home. Oops, no I didn't...well, kinda. I went to the movies to check out the new theater in the Pruneyard Sunday night. Saw The Bourne Identity The theater interested me because a friend and I looked over the sight for a possible business of our own before and I wanted to see what Camera Cinemas did with it. It turned out to be a nice place with a Willow Street Cafe (pizza) in side.

Two girls, a gay guy and a kerioki bar

My friends Miriam and Steph are having a girls night out and end up a this place called the Bamboo 7 in Japantown. It's kinda dead, so Miriam calls me up to join. Hey thanks! lol anyways, I get there, and Ronie and Mark get there a bit later. Kerioki is particularly bad this night. We end up in a booth in someone else's spot. These two girls and their gay friend. The brunette is cute. She initiates a conversation and flirts with me a little bit. Cool. She's attractive, and we move close, with physical contact. I'm thinking, "Cool". Ok, so she and her two friends go outside for a smoke. Then when they come back, the blonde sits next to me. Right up next to me. She's even more physical, but I wasn't in to her. Of course, I find out the brunette is married, supposedly. huh, figure that out. So this blonde is all up on me now. So, I'm cool with it, but wasn't into her, which doesn't seem to deter her. Anyways, she gets up after a bit and goes to the bar. The gay guy moves up next to me and is trying to touch me casually. lol He's trying to talk me up. He even gets up the nerve to ask if I was gay. I ignored it, but he said, "well?" I'm like, "No, I'm not gay." He quickly retracts as pretends he was talking about something else. kinda funny. So now my friends, who (of course) where noticing all this, have teased me about being hit on by two girlfriends and their gay friend.

Money is tight

Right now, money is tight. Dang it. Well, I'm used to it, and I gots the self-control to deal with it, but still sux. I thought I'd be in better shape by now. I'm just waiting for Friday payday. As long as I don't go crazy, it should be a good starting point to recovering. I'm still a grand in the red on my checking account's reserve cash ($2000 line of credit attached to my checking), but at least cash flow will allow me to pay the big bills coming up without dipping further into debt. I maybe even be able to recover a little bit.

Marine World

Fun place. My favorite rides in the area. New shows. Medusa, Roar and Vertical Velocity are great! Didn't have a chance to do everything I wanted to last weekend, so I might have to end up going again.

Saw a lady have a heart attack...

Sunday, after a long day at Marine World, my cuzins and friends and I where heading out when this lady had a heart attack right in front of us while her family was waiting for the tram. At first, the women appeared to be trying to sit down, and I've never seen anyone actually having an heart attack, so it didn't register in my head. When she collapsed completely, her family noticed. Forturnately, the staff responded quickly. Now that I've seen what one looks like, I will likely respond much faster if someone has one around me again. I hope the lady is ok.