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. :)