RyanDAbbott

YOU CAN’T BE SERIOUS!

Tonight I had a little chat with Comcast about canceling my HBO (Entourage is over, so what is the use). Comcast is notorious for nickel and diming their customers - and this is just another example. BUT they are also known for waving those fees at the drop of a hat (if you ask for it that is). Here is the chat transcript from the conversation:

Michael.35287> To better assist you, Can you please tell me more about your concern?
Ryan_> I want to cancel HBO
Michael.35287> I see.
Michael.35287> I would just like to inform you that there would be a one time charge of 1.99 for the change of service, Ryan.
Michael.35287> Shall I proceed?
Ryan_> what
Ryan_> im not paying to cancel services
Ryan_> its a click
Michael.35287> Alright, Ryan. I can wave it for you this time.
Ryan_> … thank you

$1.99 to cancel my services!? Give me a break.. at this point I was already a little frustrated - But I had one more question for my pal Michael at Comcast. Comcast like to give promotional rates for 6, or 12 months; at the end of that promotion your rates sky rocket without your knowledge (or until the bill comes that is). So The conversation continues:

Michael.35287> Is there anything else I could assist you with today?
Michael.35287> It is important for me to know if you are still online. Did you receive my last message?
Ryan_> yes
Ryan_> What will my new monthly bill be
Michael.35287> That would be $10 less, Ryan/
Ryan_> ok
Michael.35287> Is there anything else I could assist you with today?
Ryan_> am I currently under a promotion?
Ryan_> with any of my other services?
Michael.35287> I am shown here that you have a promotion of 38.98/month for 12 months for the Digital starter and 21.94/month for 12 months for the internet service./
Michael.35287> Is there anything else I could assist you with today?
Ryan_> that will go up to what, starting what date?
Michael.35287> That would start on 04/25/2009, Ryan.
Ryan_> and the price would be?
Michael.35287> 57.99/month for the Cable and 42.95/month for the internet.
Ryan_> LOL yea ok
Ryan_> thanks Michael

Bwahahah - In April my rates for Comcast will more than DOUBLE - taking my total monthly bill almost $200 dollars!!!! I have 6MB internet and the Digital Starter - basic digital cable, and DVR.

Comcast get real - Looks like come April, I’m switching to RCN.

When the iPhone first came out one of the features that I thought I’d use most is the Visual Voicemail. I HATE having to listen to voice mails that say “Hey its xxxx, give me a call when you get a second”. It is soooo time consuming to have some lady read you the time, date, and persons phone number followed by a message when I already know who it was.. its called Caller ID. Since not all of us have iPhones we are lacking the ability to just delete voice mails we don’t want to listen to.. until recently. 

@allieo over at The Createive Career introduced me to YouMail (YouMail.com); a visual voice mail solution for EVERYONE with internet access. The site allows you to view your voice mails via your phones browser, your computers browser, OR the old fashion way of just calling in. The site allows for a lot of pretty cool features like alerts, personalized greetings, call blocking/avoiding, and caller ID. They also offer premium services for thing such as receiving emails/texts with a transcript of the voicemail that is read from a “highly accurate premium transcription”.

So for anyone that is in need of visual voicemail, and doesn’t want an iPhone (or to switch to AT&T) - checkout YouMail.com, I love it so far!

Moving to Chicago last January I missed the Christmas season and all the festive fun that it comes with. Whether you hate it or love it, Chicago public transportation is the way to go. Although sometimes it is rather frustrating, slow, and busy but the city does what they can to make the experience as enjoyable as they can. 

I was recently caught off guard by the CTA and the introduction of the Santa Express. Apparently every holiday season Chicago decorates a six car EL Train with lights, posters, and tinsel. The train offers a decked out exterior covered in lights, and a completely overhauled interior including recovered seats, lights, signs, and elves handing out candy canes. This said train travels on different tracks through the season, its schedule can be found here. I was able to snap a few photos the other night, I’ve posted them on flickr.

An article about the Blackberry Storm was recently posted over at the NY Times (article). The NY Times is to most people, a very credible source that they have grown to trust. But this article proves the many theories out there that the quality of writing is going down hill as journalists are being pushed to write more, faster. 

The article by David Pogue (blog) is very pursuasive, and any non-tech aware individual would feed right into his opinions. I wrote an email to David in which I discussed his obvious flaws, as well as the fact that the article has changed since it was originally posted; the email read:

Mr. David Pogue,

I am writing to express my concern with the information you are providing to trusted readers. Your article recently written in the NY Times (originally titled “Blackberry Storm Downgraded to Depression” then later changed to “No Keyboard? And You Call This a Blackberry?”) is very strongly worded, poorly researched, and clearly not tech-reviewed.

You are of course entitled to your opinion, and I am not writing to complain about said opinion. The fact is that people trust the NY Times to publish informative, non-biased, researched articles. I found a few things with your article that are completely flawed, and would like to get your feedback.

1. It is a little unsettling that you changed the title, why did this happen?

2. You said “A BlackBerry without a keyboard is like an iPod without a scroll wheel.” You do realize that the iPod touch, the iPhone, and the iPod shuffle lack the scroll wheel right, leaving only the iPod nano…

3. You said “But when you turn it upright, you get the less accurate SureType keyboard, where two letters appear on each “key,” and the software tries to figure out which word you’re typing.” The only thing wrong with this is that the keyboard that appears while holding the phone vertically is a setting. The Storm has a place in the preferences that allows you to choose full QWERTY or the SureType keyboard while holding the phone upright.

4. I also noticed that the same time the article was renamed, that you removed a portion of the article where you referred to the launching of the camera. Something along the lines of “While typing an email I entered a GMail address and the camera launched” I can only suspect this was because you pressed the right side Convenience key and didn’t realize it. This is would also explain why it has since been removed from your article; possibly someone reviewed the article finally?

Although all 4 points above concern me, and instantly cause me to remove any trust in your opinion all together, I think that number 4 is the most important. It is clear that you spent 3 minutes with the phone, and bashed around the phone smashing down buttons and THEN spewed out this ridiculous article.

Keep in mind that I don’t work for Verizon or RIM, never have, never will. Nor am I being asked to write this by anyone associated with either company.

Could you please share your thoughts, and inform us how after publishing an article so poorly written, that we should ever trust that your publications are honest, researched, and valuable?

Thank you for your time,

Ryan Abbott
http://ryandabbott.com

I am awaiting an email response from Mr. Pogue; until then please make concious decisions when making purchases. It is ALWAYS a good idea to do your own research - reviewing multiple sources as well as getting whatever hands-on access you can.

Stay tuned for a response, I am interested to see what Mr. Pogue has to say.

** UPDATE 11/28 3:26pm
David Pogue sat down with Steve Jobs to check out the iPhone.. (full article)

GIVE ME MY DAMN PHONE!!!!

I’m sure there are a lot of really patient people out, I am not one of them. Last Friday I went to my local Verizon Wireless Store (map) to purchase the Blackberry Storm. I have been a Verizon customer for some years now, never paying much under $100 for any plan I’ve had (in other words, they have a crap ton of my money!). 

When I arrived at noon CST the store was sold out (I was informed that this location received a TOTAL of 20 phones)! I was a little disappointed with this being release day and all, but they were giving out an extra $50 discount, and next day deliver to my apartment for free. The only problem is that next day, was 3 days ago…

Verizon has pushed back all of their ship dates for the Storm, and only has estimates. I paid for a phone, and have nothing to show for it, not even a tracking number. It’s extremely frustrating when I call and nobody has any information, and some people that purchased the phone 5-6 hours after me are getting theirs today/tomorrow. On top of the fact that I am not receiving my phone, Verizon is collecting interest on the money that I paid with. Sure my one purchase isn’t making them very much money, but think of how many phones were purchased that day, you don’t think that’s making Verizon a good chunk of change?

Verizon typically has good customer service, but at the price we pay for service they damn well better have. With all of us continuing to pay our monthly rates, our absurd data rates, and purchasing the phone, you would think that the least they could do for us is provide the phone that we purchased.

If there is one thing you will learn about me from this blog, it’s that I CANNOT stand spoiled people - which is why there is an entire category here based on just that. 

Today I ventured over to Burrito Beach (map) for lunch to use my ‘Free Entree’  coupon bundled in a gift bag I got at the Race Judicata 5k this summer. It’s a close walk from the office, quick, decent tasting, and.. free (today)! Sounds like a good gig right.. wrong. I sat down at a tiny little table, all on my own - surrounded by no one. As any restaurant does during lunch it got rather busy and tables become legitimate trade goods; people started splitting tables, moving tables apart.. the whole nine yards. I was fortunate enough to have two, what seemed to be, quiet young female professionals pull a table closer to mine (not touching, but close enough) and consume their (paid for) lunch. Nothing seems too bad right..

The FIRST thing that came out of one girls mouth was “I’m so nervous about this whole L.A. thing, but OMG my dad called this morning and goes ‘I am talking with my friends, trying to decide what convertible you should get’ so that’s kinda cool”. The other girl showed no interest in the comment and was probably thinking the same thing I was, so she followed it up with “Him and his friends are silly, you know.. yea.. boys will be boys”.

UGH!

The remainder of the conversation consisted of this girl talking shit about everyone friend that shes has, and how they treat their wedding like its so amazing - bitching about how many pictures people have of themselves in their house and how she can’t believe that their weddings were ONLY 4-600 people “Like whats the point of having a wedding if only 400 people are coming”

I packed up my burrito, re-dressed, and left. 

I would like to start a movement people, and I need backing. Regardless of sex, please stop dating, and please stop encouraging stupid, stuck up, ignorant, spoiled people - maybe they will go away.

As most that know me are very aware, I am full of opinions - and express them often. SO, in order to spare my friends the trouble of listening to me (although I can say with confidence that it will not stop completely) I decided to create a blog. Rest assured this will not be a catch all for my ranting and raving; I will be posting basically anything that comes to my mind dealing with whatever I am working on/with at the time.

Checkout the About page to get an idea as to what the future may hold as far as content goes. I have plenty to say, but time is lacking in my world; hopefully that won’t be reflected in the blog when it comes time to post.