Sc@-tt3r-ed Thoughts

Today (03/31/2009) Skype released their iPhone app. I was quick to go and download it. I had heard some stuff about it. Some was true, some I had misunderstood, and now that I have the app, all is clear.

Here are a couple of things that I noticed:

The interface is very similar to the desktop version of Skype, has the same logon sound, and feels very similar in the navigation.

• There was some talk about Skype for iPhone not having text messaging. This is where I had some confusion, I had thought that the chat feature wasn’t available in the iPhone version, turns out to be that SMS text messaging isn’t available. I heard a lot of people complain about that, though I’m not sure that it’s a big deal, given there are other methods to sending text message via the phone (through email, for instance).
• The chat was very fast, even on my Edge network. I had all my history of that chat pop up (I was also logged in on my laptop). The profile of the user is viewable, and basic actions like “blocking” a user are also available.
• Trying to make a Skype call the Edge / 3G network was a no-go. Apparently this is something related to the agreement of data usage with the carrier or something to that effect. The message is detailed when it comes up on Skype will connected to Edge or 3G
• Skype calls were very crisp and clear on WiFi though. I love the fact that it can be used on both the speaker phone as well as the phone ear piece.

Given all I’ve seen at first glance, I’m very impressed with Skype for iPhone. It’s quite stable for a first release. I haven’t had a single crash yet, and connectivity is fast. Also, my SkypeOut balance is available, and can extend my credit straight from my iPhone. Same goes for my voicemail account as well.

If you’re an iPhone owner, then Skype is definitely an app you want to download. best of all, it’s free… can’t beat that price!

I’m so excited! Finally, Better Gmail 2 support HTML Signatures. there’s a couple steps to it, but once it’s setup, it’s beautiful, and gets seamlessly inserted in new messages. I can now send email from web-based gmail, as well as outlook/Mac Mail, and have my outgoing mail look the same! Yippeee!!

Also, as a side note, if you download this version of Better Gmail 2 (0.5.1) , check out the redesigned skin, it’s on a black background, and it looks amazing!

So, I was reading some information about the release of detailed pricing from AT&T today, and I found out some information that irritated me.

First off, if you’re not too familiar with the pricing plan that AT&T has, here’s the skinny: If you’re a current AT&T customer, and eligible for an upgrade, you can get the 8GB iPhone 3G for $199, and the 16Gb for $299. However, if you are NOT eligible for an upgrade, and you are an existing AT&T customer, you would have to:
1- Pay $399 for the 8Gb, and $499 for the 16Gb
2- Reset your 2 year contract with AT&T.

As a side note, there also seems to be some rumors that there will be a no-contract option for the iPhone purchase, which will be $599 for the 8Gb and $699 for the 16Gb. This apparently, may not be available for a few months though.

Now, the reason as to why I’m aggravated. I used to be a happy Verizon customer, and had the XV6700 with which I was extremely happy for the most part. Due to Apple striking the deal with AT&T, and due to the fact that I really liked the iPhone, I decided to bite the bullet, and move to AT&T. This was before there were any rumors of the iPhone 3G roaming around. When I moved, I decided to get the Blackjack as a backup phone, while waiting to get my iPhone. During that time, I heard that a new version of the iPhone will be coming out, so I decided to lay low until the new one was out.

Well, for me, as a new AT&T customer, I had moved carriers just to get a handset that I really wanted, and now, I get stuck with, not only having to pay the full price of the handset of the first generation phone, but also an additional $10 / month for my data plan.

Even with the $299 price-point for the iPhone 3G, and the $10 increase in the data plan, I would still be short some $150 or so by the end of my 2 year contract. Now, I guess I have to do the math for what the iPhone would end up costing me by paying the full premium for it, as well as the added plan cost. Not to mention the additional, (optional… ridiculous! ) text plan, which will nicely tack on another $20 / month !

Hmm.. now I have to wonder whether the iPhone is a good investment? or would I be better off terminating early with AT&T and getting the Samsung Instinct from Sprint, at least, with that, I would get the new customer device discount….. plus, the Instinct is looking like a very sweet phone from the looks of it..

As email times progress, we all see more and more chain mail, letters, and just random forwards. Sometimes these are completely lame, sometimes, they have been around for years, and sometimes, they are just plain scams…. in this post, I will address some items related to proper ways of forwarding email, quickly checking the validity of a forward, and respecting the privacy of others…
Forwarding DO’s:

1. Address the email to yourself (in the “To”) field, and put all your recipients in the “Bcc” field. This is especially important, if you are sending the forward to many people who may not know each other. This is a privacy issue, not to mention that some people may be irritated that their email is just flyin’ around in forwards.
2. If the email you received is a forward, then make sure to clean it up before you send it. a lot of times, forwards will have the headers of previous forwards, which contain the emails of other people that you don’t even know. of course, had other people followed the forwarding etiquette and put the recipient in the “Bcc” field, then this wouldn’t happen. don’t be like them. Also, emails tend to have the “>” before each line, and more of those everytime the email has been forwarded (if the client is setup to do so) , so now your forward is just a bunch of “>>>>>>>>>” with a couple of words on each line. Not very pleasant to read.
3. If the forwarded email was contained in many attached messages, make sure you open the very last message that actually contains the forward, and click on “forward” on that particular message. If you had to click 17 times before you go to the forward, don’t make others have to do it as well.
4. Check for the validity of an email that sounds fishy, or even not, especially ones that either promise money, or as you for donations and whatnot. There are many sites that can help with that, one of which is http://www.hoax-slayer.com/, also, remember, google is your friend, just ask a question there, and 99% there will be an answer about that particular forward, and chances are, it WILL be a hoax.
5. If people people happen to ask you to remove them from the list, do respect their request, and remove them. There is enough spam out there that people can’t successfully opt out of, don’t make yours one of them

Forwarding DON’Ts:

1. Don’t forward every single forwarded email that you receive. Remember, if you are a fanatic about reading jokes and whatnot, not everybody else is.
2. Don’t forward all types of forwards to all your same friends. Some friends can tolerate more jokes than others, and some rather just get forwards that deal with a new discovery, or something else of their interest. An easy way to do this would be to create a couple distribution groups in your email client/address book , and selectively send the forwards to these people.
3. Don’t send forward stuff to everybody in your address book, just because the email said that if you don’t forward it, then you’re going to be sat on by a big elephant, or you’re going to have 13 years of bad luck. Trust me, it’s not true, so don’t worry about it. If you think that the contents of the email are intriguing to you and some/all your friends, then by all means, just don’t do it because the email threatens you about it!
4. Don’t overdo it!!!I don’t care if it’s your best friend, if you send them 15 forwards everyday, they’re going to play the opt out card on you, as mentioned above, be selective, pick the best ones that you think your friends will enjoy, and do your cleaning up shananigans on it before sending it, they will enjoy the read much more than have to scroll 3 miles before reaching anything readable.

I hope this little guide helped a little bit. I am surprised everyday at the forwards I get. I had thought people would eventually catch up to good forwards, and/or good forward etiquette, but I guess not.
Happy Forwarding!

I have been in the IT field for about 8 years now, and I have dealt with novices, experts, novices who thinks they’re experts, and everything in between. In this article, I’m going to lay it out all on the table about dealing with an IT. If you find that one of those points applies/applied to you at once point or another. I apologize in advance, but sometimes it’s better to be blunt than to beat around the bush .

1. If you ask me a technical question, please do not argue with me when I give you an answer. When I give a definite answer, it is because I am absolutely positive about it. If you are a lawyer, and you have my case, I will not argue about what you tell me regarding the law related to my case. If I didn’t know the answer to your question, I will tell you that I don’t know, or that I will research it and get back to you. Please do not come to me with the question if you just want to argue about it. 
2. When I have to guide you step by step through a process that usually would take me about 2 minutes if I do it myself, but takes you 1 hour because you don’t know what you are doing. Please don’t get impatient with me, or act like you don’t have time to waste on fixing your issue. Remember, I am the one spending my time trying to help you with your problem. If you have to go because you have something to do, I would understand of course. There is always an 80% chance that the problem that you are having is usually extremely simple to resolve, and becomes complicated due to your impatience to go through the steps. 
3. If I ask you what you have done to your equipment prior to it breaking, please don’t lie to me, and say “nothing”. In most cases, you must have done something. I am ok with you making mistakes, but not ok with you lying about it. this only makes the process longer and longer to troubleshoot, as I’d have to guide you through investigating up until we reach the point of finding the change you made that caused your equipment or software to break. this COULD be the starting point of the conversation … Imagine the time saved. 
4. If I tell you that I can’t fix something, or that you have to recreate a document because it has been permanently lost, please don’t get mad at me. it is not my fault, nor am I a magician. (though some people seem to think I am … ). I will do my best to help you resolve whatever issue you have. Sometimes, I won’t be able to, or it’ll be simply impossible, or very costly to the point where it’s not even worth it for you.
5. Please don’t insult yourself before you ask a question (i.e: I’m such an idiot) … that’ll not only make you really sound like an idiot, but it’ll make me not want to help you. Just because you don’t know the resolution to a problem doesn’t make you an idiot. 
6. Don’t be afraid to ask questions. I am aware that people’s knowledge skills in technology vary greatly, no question is a dumb question. I’d rather answer questions to teach you how to do things, than to answer support calls to fix things you’ve broken.

I hope these few pointers will be some eye openers to some. again, I apologize for the bluntness, but these are truths about IT support. Look at all the humor sites that are built around IT support, that should tell you something about the lives we live in our IT world

Hm I think that title would get the attention of the audience I would want to address in this post. 

Over the past few weeks, I’ve been contemplating my online workstyle while dealing with a my webhost which has been less than ideal lately, in addition to dealing with WordPress problems that I can’t seem to find a good solution for (not the formatting of the articles being all screwed up). Some say, it’s the theme, some say it’s the browser, I spent countless hours trying to fix it, then last night, it dawned on me…

This is really not a post that actually compares these 2 products. but it is my gripes on Parallels, and an apology to VMWare!