Surprisingly easy too. My father, who in theory, is on the same contract & plan as I am, was told to do all sorts of silly things to get an iPhone, and he's looking at $480 for an 8GB unit, given his account.
I, on the other hand, have a plan that's $18/mo... because it's less than $30/mo - there's a surcharge on the purchase-price of the iPhone 16GB (Black) for me.
Are you ready for this?
Instead of paying $299+txs, I have to $324+txs.
Right.
On a 3 year contract, because I'm $12 below the "standard offers", I have to pay an extra $0.75/mo.
Makes no sense to me, but at least I can handle that.
It should arrive within 3-5 biz days... hopefully before I leave for Calgary!!!
I was 10 or 11 in line for 9 iPhones. While we waited, 3 or 4 more handsets showed up, but not enough 16GB units to make one back to me, so I decided since the people behind me wanted an iPhone a whole lot more than I wanted an 8GB iPhone, I left.
Packing for Toronto now, wonder if I'll have better luck there tomorrow?
I can live either way.
Menumeters is a dead project. Stef's been cajoling me for months to install iStat Menus, so I did just that a few minutes ago... Look at how many thermometers are in my MacPwn! That's what... 27 of 'em?!
It's 28C in my room. Wonder why.
And I used to get all excited when my Asus TX97-E motherboard had two.
Not actually significantly more valuable than the old iPhone, but the old one is now almost worthless.
Hardware really isn't that exciting: Added GPS, upgraded the Cellular Radio, evolved tech means better battery-life and better form-factor, but unless Rogers actually puts some real network behind the HSDPA network to realize speeds that even come remotely close to WiFi... I drop calls from my desk, which is in the center of suburbia...
Rogers are idiots, right?
It's going to be like the Razr, given the new prices ($200 for the 8GB model! The Touch is pricier than that.)
Speaking of the Touch, this is the second slap in the face of iPod Touch owners - $10 for another firmware update - and at that, this one that only really enables me to give Apple more money
Remember kids: Even though it's $200, over your 2 year contract at $70+/mo, you're looking at an investment of well over $2200 when you consider hardware, voice plan, data plan, system access fees, taxes... And that's ignoring any content, apps, or accessories.
It's coming to Canada, and it's better than a Treo. I think I want one. Pretty sure I'll jailbreak my Touch once Firmware 2.1 comes out.
There's a private member's bill to be introduced by the NDP, while there's a lot of skepticism surrounding it, it's worth drawing attention to and writing your local representatives at all levels of the government! Remember - Bell Canada is a government funded private corporation that is inhibiting competition from Independent Canadian ISPs - ISPs like Server North!
As a ratepayer, you should be annoyed. As a consumer, you should be irritated. As a friend of mine, you should be furious.
If you like choice and performance when it comes to your Internet access, or you just like to support the little-guy... please sneak out early for lunch on Tuesday and join myself and many others on Parliament Hill to rally for net-neutrality.
Don't know what Net Neutrality is? Think double-dipping by telcos wanting to charge extra for access to Google or Facebook... or making them load slower or after showing you ads. Notice how your VPN connection to the office got slower recently? That's thanks to Bell's new DPI from Ellacoya/Arbor. Your BitTorrenting on Rogers just not moving at full speed, even though it's a legitimate download? Enjoy their "bandwidth resource management".
And that's just the beginning. The CRTC doesn't appear to get it, so come help us make sure the message is heard.
<Myke> The funniest thing just happened.
<Myke> I'm fiddling with this new RAID chassis right?
<Myke> and as any good sysadmin/security admin does, I check for updated firmware
<Myke> "JetStor SATA 405U serial numbers are not supported by this applet."
<Myke> Alright. It says to call support, so I do
<Myke> Me: I just picked up a 405U, and I'm trying to check for updated firmware - but I can't register thru the site!
<Myke> Support: Is this Server North?
<Myke> Me: !
<Myke> Me: ... Yes...
<PsychoI3oy> haha
<Myke> Support: Yeah - I updated the firmware on it before we shipped it.
<Myke> Me: drr...
<PsychoI3oy> awesome support
<Myke> Support: We always do that
<Myke> Me: That's awesome, but for all I knew, it'd sat on a shelf for three years
<Myke> Support: No no. Always updated.
<Myke> Support: Actually, in 10 years, you're the first person to ask for firmware RIGHT AWAY on a new unit.
<Myke> Me: C'mon
<Myke> Support: Yup, nobody has ever checked right away... ever.
Backstory: I want to buy some connectivity from someone who has a cabinet proximate to mine in a colocation facility. The floors are made of raised tiles, so you can run cables and other things underneath them...
<Myke> Did you run that cross-connect cable to my cabinet yet?
<Uplink> No, I can't find the floor-tile lifter.
<Myke> You don't have you're own? You know they keep them locked up...
<Uplink> Oh, they do? That's annoying.
<Myke> I do know one way to solve the problem easily enough...
<Uplink> Really? What's that?
<Myke> Well, the lifter tool is just a pair of suction cups, right?
<Uplink> Right
<Myke> Why do you need two? You don't. One would suffice.
<Myke> So where can you get a big suction-cap?
<Uplink> Uhm, where?
<Myke> Just go to the nearest janitor's cart - surely he'll have a plunger--
<Uplink> Oh God
<Myke> -- Just make sure it's clean
<Uplink> EW!!!
<Myke> You don't want to be leaving little s**t-rings everywhere
<Uplink> UHG. THAT'S DISGUSTING
<Myke> But Effective!
This entry sounds techy, but really it's not about that. Just last week I had to help migrating one of my clients, who'd been acquired, over to their new mega-corp network... speaking with one of their former employees this morning
<Lukas> hey, I heard you had fun at $INITECH recently
<Myke> yeah
<Lukas> you had to teach them about routing, etc
<Myke> no no
<Myke> I didn't teach them
<Myke> I schooled them.
<Lukas> LOL
<Myke> yeah, it was worse dorkery than when we were dealing with that Cool Dude from Magma last year
<Myke> guy in Texas didn't know the difference between NAT, Routing and Firewall rules.
<Lukas> LOL
<Lukas> and that is a HUGE billion dollar company
<Lukas> they love M$
<Myke> techs weren't allowed to change DNS
<Myke> the guy couldn't understand the VLANs
<Lukas> yeah, we had a nice little setup there and they just ripped it all out
<Myke> and when I found the config entry that caused us 3 hours of debugging
<Myke> he got really quiet.
<Lukas> ha ha
Replace my fantastic setup... you know what it took to get it running?!
But really - this is just an excuse to talk about the Cool Dude from Magma.
The story is about a year old, the day Samsam was born actually; These guys had moved to a new office and contracted me to help set them up with a new router and get the overall network going. New office came pre-connected to Magma... but we needed a few things reconfigured. We called Magma, had a difficult first call, whereby the agent basically just said he'd call us back. With nothing to do, we went to lunch.
"... so I can give you the latest update on the matter!" (Emphasis his.)
Back at the office, the 5 of us crowd around the speaker phone - hoping they can make these changes today so we can enjoy the rest of the day, but it's really not sounding like it...
(audio is unedited, transcript is below, Lukas and the Rep are in the recording)
"that would be so sweet from you" "you and myke, are good guys man"
I'm not sure if this guy loves his job, us, or just gets that enthusiastic about everything... but damn, that was funny.
I've been working on a project to bring Fiber To The Home out in Perth Ontario, actually putting the fiber up on the poles and trenching underground and whatnot... Today didn't go so well:
<Chris> hey
<Myke> Oh Hai
<Chris> how did perth go today
<Myke> Ben called to wake me up at 10 to 8
<Myke> Met at Sheridan at 8:30
<Myke> grabbed brekky, showed him your fantastic wall which looks awesome.
<Myke> hit Canadian Tire & Home Hardware for some heatshrink tubing
<Myke> went out to Sheridan
<Myke> Fired up the truck
<Myke> Put the outriggers down
<Myke> and the bucket/boom wouldn't move.
<Myke> ... neither would the outriggers
<Myke> No lights on the control panel for the PTO/Accessory system
<Myke> Found a blown/broken circuit breaker
<Myke> went back to CTC to get a replacement
<Myke> that didn't work
<Myke> Found another blown/broken circuit breaker
<Myke> went back to CTC to get a replacement
<Myke> Found another blown fuse
<Myke> went back to CTC to get a replacement
<Myke> Still wouldn't work
<Myke> Found another blown/broken circuit breaker
<Myke> went back to CTC to get a replacement, but they didn't have any
<Myke> went to Evan's work (trucking company) but the one they had didn't fit
<Myke> went to a junkyard, they didn't have anything that would fit, but helped us build a rig to hack/test
<Chris> thats a lot
<Myke> ... still no luck with the truck
<Chris> sounds like
<Myke> Finally gave up
<Chris> the electrical is shot
<Myke> Called a 24/7 truck guy
<Myke> He couldn't find the problem, just confirmed everything I'd found
<Myke> He hotwired the control for the PTO
<Myke> so we got it running, raised the outriggers
<Myke> and called it a day for the truck
<Chris> What time
<Chris> was that at ?
<Myke> then we finished installing & splicing the MultiLink StarFighter for $CUSTOMER
<Myke> and called it a day at about 1915.
<Chris> the electrical is gone on the truck
<Myke> We sent the truck off at around 6
<Myke> huh?
<Myke> Please don't insult my 6 hours of diagnosing by jumping to a conclusion over MSN.
<Myke> actually, it was close to 8 hours of working on that truck today.
<Chris> Hopefully there wont be a hydraulics issues also
<Myke> Stop assuming
<Myke> it's annoying.
<Myke> The hydraulics are fine
<Myke> it looks like the accessory relay isn't being triggered
<Chris> how many fusses went ?
<Myke> the question is if it's blown or if whatever controls it is shot.
<Myke> 1 fuse blew, and we smoked the lightbar controller as result or as cause of it
<Myke> 1 breaker was completely broken
<Myke> 1 breaker was for the air-conditioner... there is no air-conditioner
<Myke> 1 breaker is for the cigarette lighter, which we didn't think there was one anywhere, but I did eventually find it
<Myke> so we likely replaced a bunch of breakers for things that weren't getting used.
<Myke> the electrical is not "gone" on the truck
<Myke> the alt is fine, all the regular, Ford F750 part of the truck works perfectly fine
<Chris> what was the end result ?
<Myke> It's the Accessories that aren't being triggered
<Myke> the end result is that I'm going to go to Ben's house this week and rewire the entire accessory system.
<Myke> It'll probably take me 2-3 days.
<Chris> for the truck ?
<Myke> 1.5-2 days of reverse engineering
<Chris> do you know how to do that ?
<Myke> 1 day of work
<Myke> hell, you know how to do it
<Myke> it's not HARD, just tedious
<Myke> there's only a few things you need to know beyond basic Electrical theory
<Chris> well ist not an old Chevy
<Chris> i would think it was a little more involved in this vehicle
<Myke> it's an old ford
<Myke> it doesn't have a computer
<Myke> and I don't need to touch the original wiring, except to interface the accessories
<Myke> everything else is aftermarket
<Myke> ie: not OEM
<Chris> i hope it works out for you
<Myke> I'm not really looking forward to it right now, just because I'm so tired and annoyed
<Myke> but
<Myke> it could've been worse
<Myke> hell - I could've been up IN the bucket when it blew
<Myke> instead, it happened just BEFORE I did.
<Chris> thats good too
<Myke> You know me
<Myke> I'll want to do it up all nice and pretty.
<Myke> frankly, there's no point in Ben paying some mechanic $110/hr to do this
<Myke> The tough part right now is that we don't know the root cause.
<Myke> And BTW: the first breaker wasn't broken, it was just corroded on the terminals, it tested okay once I checked it again.
<Chris> what did the on site mechanic actually do ?
<Chris> reroute the wiring
<Chris> ?
<Myke> checked my diagnosis, traced things (which I didn't do very much of)
<Myke> no
<Myke> he hotwired the Accessories/PTO control panel
<Chris> got it
<Myke> because we checked and the Hydraulic Pump Clutch (which hangs off the PTO) seems to be fine
<Myke> hence why I know hydraulics isn't the problem
<Chris> isn't there a backup system or something to get the hydraulics and the feet up in case of this type of problem ?
<Myke> nope
<Myke> at least
<Myke> if there is, it wasn't apparent.
<Myke> There's emergency controls for the boom
<Myke> not for the outriggers.
<Chris> that was it