The reason why users are signed up for a contract is because the carrier subsidises the cost of the phone and the up-front savings are actually applied to the cost of the phone over the life of the contract.  So, I think Verizon is being a little unfair here.  If I am going to pay full retail for a phone up-front, then I want a reduced monthly cost, because there is no subsidy to make up since I am paying full retail.  Verizon is making out better with this no contract offering.  Full phone costs up-front and still charging the same monthly rate.  Yes, they may end up losing customer or two since contracts are not locking them down - but they are making even more money now.

I am still undecided at this point if I will switch to a no-contract plan when my current contract ends, I guess we will see if Verizon launches some new phones that are worth using between now and May 2009.

What are your thoughts on the new Verizon Wireless plan?

Cheers!

I still believe that CBS needs to learn how to schedule around sporting events and push their evening programs back to start at 8pm like FOX does.  I use a TiVo and can’t go change recording options for each show when I am not home.

Get a clue and fix your program line-up!

First, my business cards arrived.  I consider these goodies as I did not pay for them.  My good friend Aron Po made the purchase as a thank you for designing his web site and business cards.  So I now have 1,000 professionally printed business cards for handing out at events, conferences, etc.

Second, shirts and a messenger bag from Tweet Tees.  I have been working with Albert on the site for a while now and have been maintaining all of the sites (store, blog, etc.).  An extra thank you from him was a messenger bag emblazened with the Eat Sleep Tweet logo and some tees.  I can now leave the house in style.

Third and finally, I received a boatload of tea and other goodies from Brandice.  I designed the new header for her site and she returned the favor by sending me oodles of tea.  I love tea and have been exploring new flavors as I have taken myself off coffee.  Also included were some monkeys and stickers

A big thanks to Aron, Albert and Brandice for the goodies this week.

Cheers!

Saturday was spent shopping and seeing all of the new development in CG since my last visit in January.  The city is growing rapidly and I was quite impressed.  We ended the day going to see the Pineapple Express and staying up all night watching movies and drinking - a great day

Sunday morning was spent at Dell’s watching the Jets game and enjoying beer & pizza.  That afternoon we traveled down to Tucson to kill time before heading back home for the night.

Monday was low key as I ended up napping most of the day while Steve was at work.  He is a teacher and I value the importance he places on his job, despite how much the education system in Arizona is screwed up.

The trip came to end on Tuesday as I flew back to Elmira and cursed US Airways the entire way.  More on that in another post, it was a nightmare!

Overall, it was a great, albiet short, trip out west to visit a good friend and spend time away from the everyday.  I was even successful in getting Steve to use Twitter more and got him setup with Brightkite now too

Cheers!

Looking for a better look to Gmail? Check out Google Redesigned

Cheers!

My suggestion is to move the images and files over to S3 to keep things up and not deal with the CPU quota issues from bluehost.

I will be sure to write another update once the developer has things figured out.

Cheers!

While always on the hunt for Firefox add-ons, I came across Google Redesigned.  Let me tell you, this add-on is sweet!  I now have a professional looking webmail interface that simply looks AMAZING!

I know, many of you are thinking that I can just setup IMAP and dump this into Thunderbird or Outlook, but I hate desktop mail clients.  I use Outlook for my email with the resort and the only reason is because the webmail interface is junk.

If you are a Gmail user running Firefox, then I encourage you to give the add-on a try.  One day I wish Gmail would look more like the mobileme mail interface, but I doubt that will ever happen.  I can still dream!

In addition to Gmail, the add-on also gives GCal a professional look.  The developer has plans to extend this to Reader and Docs, I’m looking forward to it!

Cheers!

I look forward to meeting everyone come November, Cheers!

Over the past couple years, I have developed an extreme dislike for the idiots at CBS that put the schedule together.  When you run a live sporting event in the late afternoon, do not expect it to fit within the 3 hour block that you designate for it.  This is a known fact to FOX, that places an hour of repeat comedy shows into their schedule before the 8pm hour of new shows.  CBS just doesn’t understand this.  Instead of creating a buffer for the games that will inevitably run longer, they feel the need to have 60 Minutes in the schedule at 7pm.  Because 60 Minutes is a new episode each week, the full episode has to run and it is not something that can be cut off by the primetime programs at 8pm.  THIS IS NOT THE WAY TO RUN A NETWORK!

It seems that CBS doesn’t give a crap what their viewers think, since I have been writing to them each Monday morning when this happens the night before.  They never respond and have not done anything to change the schedule.  It has happened once already this summer with golf and an episode of Big Brother starting 45 minutes late, it will only get worse when the NFL regular season begins.

So, if you are looking forward to the new season of The Amazing Race, don’t expect to watch it on time.  CBS thinks that a shotty news program produced by senior citizens is more important than keeping viewers happy.  No wonder ratings have been horrible for them.

Cheers!