Random Access Voicemail: What took them so long?

In the advent of the new iphone, several things were made clear. This phone not only refined popular smart phone function, but implemented iphone-only functions. According to Apple, ‘Random Access Voicemail’ allows one to access any voicemail message, in any order by simply clicking on it from a list. With the long touted all digital networks, with 3g, high speed CDMA EV-DO and GSM networks crisscrossing the country, why is this being implemented only now?

Apple ran into the same walls as most phone manufacturers do in the effort to bring their product to a wireless carrier. Networks regularly demand special treatment in the form of proprietary applications, charges for services built into a phone or flat out crippled hardware. Is the industry out of innovation? Or does it go deeper? Some would say the networks are so focused on eeking out every dollar from the consumers, they have stagnated themselves.

Notice the smart phones of the modern age have the same features for accessing voicemail, and sending data. No company has any particular feature another hasn’t. It’s all about coverage and how much it costs to send a picture. Where are the live instant messengers? WIFI conferencing? Why are the integrated smart features only are available to the >$500 phones? How about video conferencing? Advertised features on TV today are the same features introduced when everything was analog. Call people on your own network for free, huh? Push to talk? That was Nextell back in 1999. Camera on your phone? Wooo! This is 2007, yet we are still using the same format for voicemail and phonecalls. Granted there is a demand for cheap hardware, and there are only so many things you can cram into a phone, but Apples voicemail protocols are being implemented on an entire network.

In fact, since the switch from Analog to digital, Wireless carriers have not only raised the price of their 'basic' plans, but they've done away with the $20 per month 'emergency phone plan', and pushed what qualified as a 'night' from 7pm to 9pm. Weren't these companies telling us digital was CHEAPER?

Why, did it take a company like APPLE to force a major national network to add a feature that anyone in their right mind would have paid for long ago?

Vista

One of the things that bothers me most about the new operating system is the lack of certain options. While Vista provides drivers for almost everything under the sun, it has its problems. Trackpads, for example, automatically have the "tap to click" feature enabled. This is fine unless you are on a laptop where a simple brush with the pad clicks in unwanted instances. 'Fine' you say, If you dont like it, just turn it off; this is where the problem lies. In typical MS fashion, there is no way to turn it off. Consequently, I've had some problems with a few premature email-ulaitons. I sent an email this morning in an erronious tap-to-click scenario before it was finished (missing a link guys?)
Its not all bad, it starts faster than XP (i didnt think that was possible) and it seems feature complete. Besides the bugs are nothing compared to other products I've had the misfortune of purchasing (I'm looking at you Battlefield 2142).

Democracy is great, yay.

Today is Election Day, and true to the internets form, we are seeing a lot of horror stories (some funny stuff too). A large number of these incidents are probably subjective to the areas and people with which they are told. I doubt, for example, that there exists an ‘evil-republican-intimidate-all-Hispanic/ Latino-cadre’. At least, in the magnitude in which they seem to be illustrated.

‘Hacking Democracy’ only solidified what I already believed. The HBO Documentry is about the vulnerability of our voting process, but it really comes down to the mechanics of Diebold, the company responsible for the lion’s share of voting machines out there. I’m not surprised at the amount of people having trouble with these machines. A LOT of people are having issues with these machines. This is especially distressing considering how many tests Diebold runs them through to qualify as certified. Of course, according to the documentary, this rigorious testing process doesn’t include security testing.

You would think a corporation whose sole existence is to perpetuate the business of democracy would be better at it.

Yet everything about them screams the simple notion that they have no idea what they are doing. I mean, elections results are stored in a MS spreadsheet. (God help us if some evil youth learns how to use EXCEL).

Its scary stuff. The documentary is informative if you can get past its faults; the Americas-most-wanted tone in particular. Plus, one wonders how many high school bands they auditioned before settling on the awful guitar solos that run through the piece.

QUICKIE

Gotta love David blaine,

A letter

Dear GQ, Details, I get it, I really do. I should purchase a years subscription. Packed with ads, advice and product-plugs your numerous messages are not lost on me. Your message of the type of zeal it takes to be a real man is not lost on me. I understand you message- subscribe please, we will improve you. But I've already SUBSCRIBED. I receive monthly subscriptions to both GQ and DETAILS. So WHY in gods name, do you still pack the subscription cards in between those pages? I've never been much of an environmentalist, but jeez guys. A subscription used to guarantee these these postcard dopplegangers' absense, meaning- a CARD FREE MAGAZINE. Were you aware this crap becomes instant litter, pooling as an obscure trail of advertisments and pleas? Is this an oversight? Has someone in 'the head office' decided that its cheaper to not give a damn?

Maas Happenings:

Jesus the video below creeps me out... Hes a good dancer though

POLLS

New incendiary methods of polling have produced the latest numbers of presidential approval. While the numbers are not as low as say, Truman, I sincerly doubt our president can honestly lay claim to a 44% approval rating.
After watching special after special on how pollsters can manipulate the attitudes of the citizens polled, I usually take each new piece of information with a grain of skepticism.
Its fun to note the wild discrepency that Fox always had in its polls. Fox would frequently have a 15-20% difference in its poll results. I'll concede that Bush has nowhere to go but up.

quickie

NIN meets star trek, HEH love it.

Need a better Title

In hoping everyone had a good labor day, I am subtly implying its time to get back to work. Schools will again be occupied, with all their educational veneer, and September is rolling around in its ugly "wake up its MONDAY" kind of way.

Ever since I found out that Lore Sjöberg was writing for Wired Magazine, I’ve been reliving the earlier days of the internet, by reading the archives of The Brunching Shuttlecocks, and the Self made Critic. Lore recently has revived the Bandwidth Theater, its worth a look if only for the transformers reference. The shuttlecocks alone have some writing that always gives me a chuckle:

“I am amused= by a religious site's synopsis of Beowulf that's written from the assumption that it's a historical document. Apparently they believe Vikings fought off dinosaurs on a regular basis.

I have to say, if something was going to convert me to fundamentalist anything, this would be it. Because while there's no rational reason to believe that humans existed alongside dinosaurs -- and even if they did there's no rational reason to expect the humans were just ripping the dinosaurs' arms off at the socket, bare-handed -- a part of me wants to believe that Vikings fought dinosaurs, because that would be the coolest thing possible.”

Enjoy here….

Maas Happenings:

Its just a plant... that get you high

It’s a repost but… Peter Pan scares me now (thanks Marshall)

Tanning booth special.... huh?

Blogs

As pervasive as it is, I truly hate the term Blog. It inspires insipid faces of trendhopping, teens posting thoughts which, in any other forum, would be considered excessive; Of note is the advents of things like Technorati and the superflous numbers of services coming around. Whats interesting to note is what people use it for. To some its an online journal, or a method of advertisements, to others its a way to transmit their travels. Its entertainment and as with all forms of entertainment there is quality and there is crap.
What scares the powers that be out there is that its unfiltered. One can gauge issues of the day, opinions or popularity simply by reading. Its a raw information source thats truly devoid of spin. The downside is large portions of it are filled with teen angst, bile, anger and pettiness. Then again, that doesn''t really differ it from the regular news, does it?


Microsoft has come out with Sumthin
No new IPOD? Damn.
Yeah I hate Charlie Brown Too

Intrusions of several types

Invasive, obnoxious, petty and dumb. Malware engineers have had to fall back on other methods of intrusion thanks to the current iterations of popup blockers being built into practically everything. The most notorious workaround being the ads built to resemble windows error messages. Said ad warns the reader they are compromised and offers Paid-per-fix solutions; a new low. It makes me wonder if its possible to criminalize being sleazy- which candidate is running on THAT platform? Then again, if this were so, the vast majority of guys in bars would have been fined into financial ruin.

The good senator from Alaska, Ted Stevens, has given us all a good laugh with his concern of us sending 'internetz' to each other over our analgous systems of tubes. But the real issue remains. This gentleman is in charge of regulating Internet Commerce for the United states and his cumulative knowledge of the internet in a dead heat with my 5 year old nephew. Currently the good senator will try to push his anti-netneutrality bill through during congress' recess. One wonders how ISPs forcing all traffic exclusively to their partners will help anyone but the senators cheif campaign contributors.

Dont get me wrong, there are problems everywhere in this debate.

Well CRAP

Given that I only played through it once last year, I sought to reinject myself with some good old fashioned Sam Fisher Fury until THIS was released: I reinstalled my copy of Splinter cell: Chaos Theory. BOY was that a mistake, as a matter of fact- the sucker crashed my computer. Though the game itself ran (note to Ubisoft my copy didn't come with a single player key regardless of WHAT you say), slowly but surely, all other programs STOPPED working, the system began to lurch. Programs would barely run, and installs froze. Everything kept hanging- then this morning POW the sucker wont even start up. In essence, I cant play my own copy of this game- Ive wasted $30. Its official- Starforce sucks.

This game was also responsible for destroying my DVD burner, but that neither here nor there.

Of nlite and Men

While I’m not usually one to cry foul, it’s been fascinating to watch both sides of the NSA spying issues roll out in front of the American people. I especially enjoyed the press conference when we were literally told, “its not illegal- trust us”, before he patted us on the head and told us to head back to the jungle-gym. Regardless of the side of the issue you reside, you should probably make your voice heard- Keep in mind writing a letter has a lot more power than sending an email.

A whole career with an unnamed wireless carrier has come and gone in the time between my last post and present. Considering the grueling hours and the insane customers, this was (virtually) a thankless job. Admittedly, I didn’t have the freedom some people do when dealing with the ‘public’, so I couldn’t tell them to fuck off. My last day there was a hideous conglomeration between sassy-entitled-college-girls and senior citizen who insisted the phone hardware was scheming against them At any rate, I left without giving a 2 week notice, since this would defeat my primary goal of getting-the-hell-out-of-there. I’ve worked retail before, but never have I met so many people who truly believed they had a right to be abusive. Several claimed to have problems with their equipment that haven’t been seen since radios inception.

On a completely different Tack, I’m done with Windows Vista. I was excited to join the Microsoft Windows Vista Consumer Preview Program, which came with legitimate key and legal use until June 2007. Unfortunately, without 2gb of ram, the system was extremely slow, halting, and crashing erratically. Despite numerous sources, compatibility was still a problem with the majority of software I usually run. You would think a public beta would have less bugs, but they made no guarantees. Besides, the information they gathered from the public was ten times their internal testing staff.

Nlite- a fantastic utility for creating an unattended install of Windows XP. The benefits of this are simplicity, removal of useless software at the base level and integration of almost anything you want- preinstalled.


Link of the Day: JL421 Badonkadonk Land Cruiser/Tank
Just for the reader reviews alone, note the Red Sox fans story...

On "the Metro"

It’s especially amazing to me to look at the state of the pamphlet they themselves loosely call a ‘newspaper’; The Metro. On a regular basis, I find grammar that could only have been minced by a brazen unregulated spell-check. Keep in mind a near 50% of this product is full page ads, and that’s not including the half and quarter page ads the actual content is on (seriously 14 out of 30 pages).

I’m pretty sure there’s no consideration between content and the ad that sits beside it. Witness the dating page section (page 15 for today May 4th) hosting a picture of a happy couple clad in dripping wet bathing suits, man holding woman up in his arms, both embracing in profile- staring at the camera caught in an ecstatic mid laugh. Next to this picture in 32 pixel font- “NO MORE CONSTIPATION HEMORRHOIDS OR GAS!”

What worries me is that this shill of a paper is consulted more often than not, that some won’t see it as the trashy biased piece of …. Digression. I have yet to count the number of times “call now for your risk free drug trial!” appears but I’m positive it’s over 30. What I’m trying to say is hey, its ok to read the Metro just don’t READ the metro, realize its not real news. Free is a great price, until you realize you’re getting what you’re paying for. I mean they ARE giving it away arent they?

Dinner and a movie...

Recently the White house Correspondents Dinner held on Saturday night had a speaker who is close to my heart. I speak, of course, of Steven Colbert. Don’t worry, through the modern marvel of the internet, you can still download it, (no transcripts yet!). Colbert covered a surprising variety of topics; Fox news, new press secretary Tony Snow, boxing a glacier, Valerie Plame, just to name a few. It takes an inscrutable amount of balls to bring material like that to such a room. I shouldn’t have been surprised when he covered the same things in his speech that he did in his show- but I was. Probably because, most of the issues he mentioned are still being avoided rather than answered.

In other things-you-dont-want-to-know™ I saw Lucky Number Slevin this weekend, It might be worth your time. Its not your usual Hollywood crap, (unless that's your thing).

On Apple...

........Now that its possible to boot a new Mac Book Pro into Windows, there is great speculation as to gamings future on Apples flagship products. People have their own notions as to what a ‘Mac gamer is’, not that PC gamers have anything to be especially proud of. What’s to stop a developer from just saying hey, buy windows if you want to run our games, we’re not going to bother. Of course no game studio would come out and SAY that., but there cant be much incentive to port a game. In the past I always thought Apple just needed to focus on certain niche forms of gaming like Nintendo and Sony did. Those companies go after an experience not just a game title, when was the last time you saw a Sony hit title release on multiple consoles within a year?

........I can only hope there is a method to this madness that is Apple, I would hate to see them disappear. By they way they are not going into the software business anytime soon.

New things to waste your time with

.......Flowflow is a beautifully rendered time waster that is as much art as it is a game. It starts a bit loud so, unlike certain individuals, you know what to do.

……..While I normally put the term ‘podcast’ in the same category as ‘blog’ and ‘hacker’ (that being abhorrently trendy and ultimately meaningless language), I’ve discovered the Ricky Gervais Show via Itunes podcast. Pretty funny stuff. Though most people know Ricky from his creation of the Office, Ricky has created a dynamic between himself, Stephen Merchant and Karl Pilkington of near zealot-like following.

………Karl’s awkward view on life is one of the things generate attraction to the program. (Picture the Naive acquired knowledge 9th grade high school student: competent but by no means worldly). I’ve spent several hours listening to him in an effort to diagnose him a person or character. In the end, this is pointless as I would be disappointed if he were a character and appalled if he wasn’t.

………Is everyone’s internet slow? Our cable modem is been slow if not inactive the past week, so much so that I’m posting from the Diesel Café; which is having the same result. The Internet 2.0 hasn’t kicked in yet, (despite the inevitble crapfest) so I wonder if it’s just my bad luck….? There are reports of internet providers trying to stifle certain programs luckily there are ways to circumvent it.

Network Bastards

HAPPY EASTER

.......To say my fantasies have gone downhill in my old age is an undersatement. Nowadays a daysdream consists of kicking the crap out of the obnoxious teen who floods my wireless network. He's a bastard, but I call him a Noid because thats about how annoying he is. He repeatedly bombards my 802.11 g network with ip requests, flooding and eventually failing the network. He is obnoxious and irritating, but at least I know he exists. I finally ironed out the other bugs with some firmware updates (who knew linksys had incompatible problems with its own products? only linksys apparently). WEP security is a problem simply because who wants to 'maintain' the protocols by sending out new keys every week? The other alternative is to just stop broadcasting the network name, (SSID) a temporary solution at best.
........2hotspot came up with an interesting answer. With their software I set up my wireless router as a 'hotspot' and required people to log in. Think of it as a Starbucks hotspot for your house. Pretty badass for me let alne the average non corporate coffee house.
........Finally, I've decided, my next computer will be an Apple. Since they have boldy bridged the gap between gaming and themselves I feel its only a matter of time before I find a laptop with enough graphical horsepower to satistfy my needs, Command shell ease, and, lets face it.... eye candy.

Starforce update

I do not want to get to wrapped up in this sort of banter as it just winds up looking fanatical, but this bears addressing.

I must admit, It takes a large pair of 'cahones' to build a fake web site that simultaneously praises your own product and denounces all problems as the ramblings of hackers and pirates. The site lists other programs that have similar permissions as Starforce, note the majority are antivirus programs.
Until this point I honestly had hope that the idea behind Starforce being run by a collection of jackasses was only a possibility. Hopefully companies like UBISOFT will realize the type of mistake they have made in endorsing that POS that is STARFORCE. This type of behaviour truly benefits no one and, in the end, screws the user that much more.
What really gets me is that, even in their own forums, customers are chastized for calling shenanigans on the devs of this company. They still completely deny their product has ANY incompatibility, they simply respond with 'where is your proof?' or 'I went to school so my product is beyond reproach'. This type of ridiculous circular bullcrap is the norm in politics right now, I can see it catching on to other industries as well.

Ugh, to say I'm disgusted is an understatement.

Game copy protection (Star-force)

This article ticks me off immensely. The author works for Star-force and writes mainly in his anger with software hackers who espouse pains when dealing with his companies particular copy protection. I have no problem with what he said about pirates, their self indignation is false. Dennis unfortunately said, in essence, anyone having trouble with their game copy protection is a hacker.

“….user that run in to compatibility problems are beginner level hackers….”

Huh? A blanket statement like that is dangerous and reckless, especially as a figurehead for your company. What is he THINKING? I, like many other people own starforce protected games, and have had numerous problems with it. Aside from random crashes; the program gradually slows your disk/cd/dvd drives down to PIO mode, something akin to speeds in the DOS game days. Usually the only solution is to reinstall the entire system, how many casual gamers know how to do that? According to the article,

“…Compatibility problems do occur with any protection system, and the statistics of Starforce lie within a standard.”

The problem is no one knows what this standard is. Starforce forums regularly delete posts asking for help or expression of anything but glee for their products. It’s not uncommon for the Admins to accuse the customers with a problem of piracy, and theft. Got a problem? You are a pirate. Random computer behavior? You were trying to circumvent the copy protection. It sounds Cliché’ to say it, but in Starforces eyes you are 'guilty until…' well you're really just guilty. Unlike every other copy protection scheme on the market (safedisk, laserlock, tages) and unlike hardware vendors, the folks at Starforce haven’t even listed compatibility errors- not a single one. Despite the complaints, according to them- every piece of hardware is 100% reliable. Makes one wonder what ‘standard’ is being touted and compatible. I wonder what percentage of gamers built their computer themselves. Moreover, wouldn’t they like to know what hardware is incompatible?

What’s going on? Regardless of the real reason for problems with Starforce, it is not making any friends, with its closed policy and shoot first forums, this is simply not the behavior of a company with nothing to hide, A simple piece of PR her eand there and a compatilibility list would go a long way to repairing the damage they have done to themselves. Regardless of their tactics and regardless of 'the real story' - I would love to know how to speed up my DVD drive again.

please register to use this feature

RANT mode on:

Nothing irks me more than the near compulsive need of more and more web sites that demand my personal details. I have no desire to register just to access a friends link about a tap dancing cat. As frustrating as it is, this is indicitive of how much 'they' want from us.

Now realize what has me so worried. Ideas for what has been deemed 'internet 2.0' have surfaced as a near eventuality for some. The idea is to create a tiered internet, with services beneath premium that limit the data you download and sites visited. Some look at this as extortion while others see it as the next step.

Unfortunately it all comes down to money, and the telcos that run the pipes of the internet demand a piece of the pie. They own the pipes; how dare you have a business that generates traffic on them.
Consider, though, the impact this concept will have impact on the websites themselves. Websites will have to pay fees based on the amount of traffic they generate. If you hate giving out your information NOW, imagine how bad it will get.
-In an effort to wring any profit from your browsing as possible, sites will not only require you to register, but will probably ask to sell your data.
-Want to read that news story about your favorite baketball team? register or you cant see it, how about that recipe that google just showed you? REGISTER to browse the recipe list.

In essence, by destroying the ability to browse the internet without commitment, Internet 2.0 is shooting your fanbase in the foot, alienating the only thing that makes a website money- PEOPLE.