Children With Cell Phones

What is with 10 year olds kids with cellphones?

I have to admit this has been a very irritating concept to me. Especially when most of the time the kids don't even talk on their cell phone, they just send text messages. Can someone tell me why a 10 year old kid needs a cell phone?

I know a lady that bought her 12 year old girl a mobile phone for her birthday and evidently didn't understand the plan she paid for. To make a long story short, the daughter ran up a $1200 bill due to the massive amount of text messages sent. She couldn't pay the bill and had to go to another provider. I don't think that a 12 year old can really comprehend a $1200 cell phone bill for one month.

Up until now, I have been in the "no cell phone for kids" camp. BUT then I got to thinking after talking to several people. Here are some of their opinions on the subject.

• "A cell phone is the greatest leash I can have on my child. If I am calling they better answer and if they don't, it gets taken away."
• "In this day and age, I feel good that my child has a cell phone and can get in touch with me if they are in trouble."
• "My son is involved in a lot of school activities, he can call me when they are ready to come home or let me know what they are doing at any time."

Ok, fine. I can see where they are coming from. I guess I was stuck in the old school mindset that a cell phone was for conducting business. I just needed to shift my thinking and to look at cell phones as toys or objects of entertainment. I asked myself how a cell phone was different from walkie-talkies when I was a kid. Ahhhh, a monthly service fee you say. Ok, do we not subscribe to other monthly services for our kids? How about XBOX Live? That is another piece of technology or "toy" that we pony up big bucks for. I guess you can say that I am now seeing the light. See, you can teach an old dog new tricks.

However, the one thing that I still can't get past is kids having the phones in school. I have a couple of friends that are teachers. They say that it is pretty disruptive AND some industrious individuals have been caught texting the answers to tests. According the people that I have spoke with, most schools have rules regarding cell phone use on school property, yet it continues to be a problem. The last thing that our kids need are more distractions in school. Educators have a tough enough job teaching our children and we need to do everything in our power to help them with their jobs. This includes backing up the school when they enforce policy and take away cell phones.

So what's your thoughts on kids with cellphones? Do your kids have phones? What age do you think it is appropriate for children to venture into wonderful world of mobile madness?

 

We Are Suing OPEC?

This just released from Reuters. Wait till you feast your eyes on this.

By Tom Doggett

"WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The House of Representatives overwhelmingly approved legislation on Tuesday allowing the Justice Department to sue OPEC members for limiting oil supplies and working together to set crude prices, but the White House threatened to veto the measure.

The bill would subject OPEC oil producers, including Saudi Arabia, Iran and Venezuela, to the same antitrust laws that U.S. companies must follow.

The measure passed in a 324-84 vote, a big enough margin to override a presidential veto.

The legislation also creates a Justice Department task force to aggressively investigate gasoline price gouging and energy market manipulation.

"This bill guarantees that oil prices will reflect supply and demand economic rules, instead of wildly speculative and perhaps illegal activities," said Democratic Rep. Steve Kagen of Wisconsin, who sponsored the legislation.

The lawmaker said Americans "are at the mercy" of OPEC for how much they pay for gasoline, which this week hit a record average of $3.79 a gallon.

The White House opposes the bill, saying that targeting OPEC investment in the United States as a source for damage awards "would likely spur retaliatory action against American interests in those countries and lead to a reduction in oil available to U.S. refiners."

The administration said less oil going to refineries would limit available gasoline supplies and raise fuel prices.

Foreign investment in U.S. oil infrastructure has declined in the last decade. But the state-owned oil companies of several OPEC nations are owners of U.S. refineries, and those investments could be affected if the legislation becomes law, said Arlington, Virginia-based FBR Capital Markets Corp.

The bill also requires the Government Accountability Office to carryout a study on the effects of prior oil company mergers on energy prices.

The Senate would still have to approve the House measure.

The Senate previously approved similar legislation as part of a broad energy bill. However, the OPEC-suing provision was removed after White House opposition in order to get the underlying energy legislation signed into law."

What is going on here? How can we win from such an action?

Holy cow, you think the prices of oil are high now, wait till they decide they don't like us enough to sell us oil. AND with foreign ownership of US refineries and oil fields this could get ugly. Foreign ownership of any land or interest in the US should be banned. There are NOT a lot of countries that would let me, as a US Citizen, own land in their country. Why can't we just drill for oil in Alaska.

What do you think on the subject?

 

Microsoft Surface and AT&T Partnership

Most of you have seen the Surface videos floating around the net. Now Surface is becoming a reality in a retail environment.

From the AT&T Newsroom:

"Las Vegas, Nevada, April 2, 2008

AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) and Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) today announced a collaborative alliance that will transform the way consumers shop for mobile devices. AT&T will become the first company in the world to bring Microsoft Surface™ to life in a retail environment, giving customers the ability to explore their mobile worlds using touch and device-recognition technology...Beginning April 17, customers can experience Microsoft Surface in select AT&T retail locations, including stores in New York City, Atlanta, San Antonio and San Francisco. Based on the success and learning from these initial pilot deployments, plans for further expansion across AT&T's 2,200 U.S.-based retail stores will be determined."

As you can see from the video, Microsoft Surface is table-top type display that allows users to interact with it through touch. Your interaction with Surface is based on gesture and compatible devices like cameras and PDA's.

I look back at how computers and technology has advanced in the last 10 years and you really have to marvel at how far we have come. Surface truly is the next generation of web/computer interface. You have to admit, this is the stuff that science fiction writers used to wow us with over 30 years ago. However, this is much more amazing than what could be conceived when the original Star Trek series was on the air.

Here's a question for you. As technology continues to improve and ads convenience to our lives, how much should we rely on it? I think we could already be seeing a generation too dependent on technology.

 

Is Iowa Courting The Big Boys?

Over at, Iowa Senator, Jeff Angelo's blog, he is talking about the Iowa package that allows some significant tax breaks for, "web search portal business."

Well, by taking a look at the lobbyist declaration there is some kind of indication as to who the Tall Corn State is trying to attract.

Google is already coming to Iowa and now it looks like Microsoft may be too.

Senator Angelo says, "The good news: this bill does apply to similiar businesses. These high-tech businesses are looking for inexpensive, plentiful power--and smart kids. We have both. Iowa wins when we can keep young people from leaving the state by partnering with our education institutions and employers to place them in high-wage jobs immediately upon graduation."

Graduates leaving the state for better paying jobs and "greener pastures" has been a concern for Iowans for quite some time. This is definitely a step in the right direction. Much better than giving huge tax breaks to packing plants that constantly get raided by the Immigration and Naturalization Service. Maybe that's why I have to press 2 for English.

Silicorn Valley here we come!

 

Looks Like I Will Have To Get Rid Of My Bag Phone

As of February 19th cell phone carriers, including AT&T, Alltel and Verizon Wireless, began turning off their analog networks. I wondered why my bag Phone stopped working. I loved my bag phone. It was heavy, it would fit into a backpack just fine and it was extremely powerful. I could be in the middle of a swamp (because there's a bunch of swamps around) and still get reception.

It seems that in 2002 the FCC decided to allow carries to turn off their analog networks beginning this year. The result? It will free up the radio spectrum and allows digital technology to be used more efficiently.

I am sure that you would have been notified but if you have an analog alarm on your house or have an OnStar system on your vehicle that is older than 2003, it's probably working as good as my bag phone.

Hold the phone there cowboy! I just found something. It appears that all hope is not lost for the bag phone connoisseur. I see that Motorola has the M900 and M800 bag phone available, AND they can be had for the low, low price of only $699.99

What a deal! But at least you can be 3 times further away from a tower and still get good reception.

Long live the Bag Phone!

 

Looks Like BlueRay Wins!

Toshiba Announces Discontinuation of HD DVD Businesses!

You heard it right. For those of you who can remember the Beta vs. VHS battle, it looks like the second battle of video format is going to be won by BluRay.

I just got this in an email from a friend of mine who happens to be an electronics junkie:

TOKYO--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- "Toshiba Corporation today announced that it has undertaken a thorough review of its overall strategy for HD DVD and has decided it will no longer develop, manufacture and market HD DVD players and recorders. This decision has been made following recent major changes in the market. Toshiba will continue, however, to provide full product support and after-sales service for all owners of Toshiba HD DVD products.

HD DVD was developed to offer consumers access at an affordable price to high-quality, high definition content and prepare them for the digital convergence of tomorrow where the fusion of consumer electronics and IT will continue to progress.

"We carefully assessed the long-term impact of continuing the so-called 'next-generation format war' and concluded that a swift decision will best help the market develop," said Atsutoshi Nishida, President and CEO of Toshiba Corporation. "While we are disappointed for the company and more importantly, for the consumer, the real mass market opportunity for high definition content remains untapped and Toshiba is both able and determined to use our talent, technology and intellectual property to make digital convergence a reality."

Toshiba will continue to lead innovation, in a wide range of technologies that will drive mass market access to high definition content. These include high capacity NAND flash memory, small form factor hard disk drives, next generation CPUs, visual processing, and wireless and encryption technologies. The company expects to make forthcoming announcements around strategic progress in these convergence technologies.

Toshiba will begin to reduce shipments of HD DVD players and recorders to retail channels, aiming for cessation of these businesses by the end of March 2008. Toshiba also plans to end volume production of HD DVD disk drives for such applications as PCs and games in the same timeframe, yet will continue to make efforts to meet customer requirements. The company will continue to assess the position of notebook PCs with integrated HD DVD drives within the overall PC business relative to future market demand.

This decision will not impact on Toshiba's commitment to standard DVD, and the company will continue to market conventional DVD players and recorders. Toshiba intends to continue to contribute to the development of the DVD industry, as a member of the DVD Forum, an international organization with some 200 member companies, committed to the discussion and defining of optimum optical disc formats for the consumer and the related industries.

Toshiba also intends to maintain collaborative relations with the companies who joined with Toshiba in working to build up the HD DVD market, including Universal Studios, Paramount Pictures, and DreamWorks Animation and major Japanese and European content providers on the entertainment side, as well as leaders in the IT industry, including Microsoft, Intel, and HP. Toshiba will study possible collaboration with these companies for future business opportunities, utilizing the many assets generated through the development of HD DVD."

Well, there you have it. We will have to see what happens. Will the rest of the manufacturers follow suit?

I just thought of something. What ever happened to those really BIG "laser disks?"

 

McDonalds Had To Close?

Well not all of them but the one I went to this morning did. This morning I realized that our dependence on technology may be out of control.

On my way into the office, I decided to make a stop at my local McD's and grab a sausage biscuit, minus egg of course due to my allergy to eggs (but that's a different story). Anyway, I sat in the drive through waiting for someone to speak to me from the little brown post but no one ever came. I waited, what I considered a significant amount of time (about a minute) and decided to drive up to the window to see what the highly trained McStaff was engaged in. They were all huddled together behind the counter looking at the register with a "what do we do" look on their faces.

Just then, they all raised their heads in relief and noticed that I was parked outside the magic food window staring in at them. One of the employees came and opened the window. I said "no one would talk to me at the post." She replied, "yes I know, we have been closed for the last couple of hours. Our computers went down."

Me (in astonishment) - "Your computers went down so you had to cease business operation until you could restart them?

Her (indignant) - "Yup"

Fortunately I was able to place my order as the system had just been returned to normal working condition. But Seriously, how did people order a burger, fries and a Coke before computers. It must not have been possible right? This was the message I gleaned from the McKids today.

Instead of serving customers and WRITING down the order and either giving the paper to the cooks OR just hollering at the meat jockeys, cafe style, they chose to shut the entire place down. Maybe there is some kind of McPolicy that I don't know about or some protocol that dictates that they shut down. God forbid you have to add the total of the check with out the use of a calculator or a cash register. There are plenty of restaurants that still use the paper, handwritten checks out there. Granted, not many, but they do exist.

I am not to sure what to make of all this. Today I witnessed 2 things. Dependence on technology and the younger generation's inability to adapt to anything other outside the strict confines of their current skill set.

Where are we headed in the future? Are we doomed? Your thoughts?

 

Video Games For Christmas?

Market research firm NPD has announced Monday that video games and video game system sales has increased 73% in October reaching an incredible $1.1 Billion is revenue.

I have to say that I have contributed to that number. OK I admit it. I do like to play video games. You see, I come from the 80's where we used to gather en masse and drop countless quarters into great great big machines at places called arcades. Yes kids, you actually had to leave your home to go play video games, well the good ones anyway. These were the days where full sized arcade games like PacMan, Donkey Kong, Centipede, Gauntlet, Asteroids, Defender and Frogger ruled the world. I guess I never grew out of it. I know this is kind of geeky, usually Thursday nights is "video game night" with the fellas. Just fun with friends I guess.

I did purchased a couple of games in October. I picked up a copy of Guitar Hero 3, Call of Duty 4 and Scene It (shhhhhh this is for a Christmas present.) In fact I bought the X360 just because Halo 3 came out. This seems to be what a lot of people are doing.

"Software continues to be a real highlight for us. We had more software sales in the month of October than the Wii and PS3 combined," Aaron Greenberg, group product manager for Xbox Live, told Reuters. In September, the Xbox 360 took the top spot over the Wii, which had held the position all year, due to a surge from Microsoft's popular "Halo 3" game." The Wii is no lightweight though. It has sold more units than the earlier released XBox 360 since it's launch just over a year ago. However the PS3 and the Xbox 360 are gaining ground for the holiday season as a result of widespread Wii shortages.

I don't know if people are buying games for Christmas or they are buying them for themselves. All I know is that a LOT of great games are getting released right now. I don't think I put much though into or participated in the Guitar Hero phenomenon up until this point, but I have to tell you, that game is a ton of fun. AND now, Microsoft has taken it a step further with "Rock Band." Evidently you can play the drums, sing and play the guitar with the latest edition to the XBox 360 virtual music scene. As I am writing this, in the adjacent window, I am composing my Christmas list for those that requested one. I do have a couple of games for the 360 on there. If Santa deems it worthy, he may want to drop off a copy of TimeShift for me.

When it comes to Christmas presents and IF your kids were really good, do you think that you would buy your kids a gaming console this year?

 

Some Businesses Are Still Saying NO To Vista

PC World Reports, "Microsoft Corp.'s biggest worry over Windows Vista shouldn't be rival operating systems from Apple Inc. or Red Hat Inc., but remains competition from its own Windows XP, an analyst said Wednesday."

In a Forrester Research survey, ONLY 32% of companies said they would be deploying Vista in their company within the year. "According to a survey of nearly 600 U.S. and European companies that have more than 1,000 employees, 84% of all their PCs now run Windows XP, up from 67% the year before. While XP may have peaked, Gray warned not to bet against the 6-year-old operating system. "There are plenty of companies looking forward to XP SP3," he said. That next hot-fix and patch rollup is to ship sometime in the first quarter of 2008, Microsoft has said, and it will reportedly be XP's last service pack."

I guess that I would have to agree with the enamored XP users out there. I have played with Vista and it IS very cool. However it is a memory hog and I have heard a lot of issues about software compatibility. The study revealed that "...firms said applications incompatible with Vista made up between 10% and 40% of their software portfolios. That's causing a lot of XP shops to take a wait-and-see approach to Vista."

I'm thinking whether the horror stories are true or not, I am not willing to risk it. Computer problems are the most frustrating for me. "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" right? IMHO XP is the best thing that Microsoft has ever put out. Well may not quite as good as the XBox 360.

More than half of the companies in the poll "...remain skittish about Vista, according to Forrester's data. A year after Microsoft released Vista to duplicators, 38% of companies claimed they had no plans at this stage to deploy the operating system. Another 14% said they just didn't know."

I am going to use XP as long as they continue to release service pack and support it. With XP Service Pack 3 scheduled to come out in early 2008, and Microsoft extending their mainstream support past its current April 2009 expiration date, I don't see any reason to GO V.

Let me know what you have to say on the subject.

 

Here's A Little Bit Of Nostalgia.

I think I can remember when my buddy went to get one of these. He had to order it at the time and as he was placing the order the sales associate said, "What in the world would you need a 10 meg hard drive for? You'll never fill it in a hundred years."

My, how times have changed.

Now we are talking about computers and servers with terabytes. How many of you know what the next level up from a terabyte is?

 

iPhone Is Getting Locked Again

Apple announced plans to release a required software update that would render any unlocked phone inoperable. Here's what probably happened. AT&T started crying about people unlocking the phone to use on other networks and could see their exclusive contract in crisis. They ran to Apple and said they had better do something about this fast. The firmware update was the solution and this is what Apple had to say.

"Apple strongly discourages users from installing unauthorized unlocking programs on their iPhones. Users who make unauthorized modifications to the software on their iPhone violate their iPhone software license agreement and void their warranty. The permanent inability to use an iPhone due to installing unlocking software is not covered under the iPhone's warranty."

For those of you with an unlocked iPhone, there may be no hope. But wait, maybe there is. Erica Sadun on The Unofficial Apple Weblog has a the solution in a post called re-lock your phone.

I guess I don't blame AT&T . I would expect the same thing if I had planned on every iPhone user subscribing to my wireless service. After all, they do have Wall Street accountability to deal with.