An Eclectic Mind

Yes, these still exist.

A real phone booth. You can find this in the main post office on 2nd Street in Walla Walla, WA.

In this day and age when everyone has a cell phone — including kids — the payphone is dying part of our culture. Recently, I got into a discussion about payphones with one of my Twitter friends, @Jen4Web. I started photographing the real ones I saw. I knew there was a good one at the Walla Walla Post Office, where I’d be going in a few days, and told her about it. On Wednesday, I snapped a shot with my BlackBerry and put it on TwitPic.

That got @StuartOswald interested. Apparently, he’s involved with a Web site called Payphone Org UK that shares photos of payphones. He asked for the phone number of the one I photographed. I promised to get it and a better shot. That’s what this post is all about.

I went back to the Post Office to take a few better photos of the phone booth and get its phone number: (509) 525 – 9958. I also took a shot of the post office from the outside. You can see the best of these photos here.

A closeup of the phone booth.

The phone booth you see here is one like I remember from when I was a kid. It’s a wooden booth with a sliding panel door, light, and fan. There’s a shelf under the phone and a shelf to sit on. There’s even a phone book. The only thing different is the phone — this one is modern; when I was a kid, phone booths like this still had dial phones.

The phone booth is in the outer lobby, adjacent to the post office boxes in the Main Post Office on 2nd Street in Walla Walla, WA. Don’t let the name of the town fool you — Walla Walla is a great little town with a vibrant Main Street (actually named Main Street). There are shops and restaurants, and enough wine tasting that you don’t need to get into your car and drive. The town is surrounded by vineyards and wheat fields. It’s located in southeastern Washington state, south of the picturesque Palouse area and north of Pendleton of blanket fame.

The main Post Office in Walla Walla, WA as seen from 2nd Street.

If you’re ever in Walla Walla, stop by and visit this piece of history. Tell you kids about it.

About the Photos, Travels with Maria communication, history, photography, Washington

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A telemarketer goes postal on me.

All of my phone numbers are listed in the Do Not Call Registry. I have zero tolerance for telemarketing calls and report every single one I get.

Today, I received a call from 347-982-0051. It was a recording. I pressed 1 and got a company representative. He said he was from YourSearchListing.com. I told him I was on a No Call list and would be reporting his company. They would likely receive a $5,000 fine. I then told him to get a real job and I hung up on him.

I filed the complaint.

Next, I got a call from 714-869-1805. The man on the line was barely understandable. It sounded as if he were looking for someone. I told him he had Flying M Air and asked him if I could help him. He hung up.

I called back, angry. The phone was answered by a recording for YourSearchListing.com, which is “affiliated with Google.” I pressed 7 when prompted and likely wound up with the same guy I spoke to the first time. I told him to stop calling me and hung up.

I filed another complaint.

I was in the supermarket when I got a call from a “private” number. The man on the line, who had some kind of Hispanic accent, asked me if I got his e-mail. I told him I didn’t know what he was talking about. He sounded confused. I realized he was the same guy who’d called the second time. He asked if he was speaking to Maria and I told him he wasn’t. He asked again if I was Maria and I denied it. He then said he made a mistake. I told him he probably had a wrong number and hung up.

When I got back to my RV, I found an e-mail message sent using Flying M Air’s contact form with the following text.

Subject: you bitch

http://www.complaintsboard.com/complaints/flying-m-air-c370249.html

look at your link bitch
you should get a real fucken job u peace of shit

I followed the link. It was a compliant against my company on ComplaintsBoard.com:

They took me in a tour and what they did is get a girl to give me a blowjob in the air, they are realy an escort service. At the end of it all i let her give me a blowjob for $100 then i decided to fuck her she loved it. I RECOMEND FOR HORNEY GUYS

I understand now why telemarketers are telemarketers. They lack the simple social skills needed to get real jobs and do real work that benefits others. All they know how to do is interrupt people’s lives and then, when people fight back, pull immature and obscene stunts like this.

On the advice of several Twitter friends, I tracked them down via the BBB and filed a complaint. I included the text you see above.

My advice: Do NOT do any business with YourSearchListing.com. They’re likely as fraudulent as the complaint they filed against me.

Days in My Life communication, fraud, telemarketing

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Here are links I found interesting on August 6, 2010:

• Filibusters and arcane obstructions in the Senate – "Mindless obstructionism" and more. Read about it and weep in the New Yorker.
• Google and Verizon Near Deal on Pay Tiers for Web – "Google and Verizon, two leading players in Internet service and content, are nearing an agreement that could allow Verizon to speed some online content to Internet users more quickly if the content’s creators are willing to pay for the privilege." Could this be the beginning of the end of net neutrality? In The New York Times.

This just in... business, communication, Google, government, Internet, journalism, links, politics, stupidity

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I’m lucky, but for how long?

Yesterday, after three tries, I was able to download a 958 MB file containing some beta software I needed to write three outlines for future writing projects. What’s interesting about this is that my only connection to the Internet right now is via Bluetooth tethering from my BlackBerry Storm on Verizon.

In all honesty, I didn’t expect to succeed. I figured I’d have to make the 8-mile trip into town and settle down in the library or a coffee shop with my laptop to get the file.

But I tried using tethering anyway.

The first time, I was 82% into the download when my phone’s battery got too low to keep the connection. Entirely my fault; I should have had it plugged in. The second try was more what I expected: the download simply stopped for no apparent reason about 12% into it. The last time I set it up right before going to bed. Not only did the download succeed by 1:30 AM, but the connection wasn’t even lost for an incoming text message last night or phone call this morning, both of which I missed. (I really do need to change my husband’s ring tone to something louder; I slept right through it.)

When I crawled out of bed this morning at the unusually late hour of 7 AM, the phone was still connected to the Internet and had been for 10 hours.

My Data Plan

I chose my first smartphone, a Palm Treo 700p back in 2007, primarily so I’d be able to use tethering to get my laptops on the Internet. After a false start, I got it to work the way I needed it to. This was with Verizon, which I’ve been using since my Motorola flip phone days. Verizon has the best coverage in the weird, off-the-grid places I go. Using Verizon is a no-brainer for me.

Like all the other wireless providers, Verizon offers a number of data plans. I don’t profess to know them all. I do know that I pay for two kinds of Internet connectivity with my phone:

• Nationwide 900 Plus Email covers my phone usage and its regular smartphone features, including e-mail, which I rarely use. (I don’t like getting e-mail on my phone. I get enough on my computer.) This costs me $99 per month. I honestly don’t know if that’s high or low. All I know is that I can use the phone as much as I need to, it works just about everywhere I go, and the mobile-to-mobile and friends & family plans keep me from going over the 900 peak minutes I’m allowed. The bill here shows exactly what I paid for last month and it’s pretty clear that I wasn’t very stingy with my usage.
• Mobile Broadband Connect is what makes tethering possible. It costs me $15 per month. And because I signed up back in 2007 when the unlimited bandwidth plan was available, I don’t have a usage cap.

And that’s the point of this post. Because I signed up three years ago, I managed to get on a plan that gives me unlimited broadband use for only $15/month. If I gave up this plan or tried to buy a MiFi device to make Internet connectivity easier for my laptop, I’d pay $60/month for 5 GB of data.

Now you look at the bill shown above and you see that I only used about 105 MB of data. That’s nothing. But that’s also because I paid a local ISP for an Internet connection where my RV was parked that month. I only used my phone and tethering for Internet connectivity a handful of times.

But yesterday alone, I sucked nearly 2 GB trying (and then succeeding) in getting that monster file. That’s 2/5 of what would be my monthly allowance on a 5 GB plan in just one day.

What if I had to download an update to that file later in my billing period? Or, as I did in June, upload at least 15 GB of QuickTime movie files to an editor’s FTP site? I’d have a huge bill for excess data transferred.

The problem is, too many people are sucking too much data all the time. With an unlimited plan, the majority of people would simply abuse the system. Why not go to that torrent site and download movies? Why not use Netflix and Hulu to watch TV? Why not buy music and video games online? Why not listen to Internet radio? After all, if it costs the same no matter how much you get, why not get as much as you can?

I don’t think that way. I don’t like using my phone as a modem. It’s a pain in the butt. And I don’t see the benefit of sucking data just to suck data. When I download or upload using my phone’s Internet connectivity, it’s because I need to. And if I need to for 105 MB one month and 15 GB the next, I don’t see why I should be penalized for the “excess” usage.

Rollover Data is the Answer

The solution is to have plans with rollover data.

Say, for example, that I’m paying for 5 GB per month. In May, I use 1 GB; in June, I use 105 MB (that’s 0.105 GB); in July, I use 500 MB (that’s 0.5 GB); in August, I use 15 GB. With a rollover plan, I’d bank 4 GB in May, nearly 5 GB in June, and 4.5 GB in July. When August rolls along, I have 14.4 GB in the bank, along with August’s 5 GB for a total of 19.5 GB. So when I use 15 GB in August, I still have 4.4 GB to bank for the future.

Am I the only person who thinks this is a fair way to offer a data plan? I’m not getting any more than I’m entitled to under the plan. I’m simply spreading the usage differently, with some months having more usage than others.

This would curb the appetite of people who suck data, but not to the point where it inconveniences them or penalizes them when they really need it.

If a plan like this were available from Verizon, I’d grab it. I’d even consider dropping my grandfathered-in $15/month unlimited usage plan.

But until that day comes, I’ll continue to rely on my cheap tethering, even if it means I’ll be stuck with my BlackBerry Storm forever.

Call Me a Geek BlackBerry, communication, computers, Internet

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It really isn’t that bad.

When I left the golf course RV park in Quincy last week, I also left behind the incredibly frustrating Internet service I’d been stuck with there. I knew that wherever I camped on or near the orchard belonging to my last client of the season, WiFi access would not be an option. (Heck, I didn’t even know for sure if I’d be able to get an electric or water hookup.)

I’ve had Bluetooth tethering capabilities on my Verizon Wireless service for more than 3 years now. It costs me $15/month extra for unlimited bandwidth. (Don’t look for that plan now, folks; current plans all cap the bandwidth; I’m grandfathered in.)

Tethering, in case you’re not familiar with the term, involves introducing your computer to your Bluetooth-enabled smartphone to pair them wirelessly via Bluetooth. Your computer can then use your phone to “dial into” the cell phone provider’s Internet service. This is referred to as dial-up networking or DUN. Once connected, you can surf the Web, send and receive e-mail, and do just about anything else you could do if you were connected by WiFi. The connection isn’t fast, but it isn’t agonizingly slow, either. The only drawback is that when an incoming call connects, you can’t work online. But when you hang up, you can continue working — a feature I just discovered today.

The image below shows what the right end of my computer’s menu bar looks like when I’m connected. The modem menu shows connection time; in this example, only 12 seconds. The Bluetooth menu shows that I’m connected to a Bluetooth device (my BlackBerry). I keep AirPort turned off because there aren’t any WiFi networks around and keeping it turned off saves a tiny bit of battery life. When I want to disconnect, I choose Disconnect Bluetooth DUN from the Modem menu. After a “disconnecting” message scrolls by a few times, the connection is severed and the timer disappears. To connect, I’d choose Connect Bluetooth DUN from the same menu.

(If you’re interested in how-to information about DUN, check out “Setting Up Your Mac to Use a Smartphone’s Internet Connection,” which I wrote for InformIT a while back. It should still be up-to-date enough to be useful.)

I used tethering for most of my Internet access the first season I was in Washington state. Back then, I’d arranged for Internet service but it was disconnected because an involved party had been beaten with a stupid stick. I fell back to DUN for access and was glad I had it.

Back then, however, my computer and cell phone didn’t talk to each other very well. I had a Treo 700p in those days and maybe that was part of the problem. If an incoming call disconnected me, I’d have to do a battery pull on the phone, restart the computer, and repair to get a new connection set up. It was a pain in the butt so I tended to stay online for very short periods of time, dreading the possibility of an incoming call.

The memory of that has stuck with me. But either my BlackBerry Storm (v1) is more gracious about disconnections or Apple has improved its Bluetooth connection routines in Snow Leopard because I’m not suffering the same symptoms. If I get an incoming call, I tell my computer to disconnect, talk on the phone, and then reconnect easily when done. No battery pulls, no computer restarts.

As a result, I’ve been staying connected for as long as an hour at a time.

Mind you, I’m camped on a construction site across the street from a cherry orchard 8 miles up a canyon from Wenatchee, WA. (The tiny red X on the map marks the approximate spot.) It’s amazing to me that (1) my cell phone works so well up here, usually giving me five [legitimate] bars and (2) I’m able to stay connected to the Internet for so long.

But — and I hate to rub this in for all the iPhone devotees out there — I chose Verizon and skipped the iPhone thing because I often go to places like this and I often need tethering for Internet access. Does AT&T have coverage here? Maybe. Does the iPhone offer tethering without a complex, warranty-voiding jail-break? No.

Yes, it’s a pain in the butt to have to literally dial in every time I want to connect to the Internet. But for $15/month unlimited access, I can live with it — at least until I get home.

Call Me a Geek, Off-the-Grid BlackBerry, camping, communication, Internet, Off-the-Grid, RV, Washington

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