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| | Monday, March 27, 2006 16:57:38 |
I drove, no EVDO. I didn't think there would be. I talked to another Bell tech this afternoon and he said they're telling people with old 7250s to sit tight because they don't have the process defined yet. |
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| | Monday, March 27, 2006 11:53:41 |
Being on the bleeding edge of technology is quite difficult and time consuming. I have a Blackberry 7250 which, when I bought it, was only capable of connecting to the 1X network on Bell Mobility. There have been enhancements to the network and they're now offering 1xEV or EVDO network capabilities in the GTA. This is cool because it's damn fast and since their network is always expanding, it's just a matter of time until they upgrade each of the cell sites along the way and I'll have high-speed internet wherever I go. Now, high-speed service on a blackberry is great and all, but the icing on the cake is that with a USB cable or via bluetooth, you can "teather" your laptop to your blackberry and then all of the sudden, you have high-speed service on your notebook wherever you go too.
The problem I'm finding is that even though this upgrade has been available for a week now, no one at Bell seems to know anything about it. I called the data support people at 1-877-DATA-123 and they're very helpful. They told me to go to a Bell World to get the upgrade. So I did. Instead of being helpful or saying they don't know, they guy was a complete jerk about it. First saying; "It's only available in Toronto, so you don't need it." then saying, "we'll have to send out your blackberry to get it's chip upgraded." Then finally jerkingly complying with; "Well, we'll have to call customer service and they're closed today." If you don't know something, the smartest thing you can do is say; I don't know and figure it out. The guy was a total ass and he was pissy because I knew more about the technology than he did. What a tool.
Anyway, the Bell blackberry software page doesn't have the new version (4.0.2.XX) which upgrades the radio to be able to use the EVDO network, but the Telus one does and I found a guide which said that you can download that one and then just delete the vendor.xml file and your blackberry will update to that version. So, having not much to lose, I did that. Works perfectly, but I haven't been in the direction of Mississauga yet, so I don't know what needs to be done to enable the EVDOness of it all, if anything.
I called Bell customer service and they told me that there's nothing that they have to do on their end as far as enabling it. I'm wondering if there's a star code I need to punch in or something. The guides for the same process with Verizon have one. She called me back afterwards and said that there's more information on the bell site and gave me the URL. But the Voyageur software which does the teathering doesn't have RIM 7250 in it's list of hardware, so I'm guessing it's got to be updated too. I tried downloading an update but that didn't solve it.
Next step is to drive towards Mississauga at lunch to see what I can see. According to Bell's EVDO coverage map, it starts at 407 and 401. According to Telus' the range just catches Milton. |
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| | Friday, March 17, 2006 00:18:16 |
Seriously, who dials numbers in the wrong area code these days? Nearly everywhere you call, you have to dial at least ten digits anywhere in Ontario, never mind those long distance calls where it's mandatory to dial at least eleven. That's why I wonder how come I get about 20-30 wrong numbers per month on my 416-848 exchange numbers which have 905 counterparts. Are you just guessing at the numbers you're dialing or what? Seriously. I think I'm going to start receiving these calls under false pretenses. Trillium Health Centre? I'll create a menu for the Trillium Heathcliff Centre, the centre for people who want to learn more about that orange cat which has always been a Garfield rip-off in my mind. Imperial Fine Furniture? I'll set up a nice auto-attendant with 5000 menus each with at least 30 options and if you can navigate through the chesterfields and ottomen, I'll transfer your call to the number you were dialing without the area code.
I think it speaks volumes of those people who are too lazy or ignorant to read someone's brochure or business card entirely. Next time I get a call for the THC, I'm going to answer; "THC, how may I direct your call?"... "Oh, I'm sorry mister Johnsons' no longer with us". And next time I get I call for IFF; "IFF how help you?"... "No, I'm sorry you're an idiot and there was a new law passed that clearly states that idiots who can't dial numbers in the correct area code must live on the floor!". |
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| | Tuesday, March 14, 2006 08:34:14 |
My key just broke in the lock. It's because the door is too tight at the bottom and too loose at the top, so it has to be too tight in the middle and if you don't pull on the door, you're exerting a lot of force on that puny metal key. Why am I inside so quickly you might be asking yourself? Well, because when I got up this morning I put my Leatherman on my belt, I just turned out the plyers and then pulled the door so the lock was as loose as possible and unlocked the door with my key stub. Then I pulled it out. That could have ruined this perfectly wonderful day before it had a chance to begin.
Wednesday, March 15, 2006 19:57:03
Blueeyes in the T.Dot writes:
Well you should have a TV show I think... "How to get yourself out of shit when you are up the creek." lol.... |
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Wednesday, March 15, 2006 22:00:20
Less than a year to retire but who's counting? writes:
Do you need to adjust the hinges? You can use the cardboard from cereal boxes as shims, for example, if the door is tilted in the frame. |
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| | Thursday, February 23, 2006 10:23:13 |
Every show uses Cisco 7900 series IP phones. 24, in the data centre. The Office (American version), in the office. House, everywhere in the hospital. Grey's Anatomy, everywhere in the hosipital. On another note, where do the House/Grey's writers get off constantly stealing eachother's story lines? We've seen the ones with the girls who have testis and countless others. C'mon people, there have to be more medi-storylines to go around that you don't have to share. |
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| | Tuesday, February 7, 2006 07:07:25 |
 I kinda knew this was coming. Google Talk is migrating into Gmail. When you have a conversation it's logged (if you enable the setting) in the Chats section and everything you talked about will be searchable. This is great for all of those times when I know someone sent me a URL to something or a slice of code but I can't remember what it was. I was also thinking that since Google is now federationable, you could techinically set up your own Jabber server, build a web interface on your site so that users can talk to you via your Jabber (you only need to use class.jabber.php to interface with it) and then log all of the conversations in your Gmail, voila, instant chat from your web site and logging, and you can then search your logs, forward them to users, whatever. Very cool.
 The reason I kinda knew it was coming is that most companies release their software on every platform. Google Talk didn't. They were like, here's your windows application and here's how to configure the rest of the Jabber clients out there to connect. My guess is, they wanted to build some support early with this and now they're making it so you can chat in Gmail, what do you need software for? Nothing. Just another step into their new venture, an operating system via your web browser. Damn I wish I had more than one share in Google.
Tuesday, February 07, 2006 19:23:34
Ian writes:
Gimme my new features! I'm not sure how they're rolling out the new chat services but apparently I have to wait to get 'em. twiddle of thumbs |
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| | Thursday, February 2, 2006 20:36:26 |
First and foremost, over the weekend we talked to the vet and she said to give the Crick some Immodium and that seems to have worked quite well. Since she's been much less licky and just has happy as before.
On Monday I forgot my gym shorts and so I dropped in on a Running Room to pick up another pair because I figured I spend enough time wearing them, that I might as well buy a decent pair. So I walk in and according to the dude there, because of the season, there aren't many shorts in stock so they don't have anything very long. They only have shorts that are shorter than my friggin' boxers. If that's not a fashion faut-pas, than I don't know what is. So I figured I'd try Zellers, no such luck either. Highly disappointed in the shorts department. It seems every time I want to buy myself new gym shorts, it's winter and I can't find any. You know what? 6 degrees isn't all that winterey and I could run outside in shorts at this time of year without getting all asthma'ey, so stock some damn shorts.
Monday was also Jury Duty day. Yes that's right, it wasn't enough that they already called me in to waste my time, it's happened again. This time I'm the 14th juror out of 12, so if; on February 13th, two jurors manage to weasel their way out of their duty, I'm stuck for a week on an assault trial. After seeing absolutely no evidence, I think he's guilty. I must say though, the Guelph court house is terrible compared to the Brampton one. There's no airline-style waiting area, and it's about 35 celcius in the court room.
Last night someone and I were talking about some new business plans and we're both very excited that we've (finally!) come up with a viable side business to sink out time and money into and it could potentially become our primary business in a few years. Very exciting stuff.
Anyway, I've got to get back to the gig. Some highly ignorant person is waiting for some work to be done and I need to put some finishing touches on it so that it can be seen.
Friday, February 03, 2006 18:52:35
mom writes:
My thought is to bring a folding lawn chair, if the courts can't provide a decent chair to sit on. And you'd better find some shorts and a t-shirt to wear for jury duty if it is that hot! |
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| | Saturday, January 28, 2006 11:41:53 |
 For the last few days Cricket has been acting funny. She threw up a lot of hair the other day and we just noticed her tail seems to be a lot more bare, so perhaps she's full of hair. She's been doing lots of swallowing. This morning we awoke to sloppy diarrhea on her bed and the floor and there was blood in it. Unfortunately the vet's at a conference today so we'll have to wait until she gets back this evening. She said that if the dog's happy it should be okay to wait. We're coming up with all kinds of theories, like she's eaten some burrs out of her tail and now they're scraping up her insides. Either way we're kinda worried about our pup.
I've been struggling for a long time now with my desktop computer because though it's a nice machine with 8 USB ports on it (4 permanent, two additional in the rear and two on the case in the front). They've never worked as high-speed devices. I wouldn't care because I don't use it that often, but you know when something bugs you and you just have to fix it. So I'm working on this guys' machine here and I wanted to take his hard drive and back it up using one of my IDE to USB2 things that I used to use a lot. So I tried some drivers with no help, then I finally found it. It's a frickin' BIOS setting, USB was enabled, but USB2 was disabled. Enable it and bam, I'm flying again. Also, I think this guy's hard drive might be fine too.
Saturday, January 28, 2006 15:49:24
mom writes:
Make sure you get Cricket seen as soon as possible. I hope the vet comes back early. Cricket the happiest dog I know so that may not be a good indicator. |
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| | Friday, January 27, 2006 09:55:01 |
I'm sitting here outside the Oakville BestBuy and there's a crazy amount of people out here waiting until 10am when they open and more keep showing up. I think they should consider opening at 9 instead.
Saturday, January 28, 2006 11:44:02
Ian writes:
I told the girl inside that they should open earlier and she said they opened at 9 and no one was there. Here's a hint; if your posted hours are 10 - 9, people won't show up until just before 10am. Also the PAP2 that I got is a new version, so it's not unlockable, so now I'm brute-force attacking it with a home-brewed project. I figure I'll be "in" within a week. |
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| | Wednesday, January 25, 2006 15:27:53 |
I just got a Bluetooth headset for my Blackberry because driving standard isn't easy or safe with a bulky phone in hand. I've only made one call with it but Tom's the biggest critic when it comes to the sound of a phone call. Next step is to find a good application to connect to my phone system from my Mac mini and then I can use this headset at my desk too. That was my favorite part of the SPA841 that I used to have on my desk.
Saturday, January 28, 2006 12:38:52
Ian writes:
It turns out that the M2500 is great. If you're in a parked quiet car. If you're driving, forget it. It picks up way too much noise. Next step is to try using it with a software phone on my mac mini. |
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