gregg's blog

Caught in a Dead Zone

I spent last week in western Nebraska.

Little did I know I was going to be in a dead zone.

I now appreciate the Verizon ad’s like this one:

 

My T-Mobile service cut out a little way out of Omaha and didn’t come back until I got to Cheyenne Wyoming last Thursday night.

On my G-1 phone, all I got was a “No Service” message.  No roaming option.  Attendees at the Excel seminars I was teaching implied that no one had T-Mobile in the area (one person didn’t even recognize T-Mobile as a national carrier).

My Sprint data card didn’t do a whole lot better.  When I did try it, all I got was an RTT (think dial up speeds) connection, when I could get a connection at all.

I would have expected better coverage these days.

This is Just Wrong

 

I recently got the following email (details removed)

Dear Gregg Marshall,

You are receiving this e-mail because you are a valued customer of <big insurance company> and we do not currently have a valid contact e-mail address for your company.

We have contracted with an outside vendor to identify active e-mail addresses for key customer contacts so we can more effectively communicate with you. One of our primary goals is to keep you informed and aware of time and money saving programs that can help you manage your company’s health benefits.

Right now, we'd simply like to confirm that you are Gregg Marshall, the appropriate business contact on matters relating to your company’s health benefits.

* If you are the correct contact, there is nothing you need to do.

* If you are not the appropriate contact and/or do not wish to receive e-mail communications from us, please visit http://permission.us.com/unsub/?id=8pk2a to unsubscribe. Please do not reply to this email.

Unless you unsubscribe, you will receive a follow-up e-mail in about one week detailing the types of communications you will begin receiving to help you better administer your company’s health benefits.

Best Regards

While I don’t have any issues with my insurance company contacting me, its the fact they hired a third party to supply the email addresses, and that third party knew/found my email address concerns me.

Makes you wonder how many companies are getting your email address, doesn’t it? Read more »

Thank You Google

I came back from CTIA last night.  Getting home about 9:30 pm, I started my usual routine of using Microsoft SyncToy to move any changed files, especially my Outlook PST file, back to my desktop from my netbook.

Except my Acer Aspire One won’t boot.  So I pull the battery, disconnect the charger and wait, figuring that will reset the computer.  Plug it all back in, nothing.  I left it charging all night.  Nothing this morning.  Do the battery thing, nothing.

I was getting all set to disassemble (trust me disassembling a notebook IS a big deal) the computer to pull the hard drive so I can recover my files.

But I decided to turn to Google.  I put in the search “Acer Aspire One Won’t Boot”.  I got quite a few results.  About the third listing, from some forum, there was a reference to BIOS getting corrupted and how to fix it.  Interestingly, the person with the answer hadn’t done enough posts to let them put a link, so he gave a Google search.  Sure enough I ended up at  Acer Aspire One BIOS Recovery.

I followed the directions (its nice to have a drawer full of flash drives handy), and my Acer Aspire One has booted and I’ve got my files sync’d back to my desktop.

I get calls from friends for help with their computers.  Frequently I solve them using Google.

Thank you Google!  You just saved me a bunch of time I really don’t have.

My Bad

I just looked and its been about 2 months since my last post.  I apologize to the 6 (probably family) people subscribed to this blog via the RSS feed.

dunce cap

The hole started with a trip to Thailand the middle of February.  I had planned on being really productive writing on the flight(s) and while there with a relatively open itinerary.

That didn’t exactly go to plan.  I ended up spending more time enjoying the street negotiations (aka shopping), eating incredibly cheap but great food, and generally hanging out.  It didn’t help the hotel wanted almost as much for internet access as we were paying for the room, so I resorted to the occasional hike down the street to visit an internet cafe (where they let me unplug their computer and plug my netbook in).  But that really only covered keeping up with email triage.

Then there was the panic to get ready for certification so I can lead seminars for a national seminar/training company. And a chance to actually fill in on a seminar the week after my certification (most of my certification compatriots will wait almost 5 months for seminar openings, but tech topics are still in demand).

Enough excuses. Read more »

NP60 Battery Confusion

I can’t believe Fuji or Casio would be so stupid (I don’t know who did this).

I had been using a DXG 595V digital camcorder since last fall.  It’s an amazing 1080p high definition camcorder that records on SD cards and costs about $200. Read more »

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