The Wireless Developer Blog

Disappointed Over U-Verse...

Wed, 30 Dec 2009 13:10:03 GMT

So if you ever chat with me in IRC or IM, then you know how annoyed I've been with Time-Warner Cable. We're paying a huge amount for our service (two DVRs, digital channels, the HBO package plus internet) and we have to deal with daily reboots, lockups, pixelization and data loss, etc. on the television. It's just outright sucked.

So when I heard that U-Verse was available in our area, and after talking with someone at work who has it, I thought I'd finally found an out. I heard good things about the quality of service, about their channel line and all. And when I priced out what I wanted, I was able to get more out of them (a third receiver so the boys could watch TV in their room, a four tuner DVR with greater storage) for less money (a savings of nearly $30/month)! So I ordered things and scheduled it to be installed over our holiday break from $COMPANY.

Well, things never go that easily, do they?

The installation was to be done on Tuesday, the 29th. So on Monday, the 28th, a technician came to make sure the wiring outside of the house was fine. And he reported nothing wrong. He put a new network box on the side of the house and left.

On Tuesday afternoon the inside tech showed up to do that part of the installation. He came in the house, I showed him how I wanted things hooked up, and he got to work. But, after two hours, he stopped and said the uplink signal was too weak. The data coming our house was fine, but the connection going back to AT&T was too weak. So he said another outside technician would have to come but that he wouldn't be there for a few hours. Then he left since he couldn't wait at the house for that long. The other guy showed up after about two hour. But he didn't have good news.

He said he'd been in our neighborhood recently and that he wasn't able to hook up another neighbor's house for U-Verse. So there's a -1 on AT&T for not letting me know that a recent install in my neighborhood had failed. After all, we're all on the same network box and loop so if they can't get it then I wouldn't be able to get it.

After looking over the wiring and all, the technician concluded that there's a patch of wiring somewhere between our house and the big junction box about 3/4 miles away that's the problem. Something about the bonding on the wire not being good enough for U-Verse.

So the conclusion is that, until AT&T replaces that wiring, we're stuck with Time-Warner Cable. Which outright SUCKS.

I'm quite disappointed, but I'll still be switching to AT&T after my Sprint contract ends. I just wish I could have consolidated everything into the one bill WRT cable, internet and mobiles.

I Passed My Class!

Fri, 11 Dec 2009 00:01:00 GMT

Oooh, it was a rough semester. Between work, kids and all it was tough keeping up. But I did it. I got a passing grade, the class counts toward my degree, and I'm happy and ready to play some games for a few weeks before Calc3 starts!

Sexy Screenname (NSFW)

Thu, 10 Dec 2009 18:45:36 GMT

Turkeys & Tunnel Rats: Win An Autographed Copy Of "Stay Dead: Strangers And Tunnel Rats' by Steve Wa

Tue, 08 Dec 2009 17:11:28 GMT

WIN AN AUTOGRAPHED COPY OF STAY DEAD: STRANGES AND TUNNEL RATS by Steve Wands!

HOW TO ENTER: Call the Little Dead Comment Line at (206) 338-0665 and tell me who you would like to have HOST THE MEAL, who would you like to have EAT THE MEAL WITH YOU, and who would you to have SERVED UP AS THE MEAL ITSELF?

THE RULES: One entry per person. Contest ends on 31 December 2009. The winner will be announced on a podcast shortly after that date.

So don't wait, don't delay, call NOW!

Free laptop!

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 19:11:58 GMT

Yep, that's what I got today.

At work we have a bin where people can place hardware to be discarded. But, every so often, there's a gem to be pulled out of that bin, some piece of hardware you can use. Well, today someone put an older, but otherwise perfectly good, laptop in the bin. It's about 4 years old and definitely out of warranty. But it's a widescreen laptop that's perfect for a kid to use for playing games or doing homework.

So I grabbed it, and the AC adaptor, and am going to give it to the boys to use for their games. Not a bad find at all...

Why My Wife Won't Take Me Shopping Anymore...

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 19:53:27 GMT

After I retired, my wife insisted that I accompany her on her trips to Target. Unfortunately, like most men, I found shopping boring and preferred to get in and get out. Equally unfortunate, my wife is like most women - she loves to browse. Yesterday my dear wife received the following letter from the local Target.

Dear Mrs. Pierce,

Over the past six months, your husband has caused quite a commotion in our store. We cannot tolerate this behavior and have been forced to ban both of you from the store. Our complaints against your husband, Mr. Samuel, are listed below and are documented by our video surveillance cameras:

1. June 15: Took 24 boxes of condoms and randomly put them in other people's carts when they weren't looking.

2. July 2: Set all the alarm clocks in Housewares to go off at 5-minute intervals.

3. July 7: He made a trail of tomato juice on the floor leading to the women's restroom.

4. July 19: Walked up to an employee and told her in an official voice, 'Code 3 in Housewares. Get on it right away'. This caused the employee to leave her assigned station and receive a reprimand from her Supervisor that in turn resulted with a union grievance, causing management to lose time and costing the company money.

5. August 4: Went to the Service Desk and tried to put a bag of M&Ms on layaway.

6. August 14: Moved a 'CAUTION - WET FLOOR' sign to a carpeted area.

7. August 15: Set up a tent in the camping department and told the children shoppers he'd invite them in if they would bring pillows and blankets from the bedding department to which twenty children obliged.

8. August 23: When a clerk asked if they could help him he began crying and screamed, 'Why can't you people just leave me alone?'.

9. September 10: While handling guns in the hunting department, he asked the clerk where the antidepressants were.

10. October 3: Darted around the store suspiciously while loudly humming the 'Mission Impossible' theme.

11. October 6: In the auto department, he practiced his 'Madonna look' by using different sizes of funnels.

12. October 18: Hid in a clothing rack and when people browsed through, yelled 'PICK ME! PICK ME!'

13. October 21: When an announcement came over the loud speaker, he assumed a fetal position and screamed 'OH NO! IT'S THOSE VOICES AGAIN!'

14. October 23: Went into a fitting room, shut the door, waited awhile, then yelled very loudly, 'Hey! There's no toilet paper in here.' One of the clerks passed out.

What Autumn Drink Are You? (Stolen from Robin)

Thu, 22 Oct 2009 19:19:33 GMT

You Are a Hazelnut Latte

You are a quiet thinker. You like nothing better than an early fall morning when you're alone with your thoughts and your coffee.
As each day gets colder, you can't help but remember autumns past and reflect on your life a bit.

You love fall weather. A gray day is perfect for writing, reading, or just thinking... all activities you enjoy.
You like feeling warm and energized inside while the world is cold and quiet outside. It's the perfect contrast for you to feel inspired.

What Autumn Drink Are You?

Blogthings: Waste Time at Work!

Fedora 12 (Constantine) beta now available

Tue, 20 Oct 2009 18:41:19 GMT

Download it here: http://fedoraproject.org/get-prerelease

Extremely Sore...

Wed, 14 Oct 2009 18:34:38 GMT

After the 5k run yesterday at work I was tired and my legs a little sore. But this morning I woke up and they were SOOOOORE. I went to the gym and did the stationary bike for 30 minutes, abs and then ran for 10 minutes and it was hard to get past the soreness. Now, after sitting for work all day, they just don't want to move. I feel like a mannequin...

Win An Autographed Copy Of "Lakewood Memorial"

Thu, 08 Oct 2009 20:38:21 GMT

I have a podcast (in case you didn't know) called "A Little Dead Podcast". It's a review and commentary show for horror, zombie, scifi and super hero movies, video games, comics and novels.

Right now I'm running a contest to give away an autographed copy of the novel Lakewood Memorial by friend-of-the-show Robert R. Best. It's book one of a zombie trilogy, and has been autographed by the author himself! All you have to do is call our little dead comment line at (206) 338-0665 and tell me your earlest or greatest zombie movie moment to enter! That's it!

Click HERE to see the rules. Then call the Little Dead Comment Line at (206) 338-0665 and tell me your earlist or your greatest zombie movie moment. What scene left the biggest impression on you?

On October 28, Robert and I will draw a name out of the hat and that lucky person's name will be announced on the Halloween episode of A Little Dead Podcast.

So don't delay! Call in your entry now!

Autographed "Lakewood Memorial" Giveaway

Tue, 06 Oct 2009 19:19:13 GMT

Want to read part one of the new zombie trilogy from Robert R. Best?

Want a copy of the book autographed by the author?

Then call the Little Dead Comment Line and tell me your earliest or greatest zombie movie moment. What scene freaked you out the most or left the biggest impression on you?

Call the Little Dead Comment Line at (206) 338-0665 and leave your entry. And be sure to state your name clearly so I can put your name into the hat.

With the author, I'll pick the winner's name and announce it on the October 31st episode of A Little Dead Podcast.

So don't delay! The cutoff is October 28, 2009, so call NOW!

NOTICE: Switching Podcast Feeds

Tue, 06 Oct 2009 15:36:43 GMT

So it's been a pain in the ass the past few weeks trying to get the podcast feed working properly.

First the mypodcast.com feed didn't collect statistics at all to let me know how many people were subscribing. So I setup a feedburner.com account and got mypodcast.com to redirect users there when subscribing. And that was great for a while.

Next mypodcast.com started getting finicky about including images on the posts and in the podcasts. Well, actually, it never let images go into the podcasts. Instead it always stripped them out of the mp3 files after I uploaded. But the real pain was that the image I would include for the episode would sometimes not even show up on the website. And uploading a new copy wouldn't work either.

So I decided to move things out of mypodcast.com and over to a combination of gcast.com (for MP3 storage) and blogspot.com (for the actual RSS feed). And I pointed feedburner.com to blogspot.com (both are owned by Google, BTW, so I expect them to be far more feature rich and stable than mypodcast.com) and that worked great for a time. The only problem was that, when I cut things over, all of the podcast entries showed up in everybody's feed. Sorry for that.

Well, now the final straw has broken this camel's back. I tried to contact the mypodcast.com people to ask them how I can get a redirect into my podcast feed to do an iTunes redirect to permanently move the podcast over to feedburner.com. I promptly got an email back from them saying they don't give any support at all. So I'm out of luck for getting the original feed relocated.

So now I've created a new feedburner.com feed and have resubmitted the podcast to iTunes. I'm going to keep dual feeding both mypodcast.com and also blogspot.com the episodes as they come out. And, at the end of the year, I'm going to cut off the mypodcast.com feed entirely and only update blogspot.com.

What this means to you is that, if you're currently getting your podcast feed from mypodcast.com, please change over to the new feed here. If you're getting your feed through iTunes, then please switch to the new iTunes podcast entry once it's available. I'll reply to this post with a comment when that new podcast entry is ready.

Sorry for any inconvenience this might cause you guys.

ET On The Set Of Iron Man 2

Fri, 25 Sep 2009 13:34:54 GMT

Is Gmail down again?

Thu, 24 Sep 2009 14:22:30 GMT

I've not been able to get to my email for about 30 minutes now...

Horrible, Horrible Exam Last Night...

Tue, 15 Sep 2009 14:14:57 GMT

I went into class feeling fairly confident. The exam covered integration, Simpson's rule, and the like. And I thought I was all ready to go.

Then the instructor handed out the exam.

I don't know what, but I just froze. I couldn't remember the half angle formulas to save my life! There was one polynomial fraction to resolve. And I pretty much panicked. When the exam time ran out, I was barely halfway done the exam.

I was beyond frustrated when I left, and by the time I was home I was depressed over it.

I don't know what happened to me, but I blew it on the exam. Fortunately the exams are weighted, so if I pull off better grades on the other three then this one won't have as much of an impact on my grade.

But, more studying is called for. And I think I'm going to look into getting a tutor.

One Word (stolen from Robin)

Wed, 09 Sep 2009 19:06:33 GMT

1. Where is your cell phone? DESK

2. Your significant other? HOME

3. Your hair? LEAVING

4. Pet peeve? STUPIDITY

5. Mother? ALIVE

6. Father? DEAD

7. Your favorite thing? FOOD

8. Your dream last night? NONE

9. Your favorite drink? COFFEE

10. Your dream or goal? $19,000,000

11. What room are you in? CUBICLE

12. Your hobby? PROGRAMMING

13. Your fear? DEATH

14. Where do you want to be in 6 years? ALIVE

15. Where were you last night? HOME

16. Something that you aren't? RELIGIOUS

17. Muffins? OKAY

18. Wish list item? EVERYTHING

19. Last thing you did? SNEEZE

20. What are you wearing? JEANS

21. TV? CRAP

22. Your pets? ANNOYING

23. Friends? FEW

24. Your life? OKAY

25. Your mood? SICK

26. Missing someone? YES

27. Drinking? NOTHING

28. Your car? XTERRA

29. Something you 19re not wearing? HAT

30. Your favorite store? NONE

31. Your favorite color?   BLUE

32. When is the last time you cried? ? AGES

33. Dessert? ICE CREAM

34. Five people who email me regularly? NOBODY

35. My favorite place to eat? TABLE

36. Favorite place I'd like to be at right now? HOME

37. Four people I think will respond?   Christene, Shellie, Karen, Brett

Meme Jeebies (Stolen From Tina)

Wed, 09 Sep 2009 14:28:26 GMT

1. You've just eaten some radioactive vegetables. They tasted strange but now you have a superpower of your choice. What is it?
Answer : Flight.

2. If you were told you must live on a totally different continent, what country would you prefer to live in?
Answer : Ireland.

3. Who was your first boyfriend/girlfriend?
Answer : My first real relationship was Sharon Bottorf.

4. If you were marooned on an island, who among your Multiply contacts would you choose for company, and why?
Answer : Christene. She's my best friend.

5. Describe something stupid or embarrassing you did recently?
Answer : Pressing the soap dispenser too hard at work and getting flowery smelling soap on my shirt. I had to smell it the rest of the day, as well as anybody else who was around me.

6. If you had to totally remove one of the following in order to save the human race which do you choose?
a) all musical instruments
b) all religions
c) telecommunications
Why?
Answer : Religion. More wars have been fought over disagreements about "god" and "god's will" than for any other reason.

7. What menu would you plan if you were having the Queen of England to dinner?
Answer : Spaghetti and meatballs.

8. You have a plane ticket to anywhere and have to leave now. Where would you go?
Answer : Sweden, to finally meet Andreas and take him down the pub for a pint.

9. You have to write a piece of fiction, poem or short story. Which, and about what subject?
Answer : Short story, a zombie story inspired by "The Regulator" by Clutch.

10. Have you got any phobias of animals? If yes, any explanation.
Answer: Dogs. I was mauled by a dog when I was a kid and I've never gotten over it.

11. If someone in your Multiply contacts could be a slave for the day, who would it be and why?
Answer : Christene. Hehehe...

12. Have you ever had a serious crush on someone already married?
Answer : Yeah.

13. If you had to change your first name, what would you choose, and why?
Answer : Padraig.

14. What historical period would you like to go back to for a year and a day?
Answer : Ancient Greece. And then I'd dazzle them with my knowledge. :)

15. What do you do if you want to drop a friend you've grown away from?
Answer : I drop them. And if they ask, I explain.

16. Who would you choose from your Multiply contacts to be in a naughty threesome with?
Answer : Hehe. I'm not going to say...

17. Do you sing whilst vacuuming?
Answer : No. I yell.

18. If you were among the first to meet one, or more aliens, how would you communicate?
Answer : Beer and video games.

19. What did you eat for your evening meal yesterday?
Answer : Tuna salad with pasta, some gerwurztraminer, and then shoofly pie!

20. Who was the last person to tell you they loved you?
Answer : Caleb, when I dropped him off at school.

Math help...

Tue, 01 Sep 2009 15:25:47 GMT

Last night after work I went to the math lab at NCSU to get some help with integrals. I've been struggling with integration and wanted to get someone to help me realize what I'm doing wrong. I met a math major named John who said he'd help me out, and got me to realize that I was basically being lazy and not doing enough setup on the problems that I was getting wrong.

Then the conversation took a funny turn when he asked me if I had ever heard of Myers-Briggs personality tests. Just while talking about how to solve integration problems and where I was making the mistakes he said I was probably an INTP type. Now it's been a while since Meg got me to take the test, but I think that's what it came back with for me as well (or INTJ).

Just got a chuckle out of how easy a personality type I must be to identify...

Halloween II Motion Poster

Fri, 28 Aug 2009 15:43:47 GMT

When even three days aren't enough...

Mon, 24 Aug 2009 17:11:28 GMT

Friday I took a personal day from work. After dropping Caleb off at school, I came home did a little studying for my calc2 class. Then Christene, Rachel and I went to IHOP for brunch. We dropped Rachel off at the play place and Christene and I went to Borders then to the movies to see "Julie & Julia". Cute movie, left both of us wanting to see more about Julia Childs and her life. Friday night was our usual pizza and television night, but we didn't have an episode of Wipe Out this past week to watch.

Saturday Caleb mowed the yard, Ben cleaned their bathroom and bedroom, and I spent more time studying. I also edited and put out episode 11 of A Little Dead Podcast, which was a review of the movie The Mist.. For dinner, Christene and I got takeout from Tom Yum Thai in Cary. I had the gang dang ped, which was absolutely delicious. She had the pad thai with tofu which was also good.

Saturday and Sunday we were hoping to go to the pool, but the weather just didn't agree with us so we didn't get there at all. On Sunday I did more studying, then worked on my side project for a while, to get it ready for a release. We went to the food store in the afternoon and then made BLTs for dinner.

Wow, sounds boring, huh? But it was too short a weekend...

We now have a comment line!

Sun, 23 Aug 2009 14:53:10 GMT

You can now leave us a comment or feedback at the Little Dead Comment Line!

206-338-0665

So pick up your phones and start calling!

I'm using a free voicemail service provided by K7 Unified Message, and want to give them a big shout out here. I'm getting nothing more from them than this free voice mail and they don't even know I exist.

Hide the "People you may know" section...

Thu, 20 Aug 2009 19:29:55 GMT

I see this section as of today on my Inbox page. I want it to go away. How do I hide it?

First night of Calc2 last night...

Thu, 20 Aug 2009 10:02:43 GMT

...and I thought I was going to die. Immediately we went right into integrations, integrations by parts, and I completely blanked out. I couldn't remember any of it from Calc1. It's been, I think, nearly four years since I took Calc1 and I'm really going to have to go back and review my notes on integration and review that part of the course to get my chops back.

Upcoming contest...

Tue, 18 Aug 2009 16:06:59 GMT

I've talked over with a noted horror author, Robert R. Best, about getting a copy of his new book, "Lakewood Memorial", to use as a contest prize.

Now the question: what kind of contest?

Busy weekend...

Sun, 16 Aug 2009 22:51:18 GMT

Friday night I met with Chris, who owns a landscaping business, about our bushes and trees. The bushes along the back of our yard were covered in a weird white powder, and I wanted to find out if it was mold or something else. We also wanted to hire him to trim up the bushes around our deck and yard, and also cut back the trees in front of the house. He quoted a decent price, so we hired him to take care of it.

Saturday was a more relaxing day than busy. In the morning Rachel, Caleb and I went to the library to get some books (Maurice Sendak was calling me). We then went to the hardware store to get mulch for the trees. I've not done hardly any yard work this year, instead having Caleb do it. Well, needless to say, did I tell you I had to hire someone to do some yard work for us?

Saturday afternoon was pretty relaxed. I took Caleb and Ben and Ben's friend, William, to go see G.I. Joe. Eh, not a great movie. The boys liked it so I guess that was enough. Then Christene and I had take out from Chilis and watched Tropic Thunder, which was more my speed. Robert Downey, Jr., was great, as were Ben Stiller and Jack Black.

Sunday morning I spent a little time editing episode 10 of A Little Dead Podcast, and then published it. I then found out that you can't put an ampersand in a podcast's title or else iTunes gets very upset, so I had to change the title and republish. The, after lunch, Christene, Rachel, Ben and I went to the pool while the yard work was done. Caleb decided to stay home to read rather than go to the pool.

About 45 minutes before we were planning to leave, there was enough thunder that the life guards closed the pool. The rules are that they have to wait something like 30 minutes after thunder stops before reopening the pool, so we ended up losing that time before leaving. When we got home the yard was mostly done and looking 150% better than before we left. Chris did a great job of fixing the bushes. Too bad we can now see the neighbor's yard and their above ground pool.

This coming week should be better, though. School starts on Wednesday. On Mondays and Wednesday nights I have a Calculus 2 class at NCSU. We just built our final beta this past Thursday, so this week my project at work is starting all new coding efforts! W00t! My side project, ProjXP, is prepping release 0.3.0 after some bug fixes are commited. And I'm going to be watching "The Mist" for my podcast. I've been looking forward to that.