AT&T Getting Hammered This Week

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AT&T is getting some pretty bad press from some pretty serious bloggers.  First there’s Ed Cone’s billing fiasco that was prompted by AT&T sending him a DSL package that he never asked for, billing him for it and then cutting off his service when he didn’t pay the DSL bill he didn’t even know about.  They promised to fix it and then shut his service off again a month later.  Then I read about prominent tech blogger Fred Wilson’s scrum with AT&T over his iPhone.  You have to read this to believe it:

Last night I tried to activate the iPhone that I recieved as a gift
with a pre-paid plan. A plan that I am sure tens of thousands of people
have on their iPhones. The iTunes system would not allow me to
activate. I got a message that said:

Additional information required to activate your iPhone

Please call AT&T at 877-800-3701 to complete your activation.

Refer to your Activation ID when calling

It
was late when I got to that point, so I called AT&T this morning. I
talked to a very nice customer service rep who told me that I could not
get an iPhone without giving them my social security number. I told her
that I was a tech blogger and just wanted to test the iPhone, review
it, and then give it as a gift and I had no need or desire to sign a 2
year contract. She told me there was nothing she could do. So I asked
for a manager.

After about five minutes, the manager got on the line. I repeated my
case, asked him to authorize a prepaid plan for my phone. He said he
could not do so. That it was AT&T policy to only issue pre-paid
plans to people with valid social security numbers who fail a credit
check.

So there it is. You cannot get a prepaid plan from AT&T unless
you are a deadbeat. That’s discrimination in my book. And I suspect its
illegal at some level.

I will never, ever, use an AT&T service again.

Both of these guys are widely read bloggers who exert a great deal of influence in their respective readership communities.  I hope that someone over in AT&T’s PR department is paying attention, but I seriously doubt it.

 

CSI: Winston-Salem

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CBS has announced that they will be replacing CSI: New York with CSI: Winston-Salem, focusing on the struggles of running an effective crime lab utilizing the latest technology confiscated from meth labs in Appalachia…

Gotcha!  Actually CSI: Winston-Salem refers to a program running all September at Atkins High School (sessions for October and November are already full) that was open to all Winston-Salem/Forsyth County middle school students.  Celeste signed Justin, our youngest, up for the program and he attended his second session earlier this week.  The program is being used to promote the biotech program at Atkins in hopes that they can entice middle schoolers from all over Forsyth County to enroll in the Atkins magnet program when the time comes for them to choose their high schools.

Celeste informs me that Atkins is an impressive school and Justin informs me that the CSI program is way cool. This week they did fingerprints and Justin got his "official" CSI badge.  I’m not sure what next week will entail, but I do know that Justin’s really looking forward to it.

If you have a middle schooler who’s interested in attending the CSI program they have another session scheduled for January 19 & 26.  The information page is here, the registration page is here, or you can call  703-6754, ext. 70503.

The program is being funded by a $3,500 grant from the NC Biotech Center. 

Tanks, Missiles and Guns in France of All Places

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Tankmuseum17_2
When we went to France in the spring we took a day trip to see the Troglodyte caves and then the Musee des Blindes in Saumur, France.  For those of you who are like me and would travel to France without grasping a single word of the French language the Musee des Blindes is a tank museum.  If you’re wondering why I’m bringing it up now, well, I finally got around to uploading all of our pictures from the museum onto Flickr.  If you like you can see them here.

Michaelerinjustinattankmuseum_vid_2
The picture at the top of this post is our family in front of the museum and the picture to the left is a heartwarming shot of my kids inside the museum.  Since I’ve never owned a gun in my life, and the preconceived notion we Americans have of the French as being, well, French, I find it ironic that this NRA-approved, warm and fuzzy image of the armed-to-the-teeth American family was shot in the heart of the Loire Valley.

Why Do the Blazers Continue to Draft 7 Footers?

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The Portland TrailBlazers announced that their top draft pick, 7-foot center Greg Oden, is likely going to miss his first NBA season due to knee surgery.  This is the same organization that drafted Sam Bowie instead of Michael Jordan, and then watched as Bowie flamed out due to injuries.  The Blazers did enjoy a limited run of success with Bill Walton in the late 70’s before Walton’s legs went kaplooey, but this organization needs to figure out how to win without a 7-foot center because they just can’t seem to keep one healthy.  On the other hand if I’m a 7-foot prodigy and I’m drafted by Portland I’m holding out until they trade me.  And yes I’m superstitious.

links for 2007-09-13

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Oh the Humanity! 50,000 Worms Roasted by the State of NC

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According to this story on the JournalNow site, some eco-friendly types at the NC State Legislative building were trying to use 50,000 red wiggler worms "to eat
one-quarter of the cafeteria leftovers and excrete waste would be
collected as compost for fertilizing plants, grass and other items
around the Legislative Building, where the General Assembly meets."  Unfortunately the bin containing the worm operation had an inside temperature that exceeded 100 degrees fahrenheit, effectively cooking the worms.

Further the article states the following:

Rosa believes the
high temperatures occurred because the material in which the worms
lived inside the bin still contained organic materials that could be
broken down by microorganisms in the food waste. That activity produces
heat.

The temperature rose further when workers shifted the pile around to try to get air in the bin.

"That’s how we have
to look at it, as a learning experience," said Tony Goldman, the
building’s administrative services director. Hopefully, he added,
"we’ve learned enough not to have it happen again."

Goldman intends
Thursday to bring in another batch of worms – about half the previous
amount – and start the process again. The first batch of worms cost
$400, while the bin was about $5,000.

Senate leader Marc
Basnight, D-Dare, asked administrators to test using worms instead of
shipping 250 pounds of waste weekly to an outside compost operation as
a way to save money and promote conservation at the Legislative
Building.

Unfortunately none of the reporters asked what seems to me to be two obvious follow up questions:

  • Is the state charging itself with eco-terrorism?
  • Has anyone ordered a copy of How to Eat Fried Worms?
  • What’s for lunch tomorrow in the cafeteria?

links for 2007-09-12

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Apparently the Kids at Wake are a Bunch of Boozers

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The Princeton Review’s 2008 Best 366 Colleges Rankings is out and in the category of "Parties", Sub-Category "Lots of Hard Liquor", Wake Forest comes in #14.  Hell, they finished ahead of Penn State (#17) and just behind the University of Georgia (#12).  Shockingly, preppy little Washington-Lee University comes in first.  In the Parties/Major Frat & Sorority Scene category the Demon Deacon children come in at #16, again squished in between Georgia (#15) and Penn State (#17).  Me thinks the Baptists aren’t too happy about this.

In the Demographics category Wake Forest is mayonnaise.  In the sub-category Homogeneous Student Population they come in #18 (my old friend Dimitri Kesari’s alma mater, Grove City, comes in #2 and Washington-Lee comes in #4).  In the sub-category Little Race/Class Interaction Wake comes in at #6 just behind Duke at #5 and just ahead of the University of Richmond at #7. In the sub-category Students Pray on a Regular Basis the kids at Wake don’t appear in the Top 20.  Again, me thinks the Baptists aren’t too happy, but I’ll bet the Mormons are ecstatic that BYU ranks number one in that category.

In the Type of School category Wake Forest comes in #8 in the Jock Schools sub-category, just behind Tennessee and just in front of Michigan, and well ahead of those baby-blue UNC Tarheels (#14) and those pansies at Duke (#18).

Sadly my own alma mater, George Mason University, didn’t place in any of the categories.

links for 2007-09-11

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