Corner of Whatever

Popularity: 51% [?]

Internet, Technology Graphic Design, Hilary Clinton, Photoshop

So I found out some good news and bad news about heading to the Sugar Bowl. Unfortunately, with the pretty decent seat that I have at the Superdome, they won’t allow regular folks (like me) bring a camera with a “detachable” lens. So that means that I’ll need to unfortunately leave my Canon Rebel XT camera at home and bring my rinky-dink Fuji FinePix with me. Alas, that won’t allow me the great camera shots at the game. I’ll try and make do. Although I possibly could bring my Sony 717 digital camera with me. The range is a little better than the Fuji FinePix point & shoot that I have and technically isn’t a camera with detachable lenses, right?

So while I’m in New Orleans, plan on receiving some updates here on this blog when I get the chance. I’ll be posting on Utterz probably and video taping some stuff for posting on YouTube or Seesmic. Pictures will possibly be posted on Flickr, but most likely on my own photo area of my website for your enjoyment. Be sure to sign up to receive the latest updates!

Unfortunately these things won’t be “live”, but I’ll be posting as soon as I can during the night, after the game, when I return. So if there are other things for me to show, then by all means, let me know. Until then, check back here for the latest experience in New Orleans.

Update: God, my technology capability sucks for someone in this industry, doesn’t it? I need to get more updated hardware to do these streams and updates on-the-fly. Curse my lack of funds. I’ll accept any charitable donations…hehe…

Popularity: 60% [?]

Sports, Sugar Bowl, Technology, Travel Flickr, Hawaii, New Orleans, Seesmic, Social Media, Sugar Bowl, TheLetterTwo, Utterz, YouTube

So lately I’ve been trying to figure out what type of phone I want to get next and I’ve been thinking about getting a PDA/Blackberry-type device. So Verizon tells me a while ago that I can’t get a new phone for cheap until June/July 2008 and if I do it before then, I’ll have to pay retail price and then upgrade my plan to a data plan, which I’m fine with…another $40-50/month. So I happened to stumble by the mall tonight and wanted to look at the Verizon phones at this kiosk and lo’ and behold I saw the Samsung SCH-i760 PDA-type phone. It’s a “flip phone” PDA that you can slide to open and is totally decked out…

This thing is pretty cool. It just came out and has Windows OS, 128 mb flash memory with a miniSD port, 1.3 megapixel camera, Microsoft Office programs (Excel, PowerPoint, Word), FTP capability,  Internet Explorer, and bluetooth capability! For $400 for the phone…is it worth it? I dunno but it’s a pretty good phone. The kiosk folks were pretty good and they said that I could do an early upgrade and get this phone for a little less. What an interesting idea since the Verizon Wireless store said the complete opposite. Hmm…who to trust…

Popularity: 23% [?]

Technology Cell Phone, Samsung, Verizon

If you’ve received an e-mail from what appears to be from Monster.com, be careful that you’re not falling for a phishing scam and compromise your account. I received an e-mail from Monster.com from an account I used a long time ago and it asked me to download the latest Job Seeker Tool to help prevent me from not having access to my account after a certain date. Well it seems legit right? Well until my curiosity got the better of me and I tried to look for anything out of the ordinary and took me a while before I saw it!

If you look at the above screenshot, you’ll see the download screen which they tell you that you’ll see in step 2 in downloading the Job Seeker Tool. Obviously those that aren’t anal in their observations won’t quickly notice it, but look at where I’ve circled in red…the .com address isn’t even Monster’s domain. Now why would a company as big as Monster develop perhaps its own proprietary software only to have it come from another domain? Odd…so the fact that I wouldn’t be able to access my account any longer without getting this tool also perplexed me. The result? I googled this “Job Seeker Tool” and came across this site talking about the phishing scam.

So if you get this e-mail, delete it.

Popularity: 44% [?]

Internet, Technology Blogging, Monster, Phishing, Scam

All I can say is that Verizon is really good at their customer service. Sure, it has some downside, but when I called their technical support today, I had a great conversation with a guy named James who pretty much had answers for everything and made my life a little bit easier.

First of all, I get home on Tuesday and found out that my Internet was down…apparently it must be a router issue. So I did the typical solution: unplug, wait 15-30 seconds, restart, etc. but unfortunately no deal. So I called their customer service and spoke with someone who was pretty helpful but couldn’t find out what was wrong. Ultimately, this customer service guy told me to plug a computer straight into the main ethernet line and see if that worked…nope. So he said he’d send out a new router and get here next day - which I found out would be on Thursday (today) between 8-5pm. Their status message indicated that a technician would be here too to help out, but not to be as the UPS truck dropped off the router. Way to go, Verizon. Now I wasted a day off waiting for a DELIVERY!

So I unplugged the router and replaced it with the now-delivered new router. The adventure continues with the router NOT working. The only light on was the wireless one. Crap…so I have to call customer service at Verizon once again and then I spoke with James. This guy was great…told me to switch out the power supply for the router (success) and refreshed the entire FIOS system to see if the Internet would be back on (success) and helped fix my cable box (success). So now I’m back online…

Verizon’s customer service is pretty good overall and they are pretty knowledgeable in what they do. Obviously there are a few individuals that are exceptional and lucky for me…today I got that rare occasion. Good job!

Popularity: 25% [?]

Technology FIOS, Internet, Verizon