UPDATE: Apologies for the uber brainfart as i mistakenly thought this was the 4th babbler rather than the 3rd. Thanks to Al for noting the snafu! Check out his blog right here.
Welcome to the Babbler, where I condense and summarize what has happened in a period of time since my last post with brief and random thoughts usually because i haven’t had the time to blog in between. Some babbling may make sense, some may not…but that’s the premise, all the babble thats fit to blog! So off we go:
1. i used to be a big fan of voicemail. back in ye olde days where i had my old pager in high school i’d always check my voicemail diligenty…the thought of having my own personal mailbox was pretty neat. some people used 60-second song bites as a greeting, others actually said “hello?” while waiting a second before saying “oh im not here, leave a message” in an act of deceptive cruelty. Either way i hated those two types of VM greetings…i kept mines simple and to the point…i had to! I mean i was worrying too much about cell minute usage that i had to keep mines short not just for me but for those who called me. This is where my next grips comes in…I was reading an article from David Pogue of the NY times about how major cell telcos like to pocket up extra cash at your expense by filling up your calls with unnecessary airtime through useless voice mail message instructions before hearing the actual tone. I liked what he said here:
And then when I call in for messages, I’m held up for 15 more seconds. “To listen to your messages, press 1.” Why else would I be calling!?
So how can we take back the beep? David writes up a nifty solution in his next article. I linked it, but i’ll summarize the steps below:
a.) Press 1. If it’s Sprint, you get the beep, and you’re done. If you hear an error recording, go on:
b.) Press *. If it’s Verizon, you get the beep. If not:
c.) Press #. You get the beep for T-Mobile or Cingular.
2. Speaking about voicemails and cells, for those who know me, i am a proud iphone user (not because of my liking for apple, but for practicality/ease-of-use). For those who know me further, i’m a gadget tinkerer who believes that once i buy something, i own it and have the right to modify it for better use and not for malice. Case in point, my iphone 3GS is proudly jailbroken and unlocked to t-mobile. Despite that Apple claims that JB’d iphones can cause an apocalypse in the cell industry, i think they’re just saying it because chances are AT&T are prodding them from behind closed doors. I think Apple could care less just as long as they make a sale. So why am i sticking it to the man and jail-breaking my iphone? Here are a few reasons:
a.) because i bought it, therefore i should be able to tinker it…it’s a personal belief of mines.
b.) i am a t-mobile customer and am happy with it. I don’t need to pay an arm and a leg for voice and data, AND i use MMS too…which works! I can’t use 3G, just EDGE…but i’m content with it as is. I dislike AT&T with their bad customer service, poor network reception and their snarky iron-fisted rule over Apple’s App Store. If AT&T where to improve all of their hiccups, then i’m sure none of this would be happening.
c.) two words: Google Voice. Granted, i don’t have five numbers tethered to just one universal number, but i think it’s a very convenient way send/receive free text messages, voicemail service and cheap international calls. All which can be managed on a web page too! Any banned App Store app usually gets bumped to the Cydia Store, the flagship place where any jailbroken iphone user can get apps free (some paid) that really put good use to the iphone. So when AT&T/Apple banned GV Mobile, the unofficial Google Voice app, the dev simply ported it to Cydia.
3. Ah Beer Garden…it can get crowded …but when having fun for a friend’s birthday, you usually forget it all and just focus on having fun. After my previous blog post i felt i needed a way to overwrite some memories with fresh new ones. So i went with the usual entourage composed of Kev, Joe, Candice, Abner, Wayne, and myself. We meet up with Sherry and her spacious Honda Element and we drive to the Garden where we’d partake on Sam Adams, Sangria, and wings while i played text-based Marco Polo with Alex as he was finding our table. The rest of the night was fun, and as the night wore out, we all left to have a hot dog by corner enjoying the breezy night of Astoria, NY. By the time i came home, i was relaxed with a smile on my face…good times indeed 
