Nokia, How I’ve Missed You

Santa brought my friend a Nokia N95-8gb so he sold me his old Nokia N73 Music Edition. The last Nokia I had was a 6230 that I paid a mint for as it was unlocked and imported from the UK. At the time it was the best Nokia series 40 offered and no US carrier offered it. I loved the phone but after a year or two I wanted a more capable phone. T-Mobile offered me the HTC/T-Mobile SDA as an ‘upgrade’, a Windows Mobile platform phone. It served its purpose, I loved the added functionality over the 6230. 9 months later it developed some issues so T-Mobile did a warranty exchange, and as the SDA was discontinued, sent me the HTC/T-Mobile Dash. Another Windows Mobile phone. I liked this phone even more then the SDA but still longed to come back to Nokia.

Well I’ve had the N73 since Dec 26 and can’t believe why I didn’t return to Nokia sooner. This is a Series 60 3rd Edition. I’ve already readjusted to the Nokia way of doing things and will never leave Nokia again. And Series 60 uses the Symbian OS and is more powerful than the simpler Series 40 platform.  I’m still playing with the phone and setting it up. It was given to me as was from my friend so it has all of his old stuff on it.

As soon as I get the data cable I’m going to flash it to the newest firmware. I have the original cable but it doesn’t seem to work correctly. My friend ordered a replacement but it arrived after he already left campus to come home for the holidays. When he gets back he’s going to toss it in the mail for me.

After flashing it’s time to get everything reinstalled and configured just right.

No more Windows Mobile for me, I’m on a strict Nokia diet.

The day after

Well I ended up at Maurie’s up until the time I was supposed to be back home to go out with the neighbors (8:30p).  D’oh.  I got plenty of birthday drinks while I was there.  I got home to get ready and it was off to Third Base.  Got there around 9p and stayed ’till close at 2 or 3am.  I don’t remember.

Played several rounds of darts and had more then enough to drink.

I’m surprised I woke up as early as I did.

Counting the says ’till the next one.

Happy Birthday to Me

Today is the big 3-1.  Just got out of my weekend job and it’s off to my favorite hangout, Maurie’s Table, for a while.  The neighbor girls are taking me out later tonight for drinks.

I’m back

Hmm, my last post was 11 months ago.

Well I’m a little off on my January goals for getting back into amateur radio. I never did anything. But I have a new interest and will pursue interest in this hobby.

My 2 year subscription to hamtestonline.com expired on November 21. This site offers online training for all US and Canadian amateur radio licenses. You get access for 2 years for $50. For the 3 US licenses, this is cheaper then buying the 3 books available. I have sadly wasted this sub as I rarely ever visited the site. With my new interest I can renew for another 2 years for $30 and did so earlier today. I will give myself until the end of 2008 to get my General and Amateur Extra licenses but plan on getting them much sooner.

I also took my Yaesu VX-7R radio out of the box it’s been in shortly after I got it in Aug 2006. It was charged once, played with, never transmitted only listened. I left the battery in the radio while in storage. I fired it up a couple days ago to find the battery is shot. It will not charge and a call to Yaesu technical support confirmed my suspiscions. A new battery is going to be ordered, but it’s on backorder untilk Dec 17 so I’m in no huge rush to get it ordered yet. It is an aftermarket battery but provides 1600mAh as opposed to the 1400mAh of the OEM Yaesu battery, so it will last longer.

That´ś it for now. Stay tuned for regular posts and progress reports on my license upgrades.

maemo-wordpy test

Testing the maemo-wordpy offline Wordpress client on the Nokia N800 with OS2008 beta.

Happy New Year

Happy New Year!

I had to work today at 4am so I was unable to celebrate the New Year this year.  I did however celebrate yesterday.  I was at my favorite restaurant/bar, Maurie’s Table, from 11:15am to 9pm and had more then enough to drink.  I went home and straight to bed, had to get up at 3:20 am for work.

Good news is I had no hangover and had an easy day at work, finished at 9am.

Thanks FCC!

Today I learned that the FCC is dropping Morse Testing for ALL Amateur License Classes!.  I received my Technician license on November 22, 2005 but sadly haven’t been on the air even once.  I bought a Yaesu VX-7R on August 3 and have never used it besides checking out the various functions.

My New Year’s Resolution for 2007 is to get back into this hobby.  I would like to upgrade to the General license by March and Amateur Extra by June.  I have no idea why I have neglected this even after getting the first license and a radio.

Happy Birthday to Me

Today is my 30th birthday.  As a ‘present’ I also graduated from college, and have my Associates of Applied Science in Electronics Engineering Technology degree.  Now I need to start looking for a job.  I should have started before I finished this last class but I’m a huge procrastinator.

I’m back

It’s been a while since I’ve posted.

As far as the school, the Astronomy class I was going to take in May to graduate June 21 didn’t work out.  The teacher was a jerk and I didn’t have to put up with it.  I needed one general education credit, not a specific class credit.  Flash forward over summer.  Called a few people at school about some classes I could take to satisfy that credit.  Mission being something simple.  I don’t want to take another 3-5 credit class if I just need 1.  I ended up getting an Independant Study in GSD111 (Job Seeking Skills) that is just 1 credit and started October 16.  The class meets Monday and Wednesday 12p-12:50p.  The Independant Study allows me to work on this class at my pace.  I do NOT go to class and just communicate with the teacher when necessary.  I think the instructor really understands the fact I just want 1 credit, not so much the class. I do hope to get something valuable out of it though since I will be graduating December 13 and will be looking for a new job in my new field.

Upgraded to Wordpress 2.0.5

Plenty of other stuff has happened since May but I’ll not back post.

Report Card

Grades are in.

Advanced Solid State - B
Advanced Circuit Analysis - A

Going into the finals I knew exactly what final grade I would end up with for the classes with various “for example” grades on the finals.

In Advanced Solid State I had a 85.9% going into the final and would get an overall 80.5% (B) with a 50% and a 86.5% (B) with a 90%.  I kept my B.

In Advanced Circuit Analysis I had a 88.1% going into the final and would get an overall 80.9% (B) with a 40% and a 88.4% (B) with a 90%.  I must have done really well on it as my locked B turned into an A.

No complaints here.  14 consecutive A’s and 1 B.

Relief

Today I had my final exams and it sure is nice knowing this semester is OVER!.

The first exam was so-so.  There were questions on it I sure don’t remember covering.  When a classmate finished he asked me if I noticed that as well.  Good, I wasn’t the only one.

The second exam went much better but I may have made some stupid mistakes.  I tend to over-analyze and some of the questions I was seeing different ways of answering.  It didn’t help that the final is multiple choice and the answers are for the right and several wrong ways of doing it.  So that kinda messed me up.  I answer the first time and the answer is there but I redo it and that answer is there.  O well.  I still know I did much better on this one.

Grades should be in by Thursday at the latest.  I hope they are in tomorrow afternoon.

With this semester at a close I can now look forward to next Monday.  I start my summer class, Astronomy (satisfying my 1 hour of gen ed I’m missing, even though it’s a 3 hour class).  In just 6 short weeks I’ll be done and done with school.  June 21 I’ll have everything I need to graduate.  I can’t wait.

Good News

It’s been a couple weeks since my last post.  To keep it short I do have my new TV and they have refunded the $150 upgrade fee I paid.

And The Winner Is…

KDE.  I’ve only used KDE for 6 days out of the 30 but I’ve decided to keep it and kiss Gnome goodbye.  I find KDE way more advanced and just feels better.  Gnome seems suited for the average user and hides more advanced options.  KDE on the otherhand offers more and is still easy to use.

Disappointment

I called Samsung today to check on my replacement.  I’m still not sitting well with them shipping the TV to the service center and then them delivering my new (unboxed) TV.

I was told the replacement was NOT ordered yet!  I said I called on Feb 28 and was told it would be 10-14 days.  Well now I was told it will be ordered today and the 10-14 days will reset!  I was also told without asking that it will go to the service center first because they need the box for the old TV’s return.  Bah.  Way to go for customer service Samsung.

Samsung comes through

I received a call last Thursday from Samsung Executive Customer Relations.  They said I can upgrade to a new TV because the part for my existing TV is still on order and probably not available anymore.  Because this is an upgrade and not a replacement (I had a 26″, this is a 30″) I would have to pay $150.  I decided to check out the two models (TX-R3079WH or TX-R3081WH) and would call back.  They are functionaly the same, the only difference is the 3079 has the speakers on the side (and thus wider) and the 3081 has the speakers on the bottom (taller).

The TX-R3079WH looks way cooler and that’s the one I chose.  I just called in to go ahead with it.  I’m basically paying $320 (the old 26″ was 170$ on mad discount from 700$) for a $900 TV.   Not bad.

I was figuring they would ship the new TV directly to me but that’s not the case.  Samsung will send it to the service center as they will need to box to send the old TV back to Samsung.  Then the service center will deliver the new TV to me.  Great.  Now I just need to check out the manual on the website to see what I’m supposed to get with it to make sure I’m gettign everything I should since I won’t get a box.

So now I just have to wait to hear from the service center, they should get my replacement in 10-14 days.  I hope it’s sooner then that.

KDE 3.5.1

I am currently using Gnome 2.12 but decided to give KDE a try the other day.  I installed KDE 3.5.1 and just now logged into it.  So far I like it. I plan on using it for a solid month to see if I will give Gnome the boot (no puns intended).

Sad TV Update

I have been without my Samsung HDTV since January 5th.  It’s been out of commission since November 21st.  That’s when it went out again and I called for service.  I went with the other repair center available in my area and they couldn’t come out till Jan 5!

Jan 5 rolls around and A&G came out.  I was given a ETA of 14 days.  I called them on Jan 19 and was told a part was on order.  I called a week later and a part is still on order. I called 2 more weeks later and am told a part is on order.  And they can’t even tell me what part they ordered.  I already had the tube and main logic board replaced.  All that’s left (and THE problem, even per Samsung’s website) is the power supply.

I called Samsung last week for an update since I was tired of the service center.  It was late in the day and the rep I talked to said no one was available to escalate to, the service center relations guy was gone for the day.  The rep said he’d follow up with me in a day or two.  He didn’t.  I called A&G the next day.  Now they tell me “the part is on backorder which means it’s coming from overseas with no eta, and you called last week about this”.  Yeah, and last week you just said a part is on order.
I just called Samsung today and was transfered to Executive Customer Relations.  I told my tale dating back to Nov 21.  The rep then called the service center herself.

Now it comes down to my TV is from 2004 (I got it Sep 2005, clearance model at work) and the part may not be available anymore.  If it’s not I can either get a refund or a credit towards a new model.  Bah.  I hope that part is found.  I only paid like 169$ for this TV and the regular price was $699.

Taxes Done

Well after many rounds with H&R Block customer care (since January 31) it was determined that there is no way to convert my account back to the free file account.  It’s forever a pay account now and I was told to just create a new login.  I made sure I redownloaded the PDF copies of my returns for the last 2 years and requested that the old account be deleted.  I then successfully free filed with a new account.  Now I just have to see if they will delete the old account.

Tax Fun

I attempted to do my taxes today and hit a snag. I used H&R Block Online again this year for federal filing. I do state on my state’s website. It was supposed to be free “online taxcut premium” and efile. I got to the very end and was ready to efile when I’m asked to pony up $19.95 for the “taxcut software use”. Uh, no.

So I called them while also waiting in their online chat queue. On hold for around 40 min my call is finally answered. I’m basically told a load of junk. Not impressed. After the call my chat session was answered. Same thing. I got basically canned responses.

I called again an hour later and this time got someone that seemed helpful. Now my case has been escallated to the taxcut online technicians for resolution. I’m supposed to get a call in 24-48 hours. I really wanted to get fed and state done today but now that won’t happen.

I just hope this is resolved before April 15th

What happens when something travels FASTER than the speed of light?

Cerenkov Radiation is when high velocity particles travel faster than the speed of light in a medium.

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