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Ron's posts with tag: cellphone

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Show Me Your Face in Your Car Mirror

Sep 8, '06 12:47 AM
for everyone

Driving home from work last night, it seemed like everybody was out to get me. It's a good thing I was alert

and paying attention, because I avoided three different accidents. First, this lady was yakkin' on the

cell phone, pulled up on my left side, and just started moving into my lane. I had to slam on my brakes (and my

horn of course) to avoid getting creamed. I don't think she even knew what happened. My rule is always lay on

the horn because 1) it lets the idiot know that they're about to do something stupid and maybe they can avoid it

2) it lets the idiot know that you're very unhappy with them, and it's better than flipping the bird and 3) it lets

the person that the idiot is talking to on the phone know that they're talking to an idiot.

Darn you! How can I be expected to carry on a conversation with you honking your horn at me

constantly?

Then a guy in a truck zoomed by me on the left, going about 10mph faster than me (or about 15mph over the speed limit), then cut right in front of me, SLAMMED on his brakes, and made a right-hand turn almost on two wheels. No time for for turn signals when you're so busy working the steering wheel and pedals.

The third one was a little less extreme. Another cell phone talker that just drifted into my lane, not paying

attention. I had nowhere to go, so I just had to hit the brakes (and horn). The noise from my horn interrupted his conversation enough that he could once again steer it between the lines.

All of those things happened within about a 2-mile stretch of the same road, so I was feeling a little

paranoid. I stopped at a red light and was watching the car behind me come up - driver gabbing away on the

phone - and hoping she was going to stop. It's weird - you can watch someone in your mirror and they don't

know you're watching them. You can glare at them with daggers coming out of your eyes and they don't know it.

I've seen people "dance" to the radio, fix their hair, gesture to people on their cell phone, pick their nose, talk to themselves, sing along to the music, touch up their makeup, even shave. What, do they think they're invisible?

So here's the challenge:

Get someone to take a picture of you sitting in your car through one of the rear-view mirrors, doing what you do when you drive - like what somebody behind you in traffic could see - and post it on your blog. It could show as much or little of your face as you wanted, and as much or as little of your car as you wanted. Please don't show your license plate - it's not hard to find the registered owner's name and address. And please, no nose picking.

Feel free to pass this challenge along to other people.

This morning I read Julie's blog and saw that she had written something very similar to this yesterday. GMTA, huh? She had some pictures that were taken from the other side of the mirror.

Anita just got

new tires, hubcaps, and a car wash, and loves taking pictures, so I bet she'll be up for this. Lisa still has a

mirror on the left side , so if I snap the picture, I can probably talk her into posting it. And of course I'll do it

too.

Anybody else?

Tags: highlighted, driving, idiot, cellphone

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DataPilot

Dec 29, '05 12:30 AM
for everyone

I bought what I thought would be really cool software to allow me to connect my new LG PM225 cell phone to my computer and transfer phone numbers back and forth plus download pictures from the built-in camera.

There are all kinds of cables available, and I ended up buying two of them from 3G Cables. No problem there. They arrived quickly and for a good price.

For software, there was BitPim. It's open source, but it looked like it didn't yet support the LG PM225. Plus, I'd have to download and install LibUSB-Win or something to make it work with a USB device under Windows. Hmmmm.

I'd seen DataPilot mentioned, so I headed to Susteen's website to check it out. They advertised that it would do everything I wanted (but didn't yet support some of the more flashy stuff), so I ordered it. At $34.99 (plus $8.95 to mail a CD? be serious!) it certainly cost more than BitPim, but I figured a commercial program would be easier to install and better supported.

Boy was I wrong.

When the software arrived, I read the directions that said it should be installed before the cable or phone was connected. Okay good - I'm glad I waited. I popped the CD in and it started up an installer program. I looked through the online manual, then clicked "Install". After some disk whirring, it prompted me to accept a license agreement, and then to enter the serial number. So I type in the number that's printed on the label on the front of the jewel case insert.

Well, hmmmmph! I must've made a typo. So I typed it again, carefully. Same thing, it says it's an invalid serial number. I try an "I" instead of a "1". I try all lower case instead of upper case. I enter it over and over again, and nothing works. So I visit Susteen's Support Site and look for an answer. I found suggestions to reboot, to make sure there was only one copy of the installer running, to clean out the \winnt\temp directory, to clean out the \winnt\installer directory... I tried all those things, and nothing helped. So I went back to the website and created a support ticket (2380-1849322), just like they said. I described the problem as well as I could. In response, I got a canned message via email with some "You must be stupid, let me tell you how a computer works" kind of help, including the stuff they'd suggested that I'd already tried. I captured the screen shot above, then went back to their website and submitted that, saying their canned messages hadn't helped, and I'd tried everything they had told me to do, with no luck.

Six days later, they responded with "It's been a few days since I left a message and I have not heard from you, please feel free to re-open the ticket if you still need assistance." and they marked the ticket as closed and RESOLVED. I was livid.

I reopened the ticket and responded: "It's been a few days since I've heard from *YOU* after I submitted the screen shot showing the invalid serial number error message. This problem is still outstanding. I have been unable to install this software. I need to hear some type of actual solution from you guys soon or I will be requesting a refund. I've purchased and installed many types of software in the past and have never had this many problems right from the beginning. This is ridiculous."

24 hours later, the ticket hadn't been touched, so I tried to call them. Their main number (949-341-0007) said if I had technical questions, hang up and call 949-789-8200 for technical help. So I did. Over and over again, with the same results each time - a busy signal. So I decided I was just going to return the piece of crap and try BitPim. On the website, I found a place that talked about returns, so I went there. In order to generate an RMA number, they want my order number (which I have) and an authorization number (which I don't have). So I just decide their website is a complete waste of time, and I call their main number to ask for an RMA number. After entering the pushbuttons for customer service, it rings, and... guess what? I got somebody's voicemail. While wondering if any real humans actually work there, I leave a message saying I was unable to install the software, I couldn't get help from their technical support, and I needed an RMA number. I left my phone number. I wonder if they'll call me back.

I'll try calling them again tomorrow. Susteen says they'll give a refund within 30 days, but will not refund shipping charges. If I'm not able to get hold of a real person tomorrow, I'll call the credit card company and have them reverse the charge. That will include the shipping charge.

I sure wish I'd read the reviews at Amazon before I bought this.

Tags: gripe, susteen, datapilot, cellphone

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