Hi all,
So, Connecticut Light and Power. They're greeeat. You know, not a monopoly at all. So, when I got a cold call from a company offering to reduce my bill, I thought it was a great idea. I signed up. Then CL&P stopped sending me bills, the new company never sent me their first bill, and CL&P cut off my power. WTF? Because of their lack of communication, I lose my power? It coincided with a thunderstorm, so I figured that was the problem. It took me a couple hours to realize that it was that the company cut my power!
So, in an effort to save 30% on my electric bill (approximately $35) a month, I ended up paying $35 to reconnect my service, and I have $250 in escrow until I pay my bill on time for a year. How freaking embarrassing. Especially since I didn't do anything wrong; it was the middleman electric company who didn't pay my bill!
The best part is that I sent a $100 payment to CL&P when they contacted me. Want to know what they shut off my service for? The $3 balance. They would have needed $103.19 to make the payment and keep my service on, and my $100 just wouldn't cut it. You've gotta love big corporations and their degree of empathy.
I'm thinking I need to go to the better business bureau to get some of my money back. By my calculation, I am owed a day of electric service, an hour and a half of cell phone minutes, the money in escrow, and the $35 reconnect fee. So, $5, $10, my $250 back, and $35 is about $300.
What do you all think? Can I fight the big electric company?
~Mark
Thursday, July 25, 2013
Thursday, July 11, 2013
Being positive despite some dumb poopenschticken
Hi all,
So, Karma's a bitch, as they say. But it's also nice to you if you pay into it. I frequently fix peoples' computers, bikes and other stuff for free, and give stuff away because I just don't need it anymore. I like to think that this means good things for me. Now, it doesn't mean I get ipads or samsung tablets falling out of the sky for me, but I did win a kindle fire last year :)
So, I've decided that when my one man, sucking at guitar band goes viral this year, the title will be "Smiling at Strangers." because it works. I just wrote a letter of recommendation for a coworker, and one of the most positive things I said was as follows: "She makes those around her happier just by smiling at them every day, for no particular reason other than that she is happy to see them." Now, she's not exactly a stranger, and full on beaming at random folks tends to freak them out. However, a gentle, contented smile tends to win people over and improve their day.
Now, what does this have to do with technology, you say? Well, not much. But I don't have another blog for karma (yet).
Have a good day, and recycle your old electronics. Maybe a samsung will fall out of the sky for you :)
~Mark
So, Karma's a bitch, as they say. But it's also nice to you if you pay into it. I frequently fix peoples' computers, bikes and other stuff for free, and give stuff away because I just don't need it anymore. I like to think that this means good things for me. Now, it doesn't mean I get ipads or samsung tablets falling out of the sky for me, but I did win a kindle fire last year :)
So, I've decided that when my one man, sucking at guitar band goes viral this year, the title will be "Smiling at Strangers." because it works. I just wrote a letter of recommendation for a coworker, and one of the most positive things I said was as follows: "She makes those around her happier just by smiling at them every day, for no particular reason other than that she is happy to see them." Now, she's not exactly a stranger, and full on beaming at random folks tends to freak them out. However, a gentle, contented smile tends to win people over and improve their day.
Now, what does this have to do with technology, you say? Well, not much. But I don't have another blog for karma (yet).
Have a good day, and recycle your old electronics. Maybe a samsung will fall out of the sky for you :)
~Mark
Monday, June 17, 2013
Using my smartphone to increase productivity during training.
Hi all,
It's summer, so now I have time to use my smartphone in earnest once again. I hope no one has been missing my posts too much :) I'm currently sitting in a professional development on how I'll be rated by my principals next year, and I'm having a hard time focusing. So instead, I'm writing this blog, using my Motorola bluetooth keyboard. The presenter tried to get our attention by asking us 3*10. We're on slide DD. WHY, oh WHY would we call a slide, any slide, that? It invites terrible comments. Breast feeding was mentioned. Anyway, I have to go before I get caught. But hopefully your summers are already started. I can't wait to join you on Wednesday for full, unadulterated celebration of the season.
~Mark
Friday, November 23, 2012
Black Friday Cautions
Hi everybody,
I awoke early, as usual, thinking I'd be going to some of the black friday sales this morning, fighting throngs of people for the best deals on things. And then I didn't. I spent a few minutes online looking at the sales, and discovered that most of the doorbusters were things that I didn't need. They also tend to be super cheap for a reason. It's tricky, but effective. It's also one of the reasons we as consumers, and then as people, become wary. Exhibit a) a tablet from bestbuy that has android and costs $60, but doesn't allow access to the play store, has terrible reviews and really wouldn't be as functional as my Droid Razr Maxx.
As always, cheap things need to be taken with a grain of salt. It's sad, but true. The people marketing the products find the thing made of cheese and bad glue, put it out front for a ridiculously low price, and hope that people will create a feeding frenzy over it, and then feel so good that they won that they'll buy it before they realize what a honking load of crap it is (I.E. read the review). Then other people will feel badly that they didn't get the super cheap one and buy the next most expensive one so as to not leave empty handed.
There's an excellent chapter on consumer trust in one of Dan Ariely's books:
http://web.mit.edu/ariely/www/MIT/
He basically gives away free money, and people are so jaded that they walk away from $50 bills, thinking that there must be a catch. I wish that we, as a country, could stop this consumerism. My neighbors already have their xmas lights up, the night of thanksgiving. I feel like the "holiday season" keeps creeping up, earlier and earlier, much as the black friday sales have. Black Friday has become Black Thursday night, so that before we've even finished being thankful for things and stuffing ourselves silly, we're already inundated with sales flyers and crappy products being sold cheaply.
Here's to being truly thankful and waiting until we need something to go buy it. Oh, and to reading the reviews:)
~Mark
I awoke early, as usual, thinking I'd be going to some of the black friday sales this morning, fighting throngs of people for the best deals on things. And then I didn't. I spent a few minutes online looking at the sales, and discovered that most of the doorbusters were things that I didn't need. They also tend to be super cheap for a reason. It's tricky, but effective. It's also one of the reasons we as consumers, and then as people, become wary. Exhibit a) a tablet from bestbuy that has android and costs $60, but doesn't allow access to the play store, has terrible reviews and really wouldn't be as functional as my Droid Razr Maxx.
As always, cheap things need to be taken with a grain of salt. It's sad, but true. The people marketing the products find the thing made of cheese and bad glue, put it out front for a ridiculously low price, and hope that people will create a feeding frenzy over it, and then feel so good that they won that they'll buy it before they realize what a honking load of crap it is (I.E. read the review). Then other people will feel badly that they didn't get the super cheap one and buy the next most expensive one so as to not leave empty handed.
There's an excellent chapter on consumer trust in one of Dan Ariely's books:
http://web.mit.edu/ariely/www/MIT/
He basically gives away free money, and people are so jaded that they walk away from $50 bills, thinking that there must be a catch. I wish that we, as a country, could stop this consumerism. My neighbors already have their xmas lights up, the night of thanksgiving. I feel like the "holiday season" keeps creeping up, earlier and earlier, much as the black friday sales have. Black Friday has become Black Thursday night, so that before we've even finished being thankful for things and stuffing ourselves silly, we're already inundated with sales flyers and crappy products being sold cheaply.
Here's to being truly thankful and waiting until we need something to go buy it. Oh, and to reading the reviews:)
~Mark
Sunday, November 4, 2012
SMF 11/3/12 Kindle Fire
Hi everybody,
I just won a Kindle Fire from the Hartford Courant (http://www.courant.com/). It's a snazzy size, works in color and does a bunch of cool e-readery things. For instance, it can read websites, newspapers, blogs, books, and some other stuff, as well as play videos and music. I'm still learning the tricks of it, but I'm a bit nonplussed . . . . I think my phone can still do more. I wonder if there's a way to root the thing so I can put some sort of android OS on it. Well . . . . a better android.
http://liliputing.com/2012/05/how-to-root-a-kindle-fire-with-software-version-6-3-1.html
Oh Hey! It turns out you can. I'm still filled with some trepidation though; as soon as you do that, you void the warranty, and it might be worse at what it's purpose-built to do (i.e. read books). I like the bigger display, and with my bluetooth keyboard attached I could basically have a mini-laptop on my hands. However, I'm less than pleased with the fact that to install an app I have to first find it in the amazon store (not google play).
If I didn't already own a droid which does more, I think I'd be really impressed with this thing, but I think they may have limited it a bit too much.
Anybody care to weigh in?
~Mark
p.s. - this time change thing stinks. My body hasn't realized that it's a bad idea to wake up at what I call super-grandpa-o'clock (this morning I woke up at 4, which is really 3). What to do with all this extra time . . . .
I just won a Kindle Fire from the Hartford Courant (http://www.courant.com/). It's a snazzy size, works in color and does a bunch of cool e-readery things. For instance, it can read websites, newspapers, blogs, books, and some other stuff, as well as play videos and music. I'm still learning the tricks of it, but I'm a bit nonplussed . . . . I think my phone can still do more. I wonder if there's a way to root the thing so I can put some sort of android OS on it. Well . . . . a better android.
http://liliputing.com/2012/05/how-to-root-a-kindle-fire-with-software-version-6-3-1.html
Oh Hey! It turns out you can. I'm still filled with some trepidation though; as soon as you do that, you void the warranty, and it might be worse at what it's purpose-built to do (i.e. read books). I like the bigger display, and with my bluetooth keyboard attached I could basically have a mini-laptop on my hands. However, I'm less than pleased with the fact that to install an app I have to first find it in the amazon store (not google play).
If I didn't already own a droid which does more, I think I'd be really impressed with this thing, but I think they may have limited it a bit too much.
Anybody care to weigh in?
~Mark
p.s. - this time change thing stinks. My body hasn't realized that it's a bad idea to wake up at what I call super-grandpa-o'clock (this morning I woke up at 4, which is really 3). What to do with all this extra time . . . .
Friday, October 26, 2012
SMF 102612 why aren't cell phones used in school?
Hi everybody,
I just attended the NCTM conference in Hartford, which talks a bit about how to teach math in a more interesting, technological way. One of the things I find interesting is that there wasn't a SINGLE presentation on how to use the cell phone effectively in the classroom. Now, I know that most folks assume that when kids are using phones in class they're being devious and breaking the rules. This, by and large, is true. However, most teachers don't ask the students to do so. I think we are fighting a losing battle if we keep trying to keep phones out of the classroom. What we should be doing is coming up with smartphone apps that actually help kids learn, and then helping kids use their cell phone powers for good instead of evil.
Maybe at the next conference there will be one.
Have a good one,
~Mark
Friday, October 12, 2012
SMF 10/12/12 Google stuff (hangouts, talk, etc.)
Hi everybody,
Sorry about the DMV rants. They were less about tech than my frustration. So, back to business. I've started using google hangouts and talk to replace my phone calls when I have enough service. Firstly, they use data, not minutes, which makes me happy because I have unlimited data. Secondly, they generally have really nice quality, and Thirdly, they can incorporate video. Amazingly, while driving, I can videoconference. Because I'm a safe driver, I don't look at the other person much, but it's still neat that you can. Even though my service fluctuates between 3g 2 bars and full 4g LTE, I can usually make calls to other google subscribers on their smartphones or laptops with as much success as regular phone calls. They get a bit flaky if you're doing voice and video over a 2 bar 3g connection, but they still work. If I know I'm in a low service area, I'll usually choose just voice over a video teleconference.
Savings: no use of cell phone minutes, and free VIDEO. I know apple has something like this - I believe it's called facetime - but I think it only works for iphone users of the same vintage (I.E. 4s to 4s). Can anybody comment on this?
Hangouts are cool too, though I don't know as I'd try them with just a phone, especially while mobile. I would guess that you'd need a more stable, faster internet connection to sustain a video chat with more than one other person. I haven't really tested its limits though, so I'll have to save that for another post. One thing I've noticed though is that hangouts are a bit buggier/lower sound quality than the old microphone feature in google talk. I think they'll work out the kinks, but my guess is that making them work for more than one person is what's making hangouts less functional for now.
Hope you enjoyed the read, and please comment,
~Mark
Sorry about the DMV rants. They were less about tech than my frustration. So, back to business. I've started using google hangouts and talk to replace my phone calls when I have enough service. Firstly, they use data, not minutes, which makes me happy because I have unlimited data. Secondly, they generally have really nice quality, and Thirdly, they can incorporate video. Amazingly, while driving, I can videoconference. Because I'm a safe driver, I don't look at the other person much, but it's still neat that you can. Even though my service fluctuates between 3g 2 bars and full 4g LTE, I can usually make calls to other google subscribers on their smartphones or laptops with as much success as regular phone calls. They get a bit flaky if you're doing voice and video over a 2 bar 3g connection, but they still work. If I know I'm in a low service area, I'll usually choose just voice over a video teleconference.
Savings: no use of cell phone minutes, and free VIDEO. I know apple has something like this - I believe it's called facetime - but I think it only works for iphone users of the same vintage (I.E. 4s to 4s). Can anybody comment on this?
Hangouts are cool too, though I don't know as I'd try them with just a phone, especially while mobile. I would guess that you'd need a more stable, faster internet connection to sustain a video chat with more than one other person. I haven't really tested its limits though, so I'll have to save that for another post. One thing I've noticed though is that hangouts are a bit buggier/lower sound quality than the old microphone feature in google talk. I think they'll work out the kinks, but my guess is that making them work for more than one person is what's making hangouts less functional for now.
Hope you enjoyed the read, and please comment,
~Mark
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)