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Monday, May 12th, 2008
jonsinger
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10:35a
Aaaghhhh!!
The night before last, my phone (a Kyocera QCP-6035 PalmPhone) broke. I can’t turn it off, because it crashes when I try. I can’t back it up, because it crashes when I try. It crashes at the end of every call; doesn’t matter whether the call is incoming or outgoing, doesn’t matter whether I end it or the other person does. In fact, it crashes after a few rings even if I don’t attempt to pick up the call.
After a crash, of course, it has no memory of the call. (Remember this; the relevance will soon become apparent.)
I looked into replacing this phone with another QCP-6035. (I had several of them here, but at the moment I can only find one, and it is clearly fried. Most of them were Verizon units in any case, though it turns out to be possible, at least in principle, to unlock those so they can be used on the Sprint network. OTOH, the procedure is tedious at best, and there is no real guarantee of success.) After finding this out, observing that there were no Sprint units on eBay at the moment, and thinking about it for a while, I decided to let it go. Went up to eBay, looked at what was available for Sprint, and won a used Sanyo 8200 at what seems like a very decent price. It only has to last until Apple releases a 3G version of the iPhone, at which point I will grit my teeth and make The Switch.
So:
This morning, at 9:51, someone called me. I answered, they said “Hello, Jon?”, I said, “Hi.” They said, “This is J--” ...and the call was interrupted, probably by my cheek hitting the Off button, which can happen easily when it isn’t in its little holster. I was mostly asleep, and I knew I had to reset the phone quickly in order for them to be able to call back, so I did...
...without reading the number off the screen.
They haven’t called back; I didn’t recognize the voice, so I don’t know who it was; and when I called Sprint technical service, for some unknown reason the call wasn’t showing up on their computer.
AAaaaagghhhhh!!!
(At least the techsupport person told me I’d gotten a fine deal on the Sanyo 8200, which he said was a very good phone.)
If the person who made that call reads this, PLEASE call again!! If you, reading this, happen to have some idea who the person was, Please (!) ask them to call again!!
Further update:
I called Sprint again, and they told me that “in order to protect my privacy,” they were not permitted to give me the information about who had called me without a subpoena from either a lawyer or a law-enforcement agency.
Got that? My own info, which should have been on my phone, and which they are going to send me at the end of the month in any case, and they can’t give it to me because they have to protect my privacy. From what, me??
(It actually turns out to be a bit more complex than their initial explanation indicated. When they pull up the call records from their database, even blocked/unpublished numbers show up. There are Federal regulations covering the release of that information, and I guess that rather than make things complicated by allowing the release of published but not unpublished numbers, they simplified matters by just declaring all of it off-limits except by legal intervention. Mind you, this is all horsepucky anyway, because at the end of the month they will send me all of the published numbers. If they can separate published from unpublished every billing cycle, surely they can do it now.)
I then figured out the most likely person to have called, based on the fact that I didn’t recognize the voice and the people I could think of who might be calling. Left that person voicemail and email, and heard back from him yesterday evening. He was, indeed, the one who called, so that part of the issue is now taken care of. Nice to know that I don’t have to either call a lawyer or grit my teeth for three weeks.
Now I just have to wait, first for the Sanyo device to arrive (the Kyocera is fine as a Palm Pilot, so long as I remember that I can’t back it up), and then for Apple to do its stuff with the new chipset. I fervently hope that the rumors of a June 9th release are accurate...
Cheers —
jon
PS: I should note that the first comment to this posting was written before I added a large amount of clarification and update information.
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(4 comments | comment on this) Sunday, May 11th, 2008
mr_teem
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9:23a
*blink* *blink*
You know, Carly Fiorina is a great spokesperson for Sen. McCain. Just watched her on This Week.
Oh, I don't mean that in a good way.
You know, Carly, I don't care if you weren't involved in the '04 or '00 campaigns, you really ought to have answers.
Oh, wait, I forgot, this is Sen. McCain we're talking about.
(eyeroll)
Got back home late. Woke up and am watching the Sunday head shows out of habit.
current mood:  numb
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(1 comment | comment on this) Friday, May 9th, 2008
(13 comments | comment on this)
(5 comments | comment on this)
(16 comments | comment on this) Wednesday, May 7th, 2008
news
[ theljstaff ]
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5:49p
May News
V-Gift for Charity
This month is Mental Health Awareness Month, so the LiveJournal team is offering users a chance to support the Depression and Bipolar Alliance, a non-profit organization dedicated to helping improve the lives of those suffering from mood disorders. Proceeds from purchases of the Emerging Sun v-gift during May will be donated to the DBSA, so feel free to buy one. Or, if you really want to rack up some good karma points, get a bunch!
And don't forget: Mother's Day is this Sunday. Be a dear and check out the v-gifts shop. Send something that'll make her smile.
L to R: Emerging Sun, #1 Mom, Gift Basket, Chocolates, A Dozen Red Roses
Brand-Spanking New, Contest-Winning Themes
We know how you salivate over the prospect of new themes, especially when they're designed by users with a unique handle on both form and function.
L to R: Shiny, River at Night, Live and Learn, Vector Drips.
( Winners of the HP 'What Do You Have to Say?' Theme Design Contest )
Advisory Board Nominations
We'd like to remind you that the nomination process for LiveJournal Advisory Board user-representatives has begun. If you think you're fit for the job, now's the time to nominate yourself! After all, you're the only who can do it. In two weeks, on the 22nd, the voting process will begin; we'll remind you about it again here.
If you're interested in keeping up with the nominations, watch ![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/community.gif) lj_election_en. We'll post the results and announce the winner by the end of the day on May 30th. The new user-representatives will be seated on June 1st. Further details can also be found in lj_2008.
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(281 comments | comment on this) Monday, May 5th, 2008
mr_teem
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6:06p
Home
"Home!"
"Home," she agrees.
We relax on the couch.
I pick up the remote.
*click*
...cause headache, abdominal pain, and diarrhea. Talk with your doctor...
*mute*
"Okay, maybe we should have had the sitter turn on the TV a few times."
current mood:  home
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(1 comment | comment on this)
news
[ theljstaff ]
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10:56a
Advisory Board Nominations Open
Advisory Board Nominations Begin
This morning we are opening the nomination process for the user-representative positions on the LiveJournal Advisory Board. A full description of the process can be found here.
To get you started, here are the basic things you should know:
- You may only nominate yourself
- Each nominee will need 100 motions of support in order to be eligible to be a candidate
- We ask that you keep your comments on the nomination posts to "I support this nomination" or something to that effect; be kind to those who will need to count the "supports", please.
- Although the nominations and election poll will take place in lj_election_en, you do not need to watch the community in order to keep up with the election; we'll announce everything here as well.
Everyone here at LiveJournal is looking forward to this first-ever User-Representative election! We'd like to thank everyone who is participating. Some words from our current Advisory Board members:
danah boyd: “LiveJournal is filled with very passionate users. These users have helped shaped LJ's various communities over the last decade and it gives me great joy that LJ is recognizing and incorporating users' voices into the decision-making processes. Having user representatives from different parts of LJ on the Advisory Board will help make sure that the company is meeting the needs of its diverse constituents.”
Esther Dyson: "I'm sure we'll learn a lot from the process, and later on from the two users selected as well. Especially, I hope that the discussions before the voting will be more meaningful and more focused on policy than those in some offline campaigns."
Brad Fitzpatrick: "It's cool that SUP is getting users involved with the LiveJournal decision-making process. I look forward to seeing who the community elects and the results of our efforts working together."
Professor Lawrence Lessig: “The user elections will provide a critical check on LJ's process of maintaining a valuable and trustworthy environment for the LJ community. The mandate of the elections will give the user representatives pride of place among the members of the Advisory Board. Each of us will look to them to guide us in our judgment about how best to make LJ the community we all aspire that it will be. I look forward to welcoming the user representatives, and learning a great deal from them.”
![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) chasethestars has also made some banners for you to use, if you'd like to show your support for the candidate of your choice!
( Banners + code for you to use! )
current mood:  chipper
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(316 comments | comment on this)
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