AT&T now whining that Verizon plays too rough!

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Why AT&T sucks - Exhibit #4328

Why AT&T sucks - Exhibit #4328

AT&T, the juggernaut with such dainty feet of clay, just filed a lawsuit against Verizon. For having the nerve to show their craptacular coverage map in comparison to theirs. On the article on Engadget, “AT&T thinks Verizon is trying to fool viewers into thinking that they can’t use any AT&T phone services outside of 3G coverage areas by showing two essentially different maps. Since Verizon’s entire network is 3G, the gaps in the red map are actual service gaps — but Verizon doesn’t show that the gaps on the AT&T map might be covered by AT&T’s huge 2G network.”

Ah ha ha ha ha ha!!!! Whoo!! That was a good one!

AT&T is not arguing the fact that their 3g service isn’t even in the same ballpark as Verizon’s network. Just that you “might” be able to downshift to 2g, and you “might” still be able to make phone calls outside their mapped area. And that Verizon “might” be confusing some people about that very important piece of trivia.

Way to solve the wrong problem, AT&T!

In case I haven’t mentioned it before, I know firsthand that AT&T’s cellular service sucks. All the calls I make or receive on my iPhone drop 3/4 of the time. No warning, no nothing. Just three beeps and it’s gone. In addition, I’ll have my phone right next to me at home or at work, and suddenly five missed calls show up – no ringing incoming call notification at all. SMS messages sometimes don’t show up until after a reboot. And when AT&T’s rotten service does work, about 1/4 of the time I get a choppy connection with the other person dropping in and out of the call or otherwise sounding like a robot with a broken voicebox.

My wife and I got an iPhone the same day. We both have the same problems. We’ve switched SIM cards. Updated to the latest and greatest OS. Even tested the phones in other cities we traveled to across the US. It’s the same horrendous service everywhere we go.

If Verizon wants to fight AT&T on this, I think the best way to do it would be to just show how people with an iPhone have been putting up with the trash AT&T calls a cellular network. Show in a court how the AT&T signal drops. Put a video up of how the iPhone will constantly fail when simply driving across any major city. Heck, put up the quote from AT&T CEO John Donovan himself that AT&T can’t handle all the iPhone traffic! (Related links Here and Here and Here too.) And then directly compare AT&T’s service with any of their own plans.

The truth hurts! Use it!

As of today, I’ve successfully managed to keep over 20 people (and their families) away from AT&T this year. And as soon as my contract is up with AT&T early next year, I’m jumping to Verizon. To the new Andriod to be exact. Check it out here if you haven’t seen the droid site yet. It kicks AT&T’s sorry butt all over the place.

Why stay with a company that promises they will get better any minute now? I’m paying for good service right now. If it wasn’t for this contract, I would have dropped this pile of junk within two months of owning it.

And Apple? If you want to save the iPhone? And those million billion apps you have out there? Drop AT&T. You’re going to get killed by association.

Recall : Some products from bodybuilding.com may have steroids

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Another FDA recall notice today concerns bodybuilding.com. According to the FDA, “As part of its ongoing cooperation with the Food and Drug Administration… Bodybuilding.com… announced today that it is conducting a voluntary nationwide and international recall of all lots and expiration dates of 65 dietary supplement products… that were sold through the Company’s website.”

Apparently some of these ingredients in some of these supplements may have been spiced with steroids. “Specifically, the FDA has advised the Company of its concern that the Recalled Products may contain the following ingredients that are currently classified, or the FDA believes should be classified, as steroids: “Superdrol,” “Madol,” “Tren,” “Androstenedione,” and/or “Turinabol.””

Why do I suddenly hear the voices of Hans and Franz?

Here’s the official recall list…

4Ever Fit D-Drol
Advanced Muscle Science Dienedrone
Advanced Muscle Science Liquidrone UTT
Anabolic Xtreme Hyperdrol X2
APS (aka Advanced Muscle Science) Mastavol
APS (aka Advanced Muscle Science) Revamp
APS (aka Advanced Muscle Science) Ultra Mass Stack
APS (aka Advanced Muscle Science) Ripped Stack
Better Body Sports Finadex
Black China Labs Straight Drol
Black China Labs Straight Phlexed
Body Conditioning Solutions TestraFLEX
Bjorklund Methyldrostanolone
BOSC Enterprises Epi-Tren
BOSC Enterprises Magna Drol
Chaparral Labs Epivol
Chaparral Labs Pheravol-V
Competitive Edge Labs M-Drol
Competitive Edge Labs P-Plex
Competitive Edge Labs X-tren
Diabolic Labs Epio-Plex
Diabolic Labs Finabolic 50
Diabolic Labs Revenge
Ergopharm 6-OXO
Ergopharm 6-OXO Extreme
EST (aka Engineered Sports Technology) MethAnstance
Extreme Labs Susto-Test Depot
Fizogen ON Cycle II Hardcore
G.E.T/ (Genetic Edge Technologies) SUS-500
G.E.T/ (Genetic Edge Technologies) Tren-250
Hardcore Formulations T-Roid
I Force Nutrition 1,4 AD Bold 200
I Force Dymethazine/Reversitol Combo Pack 		I Force Reversitol
I Force Nutrition 17a PheraFLEX
I Force Nutrition Dymethazine
I Force Nutrition Methadrol
IDS (aka Innovative Delivery Systems) Bromodrol
IDS (aka Innovative Delivery Systems) Grow Tabs TR
IDS (aka Innovative Delivery Systems) Mass Tabs
IDS (aka Innovative Delivery Systems) Oxodrol Pro
IDS (aka Innovative Delivery Systems) Ripped Tabs TR
IDS (aka Innovative Delivery Systems) Rapid Release
Ripped Tabs
Kilo Sports Massdrol
Kilo Sports Phera-Mass
Kilo Sports Trenadrol
Monster Caps Monster Caps
Myogenix Spawn
Nutra Coastal D-Stianozol
Nutra Coastal H-Drol
Nutra Coastal MDIT
Nutra Coastal S-Drol
Nutra Coastal Trena
Performance Anabolics Methastadrol
Performance Anabolics Tri-Methyl X
Purus Labs E-pol Inslinsified
Purus Labs Nasty Mass
Rage RV2
Rage RV3
Rage RV4
Rage RV5
Redefine Nutrition Finaflex 550-XD
Redefine Nutrition Finaflex Ripped
Transform Supplements Forged Extreme Mass
Transform Supplements Forged Lean Mass

Here’s the link to the official FDA recall notice. And here’s a link to bodybuilding.com.

Recall : Pelican Bay’s Caramel Chocolate Truffle Hot Chocolate Mix

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In another recall announcement, “Pelican Bay… is recalling all their Caramel Chocolate Truffle Hot Chocolate Mix because it may contain undeclared tree nuts…. Caramel Chocolate Truffle Hot Chocolate Mix is packaged in a cone shape poly bag with a hanging tag attached to the front of the package and SKU# 3204, UPC 94522 01015 on the back of the label.”

Tree nuts are pretty much everything *except* peanuts, coconuts, nutmeg and water chestnuts. Cashews, almonds, pecans and walnuts all count as tree nuts.

Here’s a link to the official FDA recall notice.

Recall : Centurion Medical Products : Premie Pack and Meconium Pack

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Centurion Medical Products announced they will be recalling some of their.. “Premie Pack, Kit Code LM 110 and Full Term Meconium Pack, Kit Code LM115” for a pretty simple reason. Some of the internal diameters of the pack tubes are a bit smaller than the diameter listed on the package. This could “result in an inability to remove secretions and cause partial or complete blockage of the airway and the inability to ventilate the patient.” D’oh!

Here’s a link the FDA recall notice and here’s a link to the list of Centurion products that are affected.

Busy bee

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While mowing this weekend in some very nice 80 degree weather, I noticed this single tiny bee pollinating every flower he could find. You can see him near the bottom in this next photo.

Busy Bee 2

Busy Bee 2

He was buzzing into one of the small flowers, moving around a bit, then buzzing away to another open flower on the same stem.

Busy Bee

Busy Bee

He was working on half the garden when I started mowing and he was still working on the other half when I was done. And all by himself. Pretty impressive.

Jailbroken iphone ransom drama

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A short while ago, some idiot had the brilliant idea to SSH into jailbroken iphones in his area and install some “ransomware” on every iphone system he could. The ransomware, according to tech site Neowin, said “You iPhone’s been hacked because it’s really insecure! Please visit [LINK REMOVED] and secure your iPhone right now! Right now, I can access all your files.”

This mensa candidate not only gave his website address, he actually had the stones to ask for a reward of €5 to be sent to a PayPal address.

Needless to say, he got caught. Now he’s posted removal instructions on how to get rid of his ransomware so people won’t beat him so bad when they catch him on the street.

Even though the hacker was Dutch and this happened over in the Netherlands, the process he followed can easily be duplicated over here.

So if you have jailbroken your iphone, and you haven’t changed your root password, here’s the easy way to do it…

Step one: Install “mobile terminal” from Cydia (if you don’t have it already)

Step two: Run mobile terminal. Type “su root” (without quotes). The default password on all iphones is “alpine”, so you will need to type in “alpine” (without quotes) when it asks you for the initial password.

Step three (optional): Type “cd” (without quotes) to shorten the prompt

Step four: type “passwd” (without quotes) and press ENTER. Now type in your new password of choice. You will be prompted twice for this password as confirmation.

Step five: now type “passwd mobile” (without quotes) and press ENTER. Now type in your new mobile password of choice. You will be prompted twice for this password as confirmation.

That’s it. EXIT and quit mobile terminal.

If you haven’t jailbroken your iphone, or have no idea when I’m talking about, don’t worry. This issue only affects jailbroken iphones.

Don’t retype that PDF!

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Has anyone ever sent you a PDF document that you need to get back into Word format to edit? But nobody has the original Word document to make changes in? Don’t waste time retyping the whole thing! Just let any of these websites convert a PDF file to a Word document for you… free!

The best one in my experience has been Convert PDF To Word. The website and conversion process are both really fast. Just click the BROWSE button to locate your PDF file and press OK. In a few moments, a link will appear for you to immediately download the converted file! It’s been easy and blisteringly fast for every PDF I have thrown at it, and recreates the original PDF file in Word perfectly. The only problem is that is recreates the original PDF file in Word perfectly. If the PDF is complex, with a lot of tables and drawings, the word version will have a lot of tables and sub-tables all over the place. Things won’t be congruently selectable, but you can edit everything as much as you like. Everything I tested came back looking just like the original PDF it came from. If you’re looking for a direct copy of a PDF file that just needs a tweak here and there, this site is the one to use.

My second favorite is PDF ONLINE. This site is fast, with a simple BROWSE button to upload your PDF file from your local computer. In a few moments, you can download the converted word document. This site doesn’t do so well with a heavily detailed PDF in my tests, though. But it does great with grabbing the core content of a PDF and making everything selectable at once. Website PDFs consistently came back with the article as the main conversion. Books would convert in one big flowing document. However, this site converted everything into RTF format. You can go to Word and go to FILE and OPEN to pull the data in for this kind of conversion. If you don’t need the sidebars on a website, or your PDF document is pretty much text and no graphics, this site is the one you should choose.

3rd on my list is PDF TO WORD. This site is similar to the other two in its’ ease of use, but the main difference is that this site will email you the converted file. It’s kind of a mixed blessing. The results were somewhere between the two sites above, and it was nice to know the converted files would be waiting for me in my inbox and not have to be downloaded to the PC I was at. But some complex PDF conversions were so slow, they didn’t show up in my inbox for hours. An overall nice compliment to the two above.

Think you’re having a bad day? Watch this…

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If you think you’re having a bad day, this forklift driver’s day in Russia might make you feel a little better.

According to the dailymail website, this driver just nuked five million rubles of vodka and cognac in just five seconds.

Having seen this, I’m probably going to freak out a little the next time I’m at Sam’s.

Microsoft Office Accounting : DOA

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If you are a user of Microsoft Office Accounting, you should probably sit down before reading any further.

Microsoft just announced that they are canning their whole Office Accounting package as of November 16th.

On the FAQ site, the official reason from Microsoft is that “…we have determined that existing free templates within Office used with Excel was a better option for small businesses, and the Microsoft Dynamics ERP products were appropriate for mid-range organizations.”

In addition, they’re yanking the Ebay and Equifax rug out, saying “Online sales from eBay and credit profile from Equifax will no longer be available after December 15, 2009. However, your customers will still be able to pay emailed invoices directly through PayPal.”

Paypal instead of Equifax? Yeesh.

Someone at Microsoft probably woke up this weekend and said “Hey, this product is so easy and stable and cheap, why the hell are we supporting it? Make the low end people buy the whole Office suite! And make the high end people buy the juggernaut called Dynamics! Mu ha ha ha ha!”

Ifya’ want to grab this one before it’s nuked forever, here’s a link to Micosoft’s download page or you can grab the express version directly here.

Here’s the direct link to the Microsoft PR announcement about the product.

RECALL : Alexia Foods Olive Oil, Sun-Dried Tomatoes & Pesto Oven Reds

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Another recall. This one from Alexia Foods. Their Olive Oil, Sun-Dried Tomatoes & Pesto Oven Reds have some pine nuts as ingredients that wasn’t on the label.

The FDA notice reads… “Alexia Foods… is voluntarily recalling packages of its Alexia – Olive Oil, Sun-Dried Tomatoes & Pesto Oven Reds (frozen seasoned potato wedges) for an undeclared allergen, pine nuts. This voluntary recall is limited to only packages of Alexia – Olive Oil, Sun-Dried Tomatoes & Pesto Oven Reds bearing the following Sell By dates (shown below) printed on the upper left back panel of the poly package with the UPC # 34183 00108. No other Alexia frozen or shelf stable products are affected.
Sell By 5385050811               Sell By 5385050911
Sell By 5385051011               Sell By 5385051111”

Here’s the link to the official FDA recall notice.