Hello!

It's Friday night!

My school semester began Wednesday, with several classes. Wednesday's are my big day. But already it started going well. And has continued through today. Where I normally keep an eye on the clock, this semester I've been upset when class ended.

I'll elaborate more later, but things are going good. Alicia and I are going to grab some food for now.

Sorry about the lack of updates!

USB Aquarium

I mentioned the Woot-Off a week ago or so. I bought a USB Aquarium. It was five bucks, and here it is:



Awesome. Totally Awesome.

Backyard Update

Well, my Zinnias are huge. The big news is the flowers are finally coming in. Above, you can see the first bud that will be flowering soon. Here's a shot of the garden to give you some perspective:



Yeah, they are huge. I didn't realize it when I planted Zinnias. I'm not much of a flower guy. My biggest regret is they kinda look like the weeds that surround the garden. Oh well!

Otherwise, things are good back there. Alicia and I go about once a week and enjoy the outdoors, and I feed the cat (Oreo) about every other day. Clearly, she's got another owner, as she doesn't even come by every night.



For the record, the food is on the ground because I can't pour the food without Oreo putting her head in the path of the bowl. I've gotten to the point of just pouring and letting the food land wherever. Of course, Oreo is too good to eat the food of the ground. Bah.



The ivy has doubled in size. In July, I felt stupid because the ivy just wasn't climbing up the poles I bought. Now I feel stupid because the poles will be too short.



Construction has added another full story. Alicia found the permits online and found out that the building should go up six stories. Two down, four to go I guess. It's loud about once every two weeks when they are putting the huge beams up. But now you can't even access the construction site from our backyard, which has significantly quieted down the construction. Early May, we woke up every morning to the sound of construction workers on the other side of our bedroom window. Good riddance.



The tree directly above our backyard is still my favorite, but this one has really started to look gorgeous. Ample rain and sunshine has turned the leaves into a great color, especially when back lit by a cloudy white sky.

And that's the news from Lake Wobego... er, um, the news from our back yard.

News, otherwise

I'm on my way home! I'll be in Minnesota Thursday through Tuesday. I've got my cell phone with me, feel free to give me a call: 347-260-6862. My time is pretty booked, but I'm sure I could say hi if you're around.

I've got at least three posts scheduled to be published while I'm in Minnesota. So check back to see what I've got coming.

After I'm back Tuesday, I'll have until Sunday to relax, as class starts Monday, August 25. I'll be right back into the teaching and learning mode.

Schools out for the summer

I finished teaching today!

I've been teaching a summer session of Developmental Mathematics (read: pre-college math). It met Monday - Thursday, 8:30 to 12:15ish. It has been all prep for the final and the ACT Compass exam, an exam students must pass to enter college math. Thus, all my students had taken the ACT Compass exam and failed it, meaning this course was prep work for it.

I started out with 18 students and it dropped down to 16 by the end. Of those 16 students who completed the class, three passed.

Yes, three. Today I failed 13 students. Ouch.

I talked to the head of the math department, as I was concerned. He said it was mostly the luck of the draw. He personally had taught a class where only one person passed. Still, I've been upset today. I feel like I failed as a professor.

I know that isn't true. I know I did as much as I could. Because I corrected the final exams, I know that the mistakes made were covered. Several mistakes made I specifically warned the students that "Students always make these mistakes. Tests will ask you this. Don't be one of those students!" For instance:

-1 - 6

The answer is -7. Most of my students thought it was 5 or -5.

Oh well. I did pass three students. They did a great job, and I am sure they'll pass the ACT now. As for me, I'm just going to leave it behind and relax in Minnesota this weekend.

More about my Phone Plans

As a followup to my recent post about leaving my T-Mobile Contract for prepaid service, I thought I'd share my thoughts about my phone service in the future.

Skype

Currently, I'm using Skype. Skype is an international calling service that is really cheap. Think of it like an instant messaging program (Like AOL's AIM or MSN Messanger) that's connected to the phone system. Using your PC speakers and a microphone or a headset (like mine below), you can sign up for free and call anyone else who also has a Skype account. Alternatively, you can pay about $2 a month for the ability to call regular phone numbers. You turn it into your full phone line by purchasing a real phone number (in any area code!) for only $24 a year.

I like Skype. I love how cheap it is, and the flexibility it gives is great. There are "Skypecasts" which are basically radio shows you can call and listen in. There are chatrooms and other conference calling featuers.

The cons are that it relies on your internet connection. If your internet is down, you can't answer the phone. Sure, you can have calls forwarded to a different number, but then you're required to have a different number anyway.

One last pro is the software involved. I've downloaded an add on program called "PowerGramo" which records every call I make. I can save the calls as an MP3 file, or use any of the archiving features.

The biggest reason that Skype hasn't replaced my phone service is that it doesn't include emergency services. Thus, you can't call 911 from Skype. That's a serious problem.

For now, I'll use it for cheap calling out. Besides, when I want a new phone number, I'll probably use ...

Grand Central



Grand Central isn't yet available. The company was purchased by Google and is currently still being tested. When testing is over, it makes a fabulous promise:

One phone number for the rest of your life.

Here's how it works: You obtain (for free) a phone number from Grand Central. Then, by accessing the internet, you can specify where that one number should be sent. You can have it forward calls to your cell phone, your home phone, or your office. You can even do this depending on what time it is! You can have it forward your calls to all your phones at once. So when you've got a new cell phone number or new office number, no one has to know.

Grand Central offers a ton of features: You can pick what area code your number is in, you can record all your calls, it handles voicemail, it can play custom ring tones depending on who is calling, ... You've really gotta check out the website to read them all.

As for the cons, I really don't know. Perhaps Google will be embedding advertisements somewhere. It's hard to say until the service is actually available to the public.

As far as me, I will be signing up when this goes live. Until then, I can only dream.

Apple's iPhone

Some of you might have wondered why I haven't jumped on the iPhone bandwagon. Well, mostly price. I can honestly say that it is pretty awesome from all the reports I've heard. I was able to play with Nick Massahos' phone, and it seemed great. Especially now that Apple has released the ability to add applications, there seems like nothing it can't do.

But to get the iPhone, you've gotta pay $200 up front and about $80-100 a year for two years. Total price: $2120. I can't afford that. Checking the internet and my email isn't worth paying that much. I'm on the internet too much as it is.

One thing I would be interested in is the iPod Touch. Lifehacker (a personal productivity blog) recently had an article about why the iPod Touch does almost everything the iPhone does without having to pay $80 a month (link):

"Back in June 2007, I couldn't convince my wife that checking my email in grocery lines was worth $1,320—the cost of an original iPhone and one year of the cheapest plan. These days, the trend-setting phone costs even more money over its life, and it's more than a little restrictive and even a bit buggy. So I'm amazed at how little love the iPod touch gets. It's a slimmer iPhone with almost all its features, it requires no contract, and when you can't get a Wi-Fi signal, your plain, humble cellphone can step up to take its place."

Pretty convincing if you ask me. Besides, I'm waiting with baited breath for ...

Google Android



It isn't a Google phone, but a Google Operating System for Cell Phones. Android is for cell phones as Windows is for Computers. It's the basic software that runs your phone.

The big difference is that it is open. Anyone (even me!) can make an application for the phone. This is compared to the current phone situation, where you have to pay $5 to download a ring tone, and upwards of $15 if you want a game.

If you haven't caught on by now, I'm a big Google fan. While other people were waiting in line to buy an iPhone, I'll be waiting in line to buy a phone with Google Android.

The real advantage for Google is that any phone maker can include Android. So I'm hoping I can stay with T-Mobile. The iPhone, on the other hand, requires AT&T.

The last estimate was that Android would start appearing on cell phones in Fall 2008. I'll be waiting. (I basically canceled my contract with T-Mobile so that I could get Google Android).

Leaving T-Mobile Contract

I'm a frequent reader of the Consumerist, a consumer rights blog. I've learned a lot about what rights I have when I'm shopping and paying utilities, etc. I'm proud to say that with a good knowledge of the system, I've managed to get a great deal with my cell phone service.

One thing I've read about are Early Termination Fees (ETFs). These are fees assessed by your cell phone carrier for leaving before the contract expires. They are usually about $200, which prevents you from getting a free cell phone and then leaving your service one month later.

In early July, I read that T-Mobile was changing the price per text message. It was going from $0.15 to $0.20 a message, which constitutes a "material adverse affect." Basically, they've changed the contract I signed, which allows me to leave the contract without paying an ETF.

My contract wasn't scheduled to end until August of 2009, still a long time away. So getting out of my contract sounded nice. But I like T-Mobile. So I didn't really want to stop my cell phone service, just get out of my contract.

I called up T-Mobile and asked about my options. I wanted to switch from being under contract to paying month to month. They wouldn't let me out of the contract unless I ended my service. I've liked T-Mobile. Good service, good customer service. No real complaints. But here they were making me decide whether to leave or stay under contract. Sneaky.

So I started looking at my cell phone usage. I was paying $60.00 a month (including taxes) for Unlimited nights and weekends, unlimited calling from my home (using my wireless internet), and unlimited calling to five numbers of my choice. I also had 300 minutes to use any other time I wanted. Despite all this time to talk, I was usually only using about 150 minutes a month. Back when I talked to Alicia every night, I needed a lot of talking time. Now, not so much...

That's when it occurred to me: Why don't I use a prepaid cell phone? It just so happened that T-Mobile offered prepaid services. For $100, I can get 1000 minutes, which have a full year before they expire. If I use 150 minutes a month, $100 will last me over six months! That would have cost me $360 under contract.

So I called up T-Mobile to ask about prepaid services. They inform me that I can use my same phone number, use my same phone, and it would only take a few hours to change services. The only problem was that I was currently under a cell phone contract.

At this point, I smiled. I started uttering the magic words, "You've recently changed my contract, which had a material adverse affect..."

As of last week, I've got the same number, the same phone, and I'm still with T-Mobile. I can change services and get a new phone anytime I'd like because I'm not under contract, and I'm saving a ton of money.

I'd say I'm pretty happy.

P.S.: I've also started using Skype internet phone services. For $2 dollars a month, I can make unlimited calling over the internet using my computer. I can't receive calls, so I'll still use my cell phone for that. But I'm saving even more minutes a month using Skype. Yay!

Brian Blogs the Internet, take two.

If you checked out this blog within the first few days of its launch, you'd have noticed the "Brian Blogs the Internet" sidebar where I posted links to websites I enjoyed. When you clicked on a link, it brought you to a separate blog that would link to a website I enjoyed.

That blog was essentially a "link farm," meaning it had no original content of its own. In my humble opinion, link farms are bad for the internet. They are essentially middle men. They operate like a door-to-door salesman, getting in the way.

So here's my dilemma: I do want to share good websites! I read my Google Reader religiously and I want to share my favorites. But if I post links and websites here, it'll clutter up my blog. I assume you, my readers, are interested in me, not other websites. If this blog became 50% links, 50% Brian info, it would no longer be my personal blog.

My solution is to use Google Reader's "share" feature. I can simply choose to share articles I enjoy and Google will automatically create a "Shared Items" blog for me.

You can see this at <http://www.google.com/reader/shared/01179481704014780557>. To simplify things, I've added an updating list on the right side of this blog (under my status updates). It displays the headlines of the last five things I shared, along with a link to "read more" of my shared items.

This way, you can ignore them if you're not interested. But if you're interested in what's going on in the world of technology and the internet, you can see what I recommended. You can even subscribe to the website if you're using an RSS feed reader like Google Reader. I've described this previously.

I'll occasionally post a link roundup with the best of the lot. That way, you'll get a personal recommendation behind good posts.

If you've got a better idea on how to handle this kind of thing, let me know in the comments. If you've started using Google Reader because of my post about it, let me know your shared items page! To the comments! (this means you, Nicole)

P.S.: Alicia's got a shared page, too. She shares a ton of items.