manchicken here... » Ranting

Response to Mediacom & FCC

manchicken — Tue, 18 May 2010 01:24:15 +0000

On May 2nd I found evidence that Mediacom was sniffing my internet traffic. I filed a complaint with the FCC once I was certain I wasn’t going to get cooperation from Mediacom. Today, I received a response from Mediacom.

Dear Ms. Bowers (the FCC representative who followed up with Mediacom)

This letter is in response to a letter that we receved from your office regarding a complaint from Michael David Stemle, Jr. that involves the high-speed data service that he receives from Mediacom. While the complaint involves facets of Internet access service not currently regulated by the Commission, I would like to inform the Commission of the results of my investigation of the complaint.

In the complaint, the customer states that Mediacom filters the customer’s requests and responses when he tries to access websites, and redirects the customer to Mediacom’s search results page.

Mediacom does not do what the customer is claiming. If a customer types a non-existent web page address into the address bar, such as www.foxskorts.com (instead of the popular www.foxsports.com), then the customer will be directed to a page that lists choices of websites that the customer may have intended, and some choices on there may be advertised spaces and would be identified as such. This is done because Mediacom’s search page is the default browser for incorrect addresses. This setting can be changed to whatever browser the customer would like to use. If Mr. Stemle would like to contact me, I will have a representative call him and walk him through these steps at his convenience.

Then this guy goes into some Internet Explorer tutorial on how to change my default search engine. He concludes with the following:

I will now consider the matter closed. Should you or Mr. Stemle need any further information, please contact me using the information below.

There are obviously some holes in this guy’s story. First, he claims this is a browser setting, when this is actually something coming from the ether. Neither my computer–which is a Mac running Safari, not a Windows box running Internet Explorer–nor the third party website has directed me to the assist.mediacom.com webpage.

Dear Ms. Bowers,

I have reviewed the letter from Mr. McKnight (Mediacom attorney) and found it to be inaccurate. I would like to take this opportunity to clarify my complaint and to provide some evidence which I hope will make this matter clear for both the FCC and for Mediacom’s representative.

My complaint is not that Mediacom filters all traffic, but rather that Mediacom engages in what is known as “deep packet inspection.” In addition to a telephone call where Mediacom customer support disclosed that such techniques were being used, I discovered that these techniques were being used when on the night of May 2nd at 11:17PM (US-Central time) I did make the HTTP request of the following URL: [http://sva.notsosoft.net/fdhkasjhfsd.htm]

Upon making this request I received a “HTTP/1.1 404 Not Found” response from the server, which is correct. What I noticed was that while the HTTP headers remained unmodified, the body of the HTTP response included this code which Mediacom did in fact deceptively inject (bold added to highligh executing client-side JavaScript code):

The Search Guide redirection service has been enabled to provide helpful searches from browser queries. You entered a non-existent url and your browser attempted to redirect you with Javascript. To enable this please update your browser preferences. To turn off this feature please click this here

The effect of this code is to instantly cause the browser to redirect to the page http://assist.mediacomcable.com/mediacomassist_pnf/dnsassist/main/ with the query string parameter of the domain equalling the URL from the request which resulted in the 404 message. While this seems like a benign action, it has some potentially far-reaching consequences including unsolicited advertisements, sale of user data, bogus claims of intellectual property infringement, and a complete trashing of the fourth amendment rights of users.

It has been frightful this last decade to watch as internet service providers have engaged in warrantless wiretapping, packet spoofing, and disclosure of traffic data to the RIAA and MPAA. We all watched in horror as courts ruled that by virtue of users knowing that Gmail service was provided with advertising that they had no reasonable expectation of privacy, and therefore no Fourth Amendment protection with regard to email in their Gmail account. In addition, this robs me of my ability to enter into any new non-disclosure agreements with any third party while using my internet connection as I have no way of knowing what Mediacom looks for and collects, and with whom they disclose what they collect.

Contrary to Mr. McKnight’s claim, this is not a preference within my browser–I am not using Internet Explorer, I am not using Windows, I am using Safari on a Mac which does not redirect 404 errors to search engines in any way. While Mediacom does have what they call an “opt-out” option, this does not actually solve the problem. The opt-out option likely does not disengage the deep packet inspection, it likely only disengages the redirect. The problem is the deep packet inspection, not the redirection. The redirection is merely a symptom of this unethical practice. I have asked Mediacom to have technical personnel explain to me in detail as to the nature of the opt-out mechanism in place, but to date Mediacom has chosen not to fulfil this request.

On the phone call with Mediacom technical support, more than one technician did disclose that Mediacom inspects packets of users for several reasons including (and likely not limited to) virus detection, traffic-shaping, as well as the detection of copyright infringement for the purposes of disclosure to recording industry professionals and disconnection of consumer connections.

While I understand that the FCC is not currently regulating internet carrier behavior like this, I view this as highly unethical, especially when it is a practice which is not disclosed to consumers. Furthermore, I am greatly concerned that I was able to find technical people within Mediacom who were informed and did disclose this information, yet Mr. McKnight failed to even do such basic research as I had. More than one technician within Mediacom–both in the call center and technicians which respond to service calls–have told me they understand this unethical packet inspection to be a common practice within Mediacom, yet senior counsel within Mediacom seems unaware of this practice.

Since I contacted Mediacom regarding this matter they have since dispatched a technician to my house to re-wire my house, which was entirely unnecessary, wasting the time of both their technician and that of my lovely wife. While some Mediacom technicians have claimed that these unethical practices can enhance performance for Mediacom users, my neighbors and I know all too well that Mediacom has a record of poor network performance, and it is likely that deep packet inspection is exacerbating the problem.

All I ask from Mediacom is that they cease deep packet inspection on my connection. If this practice is not going on, and I am mistaken, I would appreciate it if technical personnel within Mediacom could explain the error in my argument, and I would request a letter declaring that deep packet inspection is not going on, and that I would be unreasonable to believe Mediacom is in any way inspecting or modifying packets between my home network and the server from which data was requested.

I do not consider this matter closed, I will continue to pursue this matter with authorities local and federal to the extent I can, and I do still maintain that Mediacom does violate the ethical expectations of their customers by engaging in this practice. Should either Mr. McKnight or the FCC require further information from me, my information is below.

Sincerely yours,

Michael D. Stemle, Jr.

This is going in the post tonight, hopefully we can get this matter addressed soon. I’m considering sending this to my senators, congressmen, and Illinois’ attorney general as well.

Focus on the Family Spreads Ignorance and Division

manchicken — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 18:37:02 +0000

Dr. Dobson took to the air this morning saying that he was in a “state of mourning” following the election results. There are two points that I thought were ignorant and fear-mongering about them.

They say that Barack Obama is pro-infanticide, which is ridiculous. Dr. Dobson is a moron for holding and spreading such misinformation as fact.

This group also spreads hate speech against homosexuals, and commends a hate-group for restricting the rights of homosexuals to marry.

Then this entire panel in the radio show are painting Liberals as anti-family. This group should be ashamed, and in Christian love I rebuke this group for its dissemination of hate speech. I call on them to repudiate their hateful and divisive comments and call their listeners to respect the rights of ALL Americans, not just white Christian Amercians.

Spammers Using Copyright Notices…

manchicken — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 01:28:22 +0000

Hello folks. I’m sure many of you are well-aware of my general dislike for copyright, but particularly as it relates to restricting private individuals. Well tonight I got a spam email from one of these do-it-yourself business scammers, and it seems like this is a real company. For some reason these idiots thought that I would comply with their privacy and copy prohibition notice.

This is probably a bit mean of me, but I’m putting this post up just to make sure that the folks over at franalysis.com know that I’m not interested in their scam, and that I do not agree to their privacy or copy prohibition notice. Petty? Probably. I’m just tired of being harassed by scam businesses and I’m tired of idiotic copyright notices.

Hi Michael,

Your resume sparked some interest with one of our Senior Franchise
Consultants and they would like to speak with you. Your credentials are
quite impressive and therefore would like to see if owning a franchise
business would be an idea that you might consider. We have helped many
established professionals research the best qualified franchises available.

Depending on the industry and location that you specify, we will present to
you the best geographic and financially available franchises. The research,
qualification, and application service we provide costs you absolutely
nothing.

This is a unique opportunity that would allow you to apply your experience
to a business of your own, increasing your earning potential and allowing
you some much deserved flexibility in your career.

Please visit us at www.fran-partners.com and fill out the “Get Started
Today” form for more information.

Best regards,

Michelle [Last Name Removed]
Franchising Coordinator
469-619-3164
www.fran-partners.com
13355 Noel Road Suite 210
Dallas, TX 75240

Privileged/Confidential Information may be contained in this message. If
you are not the addressee indicated in this message (or responsible for
delivery of the message to such person), you may not copy or deliver this
message to anyone. In such case, you should destroy this message, and
notify us immediately.

Guck Foogle

manchicken — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 17:55:50 +0000

So thanks to this pissing contest between Microsoft and Google, several good friends of mine back at Performics/DoubleClick have been laid off. It’s nice to know that the world’s richest companies thrive on getting richer by laying off 30% of their workforce when there’s no solid business reason for doing so.

Fuck Google.

United States Seeking Death Penalty for 9/11 Detainees

manchicken — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 16:23:31 +0000

Anybody else feel like the entire rest of the flippin’ world is watching and waiting for us to kill these folks that we’ve had at gitmo for all this time? I feel it, I feel it like the hot burning eyes of scorn.

I don’t under any circumstances like the idea of letting people go after we’ve found credible evidence proving–or even strongly suggesting–that they participated in these terror attacks… but who’s the genius suggesting that we should kill them, thus martyring them to the rest of their cause and making us look like jerks on the world stage. There’s a reason why most modern countries have done away with doing away with people in their criminal justice systems: it does absolutely no good, and it just makes civilized people look like monsters.

Let’s keep these folks locked in a cage for the rest of their natural life, and let God sort them out when He decides their time is up… but FFS let’s stop murdering murderers. It only harms our society and desensitize us to death… and I’m sure that this blood-lust isn’t doing anything good for the kids either.

The Hipocracy of the Wal-Mart Haters…

manchicken — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 17:58:39 +0000

So, I’ve got a little rant for all of the big box retail haters out there. Do you visit Starbucks? How about McDonalds or Burger King? What about software, do you use Windows or MacOS? Have you purchased a Dell or an HP or a Mac? Do you have an iPod or a wireless phone? Do you listen to the Black-Eyed Peas, or Destiny’s Child, or any number of other pop artists? How can you possibly criticize Wal-Mart and put yourself on some sort of ethical pedestal when you’re doing any of these things?

Starbucks, McDonalds, Burger King, Taco Bell, and many other food service corporations have been under-paying their workers much worse for a much longer period of time than any big-box store ever has. These companies have damaged our health with trans-fats and high-fat foods, they’ve damaged our culture by forcing smaller restaurants and coffee shops and burger joints out of business, and they’ve drained our local economies by taking the money we spend at their establishments and moving it back to the hometown of their local establishments.

Microsoft and Apple have not only been forcing other companies out of business, but they’ve been hiring foreign workers for the sole purpose of paying them below market wages. They’ve also been spending millions on figuring out how to restrict what you can do with what you purchase more effectively, and with fewer possibilities that you’ll be able to work around it.

iPod, along with every phone manufacturer have released heavy-metal laden phones that are 100% proprietary devices that lock you in for years. Your iPod is designed to only work with iTunes–though some have figured out how to reverse-engineer that–and your wireless phones are locked to their carriers. If you’re a Verizon Wireless customer than you’re even actively funding a campaign that VZW has under-taken to undermine the FCC’s push to free networks, specifically with respect to the new bandwidth that is being auctioned off. AT&T has actually been implicated–and is currently seeking congressional protection from prosecution and civil litigation–in illegal wire-taps that violate your constitutional rights, yet folks are gobbling up the iPhone like there’s no tomorrow.

Popular music is destroying our culture by manufacturing “artists” who produce music that the record companies think will be profitable. The incidence of actual artists being discovered and making it big in the recording industry is become less and less common. Disney has manufactured dozens of “artists” that we now revere as highly talented… but are nothing more than a factory working punching the proper product codes into the machines on the production line. These recording companies have also been suing consumers left and right for using the media that they purchased in a way that they want to. They’ve been getting college campuses to have mandatory courses on not sharing with your friends, and have spent billions trying to tell you that sharing is really stealing… all funded by state and federal tax dollars.

So, to me, Wal-Mart sounds pretty damned good by comparison. I’m not one to justify one group’s bad behavior by pointing out the bad behavior of others, but it seems like some folks have forgotten about consistency. I understand that sometimes it’s important to pick on the politically unpopular bad guys more than the popular bad guys when you’re trying to pass yourself off as a pinko “non-conformist” moron, and that’s okay. But I don’t want to hear a damned thing from one of you jerk-offs next time I tell you that my mother-in-law found me a really sweet wok at Wal-Mart.

I also don’t want to hear you all crying about religions being inconsistent. If you idiots can’t figure out how to be consistent in something as simple as where you shop, I don’t think you have any business criticizing the consistency of something much more complicated like religion or politics.

EORANT;

Warmongers: The New Pervert…

manchicken — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 23:00:19 +0000

So, I’ve recently say that pedophiles are the worst people ever. If you live in the US, you’ve likely heard similar statements. It’s kinda crazy in the first place when you hear someone say this because–to me at least–what they’re really saying is “I am such a better person than a pedophile” or “regardless of the bad things I’ve done in my life, a pedophile is so much worse.” For the vast majority of people walking this earth right now, I would summarily reject that entire mentality outright. The very concept of ethically or morally justifying yourself by pointing out the bad behaviors of other is flawed. Even more than that, however, if you were to look at bad behavior, pedophilia is not even in the top-ten things you could do to damage society as a whole.

I’ll start off with a quick disclaimer on this paragraph. I am not a pedophile, I do not condone pedophilia, and under no circumstances would I ever do anything to minimize the damage that sexual abuse does to an individual and their family. Pedophilia, like many other crimes, damages people and communities. I am not trying to minimize this at all, just pointing out that while this is a horrible thing, there are worse things even than this.

What could possibly be worse than pedophilia? A warmonger. What is a warmonger? According to the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, a warmonger is “a person who advocates, endorses, or tries to precipitate war.” Several other dictionaries have similar definitions, but add that it is someone who does these things for personal gain. So what would someone seek to gain from war? Power, resources, money, land, religious zealotry, bigotry, self-righteous indignation, and everybody’s favorite: blind nationalism.

Blind nationalism is the one I think I see the most, but often times I see a combination of self-righteous indignation and blind nationalism. These two motives really do go hand-in-hand, don’t they? Think about it, one of the components of a nationalistic ideology is the “us versus them” mentality. Self-righteous indignation also has a similar mentality behind it. I think to a certain degree–remember, I’m not a sociologist or a political scientist, I’m but a humble geek trying to share my thoughts on the subject–these two things can morph into the exact same thing.

Am I talking about the Iraq war? No, I’m not talking about the Iraq war specifically in this. I’m talking about all violent action, excepting self-defense, including that which is done to enforce the law. Wow, that’s a pretty big thing to say there, isn’t it? Gosh, I must be some sort of communistic coward or pacifist or something, eh? No, I just realize that what my mom told me when I was a kid is still true to this day: hitting hurts. It does, I’ll show you. Try slapping yourself on the left arm with your right hand. That hurt a bit, didn’t it? See, I’m not making this up. And while hitting hurts, shooting hurts worse, bombing hurts worse, and stabbing hurts worse. That said, the “war on terror” is actually an excellent example–in my uneducated opinion–for this quick little study.

You know what I frequently hear that makes my skin crawl? You’ve heard it to, you know you have, it’s the old saying “freedom isn’t free.” What a statement. Anybody whose ever paid taxes sure knows that one, eh? When someone says “freedom isn’t free” in order to justify war I actually think it cheapens the entire concept of freedom. They’re saying that in order to be free, you must use violence to continue its exercise in the future. So in order to be a free person now, by their reasoning, if you are not okay with the use of violence and coercion for the sake of freedom then you are in some way in opposition to it. I think it’s even worse for the folks who have never served–which I admittedly have not served–in the armed forces. These people are saying “freedom is not free, but why don’t you pick up the bill Mr. Soldier?” I’m not a soldier, but I would think that most wish that while freedom isn’t free, that it took another form of payment. You know, like diplomacy.

So, now I guess some of you are thinking that I’m anti-military. Am I? Well, kind of, but not really. You see, I think the military is a great business. It gets young folks discipline, skills, money for college, and it does give us the ability to immediately defend ourselves. It also gives our government a great opportunity to give back to our society. WHAT?! Give back to our society? Did I just say that? Yes, I did.

The Jeep, computers, the Internet, duct tape, all of these things began as military research and inventions. Yeah, without the military there would be no duct tape, and we’d all be worse off without duct tape and you know it. So if I’m not against the military, what am I against? I’m against the offensive utilization of the military without a proven defensive purpose… and no, a bunch of bigots in the middle of the desert–even if they did pull off 9/11–is not a proven defensive purpose. Not even law enforcement is a proven defensive purpose. The only thing I would think that constitutes a proven defensive purpose is a substantiated credible threat that someone was invading or aiming a weapon at someone that the respective military force was charged with protecting. That doesn’t mean “he’s amassing WMD” but it would mean “he’s pointing WMD at us that we know can reach us and we have reason to believe that he will fire.”

So, now that we’ve gone through that spiel, how is a warmonger like a pervert? Well, I don’t know about you, but the reports I’m hearing are that war kills an awful lot of people, harms an awful lot of people, and results in a temporary or semi-permanent state of lawlessness that also hurts an awful lot of people. Pedophiles and rapists only hurt a handful of people. One rapist can hurt several people, one bomb–even a smart-bomb–can hurt several dozen if not several hundred (or in some cases several million) people. But a warmonger isn’t necessarily the one who is actually dropping the bomb, now are they? And a pervert isn’t necessarily the one who is abusing the victim either. Instead they’re both people who in some way get off on the idea of the wrong being done. Perverts get off on sexual abuse and/or deviance, warmongers get off on military forces killing and maiming. You see where I’m drawing the parallel?

Now, before you go off trying to defend George Bush or the Iraq war or whatnot, please understand that I’m not attacking George Bush or the Iraq war in the slightest. I am actually just pointing out that war is a bad thing–even when it’s necessary it is still bad–and that warmongers are the new pervert. Even if a war was necessary, it is still not okay to think of it in a good light. There is nothing good about war, ever.

So who am I calling a warmonger? Well, if you have ever said “freedom isn’t free,” have used the phrase “anti-war rhetoric,” have accused someone of being “anti-American,” or have in any way put war in a light that is in any way positive–other than citing with much resignation that it is necessary–then I am calling you a warmonger. If you are thinking of sending me an email to tell me how I should be thankful to the men and women who died to defend my freedom, you might also be a warmonger. This isn’t to say that I shouldn’t be thankful to those who defend freedom, and I am, this is merely to say that if you feel the moral imperative to tell me this than you are probably a warmonger. You might be a warmonger out of a flawed sense of nationalism, you might be a warmonger out of self-righteous indignation, you might be a warmonger because you never really thought of war as a bad thing, but for any of those reasons you would still be a warmonger.

Warmongering, however, I wouldn’t limit to war. I would say that those who advocate the assassination of foreign officials or diplomats or the use of deadly force to enforce the law–barring self-defense in the course of enforcing the law–are also warmongers.

So, why did I just spend a crapload of time writing an article about how I think warmongers are perverts? Because I’m pretty much just sick of it. I’m sick of this ridiculous idea that if you are not for all wars and all edicts of Washington that you are somehow in opposition to America or freedom. To all those who would suggest I should move out of the United States for holding these views, bite me. You can take your all-encompassing nationalism, your American flag bumper sticker, and your bald eagle hood ornament and shove them all right up your ass (be sure to use safe-sex practices, though). There aren’t enough yellow ribbons or American flag bumper stickers in the world to justify our more recent wars. This isn’t a sports team where you route for your team and poke fun at the opposing team with the us-versus-them thing going on. This is real life, and real people are dying, and real people are getting hurt.

Right now, in a land far away from the vast majority of those reading this post, somebody’s child is being hurt… think about that, it’s not a happy thought now is it?

So what do we do? Am I going to point out a problem without offering a solution? No, I wouldn’t do something like that. Here’s what we do: first, we create a 12-step program for warmongers. We could probably adapt the pornography addicts program for this. Then we hold our elected officials to account. When a politician is warmongering, we call them on it. Let’s get it through our thick skulls that killing people is a bad thing to do. Let’s learn from our philosophers and great thinkers and leaders and realize that there is nothing to be gained from hurting others. Let’s also get rid of this idea that violence is a good thing. There were many who cheered when Saddam Hussein was executed, why? Since when has death ever been something we cheer about? Even if the Iraqi people thought it necessary to put Mr. Hussein to death, why is that something that someone should smile about? That is a perverted frame of mind and we must do what we can to get that out of our culture.

In closing, I’m sure I’m gonna get flamed in the comments and via email on this one and that’s okay, but I hope that I will some day soon know the joy of living in a society that values life and that values peace.

Caller Tunes Defeat Automated Dialers!

manchicken — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 15:15:25 +0000

So, I’ve had this collection agency calling me trying to get someone who doesn’t live here. They’ve been calling me on my mobile phone, and when I told them that they had the wrong number, they kept on calling. I even called their corporate office and they wanted all my personal information before they’d take me off of their list (e.g. my social security number, date of birth, name, address, employer, etc). Not gonna happen. That information doesn’t get given out to cold-calling collection agencies who have the wrong number.

So, as you know I recently switched to tmobile, and they have this nifty feature called “Caller Tunes”. For $1.49/mo you can get a song played to your callers instead of a ring tone. That’s kinda neat, I’m using the Super Mario theme. So shortly after that happened, I noticed that all of the calls from this collection agency were dropping before anybody came to the line.

At first I just thought that this was some error with just this collection agency, but recently an insurance agency has been trying to call me to sell me insurance. Sure enough their automated dailer was put off by this as well. All of these predictive dialers seem to be failing because of caller tunes. I suspect that this is because the automated dialers are trying to figure out when the ringing stops and when the answering machine begins. They don’t want to spend a real person’s time leaving voice-mail messages when they could just have a recording doing it. So, just like fudging text to beat a swear filter, this throws off predictive dialers because the pattern they were expecting never appeared.

It’s hilarious, and if you have a problem with predictive dialers and your phone carrier has this service, I highly recommend you try it out. It works for me.

USA Wake Up.org: Cowards and Racists Spreading Lies

manchicken — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 15:08:02 +0000

So, have you been to http://usawakeup.org/ yet? This site is disgusting, racist, and vile. These cowards put up fear-mongering half-truths for the general public and then turn around to use it as justification for reducing civil liberties and permitting racial profiling. Their supporters came on my blog on November 28th and called me a “communist” for saying that I like diversity. A communist? Really? Ron Paul people said that, too.

According to Wikipedia (article here), Communism is “an ideology that seeks to establish a classless, stateless social organization based on common ownership of the means of production.” Wow, that sounds much different than what I’m talking about. Doesn’t sound all that horrible, but it certainly isn’t what I’m talking about here at all. Good call Ron Paul fascists and USA Wake Up morons, Communism is it?

If you have actually taken the time to watch the ignorant flash video where they put up all sorts of “evidence” and “expert” statements, all the while failing miserably to cite any of it. Their immigration chart has some sort of sourcing on it, but the image is pretty low-res and I can’t read it. Interesting. Their assertion that “terrorists” could take out our power grids like that just sounds like science fiction to me, but what do I know? I’m a communist, remember?

Now, in this video there are several things that they put out as “good” things. Things like racial profiling, the USA Patriot Act, and absolute American economic domination. Then there are things that they put out there as bad things. Things like immigration, religious and ethnic diversity, and campus groups that help folks exercise their religious belief and freedom. It seems to me that these folks are declaring freedom just as much an enemy as terrorism. I don’t know about you, but none of the measures they’re supporting sound like they are in any way in support of freedom.

So why am I writing this post? Afterall, it has been a while since I’ve blogged here. You all probably thought I was dead or something. No, I’m not dead. We’re just super busy getting ready for this baby to come. That’s why I’m kinda worried about cowards and racists like USA Wake Up.org. I’m scared that they’re going to destroy freedom. I’m worried that one day, if my son decides to get a great tan, or marries an Arabic or Hispanic lady, or converts to Islam–not my way, but I am pro-freedom so this is something that he should be allowed to do if he so chooses–that him or his family would be treated like second-class citizens. You know, like the way these pricks over at USA Wake Up.org are treating Muslims and Hispanics right now.

These guys make me sick, they don’t substantiate how any of this is a real threat. So what if the ethnic climate of our country shifts? So what if whiter skin becomes the minority in favor of another skin color? I don’t care, race isn’t important enough to me for me to be worried about that. I welcome Muslims and Hispanics with open arms. I’m not stupid enough to equate what a hand-full of people do with what an entire ethnicity is doing.

Who’s the real threat to this country? It’s not Mexico and it’s not Muslims, it is USA Wake Up.org. I’m sure God is proud of how these people are treating their fellow human beings. Real proud.

T-Mobile is Happy to Take Verizon Refugees

manchicken — Sat, 29 Sep 2007 15:45:10 +0000

So, I thought for sure that Verizon Wireless would be the only network that would be up to snuff here in my little town in a corn field, but I was very surprised to find that T-Mobile does great work out here, too. And they also give you the hotspot at home thing for $20/mo, so I essentially get unlimited calls when I’m in my home. SO SWEET. My local corporate T-Mobile store was happy to take my business and I’m very happy to bring it to them.

Unfortunately, since Verizon Wireless is CDMA, we did have to buy new phones. I got a Blackberry Curve and my wife got a Nokia Hotspot @ Home phone though we’re going to switch it out for the Samsung probably today. T-Mobile also promises to unlock all phones and devices after 90 days from the date of purchase, and I don’t think they charge.

Verizon Wireless is trying to charge me the early termination fee–even though the contract says they won’t–so I’m fighting with them now to get that credited back. It’s worth the fight to stop doing business with this scummy scummy company. I don’t know how vodafone outside the US, but Verizon Wireless is a seriously scummy company.

T-Mobile’s family myFaves plan is nice, and it’s a nationwide plan in the US so you get unlimited domestic long distance, and no domestic roaming charges. It’s very nice. The blackberry plan also includes unlimited data usage. All of this and now I’m paying $20/mo less than I was paying with Verizon Wireless.