Tag: Technology

Following up on my earlier post, my car kit has an issue; the speaker in the Garmin sounds like crap and is too low (I think the car kit has the amplification, but the speaker is distorting the sounds). So, tomorrow it is back to Fry’s to look for an external CB (marine) speaker that I can mount under my center console. I also wired the car kit using only the front left speaker, so maybe if I wire all speakers together, I can get decent amplification with a decent speaker (there is probably a flaw in this theory, something to do with impedance I’d guess).

Way back in January, I mentioned that I bought a Parrot CK3100 handsfree carkit for my cell phone. Unfortunately I had to return the kit because my phone kept rebooting the car kit. After hearing about the impending legislation requiring handsfree cell phone talking (car kit or headset), I decided to take another look. I read on forums that the kit now worked with the Samsung A900, so I decided to give it another shot. I went to Fry’s (a store I hate, but I knew that they had the kit and I could return it if it didn’t work), searched the shelves and found 1 left, but it had been returned (the upside is that it was $10 off). Having seen a brand new one before, I checked the contents and everything looked intact. I also knew that installing the car kit would be a pain, so most people would get intimidated when they saw the directions which gave me hopes that it was never used.

So, I go the kit home, hooked it up to a 12V supply and saw that my phone kept rebooting it. I checked the firmware and saw it was old. I updated the firmware and things seem to work fine, so I decided to install it the next day (today). I thought and thought and thought about how I was going to install the kit knowing that my car had some funky premium stereo and it wasn’t just a matter of connecting a phone hours. In the middle of the night, the solution came to me. I’d use the speaker hooked to my Garmin iQue 3600 car kit and let the handsfree car kit be the amplifier. This would make the install much easier. Another thing that made things easier was I decided that I’d use wire taps into the existing wires and forget about trying to do things without touching what was there.

The install took a good 5 or 6 hours and I only cut myself once. After I was figured everything out and was going to put it back together, I tested it and it didn’t work with the stereo on. Either the wiring diagram for the stereo was wrong or the wire I tapped into didn’t provide continuous 12V power in the accessory position. So I just tapped into the auxiliary power connector and everything was happy.

The kit works quite well with my phone and I’m reasonably impressed. Now we’ll just have to see what happens on the road. It is real cool to be able to turn on the car and have it pair with my phone. I was using a Bluetooth headset, but I’d have to turn it on everytime I got in the car and put in on my ear.

Mounting the LCD was another feat of engineering, but it turns out well. I also made it such that I could disconnect the speaker if I wanted to take my GPS unit with me. I could have drilled some holes in the dash, but what I did is good enough.

It’s now been over 4 months since I started using my Garmin Forerunner 305 to train for the Rock ‘N’ Roll Marathon. I managed to complete the marathon and am now training for a half marathon. At first, the Forerunner was more of a gimmick in helping me train, but now it is integrated into my training. I use the current pace to see where I should be at based on how I feel. By now, I know the distance on most of my runs, so while the total distance initially helped me, it is more now just telling me how much longer until the pain stops! I’m also very interested in my heart rate, so uploading my data to MotionBased allows me to see how I’m doing in trying to bring down my heartrate.

Unlike some others, I’ve had no problems with the unit and use it 4 days a week. It is an excellent training aid, even for the beginner. I know I’m a geek, but without this gadget, I’m not sure that I would have been able to complete a marathon and I don’t think running would be so enjoyable.

This is one of the most common phrases I’ve heard in my career when I tell people that I write software. For awhile, I was going to say that I designed and manufactured toilets it was getting so bad. Why do people think that just because I write software, I know how to fix someone’s wacky computer problem? I have enough problems of my own keeping my computers running. To top it off, if I say I write Macintosh software, people are in awe and without fail have a Mac with some obscure problem. If I wanted to fix computers for a living, I would be a consultant and save the day, but I’m not a people person and frankly, I don’t like computers all the time.

After my phone call with the barely English speaking MCI representative yesterday where I hung up on him out of frustration (not being able to understand him and the representative not being able to think on his own were the causes of my frustration), I received an email from Rajmohan at MCI:

We appreciated the opportunity to discuss this matter further with you by phone today, and would like to thank you for allowing us to resolve the issue.

I’m sorry, Rajmohan, but you didn’t resolve anything. No wonder people are moving to VOIP and other carriers as service seems to be going downhill (if it hasn’t already) with many large companies. I’m quite lucky that I don’t have to contact service/support all that often as it would annoy me to know end to have to deal with people I can’t understand and don’t have a clue.

So after writing my last post, I got a phone call from MCI customer service trying to explain to me that they pay the Federal Excise Tax directly to the government. The guy with a heavy, heavy accent was reading directly from some piece of paper and didn’t really understand what he was talking about. I could barely understand him and it is a good thing that I don’t have to deal with MCI all that often otherwise I’d pull my hair out. I tried to explain to him that the tax had been repealed (OK, not repealed, but no longer collected). He didn’t seem to get this and I just hung up out of frustration. It is completely unacceptable to have customer service representatives that you can’t understand. They need to get a clue and realize that if people can’t effectively communicate with their customers, they’re going to lose their customers.

I received my Sprint PCS bill today and was pleased to see the slight decrease in the bill (about $6) due to the federal government no longer imposing the federal excise tax on most telecommunications. For those that don’t know, the federal excise tax was enacted in 1898 to help fund the Spanish American War. I also got my MCI bill (local and long distance) and I asked them when they would stop collecting the tax (they’re required to stop collecting it on August 1). Their response was laughable:

Please be informed that Federal Excise Tax is currently 3.00% and applies to all usage (interstate, instate, local toll, and international). This tax is imposed by and paid directly to the government, and has no connection with the Federal Excise Tax on Airline Miles/Rapid Rewards Surcharge.

I almost asked her what rock she (the responder) was living under, but provided links to articles and asked the question again. I’m so not impressed with MCI’s customer service. As long as I don’t contact them, their service is OK. I like having their Neighborhood plan (which they no longer sell) for unlimited local and long distance; the quality is better than VOIP and it is reliable. The only issues I’ve had is the voicemail indicator wouldn’t stop a few times and when we moved, they made a complete mess out of things by cutting off our service 2 weeks early. Other than that, it just works.

I’m in the process of selling my old PowerBook and in browsing the ads of others trying to sell the same or similar machine, I see people saying “lots of software” or “loaded”. However, none of them say that the original CDs/DVDs are included which means software piracy. I had one person look at my machine yesterday and he was disappointed that it didn’t have Tiger on it or anything but the stock software. As a developer, I have access to OS versions and use them on my machines as all my machines are used for testing and development which means that I don’t buy OS releases (the rest of my family does buy new OS versions, of course). Tiger is no exception; since I didn’t buy it, I re-installed the OS that shipped with the PowerBook. There is no Photoshop, Office, or any other software that people are selling with their machines.

Does this mean that I possibly won’t be able to sell the machine or will have to sell it at a lower price? Absolutely. Is it the right thing to do? Absolutely. People seem to think that leaving software on their computers is an OK thing to do, but it isn’t. This isn’t much I can do about it…hopefully the PowerBook will sell; the 1 year of AppleCare left on it is probably the biggest selling point.