Monthly Archive for August, 2008

Tethering: The Next Big Scam

If you thought 20 cent SMS was bad, hold on to your hat.

The next big scam coming out of your favorite cellular telco is tethering. What’s tethering you ask? Tethering is the act of connecting your laptop to your phone in order to get on the net and take advantage of that data plan you already pay for.

Why would anyone bother to give this behavior a name? Well to charge you more money, of course!

But wait, you say, I already shell out for the “unlimited” data plan! Yes but it’s only unlimited within the, uhh, limits of AT&T’s imagination! War is Peace; Freedom is Slavery; Limited is Unlimited

Perhaps next they’ll sell us the relaxification plan, whereby we are given permission to use our phones while napping in a hammock.

Mark my words: this is going to be a big deal soon. Avoidance of tethering rates will be the number one reason to jailbreak your iPhone. Customers will find enormous surprise bills as AT&T combs their usage logs to track down the rogue tether-ers. Web forum goers will trade tips on flying under the radar.

I must admit that I’m a bit shocked at the lack of uproar over tethering. Apparently consumers are just accepting it. There are even folks eagerly awaiting a tethering option for the iPhone.

Someday my phone will just be a small computer connected to a wireless internet. Someday.

Odd iPhone Maps Behavior

Yesterday, I got directions to a friend’s place using maps.google.com and my laptop. I then emailed a link to myself for use on the iPhone. The full-fledged mapping app had no trouble at all, but the phone complained “End location not found.”

I guess the iPhone app uses a different, less complete, map repository?

Fight Gone Bad III

FGB logo

“Fight Gone Bad” is a classic CrossFit benchmark workout (wmv,mov).

On September 27th CrossFit affiliates nationwide will willingly subject themselves to three brutal rounds to benefit the Prostate Cancer Foundation. Please consider sponsoring me, and my fellow nutjobs from the CrossFit Eastside team.

I’ll be trying to best my previous score of 307. Wish me luck.

Casey Burgener

Damn! Just read that Coach Burgener’s son, Casey, will not be allowed to compete in Beijing. Let’s hope this decision is reversed ASAP.

2008 US Team Weightlifting Trials

Watch some amazing displays of strength and power here (requires Microsoft Siverlight). Crossfit’s own Coach Burgener makes an appearance about 7 minutes into the video.




Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 United States
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 United States