Funny Thing About The Nashville AT&T Bomber…

Undated image of deceased Nashville bomber Anthony Quinn Warner, 63, of 115 Bakertown Road, Antioch, Tennessee, whom authorities have identified using DNA testing from remains found on-scene from the blast site, as the perpetrator of the Christmas Day bombing of the AT&T distribution building in downtown Nashville.

He’s White.

Dude looks kinda’ pasty White.

VERY pasty White.

Not Black.

Not Hispanic.

Not Asian.

But White.

White-bread American White.

As in

Could Not Activate Cellular Data Network

iPhone 5 Error message: Could not activate cellular data network

Ever had this problem?

You’ll notice one other thing about the display on the iPhone.

As you look atop the image, you’ll see numbers instead of the “bars” used to display signal strength. The number -103 is a numerical signal strength indicator, which the proper, and only way to indicate signal strength.

Just in the case you’re not aware of the technical aspects of signal strength, or what the number means, signal strength is measured as a loss.

The number itself is

Help Wanted: Wal-Mart Door Greeter

One of my fine friends had recently commented about the speed of thought. I was reminded of a recent story, apropos to his remark, and one told to me by a physician colleague.

It seems one of the local Wal-Marts had an opening for a Door Greeter job. The store manager published the help wanted notice & after receiving numerous applications, culled the job seekers to four.

Having thoroughly examined the applications, reviewed their resumes, and wanting to be as efficient as possible, he decided to conduct a group interview of the four sharpest candidates.

Because he wanted to see how they could think of their feet, he decided to ask them each a question and judge their response.

Turning to the first candidate, he said, “Young lady, what’s the fastest thing you can think of?”

She quickly replied saying, “A blink.”

“That’s good,” said the manager in response. “A blink is much less than a second, and the Scripture says Christ will come in the twinkling of an eye. That’s good.”

Turning to the second candidate, he asked

Can you hear me now? FCC likely to get an earful from cellular power outages caused by Hurricane Sandy.

For many – if not most – people, communication issues and law are a complete mystery. They just want their #*@^$%! cell phones to work. That’s all.

But here’s a thumbnail sketch of why your service sucks, no matter your cell phone carrier.

In the beginning of cellular, it was once called “wireless” – it still is by insiders – and there was the “A” carrier, and the “B” carrier. The “A” carrier was the wireless carrier, while the “B” carrier was the wireless carrier for the landline company, which in most cases was BellSouth, which was gobbled up by AT&T.

The two carriers operated on different frequencies, but within the same bandwidth.

Then, cellular grew. It grew so much it needed more bandwidth. So, the FCC allocated more airwave “space” for cellular frequencies.

That was where the problems all began.

The Federal Communication Commission has regulatory purview and authority over all communications in the United States. And instead of telling the carriers that they had to adopt a common standard, they allowed each and every carrier to different technology and standards to build their networks.

Some built networks along major highways, such as Interstates. Others, concentrated on small local areas, while yet others adopted strategies that focused upon large markets like major cities. And yet none of them collaborated, and each one did their own thing.

The landline telephone in your house has one standard. Not several. As well, the routing it uses – that is, the wires that carry the signal – are invisibly routed to the end users. So, if a wire is knocked down, or damaged by digging, the signal is re-routed through another node – all which is invisible to the end users – and the call continues. That is called “redundancy,” and there are at least two back-ups to such system, which is called “dual redundancy.”

That is NOT SO with wireless.

If a signal from a cellular telephone to a cellular tower is broken, there is no recourse. The call is dropped/disconnected. And often times, once that call is dropped, neither the caller, nor the party being called can reach each other – even if one party is using a landline phone. (We’ve all gone through “cellular dead zones,” right?)

However, IF the FCC had mandated that all cellular carriers adopt a unified standard of signal transmission, they could’ve also required those same carriers to share cellular tower space. As it is now, competing cellular companies DO NOT share tower space with each other – which is why it’s possible to see cellular towers nearby, but not have any quality signal (if any) in many cases. The reason why, is that it’s not the tower for the cellular carrier you use. Too bad, eh?

Truth be told, the United States is at least 15 years or more behind the rest of the world when it comes to cellular communications. For example, in South Korea, the people in that nation have nationwide WiFi and have been watching teevee on their cellular phones for quite some time. Not so in the United States.

Why?

I refer the reader to the previous remark.

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F.C.C. Details Storm-Related Cellphone Problems

October 31, 2012
The New York Times

By EDWARD WYATT and BRIAN X. CHEN

WASHINGTON — For all of the modern communications that keep people connected, cellphones rely on an age-old technology that has repeatedly demonstrated its own instability during emergencies — electricity.

Power systems failures throughout the Northeast have been the main culprits in the shutdown of more than 20 percent of the cell tower sites in 10 states, causing millions of lost calls on Wednesday, government and industry officials said.

Slow progress was made in restoring some services. Federal Communications Commission officials said that the percentage of cell tower sites not working in the storm-damaged areas declined “by a few percentage points” as of Wednesday morning, down from about 25 percent on Tuesday.

Wired broadband and cable television systems remained out of service for

Foxconn’s Chaotic Denial: We do not use forced student labor to make Apple iPhones

Where’s Chairman Mao when you need him, eh?
/sarcasm

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Foxconn denies using forced student labor to make Apple iPhones

By Jessica Guynn and Julie MakinenSeptember 11, 2012, 11:24 a.m.

Foxconn Technology Group is denying reports in the Chinese media that it forced vocational students to work at factories that make iPhones.

Tourist and Apple devotes stop and pose to take pictures of the Apple logo adorned front facade of the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco, California, USA, 09 September 2012, three days before the anticipated iPhone 5 announcement will be made. EPA/PETER DaSILVA

The controversy targeting Apple’s manufacturing partner in China comes as Apple is expected to unveil the latest iPhone on Wednesday.

Foxconn, which in recent months has come under heavy scrutiny in connection with working conditions in its factories, has conceded that

AT&T to allow iPhone 5 FaceTime to access Cellular network in iOS6

Remember: “Free” is just a come-on word.

In reality, it’s totally, utterly, wholly and entirely worthless and meaningless.

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AT&T to Allow Free FaceTime Calls Over Cellular With Mobile Share Plan

August 17, 2012 at 2:23 pm PT

As added incentive to sign up for its new shared data plans, AT&T announced today that it will

Examining Corporate Corruption in America: AT&T in California’s Legislature

The theme of the story is not new.

This particular story, however, is new.

Corporate corruption, or more accurately, the corrupting power of money through corporate influence, must come to an end in America.

Time and time again, corporate influence in America does NOT look out after the interests of the citizens, the people. They look out after their own interests, how they can obtain tax breaks, and obtain legislative favor over and above that of any other citizen.

It should come as no surprise, for we have seen this before. It’s a redux, if you will. Next up, federal courts and soldiers to stop striking workers.

It’s happened before.

The Great Railroad Strike of 1877 came as a secondary result of the Panic of 1873, whihc caused major economic depression in Europe and the United States, and led to bankruptcy for many U.S. railroads and other businesses, and high unemployment rates. The railroad workers still employed suffered large cuts in wages, which led to strikes against some railroads. The Great Railroad Strike of 1877 began July 14 in Martinsburg, West Virginia, because B&O Railroad had cut workers’ wages twice in one year.

The strike, and related violence, spread to Cumberland, Maryland, Baltimore, Pittsburgh, Buffalo, Philadelphia, Chicago and the Midwest. The strike lasted for 45 days, and ended only with the intervention of local and state militias, and federal troops.

In 1894, President Grover Cleveland (a Democrat) claimed striking workers posed a threat to public safety, that their actions interfered with delivery of the U.S. Mail, and that it further violated the Sherman Antitrust Act, after a  federal court injunction, called in nearly 12,000 troops and the United States Marshals to quell the Pullman Strike.

In 1981, President Reagan broke the Air Traffic Controllers strike by firing every employee which did not return to work.

Clearly, the United States government has a history of siding with Big Business.

Fast forward a few years.

The elimination of laws regulating corporate practices which have ultimately led to severe economic crisis has occurred because of corporate lobbyists.

So, should that come as any surprise?

Corporations have their denizen hoards of attorneys.

Who will stand for the people?

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AT&T wields enormous power in Sacramento

No other single corporation has spent more trying to influence legislators in recent years. It dispenses millions in political donations and has an army of lobbyists. Bills it opposes are usually defeated.

By Shane Goldmacher and Anthony York, Los Angeles Times

April 22, 2012

SACRAMENTO — As the sun set behind Monterey Bay on a cool night last year, dozens of the state’s top lawmakers and lobbyists ambled onto the 17th fairway at Pebble Beach for a round of glow-in-the-dark golf.

With luminescent balls soaring into the sky, the annual fundraiser known as the Speaker’s Cup was in full swing.

Lawmakers, labor-union champions and lobbyists gather each year at the storied course to schmooze, show their skill on the links and rejuvenate at a 22,000-square-foot spa. The affair, which typically raises more than $1 million for California Democrats, has been sponsored for more than a decade by telecommunications giant AT&T.

At the 2010 event, AT&T’s president and the state Assembly speaker toured Pebble Beach together in a golf cart, shaking hands with every lawmaker, lobbyist and other VIP in attendance.

The Speaker’s Cup is the centerpiece of a corporate lobbying strategy so comprehensive and successful that it has rewritten the special-interest playbook in Sacramento. When it comes to state government, AT&T spends more money, in more places, than any other company.

It forges relationships on the putting green, in luxury suites and in Capitol hallways. It gives officials free tickets to Lady Gaga concerts. It takes lawmakers on trips around the globe and all-expenses-paid retreats in wine country. It dispenses millions in political donations and employs an army of lobbyists. It has spent more than $14,000 a day on political advocacy since 2005, when it merged with SBC into its current form.

iPhone Screen Shots: Call Failure

Has this ever happened to you?

The dreaded, inevitable "Call Failure" screen.

Note the signal strength indicator.

It is a numeric indicator, rather than

Why is your cellular service so crummy?

In writing to a friend about telecommunications – starting with the demise of the pay phone – I wrote “I know how ya’ feel.”

“How some ever… we were told about how these things might change as far back as ten years ago (or thereabouts), or so.”

I began to explain that we’re now undergoing is a national transformation – albeit one that the telecoms are hating/loving. The problem is, that the dinosaur telecoms are being driven toward revolution by the technology. They’re not leading, they’re being moved by force.

And that force is the people – the market. And yet, there’s a problem with being moved by force. And I do not refer to force in a mild way. I refer to force as ‘when-push-comes-to-shove’ type of force.

The seeming ubiquity of such low-cost technology is

iPhone Screenshots – Excessive Temperature Warning

How do you know if your iPhone is too hot?

If you can’t hold it in your hand?

No.

Developers obviously considered that issue, and created a screenshot just to let users know if the phone overheated.

Undoubtedly, there are numerous other iPhone screenshots about which many – save developers – are unaware.

Here is another.

Liars, Deceivers, Thieves…

The singer Cher sang and popularized a tune many years ago entitled ‘Gypsys, Tramps & Thieves.’ I considered that as a title for this entry, though I obviously did not use it.

Not that I’m concerned about offending Gypsies… or tramps and thieves, for that matter. I suppose in some way, it could be considered Equal Opportunity Offense. Not that I purposely make offense, but that some folks wear their feelings on their sleeves. And then, some wear them like a block on their shoulder – daring anyone to knock it off. In the interim, out of fear mistakenly disguised as respect, no one mentions

AT&T to deliberately slow down cellular network

It was only an inevitable matter of time before this happened. With the iPhone, AT&T bit off more than it could chew, and their network in many – if not most -places, still lags behind in quality, performance and reception. They have not invested in their infrastructure, to improve the quality of the network, and consequently, other networks are “nipping at their heels.” In stark contrast, Verizon saw the proverbial handwriting on the wall, and prepared their network for what they strongly suspected would happen.

Though many are not aware of it, regulation of communication carriers – landline, cellular, etc. – is done by the Federal Communications Commission. The FCC sets the standards for quality, and ensures those standards are met through regulatory oversight. The cellular network has grown by leaps and bounds, and differs significantly from the landline/wire telephone network. Regulations require the landline/wire network to have numerous backups, re-routing alternatives, and redundancies. There cellular/wireless network has NO such requirement.

If the FCC were to

Apple iPhone screen shots

I’m not sure I’ve ever seen these screens in any other venue. Of course, there are probably several screens I’ve not seen. As I discover them, I’ll endeavor to post them.

iPhone 4 Reliable… and Accident Prone

SquareTrade, a third-party, electronics warranty-issuing business, has extrapolated data from their database of insured iPhones and has discovered some fascinating results.

AT&T data taxing Class Action settlement reached

Everybody hates lawyers… until they need one.

While some would go so far as to extol alleged virtues of the abolition of taxation, asserting that no one should not pay any taxes whatsoever – such as the radical liberal Mises Institute, whose ivory towered Social Darwinistic professorial adherents theorize of such a Utopian society – the vast majority of us live in the real world, where taxation upon income, purchases and transactions are a daily part of life.

However, the purpose of this post is not to espouse a particular position, but to inform. Toward that end, it very much appears that for many years, AT&T Mobility has – in violation of applicable federal, state and/or local law(s) – independently taxed Internet service it provided to smartphone owners – such as the iPhone, Blackberry, Palm, etc.

Thus, if you have ever used any AT&T Mobility Internet service – whether you have ever owned a smartphone or not (there are numerous cell phones that can access the Internet, even though they’re not categorized as “smartphones”) – you are a member of a class, and are entitled to a settlement.

For your convenience, there are few questions with answers posted below; and for further reading and details, the link to the website is: ATTMSettlement.com.

Hog Wild in Alabama

“This bill helps somebody – and it’s not consumers in this state… particularly rural residents.”

What FURTHER PROOF do Alabamians need? I’m surprised they continue to elect those INCOMPETENT BOOBS year-after-year. Note to the pols: Just kiss ’em… ’cause you’ve already screwed ’em.

To whom will you turn if you have a disagreement with your bill, or if they fail to provide service, but still charge you?

Another word for “regulation” is “rules.” Ever play ANY game without them?

Ref.: Alabama legislators deregulate land line phone service in AL: The end game begins.

Alabama Phone Deregulation End Game Begins in House. Will Legislators Sell Us Out to AT&T? by: countrycat, Tue, Apr 14, 2009 at 08:17:38 AM CDT

“The Alabama Senate passed a bill that

Apple confesses: iPhone Signal Strength Indicator “totally wrong”

Apple Computer (NYSE: AAPL), stunned the world today by announcing a critical error in the design of their iPhones, which has been present since the devices were first manufactured and sold in 2007.

It seems that the “bars” indicator – which has been used as a signal strength indicator, albeit an inaccurate and faulty one – is even more faulty than previously thought! In fact, it’s AFU – All Fouled Up. (That’s nice parlance.)

For those of you who do not know how to read radio signal strength indicators (and that’s very likely most folks), they’re expressed in negative numbers. The higher the negative number, e.g., -108, the weaker the signal. Conversely, the opposite is true: The lower the negative number, e.g., -16, the stronger the signal.

My iPhone 3GS is jailbroken, and one feature I have employed on it is a numerical signal strength indicator for the Cellular and WiFi signals. Here are two screenshots to illustrate.

UPPER LEFT CORNER: Cellular signal strength indicator using "Bars" - Note also, the WiFi signal (on the RIGHT of the AT&T) is much stronger than the cellular signal.

UPPER LEFT CORNER: Cellular strength indicator using the accepted numerical standard - Note also, the WiFi signal (on the RIGHT of the AT&T) is much stronger than the cellular signal.

Oh!

And if you’re looking for a job…

Apple Computer is looking for Antenna Engineers, too!

Read on to see their mea culpa and want ad.

iPhone 3G[S]

Perhaps the story of the iPhone could appear as a feature on the teevee show “Modern Marvels.”

My tenor is somewhat sarcastic, for as I am writing, my iPhone is, and for very nearly the past month, has been nothing more than a chic lovely paperweight.

I have a 32GB iPhone 3G[S] which I purchased at a “race horse” price – $150. It was refurbished. It had not even one scratch on it, and was brand-spanking, shiny new when I peeled the protective plastic off the screen.

In short order, I unlocked and jailbroke the 3.1.2 OS phone using blackra1n, which is a free/no-cost tethered jailbreak – meaning it must be attached to the computer during the process. The baseband is 5.11.07.

To clarify, “unlock” refers to

Wings on my ass – a cause of blindness? My iPhone story in Lent.

This is the season of Lent. It’s a strictly Christian observance… well, it actually has its roots in the Jewish Passover.

Oh well.

Christians are the “new Jews.” Oy vey!

I started out thinking I’d share about my iPhone troubles – I have an unlocked and jailbroken 32G 3G[S] iPhone.

Yeah. Top of the line.

iResisted doing that – purchasing an iPhone – for quite some time. I used  – and still do – use a Palm Treo 650, and have never had moment’s trouble with it. NEVER!

I used it to surf the web, and sent e-mail from about four accounts, three of them associated with my work, all from different organizations. One day, several years ago, at a family reunion in MS, someone told me something had fallen out of my pocket. Looking down, I saw the stubby antenna lying on the floor. Loathing to pay the very-nearly $40 for a screw and tiny piece of plastic, I reverted to using two devices – as I had done previously with a Nokia “candybar” style phone, and Palm Pilot.

Back to Square One… right? Two devices… one phone, and one computer/calendar/appointment/memo/address/contact gizmo.

A few months back, I bought the iPhone for