AT&T Drops the Ball on Dropped Calls

I love the iPhone. The design, the features, the functionality—it's as close to a perfect little device as you can get. Unfortunately I can't summon up the same level of enthusiasm for AT&T. Although AT&T agrees that, yes indeed-y, I'm in their coverage area, 50% of my calls consistently have been dropped since the day I brought my shiny new baby home. Some days I'd be better off sending homing pigeons or signaling from the roof with a lantern like Paul Revere.

When I emailed AT&T about the situation, I received a lovely response informing me that AT&T doesn't guarantee "in-vehicle or in-building coverage." This gave me a moment's pause, as you can imagine. No buildings and no cars? That leaves...what? The backyard? Imagine my neighbors' reaction on seeing me at 10 o'clock, chatting with my mom in the middle of our street in my night gown. "Oh, hey ya', Bob! Coverage is great tonight. Love the new lawn gnome."

If I were AT&T, I probably would have put that bit about the guarantee at the bottom of the email, not the top. A defensive stance never goes over well with irate people who have just paid you for a service you can't deliver. Instead, like some political personalities who shall go nameless, they would garner a lot more good will and maybe even some sympathy if they just came right out and admitted "Alright. Yeah, we screwed up. The coverage sucks. But we're working hard on it. Honest. Just give us a little more time."

Common sense tells us it's a waste of time and energy to deny the obvious. Much better to just acknowledge a mistake, take your medicine, and instead spend your energy on correcting the problem. But common sense doesn't seem to have a lot of fans these days. Just look around.

Noted on 19 October 2008 in

They Arrived!

Kids with their new XO laptops

They didn't make it here in time for the holidays, but my little people didn't seem to care. Our XOs from One Laptop Per Child arrived today and were instant hits. The kids played for hours, checking out all the cool features—chat, Internet, writing, music, drawing, and the still/video camera. Mom was more impressed than she'd anticipated.

The XO is amazing. These gadgets are just small enough to be easily managed by kids, yet still look like "grownup" laptops. The case is hard and appears rugged enough to withstand my 9-year-old son. And the keyboard is just right for small hands.

Amazingly the XO came with only one sheet of instructions—how to turn it on. My 7-year-old daughter had hers going before I had a chance to read even that. There are no instructions because, apparently, kids don't need any. They just boot up and go. That's how well designed the XO is. Every application is represented by a (fairly) recognizable icon, and the icons are always available by minimizing the window. The only difficulty my kids encountered was with the browser. I had to set up the Internet connection for them, but that was pretty easily accomplished by following the instructions on the One Laptop Per Child site.

Of course, I explained to my kids that somewhere in the world two other children were also receiving new laptops. Especially at this time of year, it seems important to care about the well-being and future of other people. I hope those children are as thrilled and happy as my kids are. I hope they discover, through the kid-sized window of the XO, a whole new world of possibilities and dreams.

Noted on 3 January 2008 in

A Holiday Gift

FreeRice vocabulary game

In the spirit of the holiday season, play a word game, have some fun and give a gift, all at the same time. FreeRice is more than a fun online vocabulary game. For each word definition you get right, you're donating 20 grains of rice to the United Nation's World Food Program...

Noted on 26 December 2007 in

One Laptop Per Child

OX laptop One Laptop Per Child's "Give One Get One" program has been extended to December 31st. OLPC's goal is to supply laptops for children in developing countries who might not otherwise have access to an education. In pursuit of this goal, OPLC has developed the XO laptop, a child-geared machine designed to be "durable, brilliantly functional, energy-efficient, responsive, and fun"...

Noted on 25 November 2007 in

My Almost Perfect New iPhone

iPhone I have the patience of a gnat. I promised myself I'd wait 6 months before buying an iPhone. It was hard, though. So, around my birthday, I starting hinting broadly and got my husband to buy one for me instead.

I love my new iPhone. The design is brilliant. It's a pleasure to look at, a pleasure to hold, and a pleasure to use. If it weren't for one thing, it would be as close to perfect as you can come...

Noted on 8 September 2007 in

Growing Old on the Web

Maybe it's because I just had a birthday. Or maybe it's that I recently passed my 10th anniversary of building web sites. But lately I seem to hear more people than usual wondering if this "working with the web" business isn't a younger person's game.

Noted on 18 August 2007 in

Working from Home

We've been extremely busy lately at the University lately, which you may have guessed from my lack of posts. I've been working lots of late nights and weekends, but I have to say that telecommuting has made the whole experience much easier.

Noted on 24 May 2007 in

The IT Crowd

If you (also) missed this show during the season, you're in for a treat. This British sitcom features a hilarious team of IT workers and their very non-techie boss. Really funny stuff. You can download all six episodes of season one for free on Filecloud. Here's a taste from episode one...

Noted on 30 March 2007 in

10 Tips for Greater Productivity

I've been thinking a lot lately about how I can be more productive. These days my activities are limited almost exclusively to family and work. Yet still there never seems to be enough time. If I could just tack on four or five more hours to every day...

Noted on 26 March 2007 in

Living a Life Online

For the past few weeks I've been stuck in bed because of a minor illness. For two weeks my primary contact with the outside world has been through this laptop, and it has been an eye-opening experience. Never before did I grasp the true power of the Internet. Oh sure, I knew all it was capable of, but knowing and being completely dependent it on are two different things.

Noted on 22 January 2007 in

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