05th Sep 2003
Well, Calder Was Mobile
Ya dare me to do two cell phone blogs in a row?
Hey, I will. Aside from FlexiPhoto, figuring out how I’ll be able to connect my laptop in Manhattan next month is taking on some urgency. I can use WiFi wherever there are free hotspots, no problem. I’m bound to want access here and there where there is no WiFi available.
I’ve spent a little time going over the web sites of different mobile phone service providers. I’m trying to get a sense of how to get lots of internet access through a cell phone without paying a ton of $$, and have decent speed.
A little pig-BASIC program helps explain the highly-rewarding, “gosh, I wish I could do this every single day” process of winnowing down the contestants of providers and phones:
10 providers = "verizon att cingular nextel sprint t-mobile"
20 phones = "nokia sony-ericsson motorola a-bunch-of-others"
30 if provider (charges through nose for data)
40 eliminate provider
50 and go to 30
60 if provider (has bad connectivty or terrible customer service
or funky billing or bad attitude)
70 eliminate provider
80 and go to 60
85 if (no providers left)
86 go to 140 // need to have spaghetti code...
90 if (someone updates a plan, or improves service)
100 goto 10 // hair-pulling optional
110 if (phone has bad reception, flaky firmware, or wont talk
to my laptop running linux)
120 eliminate phone
130 and go to 110
140 if (no phones or providers left)
150 lower expectations
160 and go to 10
