Random musings of Jeromey Balderrama
You may have seen this on the weekend’s highlight packages, but this is easily the funniest thing I’ve seen all day. Make sure to watch the video through the replay:
However, what made me laugh out loud here at work was the blog post on Shutdown Corner, offering a likely conversation between the Pigeon and the Raider. Definitely worth clicking through for a read.
Nice playbook move guys. Looks like Gizmodo (a gadget blog), didn’t get a review unit of Blackberry Storm 2. Their journalistic response: tell their readers that RIM thinks they’re mother F-bomb’s.
Look, I get that you’re pissed that you didn’t get a review unit, but airing out your dirty laundry in this manner for all to see is not the way to fix this. I’m fine with them pointing it out and acknowledging that they didn’t get a review unit while other publications did – but to throw a tantrum like this is just classless and pretty much demonstrates why companies like RIM may be leery about giving you a review device.
This isn’t the first time Gizmodo’s acted like children. Last year they took some universal remotes to CES and randomly turned off TV’s. It looks like some things never change. Stay classy guys.
Yesterday we were all captivated by the story of “Balloon Boy”, and while we were down here in Texas we found it crazy that all of this was taking place in our home town of Fort Collins. When they found the boy safe and sound, I was relieved as everyone else was. Then you see some of the initial interviews and back-story regarding the family, and the deeper you dig, the shadier this has become. It just feels like the parents are on their 14:59 of their perceived fame and are trying to hit the snooze button and extend their window.
Unable to resist the publicity, in comes these two gems from CNN:
Which prompts this classic response from the father (that’s sound you hear is frantic back-pedaling)
Definitely more of this story to be told. All this time I’m thinking “THIS is the way our city needs to be placed on the map?”. Fantastic.
One of my biggest pet peeves is businesses that are too busy to address their failing business models and resort to going against their customers. We’ve seen this time and time again with the RIAA and MPAA, and now you’re seeing this with the these Wireless and Internet Service Providers.
Case in point, Gizmodo posted a prediction that AT&T may impose a cap on data usage for the iPhone customers. AT&T justifies this by saying that 3% of their smartphone users (which are iPhone users) use 40% of the Smartphone Data.
Sometimes I wonder if AT&T is happy with the deal they signed with the devil – in this case Apple. AT&T got a lot of new customers over being the exclusive iPhone provider in the US, but somehow they failed to understand that when you have one of the most feature-rich phones out there that boasts the largest applications store, you’re going to see increased data usage.
I’m on Verizon and don’t have an iPhone (I have a Windows Mobile phone, which I have a love/hate relationship), but I can tell you that my data usage far outweighs by voice usage, and the sooner that Wireless Carriers realize that the better off they’ll be. Instead they’re going to start battling customers, imposing these continued caps and restrictions – pages directly from the record industry’s playbook.
I understand that bandwidth isn’t free and these carriers aren’t a business but there are two issues that I have: 1) Carriers lock their customers into their contract and have sneaky ways of keeping you tied down with these new terms. 2) In the case of Telcos, the government provided them money to expand their networks, and they spent that money but seemingly can’t manage contain without “managing the network” steps.
I’m surprised that in the 4 & 1/2 years of blogging, I never actually posted an entry about 9/11. I want to offer some modest homage to this day, a day when the entire world changed.
The memories I have of September 11, 2001 begin with Monday, September 10th. There was a Broncos game the night before, the first home game at the new Mile High Stadium against the New York Giants. Although the Broncos had won that night, I went to bed worried about Ed McCaffrey’s broken leg, and how that would impact their season. I think back to that game and the thoughts I had when I went to bed on September 10th, and how insignificant they turned out to be the next day. People speak about how our generation lost their innocence on that Tuesday, and I believe that it couldn’t be more true.
I learned about the first tower being hit by the TV that was one while I was getting ready. At that point I assumed it was an accident and didn’t give it a second thought. It was on my way to work when the 2nd tower got hit, and the evil of the acts revealed itself. Then came word about the plane hitting the Pentagon, and the 4th plane that went down. At that point I was concerned because my uncle was currently on a flight en-route to Washington, DC. I was filled with fear those first developing hours, as I wasn’t sure what was going to happen next. Luckily my uncle’s plane was turned around (like all flights that day) and he was safe. My mind shifted from gratitude for the safety of my uncle to trying to comprehend what just happened, and how the world had changed. I just remember being afraid of what was to come.
My heart goes out to all of those that were impacted by that horrific day, and those that continue to fight for our country’s safety to this day.