Category: Miscellaneous

Verizon Can’t Do Math

My friend Bill found this on Digg probably and posted it on his blog. It’s such a perfect example of corporate stupidity that I had to post it too.

Basically, the story goes that this poor guy, before crossing over into Canada, asked Verizon what their data plan rates were. He was quoted .002 cents per kilobyte. Suspicious of such a low rate, he asked the Verizon rep to verify it, and put it in his account’s notes. She did so, and he went about his merry way into Canada and used his data plan. When he got his bill later, he was charged $.02 a kilobyte and had a bill of over $70. He tried to explain the situation to Verizon’s billing department, and wackiness ensued. Read the transcript HERE.

You’d think that people would realize by now that if a computer geek tells you your math is wrong, you might want to believe him.

Bored…hmm…ooh! How about my favorite movies?

I was bored and wanted to post something. So, I figured, why not post a list of my top 5 favorite movies? Now keep in mind that I am a movie junkie. There is a metric buttload of movies that I like. I could have a top 5 list for about every movie genre, and every movie budget category. This list is a collection of movies that make my top 5 because they mean something to me; not just because they’re a good, fun, escape from reality.

5. Grosse Point Blank – How can you not like this movie? I mean com’on… It’s got John Cusak, Dan Ackroyd, guns, and a great “dark comedy” vibe. I feel this is John Cusak’s best movie.

4. Donnie Darko – This film is in my Top 5 because it’s so different. I like “different” movies; movies that make you think. This is one of those movies that you watch with a crowd, and an hour after the movie is over, everyone is still discussing the meaning of the movie. I dig that.

3. The Girl Next Door – I like this comedy a lot. Granted, there’s a lot of hot women in the movie, and that’s always a good thing, but the main reason I like this movie is that it’s a teen comedy that isn’t trite, and has a lot of heart. I can relate to the main character in this movie a lot. (Not with his porn aspirations obviously.) He’s the guy in High School who always followed the rules, and was an all-around good kid. That was also me in High School, and in retrospect I should have been raising hell and having fun like everybody else. (Damn parents and their morality! 😉 )

2. Big Fish – This movie is incredibly imaginative, with great characters and great visuals. If you don’t feel something at the end of this movie, you have a rock for a heart. I relate to this movie a lot because my father died when I was 15, and the father-son centered plot connects with me.

1. Almost Famous – I love this movie. The best part about the movie is the characters. They’re extremely well developed and “real” feeling. You experience everything that they do, from the comfort of your theater seat. Hell, even the jerks in the movie are likable. This movie is loosely based on Carmeron Crowe’s life, so that adds another dimension to the film. Like I said, I love this movie.

Motricity in the News

Motricity, the company that I’ve been working at for almost 2 years, has just raised another $40 million in funding. In Q3 of this year, we should be moving into our new building in the American Tobacco Historic District as well. You can read the latest article in the News and Observer HERE.

Star Wars ASCII – Hillarious and Somewhat Impressive

The entire Star Wars movie in ASCII characters. Open a Terminal/Shell and type the following command :

telnet towel.blinkenlights.nl

Then sit back and watch the hillarity. (I know this will work for Mac OS X and Unix/Linux. It SHOULD work for Windows too but I’m not sure.)

SciFi Channel – We have 3 shows

Geez. The SciFi Channel really is a steaming pile of Bantha pudu. They have 3 shows that are good, Stargate SG1, Stargate Atlantis, and most of all – Battlestar Galactica. The rest of their programming is overly priced filler. Just about every week they have some new SciFi Pictures Original movie based on, 1) A killer animal of some kind, (remember all the killer mosquito movies like “Skeeter.”) 2) A killer storm of some kind, 3) A dude a sword and a dragon, or finally, 4) A killer animal stalking a dude with a sword in a killer storm. I honestly have a hard time not laughing out-loud everytime I see one of those “SciFi Pictures” commercials while watching Battlestar. They’re just terrible. It’s obvious that the people running SciFi Channel have no idea what a real SciFi fan wants to watch. I do have to give them just a smidge of credit though. Tthey do get it right one day a week, Friday. But that’s only a 14% success rate.