Post by leatherneckpa on Aug 6, 2011 9:15:26 GMT -4
I am of mixed emotions. And you know me, there is no such thing as making a long story short.
I went to charge my cell phone the other day and the charging port was gone.
I looked, and sure enough, it was still attached to my charger. Bummer. Went to Verizon to see if they could fix it. Of course not. While I was waiting for service (doggone that place is buzy!) I was looking at the Droids my best friend recommended. Cindy wants to replace our phones come the New Year. On sale they were $199 and BOGO. Boy that's a lot of money. They activated my previous phone but didn't have a charger for it. Had to go to Radio Shack and buy one of their universal ones with an adapter. That's around $40-$50.
Well, they are both in the same strip mall, so I was walking up to the other end (of course they couldn't be NEXT to each other!) and playing with numbers in my head. I had budgeted for $500 at the Harley dealer and only spent $350. Hmmmm? If I spent that $350 plus the $40-$50 I'm spending on the charger I could replace both of our phones now. So that's what I did.
It seems the Droid 3 (has a slide-out keyboard) has only been released about 2 weeks and they didn't have enough of them in stock to meet the demand. (Do they really sell that many of these things?) So I ordered ours and had them Fed-Ex'd to our house. Everything went fine, except I couldn't transfer my contacts file from the old phone. Ok, I'll just hand-write them and then input them. Nope, the battery died before I had finished the fourth one, and I have a boat-load of them. (Right, and I'm the guy who used to ask why anyone needed 100 contacts, I don't even know 100 people. Uh huh, which is why I have nearly 200 in my phone now. Started adding businesses, rather than having to look them up all the time. Adds up fast.) Went back to Verizon and their service tech (not the sales weenie, but someone who actually knows something!) did a sneaky back-door move. He transferred all my contacts to another phone via bluetooth. Then he transferred them to my Droid. And while I was playing with this fancy piece of plastic I decided to see what this Farcebook thing is all about. If you knew me personally you would understand when I say that the whole concept is best summed up in two posts, one from my best friend and one from my daughter.
BF: "Mike just got a Droid and is trying to learn how to use it. He's finally been dragged, kicking and screaming I'm sure, into the 21st Century. Glad you could join the rest of us buddy."
DD: "So my father (Flanagan) has gotten a Droid and now a Facebook account. OMG, the world is coming to an end!"
So, back to the mixed emotions part? On the one hand I am intrigued by what this tiny bundle can do. It's got more capabilities than the first computer I worked with. (I remember the first computer I ever worked with. It filled an entire 12'x20' room with just a three foot aisle around the outside of the room to walk and change tape spools.) On the other hand, I feel that I have betrayed my homesteading philosophies. What is a person to do in this day and age?
I went to charge my cell phone the other day and the charging port was gone.
I looked, and sure enough, it was still attached to my charger. Bummer. Went to Verizon to see if they could fix it. Of course not. While I was waiting for service (doggone that place is buzy!) I was looking at the Droids my best friend recommended. Cindy wants to replace our phones come the New Year. On sale they were $199 and BOGO. Boy that's a lot of money. They activated my previous phone but didn't have a charger for it. Had to go to Radio Shack and buy one of their universal ones with an adapter. That's around $40-$50.Well, they are both in the same strip mall, so I was walking up to the other end (of course they couldn't be NEXT to each other!) and playing with numbers in my head. I had budgeted for $500 at the Harley dealer and only spent $350. Hmmmm? If I spent that $350 plus the $40-$50 I'm spending on the charger I could replace both of our phones now. So that's what I did.
It seems the Droid 3 (has a slide-out keyboard) has only been released about 2 weeks and they didn't have enough of them in stock to meet the demand. (Do they really sell that many of these things?) So I ordered ours and had them Fed-Ex'd to our house. Everything went fine, except I couldn't transfer my contacts file from the old phone. Ok, I'll just hand-write them and then input them. Nope, the battery died before I had finished the fourth one, and I have a boat-load of them. (Right, and I'm the guy who used to ask why anyone needed 100 contacts, I don't even know 100 people. Uh huh, which is why I have nearly 200 in my phone now. Started adding businesses, rather than having to look them up all the time. Adds up fast.) Went back to Verizon and their service tech (not the sales weenie, but someone who actually knows something!) did a sneaky back-door move. He transferred all my contacts to another phone via bluetooth. Then he transferred them to my Droid. And while I was playing with this fancy piece of plastic I decided to see what this Farcebook thing is all about. If you knew me personally you would understand when I say that the whole concept is best summed up in two posts, one from my best friend and one from my daughter.
BF: "Mike just got a Droid and is trying to learn how to use it. He's finally been dragged, kicking and screaming I'm sure, into the 21st Century. Glad you could join the rest of us buddy."
DD: "So my father (Flanagan) has gotten a Droid and now a Facebook account. OMG, the world is coming to an end!"
So, back to the mixed emotions part? On the one hand I am intrigued by what this tiny bundle can do. It's got more capabilities than the first computer I worked with. (I remember the first computer I ever worked with. It filled an entire 12'x20' room with just a three foot aisle around the outside of the room to walk and change tape spools.) On the other hand, I feel that I have betrayed my homesteading philosophies. What is a person to do in this day and age?
