Crash, boom

[danaeris]

Short version: Went out, ran lots of errands, ate more sushi for lunch, and got home. Been depressive all day. Just pulled myself out of a major crash. Not sure I'm up to going to the Faux Queen thing after all, but we'll see how I feel. Wouldn't be adverse to a friend dragging me to a late hp showing instead; I missed the HP mob that was happening because they assumed I was going to the pageant instead. :(

Best guess re: depression is the diet pepsi I indulged in last night. Or it could be a random mood fluctuation. Hopefully these will go away when I start the new medication (as soon as I find the damned prescription slip)!



Stopped in at Verizon and confirmed that my contract has in fact expired. Asked them about upcoming phone releases. According to the lady there, the Treo is not on their list of phones about to be released on verizon, and they always hear about it ahead of time. She was also slightly bitchy at me.

Some of you may recall that Unseelie and I moved his phone number over to my plan shortly before he dumped me. I talked to her about moving that into his name so that I'm no longer responsible for it. Basically, he and I have to physically go into the verizon store and they have to do a credit check on him and sign a bunch of papers, and then it can be in his name. But I'm concerned that he might fail the credit check. Hell, I expect that he will fail the credit check.

Went to Sprint, where I sat and read my book for about half an hour before getting any attention. I was slightly snippy at the customer care guy, because I'd seen the manager be rude to another customer, and then go help another customer who had JUST walked in before helping me. Also because I was dehydrated and low blood sugaring. He mostly handled my bitchiness.

Anyway, I think I'm going to switch to Sprint. They have the phone I want, now. They have the plans I want, and Verizon really doesn't. And their plans are SO much cheaper than Verizon's that I only have to stay with them ~3-5 months to make up the early termination fee, so if I discover that their coverage is noticeably worse than Verizon's, I can terminate early and switch back. Also, Sprint is the only other one that is running on CDMA, which is a superior technology. Still, I'm going to let myself sleep on it. I didn't want to make the switch dehydrated and low blood sugaring.



I tried to look at heart rate monitors and scales, but the electronics stores where I was didn't carry stuff like that. Maybe I'll stop by best buy or blood bath and beyond at some point and check there, or maybe I'll just do it online.

I think now I'm going to put some shoes on and head to Brainwash to get dinner to go, and maybe read my book or maybe get back to work on the writing contract.

Comments

[unseelie23.livejournal.com]

CDMA is a superior technology? I thought it was the older, almost obsolete technology that's slowly being replaced with GSM. Please tell me more.

[ghudson.livejournal.com]

As best I understand it (which isn't terribly well), CDMA really is better technology in terms of performance, but GSM is still winning the standards war in the US, partly due to the large pre-existing installed base in Europe.

The "older, almost obsolete technology" you're most likely thinking of is D-AMPS, commonly known as TDMA. (Technically, CDMA and TDMA refer to specific multiplexing technologies, and GSM itself uses TDMA, although it uses it in a way that scales better than D-AMPS.)

I think the holy grail is a revision of the GSM standard using CDMA instead of TDMA, but I don't know how that's going or if anyone knows how to get there from here. I'm sure it's a huge minefield of patents and nasty transition issues.

A vaguely useful link:
http://www.networkmagazine.com/article/NMG20000517S0169

[danaeris.livejournal.com]

I don't remember where I read this now, I'm embarrassed to say. But I know I read it, and have seen other things stating that CDMA is just plain superior.

However...

In a recent request to the... FCC? The governing organization, anyhow, Cingular and ATT explicitly said that they need to keep all of the bandwidths they currently have permission to broadcast on during the merge because everyone knows that CDMA is superior and that leaves them at a disadvantage. They claimed to the government that letting them keep all these different bands would compensate for that disparity in advantage.

this webpage explains why CDMA is superior to TDMA, and the website http://sfbacell.com/ is also an invaluable resource with explanations about GSM vs. CDMA.

[angelbob.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it's the FCC you're thinking of.

anyhow, Cingular and ATT explicitly said that they need to keep all of the bandwidths they currently have permission to broadcast on during the merge because everyone knows that CDMA is superior and that leaves them at a disadvantage.

Heh. Bet *that* doesn't show up in their advertising. But seriously, these are major corporations we're talking about. They'll say whatever seems most likely to grant them temporary advantage. Quoting an FCC posting where they're claiming their stuff is inferior in order to keep (very pricey) bandwidth... Well, that's not exactly objective.

Not that I'm informed on the relative merits of CDMA vs GSM, I'm not. I'd still be careful trusting *that* information.

[princeofwands.livejournal.com]

One of the other problems with the whole CDMA vs GSM discussion is one that has nothing to do with the technologies involved -- the particular feature bundling.

The swappable SIM card feature common to GSM phones is a feature completely avoided in CDMA phones. Which is a bitch to a lot of users, apparently. Another huge failing is that the US market lags in consumer cell toys. The cool GSM video and picture phones that are getting on toward common here in the last year were completely ubiquitous in Japan back in '01, and have have been completely interoperable throughout the rest of the (GSM based) world.

Being able to carry one's cell phone from country to country and have it work everywhere seems to be a big deal to peoples less provincial than is the tendency for the US population. Which doesn't explain why it's a big deal to US consumer users...

But does when it turns out that longer term - as we too move toward GSM, people investing in big dollar devices are hesitant to go the CDMA route. Will my sprint based phone be convertible to Verizon (some folks say maybe, more and more though it's turning out, not so likely). Clearly, Neither a Sprint nor Verizon phone is convertible to and GSM standard carrier, and more and more of them aren't using CDMA.

OTOH, I've become a lot fonder of Sprint in the last year than I've ever been before. They still suck, but they seem now to suck considerably less.

[kijeren.livejournal.com]

"Basically, he and I have to physically go into the verizon store and they have to do a credit check on him and sign a bunch of papers, and then it can be in his name. But I'm concerned that he might fail the credit check. Hell, I expect that he will fail the credit check."

This is BS. When my ex and I split, all it took was a phone call. *I* had to be the one calling, though, because I had to verify that I was taking responsibility for the account.
There was a credit check, but they did that over the phone.

[kijeren.livejournal.com]

and we did (and still do) have Verizon.

[princeofwands.livejournal.com]

In the latest round of Kill All Rumours of a Treo610, last weeks tales of a cameraless Treo600 for Sprint were cited yesterday with less couching at PDABuzz.com. It isn't conclusive, doesn't say anything about Verizon, but there've been reliable rumours since fall that the next rev would be cameraless - so I think this is that.

Several cites had a very similar to this common post about a week ago saying it'd been confirmed with a contact at PalmOne, but without official confirmation.

Also of note was this article at Forbes.com from last fall talking about some of the relative merits of the CDMA vs GSM versions of the device - all of which have played out in my discussions with GSM-version users compared to my CDMA device.