johnridley | Yeah, you wish...

We'll be in the UP next week. There was some concern because I won't have a working phone while up there. So they said they'd give me a LOANER phone for the week. I was expecting, well, you know, a PHONE.

Today they dropped off this ridiculous thing:

Blackberry Curve 8310

And, when I said "OK, I'll get it back to you on the 28th or maybe the week before if I stop by, the guy who dropped it off said "Actually they were talking about letting you keep it."

I know what they're trying to do. They're all chanting "JOIN US" because they're all attached at the hip to their little crack pipes; they are always pulling them out at meetings every time they get an email, etc. They tried to force one of these damn things on me a couple of years ago.

If it were a PHONE I'd think about it. This isn't a phone, this is a leash. I know people say that about phones, but I don't mind phones. This thing is integrated to my outlook mail, contacts, tasks, and everything. They're not being transparent about it at all. This thing screams "we own your life."

If they think I'm going to check my email while I'm on vacation, they're out of their minds, unless they're going to pay me for it, and I'm going to bill in 30 minute increments. Glance at it for 5 seconds to check mails, 30 minutes.

I've already shut off all ringing and vibrating for anything but phone calls.

If they want me to keep it, my long-term attitude towards it will depend on if it actually works at our house. There's hardly any signal there for any company. I haven't tried AT&T for several years though. If it works, well, I'm sure I can disconnect it completely from all data services and geld it to where it's just a voice phone.

I'd keep it as-is if it came with some sort of benefit. I'd consider it, for instance, if it meant I was allowed to work at home full-time. yeah, right.

One other thing; this thing makes my CRT monitor dance like crazy when it's doing data communications, even from 18 inches away. Yikes.