Yeah, you wish...

[johnridley]

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.

Comments

[bloggingchick.livejournal.com]

Resistance is useless!

[johnridley.livejournal.com]

Still, I will resist the uselessness.

I checked coverage maps, and both at home, on the sands, and at McLain state park, the three places this needs to work, I've got very little signal, if any. Of course, coverage maps often lie. It's probably worse than that.

[whl.livejournal.com]

I agree; the thing is trying to assimilate your PC.

I remember the first time I saw a Blackberry; some guys came down from Canada to discuss the progress on a Mac port we were doing of their media asset management system. They showed it to us as though they expected us to bow down to their superior degree of management.

All I saw was yet another thing designed to make it impossible to draw a line between home and work, and making doubly certain that you can always be interrupted.

Plus, I'd sworn an oath to never again get a personal organizer that I couldn't program myself, and which wasn't platform agnostic.

[kevinnickerson.livejournal.com]

An anti-static bag would deal with the signal issue.

[jennlk]

um. It's making my LCD monitor buzz. And I'm in the other room!

(OK, it's only the speakers. but still. not likely to pass any non-interference tests, is it?)

[johnridley.livejournal.com]

Zero signal at the house. Slight intermittent signal if I stand outside.

[whl.livejournal.com]

All GSM phones do that; when I started using my cellphone as my main phone, I had to find the best place in my apartment for both reception, and being as far away from my computer audio gear as possible. But I now turn the computer speakers off when I go to bed, or get treated to a muted rendition of the William Tell Overture, performed by musicians who keep losing their place in the score.

It also interferes with the connection between my iPod and car stereo.

The one thing it doesn't seem to interfere with is my real stereo: the receiver/amplifier, the real stereo wiring and the regular monitor speakers. I can put the phone right next to the monitor speakers and still not get anything from it.

So your best bet is to put a real stereo in there, with the shortest possible wire between the computer and the stereo.

[johnridley.livejournal.com]

Well, since there's no signal at the house, and from the looks of the coverage maps, no signal in our vacation spot which is the reason I have it, and the only other place I'd use it is at work when I'm sitting at my desk anyway, I'd say this phone's lifetime is quite limited.

But even apart from that, I'm not going to make any changes to accommodate a damn cell phone. I'll just turn it off.