Ramblings

Can anyone explain to me how all these cell phone companies justify all their ridiculous rates? (mainly focusing on AT&T, because it’s the only one I can speak for)

Look at any regular internet providers rates for households.

20 dollars for 1 MBPS and 30 for 5 MBPS. Wireless 3g internet is some where in between these two speeds, and AT&T charges 30 dollars a month for it. Seems fair enough, right? But think about it. They also charge you not only for your “data”, but for you talking too. And it doesn’t stop there. You have your texting plan, and all the huge fees they slap on you if you dare call, text, or use the internet away from where you live.

It makes sense that they charge you a data plan and a voice plan, but that’s where the nonsense starts to come in. Upwards of 70-90 dollars for a voice plan? How can they justify that? I’m no expert in how all this phone technology works, but if you compare the price to land lines, they only cost about 30 dollars a month. So all in all, an iPhone should only logistically run about 60 a month (Long distance included) right?

Lets just move on to texting. Each SMS text is limited to 160 characters, which is roughly 160 bytes. Now most phone companies depending on your plan will charge 10 to 30 cents for every text message you send (whether it be because you went over the limit or just don’t have a plan at all). How the hell can they possible justify charging you 10 to 30 cents for sending 160 character through their network? It makes no sense. Even more ridiculous is how you get charged for texts going both ways. Reply to 5 of your friends texts at 10 cents each and you already owe AT&T a dollar.

Now I know part of the whole scheme of it is that the plans and ridiculous fees are supposed to be there to cover the cost of your contracted phone that you get for a subsidized price, but really even that is nonsensical (Just see the chart below). You can’t even walk into an ATT store without looking at every single phone on display and seeing:

*Requires purchase of $30/mo data plan.

The whole thing that’s spurring me to even write this is that I heard AT&T is planning to add tethering for the iPhone, which, if you don’t know, allows you to transfer your phones 3G internet to your laptop or other devices so that they too can use it where they don’t receive Wi-Fi. So my logical thought process is: “Well, I’m paying them 30 dollars a month to use their internet, so tethering should be the same deal. I’m still using that same internet at the same rate, so it should be a nice free addition”. Right? Nope. Should have known that AT&T would try to milk more money out of its customers when it can. Data tethering is rumored to be an additional 30 dollars a month. Seriously? *&^% off, I’m already paying you 30 dollars a month to use your internet, now you want me to double that so I can “use” what I should be getting in the first place? Just look at your typical phone bill for ONE phone with data plan.

What is your favorite theme for this site? (Default one is ‘Life’, you can change them from the menu at the bottom left)

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The old photo album plugin wasn’t really working with any of the themes, so I changed it to another. It’s actually quite a lot nicer. Check it out by clicking on ‘Photos’ in the task bar below.

You can change the style to your liking in the menu that pops up if you click the orb at the bottom left.

-Migraine? Soak your hands in hot water

-Headache? Drink a glass of water

-Phenylethylamine (PEA) is a hormone produced by the brain when some one is in love, and is also found in chocolate. Salami contains 3 times more PEA than chocolate, but it is unlikely it will ever replace chocolate as a romantic gift

-Though researchers say no PEA can get to the brain through food, this explains why people often crave chocolate after break-ups. Its the body’s natural way of trying to raise PEA levels

-Aspirin is 40% more effective when taken with hot chocolate

-Chocolate contains similar chemicals to those found in marijuana, but it would take tens of kilos to achieve the same “high-like” effect.

There’s a really interesting read on the past decade and why it went so wrong in Time Magazine here:

http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1942834-1,00.html

After reading that Time article, it really makes you realize that nothing really had to happen this decade. We knew 911 was coming. We knew the levees in New Orleans were going to flood the city. We knew the Mississippi bridge was structurally unsound since 1991 when it collapsed in 2007. We were just too lazy to fix anything. “Here again, why should a politician spend money today to fix something that won’t collapse until tomorrow? Especially if he or she could get re-elected by cutting taxes instead.”

- Claims of vampires in the past may have actually been caused by Porphyria: a disease in which Heme, the red pigment in hemoglobin is not produced properly.

- Symptoms of this disease include skin lesions from being out in mild sunlight, excessive hair growth, and shrinking of the skin (which in turn causes the gums and lips to recede, making it appear as if some one has fangs)

- Since the stomach can absorb small amounts of Heme, many people who suffered from the disease in early times would drink blood in hopes of curing the disease. It was effective, but not efficient.

- Garlic also contains many of the chemicals known to destroy heme. As such, it may make sense that “vampires” would have avoided it.

- King George the III of England may have had the disease. (He went mad)

- Porphria comes from the greek word for purple (The color of a phyriac’s urine)

- The story of Dracula can also be interpreted from a psychoanalytic standpoint as a story of personality disorders.

I just started reading an interesting book on the brain called “The Odd Brain: Mysteries of our Weird & Wonderful Brains Explained” br Dr. Stephen Juan, and I figured a lot of it was pretty interesting, so if anyone else’s interest is perked, heres a summary of what I’m reading:

- The brain is one of the cleanest organs in our body; it continually cleans itself with the help of its glial cells. (Cells in the brain that digest and consume dead or diseased neurons and also provide them with sustenance needed for life). Compared to the skin, it can almost be called antiseptic

-The glial cells have been hypothesized to correlate to intelligence, since more glial cells = a faster more efficient, clean brain. In one part of Einsteins brain, he had 73% more glial cells than other typical males. However, critics say this may be because the older people get, the more glial cells they gain since theyre neurons die faster.

-The brain produces more electronic impulses than all the telephones in the world in 1 day

-Contrary to popular myth, the brain does NOT use only 10% of its matter. It uses 100%, just not all at the same time.

-During youth the female brain weighs 2.65 to 2.87 lbs and the male 2.87 to 3.09 lbs.We lose 0.04 to 0.11 ounces per year during 20-60 and 0.11 to 0.14 after 60.

-The brain contains a steroid hormone called Cortisol that destroys neurons and is produced when the body feels stressed. Thus, children who are nurtured when young and treated well are found to have greater intelligence and learning capability than those who are neglected. In addition, these children are better at controlling the Cortisol system, whereas the neglected children who have an excess of Cortisol have trouble dealing with stress.

-The above is hypothesized to be why children are so attracted to their care givers. They need to develop relationships early on in life to control their Cortisol naturally.

Kinda got a messed up color scheme going on though, going to have to see if I can fix that. Click photos at the top of the page

I’ll post here if I ever find the time, Shouldn’t be too hard with dead week coming up here at UC Berkeley.

And now I’m off to hit the sack for early class tomorrow. Lates.