Californication meets Tranpacificism

You ask?  Okay, maybe not, but if you were.. Well, basically, I found an easy way to upload my pics to flickr (plus I found out I was able to get a Pro acct for no extra charge), so I decided to upload all my pictures from India there, so at least they’re SOMEWHERE that they’ll be visible to folks.

But, “how/why are they showing up in your blog’s feed?”.  Why Not?  How - I added a “Photo splicer” to my feed, that it would include 1 (new only)  picture tagged “India.” so everytime I upload a batch (usually < 100/time) of pics, it includes one of those new pics.  I’ve been trying to do one batch/day, hence almost 1 pic/day showing up in this feed each day.  But I’ve only got 8 or 9 more days to go before it starts to slow down, so hopefully you’re not getting too bothered.  I rather thought you might enjoy it, since I’ve been so laggard with uploading my pics in any organized fashion to my own, personal website.  There’s a lot of irony here, I won’t go into that..

All for now..

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So, my internet phone company, Sunrocket, is down for the count, so, for now, I can’t make/receive calls.. (strangely I can make calls in the 408 and 707 area codes, but that will assumingly cease soon..) so if you’re reading this, that’s probably all you wanted to know. The rest of this post is going to be me thinking out loud about what to do about this situation.

Well, what to do? I don’t necessarly _have_ to do anything, really. I’m in India, and I wasn’t really planning on using my phone too much while here. It’s been useful for sure while I’ve been here, but.. how much am I really going to use it? Or rather, cost-benefit analysis right, like, is it worth it to me to pay (postpaid as they say in India) for monthly (”rental”) phone service, when I could say, just use skypeOut and pay ~2c/min to call the US when I need? Okay, there has to be a catch/benefit to paying the rental, and that is: my phone #. Ugh! I just cancelled the 707 phone # I’ve had for the last two years earlier this year, and given (most) everyone my new (Sunrocket, ack!) 707 number, plus I’m using this other 408 number that a few people have. My best bet would be to go back to that old 707 number, since I could update everyone that has my new # back to my old easily enough, and those that I didn’t update, would accidentally have a working phone # for me. But that company, BroadVoice, is slightly more expensive (for what I get).  [UPDATE: My account with BroadVoice is permanently closed due to non-payment, I'm a few days late, oops!  Ideal would be if Google's new purchase (GrandCentral) gave some props to the Sunrocket users of the world. (If you haven't heard about GrandCentral, you've GOT to check it out, it'll rock your socks! Makes total sense why da Goog bought 'em..)  [UPDATE: Just found out GC is FREE!  Oh, to receive an invite..]

So, the rest of this post is going to be my research results, like, what to do next, what companies have promotions going on, etc, aka stuff that would probably bore most of ya’ll, you’ve been warned!

Though here’s an interesting thread about disputing a charge with a credit card! (from DSLReports) (more…)

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SO! I’m confused.. My brother suggested getting a new computer for my parents, and I’ll take their notebook (since it just sits here anyways). They were amenable, but.. I really want a Dual Core (or 4×4!) new CPU with Virtualization technology, so might as well go to town, right?! Well, that’s the dilemna part of where I’m at. In addition to the idea of buying “new” items, being a consumer, and to a lesser extent how gross shopping for good deals and rebates makes me feel.. (moreso the time-consumingness and wondering who actually took advantage of who are my bigger worries/problems..)
So, here’s what I’m looking at, thought I might as well make it viewable to the world (this page will be updated with my “shopping” (window-shopping? and online! ;^)

First place to start, the Ars Technica Budget Box System Buying Guide.
Next step: Finding alternatives to their suggested components, that give the best “bang for the buck” (oh, how it hurts to write such a phrase!) (more…)

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So, some people have “cell” phones.
Some have “land lines.”

I have an Internet Phone.

a WHAT? Yes. My phone service runs over the internet. What does that mean? When I’m at my parents house (e.g. NOW), I can plug my phone thingy into the internet, plug the thingy into the walls, and have my same phone as in my room at school here. Unlimited in-state calls for ~$16 from BroadVoice. Can’t beat that price OR the features.
Right now though, there’s a NICE little promotion going on, that Drew, that works at Resnet, advised me of. A Competing internet phone company, who I have been tracking for some time, Sunrocket, has this deal going on where you can get 2, that’s TWO, years of Phone service for $199, with UNLIMITED CALLS in the USA, Canada and Puerto Rico, with $3 in international credit. Check that math, that’s LESS than $8.50/month! No contracts, cancel anytime. SICK! I feel like I’m posting an ad, but, I’m not. I’m going to sign up for this, and the rents might too. SO!

Check out this offer and sign up if that sounds interesting to you, I know it sure does to me! We got the free 2.4 GHz Uniden phones out of them last time, but that’s nothing in comparison price-wise. (And they have an India promotion that’ll allow my parents to call for 8c/minute, they’ll be SO stoked about that! Down with “the new AT&T”!

HTH! Have a good one.. -@

PS: I found this info off of Slickdeals.net.  Thanks Drew
For those that want to make calls for a good rate without monthly fees, check out the Gizmo Project.

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Welcome to WordPress. This is my first post. WOW. As a lot of you might now, I have been resistant to anything that’s not fully-extensible (and consequently flat-filed.) That’s why this is such an amazing thing that has happened to my website. Not only does it NOT look horrendous, but it is running WordPress and Gallery2, BOTH Database-Driven! Oh mySQL, what will I do with you? So first, let’s play around..
Here, now we can test out the G2 integration feature.. here we are chillin –

Before we can go watch the fireworks..

Man, I’m having the darnedest time getting g2image to work in Opera (and Single Window FireFox).. Arr..

Okay, I got it to work in FF at least. and I put in a new theme. At some point some random headers will be cool, so check out Ajay’s Reloaded header post later..

(this post is also testing out geocoding..) (More will be added to this post later..?)

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