PanTech UML 290 LTE–First Thoughts

Posted on January 3, 2011 by

So I bit the bullet and bought the PanTech UML 290 from Verizon Wireless, flat out. Works like a champ… when it works. The above speed test was taken from my house.  I noticed that after about ten minutes, the card would stop transmitting traffic.  At first I thought, “alright, maybe there’s a hardware issue.”

Oddly enough though I would run an NSLookup and get a valid response. I would try to ping Google.com and it would ping. So I was left scratching my head wondering why I wasn’t able to transmit and receive anything other than just a DNS record or an ICMP. So what did I do? I called Verizon’s tech support.

uml290So I disconnected and then reconnected and all was back to normal with super fast network connectivity that scared me (yes, scared me thinking to myself that just a few years ago these speeds in a wired environment were usually only in corporate data networks or academic environments).  Then about ten to fifteen minutes later, boom, disconnect.  Third times a charm I figured, and gave it another reconnect request, this time the session was flawless and had no issues, lasted 45 minutes long and then I disconnected manually and left for dinner with a few friends.  When I got back, I opened a ticket with Verizon support – they called back pretty quickly and left a message since I wasn’t available.  Rather than shy away from the issue I went ahead and gave them a call to further discuss.

After talking with a gent about what was going on, it was confirmed from my network traffic that there were “at cause” issues where the modem would attempt to talk to a specific node of the LTE cell and be disconnected from transmitting at that level and cease data traffic altogether. Because it’s the network side an official ticket was opened and network engineering team will investigate the network hardware and routing to correct the issue.

So first thoughts, LTE is blazing fast.  LTE is expensive in that Verizon wireless is capping at 5 GB for $50, 10 GB for $80.  I’d like to see VZW man up and do what MetroPCS is doing with unlimited usage for $60

Nevertheless, according to VZW, they should have the issue resolved in 5 to 7 business days, I’m interested to see it get fixed and will report back then.

Posted in Gadgets, Geek Stuff, Technology | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Tom Clancy’s Dead or Alive

Posted on December 19, 2010 by

dead_or_aliveWell, after several late nights of reading I finished Tom Clancy’s Dead or Alive. I’d say that I give the novel 3 out of 5 stars – primary reason being that while it’s a great read and in typical Clancy fashion has nearly a dozen story lines criss-crossing before culminating in the core of the store, there are still lose ends left open. Further the climax of the story seems to sputter out near the end.

The story itself seems somewhat akin to follow the present day hunt for terrorists around the world, but cast in a fictional world where the key person that everyone is after is “the Emir” and the URC.

I definitely was happy to have John Clark and Ding Chavez rejoining the crew introduced in Teeth of the Tiger – the Caruso Brothers and Jack Ryan, Jr. I will say that I was a little disappointed however with the last 90 pages of the book where there seemed to be a feeling of rushing to get to the finish. Not quite certain if Tom Clancy and Grand Blackwood were being forced to have a 900 page page count, or if the editors felt that they needed to wrap things up in a Hollywood’esque ending such that they would leave several streams of thought wide open for another book to pick up and run with shortly.

On the flip side, I’m not certain if it’s Clancy’s way of poking at political figures and pundits, but I have to say that some of the comments made by the main characters definitely seem to be reminiscent of current politics. Interesting way of voicing your opinion Smile

All in all, I’d give it 3 stars – great book that’s crack for the eyes.

Posted in Books | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Snow Daemon Process Started…

Posted on December 19, 2010 by

IMG_0599-1Similar to last year, we had a light dusting of snow prior to Christmas. By light dusting of course I mean several inches that caused the area to freak out and was blamed for Holiday sales not hitting the level of margins expected since everyone was snowed in during a weekend prior to the Christmas holiday.

Well, it happened again, though with not quite as much glamour with a light snow storm wreaking havoc on Northern Virginia. As you can see though there’s still fun to be had, even by the little people Smile

Fortunately the snow storm lasted all of twelve hours and left behind 1-3” depending on where you were at. Granted, with the cold temperatures that have hampered the region for the last few days, it hasn’t really melted off of everything just yet as can be seen in the photo taken earlier today.

For those looking forward to more snow, fear not, the snow daemon process is primed and started. Ready your shovels and snow blowers!

Posted in Life as we know it... | Tagged | 1 Comment

Beware the Christmas Gnomes…

Posted on December 14, 2010 by

It’s 11 days til Christmas and I have to say that I’m not really looking forward to Christmas this year. It’s not so much that I feel like I don’t have anyone to spend it with – I’m sure that my brother and his wife and kids would love to have Uncle Dan around, or perhaps to spend time with my extended family in Georgia or South Carolina… but oddly I just guess I’m not really in the spirit of things.

In the past I always remember there being something special about Christmas, whether it be decorating a Christmas tree with family or there being a specific toy or gadget or book that I was really interested in and hoping that someone would get me I feel almost like I’ve hit that Ecclesiastes state of feeling of vanity and commercialism.

Perhaps if I was actively attending Immanuel Bible Church I would be more in the spirit, and yet my heart still aches every time that I drive by, expecting to see either a Honda Accord or Acura MDX there.  Maybe if I was going to Reston Bible Church or McLean Bible Church on a more regular basis I’d be more in the spirit of giving and spreading the Word of Christ.  But I’m not… something to work on in 2011.

Heart-Felt-Aust-031I do realize that I’m blessed incredibly by each and everyone of you that are reading this in addition to knowing that my family does in fact care deeply for me.  I guess it’s more just that the sense of loss still blows me away at times.  They say that the second year after having lost someone is more painful than the first – mostly because those friends that were close but not considered family have forgotten and moved on. There’s definitely a special group of folks that around every holiday or memorial date turn back toward the family and remind us of the good times and the things that our Mom had done to touch the lives of others – thank you each and everyone of you.

For me, I classify this feeling that I have at the moment as an instance of the invasion of the Christmas Gnomes getting the better of me. Funny enough, Mom had some little gnomes that looked similar to the one pictured to the right. Though they weren’t festively decorated in red felt with green branches, rather just red felt cloaks and fuzzy white beards.

So how to avoid the Christmas Gnomes you ask? Easy, surround yourself with friends and family. It’s time to rejoice in the Lord. It’s easy to let the post modern world that we live within try to focus on ourselves, but in reality this is the time that we should tune in all the more to God and remember what this season is meant for.

So while little kids are super excited about crawling around in boxes and big kids are excited to be playing games on a new arcade system, I’m starting to see why my parents were just excited to have family with them – definitely the best gift that you can ever have.

Grace and Blessing to you all and look out for those gnomes creeping in from the sides!

Posted in Uncategorized | 3 Comments

Shortened Links and Viruses

Posted on December 7, 2010 by

Dear Public… wake up.

Shortened links have always posed a threat in the world of cyber security.  It saddens me that I see an article entitled “New Virus: Watch Out for Goo.gl Links on Twitter” posted to LifeHacker.com regarding goo.gl, Google’s link shortening system that is leverage for Google Maps and as an extension to shorten links through the Chrome browser, or you can just go to the web browser.

image

Such short links are used all the time in Twitter, Facebook and other means so as to allow users to paste a link that is not obnoxiously long or that might run over a carriage break causing the link to break.

While the former may seem like something that is understandable so as to not overtake an e-mail message or a tweet, some individuals might wonder about the latter.  For individuals that don’t quite understand how to concatenate a URL it might seem daunting when the link is clicked and IE/Firefox/Chrome/Safari/Opera is opened and nothing renders except for a Page Not Found error.

Further, why is it that everyone is suddenly in a tizzy that goo.gl may be spawning viruses. I think I’ve seen this story for TinyURL, Bit.ly, and a half dozen other link shorteners.

Bottom line, practice responsible use of the Internet. I remember several years ago an employer stating that they had an acceptable use policy that employees needed to follow. How is that suddenly got skipped for home users? Do we need a certification to use the Internet these days?

</soapbox>

Posted in Life as we know it... | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

GOOG 411…later buddy

Posted on November 13, 2010 by

So for anyone that’s interested, GOOG-411 is officially gone. Kinda sad that it’s been retired on Veteran’s Day of 2010, but I suppose that all good things must come to an end. If you give the phone number a call it will give you a short voice recording even thanking you for the good times… I’m wondering what kind of phone messages were recorded.

On the brighter side of things though, Google SMS still works. So if you’re looking for a decent way to find information based on where you’re at, you can simply send an SMS message to 466453 (though 46645 seems to work too). First thing you probably want to do is set your location, which can be simply done by sending a message with “SET LOCATION <ZIP CODE>”. If you want to search somewhere else – say you go out to St. Louis for some reason, no problem, just change your location. If you’re wondering what time it is in another city, say in Wahiawa, Hawaii, just type the command, “TIME Wahiawa, HI” and boom, you’ve got the local time.

Interestingly enough if you use Google Voice, you can actually send requests that way so that you’re not incurring texting fees on your mobile phone.

If you’re really interested in learning more about how to use Google SMS, check out the help files. Pretty cool that there are event shortcuts – yes, that’s right, if you need weather results for a zip code, simply send an SMS with “WX <ZIP CODE>” – wicked sweet.

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Bye Bye Goog-411

Posted on November 11, 2010 by

http://cid-0bc4c9d6d8f9371b.office.live.com/embedphoto.aspx/.Public/uvageek/GoogleMobileAppResults.PNGI’m a little saddened to read that Google is discontinuing their 411 service, however I figure that now that they the US population has freely provided millions of voices with different inflections, pronunciations and words, Google’s digital stomach is churning with information to dissect.

Nevertheless, with the capability ceasing and with smartphones a flurry, there are still ways to do voice searches on your phone without having to even make a phone call – though you will incur data charges should they apply… Checkout Google’s offerings yonder at http://www.google.com/goog411/index.html for more information.  I loaded the Google Mobile App on my iPhone last night and have to say that it’s come a long way since version 1.0. If only it was as easy as just voice dialing a phone number though so as to not be distracted…

Posted in Geek Stuff, Google, Life as we know it... | Tagged , | Leave a comment