Ugh… if you need something done right do it yourslef?

My website host informed me last week (while I was at quakecon!) that my account had been suspended for longer than 10 days and my account had been deleted…? Whiskey Tango Foxtrot?

I honestly can’t fathom how that happened. I responded immediately to every suspension and even have an email from my last cron job which occurred 2 days before the deletion (which aren’t supposed to run when your account is suspended). Fortunately, I backup the website fairly regularly so I only lost one post… the one complaining about my host… how convenient? Anyway, I think I have everything worked out finally… and prepare for a bitchfest… just warning you… its coming.

AMAZING comment thread on slashdot.

Indian CEO Says Most US Tech Grads “Unemployable”

“yes.. because getting in foreign workers will help REDUCE local unemployment…. maybe in soviet russia.”

“If you have 10 people and none of them have jobs, you have 100% unemployment. If you then bring in 90 people with jobs and keep the 10 people with no jobs, you have 100 people and only 10% unemployment. See? Bringing in people and giving them jobs does help local unemployment.”

“OK, you made me laugh. But … Theoretically you should get an even lower UE rate. You see those 90 people with jobs will need someone to serve them burgers when they go McDonalds. If 3 of the original 10 unemployed get jobs serving the needs of those 90, leaving you with a 7% UE rate, and, more importantly, with a lower number of unemployed people. That, at least in theory, is how bringing in skilled labour is meant to reduce unemployment.”

“If those 90 people are forbidden from eating cows by their religion, the original 10 are still screwed. McDonald’s won’t be hiring.”

“wtf does mcdonalds have to do with cows?”

“About as much as KFC has to do with chickens.”

My current theme annoys me.

I’m not looking for a professional site by any means… but for some reason my current layout/scheme looks very… rough, to me anyway. I’ve been playing with the current css and images, etc and can’t come up with anything much better than what I got.

Check out the links after the jump to preview what I’m considering. Keep in mind that I will customize a fair amount as far as sidebar content, but I like the color schemes pretty well. Thoughts are welcome.

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Verzion can burn in Hell…

Unfortunately… I think they’re already part of it…

So… my contract is almost up and I’m looking to get a smart phone and data plan. I’ve been a customer of Verizon since I was 16 (a little more than 8 years) with the account in my name since I was 18 so I thought it would just be easiest to stay with them. I’ve been watching Verizon phones in dismay for over a year. The Moto Q, the Treo 700, the xv6800/6900… most of the phones have been nearly unusable not to mention completely crippled by Verizon (i.e. they remove BlueTooth profiles, WiFi capability, and completely restrict access to the GPS chips). I kinda just figured that this wouldn’t change and when I really wanted a smart phone I’d just switch to AT&T until I saw the Samsung Omnia. It has all of the features I want, is very customizable, and actually has enough memory and processor power to be useful. The only disappointment was that Verizon, in standard normal fashion, crippled the GPS to only be usable with the VZNavigator. However, I was given hope when I read some online communities quoted Verizon execs saying it would be unlocked in the first half of ’09.

I tried to upgrade my account online and noticed I wasn’t able to select the “Connect” plan which was supposed to be unlimited data, messaging, etc. In fact… the only plans I could select were the “Basic” and the “Select” plans and I had to add a data plan on top of those… With some concern, I sent Verizon a request for information (I didn’t keep the exact wording… but I do tend to be very tactful when asking questions of this sort – they were also nice enough to “recap” the phone conversation in an email).

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