a couple of months ago, i cancelled my landline phone service. but i kept a phone jacked in because i could apparently make 911 calls.
then a couple of weeks ago, i began to hear this phone ring. the first time, i did not pick up in time (i was still asleep). then when it rang again, i picked up and actually had a conversation with a telemarketer. how is this possible? i tried calling the number myself and got the standard disconnect message. can these automated computer dialers actually get through even though i've cancelled service? did they make a deal with the phone company? i'd like to know the answer to this question because it's bugging me.
20080806
fear of cancelling your landline
on friday, the 1st of august, i decided that should not be paying the phone company for something that i do not use. and that is my landline phone service at home. i have had a cell phone since 1995 and it took me this long to get rid of my landline because i saw it as insurance in case i need to call 911 from my home. the thought is that with a cell phone, the 911 call centers may not be able to locate where you are calling from with enough accuracy to find you in time. however, all landlines are associated with an address. so it's easy to find you. and even if the method of triangulating your position with cell phone technology is 100% accurate, it's only acurate to pin-point you on a 2-d map. so if you happened to be in an apartment building that is 6 stories high. triangulation can't tell you which story you are on.
i knew all of this when i decided to cancel my home phone service. but i was willing to take the risk anyway. 24-hours after the cancellation, i picked up the phone to see if there was still a dial tone. to my surprise, the dial tone was still there. then i decided to dial up my own cell number to test if it still worked. it didn't. there was an automated message saying that the line is not in service and that i should call the phone company to activate service. but right after that, the message continued on to say that for emergencies, i should dial 911.
needless to say, i was totally surprised. i am not saying that this is the case with everyone who's cancelled their landline service. i'm still not clear on the reason. perhaps it's a law similar to a cell phone's ability to make 911 calls even if there isn't a sim chip in it (for gsm phones) or even if the bill was never ever paid and service was cut off.
anyway, i'm glad i took the risk and it paid off. i was able to put into storage two phones (two less wall warts that constantly drain electricity) and i just replaced them with an old-school phone that just plugs into the phone jack but did not require electricity. you should always have one of these old school phones anyway, since it works without electricity. chances are that both electrical and phone lines will be out of commission in a large emergency (think major earthquake). but there is still a chance that phones lines will still be intact and working.
so if you have kept your landline all these years as insurance for 911 calls, you should call your phone company and ask about the ability to make those calls if service is cancelled.
i knew all of this when i decided to cancel my home phone service. but i was willing to take the risk anyway. 24-hours after the cancellation, i picked up the phone to see if there was still a dial tone. to my surprise, the dial tone was still there. then i decided to dial up my own cell number to test if it still worked. it didn't. there was an automated message saying that the line is not in service and that i should call the phone company to activate service. but right after that, the message continued on to say that for emergencies, i should dial 911.
needless to say, i was totally surprised. i am not saying that this is the case with everyone who's cancelled their landline service. i'm still not clear on the reason. perhaps it's a law similar to a cell phone's ability to make 911 calls even if there isn't a sim chip in it (for gsm phones) or even if the bill was never ever paid and service was cut off.
anyway, i'm glad i took the risk and it paid off. i was able to put into storage two phones (two less wall warts that constantly drain electricity) and i just replaced them with an old-school phone that just plugs into the phone jack but did not require electricity. you should always have one of these old school phones anyway, since it works without electricity. chances are that both electrical and phone lines will be out of commission in a large emergency (think major earthquake). but there is still a chance that phones lines will still be intact and working.
so if you have kept your landline all these years as insurance for 911 calls, you should call your phone company and ask about the ability to make those calls if service is cancelled.
20080611
riding the metro in los angeles
because i can no longer stand the ever-rising price of gasoline, i thought that i should try out the metro. the route is not so bad since i found out that there is a bus nearby my home that takes me to union station in los angeles and from there i transfer to the red line which takes me to about a half mile from my work place.
i took it on a test ride one monday morning and it went as smooth as you can expect. the red line runs frequently enough that there is never a wait of more than 15 minutes. the total trip on the test ride took an hour and 45 minutes. total ride time on both lines took about 45 minutes, so the extra hour went to waiting and walk time. and the ride back home in mid-afternoon was a little quicker. each way was roughly an hour longer than if i was to drive myself. but i didn't mind knowing that i was saving a bunch of money and taking one vehicle off the road in the process.
and two days later, i made a decision to commit to this mode of transportation and bought a monthly pass. on this day, the morning commute went as usual. however the ride home was quite a different manner. i got off work at around 17:30 this time. the ride on the red line to downtown was no problem. but when i got to the bus stop for the second leg of my trip home, i had just missed my bus by about 3 minutes (according to the schedule). so i waited for the next one, which is due to arrive 40 minutes later at 19:17. this bus did not arrive on time, and when it finally did arrive, the "no service" light was on. it just drove past everyone uncaringly.
now my thinking was that since this one was not in service, that another would be due to arrive soon. no such luck. 20 minutes went by (now 19:39) and i decided to take an alternate bus. this route requires me to take a third bus to arrive at my destination, but i didn't have a choice since the next one was not due until 20:15. so i hopped on the next arriving bus, knowing that it goes partially in my direction and that i could stop along the way to catch yet another bus to finally take me home.
i arrived at the next stop at 19:50, and waited until 20:18 for my final ride. finally got home at 20:45 but had to hop into my very own vehicle to go to my mother's for a quick dinner. finished my dinner and left my mother's at about 21:25. two minutes later (now 21:27...duh), when i got onto my home street, guess what i saw. that's right, the bus that was supposed to take me home in the first place.
this, on the day that i made a commitment to public transportation and purchased a monthly ticket to show it, is not making a good impression on me.
the rail lines are very reliable but the buses are sadly lacking.
it took me 3 hours and 15 minutes to get home.
i took it on a test ride one monday morning and it went as smooth as you can expect. the red line runs frequently enough that there is never a wait of more than 15 minutes. the total trip on the test ride took an hour and 45 minutes. total ride time on both lines took about 45 minutes, so the extra hour went to waiting and walk time. and the ride back home in mid-afternoon was a little quicker. each way was roughly an hour longer than if i was to drive myself. but i didn't mind knowing that i was saving a bunch of money and taking one vehicle off the road in the process.
and two days later, i made a decision to commit to this mode of transportation and bought a monthly pass. on this day, the morning commute went as usual. however the ride home was quite a different manner. i got off work at around 17:30 this time. the ride on the red line to downtown was no problem. but when i got to the bus stop for the second leg of my trip home, i had just missed my bus by about 3 minutes (according to the schedule). so i waited for the next one, which is due to arrive 40 minutes later at 19:17. this bus did not arrive on time, and when it finally did arrive, the "no service" light was on. it just drove past everyone uncaringly.
now my thinking was that since this one was not in service, that another would be due to arrive soon. no such luck. 20 minutes went by (now 19:39) and i decided to take an alternate bus. this route requires me to take a third bus to arrive at my destination, but i didn't have a choice since the next one was not due until 20:15. so i hopped on the next arriving bus, knowing that it goes partially in my direction and that i could stop along the way to catch yet another bus to finally take me home.
i arrived at the next stop at 19:50, and waited until 20:18 for my final ride. finally got home at 20:45 but had to hop into my very own vehicle to go to my mother's for a quick dinner. finished my dinner and left my mother's at about 21:25. two minutes later (now 21:27...duh), when i got onto my home street, guess what i saw. that's right, the bus that was supposed to take me home in the first place.
this, on the day that i made a commitment to public transportation and purchased a monthly ticket to show it, is not making a good impression on me.
the rail lines are very reliable but the buses are sadly lacking.
it took me 3 hours and 15 minutes to get home.
20080312
can microsoft use up any more space?
so i bought myself a new laptop with vista on it about a month ago. it came with a hard drive that's been partitioned into two logical drives, each about equal in size. and i've been gradually loading it with the various softwares that i use, with the intention of transitioning to a laptop permanently instead of using my desktop as my main computer.
tonight i happened to notice that my c: drive is at near capacity at around 45 gigs leaving only 5 gigs left. what? i know i didn't load that much sofware and my data files amount to no more than 100 mb. so i began to tally up the sizes of each and every folder on the root directory.
seeing that the "Users" directory is about 20 gigs raised a huge alarm in my head. like i said, i have about 100 mb in data files that are on the c: drive (i make it a point to save all my data files on the d: drive or an external drive). at first, i couldn't find the source of the files that used up the 20 gigs. then i remember that there is a hidden folder for each user, called "Application Data" in winxp, with its equivalent named "AppData" in vista.
it's normally hidden. so i go into Tools>Folder Options at the drop down menu and selected the option to show hidden files/folders. eureka....once the AppData folder showed itself, i drilled further into it (C:\Users\Hue Tang\AppData\Local\Temp). this temp folder holds 20 gigs of files that should have been deleted when its usefullness has come to an end. but every useless file stuck around. unbelievable. deleted the contents and i've just reclaimed more than a third of my c: drive.
microsoft, if you are listening, this may be another reason why people don't want to use vista. even though hard drive space is cheap, it doesn't mean that there is an endless supply, especially on a laptop. what are you thinking?
and on another matter, why do you schedule things to happen in the middle of the night? do you actually expect people to leave their computers on 24/7? in this time and age when people are trying to conserve energy and do all they can to save the planet, you aren't doing anything to help. you don't manufacture a lot of hardware, but in my opinion, you are one of the worst polluters on the planet for not adopting the right attitude. you're presence is widespread enough that if everyone left their computers on at 2 am for updates, this planet is sure to be in a worse situation overnight.
tonight i happened to notice that my c: drive is at near capacity at around 45 gigs leaving only 5 gigs left. what? i know i didn't load that much sofware and my data files amount to no more than 100 mb. so i began to tally up the sizes of each and every folder on the root directory.
seeing that the "Users" directory is about 20 gigs raised a huge alarm in my head. like i said, i have about 100 mb in data files that are on the c: drive (i make it a point to save all my data files on the d: drive or an external drive). at first, i couldn't find the source of the files that used up the 20 gigs. then i remember that there is a hidden folder for each user, called "Application Data" in winxp, with its equivalent named "AppData" in vista.
it's normally hidden. so i go into Tools>Folder Options at the drop down menu and selected the option to show hidden files/folders. eureka....once the AppData folder showed itself, i drilled further into it (C:\Users\Hue Tang\AppData\Local\Temp). this temp folder holds 20 gigs of files that should have been deleted when its usefullness has come to an end. but every useless file stuck around. unbelievable. deleted the contents and i've just reclaimed more than a third of my c: drive.
microsoft, if you are listening, this may be another reason why people don't want to use vista. even though hard drive space is cheap, it doesn't mean that there is an endless supply, especially on a laptop. what are you thinking?
and on another matter, why do you schedule things to happen in the middle of the night? do you actually expect people to leave their computers on 24/7? in this time and age when people are trying to conserve energy and do all they can to save the planet, you aren't doing anything to help. you don't manufacture a lot of hardware, but in my opinion, you are one of the worst polluters on the planet for not adopting the right attitude. you're presence is widespread enough that if everyone left their computers on at 2 am for updates, this planet is sure to be in a worse situation overnight.
20080305
you, too, can be green
start by sending electronic payments to pay your bills instead of writing checks. most banks even encourage that you pay your bills through your bank instead of writing checks, so much so that they make it free for you to do so. this reduces on the number of trees being cut down just so that they can make the paper used to print your checks. and this also reduces on the use of fuel by the postal service for delivering your payment.
next, if your creditors offer it, and most do, opt to not receive a bill in the mail. have them notify you by email. you'll most likely be able to login to the site to check out the bill if you so choose. my electrical service, gas service, home telephone, and cell phone service no longer send me "snail mail". the four companies all send me emails, telling me how much i owe on a monthly basis. then i just jump on the net, login to my bank account, and authorize my bank to make electronic payments to the appropriate payees.
but because i want to look at my credit card transactions more closely, i opted to still receive paper bills from my credit card companies. however, payments are still made electronically. i'm hoping to make the full transition soon to not get any paper bills at all in the mail.
i recycle all glass and plastic containers. and it doesn't matter if you don't get much out of it. i don't. they all rest in a large bag in my garage. when it fills up, i leave it next to the trash bin for someone else to pick up or for the trash collection people to pick up. even though i don't get any cash back for my efforts, i know that someone else, and more importantly, the planet, benefits.
and don't leave the water running while you are brushing your teeth. same goes for washing dishes. and finally, turn off the lights when it's not needed. and transition to compact fluorescent bulbs to further cut down on the use of electricity. they also last so much longer than regular incandescent light bulbs.
these are some of the simple things you can do that doesn't require that you spend money to be green. in fact, they save you money. the compact fluorescent bulbs may cost more per bulb, but they pay for themselves within a couple months in the form of a reduce electric bill. they also last much longer, so you don't have to buy replacements so quickly.
next, if your creditors offer it, and most do, opt to not receive a bill in the mail. have them notify you by email. you'll most likely be able to login to the site to check out the bill if you so choose. my electrical service, gas service, home telephone, and cell phone service no longer send me "snail mail". the four companies all send me emails, telling me how much i owe on a monthly basis. then i just jump on the net, login to my bank account, and authorize my bank to make electronic payments to the appropriate payees.
but because i want to look at my credit card transactions more closely, i opted to still receive paper bills from my credit card companies. however, payments are still made electronically. i'm hoping to make the full transition soon to not get any paper bills at all in the mail.
i recycle all glass and plastic containers. and it doesn't matter if you don't get much out of it. i don't. they all rest in a large bag in my garage. when it fills up, i leave it next to the trash bin for someone else to pick up or for the trash collection people to pick up. even though i don't get any cash back for my efforts, i know that someone else, and more importantly, the planet, benefits.
and don't leave the water running while you are brushing your teeth. same goes for washing dishes. and finally, turn off the lights when it's not needed. and transition to compact fluorescent bulbs to further cut down on the use of electricity. they also last so much longer than regular incandescent light bulbs.
these are some of the simple things you can do that doesn't require that you spend money to be green. in fact, they save you money. the compact fluorescent bulbs may cost more per bulb, but they pay for themselves within a couple months in the form of a reduce electric bill. they also last much longer, so you don't have to buy replacements so quickly.
20080304
10 times faster vs. 10 times as fast
i have a problem with people, especially those who are the technical fields and those who report on technical things, when they tout that something new is "10 times faster" than the original.
let's take the next generation of usb speed, for instance. it is speculated that after usb 2, the generation of usb devices will perform a 4800 kbps, as opposed to 480 kbps for usb 2. here's my problem. tech people are saying that this is 10 times "faster" when in fact it is 10 times "as fast".
there is a difference. let's take an example. if i travel 10 miles at the rate of 10 miles per hour, i would have arrived in 1 hour. another person covers the same distance in 10 hours traveling at a much slower pace of 1 mile per hour. in this case, i would have arrived 9 hours earlier, not 10. substitute "faster" for "earlier" it makes a lot of sense. to say it the other way, i would have traveled 10 times as fast, not 10 times faster.
10 times faster than 1 mile per hour is actually 11 miles per hour.
to put it yet another way, we commonly hear that something is "twice as fast" as something else. you would have no trouble figuring out that if i traveled at 5 miles per hour, twice as fast is 10 miles per hour. notice that hardly anyone says "two times faster".
the same concept applies for "more" vs "as much". just ask yourself if you would rather have twice as much as your current salary or two times more. example: i make $1 an hour. making twice as much is making $2 an hour whereas making two times more would imply 2 times more than the original.
original = $1.
two times original = $2.
two times more than original <=> two times original + original <=> $2 + $1 = $3.
so think about the terms you should be using the next time you have a comparison such as this. i can only say that technical people should know better and people who report on tech issues should know as well.
let's take the next generation of usb speed, for instance. it is speculated that after usb 2, the generation of usb devices will perform a 4800 kbps, as opposed to 480 kbps for usb 2. here's my problem. tech people are saying that this is 10 times "faster" when in fact it is 10 times "as fast".
there is a difference. let's take an example. if i travel 10 miles at the rate of 10 miles per hour, i would have arrived in 1 hour. another person covers the same distance in 10 hours traveling at a much slower pace of 1 mile per hour. in this case, i would have arrived 9 hours earlier, not 10. substitute "faster" for "earlier" it makes a lot of sense. to say it the other way, i would have traveled 10 times as fast, not 10 times faster.
10 times faster than 1 mile per hour is actually 11 miles per hour.
to put it yet another way, we commonly hear that something is "twice as fast" as something else. you would have no trouble figuring out that if i traveled at 5 miles per hour, twice as fast is 10 miles per hour. notice that hardly anyone says "two times faster".
the same concept applies for "more" vs "as much". just ask yourself if you would rather have twice as much as your current salary or two times more. example: i make $1 an hour. making twice as much is making $2 an hour whereas making two times more would imply 2 times more than the original.
original = $1.
two times original = $2.
two times more than original <=> two times original + original <=> $2 + $1 = $3.
so think about the terms you should be using the next time you have a comparison such as this. i can only say that technical people should know better and people who report on tech issues should know as well.
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