My EVDO modem, the Sierra AirCard 595U, was a piece of junk. It kernel panicked, for Pete’s sake! I called Sprint, today, to arrange for its return. I think it’s a sham that they say that it’s compatible with Mac OS, since it seems very problematic on Intel, which is now, I think, all that Apple sells. Worse, it’s the only USB EVDO device they sell.

The trip in this morning was miserable for EVDO connection. I could barely stay online for more than a few minutes at a time. I had at least one kernel panic. Eventually, I dialed into T-Mobile’s network over my RAZR, only to be reminded how painfully slow it is. EVDO is totally awesome… when it works.

I’ve been a Speakeasy customer for about seven years now, and a Service Electric TV customer for about as long. Come next week, though, I will no longer be either. I am switching to RCN cable TV and cable modem.

Crome mentioned to me that my upload and download speeds seemed lousy, and it occurred to me that maybe the problem was that I’d hit a server that couldn’t give me much more than 70 KB/s sustained upstream. Today, I tried DSL Reports’ speed test, not so much because I think it’s super accurate, but because I knew it would be easy, and would be able to give me a better estimate than scping from a random host.

Sprint PCS was my very first cell phone provider. Shortly after we moved back to Pennsylvania, though, I got rid of them and switched to VoiceStream. With some brief outages (while using awful Nextel phones at IQE), I’ve been with VoiceStream (now T-Mobile) since then.

Here are my examples of hateful web interface from today. I have been looking at getting an EVDO device to replace using my RAZR as a modem. This led me to poking around on the websites of both Sprint-Nextel and Verizon.

Every time I blindly click a “Contact Us” link and see Mail.app launching, my teeth itch. It takes too long, it complains about certs, and I don’t want to freaking send any mail with Mail.app anyway! Why can’t I use mutt?

Converting to git has been fun, educational, and annoying, at various times. Here are some notes (mostly to myself) on the fun, educational, and annoying bits that I solved today.

I’ve implemented a very, very crude Vim colorscheme parser. It’s a terrible implementation, but it probably works against most color schemes. Most importantly, it works against mine. Patches welcome.

Normally, I take the 17:15 bus from Philadelphia, and it gets me to Bethlehem around 19:10. On Fridays, traffic is worse, and its arrival is closer to 19:30. I’m writing this at 18:50, and we’ve just now gotten off the streets of downtown Philadelphia. We spent about ninety minutes sitting on Walnut Street, doing nothing. A cab driver insisted that the bus hit him, but couldn’t show much or any damage. Despite this, and despite exchanging insurance information, he was not going to let us go. He demanded that we wait for his insurance agent. The bus driver was livid and the other passengers exasperated. I was just disappointed that I’d be getting home in time for nearly no time with Martha before she starts heading to bed.