For December 30: You cannot please the entire friggin’ world, but you can make a handful of friends, colleagues and loved ones very happy. Concentrate on that today. Spend time with people who are in tune with your complicated private life. Spend time with someone who actually knows how to make you laugh later today, despite the tension and drama you’ve coped with. You feel so much better this afternoon – as if a ton of concrete has been lifted off your chest. You sense that things will get better and return to some state of normal. (Normal is always a puzzler for Aquarius.) So let’s just say that life will eventually return to a manageable state before the end of the first quarter next year. You’ll also have a domestic matter under control. A situation that’s been falling apart for years is either repurposed or set free. You, with your far-sighted visionary eyes, witness a lot of people and situations finally spreading their wings and taking flight.

Source: Bridgett Walther

For December 29: Today continues your existential search for why something is the way it is, what’s the point, and other questions without answers. You need to reach out to someone who will listen and comfort you. This can be a friend, a professional, even a kindly neighbor who isn’t a gossip. You can’t continue to bottle up impossible emotions that are literally scraping off the lining of your insides. You feel so alone in this – and yet there’s a line around the block of friends and loved ones eager to guide, protect, and most of all, comfort and console you. You’re about to embark on an important change of lifestyle. Friends and allies are worth more than diamonds and gold. Keep them close.

Source: Bridgett Walther

December 24: Here’s to a beautiful, spiritually blessed Christmas Eve! You’re in a hurry to make things happen, so stir up some action (hopefully decisive stuff) and have some fun. Games will be played. Competitions will be set out. Try to set things up so that everyone gets a shot at winning or at least feeling like a contender. You add extra points to the one who’s able to be the most appealing, victorious, mysterious, and out of reach. Some of you deal with medical issues that are truly beyond your scope. Make a few phone calls and hope for the best. Togetherness is the ideal state later today. If this isn’t possible, try to connect via phone or email.

Source: Bridgett Walther

side note: If you are a previous Bridgett Walther reader and no longer subscribe to her horoscopes. Send me your horoscope and I will post.

December 23: You feel slightly wild today – not coyote wild, but feral cat wild. You forage around for love, attention, admiration, and appreciation, and get what you need without working hard at all. You’re always in action today, working your body, mind and soul in perfect harmony. Suddenly, you feel good, happy, relieved and relaxed. It helps to feel so liberated from a thick smothering blanket of darkness. The golden glow of hope burns a hole through that blanket of darkness, giving you a new outlook, reason to hope and look forward to the future. You also feel so much better about yourself. And you deserve it, Aquarius. Think of all the wonderful things you’ve done for others. What goes round may take a while, but it finally does come round.

Source: Bridgett Walther

For December 21: Love, lust, and luscious proclivities certainly get your day off to a bang. (That choice of words is literal and intentional, FYI.) You, despite your honesty and eccentricities that often set you apart from others, are in heat and are looking for deep satisfaction. I have no doubt that you’ll get it, simply by asking for it. The Winter Solstice begins today, signaling your shadow side, your ability to live two or three lives simultaneously, without most people knowing the full story. You have secrets to keep and a whole lot of fun stops on the way today. You feel free as a bird to do something you WANT to do, whether others like it or not. Frankly, my dear, you don’t give a damn. It’s your turn. Take it.

Source: Bridgett Walther

It seems my earlier “clarifications” fell really short and did not give a complete picture regarding the wireless network issues. Here is more…

1) With my earlier post I was not trying to shiFt the blame away from AT&T for the network issues or dropped calls. My intention was/is laying out the elements involved (technical mostly) in wireless comms so that we may be able to suggest solutions or have a more informed opinion. But if someone still insists in criticizing, do criticize the right place having a better and clearer picture of what’s going on.

2) My earlier “the wireless network is a huge huge collection of hardware” fell very short of how complex the wireless network can be because it is not only about size (and huge size should not justify crappiness) it also includes quality, and usually more than one wireless carrier is involved; see the comment Gregg Thurmanover posted on macdailynews.com regarding the New York Times article “AT&T Takes the Blame, Even for the iPhone’s Faults”:

“The big problem with user experience is that they haven’t a clue why they are having a problem. They use ATT but the person they are talking to uses Verizon (or something else). Is the dropped call ATT’s fault, or is the fault at the other end? Without proper recording and analysis technologies, with complete disclosure by all the carriers, NOBODY knows where the problems exist.”

The reality is AT&T cell phone users connect/call not only AT&T cell phone users but also Verizon, or T-Mobile, or Sprint cell phone users. This makes “blame AT&T” the more difficult to assert (looks like diversifying the blame would be more accurate; an instance would be the iPhone 3G radio issue suggested in the NYT article, which is part of the hardware networking devices I talked about in my earlier post).

Reality means, every cell phone call (signal) travels through a [usually] big number of different and diverse wireless networks (and at times wired as well if your call goes to/comes from land line) before it reaches the other end (and this is sometimes true even if calling an in-network user).

It also means.., let’s say we are in New York cell phone calling a friend in San Francisco, whose carrier is different than ours, in a nice day for the continental US and the call is dropped (frustrating it is). Who, what do we blame? Man, it is very difficult to know what happened in between and why. I wouldn’t know and couldn’t explain. But we very easily throw the blame to our carrier because it is the “visible” suspect, who else could we blame? Understandable but honestly, we have no clue of what happened much less who is to blame.

Technical note: In this scenario of so far away calling, your call likely travelled wirelessly within your city/region portion. After that, we don’t know how it went to SF, although most likely fiber optic (or other wired medium), or it could have gone mixed travel, wireless and wired. I, as a user, don’t know how my call was carried, and I don’t care, I just want NO fumble. And the same “could have gone mixed travel” pattern very much applies for a wireless call within the same city same carrier.

3) Some say images help to understand things. Has anyone seen how the wireless networkS (yes in plural) look like from atop? Not me. Not like a spider web; spider web seems too structured for a wireless network; probably on some cities/places only. Like a fish men net (similar to our interstate highway system)? Maybe on some places of the country. Concentric circles? Not likely but who knows. The image I tend to lean most is the one of a collage of [mostly unstructured] networks sewn together.

4) We have to accept the diversity of our landscape. The wireless network solution for a [New York] city is not and will not be the same for places like The Grand Canyon. Means the wireless network is as diverse as our landscape; building a network in some places will be nearly impossible, some places do not financially justify building it at all, and in some places is not even necessary to build one. These factors perhaps play part in an assessment for a carrier to determine whether to build or not to build a wireless network. This is for those talking/complaining about “poor coverage”.

5) What do we want out of the wireless network? If we see the network pipes as threads this is what we want:

• Larger/longer threads – greater coverage.

• Better threads – reliability (lesser drops, lesser noise).

• Thicker threads – capacity (bandwidth), more “water” in less time.

So what with all these clarifications? If you want to blame your carrier less frequently…

• Try to stick with that carrier that has the fewer networks sewn (if you can determine that).

• Try to stick with that carrier having/building/upgrading better technology for the wireless network. A simple example from the wired world… For my land line phone service I would subscribe with the company using fiber optic for the wires over the one that still using copper; the company using fiber optic will likely have less trouble carrying my call and it will connect me faster. I don’t know much about the different wireless technologies but the criteria holds, go with the one having better technology for carrying wireless signals (the larger network with “same-kind” technology – coverage, the more resistant to obstacles – strength, greater capacity – faster). An instance would be  choosing 3G over EDGE.

• Try to go for the carrier with LARGER/GREATER self-owned wireless network (if you can determine that).

• If you travel abroad frequently it won’t matter what home carrier you pick, your call will usually be carried by multiple carriers in different countries to the other end. In this case you may want to go with the lesser cost for the wireless service.

• If there is only one carrier in your area and cannot live without cell phone and cannot move then you are in a pickle and yes, you can keep blaming your carrier.

In summary…, because of the complexity of the wireless network and the inherent weaknesses of wireless signals it makes really hard to know what failed (specially when it’s the signal getting lost) and who is to blame. Nevertheless, carriers have to do their best to keep a good signal up and running; the wireless carrier that can achieve that will get the most wireless subscribers.

Even though I’m not a cell phone user, I like phone communications (wired or wireless) and even more when they work. It felt really cool when I had the chance to experience Nextel’s then just introduced walkie-talkie technology; I was able to connect/talk with a coworker in Monterrey while I was in Mexico City, instantaneously after the push of a button!!! (no dialing) If you know about the topographical shape that separates those two cities (you can check Google maps) and you know no satellite was involved, then you tend to believe telecommunication is magic.

What phone carriers do for us is already amazing.

Questo, que lotro.., salud!

Last Friday I was out pretty late with some friends. It was freezing out when I hopped off the train. I got home safely that night, but why was there an NYT blanket in my bag?

I’d like to say that I was completely and utterly unsober when I signed up to receive the New York Times, one of the finest newspapers still circulating, but alas that wasn’t the case. The fact of the matter is that I’ve been meaning to subscribe to the NYT for a long time now (almost a year), but I could never quite figure out how I would find the time in my busy life to read the paper. I also hate the ink that comes off – leading me to embrace digital technologies that do away with that problem once and for all. Besides, I use Google Reader, who needs the NYT right? The other kicker that kept me away from subscribing was the question of why should I have to pay for it when I can read it for free on the Internet?

At 50% off it was a steal. The total came out to roughly $23 and some change. I was offered a $25 Visa gift card, so the first month practically pays for itself. I signed up for two months, and can cancel at any time. So really it’s two months of the well-written NYT for $23. And the guy at the booth gave me a free choice of gift on the table. I picked the blanket. It has the NYT logo sewn in!

I was ready to commit to a year, but the guy in the booth, James, told me the company wasn’t even sure where the NYT would be in a year. I struck conversation and told him that I doubted the NYT would be put out of print in a years time. The NYT isn’t some crass newspaper bent on following around Tiger Woods like Perez Hilton. He agreed. James also informed me that the NYT is planning to pull a Wall Street Journal for its online website soon. Readers will no longer be able to read full articles on the online site, but will still have access to headlines. If you want to read the article, you will need to subscribe.

Needless to say, if the paper form does disappear for good, I get free access to the online articles with my subscriber log-in. All in all it seemed like a good deal.

Today my first issue arrived at my doorstep in a blue plastic bag when I got home. I spent about an hour reading the Business section first and will dive into the rest of the paper tonight. I’m going to adjust and start to make time to read the NYT on a daily basis, but it’s going to be tough. Aside from the new NYT, I’ve also got a handful of magazines arriving in my mailbox and let’s not forget about the unlimited amount of content that I sift through online. It’s a great time to be reading more, that’s for sure. I suppose print isn’t dead…yet.

If you’re interested in subscribing, the NYT holiday booth is located in Union Square, NYC. You can find James scrounging for warmth in one of those booths. Not sure if the deal is as sweet as when I signed up, but it’s worth a check if you’re interested in the NYT.

For December 17: A close friend or partner helps you restart your engine and regain your enthusiasm. Instead of shrugging everything off as hopeless and pointless, you’re able to see the truth, accept it and work with it. You don’t have to love it or even like it, but you can and will deal very effectively with it. This is largely because you have the unconditional support and allegiance of a magnificent friend or partner. Between the two of you, you can work out the kinks in a situation. This will mean absorbing additional responsibility. In order to make sure that things are done right, you must make the time and effort to oversee almost everything.

Source: Bridgett Walther

Everyone by now has seen the Verizon Ads about their chief rival, AT&T, and their lack of coverage. My personal favorite is Santa checking the Reindeer -

Needless to say, Verizons commercials have generated a great deal of angst at AT&T.

AT&T has had a chokehold on what is arguably the best cell phone in the market, the IPhone, since it’s introduction. They have been able to charge premium prices for the phone, as well as add ons for the service.  The service quality has been less than stellar, despite the premium prices. Subscribers are hopping mad – and at least some, are striking back…

Frustrated Subscribers Target AT&T

Thanks to the runaway success of the iPhone, AT&T has the largest wireless network in the country—and the lousiest. Fed-up subscribers, who pay the telco about $30 a month just for data (and another $40 or so for voice), are planning an assault this Friday called Operation Chokehold.

The idea is to cripple AT&T’s network in order to draw attention to its weakness. To do so, participating iPhone users will run data-heavy applications over AT&T’s 3G network on Friday from noon to 1 p.m. Pacific time.

The plan was apparently launched by the Secret Diary of Steve Jobs, a popular blog that satirically impersonates the Apple CEO, but Operation Chokehold has since gained steam with notices popping up on other tech blogs.

It shouldn’t take much to buckle AT&T’s network—it has trouble functioning under normal conditions. Whether the company will do anything in response is another matter. Verizon has blanketed the country in ads mocking its chief rival’s network—ads that wouldn’t be so effective if they didn’t ring true. AT&T tried to sue, but gave up in the end.

The company promised to improve its network in New York and San Francisco—two known problem areas—but don’t hold out hope. AT&T appears as if it is looking for ways to discourage users from using its product—the network—or at least charging them more, according to wireless chief Ralph de la Vega.

Is this the beginning of a new level of consumer rage, kicking back against the dubious business practices of American Corprations which over the last 20 years have become more similar to organized crime than capitalist enitities competing with better products and prices?

Wireless companies have also benefited hugely from a Bushit era Federal Communications Commission run by Michael Powell which couldn’t see a merger or acquisition that could possibly lead to a a monopoly – shrinking the number of competitors and eliminating smaller more technically inventive companies along the way (as well as a few million high-tech jobs). They have also benefited from the evisceration of the Federal Trade Commission, virtually eliminating any semblance of consumer rights, allowing draconian cancellation fees, abusive contract terms, and deceptive practices – leading to “$20,000 phone bills“.

Consumer push back?

What took so long?

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Weekend Update: Friday is really good, particularly if you’re imaginative (show me an Aquarius who isn’t) and slightly eccentric (again, show me the exception). You never were Betty Crocker or Captain Kangaroo. You’ve always been a bit of a hybrid, half human and half big mystery. Your appearance is even otherworldly. People always comment on how unique, gifted and slightly distant (the polite ones refer to you as ‘very private’), even though many of you have mooned the annoying neighbors and made inappropriate gestures during a church service, wedding or graduation. You’ll never be average, so don’t even worry about it. You’re unique and they broke the mold you were made in. Saturday continues your renegade, me-so-weirdo routine. Almost everyone is entertained and fascinated. You definitely get noticed. It’s like Jack Nicholson being photog’d in a bra and pantyhose. (Come to think of it, that probably happened.) At any rate, you continue to surprise and amaze your admirers and detractors alike. So, if you’re looking for attention, feedback and notoriety, this weekend is perfect! If you’re really secretive and ‘very private,’ this weekend might be a test. Sunday feels somewhat out of control, so stop trying to control things. Flow with what happens. And know that, whatever it is, it’s something you set in motion.

courtesy of: Bridgett Walther

Neues Group Gift bei VIRTUAL INSANITY – MAINSTORE im Subscriber

LG
Josie DeCuir

Dieses süsse Kleidchen *SS* SweetHeart mit Flügeln und Zauberstab gibt es zur Zeit im Subscriber bei Sparkle SKye Design auf dem grossen Weihnachtsmarkt. Der kleine Lolli auf dem ich hocke ist kein Freebie. Den hatte ich noch im Handtäschen gefunden

Ohhhh, …. ich sehe gerade der Stab lässt sich anklicken und verteilt kleine Kuchen *schmunzelt! Schade, nun ist das Bildi schon fertig gewesen. Da müsst Ihr selber mal los *lacht!