Just in case you needed a reminder that racism is still loud and proud. Be sure to read the comments.

African Dinosaur

There have been recent articles on eWeek and other sites about the possibility of Google buying Sprint. Although I have said for the past few months that this is something Google should at least look in to, if not do, I’m no longer sure I think its a good idea. Sprint has 2 assets Google should want, Wireless Spectrum and a Tier 1 Network. Most articles and rumor sites I have read have focused on the Wireless portion of the deal because Google has already announced plans to enter the upcoming 700 Mhz auction, which is considered prime for wireless internet , and Wireless Spectrum would allow Google to ensure people can get online everywhere, therefore search from anywhere. Buying Sprint and renewing the plan to build a WiMax network is probably the quickest way to make Google’s dream of everyone having internet access from anywhere come true.

I think the Network is a key, often overlooked, part of a potential deal because of Net Neutrality. If Google owned one of the 9 Tier 1s and promised to be Net Neutral, it may force the other Tier 1s to remain/become Net Neutral in order to stay competitive. Google has openly campaigned for Net Neutrality, including publishing an Open Letter from CEO Eric Schmidt. Buying Sprint would allow Google to put its money where its mouth is, so to speak. Google has bought an undisclosed amount of Dark Fiber, but probably not enough to impact Net Neutrality. Buying Sprint would probably get them there.

There are a few problems with the potential deal. First Sprint’s market cap is roughly $45 Billion. That is a hefty price tag for a struggling company. Second, Sprint uses CDMA and IDEN on their Sprint and Nextel networks, respectively, instead of GSM, which I believe Google would prefer. In addition, Sprint has baggage, such as long distance and a terrible customer service reputation, Google probably doesn’t want to deal with. Google could go for Clearwire, with market cap of roughly $2.5 Billion, instead. Google would save enough money by purchasing Clearwire instead of Sprint, to build the wireless network.

What about the Tier 1 Network I thought was so important to ensuring Net Neutrality? Well, there are other options. AT&T (market cap of $240 Billion), Verizon ($127 Billion), and AOL ($63 Billion) are likely out of the acquisition question because of their price and the number of assets they have that Google wouldn’t want and NTT ($32 Billion) and TeliaSonera ($44 Billion) are likely out of the question because of their ties to foreign governments. Qwest ($12 Billion) is a possibility, but unlikely because there are 3 better options; Level 3 ($5 Billion), Savvis ($2 Billion), and Global Crossing ($1 Billion). Google could buy Clearwire, Level 3, Savvis, and Global Crossing for less than $15 Billion, leaving twice that amount to complete the wireless network before reaching Sprint’s price tag. This plan would allow Google to acquire wireless expertise, in the form of Clearwire, without the baggage of Sprint. It would also allow Google to impact the Net Neutrality debate by becoming one of the largest data carriers in the World.

We’ve come to a strange point in time when a company restricts how many of their product the customer can buy and will not let them pay cash for the product.

This was the sentiment when Apple made it so customers could not buy more than 2 iPhones and could not pay cash for them. At first I thiought the not accepting cash portion was illegal, but apparently the “This note is legal tender for all debt, public and private” message written on money truly only applies to debt, not consumer purchases.

This week I upgraded my Cingular 8525 to Windows Mobile 6 (WM6). I say Cingular instead of AT&T because it is old enough that it is Cingular branded (externally) and needed the last ROM update to be internally AT&T branded. Here are my thoughts from my first weekend with the upgrade:

• IMAP is fixed. When using WM5 I could not delete messages off the server, but I can with WM6. This means I don’t have to delete the same message multiple times on my phone and in Outlook.
• Schedule mail send/receive has been fixed. Now when I ask for an account to be checked every so often, it is.
• Windows Update has been incorporated. Although I haven’t really tested this yet because there haven’t been any updates release, this should make it much easier and more convenient to fix minor bugs.
• The 3G flash screen volume has been adjusted to a reasonable level. This was one of my largest complaints previously, especially after learning it was not an issue in the AT&T branded 8525s.
• Messages have some issues. When I created a new text message it flashes to the Today screen before creating a new message. It has also gone to the Today screen randomly when I clicked to open a message in one of my inboxes.
• My Documents comes with a lot of unnecessary folders. This isn’t a major issue because I could delete them without them returning.
• I can now save a number from the call history to an existing contact. Why it took so long for this, I have no idea.
• I can also now view an email sender’s address without saving that person as a new contact. Again, what took so long?

That is all for now.

There are a lot of congratulations to give. Starting with my sister who on Friday found out she passed the bar exam. Congratulations are also in order for Justin and Pierre who found out they will soon be fathers and Robin and Angel, who just brought children into the world. Last, but not least are those that will be getting married soon; Brian & Stephanie, Mandy, and David & Ashley.

Just in case you haven’t seen it, and I wouldn’t have if it weren’t for a phone call; my good friend Josh Jones is one of the finalist in the Captain Morgan Pose Off. Please visit the Captain Morgan website and vote for him. From what I could tell the goal was to take an interesting picture of people doing the Captain Morgan pose, with the most interesting winning a trip to Vegas. Josh and company, being cheerleaders, decided to do 1-arm libs with the girls and guys doing the pose.

In completely unrelated news, Andre Woodson is up for the AT&T college football player of the week. Please visit the ESPN website to learn how vote for him.

A friend, co-worker, and former roommate popped the question recently. Of course she said yes, otherwise I wouldn’t be writing about it. I’ll let him tell the story.

My question is how much does reality matter? I ask on a few levels, but first let me tell a story. A few years ago I took a trip to NY with a few friends, 8 of us in total. One night 4 of us, 2 guys and 2 girls, sat in my room and talked over a few drinks. We all wound up sleeping in the 2 beds in my room. When I got back home my girlfreind was insisting I had hooked up with the person I slept next to. (How she found out about it prior to me making it home is a story for another day). It was the beginning of the continuous fight that became our end. This is one example of the reality of me not cheating on my girl didn’t matter because she beleived I did.

Another example is clinical drug trials. There are often instances where the group taking the placebo reports having their condition improve in the same manner as the group taking the experimental drug. Their belief in the drug enabled them to improve when the reality was the drug didn’t do anything for them. In other words, reality did not matter. Some aspects of dreams come to mind. I’ve had many dreams that were so realistic they influenced my actions in the real world. How many other scenarios does this apply to?

I’ve been asked about Apple’s iPhone many times over the past few months and have decided to share portions of these conversations with you. The most popular question is people asking me “Are you going to buy the iPhone?”, to which I reply “no”. As much as I like Apple, plan on switching to an Apple MacBook next Spring, and have faith in their talented engineers, I would not buy a first generation phone from anyone. There are companies that have been making phones for a long time, Nokia & Motorola come to mind, that still don’t have it perfect. And lets not get started on the issues with Windows Mobile 5. Why would I take a $600, two year chance with someone’s first attempt?

When people ask for more detail on why I won’t get one I point to a few reasons. First, the iPhone doesn’t work on AT&T 3G network, meaning internet speeds will be slow. I know AT&T upgraded the network prior to the iPhone’s release, but I don’t expect to see any gain from that once a million iPhones start abusing the network. In addition, the storage space is too small. I have a 60GB iPod which is hard to replace with a 8GB device. Next, I have a phone (with 3G connectivity, wi-fi, and Outlook synchronization) and an iPod, so the timing of a convergence device isn’t good for me. When I look to replace my iPod I’ll take a good look at the iPhone. (I say iPod because I go through phones pretty quickly and will probably replace a few phones before I replace my iPod). I also expect a new iPhone to be announced in January at MacWorld. Some say it will be out before Black Friday (the day after Thanksgiving, which is the busiest shopping day of the year), which seems a little soon to me, but I am expecting a full screen video iPod out by then. And finally, did I mention I wouldn’t buy a first phone from anyone.

The iPhone will benefit almost all mobile phone users in some way. In addition to AT&T’s network upgrade, which instantly puts pressure on competitors to upgrade their networks, AT&T had to make modifications to allow the visual voicemail feature, meaning it will be available on more phones. The iPhone also sets a soft cap of $600 for phones because competitors need a reason to charge more that the iPhone costs for a phone that isn’t as useful or cool. Finally, it will make competitors step up the features of their phones in order to compete. Competition benefits the consumer and Apple just woke up the competition with a resounding slap in the face.

Last week I became a fan of Google Maps on my mobile and Monday I became a big fan. I started working at a new client’s office in an area of DC I have never been, so last week I punched the address in Google Maps. It pulled up the map, as expected, but more importantly it displayed the Metro station near the address, which is what I was trying to determine in the first place. Today as I was sitting in the new office, which is very close to the under construction stadium for the Washington Nationals, I pulled up the map again hoping to find the address to a restaurant I was told was near. When I looked at the application I noticed it allowed me to search for businesses near an address. It still had the business address saved from last week so all I had to do was type restaurants and it listed about 8 that were near me.

Later in the week I needed to make reservations for our Brotherhood dinner at the Caucus Room on Saturday, so I started Google Maps and searched for the Caucus Room. It gave me the address and phone number, which was expected, but it also displayed the name Caucus Room when I called; something normally reserved for numbers in my phone book.