Motorola Phone Tools

∇ Category:Technology and Toys | → 0 Comments |

Mobile Phone Tools can turn your 3G Motorola phone into a wireless modem for a one time cost of $34.99.  I use AT&T Wireless with a MOTORAZR V3xx ($99) with “Nation 450 w/Rollover(r) Minutes” and “MEdia Net Unlimied (web)” ($39.99 + $15/month).  One piece of sadness is that this only works on Windows as far as I know.  Don’t be surprised if Vista hangs or crashes the program if you try to change the settings too often, XP worked like a charm though.

Here is how you achieve 3G tethering.

Do NOT connect the phone to your computer until the installation tells you to.

Download and install the drivers (32-bit / 64-bit drivers for XP & Vista):
http://direct.motorola.com/hellomoto/nss/usb_drivers_pc_charging_drivers.asp

Download and install the Motorola Phone Tools software:
http://direct.motorola.com/hellomoto/nss/productresource.asp?PhoneModel=mpt

Start the Motorola Phone Tools application.

Connect your phone when the application tells you to.

Once you’re phone is recognized by your computer and the Motorola Phone Tools, you can then connect to the internet using your unlimited web plan by putting in the following configuration:

Click “Connections”
Click “Internet”
Click “Manage Connections”
Select one of them.
Right click to get to the “Properties”.

Click on the “Identification” tab.

Fill in the following information:

Username from MEdia Net (ATT.com login):  (normally your phone number)
Password: (your password from att.com)

APN: wap.cingular

Ok. You are now set.

Select the Connection you just setup on the “Connection” pull-down menu and click the big “Connect” button to the right.

You are good to go.  If you have any questions or otherwise, I am happy to help.

Petition to investigate the Church of Latter-day Saints

∇ Category:Politics, Finance and News | → 0 Comments |

Prop 8 was funded by a Mormon church of Latter-day Saints.  Tax exempt status is a precious reward for non-political charity organizations.  In this time of financial trials, no political organization should be given the ability to pay no taxes and influence elections though direct funding.  Please don’t let this offense slide.

Sign the petition to have their actions reviewed by the IRS:

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/review-the-501c3-status-of-the-church-of-latter-day-saints-the-mormons

What to do now that Obama has won

∇ Category:Humor | → 1 Comments |

Getting healthy

∇ Category:Health and Fitness, Personal | → 1 Comments |

I decided that I need to get back into shape and live healthier.  So part of that plan is exercise and nutrition.  I am moving to a minimum 3 day workout schedule.  I hope that I can keep to it.  I have gone twice this week and schedule to go again on Friday.

MY GOALS – (next 2 months)
Reduce of Body Fat %
Metric: Loose 10 – 15 lbs of fat.

Core Strength and Balance
Metric: Improve strength of abs, hamstrings, adductors, abductors, gluts and lower back.
Metric: Ability to perform single leg (balance) exercises.

Flexibility
Metric: Improved flexibility.

Body Symmetry
Metric: Visual definition of muscles.

Endurance
Metric: Run 3 miles after workout without dying.

Strength Gain
Metric: Steady increase in lifting capacity and reps

Form
Metric: execution of exercise is consist form even at point of fatigue

Home work:
Nutrition – eating 5 – 6 meals a day.
Taking proper supplements.
Reducing late night snacks.

My Stats:
Weight 185 lb
Height 6’

My Measurements (inches)
Bicep 20.75
Waist 36.5
Hip    40.5
Thigh 20.75
Chest 41

Body Fat %
Tricep  11
Bicep    9
Chest   14
Thigh   10

MI (calcuated): 25.1
BMI (Electronic): 16.7

Michael Crichton Dies at age 66

∇ Category:Memorial / Nostalgia | → 0 Comments |

Michael Crichton‘s work is a guilty pleasure of mine. I will miss reading his new creative musings.

http://www.crichton-official.com/

Too big to fail

∇ Category:Politics, Finance and News | → 0 Comments |

Maybe ‘too big to fail’ is just too big… Doesn’t that seem a little odd that the government bails out banks that are too big to fail to just have them buy up more banks that then makes the company that was in trouble even more dangerous to our economy if they fail? Hmm.

“Maybe ‘too big to fail’ is just too big” by Robert Reich from Marketplace an American Public Media show.

Audio Podcast:
http://download.publicradio.org/podcast/marketplace/pm/2008/10/22/marketplace_cast1_20081022_64.mp3

TEXT OF COMMENTARY:

Kai Ryssdal: Congress is in full oversight mode this week. There are hearings on everything from financial reforms to how this whole thing happened in the first place to what’s going on with the bailout package.

Some banks are thinking about using their share of the bailout money to buy other banks. Bigger’s usually better in the financial world. Except, says commentator Robert Reich, for what that means to the rest of us.

Robert Reich: According to Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson, the biggest Wall Street banks now getting money from the government are just “too big to fail.”

Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke uses a different euphemism — he calls them “systemically critical.” The point is that if any one of them goes down, it could take the whole financial system with it. So we taxpayers have to keep them up.

We’re hearing the same argument elsewhere in Washington for saving General Motors. It’s just “too big to fail.” So Congress is considering a bailout that would keep GM afloat and sweeten a merger between GM and Chrysler.

Pardon me for asking, but if a company is too big to fail, maybe — just maybe — it’s too big, period.

We used to have public policies to prevent companies from getting too big. Does anyone remember antitrust laws? Somewhere along the line policymakers decided that antitrust would only be used where there was evidence a company had so much market power it could keep prices higher than otherwise.

We seem to have forgotten that the original purpose of antitrust law was also to prevent companies from becoming too powerful. Too powerful in that so many other companies depended on them, so many jobs turned on them and so many consumers or investors or depositors needed them, that the economy as a whole would be endangered if they failed. Too powerful in that they could wield inordinate political influence of a sort that might gain them extra favors from Washington.

Maybe the biggest irony today is that Washington policymakers who are funneling taxpayer dollars to these too-big-to-fail companies are simultaneously pushing them to consolidate into even bigger companies. They’ve prodded Bank of America to take over Merrill Lynch and Countrywide. JPMorgan to acquire Washington Mutual and Bear Stearns. And now they’re urging General Motors to absorb Chrysler.

So we’re ending up with even bigger giants, with even more power over the economy and politics, subsidized by taxpayers and guaranteed never to fail because they’re just — too big!