Samsung SCH-u740 from Verizon Wireless

It has been almost two years since I got my LG VX5200 from Verizon Wireless. Although it was a reliable phone, it did have some issues. For one, the speaker vents kept collecting dust particles and precisely pack them underneath the phone’s external display.

Earlier this week I celebrated my Labor Day off by visiting my local Verizon Wireless store and try to wheel-and-deal my way to a new phone. For long time, I have been eyeing the Samsung SCH-u740, which is retailing at $400 without contract.

At the store, it is sold as a package deal of $129.99 with 2-yrs contract. The package includes the phone, Bluetooth kit, car charger, & a carrying case. I asked Drew, the sales person, what each of these accessories cost and their mark up. He said the package price is 40% of items if they were sold separately.

I told Drew that I personally don’t care about Bluetooth kit, car charger, and the carrying case, especially when I could purchase them much cheaper at an online retailer like Amazon.com. Drew tried to compromise by throw in an additional 1GB MicroSD memory card, which is priced at $34.99 at Verizon’s store.

$34.99 for one 1GB MicroSD card?! I have got them for $5.25 each from Amazon.com.

Eventually Drew caved in deducted $80 from the $129.99 and since I am a returning customer, I got additional $50 mail-in rebate. I only had to pay the 8.2% sales tax and got my Samsung SCH-u740 for $4.10.



Comparing with my BlackBerry 8100 from T-Mobile, Samsung SCH-u740 has some good features:

1. Full QWERTY keyboard - At first I was little concerned about cramming all the buttons in such small area, but after using it, I was pleasantly surprised by how great the buttons worked. Also, some special characters can be accessed by press-hold the corresponding button.



2. Music Player - There are three dedicated touch-sensitive buttons on the exterior where it can be easily accessed. The memory card slot is on the exterior (BlackBerry’s is hidden under the battery compartment).

3. Web Access - Comparing with T-Mobile’s EDGE network, Verizon’s EV network is a little faster.

4. Camera - Both the BlackBerry and u740 have a 1.3MP camera with maximum resolution of 1280x960 pixels. However, u740 also has video recording capability.



To be fair, BlackBerry 8100 also some features that u740 lacked:

1. The Pearl - Using the little trackball instead of pushing through navigation buttons made scrolling screens & menus much faster and easier.

2. Charging & Earphone Ports - BlackBerry uses the standard mini-USB connection to charge the device, send & retrieve data files, and a dedicated 2.5mm jack for earphones. While the u740 relies on a 20-pin adaptor.

3. Email & Calendar - Since BlackBerry was designed as a mobile office device (or electronic leash, depending on how you use it) for people on the run, it is much accommodating with modern office needs.

4. Ringtones & Media - BlackBerry allows MP3 set as ringtones easily without the cumbersome process u740 needed (purchase ringtones from Verizon online store, or hack it with BitPim & USB cable). BlackBerry’s built-in media player supports more file formats.

Both phones have its’ own advantages & disadvantages and I am very happy with both of them. I am also happy that I did not chuck $600 on an iPhone and get boned like these Apple-whores.


Related: Samsung SCH-u740 Ringtone Unlock

Wired Magazine - Does anyone here speak English?

I was reading August 2007 issue of Wired magazine on my flight from Chicago to Montreal today.

In page 117, there is a small piece about "Say 3 essential sentences, phonetically, in French, Spanish, and Mandarin".



Although the Mandarin phonetics for the first two sentences are correct, the last one is not.

"Yo ren hway shooah jong gooah hwa mah?"
有人會說中國話嗎？

Actually means "does anyone here speaks Chinese?"

The correct sentence should be (in pinyin):

yǒu rén huì shuō yīng guó huà ma?

有人會說英國話嗎？


Update: Aug. 5, 2007 - Emailed Wired magazine (rants@wired.com) regarding the error, I don't know if they will do anything about it.

Update: Aug. 16, 2007 - Wired emailed me back stating they are considering to publish my letter either in print or on their website.

Update: Sep. 30, 2007 - Wired magazine has printed a correction in their Oct. 2007 issue.

$41K for 7000 Points

Two years ago, I attended a tour at a local golf resort. It turned out to be a sales seminar for timeshare. In exchange for two hours of my time, I was compensated with a $125 Costco gift card.

Even though the tour should have been only 90 minutes, but the sales people were dragging on while trying to make a hard sell. When I started to point out the mathematical errors in their brochures in front of other clients, I was quickly whisked away by the sales people. I have never thought they would invite me back again and try to sell me the same vacation package.

Apparently I was wrong.

Two weeks ago, I received a phone call from Shell Vacations Club. Youngman on the phone was polite, informed me that they would like to have me retour the facility, and this time I will be compensated for $150 Visa Card.

Sure, I will attend your tour. Why not? After all, they are the ones paying me and they probably already know I would not buy.

I personally do not belong to any vacation club, nor own any timeshare. I don’t have any strong feeling regarding the matter, but what I do find interesting is their sales process, plus I consider myself some of an economics geek.



I arrived on site promptly last Saturday morning. After signing in, a gentleman named Jay introduced himself to me and we went sat down to chit chat in a very casual manner. For next hour or so, Jay wanted to know about my travel habit.

Since summer of 2004, I have spent two weeks in Costa Rica, a few days in Germany, two months in Austria, two weeks in Montreal, and a week in Vancouver, plus several weeks here and there within US, I have logged some serious mileage on my passport and frequent flyer programs.

“What do you know about vacations club programs?” Jay had a sparkle in his eyes and presented me laminated sheet with a price table. “Let’s say you spend on average of $100 per night, after twenty weeks including tax and inflation, you are looking at about $42000.”

That is a lot of money.

However, I have always gotten great deals through various travel websites and rarely paid $100 per night. When I was in Costa Rica, I paid $70 (or $40 in cash per night, the good ol’ cash only discount) per night in a beautiful villa; I even had a maid to personally cook breakfast and do laundry for me. Just to be fair, due to weak American dollar to Euro conversion rate, I could never have the similar luxury when I am in West Europe.

Jay says Shell Vacations Club has hundreds of locations over the world, but when I told him my top destination is Easter Island. There is no affiliated resort there. How disappointing. But, there are some resorts in Guatemala.

When I pointed out to him that when traveling through Central and South American countries, since American dollars are much stronger there, there is no need to spend $100 per night. He then countered with “my friends were kidnapped in Guatemala and held hostage for days. You know what they have in Guatemala? They have militiamen walking around in the streets with machineguns…”

After a short promotional film showing happy vacations club members telling how great the program is, coincidentally, a couple at next table some how changed their mind after the film and decide to purchase a vacations club package. This has brought great excitement to the room, champagnes bottle was out to toast their giant leap into the next level of vacation bliss.

If I sign up today and for today only, for $41,000, I could purchase a package of 7000 points. If I don’t the lump sum of money, I am pre-approved with their finance department for a down payment of $4,239.90 and monthly payment of $660.58 for next ten years at interest rate of 17.65%. Oh, by the way, there is an annual maintenance fee of $1,300. Also, the point’s value of nightly stays varies depending on resort’s location and travel season.







I told Jay I am not interested based on the following:

1. The price is too high to justify its value.
2. There are too many unknown factors about the points system.
3. It is insane to make a $41,000 financial decision just after one hour of sales talk.

No problem, Jay thanked me for my time and called over a young lady. Right away, this reminded me of desperate car salesmen using the “let me see if I can get you a better deal” trick by dragging in their sales manager to negotiation table trick.

The young lady claims she understood my concern regarding the price, and quickly threw some number together on a sheet of paper.

“How about if we can get you a package of 2,500 points at $13,000, but I am going to throw in an extra of 6,000 points for free to get you try this out? How does that sound?”

I smell some thing fishy and it is not coming from the smoked salmon on the breakfast buffet table.

Once again, the young lady and Jay thanked me and asked Kurt to get my prize for me. And Kurt tried to sell me another package more points at even lower price. I am still not interested.

Finally they gave up and had someone from their accounting department to give me a mail-in voucher for $150 Visa gift card.

While waiting for the voucher to be printed, I saw a couple with “Not Qualified” written on their application. Poor suckers, they actually wanted to sign up.


Update: My buddy Matt said when he was in Las Vegas and he attended a similar thing, one couple in the group was talking really loud. The husband did not want to buy, however the wife eventually convinced him of how great it was and they eventually did buy. It turned out they were hired actors planted in the group to hype sales.

42 MPG Experimental Vehicle

I was driving on US60 just east of Apache Junction and saw this strange vehicle.



The owner has chopped most of his mid 1980s model of Toyota Corolla off to increase the vehicle's gas mileage. On both fenders, he has written "42 MPG Experimental" in black markers.

Vancouver, Canada, ey!

Earlier this month, I spent a week in the lovely city of Vancouver, Canada.

Reasons for the trip were,

1. I was bored of the desert scene, aka. Arizona,

2. I am a big fan of the X-files and Stargate SG1, which both were filmed in British Columbia.

I have posted most of my Vancouver photos in Flickr.com, however the following are some more interesting ones.

For those of you have flew to U.S. or away from U.S., I am sure you have dealt with TSA. Regardless how some of their rules and regulations are a bit ridiculous, they are the first line of defense against those democracy-hating terrorists.

That is why I was confused about how they confiscate all liquids & gels or anything that could be used as weapon, yet these sewing kits along with scissors are readily available at airport shops, especially after TSA checkpoint:



My flight with United Airlines from Los Angeles to Vancouver was delayed for over an hour due to a malfunctioning toilet water pump.



While the ground crew tried to fix it, we sat in the plane waiting. Eventually the crew decided to hand out bottled water to passengers and use them to flush after each toilet visit. At least this solution is better than Continental's, where brown liquid flowed down the aisle.

At English Bay, I saw this couple:



The man on the mobile phone is wearing some netting type of clothing. I titled this photo as "Old Fisherman with his Catch".

Perhaps he is on the phone with Disney:

"Yo Disney? My friend and I have got a great script for you. Instead of some hot redhead mermaid, how about a mid-aged dude likes to wear old fishnet? Did I mention he is got a sidekick too? A fisherman!"

Are you interested in join a secret society? Perhaps the Freemasons? How about Chinese Freemasons? If you are in the Vancouver's Chinatown area, they are recruiting.



You should also bring some reptile jerky to share with fellow members.



Here is the difference between typical North American breakfast food:



Scrambled eggs, fried potato cubes, toast, & sausages. (CA$9.00)

And Chinese breakfast food:



Curry chicken triangles dusted with sesame seeds & caramel glaze, spare ribs stewed in black beans sauce, steamed buns stuffed with barbecue pork, & steamed shark fin dumplings. (CA$9.00)

At Lynn Canyon, besides the wonderful view, I also loved their blunt & graphic warning message boards along with the anecdote stories:





Who says condoms are not bio-degradable? Obviously this one I found in Mt. Seymour did:



Don't worry, that was not mine. Plus, I am a "pack it in & pack it out" type of person.

While I was preparing to leave Vancouver, I had a difficult time to figure out when and where my flight was thanks to this monitor busy displaying "The page cannot be displayed" error message:

Rattlesnake in a Can

I was in San Pedro River Nature Preserve of Southern Arizona yesterday with friends from the Nature Conservancy & Arizona Game & Fish department.

Around 8pm or so, we started to hear a rattling sound periodically. Then, we discovered this little guy:





I have also made a short film documenting the capture & release of this young rattlesnake.

rattlesnakeinacan.wmv

Bono "What a Knob I am"

I personally do not like U2's frontman, Bono, or should I call him by his real name - Paul David Hewson. He has became too "preachy" over the years as his fame status slowly elevates, while completely left the other band members in the dark.


bonospoof.wmv by the Chasers

Although his face was on several humanitarian campaign posters, many of his own practices are questionable, if not, unethical.

For one, he moved his multi-million euro song catalogue from Ireland to Netherlands to avoid paying taxes, thus leaving his homeland (which he is so ever proud of...) with greater tax burdens.

Secondly, he signed a petition along with 4500 other artists trying to increase the limitation on music copyrights from 50 to 95 years.

Last by not the least, he accepts awards from politicians and governments that he also criticizes.