Eddie Monge Jr.

Having extensive experience in Joomla, moderate experience in Drupal, and pretty good experience in WordPress, I’d have to say the best one is the one that is best suited for the task at hand.

WordPress is great for blogs, news sites and simple sites that are a step up from flat HTML files.

Drupal is good for social type sites because of its ACL.

Joomla is good for …. well I haven’t found anything Joomla is good for. Maybe the upcoming 1.6 release will be better but 1.0 sucked, 1.5 sucked a little less but still sucked and 1.6 most likely won’t change all that much.

If you can stand to learn SmartyPHP templating system, then I would say look into CMS Made Simple. I’ve used it on a number of sites and it has a good balance of usability and expandibility.

Today I had a nice long talk with a person from Sprint’s CEOs’ (Dan Hesse) office about the fee. The call lasted about 45 minutes, which coincidently, is the time it takes me to get to work in the morning. Ok so its not a coincidence as I called on my way to work. Here’s what I learned from the call:

The fee is because they *think* people will use more data as compared to other phones like the Palm Pre or Sprint Hero. They *think* they will use more data so they are preemptively adding fees to cover the cost. This is irregardless of what network you are on, meaning 4G will be free if its available as will 3G. The fee is on top of normal Internet charges. However, this is where it gets interesting. If you choose to disable data entirely on the line (and choose to just access data over a wifi connection, bypassing Sprint’s network entirely) the fee still has to remain. Let me say that again, if you don’t have data on the line, you are still charged a premium data fee. Now this is either outright stealing from the customers or they are lying again about what the fee is. 45 minutes and all I learned is that Sprint is saying “screw you” its customers by charging a bogus fee.

I filed a complaint with the FCC but I am pretty sure that is useless. I have put that on here. I also put the email summary from my call that I got from Sprint.

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Dear Eddie Monge,

Thank you for contacting Dan@Sprint.com.

I understand your concerns with the $10.00 premium data add-on plan (per
line) Sprint requires our HTC Evo user to purchase. As I explained the
$10.00 premium data plan is designed to benefit our customer to have the
ability to use the HTC Evo to its full potential.

The HTC Evo provides an incredible multimedia experience unlike any
other cellular device. As I explained, regardless if you are in a 3G or
4G, we required an additional $10.00 premium data pack. This is because
we want our customers to be able to enjoy these data-rich capabilities
and by doing so, a more complex data plan is required. The catchy phrase
Web Surfing was coined because web browsers found themselves coasting
from one website to the next. With Evo, the data capabilities are so
rich, customers may lose themselves in endless surf. Evo users will
typically consume more data, and the Premium Data Fee assures they have
the bandwidth to do it.

As I explained, Sprint is the best value in wireless with our all
inclusive plans. We compared your monthly fee with Sprint to what AT&T
could offer you. We found that for about the same you pay with Sprint,
you would only have unlimited data and texting on two phone lines (out
of 3), no insurance (I understand you stated you would not purchase
insurance) and before tax’s and surcharges. I understand Metro PCS may
be less expensive however you would be limited to coverage.

*****************(private information removed at this spot)***********************

. If you have
further questions or concerns you are welcome to contact me at (757)
223-3289. I am available Monday through Friday 10:00 AM – 7:00 PM EST.

Thank you for choosing Sprint.

Sincerely,
Erin S.
(757) 223-3289
Sprint

————————————————————————————————————————————————

This month was exciting because I got a new phone. It’s a Sprint Evo. The screen is massive and beautiful and is the best I have seen so far (although I haven’t seen the new iPhone 4 screen to compare it to). The phone is fast and extremely touch sensitive (not always a good thing but usually). Apps are responsive and install lightning fast compared to my old phone, the Sprint Hero.

There are a couple of downsides I have found for this phone starting with its size (the giant screen does make the phone humongous) which isn’t always a bad thing. Sometimes it feels too big and other times it feels good. I think my biggest issue with the size is the the phone feels a bit slippery since it is so smooth on the sides and back. The Hero had a textured feel to it which made the grip feel more, well grippy. I think if I can find a case I like that adds more of a texture to it, I will feel happier with the feel, even if it makes the phone slightly bigger. (more…)

One of the first things that greatly annoyed me when I started using Mac OS X was that I could not tab in a form to a checkbox or radio button. That is a pretty glaring oversight and really kills usability for me. When I am filling out a form I rarely use the mouse to move between fields and just use tab and space to check boxes or select drop down items. Fortunately, the people at Apple realized how stupid they can be sometimes and decided to add an option to allow this. They didn’t make it standard (which would have been the obvious solution to anyone who has filled out a form) but it is easy to change.

These instructions are from MacTips.org:

First go to System Preferences
Choose Keyboard & Mouse
Under Keyboard Shortcuts there is an option to tab through all controls. Select the radio button for All Controls and you are all set.

Another way Apple thinks it knows best when they really don’t; like when they said people don’t need copy and paste on the iPhone since no one does that anyway….

Recently I had the *ahem* pleasure *ahem* of flying on United Airways. I must say, it was one of the most enjoyable experiences I have encountered in my life time. Between the duct tape holding my armrest together, to the mysterious piece of card board with the TSA stamp of approval that was stuck in a crease above my head, to the broken headphone ports all around me, United has been the best airline I have flown on yet. *Rolls my eyes*.

Let me start off by saying that I have been trained to always put the toilet seat down after I am done. I have lived with enough women to know better than to not leave it down. They have trained me well.

Now that I have said that disclaimer, permit to rant a bit.

Why do us men have to leave the toilet seat down after we use it? It makes much more sense to leave it up after we are done using it. There are a couple of reasons why. Mostly they are related but whatever. The first reason, and its a major one, is that it takes more effort for us to bend over, and raise the seat. Then after we are done, we have to do it again. It gets hard on our backs, this repetitive motion. That’s why more men than women are hunched over when they are old (I don’t know if thats a true stat or not). I petition we start a motion to save men’s backs.

Another reason for us to leave it up is for the ladies. Ladies, would you prefer to use a clean seat, or one that may be soiled because we were too lazy to pick the seat up? Personally, I would prefer a clean seat. Sometimes us men are tired, or lazy or not paying attention and we try and go standing up and have ‘accidentally’ left the down. Sometimes our aim isn’t quite so good or there is some splashing. Ladies, do you want to have to clean the seat every time you sit down? I thought not.

Really, the seat should be left up. When a woman goes to use the toilet, they are making a downward motion already, so why not extend it to the seat? Then when they are done, they make an upward motion. Again, take the seat with you. To me, that just makes more sense. Am I wrong in this?

My name is Eddie and I am a phone whore. There I said it. Now I can let the healing process begin.

What is a phone whore you ask? The dictionary defines it as:

phone whore
one who goes through new phones like a teenage girl goes through boyfriends.

Yup that pretty much defines me. Since 2003, this is the list of cell phones I have owned (not sure about the order though) (they are all the Sprint version):

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