TechnoGeekGuy

Back in August 2008 I posted an article about how my family gave the phone and satellite companies the boot. It’s ~16 months later, so I thought I give an update.

Internet Connection
We are still using a broadband cable connection to the Internet, though it has been upped to 10Mb down and 1Mb up. With 5 computers/laptops and a couple iPods/Zunes/smartphones, the increased bandwidth serves us well.

Phone
The big change here is that I am now using a phone solution provided by my cable provider, but this decision was 100% economic. It is cheaper to have my Internet connection with the phone service than without! Crazy, I know. I elected, though, to have only the “local/state-wide” service and still use Skype-Out for ALL my long distance needs. For incoming calls we now depending wholly on Google Voice. I have been using Google Voice since before it was purchased by Google. Love it! Love it!

TV / Movies / Entertainment
The main change here is that we have dropped Blockbuster and switched to Netflix. I have become a Netflix believer! Incoming vectors for entertainment now include: OTA HDTV; Hulu, YouTube and other streaming sites; and Netflix DVDs and streaming. This is STILL TOO MUCH CONTENT!!!

Email / Productivity / Organization
Everyone in the house is still using Gmail (hosted) for email. While we occasionally need to use M$ Word / Excel / PowerPoint, most everything is done with Google Docs. New this year is that my wife is starting to use Google Calendar. Now that we are using Google Voice 100% and now that Google supports Active Sync (for my Touch Pro2 smartphone), I am centralizing my contact management in Google Contacts (bye bye Plaxo).

Costs
The only cost increase seen this year was the price increase to my Internet connection (+30/mn). I am still realizing savings over what I had 2 years ago!

I cannot imagine going back to the way it was 2 years ago. My family and I do not feel we have missed a thing. I am calling this “experiment” a success!!! Or in Google terms, I am removing the BETA tag 

It was reported in the summer of 2008 that negotiations were taking place that in trade for Hillary Clinton’s support, Obama would help repay some of the “massive” debt the Clinton campaign had incurred [Hillary Clinton in negotiations for Barack Obama to help pay off her debts, Toby Harnden, UK Telegraph]. I just heard on the Rush Limbaugh radio show that the Obama administration has made right on its promise my paying some $5.7M on behalf of the Clinton campaign. Did this money come from the Obama campaign? Nooooooooo …. it came from the stimulus money! Wish means that you and I have helped pay off the Clinton campaign’s debt. Unbelievable!

It seems others are as incensed as I am:

• Obama pays Hillary’s bills with our money

Looking for further articles on this matter.

[Update: Check out http://scottystarnes.wordpress.com/2009/12/09/hillarys-pollster-received-6-million-from-stimulus/]

From CoolSmartPhone.com …

HTC Bravo

The “Bravo” looks to be a real blockbuster, with the Qualcomm 8250 1Ghz processor we’ve seen in the Windows Mobile-powered HD2, a 3.7″ WVGA AMOLED screen and HD720p video capture. We’ve only got to glance in our inbox to see emails asking, “When will an Android powered HD2 be available?” – this could indeed be the device you’ve been waiting for. It’ll also have a 16Gb microSD in the box, a 1400mAh battery and that lovely HTC Sense interface. This looks set to arrive in April and should have the very latest build of Android. This one really is setting off alarm bells

[2010 HTC Roadmap leak - Fill your boots!]