August 20, 2004
Amazon.com and AT&T Number Portability: The Missing Manual
I recently ordered a new phone with an AT&T contract from Amazon. It was especially intriguing after James' post on the topic of one-way roaming agreements. Indeed, my phone has already roamed over to T-Mobile's network both in Syracuse and New Jersey, seemlessly, and my T-Mobile phone couldn't connect to the AT&T towers in either place.
Anyway, according to the Amazon number portability page, you can't transfer your old number to ATT. This is, however, not the case. Reading the instructions for the other providers pretty much says, buy the phone, and when it arrives call your new cell provider to have them move the old number. I called AT&T ahead of time to see if that would work (called them 3 separate times just to be sure everyone was in agreement ;-)). It was.
So when I got my new phone, I called their number switching number available at the ATT Wireless local number portability site. After waiting 25 minutes on hold, I was told that I called the wrong number, and I was transferred to the sales department (where my call was answer immediately). I gave them my old phone number, my old account number, old billing address, and current address (which happen to be the same). Four hours later, my new v600 got a text message saying "315-395-0160 Number Transfer complete. Welcome to AT&T Wireless." A quick call to my brother and a callback from him verified this to be the case.
So buy your cheap new phone from Amazon, the mony savings are well worth it. And be sure to get a quad band phone so you can roam on all those local network's towers...oh, and avoid T-mobile -- while their customer service kicks ass, they don't get anything like the signal from ATT or Cingular...
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Previous Trips...
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Hiking Mount Whitney, 2007 
Spring Break in West Virginia, 2005
New Year's in Paris, 2003-2004
Coming to America, 2003
Protesting in Berlin, 2003
Prague Bier-Tour, 2002
Dresden, 2002
Recent Reading
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The Curve of Binding Energy
John McPhee follows famous physicist Ted Taylor in this piece that was -- and probably still -- ahead of its time.
Originally published in 1973, McPhee outlined the coming security and environmental issues surrounding the plutonium enrichment processes. For the most part, though, McPhee invites the reader to draw his or her own conclusions, although he does point out the ease with which any number of people could obtain the material (though not necessarily the manufacturing prowess) to make an atomic weapon.
The question still sits in my mind after reading -- are we being too paranoid, or not paranoid enough?
Rated 
by reid
on October 01, 2007
by reid
on October 01, 2007
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Zodiac
Zodiac touts itself as an 'eco-thriller,' and it is just that. Told from the first-person perspective of ST (or Sangamon Taylor), the book recounts a roughly six-month period of his life busting big corporations for violating environmental laws.
Not the tree-hugging political activist type, ST is equipped with chem labs, scuba divers, maps, and an organization (GEE International, the Group of Environmental Extremists) that masterfully brings the press into the fold to scare the public with the very real dangers posed by illegal dumping. It's sort of a Sierra Club member's wet dream -- a band of ecowarriors that actually get things done.
ST finds something odd happening in Boston Harbor during his tale: a new form of pollution that could poison everyone on the planet in a matter of weeks. His quest to uncover exactly who and what is causing the latest spike in toxins goes all the way up to the President of the United States, and could end up costing him his own life.
While a neat and fast-paced tale, the novel drags on a bit toward the end, begging disbelief from even the most forgiving sci-fi folk. While not as good as his latest offerings, it's still a great read for those that enjoy a good Stephenson novel (or even those who don't).
Rated 
by reid
on July 17, 2005
by reid
on July 17, 2005
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Cat's Cradle
A few years ago, I attempted to woo an online datee, and she immediately criticized me for my politics. I protested the war on Iraq, which was "a shame." She defended her position of complete noninvolvement by standing behind Vonnegut.
It may seem odd to open a review that way. My assumption is now not that she was an idiot, but that she had only read Cat's Cradle, and only with a rather odd viewpoint.
Cat's Cradle looks at a cold-war world where the personifications of religious, political, and scientific single-mindedness collide to destroy the world.
Vonnegut tells a masterful tale, but it makes me wonder what one person's indifference would do to prevent us from all dying? So for now I will continue to unblindly stop unjust wars, even while I'm only reading.
Rated by reid
on July 17, 2005
by reid
on July 17, 2005
or verizon.
Posted by: Henry on August 23, 2004 07:41 PM