Moblogging...

Blogger supports posting via email and devices, I have discovered. So, here is a picture of pig neon.

Click here to visit the Lizard Robot MoBlog.

"Heroes" Season Finale Tonight!...

And in honor of that event, I'll post a link to a novelty gallery that captures the Heroes characters as Mii avatars on the Nintendo Wii console.

Click on Hiro below to link to the original article at IGN.com.



Enjoy the show!

Letter to the Editor...

I have had a letter to the editor published in the most recent InformationWeek, issue 1,139. My letter was written in response to an article in last week's IW, entitled "Message To Cell Carriers" (link goes to the original article). You can find a reprint of my letter as it appears in the magazine here, but the letter that they printed was edited a little for style and content. I'll post the original email that I sent IW here.

To: iweekletters@cmp.com, mediarelations@t-mobile.com
From: William Jones

Dear Editor,

I feel motivated to comment on the article printed in the May 14th issue of InformationWeek, Message to Cell Carriers, by Elena Malykhina and Richard Martin.

In their article, the authors miss the fact that the US Register of Copyrights recommended an exemption to the DMCA that allows customers to legally defeat provider locks on cell phones. The exemption took effect on November 27, 2006, and will be up for renewal in three years.

In order to put this new freedom to the test, I contacted T-Mobile to see if I could unlock the new BlackBerry Pearl I bought from Amazon. T-Mobile support responded that unlocking my BlackBerry was absolutely something they would help me with, once my account was 90 days old. All I had to do was ask.

I realize that handset subsidies are one of the major marketing tools available to carriers in the US wireless market, and I have no problem with my carrier asking me to wait a reasonable length of time before freeing my handset. In this case, T-Mobile's willingness to unlock my phone without giving me a hassle has earned them a loyal customer. I thought that this example of T-Mobile's effort to put customer service before restrictive business practices should be recognized, given that your article tends to paint all wireless carriers with the same unflattering brush. We should recognize when a wireless company is doing the "right" thing, if we want the industry to improve.

William Jones
Technology Coordinator
Chicago, IL

The frustrating thing is that the real point I was trying to make has been edited out of my letter before the mag went to press. Maybe this is because I did some pretty clear T-Mobile cheerleading there at the end; I can see why the editors might want to strike that bit for the sake of appearing more balanced. The problem is that the original article that I chose to respond to was pretty clearly biased against wireless carriers, laying most of the problems with the US industry at their feet. While the carriers are certainly culpable, a fundamental part of bringing corporate change through activism involves acknowledging--even praising!--a company when they show a positive shift in policy. A case where a major carrier like T-Mobile is willing to allow customers to unlock their handsets without any significant trouble undermines the implication made in the original article that the only way that cell providers can retain business is by restricting customers' freedom. I'll voluntarily stay with a company that treats me well, and so will most other people. That's the point of my letter: that we should encourage customer service as an alternative to retention policies grounded in customer lock-in. Because it can work.

Office Superfriends Space

Something my friend Nick sent me long ago which sprang from my email archive like a viper. It made me laugh today, as it did so many years ago. Here's to you Nick!