The emails from Technofile listeners have been coming in - some from people that started listening a decade ago. Thanks to everyone for the kind words. Writing and recording the Technofile each week was a pleasure, and it's so cool to have people emailing me from all over the world saying they enjoyed it.

posted by lazlow at 9:39 PM  on Tuesday, July 31, 2007

This one comes from Boingboing.net

I have a caveat emptor to top them all. I purchased an iPhone on opening day to use in lieu of a cumbersome laptop while traveling in Ireland and England for two weeks in early July. AT&T promises "easy, affordable, and convenient plans" in their advertising... turns out I got two out of three.

On the way to the airport, I activated the per-use international roaming data plan - the only one offered to me. The rep quoted me $.005 per KB but did not disclose what that would translate to in layman's language (i.e., X amount per e-mail, X amount per web page, etc.). I'm a web developer as part of my career and I couldn't even tell you how many KB the average web page is, no less a text message to my son, an e-mail with a photo to my mother, or a quick check of Google Maps. That's part one of the trap. However, I now pay $40 per month for unlimited data usage on the iPhone, so really -- how much could it be? $100 at the most, right?

Keep reading.

As we know, the iPhone can't be unlocked to use a European provider's SIM card for more reasonable rates while traveling. There's part two of the trap.

To be safe, I went online to My Account at AT&T a couple days into the trip and again a week later and was told "usage data is currently unavailable"... and that's part three. I had no way of knowing specific usage data until I received my bill over the last weekend.

A bill for $3000.

Two weeks of travel with sporadic AT&T EDGE network usage off and on mixed with wifi when available... $3000.

Doing some research, I learned this morning that AT&T offers unlimited international data usage at $70 per month to its Blackberry customers.

Here's my bottom line: I want this same usage plan to be made available to iPhone customers and to be applied retroactively to my account.

Billing phone reps offered me a $400 "courtesy credit" on the $3000 charge if I would agree to sign up for a $300 per year international data plan with a max of 20MB per month. (I'm not planning any international travel for a while anyway, but 20MB would be burned in a day or two of average use - they must be kidding.) I have until August 14th to resolve this or all my family's phones (including my wife's business line) get disconnected. Obviously, there's no way I can pay $3000 for something so egregiously wrong.

I'm writing you in the hope that the exposure of my story might force AT&T's hand in admitting they have an inadequate solution in place for international iPhone users, that they've discriminated against the iPhone in favor of the Blackberry, that they failed to adequately disclose the exorbitant nature of their rate plan, that they kept me in the dark about my usage specifics until it was too late to modify them, and that by disallowing unlocking to use a European provider's SIM with more reasonable rates, I was trapped without knowing it until that $3000 "gotcha" came knocking at my door.

Thanks for your time, and please do not hesitate to contact me (dave@3rdeyedesign.com) with any further questions.

These kind of stories aren't very good advertising for the Iphone. Get your poop in a group AT&T.

posted by lazlow at 12:21 PM

There was a horrible chopper accident in Arizona - an accident caused by our "news" stations who value car chases over actual important issues. News helicopters following police chases has been a staple of Los Angeles news for a while, and other cities are following their lead. This quote was part of today's story

"When asked if the suspect could be held criminally liable for the deaths of the men on the two aircraft, Phoenix Police Chief Jack Harris said forcefully, "Yes."

Really? That interesting. While someone who runs from the cops should get the full extent of the law - charging them with murder because our news has turned into a mockery is even more tragic than the loss of life. It spells the loss of reason.

posted by lazlow at 9:19 PM  on Saturday, July 28, 2007

I had a dog and a PC in the back seat. The computer was a 486. The car was a 4-door beige Mazda and a can of Spam was stuck to the dashboard with Velcro. When I left, my girlfriend was furious. The phone rang, a job was offered, I said goodbye to her and my friends and a few days later I was gone. I drove across a good part of the country, through blizzards, rainstorms and blurry nights. I’d gotten a call that a job would be waiting for me in New York City. As I drove across the Goethals Bridge, I caught sight of madness. New York. It was pure industrial lunacy like I had never seen. Indigo perked up in the back seat and smelled the air while cocking her head. A few short days later I was living in a musty basement apartment(it flooded regularly) and was navigating the adrenaline that is market #1. This was NEW YORK RADIO. I left market # 268 behind and was going to the place all people in radio dreamed about.

The program director, Russ Mottla, interviewed radio people from across the nation to come to New York and try a modern rock experiment. My old job at the tiny radio station in Columbia Missouri was a blast – but I had just graduated and wanted to head East- anywhere East. The dream phone call arrived within 7 months of graduation, asking me to come to New York and write and produce for a New York radio station.

I brought my computer to work. Not that many people had a computer, and I didn’t want to deal without having it nearby. Russ asked me if I was interested in recording a quick bit about computer stuff for the morning show. He knew I was heavily into computers and had been on the Internet since the 80s. We came up with the name “The Technofile.”

And so the Technofile began. I wrote scripts, recorded them each day, and they played in the morning on WDRE in New York and simulcast across the modern rock Underground Network on a handful of stations. Soon word spread and other stations began calling asking for the feature. Nobody was talking about computers, the Internet and tech on commercial radio.

And so syndication began. Dick Clark's syndication company even signed on to represent the show.

Trust me. People called in asking what this nonsense was. “Why are you talking about computers and this ‘Internet?’” they demanded. “Play Nirvana!” But before I knew it, tech took off with everyone, and the Technofile was adding stations every month, soon airing on over 100 affiliates. Within months I was flying to Vegas – sponsored! – going to Comdex! - and interviewing visionaries starting tech companies, celebrities appearing on CDROMS, and homeless people furious about computers. Within a couple of years I was hitting every tech event I could find, grilling geeks, talking to entrepreneurs, trying to figure out what’s next, what’s now, and what should be ignored completely. The Museum of TV and Radio even inducted the Technofile into their permanent collection as a pioneer in reporting about the Internet and PC explosion.

When the dotcom boom hit, the Technofile hit major exposure. We were sponsored by Mindspring. Then Earthlink. Thanks to the marketing director there, Nikki Nickerson, the Technofile spread to every major market in America.

Over the history of the Technofile, there have been stations that refused to air certain features. When I bought a Gateway laptop that died within days and chronicled the tech support nightmare and the multiple shipments back and forth, some stations refused to air the features, claiming Gateway ran commercials on their airwaves. Years later my nasty run-in with Dell’s CEO(and his gun toting handlers) at Comdex in Vegas it seemed to confirm rumors I had heard that this guy was a paranoid lunatic. Of course, this was after 2001, where tech CEOs felt so important they assumed they were the next plot for terrorists.

The Technofile has taken some alternative views over the years. As the newly formed tech press praised and gloried every new silicon silliness to slither out of Silicon Alley and Valley, I tried to keep a historical perspective on tech and reveal to listeners what is important and what is trivial hype. It’s cost us sponsors and gained us sponsors.

Next week, on Friday July 27^th the Technofile signs off. I’ll utter that tagline “That’s what’s on my Underground Hard Drive” for the last time. The “Underground Hard Drive” signoff was an idea spawned from the fact that the Technofile started on the Underground Network. WDRE stopped simulcasting modern rock under the Underground Network name, but the tagline stuck. The Technofile continued to grow. Later, new program director Jim Mcguin came in and demanded the tagline be changed. I reluctantly complied. Protest letters came in requesting the tagline stay. It quickly returned, and has been there ever since.

In 2001 I met 3 guys who had just founded Rockstar Games. They have become my best friends, and we have collaborated on video games that have been the most rewarding, creative challenges I’ve ever had in my life. I’m writing for video games, helping shape virtual worlds, coming up with ideas with amazing people and watching those ideas turn into core game elements. That has turned into a full time job, one that has me flying to other countries, writing, directing talent, and, the best part is – while working on the Grand Theft Auto games, we get to make radio. Real. Uninhibited. Radio. The response we often get is “I wish real radio were like this.” It feels incredible to be in that organic environment creating radio(albeit for a fictional world). In the real world radio has turned into an automated cookie cutter mess, and it warms my heart to see stations freaking each month as revenue drops and people flee the banality to go to Ipods and satellite radio. That’s one of the reasons I gravitate towards Opie and Anthony’s show so much. It’s really unprofessional. There truly is no plan. It grows organically and feels real and unpredictable.

Radio has changed a lot, and many of my very talented friends have bowed out of what was once, in my mind, the most creative and free medium in the country. I love radio. Good radio is blissfully unnoticeable. An hour goes by and you suddenly realize “This has been incredible! Funny! Creative!” Time passes quickly with good radio. It entertains you. With bad radio you know it in half a second.

The Technofile is still going strong, but I've decided to focus on creating video games. It’s sad to say goodbye to the Technofile, but it brings me great joy looking back on everything and everywhere it’s been. I’m glad to be shutting it down on my terms. I’ve had a lot of affiliates freaking out that it’s going away. A friend of mine who was on a major TV show talked a lot about this feeling. He quit a TV show when it was in it’s prime to move on to something else, a new creative challenge. Sometimes, deep down, you know it’s time to move to the next chapter. And that chapter is already unfolding.

This week I will be posting stories – tales from the Technofile. Technofile affiliates will be airing a week of final features that look back. The Technofile has been a labor of love, something I adored doing every week. It’s taken me around the world. Meeting geniuses. Interviewing goofy nerds. I’ve written and produced over 3,000 Technofiles, and in the end I tried to report on what really mattered. I hope I succeeded, and I hope every now and then a Technofile made you laugh. Thanks to all the people who have tuned in to hear it over the years.

That’s what’s on my underground hard drive.

posted by lazlow at 7:41 AM  on Sunday, July 22, 2007

Our very own Reed Tucker reported this morning hiis scooter has been stolen.

In other news he has begun growing hair on his chest.

posted by lazlow at 11:18 AM  on Friday, July 20, 2007