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BlackBerry service falters in North America

The Denver Post – BlackBerry service falters in N. America
This was quite inconvenient today. It is amazing how dependent I have become to my Blackberry, especially today.

It was down for me from about 1:15 PM to about 6 PM and drove me crazy because I was dealing with several media issues that I needed to be communicating with my office in Washington, D.C., Denver, and our office in Loveland and I was on the road going to an media interview.

To make matters worse, Verizon was quite slow in coming back online following when RIM got their part back online. More inconvenience. Thanks Verizon.

I just wish that RIM wouldn’t have these outages and they should work on a backup system so they have some redundancy built in. People are becoming more dependent on their Blackberry for communication, especially in emergency situations.

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Do you have a Facebook?

I saw this on Chris Brogan’s blog and thought it raised some interesting questions about privacy and who is behind the money of Facebook.
It is interesting to think about. I don’t know if all this information gathering is taking place because of Facebook, I think it is something that would be talking place anyway.

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United Airlines to Charge $25 for Second Bag

Well that does it, I won’t be flying United Airlines for personal travel anymore. If they are going to charge my $25 for a second bag, then they don’t deserve my business.
In an article in the Denver Post, United Airlines says that it costs more for them to handle a second bag so they need to charge for it. They need to charge $25 for a second bag? That is ridiculous.

Since they are going to be charging that much for a second bag, I don’t need to fly them. There are many different airlines that I can fly out of Denver International Airport that won’t charge me additional money for a second bag, that I can take them.

United, You just lost a customer that has flown over 200,000 miles on your airline. Get a clue and stop milking your consumers because you were negotiated bad contracts and can’t afford to compete in todays market even after getting concessions from your employees.

Personally I like Frontier Airlines. They are treating their consumers well and provide a lot of destinations for where I want to travel to. If you are looking for an alternative to United Airlines, fly on Frontier.

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Some thoughts on the outcome of Super Bowl XLII

The one thought that I have had from Super Bowl XLII is how bad the New York media and fans have treated Eli Manning. All they did was put him down and call him out and he took it.
But now that that Eli Manning and the New York Giants have one Super Bowl 42 and Eli was named the MVP, they are praising him.

It is a sad state and those members of the media and fans should be ashamed of themselves. No one should have been treated that way.

And for Tiki Barber, glad you retired last year. You didn’t deserve to win a Super Bowl. You should also keep your mouth shut. They Giants and Manning have proved you wrong.

I am not a Giants fan and usually root against anything from New York, but this was a great story and a great Super Bowl that will be remembered as one for the ages.

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Tully an enjoyable, but sad movie

I just finished watching Tully. It was an enjoyable movie set in rural Nebraska. It was quite an enjoyable movie, but at the same time it was sad and depressing. I won’t give away any spoilers, but it is worth watching. It is from 2002, but still pretty good.
I don’t know how I came to put this in my queue on Netflix, but somehow I did and I am quite glad. If you have seen the movie, let me know.

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Stephen Colbert’s Portrait Garnering Great Attention

Well the National Portrait Gallery has garnered great attention lately by placing a photo of Stephen Colbert in the National Portrait Gallery. According to the Smithsonian, Colbert wanted his portrait to hang in the National Portrait Gallery.
After much thought and contemplation, they found an appropriate site to place the portrait, between two bathrooms and above a water fountain. I think it was appropriate.

Stephen Colbert's Portrait

It is amazing what attention this portrait is garnering. Throughout my stay at the National Portrait Gallery, I walked through most of the exhibition and it was quite enjoyable. All of the artwork is excellent and they have some wonderful exhibits that are there.

But the one portrait that is garnering the most attention is the portrait of Colbert. When I first went up to the second floor I saw this big crowd standing near the portraits of the Presidents. I thought this was a group touring the Portrait Gallery and American Art Museum and I went the other way.

Well, it wasn’t a group. It was a large crowd, that all look like they are in college, waiting to get the photo and look at the portrait of Colbert. It has certainly brought a lot of people to the museum who probably wouldn’t have come to visit. It is bringing in a lot of publicity and I think it was a good call to post the portrait.

Stephen Colbert's Portrait

So if you are in Washington, D.C., take some time and go enjoy the National Portrait Gallery and American Art Museum. And the portrait of Stephen Colbert.

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Nation’s Capital – A Wonderful Day

It was a beautiful day in our Nation’s Capital and I took it all in.

I had never been to the Smithsonian’s American Art Museum/National Portrait Gallery before so I decided to take that in. When I got there I realized that Georgetown was playing Seton Hall at the Verizon Center, but it was halftime already, so I passed.

But the museum was amazing and there was a lot of art. I especially liked the Katharine Hepburn’s special collection and the portraits of the Presidents. This is quite a collection that they have there.

The folk art was kinda quirky and the hip-hop art collection coming soon looks like it will be interesting. Too bad I am going to miss it.

But the most interesting thing was the line to see Stephen Colbert’s portrait. More on that in a later post, but most of the people interested in seeing that were a lot younger than me.

Following that, I headed down to the National Archives. I hadn’t been there in a while and they had made some significant upgrades since I had last been in the late 1980’s. While I like the new open records area, there is a lot of good information and have provided a lot of access to photos and videos that were previously inaccessible, the line to see the important documents was quite long and slow moving. I had seen these before so I just skipped them.

I then went for a casual stroll on the mall. It was a beautiful day and quite enjoyable. As you can see from the photo how nice it was. There was a lot of people out walking around, playing football and soccer, or out enjoying the afternoon on the National Mall like me.

It was a beautiful day and I am glad I got to spend it in our Nation’s Capital.

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I love V for VPN

I just want to say that I really like V for VPN as a VPN provider.  I travel for work and have a VPN for that, but I wanted a VPN for non-work stuff.
I have found V for VPN to be incredibly fast and it does not slow down my system.  That doesn’t mean the hotel Internet connections are great.

I used Hot Spot VPN for a while and it did not work all the time and it constantly slowed down my system.  Hot Spot VPN was $8.88 a month also, about twice as much as V for VPN is for it top notch service at $4.95 a month.

What make this worthwhile and amazing is that V for VPN was started and is run by a high school student who will graduate a year early this May.  I think this is a worthwhile business to support.