Ramble On

So, I’ve always been rather confused about SMS, MMS, and the data plan from Verizon. And finally, after asking Verizon customer support, I have a clearer picture. At least a clearer picture of how much they would charge me for it all.

My overaching goal is to set things up at work so that I’m using my phone as a pager, if need be. So I need some kind of interrupt-driven (or frequent poll) notification method. My hope has been to take advantage of the exorbitantly expensive data plan to do that. And I’m still figuring that out.

I think the issues is that the providers all call the stuff different things. My Treo 650 comes with two messaging applications - ‘SMS’ and ‘MMS’ - SMS is what verizon (and most of the rest of the providers) calls text messaging. It’s completely separate from any data plan, and paying $45 dollars a month for the unlimited data plan gets you jack squat with regard to text messages. Which is a shame, because text messaging would be quite useful, and as far as I can tell, it’s the only interrupt-driven messaging option (well, mms probably is too). ChatterMail might likely be able to turn IMAP into an interrupt-driven notification (however, I don’t think it can do that with SSL enabled). And Chatopus probably could with Jabber (again, not with SSL). I sorta understood that already, and am still thinking through what I want to do there (verizon does provide an email-to-sms gateway). Verizon does offer bulk text messages so you don’t pay $.10 a message.

What had really been confusing me was the MMS messaging (basically sending video and pictures and pretty messages - Verizon calls it ‘pix’ and ‘flix’ messaging) - that’s not part of the unlimited data plan either (which is confusing, because sending MMS messages initiates some kind of data connection). Those are $.25 a message, with a 40 message bulk plan for $5 (not all that much of a deal). As far as I can tell, you are just better off emailing your pictures and videos with your data plan. (and they have unlimited ‘in’ messaging plans - which don’t do me much good with the work-related messages.

Bottom line? MMS isn’t useful (to me) - I need to figure out something useful to do with the data plan - and SMS seems to be the pager-replacement (maybe an SMS with links or ‘go check email’ for more information). Oh yeah, the data plan is still too expensive.

Continuing in the fun…. (though it’s not likely to be all that fun when I get signed up for who-knows-what-other-spam-lists)

From: jason.young@ncsu.edu
Subject: Re: Only for Students job details
Date: November 28, 2005 9:24:12 PM EST
To: ljohnson794011470@associate-support.com

On Nov 28, 2005, at 11:16 AM, Linda Johnson wrote:

Hi,

Last week you expressed interest in participating in our research team. Did you forget about this appealing job offer? You are one of the few students who did not register for our program! There are only a few vacant positions left and you will miss your chance for a great job.

You can benefit from our promotion and become a member for the incredible one-time membership fee of only $10! Most of our Members earn from $650 to $850 per week. The more experienced ones earn above $900! A training program and special bonuses are available upon signing up and will increase your earnings.

Hello Dr. Johnson!

It’s so good to hear from you. I have great news! Timmy is getting much better! And my dad’s boss, Mr. Ebenezer has apparently come into a large sum of money from a royal family overseas! Mr. Ebenezer was so overjoyed at the news that he gave my dad a big bonus and brought Timmy a “Knows Your Name” Elmo to the hospital on Thanksgiving where we all feasted on turkey-flavored Spam and gelled cranberry sauce from the hospital cafeteria. Oh happy day!

I still might be interested. There are some loose ends that I’d like to clear up though.

You’ve sent me mail from multiple addresses:

linda.johnson794011470@thbglobal.com
lindaj794011470@associate-support.com
ljohnson794011470@associate-support.com

Why did you do that? Most faculty I know only have one email address that they use for corresponding with their students.

You never told me what University you work at. Or what your Ph.D. is in

And your response to my last note really confused me:

> There`s nothing to be sceptical about- more than 10 000 people have already ta
> ken advantage of our services. Don`t let someone else take your place.

I thought this was just a research team for NC State University?!? That’s a lot of people on your team. Is ’sceptical’ a particular research term? I’m not sure of the definition of that.

Thanks!
Jason