T-Mobile MyFaves Top 5 People and One Who Hates It

T-Mobile rolled ouy MyFaves, a plan that gives you unlimited calls to your 5 favorite people you chose. Check out the commercials, including Dwayne Wade and Charles Barkley. People from other networks are allowed. Your top five will appreciate it.
I know one person who doesn't. While at the T-Mobile store in ValleyFair, Santa Clara last week, I selected a "Ken" profile out of the Five Faves shown on one RAZR in-store display. Not expecting that the store would leave the display phones active, I was surprised someone picked up and demanded who's been calling. I didn't want to stick around for trouble so I hung up.
This week, I thought: 'Poor guy. He must be getting a lot of calls from shoppers.' So I went back, called "Ken" again, and there he answered, indeed named "Kenneth," and irate as one would be. I learned he wasn't affiliated with T-Mobile, was a T-Mobile customer but switched to Cingular, gets phone calls from strangers, and was glad to learn its coming from a cell phone in the store display. Asked for a manager, but I advised him to come visit instead, look for the gray Dragon RAZR, and find out who's Fave Five he is with.
Seems like one of his friends pranked him. So much for one's favorite five.
Now...who would I call for free next time I go to the store?

Ipod as World Currency Tracker

Here's a news story from Australia:
Australian bank Commonwealth Securities has launched an iPod index, based on the cost of the 2GB iPod Nano as a benchmark to track currency values worldwide, showing if a currency is overvalued.
The idea stems from The Economist Magazine's Big Mac index. The bank has chosen the iPod since they are all made in China and its price - in theory - should be consistent. This is in contrast to McDonald's "Big Mac" burgers, made worldwide, says the bank.
As a result, the price of an iPod after taxes should be the same regardless of where it is sold. However, in practice this is not the case, as analysts quickly pointed out.

Nevertheless, the 2GB Nano retails this way, per the Index:
Brazil $327.71
India $222.27
Sweden $213.03
France $205.80
UK $195.04
Spain $192.86
Italy $192.86
Germany $192.46
China $179.84
Korea $176.17
Switzerland $175.59
Australia $172.36
Taiwan $164.88
Singapore $161.25
Mexico $154.46
US $149.00
Japan $147.63
Hong Kong $147.63
Canada $144.20

Watch for this headline later this month:
Enterprising Holiday-Makers Spark Global Exodus to Rio. Indians Stay Put, Take Over the World.

No More Ramen

On Jan.6, scouring the headlines while relaxing at a Borders Bookstore cafe, I saw Yahoo post an item: the inventor of instant noodles has died just the day before, at the age of 96. Faced with food shortages in post-WWII Japan, Momofuku Ando created an easy-to-make noodle product to help feed the masses. By 1958, the "instant" variety was born. Inevitably, Ando became a corporate celebrity in his homeland.

Minutes later, as I was in a bookstore, I stumbled upon this book, apparently just recently published. Late 2006. A sick coincidence? Of course not! An instant obit? Perhaps.

The Mindset Of This Year's College Freshmen, The Class of 2010.

Amid the flashbacks to 2006 and the short-term predictions into 2007, there is list of trend-setting factors for much farther into the future: the Mindset of this year's freshmen class, an annual disclosure defining the young and upcoming generation, courtesy of Wisconsin's Beloit College.
A student of history dwells in past tense. A stagnant, satisfied, well-entrenched lifer laughs with the Mindset list. The futurist has already locked and loaded it into memory.

And here are my notable ones from the Mindset of the Class of 2010:

• They are wireless, yet always connected.
• DNA fingerprinting has always been admissible evidence in court.
• "Google" has always been a verb.
• Text messaging is their email.
• Milli Vanilli has never had anything to say.
• Mr. Rogers, not Walter Cronkite, has always been the most trusted man in America.
• Madden has always been a game, not a Superbowl-winning coach.
• They grew up in mini-vans.
• They have no idea why we needed to ask "...can we all get along?"
• Brides have always worn white for a first, second, or third wedding.
• Affluent troubled teens in Southern California have always been the subjects of television series.
• They have always been able to watch wars and revolutions live on television.
• They never played the game of state license plates in the car.
• Ringo Starr has always been clean and sober.
• Professional athletes have always competed in the Olympics.

The complete list for 2007 and past years is here: Beloit College Mindset List.

2006 In Lists

Beware of 2006. The past year reaches out in fading glory with immaterial retrospectives like the Year-In-Review Lists. Check this site for Top Ten and Best Of Lists. Excusable for its fun factor. Cure for the new year hangover. Time-wasters. Website counter boosters. Magazine shelf-life killers.
But reading the self-affirming Darwin Awards, I feel blest having been ushered into 2007, bearing genes fit for survival and human advancement, and thus, push myself on, best not to look back but keep on counting up, past one glorious eve's countdown.

Ah-ah-ah-aah!






Happy New Year!