Meet the ring tones

This post exposes the fact that I am neither hip nor am I a true gadget technophile. Although my work deals with technology, I am not the classic geek when it comes to tech gadgets. My personal life is probably more techie than the average person, but for the most part I am low-fi. I do have an iPod (nano). I do a good deal of personal work on the computer (finances, vacation planning, etc) and have a wireless network at home. But I don't have cable, a plasma tv, or a high tech stereo system. I can barely work a conference call on the office phone. I have a manual electric can opener. But enough with this long intro....

My two year Verizon cell phone planned expired, and just in time as my cell phone's LCD panel started to "bleed" and became unusable. I can't see a damn thing on the screen.

So, I got my new phone. I got an incoming call and some bizarro music started to play so I went to set my ring tone to some normal phone-sounding tone. However, I see that this new phone gives me like 10 options, half of which sound like robotic beeps and the other half calypso music.

Can't I get some basic ring? You know, that sounds like a phone?

Ok, so I've heard of ring tones and I've read about how they are all the rage. But I honestly don't know much about them or really imagined it would be worth shelling out even 2 dollars for a ring tone. But it appears to be that or "The Saints Come Marching In" for me.

So I look around some and I enter this strange world of 8 note versions of just about everything: pop songs, tv theme songs, sounds, and even the alien welcome music from "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" (which I would have gotten if I went through with this). But I also find there are subscription services, shady looking web sites, and are some technicalities to uncover.

So after about 10 minutes, I realize I am wasting my time. And, based on principle alone, I just can't see paying for this. So, I'll just set it to vibrate.

Finding iPods in California

About a month ago, I was in Santa Monica for some client work. I was still on East Coast time so went for an early run along the beach. There really are a lot of homeless people in Santa Monica, and apparently if you are out early, it is just you and the homeless. One man I saw, I swear had an iPod. He was obviously homeless, with all the indications of homelessness, but there hanging down from his ears dangled the white headphone cords of the iPod. I thought, "only in California would the homeless have iPods."

Water on the left, iPods on the bottom right.

Right now I am at the Sunnyvale Sheraton. I forgot my toothpaste, so went down to the lobby and I as I walked I saw a vending machine with some toiletries, as well as the normal vending machine items, like chips, snacks, and beverages. It didn't have any toothpaste, but it did have iPods. And iPod accessories. It is a vending machine with iPods. So I can buy my peanut M&Ms, a bottled water, and a iPod shuffle all in one. From the vending machine.

Only in California.

P.S. The Blogger spell check wanted to replace "iPods" with "aphids."