Phone Software
I got the new phone. It is a Motorola V188. It is basically a V180 with a different logo on the front. I downloaded some software that claims to work with the phone. It uses a standard USB cable. How cool is that? It also uses a standard headset.
The software kind of sucks. You can only put numbers in your phone first name first. The software has a setting that says "last name, first name" but it does not work. None of the other settings do anything. It is like no one ever tried them. I tried several versions of the software and none of them put the names on the phone in last name first order.
I have a feeling this is a Chinese software problem. I believe their family name is listed first from day one. Thus, they have no need to change the order of names when putting them in the phone. I have not figured out how to put new ring tones on the phone yet. This phone too comes with really crappy tones. That was another blog entry.
This phone appears to get better reception that  my other phones. It sounds good. The text entry is kind of a pain in the ass, but I don't do much of that. I cannot use that built in "guess what you mean" software. Just let me type in what I want dammit. Nat tried to send me a picture message and all I got was a text with instructions to go to a web page and download it. That feature costs extra too. Kind of sucks.
Over all, It is a fair phone for the price.

Iranian Government, a pack of terrorists?

If the newly elected Iranian president turns out to have been a main participant in the holding of American hostages in Tehran, he won't be the first top Iranian official with a role in the 1979 crisis. The current Iranian vice president and head of the Environment Department, Massoumeh Ebtekar, was the chief interpreter and spokeswoman for the radical students who took over the U.S. Embassy and held 52 Americans hostage for 444 days. ... It is unclear whether the Bush administration had explored previously whether Ahmadinejad was involved in the hostage episode. National security adviser Stephen Hadley said Thursday that the United States has followed his career. "Obviously, one of the things you do when you get a report like this is look back and see what you have in the files and that's the process that's going on now," he said. CNN

Well, well, well.  It goes deeper than the head of the government. It turns out one of the VP's is an admitted member of the terrorist organization that held Americans hostage. What is the U. S. government expected to do if it is all true? The guy is the President of Iran. His cronies help him run the place. We are still going to have to treat him like a head of state.
Is it possible to bring these people up on some kind of international charge that will force the rest of the world to arrest them as they travel outside their sphere of influence? As it stands, they are heroes in their homeland. People all over the Earth know they thumb their noses at the U. S. and get away with it. Have I mentioned that this makes me sick?

More on Work Email
Our email has been out at work for the last two days. They make announcements about it over the PA saying "It is still down." It never fails to amaze me how much the company relies on email to get everything done. All my requests come in via email. Half the phone calls I get I follow up on with an email just to create a paper trail.
I live via the calender. I keep track of things that will happen and things have already happened. I feel funny not having it instantly available. I'm entering data in my palm, which takes for ever. I'll sync it next week when, hopefully, the system is back to normal.