[BC] (OT) Cell phone Text messaging

[Chris Gebhardt]

Cowboy wrote:
>  And I know that personally, I have no use for text messaging on a phone.
>  That's why I have e-mail !!
> 
>  Doesn't somebody have a phone that is a phone, and not an "entertainment
>  center" ??

Ah!  See, I used to think like that.  But then the more I thought about 
it, the more it annoyed me that somebody would not combine the 2 devices 
I wore on my hip: my cellphone and my Skytel 2-way pager.    I even had 
my own little routine worked up for the "associates" at every 
electronics and wireless communications store:

"See this?" (retrieve pager from belt, show to associate)  "Now see 
this?"  (retrieve phone from belt with other hand, display to 
associate).   "Now make them do this."  (shove both hands, with devices, 
together and gesture as if they are Pla-Do that you are squeezing into 
one ball.)

I've gone through a couple "generations", and now I'm on a T-mobile 
Sidekick II.  Yep, me and Paris Hilton.  The device is clearly aimed at 
a youth market, and is all blinged out with the capability to download 
real-live ringtones, install game software, blah blah blah.   But the 
reason I have it is for its ability to hook into my IMAP server for 
email (way better than a Blackberry, IMHO) and I can use its QWERTY 
keyboard to type out responses to customer inquiries and my staff. 
With the text messaging, I get a page the instant one of our monitors 
detects trouble.  Since it's got a terminal client installed, I can 
telnet or SSH to any device on the Internet.  And my little device is 
hardly the slickest one around.

To me, it's not about entertainment.  It's about a device that frees me 
from being chained to the desk.

Chris Gebhardt
VIRTBIZ Internet Services
chris at virtbiz.com | (866) 4-VIRTBIZ