Corey Gouker's Machine Inside the Mind

So I finally caved and decided to try out the always on instant status craze. Now I pretty much update my Live Messenger PSM all the time, especially when my Now Playing is turned on. However, I used to only update Facebook once in a while. Never updated MySpace. That was it, I didn’t (and still don’t really) care about any of the other sites, which frankly seem like a fad.

Like I said, I caved, logged into my Twitter account that I apparently opened a year ago, set it up so that Facebook and Twitter would communicate. Then I added the Messenger application to Facebook so those two could talk. I then updated my status in the Live Messenger dogfood, saw it updated Facebook and was amused, but looking at Twitter… saw nothing. How very lame.

Then I remembered reading this article on TechCrunch:
http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/03/31/pingfm-centralizes-status-updates-but-is-it-enough/

Hoping that maybe, possibly, someone would’ve managed to have the services in place to spread a status message across all services regardless of origin. This concept while simple and something that has been touted as the future for some time still eludes us… None the less within 30 seconds I was registered at HelloTxt, yet another website with yet another login to manage.

I then gave my login details to the 4 other social services that I have accounts with. This seems odd considering how much phishing is going on. Heck I bet there’s a lot of money and data to be had if someone were to create a cute Web 2.0 site that gathered account data like HelloTxt does then just sell it to the highest bidder.

After some additional reading and browsing I found this blog which discusses differences between HelloTxt and Ping.fm:
http://masontechbeat.blogspot.com/2008/07/title-fight-pingfm-vs-hellotxt.html

Now don’t get me wrong, I’m all for this reinvigorated interest in the web, if anything it seems geek is now chic, can’t go wrong there. But seriously? How on Earth do the 21 networks that HelloTxt communicates with manage to attract and keep users using their services? What value do any of them really have or add? Where’s all this VC coming from and can I have some please?

Now the point of all this is that it seems like there’s a lot of cool stuff going on, but the key issue to really making everything work is a central service for which all services communicate. There’s no central standard like RSS to make it all take off. In my mind all it’s going to take is Google, Yahoo, Facebook, or whoever to release a true framework that will be the platform for future services to grow. Google seems like the obvious candidate here with their ad platform and fingers dipped into everything you can think of.

It would seem like now is the prime time to make a move leverage the hundreds of millions of Live Hotmail and Messenger users and create an open platform for these Personal Status Message(PSM) sites to communicate. I’m sure that most people already have a Live ID so that won’t even be a major caveat. I tried finding a plugin for HelloTxt or Twitter for Messenger, the best I could find was this:
http://www.msgplus.com/scripts/search/?q=twitter
Sadly this will only update Twitter and since HelloTxt doesn’t seem to pull from Twitter the rest of the sites I’m on won’t get updated. FAIL.

If Microsoft has 300 million active Live Messenger users there must be at least half a billion or more PSM’s set every day. I’m going to guess if Microsoft had the open platform it would get used. Update your status on Windows Live, have it updated everywhere. Simple concept. This seems like a much better use of resources than changing bitmaps, adding more winks, and confusing users with design changes. Microsoft has Live Spaces, Live Messenger, and Live Mobile, what more is needed? Not to mention the close ties with Facebook. That’s a pretty fine start imho. Get tied to Twitter build some momentum and you’ve got the workings for real added value to Windows Live.

Now considering my PSM in Live Messenger doesn’t update my status on Zune or Xbox despite using the same Live ID. I’m just a little nervous that Microsoft may be latecomer to the conversation it should have started. Are there any conversations going on like this in Windows Live right now?

We shall see…

This is a lame rant, but I'm sure at least one person will understand. What the hell is the point of broadcasting in HD when you can't even get the bloody aspect ratio right!? This is what I'd love to ask the ladies and gents at TNT HD. Right now, Gladiator is on 1080i, but it's a 4:3 image stretched to 16:9. It's random too, sometimes they get it right, other times, like with all the X-Files reruns they don't. Gah... Bloody annoying.

UPDATE: So Thirteen Days just came on, and would you look at this a decent 1080i 16:9 image.

Really don't get it, do they just not bother getting the right content? Is it a rights issue or what?

Through some act of God or maybe just a certain person I know in the North Central division, the Internet has returned here. I used to have two Internet connections, one for the server, one for personal use. But now it's just one, so if things go down, there's a total feeling of disconnection. Oddly, despite things being down for 2 weeks I've not been too bothered, though I think that's partly because I've barely been on anyway.

Anywho, the problems started (again) on the 8th, when the web just died, the crappy SMC business gateway reported the upstream ranging was in progress and just sat there. Comcast sent a guy out the next morning but things were back up when he got here. Then a week later it goes down again the same exact problem. I call once more and the Comcast person says they're having problems with the headend, I think maybe she meant CMTS, but who knows, she says to give it 24-48 hours. Things come back up shortly a couple days later and go down again, this time the upstream ranging is fine but I can't ping the Comcast DNS servers I've been given. So I call once more, now they're saying they're having DNS issues. The weird thing though is that apparently incoming traffic is still working fine, but I can't ping jack on the outbound. I can't even get into the internal customer admin pages on the modem either, even when I plug directly into the server.

At this point they've already said they're going to give me a week free, now she's saying a month since it's been down for over a week. I keep asking if they should just send someone out to replace the modem but this guy is saying to just give it time for the DNS stuff to be sorted. "Fine whatever, I give up, I don't care, just sort this out and give me the credit", that's about all I say. I've already been on the phone with them for at least 2 hours to get this stuff sorted and it's been too long for it to be down. Topping it off the service didn't work well at all from day one, I had the modem replaced twice, and the current one is only working well because I got some "special" firmware running on it. Before the firmware the modem had to be logged onto and the firewall reset once a week.

Finally, Julie calls Comcast today hoping that the feminine touch will do the trick. After a bit she hands the phone to me and this guy isn't any more helpful. The entire problem I've been having is that I can't log onto the modem as a cusadmin to see anything, I can't tell what he's doing remotely or anything. But he's telling me the settings are fine except the subnet mask, it should be .252 not .0, uh, err, wrong. I keep asking about the DNS but he says it's fine, and there's no issues. The issues with the DNS and the other crap were apparently resolved already so there's no reason why our Internet shouldn't be working. I still can't ping jack from the router, and I plug the server directly into the modem. Whatever he did though made it so the cable and traffic lights wouldn't even come on after power cycling the gateway and such. He ends up just giving up and sending someone out tomorrow morning.

Fed up, I give in, call the real help. After about 20 minutes of digging, we finally get the modem back online, she gets in remotely and we get it going again so I can log on as cusadmin. Turns out that Comcast had turned on DHCP even though we're static, had the subnet wrong, and had disabled the manual DNS entries. She also switched the port to half duplex since apparently the SMC has issues with auto detection. After all that I can finally log into the modem, can see everything. She mentions something about some work being done switching the rules in the RIP to force business customers to use the business DNS not the residential, so we switch to those DNS servers and everything magically works again, switch back to the residential just as a check and stuff stops again.

This is a huge rant for no purpose, but I just don't get why someone in a completely different division without complete access to my modem can sort stuff out in 20 minutes but it takes the Northwest Comcast people 2 weeks, and 3 service calls and they still couldn't do it. I guess their solution to everything is not bother on the phone and just replace the modem regularly.

Now I just have to call up and cancel the service call and make sure they give us that month free that they promised. Hopefully it doesn't go down again after I call.

The cafeteria blows. It really does. I'm not saying they don't have days where the food tastes good and is a good value. What I am saying however is that it's just totally hit or miss. I'm pretty sure the B50 cafeteria at Microsoft is one of the few that can actually mess up a salad bar and sandwich.

As an example the other day I went to get a sandwich that I order pretty much every day, how in the world does the lady get tomato from green pepper or mayo from dijon mustard!? A day before that I went to get some salad, problem was, it was all half frozen and the chicken strips tasted like plastic. I typically walk by the pizza because you can literally see pools of oil sitting ontop of the cheese as the pizza warms under the lamps. Then there's the grill, about the only thing that usually goes right. Problem is that the lines are ridiculously long so you stand there for 15 minutes waiting for your burger. Vegetarian options are extremely limited as well. Typically there might be some soup, and maybe one tofu dish. Today there was a tomato soup. Yay, not. In fact while we're at it, lets look at the menu for today:

Breakfast	BC Breakfast Quesadilla		$2.25
	Banana Berry Smoothie Fresh Bananas and Strawberries Blended with Yogurt and Honey Protein Powder is Optional		$3.00
Soups of the Day	Old Fashioned Tomato (Vegetarian)		1.95/2.60/3.05
	Clam Chowder		1.95/2.60/3.05
Wild Greens	BC Baked Potato		$1.65
Pizza	Roasted Chicken, Sun Dried Tomato & Smoked Gouda Savory pizza topped with roasted chicken, sun dried tomatoes and gouda cheese		$1.90
	Julienne Vegetable and Sun dried Tomato Italian Marinated Vegetables with Tangy Sun dried Tomatoes and a blend of cheeses		$3.50
Deli	BC Santa Fe Chicken Pita		$4.75
Entrée	Swedish Meatballs over Egg Noodles Served with a Side and a Roll		$4.25
Grill	Beer Battered Fish and Chips Beer Battered Cod Filets, Served with French Fries		$5.35

Eurest the food service provider typically tries and come up with some fancy menu but more often than not can't get even the most basic dishes right. Any steamed or seasoned veg is usually dry and plain or soggy and the flavor is over bearing. It's just a total mess. Dom has said it was better when Microsoft subsidized the cost. I'd like to think so, since Eurest sure loves charging me $5.70 for a sandwich one day then $4.90 for the same exact thing the very next.

So sometimes I'll go out, problem is that B50 has next to nothing within walking distance, save a teriyaki and I think there's a deli up near that as well. That leaves driving. So you consume gas, take 20 minutes to get there and get back, the food is always better, most of the time cheaper, and overall more satisfying.

At this point though I honestly feel like my best option are the 3 for $8/9 Lean Cuisine meals that I get and can bring into work. Even they taste better, and they actually save me money, I get my food no matter what in under 8 minutes and it's a good size portion and I don't feel like crap after I eat it.

I know I'm not the only one, it's practically a running joke with people here in 50. I'm just amazed Eurest hasn't been thrown out with their bad food.

And finally for a company that has somewhere around $30 billion in cash laying around you'd think that Microsoft would be able to get lunch right.

I love Samsung displays, I happen to think they make the best LCD's and DLP's in the market today. I like Samsung design, they're elegant, sexy, and classy and above all that I find their picture quality to be the most appealing to me personally. I'll probably continue to buy Samsung displays until something crazily awesome comes out like SED or something or until it's proven that these issues with this model aren't just a fluke and affect their other lines. For the time being the latest generation LCD and DLP's from Samsung are the best you can get in my very humble opinion.

I bought my 56" DLP, the Samsung HLS-5688W, from Magnolia in Bellevue on 07/03/06 for $3264 after tax. On 01/18/07, I received a second brand new HLS-5688W. In between those 6 months my original unit received 3, yes 3, service calls! I guess it was in mid Oct that the problems started. The TV randomly started making a garbage disposal type noise when it turned on and off and before the set wouldn't turn on at all it'd do it constantly. My guess is the color wheel got out of whack, who knows. Also at this time there was a mark on the screen and moisture in the bottom left corner behind the screen. So TK Electronics the service company Samsung was using at that time sent a guy out to replace the light engine.

That was done, and the guy left without me signing a thing. He didn't test the set and that night I turned it on and the picture was upside down. He came back again after I called TK directly. So my TV was almost back to normal. After talking to Samsung they finally replaced the screen now November, so the same TK guy came back once more. He left this time after testing it, and saying the dust he got in between the screens would go away after a bit (which it never did) and again without me signing anything. But the TV was as closed to new as it was since buying it. Not even two weeks goes by it seems and the same TK electronics guy comes out with the 2nd light engine this time because the TV won't turn on at all after making the garbage disposal noise from hell and for the 3rd time leaves without any documentation or paperwork. 3 full service calls and it breaks again.

Enough is enough and I call Samsung, complain, and finally get Executive Customer Relations, after faxing in my original sales receipt the rep sets up a TV exchange. So that brings us to 01/18/07 when NVC come in and swap out the TV. Yes, finally a new TV that should hopefully work and not be a lemon.

Or so I thought. Today Comcast came out with a CableCARD that I got to test with Vista and a DCT. He installs it in the TV, leaves, I leave the TV on for about 30 minutes from that point till the channel listings refreshed then turn the TV off. Another 30 minutes pass then I turn the TV on and instead of coming on the Lamp light just blinks. But there's light coming from the back. Oh crap I think. I leave it for 2 minutes then it just shuts itself off. I unplug the set for 5 minutes then try again. Same thing, so I call Samsung. Now Samsung don't exactly offer any real "technical" support over the phone, anything beyond what's in the basic manual and they set up a service call. So while waiting on hold for the service call to take place, some horizontal bars flash on the screen twice after 2 minutes of the lamp light blinking and then nothing.

The service call is made this time with Teletron, yay a new service company who isn't crap (I hope). Extremely annoyed with the entire TV, I call them up, and get the manager directly, a Curt Wilmoth. We discuss everything, he says I should try reseating the lamp which I do, and the earliest they could come out is 3/9. When I do that it seems the lamp itself is fine. After getting the TV all back together again I try turning it on, yep, still nothing, just some light from the back and the Lamp light flashing.

I call Samsung again and speak with someone about just getting my money back or an upgraded unit (hopefully not another color wheel DLP). He's totally awesome, Mark was his name, not sure about the last, but either way he noted the account and said I should call back first thing in the morning to get Executive Customer Relations to talk about options for getting a new TV.

I'll just have to wait and see, this will be the 4th damned service call, and I've had it, this model DLP clearly has issues, at least for me. And I could really just beat myself for not waiting just another month to buy the LED model. Or waiting another 6 months to buy a 1080p LCD.

So I don't know, I'm just wanting my money back so I cool off for a bit and not be so annoyed with this stupid TV. It's a damned TV afterall, technology and life in general shouldn't be this complex.

Samsung, please please, just send me a LN-T5265F, or worse case a HL-T5689S, or better yet, just give me a refund and take my HLS-5688W away for good!!!

And finally, I'd just like to say that I'd still only buy a Samsung display, regardless if two of my same model DLP's were lemons.

UPDATE: Called Samsung Executive Customer Relations, (800) 522-7341. Waited on hold for 25 minutes. Then spoke with a rep, after explaining things she said Samsung go on a case by case basis and that no matter what they'd need to have the service person come out and determine if it really was the light engine that needed to be replaced. Then they could determine if it was cost effective to repair the unit. I mean come on Samsung, you've sent someone out here 3 times, and spent however much on sending me a brand new unit plus the return costs for the defective unit. Now you want to do it all again!?

I tried getting the rep who sounded nice but rather busy, to tell me at which point Samsung will just say enough and take this forsaken model away from me. She wouldn't say other than repeating the case by case line and absolutely need a service call. She also wouldn't divulge what Samsung's policy is for dealing with these situations. Whether it be sending a different model, offering a full refund, or giving me a voucher for a new Samsung display (which I'd gladly take since I still plan on sticking with Samsung). Instead she said that one option would be "to extend the warranty beyond 1 year to ensure the TV still functions after the repair" but at the same time she said "obviously this wouldn't really apply if the TV had the same issue in another 3 years time".

Great, so I have a repeating failure in the light engine even across two units. Which I'm researching a bit further on AVSForum. Samsung are suggesting that at some point I start paying more money beyond the $3264 I spent for a working TV in the first place.

Maybe I should just get the TV repaired, sell it, cut my losses and dump Samsung, at least I'd be able to know the end outcome and could just get a new TV today.

UPDATE: Spoke with David at Teletron service, the new authorized repair company Samsung are using. David said that he'd have Gary the tech look things over on Monday and that I could call him then to further diagnose the (clearly broken light engine) TV. Hopefully that'll happen because from what David said the earliest they could come out is the 13th and that'd only be to diagnose the problem further. Why they can't just have me do this on the phone is a mystery, Curt the manager already had me check the bloody bulb so what's the issue? After coming out on the 13th. They don't have a bulb nor a light engine in stock so unless Samsung ECR takes care of things before then they'll be ordering that stuff on the 13th, I'll have to wait for the parts to arrive from Samsung, then they'll have to schedule another service call to come out and actually repair the TV. Oh and did I mention they only come out on Tuesday and Thursday to Redmond... Enough. I just want my money back before I toss this TV off the balcony.

UPDATE: Not sure if this is directly related to my issue but here's some info about various problems with the set including a "collapsed light engine", which Samsung apparently know nothing about.

UPDATE: I'm still without a TV. I ended up buying a LN-T3253H in the mean time till this entire mess gets sorted. Plus I could really use an LCD for the bedroom for Media Center Extender usage. Meanwhile the mess with Samsung's Executive Customer Relations has been horrible and possibly even borderline extortion on Samsung's part. I mean I seriously am about ready to just toss the TV off the balcony, the amount of time, energy, and advil this entire case has caused is insane.

Where I left off two months ago with Samsung ECR was that they would send me a HL-T5676S which is an equivalent model to my 88W. Fine, yay, it should be sorted. Now I'm told because it's a new model set it'll be the end of April before it's sent. Sigh, okay, but at least it'll be new and should hopefully not have any issues.

So I call ECR back up 3 weeks ago for an update. I'm told that the 76S should definitely ship between the 16th and 26th. Considering the track record with Samsung thus far I called back again last week on the 18th. This time the story is different and things have changed.

Apparently now the 76S is on backorder with the factory and there is no estimated arrival date. After being placed on hold for 20 minutes I'm offered an upgrade to the HL-T5687S for $200 which is an LED model, but lacks some of the features my 88W. Either way I'd not be taking it for an upgrade fee of $200, that just seems stupid considering how much I've already spent. I ask about getting maybe a smaller LCD, an option which I've been told previously would be impossible as Samsung only gives out replacements of the same technology. This time I'm offered a LN-T4642H which is a huge step down. But at least it's free.

I ask about the 89S the equivalent LED model to my 88W. They'll send this set but for $400. After some arguing I make the case that spending ANYTHING to fix Samsung's service problems is unacceptable and if anything at this point I'd just like my money back, I'm placed on hold again for another 15 minutes. She comes back and says that they can't give a refund because there's a like model available, the 76S (uh hello, you just told me it's not available and there's no date, why else would you have offered the 87S in the first place). But now because of the fact I've had 3 service calls, 1 replacement TV and now need another, they'd go ahead and let me upgrade to the 89S for $200. Aww, how kind and sweet of them.

I say, fine whatever, lets go ahead since at this point I just want it all resolved and over and done with. I give her my credit card info and prepare for the $200 hit.

After talking to Julie about it and thinking about how my wallet has just been raped I call back to cancel and just ask for a refund again. I get the same story regarding the refund despite point out the 76S not being available. But alas Samsung's story has changed again, they've gone back on previous statements and now this time the ECR guy is offering to set up a Return Authorization with Magnolia! What's this I ask. Well, apparently they'll send some paperwork to Magnolia which will let me return the TV to them and after that it's out of Samsung's hands and it's up to Magnolia to decide if they give me the money back on my card or give me store credit or let me get an equal model TV. So I say sure. Let's cancel the $200 upgrade for the 89S with Samsung and do the RMA with Magnolia.

I call up Magnolia, confirm they've got 7 of the 89S's in stock and they have them for $2800. So even with tax it's still less than the $3264 I paid for the 88W, perfect. They're totally cool with just having me swap for the 89S but they won't give me the difference back and if I want it delivered it's another $80. Sigh. I'm told that I should be able to get it sorted today.

It's Monday now, I call up Samsung to ask if everything has been faxed, they're now saying that the paperwork has to go through corporate then over to Magnolia's service department and that it takes 3-5 days so that would mean the end of this week.

I guess after having the TV for 10 months and only being able to use it for 5, I can wait one more week.

This really has been hell, nothing should be this complex or such a pain to take care of, especially not some crappy TV. While it probably is a random lemon occurance it should be handled so much better than it has.

I'll update this again once I finally get a new TV and once it's working for a bit. Meanwhile here's another guy on AVS Forum that's going through the same hell as me.

UPDATE: I'm a bit too annoyed still from the call I just had with Samsung ECR so this update is just a copy and paste from the AVS Forum thread I've been participating in. Oh and note the original post for this started on 3/1/2007, it's now 4/27/2007:

Yeah, not always is right. Especially with Samsung.

I'm literally on the phone with them right now, on hold. Apparently my RA with Magnolia has been denied by Samsung because they've replaced the TV once before. And in order for them to do the RA the serial number of the set I'm returning has to be one that was sold by Magnolia in the first place. Excuse me, that's just complete bull, first off I told the guy Greg in ECR the entire history of my set, about having it serviced 3 times and being replaced, and having the replacement break. And the person I talked to yesterday didn't say anything about that. What the hell does that have to do with allowing a RA with Magnolia anyway, it's the same exact set.

So now she's saying well the 87S can be sent for free (well thanks since you guys did say $200 before). But the 89S is still $200 (was $400 before).

This is just ridiculous, I've been documenting the entire thing here: [link to this post removed]

I'm about ready to just escalate this with the BBB or whatever it takes to just get the money back. Sadly, I still like the Samsung sets, I'd probably buy the 89S since I think it's the best option. And then I'd probably take the price difference and buy the Magnolia warranty to hopefully never deal with Samsung ECR again.

How in the world can this be justified by Samsung.
1. I'm told I'll get a 76S by the 26th.
2. I'm told that's not available and is on backorder and I can get a 87S for $200 and 89S for $400.
3. I'm then told I can have the 89S for $200. And I go ahead with that.
4. After thinking I made a mistake I call back and am then told I can always do a RA. That's set up after I'm told that there's no problems with that and even check with Magnolia and Samsung ECR again after its set up.

5. Now I'm told RA isn't possible. The 87S is free, and the 89S is $200.

Is Samsung just pulling these values out of thin air, are they just making an excuse with this serial number stuff!? Management at Magnolia Bellevue were perfectly happy to accomodate me with a free 89S.

<biggest sigh of agony ever>

Okay, just hung up after another 49 minutes on the phone...

She's talked to her manager, and the manager is now going to talk to the service department to see about getting the 89S price adjusted to $0 (I'd hope so after this crap with the RA with Magnolia falling through). So Jennifer in ECR is going to give me a call back Tuesday to hopefully provide me with some good news. Meanwhile I have to send over my invoice again because apparently the one they originally used to send the first replacement set is too faded.

I doubt she'll ever read this... but sorry again for having a minor rant, I realize you're only doing your job and actually do understand my viewpoint of Samsung's insane and stupid policy and extortionate practices.

Oh and one more thing. Why the hell was I told that I couldn't do an RA with Magnolia before I did my first exchange with Samsung. I would've done an RA even then since it would've been faster and easier. So add this to another line of headaches from Samsung.

UPDATE: I guess even the thought of me sending a letter to the BBB was enough for Samsung to finally get their act together. After emailing my original invoice again (first time months ago I faxed it and apparently it wasn't readable), and sending the email twice, once with a delivery confirmation (to which she apparently didn't receive even though her server says she did), and a second time to two people at Samsung with a read receipt (which I know for sure they got).

I called again today, May 1st, and got through to a third person. After explaining why I was calling yet again, she just came back and said that it appears the HL-T5689S has been ordered for you for free. About bloody time! I asked for a NVC tracking number to be sure, not available yet since the order was just placed. So I'll give it another 48 hours before calling again to get the tracking number.

Hopefully with fingers and toes crossed once more, the new 89S will really be arriving in working order within 14-21 days.

UPDATE: It's been 48 hours, I just called, had a couple minutes of nervousness when the ECR rep said the unit might be on backorder till the end of May. But nope, she was confused (probably thinking of the 76S) and came back with the tracking information for the new and not $400 upgrade fee HL-T5689S. It shipped yesterday and is set to arrive in Seattle on the 5/8/07. So fingers crossed I'll be updating this post next Wednesday with a working set.

UPDATE: 5/9/07 - Well, after 69 days of having a broken TV, the LED's have landed! NVC just came and picked up the PoS 88W (barely fit in the 89S box). And I've got he 89S on the coffee table hooked up to the 360 Elite to verify everything is working.

First impressions, it's thinner, but not that much thinner than the 88W. It starts up very fast compared to the 88W. The bezel seems thinner, finally a proper source switching system. The Plug & Play thing out of box is nice.

Xbox 360 looks great, Gears looks great, but Dynamic mode still sucks as usual. Standard isn't actually half bad. Movie mode is still best but will need some calibration.

But finally! The entire saga is coming to a close for me. I'm seriously crossing my fingers this TV is good to me for 5+ years since I don't want to mess with any of this again till maybe SED rolls around.

Last night around 3AM I was browsing the web and listening to Dark Side pretty loudly. I suddenly heard a really loud gunshot come from my speakers that literally made my heart skip a beat. I look a bit lower on the page and notice a really annoying Flash movie ad that just starts playing without me doing a thing. That's when I said enough is enough and decided to do something about it since it's obvious people who create Flash will continually use sound without user interaction. Flash really needs to remember sound levels across sessions to prevent someone from giving themselves a heart attack. To prevent Flash ads from loading and playing sound as well taking over the top layer of a page I created FlashBang.

FlashBang is a very simple application. Upon installation it adds an icon to your standard toolbar in Internet Explorer. Clicking the icon then toggles Flash on and off. The application accomplishes this by simply adding or removing a registry key. This is pretty much the same thing the new Manage Add-ons does in Internet Explorer with SP2 except it requires that you refresh the page for the changes to take affect. The plus is that it doesn't require more than two clicks so enabling and disabling Flash is quick and easy. When you disable Flash you'll see an icon in the lower right hand corner of the window as seen here.

The system requirements are that you are running XP with Service Pack 2 OR Vista and have the .NET Framework 1.1 or later installed and of course that you're using Internet Explorer. The application is provided on a free of charge and free to distribute basis. I will gladly accept donations of any amount via PayPal.

Download: FlashBang (updated 4/27/2007 12:01AM, please uninstall previous versions first)

If you have any questions or comments feel free.

UPDATE: Renamed from TorchFlash to FlashBang thanks to Dylan Greene.

Also, it looks like there is a minor bug in that if you have IE open while you're installing FlashBang the icon won't be activated in IE by default. Please be sure to close all IE windows before installing FlashBang. If you run into this little bug go to View then Toolbars then Customize, scroll the list and Add FlashBang to the toolbar.

If you've uninstalled FlashBang you can still Disable and Enable Flash using the Manage Add-ons feature of Internet Explorer found under the Tools menu. You may need to visit a site which normally has Flash to see Flash pop into the list. Really though, this is all the app actually does to block Flash ads. Sadly it means disabling all other Flash and not just the ads. Other options include a nice big hosts file, or also use FireFox which has some other ways of blocking ads through CSS and such.

UPDATE: I'm releasing a minor update to FlashBang which will fix any issues regarding installation on a machine with only the .NET Framework 2.0 installed. At this point if you have 1.1.4322, 2.0.50727.0, or later installed, FlashBang should work without any issues. To check which version of the .NET Framework that you have installed run the following at a command prompt " reg query hklm\software\microsoft\asp.net ".

UPDATE: Now installing on Windows Vista! I had to update the Visual Studio installer to recognize Windows v6, aka Vista. FlashBang will now install on Vista without any known issues... well, other than the UAC stuff. I do NOT have $125 to get a cert to code sign these free apps since well, I've only had $5 donated thus far. Until I can get the app code signed anyone running UAC will be bugged while installing FlashBang, and bugged again when they go to toggle Flash on and off in IE. On the plus side, there is a check box in the Protected Mode prompt in IE to quit prompting about the app in the future. I suggest people check that box till I can get a cert and code sign my apps.

To coincide with the release of the Vista installable FlashBang, I'm also releasing an app to complement it. Even though WPF/E has yet to really take off, I'm sure Silverlight will start gaining some momentum. In advance of that I'm releasing LightSwitch, which oddly enough does the same exact thing FlashBang does for Flash, but for Silverlight content. The system requirements are the same as FlashBang, and they are that you'll be running XP with Service Pack 2 OR Windows Vista and have the .NET Framework 1.1 or later installed and of course that you're using Internet Explorer.

The application is provided on a free of charge and free to distribute basis. I will gladly accept donations of any amount via PayPal, and please note I do need the donations as both LightSwitch and FlashBang are both unsigned apps users of Vista will see unwarranted and nasty messages till I can afford a cert and get the apps code signed. So any funds that I receive will go towards the $125/yr that's required to maintain the cert.

Download: LightSwitch (updated 4/27/2007 12:01AM, please uninstall previous versions first)

If you have any questions or comments feel free.

Note also, it looks like there is a minor bug in that if you have IE open while you're installing FlashBang or LightSwitch the icon won't be activated in IE by default. Please be sure to close all IE windows before installing either app. If you run into this little bug go to View then Toolbars then Customize, scroll the list and Add FlashBang / LightSwitch to the toolbar.

If you've uninstalled either of the apps you can still Disable and Enable Flash  and Silverlight using the Manage Add-ons feature of Internet Explorer found under the Tools menu. Really though, this is all the app actually does to block the content. Sadly it means disabling all other good content and not just the ads. Other options include a nice big hosts file, or also use FireFox which has some other ways of blocking ads through CSS and such.

Despite the fact that Vista shipped 4 months and a day ago + the 5 years of development time, Creative has just now finally decided to do some work and ship what should hopefully be some quality non beta drivers. Granted this hasn't stopped some OEM's, like Dell, from shipping logo'd systems with Vista and XtremeMusic cards with beta Creative drivers (oh and these aren't even the latest beta drivers Creative made available)!

The new drivers can be found here (narrowed down to the XtremeMusic that I own, oh and if you have an Audigy 2, non beta drivers are available now as well):

The drivers download there supports the following audio devices only:

• Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeMusic,
• Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeGamer
• Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Platinum
• Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Fatal1ty
• Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Elite Pro

Oh and to just prove that Creative aren't a bunch of idiots and haven't been sitting on their hands all this time since Vista shipped:

Known issues:

• This driver does not support the following:
  • Decoding of Dolby® Digital and DTS™ signals
  • DVD-Audio
  • DirectSound®-based EAX games
  • 6.1 speaker mode.
• SPDIF passthrough is supported on Vista 32-bit only.
• Applications from the original Sound Blaster X-Fi CD will not work with this download.

Sure the entire bloody audio architecture in Vista changed, but there have been years of ramp up now. To release drivers this late and with a plethora of known issues that people care about, well, that's just unforgiveable. It's no wonder why you're losing the market and everyone just sticks with onboard AC'97 and now the far better HD Audio.

I've been running the beta drivers now on a 4.9 WEI system with my XtremeMusic and I can't even move a file from one folder to another without having WMP or VLC crackle and pop while playing music. All I can say is that unless this driver release or a new driver release in the next 90 days resolve this I will never buy a Creative product ever again.

With the recent February CTP release of Longhorn Server I finally decided that since my Dell PowerEdge 2900 hasn't really been fully configured. It'd be a good time to give Vista... err Longhorn Server a shot.

I'm still waiting in limbo for my fresh install with Exchange 2007 (waiting on that one little app that will make it all work like magic) on Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition x64 R2 (PLEASE PLEASE let them have some common sense with naming sometime this century).

The install of Longhorn Server went perfectly. I didn't even have to provide drivers for my Dell PERC 5/i RAID controller which is awesome and as expected. The entire install took only 15 minutes which is great considering it's a quad core server with 4GB of 667MHz FB-DIMM's. I noticed right away that the no network connection icon was down there in the system tray so I immediately went to Device Manager. The two embedded NIC's (Broadcom NetXtreme II 5708C's) were just showing as Ethernet adapters.

Figuring first that the 2003 x64 drivers would work I went to the big RAID driver I've got, it wasn't there. No biggy, it's probably not mounted. Popped open Disk Management saw 3265GB (RAW) and nearly died of a heart attack. Remaining calm (knowing Microsoft couldn't have just done something so stupid as wipe my drive), I gave the unmounted partition a drive letter and crossed my fingers as it was assigned to R: and showed the right amount of free space and NTFS. Now I'm sure the PM that thought this was a good idea had the best intentions but for the love of god man think again. Don't you ever scare me or anyone else like that again. RAW == brand new drive / empty drive / drive with nothing on it. Don't you dare say that my 3TB array is empty. List it as UNMOUNTED and pop a bloody dialog stating that I need to assign a drive letter. The last thing you want is some system admin working away on 100's of systems to just format a drive with critical data on it.

I tried installing the NIC drivers from Dell and they didn't work. I then tried the drivers from Broadcom for the NetXtreme II 5708C and they didn't work. I then tried whatever Broadcom drivers came in Longhorn Server and those didn't work. Finally I Googled and found, this, so I then tried the RIS drivers and unfortunately those didn't work either. In fact Windows wouldn't even boot complaining about the driver's digital signature being unverified. So after trying every possible driver my 20 minutes with Longhorn Server is over and I'm going back to Server 2003. Maybe with Beta 3, maybe once Broadcom get there butts in motion (this isn't a bloody Creative soundcard guys it's a critical enterprise level NIC that's shipped on nearly ALL 9th gen Dell servers, you've got Vista RTM get moving, Server shouldn't be much of a leap). Clearly the issue is with the NDIS v5 Broadcom are using. And it's probably also the root cause of all the issues I've been having with Virtual Sever 2005 and this NIC back on Windows Server 2003 as well.

There's a part of me that just wants to give in and buy the Intel Pro/1000PT Dual Port PCIe x4 NIC and have the drivers built in and not have to worry but I'm not about to waste $170 on another NIC when I've got one that should be working perfectly. What a headache.

First an obvious one from the Sidebar... This is a known bug but it's stupid and annoying. Notice anything in the linked screenshot? According to the Sidebar and according to the Display Settings the gadgets and such should be on the right side of my left monitor. Obviously they're not. After a restart of the PC the Sidebar ends up in that location. At which point you have to pull up the properties again and set it to the right side of monitor 3.

If you have a sharp eye you might have also noticed something else. This one is a shell bug. Notice the taskbar has a bit more going on than it should? Especially over in that right side there's just stuff that should definitely be black.

Here's another example, you can clearly see what's happening here. The taskbar glass effect is grabbing the wrong portion of the image for the effect. It's taking the image from the 2nd monitor not the 1st. Here's the actual background image (converted from a BMP). Jon and I thought the fix would be to just turn glass off then on so I restarted the DWM service that didn't work. Neither did a restart. So we're not sure if this is the same known bug we've seen during the beta or something else. The fix however is to turn on the auto-hiding of the taskbar. Immediately after doing that the problem is fixed. Disabling the auto-hiding breaks it again .

One other thing you'll notice from the background image is that it doesn't quite match the screenshot of the desktop. Well this is more of a feature request and something that can be done with UltraMon but something clearly the shell team didn't have time nor thought was worthy of doing for Vista. Basically I've got 3 24" monitors at 1920x1200. I've got my main monitor 1 set to the middle where I like my taskbar. 2 is to the left, and 3 to the right. The problem is that I'm a bit more of a pixel perfectionist than most and so having one desktop background spread across all 3 monitors is a must. There's only 2 ways of doing this. First is to use a third party app like UltraMon. And the second approach is to pop open Paint or Photoshop and create an image that's the right size (5760x1200) in my case. Then paste in the 3 images to create one image to stretch about whichever way you'd please.

Now logic would dictact that WYSIWYG with the background image. You'd expect it to go 123, left, middle, right. Well that's not the correct logic according to the methods used for the Desktop Background settings in Vista. If you have a set up similar to my circumstances, which I'll concede many don't... *cough* stupid speech recognition vulnerability. Then I'm just like some at ZDNet and I'd just be making something of nothing. However, if you also have Aristotle like perfection you'll want to make sure your multimon background is set up right.

To do this you need to remember that Windows will start the background image from your "main" monitor and you need to have things set to Tile mode. In my case the monitors go 213. So while the start of image should be at the left mine is in the middle. Next you have to make sure the image flows and overflows from left to right, regardless of monitor numbering. To better illustrate this click here. Well, I hope that better illustrates things with the description:

1, Middle monitor = Left side of image in Photshop.
2, Left monitor = Right side of image in Photoshop.
3, Right monitor = Middle of image in Photoshop.

If not then maybe heading over to shellrevealed would be a good idea . Tell them that you want to be able to set a different background image for each attached display and not have to deal with this mess. Finally if you like the backgrounds shown or want to see some other cool stuff head over to mandolux.

UPDATE: Dom and I were discussing how annoying desktop icons have become. I was ranting about how I wish the Recycle Bin were a sidebar thing instead of being the only desktop icon that I'd have floating around. So I disabled it in Personalization. He instead just unchecked Show Desktop Icons from the Properties menu on the Desktop. I gave this a go just for the heck of it since I've still got a couple other temporary icons on the desktop that I didn't want to move and low and behold. The bloody taskbar glass bug was resolved. Obviously there's something funky going on here and I'm sure it wasn't really considered to be significant enough to fix since not enough people would hit it. At any rate, just a work around for anyone who wants to know...

Dom sent me this link to a Flash demo of Y! Messenger for Vista. Three things I notice right away:

1. It's got glass.
2. It's got tabs.
3. It makes use of the Sidebar.

I really don't get why the WLM team got lazy and didn't bother doing anything special for Vista with glass and the Sidebar, makes no sense considering the amount of time they knew they'd have before Vista shipped. I suppose they had other priorities though like adding more winks and other things that they can charge for.

Oh and the way Yahoo has done the tabs, from first impressions, they've got it down just right. Being able to drag and drop them seems really nice.

The last few times Jon and I have met with the MSN/WLM folks they seem to dislike the fact that so many people use Plus! Live despite the fact that many of the same people on those teams use the app themselves. Now what I don't understand is that if they were so against the add-on app then why don't they just start taking some of the features that clearly people want and add them in? It's like half the work has already been done. Features that if done would make me drop Plus! Live for WLM are:

1. Tabs
2. Logging that works as well as Plus, including an option for plain text.
3. Larger text buffer so I can send at least 1100 characters (and yes this isn't just a geek thing, my grandma likes to type whole letters out in IM form).

Finally get moving and implement glass! And as a final suggestion, never ever say "good suggestion, thanks" ever again.

So I just got done doing a second clean install on my main PC. This PC for the softies out there is pretty much identical to one of the systems used during the Media Center TakeHome Program. I had just clean installed yesterday morning because my last install was just odd, for example plugging in a SanDisk Micro into the USB and it would never be detected. Ditto with the USB hub / memory card reader on my Dell 2405FPW. Plus the fact that I kept getting blue screens 2 to 3 times a day was enough for me. I did a full memory test with extended 2 pass and verified the memory was fine but kept getting page errors and the like. Needless to say I just figured it was a lemon install so I installed yesterday.

When I reinstalled I kept the full 4GB of RAM in the system and I left the USB hub and SanDisk Micro plugged into the USB. Unfortunately after I finished installed neither of these devices were being detected. The BIOS still showed 4GB of RAM and Vista still showed 2.75GB of RAM usable (the usable RAM I know is normal). So then I set the PC to tripple mon. Then I installed WLM 8.1 beta. Then I restarted. Got back up and noticed an error report. Looking further I noticed I already had 43 to report! Still no USB hub showing up (even though the BIOS sees it fine), but the Micro finally shows up. So I try and format the device from Computer by right clicking then go to Format. The dialog window never appears, even after waiting 5 minutes. Frustrated I just shut the system down. Unplug both of the USB devices mentioned, pop open the system then I play around with the RAM, I try doing 2GB in single channel, then 2GB in dual channel, then the other 2GB in both modes, then 1 chip from 1 set and the other from the other. Basically just making sure I wasn't forgetting to test everything (with the last installs BSOD's fresh in my mind). It's fun to note that every time I booted with 2GB of RAM both USB devices showed up. I then tried going back to 4GB and again the USB devices are unrecognized by Windows (they appear as unrecognized in Device Manager). Enough fiddling I go back to 2GB in dual channel. I just want this bloody thing to work right.

I get the USB hub working finally, I'm able to format some SD from the memory reader for the first time since installing Vista on this system. The dialog to format the SanDisk Micro comes up immediately on the first try and I'm able to format that and enable ReadyBoost to use the extra 1.8GB it provides.

So this morning in a New Year I'm feeling pretty good about the system, not wanting to throw it off my balcony. I get a link from Mark pointing me to a new music vid on YouTube. Click to go there, then click to install Flash from Adobe. And now the frustration is back again. Having only used IE like 3 times (once to get beta drivers for the Creative XFi) I've not had a chance to change any settings from default. So what's the first thing I see when I go to install Flash? Hmm well, I can't it won't let me. The first thing you should notice about that screenshot is that IE says Protected Mode is Off in the bottom right. According to the default settings in the Security dialog that's incorrect and the setting is Enabled. Even when I toggle this setting on and off and restart the system the status does not update in the bottom right.

Next I put on my "I'm now going to be my Mom" hat and go well beyond my capabilities by adjusting the settings and lower everything to the lowest possible options without going into anything too advanced. Now my son knows that this should now basically put me at the same level as IE7 on XP would since the default back then was Medium and Protected Mode isn't even an option. Sadly for me, the Mom, I still can't watch anything off YouTube because Flash won't install. I try calling my son but he's being a jerk and isn't answering the phone or my IM's. So I then go in and figure out how to add adobe.com to the trusted sites. Sadly this still doesn't work. I then find the Advanced button and decide to start messing around. Not knowing what any of these things do I just set everything to Enable. I do finally get my Flash to install so I can watch stuff on YouTube. But when I do finally get a hold of my son he says he can't believe how big of a security risk I've put myself in and that it's no wonder I get spyware all the time.

Anyway, besides having just exploded into a rant I hope the point did get across. WTH is going on here? This is a bloody clean install, I shouldn't be needing to go through hell just to get a signed ActiveX control to install and run. There's no way in hell my Mom would ever be able to figure this out and sadly because the damned Remote Assistance NAT issues still haven't been resolved in Vista I'm still inclined to tell her that it's a waste of my time and that she should either use Firefox or just buy a Mac.

UPDATE: I just set the IE7 security settings back to default for a third time and for the second time reset after having done the change. Sure enough Flash now installs with the default settings. Still note that Protect Mode shows as being Off in the bottom right. Now I'm willing to concede that it was probably just some minor quirk and the setting might not have taken even after setting it twice and restarting. But what type of user experience is that?

I can't for the life of me understand why Microsoft wouldn't include the release notes for Exchange 2007 on the DVD instead of just having the htm be a fwlink to some MS downloads page for the actual relnotes htm file. I mean if the intention was it always provide the most up to date release notes doc why not at the very least provide the original on the DVD then at the top of that page provide a note saying "go here for the most up to date release notes".

I guess timing was off and not enough attention could be paid to something as insignificant as a release notes doc. Here's the text of the doc and link to the actual release notes:

\E2K7EN64\relnotes.htm
Exchange Server 2007 Release Notes   
Release notes for Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 are available as a stand-alone .htm file from the Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 Release Notes Web page.

Or just click here if you want to go directly to them. At least there isn't some WGA to get in the way.

Anyway, now that I've got that out of the way it's time to do a test deployment .

Attention all would be terrorists. Feeling a bit thwarted by the added security? Well here's an idea... Just take all that liquid explosives you've got and toss it into one of the many filled trash cans. You won't exactly have the same affect physically flying planes into random buildings but you'll probably do as much psychologically by killing a bunch of innocent people.

With the queues so massive from the added security and confusion you're sure to get away with it and sure to do plenty of damage. Or better yet, forget the planes and start doing trains where there is no security to speak of.

Anyway, this is just ridiculous. This added stupidity with supposedly tighter security seriously won't stop anyone that's determined to do harm.

Was just getting up to date on all my feeds. Noticed this morning that Cingular now has a new class action lawsuit against them during my read of Ars.

I'm all for this one. I mean I used to be a AT&T customer. I was still with them during the big transition period with Cingular. In the end I went through this long drawn out ordeal with them to finally cancel what was meant to be a month to month service. Turns out that I was wrongly put on a year long contract even though I only purchased just a SIM card and was told that I wouldn't be on a contract. Making things worse is that they wanted written proof from the store manager that it was their mistake. The final nail in the coffin was when I was told by one of the employees that the manger wasn't going to be in for 4 hours and that I should just go home, go to their website make my own letter head and sign with all the managers information forging his signature. I ended up contacting the BBB and the FCC. Cingular ended up sending a collection agency after me despite having the entire thing contested for over 6 months. In the end I still ended up paying the early termination fee just to have the entire thing ended. So yeah, there's a short history with me and Cingular and T-Mobile with the T-Mobile to Go prepaid service:

The end of all decent mobile providers in the US is here. T-Mobile begin charging to receive SMS.
T-Mobile to Go, definitely my cheapest option for mobile phone service.
Cingular is trying to screw me once again.
Step 1, buy T-Mobile PAYG SIM
Switching from Cingular to T-Mobile's Pay As You Go
Switching from one evil to another...
Finally freed, Audiovox SMT5600 unlocked from the devil, AT&T/Cingular

So in the end... so much for all mobile providers in the US. They're all useless.

I just received this text message during lunch:

"Free Msg: As of 8/15/06 incoming US txt/IM will be $.05 each, US pic/video msgs will be $.25. Sent US msgs still are $.10 for txt/IM and $.25 for pic/video."

T-Mobile's website of course doesn't reflect this change at all. Their T-Mobile to Go Prepaid pages still show the following:

• Text messaging ($0.10 to send, FREE to receive)
• Picture messaging ($0.25 to send, FREE to receive)

Now I've been a happy T-Mobile to Go customer since January. It's only cost me like $16.67 a month for what I need which is by far the cheapest thing out there for my needs. I don't actually have a written contract with them and have never signed a thing other than the receipt for the SIM card and the initial minutes and such.

One of the big reasons I went with this plan was because of the free incoming text messages. It's also the reason why I didn't go on a contract with T-Mobile since their normal accounts have charged to receive text messages for some time now (in line with other US carriers). It's unfair to charge for something that you can't decide not to receive. It's not like you can just not read the message and not get charged. Text messaging is totally different than typical phone calls, you can't block text messages from coming in. I can use my PC and send you 10,000 free messages from Messenger right now and you'd get charged $500. It was bad enough that in the US we pay to receive phone calls because it's "air time" but I didn't really mind that too much since I could just not pick up.

Because I'm on a prepaid service as well I see the charges immediately. There's no special deal that gives me 1000 text messages or free incoming text messages or one low rate. It's an all out scam designed to make more money on something that's been free since their service started.

Unless something changes on 8/14/05 I plan on calling T-Mobile and requesting that they disable receiving text messages so I won't get charged to receive messages I don't want to receive. Or if that is not possible that they refund the remaining balance on my prepaid account and cancel my service completely.

As an additional note here's a little bit of fine print from Cingular's terms of service:

"Text, Instant, and Multimedia messages are charged when sent or received, whether read or unread, solicited or unsolicited. Cingular does not guarantee delivery of messages."

The only real fine print I can see with T-Mobile's To Go services would be in the form of a FAQ found here.

I think there are grounds for a class action lawsuit. If you agree, feel free to comment and join in.

UPDATE: I just called T-Mobile. I verified that the text message received is valid and that they will begin charging $.05 per message received on 8/15/06 and continue to charge $.10 to send each SMS. The conversation pretty much went down as follows:

• Me: Hi, I'm calling to verify the text message I received about the SMS charges being changed on August 15th is valid.
• TM: Yes that is correct sir.
• Me: So is there any way you can remove ALL text messaging capabilities from my service including sending and receiving.
• TM: Let me have your number and I'll check.
• Me: <provides number>
• TM: Okay it looks like I can remove the ability to send text messages from your account.
• Me: Okay that's fine but not needed. I'm capable of controlling whether or not I send text messages. I want to know if I can control whether or not I receive them.
• TM: Let me double check. Okay sir, it looks like you're correct I can disable sending but not receiving.
• Me: Okay so just one last time to double check we're on the same page here. You're telling me that I have no way to control whether or not I receive 10,000 unsolicited text messages and thus being charged $500 for something that I don't want.
• TM: That is correct sir.
• Me: Thanks, that's all I needed to know.

INSANE!

UPDATE: I've got 10 people to respond privately so far as being interested in joining a potential class action suit against T-Mobile and the T-Mobile To Go Service specifically. If you're a class action lawyer and just happen to be reading this or you're just wanting to comment please feel free to do so or email me. I'm currently investigating options on how to proceed to file the suit against T-Mobile, updates to follow soon...

UPDATE: Unfortunately despite not having been given any T&C when I bought the SIM card (probably just a mistake on the part of the T-Mobile rep), I've apparently agreed to be bound by some unread T&C's just by activating the SIM and using the service. The full set of T-Mobile terms and conditions can be found here.

One important thing to note is the following portion:

CLASS ACTION WAIVER. WHETHER IN COURT, SMALL CLAIMS COURT, OR ARBITRATION YOU AND WE MAY ONLY BRING CLAIMS AGAINST EACH OTHER IN AN INDIVIDUAL CAPACITY AND NOT AS A CLASS REPRESENTATIVE OR A CLASS MEMBER IN A CLASS OR REPRESENTATIVE ACTION. NOTWITHSTANDING SEC. 22, IF A COURT OR ARBITRATOR DETERMINES IN A CLAIM BETWEEN YOU AND US THAT YOUR WAIVER OF ANY ABILITY TO PARTICIPATE IN CLASS OR REPRESENTATIVE ACTIONS IS UNENFORCEABLE UNDER APPLICABLE LAW, THE ARBITRATION AGREEMENT WILL NOT APPLY, AND YOU AND WE AGREE THAT SUCH CLAIMS WILL BE RESOLVED BY A COURT OF APPROPRIATE JURISDICTION, OTHER THAN A SMALL CLAIMS COURT.

Obviously this complicates things greatly. Reading through the T&C's further also reveals that as a Prepaid customer I'm screwed if I want to get my remaining balance refunded to me and not be charged to receive text messages.

One amusing thing and a glorious bit of false advertising is how T-Mobile love flashing: No Contract, No Credit Check, No Monthly Bill.

Yes fine, sure, but isn't this entire thing of terms and conditions in fact a contract?