john barker

February 3 can’t come soon enough! #Verizon #iPhone (Taken...

Fri, 07 Jan 2011 23:13:23 -0800

February 3 can’t come soon enough! #Verizon #iPhone (Taken with instagram)

What Your Computer Does While You Wait : Gustavo Duarte

Thu, 30 Dec 2010 00:33:10 -0800

What Your Computer Does While You Wait : Gustavo Duarte

Perl and Nuclear Weapons Don't Mix - The Perl Journal, Winter 1997

Tue, 26 Oct 2010 22:25:58 -0700

Perl and Nuclear Weapons Don't Mix - The Perl Journal, Winter 1997:

My commanding officer said that this was for organizing and categorizing the forty gigabytes of text data NORAD wants put on its intranet, and I believed him, until I found out that he was making monthly trips to Cisco headquarters in San Jose. Turns out that my scanning software has secretly been installed on a large percentage of Cisco routers, so that the DoD could keep tabs on potential espionage suspects.

Op-Ed Columnist - Taking bin Laden’s Side - NYTimes.com

Sun, 22 Aug 2010 14:54:43 -0700

Op-Ed Columnist - Taking bin Laden’s Side - NYTimes.com:

Why do so many Republicans find strip clubs appropriate for the ground zero neighborhood but object to a house of worship? Are lap dances more sanctified than an earnest effort to promote peace?

AT&T – Taking Suck To A Whole New Level

Sat, 14 Aug 2010 13:23:00 -0700

Edit (8/26/2010): My account has gone to collections and there is no end in sight. They’re still trying to get with the store where all of this took place and “figure out exactly what happened.” I’m about a week away from getting a lawyer.

Once upon a time I was a somewhat-happy AT&T customer. I didn’t particularly enjoy paying over $100 a month for service but that is the sacrifice one makes to have the iPhone with a plan that doesn’t limit you.

Before moving to San Francisco I was with AT&T for six years. When I moved here in 2008 I quickly discovered that not only did I not have service at my place of residence but service in the city as a whole was pretty much non-existant. I couldn’t drop AT&T fast enough, considering the price I was paying for service. Hello Sprint.

For two years now I’ve been a happy Sprint customer, having done a cross-country trip and all-around great service in the city I can’t complain; not to mention service is also $40 cheaper for the same plan I had with AT&T.

Now, to the good stuff.

I recently spent the summer back East. When the iPhone 4 was announced, I had to have it and quickly pre-ordered it online. That’s a whole different debacle in itself dealing with the shipping address vs billing address. I ended up having to cancel that pre-order since the only option was to have the phone shipped to my address in San Francisco, an address that I wouldn’t be back to for another month.

A week later when the corporate AT&T stores received the phone for purchase, I made my way to the store bright and early (6 AM). I stood in line for around 4 hours and barely made the cut off (they completely sold out with the 4th customer behind me).

To expedite the whole process the employees of the store were handling new customers by starting the process of opening the account etc. before actually bringing the iPhone out and activating it. During this process they notified me that they had just sold their last 16GB model but still had a few 32GB models left. I pondered about this for a moment and decided that I couldn’t justify paying $100 more for space that I would never use and decided that I would just wait.

After spending another five minutes with the employee canceling the order, I left disgruntled but satisfied with having the willpower to save the $100. Fast forward a month later I return to San Francisco and have this waiting in the mail:

Yes, you read that correctly. Apparently I am past due $213.65 for an account I never had. The gentleman that canceled my order obviously did something wrong and I was penalized with an early termination fee, a fee for an account that I never fully opened. An account to which a device was never actually activated on.

As things stand right now, I’m about a week away from this going to collections.

I called AT&T immediately after discovering this and spent two hours navigating phone trees and talking to person after person until reaching the right authority who can handle such a screw up.

My “account” is now being handled by their investigation department to figure out “exactly what happened,” as they like to delicately put it. While they’re busy trying to figure out their own screw up I’m left with the real problem, my credit. If this does indeed go to collections, AT&T .. I will come at you with guns blazing; I have a lawyer that is very thirsty for such a case.

It’s disheartening as I was just a few weeks away from heading to an AT&T store here in San Francisco to purchase the new iPhone, no way now. I will hold out for however long it takes for the iPhone to make its way to another U.S. carrier, no phone is worth making the ultimate sacrifice, AT&T.

"Fostering hope succumbs to cultivation of motive and virtuous defiance – maintain relevance with..."

Thu, 29 Jul 2010 13:13:24 -0700

“Fostering hope succumbs to cultivation of motive and virtuous defiance – maintain relevance with yourself, and happiness will come to pass. Laden with jubilance one frolics in the moment, because it.. is all that you have.”

Which Version of Kohana Should I Use?

Sun, 25 Jul 2010 00:26:00 -0700

Which Version of Kohana Should I Use?:

A spectacular wiki that focuses on helping you choose which branch of Kohana you should use for your project.

Marco.org: iPhone multitasking and background updating

Thu, 10 Jun 2010 13:49:26 -0700

Marco.org: iPhone multitasking and background updating

Someone from Bad Robot's take on the Lost finale

Thu, 27 May 2010 14:35:13 -0700

Someone from Bad Robot's take on the Lost finale

The Genius in Apple's Vertical Platform - steve's blog

Thu, 15 Apr 2010 12:28:04 -0700

The Genius in Apple's Vertical Platform - steve's blog

Sorry, Adobe, you screwed yourself « Sharing the truth one thread at a time

Sun, 11 Apr 2010 22:54:30 -0700

Sorry, Adobe, you screwed yourself « Sharing the truth one thread at a time:

Touche!

SimpleGeo Blog: iPhone OS 4, Background Location and SimpleGeo

Thu, 08 Apr 2010 23:28:58 -0700

SimpleGeo Blog: iPhone OS 4, Background Location and SimpleGeo:

Thanks to GDGT for the photos of the keynote.

At SimpleGeo, we’ve been very excited for what Apple was going to announce today. There has been all kinds of speculation as to what features were going to go into iPhone OS 4, but now the rumors are over and there are some very big changes…

Screw The Web!, on FarukAt.eş

Tue, 06 Apr 2010 09:20:18 -0700

Screw The Web!, on FarukAt.eş

An open letter to conservatives

Wed, 24 Mar 2010 19:38:55 -0700

An open letter to conservatives

Samsung Mobile and Swype set New Guinness World Record - Texting...

Wed, 24 Mar 2010 01:11:17 -0700

Samsung Mobile and Swype set New Guinness World Record - Texting (via samsungmobileusa)

maniacalrage: Dogs At 1000 FPS (via gruber) One of the most...

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 01:32:56 -0800

maniacalrage:

Dogs At 1000 FPS (via gruber)

One of the most accurate YouTube descriptions ever: “It’s dogs in slow-mo catching treats. What could be better?”

Joe Hewitt's take on the iPad

Fri, 05 Mar 2010 15:01:59 -0800

Joe Hewitt's take on the iPad

An Adobe Flash developer on why the iPad can’t use Flash — RoughlyDrafted Magazine

Sat, 20 Feb 2010 23:49:32 -0800

An Adobe Flash developer on why the iPad can’t use Flash — RoughlyDrafted Magazine

reservation, no more!

Sat, 20 Feb 2010 00:34:32 -0800

There are many times in life that I find myself wanting to comment on or further discuss (better described as debate) on random things in life, but more often than not I disengage for reasons no other than I consistently live in a battle within myself.

The battle that I mention is the desire to express my opinions on different things in life but never taking the time or effort to bring them front and center.

Beginning now, this directory of posts (blog) will be the grounds for this battle that I fight. It will contain findings that I feel the desire to lay my personal feelings upon and in that desire hopefully inspire others to do the same.

These posts will include everything from random political current events, posts from various internet sites on many different topics, photos, quotes, videos, etc.

There are no comments on my site, if you feel so inclined to want to reply to or debate something that I have said here then you must do so on your own grounds (aka your own blog/site).

Stay tuned. This could be a fun ride.