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I was recently asked a few questions by the fine folks over at that indispensible web design resource, CSS Remix. I was pretty flattered that they asked me, and I think it would behoove you to head over there right this minute and read what I have to say about gradients, garage rock, and why you should pay me more to do less.

And please, while you’re there, if you found my answers at all informative or entertaining, place a vote for my article (using the star-rater at the bottom, that is a modified version of the script I have over here: AJAX Star Rating Bars).

OK, so I go to the trouble of getting a new phone last week (RAZR V3m, Verizon) because my original phone got dipped in the river on a canoe trip and was rendered useless (I eventually could turn it on, but I couldn’t hear anything). This weekend, I happen to have my new RAZR in my pocket when I go to a pool party, and I get pushed into the pool. No joke. I dunked two cell phones in 7 days.

When I bought the RAZR, I opted not to get the insurance. I waited in line at Verizon today for 45 minutes to learn that I was SOL, and that I’d have to pay retail for a new phone. RETAIL. Verizon doesn’t tolerate water damage, and if you don’t have the insurance, you’re on your own. So I said screw it, I’ll just get a cheaper phone. No Bluetooth. Hell…no camera, if that’s possible. This is where I let the salesperson know that I knew that all the Bluetooth is turned off, which makes the RAZR pretty crappy as a music phone, and that I thought it was a piece of crap anyway.

Here’s where I found out that all those phones on the floor that appear as if they’re $50-70 are actually about $150-200 if you look at the super small retail fine print. I let drop a mental F-Bomb. I asked the saleswoman what the cheapest phone they had was. They have a model that is about $50, but they have to ORDER it. They don’t even keep it in stock. I was starting to get pissed at this whole situation. I need a phone (I do all my business talkin’ on my cell phone) and I couldn’t wait a week for a friggin phone to arrive.

That’s when I said, “Look, I have my old phone here, can we try it one more time?”. It turned on successfully and she gave me a number to dial for testing (the phone wasn’t activated, so I couldn’t call just anybody). I turned up the volume all the way, and it worked perfectly. I was amazed. I asked her, “Hear that?” She looked less than thrilled and said, “Yes, I can hear that just fine over here” even though I was holding it a foot from her face.

I guess it just took a week to fully dry out. So I returned everything I could return, activated my old phone (my beloved Samsung SCH-A670, for the record), and got to keep the RAZR as an expensive souvenir paperweight (anyone want to buy it off me cheap? Maybe you could use it for something).

One of things I’m happiest about in getting my old phone back is that it has the Vibrate-and-Ring ring style option, which appears to be disabled on all the new Verizon phones. I love that option. I also love how it feels in my hand. I love the headset with a cord. I love the little screen on the outside that has sand in it so that I can barely see what time it is. I love all the scratches and nicks on the case. I love the normal volume levels, which were WAY too high on the RAZR. I love this old phone, and I’m glad it’s back from the dead.

Well, I actually did take the time to write to Verizon. I hope it didn’t sound all sappy. I entered it in a contact form on their site that limited the amount of characters you could type in (typical Verizon, apparently!). Here is my letter in its entirety, for googlebots to capture and archive forever (by the way, OBEX means “object exchange” - file transfer, basically):

As a longtime Verizon customer, I find it enormously disappointing that Bluetooth OBEX has been disabled on the RAZR V3m phone, which I just “upgraded” to today because my previous phone was rendered useless accidentally. I was looking forward to using my brand new phone’s Bluetooth connectivity to transfer files from the phone to my Mac and vice versa, only to find that the promise of true Bluetooth connectivity has been crippled. I understand through some research that customers who previously had a phone with this capability enabled are allowed to keep this functionality if they upgrade their phone (by contacting you and having their phone’s memory “flashed” to a particular version), but those of us who never had that functionality will continue on as before.

I understand you are in business to make money. But paying to use Verizon’s own file transfer service should be a choice of the customer’s, especially when other options are clearly possible. If OBEX were enabled, I would be able to use this phone as I believe it was meant to be used. It is a music phone, after all. I could always go with another carrier who keeps Bluetooth functionality enabled for their customers.

Perhaps you don’t want to enable this for the end user by default, but I think it would be in your best interest to appease those of us who want to get what we pay for, and aren’t as loyal to your bottom line as you might believe. Maybe full Bluetooth functionality is something you enable for those who specifically request it. For every one of us who will not use your file transfer services, you will have 100 customers who will.

I sincerely hope this plea will not fall on deaf ears. You must realize we are not obligated to use your service and will only use your service if we perceive we are getting something of value in return for our money. With its limited functionality, this RAZR V3m phone is as useful to me as a model that is half the price, and that is not seen as a value. Thank you.

Whew. Enough about the V3m today. Time to go outside and enjoy life.

Wow. I went for a canoe ride this weekend and completely destroyed my old phone. So I had to get a new one today from Verizon and the model that looked best to me was the RAZR V3m, which is Bluetooth enabled, I mean, CRIPPLED. Verizon has basically enabled Bluetooth for use with a headset, and that’s about it. That sucks, because it would be nice to be able to transfer files to and from the phone without having to pay Verizon even more money than I already am every month for the privilege.

I spent some time this afternoon looking into hacks and mods for this phone, but its so new that most of the stuff I was reading referred to the V3c, which is a different animal. Anyway, one thing I wanted to do was have a custom mp3 as my ringtone - which I soon discovered was just about impossible with this phone. (This is a nice phone, Verizon, why did you cripple the hell out of it?! Do you really never stop working for me? Of course you don’t…you’re getting filthy rich.) After an exhaustive search, I found some good info on how to get a custom mp3 file on this phone as a ringtone without hacking it. I found this helpful hint at episteme.arstechnica.com. The directions are written for a Windows user, but worked fine for me on my Mac, after removing the ‘.mp3′ file extension from the mp3 file I wanted to use.

Make a mp3 a ringtone without hacking your cell phone.
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This trick requires a little work but worth it. This is a better method than the “Email Technique” or “Seem” method because it’s playing your ring tone as a MP3 file and not a verizon audio compressed file. So the sound quality is better and louder and you are not hacking your phone . Before doing anything, your file extension in windows must be set as visible. Go to START, CONTROL PANEL, double ckick on FOLDER OPTIONS, VIEW TAB, uncheck “Hide Extensions For Known File Types”

1) Make sure your Transflash card is in your phone.
2) On your phone go to “Get Tunes & Tones”
3) Select “Record New”
4) Select “Options” and switch the storage device to “mini-SD Card”
5) Go back to “Record New” and record a simple audio. It does not matter how long, I did it for 2 seconds.
6) Go back to “Get Tunes & Tones” and scroll down to the bottom and play (to make sure it recorded something) the new audio recording.
7) Shutdown the phone and put the Transflash into a PC.
8) Copy a mp3 file into the root directory of the Transflash card.
9) select one of the recorded voice file, right click, rename, copy the file name including the extension (.qcp)
10)Delete this recorded file you just copied
11) now go to one of the mp3 files, right click, rename, and paste that recorded file you just copied (all you’re doing is replacing the voice file you’ve recorded as an mp3 audio file. Your cell phone will still think it’s a recorded voice files but in reality it’s an mp3 audio file)
12 Repeat step 3-11 for every ringtone you want to add. One voice recording = One ring tone.
13) Once the Transflash is back into the phone assign the file as a ringtone to any contact.

**DO not try to rename the ringtone you just added in your cell phone. If you rename it the ringtone, it will not work anymore.

This worked fine for me, after a few tries. You have to do it pretty much exactly as written…and don’t rename the file! Once I figure out how to transfer files to and from this phone, I’ll post something about that here as well. If I don’t go crazy first, or get so fed up with the thing that I take it back in for something else. I might be writing a letter to Verizon soon too, because it seems ludicrous that I can get the same type of phone from a provider like Cingular who doesn’t cripple the phone in the same way.

I’m trying to get together everything I need to complete the sale of my G5 tower on eBay. I’m realizing, that unless I misplaced an instruction book or set up sheet of some kind, that there is no parts list or packing list anywhere in the documentation. C’mon people! I learned that I had to find my DVI to VGA adapter after glancing at some random text on page 7 of the User’s Guide. I don’t know where the hell that piece is. But I have an untouched 4-pin to 6-pin FW adapter sitting here, and I have no idea if that came with the G5 or not. Should I throw it in the box? Who knows? I’ve obviously never needed it for anything. Maybe that will have to do in place of this missing DVI to VGA adapter…

I cannot believe there isn’t a single page that details exactly what accessories came with this machine.