I don’t know, which would you rather see when you look outside in the morning? Would you rather see freaky Blair Witch evidence or bunch of Falun Gong holding this pose?
Geary at Laguna:
Click to expand
I could go either way.
But, attention cultists, achtung baby: Signals intelligence officers are inside this consulate, sniffing your cell phone data packets, so to speak. Like a giant Google Maps car.
So, Falun Gongers, take your cell phone batteries out of your mobiles, if you know what’s good for you, whenever you protest over there.
I’ve never used the Verizon – I’m not sure what makes it so great, you know, the way people say it’s so great.
Or some people, anyway:
No matter. We all win when more cell towers go up, right? Hurray!
As here, with the news of a new cellie in the southern part of Marin County.
Of course it’s somewhat absurd to consider each installation a victory over the NIMBYs, but that’s what it’s come to. (When you’re participating in trench warfare, even moving the battle line forward 100 yards is cause for celebration.)
Here it is, a full-fledged press release for just one (1) tower going up.
Enjoy:
“New Cell Site Helps Sausalito, California, Residents and Visitors Make More Calls, Download More Apps and Stay Connected
WALNUT CREEK, Calif., July 28, 2011 – Calling, downloading apps and surfing the web on the Verizon Wireless 3G network is now easier and faster for residents and travelers in the San Francisco Bay Area thanks to a new cell site, Sausalito, California. The site expands 3G wireless coverage and capacity along Highway 101, Highway 1 and Tennessee Valley Road.
Verizon Wireless has invested more than $5.7 billion in its California network since being founded in 2000. Nationally, the company has invested more than $65 billion over that same period to increase the coverage and capacity of its network, and to add new services.
In Northern California, the Verizon Wireless 4G LTE network covers more than five million people. In the San Francisco Bay Area, 4G LTE coverage extends south to San Jose and east to Oakland. In addition, Verizon’s 4G LTE footprint recently expanded in the Bay Area to include parts of Marin and Solano Counties, as well as Fresno and Sacramento. For more information, please visit: www.verizonwireless.com/4G.
Verizon Wireless on Twitter
To stay up-to-date on Verizon Wireless news in Northern California, Northern Nevada and Hawai’i, follow @VZWheidi on Twitter at http://twitter.com/VZWheidi.
For the latest network-related news, information and upgrades follow @VZWNetwork on Twitter at http://twitter.com/VZWNetwork.
About Verizon Wireless
Verizon Wireless operates the nation’s fastest, most advanced 4G network and largest, most reliable 3G network. The company serves 106.3 million total wireless connections, including 89.7 million retail customers. Headquartered in Basking Ridge, N.J., with 83,000 employees nationwide, Verizon Wireless is a joint venture of Verizon Communications (NYSE, NASDAQ: VZ) and Vodafone (LSE, NASDAQ: VOD). For more information, visit www.verizonwireless.com. To preview and request broadcast-quality video footage and high-resolution stills of Verizon Wireless operations, log on to the Verizon Wireless Multimedia Library at www.verizonwireless.com/multimedia.”
While Consumer Reports monomaniacally jabbers on about the iPhone 4 antenna issue (Gee, didn’t everybody know about that already? And gee, didn’t everybody know about that, as well, already?), let’s review some real concerns:
1. You’re throwing away about $40 a some money (see Comments) each month by signing up for the iPhone/AT&T package as opposed to something else. That is, you’re paying a thousand dollar premium to use an iPhone over a two-year period. (That’s too expensive even for some quasi-billionaire nerds.) Which is fine, just as long as you know. If you’re on food stamps already, you don’t really need an expensive iPhone contract, right?
2. AT&T continues to be overwhelmed, in certain areas of the country, it seems, so that leads to dropped calls and other bad tings. Didn’t the iPhone 3 also have “signal woes” as well?
Issue number one can’t be fixed by applying duct tape or buying a bumper case, right? Isn’t this a much bigger problem than the antenna issue? Yes. Can’t you fix the antenna issue for about a dollar a month (over two years, added up)? Yep. Don’t most people get bumpers anyway? Yep. So, why would CR pick this particular nit to pick?
Issue number two can’t be fixed by applying duct tape or buying a bumper case, right? Isn’t this a much bigger problem than the antenna issue? Yes. Maybe CR could have withheld endorsement until Apple officially permitted iPhone users use a different cellular service? Yep.
So the whole idea of withholding a strong recommendation of iP4 over who is going to pay for a bunch of bumper cases does indeed smack of a stunt from CR.
Now, CR, why don’t you get some ads going, so you wouldn’t need stunts to get attention to stay relevant, to stay in business? Or work on getting a massive endowment so your manifest money troubles don’t make you act they way you do?
After all, a little duct tape never hurt anybody, right? Like this passenger plane, for instance. I guess that PiedmontAirlines could have started cancelling flights when this plane had an issue. But instead, they slapped on some tape and kept going with no fuss.
P.S. CR: Also, you don’t know much about cars. You think you’re the automotive guru, but you’re not. Why you waste your limited financial resources to buy a bunch of vehicles from dealerships is beyond me… So, yes, you have authority, but the question is whether the general public should have given you that authority.
Oh man, you drivers out there, you’re out on the road more and more every year* but the amount of gasoline and diesel ‘n stuff you buy isn’t keeping pace. So when people like you trade in their big old fuel-guzzling SUVs for Toyota Prius hybrids, the amount of gasoline they buy and the concomitant tax they pay to the Govmint goes down, let’s say by a half or two-thirds.
That’s good for Prius drivers but bad for the govmints. This chart from a big new report (free .pdf) out of California’s own RAND Corportation think tank ‘splains it all. See? You people are out there clogging up the roads and tearing up the streets 100% more than you were in 1980, but you’re only buying 50% more fuel:
You drivers are paying more in tax but not as much as if you would be paying if you were taxed by the mile. (That makes you a deadbeat in the eyes of the Powers That Be.)
And things are only going to get “worse” whenTesla Motors’ mainstream Model S hits the streets in 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, “late 2012,” right? Electric car drivers pay no gas tax at all, so how are we going to make sure that they pay their fair share to repave our streets ‘n stuff**?
The RANDian eggheads looked at these issues and, out of 15 ideas, decided that these three would be the most practicable:
What if the authorities put a GPS unit in your car or motorcycle? Not the regular kind of GPS receiver, the good kind, the ones that use differentials or whatever to pinpoint your whereabouts down to a couple yards on a 24-7 basis.
You don’t like that? Well how about a cell phone in your car next to the engine that would call the government on a regular basis to rat out how miles you’ve driven the past week?
You don’t like that neither? Well how about a system that ID’s your car when you buy gas and then computes your Miles Driven by looking at your particular model’s EPA rating?
And let’s say this all gets implemented in five years.
Or instead, our electeds could simply raise gas taxes a bit, but that’s not something that they like talking about doing.
Of course they could make this new VMT proposal “revenue neutral” by getting rid of or lowering per-gallon fuel taxes that you pay today. Once a system like this is in place, taxes would correlate more directly with miles driven – it’s up to you if you like that or not.
Welcome to The Future.
Speaking of 1980:
My uncle has a country place
That no one knows about.
He says it used to be a farm
Before the Motor Law.
And on Sundays I elude the Eyes,
And hop the Turbine Freight
To far outside the Wire
Where my white-haired uncle waits.
See how this libertarian, Canadian Power Rock Trio story ends after the jump.
*Not so much this past year or two, but you’ll be out there in force again soon enough.
**And maybe that’s the way it should be. I know all the arguments you’re thinking about - this is a political question, of course.
Birth, School, Work, Death – that’s what Life is about, can you dig, man. But our corporate overlords don’t want you to figure that out, so they’re always offering “free” fun events to distract you from the Truth, man. As today, when the T-Mobile phone company, the one with Catherine Zeta-Jones (once again) is providing a lunchtime spectacle over San Francisco that willkeep you distracted and on the edge of your seat, so long as you are seated near Justin Herman Plaza, Marina Green Park, Pier 39, or the Moscone Recreation Center:
“Along with fly-by jets and skywriting, 100 skydivers dressed as “unique personalities” will parachute in synchronized formations over San Francisco as a promotion for T-Mobile. The 100 skydivers will land at four locations around The City.”
Here’s a look at preparations near the Ferry Building in Justin Herman Plaza. Everything’s going to be big big big:
Click to expand. But what looks like one giant monitor from the front is actually…
Enjoy the show, starting at 11:15 AM, but really getting going just after noon.
And maybe you can get a free MyTouch 3G phone from them today, somehow. It will keep you distracted for months and years, or a lifetime, really.
See you there!
Been turned around till I’m upside down
Been all at sea until I’ve drowned
And I’ve felt torture, I’ve felt pain
Just like that film with Michael Caine
I’ve been abused and I’ve been confused
And I’ve kissed Margaret Thatcher’s shoes
And I been high and I been low
And I don’t know where to go
Birth, school, work, death
Birth, school, work, death
But not you. You want the latest details on the 3G models from a fake Steve Jobs who gesticulates as if he’s one-quarter Italian. Right? You’re in luck.
