RIP: Cingular Send a Message

I used to be able to send text messages from my PC to Cingular phone users through this page: www.cingular.com/sendamessage. It made typing the messages fast, kept track of the 160 character limit, and it was free.

Cingular recently launched a whole new website...which is pretty slow, at least on my PC. (It also has several dead links.)

I can't find anywhere on the site to send text messages! I guess they figured out they were missing some revenue. So yet again a wireless carrier has come up with a way to squeeze a few more cents from the masses in the name of ARPU. Pathetic....and still no regulation about the quality of their services.

Google still has a cached version of the old page here: Send a Message

Race for the Cure Results

I am slow. And I don't mean just mentally. I am physically just a slow, slow runner. Here are my results from the 5k last weekend:

755  46/61   400/512  Eric Banks          40 M   2995 CHARLOTTE          NC   30:10   30:35  9:51

I really didn't think I was that slow. There seemed to be a lot of people finishing after me. Granted a lot of them were pushing baby carriages.

I came in 46th out of 61 in my bracket...that is probably fogies between 40 and 45. I also came in 400th out of 512 men. That's what, the top 80%? Yee-haw!

The sad thing is that I've been doing hill running.

Oh well. Let's see how I do this weekend in the Hopebuilders 5k.

Polar S625X speed calibration

I've been looking for a straightforward explanation of the speed calibration feature on my Polar S625X. I finally found one here.

"Once you have an accurately measured place to calibrate your S625X, run that distance and make note of the distance recorded by the S625X. Your calibration factor would be

((Actual distance)/(Measured distance)) x 1000 = Calibration factor

or if you have previously calibrated your S625X, the your calibration factor would be

((Actual distance)/(Measured distance)) x (Prior calibration factor) = Calibration factor"

Race for the Cure 5k

Yesterday I ran my first 5k in about a year. It was the annual "Race for the Cure" to benefit the Susan Komen organization for Breat Cancer. The main difference between this event and other charity events is that so many of the victims or their families participate in this one. I'm not trying to slight other worthy causes, merely pointing out that my feelings during this are magnified. It is incredibly poignant seeing the names of cancer victims, seeing victims walking with bandanas on their heads, and walking with families of survivors/victims. It is a moving experience and makes one forget about one's time and think about what's really important in life.

Borat

Borat is about to take over America! Strange but he resembles Ricky Bobby's arch-nemesis.

A forgotten art?

Why does it seems like nobody "moseys" anymore?

They say hot-dogs are like the most foul, non-nutritional "foods" on the market today. So is it really necessary to bother putting nutritional content labels on them? Are there people looking at the labels going "Yep, they're horrible all right!"

Customer Golf?

I played golf yesterday in a "charity" golf tournament organized by some customers. The customers got to pick the charity and the donations came from their vendors. I'm not sure the hosting company (Verizon Wireless) directly donated at all...other than the hours spent by their employees not doing their salaried jobs. It is all pretty slimy when you think about it.

That's not the only most slimy part. The customers also got to set the 4-somes. Get a load of this logic, one of the organizers (A. Gandhi) has never broken 100 that I know of. He invited a friend of his who works for a competitor (Cingular Wireless) to be in his 4 some. Not only that but he arranges for a ringer who drives 340+ yards to be in his 4-some. It's no surprise that their group tied for the lowest score of the tournament despite having 3 mediocre players.

It's actually pretty despicable when you think about it. It amazes me that Verizon Wireless condones stuff like this. On the plus side, it was a beautiful day in northern Georgia at the Hampton Golf Village and the course was pretty easy. My group, two poor players (me and one other vendor) and 2 decent players finished at an honest 14 under.