Trying to Buy a Palm Centro

I currently have a Palm Treo 600 Pterodactyl that I've had for 3 years or so. I've been trying to figure out what new phone to get, since my contract with T-mobile just ran out. T-mobile doesn't support the later versions of the Palm phones, and I prefer to stick with Palm OS since I'm used to it. I'm tempted to try a Blackberry, but I'm happy with Palm and I'm not sure how to migrate the 5 years of calendar and 1500 contacts that are in my phone over to the Blackberry. I suppose I could try linking the Treo to Outlook, and then linking the Blackberry to Outlook, but there's only one problem -- I don't really want to use Outlook. I could just use it for the import, but I don't even own it so I would have to buy it. I don't know if you can even buy Outlook without Office... it just sounds like it could spiral into a Microsoft induced headache.

So... I decided to go for the Palm Centro.

In reading the reviews about the Centro, it doesn't sound like it's really much of an upgrade from the Treo 600. It's got a better camera, possibly more ringtone support, yada yada so what. No really major improvements. And it's only offered by Sprint, which is lame. But the reason I decided to go for the Centro is because of the plan that Sprint is offering, called the Sprint Employee Referral Offer (SERO). With SERO, I can get:

• 1250 minutes
  
• Nights and weekends included, with nights starting at 7 pm
  
• Unlimited texting (normally $10 extra)
  
• Unlimited data (normally $30 extra)
  
• All the usual stuff like caller id, call waiting, etc.
  
• A bag of chips
  

All this for only... $50 a month! Not bad, eh?

And the Centro is only $99 when you sign a 2 year contract, not bad for a smart phone. Most are in the $300-500 range.

To sign up for the SERO plan, you technically are supposed to be referred by a Sprint employee. But really all you need is a sprint.com email address. I'm pretty sure they want you to sign up, even if you have never met a Sprint employee, it's all a promotional ploy. The SERO plan is good till Dec 31, 2007, although they'll probably extend it.

Before you sign up, make sure you play around with a Centro -- several people in the various forums hated the keypad. But I didn't mind it. Also, be warned that Sprint's customer service is apparently horrible. I talked to a guy who has Sprint, and he said that the service (coverage, reception, etc.) is great, but whenever he has to call customer service it takes 30 minutes to get ahold of anyone!!

If that didn't scare you off, here's what you need to do to sign up (a lot of this info was obtained from posts on this website):

1. Go to http://www.sprint.com/sero
   
2. In the "Get Started Now" box, enter email address savings@sprintemi.com and click "Shop Now". (If that email doesn't work, look here for some more options, under "4: HOW DO I SIGN UP FOR SERO?")
   
3. Select the phone you want. For the Centro, click on "PDAs" and it's the first one on the list. Select the phone color you want, select "Buy with new plan" if you aren't already a Sprint customer, and click "Select".
   
4. Select the plan you want. All the plans that are available for the phone you selected will be displayed.
   
5. On the Shopping Cart page, enter discount code URANG for a $50 invoice credit. (Currently that seems to be the only one working online. If it's no longer working when you try, check out our favorite posting for some more options under "Various codes for invoice credit")
   
6. Click "Checkout"
   
7. Enter your personal info on the checkout page.
   
8. PLEASE NOTE: Sprint will ask for your social security number and run a credit check! If you don't want to deal with that, you might try ordering by phone instead of online to see if they'll let it slide.
   
9. On the next page, enter your billing info.
   
10. On this page you can also decide what phone number you want, if you want to switch over a number that you are currently using. I chose not to do this, because I wasn't sure at what point the number would get deactivated with my current provider. I'm pretty sure you can do it easily once you receive your phone. If not I'm not going to be happy.
    
11. Then they ask for the referring email again (savings@sprintemi.com)
    
12. I glanced through the Terms and Conditions to see what the Early Termination Fee (ETF) was. I couldn't find it, but my friend said that he looked it up and it was $200.
    
13. If you're ready to commit to 2 years, submit the order!
    
14. [At this point, the stupid site failed with a 500 Internal Server Error, the favorite of all web developers. I tried resubmitting several times, but it didn't work. I tried again on IE (I was using Firefox initially) and it failed in the same obnoxious fashion... I did get an email with subject "My Sprint Registration Confirmation" so I thought maybe the order had gone through. But then I clicked on the order status link and it says "Status: ENSEMBLE_ACTIVATION_ERROR". So I have no idea what's up. I tried the phone number (1-800-639-6114) but their offices are now closed.] Update: It worked, I got the phone 3 days later.
    
15. Assuming you have better luck than I did, after signing up you can try sending in this mail in rebate, which appears to offer an additional $50 off the Centro. I'm not sure if it will get accepted but it can't hurt.
    
16. You can also try this referral trick, although it appears that it might not work for people on the SERO plan. If you just got your new phone, you can dial #REF (#733) and enter the phone number of the person who referred you to the SERO plan (any fellow SDer on Sprint will do). Both you and the person whose phone number you entered will then each get a $25 gift debit card from Sprint. You can get up to $300 in referral gift cards per year. All $25 credits will be added to the same debit card you get once you make your first referral. If you lost it, call 800-424-4357. You have to call within the first 15 days of activation to qualify!!! There seems to be an indication the referral program no longer works if one of the parties is on SERO. Let me know if you need my phone number for the referrer.

Great News! Isn't that great?!

Here's my initial "research", from before I knew about SERO:

5:21:51 PM System System

Connected to sprint-ap1.cnxchat.com

5:21:52 PM System System

Session ID: 556654

5:21:57 PM System System

Please hold and the next available agent will be with you shortly.

5:22:02 PM System System

Jennifer has joined this session!

5:22:02 PM System System

Connected with Jennifer

5:22:02 PM Agent Jennifer

Thank you for choosing Sprint Web Chat. My name is Jennifer. How may I assist you with your Sprint.com order?

5:22:56 PM Customer Nate

I am looking into the Palm Centro. Would it require a phone plan and a separate data plan in order to use it for email?

5:23:33 PM Agent Jennifer

Yes, you would have to purchase a voice plan and a Sprint Power Vision Plan to use it for email access.

5:24:52 PM Customer Nate

where do I find info on the Sprint Power Vision Plan? The data plans page only talks about blackberry plans...

5:25:19 PM Agent Jennifer

Hold one moment while I send you some information.

5:27:10 PM Agent Jennifer

You would need to purchase the Sprint Power Vision Pro Pack with that Palm Centro. The Power Vision Pro Pack includes: Unlimited Data Access, Unlimited Web Browsing, Picture Mail, and Sprint Mobile to Mobile, On Demand, NFL Mobile, Sprint TV, Sprint Radio, Unlimited Sprint Navigation, Activesync, and Unlimited Text Messaging for $30 per month.

5:27:40 PM Agent Jennifer

Are you looking to purchase a new phone tonight?

5:27:56 PM Customer Nate

no just researching

5:28:23 PM Customer Nate

i am still in a contract with tmobile that ends in a couple months. do you have any incentives for breaking the contract?

5:28:31 PM Agent Jennifer

I see. I will be happy to answer your questions! How may I further assist you?

5:28:46 PM Agent Jennifer

No, we do not offer contract buy outs.

5:30:05 PM Customer Nate

On your calling plans, it appears that some of them aren't available for the centro?

5:30:47 PM Agent Jennifer

All of our plans are compatible with the Centro. Where are you seeing that?

5:31:21 PM Customer Nate

they say stuff like "This plan is compatible with Nextel phones" or "This plan is compatible with Sprint phones"

5:32:10 PM Agent Jennifer

I see. The Centro can only be used on a Sprint Plan with the Sprint Power vision plan.

5:32:15 PM Agent Jennifer

It can not be used on a Nextel plan.'

5:32:53 PM Customer Nate

do you have a list of the plans it can be used with?

5:34:20 PM Agent Jennifer

If you start an order, you can see all the selections. You can delete this order since you are not ready to continue tonight, when you get to the shopping cart page. You will not have to enter any personal information. To start your order, press the "buy with new plan" button next to the Centro, then it will take you to the plans page to see all the plans you are able to select from.

5:40:06 PM Customer Nate

ok... thanks for your help!

5:40:39 PM Agent Jennifer

Would you like to purchase a new phone today?

5:41:17 PM Customer Nate

got a special today?

5:41:35 PM Agent Jennifer

Great News! If you decide to purchase online today, I can give you a web-exclusive promotional code that will give you $50.00 off your first or second bill for each new line of service. This promotion is good on all phones available on Sprint.com, with the exception of buy-one-get-one-free offers. By ordering online you will also be eligible for free activation and free shipping. This is over a $48.00 savings per phone! Isn't that great?!

5:42:44 PM Customer Nate

I think I'll have to pass till my current contract is up. Thanks!

5:43:05 PM Agent Jennifer

You are welcome. hank you for using Sprint Web Chat. Sprint Web Chat is available Monday - Friday from 9 AM - 11 PM EST and Saturday and Sunday from 10 AM - 8 PM EST. Have a great evening.

5:43:31 PM System System

Jennifer has left this session!

5:43:31 PM System System

The session has ended!

The Answered Prayer: Part II

No matter how much better BYU is than Utah every year, we always make sure to play poorly enough to keep the game close. Last year's last second "answered prayer" was the epitome of this strategy, but this year's rivalry game was equally excruciating to watch.

BYU dominated the majority of the game, but due to extremely poor execution in the red zone, we were only leading 9-3 toward the end of the 4th quarter. Our defense had played well the entire game, but on Utah's last drive we appeared somewhat tired, and we allowed Utah to grind out a long touchdown drive and take the lead 10-9 with about one and a half minutes to go. Every BYU fan was torn between a sick "not again" feeling, and a feeling of hope based on what happened last year in the same situation.

Our hopes quickly shrank as the Cougars went backwards on the first series. We had one last chance on 4th down and 18 yards to go -- get a miracle or go home. Max Hall took the snap, scrambled a bit, and hurled the ball downfield to a wide open Austin Collie, for a 49 yard gain! Just like last year, BYU's prayer was answered.

We only needed a field goal to take the lead, but rather than take any chances, Harvey Unga smashed into the end zone for a touchdown. The 2 point conversion made it 17-10. Utah had one final series, but their Hail Mary from midfield was batted down, and the roller coaster came to a jubilant end.

BYU has a 1 in 42,512 chance to get into a BCS bowl

How long will we have to deal with this obnoxious nonsense called the BCS? Here's my brother Mark's take on what it would take for BYU to get into a BCS (Bowl Championship Series) bowl game:

Anyway, it just occurred to me that if Hawaii, Oregon, ASU, USC, Tennessee, and San Diego State all lose this weekend, then BYU will get an automatic bid to a BCS bowl! I wonder what the odds are at Vegas for that happening? Each team individually actually does have a decent chance of losing. The reason it matters is that if BYU gets into the top 16 of the BCS rankings and UCLA is Pac-10 champion with a lower BCS ranking, then BYU gets in automatically. So the absolutely critical games are ASU, USC, and, of course, San Diego State.

If ASU and USC don't lose, then the other possibility would be if Hawaii, Oregon and Tennessee lose, and Boston College loses badly. Then BYU would probably end up at #14 in the BCS and would have a great shot at being the fourth and last at-large pick for the BCS bowls (behind Georgia, ASU, and Kansas). This only works because each power conference can have only 2 teams in the BCS bowls, and the Big 10, Big East, and ACC don't have good second options. Even so, the stinking BCS people would probably pick Illinois or Clemson because they are corrupt.

Is that confusing enough for you?

By the way, how 'bout that Utah game? Go Cougars!!!!

Happy Halloween

I've had some funny Halloween costumes over the years, but I've never had one with as much shock value as the one this year. I guess it's just a tiny bit different than the image I normally portray...

Lateral Magic in Division 3

Check out this play. If you listen closely, you'll hear the announcer predict the play before it happens. Shades of when I called the Statue of Liberty play right before Boise State ran it to beat Oklahoma in the Fiesta Bowl last year. Benj is my witness.

Night of the Living Democrats

Covering the Spread in Las Vegas

This past weekend I went on a little road trip to Las Vegas with my brother Benj and another friend Jake, to watch the BYU UNLV football game. Las Vegas is about a 5 hour drive from Phoenix.

BYU pretty much dominated the entire game, only punting once, but they had so many turnovers that they were only up 7-6 at the half. During halftime the coaches must have made a conscious decision to run the ball nonstop until UNLV showed that they could stop the run. They couldn't. Harvey Unga was good for 4-10 yards on every play, so the passing game wasn't really even necessary. With a couple minutes left in the game we were up 24-6. Take away our 4 silly turnovers and it would have been more like 44-6.

On the last UNLV series, our defense got lazy and UNLV scored to make it 24-12. But that's where the game got a little bit interesting. UNLV went for 2, to pull the game within 10, presumably so they could try an onside kick and get a quick touchdown or field goal and then do it again and tie the game. BYU lined up all their "good hands people" to thwart the expected onside kick attempt. But inexplicably, UNLV kicked it away, they didn't even go for the onside kick. Basically, they gave up and didn't try to win the game. I was wracking my brain to figure out why on earth they would do that, when I remembered what Benj had mentioned earlier -- THE SPREAD WAS 11 POINTS! (Meaning that BYU was favored to win by 11 points.) So instead of trying to win the game, they were making sure they covered the spread! If they had gone for the onside kick and failed, BYU might have scored again, causing them not to cover! So instead they just gave up!

I couldn't believe it at first, but then I realized were we were... in the gambling capital of the world. Why wouldn't the coaches have a little side agreement going, when they play in a stadium named for a blackjack dealer? I'm really having trouble coming up with an alternate explanation, so I'd like to hear if anyone can offer a logical reason for why you would kick away down 10 points with 1:11 to play.

(More pics here.)

Barry Bonds 762, Me 1

I've been playing baseball or softball here and there most of my life. But I can't remember ever hitting a home run, over the fence, in a real game, in a legitimate sized ballpark... until tonight. Today, September 26, 2007, will go down in the annals of my life as the night I finally jacked one out.

Afterwards I went home and celebrated with Freschetta and Extreme Moose Tracks.

What is Money?

Interesting conspiracy theory about how money works. But I don't have any better explanation... I'd be interested to talk to an economist about whether the video has any legitimacy.

This is the first in a 5 part series.

Photoshop your way to success

If you've seen "The Secret" then you know about vision boards, which are posters where you place visual images of your goals, so you can focus on accountability to yourself each day as you see the results that you're working towards. I was creating a vision board today, and I pulled a classic Zig Zigler move by sticking my head on someone else's body to visualize what I'll look like when I get in better shape. (Thanks to Marcus for the graphics assistance.)

Pretty soon I'll look just like that, so I can use a photo of my own body, and then hopefully I won't have the sickly red coloring in my face or the slightly distorted neck and head size.

Amazon Prime

I signed up for Amazon Prime's free trial, and then I forgot to cancel it, so now I'm stuck with a year membership. Even though I wasn't planning on keeping it, it really is a great deal -- for $79 a year I get free 2-day shipping on all Amazon products. (Only products that come directly from Amazon are included, so used items or items from 3rd party vendors are not included).

I can also share the membership with up to 4 family members, so you might be receiving an invitation to share the account. If you are not one of the invitees, but you need to buy something from Amazon that has expensive shipping, feel free to let me know and I can order it for you.

When ordering yourself, don't forget to use my affiliate link.

Rock Star Family

Now I have not one but TWO brothers with albums available on iTunes. Naturally I highly recommend them. Benj actually has 3 songs that show significant popularity on iTunes! (Each song shows a popularity rating in the iTunes store.) Mark just released his but I'm sure his songs will catch up soon.

Benj's group is called Cows Never Die, so you can search for "Cows Never Die" on iTunes, or the album name, "She Usually Wears Mittens." Or you can link directly to the iTunes store page for the group. The album features smash hits such as "Snow Fort Heaven" and "Polydactyly".

Mark's album is called Tomorrow. Search iTunes for "Mark Tanner Tomorrow" or link to the store page here. More info available on the official album website here.

Iridium Still Flying

My first job out of college was with Motorola, in 1999. I was working on software for a satellite system called Iridium, which was created for global satellite phones and pagers. After I'd been there a year Iridium went into bankruptcy, and Motorola offered me the options of taking a job in another department, or taking 10 weeks of severance pay. I took the severance.

Over the years since, I'd heard rumors about whether the Iridium service was still being used, and whether the "birds" were still flying, but I hadn't seen anything very concrete recently, until I stumbled across this article on Computer World.

Apparently business is booming, relatively speaking. So that's pretty cool to see. I was disappointed though, that the article didn't mention me, or whether my code was still running. :)

About As Much As Meets The Eye

I decided to go see a movie on my birthday. I couldn't go see Harry Potter 5 without seeing 3 and 4 first, and 6 plus hours of movies sounded like a lot, so I went with Transformers. [Spoiler alert. And by the way, Voldemort kills Hermione in book 7.]

I thought Caveman did a pretty good job in the lead role. Some of the saved-by-the-bell-esque juvenile drama was a little annoying, but overall not too distracting. And the effects were very cool.

Some of the Transformers' dialog killed me:

OP: It's you and me, Megatron!
Megatron: No, it's just me!

Megatron, first words after waking up from an 80 year coma: You've failed me again, Star Scream!

Classic stuff.

I was a little confused by some plot points though. For example, why did the government try to hide the evidence of the Transformers, when there were hundreds or thousands of eye witnesses who saw them fighting in the street? And why did they think the best way to protect the cube was to give it to a human and have him try to run it up to the top of a building and deliver it to a guy in a helicopter? Um... wasn't the human a little more likely to get stepped on than an Autobot? And if they wanted to take the cube to the roof, why didn't they give it to any Transformer who could hop up there in seconds? And weren't all the helicopters and planes getting shot down anyway? What was the helicopter guy supposed to do with it? Kind of a strange plan. But it all worked out.

Pixels, Jerry! Pixels!

Eric D. Snider contemplates how Seinfeld would spin the latest technology if it was still on the air.

In the Clutches of Clutch

I went to a concert Wednesday night. It was my friend Dave's party. He's getting married on Saturday, so this was his last vestige of freedom. He chose to go see a band called Clutch. I didn't really know what I was getting into, but I figured it out quickly at the gate, where everyone I saw had extreme tattoos, body piercings, and hair styles out of the 80s punk scene.

There were four bands that played. The genre I can only classify as "loud" (kind of like Dave's band :). I had to roll my own earplugs using toilet paper. Aside from the noise, another fun thing about the venue was that there was no place to sit. I guess people don't mind standing for 3 hours after they've had enough to drink, but for a perpetually sober person it got pretty tedious. A few times I sat on the concrete floor.

The first band was pretty talented but loud. The second band my other friend Dave labeled as "zepplinesque". The third band was Irish, with a fiddle and a banjo. Very talented, but I thought it was funny that the band members all looked really angry while they were singing, even the violin girl looked disgruntled. They were good but they went on way too long. By the time Clutch got on stage it was close to 10:30. This is a school night people! Surprisingly, Clutch didn't seem to be any more talented than the opening acts. I think the key to their popularity was that they had a really big banner, while the other acts had small banners or none at all.

A little bit after Clutch started playing I was leaning against the barricades in the back of the room and some drunk guy came back there and started puking his guts out a few feet away from me. I was wearing flip flops and I felt a few drops splash on my feet. ECHHHH!! I went in the bathroom and washed my feet off. I didn't really feel like going back in after that so I went and sat on the dirty floor in the lobby and waited for my friends, who were busy injuring themselves in the mosh pit.

I'm not really sure what scene I was a part of, but it was fun to experience a different world for one night. But I think I'll wear shoes next time.

Good luck Dave, we'll miss you!

The Best Self Directed IRA

I've been doing a lot of research recently about the best company to use for a Self Directed IRA, so I thought I'd better share my knowledge.

What is a Self Directed IRA?

A Self Directed IRA is an IRA that allows you to choose your own investments. Your current IRA provider will probably tell you that you can choose your own investments -- "Oh sure, you can choose between the Janus Fund and the Fidelity Fund." No, that's not what I'm talking about. With a real Self Directed IRA, you can invest in not only stocks and mutual funds but also real estate, businesses, notes, and just about anything you want, as long as you avoid certain prohibited transactions. Prohibited transactions are simply transactions where you use the money to benefit yourself instead of your IRA, but it's important to read and understand the details.

So if you're tired of losing money in the stock market and getting jerked around by self serving mutual fund managers, a Self Directed IRA is the way to go.

You can easily convert a non Self Directed IRA into a Self Directed IRA. You can also convert a 401K, if you have one sitting around from a former employer. If you have a 401K with a current employer, you probably don't want to convert it to an IRA, since you would no longer get matching funds.

Downsides of a Self Directed IRA

While Self Directed IRAs offer a lot of advantages, there are also some downsides to be aware of. For one thing, you can't just go out and invest the money. You have to have a custodian company (i.e. babysitter) that actually does all the investing. So, for example, let's say you want your IRA to invest in a house. Rather than writing a check to buy a house, you have to request that your custodian send a check. And instead of managing the property yourself (not that you'd want to), you have to hire a property management company and the custodian has to pay them out of the IRA. There are a few little tasks like this that the custodian has to carry out, and they all seem to cost money.

Self Directed IRAs also have issues when buying property using leverage.

But the upsides definitely outweigh the downsides.

Selecting a Custodian

I looked at all sorts of custodians. Some really nickel and dime you for every little thing, (Pensco and Sterling Trust for example). No thanks.

A lot of real estate gurus promote Equity Trust for some reason. Equity Trust doesn't nickel and dime you as much, but their annual fees get really high (up to $1850 per year) if you have a lot of money in your account. And I for one plan to have a lot of money in my account! So no thanks.

Entrust offers a pretty good deal. But the best one I found was Sunwest Trust. They charge a $50 setup and then a flat $190 per year if you go with the IRA LLC option.

IRA LLC

The best way to go when setting up your Self Directed IRAs is to set up an IRA LLC. "IRA LLC" is not a legal entity type. It just refers to an LLC that your IRA invests in. The operating agreement will have some verbage relating to the fact that the LLC is set up for your IRA. If you're only going to have your own IRA investing in the LLC, then you would set it up with the IRA as the sole member of the LLC, and you as the manager of the LLC.

Setting up an IRA LLC provides the following benefits:

1. Checkbook control. Once the LLC is funded, you no longer need the custodian to write the checks. The LLC can write its own checks, and since you're the manager, you have control.
   
2. No nickels and dimes. Since the custodian is only managing one asset, you pay a flat $190 per year, if you go with Sunwest Trust's Single Asset Account plan. Entrust has a similar plan for $250 per year.
   

Options for Setting up the LLC

Now you need to set up your IRA LLC. How should you go about it?

1. You can have your lawyer set it up. He will probably charge you $3,000 to $5,000. And he may not know much about Self Directed IRAs. Not the best way to go.
   
2. There are companies such as Guidant Financial, which provide the LLC and also administrate the IRA. Guidant is not a custodian, but they have an agreement with an unnamed custodian to only charge $130 per year for the annual fee. But setting up the LLC costs a whopping $4,000.
   
3. You can have a less expensive lawyer do it. You should be able to find someone in the $500 to $1000 range. In Arizona, Richard Keyt is a good option. He's very experienced at creating LLCs, and he gives a $50 discount for AZREIA members. His cost for an IRA LLC is $949, which includes filing the articles and publishing.
   
4. If you google "IRA LLC kits" you'll find a few inexpensive options such as this one, which costs $195. I'm not sure how worthwhile these kits are.
   
5. I bought a CD on ebay which had some good stuff, including an operating agreement for an IRA LLC. Cost: $32. Search for "IRA LLC" on ebay and you'll probably find it.
   

I am not a lawyer, but my guess is that the operating agreement content is probably not as important as the lawyers say it is. You'll probably be fine setting up your own. But the important thing is that you avoid prohibited transactions, and file the proper paperwork with the IRS. For the LLC you need to file an informational return each year, which basically just tells how much the LLC is worth. For the IRA your custodian should handle the needed forms.

A Better Solution

I decided that Sunwest Trust had the best deal, but I may not end up using them. "Why not?", you ask, (no doubt recoiling in dismay). The answer is that I found a better solution: It's called an Individual K, or Solo 401K.

I'll tell you all about it in my next post...

El Sonido de Silencio?

I discovered a Peruvian restaurant near my house, only a year after it opened, and went there for dinner, con una muchacha bonita es claro. I had a fish dish and something purple to drink called Chicha Morada.

The food was good, the people were nice, the server's name was Lali (as in Lali-pop), and they even had musical entertainment. Pan flute and guitar as you might expect. You might also expect that the first song that they played would be El Condor Pasa. But instead we got... The Sound of Silence, by Simon and Garfunkel? I'm very confused. Are all Simon and Garfunkel tunes of Peruvian origin? Was the band confused about which Simon and Garfunkel they were supposed to be playing? Had they been drinking too much Inca Cola? We may never know.

But I did learn this little tidbit from Lali: "Real Estate" in Spanish is Bienes y Raices. Yes, goods and roots, that's what I do.

Reading For Success

I've been reading some good books lately. Here's a list of 5 of my all time success related favorites. Naturally I just wish I'd read them all 10 years earlier.

	Secrets of the Millionaire Mind T. Harv Eker This is a great book about how rich people think, and how to de-program your poor person mentalities.
	The Magic of Thinking Big David Schwartz Written in the 1950s but still very relevant today. Talks about how success is an attitude and a decision. It's pretty clear that a lot of more modern authors borrowed many of their ideas from this book.
	The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People Stephen R. Covey The quintessential personal improvement and success book. (Reading all these books is a Quadrant 2 Activity!)
	The E-Myth Revisited Michael E. Gerber A very eye opening book about how to make your business work.
	Take Action Kenneth Scott If you are single, check it out.

Adding Ringtones to a Treo 600 Mobile Phone

I love my Treo 600. I've had it for over two years, and I've resisted the urge to shell out $500 for the latest and greatest. However, there are a few things that bug me about it. One is that you can't forward individual text messages (it saves all the messages from the same person as a chat thread, and you have to copy the one you want out of the thread.) Another annoyance is that the camera resolution is lousy. A third issue is that its selection of ringtones stinks and there doesn't seem to be any good way to add more.

I decided to investigate and find out if there was a way to install ringtones. I wasn't able to figure out how to install MP3s as ringtones, but I did figure out how to install MIDI files. If you know how to install MP3s, please let me know.

Below is how the process works for MIDI files (on Windows XP with Palm Desktop Software 4.1 and of course a Treo 600). There is probably an easier way to do all this if you're subscribed to the Internet data service for the phone (which I'm not). Feel free to comment if you know of any shortcuts.

Step 1: Find or create a MIDI file.

There are a number of applications out that that convert MP3s to MIDIs. I tried a few of them, and the MIDIs sounded like junk. Fortunately there are other people out there who know how to create MIDIs, and they have made a lot of them available on the net. You can try a google search, or start here: http://rock.mididb.com/

Find a song that you like and download it to your computer.

Step 2: Grab the section of the MIDI file that you want.

When you download the MIDI file, it will typically be 3 to 5 minutes in length. That's OK, but it's a waste of space -- for a ringtone, all you really want is 30 seconds or so. And you may not want the ringtone to start with the beginning of the song. To carve out the segment of the song that you want to use for the ringtone, you can use this free software: Anvil Studio. You can find instructions for using it here.

Step 3: Install the MIDI file in your Palm Desktop.

To get the ringtone to show up on the phone, you have to add it to the list of ringtones that the phone knows about. There is a file that stores the list of ringtones, and you can access it through the Palm Desktop. To do that, I used another free application called the Palm MIDI Desktop. (Java required)

You are going to use the Palm MIDI Desktop to mess with the ringtone configuration file that your phone uses to know which ringtones to display in the drop down lists, so first make a backup copy of the configuration file on your computer. In my case, the Palm user is called "Nate", so the file to back up is C:\Palm\Nate\Backup\MIDI Ring Tones.pdb

Once you have the file backed up:

• Download Palm MIDI Desktop from here.
• Unzip and extract the Palm MIDI Desktop files
• Run the Palm MIDI Desktop (you can also take a peek at the instructions in PalmMidiDesktop.html, which is part of the zip file)
• Open a command prompt: Start Menu -> Run -> type in cmd
• In the command prompt window, go to the directory where you unzipped the Palm MIDI Desktop files to. In my case I typed in cd C:\Documents and Settings\Owner\My Documents\My Music\midi_stuff\pmidi01
• Run the Palm MIDI Desktop. Type in jview -cp:a PalmMidiDesktop.jar PalmMidiDesktop
• The Palm MIDI Desktop should pop open
• Using the Palm MIDI Desktop File->Open menu option, open MIDI Ring Tones.pdb, e.g. C:\Palm\Nate\Backup\MIDI Ring Tones.pdb
• Using the Palm MIDI Desktop File->Import menu option, import the midi file(s) that you created
• Using the Palm MIDI Desktop File->Save menu option, save the new MIDI Ring Tones.pdb
• Exit the Palm MIDI Desktop
• In Palm Desktop, click "Install" button (or View->Install)
• Add MIDI Ring Tones.pdb
• Click Done

Step 4: Sync the Treo with the Desktop.

If you don't know how to do this I don't know what you're doing with a Palm device.

Step 5: Select your new ringtone(s).

Go to Prefs->Sound->Tones: In the dropdown menus next to each option (e.g. "Known Caller Tones") your new file should show up! Select it and you're good to go! If it doesn't show up, sorry, you're hosed.

Bonus: Setting ringtones for an individual caller.

If you want a special ringtone to be associated with a specific caller, there is a way to do that. The caller has to be in your favorites (speed dial) list. (Which is a totally lame design. I'm hoping it's fixed in the later versions.)

• Go to favorites, scroll to the person you want to associate with the new ringtone.
• Go to Edit (using the dropdown menu or Menu->E)
• Select "More"
• Select the ringtone you want from the dropdown list

Enjoy!

Arizona Snow

After a 6 year hiatus, I finally went snowboarding again, at Snowbowl, near Flagstaff, AZ. The conditions weren't quite up to Utah standards, but it was still fun to get back out there!