Archive for the 'Uncategorized' Category

Oh Happy Day

Published
by
kitch
on June 23, 2008
in Uncategorized and life
. 4 Comments

It seems that this past Friday, June 20th, was the happiest day of the year.  I believe it.  Although given the amount of pure fun and excitement of the Raleigh Typhoon on Saturday it might be possible that they missed it by one day.  Let’s just call it the happiest weekend of the year to make it simple.

Cliff Arnall, a psychologist and former tutor at Cardiff University, devised the equation which follows.

According to the research this has been worked out using the equation O + (N xS) + Cpm/T + He.

O stands for being outdoors and outdoor activity, N is connection with nature, which is in full bloom now, S is socialisation with neighbours and friends, Cpm stands for childhood positive memories, T is the mean temperature which is now usually warm, and He is holiday expected.

So we’ve got some math (awesome) to help us figure out what makes for a happy day.  I think it works. Not only did I have a great weekend, but many other I know did as well.  Watching twitter a bit today and over the course of the weekend I noticed that all kinds of people had fun adventures.  The center of this for me, as well as 6 other tweeple (@dtraleigh, @nematome, @ginnyskal, @dimambro) and other friends, was the Raleigh Typhoon adventures.  I randomly bumped into a friend that was in from Philly for the weekend having a great time with old friends.  @chiatar was off vacationing.  @therab and @operationorange traveled off to heroescon in Charlotte, NC.  Add it all up and there were a lot of people having a lot of fun this weekend.

The takeaway is that those mathematicians\psychologist are right on the money and there theory has been validated.  Some might suggest that the “equation” is obvious.  People love great weather, the outdoors, good friends, and travel.  In the end, who cares, great weekend for all!

Via Lifehacker

Via UK Telegraph

Update: See more from Ginny and John

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Could the New iPhone Plans be Cheaper?

Published
by
kitch
on June 10, 2008
in Uncategorized and mac
. 3 Comments

iPhone

I’ve been a Bell South\Cingular\AT&T customer all my cell phone life.  I just love the GSM phone opitons.  I currently have an iPhone 1.0 and love it.  I find that the $60 a month plan is reasonable for the minutes and data plan.  However, I was sad to say goodbye to the AT&T discount offered to me via my employer.  It was a solid discount that I was willing to forgo for the “privilege” of being an iPhone user.

With the announcement of the new iPhone 3G comes news that the plans will be swizzled as well.  Gone are the days of the prepackaged iPhone plans.  Now you choose your own voice plan at the standard AT&T rates it seems.  Afterwords you can add standard unlimited data plans.  The 3G plan will be $30 in addition to the base $40 voice plan.  I’m quietly praying that standard AT&T plans might mean that I could hook my employer discount back up.  The net result would actually be an iPhone 3G with unlimited data for slightly less than I’m paying for the same minutes and an EDGE unlimited data plan now.

It’s probably pie in the sky, but they’re telling me there is a chance!  I’m willing to hold out and pray that this perfect storm might just come together.  All that said, still no telling if I’ll bite the bullet and go new phone or not.  I’m certainly tempted.  More storage, 3G, longer battery, GPS, and the promise of potentially better phone audio has me sweating it out til July 11th.

UPDATE:

Just saw a post on Engadget with an AT&T Interview which stated:

Will FAN (corporate) discounts apply?
Another “We haven’t discussed this yet” for this one. Since the iPhone will continue to have its own set of plans, it’s entirely possible AT&T could make them ineligible for discounting. The counterargument, though, is that the iPhone is now being offered like any other phone — deeply subsidized by the carrier, that is — and details of the device’s service should fall in line with that as well. We’ll see.