h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I'm posting this from my mobile phone. Slow, but cool.

Are you TRULY CRAZY? I have been through Pittsburg twice, on my way to NYC. My hometown, Welland, Ont., Canada, is very similar. All industry and Heaven. LOL There aren't toomany here on EST. I'm always happy to talk to anyone.

Seems an odd place to go through on the way to NY, but oh, well. What's truly crazy anyway? Depends upon what you mean. I'm a total head case with some things, very normal with others.

I'm afraid I'm certified nuts.

Why be afraid of that?

You've got me there. I believe, sometimes, it's a positive thing. Unfortunately, no one else seems to think so. Beyond that, I believe life is a blast, ripe for the picking. (so to speak. I try to work in as many cliches as I can )

Hm, avoid cliches like the plague. Life? Don't talk to me about life. Nah, it can't be as bad as that. Some times it feels like it though...

Is it raining there today? It's stopped now, here. It's mild anyway. Did you have a bonus winter, too? We hardly had any snow. I love it.

Yes and yes. I like snow, though. I was waiting for the backlash of not having much snow through the winter, but it hasn't come.

Yeah, I guess the lakes are at their lowest level in years. I don't ski or snowmobile, and I hate shovelling, but I love the look of snow. Especially when it's falling in big flakes.

So Greg, what kind of phone were you using? I guess that means Pennsylvania is wap-enabled?? I didn't think that was possible for this state to be on the cutting edge of anything!

LOL! Got that right.

I have service from Sprint PCS; I don't know if any of the others have similar features. (Sprint PCS advertises their "Wireless Web" service heavily, and now it's free for 6 months, which is why I have it.)

The phone is a Qualcomm 2760 "thin phone". And the thing is *really* thin, the thinnest and lightest dual-band (works on analog for that emergency when you're out of range of their network) phone I've ever seen.

So of course it's not PA that 's ahead in anything, it's just the Sprint network, which happens to cover areas in PA.

*makes note to self*

I must check that out sometime...What's the fee to be on the network once the freebie expires?

Well, presently to get the freebie you must be signed up on a phone plan that's $50/month or more (either new or existing customer, doesn't matter). And of course you need to get a phone that's compatible; not all of the phones that work with Sprint PCS are.

What you're getting for free normally costs $9.99/month. And here's how it works: when you pay that fee, you get Wireless Web minutes at the same rate as your phone minutes. More desirably, even, you can use whatever monthly allowance is included with your plan ($50/month for 500 minutes in my case) for Wireless Web for no extra cost. Without the freebie (or, when that's over, the $9.99, Wireless Web minutes cost 39 cents a minute regardless of how many phone plan minutes you have.

Signing up for the free trial was a no-brainer, because currently I'm not using quite all of my 500 minute per month allowance. The phone plans starting at this level are great, though. $50/month for 500 minutes. These minutes are good *anywhere* on the Sprint PCS network nationwide. They also include long distance at no extra cost. So you can call from anywhere in Sprint's digital network to anywhere in the US with these minutes without incuring any sort of roaming or long distance charges. Sprint's network is in all major cities and expanding all the time. There's no contract requirement! (My last phone had me stuck for 2 years.) But you do have to buy the phone. (Mine was 100 bucks.) System includes all the phone comforts of home (caller ID, call waiting, voice mail, etc.) and first incoming minute free. It's just about to the level that you could drop your home phone service (I pretty much use that only for the computer now). God I sound too much like a commercial. But it really is so far the best deal going I think unless you're often needing the phone in areas that aren't covered by Sprint's digital service.