The Mallorys Online

In May ‘07 I jumped ship from a standard mobile phone to the Cingular 8125 Pocket PC. I had three requirements for my new phone:

1. Allow access to personal e-mail in stand-alone software, not web-based
2. Syncronize contacts & calendar between the phone and my home computer
3. Internet access with a full-featured, desktop-like browser

The 8125 met these requirements, but I sacrificed slim and sleek for bulky and powerful. My employer has a premier relationship with AT&T Wireless and I’m able to upgrade every six months. In November ‘07 I upgraded to the AT&T 8525 with 3G data speed. Again, the device was very bulky, but Windows Mobile has software for just about anything I wanted.

This month was my six month upgrade time again so I sifted through the refurb section on the AT&T Premier site to see if I could get a phone that is thin, but still allows access to the internet and Gmail/Hotmail. To my pleasure I found a Blackjack II Wine. Click the following “read” link to read more. Read the rest of this entry »

I was looking for some tranquil, spa-like music for Jennifer during labor and I usually purchase music from Amazon.com MP3 download section. I searched for “relaxation” and, to my surprise, full length relaxation CDs were showing up as one, long track. I purchased an entire 64 minute nature relaxation CD for $0.89!

Update: OK, so this is only one long track of the same relaxation music so it doesn’t change throughout the track.  That’s still alright with me as long as it keeps her relaxed.

I’ve received an e-mail on two of my three e-mail accounts stating somebody connected with all of my social networking profiles (including my Amazon Wish List) by giving Spokeo.com my e-mail address. I’m not as much upset with Spokeo for linking to me as I am irritated with the person that gave Spokeo.com my information in the first place. I would never let a random company have my friends’ information.

Here is how it works:

• User goes to Spokeo.com and enters their GMail, MySpace, or other login/password where friend information is stored
• Spokeo looks at all of their contacts and searches the internet for sites where the contact’s e-mail address was used
• Spokeo then allows the user to receive updates whenever the contact changes information on the web such as their MySpace profile

The obvious benefit to the Spokeo user is they can go to a single place to get updates on their friends without needing to go out to Facebook and MySpace and blogs, etc. However, the fact that Spokeo can enter somebody’s GMail account and get their entire list of contacts is disturbing at least and a total invasion of privacy on the other extreme.

If you read my blog and consider yourself a friend, please DO NOT give Spokeo your login information!!!!

Jacob and Jennifer are doing amazingly well. We’ve had the normal first pregnancy concerns, but both baby and mom are healthy. Jacob gets the hiccups 4-5 times a day and they are Jennifer’s #1 favorite thing he does. We learned his head is down and his back is curled up around Jennifer’s right side so we spend a lot of time rubbing his back. It took a little while, but Jacob is now locked in on her ribs and makes bedtime an event every time.

The nursery is done after the minor disaster hitting the hot water pipe. I would put pictures up, but #1) they don’t do the nursery justice and #2) Jennifer doesn’t want people in town to see it on the Internet before they see it in person. I can understand her feelings and I will say it turned out even better than I imagined. Jacob has a very cozy, comfortable room to come home to! There isn’t much time left and we’re both very excited!