For all you lucky iPhone users, AT&T has finally stepped up to help us unfortunate souls who do not live in happy land of 3G (that includes me).  AT&T now offers free access to all of their Wi-Fi hotspots across the US – including those at Starbucks, Barnes and Noble, and McDonald’s.  From AT&T’s announcement:

"AT&T knows Wi-Fi is hot, and free Wi-Fi even hotter, which is why we are proud to offer iPhone customers free access to the nation’s largest Wi-Fi hotspot network with more than 17,000 hotspots, including Starbucks," the company said. "Now users can relax and access music, e-mail and web browsing services with their favorite blend in hand from the comfort of their favorite location."

At last, one reason to love AT&T

UPDATE: I guess there’s a little less love from AT&T.  They’ve cited an internal error in posting the free Wi-Fi offer and pulled the page from their website.  AT&T stated that Wi-Fi will be offered to iPhone users, but the program does not have a definitive release date.  Thanks again AT&T.

I needed to do some long overdue cleaning of my truck and Sam wanted to help. Thanks Sam!

MN Vikings preseason starts 3 week from tonight!

Okay, maybe that’s an overstatement.  But for those of you on the fence of getting an iPhone and need to track your portfolio on the go, this should help you decide.  Bloomberg has added the power of their financial news network into a new (and FREE) application for the iPhone.  So far this is getting ratings of 5 stars almost across the board.  The nicest part of the application is the ability to add your own stock portfolio and see different data: number shares owned, +/- of share value from change, current value of position, and current news on a specific stock.

Look below for a few pics on how the app actually looks on my iPhone. 

We were about to leave and the idea was to catch a few quick pictures of Evan and Grandpa together.  Evan had been a perfect angel all day – he ate a good lunch, took a long nap, and woke up very happy… until I tried to take a picture.  Literally two seconds before I snapped the picture, Evan was smiling and giggling.  Two seconds after the picture, he was smiling again. 
Sorry Grandpa.

"My wife thinks I’m having an affair. With my iPhone. Say hello to my little friend."  Leo Laporte

Ok, maybe not that dramatic, but we could own a multi-million dollar municipal computer system – like the one in San Francisco.  Apparently a disgruntled computer engineer has commandeered San Francisco’s brand new computer network used for city wide functions (city payroll, internal documents, city law enforcement, etc.).  The engineer apparently had run into some disciplinary trouble with his supervisor for poor performance.  As an insurance policy, the engineer locked out everyone from the network and now holds the master password for the entire system, albeit from a jail cell. 

While I in no way support the tactics the computer engineer took, but I feel little sympathy to the City of San Francisco either.  The people running the city had little knowledge of the power they had delegated to this engineer.  This scenario will become more and more common as municipalities or companies invest in complicated computer systems, but do not have the expertise or understanding to deploy it in a safe and modular fashion.

If you think all I’ve been doing is watching what new toys Apple has brought to the masses this week, well guess again. I’ve been following a quiet little story brewing regarding our NFC friends next door, the Green Bay Packers. In case you’ve been out of town the last couple of days I’ll give a quick summary: Brett has decided he may want to play football again and has asked for a release from GB, while GB has said no way are you just leaving.  In all of the excitement and drama, MN Vikings fans think it would be great for him to come here.

Eeehhh… the buzzer just went off for those MN fans to wake and face a few realities. One, GB is not going to let a player like Favre just leave with out anything in return (especially to a NFC North division rival).  Two, MN fans think he’ll make a great impact right away but he won’t because it’s a new team and it would take a season to transition the playbook setup.  Three, he’s old.  Yes, he had one of the best seasons ever last year but another year has gone by and there is no guarantee he’d do it again.

The ONLY reason i’d want to have Favre is for a back up and a mentor to Jackson. Well that and the crap I know I’d be able to give to every Packer fan I know… which may be enough to convince me to sign him.