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By the end of the year, Verizon Wireless will begin rolling out it’s new LTE based network. For those who dont know what LTE is, it’s the next high speed wireless data network with crazy fast connection speeds.

As it stands today, if you buy a smart phone you can pay upwards of $40-60 a month for just the right to TALK and another $30-60 a month if you want to have a data plan. In the future, this needs to change. We are moving into a culture where data and voice connectivity is almost mandatory to function in today’s society. E-mail, Facebook, Twitter, GPS, and basic web browsing is needed on the go. But seriously, who wants to pay $120 a month for a cell phone!?

The new model should be simply this: Buy a “bucket of megabytes” (as Verizon Chief Executive Lowell McAdam calls it). Included in that bucket is all voice and data transmissions. Yes, this bucket would include all text messages as well. Since LTE is an all IP network, you dont need a cell phone number through Verizon unless you choose to. If I like, my cell can be linked to a Skype number, or Google Voice number.

That my rant, now I am done.

Text messages is a money making machine for cell phone companies. It’s an absolute cash cow. At 160 characters, a single message would be 1280 bits. Therefore, 6553.6 text messages equals one megabyte of data. At 20 cents a message on Verizon (assuming you don’t have a text plan), that would cost $1,497.97…. per megabyte of data. As a simple comparison: If I use data on my “feature phone”, it’s $1.99 per megabyte of data.

Here is the math for those who are interested:
1 character = 8 bits of data
140 characters = 1120 bits
1 megabyte = 8,388,608 bits
8,388,608 bits/1120 bits = 7489.8285 messages
7489.8285 messages * $0.20 = $1,497.97 per megabyte of data

In another example: my wife has 250 text messages a month for $5. Sounds like a great deal, right? umm… not really. That’s 2 cents per message. That doesn’t look too bad really. It’s significantly cheaper than then 20 cents per message fee when you don’t have a texting plan. But, let’s break this down again…

250 messages * 1120 bits= 280,000 bits of data
$5/280,000 bits = $0.000017857 per bit of data
1 megabyte = 8,388,608 bits
8,388,608 bits * $0.000017857 = $149.80 per megabyte of data

Text Message cost prices are from Verizon Wireless as of May 10th, 2010.
All computer unit conversions were made by using the simple conversion tool over at unit-conversion.info

Melissa and I are proud to announce the birth of a baby girl: Claire Isabel. Born at 2:21 PM on March 18, 2010, weighing 6lb 5oz, and 18.5 inches long. Mother and baby doing fine… oh yea, dad’s good too.

~Jason, Melissa, Maggie and Claire Grandt

Via BBC-

A 7 foot wide Stingray

It is one of the rarest giants of the ocean, and it has been caught on film for the first time.

An underwater camera crew filming for the BBC has recorded a smalleye stingray swimming off the coast of Mozambique.

The smalleye stingray is the largest of all 70 species of stingray, attaining widths of more than 2m.

The elusive creature, first discovered in 1908, has only ever been seen alive off Tofo in southern Mozambique.

It was pointed out to me this morning that the GOP launched their new website this morning. GOP.com or RNC.org

They say it’s in BETA, but WOW is it really bad in my opinion. This not as a critic of the GOP, this is criticism from a guy who manages 2 websites every day and has 2 personal side project websites.

They are clearly trying to put a younger face on the GOP, note the annoyingly large faces they are using in the top of the page. But the overall layout and UI is large and bombastic… not to mention oddly laid out.

Perhaps the most ironic part is that their Future Leaders page… has no one on it! Kind of ironic really.

And they did one of the things I have MOST about some websites. After going to the home page, Michael Steels walks out onto the webpage and starts talking. I HATE those stupid flash video things. They annoy me to no end.

My opinion is that this should have been kept under wraps until it was done… and for the love of God… hire a real web designer. I’m a hack and I could have done better with a off the counter Drupal template.

I hate to sound like I am piling on the GOP, but this is a really bad website for a major political party.

What major project in Chicago, in recent history, has gone at or even NEAR budget? “The Bean” was 4x OVER budget and it was just a metal sculpture! Let’s not mention that it takes 3 different union workers to carry a box from the loading dock to your display McCormick Place. Millennium Park was projected to cost $150 million, but went on to cost $475 million and was delayed 4 years. Imagine how much a $4-5 BILLION Olympic project will go over budget.

They say they wont pass the cost onto the tax payers, but can they really be trusted? The Olympics will run way over budget… book it. And they will find a way to pass that along to the tax payers… an no, not just Chicago. They will find a way to say “hey, see how it effected all of Cook County? Yea, we need you to pay up too!”

Daley will use this as yet another power grab. If he can plow over Meigs Field literally in the dark of night with no warning or authority, imagine what in can do in the name of the Olympics.

The idea of hosting the Olympics sounds great, but not when you look at who is running it. In about an hour we will find out who hosts the 2016 Summer Olympics. As for me, let the Rio chant ring load!

UPDATE: Chicago got eliminated int he first round. WOW! No one saw that coming!!