Results tagged “cellphone”

The past couple days the 3G for our precious iPhone has been way wonky, but only in certain areas of town. It's working completely fine on the Hill, but as soon as we cross into Downtown--pretty much as soon as we get past the Paramount--we can only access our internets on AT&T's not-as-fast EDGE network. We also experienced this problem yesterday at the SIFF launch; in the Seattle Center campus, 3G worked just fine, but once we got out into Queen Anne proper, the network went down. We haven't ventured into the heart of darkness today, but we've heard others have the same issue, though coverage on the official map looks just fine. Anyone know what's up?

Seattlest just got back from a really long walk. It was gorgeous down by the water, through some lovely residential neighborhood in Eastlake, past the house boats and around the bottom of Lake Union near I Love Sushi, etc. At some point, heading back up toward Whole Foods, we realized our phone was missing. It's a red Blackberry Pearl with our picture, name and phone number on the screen. We posted something on Craigslist, but figured we'd ask you, fair readers: is there a lost and found for the world? Did anyone find our cell phone?

Thirty-seven Washington State troopers on motorcycles will be scrutinizing the behavior of drivers on I-5 today and tomorrow in what the P-I reports is a two-day push against dangerous freeway speed and aggression. That means if you're on I-5 in the next couple of days, 84% of the state's motorcycle troopers will be dedicating their full resources towards disciplining bad behavior on the road. It's all too easy to cruise way over 60mph during non-peak traffic hours, so be careful out there or you might find yourself with a ticket. (Put down those cell phones, too....)

• Hello, weekend windstorm! The neighborhood blogs were aflutter about wind damage, power outages, and waves crashing over 520.
• The Rainier Valley Post has their weekly must-read letting you know what your City Council Member is scheduled to be up to this week. Looks like an exciting week at the City Council, covering topics such as sidewalk cafes (right in time for winter!) and the Mercer mess.
• MetBlogs has something about free money--which automatically makes us click off, fearful of what identity scam is coming next. But at quick glance, it appears to be legitimate--show up and get $10 and there is some pay-it-forward aspect to the scheme.

Stories of stranded and caved-in hikers have been dominating the local news in the past couple of weeks. Last week, two boys were rescued after an ice cave they were standing in collapsed. Both survived the cave-in but with serious injuries. Just this Tuesday, the sad news broke that an Oregon 15-year-old who was buried after a sand cave he was digging collapsed had succumbed to his injuries and died. Yesterday came the story of three hikers stranded on Three Fingers Mountain after one of them injured his back, and the group was forced to stay a wet and cold night above 5,000 feet. Two of the hikers had to be air-lifted off the mountain, while one was able to walk down on his own strength.

Don't say we didn't warn you...This morning's commute will be the first in Washington state where that jackass swerving in front of you while texting on their Blackberry is actually breaking the law, rather than merely endangering their life and yours. While hands-on cell phone offenders have to get pulled over for something else ticket-worthy in order to get slapped with the new fine, we are glad to see common sense become actionable law.

You've got one week, Seattle, until the bumper sticker motto of "Hang Up & Drive" becomes state law. Starting next Tuesday, July 1st, it will be illegal to operate a moving vehicle while talking on a hand-held cell phone. Drivers will be able to continue their conversations and multi-tasking, as long as they have a hands-free device. If you are caught talking (or, God forbid, texting) and driving after the 1st, you will face at least a $124 ticket. So get it out of your system now!

"Fair Anxiety" by Bukanza

Isn't it nice to be able to swerve down the road while gossiping on your phone? Don't you love driving behind texting teens at 70 mph across a floating bridge? Starting July 1st, that will be not just be inadvisable--it will be illegal. In just over two weeks, California and Washington will both enact laws that make it illegal to drive while talking on a handheld mobile phone. You will be able to talk and drive if you have a headset or other hands-free device. If you're caught talking or texting while driving, you could face a $101 ticket.

Earlier this week, as MyBallard noted, King County Metro reported that Seattle bus ridership in the first three months of 2008 is six percent higher than the same period last year, which we think is great. The more of us on buses, the less of us driving.

One of the sadder stories we heard yesterday, from a friend who was on the Portland-Seattle train, was about the 17-year-old Kent girl who was hit and killed by a southbound Amtrak as she crossed the tracks. The Seattle Times blame-placers let you know the culprit right in the headline: "Train kills girl, 17, who was talking on phone."

When that 25-cent fare increase hits in March...let's see, gotta calculate up...carry the exponent...Metro could be making 1,925,000 extra dollars per year (not really, we're just multiplying 0.25 by 7% of total boardings, for a quick estimate). A peak 1-zone fare will be $1.75, so make sure you're carrying around three quarters during commute times.

Fremont's own Getty Images wants to auction itself off and could sell for up to $1.5 billion, reports the NY Times. The stock photo agency has had a rough go of it lately:

But the rise of digital photography and the Web created a host of competitors that charged as little as a dollar for an image. Recent events — from the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, the former Pakistani prime minister, to the latest foibles of the entertainer Britney Spears — have led to a surging popularity of low-quality but on-the-scene photos, many taken by cellphone cameras.

Continue reading "For Sale: Getty Images"

We spent last weekend at Crystal Mountain Resort, and we picked up a few tips from the staff to help you manage the crazy crowds during MLK weekend.

What is it about Seattle and innovative cabbies? It was a cabbie who co-came-up-with the idea for the monorail (along with a poet), and now we've got a cabbie jumping into the digital age: along with books, mp3s and pornography, you can now shop for cabs .

The Program (Dec. 18-22) will be way cooler than we initially thought, folks. Not only will some of the biggest names in NW hip-hop be on stage for your entertainment five nights in a row, but the latest news is that there are all kinds of technological tie-ins that will make this event very, very 21st-century.

Just in case anyone reading this blog is a sixteen-year-old girl and/or writes for Gawker, have we got big news for you:

Meanwhile, over on the New York Attorney General's site, Andrew Cuomo is impersonating a pitbull, if pitbulls knew how to file subpoenas:

“In order to fulfill their duty to consumers and investors, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac must ensure that Washington Mutual’s mortgages have not been corrupted by inflated appraisals,” said Attorney General Cuomo. “Our expanding investigation into the mortgage industry has uncovered that Washington Mutual improperly pressured appraisers to provide inflated values that best served the lender’s interest. Knowing this, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac cannot afford to continue buying Washington Mutual mortgages unless they are sure these loans are based on reliable and independent appraisals.”

Winds the likes of which haven't been seen in nearly eight months are set to descend on our little burg tomorrow night. Forecasters say it's fifty-fifty right now whether they'll miss us to the north or land right on top of Duvall's fragile little power system. The good news is that everyone's generators haven't even had time to gather dust, much less make their way onto Craigslist. In fact, Seattlest even has some propane cannisters we didn't use during the summer camping season. First Puget Sound Energy customer to comment on this post after losing power tomorrow night gets 'em. Is that a rinkydink prize to win for being suddenly time-warped to the Stone Age? Last December if we'd have stood in front of G.I. Joe's with them we could have gotten upwards of $20 for them. Apiece! Anyway, we'll throw in a coffee at the cafe of your choosing to drink while you charge your laptop and cell phone.

Seattle Rep's The Murderers is three monologues, one after the other, that thankfully get more entertaining as the show goes along. Each monologue deals with a murder (or murders) committed at the Florida retirement community, and sends up a different view of senior citizens -- as old moneybags who keep their heirs on tenterhooks, as randy old goats, as cash cows for the unscrupulous. It's a mildly dark series of "I-dun-its" for Matlock's urban audiences and their graying kids. Any younger, and you're there just for Sarah Rudinoff, which is right and good.

UPDATE: On-the-spot photographer brentvanw adds in the comments:

Please note that the Duck was full of awestruck tourists and they were listening to "tequila" and singing along while this scene unfolded. The driver was still on her mic after the man exchanged some heated words with her and she promptly climbed out and took a look over the bow and said "Is that you? Oh my."

Seattlest just got done attending the press conference for the re-opening of the Downtown Bus Tunnel. After two years of work, it's set to reopen next Monday. That's exactly two years (as King County Exec. Ron Sims was fond of repeating over and over today) after it closed. We have to say, we're pretty impressed with what they've done.

There's an article bemoaning our pending loss of Daly's Drive-In in Eastlake in the Post Intelligencer today (with accompanying blog item--probably both inspired by a slightly previous blog item from the Stranger) headlined "Popular drive-in on way out." The thing is, Daly's isn't popular. It should be, and it was, but it isn't.

After all, the Seattle P-I's got a story on the recent street violence, the Seattle Times has coverage of the war zone and the thug factor. And although three of the four incidents since June occurred after 10pm, it's easily worth the $500,000 the city will spend over the next four months to keep lunch hour safe in Westlake Park. We were there, and we've never felt more secure -- which was great because we couldn't find any bike racks in front of Westlake Mall and had to lock our bike to a trash can.

Rifling through the remains of the house's cookbook library (which was amassed sometime in the 50's when it was used as the high school's home ec facility), we came across a promotional brochure from the Vermont Maple Promotion Board. It gave information about maple trees and sugar houses (it takes 35 gallons of sap to make just one gallon of delicious Vermont maple syrup!) and a few maple-laden recipes, a surprising number of which actually sounded good.

Neither making the NFL Hall of Fame as a fourth-round pick or crushing Mike Harden could've prepared Seahawks legend Steve Largent for the opponent he faces now: Google.

We wouldn't yet call ourselves bicycle "enthusiasts," but we're getting there. We've started riding from work (downtown) to home (Shoreline) about three days a week and we're loving it. We're getting exercise, doing something we enjoy and the majority of the ride, along the Burke-Gilman Trail, is just gorgeous.

Here's a good one for the automobile haters: The completely impartial and fair people at Pemco Insurance have done a poll on speeders that attempts to get to the bottom of who these people speeding all over the place are; what they aspire to, what makes them bolt upright in the middle of the night, how much money they make, where they're going in such a damn hurry...

Last night Seattlest went to Town Hall to hear Afghan-American author Khaled Hosseini read from his new novel, A Thousand Splendid Suns. Hosseini's first novel, The Kite Runner was in many ways a phenomenal achievement and by all accounts, the new book has surpassed even the most hopeful of expectations.