I know it’s a popular event to get a chance to ring the opening bell the NY Stock Exchange, but this was just weird. Why is Darth Vader allowed to ring the opening bell this morning?  Flanked by Imperial Storm Troopers?  Were the traders wondering what was going on that morning? I love Star Wars and all, but that’s just weird.

Uh, hello, fellow Facebook members. Do you remember how Facebook rolled out the new privacy changes earlier this month? Do you know why?  Facebook has completed distribution deals with both Google and Microsoft to distribute your FB data (wall postings, etc.) Don’t believe me?  It’s true.  Is it interesting that FB’s new default privacy settings allow the less restrictive access (everyone) for its 350 million users?

Read more in Wall Street Journal writer Julia Angwin’s article How Facebook Is Making Friending Obsolete. You know, the common advice is that one should be careful what you post on FB and other social networking sites (and blogs.) You never know who is reading it, even among your friends.  If your data is now discoverable via search engine, it’s even more out there.

I read on Engadget today about Autonet Mobile, and how GM will be rolling it out as an option this year on seven Chevy models — the Equinox, Traverse, Silverado, Tahoe, Suburban, Avalanche and Express.  This is the first time I’ve heard of it. I checked the Autonet Mobile online, and it promises you Wi-Fi in the car. You have to pay to get the wireless router installed in your vehicle, and pay a monthly fee (starting at $29), but it’s Wi-Fi. 

Wondering how they were providing Internet on the go, I looked into it more, and now I’m less impressed. It’s just a service using 3G and 2.5G cellular service.  You don’t use a Verizon or AT&T — Autonet Mobile is your Internet service provider. Cellular service?  Besides basic Internet web surfing or chatting, you definitely would be inhibited by the 3G or 2.5G bandwidth. 

Over the 3G network, download speeds average from 400kps-800kps. Upload ranges from 128kps-300kps.  When not on 3G the average download is 120kps-200kps and 50kps-100kps for upload.

Are they kidding? Don’t try to watch a movie!.  Also, I hope the data throughput isn’t be shared by multiple passengers in the car. 

This is going to bite me in the butt later when my daughter Lily hits her teens, and I’m not looking forward to it. I really don’t understand that whole screaming and swooning.  Case in point – Recently some Canadian teen sensation Justin Bieber was due to show up at the Roosevelt Field Mall in Nassau county, NY (one of the largest malls in NYS.)  Mr. Beiber didn’t show up for a  while, and the mob of screaming women grew until it became a problem. He never showed up, and they had to disperse the crowd.  Watch the embedded video below. Aren’t teenage girls nuts?

I don’t have an iPhone, but I know AT&T’s service can be pretty wonky. Gizmodo reported that one of their readers was getting around 22% of his calls dropped in the NYC area, and took it to Apple. The Geniuses said this was pretty good.  Apparently, a 30 percent dropped call rate is the average in NYC for AT&T.

What?

What’s this bit of news that I stumbled on? Visual Voicemail for the BlackBerry Bold is now up?  I want to go to there. Has anyone tried this?  Do I need to wait until Tuesday? Will it cost anything? I love new technologies and capabilities, but I have so many questions.

http://gizmodo.com/5343799/blackberry-bold-visual-voicemail-feature-now-live-os-drops-tuesday

I’ve noticed in the past 6-12 months (not exactly sure of timeline) that my AT&T wireless service has been getting very hinkey.  When I say “hinkey”, I mean you can have a full set of bars, but no response or very slow.  In the past two months, a number of bloggers are complaining about their 3G coverage, especially while using their respective iPhone 3Gs. If you’re trying to make a phone call, browse the internet, or attemping to download updates (a la Facebook), you could be fine one second, and then kaput.

The blogosphere (the bloggerati?) are pointing the finger at all the iPhone 3G phones (with all the other 3G phones) eating up so much AT&T network bandwith, it’s effectively creating a network slowdown.  It would certainly explain a lot.  I remember way back in the 1998 – 2001 time period, I signed up for my first cell phone (a Nokia) through AT&T Wireless.  The service was acceptable initially, but a few years later, the reliability of their analog service degraded.  Funny, that was the problem back then, and it was just analog for phone calls. 

Back then, one of my cousins told me to stick with AT&T Wireless, as he heard they were going to build new towers, but it never improved over the next few months.  Eventually, that prompted me to first move to T-Mobile, then Verizon Wireless a few years after that.  In 2007, I came back to AT&T for the nice selection of BlackBerry smartphones.  Unfortunately, I have come back full circle, and am now experiencing data network issues. Where am I going after this?  Nowhere. I’m here with AT&T for the long-term.

BTW, this is interesting. What with all the different cellular communications technologies we’ve had, check out this graph with how the technologies have converged so far, and will continue to converge in the U.S. towards this LTE-A standard.  Neat.  Does that mean all of our cell phones will be interchangeable between carriers in a few years?

Weeeiird. In my AP Biology textbook from high school, I remember learning and reading about this fungus that attacked ants.  The ants would unwittingly ingest the fungal spores, and the spores would grow, bursting out of the ant, and using the corpse as nourishment.  There was even this picture of the fungus stalk breaking through the dead ant. Thanks to the Internet, I found the same photo online.

Scientists have discovered a fungus in Thailand that takes over ant brains, and forces them to stay low to the ground, find locations suitable for the fungus, and wait to die there. It literally takes control of their brains. That. Is. Crazy.

This was an interesting article. The Chicago Tribune wrote a lengthy article about how Netflix works.  As a self-avowed geek, I love finding out how this stuff really works.  Come on, it’s cool.  Don’t you ever wonder?

http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/chi-0804-netflixaug04,0,6424990.story

Saw this article by chance.  PC World spent a day testing 3G services in 13 cities across the U.S.  Big surprise, Verizon offered the best all-around service.  AT&T?  Not so hot.  Again, big surprise.  Man, I’m never going to hear the end of it from my Verizon friends.

Full article: A Day in the Life of 3G – PC World

Chart: 3G Speed and Reliability Results by City