So I ordered the SBC Yahoo DSL. My local phone company, Pacific Bell is now SBC, so the dsl bill will be part of my phone bill. I also ordered the home portal device. It's a combination dsl modem and router/hub. You can hook up 10 computers to it. Since I'm a new customer, I'm getting a $99 rebate, so it's only costing $60, which is the price someone at the office paid for their router/hub last week.

The order person on the phone said the best thing about the home portal device, is I can get a dsl connection at any phone line and I don't have to worry about physically cabling the other computers to my main computer. Now I'm going to pay Pacific Bell a ton of money to put a phone jack in every room in my new apartment so I can get a dsl connection no matter what room I'm in. Oh boy!

This is a strange experience. I have an office with a window on the second floor of a building, and there are trees outside. I heard a thump on the window, and when I looked over I saw a robin bird sitting in the tree. About a minute later, the robin bird flies into my window. I've been in this office for a long time, and robin bird or any bird for that matter has never done that before.

Then, another robin bird came over and sat next to the first robin bird. The first robin bird takes off and flies into my window again. The other robin bird just watches. The first robin bird does this a couple more times, then they both fly off.

What is going on? It's a cold foggy day here, so it's not like this is spring weather. Why would a robin bird try to fly into my window over and over again?

Been spending the last two hours searching for this totally hot song I heard on the radio this week. It combines an indian man singing with rap music. It's like so cool! Indian music and rap, what a great combo.

The song is called "Beware of the Boys" by Punjabi MC featuring Jay Z. It's just so great! I just downloaded it from Kazaa and I'm listening to it now. I don't have the version they play on the radio, but I still like the song.

From the MTV website, here's the scoop on my favorite new song.

Jay-Z has broken his silence about the U.S.-led coalition's war with Iraq. In the remix of European artist Panjabi MC's overseas hit "Beware of the Boys," Jay mixes his Brooklyn braggadocio with anti-war sentiments.

"We rebellious, we back home/ Screamin' 'Leave Iraq alone,' " Young Hova rhymes over a sample of the theme from the "Knight Rider" TV show. "For all my soldiers in the field/ I will wish you safe return/ But only love kills war/ When will they learn?"

Jay, who is part of the Musicians United to Win Without War coalition along with Russell Simmons, Outkast, Zap Mama, R.E.M. and Sheryl Crow, had been relatively quiet about the war until now.

"It's all good," Panjabi MC said Tuesday from London about Jay's flavoring of the remix. "Originally this track was about something [different]. The track has become more of symbolic vibe of how it's crossed over to the East and West markets."

Translated, Panjabi MC's lyrics, which are sung in Punjabi, are a warning to a 16-year-old girl to be leery of guys who are trying to take her innocence. "Be careful of the boys/ You've only just grown up./ It's not your fault that you've got beautiful eyes/ Once you've realized this, you will become shy/ Look after your youth/ This time won't come again."

Jay and Panjabi were hooked up through their managers after Jay became aware of the track on a recent trip to Switzerland. "He heard the song three or four months ago when this thing started blowing up in Europe," Panjabi MC remembered. "On the radio, in the clubs [and] even on the underground out here, it's been blowing up. He seen the reaction to it and wanted to get involved. He jumped on, basically."

The original and the Jay-Z remix of "Beware of the Boys" will be sold in U.S. stores as a single on April 15. A week prior, Jay-Z will put out The Blueprint 2.1, setting off a bevy of Roc-a-Fella releases that will carry on through the summer (see "Jay-Z Cutting Away The Fat And Releasing Blueprint 2.1").

Today I'm shopping for a DSL service.

My current ISP, AT&T offers DSL service and I am tempted to get their service so I don't lose my email addresses. It pays to research though. I was reading through this website called broadbandreports.com, and a user posted a message saying that if subscribe to AT&T DSL you have to switch to AT&T local phone service. I hate this! What freaks! I've never had a problem with my local phone service, and now I'm supposed to switch.

My other option, SBC Yahoo, isn't that great either. If you subscribe to SBC Yahoo DSL, and you have another long distance carrier, you have to switch.

What a royal pain!

AT&T DSL service, I found out, entered into a contract with Covad for DSL service. AOL Broadband has the same contract with Covad. I hate having to go through a third party.

These are my issues:

1) I don't want to switch email addresses again. I just switched in May 2002, and I hate having to swtich email addresses again.
2) My windows ce laptop won't work with SBC Yahoo DSL dial up, so when I travel, I won't be able to get internet access service. If I get around to getting a laptop, this problem is solved, but until then I'm stuck.
3) AT&T just rolled out their Covad contract in January 2003, and from what user groups are saying they are having a ton of problems.
4) From user forums, Covad has a bad reputation for being an unreliable DSL service. SBC Yahoo DSL, which most of my friends have, seems to work fine.
5) Covad as a company, seems on shakey grounds financially. They were almost bankrupt, until they swung these deals with AT&T and AOL. Companies in an iffy financial situation probably have reduced staff, which translates into bad customer service and network upgrades being put off.

Problems, problems, problems.

I really need to have a reliable DSL service, since I'm going to start working at home in May. I can't afford to have any down time. It's so strange that SBC Yahoo dial up service doesn't work with windows CE. I ran across another person commenting on this issue. Supposedly handheld devices are the way of the future, and since many handheld devices run off the windows ce platform, one would think that SBC Yahoo dial up would want a piece of that future pie. I guess not.

What I'll probably end up doing is geting SBC Yahoo DSL, and keeping my AT&T dial up service for when I travel. SBC Yahoo DSL is offering a good one-year deal, so over all I'll end up spending only about $80 more to have both services. In a year, I'll have to revist this issue.

I'm thinking a lot of stuff can happen in a year. Maybe I'll buy a regular laptop, so I won't have the windows ce problem. Or, maybe SBC Yahoo will realize that they need to have their dial up work with windows CE service. A year will have passed, and maybe I won't feel so bad about changing my email address again.

Either way, I can see myself giving my AT&T account, which is too bad. I never had a significant problem and it works fine for a dial up.

Switch to SBC long distance isn't a problem. It's only 5 cents per minute. Besides, I use my wireless phone for all my long distance calls. I get 450 minutes per month on my cell phone, which includes roaming and long distance, so I haven't had long distance charges on my phone bill since I bought my cell phone. Using the cell phone for long distance calls works out well for me, since I pay for my cell phone minutes every month whether I use them or not. I even use my cell phone to call out of my local calling area, which is anything out of the 415 area code.

What a royal pain in the wazo the phone and DSL issue is!