Check this out, in 1981 the idea of people getting the news via the internet was already well underway. It took a while, but online is a primary way people get news these days. I love that monitor!

HT to Mark

Since Mike Rowe has the market cornered on Dirty Jobs, I thought I would highlight an extremely interesting job that Chris Britt does for Springfield, Illinois’ State-Journal Register.

What are some unique jobs you’d like to see highlighted?

If you are like me you didn’t notice the tiny asterisk in this image. But there is one. Do you see it?

This morning I intended on lining up at the Partridge Creek Apple Store to upgrade both of my AT&T phones to the smoking hot iPhone 3G. 

Since I’ve been a loyal AT&T customer since 1998 I knew I needed to call their customer service and make sure there weren’t any surprises. And boy am I glad I did.

Not pictured here with Steve is the asterisk. You have to be a new customer or have an expired contract with AT&T to get this price. In the dozens of articles and videos I’d watched about the new iPhone I somehow missed this little detail. Stupid Adam, fooled again.

So, people like me who have been loyal to their wireless company are getting hosed. No love for us on the iPhone. The loyal customer price is $399. Even on the Apple site I can’t find $399 mentioned as the price, but that’s how AT&T has always treated loyal customers… horribly. 

So, I talked to customer service. If you are like me and are looking to get an iPhone 3G for the advertised $199 instead of the loyal customer price of $399, here are a few tricks the customer service agent told me to try. 

#1 Cancel your existing account. Yes, she told me that! After 10 years as a customer, I was told the best service I could get with AT&T was to cancel my account. 

#2 Add lines, suspend lines. To get the $199 I could add 2 lines to my family plan for $10 per month and suspend my current 2 lines for free. Eh? She even told me I should just give away my other 2 lines “to anyone.” 

#3 Keep calling AT&T until you get someone to agree to give you the upgrade price before your current contract expires. (Mine is in September)

#4 Open a new account under a new name. If you are like me and have a family plan, just close your account under one name and start a new account under the other. 

Of course I am not going to do any of these. Next month we are moving across the country and I know from experience with AT&T that they’ll offer me a new two year contract than. This may also be our time to try a new company, like Verizon. 

AT&T has always had the worst customer service in the mobile phone industry. I’ve long held that AT&T is a great company as long as you never call the 800 number and that is re-confirmed every time I talk to “customer care.” 

Here I am, a customer of 10 years that would like to re-up his contract for 2 more years at a rate nearly double what he currently pays and I’m told I can do one of 4 “tricks?” 

This morning I opened my hotel room to discover today’s edition of USA Today. My first thought was, “I’ll put it on the pile next to the Monday edition” since I never opened it or ever read the headline.

It wasn’t very long ago that I loved the newspaper. Each morning I would head to the grocery store and pick up some juice and the Chicago Tribune. I’d sit in the break room and read the entire thing from cover to cover. But picking up the paper this morning I realized that its been several years since I had done that. 

Here are a few reasons I think the age of the newspaper is rapidly ending:

• Newspapers are about yesterdays news in a world that demands up to the second news. 
• Other than the “Letter to the editor” there is no way to respond to the news.
• A blogger has nearly the same credibility as his/her local newspaper, maybe much more if they live where the news is happening. (I can attest to that)
• People are suspicious of media sources as more and more people understand the spin that happens. 
• Our attention spans are shorter. I remember in high school my english teacher I had “maybe” the first paragraph to win someone’s attention. Now, you better have a great headline and a picture or I’m scanning right by.
• It’s printed on paper. Why would I want a newspaper when I can read the news on my mobile phone? Heck, I want them to start pushing the nightly news to my phone so I won’t need a TV!
• Craigslist is killing the need or classifieds.
• Why do they even print the weather in the paper?

Question: Do you still get a local newspaper? If so, which one?