My Ericsson LX588 cellphone passed away suddenly a few days ago, and I'm not going to replace it. I'd gotten caught in heavy rain, with laptop, the new digital camera, and cellphone all in a fairly watertight leather shoulder bag. I ran a hair-dryer over all three electronic devices when I got home, just in case there was any condensation. Laptop and digcam are perfectly fine, but the cellphone refused to work when I plugged the battery back in. The AT&T wireless phone warranty people flipped out when they heard that the phone might've been exposed to moisture — both the rep and her supervisor swore up and down that they couldn't possibly allow me to send the phone back to them, now that they have a suspicion that it might've been exposed to moisture. I decided it wasn't worth my time to force them to accept the phone back, so I'm just going to cancel my cellphone service. I don't think the Ericsson phone should've died like it did, and this particular phone has several obvious engineering flaws I'd noticed before, so if I get a free hour, I'm going to send the phone corpse and a letter to Ericsson HQ. Oh, one thing I did learn from the AT&T rep's script: when you say that the phone might've been exposed to water, the rep has you look at and describe the battery recharging terminals. I assume they're looking for oxidation or leakage of some kind, though conspiracy theorists might wonder if the phone is designed to have a telltale moisture exposure indicator.
I took advantage of a slow, rainy, connectivityless Saturday morning to write up a page I've been meaning to for awhile: Coping With Vegetarians.
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