Been absent for a while but now I'm back.  Been very busy lately but hopefully will be able to post more.

Warriors!
Beat the Lakers last night.  Strong performance from Curry and Lee.  After a slump last month, they seem to be rolling.  Still need more production from Bogut.  He's definitely an upgrade from Biedrins or Ezeli but for $14M a year, he should be doing more.  Question is will he get healthy/better next year?

T-Mobile iPhone ... FINALLY!
News hit today that T-Mobile will finally be getting the iPhone.  I have to admit a certain fondness for T-Mobile.  I joined when the original Sidekick came out and never had an issue with the service.  The only reason I switched to AT&T was the iPhone.  If their LTE footprint were a bit wider, I might be convinced to join up again.  They seem to be much more reasonable with their subscriptions and this new "un-subsidy" is a good idea.  It's also reported that the T-Mobile version of the iPhone 5 actually is a newer version than the one with AT&T, Sprint or Verizon.  It makes use of the HD Voice calling feature talked about during the iPhone 5 launch and has access to more radio bands across the world.  Overall, glad to see more competition in the wireless marketplace.  Could only mean good things for consumers.

Co-working Spaces
I recently moved out of the large office space my company has occupied for over 2 years.  Just didn't need the space and needed to be more economical.  We found some co-working space nearby in Jack London Square.  So far so good.  From a financial standpoint it makes a lot of sense.  Month to month rentals, shared resources, etc.  The one benefit I haven't quite seen yet is the creativity/buzz when people from multiple businesses hang out in one space.  Maybe it's the quality of the tenants as most of the folks seem to be lawyers, contractors, etc.  Would be great if there were more start-ups in the co-working space but that will take time.

Pretty respectable. I sometimes can get 10MB-15MB down but 5MB+ is the usual norm. Now check out the speed when I turned WIFI off...

Holy... freakin'... shnookies...

I'm sitting at the cafe (which doesn't have WIFI) and doing some work. For instances like this, I use a non-sanctioned tethering app - HandyLight (one of the best $0.99 apps ever). Don't bother looking for it - Apple yanked the app on July 20, 2010. It takes a few semi-complicated steps to get everything setup but once you've gone through it a few times, it takes less than 30 seconds to tether your iPhone to your laptop. One thing I did notice was that things seemed to be slower than usual when surfing on my tethered laptop. I did a quick speed test and noticed that the download speed on my tethered laptop was almost 33% slower than directly to the iPhone itself. Upload speed was almost 40% slower. Not sure if the physics behind tethering means there will always be this speed degradation no matter what method you use - sanctioned or unsanctioned. If so, the value proposition of paying $20 EXTRA a month to tether your laptop to your iPhone seems much less appealing.

It's been a long time since my last regular post. Lots have happened since - we moved into new offices, almost went to court and got a pet that slowly learns how to talk. To recap...

Centrro moved into new offices around November-ish. Still in Jack London Square about 4 blocks from the old office. Cool building with interesting architecture. Below are some pics...

And a very inventive shelving system we built with the help of Ikea and the USPS.

As for the court thing. Our old landlords over at The Commons were refusing to return our security deposit for damages. Interestingly, not for damage to the actual suite itself but for scuff marks on the stairs. What's even more interesting is that we didn't use the stairs to move our things out since we're on the 3rd floor and would be crazy to haul our stuff down two flights of stairs when there's a perfectly good elevator. After some back and forth including a filing with small claims, they sent us a check minus some bullshit minor charges. I'm still pissed but have spent way more time on this issue than I wanted to so we're dropping the claim. For future reference, I do not recommend doing business with Equistone Partners or their building management firm LCB Associates, which showed a total lack of integrity throughout the process. Oh well, live and learn.

Lastly, when we moved into the Ironworks Building, we were a little miffed to learn that Comcast wasn't available as a data option. Basically only AT&T came into the building so we signed up for AT&T phone lines and DSL. BIG MISTAKE. First, the DSL service was horrible - completely unusable. 6MB down and less than 1MB up for 8+ computers brought everyone's connectivity to a crawl. We were using Ooma VOIP phones at the old office but switched to plain land lines to avoid data congestion but even without VOIP across the lines, the service was just way too slow. On top of everything, AT&T service is not cheap. DSL came in at about $29 a month and each of our 8 phone lines costed us about $55+. With tax and fees our monthly bill was running about $550. After much begging and pleading with our new landlords, we were able to get Comcast into the building. Nice fat 50MB down and 10MB up data connection and 8 digital voice lines. Total monthly cost? Less than $300. It blows my mind why AT&T's landline and DSL business are still around. Not only am I paying half as much for better service, AT&T customer service has got to be one of the worst I've encountered. Once my wireless contract is up, I'll be moving that over to Verizon, as well. Farewell and good riddance, AT&T.

I am an AT&T customer. I have been for many years. I have my family on AT&T Wireless, I have an AT&T landline at home, and my office has AT&T local/long distance plus DSL. All in all, I'm directly responsible for over $500 a month of revenue to AT&T. But after my experience today, I am actively looking for alternatives for every single service I have with them. Let me explain...