Archive for July, 2008

Adventures with Tech Support

July 28, 2008 at 10:10 pm · Filed under Techy

A few years ago, I bought a copy of Motorola Phone Tools so I could copy photos and MP3s to my phone. At the time, I was able to update the software with the built-in update functionality all the way to the latest version. I recently reformatted my computer and had to reinstall the phone software, and the update functionality no longer worked. I emailed Motorola to see if they could send me a patch. Here was their reply:

The reason these older versions of Motorola Phone Tools aren’t able to update any longer is because we have noticed that a large number of updates coming from these versions haven’t been sold by Motorola since 2004-2005. We recommend you to contact our sales department, so you may purchase a new legitimate copy of Motorola Phone Tools.

So basically they accused me of pirating their software. Great, except I remember researching it at the time, noticing that it was available for download everywhere, yet I specifically purchased a legitimate copy because I would have felt bad downloading it. I bought it from Amazon, so I can still print a receipt from their website. I exported the receipt to PDF and attached it to my reply, saying I had already purchased that copy and had no interest in purchasing another one. I also said that I did not appreciate being accused of stealing. We’ll see what happens now.

This is the kind of thing that pushes people to pirate software. I legitimately purchased the thing, and they won’t let me update. Yet I could easily go to a torrent site and download the latest version. Nice job, Motorola.

Update: They gave me a download of the latest version. Yay.

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Killer intervals today

July 18, 2008 at 11:20 pm · Filed under Running, Tennis

My running has lacked focus since my half marathon back in May. I meant to keep running about 30 miles with one long run and one speed workout each week. But first my knees were really bothering me, so I took some time off. Then I started attending a tennis clinic twice a week, and my body rebelled against the higher workload, so I took more time off. For the past few weeks my goal has been 4 days of running, 25 miles per week, and two days of tennis. I’ve been trying to stick to one long run and one speed workout each week.

Today I was due for a speed workout. Last week I did a tempo run; that meant intervals this week. Typically I do 1600m intervals, and the last time (over a month ago!) I did 3 reps in 7:05 each. This week I decided to shoot for under 7 minutes for all three; this would be the fastest 1600m workout I’ve ever done. It was extremely hot outside, so I ran on the indoor track at Tufts. I’m not sure it was any cooler inside, though. Regardless, I completed the workout with all three reps in 6:57. The last rep was killer, and I pushed through a lot of discomfort to make my time. After I finished, I literally couldn’t see straight for maybe 30 seconds. But I did it.

I’m trying to decide what to do about my fall half marathon. I’m not sure I can commit to serious half marathon training when I have been playing so much tennis. Part of me thinks that I should enjoy playing tennis in the summer while it’s warm and I can find partners to play with. But another part of me feels that I should take advantage of my fitness and push for a sub-1:40 half this fall. If I do one, it will be either the BAA or Baystate half.

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