Fashionably Lame

After yesterday's excessive AT&T billing entry, this story begged to be blogged:
The world's most influential fashion magazine, Vogue, has done something that caught my eye. This is extremely random because I don't follow the world of fashion. When I saw it I couldn't believe it. The September issue, now available has the most pages ever published for a magazine. Care to guess - 200, 300? No, Condé Nast Publications took the new issue to Harry Potter proportions with a grand total of 840 pages. Is this excess or is it art?
On the cover of the issue, in bold font is the boast itself - the biggest issue ever, fashion, fashion, fashion...
I didn't flip through the pages to see how much of it was advertising space and how much of it was well, advertising space. I could only imagine this phonebook-sized fashion rag taking up the entire wall inbox at the doctor's office. Not sure if Condé Nast Publications recycles the unpurchased copies that get returned to them. Not sure if its readers will be more interested in it because of the 840 pages. The one thing I do know about fashion is Spring and Fall are prime seasons for new collections. What better way to spend this entire next season than to thumb through all those glossy pages to see all the waifs model clothes that might fit your 10 year-old brother?

Carbon Neutrality. Not So Much With AT+T.

UNNECESSARY DISCLAIMER: No worries, this blog is in fact carbon neutral. Unless of course, if you decide to print it out.

(ripped smoothly from Yahoo News)

First iPhone Bills Arriving—and They're Pretty Heavy

Mon Aug 13, 2007 11:37PM EDT

Apple has modified its products as it attempts to build greener computers, but I think they forgot to tell AT&T about their latest environmental efforts. This weekend a few AT&T subscribers received their first iPhone bill inside inch-thick packages.

Ars Technica writers were among the first to complain about the size of their first iPhone bill, which would surprised even the most heavy Treo or Blackberry user. Apparently, the bills were 30-50 pages long, detailing every data transfer made on both sides of each page, and since iPhone users have unlimited data plans, all the recorded transactions amounted to a big fat zero.

Justine Ezarik captured her experience on video as she unwrapped her 300-page iPhone bill. She told Gizmodo, the bill accounted for almost 30,000 text messages and 200 minutes of talk time on her iPhone alone—I wonder if she holds a record? Lucky for her, the total bill was $274.81, which included activation charges. This obviously goes to show iPhone users are really taking advantage of their all-you-can-eat data plans.

While it's great that AT&T does a very thorough job in detailing every call and kilobyte exchange, do you really want to open a phone bill that's 300 pages long every month? Next time, AT&T should mention their online bill options to new subscribers. It might save a few trees.

Good Music For The Spirit

Ten years back I gave serious run to DJ Shadow's Endtroducing . . . I was always on the lookout to find the video to my favorite cut, "Midnight In A Perfect World" on MTV2 that they used in their promo spots. I finally caught it a few years ago and now it's on the sky :

DJ Shadow
Midnight In A Perfect World
Endtroducing . . .