Skip to main content

Dr. Matt Lee (mattl)

Web standards, accessibility, free/open source software, old UNIX/TV/Music and occasional wargaming

Raising suspicion in the T-Mobile store (2009) (2009)

If you ever want to set off a few alarm bells in a cellphone store, try and buy multiple SIM cards. With cash. Without ID. With an accent.
My intentions were harmless of course — picking up 3 pay-as-you-go SIM cards for 3 users of the OpenMoko FreeRunner, myself included. After a short explanation along the lines of “journalist” and “reviewing cellphones” and “isn’t the G1 fantastic?”, I managed to get away with showing a piece of plastic with a name on it and no photo ID.
Of course, the G1 sadly, doesn’t look fantastic… I believe you can’t even change the kernel on it unless you buy the developer edition. Lame. I also heard that ‘Debian’ on the G1 is little more than a chroot and a series of sleep commands. Bless.
Really considering getting a Frogpad now. Especially since I hurt my wrist by falling in some poorly maintained snow this week, and then caught a cold from a colleague during the inauguration. Bah.

Published: Thu Jan 22 2009 20:46:29 GMT-0500 (Eastern Standard Time) by