Update: The pricing info was a bit confusing, look at the full post for what I think is the correct pricing.

Today AT&T announced their plan pricing for the new 3G version of the iPhone.

Turns out it is good to have the old model. We currently have a 700 minute family plan, with one iPhone and one non-iPhone. It costs just under $100 per month. The pricing was:

• $60 for the base plan with 700 minutes and the ability to add another line
• $20 for the iPhone data plan +200 text messages
• $9.99 for the second line
• Nearly $10 in taxes and fees

It was announced some time ago that AT&T was going to raise the price for the data plan to $30 on the new iPhone, and subtly shown that text was no longer included as well. Our plan on the new pricing scheme would be either $145 or $155 per month based on what we have seen thus far:

• $129.99 for the base plan, which includes the $30 iPhone data plan
• $9.99 for the second line
• $5 to add back the 200 text messages
• $10 in taxes and fees

Today I, and others, received this email:

IMPORTANT CHANGES TO NETBANK MONEY MARKET, NET VALUE INTEREST CHECKING, and SUPER VALUE INTEREST CHECKING ACCOUNTS

Effective 11/23/2007 ("Effective Date") we will no longer process ATM transfers (including withdrawals) and point of sale transactions (including online and cash-back transactions) that you initiate using an ATM or debit card that accesses a NetBank Money Market, Net Value Interest Checking, or Super Value Interest Checking Account that was acquired by ING DIRECT on September 28, 2007. This means that on or after the Effective Date your NetBank ATM and/or NetBank VISA® Check card(s) won't work.

If you have any questions, please give us a call at 1-866-327-4599. For your convenience, we're available from 8 AM - 8 PM, 7 days a week.

Some of you may have noticed that the Gallery was acting weird last week and over the weekend. It is back to normal now. I had done a security update that was not fully compatible with the rest of the software on the site. I finally found a series of updates to all the software and configurations that brought everything back.

Links to gallery items have changed, however if you use an old link the server should notice and automatically send you to the right place. I hope... ;)

Well, some of my fears regarding this whole Netbank shutdown are starting to come through. I now have confirmation from ING that they will be removing features from accounts when they have fully taken them over.

Some of the most convenient features of a Netbank account were:

• Free Online Bill Pay
• Free OFX Direct Connect
• Free OFX Direct Connect for online bill pay

Yet more news from the 'it can only happen to us' world. Our bank, Netbank, has been closed by the Office of Thrift Supervision, and the FDIC has been named the receiver. The FDIC has decided to allow ING take over existing accounts.

This is the first bank so far to be taken out because of the bad mortgage and poor underwriting that has been going on in the U.S. for a while. How many more banks will actually fail is unknown. Although according to the disclosures from OTS, it wasn't just the underwriting issues...

Today we turned on the Roomba, who I believe we decided to call Rosie, after lunch. It whiled away the day as Jessie and I worked.

When we arrived at home we discovered that the Roomba got a bit wild, and knocked down a couple of the expandable clothes drying racks we had with pillows sitting on them. The pillows where pushed around our kitchen table, and the drying rack had been pummeled until one of the lower bars fell off.

We got it put back together, but apparently the replacement Roomba we received when our charger died is quite strong.

Yeah, this sort of thing can only happen to me it seems. You see, I had some money set aside for a little project at the end of summer. I then found a few things I didn't need anymore and decided to sell them on eBay. Then I realized I could afford an iPhone.

It was a long and hard decision. Alltel has a very good network, and I would have to switch to AT&T Wireless to get the magic iPhone. Since our contract is up this week I decided to go for it.

So yesterday I purchased a 4GB refurbished iPhone for $399, plus tax and shipping. It shipped out last night, and should arrive tomorrow.

So the other night we had some pretty severe rain and thunderstorms. Apparently New Orleans actually saw some tornado action.

We were watching TV at the time, and didn't even think about that fact that when we had cable there were a myriad of advertisements claiming that heavy rain/snow would ruin your satellite reception but not affect your cable. This actually can be true depending on how strong your signal is and how much storm/water is between your dish and the actual satellite. That being said, here in Louisiana I have never seen it on my DirecTV connection.

That night I discovered later that the cable had gone out (my cable modem lost service for a couple of hours). That's right, the cable went out during a storm, but the DirecTV service kept on strong. Hm, not exactly truth in advertising eh?

Lately I just have no luck at all. One of my new A'Divas has issues. When the music gets to a certain level, sparks start to appear on the speaker cone.

For those of you out there that know a bit about audio, yeah, I wouldn't believe it if I hadn't seen it myself. Luckily it is just one of the two, and since my system doesn't have anywhere near the power to cause a major malfunction (amps are rated at 65watts, the speakers are rated for 120watts) the fine people at Anthony Gallo are working with me to get it resolved.

Now I wait while 'sparky' makes its way across the country to be repaired. Then I have to wait for it to return. Hopefully it won't take too much longer than one week.