Living the Dream
I don’t know if it is related to switching my number to Republic, or all of the rental applications we have been filling out lately as we look to move.
Android operating system to the rescue.
In two clicks, I downloaded a Call Blocker and have installed it, adding that number to my blocked call list.
Sweet, quiet, bliss. And I’m still saving $100 per month on my phone bill.
This is a bit of a sequel to my employment bio, adding the clarity that comes from almost a year of “going solo.”
Over the past few months, I’ve landed a few clients that have paid the bills, and challenged me to grow in so many ways.
The role/client that I am proudest of over the past six months is my work with Socialexis as “Lead Overachiever.”
First off—and this is a thoroughly unsolicited plug—Alexis Grant is the real deal. She’s some sort of superhuman mixture of top-notch writer meets shrewd and intensely driven businesswoman. I’ve been perhaps most thankful for her management style: she allows team members freedom to shine without micromanagement, while at the same time not letting go of what makes her brand special—her. When you are a Socialexis client, you are getting the best of her, dumped into all of us.
I’ve taken over many of the day-to-day activities that Lexi did in her business in order to free her to work on her business. And that has taken some time (we’ll call it “ongoing”) as we have learned to work together and I’m growing in my ability to manage more and more tasks exactly how she would. I’m so thankful for her patience with me.
There’s no doubt that she took a chance on me back in July, asking me to help out. I am so grateful for that chance. Keep your eye on her, as I am confident she is going places.
So, do yourself a favor, and subscribe to updates from Lexi. She’s most applicable to folks who are writers, or entrepreneurs, or just generally interesting in living the life they want to live. While you are at her site, buy a guide or two. I’ve read all of them and can tell you they are what I wish I wrote on the topic, in most cases! They are all worth the money.
My favorite is the Side Hustle guide.
I’ll periodically check back in here to tell you how things are going with switching from AT&T to Republic Wireless.
This has only happened once or twice, but sometimes when I am calling over wifi my wife has mentioned my voice distorting. In each case, something else was also happening on the wifi (a video upload in one case, and streaming music in another). Also, our office Time Warner Cable Internet package is the lowest one you can get, bandwidth-wise, with upload speeds less than 1 Mbps, and only 3 Mbps download.
Our home Internet is not much faster, but I haven’t experienced any issues there. I don’t talk on the phone all that much—preferring text or email—so I’m not the best reference point for voice quality issues.
My AT&T number took about 15 hours to fully port over, and it was a seamless process—I didn’t even have to restart the Moto X.
The phone is still easily the best phone I’ve ever owned (and I’ve owned 3 different iPhones, an HTC One X, Motorola Atrix 2, and some older Androids) for battery life, ease of use, and dictation. I haven’t been able to fool the dictation software no matter how fast I speak. I’m considering doing a video to demonstrate it. It’s uncanny.
I’ll keep you posted (especially once my wife gets the service) for how well it is working out. At this point, I’m well into the “thrilled” camp, and the new-gadget excitement has officially worn off.
In the meantime, if you do decide to sign up, both of us get $19 off if you use this URL: http://benlikes.us/republic
Also, I’ve nearly talked my pastor (an iPhone user) into making the switch, and if he does I’ll document how to switch everything over from Apple to Motorola/Android. Spoiler alert: it’ll be pretty painless, and you’ll wonder why you stayed with Apple so long.
I switched to AT&T from Sprint back in 2007 for a little device called the original iPhone.
My 7 years with AT&T even included working there for 1.5 of them. Of the large telecoms, I still think their stuff is the best. They advertise the speed of their network (not the size of it—a metric that only a traveling salesman would find the most compelling point), and they truly do work very hard internally to put the customer first. I think some things are broken internally, but nothing out of the ordinary for a company of that size.
So it is bittersweet news to let you know that last week I ported my number to Republic Wireless, because I believe they are (or at least represent) the future of telecom. And I’m going to save $90 to $100 each month on my mobile phone bill.
FYI: the link in the paragraph above and any other links are “referral” links. If you use the links to sign up for Republic, I get a little kickback. But don’t sign up for it before you read my review, and please understand that I would never recommend something that I don’t personally use and love.
I first looked into Republic Wireless back when I became unemployed in February of 2013. At the time, the only phone they offered was a painfully mediocre mid-level Android device. I couldn’t bring myself to sacrifice the daily experience of enjoying my phone, so I passed.
Fast forward to last week: a tweet from Henry Kaestner came across my feed, and I followed links back to republicwireless.com only to find out that they now offer the Moto X as their device, and have new plans that start as low as $5 per month.
The Moto X is by any geek’s definition in the top 10 phones on the market in America right now. I’d (recognizing my stock Android bias) put it in the top 3 or 4 behind the Nexus 5, the Samsung Galaxy S4 (Google edition), and maybe the HTC One (Google edition).
No, Apple fans, I don’t include the iPhone in the top 3. But that’s another post.
The addition of a legit phone made the choice a no-brainer. Here’s the cost breakdown:
On AT&T:
2 phones (only one aging smartphone) with functionally unlimited talk, unlimited text, and 2 GB mobile data: $140/month
On Republic Wireless:
Phone cost (no contract, 2 phones): $600 (one time)
2 smartphones with unlimited talk, unlimited text, and 3G data: $50/month.
or
2 smartphones with unlimited talk, unlimited text, and one of them on 3G data (the other with wifi only data): $40/month.
After I’ve had the phone for about a month, I will give you a full review of it. But here’s a screenshot to stave off the “Android has bad battery life” contingent of my audience. (I’m looking at you, Zack Riesland.)
Bottom line: switching to Republic Wireless has been painless and the new phone is the best Android device I’ve ever owned. If you want to switch also, please use my referral link: http://benlikes.us/republic
I recently migrated all of my sites to DV-developer hosting over at MediaTemple. This post will walk you through how to do the same.
I’m running Ubuntu 12.04 Linux, which was the default when I signed up. From there, I followed the instructions on this tutorial page to put the AMP in my LAMP stack. In steps 3 and 5 I left the VirtualHost *:80 code at the top of both the default file and each individual site’s file alone, as changing them made all of my sites redirect to the same root.
I also added phpMyAdmin for help taking care of my databases in a graphical sort of way. In order to protect phpMyAdmin access, I edited the file at etc/phpmyadmin/apache.conf, changing line 10
Allow from 127.0.0.1 by putting my IP address in (in place of 127.0.0.1) as the only one where connections are allowed. I got my IP address by visiting icanhazip.com and then I copy/pasted into the apache.conf file.
Note, I don’t have a static IP address, so from time to time I have to go back in and change that file. It’s one extra step in my routine to access phpMyAdmin, but I think it’s worth it.
I’ll detail how I went about optimizing my setup for WordPress in a future post. I’m happy to report a little over two weeks in that my setup is doing GREAT. You can sign up for MediaTemple using my affiliate link by clicking here.