We are happy to introduce Frost Mobile, our new mobile banking service that gives you the freedom to manage your finances anywhere, anytime. You can check balances, monitor account activity, transfer funds and pay bills.

You don’t have to download a thing — you simply need to be a My Frost Online Banking user with a web-enabled mobile device.

To get started, go to frostmobile.com from your mobile device and enter your My Frost User ID and Password. You can also learn more about this service at frostbank.com.

I’m watching the demo now.

Frost Mobile News Release

Frost Unwraps Mobile Banking in Time for the Holidays
November 18, 2009

SAN ANTONIO—Customers of Frost Bank will now be able to bank by mobile device through Frost Mobile, a new service unveiled just in time for the holidays.

“The best gift we can give our customers for the holidays is the convenience, ease and peace of mind of mobile banking,” said Bobby Berman, executive vice president. “This will enable our customers to manage their finances anytime, anywhere, safely and securely.”

Frost Mobile offers the traditional services customers use most. In addition to being able to view account balances and activity and pay bills, customers using Frost Mobile can transfer funds between Frost accounts and between financial institutions.

Frost Mobile works over the Internet via a phone’s web browser—rather than as an application. It is free to Frost customers who are registered for My Frost Online Banking, exclusive of any fees that mobile carriers charge for data services.

All customers who sign up for My Frost Online Banking have access to log in to Frost Mobile at frostmobile.com.

“This is an extension of our commitment to enable Frost customers to bank when and where they want, using the technology that they prefer,” said Berman.

And in 2010, Frost Mobile will add a text messaging service, making mobile banking even more accessible.

For more information on using the simple and easy Frost Mobile service, customers are asked to visit www.frostbank.com.

Frost is the banking, investments and insurance subsidiary of Cullen/Frost Bankers, Inc. (NYSE: CFR), a financial holding company headquartered in San Antonio, with assets of $16.2 billion at September 30, 2009. The corporation provides a full range of business and consumer banking products, investment and brokerage services, insurance products and investment banking services. Frost operates more than 100 financial centers across Texas in the Austin, Corpus Christi, Dallas, Fort Worth, Houston, Rio Grande Valley and San Antonio regions. Founded in 1868, Frost is the largest Texas-based banking organization that operates only in Texas, with a legacy of helping Texans with their financial needs during three centuries.

Los Angeles, CA (US) 923 1.43 196 1.43 157
Houston, TX (US) 897 1.39 153 1.49 197
London (GB) 747 1.16 90 1.10 123
Chicago, IL (US) 693 1.07 174 1.10 163
San Antonio, TX (US) 465 0.72 185 0.73 220
Philadelphia, PA (US) 435 0.67 256 0.68 191
Miami, FL (US) 430 0.66 233 0.70 206
Melbourne (AU) 422 0.65 257 0.61 267
Phoenix, AZ (US) 405 0.63 202 0.66 212
Dallas, TX (US) 395 0.61 139 0.62 161

Each city is less than 2% of visits; no particular city dominates. But Texas has California beat, for sure.

I’m in class, my phone is locked, and I get a “MyPerks” spam. I did not “opt in” to receive spam on my phone:

“At Cricket, we are always looking for new and innovative ways to add value to our customers’ wireless experience,” said Larry Atwell, director of product development for Cricket. “In today’s economy, consumers need to get the most for their money. Cricket MyPerks provides fun and informative content, as well as relevant and timely money saving offers when our customers need it most - on the go.”

Hello Larry Atwell. How does spam add value? You can call it “Active Idle Screen” but it’s still spam. Good thing I didn’t sign a contract.

For my own future reference:

CreateSpace. Sell your book, DVD, CD, MP3, or video download on Amazon.com and other marketplaces. Earn royalties on every sale that you make without having to worry about inventory, minimum orders or setup fees.

Digital Text Platform is a fast and easy self-publishing tool that lets you upload and format your books for sale in the Kindle Store.

Google Books Partner Program.
Please fill out the application below to join Google Books as a partner.

Blurb BookSmart is free, easy to use bookmaking software. Set Your Price, sell your books in the Blurb Bookstore, and keep 100% of the markup. Yes, it’s that simple. (This works in Fedora 11 too, with Wine emulation.)

How do I like Cricket so far? I have some complaints already.

The plan I signed up for was supposed to have “unlimited” games. I didn’t pay extra, it was just part of the plan. I don’t really play games, even if I’m bored. But while I was waiting for a friend, I figured I’d check out all the cool games I paid for. As far as I can tell, I didn’t get the games I paid for. If you select a game on the menu it takes you to a sign up form. False advertising. I’m not upset about no games, I’m upset I was lied to. Why lie about something so trivial? This makes me not trust Cricket. It also makes me afraid to use the phone.

If I press the wrong button will I get charged extra? If that sounds paranoid, it gets better. On multiple occasions I had the phone locked, sitting on my desk–I take a look at the phone and its says, “You are almost done! Confirm or Dismiss.” Almost done with what? I have no idea. Why is my phone doing things on its own, unattended? No, I don’t have a freakishly smart pet that knows how to unlock my phone–the phone has a mind of its own. So dear Cricket, just a friendly warning: I better not see any strange charges on my bill.

I should also mention, while I’m writing this, the phone turned on by itself three times–the third time it looked like it downloaded some files with an animated progress bar. What did it download? I have no idea. When the light comes on by itself in the middle of the night, it’s so bright I had to get out of bed and flip the phone over–and nobody was calling me or sending a text message. Annoying, drains the battery, and absolutely unnecessary.

As far as the “unlimited” web access, that’s misleading too. The Samsung phone I paid for doesn’t have enough memory to open my mobile webmail app–not even enough for the titles of the messages.

I’m using the “PC” SVGA input now. Overall, the display looks OK today. I’m at 1920×1080, 60Hz. The Samsung’s “non-glare” matte finish is more blurry than I expected. Non-glare is like driving in fog, in my opinion. Especially compared to my Lenovo’s crisp VibrantView. I would gladly exchange it for a glossy display, but as this is not really a defect, I’m stuck with it. I wish I could take it apart and peel off the blurry non-glare plastic, but I suspect that would void the warranty.

Right now I have contrast and brightness set at 75, sharpness at 53. I do not recommend this Samsung for HDMI input, the result is unacceptable–too blurry. To be sure, I tested the Samsung’s HDMI on a Lenovo SL400 and my girlfriend’s new HP laptop–both blurry. You would think HDMI would look better than VGA, but that is not the case. I have not tested the DVI input yet.

I bought a Samsung ML-1630 laser printer a few days ago from OfficeMax. The advertised price was $199. I was planning to spend around $100 for a laser printer. Why did I spend $200? OfficeMax had a deal, $100 off a Samsung display when you buy the ML-1630 too. Package deal.

I was planning to buy a 23″ Acer display in the near future, for around $170 with shipping, from Buy.com, which had the best deal I could find–cheaper than Amazon. I was set on the Acer–Fry’s had it on display for $200. I liked the size and the non-glossy minimal design. I would not have considered a Samsung display were it not for the OfficeMax package deal, although I know they make quality displays.

23″ seems like the largest you can go before the price jumps significantly. Maybe it’s the math behind the shipping or manufacturing? So from an economic standpoint, maybe there’s an ideal size, maybe not. 23″ of text at 1920×1080 is the max my video card can dish out. In Fedora that works out to where text on the big screen is a bit larger than the text on my 14″ 1280×800 ThinkPad.

Speaking of Fedora, it recognized both the printer and the display without a problem. The trick is learning how to activate and deactivate the external display. It’s not complicated but very intuitive. Plug in the display, click System, Preferences, Display, click on the “Unknown” display. Click the “On” radio button. Sounds self-explanatory in retrospect but I just assumed this would turn “On” by itself.

Another nuance: your panel bar doesn’t show up (by default) if you drag the “Laptop” box to the right of the “Unknown” display, if the external display isn’t plugged in. At least that’s how I think it works–whatever device you drag to the left in “Display Preferences” gets priority. Imagine you suspend your system, unplug the display, then bring your machine back out of sleep to find a blank screen–now your applications panel is off in Gnome limbo.

OfficeMax sold me a Samsung 23″ display for $279 minus $100–about the same price as the Acer 23″ I was thinking about. What was enticing, I could take it home immediately, no waiting for the postman. $200 seemed like too much for a laser printer, especially when I know I’m probably getting a “starter” toner cartridge. Chip-limited to 1000 pages? Even in economy mode? But I justified the cost. The printer is portable and flat on top, saving room on my desk. The 2333HD sits right on top of it.

Today at school I looked up reviews of the ML-1630. The reviews were not bad–no major complaints, mostly compliments on the quietness and size. To my surprise it was priced about $100 lower online. Did OfficeMax charge me too much? Was that a rebate price? Out of curiosity I wanted to see what I would have paid for the combo online. Actually, about the same. The SyncMaster 2333HD would have cost about $280 online with shipping, according to Buy.com, which means I would have paid about $380 total–the same deal I got at OfficeMax.

I do have one complaint. The printer doesn’t come with a USB cable. Does Samsung assume everyone has plenty of those by now? Fortunately my brother had an extra cable, thanks Tom!

The SyncMaster 2333HD is nice. It came with an HDMI cable and my laptop has HDMI output. For some reason the HDMI output was not crisp–blurry text. Yes, I played with the sharpness, contrast, font rendering, etc. On a hunch I borrowed a VGA cable from my dad. The VGA looks crisp at 1920×1080, text is not blurry. Text rendering is really my top concern. Of course, clarity depends on the VGA cable. Shorter, shielded, you can really tell the difference.

Why would VGA look better than HDMI? In my case, it does. Is it my laptop hardware or the Samsung display? It’s not a priority for me to find out. But if you’re some kind of HDMI expert, my laptop is a ThinkPad SL400. Like I said, I won’t blame Samsung because maybe the issue is with my video card. But I can’t rule out the possibility Samsung tuned the 2333HD’s VGA input more for PCs–where crisp text is a priority, optimizing HDMI more for video. Regardless, I can’t argue with sharp text. Now somebody sell me a VGA cable!

Show me only the best performing banners (ranked by avg. $ paid per impression) for all advertisers I’m approved for. Example: I have a 234×60 spot open. Show me only the top performing 234×60 banners. Don’t waste my valuable time, traffic and bandwidth. Why am I browsing amateurish ad campaigns, when I know you have banner-by-banner performance metrics!? In other words, I don’t want to see banners with just a company logo–I’m not increasing your brand’s awareness out of charity. I have bills to pay, too.

Upgrading the blogs. WordPress. So many options to configure for 2.8.5. Matt Mullenweg, the man with the plan. If you don’t know that name yet–look it up. Well maybe he has a plan. Hey Matt, next time you’re in Austin look me up. Maybe he’s too preoccupied with his gadgets.

I believe the future is LARGER. When I say LARGER, I’m talking about pixels. 1080p! This is how I surf now. 1920×1080. Focus Matt. Focus! No, not on your iPhone, on the BIG PICTURE. Really, it just seems Matt is focused now on the iPhone and Wordpress.com, by the way I’m reading the news. So many Wordpress.com announcements. And now Automattic is selling an iPhone theme?

Come on, iPhone doesn’t have THAT much penetration. What is your monthly bill for an iPhone? $100? Tack on some fees and that’s practically a car payment dude. The mobile phone is just a transition to something bigger. In the end, nobody wants to squint. Look, I don’t know if it’ll be a hologram, some kind of tessellated origami illumination, or how long it will take. But just because Africa has a million mobile users texting dialect translations in exchange for water allotments, that doesn’t mean the endgame is anything other than vector-based pixel infinity.

What else am I up to? Planning changes and features for my experimental Twitter client. Hush hush. I’m researching stocks for a class project. Investing in my own business–trying new hardware. Instruments. Whereby some act is accomplished. The “end” I aim to achieve.

1. Accept money to receive calls, from people you don’t like. Mr. Smith has many exciting business opportunities! He pays you $x to answer the phone. You need the money and answer the phone with a fake smile on your face.

2. Broadcast your location to marketers for a fee. Creepy, but self explanatory. Make extra money going on GPS scavenger hunts. Slow retail stores love it. Adds new meaning to, “Are you finding everything OK?”

3. Allow yourself to be recorded. You miss your privacy but the money is good. And talking is easier than blogging. Data hungry marketers, armed with voice recognition software, pay you by the word to talk in a loud voice, especially at the grocery store. Businesses complain about these new loud shoppers at first, but learn to tolerate the noise after suffering dreadful scavenger hunt exclusions. Lady Gaga’s marketing team pays five bucks to yack about her hypnotic new single at an eligible Starbucks, verified by GPS.