Service Buffer

I was thinking, if I was going to provide a service that has a limit for a given amount of time (i.e. number of minutes per month, gigabytes of transfer per month), I’d provide a 1 month tolerance for you to get below the limit.

Lets say if you have a 1000 minute cell phone plan. One particular month, you went over and used 1100 minutes. If you could keep below 900 minutes in the following month, you’d wouldn’t be charge anything extra.

You’re thinking this sounds awfully similar to Cingular’s Rollover minutes, but it’s not exactly the same. Cingular allows you to save up minutes to use on a rainy day (sort of like a savings account), but what I’m suggesting is more like a buffer zone/tolerance level. It’s sort of like those fines the EU commission has given Microsoft. If Microsoft can comply with their orders by a certain date, they’d be off the hook. However, if they fail to comply by the given date, the fees will back date to when they were found guilty.

Sometimes one just can’t anticipate when emergencies might occur or forgets to monitor ones usage, but when notified, they’d try to be more careful next time. So like a warning, I thought such a system would be very user friendly.

Random Crap:

Fat Brit kids hunt Australia’s outback and viewers – New reality television series “Fat Teens Can’t Hunt” — a kind of “Survivor” meets “The Biggest Loser” — will see 10 overweight British teenagers sent to Australia’s outback to live and eat with remote Aboriginal communities.

Museum pays cash for live cockroaches – – A Houston museum is paying cash for live cockroaches as it seeks to populate a new exhibit. The 25-cent-per-bug offer comes from the Houston Museum of Natural Science.

Judge sues cleaner for $65M over pants – The Chungs, immigrants from
South Korea, realized their American dream when they opened their dry-cleaning business seven years ago in the nation’s capital. For the past two years, however, they’ve been dealing with the nightmare of litigation: a $65 million lawsuit over a pair of missing pants. I can’t believe someone who’s job is a judge can do something so inhumane. Manning said the cleaners made three settlement offers to Pearson. First they offered $3,000, then $4,600, then $12,000. But Pearson wasn’t satisfied and expanded his calculations beyond one pair of pants. Sigh…

Spare any change? Canada unveils C$1 million coin – The Royal Canadian Mint unveiled a welcome addition to any piggy bank on Thursday — a monster gold coin with a face value of C$1 million (455,000 pounds) that it says is the world’s biggest, purest and highest denomination coin. Maybe USA should bring back the $1000 bills.

Frog juice in high demand in Peru – She’s preparing frog juice, a beverage revered by some Andean cultures for having the power to cure asthma, bronchitis, sluggishness and a low sex drive. A drink of so-called “Peruvian Viagra” sells for about 90 cents.

Robot Chicken: Star Wars Trailer (from Digg) – A first look at the Robot Chicken: Star Wars special that premieres on June 17 on Adult Swim. The creators of “Robot Chicken” will be at Celebration IV offering a sneak peek at the show. Check out the news here. Here’s the Direct link to watch video.

The Keyboard Waffle Iron (from Digg) – Because breakfast isn’t nerdy enough, I present to you the Keyboard Waffle Iron. There’s really nothing else to be said about this wonder of modern technology, but I invite you to make your best keyboard/waffle puns in comments. Come on, let’s see what you’ve got.

Yesterday’s ‘Heroes’ (from Digg) – Niki/Jessica as scream queen? Micah Sanders as sitcom moppet? Nathan Petrelli on Cruise control? Before their characters go forward, check out some of the past roles of the actors who play them. I didn’t know Sylar was in 24!