y.st./source/pages/en/weblog/2015/08-August/20.xhtml

<?php
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$xhtml = array(
	'title' => 'The network switch is complete',
	'body' => <<<END
<p>
	I found that the order I placed yesterday had again been canceled.
	I decided to go into an in-person Cricket store, though a different one than last time.
	My mother wanted me to get loud and angry to try to avoid paying their ridiculous in-person fee when it&apos;s their own fault that I have to go in-person in the first place.
	However, I felt more was at stake than the \$25 $a[USD] fee.
	I have been asked by their automated mailer a couple times now to present $a[ID] at an in-person retailer.
	If I draw suspicion, it my chances of getting away with not having $a[ID] could be lower.
	My best chance at getting a data line set up that would function in Coos Bay would ride on me being as polite and non-confronting as possible.
	Before leaving, I decided to grab a package that had been mailed to me before as proof of name and address, just in case.
	I wanted to grab a second package to show that I have been receiving multiple packages under the name Yst Dawson at my address, just to make things even less suspicious, but I couldn&apos;t find my other package.
	I may have already thrown it out.
	I moved my $a[ID] from my wallet to my bag, so I could show that I didn&apos;t have $a[ID] on me, and headed out to Cricket.
</p>
<p>
	The representative at Cricket Wireless did try to card me, as expected.
	I pulled out my wallet to look for my $a[ID], and said that it wasn&apos;t there.
	I explained that as I don&apos;t drive and don&apos;t enter age-restricted areas, I don&apos;t often need $a[ID], and asked if it was necessary for getting a line.
	I expected him to say &quot;yes&quot;, at which point I would dig through my bag to see if I had any mail with my name and address on it, then ask if that was proof enough of my identity.
	However, the representative said that $a[ID] was not needed after all! If $a[ID] is not needed, why did he try to card me? My guess is that he assumed I was giving him my legal identity and wanted to see the spelling of my name and my address so he could type it correctly into the system.
	In any case, avoiding an $a[ID] check was easier than I thought and I didn&apos;t even need my package.
	I did have to pay the in-store activation fee though.
</p>
<p>
	My plan had been to pay in one dollar bills, as I always pay for everything in due to having more bills to stamp that way, then set up auto-pay using my credit card details afterward.
	However, the representative wanted to set up auto-pay before charging me for today&apos;s fees.
	After setting up auto-pay, he asked if I wanted to charge today&apos;s fees on the card as well, or if I wanted to pay in cash.
	As he had already seen the card, the best way to be non-confronting and docile was to not make him count ninety-five one dollar bills without giving him a choice.
	I said that if he was okay with one-dollar bills, I would like to pay in cash, but if he didn&apos;t want to, he could charge the card.
	There were no other customers in the store, and there were four representatives in the store.
	They didn&apos;t seem to mind the one-dollar bills, likely because there was nothing else to do anyway.
	Unfortunately, the main representative that was helping me discarded the credit card-sized piece that you break the micro $a[SIM] card out of, though I usually collect those, but I decided not to try to get him to give it to me.
	Again, I was trying to make as little of an impression as possible.
	In retrospect, I should have asked for it.
	It&apos;s not something they try to keep <strong>*away*</strong> from customers, and the order was just about complete anyway.
	They wouldn&apos;t have wanted to lose a sale over a little piece of plastic, so they wouldn&apos;t insist I bring $a[ID] to get it.
	The worst they would have done is just not let me have it, though they likely would have just given it to me.
</p>
<p>
	Before shutting down the new Cricket device to transfer the $a[SIM] card to my own Replicant device, I decided to look it over a bit.
	A few improvements have been made since the last time I saw a Cricket device.
	For one thing, the boot-up music has been turned down drastically.
	On one of the old devices, you would have to cover the speaker when booting up the device to avoid drawing the attention of everyone around you.
	Second, I checked the pre-installed Cricket applications.
	Last time I knew, Cricket Wireless was pre-installing non-functional versions of its applications that couldn&apos;t do anything besides update themselves using the Google Play Store.
	For those of us without Google accounts, this made them impossible to use, yet Cricket support would remind me after every chat session with them that I could manage my account with one of them.
	I kept telling them that their applications kept demanding a Google account, and that I was a Cricket customer not a Google customer, but they kept telling me to manage my account with the application anyway.
	Now that my account was in the system, there was an almost zero chance of them canceling my account on account of not having $a[ID].
	I decided to launch the Cricket applications, find that they required a Google account, then walk back in and complain.
	The more I complain about this and to more people, the more likely Cricket is going to get the message that not all Android users have Google accounts.
	This time however, it seems that the Cricket applications are installed in working form on the device.
	No Google account is required! The applications are still proprietary, and still won&apos;t allow you to use them without agreeing to their end-user contracts, but at least it&apos;s a huge step in the right direction.
	They should either put working versions of applications on the device, so Google Play is not needed to use them, or they should avoid putting said applications on the device at all, and allow people who want them to download them themselves, even if they are only available on the Google Play Store.
	Satisfied with my short tour of the device, I shut it down and moved the $a[SIM] card to my Replicant.
</p>
<p>
	Like last time I had service from Cricket Wireless, the $a[SIM] card switched over easily, as it wasn&apos;t locked to the device it had come with.
	However, also like last time, my Replicant doesn&apos;t recognize the Cricket $a[SIM] card the way it recognizes T-Mobile $a[SIM] cards.
	There was no known access point names, so that information had to be copied from the Cricket device.
	Android $a[IMSI]-Catcher Detector also seems to crash with this $a[SIM] card and Roaming Info is convinced that I have no carrier.
	The device&apos;s pull-down menu says that I have no service, though the data connection seems to work just fine after I added the correct access point name information.
	Though I&apos;m not sure why, it seems that my international-version device &quot;prefers&quot; the T-Mobile network over the AT&amp;T network just like I do.
</p>
<p>
	My <a href="/a/canary.txt">canary</a> still sings the tune of freedom and transparency.
</p>
END
);