The current market price in the US for 4G service with reasonably unlimited talk, text and data is about $30 with a bring-your-own-phone plan. If you're being quoted higher prices you're talking to the wrong people about the wrong plans.

Yeah, you're paying WAY too much. I've got 3 SIMs with unlimited talk/text/data on 4G, $116/month including taxes, fees, everything. No contract. Use these on smart phones, wireless access points, M2M data modems, whatever.

So you pay $2400 over a 2 year contract, get a sparkly smart phone free. My smart phone plan, including phone will be $1260. With a cheaper phone, it would be under a grand.

Seen ads on TV with a guy spending $400/month for this families phones, and seen other coverage of people paying massive overages for text/data, it just beggars belief.

I'm in the Metro Chicago area, good and fast 4G coverage with T-Mobile, on a $40/month plan that gets unlimited talk/text/data, a Galaxy SII that cost $299, with free wifi tethering.
My wife's got a VZ droid, arguably better coverage, 3x more expensive, and voice channel as tinny as shit. I dumped VZ two years ago, and haven't missed them.
Criket has a presence here, presume they are on Sprint, seem to be pandering to the rent-a-center crowd. Would probably choose Republic Wireless over them.

Take the microwaves out of the teacher's lounges.

But Apple seems to have problems whenever Day Light Savings switches in/out, which seems to occurs more regularly than four years.

WP6.5 has no relation to WP7.

Woosh, his point was that Microsoft pissed in his Corn Flakes on their last visit, and they won't be invited back just because they put some new pants on.

Bravo, to me you are making a whole lot more sense than most of the posters here. You are not alone.

I remember getting a lot of C's too, the fallacy here is that it was not because I was lazy, but because the material was boring or lacking strong practical applicability, and I was frankly not interested. The C's were a result of proving I understood the minimum required to get to something more interesting, or of doing something more interesting instead of the work the teacher actually proposed, or expected. It is ok to rock the boat. Kids should be encouraged to find things they enjoy and excel at, the one-size-fits-all teaching methods are fundamentally flawed and damaging. And the medicate to achieve conformity is nothing short of criminal. ADHD is a symptom of the failure to achieve real engagement.

I have found that the process of taking notes, transcribing white/black board writings, or even retyping someone elses notes is far more effective than just reading them, or reading a text book. It is a function of "crossing the brain", where the information enters, is actually processed, and exits. I can also scan things, but that is more of an immediate operation where the content is mostly discarded, but I know where to go find it later if it becomes important.

This whole expectation that you can spoon feed people, or beat it into them with repetition is what flaws the US and UK systems, and the damage that has been done to them over the last few decades by people that are supposedly qualified and certified to teach, or set teaching environments.

Everyone learns in different ways, but I've always found that reading a book, or multiple books covering a topic from a couple of perspectives, and then applying that information in some practical way, or trial and error, are the best ways to truly understand a topic. Unfortunately most people want to "learn" enough to earn the qualification, and not actually "understand" what they are doing. For it is understanding that permits you to do things that aren't printed in a book, or a Google search away.

Formal education is over-priced and over-lame.

Indeed, and I'd hire someone who had actual demonstrable skills, over someone with a shelf full of supposed certifications.