How can these companies get away with storing passwords in the first place?

Must have been nice.

I decided to jump through hoops and update my Dream that I haven't used in over 2 months, and even that was only for a day or two...and it was months prior to that that I had used it.

But I accidentally made the mistake of putting my SIM card in it to verify that it worked....I updated the phone, switched the SIM back to my Nexus One and went on my merry way. 2 hours later, no data. So I called and was told that the data was not turned off on my account. Thinking it was a bug in my Nexus on Rogers, I accepted that. Put the SIM back in the Dream, still no data. Talked to the Live Support person who then confirmed that it was disabled and then said there was nothing they could do.

So now I'm stuck with no data for the night. The worst part is that the guy was very condescending to me and that the other CSR lied to me when he said my data wasn't turned off.

And of course the Retention person that I talked to thought he was doing me an amazing favor by offering me a month credit on my data package....right at the top of the instructions says that it will be automatically given...yea, that's really a huge favor.

So, if you're not using your Dream and decide to update, don't put the SIM in...or if you want to use your Dream/Magic but haven't for a while, update first, then put your SIM card in. Hopefully you can avoid what I went through.

Just some little tips that people can find at CrackBerry Forums...

1) To quickly create a new calendar appointment, just highlight the date/time for the appointment and start typing the subject.

2) If you turn off the option to dial from homescreen on full QWERTY devices (in Phone > Options > Dial from home screen) you can use shortcut keys to open applications (look for the underlined letter in the application name (like M for messages).

3) Typing "mypin" will put your PIN into your message, and "mynumber" will put your phone number.

4) In your message list, pressing the U key will jump to the oldest unread message. Holding ALT and pressing U will mark a message Read/Unread.

5) Holding the 1 key down will automagically dial your voicemail.

6) To highlight Text, hold ALT and click the trackwheel/trackball. You can then scroll left or right (holding ALT makes it go up and down for trackwheels) to highlight text, and the menu will then give you the copy option (beat that iPhone).

7) On SureType devices, holding the # key will switch from your current profile to Vibrate, and back.

8) Using the T and B keys (on QWERTY keyboards) will go to the Top and Bottom of the message/item you are in. The 1 and 7 Keys will do the same on SureType devices.

9) Calendar/address book doesn't seem to be wirelessly synchronizing properly? Go into the application, then into options. Turn off wireless sync, save the change, then go back in and turn it on to restart the wireless sync process.

10) Address book not sorting/displaying properly, go into Address book > Options, and change the sorting order. Save the changes to rebuild the index. Go back in and change it back to your preferred setting.

These are just some small ones, but there are MANY more little tips n tricks all over that can make your life better.

I am one of those people who uses Gmail as a backup betting it's more reliable than my hard drive.

It's a good first step. However, knowing that you got screwed is one thing, cleaning it up is another: a major hassle. I'd like to see one of these careless companies say that they will reimburse your costs and compensate you for time and effort if you get screwed.

Most tier 1 and 2 ISPs upgrade their code in a timely fashion. They're also on a mix of Cisco, Juniper, and Foundry (and I hear someone actually uses Extreme). Some third-rate companies or pretenders might have problems in a situation like this, but the effect has been greatly exaggerated.

The disclosure aspect is sad, but it's not like this is anything new. Might want to get the lawyer hooked up *after* you quit your job to release the paper, and *before* you head out to the conference. Don't expect any different behavior from companies until the next regime change...

Here's a screenshot for anyone who wants to see what it looks like, and can't download/run it for whatever reason. It Seemed to render /. fairly well, but most sites were a little funny looking to say the least.

Screenshot