David and Goliath Review

The premise of David and Goliath by Malcolm Gladwell is how sometimes a perceived disadvantage can be an advantage and how what may seem to be the best, is not necessarily the best for everyone.

Some of the anecdotal stories were very interesting, especially the ones about David and Goliath, the impressionist painters in France, and picking colleges.

Some stories did a wonderful job strengthening his premise, others a bit more weakly.

David and Goliath left me thinking about my own children, their classroom settings, and which college they should attend in a different light.

David and Goliath is a worthy read.

The cell phone wall

I learned to my dismay that cell phone carriers have a little known wall that prevents customers from transferring their cell phones from one carrier to another.

When I attempted to transfer my cellular phone service from Verizon to AT&T, AT&T said that I would need to ask Verizon to unlock my phones so that they could transfer over to AT&T.

The Verizon representative said they do not unlock phones. "Verizon cell phones are programmed to work only on the Verizon network."

I was stunned. I don't remember reading that in the fine print. (I have to admit that I did not read all of the pages of online fine print when I renewed my contract two years ago.)

He explained how some phones are only made for certain networks, like when the iPhones first appeared they were only available on the AT&T network

I remembered that, but didn't realize what that had meant.

Another Verizon representative explained that Motorola made a number of cell phones just for Verizon - like mine. They also explained that other phones may be cross platform capable, just not yours.

In the end, I did not switch to AT&T as purchasing new phones made the benefits of switching less desirable. For now, the carriers have won.

PC Magazine has a great article that explains why cell phones cannot be transferred between carriers.

http://www.pcmag.com/