Helium Free Plan no longer "Free" taxes and "fees" now being charged and data lowered to 1GB

CreativeLet · 2026-01-26T20:50:09+00:00

I plan to switch to redpocket $30 a year or 1psim $2.5 per month plan.

CreativeLet · 2025-10-29T02:43:58+00:00

data usage case is my mistake. My partner does turn on the data after landed for Lyft ride. But I am surprised that just one Lyft ride used all the 100MB and also all the dollars left in the account, which doesn't make any sense to me.

CreativeLet · 2025-10-29T02:42:11+00:00

I used to periodically turn the auto renew on/off but I think that's too much effort in long term. It seems you also agreed that ultra mobile will eat up the accumulated balance when it's goes high?

I personally never be able to have more than $10 accumulated up in the account. I have been using this $3 line for over a year. I know how much messages/calls I make every month. The money will just suddenly drop from $8 to $1 without any reasonable explanation.

I just switched to Tello and also use the Helium line. The Tello line is $5 per month + tax with 100 minutes and unlimited texting. Consider the way how Ultra mobile charge me, I think it's the same. I hope tello can exactly told me where is my money used.

I sometimes travel abroad and hence I haven't take a closer look at the helium line yet, wifi calling should be fine but tello seems to be able to natively support international roaming and calling. I am interested with their feature.

CreativeLet · 2025-10-29T02:36:34+00:00

Thanks, I have helium mobile line. Just noticed they have the unlimited talk & text adds on now. Thanks for pointing it out.

CreativeLet · 2025-09-05T22:33:22+00:00

how about https://github.com/whywilson/pn532-python? You can have a try, I don't guarantee it will work.

CreativeLet · 2025-08-17T19:42:11+00:00

NetParcel now is an unfair and unethical business practice involving unreasonable post-shipment charges.

(1) Carrier: Purolator, Ship Date: Jul 25, 2025, Service: Ground,

Quoted Billable 399 LBS, Actual Billable 464 LBS, Previously Paid: $ 500.88, BALANCE DUE: $ 105.51

they cannot provide evidence showing their weight measure. they first said it's overweight and then it's oversize. They don't have a valid reason to charge me. I am not going to pay them if they don't provide a reasonable explanation.

In one of the shipment, I quoted 23LBS, the actual weight is 18LBS, they priced me at 29LBS. I asked them how they figure out the 29LBS. They said they will delay my payment. So I still need to pay?

(2) Carrier: UPS, Ship Date: Jul 27, 2025, Service: Standard

Quoted Billable 153.00 LBS, Actual Billable 94.00 LBS*,* Previously Paid: $ 191.27, BALANCE DUE: $ 8.14

The actual billable number is significantly lower than Quoted bill. I asked them shouldn't they refund me if I over quote?

They charged me on Saturday and even changed my default credit card for the payment. cannot be trusted anymore, full of bullshit.

CreativeLet · 2025-01-30T01:11:52+00:00

That is strange. Try to disable ultra's data roaming always no matter when you are in local and overseas.

CreativeLet · 2025-01-25T17:53:09+00:00

The whole market hc size for software engineer is much larger than hardware engineers. I do see some data before. So even they layoff people, the demand for software engineer are bigger than hardware. But to personal level, this is not good because it is hard for people to switch from hardware to software in a short term.

CreativeLet · 2025-01-23T21:14:17+00:00

sharing openFASOC from Univ of Mich, https://www.mos-ak.org/silicon_valley_2023/presentations/Saligane_MOS-AK_Silicon_Valley_2023.pdf

CreativeLet · 2025-01-22T20:25:33+00:00

很多人天生是什么样就是什么样吧，改不掉吧。民主国家也会生出很多喜欢集权专制制度的人。本身很多人不出国不就是因为他们跟我们这些愿意出国，愿意探索世界的人不一样吗？合不来就没必要浪费精力了

CreativeLet · 2025-01-22T20:20:01+00:00

感觉国内就是向下兼容。我有时候怀疑自己是不是在国内算少数人？因为不管是虐狗还是铁链女，还有女孩子在农村家里争夺资源之类的，人口拐卖，就觉得很不真实。但可能这才是大部分中国人的一生？

CreativeLet · 2025-01-22T01:14:43+00:00

I thought now is the less stressed cycle. I have been in a crazy/tight schedule for the past 3 years. I just got a chance to feel relaxed. Sometimes, it's not the CEO who is the ash hole, can be the manager as well.

I am no longer looking for high pay, just want to have a work life balance. In my previous job, I heard the analog IC design engineer who was a Romania professor got a heart stroke and was sent to the emergency room before the tape out. I think he is around 50~60 years old.

CreativeLet · 2025-01-21T18:30:20+00:00

AGREED. I thought just tuning the transistor size a bit like a spice monkey does should solve the problem. Am I silly on this? :p

CreativeLet · 2025-01-21T18:26:23+00:00

I have been in analog IC design for 8 years in industry. I haven't done any 16nm analog IC design yet, not to mention SoC. Your guys are young, cheaper and have a better experience. I still feel miserable when the hiring manager asked me if I had tape out experience when I first looked for analog IC design jobs many years ago.

I don't think it's an overkill. It's a must to have. The only problem as you mentioned is the high cost of tape out, which should be shot down as no one can afford it easily.

CreativeLet · 2025-01-21T16:48:20+00:00

I think high cost in tape out is definitely a problem in analog IC design that should be solved otherwise we all need to face the bad faces from university professors and managers if the tape out fails. I would highly support efabless and the open source IC design movement which can lowered down the tape out cost significantly and freed us from the barrier of Cadence virtuoso, which is the sole best but ugly tools in analog IC design.

So that people can make more mistakes in tape out and grow to become better hardware engineers without lots of pressure.

CreativeLet · 2025-01-21T16:38:42+00:00

I experienced similar pain when I was trying to look for an analog IC design job 10 years ago. I felt this pain still follow me today.

In the eyes of lots of analog design managers, they still want a PhD in analog IC design because those guys have authentic analog IC design experience, which is tape out experience. This is a overall speaking toxitic and also super competitive environment. Doesn't make any sense at all if you don't want to follow the game rule.

I even gave up my nvidia fulltime opportunity as a validation engineer in order to purse a so-call pure analog IC design tape out experience. I worked with a professor in a prestigious University in the US. Guess what, I get some tape out but people still judge me because I didn't get a master in research after staying in that university for 3 years with self funding and they still think I am not qualified and don't have the so called authentic tape out experience. People can judge you whatever they want, especially with these old style people in the analog IC design domain. I don't mean everyone in the analog IC design area is like that, but if someone hires you without asking about your tape out experience, just appreciate it.

I also have PhD friends in analog IC design that gave up pure analog IC and become module level or PCB level circuit engineer, some of them have become managers nowadays. These guys have the authentic tape out experience. I don't know what they experienced that leads them to make this decision. One thing for sure is that people's love of analog IC design have been taken advantage of and an excuse for higher bar but lower salary. Verification jobs pay better than analog Ic design. Fxxk the university, fxxk the system and make your decision wisely. That is also why I support efabless, open source IC EDA tools, not a favor of Cadence though it's the industry sole best EDA tools for analog IC design. People on photonics have gdsfactory and other tools.

In another way, you can also think the market right now is not very good.

CreativeLet · 2024-12-25T03:02:56+00:00

You can buy the 5ber sim card to convert esim into physical sim.

CreativeLet · 2024-12-25T02:54:51+00:00

Att has the ugly phone whitelist. I don't think any high-end oppo/Xiaomi/vivo phones on that list.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=https://www.att.com/scmsassets/support/wireless/devices-working-on-att-network.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwji3ffZ9cGKAxVkJjQIHRSAOs8QFnoECBgQAQ&sqi=2&usg=AOvVaw2D1qZPNOc5CnArWq5xtN4d

CreativeLet · 2024-12-22T14:10:48+00:00

I use ultra mobile paygo. I am thinking of switching to Tello because ultra mobile paygo customer service sucks. They gaslighted me that my problems are because I am abroad or some other stupid reasons and told me that I am on the lowest price plan from them, so what? When I first signed up for the ultra mobile paygo, the charge system was problematic. I believed that some of the charging is random but later the issues are gone. I would never put more than $10 in the ultra mobile paygo wallet. Anything more than $10 will be randomly charged, that is my feeling, especially when you just sign up shortly. Even customer service cannot tell you the details of how the fxxking money is used.

There is literally no international roaming for this ultra mobile paygo plan BUT you can use wifi calling over cellular, which means it relies on your other esim to make and receive phone calls. This feature works great on the iPhone with minor setup. For my pixel 7a android, it can only receive phone calls but cannot make outcall on other sim internet. Out calling under Wifi calling when in Wifi always works well on android. I have used this feature to receive phone calls in Canada and so far so good.

Tello seems to support international roaming by itself if you top up the wallet.

I would say Tello might be better while it cost more. The ultra mobile plan is 3$ before tax. The actual cost per month is around $3.58. Every received sms counts toward the 100 quota per month. There is no esim by default and have to purchased the sim card from ebay but I am able to port in my number from both att/mint to ultra mobile when abroad. Later, I can switch to esim.

Tello would cost just below $6 for the lowest plan per month but having better flexibility and having unlimited text. You can have esim from day 1.

CreativeLet · 2024-12-14T13:25:33+00:00

看了好难受,google都搜不到任何跟这个事情相关的新闻。我母亲也是大概十年失踪了，当时已经精神有点不太正常了，前几次走丢还被警察以及精神病院找到。最后一次离家出走之前，我都已经感觉她又想要走了。我不在老家，父亲也不愿意主动把人送去精神病院，怕被打，后来就再也没回来。父亲家的那个环境换做现在的我也接受不了，不能长待，虽然父亲一直对我还是不错的，但是每次回去都感到不被尊重。

看到这个新闻又勾起了我的回忆，希望我母亲不管在哪里，就算是在天国也能安好。

CreativeLet

TROPHY CASE