You can fairly frequently come across a car or van with a “Baby on Board” sign in the window. Homer Simpson even wrote a song about them. But I frequently wonder what's the point?
Seriously, are people going to go, “I was going to accidentally rear-end that car, but OH NO! There's a BABY ON BOARD so I guess I can't!” Or maybe it's just a type of bragging. “Look at me, I have a baby and you don't!”
Just as dumb, in my opinion, are those decals I've been seeing more and more lately with stick figures of all the family members. Although I admit I found it hilarious when I saw one that was one stick person and a whole bunch of stick cats.
In the event that I ever have children at some point down the road, there are not going to be any signs and decals on my car...
Thursday, November 17, 2011
Tuesday, November 15, 2011
Not Exactly Nail Trimmers
A number of years back I bought a big box of Q-Tips. I don't know what manicures have to do with Q-Tips, but this box included a free bonus manicure set. There were some tiny tweezers (I still can't figure out what tweezers have to do with manicures), nail clippers, a couple other things I had no clue what they were for, and a pair of scissors with a curved blade. I've always assumed that they were for cutting fingernails, probably for getting more clean and precise cuts than the clippers would provide.Lately, the screw holding it together wouldn't stay tight so I decided I should buy a new one. While out at the store I checked out all the nail care supplies they carried. I found them, but was surprised to see them labeled as cuticle scissors. One package even specified, “For trimming cuticles and hangnails. Do not use on fingernails as this will dull the blade.”
I don't know what exactly a cuticle is or why you'd want to cut it. I'm not sure I even heard the word until a few years ago. Obviously it's nothing terribly important or obvious, like hair or fingernails, as I seem to have survived the past 3+ decades without ever trimming my cuticles. Maybe it's one of those things that only some people ever do (like guys shaving their chests. I find it funny how boys are told things like, “Eat your brussels sprouts and it'll put hair on your chest,” and when they do actually have hair on their chest they feel compelled to remove it), but there's enough of them to justify including one of these in all manicure sets. Like those other strange tools also included that I can't figure out how they're supposed to be used, but obviously someone out there knows.
But I figured I could save myself a few bucks and skip buying a new one, since apparently I was never supposed to be trimming my fingernails with those scissors anyway. And it gives me an opportunity to do a short research project, to answer the question, “What are cuticles, and why would I want to cut them?” Hmm, my Google search for "why cut cuticles" brings up pages with titles like, “Is it bad to cut your cuticles?” “Is cutting your cuticles healthy?” and, “Should you trim cuticles?” I'm going to go out on a limb and assume the answer is “Don't bother.”
Thursday, October 13, 2011
Ready for 2012!
This evening while out for a short walk, I decided to pop in to the dollar store by my house. Unfortunately I didn't even find what I was hoping too, but I did find a 2012 calendar. And it was only a buck twenty nine. And it was of cats. How could I resist? Last year I didn't even get a calendar until near the end of January, and this year I already have one mid-October. And did I mention it's of cats?
Only question now is, do I use it here at home or bring it in to work for all my co-workers to enjoy too...?
Only question now is, do I use it here at home or bring it in to work for all my co-workers to enjoy too...?
Friday, October 7, 2011
468
I'm #468! Hooray! Well, I assume Rogers has separate queues for each iPhone type, so if that isn't an overall position, then at least of all the Rogers customers who reserved a white 16GB 4S this morning, I'm 468. Reservations from Rogers started at 3AM local time (other companies started at midnight... I wonder why the difference?) and what do you know, I just happened to wake up in the middle of the night around 3:30 and made my reservation since I was up anyway!
Of course this doesn't mean I'll get a new iPhone on release day next Friday. Even if they get 1,000 so I get one from the first batch, I think they're going to have them go to the stores a day or two later. They'll be busy enough with people lined up, and getting a cell phone is a little more complex than popping into the store and buying any other electronics. It'll probably be better, actually, going in later when they're not swamped. Much better service when they're not focused on getting as many people through quickly as possible and dealing with a huge crowd that all wants the same thing. And I didn't reserve an iPhone 4S just to try and ensure I'd get one on release day, anyway. I got one to make sure I could easily get one without having to spend hours in lines, running around to different stores all the time, and/or waiting weeks for stores to actually have it in stock.
I, for one, am looking forward to having a new iPhone, in spite of all the hate the 4S got when it was unveiled. I'd wager that all the people who were loudly complaining about it either already owned an iPhone 4, or weren't going to buy one anyway regardless of what was changed and just like to nitpick about everything. I saw pretty much the same thing after the iPad 2 was announced—loads of “It's not good enough. No way I'm getting one to replace my iPad!” whiners. I read an article earlier this week that I think hit the nail on the head. Sure, there's no massive hardware changes between the iPhone 4 and 4S aside from it being faster and having a better camera so iPhone 4 owners will be less likely to want to upgrade. But iPhone 4 owners are not the target audience.
People with an iPhone 4 are most likely still in the middle of their contract, and would have to pay a lot extra to upgrade their phone now. Instead, it'll be owners of older models, who are no longer in a contract as is the case with me, or those who don't own one at all who are most likely to get it. Sure, there's the handful of people who would pay anything to get a new Apple product if it was a whole lot better, but the majority of people will wait for the end of their contract before getting a new phone.
True, the iPhone 4S may be physically identical on the outside to an iPhone 4. Loads of people were complaining about that. But to me, that's actually a huge plus. The second I walk out of the store with my new iPhone, I can go practically anywhere and buy one of probably hundreds of cases and/or screen protectors available for it. When I bought my iPad 2 on launch day, there was just one choice. Apple's Smart Cover. And since I did not want one of those, I had to wait weeks for the first third party case to make an appearance, and even then, there was only a handful to choose from. Fortunately the first batch of iPad cases included one that was exactly what I was looking for.
So now, I have to patiently wait for the arrival of my iPhone. Maybe a week, or maybe two. Hopefully it won't be long before Rogers starts sending out the status emails they promised. But until then I guess I can pass the time browsing the case shelves in the stores!
***BREAKING NEWS!!!***
I just checked again out of curiosity, and now I'm up to 463. I guess 5 people canceled their reservations since this morning.
Wednesday, October 5, 2011
Feeling Hot! Hot! Hot!
Over the summer, I paid closer attention to the temperature inside my apartment. Mainly, because I had the patio door open as much as possible, but made sure to close it before the temperature outside surpassed what it was inside. I have two thermostats—one in the main part of my apartment and one in my bedroom. I soon noticed a curious phenomenon, where after spending more than a few minutes in my bedroom, the temperature there raised by 2-3 degrees.
Very curious. I know that when you pack a whole bunch of people in a room it can get quite warm and stuffy, but I didn't think just my body by itself gave off enough heat to warm a whole room. But that's what appeared to be happening, and only in my bedroom. I figured the rest of my apartment was large enough that the heat I gave off wasn't enough to raise the temperature noticeably there.
Then finally, sometime last week, I came to realise what the real cause of the apparent heat gain was. What was I doing all those times I was in my bedroom? Doing stuff on my computer. Which can give off a fair amount of heat when it's working hard. And is located about half a foot from the thermostat. Mystery solved! And here I thought maybe I was just such a super hot guy. Oh well.
Very curious. I know that when you pack a whole bunch of people in a room it can get quite warm and stuffy, but I didn't think just my body by itself gave off enough heat to warm a whole room. But that's what appeared to be happening, and only in my bedroom. I figured the rest of my apartment was large enough that the heat I gave off wasn't enough to raise the temperature noticeably there.
Then finally, sometime last week, I came to realise what the real cause of the apparent heat gain was. What was I doing all those times I was in my bedroom? Doing stuff on my computer. Which can give off a fair amount of heat when it's working hard. And is located about half a foot from the thermostat. Mystery solved! And here I thought maybe I was just such a super hot guy. Oh well.
Monday, October 3, 2011
Indiana Jones and the Search for a New Doctor
I have a confession to make. It's been almost a decade since I last visited a doctor. Well, I did go to the Emergency Room once about a year ago and I have a vague memory of visiting a nearby walk-in clinic maybe 7 or 8 years ago. But that's it. I know for a fact that I definitely haven't had any other doctor visits since moving to Abbotsford.
It's not that I'm afraid of doctors or anything; I just hadn't felt a pressing need to go see one. I did see them regularly when I still lived with my parents, but that was probably primarily because it was my mom making the appointments. I guess that's one sign of a good parent—being extra careful about their children's health. But the other thing is that several various ailments simply stopped after I moved out. And whenever I'd go over to visit, they occasionally would resurface until I went back home. I like to joke that I must be allergic to my mom.
But in any case, in recent months I've been really feeling that regular doctor visits is something I need to get back into. It's important to take care of your health after all, especially so once you get into your thirties like I am. But that's easier said than done, it seems...
It's not that I'm afraid of doctors or anything; I just hadn't felt a pressing need to go see one. I did see them regularly when I still lived with my parents, but that was probably primarily because it was my mom making the appointments. I guess that's one sign of a good parent—being extra careful about their children's health. But the other thing is that several various ailments simply stopped after I moved out. And whenever I'd go over to visit, they occasionally would resurface until I went back home. I like to joke that I must be allergic to my mom.
But in any case, in recent months I've been really feeling that regular doctor visits is something I need to get back into. It's important to take care of your health after all, especially so once you get into your thirties like I am. But that's easier said than done, it seems...
Thursday, September 22, 2011
Our Fantastic, Reliable Postal Service
Spoiler alert—That title is just sarcasm. I'm actually quite ticked off with Canada Post and their lousy service lately. And so begins our tale...
A couple months ago, I had redeemed some Airmiles for an iTunes card in preparation for purchasing fall TV shows. It finally arrived, a month after I made my request. But to be fair, I have no idea when my order was actually shipped, just that previous redemptions usually showed up in a couple weeks. For all I know, it may have been finally shipped only a couple days earlier and it was delivered really fast.
Next up came an online Best Buy order. It showed up two full weeks after being shipped. That's twice as long as it should have. It only should have taken two weeks if it had been shipped from a small town in Newfoundland.
Then came an Amazon order. I have all my Amazon orders shipped to my work, as they frequently use UPS. That way, someone will always be available to sign for the package, and in the event that Canada Post was used for that order it'll just end up in our mailbox instead. Since I always just use their “Free Super-Saver Shipping” option I have no way to predict what shipping method they'll use. This order was shipped using Canada Post. When tracking it one day, it showed that it was forwarded, and delivered, to our office's alternate PO box downtown rather than the one down the street. Not something that should have happened, but it wasn't that big a deal. Until I went to the post office after work and found the parcel was not actually there.
The next morning, however, tracking it again had a new line saying a card had just been put in the box for me to get the parcel from the counter. I went back again that afternoon, and found that contrary to what the tracking notes said, there was no card and the parcel itself was actually in the mailbox. But at least I got my parcel, and didn't have to wait in the long lineup for the counter. I still had to make two trips to the post office though, since they previously said it was delivered but it wasn't. Actually, I wouldn't have even needed to make the second trip if they didn't say it was carded. I only went because they usually ask for ID when picking up parcels at the counter and as such one of my co-workers likely wouldn't have been able to get it.
A week or so later my next order was shipped from Amazon, something I had preordered a couple months prior. About the time it would be delivered, I tracked it and noticed it was out for delivery. A few hours later I tracked it again to confirm delivery, and was shocked to see the line, “Recipient not located at address provided. Item being returned to sender.” I have no idea how the Canada Post employee in question went about determining that I apparently no longer worked there. The timeframe between the two notes was too short for it to have been delivered to the wrong person and for them have taken it back to the post office. I doubt any of my coworkers placed a note in our box saying, “Mike doesn't work here anymore.” At least once the parcel gets received by Amazon they'll give a full refund on it. But not until they get it back, and Canada Post is taking their time getting it back to them.
Then came the big one. My Star Wars: The Complete Saga Blu-ray set that I preordered eight months ago, the very moment I learned that the Star Wars Blu-rays were available for preorder. I was hopeful that it would be shipped using UPS, as my Lord of the Rings Extended Edition Blu-ray set, which is about the same physical size, came via UPS. When I got my shipping confirmation email last Friday, I immediately scrolled down to the part in the email where they say how it was shipped. I saw it said Canada Post, and the first thought that came to my mind was, “Oh crap, I hope I actually get it.” But, I was also thinking that Canada Post's service couldn't be that poor that they'd make the same mistake twice.
I was wrong. When tracking it this morning, I saw the same notification that it, too, was being returned to Amazon. The weird thing is the time stamps. At 5:59 AM it said “Out for delivery” and at 6:00 AM, “Recipient not located at this address.” Obviously, they didn't even attempt delivery. And last weekend, when the set was released, retail stores were selling it for the same price I was getting from Amazon, so the thought did cross my mind that maybe I should buy a second copy just in case, and if/when I get my order in the mail I can just return this one. Too bad I didn't, since everyone's prices have gone back up.
Maybe it's just bad luck that I had two parcels in a row that never got to me. But I do see how frequently it happens at work where I ship something to someone and it gets returned with a sticker stating that the recipient had moved, but we did have the correct address and were able to confirm with them that they still do indeed live there. The really sad thing about this is that it'll hurt online retailers like Amazon more than Canada Post. I'll be less likely to order things online now, because I'll be worried that my parcel will be shipped using Canada Post and I'll end up not even receiving it. If it weren't for the fact that nobody else can come close to matching Canada Post's prices, I'd be seriously looking into switching from them for the parcels I ship at work now.
But I guess I should look on the bright side. At least these parcels were all just for movies and TV shows, not important medication or other things vital to my survival.
A couple months ago, I had redeemed some Airmiles for an iTunes card in preparation for purchasing fall TV shows. It finally arrived, a month after I made my request. But to be fair, I have no idea when my order was actually shipped, just that previous redemptions usually showed up in a couple weeks. For all I know, it may have been finally shipped only a couple days earlier and it was delivered really fast.
Next up came an online Best Buy order. It showed up two full weeks after being shipped. That's twice as long as it should have. It only should have taken two weeks if it had been shipped from a small town in Newfoundland.
Then came an Amazon order. I have all my Amazon orders shipped to my work, as they frequently use UPS. That way, someone will always be available to sign for the package, and in the event that Canada Post was used for that order it'll just end up in our mailbox instead. Since I always just use their “Free Super-Saver Shipping” option I have no way to predict what shipping method they'll use. This order was shipped using Canada Post. When tracking it one day, it showed that it was forwarded, and delivered, to our office's alternate PO box downtown rather than the one down the street. Not something that should have happened, but it wasn't that big a deal. Until I went to the post office after work and found the parcel was not actually there.
The next morning, however, tracking it again had a new line saying a card had just been put in the box for me to get the parcel from the counter. I went back again that afternoon, and found that contrary to what the tracking notes said, there was no card and the parcel itself was actually in the mailbox. But at least I got my parcel, and didn't have to wait in the long lineup for the counter. I still had to make two trips to the post office though, since they previously said it was delivered but it wasn't. Actually, I wouldn't have even needed to make the second trip if they didn't say it was carded. I only went because they usually ask for ID when picking up parcels at the counter and as such one of my co-workers likely wouldn't have been able to get it.
A week or so later my next order was shipped from Amazon, something I had preordered a couple months prior. About the time it would be delivered, I tracked it and noticed it was out for delivery. A few hours later I tracked it again to confirm delivery, and was shocked to see the line, “Recipient not located at address provided. Item being returned to sender.” I have no idea how the Canada Post employee in question went about determining that I apparently no longer worked there. The timeframe between the two notes was too short for it to have been delivered to the wrong person and for them have taken it back to the post office. I doubt any of my coworkers placed a note in our box saying, “Mike doesn't work here anymore.” At least once the parcel gets received by Amazon they'll give a full refund on it. But not until they get it back, and Canada Post is taking their time getting it back to them.
Then came the big one. My Star Wars: The Complete Saga Blu-ray set that I preordered eight months ago, the very moment I learned that the Star Wars Blu-rays were available for preorder. I was hopeful that it would be shipped using UPS, as my Lord of the Rings Extended Edition Blu-ray set, which is about the same physical size, came via UPS. When I got my shipping confirmation email last Friday, I immediately scrolled down to the part in the email where they say how it was shipped. I saw it said Canada Post, and the first thought that came to my mind was, “Oh crap, I hope I actually get it.” But, I was also thinking that Canada Post's service couldn't be that poor that they'd make the same mistake twice.
I was wrong. When tracking it this morning, I saw the same notification that it, too, was being returned to Amazon. The weird thing is the time stamps. At 5:59 AM it said “Out for delivery” and at 6:00 AM, “Recipient not located at this address.” Obviously, they didn't even attempt delivery. And last weekend, when the set was released, retail stores were selling it for the same price I was getting from Amazon, so the thought did cross my mind that maybe I should buy a second copy just in case, and if/when I get my order in the mail I can just return this one. Too bad I didn't, since everyone's prices have gone back up.
Maybe it's just bad luck that I had two parcels in a row that never got to me. But I do see how frequently it happens at work where I ship something to someone and it gets returned with a sticker stating that the recipient had moved, but we did have the correct address and were able to confirm with them that they still do indeed live there. The really sad thing about this is that it'll hurt online retailers like Amazon more than Canada Post. I'll be less likely to order things online now, because I'll be worried that my parcel will be shipped using Canada Post and I'll end up not even receiving it. If it weren't for the fact that nobody else can come close to matching Canada Post's prices, I'd be seriously looking into switching from them for the parcels I ship at work now.
But I guess I should look on the bright side. At least these parcels were all just for movies and TV shows, not important medication or other things vital to my survival.
Tuesday, September 20, 2011
HD or Not HD?
One of my favourite TV shows, Castle, began its fourth season yesterday and today it appeared in iTunes to purchase a Season Pass. My big dilemma has been whether I should buy the Standard Definition version like the last three seasons, or buy it in High Definition this year. I now have a larger TV, so I'm sure it'll look great in HD. Also, this season it's only $12 more for HD. I don't know if the lower prices this year (last year was $45 for an SD Season Pass, and only $28 this year) are because they simply want to drum up sales, or because it's planned to be a shorter season. Hopefully, the former. It's a great show.
But there's a lot of debate out there over whether or not iTunes' HD videos should technically even be called HD. Or to quote Inigo Montoya from The Princess Bride, “You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.” With a full 1080p HD video, you get six to seven times the number of pixels compared to 480p SD video1. In contrast, the 720p videos you'll find in the iTunes store and many other online video services only have 2-3x pixels2. That's a considerable difference. Granted, any 720p videos I've seen (such as Netflix' HD streams) still look nice, but if I'm shelling out an extra dollar or so per episode for HD video, I'd rather get full HD.
Also, even with 1080p there's still a big difference between what you might find online and what you'd get by buying a Blu-ray Disc instead. A BD has a considerable amount of space on it for storing extra data, so in addition to the high resolution the picture has an increased bit rate (meaning even more detail in the picture) plus higher quality sound. When my brother bought a BD player to replace his dead DVD player—and he doesn't have an HD TV yet so he couldn't compare image quality—his first comment was how much better the audio quality was when comparing the BD and DVD of the same movie. Someone who's downloading a video isn't going to want to wait hours (or even days) to watch it, so audio and video quality has to be sacrificed to make for a more manageable download. But since modern encoding methods can get an SD video to an acceptable file size without significantly compromising quality compared to the DVD, choosing an SD video file over the DVD doesn't have the same loss in quality compared to HD files versus Blu-ray Discs. If you want HD video, you're far better off getting a Blu-ray.
Fortunately for me, I'm used to watching SD TV shows. True, the picture isn't as sharp and detailed as with my Blu-ray movies, but I don't seem to notice as much when it's a TV show and not a movie. I'm slowly upgrading my movie collection to Blu-ray when I find good sales on them (I'm hesitant to pay more than $5-10 to re-buy a movie, unless it's one I really like and have gotten my money's worth out of the DVD already), but I'm perfectly happy having DVD-quality TV shows. Well, part of that is because I like ripping my TV shows into my computer to watch via my Apple TV, which I couldn't do with a Blu-ray because I don't have a BD reader for my Mac.
But back to Castle. Since all my TV shows (aside from some newer Anime purchases) are in SD, and as I said I haven't had any complaints with the image quality even on my new TV, I think it's safe to save the $12 and stick with the SD Season Pass. Maybe I can use part of what I'd save to instead buy Barbie: Princess Charm School! Uh, yeah, no thanks...
11080p video has a resolution of 1920x1280, or 2,073,600 pixels. 480p video is either 640x480 (307,200 pixels) or 720x480 (345,600 pixels). Technically, widescreen 480p video is displayed at 854x480 resolution, but it's only stored at one of the other two resolutions and is stretched horizontally when displayed.
2720p video has a resolution of 1280x720 (921,600 pixels).
But there's a lot of debate out there over whether or not iTunes' HD videos should technically even be called HD. Or to quote Inigo Montoya from The Princess Bride, “You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.” With a full 1080p HD video, you get six to seven times the number of pixels compared to 480p SD video1. In contrast, the 720p videos you'll find in the iTunes store and many other online video services only have 2-3x pixels2. That's a considerable difference. Granted, any 720p videos I've seen (such as Netflix' HD streams) still look nice, but if I'm shelling out an extra dollar or so per episode for HD video, I'd rather get full HD.
Also, even with 1080p there's still a big difference between what you might find online and what you'd get by buying a Blu-ray Disc instead. A BD has a considerable amount of space on it for storing extra data, so in addition to the high resolution the picture has an increased bit rate (meaning even more detail in the picture) plus higher quality sound. When my brother bought a BD player to replace his dead DVD player—and he doesn't have an HD TV yet so he couldn't compare image quality—his first comment was how much better the audio quality was when comparing the BD and DVD of the same movie. Someone who's downloading a video isn't going to want to wait hours (or even days) to watch it, so audio and video quality has to be sacrificed to make for a more manageable download. But since modern encoding methods can get an SD video to an acceptable file size without significantly compromising quality compared to the DVD, choosing an SD video file over the DVD doesn't have the same loss in quality compared to HD files versus Blu-ray Discs. If you want HD video, you're far better off getting a Blu-ray.
Fortunately for me, I'm used to watching SD TV shows. True, the picture isn't as sharp and detailed as with my Blu-ray movies, but I don't seem to notice as much when it's a TV show and not a movie. I'm slowly upgrading my movie collection to Blu-ray when I find good sales on them (I'm hesitant to pay more than $5-10 to re-buy a movie, unless it's one I really like and have gotten my money's worth out of the DVD already), but I'm perfectly happy having DVD-quality TV shows. Well, part of that is because I like ripping my TV shows into my computer to watch via my Apple TV, which I couldn't do with a Blu-ray because I don't have a BD reader for my Mac.
But back to Castle. Since all my TV shows (aside from some newer Anime purchases) are in SD, and as I said I haven't had any complaints with the image quality even on my new TV, I think it's safe to save the $12 and stick with the SD Season Pass. Maybe I can use part of what I'd save to instead buy Barbie: Princess Charm School! Uh, yeah, no thanks...
11080p video has a resolution of 1920x1280, or 2,073,600 pixels. 480p video is either 640x480 (307,200 pixels) or 720x480 (345,600 pixels). Technically, widescreen 480p video is displayed at 854x480 resolution, but it's only stored at one of the other two resolutions and is stretched horizontally when displayed.
2720p video has a resolution of 1280x720 (921,600 pixels).
Monday, September 12, 2011
What an Omazing Singer!
Make sure to listen to the whole thing, or if you can't stomach it at least jump to 2 minutes in!
Thursday, August 18, 2011
The High-Performance Tablet
Since a while back I signed up for the Disney Movie Rewards program (that's where there are points inside their movies that you can accumulate and spend to get various rewards), I've been regularly receiving their emails. Most of which I don't care about, but occasionally there are offers I find interesting. The other day, an email went around with information on a contest they're running over the summer.
The email detailed the prizes that can be won—Free admission to every Disney movie in 2012, an Epson projector and screen, a High-Performance Tablet, and a million Disney Movie Rewards points. Note the third prize? A "High-Performance Tablet." It's as if they're embarrassed to say what tablet they're giving away, but I'm willing to bet it isn't an iPad.
Could it be a Motorola Xoom perhaps? For which initial reviews said it felt like an incomplete product? Which indeed it was, as it shipped with many headline features that weren't available yet, to be added later via software updates, or by taking it to a store later to physically add the necessary component when they finish making it.
Or perhaps the RIM PlayBook? Which has been the brunt of many jokes? At one point, if you wanted a cell phone that you could check your emails on, you couldn't do any better than one of RIM's Blackberries. And yet, that same company somehow thought it was a great idea to release a tablet that couldn't check email on it's own. You'd need to either link it with a Blackberry, or hope you could check your email using a web site.
Maybe it's the HP TouchPad. Heard of it? I wouldn't be surprised if you haven't. Sales on that were so poor that Best Buy (no idea if this is just US, or includes Canada too) only sold 10% of their stock and is demanding that HP buy back their well over 200,000 units of excess unsold stock. And just today, word got out that HP is going to can their entire tablet and smartphone business. Only weeks after launching, the TouchPad is already obsolete.
Another possibility could be the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1. Assuming they're allowed to sell it, that is. Legal proceedings are currently underway in various places worldwide to determine that. Apple alleges that the 10.1's physical and user interface design are a direct copy of the iPad and is actively pursuing injunctions against Samsung.
But most likely, the prize is some cheap tablet that I haven't even heard of, by a company I may not have heard of either. And by "high-performance" they mean it's from someone who thinks specs are everything. Throw in some high-powered chips, and hope people think that's what makes a tablet great. Sure, the software may suck big time, but it's faster.
Of course, there's a chance that the prize actually is an iPad, but I doubt it. Aside from the fact that the picture clearly shows a stylus resting on it, which an iPad does not include or need, if the prize was something as wildly popular as the iPad, they most definitely would make it very obvious. I'm 100% certain that telling people they could win an iPad would greatly increase the number of entries in the contest. But, who knows what strange logic goes though the minds of these Big Corporation marketing gurus...
The email detailed the prizes that can be won—Free admission to every Disney movie in 2012, an Epson projector and screen, a High-Performance Tablet, and a million Disney Movie Rewards points. Note the third prize? A "High-Performance Tablet." It's as if they're embarrassed to say what tablet they're giving away, but I'm willing to bet it isn't an iPad.
Could it be a Motorola Xoom perhaps? For which initial reviews said it felt like an incomplete product? Which indeed it was, as it shipped with many headline features that weren't available yet, to be added later via software updates, or by taking it to a store later to physically add the necessary component when they finish making it.
Or perhaps the RIM PlayBook? Which has been the brunt of many jokes? At one point, if you wanted a cell phone that you could check your emails on, you couldn't do any better than one of RIM's Blackberries. And yet, that same company somehow thought it was a great idea to release a tablet that couldn't check email on it's own. You'd need to either link it with a Blackberry, or hope you could check your email using a web site.
Maybe it's the HP TouchPad. Heard of it? I wouldn't be surprised if you haven't. Sales on that were so poor that Best Buy (no idea if this is just US, or includes Canada too) only sold 10% of their stock and is demanding that HP buy back their well over 200,000 units of excess unsold stock. And just today, word got out that HP is going to can their entire tablet and smartphone business. Only weeks after launching, the TouchPad is already obsolete.
Another possibility could be the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1. Assuming they're allowed to sell it, that is. Legal proceedings are currently underway in various places worldwide to determine that. Apple alleges that the 10.1's physical and user interface design are a direct copy of the iPad and is actively pursuing injunctions against Samsung.
But most likely, the prize is some cheap tablet that I haven't even heard of, by a company I may not have heard of either. And by "high-performance" they mean it's from someone who thinks specs are everything. Throw in some high-powered chips, and hope people think that's what makes a tablet great. Sure, the software may suck big time, but it's faster.
Of course, there's a chance that the prize actually is an iPad, but I doubt it. Aside from the fact that the picture clearly shows a stylus resting on it, which an iPad does not include or need, if the prize was something as wildly popular as the iPad, they most definitely would make it very obvious. I'm 100% certain that telling people they could win an iPad would greatly increase the number of entries in the contest. But, who knows what strange logic goes though the minds of these Big Corporation marketing gurus...
Friday, August 12, 2011
Squeezable Relish
I always have extreme difficulty using my squeezable relish bottles. I squeeze and squeeze and nothing, or very little, comes out. If I squeeze really hard a huge glob might appear on my bun, but it's usually more than I wanted. Recently, I even had the experience where all that would come out is the liquid, leaving the solid portion behind in the bottle.
I don't know why I continue punishing myself by buying them. When this bottle runs out, I'll have to make a point of finding regular green relish in a jar as I do with other relish varieties. Even if it costs more, it's worth it to eliminate the frustration associated with the squeezable bottles.
Thursday, August 11, 2011
How NOT to Make a Golf Game
Among other games, publisher Gameloft has a couple great iOS golf games, Let's Golf! and Let's Golf! 2. Currently, both sell for $4.99 each. Imagine my surprise last night when I learned that Let's Golf! 3 was out, and it was free! I assumed it was a limited time deal to gain exposure and did the massive 700+ MB download to try it out. I was wrong.
One of the first things I noticed when checking things out inside the game was that it was "free" because it's one of those "spend your REAL money for things in the game" apps, more commonly known as "Freemium" apps. Not that those are bad things, necessarily. I've been enjoying Tiny Tower, in which you also can spend real money for more "Tiny Bux" that you can use to speed up things like construction and restocking stores. But you can earn Tiny Bux easily enough in-game by simply playing it so you don't feel any pressure to buy them, unless you're the really impatient type.
But that's not the problem with this game.
I wanted to play a few holes to try it out. I did pathetic on the first hole. But, the game would not even let me go on to the next hole. Because I did not get par, I had to redo the hole. This is the first golf game I've ever played that forces you to get par to proceed. After another try I got par and "unlocked" the second hole. Which I promptly failed at.
And if that sounds like a lousy way for someone to cripple a golf game, you're right. But that's not the worst part.
After failing hole 2 a couple more times, I went to once again click the Retry button. Only to be told, "You need 1 energy point. Do you want to buy some now?" and best as I can tell, the only way to get more of these "energy points" is to buy them using real money, or wait. The timer in the corner indicated I would get another one in a few minutes so I switched apps to read some articles instead. After a while I came back, saw I had one Energy Point, and replayed the hole.
This time, I got par so I was allowed to proceed to hole 3. Or so I thought. Trying to advance to the next hole game me that same "You need 1 energy point" message, and I would have to wait almost an hour for one to regenerate. Apparently they automatically regenerate at a rate of one an hour, and it costs one point to play a hole. So, assuming my play skill improves and I can pass each hole on the first try, it will take me another 16 hours to complete this 18-hole course. And it's the same thing in the multiplayer modes too. Want to play a game with a friend? Better be ready to buy energy points if you want to finish your game.
Seriously, what were they thinking? In order for someone to play a few full courses without taking a couple days per course, they would have had to spend more money than it would have cost to just go ahead and buy Let's Golf! 2 which is a full, normal game, and doesn't have any of this junk loaded in it.
It probably goes without saying that this game, if it's even worthy of being called that, has been deleted from my iPad.
One of the first things I noticed when checking things out inside the game was that it was "free" because it's one of those "spend your REAL money for things in the game" apps, more commonly known as "Freemium" apps. Not that those are bad things, necessarily. I've been enjoying Tiny Tower, in which you also can spend real money for more "Tiny Bux" that you can use to speed up things like construction and restocking stores. But you can earn Tiny Bux easily enough in-game by simply playing it so you don't feel any pressure to buy them, unless you're the really impatient type.
But that's not the problem with this game.
I wanted to play a few holes to try it out. I did pathetic on the first hole. But, the game would not even let me go on to the next hole. Because I did not get par, I had to redo the hole. This is the first golf game I've ever played that forces you to get par to proceed. After another try I got par and "unlocked" the second hole. Which I promptly failed at.
And if that sounds like a lousy way for someone to cripple a golf game, you're right. But that's not the worst part.
After failing hole 2 a couple more times, I went to once again click the Retry button. Only to be told, "You need 1 energy point. Do you want to buy some now?" and best as I can tell, the only way to get more of these "energy points" is to buy them using real money, or wait. The timer in the corner indicated I would get another one in a few minutes so I switched apps to read some articles instead. After a while I came back, saw I had one Energy Point, and replayed the hole.
This time, I got par so I was allowed to proceed to hole 3. Or so I thought. Trying to advance to the next hole game me that same "You need 1 energy point" message, and I would have to wait almost an hour for one to regenerate. Apparently they automatically regenerate at a rate of one an hour, and it costs one point to play a hole. So, assuming my play skill improves and I can pass each hole on the first try, it will take me another 16 hours to complete this 18-hole course. And it's the same thing in the multiplayer modes too. Want to play a game with a friend? Better be ready to buy energy points if you want to finish your game.
Seriously, what were they thinking? In order for someone to play a few full courses without taking a couple days per course, they would have had to spend more money than it would have cost to just go ahead and buy Let's Golf! 2 which is a full, normal game, and doesn't have any of this junk loaded in it.
It probably goes without saying that this game, if it's even worthy of being called that, has been deleted from my iPad.
Monday, June 27, 2011
Shell Game
Yesterday morning, my brother and I were passing through Edmonton on our way to Saskatoon after spending the night in nearby Stoney Plain. We needed to buy some gas. He's also particular about what gas goes in his truck. So, we fired up his truck's trusty GPS, browsed the nearby gas stations and asked for directions to the Chevron. It directed us there fine, except that it was a Commercial Cardlock only so it was of no use to us. And, apparently, the nearest Chevron was over 200 km away. I guess they never expanded much into Alberta.
So, on to his second choice—Shell. Nicely enough, it indicated that the nearest Shell gas station was very close. We should have been able to see it from where we were. I was suspicious since I couldn't see one, but we followed the directions anyway and found some offices. There were large tanks outside so it might have been a gas company's office, but it wasn't anywhere we could buy gas.
On to the next closest Shell listed in the GPS. We saw what looked like at one point was a gas station, but it had closed down some time ago.
Oh well, maybe third time's the charm. We followed the directions perfectly and ended up in the middle of an old residential area. One of those ones where all the houses are at least 50 years old and it was obvious there had never been a gas station there, nor was there likely to ever be one. How puzzling.
When browsing the gas station list once again, my brother noticed a listing labeled “Select.” That happens to be the name of the convenience store inside Shell stations so we decided to give that a try. Sure enough, it finally directed us to an actual, real life Shell. We filled up his massive 120L tank and continued our trip.
A few hours later, while approaching Lloydminster, we decided it would be prudent to top up the tank so we wouldn't need to fill up at all in Saskatchewan where gas is more expensive than in Alberta. We really didn't need to use the GPS since all the gas stations are right along the highway, but we decided to try it just for the fun of it. Still no Chevrons listed, but we asked for directions to the Shell. Well we found the Shell easily enough, but the GPS was indicating it was still another block or two ahead. And when we got to the place where it said it was, there was a small office tower.
We figured it must have been Shell's problem, since the only time the GPS steered us wrong was searching for Shell gas stations. Someone could excuse one listing being incorrect, particularly the one where it was obvious it was a Shell at some point, but every single one we checked??? Not good. I think whoever's job at the company involved passing data along to the GPS manufacturers might need to consider a change in occupations...
So, on to his second choice—Shell. Nicely enough, it indicated that the nearest Shell gas station was very close. We should have been able to see it from where we were. I was suspicious since I couldn't see one, but we followed the directions anyway and found some offices. There were large tanks outside so it might have been a gas company's office, but it wasn't anywhere we could buy gas.
On to the next closest Shell listed in the GPS. We saw what looked like at one point was a gas station, but it had closed down some time ago.
Oh well, maybe third time's the charm. We followed the directions perfectly and ended up in the middle of an old residential area. One of those ones where all the houses are at least 50 years old and it was obvious there had never been a gas station there, nor was there likely to ever be one. How puzzling.
When browsing the gas station list once again, my brother noticed a listing labeled “Select.” That happens to be the name of the convenience store inside Shell stations so we decided to give that a try. Sure enough, it finally directed us to an actual, real life Shell. We filled up his massive 120L tank and continued our trip.
A few hours later, while approaching Lloydminster, we decided it would be prudent to top up the tank so we wouldn't need to fill up at all in Saskatchewan where gas is more expensive than in Alberta. We really didn't need to use the GPS since all the gas stations are right along the highway, but we decided to try it just for the fun of it. Still no Chevrons listed, but we asked for directions to the Shell. Well we found the Shell easily enough, but the GPS was indicating it was still another block or two ahead. And when we got to the place where it said it was, there was a small office tower.
We figured it must have been Shell's problem, since the only time the GPS steered us wrong was searching for Shell gas stations. Someone could excuse one listing being incorrect, particularly the one where it was obvious it was a Shell at some point, but every single one we checked??? Not good. I think whoever's job at the company involved passing data along to the GPS manufacturers might need to consider a change in occupations...
Tuesday, June 14, 2011
Sugar Contains Sugar
This afternoon while at work, I for whatever reason picked up the box of sugar cubes in the lunch room and looked at the nutrition facts on the bottom. Well, to my immense surprise (not!), apparently a 4g sugar cube contains... 4g of sugar! And that reminded me of the time I looked at the nutrition info listed on a bottle of water - 0 calories, 0g fat, 0mg sodium, 0mg cholesterol, 0g carbohydrates, and 0g protein. Seems like a waste of space on the label. Who doesn't know that plain old water contains none of that? Fancy flavoured water, perhaps, but not the normal stuff. But I guess they're legally required to have that there.
But even more of a waste of space was the back of this cereal box I saw one day while doing grocery shopping. This isn't a picture of part of the box. This was the entire back panel. It sure seems funny to me that someone even felt the need to tell people that a higher percentage means more... Especially since, in addition to the percentages, they also list the quantity as well. I'd hate to meet the person who honestly can't figure out that something containing 10g of fibre has more fibre than another food that has 5g.
Saturday, June 4, 2011
Consistency is key. Or is it?
But what really has me scratching my head about how to proceed are TV shows. While I do really value consistency, I also value cost-effectiveness. My choice of whether I should buy a show on DVD or online through the iTunes Store is mainly based on cost. While some shows end up being more expensive through iTunes, many are cheaper, assuming I don't find a great sale on the DVDs somewhere.
And therein lies the problem. There are a few shows I've started watching over the past year that I checked out because I found season one on sale for a great price and it looked like an interesting show. Now that I'm getting closer to finishing those seasons, what do I do about season two? It's cheaper to buy the next season on iTunes, even compared to the current sales that are on at the moment. But if I hold on for a few more months, it's possible that an even better sale will come up on the DVDs that's as good as when I bought the first season. Or maybe I'll just end up waiting and waiting for a price point that never appears. So I may as well just buy it from iTunes instead. However, the old “consistency” argument rears its head—it doesn't seem right to own both seasons and not have two boxes on the shelf! It needs to be either all on DVD, or all as digital downloads.
But then again, does it really matter? It's not like those cases on the shelf are anything more than decoration anyway. I simply load all the episodes into my computer and watch them using my AppleTV, and the DVDs just sit there looking pretty unless someone wants to borrow them from me or I find a need to re-rip it for any reason. And when I think about it, there's no real reason for me to even be worrying about such things yet anyway. I still have seven episodes each remaining of both shows in question, and since I've been taking my time watching them I probably won't even be needing the next seasons for a few months anyway... Maybe I'll luck out and stumble across a great sale price in the meantime after all.
Saturday, April 30, 2011
Hello. Do I know you?
While I was out for a little bit, I heard someone say, “Hi, Mike!” I smiled and responded, “Hello,” and we both kept on walking in our different directions. I was glad he didn't stop to engage in conversation, as I had no idea who he was. But obviously he knew who I was since he greeted me by name. Sometimes I recognize the face and I know that I've met the person in question before, but I just don't know where, and can't put a name to the face.
But not this time. I didn't recognize the voice or the face. Maybe it's someone who was given a tour of the office one time? Could be. People are occasionally shown around and introduced to me, but I've usually forgotten their names before they even leave the room, and their faces vanish from memory soon after. Or maybe he was from church. I've never liked the “Okay, everyone turn around and greet people” thing, which seems to be like there's an 11th Commandment that all churches must do it at some point in the service. Maybe several months back he shook my hand and introduced himself and I told him my name in return. And of course, I would have forgotten his name and face moments later, but he's one of those people who never forgets anyone they meet.
I remember a situation several years ago where I ended up having a conversation with someone I ran into somewhere. She knew me, but I didn't have the foggiest idea who she was. It's pretty awkward trying to converse with someone and making it sound like you know them, while hoping they say something in the course of the conversation to trigger a memory as to their identity. That's why I'll never greet anyone I bump into somewhere that I think I recognize unless we know each other well enough that there's no doubt that both of us know who the other is. Not to mention that if we don't know each other that well I probably wouldn't have anything to say so I wouldn't have a reason to even start a conversation...
Monday, April 18, 2011
Yes, I Consider Myself Canadian
Cartoonist Charles M. Schultz once said, “I love mankind; It's people I can't stand.” If I can reword and personalize it a bit, I'd say, “I don't mind hockey; It's the obnoxious fans I can't stand.” Seriously. What is it about hockey that makes people act totally obnoxious and inconsiderate?
Monday, April 4, 2011
Bin There, Done That
Storage bins are amazing things. How is it that a pile of stuff sitting there looks cluttered and disorganized, but if that same pile of stuff is put inside a bin, even a clear plastic one, it suddenly transforms into something neat and orderly? Who cares about the iPad, I think the real “magical and revolutionary device” is the Rubbermaid bin.
Thursday, March 31, 2011
Three Awesome iPad Stands for One Awesome iPad
So, I lucked out last Friday after work and went home with a brand new iPad 2. Right now there aren't really any cases or stands available for it aside from Apple's Smart Covers. I think they're a cool idea, but I personally don't want one. To be honest, I really don't care for their appearance, and I prefer to have a full folio-style case (like this for example) than just a fold-up cover for the screen. I've seen pictures of all sorts of new iPad 2 cases, but they're not available to purchase yet. But I really want to have at least some sort of stand for it, now. So what do I do? I make one. Out of what? Why, Lego of course!
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
A Match Made in Heaven
For all you math lovers out there, let me start out with some simple algebra. If x=a and y=a, then x+y=2a, right? Where am I going with this? Well, let's see a real world example. Using this logic, it should be safe to say that if pizza=awesome and cheeseburger=awesome, then pizza+cheeseburger=double the awesomeness.
Yes, the cheeseburger pizza is indeed supremely awesome. Even more so, since technically what I made was a bacon cheeseburger pizza. After trying it once, I'm definitely going to make it again. And again. But how does one go about making a cheeseburger pizza? Well, I'm glad you asked!
First, get a regular 12" pizza shell. Second, spread on a mixture of about ⅓ cup pizza sauce and ½ cup ketchup. Then, get ½ lb of ground beef and a chopped onion and brown them on the stove. When that's done and you've drained any grease, spread it all around over the sauce.
Next, shred about 1 cup each of mozzarella and cheddar cheeses, mix them up nicely and add it to the pizza. On top of that, add a chopped up tomato, some sliced up pickles and a few slices of bacon that you've cooked and chopped up or crumbled.
Finally, cook it in the oven. For me, it was about 8 minutes at 425°F, but if your pizza shell includes suggested cooking directions it's probably best to go with them. You wouldn't want to burn the crust or have it get too crunchy.
I think I can say with absolute certainty that this is the best pizza I've ever made, although the “BBQ Chicken with Spicy Banana Peppers” one I made a few months back was very good too. But maybe next time I'll make something more traditional, like ham and pineapple. I'm sure as Easter draws near, ham will go on sale so that will be a great time to make one. But as long as it's a pizza, that's what really matters, no matter what kind it is. Remember, pizza=awesome, after all!
Yes, the cheeseburger pizza is indeed supremely awesome. Even more so, since technically what I made was a bacon cheeseburger pizza. After trying it once, I'm definitely going to make it again. And again. But how does one go about making a cheeseburger pizza? Well, I'm glad you asked!
First, get a regular 12" pizza shell. Second, spread on a mixture of about ⅓ cup pizza sauce and ½ cup ketchup. Then, get ½ lb of ground beef and a chopped onion and brown them on the stove. When that's done and you've drained any grease, spread it all around over the sauce.
Next, shred about 1 cup each of mozzarella and cheddar cheeses, mix them up nicely and add it to the pizza. On top of that, add a chopped up tomato, some sliced up pickles and a few slices of bacon that you've cooked and chopped up or crumbled.
Finally, cook it in the oven. For me, it was about 8 minutes at 425°F, but if your pizza shell includes suggested cooking directions it's probably best to go with them. You wouldn't want to burn the crust or have it get too crunchy.
I think I can say with absolute certainty that this is the best pizza I've ever made, although the “BBQ Chicken with Spicy Banana Peppers” one I made a few months back was very good too. But maybe next time I'll make something more traditional, like ham and pineapple. I'm sure as Easter draws near, ham will go on sale so that will be a great time to make one. But as long as it's a pizza, that's what really matters, no matter what kind it is. Remember, pizza=awesome, after all!
Monday, March 21, 2011
Tax Time!
Many people dread tax time, but I love it. Perhaps my opinion is affected by the fact that I've never had to pay anything, and have always received fairly sizeable refunds. Also, the popular opinion is that taxes are a pain to do and are so very time consuming, and many people resort to paying professionals or purchasing software to help them. But that has never been my experience.
I used to fill out the forms by hand, but several years ago found a service called CuteTax Online (now renamed to the much better, although less memorable, name of Tax Chopper) that really simplifies things. While I would never think of spending $50+ for a piece of tax software, this is only $10 which I think is well worth it, considering the time saved and that filing taxes electronically means I get my much anticipated refund quicker and I don't have to pay postage to mail anything. Plus since I've been using it every year I don't have to re-enter all my personal information each year.
This evening I checked my mailbox and saw I had received the last thing I was waiting on before I could start, so I made myself a nice latte then proceeded with working on my 2010 taxes. And I kid you not, making the latte was the most time-consuming part. Maybe I'm just lucky in that I don't have very complicated taxes, due to things like not having education or medical expenses to claim, no dependents or spouse and not being a home owner. But with Tax Chopper, all I had to do is say what forms I had and type in what was on the forms, enter the totals for RRSP contributions and donations, pay them so I could download the forms and then upload them to the CRA. Because it's much faster for them to process electronically filed taxes plus I get my money direct deposited to my bank account, I usually see my refund sitting in my account in about a week. And the timing couldn't be better, because I already know the first thing I'm going to spend it on!
I used to fill out the forms by hand, but several years ago found a service called CuteTax Online (now renamed to the much better, although less memorable, name of Tax Chopper) that really simplifies things. While I would never think of spending $50+ for a piece of tax software, this is only $10 which I think is well worth it, considering the time saved and that filing taxes electronically means I get my much anticipated refund quicker and I don't have to pay postage to mail anything. Plus since I've been using it every year I don't have to re-enter all my personal information each year.
This evening I checked my mailbox and saw I had received the last thing I was waiting on before I could start, so I made myself a nice latte then proceeded with working on my 2010 taxes. And I kid you not, making the latte was the most time-consuming part. Maybe I'm just lucky in that I don't have very complicated taxes, due to things like not having education or medical expenses to claim, no dependents or spouse and not being a home owner. But with Tax Chopper, all I had to do is say what forms I had and type in what was on the forms, enter the totals for RRSP contributions and donations, pay them so I could download the forms and then upload them to the CRA. Because it's much faster for them to process electronically filed taxes plus I get my money direct deposited to my bank account, I usually see my refund sitting in my account in about a week. And the timing couldn't be better, because I already know the first thing I'm going to spend it on!
Thursday, March 17, 2011
Free Insurance
I've had the opportunity to call and activate a fair number of credit cards. I've been issued new cards due to the old one expiring, banks identifying a set of potentially compromised numbers so it reissues a whole batch, the time I misplaced my wallet (while on a trip in the US, no less...) and had to get everything reissued (only to have my wallet reappear a couple weeks later), and my least favourite, banks canceling a line of cards.
In recent years, whenever I've activated a credit card everyone seems to be pushing a “Payment Protector” insurance plan, where, for a small premium, if injury or death prevents you from being able to pay your bill, they have you covered. I do not need such insurance. To be blunt, I think buying something on a credit card that you could not afford to pay for in cash at that moment is just plain stupid, aside from unavoidable and unplanned emergencies. I have no sympathy whatsoever for all these people who rack up credit card debt because of their own unwise spending habits. I personally would never be in a position where if I couldn't work due to an injury I wouldn't have the money to pay off my bill. I actually only use a credit card for the convenience and the provided rewards, not because I can buy whatever I want now and worry about paying for it later.
In recent years, whenever I've activated a credit card everyone seems to be pushing a “Payment Protector” insurance plan, where, for a small premium, if injury or death prevents you from being able to pay your bill, they have you covered. I do not need such insurance. To be blunt, I think buying something on a credit card that you could not afford to pay for in cash at that moment is just plain stupid, aside from unavoidable and unplanned emergencies. I have no sympathy whatsoever for all these people who rack up credit card debt because of their own unwise spending habits. I personally would never be in a position where if I couldn't work due to an injury I wouldn't have the money to pay off my bill. I actually only use a credit card for the convenience and the provided rewards, not because I can buy whatever I want now and worry about paying for it later.
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
My Bowl, the Movie Star
I never knew my bowl was in the movies, let alone a James Bond movie! And not only that, but it actually shared screen time with Bond's hand! That's him sneakily reaching in from the left to steal that tray of glasses. I have a set of six bowls plus one large serving bowl, like you might use for something like a big fruit salad. I don't know how old they are or where they originally came from, as they were old dishes of my Mom's that she gave me back when I moved out on my own. But I think now I'll have to try and sell them on eBay. “Bowl featured in Bond movie” is bound to get almost as much interest as a genuine Time Machine prop!
Saturday, March 5, 2011
iThink iWant an iPad
Well, it happened. Earlier this week, Apple unveiled the second-generation iPad. When I first watched the presentation of the original iPad a year ago, I thought I'd like to have one, but that the best move for me would be to hold off and wait for the next one. Although I love technology, I'm not always an early adopter when it comes to buying it. Most game consoles I've bought have been purchased a couple years after it was released. And yes, I did get my iPhone only a couple weeks after it was available, but that was technically the second model of the device (although to be fair, I think I would have bought the first one right away had it been made available in Canada. I've never been as blown away by any product presentation as when the iPhone was announced).
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Why I Dislike Twitter
Twitter. It's practically everywhere nowadays. It seems rare for me to be able to visit a web site without seeing something to do with Twitter on the page, even if it's as simple as a “Share this via Twitter” button. Well, that actually happens less now, since I have various web browser extensions installed specifically to remove all “sharing” buttons (and similarly, Facebook's “Like” buttons—those are among the dumbest things I've ever seen. I couldn't care less how many Facebook users liked the article I'm reading) and iframes that display Twitter feeds. But I still see loads of “Follow Me/Us on Twitter” links and/or banners everywhere, as I don't think there will ever be a way to suppress those. And then there's signs in stores, telling me I really should follow them on Twitter.
But why do I dislike Twitter so much? Well the short answer is I personally think it's lame. I rarely see any compelling Twitter content that makes me really want to sign up. From what I've seen, content on Twitter can be summed up in the following categories:
But why do I dislike Twitter so much? Well the short answer is I personally think it's lame. I rarely see any compelling Twitter content that makes me really want to sign up. From what I've seen, content on Twitter can be summed up in the following categories:
Thursday, February 17, 2011
So, You Think You Can Vote?
The other day, I saw a vehicle with lettering on the back window saying, “Vote for so-and-so from Abbotsford on So You Think You Can Dance.” I've also seen a similar sign hanging on a telephone pole (except it said something like, “Vote so-and-so SYCYC Dance”—it took me seeing it a dozen times before I finally clued in as to what that stood for). Maybe it's just a concept I don't understand because I don't watch any of those televised singing/dancing/talent shows, but would someone seriously be enticed to vote for someone just because they saw a sign somewhere telling them to? Or because they happened to be from the same city?
If I were voting on any of those shows, I would vote for people based on their actual talent, not where they reside. Their physical proximity to me does not affect their ability in any way. Actually, that's also how I view the results of events like the Olympics. Why should I care that a specific person won an award just because they reside in the same country as me? I couldn't care less who won what award, unless they happened to be someone I knew personally. But then again, I really don't even care about the Olympics period, not even when they were being hosted locally last year, so maybe that might not be the best example.
And thinking about signs about voting, it's the same deal with elections for government positions. Whenever an election is coming around, you'd think the rule was, “He who has the most signs wins.” I would never vote for someone just because he had 10 signs out on the same corner. I realize getting your name out there is important. However, if someone didn't know anything about the candidates and votes for someone simply because they recognized the name from all those signs, that person has no business voting.
If I were voting on any of those shows, I would vote for people based on their actual talent, not where they reside. Their physical proximity to me does not affect their ability in any way. Actually, that's also how I view the results of events like the Olympics. Why should I care that a specific person won an award just because they reside in the same country as me? I couldn't care less who won what award, unless they happened to be someone I knew personally. But then again, I really don't even care about the Olympics period, not even when they were being hosted locally last year, so maybe that might not be the best example.
And thinking about signs about voting, it's the same deal with elections for government positions. Whenever an election is coming around, you'd think the rule was, “He who has the most signs wins.” I would never vote for someone just because he had 10 signs out on the same corner. I realize getting your name out there is important. However, if someone didn't know anything about the candidates and votes for someone simply because they recognized the name from all those signs, that person has no business voting.
Friday, February 4, 2011
Routine is Your Friend!
It has been said, “Routine is your friend.” I am here to say that is completely true. Sticking to one routine in particular would have saved me a lot of headache troubleshooting a computer issue this evening. At one point I was genuinely worried that my Mac was dead and would need to be sent out for repairs. Which would have been very bad luck, since it was only one week ago that my Xbox 360 died and needed to be sent away (it's still within warranty, fortunately!).
Because of another issue I was having, I went to reboot my Mac, and it wouldn't actually reboot. It just hung indefinitely at a solid grey screen, and the same thing happened with all other attempts. Even when I left it and went to the living room to watch something for a bit, I came back to the same grey screen. I'll spare you the tale of my troubleshooting attempts (which would be quite the tale in and of itself), and skip to the end.
I have what is called an hard drive dock. It's sort of like an iPod dock except bigger, and designed for computer internal hard drives. Those of you who work with me may have seen a hard drive on my desk—I use that as an off-site backup. I occasionally take it home, power on the dock, pop in the HD, let Carbon Copy Cloner do its thing, eject the drive from my Mac's desktop, power off the dock, remove the HD, then take it back to work the next morning so it once again meets the “off-site” part of “off-site backup.”
It turns out that the last time I updated it, I missed my “power off the dock” step. You wouldn't think that would be important, but it seems that little thing was the cause of all my problems. After I finally determined that to be the cause, with repeated testing I confirmed that my Mac indeed only boots up fine when this HD dock isn't turned on.
Of course, I have formulated a theory about why this is the case. My hunch is that, as part of the boot process, the Mac firmware enumerates all the attached HDs. And since there was no physical HD plugged into the dock the Mac hung indefinitely trying to read the disc that it thought should be there but actually wasn't. I'm definitely going to have to test this the next time I bring home my HD. If my hunch is correct, having the dock turned on but with an HD in it should allow my Mac to reboot correctly.
But is it a Mac issue? An odd quirk of this HD dock in particular? Or something that can be duplicated using any HD dock on any modern computer? But you know what, at this point I really don't care. As long as I stick to my routine and switch it off when my backup is complete I won't have further problems, and if I do slip up sometime, at least I know what to check right away.
Because of another issue I was having, I went to reboot my Mac, and it wouldn't actually reboot. It just hung indefinitely at a solid grey screen, and the same thing happened with all other attempts. Even when I left it and went to the living room to watch something for a bit, I came back to the same grey screen. I'll spare you the tale of my troubleshooting attempts (which would be quite the tale in and of itself), and skip to the end.
I have what is called an hard drive dock. It's sort of like an iPod dock except bigger, and designed for computer internal hard drives. Those of you who work with me may have seen a hard drive on my desk—I use that as an off-site backup. I occasionally take it home, power on the dock, pop in the HD, let Carbon Copy Cloner do its thing, eject the drive from my Mac's desktop, power off the dock, remove the HD, then take it back to work the next morning so it once again meets the “off-site” part of “off-site backup.”
It turns out that the last time I updated it, I missed my “power off the dock” step. You wouldn't think that would be important, but it seems that little thing was the cause of all my problems. After I finally determined that to be the cause, with repeated testing I confirmed that my Mac indeed only boots up fine when this HD dock isn't turned on.
Of course, I have formulated a theory about why this is the case. My hunch is that, as part of the boot process, the Mac firmware enumerates all the attached HDs. And since there was no physical HD plugged into the dock the Mac hung indefinitely trying to read the disc that it thought should be there but actually wasn't. I'm definitely going to have to test this the next time I bring home my HD. If my hunch is correct, having the dock turned on but with an HD in it should allow my Mac to reboot correctly.
But is it a Mac issue? An odd quirk of this HD dock in particular? Or something that can be duplicated using any HD dock on any modern computer? But you know what, at this point I really don't care. As long as I stick to my routine and switch it off when my backup is complete I won't have further problems, and if I do slip up sometime, at least I know what to check right away.
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
How to fit eight pairs of shoes in a cabinet designed for eight pairs of shoes
This past weekend, I made another Ikea trip. I had a couple things in mind that I wanted to buy (including their cheap breakfast... what better way to start off a Saturday!), but of course a large part of my Ikea trips always involve just browsing and seeing what catches my eye that time around.
And this time around, what caught my eye was a cool shoe cabinet, which also happened to be on sale. It stands about 3 feet tall and has two flip-down drawers that each hold four pairs of shoes. The drawer is split in two, so two pairs go in the top compartment and another two pairs in the bottom. Assembling it went pretty good, considering I accidentally did one step out of order and had to partially disassemble it to do the steps in the correct order. But then I went to load my shoes in.
Lo and behold, I could not fit two pairs of shoes in one compartment. One and a half, yes, but not the two required to make it the “Cabinet for eight pairs of shoes” that it was advertised as. I don't consider myself to have large feet, and the drawer was just under half an inch too narrow to fit four of my shoes across. So for me, I could only actually fit six pairs, not eight. Maybe when they said the cabinet holds eight pairs of shoes, what they meant was ladies' or children's shoes. Or maybe Swedes just have smaller feet. The picture on the web site clearly shows the open drawer holding four pairs comfortably.
Fortunately I wasn't disappointed, as I don't even own six pairs of shoes, let alone eight. My plan from the start was to use the top drawer for things like my hat, umbrella, etc. Plus, I thought the top of the cabinet would be a perfect spot to place my keys and wallet, since I recently relocated the small end table I previously used for that. But then I had a brainstorm, and discovered a way that I could indeed fit all four pairs of shoes in the same drawer—flip every second shoe upside-down. Problem solved!
And this time around, what caught my eye was a cool shoe cabinet, which also happened to be on sale. It stands about 3 feet tall and has two flip-down drawers that each hold four pairs of shoes. The drawer is split in two, so two pairs go in the top compartment and another two pairs in the bottom. Assembling it went pretty good, considering I accidentally did one step out of order and had to partially disassemble it to do the steps in the correct order. But then I went to load my shoes in.
Lo and behold, I could not fit two pairs of shoes in one compartment. One and a half, yes, but not the two required to make it the “Cabinet for eight pairs of shoes” that it was advertised as. I don't consider myself to have large feet, and the drawer was just under half an inch too narrow to fit four of my shoes across. So for me, I could only actually fit six pairs, not eight. Maybe when they said the cabinet holds eight pairs of shoes, what they meant was ladies' or children's shoes. Or maybe Swedes just have smaller feet. The picture on the web site clearly shows the open drawer holding four pairs comfortably.
Fortunately I wasn't disappointed, as I don't even own six pairs of shoes, let alone eight. My plan from the start was to use the top drawer for things like my hat, umbrella, etc. Plus, I thought the top of the cabinet would be a perfect spot to place my keys and wallet, since I recently relocated the small end table I previously used for that. But then I had a brainstorm, and discovered a way that I could indeed fit all four pairs of shoes in the same drawer—flip every second shoe upside-down. Problem solved!
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
Self-Serve Checkouts
The self-serve checkout. I don't get it. Why do they seem to be springing up almost everywhere, and why do people use them? Well, aside from the initial thrill of trying something new, that is. In my experience they do not save time, and the combination of self-scanning and self-bagging means you're doing far more work than you'd be doing normally. I would rather spend an extra minute standing there waiting my turn, and let the person who's being paid to do the scanning and bagging* do all the work. Usually, the only reason I will use one is if there's one empty, there's already several people at the open staffed checkouts and I'm only getting a couple items, but it's a choice I often regret.
Scanning my items is such a slow process. First, I scan one item, then it waits for me to place it in a bag, or at least in the bagging area. Then I have to wait for it to tell me to go ahead and scan the next item. In the time it takes for me to scan my items, I could have already finished paying if I were at a regular checkout. And another reason it takes so long is that I usually have to take the time to look at the item to find where the barcode is to make sure I scan the right part. The professional cashiers do this for a living, so they seem to always know exactly where to scan right away, or at least have mastered the knack of finding the barcode so fast it doesn't really slow things down.
And heaven forbid I should remove anything or set anything else in the bagging area during the process. When I tried the new self-serve checkouts at one store, I took my cloth bag I brought from home out of my pocket and set it down in the bagging area. Makes sense, doesn't it? Put a bag in the place you're going to be using it? But, no, the machine complained about an unexpected object and wouldn't continue until I removed it, and a staff member also came over to see if I was having problems using the checkout. And if I'm just getting one item and don't need a bag, I have to either set it down in the bagging area anyway, or specifically press a button to tell it I'm not going to bag the item.
And then, some scanners are just plain hard to use. During one of my Ikea shopping trips, I noticed that they had new self-checkouts. Since there were fairly long lines for the other checkouts, I thought I'd try it out. At Ikea, they use hand-held scanners because many of the items being purchased there are large, bulky, and/or heavy and impossible to lift up to a stationary scanner. But just as impossible for me, was holding the scanner just right and at the right distance to correctly scan my items. I actually had to get help from one of the staff and even with guidance it still took several tries for me to successfully scan one of the items.
Here's the weird thing. You'd expect that the stores would give some sort of discount to the customer (even if it was just 0.5%), since the customer is the one doing all the work. Plus, the store also saves money with these machines because they only need one staff member overseeing the whole bank of checkouts, rather than one person per checkout.
But maybe self-serve checkouts are just a passing fad, and within the next few years they'll disappear? That actually happened at the local Walmart. They put in a whole bunch of self-serve checkouts, and they took them all away less than a year later. So who knows? I just hope things don't continue down this path and stores start going completely self-serve, or at least not until they find a way to significantly improve the experience.
* I never quite understand why the cashiers don't bag groceries at the Real Canadian Superstore. They could say that it's a cost saving measure and they're passing the savings along to you through their lower prices, but I don't buy that. Even Walmart doesn't make you bag your own stuff. Heck, dollar store cashiers even bag things for you and they're the epitome of cheapness.
Scanning my items is such a slow process. First, I scan one item, then it waits for me to place it in a bag, or at least in the bagging area. Then I have to wait for it to tell me to go ahead and scan the next item. In the time it takes for me to scan my items, I could have already finished paying if I were at a regular checkout. And another reason it takes so long is that I usually have to take the time to look at the item to find where the barcode is to make sure I scan the right part. The professional cashiers do this for a living, so they seem to always know exactly where to scan right away, or at least have mastered the knack of finding the barcode so fast it doesn't really slow things down.
And heaven forbid I should remove anything or set anything else in the bagging area during the process. When I tried the new self-serve checkouts at one store, I took my cloth bag I brought from home out of my pocket and set it down in the bagging area. Makes sense, doesn't it? Put a bag in the place you're going to be using it? But, no, the machine complained about an unexpected object and wouldn't continue until I removed it, and a staff member also came over to see if I was having problems using the checkout. And if I'm just getting one item and don't need a bag, I have to either set it down in the bagging area anyway, or specifically press a button to tell it I'm not going to bag the item.
And then, some scanners are just plain hard to use. During one of my Ikea shopping trips, I noticed that they had new self-checkouts. Since there were fairly long lines for the other checkouts, I thought I'd try it out. At Ikea, they use hand-held scanners because many of the items being purchased there are large, bulky, and/or heavy and impossible to lift up to a stationary scanner. But just as impossible for me, was holding the scanner just right and at the right distance to correctly scan my items. I actually had to get help from one of the staff and even with guidance it still took several tries for me to successfully scan one of the items.
Here's the weird thing. You'd expect that the stores would give some sort of discount to the customer (even if it was just 0.5%), since the customer is the one doing all the work. Plus, the store also saves money with these machines because they only need one staff member overseeing the whole bank of checkouts, rather than one person per checkout.
But maybe self-serve checkouts are just a passing fad, and within the next few years they'll disappear? That actually happened at the local Walmart. They put in a whole bunch of self-serve checkouts, and they took them all away less than a year later. So who knows? I just hope things don't continue down this path and stores start going completely self-serve, or at least not until they find a way to significantly improve the experience.
* I never quite understand why the cashiers don't bag groceries at the Real Canadian Superstore. They could say that it's a cost saving measure and they're passing the savings along to you through their lower prices, but I don't buy that. Even Walmart doesn't make you bag your own stuff. Heck, dollar store cashiers even bag things for you and they're the epitome of cheapness.
Sunday, January 23, 2011
New Calendar Time!
To be honest, I don't understand why so many people buy their calendars early, while they're still full price. Unless it's your first year ever purchasing a calendar, you have to know that the longer you wait, the cheaper they get. Even back in the last couple weeks of December, they were already starting to be marked down 50%. Now, most places have them down to 75% off or even more.
Maybe most people are just more picky than I am? I guess if you absolutely had to have that calendar with pictures of your favourite movie star, shots from a TV show or works by your favourite artist, you'd need to act before it was all sold out. But a lot of people just go to the calendar rack and browse the available selection for one with nice pictures that they like, and buy it.
Some years, I didn't even have to buy a calendar as I got a great one from one of the vendors I deal with for work. But I haven't ordered anything from them in several months so there was no shipment in which to include a calendar, so I didn't get one this year. And another vendor which sends us their calendar yearly, only makes desk calendars which I don't care for. My desk is cluttered enough already, without a calendar taking up space on it. Wall calendars hang up nicely out of the way. Plus, the pictures are considerably bigger.
The downside of waiting this long is that I will only get to see this great picture of Mount Robson for a week or so (depending on when in February I remember to flip the page). But there are still 11 more amazing photos to look at throughout the year, and I'll get to see December's one for at least a month and a half. Because you know I won't get around to replacing it until mid to late January 2012...
Thursday, January 20, 2011
Stir Fry
I'm not that big a cooking fan, but every so often I like to experiment. Usually, that takes the form of a big slow cooker full of chili. I have never used a recipe to make chili, and it has never been the same twice. And then there's pizza. I always have fun making pizza. Tonight, however, I thought I'd try my hand at making some sort of stir fry.In my skillet I cooked up some zucchini, red and green peppers, and some tofu that was leftover from when I made my last batch of miso soup, and I needed to use it up soon. Then I added a sauce I threw together using plum sauce and the last of my miso paste. Finally, I thought I'd add a packet of Chinese noodles. You know the kind—the ones that come in the little packages that only cost 25¢. And when it was done (or I thought it was done—I'm not even sure if the way I cooked it actually counted as a stir fry), it looked great. But did it taste great? No.
Well, it wasn't exactly that the taste was bad, but it just felt weird once it started gathering in my stomach. I'm not sure what the problem was. Separately, before cooking, all the ingredients tasted good. Well, except for the tofu, which has no taste at all. But together, it really didn't work well at all. I'm thinking it might have been my sauce. Perhaps I should have just left it out and let all the natural vegetable flavours stand alone. Or used straight plum sauce, without the miso paste. I've tried something else before where I mixed miso paste and sweet & sour sauce and that worked great, so maybe there's something in the plum sauce that caused a weird reaction with the miso paste. It couldn't have been that it was undercooked, since all of the ingredients can be eaten raw with no adverse effect.
But in any case, maybe stir fries just aren't really my thing. I do have childhood memories of being disappointed whenever my mom made a stir fry for dinner, so I'm not sure why I even attempted it. Or perhaps next time I should, you know, actually follow a recipe. There's enough left for two more meals, but I think I'm just going to toss the rest. I don't like wasting food, but at least all the ingredients only cost me $3 tops, so I don't feel too bad about doing so. And to make up for tonight's dinner I'll definitely have to cook a pizza tomorrow.
Sunday, January 16, 2011
Cleanest Shop in BC
As I drive around town, a particular tattoo parlour has caught my eye a few times. The reason is that, in addition to their other selling points listed, their sign outside advertises them as being the cleanest shop in BC.
I already have absolutely no desire to get a tattoo. Even if you offered to pay me I would still refuse (well, unless it was a very large sum of money, and it would need to be a very small tattoo somewhere like my ankle). And seeing a sign like that reduces that desire even further, if that was even possible. I mean, what kind of places advertise how clean they are? That's pretty pathetic if one of their drawing points is that they're clean.
I'm not saying it's not a good thing that this tattoo parlour is clean, just that it reflects poorly on the industry as a whole when being clean is advertised as a benefit of this particular shop. Imagine if restaurants put signs outside saying, “Eat here. Our kitchen is clean!” Or butcher shops advertising, “Our butchers still have all their fingers!”
I already have absolutely no desire to get a tattoo. Even if you offered to pay me I would still refuse (well, unless it was a very large sum of money, and it would need to be a very small tattoo somewhere like my ankle). And seeing a sign like that reduces that desire even further, if that was even possible. I mean, what kind of places advertise how clean they are? That's pretty pathetic if one of their drawing points is that they're clean.
I'm not saying it's not a good thing that this tattoo parlour is clean, just that it reflects poorly on the industry as a whole when being clean is advertised as a benefit of this particular shop. Imagine if restaurants put signs outside saying, “Eat here. Our kitchen is clean!” Or butcher shops advertising, “Our butchers still have all their fingers!”
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
A GPS is Only as Good as its Maps
Or, You Get What You Pay For
Last week I tried out the Mapquest iPhone app. I'm a Google Maps man myself, but I heard that Mapquest had something Google didn't—turn-by-turn voice navigation. Plus, it's a free app. So, I figured I'd try it out, since turn-by-turn navigation would be a nice thing to have.
For the fun of it, I thought I'd let it tell me how to get to work the next morning. Of course, the map produced showed it was going to send me down the route I thought it would suggest, so I thought I'd throw a curveball at it and deliberately take a different route. Incidentally, this other route is the way I normally have been taking anyway, lately. After 8 years of taking the same route it's nice to have a change in scenery.
As anticipated, when I took the turn that it wasn't expecting I heard the words “Recalculating route...” come out of my car's speakers. But I was a little disappointed when I got to the place I needed to turn to get to the office, at South Fraser and Progressive, and it did not tell me I needed to turn there. In fact, after turning it proceeded to tell me I needed to make a U-turn. That was completely unexpected, since the office was only a few blocks up the road. I pulled over and checked its map to see where it was trying to tell me to go, and noticed that the street I was on apparently didn't exist.
Mapquest's map is curious for two reasons. First of all, the little bit at the end of Progressive way where it connects with South Fraser Way has been like that for quite a while. I don't know when they finally paved that, but I've been driving on that stretch since last April. Surely Mapquest could have updated their map since then. Secondly, and even more puzzling, is the part of Progressive Way where it curves north. According to Mapquest, the street just comes to an end. But the road has been going through for quite a few years! Yet the map does correctly show the roundabout on Mt. Lehman Road and redirected South Fraser Way which was only done within the last couple years.
I'm really wondering where Mapquest gets their map data from. If they can't even get a street right that I travel down every day, it makes me wonder how many other streets they have wrong. The promise of a free GPS app with turn-by-turn navigation was nice, but I guess it was too good to be true. It looks like I'll be sticking with good old Google Maps for now and memorizing the route before leaving.
Last week I tried out the Mapquest iPhone app. I'm a Google Maps man myself, but I heard that Mapquest had something Google didn't—turn-by-turn voice navigation. Plus, it's a free app. So, I figured I'd try it out, since turn-by-turn navigation would be a nice thing to have.
For the fun of it, I thought I'd let it tell me how to get to work the next morning. Of course, the map produced showed it was going to send me down the route I thought it would suggest, so I thought I'd throw a curveball at it and deliberately take a different route. Incidentally, this other route is the way I normally have been taking anyway, lately. After 8 years of taking the same route it's nice to have a change in scenery.
As anticipated, when I took the turn that it wasn't expecting I heard the words “Recalculating route...” come out of my car's speakers. But I was a little disappointed when I got to the place I needed to turn to get to the office, at South Fraser and Progressive, and it did not tell me I needed to turn there. In fact, after turning it proceeded to tell me I needed to make a U-turn. That was completely unexpected, since the office was only a few blocks up the road. I pulled over and checked its map to see where it was trying to tell me to go, and noticed that the street I was on apparently didn't exist.
 |
| Mapquest on the left, Google Maps on the right |
I'm really wondering where Mapquest gets their map data from. If they can't even get a street right that I travel down every day, it makes me wonder how many other streets they have wrong. The promise of a free GPS app with turn-by-turn navigation was nice, but I guess it was too good to be true. It looks like I'll be sticking with good old Google Maps for now and memorizing the route before leaving.
Saturday, January 8, 2011
Two _____ Are Better Than One
There's an old saying, “Two heads are better than one.” You know, that's true of most things. Except perhaps rabid Rottweilers in my apartment. I'd rather not have any rabid Rottweilers in my apartment, let alone two of them!
But one idea I heard about a few years ago recently returned to me. Two dishwashers. That's definitely a good idea! The thought being, you would put all your dishes into Dishwasher A to be washed. When that's done, leave them in the dishwasher. When you need a dish, take it from Dishwasher A, and put it into Dishwasher B when you're done with it. When Dishwasher B is filled, run it and then reverse the process, moving the dishes back to Dishwasher A.
Brilliant! No need to take time unloading the dishwasher ever again!
But one idea I heard about a few years ago recently returned to me. Two dishwashers. That's definitely a good idea! The thought being, you would put all your dishes into Dishwasher A to be washed. When that's done, leave them in the dishwasher. When you need a dish, take it from Dishwasher A, and put it into Dishwasher B when you're done with it. When Dishwasher B is filled, run it and then reverse the process, moving the dishes back to Dishwasher A.
Brilliant! No need to take time unloading the dishwasher ever again!
Thursday, January 6, 2011
Price Matching Policies
I promised the fellow at the store I would blog about this, so here I am...
Recently, a critical part in the espresso maker I've had for 4½ years broke and rather than try and obtain a replacement part, if that's even possible anymore, I decided it was time to simply buy a new one. A few days later I bought myself a brand-new espresso maker from the local Sears. It's a great unit, a step up from my last one and I love it, except for one detail. A couple days later I stumbled across the exact same unit on sale from Amazon, for $93 cheaper. Well, to be precise, $104.16 cheaper including tax.
I walked in to Sears with my receipt and a printout of the Amazon.ca page for the product, and asked if I could get a price match. I was told no, because they don't consider Amazon to be a competitor. The answer remained no, even after I clearly outlined what my next steps were going to be—buying that unit from Amazon instead, packing up and returning the one I had bought from them, and them losing a sale and a customer.
On my way home I stopped by a couple other stores to see if they a) had that same unit in stock, and b) were willing to price match Amazon. They both indeed carried it, but as expected the price match was a no go. I'm considerably more forgiving in those instances, because in those cases it was simply a case of finding the best place to buy something, and hoping that someone would price match, so I wouldn't have to wait for a package to be delivered.
When those other two stores didn't match Amazon's price they lost a potential sale, yes, but that's a different scenario from the one Sears is in, where they are losing a sale because the sale was already made and it's going to be undone, plus now they're going to have a slightly used espresso maker to try and unload. From their perspective I think it would have been better for them to have lost $93 in profit (but at least they'd still have some profit, in contrast with the zero they're going to have now), but end up with a very satisfied, and most importantly, repeat customer, plus not having the hassle of dealing with another returned product.
I just finished placing my order on Amazon, so now I've passed the point of no return. Well, I guess not quite yet as I can still cancel the order up until when they actually ship it. The next thing is to pack up my other one to take back to Sears. But since they do have a 30-day return window I have some time to make myself a couple more egg nog lattes before going for a week with no espresso maker. At least I have plenty of regular coffee to hold me through.
PS - I know I could take the unit I get from Amazon and return that one to Sears, completely unopened, since they're identical, and save the step of repacking the one I have, but I don't know if my new one will arrive in time before Sears' return window closes. Plus, that would also end up being a huge help to them, eliminating their “slightly used espresso maker to try and unload” problem...
Recently, a critical part in the espresso maker I've had for 4½ years broke and rather than try and obtain a replacement part, if that's even possible anymore, I decided it was time to simply buy a new one. A few days later I bought myself a brand-new espresso maker from the local Sears. It's a great unit, a step up from my last one and I love it, except for one detail. A couple days later I stumbled across the exact same unit on sale from Amazon, for $93 cheaper. Well, to be precise, $104.16 cheaper including tax.
I walked in to Sears with my receipt and a printout of the Amazon.ca page for the product, and asked if I could get a price match. I was told no, because they don't consider Amazon to be a competitor. The answer remained no, even after I clearly outlined what my next steps were going to be—buying that unit from Amazon instead, packing up and returning the one I had bought from them, and them losing a sale and a customer.
On my way home I stopped by a couple other stores to see if they a) had that same unit in stock, and b) were willing to price match Amazon. They both indeed carried it, but as expected the price match was a no go. I'm considerably more forgiving in those instances, because in those cases it was simply a case of finding the best place to buy something, and hoping that someone would price match, so I wouldn't have to wait for a package to be delivered.
When those other two stores didn't match Amazon's price they lost a potential sale, yes, but that's a different scenario from the one Sears is in, where they are losing a sale because the sale was already made and it's going to be undone, plus now they're going to have a slightly used espresso maker to try and unload. From their perspective I think it would have been better for them to have lost $93 in profit (but at least they'd still have some profit, in contrast with the zero they're going to have now), but end up with a very satisfied, and most importantly, repeat customer, plus not having the hassle of dealing with another returned product.
I just finished placing my order on Amazon, so now I've passed the point of no return. Well, I guess not quite yet as I can still cancel the order up until when they actually ship it. The next thing is to pack up my other one to take back to Sears. But since they do have a 30-day return window I have some time to make myself a couple more egg nog lattes before going for a week with no espresso maker. At least I have plenty of regular coffee to hold me through.
PS - I know I could take the unit I get from Amazon and return that one to Sears, completely unopened, since they're identical, and save the step of repacking the one I have, but I don't know if my new one will arrive in time before Sears' return window closes. Plus, that would also end up being a huge help to them, eliminating their “slightly used espresso maker to try and unload” problem...
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