September 2, 2010

I'm On PingI'm now on Ping, you can find me by searching for me in iTunes 10+ under the Ping section or by clicking on over here.

That will open up iTunes and should take you to my profile.

Follow me there now! Now! I need Ping followers bad, really bad!

Why haven't you followed me yet?

Go here and follow me now!

Go!

Okay, you don't know what Ping is? It is Apple's social networking software for iTunes. More on that over at apple.com/itunes/ping.

September 2, 2010

This morning, on the way to work, the car in front of me stood out. It was an old car, but what was inside was what caught my eye. The rear window was completely covered by junk. Bags, shirts, just tons of stuff. Like the guy lived out of his car or something.

As some of you know, I keep the inside of my car very clean.

I wasn't able to take a picture of the car, but I found a neat one on Flickr. Click through to see it better.

Crazy Car 04

Do you keep a clean or messy car?

Gmail Thanksgiving Logo for 2007Last night, Google's Gmail announced priority inbox. I love the concept and I think it can be incredibly useful. But I hope I never have to use it on a daily basis.

As many of you know, I have email OCD. There are fewer people who reply to emails as quickly and efficiently as I do. That doesn't mean I don't get a lot of emails. I do. I get a ton. Likely more than you - yes, I said it, I get more email than you. But I am so crazy when it comes to my inbox that I hope I never need to use a "priority inbox."

What is it? Well, here is a quick video:

To be totally honest, I can see myself using this feature after being offline for three days straight for the upcoming Jewish holidays. But I really hope that this never becomes a feature I use daily or a feature any of my staff use on a daily basis.

google reader logoGoogle Reader lets you look at your reader habits on the Google Reader Trends page.

Did you know that recently Google Reader began documenting how many items you read in Google Reader over the course of time you have been using Google Reader?

Google said, "we now show you your lifetime read item count. That's right. Every. Single.* Item.**"

So I take a look and mine says:

Since December 2, 2009 you have read a total of 300,000+ items.

Since December 2, 2009 you have read a total of 300,000+ items.

That is where the ** comes in, Google added, "**Okay, that's not quite accurate - once you hit around 300K (which we know some of you are already over) we stop counting for performance reasons. Consider that "beating the game"."

So I guess I beat the Google Reader game! Do I get a T-Shirt or something?

Not only that, I have been using Google Reader since April 2007, after switching off from Bloglines after tons of frustration - in hindsight, a great move. Diller killed Bloglines, for the most part.

So how much did I read since 2007? Hmm... Let's say 30,000 items per month for the past 40 months or so. That is about 1,200,000, one million two hundred items since using Google Reader. Shouldn't I have to pay Google for that?

I guess I beat the Google Reader Game four times now. I guess I deserve a t-shirt, sweater, scarf and hat.

punk duckMany of you know what is going on over at Digg now. The users are revolting and posting tons of reddit.com stories to it, which is kind of a competing site. The revolt is over recent changes to the site, and their top user base is not happy with it.

So all the top users are standing up by submitting stories from reddit.com. I find it refreshing and a sign of camaraderie at it's best.

Why does it remind me of 11th grade? Well, my 11th grade class, at least the subdivision I was in, represented true camaraderie. How so?

Looking back at it, I am not proud, but it was a true sense of camaraderie, which is why I will share it.

Whenever one of our fellow students were penalized unfairly (as judged by the kids in the class), the class stood together. There were times where the class, as a whole, would not answer questions raised by the teacher. There were times where no one would answer the tests given to us, as a sign of camaraderie for our friends in our class. The class, no matter what, always stuck together, no matter what the consequence.

Back then, it was fun. But clearly, it was kind of foolish, but hey - that is kids for you.

Then came 12th grade. The administration split up the class and the camaraderie died with it. In fact, there was one student in our new class that believed there was still camaraderie in the new class. To prove it, I did something stupid, but I did it respectively as possible. The next time someone was asked to leave the class for misbehaving, I stood up and said nicely something like "If he is asked to go, I would like to be asked to leave as well." I looked around and no one else said anything, and I walked out of the class. I then explained why I did it to the teacher later, who found it all very interesting. But I had to prove the point.

When I see what is going on over at Digg now, it so reminds me of that camaraderie. The beauty here is that these are people coming together from all parts of the world, all ages and all backgrounds, supporting each other on a site they loved.

Toter CanEver since moving into my home I never wanted to pay for a trash can.

The concept of paying for something to store something that you are throwing away, just well - doesn't necessarily make full sense to me. I know it has to go somewhere but to pay for a container to keep it somewhere, seems wasteful.

Same concept of a wallet. To pay money to store your money, seems kinda reverse. So to pay money to store stuff that is less than worthless to you, again, kinda reverse.

Of course, people pay for trash cans - it is a big industry. Waste removal has a big price tag on it. You don't want the trash, you pay someone to get rid of it. It makes sense when you think of it that way. But when you think of it the other way, it does not.

Yesterday, almost 3 years since moving into my house, I spent money on my first trash can. I bought a 64 gallon Toter trash can at home depot.

What!? I didn't have a trash can for 3 years?! No, I did. I just took used ones from family. But they won't store enough trash for the upcoming holidays. When I have company over for three-days straight, it produces a lot of trash. So I decided to go big and put up some money to store trash.

Why Toter? Well, it was the best value for the size. I needed one that can fit a lot of trash and that had the lid attached to the basket. The already lost two lids due to the garbage disposal men or women throwing them on the ice and snow and then them blowing away, never to be found again.

I hope this Toter lasts me a long long time.

I was driving to work this morning, by myself and looked over and saw this:

No Passenger

I then thought --- hey, what if I was a lonely guy? What if I never had anyone sitting in my passenger seat? What if I had no friends? What if everyone hated me?

This would make me feel so sad.

August 25, 2010

Elmer FuddLast week I tweeted, "Elmer Fudd just ripped me off!" and I never followed up on that.

I have to tell you, I was angry. I don't often get angry, but I feel like Elmer Fudd ripped me off!

Why "Elmer Fudd"? Well, that is the name that came to mind when I had a groundhog problem at my house. We hired some company, I won't mention the name of the company, and the guy ripped us off.

He told us it would cost $75 to get rid of the animal. When he showed up, he said, it costs $375 for him just to show up and then $75 to remove the animal. Then he went on to say that we had to spend $1,500 worth of work to make sure it doesn't happen again.

(1) To not tell us about the $375! Ripp Off!

(2) To lie to me and tell me he told me that and I wasn't listening!

(3) To then take an extra $1,500 for something that was not necessary!

So we called another Elmer Fudd over, and he was nice. When we asked him about the price, he said, "I never say bad about competitors, but that's just not right."

So I got ripped off by $500 by Elmer Fudd.

Door Ten - Mail ManI was thinking random thoughts on the way to pick up the mail from the mailbox yesterday.

Affiliates make money for delivering money to their merchants. Why shouldn't the mail man make money for delivering money to his/her customers?

What if all the mail man took 1% of all the checks they delivered? They would be very well off and would make sure the checks got delivered on time.

Of course, then shouldn't they pay 1% of all the bills they delivered?

Okay, this post makes no sense cause it is not like the mail man got you a sale or anything.

Ignore ;-/

August 23, 2010

AirplaneThe more I fly, the more I become a slave to those airline miles. The programs the airlines design to keep their most important customers, loyal customers is working on me. I fly Continental and I keep flying them and only them just so I can retain my Elite Status, which I earned in 2008.

I don't often get the first class upgrades like others who are Platinum or Gold, I am just Silver. But it does let you do a few things that 'basic' customers don't get. Things like bonus miles, priority phone line (no long hold times), preferred seating, priority boarding (yes, overhead space), free checked bags and more. So sticking with an airline is important for these reasons.

I feel like I need these options. They say once you fly first class you can't go back. I don't have a problem flying coach, as long as I can pick a nice seat using Seat Guru and a lot of those nice seats are taken first by Elite Access members.

This year, I flew to Israel for the SphinnCon event 2010 on miles (not SphinnCon 2011 announced). You don't earn miles for flying with miles. So the 11,384 miles I normally get to get me Elite Access yearly with ease was not so easy this year.

I have already flown 14,896 miles in 2010, outside of that singe, not counted, 11,384 trip. I have a few more trips booked and scheduled, including 1,438 miles, 2,146 miles, 4,454 miles. That brings me up to 22,934 miles, I am 2,066 short of the 25,000 mile requirement.

Thing is, if I decide to visit the in-laws in St. Louis and I take Continental by the end of the year, I will get 2,180 miles. Thus be 144 miles above the requirement and keep elite status for 2011.

I am a sucker - but at least I admit it.