Credit Union not in the 21st century

I had a charge refused on an online purchase I made with a credit card from my credit union on Wednesday. Then it happened with another online purchase on Friday. After that one, I went online and checked my account. Everything was up to date and there was nothing to indicate a problem. Today I tried the card in a store and it was also refused. In this afternoon's mail, I had two letters from the credit union letting me know that both my credit card and ATM card had been cancelled because some company which processes some of the transactions had stored account information when they shouldn't have. Both of my cards were in the range of numbers which were compromised. They are in the process of replacing the cards for many people who have accounts there, something which may take more than a week. The question for me is why did they rely on snail mail alone to notify people. There's nothing on the website and there have been no emails indicating there was a problem. They do have a recorded message if you call them, but it seems to me that they should have covered all the possibilities.

KFI - The Tech Guy

I like to listen to Leo Laporte on KFI on weekends. He's on from 11-2 Saturday and Sunday, but the station doesn't come in at my house although it's okay in the car. I can get it online at KFI640.com. While the content of the show is usually pretty good, there's just not enough of it. Each half hour is good for about 18 minutes of content and he may take 3 phone calls. Lots of commercials and news.

PayPerPost convention

PayPerPost is going to have a conference for their bloggers and advertisers in Orlando June 8-9. $200 to attend. It might be fun but I don't think I'll be able to go. Too far away and too expensive to get there for me, but maybe once there are more details on what's happening I'll be a little more interested.

Steve Sarkisian

When it looked like the Raiders were going to hire a new coach -- Steve Sarkisian -- he woke up from this bad dream and realized what he would be getting himself into. He withdrew from consideration today, leaving the Raiders empty handed and backpedaling, saying that he was never offered the job. Maybe not, but who cares. So we know it won't be Sarkisian or James Lofton coaching the Raiders next year. My money is on Rob Ryan, the Raiders' defensive coach. At least the defense was good, so why not reward this guy and let him find an offensive coordinator so the Raiders can double their wins next year.

Walking across America

I read a book about a guy who walked across the US many years ago. Not something I would do myself, but it's still interesting to see how many nice people there are out there. A couple of weeks ago, Matt Gregory passed through Temecula. I saw him at the Temecula public library. He is walking from Bellingham, WA to Miami. I guess that's going to take a year to do. Right now, he's in Yuma AZ. He's doing the walk to raise money for cancer research. Check out his blog.

#84

I thought maybe Chris Webber had an advertising deal with 84 lumber when I saw him in his new Pistons uniform. Or maybe he's going to play tight end for the Detroit Lions next season and keep that number. Actually, his nephew had a dream that Webber was wearing #84 for the Pistons and that's why he chose it. Sounds funny, but apparently it's true.

Lakers keep winning

Anyone who thinks Phil Jackson isn't a great coach hasn't watched the Lakers this year. They have almost the same team as last year yet they are doing much better and beating teams like the Spurs and the Mavericks. I am not sure why they are so much better since Lamar Odom has been out and they have also been missing most of their big guys, but the guys they do have are much better and Maurice Evans is an excellent player who has really added quite a bit. I think Radmonovich will do better as the season goes along and the Lakers are going to stay near the top. I don't think they can beat the Suns in the playoffs however.

Mystery box from PayPerPost

I got a nice surprise on my front porch this morning. Some books I ordered were left there sometime yesterday along with a mystery green box from PayPerPost. I didn't order anything from PayPerPost, so they must have sent it just because they like me so much. :-) Inside the box was a big foam finger. That's going to look nice next to my painting of dogs playing cards... I also got a huge pen and a t-shirt which was folded up so small that I didn't know what it was. I was going to throw it into a bucket of water because I thought it was something that would expand in water. I also got a job search audio course from Trump University and a couple of other nice things. Thanks!

American Idol

I don't usually watch the American Idol show, but last night I saw some of it. They were in Minnesota so lots of people did Prince songs, although not very well. The thing I don't get about the people who show up at the auditions is how they can be so unaware of themselves in terms of their singing. I can't sing at all and I wouldn't pretend otherwise, but some of the people who show up are absolutely terrible. Yet when they get some honest feedback, some of them act like it's a big shock. Of course, the show relies on these kinds of people in the early stages to keep it interesting. That's obvious since they spend so much time on the characters who don't make it.

At work chatters

Once you get that Internet addiction, it can be hard to break the habit. SFGate has a Q&A column for business questions and today's item is about a co-worker who chats online all day long and doesn't get her work done. The recommendation is to enforce the policy that the computer belongs to the company, not the worker, and the use of the computer can be monitored. Also suggested is to install keylogger software. I bet there is a way to block chatting also, but wouldn't telling the employee that their chat sessions will be recorded be a step towards ending that?

Beckham getting a raw deal in Spain

Sounds like Beckham is not going to be playing in Spain again. When your boss calls you a Hollywood actor and says you didn't have any other offers, you probably aren't playing much before you leave the team. If he really didn't have any other offers and he can't play much, why are the LA Galaxy making him the highest paid team athlete ever? Somebody's story doesn't add up.

T-shirt at Saints game

In a brief crowd shot during yesterday's Saints-Eagles game, there was a Saints fan with an interesting t-shirt. The shirt exposed her stomach, which is probably why she was on camera, but the camera operator didn't pay much attention to the message on her shirt. It said "Fuck Da Eagles". I'm guessing that's not allowed on television and someone may be paying a fine, but I could be wrong. A few other people caught it too -- here, here, here, and here.

Beckham advertising starting already

There is a banner ad in the LA Times sports section featuring David Beckham in today's paper. That didn't take long. He may not be on the team for another 5 months, although since the Real Madrid coach says he won't be playing for them again, who knows? Maybe Beckham will show up early and play with the team the whole season.

Disappointing end to Chargers' season

The Chargers should have won today. They blew it in the fourth quarter by wasting two timeouts and getting two stupid 15 yard penalties. One timeout was wasted when they challenged a call where there was no reason to challenge. The guy clearly fumbled, so wasting one of your 3 timeouts was not wise. The second timeout was wasted when they called it following a long stop in play after an injury. They had plenty of time to call a play and be ready to go, but for some reason, they called timeout. This really cost them at the end, because with two more timeouts, they could have run at least two more plays and thrown the ball over the middle and gained more yardage. The result would have been a much closer field goal attempt. 54 yards was too far away.

The two penalties were ridiculous. One bailed out the Patriots after they had failed on 3rd and long and the other gave the Patriots good field position after the Chargers had to kick off from the 15.

They beat themselves and gave Tom Brady a chance to come back, which he did. Disappointing.

Sign Spinners

I see people standing on corners spinning signs just about any time I drive around Temecula on a weekend when it's not dark. They are usually promoting a real estate development and sometimes they get pretty excited and put on a show. It looks like a boring job, although if you have an iPod and enough to eat, I guess it could be bearable. This morning I saw something I never imagined I'd see -- a woman with one of those signs with the name of a church on it. Now, I don't think it was for any purpose other than locating the church because I don't think too many people out driving around are going to spontaneously decide to go to church. I guess they might consider it for the future if it's in their neighborhood, so maybe that was what she was doing. She didn't have an iPod although she was wearing sunglasses.

Adam Carolla + Danny Bonaduce = problems

There's a great op-ed piece in the LA Times by Meghan Daum today about Adam Carolla. He's the guy who hosted Love Line with Dr. Drew for many years, then moved on to The Man Show with Jimmy Kimmel and now has his own morning radio show in LA. To say that Meghan Daum thinks Adam Carolla is a great host is an understatement, but she does make some really interesting points in her piece. I have listened to Love Line many times when he was hosting and he really does have some good analogies which are pretty insightful. His junior college riff is usually pretty funny. I feel sorry for him now that he has been paired with train wreck Danny Bonaduce. What did that guy ever do besides the Partridge Family anyway?

What happened to the weather?

All the weather forecasts around here said heavy rain on Thursday and Friday with snow as low as 1500 feet. It never even rained! There were some very dark clouds this morning and it was cold, but no precipitation. I'd like to see it warm up a little bit but otherwise it has been pretty nice for January.

What happened to my page rank?

Google has been updating page rank this week. I don't know if it's done yet or not, but my other site went from 1 to 3 and this site hasn't moved off zero. When I checked with that PR predictor site, this one was supposed to be higher - 5 -- than the other one, which was also a 5, but slightly lower before rounding up. This site gets more traffic although the other one has a few more links coming in, but not many. I will wait and see but I hope this one gets up from zero.

Bad weather coming

There is a big storm headed this way, I think. At least some thunderstorms and cold weather and possibly snow at pretty low elevations. Tomorrow will be a good day to work from home and avoid the crazy accidents that always happen when it rains. I drove home at the speed limit today and everybody passed me. It will be the same tomorrow

Curriki

I didn't know that Scott McNealy, the CEO of Sun, was so interested in education and in helping teachers. He set up Curriki, a site for exchanging lesson plans and other educational material. It sounds good. I need to get back and look at it more.

ScreenSteps

I took a brief look at ScreenSteps today and watched one of the tutorials on the website. It looks like an interesting way to streamline the production of step by step tutorials. It's also an alternative to screencasting. What's not clear is how much it's going to cost -- right now it's a beta which expires in less than two weeks. It might save some time since it integrates screen capture with a template for presenting the tutorial. The template I saw isn't a format I would normally use, but it might be flexible enough to work. Works on Windows and Mac.

MacWorld Discounts

Dealmac has around 50 deals on Mac software and hardware you can get even if you aren't going to MacWorld. Most are only good through tomorrow, though. One I liked is 30% off Profcast, an application which helps you convert a presentation into a podcast. It's a good deal at $21. I bought it myself.

Beckham coming to LA

I was reading in the LA Times today about how David Beckham would probably end up staying in Europe because the quality of play in MLS isn't high enough. That seemed odd, since he's not playing much for Real Madrid and he got booted off the English team. So I clicked onto CNNsi.com and the headline was Beckham coming to LA Galaxy. I guess $250 million is enough to make you not worry too much about the level of competition.

Apple, Inc.

The Apple iPhone is a very big deal, but changing the name of the company is pretty big, too. With the iPod, AppleTV, and iPhone, the company is doing more than computers. Reminds me of the VP who cancelled my video project because Apple "is a computer company." Good luck to Apple! I think I'll have to wait and see what the phone contract includes as far as paying for Internet access before I buy one of those phones.

Bring on Boise State

I know it's not going to happen, but it would be nice if Boise State had a shot at the national championship. They haven't lost and if there was a real playoff system for college football, they might have a chance to play their way to the title. Even though I'm a Gator fan, it still doesn't feel right that the championship isn't really decided on the field. Sure, they beat #1, but now you've got two teams with 1 loss and Boise State, which may end up #3 or #4, who knows, with no losses.

Gators looking good

I wouldn't call myself a huge Florida football fan, but when they have a good team, I like to mention that I'm a graduate of UF. I was hoping for the best against Ohio State, but never imagined that the Gators would just run them out of the building, as they have in the first half. Florida's offense hasn't been stopped much at all and they get the ball to start the second half, so things are looking good. Urban Meyer has called some excellent plays and the defense has been incredible.

MacWorld Keynote tomorrow

Less than 24 hours to go on the MacWorld Keynote. I'm expecting a few new items from Apple -- probably the new iPod, maybe the phone and maybe a TV and the media streaming device, plus a few software updates. That might be too much to expect, but we'll see what happens. The last few of these have not lived up to expectations, which tend to be very high because of how closed Apple is about new products.

Student Awards

One of my sons got an academic award at school today. He's been working pretty hard and does well in school, so that's great for him. I thought it was ironic that the two students who got the citizenship awards were the only two in his class who he'd had trouble with over the past couple of months. He had come home complaining about what each of them had done on different days. Both were incidents which had to do with honesty. Hmmm...

xPad

Odd timing but xPad was yesterday's Mac freeware application of the day at FreeMacWare.com. At least it didn't show up on MacZot again. I'm not sure that such a small program has generated this level of news and commentary before. The developer, Garrett Murray, wrote a bad contract, the purchaser, Brian Ball, exploited it, and now everyone is talking about an application that had been dormant for 2 years. I don't think the developer had much interest in updating the software -- I read his own statement to that effect on his site not long after version 1.0 of xPad came along. So it seems to me he got an offer that was probably a little inflated and took it without thinking that the way he'd written the contract, he might not get what he was expecting. Brian Ball may or may not have ever intended to fulfill the contract, but the way it was written worked out perfectly for a speculative venture. He could find out whether or not he could sell it and bail out if he wanted to, limiting his risk. He did that, but the way he did it -- not answering emails, continuing to sell the application beyond the time he'd paid for it -- is the crux of why most people are not happy with him. In the end, it's the same story you see again and again. The initial problem wasn't huge, but the failure to communicate honestly about it blows things up into something much worse. It will be interesting to see if MacZot can attract other developers who are willing to sell their software at a discount after this. It's already pretty clear that many customers won't be going back to MacZot.

Raiders fire Art Shell, again

Art Shell only lasted one year with the Raiders this time. He's probably better off without all the headaches that go with trying to coach the Raiders. His big mistake was hiring that guy from the bed and breakfast to run the offense. Things have changed in 12 years and it didn't make sense to hire a guy who had been out of football that long.

Who wants this job anyway? Until Al Davis steps aside, whenever that might happen, the Raiders aren't going to come back. They've got too many malcontents on their roster and they keep adding more of them. In fact, it wouldn't surprise me if they went after Terrell Owens for next season.

LSU - Notre Dame blowout

JaMarcus Russell, the LSU quarterback, looked like a guy who belonged in a better league with larger players. I don't think I've ever seen someone throw the ball as easily as he does and have it go so far or so fast. He just flipped his wrist and the ball zoomed across the field 30 yards and when he was stationary, 40-50 yards was no problem. I believe the story that he can throw it 85 yards. I wonder if he won the Punt, Pass and Kick competition.

MacWorld Expo

I went to MacWorld Expo for 13 years in a row and then decided to stop going a couple of years ago when it had gotten pretty small. Things are going better now for Apple, but I'll be staying home again this year. One time I flew to Oakland, took BART to San Francisco, spent the day at MacWorld and then flew back home, but that is pretty exhausting -- about 7-8 hours of travel plus all the walking around. If the keynote is online, I'll probably watch that and look for some discounts from the vendors. Maybe I'll be able to go back next year.

Boise State wins

That Boise State game was incredible. It looked liked they were going to fall apart in the last few minutes and blow it, and when Oklahoma ran back the interception for a touchdown with a little bit more than a minute left, it seemed like the game was over. I almost turned it off at that point. The 4th down hook and ladder play for the tying touchdown was a great call, but when Oklahoma scored so easily in the first OT, again I figured it was over. Boise State didn't look good on their possession and had to scratch for a first down. Eventually they scored and the two point conversion was an amazing play. I hope Boise State breaks into the top 5 after that win. There really does need to be a playoff system because a team like Boise State doesn't have much of a chance the way things work now.

Bowl games

I remember when I was a kid, you had to watch all the major college bowl games on the same day, New Year's Day. There were other bowls that came before January 1, but the important ones were all on that day, starting in the morning and ending pretty late at night on the east coast. Now, they have all kinds of bowl games and the important ones seem to be played one per day. I guess there are three more games this week, starting at 5 PM on weekdays for the first two anyway. I think I'd rather see a playoff system so that you wouldn't have all these teams sitting around for 4-6 weeks waiting to play the bowl game.

Apple's phone

I was listening to The Tech Guy with Leo Laporte this morning when some guy called in with all kinds of details on the upcoming Apple phone. You never know how solid this kind of information is, but Leo seemed to find it credible. The guy said the phone will come in 4 GB and 8GB versions at $275 and $335 and will include Bluetooth 2 and some kind of accelerated data transfer technology. He also said it would be made out of zirconium. The caller said he had a friend who works at Apple -- don't all these guys with the rumors? There were more details but I am not much of a phone person so I didn't write anything down. I listen to Leo's show once in a while and I've never heard a call like that before, so maybe it had some real inside information. We should know in 9 days.

Navigation system getting irritating

The navigation system we have had in our car for a few weeks performed pretty well on our trip this week, at least as far as providing directions to known destinations. It's not very good when you are looking for a particular kind of store, as entering text is slow and it presents you with all local stores first and you have to scroll through several screens to get to the point where you can expand your search. It doesn't seem to have a search function, so you can't look for "Del Taco" or something like that. Maybe you can and I just can't find it.

One thing I am tiring of is the warning message that shows up every time the thing starts up. Don't try to calculate your position while driving... I got it the first 10 times and now it's just an irritation. Maybe it can be turned off.

IKEA Winter sale commercial

I don't watch too much television, so I don't see lots of commercials, but I did notice the IKEA Winter sale commercial this evening during the Lakers game. At one point, almost every piece of furniture in our house larger than a desk lamp came from IKEA, and the closest store was 350 miles away in Burbank! Eventually I got tired of the text free directions they provided and the time it took to assemble some of the furniture, plus we had very little room left for anything else, but I have never gotten tired of browsing the store or the catalog. In fact, we went to the IKEA in Tustin yesterday. Once I visited 4 IKEA stores in one day and rented a car to take everything home.

Anyway, the unique thing about the IKEA commercial is that in the process of making the point that sofas and families come in many different varieties (I think they use another term, but I can't remember what it was), the commercial ends with a shot of a couple sitting on the floor in front of a sofa with their child. I don't know if this is a first for television in the US, but the couple in the shot are two men, something I don't think I've seen before in a TV commercial. I don't know if this is an LA only commerical or if they show it everywhere there's an IKEA store nearby.

Time Goes By

I'm starting to think about resources for a one day class on blogging that I'll be teaching in February. The course is open to anyone, but should have a good number of "older" people because it's being offered at a location which has a number of programs targeted at people over 50. I'm not sure that over 50 is really old any more, but that's what it is.

One resource I think is a good one for this class is Ronni Bennett's blog, Time Goes By. She talks about aging and ageism at work and in the media, among other topics.

MacAppADay seems to have run out

MacAppADay shut down for about 5 days and they seem to really be creating a problem for themselves by promising certain things and then not delivering on them. Today's free app isn't an app at all. It's a 3 month trial membership to beta test a new site for creating web pages. Since the site hosts your content, it seems like you won't have access to it after 3 months unless you pay, which makes this one a little different than all the other freebies which were actually applications you could use.

Mostly bad customer service, with one exception

On our short trip to Long Beach, we had various encounters with bad customer service. Restuarants, Costco, the Aquarium. I don't have time to go into detail as I'm still on the road, but there was one exception. The Hyatt really surprised me with their response to a problem. I'll write it up later.

Disclosure problem for bloggers

and it's not related to PayPerPost! Microsoft gave a bunch of bloggers laptops with Windows Vista on them, presumably to write a review. At least one blogger didn't point out that the laptop was a gift and that got him into some trouble, at least in the comments on his site. Then MS decided the laptops weren't gifts after all, and everyone has to give them back! Sounds like a PR disaster all around.

We visited the Aquarium of the Pacific

I guess I was spoiled by the last Aquarium I went to -- the Monterey Aquarium. The Aquarium of the Pacific isn't bad, but it was smaller than I figured and was pretty busy today. It was a little bit of an adventure just getting the tickets. Costco advertises discount tickets, but they didn't have any at our local Costco, so we drove to Long Beach and stopped at the Costco there. Turns out they only sell the tickets in the summer. Plan B was to go to the hotel and order the tickets online at the hotel and then pick them up across the street at the Aquarium. I would save about $16 that way. Well, the Hyatt doesn't have any free Internet access. I could have sworn that when I upgraded to a nicer room it said "high speed wireless Internet". Actually, it did, but they left out the $9.99 per day fee. They do have one free access station in the special room for people who pay more money for their rooms. Since I did that this time, I was able to get in that room and buy the tickets. We walked over in very strong winds and I went to the kiosk to pick up the tickets. They expect you to bring along the confirmation code -- 15 digits -- even though when you purchase the tickets online they do not say that you need the code to pick them up. It just says swipe your credit card. Anyway, I got the tickets and we joined the crowd inside.

Aquarium of the Pacific

We are making a trip to the Aquarium of the Pacific tomorrow. It should be interesting. I haven't spent much time in Long Beach since I lived there about 13 years ago and it has changed quite a bit. I think the area around the Aquarium has been developed. The Hyatt hotel was being used to shoot a movie with Arnold Schwarzenneger when I lived there. They build some kind of device on the outside of the building for a particular shot which seemed to take weeks. I don't remember the movie, but I don't think it was very good.

MaternityCard can help with having a baby

Having a baby is a complicated matter. I didn't realize how much went into it and how expensive the Cost of Having a Baby could get until we had our first child. We went through some training classes and got a tour of the hospital where our son would be born and learned what to do when the time came. I remember looking at the intensive care unit and assuming I would never have to deal with that, but our son had some serious complications which kept him in the hospital for 8 days after he was born, and he spent some of that time in one of those isolation rooms. It was very stressful and it would have been even more stressful if we didn't have a good medical plan covering the expenses.

I think anyone who is having a baby would benefit from the kind of services provided by MaternityCard. For a monthly fee, they offer a comprehensive maternity service package which includes everything you need related to have a baby. They guarantee their services will pay for themselves or you will be refunded the difference plus $200, which is a nice deal.

MaternityCard works with with a very large network of doctors, obstetricians, hospitals and medical facilities to make sure women who are expecting a baby receive the best care available at the very best rates. Their services extend to the first two years after your child is born and will cover checkups, immunizations and any other medical costs. It's good to have that kind of coverage just in case you need it because you never know what may come up.

Christmas gift

I didn't buy any hi tech stuff this Christmas, at least not for myself. I got 4 of those stick people animated cubes for my sons, but I'm not sure those are going to get a lot of use. I'm saving my money for the Apple streaming device which may or may not show up at Macworld. I hope it will be worth the wait.

Jeff Garcia fan

I always liked Jeff Garcia when he was with the 49ers. We lived in San Jose at the time and he did too, plus he was from San Jose and his dad was his coach. I felt bad for him when the 49ers let him go and also when he had to endure some of the stupid comments made by Terrell Owens. Glad to see that Jeff Garcia is doing well and it was quite a contrast to watch the post game comments he made compared with Terrell Owens, who only complained about not getting the ball. Garcia is a team guy and he shows that in the way he plays. Owens has always been a me-first player who disrupts the team whenever things aren't going his way. I don't expect him to be back with the Cowboys next year and maybe other teams will wise up and see that as good as he can be on the field, his other antics make him not worth the effort.

MacSanta ended at 9 PM EST

I got my answer on that one as the coupon failed to work on the last application I tried to buy, CSSEdit. I can get it later for full price if necessary. It probably would have been a good idea to indicate the expiration time on the MacSanta site, as there was really no way to know which time zone they were using. One other minor gripe -- Rogue Ameoba was behind the site, but they didn't offer the discount on their Fission & Audio Hijack Pro bundle. You could either take the bundle discount or the MacSanta discount, but not both. Other vendors did allow the use of the MacSanta coupon with their bundles.

I went back and checked and at least on some of the sites, the coupon was still working, so maybe there was something wrong with the CSSEdit site to begin with, although the MacSanta site does say the deal is over.

Lean and mean on PayPerPost

I am running low on open opportunities on PayPerPost. It's Christmas and things have been slow for a while, but there are a few remaining opportunities that I haven't done. Not many, but a few. Some of them are in the list 2 or 3 times and I don't think it looks good to have the same one every day. I think at this point there are only 3 that I could do. I was all set to finally break down and do that old one about moving to Scottsdale, Arizona -- 10 words for $2.50 but it disappeared! Finally... Let's hope things pick up again soon, although for the sake of the PayPerPost staff, they should probably have the rest of the week off.

MacSanta closing up shop

I am not sure if MacSanta ends at midnight Pacific Time or some other midnight, but I'm trying to get all my purchases done by 12 EST. One thing that is frustrating is that for a number of the apps there is not a clear way to use the discount. It doesn't always work in the coupon field and sometimes I've had to go through the process 3 times to get it right. Not to mention that not everyone takes PayPal and that sometimes if you use PayPal you can't use the coupon. Strange.

Chargers win

The Chargers didn't look too good against the Seahawks today in the second half, which was when I was watching. They did manage to pull it out at the end, so they have the best record in the NFL now. I think if they can avoid playing games in bad weather they should make it to the Super Bowl as long as Philip Rivers can limit his mistakes. He didn't have a good game today but he made the big play when it counted.

One thing that bugged me watching the game was hearing Dick Enberg and Randy Cross keep saying that guys were dropping balls and Rivers had a poor completion percentage and they never once mentioned the fact that it was raining the entire game. Gee, I wonder if that had anything to do with it.

MacAppADay takes 3 days off

MacAppADay is off until the 27th, when presumably they will finish off the week with a few more free apps for the Mac with something special on January 1. The special might be a bundle for purchase. Fine by me. Although MacAppADay is taking a break, there is no holiday among the commenters who keep finding more things to dislike about a site which is giving stuff away for free. The complaints range from not liking the fact that the free applications aren't upgradeable to the site's claim that they would give away an application each day in December and haven't lived up to that. Maybe those people should find other stuff to gripe about. Sure, you don't get the same rights with the software that you would get if you bought it, but who can give away 5000 copies of their software for free and stay in business? Many of these applications are things I had never heard of before, so I can't imagine that they have a huge customer base. It's been a good way to learn about new applications, along with MacZot and MacSanta.

Costco moves stuff around

I drove about 20 miles to another Costco beyond the one in my town to pick up something that was only available there. It was a gift certificate to a local spa. I looked all around the store but didn't find it. It wasn't in the area with the other gift cards. Finally I asked a manager and she said it was in the Christmas gifts section. I went back there and didn't find it. I looked around some more and asked another manager. He said they had moved it this morning but he didn't know where it was, so he would just get the product number for me and I could pay for it that way. Sounded good. He had to deal with a problem in the digital camera display so I had to wait there with him. As he did that, I noticed that the gift card I was looking for was stacked up behind the digital cameras! I'm not sure anyone would have looked there. It wasn't even on display. Maybe they really do want you to walk all over the store so you'll see everything else they have.

LA Times customer service - are they people or robots?

My copy of the LA Times wasn't delivered this morning, so I called their missing paper number and requested a replacement. That didn't show up, so I called back again and was routed to customer service. I'm not sure where the customer service people work, but "Mike" seemed like an automotan. He asked for my name, address and phone number, the same information I had already entered in the automated system. He also asked why I was calling, so I told him I didn't get today's paper. He was having trouble finding my account. I told him it might be under my wife's last name, which I gave to him. He found it. Then he said "please give me your address." I said, "it's the same one I just gave you," but I had to recite it again. Then he said "How can I help you today?" -- as if we had never spoken. I told him I had not received my paper and was calling to see if I could get a copy delivered. He said he would make sure I got my paper and that was the end of the conversation. The paper never arrived.

MacSanta stops at 104

The MacSanta site seems to have topped out at 104 companies, selling way more than 104 applications. 20% off is a nice deal and I've got my list and will be trying some of them out over the weekend. Last day to buy is Monday with the discount. I don't expect to see any new names on the list, but you never know. I guess GeeThree never heard my pleas because they didn't show up on the MacSanta list.

Baseball injury was really a video game injury

Remember in the baseball playoffs when the Tigers couldn't use their flamethrower, Joel Zumaya? He had wrist and elbow problems. Turns out that it didn't have anything to do with baseball:

The Tigers believe Joel Zumaya's right wrist and forearm inflammation came not from throwing his 103-mph fastball but from excessively playing Guitar Hero, a PlayStation 2 game where participants simulate popular songs with by tugging on a guitar-shaped apparatus. GM Dave Dombrowski told WXYT it was the video game that caused Zumaya to miss three ALCS games.

From Jon Heyman at si.com.

MacSanta hits 100

MacSanta has 100 companies now in the 20% off promotion. I have a long list of stuff I'm going to buy in the next few days and maybe some more items if I have time to try them out. I'm still looking for GeeThree to show up on the list...it's not too late! GollyGee is there already with their GollyGeeBlocks, so some of the GeeThree iMovie plugins would make a nice addition to the list.

Boinx joins MacSanta

I didn't think it would happen, but Boinx software, maker of iStopMotion as well as some other great software, is now on the MacSanta list. That means I can save a few dollars when I buy iStopMotion as a gift. Maybe it's just a coincidence that I mentioned this twice already on my blogs, but probably not. Boinx had a link to the MacSanta site on their blog, so it seemed like a good chance they would get on the list.

NC school district bans book about penguins

Another politician helps keep the world safe from gay penguins..."And Tango makes Three," a story about two male penguins who raise a baby penguin, was banned by the Charlotte Mecklenburg School District. According to the Winston-Salem Journal, there were no complaints about the book from any parents, and Superintendent Peter Gorman either screwed up or make a mistake. He received an email inquiring about the book from a local politician:

Mecklenburg County Commissioner Bill James, a Republican, had e-mailed Gorman to see if the district had the book.

"I am opposed to any book that promotes a homosexual lifestyle to elementary school students as normal," he said.

After that, Gorman wrote a memo which led to the book banning. Either he caved in or he didn't write a clear memo.

The ban came in a Nov. 30 memo from district administrators to school principals and library staff. Gorman said parents and a Republican county official had asked him about the book.

A miscommunication between Gorman and his chief of staff, Robert Avossa, led to the book being banned with neither a written complaint nor an advisory committee review at a school as required by district policy, Gorman said.

"I screwed this one up," Gorman told The Charlotte Observer.

BrooWaha

The LA Times has a story today about BrooWaha which is an amateur online newspaper. It looks like a newspaper online, although I'm not sure that's a requirement. The paper covers the LA area. There are more and more of these local news sites which rely on user generated content rather than paid professionals. I think it's a good idea. In my area, there isn't much newspaper coverage and almost no TV coverage, so it might be a good thing around here.

More MacSanta

That MacSanta site has quite a list of applications, although still no sign of anything from Boinx. I'm hoping for an iStopMotion discount but maybe that's not going to happen until right after I purchase it...Some of the software on the list includes Voodoo Pad, Yojimbo, Fission, RapidWeaver, Sandvox, Tinderbox, and even Nisus Writer Express, something I gave up on long ago in favor of Mellel. That transition to OS X didn't go well for Nisus from what I remember.

MacSanta fills the void

MacAppADay is shut down today while they move to a new server and the last couple of applications on MacZot haven't been too interesting to me, so it's been a slow couple of days on the Mac shareware front. However, MacSanta showed up yesterday with 20% off on a number of applications, so that looked pretty good. Today, the MacSanta list seems to have tripled and I think there are 3 or 4 items on there that I'd like to get. There are now 63 companies listed. ScreenCasts online just got added in the past few hours. That's one I'm going to jump on. It's a good list and a good deal.

Bonehead drivers

I live on a small street that has an even smaller (1 lot length) entry street perpendicular to it which has a stop sign. Anytime I'm outside I can watch as people blow right through the stop sign where you have to go left or right. So typically they don't look at all and hardly slow down. This evening we were driving over to the library when some clown came right through the stop sign and turned left right in front of me as I was turning left. He stopped when I blew the horn and waved as if he was thanking me.

500

In baseball, 500 home runs used to be a big deal until the players started using steroids and now lots of guys are close to 500. In the world of PayPerPost, 500 posts is a big number. Only a couple of other people have made that many since PayPerPost started back in July. I'm now the third person with 500 posts (I think). That last one was number 500. I've averaged around $7 per post, which isn't too bad. At least I'm making more money than those people who stand out on the corner and wave signs as advertising.

NFL Network again

I'm watching the Cowboys play the Falcons on the NFL network. It's a good game, but it is painful to listen to Dick Vermeil provide commentary. He has a bad case of laryngitis and should have stayed home. Bryant Gumbel's minimalist play by play technique is fine with me and I guess I have gotten used to the idea that he doesn't have one of those announcer voices that sounds like it's amplified.

I have never seen this happen before, but at halftime, they replaced Dick Vermeil with Deon Sanders and Marshall Faulk. Dick will try to come back on Thursday and do another game.

How come every time Bryant Gumbel mentioned that the guy he usually works with, Cris Collinsworth, wasn't at the game, he said that it was "planned in advance"? I guess because people say they don't like each other and have no chemistry.

History of Temecula at library

I didn't take pictures because of bad weather but one thing I like at the new library is the history of Temecula told as you walk along the path from the parking lot to the library. It looks good and should expose some people to things they probably didn't know. They even have one of those stationary binocular set ups at the end. I will take pictures and post them on the next sunny day.

Temecula library

We made our first visit to the Temecula library. It's really nice inside and outside. Much nicer than I expected. There are lots of computers, including a very large homework room with about 30 computers in the teen area. There are lots of places to sit and enjoy a great view of the Sports Park while you read or do some work. The library has free wireless although I didn't try that out. Lots of books and videos and magazines and other things you would expect from a library. I think I will work at the library some of the time when I'm working at home. It even has a meditation garden. Overall, it's very impressive.

Temecula Library to offer food service

I thought you couldn't eat or drink inside most libraries, but I also thought using a cell phone in the library was a bad idea and that doesn't seem to be true either. The new Temecula library will have food and beverage service provided by local merchant, the European Cafe. Regular library hours are 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Fridays, and 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays. Concessions will be available 10-5 every day except Sunday.

Temecula Library opens

The new Temecula library opened yesterday. It looked good from the outside as I drove by in the morning, and workers were still doing more landscaping. It's amazing how they can make a place look like it's been there for some time with the right landscaping. PE.com says 250 people showed up for the opening last night. The library should have a nice view of the Sports Park below it. I hope to take a walk over on Saturday.

Driving the speed limit is a little hazardous

In my quest for the maximum miles per gallon to and from work, I am driving at or under the speed limit. The only other people doing that are either 80 years old or driving huge trucks that can't go much faster. It gets a little trick on a two lane highway to pass people when you are only doing 60 or 65. Most drivers are at 75 or more. I managed to crack the 60 miles per gallon mark last night on my way home and then this morning I got 54 on the way to work, which is an all time high. It's only 40 miles each way, so it might not be representative of much other than my commute, but it's still pretty good.

Clustrmaps

I was looking for a plugin which would create a cloud with the locations of visitors to this blog. I didn't find that, but I did find Clustrmaps, which creates a world map with dots representing the locations of the visitors. It's free and easy to set up and install. I think it looks pretty good so far, but I've only had 109 visitors in 3 days. Once the number gets bigger, it may be hard to read the little map in the sidebar.

Mozilla - Firefox - Bon Echo crashes

One thing that has been happening very regularly on my Intel iMac is that all non-Safari browsers that I use have been locking up. This happens frequently with no consistent pattern involved. Bon Echo -- an Intel compiled build of Firefox which is normally very fast, is the biggest culprit, but it also happens with Firefox and even Mozilla. It may be time to check the plugins since I've reinstalled the latest versions and they still crash.

UCLA data loss

I'm not one of the 800,000 people who had their personal data exposed in that UCLA database that was compromised recently. I was in the UC Berkeley database that was on a laptop which was stolen though. That was a few years ago. It makes you wonder if places can't keep this information secure, is it safe to give it to them in the first place. The social security number in particular seems very risky if it's so easy to get into these databases.

Today's MacAppADay

The app today on MacAppADay was Overflow, which helps organize your dock, giving you more room for icons. It's a pretty nice tool and was also part of the MacHeist giveaway. So I have a couple of copies which I can use on two of my Macs. The MacHeist bundle still looks good at $49 but because I have 4 of the apps, I'm not getting in on that. I'm still hoping to see something different on MacZot or MacAppADay.

MacHeist bundle

I don't think I'm going to spend the $45 on the MacHeist bundle. It comes down to only 4 applications and I probably wouldn't use any of them. It's a great deal if you don't have some of the others like FotoMagico or RapidWeaver, but I already paid for both of them and I have two others out of the 8. So I'll wait for another deal.

58 miles per gallon

I was able to get 58 miles per gallon on my way home this evening. I'm driving a Honda Civic Hybrid and I kept my speed at or below the speed limit (65 miles an hour). There were several slow downs on the route and it was only about 38 miles total, with a decline in elevation, so there was some fuel savings there. I think it's possible to get more than 60 miles per gallon on this route with some more attention to speed.

Thrupp

Today's MacAppADay is Thrupp. This is the first one I have absolutely never heard of. It's a tool for managing your iTunes library with non-iPod mp3 players or memory cards. It also does a few other things like converting bitrates. Get it while it's still free...

Lifehacker uses Stock Xchng photos...

Funny coincidence -- I was looking through LifeHacker and noticed an entry "The hidden causes of worker burnout." The image with it looked familiar. I had come across the image on Friday looking through Stock Xchng, the free stock photo site, for images related to studying. This one shows a guy sleeping on his books. In a different context, I guess he's a burned out worker!

Chargers win big

The Broncos are a good team, but the Chargers blew them out after the Broncos made a game of it in the third quarter. With Gates, Tomlinson, the other receivers and Philip Rivers, I don't think the Chargers are going to be stopped on offense very easily. They just have too much. As long as their defense plays well they should be competitive against anyone. The two games they lost this year could easily have gone the other way and they could be undefeated.

Chargers looking good today

I'm watching some of the Chargers - Broncos game and the Chargers have looked pretty good except for a turnover in the 3rd period. I think this may be the year they get back to the Super Bowl. They have an excellent defense and their offense is outstanding also. As long as Marty Schottenheimer doesn't get conservative with the play calling, they are a strong team. They've got the best player in the league on offense, Ladanian Tomlinson and Shawne Merriman has to be one of the top defensive players. The will be hard to beat.

Tori Spelling yard sale

The LA Times has a big article about Tori Spelling's yard sale yesterday. Ten helicopters for a yard sale? The last yard sale we had earned us $30 and it was irritating to deal with so many people who wanted to bargain down the price on clothes from a dollar each. The article says that blogger Perez Hilton showed up, but no sign of anything related to the yard sale on his site. The article also says that Tori Spelling and her husband plan to open a bed and breakfast, and they are considering Ojai, Temecula, and Idylwild as the locations. Here's one vote for Ojai...

MacAppADay - Mira

Today's free app at MacAppADay was Mira from Twisted Melon. It adds more functionality to the Apple Remote. I was hoping for this one to show up because with my new MacBook Pro, I might actually use the remote. It might be a good way to impress the Windows users.

It says on the site that tomorrow's free app will be another one from Devon Technologies. I have 4 new applications from them in the past 2 weeks, so there's a fair chance I already have what they are giving away.

LA Times for kids

The LA Times has a nice page for kids each day in the print newspaper. This week's feature has been about the LA Times and how the newspaper is produced. Interesting to me because my dad worked at a newspaper when I was young and I remember making some visits to the building where they printed the paper -- The Perth Amboy Evening News. I did a school report on typesetting and had some pieces of metal type to show.

One thing they don't mention on the LA Times kids page is the pay wall which hides most of the stories they publish:

Each separate Web page is tied to the main site for latimes.com, called the "home" page. It's like a table of contents for the whole website. All these pages are tied together and arranged so you can find every story in the paper. Then they are sent to a central computer, called a "server."

So maybe you can find every story in the paper the day it's published, but if you look for something next week you may not find it.

CW Nevius blog

People sometimes say that sportswriters are some of the best journalists. Jim Murray of the LA Times was one sportswriter like that, and CW Nevius, although not a sportswriter any longer, does a really excellent job on non-sports topics. I really liked his commentary on overbearing parents at children's sporting events a few months back, and today he has a great piece on the James Kim story. While he addresses the complaints that some people have about the story, he gets to the heart of why it was so compelling and sad for most people.

CommonSenseMedia

One problem in many families where children use the Internet extensively and parents don't is that the parents aren't engaged enough in monitoring what their kids are doing. I have always been surprised at the number of kids under 10 who are allowed to play video games with Teen or even Mature ratings and watch R rated movies at home. I've interviewed many children who have told me this and have also heard more examples through my sons. To me, it's just a time bomb for parents to not be involved in what media their children consume. SFGate has a story today about CommonSenseMedia.org is a website where people are trying to address this problem by rating movies, games, music, books and websites. Their recommendations for what age is appropriate are a little more realistic than the movie industry's -- for example, they say that the movie Blood Diamond, rated R, is okay for anyone older than 15. It's a good resource for parents and children.

MacAppADay may need registration...

I've been hitting the MacAppADay site every morning and downloading whatever they are offering each day. Today I finally noticed that in some cases you also need to download a registration key, or request one. I'm usually barely awake and I can hardly read the screen, so I think I missed that on a couple of the early ones. Today's app was DevonAgent, version 1.7. I bought version 2.0 last week. If you get 1.7 they give you $20 off if you upgrade, a savings of $30.

Speed of MacBook Pro

The MacBook Pro I have is way faster than my iMac. Both have Intel chips, although not the same ones, but I have a feeling that the 2GB of RAM in the MacBook Pro is making a big difference. My iMac has slowed to a crawl at times and it can be pretty frustrating to work with when that happens. Time for more memory!

Christmas Lights

It seems like a slow year for Christmas lights in my neighborhood. We have one street nearby where in past years every single home has been way overdone with lights and decorations and inflatable characters. It causes a traffic jam some nights. This year, only one house out of about ten has any lights at all, but it's early. I always fear climbing up to put the lights on my garage and falling off the ladder onto my car. That would be bad. I hope to get the lights up this week though.

SFGate profiles Mike Arrington

There is a long article in today's SFGate about TechCrunch blogger Mike Arrington. His quick rise to powerful blogger and Web 2.0 influencer is pretty incredible. They even call him Mr. Web 2.0. TechCrunch is a great source of information, but not knowing the relationships which exist between TechCrunch and the companies they review is a little bit of a concern.

Old-school journalists question Arrington's ethics and potential for conflicts of interest. He even engaged in a high-profile dustup with the New York Times at an Online News Association conference in October in which he accused the Times of ethical lapses but later backed down. Blogger and author Nick Carr charged that while Arrington discloses his investments when he writes about companies, he doesn't always disclose those investments when he writes -- sometimes negatively -- about their competitors. Tech gossip blog Valleywag has a field day with each alleged transgression.

Arrington struck back on his blog, writing that his friendships and his activity as an entrepreneur and investor help him get access to inside information.

"No one should think TechCrunch is objective or conflict-free," he wrote. "We aren't. We never have been. We never will be."

Get your mail delivered at a mailstop

Sometimes it's useful to have a place to have mail delivered other than at your home address or place of business. I used a mailbox when I was selling stuff on eBay because I was paranoid about having some weirdo hunt me down and rob me. It's safer and easier to pick up the mail at a maildrop, especially if you get packages. It can be challenging to find a maildrop, but Maildropguide.com has done the work of locating mailboxes for you. Just enter your city or zip code and you'll quickly have a list of places where you can get a mailbox. If you aren't sure how a maildrop works, check out the guide. Maildropguide also offers listing service -- $40 for a lifetime listing -- if you run a business which provides mail boxes.

New laptop arrives

After more than a month of waiting and a few more days of preparation, my MacBook Pro arrived at work today. I have the 15" model and it seems huge after using a 12" Powerbook for 2+ years. I have pretty much the standard set of software, plus the unavoidable MS Office, 2 GB of RAM, and Windows XP set up with Bootcamp. I tried the Parallels beta to use XP from Bootcamp but didn't get that to work. I'll have to do some troubleshooting there. My primary use of XP will be with Camtasia, but I am considering scrapping that plan and doing the screen recording with Snapz Pro on the Mac side. Not perfect, but it should do the job for me and maybe I can wait and see if Camtasia comes out for the Mac at MacWorld.

Record your voice memos with BrainCast

Something that happens to me all the time when I'm listening to the radio in the car is that I need to make a note of something like a URL or the name of a musician, and I can't do it. I'm driving with both hands on the wheel and trying to grab a pen and write things down can be dangerous. A great solution for this would be the new BrainCast Beta -- BrainCast is a free service which allows you to record voice memos from any phone. No charge. Just call their 800 number, say what's on your mind and they will call your phone and leave a message reminding you to pick up your voice memo. They'll even send you an RSS feed listing your memos. It works with any US cell phone carrier and you can sign up and get started in no time. And of course, you can use it for more serious things than saving the URL from some company mentioned on the radio.

Navigation system still needs work

We tried out the Magellan navigation system for a 3 mile trip. It took a while to get our address into the system since it didn't recognize our street name, which has two words. Once we didn't use the first word, it worked, but by then we were already where we were going. On the way back, it seemed to follow our route fine and call out directions, but it was a little bit slow as we got closer to home. In fact, once we were in the driveway, it said "in about a quarter of a mile, turn right into destination". So maybe it could be a little more accurate.

Navigation system

We received a portable navigation system as a gift today. It looks pretty good and we will give it a try. I'm not sure how much use it would get day to day but my wife often gets lost, so it would probably be useful for her. I think there's only one way for me to get to work and back and 98% of that is on the freeway, but I guess if I need to get off the road somewhere and look for a 7-11, this would help.

Adding to Technorati

Just an empty post to set up my blog on Technorati. There's nothing here. Just for the Technorati Profile.

Tint your own windows and save some money!

If you live anyplace where there is sun, you may have noticed that windows let in UV rays which can do bad things like fade your curtains and furniture or make your car really hot inside. You could plant shade trees around your house or build your house into the side of a hill or maybe live in a cave, but otherwise you need to protect yourself against the bad effects of too much sunlight. SnapTint.com sells window tint kits for your car and home. They are pre-cut to the measurements of your windows, and it's simple enough that you can do the installation yourself. There are a choice of colors, all of which offer glare reduction, UC protection and heat protection. Where I live, it can get up to around 110 degrees in the summer and that can make it too hot to even grip your car's steering wheel if it's been outside too long. Check out SnapTint.com if you need some window tinting and you'd like to save some money by doing it yourself. I could tint the back windows of my Honda Civic for only $55, which would be a nice savings over paying someone to do it. It's $75 for a Honda CRV - back windows.

Gators are in

So my hope for dual national championships at UF in football and basketball at the same time is still a possibility... The Gators are going to have to play a great game to beat Ohio State, but I think it can happen. Florida had the most difficult schedule in the nation this year and ended up 12-1. They've played a number of tough teams and although they haven't always won by big numbers, they have won. Urban Meyer is a great coach and with a month to prepare, he will be ready for Ohio State. I think the Gator defense has been their strength all season and they're going to need it against OSU.

Check out Cave Creek in Scottsdale

Scottsdale Arizona is hot! Yes, it's really hot in the summer, but it's a hot area as far as real estate goes. The Cave Creek Resort and Casitas is located in Scottsdale and offers a unique investment opportunity. You can buy a Cave Creek Condo and rent it out as a hotel when you aren't there. You'll have a beautiful place to vacation whenever you like and the rest of the year you can earn income and pay your mortgage by using it as a rental. Cave Creek Real Estate is a great opportunity in a great location. Check it out!

Temecula library opens Dec. 15th

The new Temecula library is very high tech, according to the NC Times. It's got close to 100 computers and will be the largest library in the county, at 34,000 square feet, which is impressive. Because it's so large, there are going to be lots of new books -- 80,000 books total. Apparently those books are arriving each day and are being cataloged and put on the shelves. They better hurry -- opening day is in 11 days! I'm looking forward to it and hope to get over there on the second or third day it's open.

Software project management with VPMI from VCS

Software projects can be very complex. Just ask Microsoft about Vista! Multiple people working with the same code with multiple features, plus testing and documentation add up to a very complicated task. VCS Project Management Software can help you manage your software project, whether it's small or very large. Check out the features of their software to see if it will do the job for you. They've got a long list of happy customers you can check out, and a range of solutions to fit your project and company. You can even compare the features available in the enterprise and professional versions of the software. Check out the VCSOnline blog where you can learn about what's new, like the latest updates.

Flash software not doing the job

I have the latest version of Flash 8 Professional, but it's not native for the Intel Mac, and has run into some problems with recent updates to Quicktime. I thought Flash had become well integrated with Quicktime, but yesterday I found out otherwise. I spent some time creating an animation in Flash and then when I went to export it, I learned that it isn't working so well with Quicktime at all. I couldn't export to anything other than the .swf format, and when I did that, I couldn't open the file in any application other than the one I created it in. So there was no way to play back the exported movie due to some kind of incompatibility with Quicktime. I ended up playing the Flash video in Flash Professional 8 and capturing in with a screen capture program in order to convert it to Quicktime. That worked, but was not optimal. I need to investigate the problem more before I go ahead with my purchase of the Adobe Suite at work. It may be best to wait until the Spring when all of these applications are updated to work properly with the Intel Macs.