March 26, 2004

DLO Jam Jacket Mini Review

I’m just reviewing all kinds of stuff these days!

We got one of these DLO Jam Jacket Mini cases for Jenee’s new iPod Mini. You can order them on Everything iPod if you decide you want one. They have a lot of other different kinds of cases as well, and they shipped out my order the next day after I ordered, so they seem to have pretty quick service.

I couldn’t find any decent pictures of the case, and it’s in California right now with my wife so I can’t take any at the moment. I hate it when e-commerce sites don’t have good pictures. That’s one downfall of the Everything iPod store, their pictures are terrible.

Basically it is just a silicone sleeve that you squeeze onto the iPod. The entire top is open, allowing you to access the headphone jack and hold switch, and this is also how you slide it on. Then there is a hole for the scroll wheel, and a hole in the bottom for the dock connector.

It’s easy to put on, just stick the iPod in it and pull it on like a sock. A very grippy, sticky sock. You wouldn’t want to wear a sock like this, but it’s good for the iPod.

The silicone is maybe an 1/8th of an inch thick, and provides good shock protection from minor bumps. My big iPod doesn’t have a case, and I’m always worried it’s going to damage it by sitting on the shelf in the Element when we go over bumps. This case would absorb most of that shock. It won’t protect it from major drops very much of course.

It also makes the iPod “sticky” because of the silicone, which keeps it from sliding around in the car, or being accidentally brushed off of a table or desk.

The hole for the scroll wheel fits just right and allows complete access to all of the controls.

You can still plug the iPod into the sync cable with the case on, which is nice. I’m not sure if you can set it in a dock or not with it on though, because I don’t have one. I would guess that you can’t though.

This case is also cheaper than most, at only $20.

So what isn’t to like about it?

• You can’t use the belt clip that comes with the iPod when you have the case on, because of the added size.

• Other accessories like the Dock connector may not fit properly with the case on.

• It’s kind of a pain to take off because it sticks to the iPod so well.

• The thin layer of silicone that covers the screen sucks and makes it really hard to see the screen. We may cut it out of ours, because it’s just not worth it.

• Because the silicone is so sticky it picks up dirt and dust a lot and looks dirty pretty quickly. The part covering the screen is really really sticky. The part covering the body isn’t so bad.

• The case mutes the color of your iPod, and covers up any custom engraving you had put on it.

• There is nothing covering the dock connector when you aren’t using it, which could allow dust and grime into the fragile workings of the connector.

But overall it’s a nice little case, and pretty affordable as well.

QotD: Flying

Question: What’s the most unusual thing in which you’ve ever flown?

My Answer: I’ve flown in jets, a prop plane through the grand canyon, a helicopter, and one time I flew inside of a big round room with a huge fan in the floor. It was Indoor Skydiving in Gatlinburg, TN and was quite a bit of fun! Spend 30 minutes or so being trained on how to position yourself in order to lift-off, and getting all your gear on. Then you enter the room with a few other people and throw yourself onto the padded mats around the edges in order to get comfortable with falling. The instructor then takes you to the center of the room, and has you lay down on the wire that is between you and the gigantic, deadly spinning blades of the fan. Once you get yourself positioned, they turn up the speed of the fan, and as long as you are positioned for optimum “flyability”, you will begin to ascend to the top of the room. I did pretty well, and took off immediately, but my instructor pulled me back down before I got out of his reach. I guess he didn’t want me to get 30 feet in the air and then lose my position and fall to my doom. You’re only in the room for a few minutes, but it’s a lot of fun and worth the money to at least try it once.

iPod Mini Mini-Review

My wife has occasion to listen to an iPod more than I do (she drives a lot, and also works at a quiet little retail shop where she has plenty of time to listen to music), but I didn’t like sharing mine (10gb 3rd Generation) because I might need it sometime. So the only logical solution was to order one just for her. So we did.

As you can see, not only is my wife really, really hot, but the iPod Mini is really fuckin’ small! Sure, when you read the specs a 1/2 inch may not seem like much, but when you hold it in your hand it really does feel Mini. I’m totally jealous.

Obviously the only drawback is the lack of storage (in comparison to the other iPods anyway. 4 gigs is still a hell of a lot of space for a device that small). I have about 8 gigs of music, so I need to stick with my 10 gig model for a while, but if they release new Minis with say a 8 or 10 gig hard drive soon, I will definitely sell mine and go for the smaller size.

Not only is the iPod Mini fiendishly small and cool looking, it’s also a lot more functional than the “big” iPods in my opinion.

Controls

As you may know, the “big” iPods feature four buttons across the top of the device that control the menu, play/pause, and next/previous tracks. They are also extremely sensitive, and can be pressed on accident just by trying to pick up the unit. It’s also easy to press the wrong button when trying to find it by touch with your thumb. There is no click when you press the buttons, they are instead activated as soon as you lightly touch them.

The iPod Mini has the buttons built into the scroll wheel itself due to size constraints (it’s really small!), but they also make an audible and “feelable” click when pressed. The scroll wheel is still touch sensitive, but all of the buttons click when you press them. This makes it a ton easier to navigate and use the iPod Mini without looking at it.

The hold switch (on the top of the unit, to keep the buttons from being pressed) is also much easier to use than on the “big” iPod in my opinion. On the big one you have to slide the switch with your fingernail or press down really hard to get it to move because it is almost flush with the surface of the iPod. But the hold switch on the iPod Mini sticks up a little more and has sharper edges, allowing you to easily “catch” the edge of it with your thumb and operate it.

Casing

The case of the iPod Mini is much nicer than it appears in pictures. I was a little unsure about all of the wacky colors when the Mini’s were first announced, but when you see it in person it is actually quite nice. (I still don’t like the looks of the gold one though!) The back of the case is the same material as the front, so it doesn’t scratch and show fingerprints like the shiny chrome backing of the original iPods. Since we ordered directly from Apple, we got free laser engraving on the back as well, which looks like it was done with the same machine that does the etching of the Apple logo and other wording, so it matches perfectly and blends right in with the rest of the design.

Software

As far as I can tell the software for the iPod Mini is exactly the same as the originals. One difference I noticed is that when the iPod is ready to be disconnected from the computer, it shows a big check mark on it saying that it’s ok to disconnect it. I don’t think the originals had that.

One irritating thing is the reset controls of the Mini though. According to Apple, you have to plug in the iPod to a wall socket in order to reboot it, which seems a little silly. My wife’s has gotten stuck once since we’ve had it, and we couldn’t figure out how to reset it. I’m not sure if she ever figured it out or not yet (she’s out of town so I could only walk her through it over the phone while she was at the airport). Hopefully the lock-ups will be very infrequent, or we may be calling up Apple to see what the problem is.

Extras

The Mini comes with a nice belt clip, which is easy to slide on and holds the device pretty tightly. You of course still have to be careful not to brush up against something when it’s on your belt and scratch the screen or metal casing. It also comes with a Firewire cable, as well as a USB 2.0 cable which most Windows users will use. The original iPods only came with the firewire cables, forcing you to either by a firewire card for your PC, or buy a USB 2.0 cable at an extra cost if you had a Windows machine.

There is also a wall-plug included in the box. You just plug the firewire cord into the little power adapter, and plug it straight into the wall to charge it. You can’t plug the USB 2.0 cord into the power adapter to charge it, so if you use that cord to sync to your PC, you’ll have to carry the firewire cable as well if you want to charge the iPod without plugging it into a computer.

Value

A lot of people complain that the iPod Mini is too expensive in comparison to the 15 gig model that is only $50 more. This is a valid concern if you have 10 or 15 gigs of music in your collection, but if you are just a casual music listener, or don’t mind manually managing the songs on your iPod rather than storing your entire collection on it, the iPod Mini is definitely an option to consider.

The size difference is significant, despite what you may first think after reading the specs on the Apple web site. If possible, look at an iPod Mini in person before saying “Oh, it’s just a 1/2” or so smaller than the original iPod, that doesn’t matter”.

The iPod Mini also comes with more accessories than the 15 gig model, including the USB 2.0 cord, and the belt clip.

Overall this is a completely incredible little device, and is worth every penny of that $250.

Leave it to Apple to make something as incredible as the original iPod look obsolete and “huge” in comparison to the new iPod Minis.

March 24, 2004

Honda Element: The first 3,500 Miles

We’ve put about 3,500 miles on our new Honda Element, and I thought I’d post my impressions of it so far.

Exterior

We chose the black one (as pictured above) because we thought it blended in with the gray body panels the best. The silver and orange/red ones look kind of “patchy” like they were pieced together from a junkyard, in my opinion. The black paint has a little bit of “glitter” in it, making it look very shiny.

What they say about black cars is true though, it’s very hard to keep clean, and even when you do wash it you have to dry it off immediately or you get water spots all over which looks just as bad as the dirt.

The gray body panels seem very durable and dent resistant, luckily nothing has hit it yet for us to know for sure. It could definitely withstand a stray shopping cart buggy or loose basketball though. It’s also nice to have the body panels in the places that your car paint normally gets dinged and damaged by road debris, insuring the appearance of the car will last longer.

Ours has a rear window washer/wiper which works great. The front windshield washers are also fantastic, compared to our old cars that just moved the water around, rather than wiping it off completely.

The headlights are extremely bright, even on low-beams. The high-beams shine like no other high-beam I have seen before. It’s like driving in the day time almost. :)

One of the best features of the car is the doors… The rear doors open backwards, which eliminates the center column. This gives you a ton of room to load things into the back from the side, in addition to the rear area. It is slightly inconvenient however to have to open the front door before opening the back door, and closing the back before closing the front. But the benefits far outweigh the bad part in this area.

Interior

The interior of the Element is the best part, and one of the reasons we bought it.

As many people have heard, the floor is a rubber material, which makes it extremely easy to clean up. You wouldn’t want to spray a hose in there though, as it isn’t water proof around the edges. But cleanup is still easy with a wet paper towel or other scrubbing device. Mud doesn’t get caked into the carpet, and hair doesn’t get entwined in the fibers. If you spill a drink, just clean it up with a paper towel or other liquid absorbing device (we like paper towels, can you tell?).

The seats are water resistant (not water proof!) but are still made of cloth so they are comfortable. The driver’s seat in our model is height adjustable, and both front seats can of course slide forwards and backwards to adjust the legroom. The rear seats are completely removable, or you can hang them up on the interior sides of the vehicle to make use of the entire floor area without having to remove the seats entirely.

The process for removing the seats is as easy as pulling a strap under each seat, taking off a protective plastic guard, and then pushing a lever while you lift the seat out. To hang the seat up on the side you pull the strap, fold the seat-back all the way back until it is flat, and then lift the seat up next to the window and secure it with a strap.

If you leave the seats in, you can fold all four seats down until they are all flat, leaving you with a large padded area that you could sleep on. There is plenty of room for a full sized adult to sleep comfortably on the seats in this car.

We keep our seats removed in the back unless we need them, and we bought a dog bed specially made for the back of an SUV to put in there. We also purchased a nylon netting to put between the back and front seats, which keeps the dogs in the back and off of the front seats entirely. The dogs seem to like it, and we definitely appreciate the dog free environment of the front.

In our old Acura Integra, the dogs were always moving back and forth and trying to come up to the front because they were uncomfortable. Now they lay down on their bed in the back and go to sleep. We forget they are back there most of the time.

The steering wheel is height adjustable in our model, but I rarely use the feature. I just set it how I need it and leave it. One problem is that I can never get a completely clear view of the front console panel, no matter the height of the steering wheel. I’m 6’ 2” and the top of the steering wheel covers the top of the console panel from view. My wife (5’ 2”) can see it fine though.

The gauges on the console are the standard gauges found in every car… speed, gas, tachometer, oil pressure, etc. Nothing else really interesting or out of norm in this area.

The center console has the CD player/Radio, air conditioning controls, etc. The gear shift is also on this console, which makes me glad we got the automatic. It seems like it would be extremely uncomfortable to have to keep your hand up on that console every time you need to shift. Imagine adjusting the air temperature every time you need to shift gears for an idea of how inconvenient it would be.

The controls on the air conditioning and radio are large and easy to use, even with thick gloves on. Even though the car is large, it heats up or cools down very quickly. The A/C and heater both work great and quickly. There are two vents in the center and one on each side of the car, which are closeable.

There is storage all over the place in this car. A little shelf on the passenger side above the glove box; the glove box; a compartment on the ceiling for glasses, emergency cash, garage door openers; large pockets on each door; some small shelves next to the steering wheel; and two large compartments in the back of the car. There are also cup holders all over the place. Four or five in the floor between the front seats, and one on each rear seat.

The lighting inside is also good, with a dome light in the front and back, and two reading lights in the front as well. When you open the back hatch the rear light comes on automatically, making it easy to load in groceries or what have you. And when you open the front doors the front dome light comes on and stays on long enough for you to get the key in or out and gather your things. If you use the keyless entry to unlock the door, the lights come on so you can see inside before entering, find the keyhole, etc.

Headroom is not a problem in this vehicle either. My wife can practically stand up full height in the back, and even my 6’ 10” friend has plenty of room up top, in case he wanted to wear a very tall hat.

Audio

The audio of this car is my favorite part…

Our model has a 6.1 surround sound audio system, and sounds pretty darn good for a “factory setup”. There are speakers in all four doors, and two tweeters on either side of the windshield in the little column things. Then there is a subwoofer in the center console under the gearshift, which provides quite a bit of bass.

There is a CD player built-in, as well as radio of course.

When you first start the car the audio slowly fades up to the level you had it at before you turned the car off, which is really nice if you forget to turn it down before you leave the car. This way you have a few seconds to readjust it, rather than starting the car and being scared to death by the blaring music.

There is also an auxiliary audio port on the little shelf above the glove box, where you can plug in any audio device to the 1/8” audio jack. This would include, an iPod (yay!), portable CD player, other mp3 player, tape recorder, laptop computer, portable tv, whatever. Next to it there is a cigarette lighter power port (but no actual cigarette lighter). There is another power port in the back of the car in case you want to setup an electric grill or something while camping I guess. Playing an iPod through the audio system is as easy as plugging it in and pressing the AUX button the the CD player. All cars should have this feature. Seriously.

Ride/Handling

I haven’t owned an SUV before other than a Jeep Cherokee, but in my opinion the Element has a great ride and never feels like it’s going to flip over. It seems to have a very low center of gravity and handles very well.

The anti-lock brakes are great as well, I have tried several times to slam on the brakes in the rain, and I never skid at all, let alone lose control of the car.

It only has a 4 cylinder engine in it, but it can be pretty speedy when you need it to be. I estimate I got 0-60 in about 3.8 seconds. Ha, just kidding. But it is pretty fast for a little SUV.

The ride is also very smooth, compared to a sports car anyway. Bumps that we would normally slow way down for in the Integra are easily sped over in the Element. This is to be expected however when switching from a sports car to an SUV I imagine.

Overall

Overall this is a great little car/truck/van that is extremely versatile and handy to have. If you have kids/dogs/sheep, haul a bunch of stuff, mountain bike, snowboard, camp, ski, this little car/truck/van can do it all. It’s rugged enough to handle all of those activities, but still has enough nice features to be extremely comfortable even if you just drive to pick up groceries with it. We’re looking forward to our 350,000th mile just as much as the 3,500th.

March 22, 2004

QotD: Comments

Question: What are your thoughts on comment registration, TypeKey, etc.?

My Answer: I’ll probably enable it on my blog… Not that many people post comments on my blog, and I get quite a bit of comment spam so it would be worth it to have people register just to stop the spam I get. Which is almost more than the real comments I get.

March 21, 2004

ieCapture

If you are a Macintosh based web designer like me, and need to test your sites on the terrible mess that is IE/Windows, check out ieCapture. I just sold my old 866mhz Windows machine last week to a family that needed a computer, so I don’t have anything to test my sites on in Windows anymore, except at work. But thank goodness I found Dan Vine’s ieCapture. You give it a URL, and it will send you screenshots of your site in your choice of IE6, IE5.5, IE5.01, Opera, and Firefox. And the best part is, it’s free!

If you are a Windows based developer and would like to test out your site for Macintosh users, be sure to check out iCapture, which will show you screenshots of your sites on Safari, the Mac’s default browser.

Thank you so much Dan, for this invaluable service.

If you follow the links and use his service, be sure to click on the ads that you find, to try to keep the service free. If he can spend dozens of hours getting that service running, the least we can do is spend 30 seconds clicking ads. :)

March 18, 2004

QotD: Counterfeit

Question: Have you ever knowingly used counterfeit money?

My Answer: No, but one time on a train in Germany we met a guy that had a fake German bill. His hobby was identifying counterfeits or something. He handed me two identical bills, one a counterfeit and one a real one. I couldn’t tell the difference. He must have been really good. That or I was 11 and not familiar with the currency…

March 15, 2004

QotD: HBO

Question: Do you have HBO?

My Answer: No, we just get super basic cable. The broadcast stations and TBS, WGN, etc. We have Netflix though, so we have all the movies we can watch anyway.

March 14, 2004

QotD: Full-time OS

Question: When did you begin using what you now consider your full time OS?

My Answer: I started using OSX 10.3 (Panther) about 5 months ago when I got my eMac. And I just sold my Windows machine today, meaning I am now 100% Mac based. Hooray!

March 13, 2004

QotD: Products

Question: Have you ever sold anything you’ve created?

My Answer: Yes, lots of stuff. When I was very small, (I never remember my age in these types of stories) I made Granola with my mom, and my dad sold it to people at the hospital where he worked for $10 or $20 a bag. We even had labels on the bags that said Derek’s Gourmet Granola. When I was a little older I bred my Black Labrador retriever to other black labrador retrievers around the neighborhood for $200 a pop. I also sold kittens for $50 each. One of them had six toes and I called him bigfoot. Somewhere in my grandma’s house there is a touching picture of me holding the kitten for the last time before he is taken away, with a tear streaming down my cheek, and a twenty dollar bill sticking out of my pocket. Now I sell web sites.

March 12, 2004

QotD: R/C

Question: Have you ever owned a remote control toy/thing?

My Answer: Yes, I had several of the little remote control race cars, monster trucks, bulldozers as a kid. I even had one that we built from parts. It was fun, but the battery didn’t last long and it broke down all the time. But I was really “into it” for a while, we even got R/C magazines and took the car to R/C race tracks around town.

March 11, 2004

QotD: Bathrobe

Question: Do you have and use a bathrobe? When?

My Answer: No I don’t have one. I just use a towel. Then get dressed in regular clothes or comfortable scrubs or something, depending on what time of day I take a shower. My wife has one with little angels on it, but she doesn’t use it much either.

March 10, 2004

QotD: Concert Tickets

Question: What’s the most you’ve ever paid for concert tickets?

My Answer: Probably $45 for Red Hot Chili Peppers / Foo Fighters tickets at AmSouth Amphitheater in Nashville.

March 09, 2004

QotD: Games

Question: Do you play games? If so, what kind?

My Answer: Yes, I certainly do. Though I haven’t much lately for lack of time, and probably won’t for quite a while for the same reason. I play games on the Mac, GameBoy Advance games, GameCube games, etc. I like most genres; action, role-playing, puzzle, adventure, first person (not on consoles though), platformer, etc. I don’t like sports games though, that’s just about the only type of game I don’t play.

Greenway Flood

We had a whole bunch of rain Friday night, but it was sunny on Saturday so we decided to take the dogs down to the local greenway/park in the little town where we live.

Apparently it rained a lot more than we thought, and the park and greenway were completely flooded. All the sidewalks were under water, trashcans knocked over, picnic tables completely submerged, etc. But because of all the water it was completely deserted, so we decided to take the dogs out anyway.

Here are some pictures from our afternoon adventure.

Even though the dogs got filthy in the mud and water, it wasn’t a problem because we just put them in the back of the Element, where they have their own bed. We even have a nylon net to block them from coming to the front of the car and getting our seats all dirty. It’s the perfect dog car.

Reason to shop online #11

I was recently browsing Amazon to see if there was a new book out in the series that my wife has read since she was a kid and still collects, but couldn’t remember which one she got last. So I just started browsing the most recent ones in the collection, and noticed a message up at the top of the screen from Amazon telling me that I had already purchased this book back in February.

Wow, now that is helpful. I immediately knew which one she had, and even when we purchased it. I could click a link and find out all the other details about that order, or see all of my recent order activity. Amazon of course also recommends other books to me based on the things I look at and purchase.

When was the last time you went into Wal-Mart, and were reminded by a store clerk what you purchased last time, and then recommended another book to you based on the ones you spent the most time looking at? NEVER.

Of course if Wal-Mart kept track of that kind of information I would probably call it some sort of conspiracy. But it’s cool when Amazon does it, because, you know … it’s a web site and everything.

March 08, 2004

February Version 2: My vote

Here is my vote for the Version 2 redesign competition.

Bright Corner

This is by far the best in my opinion, no contest. Many of the entries were very pretty graphically, but they basically put a new face on the old site. The didn’t adjust much of the wording, site architecture, etc. They just put pretty graphics on the old site. And while that is a definite improvement, everything about the Bright Corner entry has been improved.

• The navigation is extremely clear and helpful. They used clear labels for all of the navigation elements so that you know exactly what to expect when you click on a link

• It is immediately obvious what the site is about, and why it is there. I’ve followed links to the Gutenberg Project many times before, but I almost always left immediately because I didn’t fully understand what the site was and why I should care. Right at the top of the page it tells you in a sentence what it is and why you should care. It says how many books they have available, and gives you a way to search them. If you still don’t “get it”, there is a whole paragraph directly below describing in more detail what the site is and does.

• The news is out of the way. On many of the entries the news is large and seems to be the focus of the site. That might be great for people that are already familiar with the site, but in my opinion that turned away a lot of people. If you aren’t familiar with the project, a bunch of news about the project isn’t going to be very important or interesting to you.

• Everything else. Everything else is great too. Everything is clean and very easy to read and scan, and it’s very easy to get an idea of what the project is about at a glance.

That’s just a couple of reasons why I like the Bright Corner entry, and why I’ll be voting for it. I’d really like the see the Gutenberg Project use this one, as it would make me a lot more interested in the project. :)

Head on over to Version 2 and look at the entries to vote for your favorite!

Apple’s Robot Repairmen

To my joy and astonishment, my firewire ports have started working again after they stopped working from what I guess was a power surge.

I rebooted the eMac again the other day after installing a system update, and I happened to notice that my iPod said “do not disconnect” which means that it’s mounted to the desktop. So I moved some windows out of the way, and sure enough, there was my iPod! I plugged in Cyclops, my firewire hard drive, and it came up as well, good as new.

My only explanation for this phenomenon is that there is a very small robot living inside of my eMac. This robot’s primary job is as a hunter. A hunter of dust bunnies. He patrols the insides of my computer looking for dust bunnies, and occasionally a herd of dust bunnies. Then he gets out his bunny hunting gun, and blows their damn heads off. The robot then takes their carcasses to the dust bunny disposal hole in the back of the computer, and ejects them from the premises.

Occasionally however, the robot has another duty. He is also a trained Apple Certified Repair Technician. So when my firewire ports died, and he had a break from killing dust bunnies, he floated over (yes he can float) to the firewire ports on the side of the computer and cleaned them, re-soldered some wires, checked the circuit-board, etc. After a few hours he had it all fixed up and notified me that his work was complete by popping up a window on my screen saying I needed to install the latest Airport software. He even notified me that I would have to reboot when the installation finished, because he knew that’s when I would notice that he had fixed my firewire ports.

I really don’t understand why Apple doesn’t make this robot repairman known to more people. It seems to me that it could be a really great feature to market and encourage Windows users to switch to the Mac. I mean it would all but eliminate the need for a dedicated IT staff and/or outsourced computer repairmen.

So if you’re in the market for a new computer, consider the Mac with its robot repairmen. Computers will invariably break down over time, whether it is a Mac or PC. The difference of course is that the Macs now come with their own internal IT staff to keep everything running for you.

I’m not sure if the robot repairmen come in every model of the Macintosh. I imagine there are different models of robots in each model of Mac though. For instance the robots for the Powerbooks and iBooks are very very small. They don’t float either, they crawl because there isn’t a lot of airspace in the innards of an Apple Laptop. An easy way to check to see if you have the robot repairman is to feel the left palm-rest of your Powerbook. If it is warm, you have a robot repairman. That is his living room where he spends most of his time.

The G5 also comes with a robot repairman, but because the G5 enclosure is so large, the robot is much larger. And because the robot is larger, he makes more noise, which is the reason for some of the loudness problems reported by a few G5 owners. He also creates a lot of heat by keeping himself floating inside the case, which is why the G5 requires so many fans. One for each room in the Robot’s “house”.

So before you file class-action lawsuits and go around complaining about the heat or noise of your Apple computer, consider what you would be giving up if you eliminated that noise or heat. If you think about it for a minute, I’m sure you will find that the small inconveniences are well worth the benefits.

QotD: Returns

Question: Do you abuse or ignore return policies?

My Answer: Not that I know of. I assume abusing them would be buying a $1,000 digital camera, using it for 29 days, and returning it to the store to get a refund before your time limit is up, then buying another camera at another store and doing the same. No, I don’t do that. I only return stuff if it sucks or doesn’t work. And even then sometimes I don’t return it because I’m afraid of causing trouble! (With small items where it’s not worth the money to return… If it’s a big item that doesn’t work I will obviously return it)

March 07, 2004

QotD: Invest

Question: Do you invest in the stock market?

My Answer: No. I hardly ever have enough money to pay the bills and buy cool stuff, let alone invest my money in some silly stock market. :)

March 06, 2004

QotD: .Mac

Question: Do you have a .Mac account? Do you use it? For how long have you had it? Will you renew?

My Answer: Yes I do have one. Yes I use the bookmark and address book syncing all the time, as well as the easy iPhoto galleries. I’ve had it since I got my first Mac, the eMac. Yes I will definitely renew. It’s worth every penny, even though I already have web hosting and email from somewhere else.

March 05, 2004

February Version 2 entries are available

The entries are in for the February Version 2 redesign contest. The contest is to redesign a site every month using CSS and xHTML. February’s site was Project Gutenberg, the online e-library.

There are a few nice entries, but I will reserve my vote until Monday when voting is enabled after Paul gets everything straightened out.

Head on over and view the entries and be ready to vote on Monday!

OneWord: Nails

I bite my nails a lot… every time one grows out enough that I can “feel it” I bite it off. It’s a pretty bad habit I guess but it gives me something to do when I’m sitting around being bored. I’ve also grown my nails really long before, so it’s not like I can’t stop biting them if I wanted to. Honest. I can quit any time! ;)

QotD: Chat

Question: What’s your chat client of choice?

My Answer: I use iChat to talk with iChat/AIM users, and MSN Messenger to talk with MSN people. I’ve tried a couple of the multi-network chatting programs, but they aren’t as cool as iChat, and there is no point in using one of them just to use MSN, so I just run two chat programs instead.

March 04, 2004

The Mystery of Time and Space

This is another flash-based adventure/puzzle game that I played a few months ago. It’s much more puzzle-based than The Crimson Room. There’s a lot more thinking involved and the puzzles are much more fun and rewarding.

I finished this one in about an hour, if I recall correctly.

Play The Mystery of Time and Space

The Crimson Room

Can you escape the crimson room?

I can. Took me around 10 minutes. It’s a good little time waster if you’re bored. Not that much mental challenge to it though, just a lot of clicking until you find the right hot spot, which is unfortunate. But like I said, it’s worth it for 10 minutes of fun or so.

The server is pretty slow, ‘cause you know, the information is coming all the way from Japan and everything.

QotD: Fonts

Question: How many fonts do you have?

My Answer: On the Mac I only have 98 fonts. All but 3 or 4 of those are the standard fonts that come with the OS. And they are all really nice fonts, much better than the pitiful default selection on Windows. On the Windows machine at work we have about 1,600 fonts. It’s used for laying out trophies and nametags, and sometimes people want a particular font, so it’s a good idea to have as many as possible. Even though it makes finding any particular font a pain in the butt. And makes all the programs start really really slowly.

March 03, 2004

OneWord: Usual

Most people have a “usual” order at their favorite restaurants. I don’t frequent any one place enough that I can walk into it and say I’ll have “the usual”, but here are my usual orders for the restaurants I frequent. If you happen to work in one of these restaurants in the Chattanooga, TN area, please take notes so that I can order “the usual” the next time I come in.

Taco Bell
3 bean burritos Minus the Onions
Nachos
No drink (ripoff! bad for you!)

Or if I’m feeling special, I’ll get a couple of 7-layer burritos.

My wife gets 7-layers with no cheese. And sometimes she eats all my nachos. :(

Little Caesar’s Pizza
1 Large Mushroom Pizza

My wife gets breadsticks. Or a large mushroom, olive, green pepper pizza with no cheese. (weirdo ;))

Subway
1 foot long wheat vegi-patti sub. (not available in all areas. if it isn’t available, I get a vegi-sub)
Lettuce, tomatoes, pickles, mayonnaise, mustard, oil, vinegar, american cheese.

My wife gets the same thing with lettuce, tomatoes, pickles, olives, cucumbers, green peppers, and oil and vinegar. And no cheese. We have them put her cheese on my sub, so I get DOUBLE CHEESE.

Olive Garden
I get Manicotti.

My wife gets the Portabello mushroom ravioli, with alfredo sauce instead of tomato sauce, and spinach on top.

Arby’s
I only eat here once every three months when I have no food or car at work, because it’s just across the street.

Broccoli and Cheddar baked potato. Curly Fries.

My wife never eats here.

Fazoli’s
I get Fettucini Alfredo. So does my wife.

Chinese Place Down the Street
Vegetables with Bean Curd (tofu) and 2 or 3 vegetable Egg Rolls. My wife gets the same.

And that’s pretty much the only place we ever eat out at regularly.

What do you get?

QotD: Haircutting

Question: How much do you pay for a haircut?

My Answer: Around $10 every couple of years. I just buy a cheap pair of clippers and buzz my own head once a month or so. Then I buy another pair of clippers in a couple of years when the current pair gets dull and starts ripping out more hair than it cuts. It’s pretty nice. Don’t have to pay insane prices for cuts at a barber, and I never have to comb my hair in the mornings. Don’t have to buy gel, fancy shampoos, or waste time “getting ready” in the mornings. Who knows how much money it has saved me in the past two years!

March 02, 2004

QotD: Cable

Question: Do you steal cable (or satellite service, etc.)? Have you ever?

My Answer: No I don’t, No I haven’t. We just get the super basic package along with our cable internet. All the broadcast channels, and TBS, WGN, and some shopping channel. I do miss the discovery channel and Animal Planet though. :(

March 01, 2004

OneWord: Continue

Continues in video games are important. Back in the olden days there was no such thing as continues. Which really sucked because you never saw more than the first level or two of a game. More important than continues though, are saves. This is one reason I love gaming on the GameBoy Advance, because most games let you save anywhere since they realize you may only be able to play for a few minutes at a time, considering it is a portable game machine. Other set-top systems force you to do silly things like only save at certain points, collect items that allow you to save, etc. These serve no purpose other than to make you backtrack and go over the same part of a level over and over to make the game seem to last longer. I don’t appreciate it. If they want to make the game more difficult or longer, they should add more puzzles, more story, more levels, etc. Not make the gameplay unfair.

Electricity Hates Me

The power went off then right back on this morning, and it may have surged as well. I turned the eMac back on after the power came up, and “Cyclops” my 160gb external hard drive wasn’t mounted to the desktop. I turned it off and on again, rebooted the eMac again, nothing. I plugged the firewire drive into the Powerbook, and it came right up, so luckily the drive isn’t fried. But I think my Firewire ports are. I tried plugging the firewire drive into both of them and it wouldn’t mount. I plugged in my iPod and it will charge, but it won’t mount either. I’m going to reinstall OSX tonight and see if it could be a software issue, but I doubt it. I’ve been wanting to reinstall everything anyway, because I installed a ton of software when I first got the Mac to try everything out, but there is a lot I don’t use anymore. So I want to start over now that I know more about the system.

If it’s not a software issue I guess I’ll have to call Apple and see what it’ll cost to fix. I don’t have Applecare on that machine, and I don’t think a power surge would be covered anyway. :( Sigh. I have bad luck with electricity.

I bought a 650v surge protector/battery backup from Apple this morning just to try to keep it from happening again. So now I will have 30 - 45 minutes to finish my work, save everything, and shut down before I lose battery life. It’s also a good surge protector, and has an unlimited warranty on any equipment hooked up to it. But I don’t really know how well those warranties stand up. I’m sure it’s quite difficult to actually get them to pay. But stopping the computer from just clicking off when the power goes out should be a lot better than what I have now, which is just a $30 power strip/surge protector from Office Depot or something.