Fedex finally updated their tracking information. My package made it to Syracuse NY from Sacramento CA yesterday evening. (Two days after UPS delivered). Of course the "estimated delivery date" shortly changed from 7/27 to 7/29, which oddly enough is a Saturday, and Fedex doesn't deliver on Saturdays. Its still in NY, so I can expect to get it sometime next week. Definitely not impressed with Fedex ground vs. UPS.
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I should mention that the item was actually delivered on Friday, the 28th. So, it took Fedex an extra 4 days to go an extra 1000 miles?
Thursday, July 27, 2006
Tuesday, July 25, 2006
Monday, July 24, 2006
Is it me, or does Google video only contain the following content:
* Idiots putting Mentos in various sodas
* Two German girls playing Milli Vanilli to a bunch of shitty pop music
* The oh-so-obviously fake "girl caught cheating on webcam" video which is posted at least three times under varying titles
Okay, perhaps not but the stupidest stuff is in the top 100 right now.
* Idiots putting Mentos in various sodas
* Two German girls playing Milli Vanilli to a bunch of shitty pop music
* The oh-so-obviously fake "girl caught cheating on webcam" video which is posted at least three times under varying titles
Okay, perhaps not but the stupidest stuff is in the top 100 right now.
Friday, July 21, 2006
UPS v. Fedex update
21JUL06 1118 EDT, UPS reports that the package has been shipped to a hub in PA. Fedex still has not reported that they've even received the package.
22JUL06 2229 EDT, UPS reports that the package was en route to Lafayette very early in the morning. I suspect that it won't be processed until Monday, but it will be delivered on Monday. Fedex has finally reported receiving the package as of 5:30am yesterday, but has shown no change since.
24JUL06 2039 EDT, UPS delivered the mini-DVI to video adapter at noon today. Looks like they win, though to be fair, they had less distance to travel. However, as far as Fedex is concerned, the item is still in Sacremento as of this afternoon! They are also estimating that it will arrive on the 27th. Hope it does make it here by then, I plan on using it on the 28th...
22JUL06 2229 EDT, UPS reports that the package was en route to Lafayette very early in the morning. I suspect that it won't be processed until Monday, but it will be delivered on Monday. Fedex has finally reported receiving the package as of 5:30am yesterday, but has shown no change since.
24JUL06 2039 EDT, UPS delivered the mini-DVI to video adapter at noon today. Looks like they win, though to be fair, they had less distance to travel. However, as far as Fedex is concerned, the item is still in Sacremento as of this afternoon! They are also estimating that it will arrive on the 27th. Hope it does make it here by then, I plan on using it on the 28th...
Thursday, July 20, 2006
The shipping race.
I ordered both Apple mini-DVI to DVI and mini-DVI to composite/S-video adapters from Apple today. Both adapters are being shipped separately, and by different shipping companies (interesting). The race then, shall be to see which one gets here first. So far, only the UPS-shipped item has had its origination scan (Pennsylvania). The Fedex item has still not listed an origination, but I suspect it will be coming from CA or somewhere out West. Who will make it here first?
Wednesday, July 19, 2006
MacBook = teh awesome
Saturday, went to the Apple store in Indy and picked up a base MacBook Pro, 2.0GHz core duo - I'm very impressed. However, it was obvious right away that the stock 512MB of RAM wasn't going to cut the mustard. Thanks to David I found 2 1GB sticks of DDR2 200pin RAM for $70 a pop at newegg, and got them today. Slapped them into the machine and crapped my pants. The thing starts up in less than 8 seconds, and is a completely different machine!!
Sunday, July 16, 2006
Junk
In the interest of making our up and coming move to California a little more managable, I began cleaning out old crap that's just taking up space in the apartment. I went through two simple plastic crates full of all sorts of semi-worthless things like computer power cables (worthless until you need it) to broken palm pilots. For some reason, whether it be sentimental or laziness, I tend to keep crap for no particular reason. I finally got the guts to get rid of a few things and figure that I would document them here for posterity, before they met the dumpster.
Note: One other thing I learned today is that I do not know how to consistently operate a camera. This should become obvious with some of the pictures below.
The first item is a semi-ancient Asanta 10Mb hub. I have no idea why I have it, where I got it from, or why I was keeping it. No clue if it worked, and I never acquired a power supply to run it.
The second item is a Cirque touchpad of unknown model. I remember I got this a long time ago, because apparently money was burning a hole in my pocket. I never liked it, and used it maybe two or three times before it was relegated to a forgotten box.
You may remember the CueCat. I believe like most people, I acquired this from Radio Shack. Never used it, and I think most of us have long since forgotten them.
Here are a couple of old Sun laser mice. The kind that needed that stupid metal mouse pad with the tracking grid on them. I hated using those things - good riddance!
My first MP3 player, was a Create Labs Nomad. It sported a 32MB SD memory card and an FM tuner. Ran off of two AAA-sized NiCd batteries and was great for jogging. It's a shame the model I had only used a parallel port and only had drivers for Windows 98.
Here's a gem that I got from David, and will be going back to him. :-) It's a remote power switch that you can hook up to a phone line.
The Zip Plus was a great companion back before broadband to the home was readily available. Worked on both Mac and PC, and was exceedingly useful for bringing files back and forth from home to school. Never once experienced the "zip click of death".
Here's my PalmPilot Personal - I believe this was the first palm pilot available from Palm Inc. back when they were still owned by USR. Back before mobile internet was mainstream, these were actually useful! Now, the only thing these sorts of personal organizers are good for is hooking up to GPS receivers. As you can see, I lost this one to a cracked screen. It was a shame too, because I had the IR and 3MB memory upgrade that made it close to a Palm III.
Finally, I found my first two cellphones. The following pictures include an open and closed Motorola RAZR for comparison.
This is an Audiovox analog phone.
This is an NEC Analog/Digital Phone.
Here's a picture comparing the width of the NEC to the RAZR.
Note: One other thing I learned today is that I do not know how to consistently operate a camera. This should become obvious with some of the pictures below.
The first item is a semi-ancient Asanta 10Mb hub. I have no idea why I have it, where I got it from, or why I was keeping it. No clue if it worked, and I never acquired a power supply to run it.
The second item is a Cirque touchpad of unknown model. I remember I got this a long time ago, because apparently money was burning a hole in my pocket. I never liked it, and used it maybe two or three times before it was relegated to a forgotten box.
You may remember the CueCat. I believe like most people, I acquired this from Radio Shack. Never used it, and I think most of us have long since forgotten them.
Here are a couple of old Sun laser mice. The kind that needed that stupid metal mouse pad with the tracking grid on them. I hated using those things - good riddance!
My first MP3 player, was a Create Labs Nomad. It sported a 32MB SD memory card and an FM tuner. Ran off of two AAA-sized NiCd batteries and was great for jogging. It's a shame the model I had only used a parallel port and only had drivers for Windows 98.
Here's a gem that I got from David, and will be going back to him. :-) It's a remote power switch that you can hook up to a phone line.
The Zip Plus was a great companion back before broadband to the home was readily available. Worked on both Mac and PC, and was exceedingly useful for bringing files back and forth from home to school. Never once experienced the "zip click of death".
Here's my PalmPilot Personal - I believe this was the first palm pilot available from Palm Inc. back when they were still owned by USR. Back before mobile internet was mainstream, these were actually useful! Now, the only thing these sorts of personal organizers are good for is hooking up to GPS receivers. As you can see, I lost this one to a cracked screen. It was a shame too, because I had the IR and 3MB memory upgrade that made it close to a Palm III.
Finally, I found my first two cellphones. The following pictures include an open and closed Motorola RAZR for comparison.
This is an Audiovox analog phone.
This is an NEC Analog/Digital Phone.
Here's a picture comparing the width of the NEC to the RAZR.
Tuesday, July 11, 2006
Love the writing on this bit:
10 awful tech items, Q2 2006
Also, good to see Firefox is still eating away at IE.
10 awful tech items, Q2 2006
Also, good to see Firefox is still eating away at IE.
Sunday, July 09, 2006
The costs of living...
Setup a lease for our move out West. We pay, oh say $600USD for a 2-bedroom apartment in West Lafayette. In the California East bay area, we'll be paying $1800USD for the same thing.
If you're ever called a "Septic"
A friend of mine got me into watching a British TV show called Top Gear (really entertaining and sometimes informative car show). Anyways, I picked up another bit of Cockney rhyming slang that I'd not heard before. If you're an American, and a Brit calls you a "septic", it's their charming way of calling you a "yank" (rhymes wif "Septic Tank", guv). Supposedly derives from the belief that most of us Americans are "full of shit"....cute.
Setup a lease for our move out West. We pay, oh say $600USD for a 2-bedroom apartment in West Lafayette. In the California East bay area, we'll be paying $1800USD for the same thing.
If you're ever called a "Septic"
A friend of mine got me into watching a British TV show called Top Gear (really entertaining and sometimes informative car show). Anyways, I picked up another bit of Cockney rhyming slang that I'd not heard before. If you're an American, and a Brit calls you a "septic", it's their charming way of calling you a "yank" (rhymes wif "Septic Tank", guv). Supposedly derives from the belief that most of us Americans are "full of shit"....cute.
Friday, July 07, 2006
Wednesday, July 05, 2006
Don't you hate it when you have to be to bed early for early travel, but can't seem to fall asleep? It almost always happens to me. Anyway, decided to take the Lafayette Limo to Indy for the trip since I want the car to stay back to have its windshield repaired. Unfortunately, the Lafayette Limo leaves at 4:35am from the closest place to my apartment. My wife has graciously offered to drive me the 3 blocks to the boarding spot. :>
Tuesday, July 04, 2006
Spidering...
So, of course I go out to my car the next day to find that the lovely small divot in my windshield has now become a nice sized crack that I expect will grow at a rate which has it finding at least two ends of the windshield before I can get it fixed. To make things more fun, no one repairs windshields in Lafayette IN on the 4th of July, and I will be flying out of Indy for a job interview first thing tomorrow morning. I've decided that its best not to drive the car to Indy so I can leave it at home and it can get repaired, if it can be repaired! Of course this means I have to take the Lafayette Limo which, while convenient in a scenario like this has me getting up at 3-3:30 am to make a 8am flight out of Indianapolis! ...sigh.. Time to go to bed!
Oh, and Happy Independence day!
Monday, July 03, 2006
Reason #14 for hating Interstate driving.
So, I can put 60,000 miles on this without once chipping my windshield, despite having numerous debris (mostly stones of varying shape and size). However, I don't even have 1,500 miles on this and the first bloody stone to bounce off my windshield has to chip it. I suppose there could be a variety of reasons including the aerodynamics and size of the Mazda3 versus the Camry, or it could be a difference of quality between the two manufacturers. Whatever the reason, I find it extremely irritating.
I wish I had my camera...
Don't you ever have those moments where you wish you had your camera? About 12:30 in the morning on Sunday, my wife and I stop by a bowling alley on the southwest side of Milwaukee so she can see a friend. As we're entering the parking lot, we see about 5 cop cars and an ambulance leaving the same lot. I puzzled on this for a moment, but assumed it must have been a fight. So, we head into the bowling alley, and everything seems business as usual for a bowling alley in Milwaukee: the lanes are empty and everyone is at the bar drinking. Anyhow, we find Talitha's friend and they start chatting. I excuse myself to the gent's room, walk in, take a look at what can only be described as a blood bath , and then immediately do an about face, meet back up with my wife, and join in the conversation while trying to stifle my urges to do the pee-pee dance.
The entire wash room was covered in blood. All over urinals, all over stalls, all over the sinks, walls. It looked like someone might have exploded in there. I wish I would have had my camera because words couldn't describe it. I mean, it wasn't gory, there were no bodies or brains, or anything like that. However, it was all a bit too much for my mind to take in while I was attempting to relieve myself. Anyways, the bartender explained that someone had taken a Lite bottle and smashed it over someone else's head - I can only hope that it was "I'll cut you" style. I presume a fight broke out between the head smasher and the head smashee, and that's how the blood got all over the place. Reminded me of a forensic science class presentation by a blood patter expert where it was explained that a little blood can look like a lot of blood.
So, I can put 60,000 miles on this without once chipping my windshield, despite having numerous debris (mostly stones of varying shape and size). However, I don't even have 1,500 miles on this and the first bloody stone to bounce off my windshield has to chip it. I suppose there could be a variety of reasons including the aerodynamics and size of the Mazda3 versus the Camry, or it could be a difference of quality between the two manufacturers. Whatever the reason, I find it extremely irritating.
I wish I had my camera...
Don't you ever have those moments where you wish you had your camera? About 12:30 in the morning on Sunday, my wife and I stop by a bowling alley on the southwest side of Milwaukee so she can see a friend. As we're entering the parking lot, we see about 5 cop cars and an ambulance leaving the same lot. I puzzled on this for a moment, but assumed it must have been a fight. So, we head into the bowling alley, and everything seems business as usual for a bowling alley in Milwaukee: the lanes are empty and everyone is at the bar drinking. Anyhow, we find Talitha's friend and they start chatting. I excuse myself to the gent's room, walk in, take a look at what can only be described as a blood bath , and then immediately do an about face, meet back up with my wife, and join in the conversation while trying to stifle my urges to do the pee-pee dance.
The entire wash room was covered in blood. All over urinals, all over stalls, all over the sinks, walls. It looked like someone might have exploded in there. I wish I would have had my camera because words couldn't describe it. I mean, it wasn't gory, there were no bodies or brains, or anything like that. However, it was all a bit too much for my mind to take in while I was attempting to relieve myself. Anyways, the bartender explained that someone had taken a Lite bottle and smashed it over someone else's head - I can only hope that it was "I'll cut you" style. I presume a fight broke out between the head smasher and the head smashee, and that's how the blood got all over the place. Reminded me of a forensic science class presentation by a blood patter expert where it was explained that a little blood can look like a lot of blood.
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