Doing It Way Wrong

Posted by on November 20, 2013 No comments

http://www.ibtimes.com/kleargearcom-woman-hit-3500-fine-bad-credit-score-after-writing-negative-review-online-retailer

This story caught my attention, so I had to do a little looking into it.  I’m no uber-sleuth, but I can put some things together. I can put together enough to make some conclusions.

My first thought when going to KG’s site was, oh, they’re ripping off ThinkGeek.  Then I saw the copyright date of 2001, and thought, maybe they were first.  Turns out they’re not, ThinkGeek’s copyright goes back to 1999.  But in the course of figuring that out, I found that KG’s internet domain was first registered in 2004.  I’m not sure you can copyright a domain name before it’s even registered.  Scam flag #1.

Looking at the next level: the address.  A reputable company will display its address prominently to provide credibility.  However, the address is a Michigan address and there is no corporate record in Michigan for their company – no DBA record either.  Looking further, the address is simply a mail drop, not a physical location.  Scam flag #2.

So where is this company?  The BBB website says that KG’s legal department had an address in San Antonio, TX.  No corporate records found in Texas for them either.  A quick search in LinkedIn shows three members, the CEO and the CMO of KG (Rob Key) and a freelance writer who contracted with KG.  The CEO and CMO are both in Michigan.  Hmmm.  Rob Key also might have an address in San Antonio, TX according to internet searches.

So let’s just assume that’s a dead end.  The biggest red flag is their help page, which basically spells out how you’re going to do business with them.  in short, it’s the most unfriendly terms possible.  There isn’t any way to check the status of your order.  I couldn’t even find a login to check your profile.  When you have so many other options out there, why would you even buy from this site?

I’ve seen this business approach before.  It was in my Finally Fast review.  Companies like this need to die a quick death because they are doing no one any service.  The unfortunate thing is that the owners live on and create a brand new entity just like the last one.

Out With The New And In With The Old

Posted by on November 7, 2013 No comments

I guess it wasn’t meant to be.  I am back using “the tank”  – my old keyboard.  I gave the new slimline KeyTronic keyboards a fighting chance.  but I’ve ruined three already – not a good sign at all.  The first one, something happened under one of the keys, so I pried off the key caps to fix it and wound up breaking the spring on one of the keys,resulting in the key being stuck down.  I RMA’d that keyboard and I think I had to pay shipping.  Its replacement, I spilled a very little bit of Coke on it, and the Delete key started sticking.  There was no way I was going to pry off the keycap to clean it!  So I lived with the sticking delete key for quite a while (and I use it a lot).  The keyboard I took to work has actually failed from use.  The left Control key sticks randomly.  With all the key commands I use every day: Ctrl-X/C/V – cut/copy/paste, Ctrl-E – Execute query, Ctrl-S – Save, Ctrl-A – Select All, Ctrl-Z – Undo, it just couldn’t handle the stress.

I’m taking the other tank to work and will start using it there again, too.  I have some new co-workers, so I suppose they’re going to be ridiculing me for my ancient technology.  Laugh if you want, but it is damn good technology.  They don’t make ‘em like they used to.  When I started typing this post on the old keyboard, I was surprised at how much better the action felt than the thin, low-profile style.  It’s much more forgiving.

I still have one of the slimline keyboards.  It’s still new in the box and I’m unsure what I even want to do with it.  I think it’s going to be donated to a junk sale.

Going the Extra (Rewards) Mile

Posted by on November 1, 2013 No comments

Ya gotta be hustlin’, all the time.

In a previous post, I had talked about my Capital One rewards miles and buying gift cards vs. statement credit.  It was a couple years ago and in that round, I bought up some gift cards because they were a better value than statement credit.  This recent rewards shopping session has given me an interesting opportunity to take advantage of.

Normally, a $100 gift card is 15,500 points (miles, whatever).  However, they offer some $200 cards for 20,000 points, which is clearly a better deal, but sadly, they never have any cards I want, like restaurants.  In my regular browsing visit to see if they have added any $200 dining cards (nope), I saw a Neiman Marcus gift card for 16,000 points – a $200 card.  Wow, for 500 more points than a $100 card, you get a $200 card.  Too bad I don’t have an ounce of care for Neiman Marcus.  $200 might buy me a pack of handkerchiefs.

But, that is still an awesome value and I can’t get it out of my head.  I have enough points to get $600 in cards.  That same number of points equates to only $240 in statement credit.  Maybe I can sell the cards for cash.  After some quick research, I found a website (cardpool.com) that buys gift cards (at a discount, of course).  Their simple online calculator says I can get $510 in cash for those cards.  That’s over twice as much as I could get from statement credit.

Quick math time: Statement credit is about .5 cent per mile, gift cards at normal rate are about .65 cent a mile, these NM cards are 1.25 cents a mile.  Even with the premium for selling the cards, it’s still 1 cent a mile.

Now, to be clear, I am grateful for finding and being able to take advantage of this opportunity.  Part of my gratitude is that I just happened across it and part is that I don’t have to do this.  There’s a lot of people who have to do similar things like this just to get by.  Buy low/sell high/make it through tomorrow.

After signing up for an account on Cardpool, I got looking at the cards they sell.  They’re sold at varying discounts.  It got me thinking some more.  if I know i ‘m going to be spending the money somewhere, why not buy a gift card at a discount first?  Really, 10% off at Outback or Chilis is still 10% off.  And since gift cards are just like cash, you’re not restricted to coupon use.  I think I have a new source of savings.

Prime Season

Posted by on October 31, 2013 No comments

A little while ago I was shopping on Amazon’s website and the product I found had two sellers from which to buy.  One seller was cheaper, but wasn’t eligible for Amazon Prime’s free shipping.  The other seller was Amazon itself – so, free shipping – but the price was more expensive.  If I had to pay shipping, the cheaper vendor would have won out.

This got me thinking about a couple of things.  First, I had a little bit of pity for the seller who wasn’t Prime, but he probably gets business from non-Prime members, so that’s ok.  The other thing I thought of more carefully is the Amazon Prime membership itself.

Let’s forget the other benefits of Prime like the free streaming videos.  Let’s just say that when you buy a Prime membership, you are paying shipping costs in advance.  That is, you put $80 in a shipping escrow account and you use it up throughout the year as you buy Prime-eligible products.  How long will it take to use up that $80?  Maybe 10 purchases, give or take a few? 

Now, what if all the products you were buying with free shipping were a little more expensive than other sellers, but still cheaper than whatever it would cost with shipping from those other vendors?  Even if it was just a couple of dollars, it’s still cheaper, right?  A bag of gummy bears for $8 with free shipping or the same bag for $6 plus $4 shipping.  It’s $2 more on the product, but $2 less after shipping is considered.

But… you’ve paid for shipping in advance, remember?  You are chipping away at your escrow account slower than you might have thought, because you’re contributing a little bit towards shipping by paying a slightly higher price.  So, while you may think you’re getting an awesome deal by purchasing Prime, it’s not that awesome.  It can still be very good, though.  That 10-purchase, break-even point we estimated earlier could easily double.

The more important part is that Prime incentivizes you to buy from Amazon and not from other sellers – even other sellers on Amazon.  This means the profit from the sale of the item stays with Amazon.  And if Amazon is lucky, you won’t use so much free shipping as to burn through your escrow.

To summarize:  You pay more for a product from Amazon than from another seller.  The additional profit for Amazon goes to offset the cost of the “free” shipping.  You are also paying for some of that shipping from your purchase of Prime.

This is like a wet dream for number-crunchers: to come up with the perfect balance of item pricing that undercuts the competition by the smallest amount and still convinces the buyer to choose Amazon.  Can you imagine the computing power that is likely devoted to this formula every single day?

Un-Disposable

Posted by on October 23, 2013 No comments

Today I felt pretty good about myself.  I kept myself from spending more money.  I did this by simply repairing what I intended to replace.  This story goes back a little ways.  It’s about my watch.

I can’t recall if I’ve mentioned my watches before, but I have a small collection – a collection I recently am trying to build up a little.  I don’t really like heavy things on my wrist, so I have been attracted to Skagen watches because they are so thin.  When you get them in titanium, they’re even lighter.  As an aside, the current trend of huge watches offends me greatly.

I’ve been wearing Skagen watches for probably over 15 years.  One of the first watches I had, I loved.  Then the battery went dead.  So I filled out an RMA form and mailed the watch off to Skagen for battery replacement.  I never saw the watch again.  Worse, I never saw that model again, so I was never able to replace it.  I think I didn’t wear a watch for a period of time after that incident out of grief and protest.

Years go by and I’ve got a few more watches, a couple Skagen and a Wenger.  One day, I snag the mesh band on something and it pulls a link out, causing a sharp spur.  So I go to Skagen’s repair site and find that a replacement band is about $25.  That’s $25 on a $70 watch, quite a decent percentage of value.  So I balked at replacing the band.  Instead, I spent $100 on a new, nicer Skagen.  It made sense, and that watch has served me very well for years.

But the watch with the broken band has been sitting in my watch case ever since.  I really do like it – the lightest one I have and it has numbers on the face, instead of just ticks.  So recently, I went back to the Skagen website to order the band.  Now all of a sudden, you can’t buy replacement parts.  You have to send your watch to a service center for repair.  Yeah, I’ve been through that one before.  No thanks.  I search around online and the supply of replacement bands is very small and more expensive.  What the heck is going on?

I found my answer: Fossil bought out Skagen.  And with that purchase, they completely changed the way service is done.  I have little love for Fossil.  I owned one watch by them and it never “worked” for me, then it stopped working, literally.  So it was a huge disappointment to hear the news of the sale.

Now, I was going back and forth between buying a replacement watch ($70), or actually paying the now $30+ just for the band.  Oh, and the battery needs replaced ($12).  Then it hit me.  The Dremel!  I have tools!  I can grind this spur down, and if I fail at doing that, what have I lost?  I was prepared to chuck the watch anyway.

So, with the precision of an amateur dentist, I chose a grinding bit and went to town.  Totally anti-climatic, it took like 3 seconds and I had a flawless result.  Why I didn’t think of that earlier, I don’t know.  No, I kinda do know.  I’m a wasteful, consumerist American.  Everything is disposable. 

But, I’m  compelled to look for a deeper meaning here.  Why didn’t I just toss the watch and buy another?  After all, I did buy a replacement model and still didn’t throw it out.  Maybe I have a deeper connection with that watch than I realize.  I’ll get the battery changed this weekend, and I have a new watch in the mail, and I have a plan to buy another watch (maybe even two) on my upcoming vacation, so we’ll have to see which watch gets the most face time in the end.

Revamped Office

Posted by on October 18, 2013 No comments

Welcome to my hell.  Actually, I mean, welcome to my productivity trap.

WP_20130923_006

Many years ago – 8 to be precise – I made the purchase, nay, the investment, in good office furniture.  I ordered from Staples’ business collection, the Bush Cubix series.  Not so long ago, I revisited that purchase and was utterly shocked that I had spent nearly $500 on two pieces of furniture: a 60” desk and a bookcase.

However, as time has proven, you get what you pay for.  This furniture has been excellent despite the fact that I’ve never taken care of it at all.  But all that is going to change soon.  As you can see, my workspace has become a storage space for everything.  It has no purpose, and when I sit down at it, I am uninspired and lost.

To begin this change, I spent another $500 on two more pieces from the Cubix collection: a 3-drawer storage unit and a stand for my printer and papers.  I can’t get the hutch and locker yet.  Someday…  But, this is going to get the stuff off my desk, giving me a clear view with less distractions.  Then once everything is off, I can clean the desk.  There are some chips in the finish from a very poor decision I made one night involving a clamp.  While bemoaning the fact that my clean desk was still going to be marred, I hit upon an idea that gave me hope and inspiration for the future of my home-office work.  That idea is the humble leather desk pad.

Ok, maybe it isn’t humble.  In a lot of ways it’s pompous, since it’s a executive thing, but it doesn’t have to be.  Look at the current state of my desk.  Look at how many things are sitting in front of me.  Now imagine a desk pad blocking all that junk.  The desk pad says, “No.  Not here.  This is not storage area, this is creative area.”  And that is where I am drawing my inspiration.  In the chaos that is my desk right now, the desk pad is going to be a sanctuary of openness.  Things enter that sanctuary to be worked on, then are retired to their homes.

Of course, the new furniture is the other part of it.  Right now, there is no home for everything on my desk.  Also, my files are in a box in the closet off to the side.  Because it’s such an annoyance to go to the closet and get the filing box, papers to be filed pile up in my “outbox” on the right side.

Not shown in the picture is my bookcase, which is stuffed full of junk.  Yes, there’s books in there, but there’s also spindles of DVDs, envelopes, paper, labels, a drawer organizer with all my office stuff in it, manuals, and some art.  Art that is crowded out where it doesn’t  even look like art, it looks like junk.  So with the addition of my new storage units, I can get the stationary stuff and DVDs out of there.  It will give more room for proper display.  It will probably kick off another round of downsizing, as I re-evaluate the things I haven’t touched in years.

Since I have at least a week to wait for the new furniture, I have plenty of time to dwell on this, make notes, research and consider different layouts, and write about it all.  My home office is also my studio, with a recently-reduced number of keyboards (2), and some guitars.  The picture shows the heavily-underutilized rack stand, acting as a printer and mixer stand, with a couple of drawers.  I have a couple of torch lamps in the corners that are probably ready to be retired.  I can replace them with LED sunlight lamps if needed.

The bottom line is, I need to visualize what I want.  And what is it that I want?  I don’t host guests in my office.  My original layout accommodated stepping between computer and keyboards when recording.  Maybe I need something like that again?

And then…

This is my new workspace. 

DSC_1338

The desk is no longer against the wall, it is now in the center of the room.  One of the biggest things this relocation did for me is put the ceiling light directly over the desk.  Now I am not backlit while at the desk and my keyboard doesn’t suffer from being completely shadowed.

As mentioned, I now have a three desk storage unit to hold all my desk pieces and files.  I have a printer stand that has taken a lot of clutter off of my bookshelf.  My bookshelf is now in front of me, where I can put some more artful items.  Although the pictures don’t show it, I also have shelves on the wall.  I now have more shelf space than pieces to put on them.

And in the center of the desk is the desk pad.  I have used this just as I describe.  It is a clear space (except when the cat feels like being the center of attention).  I bring items into that space: bills, letters, computer parts, whatever.  I do the work and clear it out.  And as with my new tool kit, there is a place for everything.  I do have a junk drawer, which will need to be addressed, but that also means that everything in it needs to receive a designated place.

Has it helped my productivity?  I think it’s a little early to tell.  I am happy for all these changes, but honestly, it did not cause a huge change in motivation.  I think I’ve been going though a slight bout of depression, from which I am now recovering.  If that’s what it was, then it’s good I’m coming out of it into a more organized living area which will be receptive to creation.

Shades of Taxes

Posted by on October 16, 2013 No comments

I recently watched a video on the dangers of “socialism.”  It was an animation and was intended to be humorous while delivering its message.  The illustration given was a classroom where it was announced that everyone would get the same grade, averaged from all the tests.  After the first test, everyone got a B, the next test, everyone got a D, the last test, everyone got an F.  This is how socialism works, apparently.

The problem with the illustration is that the subjects are of two distinct personalities: selfish and lazy, which is how anti-socialism people view the world.  You are either selfish and in it for yourself only, which is why you are a capitalist, or you are lazy and don’t want to do anything, which is why socialism is so great for you.

The world is so full of absolutes right now, it’s disgusting.  You are either Left or Right, Pro or Con.  And that designation, aside from having no variance, also has no subsets.  There will always be those that will fight for a cause and those that don’t care about it.  There will always be people who care about doing a good job and those who don’t see the point in it.

Here’s an anti-socialist viewpoint: why have garbage cans on the street?  Eventually everyone’s going to just throw their trash on the ground, because there’s no gain in using the garbage can.  All the effort of trying to keep the streets clean is wasted on those that don’t care, so why bother.  I mean, either you’re 100% for litter control, in which case you’d handle all of your trash needs yourself and have no need for government-subsidized garbage can entitlements, or you’re not, in which case the ground is your garbage can.

Flippant as it is, it exposes the hypocrisy of anti-socialists.  If it’s something they support, good, otherwise, fuck off.  These people want life to be a’la carte.  They want to pick and choose every single piece of their life experience.  So why not?

Yes, why not?  Everyone bitches and moans about their tax dollars going to pay for something that they hate.  So why not let them choose?  Why not?  I think we have enough diversity in America that everything would be funded as it’s needed.  You’d have your rich, educated types diverting their tax money to education programs, earth and hippie types allocating for environmental causes, farmers propping up agriculture subsidies, rednecks and bulletheads giving all their tax dollars to defense.  Despite all the stereotypes, it would all work out.  And you’d have normal people allocating some here and some there, balancing things even further.

So all this stuff about Congress budgeting and allocating and taxing and robbing people to pay Paul, it all goes away.  Each year, the income tax forms are collected and everyone has contributed a flat tax of 10%, 12%, 15%, whatever.  Everyone has indicated on their tax form whether they want their taxes spread equally or according to the category assignments provided.  You will actually have a tangible value assigned to the service, instead of “These people insist their service needs more funding.”

The Tools of Efficiency

Posted by on October 15, 2013 No comments

Oh, wretched neglect. 

I pulled my motorcycle, Nile, out after yet another long period of ignoring.  The poor thing was covered in cobwebs and everything in the trunk was mildewed to death.  I might need to buy a new trunk, it’s so bad.

But you know what?  I have pulled Nile out on average only once every six months and she has never let me down.  It takes a bit to start, but the battery is never dead, she never fails to eventually start, and she rides as solid as I would expect.  Because I ride so little, I can never tell if she’s riding poorly or not.

But it’s now beginning to be riding season here, with the deadly heat, bugs, and monsoon rains going away.  Which means it might be time to begin considering spending money on something different.  The bike needs new turn signals.  The rubber stalks are dry-rotted to the core and are literally crumbling apart.  So, I purchased new turn signals.  That will probably end up with a blog page, with pictures of the whole process.  And then, I’ll do the front signals.

In order to change out the front signals, I’ll need to take the front fork apart.  That requires a 22mm socket, which I don’t have.  You know what that means… shopping!

So, long story short, a 22mm socket is $7 at Sears.  But, they had a 255-piece tool kit on clearance that included a 22mm socket for only $180.  The decision was pretty easy.  See, the last time I bought tools was probably about 15 years ago.  It was an entry-level Craftsman socket set.  That set served me very well for all those years, but taken as a whole, my tool collection was pretty poor.  The sockets were “organized” in ziplock bags, the wrenches were incomplete, random, china-made castoffs.  Despite having a massive two-level rolling toolbox, I didn’t have any way to organize my tools.

Now with this set, every piece has a molded place in a removable tray.  My wrench set is fully complete and my socket set is expanded.  The kit makes the task of replacing the motorcycle turn signals a breeze, knowing I have the exact tools I need right at hand.  I don’t have to fish around for the right sockets or wrenches (usually discovering that the size I need is not in my collection).  Most importantly, finishing up means returning each piece to its proper place.  This will make me more productive in the long run.  It’s the same premise I based my office redesign on. (future post spoiler)  And despite having more tools now, having a cohesive set makes it seem like it’s one unit, instead of sets of sockets, wrenches, and screwdrivers.

But, back to the bike.  I have changed out the rear signals and I have been riding more.  I did recently  get soaked to the bone on one ride home from work – just like the good ol’ days.  And I still can’t complain that Nile has been rock-solid for me.

Resume Retardation

Posted by on October 8, 2013 No comments

I’ve bitched before about the quality of resume we’re getting for our software developer positions.  We have another spot open and we got another resume riddled with errors.  I counted 18 major errors and I skipped a lot of minor errors.  This is just plain stupid, people.  I’m going to show you what you are doing wrong, so that you can review your own resume and possibly correct some of these before someone like me sees them.

First of all, this resume has the unique presentation where commas have been replaced by ellipses.  For example, when listing skills, it says something like, “This language… that language… some other language… some server software…”  I don’t know why people try clever things like this.  It reminds me of a goofball new-age manager who always used semicolons instead of periods.  So, sure, I noticed it and it makes me read your skills list with ridiculous, dismissive pauses as if after every skill you’re saying, “You know, I could go on…”  But if you’re going to do it and be pretentious about it, at least be consistent.  Don’t have the last three items separated by commas.

Now the offenses:

“Develop SSRS Reports in a ASP.Net Application using SQL, Silverlight, ASP.Net 3.5” – “A” should be “an”.  I am lenient when people talk about “a SQL database” or “an SQL database”, because of the two different pronunciations of “SQL”.  I know of no other way to pronounce “ASP”.  A/an errors appear three other places in this resume.

“Developed a WCF to be used by collages to receive leads for their schools” – “A WCF” means nothing.  “A WCF application” is probably what was meant.  “Collages” is completely wrong.  “Colleges” is the proper word.  There’s no excuse for this.  You are writing software for academics!  A similar problem where sentences end with “a SQL 2008” excluding any descriptor like “database”, “procedure”, or ”application” appears in two other places in this resume.  Another completely wrong word (“from” as “form”) is in the resume.

“Developed and Deployed an Company Intranet site (Oracle, HTML, JavaScript, and Java)” – “An Company” is improper.  You can read it and say, oh, it used to just be “an Intranet…”, but he added “Company” and didn’t change the “an”.  Yes, that’s probably correct, but it’s not an excuse; it’s just an explanation.  By the way, the random and inconsistent capitalization is a lot of the minor errors I didn’t count.  Also, note the proper use of an ellipse.

“SharePoint Sever 2007” – Really?

“Windows Phone 7 Developments” – How many developments are we talking, here?

“Wrote to chapters for the WROX SQL 2012 Bible on Row Level Security and Data Encryption.” – I hope those “to” chapters were proofread by someone capable of writing proper English.  This is not someone who should be writing or contributing to books.

So what we have here is a resume by someone who has been working professionally longer than I have. This resume has not been proofread by anyone, not even the recruiter that submitted it.  This person, who has been working as a contractor, has had to update his resume seven times in the last three years.  It appears he has not reviewed his work in full.  This is someone who clearly does not have an eye for quality and when the work is done, he moves right on to the next thing.  This is why contractors suck.

Postscript:

The interview was a total failure, so I didn’t need to voice my opinion on the quality of the resume.  However, as a personal embarrassment, I found the worst resume mistake during the interview.  The heading: “ACCOMPLIMENTS”.  I never would have thought a heading to be misspelled.

Windows 8 Users, You Need To Do This.

Posted by on September 27, 2013 No comments

Windows 8 has been around for quite a while and there are still people that are pissed off, frustrated, and confused about it.  It’s all about the Start screen.  People don’t know what it’s about or how to use it.  My initial message to people was, “Get over it.  It’s the Start Menu, just in a different display format.”  Then when they still didn’t get it, it became, “Stop worrying about it, just start typing and search for the program you want.”  Now I have a new message: “Don’t be afraid.”

Here’s my Start screen at work.  It is not intimidating; it is not confusing; it is everything that I need to do my job and nothing more.  You can have this in three easy steps.

Start Screen

Now, when I say, don’t be afraid, I mean it.  What you need to do is right-click the hell out of your icons and remove them from your Start screen.  What you want is only the programs you use on a daily basis.  You might be saddened to see how little you use your computer when you seem to have so much software installed on it.  Once you have done that, you will immediately feel less overwhelmed.  DO NOT BE AFRAID.  All of your icons and shortcuts are still searchable, findable, and re-add-able in the All Apps screen.  Trust me, when you have your Start screen finished, you’re going to be freaked out when you see everything behind the scenes.  And that was the old Start menu.

Now for step two, creating groups.  You see that I have five groups of icons, we’ll cover the naming of those groups in step three.  For right now, merge everything into one group, then start dragging icons out of the main group, when you see a highlighted column appear, you will be creating a new group when you drop the icon.  Think in terms of categories.  Don’t worry if your groups are out of order, we can rearrange whole groups in step three.  Originally my first two groups were combined, but there didn’t feel like there was enough whitespace, so I broke some icons out.  it changed my four-column group into 2 two-column groups, and it gave me a new “category”.

Now for the final step three.  Once you have your new, limited icons set up, move to the lower right of the screen where you see the “-“ minus/zoom out icon.  The Start screen will zoom out and you can work on your layout at the group level.  Right-click each group and choose Name Group, then give it a meaningful category name.  While your group is selected, you can drag it into a different position.  Click a blank area of the screen to zoom back in.

Now, take a deep breath and look at what you’ve created.  It’s a launchpad for your work.  Never mind all that hype about live tiles.  Maybe someday it will be worthwhile to hit the start button to get caught up on bunches of little details, then jump back out.  This is more about arranging your desk.

The very first thing you do when you install a new application is take all those new stupid icons off the Start screen.  That is, unless you want to keep the application’s primary shortcut – if it’s something you are going to use very frequently.  If you won’t, get rid of it and find it later via search.