Chair Blogging

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I am attempting to write on my Sony Vaio laptop I have from work. It is so tiny. It is one of those 2.5lbs units with a tiny screen. I have to push the fonts up to 22pt in order for me to see things when I put the laptop on my lap. They keyboard is small, but so far I am able to touch time without tons of errors. I don't know how long i can do it for.

Even though the laptop is less than 3lbs this is the first weekend I have taken it home. I had to get everything configured properly on it as well as get a power adapter so i can leave it at home. I know, I have a Macbook that I travel to and from work with, but when I am home it acts like a desktop so this tiny guy is nice to have for times like right now when i want to sit on my comfy chair and type. It also has broadband access so i can get on the internet from anywhere Sprint has mobile service. That makes it worth it to travel with. OK enough talking about extra computers that I am tinkering with.

Relaxing Weekend

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I don’t know why, but I just don’t want to do anything this weekend. It is a beautiful day out. I can take a bike ride that I wanted to take all week. I could roller blade down by the water since there is some street fair. I could go hang out with friends. I could even do some shopping. I just find myself in my overstuffed chair listening to music and writing. I just don’t want to get up and do anything.

I will admit i am tired from working all week, and I did look forward to the weekend but I am not usually this lazy. If I end up doing nothing it is usually because it just happens, not because I sit around and make a actively decided not to do any of the things I think of getting involved with. And yes I just said actively decide to do nothing!

Maybe I will relax a little and go out with some friends tonight? Sounds good, but who knows if I will do it. Now I am just rambling so I will end this entry:)

eBay’s Feedback Rules Suck

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So eBay and Paypal are great when they work. The problem is when any little bit of fraud or doubt about an auction comes into play an seller gets screwed. My latest issue with the dynamic duo of lets screw the seller is eBay’s relatively new feedback policy. In the good days of the past someone would leave you a bad feedback score, you could reciprocate. That way a total moron would feel the pain of being an idiot when they left feedback for no good reason. Now a day’s only a buyer can leave neutral or negative feedback. eBay’s thoughts are that they don’t want buyers to be afraid of retribution when they leave negative feedback on a seller.

Here is why that doesn’t work. I am finally selling my Treo. In order to try and decrease the number of potential fraudulent bids I clearly state in the auction that I am only looking for bidders with 5 or more feedback. In the scheme of things it isn’t much of a protection against scammers, but every bit counts. I had someone win the auction with Buy It Now, and paid via Paypal. I went in to my accounts to check out the buyer. To my dismay I noticed that the buyer had only 1 feedback. Then I went into Paypal to check on the money and noticed that the person had paid for the item but wanted to have it shipped to a PO Box. I immediately refunded the guy his full payment price and in the refund I left a note about why I was refunding the money. The bidder actually sent me like 3 notices on ebay confused as to why he was being rejected even-though I explained it to him. He then wrote back to say that I got my first negative feedback for screwing him. This is where I got mad at eBay. I went to leave him feedback explaining my side, and realized that I couldn’t because eBay changed the policy. I refunded the guy his full amount paid. 1 feedback and asking to ship to a PO Box are both clear signs of a scam. How am I at fault here trying to protect myself? He got his money back like 30 minutes after paying. How is that screwing him???

eBay is trying to protect buyers, but what about sellers? I am more protected as a buyer already. If you use Paypal you can dispute the charge if you don’t get your merchandise, and then get your money back. If I send a product to someone and they dispute it, I have seen Paypal side with the seller, and then I am out my money and my product. Jayson got screwed selling a Mac Mini because it was worth more than the Paypal insurance and he shipped to a non registered address, even though it was the buyers home address. How is that fair?

Don’t you just love a semi-monopolistic website like eBay (try finding as large an auction community in the US and I will use it) that lets one type of customer able to complain about service, but not another? I find eBay contemptible, but I am forced to use it because it is basically the only game in town.

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Nokia N95, vs iPhone 3G

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Since I wrote my post about getting the Nokia N95, I thought of a few things that get me wanting a new iPhone, and some that make me think the N95 is a better option than the iPhone.

Features that my new Nokia N95 does now or last year when it came out that the iPhone will do in July are: GPS, 3G data speeds, Wifi, 8gigs of music or videos, & sync’s to my Mac seamlessly.

Cool features that the N95 does that the iPhone doesnt are things like built in internet radio, regular radio (via headset), 5mp camera, & basically any S60 application can be installed on it. Oh, yes Apple being able to write software without any restrictions is a good thing, no matter how crash proof you want to make the platform. There has to be a better middle ground than what Apple does.

To be fair the iPhone does the following things that will probably get me to switch when it comes out. It will have a keyboard (well touch keyboard still counts), awesome email client, & mobile me.

There are probably more features that fall into all three categories but that is a summary of what I care about.

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Fathers Day

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This fathers day I was supposed to have dinner with my parents and they would spend time with my sister Sunday morning. Like many plans in my family that setup changed at the last minute so I found myself at a backyard party my sister threw at her house. Flickr photo stream is here. As much as I don’t like the two hours plus trip to get to my sisters, I usually have a good time. Sunday was beautiful day. It was the first time I was at the house and able to use the pool.

It was a great day all around. How can you really complain when you sit around and eat, lie around in the pool play with the kids in the pool? When I wasn’t in the pool I kept cool by siting at the patio table and Zachary kept coming over with a watering bucket and wet my feet. For some reason he loved doing it, and it kept him busy for like 90 minutes.

The only down side really of visiting is that the drive home is usually horrible with tons of traffic on a Sunday night. Compound that on top of the fact that I am not a huge fan of sleeping over when there are tons of other people over. There just isn’t enough places to sleep comfortably. I will say that I do get in ample reading on NJT on the train ride out. Going home the ride sucks, but I would rather riding in the car with my parents if there are there than taking a train home and dealing with the limited sunday night schedule.

I still need to figure out what to get my dad for fathers day, and his birthday for that matter. He is now help, since he has no idea what he wants.

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Phone vs PDA Phone

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Yesterday I broke down and did a sort of impulse buy. I have been eying some mobile phone alternative to what I have that is not an iPhone. The Nokia E61i is just too dam slow, and the lack of a good email client and task management has put me over the edge with tolerating it. I will admit the E61i is still a great phone, but for me there are things that I will put up with and things I won’t. My issue is that the next real contender for a phone for me is the new iPhone 3g that is not out yet. Even then I am not 100% convinced I will be happy with it due to some known limitations for me.

That all being said I broke down and went out and bought a Nokia N95-4. It has almost all the multi-media functions of the iPhone and more, but it is not a PDA. In the first day that became a problem for me, but I did have a back up plan. I broke out my old Treo 750 that I never got around to selling and set it up to use as just a PDA. I can also use bluetooth to use the N95 as a modem if i want to check mail or browse the web on the Treo. I know, a PDA and a phone. How 2001ish. So far it has worked for me. I don’t always need the PDA, but it is on my desk at work or in my bag when I need it. That and I actually have a nice fast phone that sounds good. I know I will probably ditch this setup by the time the iPhone 3g comes out and I get sucked into getting one, but this setup does work.

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Rain, Lots of Rain

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I was surprised when I got a knock on my apartment door tonight. A maintenance person from my building was checking to see if i had a leak during the big rain storm today. I was like, “what? Leak, no I am fine”. Then I figured I would check out what he was talking about. Sure enough I had a small leak near my celling in my bathroom. Turns out some entrance to a deck on the floor above me flooded and the drainage system couldn’t accommodate as much water as was trying to get into it. The pent up water started leaking into my apartment and i believe another one or two on my floor. It was a small leak, but it flooded my bathroom a decent amount since it was constant for a while. I had no idea about the flood until the second or third time i checked on the leak and wondered why my feet were wet!

The maintenance guys were fantastic. They came and mopped and cleaned everything up, and they are going to call me during the week to arrange to come in to fix the marks the leak left.

I am glad I got home before it poured since I was out shopping in the afternoon before the rain began.

The Grind

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I am finally starting to get into a routine with work. I am not 100% comfortable and in the rhythm, but I am slowly getting there. I am still working to list out all the major tasks I need to accomplish, and what issues are more important than others. I always know that you are not fully productive in a new job for up to 3 months, but it is always hard getting acclimated to the new surroundings even if you know it is natural to be nervous and apprehensive because you are not integrated yet.

Grand Theft Auto 4

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A few weeks after it came out I broke down and bought Grand Theft Auto 4. I have never played any of the other versions of the game, but I heard tons of good things about it and I was done with Mass Effect. If I haven’t said this before on the blog I will say it now. I am not a gamer. The stereotype for a guy in the Technology field is to be the huge computer geek and gamer. I may like my gadgets and all, but I have never been a hard core gamer. I didn’t buy my first gaming console until around two years ago. That being said, recently I have found that I do enjoy to spend some free time on the Xbox 360. What is funny is I know people that their lives revolve around the games. For me I will play if I have free time and nothing else to do. It is a great escape, but I cannot play for hours. It gives me a head ache.

So what does all that have to do with GTA 4? Well in my free time recently I have been playing, and it is fun. That game is so funny because it takes everything that is wrong with society and goes to the extreme with it in the game. Some of the stuff that goes on is almost comical. For the record I do not believe that game is for kids, but I don’t see why people wanted to totally ban it.

On a final note, I am glad I drive better in real life than I do in that game. I go through like 3 cars a day in GTA 4!

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The Do Nothing Weekend

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My plans for this weekend are very simple, I am to do nothing. I am happy to report that as of noon Sunday I am successful in that mission. My goal is to stay in and kick the remnants of my cold so I am fresh and normal for next week. I may have stayed in, but the cold is not 100% gone yet. I am coughing a little, that is actually a new development. My noise is still slightly stuffed up, but better than before. My throat is still slightly soar. An improvement over last week yes, but I am still not my normal self yet.

I missed my nephews birthday party yesterday due to this cold. As much as I am upset that I missed it, I am glad I didn’t have to do all that traveling to get there. That and there would be tons of kids over, and I don’t want to get anyone else sick. Instead I sat around and watched allot of TV. I have all but cleaned out my backlog of things to watch on my Tivo and Apple TV.

It is weird to think that it was 95 degrees out yesterday and currently 93 degrees outside when I am cool and comfortable with the AC on low in my apartment. I will say this, my current apartment stays cool. In my last two apartments before this without AC on high the place would be sweltering with the temperature in the 90’s outside. When I woke up this morning my living room was a bit warm but not completely unlivable when the AC was off for more than 12 hours. There is allot to be said for that!

I am not sure what the agenda holds for today, but probably more of the same lying around letting the meds kill my cold. Maybe I will get some more writing in this afternoon if I am in the mood.