In search of the ideal drill (for me)

A few months ago, my Makita Cordless Drill started to die. The NiCad batteries were basically at the end of their useful life. This drill has served me well over the course of the last decade (yes, the batteries have continued to work for over 10 years). I started looking at replacing the batteries and the cost was about $35-$40 a piece which almost didn't make sense to just replace the batteries when I could get a brand new drill with 2 batteries for a similar cost or I could upgrade my drill.

I started looking at new drills and asked my dad for some advice. He recommended one with a Lithium Ion battery, 18V (or higher) and one that could use the battery in different tools. That all made sense, but when I looked at cost, it made me sit back and do nothing as combo kits (drill, saw, etc.) were about $300. We were in Home Depot on New Year's Day and I saw the Ryobi 12V Lithium Ion drill for about $80 and it looked compact and seemed liked it was all I needed. My Makita was only 9.6V, so this should have had more power. I looked across the aisle and saw the combo kit with circular saw, hybrid saw, and worklight for $119. I knew the limitations on 12V for a saw, but decided to give it a try. I've had the kit for about a week now and like all the components. The saws work for me needs and the drill seemed to work well. If I had bought the kit a day before, I would have gotten a $20 rebate. Oh well.

It wasn't until yesterday that I figured out what was wrong with the kit. The drill didn't have a clutch to change the torque. While this sounds like something I really didn't need, I've used the clutch setting on my Makita lots of times. So I pondered what to do and decided to get the Factory Reconditioned Ryobi 18V combo kit. The cost is about $200 with no sales tax putting it about $70 more than what I already had (I have a few more weeks to return the kit to Home Depot). While this kit isn't the newest (it doesn't have the auto-shift drill), the Ryobi 18V setup works with over 35 of Ryobi's tools. I'm sure that this kit will be more than adequate for my simple needs.

I'm looking forward to receiving this (I'm actually bidding on it on eBay to save a few more bucks, but if I don't get the auction, I can still get it for $200).

How not to run a web site

Today I went to view my insurance bill online and when I went to view it or save it, I got the standard Apache Internal Server Error message. That's pretty bad for an insurance company that seems to be beefing up its online presence. If that wasn’t bad enough, they neglected to change the default administrator email address (you@your.address). Should I be afraid that if they didn't change that default value that they haven't properly secure their server?

(I'm sure that one of my sites does something stupid like that, but I don't have a staff that maintains my sites.)

Overly cautious customer?

The other day a potential ReceiptWallet user asked if we stored credit card numbers when people purchase ReceiptWallet. That is a completely legitimate question and I replied that we only keep the last 4 digits of the number (which is appropriate per credit card industry standards) and that our credit card processor (PayPal) keeps the number for 60 days (in case we need to issue a refund). I've never had that question before and never thought to ask it of a vendor probably because I know it really doesn't matter. Why do I say this? Look at the major losses of credit card numbers and they are big merchants like TJ Maxx. If I asked every vendor big and small about their storage policies, I'd never buy anything. Also, as a consumer, I'm protected against fraudulent purchases (identity theft is a different story). While it is a pain to have to get a new card and deal with a stolen number, I've had to do this 3 times in the last 7 years (once I have no idea how they got the number, the second time my wife's card was stolen and the third time, CitiBank told me that they had to close the account for security reasons).

I know that vendors do keep the entire credit card number (Home Depot must in order to process returns and all you have to do is present your credit card without the receipt). When I moved my office and cleaned out my files, I found merchant reconciliation statements from when I directly took credit cards for NotifyMail years ago. These statements had credit card numbers and expiration dates for several years worth of transactions. I even had a few credit card numbers belonging to NASA as they were a customer of mine! The credit card numbers were always in my possession and I shredded all the information (OK, years late, but I did it). How many other vendors have done the same thing? It's scary just thinking about it.

Maybe I should be more cautious about which vendors get my credit card number like this potential customer, but what will that do for me? Basically I'd never be able to purchase anything on the Internet!

Wacky Chinese Packaging

For Hanukkah this year, my wife decided to get me some little things that I could put on my desk. The things she got me were definitely not on my wish list (OK, I don't have a wish list as I just buy what I want within reason). One of the items she bought me was a flashing coaster. My son seems to enjoy it and it is kind of entertaining. What was even more entertaining for me was to read the package.

I thought that people only saw this stuff on The Tonight Show, but I can now say that I've seen bad Chinese translations myself!