Some time ago, I heard that the remote control in a hotel room was one of the dirtiest things one could touch in a hotel. I even saw “sleeves” you could buy to put over the remote so you didn’t have to touch it. Well, I have a cheaper and more convenient solution. Hotel rooms have plastic laundry bags, so just slip the laundry bag over the remote and use it. I only use the volume up/down, channel up/down and power buttons, so I don’t have to see the buttons. The infrared of the remote goes through the bag, so presto, a cheap and easy solution to not touching the dirty remote.
People choose to live here?
I’m in Phoenix (actually Scottsdale) for business and have one big question. Why do people choose to live here? I knew the temperature before I came and prepared accordingly. As my hotel is only 3/4 mile from where we are having meetings, I thought hoofing it wouldn’t be all that bad. Well at 10 am and then again at 8 pm, it wasn’t all that pleasant.
This is a desert; there are green lawns and other non-desert plants! Is there really enough water to go around? If I thought we had problems in San Diego, there must be bigger problems out here where the low temperature is 84 degrees!
I’ll cross Phoenix off my vacation list for the middle of the summer.
Blogging code of ethics
Yesterday I was reading an article by Walt Mosberg and read his code of ethics where he says that he doesn’t accept money or products (to keep) from companies whose products he reviews. This is quite admirable and lets him say whatever he wants. I, on the other hand, will accept money or products from anyone that wants to send them my way!
This doesn’t happen all that often, but recently I was paid for an ad on my blog (it didn’t change anything I had to say) and was just offered a product to review. I’ll be writing a review once I receive the product. Will the review be swayed because I receive the product for free? Absolutely not! I can already tell that there are things that I won’t like about the product, but I’ll try to be as fair and balanced as possible.
Before I sold ReceiptWallet, my blog was running on the same server that my ReceiptWallet web site was on, so there was no added expense to have it up. Now that ReceiptWallet is no longer mine, this blog costs me money every month. The cost is offset by advertising (I do accept advertising if anyone wants to advertise, but I make no guarantees that you’ll always like my content) and affiliate links. Right now I have affiliate links for Amazon and MacUpdate Promo. If you like my blog, please use the Amazon link; just enter your search and start your shopping from here!
So the question for the day is, does advertising or free products influence a good journalist or blogger? (Did I just call myself a journalist or a good blogger? That must have been a mistake; I’m just a guy writing random thoughts.) I think the answer to the question depends on the individual. As I don’t make my living through this blog, advertising and free products won’t influence me because I write this blog even without advertising and free products. For those that make their living from writing, I could see how it could be an influence, but if you’re good at your job, it shouldn’t. While Walt says he doesn’t take free stuff from companies, would people respect him less if he did?
Bad joke
Today I’m traveling for business and neglected to print a copy of my boarding pass (I didn’t save my boarding pass to a PDF, but printed it directly to my printer) for my expense report (I’m on Southwest where they collect boarding passes), so I went to the counter and asked if I could get a receipt. The agent, with a straight face, told me it was going to cost me $5 for it. I fell for it, hook, line and sinker! With airlines charging fees for everything, is it all that unreasonable that Southwest would charge for a receipt? I didn’t think so. The ticket agent got a good laugh out of it; I’m glad she got a good laugh out of me!
Quality built in
On Friday, I bought a new gas grill to replace our aging and potentially dangerous grill (it had rusted parts and replacing the pieces would be more costly and time consuming to fix). I went to Home Depot and bought the cheapest one I could find as I eventually want to install a permanent grill in our backyard. I bought the cheap Brinkmann and it seems to work fine. The electronic ignition seems to work fine. I noticed this part hanging from the grill and thought that maybe it was to somehow light the grill when the ignition stopped working. Well, I was right; it is a match holder. 
Wow, building in a backup when, not if, the electronic ignition fails. That’s pretty funny. OK, I know that electronic ignitions fail (the one on our last grill failed years ago), but this just made me laugh.
This is my blog
Recently I’ve received some pretty mean spirited comments about what I’ve posted. Well, this is my blog and it serves as a means for me to express my opinions; if no one read it, it wouldn’t matter to me. This is a journal for me. Maybe I should simply make it private, but there is some information in it that is useful to others and some people have really good comments.
One commenter said that I delete comments I don’t like. Well, yes I have deleted posts, but these posts contained objectionable language or were just mean. If someone has something to say that I don’t agree we, I don’t delete the comment if it is well written. I really don’t agree with this comment, but approved it. The same commenter that said I delete comments also called me a whack and said that maybe someone should call child protective services because I’m raising my son with my liberal views. That’s a pretty mean thing to say; my wife and I will raise our son to think on his own; if that makes us or him liberal, so be it.
Another commenter called me an Apple fan boy. Well, yes, I do like Apple products, but the comment was attached to my post about a recent security alert. The security alert wasn’t issued by Microsoft or Apple, so it was completely off topic. (Even though I like Apple products, read what I say about Mac OS X Server and you’ll see that I don’t just use everything Apple because it is Apple.)
In any case, I’m going to keep letting people comment on most posts, but will always moderate comments so that they remain clean and don’t take pot shots at me because of my posts. Go ahead and comment on my posts and if you disagree with me, that’s fine, just act like an adult when writing comments.
Looking for organization
I’ve been looking for a way to keep everything I have to do organized for years. I flip flop between systems, sometimes online, sometimes paper, sometimes just desktop based. Unfortunately I never use a system for more than a few weeks before I forget about it. I’m taking another stab at this and have started using a program called The Hit List which I got as part of the MacHeist bundle I bought. It’s simple to use, lets me have multiple lists, organize my lists into folders, and syncs with iCal. The thing about syncing with iCal, in theory, is that I could sync my tasks from my Pre to our Zimbra server and then to iCal which would dump them in my Inbox in The Hit List. If I was not home, I’d enter a task and it would appear in The Hit List; that could work. However, the Pre doesn’t seem to want to sync Tasks with our Zimbra server.
Let’s see if I can stick with this for awhile; it definitely won’t be a shortcoming of the program if I can’t stick with it as it has all the features needed for a good task management program.
On a side note, Andy Kim, the author of The Hit List, created the Potion Store application that I used to sell ReceiptWallet for about 2 years. It had such a great, simple interface that I instantly fell in love with it. Within about 2 days of finding it, I learned enough Ruby on Rails to modify the application, integrate my registration system, and had it running for sales. Thanks, Andy, without Potion Store, I don’t think ReceiptWallet would have been so successful!
More pricing inaccuracies
Almost 2 years ago, I wrote about price scanner inaccuracies at Target. Well, I was a victim of pricing inaccuracies again. This time, it was at one of my least favorite stores, Fry’s Electronics. I try to avoid Fry’s, but sometimes they have decent deals and have some things that it is easiest to get there. A few weeks ago, I need some CD-Rs and Fry’s had them on sale. While I was getting the CD-Rs, I saw some DVD-R DLs for a really good price. The shelf tag said $17.95, so I picked them up.
When we got to the checkout, it rang up as $24.95. I ran back and brought the tag back. The tag actually said the deal had expired, but the cashier said they’d honor it. The cashier asked for our name and had to get it approved by a manager. After waiting around for more than 5 minutes, we just left without the DVDs.
I contacted the San Diego County Agriculture/Weights & Measures department. I was told that Fry’s had to honor the price on the shelf tag no matter what the expiration date said on the tag; California Business and Professions Code Section 12024.2 (a) (2) “notwithstanding any limitation of the time period for which the posted price is in effect”. The department contacted Fry’s and Fry’s said that they’d make things right for me. I contacted Fry’s and was told to come in, speak with the manager, and get the DVD-R DLs for the $17.95 price. To me, this doesn’t quite seem like making it right. I’d have to go in and wait around for the manager to fix the price. This is precisely the reason why I left; it took too much time to correct the matter!
From what I’ve read, it’s probably good that I didn’t get these as the reviews on this particular media are pretty poor.
Forecasting the weather in San Diego
Last night, we were watching the news and the weather forecaster said that there was going to be drizzle today. I thought I was going to have to bring a rain coat as I knew I was going to be walking a bit today. I completely forgot about it when I left the house and was quite happy that I did. It was a beautiful day in San Diego! If you want to forecast the weather in San Diego, just say that tomorrow will be like today. Not very scientific, but more accurate than the computer models.
Doing my civic duty
Today, I honored my summons to goto jury duty. I’ve been called maybe 4 or 5 times in the past and have only come close to serving on a jury once (I was an alternate and the case was pleaded out after opening arguments). Now that San Diego uses the 1 day or 1 trial system, a lot less of my time is wasted. (OK, I say wasted, but others would say it is an honor and privilege to server.) For the 5.5 years prior to my current job, I just filled out the form saying it would be an extreme financial hardship as I was self employed. Fortunately for me, I have an EVDO modem, so waiting in the jury room simply meant that I didn’t have the comforts of my home office, but I was still able to work.
Luckily I wasn’t called to serve on a jury, so I’m excused for another year. It was a nice day downtown and I managed to spend a bit of it walking during our lunch break (they gave us 2 hours for lunch, that IS a waste).
Hopefully I won’t be called again anytime soon.