I’ve got 4 to give away… first four comments with an email address get them. While I still don’t think Google’s ever going to go public with the service (and why should they? look at the demand for invitations from people) I’m willing to pass out the invites I get…
Monthly Archives: September 2004
Bye Bye Washington!
Seems like Mother nature really hates the US this month huh?
I mean… Florida gets hit with 3 category 3 or higher hurricanes inside of 6 weeks… dumping enough rain on the state to make Noah’s flood look like a spring shower…New Orleans dodges the bullet and avoids turning into Atlantis (Sounds to me, like if you live in the South Eastern part of the country…now might be a good time to consider relocating!)
And now… Washington is preparing to go the way of Pompeii! In case you’ve missed it Mt. St. Helen’s is getting ready to blow its top. While currently scientists aren’t predicting an eruption as big as the one in 1980…. The way things have been going.. I’m pretty sure they’re wrong.. and it’s going to be a bigger bang then that one..
Oh Yeah… Earthquakes in California… nothing big… But…. next week will probably be their big earthquake that sends them floating out to sea…
Makes me glad I live in Colorado.. what’s mother nature gonna due to us? Make it Snow?
.Mac Enhancements
I received a surprising email from Apple today..
In a move probably in response to Gmail, and the increased amounts of storage on yahoo’s mail (and similar services). I received the below email
Wedding Time
So, this past weekend, my Sister-in-Law Vicki tied the knot
Star Wars
Yesterday, Aspyr announced that SW: KOTOR is shipping.
Its expected to be in stores on the 1st of October… which works out nicely for me..since the first is payday =)
And of course, the big Star Wars news this week, is that the ‘original’ trilogy (episodes 4,5,& 6) go on sale on DVD today… I plan on picking mine up at lunch time from the Virgin MegaStore down the street from my work. I haven’t decided yet if I’m going to get the ‘light side’ packaging or the ‘dark side’ packaging. I suppose I should actually wait to see what they have in stock, before I make up my mind. George Lucas, in his never satisfied with his work way, has re-done some more of the movies (in addition to the changes that made these the ‘special editions’ back in the 90s. The Han Solo/Greedo scene that was the source of so much commentary in the special editions, has been re-done, again. Apparently, this time they fire at the same time, and Han dodges Greedo’s shot…
Definitely looking forward to picking up the movies..and spending 6 hours this weekend watching them!
Gmail
Its still all the rage, everyone seems to want a Gmail account..
And, now, thanks to Judi over at Mom at Home Design, I’ve got one to play around with. The service does seem to be stuck in perpetual beta, and I’m not sure how thrilled I am with the prospect of Google’s software scanning all my email to deposit ads in there. The least they could to is provide commission off of any sales generated by click-thru of those ads. Oh well..if nothing else, given some of the topics my friends and I talk about via email…. it ought to be real interesting to see what ads they decide to stick in.
I’m hoping that services like Gmail, along with Yahoo and Hotmail having expanded what they offer for free to everyone will help push Apple to make a few changes to their .Mac service. Granted, I’ll keep using it without any changes, since its so easy to use for publishing pictures of Kael, and this blog… while I know I could learn what I need to know to host the server myself (assuming I ever get an ISP besides Comcast) its much faster and easier to let Apple do all the work.
Broadband Issues
This one covers my attempts to get DSL…
Interesting Headlines
A few news articles caught my eye today…
The first one: [cnn.com] is funny…apparently some guy was getting ready to shoot some puppies (that’s not the funny part…) and he was carrying two of the puppies, when one of the pups got ahold of the trigger..and shot the guy in his wrist. So..let that be a lesson to all you puppy shooters out there.. the dogs are starting to shoot back!
The second one: [cnn.com] just pisses me off. Bushmaster has settled a lawsuit that was holding them partly responsible for the DC Sniper shootings (the gun the snipers used was made by Bushmaster).. this is the first anti-gun lawsuit that has resulted in any type of award going to the plaintiffs… and I’d have to imagine it won’t be the last one now. I just have one question.. how come none of these idiots that are suing gun companies for making guns, are suing car companies for making cars? It’s just as easy (actually, easier.. you don’t have to be 21 to buy a car) to kill someone with a car… how come the parents of the girl injured in Fort Collins while car surfing aren’t filing a lawsuit against Buick for not including hand/foot holds on the top of the car to prevent car surfers from falling off? why don’t the parents of these kids sue the manufacturer for making a car that can roll over?
What ever happened to personal responsibility? its not Bushmaster (or the gun dealer)’s fault that Malvo and his buddy were shooting people.. it’s Malvo and his buddy’s fault. These type of lawsuits are as stupid and frivolous as the ones filed by fat people blaming McDonald’s for making them fat (after all, McDonald’s has such a history of holding a gun to people’s heads and forcing them to order the Super Sized meals and then making them eat the whole thing)
Makes me think Shakespeare was right “Kill all the Lawyers” (no..I don’t remember which play/character said it) It’d definitely cut down the number of these stupid lawsuits
iTMS Affiliate Program (Take 2)
Got my reply back from the iTunes Music Store folks…
And as you can see by the pretty little iTunes icon on the right side there… I’m now an official member of the iTunes Music Store affiliate program.. so, either I’m more popular then I thought… or the iTMS folks have got some pretty low standards! (just kidding iTMS guys! I’m sure you have some amazingly high standards for what sites you let into the program!)
So.. if you were planning on making a purchase through the iTMS, I’d ask you to make it by clicking on the link to the right, which lets me get the commission for any purchases you make within 24 hours of clicking on the link. If nothing else, I’d like to try and make enough to pay for the registration fees for the kaelkicksass.com and theteppers.net domains… who knows.. if someone follows that link and buys one of everything.. I could get a decent start on Kael’s college fund
Buy.com Sucks part 3
The saga comes to a conclusion! (I think)
So.. I started the dispute process with my bank on the 2nd. This morning, buy.com finally posted the credit to my bank.. which I suppose means I should call my bank and let them know the dispute is no longer needed, since the merchant finally managed to figure out how to issue a refund.
On the plus side.. I appear to have found the secret to getting buy.com to actually do something.. if you want your order to ship, cancel it.. apparently in buy.com speak ‘cancel’ translates out to ‘begin shipping process’. If you want your money back… go through your bank and dispute the charge. I suppose, that if I were ever going to buy anything from them again, this would be useful information.
Not surprisingly, given buy.com’s incompetence, I have yet to receive the much promised ‘hey..your credit has been approved’ email that I was repeatedly told would be sent as soon as the ‘request’ for a credit was approved…. figures..they can’t even get an auto-generated email correct!
I’m glad the whole deal is done.. and I’ve definitely learned my lesson.. I’ll never buy anything from buy.com again! (Nor will I allow any friends/family members/people on the street to buy from them)