Waterfield man here. Oh and Thinktank too for the photo equipment.
I've had my share of Targus, Case Logic, and STM bags, normally from company provided equipment or a stipend to order when placing a laptop.
When I got my first TiBook in 2002 I splurged for the Waterfield messenger bag and accessories. Pushed $300 for the bag, sleeve, and a couple stuff pouches. Since then I've bought two additional sleeves for different laptops and had the original airplane seat buckle replaced with the smaller parasailing one.
The bag is flexible and durable. For a quick trip I might remove the laptop and use the main compartment for clothing. The most memorable use was trip to the Channel Isles.
After a nice comfortable flight from the US to Gatwick, I went to transfer to the local airline servicing Guernsey. That required checking in again, and hitting the one carry-on, no questions asked. And me with a laptop and DSLR. It took some doing, but the camera, broken down and stuffed under the flap did *just* fit into the messenger bag. No ripped stitches or nothing. All for a 30 foot trip (after clearing security I replaced the camera back in its back -- which also was in my messenger bag).
The Waterfield was my first messenger bag, and due to the quality, haven't had the need to look at anything else. I'm sure the Crumpler and Tom Bihn bags are in the same class.
For cameras I agree wholeheartedly with you. Thinktank is great for belt systems and on the go, but the combo camera/laptop bag (Urban Disguise) is a little iffy. Camera portion works great, but the carry strap metal buckles are inline with the laptop compartment. Even being careful I've scuffed up my laptops.
NAS (Nikon acquisition syndrome), meet BAS (bag acq. synd)!!!!
Here's how it'll work: Once an employee pays his or her 35% share, the company must then front the rest of the money. The employer will pay the insurer directly, then claim the amount as an offset against payroll tax liabilities. Payroll will report any subsidies made and take the offset on an updated Form 941 the IRS will soon release.
Employers will have to pay the premiums for up to nine months for workers (and their families) who are involuntarily terminated between 9/1/08 and 12/31/09. Anyone who was terminated after the 9/1/08 start date and the dateâ(TM)s enactment but didnâ(TM)t take the coverage because of the expense has 60 days to elect COBRA and take advantage of the subsidy.
Depending upon your needs, a netbook may be a better device for reading. Not mine. I wanted a device where I can read in any conditions I'd regularly read, which could be in bed, at the pool, on the deck, on the couch, in a car, etc.
And for the same amount of time I'd read a paper book, which can be 2-6 hours at a stretch.
I'm guessing you haven't spent time with eInk outside of a store. There is no LCD display technology that adjusts as well as the Kindle (or Sony, other others based on the same eInk screens). Well except in dark conditions, but normally don't read in the dark.
People have different tastes. I can't see how people read books on Palms or iPhones, but they do.
Maybe I've just adopted well the Kindle over the past 14 months I've had it. Granted I've only read 60-70 books, the WSJ, and Salon on it, ut it works well for me.
Oh, and the salespeople at Fry's are sooooooo much better than BB, CC, or any of the other shops.
I love Fry's for variety (and that they finally take AMEX now), but the sales people are a horror to work with. One time I was buying memory and the sales guy wanted all my other purchases in my basket prior to giving me the receipt (so he could write them up for a commission too I guess)
Having said that, I'll shop at Fry's anytime over the others.,
And most velocity check systems will pick up on expiry skipping (+1/mo or +1/year) transactions. But yeah, you think agreements between card holders and the respective issuer is fine print, take a look at those between a merchant and an ISO/acquirer.
AVS can get discount rates and/or better chargeback conditions for card-present transactions. To really get the best protection you need to use Verified by Visa or similar programs. Of course, they are a pain to implement, have horrible card holder participation, etc.
Why we don't mandate smart card technology like Europe is beyond me.
But as to the disclosure, most processors and acquirers operate fast and loose. And I'm talking about some of the big boys too. If I was doing PCI audits/reviews, I know I could find substantive findings at most everyone of those involved in card transactions.
10-4 on this (and MS's advice to use OU delegation instead of multiple forests). We use this feature to allow our companies in different legal jurisdictions (i.e., US + UK vs. the rest of our territory) to federate and share common resources, but not have inward reaching administrative rights.
Sounds like some of the ideas from Friedman's _Hot, Flat, and Crowded_. House/building controller that in turns buys power from the providers. The books a good read.
...like crap (under OS X). CCP should be lauded for having a 'native' client (albeit under WINE), but the last 6 months under both Empreayn Age and Quantum Rising have horrible graphics bugs.
Oh, and the current "quit game" works, but "log out" doesn't.
Still a great game with different aspects than WoW and similar ilk.
Chargebacks vary, based on the transaction type, from 45 to 180 days. Trust me, a chargeback, or even threat of a chargeback will escalate this within the customer service department.
It's a MOTO transaction (card not present) where you didn't receive the goods. Unless the association rules have changed dramatically in the past 3 years since I used to deal with them, it's pretty much a slam dunk you'll get your money back.
If they continue to give you grief, then explain to them when they say they will dispute that you (your issuer) will represent the chargeback--over and over again.
Says the person that doesn't do a lot of business travel. Gaming is one way to pass time while doing colo installs, tracking down pimps, or painting laser targets on the side of errant pine trees.
Well, if they aren't ready to replace their video camera, maybe they aren't ready to replace their iBook or "early 2008" MacBook?
Apple is targeting the largest audience using the feature set most important to them. If you really need FW, go or a MBP. Heck, I bet we see enough refurbs coming up soon enough.
I've done due diligence visits to a couple of their sites in Las Vegas. Professional facilities and they host for a lot of Las Vegas casinos and companies.
I didn't get too far into the peering side of things, but I remember them talking up the amount of fiber that runs through the Las Vegas valley.
What I find interesting is that this figurative interpretation is what is already being favored by the Catholic Church. From their acceptance of the Big Bang and evolution, it is already clear that they are comfortable with figurative interpretations. This is in stark contrast to a few hundred years ago, when you could be killed for minor points of dogma.
I'm hoping is that some of the more extreme groups take heed and see that it is possible to have an open mind with religion. If you look at history, there has been a long track record of religion disagreeing with science and science winning. Is there anyone (of importance) out there who still disagrees with the heliocentric view of the solar system? I wonder how much of the current switch from the Catholic Church is a recognition that their obstinate views in the past backfired.
Thanks for posting this. I totally agree and have always applauded that the Roman Catholic Church can, and does, change. Cynics may argue the change is to keep up numbers, but I think some the changes, especially the conservative ones, are to insure that they are reinterpreted for the current civilization based upon the old and new testaments.
The Catechism does allows for an intelligent understanding of the bible. Genesis is a good example of mythos, and this is taught by our Arch Diocese. Of course, for younger children a more simplified version is taught, but what it comes down to is that when I was going through CCD, once you were confirmed, church initiated education stopped. As a teenager, it's hard to believe in Noah and the ark as a true story. Or to read some of the genealogy of Genesis, that people were living for 300-800 years.
It is understandable that those who haven't studied religion take a literal interpretive view. "Man mad in God's likeness." I'd like to believe it's nothing to do with two arms, two legs, but more of Love. We may not live up to it all the time (sin), but seeing man's ability to love is heartening.
Deuteronomy is similar to Leviticus. The genre of the book is "law", and should be interpreted as such. One could postulate that a conversion from Judaism to Christian faith is not "serving another god", but a different interpretation of what composes God (i.e, the Trinity in Catholic/Christian beliefs).
I *loved* the Gateway AnyKey keyboard. I actually had three, but the build quality wasn't great and I'd only get 3-9 months out of one.
Air Warrior (on GENIE) was a blast with the programmable buttons. Alas, after the last one bit the dust, I got a MS Natural Keyboard and then the first (and last) F-button keyboard. I assume it was MS that mandated that the keyboard must, when power is applied, be in the F mode and not the traditional F1-12 mode. Grrrr.
I've since went with the Logitech G15 and do make use of the macro buttons to the right. Plus, with the switch for 'gaming' versus 'windows', the F-mode selection is back to what I want it to be.
The G15 does have mediocre keys. Heck, my MBP keyboard is better for most things!
All-in-all, I would plop down $150 in a heartbeat for an AnyKey style keyboard with the build quality of an IBM, multiple keypresses, no software programming, and USB.
I've used VeriSign, Thawte (pre-VeriSign days) QuoVadis (for Bermuda companies), Comodo, GoDaddy, and RapidSSL (geotrust rebrand).
If I have a multi-million dollar e-Commerce site, I'd use an EV cert from a VeriSign or similar company. For the other 99.99999% of uses, it'll be the cheapest certificate that is signed by a trusted root in the IE, FF, and Safari browsers. Don't care if it's domain validation only, as long as it works.
RapidSSL has been good for price, root signing, and the wildcard certs work well to.
Re:Article is Flamebait!
on
The Cult of Kindle
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
Disclaimer - I bought a Kindle. Actually, it's sitting right next to me while I download or convert some books from http://manybooks.net./
I do a lot of traveling and invariably end up taking a paperback and hardback with me and have been looking at readers for some time. I was getting close to buying the Sony 505, and then read up on the Kindle. *For me*, it fits my needs.
Is there great stuff about the Kindle? Yeah! is there mediocre to bad stuff ($400 price)? Sure thing. But in the creature comfort/benefit analysis, it was a buy.
But I know where the article is coming from. The review page for the Kindle demonstrates some serious flaws in the Amazon rating system when it comes to controversial items. For the most part, the 1 star ratings (bad! bad! bad!) and the 5 star rating (good! good! good!) are about equal. It took some time to wade through the "reviews" before deciding to buy the unit.
Personally, I would like to see all the bad reviews written by people who have never even seen the unit but must side on the anti-DRM front removed. I'd also like to see the tit-for-tat 5 star ratings also removed.
And I thought us techno-geeks were rabid. Those bookish people have us beat!
And by mean hate, I mean hate. AT&T are evil. And by evil, I mean evil.
Circa 2002 - I purchase a Frame Relay circuit from AT&T which works well for a year or so. Then a glitch. Then I find out it's impossible to get to a live human being to log the fault (with a 4 hour SLA). This goes on until 2004. Literally, for 2+ years it took over 45 minutes per-call, on a business service, to get things moving.
Circa 2004 -.com shutdown. Fair enough, cancel AT&T, cancel WCOM, cancel SAAVIS (C&W), BellSouth, etc. Final bills from most vendors, sort out a few. AT&T provides an invoice for a credit of USD$0.94. AND TO THIS DAY I STILL GET "BILLS" FOR A CREDIT OF $0.94 FOR A CLOSED COMPANY. I've made phone calls, written letters, and six chickens and a despondent Voodoo Doctor still have yet to sort out the bill.
AT&T buys BellSouth. Yay, no more bills. Cry!!!! Now the same bill comes from AT&T, The New BellSouth. So not only did they somehow transfer the defunct account to BellSouth the roll it back into AT&T, but they even updated the billing address so I no longer get the USPS yellow forwarding labels FROM A COMPANY CLOSED 3 YEARS AGO! If voodoo doesn't work, can I 90 degree feng shui the bitches?
And this bill, it's not a normal bill. It's 6 pages, front and back, on thick 20#+ paper. The monthly postage is $1.91 on a credit of $0.94. And it taunts me with billing account numbers. I laugh in it's general direction but still cry like a baby when they come each month.
A Fellows $600 shredder was bought special-purpose for this bill. I don't even open the envelope up anymore, but simply insert into the shredder and laugh with manical glee as the shredder, umm, shreds.
What does this have to do with a crazy AT&T bill for iPhone users? Absolutely nothing. But guess what bitches, you've got *years*, no wait, *YEARS!!!!!!* of Georgia Pacific paper getting turned into a document destined to drive you crazy.
I love Apple. Two of my co-workers have iPhones already. I actually like my T-Mobile account. But AT&T have screwed with my brain enough. I hate hate hate hate hate hate hate AT&T. But I still look forward to the day I have an iPhone that has the features of my BB 8800.../. - pray for me....
Re:The reason that Tivo is better than they think.
on
The Trouble With TiVo
·
· Score: 1
Tivo is not beholden to cable companies. Cable companies are required by law to give you a cable card to use their service if you want it. Tivo has a cable card reader in their device to get all that video data. There's nothing legal that the cable company can do about it.
Except have one or two installers "certified" for CC installations and 40-80 for normal installations. That's my belief after calling Comcast to install two CC's in my new HD Tivo. Earliest install date? September 7th.
Can I pick up the cable cards and install myself? No, this is a truck-roll only offering.
Anyway, after calling back a couple times a day, I was able to snag a canceled installation for next Thursday. And I'm *happy* for a 6 day turn-around.
I agree with the rest of your post and I really hope that Comcast does well with the Tivo software. I just dread the commercialization of the bloody thing....
I bought the 360 when it first came out in November 2004. Red ring of death in Feb of 2007. I was dreading sending it back for repair, but decided to ask Costco what my options were. They said bring it back in to any store and get a full refund.
So I bought a new package deal, swapped out all the components, and everyone is happy. It's a hard return policy to beat, and is especially handy when dealing with electronic goods (sans TV's, computers and I think cameras, where the return policy is now 90 days).
Don't get me wrong, Nagios rocks and has been a godsend, even back in the netsaint era. Where Zenoss is useful is adding new devices for templates that already exist. In Nagios it's either change the underlying config files, pre-flight, and reload, or use a GUI to do the same.
Our use has transitioned from hand-crafted nagios plugins for bespoke services to more generic checks and longer term capacity planning. Zenoss can do this, and it appears with less operational management, allowing us to focus on performance data and more in-depth Windows monitors (again an internal change from Linux core systems to Windows -- different client base).
Besides the python script to create a WMI monitor, zenoss does have good SNMP support - when you run the Informant http://www.wtcs.org/informant/ SNMP extensions.
zenwin handles Windows boxes using WMI. Cool part is that only one system needs to go through a very convoluted install to then query any other servers in the same domain.
Monitor and switch support is good for common devices. I've run into problems trying to monitor things such as m0n0wall devices (it tries to pull CPU and memory stats, but the OIDs are not responding correctly). Cacti seems to do better on this right now, but the alerting from Zenoss makes monitoring much easer.
Zenoss has made great strides in the past 6 months, we are >. this close to moving from Nagios to zenoss.
My only steps left are to figure out how to extract metrics for capacity planning and create monitors and RRD graphs for temp/humidity monitoring...
You're right. The best way to make those 20-40 minutes of aerobic activity work is to actually push it.
I read while on the elliptical or stationary bike. It doesn't take much to hit and sustain the 85% max heart rate, so I do like to otherwise use my time. My normal schedule is start off with Ask a Ninja for the first 3-5 minutes (warm up), then on to fast songs (hard rock, punk, etc) since I hate the pre-endorphin rush I normally experience round minute 20 our so. Then either stick with the tunes or slide into a pod cast or two. DLTV works on some equipment where I can lean the iPod without it flying to the ground.
Great practice and stamina building for the more enjoyable activities. If I could only play WoW while doing this, it would be a true FTW!
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Waterfield man here. Oh and Thinktank too for the photo equipment. I've had my share of Targus, Case Logic, and STM bags, normally from company provided equipment or a stipend to order when placing a laptop. When I got my first TiBook in 2002 I splurged for the Waterfield messenger bag and accessories. Pushed $300 for the bag, sleeve, and a couple stuff pouches. Since then I've bought two additional sleeves for different laptops and had the original airplane seat buckle replaced with the smaller parasailing one. The bag is flexible and durable. For a quick trip I might remove the laptop and use the main compartment for clothing. The most memorable use was trip to the Channel Isles. After a nice comfortable flight from the US to Gatwick, I went to transfer to the local airline servicing Guernsey. That required checking in again, and hitting the one carry-on, no questions asked. And me with a laptop and DSLR. It took some doing, but the camera, broken down and stuffed under the flap did *just* fit into the messenger bag. No ripped stitches or nothing. All for a 30 foot trip (after clearing security I replaced the camera back in its back -- which also was in my messenger bag). The Waterfield was my first messenger bag, and due to the quality, haven't had the need to look at anything else. I'm sure the Crumpler and Tom Bihn bags are in the same class. For cameras I agree wholeheartedly with you. Thinktank is great for belt systems and on the go, but the combo camera/laptop bag (Urban Disguise) is a little iffy. Camera portion works great, but the carry strap metal buckles are inline with the laptop compartment. Even being careful I've scuffed up my laptops. NAS (Nikon acquisition syndrome), meet BAS (bag acq. synd)!!!!
Check out point #2:
http://www.hrmorning.com/obama-stimulus-package-contains-6-big-changes-for-payroll/
It does say:
Here's how it'll work: Once an employee pays his or her 35% share, the company must then front the rest of the money. The employer will pay the insurer directly, then claim the amount as an offset against payroll tax liabilities. Payroll will report any subsidies made and take the offset on an updated Form 941 the IRS will soon release. Employers will have to pay the premiums for up to nine months for workers (and their families) who are involuntarily terminated between 9/1/08 and 12/31/09. Anyone who was terminated after the 9/1/08 start date and the dateâ(TM)s enactment but didnâ(TM)t take the coverage because of the expense has 60 days to elect COBRA and take advantage of the subsidy.
Depending upon your needs, a netbook may be a better device for reading. Not mine. I wanted a device where I can read in any conditions I'd regularly read, which could be in bed, at the pool, on the deck, on the couch, in a car, etc.
And for the same amount of time I'd read a paper book, which can be 2-6 hours at a stretch.
I'm guessing you haven't spent time with eInk outside of a store. There is no LCD display technology that adjusts as well as the Kindle (or Sony, other others based on the same eInk screens). Well except in dark conditions, but normally don't read in the dark.
People have different tastes. I can't see how people read books on Palms or iPhones, but they do.
Maybe I've just adopted well the Kindle over the past 14 months I've had it. Granted I've only read 60-70 books, the WSJ, and Salon on it, ut it works well for me.
Oh, and the salespeople at Fry's are sooooooo much better than BB, CC, or any of the other shops.
I love Fry's for variety (and that they finally take AMEX now), but the sales people are a horror to work with. One time I was buying memory and the sales guy wanted all my other purchases in my basket prior to giving me the receipt (so he could write them up for a commission too I guess)
Having said that, I'll shop at Fry's anytime over the others.,
And most velocity check systems will pick up on expiry skipping (+1/mo or +1/year) transactions. But yeah, you think agreements between card holders and the respective issuer is fine print, take a look at those between a merchant and an ISO/acquirer.
AVS can get discount rates and/or better chargeback conditions for card-present transactions. To really get the best protection you need to use Verified by Visa or similar programs. Of course, they are a pain to implement, have horrible card holder participation, etc.
Why we don't mandate smart card technology like Europe is beyond me.
But as to the disclosure, most processors and acquirers operate fast and loose. And I'm talking about some of the big boys too. If I was doing PCI audits/reviews, I know I could find substantive findings at most everyone of those involved in card transactions.
10-4 on this (and MS's advice to use OU delegation instead of multiple forests). We use this feature to allow our companies in different legal jurisdictions (i.e., US + UK vs. the rest of our territory) to federate and share common resources, but not have inward reaching administrative rights.
Sounds like some of the ideas from Friedman's _Hot, Flat, and Crowded_. House/building controller that in turns buys power from the providers. The books a good read.
...like crap (under OS X). CCP should be lauded for having a 'native' client (albeit under WINE), but the last 6 months under both Empreayn Age and Quantum Rising have horrible graphics bugs.
Oh, and the current "quit game" works, but "log out" doesn't.
Still a great game with different aspects than WoW and similar ilk.
Chargebacks vary, based on the transaction type, from 45 to 180 days. Trust me, a chargeback, or even threat of a chargeback will escalate this within the customer service department.
It's a MOTO transaction (card not present) where you didn't receive the goods. Unless the association rules have changed dramatically in the past 3 years since I used to deal with them, it's pretty much a slam dunk you'll get your money back.
If they continue to give you grief, then explain to them when they say they will dispute that you (your issuer) will represent the chargeback--over and over again.
Call the number on the back of the card--now.
Says the person that doesn't do a lot of business travel. Gaming is one way to pass time while doing colo installs, tracking down pimps, or painting laser targets on the side of errant pine trees.
Well, if they aren't ready to replace their video camera, maybe they aren't ready to replace their iBook or "early 2008" MacBook?
Apple is targeting the largest audience using the feature set most important to them. If you really need FW, go or a MBP. Heck, I bet we see enough refurbs coming up soon enough.
I've done due diligence visits to a couple of their sites in Las Vegas. Professional facilities and they host for a lot of Las Vegas casinos and companies.
I didn't get too far into the peering side of things, but I remember them talking up the amount of fiber that runs through the Las Vegas valley.
What I find interesting is that this figurative interpretation is what is already being favored by the Catholic Church. From their acceptance of the Big Bang and evolution, it is already clear that they are comfortable with figurative interpretations. This is in stark contrast to a few hundred years ago, when you could be killed for minor points of dogma.
I'm hoping is that some of the more extreme groups take heed and see that it is possible to have an open mind with religion. If you look at history, there has been a long track record of religion disagreeing with science and science winning. Is there anyone (of importance) out there who still disagrees with the heliocentric view of the solar system? I wonder how much of the current switch from the Catholic Church is a recognition that their obstinate views in the past backfired.
Thanks for posting this. I totally agree and have always applauded that the Roman Catholic Church can, and does, change. Cynics may argue the change is to keep up numbers, but I think some the changes, especially the conservative ones, are to insure that they are reinterpreted for the current civilization based upon the old and new testaments.The Catechism does allows for an intelligent understanding of the bible. Genesis is a good example of mythos, and this is taught by our Arch Diocese. Of course, for younger children a more simplified version is taught, but what it comes down to is that when I was going through CCD, once you were confirmed, church initiated education stopped. As a teenager, it's hard to believe in Noah and the ark as a true story. Or to read some of the genealogy of Genesis, that people were living for 300-800 years.
It is understandable that those who haven't studied religion take a literal interpretive view. "Man mad in God's likeness." I'd like to believe it's nothing to do with two arms, two legs, but more of Love. We may not live up to it all the time (sin), but seeing man's ability to love is heartening.
Deuteronomy is similar to Leviticus. The genre of the book is "law", and should be interpreted as such. One could postulate that a conversion from Judaism to Christian faith is not "serving another god", but a different interpretation of what composes God (i.e, the Trinity in Catholic/Christian beliefs).
I *loved* the Gateway AnyKey keyboard. I actually had three, but the build quality wasn't great and I'd only get 3-9 months out of one.
Air Warrior (on GENIE) was a blast with the programmable buttons. Alas, after the last one bit the dust, I got a MS Natural Keyboard and then the first (and last) F-button keyboard. I assume it was MS that mandated that the keyboard must, when power is applied, be in the F mode and not the traditional F1-12 mode. Grrrr.
I've since went with the Logitech G15 and do make use of the macro buttons to the right. Plus, with the switch for 'gaming' versus 'windows', the F-mode selection is back to what I want it to be.
The G15 does have mediocre keys. Heck, my MBP keyboard is better for most things!
All-in-all, I would plop down $150 in a heartbeat for an AnyKey style keyboard with the build quality of an IBM, multiple keypresses, no software programming, and USB.
I've used VeriSign, Thawte (pre-VeriSign days) QuoVadis (for Bermuda companies), Comodo, GoDaddy, and RapidSSL (geotrust rebrand).
If I have a multi-million dollar e-Commerce site, I'd use an EV cert from a VeriSign or similar company. For the other 99.99999% of uses, it'll be the cheapest certificate that is signed by a trusted root in the IE, FF, and Safari browsers. Don't care if it's domain validation only, as long as it works.
RapidSSL has been good for price, root signing, and the wildcard certs work well to.
Disclaimer - I bought a Kindle. Actually, it's sitting right next to me while I download or convert some books from http://manybooks.net./
I do a lot of traveling and invariably end up taking a paperback and hardback with me and have been looking at readers for some time. I was getting close to buying the Sony 505, and then read up on the Kindle. *For me*, it fits my needs.
Is there great stuff about the Kindle? Yeah! is there mediocre to bad stuff ($400 price)? Sure thing. But in the creature comfort/benefit analysis, it was a buy.
But I know where the article is coming from. The review page for the Kindle demonstrates some serious flaws in the Amazon rating system when it comes to controversial items. For the most part, the 1 star ratings (bad! bad! bad!) and the 5 star rating (good! good! good!) are about equal. It took some time to wade through the "reviews" before deciding to buy the unit.
Personally, I would like to see all the bad reviews written by people who have never even seen the unit but must side on the anti-DRM front removed. I'd also like to see the tit-for-tat 5 star ratings also removed.
And I thought us techno-geeks were rabid. Those bookish people have us beat!
And by mean hate, I mean hate. AT&T are evil. And by evil, I mean evil.
.com shutdown. Fair enough, cancel AT&T, cancel WCOM, cancel SAAVIS (C&W), BellSouth, etc. Final bills from most vendors, sort out a few. AT&T provides an invoice for a credit of USD$0.94. AND TO THIS DAY I STILL GET "BILLS" FOR A CREDIT OF $0.94 FOR A CLOSED COMPANY. I've made phone calls, written letters, and six chickens and a despondent Voodoo Doctor still have yet to sort out the bill.
/. - pray for me....
Circa 2002 - I purchase a Frame Relay circuit from AT&T which works well for a year or so. Then a glitch. Then I find out it's impossible to get to a live human being to log the fault (with a 4 hour SLA). This goes on until 2004. Literally, for 2+ years it took over 45 minutes per-call, on a business service, to get things moving.
Circa 2004 -
AT&T buys BellSouth. Yay, no more bills. Cry!!!! Now the same bill comes from AT&T, The New BellSouth. So not only did they somehow transfer the defunct account to BellSouth the roll it back into AT&T, but they even updated the billing address so I no longer get the USPS yellow forwarding labels FROM A COMPANY CLOSED 3 YEARS AGO! If voodoo doesn't work, can I 90 degree feng shui the bitches?
And this bill, it's not a normal bill. It's 6 pages, front and back, on thick 20#+ paper. The monthly postage is $1.91 on a credit of $0.94. And it taunts me with billing account numbers. I laugh in it's general direction but still cry like a baby when they come each month.
A Fellows $600 shredder was bought special-purpose for this bill. I don't even open the envelope up anymore, but simply insert into the shredder and laugh with manical glee as the shredder, umm, shreds.
What does this have to do with a crazy AT&T bill for iPhone users? Absolutely nothing. But guess what bitches, you've got *years*, no wait, *YEARS!!!!!!* of Georgia Pacific paper getting turned into a document destined to drive you crazy.
I love Apple. Two of my co-workers have iPhones already. I actually like my T-Mobile account. But AT&T have screwed with my brain enough. I hate hate hate hate hate hate hate AT&T. But I still look forward to the day I have an iPhone that has the features of my BB 8800...
Tivo is not beholden to cable companies. Cable companies are required by law to give you a cable card to use their service if you want it. Tivo has a cable card reader in their device to get all that video data. There's nothing legal that the cable company can do about it.
Except have one or two installers "certified" for CC installations and 40-80 for normal installations. That's my belief after calling Comcast to install two CC's in my new HD Tivo. Earliest install date? September 7th.
Can I pick up the cable cards and install myself? No, this is a truck-roll only offering.
Anyway, after calling back a couple times a day, I was able to snag a canceled installation for next Thursday. And I'm *happy* for a 6 day turn-around.
I agree with the rest of your post and I really hope that Comcast does well with the Tivo software. I just dread the commercialization of the bloody thing....
I bought the 360 when it first came out in November 2004. Red ring of death in Feb of 2007. I was dreading sending it back for repair, but decided to ask Costco what my options were. They said bring it back in to any store and get a full refund.
So I bought a new package deal, swapped out all the components, and everyone is happy. It's a hard return policy to beat, and is especially handy when dealing with electronic goods (sans TV's, computers and I think cameras, where the return policy is now 90 days).
Okay, back to Forza 2!
SOX auditors may not be interested, but the payment processors and Visa/MC/Amex sure as hell will be.
Don't get me wrong, Nagios rocks and has been a godsend, even back in the netsaint era. Where Zenoss is useful is adding new devices for templates that already exist. In Nagios it's either change the underlying config files, pre-flight, and reload, or use a GUI to do the same.
Our use has transitioned from hand-crafted nagios plugins for bespoke services to more generic checks and longer term capacity planning. Zenoss can do this, and it appears with less operational management, allowing us to focus on performance data and more in-depth Windows monitors (again an internal change from Linux core systems to Windows -- different client base).
Besides the python script to create a WMI monitor, zenoss does have good SNMP support - when you run the Informant http://www.wtcs.org/informant/ SNMP extensions.
zenwin handles Windows boxes using WMI. Cool part is that only one system needs to go through a very convoluted install to then query any other servers in the same domain.
Monitor and switch support is good for common devices. I've run into problems trying to monitor things such as m0n0wall devices (it tries to pull CPU and memory stats, but the OIDs are not responding correctly). Cacti seems to do better on this right now, but the alerting from Zenoss makes monitoring much easer.
Zenoss has made great strides in the past 6 months, we are >. this close to moving from Nagios to zenoss.
My only steps left are to figure out how to extract metrics for capacity planning and create monitors and RRD graphs for temp/humidity monitoring...
You're right. The best way to make those 20-40 minutes of aerobic activity work is to actually push it.
I read while on the elliptical or stationary bike. It doesn't take much to hit and sustain the 85% max heart rate, so I do like to otherwise use my time. My normal schedule is start off with Ask a Ninja for the first 3-5 minutes (warm up), then on to fast songs (hard rock, punk, etc) since I hate the pre-endorphin rush I normally experience round minute 20 our so. Then either stick with the tunes or slide into a pod cast or two. DLTV works on some equipment where I can lean the iPod without it flying to the ground.
Great practice and stamina building for the more enjoyable activities. If I could only play WoW while doing this, it would be a true FTW!