This last weekend I attended an APICS conference in Milwaukee. I thought the city was going to be rather lame, but as it turns out I was pleasantly surprised. The downtown area was clean with tons of fun stuff to do. Good resturants, plenty of microbrews, and a decent bar scene. Overall a good weekend.
Some would call what I have a weblog. Others would call it a journal. And many many have called it a pile o’ dog doo. Whatever you call it there is a SLEW of awesome sites that contain GREAT content. In fact many have found their way into my regular browsing habits. Some I check before I check the news because I KNOW their commentary will be MUCH better than many of the idiots writing the new nowadays. Read on for a list of great sites.
Here are the sites I visit – in no particular order …
Feel free to post links to other interesting places on the net 🙂
My old cell phone has officially been retired. With a battery only giving about 20 min of talk time it was time to get a new phone. I opted for the phone since a new battery cost more than a new phone (110.00 USD). The phone I chose was the Samsung I300. Read on for the review.
First of I just want to say this phone absolutely kicks ass. It’s a MUST have for anyone who carries both a phone and a PDA on a regular basis.
Features
The phone itself is powered by the Palm OS – even the actual dial pad is a palm application (wow your friends with a touch screen dial pad). It has flawless integration with standard palm applications (ie. your contact list). Despite reviews saying it was hard to dial one handed I found this to be the contrary – with easy to reach arrow keys it was pretty quick. The screen is color, which is a complete bonus. Another added benefit is that it comes with all the standard wireless Palm applications (including Handsprings browser) – so you get the web in 256k color at 14.4 speeds. Not great but fine for checking movie times, getting directions, etc. I would have to say what I like most about this palm is the fact that it’s form factor is REALLY small for a Palm Phone – it’s only slightly larger than my old Samsung and fits nicely in my pocket. Samsung was also nice enough to throw two batteries and two stylus in the box for me 🙂
Things I don’t like
The screen is a little small. I’ve also read it’s hard to read in sunlight, but haven’t had any problems with it so far.
The Price
I paid 349.99 (USD) at Best Buy. You can get a 50.00 rebate if you are a new Sprint customer (which I’m not). So for 349.99 I get a color Palm, a phone, and a big wow factor – not shabby.
Overall I’m very pleased with my purchase. If you know of anyone looking for a Palm V let me know – I’ll sell it for a song.
Holding true to the old saying “You learn something new everyday” I have officially learned something today. I was trolling the comments of this poll over at Slashdot when I ran accross this thread. It talks about how Social Security Numbers (SSN) are strictly regulated and that you DON’T have to give them out to everybody (including the phone company). I did a little investigating and found this statement to be true. The second post in that thread gives you “bogus” SSN’s that you can use – something I just might start using. Although I’m not sure what Ameritech will say when I call up and request to change my SSN …
I admit it, I’m not a registered voter. There … I said it. Am I a total bastard for not registering, am I a horrible citizen, or are there underlying factors? Read on …
The real reason I haven’t bothered to register is two fold. The first reason is I really don’t have any complaints about local/state government – they tend to run themselves. The second is the elections in which I do care about (ie. Senate, President, etc.) are full of “no win” situations.
The last Presidential election was a perfect example – on one hand you have Al Gore. Mr. Gore may be an intelligent man, but the problem (as I saw it) was that he was weak and not capable of being able to play hardball on capital hill. On the other hand you have George W. Bush. Where do I start? First off he referred to Africa as a nation, second off (one word) Enron, and finally he shoots himself in the foot.
With the above candidates who the hell was I supposed to vote for? Well good ol’ Ralph Nadar has come up with a plan. The plan is basically to give the option of a binding “None of the Above” line on all ballots for state elections. Basically this means that you could vote “NOTA” and if that line recieved the “victory” those candidates would be taken off the ballot, a new election would be held, and the old candidates would not be allowed to run again.
BRILLIANT! I’d vote NOTA in just about every election, unless I felt passionately about someone (McCain are you listening?).
As many of you know I am lucky (some would argue unlucky) enough to work from home. I spend my days sitting in front of my computer hacking away for Care2.com. Read on to learn what makes telecommuting great … and not so great.
First off being able to work in my undies is great – I won’t lie. I prefer to be as comfortable as possible and boxers + a tshirt is about as comfy as you get.
Also, I can easily turn on my favorite shows and watch them out of the corner of my eye while I work. Taking a lunch break is easy enough – a simple trip to the fridge. Other cool things include the fact that I can start working before combing my hair or even brushing my teeth – in other words I can look like a total scrub and no one cares. The biggest advantage I can see is that me taking off to run an errand (ie. send a package) isn’t rushed because I can make it during normal business hours.
There are some pitfalls to working from home. First off you miss out on office gossip. I have NO clue what’s going on in the office, which results in random inquiry emails to my boss and the various other mgmt of the company. The biggest pitfall to telecommuting would have to be motivation – try motivating yourself in the morning when the office is 2000 miles away. You could either a.) stay in bed for another hour or b.) spring out of bed and start working. Some mornings you can’t talk yourself out of a.
In the end I do enjoy working from home, but would prefer to mix it up with actual office work. Example: work from home 2 days a week and then go into the office the other 3. Now, if they’d only let me work in boxers and a tshirt at the office 🙂