I don’t like dealing with bills, so where ever possible I set up automatic payments through my bank to pay my bills. As an example I roughly know how much my phone bills will be monthly, so I set up payments that pay the roughly correct amount and I adjust as needed every couple of months. Usually I end up with a little credit on accounts after a while but that’s OK since I get the warm and cozy feeling that the bills are all paid.
One of the newspapers we get every morning is the Pasadena Star News. When we subscribed, I estimated the monthly amount and set up a monthly automatic payment and didn’t worry about the bill any more. Since we are paid up, I don’t get a bill from the newspaper, so I don’t check the balance.
Yesterday I received a message from Jackie at the Pasadena Star News. I called back today and conversation went something like this:
Jackie: Mr. Pusateri, do you use a bill pay system?
Me: Yes, have the payments not been arriving.
Jackie: No, to the contrary, you are a very regular payer. The opposite of most of the problems we have.
Me: And so…
Jackie: And so since you have been paying us so regularly, you are paid up until well into 2009.
Me: … um … wow …
Jackie: Yes, so Mr. Pusateri you need to stop paying us for four years, you are maxing out our billing systems.
Me: OK, I’ll cancel the payment. So when I use up my credit, you’ll send me a bill?
Jackie: Yes, your next bill will be in four years.
Me: Right. Talk to you in four years.
I’m not sure what happened, whether they lowered their prices or I calculated wrong, but I am Paid in Advance!
More Animal Drama
Last night Piper the dog goes outside to wander around the backyard a bit. I refer to this as patrolling. This time was a bit special though. On her patrol, Piper starts barking up a storm, which is normal, and running around in circles, which is normal. Then she did her low growl, which is not normal.
I walked outside to see what the matter was and it was a large possum that Piper had cornered. Piper wasn’t sure what to do next.
Of course, since I am always thinking of you, the Loyal Cruft Reader, I ran inside to get a flashlight and a camera. I snapped this nice photo of the dog confronting the intruder.
The possum just sat there hissing no matter how much I loudly explained that it should be on it’s way. At Michele’s suggestion, I sprayed the possum with the hose and it ran up a tree.
I wonder what smoked possum tastes like?
Helpful Bit of Advice
Last night, I flipped a cookie to the dog, Piper. Michele and Mira complained to me about this and then Mira handed me this note:
This morning the dog woke up, walked past me, and out to the back porch where she proceeded to throw up.
So you dog owners out there, take heed to the 7 year old’s advice.
The fate of old media
I was cleaning out the garage and found the pile of VCR tapes I had placed there over a year ago. In over the year, the girls had not watched any of these movies, making a complete switch to Tivo & DVDs.
We decided it was time for them to go and give me back some space in the garage of other crap. The girls helped set up a sales table and made some nice signs.
They were selling the old VHS tapes for $1 each. What a deal, you say? They’ll be gone instantly right, I mean it’s only a dollar?
Well, people would stop by to see what was for sale and invariably be upset that there were no DVDs. Who wants tapes these days they would say. In the end, the girls sold about $20 worth of movies. I gave the rest to Goodwill to end up in their old movies bin.
Mark this lesson as to the value of old media. The same movie would have been worth 10 times more if it had been on DVD. Same exact movie, different playback format.
What is the fate of DVD movies once electronic movies take root? Will the Blu-Ray & HD-9 next generation discs get traction in the marketplace? Who can tell?
Looking at the piles of worthless eight-track tapes and video cassettes across America, it’s hard to imagine the cycle not continuing over and over.
Xbox 360 & Keyboards
This weekend I borrowed the Xbox 360 we have at work to bring home and check out in the ‘familiy environment’.
In general, the experience has been positive. Easy hook up and smooth start-up had the girls playing within minutes. They have been playing Project Gotham Racing and Kameo. They love the co-op mode of Kameo.
In HD, the Xbox 360 truly shines. The images are spectacular to even non-gamers. The general interface is responsive and easy to navigate. Overall, I am impressed with how good the complete package is.
The one drawback is the controller. After the girls went to bed, I played Call of Duty 2. I have the game on PC and am a generally competitive player of FPS games. Trying to learn the controls was difficult but eventually I began to start racking up the kills.
That said, I think that the fact that Microsfot does not allow a keyboard and mouse for FPS games is a crime. Even if I ‘mastered’ the controller, it would still not come close to the precision and responsiveness of keyboard & mouse.
The Xbox 360 is a highly specialized PC and there are no technical issues in allowing keyboard/mouse control. The issue is termed ‘the level playing field’. Evidently it is recognized that keyboard/mouse control in FPS is better than controllers and that to make sure there is a level playing field, they refuse to allow keyboards and mice.
That, IMHO, is a silly plan. Saying ‘We know our controller sucks, but we insist you all suck equally at the lowest common denominator’. I mean really. After a few months of release, a third party vendor made a keyboard/mouse adapter for the original Xbox. Why can’t Microsoft simply enable keyboard & mouse and save all the pain.
Pepe Deluxe
The latest band I can’t get enough of is Pepe Deluxe. I heard them playing on Woxy and wrote down the track name.
I visited their site later and saw the impressive Salami Fighting video. You MUST watch it.
Who needs an iPod?
Disclaimer: I work for Disney and heard about this product at work.
Zoe and Mira, my daughters, had been talking about wanting iPods for a bit now. I really didn’t want to do that. Mainly because of the issue that they’d need to run iTunes to manage feeding music into the iPods and dealing the syncing and other iTunes specific issues.
At work I saw a demo for Disney Mix Sticks, a new MP3 & WMA player that is hitting the shelves now. It’s a basic mobile MP3 player with a few neat features.
Last weekend the girls and I picked up a pair at Target and they have been a big hit.
Like a Shuffle the Mix Sticks don’t have a screen. The buttons are in a familiar Mickey shape and the headphone plug is on the bottom. The girls picked up on how to operate them quickly without any instruction from me.
They come with headphones and matching lanyards. Since they are Disney products the lanyards are special child-safe ones that break away to avoid the possibility of injury. Someone has got to think about these things…
The bottom cap comes off and you can see the USB connector. To charge the battery and transfer files, the Mix Stick simply plugs into a USB port. The Mix Stick appears as a standard disc drive. Open up the directory and drag in the files you want. There’s some software that came with it, but I didn’t even load that up. Simplicity is best.
I can plug these into any computer at home, open up the media share and drag in what ever music the girls want. No software, no syncing, no restrictions.
The innovative feature is the ability for the Mix Stick to take a SD or MMC flash memory card to expand up to 1 GB of storage. Disney is selling albums on MMC cards in DRMed WMA format for kids that want Disney music without having to rip CDs.
I took a spare MMC card I had and loaded a few MP3 files onto it and inserted it in the Mix Sticks. The songs played fine and the memory was expanded.
I did the math and was a little suprised. The Mix Sticks sell for $50 with 128MB of memory. A 512MB SD card costs between $25-$35.
Disney Mix Stick expanded to 640 MB = $75-$85 ($50 + ($25-$35) )
Apple iPod Shuffle 512MB = $99
So you get more memory for less money with the Mix Sticks. Who woulda thunk? Not to mention the idea that you could keep several flash memory cards and swap them in and out of the player as needed.
I don’t have a Shuffle to compare size with, but here’s how they compare to the new iPod.
Danger Signs
This was taped to my computer monitor when I got home tonight…
21 Months and kaput
In February 2004 Michele and I both got new mobile phones. The Nokia 3650s served us pretty well.
My phone started to die this summer and we ended up getting Michele a new Samsung SGH-D500 and I took over using her Nokia. Last weekend we were over at friend house and their two year-old dropped my phone in the toilet it seems. The Phone was soaking wet and after several days, it still refuses to function.
I’m in the market for a new phone and I call upon Loyal Cruft Readers for advice. What phone should I get?
Things I want in a phone:
Tri-band – good radio
Sound – good audio quality on calls
Bluetooth
Camera – 1+ Megapixel would be nice, flash would be cool
MMS & SMS messaging
Things that don’t matter to me in a phone:
Email
Ringtones
PDA capability
Winter at the Zoo
On Saturday, I took the girls to the Los Angeles Zoo. They had four reindeer on display that we wanted to see and there was a discount on the family membership.
We saw all kinds of good stuff like the tiger cubs playing with their mother, the monkeys swinging around, and almost every other exhibit in the place. We forgot the Koala exhibit, but we’ll catch it next time.
Starbucks was sponsoring some of the winter activities and giving away free coffee. As we were leaving the Zoo, there was a barista with a special coffee dispensing backpack. It was truly impressive with a cup dispenser and spigot on a hose connected to large coffee tanks on his back.
I need to find a way to borrow one of these. I’d love to wander the halls at the office dispensing coffee from a special backpack.