Saturday, July 30, 2005

Makes me want to drink...

I love this!

There is a beer ad that is making the email rounds:

CARLTON DRAUGHT BIG AD

From a blog post I read (I think at Ad Jab) the ad was released to a small number of people, and has spread to be viewed by over 20 million in just a couple of days. You gotta love the power of word-of-mouth (or email) marketing.

Friday, July 29, 2005

Jaundice Sucks


Getting Treatment for Jaundice
Originally uploaded by dah007.
Watching your one week old baby turn yellow, then get pricked with needles, then get put into a ventilator over night with crazy purple-blue lights just sucks!

On the other hand, having your baby get better in less than 24 hours is ... priceless.

(sorry couldn't resist the pun)

Tuesday, July 26, 2005

City Creator

Saw this on Boing Boing this morning... I remember seeing this back a couple of years ago when it was new. I totally forgot about it, pretty slick interface and a good time waster...

Monday, July 25, 2005

Evelyn Rebecca


Evelyn Just Born
Originally uploaded by dah007.
I am very excited to announce the arrival of my daughter, Evelyn Rebecca. She was born on July 20th at 8:24pm, weighing in at 6lbs 3oz, 19.75 inches in length, a healthly full head of hair and some pretty big feet.

Both mother and baby are doing well. I am so excited to begin this new phase of my life.

Thursday, July 14, 2005

Tuesday, July 12, 2005

Top 10 downloads of the past 10 years - CNET

As more and more sites celbrate 10 years on the net, I'm sure we are going to see more of these lists: Top 10 downloads of the past 10 years - CNET.com.

A couple of things come to mind about this. First I was surprised to see how many of the top 10 items that I have downloaded, 9. And how many of them I currently have on my computer, 5.

My other thought was about lists in general and how much we seem to love them. It seems everyone has a top x list or a best of list. I guess to me, lists are trival, though I have to admit, I do look at them to see how my own personal tastes are represented. Maybe that is the point of them, for each of us to be able to confirm that our own tastes are normal or at least within the cultural norm. Of course, there is the flip of that. Sometimes it is nice to know that your tastes are above the norm, cause we all know how cool it is to be "different".

Wednesday, July 06, 2005

U-Haul SUCKS!

We just moved into our new house over the weekend. While everything went pretty smoothly, one company U-Haul almost managed to screw everything up. Whenever possible I use the internet for my commerce needs. I bank via the net, window shop, setup utilities, etc. So when it came time to rent a truck for my move, I of course used the company's web site to make the reservation. On the receipt it stated that someone from the company would call me within 24 hours to confirm my reservation, and my pickup location. Fair enough. Roughly 36 hours after making the reservation, I got a bit nervous since I hadn't yet heard from the company. I decided that I better call them to confirm that there weren’t any problems. After being on hold for 60 minutes I was told that they were behind and someone would call me soon. At this point I was less than 24 hours from my scheduled pickup time so I decided that I better call the local U-Haul office and see if there was anything they could do for me.

My local office told me that the reservation that I made online wasn't valid until someone called me back, which may or may not happen in time for me to get a truck. Furthermore, even if I did get the truck via the reservation, I could not have it for the amount of time that I requested. When I asked what I should do to insure that I did in fact get a truck for the day I needed, I should make a new reservation with the local office and cancel my existing one with the corporate office.

This is what I did, thankfully. Considering the number of upset and confused people at my local U-Haul office when I went to get my truck, I can tell I wasn’t alone in my troubles.

The moral, don't use U-Haul, ever! If you have to, do so through your local office, not the corporate reservation system. What should have been a simple process was made almost impossible by a company that clearly cares little for customer service.

Hyundai Santa Fe

I've now had my Hyundai Santa Fe long enough to rake up 10,000 miles so I thought I would post a few thought about it. Overall, I can’t imagine a better deal for the money. After rebates and wheeling and dealing, I got my 2005 Santa Fe GLS 2.7 for just under the dealer invoice ($20k); and I don’t know of any SUV in it’s class that comes in at that price with number of options and of course a 10 year, 100,000 mile warranty.

What has impressed me most is the amount of utility that I have gotten from it. When the seats are folded down, I am able to get enough boxes in the back to make the Santa Fe very useful in my recent move. On top of that, when the seats are up, there is plenty of room for me, my wife, a car seat for our soon to arrive baby, our 65 pound black lab (behind the seats) and one more adult.

Then, there is the gas mileage. While the posted numbers of 19 and 25 are fairly poor, my real world experience puts those numbers closer to 25 and 30 (assuming you keep your foot out of it). Not the greatest, but certainly not horrible.

When all is said and done I can easily recommend this SUV for anyone who needs a basic family and stuff mover.