Run barefoot. That’s what the ad said anyway. As I looked for a new pair of running shoes I came across a very strange and flexible pair of shoes called Nike Free. The idea behind the shoe is that by allowing the greatest degree of flexibility, your foot uses and builds up muscles which makes your foot stronger.

Well, after three months of use, I’m still on the fence. The ad is correct. Wearing these shoes does sort of feel like I’m running barefoot. Which is good and bad. I like the feeling of my foot being able to stretch and move around more than with normal running shoes. But there’s not much cushioning. Even running on our treadmill tends to make my feet more sore than with my last pair of running shoes.

I am still not used to wearing them without socks. I supposed you could find a really thin pair of socks but I was told by the salesperson that most people find them more comfortable when worn without socks. On the plus side they are very light weight and very soft. You can bend them in nearly any direction. I’m surprised at how well they have held up over the months.

If you’re in the market for a new running shoe they are worth a look. Maybe when I lose a few more pounds I won’t *need* the cushioning quite as much as I miss now. They are definitely a strange pair of shoes but they are growing on me the more I wear them. Maybe they are like a good baseball glove that just requires a longer work in period.

I know it’s only January but I’ve had enough of the Seattle rain and overcast weather. I don’t remember the last time I’ve been this excited over temps in the 50’s like it hit today.

I’ll keep listening to Summertime by The Sundays and hope it arrives soon. I never get sick of Harriet Wheeler’s voice.

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How can so many reputable companies be so stupid? Take #10 on the list. Here’s the video of the Comcast technician who falls asleep on the couch of a customer.

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–Link to full article

Michael Robertson is always an entertaining read but his take on the iPhone is very interesting.

The concept with the iPhone is to combine a media player and phone which is a good idea, but Cingular and Apple crippled the functionality to fit their current businesses. In spite of having a data connection via the cellular network and WiFi, the iPhone cannot use either method to load music or movies onto the device. To change tunes or videos requires a PC a USB cable and iTunes software. (Yes, you read this right. Surprised you didn’t see this in any of the press accounts?) This misses the entire benefit of a wireless device. You might as well tape an iPod to your existing phone because that’s all the iPhone is.

–Link to full article

Electricity, water, gas and phone. They are all utilities. You expect them to work and they do nearly all the time. When is the last time your phone line went down? How about the last time your water stopped working? For the vast majority of people, outages are few and far between. Their utilities just work.

Could the same thing be said about Microsoft Windows? Looking back nearly 12 years ago when Windows 95 launched, there was an excitement in the air. PC users camped outside stores hoping to be one of first to install the new OS and get rid of Windows 3.1 and DOS. Windows 95 was a monumental leap in usability and stability. But much of the excitement and focus was Microsoft touting how much better off we’d all be once Windows 95 arrived which is a subtle jab at previous versions of Windows. If you were using Windows 3.1 back then you were probably willing to try nearly anything that would improve productivity. Getting on the internet with Windows 3.1 was such a pain in the butt that many people upgraded to Windows 95 thinking it would solve that problem. And so this trend continued over the the years. Microsoft would ready a new OS and one of the primary selling features was how much better it was than the previous version.

But now we have the arrival Windows Vista is just over a week away and there’s very little excitement. Nearly all the reviews I’ve read say it’s a nice “facelift” over XP but nothing major for the most part. The cost to upgrade from XP will run from $100 to $250 which is a lot of money when you can buy a really nice machine for $750 now. Maybe it’s more about XP being quite good than it is about Vista not living up to expectations. I happen to like Vista a lot. But it’s not as exciting as the first time I installed Windows 95 off 13 or 14 diskettes!

What I think is happening is that Windows has stabilized enough to the point where it’s become a utility for many people. Back in the Window 3.1 days you were aware of the OS much more because it would stall, hang, or blue screen on a regular basis. But since XP I can probably count on one hand the times Windows has blue screened on me. In a nutshell, XP just works. It doesn’t require another $100 worth of software to make it work the way it should. It’s like water or electricity. It requires very little babysitting anymore. And I believe this is a good thing. The less time I spending tweaking, configuring, or babysitting Windows, the more time I do the stuff I really enjoy like listening to music, watching movies, playing games or blogging.

The Colts/Patriots game today may go down as one of the best playoff games ever. I picked the Pats in my office pool but was cheering for Manning and the Colts to get over the hump today. The game was thrilling and showcased everything that’s right about the NFL.

But a couple of things stood out that took place right after the game.

First, I couldn’t help but smile when I saw Peyton’s father, Archie, rush onto the field and hug his son. I couldn’t tell if the two exchanged words but none were needed in this instance.

The second thing I noticed was how well Manning deflects compliments. No matter how much sucking up the reporter does, Manning takes the question asked of him and turns it into a compliment for his teammates. A reporter today was gushing over Manning’s leadership on that last drive, asking how he was able to finish off the Pats and Manning deflected the praise and called out two of his teammates.

I’ll be rooting for Manning and the Colts in the Super Bowl in two weeks.

I got around to watching a little NBA this weekend. I’m a Utah Jazz fan but they play hard, pass the ball around, dive after loose balls and set screens which means they are so very boring to watch.

But the Suns! Now there’s a team that’s entertaining! They remind me of the “Showtime” Laker squads of the 80’s. What can you say about Nash? Off the court he looks like an insurance salesman. But on the court he’s a cross between Magic and Stockton. If you’re an athletic big man wouldn’t you tell your agent to do whatever it takes including taking a pay cut to get on with the Suns? Garnett would average 50 with Nash feeding him for 20 alley-op dunks a game. How is the world did billionaire Mark Cuban ever let Nash go to the Suns just as he was hitting his prime?

Here’s a question: If you had to choose between Kobe, Arenas and Dirk to take the last shot of the game, who would it be? Kobe can take you inside or pull up from behind the arc. Arenas, in the last 30 days, has already hit two “Downtown Freddy Brown” buzzer beater threes. Both times he was celebrating before the ball went through the net. How’s that for confidence? And then there’s Dirk. Is there a sweeter looking shot in the game? His form is so sound, his touch so consistent that you forget he’s 7 FEET TALL! It seems unfair someone that size has such a gorgeous looking shot. Is there anyone better at the “quick two dribbles, pull up in the face of 3 defenders” shot in the league?

Kobe’s the most versatile and can get to the line. Arenas in on another level right now. But if I’m going to one person to hoist the last shot with the game on the line, I’m going with the big man.

At the other end of the spectrum is Wade with what has to be regarded as one of the ugliest but effective shots ever. It’s definitely in the same discussion as other ugly by effective shooters such as Kevin McHale, Michael Cooper, and Robert Parish. Shaq and Rodman also had stomach turning shots but they weren’t effective outside of 5 feet.

I feel bad for people who try to sell their beater car on Craigslist but possess an active honesty gene that gets in the way. After reading this ad I’m convinced of three things:

1. Given all the problems including the “tented” windows, mysterious leak originating from “somewhere” and driver’s seat that leans to one side, the owner of this car should pay someone to take it off his hands.

2. The $200 he’s asking for the car was determined by the insurance premium rather than on the value of the car.

3. Love the math here. 8 Passenger Van minus seat = 6 passenger van.

It’s ads like these that keep me coming back to Craigslist for some unintentional laughs.

You probably need to be a regular reader of Fark.com to get many of these these, but if you are you’re in for a treat. The theme for this contest is to Photoshop “Movie posters that Fark clichés could have improved”. One of the best contests in ages.

Link to list of Fark cliches

Dell has been taking a beating lately for it’s declining customer service. It used to be that Dell had some of the best customer support in the business. I remember when Consumer Reports along with most PC related magazines ranked it near the top with Apple for years and years.

So if you’re Dell how do you go about fixing some of these problems? Well, you can start a blog and start to interact with your customers more than you have in the past. One of the main categories on the Dell blog is Customer Experience. From what I can tell the blog is updated by people who do care about their customers and are willing to listen to feedback and criticism. That they allow comments is great.

One more thing you can do is make it easy for customers to contact you when you run into problems. It’s frustrating when a company makes it easy to contact sales but makes it impossible when you need assistance. So kudos to Dell for putting a big blue button on their homepage that says, “Unresolved Issues”. This is good but it could be better. Unless you read fine print you’ll click on the button and then on “Customer Support” or “Technical Support” areas which then present you with online form to fill out. I can’t stand these forms. When I need help I want it now and don’t want to wait a day or two for a generic response.

So if I click on the big blue button how many clicks does it take before I find a phone number to call? Four clicks was the best I could do. There are so many options that it’s easy to take off in the wrong direction. It appears someone at Dell suggested a big blue button would give the appearance that we care and they ran with it. It’s better than nothing but there’s a lot of room for improvement here.