The Audi RS4. The Mercedes Benz C63. The BMW M3. The comparison tests from the German countryside.
Three great cars. But only one winner.
–Link to comparison test at Car & Driver – “this latest M3 offers the purest, least diluted, most involving, and best-in-class driver-and-machine relationship”
–Link to comparison test at Motor Trend -“The BMW propeller points to your heart from the wheel hub. This is appropriate; BMWs are at their best when they play with your emotions, entice your senses”
Don’t burn bridges. I don’t understand why some people don’t understand this concept. If you’re on your way out of a company, don’t bad mouth your boss or your coworkers or the company. It makes you look like a schmuck, not the company.
How soon till Microsoft pulls the plug on the Zune? I give it 12 months at the most. It seems like the next Ultimate TV. Years ago when Tivo and Reply TV started making a splash, Microsoft decided that need a piece of the pie so they created Ultimate TV that wasn’t a bad product but it wasn’t better than Tivo. It was met with a lukewarm reaction. The Zune seems to be following the same path. It’s not a bad product but it’s no match for the iPod. It needed to be revolutionary. It isn’t.
I find myself using RSS readers less and less. There is a perspective I gain by visiting the writers website that isn’t as noticeable in Google Reader or Bloglines. The writer’s personality is on display. It reflects their style. RSS Readers take that away and makes the content feel septic.
Along those same lines, if you decided to pursue another position outside of your company, never ask your boss this question: “If it doesn’t work out, can I have my old job back?” This is like asking your girlfriend if you can date her best friend but come back to her if things don’t pan out.
It takes four days to stop sugar cravings. Ok, this isn’t scientific and it may only pertain to me. The first three days are no fun. If my body is used to having sugar, it wants more. But after four days, the sugar is gone and the craving is gone. Now it’s easy. Take all that Halloween candy into work for the young guys. Just get it out of your house and remove the temptation.
One of my best purchases in the last five years was a good quality shredder from Costco. I’m serious.
Two best times of the day: Going into each of the kid’s rooms and kissing their warms cheeks before I go to work. Arriving home and getting mauled by same kids.
How a company handles paychecks and expense reports is a good gauge of how it treats its employees. Is the process seamless with a quick turnaround? Or is it littered with senseless rules and turnaround takes weeks?
Whenever I install Windows I’m reminded that my job is safe for another ten years. The process hasn’t improved much since the Windows 95 days with endless floppy drive swap parties. Computers are still far too difficult to use and require way too much babysitting.
On the subject of Windows, how is it possible that Windows doesn’t include a simple backup program for moving important files to an extra drive?
The people you work alongside are oftentimes more important than your actual job. The sooner you figure that out, the happier you’ll be.
While driving in traffic, I always feel better when I slow down and let someone in rather than speeding up to cut them off. Many drivers seem downright shocked when I do so in my BMW.
Over the years and many jobs later I’ve come across a method to help determine if I should stay in my current job or start looking for something else.
After an enjoyable weekend as things start winding down on Sunday evening, I ask myself, “Am I excited to go into work tomorrow?”
If things aren’t going well, I’ll feel nervous, uneasy and sometimes even a bit sick to my stomach. A few weeks of this and I know I’d better start looking around.
But if I look forward to going back to work on Monday morning, that’s a good indication that the job is a good fit.
As I arrived at work this morning at 7:30 am, I sat at my desk, fired up Slacker radio and thought to myself, “I love working with the techs. This job rocks”.
I don’t believe I’m giving up anything in the way of elegance by not running Vista. This is XP with the Zune theme. I don’t keep files or a ton of folders on my desktop. I’m a minimalist who is a bit fanatical when it comes to keeping my computer organized and optimized.
I’m using UltraMon to manage the dual monitors. I also use Google Desktop Sidebar which I’ve hidden in the picture below. It does what the Vista Sidebar does doesn’t use much memory.
There, I said it. I use Twitter as an outlet for my thought that aren’t worth blogging. But the reason that keeps me coming back is hearing so many different viewpoints. Of the 316 people I’ve met fewer than 30. Yet that’s what makes Twitter so fun. Some are serious. Some are witty and others are so very random. Many I don’t agree with but some make me think. There are some very smart people on Twitter.
You never know what will come across your Twitter stream. Sometimes it’s a funny thought or a sad experience. When a thought is limited to 140 characters, there’s no fluff. People get right to the point. Few words are wasted.
When I tell my friends about Twitter I hear the same excuses I hear when discussing blogging: Not enough time, nothing to say. Lame.
And if you happen to run a company, you should be tracking what people say about you on Twitter the same you do with blogs. And if you’re really into pleasing your customers, do what John Ballinger does and answer tech support questions using Twitter.
Seriously, if you don’t Twitter, you’re missing out. And if you’re interested you can check out my feed here.
When I was 19 years old I saw an ad for a new portable cassette player that caught my eye. Sony Walkmans had been around a few years, but when the Aiwa T600 came on the scene I knew that was the one I had to have. It looked a lot cooler than the Walkman and was a smaller and included a 5-band equalizer. I spent the summer cleaning pools for my father and eventually saved up enough money to purchase it. 
I was so excited to finally purchase my first good quality portable cassette player with “Auto Reverse”! I didn’t realize how hard it would be to find a place that carried the model I was after. I called around to a few electronic stores before locating one that had it in stock. I got my cash together and headed to the store which most sold higher end audio products.
The sales person made it clear that since I was only looking at portable units instead of high end audio he only interested in providing the very minimal amount of service. It took a while before he could locate the key to the glass case which held the Aiwa. I was not a priority and felt I was putting the guy out by asking questions. The quicker he could get me to leave the store the better. I bought the player and left the store feeling like crap due to how I was treated. What should have been a fun experience left me feeling like my business wasn’t appreciated.
That experience would turn out a lot different today. Although I could still be treated poorly, the end result would be different. I wouldn’t hand over my money to someone who didn’t value my business. But I’d be sure to take down the salesman’s name and blog about it when I got home. So instead of telling a few friends about my bad experience, my blog could reach hundreds if not thousands of potential customers. The salesman was in charge back then. The buyer is in charge today.
The internet and blogging have drastically changed the transaction process. It’s no longer good enough for merchants to display their wares and take your money while relegating service to the back burner. Those companies that provide poor service will be exposed and many will fade away while companies that provide excellent service like New Egg, Amazon and Starbucks will thrive. That means each customer inaction if more important than ever. Your bad sales people can no longer hide behind the counter cherry picking the big spenders. Conversely, those sales people who treat customers with respect and appreciation will be valued now more than ever.
Does your company value each customer interaction?
Some brain-dead idiot at NBC decided that pull their shows off iTunes.
According to a statement from the company, NBC refused to renew its agreement with iTunes after Apple balked at paying fees that it said would more than double the wholesale price for each NBC TV episode.
Apple said NBC’s demands would have raised the price of NBC shows to $4.99 an episode from the current $1.99 price tag.
Pure, unadulterated arrogance. Once again, a big media company wrongly believes they hold all the chips. Shows like The Office have always been available for download over Usenet or Bit Torrent. But when they came to iTunes many people like myself decided it was worth the $1.99 to get a good quality version without all the hassle of locating a reliable torrent site. I also felt like the networks were finally coming around and offering their programming in a format and over a network that consumers were already familiar with.
And then NBC decided their viewers were all wrong all this time and stopped offering shows like the Office and Heroes on iTunes after last season. They do offer most of their shows on the NBC website but you can’t download them to your computer or iPod and they include commercials. No thank you, NBC.
So here is a solution if you were you used to grabbing missed episodes off iTunes.
It might find more than one version of an episode so you can go through and delete any duplicates. But once you have it setup, it’s easy set it and forget it. Miro will download the newest episodes automatically as they become available. And unlike the old days, most programing is recorded in HD quality which means they look as good or better than those offered on iTunes. The episodes offered at the NBC website look terrible.
When NBC pulls their head out and goes back to giving their viewers what they want I’ll go back to using iTunes when I miss an episide. But for now, Miro isn’t a bad alternative.
I’ve tried a number of low carb tortillas and wraps. Most are pretty good, but a couple have had a weird texture and not much flavor. This week while at Fred Meyer, I noticed a display full of wraps from Flatout. For those who are watching carbs, they are a great alternative to bread. One wrap has only 90 calories, 6 net carbs and 9g of fiber and no sugar. They comes in packs of six for about $2 at Fred Meyer.
Today I pulled out a wrap and put some cheese and pepperoni on it. After about a minute in the microwave, I rolled it up and was surprised at how much better it tasted than many of the low carb tortillas. The wraps are smaller than most of the tortillas but they are thicker and seem more filling.
I plan to roll up some turkey or roast beef sandwiches for work next week. Highly recommended even if you’re not watching carbs.
I can’t stand eating breakfast. I don’t know why but I’ve never liked breakfast and it’s all I can do to choke down any solid foods. So about a year ago, I stopped trying and decided I’d have a low carb Atkins shake each morning. They taste pretty good and they keep me from getting hungry later in the morning.
By the time lunch rolls around I’m ready to walk over to building 121 on the Microsoft campus and visit the amazing cafeteria they have there. They have five or six hot meal areas with foods ranging from pizza to Pho soup to a grill where one can order from over a dozen meats ranging from catfish to teriyaki chicken. I usually head over to the vegan area to see what steamed vegetable they have that day. Then I’ll head over the salad bar.
Microsoft has one of the best salad bars around. It’s better than most restaurants I’ve been to. It has four different types of lettuce and all types of fresh veggies and fruits for the taking.
But there’s one curious placement as I come to the end of the salad bar. Sitting just past the salad dressing are a number of desserts. I’ve been pretty good to walk by them. Only once in the last six months have I bought a rice crispy square. But I really wish they would move the desserts to an area that’s not so close to the salad bar.
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