I bought a Garmin Nuvi 785T recently, which has a built-in receiver for the MSN Direct over-the-air service. Now, there’s not much that Microsoft does these days that impresses me in the slightest, but MSN Direct is definitely an exception. It sends real-time traffic data (although the data in Louisville isn’t the greatest), gas prices, movie times, weather, and more directly to the GPS. Plus the coolest feature is the ability to find a location or route on my desktop (using Bing Maps) and send it directly to the GPS while it’s still in my car.
Nevermind the fact that Google Maps Navigation has just made most of this obsolete, I was pretty happy with the service for now. After the 3-month free trial, it cost $50/year, or $100 for lifetime service. Figuring I would use the GPS for several years, and then my wife would use it for several more, I bought the $100 lifetime service in October.
So I was of course dismayed to get an email from them stating that the service would be discontinued in 2012, and that I would only get a pro-rated refund based on three years! Fuming, I searched my inbox for the TOS from when I signed up, and it said that “service was not guaranteed beyond January 1, 2014″! So they (at least implicitly) promised me two more years than what I was getting.
Not only did I buy a more expensive GPS that had the necessary (but soon useless) receiver for the service, I was getting swindled on the service too! With threats of a class action lawsuit on the tip of my tongue, I called their service department to give them a piece of my mind. I asked the very polite girl on the other end to explain the two-year difference in promised service and said I wanted to cancel now and get my money back instead of wait until 2012.
But apparently they were ready for this. She told me that yes, I can cancel now and get a refund (still prorated to three years), but that they will still let me keep the service until 2012! So I’m getting back around $98 of my $100 fee (all but about 1-1/2 months worth) and still get over a year of free service.
I’m still not very happy with Microsoft, but at least they made things right financially. So I have real-time updates on my GPS until January 2012, by which time I’ll surely have Android 2.0 (and Google Maps Navigation) on my Sprint Hero to get me where I’m going.
So I was reading the latest story on the whole sordid Blagojevich scandal today on the Chicago Tribune’s website when I noticed this lovely graphic in the bottom-right corner titled “Colonel Tribune Recommends”. Colonel Tribune is apparently the Chicago Tribune’s “Web Ambassador”.
Now folks, this is just a stroke (pardon the pun) of brilliance. Faced with staff layoffs and crippling ad revenue declines, the Chicago Tribune knew that it had to somehow embrace this brave, new media world. And what’s a more fitting way to depict an obsolete, dying dinosaur like the Chicago Tribune than a confused-looking, disoriented old man wearing a hat made out of newspaper?
Intrigued, I did a bit more looking into Col. Tribune. He has his own page on the Tribune’s website, complete with links to his Facebook profile, Flickr feed, and Twitter page. It seems that the Colonel is quite the Web-2.0-savvy curmudgeon!
I checked out the Colonel’s Flickr feed and found to my horror that apparently wearing newspaper hats is now very hip in Chicago. These people look about as excited as someone who was forced to attend a boring company-sponsored after-hours party on a Friday night. Ahem…
So, welcome to the exciting world of the World Wide Web, Col. Tribune! I’m sure you’ll do your company proud as its public web ambassador while it continues its inevitable death spiral towards oblivion. Now get off my lawn.
Something tells me this whole “green” craze is going to get a whole lot worse before it gets better. I got an email today from Scott’s Lawn Care touting their new “Water Smart” fertilizer. Their “new Water Smart™ formula saves you thousands of gallons of water a year!”
Curious as to how exactly fertilizer can cut down on your water usage, I went to their website to find out more. Their site is very short on details, but the general gist is that a fertilized lawn will need less water to keep healthy than an unfertilized lawn. So their “Water Smart” fertilizer is just the same old stuff with a new, hip eco-friendly feel-good label!
Look, I’m all for taking common-sense steps to help the environment. Whether or not global warming turns out to be real, making the earth a better place can only be a good thing. But I guess it was inevitable that the whole thing would get commercialized ad nauseum.
So, thanks anyway Scotts, but I think I’ll have to pass on putting your corny Water Smart Pledge badge on my blog.
Jake, the Black Labrador who became a national hero after searching for survivors of the WTC attacks and Hurricane Katrina, died today. He was put to sleep by his owner after his battle with cancer took a turn for the worse.
Jake was one of fewer than 200 government-certified rescue dogs. He bravely searched through dangerous, white-hot debris to find survivors, and was welcomed as a hero in NYC and elsewhere. He also helped train other rescue dogs and their owners.
I have finally made the switch from Nucleus to WordPress. Nucleus has served me very well over the years but it has fallen behind in its development lately. The conversion to Wordpress was very seamless, thanks to this wonderful Nucleus to Wordpress importer tool. With a bit of modification I was even able to get all my old Nucleus URLs to forward flawlessly.
I’m still working on getting the theme set up and everything looking the way it should, so please let me know if anything is still broken!
And here I thought I had witnessed some bad sandstorms in the Middle East. Apparently I was wrong. This looks like something straight out of a Hollywood movie (Adobe Flash required):
Earlier this week, Microsoft released their monthly security updates for Internet Explorer (IE). As usual, this update is deemed "Critical", which means that it fixes bugs in IE which could lead to a remote attacker taking control of your computer.
How critical are these bugs? Well, one of them is so bad that an attacker can take over your computer using a simple JPEG image. For the less technically inclined, let me put it this way: someone can hide a virus, spyware, or some other nasty critter into an image on a website in such a way that simply viewing the website can let them take control of your computer.
I’ve posted several times before why you should immediately switch from using IE to Mozilla Firefox instead. In case you haven’t made the switch yet, read the rest of this article to find out why you should be very concerned.
I recently made quite a few purchases at Office Depot after seeing a sales ad of theirs offering some very good prices after completing mail-in rebates. Although most of these rebates allow up to a month (or more) to send in the rebates, one of them had a time period of only two weeks, which I overlooked.
The rest of them I sent in were rejected after they claimed that I made the purchases outside of the allowed timeframe. Luckily, I kept photocopies of the rebate forms, sales receipts, and UPC codes. I spoke with their phone reps who had me re-fax the receipts (only one was to a toll-free number; I had to pay for the other calls). I now am supposedly going to receive the rebates in another “4 to 6 weeks”. If I hadn’t been so diligent in keeping photocopies of everything, I’m sure I would have had no recourse when they falsely rejected my rebate.
When these companies offer great prices on stuff “after mail-in rebate”, it is in their interest to make the process as difficult as possible. They count on a certain percentage of purchasers failing to meet the rebate requirements, and when they do make a mistake, they make it difficult for you to dispute it. So, be sure to:
Read all rebate terms and conditions and follow them to the letter. You will not be given any leeway if you miss the postmark deadline, send a photocopy when they ask for an original, etc. Remember, Office Depot and others want you to screw up and give them a reason to keep your money.
Keep photocopies of all rebate forms you submit (mail-in form, receipt, UPC codes, etc.).
Write down when you mailed them in.
Record the time, date, and name of anyone you speak with in regards to the rebate (such as disputing their rejection).
Keep all records regarding pending rebates in one place, and as you receive the checks in the mail, check them against your records.
Always follow-up on rebates when you don’t receive them in the time specified.
All rebate forms have a phone number you can call with problems. You will usually be placed on hold for quite a while (again, to try to get you to give up) but eventually you will speak with someone about your problem. Remember, Office Depot and others want to make it so difficult to get your money back that you give up and say “forget it, it’s not worth the ten bucks to go through the hassle.” Don’t let them get away with stealing your money!
I had disabled comments on my website for a while due to a flood of comment spam. I’ve added a temporary check for spam that I consider a stop-gap solution until I can figure out something more permanent. So, comments are once again allowed unless I find that my current solution doesn’t work.
The rest of them I sent in were rejected after they claimed that I made the purchases outside of the allowed timeframe. Luckily, I kept photocopies of the rebate forms, sales receipts, and UPC codes. I spoke with their phone reps who had me re-fax the receipts (only one was to a toll-free number; I had to pay for the other calls). I now am supposedly going to receive the rebates in another “4 to 6 weeks”. If I hadn’t been so diligent in keeping photocopies of everything, I’m sure I would have had no recourse when they falsely rejected my rebate.