iPhone is 95% awesome

Wow, I love my iPhone. My bf bought me one as an early birthday present what...three weeks ago? It feels like I've had it forever now. No phone has every feature I want, but of all the phones currently out there, the iPhone comes closest and I imagine it will be a while before anything beats it (in fact, the most likely gadget to beat it is a new version of the iPhone.)

I hated switching to AT&T. It's expensive and I don't like the plans they have available. However, I must say that the sexiness of the phone makes up for it. it reminds me of when I first got my Sidekick and people on the train would be straining to get a look at it. I can't use it anywhere without people giving it covetous glances and commenting on it...and I use it all the time, it's so great at looking up google maps - my MDA could look up maps but the screen was so small it was almost impossible to make out the street names. The iPhone has, hands down, the most beautiful screen out there and it even shows the traffic patterns so you know what streets to avoid.

It's great for surfing Yelp (very important!)

And I swear, if your network connection is good, YouTube videos (like the one of prisoners in Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center dancing to "Thriller")

will look much better on an iPhone than on most desktop and laptop monitors. Not sure if it's the quality of the iPhone screen or the different compression used to ready these for your smart phone.

What is up with that Thriller video anyway? I think it's well on the way to becoming the most famous thing out of the Philippines since Versace's murderer or maybe since Imelda Marcos became synonymous with an excess in shoes. But does it cast positive or negative light on the country? I don't really know if popular opinion runs more along the lines of "what a bunch of fruitcakes" or "wow, what a cool prison reform system!"

Anyway, my two current favorite things are 1. my iPhone and 2. that Thriller video
I think my obsession with my iPhone will last longer, though, because you can't accessorize a video.

I [heart] Yelp!

Wow, July will be over soon and I think this is my first blog post this month.

I blame it all on Yelp. While I haven't been posting here, I have become a somewhat prolific Yelper. In case you don't know what Yelp is, it's a community of people reviewing local businesses. I first discovered Yelp when trying to find out about local businesses and having the most useful results that came up for me time and time again be Yelp reviews until eventually I stopped Googling places and went straight to search Yelp for them, and finally became so grateful for Yelp's usefulness that I started "yelping" myself.

Yelp was founded by a couple of guys in San Francisco, so you will find the most reviews and the most active community there. I guess that makes me kind of lucky living in that area and all, but you can Yelp basically any business any place in the U.S., and I'm a bit jealous of you if you live in a smaller metropolitan area...you're live in the Yelp version of the Wild West!

There's just something about Yelp...you can find reviews of most anything elsewhere online, but this is just really well done, very Web 2.0, and so many of the reviews are just...well...sassy! They even have a rating system where you can rate the reviews "useful", "funny" or "cool" (I seem to be more useful than anything else, then cool, then funny. Damn, I need to work on my "funny") and ratings for how many friends, fans and reviews you have, as well. You can also achieve some Yelp fame by being awarded "review of the day" or "first to review", and then there is the elusive "Elite" status.

Elite status is something awarded to people who have at least a certain number of reviews that meet at least a certain standard of quality of writing. You must also have a real picture of yourself posted and use your real name. One of the perks of Elite status is invitations to free "elite only" events where local restaurants will wine and dine you to try and show Yelp eliters how great they are and get good ratings from them. A dangerous proposition if your place sucks, but a really smart idea if you're great but just need to get the word out.

I've found that Yelp actually helps me to appreciate restaurants and other businesses/services better, since it makes me really think about why I do what I do or like what I like and then verbalize it. Great for one's analytical skills and for writing skills as well...and unlike this blog, people actually read my reviews and give me feedback.

Oh hey, if you are on Yelp and want to be my friend (or fan), check me out at http://jinx.yelp.com

Spotting the elusive DHL truck

So, I heard a noise outside my window and it sounded like a truck, and sure enough it was the DHL truck and it was JUST LEAVING MY BUILDING! I ran downstairs, and there was no package, no delivery notice, nothing!

I called the local DHL office (believe me, I have that number stored in my contacts list now!) and tried to sound calm as I explained that the driver had been here and *I* had been here and there was no package and no delivery attempt. They said they would message the driver and send him back.

About 20 minutes later, I heard a knock on my door and someone yelling "DHL!" Finally, my computer!!!

The DHL guy at the door says "sorry we missed each other yesterday". (Cha, right...I was here!) and I ask him "and what about Wednesday?" You know what he tells me? He basically admits that he didn't even TRY to deliver the package on Wednesday. I told him I was waiting for him all day and didn't even take a shower so he says I'm making him feel guilty and I'm like "YOU SHOULD!!!" Then he sees my cat Rodney and starts asking me how old he is and giving me advice on having his teeth cleaned. In fact, he went on and on about how important it is, how the vet charges too much and how he used to be a dental hygienist. Okay, like I care. Hello buddy, I don't care if it cost $500 for you to have your 16 yr old cat's teeth cleaned and they wanted to charge you extra for excessive tartar buildup...I've spent over $15,000 on my cat in the last year, so I'm not impressed. I think he just wanted to keep talking until I hopefully forgot that I waited around all day for him on the day he just pretended I wasn't home instead of trying to deliver to me. Sorry buddy, I am NOT going to forget about that!!! It would have been better if he'd just gone away immediately.

(I just had this nightmare flash of him being my dental hygienist and being stuck in a chair for what would feel like an eternity while he scraped plaque off my teeth and yakked on and on about the most inane things. Noooooo!)

Oh...oh...and he asked me what was in the package, too! So unprofessional. I should have told him it was a bunch of pre-owned sex toys or maybe some adult diapers or...or...I dunno, something that would make him think twice about asking such nosy questions in the future.

So, now I have my computer, and with any luck I will find that copy of Windows XP was delivered today as well. It would have been SOOO great to have had it on Wednesday instead, though! I could have been setting it up Wednesday, finished it up Thursday and maybe even started doing some work Thursday. Now I'm way behind and I have plans in a few hours that DON'T include futzing around with a computer and a dual boot system. Gah.

Note: this was not my "regular" DHL guy, whom I actually like although maybe he sucks a little bit for letting someone else work his route most of this week.

Things that suck

Who sucks is obviously tainted by who is most popular. But...it does seem to demonstrate that the more popular and high profile you are, the higher the number of people who will think you suck.

This morning, let me tell you who sucks...

1. PayPal sucks.
When selling ThereBucks, I am rather partial to larger transactions. If someone overseas buys $10 of ThereBucks from me, I end up paying 6.2% in transaction fees to PayPal, which leaves me with almost no profit from buying the ThereBucks from another developer. That's why now that I sell on my own, I don't allow purchases of less than $20. I actually have a lot of customers that will buy $100 or $200 worth of ThereBucks at a time if I have that much in stock, and that's great EXCEPT that sometimes on foreign orders (and I can't really figure out which ones this is) PayPal ends up charging me something that works out to be like, 5% in fees even on a $200 order. That so sucks, especially when you realize that PayPal charges the same whether you are receiving money directly from someone else's PayPal account (which costs PayPal nothing) or from a credit card (in which case PayPal pays a small fee to the credit card company and faces risk of chargebacks and such.) They already make up their own exchange rates when going cross-border, why do they have to stick more outrageous fees in there? They don't really explain the fees, either. I was trying to research this, and it looks like maybe PayPal charges the highest rate when someone is buying from you from another country, paying you in the U.S. and doing it with U.S. funds instead of their local currency. WTF? That doesn't make any sense to me.

2. Some guy in Palo Alto sucks.
When I ordered my new computer, I chose to have them install Windows Vista so I could play with the shiny new interface. While waiting for the computer to arrive I became worried because I've heard of problems getting certain programs to work with Vista. So, I decided I should create a dual boot system and I bought a new copy of Windows XP from some guy on eBay. I chose this guy to buy from partly because he's in Palo Alto so if he ships something out it only has to go about six miles and I should receive it the next day. Well, the dude waited three days to ship it! I might as well have ordered it from someplace on the east coast!
Some guy in Palo Alto vs. Windows Vista

3. DHL sucks.
I have had some problems with DHL in the past, like the time when the delivery driver said my address didn't exist (um, buddy...I think UPS, USPS and FedEx would all disagree with you there...) so I'm always a bit leery when getting a delivery via DHL as opposed to another service, but the regular DHL delivery guy knows me now and I hadn't had any problems for a while. But THIS week...argh! Monday they didn't deliver a package because my address was incomplete (they shouldn't have accepted the package with an address like that, IMO) but at least I got it Tuesday. Then Wednesday my new computer was scheduled to be delivered so I waited ALL DAY for them to deliver without even taking a shower or running any errands because I didn't want to miss them and they ended up not delivering it because they said I wasn't home! So, Thursday the same thing happened again. The thing is, not only have I been sitting around waiting for them ALL DANGED DAY, but the front door buzzer is hooked up to my cell phone, so I could be anywhere I get cell phone service and if they ring my front door I would at least know about it...and they haven't! So why do they keep saying I'm not home?

Wednesday I didn't even get a delivery notice on the door, then Thursday the mail was delivered very late and when I checked my mailbox I found the DHL delivery attempt notice IN MY LOCKED MAILBOX! So my theory is that the postal carrier and the DHL deliver guy decided "screw making deliveries, let's go to the bar and have some brewskies!". Then after tying a few on, the postal carrier remembered his creed:

Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds

And the postal carrier, feeling guilty and tipsy, went off to finish delivering his mail, albeit a little late, but the DHL guy, not wanting to drink and drive, asked the postal carrier if he could just distribute some attempted delivery notices for him while he was out there. The DHL guy probably intended that the postal carrier put them on the doors, but being a bit tipsy as well, the mail carrier just put them in the boxes out of habit.

That's how *I* think it went down anyway. Now today I am supposed to get my delivery between 2 and 3 pm, and I'm waiting around before then as well just in case, although my backup plan is that my bf take me to the DHL offices to pick up the package directly (a bit tricky, because there is only a 30 minute window in which to do this). Next time I order something IMPORTANT like this online, I am damn well going to make sure the person I'm ordering from does NOT use DHL!!!!!

Where art thou, DHL?

I'm sitting here waiting for the DHL guy to show up...I don't dare take a shower or run errands or do a load of laundry because any of those activities might mean that I would miss my package delivery.

Last week I ordered a new computer and monitor. My main computer is pretty much useless since it simply turns off it regular intervals. Microsoft alternates between telling me this is a hardware, a software, and a driver problem...I've given up and it's probably about time for a new computer anyway. I've been anxiously awaiting it so I can get some "real" work done for a change.

Monday the new monitor was supposed to arrive, but since my address was incomplete on the shipping label (basically my first name, the name of my street without the street address and my city/state/zip) it wasn't delivered until yesterday. Not much use without the computer. Now today the computer is supposed to arrive - a day earlier than predicted - and I've been waiting ALL DAY for the DHL guy to show up.

I just had to post here and complain about it. The DHL guy goes to my gym and recognizes me if I'm walking down the street - he knows my address/apt # by heart, I'm pretty sure his entire route is in Redwood City, and I'd be willing to bet he's driven within two blocks of my building at least three times today, but for whatever reason he hasn't showed up at my place yet. ARGH! I have to leave at 5:30 and it would have been really nice to do laundry before then and really, not showering before then isn't an option. Tomorrow I'm gone for several hours in the middle of the day for China's chemo appt....I really, really need to get the package today and I know this one is signature required.

Maybe I could go walk up and down the streets of Redwood City and try to flag him down...whatever...at this point I'm not even going to be able to take the thing out of the box today and start setting it up. :(

Google will find you!

So, IMVU does this sort of weird creepy evil thing where you can invite anyone you have an email address for to come chat with you on IMVU. The invitation email says "is this person your friend? Please respond or they may think you said No!" WTF? That's so manipulative.

But anyway, the part I find funny is that when you read that email in Gmail, Google will figure out that it is from IMVU and it just you know, KNOWS where IMVU is (of course, they know where everyone is, they're driving around in vans photographing everything!!!) and so they post IMVU's address right on the side of the page.

I just have this idea that maybe IMVU doesn't want their office address posted right beside every email they send out. I knew where they were located before anyway, since I visit the offices sometimes, but this kind of makes me want to send them a GIANT colorful postcard that says "WILL YOU BE MY FRIEND? Yes ____ No ______ Please respond or I will think you said no!" Ha.

Oh which reminds me...I got an email from Google the other day asking if I would be available to come to Mountain View for some sort of focus group thingy IF I met the demographics or qualifications or whatever. I didn't see the email until 40 minutes after it arrived, but of course I filled it out right away...getting to see the Google offices would be pretty exciting! They were looking for people for the next morning so I imagined it was maybe some last minute desperate scramble to find participants so maybe I had a good shot, but I never heard back. So sad. Or is it? I had a brief flash of that movie "The Island" with Scarlet Johansson where all these characters are desperately waiting to win the lottery so they can go to The Island, and what really happens when they "win the lottery" is that they have their body parts harvested. Maybe "don't be evil" is some kind of euphemism for "take people up to the mothership and replace them with bodysnatchers"?

Isn't Google supposed to be working on their own 3D chat thing? I heard this artist that used to do some contract work at IMVU was working on some project like that for Google a while back. Why don't they just buy IMVU? Wait...hmmm...if I own stock in IMVU and IMVU got sold to Google, would an IMVU share be worth as much as a Goog share? Wooooo....I just did a little calculation and...I'd be rolling in dough! No, I don't think it works that way, they probably decide based on the price the company is sold for somehow divided by the total number of shares??? Still...Google, be nice and buy IMVU. Please????

Oakland A's flipped

Yesterday was my first ever Oakland A's game. It was freezing and I didn't feel like moving around and holding my arm up in the air away from the warmth of my body, but I made myself take some video with my new Flip video camera anyway. I've never uploaded anything to YouTube either, but I thought I'd give that a try this morning. Here is my video of some Oakland A's dude getting a run. Right afterwards there was a homerun and the A's scored a couple MORE points, but of course I didn't get that on film. FYI the final score was 1 - 6.


I also got a nifty zip-up sweatshirt thingy with the A's logo on it. (Thank you Mr Besitos Man!) It's pretty nice even though it isn't very warm. At least now I have something to wear to a Giants game.

The Flip Video Camcorder is a neato device that makes shooting video and uploading it to the web extremely easy at a very reasonable price.

I decided to get a Flip because it got really good reviews, and it is pretty convenient. It runs on two AA batteries, and it's called the Flip because it has a USB connector that flips out from the side to plug into any USB computer port. That's when something cool happens...there is a simple video viewing/editing program built right into the camera that you will be asked if you want to use when you are plugging the device in. There is nothing to install on the computer you are using, and yet you can have something uploaded to YouTube from ANY computer with a USB port (hmmm...maybe the library???) without installing anything.

The Flip is so easy to use that you don't even need the short little instruction pamphlet that comes with it. If I could change a few things about it, I would put a tripod mount on the bottom, add a zoom lens, and take out the proprietary port on the top which allows you to take your camera in to an authorized store and have them burn your video straight to DVD and instead put in space for a memory card. The camera holds 60 minutes of video (there is also a 30 minute version), which is probably more than enough for uploading to the web (esp since YouTube limits videos to ten minutes) but it would be nice to have some extra storage just in case. Still, it's definitely worth the price if you just want to shoot and upload some video to the web quickly. It would be really fun to pass around at family gatherings.