Jeremy Ray

Here is an ABC13 piece on Jeremy Ray, a soldier from Jersey Village who died in Iraq. Jeremy and I grew up in the same youth group and boy scout troop, and both graduated from JV High School in 2000. He was at A&M the same time I was, but I never saw him most likely due to his dedication to the Corp. Thank you Jeremy for your sacrifice, you are missed.

• Blog Entry
• JV Alumni Thread (Login Required)
• (AP) Houston soldier killed by suicide bomber
• Soldier killed in Iraq remembered (w/Video)
• Sad homecoming for Houstonian killed in Iraq
• Funeral Plans Set for Fallen Soldier

Logitech = Service

The number "6" on my keyboard quit this week, so I called Logitech to see what could be done. The keyboard is 10 months old, and is covered by their 5-year "Limited Warranty". Here's what happened:

1) Told the service guy my problem
2) He verified by asking if both "6" keys were broken or just the one
3) He asked for the Serial Number and my address
4) He ships me a new keyboard.

Took less than 5 minutes. I am now a Logitech customer for life...

Moving it all to Fidelity FINISHED

I've decided my day-to-day money (checking, money-markets/CDs, short-term savings accounts) is spread out too wide to effectively manage (4 separate accounts to be exact) so over the holiday I am going to be moving it all into a Fidelity mySmart Cash Account.

The goal here is to be able to control everything from Fidelity.com, avoid any and all banking fees, avoid all ATM fees (arrggghh!!!), and allow my cash accounts to earn a healthly 3%+ instead of the .000001% my checking account currently earns. I'll be updating this post as I make the change, and you can follow along using the direct link on the right hand menu.....

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Step 1 is complete - I just finished the online application in under 5 minutes. They needed the usual info, nothing serious, and it looks like I am n ow awaiting a confirmation email once the account has been created. They didn't give me an ETA.

On the same note, here's a blog entry from someone else who did the same exact thing. There are some pretty interesting comments about other options (including Schwabb). LINK

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Got the debit cards in the mail, still waiting for the checks. I adjusted my Direct Deposit - looks Fidelity outsourced this account to a bank in Warsaw, Missouri so that we can be FDIC insured.

I also setup BillPay, which was just as easy as Bank of America.

The only issue I am facing is depositing checks - with Fidelity I have to fill out deposit slips and MAIL the checks into the bank. I may just keep my BOA savings account then transfer the funds electronically to Fidelity each month to make things easier.
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OK, everything is up and running - checks, debit cards, BillPay, really the same features as BOA, but I can access my money everywhere without penalties or fees. I kept my a local BOA checking account for when I need to deposit checks (fairly rare), and then just run a quick EFT every month to Fidelity.

Someone asked about customer service - my direct deposit to Fidelity had an error in the account number, and Fidelity tracked it down and credited my account in under an hour....not bad.

Hemi Exhaust, Air Filters, and MPG

Well, I was skeptical of the claims of "better fuel efficiency" that were advertised by both K&N (air filters) and Flowmaster (exhaust) for my truck, so I installed each and kept tabs with my on-board MPG display. Here's what I found:

Flowmaster 50 Series dual exit system ($225) - Previous: 14.1 mpg, After: 14.9 mpg

K&N Oil-based Air Filter ($20) - Previous: 14.9 mpg After: 15.4 mpg

Doing the math, and based on my driving habits, the investment in both an exhaust system and a free-flowing filter will take 20 months to break even, and then begin to save me $12.50 each month thereafter. That's about a 10% savings each month, plus I get a mean exhaust sound, so I'm a happy man.

Notes: MPGs are City/Highway mix over a 4 week period each during standard commute times, Truck is a 5.7L Hemi Dodge Ram 1500 Fullsize, air-filter was added after the exhaust system.

Scared to join the Mac crowd...

I am definitely scared to take the full plunge into the Apple world - my desktop is still a PC, and here's why:

I treat my computers like cars - when something breaks, I crack it open and replace the part. With a PC, parts are incredibly cheap and adhere to standard size specifications, so buying is easy. Changing parts on an iMac or Mac Mini is like repairing a Ferrari - expensive parts that are custom fit, and not shared across the product spectrum (I am leaving the PowerMac/MacPro out of this, since they are $2k desktops meant for graphic/video/music professionals). This all goes back to the original "IBM compatible" standardization of the PC, and is one reason why Apple (although gaining some of the PC market currently) will struggle to overcome the PC stranglehold on computers.

In the end, the more Macs that are sold, the more support for parts, and the cheaper the part prices. I'm slowly warming up...

Downtown is dangerous...

The following happened today as Damian and I walked to lunch on Walker Street, downtown Houston:

1) A huge compressed Nitrogen bottle (about 6ft tall) vented on a group of fellow Shellers, causing screams of panic and mild high-stepping to get away. Compressed Nitrogen is super cold (scientifically speaking), so I half expected one of the people to be frozen Terminator 2 style, and fall to the ground in a million pieces, only to melt due to the flames of the nearby steel mill (substitute street vendor here) and regenerate. Didn't happen.

2) Stepped over a discarded crack pipe, then made the obligatory "you drop your crack pipe?" joke to Damian...always good for a laugh

3) And watched as a homeless man stepped in front of a moving bus, bus hits the horn, and homeless man flicks bus off.. I just assumed he was homeless by his clothes, although he was dressed very similar to me circa sophomore year in college.

You're not watching HDTV...

You may have a new HDTV, but are you really watching HDTV? Most people I know aren't. Here's how to get HD programming:

1. HDTV box from your Cable or Satellite Provider - get a new HDTV box, your old one is jealous of the new TV and is trying to kill it with a standard 480i signal...
   
2. Local channels in HD using an antenna and your TV's tuner - $20 (Amazon.com, Wal-Mart)
3. Upconverting DVD player - $50-$75 (Amazon.com, Wal-Mart) and will make your DVDs look AWESOME on your new TV. This is a must have.
   
4. HD-DVD/Blu-Ray DVD Players - avoid these until a dual format player goes sub-$200
   

Alpine KCA-420i works with the iPhone and iPhone 3G

This is blatant attempt to grab some web hits...

Confirmed: the Alpine KCA-420i works with the first gen iPhone. Update - it does work with the iPhone 3G, but it does not charge it.

Tested my in-car Alpine iPod connection with iPhone, and it works perfectly. Upon connecting, the iPhone asks if you want to turn Airplane Mode on (your choice here, although I have not had any speaker interference). All iPhone features remain active, except the iPod feature which now displays "Accessory Connected". Using the Alpine head unit you can search using normal commands through Artists, Playlists, Podcasts, etc.

Here's the cool part - if someone calls you, the music pauses and you hear the ringtone through the car speakers. Hit your BlueTooth to answer, or simply hit "answer" on the phone and tap the speaker-phone feature and talk away. When the call ends the iPod resumes.

It also charges the first gen iPhone, but it does not charge the iPhone 3G.

My Setup - Alpine CDA-9833, Alpine KCA-420i, Alpine MRD-M301, Alpine KCE-510M, Alpine Alpine SWE-1042 (x2)

New Astros Jersey Time!

Wow, I feel bad for anyone who has invested in an Astros shirt/jersey/shersey with any player's name on the back. Clemens and Pettitte are in the thick of Mr. Mitchell's report (as is Miguel Tejada - cancel your pre-order of that jersey!), we just traded away 7+ players (including some popular ones like Luke Scott and Chris Burke), and Biggio and Bags are gone. This is quite possibly a conspiracy born from the jersey making industry. First they created the shersey, now this....

When the Tejada trade came over the wire, and ESPN dropped this story, I began to think... my first thoughts - why do we want a former MVP whose numbers have declined steadily since tougher steroid testing was put in place, and who was linked to Palmeiro? Now all the big names in steroids are all 1 degree removed from H-Town.

Sans Triple Strum

I may be mistaken, but I think the new Shane & Shane album (their site has a slick intro, but it crawled on my DSL) does not feature a single triple-strum on the guitar. This was Shane Barnard's bread and butter since circa 1998(?), but the new album has a more calm feel...sans triple-strum...here's an example....from the YouTube...

Quick review of the Shane & Shane album - excellent, especially Burn Us Up...it's the new Prodigal Me...

There is some sweet unintentional comedy in this video, but wait for him to start -he can triple-strum pretty well....just watch the first minute...

Texas - Save some money on electric bills

If you have your own electric bill here in Texas, then you can probably switch companies for a lower rate (this may not work for co-ops and apartments/condos). Our average bill dropped $75 per month during May thru August by doing the following...

Visit PowertoChoose.org which is an independent forum where the latest power company rates are listed. Just pick a company, do a quick Google search to make sure they are reputable, and sign-up on the web.

Here's the 411 (yes, I just dropped the "411") - power companies in Texas put electricity onto "the grid", forming a pool of energy. You then have the choice on whose power you buy. For us in Houston, Reliant is the MOST expensive, but using the site above you can easily pick TXU, Amigo, Spark, Stream, etc for a lower rate.

Before you sign any 1 year contracts, consider going month-to-month (slightly higher rates) with one of the companies listed on the site. I was surprised that when I mentioned this to my coworkers (in the energy business) most knew they could switch, but not how to compare prices.

Time to sit - Joe Perry is playing...

I had an interesting idea as a I passed the merch table at a concert over the weekend. Localized iTunes stores - if you are attending a concert and really want the tracks that were just played, simply access the iTunes store on your iPhone and buy the songs - but here's the twist - create localized iTunes pages that can only be accessed on Wifi at the venue. These localized sites would provide live tracks performed that same night. So as you leave the stadium/arena, or as you sit in the crowd while Steven Tyler lets Joe Perry play his new-yet-awful song, you can download exclusive live content from the concert (which often features new/unreleased tracks).

Think back to John Mayer's "Any Given Thursday" live album - you can hear the audience of swooning girls scream out the lyrics to every song except the new songs from the unreleased Clarity album. What if you gave all those screaming fans a chance to buy those new unreleased tracks right then on iTunes - wouldn't the concert "high" translate into crazy sales? The mobile Wifi iTunes store makes this happen.

Business 101

Saw a Nova special on the Concorde Jet, and there was one quote in the program that I found really intriguing. Apparently they began to put the Concorde project in the black by raising prices sharply in the late 70's...but it was the way they did it that was interesting...

"We realized passengers of the Concorde rarely knew how much they were paying for their tickets. Then we surveyed them, and found that most believed they were paying more than the actual ticket price. So we just raised our prices to what they thought they had already been paying."

Man, so you just need to find something people are buying without really knowing what the cost is, and then jack up the price. Business 101.

NFL Postgame Shows

Since we lack cable/sat (I know, I know), for Sundays I catch up on football by Tivo'ing "Football Night in America" on NBC. So my question is this - of the broadcast networks, who has the best postgame: NBC, CBS, or Fox?

I like NBC for a couple of reasons:
1) Keith Olbermann's awkward moments - we know you started in sports, but political commentary has warped your mind. You are now as painful during a game summary as you are during Countdown. He spits out jokes about each play, only they are two plays late, and we are already looking at another highlight. Keep up with us Keith! Gives us the play-by-play, then the color commentary IF there is time.

2) All games (save the late game) have ended, so you get all the highlights. AND they have tons of time (over an hour) so they show a lot of highlights for each game.

3) Because FNA comes on BEFORE the late game, there are no issues recording it. Other post-games bleed over time slots because they follow a live game and Tivo (God bless it) has trouble.

4) It is both a pre-game and post game show, all wrapped in one. They talk about Sunday's action, the late game, MNF, and Thursday's upcoming NFL network game.

5) AND you have some recent, real-deal players in Tiki and The Bus who give some good commentary. Bob Costas is solid, Olbermann we already covered, and then Cris Collinsworth mails in his performance to round out the cast.

Unstoppable...

Have you seen the Citizen watch commercials that star Eli Manning? They start with "Eli Manning is unstoppable.." and it goes downhill from there. Not so sure Eli is the best representative for any product right now. So you're saying that my Citizen watch will perform like Eli - it works great during college, but then it decides to stop ticking on Sundays, or then it teases me with a solid week of keeping time only to break off my wrist in a horrific 4 interception performance. Wait, my metaphors are getting mixed up. Check the Citizen Watch site (and click on Eli)..they quote his numbers from 2005 as justification for their "unstoppable" claim.

I will give Citizen credit on one thing - they selected pseudo famous people from other random sports to fill out their roster - people from hockey, cricket, skiing, golf - people who are much less visible here in the states. "Unstoppable" is a touch mark to reach. Right now Federer, Brady, and Woods might be on that list, but every once in a while they also are stopped.

"I am Beowulf!"

I saw Beowulf in IMAX 3D on Friday - wow, was that fun. Blood spraying, limbs being torn and tossed at you, pretty gory overall. After the 10th or so horrific death I was really surprised this was only rated PG-13, so beware if you are not a fan of gratuitous violence. The 3D part made the movie, and I can't wait until we get 3D movies at home...

Waco kayakers are drunk

Interesting story that deserved its own post - On our recent trip to Waco to visit Herm and Scotty S, we took a hike in Cameron Park (which is supposedly one of the best mountain biking courses in Texas). The park runs along the Brazos river, and makes use of the bluff leading down to the river with lots of steep trails and creek beds. Upon making it up the cliff that sets against the Brazon river, we looked down to see a kayaker in the water, overturned and clinging to his vessel. And I quote the following:

Kayaker - "Anyone out there? Hello? Hello?"
Me from 100 feet above on the cliff - "You need help?"
Kayaker - "Yes, help me"
Herm - "Just paddle to the shore, its like 30 feet!"
Kayaker - "Help, help, I ...I spilled my whiskey"

I dialed 911, and we then began a debate on whether he deserved a 911 call or saving due to his inebriated state, as we continued to wait on hold. I finally get through to the fire department, who says they're on their way.

Part 2 (yes there are multiple parts)
The Kayaker proceeds to float down the Brazos past a Waco City function held across the river from our position. As the Mayor is being introduced, our kayaker keeps calling for help until a crowd of onlookers begins to gather. Finally, three brave souls decide to go in the water fully clothed and help our new kayaker friend. BUT as they near the kayaker, he waves them off, suddenly realizing that being plucked from the water will surely mean an arrest. Well, the sirens can now be heard from a distance and our kayaker begins to fade into the distance, a tiny spec on the river as it bent toward Waco. That's when I took this picture....see if you can spot him...

Sometimes technology is too much...

Time for a good old fashion rant - I tried to log-in to my credit union today using their web-system for the first time in a couple months, but I needed my "member ID" in order to log-in. It's not my email address, or a userID that I created, or my account number, but some random number generated for me so I can access my account. So I call their support line and after about 10mins on hold I get a nice person from Boston MA on the phone and I explain my problem - can't remember my member ID number, can you help. The answer - not over the phone. How about over email - nope again. Not secure she says - can't give out ID numbers using the phone or email. So, what does she suggest? I have to fax her my account number, social security number, and signature on a sheet of paper to a long-distance number. ..

(pause for effect)

Really?!? You have a fancy web system that is supposed to reduce interaction times and overhead, but the only way to get a reminder on your log-in info is by a fax with enough personal data to gorge even the fattest of scammers? Unreal...I almost asked if she was a prince from a foreign land who needed my help securing his family's untold fortune. Still waiting for my return on that investment....

Christmas Pic 2007

Well, here's the new Christmas pic that we're sending out to our families this year. You should go ahead and print one and put it on your fridge....

Well done Ford...

Finally got in a new Mustang last night (GT 5spd) - and I so far have high marks for Ford. Two weeks ago I sat in a '67 fastback, and sitting in this '05 GT was like that '67 only on steroids. The retro gauge cluster was a highlight, as was the legroom and set-back dash. On top of this, the driver's seat puts you in a more upright posture compared to the recent Camaros and GTOs, and puts the shifter in your hand at just the right angle.

And quickly comparing horsepower ratings - the 2003 Camaro Z28 (final year) had an MSRP of ~27K with 305HP. The new Mustangs GTs start at around $24K for 300HP. Not too bad Ford, not too bad. In more recent years the Mustang GT got a bad rep as a 4.6L waste of money that could not match the value of GM F-body V8's, but the tables have turned. We'll see what the new Camaro and Challenger have to say next year....

iPhones, and rumors of iPhones

The hot topic as of late is "what will be next for the iPhone?" which really means "should I buy one now or wait?". Well, here's the low-down on what's expected for sometime during late 2008 for those who wait:

-3G support is imminent - the chips are smaller and cheaper now, so this is near certain. 3G is the latest cell phone data transfer technology, and it gives your cell phone data speed that is often faster than the DSL you have at home. Only problem is that coverage is only available in larger markets, but it's growing everyday.

- Storage will double to 16GB - I haven't seen this predicted yet, but this is classic Apple. It only makes sense that the iPhone will double in storage to 16GB in the next release. Again, chips are cheaper and Apple already has a 16GB chip waiting in the wings (actually its waiting in the iPod Touch)

-Big question mark: GPS - the chip prices for GPS have really come down so this is possible, but I don't see Apple showing us all their cards at once. First 3G for 2008, then GPS for 2009. Here's a great article on the future of GPS, and to the contrary it that says that an iPhone with GPS is "widely expected".

Spend $50 on a DVD player?

Yes - I said it. Spend $50 on a new DVD player. No, it is not 1996, and no you shouldn't go back to the cell phone that is built into a carrying case.

For $50 or so you can revive your DVD collection and buy an Upconverting DVD player for your HDTV. It plays normal DVDs at near HD quality - in fact, it's so close to HD that it fools the most discerning eyes. Even this guy agrees as he writes an article on a cheap $250 HD-DVD player.

Here are some tips:

1) Make sure it has an HDMI connection (should be standard)
2) Make sure it outputs 720P and 1080i resolutions (1080P is also out there, costs a bit more...)
3) Don't spend over $50, there are plenty of deals out there (go with a Panasonic, Samsung, LG, or Sony model)

IBM comes off a bit snarky...

I hate to say it, but I really enjoy the IBM ad campaign that has been showing the past few years. You know, the 30 second spots with the blue letterboxes and snarky commentary about corporate IT integration platforms, innovation vs. implementation, or the guys in the server room who are being attacked by the old servers, only to be saved by the cool-and-informed tech guy who installs IBM blades. This last one mysteriously has the feel of a Mac vs. PC commercial - I'm not sure which ad campaign came first, but you be the judge:



I should probably put a disclaimer on these type of posts...

*Disclaimer - this post is saturated with corporate technology lingo and is boring even to me*