Commuter Bonus and XM Radio

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I worked in our headquarters in Decatur for 14 years. Then I worked out of a plant in Conyers for 3 years. The plant was closed, and I moved back to headquarters last year. For most of the plant workers, it meant their drive was going to be much longer (20 minutes instead of 5 minutes). For me it went from 30 minutes to 40 minutes. For a few people the drive ended up being shorter.

All of us were given a one-time “commuter bonus” to help compensate for the move and to encourage us not to quit. I thought it was ridiculous that management (or people who got a shorter drive) be included and even said so. I did not apply for the commuter bonus. I got it anyway, as did everyone in management.

I do have a longer commute, and I’ve considered getting XM Radio (satellite radio) to make for a more pleasant drive. A new iPod-ish portable radio, XM MyFi, is all the buzz at work. I have not purchased an iPod (people seem surprised by that) because I can listen to music at a computer when I want, and I don’t see myself wearing headphones to the store, driving to work, to the kid’s sporting events, or to church. These are the only time I leave the house. I’m not going to wear headphones in the yard. The chain-saw could cut the wires.

I have always known I would end up getting an XM Radio kind of service because I like the idea of letting someone else randomly serve up a variety of music, and I hate commercials.

I doubt I’ll get the portable, but I may look at getting the semi-portable version that can play in your car or at your desk. You may have seen it in the commercial where the guy is driving a little car into the building, up the elevator and to his desk, listening to XM all the way.

At the moment I am listening to XM Radio on the iMac. You can sign up for 36 hours to try it out. Currently playing Cedar Walton’s “I’m Old Fashioned” on the Jazz station. It’s great. I’m going to do this a lot whether I get XM or not. With Bloglines, you can create a disposable e-mail address to receive the access code! The disposable e-mail addresses are a way to receive newsletters, which I do with Clark Howard, Apple, and Motely Fool newsletters. I assume XM won’t send an access code to the same e-mail address twice, but with Bloglines, you can create as many temporary e-mail addresses as you need.

Photo Blogging

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Posting a photo or two in a blog can be useful, but not obvious Here is a summary and then details of how to do it.

1. Export photo reducing the size to something around 600 x 400 pixels. (No giant photos, please.)

2. Upload this “medium” size photo, creating an embedded thumbnail that is around 200 x 150 pixels.

3. Add the attribute border=”2″ so that it will make the thumbnail look clickable.

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Ultra Mini Spiral Lamps EDXO-14 – Update

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(The first and last burned out within a few weeks. See log below.)

Summary:
 Buy Commercial Electric (CE) ultra mini compact fluorescent (CF) lights. They are smaller and cheaper than ever, and seem to be reliable. Don’t buy Lights of America (LOA) CFs.

Just bought two six packs (a dozen) of Commercial Electric Ultra Mini Spiral Lamps. The CE bulbs I already have are holding up, including the one they mailed me after a good customer service experience.

Commercial Electric Ultra Mini next to larger Lights of AmericaThese are very small. Smaller than a regular light bulb or the burned out LOA bulb seen in this photo. They seem to put out as much light as the larger bulbs. (In this case 60 watt equivalent.)

The ultra minis are replacing three LOA Model 2425 Bulbs that burned out very quickly. Unlike my good Commercial Electric experience, Lights of America wanted me to mail in forms with receipts etc. I just won’t buy from them anymore.

Commercial Electric puts a customer service number right on the bulbs: 800-378-6998. That’s a good sign. The sale price at Home Depot was $9.95 per six pack. Too good to pass up.

Specs:
Light Output (Lumens) 900
Energy Used (Watts) 14
Life (Hours) 10,000
SKU # 292-460
Model: EDXO-14
14W 200A
V#42836
Customer Service: 1-800-378-6998

Marketing:
Lasts 7 Years Guaranteed*
This Package Saves You $276.00
$46.00 in Energy Costs Per Bulb
Lasts 10 Times Longer Than Standard Bulbs

*based on 4 hours average use per day
*savings based on 10 cents per kilowatt hour

They are replacing larger Lights of America Model 2425.

The Light Log – a 7 Year Experiment

Last updated 11-23-2005

Installation Date / Fixture

  1. 1-3-2005 / Basement Hallway South. Died 1-23-2005
  2. 1-3-2005 / Basement Hallway North
  3. 1-3-2005 / Basement Office South
  4. 1-3-2005 / Basement Office South
  5. 1-3-2005 / Basement Office North
  6. 1-3-2005 / Basement Office North
  7. 1-3-2005 / Basement TV Room East
  8. 1-5-2005 / Piano
  9. 1-15-2005 / Upstairs hall East (Moved to basement hall south 3/6/06)
  10. 1-15-2005 / Master Bedroom Closet 1
  11. 7-10-2005 / Upstairs hall West (Moved to basement main west 3/6/06)
  12. 9-3-2005 / Master Bedroom Closet 2. Died 11-23-2005.

Now playing: You Sexy Thing by Hot Chocolate

TurboTax

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Ted reports he has used Tax Act for several years. I use TurboTax.

I look forward to using TurboTax every year. I’ve been getting it for $10 from Intuit because we are their check vendor. They cancelled that benefit last year when our CIO (if your reading this Chris, you cost me money!) e-mailed the order form to our entire I.T. department. It was supposed to be limited to people associated with the plants producing Intuit’s checks. The flood of requests had them cancel the deal because in overwhelmed the friendly lady that handles these requests manually.

I bought TurboTax for $39.95 from Costco this year. We started printing checks for Costco about the same time Intuit cancelled there offer. No connection.

I’m not sure if Tax Act supports everything I do in TurboTax. Clark Howard says if you have complex tax transactions you should use TurboTax. But I’m also addicted to how TurboTax carries forward data every year (no retyping) and maintains a 5 year historical view.

(Disclosure: I currently am holding Intuit stock, but I just realized that.)

iBook Power Cable Fix

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When Mary Clarie turns 10, she gets to play pool at Gramalie and Grandad’s because of the “double digit” rule. She pushed Grandad with an “I’m oh eight (08) so I can play!” Didn’t work.

She also gets to use the Apple iBook again after being banned with a “two strikes and your out” rule. The first strike burned out the adapter plug with a short. ($80.) The second strike sliced (but did not break) the new replacement. The cool all-white adapter with it’s orange/green glowing plug now has uncool looking black electrical tape along the middle of the slim cord.

The slim cord is a real weakness, especially the way it follows around the wireless iBook as needed. Peter says Tesla was working on wireless power.

I’m going to try to repair the shorted cable.

According to MacEroni I can wire in one from Lind Electronics. It won’t have an orange/green glow, but it will give us an alternate power supply.

Lind Electronics – Apple Replacement output cable for Lind adapters and PowerBook G4 and all White iBooks

George Will and Big Laws in Baseball

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Several years ago, I started listening to NPR on my drive to and from work. It was difficult news to listen to, because so much of it was international and unfamiliar. At the time I was trying to understand what was going on in Yugoslavia with Croatia declaring independence and Serbs and Croats fighting in Bosnia and Herzegovina, which sounds like two places but is one. I’m not sure I ever figured it out, but I still enjoy listening to NPR to and from work.

A couple of years ago I decided to switch from Time to Newsweek. It seemed to have more challenging content than Time. One main reason was for George Will’s columns. They are hard to read. George uses complex ideas, sentences, and historical references.

George also happens to love baseball. It isn’t an easy read, but it is a good read about why you shouldn’t break the big laws (or you end up with small ones.) Here is one for you D.C. …

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