Belkin Cable Clips: Yeah, They Suck Too

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Remember my rant about how Belkin sucks? Well, they really do, because they can’t even make cable clips worth a damn. When I re-did my office early last year, I want to make it really slick, so I purchased a whole bunch of cable clips from Belkin I put those suckers everywhere, and they worked really well…until after about six months they started to fall off the wall because Belkin used cheap adhesive. I searched and searched for better products, perhaps something metal that would screw into the wall. I couldn’t find anything, so I’ve opted instead to use Crazy Glue the Belkin clips to my wall and desk. So far they’re holding up very nicely – when in doubt Crazy Glue!

Post-CES Business Card Backlog

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CES for me is all about making contacts, and I came back with a stack of business cards that will doubtless prove to be highly valuable. Since I don’t have one of those handy business card scanning things (do they actually work?), I had to rely on the next best thing: my amazing wife who used her 100+ words per minute typing skills to enter all the business cards into an Outlook contacts folder that was then exported to a PST file, which was then imported into Outlook. You know, now that I think about it, Ashley’s far better than a business card scanner because she’s self-correcting. I’m a lucky man!2

Public Service Announcement: GIFs and JPEGs Are NOT the Same

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Here’s a really quick tip for all you would-be graphic designer gurus out there: there’s a reason why GIFs and JPEGs have different file-type names. They’re not the same, and one should never be used in place of the other (perhaps with rare exception. The above screen shot is from a survey Web site I went to for a restaurant called Kelsey’s. They used a GIF for photo-quality images, and the results are horrific: look at the patchy, blotchy skin on the woman’s face on the right. Does going to Kelsey’s result in eczema? No that’s just what happens when a GIF (which only has 256 colours with which to create an image) is used instead of a JPEG (which supports millions of colours). Now look at the food photo on the left – it looks somehow…wrong. Again, GIF used instead of JPEG, and the luscious colours have been pulled out of the image. Kelsey’s is a sizeable restaurant chain, so you’d think they’d be able to afford some real talent. Next PSA: remember to spay and neuter your pets!

Star Trek DVDs Finally Affordable?

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After years of trying to ignore the chorus of requests from consumers who wanted to buy their favourite TV shows on DVD, the movie studios finally relented – and ushered in a new pipeline of profit as nostalgic consumers and collectors alike snapped up all their favourite TV shows. The Star Trek DVD boxed sets have always been ridiculously expensive – where most TV shows are around $50 CAD for one season – the Star Trek boxed sets usually cost around $110 CAD (give or take). I was looking on Amazon.ca today and noticed something very surprising: you can purchase the entire seven seasons for Star Trek: The Next Generation for $429 CAD, which is only $61 per boxed set. That’s a great price compared to what I’ve paid for them over the years. I also noticed that Amazon.ca doesn’t have purchasing links for most seasons of ST:TNG – you can only buy them used. Why is this happening? I believe they’re preparing the way for the HD-DVD releases of the entire Star Trek boxed sets…which, unless they’re re-cut for wide screen, I will not be purchasing. Hell, even if they are, I doubt I can bring myself to drop all that $$$ on the same content. Although I will say that if Paramount prices them in the $60 range for each boxed set, rather than the $120 level they were previous at, the odds of me buying them will definitely go up.

Returning Products to Dell: I Discovered Something New

I’ve ordered many products from Dell over the years, and in all the times I’ve used the return policy to send back a product, I’ve only ever returned a product that was defective. In those instances, Dell gives out a UPS shipping coupon that you print out, tape to the box, and ship back at no cost. Today I phoned up Dell to request an RMA for my Zen Vision:W. I decided to return it because it was simply too large – I knew it would be thick, but 26.4mm is more then obese, it’s HUGE. When I said I wanted to return the product, the Dell representative offered me a $70 discount to keep it – making the final price only $300 CAD (I paid $369 CAD including tax). A $70 discount isn’t bad at all, but even at $300 it’s still too big. I didn’t like the controls on it much either. Because I was returning a product I didn’t like, rather than a defective product, I’m on the hook for paying return shipping to Ingram Micro (Dell’s supplier) on Ontario.

So this little experiment with the Zen Vision:W is likely going to cost me about $20 or so (the shipping cost), which isn’t bad. I can’t imagine how expensive it would be if I had ordered a 30″ LCD monitor and didn’t like the results – local stores such as London Drugs will allow me to return products for any reason with 15 days as no cost, which is certainly more appealing than what Dell offers. Something to be wary of in the future!

Who Makes These Spell Checkers?

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I’m sometimes baffled at how poorly spell check works – the above screen shot is from Microsoft Word, but they’re not alone: when I was doing up a previous post with the word “movies” in it, that word was flagged as being in error. Who spell-checks the spell checker?

Movies Worth Watching: Children of Men

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Tonight Ashley and I saw a movie that we both really enjoyed: Children of Men. Starring Clive Owen, this movie had me tense from the moment it started with an explosion. I saw but one trailer for it, and thought it looked like a good movie – it was! Without revealing the plot, I can say that it’s a gripping action/drama that is unrelenting in pace. It had a European feeling to it, and didn’t have any slow-motion action sequences and rock music like your typical Jerry Bruckheimer flick. Not that I dislike those movies mind you, but that style of film making would have been seriously out of place with this story. The movie had a stark feeling (less colour, almost de-saturated), with basically no music – mostly background sound effects. It also had a very atypical ending for a “Hollywood” movie, and it left us talking about what might happen in the future if the events of the movie came to pass (in short, it’s about the world not having children any more). Julianne Moore also plays a role, along with Michael Caine. Rating: 9/10

Also looking intriguing is the movie Pan’s Labyrinth. Anyone seen that yet?

Flash, Flash, Everywhere

Coming back from CES, it’s amazing how ubiquitous USB flash drives have become – I returned with, get this, 5152 MB of flash memory spread across nine USB flash drives. Two of those were big suckers – Sandisk 2 GB USB Flash drives meant for Vista ReadyBoost use – and the other seven were between 128 MB and 256 MB, used for press releases, high-resolution images, and other content that the press likes to have. Flash memory has certainly hit its stride!

Supernova Not All That Super or Nova

173030062_ba2fdcd400_m.jpg“The reality TV show is over for Rock Star Supernova. Now there’s just the reality of turning a made-for-TV group into a real rock band. And judging from the foursome’s opening show New Year’s Eve, there’s plenty of work left to do. Led by Toronto singer Lukas Rossi, Supernova delivered a wildly uneven show before some 2,000 at The Joint at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino.” – Full Article

Although it might be too soon to completely write off Supernova, from the moment I saw them perform their first original song – and felt that it wasn’t as good as what Ryan Star did on his own – I realized that Supernova was probably never going to be as big or successful as the show they were supposedly the stars of. That feeling only solidified as they performed more and more of their original material – most of it less than inspired or entertaining. It’s not easy to write a great song, but between the three of them they have many decades of experience in the music business, and if Gilby Clark can’t come up with a good riff of melody then why form the band? I always thought that Ryan Star or Toby Rand would have been the type of talent the band needed (hell, Dilana would have given them something a bit different), but ultimately they chose Lukas – and I don’t think he’s got what it takes to help make Supernova stand out from the crowded marketplace of rock bands.

TV Worth Watching: Beauty and the Geek

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I’m generally not a fan of reality TV shows: they tend to be geared toward maximum exploitation of the people on the show, vapid entertainment based on sex appeal or cruel humour. The reason most of these types of shows are popular? It’s the same reason why people driving slow down to watch the aftermath of a car crash. We have a strange desire as humans to witness the suffering of others. I’ve ignored 95% of the shows in this genre, having never watched more than a couple of episodes of Survivor, The Amazing Race, Big Brother, etc. When I first heard about Beauty and the Geek a couple of years ago, I just knew that I had to check it out. I wasn’t disappointed, because the first season was hilarious. I found that I could identify with the geeks on the show, which gave me an instant connection to it – while some people watching the show doubtlessly laugh at the geek, I was definitely laughing with them because I know what it’s like (and I managed to marry my own beauty). The third season of this show just kicked off last week, and it looks just as entertaining as the first two seasons (though nothing will ever be as funny as watching Richard in the first season). If you’re a jock or were popular in school, you won’t grasp this show. But if you went home most days after school to play Ultima IV by yourself (like I did), you’ll find this an entertaining TV show. The cast this year is a good mix of geeky geeks (like the guy who leads a Star Wars tribute band) and beauties (some of the women look incredible) – and, true to form, some of the geeks are incredibly socially dysfunctional (some in their 20’s and never having kissed a girl), and some of the beauties are incredibly clueless (like the one who thought the satellite was a telescope). I’m definitely glad this show came back a third time!