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I was picking up some new music for an upcoming trip when I thought I’d look at the Amazon.com MP3 Download store.  I’ve done 100% of my music purchasing on iTunes for the last few years because it is just so easy the way things are integrated with my iPods.  I was surprised to see how easy Amazon has made it not only for those of us that use iPods, but OS X itself.

Amazon provides a decent downloader that brings down the music and adds it to your iTunes library automatically.  It’s completely browser based so it’s not as seamless as iTunes, but I think it’s about as good as we’re going to get with a vanilla web browser for a while.

But the fun didn’t stop there.  I picked up 3 “albums” (is that really still a valid term?) and not only were they $2(US) cheaper per album, but they even had one that iTunes did not carry - an old Radiohead album. $7.99 for the full album definitely has my attention.  The no DRM piece is a nice bonus as well, and I’m happy to take 256k MP3 files for less money.

I think iTunes finally has a little competition here and competition should be good for the consumer.  I felt a little like I was cheating on iTunes with the first purchase.  The second click was easier, and by the third click the guilt was gone and I was just begging to get caught.

Nice job Amazon, I’ll be sure to check your store as well as iTunes when i am looking for music in the future.

While at home, I’ve done a fairly successful job of not using many Microsoft technologies for my Internet experience.  At work I’m locked in to all things Microsoft, at home I can use any technology I choose.

I use Gmail for my email, Google for my search engine, Adium for my IM client, Safari, Camino, or Firefox for my web browser, Google Reader for my news feeds, and Flikr for some of my photos.  But the most important page I hit every day is my personalized My Yahoo! page.

I’ve never been impressed with MSN.com’s pages and the new Windows Live sites don’t do much for you with an alternate browser or operating system.  I was not happy with Yahoo when they released the new version of their home page because I was so used to the old plain text look, but over time it has greatly improved, added Safari browser support, and is finally performing like the old version.

When Yahoo first released the new version I decided to try to make the move to iGoogle.  It wasn’t even close at the time.  We use the Yahoo Finance pieces a lot and Google’s instructions to import that data over to iGoogle sounded easy enough - just highlight all the data, including headers, and paste it in to the import field.  It almost never worked, and when information finally did import it never brought all the information I needed over.  Very disappointing.

So I went back to the new My Yahoo and that’s when things started getting better.  It’s become a great home page again - except for the massive ad that you can’t get rid of, but I worry that Microsoft’s influence would ruin the experience.

So I took another shot at iGoogle and was happy to see that things have improved a bit and they now have themes as well.  It is still not as nice as my My Yahoo page, but my iGoogle page is pretty darn close and I’m ready to make the switch if necessary.  After all, if Microsoft really got all the Web 2.x stuff they would never be bidding on Yahoo.

From the outside it sure looks to me like Microsoft needs Yahoo a lot more than Yahoo needs Microsoft.

Hang in there Yahoo, you can right this ship on your own.  If not, I’m sure there are better suitors out there that would make better partners.  Microsoft will take your best technologies, rebrand them, and you’ll be but a distant memory 5 years from now.

Hey, whatever happened to Excite anyway? ; p

Today we went down to see the Bodies Exhibition at the Science Center.  Definitely different and I thought it was pretty interesting.  It amazes me how much time must have went in to preserving and presenting all those nerves, arteries, and veins.  Very intricate work.

They had a display that shows healthy lungs vs a smoker’s lungs.  Huge difference.  The smoker’s lungs were really black while the non-smoker’s lungs were pinkish and healthy looking.  There was a clear bin near the display that had a bunch of discarded cigarette packs.   Above the bin was a statistic I never knew - Every pack of cigarettes you smoke takes 2 hours and 20 minutes off your life.

I have no idea if that is true, but if so, it is sobering.

Another Christmas is just about over.  Everyone is stuffed from eating all day and the kids are in a trance playing with presents they received.  It’s been a long time since I last updated this page, but the only things really going on have been at work, and you all know how I feel about mixing work and my personal Blog - I don’t do it.

So there has not been much to talk about.I at least wanted to wish everyone a Merry Christmas, even though it may not be the politically correct thing to say these days, but it’s still what we say in our house.  So I’m using it here.

Looking at all the gifts that were given and received today, I am blown away by how much power these things take.  Nintendo DS - rechargeable batteries.  iPod Shuffles - rechargeable batteries.  Digital camera - AA batteries.  Video camera - rechargeable batteries.  The remote for use with the Wii (for Guitar Hero III for the Wii! - that one’s mine) uses batteries.  Other than clothes and books I think everything needed charged or batteries.So how can we reduce that energy dependence that we just brought in to the house?  Any ideas out there?  I guess we can replace all of the regular batteries with rechargeable ones.  Overall I plan on replacing most of the regular light bulbs with the curly florescent ones.  The Christmas lights are all on a timer.  The thermostat is on a timer and we choose to nearly freeze over night and when we leave the house.

Any other bright ideas out there?  How else can reduce that might carbon footprint we put out every day?  I hope your Christmas was a good one.

I have a fairly new VW Passat and the key fob has been randomly stuck in the ignition when I turn off the car.

Thanks to the Internet and the awesome community at vwvortex.com I found that there is an easy way to release the fob when this happens to you. Simply put the car in park and push the button on the side of the shifter a couple times and you’ll hear the fob release.

I called my VW dealer when it happened to me and the guy on the phone said he had never heard of the fob getting stuck. Maybe all dealers should read vwvortex as well.

I’ll still have VW look at the problem but it’s nice to have a workaround until I can get in for service.

I’ll start with the puppy.  Margo is no longer with us.  She is now with a very good friend’s mother where she’ll get more love and attention than she knows what to do with.  As part of the deal I think we may be watching her over the Thanksgiving holiday so I’ll need to make sure I’m home so Val doesn’t lose her mind while Margo is with us.  By then she should be even more house trained and this time I’ll make sure to block off the kitchen so she is a little easier to watch.  The kids are excited.

I spent 5 days out in Las Vegas at the Citrix iForim App Delivery Conference.  Honestly, I wasn’t expecting too much this time but Citrix surprised me and it was a really good conference.  I cared about 3 things when I went there; virtualization, application streaming, and end to end performance monitoring and management.  Citrix delivered and I even got to see Cheap Trick at the closing night party.  Bun E. Carlos was not there (they said he had an operation earlier) but the band still sounded great.  Robin Zander sounds as good today as he did all those years ago.

I picked up a new 16GB iPod Touch a few weeks ago and I am blown away.  It is a great iPod even though it is not enough capacity to hold everything I have, but I still have my 80GB for all of that.  I use this one for all my purchased music and podcasts, but the real beauty is the built in WiFi and Safari.  The first thing I did with it was jailbreak it and add a lot of great applications that are out there.  It is actually the main computer I used while in Vegas and I always have it with me.  If only we had WiFi at work.

For work I have a Treo 700wx for a cell phone.   The Verizon network is good, but overall the phone is a disappointment.  It seems like there is always something wrong with it. Right now it won’t ring, regardless of the ringtone I select and am able to play a sample.  It will, however, alert me of a missed call or a voice mail, which makes no sense.  So I leave it on vibrate all the time since at least that piece works.  It connects up to our Exchange environment nicely, but the performance is nothing to write home about.  It hangs a lot and opening attachments is really slow.  MMS is painful but texting is fantastic, so at least there is something positive.  It’s uncomfortable to hold and use for long periods of time.  I pull the battery on average 2 times a week to address one problem or another.  It is definitely not a fast device.

Lastly, I upgraded to OS X Leopard a couple weeks ago.  I think I expected too much because nothing has really impressed me.  I don’t use Time Machine or Spaces and the translucent menus are just OK.  The Finder is better and there are a lot of little things that are nice improvements, but so far this is not an earth-shattering upgrade.  It’s nice to be at 64 bit.  I’m sure it will get better as more and more applications come out that require Leopard, but for me, for now, I could have waited this one out.

Did you remember to check your clocks today?

Last week I broke down under pressure from the kids and we got a 4 1/2 month old Silky Terrier puppy.  Very, very cute dog.  We played with her a few times at the pet store while shopping for other things for our fish.  I look back now, a mere 8 days later and realize I made a huge mistake.  Not because the dog is bad or anything like that.  She’s been very good, is learning how to go outside when she needs to (she actually pulled her leash down off the door knob and brought it to us the last time she needed out) and barely makes any noise.  She is really mellow and is great with the kids, and the kids already love her.

So what’s the problem, right?  Well, we had a German Shepard mix for over 13 years.  When he died we said we would not get another dog.  Fast forward 5 years and in a moment of weakness I allowed a dog to come back in to our home.  The problem is we have changed so much since we last had a dog that a dog just doesn’t really fit how we live anymore.  It’s admittedly selfish, but it’s true.  I screwed up here as a parent and should have stuck with my wife on this one.  She did not want another dog at all and eventually gave in once I was on board with the kids.  She never had a chance.

So what now?  She’s a really good dog, but I just don’t see how this is going to work.  I can’t (and wouldn’t) take her back to the pet store (I know, I know.  A pet store?  Puppy mills you say!  But I had talked with some folks that had got a puppy from there before and it worked out really well) and I don’t want to take her to a shelter, at least not unless it is a no kill shelter that will find a new home for her.  This was my mistake, not hers.

I’m not sure what to do here.  My sister in law recommended a really good book that I am already reading through on training your dog, but that is not the issue.  Even if this dog made us coffee and tucked us in at night I don’t think it would change how my wife and I feel.  This is my issue to fix and I’ve already started talking to the kids about the situation and they definitely do not want to see her go, but sometimes as a parent you have to make difficult choices, and I should have done that in the beginning.  The longer I wait to find her a new home the harder it will be for all involved.

It sounds like I may have just made a decision while writing this.  I think I need to find her a new home.  A home where she fits in and can be with a family (the entire family, not just the kids) that really love her and want her as part of that family.  I’m really disappointed that I allowed this to happen.

How do I fix this one?

A good friend of mine at work used to always bring in all sorts of cookies and jerky.  I remember looking forward to pizzelle season around the holidays because there was something about them that made them taste just a little better than most.  The jerky was fantastic and I probably would have eaten it all if he’d have let me.

Lou always had that entrepreneurial spirit.  I remember him talking about wanting to try all sorts of different businesses - a bar, a restaurant, a car wash.  But I guess the answer was right in front of him the entire time.

Lou made a decision that the IT field just wasn’t for him anymore and I was thrilled to hear that Lou had opened a bakery in Bridgeville, PA called Traditions Bakery.  He slipped me a sample of some of the cookies he’s selling and I can safely say that he’s gained a customer for life.  They’re fantastic cookies.

The IT field is a tough one and at any given time you can hear people complaining that they’re going to start their own business and work for themselves some day.  It takes a lot of courage to do that and most of the people that complain the loudest never make the move.  Lou has the guts to follow his dream and I’m proud of him for it.  He’s a great guy that makes great baked goods (and jerky!) and you owe it to yourself to give them a try if you’re in the area.

Get out there and support the little guy that has to compete with the giant grocery chains.  You can check out their web site by clicking here.

Although I switched to Macs many years ago, there is still one last application that stops me from getting rid of the 9 year old Dell running Windows - Quicken. Now, I know you can buy Quicken for the Mac, but if you’re in the same boat as I am, you’ll think twice before you pull the trigger and spend the money. Quicken on the Mac is not the same as Quicken for Windows.

I thought I would do a little research before I made the switch and boy am I glad I did. Reading the support forums at Quicken.com I quickly found that there are not too many happy Quicken for Mac people hanging out over there. That’s pretty typical, since most forums are used for support and most people without problems don’t hang out on support forums, you tend to only get the bad news and upset customers when you use the forums.

I can almost understand that the Mac and Windows versions are not 100% feature by feature identical. Almost. But what I think is unforgivable is that the file formats between the Windows and Mac version are different. This means you cannot just take your Quicken for Windows files and use them on Quicken for Mac. You have to go through the process of exporting everything from Windows, creating new files on the Mac, and then importing everything. Even this wouldn’t be that bad if it actually included everything. But it doesn’t.

Check out the official support document from Quicken and you’ll see all of the things you get to recreate. I think Quicken says it best:

Quicken for Windows and Quicken for Macintosh have different features and data file structure. Due to the differences in the programs, not all data can be converted from Quicken for Windows to Quicken for Mac. The following information shows the data that will NOT convert from Quicken for Windows to Quicken for Mac. This information will need to be re-entered in Quicken for Mac after converting your file.

Then the list begins. These are the 2 main items that are just show stoppers for me -

Add to these that the Mac version is still not feature complete with the Windows version and I have to wonder how serious Quicken is about supporting the Mac platform. To me it feels more like they are doing the absolute minimum necessary to keep Mac customers hanging on in the hopes that some day it will be what most of us expect - feature complete with the Windows version. Don’t hold your breath.

I’m not willing to run a virtualization product just so I can keep Quicken around - yet. I think I’ll take a look at competing personal finance products for the Mac and see where that leads me, or I may just switch us over to the web based online banking that our bank offers and see if that works well enough to allow us to get rid of Quicken completely - and Windows. Complaining on a Blog that nobody reads really won’t make a difference, so I’ll have to let the money do the talking. Maybe it’s time to break the endless cycle of upgrading to the latest and greatest version every year. Shame on you Quicken.

I don’t know why the experts are saying there are over 1 billion bees missing. I know exactly where they are. I found them all over my yard this weekend. I have a ton under a holly bush in my front yard. I have wasps that try to build nests on the kid’s playset daily. Bees buzz us when we’re trying to eat out on the deck. They sting the neighbors when they’re in our pool.

Missing? I don’t think so. If anything, I think we have more bees in our yard this year.