Ask-Steve.com

Sounds of a bone-rattling ride on a TriMet bus

After one too many times riding the #75 and feeling deaf and broken afterward, I decided to record what it sounds like on the bus with my iPhone. This is the raw audio. No amplification, modification or anything else. It's only 90 seconds long.

I bring you -- the music of TriMet. (And yes, it is just as deafening and teeth-rattlingly horrible as it sounds.)

AUDIO: TriMet Bus #75

Chevron's Human Energy: Really?

Is it just me that finds it a little odd - if not disturbing - that a company that is all about fossil fuel is now touting 'human energy'?

 

Free rides from Zipcar and Whole Foods

I received the following from Zipcar via e-mail today and have to share:

need a ride home?

Thanksgiving is a time of plenty, but getting it all home can be plenty tough. Just a reminder that if you find yourself out at Whole Foods Fremont (3535 NE 15th Ave.) or Whole Foods Market Laurelhurst (2825 E Burnside St.) with more than you can carry, we'll be driving home any shopper who lives within a 2-mile radius of the store!

Look for us today (Tuesday) and Wednesday from 4-8pm.

See you at Whole Foods,

The team at Zipcar Portland

Worst Laptop I've Ever Owned: Lenovo ThinkPad T60

Let me start by saying that the IBM and Lenovo service reps have always been very pleasant to deal with. And I've talked to a lot of them. Frequently. Which is the problem.

My first laptop (back in the early 1990's) was a Toshiba Satellite. It was thick as a brick and weighed as much. When that died I used a desktop machine for a few years and then had a couple Sony laptops that worked well. I eventually bought an IBM ThinkPad T40, first because it had a full-size keyboard and second because ThinkPads had the reputation of being bulletproof. I have to say, the T40 was bulletproof — except for the wireless connectivity. It would drop frequently and then it would take 30 minutes to get back online. I spent all kinds of time on the phone with IBM service reps troubleshooting, installing software, installing drivers, uninstalling software, rolling back drivers. Nothing every improved the wireless issues — and some of what they told me to do made it worse. Other than the persistent wireless issues, it's still going strong.

Eighteen months or so ago I decided to treat myself to a new laptop. I threw down a bundle of cash for a fully-loaded Lenovo ThinkPad T60p with 4GB RAM, 120MB hard drive (I store most of my stuff on an external hard drive), an extra battery, the travel accessories pack, etc. And I've hardly used it since. I've sent it in for repairs three or four times now and they've replaced almost everything in it, and I've spent more hours than I care to think about on the phone with service reps, researching problems online, rebooting over and over, etc. It's been a complete nightmare. I just received it back from yet another trip to the service center (thank goodness I invested in a great service plan!) where they replaced the video card and the fan, and it's running about as fast as my mid-1990's Toshiba brick. When it runs at all.

I won't list the seemingly endless list of problems I've had, but suffice it to say that they've replaced the motherboard, the video card, the fan —and no doubt a few other things along the way. Oh, and the wireless has sucked from day one, too.

I'm using a Dell laptop at work and that will probably be my choice for my next personal laptop, as well.

Tough times taking their toll?

We had dinner at one of our favorite spots in town tonight. There’s normally a considerable wait to get in – especially on a Friday night. If we can get in at all. Wait too late and they’ll tell you that they’re booked for the rest of the night.

Not tonight. There were two other couples waiting with us the few minutes before they opened, but in the hour or so we were there the place never filled up. In fact, it didn’t come close.

We enjoyed our meal and a couple drinks. When the check came, I noticed immediately that they had charged me $9.50 or my $6.50 beer. I pointed this out to the waiter and he immediately took the check away and corrected it. When he came back, I gave him cash with almost $20 change due back. A few minutes later he came back and left $9 on the table. After waiting a while, I stepped over to the register and caught his eye. I started to explain and he immediately went to the register and handed me correct change. He’s been there for years and has always been great, so I gave him the same 20 plus percent tip I usually do.

I’ve heard and read many times that tough times put people to the test. That petty crime goes up during recessions and more so during depressions. It seems to be a sad fact that folks who manage to stay honest when times are good are pushed over the edge when the economy tanks.

Of course I give this waiter the benefit of the doubt. Of course I want to think that he was just having an off night. But I’d also be crazy not to feel like I need to check the tab and change a little more closely from now on.

TypoWatch: Salesforce.com speaks Alaskan

One can't help but wonder whether Marc Benioff, CEO and co-founder of Salesforce.com, is planning to enter politics. In a new book, The Developer's Guide to the Force.com Platform published by Salesforce.com, you'll find the following:

Yep. They're dropping the letter 'g'. That can only mean one thing: Getting folksy in preparation to run for office.

Phone book publishers aren't cool

Here we go again. Geoff K over at Our PDX Network posted today about the continuing scourge of telephone book spam.

I know that not everyone looks to the internet to get their information and directory services, and that there will always be people who prefer the ole book. But isn’t it time we changed it from something sent out to everyone, to something only delivered to people who REQUEST it? I’ve tried many times to opt out of getting phone books, but it doesn’t matter, they come whether you want them or not. The guys chucking phone books this morning weren’t looking at any list or checking which houses got them, they just chucked them, house after house not really caring about much (a side note, the book nearly took out one of our Halloween decorations…).

Not much more to say. These spambook publishers need to be stopped and held to account for their waste and litter.

More info on telephone directory waste

Qwest DEX telephone directories: 2,162 pages of waste

samslist? Wal-Mart takes aim at craigslist

Wal-Mart continues it's relentless drive toward world domination — one unthinking, bargain-lusting, fellow shopper-trampling lemming at a time.

From the Wall Street Journal:

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. quietly launched a free Internet classified service, as the retailer goes beyond selling its own offerings on the Web to posting the products, pets and paraphernalia of virtually anyone who wants to list.

The Bentonville, Ark., retailer debuted Walmart.com Classifieds last week through classified Web site Oodle.com. The service, which the retailer described as a pilot test, carries 30 million items, including foreclosed homes, basset hounds, Madonna concert tickets and a 1981 Ford Firebird, as Wal-Mart tapped into Oodle Inc.'s menagerie of listings.

The service doesn't charge the seller or the buyer and is accessible through Walmart.com, the site the company uses to sell its own products. Wal-Mart said the new offering "further connects our community of 130 million customers who shop the Wal-Mart brand each week."

Let's see... They already let RV's park in their parking lots overnight. I'm guessing next they'll start building trailer parks around their stores. You'd then have everything you ever need in life within walking distance, just beyond the smiling faces greeting you at the doors of Wal-Mart. The smiling faces of Americans sitting there because companies like Wal-Mart put them out of business, then hired them at a crappy wage that wouldn't let them afford to retire.

Wal-Mart. Pay Less. Until We Put Our Last Competitor Under. (Then You're Screwed)

Wal-Mart Adds Free Online Classifieds  |  WSJ.com

MetroFi calls it quits - finally

I received the following from MetroFi via e-mail last Thursday:

Dear MetroFi User,

It is with regret that we notify you of our intentions to discontinue offering the MetroFi FREE and MetroFi Premium services in Portland. We are in the process of negotiating with a 3rd party network operator to keep the network in place, and during this time your services will not be affected. As soon as we know the outcome of these negotiations, we will provide you with further information.

Thank you,
The MetroFi Team

Is anyone surprised by this? I'm amazed they lasted as long as they did considering the service was more or less worthless from day one and never got better. I wrote in July of last year that "instead of free wi-fi, we got a dial-up speed advertising channel. And for many (most?) of us, those ads come crawling onto our screens at the price of a $119 Wireless Access Gateway."

Let's hope their negotiations fall through so we can get back to supporting the folks that have been doing it right all along: the Personal Telco Project. (And no, I still don't work for Personal Telco. I just love what they do and how they go about doing it.)

MySpace spamming former members

I'll never understand why companies like MySpace, with so much on the line in terms of reputation and brand, think it's worthwhile to engage in unethical business practices.

I deleted my MySpace account a while back. I have many reasons for deleting the account, but I'll save those for another post. Before I deleted the account, I unsubscribed from all their e-mail notifications, newsletters, etc. — just in case they didn't have the sense to stop sending me e-mail automatically after deleting my account. Apparently even that wasn't enough to prevent them from spamming me. Today I received another Member Newsletter from them. Of all the crap they might send, sending someone who is no longer a member the Member Newsletter seems pretty pathetic.

Annoyed, but wanting to get MySpace out of MyFace, I thought, "Fine, I'll unsubscribe again." I should have known they wouldn't allow that. Rather than having a one click unsubscribe option in the e-mail like real, ethical companies do, they instruct you to log in to your account to change your subscription settings. Well guess what. I don't have an account! So I have no way at all to unsubscribe from the MySpace Member Newsletter. And that is, without any doubt, by very careful design. If I want to truly rid myself of MySpace, I'm going to have to spend more of MyTime chasing down an e-mail address or phone number and haggling with someone.

If you want to know how trustworthy a company is and whether you should give them your time, information and/or business, take a look at how easy they make it to stop giving them your time, information and/or business. The harder they make it, the more you should avoid them.