For the fourth day in a row, our school district has closed the schools due to the weather.

This means, that unless they take days out of the schedule before the end of the year, we will be going to school until almost July 1st.

Crazy.

But it is better to be safe than sorry, especially when it comes to children's lives.

Alas, no telecommuting for me today, I'm going to brave the elements and head into the office.

More snow is predicted for this evening

Technorati tags: Snow in Seattle, Telecommuting

For the past few days, the Pacific Northwest has been hit by a record cold streak. We've also been hit by snowfall, accumulating about 8.5 inches of snow on my back deck.

Along with this comes the inevitable commute to and from work, or not.

On Monday, school was cancelled for our district because of the snowfall and the cold. I decided to go into work a bit later than normal, about 10 o'clock. I got to work with no issues, ran a few backups and answered phone calls, emails, etc.

I headed home about 2:00 o'clock, again, no issues traffic wise.

Tuesday morning, we awoke to a bit more snow, frozen roads and school cancelled again. I decided that today, I would work from home. It wasn't worth risking my life to get to work when I could do 90% of my job from home. So I answered emails, made callbacks, etc. One guy who rents an office in our basement had come into the office, so I had him put a backup tape in for me so that my backups could run. This is the only part of my job I haven't figured out (yet!) how to automate. So all in all it was a pretty productive day, got my phone calls made, got my emails answered, made a sale, life was good. Didn't have to leave the confines of my house to venture out into the weather, which as I write this, it's nineteen degrees. That's a bit too cold for my taste.

Tomorrow is another day. I'd like to think I can telecommute again tomorrow. But, given that there is a winter storm watch on for tomorrow night where we may get 2"-6" more snow, I'm planning on going into work because Thursday might be a day where I can't get to the office.

Telecommuting is a wonderful alternative, and thankfully, we have been blessed with no power outages and no internet outages,so I am able to do my job from home....

Now to figure out how to automate the swapping of backup tapes....<grin>

Technorati tags: Telecommuting, Snow in Seattle, Winter

Wireless Power in your future?

 

Very interest company called Splashpower from the UK that has created a product that looks like a mousepad that you can place your electronic devices on (SplashPower enabled devices, of course) and it will charge them without keeping track of chargers for specific devices.

 

Great idea.  As someone with cell phones, mp3 players, laptops, etc that all have to be charged via different chargers, this is the best idea I've seen in a long time.  Hat tip to Chuck at Work At Home Business Opportunties Weblog .

Technorati tags: Wireless, Wireless Power, Splashpower

Extended Warranties Bad?

 

Gotta love the guys at Engadget.  Recently, they posted an article that stated that they believe that people who buy extended warranties are just wasting their money.  Read it here . 

I guess maybe I'm in the minority, but when I buy a laptop, which I have done twice in the past four years, I always buy the extended warranty.

Maybe I'm just hard on laptops, but they always fail.  Either a motherboard, or a screen, or a hard drive.  Hard Drives are easy and cheap to replace.  Motherboards and screens are not.

My latest laptop, was purchased with an extended warranty because my previous laptop died a miserable death and it wasn't fixable.  So I got this newer laptop under the warranty plan + 250.  It would have cost me approximately $1500 otherwise.   Well worth the initial investment of $250 or so.

This newest laptop has already been in the shop once to have it's motherboard replaced.  Maybe I'm in the minority, I don't know, but they seem like a good investment for laptop purchases at least.

Technorati tags: Extended Warranties, Engadget, Laptops

Lexie loses her first tooth

Oh the trauma and the drama!  Lexie lost her first tooth last night.

It was more traumatic for her mother than for Lexie.  Here's a picture

Yes, she's pretty happy to have joined the ranks of the 'big girls'.

Small retailer versus company store (Cingular)

We recently switched cell phone providers from TMobile to Cingular.  I have an unlocked GSM phone which can be used with either TMobile or Cingular.  I was having some problems with it, it was giving me a message that said I need to called customer care.

So I called Customer Care this afternoon, and they said 'The SIM card needs to be replaced, go into a company store, right near your house, and they'll replace it for free, no problem it will solve the issue.'

So I go to the company store after work.  A woman asks how she can help me, I show her the message I'm getting and explain to her what Customer Care has said.  She says 'Is this phone unlocked?'  I replied yes.  She said 'Well, it's a problem withe prongs that hold your SIM card in.'. 

She then proceeds to hand me back my phone and while I am standing there, starts talking to her co-worker about a cruise she is thinking about taking.

Needless to say, I'm a bit flumoxed at this point.  My phone will work for making calls, but if I get a voicemail, or a text message, I get this error message.  I've followed the instructions of customer care, and am treated rudely (IMO) because my phone is not a Cingular branded phone, it's a unlocked phone.

So I leave the company store.  I go back to the place that I purchase the contract for three lines of service.  The guy looks at the problem, looks at the phone, swaps the SIM card out and voila!  It works.

I mention the issue I had at the company store.  He asks me if it was a woman, I respond yes.  He said 'Yes, we get a lot of complaints about her, her customers come to us because she's so rude to them'.

I'm flabbergasted at this point.  This is NOT how customer service should be at a company store, in my opinion.....nor should it be tolerated...  Oh well.

FWIW, if you need Cingular care, go to the Cingular store on 196th and Highway 99 in Lynnwood, Washington.  Talk to Glen or the other guy working there.  Avoid the company store near the Alderwood Mall by Michaels....you won't be sorry if you avoid them.

 

Technorati tags: Cingular, Alderwood Mall, Lynnwood, Washington State, Customer Service

Do It Yourself Whiteboards

This looks really kinda neat. A site that explains how to build do-it-yourself whiteboards.... Maybe I could build a couple for my kids and put them on their walls so they could draw on their walls? Maybe I'll do it while they are in Eastern Washington on spring break.

Multiple Email Accounts in Outlook 2007

I'm using Outlook 2007 (beta 2 refresh).  One of the most beautiful things about Outlook 2007 is that you can have multiple email accounts set up, and they can be set up to go to different PST files.  That is fantastic!

It's not easy to set up, or at least it wasn't for me (I guess I don't read directions and just plunge ahead instead), but once it is set up, it works so well.

Also, Outlook 2007 handles RSS feeds.  The feeds can be fed into a separate PST file as well, which means that your main mail PST file doesn't grow exponentially because of subscribing to a bunch of RSS feeds....

 

I've currently got Outlook 2007 set up to get mail from three accounts:

 

• Work
• Home
• Super Secret side business that will launch officially soon

And I can send email from any of the three, and depending upon which account I chose to send from, it changes my signature!  Ain't it cool? Yes it is. :) 

I'm a staunch believer in Outlook 2000.  I didn't upgrade to Outlook XP or Outlook 2003.  But I'm feeling more and more like I'm going to have to fork out the bucks for Outlook 2007.  It's that good.  Check it out.

Technorati tags: Office 2007, Outlook, Email, Office Beta, RSS

Test Post #2

Items that make UBuntu unusable for real work

Here are the things that make Ubuntu unusable to me for my work and play:

 

1. Decent RAW converter (graphical, like BreezeBrowser)
2. HTML Generation for web slideshows (coupled with or in addition to #1 above)
3. DVD generation for Slideshows
4. Ability to suck my (years) of Outlook mail into Evolution.  I really like Evolution and it would work well for me, but I have scads of mail and email addresses and it would be really nice if I could import that into Evolution.  At least the email addresses straight from the PST.
5. ITunes for my IPod.  Otherwise, how can I add/remove stuff from my Ipod?  I know, this is Apple's fault.  But it would be nice anyway.

It's  a pretty short list.  But to me, these are CRITICAL to the use of Linux for me on a daily basis.  Obviously, at this point in my life, it's absolutely critical to run Windows to do my day job.  But the night gig requires lots of RAW conversion and HTML generation and DVD preparation.....Maybe I should look at a Mac Mini with a built in DVD burner.....

Technorati tags: Ubuntu, BreezeBrowser, dcraw, RAW conversion, Linux, Digital Photography

First Test Post

This is a first test post of my new blog, at http://www.myhomeoffice.org/weblog/ . My old blog was having issues due to I don't know what.

So I've moved my blog here.