Thoughts by Chris W. Rea [UL]

BasicallyMoney.com is alive!

2009-10-16T19:27:00.005-04:00

You might have noticed the logo at the right for Basically Money. That's a new site I launched very recently. It's based on the new Fog Creek StackExchange platform. Those of you familiar with stackoverflow.com, serverfault.com, or superuser.com will know exactly how a StackExchange site works.

Basically Money is a free community site for asking and answering questions about personal finance. The site has been up for a little more than a week now. For an idea of what's been going on, here are some of the questions that have been posted since launch. A good number have been answered already. Why don't you visit and see if you can help answer a few, or ask some new questions?

What’s better: An unsecured line of credit, or a secured line of credit like a HELOC?

What’s are the differences between "defined contribution" and "defined benefit" pension plans?

What are the differences between a "traditional" IRA and a Roth IRA?

What kind of investments should I have in my RRSP?

I’m thinking of getting a new car ... why shouldn’t I LEASE one?

What kind of life insurance is cheaper? I’m not sure about term vs. whole vs. universal, etc.!

What is your favorite book on the topic of INVESTING?

What can I replace Microsoft Money with, now that MS has abandoned it?

What are the best options for an RESP for my 2 year old kid?

I’m currently unemployed and have been offered a contract position. Do I need to incorporate myself? How do I do it?

What are the 401K and IRA limits for next year (2010)?

In the current economic climate is gold a good investment?

I spend too much money... How can I get on the path to a frugal lifestyle?

I’ve often heard of the "snowball" method for paying off credit card debt. How does it work?

I watch "The Suze Orman Show." What are some other good TV shows about money?

TFSA vs. RRSP... Best retirement approach

Are warehouse clubs like Costco and Sam’s Club worth it?

Should I take Social Security earlier than full retirement age, or wait for more?

Do I really need to file an income tax return?

Are premium bonds a good investment?

Pension or Property ?

When does Ontario’s HST come into effect?

If you run a sole proprietorship, how do you declare the income of the business on your taxes?

How does deposit insurance work in the U.S.?

How is the Advance Earned Income Tax Credit (Advance EITC) supposed to work? Help!

What’s the differences between a discount broker and a regular broker?

Does being involved in the management of a corporation make me ineligible for a workshare program?

As a general rule, how much in “liquid” savings should I have?

If you're interested in saving money, investing money, borrowing money, etc., please come and check out Basically Money!

Moms4mom and home4film

2010-01-08T11:57:00.010-05:00

My new site Basically Money, for personal finance questions and answers is humming along nicely. There are almost 200 questions, and more than 100 registered users. I'm happy with the progress since it launched about three months ago.

I'd like to share with you two other similar sites I enjoy participating at:

moms4mom, for parenting questions and answers. If you have children, especially young ones, check it out! There's a great community of parents helping parents out. Yes, dads are welcome too. :-)

home4film, for home theater / home cinema questions and answers. If you enjoy setting up a great TV experience at home, check it out! There's talk about television technology, receivers, speakers, cabling, home-theater PCs, Apple TV, Blu-Ray, DVD, satellite, etc.

If you're interested in learning more about the StackExchange software platform for Q&A – which all of the above sites run on – please check out Fog Creek Software's StackExchange™ — The Stack Overflow Knowledge Exchange Platform. The software is still in the free beta period.

How To Expand Storage for your Rogers Scientific Atlanta 8300 / 8300HD PVR (DVR)

2009-10-03T11:57:00.049-04:00

Some time ago I wrote "Use a PVR for More Efficient TV Watching". At the end of that post, I promised to write about how I expanded the storage for my Rogers Scientific Atlanta 8300HD PVR (aka DVR.)

Since then I've acquired a second SA8300HD, learned of one additional option, and helped two others expand their PVR storage. While I'm sorry it's taken two years to finally post this, at least I'm very confident this works. :-)

There are two basic options to expand the storage for the SA8300HD. The first and easiest option is to add an external hard drive using what is known as the eSATA expansion port at the back of the unit. The second and more difficult option (and only if you own your unit and don't care about your warranty!) is to replace the internal hard drive with a larger one — for which you'll need special tools and software.

I'll provide pointers and tips for each option, but please read this disclaimer first:

I don't guarantee anything I write here will necessarily work for you. Notably, if your local cable company is not Rogers, your PVR may have different firmware or different settings which could disallow these expansion options. Cable companies can control whether the unit's external expansion feature is enabled, and firmware editions for the SA8300HD also vary. Please do your own due diligence to ensure your unit will support expansion.

On to the two options:

Option 1: [EASY] Connect an external hard drive to the SA8300HD's eSATA port

You can buy a pre-built external hard drive (an eSATA enclosure with SATA hard drive inside), such as the Western Digital My DVR Expander, eSATA Edition. I didn't go that route. You might get better bang-for-the-buck and improved components by building one yourself — it's easy enough. When I built mine, the pre-built units with SA8300HD compatibility weren't easy to find and were expensive compared to the DIY option.

I found out how to assemble my own external unit by reading the message thread "8300HD and External SATA - It Works!!" at AV Science Forum. It's a long thread now, but you don't need to read all of it. The long and short is that the external expansion works, provided your cable company is on compatible firmware and didn't disable the feature, and provided that you purchase compatible hardware.

The primary resource you'll want to consult if you're not going to buy the same hardware I did is the "Scientific Atlanta 8300HD SARA eSATA Database", where you'll find information and results on what enclosures and hard drives others have tried. Not all combinations of enclosures and drives work well. Sort by "Provider" (cable company), and pay attention to the "Pass" column. Enclosures and drives that pass often are better candidates.

What I've been happy with is the following combination:

• 1 Vantec NexStar 3 3.5" SATA to USB 2.0 & eSATA External Hard Drive Enclosure.
Model: NST-360SU-BK. I purchased my enclosure at NCIX.com. Here's a link to the product at NCIX (SKU 17167).

I like the Vantec enclosure because it's quiet. If you sometimes like watching TV in a quiet environment, go for a quiet enclosure. Although the Vantec lacks a fan (which is why it is quiet) it's made of metal that contacts the drive, so it acts like a heat sink and dissipates drive heat better than a plastic enclosure would. Tip: The Vantec has an annoying bright blue LED light on the front, but you can easily leave it disconnected.

• 1 Western Digital Caviar Green SATA 1TB, 32MB Cache, SATA 3Gb/s Hard Drive.
Model: WD10EADS. Note: I originally started with a different 500GB drive, but later switched to this drive for even more storage. I also purchased my hard drive at NCIX.com. Here's a link to the product at NCIX (SKU 35676).

I've used Western Digital drives for a long time in home computers and generally find them reliable. The one time I've had a unit fail, WD replaced it under warranty with no hassle. Furthermore, the Caviar Green drive is specifically touted as using less power and running cooler, which are good features to have for a hard drive you plan to keep on all the time. Last, I didn't want to use a drive larger than 1GB since I couldn't find evidence in the database that such would work.

After I installed the hard drive into the enclosure, I unplugged the SA8300HD's power, then used the eSATA cable (included with the Vantec) to connect the units. Then, I plugged in the SA8300HD's power again. After booting, it started formatting the hard drive. There was no notice of progress or completion. I gave it a few hours, and then cycled the SA8300HD power again. After booting up the second time, a note popped up that the drive was recognized. The "List" Preferences screen confirmed the additional storage. That was it!

Option 2: [HARDER] Replace the SA8300HD's internal hard drive with a larger one

I have a second 8300HD that I acquired from a family member who moved out of the Rogers service area. I placed that second unit in a bedroom, and I didn't want to use external expansion in order to keep cabling and power consumption to a minimum. So, I went looking to see if it were possible to replace the internal hard drive instead.

I found the helpful message thread for this type of upgrade at Digital Home. See "SA8000/8300HD - Internal Hard Disk Upgrade Works (Cloning too)". The key takeaways were: You need a security Torx bit set to open the SA8300HD, and it is possible to clone the contents of the original drive to the new drive. I won't re-hash here what you can read there. If you want to do this kind of upgrade, do more homework :-)

Note that the internal hard drive in the SA8300HD is a plain IDE/PATA drive, not a SATA drive. In mine was a 160GB Western Digital WD1600BB. This was surprising — I assumed the internal drive would be SATA as well. The SA8300HD actually uses PATA-to-SATA adapter logic to enable the external eSATA expansion port, and internally it talks PATA.

Since the internal drive was PATA, options were more limited. They don't make very large PATA drives, and based on the Digital Forum message thread I wasn't convinced the SA8300HD would support a very large internal drive. I decided I would try a Western Digital Caviar Blue PATA 500GB, 16MB Cache, 7200 RPM hard drive (Model: WD5000AAKB). I also purchased that hard drive at NCIX.com. Here's a link to the product at NCIX (SKU 28927)

After removing the WD1600BB from the SA8300HD, I cloned its contents to the new WD5000AAKB using PC-based software as described in the Digital Home thread. After re-assembling the unit and powering it on, everything worked as expected: I had more storage.

Having done that for my newer SA8300HD, I decided to upgrade my original SA8300HD's internal drive too, for a total of 1.5TB storage (500GB internal + 1TB external), or equivalent to 9-10 times what the SA8300HD had come with originally (160GB.)

My Recommendation

Having expanded the SA8300HD storage both ways, I would recommend to most people that external expansion is the way to go. Buy a pre-built unit if you're not comfortable putting it together yourself, or go the DIY route if you want to get specific components and perhaps save a few bucks.

Internal expansion is recommended only if you are technically competent and you own your unit and don't care about its warranty. :-)

Finally – don't expect your free space to last too long! Even though I have 1.5 terabytes on one SA8300HD now, it has already reached 97% capacity. I need to be more selective of what I record — but at least time's on my side and there's always something to watch :-)

Avoid a Classic Investing Mistake: Selling Low

2009-02-28T09:01:00.015-05:00

Someone I know asked me for my thoughts recently on the subject of their retirement investments. We agreed I could share my response here, with some edits.

Standard disclaimer: I am not a financial advice professional. I'm just a guy who reads quite a lot, and understands money and investing. No warranty applies. :-)

The question:

Like everyone else, I am losing money in my RRSPs. In my mutual funds, I've lost a good chunk. But when I talked to the guy at the bank, he said to keep it in and wait. I asked him how much do I stand to lose and he said, theoretically, all of it, but it's invested in sound companies, so I should wait it out. Do you think he's giving me the correct advice?

My response:

The advice is generally sound. Selling when prices are low is the opposite of what one generally ought to do. In fact, there is an entire field called "behavioural finance" or "behavioural economics" which studies the mistakes people make when it comes to money.

For instance, let's say prices at the supermarket on canned goods were 50% off. You'd be loading up! Whereas, if prices were double what they were normally, you'd pass. Unfortunately, people tend to look at investments the other way around, and do the buying when they ought to be selling, and do the selling when they ought to be buying.

You may be interested in reading more about behavioural economics. One book I enjoyed is Why Smart People Make Big Money Mistakes And How To Correct Them: Lessons From The New Science Of Behavioral Economics. It's a very approachable book, and the advice is practical and will save you money and headaches. Note: The book isn't specific to investing, but it highlights how people often make the wrong choices when it comes to money. It relates to psychology.

Also, it's important I clarify one thing: I wrote "generally sound" above as there are obviously exceptions to the advice of staying the course that depend on context. For instance, it is not considered prudent to have money invested in the stock market if the money is needed during the next five years. So, if you're referring to short term money needed for a specific purpose soon, then getting out is not a bad idea. A better place for shorter term funds may be a bank account or a term deposit.

However, if the money is truly invested for the long term, then staying the course is a good approach, and investing more at these prices is also attractive.

But, I'm not a fan of most mutual funds, and those offered by banks in particular, due to their high fees. Do try and ensure your money is invested in a diversified portfolio of low-cost index funds. My favorite investing approach is described in The Four Pillars of Investing: Lessons for Building a Winning Portfolio. I tell people about The Four Pillars any time they ask me about their investments. It's fantastic. By the way, one of the Four Pillars of Investing is psychology.

Good Read: Herb Sutter's "The Free Lunch Is Over" Article

2009-02-14T13:14:00.004-05:00

Recently, I came across an article by Herb Sutter titled "The Free Lunch Is Over: A Fundamental Turn Toward Concurrency in Software". While it was written about four years ago, it is increasing in relevancy as the number of processors in our computers increases. If you develop software for a living, I recommend reading the article and considering the issues raised.

Here's an excerpt:

"[...] But if you want your application to benefit from the continued exponential throughput advances in new processors, it will need to be a well-written concurrent (usually multithreaded) application. And that’s easier said than done, because not all problems are inherently parallelizable and because concurrent programming is hard. [...]" (emphasis mine)

Herb also has fantastic books on C++. Herb authored one of my favorite hard-core software development books: Exceptional C++. The main take-away for me from Exceptional C++ was a good understanding and appreciation for how programs ought to behave in the presence of exceptions; i.e. "exception safety." Even though I've been working with other languages recently (C#, ActionScript 3) I still find the concepts I learned from Herb's book helpful in my development.

Herb has authored a couple of other books since, which I'll definitely read if and when I get back to working with C++. (Yes, I do miss C++ from time to time!)

DevTeach 2008 Toronto

2008-05-14T20:20:00.001-04:00

I am attending the DevTeach conference held in Toronto this week and I am enjoying myself and learning much. It is turning out to be the best conference bang-for-the buck I could have asked for and I am sure I will go again.

I had DevTeach on my radar for years but hadn't attended until now. Previously, I had opted instead for other conferences (e.g. Microsoft TechEd 2006 in Boston) which happened to be more convenient at the time despite being farther away and more expensive.

DevTeach has been running in Montreal for some years. Last fall, I was surprised to see they added a show in Vancouver. Then, I was elated to learn about a show for Toronto and I signed up early.

While Toronto does see some free day-long Microsoft events for developers — with plenty of marketecture and product sales pitch thrown in! — plus various user group events, I think we need a regular conference. VSLive! came a few times, then stopped.

A conference is all about the quality of the speakers, and DevTeach 2008 Toronto has some great names presenting: experts who spoke at other good shows I attended, experts whose books or articles I've read and appreciated, and experts whose blogs and podcasts I consume regularly. The quality of the speakers at DevTeach made the decision easy: Go!

Before yesterday's keynote speaker (Scott Hanselman), the conference organizer Jean-René took a few moments to share with us what the conference was all about. Additionally, he mentioned that DevTeach would be back in Toronto in fall 2009. The plan for DevTeach is to have a conference about every six months, alternating between the cities of Montreal, Vancouver, and Toronto. I think that is brilliant.

My experience at the conference has been very positive, and DevTeach knows how to attract quality speakers and organize a good show. The Canadian .NET development community needs this and so does Toronto.

Thank you, DevTeach, and you're welcome back to Toronto any time!

A Look at Visual Studio 2008 Code Analysis

2008-03-16T22:19:00.000-04:00

Recently, I upgraded to Visual Studio Team System 2008 on my work PC. The main project I work on still targets the .NET Framework 2.0, so I've been having a look at other features in VS2008, either new or neglected, until I get the chance to move the project to .NET Framework 3.5.

Under the "somewhat neglected" category of features is Code Analysis. Code Analysis in Visual Studio is essentially an integration of the functionality provided by the free FxCop tool. I've used code analysis before, both FxCop and Visual Studio 2005 with respect to .NET projects, as well as Gimpel's PC-lint on older C and C++ projects. But, I would typically use code analysis only occasionally, to go after egregious guideline violations. I wouldn't keep it enabled on all builds since it took a while to run, and the remaining long list of mostly-harmless violations made it difficult to see the more important compiler warnings and errors that I immediately cared about.

However, since moving to VS2008 and also getting a much faster workstation, I want to try using code analysis all of the time, on every build, and getting our projects to build with no reported guideline violations. Having code analysis enabled in each build significantly reduces the likelihood of unwanted guideline violations being introduced, since they would be flagged immediately as new code is first compiled.

If you've read the Framework Design Guidelines (a most excellent book), then you'll understand many of the guidelines that the code analysis engine implements. More important, the book provides insightful justification for many of the guidelines.

So, both FxCop and Visual Studio's code analysis (i.e. FxCop-integrated) provide in-your-face warnings of some guidelines that your code may be violating. I say "may be violating" as opposed to "is violating" since guidelines aren't meant to be hard-and-fast rules, but things that apply most of the time, except when they don't! Consequently, you may encounter context-based false-positives: a guideline that may be appropriate in most cases, except cases like this one.

For instance, one of the guidelines implemented in VS2008 is a spelling-check on the component words of your public class names, method names, etc. It is a good thing for your identifiers to be spelled correctly. But, if you are using an obscure-but-legitimate term from your application's business domain that isn't included in the built-in dictionary, then code analysis will generate a warning.

Thankfully, VS2008 has the ability to use a custom code analysis dictionary. Simply add a CodeAnalysisDictionary.xml file to a project (or to the solution, and add a link to the file from the project), and then set the file's Build Action to CodeAnalysisDictionary. Your dictionary is then passed to the code analysis engine to prevent false-positives for the words that you know are correct but that aren't in the basic dictionary. You can find out more about this feature at the Code Analysis Team Blog.

Like the spelling-check, there are other useful but not-always-100%-applicable guidelines which generate false-positives. Fortunately, I found just what I needed to get to my "no reported guideline violations" goal: A way to suppress the false-positives and guideline violation instances that I happen to disagree with.

Essentially, there's a SuppressMessage attribute in the System.Diagnostics.CodeAnalysis namespace. You can mark up the warning-generating method, class, etc. with SuppressMessage to tell the code analysis engine: "Acknowledged, and please stop reporting it." You can find out more about SuppressMessage at MSDN - SuppressMessageAttribute Class.

SuppressMessage is great for the obvious false-positive cases. But it can also be applied to the cases I've alluded to already where you've reviewed the code and simply disagree with the guideline recommendation.

For instance, one guideline CA1021:AvoidOutParameters suggests to not use "out" parameters. The reasoning is that some developers might find out parameters unintuitive to work with. While I agree with that guideline in general, there are specific cases that call for "out" parameters or that have no more desirable alternatives. Once I contemplate and reject the suggestion, I can suppress the message and provide my justification in the optional "Justification" parameter, for the benefit of other human beings who may come across the code. The "Justification" parameter is optional and ignored by the code analysis engine, but best to consider it almost required.

One more useful thing to consider about code analysis: While it helps satisfy the pedantic and perfectionist tendencies of type-A developers, there's also a pragmatic reason you should want to use code analysis more often: Code analysis helps catch bugs!

For instance, I came across a warning that flagged an unreferenced local variable. It turns out that there was some recently-changed code for a method call, copied from above, that should have differed by one parameter, passing the unreferenced local variable, but the method had instead been passed the same variable from the first call. Code analysis caught that, even though the compiler didn't warn about the unreferenced local variable. (I've seen the compiler optimizer warn about unreferenced class-level fields, but not unreferenced local variables.)

That's just one instance, but there were others too where code analysis helped locate bugs. Code analysis won't come right out and say "Hey! There's certainly a bug here!", but it can act as a flashlight in the hands of an experienced developer. If other good examples come up again, I'll post them.

---

Note: I believe Visual Studio's Code Analysis feature is available only in Team editions, since the integrated FxCop.exe appears to be launched from a "Team Tools" folder. If you have an edition of Visual Studio that doesn't have code analysis integrated, don't let that stop you from using FxCop, which you can download separately. I came across this post which explores ways to get FxCop running from Visual Studio 2005, and I imagine similar options are available for Visual Studio 2008.

If you have any experiences of your own to report with FxCop or VS2005/VS2008 code analysis, please share them!

My first impression of Vista x64

2008-03-03T18:50:00.000-05:00

I recently built myself a new PC, and I decided I would try to install and use the 64-bit "x64" version of Vista. Long ago, I heard stories about how drivers were seriously lacking for Windows XP x64, and I was hoping the situation has changed for Vista.

It's evident that some mainstream applications are starting to push the limits of a 32-bit address space. I think it's time we start moving to 64-bit computing. As a software developer, I would like to be in the early majority. However, my mother can afford to wait a little longer!

So, how is it so far? I'm happy to report very few problems. I did purchase the new motherboard, CPU, and video card with x64 support in mind, which was a great start to having so few problems.

I also have some old devices that I want to continue to use, including an old HP psc 1210 printer/scanner/copier. It's not a fantastic printer, but it does the job well and I don't want to replace it if I don't have to. I still have spare cartridges.

What concerned me at first about the printer is that when I visited the HP web site, there were no new drivers available for download. I typically interpret updated driver availability as meaning the manufacturer is "on top of things." I was almost ready to say that HP ditched us psc 1210 owners. I am happy to report that's not the case.

While I did not find a new driver, I did find an article mentioning that drivers for the psc 1210 were already included in Vista. "Aha!", I thought, "There's always a catch: I bet you that the Vista built-in drivers only enable the printing functionality, and not the scanner!" After all, those silly manufacturers are always trying to obsolete our stuff! ;-)

Microsoft and/or HP proved me wrong. After plugging my printer into the USB2 port and installing absolutely no drivers myself, I am able to both print and scan. It just works!

Printing was obvious and easy to test. Scanning was a little less obvious, but easy as well. Here's how:

In the Vista "Windows Photo Gallery", the "File" menu has an option titled "Import from Camera or Scanner". Choose that, then on the following dialog, select the HP psc 1210, and then click the "Import" button. On the next dialog, "New Scan", there are familiar controls to preview, crop the scan area, choose colour / greyscale / black and white, select a resolution, and the target file format.

... So, while I am happy, there is at least one catch: The convenient "Scan" button on the printer itself no longer actually does anything. That button used to launch the scanning preview automatically. Instead, in order to scan with the psc 1210 in Vista, I'll be following the process above. I can live with that.

Good Show: Steve McConnell on DNR!

2007-10-16T21:45:00.002-04:00

I listen to a podcast called .NET Rocks while taking the train into town. It's a great audio show for .NET developers: free, entertaining, and informative.

Recently I've been catching up on some previous shows. Today, I listened to one show from back in February, when Steve McConnell was the featured guest. I'm a big McConnell fan. Steve's books Code Complete, Rapid Development, and the Software Project Survival Guide are personal favorites. Every developer should have a copy of Code Complete (and read it!)

So, if you missed that particular show, I recommend listening to it. Steve McConnell is one heck of a smart guy and it's worth listening to what he has to say in .NET Rocks Show #215.

Note: The show discusses software development practices in general, so even if you have little or nothing to do with .NET software development, it is worth listening to.

Silly Amazon Recommendation

2007-12-28T09:48:00.000-05:00

A friend wrote about the strange Amazon Product Announcement feature a short while ago, and I just got yet another that cracked me up and compelled me to post here:

Dear Amazon.ca Customer,

We've noticed that customers who have purchased or rated "Advanced .NET Remoting (C# Edition)" by Ingo Rammer have also purchased "Workbook to accompany Anatomy & Physiology Revealed Version 2 CD" by Robert Broyles.
[...]

Ingo Rammer's Advanced .NET Remoting is a great book and a must-read if you are doing .NET Remoting, but what does it have to do with anatomy?

I suppose there are various analogies I could make between Remoting and human anatomy, but I'll spare you. :-)

I Love My 'Kill A Watt'

2007-09-01T12:00:00.000-04:00

My family thinks I am a real nut about saving energy. The good thing about the Internet is you can always find somebody who is nuttier than you, so I don't feel so bad.

I bought the gadget pictured at the right some time ago. It's called the Kill A Watt. (Details here.) If you've ever wondered how much juice a given household appliance sucks, then you need one of these.

Simply plug it into the wall, and then plug into it whatever appliance you want to measure. The display shows a variety of information, including the number of watts being drawn, the voltage, etc.

I find the most useful reading to be kWh, or "kilowatt-hours". My electrical utility bills me by kWh used, so I can directly correlate a given household appliance to dollars and cents. Knowing this information, I can take action, such as replacing the appliance, using it less often, or keeping it unplugged when not in use. The Kill A Watt has a built-in timer that starts counting from when you plug it in, so checking the length of time it took for an appliance to draw the amount of energy reported is easy as well. Knowing that, it is straightforward to estimate monthly or annual usage.

I've also used it to measure multiple devices at once. For instance, my household network is a mish-mash of broadband modems, routers, switches, and servers. Most of that is serviced by two uninterruptible power supplies. Instead of measuring each device alone, I plugged each UPS into the Kill A Watt. Now I know how much money I'm spending on keeping a good chunk of my network powered 24 hours per day. I've also measured how much energy is consumed by our home entertainment system — while that isn't on 24 hours per day, we get close on some days! (Darn PVR :-)

One thing I haven't been able to figure out is a way to measure the energy consumed by the biggest appliances in the house: the furnace fan, the air conditioner, the clothes dryer, the range, the oven. These are either wired direct to the panel or don't use standard outlets, since each requires a lot of juice. The best I've been able to do is guess based on research of similar appliances. I wish these all had stickers or information in the manual showing average and peak consumption, but they don't. Theoretically, I could measure each by turning off everything else in the house at the electrical panel, and then checking the utility's meter outside, but I think inconveniencing the household like that would be a little nutty!

Future Shop, Get A Clue!

2007-10-06T17:24:00.001-04:00

Some weeks ago, I ordered an item online from Future Shop's online store, futureshop.ca. The item I ordered was listed in their regional weekly flyer as "on sale", and the sale caught my eye since I was in the market for that item. The item was listed as out of stock at futureshop.ca, although the Future Shop stores in Mississauga had stock.

I must confess: I was lazy. I didn't need the item immediately so I put the order through for ground shipment from futureshop.ca, instead of opting for in-store pick-up which would have fulfilled my order as soon as I could get to the nearest store that had stock — but I probably would have walked out of the store with something else I didn't need. :-) Anyway, I reasoned that futureshop.ca would not be out of stock for very long since the item was available in their stores nearby.

Today, I checked my online order status for the Nth time, and the item is still listed as out of stock for futureshop.ca. But, I queried the stock for each of the 4 stores in my area, and each and every one of them lists the item as available in store. If I walked into a store today to buy the item, I'd get it, but I would be paying full price. That's not what I want to do.

I figured: Enough of this waiting for Future Shop! Let me just change my existing order to be fulfilled by in-store pick-up, and I'll drive down to the nearest store and be done with it!

I searched the futureshop.ca site for a way to change my order details. I discovered that I could change many things about my order's billing, shipping, and payment details. Yet, the one thing I could not find — because it doesn't exist — is a way to tell their online system that I wanted to switch my unfulfilled order to be fulfilled by in-store pick-up instead of ground shipping. I thought the lack of the ability to change that one detail was overlooked by the site developers. When a system fails, I like to try and get a human being to help.

Thus I called Future Shop Customer Service. Helping customers buy stuff is supposed to be their job. I thought once I pointed out that Future Shop stores had ample stock then Customer Service would offer: "Yes sir, you are correct: We are showing stock in all of our stores in your area. Would you like to change your order to be an in-store pick-up? Our online system doesn't offer that option, but I am empowered to exercise flexibility on the company's behalf and would be happy to assist you in changing it so that you will be a satisfied customer. Just let me know which store you'd like to pick up from, and it will be done."

Well, that I am now blogging about this matter clearly indicates that didn't quite happen. :-)

Instead, I got the run-around. Something like, how the stores are run independently -- What do you mean indepedently? I didn't know they were franchised? -- No, no, sir, not franchised, our stores are corporate-owned, but what I mean is Future Shop has a policy to run each store or region's stock independently of the online store, and I am powerless to now change how your order is fulfilled, and nor can our stores redirect their stock to fulfill your order, and we cannot guarantee that you can get the same price in the store.

Customer Service also had the audacity to point out that I initially had the opportunity when I placed the order to decide whether to go for shipping or an in-stock pick-up. Oh, so it was my fault! But, I had no idea at the time that my decision was to be carved in stone.

The best they can do is to tell me, in 2 business days' time, when they expect their online store to get this item restocked. Lame.

Future Shop's strict policies on store stock vs. online stock, and having no flexibility to change an order's fulfillment method after the fact - despite nothing having been shipped - are questionable practices, and I don't see the business sense at all.

Future Shop needs to get a clue and read The Cluetrain Manifesto.

Update, 08-Oct-2007:
I just got another automated email from futureshop.ca:

This is an automated email to inform you that the following item(s) from your order are currently out-of-stock. We are making every attempt to minimize the wait for this inventory. You will receive a ship notice email as soon as inventory becomes available. [...] [bold emphasis is mine]

I wonder if "we are making every attempt" would include redirecting stock from one of their local stores (still well-stocked, see image below), or else allowing me to opt for in-store pick-up? But, judging from my conversation with Customer Service, the wording "every attempt" sounds to me like nothing but B.S., and it's not like I am asking them to part the waters to get me my item.

Update, 10-Oct-2007:
Eureka! Finally, today, a promising email from Future Shop:

Dear CHRIS W REA: The following item(s) have shipped and are en route to you. [...]

I wonder if emailing them a link to my blog had anything to do with it? Hmm... ;-)

This just in: Economists suck! No, reporters suck!

2008-04-17T20:15:00.006-04:00

I'm a news junkie, and I check Yahoo! News often. I scan the financial headlines, and this morning the two stories pictured at the right stuck out at me. What a beautiful contradiction from two widely respected news sources. This snafu is getting me to rethink my dependence on the so-called "news."

It is said that economists make weathermen look good. But, I'm not sure whether to blame economists or reporters for this one. Yahoo! placed these stories side-by-side, perhaps coincidental, or perhaps somebody's brilliant idea of irony.

Clearly, the news was "jobless claims rose." However, that's more of a statistic than an actual story. So, here we see "spin" in action: Make it surprising! Make it interesting! Don't just report the news... find an angle! And, when you say "than expected" in the summary, don't say who was doing the actual expecting.

In other news, the Dow rose 1.22 points today on the rumour that I would be posting to my blog today, later than expected. Meanwhile, Dow futures are indicating a 5 point rise tomorrow on the news that David Hasselhoff has agreed to pay $25,000 per month to support his ex-wife and children. Quick, call your broker!

I Do Not Endorse the Purchase of a Treo 750 or Any Other Windows Mobile Device. Period.

2008-10-31T09:23:00.003-04:00

Three's a charm. I would have blogged about this sooner, but I have been giving my Treo 750 and Microsoft the benefit of the doubt, twice already, while I sought a solution. No more!

Today, I plugged my Treo 750 into my PC to synchronize it. I want my PC to frequently get the changes I make to mobile documents, contacts, etc. I do this so that if my phone is lost, stolen, or broken, then I will still have some version of my information backed up on my PC.

And today, for the third time since purchasing my Treo 750 last year, the Windows Mobile Device Center gleefully told me my device wasn't set up and asked me if I would like to set up my device now. Set up my device!? It was already set up! The device and PC had lost their "partnership status" again.

Worse yet, when I unplugged my Treo and had a look at what state it was left in, all of my contacts and all of my mobile documents were simply erased. Yes, that's it, erased. Gone. My intent in plugging in my Treo had been to perform a backup of the information changed recently, yet instead of that ActiveSync erased precisely the data I was trying to preserve in the first place!

I still have stale contact information in my desktop version of Outlook, and a stale copy of my mobile documents I grabbed another time "just in case". But this is ridiculous — weeks of changes, gone.

A smartphone oriented towards business users should not be unreliable. What is supposed to be a backup operation should never erase the data source when it fails. Let me say that again:

What is supposed to be a backup operation should never erase the data source when it fails.

So I am shouting loud and clear: Stay away from Windows Mobile-based devices and Microsoft ActiveSync. I give Microsoft an "F" for Windows Mobile, Active Sync, and the Windows Mobile Device Center. You are asking for grief and headaches if you purchase a device running Windows Mobile. No feature of Windows Mobile could ever make up for such destructive backup failures.

Hey! Yes, you: The person who has arrived at this post while doing research to consider if you should buy such a device:

** DON'T BUY! ** DON'T BUY! ** DON'T BUY! **

Do not interpret any series of workarounds or half-measures that you may find on the Internet as options that feasibly lead to satisfaction with your device. No workaround I have seen and tried has been satisfactory to me. Of course, if you have evidence to the contrary, please share... I'm stuck with this phone a little while longer! :-(

If you are a poor soul who has such a device, until you replace it, you should treat your data very carefully and do not assume that the provided software will do the job of backing up your data correctly. In fact, assume the opposite.

I Want A T.E.D.: The Energy Detective

2007-11-14T21:04:00.001-05:00

I wrote earlier about a gadget I own called the Kill-A-Watt, in the post I Love My 'Kill A Watt'. The Kill A Watt lets me measure the energy usage of electrical appliances that plug into normal household electrical outlets.

A challenge I highlighted with the Kill A Watt is this: "One thing I haven't been able to figure out is a way to measure the energy consumed by the biggest appliances in the house: the furnace fan, the air conditioner, the clothes dryer, the range, the oven. These are either wired direct to the panel or don't use standard outlets, since each requires a lot of juice. The best I've been able to do is guess based on research of similar appliances."

A complementary solution is now available, in T.E.D.: The Energy Detective. I just saw T.E.D. mentioned on CBC News. Thanks for highlighting it, CBC News! I did some research, and I think I want one. In fact, I think governments that want to promote energy conservation should give each household a T.E.D. and a Kill A Watt!

T.E.D. connects to a home's electrical panel and can measure an entire home's electricity usage in nearly real time (a 2 second delay). The separate portable receiver displays consumption, and also tracks historical consumption in kilowatts and dollars. Time-of-day pricing can be set up, which is important since my local utility will be implementing time-of-day pricing "really soon now."

One particular feature caught my eye that addresses the challenge I mentioned above: "TED is actually designed to measure your entire home's energy consumption, but you can measure any individual 110v or 220v electrical circuit just as easily." (See here.)

The only drawback I see so far is that T.E.D. requires an electrician to install, since it's connected at the panel directly onto the main circuit. (Actually, the literature also mentions "or a qualified homeowner." Wouldn't that just mean an electrician installing T.E.D. for his own home? Or, do they mean anybody qualified to be a homeowner? I own a home! I must be qualified, right? :-)

If and when I get one, I will post here about my experience with it. My first job is to track one down and buy it, since I haven't had great experience lately trying to buy cool gadgets!

I Want To Buy A Samsung SSD For My Notebook, But I Can't Find One For Sale

2007-09-09T10:41:00.000-04:00

Don't you hate it when you know a product exists, and you have the desire and the capacity to purchase it, but you simply cannot find one available for sale to mere mortals?

I'm currently feeling this way about a good solid-state disk (SSD) replacement for my notebook computer. I purchased a new notebook earlier this year with the primary goal of ultra-portability. I knew I would be sacrificing some performance, but I really wanted something light that wouldn't give me a sore back when traveling with it.

My new notebook is small and lightweight and easy to travel with, but it just doesn't feel snappy enough – and not even close to my old 8-pound clunker. The old clunker had benefited from an upgrade to one of fastest 2.5" drives around at the time (the Hitachi Travelstar E7K60, 7200rpm with an 8MB cache), and that made it feel just like a desktop. I spoiled myself, and now I can't bear this new system's slow disk!

To address that, I'm interested in upgrading the internal 1.8" hard drive to one of the new Samsung 64GB solid-state disks. They have been talked about for at least six months, and reviews by those who have tried one say they are very fast compared to traditional drives, and go easier on the battery too.

My notebook is good for CPU (dual core, and it hardly ever spikes to 100%), and it is also good for RAM (1.5GB), so the disk has got to be the major bottleneck. The disk seems to spin a lot, even with Vista's ReadyBoost enabled on 2GB of fast flash memory. So, I would like a faster replacement 1.8" drive, and the SSD seems to fit the need.

Samsung's 64GB SSD is purportedly "available" now. However, "available" seems to mean "available if you are a major computer manufacturer and wish to buy them by the hundreds or thousands to build into new systems." I just can't find them available online for sale like most other parts. A Google search for "Samsung 64gb ssd" gave me a lot of hits, but they just talk about the product:

"Samsung unveils"...
"Samsung has announced"...
"Samsung is offering"...
"Samsung now shipping"...
"Samsung mass-producing"...

OK, Samsung - I'm sold, and I want one! Where do I buy one?

Usually when I can't find something obviously for sale at either large or small online retailers, I hop on to eBay and find somebody who discovered the lack of and is satisfying the need for a market, but I couldn't get a single hit on eBay for "Samsung 64gb". I think somebody could make a bundle selling these to individuals, at least in the short-term until they are more generally available.

As time passes, I do believe they'll become more generally available, but this just frustrates me all the same (I want one now!) and I thought I'd share my frustration with you. Of course, if you do know where I can buy one, please let me know! :-)

Update! A Response from Samsung:
Here's the response I recently got from Samsung after inquiring where I can get one.

Hello Chris W. Rea ,
Thank you for your inquiry to Samsung Semiconductor.

Samsung Semiconductor does not sell our product directly to end customers in World Wide.
We sell our product including SSD via Branch Offices which is located World Wide.
Please contact our local Branch Office for locating the samples and discuss in detail regarding OEM possibilities.
Deep apology for inconvenience.

I'll try Samsung Canada next.

Another Response From Samsung on 22-Oct-2007:
So, it appears there is no way right now for me to get one until one of Samsung's customers makes them more readily available:

Hi Chris,
Thanks for the follow up, after our discussion, Dell is considering the upgrade option for their existing customers though I don't have confirmation yet.
This market is just starting up...although Samsung is purely B-B, we are encouraging all of our customers who manufacture SSDs to be more proactive in their promotions and distribution locations.
If not Dell, SSDs will be coming your way soon. ;-)

If I ever do manage to get one, I'll post a final update.

The Media's Answer To Phantom Load Is... A Load.

2007-09-27T18:58:00.000-04:00

Saving energy seems to be in fashion. Recently on TV, in community papers, and on the Internet, I've been reading about the problem of "phantom load" and what we can do about it. The media wants to be as helpful as possible and point out energy-efficiency low-hanging fruit for all to enjoy. (Yes, I have replaced nearly all of my light bulbs with CFLs.) But, dealing with phantom load is not as easy as the media sometimes makes it out to be.

If you're not familiar with phantom load, it is this: There are many devices we keep plugged in all the time even though we aren't using them all the time. Such devices include televisions, DVD players, some computer peripherals such as printers, and almost all power adapters and device chargers, also known as "wall warts" (yuck!) Phantom load refers to the electricity consumed by these devices when they aren't actively in use. Often the guilty devices have no on/off function, or an on/off function that would be better described as on/sleep.

For instance, even when turned "off", modern TVs continue to draw some electricity to respond to remote control events and maintain the internal clock and other settings. The charger for a cell phone, when left plugged in, still consumes some electricity even though the phone might not be attached. And so on.

A few references to phantom load that I have come across in the media have generally painted the solution to the problem in simplistic terms: Just plug your phantom load devices into a power bar (power strip), and turn them "really off" via the power bar's on/off switch when not in use! So simple.

While this solution might appeal to journalists who don't know any better (and might come by it honestly), it isn't practical. Technical people know that any device that keeps time (such as a VCR) usually needs to be reprogrammed when you plug it in again. Worse than just losing the time, many modern TV sets "forget" what channels are available and need to be "autoprogrammed" again before being usable. Fancy digital cable boxes that more of us are using to get quality HDTV content also require extensive initialization if power is cut. It sometimes takes minutes for my digital cable receivers to reboot and retrieve interactive program guide data from the cable company network. Then, many devices that can remember preferences or options tend to lose those, too.

So, don't believe everything you read as being as simple as stated, and don't go crazy with the power bars. What can you do, though?

Power adapters and device chargers can and should be unplugged when not in use. If your phone or MP3 player is not attached for charging, then there is no issue with unplugging the adapter except for the inconvenience of having to plug it in again later.

When it comes to other devices, we need to turn to the manufacturers to ultimately address the problem of phantom load. Manufacturers should eliminate phantom load if not necessary — for instance, I don't want a clock on my microwave oven! When phantom load is necessary, manufacturers should ensure it is minimized.

I also call upon manufacturers to provide more information to consumers about phantom load and energy consumption in general. For instance, I would like to know at a glance how much electricity a product would consume during a year if I plugged it in and never used it. I'd also like to know how much a product would consume if turned on and used a reasonable number of hours. Why don't they print that information on product boxes and in product literature? Enable us to compare products on the basis of energy consumption.

So — to the media — please do continue to educate the masses about energy efficiency issues like phantom load. But, please cut the load and stop regurgitating these simplistic and impractical solutions. Let's point the finger at manufacturers and get them doing something about it.

Ungeek.

2007-08-30T22:00:00.000-04:00

Twenty years ago, I enjoyed participating in discussions and flame-wars on local computer bulletin board systems, or BBSes. Most of my non-computer-savvy family and friends didn't get it and thought I was being anti-social by spending a lot of time on the computer.

A few years later I got Internet access and transferred my participation to Usenet. The web had been invented, but it was only in use by a few physicists perhaps, and was far short of being 'world wide'. I was getting excited about the potential for the Internet, but the same people continued to not get it.

Fast forward, present day. What a reversal! The same people, they are now the ones who figuratively twisted my arm recently, to get me to join one of the major social networking web sites they are now all members of... !

The irony!

But, I'm just glad they get it now!