My recent lack of updates to this blog are mostly because I have been micro-blogging on Twitter. You can read my Twitter updates in the sidebar or click on the link to follow me. I wanted to make this post to make sure I had at least one post for May 2009.
After reading about the money management site Rudder in an article on Lifehacker, I thought I would check it out and see if I liked it more than Mint. I’ve been using Mint to track all of my finances for quite some time now. I tried Quicken Online when it became free but, at the time, it didn’t have all of my financial institutions listed. I recently logged in and they have added the places where I have accounts which had been missing when I first joined. Like Quicken Online, Rudder doesn’t have all of my financial institutions listed. It, however, is only missing one, whereas Quicken Online was missing two. Rudder also can’t track loans. It can only keep track of checking, savings, and credit card accounts right now. When I gave it the info for my American Express login, it only returned two of my three Amex cards. An unreleased feature, which I would like to see on Mint, is Goals. They don’t give much information about it but, if I had to guess, I would say you would provide how much money you want to save towards a goal (first home, car, emergency fund, etc.) and when you would like to reach that goal, and it would tell you how much money you have to save each month to reach that goal. Nowadays, with automatic scheduled transfers, anyone can do that if their bank offers it.
A few weeks ago I bought a Canon PowerShot A590IS digital camera from Newegg.com to replace my aging HP Photosmart 720. The HP was only 3MP, which was fine since I didn’t print many of the pictures I took. The Canon is an 8MP camera so I have the flexibility to print any photo I take. I wish the camera had GPS built-in so when I upload pics to Flickr, it would already be geotagged. I was thinking about getting the Eye-Fi Explore but I’m not too sure how accurate it would be only using WAPs. I wonder how long it will be before all cameras come with GPS built-in. If my iPhone can have GPS built-in, I don’t understand why camera manufacturers can’t find the room to put it into their models.
I was lucky enough to purchase a Wii Fit from the Nintendo World store in NYC last week. They’re even harder to find than the Wii is (which I also got from the Nintendo World store). I tried it out and it’s a lot harder than I thought it would be. There are 4 categories; Yoga, Strength Training, Aerobics, and Balance Games. You get “Fit Credits” for every minute you spend using the Wii Fit. After you bank a certain number of “Fit Credits”, you’ll unlock additional exercises or have the ability to increase reps on certain exercises. Surprisingly, I actually like the yoga. One of the more fun games is the Super Hula Hoop. I have a hard time trying to go counter-clockwise though. I’m going to try and do 30 minutes every night like they suggest but I’ll be happy with 4+ days each week.
I went to the AT&T store in the Bridgewater Commons mall yesterday at 6am to get in line for the iPhone 3G. I wound up being the 15th person in line and about 2 hours later, walked out there with a 16GB black iPhone. I played with it so much yesterday, the battery was almost dead by 6pm. I also downloaded and installed a few interesting apps to it like Phone Saber, which turns the iPhone into a light saber, Funambol, which is like Plaxo for the iPhone, and Rotary Dialer, which allows you to dial phone numbers as though you were using an old rotary style telephone.
After picking up a Nintendo Wii for a friend of mine’s daughter and playing it a couple of times, I decided to purchase one for myself. The only place that seems to have any is the Nintendo World store in New York. I set it up the other night, hooked it up to the Internet and started playing. I can purchase and download some original NES, SNES, Nintendo64 and Sega Genesis games. There are a few games I plan on buying and downloading (Super Mario Brothers 1-3, Super C, Legend of Zelda) but there are still others (Contra, Paperboy, Rampage, Duck Hunt, Spy Hunter) that I wish were available.
I’ve decided I’m going to start going green in order to help the environment. This won’t be easy since I’m into technology but it’s still a step in the right direction. After the failure that is Windows Vista, I am done with Microsoft products. I am currently running Windows XP on 2 of my computers. If I ever decide to get rid of Windows completely, I’ll replace it with Linux. I currently run Linux on 3 of my computers. I can download it legally for free from the Internet and burn it to one DVD. I don’t have to purchase a package where I’m going to throw out most of the packaging just to get to the install DVD.
I’ve also started printing straight to PDF, using Cute PDF Writer, to go as paperless as possible. All of my credit card bills, bank statements, and other financial documents are all done electronically. I do all of my bill paying online. This not only saves the paper used to make the checks and envelopes but also saves me time and money (no postage).
I’ve also signed up at Green Dimes to help stop junk mail for the next 5 years. When I signed up, I had the choice of getting $1 sent by postal mail (kinda goes against the idea of going green), plant a tree, or get a trial issue of a magazine about green living. I chose to have a tree planted. I also registered with the Direct Marketing Association’s Mail Preference Service to opt-out of mail offers. I also signed up at OptOutPrescreen.org, which allows me to opt-out of credit card and insurance offers. All of these should reduce the amount of junk mail I receive considerably.
Once I get my own place where I get to make more decisions, I would do a few more things like composting, using solar energy for exterior lighting and opting to have the electricity come from renewable resources.
I had to fly to Texas this weekend for work. It’s the first time I’ve had to work on the weekend since I got out of retail 2 1/2 years ago. Overall, the trip was full of a few surprises. The first was begin upgraded to First Class for 3 out of 4 of my flights. After flying First Class, it’ll be very hard going back to coach on my next flight. The second surprise was when Continental had to reboot the VOD entertainment system. When they did, Linux splashed up on the screen. From what I saw, I couldn’t tell what distro of Linux it was booting. All I saw was ‘RedBoot’, which is used to boot systems running an embedded Linux. If I had to guess, it was probably a modified version of RedHat. I actually had to work in Mexico so I had to remember all the Spanish I learned in middle school and high school. I was surprised at how much I remembered. The First Class flight on the way home was very nice. There was so much room, I could stretch my legs out and not hit the seat in front of me. I wasn’t sure what to do with the warm towel they bring by, so I watched a few people before I did anything.
The NHL is trying to put together a deal that would have the New York Rangers playing a 2008-2009 regular season game at Yankee Stadium before it’s closed for good. They want the opponent to be one of the Original Six, which I think the only logical choice would be the Boston Bruins. They’re the closest of the other 5 cities where fans could easily come and watch a game. Personally, I would rather see them play the New Jersey Devils. I’m unsure how I feel about a sport other than baseball being played at Yankee Stadium but then again, the New York Giants football team played at Yankee Stadium from 1956-1973. Since it was before my time, I’m not used to anything other than baseball being played in the Bronx.