Friday, October 28, 2005
Did research on the Kodak Easyshare One camera, the world's first camera with built-in 802.11b wireless and a large touch screen display. The $500 street price seems steep, but it wraps a great deal of convenience in a very small package, so I believe it's still a great value for the right kind of person. My typical workflow is to edit photos in Photoshop before uploading, so this convenience does not matter much to me if photos cannot be uploaded to anywhere but Kodak's website. Twenty-five days ago on satn.org, BobF wrote that one big problem with this camera is that photos are uploaded to Kodak's web site and he claims that Kodak essentially owns the photos, but this isn't true. The terms clearly state: "Kodak Imaging Network does not claim ownership rights in any image contained in your account." BobF seems to be primarily complaining about the lack of ability to download the full-res (or high-res) versions of his images, but Kodak (recently?) now has that ability if you pay their Gallery Premier subscription fee: US$2.49 per month or US$24.99 per year. For many people, I think this would be a great camera. I placed an order with universalgear.com several weeks ago. Over a week ago, I sent an e-mail to info@universalgear.com asking the status of my order which I hadn't received yet and as of today I have received no reply. I called the phone number in my order confirmation—1-800-204-1844—but there was no answer at all even though I stayed on the line for 2 minutes while it rang and rang. When I checked my credit card statement, no charge from this company appeared at all. It's as though they suddenly went out of business (but the web site still appears to be taking orders), but fortunately they don't appear to have stolen my money (yet). Very shady. Hey! I called back again later and spoke with Ray who said the order "must have fallen through the cracks" and didn't get printed by the system somehow. He said he'd send the order today, shipping would be waived, I would get the sale price on the track jacket, and I would still get to keep any sale prices from the underwear sale that was on when I placed my order. Super! I'm very happy with how this was resolved. I'll probably still order from them again because I know that if there's any problem it will be resolved quickly, efficiently, and more than fairly. Some minor web updates. Caught up on e-mail, set up Timmy's computer and e-mail, posted a news story for Susie. Lunch: foot-long oven-roasted chicken boob sandwich from Subway. Dinner at (that sushi restaurant that Sam likes) with Sam and Patrick for Sam's birthday. I forgot to mention that yesterday bus 66 in the morning did not show up twice in a row again. The 8:43 AM did not show up. The 9:03 AM did not show up. My district supervisor Fiona Ma never replied to the urgent letter I sent her about the problems with the bus service. Grrr! I'm over the worst of last weekend's cold, but I still have congestion-gestion in my lungs and nose. Yucky. At the office today, Dr. Kishi left us an assortment of Mexican breads he purchased for a student fundraiser. We also had a box of leftover doughnuts from someone somewhere, and I'd overheard that it was Timmy who brought in a box of little French schoolboy cookies (LU?). Joel returned my newly hemmed jeans yesterday. He's my personal tailor; I don't know if I've mentioned that before. He handles knitting needles and sewing machines like Jacques Pepin handles a knife. I sort of feel guilty giving him rather unchallenging grunt work like hemming pants, but hey, it's $9 per pair. Besides, I'm supposedly redesigning his secret blog for him. After sushi dinner, Sam and Patrick and I went to Daly City Century 20 (no commercials!) to see Wallace and Gromit in The Curse of the Were-Rabbit. I believe I haven't laughed so much during a film—ever! It is quite possibly one of the most flawless films I've ever seen. The writing is witty and engaging. The voice talent is spot-on. The music is just right. Humorous things zoom left, right, up, down, and everywhere in this film, often layered and often so fast it's barely noticeable. Be quick on your thinking caps, too, because clever allusions and homages abound here. So. Much. Fun. And the bunnies are soo cuute! Preceding the show was an animation short called The Christmas Caper which is great fun as well. Don't be late to the theatre!