UngsungBlog: A (Fantasy) Sports Blog

I’ve decided to stay away from the latest Diva Favre news.

And the story about my horrible computer build will have to wait.

(Yeah, I’ll manage.)

Quick-hitters:

- I think I figured out the secret as to why diet drinks and protein shakes either work spectacularly, or not at all:  they are intentionally made to taste disgusting!

(Have you ever tried Strawberry Milkshake flavored Muscle Milk?)

These drinks are so disgusting that you’ll either not want to eat anymore ( = instant weight loss!) or you’ll immediately go back to eating junk food after one day on the diet

- File this one under “Quick ways to earn tons of stupid points.”  Do you remember how your high school chemistry teacher always told you to never sniff the chemicals in a beaker/test tube/flask/whatever, and that the proper thing to do is “waft” the odors towards you?

I should probably have heeded that advice.  Yesterday, while cleaning my bathroom, I found a nearly empty bottle of Tilex.  Thinking that my sister might have added water to it (you know, add a bit of water in a nearly empty bottle of cleaner, shake it around, and you have a decent quantity of a dilute cleaner that could be useful for 1-2 more cleanings), I unscrewed the spray, and sniffed the contents of the bottle.

I have no idea what happened in the next 10 minutes.

(Fifty thousand stupid points.)

- So I finally have a serious gripe about my Logitech Cordless Desktop MX3200 Laser keyboard + mouse combo.  The way my desk is set up (opposite the single torch lamp in the room), the media keys—next, previous, volume up/down, mute, play/pause, etc.—are virtually impossible to distinguish!  Am I going to have to buy a small lamp for my desk just to make sure I don’t hit next instead of play/pause???

Too bad this keyboard doesn’t have a built-in backlight.

(Whew!  That was long!)

Before I get to my customer service rants and raves, can you guess which of the companies I listed above are going to get rants, and which are going to get raves?  Decide, and then read on.

- Time to rant and rave!

1) Thank you, Time Warner.  Seriously.  Three rate hikes in three months wasn’t enough?

I got an email from Time Warner saying that my next month’s bill was ready.  That’s when I immediately noticed the amount due:  ~$80.  FOUR rate hikes, and we’re only in July???

It turns out that Time Warner is now charging a “Digital Programming Fee,” bundled into the cost of the monthly HD Set Top Box (STB) rental (now $9.00).  They also, I believe, raised the rental fee of a regular STB to $6.00.

I’m probably going to have to cancel HBO.  I wonder what fees they’re going to try to charge me this time.  I know the downgrade fee is a given.  Will I get hit with a “Live Operator” fee?  How about a “Dial Tone” fee?  Who knows?

(If you put Time Warner in the “rave” category, you must be smoking something.  Can I get a hit of that stuff? :P)

2) So I ordered some free after rebate (naturally) software from J&R a couple of days ago, and two days later, I got a shipping confirmation.  Unfortunately, J&R could not provide me any tracking info, or so their shipping confirmation stated.

The USPS Delivery Confirmation number on the address label of my padded mailer says otherwise.

(Huge drop-off from the first story, huh?)

3) I ordered a Belkin surge protector from Newegg.com a couple days ago.  It was advertised for $9.99 - a $5 coupon - a $5 mail in rebate and free shipping.  When I placed the order, I noticed that I was charged $8.25 for shipping and handling.

I immediately fired off an email to Newegg customer service, requesting a refund of my shipping and handling charges.  That was three days ago.

I eventually found out that the free shipping was a misprint, a Newegg Live Chat CSR explained.  The rep offered me a refund on my shipping charges anyway, and soon after, I got an emailed “invoice” from Newegg granting my credit.

(We’ll score that a half rant, half rave.)

4) OK…this one is neither a rant nor a rave; it’s just a funny story.  I got a letter in the mail about a 0% balance transfer option with Discover, and for kicks (that’s my story, and I’m sticking to it), I called in to inquire about it.  I had intended on doing a transfer in the $2,000-$2,500 range, and explained this to the CSR.

The CSR, who sounded overly cheery for a phone CSR, answered all my questions quickly and adequately.  Right when I was about to hang up, though, she offered me a reduced cap on the balance transfer fee, which was 3% capped at $99; she offered a reduced cap of $75.

It took me half a second to point out that a 3% balance transfer fee on a $2,500 balance was going to cost me $75 anyway.

All the rep could do was chuckle and say “Whoops!”

(OK OK, we’ll score this one a rave anyway.  So if you guessed rant, rant, 50/50, and rave, congrats!  You win 50 Ung-bucks!)

Whew!

Tags: advertising error, balance transfer, belkin, cordless desktop mx3200 laser, delivery confirmation, diet drink, digital programming fee, discover, disgusting, FAR, free ship, hbo, high definition, j&r, keyboard, logitech, media keys, muscle milk, protein shake, rate cap, rate increase, set top box, shipping confirmation, sniffing chemicals, stupid points, surge protector, time warner by Peter
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No quick-hitters tonight.

- I got myself a new toy today: a Logitech VX Revolution notebook mouse. My old Microsoft Blue Optical Mouse was getting completely worn out; the sides of the mouse, the three feet that were still stuck on the bottom, and the textured scroll wheel had all seen better days.

I may post a full review of this item later down the line, but for now, here are my quick thoughts on the mouse:

1) The mouse has two scroll wheel (dubbed “MicroGear Precision Scroll Wheel”) options: precision (click-to-click scrolling, which we’re all familiar with), and a free-spin mode, where the wheel will spin continuously for a few seconds with one quick flick of the wheel. The latter is great for scrolling through several pages of a document, but so far, I see no personal use for it.

2) I love the rubberized feel of Logitech mice, and this is no exception. The stow-away receiver is nice, too, though the button used to eject the receiver out of the bottom of the mouse has, at least one, launched the receiver like a cannonball being shot out of a cannon.

3) This is the first notebook mouse I’ve ever used that uses AA batteries (1xAA). It’s also the first notebook mouse I’ve used that has the back/forward buttons.

4) As with every other notebook mouse I’ve ever used…the mouse is just too small for my hands! After about an hour of use today, my right hand started cramping up. I should probably just start using a desktop mouse with my laptop.

- Naturally, one would except the episode immediately following a season premiere to be a let down from the prior week. Since I treated last week’s Office episode as a premiere, I didn’t expect much out of tonight’s episode.

The episode was fairly funny in bits and pieces, but overall, I was right not to expect much from tonight.

(I expect to read a bunch of dissenting opinions on other blogs tonight.)

Personally, I thought the writers should have given more time to the “date” between Michael and Pam’s landlady, as well as the parking lot situation with Kevin and Andy. Michael’s jerk-dom was also pretty over-the-top in the episode, especially with the way he acted in front of the landlady (though I did chuckle at his reaction to seeing her for the first time).

Breaking news! Michael’s single! Where’s Jan staying? Ooooh…I hope she hooks up with Hunter! That would make for an awesome storyline! Also, did anyone notice that the chair model looked a hell of lot like Jan, and Michael’s description of what the model might be like describes Jan to a T? Anyone wanna bet on the over/under on the number of weeks it will take for Michael to get back with Jan? I say three weeks, and I’ll take the under.

Poor Kevin! Oh well…in the immortal words of Michael Scott, “You don’t deserve her.” LOL. Also, I didn’t realize that there were so many ways to ask whether or not someone is fat. I’m surprised Michael didn’t ask if Phyllis’ friend looked more like Pam or Phyllis :P.

Great investigate work by Dwight, by the way. Why the two of them have to go and butcher “American Pie,” though, is anyone’s guess.

The whole scene with Jim joking about a marriage proposal, followed by the talking head where he shows the ring, I thought, was puzzling. Did Jim really want Pam to move in with him ASAP? I thought Jim was joking when he initially said that a proposal was “happening,” and, of course, we found out that this was not the case. He bought the ring a week after they started dating??? I guess that this was the writers’ way to play off Jim’s dorkiness, but I thought the whole scene was awkward. Joking about marriage after what Pam went through with Roy? The fake-proposal scene was fairly unfunny as well, though I love how my sister fell for it, hook, line, and sinker.

(Upon further review, I think the first Jim/Pam scene would have been a heck of a lot better if we were able to see Jim and Pam’s faces during the entire conversation.)

Favorite moments:

• Kevin: “I will quit. As God is my witness, I will quit if this is not fixed.”
• Pam: “I definitely remember your dinner party.”
• Michael: “Hello, Oscar Meyer Wiener…lover,” followed by Michael’s request to look for “liberal girl-type friends who trust [him]” Real subtle there, Michael.
• Michael: “I want to play ball with my kids before I get too old, and before that happens, I need to get laid.” That entire diatribe might have been the highlight of the episode, up until the ultimatum at the end.
• Michael again: “Wish I could, but I can’t. Well, can, but won’t. Should, maybe, but shorn’t (sp?)” At least he’s being honest!
• Jim: “Michael, you didn’t even know her,” followed by Pam shaking her head at him.
• Michael, once again, looking at the date cards: “Wendy…a juicy red-head.” I totally missed that joke the first time around!
• Michael: “You wanna see what I walked out on? This is going to blow your mind…and you can’t see her whole body (pointing)…she had a boob job…” followed by Jan saying “Michael?” Haha!
• Michael: “What do you do?” Dwight: “Wait ’till next year’s chair catalog comes out and find someone that’s still alive.”

Until next time!

Tags: chairmodel, logitech, mouse, office, toy, vx revolution by Peter
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Quick-hitters, the NBA version:

- I really want to see Golden State beat Utah and make it to the Western Conference Finals–Utah is now up 2-0 in their best-of-seven series–but after hearing about Derek Fisher’s ten-month old daughter, who recently underwent emergency surgery to treat Retinoblastoma (a cancer of the retina), I can’t help but root for the Jazz. The crowd’s standing ovation to Fisher, when he entered the game for the first time–after flying from New York Presbyterian Hospital earlier that day–was very cool, as well as the reception he got from not only his teammates, but also the Warriors.

Great article by Adrian Wojnarowski, by the way.

- Cleveland’s up 2-0 on the Nets, and I’m not terribly surprised by that. Detroit being up 2-0 on Chicago? I’m a bit surprised by that. Suns-Spurs tied at one game apiece? I hope that series goes seven games!

- An addendum to my Cordless Desktop MX3200 Laser review, the most popular subject (according to Google Analytics) on my blog: One thing I hated about the Logitech SetPoint software–the driver package for Logitech peripherals–is the fact that I had seemingly lost the ability to open/close new tabs in Mozilla Firefox via a click of the mouse wheel. After a few minutes, I discovered that I could open/close tabs using the mouse wheel only if I double-clicked the wheel. I don’t know about you, but I have enough trouble clicking the mouse-wheel one time, especially with a mouse wheel that tilts.

That’s when I stumbled upon this review on Amazon.com! In order to open/close tabs in Firefox with a single click of the mouse wheel, you have to assign the “generic button” option (the default is Universal Scroll, I believe) to the wheel button in the SetPoint software. No other functionality of the mouse wheel seems to be lost with the “generic button” setting.

Of course, you could also not install the SetPoint software

- So my “lost” USPS package was finally delivered to my buyer today! I’m so glad to finally get the transaction over with!

That being said, I am now 0 for 4 with customer service representatives in the last few days. This time, Parago–a rebate processing company that deals with rebates, mainly from Staples, as well as companies as McAfee and Symantec–has screwed me out of $40. Long story short, their CS promised me that I would qualify for a pair of rebates ($20 and $40)with the purchase of an item, and I found out that I could only qualify for one. Also, since I had already opened the item in question, I could not return it, so I was out $40.

I called Staples to witch about Parago’s misleading me, and it only took about five calls for someone to finally offer me some resolution: a $20 concession coupon. He said he was willing to go up to $30, but then reneged on that offer, so I accepted the $20.

By the way, my laptop is still not complete yet. Looks like I will not get it until next week.

- Some cities in the US, such as Pacific Grove, CA, are employing high-tech parking meters in the hopes of reducing costs related to ticketing of vehicles: reduced number of “meter maids” and increased ticket accuracy. These high-tech parking meters employ GPS capability to determine exactly how long a car has been parked in a given spot. Some also have the capability of charging a higher rate for longer parking stays, and some have remote sensors that reset the parking meter when a car leaves the spot. One could imagine the costs of the meters themselves: “‘Today’s meters are little computers,’ said Ross Hubbard, a former Pacific Grove city councilman who advocated for the switch. The city now leases 100 meters for $45,000 per year from Duncan Parking Technologies Inc.”

And I thought cops hiding behind bushes, billboards, and under freeway overpasses were ridiculous. If a person paid for an hour, and only used half of the time, why shouldn’t the next person be allowed to use those minutes? After all, they have already been paid for!

I would love to see figures as to how much extra revenue these new, high-tech parking meters produce. I wonder if those who pushed for the new parking meters took vandalism and maintenance costs into account.

- A Tennessee man requested, for his last meal, that a vegetarian pizza should be given to a homeless person outside the prison in which he was housed. The prison refused, stating that they do not donate to charities. A woman heard about the request, and proceeded to raise $1,200 between herself and her friends to purchase 150 pizzas for Nashville’s Rescue Mission, a shelter that services more than 800 homeless people per night. Even PETA got involved: “The president of the People for Ethical Treatment of Animals read a news story about the prison denying the inmate’s last request and ordered 15 veggie pizzas sent to the Rescue Mission Wednesday morning.” I must admit that this is a pretty cool story, and props to all those involved with the donations.

Tags: cordless desktop mx3200 laser, daughter, derek fisher, golden state warriors, homeless, logitech, lost usps package, parago, parking meters, pizza donation, rebates, retinoblastoma, setpoint, staples, tennessee, utah jazz by Peter
1 Comment »

I’m sitting here, sick as a dog, on about five minutes of sleep, and I’ve already downed two Pepto shots (TMI?).

- You’ll remember, in a previous blog entry, that I did a review on the Logitech Cordless Desktop MX3200 Laser. That review seemed to generate quite a bit of traffic to my blog; several visitors found my site, according to Google Analytics, via keyword searches involving the MX3200 keyboard. Primarily, people were looking for the location of the Scroll Lock button (if you search for “scroll lock mx3200″ on Google, my blog is still the first hit).

(Tangent: When is the last time you, or anyone you know, used the Scroll Lock key?)

Anyway, I have updated my review with the location of the Scroll Lock key! Also, I found out that the context-click key hadn’t been removed from the keyboard; it had just been moved elsewhere. For those of you interested in the location of both keys, I’ll refer you to this edit I made in my review:

The context-click key can be accessed by hitting the Fn key and the Print Screen key at the same time. Scroll lock can be accessed by hitting Fn + Pause/Break. I bring up the latter because I have received a lot of hits on my site from people, apparently, looking for the location of the scroll lock key.

- The Chase Freedom Rewards card–”I’m free…to do what I want…”–is awesome! 3% cash back on gas/grocery/fast food, the last of which is the primary reason why I wanted this card (for grocery purchases, I prefer my Chase Cash Back Rewards card, which gives 5%). I also have 250 other reasons why I applied for this card.

(Off topic: WTF is this mouse “for Mac” only, as the title suggests? Last I checked, a USB port is a USB port.)

- No thanks in great part to a person who shall remain nameless, I now have over several hundred dollars in rebates due to me. At the beginning of April, that figure was a manageable $70. Now, it has ballooned to over $600, and rising! Nameless one, thanks a bunch

(Of the $600 or so I’m owed, about $300-400 are coming from Computer Associates rebates alone!)

- Time Warner is funny. I finally got a reply today to the angry email I sent them, after the first phone call I made to their CS that day. Their email was one of the best “nothing” emails I’ve ever seen!

Thank you for your inquiry. We’re committed to providing the highest
quality of products and services to all of our customers, so your
feedback is very important to us. I apologize that you experienced
concerns with our pricing and packaging as well as customer care.

Our records indicate you called to address these issues prior to our
receiving your email. If you need any further assistance, please call
our 24 hour customer service center at 1-888-892-2253. I apologize for
any inconvenience this may cause.

I applaud TW. I don’t recall the last time an email so eloquently said nothing! I plan on sending them another nasty email. Let’s see how little they say when they get around to replying to that message.

- Roger Clemens is now officially the Antichrist, as ESPN went deep into their archives to dig up this article by Bill Simmons. I knew that Clemens was a money-grubbing attention whore, but I didn’t realize how much of one he was, until I read that article. Oh well, I’m looking forward to another Yankee choke this fall; I can’t wait for the “geez, even with Roger Clemens, you can’t win sh!t” taunts from Yankee haters!

Until next time!

Tags: chase freedom rewards, context-click key, cordless desktop mx3200 laser, customer service, logitech, new york yankees, roger clemens, scroll lock, time warner by Peter
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I could give my loyal readers–all none of you–my thoughts on the NL East and West, which I have been promising for a couple of days now. I could give you my thoughts on yet another racist-in-denial in the sports world, and yes, as much as I knock it, women’s college basketball is a sport (but don’t get me started on the “pro” game :P). I could talk about David Carr moving on to Carolina, a very good decision, IMO. I could talk about Billy Gillispie taking the Kentucky job, a move that I like for a couple of reasons, BTW. Heck, I could even make a comment or two about The Masters, and how Tiger Woods is struggling; then again, just about everyone is at Augusta.

I could talk about any, or all, of the above topics. However, I have a brand new toy, courtesy of Logitech’s RMA service + DHL, who delivered the package two business days earlier than the tracking number indicated. I found a Logitech Cordless Desktop MX3200 Laser keyboard + mouse combination sitting on my doorstep. Here’s my brief, mini-review, of the combo:

The first thing that I noticed was the LCD on the keyboard. Yes, there’s an LCD on the keyboard, with a clock, alarm, and stopwatch function, because it’s too difficult to look at the bottom-right corner of my screen to see the Windows clock there. As with most keyboards nowadays, there is a row of “media” keys–reverse, play/pause, forward, record, mute, volume down/up, etc., though I noticed there is no stop button. Previous Logitech keyboards I’ve owned had a scroll wheel for the volume control; this keyboard has volume down/up buttons instead. I kinda liked the scroll wheel, despite the fact that all turn-y button things lie.

For the most part, the keyboard arrangement is identical to that of my old Logitech keyboard, a Logitech MX3000 (I couldn’t find a link to just the keyboard, so this will have to do.)  The only noticeable difference, of the main keys, at least, is the loss of the context-click (the “right-click”) key, which is now the “Fn” (programmable function) key.

(EDITED 5/7/07: The context-click key can be accessed by hitting the Fn key and the Print Screen key at the same time. Also, scroll lock can be accessed by hitting Fn + Pause/Break. I bring up the latter because I get a lot of hits on my site of people, apparently, looking for the location of the scroll lock key.)

I would have preferred the Fn key at the top of the keyboard, rather than with the usual keys, though.  On the left side of the MX3200, Logitech got rid of the back button, which also wasn’t really useful to me, since I find myself clicking the back button on my mouse most of the time. Logitech also got rid of the manual scroll wheel on the left side of the keyboard, replacing it with a touch-pad-like scroller (aka “Dynamic Search & Zoom”)! Even though I do most of my scrolling with the mouse wheel, I must admit that this is a cool feature.

The USB receiver is the size of a jump drive, which got me thinking, “This thing is too small! I’ll probably need to buy a USB extension cable (A-male to A-female) to give the keyboard and mouse a better line of sight to the receiver!” Sifting through the rest of the box, though, I found just what I needed–basically, a USB extension cable, with a cool little stand at one end that sits neatly on your desk (I’d take a picture to better describe what I’m talking about, but I can’t find my digital camera)! The size of the receiver made sense to me when I took a closer look at the box, and noticed that the MX3200 was labeled as “notebook ready.” After all, a notebook ready keyboard/mouse needs to have a very small receiver, no? I also noticed that the keyboard had “Anti-Microbial Technology.” No comment, your honor…

The mouse, an MX600 Laser mouse, is nothing special. It has the typical five-button layout (left, right, mouse wheel, back, and forward, with the mouse wheel able to tilt left and right). It also has three extra buttons: zoom (+ and -), and search, two buttons that I probably will never use. It is a very lightweight mouse, though, despite its size; I remember the mouse that came with the MX Duo was significantly heavier than the MX600.

One thing I really like about the keyboard is the soft, rubberized feel that the keys and the mouse have, as opposed to the plastic feel that my older MX3000 keyboard had. Even the wrist rest has that same softness to it. For me, that isn’t really necessary, as I use a gel wrist rest. One major drawback, though, of this combo is the six AA battery requirement (four for the keyboard, two for the mouse). It makes sense that this keyboard will need more than the typical two batteries, of course, because of that darn LCD! A more minor drawback to this keyboard/mouse combo is the absence of a caps/num/scroll lock indicator. Usually these Logitech combos have indicator LEDs on the receiver itself, but this is not the case with the MX3200. This is not a problem if you choose to install the SetPoint software, as the software would flash a message on-screen when you strike any of these -lock keys (I don’t have the software installed; the most recent version I used, back when it was called iTouch, seemed to be bloated). It’s a shame that Logitech didn’t include these indicators on the LCD screen on the keyboard.

All in all, I’m quite happy with the combo, and can easily recommend it to anyone who needs a new keyboard/mouse set, provided you can find a hot deal, of course

- Super quick MLB predictions, with analyses to come at a later date:

AL Central: Detroit Tigers
NL East: New York Mets
NL Central: St. Louis Cardinals
NL West: Los Angeles Dodgers

Until next time, happy blogging!

Tags: cordless desktop, dynamic search & zoom, logitech, mx duo, mx3000, mx3200 laser, mx600 laser mouse, setpoint software by Peter
3 Comments »