1. Why I’m addicted to using Gmail: after all, it’s pretty darn slow most of the times. I’ve been trying like crazy to send messages this morning. And, now they’re hitting me up to upgrade to “pay for” services. Hmm…
2. Krispy Kreme donuts: in general I don’t really like donuts. I used to. But they just make me feel like crap. Now, put a box of Krispy Kreme’s in front of me and the story changes. All of a sudden I can’t live without them. In fact, I can eat a whole box in a single sitting. There’s just something magical about them. It’s as if they absorb calories while you’re eating them so that you feel lighter and lighter. But then an hour after you’re done… Ugh!!!
3. Fedex and poor weather: I can’t understand why Fedex can’t manage to make deliveries on time due to snowy conditions, but UPS can. I suppose the snow likes Brown better
4. VMware and it’s sucky disk performance: been doing a fair amount of work with this lately and I can’t understand why disk performance hovers around < 100MB/s when running Windows as the guest OS. I can get around this using Linux as a guest or by using Xen instead of VMware. And this is on a system where my backend performance is around 700+ MB/s.
5. Why Internet access is such a pain in this day and age: a while back I wrote about changing our internet access to Wildblue. I then wrote about how I could no longer access certain key sites and how I had filed off my 3rd complaint. Well, several weeks went by and they really did nothing to fix the problem, though I can now access one of those sites. Anyway, I’m looking into T1’s now. The cost everywhere else in the world is around $350/mo. But it’s going to cost me around $599/mo here. It’s looking like something I need to do, however. I just can’t depend on the current service any longer.
6. Why Windows and the hardware it runs on can suck so badly: not like this stuff is cheap. But I have had more issues with laptops and PCs going bonkers lately than ever before. Take the same, cheap hardware and put Linux on it and all is well. Buy a Mac and all is well. But go to Windows… Gee, let me upgrade to Vista– Not!
7. How hard drives can continue to get so cheap: it’s simply amazing even to a guy like me who has grown up in the industry.
8. How my dog can put such a huge smile on my face: I’m really not sure how Barkley can do it. He’s such a happy dog, sure. And he’s a loving dog. But it still doesn’t explain it. I just love my dog so much
9. Leg room vs. outer dimensions: The Toyota FJ Cruiser is such a nice looking vehicle on the exterior. But open the doors and the space seems to be missing. Then there’s the Jeep Wrangler 4-door. It looks small on the outside, but has great space on the inside. Hmm… I wish I could mix and match on this one.
10. MP3 downloads: I used to love iTunes till I started to buy music online. Then I found out that the music I purchased wouldn’t work on other MP3 players because the music isn’t MP3. Dang! And then there’s Sony’s Connect. They’ll let me download MP3’s but I have to use their Sonic Stage and IE 6.0 or greater. Too bad I’m on a Mac. Guess I’ll just continue to buy music from Half.com and rip it myself.
11. Why Sony will never learn: any of you remember Beta vs. VHS? Remember how Sony had better technology for video, but kept things proprietary and lost the battle? Well, they did it again with music. I simply love their MD Walkman. I really do think they’re so much better than iPods. The sound totally rocks! But they’ve been awful to record to as they have required Sony/Windows software. Fortunately, I can now copy music directly to my MD Walkman using my Mac. But it’s a bit too late. They’re simply disappearing these days.
12. Blog software: Blogger sucks for so many reasons, but has such a commanding market share over Wordpress. Typepad actually gets away with charging for their stuff. You have to have a M.S.CS to use Drupal. And then there are the rest.
13. Cingular/AT&T: I thought I’d save the best for last. Didn’t Cingular acquire the AT&T wireless stuff a while back? And now it’s back to being AT&T? All I know is I’ve been with Cingular since it was CellularOne. And there were times it really sucked. But a little while after merging with AT&T’s service, it got much, much better. Now, it sucks again! What gives?!?

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Okay, I’ve been absent on T13’s for the past three weeks and I’m sorry for that. It was the close of the year and the beginning of a new one and I simply didn’t feel comfortable with some of the topics floating around in my brain. I think I’ve got a bit of that worked out now.

This particular T13 has been motivated by some really POOR performance on the part of Fedex recently. You should note that for years Fedex has been my preferred carrier. Not anymore.

1. So, when the last big storm hit, I had several key deliveries I was expecting from Fedex. These were shipped via standard overnight delivery. But did they show up? Nope. Fedex didn’t even make an attempt to deliver. They immediately held them in the sort facility in Greeley for pickup. But did they call me? Nope! I had to call them when the packages didn’t arrive. I didn’t get them till the next day when I drove 45 minutes to get there.
2. No storm yesterday, but had numerous packages for the business. This time the Fedex guy came– to the driveway that is. He turned around and started to drive off. Emily had to hop in my car and chase him down. He didn’t even bother to try a delivery. The guy should be fired!!!
3. The UPS guy, on the other hand, managed to make his deliveries. In fact, when we’ve had severe snow, he has marched all the way up the driveway to make a delivery. Our postal person does the same thing. She always makes her deliveries. But Fedex? Nope!
4. Oh yeah, I have a very important delivery for a client and ordered a server chassis via Fedex priority overnight. The item was shipped from one of my vendors in San Jose. The same vendor also shipped two motherboards to me that same day. All of this was picked up at the same time with my sales guy supervising to make sure I got what I needed, when I needed it. I got the motherboards yesterday morning. Where was my chassis? In Indiana. Indiana? How’d it get there?!? There’s no telling. But they were kind enough to say on the status that it was picked up AFTER the deadline. Hello! What about the motherboards? They suck!
5. Recently opened Fedex and UPS accounts for my new business. UPS provided me with all sorts of shipping materials to get started. Fedex? Nothing!
6. Earth tones have been in style for the past year. Brown is in (running out of stuff)
7. What does Fedex mean, anyway? What’s so Federal about it?
8. UPS dude has a big truck and looks like he means business. Fedex guy comes out in the Urkel mobile.
9. UPS is cheaper.
10. UPS sort facility is in Loveland, only 20 to 25 minutes from us.
11. Fedex is 45 minutes away and smells like a combination dump yard/dead fish. The place stinks!
12. Okay, so neither of them have great uniforms– not sure what that has to do with anything
13. UPS is quicker to spell.