Archives for: October 2009
10/27/09
Some web ideas are DOA (flooz). Others sound good, but fail (webvan). I'm surprised by the success of web sites like Twitter ("I'm at Starbucks.").
There's a new web concept in town.
eDivvy is an internet service that combines online shopping and social networking.
How it works:
Somebody shops for an item and then invites others to help pay for it (functioning similar to the government, therefore). It's a variation of a registry that one might start for a wedding or baby shower except that instead of directing people to many different products, the person who starts the "eDivvy" invites many people to help purchase one product.
The advantage of this system is that one can buy more expensive gifts. This might come in handy for an office, say, that wants one presentation-worthy present for a co-worker.
One potential drawback of the service is the price of the items. I doubt that anybody would be willing to pay more just to have the convenience of not asking people directly for money. This isn't the case: the gifts are from reputable online merchants like Dell, Target, and Amazon and the price of the products are the same as on the vendors' site. To this price, one adds an eDivvy fee to alert the purchasers.
Just to check, I searched for a product I recently purchased, the Garmin Nuvi 255. The lowest price that came up was $129.00 from Amazon, which is in line with what I paid. An additional $12.99 would have allowed me to "divvy" the purchase between 10 people, by entering their emails.
eDivvy groups can purchase gift cards, send care packages to military personnel, and give to charities.
The worst part of eDivvy is that it continues the trend of starting product names with lower-case letters. If the world does end in 2012, this will be the reason.
Will it work? I give eDivvy at least an even chance because it's an online way of doing something people do anyways and easy to use.
Oh, and send me your email if you'd like to help purchase me a Kindle. Well, it's not really for me; it's for you- so that I can bring you more informative commentary and analysis.
Gift ideas:
10/22/09
No, not that one. I'm talking about the need to upgrade. If you're one of those guys who takes the day off to upgrade your operating system or feels sweet rushes of ecstasy while flashing your bios, you know what I'm talking about.
The best thing about upgrades is that they don't add to the clutter in your house. You're just replacing. And, through the magic of eBay, sometimes you can renew without a heavy impact on lesser needs like food and shelter (I told my kids that right after the next upgrade cycle, I'm saving up for their shoes. Hopefully, their little tootsies can hold out that long): Renew, have somebody else reuse, and recycle the boxes.
The two things I'd like to upgrade are my Vista PCs to Windows 7 and my phone.
A semi-responsible nerd needs an acquisition excuse and I think, after holding a family conclave, the Asymmetric clan has formulated a rationalization.
The family computer (it's good to have the kids use one central computer in the living room that also serves as the TV- better to supervise), lost its ability to connect to the internet. I haven't been able to fix it and for whatever reason, the "System Restore" feature was turned off. In addition, my wife has a TV card in her Vista Business laptop and doesn't like the Avermedia software. The new Windows 7 has Media Center. I'm perfectly happy with the SP3 version of Vista on my laptop, but I wouldn't mind an upgrade.
The Windows 7 upgrade comes in a three-license "Family Pack" for $150.00.
Bam!
Upgrade it is.
The next one isn't quite as justifiable. I have an upgrade slot for my Verizon phone. Warning: pointless, meandering blogging below:
Now, as tempting as the new HTC Imagio is, if I were to get a new phone, I'd get the new Google Android phone. The Imagio uses Windows Mobile, and there's something about the words "windows" and "phone" that doesn't go together.
I can sell my Blackberry Storm on eBay for about the same price as the upgrade. The Storm's been a good phone, but the lack of a physical keyboard and the fact that the Army has disallowed the reception of Army (AKO) emails, has soured me on the Blackberry a little.
Then again, the denial of tech is close enough to asceticism to have a beneficial effect on my soul.
It'd hurt more than a hair shirt, anyways.
10/12/09
I just wanted to bring these headphones to your attention. They sound great and are probably the most comfortable ones I've tried. Their flatness comes from the fact that you can fold the ear cups and makes them a better choice for travel since you can put them in a pocket-type bag.
They come in a variety of colors, including a very feminine pink for the ladies. I bought my wife the red one to match her new Dell. Red also makes it sharable.
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