Kris Carlson's Weblog

Currently Reading

I'm currently reading Rich Dad's Guide To Becoming Rich, Without Cutting Up Your Credit Cards. I am really enjoying this book. I like Roberts insights into the price of becoming rich. He expounds on the price of this and the price of that. It has opened my eyes to looking at things a bit differently. In particular, the notion of paying twice. I just started Chapter 4 - The Price Of Cutting Up Your Credit Cards. He has actually touched on it a little already, and so I can see what's coming. I agree with his credit cards philosophy. Get rid of everything but two good cards. He even touches on a way to get out of debt completely. Anyway, it's a short book, and easy to read. Technorati Tag: rich dad

Mighty Mouse Annoyance

Well, I learned another valuable lesson about diving in head first. I thought the Mighty Mouse was so cool that I bought on the minute I read about it. The problem is with the touch sensitive click area. If you want to get a right click you have to be sure you completely remove you index finger from the left click are or you will get a left click when you wanted a right click. When I'm using my Logitech MX 510 Optical Gaming Mouse on my AMD/Windows machine I right click with my index finger resting on the left mouse button. You can't do that with the Mighty Mouse. It's really annoying and I think I will be switching back to the mouse that came with the machine. I actually have gotten used to control-clicking. I might get another mouse for right clicking, not sure yet. I kind of like the Apple experience of control-clicking. We'll see.

Xango

I got my distributor number the next day. I haven't posted it yet because I've been busy with some other stuff. It's 8591753. If you're ready to sign up, all you need to do is call 1-877-469-2646 and use my distributor number for the registration. You will be asked for your Social Security Number because you will be getting paid for signing up other people. Xango is distributed through a Network Marketing business model.

If you're interested in learning more about Xango there are a couple things you can do. Visit Xango's main web page at http://www.xango.net/. There is a lot of information about the product and the company there. Send me an email (upper left) with your phone number and I will give you a call. Start there and I hope your curiosity is piqued.

Thanks for reading.

Xango

I'm in! I get my distributor number tomorrow morning. If you're interested check out http://www.xango.net. If you wish to order or even become a distributor, send me an email with a phone number so I can call you. More to come...

Cousin Terry

My cousin Terry Taylor was interviewed for an article in Money magazine. Here is the link to the article: http://money.cnn.com/2005/08/04/pf/independence5_0509/index.htm

Tired of Verizon Wireless

We just got a bill from Verizon Wireless that had some overage charges on it. The only time we hear from Verizon is when our bill is due. The service is CDMA and we cannot buy a phone outside of what Verizon offers. That is enough BS in itself to switch. I will never return to Sprint. Both are CDMA and you cannot use SIM cards in their phones. I am currently considering Cingular because they have rollover and they just expanded their network with the AT&T acquisition. I bought a prepaid phone to test their network to see what kind of coverage they have. If all is well with Cingular, it's by by Verizon. I'm sick of not having a choice of phones and service providers for that matter. Once I get a GSM phone I can use SIM cards from other providers, if I chose. And that's the whole point, where's my choice with Verizon? And where is their customer retention, before I've already gotten fed-up and decide to leave? Will they make me a "Golden Offer" to stay once I've decided to leave?

Hey Verizon: Can you hear me now?

Update: Sub $500 laptop from Walmart with Linspire

Update: I was curious today about the $499 laptops Walmart was selling with Linspire OS loaded. These were online-only deals through Walmart. I appears the deal is not offered anymore. The cheapest laptop I cold find at Walmart with Linspire loaded was Balance 14.1" Laptop, 1.2 GHz VIA C3 Processor, w/ Linspire. At $598, that is 120% (or 20% increase) over the original offer. There's probably more computing power, I can't remember. Either way, no more sub-500 deals on laptops at Walmart.

Technorati Tags: walmart, linspire, debian, Operating Systems
Wikipedia: Walmart, Linspire

Robert Rodriguez

One very cool guy.  I was first introduced to Robert Rodriguez in the DVD Once Upon A Time In Mexico.  I checked out the featurettes and was basically blown away.  The tour of Troublemaker Studios and the 10 Minute Cooking School have stuck in my mind.  Since then I have been paying some attention to Robert.  I watched the featurettes again last night and today did a quick search for Robert and found an entry at Wikipedia for him and just had to blog about it.  Keep up the good work Robert.

Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Rodriguez

Links: http://www.chingonmusic.com/links.html

Computer Crime

I have had some very interesting comments to a post I made as a trackback to a post from Philip Greenspun's weblog regarding RentACoder.com. I checked a couple links in the comments, just out of curiosity, and came across http://www.crime-research.org/. The links I am referring to are http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/fraudbyrentacoder/message/2 and http://www.crime-research.org/news/01.30.2005/933.

I'm really excited about the comment feedback. Thank you to Amir Ali Tayyab and Ali Raza for taking the time to write comments in my weblog. This is the first time I have received a comment (or a trackback) that has led to information of a vital nature. That is, information you can use to protect yourself and others.

Timex Ironman watch band replacement

I may have bought my last Timex Ironman Triathlon watch. The rubber watch band that comes with them gets hard and usually breaks after 1 year. Plus I am having a hell of a time getting a replacement that fits. I just ordered 2 watch bands from http://www.voguestrap.com/ because I wasn't positive which one would work. I printed a sizing chart I found on the web (can't remember where) and the watch measured 18mm. However, it is a 100 lapper and they were 19mm. Hmmm, what to do. Actually, I couldn't find any way of identifying the exact replacement watch band for my watch. There are many different bands for the Timex Ironman.

Well, I got my 2 bands today. Guess what? Neither fit properly. The 18mm band I got is the correct width but the band is not the proper depth to fit into the slots without alteration. You guessed it, I'm not sending them back, I'm going to modify them with a razor blade and make them work. If I get 1 year I won't bitch anymore. And then after 2 years I will be looking at something other than Timex Ironman Triathlon watches. Of course I will be looking at replacement bands first. What a pain in the ass.

VogueStrap is actually a pretty good place to buy watch bands. Shipping is not a killer and they are pretty quick. I just ordered another band that should be the rigth one. It's the 100 lap Flix. I thought the watch was a Flix, but I guess the Flix feature has stopped working. I tried it before ordering the first time. I like the Ironman, but they don't take a licking and keep on ticking. I've replaced 2 in the past because they didn't hold-up. At Wall Mart they are $42 now and so they aren't too expensive. I would have one for 3 years and when the battery expired, usually the watch had broken down enough to warrant replacement. But now I have issue with the bands. We'll see, I'm just annoyed right now.