*Words of Wisdom From The Elder

I wrote a blog post a few weeks ago how to setup the Cingular 8525 to connect to the Internet with your laptop.  After that post a new updated ROM was released by HTC which brands the phone with AT&T instead of Cingular and it also provides a lot of updates and fixes.  For example the top of the phone now properly displays Edge or 3G depending which high speed data network you are on.  It also adds support for downloading videos, music and even enables PPT (push to talk) on the phone. 

I’ve used the PPT feature some but I only have two people that I know who have push to talk on their phones (my sister and her husband).   If you have PPT feel free to ping me at 601.467.9744.  I haven’t decided if I will keep the feature or not.  I guess it depends on the number of people that I know that have it.  It also cost extra money too.  Time will tell.

The coolest feature that I want to shout from the roof tops is the new Internet Sharing program.  Previously this was known as “Wireless Modem”.  As you can see from my previous post on how to use the 8525 with your laptop, it takes time to setup and isn’t common knowledge.  The new program which is called “Internet Sharing” just absolutely rocks.  It works like this under Windows Vista. 

1.  Plug up phone cable to laptop.

2.  Launch “Internet Sharing”.

3.  Press Connect.

That is it!  You are done.  What happens is it creates an on the fly network adapter, gets an IP address and sets everything up.   I renamed the network 4 adapter on mine to “Cingular 8525” as you see in this picture.  Wow is this “GUMP”.  Plug the phone in, launch the app and you are online.

This feature rocks and is very welcomed.  Just be sure you you have the all you can eat wireless plan before turning this on or it will cost you a fortune.  This week we are in Orlando, Fl for Tech Ed and the hotel wants to charge $9.99 for 24 hours of Internet usage.  Orlando supports the high speed 3G network and with Internet Sharing built-in now, I have high speed Internet for free.  Thank you Hilton for offering Internet but I’ll keep my $9.99!

One of my long time geek friends (Joe Stump) launched a new web site today that has some potential to possibly fill a void a lot of us have on the Internet.  The web site is called Correlate.Us.  Here is what Joe posted on his blog about the launch:

The basic idea is that you authenticate your various Web 2.0 accounts and then correlate.us goes out and aggregates that data, groups it by tags and makes it generally more browseable for everyone involved.

The best part about it is that you can add friends. Once you’ve added a few friends you can view your friends’ activity online in an aggregated view as well.

Right now you can correlate the following:  Del.icio.us, Twitter, Digg (where Joe works), and Flickr

Here are my stats after I added my Twitter account (not enough time to add the others).

Anyway, check it out when you get time.

I joined the http://www.community-credit.com site for the month of May and I placed 6th place when things were all said and done.  My “stupid prize for smart people” was this alarm clock.  I will cherish it forever.   May was a good month for me to join since I had multiple speaking engagements scheduled and a lot of blog articles in the fire.  I am still working on my multiple part series on “Leveraging Workflow Foundation“.  Part 3 will hopefully come out this week if I get time.  It is going to be tough with Tech Ed though.  Thanks to Community Credit for my prize. 

This morning I left the house to go to town to run errands.  I had several things I needed to do which were: get a haircut, purchase a few new vacation clothes, drop off dry cleaning, get a new bass rod and reel (I broke one this week that needs replaced), buy Thompson deck water sealer from Home Depot and price some travel golf bags.

I definitely had my work cut out for me so I planned a route in my mind that was the most optimized and headed out.  After getting my hair cut I stopped into the Golf Shop to price some travel bags.  Next week we are heading to Orlando, Fl for vacation as well as Tech Ed and I wanted to golf some.  But, I don’t have a travel golf bag. 

I walked into the store and the one I liked which you see pictured to the left is the Bag Boy Hybrid HCX Wheeled Travel Bag/Cover that retails for $129.99.  I looked at some other bags that were not hard shelled and the least priced one was $69.99.  The other bags they had were vinyl bags where you put your existing golf bag into it.  Not bad and definitely cheaper than $129.  However, I liked the hard case idea protecting my clubs.  I didn’t purchase anything and instead left the store to think about the purchase.  I drove to the sporting goods store down the street which has golf, fishing, guns, etc.  Their golf selection is lacking but I thought I’d stop in since I had to go in there anyway for the new fishing rod and reel. I checked and nope, they didn’t have one.  Onto the fishing rod and reel. 

I stirred around the mass selection of fishing tackle moving from rack to rack, carefully looking at different brands etc.  Just when I thought I had things figured out I saw this sale rack in the corner hidden and tucked away.  Something I would have definitely missed if I was in a hurry but I wasn’t.  It was Saturday and I had all day.  Over to the rack I went.  They had Mitchell 300 rod and reels.  Great all around reels and really versatile (bass or catfish).  Coincidentally my father gave me one when I was a boy that I cherished.  The one he gave me lasted me almost 20 years.  A great reel for the money.  Turns out the rod and reel were on sale for $29!  Normally the combination was $79.  What a deal.  I jumped on it. 

Dollars saved so far:  $50

I left and grabbed a bite to eat and then decided I would stop into a local store called Hudson’s.  Hudson’s is one of those stored you can literally spend an entire day in once a week.  What they  do is buy close out deals or storm damage, or going out of business goods or whatever.  Basically you have no idea what they will have but whatever it is will be at least %50 off retail value and it is all name brand stuff. 

I walked through the store for about an hour working my way from isle to isle checking things out.  Some things I didn’t *need* at this time but were great deals like a 14 feet limb trimmer that was regularly $80 for $25.  I was about ready to go when I saw a guy with a golf club in his hand.  I asked him if they had golf stuff and he said, yeah, a bunch.  Go this way.  Jackpot!  They had bought out a whole golf chain and there were gloves, balls, cases, clubs, shirts, shoes, you name it.  I saw a similar bag that was not hard cased and was perfectly happy saving 60% but I kept digging. 

I walked through the isles and about 10 minutes later I found the same Bag Boy Hybrid that I saw at the retail golf shop earlier.  I picked it up and sure enough it was the same bag but it didn’t have the top cover with it.  I immediately started combing the area looking for the top cover.  If I could find it, home run.  Fifteen minutes later while I was digging in another area looking at some other hard case travel golf bags I found the cover.  How I found it I have no idea.  It was by sheer luck. 

Dollars saved so far:  $50 (reel) + $52 (golf bag) = $102

Several minutes later I found some other miscellaneous items that I needed as well that I had been putting off.  I even picked up a couple of golf shirts.

Dollars saved so far:  $102 + ($30 * 2 for golf shirts) + ($25 for misc stuff) = $187

Savings per hour:  $62.33  ($187 / 3 hours spent shopping)

My rate of return is I made $62.33 per hour shopping rather than just running in and buying the first thing I saw.  The moral of the story folks is if I had been in a hurry and just rushed to town I’d spent a lot more money and would have had a lot less to show for it. 

Normally when making a decision I can work through the details of it pretty quickly and come to a conclusion.  The past week though I’ve been struggling with the joy of searching for a new vehicle.  If you’ve bought something recently please share your experiences.  I’m torn and don’t see a conclusion on the horizon.

For those that don’t know I currently drive a Jeep Liberty 2002 Limited 4WD.  I bought it new in 2001 in June.  The Jeep has served its purpose very well and I would recommend it to anyone looking for a smaller SUV that is tough and rugged.  The Jeep took me to and from work from Ann Arbor to Livonia during white out blizzards when I lived in Michigan.  It pulled my boat to local fishing holes and pulled many a stuck driver from a ditch or snow bank during the ice storm a few years ago.  It also pulled a 5,000 lb payload all the way from Michigan to Mississippi several times and never batted an eye.  After I got to Mississippi a few days after Katrina it pulled up tree stumps, remove hurricane debris from the roads and hauled food and other supplies to residents in need.  All in all I have been very happy with the Jeep Liberty.  It has been one tough rugged truck that has been extremely versatile.  It also has lots of nice travel options when you want to take a long trip as we frequently did (leather, heated seats, etc).

It is time to trade though and I’m torn about what to purchase.   Should I think about rising gas prices and get a small car like a Subaru WRX STI?  Then the question is how will I tow my boat, haul my lawn mower, camper etc?  Of course I could just keep my Jeep and get a small car.  Yes, that is another road.  But then do I want to have to pay two insurances and up keep up two cars, I mean three counting the wife’s? 

I think I’ve come to the conclusion that I need a larger SUV than my Liberty.  The reason being that when we travel with our dogs and our luggage there is only room for about 2 people in the Liberty.  We will probably be having kids soon and honestly there would be no room for them along with all the baby goo that goes along with them (diapers, bottles, etc) if I stay with the same size truck as the Liberty.

I could trade my Liberty in for a larger mid-size SUV like a Jeep Commander or a Chrysler Aspen.  I test drove these yesterday and I really liked the Aspen.  Very sharp looking, lots of features, very classy on the inside and lots of room with the third row seating.  The Commander was nice on the inside as well but the third row is relatively useless unless you have 3-7 year olds who can sit back there.  It really isn’t much bigger than my Liberty.  With my trade in value and the incentives right now on these trucks ($4500 on the commander for example) I could get away with a REALLY nice truck loaded with a fairly small payment.  The problem is gas with these though. They only get about 20 miles to the gallon.  As I think about it though that is all my current truck gets and since I don’t drive that much it hasn’t been a problem just for the record. I don’t even look at gas prices honestly.  I pull up where it is convenient and I pump.  It is what it is.

The other option is I could get a nice over the road SUV (Mirano, Mazda CX-9) but honestly I think I’d kill the thing.  These are really cars and aren’t made to get off the pavement and aren’t powerful enough to pull heavy loads.  Not that I’m rough on a vehicle but they just aren’t made to do what all I need to do as I outlined above. 

I guess these are my options.  1.  Keep the Liberty and get a car that I could zoom around town in and use the Liberty to tow my boat, camper etc.  2.  Trade the Liberty in on a larger SUV.  3.  Buy some cross over hybrid SUV and hope it holds up.  If you have time, throw your $.02 in the ring.   I’m torn.