I didn't realize today was my second blog anniversary until I got up in the afternoon and read Dave's posts.  Big thanks to Dave and Jeff for noticing.

I was getting a little annoyed with myself in the past few weeks because both quality and quantity of my posts have suffered lately.  Maybe it was the anniversary things.

More bad shopping experiences.  Recently, I bought Plantronics MX10, an phone amplifier that connects to computer for multimedia works and VOIP, along with a Telex H-51 headset.  Actually, I got the Hello Direct Virtuoso before that but returned it in favor of MX10.

When I received it, I realized that MX10 requires headsets with a special type of connector called Quick-Disconnect (QD).  Note that Quick-Disconnect headsets are two to 9 times more expensive than normal computer headsets.  After a bit of grumbling, I ordered a Symphony headset from Headsets.com because it was cheaper than Plantronics headsets of comparable quality.

When I got the Symphony headset, I hooked it all up but couldn't hear the dial tone.  Hmm.  I tested the headset by hooking it up directly to my phone.  There wasn't any problem with the headset.  I tried everything, even talking to Plantronics' very nice clueless tech person.  Only conclusion I could make was that MX10 was defective.  So off it went back to Amazon.

Today, the replacement MX10 arrived.  I hooked it all up again but same symtoms.  I switched to a different phone and was rewarded with very distant dial tone.  Amplifier that weakens signal?  I called Headsets.com tech support this time and got the disgusting insider news:

Headsets and phone amplifiers from different manufacturers are not compatible with each other although they all use Quick-Disconnect connectors.

Huh?  That means Plantronics amplifiers like MX10 works only with Plantronics headsets and Symphony headsets will work only with Symphony amplifiers.  The fact that they use same connector form factor is just meaningless.

Totally disgusted, I packed up everything except the Telex H-51 and scheduled a UPS pickup tommorrow.  Since I ordered a telephony enabled modem with my new computer, I am gonna use that instead of fancy but insane phone equipment.  I don't know why I haven't thought of this before.  After all, I have written a sophisticated telephony app for a client nearly ten years ago.  Maybe I'll even write a telephony app that will put these crappy companies out of business.

I guess others liked Dave's post about his dawn walk along Florida's one great fcuking beach, one thousand miles long stretch of sand.  I thought about sending Dave a thank you note for that post, but work got to me.

Hey, Dave.  Don't fix that typo.  I lvoe it like that. ;-)  Oh yeah.  Thanks for that great post, man.  It made me want to drive to Half Moon Bay in the morning, but my lazy butt open the chute just in time.

Dell is driving me nuts.

I ordered Dell's 8400 desktop a week ago and it's schedule to be shipped on 27th of this month.  I didn't want to spend that much so I got a moderate CPU (3.2GHz P4), so so storage (250G), non-gamer's video card (ATI X300SE), and 2G of speedy memory.  X300SE was intended to be just a placeholder for a better graphics card later.  Audio card?  Whatever came with the motherboard.

Just now I checked the price and found that I could get faster CPU (3.4GHz), moderate gamer's graphics card (ATI X800 SE), and top of the line audio card (Audigy2?) for the same price!  I have bought countless computers before and I have learned to live with price drops.  But seeing such drastic price drops even before the box ships is too much to bear.

So I cancelled the order and came over to my blog to vent some frustration.  At this rate, I'll keep on cancelling my orders until there is a severe component shortage.  If there are more people like me, I think companies like Dell will have to offer price adjustements at the time of shipment.  Heck, it's not the money.  It's the ol' feeling of getting shafted loyally in real time.

Update:

I went ahead with the new order and got free 2nd shipping as well which means it will arrive about the same time as my previous order would have arrived.  Nice.

I am starting to understand a little more of how my wife feels when she hounds local mall clerks into making up differences whenever there is a sale.  I couldn't believe it when I first heard of it.  She buys something for X and, if store lowers the price to Y sometime later, then she somehow talk them into coughing up X-Y.  What I don't understand is why US economy doesn't collapse with shoppers like her around.

Update 2:

Aha!  I found the culprit behind the sudden price drop.  Intel cut the price of its CPUs by as much as 35% on August 23rd.  Since Dell had a fairly large number of customers waiting to receive 8400 desktops, I think many of them will cancel their orders to take advantage of the price drop.

Yesterday, my family went to Palo Alto IKEA store to get a new desk for my son because he will be starting junior highschool this fall.  Last IKEA I visited was in Berkeley, so this was my first visit to this store.  Parking was confusing but we had fun; chief Don leading his tribe through the jungle of furnitures and people.  Desks were cheap so I let my son have his pick.  Thankfully, he chose a corner desk that costs only $129.  Chairs, however, weren't cheap and there weren't many choices in the 'reasonable' range.  So we punted on the chair for now.

Today, my wife and I put the desk together.  Hmm.  The desk looked much bigger than it seemed at IKEA.  Maybe they should put warning labels around IKEA showrooms:

Furnitures May Be Bigger Than They Appear at IKEA.

While recouperating from IKEA Aftermath, I ordered some Moleskine notebooks from ShipTheWeb, one for each member of the family, to complete the shopping cliche.  Frankly, I immensely enjoy not shopping but I don't mind sacrificing my virtues to make lasting impressions on my son.

Dear Kerry,

Please stop trying to win the upcoming election and focus on making Bush lose instead.  Stop trying to tell me what I want to hear.  Saying what you believe in will make it much easier to appear consistent.  My primary reason for voting for you is Bush.  IMHO, no one could possibly screw up this nation worse than Bush regardless of political beliefs.

I want Bush out and someone else in.  That means you but you are not making it easy.  If there is anything I hate more than an idiot with power to affect my life, it is a two faced snake.  Don't screw up by trying to say what your political consultants think I want to hear this week.  Go watch the movie High Noon and do what Gary Cooper did in the movie.  That's exactly what I want, a lone stoic man with a mission from us all.

Sincerely,

Don Park

Diego posts that the Allais Effect, a yet to be explained effect solar eclipse has on mechanical systems affected by gravitation, was confirmed to be real by a recent experiment (PDF) and several conventional explanations were ruled out.

Very intriguing because the phenomenon is at odd with Einstein's General Relativity theory.  But then they are chasing shadows, aren't they? ;-p

Looks like Google stock is going to finally start trading tommorrow at $85.  Frankly, I don't know what all the hoopa over the IPO is about.  First of all, I don't think there is a real customer loyalty for Google.  Google is just a tool that became popular enough for the company name to become a verb.  Utility does not make customer loyalty nor brand value IMHO.

Google's search engine was effective in the past but it has failed to keep up with the changing environment such as the rising level of noise introduced by search engine optimization (SEO) hacks and blogging.  Big IPO means new competitors will spring up to pull a google on Google and, if they offer better results than Google, I expect Google users will happily flock out of Google's grasp.

Gmail is interesting but I think trying to make money off private information is like playing with fire.  Besides, others can and are doing the same.  Desktop search has more interesting possibilities, but they are vulnerable to counterattacks by Apple and Microsoft.

Finally, Orkut left a bad taste in my mouth.  I was favorable in the past toward Google's habit of offering experimental services, but those service didn't require me to invest substantial amount of time and attention.  Orkut did and I now feel like a spent laboratory rat.  While some people might laugh at Friendster, at least they are trying earnestly to make something out of it.

So, I am sending Google IPO to the null device.

I got back from camping yesterday but I am still recovering from resting and enjoying the quietness of the aftermath, a zone I like to call Backspace.

You are a workaholic if you have to recover from resting.

BTW, I registered for BloggerCon III.  There is room for only 300 attendents, so register if you haven't.