I noticed this blog over the weekend. I thought this entry was amusing:

LateShowWritersOnStrike.Com

Everyone at the Late Show is hoping to get back to work as soon as possible.
Unfortunately, in the six weeks since we went off the air, it looks like there
have been some changes that might hinder our return.

The videos on StayAtHomeServer.com, promoting Windows Home Server really crack me up.

My favorite so far has been: “Home Sweet Server“.

There’s even a “book” you flip through:

This year I decided to try and get more organized with my finances - especially with regards to investments which I had previously tracked in Excel. I went to Costco and bought Quicken Premier 2008 which handles ESPP (Employee Stock Purchase Plans). Why not Microsoft Money? Well, because I had been a long time Quicken for Mac user, so I’m just used to it - inertia and all that.

(FWIW, I was never able to successfully migrate my Mac Quicken data to Windows Quicken, but that’s another post.)

Unfortunately, it appears that Quicken Premier 2008 is incompatible with Microsoft’s ESPP. You see, Microsoft simply gives a discount on the Grant Ending Date price, whereas many (most?) other companies give a discount on the lower of the Grant Beginning Date or Grant Ending Date price.

The problem is that Quicken validates the data for the more common scenario. Here’s a hypothetical entry into Quicken’s ESPP Wizard:

Observe that the Price/Share (26.52) is 10% less than the Price/Share of the Grant End Date (29.47). If you click Done, this is what happens:

Drat!

I sure wish they would eliminate this check, but I could see why it’s important.

In the meantime, I’m not sure how to workaround this. I’m pretty sure there’s no combination of data that I can enter here to trick the wizard into closing and keep the integrity of my data.

I guess I can’t use this ESPP feature, which is unfortunate as this was a major selling point for me.

Any one from Intuit care to take a stab at fixing this in an upcoming release please?

Oh, and if you’re in the mood to fix a bug, could you please fix this:

It’s pretty frustrating that the year column is always truncated, and that the columns are not adjustable. I have to mouse over to get tool tips to appear.

A few months ago, Saiwing clued me in on a add on for FireFox called Snap Links. I’ve found this to be a very useful add on - and I install it on all my machines.

Snap Links basically enables this scenario:

1. See a bunch links on a web page that you want to explore.
2. Right click, drag, and draw a lasso over all those links.
3. Watch as those links all open into separate tabs.

I’ve found this especially useful lately for shopping. For example, if you go to Polo.com’s men’s sale section, it lists all the sub categories of things that are on sale. With Snap Links, with one drag of the mouse, I can open all the sub categories into separate tabs to make my shopping more efficient. Here’s a screenshot of it in action:

As soon as let go of the right click, BAM!, all those categories are opened into their own tabs. Pretty neat.

FWIW, the add ons I always install in FireFox are:

1. Tab Mix Plus
2. Snap Links
3. Google Browser Sync
4. FireBug
5. Blog This in Windows Live Writer
6. IE Tab

What are you favorite FireFox add ons?

Yesterday while driving to work, traffic suddenly slowed as everyone had to swerve an A-frame ladder that was in the middle lane of 101. Over the weekend I had to swerve on 280 at night as a few box tops flew off a pickup truck that incredibly overloaded with furniture. This summer I had to change lanes on 85 to avoid a kitchen cabinet door in the road. A co-worker of mine once talked about how a ladder fell out of a pickup truck in front of her - another co-worker of mine once talked about how a hammer fell out of the sky right in front of his car.

Granted, I never drove as much as I do now when I lived in the East Coast - but I really don’t remember seeing so much stuff in the roadway.

Coincidentally, I had just read this in the Merc recently:

San Jose Mercury News - Roadshow: Working to keep roadways free of trash

To report motorists who litter on state roads, county expressways and city streets in Santa Clara County, fire off an e-mail to stopvehiclelittering@sanjoseca.gov or call (408) 277-4111. A letter will be sent to the registered owner of the vehicle, hopefully shaming the guilty party into realizing their evil ways and the costs of littering. Caltrans spends about $40 million a year picking up trash statewide, about $15 million in the Bay Area.

Now granted, that’s probably about the trash on the sides of the roads - but still, that’s a lot of money picking up trash.

This also reminds me Maria Federici - for whom they passed a bill in Washington State. Basically, she was driving one night, and a 6×2 piece of an entertainment center crashed into her face leaving a big hole.

Beware of driving behind trailers and pickup trucks.

At the turn of the century (you know - 2001) a recurring complaint that I would hear is that software didn’t come with printed manuals anymore. I’m not in the boxed software space anymore, but I would assume that that line of complaints has been reduced.

Those who expect thick hefty manuals should consider buying an ultrabay battery for their ThinkPad. I got one recently to boost my ThinkPad T61 - and it’s worked out great. Here’s a photo of the cover of the manual:

And here’s a side profile picture, with a pen for comparison:

Now that’s a hefty manual for a battery!