That said, you only have three days to make submissions to Intuit’s ‘Just Start’ contest.  Per the Just Start web site:

Enter the contest, it’s easy. Tell us what you’ll Just Start. Fact, fiction or fantasy. What have you always dreamed of doing? What are you resigning from and moving towards? And, how will the Just Start grant ($50k) help you strike out on your own?

Hey, I’ll take $40,000 in cash and $10,000 in assistance to get a business off the ground. Oh, who am I kidding, I’ll take the $5,000 prize too. I’m not picky! While winning is likely a long shot, I decided to take advantage of the opportunity and made four of my own submissions.

• Fantasy Camp and Adventure Planning

• Going to the Dogs

• Connecting with the Elderly

• Solutions for Seniors

For anyone that is interested, you can click on the above links to find out more about each submission. If you are feeling extra generous, you can go ahead and signup, rate my submissions and even comment on them. The evaluation of entries is being conducted by a panel of three judges and the five finalists will be announced on January 7th.

Whatever the outcome, it was a fun exercise. You have until December 15th (11:59:59 p.m. PT) to make your own submissions, so get going! Oh, and read the rules.

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About a month ago a Verizon sales rep was going door to door in my neighborhood pitching their FiOS service. After listening to her pitch, I decided to sign up for the $29.99/month offer which includes the installation and first month free. I decided to start with the 5/2Mbps for now but may upgrade to the 15/2Mbps for $10/month more at some point. Not a week later they had a subcontractor out to hook up the fiber cable from the distribution box to my house. They left the fiber that protruded from the ground neatly coiled, with the rest buried very cleanly.

I setup an appointment for this past Friday for a service technician to come and install the ONT. I was given a window of 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. and was told the installation could take anywhere from four to six hours.

I received a call at about 8:15 from the service technician notifying me that she was about ten to fifteen minutes away from my house. When she arrived she asked to see where my computer was, and where the closest power outlet was in relation to where the ONT would be installed. After that she quickly outlined the steps she would take during the installation:

• Mount the ONT box outside the house
• Setup the ONT Power Supply Unit / Battery Backup Unit
• Run the line inside and install a RJ45 jack
• Setup the router and connect the line to the jack
• Setup the account

She handed me the welcome kit to look through and got to work. Three hours later, everything was done. The only snag came when the phone initially had no dial tone but was quickly rectified with a phone call, a walk to the ONT box.

The ONT ended up being mounted adjacent to the electric meter, the ONT Power Supply Unit was placed just inside the back door in a fairly inconspicuous location, the RJ45 jack installed beside an existing electrical outlet, and the cable lines the baseboards until it reaches the router located on my desk.

At one point during the install I asked the technician what her longest install was. She told me that the installs she has done in the multi-million dollar homes in McLean have taken her the longest, with one taking all of twelve hours.

All in all I was pleased with the entire process and was minimally inconvenienced. I’ve heard the most difficult and sometimes problematic aspect is the activation but mine was a breeze. So now that I’ve ditched Cox and moved on to FiOS, here’s to consistent high speed and lower latency!

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After exploring alternative options and further contemplation (having already received one dud), I decided to give Dell a second chance. This time I ordered an XPS 400 instead of a Dimension E310. I placed my order on Tuesday morning, and by Thursday evening the computer had already arrived. I was once again impressed with the quick turnaround in their fulfillment and shipping of my order, especially since their anticipated ship date wasn’t until January 31st.

After I unpacked, set up, and made sure everything was functional, I decided to wipe the hard drive to get rid of all of the bloatware (which is quite extensive) and Windows XP Media Center, and put a fresh install of Windows XP Professional on instead. That ended up being more of an ordeal than anticipated, requiring me to create and tweak a Windows XP Service Pack 2 slipstream and then walking through the following steps that I found after scouring the Dell Support Forums:

1. Create an XP SP2 slipstream CD to boot
2. In BIOS, Change SATA Config to “Combination”
3. In BIOS, Change Video display from “PEG” to “PCI”
4. Boot XP Pro + SP2 slipstream CD, and install Windows XP Professional
5. After XP install finishes, change BIOS Video display settings back to “PEG”
6. Install chipset and other drivers from Dell support web site (for an XPS 400, in my case)

After finally getting Windows XP Professional installed, everything was smooth sailing. The system is fast, quiet, and so far, stable!

I built my previous system (AMD Thunderbird 1.2Ghz) back in the summer of 2000 and it held up great in the five and half years since. Having had some success building a computer before, I know I could have gone that route again and probably gotten a little more bang for my buck. Instead, I opted to go with Dell because of the convenience and more importantly, because of their financing plan. I also entertained the idea of ordering from iBuyPower and CyberPower, as I’ve heard good things about both, but Dell’s one-year no-interest financing ultimately won me over.

Time will be the deciding factor as to whether or not Dell has redeemed themselves (as far as their dealings with me are concerned), but so far, they are off to a good start.

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I finally have an update to report on my earlier post regarding my bad experience with Dell. After weeks of playing phone tag, I finally received an email from Dell indicating that I have been credited for my return, minus all applicable restocking and shipping fees. I called and left one final message requesting some clarification on the situation since I had yet to speak to an actual person.

Today, I had a message waiting for me from the Dell Customer Service Rep on my machine when I got home from work. She stated that the Dell web site does in fact state that their technical support must determine if the problem was a defect for the restocking fee to be waived, however due to the circumstances, they would go ahead and waive it for me.But if you look at the Dell Return Policy linked from their Returns page:

Restocking Fees: Unless the product is defective or the return is a direct result of a Dell error, a restocking fee of 15% may be charged on hardware, accessories, peripherals, parts and unopened software still in its/their sealed package, and on software that has not been downloaded if the software is delivered electronically.

I still say it was defective, but at a minimum the problem was a result of a Dell error. Regardless, I see no mention of technical support needing to intervene. I still think their Return Policy is misleading and should be revised. Don’t get me wrong, I’m pleased that they waived the restocking fee for me in the end, but it wasn’t without my forcing the issue.

On a related note, I came across this post over at BuzzMachine.

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So today is Christmas Eve. and I’m visiting with my parents. Outside of running to the store for a couple last minute gifts, I plan to spend the day snacking on some of mom’s baking goodness, and watching a lot of football (Go Redskins!).

I was just doing inventory on my Christmas purchases, and realized that I had bought roughly half of my gifts online, and the other half in retail stores. I guess I was surprised since I a lot of the purchases I make throughout the year, I make online. It got me to thinking about previous speculation about how online shopping will eventually eliminate physical stores, as it will be more convenient for consumers and cheaper for the seller. I think we have a long way to go before this happens, if ever. I think there are many reasons why people like to go to the store to shop, and many of those reasons have yet to be thoroughly addressed:

• Tangible factor - People like to touch, to hold, to try on items before purchasing.clothes before buying.
• Social factor - Some people like to interact, whether its to ask store personnel questions, or just being around other shoppers.
• Trust factor - With all of the media coverage of hacking, spamming, spoofing, and phishing, there are those who are weary of shopping online, and others who abstain entirely.
• Now factor - People are impatient, and don’t want to wait for shipping. Why wait until next week to receive your purchase when you can drive to the store and pick it up now? Even if people did move toward making most of their purchases online, would the shipping infrastructure be able to handle it?

I think we will continue to move toward more of a hybrid of the two (ie. L.L. Beans’ Dressing Room, where you can create and save a 3d model of yourself or whoever you are shopping for, specifying the person’s physical characteristics including hair color and skin tone, height, weight, etc. Next, you can dress your model and see how outfits that you create look on a person with the specifications you provided). I can see this evolving to a point where you could then send the outfits that you have chosen on to a retail store in your vicinity, so that you could simply drive up and pick up your order.

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