I got these Dell coupon codes in the mail and won't be able to use them before they expire (on Dec. 17) Go for it!

Save $350 on Latitude and Vostro laptops - DT24JGR1DPMW0L

30% off most Dell color laser printers - 9$F6JPHGJ0DJS?

20% off most monitors, TVs, and desktop & laptop accessories - 4VR8602$R7?NT7

Please post a comment if you use one so others don't waste their time trying to use them...

www.dell.com

We just got a bounced check back from our bank for a Checker Auto mail in rebate we had deposited. Apparently, Continental Promotion Group has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. I love it that we were hit with at $5 fee on a $12 check because it bounced.
I found this news story that explains how Costco is dealing with the situation. To summarize, don't deposit your rebate check unless you talk to the store where the rebate originated first.

According to this AP article, Detroit CEOs save more than $15k by driving instead of flying to Washington D.C. One thing they neglect to factor in is the time required to drive. The 14+ hours of CEO travel time saved by flying is valued at $0 according to the article.

Is their time worth more than $1k/hr? I don't know, but mine is definitely worth more than $0/hr.

First of all let me say - I'm a good driver (yeah, we all think that.) I'm alert. I drive the speed limit (which sometimes drives my wife crazy.) I've only gotten 2 tickets in my life and the last one was over 7 years ago (it's amazing what having kids does to you.)
I started riding a motorcycle this year and it has been a real eye opener to how many bad drivers there are out there. I'd like to share what I've learned with you.
On a motorcycle, you don't have a big metal frame to protect you in case of an accident. In an accident you always lose. As a result, I'm much more alert and aware of what other drivers are doing. I try to be ready for worst case scenarios as I'm driving and give myself plenty of space between me and other vehicles.

As I'm paying closer attention to driver behavior, I have found that about 85% of the time someone was driving like an idiot poorly, they were distracted by talking on their mobile phone. I have decided to reduce my cell phone usage while driving even further. I already don't use my phone much when I'm driving so it won't be too big of a stretch. An officer in traffic school (over 10 years ago) reminded me that when you're driving a car your primary responsibility is driving, everything else is secondary. Pull over if you need to yell at your child pick up that toy for your child. Don't think you can turn around and do it while you're driving because you're a good driver.

Drunk drivers have always angered me. I'd think to myself, "How can they think it's a good idea to get behind the wheel while they're drunk?" But I've come to better understand one of their justifications. It goes something like this, "I'm such a good driver that I can handle it." The same justification goes for those who talk on cell phones while driving. Many studies have shown that talking on a cell phone is as dangerous as drunk driving (here's one.) By the way, 80% of drivers think they're above average - hmmm, you do the math on that.

Here is my pledge to drive with fewer distractions:

1. I will not talk on my phone while driving unless I'm doing it hands-free and even then I'll use discretion.
2. I will never compose or send text messages while driving.
3. I will not even look at my phone unless the driving situation is low risk (i.e. no nearby cars, not residential area, not approaching intersections, ...)

Obviously, I will take exception to these rules in case of an emergency. Me running late for an appointment is not an emergency.

What this means to me:

• I'm going to be a safer driver on the road.
• I might be yelling/gesturing/honking at you if you're driving like an idiot and have a phone up to your ear.
• My chances of making it home alive have increased dramatically.

What this means to you:

• If you call me and I'm driving, I may not answer. Leave a message or send me a text message, it's nothing personal.
• One more driver out there is more aware of what's going on and less likey to be in an accident with you.
• I challenge you to do the same and remove or reduce any distractions you have while driving.

Thanks for letting me rant a little and I hope you take a moment to think about how you can be a safer driver.

Here's a quick video on the tanker crash near my sister's home. There are a few short snippets of their interview with her.

I was just made aware that Dr. Pepper will be giving away a free 20-ounce soda to anyone that wants one. This according to their promise to give a free soda to everyone in America if the Guns N' Roses album, "Chinese Democracy" was released in 2008. The album goes on sale Sunday.
Beginning Sunday at 12:01 a.m. coupons for your free soda will be available on Dr. Pepper's website.

Original news story here
I'm not much of a Dr. Pepper fan (I'm more of a Dew man), but I'll take a free soda. Thank you very much.

There are a lot of backup services out there on the internet so I thought I'd do a quick writeup of my favorite. Here are 10 reasons why you should use Mozy Unlimited Backup for your computer backups.

1. Ease of use - Their software is easy to setup. After the inital setup, there is zero effort required by you for your backups to function. If you do need to restore a single file, it's easy: just browse to it in your backup list and restore it. If you need to restore all of your files, you can grab a zip file of all your files from their website.
2. Cost - If you have less than 2GB of files to backup, the service is free. From 2GB and up, the service is $4.95/month. That's right, for $4.95/month, you can backup unlimited files (on a single computer.)
3. Cross platform - Works on both Windows and Mac (and I heard they'll have a Linux version someday, but I'm not getting my hopes up.)
4. Security - All communication is done over SSL (just like your banking websites.) In addition to that, your files are encrypted prior to being sent over the internet (and are stored encrypted.) If you're extra paranoid like me, you can even use your own key to encrypt the files. But beware if you use your own key it will be required to restore files - even Mozy won't be able to help you restore files without your key.
5. Past file versions - Let's say you butchered some changes to a file and wanted to get back the version you had 3 days ago. With Mozy you can do that!
6. Doesn't slow down your computer - The resources used by Mozy are small and you can custom configure them even further so that it will run when your computer is idle. I prefer to schedule backups to run in the middle of the night so they can use all of my internet bandwidth to get the backups done quickly (I leave my computers on all the time.)
7. Block-level incremental backups - Don't doze off at the techno-jargon. This is particularly useful if you are backing up your huge Outlook .pst file (or any larges file that you may have.) Any time you receive an email, that huge file is modified. Other online backup services will require that the entire file be uploaded during a backup. With Mozy only the changes to the file are uploaded, thus decreasing backup time and bandwidth usage.
8. Durable company - Mozy is owned by a very large data storage company (EMC is worth approx.$20B.) They're not going away any time soon.
9. Your hard drive is going to die - When it comes to hard drives, failure isn't a matter of if, but when. That external hard drive you're using for backups right now is going to fail. If your house burns down, it will die a horrible death at the same time as the hard drive in your computer. You need your data backed up offsite.
10. My mother uses it - She's been using it for over a year now, and if Mozy is good enough for her, isn't it good enough for you?

Our company uses Yammer so everyone can stay in touch and post status updates easily. One problem we've had is that the IM component wouldn't work with our google talk accounts (we use Google Apps for our domain.) I discovered here that all we needed were some additional entries in DNS.
After following that doc, our settings for that service are as follows (trimmed for readability):

$ dig SRV _xmpp-server._tcp.familylink.com.
...
;; ANSWER SECTION:
_xmpp-server._tcp.familylink.com. 600 IN SRV    5 0 5269 xmpp-server.l.google.com.
_xmpp-server._tcp.familylink.com. 600 IN SRV    20 0 5269 xmpp-server1.l.google.com.
_xmpp-server._tcp.familylink.com. 600 IN SRV    20 0 5269 xmpp-server2.l.google.com.
_xmpp-server._tcp.familylink.com. 600 IN SRV    20 0 5269 xmpp-server3.l.google.com.
_xmpp-server._tcp.familylink.com. 600 IN SRV    20 0 5269 xmpp-server4.l.google.com.
...

$ dig SRV _jabber._tcp.familylink.com.
...
;; ANSWER SECTION:
_jabber._tcp.familylink.com. 600 IN     SRV     5 0 5269 xmpp-server.l.google.com.
_jabber._tcp.familylink.com. 600 IN     SRV     20 0 5269 xmpp-server1.l.google.com.
_jabber._tcp.familylink.com. 600 IN     SRV     20 0 5269 xmpp-server2.l.google.com.
_jabber._tcp.familylink.com. 600 IN     SRV     20 0 5269 xmpp-server3.l.google.com.
_jabber._tcp.familylink.com. 600 IN     SRV     20 0 5269 xmpp-server4.l.google.com.
...

After making those changes, I was able to go into my yammer account and add my google talk account like normal. I assume the same thing will work with Twitter, if you use a google apps account for that (assuming IM is working on Twitter, which it hasn't for months for me.)

It's an easy fix for Yammer with your Google Apps account. I'm also in the process of setting up yammer for my family's domain so we can stay in touch more easily. I think the thing I love most about Yammer is that I can send/receive updates from my phone.

Keep an eye out for some upcoming blog posts about ways to stay connected with your family (hint: Yammer is one of them)

Quicken just announced that Quicken Online is now free. It was previously just $2.99 month and was worth every penny. Now you have no excuse to not start budgeting online.
For $0.00/month, you get:

• automatic transaction download from your bank/credit card accounts
• bill reminders and alerts (I like to have alerts setup so I'm notified if any transactions come through over a certain dollar amount)
• mobile access to your current account information through any internet enabled phone
• and more...

They say they have some cool new features in the works (to be released at the end of this month.) I've been using it for about a year now and really like its simplicity and accuracy. Now I really like its price.

Check it out!

As of late, my American Express card is getting a little worn out. I've found that I often have to swipe it a few times to get it to work and sometimes it won't work at all. I do know a nice trick that a cashier once taught me: Try folding a piece of paper over the card being sure it covers the magnetic stripe then swipe it, I'm surprised at how well this works!
I called American Express today to get a replacement card, was done with the call in less than 3 minutes and they said that the new card will be delivered tomorrow. The woman that assisted me on the phone was pleasant. How's that for service?