I just did a few upgrades. I added Facebook, Twitter, and Google+ like buttons. I also completely replaced the original WordPress comments system with the Facebook comments system. The upgrades will make my blog easier to use and more interactive. There is a drawback, all of the old/original comments are gone. Especially, the helpful osCommerce module related comments. I am sorry I that inconveniences anyone.

eBay is taking more nowadays. After selling off a few extra items I noticed that eBay took a fee off of my S/H charges. If you look into their final value fees, you’ll see this:

Here’s a simple example of a final value fee calculation for an auction-style listing:

• You sell an item for $95.00 with a shipping cost of $5.00.
• Your final value fee on the item cost is 9% of $95,00, which is $8.55.
• Your final value fee on the shipping cost is 9% of $5.00, which is $0.45.

It’s the same thing as: item cost + shipping cost * 9%, which equals: total value * 9%. No wonder they aren’t charging an insertion fee any more; they simple raised rates all around. Then add on PayPal fees (~5%), which means eBay nearly takes 15%. Some seller are paying 20%+, WOW!

Just thought I would rant a little to spread the word around to all you unsuspecting eBay sellers…

About 2 weeks ago I bought 4 pairs of eyeglasses from ZenniOptical.com and got them about a week. Ordering from them was a cinch and enjoyable. But (there’s always a but), when 2 the pairs that were for me ran a little small; the other 2 were for the kids and fit them perfectly. One of the was a medium (#730712) and bearable but the other which was supposed to be medium/large (#730712) but actually smaller than the medium.

Immediately I emailed support asking for a refund. But they said, “after your return has been processed by our office, you will receive a refund in the amount of fifty percent of the production cost of the returned glasses. We do not reimburse for shipping and handling. So, I asked if I could exchange? Again they repeated that it was my fault and should have read the sizing instructions, which I did! Additionally I had already ordered from them before:

The brown case and pair to the right are from an older ZenniOptical.com order; IMO when their quality was much better. Look at the cases they give you now, about half the size of the original. They really cram them in there. I digressed a little didn’t I? As stated they didn’t care I am a repeat customer or the fact that they glasses I got for myself were bought as spares and dirt cheap. Why would I scam them over $15? Additionally, of the four I bought these were the cheapest! Oh, the photographic proof of their mislabeling/sizing:

No more buying them for me, especially after what I just went through. I know it’s only $15, but its the principle of it all… how easily they took my money but can careless if they made a sizing mistake. So, be careful if you are thinking about ordering from them. Oh, by the way I’ll be keeping them because it just doesn’t make sense: $15+s/h, return for 50% ($7.50)-s/h costs(3.75)=3.75. That means I paid $12 and some change for their sizing mistake and end up with nothing!

[rating:2/5]

-Thuan

I have been using Ooma now for about a year. Initially the free line was going to take over our land-line. I ended up keeping our land-line for emergency reasons.  You know… in case our internet and all our cellphones go bad, lol. No matter how you look at it the Ooma beats having to pay $30+ monthly for unlimited nationwide calling, 3-way calling, caller ID, call waiting, and more.

Admittedly, it has its ups and down. To use the line as a fax number, I had to tweak the system a little. If you are using any Voice over IP type of system, you should really give Ooma a try… it’ll save you hundreds of dollar a year! Whatever you do though, don’t buy their Telo headset. It’s a piece of junk that has little features, low volume, and poor clarity. (Update: If you get the Telo headset, you get the instant second line… free.)

Ooma support seems to be outsourced and utterly useless. They’ll just repeat what is on the Ooma website. If you have any problems with an Ooma go to their forums, you find your answer there. Oh, BTW, I have had to RMA my first one already because I stopped work after two weeks.

Long story short, Ooma is great when it is works. There is a small learning curve and once you have it set up right, everything will be great.

One more thing, there are two versions of Ooma, the Hub and Telo. The Telo is the later version and looks slicker, but comes with an annual tax of approximately $11.

[rating:4.5/5]

If you anyone gets these errors from Dotnetnuke Forum Stored Procedures…

Msg 207, Level 16, State 1, Procedure Forum_AA_StatisticsSiteUpdate, Line 64
Invalid column name ‘IsPrivate’.
Msg 207, Level 16, State 1, Procedure Forum_AA_StatisticsSiteUpdate, Line 78
Invalid column name ‘IsPrivate’.
Msg 207, Level 16, State 1, Procedure Forum_ForumUserViewsUpdate, Line 0
Invalid column name ‘LastForumsView’.

This is because the table columns were changed without updating their relevant stored procedures. After looking at the stored procs and the table structures, it seems that:

IsPrivate is now PublicView &
LastForumsView is now LastActivity.

Changing the variables mentioned temporarily fixed my problems.

HTHs,
Thuan

It was just a few years back when Trillian dominated the IM scene, that was when they didn’t require an additional account. Trillian 3 was the last of its kind, or at least I thought so for a while.

To be frank, if I were forced to sign up for a new account I would rather use Meebo. Meebo is another popular AIO IM platform, their thing is that you don’t have to install anything; all you need is an Internet connection to get going with them. Still a new account is required if you want to see all your clients in one place.

But after some searching, I found Pidgin. Pidgin, the universal chat client is exactly what Trillian 3 was and my new favorite AIO IM program. Pidgin is an easy to use and free chat client used by millions. Connect to AIM, MSN, Yahoo, and more chat networks all at once. It is simple to use and light on resources. So, if you are on the hunt for a new chat client.

Give Pidgin a try…

“IM all your friends in one place.”

It’s a real annoyance when you have a really bad memory. Yesterday for example, I forgot how to switch to Folder List View in Outlook. It is an option that I can’t live without, so  it is pretty important. And it took me over half an hour to find it again. Why is that? Well, it’s because the view isn’t in an obvious place, under the “View” tab. It actually isn’t under any of the tabs. It resides in an icon, the little folder icon on the bottom, left or of the corner! Someone…  should really fix this problem. It shouldnt be so hard to find… bad memory or not!

Okay, I feel better now. 🙂