Scott Elkin

A Parent Must Have: Flip Video Camcorder

scottelkin — Mon, 12 May 2008 00:21:00 GMT

Every parent goes through a video phase where they want to document their kids life. Most realize pretty fast that their $1,000 HD video camera purchase was a waste since:

It's a pain carrying around the video camera
Extemporanous moments don’t happen because to catch it you would be forced to shoot ALL the time.
No one wants to watch two hours of videos
Editing two hours of video takes a LONG time

So after the first video session, the video camera is forever left in the box. And if it is ever used, the video it produces just sits on a disc never to be edited.

For these reasons, I vowed to never carry one until I ran across the the Flip Video Ultra 60 Minute Camcorder. I bought it two weeks ago and am loving every minute of it.

It handles every single complaint and makes it a joy to take videos:

It is incredibly small – about the size of a large cell phone.
It only holds 60 minutes, so it trains you to shoot shorts videos
The USB dongle pops out the side, so all you do is plug it into your computer, edit the video (if you need to) and save it to your computer, then simply browse to YouTube or Flickr and upload your video.
There is only like three buttons, so if an event is about to happen, you turn it on, then press the big red “record” button all in about 5 seconds.
And best of all, it's only $130!

It was so cheap in fact, I also bought the waterproof case so that I can use it during swimming lessons.

The funny thing is, after I tell people how awesome it is, they ask me, "Does it shoot in HD?".

It's like we are so ingrained as consumers to buy the most tricked out gadget, we forget about real-world-ease-of-use.

"NO it does not do HD. This camera is all about FAST, CHEAP & EASY."

And after they use the camera and upload their first video in under a minute, they agree. HD would unnecessarily complicate a perfect device.

Here is an example from one hour ago. Because it is so small, I just always have it on me so that when a funny moment is about to occur, we are ready (I can't figure out how to embed from flickr):

http://www.flickr.com/photos/scottelkin/2484457911/

A definate 5 out of 5 stars in my book, and is now a staple next to my cell phone on any outing - no matter how mundane.

Now playing: Elbow - Friend Of Ours

Share this post: | | |

Ebay's Paypal Shipping Is Raping You

scottelkin — Thu, 08 May 2008 06:37:14 GMT

I just sold an old video camera on ebay for $203. The buyer paid via paypal, and normally my next step is to go into paypal to print the shipping information.

This time instead of presenting me with the buyers shipping information, Paypal prompted me to try to their new UPS Shipping solution. Paypal said they had worked out a special deal for their users, so I decided to try it.

For my 5 lb, 10” x 10” x 8” box, Paypal told me it would cost $21.40. I paid it, thinking I would just verify how much it should cost at the shipping place down the street.

I printed out the UPS label from Paypal.com, taped it to the box, and took it to the drop off.

I asked the guy there how much this *would* of cost if I had shipped it through him.

His answer? $14.40!

I called my buddy who does a lot of UPS shipping and he let me know of UPS shipping calculator of UPS.com that will tell you how much it *should* cost to ship. This way, he told me, you can find the exact amount you should pay if you went straight to a UPS center with no middle men.

So I found my UPS account (I have a UPS account?) and created a shipment.

After all my configuring, UPS said it should cost $12.62!

To compare apples to appeles, I was able to save $2.70 because Paypal automatically declared $203 of the package, which wasn’t necessary when you are insured for $200 for free on every shipment.

But at least UPS tells me the breakdown of the payment, so I can intellegently figure it out.

But even still, the fact that paypal is raping me almost $7 on a $15 shipment makes me want to puke.

Now playing: Juliette and the Licks - Killer

Share this post: | | |

How to Eat in the Apple Store

scottelkin — Tue, 06 May 2008 16:50:10 GMT

I just happened to look and see Phoenix doing this out of the corner of my eye. It turns out he was doing this each time I gave him another cheesy.

Share this post: | | |

Google Reader Broken In Firefox

scottelkin — Tue, 06 May 2008 16:14:50 GMT

Google unveiled their new “Notes” feature yesterday, and ever since I can’t use it in Firefox 2 (even Safe Mode).

This is what I see:

The errors below it are:

in file 1104796821-en-scr... (line 205)
missing } after function body
var Zs="entry-via-link";Qs.prototype.gC=function(a,b){if(!a||a.length==0)return;...

in file reading-list (line 111)
_FR_scrollMain is not defined
var userId = "GR-" + parseInt(_USER_ID, 10).toString(16);

Now playing: Nine Inch Nails - Letting You

Share this post: | | |

Twittering Samantha's Delivery

scottelkin — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 15:47:19 GMT

In order to keep everyone updated as often as they want to be informed, I am twittering the pregnancy from this stage forward. This way, those that want the most up to date info can get it, and I can send updates easily from my phone no matter where I am.

follow scottelkin at http://twitter.com

Share this post: | | |

Nasty IIS/ASP Querystring Cookie Case Bug

scottelkin — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 20:53:23 GMT

I just stumbled on a nasty, nasty ASP bug that took about 7 years for me to see.

The problem happens when using cookies and querystrings with the same name. A page on the site reads in a variable from the querystring and sets a cookie with the same name to its value, e.g.:

        strSrc = Request.QueryString("A")
        Response.Cookies("A") = strSource
        Response.Cookies("A").Expires = Now + (2 * 30)

However, if the variable name in the query string is different from the capitalization of the cookie name (e.g page.asp?a=xxx) then a new cookie gets set with the name matching the captialization of the
QueryString variable.

So if you run the page multiple ways, a=123 and A=123, two different cookies are set EVEN THOUGH YOUR CODE SAYS Response.Cookies("A") = strSource!

Attempting to read the cookie value back then returns both values. Reading the cookie value via Request.ServerVariables("HTTP_COOKIE") shows both values.

If your code is looking for the “A” cookie later on and there are two cookes there, you will only see the “A” one, which may not be the one you want.

Since I ran into this, I did see other complain about this as far back as 2003: here, here, here.

Tags: ASP, IIS, programming, cookies, querystring, bug, microsoft

Share this post: | | |

Mike Goldberg Quotes

scottelkin — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 20:28:43 GMT

“Travis Lutter is the Michael Jordan of Brazilian Jiu-jitsu!”
- Mike Goldberg

“Matt and Mark (Hughes) used to pound each other on the farm as young boys.”
– Mike Goldberg

Tags: mma, ufc, bjj

Share this post: | | |

Blackberry Dead Battery Problem

scottelkin — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 18:22:49 GMT

Since I bought my Blackberry 8830 from Sprint, I have been on and off having a dead battery half way through my day. In fact, just last week I thought of taking it back.

I had noticed that I would take my phone out of my pocket and it would be slightly warm, like it was working while I thought it was off. That still didn’t lead me anywhere productive. I would just pop my battery out and in, and it seemed to fix it.

Then yesterday, when I was closing my Sprint Navigation, I wondering if that was the cause. I called my friend Alan, and asked him how he exiting out of it.

“I hit the ‘Back’ button, and it asks me if I want to exit. Why, what do YOU do?”

With the Treo 700, the way I would exit a running application would be the red hangup button. That was the only way to “close” it.

But the Blackberry also gives us the “Back” button, which sits next to the hangup button.

I told Alan that I had been using the hang-up button to exit. It was then that I realized that this was just closing it allowing it to run in the background. When I would click back on the icon, it would start where I left off.

The back button, on the other hand, backs you completely out of the program and actually asks you “Do you want to Exit this program?”.

This was why my battery was dead half way through the day. The GPS would run the entire day, and drain the battery.

So remember, use Back to exit – not the Hang Up!

Tags: Blackberry

Share this post: | | |

The 200 Dollar PC Christmas

scottelkin — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 17:33:39 GMT

It certainly seems to be shaping up to be a Christmas filled with $200 Computers:

OLPC:

(Although you will have to buy 2 – one for you and one for charity - to own one.)
Walmart Green gPC:

(Already sold out on Walmart.com)
Asus eee Laptop:

(Who wouldn’t want a laptop for $200?)

Tags: asus+eee, eee, green+gPC, gPC, OLPC, Christmas, PC

Share this post: | | |

These Writer Strikes Are Stupid

scottelkin — Sun, 11 Nov 2007 00:35:00 GMT

For such an intellectual and talented group of people, they sure are being dumb. I mean, really, really, dumb.

They are trying to force the hand of the studios to pay them more money on future “estimated” revenue in a marketplace that doesn’t yet exist.

And up until Sunday, they were also asking an increase percentage of DVD sales. I say “up until Sunday” because they decided to give that up as a concession.

So, let’s see: Let’s give up a market that will make them money now and the foreseeable future and instead ask of a percentage of fictional, guesstimated, revenue.

Hey writers! WAKE THE HELL UP! Remember Bubble 1.0? Remember all the companies who went bankrupt trying to leverage unproven or “too-soon” technology?

Can you look around right now and see Bubble 2.0 video-related companies trying the same thing with prettier sites and STILL not making money?

I am not saying you shouldn’t try to negotiate for online percentages, but this is the wrong time. Negotiate for DVD’s now, and stipulate a negotation for online in a year or two. By then, we may see a real business model emerge and you will have some history of numbers to reference.

And if you have to “strike” because they won’t give in to your DVD demands, do something more productive than holding a sign. That may be what’s needed for Teamsters and Coal Miners, but you guys can work smarter. Band together and write your own darn shows and release them online. Show the studio’s that you dont necessarily need them. Others have.

Now playing: Bloc Party - Version 2.0

Tags: writers+strike, writer+strike, writers+guild, tv+writers, wga, strike

Share this post: | | |

15 Month Old Guitar Hero

scottelkin — Fri, 09 Nov 2007 06:44:25 GMT

Can I be any prouder?

Now playing: Angels & Airwaves - Everything's Magic

Tags: guitar+hero+III, guitar+hero, xbox

Share this post: | | |

WebTrends - Official Pricks

scottelkin — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 20:20:00 GMT

You may remember WebTrends from 10 years ago when they were just a web log analyzer. They would run reports based on your log files and grind your computer to a halt in the process.

Steadily over the years they increased their costs and we decided to drop them for a stats package that did the exact same thing but for 1/10th the cost. This was around 2000.

Last week, after making some changes with our current stats provider, I thought about WebTrends and tried to see what new and exciting offerings they had.

Their website had no details on price, so I called. There weren’t any salespeople around (strange for a large company), so I left a message. Someone called me back within a day, but she wasn’t a salesperson and couldn’t tell me prices. For that, she had to refer me to someone else.

That someone never called. Only after sending an email entitled, “Do you want my business?” did I get an email telling me to call them.

When I called, I had to leave another message, but at least the woman called me back within an hour.

I explained what I needed again, and she danced around the pricing issues. She even had to take out a calculator at one point. Take out a calculator? Seriously?

And then it came…some un-godly number that was about 1000% higher than what I already have. Like a parent to a two year old, she asked “Does that work within your budget?” I replied, “Yeah, but I really don’t like the vibe. I think I will pass”.

It was obvious from the time they found out I didn’t work for a large conglomerate that they didn’t want to work with me. I was treated like I was a homeless person walking into Neiman Marcus and asking to try on a Prada Suit.

I have a feeling I know why she needed the calculator. It was to figure out the “f*ck off tax”.

Now playing: J.J. Cale & Eric Clapton - Hard To Thrill

Tags: webtrends, web+analytics

Share this post: | | |

A Lineup Change Has Occurred

scottelkin — Fri, 19 Oct 2007 23:41:45 GMT

If this title sounds familiar, then I know you have a Tivo. That is because Tivo feels it is necessary to let you know that channels have either been deleted or added every time it happens – which means every day.

Every time I turn on my Tivo, another channel I don’t care about has been moved around. I am forced to delete the message before continuing on.

Tivo, please allow me to turn off these messages!

Now playing: Radiohead - Weird Fishes/Arpeggi

Tags: tivo, lineup+change

Share this post: | | |

Amazon Subscribe & Save

scottelkin — Tue, 16 Oct 2007 06:33:46 GMT

I didn’t know this existed.

With Amazon Subscribe & Save, you can “subscribe” to various items you need on a routine basis – paper towels, laundry soap, diapers.

By doing so, you “save” 15% of the cost, and get free shipping.

They definately don’t have everything, but if they do, it could seriously save some time.

Now playing: Flight of the Conchords - Robots (Live)

Tags: amazon, shopping

Share this post: | | |

Flinstone Kids and Halo 3

scottelkin — Mon, 15 Oct 2007 20:28:05 GMT

The audio director for the Halo series, Marty O’Donnell, also created the jingle for the commercial, “We are Flinstone Kids…ten million strong and growing.”

Via the Major Nelson podcast.

Now playing: Radiohead - 15 Step

Tags: halo, jingle, gaming, xbox360

Share this post: | | |