Wednesday, December 26, 2007

SlingBox Rocks (day 1)

wow I am a total nerd. No, correct that - Gadget Geek.

I got the absolute coolest Christmas present ever - a Slingbox. If you haven't been paying attention to Sling Media, you should. This is a cool product.

Slingbox lets you 'shift' your home TV to wherever you are. Within 5 minutes of plugging in the Slingbox we were watching TV and it had detected and fixed all of its network settings on its own. While the backend technology enabling this is not new, it is now made elegant.

So from within my loft I can now watch TV anywhere... lets see how it does this weekend on vacation ;-)

Sunday, December 16, 2007

3 things to never discuss with those you love

Politics, religion and money!



Monday, December 10, 2007

United you won my business (DEN-LHR)

For the last 3 years I have been harassing United to add a real international flight from Denver. I realize that Mexico and Canada are "international" but let's be realistic.

I fly internationally a great deal. It's part of working in an international company and in our new international economy. This tends to conflict with living in Denver ;-)

United's addition of a non-stop flight from Denver to London means they understand the benefits of the international economy. Denver is an international destination - Lufthansa (daily nonstops to Munich/Frankfurt) and British Airways (daily nonstop to London) have validated this point.

United has now won my international business (at least to Europe). I hope the DIA folks start working on Asia now ;-)


United's Send a child's spirit soaring

United's Give a Teddy Bear


This is an awesome program. I gave both my miles and my money, I hope you will too.

It is amazing how much a kid can appreciate a teddy bear. 




Friday, December 07, 2007

Foreign Transaction Fee's are BOGUS

http://www.ccfsettlement.com/

So I must admit that I rarely read my snail mail. I check my mailbox to collect my weekly copy of the economist and then trash pretty much everything else. I get lots of useless junk mail, credit card offers and who knows what else is in there. Thanks to the wonders of e-statements and e-billing I pay everything automatically and just watch for important looking stuff.

Before my mother objects - YES - I do read the random cards sent to me ;-)

Today, I was surprised when I found an envelope labeled "US District Court Approved Refund Notice". I never object to refunds and I try to read everything that comes from a court.

It turns out that someone finally setup a class action suit against the banks and credit card companies that have been gouging us business travelers over the last couple of years. Every time I paid for anything on my credit card/debit card I would find a matching charge (above the comission) that usually was screwing me for an extra 3-6%.

Over the last couple of years I have done some pretty insane international travel. This has created some pretty insane international credit card bills and thus some very screw-worthy international transaction fee's.

I am really glad someone finally took the banks to task for their dumb fee practices. Clearly the 6 figure bonuses they were paying their bankers have to come from somewhere, hopefully not from me ;-)

Go check your mail and make sure you collect on the settlement