The Cheesiness of the World Reserve Monetary Exchange

I got this big envelope in the mail today - it looked very important with all kinds of "deliver by this date" and "rushed priority service" bla bla... it was from the World Reserve Monetary Exchange (company)... for those not aware of this company, they basically try to sell you collector coins.. and they REALLY try.

It is because of their cheesy marketing that I'm taking time to post this long blog entry. They sent me pictures - there is nothing that says why they sent me these "pictures" but they did. Basically they're selling me a whole vault of coins for about a grand, and I believe the pictures were enclosed to emphasize how important these coins are and how fortunate I am for getting this offer.

Photo #1:
The vault is as important as it is fancy. There is a finger pointing to it for effect.



Photo #2:
These coins are so important that congressmen or whoever this guy is can bring them to out to his talks. There is a very interested photographer on the right.




Photo #3:
Even if you're an everyday country man you can own these coins. There is an old picture frame to appeal to veterans? an eagle statue shows how american this house is, and I dont know what the guy in the far left background is doing.




Photo #4:
Now if you want to gain your child's respect - nothing does so better than sitting with him and talking about coins. I dont know why this kid has his shirt unbuttoned.





Photo #5:
This one inspired me the most. It's an old woman filled with joy (hands clasped) as her incredibly desirable vault arrives. Neighborhood kids stop riding their bikes to see this. A mom stops pushing her baby stroller to witness this formidable delivery. I mean, you buy one of these and you're the talk of the town. Don't forget to put the american flag out either.




Photo #6:
Every successful businessman knows - these coins are priceless. This guy sports his diploma and executive office, and can't help but smile at his coin collection investment.




Photo #7:
Oh yes - this one fits my demographic. The american guy into sports who throws parties and has a few beers. Hot girls and your friends will be impressed with your coin collection. The guy in the back says thumbs up for a great party. Not sure how the office space ceilings got in this guys house. Not to mention they could have at least photoshopped the camera and studio setup from the pool table's reflective corner.




Photo #8:
I guess you can keep your vault in the closet if you're the more modest demographic or just plain boring.




Photo #9:
And I don't know where they were going with this last picture.. I'm done.




I think the worst part of all this is that there are people buying these coins in the hopes that they will live the scene in one of these pictures. That's marketing but this was so offbeat that I had to scan them to show how cheesy these are..

No.. I don't want to join!

So this is another annoying Microsoft thing with Vista - They ask you if you want to share usage information with Microsoft on your computer usage and other stuff. But the OK button is disabled.. So in order to say No, I have to first say Yes and then say No to enable the OK button... then you hit OK and have to elevate the decision to the system administrator to allow and confirm that you really didn't want to join.

I had to decline this "great offer" once when installing Vista, and now again after installing Service Pack 1. Not only is it hard to say "No" but you have to say it multiple times - awesome...

Excel as a 3D Graphics Engine

This was just too crazy to pass up.. this guy has way too much time on his hands... and I probably have way too much time on my hands to have tested his code ...which by the way is a lot slower to render on Office 2007..

Read the full article here.

Installing SP1..

I decided to install SP1 today after a frustrating couple days dealing with Vista issues I'm told are resolved in the latest Service Pack.. The most frustrating of all being how slow "File Copy" operations are in Vista.. I was copying files both on my own computer hard drive and across the network - both ridiculously slow in Vista.

Later in the day I gave a demo presentation and ran into a few issues with Vista's "smart" projector output sensing.. which I read was worked on in SP1.


SP1 should be out on Windows Update later this month.. I was going to hold off and go that route.. but since I have it available I figured why not.. ideally SP1 will solve the problems I've been dealing with.. worst case scenario I'll install ubuntu until Vienna comes out.

Construction Begins..

After shopping around for a console table to fit my turntables I realized I was on my own unless I wanted to spend upwards from $600.

My new goal: < $200

Europe is a country ... and they speak french there.

This has to be fake... There's no way.

Top knotch service...

There's a few credit cards I hardly ever use so I don't even carry them with me. I decided today to redeem any points and close them...

I call the service center and they ask me for the account number. The conversation went something like this -

alex: I don't have it with me ...
rep: let's see I can pull it up with your social, can I get your social security number?
alex: yeah, it's ###-##-####
rep: ok, I'll be right back..
(20 seconds later)
rep: alright mr talarico - can I get the last four of your social to verify your account?
alex: uh... ####
rep: thanks, how can I help you today?

... so, as you can see they have great security measures in place at compass bank as well.

awkward car back-up camera system

Imagine how flat out awkward and confusing it would be if you were backing up your car one morning when all of a sudden you see a young mother kissing her baby as illustrated above...
what were they thinking!? *

* My best guess is the graphic designer in charge of the box didn't bother reading and figured this was going to be a digital camera..

No Passengers Allowed in the Turbine. Thank you.

Is this warning really necessary?

Windows at the Wynn

Windows errors are following me around...

I walked up to an information booth at the Wynn. I touch the screen and get greeted by a script runtime error.