Excessive Amazon Packaging
I bought two Dap 21500 Plastic Wood Filler, 1.5-Ounce on Amazon. These tiny little tubes of plastic wood repair kit contain just 1.5 Oz of fluid. Unfortunately for the environment, Amazon shipped them in two boxes:
I’m not alone, check out the Excessive Packaging category on Sustainable Is Good. Fortunately, Amazon is starting a Frustration-Free Packaging initiative which aims to “determine the “right-sized” box for any given item to be shipped to a customer, based on that item’s dimensions and weight.” You can also leave packaging feedback, something I’ve just done.
Windows 7 Preorder Coupon Sale!
I just preordered Microsoft Windows 7 Home on Amazon, because right now it’s over 50% off. For just $49.99 (58% savings) you will get it delivered to your door on the official release date of October 22, 2009 (if you’re a PRIME member, which I am).
As fas as I can tell, the only difference between Home Premium and Professional is that you don’t get their virtualization for XP software support (which is probably like VMWare Fusion on the Mac), no automatic backup features, and it’s missing some enterprise Active Directory thing called “Domain Join” that I doubt I’d ever use. So I’m not paying any $ for that.
One advantage I’ll get out of this is the ability to (a) run DX10 for the latest games, and (b) 64bit support, so finally I can run all 4 GB of RAM properly without PAE and any other proprietary crap. Right now my 4GB only shows up as about 3.4 anyway. Also, SSD support is much better in Windows 7, from what I’ve read. So my Intel X25-M will continue to serve me well!
Update: If you missed this, but you are a student or know a student, you can get a super cheap deal ($10 cheaper!) by visiting the Windows 7 Student Discount Page. It’s $30 for Windows 7 Pro, and another $13 to get a physical DVD.
The Wall Street Journal Sucks
I’ve got three complaints about the print WallStreet Journal (WSJ) subscription that I have:
- Delivery is inconsistent. Some days it comes, some days it doesn’t. I’d say a good 40% of the time it doesn’t come at all.
- Delivery is often late. If I get, there’s a 20% chance it’s when I’m coming home from work, not when I leave.
- Delivery “on hold” didn’t work. I put the subscription on hold for two weeks while I was in Shanghai, so what did I come home to? A huge stack of Wallstreet Journal magazines, and two emails notifying me of the hold period start and end effective dates. Clearly, not very effective.
If you want to read the WSJ (and it’s a great magazine to read), I strongly suggest you pick up the Wallstreet Journal Kindle Edition and get it wirelessly without any of the physical delivery issues.
