shahine.com/omar/

VibeAgent, a killer site for hotel reviews and booking launched last week. VibeAgent is co-founded by my best friend and it's a great site. I've placed a few reviews there of some of my favorite hotels around the world, but I have many more to review.

VibeAgent really solves the problem of hotel reviews by allowing me to leverage my network of friends to clue me into good and bad places to stay.

Here is a link to the TechCrunch coverage and the post on the VibeAgent blog.

There is no doubt about it, Compact Fluorescent Bulbs (CFLs) are waay cheaper to run than Incandescent bulbs. With Electricity for me averaging close to 20 cents a kilowatt hour (welcome to California), this can mean a lot of dough ($8.64 to run 60w for a month).

However, CFLs just Suck. Here is why:

• Warm up time is annoying.
• when you turn one on, it can take a while to get to full brightness. If you mix incandescent and cfl on the same circuit it's noticeable.
• Color is wonky
• you can find the right color bulbs, but trial and error with these bulbs is no fun (see next point)
• CFLs contain mercury.
• That sushi grade Ahi Tuna I had for lunch today? I'm sure some of the mercury in there came from some one who threw their CFL in the trash. In my county they are considered hazardous waste and I have to literally go find some recycling center somewhere to drop them off. haven't figured that out yet. Definitely an inconvenience, and the country trash company should supply curb side recycling like they do for batteries and cell phones.
• CFLs are not dimmable
• My house has lots of dimmable lights.. and I like being able to dim the light. True they make dimmable CFLs but they are hard to find and don't work very well. They don't really dim, but they have different voltages. They are like a 3 stage bulb.

CFLs have done wonders for industrial/office energy use, but right now, I only let them under my cabinets, in our garage, outdoors and in our bathrooms. I'm holding out for LED lights.

In California there is this thing called Title 24. When you remodel a kitchen or bath there are special rules about CFLs. The new law says that 50% of your kitchen wattage needs to be CFLs... good luck with that. It means if you want a single 60 watt bulb you need like 3 equivalent CFLs somewhere else in the kitchen. You can't just use under cabinet lights and get away with it any longer.

Anyway, no one does this, once folks pass inspection the CFLs are replaced with incandescent or halogen HALO's or something.

I pretty much ignored everything with the word Zune in it the past few months. After all, I dropped a few hundred bucks this year on 2 new iPods. What did I care?

Well of course I care, I love gadgets. It was impossible to ignore the Zune hype this week. My office buddy Zeek was proudly sporting his Zune 80 which he drove like 30 miles to get the day of launch. Of course, he keeps it on his desk right next to his iPhone.

Anyway, I played with this device for a bit and let me say, I was impressed. First thoughts:

• Light. Very Light
• Nice Feel
• Love the squircle navigation thing
• UX is a huge improvement. I always loved the Zune UX, but that was before the iPod touch.
• Your finger prints are not left all over it (I hate this about the iPod)

Later in the day I downloaded and installed the Zune player. Wow... that thing kicks the pants of iTunes. It makes iTunes look like Excel. Anyway, I'm happy that it shares no resemblance at all to Windows Media Player which the first Zune program was. Some one should just take WMP out back and put it out of its misery. It has no place in my life any more.

Anyway, they did a great job on the software and I love it.

To bad I'll never use any of it cause Apple has me locked in with accessories, car kits, and other stuff not to mention family with iPods to support.

I have to say, the killer iPod feature is my car kit. When I shut the engine off, the car pauses the iPod and charges it for 15 minutes. Not to mention the digital interface right into the stereo.

Anyway, congrats to the Zune team. If there is one thing though that you are going to read about the Zune, read the Ars Technical Review. I also discovered from a friend that the Zune does not support High Def Recorded TV from Media Center... that just plain sucks.

I recorded a batch of digital broadcasts in both SD and HD off my over-the-air antenna. None showed up in Zune. The only one that did appear was an analog recording of Family Guy that looked like an analog recording. Did digital recordings, the kind that won't be obsolete in a couple of years, not work?

I found my answer on the last line of the last page of the Zune manual in gray text on a white background that could only be seen after opening a fold. "DVR-MS support for unprotected standard definition TV recordings from Windows Media Center. HDTV and protected recordings not supported."

Let me make sure I understand this: at this point, a consumer has purchased a PC, Vista, a tuner card, and a Zune, but still can't be trusted with high-def content? Nice.

In classic Microsoft fashion, an end to end scenario doesn't totally work. There is a good reason for this, but it's lost on me... just like how lame it was that Media Center 2005 didn't come with the ability to play DVDs or record TV out of the box (fixed in Vista).

I will say this. If there was ONE thing that I wish Microsoft could do... pay Apple whatever amount of money it takes, and license the iPod Dock Connector and Interface... I can dream can't I?

I worry that there is too much inertia behind the iPod... a lot of cars and hotels now come prewired for iPods.

A few weeks ago I purchased a Sony Reader. I had a couple of reasons to do so:

1. When going on vacations I never know how many books to bring, and am actually terrified of running out of stuff to read.
2. I actually don't like reading... I mean, I don't like turning pages, and bookmarks, and some books are just annoying (construction)
3. I don't read enough, and since I was a kid, technological innovations have always motivated me to change behaviors.

I was mildly curious about the first version of the reader, but it seems to have many shortcomings. When the new version was announced I figured it was time to see what all the hype was about.

I'm pretty happy with the product. The worst thing about it is the craptastic Sony Software that you have to use to purchase ebooks. It's like a circa 1995 version of iTunes (of course, no such thing existed then). But you get the drift. Scott Hanselman says it best:

The Desktop Connect Reader software is so profoundly bad, so poorly designed, so truly evil that there are not word to full express the breadth and depths of its unspeakable lameness.

The selection of eBooks isn't terrible, but it could be better. You'll find a number of best sellers there, like Kite Runner, but you won't find things like Harry Potter (go figure).

In a perfect world, you'd replace Sony with Amazon and the same product would be better.

Anyway, I was going to write a review, but ArsTechnica beat me to it, and as usual, they did a fantastic job.

Still, if the Reader sounds like the sort of gadget you can't live without and you can live with its quirks, it's a superbly built device with a screen that will blow you away. It comes highly recommended, but only to those certain they have a use for it. Everyone else will want to check one out, wonder at the screen, then leave it on the shelf.

Enjoy and let me know if you have any questions.

The screen is amazing.

Our daughter was born a year ago. This week my wife got a call from the hospital trying to get payment from our insurance company for something or other.

A full year as gone by!

Not even the government is that slow.

It reminds me of the benefits statement we got from the insurance company a few months after the birth. My wife had a normal delivery (no complications, no c-section, in and out in 48 hours). The bill said something like:

Delivery etc: $20,000

Negotiated Charge: $4,995

WTF.

You go from one OS version to another, and it doesn't matter what the company's name is... the problems are the same.

I probably link to Dave Winer once a decade, but I find it interesting that he posted such a negative comment about Leopard... given there are so many Apple Fanboy bloggers these days, and they are so forgiving of Apple (note: I was a fanboy most of my life, even after 9 years at Microsoft).

One thing I've learned is that generally speaking, most people don't like and don't want change in their software. Software for many is just a tool. You move things around in the name of "making things better" and they could care less, and if something, anything they depend on has changed for the worse... hell hath no furry like a user in that situation.

Me? I upgraded every PC I use to Vista a long time ago. I can't use XP, nor can I even really look at it. It seems old and antiquated. Sure, Vista has its problems (most of mine are due to bad drivers)... they'll get fixed and hopefully things will remain relatively stable for 3-5 years before they'll take 3 steps forward and 1 step backwards, which is exactly how I would characterize Vista.

TripIt has become an indispensable tool in my Web 2.0 arsenal. I use it to:

1. Organize my trip plans
2. Organize my business trips so my wife knows when I'm out of town
3. Plan travel
4. Share travel plans with my extended family
5. Build cool fun trips

This past month the family took a trip to the east coast. This was a complicated 8 day trip with the following items in our itinerary.

1. Limo pickup to the airport
2. flight from SFO to IAD
3. Rental Car Pickup
4. Drive to Washington, D.C.
5. Hotel Checkin
6. Day Trip to visit friends and National Zoo
7. Drive from DC to Charlottesville for lunch with friends
8. Drive from Charlottesville  to Winston-Salem, NC to stay with the in-laws
9. Drive to airport to drop of rental car
10. Flight from CLT to SFO
11. Limo pickup to drive us home

TripIt managed all the details for us. It even helped me out in a pinch when I lost the print out and I needed the phone number for the limo company. I was able to email trip it from my phone and get back the info I needed using Trip To Me. It's like having a virtual travel agent.

Well, just a few days ago, I was email with Andy Denmark about some Hotmail issues TripIt was having, and I mentioned that it would be cool if Microsoft's Travel system was supported by TripIt. I forwarded him a sample email that you can get from our travel system (text/html not the PDF one) and he had coded up a solution a few hours later. SWEET! (FYI to the Microsoft peeps).

Now whenever I am going to Redmond, I can just forward the email to plans@tripit.com and my wife can automatically see my travel details right in her calendar (via subscribing to the TripIt iCal url). As you can see below, I'm going to be in Seattle next week:

wOOt! what a timesaver.

Oh, TripIt just added OpenTable support. Sweet.

Email is the new API of 2007.

If you've been ignoring the AMT this year, you might be in luck. It looks like the IRS finally told Congress that they better get their ass into gear and pass an AMT Patch for 2007 (like they did the past several years) because they start printing tax forms in November.

Last week, the IRS warned that if Congress does not act by early November, up to 50 million taxpayers could see serious delays in the processing of their returns and their refunds when they file their 2007 taxes.

The proposal simply raises the floor at which the AMT tax kicks in:

In a letter dated Oct. 30, top members of the Senate Finance Committee and House Ways and Means Committee said that they anticipate the exemption levels for 2007 would be $44,350 for individual filers and $66,250 for married couples filing jointly.

Without a patch, the 2007 exemption amounts would be 33,750 for individual filers and $45,000 for joint filers.

So, if you are married you are getting a one time $5,525 gift and if you are single, a $2,756 gift.

This is mostly for people who live in states like NY and CA with homes (under the AMT, you are not allowed to deduct property and state income tax from your income).

What a scam. I recently had a credit card number stolen somehow, so I went to FreeCreditReport.com to check my credit report and place a fraud alert (placing a fraud alert required that I get a credit report).

However, what I did not realize is that by getting a free credit report, you are forced to also get a "free trial" of their Credit Monitoring Service.

There is no way around that.

And the only way to prevent getting a monthly charge for the service, you HAVE TO CALL THEM to opt-out.

What a scam.

Here is what they state on their web site:

However, if you only wish to receive your free credit score & report, and do not want to continue the Credit Monitoring service at $12/month, just call the toll free number provided on their site, and cancel the membership before the 30-day trial is up. This way you will be able to view your credit report and credit score at absolutely no cost.

So, let me get this straight, to actually get my free credit report, I can sign up but I have to call you to then opt out? And my guess, is that most people don't do this till they notice a charge on their credit card, which ensures that the folks at Experian actually get paid $12.95 for giving you your own information, FOR FREE.

This kind of thing pisses me off to no end. For whatever it's worth I submitted a complaint to the Attorney General's Office of California.

update: many of you have pointed out to me, in comments and in person (thanks Ben!) that the only place that you should be going to get your free credit report is http://www.annualcreditreport.com

You can see this from http://www.ftc.gov/freereports

"Important information from the Federal Trade Commission, the nation’s consumer protection agency: annualcreditreport.com is the ONLY authorized online source for you to get a free credit report under federal law. You can get a free report from each of the three national credit reporting companies every 12 months. Some other sites claim to offer "free" credit reports, but may charge you for another product if you accept a "free" report."

Thanks to all for leaving comments about this.

It appears that while no one was paying attention, Adobe went and fixed Acrobat Reader to be less evil. What does this mean?

• No more weird Updater5 folder in your Documents folder
• No more "shortcuts" in your Startup Items folder to make Reader launch faster by having always running processes on your machine.

Get it here.

I have already broken a world record by owning the same phone for 11.5 months (BlackJack I). However, I just saw that this bad boy is coming soon.

• Windows Mobile 6 (already have it on my BJ I)
• GPS (wohoo)
• bigger screen
• smaller
• 2 megapixel camera? Extra pixels that won't make the picture any better looking.

I am SOO excited that Windows Live Events has launched. My favorite thing about my job is that Mike Torres and I were talking about this service only last year, and we couldn't wait till it shipped... Evite has set such a low bar for this kind of thing that we knew that we could do a better job, and IMHO, the v1 of this service is just that. I expect WLE will only get better.

Also, WLE shipped in the nick of time. I just set up an Event Space for our daughter Sarah's One Year birthday (previewed on the right). I'm already in love with the site. I've got:

• Event Details
• Email Notifications to guests
• The ability to make my wife an "organizer" giving her full control of the space
• The Highlights from the past year in photos
• Some Videos I have hosted on soapbox
• A map to our house with event details.
• A custom URL for my event.
• Attendee list
• No Windows Live ID required to respond to an invite
• The ability for our guests to upload the photos they have taken after the party.

Big Congrats to the folks who got this service out the door!

As a geek, I install, update and did I say update a lot of software.

I can't stand when I'm installing something and I get this dialog:

First of all, this dialog is not friendly. Second of all, Processor ID? Exweese me? What do I do with that information? Third of all, why isn't there a big FAT EASY BUTTON.

Can like the installer use Shadow Copy or something to replace the files it needs to replace and have it all just work the next time I launch Outlook?

Installers that are horrible about this are anything that relies on Outlook or IE for integration.

What's weird is that some installers on Vista ask you if you want to automatically quit the running applications and continue.

I have to admit, for the past few years, Firefox has been mostly a curiosity for me. I usually had it installed on one or two computers, but it wasn't my default browser and I rarely used it for things other than checking compatibility issues and seeing if IE bugs reproed in Firefox. Lastly, when IE 7 shipped with Tabs, that kind of sealed the fate of Firefox for me... I didn't need it enough to use it a lot.

I have also collected a lot of t-shirts over the years. A few years ago, before there was an IE 7 I purchased a Firefox t-shirt. I did so for a few reasons.

1. I  wanted to support a browser that had a number of features that I found critical to my web surfing needs (tabs, extensions)
2. I wanted a cool looking t-shirt
3. It was cheap.
4. I thought it would be fun to see what happened. I mean who would care?

And I wore the t-shirt to work. I got a lot of interesting comments. Most folks on my team sorta laughed. However at the time the climate at Microsoft wasn't Firefox friendly. In fact, Windows Live Hotmail didn't even render well on Firefox. Today that's a different story and Firefox is a fully supported browser on both the Full and the Classic experience. Most Live Services generally support both Firefox and IE parity.

However, as the shirt is fading, a lot has happened in that time. IE 7 released, with the most prominent feature being tabs and improved standards compliance, two hallmarks of Firefox. IE 7 has also gained a substantial amount of marketshare. Interestingly, over that time period, my usage of Firefox has actually increased since the release of 2.0.x with features such as inline spell checking. In fact on at least one of my machines, Firefox is the default browser... not so on my laptop or work desktop since IE is necessary for rendering and authenticating to intranet sites.

My favorite Firefox features today are:

• Extensions. Google Browser Sync allows me to sync all my cookies, saved passwords and favorites between all my computers. This is AWESOME. I cannot stand re-personalizing my web surfing experience on new computers. I also use things like GreaseMonkey to mashup Amazon and Google Reader. Neat stuff. There are dozens of other useful extensions.
• Inline Find. Love this.
• Spell Checking... I need this more than you know it.
• This is a weird one, but I can keep Firefox running when I install programs on my machine. I've lost count of how many programs and updaters require that I quit all instances of IE and Outlook. This is a sorry PITA and a reason why I can't stand updating software. FireFox updates much better.
• I'm curios and View Source pretty prints HTML.

What does this have to do with my t-shirt?

Well, a few weeks ago my old college roommate asked me if I was wearing a Firefox t-shirt. I was like, um yeah, how do you know what that is? He is a pilot for Virgin America and just got his first laptop a few months ago... but yet he had Firefox installed and he said another pilot told him about it. I was not expecting this.

The other day a developer that used to work on Hotmail looked at my t-shirt and was like "Firefox t-shirt"? and I was like, yeah, so what (smiling of course)? As far as I know I can't buy an IE t-shirt, and if I could it wouldn't mean the same thing.

I guess I bought the Firefox t-shirt to make a statement. That statement was that I support Firefox for what it represents... an attempt to continue to bring innovation that us web users need and to ensure that IE doesn't go for another 5 years without an update. It's a really nice product.

I find it amusing that I almost always get a comment on the t-shirt no matter where I am.