Category: Personal

WordPress blogger bundle from Appsumo.com

Personal

Earlier today I stumbled across a WordPress Blogger Bundle from Appsumo.com and it’s definitely worth the $32 it costs. I’m pretty cheap so I usually opt for the “free account” with services or just stick with open-source if need be. But this is definitely an awesome bundle to look into. The bundled apps value at ~$950 and you get the following:

Appsumo.com

  • Page.ly – 3 months of business hosting ($150 value)
  • BuySellAds – $50 advertiser credit
  • inboxSEO – 6 months ‘Standard’ Plan ($114 value)
  • WooThemes – Unite theme (plus 2 more of your choice)
  • PadPressed – PadPress WordPress Plugin + Theme
  • And eleven other apps/items

I decided to take advantage of the bundle namely for the BuySellAds credit and the WooThemes offer. That’s $32 for what would have been at least ~$120. Not bad!

Razer made me loyal again

Personal

Update 10/14/10: I decided that I am no longer going to use the Lycosa. Even with the new model (MT10) that Razer sent me I still experience the same issues with the keys randomly dying and/or ghost sticking on me. I’ve got the latest drivers for Windows 7 64bit and nothing helps. I’ve come to the conclusion that it’s not the keyboard itself but the horribly crappy drivers for the Lycosa. I’ll still purchase other Razer products but as far as their keyboard line goes: hell no.

A few weeks I wrote about how I was disappointed with Razer and their Lycosa. I was holding off on buying a new keyboard when I ended up receiving a message from cultofrazer on my Youtube account. Hilmar ‘Razer|Water’ Hahn, a Product Evangelist at Razer, handles the Razer Lycosa and contacted me after seeing my blog post about the issues I’ve been having. He wanted to make it up to me and renew the relationship. As a result he wanted to send me a replacement Razer Lycosa and send me a free Razer Orca as he thought it would be perfect for me.

Needless to say I was extremely grateful to see that a Razer employee has gone out of his way to ensure that I am once again a satisfied customer! This positive response from them definitely guarantees that I will no doubt continue using and purchasing Razer products. In fact I’m finally going to replace my poor, dirty, worn out Goliathis for a new Goliathus Fragged Control Edition surface pad… Now if only they’d release their damn Onza controller that I’ve been waiting on for eons!

Hover, a new domain registrar

Personal

Yesterday I was in the market for some .me domains to try to help a brand I already started. I just didn’t want to pay $15-25 for a couple of .me domains that would be redirecting to a .com.

I ended up stumbling across Hover. Right now they’ve got .ME domains for $5. Yeah, $5. So I spent a good 30 minutes pouring over some new names and I had 5 in my cart but decided to cut it down to just 2. $10 for two .me domains. That would have been around $40 at GoDaddy or Namecheap.

The cost for the other domains are around $15/yr for com/net/org although they do include free private whois, DNS management, domain forwarding and unlimited custom URLs. That’s almost on par with the other registrars and you won’t have to deal with atrocious hidden fees that you don’t see until you checkout.

You can use the coupon code “cupcakes” to get 10% off your purchase at Hover.

Disappointed with Razer and their Lycosa

Personal

Last year I was on the lookout for a new keyboard and having already been using Razer products (Razer Abyssus and a Razer Goliathus), I decided to take a gander at their keyboards.

I went with the Razer Lycosa keyboard. I wanted something with laptop-style keys that would be quieter and of course the backlight was a plus. Unfortunately for me, I didn’t read up on any reviews on this product at all. I just went blind into the purchase as I was already familiar with Razer.

Razer Lycosa

The first few couple of months were fine; I used the keyboard on a daily basis for hours at a time. After awhile though I noticed that the occasional time a key would not respond (eg: the letter ‘g’ would not respond) and unplugging the USB cord would ‘reset’ it. This happened so seldom that I never thought anything of it. However, after awhile it turned into more than just a key here and there. Eventually the touch screen to change light settings (WSAD, all keys lit, off) would randomly stop responding and various keys would be ‘stuck’ despite not having even touched them.

It has gotten to the point where I would unplug the USB cord for my keyboard every few hours. A couple of months ago I finally researched a bit on the product and found various articles that this was a common problem with the Lycosa. Lycosa’s with serials that started at MT0803, MT0802, MT0801, and MT07 were those that were affected however Razer stated that “were limited to a small batch of customers” and since the problem was ‘so small’ no recall was necessary. My Lycosa starts with an MT09 serial number and apparently I should not be affected–but I am!

I finally decided to contact Razer last night as I was tired of putting up with the poor reliability of the Lycosa. I received a reply within a few hours asking for more details on the purchase. And finally around 10PM last night I received a response that they would not offer me an RMA on the Lycosa due to my purchase having only a 90 day warranty on it from November 2009 to January 2010. WHAT?!

The main article I read on the issue was from Tomshardware.com “Razer Responds to Lycosa KB Issue”

“Frick also mentioned that the problem was small enough that there wasn’t any recall performed, and that customers with affected serial numbers can get their boards replaced free of charge.”

So just because my serial isn’t specifically listed as affected yet those with MT09 keyboards DO have this issue, I’m screwed no matter what. I just think it’s poor that Razer knows of this issue yet has done nothing about it in the three years it’s actually been present. The sad thing is that the MT09’s are obviously affected because looking around online will yield tons of posts about the MT09 being affected just as well. I think that they really should have immediately taken my keyboard for an RMA despite the serial being MT09 and the warranty being up–especially when they’ve even admitted to the problem and stated that they would replace the boards free of charge.

I was really looking forward to continuing on being a loyal Razer customer. I’ve been waiting for the Razer Onza to release and after this issue, I’m not even sure if I want to continue using Razer’s products. Between the issue STILL being present and Razer failing to replace the obviously defective product, I’m already looking at picking up a Logitech Illuminated keyboard and a Xtrac pads for future mouse/surface pads.

Logitech Illuminated Keyboard

Adding to the family (Say hello to Dodger!)

Personal

The last time I had any pets in my life was when I was living in Louisville, KY for a few years. During that time I had Sadie, a white boxer; Wicket a german sheperd/husky mix; and Molly, a mix puppy.. no clue what her breed was. Anyway, Sadie I had for a few months until I gave her to a friend’s family to take care of; Wicket went to another friend that was looking for the same breed.. Molly was unfortunately given away to my ex’s brother’s girlfriend.. without my permission. I had just moved out of the apartment and he agreed to take care of her for a few weeks while I got settled into my place. Unfortunately he ended up giving Molly away instead seeing as though he was the world’s biggest douchebag.

Since 2006 I haven’t had any kind of pets in my life. It’s just been my obsession with pugs growing larger than life. Pugs on my birthday cards, cards to other people, stuffed animal pugs, pug statues, pug jewelry.. If it has a pug on it you can be assured that I either own it or at one point wanted it. Last year while I was in the hospital, my mom decided to agree that I could get a dog although we didn’t have any time frame in mind. I did agree that it would be after I was able to walk.. November came around and I didn’t really think about a dog. February came by and there was a news story on a puppy mill raid that had a bunch of pugs in there. Unfortunately the animals were not being put up for adoption as the judge ruled against it. May came by and I was HOPING that for my birthday I would be surprised with being able to get a dog. I had an inkling of doubt but I fooled myself as I was given a card that had a little PAWS print with a note saying it was time I get a dog!

I looked through all listings for shelters, rescues and stores for a pug. The closest Pug rescue was in northern Illinois and majority of the Pugs were 7-8 years old, half-blind and would require someone with the finances to take care of their major ailments. Looking at rescues in other states were not an option. The Kentuckiana Pug Rescue required that you lived in the area as they did a home check.. they had a large selection of pugs too! When I was able to find pugs in my area, they were mixed breeds–Pug w/chihuahua, Pug w/German Sheperd, Pug w/ Beagle, Pug w/ Greyhound (this was an UGLY mix).. So I made the decision to hold off on a pug. I know, it was a rather shocking decision to everyone as they all felt I should wait.. But I had discussed that it would be best to get a family dog right now and in a few months if I’m able to find a Pug, then he (or she) will be adopted by myself.

Last night we went to our local PAWS last night after I had stalked their dog listings for days. I had narrowed my choice between two dogs: Carmel, a white/tan sheperd/husky mix, and Dodger, a fawn/tan/red sheperd mix. Going there last night was pretty tough as you’ve got a bunch of other dogs there just looking at you with the saddest eyes you could ever imagine. I wanted to take almost all of them home! Seeing Carmel was a bit of a disappointment. She wasn’t interested in me when I approached her–heck I think she pretty much ignored me! As I walked up to Dodger’s spot, he immediately looked at me and begged to me touched, licked my hand and was overall jovial. I spent a few minutes with all of the other dogs but ultimately said I wanted to meet with Carmel and Dodger.

Dodger was first up to meet with my family and I. He immediately went over to all of us and went nuts with face licking, sniffing us, laying on his back for belly rubs and of course licking every nook and cranny on the floor. We then had Carmel come in but she was just not interested in us at all. She wouldn’t come to us to be petted, didn’t want to be touched and was more interested in standing in front of the door than anything. The only time she did give any attention was when the PAWS volunteer gave us some treats to give to her to try to motivate her attitude a bit more.. But she still wasn’t having any of it. I was a bit discerning as I was really hoping to get along with her. This is essentially what made my decision easy.. Dodger was going to be my final choice. I think what really helped was that when my dad went up to his cage, Dodger got on his hind legs and let my Dad ruffle his scruff. My dad has never appeared to be a Dog whisperer of any sorts, so if Dodger can make the ice in my dad’s pet heart melt, then this was obviously going to be the one!

So without further ado, Dodger is now a part of my family! :D.

Dodger!
Dodger!
Dodger!

You can also check out my Flickr set to see a few more pictures of him. Obviously more to come over the months (and years!)