After joining in the chorus about Amazon and delayed shipping at the holidays, I received an automated email from Amazon:

Greetings from Amazon.com,

This shipment was sent via UPS Next Day Saver
(estimated delivery date: December 30, 2005).

Huh? “Next Day” shipping with an “estimated delivery date” of December 30th?

I punched in the UPS tracking code and it told me that they expect to deliver on the 23rd. That’s more like it. Phew!!!!

Stress be gone! I’m going to whip me up a batch of egg nog and join in the Christmas cheer right now!

UPDATE Dec 23: Nevermind… This part of my order did get hosed, but since I already started partaking in the holiday cheer, I’m not going to let it bother me. I’ll have to head out tomorrow to grab some last minute replacement gifts. Sigh.

Service Type:   NEXT DAY AIR SAVER
Weight:         2.00 Lbs
Note:           Your package is in the UPS system and
                has a rescheduled delivery
                date of Dec 27, 2005.  :-(

UPDATE Dec 24: Well, UPS showed up at my house doing a Saturday delivery at 12:15pm today. All presents HAVE arrived in time for the holidays.

The egg nog is good and strong. Everybody enjoy their holidays!!

Posted: December 23rd, 2005 under Uncategorized.
Comments: 3

So is online shopping supposed to reduce stress, or should we all just go to the malls to catch the spirit?

Here we go, I ordered 6 items on December 17th. All were “Usually ships within 24 hours”.

I chose “standard shipping”.

It’s now the end of the day on the 22nd. I have received the one item that actually came from Crutchfield (an XM Roady receiver) That arrived on the 20th.

The stuff that actually is coming from Amazon hasn’t arrived yet. The stuff tagged as UPS 3-day select supposedly shipped on the 18th, but I don’t think it was until the 19th that the status actually started to show it in transit. It’s supposedly “out for delivery” today, so it might arrive today.

The item that supposedly shipped on the 18th via USPS priority mail, I have not received yet. Tracking shows that it arrived one town over from me though… so I might have that soon.

The other two items still haven’t shipped yet, and I can’t understand why. Amazon still lists them as “usually ships with in 24 hours, yet it’s 5 days later and they still haven’t shipped.

So much for saving time and reducing stress by shopping online. Now I hover over the package tracking buttons, bang my fist on my desk and swear all day. My productivity is shot because I’m consumed by this frustration. Sure, if I went to the mall, I’d deal with crowds and wait in lines, but at least there is Christmas cheer there.

Order Date: December 17, 2005
Order #: XXX
Recipient: Mark Sicignano
The following items will arrive after December 24, 2005.
Items shipped on December 18, 2005:
Delivery estimate: December 22, 2005 - December 27, 2005
1 package via UPS 3 Day Select with tracking number XXXXXXXXXXXXX

• 1 of: a paperback book
• 1 of: Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble - Live at Montreux 1982 & 1985

Apparently, I am not alone.

Posted: December 22nd, 2005 under Uncategorized.
Comments: none

Keep the troops in mind at Christmas time, and give them your support.

If you want to do something for them, go here.

Posted: December 20th, 2005 under Uncategorized.
Comments: none

A computer out of the oversite of parents, an internet connection, and a web camera were all that were needed for a 13 year-old to begin a long decline into the world of online child porn.

I monitor a steady stream of news about computers, the internet, families and children. I don’t typically comment on stories about internet stalkers and “kiddie-porn” because they’re already covered heavily in the news and it’s roughly the same story each time, but the stream of these stories is non-stop.

The New York Times has a long article about a boy who started posing for older men on his web cam and received praise and gifts. Over time it went further than that and the number of men that were “fans” of the boy was over 1500.

Brett at DadTalk summarized this one nicely. (Thanks Brett!) or read the full Times article to learn all about this poor kid’s morally bankrupt father, who encouraged his son’s destructive behavior. On the positive side, the story concludes with how he’s turning his life around and working with the authorities to go after the sickos who are exploiting kids online.

And if you love your kids, keep your computers in a public area, and know what your kids are doing online. Stay involved with them, and talk to them often.

UPDATE: If only it was this easy to catch the monsters.

Posted: December 19th, 2005 under Uncategorized.
Comments: 3

I received an email from J.W. Koebel tonight, pointing me at this article:

Why Do Computer Games Claim Lives?

“People who haven’t slept for a long time usually don’t realize how exhausted or stressed they are,” says Dr. Song Hyeong-gon of Samsung Seoul Hospital’s Emergency Department. “Because they are stressed by the obsession with winning the game, they consume a considerable amount of energy. In such a physically exhausted condition, exposure to bright colors or stimulating images on the screen is likely to irritate the cerebral cortex and can cause sudden death.”

J.W.’s played MMORPG’s in the past, and shares some additional thoughts about the addiction to playing these games. I’ll let him take it from here. Go read his post.

Posted: December 17th, 2005 under Uncategorized.
Comments: 1

New Video Game Designed To Have No Influence On Kids’ Behavior!

Heh.

Posted: December 17th, 2005 under Uncategorized.
Comments: none

My friend Dennis sent me this one…

A man and his wife are sitting in the living room and he says
to her, “Just so you know, I never want to live in a vegetative state
dependent on some machine. If that ever happens, just pull the
plug.”

So his wife gets up and unplugs the TV.

Posted: December 9th, 2005 under Uncategorized.
Comments: 2

Frank Ahrens writes in Looking For Middle Ground In Forbidden Territory (WaPo) (registration required)

Religious leaders in a tightknit Orthodox Jewish community in New Jersey have instructed parents who have Internet access in their homes to unplug from the Web, else their children will face expulsion from the area’s 43 yeshivas, or Jewish private schools.

“We really . . . don’t want children to see ladies who are dressed inappropriately. . . . If that one image goes into a child’s head, it can wreak havoc with all the religious instruction,” said Rabbi Netanya Gottlieb, one of the yeshiva principals, according to the Newark Star-Ledger.

Rabbis said that the Internet is not inherently evil and acknowledged that it has some benefits for students in completing homework, but that its negatives far outweigh its positives.

The policy also prohibits students from using cell phones, Palm organizers and other handheld devices that have Internet access.

It appears that they’re not just telling parents to make efforts to keep kids off the web. They’re telling them not to have the connections in their homes at all:

In a Talmudic compromise for adults who do business from home, the Star-Ledger reports, some exceptions may be made for parents who have only e-mail access or who promise to keep the Internet locked in a room or cabinet, like a handgun, out of reach of their children.

I’m glad that I don’t have Orthodox Jewish parents living in that tight-knit community in New Jersey!

In many ways, the rabbis’ actions are admirable — if draconian — and represent the kind of strictures that almost any parent could identify with.

But on the other hand, I am a parent and I do understand that having a broadband connection into your home with no restrictions or parental control is like inviting the ilk from every alley in every seedy part of town into your living room.

As the article points out, Internet monitoring software is not “infallible”, and computers in kids bedrooms are probably not the best idea anyways.

Here comes the plug: There are other tools available that help to make life easier for parents as well as internet filters. For example, ComputerTime which lets parents set limits one how long and when their kids can be on the computer. This lets parents ensure that they are present when the kids are on the computer. It also ensures that they’re not overdosing on screen time and from what our customers have been telling us recently, it goes a long ways towards ending the fighting between siblings over a shared family computer.

The most important thing is that parents be alert and involved. Forcing families to pull the plug altogether is throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

What do you think? Leave a comment.

Posted: December 8th, 2005 under Uncategorized.
Comments: 6