HSBC Direct has adjusted your Online Savings Account interest rate to 4.50% APY.
Adjusted? That’s just a nice way to say, “lowered by half a point”.
Too bad no the other major players (ING) in high yield savings accounts aren’t offering anything better.
I guess this should have been expected with the fed lowering the interest rate by half a point 10 days ago.
First, let me preface this that I’ve wanted a PowerMac (and then subsequently a Macbook Pro) ever since I arrived at college. It’s clear that they were powerhouse mobile computers, and they were sexy at that.
I finally got myself a MacBook about year ago. It has replaced my PC, which is now in pieces in the closet. It’s totally amazing, and for the few things that I’ve still needed Windows for, Parallels desktop has filled the void.
A year later, though, I started running into some issues. My Mighty Mouse fell off the coffee table (about 20″) and broke. That was a quick $70 down the drain. Then the LCD backlight started flickering randomly when on low brightness. And then the power supply refused to charge the battery. And then the top panel that rests over the keyboard started to warp, and it cracked on the edges.
I could not believe all this. So I took it in to the local Genius Bar, and had it serviced. I also brought in my broken Mighty Mouse.
A week later, for the total cost of $0, I have now:
- New keyboard installed, bonus
- New trackpad installed (1 year of finger oil stains gone), bonus
- New keyboard panel installed - replaced cracked edges
- New PMU installed (Power management unit, fixes battery charging issue)
- New MLB installed (Main Logic Board, fixes LCD backlight flicker)
- New Mighty Mouse
I’m so happy…my laptop now looks and feels new again for free (one week without the laptop was painful, though). If I choose to sell the laptop, I can now advertise it as being in excellent condition, rather than fair. I wouldn’t mind upgrading to a Macbook Pro as a graduation present to myself, perhaps.
Cheers, Apple. I’m still a happy customer now. My faith was shaken in the quality, but the service was exceptional. Thanks!
I was unable to find any Python samples for using the PayPal NVP API, so I went to work writing a helper class for my needs. Hopefully this should be enough to help get others started at least.
This is not a complete reference! Be sure to understand what this class is doing before you try it on production servers! …use it at your own peril.
http://python.pastebin.com/f782d48d9
Also be sure to check the complete reference doc for any error codes returned, as the doc is very helpful.
Update April 3rd, 2008: I’m pleased to discover that this has made its way around the internet:
The Freesound Project based out of Belgium is reimplementing their site in Python and they are using my reference.
A Google Code project called PyPayPal is using it as a reference.
GoCept, a German based company, seems to have implemented it in their content management system.
For those who have read the book, the recent news article about a cat that rides the bus to the fish market in London is the closest living literary reference that Bulgakov’s Master and the Margarita characters Behemoth (and Satan) have arrived in London as it could possibly get!
Ivan was so struck by the cat’s behaviour that he froze motionless by the grocery store on the corner, and here he was struck for a second time, but much more strongly, by the conductress’s behaviour. As soon as she saw the cat getting into the tram-car, she shouted with a malice that even made her shake: ‘No cats allowed! Nobody with cats allowed!’ Neither the conductress nor the passengers were struck by the essence of the matter: not just that a cat was boarding a tram-car, which would have been good enough, but that he was going to pay!
from The Chase, ch4
Woland is also described as having two different color eyes!
Right eye black, left - for some reason - green.
Looking back at my post on April 14thth 2006, entitled Dilbert Fodder, I described a short interaction at my last coop job. Did Scott Adams get his idea from my blog post?
Recently, the giant billboard outside my window that sits atop Jillian’s was changed to something new:
I thought, “What the hell is this advertisement talking about?” But, sure enough, the “Beer Ape” video appeared on YouTube that same day.
What a dumb commercial. Seriously.
It’s hardly even controversial, and it’s unlikely that it would have even been “banned” from TV.
The video claims to have come from Friends of Rolling Rock, a blog-looking site that appears to be “followers of the rock”. Too bad the website states right at the bottom “© 2006 Latrobe Brewing Co., Rolling Rock® Beer, St. Louis, MO”. The domain is registered to Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, a marketing company with clients like Anheuser Busch and Comcast.
What is really embarrassing, though, is the all the dummy YouTube accounts they created to post positive reviews of the video. Some of these have already been deleted, and comments I tried to post on the video were also deleted.
stobosky Funny! Too bad it was banned.
Videos Watched: 0
ccostelnock Love the Beer Ape!
Member Since: 1 day ago, Videos Watched: 2
sdildarian funniest thing i’ve ever seen in my life.
Videos Watched: 2
ebrockbeer Ron Stablehorn should be fired [...]
Member Since: 13 hours ago, Videos Watched: 0
rossi1262 Whoever designed this ad is an absolute pioneer to the marketing world [...]
Member Since: 5 hours ago, Videos Watched: 0
zachsoccer12 Wow! Simply amazing! I am glad I took the time out of my [...]
Member Since: 4 hours ago, Videos Watched: 1
If it weren’t for strict time management, I’d be in over my head right now more than I could imagine.
For the majority of students going on coop in January, every October means suffering through one of the most hectic times of the entire year. We are overloaded with academic assignments, midterms, coop interviews, part time jobs, and the occasional desire to sleep a few hours. For example, this week I worked 15 hours on my part time job, I attended all my classes, I had two midterm exams, a 1000 word essay to write, and three interviews for coop positions (two of which were out of town and one was over the phone). I am surviving, but my grades are suffering since the amount of studying I do is the only rational thing I can cut time out of. Getting the best coop position possible is the one addition to my overbooked schedule that has eaten away on my ability to focus on my schoolwork.
As I go into my third coop experience, I am wondering why there isn’t more communication between the coop and academic departments. Why can’t the professors slow down their courses for two weeks while students are out on interviews? They could then easily pick up a faster pace afterward to stay on track with their syllabi. Perhaps then, students like myself would be able to obtain optimal coop positions while preventing our grades from slipping.
Some great publicity about the organization for which I am the director of Promotions/Internet Relations, Massachusetts USA Wrestling, had a nice article in the Worcester Pulse the other day. Check it out.
Back in the day I used to skateboard. I had one and only one skate video on VHS that I watched a million times. It’s like it’s 1998 again, watching this video, “Fulfill the Dream“. The soundtrack still is pretty sweet.
I wrote this back in January 2003. I am reposting here for posterity since it’s one of the few expository writings I’ve ever done for fun.
Eating a grapefruit from scratch is a labor of love.
Since the outer skin is pretty tough to penetrate or manipulate, I put it the entire grapefruit in the microwave to soften it up a bit. Then I proceed to stab it with a butter knife to get a break in the skin to start peeling; I was getting nowhere with my fingernails.
After peeling the outer waxy skin, a subdermal layer sits which isn’t very appetizing to eat, so you have to peel this part off also before you can start eating. By now I have invested about nine minutes. Ten more minutes pass before I get the second skin off.
I hold the entire grapefruit in my two fists; it’s now at least fifteen percent smaller with the outer layers gone. Grasping it and pulling apart, I separate it into two. The two seams where I pulled it apart have torn off and revealed the dark, red, meaty looking pulp inside. I suck at these pieces, and a rush of juice flows in my mouth.
I want to be able to eat the rest like orange slices, so I carefully squeeze out the few seeds inside, and pick away at the rest of the inner skin folds. I chew on several of the slices, and set aside a couple for tomorrow’s enjoyment. I’ve spent a good half hour now and only consumed about half of a grapefruit. My hands are sticky and my stomach isn’t hungry anymore. I’ll have to go wash my mouth out now, since my tongue is stinging from the acidic juices.
