tombiro.com » Stuff I Bought

Already CLEARed

Tom — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 20:25:47 +0000

Okay, well I already passed the screening by the TSA, and should be expecting my CLEAR card within the next week or two. I’m very psyched to be able to use it, but The Girlfriend thinks that I’m going to use it when we travel and leave her behind at the security gate. I’m not *that* mean, am I?

CLEAR part 2

Tom — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 23:43:11 +0000

Okay, so I finished up the setup of my CLEAR account at Newark airport. Took about ten minutes, did all kinds of fun fingerprints and retinal scans. Best part was that they ask what airlines you fly, and after I said that I typically am on Continental, they offered me a note card where you could share your thoughts on getting CLEAR set up at the terminals at EWR where pretty much all of the Continental flights go out of. Now I just have to wait 2-4 weeks for my in depth background check and I’m good to go.

If you haven’t already, and you live in a city where CLEAR is working, then go sign up.

Got my Transformers already

Tom — Tue, 16 Oct 2007 18:08:15 +0000

So I ordered Transformers yesterday from Amazon.com, figuring I would get it by Wednesday or Thursday, given that I have Amazon Prime, and that it came out today. Turns out the DVD showed up for me today…

Wonder if it was some sort of galactic convergence related to the fact that I sent messages from Optimus Prime to like 20 people yesterday and last night and I’m a Prime member. I guess we’ll never know.

What I do know, however, is what 2-disc DVD I’ll be watching at least once this week.

HP7 for free

Tom — Sun, 22 Jul 2007 15:13:11 +0000

So, back in April I had gotten an Amazon.com gift certificate, and had promptly used it to pick up a few things, including a print sub to Dwell and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, which I’d expected to land on Saturday, given that I had guaranteed publish date delivery. Well, I apparently wasn’t the only one who didn’t get their copy, apparently, and I’ve heard the same from elsewhere.

This morning, I used Amazon’s help option, which takes you to a page where you can contact them directly from the site regarding your order in question. While the unfortunate thing with the site was that it didn’t see this order for me to “auto-populate” the fields with because it wasn’t “recent,” even though it said I was looking at recent orders and recently shipped orders, it did take me to an option where I could have someone call me right away. Actually, you type in your number, put in your order number, and it calls you right back, but then someone answers the phone. So, after maybe a minute of hold time, I got a great customer service rep who took some basic info from me to connect me to my account and order in question (the first question was the order, not like keying in all your crap only to answer it all again when you call the cable co), and he checked out what was up with my missing HP7. After about 30 seconds, he verified that I was good to go with regard to the guaranteed delivery, hadn’t set it up incorrectly, and that given the guarantee offered to me, they would refund that purchase to me within 24 hours, and that the book was mine to keep.

Am I bummed that I don’t have the book just yet? Sure. Am I kinda over it because I got my book paid for by Amazon.com and they stood by their word, really with no questions asked? Absolutely. Now, I’m sure if I were a parent of two and my kids had planned on spending Saturday afternoon or Sunday reading the book I might feel differently, and would probably have gone out and bought it at the store had it not shown up by 7pm on Saturday evening anyway, but that’s neither here nor there. Great example of good business sense, and hopefully for Amazon (and UPS / USPS) there aren’t too many people who didn’t receive their HP7 this weekend, or the dollars involved might look a little different when it all shakes out. I mean, it’s not like they make money on it anyway.

iPhone stats not shocking

Tom — Mon, 16 Jul 2007 14:26:24 +0000

I don’t know about the rest of you, but we shouldn’t be shocked at all by this news that the launch of Apple’s iPhone “could emerge as the most succesful product introduction of the 21st century,” should we? I haven’t really seen anything with cross-gender, attitude, and cultural impact like this had in the runup to the product being sold, post-sale, and now that people have begun to see them around town, so while 1/3 of people seems like a huge number, based on the reax I’ve seen by people who have seen me using mine, it’s not at all surprising.

iPod, anyone?

Mmmm, beer

Tom — Sat, 03 Mar 2007 03:38:05 +0000

Been enjoying, perhaps too much, it seems, the couple of growlers brought home from the Bethlehem Brew Works this week. Makes it way too easy to have good beer that’s effectively on tap. Though I guess you want to finish it way too quickly, and a two hour drive to get more beer isn’t exactly convenient.

In any case, if you’re in Bethlehem anytime soon, make sure you stop in. It’s actually that good. Oh, and have the chili in a bread bowl, too.

Puma profits dwindling

Tom — Tue, 20 Feb 2007 15:56:36 +0000

Apparently, I haven’t been purchasing enough Pumas lately, because the company was hurt a bit after the World Cup last year, and apparently spent too much money on marketing.

I’ll have to work on that, I guess. [Thanks, Chris!]

I have Lego ice cube trays and you don’t!

Tom — Wed, 11 Oct 2006 15:45:17 +0000

A few days ago, David pinged me to let me know about the Lego ice cube tray. Of course, I had to have them.