Guess I have to do this for 5 more years.

So, Register.com proved that telemarketing works. They called relentlessly for a couple of days because my email address and Domains were running out.

Not to worry, I negotiated (didn't know that was an option up until now) a 5 year deal for both my domains;

www.steveriat.com
www.riatfamily.com

and my email address;

steve@steveriat.com

Anyway, I wanted to get rid of the banner that register puts on the bottom of the page. (If you get here via www.steveriat.com you will see it)

Get this, Register.com wants $50 a year to remove that (Because I am doing simple website forwarding to the real address, hang with me and I will tell you how to get rid of this) What a rip off.

If you are tired of the banner, bookmark http://sriat.blogspot.com and you will be good to go.

PS you can negotiate 50% or more. I only got them down to $38 per year to remove the banner. (1 year deal) Maybe next year I will pay it for your viewing pleasure.

Microsoft gets this one WRONG!

So as some of you know, I fully utilize Microsoft Media Center within Windows 7.

Upon upgrading my existing Vista Media center to Windows 7 I noticed that Netflix was NOT available. Well, they fixed that. It is supposed to automatically show up when it was available. It did not. Anyway, I found it and installed it. That was easy. Here comes the problem.

Netflix streaming does NOT work with Media Center Extenders. IE with XBOX. Now you say that it does. OK you are right, it does work from the XBOX. You can use it from the XBOX dashboard. Well, it does if you pay for the XBOX Gold account. And I do have one membership. The problem is I use two other extenders. One is an XBOX and the other is a Linksys. So I would have to pay another $50 for the other XBOX for a live account to view Netflix. As for the Linksys, I would be out.

COME ON MICROSOFT. Let me use the extenders. From what I read on other links is that it is not a reason of ability, rather it is you protecting the XBOX dashboard. IE making me spend money for a Live account.

What don't you think that buying 2 XBOX's, 1 extender, 1 Mediacenter and Windows 7 is not enough for you? This is the way you reward loyal customers. OH yea, do not forget the monthly ZUNE service, couple of Zunes and the other MS products I have.....

Always

Do the right thing when people are not watching. Do the right thing for your vendors, customers, employees and yourself. You will never regret this.

If you do the questionable thing, play in the gray area, you will regret it adventually. There are no short cuts.

Everytime I have been ask about these "gray" areas, the person asking already knew the answer. Go with your gut.

PS I had to figure out Gray VS Grey. Who knew;

"Google Answers"

It appears that the "gray" varient appeared later, as an American
English varient of "grey". Both have mostly the same many meanings:

"gray1 also grey ( P ) Pronunciation Key (gr)
adj. gray·er, also grey·er gray·est, grey·est
Of or relating to an achromatic color of any lightness between the
extremes of black and white.

Dull or dark: a gray, rainy afternoon.
Lacking in cheer; gloomy: a gray mood.

Having gray hair; hoary.
Old or venerable.
Intermediate in character or position, as with regard to a subjective
matter: the gray area between their differing opinions on the film's
morality.

n.
An achromatic color of any lightness between the extremes of black and
white.
An object or animal of the color gray.
often Gray
A member of the Confederate Army in the Civil War.
The Confederate Army. "

How do you explain to a 3 year old?

For a year or so, if you ask Carsen what his name is he may respond with either Charlie (Thanks Grandpa) or Tiger Woods (Figure out what he watches with his dad)

So, how do you explain to Carsen that saying he is Tiger Woods may no be a good idea anymore...

Tiger, your thoughts?





PS, Me and Carsen will probably figure out the answer on our own if you want to come and play a round with us...

Video as promised. OK I went a bit Grizwald

This year. Stop by and see my last project. Don't forget to turn your radio to 89.7 FM and hear the music. Every night it rotates 12 songs. I change between rock and Transiberian flavored songs.

And don't forget, Have a Merry Christmas from the Riatfamily!

Another shopping experience

So recently I had a shopping experience at a Mall. No, not in Hays.

So first I went through Dillards. I wanted to see if they had the black shoes I have been looking for. I have been trying to find a half size in this particular shoe for quite a while. (1 year). Anyway, they are expensive. (About $200 and No Jenifer I did not buy them). So while in the area 4 separate associates ask if they could help me. Guess what, none of them could work in the shoe department. All tried to call a person that could help. No one showed up in 10 min. Oh well, saved me money.

Next to JC Pennys. For the store that has everything on sale all the time, I could find nothing I wanted on sale?

Last to Sears. Found some great deals on brands that are solid lines. (Sometimes I wonder how they can produce clothes for some of the sale prices. Maybe they are losing money, maybe the 8 year old foreign sweat shop worker works for so little that it can happen. ) Anyway, I went to the register and there was a hand written sign saying it was closed. What was the topping to this was Woman was spelled Wuman. (Why do I always forget to take pictures of this stuff? I have a camera on my phone). PS Wuman was to tell me to use the register in the Wumans department. So off I went. 2 people in line and only one person working the multi register counter. I went to look for other registers. None to be found. Back I went. Good news, only one person in line. That person had quite a bit of stuff. Needless to say, there was pricing issues with the system, missing tags and pretty much anything that could go wrong, did.

By the time this person was checked out, there was a line of about 7 people. Now realize the one person checking was an older lady probably in her 80's (No, I am not exaggerating) standing all of 4'10". She called politely a section 10 (Or something like that ) No help ever showed up.

To the lady's credit, she was apologetic, helpful and professional to the end.

The lesson is, you can have quality products, great displays, wonderful ads to attract people. However if you do not have the sales people to complete the customer experience, first you may lose the sale and second, you may not leave the customer with a positive experience.

I do not understand. OK Maybe I do

How can you buy a flat panel TV that can decode a satellite signal from space for $350 but the wall mount for the same TV can cost $150?

The TV probably has more processing power than it took to land a man on the moon, the mount? $5 worth of metal.

OK I understand, they have to make money somewhere.

In sales, I would call this bait and and ... Bait? U want to wall mount the TV. We are running a sale on the TV for $350. However to mount it on the wall $150 and the HDMI cable to hook it up $50. That makes reasonable sense....