Zune Delay Resolved...

I got an email from Zune customer service. I am very happy that they have finally taken charge of the situation and I am very pleased with their compensation. They have decided to refund the entire amount and send my Zune within 3-4 days. After all my frustration, i really wasn't sure how MS could make things right. But this definitely makes me happy.

ZUNE STILL NOT HERE...

This is a formal complaint I sent to Microsoft regarding the delay of my Zune order:

I placed an order (1/17/2008) for a Black Zune 80 with Tattoo and Text on the zuneoriginals.net site. My credit card was charged the following day. I got an order confirmation stating that my Zune would arrive in 5-7 days. I understand there was a “delay” for the Red Zunes although I never got any communication regarding this.

I was informed after many frustrating calls to 1-877-GET-ZUNE and what little information I could gather on the zune.net forum that the delayed Zunes would ship on a first order first serve basis on 2/4/2008. I STILL do not have a shipping confirmation or tracking number. After many days of calling and frustration, NOBODY can give me a tracking number. Only that it SHOULD have shipped. I have compiled a list of IDs from the Zune.net social forum. This is the breakdown:

ID	Ordered	Received
zxo2000	15-Jan	NO
J iIIian	16-Jan	NO
DruJC	16-Jan	NO
BunnyGlue	16-Jan	NO
WoodyWindy	16-Jan	NO
clc15025	16-Jan	NO
Delux24Seven	16-Jan	7-Feb
QueenIce07	17-Jan	NO
Halogene	17-Jan	NO
pulsetn	17-Jan	7-Feb
LBrenn	20-Jan	7-Feb
Jfunkese	22-Jan	6-Feb
RazielderVampir	26-Jan	7-Feb
Sparkingling9Souls	28-Jan	7-Feb
Uhlisuh	28-Jan	6-Feb

I want either a TRACKING number immediately or a reasonable explanation why my Zune has not shipped. This is totally unacceptable for a product that I have already been charged for AND an order I am not able to cancel. Somebody needs to fix this now. I have gotten promises of calls from supervisors and even a promised call from your Critical Response Team (2/6/2008) regarding a tracking number but nothing has happened. WHO IS RESPONSIBLE?

Becareful of the Gyoza!

A recent article says that there was a batch of tainted dumplings shipped to the Japanese market. Somehow the conclusion was made that it was done on purpose. Not exactly sure what the reasoning would be! Sorry Toshi!! Make sure your family doesn't buy this brand until they figure things out. On the other hand, why would you buy Chinese gyoza in Japan?

Beijing 2008 Olympics

I'm very excited about the upcoming Olympics hosted in Beijing, China. This will be a great opportunity for China to show the world the beauty of our culture and modern progress. Have you seen some of the buildings that have been erected for the games? Absolutely beautiful. Although there is still a lot of reform that will be required, I think that China is steadily moving in the right direction.

I came across this cartoon which is rather funny. Hope it doesn't offend anybody!

How Beijing came up with their Olympic logo:

Happy New Year!

Today is Chinese New Year's Eve! Josephine, the brothers and I were going to go to a Korean restaurant but I guess they decided to take the day off! We were all looking forward to it! But we ended up going to Siam Cafe. It was nice to have dinner with everybody.

I wish all of you a Happy New Year with good health and fortune. Best wishes!!

iPod Touch now with bigger capacity...

Adding to my Zune delay frustrations is the latest update from Apple. They have upped the memory to 32gigs for the Touch. Still just below what I would want but getting close to my 40gig minimum requirement. But at a price of $499, you must be crazy!!! However, this trend does make me feel better because it is unlikely that they will be coming out with a Touch with hard drive model and will most likely continue to increase the flash capacity as the technology allows.

U2 in 3D

I will be going to see U2 in 3D. I'm really excited about it. I heard that it is a great experience and that the visual effects are amazing. I did not go see Beowulf, but I heard it is the same technology. I'm happy to see that 3D is making a huge comeback. I hope that it succeeds!

Speaking of 3D, a graduate student at Carnegie Mellon has developed a way to hack the Wii technology into some very cool uses. Including a virtual 3D hack. Check out the video, looks very impressive. I think Nintendo and other software companies need to give this guy a job!!!

http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~johnny/projects/wii/

Zune is still not here!

The black Zune80 that I ordered 3 weeks ago is still not here! I've ordered a few accessories for the new toy and they have all arrived!! I bought the old Zune A/V package and modified it to fit the new Zune. I was able to shave off the bottom tray so that I could keep the shiny cover. I'll post pics as soon as my Zune gets here! I heard that there was some undisclosed reason for the delay and that we would be compensated some how. One rumor was that we would get the new A/V pack for version 2 Zunes. I guess I could always sell it on ebay!

Zune Delays

It has been over two weeks since I ordered my Black Zune 80 original. It is still not here!! I'm so disappointed!! Maybe I should have gotten an iPod Classic!

Eric and Mari's Baby Shower

Josephine and I are throwing a baby shower tonight for one of my best friends Eric and his wife Mari. She is due sometime in April. Can't wait to see him! I'll post pics from the shower soon.

RAIN: The Beatles Experience

Josephine was very thoughtful and bought a pair of tickets to go see RAIN: The Beatles Experience. It was a wonderful concert. Rain is a tribute band to the Beatles. They are awesome. I had heard them before but not a full concert. It was great to hear all my favorite Beatles songs. But there were also a lot of songs that I wish they would have played. Then again, the concert would have lasted forever if they played all the Beatles favorites! Thanks Honey for the great time. I hope you enjoyed your first concert!! It was fun watching you get all excited and nervous about it!

http://www.rainthebeatlesexperience.com/

If they are in town and you are a Beatles fan, I would highly recommend them! After watching the pros play guitar, I realize I have a long way to go. The solo performance of "While my guitar gently weeps" was amazing.

Joining the Zune Social...

So I've been extremely happy with my 4th Gen Ipod. I've had it for a good 3 years now and it's been very reliable. But recently the battery just hasn't been holding it's charge. Time for a new MP3 player. After extensive research, I've decided to get the 2nd Generation Zune 80. The hardest part was to decide on even buying a new player since Josephine got me the iPod as an engagement present. On the back she had engraved our engagement date. I will keep the iPod in the car as a mobile music storage device.

I've put my order in for the Zune at the zuneoriginals.net site so that I can get free engraving. It will be engraved with our wedding date and "chapter II" in memory of my iPod! The choices were mainly the new iPod 80 classic or the zune 80. The iPod Touch was out of the question because of the measly 16 gigs. If it came with at least 40gigs, it would have been the hands down selection. But the Zune with it's new design, scroll pad, large screen, and wifi edged out the perennial favorite.

Guitar Hero! The Real Thing!

Josephine bought me a guitar for Christmas so I've been spending what little free time I have trying to teach myself. Not bad soo far. I'm getting a hang of the chords which are a lot harder to play than you would think!! What's cool about the guitar is that it can connect to the PC via USB so that I can record what I'm playing and modify the amp sounds it outputs.

For those of you who have played Guitar Hero, a real guitar is nothing like it! The difference is like playing basketball on an Xbox versus real life.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

It's been a while! But I would like to make a New Year's resolution! I will be posting more frequently!

I wish everybody a wonderful and productive year. Don't let this year just pass you by. Make some serious goals and stick with achieving them. Remember the feeling of a fresh start and run with it.

Thoughts on recent events...

these are just my thoughts on the recent events at VT. please feel free to comment and let me know if what i am saying is naive or misinformed.

a friend of mine recently commented on the way media handled the description of the killer. i never even thought about those comments of him being a permanent resident but now that i think about it, it is true. media always like to put a spin on things as if to target certain groups as if it had something to do with it or that we need to address that as an issue. i think those comments are based on fear and can be very detrimental. it is almost like they are saying, "if we only didn't let aliens into the country this would have never happened." you're right, it's totally unnecessary information.

as for broadcasting his "manifesto" video, i'm on the fence on that one. partially, i can understand why people would want to see what a mad man is thinking, but on the other hand, is there really anything to understand? in other words, do i really want to understand? i guess it's good to have access to this information but at the same time does he deserve this spotlight? i feel like we should focus on the victims at this point, but we should revisit perhaps in the near future some of the REAL issues that surround this incident and not just Cho himself. these incidents are like Kevin says, happening all the time at various levels.

is it really the violent movies and videogames? is it a matter of gun control? i'll go out on a limb and say i don't think so. i think that at any given time there will be a small percentage of the population that has the potential to "snap." and their environment, be it family, school, movies, videogames just pushes their manifestation into a particular action. when we were in grade school/high school, all we heard about were serial killers, who have killed as many people with a knife (in some instances cannibalized) as these recent shooters have with a gun so for me that takes out the issue of gun control. no guns? then bombs. no fertilizer? then ax... crazy is what crazy does.

now our "entertainment" has given us portrayals of mass shootings and violence. but i think it is safe to say that a normal person who views movies like the Matrix or Saw or played Halo/Grand Theft Auto will not be influenced to do these things. however, in these small percentage of "crazy" people, it gives them a view of how to act out their "craziness." the movies and videogames and guns don't make them do these things, they just get incorporated. and even if we didn't have these environmental portals, these people would act out in some other way that is equally disturbing. it's like they are intrinsically unable to distinguish between reality and fantasy.

bottom line is that it is too easy to blame movies, videogames, and social law when in fact i think it is more of a psychological disorder that will always be a small part of human behavior that we may never understand or even want to, yet we find so disgustingly fascinating. sick people will do sick things and in order to have normalcy, there must be a small set of people who define what is "crazy." these people need help and i think it is the job of psychologist and socialist to determine the criteria for diagnosing these individuals and not the media.

in the end, my thoughts are with the victims and their friends and families. i hope that the people who are in need of help will find what they are looking for and as for myself, i take this as a lesson to be open to the views of others and to be courteous and nice to all that are around me.

New Photo Site

Check out my new Photo Gallery! Thanks to Kevin Chan for the web space!

Enjoy!!

http://halogene.powerchan.net

Nikon D80

I have a new toy! I recently got my Nikon D80 DSLR w/ the 18-135mm kit lense. I'm excited about taking lots of cool pictures so keep your eyes peeled!

Orlando Trip

Pictures

Hello from Orlando!

This is an image taken from Orlando, Florida of the shuttle launch! The conference at ASH has been great so far. I presented my poster and I got a few inquries but nothing really too helpful in temrs of next steps. Tomorrow is more meetings!