Naztech's 90-day case
Jul/31/06 12:34 Filed in: Personal
On April 1st of this year, I ordered a Naztech Sahara holster case for my Treo from TreoCentral. It's a nice little case, and very convenient. But apparently, "sturdy" wasn't a design goal of the Naztech Sahara. Last wednesday, July 26, this happened:
I contacted TreoCentral, and they claim they provide a 90-day warranty. Since that had passed, I contacted the manufacturer. Naztech's reaction to this? "Normal wear and tear". Oh, really? Your product falling apart is "normal wear and tear?" Am I supposed to buy a new case every three months?
I can assure Naztech that I won't be buying any of their crappy products, ever again.
I contacted TreoCentral, and they claim they provide a 90-day warranty. Since that had passed, I contacted the manufacturer. Naztech's reaction to this? "Normal wear and tear". Oh, really? Your product falling apart is "normal wear and tear?" Am I supposed to buy a new case every three months?
I can assure Naztech that I won't be buying any of their crappy products, ever again.
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PayPal Suckiness
Jul/09/06 16:19 Filed in: Personal
You'd think it's easy. You put something up for sale on eBay, receive payment with PayPal, send your stuff out.
That's the way it's been, but apparently it isn't the way it is anymore. PayPal has decided that, if you sell more than $500 worth of stuff in a month, you're not a person, you're a business. Mind you, that's not "routinely sell more than $500 per month," it's "sell more than $500 in any month." So if you want to sell something that goes for more than $500, or sell two items in a month that happen to total more than $500, you're not a person anymore.
The solution? Get a business account, and pay a transaction fee of about 3%. That's on top of the near-usurious eBay fees. I guess eBay, the owners of PayPal, are sick and tired of all these high-value transactions going on on their site.
Just this month, I sold a slide scanner for about $370, and then tried to sell an old Dell for about $280. You can imagine my embarassement when PayPal wouldn't let me accept payment for the second item without upgrading my account. I guess that, when I'm going to sell my PowerBook later this month, I'll have to look elsewhere besides eBay. Perhaps craigslist, or the agora on arstechnica will prove more amenable to my trade.
There's some great business ideas in this.
That's the way it's been, but apparently it isn't the way it is anymore. PayPal has decided that, if you sell more than $500 worth of stuff in a month, you're not a person, you're a business. Mind you, that's not "routinely sell more than $500 per month," it's "sell more than $500 in any month." So if you want to sell something that goes for more than $500, or sell two items in a month that happen to total more than $500, you're not a person anymore.
The solution? Get a business account, and pay a transaction fee of about 3%. That's on top of the near-usurious eBay fees. I guess eBay, the owners of PayPal, are sick and tired of all these high-value transactions going on on their site.
Just this month, I sold a slide scanner for about $370, and then tried to sell an old Dell for about $280. You can imagine my embarassement when PayPal wouldn't let me accept payment for the second item without upgrading my account. I guess that, when I'm going to sell my PowerBook later this month, I'll have to look elsewhere besides eBay. Perhaps craigslist, or the agora on arstechnica will prove more amenable to my trade.
There's some great business ideas in this.
The Size of The Solar System
Jul/06/06 09:15 Filed in: Personal
This page shows the Sun and the planets of our solar system, both with their size relative to the Sun, and their relative distances. Note that it takes a lot of sideways scrolling to see the planets: the page at 72 dpi is purportedly about half a mile wide. It's an awesome complement to that earlier link about the size of our world.
The Size of Our World
Jul/03/06 18:42 Filed in: Personal
Via Bagelturf, an interesting comparison of the relative size of the planets in our solar system, and comparison with some other stars. I had no idea Mars was so small!