Applepie

Bought It!

After a bit of last minute drama, we finally completed the purchase of our new home!!! We received the keys this afternoon!

We need to complete a remodel before we can move in, but we are hoping to be in the new house before May 9th.

NetNewsWire stopped working

My favorite Mac news reader has stopped working - NetNewsWire crashes on load every single time. It started doing it 24 hours ago, and it happens every time now. Most frustrating. I wonder if one of my feeds has an entry that is causing NetNewsWire to crash. No idea on how to fix this yet, need to find the time to search the web for a possible cause and work-around. Or maybe it is also time to investigate alternative news readers...

The error log gives me the following data:

Date/Time: 2006-03-31 21:20:48.451 -0800
OS Version: 10.4.5 (Build 8H14)
Report Version: 4

Command: NetNewsWire
Path: /Applications/NetNewsWire.app/Contents/MacOS/NetNewsWire
Parent: WindowServer [58]

Version: 2.0.1 (462)

PID: 535
Thread: 0

Exception: EXC_BAD_ACCESS (0x0001)
Codes: KERN_PROTECTION_FAILURE (0x0002) at 0x9000000e

FJ Cruiser

Our local Toyota dealership has received its first demo FJ Cruiser and their initial shipment of 16 vehicles will arrive at the lot within 2 weeks.

I got a chance to test drive the demo car earlier in the week. First impressions: it looks as awesome as I thought it would. It is big, very tall, very bold, very masculine, and very unique - w/ a touch of Hummer H2 to its design.

5 passenger seating - it is really more like a Porsche 911, the back seat is not very usable. In the case of the FJ Cruiser, it could sit 3 children, but adults should be restricted to only short distances.

Driving - the car I test drove was an automatic, lots of available power, great maneuverability, very short turning radius, handled great. Very quiet ride - much quieter than my 2004 Honda Odyssey or my former Honda Element.

My short test ride revealed just one major flaw - visibility. Visibility from every angle is terrible, horrible really. Front visibility is obstructed by a tall hood, you can probably park two Miatas in front of the FJ and not see any of them. Rear visibility is worse, small window and a rear tire makes seeing out of the back nearly impossible. Side visibility is also very poor, the car is very tall and the large rear pillars creates huge blind spots.

Initial FJ cruisers will not have the sonar or rear cameras. Sonar and camera will only come later in the production cycle. Real bummer, as the 2 features are essential for city driving considering the poor visibility in the FJ Cruiser.

Another annoyance is that the automatic is not a full time 4 wheel drive, it is a rear wheel drive. The manual version is a full time 4x4.

Price, it is not the $22,000 as originally rumored. The initial batch of cars arriving at the dealership are fully loaded, raising the MSRP to just over $30,000.

All in all, if the dealer has a yellow automatic available, I will trade in one of my cars and get the FJ Cruiser.

Dual Core Windows Laptops

My Sony Windows laptop is dying - Windows takes 8 minutes to "load" after I log into my account. Things got so bad, that I decided it was time to "format c:\" and start afresh.

When it came time to accept the Windows XP license agreement by pressing F8, I discovered that my function keys are not working. That's too bad - the machine is not even 1 year old yet. Off it goes to Sony for repair.

In the mean time, I have been looking for a dual-core replacement Windows laptop. Not that many choices in the market yet. Thinkpad has an interesting one with their X60 laptop and it looks like Sony has one as well with their Sony Vaio SZ series.

The SZ is very similar to a new MacBook Pro -- Dual Core chips at 2.16 GHz, 2GB RAM, 100GB HD, built in video camera, built in microphone, DVD burner. The main difference is the 13.1" widescreen display on the Sony vs. the 15" display on the Apple; and of course, only one of these machines can run both OS X and Windows XP. Sony also offers T-Mobile Edge wireless connection - a nice plus while traveling.

I am curious as how these 2 machines compare in the performance front. I am curious to see which system will do better with RAW photo conversions. Maybe it is time for an across the board laptop replacement!

Update: No sooner I posted this entry that I saw elsewhere that both Dell and Toshiba have announced their new lines of dual-core laptops... Maybe it is time to go back to Dells for my work laptop.

Mac OS and 3rd party compatibility

No matter how much I may want to use only Mac computers, the harsh reality is that Windows is the dominant OS and various companies continue to only support Windows and ignore all other systems. The latest example is Garmin. Garmin makes a great cycle computer, the e 305, that incorporates a GPS unit, heart rate monitor, cadence sensor, etc... The only missing feature is a power sensor.

All the data is capture in the cycle computer and it can be downloaded to your PC for analyzes and to overlay the ride data on a course map - the Garmin Training Center software is included free of charge. But alas, it requires Windows XP. No Mac version is available, and none is planned, just like my Polar Cycling Watch. If I want to use the full capabilities of the unit I need to have a Windows PC.

Cycling Training - Finally!

I finally got my cycling training under way! I did the first STP official training ride on Saturday, and I completed a loop around Lake Sammamish on Monday. 70 total miles in 2 days -- finally a real start for the season.

If only I hadn't let my form (and weight) go unchecked during the winter months... All in all, I am super pleased with how my first two "long" rides went, average speed was around 16 mph, with long cruising periods at 21 mph. Much better than at the same time last year.

Apple: 1 Day Shipping

Why can't Apple offer 1-day shipping when ordering new computers? The only choice I get is the 2-3 business day shipping (is it a choice if there is only one option?). Maybe I am just not looking in the right place when ordering Macs; if there is a way to specify the shipping method I certainly haven't seen it. In many cases, I would be glad to pay a 1-day fed-ex shipping charge to get the machine here the next day.

STP: 16 Weeks to Go

Seattle to Portland (STP) ride is 16 weeks away. Cascade Bicycle Club has a series of organized rides that provide a great foundation for anyone planning on completing the STP event - either in the typical 2 days ride, or the more strenuous 1 day format.

My cycling training this year will consist of the following rides:

• Weekend Cascade Training Series rides - typically on a Sunday, with distances increasing each week until a century mark. The training series is a great way to get comfortable riding in a large group and meeting other STP participants looking to form your own "pace line" team for the event itself. The first ride was 30 miles in distance and it increased by about ~5 miles each week.

• Weekly Eastside Tours - Tuesday edition. 20 to 30 miles around the eastside in king-county, WA. The rides starts and ends at Marymoor Park parking lot K and mostly goes through different hills around Bellevue, Redmond, Kirkland, and Woodinville.

• Week Eastside Tours - Thursday Edition. The same format as the Tuesday series.

• One weekly ride of my own. My chance to practice my pace, work on my form, and ride w/ friends who might make up my pace line team for the STP.

I will mix these training rides with some official events, such as the Tour de Cure century in May, Seven Hills of Kirkland, and the Flying Wheels century in June.

The Tuesday and Thursday training rides are great early in the season, later on, as the STP approaches, the pace is too slow for any serious training and your time might be better spent on more strenuous rides of your own.

First Official STP Training Ride

The Cascade Bicycle Club sponsors a STP training ride every weekend 4 months before the official STP ride. I knew the training series was about to start, but I didn't remember that it would start today (they are often held on a Sunday).

Good thing that I am still in a weird time-zone schedule and got up at 4.:30 am - I now have time to prepare my bike and gear for the first official training ride - 30 miles.

If I am feeling adventurous, I will ride to the start line as well - adding about 20 miles round-trip.

Ride starts at 10:30 am from Warren G Magnuson Park.

Only caveat -- "Rain Cancels", and it is raining right now - maybe one more reason to ride to the start line. Worse case, I will do at least the 20 miles round trip.

For more ride details, visit the Cascade Club Web Site - Training Ride.

Hasta la Vista

I am finally back from my latest business trip. Carrying two laptops on every trip is getting really tiring. I had been wondering if, like many Mac fans out there, I had lost my perspective and were just unreasonably critical of Microsoft recently - after all, Windows is not really that bad, or is it?

Then, I see that yet again, Windows Vista has been delayed to early 2007. My problem is not that Windows XP is bad, my problem is that Windows XP is old. Microsoft has failed to update its leading OS for 5 years, and it looks like we will have to wait even longer until Vista is released.

5 year release cycles in a growing industry is just unacceptable. It works great for large corporations w/ thousands of PCs where the PC is just a necessary tool to run their business; but it fails miserably in the consumer market - where innovation and technology changes are frequent. Think about it -- where was digital photography when Windows XP launched? Where was digital music? Search? Web? e-commerce? etc...

Windows has failed to keep up with the latest technology trends in the consumer space -- that's the key reason that I switched to OS X last year.

I guess I will continue to carry two laptops with me, at least until I can reliably dual-boot Windows on my Mac laptop.

The Missing Link!!! Win XP on an iMacTel

WinXPonaMac is reporting that you can now run Win XP on a MacIntel box - natively, no emulation! This could be the missing link that will enable me to switch all of my house-hold PCs to iMacs exclusively. For those annoying occasions that I need to access a Windows only application or service I can boot into native Windows XP.

Install instructions will be posted shortly - time to order my first Intel Mac!

I bet, however, that multimedia apps (sound, 3D, integrated video camera) won't work that well initially due to lack of proper drivers - but maybe this is also just a matter of time until new drivers become available.

Goodbye "dull little boxes", welcome to Hardware Design nirvana!

Wells Fargo doesn't like Macs

Here is one of those frustrating Mac OS moments. Wells Fargo "Commercial Electronic Office" (their online banking system) does not work with Apple's Safari or with Firefox - they only support Windows.

Lovely, isn't it? It is stuff like this that gets my family up in arms when I try to switch our home PC to be Mac only. I can't blame them, it is pretty tiring to fight the on-slaw of Windows only services. We need to switch banks to be a Mac user? Oh well.

VAREKAI Cirque du Soleil - Redmond!

Cool! Cirque du Soleil - Varekai will be in Redmond at Marymoor Park from May 4th through May 19th, 2006. Tickets are on sale now at Admission.com.

Round and round we go

Our house purchase is back on! After the latest round of negotiations with the owner, and a bit of giving in on both sides, we have agreed on a new lower purchase price for the house!!! Our inspection contingency is now waived. Financing is also completed, the only hurdle remaining is an official appraisal to ensure that the purchase price is at or below market value.

If all goes well, we will take ownership on April 7th. Move in date will probably be 1 to 2 months later to allow time for the remodel and repairs to be completed.

Plaxo works on a Mac!!!

I just noticed that Plaxo has a beta 2 release for Mac OS (non-intel version from what I can tell). I just installed it and so far it works great.

Synchronizing my Mac OS X address book with my Windows Outlook contacts had been a major pain. I basically did it once over 6 months ago and then proceeded to only add contacts to my Mac - leaving Outlook out of date. As a result, my cell phone also had an old contact list since Windows Mobile phones do not synchronize with OS X.

With Plaxo Mac I just synchronized my address book on the Mac with my Outlook address book on Windows! Very cool!

It is a shame that it took Plaxo over 5 years to support the Mac, but I am glad they finally did it!

Now, if only I could get Skype 2.0 on my Mac then we would talking! (Power PC version, please)

Cycling Season: Week 2 Results

Results from my second week of training for the 2006 cycling season.

Spinning: none
Miles: none

I did manage a 45 min family ride with my kids but that's all the cycling and exercise I managed to do. A business trip, preparation for an office move, and house hunting have consumed all of my free time.

With the Africa Safari coming in late May and early June, I will be hard pressed to complete a 1 day STP unless I manage to put in the miles early in the season. And yet, I will be in Dubai for the next 7 days -- spinning is the best I will be able to do for now.

How your "credit score" is calculated

The following chart describes the data points and their respective weight for calculating one's credit score.

One thing that an individual can do in order to increase his score is pay down debt. Because 30% of your score is based on your debt to credit limit, paying off your balances down to 35% or below is helpful.

Debit Card Transaction - Fraud Warning

MSNBC has a interesting and worrisome article describing the rise of debit card fraud. You can read the full article article here.

Their specific advise is:

Avoid the PIN pad

Consumers concerned about the scam should avoid PIN-based retail transactions, and chose instead to make signature-based, credit-card-style transactions when making purchases with debit or check cards at stores. That means pushing away the PIN pad and signing a receipt instead. Doing so will limit the number of computer systems where a PIN may end up in storage.

It is an advice that I plan on following. Unfortunately for retailers they pay a higher fee (close to 3%) when you make a Visa transaction instead of a debt-card transaction.

Off to Dubai

I am off to Dubai for a business trip - another intense work week is ahead with back-to-back meetings. Cycling season gets postponed yet again. However, this is probably just the right recipe to get re-energized and plan for resuming a home search upon my return.

Walking Away

We are backing out from our offer based on the results of the home inspection. There is nearly $200,000 in repairs and remodel that needs to go into the house to make it pristine gain. As a result, the current asking price is not competitive with the market, especially considering the 2 months construction time that will be required to make all repairs.

This was an emotionally draining process, and we are back to square one. We will take a break for a couple weeks and resume our search later on in March.

House Hunting Again

It looks like we are back to search for a new home. The inspection report came back on the home we had found, and it uncovered more problems than the unfinished renovation. I need to decide now if it is worth to go back to the negotiating table or if we are better off searching for a new home altogether.

Some of the major problems found are:

• Need a new roof - $35,000
• Pest Control - $10,000
• New deck - $20,000

This on top of a remodel that needs finishing, yard that needs new landscape, and appliances that need to be purchased. I knew and expected these 3 items, but the roof, deck, and pests were not in my plan or budget.

We have 10 days to decide, but I think the search is going to resume and we will pass on this house after all.

Bummer, as we had loved the location, the architecture, the interior design, and the property.

Seattle Times - Puget Sound Home Sales

The Seattle Times today has an article on home sales in the Puget Sound area. Home prices in King county went up 14.7% in one year, but home sales in down 4.3% during the same period.

Historical Trend: House Prices - 98052

Here is the historical data for house prices in the Redmond area - zip code 98052. Out of control.

Source: www.zillow.com

OS X Blue Screen - Update

Quick update on my experience with Apple's "Blue Screen" - Kernel Panic, that I first reported on Feb 8. I followed a suggestion that Brian G left in my comments section and removed a DOS formated drive from my iMac. The system has been running perfectly ever since.

It is a shame that OS X can' handle the exception and just blows up, but I am very glad that the problem has been fixed.

David Paterson just left a message where he points to a very informative thread on MacOSXHints that goes over Generic OS X Troubleshooting tips - worth a read even if your Mac is running smoothly.

Mac OS X hacked in 30 min

Maybe that's just the beginning... CNET is reporting that "Mac OS X hacked in less than 30 minutes"

No surprises for most of us - it is the unfortunate reality of commercial operating systems in 2006. The surprise, of course, is that I don't see Apple as focused as Microsoft is on security and really tackling this problem head on (why is the Mac OS X firewall off by default?)

"The only thing which has kept Mac OS X relatively safe up until now is the fact that the market share is significantly lower than that of Microsoft Windows or the more common Unix platforms...If this situation was to change, in my opinion, things could be a lot worse on Mac OS X than they currently are on other operating systems," Archibald said at the time.

See the article for more details.

Windows Free Zone vs. Family mutiny

When we move homes this summer, my plan is to have a MS Windows free house-hold. Both of our Windows Media Center PCs have stopped working and I haven't bothered to figure out why - (interestingly, my Tivo Series 1 from 1998 still works). Media Center and its Windows problems just became too much hassle -- TV is suppose to just work, and adding Windows to the mix breaks that rule.

iTunes and iPhoto do a great job sharing content across Macs, I figured our new house should be a Windows Free environment. With iTunes TV Show, I can get the 2 shows I watch in a commercial free format, and I can use my Tivo in the rare occasion we are watching live TV.

Macs Minis could power up the living room and bedroom TVs, iMacs for the den, kitchen and homework areas, and a PowerBook and Mac Book Pro for mobility.

The problem is that I am running into heavy opposition from my family. My daughter flat out refuses to switch - "there are many more educational software for Windows than for the Mac, and I can't use MSN on the Mac." My wife just finds OS X harder to use and doesn't want to bother with web site incompatibility with Safari (a lot does not work w/ Safari forcing you to use Firefox and losing out on .Mac synchronization). Then there is the video conferencing issue - our friends and family members use Windows Messenger, and you can't video conference with them via a Mac. My hope here is that Skype will support cross-platform video conference soon, but it is not available yet.

Maybe the solution is to let my family members self-manage their own Windows PC; in about 30 days or less, the machine will crank to a halt and we would have a virtual Windows Free household after all.

Cycling Season: Week 1 Results

Here are the results of my first week of training for the 2006 cycling season.

Spinning: none
Miles: none

Beautiful weekend weather but house hunting matters consumed all of my time and energy. All I managed to do this first week was 1 hour of family riding in the trail, and reconnect the bike trailer to my car.

Not a great start to the season.

Equifax - Credit monitoring

I just signed up for 12 months of credit report monitoring via Equifax Credit Watch. They will monitor the 3 major credit reporting agencies and they will notify me of any changes to my credit history.

This is far from perfect as it costs $129.95. Equifax themselves is a credit agency, this service should be mandatory and free of charge. But for the time being, this is the best one can do to stay on top of their credit history.

A cheaper alternative is to request a free credit report every 12 months via AnnualCreditReport.com and deal with any discrepancies at that time.

Under the FACT Act amendments to the Fair Credit Reporting Act you are entitled to one free credit file disclosure in a 12 month period. To request this free annual disclosure you may contact the Central Source on-line at www.annualcreditreport.com. You can also contact the Central Source to request this free annual disclosure by calling toll free (877) FACTACT or by using the mail request form available at the central source website by clicking the following link www.annualcreditreport.com.

This system puts the burden on the individual, not on credit reporting bureaus or creditors. Under the current system, individuals are guilty until they can prove their innocence - not very American, is it?

If our legal system worked in the same manner, people would be put in jail when accusations (substantiated or not) were made, and the burden would be on the individual to prove his innocence from the comfort of a jail cell.

I have gifted the Credit Watch program to my parents and each of my siblings. This issue won't end here...

Credit Report - A class Action Lawsuit Waiting to Happen

While working on my bank financing for the property we want to purchase we discovered a collection item on our credit report - for a whopping $122. No information, just a current collection against us for some medical treatment.

We never received a bill, we never received any notices, and we have no idea what it is - but it is there in our credit report, it hurts our credit score, and it could negatively impact our lending rate.

I called the collections agency that is listed in the report. They claims that they have been sending us mail since May 2005, they have no explanation for the charges, just that we owe Group Health $122.

Here is the kicker - we never ever use Group Health, and the notices they have been sending to us have been sent to our old address, not to the current address listed on the same credit report that the agency used.

How can they get away with this? I called Group Health and asked for explanation of the charges. They could not give me any - none, nothing. Just that it had been sent to the collections agency. The collections agency doesn't know any details, and around it goes.

Since I don't have time to deal with this now, and I need this issue resolved, I have paid the $122 fee and I am submitting a letter to the bank indicating that this item has been resolved. I will go back and deal with this properly after the the home purchase is out of the way.

It is absurd how this system works. Creditors do not need any proof or explanation of the charges and they can add any collection to your credit report without you ever knowing about it. At a minimal, a credit agency should be required to notify the person that a new charge has been submitted and the person should have 30 days to contest it before anything is ever added permanently to the person's record.

I am surprised that no lawyer has taken up this cause - individuals are loosing millions of dollars by incurring higher finance charges due to faulty credit reports, and no one seems to be doing anything to rectify this problem.

Found it!

6 days into our search and we have found a house that matches all of our requirements, and most of our wish items!!! The only exception is that the utility room is situated in the first floor.

It is an older home (by Pacific Northwet standards), built in 1990, but it seems to be in great shape. As part of the sale, we will do a detailed inspection to ensure that the foundation, roof, plumbing, wiring, etc are all in perfect order - consider this a $500 "peace of mind" insurance.

The house seems to have a colorful history as it currently sits in foreclosure - we are not too happy about that (not happy memories, I am sure). The previous owners also left the house in the final stages of a remodel. Since the bank nows owns the house, nothing has been done for the past 12 months. As a result, some remodel work will need to be completed before we can move in.

The house market in this area is very active; few homes remain on the market after 4 weeks, and most are sold within 2 weeks. Our previous two homes both sold on their first day on the market. Yet this house has been listed since November 2004 and the list price has been reduced by 25% over the course of the past 18 months - a worrisome sign, or a hidden gem?

We made an offer 15% below asking price, and after much negotiation - all centered around the unfinished remodel and the long time that it has been on the market - the seller (a bank in this case) has accepted our offer!

The deal is still contingent on financing and on inspection, but we have our fingers crossed that it will all work out!

Here is a picture of the house taken just yesterday.

More photos can be found on this iWeb .Mac Site.

Family Trip to Italy

We are planning a family vacation to Italy this summer. We are going to spend one week in the Tuscany region, and one week in Rome. This will be a true family vacation as my parents will be coming, as well as my sister-in-law's family (all 5 of them).

We will be staying at Villa Pia while in Tuscany, and I am still looking for appropriate accommodations for our stay in Rome.

We will be at Villa Pia the week of July 22nd, then off to Rome for 1 week. Rome should be especially busy with tourists, ourselves included, at this time of year, but hopefully it will still be enjoyable.

House hunting

After a period of uncertainty and much deliberation, my family and I have decided that we are going to be staying in the Pacific Northwet for the foreseeable future. We had sold our house in Redmond nearly 2 years ago in anticipation of a move to sunny Naples, Florida. The move to Naples never materialized and we ended up renting a house for almost 2 years.

After helping a friend search for and purchase a home, the seed was planted - it is time to seek a more permanent house for my family.

Searching for a home in an area that you have lived in for the past 15 years is quite different than searching for a home in a new state or country. We already know the area, we know the neighborhoods, we know which commute nightmares to avoid, etc. As a result, the value of the Real State agent is greatly diminished in this case - primarily the agent will provide us access to tour a home, and will assist with the legal paperwork of making an offer. The searching and sorting of homes is left to us.

Naturally, we are resorting to the web to perform the first leg of our house hunting adventure.

We are pretty specific on what we need, and we have our wish list items as well.

Needed: 4 bedrooms + den, 2.5 bathrooms, at least 3,000 sqf, within 10 miles from my children's school, at least quarter acre lot, and a 3 car garage.

Nice to have: < 5 miles from school, 3.5+ bathrooms, bonus room, cul-de-sac, laundry room in the second floor, acre lot, < 20 years old construction.

The tools we are using to perform our search are:

A Multiple Listing Service (MLS) search engine: Coldwell Banker Home Planner provides us with the basic MLS searching abilities and a daily monitoring email for any new homes that match our search criteria.

To obtain estimated home valuation, review previous sales records, and to compare home prices with neighboring houses, we are using Zillow.com (requires firefox on the mac).

To find our way around, view satellite maps, and cruise the neighborhood without actually leaving our desk we are using Google Maps and Google Earth.

Redfin is a service that bypasses the buyers broker completely and enables you, the buyer, to keep 2% of he 3% commission that is payed to the buyers agent. A tempting service, especially since we know the area so well, but we have, for now, decided to use a regular real-estate agent.

I have also spent time with an online lending broker, Lendingtree, to get a better idea of what loans I qualify for, and to get a pre-approval letter.

Our process is only beginning; this past weekend was mostly used up visiting some new construction that we had identified online. In the end, everyone of the new developments within our target price range failed one or more of our selection criteria, so the search continues.

What we have quickly learned though, is that home prices in the Seattle, Redmond, Bellevue area are just out of control: asking price is more than double from just 5 years ago, and there seems to be a lot of people "flipping" properties - houses bought just 12 to 24 months ago are back on the market with a 30 to 40% price hike. I don't know how a family that is just starting out can afford a home in this area.

The adventure continues. Let's see where this search will take us.

Start of Cycling Season

I am officially starting my cycling season, after having missed the "Chilly Hilly" event this past weekend.

Work intensity has been high, with an extended trip to Spain and Italy during February, which pretty much meant that I didn't get to ride my bike at all.

My "rain bike" update has been delayed as the folks at Redmond Cycle struggled to find a carbon fork that would fit my aging 1998 Softride frame. But word is that the bike will be ready for pick up before the weekend - can't wait.

This year I hope to better balance my cycling training with other personal activities; the trick will be to find enough time to train for another 1 day STP attempt.

I will start tracking in the blog my mileage, and cycle time to keep me honest and on track.