ben robison

Gadget Inventory

I’ve been trying to find a local electronics recycler because all my old computer junk is just taking up too much space. When you get new electronics and toys, you’ve got to get rid of some of the old ones.

This process made me realize just how many gadgets I’ve got. Here’s the current inventory that’s not on the recycle list:

• iPod Touch (current favorite)
• Macbook Pro (close second)
• AppleTV
• Mac Mini
• Dell 2407WFP
• 5th Gen Video iPod
• 2nd Gen iPod Nano (the one before the fatties)
• Nintendo Wii
• Dell Optiplex 745
• Dell Optiplex GX150
• Dell Inspiron 600m
• Blackberry Pearl
• Sharp Aquos 32inch 1080p LCD TV

I wanted to get a new video card with this month’s allowance, but I realized that 2 of my 3 pairs of jeans now have holes in them and I better get some new ones before they rotted in tatters from my body. It was a little disappointing to realize that the video card would have to wait, but I made the right choice (I think) =)

Clothes shopping has to be one of the most boring things in the world, but I figured I had to power through it. The trip to Target for jeans wasn’t a total loss though, because I was able to pick up Super Smash Bros Brawl for the Wii while I was there! Falcon Punch!!

Tags: gadget inventory, gadgets

I Was Wrong

I’m fond of telling my wife that computers only do what you tell them to, but twice in the last week, my work laptop proved me wrong.

Last week, the wireless device suddenly disappeared. It wasn’t in the Device Manager, it wasn’t in my Network Connections Properties window, it wasn’t anywhere. I didn’t tell it to disappear. A few days later, it came back, but had lost it’s driver, so I had to go to the Dell Support site and download the wireless driver, which also installs an application, which I hate, but I need wireles.

Then, the first day back in the office after Summit, I undocked my laptop for a meeting and when I redocked it, the video completely crashed and I had to reboot. I didn’t tell it to do that either. And then when I rebooted my Windows profile was corrupted, and then when it was all finally working again, this picture sums it all up nicely.

I’m no good at Photoshop, so you know it’s true =)

Tags: 2 cents, crash, windows

Ideas that spread win.

I don’t know if it comes as a surprise to anyone that Omniture knows how to put on a good show.  The SLC Summit 08 meetings wrapped up this evening and now all that’s left is a day’s worth of skiing.  Work hard, play hard, you know how the saying goes.

For those who attended the event, I imagine that Lance Armstrong’s keynote and the Flight of the Concords performance will be top-of-mind and tip-of-tongue, but the keynote that really made me think about things belonged to Seth Godin.

First of all, his delivery is fantastic.  He’s entertaining, he’s funny, and he’s spontaneous, but his subject matter is also fascinating.  He didn’t talk about analytics.  He talked about how marketing is changing and how it’s no longer enough for marketers to shout at people and expect them to listen.  We don’t have to listen to marketers anymore, because we have so many other things we can pay attention too.

A marketers new role is to make a remarkable product.  He defined remarkable as something worthy of making a remark about.  That’s all.  People talking about your product means people are spreading your idea.  Ideas that spread win.

Tags: marketing, omniture, seth godin, summit

Just Enough JavaScript to be Dangerous

Working at Omniture means that I have fairly easy access to SiteCatalyst. I’ve been running Google Analytics on my blog for over a year now, and I’m nearing my one year anniversary of starting at Omniture (April). I figured it’s probably time for me to take my own medicine.

I haven’t done any real programming since leaving school and even then it was Rails or Java. I’ve dabbled in PHP, but I’ve never done JavaScript. Ever. Turns out that programming languages are just programming languages. The logic is the same and the syntax is all that changes (this is obviously gross oversimplification, but served my purposes tonight). I looked at the JavaScript on a few of other sites and whipped up my own solution for naming pages and recording internal search terms.

Now there’s no QC department on my MacBook Pro, but I spent about 45 minutes to code, debug, and test my implementation.

Tags: javascript, omniture, programming, sitecatalyst

You Are Not Mr. Ali’s Next of Kin

And neither am I =)

I don’t get mail like this on my Gmail account, but every once someone like Mr. Patrick K. Chan, Chief Executive Director and Chief Financial Officer of the Hang Seng Ltd. Bank in Honk Kong makes it past my Hotmail spam filter.

I realize that phishing is serious business and some of the scams are quite convincing, but this one was just laughable. Any email that starts like this is going to be good:

Good Day,

Greetings to you please do not be surprise by my mail to you as all information contained is real which you will find out for yourself that is why I need your co-operation of which I am rest assured that I will get from you. You should be aware that this mail did not come to you by mistake but rather, meant for you as this project would be mutually benefiting to the both of us. I must advice that you keep this very confidential to yourself and do not disclose it to anyone.

Now I didn’t think I knew Mr. Chan, so it was reassuring to see that his email in my inbox was not an accident and that he had actually sought me out personally for this business deal.

Apparently before the Iraqi war got in a full swing, Mr. Aadheam Ali was a successful merchant and personal client of Mr. Chan. Mr. Ali bought 18 Million Euros worth of bonds, and upon maturity, the bank tried to contact him but found out that he and his whole family had been murdered in a “missile bomb blast.”

Mr. Chan did his due diligence to discover that Mr. Ali never declared a “NEXT OF KIN” and he’s had a lawyer prepare a document that will legally turn my into Mr. Ali’s next of kin so that I can inherit the 18 Million Euros. If nobody claims the money, then:

at the expiration 4 years the funds will revert to the ownership of the Hong Kong Government if nobody applies to claim the funds as the(NEXT OF KIN), this of which is very unjust as the Government will cease the funds and use for themselves and do not account for anything good from such Funds.

Mr. Chan feels that this is unjust, so I should step forward to claim the money, but not tell anyone. In return for all the effort he’s put forth to track me down and for the use of his attorney, all that Mr. Chan wants is a negotiable percentage of the 18 Million Euros. Best of all Mr. Chan guarantees that there is no risk involved. How can I pass this up? This is the deal of a lifetime!

Tags: best of, email spam