Free Online File Conversion Tool

I hate Word Perfect Files. Not only does Office 2007 actively reject the format, but Open Office fails too -- at least for the WPS files that I've tried.

In my pursuit of an easy tool to convert the impossible WPS format into something useable, I happened upon Zamzar.com. Its a free, online file conversion utility and it absolutely rocks. Not only is it able to convert WPS into DOC, but it has an impressive array of other formats with which is will work.

Check it out!

http://www.zamzar.com/

Ted Stevens: Indicted

Heck, yeah!

Of "Bridge to Nowhere" fame, Senator Ted "Series of Tubes" Stevens has been indicted by a federal grand jury on 7 counts for making false statements on his Senate financial disclosure forms regarding substantial improvements made to his home by VECO, a former oil company out of Alaska.

Last year, VECO CEO Bill Allen resigned after entering a guilty plea on charges of bribing Alaskan law makers with cash and promises of jobs, contracts and favors for their support of legislation friendly to his industry.

The Senator's son, Ben Stevens, is also under investigation, as is fellow "Bridge" support, Don Young.

McCain Frustrates Young Conservations.

According to CNN.com, John McCain Frustrates Young Conservatives [CNN.com].

Yes. Yes, he does.

I'm certainly no Obtamatron, but to say McCain frustrates me (too) is an understatement. At this point, I'm quite certain that Obama will not be receiving my vote in the fall, but what is up for decision is whether McCain will get it.

Apparently, as a "young voter," I'm not alone in that voting quandary.

I mean, this candidate appears to come from an old standard, and seems to not possess the mental acuity my generation expects in our leadership. For example, McCain consistently still refers to Czechoslovakia as if its still a whole country.

There's the PR job in the Iraqi market in which John McCain attempts to make a statement in favor of Iraqi progress and safety on their streets; what isn't seen in the camera frame is that McCain was made safe by 100 troops, 2 black hawks and enough body armor to break a camels back -- all apparently off camera for the major speech and photo ops.

There's also his apparently befuddled insistence that Iran is training al-Qaeda operatives.

Now, Ronald Reagan was a charming grandfather figure, and got away with similar slips. But John McCain doesn't get the same treatment. Maybe that isn't fair, but I could continue with further examples of misquotations, missteps, etc. I won't.

On a related note, Albert Einstein once said “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results”. That bears some application in this instance too, I believe, as I see where the country (or at least the conservative portions) spoke fairly clearly 8-years ago on the subject of John McCain's candidacy. Maybe the conservative voters got it wrong then, but I think at least some of the general malaise in the republican camp now may be related to those earlier feelings. Is McCain the "meh!" candidate?

And we all know the republican candidate for president simply isn't a rock star. His competition is, and I think that may be finally dawning on some people on his staff. In that respect, I hope McCain can find a way to energize his young base soon and convince some of us to cast votes in his favor come November. If he doesn't, it will be a run away in his opponent's favor.

Even then, the competition may still win the election, but the open discourse and competition will allow for a more thorough evaluation of both candidates. I don't see the close examination taking place now; what I do see is a lot of hot air and glittering generalities being tossed around in speeches. A closer competition would help to cut through some of that smoke screen.

-----
Update:
From another CNN.com article, this quote really brings it all together for me:

But all of this points to a larger point: We've become a country that continually chooses the sizzle over the steak. McCain may not get my vote, but he gets my admiration for at least offering some substance and new ideas when he speaks. Obama, meanwhile, is like the rock star who's realized that he can just scream unintelligible words into the microphone between songs, and the entire stadium will still scream.

In counter point, some of what McCain says will be factually incorrect, but he does, at least, give some substance to what he says. I will give him that much.

Orange Crush

UPDATE: My web stats module appears to show that perhaps we may have the start of another controversy over a blog post.

The comments below strictly are my own personal opinions and do not reflect to the opinions or beliefs of my softball team or teammates.

As I indicate in my thoughts below, I felt the tactics employed on the field were a bit harsh on that day, but I do respect the rights of our fellow league players to employ them against us.

What's more is that I highly respect every team and player in our league, including the specific players who have shown themselves willing to cause problems for me, my assistant coach and my team. But, as I've said separately on this blog, I've attempted to offer olive branches to those individuals in the past and the offer still remains for them to take, though they appear content to ignore it.

As the saying goes, you can lead a horse to water...

And now, back to the originally scheduled programming.

---------------------------

For the record, I concur with Tom's evaluation of the games last weekend.

To be honest, I don't recall much from the game against the Newbies two weeks ago, but I do remember the bone-head play by our left fielder mentioned in Tom's post. What I vividly remember from that play was the fact that I was standing at home, blocking the runner and waiting for the throw that never came. The runner was ultimately tagged out by half a step -- way too close in my book.

On the issue of Orange Crush -- I, too, disagree with their exploitation of our ghost out. To be blunt, I see what they did as somewhat unsportsmanlike. I respect their team, and the strategy was a good one, albeit somewhat tough for a recreational and theoretically non-competitive league.

Having an opponent rally and then be cut down by a rough strategy to close out the inning with the ghost out? Bah humbug. That's no fun.

Now, is Orange Crush completely within their right to do what they did? Yes, absolutely!

Should they have run that strategy, considering their record and the score in the game at the time? Hmm. Probably not, but sometimes folks get caught up in the moment on the field.

Would I have done the same in a similar situation? As tempted as I would have been, I would have pitched to the batter. As a matter of fact, I believe that very same circumstance cropped up in our game against the Newbies. We pitched to their batter, despite the option to close out the inning. They won the game off it too.

None of that changes the fact that I hold much respect for Orange Crush, and I know that the feeling is mutual. I'm also not sure where Tom found the tension on the field between the two squads, because I didn't. The team manager on Orange Crush appears to be a fairly tense guy on the field anyway, so reading his body language could be tough. From what I've seen, he's a good guy though.

In Spring 2009, chances are also pretty good that Orange Crush will be promoted to the next league up from us. To be 20-2 says a lot about their placement, and the county administration will bump them up to keep our league a bit more competitive.

That being said, I think I'll miss playing them.

Some People

I've recently had to deal with a rather negative personality on the softball field. This person has very specifically gone out of her way to be hurtful, vindictive and mean at all times, often working feverishly in the background to instigate trouble between my team and others. Her machinations have manifested in many ways, but all have been benign.

But what makes the entire scenario troubling is that neither me nor anyone else I know can recall any instance where we'd deserve the treatment we are receiving from this individual. Further, we were given no opportunity to mitigate the situation before her hateful antics began.

In the end, I believe that ignoring the negativity from this individual is by far the best and most appropriate action any of us can take; further, she appears to be completely unaware that her efforts are earning her a rather unenviable reputation as a trouble maker, which slowly erodes her overall ability to cause trouble in the first place.

Each time she makes trouble with another team, those team captains come to me for clarification, which allows both sides to come away with a stronger mutual respect. At the same time, this individual, however, is increasingly seen as unreliable and an instigator by the parties she intends to pit against me. From her perspective, I suspect rather strongly that this is precisely the opposite of the intended effect.

All that being said, I personally harbor no malice for this individual or her male friend, Tommy, and I never have.

I wish they both knew that, and perhaps publishing the sentiment here may eventually allow the words to get to her. After all, I know she's reading at least some of the blogs belonging to my teammates.

Softball Update

Well, we have our Sunday roster complete (12 total people) and I should have dues and signatures in hand on Sunday. The second team is coming along well, and we now have 4 men committed to play along with 3 women -- that's knocking on the door to a second squad, folks!

In related softball news, it appears that we'll be playing in the "midnight madness tournament" after all, and I'm actually none too excited about it. For one, the games are scheduled late at night (and all night) and, second, we'll be playing in Petersburg of all places.

That's right, folks. Petersburg, VA. What's that?

Isn't our league based in Chesterfield?

Didn't we request specifically to play in Chesterfield?

Yes and yes. Did the organizer listen? Nope. So, we'll be driving way to our south to play.

To begin with, I'm not particularly comfortable with Petersburg during the day but after dark? Good grief. That, there's nothing a like a long drive home in the middle of the night/morning when you're completely exhausted.

Oh well. Maybe next year we'll remember not to sign up for this. (Incidentally, that's precisely what we said last year too).

Anyway, come out and see us play, if you're awake or if you want to provide covering fire. We'll be the team in the yellow shirts and kevlar body armor.

Have I lost my mind? A second softball team?

In recent weeks, my softball team has been running an extremely successful recruitment drive; the response has truly exceeded any of my expectations!

Not one to waste a contact or to exclude participation from anyone, I contacted Chesterfield County’s softball league administration about connecting the extra enrollment on my Sunday-league softball team with other teams in Chesterfield. Unfortunately, Chesterfield doesn’t have any efficient system in place to arrange for this in real time, and can't do much to help aside from adding the names of these players to a generic list of “Players Looking for Teams.”

On its face, this list sounds like a good option, but the list doesn’t see much circulation or update; and, indeed, the list which was presented to me last week at our team managers meeting was almost identical to the version distributed to us back in April. Surely, the players on the April list have either moved on, lost interest or found other teams on which to play by now!

So, I had a thought which could benefit all parties. What if we started a second team for one of the weekday leagues? There wouldn’t be any competition between that team and our existing Sunday-league squad, and both teams could benefit from having some “player crossover” – that is, players who always play on both nights or still other players who primarily play on one day but can be available to play on the other day if an extra player is needed to fill in.

Of course, this also allows us to get our feet wet for a week night league too, something I’m starting to find attractive as more and more chores pile up at home. The only time I really have to work on these chores is during the weekend, and having a team in weekday league allows me to have a free weekend and still enjoy softball on a weekly basis. I won't complain about the extra exercise either.

Naturally, I’ll first have to confirm with the possible recruits to see if they’re available during one of the weekday options and go from there. Anyway, just a consideration at this point.

Visual Studio HTML Formating

In my work, I occasionally inherit code from other developers or find HTML that hasn't been touched since it was written 7-years ago. In many of those cases, tabbing and other formatting of code can be absolutely atrocious; which, of course, makes it extraordinarily difficult to read, even with the color coding afforded by Visual Studio and/or Dreamweaver.

Serious lack of formatting.

Fortunately, Visual Studio can auto-format HTML on paste, or through a series of keyboard shortcuts. By pressing CTRL+K and then CTRL+D, you can apply formating.

Look, ma! Pretty formatting!

To activate the automatic formatting of HTML when its pasted into a Visual Studio document, go to "Tools" and then "Options". Next, scroll to "Text Editor" and expand the HTML node "HTML". Finally, select "Miscellaneous" and then check "Format HTML on Paste". Confirm your settings and you'll be up and going with pretty HTML on paste!

Best Buy Horror

On my way home from work yesterday, I decided to stop at Best Buy to pick up a GPS for the sister’s birthday. The unit I had in mind was the Garmin Nuvi 200, which is on sale for $149 this week.

http://tinyurl.com/5qc3c8

As a frequent Best Buy shopper, I am a member of their “Reward Zone” and receive periodic emails which contain coupons for product discount. To augment the sale above, I had a coupon for $50 off any Garmin GPS.

http://tinyurl.com/5lbffy

The following is a quick narrative of the headaches I encountered yesterday in attempting to purchase said GPS.

The Richmond, VA BB on Broad Street kept me and a line of customers in their car department waiting for over 30 minutes until I ultimately went and fetched the store manager. (Previously, I’d attempted to get help from the home audio specialist who was standing, with his mouth ajar, and staring at all of the customers in the car section. Apparently these guys are so isolated and untrained that they can't even consider crossing over to another section of the same store in the name of customer service, even if their presence is limited only to summoning another representative who can assist the customers.)

Upon retrieving store management and still more waiting (the manager helped me last, probably because I had the gall to pull her out of her office to help customers), she pulled one of the last gray Nuvi's out of the glass case in which they are stored.

Taking me and the Nuvi to the front of the store without even a word of friendly conversation, she promptly tossed the GPS on the counter with a comment to the cashier to "be sure to tell this man about the warrantee."

I may be old-fashioned, but when I worked retail we were told to always address the customer about possible sales, but I digress.

Well, the cashier, Amaad, proceeded to ring up the GPS, took my rewards zone card and then choked when I handed him the email coupon. Amaad turned to his cohort, lead cashier Kevin, to ask about "internet coupons" and was promptly told that "those don't apply because the coupon says 'no sale prices'".

Immediately, I asked Amaad and Kevin to read the coupon a bit closer, as "sales prices" are not mentioned on the coupon anywhere -- and they're not. Look for yourself. It clearly says "no special offers" and "no other coupons."

To this Kevin simply replied, "Ok. No special offers then. A sale price is a special offer."

"No, Kevin. A price is a price. A special offer is a rebate or some other giveaway. Seriously, Kevin, these things are 'on sale' every single week -- heck, absolutely everything in your entire store is 'on sale.'" I responded.

"Sorry. It won't work. The computers won't even take the coupon" Kevin replied.

"Ok. Prove it then. If it the computer won't take the coupon, I'll promise to buy the GPS at the current price and walk out the door a happy customer. If it does take the coupon, then that must mean the coupon can be applied to 'on sale' items and that reduced price should stand. Just try it."

"Fine." Kevin responded as Amaad swiped the coupon across the laser scanner.

As you can guess, the coupon scanned properly. There was an initial dialog on the check out register reminding the cashier to check my reward zone card (which is required for the deal) but when this message was cleared, the price had been reduced by $50. Fortunately, I saw this reduction in the 2 seconds during which the lower price was visible -- unfortunately, Amaad and Kevin weren't having it and probably weren't enjoying the fact that they'd be proven wrong either.

Amaad had noticeably blanched at the sight of the new price and very quickly pressed two keys on his keyboard to void the coupon and set the price back. I believe he hoped to do so before I'd noticed. Well, too bad. He was too slow, and I have very good eye sight.

"I saw that, Amaad. The price said $107.59 after tax." I said.

"Doesn't matter. You can't apply the coupon to a sale item. End of discussion. Would you like to speak with a manager?" Kevin responded. Amaad nodded.

"Clearly it did apply the coupon, Kevin -- I saw that much before you cleared it from your screen and you two did as well -- and I would like to speak with a manager, actually. She was just here a minute ago." I said.

Without batting an eye, Kevin responded, "Well, she's too busy for this. And I'm telling you that it won't work and that's the end of it."

"Really? You're not going to radio the manager? I'm asking to speak with her."

"Once again, sir, she's too busy for this. The sale price is $150 and the coupon won't work. Period. That's all there is to it."

"Ok. Then I'm not interested. I'll be taking your sales flier across the street to your competitor for a price match plus 10% off, and I'll also be filing a complaint with your management. But, obviously, Kevin, this has gone a bit beyond just the coupon as you are now actively refusing to find a manager to resolve this issue. Now, I'll think twice before coming back to your store."

"Do what you want, sir."

"Ok."

And with that, I picked up my things and left. No sense to making a further scene -- as it was, a dozen or so other customers were also watching these events unfold and, no doubt, were also forming their own negative opinions of the store and its employees. Now I’ve posted the narrative here.

I just don't understand why the cashiers feel they need to rewrite the rule book as they see fit. The “rules” are left to the corporate pricing and marketing folks who *program* the registers at a national level -- if they don't want a coupon to apply, they'll block it. When I worked for CC corporate, this was done and I'm sure BB can do the same.

Moreover, I don't understand why a reasonable and polite request to speak with management was rebuffed without even a thought to fulfilling the request. That much, I have a serious problem with. To me, it almost appeared that Kevin and Amaad had a bad situation going for them; that it wasn't going to end in their favor and they were afraid of being embarrassed in front of management -- as a result, they sought to quickly sweep it all under the carpet and prevent management from knowing about their little embarrassing snafu by shooing me out the door.

Ultimately, that's Best Buy's loss as I'll seriously think twice about going back to Best Buy after this. I buy a lot of DVDs and I buy a lot of electronics, and to be perfectly honest, I'll be very happy to give my business to their Richmond-based competitor. At least then, I'll be benefiting some local employees. The more Best Buy performs in this manner, the more people will consider switching.

I won't presume to think that my absence from their store or that this blog-space will have any noticeable effect on their bottom line, but for every voice added, the sound of discontentment will grow louder.