BMW 7-series = nicer than the previous generation, also quite surprised to see roof-rack slots in for this model.

All Audis = beautiful design on the exterior, meh on the inside. You can do better, Audi… make me feel like I’m giving up something if I go buy a BMW.

Cadillac CTS, CTS-V and CTS SportWagon = much nicer than I expected. Exterior is sharp, interior is nicely done and about on par with the BMW 3-series as it should be. CTS-V is slightly nicer on the inside.

New Camaro = too bad they kept the name, because eventually this car will be in every trailer park making the new ones look horrible. Extremely well done car, inside & out. Back-seat only for midgets and a large trunk with one of the smallest hatches I’ve ever seen on a car. Totally not practical, but totally awesome. Even the V6 version looks good.

New Grand Sport version of the Corvette = much, much sharper looking in person than I expected. Tempting, tempting…

New Mercedes-Benz E-Class sedan & coupe = absolutely gorgeous on the outside and a total letdown on the inside. Not even as nice as a BMW 3-series, let alone a 5-series. These were the E-350 versions, so hopefully the V8 and AMG versions will remedy some of that. Having a total display floor size of an average size guest bedroom doesn’t help showing off the cars.

All Acuras = couldn’t be more boring if they tried. Interiors remind me of cheap GM cars from the early 90s. Exteriors only a boy racer wanna-be could love. The new ZDX was interesting but had rear-doors that would make you yearn for the spaciousness of a Camaro.

The e-ink display is absolutely amazing. It is just beautiful. I find it easier and clearer to read than most printed material and it doesn’t feel like you are viewing an electronic device at all. I haven’t really used this technology before, so one thing that did come as a surprise is that each page turn or refresh is noticeably slow. That is, it takes probably around a quarter of a second to actual render the page. It doesn’t get in the way, but it was a surprise. This is an artifact of the e-ink technology itself, which effectively “prints” the page material once and then the display holds it stable.

The size and weight of the device is just right. It’s about the size of a standard paperback and at 10 ounces feels just right in your hand. It is incredibly thin – less than the thickness of a small magazine. Even with one of the optional covers on, there would be no problem taking this thing on a long holiday or business trip.

The user interface for reading is good. The button placement doesn’t seem quite perfect for my hands, but more time will tell. Pages turn fast enough and the ability to quickly highlight words and get their dictionary definition is one of the best features of the device. That said, it clearly would benefit from a multi-touch interface, ala the iPhone, but this would likely just render your e-ink display full of smudged fingerprints.

The keyboard and cursor control are acceptable, but it was much faster to do browse for and buy books via a computer web browser. There are some clear engineering trade-offs made on the keyboard and the cursor control to make them useful in a real world scenario. The good news is it only takes a couple of minutes and then the interface is very natural and more than fast enough.

Amazon’s selection of Kindle books is more than adequate at the moment, and certainly more than we can read in a lifetime. We’ll see as time goes on if the books we want to read show up in the Kindle store versus in print.

I am curious to see if the Kindle 2 is something I will enjoy using or not.  There is something incredibly wonderful about the tangible feel of a book that makes any e-book reader a hard sell. We’ll see if I find it pleasant enough to use for my primary reading tool or not.

The saga isn’t over until the credit actually hits my credit card account, but in all likelihood that will be tomorrow morning.

DHL tells me no, there is no return tracking # because the package really was stolen. “You need to call Dell and have them open a claim with us.” Okay… since they’re being responsive today I can call Dell back and have them call DHL, right? Wrong… My call to Dell goes like all the others: “Sir, we have to wait 48 hours until the last scan on DHL’s web site before we can open a trace with DHL.” Uh, WTF people? How about actually trying to resolve my issue for me?

I politely told them I was done with them, and then I called up Citibank. Within 5 minutes I had a credit issued and a promise from Citibank that they would work with the merchant to resolve the issue.

Absolutely amazing.

After a little research and sale watching I wound up ordering a Dell Studio 15 via the web. It shipped a little earlier than originally expected and went out DHL 2 day express. Being anxious, I of course watched the DHL tracking website like a hawk and was surprised to see it was given to the local delivery courier a day earlier than Dell estimated. And that is when things went downhill.

The laptop didn’t show up the day DHL indicated it was out for delivery. The next day it didn’t show up either, so around 9 PM local time I called DHL to find out the status. Their representatives were quite helpful and apologized, but the delivery van had been broken into and all of the contents stolen. They said I just needed to call Dell and let them order a replacement and Dell and DHL would work out the remaining details. Horribly annoying, but these things happen…

The next day I call Dell and let them know what happens and immediately I get sent into scripted cue-card land with representatives that are unfortunately not allowed to think own their own. After several attempts, multiple hang-ups, and one elevation to a supervisor I got the same exact story: you must call back after 48 hours elapsed since the estimated delivery date (Dell’s, not DHL’s!) before we can do anything. I mentioned they could call DHL directly and find out the unit was stolen, and they said no, you must wait 48 hours… When I finally got to a supervisor I was very specific about the time frame and if there would be any further delays and was told no: call back after 48 hours have elapsed, as early as 7 AM, and we will take care of ordering you a replacement laptop.

The next day, after the allocated 48 hours since estimated delivery had elapsed, I call Dell back and get a new surprise. Yes indeed, 48 hours have elapsed but no, we cannot order you a new laptop yet. Instead, we have to give you order to Dell’s “Investigations” department and they will need 24 more hours to determine the status of the laptop. Of course, no attempt to contact DHL was offered or possible, simply more scripted cue card reading.

The next day arrives and I give Dell another call back, this time after noon, and try yet again to get something moving on our laptop. At this point it has been a full 4 days since the laptop was originally scheduled to be delivered. The first Dell representative is quite helpful and it almost sounds like, at first, that I am going to get a resolution. But then, I realize the story is just about to get a whole lot worse for me. The representative winds up calling DHL directly to find out the status of the missing laptop. Hmm, isn’t that what the mysterious “Investigations” department was really for?

The representative tries a few times to reach DHL but isn’t able to make it through; I confirmed this later by calling DHL myself and found that while their customer service center was responsive, their local Houston office was not answering calls in a timely fashion. The gist of the whole exchange between Dell and DHL was that the package is being shipped back to Dell (DHL later suggested this was likely due to it being partially recovered or damaged). Dell now required a return shipment tracking # before they could process anything further on my order. I was told to call DHL back the next business day and get a return tracking # and then call Dell back with that information. Once they had it, they would then wait for the shipment to arrive, assess the situation, and then issue me a refund or a new laptop depending upon my preference (you can guess what the preference might be at this point).

At this point, I was livid. In the best case scenario, I was looking at almost 2 weeks past the original scheduled delivery date before I would have a laptop. I asked yet again to be transferred to a supervisor, after apologizing to the nice woman who was helping me for having to deal with my temper. I got the same supervisor I did two days previously and reached a new low in the quailty of customer service. The supervisor would sit there quietly on the phone, not answering for 15-30 seconds at a time when I asked specific questions, such as “is there even such a thing as an ‘Investigations’ department?” or “how long until I will receive a refund?” In the end, would simply wait and repeat the scripted answer: “call us back with the return tracking # and until then we cannot assist you.” I really lost my temper at that point, which is the worst part of the whole experience.

Certainly, at most levels, this experience isn’t worth getting stressed out over. I suspect the Dell customer service representatives working in India weren’t terribly concerned about the rich American who couldn’t have his precious laptop for a few more days, and in the big picture of things they would clearly be right. But great customer service is about exceeding expectations, something Dell has traditionally been known for (let’s ignore phone technical support – that is an almost impossible task to get right). Part of the reason you bought from Dell in the past was great support when things might go wrong with your order.

There are many places where Dell could have done a lot better in this case. Perhaps the most striking is lack of any attempt to engage DHL on my behalf and try and resolve the issue; having me hunt down what was happening and do their legwork is a sign of tremendous laziness on their part and ultimately makes any customer feel as if they are getting the runaround, which clearly, I was.

I’m sure fraud and an attempt to manage the “quality” of the customer service center has resulted in a Dell that no longer truly can offer great customer service in such a situation. And, in any case, losing my business alone will neither harm Dell’s bottom line or cause them any concern. They’re large enough that even if I can convince everyone I know never to buy from them again, or any of the technology companies I own or work for to do the same, it will not reduce their overall bottom line. I can only hope that Michael Dell’s recent return to the company’s helm will result in a refocus on customer service and quality, but those things are very culturally ingrained and can take years or more to change.

Later that afternoon, Lori and I walked into a Best Buy store, touched and felt a few laptops, and walked out with a Sony Vaio VGN-FW170J laptop. It had better specifications than the Dell Studio 15 I ordered, and was cheaper, to boot.

Magnuson discovers what I also discovered a few years ago when I started cycling: high-intensity exercise with a purpose can be extremely liberating and can totally change your outlook on life. Cycling is a great fit for this, given that it is relatively easy for people to get up off the couch and get on the bike and get to the point where they can ride for hours on end.

Overall I’d give the book 3.5 out of 5 stars. It is an entertaining read, even if you aren’t a cyclist.

It was a decent novel, told again from Lestat’s point of view which make for the most interesting of her novels. Overall I’d give it 3.5 stars out of 5.

It is a quick, pleasant read, even if you aren’t a big fan of the Joel On Software blog. Joel has some pretty good insight into the software development industry and technical talent in general, so even if you don’t agree with all of his assertions (I certainly don’t), his opinions are worth reading and heading.

Some key points I took from this book were:

• The great developers aren’t usually on the job market, so you have to go out and hunt them down.
• Treat developers like the talent they are; the great ones are rare.
• Spend the money making sure the developer’s work enviroment is top-notch; it’s a better way to spend your company’s dollar than with over-the-top salaries.
• Follow some real software engineering processes or pay the price with a poor quality product and a stressed-out team.
• If you’re hiring programmers, make sure to actually have them write code during the interview process.

Overall, I’d give it 3.5 out of 5 stars.

In the end, of course, the kid is right, but there are several attempts at revealing his neighbor’s true colors that work out as just the kid crying wolf. This story has been done before.

Even though it is predictable and somewhat cliché, it is a fun story and well executed. Overall I’d give it 3 out of 5 stars.

The plot of the book is actually quite good. A former government scientist focused on weather control returns to the subject once he has amassed a fortune in the private sector. He masters the ability to create and harness weather and begins to unleash the monster hurricane as a lesson to his arch-nemesis, the President of the United States. Meanwhile, scientists within the CIA begin to notice something might not be right about the weather…

Unfortunately a good thriller plot is coupled with some not so great writing. I’m pretty tolerant on writing styles but this one felt too much like someone had just read a book on “writing fiction in 21 days” or something along those lines. It had a tremendous quality of a “made for hollywood” movie that didn’t want you to think too hard.

Glad I read it, but I wouldn’t read it again. I’d give it 2.5 out of 5 stars.