Random Super Bowl Thoughts

- Watching so many big bucks BudLight and Doritos commercial didn’t make me feel closer to buying those products. Are those commercials becoming counterproductive? Do they even work anymore?

- Focus On The Family…sigh…it doesn’t even deserve my effort to bash on it.

- I couldn’t care any less who won the game, so I truly enjoyed it for what it is: a game.

- I couldn’t believe how people get very emotional about these silly games…tell you what, that’s not passion..that’s letting a silly situation take control of your emotions and in a very bad way…passion is enjoying the game no matter the outcome.

- Did the Saints “deserve” to win because of Katrina, no…that’s stupid, this is a game not an award. The team that scores the most points at the end of the game wins. However, did the Saints win “because” of Katrina? Seems like that’s where they found their motivation/drive, or at least that’s what they said.

- I’m still sore about how the Saints beating the Vikings, I think the Vikings were a better team.

- If I have to choose between the two Super Bowl teams I have to go with the Saints…just because there are a couple of Colts fans I know that are, how do I put it?…let’s say I don’t like them very much. Careful that doesn’t mean I don’t like all Colts fan, that’s very different.

- For the first time I was not motivated to watch the Super Bowl, I don’t know why I was not looking forward to it…I mean c’mon the Vikings almost made it.

- The Who was just awful, maybe back in their days were awesome but last night was all about watching grandpas do bad lip syncing on a really cool stage…when are they gonna stop doing old people half-time shows?

- The Saints coach looks like the bad coach in movies that makes his players do dirty stuff to the opponent team…coincidence? I don’t know…just sayin’

- My favorite part was when the fighter jets flew over the stadium…anything that involves fighter jets is my favorite by default.

DONATE TO THE RED CROSS’ RELIEF EFFORTS IN HAITI

“@RedCross: Text “HAITI” to 90999 to donate $10 to Red Cross relief efforts in Haiti”

I did it, it works, it takes 10 secs, you should do it too, spread the word.

Red Cross’ Twitter

T-Mobile, Nexus One and Me

A week ago Google released their much anticipated Nexus One, a phone that in my opinion is what the G1 should have been  when it was released a year ago. I got my G1 the week it was released and it is everything I hoped for and more in a first generation Android device. Yet I want the N1, after a year using the G1 I’m ready for a superior device that can handle future Android releases.

Then the bad news…I find it unbelievable that T-Mobile decided not to allow existing customers to upgrade to the N1 and get the subsidized price, instead if you are an existing customer you need to pay the full price ($530) while new customers get it at $180 to then leave 5 months later and get the phone for $380 after paying the ETF.

In their attempt to get new customers T-Mobile decided to anger their current customers, you would think the Google in their best interest of putting this phone in as many hands as possible would force T-Mobile to make it available to existing customers at the subsidized price….[sigh] oh well…

Whoever the geniuses are at T-Mobile they seem to have forgotten what they heard in college, so here T-Mobile let me remind you: It is more cost-effective for a company to keep existing clients than to get new ones.

Usually T-Mobile prides itself in having superior customer service, tell you what, that’s really hard to comprehend after what you did to your existing customers with the N1. I’m looking forward to not renewing my contract again.

UPDATE: Google imposes $350 early termination fee for subsidized Nexus One in addition to carrier’s own ETF

UPDATE: Google lowers Nexus One upgrade price to $279, issues $100 refund to early upgraders Link

Major Wish List Item [Google's Nexus One]

The Day Caesar Salad Died [Open Letter To Panera Bread]

Dear Panera Bread,

I like food, I like good food. I’ve traveled all around the world and I’ve had good food in many different countries. One of my favorite ‘dishes’ is Caesar Salad, so simple yet tasty. I’ve had Caesar Salad in every country I’ve been to in five different continents.

Six years ago I moved to the States and found you, my wife worked at one of your locations. Before I first tried your Caesar Salad I was a little bit skeptical, after all, you were not a formal fancy restaurant. But after the first bite your Caesar Salad became my standard, I still can’t tell if you use anchovies or not but your salad is pretty darn good, I personally like anchovies. This is what your salad looked like 6 years ago: Plenty of dressing (already tossed in), plenty of croûtons, generous on the cheese and fresh lettuce. What else could I ask for?

Then you started doing what (inexplicably)  many good business start doing when they realize they are doing something right, you started to slowly degrade the quality of your menu. This what happened in the last 4 years or so: First it was the cheese, ok, I’ll order it with extra cheese, no problem. Then it was the croûtons, well at least I get bread with it so…Then the dressing and that’s when I realize you were slowly killing what probably was your best item in your menu. However I would still let it pass, after all it was so good that even if you put less dressing it would still give it a nice flavor.

Still, nothing could have prepared me for what I experienced last Sunday. After a long hiatus, I ordered a Caesar Salad and what do I get? less croûtons than fingers in one hand, a few shavings of cheese that looked like someone counted them, and the worst… a measure of 1 tablespoon (or less) of dressing on the side. I won’t even elaborate on the sour old lettuce that it all came with. What used to be my standard for Caesar Salad has just become a mediocre representation of what once was a great version of Caesar Cardini’s creation.

Panera, stop for a moment and think. Your clients like your food because of the quality of your menu, without such quality you are just digging your own grave. As for me and my Caesar Salad, I’ll just look for another standard, but last Sunday’s experience left me with no desire of ordering another one at any of your locations.

Yours Truly.

Happy Festivus Day!

A special day like today deserves a special meal

Don’t Miss The Wave [Google Wave]

Google Wave is the one piece of technology I’ve been anxiously waiting for since it was first announced earlier this year. Thanks to my buddy Nils I got an invite for the “Preview”??…not even “Beta”…so what’s Preview supposed to be? somewhere between Alpha and Beta?

Anyhow, I’m not going to even try to explain what it is, for that you’ll have to sit through the looooong video Google created, go to Google Wave to check it out, I think it’s totally worth it.

But I’ll post a comment I made on Paul’s Blog which I think clearly defines how I feel about it:

For the average user Google Wave will be Gmail on steroids, nothing else, it will make it really fun to send attachments, videos, pictures and links among friends and to chat, etc…

However, I think this tool will be most useful in a setting where a group of people do collaborative work with each other, think music band, programmers, designers, brainstorming, planning…that kind of situations. It is definitely meant to be for an organizational setting like churches, non-profits, business, etc. If you are in a situation where you are sending lots of emails with attachments among a bunch of people back and forth then Google Wave should be your dreams come true. But let’s not stop there…the bots, gadgets and extensions is what’s going to take GW to the next level, basically the sky is the limit, I know that sounds like cliche, but once we start having good bots, gadgets and extensions you could basically be able to do absolutely anything on GW.

On the other hand before we get too quick on the judgment here I think we need to remember that right now it’s in its “Preview” stage, they didn’t even slap the Beta label on it, so of course is going to be half-baked and with lots of bugs and kind of crappy. I’m pretty sure in a year it won’t even look the way it does now.

I must say though I was kinda’ disappointed it doesn’t work quite like it was shown in the video…we also need to take into consideration ALL what’s doing in REAL TIME…there is nothing out there like it…definitely ahead of its time…

Will it catch on? Big, big paradigm switch from good ol’ email to something like Google Wave…I don’t expect anything drastic to happen overtime, after all, they are re-inventing the email and even the email technology took a while to fully catch on…What I think will happen is that other players in the industry will come up with similar technology and then everyone (users) will eventually adopt the new way of communicating (Wave) and then it won’t be a matter of using Google Wave or not but which service/app do you like better…

So there you have it, my impressions on Google Wave…