IKEA doesn’t believe in that for some reason. Only retailer I have run across that had an extensive online catalog and ecommerce site which does not allow you to see the status of your order online. For that matter, they don’t appear to send you receipts of transactions to email either.

I hit up their online support which is nothing more than an AIM style bot. I did get a funny response from it, though.

This was so helpful for me in improving my StarCraft 2 game.

But, the latest straw with my now hate/loathe relationship with Google is over their stance on net neutrality. Put simply, before Google got into the cellphone market, they were all for keeping the net open for everyone, and rejected having different tiers of service and cost for entry to the web. Now, they have Android and want to buddy up with Verizon to make even more money with their cellphone operating system and their content sites.

There has been a ton of outrage to this stance, which of course is welcomed (and a bit surprising with how much tech sites cater to Android and Google) but what is really needed is a mass exodus from Google sites and services.

One small problem though – where would people turn to in lieu of using Google for search and email?

Bing is still a pretty crappy site. The ui isn’t horrible, but the results are suspect and because hardly anyone uses it (comparatively speaking of course) it doesn’t make a lot of sense for me as a search engine marketer to stop using Google.

For email, I use Mobile Me and Gmail. It would be really hard for me to ditch Gmail completely because although Mobile Me has made some improvements to their service, its problem is that it is slow as hell. It also doesn’t have some of the organizational flexibility in managing messages and contacts that Gmail does. If it does, well i haven’t found those options.

Ugh, i thought – i do not want to go to work today!!

But went, i did. And now, i am sitting outside of the Willamette Noodle Company, one of my favorite places to eat (despite maybe the service not being ALL that great) and sitting outside enjoying this weather.

Everyone says that Oregon has the most beautiful weather during the summer. So far, this is my first experience with it and I have to say, they are right. Now, hopefully it lasts more than a day or so!

We also went to a really good place for lunch, the Black Fish Cafe i believe it was called. Clam chowder was on our mind and we got a really tasty flatbread to snack on.

Beyond the beach, we got a new desk for our office (which we are working on) and some more plants for the garden.

Adam more or less said that unless a situation can either 1) make you happy or 2) make you money you should shut the fuck up about it. I know, it doesn’t make sense out of context like this, but essentially, people tend to get really argumentative or passionate about things which don’t really benefit them.

Take for example my latest distaste, that being for Google and the Droid mobile phone operating system. Now, arguing with friends about whether or not the iPhone is better than some other phone device doesn’t make me happy, nor does it make me money. Therefore, i should not bother to do it. There are alot of scenarios like this. Facebook vs Twitter. Kobe Bryant vs LeBron James. PCs and Macs. World of Warcraft and any other video game.  Obama vs tea party. All things i like to comment on, but none of which benefit me in any measurable way.

I’ll just take my iPad, iPhone, Mac, Facebook fetish and keep them to myself. You can like what you like, and i’ll like what i like. It doesn’t mean i’m less of a fan, but i guess what Adam would say is that convincing you to change your mind or adopting a different position, unless it somehow fills me with joy (or cash) is pointless.

My thoughts on the keynote this morning and the new iPhone, all rapid fire like.

• There are a lot of people out there saying that the announcement of the new phone isn’t enough. I suspect that because a certain blog bought a stolen prototype and splayed it on their site for the world to see that some of the excitement behind the reveal was lost. This unveiling though was a hell of a lot more impactful than the 3GS reveal.
• I can’t wait to see what is done with the gyroscope. No one is talking about that now but i think it will end up being huge.
• All reports indicate a ridiculously thin phone, which is always cool.
• Love that you can now shoot AND edit your video on the phone and that from all appearances it is easy to do.
• The forward camera is made much cooler, obviously, with the new video chat feature (face time). Pretty awesome how you can swap from forward to rear camera on the fly.
• Lots of people complaining that the video chat only works under Wifi. Don’t think it is that big of a deal, have you ever tried to make a call with 3G? That doesn’t even always work

I probably won’t upgrade for a while, not for lack of desire but because my work pays my iPhone bill now and i just got the 3GS. I also kind of want to see which of these new technologies (retina display especially) get rolled into the iPad.

I think that there should be a new law passed that simply states that there can only be one vampire show on television at a time. If you like, that law can be amended to state that as long as True Blood is on (and as long as it is good and doesn’t turn into some crappy shadow of itself) that no other vampire are allowed over the airwaves.

You can’t take a leak without hitting a new vampire show these days. That, or movies. There should already be some sort of law against any additional Twilight movies.

Know what makes True Blood great? Blood, gore and sex. That is exactly what makes Twilight lame. There is none of that. And truthfully, that is what is going to make The Gates, a new series on ABC lame. You just can’t be faithful to the vampire m.o. on network television and/or a PG rating.

Get Him to the Greek is this year’s “The Hangover”

I was actually shocked at how good this movie was. And, having not watched Forgetting Sarah Marshall I wasn’t exactly sure what to expect.

I am not going to really go into the story because i think that it is well established what this movie is about, however, i do want to comment on some of the acting.

Russell Brand is just funny. My first exposure to him was his appearance on the Stern show and i thought he was hilarious. I think it is just his combination of dress and accent. And although this was a comedy, i definitely got the sense he could also pull off a deeper, more emotional type of dramatic character as well (if he wanted).

Noah Hill was also really good in this movie. I haven’t been a fan of him at all, but he did a really good job.

The most surprising to me? P-Diddy. I was expecting him to play himself, which he more or less did, but he was really funny as well. He also had way more screen time and lines than the trailer would lead you to believe.

All in all, this is a definite must see. Our theater was cracking up from the time the movie started till the ending credits, so it was a really fun environment.