On Thursday August 14 at approximately 4:10 pm, the lights went out in Detroit, New York, Toronto, Cleveland, Toledo and much of the area inclusive. You don't realize how much you depend on power until you lose it.
Where were you when the lights went out?
I was messing with my laptop in my living room. Luckily for me, my battery saved me from losing what I was working on. I did not think much of the blackout since it occurs enough (once every few months for maybe an hour) to make me think it was just temporary. My sister and I left about 30 minutes later to go pick up my grandfather and we ran into gridlock.
I should mention this as a little aside. Detroit is known throughout the world as the Motor city, home of the Ford Motor Company, General Motors and the Chrysler Corporation. A lot of people in and around Detroit work for these companies and their subsidiaries. Buying or leasing cars is pushed, so public transportation here in Detroit is confined to the SMART bus line and the People Mover, an elevated train which only traverses the downtown area.
We flipped on the radio and started going through the stations. Hmm, there are a lot less stations than usual. We finally found one that was broadcasting news out of New York. Apparently, there was a huge area in two countries that was without power. The announcer wondered if it was a terrorist attack. About 5 minutes later, it was said that there was a malfunction at a power plant in the vicinity of Lake Erie and that it was not a terrorist attack. Greatly relieved, we continued driving on, but after 20 minutes, we only moved 2 miles. The next couple miles proved to be faster, but the whole 5 mile trip which usually takes 10 minutes took almost 4 times as long. We collected up my grandfather and started the trip back, but with the usual heavy traffic plus no traffic lights, it took an hour to get back.
After getting home, we started trying to get a hold of our parents and sister on their cell phones but not having much success, eventually my parents arrived home with driving horror stories similar to the one we encountered. By this time, reports were saying that the authorities were not sure when the power was going to come back on, but it was not going to be soon. We gathered up all of the flashlights and candles we could find. My sister and I did not look forward to a night without computer or tv, so we decided to do what we found out later a lot of other people did, we drank. We headed over to our older sister's apartment and hung out with some friends.
The next morning was warm, muggy and not very good for sleeping. My parents decided to venture into work to see what they could get done. My sister and I decided to explore around and get some supplies (water, non refridgerated foods). There were reports all over the radio of people sitting in long lines at the closest gas stations that had power. We decided we would bypass all of that and head towards Lansing, which was only a 50 mile drive from our house. This drive was complicated by the fact that everyone was on the expressway, trying to get anywhere west to do the same thing. We turned north into a rural area and drove around the backups. Finally about 40 miles down the expressway, we got back on and had no backups. We drove the final 20 miles into Lansing and contrary to reports, Lansing did have power. We stopped off at a Meijer's and picked up what we needed and also filled up with gas (there was no line there). When we got back to our house, we wasted over half the day, which was fine because the car had air conditioning and our house did not.
A few hours after we arrived home, the lights came back on. We were asked to not turn on our air or plug too many major appliances because there was still a large area of Detroit that did not have power. Also, there was a warning to boil any water that came out of the tap before it could be safely used. This deterred us from taking showers and believe me, by this time, we were all very nasty and grimy.
Saturday morning came and my family decided that disease or no disease, we all needed showers and we even ventured to put on the air conditioning to cool the house down. I was out of town Saturday night and Sunday morning, but I was told that nothing major happened in that time. By Sunday evening, almost all of the Detroit area had power again. The boil water warning was dropped earlier today.
People in the community and around the city of Detroit responded well to this disaster and held together. They were calm and did what they had to do to get through.
Crucial.com is the next computer-component-selling website in my line of reviews. I have already reviewed AllStarShop.com … you can find that review, here. Crucial was recommended by a very computer-savvy friend of mine so, despite being more expensive then a few other sites, I decided to order from them.
Crucial is known throughout the world as being a quality RAM distributor. Their parent company, Micron, is a DRAM manufacturer. Though, not the most inexpensive upgrade supplier, they have the reputation of producing stable and reliable RAM.
For a price of $94.33 I purchased a 512MB PC2700 (DDR333) Kingston piece of memory. I placed my order on 08/08/2003 at approximately 9:00am EST. The item, according to the UPS tracking system, was shipped from Crucial at 4:57pm, on the same day. Same day shipping is such a great thing. So, what did it cost me to have the item shipped the same day using 2nd Day Air via UPS? Nothing. Not only was there no shipping charge, but there was no rush delivery charge.
There is an additional piece of information that I should add, regarding the price, at this point. THEY CHARGED ME MICHIGAN SALES TAX. This irked me because I am not used to paying a sales tax when ordering online. I checked out the Customer Service portion of Crucial.com to find out that the Crucial parent company, Micron, has a ‘business presence’ in Michigan. Damn.
The piece of memory arrived on 08/12/03 at 5:22pm EST. Four days is acceptable for UPS 2nd Day Air because the two of those days were over the weekend. The packaging of the memory was O.K. It was shipped in an anti-static sealed bag, in a little cardboard box, in a UPS sealed bag. I would have liked the memory to have been secured in the box somehow but instead, it was free to bounce around. In my opinion, it doesn’t seem like impact damage would be good for memory.
In the future, I may order again from Crucial.com. Their service and their website functionality is impeccable however, their packaging prowess may need some fine tuning. The sales tax was an annoyance but I do understand why I was charged … they have a business presence, so it is law. Now, let us hope the premium price I paid was worth the stability the chips are rumored to have.
SITE FUNCTIONALITY : 10/10
ORDER PROCESSING : 10/10
PACKAGING QUALITY : 6/10
PRICING : 8/10
Total: 34/40
I have always tried to buy computer components online. I began building myself a new computer last week thus I needed to find a few good online vendors to buy parts from. What site did I stumble across first? AllStarShop.com.
I try not to judge internet companies/retailers just by the aesthetics of their website so, I did a little research. I checked out a couple of links on the AllStarShop.com website. One link was to the Better Business Bureau and the other link was to the CNet Certified Store site. Both links made the site seem trustworthy so, I ordered my ATi Radeon 9500 Pro for $197 from AllStarShop.com.
I placed the order on 8/1/2003 12:45:50 PM and the order was shipped the same day without a ‘Rush Delivery’ charge or any extra cost. Wow. Granted, I did only order one component, but I was still impressed. Over the next six days I used AllStarShop.com’s ‘Order Status’ link from their website to track the order via UPS. The 9500 Pro arrived in perfect condition, well packed and in six days via UPS Ground standard service. Why did I use UPS Ground? Free Shipping!
I am very happy with AllStarShop.com. I would have ordered more from them however I wanted the opportunity to review some other websites and their ordering process. Thus far, in queue, I have two reviews regarding online retailers. One review for NewEgg.com and one review for Crucial.com. After I finish piecing the computer together, I will have a comparison of all the shops I have ordered from.
SITE FUNCTIONALITY : 9/10
ORDER PROCESSING : 10/10
PACKAGING QUALITY : 8/10
PRICING : 8/10
Total: 35/40
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First off, I have to mention that this review is reviewing the actual DVD content, setup and usability … not (necessarily) the actual movie. For the record, I really enjoy the movie. I think Redford and Pitt gave excellent performances in Spy Game. As for the Collector’s Edition, WIDESCREEN DVD … well, let’s look at the details.
The techno/pop music kicks in and the DVD starts with a brief ‘computer login’ style access menu. Don’t worry though; there is no need for a password as you are just along for the ride as Nathan Muir (Robert Redford) logs in. After 25 seconds of key movie images you are automatically brought to a ‘Main Menu’ with four choices:
MAIN MENU:
Scenes
Bonus Materials
Languages
Play
I like DVD menus like this because they are clean, intuitive and useable. They are however, limited. There is no setup menu so for video (WIDESCREEN) and sound ... more on this later. If you select the ‘Scenes’ menu from main menu you are taken through a short segway while the new menu loads. In the ‘Scenes’ menu you will find your typical every-4-scenes break down, ie. 1-4, 5-8, 9-12, 13-16, 17-20 and 21-22.
Another short segway and we are transported from the main menu to the ‘Bonus Materials’ menu. This DVD offers several bonus features and though not all are worth watching, some are. Below is a list of what is included in the DVD ‘Bonus Materials’.
‘Bonus Materials’ Menu 1
Clandestine Ops
Feature Commentaries
Deleted Scenes with Director Commentary
Script-to-Storyboard Process Featuring the Director
Requirements for CIA Acceptance
Theatrical Trailer
MORE
‘Bonus Materials’ Menu 2
DVD-ROM Featuring Universal Total Axess
Production Notes
Cast and Filmmakers
Spy Game Soundtrack
Universal Showcase
DVD Newsletter
The deleted and alternate scenes, which are included in the ‘Deleted Scenes with Director Commentary’ menu, are certainly worth watching. Be sure to use the (very useful) ‘Play All’ function!
There are two commentary tracks you can listen to while watching the movie. One commentary is by director Tony Scott and the other is by producers Marc Abraham and Douglas Wick. Both are interesting so give them both a listen.
The ‘Bonus Materials’ that should be classified as ‘Boring Materials’ are ‘Script-to-Storyboard Process Featuring the Director’, 11 pages of ‘Production Notes’, ‘Spy Game Soundtrack’ and the ‘DVD Newsletter’. These four items serve absolutely no informational or entertaining purpose, so far as I could tell.
Yet another segway and we move from the main menu to the ‘Languages’ menu. There is the ability to change from 5.1Dolby to 5.1DTS however, it shouldn’t be included in this menu. I now must take back what I said about the DVD main menu being intuitive. The ‘Languages’ menu should have been titled ’Setup’ menu.
Overall, I like this DVD usability and function. The aesthetics are good and the menus are easily workable. The designers could have done two things to make this DVD near perfect. One, kill extraneous extras. Two, call the ‘Languages’ menu a ‘Setup’ menu.
The two features that are my favorite are the most simple. One, an easily missed feature on this DVD, is the ability to move from the top menu item to the bottom menu item by hitting the up-arrow on my remote. Two, a 'Play' feature on the main menu that actaully starts the movie instead of asking me what mode I want to be in. I guess I am easily pleased in that regard.