If you live in this area, please help us find this person and report them to the Chatham County Sheriff.  The mere thought of it sends shivers down my spine and then makes me mad as hell.  I ride in that area often and have had close calls with cars, but I’ve never heard of someone being so deliberate.  WTF?  Sounds like attempted manslaughter charges to me, at a minimum.

Bad ‘Canes. Bad.

I can’t help but wonder if all these execs leaving Y! is a good thing.  Seriously.  Where have they gotten Y! to date?  Time for some fresh thinking, new blood, some up-and-coming whippersnappers who can leverage Y!’s myriad properties (or sell them off) to turn the tables.  Besides, what’s wrong with shedding a couple million in salary and options?  Everyone knows the real work happens down in the trenches anyway at these big companies.  Just think of these scares as layoffs for the upper class.

I seem to recall seeing somewhere recently that people actually spend more time on Y! versus just clicking through at Google.  I know that is true for me.  I only access Google through my Firefox Google plugin, whereas my home page is My Yahoo!  Has been for years.  After all, I have it customized the way I like, why change it?  As for email and RSS feeds, even though I have my personal email account through GMail, I use IMap and Mac Mail to read it.  I use my Yahoo! account for purchases, list signup, etc. and there I have to go read it.  Of course, Googs makes money off the mere fact that my data is there, but still, I make some of it back with ads on my site.

Granted, I barely click on ads on either of the sites, so maybe I’m not a typical user.

So, assumming Y! doesn’t get bought (which it is a distinct possibility they will) I think the old saying applies: that which doesn’t kill you only makes you stronger.  After all, it is pretty darn hard to kill an established company.  One only need to drive up the road a few miles in the valley to Cupertino to see an example of that.  Same goes for Big Blue.  Both of those companies were written off for dead by the pundits during their upheavels, and look at them now.  So, my advice to Y!: hang in there.  Brighter days are ahead.

Ah, very useful.  For me, Time Machine was taking more time to prepare the backup then it had (30 -40 minutes sometimes) and it was also chewing up the CPU pretty good, so I turned down the frequency of the backups (2 hours instead of one) using this technique.  I know why they don’t expose this on the simple panel, but it seems reasonable to make it an advanced option.

Can’t wait to hear the steady drumbeat of people that come out and try and discredit him…  They’ll say things like:

“He didn’t have that access” or “Here’s his record of the number of times he was tested” or even better, someone will call him a liar and say he took too, or that he has some axe to grind.  As if all that means they’re all innocent.

Care to explain that remark, Tiger? Are pain pills performance enhancing when the alternative is to drop out (i.e. not perform at all) because the pain is too much? I’m don’t think they are, but I think it makes for an interesting debate. Football, baseball, and hockey are all littered w/ examples of guys taking cortisone shots, etc. at a break and then coming back out to play. Heck, there was a guy for the Montreal Canadiens who broke his foot and came back in overtime to score the winning goal. Of course, I think back then all he did was tape it up, but maybe I am mistaken.

So, are pain pills performance enhancing when they allow you to focus on the task at hand instead of the pain? Isn’t playing w/ pain one of the marks of a champion? Again, I’m not questioning Tiger. I love the way he plays the game. I love his approach, his work ethic, etc. I’m just wondering what role pain pills play in the current scheme of doping, steroids, etc. and I think Tiger’s comment makes for an interesting discussion.

So, I guess you could say we were surprised when we got the mattress and it had a pretty bad smell to it.  Kind of a rubbery smell, but not completely.  Needless to say, it gave my wife a migraine that night we slept on it.  We called the Organic Mattress Store and said it had a bad smell.  They said either give it more time or we can ship it back (at our expense) and if they (Vivetique) smell it, they will refund our money.  Note, the shipping expenses are around $400.  We decided to give it more time.  They called back a few weeks later and we said the smell was still there.  They said give it some more time.  They told my wife in one conversation that sometimes it takes 3-4 months.  In a separate conversation, I was told it can be up to 5-6 months and that I should go get myself a good HEPA filter (we already have one) or an ionizer.  In other words, we should throw more money at the problem.  So, we waited.  In the meantime, I slept on it.  Over time, I realized I didn’t exactly like the firmness anymore (it is not as firm as I would like) and when my wife has tried to sleep on it (i.e. when we have company), she says it isn’t firm enough either and the smell is still there.

Finally, today, I called back the store.  They heard my complaint.  My basic argument was that we lodged the smell complaint early on and were told to wait.  We waited and it still hasn’t dissipated and now we don’t like the firmness either.  They say they only will exchange within 30 days, tops 60 days for comfort.  I, of course, argued this, since it was impossible for us to decide if we both liked the comfort since the smell prevented my wife from sleeping on it.  The owner said he would check w/ Vivetique to see what options we had.  He thought the smell might be from the wool.  I’m not sure.  Also, note, in fairness, the Organic Mattress Store claims they would never tell anyone to wait that long (3-6 months).   I will tell you both my wife and I were told the same thing by separate people at the company, so you decide.

Finally, the store called back later today after consulting with Vivetique, who, surprise!, said there was nothing that can be done.  As a consolation, the store said I could purchase any other bed they have at cost plus shipping.   Even if Vivetique were to take it back, we’d have to pay $400+ in shipping.

So, now my wife and I are put in the spot of deciding if we should throw good money after bad, or if we should just cut our losses and try to figure something else out.  I think we will try to sell the bed on Craigslist or something.  After all, it is a brand new bed and there is nothing physically wrong with it other than a smell that someone who is sensitive to might not like and it wasn’t to our firmness liking, but that part is subjective anyway.  I know we both tend to like really firm mattresses.  Beyond that, I’m not sure what to do.

The sad part of it is, this type of bed is specifically marketed to people, like my wife, who have sensitivities to perfumes, chemical smells, etc.  If we can’t buy an organic mattress made from pure cotton and pure wool, what can we buy?  Note, she doesn’t have a problem with our older, “conventional” bed.

At any rate, I know I will never buy a mattress over the Internet again.  Let’s call a spade a spade, too:  A guarantee isn’t worth much if you have to spend $400-$500 in order to invoke the guarantee (i.e. by paying the shipping costs).  And, that is what Vivetique counts on with it’s guarantee; that people like me aren’t going to call ‘em on it because of the shipping costs.  Of course, I’m not trying to be the victim here.  I knew about the 30 day guarantee going in and still chose to buy it.  I guess I figured, though, that after we were told to wait for the smell to dissipate that we could still exchange it.  I should have gotten that in writing (not that it was ever promised by the Organic Mattress Store).  Note, also that the Organic Mattress Store has been handling this fairly well and trying to make us happy, to some extent, although it is short of what we really want, which is our money back.  Vivetique, on the other hand, basically washes their hands of it.

So, in the end, buyer beware, I guess.  I can’t recommend buying from Vivetique given their return policies and the associated cost.  As for the Organic Mattress Store, I’m still undecided.  I’ll keep you posted on how it works out.  In the meantime, I’d love to hear some other options.

Not sure if this is really cool or really sad…  I’m leaning towards really cool.

Just gotta say it has been a pleasure to watch, over the last few years especially since I moved to Raleigh, someone who plays the game right!  Good luck in the future!