QFC, the grocery store closest to me, has those irritating shoppers cards. They try to motivate me to use it with
discounts, but that just makes me want to use a card, I don't care whose card and
I don't care if the data is accurate. They should let me have my data or make it useful to me so that I actually care.
I can imagine several useful tools based on this: automatic grocery lists, recipes using the food you purchased, cheaper alternatives to your purchases, other things you might like based on what you purchased, or integration with dieting websites or software. At any rate, right now all I care about is getting the discount from using a card, but if they made the data available to me then the grocery store could align our interests and I'd want to ensure the data's accuracy.
sequelguy posted a photo:
Sarah's Fallout 3 teddy bear collection in Megaton.
Irritatingly out of line with what their commercials say, in my area Comcast, under the covers of the national
broadcast digital switch, is sneaking in their own switch to digital, moving channels above 30 to their own digital format. Previously, I had Windows 7 Media Center running on a PC with a Hauppauge PVR500 which can decode two television signals at once setup to record shows I like. The XBox 360 works
great as a Media Center client letting me easily watch the recorded shows over my home network on my normal TV.
Unfortunately with Comcast's change, now one needs a cable box or a Comcast digital to analog converter in order to view their signal, but Comcast is offering up to two free converters for those who'd like them. The second of my two free converters I hooked up to the Media Center PC and I got the IR Blaster that came with my Hauppauge out of the garage. I plugged in the USB IR Blaster to my PC, connected one of the IR transmitters to the 1st port on the IR Blaster, and sat the IR transmitter next to the converter's IR receiver. I went through the Media Center TV setup again and happily it was able to figure out how to correctly change the channel on the converter. So I can record now, however:
sequelguy posted a photo:
Bear Flag wine has a cool label and has the barcode wrapped around the neck of the bottle.
sequelguy posted a photo:
Wtf? For more see the 'Most Condescending Game Ever' thread on www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/33357
sequelguy posted a photo:
Cookies and cupcakes mysteriously appeared in my office. (Actually not mysterious -- thanks Eric!)
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