The new square reader is thinner and slightly larger but apparently more precise. It's fun to be able to accept credit card payments. The other day Noah was selling boy scouts popcorn and a person mentioned she didn't have cash and Noah replied that he accepted credit cards. The lady was baffled, Noah smiled and closed the deal. The lady paid with cash after all.

This is my first post from posterous...I'm currently in the distortion field watching the new MacBook Air announcement ... 11.3/11.1 models

"One day all notebooks will be like that!" - Steve Jobs.

Biggest infomercial in the world?

Just bought iBlogger for iPhone...just to check out. It's nice to be able to do yet one more thing from the iPhone. I am trying out a few applications and will report soon from the ones I really use. The main one is Things, and I tried quite a few games during my vacations..some really good...some not so. Well, I am writing this from iBlogger and will check out the features it offers. Let's see if I manage to include a photo...

No, that first link was to add my location...would be nice if it was like in twitterific. Looking at their website and not hint there either. Found their forum and it seems that other users have the same issue.

I found a review online stating that posting photos to Blogger.com, which I use, is not yet supported. But that review was on ars tecnica from September 2008. And 10 month later iBlogger didn't add that feature yet. Please let me know if I am wrong. This would be a killer feature...but without that, iBlogger seems to work fine...but is just not as exciting. And while you are at it add video blogging support for the 3GS.

See http://illuminex.com

Photo inserted via MarsEdit and not iBlogger :-(

Wow, what a day. I turned 44, yea! and with 3 kids father day was a blast. It was a beautiful day in Denver for the first day of summer. We went to the pool. I had some good old friends come by, Didier and Elaine, and we just hang out, finished the day with on the terrace with a nice "Fondue Chinoise" and some really good wine. Of course I also did a quick ride on my new birthday present:

It was a pretty good day indeed.

We went to the mall and Noah was fascinated by a DancingHeads booth, which allows to do green screen video recording. So we gave it a spin.

"I feel good!"... My two guys trying to do lip syncing from daniel wanja.

It has been a long time since I used Windows. But couldn't avoid it any longer as I have to debug some JavaScript issues in IE8 so I downloaded the new Windows 7...and that's how I was welcomed:

Thanks to Windows 7 I got a really nice flashback...Thanks, that was funny. I hope they have other improvements.

Several features are unavailable...Well, no Flash out of the box either. So o many website that show videos (news, screencasts, ...) are just not working. And many website I develop that integrate Flex and Javascript won't work either. So I'lll have to wait for the next version, to bad...it's a cool browser.

This is the time in my life where I will go back to riding a bike. Yea!. Some may call it midlife crisis :-), my wife calls it crazy, I just call it fun. Now I was rinding on a engine with two wheels since I am 14. I had mopeds, two Vespas, a Suzuki GSX 750F, two Ducati's 900, and nothing since 2002 since I got married and moved to the US. One thing in the US you cannot just pass cars in traffic as the police will eagerly arrest you and you cannot race on the Autobahn as I used to when I did trips to Germany to test how fast the bikes can go without breaking any laws. So I need to find something more settled down. I found the following two bikes that caught my eye.

In the end looks it not everything, you gotta try them out. So I'll put my behind on each of these and will decide where to go. But first I need to pass my US driver license as my Swiss one is not recognized here.

It's annoying that when you try to buy something and visa tries to sell you something, but you have no way to opt out. After completing the final step of the order, you click the "Place Order" button and expect to see the order confirmation screen...but no...You see a screen to signup for the "Verified by Visa" program for your own good. Hey, I am trying to buy something, please don't interrupt me...Did my order go through or not, I did push the "Place Order" button, so it's kinda gone through...but I didn't get a confirmation number yet, because I see the Visa signup form...but not way to skip that step. Now Visa tell it's for your own good, but hey...I didn't ask for it and I just want to see if my order went trough. So Visa, please make sure that merchant that will try to sell your service also place a button or link to skip the signup.

So Visa goes in great length to provide a description on the benefits of signup, faqs answer all the questions you may have...besides the one about skipping signup. Even their flow diagram doesn't show how to skip, simply because they want you to signup.

Look at their FAQ ...no mention how to opt out.

http://usa.visa.com/personal/security/visa_security_program/vbv/verified_by_visa_faq.html
https://www.securesuite.net/csi/docs/faq.jsp

Update: 3/12

Well 2 days later I didn't get an information but I called Visa and they did put a hold on my card because I didn't complete the process above. What? No way to opt out and then you cancel my transaction. So I went to order the item again, and yes for sure same thing, once I pushed the "Place Order" button I was presented with the following dialog

See a "don't opt in option"? Nope, this is a trap. Annoying. Well, I decided to go ahead and entered the information, then I was presented with the following screen...

What? Already activated for another of my cards???? Well at least there is a Cancel button this time, and the dialog mentions that I can continue without "Verified by Visa". But pressing cancel presents me with a prompt saying that the transaction will be cancelled, hence I wouldn't be able to order the thing I want to order. Alright, let's try continue...I was presented with a screen showing the name of my wife and asking for a password. Hey, that was the other of my cards they just mentioned above. So know I just need to go find my wife, ask her password and we are good to go...

Yep, that worked. Could it be more difficult to buy something online. I guess Visa will find something new for next time.