A Tale of Too many Electronic stores

    We have an electronics crisis in our house! Not only has my phone refused to play nice with the lovely 32G SD card I bought for it, but my daughter's tablet decided to stop recognizing her 32G SD memory card (hmmmm, sounds like a trend). Now my smarter than I am phone is maxed out in storage and my daughter has no music on her tablet, and no space to add any. Worse, our laptop could not recognize the tablet when we plugged it in the computer. Could this electronic vortex get any worse, you may ask.

YEP!

   Our laptop spiraled into depression and aired the black screen of death! Noooo, not the laptop! Not the technology on which I do everything like pay the bills, balance the finances, write stories and blogs, book vacation trips, check my email and Facebook accounts. Not the laptop that I upload photos from, download music to, and create occasional photo albums from. Not the laptop that my daughter occasionally uses to do her homework when the sites the school uses for reference are not tablet friendly. Not the laptop that lets my husband and I watch TV shows that we missed a couple of weeks ago.

YEP. THAT ONE.

    But how can this be? The laptop isn't that old. It has Vista on it after all, and that is what, only two operating systems ago, right? Okay, so maybe they are not offering updates for Vista any longer. Heck, I think it was the updates that did it in. That is what the laptop was doing just before the black screen of death made it's appearance for the third time. Yes, I have fixed the laptop again, and it will probably stay running for awhile, as long as no one turns it off or does any updates. Ever. Oh sure, we could use the "old" desktop computer, but by the time the XP pulls up a webpage, my daughter could have grandchildren. 

    Now you may have come to the conclusion that we are Techno Amish here. We are not. Mostly. Did you read that I lost data files or photos or the like? Nope, that is because none of that is stored on the computers we use. We store pretty much everything on a cloud. I really like Google with all its facets. It is pretty neat, as we can access anything from anywhere - as long as we have our passwords and internet access (or 3G/4G cell service).  Just give me access to the equipment and I can get down to business, even on my phone! That being said and done, we do like to have some things on our devices so that we can use them for the times when we are out of range of wi-fi or cell service.  Like music. And Stuff.  I digress. We are simply slow to step up to the latest and greatest. 

    Hey, who could blame us? It is expensive, quickly outdated, and hard to shop for! After coming to the sad conclusion that we would have to fork out money and move up in the electronic world, we started the research on a replacement for our workhorse laptop. Did we want a traditional laptop? One with a touch screen? One that converts into a tablet? A notebook? An Ultrabook? One with a floating monitor? Back lit keyboard? I wondered if this would be easier if we had fewer choices. Then we got to the hard part of the research, figuring out what all the new terminology meant. Computers now have i5 and i7 CPU descriptions and vary a lot in how much hard drive they have. Even if you don't store all your photos and music there, I have found out that those apps and programs sure are space hogs, and you just can't keep those all on a cloud (or at least I have not figured out how yet). I can't believe they are offering computers with 8GB hardrives. My phone has that and I already have a problem just trying to update apps. I certainly was not impressed with 128G hard drives either. Screen resolution from crappy to better than looking out your front window (mine needs cleaning just now) and battery lives that range from worse than I have now to zillions of hours. How many ports do we need? Is there HDMI? (not that we have a TV that has this kinda hook up) To optical drive or not to optical drive?

    Our heads swimming with information overload, we thought it might be helpful to go to a store or two and actually handle the product. See what the difference between a 5lb laptop and 3lb ultra book really was when we lifted it. Type on the different keyboards to see if they had the right feel. Look at screens with different resolutions to see if we could tell the difference for our use. Open and close the products to see if they would take the strain of our everyday handling. Ask questions of store employees and pray that they spoke English. Or simple Spanish. Or anything other than tech-speak. Maybe help us make a choice that we were not going to regret in a week or two.

Electronics stores, pay attention, this is the part that gets really interesting. 

     Our first store was my favorite, but the salesperson who accosted us was condescending and did not want to talk to me, just my husband. Hey, I am the primary user on the computer and most likely the one who will make the final computer purchase decision! Though they had a lot of product, they did not have the specific computers we were looking for. I might have looked at what they offered, if not for their sales person giving me the creeps. We left. I was bummed. This was my go-to place. Maybe on a different day we would fare better.

    So out we headed to the other stores that noted on-line that they carried the equipment we were interested in. First two stores did not have any of the products in store that they advertise on line. They did have similar computers by manufactures that we had crossed off our list. They also boasted unhelpful employees who said they could order what we were looking for on-line. Well HELLO, I was on-line, that is how I know what products you have. Heck, there was even an option for me to order equipment and all its peripherals at the click of a button. I came to the store to see if the physical product met up with my expectations that were generated from viewing on-line. Unfortunately the "associate" could only tell me what specs were listed on-line and had little or no product knowledge. Stores that don't carry any of their on-line products in store (especially when they advertise sales both in store and on-line) ought to just close their doors now. Employee training goes a long way too. Talking to someone who did not know what they were selling and obviously did not care was not really much of a selling point. You might ask, just what did I need to ask a sales person? You would be surprised by what on-line sites don't tell you about products, like can you change out the battery? Can you upgrade the memory on the computer? Little details tend to be important. 

    Third store did not appear to have any of the product they sell on-line (though I have to admit, the advertisement did not specifically say they had it in store). Hard to tell as the computers were all under a dark smoked plastic display, tightly locked down to prevent theft. I could not tell the difference between a HP or a Dell. Which is what the tag said was in the display case. Since I could not actually see the computers, I will have to take their word for it that those were the computers under lock and key. They also had no employees, which was no surprise. On the other hand, if I wanted anything for a video game system - well, it looked like sky was the limit!

     Next two stores we visited were not much more impressive. First one had displays with large snowflakes offering special holiday bargains. At the end of February (and past President's Day to boot), just what holidays were they referencing? St. Patrick's Day? Beneath this twenty dollar display sign was at least seven to eight thousand dollars worth of merchandise. Does that mean the merchandise is that old and possibly going obsolete? They only stock what wouldn't sell at Christmas? Cheap, out of date display lowered the value of what they were selling. Second store boasted of nice display of an impressive computer that did not appear to be the one they had sitting on the display. When we asked the associate, he said that they did not actually have the computer in question (you know, the one the fancy display was all about), but that the lesser model (which was the one actually on display) was on sale. Further search in the store yielded two computers with keyboards missing keys and a laptop that was supposed to convert into a tablet, but which was also broken and would not convert into anything, laptop or tablet. Gotta tell you guys, I was willing to spend a little extra cash to get the computer of my dreams, but not if you did not want to spend a little bit on current displays and putting out working items for me to test. That twenty dollar holiday bargain display and inaccurate signage (okay, and broken components) cost you our business. Did you really think folks were going to buy broken equipment?

    So getting frustrated, we went to yet another electronics store in hope that we could find something remotely like what we had seen on the internet, with specs listed out for comparison, in working operation. It is not like we were just picking random stores. We were visiting stores toting themselves as approved vendors for the laptop models we were interested in purchasing. At this point if we found a store associate that would just leave us alone, it would be a plus. So far, we pretty much knew more than the store personnel, a concept that seemed a little scary.

     

    This time we went to a store that I did not particularly like. I referred to this store as the "kid" store, since every time I had been in this retailer, the music was too loud to think and the sales force was pushy. Prices also tended to be a bit higher than their competition from my past experience. So imagine my surprise to find the music level low. I approached the computer section cautiously. This could be a trap after all. For the first time I saw many of the models of the product I had viewed on-line. Encouraged, I began to browse. An associate approached and I was given the standard line "Do you need any help?" I decided to chance it an said yes. I wanted to know if the memory could be upgraded, what the battery life was on the laptop I was looking at, did it come with a better RAM memory, and what was the screen resolution. I had not seen this particular model in my on-line research and wanted to know the particulars to determine if it was even worth considering.

  

      The associate apologized and asked if I would wait just a moment while she got the associate that specialized in the section of computers I was looking at. Specialized? Someone pinch me, I think I left the planet.

 
     SURPRISE - the new associate (who specialized in this section) did have the answers about memory, RAM, and battery life. As we asked more questions, he steered us away from the product we were looking at as it was not going to meet our needs for memory capacity. He showed us another model we had been eyeballing on the internet, of which I also had many questions. He did double check battery life  and gave me specs that were not listed, including screen resolution. I asked him if he used this model before, and he noted that he actually owned a previous generation of the laptop in question. He said his model had the same memory as the one on display and admitted that he was nearly maxed out in storage capacity. Like me he stores most of his stuff on-line on a cloud, but that programs and apps had a way of eating up space. I have to admit, I liked the honest appraisal. And no, he did not know why the screen orientation on one of the tablet/laptop combos was stuck. He called someone to have it removed so it could be checked. After we ran out of questions, he gave us his name and said he would be happy to show us any other computers we were interested in. When I said I didn't think so, he said, "No problem. My name is Derek should you need me." That was it. No high pressure tactics.

     What was the name of this mythical store?  Best Buy, believe it or not. Typically I reserve my praise for MicroCenter as my favorite electronics store. But this time they had an employee who did not meet with my expected standards that I have come to expect of them.

    As we hone in on what it is we will purchase, one of these two stores will be graced with our presence yet again, quite possibly as a point of sale. Mind you, manufacturers don't actually make what we really want in our price range - yet.... But I am sure that we will be able to settle on something in the near future that will work for our household.

    In the meantime, I have quite a bit of work to do on my Vista, as I intend for it to replace the XP as a back-up computer.  After all, the processor is quick, it hooks up easily to my larger monitor and remote keyboard. Maybe if I upgrade the operating system to Windows 7.....

    I will let you know how that goes next time I slip between the minutes. Providing my not so trusty workhorse stays operating and does not need to be flung out the window!

The real question about raising the minimum wage.

     As a result of house-shaking, ear-splitting thunder at 5am, we were up a little earlier than usual in our household. This unexpected early wake up call meant that our routine was a little more relaxed (heck, we had lots of time to get ready for our day). It also proved to be very insightful. 

    While my daughter spent her time getting in an extra ten minutes play time, I indulged in having a cup of French Vanilla Cappuccino and reading the news feeds on my phone before 8:30am. I don't like watching the news on TV, it tends to dwell on negative elements and sensationalism. So I read my news via my smarter than I am phone. As I perused the riots in Kiev, the latest in the Olympics, and the nun who got jail time for breaking and entering a nuclear facility, I came across an article from the Consumerist by Chris Morran titled: Walmart "Looking At" Support of Minimum Wage Increase. A big retail chain supporting a $2.85 hourly pay hike certainly caught my attention. I found the article interesting as it addresses the spending habits of consumers who generally make less money and the reasoning behind Walmart's thinking they might want to support this pay hike. Not exactly flattering picture of the giant retailer's thought process, but definitely an honest one. Something I can appreciate. What also caught my attention in the article was the pros and cons discussion on the effects of the minimum wage increase - one that I had seen noted before in other news posts.  This led to me posting the above mentioned article on my Facebook page with the comment: Take a look at the part of the article where the experts compare the loss of half a million jobs to improved pay for 16 million jobs. I get this is all estimates and fancy guess work, but really, when you weigh pros and cons in your household at what point do the pros outweigh the cons?.

     It seemed to me that an improvement in the lives of 16 million people outweighted the job loss of 500 thousand. Knowing that my math is sometimes faulty, I decided to test out the numbers on my daughter.  After all, she is the math wizard in our house and working at a level that far exceeds her parent's ability.  We are probably going to have to hire someone to check her math homework next year.  I asked my daughter, which is bigger, 16 million, or 500 thousand. She rolled her eyes and said, "Well 16 million of course."  So my math skills were sound. I decided to take the conversation a little further. 

   "Okay," I said to her. "I read an article that said that 16 million people could receive improved pay with a proposed wage increase, but that 500 thousand jobs (or more) could be lost as a result."

     She thinks about this for a minute and tells me that she thinks that more people getting pay increases outweighs the people that may lose their jobs. And she goes on to tell me that if the people who lose their jobs do get new ones, they would be making more money when they get a new job, because the wages will be higher.  They would also have more money to spend, which would be good for the economy. In my mind I am patting myself on the back for having raised a smart cookie.

     But wait, there is more.

     "Of course mom," she adds. "That also depends on how much stores have to raise their prices to pay people more. If they have to raise the prices too much, that would offset the benefits."

     

     Good thing I am sitting at this point. This just came from my 10 year old. 

   

     "If they have to raise their prices too much, then the people earning more have to spend more." she continued. "It depends on how much they have to raise their prices. But since prices seem to go up anyway, I still think that giving them better wages is an improvement and would be good for most people."

    Ummm, okay, lets get our boots and get moving so that we don't miss the bus. My limited view had only partially registered this part. I was still busy being irritated by the fact that all the articles I read spelled out the cons number 500,000 (making it look visually bigger), while shortening the pros number to 16m (making it look visually smaller). I am sure it had more to do with printing and number of characters used in the article, but if this were the case, shouldn't the 500,000 been shortened to 500k?

     Getting past the visuals in print, the more I thought about the wage increase issue, the more I wondered, where is the data the that would indicate how much retailers would have to raise their prices to offset the rise in wages in order to maintain their current profit levels? Retailers are in business to make a profit. Generally, some of the profit is made by keeping costs low. Since this cost would be going up, seems to me that they would have to balance that cost in another area, most likely by raising prices. How noticeable would the higher prices be to consumers? 

    So I Googled that very question. And the answer I found was a bit surprising. A couple of articles cite economist John Schmitt who essentially concludes that a 10 percent rise in minimum wages would probably result in a 1-4 percent raise in overall prices. 

    Further more, companies that pay the better wages will benefit from higher productivity and less employee turnover - which means less cost in recruiting and training. Sounds pretty positive.

    One negative to this pretty picture is companies may find other ways to cut their costs to offset the rise in minimum wage, such as to cuts other benefits like scholarships, free uniforms, discounts, stock purchases (really-is this a minimum wage consideration?) and insurance. Quite frankly, over the last ten years, I have found that most of these benefits have already been cut or at the very least, reduced. Not to mention that there may be a reduction of 500,000 jobs or more. Possibly.

    So basically, armed with more information than my daughter (who doesn't watch the news and is not really into reading the newspaper unless it is the comic section), I came to the same conclusion that she did. Raising the minimum wage would benefit more people and possible improve our economy.  I know this is a gamble, but neither are the numbers about job losses a guaranteed figure. 

   My husband was shocked as I was when I told him about my conversation with our daughter before heading out to the bus stop, especially in light of her limited exposure to the media. I told him that we were raising an economic analyst and didn't even know it.  He grinned and said that was not a bad career choice, but he hoped that she could keep that high thinking ability without losing touch with the realities of humanity.

    I hope so too.

      

Confessions of Neat Freak

     I am a Neat Freak. In the past, I used to think I was just tidy or organized, but my friends and family have set me straight. 

     When talking about my activities the other day, I mentioned that I finally had time to clean up and organize the attic. My friend looked at me and then said "That's just sick." 

      I don't think so. The attic had been in great disarray for some time. There was wrapping paper on top of the boxes for Halloween stuff, books we took out of our study a few years ago that were collecting dust, an old computer monitor was co-existing with the Christmas decorations and the "stuff to go to Amvets" was mixed with the shelving brackets. It was preying on my mind, weighing me down and distracting me from everyday duties. I could barely function, let along open the door to the attic. The next holiday was coming up, how would I find the decorations? Okay, maybe that is a little sick.

     Just because I like my dining room table clear and polished, don't like newspapers on the coffee table and use the sweeper vacuum daily in my kitchen doesn't mean I deserve this label. So I hate dust on the TV that we don't typically watch, can't stand little bits of "stuff" on the stairs and go a bit nuts over things piled on bedroom dressers. Admittedly I have shoe boxes in my drawers to keep my socks and underwear sorted. YES, there is a secret plan for cleaning the garage in the spring....I give in, I guess I am a Neat Freak.  I have come to terms with this malady and embrace who I am.

     But don't worry, it is not contagious. My daughter and husband seem immune. As a matter of fact, I believe they both suffer from Flatsurfaceitis - a condition that causes one to pile up stuff on any and all available flat surfaces. This condition is going to drive me to drink.

So as a confirmed Neat Freak, I have a few confessions:

• I would be in heaven if I lived in one of those Better Homes and Gardens houses that are always orderly and fresh like you see in the magazines.
• I am drawn to TV shows like Neat (with Helen Buttigieg, a professional organizer). Heck, I like shows in general that take a cluttered mess, pare down and redecorate using original furnishings from the room.
• I subscribe to Ikea and The Container Store.
• I am fascinated by the idea of minimalism. 
• I like bins. And baskets. And shelves.
• I like wandering Ikea stores and trying out all the rooms and organizing ideas.
• I think it is fun to come up with new storage ideas.

    Before you "Unfriend" me or reconsider inviting me to your house for a cup of tea, be reassured that my disease is confined to my home, my vehicles and my sacred work space.  I honestly don't care if you didn't vacuum, have a sink full of dishes or piles of school papers all over the counter and laundry in the living room. That is your problem, not mine. When I visit folks, I visit them, not their houses. So while I am flattered that you may have scurried to pick up before I came over, it wasn't really necessary. I like my family and friends for who they are.  Relax. It is okay to spill stuff in my living room, I do all the time. I don't organize my spices alphabetically (yes, I know someone who does - and I like to rearrange them to spell my name). Not all my kitchen drawers would meet Martha Stewart standards.  I haven't reorganized the linen closet in over a month.  I have my disorder under control.

   Just remember, don't ever put anything on my desk. 

It's Elementary Math, dear Watson

   It all started with helping my daughter with her math homework. What could be the trouble with such an innocuous request "Mom, can you help me with my math homework?" I value a good education and support my daughter in the educational process, helping her when I am able. I provide her with time and a place to do homework to reinforce the lessons taught during the day. In this way, I feel that I am working in a partnership with the school my daughter attends.
   Schools like parents to be involved with their kids education and ask that parents take the time to look over their children's homework. They encourage parents to promote education. They even send home notes for parents to sign that they understand the homework being assigned, what the deadlines are, and that they will check it over. Ummm, is it me, or is this starting to sound like strong-arm tactics. Rest assured, the teacher said they just wanted to make sure parents are aware of what was being assigned and when it was due.  That way the little darlings could not say they didn't know the assignment was due the night before it has to be turned in, ten minutes before bedtime. Okay, but that doesn't explain away the part of checking it over. I would assume that with a long term project, the teachers would be checking progress in school periodically. My boss used to periodically check on big projects that the staff was working on to assure that we were on track for reaching our ultimate goal, not my mom.
   I digress. This post is not about the assignment given to the parents disguised as homework for the kids called the All About Me Timeline. The assignment in which the "kids" were supposed to put together a poster with a time line of dates, photos and other stuff representing their lives until the present. Everyone knows that first graders have access to family photos (usually stored on line), keep a journal of the dates of major events in their lives and can create a neat timeline with printed titles and captions. This should be easy for the kids to do.
   But we are now in 4th grade and the homework has become a little more complicated.
   This time she asked me to look over her stem and leaf graph. My first thought was that they were combining science and math to provide a correlation between the two subjects. But after looking over the data, I saw no sign of trees, leaves or anything remotely like a plant. And the data was about kids in a school and their grades. I got the distinct feeling I was at a disadvantage for balancing our finances, doing the wash and picking up the groceries so I could make dinner. How was I to know I should have been in school with my daughter?

Test Scores Out Of 100
Stem	Leaf
9	2 2 6 8
8	3 5
7	2 4 6 8 8 9
6	1 4 4 7 8
5	0 0 2 8 8

    There were 22 grades listed as a result of students taking a test with possible high  score of 100. The kids had to list out the graph to show how many kids scored in  what range. The problem listed out the scores as follows: 92, 83, 85, 50, 61, 92,  96, 76, 64...and so forth. Was the plot shown correct? 

    "Could you explain the plot to me?" I asked. I had no idea what to make of what I  was looking at. Patiently she explained. When I did not get it, she tried again, this  time using very simple words in a loud voice. Then we took a break so she could  use the bathroom and I could check the internet to see if she had learned some foreign language or was just trying to hose me. After all, my graph would have looked a lot different.

Test Score range	Number of children
99-90	4
89-80	2
79-70	6
69-60	5
59-60	5

   

   Frantically I did my Google search. What was I missing that I could not make sense out of my daughter's chart? Turns out the 9 on the stem side of the chart represented  90, the 8 for 80 and the numbers on the leaf side of the chart was the other part of the grade listed. Huh? Apparently this chart is commonly used for statistics of large amount of numbers. Really? How come in my 20+ years working in an office environment I never came across this? Perhaps, because the powers that be just wanted to see the numbers in a quick easy format. 4 kids received scores in the 90s, 2 kids received scores in the 80s and the rest either received average scores or did not get the concepts presented on the test. With the chart my daughter is being taught, you would have to count up the individual scores if you wanted to convert the numbers to percentages. And it take 8 steps to create this graph in word. Sounds like a lot of work to present some pretty simple data.

   Feeling better educated, though still mildly confused, I reassured my daughter that her graph was correct and did represent all the data shown. 

   After which we took a look at language arts and where to put commas in a sequence listed in a sentence. They still teach academic prose, which includes a serial comma before the and, something I have not used in about 20 years. In newspaper writing, incidentally, you seldom find a serial comma. I have found that it is seldom used in any other writing outside of school or law firms. 

   I quite possibly just flunked 4th grade.