Ed Icionsub

Last night I read a post on Jerry’s blog about how many businesses do not have their street address prominently displayed. I think he makes a really good point. There have been several times that I had to go downtown and search for an unfamiliar address. That is so very frustrating, especially when you are trying to get to an appointment on time.

I call this situation a Nashville conceit. The merchants and professionals seem to have an attitude of “if they want me they will know where I am.” That is SO wrong!

One of the most interesting aspects of using the internet is that it is truly an international medium. I have been able to access newspapers all over the world, and participate in bulletin boards and discussions with people from a variety of different countries.

One of the most interesting bulletin boards that I found recently is based in India and helps the people having issues with various businesses as a public consumer forum.

One of my company’s franchisees is from India and he still has a lot of family there. He was in a meeting with me this morning and during a break he went online to check his emails and surf a few web sites. He showed me the consumer court India website and shared some of the recent posts with me. It was truly fascinating.

There are a variety of topics available for comments and discussions. I read the laptop computer forum and was very surprised to see how many complaints were lodged against all the major laptop manufacturers. It was a real eye opener and worth considering when shopping for a new laptop.

Did you know that there are hidden symbols on a U. S., one dollar bill? There was an interesting article on the front page of Yahoo that explains some of the currency mysteries.

For the record, according to this article, each one dollar bill costs the federal government 6.4 cents to print.

There is an article on Yahoo that links to the new Fortune magazine piece, “Best Companies to Work For.” The online article lists the top 10 companies, based on things like low employee turnover, employee satisfaction (from surveys), and company paid perks.

The number one company this year is SAS, a software company based in Cary, NC. I did not realize that SAS is based in Cary until I read that this morning. I used to know some people who worked for SAS in the Washington DC and Huntsville, AL areas.

What impressed me about SAS is the philosophy of their CEO, Jim Goodnight, about taking care of the employees and the corporate culture that he models.

“My chief assets drive out the gate every day,” Goodnight likes to say. “My job is to make sure they come back.”

Goodnight backs that up with impressive statistics. According to Fortune, the average tenure at SAS is 10 years. The company has 300 employees that have worked 25 years or more. The SAS annual turnover rate was just 2% in 2009, compared with the software industry average of about 22%. Women make up 45% of the SAS workforce in the United States, with an average age of 45.

Computers are great when they are working. Not so great when they crash, lock up or refuse to turn on. Then I want to pull out my hair and grab a hammer to smash the offending desktop to bits. Back in October 2009 I turned on my HP desktop and got nothing – not even the blue screen of death. Turns out that the motherboard was “fried,” and I had to get a new computer.

The boss sent me a replacement computer, which was very generous for them to let me have a company paid computer at home. But it arrived last month with a lot of outdated and incompatible software and drivers. Not that I’m looking a gift horse in the mouth. I just mean that I had to do a
driver update for my monitor before I could see well enough to do the rest of the install, and then I had to find a few more drivers and updates to finish getting the new system set up.

At least I could get online and grab the drivers download from one online source, the site called driveraccess.com. That was a big help and saved me a lot of time.

I used the same site to get my printer driver files and to check for updates for other computer drivers that might be needed. All in all it took about an hour to completely install and update the replacement computer. I should be good to go for a while – let’s hope this desktop last longer than the last one.

Last year when the government was doing their “Cash for Clunkers” program I was really tempted to trade in my old Tahoe because it is 12 years old and a real gas guzzler. But I LIKE that car and it has been running just fine. So I didn’t do it.

Now, I am regretting that decision, because it is seriously broken down and I don’t have the money to fix it. So I’m going to end up buying a new car and not getting the extra tax credit.  I have to have reliable transportation, so at this point I have no choice.

To get much better gas mileage, I’ve been looking at the hyundai genesis. This is a small but nice car, and the Hyundai is a popular car in this area.

To get a slightly larger car and still get decent gas mileage, I have been looking at the chevrolet impala specs and am thinking about taking one on a test drive.

If money is no object an dI want my dram vehicle, I would have to buy the new gmc yukon, which is a great truck with a lot of luxury options, such as leather seats and an upgraded stereo system.

My daughter loves her ford taurus and if they would offer another “Cash for Clunkers” rebate this year, I would [probably help her trade in her old taurus and get a new one just like it.

Have you ever needed help with translation from one language to another? I find myself needing help reading a lot of posts that are in German.  Several of my Facebook friends are either in Germany or from Germany, and sometimes they post messages to each other in German. Me, being nosey, always wants to know what they are saying. If it is just a few sentences I can sometimes figure it out, but sometimes I need help from a translator.

When I did a search for that I found a web site that will translate to and from a lot of different languages. Some of their services are for a fee and some of them are free. From what I can tell, joining their site is free and worth checking out. You never know when you are going to need help understanding something written in a different language.

Johnson & Johnson, the makers of Tynol, has expanded their recall of over-the-counter medications today. This is the second time J&J has done this in less than a month. The medications apparently have a moldy smell that has made some users sick.

The broader recall now includes:

• regular Tylenol caplets and gel tabs
• extra-strength Tylenol
• children’s Tylenol
• 8-hour Tylenol
• Tylenol Arthritis
• Tylenol PM
• Children’s Motrin
• Motrin IB
• Benadryl Rolaids
• Simply Sleep
• St. Joseph’s Aspirin

Today I needed to learn about two of China’s major cities, Shanghai and Beijing. Because I am a visual person, I wanted to see a map first, and here is what I found. Shanghai is on the right, in blue, and Beijing is at the top, in green.

If you already know anything about China Travel you might already know a lot about these two cities. I have to admit that the little bit I thought I knew about Shanghai was limited to what I’ve seen on TV shows and in movies.

My impressions of Beijing are from all of the news coverage of the Olympics in 2008. Because of the worldwide attention on Beijing hosting the Olympics, we were able to watch China videos and read a lot of news stories with photographs of many landmarks.

As much as I love China travel videos, I like to learn more about a city and how the average person lives. What is the typical housing? What is the commute time for the average worker? Where do they shop?

I discovered a web site called chinaontv.com and spent a couple of hours this afternoon watching travel videos and learning about our neighbors in the Far East.

Had to meet a friend in Franklin, so I suggested a coffee shop that I like. I got there about 15 minutes before he did, so I grabbed a newspaper from the sidewalk rack. When I walked up to it, the door was slightly open, so I gave it a tug and the door opened without my having to put coins in the slot. Now, I would not steal a newspaper, but I’m not so sure that others coming along after me would not take advantage of this. I closed the door and put four quarters in the slot. The door opened again an di took out my newspaper. But when I let it close from the spring hinge, it did not close all the way. I pushed it closed and then gave it a tug to make sure it had closed.

Whoever is putting newspapers in that rack must surely realize that it needs to be repaired. I wonder how many people are coming along and just helping themselves to free newspapers every day once they realize that the door does not close properly?