This isnt so much a product review as it is a review of a companies customer service. First my story:

On Christmas Eve I was taking a couple photos with my Canon Xti when suddenly the camera gave the error “There is a problem with the CF Card. Replace the CF Card”.

That’s not good.

I tried turning the camera off, then back on, nothing. I then plugged the Compact Flash card into a card reader and tried to read it with my computer, nothing – Vista gave me an error saying that the card needed to be reformatted, I tried again, and it just read the card has being empty.

I played around a bit and somehow the card started working again (honestly, not sure what I did). I was able to take the photos off the card successfully. I then formatted the card, and it appeared to work well…

Christmas morning I took a bunch of photos when suddenly I got that same “replace the CF card” error. Only this time there was no recovering the photos. I downloaded a bunch of different recovery programs, and NONE of them would recognize the card. It was bad, and this “crash” had taken with it the 100 or so photos of my 2 year old daughter opening her presents and seeing her new bike for the first time. WHY did I use that same card?! I had an old 1gb card I could have used…

A few days later I called Lexar Support (the card I was using was a 300x 4gb UDMA Compact Flash card). I told them my story, and they emailed me a link to their recovery software, and he told me what to do with it to recover my photos and how to then erase, reformat, and test the card after I got my photos safely off.

My first reaction was, great more software to try. I had very low expectations. BUT, it worked!! The software was easy, and I was able to recover ALL the Christmas pictures I had taken, along with about 800 other photos that had been deleted, but still technically existed on the card.

After erasing/formatting & testing the card, it came up clean as if nothing was ever wrong. I called customer support back today and the rep assured me that he was confident that I will not have any more problems, but if I did, they would swap the card out. They say that a corrupt file is most likely what caused it, and the fact that I was able to get the photos back with their software supports that the card is physically okay.

I hope he’s right – I trust that he probably is – but one thing that is for sure, is the customer service team at Lexar is great, and because of them I got my photos back. I will definitely continue to use Lexar for any future CF cards that I may need!

If you like the muppet show, you will probalby like this clip from 1969… hard to believe it is from so long ago. Still entertaining today – so simple, but so catchy.

If you have been asking “Who Wins Survivor Samoa?” Well, its official, Natalie has won the latest edition of Survivor!

Personally I think Russell, the player everyone loves to hate, should have won. But what do you think? Who did you want to win?

Russell did play a very strategic game, and while many may think he may be evil, its a game, and you have to do what you have to do.

I don’t think Natalie played a bad game, I think sticking under the radar is a good strategy and she does in fact deserve the money, but I think Russell might be the smartest player to play Survivor and not win.

If you hate Russell, or if you love him, you have to admit that he made Survivor Samoa very exciting and fun to watch.

Last year I put up a post (I Don’t Care What They Say – Merry Christmas), asking if readers would be offended if someone wished them a happy holiday for a holiday they did not celebrate. Out of 180 voters, only  6 voters said that yes, they would be offended.

I wanted to re-introduce this poll to see if any new voters/readers out there would like to cast their opinion here.

I celebrate Christmas. Its my favorite time of year. I would like to say Merry Christmas to people I come across, and send “Merry Christmas” emails to my clients, but because there are a few out there who are offended by this, I am reduced to saying a generic “Happy Holidays”.

If someone came to me and wished me a Happy Hanukkah, or any other holiday greeting for something I don’t celebrate, I would never be offended, in fact, it would probably put a smile on my face.

I was at the Home Depot looking for a Christmas Tree stand, and when I asked an employee where I could find one, he quickly developed a sour look on his face and said “I don’t Celebrate Christmas, I think they’re over there somewhere” and he pointed in the general direction. Are you kidding me? You don’t celebrate it, but that doesn’t give you a right to be rude to me about it – especially when I am looking for a product that you sell!

Why can’t we all just get along.

My wife and I, like many, have a Nintendo Wii. I am no expert, but I like to think I am pretty good at some of the games for the Fit etc.  Certainly this is no hard core console – gamers seeking groundbreaking graphics, action,  and online play go the direction of the Xbox and PS3 (btw, I SUCK at Xbox, just ask my friend Ross! Its kind of embarrassing actually…)

Today I saw something that I have to ask my self “Why”. Sure I like the Wii, but even if I was super rich, like Billionaire status, I have to say I would most likely refrain from purchasing the £300,000 Golden Wii.

What is this world coming too!?!?

Years ago, sometime around 1999 or there abouts, I was driving in my kick-ass 1979 Datsun 280zx. (I loved that car). I was with my buddy Jason and we were driving down the Dyke road (connecting Courtenay with Comox). We were listening to the following, and I had to pull over – I was laughing so hard I was crying and couldn’t see. Good times.

This is probably the best version of the “12 days” that has ever existed in the history of the world.

I hope you enjoy it as much as I do!

A few years ago I created a website, pootick.com, which showcased a vast amount of rather crude MS “paint”-style artwork that a friend and I had MSN’d back and fourth.

This artwork was often very crude and sexually disturbing in nature and I eventually took down the website. Sometimes I wish I kept it up as it was a bit on the funny side, at least to a select few, but really when it comes down to it, the stuff posted there was largely inappropriate.

The following are a couple images sent around today. My friend stated “That’s “PooTick Blog” Material, and due to its “tameness” (if you can call that a word) in nature, I have decided to post a couple here just for fun.

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The first started when my buddy called me an “ass face” and sent over this image:

Not to be outdone, I took this one big step forward. While my “no, you’re an ass face” textual response was somewhat lame, the image took it to the next level:

Note the face of the stick man is on the ass of the ass. I got a chuckle out of this.

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The next couple are a bit crude, but not too too bad.

I am just getting over a nasty cold, and have been coughing up some nasty phlegm the past couple days. I mentioned this to a co-worker of mine and she was disgusted. I then went on to say (as a bad joke of course) that I should save it all, bottle it, and give it to her as her gag-gift at the Christmas staff party later this week.

She was disgusted by the concept (and who wouldn’t be) so I took it to the next level and sent her the following images (which caused her to start ignoring me):

Its not that bad is it? Perhaps. I still get a bit of a kick out of it though – a bit of childhood innocense where even the most immature things can still be funny. I’ll grow up some day, after all I need to set a good example for my daughter.

(If you find these types of images to be funny and enjoy them, please drop me a comment and let me know. I have no immediate intention of making them a regular occurance on this blog, but if enough people want them I may consider it)

Some things I just don’t get. Some movies and books I just don’t get.

Take the movie Twilight for instance. It appeals to me about as much as having five root canals and a colonoscopy done at the same time while being forced to listen to Kenny G and stare at nude pictures of Betty White. (Sorry Betty, but I’m just not that into you).

Today I was introduced to a website that could eat up a LOT of time if you let yourself succumb to its power.  The site is TheOatmeal.com. A series of cartoons making fun of everything from bacon and manboobs to zombies and Twilight.

If you are like me, and simply don’t get Twilight, then you must check out this site. It will give you hours of enjoyment.

Every now and then a new toy comes out that ends up selling for big bucks on eBay at Christmas time. Well, I think we have found the next big thing.

If you havent started your Christmas shopping yet, you better grab one of these while you can…

…where do they come up with this stuff??

It sounds like the topic of a cheesy movie, like the 1985 Richard Prior flick “Brewsters Millions”, or the 2002 Adam Sandler movie Mr. Deeds, but this is no movie, this is real life, and a couple of homeless cave dwelling brothers are about to become Billionaires – Yes, that’s “B” as in “Billions”.

Zsold and Geza Peladi, two homeless brothers living in a cave in Budapest Hungary have made a living (If you can call it that) scavenging and selling junk. Very recently they were contacted by lawyers handling an estate of the maternal grandmother – with a net worth of $6.6 Billion!

The grandmother, who died in Wurttemberg Germany, had lost her only child, the mother of the brothers, and under German law, direct descendants are automatically entitled to a share of any estate.

The extensive estate will be shared between the two brothers and their sister who lives in the US.

(Source: MSNBC)