Eric Bangerter.com

When was the last time you laughed at an order confirmation e-mail?

2009-12-31T15:36:00.005-06:00

It is winter in Wisconsin and I was in need of a nice, warm hat. A stylish, classic is the Stormy Kromer. I ordered directly from their site and here's the order confirmation e-mail I received:

Just thought we would let you know that in just a few minutes, your order will be carefully removed from our Stormy Kromer shelves, placed into some sort of container, and sent on its way to you. And if it's cold where you are, then you are correct in feeling pretty darn good about that. If it's warm where you are, keep it to yourself... no point in rubbing it in.

Prior to its departure, a semi-qualified team of almost 50 inspectors (actually, it'll be just one person, but she's really good) will check your order to make sure it passes muster. Our "packing specialist" will then ask for a collective moment of silence, and a reverent calm will fall over the entire factory as we all watch her place your order into some sort of shipping thingamajig.

Of course, all of this excitement will give rise to a big party afterwards, resulting in the whole factory taking the remainder of the day off to walk your package to the local post office, where most of our town will show up and join in to wish it a cheerful Bon Voyage!

Once your order has shipped, the party is over and everyone’s back to work, we’ll be in touch with your tracking number.

I hope you enjoyed shopping with us. As you can tell, we sure do. In fact, we are considering nominating you for Customer of the Year! We'll see.

Really clever and something not all companies can pull off. Hopefully, I can pull of the hat in a similar fashion.

Hybrids have their privilages

2009-08-26T07:35:00.002-05:00

Trying the new Posterous iPhone app. It lets you post pictures in real time. Unfortunately, it looks like only the first picture gets added to my blog.

Posted via web from Eric's posterous

That's better--2010 Honda Insight mpg update

2009-06-16T19:58:00.008-05:00

Almost three months into ownership of the 2010 Honda Insight, my last fill-up finally met with my expectations--45+ mpg. Ironically, I acheived this without trying to drive maximizing mpg (however, there were about 100 highway miles on this tank).

I had been averaging around 41 mpg on my first three tanks of gas and was somewhat disappointed. One, because the trip computer was reporting over 47 mpg, but doing the actual calculation, it was significantly lower than that. The other reason was I was driving in ECON mode and trying to keep the speedometer indicator in the green (which isn't the most fun driving I've ever done).

This time around, I did keep the car in ECON mode, but drove it with more aggressive accelleration than I had been. Maybe I was getting the benefits of the hypermiling technique of "pulse and glide."

In any case, I hope 45 mpg is the worst mileage I get for the rest of the summer. When the weather cools off, I'm expecting the battery performance, and therefore mpg, to suffer a bit.

So far, so good. The car has all the tech comforts I wanted (GPS, iPod integration, Bluetooth), but I gave up RWD, manual transmission performance to get higher mpg. 45 mpg makes me feel better about the decision.

One note on mpg--it really isn't the best way to measure the fuel efficiency of a vehicle (in an easy to compare way anyhow). Gallons per mile, or gallons per 100 miles makes the math much easier to do in your head when comparing vehicles. See the MPG Illusion for more information.

I'm using 2.38 gallons per 100 miles so far. To put that in comparison, my old car (a 2002 Lexus IS300) was using about 6 gallons to go the same distance. A 2.38 gpm means I can commute to work all week and back using just over 2 gallons of gas. That sounds good to me.

Calculate your own GPM

One year's worth of Twitter

2009-05-20T00:00:00.002-05:00

I joined Twitter one year ago today. Here's a word cloud of my first year of tweets:

Earth Day pledge

2009-04-22T11:57:00.005-05:00

I posted a comment over at good.is regarding an Earth Day pledge. I thought I'd also post it here:

I have invested in CFL light bulbs, paid extra for my electricity to be from 100% renewable sources, stopped buying water (and most other beverage types) in plastic bottles, and went from driving a car that gets 18 mpg to one that gets 50 mpg.

I’d like to do more, and will over time. I like the idea of eating more locally and will try to do that more. I’d like to better understand the implications of what we eat and where it comes from on our environment.

First fill-up 2010 Honda Insight

2009-04-18T18:39:00.002-05:00

Well, 41 mpg is very good, but I know better mpg numbers are coming. The colder weather kept the mileage down for the first tank. I've been getting over 50 mpg more recently as it has warmed this week.

More to come including some videos when I get a new camera.

Posted via email from Eric's posterous

The photos of my Honda Insight

2009-04-08T20:13:00.002-05:00

Fresh from a detailing (thanks Zimbrick Honda)--photos of my 2010 Honda Insight.

So far, I'm liking it a lot. I'll post a review and more info after my first tank of gas (it could be a while).

See the full gallery on posterous

Posted via email from Eric's posterous

Cool Honda Insight ad

2009-03-30T15:45:00.002-05:00

Find more videos like this on AdGabber

Going green with lawn work--the Epic Electric lawn mower

2009-03-19T18:15:00.006-05:00

So my current mower is 10 years old this year and I could really use a new one. I was thinking of getting a prosumer type mower with a larger mowing deck. This would give my lawn a more professional look. However, most of them out there are at least $1,000 and I wasn't looking to spend that much.

After a bit of searching online, I started to notice some electric mowers. Many of them are under-powered, with small mowing decks (they are made for very small urban lawns). That would not due for me. Then I started to find newer ones that had larger decks and more power. One that caught my attention was the Epic 21-Inch Cordless Rear Wheel Drive Self Propelled Lawn Mower available on Amazon. It features a brushless electric motor that is supposed to be much more efficient and powerful compared to older electric motors that use brushes. I liked the idea of this mower so I ordered one from Amazon. It arrived yesterday and I had a chance to fire it up.

Because I have a larger lawn, I also went ahead and ordered a second battery set so I wouldn't run out of power before finishing (they say it can go about an hour on a charge which is typically how long it takes me to mow).

I like the idea of not having to handle gas and oil any more. It is also very low maintenance as there isn't an air filter, spark pug or oil to change. Not to mention it is zero emissions and very energy efficient overall. And, it starts with a simple push of a button.

Why I ordered a 2010 Honda Insight

2009-03-16T15:36:00.002-05:00

I don't like to waste things, and right now I'm wasting a lot of gas. I can easily use half the gas with an Insight.

Posted via email from Eric's posterous

Amazing images from AP for 2008

2008-12-23T14:28:00.001-06:00

From the AP's best pictures of 2008. This one is particularly amazing to me.

"In this Sept. 15, 2008, file photo, fish remain stuck in a fence as flood waters recede caused by Hurricane Ike in West Orange, Texas."

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-bestofapphotos2008-pg,0,7539328.photogallery

(Eric Gay / Associated Press)

Posted via email from Eric's posterous

Giving Chinese Democracy a real try

2008-12-01T22:39:00.001-06:00

So, I'm listening to Chinese Democracy, Guns N' Roses' new album and in some ways I sort of dig it. However, when the song Street of Dreams comes on, it almost makes me laugh. The opening singing by Axl is pretty awful.

This is also my first time trying out Posterous (http://posterous.com/), we'll see how that goes.

Street Of Dreams by Guns N' Roses (6723 KB)
Listen on posterous

Posted by email from Eric's posterous

Can Rahm Emanuel fly?

2008-11-13T08:30:00.000-06:00

Barack Obama's newly named White House Chief of Staff, Rahm Emanuel bears a striking resemblance to a certain flying congressman on NBC's Heroes. Adrian Pasdar plays the flying politician, Nathan Petrelli and looks just like him (to me at least).

Emanuel left, Pasdar right

Wisconsin election results by county

2008-11-04T12:56:00.004-06:00

Hulu video player let's you watch just the funny parts of SNL

2008-10-20T07:02:00.002-05:00

Hulu is NBC's video player service. It launched about a year and a half ago. I believe I remember reading that it didn't work too well back then.

Now, it works great. It is the best way for someone like me, who doesn't make an effort to watch Saturday Night Live, keep up with the latest political comedy they've been doing so well this season (mainly due to Tina Fey). It is the easiest (and legal) way to watch Sarah Palin be made fun of straight to her face:

Watching the most popular clips helps me keep up with popular culture without having to dedicate as much time. Full episodes of shows are available too, in case your DVR missed them.

Investing in the stock market is fun

2008-10-08T15:31:00.006-05:00

I began investing in individual stocks in October 2005. By October 2007, I had doubled my money and felt pretty good about the choices I'd made. Now, less that one year later, I'm right back where I started in 2005.

I do own more total shares of stocks than I did then (due to selling shares at a profit and buying into other companies).

I am in for the long haul, so I'm not overly concerned yet. However, it would be nice to be at the end of this soon. I'm not in a position to buy at this time, but if you are, there are some real deals out there in some very good companies.

Rock Band 2 first impressions

2008-09-16T23:36:00.007-05:00

I was able to play Rock Band 2 for a solid three hours tonight and here are my first impressions:

Importing songs from RB1 and downloaded content is very nice. I doubt I'll ever put the RB1 disk back in again. However, it cost 400 Microsoft points to buy a "license" to download the songs to the hard drive. I had not read this anywhere and thought this could have been included in the cost of RB2. It takes 10-15 minutes to download all the songs off the RB1 disk.
I only played guitar so far. Overall, it seemed easier (a little more forgiving) than RB1. However, it could be from starting at the beginning (on hard) and, therefore, playing easier songs.
Being able to do the World Tour alone is very nice. While my wife enjoys playing with me, she isn't able to put in the hours to complete the game. I look forward to being able to on my own. It will also be nice to be able to switch instruments during a longer session but stay in the same band when we are playing together.
The battle of the bands is cool. Through Xbox Live you can take on other bands to post high scores.
It looks like you can download an additional 20 songs for free, but they won't be available for a few days. I'd guess they aren't from very well known bands.

Overall, it is more of the same. It looks like they fixed many of the small annoyances and added better online support. The song list is strong and I'm sure there will be a ton of downloadable content coming every week. I need to do some drumming next time I play. I want to check out the new Drum Trainer feature to see if it will help me get any better.

Further signs Chrome isn't just a brower, but a platform

2008-09-02T10:57:00.004-05:00

While the included screenshot from Google Chrome is blurry, you can make out that there is a "task manager" built in to the browser. This is another sign that Chrome isn't just a Web browser, but is poised to become a platform (OS even?) for Web-based applications.

I can't wait to kill a tab that isn't behaving properly.

Official post: Official Google Blog: A fresh take on the browser

Download Firefox 3 in June

2008-05-28T17:10:00.000-05:00

I'm really looking forward to Firefox 3. Firefox is already a great Web browser, but version 3 promises to improve performance with faster page loading speed, memory usage and innovative user interface techniques (like smart prefilling when typing a URL).

They are trying to set a record by creating a download day when the public version is released. Do your part to get Firefox 3 in as many hands as possible.

So I start using Twitter yesterday and it's always down

2008-05-21T17:10:00.004-05:00

I like this blogging and social networking thing. However, I really don't have the time or energy to keep it up. So I link to a lot of things that automatically update themselves like my Last.fm account, my recently viewed Netflix movies, etc. Many times I have something quick to make a record of and after hearing the guys on Twit and Diggnation go on and on about Twitter I finally decided to give it a try yesterday.

I managed to create my user name (ericbangerter) and customize the page and do a few Tweets yesterday before the site went down. I had something to post today and can't because it is down again. Pretty unbelievable that a company that gets so much press doesn't have its act together. What really surprises me is that the folks talking it up have never mentioned its unreliability.

At least they are posting some updates about it: Twitter Blog: Not True

Who says you never win anything

2007-07-21T08:12:00.000-05:00

This week, I won a complete Coleman camping set. A rather inconspicuous letter came in the mail saying I won a prize (in fact I almost tore up the envelope without even opening it thinking it was junk mail).

At first, I was immediately skeptical that it was some kind of scam. Then, after reading it more I realized the company who sent the letter represented TDS Telecom (my phone company). I vaguely remembered entering their rewards program and the associated contest.

In any case, I had my choice of a few prizes, many of which I already had. Candace really wanted the rolling cooler so she convinced me to get the camping set. Along with the cooler, I got a huge three room tent, a camping stove and four high quality sleeping bags--all from Coleman. Looks like now we'll have to go camping! Thanks TDS.

Music site Last.fm bought by CBS

2007-06-18T23:34:00.001-05:00

Social music site Last.fm has been bought by US media giant CBS Corporation for $280m (£140m), the largest-ever UK Web 2.0 acquisition

read more | digg story

After reading this story a few weeks ago, I started using last.fm. You can see my weekly music tastes on the right side of the page.

I really liked the idea of being able to have a way to see how my listening habits compare to others. And, now that all the music I listen to is via my iPod or iTunes, that is possible. What sealed the deal for me was that with the CBS acquisition, the site should be around for a while (nothing like investing time in a site only to have it fail).

I'm not really into the "social" aspects of the site, but I really like seeing what other people who have similar tastes (called neighbors by last.fm) are listening to.

The key to making it work for me was not using their standard software, but instead iSproggler so my iPod tracks are uploaded along with my iTunes listening history. It can be a bit tricky to get going. They key to having your iPod tracks upload is to always sync your iPod before listening to something in iTunes. iSproggler compares the last updated date with the current date. If you listen to a track in iTunes, the date is updated and the older iPod tracks are disregarded. The discussion group on last.fm has some other help and tips if you get stuck.

Now, I just wish they had this kind of thing 20 years ago so my lifetime of music listening would be accurately represented.

Mama said you'd be the Chosen One

2007-06-10T21:26:00.000-05:00

Few shows come along that redefine television. One just ended today. Perfectly...with Tony enjoying a meal with his first family. Thanks, David Chase, for making The Sopranos so great for so long.

I can only wish something else will come along to fill the void. I am sure something will. But...we may have to wait a long time.

I've got crazy legs

2007-05-02T21:45:00.000-05:00

Last Saturday, I participated in my first Crazy Legs run in Madison. It is one of the largest runs around and is also one of the neatest courses as you start on Capitol Square and finish on the 50-yard line of Camp Randall Stadium.

I was happy with my performance. I finished with a time of 41:22 for the 8K course. It was a great feeling running into the stadium with so many people around.

The picture is my exact route as mapped by my Garmin Forerunner 305--with some help from a site called Motionbased (click the map to see a larger version). It is a really cool device that has been really great to own for a few reasons:

I got to buy a gadget (I really enjoy buying technology--I'll post a review of the Forerunner 305 soon)
I spent enough on it that I need to run to justify the purchase (I got a good deal online, but it still wasn't cheap)
It is really helping me stay motivated and improve.

I always know how far I've gone and at what pace. That is the best way to see improvement--in the numbers. Also, I am able to track my heart rate while I run. I am learning about how to manage my runs to get the most workout benefit and not kill myself in the process. I've learned to try to train in my aerobic zone which is 70-80% of my maximum heart rate. This is a good place to train for two reasons. One, it allows me to be able to run longer without becoming completely exhausted. And, two, it is where your body is burning fat (which is why I'm subjecting myself to this torture in the first place). I am getting better at managing this (generally by starting slower). I now normally run at about 80% of my maximum.

One exception, however, was the Crazy Legs run. I ran the entire second half of the run at a heart-rate of 190. For me, that is above my theoretical maximum. I guess the other runners (there were over 9,000 of them) and the pump-up music on my iPod kept me going even though normally at that heart-rate, I'd tire very quickly. I even had enough to sprint through Camp Randall to the finish.

I can't wait to do it again next year.

Linksys and their "iPhone"

2007-05-01T20:32:00.000-05:00

I got an e-mail from Linksys today regarding their "iPhone." This is not the Apple iPhone due out in June. This is some kind of VoIP phone for Skype etc.

I guess I got the e-mail since I own (and probably registered) a couple of home networking devices from Linksys. I remember reading that Apple got sued by Cisco (the parent company to Linksys) because they already owned the iPhone name. I never recall seeing the iPhone brand marketed by Linksys before. Perhaps they are just starting now so they can show they've not only owned the name but used it. I know that to keep a brand name, you must defend it rigorously and continue to make use of it so it doesn't become obsolete.

They will also likely benefit from the millions of searches going on for Apple's iPhone. Perhaps some folks will stumble across their phone and end up buying one. It will be interesting to see how this plays out in court.

Here are a couple of Cisco blog posts regarding the situation:

Lawsuit update

On maintaining their trademark