Only two things are bugging me.

1. The process to deposit checks takes for ever if using snail mail.  They do have a electronic method involving a scanner and a web based wizard, but it has only worked once.  They really really need to get a smart phone app.  Other banks have had this for years.  Welcome to 21st century!
2. When you use bill pay the money is not subtracted from the source immediately.  It takes a few days for the transfer to complete and then it subtracted from the source (usually your checking account).  The problem with this is that you have to pull out a calculator to see how much you have available in your checking account.  This is a horrible HORRIBLE design, it should be instant.  It’s the god damn 21st!  I should not need a calculator  and a computer to know my balance.  I called to confirm this was by design and below is the transcript.

Welcome to Ally’s Live Chat. Thanks for joining us! A Customer Care Associate will be with you in a moment. You are number 1 in the queue. Thank you for waiting.
You are now chatting with ‘Sarah’
Sarah: Thank you for chatting with me today. How can I help you?
heath: When I pay a bill using bill pay the amount is not debited immediately from the source (usually my checking account). So when I go to look at the amount in the account it is artificially high; I have to go to bill pay page and look at the total payments and get a calculator and use it to find out how much I actually have in my account.
heath: is this by design?
Sarah: Hello, Heath.
Sarah: Yes, it is. It is setup for the customer to organize their own bill payee’s.
heath: so.. to find out how much money I have in my checking account I have to use a calculator and subtract the amount in my checking and the amount that the website shows me on the bill pay page?
Sarah: Yes. It will show up in Ally but not until the funds clear. You would want to keep up with the transactions as you go along.
heath: so I need to use a check book to keep track of a computer based transaction?
heath: you see the irony here.. don’t you
Sarah: That is correct. Remember, even though you are using the computer, it does not update instantly.
heath: haha, that’s insane
Sarah: Is there anything else I can help you with today?
heath: well I don’t think you can change that system, but thanks for the info
Sarah: You are welcome.
heath: this is going on the internet

If they don’t fix both of the problems soon I will be looking for a new bank.

Below are several very useful links that I use a regular basis.  The first set are what I call finance tools, very useful stuff.

Mint -

BillGuard -

Bill Shrink -

Simplee -

FactCheck – learn the facts, a lot of poltical stuff, NEVER trust what a political (or Fox news) ways, ALLWAYS check your facts

Cell Phone Plans – get the bottom line on cell phones and prices (including all the “fees” they don’t tell you about)

Charity Navigator – learn what charities are best for particular needs

Slickdeals - find good deals on sales, mostly tech stuff

Removed the Office Office link as the Oracle Corporation bought Sun and promptly started messing with the development so it was forked to LibreOffice and that will be the future of development of the open source office suite.  Also added Essentials, as I have stated to use it and it seems work fairly well.

The reasons :

1. less content (way less than before, 3 stories were on top news in 8 hour period)
2. very buggy (getting better)
3. the my news section being default (may be fixed shortly)
4. links don’t open in separate tab (may be a bug)
5. no picture section
6. no videos section
7. Digg is trying to be a like Facebook and/or Twitter (hint it’s not and shouldn’t try to be)

The less content/stories issue the biggest.  I use Digg as a filter for all the articles/pictures/videos on the internet.  If it can’t do that, then whats the point in Digg at all.

I really don’t understand organizations that take away features that many users/customers like or demand.  And when they don’t succeed they just try again latter.  Case-in-point the pictures section on Digg.  Digg got rid of it in a previous update and the users complained until it was put back, and now Digg has removed it again.

Ares I launched this week, after several delays.  I watched it live, it was awesome.  But two of the three parachutes malfunctioned and caused some damage to the booster.

I attended a one day class taught by Dr. Peter Fuhr, and several technical conferences about wireless systems and technologies.  A tool that Dr. Fuhr was using caught my eye.  He had a RF spectrum analyzer on his computer that only cost $200, that would be get for my work.  It’s from Metageek and comes in 2.4 GHz and a 900 MHz version.

“This standard is intended to provide reliable and secure wireless operation for non-critical monitoring, alerting, supervisory control, open loop control, and closed loop control applications. This standard defines the protocol suite, system management, gateway, and security specifications for low-data-rate wireless connectivity with fixed, portable, and moving devices supporting very limited power consumption requirements. The application focus is to address the performance needs of applications such as monitoring and process control where latencies on the order of 100 ms can be tolerated, with optional behavior for shorter latency.

To meet the needs of industrial wireless users and operators, this standard provides robustness in the presence of interference found in harsh industrial environments and with legacy non-ISA100 compliant wireless systems. As described in Clause 4, this standard addresses coexistence with other wireless devices anticipated in the industrial workspace, such as cell phones and devices based on IEEE 802.11x, IEEE 802.15x, IEEE 802.16x, and other relevant standards. Furthermore, this standard allows for interoperability of ISA100 devices, as described in Clause 5.” – ISA page (ISA-100.11a-2009)

EN 13980 is an EU (European Union) standard for companies that are looking to produce ATEX (EU Directive 94/9/EC and 99/92/EC) rated equipment.  It’s based off ISO 9001, with specifics to components and products in explosives atmospheres.  It is not a free standard but the cost is small and can be purchase at many different website, usally depending on the language (BSI for English).

For a company, such as Otis Instruments, that is looking to produce ATEX rated equipment two certifications are needed; and they are the Quality Assurance Notification (QAN) and the EC Type Examination Certificate.  The Quality Assurance Notification is issued to a company that has had an assement audit for compliance to EN 13980.  A  EC Type Examination Certificate is a certificate issued for specific hardware that has passed testing from the ATEX standard (usually based of EN 16079, among others).

Once that is complete the company can build the product and issue a Declaration of Conformity.  The Declaration of Conformity states that the product is built and tested to comply with ATEX.

This process is very different than what is normally done in North America.  In North America the equivalent standards, testing, and certifications are done/controlled by UL, FM, ETL, and CSA.

Here is a quote from the BSI site :

“Potentially explosive atmospheres – Application of quality systems
Executive summary

Requirements and information for establishing and maintaining quality systems for use in potentially explosive atmospheres.
Abstract

This European Standard specifies particular requirements and information for establishing and maintaining a quality system within potentially explosive atmospheres.

It is intended for use by manufacturers, notified bodies and regulatory authorities.

When notified bodies assess the quality systems of manufacturers this standard is intended to be the basis of the initial assessment and subsequent visits.
History and related standards

This European Standard is complementary to EN ISO 9000 and EN ISO 9001 and is applicable to products intended for use in potentially explosive atmospheres.

This standard includes the following cross references:

prEN 13237-1, EN 45012, EN 45014, EN ISO 9000:2000, EN ISO 9001:2000.“