Delran Saladworks strikes again

My wife and I went to Saladworks

Fairfield Blvd & Route 130
Delran, NJ 08075

again tonight for takeout---we generally get salads there three times a week---Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday.

I didn't go in, as I didn't want to ruin anyone's meal with my gashed face (as my daughter calls it.)

My wife purchased 3 salads for her, me and my daughter.

When we got home, my wife mentioned that the takeout plates had changed...indeed they did. They're smaller. Here's a picture of the new plate



I believe I've seen these before. An enterprising woman invented them and market them as diet dishes, because they 'fool' the person eating from them into believing they're getting more than they are.


I cleaned the plate, and poured water into it up to the level of salad we received---it was 20 ounces. I don't have one of the old plates, but judging from how long it took me to eat the same kind of salad I had last Tuesday evening, it's about 50% less.



How much did we pay for these salads?



BLT Salad----$6.79
Buffalo Chicken---$6.99
Fiesta------------$7.49
Total-------------$21.27
Tax--------------$1.49
Total -------------$22.76



Pretty pathetic for small plates---and lettuce. Gee, I'd love to own a Saladworks, but I wouldn't have the nerve to rip off people like this.

I'll be composing a letter tomorrow to the Saladworks Corporate office---I'll let you know how I make out.

Are my eBooks being stolen?

My writing/teaching/consulting business has been very poor in November---extremely poor.


While going through some Web statistics yesterday, I discovered that I had 10 downloads of my Visual C# Express 2008 eBook from my Web site last week---pretty interesting in that I only sold 1 eBook.


You see the disparity---10 download vs 1 sale---that's 9 too many.


The obvious conclusion I can come to is that 9 people who didn't pay for the eBook have downloaded it. There may be other reasons---some customers download it to their hard drive, then forget where they put it or delete it, and download it again. Some customers may download it to multiple computers--that's fine with me.


However, a ratio of 10 to 1 gives me reason to think something is up.


I don't ask for much for these eBooks---$12.95 via Paypal, or $13.95 via regular credit card, cash, money order, etc.


I sell about 40 of these a month which helps out with the bills---for some reason, I haven't sold a single one in November.


Could it be that someone has posted a link on the Internet to my site?


It's possible. The eBooks are password protected, and in my instruction email to my readers, I ask them to please NOT share the password. I also tell them if they of someone who can't afford one, then to have that person contact me and I will work out something with them---and I have gladly provided free eBooks to needy people.


I just spent 10 minutes changing the password of all of my eBooks---that may help.


More likely what will happen is that someone will post the eBook on a file sharing site, the way they have with my C++ eBook, and make it available for free to millions of people.


My books take about 6 to 9 months to write, and help pay for my two boy's college tuition.


I don't ask for much that people pay for my hard work, do I?

SetFocus

It's been a while since I said anything about SetFocus---it's a company in Parsippany New Jersey that does intensive training for prospective programmers. You can read more about them here...

http://www.setfocus.com/about.aspx

Their business model has changed a bit since the late 90's, but their Masters Program is something you should defiitely look into...

http://www.setfocus.com/MastersProgram/FAQ.aspx

One of my group members is currently attending SetFocus training---I'm hoping to either have her post her experiences here or to interview her for my blog.

BizSpark - A new Microsoft program for startups

I belong to the New York City .Net Developers Group, and I just received this heads up from our leader...

Microsoft today launched a new program to provide software for startup companies.

This program will be managed by companies that are called Network Partners. These Network Partners will be responsible for validating the legitimacy of a startup and their qualifications for the program.

The New York City .NET Developers Group is one of the Network Partners.

If your company qualifies you should get in touch with

Andrew Brust Andrew.Brust@26ny.commailto:Andrew.Brust@26ny.com

or

Stephen Forte stevef@orcsweb.com.

Please put "BizSpark" at the beginning of the subject line.

Here's the Press Release from Microsoft...

Entrepreneurs play a vital role in driving innovation and creating the kinds of new jobs that are essential to sustainable economic growth.

Microsoft BizSpark is an exciting way for Microsoft to help provide business startups with the development tools, advice and exposure they need at a time when they are most valuable and least affordable-during the first three years.

Eligibility:
--Members are sponsored by a network partner- privately held, in a software business for less than 3 years and with less than $1M in revenues (country-level varients of less than USD $1M apply)

--no costs for the first three years of the program.

--Microsoft will assess a USD$100 program offering fee at the end of participation in the programSoftware:

* All the software included in the Visual Studio Team System Team Suite (VSTS) with MSDN Premium subscription- for the entire development team
* Expression Studio (Version 2)
* VSTS Team Foundation Server(Standard Edition)
* Production License use rights to host a "software as a service" solution over the Internet, using the following platforms: Windows Server (all versions); SQL Server (all versions); Office SharePoint Server; Systems Center, and BizTalk Server.Outcomes of BizSpark :
* Creates a mutually beneficial ecosystem among three groups: high-potential technology startups, entrepreneurial and economic development organizations (a.k.a. Network Partners such as TiE, EBAN, Venture Capitalists and relevant Gov't agencies), and Microsoft.
* Helps foster software innovation by enabling startups to easily access Microsoft's tools, services and support that can help them get their solutions to market quickly.

My nose...ouch

Well, it could have been worse...

Speaking of the finger...

What would induce a man in his 20's (accompanied by a woman who appeared to be his girlfriend) to pull alongside the passenger side of my car, gaze upon two 12 year old girls in the backseat, and then proceed to flip the finger at my wife.

One guess...I had the audacity to do the speed limit in the left lane of Church Road in Mt. Laurel on a Saturday afternoon.

Wow--amazing.

One word of advice to the young woman I saw in the passenger side of the truck when I eventually caught up to the car at Route 38 and Church Road---find a man next time, this little boy doesn't measure up.

If people behaved outside of their cars the way they do behind the wheel

As some of you know, yesterday was a bad day for me--broken nose, headache, stitches, etc.

Today I ventured out with my lovely wife to our local diner, the Harvest Diner (a wonderful place by the way).

The Harvest Diner is located on Route 130 in Cinnaminson-Delran New Jersey.

Route 130 has a 45 mile per hour posted speed limit--the Harvest diner is about 1/2 mile past the traffic light near Walmart and the Post Office, which means when the traffic light turns green, by the time I approach the driveway entrance to the diner, moronic drivers are already passing me doing 70! Well, after all, it is New Jersey, and it is the killer road.

About 1000 feet shy of the driveway, I slowed down, put on my turn signal to give the car behind me plenty of notice, and made a quick right turn into the diner. When I say quick, I mean I turned into the diner at about 30 miles per hour to avoid being rear ended by the moron behind me, who then beeped his horn at me.

I must ask--why the horn? Do I not have a right to turn into the driveway? Most people my age (over 50) would have made that turn at 10 miles per hour, which is what I'll do from now on.

If the idiots on this road are going to beep at me, I'll give them a good reason to do so.

This reminds me of an old guy who used to drive a yellow Ford Pinto on Interstate 95 in the left lane at the posted speed limit of 55---just to anger the drivers behind him. I saw him once--it was beautiful. He also had some bumper stickers on the car---I forget exactly what they said.

Getting back to my point---drivers are rude, they really think they can do whatever they want (beep horns, tailgate, flip the finger).

Can you imagine if you were in a movie theater and people were bumping your behind to pass you, beeping horns or giving slow walkers the finger?

Well, maybe I should keep my mouth shut--it may be coming to that.