What’s Rob complaining about, today…

The man who invented the popular egg sandwich as a way to introduce breakfast to McDonald’s passed away at age 89.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Herb Peterson, who invented the ubiquitous Egg McMuffin as a way to introduce breakfast to McDonald’s restaurants, has died, a Southern California McDonald’s official said Wednesday. He was 89.

Peterson died peacefully Tuesday at his Santa Barbara home, said Monte Fraker, vice president of operations for McDonald’s restaurants in that city.

He began his career with McDonald’s Corp (MCD, Fortune 500). as vice president of the company’s advertising firm, D’Arcy Advertising, in Chicago. He wrote McDonald’s first national advertising slogan, “Where Quality Starts Fresh Every Day.”

Peterson eventually became a franchisee and was currently co-owner and operator of six McDonald’s restaurants in Santa Barbara and Goleta, Fraker said.

Peterson came up with idea for the signature McDonald’s breakfast item in 1972. He “was very partial to eggs Benedict,” Fraker said, and worked on creating something similar.

The egg sandwich consisted of an egg that had been formed in a Teflon circle with the yolk broken, topped with a slice of cheese and grilled Canadian bacon. It was served open-faced on a toasted and buttered English muffin.

The Egg McMuffin made its debut at a restaurant in Santa Barbara that Peterson co-owned with his son, David Peterson.

Fraker said that, although semiretired, Peterson still visited all six of his stores in the Santa Barbara area until last year when his health began to deteriorate.

“He would talk to the customers, visit with the employees. He loved McDonald’s,” Fraker said.

Fraker, who said he worked with Peterson for 30 years, said “he was amazing as far as giving back to the community.”

“He embraced the community and the community embraced him,” Fraker said. “We loved the man.”

Peterson is survived by his wife, son and three daughters.

A public memorial service will be held April 23 at All Saints by the Sea church in Montecito

Just for ha-has, I took the posted spot prices of Gold and Silver today, and figgured out the percentages.

One Year Returns:

Gold: 33.78%

Silver: 35.49%

So if 1 year ago today, you had invested 1000$ in gold, today you would have $1337.79, $1354.86 for silver.

I need to find a real definition of a project manager

I’m thinking its a lot like

Project Manager n. “A overpaid person hired to work on a project, knowing nothing about such project, but still compensated to harass those that DO know about the project, in order to slow the project to a crawl with meetings about why said project is behind schedule”

So we all love ebay, but it sure does have its problems. Recently, I won an item on ebay (car parts), and after 2 MONTHS of trying to contact the user, without much reply, I gave up and posted negative feedback. Three days later “brentfromkent” posted negative feedback on me. “leaves neg feedback after telling him i had a death in family”

1. I was NEVER told he had a death in the family. I feel his pain if he has, but he has failed to mention this to me.

2. He has recovered from this ordeal nicely, and has again been buying and selling things on ebay just like before, he just doesn’t want to keep his end of the agreement and complete this sale.

So what options do I have?

Send a letter to ebay:

I won auction 170176235962
I spent a couple weeks attempting to contact the seller, got a reply that he would get back to me. Nothing
I spent another week trying to contact the seller. Nothing
Requested contact info from the ebay system.
The info listed was fake (999)999-9999
I filed a complaint with ebay
Sent another round of attempts to contact. NOTHING
Waited a week
Requested contact info from the ebay system.
The name and phone were changed. The name was (I assume) correct, but the phone number was disconnected.
I filed a complaint with ebay
Sent another round of attempts to contact. NOTHING
Waited a week
NOTHING
Its now been more than 60 days, and I notice the seller is back listing, selling, and shipping items. Just not to me.
Left no other option, I negative feedback him, which I feel is fully justified.
He negative feedbacks me back.

So, without any wrongdoing on my part, I’m gifted with a black eye in feedback, and this guy goes back to selling items as if my agreement never happened.

As you will be able to tell by looking at my account, I’ve been using ebay for more than 10 years. Today I look to support at ebay to tell me how to fix this.

Per the ebay bidding page:
You are agreeing to a contract — You will enter into a legally binding contract to purchase the item from the seller if you’re the winning bidder. You are responsible for reading the full item listing, including the seller’s instructions and accepted payment methods. Seller assumes all responsibility for listing this item.

This seller is in default of this agreement. The seller has failed to list any correct contact info, and ebay has let him continue to sell in this manor. And now I’ve been harmed as a result.

Please let me know how we can correct this mistake and remove this negative from my account.

Go after this user in federal court, for defaulting on a contract, and the harm to my name with false negative feedback.

I’m going to give it a day, then I’m just willing to spend the money to go this route. It also doesn’t hurt to have a wife thats an attorney admitted to practice law in federal court.

Test Your Environmental IQ: Take Our Plastic Recycling Quiz
by Alison Rogers

Think you know a lot about plastics and how to recycle them? Take our quiz to find out.

1. How many types of plastic are there?

* 7
* 8
* 15
* 50

2. Which types of plastic are accepted at most recycling centers?

* # 1 PET (or PETE) and #2 HDPE
* Only #3 PVC
* None of them are recyclable, which is why they’re piling up in landfills.
* All non-PVC plastics can be recycled throughout most of the United States.

3. Which type of plastic is not easy to recycle?

* #1 PET and #2 HDPE
* #5 PP
* #3 PVC
* None of the above

4. How many years does it take for plastic to biodegrade in landfills?

* 25
* 50
* 500
* 1,000

Answers:
A: 7
Plastics fall into seven general categories, which are divided by the type of resin contained in the plastic. The resin type is identified by a number (from one to seven) inside a triangle of arrows on the bottom of the product.

* Plastics with a #1 indicate the presence of polyethylene terephthalate (PET, or PETE) — often found in plastic water bottles, food containers, polyester fabrics and carpet.
* #2 high density polyethylene (HDPE) is found in plastic water bottles, grocery bags and bottles that contain cleaners.
* #3 polyvinyl chloride (PVC, vinyl) is used in plumbing pipe, fencing and linoleum for flooring.
* #4 low density polyethylene (LDPE) is what you’ll find in toys, container lids and garbage bags.
* #5 polypropylene (PP) make up bottle caps and some appliances.
* #6 polystyrene is found in packing peanuts, compact disc cases and building insulation; and finally.
* #7 (other) usually indicates that the product is made of a combination of resins, or one that does not fit into the other categories.

2. A: # 1 PET and #2 HDPE
#1 and #2 plastics are most commonly accepted at recycling centers nationwide, with a few exceptions for items such as plastic bags. It’s important to note that recycling plastic is often referred to as downcycling, which means it becomes a lower-quality material. Recycled plastic bottles don’t become the same kind of plastic bottle, but rather a product such as plastic lumber. Read more about plastic recycling and safety in this report from Co-op America.

3. C: #3 PVC
All plastics from #1 to #6 are thermoplastics, which can be melted down and remolded into new products. However, few facilities accept PVC, as it is difficult to recycle — the chlorine molecule it contains keeps it from mixing properly with other plastics when heated. Because the majority of plastic bottles in the United States are made of #1 and #2 resins, separate processes and facilities that recycle PVC are not considered cost-effective and are therefore unlikely to develop in the near future. It’s best to steer clear of #3.

4. D: 1000
The Earth Policy Institute estimates that buried plastic bottles can take up to 1,000 years to break down, and therefore will continue to hog much-needed space in landfills. In contrast, a banana peel and many other types of organic waste take only a few weeks.

Plastic is derived from crude oil — according to the Earth Policy Institute, it takes approximately 17 million barrels of oil just to make the amount of bottles used by Americans annually for bottled water, which is enough to fuel 1,000,000 U.S. cars for a year. Conversely, each ton of plastic bottles recycled saves about 3.8 barrels of oil, according to the American Chemistry Council.

Last November, Rep. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) proposed the Bottle Recycling Climate Protection Act. The bill was designed to encourage nationwide plastic recycling by establishing a 5 cent deposit on plastic beverage containers. While 11 states already have similar systems in place, Markey recognized the need to increase the effort. The bill is currently awaiting action by the House Committee on Energy and Commerce.

Wondering what to do with your used plastic bottles? Earth 911 has an online search function that will help you find facilities in your area that are equipped to accept plastics; you can even search by resin number. Remember, many different kinds of food and drink containers fall into the category of the #1 and #2 plastic bottles or jars that are commonly accepted by recycling centers, so don’t trash your salad dressing bottles, peanut butter jars, shampoo bottles, etc. without checking for those numbers first. You can leave the labels on them, but be sure to remove the caps.

A personality profiling conducted on 7,500 people at Apple’s biggest tub-thumping event of the year, Macworld, yielded results that would suggest Apple users “are more liberal, less modest, and more assured of their own superiority than the population at large” Duh.

HD DVD’s response to being unceremoniously jilted by Warner going into CES was … nothing. A canceled press conference, downtrodden Toshiba press conference and rumors of further losses left great doubt that red had anything left in 2008, but now HD DVD is firing back. Leveraging its “approximately 50% market share in 2007″ — we’re not sure where that number comes from either, we’ve contacted Toshiba for clarification — indisputable lead in the notebook market and 100% compatibility with internet-enabled HDi features, Toshiba has announced it is not laying down yet. Effective yesterday, the HD-A3 MSRP has dropped to $149.99, the 1080p-capable HD-A30 to $199.99, and the top of the line HD-A35 to $299.99. Combined with an extended “perfect offer” of 5 free HD DVDs with every purchase, Toshiba’s HD DVD Concierge service, and a sudden 50% off sale on Amazon, it seems this format will not go quietly into the dark. Fire sale to clear suddenly obsolete inventory or real chance to hang onto its remaining supporters? This could be the best — or worst — time to pick a side in the HD war.

Update: Amazon is also having a 50% off Blu-ray sale, so whatever your format of choice, pick up some discs and let the movie studios know who you rep.
Stolen from: http://www.engadget.com/2008/01/14/hd-dvd-fires-back-slashes-hardware-and-software-prices/

Whos to say. Is this a final attempt? Or is this a way to selling off the inventory?

Rumors floating around…

CompUSA and CompUSA.com acquired by TigerDirect: According to news reports, most of CompUSA’s store locations have closed nationwide, TigerDirect will acquire the 16 remaining CompUSA stores as well as CompUSA.com. In the last 10 years we posted hundreds of great CompUSA deals and just a couple TigerDirect deals, so it will be interesting to see if any great CompUSA.com deals come up in the future.