I wish! With the closure of CompUSA retail stores(as lame and expensive as they were) I am really beginning to worry about where I can go and pick up electronic and tech items here in Utah. I’m actually shocked that with the large tech community here we don’t have any better store for picking up tech gadgets and components.

When Incredible Universe went under years ago, I had really hoped that Fry’s Electronics, the owners/operators of Outpost.com, would take over the location as they did in several other states. I know there have to be hundreds, if not thousands, of Utahns who have been to a Fry’s Electronics store someplace … in California, Las Vegas, Arizona, Oregon … they are an amazing electronics outlet with everything from appliances to books, to TVs, to software, to computer components … and much more. On top of that, the prices are very competitive.

I’m not sure if it would do us any good … but I want to start a mail campaign to send them e-mails requesting that they consider opening a Fry’s Electronics here in Utah! I mean … we even have Ikea moving here … why not Fry’s?

If you want to participate, I am proposing that we send them *lots* of e-mails asking them to consider a store in Utah! I’ve built a specific link below that is a mailto link to automatically generate the e-mail for you … and allow you to customize it before sending. I want to keep the subject line consistent, so that they see the same thing each time a new mail comes in. Here is the message:

To: feedback@frys.com; service@outpost.com; press@outpost.com
Subject: Open a Fry’s Electronics in Utah …
Body: I am writing to you to request that you consider opening a Fry’s Electronic store here in Utah. I am part of a large and growing community of people who can appreciate the value that your store could bring to our state. With the closure of CompUSA, we are now left with no real source for electronic and technology products. The Utah population is continuing to grow, and many large retailers – like Ikea – are moving into the state. Please consider our state as a great location for the next Fry’s Electronics store that you open, and feel free to contact me if there is anything I can do to support your efforts to open here.

When you click the link below, your e-mail client ought to open up a new message containing this text … feel free to customize it and then send it on its way. Forward this post to all of your friends … send it to neighbors … get the word out and lets see if we can get them to do something.

Click here for the Fry’s Electronics in Utah e-mail message!

As a tech worker in the state of Utah, I would love to have a Fry’s Electronics in Utah!

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UPDATE: I actually received the following response from Fry’s/Outpost.com … so the e-mails are getting through!

Dear Scott,

Thank you for taking the time to let us know how you feel. That’s quite an endorsement! We work very hard to please our customers and it’s great to receive such a compliment. Your email has been forwarded to management.

Thank you for contacting Frys.com.

Frys.com
1-877-688-7678 – Toll Free
1-800-856-9800
1-408-487-4700 FAX
www.frys.com

Once again I come across something that I wasn’t aware about our government … we have an on-line bookstore!  Yes … you can now go and buy the latest publications from the US Government at the US Government Printing Office!  It was interesting to see the breadth of books, magazines, posters, and even DVDs that you can buy from our goverment.  There is a a current GPO Best Sellers list (check out the Principles of Federal Appropriations Law, V. 1 … what a read!

Actually, there are some amazing publications on anything from health to terrorism, aeronautics to agriculture, government art to incident reports.  Lots of educational content … fact books.  It’s fascinating to look through the catalog … I’m not sure that I’ll order anything soon but there are a few tempting tomes …

Ok … I have to admit that I just saw the movie Beetlejuice again … but when I saw this photo of Hillary Clinton in this CNN article, I was stunned by the similarity … or is it just me? 🙂

No! Hillary! Please don’t freak her out! She’s just a little girl!

There are several news articles out today linking to a very cool YouTube video of a demonstration by Cynergy Labs.  They are using a variety of Microsoft technologies, coupled with what appears to be a Wii remote, or some sort of remote control/sensor, to create a “Minority Report” like user experience.

Watch the Project Maestro video and you’ll see the speaker manipulate objects on the screen in front of him without having to touch the screen, but instead using some custom infra-red gloves.  This is a very impressive demonstration of what is possible with off the shelf technology!

I spent a little more time last night looking over the NOAA website, and checking out all of the information that they offer.  I was actually surprised to find that maybe I’ll be going to Weather.gov more than Weather.com!  Not only has the site really evolved to provide some amazing information about the weather, but there are no annoying ads to have to look at!

Here is one of the pages that I really liked … the National Weather Service Pacific Southwest Graphical Weather Forecast.  This particular link will take you to their “loops” which are a series of animations that you can view of all sorts of weather related information.  If you choose “Weather” in the “Forecast Element” list box, and then click the “Play” button in the “Looping Control” you will get to see a multi-day animation of the coming weather.

I have to admit that I am really impressed with the programmers that wrote this … it could still be a little more user-friendly, but it is completely usable and provides everything that I want to see or know about … and all with NO ADVERTISEMENTS!  Give it a try and let me know what you think … I think that I like what I see!

Tonight, while looking for some animated satellite images of the incoming snow storm (yes … there is a big one coming to Tahoe and Utah this weekend!) I came across the OSEI – Operational Significant Event Imagery – site at NOAA. They have a cool page that is the OSEI Image of the Day … and today they are showing a picture of the ash plume coming off a volcano in Chile!

One of the amazing things in this particular photo is the size of the ash plume, and how evident it is as it crosses a significant portion of Argentina. This does not even appear to be a very large volcano, nor a large eruption. I have to admit … I didn’t know there was an active eruption in Chile right now.

I love to see our government publish information like this, as it is very educational, and heck … we’re paying for it! Another thing that I noticed that appears to be pretty cool is that the link they provide appears to be a static link that will not change … even when the image is updated each day. If this is true, then a different photo will be showing up next to this paragraph tomorrow … and the next day … 🙂

I guess that we’ll all find out tomorrow!