Buying used Kawai and Yamaha pianos

There's a lot of information online about the so-called gray (grey) market pianos (mainly Kawai or Yamaha brand). Some claim that there's no difference between ones made for Japan/asia and ones and others claim it's best not to buy those. After some digging, I found that Kawai and Yamaha do explain these issues on their website so I put these 2 links for reference.

Kawai on used pianos


Yamaha on used pianos

you've got to be kidding me

JC Penny $10 off $25

Good til Nov 23rd

At JCP.com use code 104YOU

Printable version for in-store

30% off coupon for GAP, GAP Outlet, Banana Republic, Banana Republic Factory Store and Old Navy

As the title suggessted.  The 30% off printable coupon is good for

GAP
GAP Output
Banana Republic
Banana Republic Factory Store
Old Navy

Valid from 11/12~11/15

Linky

Free Microsoft eBook: Introducing SQL Server 2008

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You need to sign up to download.

$10 off Disney UP! and $8 off Monsters Inc. blu-ray

To get $8 off Monsters Inc. Blu-ray coupon

1. Join Disney movie wards
2. Click here to add codes
3. Enter code 786936164886
4. Print Coupon

To get $10 off UP! Blu-ray combo
1. Click here to print coupon

You need to install coupon printer to print both coupons

Also Target offers $10 off UP & Monsters Inc (Must buy both)
1. Click here
2. Go to page 3 and print coupon

Staples instore 10% off coupon

Expires 11/14/09

Linky

Amazon Blu-ray Buy more save more sale and UP blu-ray deal

Seleced from a list of blu-rays and get the following discount
Buy 3, Save $20
Buy 6, Save $50
Buy 10, Save $100.

Linky

They also have a deal on disney's UP (Blu-ray/DVD combo) where you purchase and get $10 off 2nd Blu-ray title by entering code DISNEYBD at checkout

UP deal

c# Crystal Reports Parameter Fields Notes

When I was working on some crystal reports related projects in Visual Studio 2008 I kept getting the following error:

CrystalDecisions.CrystalReports.Engine.ParameterFieldCurrentValueException: Missing parameter values. ---> System.Runtime.InteropServices.COMException (0x8004100E): Missing parameter values.

After going through my code and looked at online samples, I still couldn't figured out what's wrong. Below is my original code

Report rpt = new Report();
ParameterValues crParamValues = new ParameterValues();
ParameterDiscreteValue crParamGrpName = new ParameterDiscreteValue();
crParamGrpName.Value = "value";
crParamValues.Add(crParamGrpName);
rpt.DataDefinition.ParameterFields[0].ApplyCurrentValues(crParamValues);
rpt.SetDataSource(ds);
rpt.ExportToDisk(pdfFormat, filePath);

After much fiddling and googling, I finally found out what was the problem. It seems that in Visual Studio 2008, you need to set data source BEFORE setting parameters, not after. Once I set data source first everything exported fine. Also I realized that the code I used to set parameters can be replaced by just one line. So the final code becomes

rpt.SetDataSource(ds);
rpt.SetParameterValue(0, grpName);
rpt.ExportToDisk(pdfFormat, filePath);

Looks much nicer right?

Individual plan comparison for AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, and Verizon wireless

Just for the fun of it I decided to do another comparison, this time for individual plan that suits my need. Again this is with my company discount (20% for AT&T and Sprint, 22% for Verizon wireless).

	Sprint SERO	Sprint ERRP	Sprint	AT&T	Verizon	T-mobile
Minutes	500	500	450	450	450	500
M2M	Unlimited	Unlimited	Unlimited	Unlimited	Unlimited	Unlimited
N&W	Unlimited	Unlimited	Unlimited	5000	Unlimited	Unlimited
Data	Unlimited	Unlimited	Unlimited	Unlimited	Unlimited	Unlimited
Text	Unlimited	Unlimited	Unlimited	200	250	Unlimited
Other	-	GPS Nav.	GPS Nav.	Rollover	-	No contract, expensive phones
Price	$30	$59.99	$55.99 ($69.99)	$60.99 ($74.99)	$60.18 ($74.98)	$59.99

Looks like all plans are more or less the same. Sprint is cheaper with or without discount and offers a bit more (unl. text), but without a high-end phone like iPhone or Driod, the $5 or so difference is really not a big deal, not to mention that prices are the same across the board if people don't use text.

-- update 5/18/10
Sprint is set to finally release a nice phone that is comparable to other carriers' offering but unfortunately they tack on $10 extra (EVO tax) if you want the phone, so that would put the Sprint's pricing at $65.99 ($79.99) compared to the other 3, which makes it really unattractive if you don't have 4G speed in your area.

Another way to save some money is to get a non t-mobile branded smartphone what supports their 3g band. This way you can opt for the cheapest t-mobile voice plan (500min $30) + $10 web = $40/month, or (500min + unl text $40) + $10 web = $50. This would potentially make it the cheapest plan out of all 4 carriers.

Sprint Everything Plus Referral Program

This is basically a new sero from Sprint. Slightly cheaper than regular Sprint Everything plan, but no corporate discount can be applied.

Go here

use email Russ.S.Mcguire@sprint.com
and CID 383 to login.

He's a VP or something that posted his information for everyone to use.

Some example plan from the site
Everything Plus Data. 500min, Unlimited N&W, Any mobile, Text, Data, and a bunch of other stuff for $59.99.

Interview questions, a project manager's perspective

While my ex-coworker was looking for a new job, he asked one of the senior project manager on our team to prepare him some questions. Although we are an IT workshop in a financial company, I found these questions very useful even though it's not that technical. So hopefully it'll help someone's job hunting.


Interview questions, a project manager's perspective

Know what you want in terms of a job, a boss, company structure, etc-meaning know what works best for you, what are your critical requirements and what would you be willing to be flexible on.

Questions you may want to ask the interviewer:

1. Are there SLA's for each application; in terms of how long they can be down, how long to bring it back up?
2. What is the process used to prioritize break fixes? 
3. Who is involved in the prioritization? 
4. How many items are open on average and how long have they been open?
5. What application do you use to track "incidents", what are its strength and weakness?
6. How do you differentiate between projects, break fixes, nice to haves, business as usual?
7. Tell me about the process for keeping support documentation up to date? What tools are used, what are the expectations?
8. What are the major challenges facing the organization as a whole?
9. Is this is new position or did the incumbent leave; if the latter than why did that person leave?
10. What does sucess look like for this position? Are there established goals? 
11. Tell me about your management style?
12. Can you share something with me that is on your development plan?
13. What are the short term and long term goals of the organization?
14. Is anyone of your staff currently working on their Master's Degree? If so, what support do you or does the company provide?
15. How often will we meet to discuss my work?
16. Please describe your leadership style?
17. Describe the current make up of the team I would be joining?

Questions for You:

1. What are your career aspirations? What do you want to be doing in 5 years?
   
2. If you were faced with predicament of speed versus quality what would you choose and why?
3. What do you require from your direct supervisor?
4. What type of environment do you work best in?
5. Give me an example of when you had to create a business application and how you handled it? Did it succeed? (If it didn't what did you learn?)
6. How do you prioritize your daily work?
7. What are the five most important things to you when considering a job and prioritize them from most important to least.
8. Tell me a time when a critical system went down and what you did to bring it back up?
9. Tell me about how you would allocate your time between being a project team member on a critical business project versus supporting the daily business needs? What are the issues you would consider?
10. Give me an example of when you had to explain a technology issue to a business user in order to have them understand the criticality as well as their need to make a decision?
11. Describe for me the methodology/process you use when working on a development initiative? 
12. What are the pros and cons to SDLC?
13. What don't you like about your current position?
14. What are your weaknesses?
15. If I were to ask your boss about you what would he/she say?
16. How do you keep your manager informed about your work load and status?
17. How would you handle a situation where you were given unclear work direction and your boss works in a different location and its always available?
18. Tell me about a time when you couldn't make a deadline and what did you do?
19. What is your favorite book?
20. When you are not at work, what do you do? What are your hobbies?
21. Tell me about how you go about giving work direction to individuals who are your peers or do not have direct reporting relationship to you?
22. Tell me about a time when you had to influence others-whom you didn't have control over-to get work done because your work depended on their completion.
23. Tell me about how you work with the Business Analyst to understand the customer's requirements.
24. Why do you want to leave your old company?
25. Tell me how you keep your development skills sharp with the rapidly changing languages?
26. What is your knowledge of the Capital Markets?
27. What are the challenges a developer faces when dealing with multiple database platforms?
28. If you were to accept this position what would your first 30 days look like? What would you do and how would you do it?
29. Describe what is 'good' customer service?
30. What are your strengths?
31. Tell me about a time when you had to deliver results in a highly pressurized environment?
32. What do you do to relax and relieve stress?
33. How do you handle multiple tasks, keeping track of open tasks, issues, risks?
34. How would you handle the situation where there is a production issue and the current code is not written in the standard format/language but re-writing the code may take more time?
35. Tell me about a time when you had to review another developer's code and provide constructive feedback because it was written poorly. 
36. Tell me about your leadership style and experience.

Comparison with AT&T, Verizon, Sprint and T-Mobile family plan (Updated 7/20/10)

A reminder to myself if we ever decide to switch our wonderful Sprint SERO plan to a family plan. All the prices quoted are with my company's discount (20% for AT&T and Sprint, 22% for Verizon, and no discount for T-Mobile, prices in braces are the original price) and configured to my needs (Not a lot of minutes, data on both lines, some text) as cheaply as possible. N&W stands for Nights and Weekends. M2M stands for Mobile to Mobile.

	Sprint SERO	Sprint EPRP	Sprint	AT&T	Verizon	T-Mobile
Minutes	500/line	1600	1500	550	700	750
N&W	Unlimited*	Unlimited*	Unlimited*	Unlimited	Unlimited	Unlimited
M2M	Unlimited	Unlimited+	Unlimited+	Unlimited	Unlimited	Unlimited
Text	Unlimited	Unlimited	Unlimited	Unlimited++	Unlimited++	Unlimited
Data	Unlimited	Unlimited	Unlimited	2GB/Month	Unlimited	Unlimited
Other	-	Has GPS Navi	Has GPS Navi	Rollover	-	No Contract, phones not subsidized
Price	30/line	129.99	123.99 (149.99)	89.99 (109.99)	110.77 (129.97)	109.99

* Sprint nights start at 7PM
+ Sprint any Any-mobile
++ Android phone has google voice and iPhone has free app providing free unlimited SMS. AT&T charges $30/month for unlimited group SMS/MMS. Verizon charges $10/line for 500 messages + unlimited m2m messages.

I have to say Sprint's offer looks best for someone that needs data on both lines and some text. AT&T is actually better than I thought if we don't use text that much, and also it has the Jesus phone going for it. T-Mobile's pricing is also fairly good but has poor 3G coverage. As for Verizon, unless their Driod handsets are really head and shoulder above iPhone and other Sprint's Android's handsets, there's almost no point picking Verizon since I get excellent reception from all 4 companies. If we don't use text at all, then AT&T and Verizon each would be $10 cheaper, in which case I'd ditch Sprint and go for AT&T for sure just for the iPhone :P

--update 5.24.10
Looks like there were some changes with my company and Verizon's agreement now that the data for 2nd line does not get discounted so that makes the plan $6 more expensive then before. Also for Sprint, as with single person plan, if you want Evo you need to add $10/line to the plan.

--updated price chart again to reflect some changes (7/20/10)
1) Sprint now charges $10/month per line if you want their top of the line phones (HTC Evo/Samsung Epic)
2) There's free unlimited text option on iPhone and Android phones so Verizon/AT&T's prices go down
3) AT&T now changed their data pricing: $15/month for 200MB or $25 for 2GB. $15 plan is not discounted.
4) Starting in Aug/Sept, Sprint will no longer offers discount on lines 3-5 on family plan.
5) The chart is updated based on the assumption that I want the latest phone each carrier has to offer for both lines.

As we can see, with that stupid $10 "Premium data" charge, Sprint is now the most expensive carrier if you don't want text. Even with text added, Sprint's price is no better. To me this is one of the dumbest move Sprint can make, especially when they are still losing customers left and right.