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The looks on their faces

Recently the Superintendent of my duty section had a problem. He had two different staff meetings at the same time. As his second I new I was going to end up going to one or the other. It turned out that the one I went to was with his peer group (they are 5-7 years senior to me in their respective positions.) Once there they all took out their Franklin Planners and yellow legal pads with their writing instruments. As we waited for the last individual to show up I took out my Visor Platinum and Targus Stowaway keyboard (with only the faintest smirk on my face.) Once I was ready I looked up from quickly setting it up to see that everyone had stopped talking and they were all looking at me. The next hour was spent demonstrating the Visor and its capabilities to the senior staff. Not once did anyone mention a topic from the itinerary we were supposed to cover that morning.

Handspring should give me a commission for all of the Visors that were purchased by the senior staff that week.

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Just because something makes sense does not make it common sense.

But I really want to direct

Being in Hollywood, I sometimes do movie extra work on the side, which often involves a lot of sitting around -- sometimes hours at a time. About a month ago, I started writing a screenplay (like everyone else in this town) on my Vaio with Final Draft. Final Draft saves scripts in its own proprietary format, but it can import MS Word and RTF files.

One thing I couldn't do up until now on the Visor was write scripts on it with the Stowaway. About two weeks ago, I figured out that when you save a script in FD as an RTF, each new element (character names, slug lines, actions, transitions, line directions) is coded as column 1, regardless of where it appears on the page. So I took a page of my script, typed it into WordSmith with each new element beginning at column 1, saved the page as an .rtf, synched it to Word (still as .rtf), opened the file in FD choosing the "Screenplay" format option, and voila! It comes up perfectly formatted. I can now write my scripts directly in WordSmith on the Visor, open them in Final Draft, and save them in Final Draft's file format. I only need FD to format a script now, not to write it.

So now when there's downtime, I can work on scripts on the Visor in the extra holding area, where I wouldn't even consider bringing my laptop. The Wow factor on the set is always high.

I was at a game in Oakland (shmoozing customers) and every time they scored against the Rangers I e-mailed the score in real-time (Visor+cellpnone) to my co-workers at their desks in Dallas just to tick them off. Our e-mail exchanges got pretty funny (Rangers lost).

I show people in real time what their payment options are when buying a car. Most people are amazed at how leases and loans actually work. I have had clients tell me they thought we made up payments based on what we thought they would pay. As if I could read a strangers mind, I can barely figure out what's going on in my wife's mind, and I've known her since 1984!
I downloaded the full version of eFundas LoanIQ from their site.
Also very useful if you want to buy a car. It's a very user friendly program that takes the mystery out of where a particular payment comes from and how it can be changed by putting more money down, or changing the term of the loan. It also tells you the total payment (interest added) that you will pay for borrowing money at a given rate. You can download a limited version to check it out.
If you are going to buy a car it would be worth the ten bucks to buy this program. (some dealers have been known to 'pack' a payment.) Arming yourself with the right info and the right tools can save you a lot of money.
eFunda also has a ton of other calculators available to use (mostly engineering ones.) some online and others you can download. www.efunda.com
This is probably really boring to everybody not buying a car.
Michael

Another handy car-buying resource is Edmunds.com - they've got an excellent PQA that lets you look up current dealer invoice prices and calculate fair market value. You can also create custom Avantgo channels that contain all of the pricing and option info for a specific model of car. Pretty handy, no pun intended.

quote:

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Originally posted by BobbyMike
I show people in real time what their payment options are when buying a car. Most people are amazed at how leases and loans actually work.
*snip*
I downloaded the full version of eFundas LoanIQ from their site.
Also very useful if you want to buy a car.
*snip*
www.efunda.com
*snip*
This is probably really boring to everybody not buying a car.
Michael

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<br>"Form follows function - that has been misunderstood. Form and function should be one, joined in a spiritual union" -Frank Lloyd Wright

Impress chics..yeah

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God bless the USA! The country I love, and will support at all costs.

I just used a similar loan calc and edmunds to go to just buy a car.

No way I could have walked out with the car without having a loan calc. They tried to make too many last minute changes and I never would have known if my payments were correct.

Lex

Good for you Lex Luthor! Once again you have proven that a person armed with the RIGHT information can triumph over opposing forces in free market capitalism! As a car salesman (the politically correct term is Sales and Leasing Representative) I actually want my customers to be informed. Most people have no actual, solid idea what their car is worth in trade. Worse yet is people who have spoken to a domestic car salesman and found that the invoice price of a new domestic vehicle is so low under the MSRP(I read that Chrysler was offering up to $5K off their vehicles) and they expect the same thing from me.
www.kellybluebook.com is another consumer resource.
Ignorance is mutable, dumb is forever.

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"I am a debtor both to Greeks and to Barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish."

Good use of the Visor for buying a car, but you should know that you can do virtually the same using the Finance setting of the built-in calculator, without buying any additional program. Between the info on Edmunds.com and my Visor I was able to negotiate a great deal.

In fact, I'm convinced that just pulling out the numbers and quickly calculating different monthly payments based on the option prices and numbers cut thru a lot of haggling with the salesman. He knew I knew what I was doing and that I was serious about buying.

On the otherhand, if you're leasing, you probably will need a program, and there's several good ones out there. The $10-20 you spend (together with on line info like Edmunds.com) will be worth it on what you save.

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-Michael-

bobbymike,

Do me a favor.

Tell me what you think of
http://www.carbuyingtips.com

This is a great page. He's got quotes from car salespeople who are pretty upset with him, but I think he's pretty fair and accurate.

Lex

I will tomorrow Lex, I'm having trouble accessing it tonight.
BTW the eFunda calc will do leases also.
Michael

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"I am a debtor both to Greeks and to Barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish."

quote:

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Originally posted by visoror
<snip>I take my Visor with me to the coffeeshop where I read the NY Times and make memos of everything of interest I see in the paper. <snip>

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"Great Spirits Have Always Encountered Violent Opposition From Mediocre Minds." -- Albert Einstein

Hey Lex,
Sorry about the wait. www.carbuyingtips.com is a mixed bag. Lots of good info mixed with some vitriol and some info that's not true (example- always leave a deposit with a credit card, never a check- in NY it's too easy for someone to dispute a charge on their card- even if they have possession of a vehicle, conversely you have up to 72 hours after you take possession of a vehicle (sign the contract, etc.) to change your mind). I wouldn't cross it off your list though, as it's got a ton of good info.
Michael

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"I am a debtor both to Greeks and to Barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish."

I just bought a new car.

The finance manager pulled the vin etching scam almost exactly as written on the website.

Come on, I won't qualify for financing unless I buy window etching? So the bank is worried about my credit, so they want me to borrow $800 (yes, he wanted $800) more!??

You got to be kidding me. When I pressed, he tried to get me to get a better alarm, then told me my credit was fine and we got the deal.

I sent my survey back to Nissan with some very nasty words for this dealership and I'll also be having a conversation with me friend in the attorney general's office That's got to be illegal.

Lex

quote:

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Originally posted by Lex Luthor
I just bought a new car.......I sent my survey back to Nissan with some very nasty words for this dealership and I'll also be having a conversation with me friend in the attorney general's office That's got to be illegal.

Lex

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VIN etching is a cheap way to scoot some money out of your pocket (my GSM believes in making our profit above board). You should contact Nissan directly, I don't what kind of resolution you can get from the CSI form. That guy probably has a sh*tty CSI score anyway. I would see what legal recourse you have, if I were you. Without spending money on a lawyer, of course. Your Atty. General sounds like a good place to start. You could also call the owner of the dealership and raise hell.
Good Luck!
Michael
PS from my stand point I thought that site was a little harsh, I guess I didn't take into account that some people really don't have morals.

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"I am a debtor both to Greeks and to Barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish."

I appreciate your input. This site is a bit on the harsh side, BUT it's very helpful if you have to deal with crooks like at this dealership.

I am a good negotiator and strong-willed, but I'm sure this place can make mince-meat out of some people.

I wound up getting a good deal and wound up buying the car there on price. I probably should have gone elsewhere on principle.

I might just try Nissan. There was a # to call on that CSI form. I don't know how much leverage I lose by actually buying the car there.

It wasen't only the vin etching. They tried a bunch of other things on my first visit in. What a disgrace this place was....maybe I'm not done with them yet

Thanks!
Lex

Nissan didn't seem to care much. Spoke to a csr type. He listend and assigned me a case #. Doubt I'll hear back.

I'll probably have an off-the-record conversation to my friend that works in the Attorney General's office.

I mean I got the price that I wanted and such, but I'm still annoyed at the whole process with this dealer, in general.

Lex

Keep us updated!
Michael

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"I am a debtor both to Greeks and to Barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish."

cool stuff...

I ordered flowers for my wife the other day while sitting in line for my car emissions test. I thought that was neat.