Is expediting your passport application worth it?

Before I went to Russia, I had to get my passport. I paid the extra money for expedited service, as well as shipping the application and the passport overnight both ways. It came to about $180, but I had my passport back 8 days from when I sent it in during the month of June. My wife applied for a passport two weeks ago, as we're thinking of traveling abroad in the coming year. No particular hurry, so we just paid the normal $80 charge and sent it first class mail, no rush service on the passport either.

Her passport came in 9 days.

I guess they saw me coming, it cost me an extra hundred dollars to get my passport a day sooner. At least work paid for it...

Four Gmail Invites

I've got four more GmailGmail invites to give away today. If you want one, post a comment below with your first and last names and a valid e-mail address. Gmail will send the invitation to your e-mail address and allow you to select your username then.

Poor Red Hat Billing Security

My yearly subscription for my Red Hat workstation was due, but I no longer hold the card that I used to set it up, so the auto-renewal didn’t go through.  That’s all fine, and expected, but here’s what Red Hat wants me to do:

The credit card information is not going through. Please fax the following to XXX-XXX-XXXX so we can verify the credit card details:

- Cardholder
- Credit card number
- Expiration date
- Billing address (this must match the one on file with the credit card company)

Please reply if you have any questions and have a good day!

Uh, in the age of phishing, I’m not faxing(!) my credit card info to a random phone number that I got in my e-mail.  This message isn’t even PGP signed.  I replied back and told them I’d be happy to re-enter my info in an SSL-secured form available via their site, if they provide one, but there’s no way I’m faxing my credit card info anywhere.

Super Deluxe Monkey Balls

I can't wait for Super Monkey Ball Deluxe to come out for the Xbox. It's still three months away, but I want it now. In case you've never played it on either of the GameCube variations, here are some screenshots and an explanation of what makes it so much fun. The party games in it are great fun, and it supported 16:9 widescreens on the GameCube, so I'm guessing Sega will do the same on Xbox.

How to read a blog

I'm guessing most of my readers don't need this (with the possible exception of relatives), but John Dvorak has posted a guide to reading and understanding weblogs. [via Scoble]