Amcrest reached out to me to test and review their AWC201-B Webcam.
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Arrived in a super small package, and inside was the camera and a security cover.
TESTING
Plugged the device into a Dell Latitude E7470 running Windows 10 and it was immediately recognized and the drivers were installed.
Tested the webcam on several different platforms to see how the device would work with each one.
Microsoft Teams
Slack
GoToMeeting
Zoom
Picture
Overall picture quality is good, there is a fishbowl look at the outer edge of the frame and image looks a little distorted. Color is a little dull looking as well, but if you have good lighting that can be compensated some. Below is how the edge is distorted on the image when shown, it is not super bad and depending on the actual background it is not always visible in the video.
Sound
Microphone on the camera is as expected and anyone who would expect good sound quality from something sitting that far away from you and that small has to be crazy. The sound quality is about what you would expect from something directly sitting on your laptop. It was a little better then what I have in laptop but overall it made me sound as if I was talking into a tin can and sitting super far away from the microphone.
PROS:
The price is very good compared to several other brands and the overall quality is good for most business meetings and personal usage to make video calls.
CONS:
Camera needs to have a swivel to allow for adjusting the angle of the camera left to right when sitting on top of a laptop. There are some video quality issues but not a show stopper depending on your need.
Outcome
Overall it is a good product for the price, and compared to some well know brands it works decent enough. Plus as of this writing (2020 Pandemic) they have product in stock as companies like Logitech it is near impossible to find any of their products in stock. If you are looking for a decent low priced camera and are not super worried about the overall picture quality this is the webcam for you.
I decided to get the FoundersCard, as Award Wallet sent me a discount offer to get the membership. I had looked at them before and was interested in getting a membership, but not at the price they were asking originally. So how and what is FoundersCard? Well it is not a credit card, and they describe them self as a membership community. They also provide a brief statement on who and what they are as well as why you might want to join.
About FoundersCard
What?
We are a first-of-a-kind membership community that provides entrepreneurs with access to exclusive networking opportunities and unprecedented benefits.
Who?
Our members range from first-time entrepreneurs to the world’s best-known innovators. We have members in virtually every major city across the globe.
Why?
As the risk-takers and true value-creators, entrepreneurs are the key drivers of today’s global economy and deserve to be recognized and rewarded for their efforts.
They send you a metal card for signing up.
The signup was fairly simple, and I used a discount from another company I use. The normal annual fee is $495 per year, but with the discount code I got it for $295 per year. They provide some decent perks from first look, but they are not always easy to use and change often. Some are really worthless in my opinion, as they are limited to specific hotels and require you to go their their site to book a room. Wanted to use the American Air status benefit, but it seems that they currently are not running that one, but do still list it as an option.
As for the status with airlines, hotel brands, and rental card companies; the benefits are not that great, and I can get many of them with a decent travel credit card.
Hotels:
Hilton Honors™:
Complimentary Gold Status (Able to get with a credit card)
Marriott Bonvoy™:
Platinum Elite Status Challenge (Fairly useless as a benefit)
Caesars Rewards:
Diamond Caesars Rewards® Status (Useless to me)
Omni Select Guest:
FC ELITE Membersreceive complimentary Select Guest Platinum
Rental Cars:
Hertz: (Would be decent if I did not already have Presidents Circle. Would not pay the fee to get ELITE to get this benefit as I could just get the Amex Platinum card to get this)
Up to 20% off Hertz Daily, Weekend, Weekly, and Monthly Rates
Complimentary Hertz Gold Plus Rewards or Five Star® membership
Complimentary President’s Circle® Elite Status for FC ELITE Member
Avis Rent A Car: (Applied for this benefit, and will see how they compare to Hertz and National)
Up to 25% off rentals
Complimentary Avis Preferred® Plus Membership
Complimentary Avis President’s Club for FC ELITE Members
Sixt Rent a Car: (Not sure I will ever use this one)
Up to 15% off rental bookings
Complimentary Platinum Sixt Card Membership
Zipcar: (Might be good if I am someplace were they are available)
Up to 20% off standard rates
GroundLink Car Service (Might be good if I am someplace were they are available)
$30 credit for their first ride
15% off all rides thereafter booked via the GroundLink Mobile App
Airlines:
American Airlines Status Challenge AAdvantage®: (Would have used, butno longer available for this year)
American Airlines AAdvantage® Platinum Status Offer
Enroll in Business Extra
Select Status Tier (Platinum/Gold) and Challenge start date on aa.com after enrollment
Earn 12,500 EQMs or 16 EQSs AND $2,000 EQDs*
American Airlines AAdvantage® Gold Status Offer
Enroll in Business Extra
Select Status Tier (Platinum/Gold) and Challenge start date on aa.com after enrollment
Earn 7,000 EQMs or 8 EQSs AND $1,000 EQDs*
United Airlines: (Might be useful when I use them for a flight)
Up to 6% off flights (2% to 6% off selected flights)
Etihad Airways: (Not a carrier I have ever used)
Up to 10% off fares
Cathay Pacific Airways: (Not a carrier I have ever used)
Up to 15% off fares & Silver Status ($815 Average Savings)
British Airways: (Not a carrier I have ever used)
10% off most round trip fares
Business Benefits:
Entrepreneur Magazine (I purchase one or two of their magazines per year so worth about $12 value to me)
A complimentary one-year (10 issue) subscription
Receive 50% off virtual events on entrepreneur.com
ShopRunner (I get this free already with American Express)
Members enjoy complimentary ShopRunner Membership ($79 annual value)
Harry & David (Have purchased gifts at their stores in the past so might use?)
Members receive 20% off most orders from Harry & David
UPS (This could be useful, do not ship too often but do from time to time)
Members receive up to 47% off UPS air, international and ground shipping
Tripit Pro (I currently use Tripit Pro, with a rate of $49 per year, so will get $10 per year savings) (Require that I do not have a current Pro paid versionso will have to let my current one lapse)
Complimentary year of TripIt Pro
Preferred rate of $39 annually for three years (20% off standard rate)
1Password (IUse 1Password, but have no need for the Teams version)
Members receive 40% off 1Password Teams on an ongoing basis
Dell (I might use this one if and when I need something)
Members enjoy savings of up to 40% off the everyday price on their purchase of Dell branded products.
Lenovo (I might use this one if and when I need something)
Members receive up to 40% off select Think and Lenovo products
At&t (Not worth anything to me, as a business account was more expensive per line and I already get a 25% Military Discount for all of my lines)
Members receive 15% off standard rates on all voice plans and data plans greater than $30 in value, excluding unlimited voice and iPad data plans
Clothing:
addias (I might use this one if and when I need something)
Members receive an ongoing discount of 30% on adidas.com
Reebok (I might use this one if and when I need something)
Members receive an ongoing discount of 30% off online purchases
PUMA (I might use this one if and when I need something)
Members receive an ongoing discount of 20% on puma.com
Tommy John (I might use this one if and when I need something)
Members receive an ongoing 20% off all orders
Faherty Brand (I might use this one if and when I need something)
Members receive 25% off online purchases
So, is the FoundersCard worth the $295 I paid for the membership? I know some people will say no, but if I can get at least the amount i paid in value from the membership then I think it will be worth it. I will have to give it the full year to see if I actually get the value from the membership. I know I will use several of the benefits, but without traveling at the current time I might not use some of them at the current time. I can definitely say I would never consider the membership worth it for the listed price of $595 (this may change if they add some better benefits). Also I would never consider getting the ELITE membership for an additional $295 for first year and then $895 annual membership fee.
Will post updates on how I think this Membership card is as the year goes on, I am hoping to get the full benefits from the membership.
Well still dealing with the pandemic, and hanging around the house.
Not much has changed for me, still working form home, and having virtual meetings. At least many people I work with have decided to stop using their web cams for every meeting. Well, except the people in my company, they seem to still want you to see them all the time.
Going to the grocery store wearing a mask, and following the directional signage like I was asked to do. Surprising to see how many people cannot follow simple instructions, or are just being asses. It is not that it is that hard to follow simple things, as going one way on isles, and trying to stay a certain distance from people.
Now we are having protests, riots and looting in a lot of cities, due to a police officer(s) that killed a black/African American gentleman named George Floyd. It is interesting the way this has taken off and the amount of people that are involved in some of the protests, and discussions surrounding the police and brutality against people. However, I think some are just trying to get a few minutes of attention and are not entirely involved with the intent of the protests. There also seem to be some that are using it for other purposes, and to try to cause havoc, those are the ones who are looting stores and damaging property. It is bad when I hear more on the riots and looting in the news, and less about the actual protests and information on the case against the police officer(s).
Now there seems to be more cases of RONA happening lately, most seem to be from the memorial day holiday weekend and people wanting to get out of the house for some fun and enjoyment. Now we might see a larger increase from the protests, and I hope we don’t go backwards on the stay at home orders. Things were just starting to open back up and people were starting to be allowed to get haircuts, eat at an actual restaurant, and get out to the parks and other places.
The Stock markets cannot decide what it wants to do and the US feds are not helping much. People are demanding a second stimulus check, some people don’t want to go back to work as they are making more on unemployment then what they were getting paid. Stocks rose when they announced that unemployment was lower then expected for May. Then it started crashing again after a non-informative a briefing from the US Feds.
All I can say is stay safe, stay healthy, and look out for yourself and family. Do what feels right for you and your family, if you can stay home, then do that. If you have to go to an office to work, stay away from the crazies who think nothing is going on, and it is all a hoax.
Well we have a full blown pandemic across the world due to the Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19), which the first cases of this virus started in December of 2019 in Wuhan, Hubei, China. The World Health Organization declared it a pandemic on March 11, 2020.
People are being forced to self quarantine as employers are going to a work from home model due to pressures to distance people from each other. Many people are happy that they actually get to work from home, while others are not overly ready or prepared to do work from home. It is funny to see all the twitter posts on how to work from home, and what you need to do. Some make sense and other s are just someones personal preferences. Figure out what works best for you, and try different things at first until it works best for you.
My Work From home:
Set a schedule (Wake up the same time every day)
Get ready for the day (Get out of your PJ’s and take a shower)
Have a separate place to work (My Desk is in my bedroom at the current time)
Dedicated work area (My standup desk in a corner of my bedroom)
Quite area for conference calls (No pets, kids, or TV’s)
Take breaks (Get away from things – walk outside, step away for 10 to 15 minutes)
Plan lunch breaks (Meet people, just get out of the house, actually take a break)
Have an end of the day (when does the work day end for you?)
Working from home is not for everyone, no matter what I hear on Twitter. Yes it sounds great for many people to be allowed to work from their house and not to have to drive into an office. While it sounds great to just roll out of bed and be at work, that is not always the case. For those that have kids at home and no real office to separate your self away from everyone else, it is hard to not get distracted. if you do not have a headset with noise canceling microphone, the background noise will be heard by everyone and very distracting. Telling yourself you can multi-task, just stop lying to your self. You are just doing more than one thing half paying attention to one or both of them most of the time.
If it was not for me traveling frequently, working form home would get really boring and monotonous. I like to interact with people, not that I do not like to talk to my wife and kids, but they do not know anything about what I do for work or any of my hobbies. For some people who like to be alone and only want to see their family, that is good if you can work from home, but this is not for everyone.
So, if your getting to work from home or looking to get a job that allows you to work from home. Make sure it will work for you, it is not for everyone all the time.
Some see perceived benefits:
No longer have a commute
Save on gas not commuting (maybe)
Save time not commuting (maybe)
Get to stay home with spouse/pets/kids
More quality time with family
Kids will not have to go to daycare/babysitter
Have more time (not sure on this one)
Able to take care of person things
Dr appointments when I want to go
Go to the store when I want
If you get the opportunity to work from home get a plan to continue to show your value to your manager, otherwise you may have to go back to the office. This is the reason why many people do not get the opportunity to get to work from home is due to some slacker who could not handle it. Yes, your manager will believe you are not doing anything as they never see you. This could also impact promotions, as your not seen you tend to become invisible to people. Keep in contact with co-workers, your manager and show you can be productive no matter where you are.
Many credit cards offer some type of signup offer, either for Miles, Points of cash back depending on a specific spend in the first few months.
Delta Reserve American Express Card
Earn 80,000 bonus miles and 20,000 MQMs after spending $5,000 in the first 3 months. Earn an additional 20,000 bonus miles upon your first card renewal date. (offer Expires 4/1/2020)
This card has a $550 annual fee, which is justifiable to me if you use the travel benefits.
Travel Benefits:
MQD Waiver (Spend 25k to get Delta Platinum if you have MQM/MQS)
NEW Complimentary Centurion Lounge® Access (Must be Flying on
Delta and the Reserve Card or have the Amex Platinum Card)
Upgrade Priority for Medallion Members (No Value as TYS has way too many Diamonds)
Companion Pass (Value up to $400+)
I personally have the Delta Reserve card, picked it up in 2015 when I started traveling regularly for work. I use Delta from my regional airport because they were the better carrier flying from their. I usually fly through ATL and use the Sky Club during my layovers usually, but they are generally packed and not a great place to visit during the day mot times.
We have limited flights to larger hubs out of the Knoxville Airport:
Delta
AA
United
Allegiant
Frontier
ATL
CLT
ORD
DIA
DIA
DTW
DFW
IAH
SFB
MCO
MSP
ORD
DIA
PIE
LGA
DCA
IAD
FLL
PHL
EWR
PBI
MIA
LAS
EWR
I used the American Express Centurion lounge in CLT just after it opened, and it was a lavish place with excellent food options. CLT is not a major hub for Delta so they do not have a Sky Club lounge so the Centurion Lounge is nice to have.
Centurion Lounges (as of 3/5/2020)
Current Locations:
Comming Soon:
CLT
DEN
DFW
JFK
HKG
LAX
LAS
LHR
LGA
MIA
PHL
PHX
SEA
SFO
So the addition of the Centurion Lounge access to my Delta Reserve Card got me to looking at the American Express Platinum card. They both have the $550 annual fee, and have similar features.
American Express Platinum Card
Earn 60,000 75,000 Membership Rewards® Points after you use your new Card to make $5,000 in purchases in your first 3 months
Travel Benefits:
Lounge Access: (Worth $550 to me as Sky Club is $545 and the others are worth $5+ for sure)
Centurion Lounges
American Express International Lounges
Delta Sky Club lounges (when flying Delta)
Priority Pass Select membership (not including restaurants)
Escape Lounges
Airspace Lounge (SFO)
Up to $200 in Uber credits each year (Might use some of this so $100 value)
Up to $200 airline fee credit (Might be worth $200 value)
Up to $100 in Saks Fifth Avenue credit each year (Not sure I would ever use it)
Marriott Gold and Hilton Gold status (No Value to me currently)
60,000 points after you spend $5,000 in purchases in your first three months. Terms apply.
80,000 miles and 20,000 Medallion® Qualification Miles (MQMs) after you spend $5,000 in purchases in your first three months
An additional 20,000 bonus miles after your first card membership anniversary. Terms apply.
Earning rates
5x on flights booked directly with airlines or with American Express Travel
5x on prepaid hotels booked on amextravel.com
1x on everything else
3x on eligible purchases with Delta
1x on everything else
TPG’s valuation of points/miles
2 cents each
1.2 cents each
Annual fee
$550
$550
Foreign transaction fees
None
None
Lounge access
Access to many lounges through the American Express Global Lounge Collection including:
Centurion Lounges
American Express International Lounges
Delta Sky Club lounges (when flying Delta)
Priority Pass Select membership (not including restaurants)
Escape Lounges
Airspace Lounge (SFO)
Access to Delta Sky Club lounges (when flying Delta)
Two, one-time guest passes for the Delta Sky Club (when flying Delta)
Access to Centurion Lounges (when flying Delta)
Other standout benefits
Up to $200 in Uber credits each year
Up to $200 airline fee credit
Up to $100 in Saks Fifth Avenue credit each year
Marriott Gold and Hilton Gold status
Access to Amex Fine Hotels and Resorts
Global Entry or TSA PreCheck application fee credit every 4-4.5 years
Domestic First Class, Delta Comfort+ or Domestic Main Cabin round-trip companion certificate each year upon renewal of your card
Status Boost, which allows you to earn MQMs through spending on your card
First checked bag free, priority boarding, inflight savings and access to complimentary upgrades on Delta
Medallion qualification dollar waiver
So looking over the two cards, with the Delta Reserve I am locked into flying with Delta to get the most benefit from the card, but If I switched to the Amex Platinum I could use any airline to get benefits and can transfer my points to any airline I want to use. Amex Platinum could give more lounge access privileges depending on who I fly with and where I am traveling to. As I only get access to lounges at layovers and day of departure locations with either card. I do have Priority Pass Lounge access (10 passes a year) from my Hilton Surpass card.
I guess the biggest drawback from the Amex Platinum is that it will make it harder to gain status on any one airline, being I have been Delta Diamond the past 2 years, and Platinum for about 2 years before that. I think I made United Silver once and that was with Marriott Platinum status before the merger.
I also would not use the Amex Platinum to book hotels as I already have the Hilton Surpass card and Marriott Bonvoy Boundless card (Referral Link). They both get me better points options when booking at the hotels directly. Plus the Marriott gives me 15 night credit towards my status. I am currently lifetime Silver with Marriott and just need about 100 nights to make lifetime Gold. About 2 more years and 300 nights to make Lifetime Platinum as well, Hilton I have about 5 years as they did not credit me some previous years as Diamond status for some reason. I have about 5 years and 500 nights accumulated so in another 5 years and 500 nights I will make Lifetime Diamond with Hilton.
I am torn on switching to the Amex Platinum and downgrading my Delta Reserve to another Delta card, or looking at another card to complement my Delta Reserve. Will do some more research and do a follow up post.
I started to remove all most Google products from my day to day life.
Why you may ask, first off they have way to much information about me and my daily routines. Second they have not always been good stewards of personal information they collect.
To start off I removed Google Chrome browser from my devices, and switched over to DuckDuckGo search engine and on occasion will use Microsoft Bing Search engine. This did take sometime to get used to using something other then Google, as their search functions work differently.
I have migrated my email from a Gmail account to a personal hosted email account. This took a lot longer then I originally expected, as some businesses rely solely on email as a primary ID, and their systems do not have the functionality to change this. Some required an email, to get this changed through a manual process, while others just said sorry no can do. The ones who could not change my account I just dropped them and will use something else as they were not really important to me.
I had an Android phone a long time ago (2008), I stopped using it as it was more of a hassle to work with then other phones I had used in the past. I know many people will say Android is the best phone OS and there is no comparison. My issue was there was no standards across the environment, and there were so many malicious apps in the stores then I wanted to deal with.
I actually found out that I had not been using many of Google Services as they came after something else I had been using and it was not any better then what I used.
Primarily I used Gmail, Calendar, Blogger, Domains, Drive, Voice and Maps.
Google Service
NOTES / ISSUES
WHAT I USE
Gmail
Took a while to move accounts over for different services.
BlueHost Hosted Service
Google Contacts
Have not really relied on this in sometime as my Phone always was current with contacts
Apple / iPhone
Google Calendar
Automatic add of items to calendar is fully working in others
Apple / iPhone
Google Search
Have to learn how to do searches again
DuckDuckGo Bing
Google Maps
Google MyMaps – Not found a suitable option OpenStreetMaps – is basic
Bing Maps Apple Maps Still doing a search for alternatives
Google Analytics
Stopped using this a while back after one of their changes made it a pain
Not using anything currently
Google Drive
Moved to OneDrive as I get 1TB of storage already with my Office suite
OneDrive for documents and photos iCloud for other Apple items
Google Photos
Moved to OneDrive
OneDrive
Google Docs
Moved to OneDrive
OneDrive
Google Play Music
Have been using Spotify for some time
Spotify
Google Play Movies/TV
Think I had like one movie I purchased on Google
MoviesAnywhere Disney+ Amazon Prime Netflix Hulu
Google YouTube
Did not save anything to YouTube, only used it for researching
Yeah not sure what to use for this one
Google Play Audiobooks/Books
Do not really use Audiobooks , but already had a bunch of books in Kindle and Nook
Amazon Kindle Nook Apple Books
Google Play Store (apps)
I use Apple products
Apple Store
Google Android
I use Apple products
Apple IOS
Google’s Android Apps
I use Apple products
Apple Store
Google Chrome
Moved to Firefox as it was a resource hog, worse then other browsers
Firefox
Google Domains
Used it when I was moving away from 1 and 1 hosting as the price was cheap.
Blue Host
Google Hangouts
Limited use to friends who had Gmail accounts
Slack WhatsApp
Google Allo
Did not have any friends using this
WhatsApp Signal Telegram
Google Podcasts
I use Apple already
Apple
Google Newsstand
Never liked Newsstand
The Old Reader
Google Wallet
Only used it a couple of times, due to not as many places taking it
ScannerTranslate App on phone Will figure this out next time I need it
Google Duo
Tried to use this, but did not know anyone using it
WebEx – For Work iPhone FaceTime
Google Earth
Was cool at first, but never really had that much of a need for it.
Not Using Anything as a replacement
Blogger
Platform was not that great, moved to it from an older hosted WordPress, then moved it back to another Hosted WordPress
Hosted WordPress
Waze
Loved this service until Google purchased it, after they acquired it I started having a bunch of issues of it not working or just giving error servers unavailable error. So stopped using it about a year ago.
Apple Maps Not The Best Maps
I started using Google Gmail sometime back in early 2005, when I got an invite from a friend. Had moved away from Hotmail after using it for many years.
I am sure some will mention that I am moving away from Google to another company that may not manage my data all that well. Yes, I have Amazon, Microsoft, and Apple as vendors for my data, but I am not utilizing just one company anymore which was one of my concerns. Albeit that many companies rely on Google for their back-end and have Google Analytics so I will still see some tracking of my searching. I do use Firefox on my devices usually in “Private Window” mode to limit some data collection.
Time will tell if I move back to some of the Google applications, as I am still looking for alternatives. The biggest I seem to have an issue with is the “My Maps” which I like to design travel maps for vacations. I have not found an alternative that does anywhere close to what the Google app does. it relies on Drive and Maps to function so I will need to keep my Google account for the short term. I also do not know what to do with my Google Voice number as I have had it since it was Grand Central and have used it for years as an alternate number to some contacts. Plus I still have five other Gmail accounts I used for various things over the years that I need to keep for the short term until I get them cleared out and all access I used them for moved to my primary or an alternate email account under my control.
Have been traveling to Mooresville, NC for work for about eleven months now (started in Feb 2019), it is getting a little tiring to visit the same place every week. I fly out on Monday and home on Friday almost every week. To me it is just far enough I do not want to drive the four+ hours one way, especially when I have meetings to go to as soon as I get in on Monday.
I have visited a large majority of restaurants in Mooresville, Davidson and surrounding areas, since I have been visiting the area. I was surprised to not be able to find a place to get fried chicken though, well except for the chain places.
Places in Mooresville NC:
I have tried several barbecue joints, and have been pleasantly surprised at the food. There is a place called Big Tiny’s that is a Texas style barbecue with some great banana pudding and Shiner Bock in bottles. Another place is called Lancaster’s which is an East North Carolina barbecue with plenty of NASCAR memorabilia all over the place, wings are good as well as the BBQ pork and a decent banana pudding as well.
Have tried Epic Chophouse, which I have visited several times and the food is always excellent. They have several menu items I have loved, one being the Smokin’ Hot Couple and the other is the Mixed Grill. Of course the steaks are great and they have a very good bar with many options on wines and beers. They are known for their deserts as well, which having tried a couple I can say they are great, have heard they are from a local bakery in town. This is my usual go to place when some one I know is coming onsite to visit and say lets do dinner.They require everyone to dress reasonably and men’s shirts must have sleeves. Almost every time I have been there it is packed but have not had an issue getting a table of finding a place in the bar area.
Places in Cornelius NC: 131 Main, which I guess technically is a chain, but they only have four locations three in the Charlotte area and one in Asheville NC. Have only been once, but the food looks great, I tried the Southern Shrimp and Grits and had appetizers of Deviled Eggs and Cast Iron Cornbread. Everything was excellent and I was so stuffed I could not try dessert.
Places in Davidson NC: Kindred is a great place to eat and is usually packed. Have been several time and have never had anything that was not excellent. The menu is seasonally driven and and is different everyday. Flatiron Kitchen + Taproom, have been about six time here, and the food is always excellent, and the beer and wine selection is great. Mesitzo is a Contemporary Mexican restaurant, it is fairly small but has a nice outdoor patio with a view of the downtown area.
