The Amazing Race

« April 2, 2007 Update: I've changed my mind. After this evening's performance, I've got no problem with Charla and Mirna being eliminated. Sorry ladies, the whiny bitch/cheesy accents got to me. Thanks for playing along, there're some nice parting gifts for you backstage.»

Ok, you caught me - I still watch Amazing Race. I know I had planned on not watching it, I'm not sure what drew me to it - maybe it was the hopes of seeing Rob and Amber (not!) again. Who knows, but I'm watching it again.

Phil, I've got to tell you - you've really cleaned up your act. This season is up there. Of course, that could just be clever manipulations of my expectations on your part - you know, run a few seasons that suck (you have to admit, the last few sucked completely), then even a mediocre season will look great?

Or maybe it's the people you've got on the show - the All Stars - how did you decide who was an All Star and who wasn't? I don't recall being asked. If I was, I'm pretty sure Teri and Ian wouldn't have made my top 12 list. And Kevin and Drew? What were you thinking?

But all in all, I think this season is going well. A few weeks back, we gave Rob and Amber the heave hoe. I can't say that I ever liked them, but I was starting to appreciate them, certainly more than I did the first season they were on. And I certainly preferred them to Kevin and Drew.

It was nice to see Charla and Mirna come in first (two weeks in a row now). But couldn't you have maybe edited out the part where they both said "what's a catamaran?" - you know, don't make them out to be complete idiots. Isn't Myrna a lawyer? Hmm.. As long as we're talking about them, can you maybe ask them to stop speaking to everyone, everywhere as if they had Spanish accents? Yeah, lose the accent ladies, it's lame.

Good call bring Joyce and Uchenna back. They were cool their first time around, and are shaping up to be cool again. Speaking of shaping up, Joyce looks a little different - did she get implants? Seriously, did she? You go girl - money well spent in my book!

And all of the drama last week, with the people getting stuck in South Africa, on standby for a couple days, and Eric and Danielle being taken off the plane - that was cool. Customer service, right out of the JetBlue handbook. Good stuff!

Keep up the good work Phil, and I'll keep watching!

Linksys CIT400, A New Beginning

Ok, I lied. I didn't return my CIT400 when I said I was going to. I kept it. Why? Well, because, uhm, because when I had the base station hidden under the bookshelf next to the cat litter box, it actually worked.

Not only did I keep it and continue to use it, but I've also kept after the support people, to try to get some answers from them - I think of it as a secret mission. Some travel the world proselytizing, I spend my time trying to get Linksys to understand what's wrong with their phone. And let me tell you, it hasn't been easy.

I found a guy in support (I'll call him Burt) who's pretty good, but seems to have a short attention span. We were making progress - he understood the problem, we'd moved beyond the busy signal, and then he took a couple of days off. Mistake.. Big mistake. The first thing he did when he came back was to suggest I register the handset with the base station.. Doh! Burt, if I needed to register it, would I have been able to make the calls? Nope..

Then Burt suggested I talk with their second level technical support. Woohoo! Someone who knows more about the phone than they're read in the manual. We set up a call for 9:00AM Monday - bright and early, I wanted to start my week off on a high note.

Alas, their second level support people might be skilled in IP phone technology, but they're not skilled in telling time. They called at 9:15AM Thursday - yes, that's right, they were 72 hours and 15 minutes late in calling. Along the way they said "sorry, miscommunication" and then "sorry, phone was busy" (hint: I have voicemail from my local phone carrier, so it can't be busy), then "the insurgence was stronger than we expected."

Anyway, we did talk. I want to characterize it as a waste, but it wasn't even that. It was 15 minutes of my life that I'll never get back. The second level support person said "it sounds to me like your phone is defective." Really? Well, it's good I got in touch with you, no one else suggested that.

I calmly explained that this was, in fact the third one I tried (I count the Netgear phone in the lot - it was the same phone, and failed in the same manner), all behaved the same way, so perhaps it was defective as she suggested, but if that was the case, then it was a design flaw (I confess, I'm not a statistician, but what are the odds of three out of three phones being broken in exactly the same way).

She then.. Hung up on me. The nerve Or maybe she was using a Linksys Skype phone and got disconnected, that would be a trip, huh?

I sent Burt a note back telling him that she wasn't too helpful (tattling on her really), and suggesting that perhaps we could resolve this if they would send me a known working CIT400 and a wireless access point. So far, they've decided to try to recreate the problem in their lab, without my help (their loss, I think)..

In the mean time, I was sitting in my living room wondering what sort of inept people they had working there, and I happened to look out my window at the cellular antennas mounted on the building across the street.. Duh! What a fool I've been. My phone is 1.9GHz, cellular networks include 1.9GHz. Maybe that's the problem...

A Week in Review

Wow.. I thought I had sort of a shitty week, but in all honesty, mine pales in comparison to that of his honor, King George.

Me: Some code I inherited misbehaved and required a few days to figure out
King George: Went to South America and was booed everywhere he went

Me: Found out a couple more people I worked with were heading out.
King George: Saw my best friend's little buddy (Scooter) convicted.. Scooter Pies anyone?

Me: Had some product requirements changed a few days before we were supposed to ship things
King George: Found out that Congress was not a bunch of complete idiots and didn't go for the whole "please, pretty please, with a cherry on top, let Karl and Harriet talk to you not under oath, I promise they won't lie" spiel again.

Yeah, I'm much better off. I've figured out the code (note to software developers: there's a construct in most programming languages called "a comment" - use it, it'll make the lives of others easier), and, well, I've accepted that some people need change.. And, another colleague has jumped at the chance to make these last minute changes so I can relax for five minutes.

George, on the other hand, he's just totally screwed... He apparently thought people in South America liked him. Obviously he was mistaken - gee, that's rare (you'd think that whole Chavez thing would've have sent some sort of message?). Not only do people here not like him, but people there don't like him either. Oh well, fear not Georgie, mommy and daddy still love you..

The Congress/attorney general thing. Yeah, six of one, half a dozen of another really. On the one hand, you can offer up the heads of Alberto, Karl, and Harriet, but realistically, who's going to buy it? You played that card with Scooter.. Alberto tried to explain his way out of it and failed. Confession is good for the soul.

And, then there's the whole FBI misuse of power story? Man, when it rains, it pours, don't you think?

Here's a thought - maybe it can all be blamed on Khalid Sheikh Mohammed? He's confessed to being the mastermind in the Sept 11/World Trade Center thing, and he confessed to killing Daniel Pearl. I think I also read that he claimed to have been behind the sinking of the Titanic too, no? Something like "American infidel, I towed the iceberg into the path of the Titanic!" Was he in the book depository too - the infamous "second shooter"?

Come on, you can do it - get your man Turd Blossom on it, he'll spin us a good yarn..

Lucy, you got some 'splainin' to do

I'm just not getting this story.. Let's see, the bear's mother abandons him and his brother; his brother eventually dies, and now he must die because, well, because if he was in the wild he would have died too?

What the hell are you people thinking? Are you actually thinking? Are you on crack? Maybe you misunderstood - we're talking about a polar bear not a polar beer. They're different. It's perfectly acceptable to kill a beer, even expected in most locations. Killing a bear is different, in a slightly subtly way.

It's because his mother abandoned him, huh? And he would have died if left in the wild? Wake up. He's not in the wild. He's in a zoo. Someone captured his mother, she somehow became pregnant (perhaps you forced a male on her?) and had kids.

The "wild" is ever-shrinking. It's entirely possible that the wild won't exist in a few years - the habitat of Polar Bears will become nothing more than "just another place to drill for oil." Will it be ok to raise Knut in a zoo then?. Would that make you change your minds? No, I suspect not. Should we apply your approach to wildlife on a broader scale? Start euthanizing orphans? You, Artful Dodger, come here, I've got something special for you..

Wake up.. Sheesh.. Get your heads out of your asses. Save a polar bear, buy carbon credits.

My kingdom for new wheels

I needed a new set of wheels for my Rollerblades™, so I took a ride over to a local sporting goods store - I figured "this is California, everyone has Rollerblades." I was wrong - they didn't actually carry anything skating-related.

So I figured I had better check on the with the experts and went to Rollerblade's web site to see what dealers were near me. They pointed me to Play It Again Sports - I agree, it seemed odd that a place that deals mainly with used sports equipment would sell wheels, but I figured "the Internet says they have them, so they must."

Bzzzt, wrong again. Nothing, no skates, nothing.

Back to the Internet I went again; this time I found a Sportmart in San Jose. I learned my lesson at PIAS. This time I called - "do you have Rollerblade wheels?" .. "yes, we do" .. "Great, I'm looking for a set of 78 82A - do you have any?" .. "yes, on the shelf" .. "Great, thanks!"

And I drove over.. Off to the rollerblade section I went, and what did I find? Nothing! Well, ok, not nothing, I found a bunch of wheels which were not 78 82A. So I went to the front of and asked where they were. The salesman I talked to on the phone, I'll call him "Andrew", assured me (for a second time) that they had the wheels I wanted, so off we went, to the back of the store, to where I didn't find the wheels I was looking for the first time.

Andrew made a good show of going through all of the wheels they had on the shelf.. And came up empty-handed (by show of hands, how many people were surprised by that?) But he wasn't one to take no for an answer; he assured me there were "some in the back" so he went to get them.

Thankfully, he returned quickly. But he was empty-handed once again. "I guess you didn't have any?" .. "No, they're back there, in the warehouse, it's too messy, the warehouse guys didn't clean up."

"Great, thanks, so, uhm, you never actually saw them when you told me on the phone that you had them?" .. "no we had two packs an hour ago" .. "I see, there must have been a run on them, such a popular size, I completely understand" .. "Uhm, yeah" .. "And now you're telling me that the warehouse is all icky and you don't want to get dirty? Got it, no prob. Sure, I'll come back again, when hell freezes over!"

Belittle me, please?

So, umpteen years after the Rubik's Cube reared its ugly head, I'm still struggling to complete something more than a single side, and here's some random guy, solving it in 20 or so seconds, sight unseen.. Yeah, I feel like shit. No worries mate, the video is probably copyrighted by Viacom and will get pulled soon enough..

New Phishing Trip

I just got the coolest email, claiming to be from eBay. It came from "petevz" (probably not his real name):

Hello, I already sent you the money via paypal. What happened ? Please let me know. Have a nice day.

I'm having a nice day, thanks for being concerned Pete. But, the thing is, I never sold anything to you. The only thing I think I could sell you is a clue. you, do you need a clue? I can let you have one, on the cheap. Send me another email if you do - one for yes, two for no maybe? Yeah, we'll be all spy-like and stuff.. Cool man!

Pete's note included a big yellow "Respond Now" button - which led to, not surprisingly, an eBay sign on window, but the server itself was located in Bogota, Colombia. I remember reading the other day that some people at eBay were moving, but I had no idea they were moving that far! Does moving to South America count as offshoring?

Scooter Pie

Guilty!! Justice prevails! WooHoo! I can see it now, somewhere in a cell in the not too distant future, this dialog will be heard:

Hoo ha... I'm gonna git me some o' that Scooter Pie.. Yessiree. Scooter, come on over here and give me some o' that fine pie of yours!

I know, I know Scooter will never see the inside of a jail cell; it just won't happen. I can see a couple of scenarios taking shape:

1. He'll appeal - remember, they tossed one of the jurors; and even though 11 jurors is perfectly acceptable (here's a thought - maybe we should have "reality TV trials" - see below), it seems like it's just screaming "throw the conviction out on a technicality, the other jurors were afraid that the juror who was tossed off was sent to Guantanimo and they were next"
   
   
2. He'll receive a pardon from President Bush. Funny, this whole Libby thing reminds me of the series finale of The West Wing (that show rocked - I used to watch it and pretend I lived in a country ruled by the Bartlet Administration, ahh, witty banter, eloquent speakers, coherent thoughts); Toby was arrested and convicted for leaking top secret information and then President Bartlet had to decide whether to pardon Toby or not.
   
   I suppose a key distinction between the President Bartlet pardoning Toby and President Bush pardoning Scooter (apart from the obvious - one is television, one is the real world) is that President Bartlet put thought into whether Toby should be pardoned, whereas with President Bush it will be more like "she-it, he's ma friend, of course I'm gonna pardon he-im," no thought required.
   

Sigh.. I miss The West Wing...

TV Trial...

Yeah, I like it - a reality show where people are tried on TV. The trial is one night, after which the viewing audience can call or SMS to vote whether the defendent is guilty or not, Kind of like a cross between American Idol and Law & Order - maybe Simon can be and Sam Waterson can be the prosecutor.

It would need a cool name though - how about "Chair or No Chair" maybe?

Another one bites the dust

Well, it's happened again, another coworker is moving on to greener pastures. It's a shame really, he was a great guy to work with. He knew just about everything about everything, and was always willing to share his knowledge. I can't count the number of times he said "it's on the damned wiki, just go look it up" when I asked him something.

I've lost count on the number of people who've left my group since I joined (pretty slick that I now call it my group, huh?). I use deoderant, I bathe, I dress reasonably well; I wonder what it might be. It's not you, it's me, really.

On the one hand, this mass exodus is pretty cool - it means I'm one of the most senior people in my group, which is cool. But on the other hand, it also means that people come to me looking for information that I don't necessarily have. Maybe I'll practice saying "it's on the damned wiki, just go look it up."

Joke's on me

Ha ha ha, the joke's on me. I picked up a Netgear SPH200D yesterday in hopes of moving beyond the "interference from my access point using a completely different frequency range problem" my Linksys access point and Linksys CIT400 Skype phone had and was sadly disappointed.

The Netgear phone is identical to the Linksys phone in all ways, right down to the firmware level. In fact, the only differences I could find between the phones were:

1. Form-factor - the Netgear phone is white/silver rather than black/silver, and a bit wider (which makes its display look sadly small), though it has a more "comfortable" keypad;
2. The Netgear phone came with a blue ethernet cord rather than a yellow one (much more stylish);
   
3. The Netgear phone cost $50 more
   

Other than these, the phones were identical, right down to the issue with my access point. I was even able to register a Netgear phone on my on the Linksys base station (for real - I tried this)..

I guess the Netgear phone is going back too..

Linksys CIT400, Strike Three, Hit the Showers

Well, I think I've figured it out. My CIT400 Skype phone works great all the time, except when its base station is in close proximity to my Linksys Wireless Access Point (WAP54G). It's feels good to have solved this little mystery. Though I'm at a loss as to why a device that operates at 1.9GHz would be interfered with by a device that operates at 2.4GHz; maybe a refresher physics class would help, or possibly a "why your cheaply made device bleeds out at many frequencies" class.

Too bad for the phone, it's going back (unless anyone wants it? $150, and its yours, warranty provided by Linksys - good luck with that). Sure, I can move it away from the access point, but I don't want to.

Maybe I'll give the Netgear SPD200D a try - it costs a bit more ($200), but maybe the extra $50 went into quality, or training competent support people.

Are you smarter than a 5th grader?

Well? Are you? Are you smarter than a fifth grader? Are you sure? You're reading my blog, so I have to wonder..

Who comes up with these shows? I caught a few minutes of Fox's new show "Are you smarter than a 5th grader?" last night. It was interesting. Entertaining even, watching Jeff Foxworthy ridicule the contestants. I wonder where they get their contestants - people who didn't cut it on the Dr. Phil maybe?

And what sort of message is this sending to these fifth graders - "you were right all along, there's no reason to learn any of the junk they teach you in school, you'll never use it later in life"

Want to see how smart you are? Try this quiz.

The Fine Print

Yahoo! sent me an email earlier today - I can get my own domain for $1.99 a year. What a deal, I said, then I read the fine print:

* Offer open only to new Yahoo! Domains customers purchasing a new web domain through Yahoo! Small Business. Offer expires 12/31/2006. Discount applies only to the first year of service. Limit one offer per customer on a single account for customer's own purchase only. Offer may not be combined with other offers or discounts, transferred, exchanged, or redeemed for cash. Other terms and conditions apply; see the Yahoo! Small Business Terms of Service when you sign up.

As my time machine is currently in the shop (the flux capacitor went on it), I guess I'm not going to be taking advantage of their offer...

Carbon Shmarbon

Al Gore took a lot of heat this week over the excessive energy consumption at his house. Ok, sure, his house is four times larger than the average home built last year. But so what? Turn the lights off when you leave the room Al, sheesh.

Some would argue that it's ok for him to use so much power because he buys carbon credits. Bullshit I disagree. Carbon credits are an excuse. I drive a Prius, so does that mean I can heat my house to 80 degrees in the winter? Wait, my girlfriend rarely drives her car, so we're saving a boatload of carbon there, so can we heat to 90 degrees? How about if I buy my neighbor's 1973 Dodge Dart - the one that runs like it's got a two stroke engine; if I buy that and then leave it parked in my garage, can I then heat my house to 100 degrees? I'm still saving tons of carbon, right?

No, of course it's not right. The point isn't to live a carbon-neutral life (I just held my breath for 30 seconds - can I bump my heat up another degree?), it's to conserve energy, produce less pollution and waste - you know, save the planet. I save energy, you use extra energy, so you give me money and then somehow things are ok? That's capitalism, it's not conservation.

Nice try though..

Linksys CIT400: One Ball, Two Strikes

Not surprisingly, I've not heard back from Linksys on my CIT400 problems since Ernie explained what a busy signal was (thanks again Ernie - maybe you should be on "Are you smarter than a 5th grader?"), but that hasn't stopped me from experimenting some trying to figure out why the phone kept dying. And I think I've figured it out!

The first thing I did was somewhat counterintuitive. I moved the base station further from the handset - I hooked it up in a bedroom (all bedrooms should have ethernet ports). And the damned thing worked - I left it there for 24 hours or so, and each time I checked the handset, it had connectivity and could make calls. Ahhh, progress, feels good.

Then I moved it back to the home office, where I had first noticed the problem. The last time it was here, it was plugged directly into my router (Linksys BEFSX41), a surge-protected phone outlet, and a surge-protected outlet on my APC UPS. This time, I plugged the power into a "regular" surge protector, and left the phone and ethernet the same.. And it continued to work - for 36 hours now, in fact.

Tonight, I think I'm going to plug it back into the surge protected outlet on the UPS and see if it craps out again. Hopefully it will - it makes little sense why it fails in this outlet, but it's consistent at least.

All this talk about surge protectors leaves me wondering.. What if al-Qaeda picks up a couple surge protectors; will the President's carefully crafted and well thought out plans fail miserably?