THIS BLOG HAS MOVED

 

 

THIS BLOG HAS MOVED

New Location:  cwholemaniii.com/blog

 

 

 

To: Cricket Wireles. From: An upset customer; Paying for service I am not receiving.

As a relatively new customer to your service, I was thrilled with your pricing, etc. But it seems that that comes a cost. A cost that is seemingly too high. The cost of reliability.

I have been unable to receive incoming calls or text messages for a week, at least. I Do not know exactly when this issue started because everything seemed fine on my end. I could place outgoing calls and *send* text messages, but not get any replies in turn.

When I realized that I was having an issue I called your tech support. Your people were very friendly, and utterly unhelpful. After several protracted phone calls, I was finally told that the issue *must* lie with my phone, and was transferred out to Motorola, so they could assist me.

Not understanding how the issue could possibly be my phone, yet driven by a need to solve the issue, I spent the next 5 hours dealing with them, in the end factory resetting my phone, and being forced to spend many hours rebuilding my contacts lists, apps, etc.

Only I still had no service.

After several *additional* calls to your tech support over the course of two days, I was finally told that "oh, the cell tower you are using is down for maintenance, and has been for days." When I asked how much longer it was going to be down I was assured that it would "Only" be down for an *additional* two days. Upon asking, I was informed that I could get an allowance to reimburse me for the gap in my service.  It would be roughly 4-6% off my bill. How utterly underwhelming.

That was three days ago. And I still don't have service.

 To say that this has negatively impacted my view of your company would be a vast understatement. As an individual counting on your company I have already missed being able to talk to my sister on her birthday, had dinner plans with numerous friends fall apart, and I know not what else.

As the sole operator of a small business, I don't even know *how much*  business I have lost. A single missed contract can cost me an entire month's living wages. In the past week I sent out numerous bids to potential customers, and my phone is absolutely vital to communicate with my customers. Can you imagine if you suddenly lost access to *your* phone? And I have no doubt that you have secretaries, and multiple phone lines to help you.

I look forward to hearing from you.

--

C.W.Holeman III

WEBSITE: http://www.cwholemaniii.com

A Baker's Dozen: Photography Tips For Events

I recently had someone ask me for advice on shooting a wedding. I gave her the following tips and tricks. Do any of you have other ideas, corrections, or pearls of wisdom to share?

1. The most important piece of advice I have to give is to take more photos! When shooting a wedding, if you walk away with less than a thousand pictures, you probably did something wrong. Just keep shooting everything, and everyone, in sight.
2. At least 80% of the pictures I take never see the light of day. You only get to see the cream. (Bonus tip: If you post all your photos of people trying to laugh, talk, and eat at the same time, you won't have anything to blackmail them with later. Keep a strategic reserve.)
3. If you shoot in manual mode ~95+% of the time, like I do, you have to be aware of things like turning around while near shadow-boundaries, etc. (exposure needs can change radically when you least expect it.)
4. I also recommend that you keep the image-review mode turned on; that way you can see if you are messing up on things, such as exposure times, with every shot.
5. Make sure you have a tripod (So useful!), enough space on your memory card, and a spare battery or two.
6. Auto focus is usually the best way to go, as it frees your mind for finding your next shot, and not on trying to get the previous one right. BUT! Sometimes you will want manual.
7. Get there early, and stay late. Shoot anything that moves, and also any of the things that do not.
8. Longer distances + lower F-stops = more focus contrast between subject and background.
9. Check out your shots by zooming in on the details of one every once in a while, especially around the time before and after the sun sets.
10. Change your angles a lot. Shoot from the hip. Hold your camera on your tripod up as high as you can reach. Don't be afraid to get down on the ground; Perspective matters!
11. Remember, there is no such thing as a wasted picture; you're not shooting on film. It's free and unlimited and free!
12. Change around your settings and play with your equipment before the event to get a good idea of how you want to roll with things when you are crunched for time. (They aren't going to walk down the isle again for you.)
13. Have a back up camera! (Beg, borrow, or steal!) Even if it's just a point-and-shoot. I have a friend who is a professional photographer and her camera recently went out in the middle of a wedding shoot. If the bride and groom had not hired two photographers, she would have been in a world of hurt. A P&S may not take super quality shots, but it's a mountain better than nothing.

Hope this helps!

---This Post Contains minor SPOILERS for 

both The Hobbit, and the movie (Part 1) of the same name.---

The Hobbit (Part 1) movie is still eight months from release, and I already have a minor litany of complaints about it. I'll restrict each post to a single point. 

In an special screening of a ten-ish minute long segment shown to theater owners and reporters in late April 2012, (in which it was generally lambasted for using 48 FPS 3D filming techniques, which I cannot comment on, having yet to see that) one reporter gave a quick summery of a few of the tidbits he was privy to, including this quote:

"Bilbo imperiled by three giant troll-like monsters before Thorin Oakenshield and the dwarves come to his rescue."  [http://uk.movies.ign.com/articles/122/1223523p1.html]

The DWARVES? SERIOUSLY? 

This is a perfect example of changing the superbly crafted story that J.R.R. Tolkien wrote simply for the sake of changing things. This is the one thing that truly drove me bats-in-the-belfry, crawling-up the-walls, yelling-at-the-theater-screen, enraged in the Lord of the Rings movies.

I have always loved the scene with Burt, Tom and William. It's a delightful, light-hearted, yet suspenseful encounter. In it we get to see that Gandalf is not only a high and powerful wizard (A member of the Istari, a Servant of the Secret Fire, wielder of the Flame of Anor, etc.) but he can use guile and small tricks quite effectively as well. In addition to all this, we get to see the,  nature of  Trolls, how they interact with one another, and just how out-classed dwarves are by Trolls.

Instead, it looks as though we are going to get, "dwarfs attacking monsters." (Yes, I spelled  dwarf with an F; as in Fail.)

From the B.I.N. # 5

Death Star anyone? If you are looking for the next big laser thing, I give you this:  "it is fired to produce [10] large laser beams several feet wide that are then combined and focused down onto a tiny spot..." That will,  "tear apart the fabric of space." with 200 petawatts of laser power; "100,000 times the power of the world's combined electricity production."
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/science-news/8857154/Worlds-most-powerful-laser-to-tear-apart-the-vacuum-of-space.html


Are you ready for Cyber War? ('Cause it's coming...)
http://news.sky.com/home/technology/article/16101158


Genetically modified mosquitoes designed to kill off their children before reaching maturity released into the wild.
https://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/31/science/concerns-raised-about-genetically-engineered-mosquitoes.html?_r=4&ref=business


Threaten to wipe Israel off the map, and for some strange reason, they consider a preemptive attack; you know, before you finish building your nukes. Go figure.
http://news.sky.com/home/world-news/article/16101552

From the B.I.N. # 4

Computer virus hits US drone fleet. Refuses to leave.
   http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/10/virus-hits-drone-fleet/


US Army to deploy the new Switchblade, a backpack portable drone/guided missile.
Article:
    http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=CNG.b0b893fb04aee2445cb9d54b02462bd7.2f1&show_article=1




114 year old electric car had same range as the Chevy Volt.
   http://dailycaller.com/2011/10/14/114-year-old-electric-car-gets-same-40-miles-to-the-charge-as-chevy-volt/


A NY senator believes that we have too much freedom of speech: "Proponents of a more refined First Amendment argue that this freedom should be treated not as a right but as a privilege — a special entitlement granted by the state on a conditional basis that can be revoked if it is ever abused or maltreated." (Emphasis added.)
   http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20111001/00002316160/ny-state-senators-say-weve-got-too-much-free-speech-introduce-bill-to-fix-that.shtml

Comic-Con 2011

I went to Comic-Con International yesterday for the first time. It was also the first time I've been to this sort of Con when I was the one calling all the shots. I learned how not to make a lot of serious and painful noob mistakes, the hard way. But, I got in for free, so I can look at them as low cost lessons, however painful they may have been.

The one thing that I did really right was to get into Comic-Con for free by pre-registering to be a volunteer. You work a three hour shift doing some menial task at some point in the day, and get to play the rest of the day for free. You can get in like this as many days as you want, and they throw in a free t-shirt to boot. (Thanks to Bruce Mohler for letting me know that this could be done!)

Lessons Learned:

1. Go more than one day. One day is simply not enough time to even skim the floor if you want to go to any panels. This is the most important lesson I learned. When presented with the option of stopping to get a photo of this costume and to chat with the person at that booth, or to keep moving to see what is further ahead, I usually picked the latter because I didn't have enough time. And even while making that painful choice so often, I still never did cover the whole floor.
2. A written out schedule is essential. I missed several events I would have liked to see because I had the wrong times in my head and or because I just forgot about them with so much else going on.
3. Arrive before 7 am. I got there too late to get an early volunteer assignment, so I wasted three hours doing stuff for the con instead of doing stuff at the con after it opened.
   
4. Some panels have epic lines, others have none.
5. Bring a mini-folding chair. There will be time spent in those epic lines. Be ready.
6. There are boring lines, have a (small, light!) book with you.
7. Make sure shoes are ready for lots of walking/not-quite-running. A panel on each end of the building and zero time to get from one to the other means you won't always be able to stroll from one place to the next. (Mine needed fresh gel pads.)
   
8. Bring paper. I saw several people I would have liked to get signatures from, but had nothing for them to sign.
   
9. Check the signing schedule carefully and bring the appropriate books.
10. Most signings require a ticket/bracelet you have to get before hand, or you can't even get in the line.
11. Bring more snacks. Between the walking around all day and seeing thousands of people eating plate pizza, etc., I wanted to eat more than I brought with me.
12. There is a lot going on.
13. Bring an SLR with some serious zoom. There were some pretty awesome pictures I could have taken if I had a lens with 20x or 30x magnification instead of my paltry 4x.
    
14. 20 GB of cards for my camera was more than enough. However, had I gone to more panels, I would likely have shot a lot more video, so 20 GB was not overkill. Also, three batteries was a close call, so bring four next time to be on the safe side.
    
15. Rob a bank on the way there to have enough cash. There was a lot of really cool things I could have bought, and not all of them cost an arm and a leg. Admittedly, some of them did cost a few limbs, hence the bank job.
16. The floor closes early, like a business, and does not stay going forever like a fair. (Hence the "could have" in #15. I was going to go back down to the floor after the Mythbusters panel and buy the things that I thought I was being smart by purchasing later and therefore not carrying around all day.)
    
17. You can row hop close to the front of a big-deal panel by arriving several events ahead and moving fast when it empties out after each event.
18. A volunteer job may be very boring. I was a Human Wall for two hours before I got reassigned.
19. Get your volunteer shirt as soon as possible after you can, things close down earlier than you may think. 
20. The Mythbusters are even more funny in real life than they are on TV.

Coolest Costumes Seen:

1. An older Steampunk Lady with a Predator on a leash.
   
2. The Monty Python set of three: A king and two knaves. Massive pack and clomping coconut shells included.
3. A Centaur with articulated rear legs.
4. A family of Klingons.
5. A Death Star.
6. I think Darth Vader requires a special mention. There were more flavors of him than you might think. There was the Classic Vader, the Mini-skirt and leather Lady Vader, the Black and White with Jar-Jar's head on a platter with lettuce Vader, the Bobble Head Vader, the Hello Kitty Pink and Black Vader and more.
7. I saw one Captain Jack Sparrow that was so good that I thought it was Johny Depp for several seconds.
8. I'm not even going to mention the mountains of Stormtroopers, fairies, elfs, zombies, superheros and capers. But there were hundreds and hundreds of them.

People seen:

1. Molly Quinn from Castle just walked across my path which was very cool.
   
2. Jim Butcher was at a signing.
3. The entire Mythbusters Cast was at their pannel:
   
1. Adam Savage (Twice! Once at the panel, and once on the floor in disguise, so I didn't recognize him at the time.)
   
2. Jamie Hyneman
3. Tory Belleci
4. Kari Byron
5. Grant Imahara 

All in all, I had a great day and hope that I can make it back next year. With these lessons learned, I plan to have an absolute blast next time around.

From the B.I.N. # 3

Putting the Intelligence Into AI
Not content to create an AI that could learn how to play the computer game Civilization on it's own (and win 46% of the time) researchers at MIT taught the AI how to learn how to read English. (Note that they did not teach it English, they actually made it smart enough, that it was able to learn English it on it's own by playing the game and looking at the manual!) When it was given the general help / instruction manual for Civilization, it was smart enough to assimilate that knowledge, and increase it's win rate to a staggering 79% of the games it played.
http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2011/language-from-games-0712.html

Synthetic Burgers
Professor Mark Post, from Maastricht University in the Netherlands, and his team have grown synthetic pork  strips and claims that within a year, they will also be able to grow synthetic beef for use as a cheap and efficient  meat source.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2008347/Test-tube-burger-coming-soon-Lab-grown-meat-needed-feed-world.html

Global warming?
"The earth is heating super rapidly! It's caused by man! We are killing our planet!" Only, the temperature has not moved in over a decade. Hmmm. Asia pollution "blamed" for halt in warming. The key sentence from the article: "World temperatures did not rise from 1998 to 2008, while manmade emissions of carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuel grew by nearly a third, various data show." (emphasis added.)
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/07/04/us-climate-sulphur-idUSTRE7634IQ20110704

Man Induced Climate Change?
"Global warming will cause terrible storms which will grow to truly epic proportions!" Only, "During the past 6-years since Hurricane Katrina, global tropical cyclone frequency and energy have decreased dramatically, and are currently at near-historical record lows." (emphasis added.)
http://www.coaps.fsu.edu/~maue/tropical/

Don't take no pictures!
"Be afraid. Fear everything and everyone!" That's the message we hear every time you get near an airport. Fear is used as a catch-all excuse to do anything. Don't like a passenger taking a picture of your name badge when you are rude to passengers? Call them a "security risk" and have them booted off the airplane!
http://www.pixiq.com/article/woman-escorted-off-us-airways-flight-for-snapping-iphone-photo

From the B.I.N. # 2

The Pentagon finally starts to move into the future of cyberwarfare. Now they have guidelines:
  --http://apnews.myway.com/article/20110622/D9O0SERG0.html

Scientists create blobs of cooled light particles.
  --http://www.mnn.com/green-tech/research-innovations/stories/new-kind-of-light-created-in-physics-breakthrough

New Japanese machine takes the super computer lead, and they're not even done building it. The "K" will rise from 8.16 petaflops to reach 10 petaflops once it is at full power.
  --http://news.techworld.com/data-centre/3286946/japan-builds-worlds-most-powerful-supercomputer/

Scientists grow rat organs in mice, and are ready to try growing human organs in pigs. Don't mix up that bacon!
  --http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/science-news/8584443/Pigs-could-grow-human-organs-in-stem-cell-breakthrough.html

Micro drones are on their way.
  --http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/20/world/20drones.html?_r=3

Chart of current drone in use by the US military:
  --https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2011/06/19/world/drone-graphic.html?ref=world

Apple to decide when you are allowed to use the video camera on new iPhones. Forget recording that favorite band of yours.
  --http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/3641676/Apple-to-ban-iPhone-gig-filming.html

Obama: Libya isn't a war. Because flying aircraft over a country and dropping bombs on people isn't war as long as there are no troops on the ground and the targets can't return fire effectively. According to Obama's arguments, he could nuke a country off the map without Congressional approval.
  --https://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/16/us/politics/16powers.html?_r=4

Bizarre / Interesting / Newsworthy (BIN # 1)

From the B.I.N. for this week, I give you the following articles:

In China, genetically modified cows produce human breast milk. It will be sold in stores within three years. Other cows modified are resilient against mad cow disease, and yet other beef cattle are genetically modified to produce more nutritious meat.
  --http://www.myfoxny.com/dpp/news/china-genetically-modifying-cows-to-produce-human-breast-milk-20110608-ncx


Matt Stutzman, a man born with no arms, still has none. But what he does have is a qualification for the National U.S. Olympic team in archery. Yep. Armless archery.
 --http://www.newtondailynews.com/articles/2011/06/06/r_sxx109pfrlwa_cpzlzx6rw/index.xml


A mother in the UK has volunteered to donate her womb to her infertile daughter, to be transplanted so that the daughter can have a daughter (or son) of her own. If successful, Sara could conceive and carry a child in the same womb she herself was born from.
  --http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2011/jun/13/uk-mother-agrees-donate-womb-daughter


I don't care so much about the game aspects of this, but the voice controls  in "Ghost Recon: Future Soldier" is really rather impressive. As shown in the video near the bottom of the article, even with another demo blasting near by, the Xbox (via Kinect) was able to pick up almost every voice command given by the both the interviewer and interview-y. It's still not as good as you've seen on the Enterprise, but it sure is getting close.
  --http://www.engadget.com/2011/06/08/kinect-integration-in-ghost-recon-future-soldier-hands-off-vi/

Building a Reprap, Pt. 3 (The Frame, A)

Part one of this series is here.

I bought a set of cast plastic structural supports from Fireraiser for $30. Sadly, they have to be drilled by hand, unlike printed parts.


I got all of the hard drilling out of the way with a drill press: about 2.5 hr.

Drill

Drill

Drill

Cut some of the needed threaded rods with hacksaw: 20 min.

Measuring... 

...twice.

Cutting once. (x6)

Assembly: over 1 hour due to messing up the ends and needing to clean them up first. It's starting to come together.

Progress!

The workspace

Building A Reprap, pt. 2 (Motors)

Part one of this series is here.

You know what a motor is. But you may now know what a stepper motor is. A stepper motor is a motor where an exact, precise, jolt of electricity will rotate the shaft one complete revolution. This is very useful for when you need to move something in a measured manner, like say, a printer. The Reprap will use several of these.

The NEMA 14 stepper motor

In order to send those precise jolts of electricity, you have your computer (in this case an Arduino Mega) send a signal to a stepper motor driver. A stepper motor driver is yet another tiny circuit board covered in handy bits of electronics. (My astonishingly small familiarity with these technologies allows me to use these complex technical terms.)

I will be using Pololu A4983 stepper motor drivers.

Now that you  have background, here's what I worked on Saturday:

1. Converted the loose wire ends on the motors to convenient plugs (x4 motors).
2. Soldered the driver boards together (x4 drivers).
3. Programmed the Arduino Mega to talk to the Reprap software.

Before Pictures:

Pre-solder driver

During Pictures:

Lots of little bits to connect.

The USB cable is connected to a netbook which is programing this Arduino.

After Pictures:

Wires now a plug.

Driver, post solder. I'll try to get a better picture of this later.

Building A Reprap, pt 1: What Is A Reprap?

I have begun to build a Reprap, along with several other people from the San Diego Hackerspace (Don't look at me like that, go educate yourself on the real meaning of hacker.), and I plan to blog the process. But first, what is a Reprap?

A Reprap is an open source, 3D fabrication machine. If you are familiar with the Schlockverse, think of it as a primitive fabber. If you know about Star Trek, think of is as very (!) primitive replicator.

If you somehow are not familiar with ether of those references, I will describe a Reprap for you. In essence, a Reprap is a personal, printer sized machine capable of "printing" plastic objects.

They can make everything from the practical to the complicated to the whimsical. (Images from Thingiverse.com)

Practical

Complicated

Whimsical

There are many commercial 3D printers on the market, but the "cheap" ones tend to run in the $25,000 range. A Reprap on the other hand should cost me under $500. While it's true that the  print quality is not as fine as a commercial machine would produce, a Reprap is a clear winner in the affordability department.

Truth

Truth without love is like a naked singularity. Alone, if you get too close, it will tear you to shreds, leaving essentially nothing. 


With love, truth is (again like a singularity) an incredible, almost unending source of power.

Tree Hugging Dribble

I had to calculate my carbon foot print for a health (!) class and come up with five ways to reduce it. I had so much fun, I decided to do a few extra. I post my list, as I turned it in, here:

I have a carbon footprint of about 7.4 tons a year, about 1/3 the national average, and I've never even given it a thought. Most of the reason for this low number is due to the fact that I lead a (relatively) simple life due to religious convictions and common sense, along with a a good dose of frugality. These are some of the potential changes I've come up with:

1. Move to a smaller house (The 392 square foot place I'm in now is just so big. I would, but you can't build a legal house with a smaller footprint.)
2. Use zero cooling instead of a swamp cooler (which uses 1/2 the electricity of an air conditioner)
3. Take more online classes to reduce driving (I would but I always take the online option if it's available, so this one's an you, [name of school].)
4. I could drive a Tata Nano (I would, but the state of California won't let me, or anyone else, because they think the Nano is too dangerous for it's occupants - and they have decided not to lat me make my own choice in the matter of my personal safety, thinking they can live my life for me better than I can.)
5. I could jump off a cliff before I get married and have children ["Basically, too many people are the problem" -- One of the instructors, today, Aug. 2010] (But that's obviously poor idea: I don't get to decide when I die, that's God's job.)
6. I could disconnect my tankless water heater, and just use cold water.
7. I could throw away my bread machines and make my bread purely by hand, and cook it in an "eco-oven."
8. I could also buy 100 lb. sacks of flour, instead of 50 lb. sacks to reduce packaging.

Schoolwork # 2

Because of the inability of my computer to run Second Life, I have decided to expolor a different online world, with a lower equipment threshold. After a few quick searched on Google, I found a site (mudconnect.com) that rates MUDs. I located a MUD that both looked interesting  had a high rating, Cities of M'Dhoria, and went to it's website.
I found that although I could just use telnet to play that there would be a richer experience (colored ASCII, etc.) if I downloaded a MUD client. I located and downloaded MUSHClient.

It only took me a few minutes to install, set up and connect to CoM once MUSHCLient was on my computer. After that I ran through the tutorial and then headed out.

Even though the game is very complicated, there were a whole stream of people literally waiting in line to help me get on my feet. These were not players, but rather helpers who worked on shifts to help new comers such as myself. Second Life could take a lesson from this.

If you don't know what a MUD looks like, here is a short time period's worth of play:

• [Exits: (west) up]
•      A large sign is posted here.
• A little, smelly goblin named Klog is standing here with a sneer.
• 
  
• Ext: wU | HP: 29/29 | Mana: 116/116 | Status: T  
• kill klog
• You lunge forward and bite Klog with a snarling chomp.
• Your bite <<< ravages >>> Klog!
• Klog is stunned but will probably recover.
• Your pierce massacres Klog!
• Klog is stunned but will probably recover.
• 
  
• Ext: wU | HP: 29/29 | Mana: 116/116 | Status: T  
• murder klog
• You show no mercy to Klog.
• Klog splatters blood on your armor.
• You get a green key from the lifeless corpse of Klog.
• 
  
• Ext: wU | HP: 29/29 | Mana: 116/116 | Status: T  
• unlock west
• *Click*
• You unlock the door to the west.
• 
  
• Ext: wU | HP: 29/29 | Mana: 116/116 | Status: T  
• open w
• You open the door to the west.

1. Where did I go?
1. I finished with the tutorial, I explored the Academy Square with it's temples, banks, gardens and more.
2. What did I do?
1. I explored, enraged in combat and commerce and had social interactions.
3. How did I design my avatar?
1. The avatar in CoM are of course simply text. You get to select your race, size, weight, and various colorings. I chose to be a Canidae, a canine like creature.
4. What challenges did I face?
1. The interface is complex as I mentioned before, but with the help also mentioned earlier, it was a simple matter to overcome these challenges.
5. How does CoM compare to other inversive experiences?
1. It was very different from other experiences. Even in other ASCII based games I have played, there have been visual maps that showed my exact location. In CoM, there is only verbal descriptions, so that took  a good deal of time to get used to.
6. From the textbook?
1. The anonymity granted by the virtual experience was similar to and in the case of chapter 35, identical to, what was described in the book. The real-time communications with others from around the world in a non-existent reality could be very absorbing.
7. Predictions of the future?
1. Within 20 years there will be full immersion, HD, 3D environments that can be experienced for free.

Schoolwork: Real people, Feel Free to Ignore

I went to start the "Blog Project" and found that it requires me to install and run Second Life. My computer is woefully inadequate to run this software. Additionally, my internet connection is far to slow to run it, even if my hardware could handle it.

The hardware requirements for Blackboard are listed in the class documents, but the requirements for Second Life were not, so I had no forewarning that I would need anything other than what I had. I don't know of any way that I can complete this assignment.

Me vs Best Buy. The Rematch

My camera had another issue. I sent this email to Best Buy.


To: S**** P*****
Geek Squad Public Defender
Executive Resolution Specialist
23 March 2010


A year ago, a camera that I had purchased from Best Buy had an issue and had to be sent in for repairs. That issue was eventually dealt with. A few weeks ago it again started showing symptoms, and then stopped functioning correctly. No problem. I shelled out a lot of money to get your super-duper best warranty, and I still have almost two years left on it.

I took it into the store and turned it over to the Geek Squad. A week later, I received a phone call telling me that although the camera could not be repaired, I could just come in and they would give me a brand new one off the shelf. Great! That's much better than the solution from last year which took several months to get resolved.

So I went in this morning to pick up my new camera. I should be in and out in ten minutes. Key word: should. Two hours and six employees later I finally left the store. I left the store Very Unhappy.

It turns out that Best Buy no longer carries my particular model of camera. No problem they said. We'll just get you one with equivalent features. I spent the next hour helping your salesman try to find something that would work. Every time I / we found a camera with the right features (optical viewfinder, optical zoom, small size and sufficient resolution) or even close to them, he'd spend five or more minutes to go through the process to get it ordered in, because it would invariably not be in stock at the location where I was. Each time he found that he "could not get that one." While it's true that there are not many cameras on the market today with all of my required features, there are still some.

Finally they gave up on finding a camera with the key features of the camera that I bought originally. They said that the equivalent camera today (without all of the required features.) costs $229.99. Therefore I could have that particular model, or $229.99 in store credit to replace my camera. After some deliberation I took the so called "equivalent" model.

I spent $500 on my original camera. That's enough to buy a brand new SLR today. That's not some low end piece-of-junk Kodak. That's nice, high quality equipment. I walked out the door today with a partially plastic product that is clearly inferior to the camera that I bought originally.

After I got it home, it became very clear within minutes that the camera I had been given was truly inferior. The next morning I called the store and finally found someone helpful. He apologized repeatedly for the poor treatment that I received and when told of my situation instantly concurred that the camera I had been given was inferior to the one I bought. He stated that the employees I'd dealt with clearly did not know about my original camera or they would never have tried to give me the low end camera they had. He told me to just come on back in and that they would give me what I should have been given as soon as I walked in the door.

I live an hour away from the Best Buy location where this all took place. I was told that I would have to return to the same branch in order to fix this. I was not going to be in the area for a week and a half, so I asked my father to stop by on his way to work and swap them out. When he went in this morning it took him over 40 minutes of arguing with the customer "service" employee to get the camera.

And then, to add insult to injury, I was told that because Best Buy was replacing my camera with a brand new one (instead of repairing the old one) that the warranty had "been fulfilled" and that therefore Best Buy would henceforth no longer be bound by the original warranty--even though I still have almost two years left on it. However, if I would care to spend more money, I could buy a new warranty!

A warranty is essentially a guaranty that the item bought will last for so long. If it stops working, you repair or replace it. You don't give excuses about how you can't repair it, and now it's worth less, so here, have a low end piece of junk. And by the way, would you like to buy a NEW warranty?

a1ca81090f

I spent a great deal of money on a four year warranty. I was told that because of the manner in which you chose to fulfill your end of the agreement, that you were going to arbitrarily void almost half of my warranty. I not only find this to be a despicable business practice, but also deceptive, if not downright fraudulent.

--
C.W.Holeman III
**Sig removed**

Multi-System USB External Hard Drive Project: Part 1

With my recent acquisition of a 1 TB hard drive, I have now have my old 250 GB mini drive unused. My solution: make a demo box for on the go with mulitiple Operating Systems (OS).

I plan to cut the drive into five, fifty gig partitions and put the following OS's on it:

1. Ubuntu 9.04
2. Ubuntu Server (32 bit) 9.04
3. BackTrack4
4. Windows 7 (RC)
5. Open Solaris

Piece and Parts

I'm creating this USB system from my Macbook running OS X Tiger (10.4) and an older PC running Microsoft Windows XP. I have an external DVD burner for that machine. It's all going onto a Western Digital Passport Essential 250 GB external hard drive.

The Operating Systems

Ubuntu 9.04

I downloaded the most recent version of Ubuntu from their website. It was a simple matter to follow the directions on there to burn the ISO to a CD using "Disk Utility."

Once you are running the live CD, it has a very straight forward tool for installing the OS onto the computer. It was as simple as telling it what language, timezone, default user, etc. I wanted and pointing it at the right HDD.

Ubuntu Server 9.04

The ISO has been downloaded (also from their website) and I will work on adding it tomorrow.

BackTrack4

BackTrack4 was another download. Their website is here. It is rather larger than the Ubuntu ISO and required a DVD for it's 1.4 GB size. It has been burned as a live DVD and even as I type, it's installing on the HDD.

Issues with BackTrack4: Getting X to start took a quick get around that I found here. It was as follows:

If you can’t get X to work, first try to autogenerate an xorg.conf by typing “Xorg -configure” and try using the generated conf file. If that bums out, you can revert to VESA by typing “fixvesa”.

It took me both steps for it to work, but since then it's been smooth sailing.

Windows 7 (RC)

I got a copy of Windows 7 (RC) at SoCalCodeCamp. It turns out that you can't install it on an external hard drive without some major head aches. After a good bit of looking around, it seems that in order to do it you have to use some built-in system tools from Microsoft which are only available in Vista and 7.

I don't have a box running either, so this will have to come later. I have a few messages out to friends who can help with that.

In order to make things simpler later on, I've placed the partition for Windows 7 at the beginning of the disk. If you don't do this, Microsoft cannot find it's partition. None of the other systems have any trouble with this.

Strike one against Windows 7, and I don't even have it installed yet...

Open Solaris

I picked up a Open Solaris live CD at the June SDJUG meeting. I have not done anything with it yet.

---

That's what I've got so far. More will follow.

Have any questions? Please leave a comment and ask it. Have a comment?

Quick Photos (SIM card reader and USB charging adapter)

A few gadgets photos. Just got these the other day, and haven't had time to play with them yet. They came from http://www.dealextreme.com . Once I've used them a bit, I' post more info.

I found it interesting that the USB charging adapter has the Apple stamp on it. It was just mixed in with tons of cheap Chinese items (which often do just the job, and at the right price.) This was not mentioned in the info about the item. I'd think it would be a selling point.

The packaging:

Both items: A USB power adapting charger and a SIM card reader.