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Did I mention I race rally cars? Red Rocket Rally

Tuesday, January 15, 2008
Neat gadget
by brian @ 18:30:15 - [perma-link]
I saw this at Fry's while I was picking up a new hard drive to replace
my dead backup disk. Isn't it ironic...
This is a USB hard drive interface. Its like an external disk
enclosure without the enclosure. The really cool part is that it has
different drive interfaces on each of 3 sides; one for regular IDE,
one for 2.5" laptop drives, and one for SATA. For temporary use of a
drive this is much easier and quicker than swapping drives in and out
of enclosures. I probably should have gotten 2!

Saturday, January 12, 2008
Cirque du Soleil
by ccons @ 22:57:57 - [perma-link]
Kooza in SF.

Sunday, December 30, 2007
XBOX Live Sucks
by brian @ 13:14:32 - [perma-link]
A couple of weeks ago I got an Xbox 360. I got bored waiting for Gran
Turismo 5 (for PS3), so I broke down and got a '360 with Forza 2.
Then I signed up (and payed for!) an Xbox Live account, so I could
race Forza online.
The online experience is horrible. Every 10-15 minutes, I get a pop
up saying "You have been disconnected from the network". I've gone
through all the online troubleshooting, reconfigured my firewall
multiple times, disabled my firewall, and even plugged the Xbox
directly into the cablemodem. Still about 95% if the time when I try
to connect to online games, it says "That game is full or no longer
available", even when the game shows only 1 or 2 of 8 players connected.
Tournaments have been even more frustrating. I'll spend a few hours
racing the track to get a good qualifying time. Then I show up at the
designated time, try to join the race, and it says "unable to connect."
This morning I tried again. Last night I qualified for a race. I
logged on at 11:53 (like I was supposed to), selected "Start Race" and
it actually worked. I got into the lobby and clicked "ready". I saw
the countdown "Starts in 6:23" and it counted down. A short while
later, it got to the final seconds. "5 (beep) 4 (beep) 3 (beep) 2
(beep) 1 (beep), and finally "You have been disconnected from the
network."
So I called up XBOX Live. The computer that answered says they're
having network issues (no kidding!) and to try back later if I'm
unable to connect. I'm able to connect, just unable to play a game.
Plus its been like this since I started, so I stayed on the line. The
first guy tells me its service issues. There's lots of people signing
on due to the holidays, and they can't handle the load. That makes
sense (though honestly they should have predicted increased usage
during the holidays), so I asked for a refund for the 2 weeks of poor
service. He transferred me to billing.
Billing is unable to help. "Marie" (or maybe Maria?) told me they
hadn't gotten any advisories about refunds. That confused me since
that sounds like something inside the company that I don't really care
about. I don't care how they compensate me for the lack of service,
so long as I'm compensated. So I ask for a supervisor.
Karl (or maybe Carl? Hot Carl?), the supervisor, was absolutely
useless. He could only spout off how its not their policy to issue
refunds. I asked if its their policy to provide a non-working
service, and apparently it is. He quoted from the Terms of Service
(that I "agreed to" when I clicked to sign up) where it says they
provide the service "as-is" and do not guarantee that it works. So
yes, intermittent service is their policy (I so wish I could pay
intermittently).
Hot Karl couldn't give me a refund. He even said, "if I could, I
would have already," which I highly doubt. He couldn't add a month to
my account (without charging me for it). He couldn't even give me in-
game points as compensation. He can't do anything, apparently.
In the end the only service he could provide was to turn off the "auto-
renew" feature on my account, so I won't have to pay for it anymore.
Monopolies suck.

Sunday, December 23, 2007
Got my XO!
by brian @ 18:33:43 - [perma-link]
Here's a few pictures comparing my old Powerbook to its replacement
(ha!). I haven't played much with it yet, but it looks promising. I
definitely wish I'd had something like this instead of the Timex
Sinclair I had 20-something years ago.

Wednesday, December 12, 2007
Best Dialog Evar!!!
by brian @ 22:52:57 - [perma-link]
I'm speechless. This is truly awesome. What an incredible waste of
my time.
I'm signing up for Microsoft's "Let Us Spy On You and We'll Give You
Free Vista" program (that's my understanding anyway). I'm maybe 45-
seconds into their "15 minute" survey, and I get this web page. Its
the best page ever. The instructions say "Please click CONTINUE to
proceed" and there's a lone button (mind you, the only interactive bit
on the entire page) that says "CONTINUE". There's no decision to be
made. There's just the one button. I didn't even need to describe
it, since its right there in the picture.
Its so stupid I'm inclined not to click it simply because it feels
like a scam. Like there's some hidden info that I'm agreeing to by
clicking the button. Microsoft wouldn't mislead me, would they?
Honestly, I lied on the previous page (or one of the previous pages)
where it asked if I owned the computer on which I'd be installing
Windows... I have no such computer. I have a couple of Macs, and a
box I use for Linux, but I have no plans on changing any of them. I'm
just curious. I'll probably install it on a virtual machine
somewhere, but not on actual hardware. I'm even a bit leery of
putting Vista on a virtual machine, just because I don't know what
sort of bot-net I might get virtually attached to (dangling
participles are a bitch, aren't they? Sorry, Mrs. Strom).
Maybe "Ztelligence" is run by some sort of control freak. "Click the
button! Click it! Now!"

Friday, November 9, 2007
In the jon at
by ccons @ 20:49:09 - [perma-link]
American Rag. :)

Thursday, November 8, 2007
I kinda
by ccons @ 15:50:00 - [perma-link]
Want one... :)

Wednesday, October 31, 2007
Happy Halloween!
by brian @ 19:55:56 - [perma-link]
Flash is enjoying answering the door for the trick or treaters.

Sunday, October 21, 2007
Safari West
by ccons @ 11:00:20 - [perma-link]
We arrived yesterday and spent the night in tent cabins -- highly
recommended.

Sunday, October 7, 2007
Castro Street Fair
by ccons @ 17:42:55 - [perma-link]
@ after party

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Tuesday, January 15, 2008
	Neat gadget by brian @ 18:30:15 - [perma-link] I saw this at Fry's while I was picking up a new hard drive to replace my dead backup disk. Isn't it ironic... This is a USB hard drive interface. Its like an external disk enclosure without the enclosure. The really cool part is that it has different drive interfaces on each of 3 sides; one for regular IDE, one for 2.5" laptop drives, and one for SATA. For temporary use of a drive this is much easier and quicker than swapping drives in and out of enclosures. I probably should have gotten 2!

Saturday, January 12, 2008
	Cirque du Soleil by ccons @ 22:57:57 - [perma-link] Kooza in SF.

Sunday, December 30, 2007
	XBOX Live Sucks by brian @ 13:14:32 - [perma-link] A couple of weeks ago I got an Xbox 360. I got bored waiting for Gran Turismo 5 (for PS3), so I broke down and got a '360 with Forza 2. Then I signed up (and payed for!) an Xbox Live account, so I could race Forza online. The online experience is horrible. Every 10-15 minutes, I get a pop up saying "You have been disconnected from the network". I've gone through all the online troubleshooting, reconfigured my firewall multiple times, disabled my firewall, and even plugged the Xbox directly into the cablemodem. Still about 95% if the time when I try to connect to online games, it says "That game is full or no longer available", even when the game shows only 1 or 2 of 8 players connected. Tournaments have been even more frustrating. I'll spend a few hours racing the track to get a good qualifying time. Then I show up at the designated time, try to join the race, and it says "unable to connect." This morning I tried again. Last night I qualified for a race. I logged on at 11:53 (like I was supposed to), selected "Start Race" and it actually worked. I got into the lobby and clicked "ready". I saw the countdown "Starts in 6:23" and it counted down. A short while later, it got to the final seconds. "5 (beep) 4 (beep) 3 (beep) 2 (beep) 1 (beep), and finally "You have been disconnected from the network." So I called up XBOX Live. The computer that answered says they're having network issues (no kidding!) and to try back later if I'm unable to connect. I'm able to connect, just unable to play a game. Plus its been like this since I started, so I stayed on the line. The first guy tells me its service issues. There's lots of people signing on due to the holidays, and they can't handle the load. That makes sense (though honestly they should have predicted increased usage during the holidays), so I asked for a refund for the 2 weeks of poor service. He transferred me to billing. Billing is unable to help. "Marie" (or maybe Maria?) told me they hadn't gotten any advisories about refunds. That confused me since that sounds like something inside the company that I don't really care about. I don't care how they compensate me for the lack of service, so long as I'm compensated. So I ask for a supervisor. Karl (or maybe Carl? Hot Carl?), the supervisor, was absolutely useless. He could only spout off how its not their policy to issue refunds. I asked if its their policy to provide a non-working service, and apparently it is. He quoted from the Terms of Service (that I "agreed to" when I clicked to sign up) where it says they provide the service "as-is" and do not guarantee that it works. So yes, intermittent service is their policy (I so wish I could pay intermittently). Hot Karl couldn't give me a refund. He even said, "if I could, I would have already," which I highly doubt. He couldn't add a month to my account (without charging me for it). He couldn't even give me in- game points as compensation. He can't do anything, apparently. In the end the only service he could provide was to turn off the "auto- renew" feature on my account, so I won't have to pay for it anymore. Monopolies suck.

Sunday, December 23, 2007
	Got my XO! by brian @ 18:33:43 - [perma-link] Here's a few pictures comparing my old Powerbook to its replacement (ha!). I haven't played much with it yet, but it looks promising. I definitely wish I'd had something like this instead of the Timex Sinclair I had 20-something years ago.


Wednesday, December 12, 2007
	Best Dialog Evar!!! by brian @ 22:52:57 - [perma-link] I'm speechless. This is truly awesome. What an incredible waste of my time. I'm signing up for Microsoft's "Let Us Spy On You and We'll Give You Free Vista" program (that's my understanding anyway). I'm maybe 45- seconds into their "15 minute" survey, and I get this web page. Its the best page ever. The instructions say "Please click CONTINUE to proceed" and there's a lone button (mind you, the only interactive bit on the entire page) that says "CONTINUE". There's no decision to be made. There's just the one button. I didn't even need to describe it, since its right there in the picture. Its so stupid I'm inclined not to click it simply because it feels like a scam. Like there's some hidden info that I'm agreeing to by clicking the button. Microsoft wouldn't mislead me, would they? Honestly, I lied on the previous page (or one of the previous pages) where it asked if I owned the computer on which I'd be installing Windows... I have no such computer. I have a couple of Macs, and a box I use for Linux, but I have no plans on changing any of them. I'm just curious. I'll probably install it on a virtual machine somewhere, but not on actual hardware. I'm even a bit leery of putting Vista on a virtual machine, just because I don't know what sort of bot-net I might get virtually attached to (dangling participles are a bitch, aren't they? Sorry, Mrs. Strom). Maybe "Ztelligence" is run by some sort of control freak. "Click the button! Click it! Now!"

Friday, November 9, 2007
	In the jon at by ccons @ 20:49:09 - [perma-link] American Rag. :)

Thursday, November 8, 2007
	I kinda by ccons @ 15:50:00 - [perma-link] Want one... :)

Wednesday, October 31, 2007
	Happy Halloween! by brian @ 19:55:56 - [perma-link] Flash is enjoying answering the door for the trick or treaters.

Sunday, October 21, 2007
	Safari West by ccons @ 11:00:20 - [perma-link] We arrived yesterday and spent the night in tent cabins -- highly recommended.

Sunday, October 7, 2007
	Castro Street Fair by ccons @ 17:42:55 - [perma-link] @ after party
previous