Soundtrack to Larry

The Larry Hit Parade

2009-06-06T01:36:08Z

For who knows what reason, I present to you a complete list of the songs I listened to at the office today:

"Fresh Dog," MC Frontalot
"Bullets, Bombs & Bigotry," KMFDM
"Unchained," Great White & Dweezil Zappa, remixed by Slick Idiot
"Screenwriter's Blues," Soul Coughing
"Black Betty," Tom Jones
"Quick, Painless and Easy," Ivy
"Steppin' Out," Electric Light Orchestra
"Incipit Zarathustra," DJ Spooky That Subliminal Kid & Dave Lombardo
"Ready to Blow," KMFDM
"I'm Confused," Handsome Furs
"The Veldt," Combustible Edison
"Hey Dude," Beatallica
"Every Little Bit," That Petrol Emotion
"Little Bombs," Aimee Mann
"Knights of Cydonia," Muse
"I Feel Fine," Slick Idiot
"Summertime," Bill Clinton et al.
"Is Chicago, Is Not Chicago," Soul Coughing
"Malambo #1," Yma Sumac
"Hau Ruck," KMFDM
"Timeless," Kate Havnevik
"Blast," Slick Idiot
"Demon Seed," Nine Inch Nails
"Lazybones," Soul Coughing
"The Incumbent," Soul Coughing

But now I'm late for a very important date.
So it's time to say hello goodbye I'm late I'm late I'm late.

Hello FB

2009-06-05T20:27:06Z

If I hadn't been away from LiveJournal for so long, I would have noticed that they have official Facebook support now. It's not huge support, but it has the one most important thing, which is putting a note on Facebook whenever I update on LJ.

Haven't tried it yet, but I'm going to see how well it works... now.

Social (network) anxiety

2009-06-05T17:36:39Z

No, I did not die.

I'm still spending most of my on-line social time on Facebook. And I'm still wrestling with how to have all of my activity show up in one place. Like most people care. :-)

The best I can do right now is FriendFeed. You can find me there and see most every piddly detail of my on-line activity except for Facebook. Apparently the nitwits at FB don't think it's worth it to have individual users' activity available via standard means of sharing—and come to think of it, maybe they're right. So if you really want to see what I'm doing on Facebook, you can look me up directly on there.

I like FriendFeed because it also works in the other direction, letting me group friends' public, on-line activity feeds together in a logical way. Friends don't even have to be FriendFeed users, but it makes things nicer if they are. (hint) ;-)

FriendFeed is still not the holy grail, though (to me). As mentioned, Facebook doesn't play well with it, and there's still no way to read friends-only things (like semi-private posts here on LiveJournal) without checking individual sites. Maybe Flock is good at this, but I wouldn't know because I haven't tried it, and since it is a browser and not a website, it must be installed before it can be used.

So, bottom line: find me on Facebook to see what I'm doing on Facebook, look at my FriendFeed feed to see everything else (everything that can be made public, anyway).

And I may yet get back into making big posts one of these days. It may or may not be here on LJ, but it will be made known here.

Birthday wishes

2008-10-11T19:47:40Z

Happy birthday to my lovely wife nora_torious! (Our birthdays are four weeks apart. So now we're the same age again.) :-)

When Facebook and geekiness collide

2008-09-07T20:05:13Z

I've been pretty obsessed with Facebook lately. Don't ask me why.

They have new options for pulling in posts from other sites like Flickr, Pandora, etc., which I think is swell. I like the idea of a central place to show off all of my activity, which is scattered far and wide across a number of Web sites (some well-known, some more obscure). Other sites like Profilactic, iStalkr, and that one Red Hat thing (Mugshot?) have attempted to be the place for people to do this, but they haven't grabbed me. Someday I'd like to roll my own and put it on my personal Web site (now gathering dust bunnies), but I have been alternately too lazy and too scatter-brained to do this.

So Facebook is doing its feed-inclusion thing, and they have an option for adding your own custom RSS feed. Great, I thought, I can just load it up with a bunch of feeds. Nuh-uh. Facebook only gives me one slot for that.

Hmmm, okay. I decided to attack it by mixing all of my feeds together into one. And, again, I found a number of sites that want to make themselves the place to do this. But, again, I prefer having something that gives me a little more personal control.

So I'm revisiting something I haven't looked at in a while: Yahoo! Pipes, the Swiss-army knife of RSS feeds (or, if you prefer a less masculine metaphor, the KitchenAid of RSS feeds). I'm at a loss for words to describe it, other than to say that Mac OS X geeks who have used Quartz Composer will find some strong similarities. In any case, I'm finding it just powerful enough to do the kinds of things I need to do to blend my feeds together. I can add on the name of each feed to the title of each item so they are easily identified on my Facebook page. I should be able to do some fine-tuning on each feed, too, where the formatting as rendered by Facebook is lacking.

Wait, why am I doing this, again?

Swami!

2008-09-07T05:31:56Z

I don't remember if I mentioned this before: The Swami Sound System, a weird but excellent radio program that's on Saturday nights here in San Diego (94.9 FM, a.k.a. FM 94/9"). It's hosted by the Swami—really a member of Rocket From the Crypt under an alias—and it's three hours of whatever he feels like playing, usually a mix of garage rock from the '60s, punk and funk from the '70s, etc., virtually all from little-known or unknown bands (though he did dedicate his entire three hours to Electric Light Orchestra one night).

It's on from 10 p.m. to 1 a.m. Pacific Time on Saturday nights. It's on right now as I write this, so if you're reading this shortly after I posted it, you can go tune in now. But don't despair if you got here late, because lucky for you, they've started archiving it as audio on demand; just follow the Swami Sound System link above.

Switchvox kudos

2008-08-14T18:43:45Z

One of the products I work on earned the company a nice little feather in its cap from Network World.

I haven't worked here long enough to take any share of the credit for that, but I am working on the next revision of the software, so I'll be able to share some then, I hope.

l2g @ 2008-08-06T07:23:00

2008-08-06T14:25:38Z

HP TouchSmart PC

A whole new generation of geeks is about to become acquainted with the affliction known as "gorilla arm."

(P.S. Haven't found a good way to post to both LJ and Facebook at the same time. I may have to settle for posting to LJ and having generic "Larry has updated his LiveJournal" notices show up on Facebook, but I'm not quite satisfied with that.)

Let's Face it

2008-07-28T20:27:46Z

Testing, testing, is this thing on?

I'm trying this a new way now--updating my LiveJournal via Facebook. The FB app is by Six Apart, so I guess it is official...?

Firefox! (?)

2008-06-17T16:23:00Z

Happy Firefox 3 Download Day! ~~Um... I think. At this writing, I'm not seeing that it's been officially released yet, even though it was scheduled to be so today.~~

Update (3:10 PM): It's out now. Go download it today and help Firefox break a world record.

They like me! They really, really like me!

2008-06-13T01:18:31Z

I had a job interview this morning. It went fairly well, but I didn't feel quite sure about it until late in the afternoon when they called me back. They said they enjoyed talking with me, and they offered me the job!

More details to come. Right now we're going out to pick up some Chicago-style pizza to celebrate.

Finally, another interview coming

2008-06-06T22:50:42Z

I got a rare kind of contact from my listing on Dice.com. It was an e-mail directly from someone in a technology company who wasn't a recruiter or an HR person, but actually the person for whom I'd be working if I was hired. So I called him back quickly.

It sounds great. It's a Perl/Linux/open-source shop all the way. What's more, they and their products are very well known in the open-source world. I confessed not having direct experience with the product I'd be working on, but that didn't seem to be a negative. I have an interview in less than a week.

Hey, here's an open question for those who have interviewed with smallish programming shops--I know there's one or two of you out there. ;-) How would wearing a tie, say an unconventional '40s-vintage tie, affect my chances of being hired (compared to going business-casual with no tie)? Positively? Negatively?

Rebuilding my geek cred

2008-06-03T02:10:00Z

I think I've successfully stomped a bug in Perl's YAML module that's about 5 years old.

Maybe I can do this crap after all.

(Finding someone to pay me to do this crap, that's another story.)

Bring back the umlaut

2008-05-28T16:25:25Z

Most people's exposure to umlauts in English is limited to the affected, so-called "heavy metal umlaut" in band names like Motörhead, Mötley Crüe, Spin̈al Tap, etc.

What is not commonly known, except by those who've seen old books in print, is that the umlaut was used in written English as recently as the early twentieth century. It was used when a vowel appeared twice in a row within a word but spanned two syllables. Examples would be "preëminent" and "coöperate."

I think it's time to bring back the umlaut.

Charles Mingus, renaissance man

2008-05-26T18:05:18Z

Fans of jazz will immediately recognize the name of Charles Mingus, reknowned composer and bass player.

What even his biggest fans may not know is that he also wrote and self-published a handbook in the 1970s on toilet-training cats. May I present exhibit A.

Could be a handy bit of trivia to use the next time you want to win a bet.

(I can't remember if I wrote about this before. If so, it's been a long time, anyway.)

Unemployed geeks seeking little green men

2008-05-21T17:51:31Z

If, like me, you are a fan of the SETI@Home project and you self-identify as a computer geek, but you are unemployed (or underemployed) in your field, come join the Unemployed Geeks team.

Nine Inch Nails gives its fans The Slip

2008-05-07T19:36:40Z

Fans of Nine Inch Nails and Creative Commons–licensed music should check out NIN's newest album, The Slip.

Warning from an iPod update

2008-05-06T20:59:01Z

iPod warning
Originally uploaded by Larry G.

As you go through life, take a moment every once in a while to stop and smell the fine print. You might find a little gem like this.

THE iPOD SOFTWARE AND iPOD SOFTWARE UPDATES ARE NOT INTENDED FOR USE IN THE OPERATION OF NUCLEAR FACILITIES, AIRCRAFT NAVIGATION OR COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS, AIR TRAFFIC CONTROL SYSTEMS, LIFE SUPPORT MACHINES OR OTHER EQUIPMENT IN WHICH THE FAILURE OF THE iPOD SOFTWARE OR iPOD SOFTWARE UPDATES COULD LEAD TO DEATH, PERSONAL INJURY, OR SEVERE PHYSICAL OR ENVIRONMENTAL DAMAGE.

Peerflix and prevarication

2008-04-29T20:14:19Z

UPDATE (June 2): I ended up getting my $9 after all. Still irked about the runaround, though.

Peerflix is shuttering their DVD-trading service. In the process, they are shooting themselves in the foot from a public-relations perspective.*

Some time ago, they rejiggered their service so that users would be swapping DVDs on a cash-equivalent basis. If you sent a DVD to someone else, you'd get dollars added to your account. If someone else sent you a DVD, dollars would be deducted from your account. You could even deposit cash in your account if you couldn't build up enough of a balance by offering DVDs for trade.

Then last month, Peerflix announced that they were shuttering the swapping service, and that any users who still had a balance in their Peerflix accounts would need to request a cash-out by April 30, otherwise their balances would be forfeit.

The catch? All cash-out requests are subject to a $10 "processing fee," in spite of the fact that users are being forced into this if they want to see any of their money again.

Well, that's the visible catch. There's a bigger and more invisible catch, too, one that I have experienced first-hand. Every time I've logged into my Peerflix account and requested a cash-out, I've been silently redirected back to my account page. Hmmmmm.

True, I could contact their support department about this. In fact, I did. Twice. The first time, I never received a reply. As the deadline drew closer and I still couldn't get the website to acknowledge my cash-out request, I asked for help again. This time I did get a reply—but it was only to say that I'd e-mailed them from an e-mail address that wasn't associated with any of their users' accounts, and that I should e-mail them from that address for security/privacy reasons.

It's true, I was using a different e-mail address. This is because I keep a personal domain name and I generate a unique e-mail address for every company I do business with. But I do receive e-mail at those addresses, and I did spell out my unique-to-Peerflix address in my e-mail to them. Could it have been that hard to write back to me at that address to confirm it was really me? (Meanwhile, I wrote back to the CSR with a very acerbic reply. I've received a second reply as I've been writing this post, but I'm not in a good frame of mind for it at the moment.)

How much am I out if I don't get my money back? Only $19. Not as big a deal as others; I've heard that some unfortunate souls have sunk a lot more than that. But it's no longer about the money for me; it's the principle of the thing. Everything about my experience to this point suggests that they are handling this the way a U.S. medical insurer handles claims—that is, make a promise to your customer, then when they actually ask you to live up to that promise, find every means at your disposal to weasel out of it and make it look like the customer's fault.

Any other disgruntled Peerflix users out there? Anyone thinking about, or already in the process of, banding together and making a case to the Attorney General of California or setting a class-action suit in motion?

* For evidence of self-foot-shooting, see the string of comments to the article "Peerflix Procrastinating on Customer Refunds" (25 Mar. 2008) on TechCrunch.

P.S. (1:49 p.m.): The e-mail reply was just a robotic confirmation ("Thank you for contacting Peerflix Customer Support. Your inquiry is valuable to us and we will respond to it within 48 hours. Have a great day!"). Wonderful. But, paradoxically, easier on my blood pressure.

Living the American Dream (Pizza)

2008-03-22T22:57:19Z

Looks like Barack Obama made a photo-op stop in my old stomping grounds of Corvallis for some pizza on Friday. And what better pizza place for a candidate to patronize than American Dream Pizza?

(Thanks for the link, Dad!)

Bewilderment, thy name is PayPal

2008-03-17T20:56:45Z

I have had good luck with PayPal over the years. I like PayPal. I still (kind of) like PayPal, even after what I'm going to write about here. This is just weird to me, though.

I'm ramping up my home business. I've even got an official business name now, so I've been able to register a couple of domain names for it and get ready to put up a rudimentary website.

There are things I'd like to do with the business that require having a Business-level PayPal account. I already have a Premier-level account because I've sold some items on eBay and wanted to let my buyers use their credit cards. But I would like to keep my personal transactions and my business transactions as separate as possible, even though the business is a sole proprietorship (in other words, I know I am splitting hairs, but I feel better doing it this way).

A read through the PayPal terms of service told me that if I wanted to have a Business account, I could not hold that and a Premier account at the same time. So I would either have to upgrade my existing account to Business class (and unwillingly muddle my personal and business transactions), or I would have to downgrade my account back to a Personal account before creating a Business account.

Seemed like a no-brainer, so I contacted PayPal and asked them to downgrade my account.

They did so and sent me a form letter in response. As I begin to read it, I get a feeling that things will not be as simple as I thought they would be:

Hello my name is [rep's name], I am sorry to hear about the situation regarding downgrading your account, and understand your frustration and concern over this issue. I will be happy to assist you with your questions.

Let me help you with this. I apologize for any delay in response. We appreciate that you tried our PayPal Business/Premier account. Per your request, your PayPal account has been downgraded from a Business/Premier to a Personal account. You are only permitted to downgrade your account one time. If you upgrade your account in the future, it will remain a Business/Premier account for the lifetime of the account.

A typical form letter: acknowledging what I asked for, while at the same time being totally wrong about my reasons.

Then there's the bit about how I'm "only permitted to downgrade [my] account one time." Hmm. This doesn't strike me as something I want to change my mind about again someday, but now I am thinking there's more going on here than I bargained for. I read on and find a helpful bit reminding me about the terms of service for Personal accounts:

For Personal accounts:

Credit or debit card payments for non-eBay items are held as "Unclaimed" until the recipient:

Accepts it using their Personal account

Upgrades to a Business or Premier account

Denies it

Credit or debit card payments for eBay items are held as "Unclaimed" until:

The recipient upgrades to a Business or Premier account

The payment expires and the funds are returned to the sender's card

If you receive a card funded payment for an eBay item, you must be willing to upgrade your Personal account. Refusal to accept a payment after the auction has ended falls under eBay's Seller Non-Performance policy.

Huh.

Well, I guess that's fair. It's in their terms of service, and it's nice of them to remind me of this wrinkle. What I don't like about this is that they didn't tell me this before they downgraded my account and helpfully painted me into a corner for me.

Okay, to be fair, I think I still would have downgraded if I'd known all this in advance because I really do want to keep my business and personal stuff as separate as possible. But it still would have been nice, you know?

Maybe this is a policy that eBay/PayPal (being the same company now) needs to rethink. I doubt I'm the only one who wants to do things this way.

In the meantime, my wife (who, bless her heart, has been making eBay sales left and right as we struggle to scrape up cash for our living expenses) is willing to sell things on my behalf now. And that makes sense because we are a family now, and her and my personal finances are really our personal finances now.

Or I could always fall back on another e-payment solution like my Obopay account. But who searches eBay looking specifically for listings where they can pay with Obopay? Everything is engineered to steer people toward PayPal. Why wouldn't they want it that way?

It's not a big deal, but still... sigh.

C is for...

2008-03-16T21:54:02Z

This may not be news to everyone, or even anyone but me. My wife made me look it up, and I'm glad I did.

Cookie Monster was recently interviewed on NPR.

Whether the weather be good or...

2008-03-16T12:19:37Z

In San Diego, at this writing, we are having thunder, lightning, and pea-sized hail.

Thank you, global warming?

l2g @ 2008-03-07T13:38:00

2008-03-07T21:49:58Z

OpenDNS, the premier provider of free (ad-supported) DNS services, recently began asking their users to help them with their new domain tagging initiative. And it's startlingly similar to what I and a bunch of others used to do at N2H2. (Though there are problems we worked through at N2H2 that OpenDNS seems unable to cope with yet, such as wildcard domain names.)

R.I.P. Gary Gygax

2008-03-04T22:11:04Z

Gary Gygax, the man who created Dungeons & Dragons, and thus the entire genre of role-playing games, has passed away at 69.

If there is a heaven, I'm sure he got in with a natural 20.