Howard

Turning 200

Well, my trusty '92 Camry turned 200 today....more specifically, it passed the 200,000 mile mark.

wow.

I love my car.

With a taste of disgust in my mouth

So, today I finished reading The Bourne Legacy.  I feel mentally robbed of the wondrous characters that Ludlum created. If he was one to bemoan the destruction of his fictional universe post-mortem, he'd not only be rolling in his grave, but screaming his ass off at the same time.

Eric Van Lustbader created an interesting story.  In its own right, it would have been a story that I probably would have read eventually, and might have enjoyed.  The problem is that he tried to take his idea and fit it into the Bourne universe, and then he plastered Ludlum's name right on the cover in huge letters, making it appear that Ludlum had given his stamp of approval (something that I'd be hardpressed to believe he could have been coerced to do had he been alive).

What follows would normally be called spoilers. But, if that could be the case at all, then I'd say the whole damn book was a spoiler for the wonderful universe that Ludlum had created with his first three novels, the original trilogy.  Lustbader (I'll still use respect by using his last name, even though he showed no respect to Ludlum) really didn't seem to grasp the universe that he was trying to enter.

Marie has always been an important part of each Bourne novel.  She has never allowed David/Jason to shut her out; to take her out of the action.  She has always ignored him and it was always in his better interest in the end.  So, where was Marie in this novel?

Hidden.

What the hell?  Jason sends her a text message to hide, and so, she does?  She knows to attempt no communication until she gets the next coded text message?  That doesn't sound like the Marie that I know, the Marie that I've spent countless hours getting to know while reading the original trilogy.

But, I sound bitter.  It can't be that bad, can it?  Oh yes.  And it gets worse.

Mo and Conklin are killed straight-out.  So, two of the three key people in the Bourne history are now completely removed.  That is a rather bold move for an impersonating author to do to another brilliant writer's universe.  But maybe he knew what he was doing?  I could only hope.  Half way through the book though, I knew that it was for naught.

I'm not exactly sure if Lustbader read the other books and knew the character that he was writing.  We learn on the last page that this book is happening about 6 years after Ultimatum (it's Jamie's 11th birthday, and he was 5 during Ultimatum).  Since he was 50 in Ultimatum, that puts him around the nice old age of 56.  During Ultimatum, Ludlum made it a point to remind us that he was 50, and let us know that Bourne wasn't in the same form as he used to be as Delta.  The way that Legacy was written, it sounded like he was a brisk 39-year-old in top form, who just happened to get the shit kicked out of him a lot, and was constantly wounded.

Bourne didn't seem 56 in this book, and that really upset me.  There was an acute loss of realism here.  But that still isn't all of it.

Bourne isn't Bond. He doesn't have a Q. So why was Deron (and on that note, where's good-'ol Cactus?) trying to play the part by giving Jason a "ceramic gun?" "It's a prototype. Let's say this, you name the price based on its use to you. I trust you'll be fair." Ugh. I think I'm going to hurl.  Bourne never needed props like that before.  He was an opportunistic man who managed to find what he needed, wherever he was.  That ceramic gun came in handy too often, and was used way too much throughout the book.  That quote from Deron really made me squirm in my chair, because it was just calling attention to how important that would be during the whole book. Puke, I say.

I'll have to go a little easier on Khan (and that name.  I couldn't help but hear Khaaaaaaaaaan! every time I read it), but not much.  He had Ozskar, whom was as close to Q as you could get without just calling him that.  And then he had his magic coat.

KEXP, I Love You

If you haven't heard of KEXP, well, shame on you.  Go there now and listen.

I don't have much time to write up about KEXP right now, but I'll try to write some more in the next couple days.  Pretty much all of the music that I've been listening to lately (take a look on the left for the albums I've been listening to lately) were all first introduced to me on that fantastic radio station.

Right now, I'm listening to Lyrics Born - Same !@#$, Different Day, and I can't stop.  It's mesmerizing.  I highly recommend it.

How I Managed to Get a Refund for my Helmet Camera after Seven Months of Trying

a story by Howard Wolosky

The background
After we finally started getting the hang of not swimming, kayaking really started to become quite a lot of fun.  At some unknown tipping point, we got to the point where what we were doing would look rather cool on video (as opposed to funny).  It was at that point that I began my well-known multi-month-long investigation into the right video camera and helmet camera setup so that I could indeed begin to record our whitewater antics.

After, quite literally, months of looking, I got an excellent deal on a Sharp VLZ3U MiniDV Camcorder for about $190 from Amazon after combining some coupons and rebates.  It was a great, and unfortunately, irreproducible deal.  I then had to find the right helmet camera.  I searched all over the net for recommendations and options, but found little information out there for whitewater users.  Some of the sites that I did end up looking at:

• http://www.bulletcam.com
• http://www.sports-camera.com
• http://www.helmetcamera.com
• http://www.sportzshot.com
• http://www.jonescam.tv/
• http://www.microvideo.ca/
• http://www.viosport.com/

I eventually went with bulletcam.com, even though their prices were generally more expensive than the others, they were the only ones who provided a full kit including the watertight casewatertight case.

I placed my order with them on April 15, 2004 for a grandtotal of $379 ($369 + $10 shipping), in preparation for the rafting trip down the Wenatchee river we were going to be taking on Saturday May 1, 2004.  My order kept getting delayed because they didn’t have all of the parts ready to go to make the case.  They eventually overnighted the package to me so that I got it Friday April 30, 2004.

Becoming an extreme director
The first couple trips with the helmet cam were experimental in nature.  I had to try a couple different angles on the camera until it wasn’t always pointed up or down the whole time.  I did manage to get some great video during those trips, although the Yakima rafting trip was probably a waste of tape.

And then came Saturday May 22, 2004.  I got pinned against a log and ended up swimming a bunch of the Wenatchee river, having the helmet camera going the whole while.  When I finally got in my car later that day, I noticed that the inside of the case was damp and that the camcorder no longer worked.  The case had leaked and ruined everything.

And so began the process of refunds
I was bummed the whole time about the loss but I wasn’t overly concerned, because I knew that I had a 90 day full refund policy via my credit card (American Express Blue) for any reason.  I got the process with them started for the camcorder, but I decided to go through BulletCam.com for the refund of the helmet camera since they had a policy that superseded that of my credit card.  So I contacted them via email and they asked me to send the whole kit back to them for investigation.

The history of the beginning of this process can be tracked in this unresolved Better Business Bureau complaint that I finally filed - they had three failed attempts in contacting BulletCam for a resolution and they now have a mark on their record after months of no response.  Essentially, they acknowledged receipt of the kit, and then took over a month to look into the issue and give me a response.  When they asked what resolution that I wanted, I finally said that I wanted a refund, and I never heard from them again.  I called and left over fifty voicemails over the next few months, and as many emails as well.  I never received any further responses.

I tried contacting my credit card company at this point, but they said that they only handle problems within 90 days of purchase; after that, all information would have to be faxed and would be considered on an individual basis (didn’t look good from my standpoint, but still could be a last ditch hope).

I was really giving up hope.  I did some searching on the next, and started finding little tidbits like this one (google cache) where other people were getting similarly screwed out of refunds by the same company.

Grabbing at straws
Every once in a while I would go to BulletCam.com to see if they still appeared to be in business (they did).  I tried sending emails to them from other email addresses pretending to be a new inquiring customer, just to see if I could get a response (I didn’t).  Finally, one day I noticed that the website had changed!  Eeeeenteresing. 

There’s a link at the bottom of the new site going to http://www.develonet.com/, the website designers for the new site.  I started calling and talking to the main designer, Kirk Ziegler (no relation to Craig, I asked).  I talked with Kirk a couple times, explaining my situation and asking if he could get me into contact with Mike Doherty (the owner/operator of BulletCam).  He said that whenever he calls the number listed on the website, he gets through to Mike right away.  I explained that whenever I call, I get voicemail after a number of unanswered rings.  So, I gave my contact info to Kirk and asked him to pass it along to Mike.  Mike never called me back.

On future calls to Develonet, Kirk told me that Mike remembered me but said he never got any voicemails from me, nor any emails.  So, I emailed Mike cc’ing the webguys.  Kirk said he got the email from me, but never saw a response from Mike, and neither did I.

Again, I was feeling that I was just completely screwed.  I was really just grabbing at straws

A mind like a steel trap
Then, one morning at work (12/9/2004), I remembered an article I read on http://slashdot.org a while ago.  It talked about a new consumer service for caller-ID spoofing called Camophone..  I don’t know why I was thinking about it that morning, but my mind just connected the dots immediately on my way to work.

There was another article on Slashdot that appeared before the one about Camophone, but it was in regards to Star38.com which isn’t available for use by the general public.

I’ll be blunt. Camophone doesn’t look like a legitimate site.  It looks very plain and rather suspicious.  But the forums on the site looked fairly active enough to be legitimate, and hey, it was only going to cost me $5 to find out ($0.05 a minute, minimum of 100 minutes to charge your account with).  Within one second after the paypal transaction, my account on Camophone had the credits, and then, with a lot of trepidation, I placed the call.

Ring 1 (no answer)

Ring 2 (no answer)

At this point, I was losing hope.  Two more rings and it would go to voicemail like all of my other calls…

Ring 3: “Hey”

I did it.  Mike picked up the phone and answered like he was expecting to talk with Kirk.

I asked if it was Mike, he said yes, but seemed a little hesitant, and then I went into the schpeel quickly.  I reminded him who I was and that I wanted my refund.  He let me know that he never got any of the voicemails I left, but never responded to why he didn’t answer my emails or call me back when Kirk gave him my contact info.  I didn’t push.  He was already being too nice at this point.

He said he’d do the paypal refund right there on the phone.  We agreed on $369, and then he tacked on another $15 to cover the transaction fee from Paypal (that was actually a nice gesture that I hadn’t even asked for).  As soon as he sent it, I accepted the transaction and immediately initiated the withdraw into my bank account (didn’t want to give him a chance to rebuff the refund).

We got off the phone, and that was it.  I finally got my refund after seven months of trying. 

However, I made a mistake on the camophone website, and I guess I initiated a second call to Mike (BulletCam) either during or shortly after my main one to him.  It went into my voicemail and you can listen to his less than enthusiastic response to it.

Wrapping up
I highly recommend http://www.camophone.com if you think you have a legitimate reason to spoof your caller ID.  Spending 5 bucks there was well worth getting my $370 back.  The interface is rather lackluster, but boy does it do its job well.

AVOID bulletcam.com.  Customer service is horrendous and business practices lean towards illegal.

Additional References
* Beating Caller ID - http://artofhacking.com/files/BEATCID.HTM
Additional ideas on how to get around Caller-ID

Fantastic Four - avoid it

I wasn't all that impressed.  It was better than I had expected (but I had such LOW expectations), but I really didn't think it was all that great.

Having recently seen such great movies (Madagascar, Batman Begins, Mr. and Mrs. Smith, War of the Worlds), Fantastic Four just really pales in any comparison.

Well, hmmm...That was rather fast.

Well, last night I finished The Bourne Ultimatum.  Gotta tell ya...those Bourne books are all really, really, really good.

So, that's the last one that good 'ol Ludlum wrote....he unfortunately passed away in 2001 of a heart condition....real sad actually.

But, Bourne still lives! In the shape of The Bourne Legacy. Same character, different author.  I just started it.  I'm going in hesitantly though, 'cause I don't know if anyone can touch the character the way that Ludlum did, but I'm willing to give the guy a chance.

Oh my.  Read these books.

Damn...I need to see the movies again now.  I know that they have nothing to do the book, but I need more Bourne damnit.

Damn that was good

So, I just finished the Bourne Supremacy.

It was fucking awesome.

Highly recommended to anyone who liked the Bourne stories or movies. I will say that the book has absolutely nothing to do with the movie. They were two completely different stories with absolutely no similar plot points.  The book was definitely the better of the two stories regardless.

I just finished reading it having watched the entire first season of 24 in about 2 days.  While I definitely was picturing Matt Damon as my Jason Bourne/David Webb the first half of the book, after watching 24 it was hard to get Jack Bauer out of my head for that role.

Well, now I must continue.  Too many books to read. I have to finish the next book before Harry comes out on 7/16.  Argh. Too many good books.  Not enough time.

It's a good thing I gave up TV (at least until Smallville starts up in the Fall...)

It's like High School all over again

Sometimes I have to wonder if I've ever really grown up.

I always had imagined High School as being this very unique period in my life. I have many stories of that magical and mystic time that I could tell, but today I'll just focus on one.

Today's story, children, is the Story of Scheduling.

Ah, freshman year. The time of complete innocence. A time when one followed all the rules because the hint of administrative repercussions were enough to strike fear through our pristine hearts and souls. A time when you feared being tardy too frequently, or absent too many times.

Well, that didn't last long.

For my first two years in High School, I had Concert Band for my first period. There were a few great many benefits of this arrangement (band, arrangement. Hah! I kill me.) Anyway, two of the great benefits of having band first period were:

1. You could get there late, and they didn't really mind too much, as long as you weren't overly late and non-disruptive when you got your instrument and to your seat (and we avoided the eye of the real administration by having our own private entrance into the school)
2. Through the magical combination of orchestration and instruction, you often had some spare time while sitting in your seat to, oh, I don't know, do the homework for another class that was due that day.

It was great. Punctuality didn't matter, and you had the opportunity to do homework for other classes during that class. Perfect harmony in the universe was achieved. And then came junior year.

For the first time in my High School career, the rules were about to change. I was no longer going to have the "perfect" class first period. Instead, I was going to have AP Computer Science. Well, this turned out to be even more ideal. Since I was acing the class, my teacher didn't really care if I arrived late (provided I could still sneak by the administrators who did care), and since I got my work done very quickly in that class, I had plenty of time to work on other homework due that day.

Of course, many bad habits started to form during this whole time period as well.

Why do today what you can put off until tomorrow?

I started getting very good at estimation by determiming how much time my remaining homework would take me to complete, and then waking up that much earlier (something that is very hard for me to do, by the way) in the morning to try and do it. Well, as the years in High School progressed, the workload became heavy enough that, while possibly due to poor planning on my part, following the same algorithm sometimes meant that I couldn't go to bed anyway, because I needed all that time to do the assigned work. Well, not sleeping was never an option I was comfortable with accepting. Always one to weigh my options heavily, I took the only other natural response: I skipped classes and got to school late until the work was done.

It made perfect sense at the time. Especially during senior year when I had AP Calc first period. Damn that sucked. If half your body was outside the door when the bell rang, the rest of it wouldn't be allowed in until you got yourself a late slip. And other homework during AP Calc. Keep dreaming. Now mind you, this was usually just for my writing assignments. For some reason, my genius on paper could only be unleashed when there was complete and utter tension caused by the stress of an absolute immediate due date.

So, why the hell am I talking about all this stuff now?

Annual reviews

In the modern day corporate society, we have to re-validate our existence every year, by documenting everything that we've done, and reminding upper management why we're so great. Well, just like High School, I was in need of that impending doom stress before I could get my review done. Hell, I needed that pressure before I could even let myself get started.

So, it was due yesterday. Wednesday night, around 10pm I finally got started. After sifting through all of my weekly status reports and summarizing them all into a short file in Textpad, I gave myself a little reward by reading The Bourne Supremacy until I fell asleep.

***.

So, here it is, 10am on Thursday morning, the day that the annual review is due. I had of course started the waking up process at 6am. But, who are we kidding. I used snooze until even snooze just gave up and said, "The hell with it. Just sleep." So, I skipped some classes. I stayed home until it was done around 3pm. At that point, I figured it was pointless to physically go in to work, as I'd have to leave at 5:30 in order to make my fencing class.

With tele-commuting, I feel like my life has started to come full circle. I can once again not worry about being late, and provided that the work is done, no one seems to mind

Note to self: Hmmm....I think I need to work on better endings to my stories. That one was kind of dull.