Surrounded by Innumerates

I get home after being away for a couple weeks, and amidst the accumulated mail, there's a bill from a certain large department store chain that rhymes with serial killer John Wayne Gacy asserting that the store card card was used to purchase a few items of clothing, nothing extravagant, $38.12 total, and that oh, I should pay it by... today, or they'll tack on a dollar finance charge. So of course I go right over to the local store and pay it.

While I'm there, I note that at the bottom of the bill, there's a stated annual rate of 72.24%. That seems a little odd - even though I missed one of their bills a year or so ago, the rate really shouldn't be more than somewhere in the twenties. Not that it matters, as I don't carry a balance and hardly even use the card. I mention it to the cashier, who says, laughingly, not to be late.

After doing some math and figuring out that the daily periodic rate stated next to the annual rate multiplies out (1.0006822 to the 365th power) to about 28%, not 72% (which would be 100% minus 28%), I decide to call their customer service department... which is closed.

Their automated voice system tells me that my balance was $39.12 (which it wasn't; it was $38.12 since I paid on time) and that I paid $38.00 (which I didn't; my receipt clearly states I paid $38.12).

Given their apparent inability to do any kind of math at all, count money, et cetera, I've decided that these really aren't people I feel like having a credit account with. If I do buy from them in the future, I'll pay cash, and I'll count my change very carefully.

It's official: AOL is lame

They're not offering me enough...

So I got an offer (that I can refuse): Try AOL 9.0 blah blah blah and get a free 3-day, 2-night "getaway" at a Fairfield Inn by Marriott. Right-o. I think I can see a few problems with this:

1. It's not really 3 days, it's 2 nights. Nobody stays in the hotel during the day.
2. The closest Fairfield Inns to me are... over 2,000 miles away. No, it doesn't include airfare.
3. This presumes that they expect me to at least try AOL, and they're not indicating that they'll pay my usual (very reasonable, I might add) hourly rate for putting up with things that suck horribly.

So. All AOL needs to do is throw in airfare and a steamer trunk full of cash, and... I'll think about it. 

Giving Thanks

For what?

Thanksgiving is one of those interesting holidays that "seemed like a good idea at the time." I mean, heck, if you'd come to a new continent, survived the winter in mud caves courtesy of the friendly natives, then managed to actually plant and harvest some crops the next year so you could scrape out a meager existence... yeah, I could see being a little thankful for that.

As someone who does freelance, contract and consulting work - none of which generate much of anything resembling a "steady income" - I can relate a little to the whole thing of celebrating simply having survived another year.

But overall, since the first Thanksgiving? We've gotten progressively more (to the point where most of us now have too much, and I don't think I'm an exception to that rule)... and we take it for granted. Yes, we pay lip service to thankfulness one day out of the year, but even then, we don't stop and think about it all that much. What if we did?

"I'm thankful that there are twice as many computers in my house as there are people."

Hmmm. One or two of those computers aren't even used for anything, anymore. Sure, they're old, but not too old to run, say, Windows 95 or Linux. Somebody, somewhere, would probably be pretty excited to have one of those.

Maybe Thanksgiving should be a time to look at what we have, give thanks for having what we need and want, and try to think of ways our excess could better serve humanity.

Busy Month!

It would've been a busy month anyway, what with being in the midst of a large programming project, but infrastructure made it even more fun.

On the 16th, my long-awaited Power Mac arrived from Elk Grove. This represented a huge boost in processing power for the programming project and other computationally intensive work, but of course there was some time involved in getting it set up, transferring the project over to it, and so on.

Then, on the 24th, Apple released the latest version of their operating system, Mac OS X 10.3 "Panther." To maximize the amount of optimization for the new Power Mac, I upgraded to that, of course. There went another little chunk of time.

Now I'm into "crunch" mode, working on wrapping up the primary development phase of the project before getting ready to spend a couple months testing and tweaking!

Oh, what, you want my thoughts on the Power Mac? Okay, here they are. It's shiny! And fast. Put it this way - on a number of processors times number of megahertz basis, all the other computers I use regularly, combined, total up to only seventy-five percent of this one.

In other news, excerpts from the two chapters I wrote for John Levine's 2000 IDG book, "Internet Secrets 2nd Edition" are now available here.

I'm waiting for Elmo...

 Finally, a terror threat level... thing that even a four-year-old can grasp. Click on it. Go ahead.

Another plus to living here

It's nice to be able to go to the farmer's market and pick up some fresh cut flowers and greenery to brighten up the house a little bit. It's even nicer to get all the flowers and greenery shown here for... four dollars. Yes, really. After all, this island is one of the top areas for production of tropical flowers! The nifty purple vase in the center, incidentally, was also gotten at the farmer's market. It was made by Daniel Moe of Moe Hot Glass.

Stuff's getting vanquished left and right

Last month I mentioned an impending battle with the evil forces of leaky water-supply hoses to toilets. I am pleased to report a recent victory on that front. That which leaked was replaced; that which was loose was tightened, and the water now stays (or goes) where it's supposed to.

On the vanquishing subject, the Jackie Chan vehicle "The Medallion" was light, enjoyable fare for a matinee with somone today. If that other couple hadn't come in late, we'd have had the whole theater to ourselves! It was nice to see Gimli, er, John Rhys-Davies, in a good (if somewhat small) character role, and the blending of Chan's usual physical humor and martial arts with "wire-fu" and a bit more in the way of a "fantasy" plot was interesting.