Google is Evil, Worse than PayPal: Don’t use Google Checkout for your business

Google is Evil, Worse than PayPal: Don’t use Google Checkout for your business: Don’t be evil’ my ass. So, to sum up our experience with Google Checkout:

they did not try to contact us to resolve any issue
there’s no way to find out why they closed our account, due to “security reasons”
there was no notice (we found out by accident, when we tried to pay for something with Google Checkout)
they kept over $200 of our money
there is no appeal
there is no one we can contact
we cannot open a new account
our money is gone, even though people have received their products
And I don’t know if you noticed, but that agreement section doesn’t actually have anything to do with this situation. It’s clearly just there to cause a sense of despair & make readers believe they have no legal recourse.[ They’re not the first people who have problems with Google’s position in the world. Google has too many policies like this, and it’s gotten very old. (An update.)]
Source: (24)Slash7

Where are the true believers?

Where are the true believers? – Good Experience: Or should we invest $50 billion in a new electronic medical record? That’s the proposal from the government, and I can’t imagine it changing anything. [I know they won’t for two reasons… and in this case I will stick to the computer tech of the situation. When I worked at a compnay that worked with hospitals, i saw first hand the mess that is many hospitals data infrastructure. I mean it’s really truly horrible. Monolithic, badly engineered hacks rule the day. I can imagine how it got there… but I blame the administrators who obviously invested the bare minimum in their infrastructure and now have a huge morass out of which to climb. Second is at a more personal level. I have a fine primary care physician. I trust him, he pays attention, knows the family history, etc. Because of the business side of the doctoring business he joined the equivalent of a conglomerate, which naturally centers their IT cost. All good, except they have a EMR system and when it fails to connect to the database (I wasn’t there as a tech, but as a patient) the system is worthless. No EKG or other tests. No access to records, no updates. Just a few simple paper pages to record new information that no doubt will have to be transcribed (with errors) by the staff. It’s 2009 for criminies sake… what the hell is that? No local storage? No syncing of records? What a freakin mess. And this from a major player in health care in my area. “Sucks” doesn’t begin to describe it…

BTW, as for the true believers… I think they’re there. I’m just not sure there’s enough of them where it matters.]

“New” Tech (things that have caught my eye)

Part of being a developer (IMHO) is keeping up with trends and ideas. I’m fond of “exploiting” the work of others to my benefit, and I love when folks simplify old gnarly issues. Anyway, every once in a while I write one of these posts to highlight some of the stuff I’ve been tinkering with in the lab. It acts a signpost for me, and reminds of projects often long gone by the time I look back. Some or all of these will appear in various projects at work or my own projects in the near future. Awesome stuff I assure you.

In no particular order they are

Smart-Grid Companies in ‘Feeding Frenzy’ Over Stimulus

Smart-Grid Companies in ‘Feeding Frenzy’ Over Stimulus: “Preston says she would include technologies that improve transmission and that use power more efficiently, such as advanced sensors and meters, energy-management software for both the grid and for individual households and energy storage that could help make wind energy, for example, available when it is needed. Berst said other technologies that could be included might be technologies that shift the times that appliances use energy, so that — for instance — your water heater might start up before the morning peak and store hot water until you need it for your shower…”
[Seven or eight years ago I worked with NYSERDA on a test of smart meters. We were learning whether folks would adjust their energy use if the the “non-socialized” rate for electricity. (When demand is high, the price is higher for the the utilities but they “even it out” to charge a flattened rate.) Anyway, some of the upside of all this is that assuming that utilities follow through on some of the stuff we tested (signaling price shifts so that it was easier to make decisions, or better yet, make smart controllers for devices that either run automatically when demand is low (pool pumps at night is a classic example) or at least warning you when you turn on your dishwasher that if you can wait, it’ll be cheaper, etc. would be nice.

Further, smart meters require connectivity. It can be done in a drive by way as it is where population density is high (a truck drives triggering data dumps from the meters), but it would be better if they worked on increasing connectivity at the same time. Might provide some payback for people who just might wind up with higher utility bills.]

Applying changes to hosts file on OS X (without restarting)

Some machines seem to have no problem with changes to the hosts file, others seem to have quite a bit of trouble with caches and things hanging onto information. This has worked once or twice now, and I thought I’d bother to re-document it (for myself at very least).

To add an entry:
Edit /etc/hosts
sudo niload -v -m hosts .  Clear Private data and clear things.
lookupd -flushcache

To remove the entry:
Edit /etc/hosts
sudo niload -v -d hosts .  Clear Private data and clear things.
lookupd -flushcache
Notice the -d for deletion.

Source: Coding In Paradise

Other people’s broken monetary models

One can hope and work toward not having a broken financial model. We’ve seen many. WordPress (where this blog is hosted) never informed me that the custom domain for which I pay them a pittance as an “upgrade” needed renewal… until they turned it off.

Thanks WordPress! Way to annoy my readers (few though they may be), me (your customer), and fail to collect your rightful due for almost six months. Simply lovely all the way ’round.

Few and far between… but it starts now

Picture 2.png Rides have been few and far between. Busy at work (thank goodness!), uncooperative weekend weather, etc. But the clock changes marks the official start of ride season, and this was the inaugural ride of the club.

Now the problem with riding this weekend is that everyone is short on sleep. But this was going to be interesting because the weather was soooo cooperative. I mean 60+ degrees (F)? When it might snow in a couple of days? So 16 folks turned out (that’s a lot for our little club).

I expected this ride to be interesting because you have folks who haven’t looked at their bikes all winter, and probably put them away in need of repair or service. And certainly, there were going to be people who are deeply out of shape from a lack of winter biking.

And the ride did not disappoint. One person who is new to clipless pedals fell over in the parking lot. Others crawled up the one incline (I refuse to say hill). Someone else broke a spoke (and I watched as the reflector attached to said spoke was slowly beaten to death on the left seat stay. Normally I’d be surprised that it would take someone so long to pull over and stop considering the racket and destruction going on back there, but this person’s drivetrain was making so much noise prior that I don’t think he noticed. And of course, over all the pace was glacial. That’s how these rides go though…

Of course, my own fitness needs a lot of work—I was soundly thrashed at each town line sprint I contested (“contested” just might be too strong a word). But I did climb that incline in the big ring with no trouble, which is the outcome of a lot of work too, so things are looking promising.

All in all, it was great to see everyone, nice to see so much enthusiasm on the roads (so many folks riding today), and a while I suspect it will be freezing for a while yet… today was brimming with hope and renewal, and the always fun spark that represents the beginning of yet another seasonal campaign in pursuit of health, fitness, and fun. Allez!

Conan, please stay!

Conan's office window
Some of the folks at the office are distraught at the departure of Conan O’Brien and posted a large sign in the window that faces his office saying “Conan, Don’t Go!” and above you can see the response… “I already bought the tickets.” I understand he waved as well, although apparently, I’m once again not part of the in crowd and missed the event itself.

While I don’t have a picture, one of my fellow devs posted a “F” in our window, which expressed his feelings about the entire thing without causing a corporate stir.

A few minutes out of the otherwise routine days we spend toiling away at our various tasks.

And while I’m mentioning my brushes with greatness, Little Stevie van Zandt of Springsteen and Sapranos fame picked up his Range Rover up from the lot where I park. While I’d never met him before, he was pleasant to anyone who walked over and said something to him. Nice.

First!

jones_shadow_small.png So it took month but I finally completed the first ride (of any distance) for the year. First I was sick, and the weather has been uncooperative to say the least. I still don’t need great weather, but the roads have been covered in ice and slush and salt, and the trails are too far away… so other than some turns around the backyard, and some hiking… feh.

Today was sunny, bright, and relatively warm (45 degrees give or take), so I grabbed a bike, found Jenni and went for a spin through the park. There were some sketchy parts, but mostly it was quite lovely, and overall it was a lovely spin. Big, fat, knobby tires were the order of the day and as a bonus they make you work pretty much all the time. The 165 cranks still feel little weird to me, but less so. I may try switching them out for slightly longer ones, but not just yet.

I wore some new cycling duds, a birthday gift from my wife… Jenni berates me into mentioning, and I also met the first day of “28 Days of Exercise” easily on this ride. Another first. I’m tweeting using #twentyeightdays, thinking about using #dailygoals as well (Since it can be tracked easily.

What does one call a collection of firsts? Suggestions welcome.

Merrell Thermo 6 Waterproof (recommended)

thermo6waterproof.png Everyone once in a while I run into a product (that is, I wasn’t looking at the time) that turns out just great. The Merrell Thermo 6 Waterproof
 is once such product.

It’s been very snowy already and all my boots and shoes are getting wet and ruined. They’re not meant for winter except for one pair, and I can’t wear them all the time (like to work) because they’re high, and lot of my pants don’t fit over them, and they’re not appropriate looking for work (that’s a whole ‘nother discussion).

I was returning a pair of gloves Noah picked out for my birthday (wrong size), and I saw the aforementioned boots. I saw that they were going to be waterproof, nice grippy looking soles, soft around the ankles, and insulated. Perfect! I tried a couple of sizes just to be certain, they’re really comfortable and warm (for the conditions in which I intend to wear them.)

I was out in them today with a few inches of snow, some sledding with Noah, and some shoveling and car clearing, and they were everything I expected at 14 degrees F.

So if you need a nice, not too costly pair of 3 season water resistant boots (but not just a membrane thing, but a “plastic” boot) recommended.