Author: BillSaysThis

My morning in (small claims) court

To cut to the chase, I don’t know the outcome since the commissioner feels the need to review plaintiff’s submitted documents.

Last summer I made the poor decision to do some hourly computer work for a person I thought was a friend. To say it turned into a nightmare that is hopefully now going to end is an understatement.
This person initially asked me to show how to use Twitter, Facebook, clean up some old stuff on an existing computer and see why backups were apparently not working. However just before I got to the office the additional request of selecting and setting up a new netbook was added.
Over several weeks I did 25 hours of work, though really we never got to the initial requests as getting a working netbook kept getting in the way. To put this politely, I reached the tolerance limit for working in an increasingly negative environment.
Some weeks later I started getting emails requesting additional help and then a refund of most of the small fee I’d charged. I refused but as the emails (and snarky remarks when we happened to be in the same place) kept coming in, despite my repeated requests to leave me be, I unfortunately got increasingly negative in response.
On a number of occasions this person threatened to sue me. Finally a month or so ago I was served and today was the specified appointment.
Small claims is interesting, and generally a good idea. You don’t tie up real courts and require expensive legal assistance to resolve small dollar value claims. There are even volunteer mediators who attempt to get parties to settle without going before the judge.
The process is also informal: the plaintiff makes a statement, the defendant makes a statement, if either side brings a witness those people make statements and each side can make a rebuttal. The judge can ask questions at any point he or she deems fit.
The person suing me brought a thick volume of printouts–amusingly this person was suing their homeowners association as well and gave the judge the wrong set of documents–while I brought none.
What really surprised me is how differently the plaintiff and I recall the events in question. Memory is so subjective! Of course I believe I told the truth and I won’t say the plaintiff feels different about their statements. The plaintiff brought a witness, a mutual friend, but I think his testimony helped me as much as it did the plaintiff.
I hope the decision goes in my favor since of course I feel I did nothing wrong. Also, I did some research on the State of California website and couldn’t find any legal basis for the plaintiff’s claim so there’s that too.

As 2009 passes to the rear

So 2009 is ending, and more with a petering out than excitement and cheer. I’m in a summing up mood, so here goes.

Sydney: This little puppy has definitely been a high point. He is very 2009, sporting his own albeit not too active Twitter account. Five months old now so probably close to his full growth at about a dozen totally cute pounds. He needs to learn to stop whimpering incessantly to try and get what he wants.
Kachingle: This startup has been another one for the plus column. I really enjoyed spending a few months writing heads-down Rails code and am now in the marketing team, as originally intended. If I got one holiday wish I would use it to get the angel funding round we’re actively seeking–if you know anyone looking to invest in a very new, web-oriented revenue system please speak up!
Family: Everyone is in reasonably good health or better. Mom and Dad are enjoying life in the Princeton area, though we didn’t get to see them this year due to work and scheduling issues. Joanne, Larry and Jake got a new custom-built house but had to postpone the trip here this coming week as my bro got a last minute work emergency he had to stay and clear. We finally saw most of TS1’s siblings the week before last–hope to meet our first grandnephew soon!
House: Put in a new fence back in February but didn’t start on the new landscaping. With luck this will get going in February or March. With help from the Big Guy I put in some floor-level venting in the garage, which got us a major reduction in the flood insurance. Obama gave us a hand too, with his mortgage program getting us a 75 basis point rate reduction.
JHTC and Volunteering: Not sure where I’ll score this. We had 12 really good monthly events but the board is having serious communication issues that brought me down a lot throughout the year. My planned rewrite of the website in Rails didn’t get finished. And 2010 membership renewals are just not happening, sadly. On a positive note I had a couple of meetings at the beautiful new Oshman Family JCC and will be helping as they rebuild their web presence.
Travel: Besides not going to Jersey in June we didn’t take a single plane ride or stay in any hotels. For 2010 we have to get to see my folks and are looking for a dog-friendly California resort to use our timeshare week, preferably in the Summer.
I hope you and your loved ones are happy and healthy and become only more so in the new year. L’chaim!

You cannot know me

[Haven’t posted a new poem in a while…]

You cannot know me
You cannot breach the wall
Of the Universe which
Separates me from you

A camel is more likely to
Sashay through a needle’s eye
No words shouted loudly or
Seared into another’s skin

Confusion sadly is part and parcel
Questions go unanswered
Philosophical investigations trail
Off unto nothingness and always will

You cannot know me
Men and women, tine after tine
Have spent their lengthy lives
Wasted in contemplation

What can you know?
What do you see and hear?
What are you able to do?
What do you feel deep within?

Email Clients: Please join us in the 21st Century

Sorry but I am just fed up. Mail.app, Outlook, Thunderbird, all of them are stuck in the past and the developers need to get their acts together before users collectively hunt them down for silly slapping.

Dear email client developers,
Your software runs on these machines called “computers.” Please write your software to use their functionality. Here are three improvements I offer at no charge which, as a programmer, seem not that difficult to implement. Do two and you’re my pal, do three and I will buy you dinner.
I should be able to designate a default account from which to send messages on a per contact or per domain basis; messages to co-workers should come from my work account, messages to mailing lists should come from the account subscribed to that list.
Spam is a huge headache. However if I mark a message as not spam I should be able to indicate the sender address should from then on be considered not spam, without adding the sender to my contact list.
In this era of multiple email accounts unified inboxes are great. But many people write rules to get messages sorted to other folders. So how about making it easy to see all unread messages in one place regardless of account and folder?
Feel free to follow up with questions or comments on Twitter.
Your ardent admirer,
Bill

US Soccer, FIFA Rankings and the new US Invitational

From SpoFi today one of my compadres commented: “I’m not sure there’s a good way to produce rankings for a sport where teams might face each other in competitive games no more often than every four years, and usually much less than that, but I am sure that if there is a way FIFA haven’t found it yet.“
You have to start with the fact that most games–the competitive ones which count–are against the other countries in the same region. So other than Mexico and with less consistency Costa Rica and Honduras the US do not play too much quality opposition outside of the World Cup. We rack up points against the Cubas, Canadas and Jamaicas towards FIFA’s scoring system.
Some people claim that to significantly improve our national team MLS need to switch to a European calendar (with a Scandinavian-style winter break) but MLS has never agreed. Adding teams in Toronto, Seattle, Portland and Vancouver recently make such a change even less likely. MLS promotion/relegation is another popular idea that will go nowhere in our lifetimes.
Instead I think US Soccer should push CONCACAF to put the Gold Cup on a four year schedule like the Euro and then in the vacated year organize a new tournament: the US Invitational.
Invite seven big national teams to play in the USI at our best stadiums. Everyone gets a big payday–just look at the huge attendance at the club friendlies and Gold Cup matches last month–its TV friendly and, for us, gets the US quality regular intercontinental competition.
The tournament would need to avoid being seen as competing with the Confederations Cup, easily done by simply not inviting the other continental association champions. Similar to how the Europa League takes the teams who just missed the Champions League (sort of). Say Argentina, Chile, England, Russia, Nigeria, Ivory Coast and Australia.
Does anyone have Sunil Gulati’s phone number? This could be up and running in 2013 or 2015 and, having had some organizational experience, I’d be glad to give a helping hand.

The Truth About the Health Care Debate

The current Democratic-back health care legislation has induced more rhetoric, emotion and disinformation since the Swift Boat Campaign. A very apt comparison since there’s about as much truth in the opposition in both. “Death panels” please! Like a politician would do something so utterly guaranteed to lose votes.

Beyond the baying (of both side, by now, to be sure) are hopefully some truths.
Spending in America on health-related goods and services is growing at a painful rate. Pundits have said we’ll soon be a nation of burger flippers and baristas but I think the more accurate forecast is for a nation of doctors, nurses and billing office clerks. And the government bureaucrats who regulate them.
Second, people without health insurance cost the system a lot more than people realize. Under current law hospitals generally must care for someone without concern of his or her ability to pay so the uninsured wait until they’re too sick to deal with it themselves and show up at the emergency room.
Who exactly do you think pays to make up for this?
One consequence of this waiting is that uninsured sick people are far more likely to spread any infectious disease. This is the same thing as a sick co-worker showing up because she’s “too dedicated.” Next week half the office are ill and productivity is shot; plus this effect follows on as the co-workers infect family and others with whom they interact.
Working uninsured people are far more likely to have jobs that pay by the hour and if they can’t afford insurance, how can they afford to miss a day’s work/pay?
So directly and indirectly allowing nearly 50 million Americans to be uninsured is a mistake, costing the rest of us money and our own health.
Let’s not forget about the moral component of the issue. Most of the opposition to the public option seems to be coming from conservative Republicans and these people overwhelmingly self-identify as deeply religious. All of their Bibles (and Torahs and Korans) speak of the need to show compassion, to care for a brother in need.
I’m not claiming that the current bill is a panacea. Written by politicians and lobbyists, that would be impossible and anyway I’m no expert to suggest a better solution.
What I do know is that the current environment, with politicians and pundits making up whatever nasty shit they think is needed to defeat a major Obama initiative regardless of how good or bad it might be for the country, is sad and self-defeating.
Our current culture is like some spreadsheet model where the analyst is trying optimize every variable. Tweak, tweak, a little more extreme here, a little more extreme there. Boom, you have AIG, Lehman and the economic meltdown, where no common sense at all was allowed to intrude. Bam, you have national politics where where every issue must be won or, most aptly, every opponent must be defeated.
Truth? Phhhhhh!

EPL starts tomorrow and the fantasy league is on!

As usual SportsFilter is having its own league, plus I put my team in Ives Galarcep’s SBI league and Michael Romero’s Liverpool fans league.

The players I’m launching with are
Goal: Mark Schwarzer/Fullham
Defense: Bret Hangeland/Fullham, Ryan Shawcross/Stoke City, Maynor Figueroa/Wigan
Midfield: Steven Gerrard (Captain)/Liverpool, Frank Lampard/Chelsea, Dirk Kuyt/Liverpool, Jon Obi Mikel/Chelsea
Forwards: Jozy Altidore/Hull, Fernando Torres/Liverpool, Bobby Zamora/Fullham
Subs: Tomas Sorenson/Stoke City, Phil Neville/Everton, Kamil Zayatte/Hull, Michael Turner/Hull
Note that the fantasy rules limit selections to three players per club, one must select two keepers, five defenders, five midfielders and three strikers, and at least three defenders must be played.
Last year I dropped a few slots to 10th in the SpoFi league, mostly due to not having Cristiano Ronaldo as my captain when most others did but as he’s on holiday in Spain this should be less of a problem.
I’m hopeful of recovering my ‘Champions League’ position of two seasons ago as Stevie, El Nino and Dirk bring goals and gold to Anfield!

Wells Fargo #fail

Do you know that Wells Fargo will take any reason to switch retail customers to online only statements?

  1. If there are two people on an account and one chooses online only statements and the other chooses online and paper (the only two options), Wells Fargo will force the account to be online only. Even though the other choose is more inclusive and customer-friendly.
  2. Customer are asked constantly, nearly every time one logs in to their online system, to switch to online only statements. I mean for years on and on. I guess its too much to think that answering a question once, or maybe twice, would be good enough.
Forget about trying to get a straight answer from the customer service reps. I don’t blame the individuals, they’re only following instructions handed down from on high, but since customers can only speak with the front line reps I guess we’re stuck.

Brazil 3-2 USA: And the future

Yesterday was a great day. When Clint Dempsey put in the first goal I was jumping and screaming, though I had to see the replay to believe it. When Landon drove home the second just past Julio Cesar’s leaping form I was laughing with joy and pounding the countertop.

And then reality set in. Or at least Bob Bradley’s reality. 40 seconds after the restart Luis Fabiano secured the Golden Boot by nutmegging Jonathon Spector and Brazil had their stride back.
When Sasha Kleschjen was subbed in I knew in the back of my mind we were done. This is how we really missed Michael Bradley: Bennie Feilhaber did a decent job in his place but we were left without a quality sub. Bradley the Gaffer could have done a better job in the locker room at the half because letting in three second half goals after pitching first half shutouts once is on the players but twice is on the boss.
My big hope is that with this tournament and a good showing next Summer, at least last eight and preferably last four, will change the minds of the next Rossi or Subotic. Think where the US would be with those two youngsters in the squad!
Now I know we have players born in other countries playing for us, and may soon have another in Jermaine Jones, but the difference is that, for example, Freddie Adu came to the US with his parents as a small child while Rossi was not only born here but lived in the US through high school (give or take). He plays for Italy based on his father’s birth certificate.
In any case I’m not saying players should be prevented from choosing to play elsewhere, rather that US Soccer should be their choice.
I also think the attitude question is subject to generational change. A generation ago we didn’t even think to qualify for the World Cup, nor did we have a serious professional league. This generation expects to qualify, and regularly win our regional tournaments, and MLS is seen as a place to start before hopping to a European club.
Next generation, the kids who are 8-12 now, will expect to win. Against anyone.

USA 2-0 Spain

For those of you who somehow managed to avoid seeing this result, how did you do it? LOL.

For me beating the world numero uno, 15 straight wins, 35 straight undefeated La Furia Roja is one of the greatest results in USA team history. Right up there with beating Mexico in the 2002 World Cup round of 16 and the wins over Brazil and Portugal.
Spain completely dominated possession, shots on goal and the US even finished a player down. Tim Howard, the back four and midfield were outstanding in defense, I’m hardpressed to pick between Howard, Oguchi Onyewu and Jay Demerit for Man of the Match. Landon Donovan was everywhere today, playing at the outstanding level he showed before his disastrous spell at Bayern Leverkusen and MLS return with the Galaxy.
Livingston’s own Jozy Altidore had the first goal, matching strength against Joan Capdevilla and winning. Landon and Dempsey combined for the second, nice close in work inside Spain’s six yard box. Both times $150 million-rated keeper Iker Casillas could do no more than get fingertips to the ball.
USA also suffered again at the hands of referee Jorge Lariondo. This clown was horrendous at the 2006 World Cup, sending off two Americans in our game against Italy. He was below average but not terrible until inexplicably pulling a red card out against Michael Bradley in the 87th minute. FIFA must, I mean MUST, revoke his international license.
We may lose big to Brazil again on Sunday–but no one can fairly say the USA hasn’t earned their place in the final.

Safeway: Customer Service, Marketing Fail

[Note: I sent this email to Safeway over a week ago and have not received so much as an automated response.]

I am very unhappy about the false promise made by Safeway regarding accumulation of 10 cent per gallon discounts. I live in Mountain View, CA, and shop at the store on Shoreline Blvd. Given that I’ve accumulated 6 or 7 and the discount expires next 10 days I tried to use it yesterday only to find out that I cannot, at least not in any reasonable way. $0.60 * 14 gallons to fill up is $8.40 (or $9.80 for 7), a meaningful amount in these days of rising gas prices.

I looked very carefully at the related pages on Safeway.com and find nothing that says the reward can only be redeemed at Safeways which sell gas, just “participating locations.” But nowhere are participating locations listed and the closest such Safeway is in Pleasonton, over 40 minutes drive from here! Past similar programs have been redeemable at the Arco next to the Safeway at which I shop.

Indeed the PowerPump Locator page lists three locations in Mountain View (when I enter zip code 94043). But instead of being places where one may redeem the reward these are the three stores you have in town and this distinction is not mentioned at all.

To me this is similar to false advertising since Safeway is creating the same false expectation that I’m getting a deal by shopping at the store. Either the company should arrange for location redemption locations or stop making the claim on every receipt I get.

Guiseppi Rossi and being American

Ives Galarcep had a good post today, Hating Giuseppe Rossi, that made me think a bit about this American-born emerging soccer star who scored twice against the US team yesterday at the Confederations Cup. Rossi was born and raised in New Jersey but due to FIFA regulations is allowed to play for Italy since both his parents were born there.

On the one hand I’m sad that a player of his quality, who could easily be part of a new generation that might have lifted our national team quality to where we’d be serious challengers for World Cups, decided to play for a nation that is the reigning World Cup holder and has no shortage of top flight players. Neven Subotic, a defender, seems to fall into this bucket as well.
Soccer fans from other countries criticize our team and say we’ll never really measure up, but if our potential world class stars play for Italy or Serbia how can we?
I have no issue with Americans playing club ball in Europe or Mexico. Heck, this only makes them better when they line up in red, white and blue. And honestly, MLS is years away from the financial state that will allow them to be competitive with those clubs. Having Dempsey, Gooch, Altidore and so forth playing MLS ball doesn’t seem likely to put all that many more fannies in seats for now.
The other issue I have with Rossi’s choice is tied in with how I feel about California ballots and other printed literature coming in English, Spanish, Vietnamese and other languages and having to listen to business phone lines tell me to press 1 for English or 2 for Spanish over and over.
I have no problem with legal immigration in America, in fact I think our country has benefitted enormously from it. But if someone comes here because the opportunity is so much better than where he or she was born and especially if that opportunity becomes reality, than these people should be Americans.
Not just legally but culturally. Celebrate your heritage–I am after all president of the Jewish High Tech Community–but learn English, be part of the whole community and not just your local ex-country’s and when it comes to sports root for the frakking US team. If your family is from Italy and the Italian team is playing Brazil root for Italy but if its Italy v. US, root for the USA.
And if your kid starts showing serious soccer skills, raise him to believe that his highest (sports) destiny is to wear our colors! Not the colors of the country that you left behind for a better life.

A Wave Idea for Dev Teams

Google Wave has really caught my attention the last few days. Vidar Hokstad’s post Google Wave as Infrastructure was very insightful and inspiring.
Here is a thought of mine of a way to use Wave in software development, as a sophisticated project center. A dynamic gathering place of practical types of content. Something people suggested wikis might be good for when wikis first started appearing.
My illustration below is not intended to be exhaustive but just a thought piece since, of course, it would require many types of applications to get Wave-enabled. That will take time and software execs with belief.
a-software-dev-wave

A Wave Idea for Dev Teams

Google Wave has really caught my attention the last few days. Vidar Hokstad’s post Google Wave as Infrastructure was very insightful and inspiring.
Here is a thought of mine of a way to use Wave in software development, as a sophisticated project center. A dynamic gathering place of practical types of content. Something people suggested wikis might be good for when wikis first started appearing.
My illustration below is not intended to be exhaustive but just a thought piece since, of course, it would require many types of applications to get Wave-enabled. That will take time and software execs with belief.
a-software-dev-wave

Boycott Steven Cohen

[This is the letter I sent Fox Soccer Channel today in support of the Boycott Steven Cohen campaign]

To whom it may concern,

Steve Cohen has, and not for the first time, told lies about the deaths the 96 fans at Hillsborough, claiming that Liverpool fans were responsible for killing their own, amongst other lies. Is this the type of person you want representing your company? Steve Cohen has done this before, apologising when the outrage grew too large only to continue with his comments a short time later. Clearly, he will not stop, so our objective is to see him being put off air permanently.

Fox Football Phone-in used to be enjoyable and good for a laugh but now I cannot watch it at all. If there were another way for me to watch English football than FSC you can be sure I would.

I urge you to reconsider your use of Cohen.

I will be posting this message to my blog and elsewhere until your support for Steve Cohen and his lies ends.

Thank you,
Bill Lazar
http://billsaysthis.com

NCIS: Los Angeles and other Fall TV pronouncements

So the wizards at CBS have done it again. This is the network with the oldest demographic and having just turned 48 I shouldn’t be surprised that more of its shows are getting on my list. NCIS, for instance, who can resist Mark Harmon as a hardcase?

I saw the two episode backdoor pilot they ran a few weeks ago featuring LL Cool J and Chris O’Donnell and wasn’t shocked to see “NCIS Spinoff” listed on the likely CBS Fall schedule. Sure enough this got a pick up but with what name? NCIS: Los Angeles! I know older folks prefer simplicity and the naming pattern seems to have done the network well with CSI: Wherever but still?!?! On the good side, I suppose this means we won’t be getting a CSI: LA.
The team is part of NCIS’s Office of Special Projects which, unlike Harmon’s team, does mainly undercover investigations plus they have much newer tech toys. I was hoping the series would be called OSP but what can you do?
Don’t forget, NCIS is itself a spinoff from the late, unlamented JAG. Acronyms must be another simplification us old coots prefer.
Other CBS
The producers at Without a Trace must have realized the jig was up. Props to them for getting Danny and Elena married, resolving the Jack/Samantha/Brian triangle well and not leaving anyone hanging off a cliff.

Numb3rs was allegedly on the bubble but will be back and no surprise so will The Mentalist, though moved to Thursdays at 10. If you haven’t been watching this one, give it a look as its one of the most ‘fun’ police dramas in a long time.

Elsewhere
[Note: The Futon Critic has all the gory details, which you may want to start with at this Fall ’09 schedule chart.]
NBC did pick up Chuck, hurray! Only 13 episodes and it will timeshare Mondays at 8 with Heroes, meaning the latter will not get an increase of the announced 19 episode order and Mr. Bartowski won’t be returning until March. Earl won’t get to finish his list of amends as the never quite funny enough My Name is Earl is done.
While I have been a loyal Law & Order viewer the entire 19 year year I think the show has more than run its course and would have much preferred to see Life renewed and paired with Southland.
Fox did renew Lie to Me and Fringe, very nice thank you, but unfortunately chose Dollhouse over Sarah Connor Chronicles. While the former has pretty much everything you would think I like–Joss Whedon, Eliza Dushku, semi-science fiction plus action plot–I watched the first couple of episodes and snored.
Lie to Me was generally compared to Mentalist for the similarity of the lead characters but over the course of their first seasons showed themselves to be very different in practice.
Tuesdays will be strange for those of us who generally dislike reality fare, as ABC, NBC and Fox will all be showing ‘unscripted’ series in the 8-10 block. Fortunately CBS will have the NCIS/NCIS: LA pair during that time.

Happy 6th!

Six years ago tonight TS1 and I stood up in front of family and friends to pledge our love and lives together. Simply put, I’ve never made a better decision: no woman is a better match for me and she gives me hope that the future will be ever better.

Our wedding photo

For all of you still searching for a partner in life I wish only that you find someone as wonderful as Viv!

Happy 6th!

Six years ago tonight TS1 and I stood up in front of family and friends to pledge our love and lives together. Simply put, I’ve never made a better decision: no woman is a better match for me and she gives me hope that the future will be ever better.

Our wedding photo

For all of you still searching for a partner in life I wish only that you find someone as wonderful as Viv!

Wither the Republicans?

Two interesting GOP things today:

  1. Arlen Spector will run for reelection as a Democrat: The senior senator from Pennsylvania recognized he has drifted too far to the center to win a sixth term as a Republican. Once Al Franken is freed of Norm Coleman’s death rattles this will give the Dems a filibuster-proof majority.
  2. Cheney for President: A NYT OpEd column by Ross Douthat that jumps off from the idea that Dick Cheney ought, by his own lights, have been the Republican nominee against Obama. Not that Cheney ever said this nor is Douthat suggesting a different election outcome.

My opinion of the Republican party is no secret: I think they are, on the whole, sleazier and more hypocritical than Democratic politicians. To use less directly derogatory terms, GOP positions are based more on emotion than logic and are far less logically consistent; further they are far less open to true intellectual debate. How many officeholding Dems during the Bush years said, as Gov. Rick Perry (R-TX) recently did, that his or her state should secede from the Union?

This latter incident is one example of how Republicans are showing their true colors. My way or the highway. Cheney has been giving interviews–after President Obama changed government policy on the use of torture and released the Bush DOJ memos giving legal cover for it–claiming that America is now less safe.
“I think that’s a great success story,” he said to Politico.com of using torture as an intelligence gathering tool. The problem is that any actual intelligence or results from them is classified and so impossible for Americans to judge. Given how badly Cheney and Bush lied about similar things, like Saddam Hussein possessing weapons of mass destruction, I can’t just take his word for it.
As for Sen. Spector I’m happy to have his vote in the Democratic column as long as it doesn’t come at too high a price. Frankly I think he’s switched to save his political bacon since Pat Toomey seemed likely to whip him in the Republican primary.
Spector is already 79 years old with health problems; given a surging Democratic majority in the state, I’d rather see him switch now but retire when his term ends at the end of 2010 and put his weight behind a younger, real Dem candidate. Yes he’s long been a friend to Labor and voted for Obama’s stimulus package, which are causing him trouble with hardcore PA Republicans, but his foreign policy and finance positions are problematic.
Both these things, Cheney and Spector, illustrate the GOP move away from their so-called Big Tent policy and back towards the Goldwater/Nixon era Jesus and guns first, last and always litmus tests.