Category: 沒有類 / Uncategorized

I went back and retested most of my last two 50 pack spindles of Ritek 8X DVD+R media using KProbe2. Found a total or 34 unusable or way-out-of-spec disks so far. That’s a ridiculous amount, considering that prior to this I’d have maybe 1 or 2 disks per 100 as bad burns at most with Ritek media. Meanwhile, no problems at all with the various new media I bought for testing (Maxell, Benq, Philips, and Sony). Goodbye, Ritek. Let me know when you’re out of rehab.

While I was gone, I received a package of the March through June issues of Science Fiction & Fantasy magazine to make up for their error in sending my subscription to the wrong country. Now let’s see if the July issue makes it here without problems.

A post from sylphon about exasperating customer service also reminded my of another magazine issue. I subscribe to InStyle magazine for my wife and for some reason didn’t receive a few issues. After figuring out which issues were missing, I went to their website which had a missing issue form. I filled it out and then got an error that it couldn’t be processed.

They said such requests could also be sent by email to customer service, so that was my next try. The site said that by default the subscription would be extended, though you could ask instead to have the issues replaced. So I write to them with my subscription details and the list of issues missed. Then hilarity ensues…

They reply back asking if I would like the issues replaced or the subscription extended. I thought extension was the default, but oh well.

I write back saying to please extend the subscription. I also include the previous email with my subscription details and list of missed issues.

They write back asking for my subscription address.

I write back with the subscription address. I also include the previous emails with the list of missed issues.

They write back asking for the list of missed issues.

Sensing a pattern of not reading the whole fricking email, I send back a message which includes all of the information they’ve requested in as simple a way as possible.

They write back that my subscription has been extended.

End of story? Oh no, that would be much too simple.

A little while later I get another email that my subscription has been extended.

It seems to me that crappy customer support like this ends up costing companies more than it saves. What should have taken one or two requests escalated into several, and then they ended up compensating me twice by mistake. That’s even before counting customer dissatisfaction.

Finally back home!

On my way to SFO airport now…

UPS batteries are usually the lead-acid kind (like car batteries) and need to be replaced every 3-5 years. My UPS recently started complaining that the batteries just weren’t adequate anymore. The batteries were over 7 years old at that point. Looking around the net, I found an excellent small company called Jammin Works which sells very economically priced battery replacement kits for APC UPSes. I was able to get battery kits through them for less than half what a APC branded kit would cost. I got them all installed and they are working out great. (An initial problem I had with them turned out to be due to a loose connection when I installed one of the batteries.) You can often get used UPSes pretty cheap because people don’t want to pay for the branded replacement batteries, so you can often get a good deal on one and replace the batteries yourself for pretty cheap.

Once you’ve done the upgrade, what do you do with the old batteries? It’s ecologically unsound (and in some places illegal) to just dump them in the trash. I tried calling the county hazardous waste department for suggestions, but they only have occasional drop offs for that sort of thing. Finally I found some information that some stores will take old batteries for recycling. One of those was Sears Auto Centers, so I called up a nearby one and they said they’d take them. I drove up there to the battery center and they rolled up a cart and took them off of me for no charge. Nice.

When I got my iPod Mini a few months back, I also got a Griffin iTrip Mini FM Transmitter to listen to it while driving. I should mention that for those who own a car, you really should look at getting a direct line in for your iPod to your car stereo or use a cassette adapter if you have a cassette deck. Either of these options is vastly superior to using an FM transmitter. I don’t own a car, so the only time I drive is in rentals. Most new cars used by rental agencies have CD standard these days, so a cassette adapter is not an option.

Even though I know that no FM transmitter is perfect, the iTrip Mini was still disappointing to me. The main things that bugged me:

– Changing the channel is difficult. A lot of my driving is long distance, which means having to change the broadcast channel every couple of hours, as the ’empty channel’ I was using becomes a used channel further on down the road. On the iTrip Mini to change the channel you need to stop the current song, go into a special playlist where the tuning files are, play the one for the channel you want until the light flashes and then press pause (and if your timing is off, you have to do it over again), then go back and start up the song you are playing. Now imagine trying to do that while driving. Worse distraction than using a cell phone! Ridiculous!
– Poor FM performance, lots of interference.
– Covers up the hold switch.

Recently I heard the XtremeMac has come out with a new iPod transmitter called the AirPlay. Reviews of it were generally very good, but what sold me was the tuning method. Instead of going with painfully complex procedures as above, they just have an up and down button on the transmitter with a backlit LCD to show the channel. Just tune up or down to the channel you want, and that’s it. You don’t even need to interrupt the song you are playing. Besides that, its FM performance seems to be much better. There is still some interference, but much less than with the iTrip Mini. The transmitter is also smaller, and does not cover up the hold button. Overall, I find it much better than the iTrip Mini. The one disadvantage is that the Airplay’s lowest channel is 88.3, while the iTrip Mini starts at 87.9.

After finishing up some computer maintenance yesterday morning, I drove down to Santa Barbara to my Dad’s house. My sister and her husband also were up from LA to visit. For dinner we went to a Peruvian restaurant called Zeño Manúe that rosminah went to last week. Pretty nice place, though the tables were a bit low for long legged people like me. I had empanadas for appetizer and Lomo Saltado for the main course, plus a glass of pinot noir.

Star Wars 3 is very good. If you were disappointed with parts 1 and 2, this’ll be a nice change.

I’m here!

*thump*

ZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Yesterday’s Taipei Times had a couple of interesting articles.

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/edit/archives/2005/05/16/2003254907

The first by Julian Wang is a good one urging President Chen to stop blaming everyone, and do something positive about cross-strait relations. Good comments, Julian.

—

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/edit/archives/2005/05/16/2003254968

The second is by Richard Hartzell, a prominent expat in Taiwan who has done a lot of good things in support of the foreign community here, who I respect a great deal. However, I have a strong disagreement with his view on sovereignty issues. His basic analysis is that the Japanese abandoned Taiwan in the 1952 San Francisco Peace Treaty but did not specify a recipient nation to take sovereignty over Taiwan. Further, he says that under international law, it is the occupying force that attains sovereignty in those cases, and since the US captured Taiwan from Japan, then it became and remains a US territory.

His argument is based on the interpretation that the ROC forces which also occupied Taiwan shortly after retrocession in October 25, 1945 were subordinate to the occupying US troops, and that the US did not transfer sovereignty by inviting ROC troops in and allowing them to take control. It’s a persuasive argument except on this point. There’s a few flaws to it though. Who determines which is the primary or subordinate occupying force? Does the initial liberating force always automatically get to determine sovereignty? If the initial liberating force is subsequently replaced by another occupying force, who is then in control?

In my opinion, the ROC became the primary occupying force shortly after retrocession, and was certainly the primary occupying force by 1949, not to mention by 1952 when Japan formally abandoned their claims to Taiwan. If they had captured the territory or Taiwan from the US by force, this would certainly be true by the above argument alone, so why should it be different if they occupied Taiwan by agreement? It certainly complicates matters that US forces remained in Taiwan for quite a while after this, but that is not necessarily an occupation. The US made no effort to form a governing body in Taiwan, while the ROC did. The US had every opportunity to either object at the ROC governing Taiwan or formally cede Taiwan to the ROC. Instead, the US chose to recognize the ROC government in Taiwan through the late 70s.

I think it is a flimsy argument, and that the ROC qualifies as an occupying force and thus gained sovereignty over Taiwan legally.

(As an aside, I suspect Richard Hartzell was the one who left the anonymous comment in my April 26 entry on my subscription problems.)