Everything Great is *Nixbased

I have always liked the whole idea behind Freecycle. For those of you who don’t know what The Freecycle Network is, here is an explanation from Wikipedia:

“The Freecycle Network (often abbreviated TFN) is non-profit organization registered in the state of Arizona, USA, that organizes a worldwide network of “gifting” groups, aiming to divert reusable goods from landfill. It provides a worldwide online registry, and coordinates the creation of local groups and forums for individuals and non-profits to offer and receive free items for reuse or recycling, promoting gift economics as a motivating cultural outlook. “Changing the world one gift at a time” is The Freecycle Network’s official tagline.”

To simplify even further I offer my definition: The Freecycle network is a bunch of groups (mainly yahoo groups) which trade their unwanted stuff to each other instead of tossing it in the trash. Their are groups for different regions all over the world, sometimes there may even be multiple groups for areas near you.

Okay now since we all get the idea, I’m moving on. The reason I really like the idea of Freecycle is that it’s free. I like free stuff and so does everyone else in the world. In some areas you can even find a free car up for grabs from time to time. So it all sounds great right? Well in some areas it is, atleast according to my buddy Trent his area is great about being fair and using the system the way it is designed. Not so much in my area.

Each area has it’s own variants on the basic rules and etiquette of the local Freecycle group. The local group has an extensive set of guidelines most of which are rarely followed such as:

KEEP IT FREE, LEGAL & APPROPRIATE FOR ALL AGES. This means, for example, no Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms or Drugs, legal or otherwise. Two strikes and you’re outa the group. This is our main Freecycle rule to live by and it’s a pretty easy one at that. No advertising your yard sale, though, as you’re looking for money and that isn’t free..

YOUR FIRST POST EVER TO THE GROUP MUST BE AN OFFER In the spirit of giving, we would ask that you make your first posting to the group an “OFFER” . No offer is too small…

NO TRADING PLEASE. Go to your local trading organization for this. It can be quite fun.

Each section of a rule indicated in bold is broken on a regular basis. The part about that which really bothers me is the Keep it Free rule. One would think this is a given seeing as the name is Freecycle after all but somehow when requesting an item I get people emailing with items for sale and even a few items for sale make it onto the group messages.

The other thing that bothers me is the pattern I’ve noticed as of late. I notice items being added, immediately going to pending pickup and then taken status within a 5 minute time period. This is physically impossible if the item was actually freecycled. There are obvious abusers of the system as well. People register with multiple accounts while others just trade between small groups of friends. What a waste of time, effort and bandwidth that is. Heck I’ve even seen Freecycle users collect items for free and resell them at yard sales.

What is needed in this case is a total change in who is moderating (or not moderating) the group.

I’m curious if anyone else has experienced this with a Freecycle group. Don’t get me wrong, I know some groups are doing it right and that is great but I’m at the point where the local group is not going to see me posting my items anymore. I’d feel more secure giving them to the Salvation Army.

Note: This is Posted in General tech because it’s mainly an online activity and a sort of social network on the web.

Is it just me or is their too much information out there? When looking up anything on the net we go take a gander at Google and browse through the results reading everything we can. When the subject we are searching is really significant in our lives we sometimes even join online communities related to that topic. The problem is the advice within various communities seem to shape the views of many people therefore creating so many opinions on the same subjects that a new person looking for answers related to that subject don’t know who or what to believe.

Just look at ant subject at all, on any given subject there are thousands even millions of webpages, books, videos and personal opinions. It’s overwhelming. Even attending higher education gets us no closer to the truth on many occasions. If a degree held the answers then a common curriculum would exist for each subject between all educational facilities. The fact is to find an answer to any question a person must research to find others opinions then actually try each suggestion and see what fits their situation the best. After all, even the experts disagree.

I want to someday be a writer; I want to write about reptiles and captive care. The entire reptile industry is filled with contradicting opinions and those who just “follow the leader” so to speak. When I entered the community as a hobby many moons ago I decided that I would not be a follower, I would try differing opinions and see which best suited various situations. I have since made some small innovations in the community and helped many with their setups. That being said for every 1 person I help I find two more whom are willing to argue that something I have tested and found to be a bad idea is superior to the advice in which I give. So what’s my point? My point is that when researching anything remember to try different options before discounting them or arguing with others, remember that opinions often differ but attitude and the way you present yourself are what people remember most.

One of the things that helps define who I am is my love of Mixed Martial Arts (MMA), I never miss watching a UFC or WEC event if possible. I train (or trained, I don’t know, call it a hiatus) in BJJ and MT and just generally love the community and close knit feel of it all. My favorite fighter is probably Randy Couture or GSP. Now with that being said you can probably see why I watched UFC 74 last night when considering both men were fighting on the card (Couture vs. Gonzaga and GSP vs. Koscheck).

Overall it was a great event, one of the better UFC events as of late. I don’t want to spoil it for anybody but Randy and GSP both did well and the other fights on the card were just as exciting. If you haven’t seen it go find yourself a copy somewhere…you all know how to get ahold of a copy.

The other day was a day like any other…. so I thought. I put a load of laundry in like usual and was doing some other chores around the house while waiting for it to finish. I enter the bathroom and now notice that the water from the wash is entering the bathtub. Now I’m no plumber but I do tend to do as much of the home maintenance and repair as I can. Immediately I know that because the bathtub is the lowest fixture the water will follow the laws of gravity when there is a blockage somewhere further up the pipe and come out in the tub. In the case of the washer and pretty much any other fixture, further up the pipe means the main sewer line.

Since this was the case and I don’t have access to a powerful auger I had to call a plumber. As a DIYer I absolutely hate calling plumbers. Plumbing is simple and in most cases I can figure it out myself. So the plumber arrives and tries to auger the line from the toilet even though I advised him that the issue would probably be best dealt with by auguring the clean out which is out back about 10ft from the house. His attempt failed so he took my advice and proceeded to auger the clean out. As suspected their were roots in the line and auguring it out did the trick.

So what did I learn? I learned that my logic is often better then the professional even when the professional is in a business sector I do not deal with on a daily basis. I learned that I won’t be calling that company again as the “professional” cost more time and therefore more $ then needed by not doing things the logical way. I also on a positive note learned where the pipes run to get to the city lines. Whoever designed it was less then intelligent and ran them the long way around.

So now that I know roots have penetrated the pipes I will be putting rock salt in the cleanout every few months to kill any penetrating roots. This trick I learned a long while ago, the plumber didn’t mention it. I hate to sound so cocky and negative but with any business the professional should give the customer as much info as needed to help the customer in the long run. It is what produces the repeat customer. Speaking of plumbing I need to send some bicarbonate of soda and vinegar down a few drains before they become clogged as well. I’ve heard nail removal products work for hair filled drains but I wouldn’t think they would be very environmentally friendly.

I may some day do a plumbing and electrical tips post, I don’t know. I just enjoy sharing what I know with other people (and sometimes bitching about things). Marketing may suggest that targeted content does better for traffic but I’m a jack-of-all-trades, making a site for each topic I know things about just won’t work well.

So last night I went to see The Simpsons Movie. As any Simpsons fan and everyone who hasn’t been living under a rock knows, this movie has been a long time coming and hyped up more then a crack addict with a rock the size of his fist. I love The Simpsons, at least seasons 1-9 with 12 and 13 earning honorable mention. For me show is just a way to turn off your brain and relieve some stress. However with the total lack of creativity I felt has been put into seasons 14-18 I really didn’t want to get my hopes up. With the amount of 7-Elevens turning into Kwik-E-Marts I started to wonder if the marketing team was trying to overcompensate for the lack of a solid product, after all something this big should really sell it’s self. It’s remarkable right?

We sit down and get comfy, the movie starts, skeptical me on one side, the woman on the other giddy with excitement. The movie starts, within 5 minutes we are both laughing. Right out of the gate the writers hit the nail on the head. The voice work is some of the best I’ve heard and the animation is great.

The movie focuses mainly around Homer, the man most men relate to on some level or another, and most females despise. In his own way Homer decides to try and help a pig about to be killed after a Krusty commercial has finished with said pig. This is the first in a chain of events that will land Homer in more trouble then fans of The Simpsons have ever seen him.

Through some rather ingenious comedic writing on the part of The Simpsons team Homer finds himself in various situations throughout the movie, all linking back to his selfish ways. From a flame filled mob to a long drive to Alaska The Simpsons Movie really does hold your attention. This is one movie I will be buying on DVD. I recommend everybody go and see it.

Lately I have been thinking about the things my father never taught me and I had to figure out on my own. In light of this I decided to write a list of 10 things I will be teaching my son.

Lesson #1

You can tell me anything and come to me with your problems anytime. I maybe strict sometimes and you will disagree with me but I am there for you, even at 3 o’clock in the morning when you need a ride home drunk or when someone’s going to kill you. Remember your old Dad has walked in those shoes and lived to tell about it.

Lesson #2

When someone tells you that you aren’t capable of doing something in life they are just jealous that you have goals. It is a perfect chance to prove to yourself that you CAN do it.

Lesson #3

You NEED to finish school, if you don’t you will regret it, even if here in reality the degree isn’t worth the paper it’s printed on. The experience is worth it and a University degree does open doors that are otherwise tough to get open. Don’t believe everything the teacher tells you but know that the classroom is not the place to correct them. You will earn more respect and avoid the possibility of threatening their social value by approaching them when others are not listening.

Lesson #4

In general people do not do as much as they need to do, they are lazy. People do enough so that they don’t get fired and employers pay just enough that they won’t quit. Be the best, you don’t want to follow the leader and be like everyone else, not in the style of clothes you wear or the things you do. You are unique so BE unique. We are living in a world where you can be the difference.

Lesson #5

Talk with confidence and use proper English. The confident leader always attracts more people and gets you more in life then being shy and letting others walk all over you. Say please and thank you and always show that you have manners.

Lesson #6

Money isn’t everything. Friends and family are what will make you happy in the long run. Learn to see when others are using you and walk away from the relationship immediately.

Lesson #7

Alcohol and drugs will keep you from your goals and mess up your life. I expect you to experiment but avoid the hard stuff like crack, cocaine and heroin. If you do these drugs I will know and you will learn just how badly I can hurt you.

Lesson #8

You need to exercise and eat right. You will always feel better if you do. Just look at all the obese people on the street and in the fast food chains. McDonalds is NOT food.

Lesson #9

Learn to fix everything you can and always have a thirst for knowledge. It will come in handy when you’re down on your luck.

Lesson #10

The world is a big place. Travel to as many places as you can. Learn the native culture and languages. Take a cooking class while your there or learn something that is specific to that location. You will then be able to better understand and interact with all people.

Lately life has really kicked it into high gear. The business is coming together, the projects I volunteer on are buzzing with activity and on the downside the family is dealing with some stress due to some medical issues (not myself). In the midst of all the chaos my better (this can be debated) half has taken on a new pastime. She’s now playing Second Life.

So what is Second Life and why do I feel it is important enough to write about? Second Life is a Online game that simulates a world controlled by the players themselves. You are able to own land, build structures, and make clothes to sell to other players and so on. The world operates on it’s own currency which can be exchanged for real cash. My better half really wants to make a go at trying to get an income out of this game. Others have done it so it is possible and the concept is great but there is a not so pleasant side to all of this.

This “game” is extremely adult oriented. There is everything from sex toys to escort services. Often times as a new player your only choice for income is to become an escort. Lucky for my better half she met some people and bypassed this step. What is rather disturbing to me is not the escort services as I believe people can do whatever they please. It is the fact that some people are taking it a step further and doing web cam shows for the in game currency. From what I have been told some of these players are quite obviously underage.

I’m all for making money on a game via making clothing or avatars (this is currently what the woman in my life is focusing on) but you must not think much of yourself if you are doing live cam shows for what equals about $6 an hour at best. I’m curious if it’s considered prostitution or how that falls into some of the legal systems around the world.

I hope this little venture does work out for her but I sure am glad she has self respect.

It seems to me as we advance in the information age some people seem to loose track of what really matters to most users and consumers of software. We seem to be divided into two separate groups, which contain many subgroups within them. First, we have the group that I truly identify with; this is the group who wants functionality over the graphic appeal of the application. We want products, which perform as advertised and even go beyond our expectations with features that not only work but also provide usefulness in the tasks the software is designed to accomplish. For all intents and purposes we will refer to these people as userphiles.

Second we have those who are more concerned with the aesthetics of an application. These people are more likely to be satisfied when a feature doesn’t work as planned as long as the application is sleek and sexy looking. This group of people will be called glitzers Of course there are those who want both but even these people have a preference for one of the two sides mentioned which can make or break the experience.

The problem is that I often hear both sides lodging complaints at the same time with little to no constructive criticism to help the developers of products lacking in either area to fix these problems. This forces the developers to choose one side or the other; limiting the amount of people they can possibly market their product to. Yes it is true that many companies market on a wide scale but they effectively waste large amounts of money sending their message to a large group of people who will refuse to buy the product because of the consumers stance as a glitzer or userphile. Therefore this approach not only produces a low return on investment on the marketing budget but also produces no possible financial gain from those customers marketing for the company by word of mouth.

After reading several blog postings and various articles which were focused on reviewing software products I feel I have a very easy to implement solution to the marketing issue. If developers concentrate on writing clean efficient code that properly does its job while the program is still in its infancy they can satisfy the features group. It has become obvious that if a program is broken when a userphile attempts to try it for the first time they are less likely to give it another shot. However glitzers are very likely to retry a program they had used previously if word of mouth reaches them that the UI has been improved. In the most simple terms, if the software is user friendly and works as advertised you are much more likely to gain a following of loyal users while improving your chances of breaking into the other half of the market then if you were to produce software that only partly worked but was aesthetically pleasing.

It is always easier to improve a user interface of well-written software then it is to rewrite the core of an application to function properly. If developers and marketers would take a step back and notice this fact less money would be wasted in development and marketing of a product. Fewer products would fail. Be remarkable, release products with features nobody else’s software has, features that work and can be used with minimal effort. Stop trying to trick consumers with slow, large footprint applications, which are hard to navigate. BE REMARKABLE.

First of all, sorry for the long time of no posting. Things have been pretty busy. Today is Canada day and I did take the wife and the son out to see the festivities but really they weren’t worth writing about. What is worth writing about is my new reptile addition. The other day I walked into a pet store as I do often. I walked to the reptile section and started to browse what was in and what improper care they were providing them. At this point I lay eyes on a beautiful Ball Python who’s fairly skinny and being housed on sand with the most useless hide I think I have ever seen.

I left the store as I tend not to buy the animals at pet stores but latter that evening my wife brought it up. She asked if she could go get it. Thinking for a moment I agreed that she could and wrote down a list of questions she needed to ask. She went and picked up the ball (she literally had to take it out of the tank herself as the guys there were afraid of the little baby) and returned home.

She was told that the snake was about 2 months old and had eaten this past Wednesday. Looking at the snake I could tell it has had some feeding issues just by the slimness and doubt my wife was given any true information. I will be trying to feed her a pinkie rat or 2 tonight and hope it goes well but I’m not so sure it will.

Here are some pictures of the new arrival:

Last night I was browsing along and all of a sudden I have no Internet connectivity. As usual I check that the modem is showing that it is connected to my ISP, that my router (which ISP’s are too lazy to support so we all lie to them and say we’re directly connected) is running properly and handing out internal IP addresses to my network via DHCP etc. I then notice that my router shows it has acquired a 10. Address and that only 1 DNS server is listed instead of 3.

Immediately I know they have suspended my account. This isn’t surprising since I download ALOT via BitTorrent. It’s been 3 years with this ISP and I had forgotten what my bandwidth cap is and considering I download so much monthly I was curious. So I call the ISP. I get told it’s been suspended and transferred to the security department. The voice on the other end identifies his self as “Norm” and proceeds to tell me my account was suspended for downloading copyrighted material. After telling me that I play dumb and say I do not download copyrighted material. He then lets me know the real reason, my cap is 60GB a month and I have downloaded 192GB this month thus far.

Now why couldn’t he be honest in the first place? They didn’t know or care if the files I were downloading were copyrighted. Granted they had good reason with that amount of bandwidth that they were but no hard evidence, they were just concerned for the network bandwidth.

I continue to act like someone who is clueless about computers, asking him to walk me through setting up my email account given to me by the ISP (which I never use but they send warnings there). At that point I’m really playing it up. I tell him again that I don’t download movies etc. and that nobody here has access to the computer to which he replies it is probably a virus. He asks what anti-virus I am using and I tell him that I am using the one from the ISP’s website. (He assumes I’m using Windows and they don’t support Linux so now was not the time to be honest). He re-enables my account and tells me that I have 1GB of bandwidth to last me until the end of the month (this is bull as I’ve heard of others with this ISP being told the same and them going over similar to them saying theirs a 60GB cap and me being able to download more then that on a monthly basis).

This is an example of social engineering and playing into the person’s worldview. They deal with people like this everyday so a story such as the 1 I presented is believable and doesn’t get questioned much. I assume others do the same and that it works with other ISPs. Similar I know works with other large corporations.

As for those with morale objections, the company overcharges for their service because they know they are the only cable Internet provider available. They have lied to me many times over the years about refunds and service people showing up and even telling me there was an issue on my end when the issue was with a local node. If they provided the service at a fair price and were honest I would be mindful of my bandwidth cap. Some people will always disagree with this way of thinking but in business that’s how I expect it to go. If I am not fair to my customers I expect them to tell me and I will fix the problem. If I do not fix the problem I expect them to take advantage of me anyway they can.