Halo 2...
My old project manager just reminded me that the new Halo 2 maps are out tonight. Who’s gonna be on?
Read more...I’m driving home last night, listening to a tech news program. I’m pretty spaced out after a hard day’s work, so basically what I hear from the stereo is this:
blah blah blah blah Jay McGavren blah blah blah blah…
What the?! I actually swerved a little bit. Why was my name on the radio?
Well, the tech news program was actually a podcast, SlashDot Review, burned to CD and playing through my MP3 CD player. And my name was on there because I had donated to them the week before (to help with their considerable bandwidth costs), and I was selected at random for thanks “on the air”.
The production value for this show is good enough that one can forget it’s not radio. Just don’t let that catch you off guard…
Read more...mr_mooph made me do it.
 | You scored as Modernist. Modernism represents the thought that science and reason are all we need to carry on. Religion is unnecessary and any sort of spirituality halts progress. You believe everything has a rational explanation. 50% of Americans share your world-view.
What is Your World View? (updated) created with QuizFarm.com</table> |
Detective work...
The gibberish entry that’s been appearing on my checking account statements, “gkard add [some bunch of random numbers]” always bothered me, but I figured it was probably one of the many legitimate automatic payments I’ve set up through the card, and they were just using a weird merchant ID. Besides, the $30 a month was always too far below my pain threshold to inspire me to check it out.
Until this month, that is, when my check card expired and I had to go through all my payees to update their info. I couldn’t figure out who these people were, so I called my bank. All they could give me was a phone number, no merchant name or anything. I called the number and got some kind of automated “card service” line, and I couldn’t even talk to a real person without an account number.
So I Googled for the phone number, and discovered it belonged to GKard, which is a company that sells “prepaid credit cards”. Got a second phone number from their site, called, and talked to a real person this time. I wanted to speak to a supervisor, but evidently they had all left at 5 PM (the call center is in Florida). I told them I’d call back the next day.
Still didn’t get to talk to a supervisor today, so I explained that I suspected fraudulent charges were being placed on my check card. I gave them the number, and they told me there was an account in my name. They also gave me a Hotmail address, and asked if it was mine; it wasn’t. (I quickly wrote the address down; I don’t think they were supposed to give it to me.) Evidently the account was used to purchase a subscription to some Russian (?) website. (I haven’t visited the site yet, as I’m betting it’s not work-safe.)
I told them I wanted the account canceled, and all charges refunded. (I knew this wouldn’t happen, as my bank statement show charges going back through April of last year. Don’t say it… I’ll be quicker to question unusual charges from now on.) I managed to haggle them up to 4 months worth of refund, and I promised I’d be calling back to get the rest. (I may or may not.)
Next task was to call my bank and cancel the check card. (Now I get to call all my automatic payees AGAIN and give them the new card number. Wheee.)
I then set up a new Hotmail account, for the purposes of writing my new friend. The e-mail was short and sweet, to the effect of: “My paypal account isnt working. Can you give me your address and Ill mail the auction payment to you instead?” We’ll see if he bites (or if he’s even monitoring the account any more).
GKard said they’d report this to their fraud department. Now I need to figure out who else to report this to. (Police? FTC? I really don’t know.)
Read more...Simpering Semprons!
Even my long-awaited Archy editor was slow as molasses on my old PC, and I finally decided I’d had it. I went to Fry’s Electronics to pick up a Father’s Day gift, and to learn about my options for computers.
My budget was virtually nonexistent, so most geeks would find the hardware I wound up with laughable, but I think I did pretty good for the price. I got a $40 Matsonic motherboard, a $60 AMD Sempron 2.5 Ghz, and a $40 case. My plan is to assemble everything, then steal the hard drive, optical drives, 3D card, and RAM from my old clunker.
If this works, I’ll get a three-fold increase in speed for $140, plus the beginnings of a basic system for Diana. And I my loved ones won’t have to hear me bitch about my computer any more.
Read more...