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| Another day in Paradise |
| 02.29.04 (12:52 am) [edit] |
Just another day in Paradise...There is a high wind advisory up on Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa summits and I think they got snow up there this morning. "At the higher elevations... southwest winds will be much stronger. Winds at the summits of Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea are expected to range from 50 to 60 mph with higher gusts to 80 mph possible." "A Flash Flood Watch means that flash flooding is possible but not imminent. " "...Record Daily Maximum Rainfall Set At Kahului... a record rainfall of 2.51 inch(es) was set at Kahului yesterday. This breaks the old record of 1.13 set in 1996. " I hear that waves over on Kauai will crest up to 20 to 30 feet... WOW! Two more ships ran aground in the storm last night. The storm passed and we are left with some cleanup. I attended the Kona Coffee Council planning meeting today but some members were absent. Seems they could not get down their driveways or had roof repairs, etc. I have a driveway which is 4-wheel-drive at best, so I know the feeling. I'm not much for tv shows like "American Idol", but here in Hawaii they are quite proud that 3 locals have made the show. Often there are promotions for the show and interviews with the local artists. I wish them good luck. I hear that many people in Hawaii watched the movie "50 First Dates" just to see the background locations! I went by the post office today looking for a package. I then stopped at 2:30 on my way home. Still no package. When I got home I found the package arrived seconds after I last left the post office. I'll pick it up on Monday. Inside is my new scale for weighing coffee. |
| Skeeter Davis |
| 02.28.04 (9:47 am) [edit] |
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There is an old country song and the title of it fits last nights' adventure. The song is called "The End of the World". Yesterday, the Hawaiian Islands were hit by a big storm. Oahu had flooding while we on the Big Island were only experiencing wind gusts. Then after dark, the rain started. Then then lightning and thunder. Rain in the tropics is common but thunder and lightning are rarer than most other places. For these to happen it helps to have both hot AND cold air. From the safety of the house, I watched lighning travel across the sky sideways. As I write this on Saturday morning, there is a loud rumble of thunder and a bright flash of lightning. The rain is starting to pick up again after a few hours of drizzle. Yesterday before the storm I started cutting down some trees which were growing under the power lines and telephone and cable lines. It's a good thing too as I very well would have lost power. The trees would have knocked down the lines; I'm sure of it! Kailua-Kona town lost power last night, both hotels appear to have lost electric power for a while and for a while, at least one hotel was running on reduced voltage (less than 120 volts). That means that many of the flourescent lights wont start. One hotel lost their hotel voicemail and I hear that the TV's were not working. Also without a lot of power, the bars can't operate, so visitors had it worse than the locals I assume. I did get a report that visitors and guests were taking it in stride and were not hollering and screaming at the inconvenience(sp). At 7am I received a call that the crew of 4 would be cancelling today. I was supposed to have some trees cleared from the property today, however, lava can be very slippery when wet and it is starting to storm today. They closed some roads south of here due to flooding, but at least here in Captain Cook, the lava is very pourous and lets the water filter right on through. I have a coffee council meeting today and have not heard that it is cancelled. I'm sure that many people will not be there. In my case, I got very little sleep overnight and was out getting drenched trying to get a tarp up to divert water from a broken gutter. However, there will be doughnuts and fresh, hot Kona Coffee! |
| Fame!! |
| 02.18.04 (10:29 pm) [edit] |
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I'm talking Fame, and I don't mean the old TV show by the same name... I was hungry and decided to cash in an old Subway Club Card. When you buy a sub at Subway you can receive a stamp for each 1/2 sub you get. Those stamps add up and after a short while, you get a free sub (with paid soda). Over the years I have collected and redeemed my share of stamped cards. During my move, I found some old stamps and an old card. One subway I frequent has a sign that they no longer accepted old cards. Other Subways had no such notice. I walked into the Subway nearest my home and saw two kids and an adult customer. The adult was a woman I recognized from my post office. I waited my turn and made small talk. When I went to ofdfer my card to the cashier, I did so with trepidation. Would they say something about the age of the stamps? There were probably 4 different colored ones on the card. This Subway only takes cash, so if they didn't take my card, I would have to use the last few of my dollars in my wallet. The cashier took a long look at the card and called her co-worker over to see. It turns out that my card was very old and one set of numbers on the stamps contained only 3 digits, where current stamps are at least 6 digits. She posted my card on the wall! In hindsight, I wonder if I should have taken the card and tried to auction it off on Ebay... :) |
| Info or Infomercial |
| 02.15.04 (12:11 pm) [edit] |
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You see them on TV and you THINK they are regular shows. They are COMMERCIALS (thus the "mercial" part of the name). Half hour or hour advertisements. The "INFO" may be dubious at best. They tout that they can make you money, let you build wealth, buy houses at a fraction of overybody else, find government deal, get free money, it just goes on and on. I love the ones where the guy says he is a millionaire and wants to help you acheive the same. If that is the case, that he is a millionare, why does he need money from me? Many infomercials are made to look like a tv show or newscast, for a reason... to keep you from realizing they are a commercial. Another clue is that the show is repeated over and over. An exception to this was a show I saw on the satellite years ago. It was about gold prospecting and made the claim that they could help me find gold. I watched with a careful eye. The next week the show was different. I was perplexed. Perhaps they had 2 commercials... then the next week a new program appeared. I kept looking for the scam. A year later I realized, there was no scam. Each show was different. Each show had new information about where to find gold; in the streams, highbanking, in caves, metaldetecting... all they asked was $$62.50 to get started. I did other research and it looked on the up and up. I bought with a credit card and made sure to watch the calendar. You have a 2 month limit to dispute a charge on a credit card. The Gold Prospectors Association was on the up and up and I am still a member. You get an email telling you that there is this money and you (picked at random) will receive millions for helping them liberate it from whatever fate has kept the sender from getting at it. All you must do is give them your checking account number so they can transfer the money to your account. That is the last you will see of any money in your account! That scam has been around in various forms for what, 10 years? The bank asks you to help them catch a thief working in the bank. Why they would ask a citizen rather than an undercover policeman, who knows? Stealing from a bank is a FEDERAL crime so the FBI would send in their own people, not someone who has an account there. Years ago there was a drug offered to help people shed weight. Redux and Phenphen. You could not drive past an intersection without seeing a sign about making a local call to buy it. Red flags went off in my head. Why was this so aggressively marketed by mom and pop type people? Because the company was hoping to get people to help them sell it and get the heck out of Dodge before it caught up with them. How big is the lawsuit against this drug now? If a company is so big and the product so great, why do they PAY people to promote it like that? Why do they resort to fax spam? A popular fax scam is a travel deal from the east coast to the Bahamas. People are still getting faxes with unbelievable deals for a cruise and a few nights in the Bahamas. The artwork shows a ship the size of the Queen mary. It may in fact BE a picture of the Queen mary. Your trip will NOT be on a ship like that! You hotel will probably be substandard and/or down right creepy. Don't believe me? Try a web search for "Ramada Resorts"... You get a phone call or email or mailing saying that you have "won" something. You fill out a card in a store and "surprise", you win. Most everyone wins by the way. So you are a "winner". If thyat is the case, why do you have to pay taxes or booking fees or any other money? You pay the government in April for any winnings, not the company or some other organization offering you a "prize". So you see a moneymaking opportunity being offered at a hotel ballroom. Leave your wallet at home! Sign nothing! What are these things? It could be candy machines, pay phones, calling cards, etc. The companies tell you about all this money you will make. So let's talk about payphones. They tell you about all these people using payphones and all the money you will make! WAIT! I see rows of payphones at airports all unused. I see places where the phones are removed and the kiosk remains. Why? Because most people are using cell phones. What does that tell you? The only people making money are the ones selling you the pay phones. So you see a guy on a payphone. probably someone who cannot afford a cell. Do you think that if he is paying for a call that is not unlimited, thast he will sit on that pay phone for hours, racking up money for you? Doubtful. Vending machines! They have the machines and the best routes. If that is the case, why do they need me? All they have to do is hire someone at minimum wage to service their own machines on their own routes. Why would these business opportunites be passed out to us, if they are so great? They would not! I am not saying that people who get taken in by scams are stupid. Anyone can get scammed. Just remember, Buyer Beware! |
| Consumer Tips |
| 02.14.04 (2:25 am) [edit] |
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:!: Ok, so I belong to this program where I get paid for reading email ads. Most are pretty useful, you know book clubs, online stores like HomeDepot Online and so on. One credit card application I received look pretty good on the surface. In big print, no yearly fee, low interest rate, and I would receive points for every dollar spent. Those points can be spent at major stores, etc. All that is ok, but hidden in the fine print is the following: [b]As long as first balance transfer is completed within 12 months of date of account opening, the balance transfer APR is 0% for 12 months from the date of the first balance transfer. After the promotional period, your standard APR for purchases will be applied to all remaining balance transfer amounts. As of February 1, 2004, the standard variable APR for purchases is 10.99%. The standard variable APR for cash advances is 19.99%. However, if you default under any Card Agreement that you have with us, we may immediately increase the APR on all balances (including any promotional balances) to a variable default rate of 27.99%. The annual membership fee is $0.[/b] So, 0% to 10.99% to 19.99%. THEN, if you are in default in any way, 27.99%!!!!! By the way, if you ever have a credit card with a balance due, never call them and tell them you are cancelling the card. Rather, cut up the card and pay it off, THEN cancel the card. Credit card companies can jack up your rate to any percentage they want if you are no longer a member... For other interesting topics, read the webpage of Consumer Advisor Clark Howard at http://clarkhoward.com/ That is where I used to find my Atlanta to Honolulu airfare sales, learned how to get my credit reports, and WHEN! Keep in mind that some ads on his site are just that, ads for compaqnies that he does not necessarily condone or support. If he mentions a company in the text portion of the site, it is a good place to consider. He asks that you evaluate any suggestions. For example, some sites he suggests are: Credit Card comparisons at http://cardweb.com Mortgage and loan rates at http://bankrate.com He tells you how to save for your child at http://clarkhoward.com/topics... As a note, Clark give input to legislators which helped his home state of georgia to create a fantastic 529 plan. Some long distance deals are at http://clarkhoward.com/topics... I have used his suggestion of BigZoo long distance and love dit. I also tried and stayed with Packet8.Net for voice over long distance. On the left side of his main webpage is a link to listen to his show live if he is not on the radio in your town. Want to see if he is on locally? Go to http://clarkhoward.com/clarkh... He really is a nice guy. I have met him a few times in Atlanta and is the only multi-millionare I know. He is not eccentric, just frugal. He tells people he buys 2 single hanburgers because then he gets more for his dollar than buying a double! He shops at COSTCO and SAMS and buys econd-hand suits. Even when someone else is paying the bills, he will book the cheapest ticket he can and upgrade it with points. He rents the cheapest and smallest car he can, because he knows that most of the time the rental company does not have the car in stock and will have to upgrade him. If you try this, remember that the rental companies MAY attempt to get YOU to pay for an upgrade minutes before they discover that they didn't have your car in stock anyway :-) Anyway, Clark's advice is very good and will save you money. Read his site and browse the topics. I would be surprised if you don't learn at least a few things that will save you hundreds of dollars over the next year. Thinking about pre-paying your mortgage? Dn't pay $300 for the priviledge. Clark tells you how to do it for free. http://clarkhoward.com/advice... Clark has a few books out in print and has been on the NY Times and USA Today Best Sellers list. Clark is the first to tell you to look for used copies of his book, rather than pay full price! Which other author would do that? :-) |
| Next weekend |
| 02.14.04 (1:18 am) [edit] |
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President's Day Weekend. Most people remember it as a long weekend and a time to get away. A couple of Hawaii hotels I know are booked solid with people who needed a mini-vacation in the middle of a cold winter. Back in Atlanta, many people remember President's Day Weekend as the weekend of the big Blizzard a few years back. In reality, that weekend was about the beginning of a year's work for myself and a few hundred of my closest co-workers :) I was working for Hewlett Packard in Atlanta and we had computer rooms and buildings spread around town. We were in the process of building a new 21 story building at the top end of the Perimeter in Atlanta. It is a beautiful and functional building. Ir would be a great home, but first we had to move in. As with any large buildings, there are longterm and shortterm problems which slow down the move. What I want to relate though is the 1 year timer countdown we had. We had chosen this particular President's Day weekend to consolidate our computer rooms into the new building. We planned for a year and literally moved Hewlett Packard's Americas business that particular weekend. Unless you are involved with a project this large, you cannot fully comprehend it. We performed a "flash cut" which is best described as a forced move with little chance of turning back. During any large project it is easy to hit a problem and make the decision to stop, discuss and make the decision to undo your changes and wait for another try. This is NOT a flash cut! We needed to coordinate so many people and things that the cost of backing out would have been prohibitive! To understand, our new computer room was the size of a football field. We were moving well over 100 mainframes (each maniframe could support hundreds of users each) and hundreds of servers (a server is a very large version of a person computer). We planned for a year. We worried for a year. We dreaded for a year. After the blizzard we realized that we needed to ensure that we could get through, rain (snow) or shine. We would be haing hundreds of moving van loads delivered, every electrical outlet needed to work (and some computers used multiple ones). We had to train many volunteers to help us remove and reinstall the systems. There were too many tasks to perform with just our I.T. staff. In some cases we enlisted end users to work on their own computers. Since many of them had never actually seen their own system it was a treat. These systems are always hidden away from prying eyes in a cold computer room where customers rarely are allowed to visit. At the time, we also were installing 2 telephone switches the size of small town phone companies. Few companies in Atlanta had as many phone and data connections as we did. You home phone number might be 404-222-5555. We owned 2 such 404-222 exchanges! Thus we could have used up to 20,000 telephone numbers in teh same building (not that we needed that mamy) :-) Anyway, without boring you with all the techie details, we moved all the systems and some of the people that President's Day Weekend. Only 1 system failed to boot up and was repaired and replaced. We even filmed a time-lapse video of the room filling up. Imagine a room the size of a football field being assembled in one lone weekend. And, we finished the move a day earlier than expected, to everyone's surprise! We were so proud that we had planned the event so well as to not have to back out of the move. We had checked and rechecked every task and practiced them multiple time. Truely amazing! Perhaps next weekend, I'll move my own computer across the room, just as a tribute to days gone by. |
| Rollercoaster |
| 02.10.04 (10:50 am) [edit] |
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A friend called my adventures a rollercoaster. True, true! I have been working on the website and it is almost ready. I am having a performance problem on my friends server, but at least I can test and design there for free. If he can not solve the slowness, I'll have to move to a paid service. However, the site will slide onto a new server pretty easily. I'd prefer having the server here and am working ont hat. As you may remember, I had to go to a second printer to get my labels done. He in turn has a third guy actually do the labels. This third printer was working with my artwork and said that it was not high enough resolution. He told the second printer who told me. I went to the artist for better artwork and the artist sent me HIS printers email, which I sent to the second printer to send to the third. At this point, I have no idea if printer number three even got in touch with printer number four. In the meantime, I think I'll drive to the Hilo Office Depot and get some inkjet labels and do the damn things myself! This is NOT rocket science you know... Then, a couple weeks ago, my mortgage company decided that they wanted a appraisal of the house done. When I started this process a year ago, they didn't want one because I was putting so much down at closing. But that was three people ago as the paperwork changed hands. THEN, they could not find my original signed contracts and had me resign them. So the appraiser comes out and leaves and a week later I get word, the Underwriter denied my loan... Seems they found what everyone else knew for a year so far, that there is a room under the house that is not built to code. Bishop (the Lessee noted that in their documents and gave me 2 years to bring it to code). The Underwriter (and thus the mortgage company) want it fixed BEFORE closing. Since the owner of the farm here didn't fix it, and will get nothing from the sale of the farm at closing, I can assume he is unable or unwilling to spend any money on the property. That is why I am getting a deal on the place. My problem is that with all of the problems, I would be stupid to spend thousands of dollars to fix a house I don't own. Oh, I'm happy and have agreed in writing that I will fix it AFTER I own the place, but why would I do it before? Imagine that you live in a house and wantg to buy the house next door. You call the neighbor and say "Hey, I want to buy your house. Would you mind if I put in a pool?" So you build a pool there and before you actually buy the place, the seller decides not to move, or you can't get a mortgage, or whatever... That guy is under no obligation to pay you for a pool he didn't want. I suggested to the Underwriter (and I have no idea why they did not think of it first, that i escrow the money to get it fixed. I find out what the repairs will cost, give that amount to a lawyer to hold for the specific task of having it fixed. in some specific timeframe. Then AFTER closing, I have the room brought to code or removed. If I do get it done, the money is released to me. If I do not get it done, the lawyer calls a contractor and has the work performed and uses the funds he is holding to pay for it. Either way, the Underwriter has the room fixed, and I don't lose any money. If the house does not close, I get the escrow money back. This all seems pretty common, but you know, for some reason, my Underwriter and the mortgage company have been taking a week to think about it. The Underwriter and the new mortgage company person did not even have much knowledge about leasehold properties. Perhaps if the first guy had stayed on the case.... his parents owned a coffee farm as I remember... THEN, there is the matter of the junked car they want removed from the property. The Underwriter read about it in a Bishop document which was written a year ago. The Underwriter had no clue that that the car was already gone, out of here, left the building... Finally, there is the matter of the noxious weeds. The farm has a lot of macadamia nut trees. Since the owner left the state, some weeds have grown up. We are NOT talking a jungle of weeks, but there are occasional weeds there. Walking the property with a weed-wacker will take a while, but I could get them all gone. I don't know why I would bother though, just to satisfy them. Because my agreement and desire is that just after I own thge property, I will be plowing under all those trees so I can plant coffee... So now I wait for printer number two, three and four and mortgage company number two and mortgage company official number four to decide my fate. In the meantime I have mortgage company three and number four in the wings. As an aside, I have priced the furniture back at the old homestead and have a friend putting "tent cards" or prices on the items. The house back there is listed in multiple listing and is on 4 websites. I have 1 car for sale and another one in the wings. I am paying utilities for 2 houses, insurance on 3 vehicles and 1 mortgage. Luckily, I don't pay mortgage or rent here yet, but I see that coming. I have a job offer for some consulting work and got a cell phone for that, but no calls yet. A small amount of work each month will payy off the cell phone, so no big deal, but in the meantime, I am paying a phone bill, a cell phone bill, an 800 number bill, the mortgage, utilities, taxes and so on and have no income. I am ready, willing and able to start selling coffee. That is, if only had those labels.... |
| Stop Look and Listening |
| 02.02.04 (3:04 am) [edit] |
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:!: The following information disturbs me and may disturb you. There are many things that bug me and some are self-administered! Before you go off and say "That Mark is paranoid", I'm not. I don't go off ranting and raving about things. I just offer the following: Little of what you do is private. I know that you THINK it is, but it is not. If someone really wants to check up on you, it is trivial. Your telephone calls can be tracked. Your whereabouts can be tracked. Your computer browsing can be tracked. Yes, by now you have seen the ads that your internet tracks are saved on your computer. Cookies, those little time-saving items get stored on your computer. They allow certain websites to remember who you are and what your logon name is, what your preferences are, etc . Go to your browser and click on the address bar (where you type your http addresses). There is a cache of previously accessed websites there. Mort browsers also save you histor (the sites you have visited today, yesterday, last week, etc). It used to be fashionable to have a baby monitor in the house. Baby monitors are tiny radio transmitters. Manytimes every sound within the general area of the childs room is broadcast around the neighborhood. Hopefully, the parents room and the associated noises made therin, are not in the range of the microphone. Years ago a computer virus maker was found because he used a Microsoft product to create the virus/worm. Each LAN card in the world has a seperate hardware address. This nunber is unique to each card. Microsoft used this unique number and stored it in Word documents to be able to determine which member of a group actually created a document and on which computer. People who share files via the internet may think they are anonymous, but they are not. The file sharing software now tried to avoid using a server and go computer to computer (peer to peer). To do that, each system must know the IP address of the other system. The IP address is a current "telephone number" of the other computer. That number can be easily traced to the current users location in the world. Not very secret, is it? Cordless phones also transmit audio around the neighborhood. Be very careful NEVER to use a cordless or cellphone to give out credit card numbers... In Atlanta, the state installed some traffic cameras along the interstate. In the 30 minute drive from my house to the office I passed a number of cameras that might have taken video of my car passing. Although not all cameras pointed my direction and only 1/2 of my trip was covered by cameras. Still, I counted 186 cameras along the way on a 15 minute Interstate trip.... 186 cameras... I have to ask a question... WHY? Why 186 cameras are needed along the Interstate? It cannot be for traffic control. For the money they spent to erect all the poles and cameras and wire them and transmit the images and record the data and have people watch the screens... they could have bought everyone along the way a personal cell phone. Speaking of cell phones, did you know that your cellphone may include a GPS unit and be actually transmitting your exact coordinates to both the police and others? Honestly!!! No, this is not some off-the-wall idea, it is in my new Nokia phone and perhaps in yours too. Here is a link directly to CNN as a starting point for your reading. http://www.cnn.com/TECH/compu... Yes, my phone allows me to turn off the GPS portion so casual listening, but the 911 service can still receive the data. Obvious good uses of the service is if you become incapacitated and don't know your location, your phone does. If your phone gets stolen, the cell phone company can find it. More sinister uses are tracking your teenager or spouse. There are websites and software to do almost realtime tracking (do a search in metacrawler.com for some sites and info). Many cars now have computers in them to help regulate the engine and provide performance enhancements. Do THEY report your whereabouts? Certainly there is scratchpad memory in them that could save your speed and direction. Could a policeman use that information in court against you? One car agency in the Northeast had GPS equipment mounted in a car and would bill you automatically if you went out of the state if you said you would not. I'll leave it up to the reader to investigate the "Carnivore" project. Here is one link to get you started... http://www.robertgraham.com/p... So, see? I'm not paranoid about people watching or listening in to what I am doing. I understand the technology and how it works. Yes, the "government" could be implanting little chips in us at birth to be able to track us, but they probably are not. At least, i don't THINK they are... In any event, the aluminum foil hat I wear can protect me :D |
| Cray? The computer maker? |
| 02.02.04 (2:10 am) [edit] |
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I was on my way into Kona Saturday for Chinese New Years party when I got asked "Do you know who Robert Cray is?" In jest I responded, "Didn't he create the Cray supercomputer?" In reality, Robery Cray is a famous musician and was playing at the Kona Brew Pub in just a few hours. The caller had tickets and was not able to go. I jumped at the chance, but had to miss the celebration in town. The concert was great and everyone there had an excellent time. It appears the Kona Brew Pub gets its share of artists and, by the way, has excellent pizza and on-site brewed beer. |