Recruiters

The tech job market in Columbus seems to be picking up quite a bit. This is a wonderful thing for a lot of people since we like to be able to pay rent and buy sandwiches.

Unfortunately, it also means an increase in the number of people that call themselves recruiters whose only purpose is to spam as many people as possible in the hope that some company will hire one of them so said “recruiter” can get a commission.

These people are not really recruiters. They’re parasites. Real recruiters are a completely different creature.

If you’re a “recruiter” and are located in an off shored call center, you aren’t really a recruiter. I’ve gotten a few calls of this sort in the last few weeks and they’re driving me up the wall – Broken English, lots of call center noise in the background, and follow up emails that say things like “I enjoyed speaking with you” when all they did was leave a voicemail.

If your “job description” is a page full of bullet points that tell me absolutely NOTHING about the position, you’re doing it wrong. I once got an email from a “recruiter” that had about 20 bullet points worth of “description” and all it really said was “write code, conform to company standards, and you won’t be supervising anyone”.

Don’t tell me that you have something you think I would be “perfect” for without telling me why. This is especially true when the job is for something I’ve never done before. This is the most common kind of resume spammer “recruiter”. Thankfully they also tend to be the least tenacious and easiest to ignore.

If you’re contacting me about a job in Ohio, but you’re located in New York, you’re doing it wrong. You can’t know about the developer community in Columbus, Ohio if you’re located in Rochester, New York. If you’re not in the geographic area that you’re hiring for, you’re probably doing it wrong (there are exceptions, but they’re not that common).

Bad recruiters leer at and hit on my girlfriend while she’s at an after users group meet-up with me (true story, sadly. Karyl almost dumped her drink on the guy).

By contrast, good recruiters generally display the following qualities:

• They work through word of mouth networks in the developer community. Referrals are the source of most of their candidates.
• They will tell you the name of the company that they are trying to put you in touch with to make sure you haven’t already submitted to them since multiple submissions basically kill your chances.
• They take some time to learn what you’re looking for instead of trying to shoehorn you into every position that comes across their desk.
• They take time to help prepare you for the interview. They will give you an idea of what to expect both in terms of interview techniques (if there are any tests, etc) and corporate culture including suggestions of how formal or casual to be in the interview.
• They do not act like a creep and hit on my girlfriend.

Good recruiters are worth their weight in gold. Bad ones only serve to make everyone’s lives difficult. Sadly, the good ones are also about as rare as gold while the bad ones abound.

Current mood: tired

Current music: The Call – Let The Day Begin

Ebook Pricing

This started off as a bit of a mini rant on twitter the other day, but I thought it deserved to be fleshed out a bit as well as updated since some other information came to my attention this afternoon.

I love my Nook and take it pretty much everywhere. I consider it a great way to carry not only a book or two to read for pleasure but also a way to carry and access my programming books when I’m not near my bookshelf.

My major complaint is how much the ebooks cost in comparison to their paper counterparts. Sure, they knock a couple of dollars off of the price, but for books that cost $20-40, that’s really not much of a savings.

This isn’t just a whine on my part. Logically, ebooks should be cheaper. Think about it – they require no paper, no shelf space, no transportation costs (other than an internet connection) and can be replicated essentially forever (or at least until a publisher’s claim to the book ends and it reverts to the author)

I’m not complaining that programming and technology books are expensive. Given the amount of work that has to go into them, the limited market, and limited shelf life of most technologies (unless we’re talking about something like the K&R C book), they have to be relatively pricy in order to make a profit. I understand and accept that. We all need to make a living.

What I’m complaining about is the price difference, or rather almost lack of one, between the traditional paper books and the matching ebook. In some cases, as @jbehren pointed out, sometimes the ebook can cost more than the paper one (which is ridiculous unless, perhaps, you are paying to get a copy before the paper book even hits shelves and you just can’t wait).

The question, then, is what is a reasonable price for an ebook as compared to the paper one? Of course, the publishers would claim that their current prices are reasonable, but I disagree. Taking into account the savings caused by the lack of materials and associated costs, I’d say probably about half the price of a paper book.

Books are fairly pricy to write, but most of the cost is in the actual manufacture, shipping and storage. At half the cost of the dead tree edition, there should be enough money to still make a decent profit on the endeavor.

The half price range was sort of my gut feeling for a while, but today it was more or less confirmed by O’Reilly. For people that have an account at oreilly.com, all of their ebooks are buy one, get one free with coupon code (just look in your account under the heading Membersip).

Additionally, they will sell you an electronic copy of most of their books (bundled in multiple formats, not just PDF) for $5 if you register the paper version with them. It only applies to O’Reilly and MS Press titles so I can’t get epub copies of my Pragmatic Programmers books, but it’s a great start. (For the record, I got the PDF version of the Programming Ruby book cheaply when I bought the paper version during the Pragmatic Programmers special a while back, but PDFs don’t always scale well on smaller e-readers so availability in a variety of formats is a great plus).

I cheered when I saw the $5 electronic copy “upgrade” option, because, to me, that’s sort of the sweet spot for that service. I would gladly pay an extra $5 to have lifetime access to an ebook version of programming books that I own. In fact, I spent some time today registering my O’Reilly books so I can buy the epub copies later.

I don’t know if this is a limited time offer or one which they always have, but it is sort of telling as far as book pricing goes. It’s also something well worth taking advantage of.

Current mood: tired

Current music: Smashing Pumpkins – Cherub Rock

Equal Rights

Tonight, something that I believe strongly in came out in conversation. It started with Jim Holmes tweeting regarding an article written about another developer that I follow and have chatted with in the past:

“Disagree with Women-Only anything in IT. Why put up more walls? #fail RT @RWW Women-Only Programming Classes http://rww.to/aU9kme”

I happen to agree strongly with this, and said so. One of the devs that follows me, however, was of a different opinion and tried to justify the opinion, only to be shot down not only by Jim, but by me and even by my girlfriend, Karyl.

He went through a number of arguments, trying very hard to find something, anything, that would validate his claim and basically ignored anything that was used to counter him. Some of them, and my more lengthy responses (which, naturally, would not fit on twitter) are here.

“In this instance, I can understand it. The men are the main deterrent to potential female programmers. Plus, then they can focus on the material rather than deflecting awkward advances the whole time.”

I disagree. The deterrent to potential female programmers are the potential female programmers themselves. Women are not the only people that get hit on in college or while trying to learn or work. The number of classes that I was in where female classmates were trying to get me to go out on dates with them was rather high and I still managed to do all of my work. Besides which, most of the women in my CS classes (with a few exceptions) were under the impression that anyone who spoke to them was trying to hit on them and that really wasn’t the case.

From my personal experience, the women in the other engineering disciplines tended to be more driven than the ones in CS and were a lot more fun. There were more girls that dropped out of the CS program because it wasn’t “fun” or it was “hard” than because people were hitting on them (In fact, I can’t think of any of the girls I knew in those classes that stopped doing it for that reason).

“So, you're saying you don't think women should be allowed to have male-free anything?”

Are men allowed to have men only anything? No? Then there’s your answer. I believe in Equal rights. We are not getting into this “some people are more equal than others” mindset. That is a crutch and causes people to strive less if you constantly tell them “Oh, that’s okay. You’re a [x], we’ll lower the bar for you.”

Screw that. I want a professional in *any* profession to be held to the same standards as any other professional in that profession regardless of gender, skin color, or any of the rest of it.

To which I got the response of asking me how many men I’ve known who have been raped.

Bad question. And this made me very glad he wasn’t in the same room with me. I have good impulse control, but rape is not a woman only issue and it is not something I take lightly (nor is abuse in general).

For the record, I’ve known two that I can think of. Men who are raped undergo the added stigma of nobody believing them because, of course, rape can’t happen to men. Ask Karyl about her friend who was raped and was accused of being the one who did it instead. It has literally ruined his life.

Add to this the fact that many domestic abuse shelters will not accept men (who can be, and more often than you would believe, are victims of domestic abuse) and you start to see why this is a hot button topic for me.

Rape is not funny. Rape is not something that should be used as an argument against equal rights. Rape is also not just something that happens to women. I’ve known women who have been molested and raped as well and I don’t find it funny from either end. In fact, the woman that I loved more than anything else in this world was raped so I think I have some insight into how absolutely fucking horrible it can be (no pun intended and strong language more than justified).

“I've never been in a situation where I felt uncomfortable because the group was dominated by women.”

I have. It was not really fun. I’ll tell you something else – that group of women was more openly sexist and offensive than I’ve ever seen a group of guys be around a woman.

I’m not excusing guys who try to coerce women into doing things against their will. That sort of thing is, in my opinion, inexcusable, but it is not limited to guys. It’s not excusable from anyone, male or female (and, trust me, it happens with both).

Jim, the other voice of sanity, stepped in stating that he didn’t buy the attitude that all male programmers did was make passes at female programmers (and I agree).

This prompted a rather predictable response by our new “friend”:

“I'm not saying we do. All I'm saying is that if that FEAR is keeping one woman out, and the fem-only class lets her in, its a win”

No. What is keeping that person out is their own fear, not reality. If you are uncomfortable learning around men, how will you feel when you get out into the real world and work on development teams which, nine times out of ten, contain men as well as potentially other women?

“I theorize that by becoming exceptional in their trade, the unease when dealing with men is lessened due to being capable devs”

You become exceptional through practice and work. That involves working with and around other people, including men. You do the work and learn from it. You also learn from the people around you. That’s how you get better at anything (not just software development).

“By that logic, a group of women is not capable of creating great programs?”

No, by that logic, people who are afraid and never strive are not capable of creating great things. Letting yourself be afraid of your very surroundings and letting that fear control you means that you will never do great things and, in fact, may not do anything at all.

Greatness is accomplished by carrying on in spite of your fears (or sometimes even because of them). Giving up and going home because they let the boogey men in their head control them never really got anyone anything.

Am I afraid sometimes? You better believe it. However, I do my best to work through it. Sometimes it works. Sometimes it doesn’t. But I’ll tell you that it’s better than letting what *might* happen rule my life.

You’ve got to try for yourself. Nobody else is going to do it for you, and even if they did, it wouldn’t mean nearly as much to you as it would if it was your own striving that got you there. Others can, and hopefully will, help you along your way, but you have to keep striving and push yourself to find your true boundaries. Then you have to work to break those boundaries.

I went on to explain why I have some of the views that I do – the fact that I’ve known women who were great and men who sucked (and the other way around), that I’ve taught and trained with martial artists of both sexes with various skills and skill levels, that I’ve known victims of domestic violence (both male and female) and that I don’t subscribe to the mindset of “men are evil and scary and need to go away” because that cheapens everyone’s accomplishments.

“My experience is that I'm an arrogant asshole, and I understand why a woman (or man) wouldn't want to be in a class with me.”

Finally something we can agree on. However, that’s a problem with you and not a problem with all men. All men aren’t like you (and for that I’m thankful).

In all honesty, folks, I don’t care if you’re a man or a woman. I don’t even care if you’re green and furry. I believe in equal rights, but that means equal responsibilities as well. If you want to bridge the [gender, racial, whatever] gap, stop using that thing as a crutch and strive. *That’s* the way to give people positive role models. Role models are created out of overcoming adversity.

You can’t create positive role models out of people that you let have an easier time than everyone else. Greatness is taken and achieved, not given and people need to realize that. It requires striving, not going easy on someone because they’re somehow different (whether real or only perceived). That only perpetuates the “I can’t do it because…” mentality.

"Freedom is something that you need to actively acquire. It’s not something that’s given with no strings attached. To be free means to take responsibility, and to prepare yourself for what’s to come."
- Charles Beams, "Eureka Seven"

The same is true of equality. In fact, equality and freedom are often very close to one another.

Don't beg for things. Do it yourself or else you won't get anything.

Current mood: grumpy
Current music: Eve 6 – Inside Out

Customer Service FAILURE

Please pardon me. I apologize, in advance, for any and all profanities which appear in this entry. Believe me, they are well and truly deserved.

A while back, the blower on the heating and air conditioning for my car went out. As I like to stay warm in the winter and cool in the summer (not to mention being able to melt the frost and ice off of my windshield), I consider getting it fixed to be of at least moderate importance. I had already tried a couple of things, but to no avail, so I was quite happy when Karyl’s father was able to diagnose the problem.

Her father is a pretty nice guy and an industrial mechanic. Thankfully, he’s also pretty good with cars, which are not exactly my strong suit. I can do a fair bit preventative maintenance and fix some problems (largely through the experience of having done them before with my own father), but a mechanic I’m not.

He even suggested a semi-local auto salvage yard where I could get the part pretty cheaply. He’d used them multiple times in the past and was generally pretty happy with the service, but hadn’t been there in a while.

Oh what a difference a little time makes.

Marshall’s Auto Parts, located in Circleville is indeed cheap. The materials cost of my part was a whopping $10. That, however, is where the happy portion of this story comes to a complete halt (at least until, I hope, we replace the heating and AC control unit so that it works properly).

The service was TERRIBLE.

They have a website where you can make sure they have the part in stock (which is kind of nice). Her father suggested I do what he had done in the past – go down, order the part, and then come back after it had been pulled. He even said we might be able to call ahead and order it before we left for there since they take credit cards.

The children at this business, however, are special and don’t like to play that way now.

I called and tried to order the part only to be informed that you have to order in person because it is “first come, first serve”. Dude, I’m offering to pay you in advance, so I *would* be first come. Take my money and give me my part.

No. And we’ve stopped pulling parts for the day. Try back next week. (It was over 2 hours until they closed for the day).

So I headed over early this afternoon, thinking that it wouldn’t be too busy in the middle of the day on a weekday. Wrong again.

Okay, most places like this are still pretty quick, so I wasn’t horribly concerned. (This is where you can openly call me an idiot. I know I did afterward.)

I finally get to order my part and get told there are 8 people in front of me, so I asked if it was alright if I left to get a couple of other things done while the part was in queue to be pulled.

No. You can’t leave. If you’re gone when we finally get to your part, and we ask if you’re there, we’ll throw your order in the trash (and he was being serious).

So, again, I offered to pay in advance, only to be refused, being told that the part had to be paid for only when it was handed to you. (Which is bullshit, but moving on)

Three hours later, they get my part. Let me repeat that. Three hours later. Three hours. *Three* HOURS later, I FINALLY get my TEN DOLLAR part for which I was not allowed to leave lest my order be tossed in the trash.

By this point I was LONG past the angry stage and, frankly (and, again, please pardon my language) I WAS PISSED OFF. Justifiably so, I think (as does Karyl's father). I was seriously ready to drag the smarmy little douche over the counter and then toss him back over, minus a few pieces (and it takes a LOT to get me to that point).

The part that takes the cake though? Toward the end of the time I had to spend there waiting for no good reason, I hear them getting phone calls about SHIPPING PARTS TO RESIDENTIAL CUSTOMERS IN OTHER PARTS OF THE COUNTRY.

Now, tell me WHY will they do THAT, yet they won’t let me pay IN ADVANCE and then just come and pick up the part? For crying out loud, I could have (and gladly WOULD have) ordered it and had it SHIPPED if for no other reason because it would have been cheaper than *my* cost of part + gas (to mention nothing of the amount of my time that you wasted and the meteoric rise in my blood pressure).

That was the point, dear readers, at which James nearly snapped and started killing people.

In closing, let me say this – if you ever need a part, do NOT consider Marshall’s Auto Parts unless you have them SHIP it. In fact, let me just shorten that to do NOT consider Marshall's Auto Parts.

And to the power tripping douchebags at Marshall’s, you have cost me a day of my life that I will never get back and went out of your way to make that day well and truly suck for no good reason (as you did to each and every one of your other customers that I saw that day). In return, I will do everything that I reasonably can to cost you business. You’ve earned at LEAST that much.

Current mood: Angry doesn’t even cover it
Current music: Soundgarden – Loud Love

Print Media.

A few days ago, Slashdot ran a story about technical book publisher O’Reilly laying off people. Frankly, this isn’t a big surprise considering that everyone and their brother seem to be cutting jobs.

Even though I don’t care for the man because of a lot of the things he says, I’ll give Tim O’Reilly credit for one classy thing he’s done in the midst of this. He has posted that, if anyone has a position that they think one of O’Reilly’s laid off employees would be a good fit for, they can email him and he’ll see what he can do about referring one of them.

For that he gets some respect. That’s a genuinely decent thing to do. It’s also good business (contrary to what a lot of people seem to think).

The thing that gets me is that everyone on Slashdot was basically saying “duh. O’Reilly realizes print is dead.” They apparently think that the internet is the answer to all of life’s problems (not surprising with that crowd).

Even Bruce Perens, the man I love to hate (though not as much as RMS), got on the bandwagon, claiming that you can find all the answers on the internet and asking when the last time anyone cracked open a reference book was.

The honest answer to his question? This afternoon.

I like the internet to look up something random quickly, and I carry electronic copies of most of my books with me when I’m out since it’s a little impractical to keep a bookshelf in my messenger bag, but sitting at my desk, I really prefer paper - it's easier on the eyes, it doesn't take up screen space, I like the tactile sensations, you don't have to worry about the batteries running out, you can take it to the bathroom...

The reasons for my preference go on for a while.

The truth is that, while the internet is great for quick answers to little problems, it tends to suck for in-depth knowledge – a place where a good book excels. There are, however, a couple of problems with this:

1) A lot of people code in snippets, not knowing or really caring what’s going on other than “it looks like it works,” which is why they prefer the quick and dirty answer. They don’t care about why, just that they can plug in some code.

They are, at best, mediocre, and it shows when they run into non-trivial problems.

2) A lot of technical books suck.

As far as #2 goes, I can remember when O’Reilly was basically the gold standard of technical books. Now, however, they tend to be horrible. In fact, their Nutshell series has basically devolved into a printed version of the documentation for the technology that it covers.

The sad thing is that the last O’Reilly book I purchased, Ruby in a Nutshell, was written by the *creator* of the language and still wasn’t very good. In fact, in the notes, he admitted that it was a slightly expanded version of the Pocket Reference.

I bought two books on Ruby when I started with it – Ruby in a Nutshell and Programming Ruby by the Pragmatic Programmers. I’ll let you guess which of them is sitting by my computer right now and which of them is in a box in storage.

In fact, looking around the room, I see books by the Pragmatic Programmers, a couple of decent ones from Wrox, a few from MS Press, some from Sams, and a few others.

There is exactly *one* O’Reilly book in this room – XML in a Nutshell, and I’m using that to elevate my DVD burner off of my desk so that it’s easier to hit the eject button.

I will admit that there is an O’Reilly book that I want to pick up because it’s actually useful, but it’s been around for a while. What’s that, you ask? Mastering Regular Expressions.

Other than that, in my opinion at least, O’Reilly has been a disappointment for quite a while. Then again, there are a lot of crap technical books out there from other companies as well so it’s not just a problem with O’Reilly.

Current mood: Tired
Current music: Default – Wasting My Time

This post brought to you by the letters W, T, and F.

The Republicans in this state are trying to push through a law that would shrink the early in-person voting period from 35 days before election day to 20 days. Their reasoning is that the week long period in which people can register to vote and actually vote in the same day invites fraud.

I can sort of agree with the thought that that might be a problem, but somehow I doubt that is the real reason they're doing it considering the turnout of new voters (most of which probably voted Democrat).

However, that isn't the point of this post. The point of this post is the reaction from one of the locals on the forums for this town's paper. The following is the full comment (user name withheld). It contains no editing for content, grammar, spelling, etc.

"Oh, now that the Democrats stole the election they can change the rules back. I see how it is. A Republican can't buy a break. I wish George W. Bush would declair that he can't step down as President and just keep going until his Brother wants to take over. This country was just getting over the economic mess the Clintons made of our Nation and now we are about to be sent back into it by another Tax and Spend Democrat. Maybe I should go back to school and learn how to give abortions since that is all the jobs that will be left."

First off, this person wants Bush, the man who has trashed civil rights left and right and run this country into the ground as a *dictator*??

Secondly "the economic mess the Clintons made of our Nation"? You mean that period of time when we had a budget surplus and low unemployment? If that's a mess, I'll take that any day of the week, thanks. He can have all the willing interns he likes as well as long as his wife is fine with it (the locals think that is worse than what Bush has done. Seriously).

To be honest, most of the presidents have probably had all of the willing interns that they've wanted anyway.

I'd recommend the poster go back to school, but more in the hopes that he might get some of that "liberal brainwashing" that they claim goes on at schools (and especially colleges).

I'm not even going to go into stolen elections where Bush is concerned.

Good grief.

Current mood: my head hurts
Current music: Machines of Loving Grace - Butterfly Wings

Political Spam.

I've been politically active since before I was 18.

Heck, I sort of grew up around politics. The mayor of my hometown when I was a kid was a friend of the family (he's a state legislator now). I've had the opportunity to meet, speak with and hang out with governors, congressmen, etc etc etc in both parties ever since I was a young teenager.

Part of it was family connections, part of it is because of the places where I've worked/people I've worked with, and part of it is because, well, to be honest, I have the tendency to meet interesting people (and the fact that I tend to be memorable for some odd reason =] ).

When it comes to politics, I tend to be a moderate. A lot of the people where I currently am would call me a "dirty liberal", but that's largely because they consider anything other than extremely hard right to be "dirty liberal" territory.

To put it into perspective, I had to register as a Republican in my hometown when I turned 18 for one very important reason - so I could actually vote in the local primaries. People would literally fight over who got to be the Republican candidate because *nobody* there would vote for anyone that actually ran as a Democrat. There were more Independent candidates than Democrat ones where I grew up. I kid you not.

I figured that I might as well register in a manner that would allow me to *actually* help decide who would get into office in my city and county.

It was crazy and rather surreal. The sad thing is that basically the whole geographic area was like that (and still is, really). We're talking about people who admit that they would gladly vote Bob Ney back into office if they could "because he isn't a Democrat"!

Me, I tend to vote on the issues and not on the party. I do my research and make my decision (despite what a certain commenter here seems to think because he doesn't agree with my conclusions). I don't care if you're a Republican, Democrat, or a member of the Bull Moose party as long as I think you will do your job well and faithfully for the benefit of your constituents.

That said, I have to admit that, if I didn't vote on the issues, the political spam I've gotten this election season would probably have me voting against every Republican on the ballot. I'm not talking phone calls or letters/fliers. Those I get from both sides. I'm talking actual email spam.

I've gotten hammered with spam from the Republican party for probably two months. I have yet to get a spam message from the Democrats (and yes, I've checked my spam filters).

I can't say that I haven't gotten emails from Democrat candidates for various offices, because I have, but those were actual emails and not spam (yes, I get emails from Republican politicians as well. I have friends on both sides). I don't hear from them as often lately, but then I've been kind of quiet for the last year or so myself due to some things that have been going on.

The point is that the Republicans are really abusing this "new" (to them, at least, it seems) technology to reach out to people. They seem to be spamming anything that moves, because I haven't used one of the addresses for *anything* of a political nature.

The greatest part is that they're spamming me, making twisted (and often false) statements, and then *asking me for money*. That's right. They're annoying the hell out of me with spam email and then expecting that I'll give them money.

Granted that's not quite as good as the spam that I've been getting from the "Bank of Nigeria" in Japanese, but it comes fairly close.

From an issues standpoint, there are almost no good Republican candidates here this time around, but the spamming tactics is just another nail in their coffin in my opinion.


Current mood: tired
Current music: Starship - We Built This City

Treating people like people is bad for business?

The local paper ran a story today about a proposal that would force employers to offer seven paid sick days a calendar year.

On the whole, I think this is a positive thing. Far too many people go to work sick, not taking any time to recover (and making other people sick in the process) because they can’t afford to take the necessary time off.

Tony Fiore, director of labor and human resources with The Ohio Chamber of Commerce, however, has a differing opinion. It seems that he is traveling around the state to talk to business owners in order to convince them to vote against it, and, from the looks of it, spreading quite a bit of FUD while he’s at it.

From the article:

"We're looking to make the state a competitive place to do business," Fiore said. "We've got a minimum wage and worker's compensation laws. How many regulations before people say, 'Ohio isn't the place I want to do business.'?"

Am I the only one who reads this and hears something more like “Don’t complain and get back to work, slave! You should be glad we don’t have you flogged!” going on in what passes for this man’s greedy little brain?

A minimum wage and worker’s compensation laws? You mean we actually comply with federal regulations!!?? HOW TERRIBLE!

It’s a great example of employers showing quite plainly that they want to own employees instead of pay them for their services and treat them as, you know, people.

Of course, the locals are against this measure. It never ceases to amaze me that they worship the people who want to screw them over. (My theory is that they secretly want to *be* those people and so have created a sort of cargo cult around it)

Is it possible that some people will abuse this? Sure, but you get that with *anything*. The thing is that they’re trying to turn it into a boogey man in order to scare people into thinking that they’ll all lose their jobs if this law passes (which just isn’t true).

Let’s face it – for a “first world” country, we treat our own people more like they would in a “third world” one. Take a look at Europe (or even Japan, where they actually have a word for “death from overwork”) and then look here. We’re behind in life expectancy, quality of life and a great deal of other things. We even work more, on average, than they do (even Japan).

Wake up and smell the coffee, folks. If you don’t take a stand, nobody will.

Current mood: pondering
Current music: Fall Out Boy – Thnks Fr Th Mmrs

Help, we're being repressed!

As an example of what I was talking about with regard to trying to make policy and law based on religion being a problem here, there is a story in the local paper about a small town near here that received a letter from the ACLU to stop opening their council meetings with a sectarian prayer because it gives preference to one religion over others.

Personally, I agree with the ACLU on this one. The locals, however, have a different view. Apparently telling them that they can't put themselves before everyone else is somehow taking away their "rights" and that the separation of church and state shouldn't apply to them.

That's right. In their mind, they're being repressed because they're being stopped from discriminating on the basis of religion.

From the comments:

"Intervention by the ACLU only adds to the problems of our country. Statistically, there are more Christians in America and it is time we become more of a voice instead of just a number. We need to take back our liberties and stop letting these extremists continue to stick their noses in where it don't belong, never did. To start, just as the Council in Greenfield does, we need to go to the Lord in prayer and earnestly pray for the people and organizations who want to take God out of everything. And I agree Just Dale about what you said concerning the ultra liberal candidate for our president. Truthfully, I'm still hoping there's someone out there better qualified than all of our choices, that will throw their hat in the ring!"

• EDIT: It seems that the paper has decided to pull the entire story. Before the change to the website, when the comments on an article made the city look bad, the editor would kill the comments on the story (He has a habit of pandering to the Chamber despite the fact that he denies it). Now, it appears that he simply un-makes the news, so I guess this particular event never happened now [/sarcasm]
• EDIT 2: Okay, I finally found the story again. They not only removed all of the comments, but they *changed the URL*, *removed it from the day's news page*, and made it possible to find it only by doing a search of the archives. So, in essence, the first edit was correct; they killed the comments and tried to bury the story.
• They're starting to comment again. I wonder how long until those are erased. One of my favorites - "One GOD one JESUS one HEAVEN one hell. I don't want to be in the aclu's position on the day of judgement. YOU WILL KNEEL BEFORE THE ONE GOD." You have to love the peace and tolerance. Personally, I think the ACLU would be viewed more positively than the people who are trying to force their faith on everyone else. =]
  

Current mood: frustrated
Current music: AFI - Love Like Winter

Change? Who needs that!?
or
James Opens Another Can.

I've really cut back on the posts about the local political landscape, and I've done it on purpose. I find that it tends to make me more negative, and I'm trying to improve in that area.

However, this is about the presidential election, so I'll post for this one.

The post which follows is in response to a blog entry on the local paper's website. The person making the post claims to be a retired janitor with "100 hours of graduate study beyond an M.A. in U.S. history." (anyone else's bullshit alarm going off yet?)

I'm going to do this in a quote and response style. The blog entry is linked above, so feel free to read it if you like (some of his other posts are real winners too).

"Sen. Barack Obama's campaign slogan "Change We Can Believe In" is a nonsense phrase. It has no real meaning.

Am I the only one who thinks that it doesn't make any sense to believe in "change"? I can see believing in religion or love or maybe even music, but believing in "change" makes no sense."

While I don’t think it’s wise to seek change simply for the sake of change, after the last almost 8 years of Bush in office, you bet your ass I’m ready for change in a positive direction. We (at least the sane among us) don’t expect everything to happen overnight, but we do bloody well think it NEEDS to happen.

“Bill Clinton suggested "It's time to change America" when he ran in 1992. I don't recall him changing much of anything, although two years later voters changed Congress by replacing many Democrats with Republicans.”

For someone who claims to study US history, you don’t seem to know a whole lot about it. Under Clinton, we actually had a budget *surplus* which Bush decided to squander when he came into office.

That was quite a change from the previous administrations as well as the current one.

Then again, I’m responding to someone who thinks that Clinton got off from lying to a federal judge because he was the President when the truth is that he was found not guilty because the question had no bearing on the case he was testifying about and therefore had no place being asked.

And this guy claims to have a master’s degree in US history?

“The slogan "Change We Can Believe In" sounds like something a child might consider impressive, but it has no real meaing.”

No, the slogan is a rallying cry for everyone who is sick of a government that is of the Exxon, by the Halliburton, and for the Wal-mart. It is a blatant statement that things need to CHANGE and that if they don’t, the downward spiral we are currently in will only get WORSE.

“Not surprisingly, Obama has more appeal to inexperienced young voters than to wiser older voters who have seen a lot of fast talking phony politicians.”

You have to love how he defines wise people as people who think like him and are in his age group when he shows a decided lack of wisdom. Granted, I may be a wiseassed 20-something, but I’m a politically savvy one (and certainly not gullible) who realizes that THIS IS MY COUNTRY TOO AND *I* NEED TO HELP STEER IT BECAUSE IT IS PART OF *MY* DUTY AS A *CITIZEN*.

Sorry, kiddo, but I’ve been involved in politics since before I was 18 and did it using my own mind instead of making snap decisions.

Guess who I’m voting for. It certainly isn’t McCain, who, despite trying to look like a moderate, is a conservative in the shape of our current “leader”.

That’s something that laughing boy doesn’t seem to get. Then again, he’s also a member of the generation that has the funny habit of deciding that a program is no longer needed after they’re done using it (but that’s a whole other rant).

“Obama a few months ago commented about the psychological state of small town people who believed in religion, etc. What is the psychological state of people who believe in some vaguely defined "change"? “

Religion is a fine thing. However, it has no place in public policy. It is a private, personal matter and should be kept that way.

What Obama was talking about was the fact that people in the Midwest (especially in the rural areas) often try to get their elected officials to pass laws based on their religious convictions.

Try running as a person who is openly non-Christian around here even if you *are* the best person for the job and see if you get elected. In all honesty, you would not only have a huge smear campaign leveled at you but also possibly death threats, physical violence, your property defaced, etc.

As an example, our current governor was smeared for not being the right *kind* of Christian (he’s not Baptist, which seems to be the common denomination here).

Was it poorly worded? Sure. However, it was both sad and true. I should know. I grew up around it and continue to be surrounded by it. The sad fact is that a lot of people are trying to use religion as a political tool and that needs to STOP.

There are plenty of nice people around here, but there are far too many that want to make laws based on their religion, to the detriment of everyone else.

“Obama's supporters must have very empty lives to believe that some vague "change" is going to make their lives better. Do they expect the president to provide them some type of psychological satisfaction?”

No, we expect a change from the way things have been under Bush. Possibly back to something that actually looks and behaves as though it were at least sort of “Of the people, by the people, and for the people.”

However, that is going to require “change” and involvement – most notably from the younger generations which he derides as being naive.

“As an historian I am inherently suspicious of politicians who rely on oratorical ability to reach people on an emotional level.”

This is a good stance to take. However, *all* politicians rely on oratorical ability to reach people on an emotional level. The question is whether or not they can and will work to affect positive change.

“How can we be sure the that Barack Obama is not talking about a "change" designed to reduce the level of democracy in the United States?”

Apparently he really isn’t much of a student of US history. Despite the shenanigans of the current “president,” the answer to that question would be “separation of powers” (i.e. “checks and balances”) and THE CONSTITUTION.

I hate to tell him this, but this is our world as well and will be long after he and his kind are gone.

On second thought, I don’t hate to tell him that. I just wish I could do so to his face. Of course, I’d also be sorely tempted to tell him that he doesn’t know what the hell he’s talking about and that it really shows (not to mention doubting the degree that he claims to have).

Current mood: annoyed
Current music: Tonic - Open Up Your Eyes (it seemed appropriate)

Quality Isn’t Cheap.

I don’t agree with a lot of what Joel Spolsky says anymore. Granted, he still does pull off the occasional really good article, but it seems like most of his writing anymore is just saying how great he is.

His latest article on Architecture Astronauts looked like it was going to end up being one of his decent works when I started reading it. Unfortunately, the first part of the article was a smoke screen.

The real topic of the article?

Joel was whining that Google and Microsoft are buying up all of the decent CS graduates at good salaries and he just can’t compete.

He throws in a bunch of other things to make you think that isn’t the real topic of the article, but that’s what it boils down to – Joel is upset because he has to compete on a salary basis with Google and Microsoft because he wants the same sort of people that they hire.

I love his complaining that the Goog and MS are giving recent grads something that’s getting sort of close to 6 figure salaries.

I know that sounds insane if you’re looking at it from the point of view of the average salary here in Ohio, but let’s think about this for a second.

Google is located in one of the most expensive places to live in the country.

The Seattle area isn’t exactly cheap either.

If you think about it in those terms, that salary doesn’t seem so outrageous. In fact, buying power wise, it’s probably about the same as you’d be getting here with a couple of years of experience. Granted, that isn’t *right out of college* for most people, but it’s pretty close (and some of us had several years of experience before we graduated because we worked our way through school).

Now, want to know the real kicker?

Joel’s company is located in NYC.

That’s right. He’s based in an expensive area, competing with other companies based in expensive areas and he’s complaining about the cost to hire decent people.

If you want to have lower salaries, do what Eric Sink did and locate in the Midwest. However, part of the sales pitch Joel gives for his company is the fact that it *is* in NYC and how that means that there are so many things to do.

I have no doubt that the man is intelligent. He wouldn’t have been able to get as far as he has if he weren’t smart. However, he’s being far too ego driven now and that leads to a lot of stupid mistakes.

He’s buying into his own cult of personality and thinks that people should want to work with him just because he’s him instead of realizing that good people cost money no matter who you think you are (especially in expensive areas).

After all, we want to be able to do things like eat, pay the rent, go out and do things, etc.

Personally, I view the “salary problem” he is citing as a somewhat positive sign. It means that the market may actually be improving somewhat.

Current mood: amused
Current music: 10,000 Maniacs – Candy Everyone Wants

But we’re *supposed* to hate you!

Today, the local paper reported that one of the high schools in the area had a group which celebrated the National Day of Silence (an annual day of action in the United States to protest the bullying and harassment of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) students, and their supporters.)

Personally, I support this sort of demonstration. I’m tired of people getting bullied and harassed for things like this.

The locals hit the roof.

There’s something you have to understand about this region. I know I’ve said it before, but this area is extremely isolationist. In addition, while there are many very nice people here (really there are), there are a lot of extraordinarily intolerant ones. Racism and hate of various groups is frighteningly common in this part of the state.

The really frightening thing, though, is the fact that, not only do these people feel justified in holding these views (and acting on them), but they try to claim anyone who opposes their hatred and intolerance is trying to repress their rights.

Take for example a very telling comment on the paper’s discussion board regarding the article (copied verbatim without any editing):

The pro-gay lifestyle people are constantly preaching tolerance for their way of life...yet don't believe in tolerance themselves. This area is a huge part of the Bible belt of the midwest. A lot of people here are God fearing Christians who take the Bible to heart. The Bible says that homosexuality is abomination before God. Your asking millions of people to disregard their core beliefs and values just so you don't get your feelings hurt. WHile you feel the names you throw around are hurtful..maybe the rest of us don't like the names you throw back at us. If you want to preach tolerance..learn tolerance yourself.

That’s right. This person, whose views on the subject are pretty much the same as a large portion of the population in the area, is saying that by not tolerating his hatred and disgust of gay people and the actions that he performs because of that hatred, we’re being intolerant of him (and his religion) and that we should let him do whatever he wants to whoever he wants.

Sorry, kiddies, but it doesn’t work that way. You don’t get to scream “but it’s my religion to hate gays!” (and if you try it around me, well, let’s just say that the consequences aren’t happy. Some of my very best friends have been/still are in the GBLT community).

Welcome to southern Ohio - where, if you’re different than we are, we’ll beat you with our Bible Belt and then scream that you hate Christianity because you try to stop us.

*slams head against the desk a few times*

Current mood: Annoyed doesn’t even cover it
Current music: AFI – The Killing Lights

Let Your Kids Be Kids

Bruce Schneier pointed out a news story today in which a mother let her 9 year old take the subway home by himself (at the kid’s request).

Normally, the people who comment on Bruce’s blog hold great contempt for security theater and the like. However, it seems that not even they are immune to “think of the children”.

Apparently in their opinion, and the opinions of far far too many others, children should be wrapped in bubble wrapped and locked in a padded room until they’re 18.

Give me a break. At 9, I was roaming all over my hometown as well as camping by myself on the farm my family owns (about 350 acres with quite a bit of woods) and roaming the neighboring farmlands.

Heck, man. At that age, I missed the bus a couple of times and walked the probably mile and a half or two miles to school, getting there before the bus did.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with giving your kid a bit of independence, yet it seems like every generation is more restrictive when it comes to their children than the generation before it.

There was a time when kids used to play outside all day with other kids and still make it home for dinner. Now it seems like parents freak when the kids are outside for 5 minutes.

The common argument is generally that the world is more dangerous now, but I don’t buy it. The world really isn’t any more dangerous for kids or adults than it was when my parents were children or when their parents were (you get the idea). Some of the dangers may be different, and they’re certainly more publicized in order to capitalize on fear, but it’s not really any more dangerous now.

Do yourself, and your kids, a favor – teach them self confidence, make sure they have a good head on their shoulders, teach them to be aware of their surroundings and not to have blind trust in people, let them train in martial arts if they’re interested, give them a bit of encouragement, have some faith in them, and send them out into their world to explore, play, and be kids. They’ll come home in time for dinner.

It doesn’t mean that you don’t care about their wellbeing. Quite the opposite, actually, because you’ll be helping them to be more self reliant people.

This sort of thing is important. Part of being a kid is learning to push your boundaries until you find your real boundaries. Sure, you might get a few cuts and scrapes, but those heal. Most of life’s lessons aren’t learned by sitting inside, sheltered from the world, and your kids will need them when they’re finally out there on their own.

Current mood: calm
Current music: Alice Cooper - Poison

Scared Money

There is something about many businesses in the Midwest that I have never understood.

Okay, there are a *lot* of things about them that I don’t understand, but we’re focusing on one issue here.

There seems to be this fear of hiring anyone who has either done freelance work or owned their own company. I can understand *why* they feel that way, but it’s extremely wrongheaded.

The general fear seems to be that those people will run off with their clients or leave them again, possibly to start their own companies.

First off, whether or not someone who works for you will run off with your clients has nothing to do with whether they were a consultant or company owner before they worked for you. Bad people will do bad things no matter what.

Secondly, people join and leave businesses all of the time. That’s how businesses get employees in the first place. The thing that’s been different in the last decade or so is that people are starting to realize that most companies have no loyalty for the employees, so they, as employees, have to look out for themselves and be ready to leave when it is to their advantage.

A lot of places in this area of the country still want people to be totally devoted to them while having none of that devotion toward the people working for them, and that just doesn’t work. In fact, it’s something I like to call Spoiled Child Syndrome.

The fact is that while caution is laudable when used sensibly, taking it to the level of paranoia only hurts you. As any good poker player will tell you, scared money never wins.

They eschew people who have, for whatever reason, been on their own when they should be trying to snatch up the people who want to come back to the corporate world because they bring more than technical skill to the table – they also bring experience in business, personal skills, and various professional skills and contacts that your average technical worker just doesn’t generally have.

It’s one of the many big differences between the Midwest and the West Coast. On the West Coast, being part of a startup or having had your own company is considered normal, and even beneficial *because* of the experience involved. If the startup succeeds, you generally get bought out and then go do something else (either at another company, on your own, or retire and do what you like) after a while. If it fails, well, you try something else.

That’s the sane, sensible way to look at it. It’s also a large part of the reason for the successful technical businesses on the West Coast and the relative lack of them in the Midwest by comparison.

In this sense, the West Coasters are sensible poker players, balancing defense and offense and the Midwesterners are the scared money.

Current mood: my head hurts
Current music: Billy Joel - I Go To Extremes

Rights? What Are Those?

I did something today that I haven’t done in quite a long time. I wrote an actual, on paper, in an envelope with a stamp letter to a politician.

Our governor, whom I generally support, has well and truly screwed up. Nativity scenes were removed from two state parks here and he later ordered them to be replaced because they were “proper and traditional.”

Before you look at me like that, let me say that I don’t have a problem with them being there provided a couple of things are true –

1) They aren’t being provided using public funds (as in some private org is putting them there with a permit)

2) Every religion that wants to can put up a display.

He killed #2.

In a display of a complete lack of regard for the first amendment, he has decided that he should be able to decide which religions get to be represented and which don’t (and already said no to one).

I’m not happy.

The letter, which is to be mailed today, follows.

Governor Strickland,

I have been a long time supporter of yours. In fact my family and I actually knew you at one time. Personally, I think that, on most things, you have looked out for the best interest of your people. You’re not perfect, but then nobody is.

However, you have recently done something which I consider unconscionable.

If the Nativity scene is provided or maintained by using public funds, it should not be in the public parks, tradition or not. If it was provided for by a private group and allowed to be there, that would be different provided that ALL other faiths were allowed to put up displays of their own.

However, the statement by your spokesperson, Keith Dailey, that you would decide which religious symbols to allow on the park grounds was so far past the boundaries of good taste and legality that it’s not even funny.

It is a statement that your administration is going to pick and chose which religions to represent and which ones to repress, and that is not only against the Constitution, it is morally repugnant in a nation that was built on no religion being higher than any other.

In a few short days, I have lost a great deal of respect for you – not that I think my opinion will have any real affect on you as you seem to be set on doing what you are doing despite the law.

In addition, I think that you need to send word to Whitehall City Council member Chris Rodriguez that we take our rights quite seriously and his statement that “people should get over it and stop being so smug about their rights.” is a sign that he has no regard for those he serves.

Part of the responsibility of all politicians in this country, including both of you, is to protect the rights of the people. Suggesting otherwise should constitute breaking your oath of office.

I mention him only because you are currently in the same boat and you both need to re-think your stances and make formal apologies to the people which you serve (and you do serve us. Never forget that.)

I’ve done my part as a citizen by voicing my concerns. It is now your turn to do your part by following the law and acting in a reasonable manner.

Regards,

James Hollingshead

I admit it. I occasionally look at Slashdot during the course of the day. It will generally have something interesting at some point during the day. However, some of the people that comment there make my head hurt.

Granted, you have sane people, and they’re probably in the majority, but then you have the rabid [insert non-MS operating system] fans who can agree on one thing – that Microsoft sucks and needs to die.

This is not a view I share. Granted, that could be because I’m not a fanatic or it could be because, like a large portion of the business world, I do most of my work in a Microsoft environment, but the fact stands that I don’t think their products are horrible (despite my dislike of Vista based on the limited experience I currently have with it) and actually like more than a few of them.

Don’t get me wrong. I don’t think they’re a big fluffy bunny of a company. In fact, I think they have a number of problems that they need to resolve (as do a lot of tech-related companies), but I don’t go around decrying them as the great evil which Linux must vanquish (which is a rant for another time. I like and use Linux too. I just don’t like the fanboys).

Earlier today, I saw on a different site I keep on my RSS reader that MS was giving away copies of various pieces of software in exchange for running a usability monitor. They were even up front about it. The page at Microsoft basically said “let us see how you use Windows and Office for three months, and we’ll send you the software of your choice when it’s over”

It’s closed now. They ran out of the software they allocated earlier today, so I’m not going to bother linking to it.

I passed on it for two reasons – I didn’t need any of the software they were offering and I didn’t feel like being monitored though I can see where it would be a good deal for some people.

Slashdot got wind of this and the anti-MS crowd came out in droves. You got comments from them running the gamut from “spyware!!!!” to “free? How *dare* they call their software free!!??” (also another rant for another time) to “I’d get it just to smash it”

In other words, they showed more than a couple of reasons why so many businesses and people refuse to take open source, or technical people for that matter, seriously. Whether they realize it or not or like it or not, they are part of the problem. Technology is meant to solve problems, not be a religion.

That’s right. Microsoft is evil because they’re offering to give people software for no greater cost than monitoring their PC usage for a few months. Sounds well and truly evil to me alright. (Please note the sarcasm)

Then again, they’d probably think that my only having to pay $10 for Visual Studio 2005 was evil as well. After all, it means I’m not using Linux or Mac exclusively and that I might actually be doing something productive besides saying how MS needs to die.

(Say what you want. I *LIKE* Visual Studio. It’s a very full featured, responsive IDE and I love having the ability to graphically lay out my user interfaces. It saves so much time.)

Part of me says “I’d say the technical community needs to grow up, but I realize most of the people on there aren’t actually in the IT field” but then the other part of me reminds myself how many people like that I’ve met who *are* in the field.

Current mood: amazed
Current music: Killing Heidi - Mascara

This Is Why I Hate Software Cults.

I’ve said it before, and I’m saying it again. Software and licenses for same are not a religion and SHOULD NOT BE.

Today, when news that Sun has Dual-Licensed Netbeans 6 in their own OSI-approved CDDL license and GLPv2 (not 3) hit Slashdot, there were a few people who slammed them for not being really “committed to Free Software.”

I wanted to strangle people. I know it sounds stupid, but after so long of dealing with people slamming you and people you actually know because you don’t open source *everything* that you write, you’d understand.

First off, no kidding Sun isn’t committed to “Free” software (“Free” software is a subset of Open Source software and it galls Stallman that Open Source has more support than "Free" does because the rest of the world isn't into the moral crusade). They don’t buy into the moral crusade. The fact that both of the licenses are OSI approved, but one of them is not “Free” should tell you that.

Secondly, how dare a company or a person decide to use a license only when it makes sense to do so? The shock and horror. (Pardon me while I roll my eyes).

Not all people who use or advocate Open Source are zealots. I’m not.

Some of us actually realize that tools are meant to be tools and not religions. Sometimes you use a screwdriver, sometimes a hacksaw, sometimes a hammer…

The zealots, on the other hand, view everything as a nail. The great irony is that most of the zealots that I’ve met don’t release *anything* into the community. Heck, probably 90% of them I’ve met don’t even *code*. The other 10% is generally idealistic high school and college students who haven’t been into the world yet.

Most of them just want to bash Microsoft because they can’t get a copy of Visual Studio for free. (Ironically, I only paid about $11 for mine. Legally, from Microsoft. You have to love promotions)

The heck of it is that I’ve known a lot of developers that have stopped releasing *anything* as open source because they were tired of the backlash because, no matter what they did, no matter what they released, they were still evil because they didn’t release *everything* as open.

As a result, the zealots now get nothing from those people and neither does anyone else. How’s that for helping the cause you claim to espouse?

The zealots are a bunch of ingrates, and I would love to add a clause to my license to prevent them from using my software, but that would be childish. Instead, I just grit my teeth and release things under whatever license I bloody well want.

Some of it’s open. Some of it isn’t.

Use it or don’t. That’s your choice. What I do with it is mine unless someone else owns the rights to it after it’s made.

Current mood: annoyed
Current music: Matthew Sweet – Silent City

Where Do They Find These People??

I realize that I post on here about the local area far too often. However, sometimes something happens that you just have to share.

In a letter to the editor, someone asks when will the levies ever stop because they say they pay $300 more a year in taxes than when they first moved here (no word on how long they’ve been here, which is rather important).

Of course, we get the people going “no no no no no more levies!!!” and a few reasonable people saying that the public infrastructure (schools, libraries, fire, etc) needs to be funded and that’s done through taxes, because apparently some of these people think that there’s a magical money tree somewhere that the government gets operating funds from.

And then you have the guy who wrote that I’m going to paste here in just a minute. I wish I could say that he’s some weird lampoon, but there's a really good chance that the boy's for real because there are a lot of other people just like this who comment on the paper...

Finally, let me say that this is a direct cut and paste. I didn’t clean up anything, and I certainly didn’t make it worse than it was written.

“NONONONONONNOONONONNO!!!!!!!
These taxis are way to much! Seniors can hace a center but make it with a factory where the users make carvings and quilts that support it. They can wokr there till the center supports istelf.
As for fire and rescue, why don't they just charge people that use it? Don't want to pay? Don't set yourself on fire! Duh!
And the library. What do I want with a library? I already have several books and my kids dont red them anyway. Only in school cause court makes them go. People that want library are intellectil snobs.
Keep ballets free!!!”

And, in a later comment from him:

“DONT MAKE HONEST WOKERS PAY FOR FANCY LIBRARY!!!!
I dont want anbd dont pay for grocery store at library. Whos fancy idea is that anyways. Im tired of being taxed out the ears for that snob place”

My head hurts. The library is a place for intellectual (actually “intellectil”) snobs? What ever happened to bettering yourself?

Oh, I forgot. We don’t do that kind of thing here. That might mean that you were acting better than you were.

*slams head against desk, deepening the forehead shaped indentation just a little bit more*

Current mood: Sad
Current music: AFI – The Missing Frame

Fraud and Loathing in Ohio

Part of this week has been an adventure. Somehow, someone got my debit card number and promptly started to drain my account. My guess is that some company I’ve ordered from has gotten hacked.

Thankfully my bank is very good about this sort of thing and I had the money back in my account the next day, and the resulting overdraft fees dropped the day after that.

As a result, I am now over my heart attack (figurative, not literal). All I can say is that it’s not a happy thing to look at your account balance and see $20 there when there should have been significantly more than that, and I’m glad it’s all cleared up now.

However, the day that it took to clear everything up was special (not in the happy way), and it really took most of the whole day between calling my bank and the merchants who authorized the transactions, filling out the fraud paperwork, getting it notarized, fax it to my bank, etc.

On the upside, I found out that one of the local banks only charges $1 to notarize things for non-members, so that’s good to know for future reference.

To close, I would like to say the following things:

I love my bank. They are absolutely wonderful to work with and get things resolved insanely quickly.

Yahoo Voice was actually good about the whole thing and refunded the charge of their own volition without having to have papers filed.

Sony Online Entertainment, however, was absolutely horrible to work with. First off, their support line is long distance. You’d think that, with a company that size, they would have an 800 number. Then I had to spend almost half an hour trying to convince the rather inflexible person on the other end of the line that I did not, in fact, authorize the purchases, that I didn’t let anyone in the house do so, and that I don’t even *play* MMORPGs. She was actually trying to get me to say that I had done it myself after I told her that most certainly was not the case. Repeatedly.

Just how many times can you say “I am the sole cardholder and I didn’t authorize the bloody charge” anyway? After that, I was told that the only thing I could do is file fraud papers. This was after they determined it really *was* fraudulent because, looking at the account in question, the same person had used a number of different cards to pay for his purchases.

If that was all they were going to do, they could have told me that up front and saved me half an hour off of my plan.

Current mood: tired
Current music: Cowboy Bebop – Call Me Call Me