Technology et al

GameStop's misleading Customer Service

2014-11-30T19:41:00.000-05:00

GameStop

13904 Town Center Blvd #300

Noblesville, IN 46060

My kids have somehow managed to rip the left joystick off of two different xbox one remotes.

Busted Controller - Still works.

I went in to this GameStop to purchase a new controller to be hidden from my children. While I was in there the guy working told me that they would give me a minimum of $15 for my busted controllers. I explained what was wrong with them and he reinforced that it didnt matter I can get $15 on trade even if they do notwork.

So a few days later I ventured back out to this GameStop with on of my busted controllers. The same guy takes one look at it and says, "I cant give you money for this, its too busted....."

I called out the fact he specifically told me he would take it, even though I had fully disclosed the issues, of course that did not matter.

Nonetheless I wasted a good hour of my life fighting through holiday mall traffic for a failed endeavor. Next time, I'll use Amazon.

I wouldnt have even made the trip if he hadn't originally told me it didnt matter what was wrong with my controllers.

Apple Cider Take 1

2014-08-10T16:53:00.001-04:00

Apple Cider Take 1

Well I started my first batch of cider (this year) yesterday. Here are the ingredients:

7 gal Organic Earth Fare Apple Juice
2.5 lbs (40oz.) Locally source clover honey from Eisele's in Westfield In
1 packet Lavlin nEC-1118
1 packet Red Star Champagne yeast

This is a rather easy process but here are the steps.

Sanitize all equip
Bring 1 gal Juice and 40oz honey to boil in pot
While waiting for boil - heat a couple ozs water and a tablespoon of honey to ~ 110F. Add in the yeast and stir well.
Remove Juice from heat once boiling and pour 4 gallons juice in
Siphon all 5 gallons into Primary vessel
Yeast will be alive and kicking within 20 minute of rehydrating.
Pitch yeast into primary
Top off primary with 2 more gallons of Juice
Add Airlock.

Starting Gravity: 1.06

I did all this around 6pm - when I got home around 230AM this thing was bubbling like mad. I have this in a dark room that is between 68 - 71 F all day long.

We'll check this again in a few week's time.

Cisco E4200 Antenna Mod (no solder)

2014-07-15T20:47:00.001-04:00

Cisco E4200 Antenna Mod (no solder)

I have an e4200 dualband a/b/g/n from Cisco (linksys).

Frankly, its reception in a medium/large home sucks. I have it on a bookshelf in my living room on the south side of the house, while my son's Roku is on the north side of the home. I ended up buying a signal booster just so we could reach the bedroom. I also tried a PowerLine Adapter but I have an older model that was maxing out at 9mbps.

I went ahead an purchased this, that includes 2 7dbi high gain antennas with the proper connectors for the board.

It was really a snap to install, considering all of the antennas on this model have a connector (as opposed to being soldered on).

Here are some pics.

The end result? About a 10 dbi gain in the office when the antennas are aimed properly!

My Workbench Project Part II

2014-07-12T22:47:00.001-04:00

My Workbench Project

Ok so I made a couple of on the fly decisions when I went to the hardware store. I opted to purchase 2x3s instead of 2x4s - I purchased 10 total (the previous quote + 4 for the legs).

Total cost: was $19.50 (I think it was actually $16 but I lost the receipt, it isnt showing up on MyLowes, and the online price was $1.95 / 2x3 so I just did the math)

I also updated the design on the fly to remove the center 4 angle braces. Here are the updated drawings

I made the legs out of 2 - 2x3s butted up against each other. I'm a tall guy so I made the leg height 3.5' - Here is a side profile with the measurements.

When I was at the hardware store I tried to pick the straightest wood I could, but I did end up with one piece that through me out of square, but it was only by about 1/8th of an inch - so no big deal. Here is the other side:

I have that much built now, but the garage is a mess so I dont have much room to take pictures. I'll get those uploaded tomorrow.

Thats all for now - Time to go watch some Game of Thrones!

My Workbench Project

2014-07-12T18:08:00.002-04:00

My Workbench Project

So today I decided to start my work bench project. Hopefully in a week or so I will have a very sturdy, adjustable height workbench. Once this bench is finished I plan to start the remainder of my shelves in the garage. The overall goal here is to get everything of of the floor, organized, and the floor painted to prevent further wear.

To start I downloaded sketchup.

Once it was downloaded and installed I set out designing my Workbench. When I first began I had not yet decided to make this table adjustable. Here is the design of the top, fairly basic, should be sturdy.

You'll have to forgive my lack of sketchup-foo here.... I remembered this being easier when it was a Google project.

This is intended to be made out of standard 2x4s

corner braces = 2 (2x4)

long sides = 2 (2x4)

short sides = 1 (2x4)

cross beams= 1 (2x4)

I checked Lowes' website and the 2x4s were going for $2.64 so the total so far is: $15.84

I'll be headed out here in a few to buy the wood and construct the top - Updates to follow

Continued in Part II

HomeBrewing - Sparkling Hard Cider

2012-07-06T11:29:00.001-04:00

HomeBrewing - Sparkling Hard Cider

So this is my first go at doing any type of serious homebrew. I had tried to make hard cider once before but it ended with an all but tragic result - More on that later.

To get started this whole thing was inspired by my wife who has found a new love in this sparkling cider. She has been drinking something made by Michelob. Anyway I had been thinking about giving this all another go and have just been waiting for the right reason. Because I can spin that whole thing off as something for her it worked out well :-).

Success as measured by time

2012-06-17T22:57:00.000-04:00

I recently read an article on HBR.ORG titled "Stop Working All Those Hours" and it has really made to stop and think about how people, myself included, measure success. The general premise here is that success in the workplace is often measured by the amount of time spent in the office. Stop and think about this for a moment; is it true?
Will spending 50+ hours a week in the office really make you a better employee? Or is it a perfect demonstration of not being as efficient as you could be? Metrics are an important factor in a business, I mean you have to have some empirical data by which you compare employees against each other. But is hours worked a valid metric? Does the employee that came in on Saturday deserve recognition if they could have completed the task on Friday? Is the employee that leaves early to watch their childrens' little league game less dedicated to his or her job?

LinkedIn Passwords Stolen - the Passwords Suck!

2012-06-07T10:07:00.002-04:00

From LinkedIn's Blog comes the news of a 'few' passwords being leaked onto the internet. Vicentie Silveira writes:

"We want to provide you with an update on this morning’s reports of stolen passwords. We can confirm that some of the passwords that were compromised correspond to LinkedIn accounts. We are continuing to investigate this situation and here is what we are pursuing as far as next steps for the compromised accounts:

Members that have accounts associated with the compromised passwords will notice that their LinkedIn account password is no longer valid.

These members will also receive an email from LinkedIn with instructions on how to reset their passwords. There will not be any links in this email. Once you follow this step and request password assistance, then you will receive an email from LinkedIn with a password reset link.

These affected members will receive a second email from our Customer Support team providing a bit more context on this situation and why they are being asked to change their passwords.

It is worth noting that the affected members who update their passwords and members whose passwords have not been compromised benefit from the enhanced security we just recently put in place, which includes hashing and salting of our current password databases.
We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience this has caused our members. We take the security of our members very seriously. If you haven’t read it already it is worth checking out my earlier blog post today about updating your password and other account security best practices."

While this is some disturbing news, this is more disturbing...

Malware Flame Exploits vulnerability in Windows Update

2012-06-05T11:35:00.001-04:00

'Flame' Exploits vulnerability in Windows Update

According to threat analysis done on the recent 'Flame' malware the source for the vulnerability was a two-part scheme that allowed Windows Updates to be hijacked via MITM - Man in the Middle attacks.

The first prong of the attack used a flaw found in an algorithm used for Remote Desktop. This allowed them to generate a Certificate that is technically valid; this certificate was then used to sign the code.

From Microsoft Security Response Center Senior Director Mike Reavey:

“We have discovered through our analysis that some components of the malware have been signed by certificates that allow software to appear as if it was produced by Microsoft,”

Facebook Profile / Credit Report

2012-06-04T22:02:00.003-04:00

I was doing some research today for a final paper (due in a couple hours.... I <3 procrastination) about ethical dilemmas where technology is involved. Of course all the obvious things popped into my head, Google's street view cars, Facebook's Beacon case etc. But in writing the paper I had a bit of an epiphany; which as a result thereof I decided it was high time to jump on the Blogger band wagon. So the idea is simple, employers will often times request permission to pull a potential job candidate's credit report. The Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act (FACT Act) allows consumers to access a copy of their credit report once a year, one useful tidbit of information on the report tells you who all has accessed your information. Using this as a premise would it not then be prudent to offer a similar service for your Facebook profile?