For the sake of clarity and brevity I will use TOS to refer to both Terms of Service (TOS) and Acceptable Use Policy (AUP).

After I wrote my post on the EFF’s “Open Wireless Movement” essay I realized that in addition to trivializing the need for wireless security the EFF also failed to point out that sharing your home Internet connection is likely a violation of your Internet Service Provider’s (ISP) Terms of Service (TOS). Violating your ISP’s TOS could get your Internet service suspended or terminated.

For example, Comcast’s residential TOS reads [emphasis mine]:

All Comcast High-Speed Internet customers and all others who use the Service (the “customer,” “user,” “you,” or “your”) must comply with this Policy. Your failure to comply with this Policy could result in the suspension or termination of your Service account. If you do not agree to comply with this Policy, you must immediately stop all use of the Service and notify Comcast so that it can close your account.

From the Prohibited Uses and Activities section [emphasis mine]:

resell the Service or otherwise make available to anyone outside the Premises the ability to use the Service (for example, through wi-fi or other methods of networking), in whole or in part, directly or indirectly. The Service is for personal and non-commercial residential use only and you agree not to use the Service for operation as an Internet service provider or for any business enterprise or purpose (whether or not for profit);

Verizon’s residential TOS reads [emphasis mine]:

Termination and/or Suspension by Verizon. Verizon reserves the right to change, limit, terminate, modify or temporarily or permanently cease providing the Service or any part of it with or without prior notice if we elect to change the Service or a part thereof or if you violate the terms of this Agreement.

Restrictions on Use. The Service is a consumer grade service and is not designed for or intended to be used for any commercial purpose. You may not resell, re-provision or rent the Service, (either for a fee or without charge) or allow third parties to use the Service via wired, wireless or other means. For example, you may not provide Internet access to third parties through a wired or wireless connection or use the Service to facilitate public Internet access (such as through a Wi-Fi hotspot)…

Any, if not all, residential grade ISPs will likely have similar prohibitions against sharing your Internet connection with those outside of your home. Business services most likely don’t have these restrictions, for example Comcast’s TOS for business reads [emphasis mine]:

make the Service available to anyone other than your business or your business’ authorized employees, contractors, or users (i.e. members of the public, customers of an establishment, hotel or motel guests and patrons, or persons in a residence hall or apartment building) unless done with Comcast’s written approval in accordance with an applicable Business Services Agreement;

resell the Service or otherwise make available to anyone outside the Service Location(s) the ability to use the Service (for example, through wi-fi or other methods of networking), in whole or in part, directly or indirectly, unless expressly permitted by the applicable Business Services Agreement;

Comcast business customers can share their connection so long as they share it with people within their service location (at least that’s the way I read it). I could not find any language in Verizon’s business TOS that deals with sharing your business Internet connection with a third-party. Since it’s pretty much expected that a business will have Internet access for their customers I’d imagine that most business class Internet service does not prohibit sharing the connection.

The residential sharing restrictions are mostly likely there to prevent neighbors (or neighborhoods) from sharing a single connection and splitting the cost of it, or one customer renting their connection to their neighbor(s) at a lower cost than what the ISP would charge (this happens). Unless the ISP could prove that this is what was being done, I don’t think that it’s very likely that Comcast, Verizon, or any other ISP would terminate a residential customer for simply having an open WiFi connection. It would be a dick move that could lead to bad publicity, especially since most people have no idea how or why they should be securing their WiFi. I have not heard of anyone being terminated for sharing their connection (inadvertently or otherwise) and I’m not aware that it’s something that ISPs are actively monitoring.

I suppose there is the possibility that if the EFF’s Open Wireless Movement has any degree of success it could wake a sleeping dragon and ISPs could start cracking down on Internet connection sharing (bad publicity or not) by suspending or terminating customers. Lest we forget that ISPs are greedy bastards – AT&T recently imposed bandwidth caps on their DSL customers. If we live in a world where ISPs think bandwidth caps are ok, it may not be completely insane to imagine that they might start driving around neighborhoods cutting off any customer that has an open WiFi connection; at least those who appear to be doing it intentionally.

I don’t agree with the idea that I can’t do what I want, how I want to, with a service I pay for. As I pointed out in my post Steal This Wi-Fi (the safe way) I have an open WiFi network at home so obviously I’ve never paid much attention to the TOS of my ISP. Again, I don’t think (at this time anyway) that there is any reason to think that ISPs are going to start enforcing their sharing prohibitions. Then again, if sharing you Internet starts becoming the fashionable thing to do ISPs may start to take notice. After all, every person who uses someone else’s connection for free is a customer that’s not paying them for the privilege.

The real issue though is that the EFF published their Open Wireless Movement essay without mentioning that their recommended action (sharing your Internet connection) is likely a violation of your ISP’s TOS and could get your service terminated. If anyone should know this it’s the EFF but their essay makes no mention of it. Shame on them.

Also see my related post EFF’s “Open Wireless Movement” Could Get You Terminated

I discussed the issue of leaving your WiFi network open back in 2008 after reading an article in Wired were Bruce Schneier mused that an open WiFi network (that is, one without encryption) is nothing to worry about and went as far as to recommended that everyone open their WiFi up to the world.

It was a bad idea then and it still is but that does not stop the normally privacy and security conscious EFF from going against their own advice and publishing an essay that trivialities the effectiveness of WPA and implies that everyone should disable WPA (because it’s not doing you any good anyway) and open up their WiFi for the greater good.

WPA is Secure

From the EFF essay [emphasis mine]:

The problem that’s really killing open WiFi is the idea that an unlocked network is a security and privacy risk.

This idea is only partially true. Computer security experts will argue at great length about whether WEP, WPA and WPA2 actually provide security, or just a false sense of security. Both sides are partially correct: none of these protocols will make anyone safe from hacking or malware (WEP is of course trivial to break, and WPA2 is often easy to break in practice), but it’s also true that even a broken cryptosystem increases the effort that someone nearby has to go to in order to eavesdrop, and may therefore sometimes prevent eavesdropping.

This essay explains why the progressive locking of wireless networks is harmful — for convenience, for privacy and for efficient use of the electromagnetic spectrum.

The essay never explains how securing WiFi is harmful to privacy. I really wish it had because that would have been a huge revelation to me. That statement alone is almost enough to call for a ceasing of donations to the EFF until they get their head on straight and print a retraction.

I have never heard any security expert debate whether WPA and WPA2 “actually provide[s] security” even in his 2008 article Schneier admits that WPA is “very good.” I’ve also never heard any debate about whether you should enable WPA, the answer (from those who know better) is always an unequivocal yes. To date WPA has not been cracked and the only effective means of breaking into a WPA protected WiFi network is if the password (i.e. pre-shared key) is a dictionary word and/or is too short.

From Aircrack-ng (folks who make software to crack WEP and WPA networks) [emphasis mine]:

The only time you can crack the pre-shared key is if it is a dictionary word or relatively short in length. Conversely, if you want to have an unbreakable WiFi network at home, use WPA/WPA2 and a 63 character password composed of random characters including special symbols.

And that’s for home networks, corporate networks are likely using WPA with a RADIUS Server that dynamically generates and assigns keys to clients, which adds another layer of security because it eliminates the use of a static key. In Episode 13 of his show Security Now! Steve Gibson said this about WPA:

even the weakest form of WPA encryption, if it’s done properly, is absolutely uncrackable as long as no one gets your key.

The only know weakness in WPA is when weak passwords are used. For WPA to be effective you need to use a long, random password. Most people do not know this (or don’t care) and use words or phrases that can be found in a dictionary which can be easily (and quickly) brute-forced. For the record, a proper WPA password should look like this:

)4y2uqiCpiB`KBeo,=(y3k|{wwTr_GatybbQysxj<8

That’s 63 random printable ASCII characters (generated using GRC’s Perfect Passwords) and for all intents and purposes would make for an uncrackable WPA password. The only known way to crack a WPA password that is not in the dictionary is to brute-force it. If the password is of a significant length and randomness a brute-force attack it grossly ineffective because it would take too long.

How long? Well, according to the Last Bit Password Calculator a 20 character password (the longest you can test) that has upper and lower case letters, numbers, and punctuation would take 1,000 computers, trying 1,000,000 (million) passwords a second: 779,503,646,902,420,500,000 (seven hundred seventy-nine quintillion, five hundred three quadrillion, six hundred forty-six trillion, nine hundred two billion, four hundred twenty million, five hundred thousand) years to crack. Of course, that’s assuming, again, that the password is random and does not contain word(s) that can be found in the dictionary. The WPA cracking service that the EFF essay linked to uses a cluster of only 400 computers.

That said, most people do not choose sufficiently long and random WPA passwords. So the EFF is partially correct that “WPA2 is often easy to break in practice” but that does not mean that you give up on security and privacy and imply that everyone just turn it off because it’s not doing them any good anyway. In reality, even poorly implemented WPA protects you against casual intrusion, even WEP (which is woefully broken and insecure) is better than nothing. It is possible that WPA could have an undiscovered weakness that could render it as insecure as WEP or worse but none has been discovered (and it’s not for lack of trying) so WPA remains secure.

I Agree

I agree with the premise of the EFF essay that having open WiFi networks serves the greater good and I agree with the idea that protocols need to be developed that allow people to easily secure their network while allowing them to share their connection if they so choose. But to suggest that people blindly open their networks in the interim is irresponsible and goes against the EFF’s own creed to “educate the press and public”. Today more than ever security is of primary concern for the average (i.e. non-technical) user. Network storage devices are becoming increasingly popular in the home and people are storing vast amounts of personal information and sharing it on their home network. Having an open WiFi network allows even the most causal intruder to gain access to those files. Not to mention people who have home business, or work out of their home, and have not just their personal and business files but client files assessable via their network. And that’s just getting access to file shares, never mind that open WiFi makes tools like Firesheep and other sniffing tools that much easier to use.

I also agree with the EFF that “none of these protocols will make anyone safe from hacking or malware.” That’s true, no matter how secure WPA is if you venture out on the Internet your computer is at risk. Arguably, putting your computer on the Internet is a greater risk than having it connected to an open WiFi connection. But the insecurity of open WiFi is still a real concern for a number of reasons and just because one threat poses a greater risk does not mean that you ignore all the others. Would the EFF suggest that we not use antivirus software because it unnecessarily takes CPU cycles, causing our computers to use more power and thus contributes to global warming?

Ethically Irresponsible

The EFF should have written an essay on why open WiFi contributes to the greater good and educated people on how they can give to that greater good while maintaining their security and privacy. They should have written an essay on why and how to properly implement WPA encryption. To write what they did, to trivilize WPA and suggest that its use is harmful for security and privacy is ethically irresponsible. The EFF should know better than to trivialize the security of WPA and the need for secure WiFi.

The EFF’s essay is a slap in the face for those who have supported their mission to advance privacy and security. It may well undo a lot of work by those of us who have worked hard to educate users on why they should suffer the minor and temporary inconvenience of implementing WiFi security.

Let me make it clear, I agree with the basic premise of the EFF’s essay: that open WiFi serves the greater good. I think it is great that the EFF is getting behind the effort to push for open WiFi standards and protocols. I do not agree with and feel it is ethically irresponsible to trivialize the need for WiFi security and to dismiss what is an effective way to secure a WiFi networks. I have no doubt that because of this essay a rash of people, with the best of intentions, will turn off WPA and blindly open their WiFi networks.

There will also be people who will use the essay as ammo against experts (people like myself) to challenge the assertion that securing WiFi is necessary. After all, if the EFF says the security protocols are infective and leaving my WiFi open serves the greater good, then why should I not? This places experts in the awkward place of having to decry the EFF’s position on WiFi security. I don’t think that I’ve ever felt at odds with the EFF, I’ve always been in step with their views and efforts but this essay is beyond the pale and the EFF should be ashamed.

I have a file server (AKA – Enterprise) that I have been using for the past 4 years or so. It’s a modest and simple setup, consisting of four 80GB IDE drives in a RAID 5 array. After the overhead (capacity of one disk) of the RAID array, and file system (NTFS) is taken into account it gives me a modest 223GB of storage space; 70GB of which is currently in use.

The RAID array on Enterprise serves as my primary “archival” storage, I put data there that I want or need to keep but that I’m not necessarily working on at at the moment. Enterprise also has a couple of other non-RAID drives that I use to store non-critical data.

RAID?

For an in-depth discussion of RAID you can check out the Wikipedia page. Simply, RAID stands for Redundant Array of Independent Disks. In a RAID 5 array the capacity of each disk is combined (minus the capacity of a one drive) to form one large disk. Parity is spread across the array (which is why you lose the capacity of one disk) and serves as the mechanism for redundancy. What this means is that any one of the four drives can fail and all I need to do is replace the defective drive; I don’t lose any data. In theory and in practice this is a great setup. In fact last year a drive in the array failed and fixing it was as simple as swapping the dead drive out with a new one.

Not a Backup

The Redundant in RAID may lead one to think that RAID is all one needs to keep their data safe. However, as recent events reminded me RAID is not perfect, it can fail, and it can take every bit of data with it. With RAID 5 I’m hedging my bets that only one drive will fail at any given time. It’s a pretty good bet. However, it is possible that a double, triple, or quadruple drive failure could occur. It’s unlikely but possible. More of a concern is a RAID controller fault. The RAID controller is the hardware (or software) that does all the work to keep the RAID array functional, if it has a bad day it can destroy the array taking the data with it. Even more of a concern then multiple drive failure, or controller failure is fire, flood, theft, or act of stupidity.

All that to say that, as good as it sounds, RAID is not an end all be all backup solution. It’s great for high availability and mass storage but a backup it is not. Your data is not safe unless it exists in at least two geographically diverse locations.

The Example

A few days ago I was accessing some files on Enterprise via my VPN connection. All was going well until I went to open a text file with some sever configuration notes. When I tried to open the file my system kept spitting out a message saying that it could not find the file. I connected to Enterpirse via Remote Desktop to see if I could figure out what was wrong but my connection was dropped almost as soon as I connected. Something odd was going on but I’d have to wait till I got home to figure out what it was.

I got home and plugged a monitor into Enterprise (it normally runs headless) and found a pretty BSOD greeting me. Lovely. I rebooted the system and during post the RAID controller was showing that three of the four drives were “disconnected or missing.” Frak. I pressed Esc to let the system continue to boot into Windows. Things didn’t get any better, the RAID management software was not showing the three drives either and was giving a warning that the array was “degraded.” No kidding.

After digging through the event log, and testing each of the four drives I determined that it was drive 4 that failed. But, even swapping out the failed drive with a fresh one didn’t bring the array back. No, despite my best efforts whatever had happened to drive 4 had a cascade effect on drives 2 and 3. I feared that the RAID controller had gone on a murder suicide spree, killing drives 2, 3, and 4 before taking it’s own life. But after replacing drive 4 (which tested as bad), and building a new array, several hours of testing didn’t reveal any issues with the RAID controller.

The standing explanation is that drive 4 suffered a catastrophic failure, setting off a chain reaction that corrupted the parity data on drives 2, and 3. Since drives 2 and 3 lost their portion of the parity the controller no longer recognized them as part of the defined array and marked them as “missing or disconnected.”

The Lesson: Pack a backup chute

RAID is not a backup. The redundancy that RAID provides is like the primary parachute a skydiver uses – when it works it’s great, but if it fails you’d better damn well have a backup chute packed. As I said above: Your data is not safe unless it exists in at least two geographically diverse locations.

My backup chute is Backblaze – once I realized that I was not going to be able to recover the array I logged into Backblaze and initiated a restore of the of data (all 70GB of it). I opted to download the data so it took a couple of hours for the Backblaze to prepare the backup and several hours for it to download.

Once the backup was finished downloading, and my data was back where it belonged, I realized that while I may not use it everyday (in fact I hardly think about it) I’m really, really, glad that I have Backblaze as my backup chute… and it only costs me $5 a month.

Thanks Backblaze

Full disclosure: The link to Backblaze is an affiliate link.

W3 Total Cache (W3TC) is a great caching plugin. Using it on my modest server (512MB VM from Rackspace) I’ve seen both a dramatic decreased in page load times as well as reduced server load. However, it can be a chore to get it working correctly, I’ve had issues with the Rackspace CDN integration. Fortunately their support is top-notch and the developer listens to you when you submit a bug.

I like to play with the inter-workings of awaitinginspiration.com, which sometimes means that I break things and then have to fix them. I was messing around with the permalinks on the site a few days ago and didn’t notice that as a result I broke several posts, including my original iPhone Call Recorder post (the single most popular post on the site). The issue seemed to be somewhat sporadic, sometimes a problematic post would show correctly, and sometimes you’d get a message saying that the post could not be found. I was not sure what was going on. Eventually, like just about an hour ago, it occurred to my that the issue may stem from my permalink hi-jinks the other day and the W3 Total Cache plugin. Sure enough, it as a simple as clearing all the W3TC caches. Once the caches were cleared posts came up without an issue. So, the takeaway – if you use a caching plugin/system and make changes to your site; clear your cache.

From: Jim
Date: Wed, Jul 21, 2010
To: Adam
Subject: HUGE Japanese Maple (about 10 foot wide) – $50

Since, when dug up, it may well die I’m not willing to pay anything. However, if you have no takers and simply want it gone I’d be willing to do the work and remove it on Saturday.

From: Adam
Date: Wed, Jul 21, 2010
To: Jim
Subject: Re: HUGE Japanese Maple (about 10 foot wide) – $50

It’s so nice of you to offer to take something for free that we are *selling* for a not quite insignificant amount of cash money. Give yourself a pat on the back! While your waiting to to see if we have any “takers” might I suggest that you browse the freeloader section of Craigslist.

thankyouverymuch,

Adam

From: Jim
Date: Wed, Jul 21, 2010
To: Adam
Subject: Re: HUGE Japanese Maple (about 10 foot wide) – $50

Not a problem … actually ‘Buy’ a lot of things from craigslist and also sell and give away a lot … truly thought I might be doing you a favor.

Sorry you took offense … it was not meant that way.

I hope you have a blessed day anyway.

From: Adam
Date: Wed, Jul 21, 2010
To: Jim
Subject: Re: HUGE Japanese Maple (about 10 foot wide) – $50

No, offense taken.

But…

If I wanted to give my plant away for free I’d probably of posted it in the free section. In your first reply you tell me point-blank “I’m not willing to pay anything…” It strikes me as a bit audacious because clearly my intention is to sell my plant, not give it away.

Would you walk into a super market and tell the checker “I’m not willing to pay anything for this loaf of bread… but I will save you the trouble of having it in your store by taking it home with me.”?

Maybe it was your choice of words that rubbed me wrong: “I’m not willing to pay anything…” gives me the impression that you feel entitled to get my plant for free. There are a number of people I would gladly give my plant to for free. Since I don’t know you, I think it’s safe to assume that you are not one of those people.

In any case, I am *practically* giving my plant away for free. Considering the asking price for one of comparable size on Craigslist is $3000 (and the buyer has to dig it out). Do you have any idea how many Jelly Belly Beans I could buy with $3000? Nether did I, so I looked it up on Amazon. I could get 440lbs of Jelly Belly Beans with $3000, I’d even get free shipping. Could you imagine 440lbs of Jelly Belly Beans? Gosh, if only life were that good.

There is one thing that does offend me though. In your last reply you used the font Comic Sans. Comic Sans offends me. You’re writing an e-mail, not a comic. I don’t think your 5 either. Maybe it’s time to pick a font that’s more appropriate for the medium and your age.

Peace,

Adam

From: Jim
Date: Wed, Jul 21, 2010
To: Adam
Subject: Re: HUGE Japanese Maple (about 10 foot wide) – $50

You are entitled to your opinion … and I do pray the rest of your day is blessed and you are not bothered again by people like me

Image Credit: YXG via Flicker

Jelly Belly Jelly Beans, 49 Assorted Flavors, 10-Pound Box (Amazon.com)

Jelly Belly Jelly Beans 3 pounds Canister (Amazon.com)

Jelly Belly Jelly Beans, 49 Flavors, 2-Pound Stand-Up Pouch (Amazon.com)

I’m a bit uneasy about labels… at least when it comes to applying them to people. Labels can cause us to think too narrowly of people. We slap labels on people and it’s assumed that they will always fall strictly within that label and we don’t like it when they diverge from their labeling.

I have been labeled an introvert all my life and for the longest time I hated it. The label itself isn’t bad; it’s simply describing a personality type. The problem is that the label ‘introvert’ comes with all kinds of negative connotations.

It can be confusing because under the right circumstances, I can be the exact opposite of an introvert. Few people have seen the extrovert side of me and those that have are surprised by it. It’s difficult when you’re labeled an introvert and you’re in a situation where you feel like you might want to be a little extroverted because nobody likes it when someone acts outside of their labeling. I’ve been labeled an introvert so I better damn well act like an introvert.

So here I am, expected to act within my label but also being told all the bad things my label means. It’s really frakked up when your labeled, told you label is bad, but when you try remove it you kicked in the balls for trying.

It wasn’t until a few years ago that I started to allow myself to be proud of being labeled an introvert; to be proud of who I am. There was a realization that I was bowing to the negative connotations of the label introvert; uselessly expelling energy to try to fix something that wasn’t broken. There was also a realization that it’s ok to act outside of my labeling if I was in a situation where I was comfortable with that.

Good or bad we label people, it’s how we define them and define our expectations of them. But you have to be careful with labels because they can cause us to define people too narrowly, to define ourselves too narrowly. Labels can poison our perception of people and ourselves.

This is another time-lapse video of my drive to work. This time the camera is positioned in the back seat, centered with the windshield, so you can see out the whole windshield. I placed my iPhone on the dash and ran the stop watch so you can get an idea about how long the trip takes.

The interval between shots on this video was 3 seconds (every 3 seconds a picture was taken) and the pictures are played back at 24 frames per seconds (standard film rate) but the video was slowed down just a smidgen to get it to end where I wanted it to with the song.

I’ve been playing around with some time-lapse video and decided to mount the camera in the passenger seat of my car to record my drive to work:

It’s expected that at the end of the year most people who keep a website or blog will write some tribute to the past year and it seems that 2009 is no different.

In the past few weeks I have had Google Reader filled with various people listing the top 10 best of this or worst of that for 2009. The last time I did an end of the year post was to welcome in 2008, and I didn’t say anything in it except “Happy New Year.”

So here I am quickly running out of time but feeling obligated to post something whimsically relevant about the past year, or if I’m feeling particularly psychic about the New Year, but unable to come up with any of my own top 10 best/worst lists.

A lot of really cool things happened in 2009 and a lot of really bad things happened in 2009. Anecdotally though I’d say that overall, it wasn’t too darn bad. Humanity survived not just another year but a whole decade!

For me personally one event makes 2009 the best damn year since 1982:

On April 1st, 2009 I married Sandi and her three boys Jay, Zane and Gavin.

Yep, best damn year ever.

Happy new year, see you in 2010.

Posting this for two reasons – first and foremost “White Wine In The Sun” is a beautiful Christmas song, I really like it. Second reason is to test the new embed feature in WordPress 2.9

You can buy the “White Wine In The Sun” single on iTunes (itunes link)

UPDATE: 12/9/2009 – Col. Van T. Barfoot gets to keep his flagpole!

I came across this story via Whatever. Gist of it is – 90 year old WW2, Korean and Vietnam war veteran Col. Van T. Barfoot, who also happens to be a Medal of Honor winner is being sued by his Home Owners Association for putting a flag pole up in his yard.

Why did Col. Van T. Barfoot win his Medal of Honor? From the Citation:

For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of life above and beyond the call of duty on 23 May 1944, near Carano, Italy. With his platoon heavily engaged during an assault against forces well entrenched on commanding ground, 2d Lt. Barfoot (then Tech. Sgt.) moved off alone upon the enemy left flank. He crawled to the proximity of 1 machinegun nest and made a direct hit on it with a hand grenade, killing 2 and wounding 3 Germans. He continued along the German defense line to another machinegun emplacement, and with his tommygun killed 2 and captured 3 soldiers. Members of another enemy machinegun crew then abandoned their position and gave themselves up to Sgt. Barfoot.

Leaving the prisoners for his support squad to pick up, he proceeded to mop up positions in the immediate area, capturing more prisoners and bringing his total count to 17. Later that day, after he had reorganized his men and consolidated the newly captured ground, the enemy launched a fierce armored counterattack directly at his platoon positions. Securing a bazooka, Sgt. Barfoot took up an exposed position directly in front of 3 advancing Mark VI tanks. From a distance of 75 yards his first shot destroyed the track of the leading tank, effectively disabling it, while the other 2 changed direction toward the flank. As the crew of the disabled tank dismounted, Sgt. Barfoot killed 3 of them with his tommygun. He continued onward into enemy terrain and destroyed a recently abandoned German fieldpiece with a demolition charge placed in the breech.

While returning to his platoon position, Sgt. Barfoot, though greatly fatigued by his Herculean efforts, assisted 2 of his seriously wounded men 1,700 yards to a position of safety. Sgt. Barfoot’s extraordinary heroism, demonstration of magnificent valor, and aggressive determination in the face of pointblank fire are a perpetual inspiration to his fellow soldiers.

Holy frakking cow! Sussex Square Homeowners Association should be putting the flag pole up for him.

The Sussex Square Homeowners Association should be ashamed of themselves, the Coates & Davenport law firm (representing the association) should be ashamed of themselves.

John Scalzi said it well:

Dear homeowners association: When a Medal of Honor recipient wants to have a flagpole in his front yard, you say “Yes, sir. By all means. Thank you, sir.” Because you know what? Dude’s earned that damn flagpole…

As we were driving down a dark road, in the middle of nowhere, on our way to Redmond, OR we passed this small car lot when something caught my eye:

Me- Oh, my god! Oh my god!

Sandi (distressed) – What!?

Me – It’s Eleanor!

Sandi – What!?

Me – It’s the Mustang from the movie Gone in 60 Seconds!

By this point we were a quarter mile past the lot and we’d already been in the road for three plus hours (all of which Sandi drove) but despite that, Sandi (who is the awesomest wife) – looked over at me:

Sandi – Do you want to go back so you can look at it?

Me – YES!

The lot (unfortunately) was closed so I could only look at it through the glass [click to embiggen]:

Eleanor from Gone in 60 Seconds was a one-off made by Cinema Vehicle Services for the movie. Later, Classic Recreations started to produce the car using ordinary 67 Mustangs and if they’re still available they go for around $100,000.

I’m not sure if this is a genuine Eleanor but it looks like it is. Wow, sitting in some car lot in the middle of nowhere.

Having theme issues related to a PHP update…

Fixed!

Look closely into the magic pyramid and you will find fun, freedom, and riches beyond your dreams.

UPDATE 11/16/2010: Amway agrees to pay $56 million, settle case alleging it operates a ‘pyramid scheme’

Dear Jeff,

If your reading this then you have received the CD I sent back to you with a link to this post. I’d first like to start this letter with a couple of quotes from Wikipedia:

A pyramid scheme is a non-sustainable business model that involves the exchange of money primarily for enrolling other people into the scheme, often without any product or service being delivered.

Pyramid schemes are illegal in many countries, including the United States…

As I’m sure you recall we meet briefly at The Home Depot in the surge protector/extension cord aisle about a week ago. I was looking for a couple of surge protectors with right angle plugs (they fit better behind desks) when you walked up and started confusingly looking at Home Depot’s surge protector offerings. After sifting through various surge protectors I found what I was looking for, grabbed a couple, and started to walk away. Before I got too far you stopped me by asking me something to the effect of “what surge protector is best?”

Your question through me for a loop, it’s not that it was a dumb question, or that I was not willing to help you out but I’m just the sort of guy who goes into a store, gets what he needs, and gets out while attempting as little human interaction as possible. I’m just not used to interacting with people in stores unless I start the interaction… it’s an introvert thing I guess. However, I try hard to be a nice guy and even though it went against my standard operating procedure, I decided I’d help you. Plus, you asked a tech. related question… I tend to like answering those types of questions.

In any case I asked you what you were planning on plugging into it, gave you a brief idea of what to look for, and recommended one of the brands available. You asked me if I was in the tech filed and I said “Actually, I’m the IT guy at [name of company] down the street.” You said something about that being cool, thanked me for my help, and I walked off feeling pretty good that I was able to help you out. I was still weirded out by the abnormal interaction though.

Apparently you were listening when I told you where I worked because about an hour later you called me there. I’m guessing that you looked the name of the company up, called the main number, and asked for me. I admire you for remembering my name because I’m terrible with names and frankly I would not have remembered your’s 5 seconds after you told me; even if my life depended on it.

Anyway, what was at this point a slightly abnormal occurrence for me – talking to a stranger in a store – now moved to the category of this is too frakking weird, my head is going to EXPLODE!. Honestly, my first reaction was “what the frak is this guy calling me for?!” You eased my nerves a little by telling me that you realized this was all coming “out of left field.” It helped knowing that you realized how frakking crazy it was that you tracked me down and called me… of course you realizing how crazy it was, and still doing it, could actually make you more insane than not.

Oh, by the way, I hate sports metaphors.

You told me that you appreciated my help at Home Depot and that you thought that it took integrity to help a stranger and all that. Then you really came out of left field and asked me if I would be interested in doing some part time work for your “internet company.” Wow. I doubted that it was possible that I made such an impression in our brief exchange that you would track me down and offer me a legitimate job of some kind but I didn’t want to squander a possible opportunity so I said “sure.”

You didn’t say much about your “internet company” what you did say was that you wanted to meet sometime to discuss your “opportunity,” so we set a date and time to meet at a Starbucks down the street from where I work. This was not too odd, I had interviewed for jobs (and got them) at Starbucks before. You then told me that you had some information about your company that you wanted to send me and asked what address you should send it to. When I asked if e-mail would work you told me that you were going to be mailing an audio CD so standard mail was easier. I found this odd because for someone who has an “internet company” I’d think that you’d realize that the internet is a pretty damn good way to distribute audio. Anyway, I gave you the befit of the doubt, maybe you were just the money man and you had people to handle all the technical stuff for you. In any case I gave you my work address and by the end of our conversation I was pretty sure that what you were offering would not turn out to be anything; but I was curious to see what, exactly, it turned out to be.

A few days later I received the CD you sent me titled “Fun and Freedom.” I listened to it. Some guy who went by the name Wade Simmons talked for a few minutes about a system he had that would gain the follower, wait for it… Fun and Freedom! Egads!

Not that I needed to (I already knew what this was) but I did a bit of research – I could not find any information on Wade Simmons, other than some mountain biker out of Canada, who I was pretty sure had nothing to do with any of this. Printed on the CD label was “Copyright TEAM INA.” Googling TEAM INA only turned up this Yahoo Answers post where the answerer said they’d been to a TEAM INA meeting and determined that it was a pyramid scheme. Further digging turned up this^(pdf) California Class Action Suit against Quixtar (later dropped). Quixtar is in fact Amway Global, a company known to run, wait for it… pyramid schemes! If you look on page 13 of the suit where it lists Quixtar’s “lines of sponsorship” on line f. you’ll see listed InterNet Associates (INA).

Here’s the thing Jeff – I helped you that day in Home Depot, it may have not been for anything particularly significant but I did help you. I’m not saying I deserve a medal or anything but I could have easily given you a B.S. response, or ignored you; either of which would have actually been easier for me. Instead, I not only answered your question I took the time to pass valuable knowledge to you and you responded to my kindness by trying to scam me.

Ok, I’m not so native as to actually think that you were really looking for a surge protector and genuinely needed help picking one out. I’d imagine your “working” day is spent loitering around stores looking for marks, people you try run your little scam on. Make no mistake Jeff, pyramid schemes are scams and people that perpetuate their existence are, in my opinion, criminals.

I hate, hate, hate, pyramid schemes, multi-level marketing, whatever you call it a rose is a rose and a scam is a scam.

Jeff, you’re despicable, and if it existed you would burn in a very special level of Hell. A level they reserve for child molesters and people who talk at the theater¹.

Oh, and I left your CD in my car for a couple of days and it got pretty hot in there… so if you CD is a little warped I apologize…

Or maybe it was the heat gun...

¹ “Firefly” Our Mrs. Reynolds (2002)^↵

On this day in 1969, Man set foot on the Moon. It was an achievement that forever changed what we considered possible. It is an achievement that should be remembered and honored not just by Americans but all of humanity.

Space exploration has always held a special place in my heart – Always looking up at the starts; I remember looking at the moon through my first telescope. I remember making a Space Shuttle model rocket that flew from the launch pad in a perfect arch, landing nose first in the ground… We lived in Lancaster, CA most of my life and as a kid, my mom got (from a patient at the dental office she worked at) our family press level passes to see the Space Shuttle land at Edwards Air Force Base. I was also able to participate in a tour of Space Shuttle Columbia while it was at Lockheed Martin for maintenance; I believe this was just before its last mission in 2003.

I believe now, as I always have, that we need to go back to the Moon, we need to relearn the lessons that Apollo taught us 40 years ago, we need to relearn to land on another world so we can go beyond our planet. Space is the final frontier and we need to commit to exploring this frontier, we cannot let ourselves become complacent for if we fail to explore, we fail ourselves and the generations of people before us who gave so much to discover.

IMPORTANT:This post details the personal and legal encounter we had with Teri Gunn (who at the time lived in Dayton, OR). You may have found this post via Google or other search engine. In order to avoid issues of mistaken identity please be aware that posted below is a picture of the Teri Gunn this post is written about. Additionally the Teri Gunn this post is about has two web sites: Design Explorations and The Beauty of Decay. Hopefully this information will avoid any possible mistaken identity issues.

If it existed, Teri Gunn would burn in a very special level of Hell. A level they reserve for child molesters and people who talk at the theater¹.

UPDATE: Sandi realized that the images of the e-mails and letter we sent to Teri were hard to read, especially at lower resolutions. The links now point to PDFs of the e-mails and letters.

FYI: Since this post was published Teri amassed a couple of web sites Design Explorations and The Beauty of Decay.

[why]

First, a brief explanation of why I’m writing this post:

It’s a warning, even as unlikely as it is that you will come across Teri Gunn, you will no doubt be presented with an opportunity to deal with someone like her. Your gut will tell you not to trust them but you will still want to; because it’s who you are. Let my words serve as reinforcement for your gut; do not trust them, run away, avoid people like Teri Gunn as you would avoid a zombie horde.

It’s payback, Teri hurt my wife Sandi and me – caused us undue stress, time, money, and caused a rift to form between Sandi and members of her family. Her inhumane behavior brought Sandi to tears and that’s frakking unacceptable. So, this is me taking the opportunity to drag Teri through the mud; and I am completely unapologetic about it. She deserves it; Teri is a liar, and a thief and I’m going to do everything I can to let the world know that.

[truth]

What you are about to read is the truth – it’s obviously written in my own words but it is nevertheless the complete truth. Teri and others on her side would of course claim otherwise – and they’d be lying².

[story]

Sandi and I got married on a budget and didn’t have a whole lot of money for a wedding photographer, but obviously still wanted pictures of the day. I was going to ask my uncle³; until Sandi’s sister-in-law Kim told her that Teri, a friend of theirs, was interested in photographing our wedding.

Before talking to Teri or my uncle, among other things regarding our wedding pictures, Sandi and I established that we wanted the raw⁴ pictures that our wedding photographer shot. So, whoever our photographer was; we needed to make sure that they would be ok with giving them to us.

Sandi and I decided that if she wanted to do it, we’d use Teri as our photographer because my uncle was already videotaping and we didn’t want to add anymore to his plate.

I am strongly against the practice of a photographer maintaining ownership (copyright) of pictures they are being paid to take. If I am paying you to take pictures – they are mine thankyouverymuch. Most photographers will make you sign a contract – signing away your rights to the pictures you’re paying them to take. It’s about trying to suck you for every penny they can, they want to make sure that you have to come back to them for prints, etc. Some photographers will release their rights after a period of time (years) or for a very handsome fee, which is ridiculous. The idea that a photographer maintains ownership of pictures you paid them to take is bunk; but it’s been happening so long that people don’t know any better, it shouldn’t be tolerated and people should seek out more enlightened photographers.

Several weeks before our wedding Teri called Sandi and officially offered to act as our wedding photographer (before we even asked her). I walked into the room part way through Sandi and Teri’s conversation and Sandi told me that Teri offered do our wedding photos. The first thing I asked Sandi was if she [Teri] was ok with giving us the raw pictures and Sandi nodded indicating to me that she had confirmed that Teri was ok with it. Still wanting to be sure I asked Sandi several more times, I asked so many times that Sandi gave me a look because I was being annoying; I wanted to be sure.

It’s simple, if Teri was not ok with giving us the raw pictures she would have not been our photographer.

During the conversation when Sandi asked Teri how much she’d charge us, Teri told Sandi that she would do it for free and gave Sandi a number of reasons why:

• Sandi was her friend.
• Sandi was there for her even through tough times, when no one else was.
• Sandi was the reason she met her husband⁵ met.

Teri said she wanted to photograph our wedding as a gift to Sandi, plus as a student photographer she wanted the experience of photographing a wedding and the pictures to start building her portfolio. Having Teri do our wedding pictures, no charge, was obviously advantageous to us, given our limited wedding budget. Given the risk we were taking on an inexperienced photographer though, it seemed like a fair trade.

I want to make it clear that at the time Teri was not a professional photographer; she approached us as a student photographer. Teri had no portfolio⁶, no professional experience and our wedding would be the first she had ever done.

The deal that Sandi and Teri hashed out was straight forward:

• Teri would photograph our wedding on April 1st 2009, no charge, she refused to be paid because it was to be a gift to Sandi.
• Teri was ok with giving us the raw pictures, Sandi confirmed this several times.
• If Sandi and I wanted any prints, either from Teri’s edits or my own we’d order them through Teri.
• And of course Teri was free to use our wedding pictures for her portfolio.

Sandi and I had been warned, by several people not to deal with Teri – she has a reputation of being unscrupulous, of screwing people over, and going back on her word. The problem is Sandi and I are far too trusting for our own good, and generally give people the benefit of the doubt; so we dismissed the warnings. After all Teri was Sandi’s friend, a friend of Sandi’s sister-in-law and what kind of person would frak with someone’s wedding right?

About two weeks before our wedding Teri called Sandi and asked if we could pay her $125.00 for photographing our wedding. Several weeks ago she was more than willing to do it as a gift to Sandi but something changed⁷ and now she wanted to be paid $125.00. It was two weeks before the wedding so we were a bit stuck so we agreed to pay her the $125.00, nothing else changed.

It could be argued that it’s ridiculous for a student photographer, one with no experience, to expect to be paid anything; and in fact, it is. As a student photographer they should be content with the fact that someone is willing to take the risk on them in the first place. But Sandi and I are far too nice for our own good, and thought it was fair that Teri get paid a little for taking the time out of her day.

It’s fair to say that since Teri was being paid now, even the small amount, our wedding was now a paid gig and so the stakes were raised a little higher. Our expectations went up a little compared the freebee gig she had offered us before but we were still aware that Teri had no experience.

Our wedding day came and Teri showed up with her camera and one 512MB SD card. It was a cloudy, cold, and rainy April day; so as we expected, outside pictures were not going to happen.

When we started to take pictures Teri immediately started complaining about not being able to take pictures outside, the poor lighting inside, and her camera. Teri’s complaining didn’t help Sandi who was already nervous and it was so incessant that it caught the attention of our guests and the manager of the facility. The facility manager told Sandi that she felt bad, and was turning every light on that she could… but the lack of light was not the problem though, it was Teri’s complete lack of knowing what the frak she was doing.

Again, Sandi and I were aware of Teri’s lack of experience, but one also expects that an adult who is trying to start a career would be able to maintain at least a minimum level of professional composure. That said, Sandi and I had largely forgotten about Teri’s behavior, and dismissed it. We understood that this was her first wedding and she was probably just nervous.

It’s now two weeks after our wedding and we’ve not see any of the pictures Teri took, except for three of our cake that she posted on Facebook.

Sandi was on Facebook when she got a message from Teri, via Facebook chat. Teri started the conversation with normal conversation banter and then said she had worked on our pictures that day. Sandi asked when we’d get to see them and Teri said “soon.” Sandi asked Teri about the raw pictures, and told her that she didn’t need to spend time on them (of course she was welcome to) since we’re just going to get the raw pictures and I’d Photoshop them up and go from there.

Then, the same person who brought one 512MB SD card to a wedding, the same one who complained incessantly about the weather, lighting and her camera said:

No, remember I told you I can’t do that. Anything that goes out with my name on it has to be to my quality standards.

First, Teri said she was ok with giving us the raw pictures several weeks back, second why is she so concerned with her “quality standards” now, when she was willing to represent herself so poorly at our wedding?

Eventually, Teri told Sandi that if we wanted the raw pictures we could pay her $800 for them. Teri said she’s a professional, and she needed to maintain “creative control” over her work and denied agreeing to give us the raw pictures. I find it laughable that Teri called herself a “professional” – between her incessant complaining about the weather, lighting, and her camera, only bringing one 512MB SD card to a wedding, having no experience, and no portfolio, Teri is hardly a professional.

At this point watching our wedding pictures slip away Sandi was in tears, I got on the chat and thanked Teri for bringing Sandi to tears. I called Teri a liar, and reminded her that she agreed to give us the raw pictures, and again she denied it. Like a coward she then left the Facebook chat, saying “we’ll talk later” but she never came back.

I felt like we needed an advocate, so I called Sandi’s mom and apprised her of the situation hoping that maybe she could talk to Teri (who she knew) so we could come to some resolution; but Teri would not take her calls, or ours.

Turns out, Teri was busy calling Sandi’s sister-in-law, telling her that “Adam called me every name in the book” during the Facebook chat. Sandi’s sister-in-law Kim (the wife of a pastor) then called Sandi’s mom and blatantly lied, telling her that I cussed Teri out. When Sandi’s mom told Sandi and I what Teri and Kim were saying, I was thankful that Sandi was smart enough not to close the chat window… I took screen shots to show whoever needed proof that I did not utter one curse word to Teri during the Facebook chat. Given the fact that Teri was screwing us over, Sandi and I were both rather nice.

Unfortunately, the damage was done; Teri’s actions, involving people who had nothing to do with the situation had already caused the rift to form between Sandi’s sister-in-law Kim and her brother but that is a whole other story.

The next day we sent Teri an e-mail^(pdf) – Since she was so willing to call herself a professional I outlined some issues Sandi and I had with her unprofessional behavior at our wedding and offered her some advice. Though critical of her, it was not mean. In the same e-mail we remind Teri that she agreed to give us the raw pictures and that she originally offered to photograph our wedding for free, only to ask for $125.00 two weeks before the wedding. We asked her to just give us the SD card she used for our wedding and we’d give her $25.00, more than enough to replace the 512MB card she used.

Teri replied:

Sandi and Adam,

I’m sorry you are choosing to do this. I will not play your games, and I can’t be bullied. I am not going to respond to all this rubbish. We all know the truth and if you decide to admit it and stick to the agreement we made, I will order your proofs and then prints for you. You cannot have my files, sorry, not a deal, EVER. As soon as you pay me the $125 we agreed on, plus printing, and a signed contract, the order can be placed. I would be willing to GIVE you select files for use in your video, but only with a signed contract limiting the use to your video. You can also choose not to purchase you photos, and I will write off the $125. If this is the choice you make I will consider our verbal contract void and there will be no need for further communication about this.

Teri

Hum, I don’t recall that a contract limiting the use of our pictures was a part of the “agreement we made.”

At this point Sandi and I had both emotionally written off the pictures but were not ok with what Teri was doing. She went back on her word, lied about me to Sandi’s family and was effectively holding our wedding pictures hostage, demanding ransom. It was now about the principal, about not taking Teri trying to screw us lying down.

Sandi talked to a family member, a lawyer, who told her that whatever the agreement was at the time Teri took the pictures is what we should stick by. So, we wrote Teri another e-mail^(pdf) in which we told Teri that we talked to a lawyer, and were going to go by the agreement that was in place when she took the pictures. We’d pay her $125.00, and she should give us the raw pictures. Obviously, at this point getting prints from Teri was out of the question. We also warned Teri that if she did not abide by the agreement then we would file a small claims case against her.

Teri replied:

Good luck, no contract! No proof. I told you that if you did not accept my deal that you should not contact me again. If you choose to do so I will contact authorities and get a restraining order. Yes this is serious and the law is on my side. Copyright laws are clear and you have no grounds for a lawsuit. As I told you, I will not be bullied. I am not afraid of your hot air.

Teri

Again, hum, “Good luck, no contract! No proof.” it’s true, we didn’t have a signed contract but why is she taunting us about it? She also tells us that if we don’t do it her way, she is going to get a restraining order against us; which is laughable because she has no grounds but it shows you the type of person we were dealing with. We’re trying to resolve the situation and she is threatening restraining orders.

As a last ditch effort, we sent Teri a demand letter^(pdf) via certified mail, which included a check for $125.00; we gave Teri 10 days from the date of the letter to surrender our photos. In a demonstration of utter responsibility Teri waited till the ninth day to pick the letter up from the post office. Sandi and I waited five more working days for Teri to respond, and then we filed a small claims case against her.

Now, Sandi and I both understood that it was our word against Teri’s, but we did not feel that we should take this lying down, it was the principal of the matter. With cases like this, it comes down to who the judge believes, whose story is most likely the truth. Given our stance on the issue, what’s more likely: that we’d use Teri who would not give us the raw photos unless we paid her $800, or that we’d use my uncle, or someone else who would just give them to us?

As part of the process of filing the small claims case we were required to put the dollar amount we were seeking, we could not put that we just wanted our pictures. Obviously, wedding pictures are priceless, but Sandi and I sat down and figured out how much it would cost us to recreate our wedding pictures and we came up with $3,700.00. So that’s what we filed the small claims case for, but we still just wanted the pictures, or at least to let Teri know that she couldn’t get away with screwing us over. It was not about money.

Teri was served the court papers via sheriff and we had to wait fourteen days for her to respond, she had three options:

• Deny the claim.
• Deny the claim and file a counter suit.
• Ignore it and risk a default judgment against her.

Teri decided to deny the claim and counter sue… she counter sued us for $3,700 which is laughable. First, because the most amount of money she ever asked us for was $800. Second, because that’s the same amount our suit against her was for. Teri’s counter-claim was the definition of frivolous.

In between waiting for our court date we actually got an offer to appear on Judge Judy^(pdf) and have our case arbitrated on the show. Sandi talked to a producer and got the low down on what would happen and we agreed that we would go on the show. The producer then talked to Teri and even though Teri seemed interested at first, she stopped communicating with the producer.

The producer later told us that Teri would not go on without Kim, Sandi’s sister-in-law who took Teri’s side from the beginning. What we think happened was that while Kim was willing to lie to me, Sandi and everyone else, going on TV and lying was a little too much for the wife of a pastor. Since Kim was not willing to do Judge Judy, neither was Teri. We were a little surprised; a free trip to California, free hotel stay, free food, $100 appearance fee and the show pays whatever judgment is found, it’s a sweet deal. But again, it would have required Teri and Kim to both appear on national TV and lie; it seems that they both prefer to keep their lies local.

It’s now been two months since our wedding and we have still not seen any of the pictures Teri took. Teri claimed she had amazing pictures but up till this point she refused to show them to us.

Yamhill County requires that both parties attempt mediation before the case is heard by a judge. The process is simple, both sides go into a room and two trained mediators do their best to try to get both sides to come to an agreement. It’s actually a good thing, because it forces you to listen to what the other person has to say (you are not allowed to interrupt), you have to be civil and it allows the parties to come to a mutual agreement rather than a judge forcing a decision on you.

We went first stating our side to the mediators, we told the mediators that we were still willing to adhere to the agreement that we had in place when Teri took the pictures. We’d pay Teri $125, she gives us the raw pictures like she said she would and we’d part ways. For obvious reasons we were not willing to get prints through her. The thing was that we had pay to file the small claims case against her and we felt that Teri’s unwillingness to work out the situation outside of the court system forced us to file the case; so we said we’d pay Teri $2.18 which when added to our filing costs added up to $125.

Then Teri told her side, continued to lie, said that we could get prints from her, for whatever amount she decided to pull out of her disgustingly oversized butt at that moment and we could only have the raw pictures if we paid her $800. She droned on about being a professional, it was really the most frustrating part, having to sit there and listen to Teri blather on knowing full well that she was lying.

After we both stated our sides the mediators started to… mediate. We went back and forth, neither of us willing to back down from our position. We weren’t willing to back down because we were not going to allow Teri to lie, cheat, and steal from us. Teri was not backing down because she’s a stubborn thief.

The mediators asked to speak with each of us privately, we went first. We basically told the mediators we were not going to back down; Teri agreed to give us the raw pictures and we were not going to give her the satisfaction of paying her any more money than we agreed to. It wasn’t like we had $800 just to slap down and give her anyway. Sandi was very emotional at this point; it was incredibly frustrating that even in a court house Teri would not admit that she agreed to give us the raw pictures. We also discussed Teri’s counter suit, as frivolous as it was, it did present a risk to us. If we went before a judge there was a possibility that we could end up being ordered to pay Teri even more than the $800 raw picture fee she pulled out of her disgustingly oversized butt.

Teri then took her turn to meet with the mediators privately… what they talked about we don’t know but I’d stake my life that Teri continued to lie. After Teri was done lying to the mediators privately we were called back into the room.

I’m pretty good at reading people, the mediators were frustrated because they really wanted to find a resolution to the situation and even after nearly two hours of mediation Sandi and I were not budging and neither was Teri. I’m obviously biased but I felt like they were sympathetic towards Sandi and me⁸. It was getting to the point where they were going to have to call it and we’d have to go before a judge.

Sandi summed it up very well when she told the mediators – What we are purposing, sticking to the original agreement does not cost us or Teri anything. What Teri is purposing does not cost her anything, but costs us $800, on top of the fact that it goes completely against what Teri agreed to in the first place.

The mediators told us Teri was willing to show us some of the pictures she brought of our wedding; maybe if we saw them we’d be willing to budge a little. Up till this point Teri had been unwilling to show us any of our pictures unless we paid her, so this was progress.

Sandi left the decision up to me and I thought for a little bit and finally told the mediators: If we look at the pictures, and decide that they are not worth fighting for, or paying $800 for, then we will just walk away and drop our suit as long as Teri drops her counter suit. Sandi added that Teri also has to agree to destroy the pictures. Teri refused to agree to destroy the pictures, she insisted that one day we’d come to “our senses” and pay her for them. Not likely.

Teri tried to get the mediators to add that Sandi and I could not “talk bad about her” to anyone… the mediators gave her a look like “are you five?”

We finally came to an agreement that if we looked at the pictures, did not feel that they were worth it we’d drop our suit, Teri would drop hers and Teri was barred from using any pictures from our wedding in any personal or professional capacity; in other words – she might as well destroy them because they would never see the light of day anyway.

Teri slid over a sheet with four pictures printed on it – I looked at them, Sandi looked at them. I wanted to jump across the table and beat the living crap out of Teri. How dare she put Sandi and I through this, how dare she taint our wedding day like this, how dare she force us to this room, on this day, only to show us the complete and utter pile of crap that were the pictures she took of our wedding.

Sandi and I were thinking the same thing: If you were trying to convince someone that your pictures are worth something, wouldn’t you bring your best examples? Holy monkey balls, there is no way that we’d pay her $8.00 for those pictures let alone $800.

After seeing the pictures Sandi, emotionally spent, asked me to make the final decision to drop it or see a judge.

Throughout all this Teri kept telling us what great pictures she took, and we kept reminding her that she hadn’t shown any of them to us. If she had just shown them to us in the first place, it would have never gone as far as it did because the pictures simply were not worth the fight. Sandi and I were operating off the principal of the matter, we’d already emotionally written off the pictures but Teri was trying to screw us over and we were not going to take that lying down. Before this, I thought justice would be Teri giving us our pictures per our agreement, or a judge ordering her to do so. But then, looking at those pictures, I realized that justice could be found simply by telling Teri that her pictures were not worth fighting for.

I threw the pictures back at Teri and told the mediators we’d be dropping our suit, per the agreement.

[conclusion]

In the end Teri did not get any of the money she claimed we owed her tried to steal from us and she can’t use our pictures for anything⁹, not her portfolio, not anything. Sandi and I maintained control – Teri agreed to our terms to end the suit, she didn’t even get her laughable “can’t talk bad about me” condition put in the agreement.

Teri’s hope in all this was that we’d want the pictures so bad that we’d do anything for them, and she was wrong. If we had taken the suit to a judge we would have been sending the message to Teri that the pictures were worth something and they just weren’t. In fact, had Teri not been such a twat and shown us the pictures to begin with, we would have dismissed the issue long before we filed a case against her.

Teri thought she saw an opportunity to make a quick buck; she tried, and failed to hold our wedding pictures hostage for ransom. I’d suggest that if Teri wants to try this scam with anyone else, she should do some reading and actually get pictures at least worth the paper they are printed on.

[grace]

Sandi and I still have plenty of pictures of our wedding, friends and family, decent human beings, who took snapshots have freely given us the pictures they took; no undue payment or contracts required. We do not have the “posed” pictures but we have had several people (including a real professional photographer) offer to do those for us if we want to dress back up.

¹ “Firefly” Our Mrs. Reynolds (2002)^↵

² Though I believe what is written here to be factual, it is in the end just my opinion of Teri Gunn and what she did to my wife Sandi and me. I trust that you, the discerning reader have the capability to read this, digest it, and form your own conclusions. After posting this if Teri offers a rebuttal I will be more than happy to post it here. Until then, or if your just in the mood to be lied to; you can contact Teri via e-mail and get her side of the story – rtgunn4him@msn.com. Teri also has a couple of web sites Design Explorations and The Beauty of Decay^↵

³ While not a professional, he is a more than capable photographer.^↵

⁴ A little explanation – In this case by “raw pictures” I mean the pictures directly from the camera, untouched, as shot. If we had hired a “real” photographer I’d be referring to both the untouched, as shot pictures directly from the camera, as well as the any full resolution (uncompressed) edits that the photographer may have made.^↵

⁵ You know those people that just look like child molesters, even though they may not be? Teri’s husband, Rob, looks like that. It’s completely irrelevant to this topic but worth pointing out I think.^↵

⁶ When I say portfolio, I mean a real portfolio not a few pictures posted on FaceBook.^↵

⁷ We found out later that Kim (Sandi’s sister-in-law) found out that Teri was going to photograph our wedding for free. Kim apparently had an issue with this and told Teri she should charge us $150. Apparently $125 was a compromise.^↵

⁸ Obviously, the mediators do not take sides. They never once stated an opinion one way or the other. I just felt like they understood where Sandi and I were coming from.^↵

⁹ The verbiage used is clear and we made sure of that. If it’s of our wedding, and she took it, she can’t use it in anyway shape or form. If she took a picture of the grass at our wedding, she can’t use it. Those family pictures she was taking while deleting ours? Nope sorry, bummer for you Jim and Kim. She can’t print them, show them, sell them, give them away, hell it could be argued that she can’t look at them. Oh, and those pictures of our wedding cake she has on her FaceBook – need to be pulled off. If she uses them in any personal or professional capacity she will find herself back in court.^↵

#4 in “100 Things About Me” referenced a tattoo I have; figured I should show it to you:

Saw this sign while paroosing local garage sales with Sandi:

In my 26 years of existence I’ve learned that life is hardly ever fair; in fact a lot of times it can feel like life is kicking your face in, when you’re already on the ground from it punching you in the stomach. In all the times that life was punching me in the stomach, or kicking my face in – I learned some things:

• Even though life is hardly ever fair, it’s still worth living.
• Life is worth living because of other people, and the experiences both good and bad that we share.
• Life should not be lived alone – it should be shared with friends, family, and even those you can’t stand.
• Don’t over analyze, life isn’t that complicated – just live.
• Don’t let the punching and kicking make you bitter – let yourself be happy.
• Be yourself, always.
• Every now and then life stops punching and kicking and hands you a gift, and when it does you should grab on to it and never let go.
• The single most precious gift that life can give you is people that accept and love you for who you are because being you is really what your life is meant for.

Sandi (that’s with an ‘i’) is beautiful, smart, funny, and caring person someone who makes it worth going though the kicks and punches of life. She is one of those precious gifts that life gives you; and in order to grab hold of that gift and never let it go I have asked her to marry me. She said yes.

Dates set for April 1st (Yeah, I know April 1st! w00t)

-I love you Sandi and Boys-

I had a root canal (or Endodontic therapy for purists) on this tooth a bit back because it had fractured. My current dentist told me that I needed to have a crown put on it to keep the tooth from breaking off.

This is what it looked like before the crown was put on, a large portion of the original tooth is removed to make room for the crown:

I have a temporary crown in now, the permanent one takes two weeks to make.

I can. Over the weekend I moved awaitinginspiration.com from Media Temple’s (gs) to a Media Temple (dv) server. Loading times have vastly improved both on the back-end (WordPress) and on the front-end.

The (gs) was great but it suffered from slowness and had availability issues – I’m hoping that (cs) resolves those issues. Maybe I’ll go back when it’s available. Until then I’m really liking the performance and absolute control that the (dv) gives you.

Another call to renew a “free” subscription – and me having fun with the person on the other end of the line.

Download as mp3 – right click “Save Target As/Save Link As”

Related – “I’m not getting you…”

Most of the time I’m polite and say something like “sorry I don’t have time” and hang up; this time I decided to have a little fun.

Download as mp3 – right click “Save Target As/Save Link As”

Related – “Do you need an organ?”

Just testing the WordPress iPhone app. Seems to work pretty well… Would not want to make a long post though.

After updating to the latest WordPress release (2.6) I was checking out the new Post Revision feature when I inadvertently tried to compare a revision to itself. What resulted scared the #@$& out of me at first… then I realized that it was the Easter Egg the WordPress folks deny is there.

NOTE: This Easter Egg existed in the 2.6 release candidates; what’s funny is that it survived to the official release.

See the WordPress 2.6 Easter Egg in action:

I am proud to announce that I am finally the owner of the domain adam.com… well, sort of. Let me explain; see the domain adam.com is owned by ADAM, Inc. a health benefit company of sorts and no matter how nice I asked I doubt that ADAM, Inc. (considering their company name) would be willing to part with the domain. So, how did I get the domain adam.com you ask? In a fit of geek inspiration I thought “binary!”

01100001011001000110000101101101.com

That string of 0s and 1s the binary bits that run our modern world when converted to text spells “adam”. Fortunately for me the domain 01100001011001000110000101101101.com was available; so I registered it. Now I can sleep at night knowing that I finally have the domain adam.com… sort of.

An Instructables book is being made and they are taking votes to see which Instructables will be included; the voting is open now and ends August 11th. Prizes are the glory of having your Instructable published in the book and a free copy when it comes out. I have entered my Instructables in the contest and there are tons of other great entries so go vote!

An Instructables account is required to vote but it’s easy and free to sign up.

Once you are registered (if your not already) follow the links below and click on the “Vote Now!” button at the top of the page.

My Instructables entered in the contest:

Zero Point Shelf

Industrial Picture Frame

Kee Klamp Shelf

Framing a t-shirt (on the cheap)

Not that it’s news, just showing my support at this point but Firefox 3 has been released and is available for download.

Download Firefox 3
View new features in Firefox 3

I had a dream last night about Captain America and we were whistling up and down this giant phone trying to sing the chocolate milk stain out of the lips and then Chris Farley showed up and said “if I only had a brain” while waving a flag with Lindsey Lohan and holding spaghetti in the other hand. It was weird.

[original photo credit]

When I decided to start awaitinginspiration.com one of the first things I started to work on was hosting for the domain, since I was on a limited budget for the project I decided to host the domain myself rather then pay for hosting. The only thing I needed was a computer that I could use as a web server. Normally, getting my hands on a computer wouldn’t be a problem as I generally have at least one old system lying around. However, at the time my surplus of spare computers was limited; I had a couple of computers that I could have used but they were all dedicated to other tasks and I needed a dedicated system for the web server.

When cleaning out my garage I came across an old Tandy 102 Portable Computer. It didn’t occur to me at first, but later I wondered if somehow I could use the Tandy 102 as my web server. I started to take a look at the system and realized that being manufactured in 1987 it was never conceived that someone might want to use the Tandy 102 as a web server for their blog. There were some definite problems that had to be overcome:

• Very limited memory – 32K
• Very limited storage – but it has an interface for a tape drive
• No Ethernet port – but it has a modem

Through some trial and error I was able to interface a standard 80GB IDE hard drive with the tape drive port on the Tandy 102, I thought about using a flash drive which may have been easier to interface but I wouldn’t have gotten the storage I need. Getting the phone port (modem) interfaced with an Ethernet port was a bit more complicated but I was able to do it eventually. To get passed the memory constraints of the Tandy 102 I interfaced a 1GB USB flash drive to supplement its 32K. I decided early on in the project to use Ubuntu as the Linux distro, this made setting up the LAMP server easy as Ubuntu has a server distribution that has an automatic LAMP install. It took some doing but eventually I was able to get Ubuntu installed on the hard drive and get the Tandy 102 to boot form the hard drive.

After some configuration of the LAMP server I installed WordPress, configured the DNS settings for the domain to point to my home’s public IP address and the server was live. Overall I’m quite pleased with its performance at only 2Mhz it serves the site pretty well. It also has low power consumption and can run off 4 AA batteries for hours – built in UPS!

photo goodness: (click on image for full size)

If you were on AI at all today you may have noticed the strangeness that was the upgrade to WordPress 2.5. So far only one of the plugins failed to work after the upgrade but I was able to find a substitute. 2.5 is looking good, the admin is much better organized and the whole thing feels smoother. I’ll keep you updated on any developments.

If your trying to sell a product your going to need a gimmick. A big one. On wheels.

Like this Monster Energy truck that came by my place of employment. The people inside were nice enough to give free “Java Monster” energy drinks to the office (quite a few cans actually). Unfortunately, by the time I got to the fridge they were all gone; so I can’t tell you how well they work or taste. It’s probably for the best, energy drinks (if they work) tend to make me INSANE and I really don’t need anymore of that.

The fine folks at instructables sent me one of their patches as a a “thank you” for featuring my Zero Point Shelf project in their “Weekend Builder Newsletter.” Also in the mail was the copy of “Making Things Talk” that I ordered. Happy Day!

As you can tell, I run Ads on awaitinginspiration.com for no particular reason other than BECAUSE I CAN (fyi – I’ve not made a dime from them). So far, I have not see any Ads that bother me; but today while doing some house cleaning (on the site) I saw this Ad being displayed:

Most people are probably smart enough to realize that the above is an Ad and NOT awaitinginspiration.com endorsing a presidential candidate. But just so it’s crystal clear – awaitinginspiration.com does NOT officially or unofficially endorse ANYONE for president.

Watched National Geographic’s “Six Degrees Could Change the World” last night (actual air date was Sunday) which was all well and good, really nothing new. If you’ve seen “An Inconvenient Truth” or have not been in a hole for the past few years it goes over the same climate changes and doomsday scenarios we could face if global warming is not curtailed. Of course there was an emphasis on breaking our dependence on fossil fuels, clean energy and conservation. The irony of the program was the commercials – I didn’t count, but I’m pretty sure just about every single commercial break had a Hummer ad. So on one side we have National Geographic telling us if we don’t do something about global warming the world is going to change for the bad and on the other National Geographic is allowing the peddling one of the most obnoxious, fossil fuel dependent cars on the road.

This seems like a bad move on Hummer’s part more than anything, did they seriously expect people to go out and buy a Hummer after watching a program like “Six Degrees Could Change the World”? Were they not clear on the premise of the show?

I converted the awaitinginspiration.com WordPress install to Subversion, which will make updates easier. Everything looks to have transitioned smoothly so far.

I came across this gem of an essay “Caring for Your Introvert” by Jonathan Rauch of theatlantic.com a bit back. I think I someone on Digg linked to it and that’s how I found it. It makes me happy that it’s the first result in a Google search for ‘introvert’, because some parent, friend, etc. researching the topic needs to read this essay, in fact everyone needs to read this essay.

Introverts may be common, but they are also among the most misunderstood and aggrieved groups in America, possibly the world.

Word.

[original photo credit]

As the WGA strike continues and shows like this come on – this is becoming more and more beneficial.

I support the WGA, and if you want to follow someone who’s on the front-lines (or screenwriting interests you) check out John August’s site.

I just finished reading “Dies the Fire” by S. M. Stirling. I was given the book by a friend (to barrow) who thought I’d enjoy it. After taking what my friend thought was much too long to finish it, I finally did this last Friday morning (at 2am). “Dies the Fire” is the first book in a trilogy, the sequels being “The Protector’s War”, and “A Meeting at Corvallis”. “Dies the Fire” is set in 1998, an unknown event, later called “The Change,” alters the laws of physics to the point that explosives, electronics, and modern forms of energy no longer function. It’s so bad that steam engines don’t even work. The book follows two leaders – Michael Havel, Juniper Mackenzie and their followers as they deal with the resulting breakdown of modern civilization, chaos and mass death following “The Change.” as people struggle to survive in a world plunged into the dark ages, skills like farming, and being able to fight with a sword are skills that keep you alive.

I really enjoyed “Dies the Fire,” S. M. Stirling does a wonderful job of placing you in the world of Michael Havel and Juniper Mackenzie as they struggle to keep themselves and their followers alive. I really enjoyed the character of Michael Havel, a former Marine tuned charter pilot who leads his group, named the Bearkillers (after Michael killed a bear). Michael Havel is a no-nonsense guy who does what he has to in order to protect his group and others. Juniper Mackenzie’s character, leader of Clan Mackenzie is a bit strange as she is a Wiccan priestess who models her group of survivors after a Celtic clan. I enjoyed Michael Havel’s character far more, but all the characters are well defined and enjoyable to follow.

I’m looking forward to reading the other two in the trilogy. The whole time I found myself thinking how messed up it was that NOTHING worked and wondering how we as a society would react and survive if something like that were to happen in real life. S. M. Stirling does a fantastic job of describing one possible (dare I say likely) scenario in a world where the lights have gone out for good.

Before I start the other two books in the “Dies the Fire” trilogy I’m going to read “The Golden Compass” “His Dark Materials” trilogy. My Grandma would kill me if she knew I was reading it. Ironically, if it wasn’t for all the controversy surrounding the release of the movie, I would have never been inclined to read it. That’s the problem with boycotts and such, they usually backfire.

According to BusinessWeek Sony BMG is planing on dropping DRM from its music.

In a move that would mark the end of a digital music era, Sony BMG Music Entertainment is finalizing plans to sell songs without the copyright protection software that has long restricted the use of music downloaded from the Internet, BusinessWeek.com has learned.

With Sony BMG the last of the four major labels to kill DRM – this effectively marks the death of DRM, at least for music. Woo hoo!

This is a battle won in the war on DRM. The next target, as TechCrunch pointed out is movies; as we’d all like to play our (legal) movies where, when, and how we like.

[photo credit]

[photo credit]

Going to a Christmas party tonight and there is a white elephant gift exchange – someone is going to get 6 8GB IBM SCSI hard drives with their covers removed. Interestingly all the hard drives (same model) have an X mark (looks to be sharpie) on the top plater. The only information I could find in my (brief) research as to why, was this Ask MetaFilter thread.

Is it me or would it look cool to mount the drives to a backing board like they are shown in the picture and hang them on the wall?

click on pic for larger version

When I tell most people that I don’t collect DVDs and in fact don’t own a single movie – DVD, VHS or otherwise they tend to give me a funny look. With few exceptions I am not keen on watching movies over and over again, I don’t like watching reruns on TV much either so it doesn’t make sense for me to collect something I’m not going to use. In the rare case I want to watch a movie I’ve seen again I have always just rented it and now use Netflix, so I literally have the best DVD collection at my fingertips anyway, without having to worry about where to store all the damned disks. It’s not that I don’t like watching movies, in fact I do, very much, I’m just not one to watch a movie much more than twice, if that. It’s not that I can’t watch a movie more than once and not enjoy it; it’s just not a past time of mine so it would be superfluous for me to collect DVDs. People have given me DVDs of movies and TV shows I like as gifts and though I appreciate the thought they have all ended up in the trash (because I was sick of watching them sit there gathering dust) or given away. This isn’t to say I don’t like hanging on to things that may not serve an immediate purpose, in fact most people would look at some of the stuff I have and see it as useless (some of it is) but to me it’s not. Of course, what it comes down to is personal preference – I don’t see the point of collecting DVDs, you may. You may not see the point in keeping a broken Geiger counter, I do. I don’t see the point in keeping a trash bag full of packing peanuts, my Uncle does.

The other day the SciFi Channel ran a Firefly marathon – I have already seen every episode (and the movie) but I still enjoyed watching one of the best, however short (no thanks to Fox) SciFi TV series ever. So yes, there are times when I do like to watch THE SAME THING over and over again.

[photo credit]

A friend sent me an e-mail, in it he asked:

How does one defrag their computer?

My reply back:

Well…

You remove the hard drive from the system and using an electron microscope you need to examine each individual hard drive cluster (there are 180,000 of them) and using a special de-fragment tool (looks like a kitchen knife but it’s not; it’s special) you have to re-organize the clusters in the proper order; which in and of itself is pretty easy. Just don’t put them in the wrong order otherwise you could cause the drive to go nuclear. Really pretty easy stuff. I do it all the time.

Or…

You could:

Start –> All Programs –> Accessories –> System Tools –> Disk Defragmenter –> window pops up make sure the C: drive is selected and click on Defragment.

Depending on how fragmented the drive is it could take a bit.

And, sorry I can’t resist:

Q: How does one defrag their computer?
A: You don’t, you defrag your hard drive.

Unless you mean “frag” in the sense of the video game or military use of the word, which is to “kill.” If that’s the case then when you ask “how does one defrag their computer?” you mean “how does one un-kill their computer?”

That, depends on how you killed it.

Note that the bold text above is actually the way you defrag your hard drive in Windows XP, the rest of that stuff was me messing with my friend.