aubreyturner.org

Upon entering the local Target store I noticed the standard blue sign that states that unlicensed carry is a felony.  This is a sign that’s required by any location that sells alcohol, but doesn’t derive more than 51% of its income from doing so (Texas law normally provides for a misdemeanor charge for carrying without a license, which upgrades to a felony where alcohol is involved).  But underneath that sign was one which started with “It is unlawful to carry a handgun…”  This got my attention.  But when I read the rest, it turned out to be a rephrasing of the law from section 46 of the penal code, which simply stated that you have to carry the type of handgun you’re licensed for and keep it concealed. 

I think this was Target’s way of trying to discourage CHL holders from carrying in the store.  If you only read the first part, you’d think that you weren’t allowed to carry in the store.  If Target really wanted to prohibit concealed carry in their stores, there is a legal method to do so.  The downside for them is that the sign is huge because it requires specific text in English and Spanish in letters at least 1 inch high.  The legal sign would take up almost all of the space on one of their doors and it would be clearly obvious.  It would also incur the wrath of TSRA and anger local CHL holders, who are known to be vocal in calling out stores that don’t allow concealed carry.

I like the sound of this technology.  It’s a nuclear power plant that is sealed, requires little maintenance, and can’t go critical like the standard design.  Toshiba is offering to build the plant in Alaska for free to supply power to a remote area (which currently has to import diesel for its generators).  The biggest hurdle will be getting regulatory approval, which they estimate could cost as much as $600 million.  However, if they can get approval, future copies of the reactor could be built for $20 million each and delivered to remote locations.

I’ve finally got everything out of the old place and moved over here.  Of course that doesn’t mean that everything is done.  I’ve got a garage full of boxes and a bunch of boxes in the dining area and living room.  I suppose I’ll be slowly unpacking over the next couple of weeks.  I also need to finish painting the living room and dining area.  I wasn’t able to finish painting because it was so time consuming due to all the trim.  Until the painting is done, I can’t put in my bookcases and unpack the books. 

My new gun safe was delivered Friday afternoon.  The delivery guys had a heck of a time getting it into the house.  They had to bring it around through the back yard and take the back door off the hinges to get it in.  Anyhow, the main thing that bugged me was that a number of people in the neighborhood were out and about and took quite a bit of interest in it.  It was kind of hard to miss, since they had to unpack it in the driveway to unbolt it from the pallet.  I had hoped for a discreet delivery, since I didn’t want to advertise it to the neighborhood.

Anyhow, for now I’ll be taking it slowly and unpacking a little bit at a time (mainly so as to let my aches and pains subside).

I really must be getting to bed, but I have to share a couple of links before I do.

I was listening to the 90’s channel on XM radio, which is called 90’s on 9 (well, because it’s on channel 9).  The DJ was a guy named Kane and he pointed us to his page on the site for this.  It’s a Britney Spears lookalike.  I know, normally that wouldn’t be anything worth posting about.  Just scroll down and you’ll understand.  Holy hell! 

Then, a little further down on Kane’s page, I came across something called Nippits, which are nipple concealment strips.  And I thought the headlight look was in.  I guess I’m behind the times…

Last night when I got home and checked my email I’d gotten a spam from some company calling itself “As Seen On Television”, which was sent via servers at Catfish Software using a mailing list.  As usual when confronted with spam I investigate the headers to see what address of mine they’re sending it to.  The address looked like one that I would have created when doing business online, but I could not find any evidence that I’d ever done business with that company.  So, I began to suspect that perhaps the spammers were on to my trick of making up names and were trying to take advantage of that.

Even though the email included an “opt-out” link to a web form, I reported them to SpamCop, since I never respond to spam (it only encourages the bastards).  When I checked email again this morning I’d gotten an email from Jerry Hilburn, the founder of Catfish Software.

You purchased a product from us long ago. I would be happy to remove you from the list if you would supply me with the footer code which you cutoff in your report. You can goto our unsubscribe which really does remove you permanently from the list. Or you can send me that number and I will send you a copy of your order with the proof that we did do business with you. Or you can keep sending me these notices without the full message body and we can keep going through this process.

Please advise…

Jerry Hilburn – Founder
Catfish Software, Inc.
[phone removed]

I found his tone to be annoying at best.  First, there was the assumption that simply because I’d done business with them (if I had actually done so, as I am not convinced that I would have), that I would be receptive to SPAM from them.  Then there was the snide comment about not sending the full message body.  I know that I entered the ENTIRE message body into SpamCop’s reporting form.  If he didn’t get the whole thing, then perhaps SpamCop is cutting them and only sending the headers.

In any event, I wrote back to him to inform him that I didn’t care if I’d done business with them because I would never have given permission to receive this kind of junk.  Further, that I’d included the full text of the message in the report, but that I would include the footer of the message since it seemed important to him.  I also asked him to tell me exactly what I purchased and when I did so.  We’ll see if he can make good on his promise.  Finally, I told him that all email sent to the address used in the spam would now be sent directly to their list manager address (owning your own domain and having control over the disposition of email aliases is a handy thing when dealing with spammers; they don’t like it when spam gets sent back to their contact address).

But all this got me to thinking about the cavalier way a lot of online businesses treat the email addresses of their customers.  Most of them seem to think that a single business transaction with them justifies putting me on their email list.  A good example of this is Plantronics (who makes telephone headsets).  I had ordered an accessory kit for my headset from their website.  It turns out that Plantronics farms out fulfillment to a number of other companies.  The one that fulfilled my order was based in Kansas.  When I got a spam at the Plantronics address from this company in Kansas, it took me a little while to put it together.  But once I did I was furious because they had ignored my explict instructions not to be sent emails unrelated to my order (I never, ever, ever allow this kind of email and I always check the “opt-out” box if available).  I reported them via SpamCop and set the email address to bounce (although I should have redirected it to their marketing address).

Let me make this clear.  My expectation is that if I engage in a transaction with a company that my email address will be used solely for the purposes of fulfilling that transaction (i.e. questions about the order and sending me updates on the status of the order).  I will not, do not, and will never give permission to receive marketing emails.  This means that as far as I am concerned, absense of the “opt-out” checkbox on a checkout form does not imply consent to receive email.  And frankly, I don’t give a flying damn if the company thinks otherwise.  I’m going to report them to SpamCop, redirect the email back to them, and raise a stink about it.  Why?  Because to me it’s the electronic equivalent of having a salesman running out of the store after you trying to get you to buy unrelated crap after you just completed a sale.  I won’t put up with that in real life and I won’t put up with it online just because it’s easy for them to do it.  Maybe once a company has earned my trust I might consider what else they can do for me, but not before that and that won’t happen based on a single sale.

Telemarketing ties into spam in my mind because they both represent an intrusion into your private space in an attempt to sell you something.  I was glad to hear that a higher court has reversed the order against the do-not-call list.  While the use of government to enforce such a thing offends my libertarian sensibilities, I don’t see it as violating the free speech rights of the telemarketers (although one could probably make a valid argument that Congress has no explicit Constitutional authority to pass such regulation).

We all have the right to speak our minds and say whatever we want.  However there is no corresponding right to be heard.  Since such a thing would impose a duty on the listener, it cannot be a right.  But that appears to me to be exactly what the telemarketers and the spammers want.  All I want is to be able to establish the telephonic and email equivalent of a “No Solicitors” sign on my door.  As a property owner I have the right to exclude any person I choose from my property, and the “No Soliciting” sign is simply a manifestation of that right.  I regard my email account and my phone in a similar manner.  They are my property and I control who may enter said property. 

With regards to telemarketing, the phone companies missed an opportunity to avoid regulation in this area.  They could have used technological means to establish a do-not-call flag on my phone, and required telemarketing companies to check and obey that flag.  Further, they could have charged a small monthly fee and turned it into a profit center (like they do with everything else) (and I would be willing to pay a few dollars a month to put up a telephonic “No Solicitors” sign). 

The overwhelming popularity of the do-not-call registry and the near-universal loathing that people have for spam should serve as a wake-up call to the “intrusion industry”.  They have lost the battle for public perception and it’s time to admit it and move on.  Email is not going to be a viable medium unless it’s done through verifiable (and overt) opt-in (i.e. no assumptions and it has to be obvious to the user when and how his address will be used).  Opt-out email will just associate the company with spammers in the user’s mind, forever tarnishing their reputation (and damaging their bottom line, since I will never do business with a spammer).  Opt-out links and “reply to this email to be removed” methods will be ignored, even for truly honest companies because they’re operating in an environment filled with unscruplous bastards who have polluted it for everyone.  Likewise, telemarketing has been forever tarnished by carefully-scripted high-pressure marketing scams.  Even if the product isn’t a scam, I make it a point never to do business with a telemarketer.

In the end I think people are sick and tired of being marketed to every single minute of the day.  All they want is to be able to reclaim their private spaces, both in their homes and in their electronic inboxes.  All I want it to be able to put up my electronic “No Solicitors” sign and to be left alone at home. 

But then I’m a curmudgeon who prefers to be left the hell alone anyway.

Update:  Well, it turns out that I did purchase something from them.  Specifically it was a video that was advertised on TV (one of those stupid funniest home video things—yes, I know…).  But I bought it on 12/10/2000!  No wonder I couldn’t remember them.  In his response to me he tried to justify sending the email, claiming it was legal under California code (i.e. because of past business relationship).  The only problem with that is that the current site that they’re spamvertising bears no directly discernable relationship to the one I originally purchased from.  He also said that the order form has an “opt-out” checkbox.  If it did back then, I would have checked it.  I’m very careful about that sort of thing.  I think this was yet another case where they were lax about checking the privacy choices of the customers on their email list.  In the end he apologized, so I suppose I should just let the matter drop.  He claims that I won’t be getting any more email from them.  Let’s hope so.  Of course, if I did, I wouldn’t know it, since that address is now redirected to his list operator address…

This week has been crazy.  I had to finish a big design document and prepare some sizings so that the project manager could put together a detailed project plan.  I’d been having trouble concentrating on it last week with all the house details.  But my writing has always been like that.  I will read background material and throw out a few ideas for a while and then it all kind of just spills out into a document in the last few days.  This process hit me around 3:30am Monday.  I tried to fight it and get some sleep, but to no avail.  So I finally gave up and wrote some notes before going into the office.  This process repeated itself on Tuesday and Wednesday morning, which allowed me to finish the document (except for some minor changes) by the end of the day Wednesday (it’s amazing how much you can get done when you get into the office at 6:15am when no one’s around to bug you).  Even so, I still woke up around 4:45am on Thursday with a few last minute changes and additions buzzing around in my head.  Now that the document is out of the way (the main part anyway, there will be reviews and revisions in the next couple of weeks), I can sleep again (or at least I did this morning).

I actually planned for this sort of situation when I picked the date for the move.  I knew I’d be in the throws of last-minute document preparation this week, so I scheduled the move for next week.  Now I have to get busy painting the house.  I’m going to go over there this afternoon and do the prep work and try to get some painting done before it gets too late.  I’ll also be over there all day tomorrow, painting and waiting for a delivery.

Things are going to get kind of hectic for the next couple of weeks, so blogging will be light or nonexistent until I can get out from under everything.  I have a deadline this week at work which means I’m likely to be working late almost every day.  I will also be painting the house on Friday night and over the weekend.  Next week I’m going to be packing and the move will commence on Thursday.  The bulk of the move will be on Saturday the 18th, when I’ve got some friends coming over to help move the big stuff.  Provided everything goes according to plan, I should be safely ensconsed in my new house by the end of the day on the 18th.  Maybe I’ll have a few spare moments by then.

When I bought that workbench at Sears on Saturday I also bought a leaf blower that was on sale.  I used my Sears card to pay for them.  The sales associates always ask you for a phone number to look you up on their system.  I gave them my new number (although it won’t be active until the 16th), since I’d called them and changed the info on my account last week.  I was watching the screen when he entered my phone number and oddly enough someone else’s name showed up (along with his address—turns out he lives on the next street over).  What’s truly weird is that I know this person.  I’m hoping that Verizon didn’t screw up and give me his number (my hope is that he changed his number and I just ended up with his old one).

Update: It turns out that they haven’t used that number for about two years.  I guess that illustrates just how long out-of-date information can live on in computer systems (e.x. doing a reverse phone lookup on the number still returns Jeff as owning it).

This house business has definitely kept me busy.  I was over there until after midnight on Friday piddling around with various items.  The house had a different key for every lock (which meant having to deal with six keys).  I bought a package at Lowes that had a full set (knob and deadbolt) of locks for three doors.  So now I can use a single key for all doors (although I now have twelve copies of that key). 

On Saturday my refrigerator was delivered.  Interestingly enough, the delivery men were early and were there waiting for me when I arrived (they gave me a time between 2:30 and 4:30 but they showed up around 2:00).  They got it hooked up, but we couldn’t turn on the water to the icemaker.  It appears that the previous owners closed the valve using pliers, making it impossible to open.  So now I have to get a plumber to come out to replace the valve (I can do a number of home repairs myself, but plumbing is one of those things where it’s worth it to me to get a professional).

I also bought a workbench at Sears on Saturday.  It felt like it took forever to assemble the darn thing.  I’m getting really tired of assembling stuff.

Is there anything some idiot won’t put on TV these days?

A game of Russian Roulette with a real, loaded gun is slated to be broadcast live on British television this Sunday in what is being billed as the ultimate reality-TV stunt.

“It is a real gun with a real bullet and I am really putting it against my head,” said Derren Brown a self-styled “psychological illusionist.”

Brown plans to pull the trigger of a 348 Smith & Wesson several times, sensing which chamber the bullet is in, and plans to point the gun away from his body and fire the killer shot harmlessly into the air.

“If I am not 100 percent sure, I will not pull the trigger,” Brown said, admitting, “It would be humiliating but it would be preferable to the other consequences.”

Apparently they do have some limits, though.

The show will air on a several-second delay in case Brown shoots himself. If that happens, viewers will not see the gun fire into his head. Instead, the screen will go blank and display a message advising viewers what’s happened.

I think this guy may be in the running as a Darwin Award candidate.  Idiot.