Geoff Fox – Page 3 – Geoff Fox: My Permanent Record

Ever Ask For A Favor?

My Bluetooth earpiece broke yesterday. I’m attached to that thing, though I’m told it looks like I’m wearing a penis on my ear. Alas, the problem was not crazy gluable.

I found a good price on a recommended Plantronics model from NewEgg in California, a company I’ve bought from before and with a good rep in the business. I requested next day delivery.

It wasn’t until after I paid that I saw you could pay extra and get ‘rush service.’ Isn’t that implied when you pay for next day delivery? I hadn’t paid the extra amount, so I wrote to NewEgg.

I am a good customer. I would appreciate any help in getting this order out today. I’ve never asked before, but hope you can help.

Thanks,

Geoff Fox

Before you read the response, a question. Have you ever been standing in the TSA screening line at the airport and had someone ask if they could get ahead. It’s implied they need to get ahead, and I’ve never said no. Who would?

Dear Customer,

Thank you for contacting Newegg.

I’m sorry, we do not put “one customer” over another, it would not be fair.

All our orders are processed equally, the same time depending on when the order was received.

We process all orders as quickly as possible within our 24-48 hour processing time, most orders will ship within 24 hours or less depending on warehouse load.

I do apologize if you fee slighted that was not my intent, however, you are not the only customer we serve and to give you special handling would not be fair to our other customers.

If you have any further questions or concerns, please visit our FAQs page.

Thank you,

Scott (redacted)

Of course Scott’s right… and he’s wrong. At the very least he should have asked someone there how long it might take, because my order did ship last night in spite of his protestations and my failure to pony up for rush service! It’s on the truck from North Haven, heading to my house as I type.

What I end up with is the worst of all world’s for NewEgg. I get what I wanted and I’m still upset with them!

I will likely continue to be a customer. Scott was probably operating within company policy. However, in my opinion he did the wrong thing because he did nothing.

I’m guessing if I ran into Mr. or Ms. NewEgg… someone with a stake in the company, they’d say the same thing.

Comcast And My Parent’s HDTV

My parents are still watching standard definition TV, even after a visit from a Comcast installer. It’s frustrating enough to require an email from me to Comcast’s corner office.

Dear Mr. Roberts,

I am writing as both a shareholder and customer, but mostly as a son on behalf of my parents, Harold and Betty Fox of (redacted), FL.

Recently, my folks ordered HD DVR service from Comcast. Today, your Comcast installer told them the proper way to use the system was by tuning their TV to Channel 3. In other words, they were told to use the internal modulator in the DVR and the internal tuner on their TV. This method is only capable of delivering standard definition television, not HDTV. Only by using a DVI cable or 3 composite video cables, could they have actually received an HDTV picture.

They didn’t know this, but your installer surely should have.

I am disappointed for my parents, who have not gotten what they paid for. I am disappointed as a shareholder that installers aren’t better trained. Considering the fierce competition from satellite, I would have expected a better outcome on what should be a high priority product.

Any assistance from Comcast to correct this problem will be greatly appreciated.

Sincerely,

Geoff Fox

ps – Comcast’s system prevents me from sending this directly to the proper department. I hope you can forward it on my behalf.

I’ll let you know if anyone responds.

Blogger’s note – Comcast to the rescue. Here’s the follow-up.

Who Are You?

Over the weekend, I wrote about the Classmates website. The site attempts to connect former classmates via the web. It’s really hit and miss since you’re not listed on Classmates unless you want to be.

I started to think about the people I went to school with and one name came up: Eric Drucker. He was not on Classmates.

We were not best friends, though we were friendly. Like me, Eric was an apartment dweller, inconveniently far from our all-city high school. If I remember correctly, he was even farther away than I was.

I remember Eric because of one specific incident. I had followed him to the Bronx to see some homebuilt ham radio equipment. We were in our teens and both ham operators. What was amazing to me was he could build this stuff on his own in the little apartment he shared with the rest of his family.

It was early evening by the time we hit the Bronx. Eric was showing me a power supply. That’s the unit that converts what comes out of your wall socket to higher voltage DC. We’re talking comparable voltage to the third rail on the New York subway!

Somehow, Eric got a little close. A spark flew and the next thing I knew, Eric was flying across the room toward the wall. It was a blur. It happened in an instant. There was no warning.

I’ll never forget that, even though it happened around 40 years ago.

I found Eric using Google. His name brought links to an electrical engineer with the right graduation year for college, advanced degree (Eric was very bright) and an email address at a high tech company in California. I sent off a quick email to see if it was who I thought it was.

Are you the Eric Drucker who nearly flew across the room while accidentally discharging a high voltage power supply filter cap through his body in an apartment in the Bronx?

Just wondering?

All the best,

Geoff Fox

I sent it over the weekend. This morning there was a reply waiting when I turned on the laptop.

Yes, who are you?

I suppose near electrocution increases your memorability.

Car Buying Time

The word is out. It’s time to replace Helaine’s SUV.

Of all the purchase decisions in our lives, this is the one we enjoy the least. Seemingly, there’s no good way to buy a car and guarantee you’re getting something good for a good price. How can you not have buyer’s remorse?

I’ve been pouring through Consumer Reports. Most of their info is good. They seem a little heavy handed in the way they push their own service, which provides the actual price a dealer pays for vehicles. I’ll probably swallow hard and buy it anyway. Isn’t Consumer Reports supposed to be a little less self serving?

We went to two dealers today. At the first we looked around, acted sheepish, looked at a few cars and decided which might do.

We realized, after about thirty seconds, their midsize model was too small and their big model too pricey. A salesman came over as we were deciding to leave. I apologize here for costing you an ‘up’.

We’ve scouted out financing, but there’s a ‘deal’ currently underway from the manufacturer. Zero percent for 36 months. That’s a better price (duh) and there are legal advantages to dealer financing.

I have some rules at a car dealership. If you’re my salesman, we are joined at the hip. You cannot leave my side to consult with your manager. If you go, I go. They never like hearing that.

You may not treat me like a fool. If you lie to me, and believe me it’s happened, I will call you on it before I walk out. Lying infuriates me. I do not suffer fools or liars gladly.

Helaine made me promise not to make anyone at the dealership cry. I get a little nuts during the heat of battle, but it’s their fault. Decisions at the ‘car store’ are stacked in their favor. They have all the info. You have little. And, the salesmen have incentive to make you pay as much as is possible.

In the end, we’ll find the car we want and desperately try to get bids from three dealerships. I did that when we bought Helaine’s first SUV and I think it worked well.

I should probably sell Helaine’s car privately. Do I want to be in the used car business? Of course, you lose a lot when you trade a car in.

During the last shopping cycle, long after I left one dealership, the manager related to a friend of mine who just happened to be there, “Geoff Fox was here. He was shopping on price. He won’t be back.”

You’ve got that right, bucko.

Agent (Gunjan_143463): “Please do not worry at all.”

Why pull punches. The disk drive in Steffie’s laptop is nearly dead and will be replaced. CHKDSK ran for over 12 hours, correcting nearly 8,000 clusters and shedding 8 Gb in capacity. Even then, the laptop was ‘challenged.’

This morning, I went to Dell for tech support. This laptop is protected against everything for three years. The father of a college student is prudent.

I chose to chat with Dell because I am comfortable conveying technical info via the keyboard. And, I wanted Dell’s operator on my side. I was as nice as I could be.

All things considered, my chat request was probably taken in India. In the past I’ve asked where the call was being answered and the support tech was always forthcoming.

It is obvious from my conversation that there are differences between the English I speak and the English Gunjan speaks. When I was confused, I asked. He did the same. We never strayed too far from understanding each other.

The transcript of my chat is attached below.

Steffie will receive the new drive at school and install it herself. In a laptop, installing a hard drive isn’t much more difficult than plugging in a light. I have confidence she’ll be able to handle it (if she can find a Phillips head screwdriver).

Should a drive die this soon – only about a year and a half after purchase? Of course not, but stuff happens.

The bottom line is, within a few days, this will all be resolved and resolved to our satisfaction.

Continue reading “Agent (Gunjan_143463): “Please do not worry at all.””

Another Mention In Print

Wow – two print mentions in the past week. This time Joe Amarante of the New Haven Register called to ask about our lack of winter.

I’m not sure “alarmist crap” is be a phrase I’d use again for attribution. It was inelegant and crude. Unfortunately, it’s an accurate quote. Sometimes stuff just comes out.

I think writers, like Joe and Charlie Walsh at the Connecticut Post (who quoted me last week), have a distinct advantage over TV people. We need to haul our sorry butts to the scene of the crime. Newspaper people can just pick up the phone and interview a half dozen people in the time it takes us to drive to some far off little town.

Continue reading “Another Mention In Print”

Quoted In The Post

I got a call last week. It was Charlie Walsh from the Connecticut Post in Bridgeport. He, like so many others, had seen AccuWeather’s latest press release, featuring Joe Bastardi’s call for the remainder of winter, and wanted to discuss it.

I didn’t demure!

“While I’m not saying he’s wrong,” said WTNH-TV’s Geoff Fox, “call me a skeptic.”

Fox pointed to Bastardi’s prediction in October of last year that the coming winter would be “cooler than normal.”

“I think the tendency of people is to hear [Bastardi’s] predictions without considering his past accuracy,” Fox said.

Here’s the story from Saturday’s paper.

Continue reading “Quoted In The Post”

Pump And Dump

I probably get more spam than you. My address is plastered on thousands of web pages visible across the Internet. It is, literally and figuratively, ripe for the harvesting.

Without the spam protection provided by Thunderbird, my email client, I’d be lost&#185. I still browse my spam box to make sure nothing I want is there, but it takes much less time since I already know it’s probably garbage.

Over time the spam has changed. I don’t get as much porn spam as I once did. I still get lots of meds for losing weight, gaining virility and recovering fortunes squirreled away by African despot’s aids.

More than anything, I get ‘pump and dump’ stock spam. This form of email garbage has exploded in recent months.

In case you haven’t seen these, here’s the text from one I got three dozen times this weekend:

Our picks bring our readers BIG gains! Why? Because we present well-researched, quality companies backed by promotions which have

the ears of investors around the globe. When you have GREAT product

and unrivaled PR you get super gains! This one is just what your

portfolio needs:

The Name of Company Promoted, Inc.

Symbol: XXXX

Current Price: $0.96

Projected Price: $3.20 (330% gain)

XXXX is has an incredible business model in a booming sector. Look

around you. Everything is being standardized and franchised. XXXX

is a company specializing in the development and expansion of proven

independent restaurant concepts into multi-unit locations. Business has

been booming!

A huge publicity campaign is beginning and will be supported by some

astounding press releases. It is imperative to get in before the first big

announcement. Readers, this is a big one. Don’t miss this chance!

Three dozen of these!

I know that because they all have similar subject lines, making them easier to segregate. Though they’re sent from random names, spam ‘from’ Gladys Jones would have the subject, “It me Gladys.” Spam from Geoff Fox says, “It me Geoff.”

My beef isn’t that there’s spam going out (that’s a separate beef), or even spam with poor grammar. My beef is the SEC is either powerless or unwilling to do anything about this. Can’t they make connections on who is in and out of these thinly traded stocks?

As long as these spams exist, they call into question the integrity of our markets. Yes, these may be small players, participating in relatively minor crimes, but they reflect on our financial system as a whole.

When Rudy Giuliani became mayor of New York, he quickly went after “quality of life” crimes. They were mostly small nuisances.

“We only achieved the drastic reductions in crime then because we focused not only on murder

I Voted Today

7 Nov ’06, 3.15pm EST

Originally uploaded by Geoff Fox.

This might sound naive or Pollyanna’ish, but I voted and the mere act of walking in the booth and pulling the levers made me feel good. This is a wonderful country based on fundamental values worth protecting.

My single vote won’t tip any races, but it’s still incredibly important. I really feel that way.

I had a discussion with a relative yesterday. He never votes. I was shocked. It’s his choice, but I couldn’t imagine not voting.

I remember my mom bringing me into the booth with her. I was a little boy and she was voting at PS 200 on Jewel Avenue in Flushing. It was virtually the same machine I voted on today.

My first vote on my own was at Mallard Creek #2 in Charlotte, NC in 1971. Nixon versus McGovern brought everyone out. It’s the only time I ever remember a significant wait in line. Again, the machine was the same.

This will probably be the last time I pull a lever on one of the old mechanical machines. New technology is coming. I am suspicious of the new electronic machines.

A few days ago, eBay sent me a note, telling me they had canceled an auction I participated in. Only, the auction had already ended and I had already paid for and received the merchandise. All the usual details of my transaction have been removed from my eBay page! It’s as if the transaction never happened.

Can that be done with my vote too?

On the news over the past few days I’d seen stories about how ‘buried’ Joe Lieberman’s name was on the ballot. He’s right. He’s in that ballot ghetto, way down at the bottom. It’s an area normally reserved for fringe candidates. In the poorly lit booth, some people will miss it.

I will watch with interest tonight as the votes come in. There’s more anticipation and angst for me than there’s been in a long time. Connecticut is in the national spotlight for the first time in a long time. There are other contests I’m watching from across the country.

I’m so glad to have participated.

The Elegance Of The Weather Map

27 Oct ’06, 9.02pm EDT

Originally uploaded by Geoff Fox.

Cousin Michael was helping a friend. A little research please (which I tried hard to avoid). What was it like in New York Harbor on the morning of November 10, 1928?

First, the good news. Though New York City’s readings come from Belvedere Castle, on the west side of Central Park, near Tavern on the Green, in the 20s the observatory was The Battery – Manhattan’s most southern point.

The bad news is, most of this old, handwritten weather is squirreled away in difficult to find places. NOAA’s repository is one of the most unfriendly, difficult to use web sites I deal with. No – mark that. The most difficult. And it’s a pay site. What about my taxes? Didn’t I pay already?

Tonight, with a few open minutes, I took a look to see if there was an easier way. There is, with the Daily Weather Maps series. There’s a viewer to download, but it’s mostly nice and easy and the maps go back to 1871.

I downloaded the map Michael wanted, which is posted to the right. It’s really elegant in its simplicity and utility. In that pre-computer, non-Internet era, it’s amazing.

If you close your eyes you can see men with green eye shades and sleeve garters using their French curves to draw the isobars (lines of equal barometric pressure).

I don’t know when the map was actually published. With phone costs as high as they were I would guess observations weren’t being transmitted on an hourly basis. Still, it’s great it’s still here, to archive that one day eighty some odd years ago.

Oh – New York was under high pressure, but it was cloudy with a light northwesterly breeze. The temperature at 8:00 AM was in the mid-30&#176s, where it had been 24 hours earlier.

Chip Castle

21 Oct ’06, 12.05am EDT PST

Originally uploaded by Geoff Fox.

I walked past this chip castle in the poker room. At least a few thousand dollars worth. The red chips are $5 and the blues $1. The plastic rack on the side holds 100 chips and he needed a bunch.

For those who commented, it was not mine. In fact, Friday was a terrible day to play poker… at least for me.