Daisy Chain – A sequential series of uniform connections, i.e., plugging a surge protector into another surge protector for more outlets.

Data Drop – A jack or wall-outlet providing various connections and network accessibility.

Ghost – The name of a Symantec program, it is a clone or replicated image of a disk.

Hard Reboot – Forcibly restarting by unplugging or powering-off a device. Also known as a “Cold Reboot.”

Outage – A power or equipment failure that results in service unavailability or downtime.

Patch Cable – A cable used to route signal to a device.

POST – The “Power On Self Test,” is a pre-boot sequence, and is the first thing displayed after turning on a computer.

Power Cycle – Process of turning a device off and on again.

Power Strip – A surge protector or line of electrical outlets.

Ream – Unit of measurement for 500 sheets of paper.

Soft Reboot – Restarting by means of software or a system command. Also known as a “Warm Reboot.”

Swap – A spare piece of equipment that can readily replace another.

Throw – The range of distance a projector must be from its screen (has both maximum and minimum constraints).

Ticket – A notably lame and uncool term, refers to an incident documented and recorded by an Issue Tracking System.

Toggle – Switching through or between program states one at a time. A good example of toggling is pressing the button on a TV remote control to select the desired video device.

Troubleshoot – Using process of elimination to search for and diagnose the source of a problem.

WYSIWYG – Acronym for “What You See Is What You Get.” A visual text or content editor that automatically generates the code necessary for publication to the web or similar.

Enjoy the pictures!

If you place a bid before the last 12-hours of the listing: You may retract that bid before the last 12-hours. You will not be allowed to retract that bid during the last 12-hours of the listing.

…

If you place a bid during the last 12-hours of the listing: You may retract the bid only within one hour after placing the bid.

At the same time, I noticed the next highest bidder had messaged me. Their message explained how they were outbid on this auction and had therefore bid on and won another set of tickets, and were now unsure what they should do. Usually I wouldn’t let my morals influence an eBay matter, but I felt for this guy who was being sincere and obviously not a fair-weather-fan like the other (retracting) bidder. I told him I understood and we mutually filed the eBay dispute as resolved without payment. Luckily, I had an ace up my sleeve, or so I thought…

Access America’s EventTicketProtector.com, claims to offer ticket insurance for missed events. When I bought these tickets through Ticketmaster (aka Ticketbastards), purchasing their service was as easy as checking a box during checkout. At the time it all seemed straightforward, and that should I miss the event I would be refunded. It turns out, that this seems to be nothing more than a scam.

Initially I tried filing claim at Ticketmaster, thinking the service was implemented into its platform just as much as its shopping cart. I was eventually redirected to EventTicketProtector.com, where filing claim was anything but easy or convenient. They asked a series of private questions as to the reasons I missed the event and was filing claim. Auto insurance companies don’t ask as many invasive questions as this site or “service” did. I filed the claim, indicating I could not attend due to a friend suddenly falling ill, which is actually a true story and why I wasn’t going to the game myself. I received confirmation of my claim filing on April 15, 2008.

Today is June 9, 2008, almost two months later, and I have not heard from Access America aside from a confirmation card they sent a week or so after filing. I’m shocked to discover that Ticketmaster would promote and sell this scam directly on their site during checkout when they clearly have no knowledge of their contractor’s integrity or means to conduct legitimate business. The fact that it was so easy to pay for a service that is actually impossible to use and seemingly non-existent outside a crummy postcard leaves me feeling cheated. Readers hear my words, Access America is an illegitimate business sold through Ticketmaster.

Although there is the approximate $250 I spent on purchasing the tickets and am filing claim, all is not lost in this debacle. The scams of Access American and Ticketmaster are really a consequence of eBay’s obscure and hidden policy on bid retractions. Therefore, the lesson learned and I offer to the entire internet-community of ticketholders is stay away from eBay! It’s easy to lose money on your investment and get screwed by the fine print. StubHub offers a much more specific, organized, and sanctioned service. Needless to say, my days of selling tickets or anything on eBay are over. I regret not making this decision earlier, having heard many eBay horror stories of rip-offs that all stem from the same lackadaisical and virtually non-existent enforcement of user regulations and policies.

Forget about your user rating. Being ripped-off on eBay is only a matter of time…

I spent the first part of my last day in San Francisco racing around to all the places I had yet to visit. I was able to see everything and more due to the help of a cabbie named Gunther who decided to check-out San Francisco 35 years ago and never left. As we went from landmark to landmark, there was never an awkward or dull moment as he enthusiastically offered the relevant historical background about each location. I’d recommend him to anyone going to San Francisco, but don’t know how to contact him. I gave him the address of this website so hopefully he’ll leave a comment or something.

Arriving at Alcatraz, I was surprised to discover that the world’s most famous maximum-security prison gets full cellphone signal strength. I haven’t really mentioned it to anyone up until now, but the main reason I wanted to take the Alcatraz tour was because it’s something my parents did when they were in San Francisco. It was many years ago around the time I was born, but of all the places they visited, they probably talked about Alcatraz the most. Maybe it’s weird, but I guess that I saw this as some way of being closer to them. Since the prison hasn’t been operational for almost a century, I imagine it was probably a lot more exciting when they were here. Still, I have never seen a prison before and was surprised I enjoyed it as much as I did. A fitting conclusion to my trip, thanks for the recommendation.

Having seen that the weather report called for a sunny day, I made my way down to the Fisherman’s Wharf to check out what all the fuss is about and grab lunch at Scoma’s. Before I left, my guitar teacher had me promise that I would try Scoma’s Cioppino Alla Pescatore, and gave me some money to buy him and I a shirt from the restaurant. I informed him at the time that I didn’t really like seafood, but as the picture might indicate, I ended up accomplishing this. Coincidentally, my opinion of seafood has not changed.

Leaving the restaurant, I found that the weather had turned cold and the sky was now dark. I felt tiny sporadic drops of water like you always do right before it rains and decided to head back and maybe visit a museum or something. Walking around in circles for about an hour, no cabs were to be found. I ended up doing the same walk I did the first night here all the way to the hotel. Did I mention that about half way back, the sun came back out? I suppose I’ll spare you this one, Frisco.

By the time I got back, it was time to head to the Giants game. I put some warmer clothes on and headed to the subway station. Because one isn’t enough, San Francisco has like 78 different rail systems. To get to the ballpark, I had to take the MUNI which I’m almost certain is the worst subway line in the history of man. Aztecs made rope bridges that are better than this. Since there were no change machines and an Asian woman in a kiosk whose job it is to answer no to the same question every couple seconds, I had to purchase a card for a different line in order to get the $1.50 in change to deposit in the turnstile like you would a ride outside of K-Mart. I guess people in San Francisco just carry around 6 quarters all the time. I then stood and watched as trains 2 cars in length with random letters except for the one I was looking for “drove” by. The game was 30 minutes in by the time I decided to ditch this idea, only to be stopped again at the turnstyle by some transit police bitch demanding to see a ticket. Turns out that $1.50 arcade game DOES give out tickets. Explaining that I didn’t even ride the train, didn’t know, etc., she wouldn’t hear it and started saying something about a $50 citation. I went over to the Asian woman in the kiosk who was probably happy to address a question unrelated to change and got a ticket with a side of dirty look. Then I went back to the officer, shoved the ticket in her face, spiked it and ran like hell.

Unable to find a cab (again), I walked to the stadium.

It’s Friday night and I can tell the fans are pumped, giving me something to cling to and be happy about. I buy a beer and head towards my seat, showing the usher my ticket. He asks me to stand in the aisle and wait until the play is over before heading in, a request I’m happy to comply with and even happier to know it’s being made. As I stand waiting, another woman usher comes up to me and tells me I can’t stand there. I explain that I was told to, which she takes as backtalk or something. She then treats me like a child, and demonstrates where to stand. I tell her that “they should probably put a sign here, or better yet, don’t tell me to stand somewhere I can’t,” and turn my back tto her aking my seat as the ball was now dead and she was a total bitch. Later in the game I went to get a hotdog and beer and on my way back in-between innings, I noticed the original usher that checked my ticket was away talking to someone and continued toward my seat. When I got to my aisle, he had caught up with me and asked to see my ticket so I started digging in my pockets. After I found it and showed to him, the lady at the end of my aisle asked if I was going to my seat. Noticing the game had now resumed I replied, “well not anymore” and turned to leave, throwing my ticket into the air as I walked by the usher.

Fortunately, I was able to catch a cab home.

Abdul-Karriem Khan spells one passionate and energetic developer. At the end of Steve Souder’s presentation (mentioned below) Abdul stepped up to the microphone to voice his disagreement as to the source of IE’s (Microsoft Internet Explorer) dilemma, accusing IE developers of being irresponsible and apathetic, failing to resolve a crippling memory leak that has plagued the browser ever since the word “Firefox” started being thrown around and perhaps even before. Abdul went on, becoming increasingly emotional and angry as he made a pretty persuasive case, noting that fortune alone has allowed such ineptitude to survive, and only Microsoft is capable of doing it for so long. Abdul reminded me of the video of the wrestling fan who breaks down asking a question to a group of wrestlers. I think of it not because I challenge the legitimacy or frown upon the fan or Abdul’s display of emotion. In fact, it’s quite the opposite because unlike the majority of humankind’s numb zombie drones, these people still feel, brave enough to go all the way out to the end of that limb and openly love something like wrestling or code development. I’d be lying if I said such occurrences aren’t really REALLY hilarious, but I wouldn’t laugh as hard as I do if I didn’t think it beautiful. I can’t wait until the session videos come out next week. Because I’ll definitely be adding that one to my favorites and hoping my man Abdul continues his celebrity status.

Steve Souders‘ presentation marked a turning point in the conference to me. I had grown used to taking away whatever I could from the presentations by the presumably brilliant but inarticulate Google wunderkind. Coming all the way from Baltimore, I was trying hard to fight off any notion of disappointment in the event when Steve took the stage. From the very start, his sincere interest and intense involvement in load-time optimization just beamed out of him, and the audience was on his every word. A model presenter for all of Google’s promising young minds, his excitement for the subject matter was contagious because he put effort into placing his concepts at a level that was easy enough for the crowd to run with, and chose to cover three of his bullets tactfully and carefully instead of racing to get through all ten. People always react positively when they see someone who loves what they study, and this was enough to get me excited about both load optimization and the conference all over again. Just in time too, because the next few hours would redeem and exceed my expectations.

The YouTube employee who took this photo (sucks I didn’t get his name). He wasn’t too cool to laugh at my picture idea and the t-shirt was entirely his contribution. On the job, he was busy answering people’s questions but still hooked me up with some serious schwag. When the other employees were sort of stand-offish and too cool to care, the force was strong with this one, and another…

Chris Prince also seemed to have an appreciation for Abdul’s energy, explaining he had experienced it earlier when Abdul posed a question at his presentation. Chris was on the job which limited our conversation, but it was easy to tell that he was one of the more pleasant and enlightened ones. After excusing himself to go take care of business, he soon came back to make sure I got my picture with the Google sign. Seemingly in-touch with the grander scheme of things, this guy obviously “gets it.”

The last session I attended was the one about search friendly websites. Having stumbled around these concepts for quite sometime now, I was at the head of the class in a very literal sense sitting in the very front row engaging and pestering the speaker with questions throughout the entire session. I really enjoyed this presentation because it both reinforced my understanding and reminded me of some details I overlooked and need to go back and scrutinize. It also provided a better sense of clarity and confidence hearing it from a person rather than speculating on trial and error. I was really impressed with the speaker because while she seemed nervous and went a little fast, she kept her finger on the pulse and gauged how well she was getting across to her audience. The best part about this session is I made a friend named Andrew who is native to San Francisco. He got me to sign up to twitter, flickr, and feedburner all at once when I got back to the hotel with the intention of integrating them into this website. I guess I tend to overlook the easy things, you know, those popular internet trends you have to be pretty stupid not to notice. Speaking of which, I better get my head out of my ass and into San Francisco. Giants game tonight and maybe a party or something afterwards. Nothing is certain though and after the game I’ll probably check to see what’s up on twitter.

]]> http://www.sirnerd.com/day-3-of-trip-to-google-io-last-day-of-conference/feed/ 1 http://www.sirnerd.com/day-2-of-trip-to-google-io-first-day-of-conference/ http://www.sirnerd.com/day-2-of-trip-to-google-io-first-day-of-conference/#comments Thu, 29 May 2008 03:24:13 +0000 sirnerd http://www.sirnerd.com/?p=60 Waking up at 6:30AM is not something I do very frequently working a late shift. However, doing this on the west coast made it seem like 9:30AM, which is a lot more agreeable. Arrival to Google IO was just about what I expected it to be. So many nerds and people with laptops, all my kind of people. My kind of people except for those rude international types, you know who I’m talking about, haha. On my way to the bathroom, I got big props for my t-shirt from this one dude, a sure sign that I’m rep’n the east coast proper.

The opening keynote address was impressive in that it resembled a concert with people crowding the stage. I had made a friend from Toronto named Ian on the walk there who shared this enthusiasm, and so I let him lead the way and find some seats. I had been gone for a minute at most to come back and find the entire place packed, people sitting on the ground. I don’t think Google was anticipating so many people, which became more apparent throughout the day.

I started-off by attending a code lab on using the Google App Engine on a Mac. While waiting for the lab to begin, I noticed a gentleman come into the room wheeling gear behind him, and take a seat in the front row. He then asked the people around him, “is there was any wired access or is it all just wireless?” Not really sure ourselves, we couldn’t provide a quality answer but watched as he unveiled and setup a desktop computer. My guess is that he didn’t feel buying a MacBook worth it, but I like to think he is just so committed to desktop efficiency he refuses to buy one. Either way, this guy was totally awesome which is more than I can say for the lab itself. The presenter typified tech elitism, going too fast and unaware of their audience. There was also no preface for the required peripheral software, and many in the audience never got much further than discovering they needed to install a new text editor. I managed to keep up, but soon left in disappointment at what was supposed to be an empathetic “getting started” lab. Not to sound too negative and be too hard on the event, but it seems that many of the attendees subscribe to that whole “l33t culture.” As a lone traveler, my attempts to engage others in conversation are often shunned by people who see me as competition. Having tech ability is so celebrated and respected that sometimes it literally convinces techies that they are superior to others. That is, others aside from other techies. I know that I am probably guilty of this at times, but never to the point that I disassociate myself or feel threatened. Also, this is not the case for everyone at this event, like Ian from Toronto. Ironically, the most respected and revered speakers and engineers featured at the conference seem to be the most friendly and human, if only that were to rub-off on their fans. I suppose I may be expecting a lot out of the crowd since I see so many people here as my brethren, my people.

The rest of the day and sessions were informative and insightful, all-in-all providing a forecast for the future of web technology. Looks like I definitely need to start paying better attention to mobile phone platforms and applications. Everyone seemed to love getting a taste of the Google culture, indulging in the steady stream of free goodies like fresh cookies and soft pretzels throughout the day. Many played pool and just relaxed, cogniscient of the day’s schedule but by no means bound to it. At one point in the day I was thinking of how much it resembles this sort-of modern-day court of the emperor, such convenient pleasures in abundance are representative of the greatness of the king. Oh well, can’t say I wouldn’t mind it. Now I’m off to the after-hours party to hopefully get some laughs and smiles. Don’t wait up.

Arrival to San Francisco went smoothly. I ate some authentic Thai for the first time since I left Thailand. Later, I went for a walk and ended up going this far to get some twilight shots of the bay. Haven’t been here long, but I’m looking forward to what Frisco and Star Fleet have to offer.

The website I have probably accumulated the most amount of time working on over the past two years is LessonTeachers.com. Don’t feel bad, it’s only because this website is much newer. I had been neglecting LessonTeachers.com for a while but had noticed that it still gets hits and generates a few cents of ad revenue every other week, which is infinitely larger than what I make on my other sites (eh eh emmmm!!). I also received a few emails from users inquiring about registering, so I decided to revisit the site. I upgraded the CMS software to a more current version, tweaked some formatting, and added a FAQ page. I’ve also put some money into promoting the site and running ad campaigns again with new and improved Google Analytics and Traffic tools.So that’s pretty much what I’ve been up to. Oh yeah, that, and GTA IV when I’ve had time, which by the way is pretty amazing. The best and worst thing about it is how accurately it mimics reality’s inconveniences. For the record, whoever thought of beginning the game with a crappy and frustrating cell phone is a genius. Hopefully I’ll have another post soon, or at least sooner than the last time.

PS I’ve disclosed some vulnerable information above so I ask that you PLEASE do not use it to hack me!

The internet is basically made up of lots and lots of ip addresses. All the domain names you visit and hear about are really just pointing to an ip address. At this point, the question that usually comes to mind is, “how does something so dynamic and expansive exist from a limited set of numbers?” So far, that question has largely and quite literally been answered by countering with, “who’s asking?” In addition to the ip address itself, is an extra layer of interpretation. The interpretations are left to the person or party in charge of the address to define and manage. Let’s stop and back-up, I’m keep it simple for now because if you get this concept, you’ll be able to figure out the rest.

Most broadband homes have a router that distributes the internet wired and wirelessly to one or more computers. When you pay for internet service, you are paying for one IP Address. This address is a unique IP Address, seen by the whole (internet) world, and leads directly to your home. This public address is referred to as a WAN (Wide Area Network) IP Address. Once inside of your home, the router splits up this address and connection among your computers. The router does this by assigning each connected computer an IP Address. Right now you’re probably thinking, “I thought I only had one IP Address,” and this is true. You only have one WAN IP Address. The router distributes a set of private IP Addresses over your LAN (Local Area Network). These LAN IP Addresses are hardly unique and are usually repeated (depending on the model router) from household to household. To summarize, your computer received this website after it was first sent to your WAN address established by your cable modem (or other network hardware), passed to the router which creates and manages private household IP Addresses, and sent to the appropriate local IP Address of your computer. Got it?

So hopefully at this point you are wondering, “how does the router know which local address or where to send the right information? Am I risking data from my porn site visits being sent to another computer?” Breathe easy my friend, it is time we talked about ports. Through asking the question, “who’s asking” a port is a gateway which guides the flow of information to the appropriate destination. For example, when browsing the internet the ip address that is being forwarded to by a domain can tell that it is being called by a web browser (specifically http) and knows which data to make accessible, opening the appropriate port to its location. By default, all ports should be closed to prevent any unnecessary access and means to data. Firewalls accomplish exactly this, and are designed to prevent any incoming connections to ports that are unwelcomed or closed.

When torrenting, the torrent tracker sends and receives packets of information among millions of users throughout the internet (WAN) world. Your torrent client (Azureus, Transmission, etc) gets its orders from the tracker, downloading and uploading from WAN IP Address locations the tracker provides. It is necessary to open a port for the tracker that directly links your computer through your local network to the WAN IP, and out into the internet and other tracker clients. The first step is to make sure that your local IP Address doesn’t change each time your computer establishes a connection and must be made static. This is done by editing the router settings and associating the physical or MAC address of your computer’s network card with your choice of private (LAN) IP Address. Once you have done so, you must then choose a port number within the range suggested by whatever torrent client you are using. Remember how I mentioned private versus public addresses? Look for the router DNS or find the settings which control port mapping. Specifying the LAN IP Address you made static, enter whatever port value you chose in both the public port and private port fields. This will both open the the specified port to WAN connections through the router firewall, and designate the LAN IP Address of your computer as the ultimate destination of all that is sent and received via that port. Piece of cake right?

Because Bethesda Softworks has allowed for the easy modification of its games, you may have already experimented with various Oblivion mods in an attempt to add something new and exciting to the game. Most of these mods provide a few minor tweaks here and there, but nothing very substantial. Oscuro’s Oblivion Overhaul, on the other hand, is a complete restructuring of the game (keeping intact the main storyline). Best of all, it is completely compatible with all of the official plug-ins, including Shivering Isles and Knights of the Nine.

OOO, as it is commonly called, is a large collection of some of the best Oblivion mods. These mods include the addition of new items, new side quests, bug fixes, and much more. The monster-leveling system has been modified to provide more challenging fights for stronger characters. New enemies, such as the Spectral Warriors, are more difficult to defeat than the existing Oblivion creatures. A new magic system that utilizes magical properties of gemstones has been added to the game, providing players with a new arsenal of spells in addition to the existing magic system. Your characters can even sport some flashy capes and cloaks now.

Sounds pretty interesting, doesn’t it? Well, that’s only scratching the surface. I don’t want to give away everything. Instead, I encourage you to download and install OOO and check it out for yourself. You may have to install an additional patch or two and change the load order of your mods by using the Oblivion Mod Manager in order to get OOO to work properly. It takes a bit of time to get everything set up the right way, but don’t get frustrated. Reading the instructions on Oscuro’s site is essential, so don’t skip anything!

If you plan on starting a new character, be warned that OOO Oblivion is a bit more challenging than the unmodified version. If you need a few pointers on creating a character and starting fresh in OOO Oblivion, check out this thread on the Bethesda Softworks forums. Also, if you don’t feel like spending hours searching for the new quests, items, dungeons, etc., you should check out the OOO Spoilers page on Oscuro’s site. It provides maps and instructions on how to trigger new quests.

Since I’ve installed Oscuro’s Oblivion Overhaul, I’ve put almost 100 additional hours into the game. I highly recommend it if you don’t feel like dishing out the cash for a new game, or even if you’re just looking to get back into Oblivion again.

The website I visit more frequently than any other is passwird.com. Yes I know, how petty and materialistic of me. Every day, this site keeps an updated list of the best deals and promotion codes on the internet. Some of you might be familiar with slickdeals.net which is practically the same thing, but I prefer passwird because the pictures are helpful. If I know I am in the market for something computer related, I will generally wait to see it appear on passwird before buying it. If you get it on passwird, you can be confident that you’re getting a good deal.

Another popular site that offers impressive mark-downs is woot.com. This site only features one sale each day, but you can rest assured it’s a really good one. It’s also 2007’s word of the year.

If I’m still unable to find what I’m looking for at either of the websites mentioned above, I will check for coupon codes or promotion news at fatwallet.com and retailmenot.com. Fatwallet is a membership site, offering a cash-back percentage on purchases made at popular online retailers. Also, it has many forums and public threads where users report generally reliable news on promotions and promotion codes. Retailmenot is a search engine platform allowing users to query a retail website and retrieve a list of promotion codes along with their success rates.

As a last resort and a minimal requirement in all online shopping, check pricegrabber.com. It will display a list of online merchants and their price for a specified item. It also enables the user to enter their zip code for a more accurate, definitive quote. This will only report the cheapest retailer without any promotions or discounts.

Lastly, I must recommend the Amazon Prime service. For an annual fee in the ballpark of $90 (usually a promotion can be found with enough digging), Prime members get free 2-day shipping on most items sold at Amazon.com. When I find the difference in price is marginal or insignificant between competitors, I default to Amazon for fast and sort of free shipping. In a year’s time, it will pay itself off especially when shipping large items which sometimes cost close to the price of membership to ship.

Don’t forget, in the end you should try to save and invest some money. Hopefully this will help.

The quintessential website for trading registered domains is TDNAM.com or The Domain Name After-Market. TDNAM allows individual domain owners to pay and have their domain listed for sale to the public. For a little bit extra, a listing can be found under multiple categories or featured on the home page. It should come as no surprise that this site is actually run by GoDaddy.com, the premier domain registrar. I do find it suspicious that GoDaddy is behind the site because it suggests that it is a scam, its purpose merely to accelerate domain sales. Not to mention that for a small fee, GoDaddy offers domain value appraisals.

The first impression when visiting the site is persuasive to the contrary, clearly demonstrating that there are domains being sold for attractive prices. This originally was how I was baited in and convinced myself to become a member, free with the purchase of GoDaddy’s Cash Parking service. For the purpose of experimentation, I priced some of my listings below their “appraised” value with no success. After many listings of many domains, listed and relisted with never so much as a bid, I began to suspect that people were bidding on their own domains to raise attention, and that nothing is really sold on TDNAM. The only money that I have made so far from domaining has been the couple of bucks from Cash Parking. Certainly not worth the amount of time and money I have put into researching and buying domains so far.

Promise is fleeting and rumored in the world of domaining. Laws have been passed granting trademark claim to domain names. For example, if someone owned mcdonalds.com, McDonalds can take it without paying them so much as a dime. Million dollar success stories are out there and provide glimmers of hope. These stories also raise the question of whether it is too late, the profitable domains having already been exploited. Alternatively, it demonstrates the importance of time. Perhaps if the internet continues developing, the domains purchased today might become equally as valuable in the future.

Of all my domains, I am the most optimistic about 19 of them, and all for the same reason. On November 2, 2007, four-letter .com domains had all been purchased and sold-out. Thanks to the site dyyo.com, I managed to buy 19 four-letter domains before it was too late. Today, three-letter domains go for hundreds of thousands of dollars. Short domains are valuable not just because they are easy to remember and type, but mostly because computer processes run more efficiently with variables shorter in length. When such a process runs thousands of times in a span of time not humanly noticeable, the significance of one letter is brought to light. I also have a few one-word domain names that I feel good about.

Only time will tell…

People are generally embarrassed to reveal that they subscribe to a matchmaking site for the same reasons many fear taking-out, or even responding to a personal ad in a newspaper. It is these same insecurities that these companies manipulate to take the customer’s money and fail to deliver their promised level of service. The interface that is used guarantees the anonymity of the user, eliminating fear of discovery, but also immediately establishing a dehumanized environment of secrecy under the guise of “safety.” Fears aside, this is a legitimately alluring product, still ambiguous, but attractive enough to charge shockingly expensive rates which ironically deliver an impression of quality. At the time of writing this, eHarmony and Match.com charge $251.40 and $203.88 respectively for a year of service.

I was seduced into these services the same way I imagine most are, through promotions offering free trial periods and reduced rates. Both sites also offer the ability to sign-up for free with a limited account allowing you to view photos but not communicate with users. How much are you really willing to pay to sort-of talk to someone? My experience using each of these sites is comparable, both introducing me to rejection and artificiality on an entirely new level. I’d be matched and would then message people with little to no reciprocation. Sorry guys, but girls generally don’t need a website to find a date. They get more attention than they desire in the real world so you better start making yourself visible because odds are, they are not paying these rates to search the internet and find you.

In particular, I found Match.com to be especially devious and deceptive. I initially signed up to Match.com by taking advantage of a promotion for a free 6-month subscription. After having thought to have deactivated both of my accounts on each of these sites months ago, I notice a charge of over $100 to my credit card by Match.com on the very day the promotion period was to expire. I immediately logged in to the site, and discovered that while I had deactivated and had been given the impression I had canceled my account, the auto-renew account setting was on by default, and I was being charged despite my obvious inactivity and efforts to discontinue service. I turned the setting off and e-mailed customer service saying I wanted to discontinue service and asking them to discontinue the pending transaction on my credit card. I received an e-mail later the very same day (the same day the promotion was to expire and I turned off auto-renew) which was bold enough to provide instructions on how to disable auto-renew as well as mention that I had done it earlier in the day. My guess is that they were implying I was too late in making this change.

My rage comes first in the form of being refused a pending transaction cancellation on the day-of expiration, which to me is like still being charged for something even though I didn’t sign the receipt because I noticed a pricing error. Mainly, Match.com sucks for the obvious deceitful tactics they use, enabling an obscure auto-renew setting by default, and even more damning, never sending an e-mail expiration notice. They were clearly trying to hide the service renewal and were deceitful with their promotion. Hear my words and feel my wrath Match.com… Match.com is a dishonest business that thrives on tricking their customers and obscuring the means for subscription cancellation. At least eHarmony is upfront about their subscription lifetimes and fees, e-mailing their customers before charging their credit card.

I imagine that there are people who find what they’re looking for on these sites, but at what odds and what price tag? If you really want to try a match-making site, there are plenty of free alternatives, some of which I have used, that are more friendly and from my experience, a way better shot at communicating with and possibly meeting someone. My advice would be to not make the same mistake I did with these sites. As we adopt the internet and related technologies deeper into our lifestyles, we dehumanize ourselves and forfeit authentic experience. Communication today keeps people in their safety zones, inhibiting interaction as a product of living. Even worse, the convenience it provides eliminates the experience and events which define who we are. In the end, it’s as if we are all the same lonely person on the internet, beautiful for the very reasons we are foolishly trying to hide.

Anticipating an initial period of strong physiological withdrawal, I went digging into my old software and video game library. I gathered together the games which I found to be the most addicting and time consuming when growing-up. The games I would start playing in the morning, and glance out the window later and notice it was dark outside. My plan was to use these games to distract myself from the pangs of nicotine withdrawal. Normally I would be wary of replacing an addiction with another, but in this case, I knew from experience I could quit gaming more easily than I could quit smoking.

Below are the games that helped me to quit smoking and consequently, saved my life! Many of these games can be found on abandonware websites and elsewhere. Warning: this method will require a few days off from work and other obligations but just tell them it’s for a good cause.First, we have Sid Meier\’s early masterpiece Colonization. This was Meier\’s second install-ment (pun obtrusively intended) in his turn-based Civilization series, that now epitomizes computer game nostalgia. I put this first for two reasons, because its entry inclusively represents the Civilization series, and also because for me, this was the first computer game that was noticeably addictive. Colonization takes everything that’s great about turn-based strategy and the Meier format and centers it around the American Revolution. The game begins with the discovery of the “New World,” meeting the natives, and establishing a foothold in America. Eventually, after building colonies, trading, and surviving the inevitable skirmishes when Europeans, tribes, and undiscovered land gets together, independence is declared and you get pummeled by your country of origin. If you built your military up to an unprecedented degree, established a trade system independent of the European continent, and survived the initial punishment brought by the first-wave of his majesty’s troops, you can pretty much start making plans for your new country.Next, I gotta give a shout out to the Final Fantasy series, particularly Final Fantasy VII and Final Fantasy X. These two games are unique in that they actually invoke emotional reactions in the gamer. Rarely have I found myself actually angry when fighting a boss or sad when a character dies except when playing Final Fantasy. In a world of dehumanizing technology, it’s extraordinary to come across something like a video game which calls on the user’s compassion. It’s because of this quality that I put Final Fantasy at the head of the RPG class. It’s clear to see that Squaresoft puts an equal amount of effort into story as they put into mechanics. Forget what censors or moral critics might have said about mature content in video games because it’s all surreal. Final Fantasy comes the closest to demonstrating when gaming is actually serious.In general, I think that RPGs are the most addicting genre of game. Character development through “leveling-up” is an element that hooks the gamer in through a system of frequent incremental rewards which pay-off in gameplay. Improvements to attributes and items provoke gamers to play more just to check out their newly acquired talents. When doing so, gamers often find themselves acquiring yet more levels and abilities and before they know it, the gaming endures a few more hours. Nowadays it’s not uncommon to see this concept used in games outside the RPG genre, especially sports games. For fans of the lighthearted Nintendo style of game, Zelda: A Link to the Past and Earthbound are both very entertaining and intriguing. While the animation emphasizes cartoon over realism (I’m in no way an advocate of realism in video games) and the content sometimes perceivably silly, these games are still celebrated by some of the most mature and intelligent gamers I know.