bruce’s posterous

Willamette Kayak Trip

A few more photos from our trip last weekend...
 
Day 1: Tom's boat a sunset on Candiani Island

Day 2: The back side of Ash Island

Day 1: Sunset on Candiani Island

Day 1: a couple miles down from Wheatland, OR

Day 3: wahwoh looks like rain

Day 2: rest stop

Day 1: in a cool part of the river, lots of eagles and osprey...

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What I did this weekend...

HuckleBerry Ridge trail - 6/27-28/09

Huckleberry trailhead

 



Huckleberry trailhead - Huckleberry Tom

 



ah ha! Found Lost Lake, now they have to rename it.

 



Mt Adams through the trees

 



Mt Adams

 



PCT

 



PCT

 



dork

 



PCT marker

 



where we decided to stop... long way down...

 



Lost lake

 



Mt Adams

 



mountain lion track (forgot to put something in for scale but it was about 4" diameter)

 



View from my hammock

 



the view IN my hammock

 



Tom swatting mosquitoes

 



insect repellent

 

       
Click here to download:
What_I_did_this_weekend....zip (614 KB)

 

   
Click here to download:
0What_I_did_this_weekend....zip (342 KB)

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Microsoft Rant

from 2007:

I hate Microsoft and their intellectual property protections. What angers me is that they are doing everything they can to convince me that the most cost effective way to use their products is to pirate them. If I pirated their software at least I wouldn't have to pay to be treated like crap. During the course of several recent tech support calls I was treated like a software pirate. Why? Because I had the nerve to use Microsoft Windows on my Mac. I had a rather interesting discussion with Microsoft regarding this, here's the email thread (I made it go from the top down to make it easier to follow):

Dear Mr. Kaplan,

oh wait... please hold...

dear friends (all 272 of you) 

you have been blind cc'd in this message for 4 reasons

1.) so you understand how upset I am with Microsoft

2.) so you can see how not to treat your customers

3.) so you now have the email address of the VP of Customer Service at Microsoft.

4.) finally, so that Microsoft can get a taste of what it's like being placed on hold after reaching their tech support...

Back to Microsoft...

Dear Mr. Kaplan,

Sorry for the interruption above... it's kind of like your tech support, only insert an additional 20-30 minutes for the interruptions.

I own several Windows computers and several Macs. I also have about 6 versions of Office active and a couple shelf copies of XP Pro and home along with numerous OEM copies of your products. I am one of your better customers. I've spent well over $10,000 directly on your products in the past 10 years and well over $50k on windows hardware and software from various manufacturers over that same period... or ... about what I would bill for my wasted time dealing with your tech support.

But with customers like me, who needs enemies...

Here is my problem. On my intel based Macs I have partitioned a sector for Windows ... every time I launch Office 2007 on my windows sector it wants me reactivate my copy of Office and about every other time it also wants me to re-activate Windows XP. When I do not have web access I have to call... when I call I have been treated like I am some sort of software pirate. I have been told that you wanted me to prove that I have the CD (a question that you've never asked on PC registrations). I have been told that you do not support Macs... but apparently your tech support cannot understand that my hardware is not relevant, my computer is booting in Windows... it is a windows computer that meets or exceeds every specification you have on your product packaging. Your product packaging nowhere states that you do not support computers built by Apple. As any attorney will tell you, I enter into a contract when I install your products, you enter into a contract stating the specifications computers that you support using your product. Hey, guess what! you violated your contract!

And after all that, when I open Office I still get asked if I want to activate my product. For the record... I don't want to activate it any more.

Unfortunately for Microsoft, much of my experience with your product failing to activate properly, and your tech support implying that I might have an unauthorized copy of your product, has happened directly in front of my clients during some mission critical times. Of those clients, the experience we had, in part, caused many of them to buy Macs and start doing their presentations in Apple Keynote. 

Which brings me to the Office 2007 usability issue (the other reason my clients are buying Macs) ... Office 2007 is crap. I have been a strong supporter of your product for years, in fact my business was based around PowerPoint. That said, I am so disappointed in your latest offering that I am recommending to all my clients that they do not purchase Office 2007. Yes, you’ve changed the interface... but you’ve done it in such a way that it feels that your GUI designers weren’t talking to each other. You’ve changed the names of tools that have been around for years. And worst of all... the media handling capabilities of PowerPoint continue to be awful. The lipstick on a pig approach isn’t working, this pig is too ugly.

Microsoft’s fears that their product may be illegally copied and your draconian protection are intruding in my fair use of your products. Who was the rocket scientist that thought that we would be ok with that? Are you so large and so relevant that you believe that customers have no choice but to assimilate to your business instead of the opposite direction? I hope that I'm not the first to point out that this approach will make you irrelevant.

I am done, I am done, I am done. Out of my frustration that your company will never ‘get it’ I have changed my business, I am now telling my clients that they don’t need PPT to tell an effective message and that when they need presentation tools they need to look beyond PPT and choose the best tool for the message. It is now clear that PowerPoint is no longer that tool.

Originally I was going to contact your for a refund for my purchases of Windows and Office. But I’ve decided that I’m better off keeping this crap on my computer, so when my clients ask “what about PowerPoint?” I can show them why that isn’t a good idea, it's now my mission.

Did I mention that I am done with Microsoft? 

Dear Mr. Couch

 

I am following up with you on behalf of Richard Kaplan’s office regarding your concerns with repeated activation Office 2007 activation requests.  I apologize for any inconvenience this has caused and want to thank you for taking the time to share your comments.  I would like to reassure you that Microsoft is committed to delivering the best customer service possible by addressing your concerns as diligently and expediently as possible.  

 

I wanted to touch base with you to see if you would still care to pursue a resolution to this issue.  Please ‘reply all’ to this email and I will arrange for a support manager to contact you to discuss the issue further.

 

Microsoft thanks you for your valuable feedback because we are constantly evaluating our products and programs to try to make them more beneficial and effective.  I will ensure that the appropriate leadership team is aware of your concerns and will make your email available to them.

 

Respectfully,
Scott
Escalation Specialist
NACS Response Management Team
Microsoft Corporation

 

Scott,

Why should I treat this response to my ongoing problem any different from all the other "we're committed to serving you" responses? You've created a system where there may actually be a solution to my problem... but to get there I have to go through all this BS? I've talked to your "support managers"... is this the new support manager for really pissed off customers? Do your managers get bonuses on how pissed they make your customers? Your managers must be raking in the dough. 

You lost me with the lie that you're "committed to delivering the best customer service possible by addressing your concerns as diligently and expediently as possible." You don't want my business ... I've been told that at every step of this painful and ridiculous process and I've been told that through your products. Not only do you want me to deal with you, your customer service, your absurd copy protection, and your 1990 solutions to 2007 problems on your level... you want me to pay for that privilege?

Microsoft has done everything within it's power to tell me I don't matter... I bought the wrong computer, and I'm not playing by your rules. It's not my fault, as you would have me believe, that the game has changed and you don't recognize it, it's yours. If you'd like to gain an understanding of how you treat your good customers... look no further than me. I have seen NO substantive changes in your company for years... other than you obsessive focus on protecting your product from duplication. I am not a software pirate... I actually paid to be treated like one. 

Your developers and management should be forced to walk around with signs hanging around their necks that proclaim that they built Microsoft so they can hear what your customers really think... instead, you hide behind 'Frank' in New Delhi. Doesn't that tell you something?

So the answer is, no... I don't need your "help" anymore. I'm done.

fyi - these are typical of the responses I received from my email...

"Oh my gosh, you said politely what the vast majority of ms users would like to say... If they thought they'd be heard. I would have been much less civil. Good job! Make sure to send it to some paper or newsletter. "

"Now you'll be getting 272 cheers from your friends! I've been having the same re-activate issue with Office. I have found no use for PPT 2007 except to make stuff and copy it over to Keynote or 2003. You definitely spoke for me!"

"Can I post this on my blog? I feel your pain.. Bravo.

 

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why we need a public option

I came from an amazing family and grew up with 3 brothers. Of the 4 of us, I'm #2.

 Les, my 6'4" 250lb oldest brother, was a gifted auto mechanic and the smartest person I knew. He owned a performance auto business and built some very cool cars. In 1983 at the age of 29 he had a stroke. He was diagnosed with a "lupus like" disease. Many guesses as to why this happened to him circled around the chemicals he was exposed to in the auto shop. During the first year of his disease he spent about 6 months in the hospital. His first year medical bills totaled well over $250k. He could no longer work. He had to sell his business for much less than it was worth and he lost his medical insurance. Fortunately we lived near UCSF's medical campus where he was treated over the next 15 years when he switched his care to another hospital. The issue of how he was going to pay for his treatment came up but the reality was that he could never pay back the millions spent. To receive medi-cal and medicare he had to be declared indigent (he was unfortunately, as the result of his illness).

 Over the 25 year course of his disease he had about 22 strokes and about 4-5 heart attacks. He divorced, met a woman he truly loved (and loved him back) and enjoyed what he could of his life, for that I will always be grateful to the doctors and nurses that cared for him. He was and will always be an inspiration to those that knew him. At 53 he died in 2007 at home with family.

 His amazing care was the result of public healthcare, socialized medicine, or what ever term you want to give it. The sad part of that story is that he had to become indigent to get that care.   

 John, my youngest brother did not have medical insurance (he was starting his own business and he couldn't afford it), he was 38, 6'2" 190lb of muscle, single, chicks dug him, and he rode a bike about 30 miles a day. I used to joke with him that if I got into trouble I'd sic my little brother on them.

 If John would have had insurance or a public healthcare plan and a simple physical, he probably would have had a doctor that would have noticed that he had an enlarged heart and told him that the worst thing he could do was ride a bike 30 miles a day. Unfortunately he didn't. On a hot June 3, 2003 at about 3pm after a bike ride his heart just stopped beating. I found him at his home several days later. On the afternoon of June 6, 2003 I was the one that got to tell my mother that her baby was dead.

 Am I bitter about what happened to John, of course. I wish he could have afforded insurance. I wish he had a doctor. I wish he wasn't so worried about the cost that he would have gone and seen one ... but he didn't.

The inflation rate on medical insurance is about 15% per year, or about 3-5x everything else. Healthcare companies make money not off providing care, but by inserting themselves between patients and doctors. 100% of what they do is administrative. So is anyone surpised that administrative costs are 33% of healthcare costs through insurers while medicare adminstrative costs are 1%. 

 To those of you that think people need to "pull themselves up by their bootstraps" I ask, is it going to take this happening to YOUR family before you start to recognize that healthcare is not a privilege? Because as much as I hate those that are getting in between patients and doctors, spewing right wing talking points, and all while ignoring that 72% of Americans want a public option, I could not wish this upon them. You are the same people that don't understand that WE are currently paying for the healthcare costs for the 47M uninsured. The same people that ask "how are we going to pay for this" ignoring that we already are paying for it. How is paying $1000/mo for healthcare and administrative costs better than being taxed $680/mo for healthcare service?

This past week I heard Congressman Eric Cantor say 'we cannot have a government option, how can private industry possibly compete with that'. he seems to be missing the point, competition is not about keeping the cost up, it's about bringing them down. The reason republicans and some democrats don't want public healthcare is simple, because it actually works.

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my new MacBook Pro cover

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just for tim

(1) Turn on your MP3 player (or see what's on the recent record pile). (2) Go to SHUFFLE songs mode. (3) Write down the first 15 songs that come up--song title and artist--NO editing/cheating, please.

suzanne vega - predictions

jennie lewis with the watson twins- rise up with fists

warren zevon - lawyers guns and money

mark knofler - ragpicker's dream

bruce springsteen - state trooper

jason mraz - remedy

jethro tull - round

joe jackson - loving couples

conor oberst - valle mistico

tom petty - american girl

beatles - long, long, long

buck 65 - blood pt 2

beatles - all you need is love

moody blues - the balance

coldplay -rush of blood to the head

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truly bad design... the war, rumsfeld, AND these documents...

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home depot scam

Heads up for those men who may be regular Home Depot customers:

This one really caught me by surprise. Last month I became a victim of a clever scam while out shopping. Simply going out to get supplies turned out to be very traumatic. Don't be naive enough to think that it can't happen to you or your friends.

Here's how the scam works: Two seriously good-looking 20 or 21 year old girls come over to your car as you are packing your shopping into the trunk. They both start wiping your windshield with a rag and Windex, with their breasts almost falling out of their skimpy T-shirts. It is impossible not to look.. When you thank them and offer them a tip, they say 'No' and instead ask you for a ride to McDonald's. You agree and they get in the backseat. On the way, they start undressing. Then one of them climbs over into the front seat and starts crawling all over you, while the other one steals your wallet.

I had my wallet stolen March 4th, 9th, 10th, twice on the 15th, 17th, 20th, 24th & 29th. Also April 1st, 4th, twice on the 8th, 11th, three times last Saturday and very likely again this upcoming weekend. So tell your friends to be careful out there.

P.S. Wal-Mart has wallets on sale, $2.99 each

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Evergreen Air Museum

this is what greeted us the first time (and last time) we went to the Evergreen Air Museum.

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Donors Choose class was funded!

this was very cool, several friends teamed up with Bodie Group to fund a classroom in Portland to get the tools (iPod Shuffles) they needed for reading. Thanks!
here's the letter we received...
Dear BODIE | group inc.,
You guys are so amazing! My students are so excited to improve their reading scores through fluency practice. I am so excited to get to use them next year as well. With the budget cuts next year I will have more than 35 students in my 4th grade class and fluency practice would be impossible without these mp3 players. I can't believe how generous you were and how some of you asked each other to help fund us. The kids heard updates from me every day as you brought us closer to our goal. They just stayed late during recess to hear about our grant being funded. I wish you could see my students hearing the poetry they picked being read by favorite authors and beloved school staff. They love to practice and now it will be so much easier for them to continue to improve with your support. I love my job, thank you for helping me do my best at it!

With gratitude,
Mrs. R.

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