Nick Sieger: personal

Blog reset

Sat, 29 Apr 2006 05:04:08 GMT

Hello, faithful readers. First of all, I'm duly impressed if you're still subscribed, but if you are, please do go straight to blog.nicksieger.com, and also, replace your subscription to this blog with this new feed. I'm also setting up a cached copy of this blog's content on the new server. Hope to see you soon!

/Nick

(P.S. Seems like there still in 2006 is not a straightforward way to redirect feeds if you don't host your own blog.)

Customer Service Done Wrong

Thu, 15 Sep 2005 04:25:33 GMT

Both Dave and Doc have posted on this subject recently, so I thought I'd share a couple of the horrible customer experiences my wife and I have had lately.

I walked into Surdyk's over the weekend rolling into the beginning of August. My bank card number had recently fallen prey to the Card Systems breach but I had forgotten about it. I walked up to the counter with $120 worth of beverages and when I went to pay I found out they don't accept checks anymore. I didn't have cash, so I reluctantly handed the cashier my bank card after asking her if they take debit cards (PIN-entry style). She said yes, and proceeded to run it as a credit card. Well guess what, it came up as lost, and she called the manager over, who promptly confiscated the card. I explained the situation, how I knew the card was lost, didn't mean to have it run as a credit card, showed my ID, and yet they still refused to listen. I asked for the card back so I could walk across the store and use it in their in-store ATM but they refused. After one last pleading session with the manager I stormed out on him, vowing to not go into their store again. Well almost. After talking to my wife, I had to get the card back to make it through the weekend, so I went back into the store again, found the manager, explained that I needed the card and would he please call the customer service number on the back and they'll tell you it's ok to give it back to me. He grumbled something about "having a floor to watch" and went over to the phone. Finally after a painful 5 more minutes of back and forth with the CS agent on the phone did he give the card back, accompanied with a snooty, half-hearted "sorry". So Surdyk's sucks rocks. If you're in the Twin Cities area, don't patronize them -- there are better deals on liquor anyway.

Our health care clinic recently switched to a paperless, electronic system. Except going paperless apparently means that they didn't have the budget to hire someone to key in all the paper records. So we're starting virtually from scratch, have no history in their system, and my wife wasted an extra couple of hours during one visit just getting re-registered. After the hassle, she told our doctor that were it not for him, she would have walked out and gone somewhere else. He replied that she was not the first person to tell him that that day.

We don't often patronize national pizza chains, but one night we were desparate so my wife called Pizza Hut. She was confronted by an automated IVR system that prompted her to place her order. Can you imagine?!?! An IVR menu system to order pizza!! It took her at least 5 more minutes to figure out how to navigate the menus and place an order. Needless to say I don't think we'll be doing that again, and our stomachs will be thankful.

Crescent City State of Mind

Sat, 03 Sep 2005 02:33:12 GMT

Today was one of those days with too much going on in my head. Tops above all, of course was the Gulf Coast Hurricane aftermath.

Everything just seems so inconsequential compared to it. It feels like such a chore just to keep up with all the technology blogs that I usually am so interested in.

My soul is just aching for a sense of peace, but every thought races down south and manufactures a connection to some human entity that I don't even have consciousness of. It's not a real person, but an embodiment of a relationship I desire to have with a real person in the thick of the suffering just so I can experience a little of the same. All the tragedy that is going on has a way of making the minute, hum-drum aspects of life seem incredibly trite.

Rest well, ye souls of New Orleans past and present.

Connections

Sat, 06 Aug 2005 21:08:04 GMT

I've already posted how I had an awesome week in Portland at OSCON, but I just have to post separately about a particular event that capped the trip off.

I don't fly that frequently, but it's been getting more frequent in recent months -- I've been on a plane each month for the last four months and five times so far this year. Usually the plane ride is a dreadfully boring experience that you wish would just end as quickly as possible. When I flew out to Portland, it was on a Sunday night, the plane was delayed almost three hours and I arrived in Portland at 2:30 AM Monday morning. That's the kind of flight that makes me wish flying was more enjoyable.

Well, what a gift I received on the way home yesterday. When was the last time you spent an entire 3-hour flight in an engaging conversation with your neighbor? If you're a connector, a maven or a salesman (in Malcolm Gladwell's terms) and you travel often, then probably it has. But for me, a quiet, introverted, introspective person who generally has difficulties making good connections with complete strangers, this is extremely rare -- in fact it has never happened to me. Until yesterday.

I was sitting in my window seat, emailing frantically on my blackberry before the closing of the doors would force me to turn it off. A slender, pretty brunette woman came and sat down next to me. This is nice, I thought. Usually I'm stuck sitting next to some sweaty, bad-breath-having man who is put off by my asking to get up during the flight. At least she smiled and seemed friendly as she sat down. I mumbled something about closing the shades to avoid the hot sun beating in, and she asked if I minded if she put down the armrest between us. Ok, time to settle in for the flight. I reach for my ipod, and then notice she's taken out a book to read, The Da Vinci Code. At this point, I would usually think, Oh, that's a coincidence, I've read that too (but not really a big one since the book was such a hot seller) and simply sit back, put my ipod on and relax. And if I had done that, maybe the entire flight would have been completely different. But for some reason I made mention of the book to her, and we began chatting about the book. And chatting about other things. And getting to know each other. Pretty soon, I'm thinking, wow, this is unusual, I really feel comfortable talking to this person. I hardly ever feel comfortable talking to anyone for a lengthy period of time.

The flight went by so quickly, and we talked the whole time. After landing, It was time to de-plane, and we said a brief goodbye, and I was thinking, Well, that was nice, too bad I'll probably never see her again. But once I got off the plane out into the gate area, she was there so we ended up walking back toward the main concourse and talking a little more. I offered to go get a beer while I wait for my ride (she had a layover), and she accepted.

So when was the last time you had a beer with the person you sat next to on the airplane? :)

Hey Kelly, if you're reading this drop me a note. It would be fun to connect again.

/Nick

David Brooks: Roe's Birth, and Death

Thu, 21 Apr 2005 16:38:25 GMT

Unreal. Only a man as incredibly repugnant as David Brooks would come up with this:

...Blackmun and his concurring colleagues invented a right to abortion, and imposed a solution more extreme than the policies of just about any other comparable nation.

Let me get this straight. So women's reproductive rights never existed before Blackmun "invented them"?

The fact is, the entire country is trapped. Harry Blackmun and his colleagues suppressed that democratic abortion debate the nation needs to have. The poisons have been building ever since. You can complain about the incivility of politics, but you can't stop the escalation of conflict in the middle. You have to kill it at the root. Unless Roe v. Wade is overturned, politics will never get better.

So it's clear that Brooks has zero empathy for women's rights causes and thinks that politics are more important. Brooks is just looking for a liberal fall guy on which to place the blame for the most polarizing issue in the country today. I can hear the conservative echo chamber now -- "Harry Blackmun was the first 'activist judge' to serve on the Supreme Court".

Cellphone infertility

Wed, 06 Apr 2005 03:27:41 GMT

Think a little harder before putting that cellphone in your pocket? What's next, testicular cancer? Nice.

A study by the University of Newcastle provides a preliminary indication that radio waves of a similar frequency to those associated with mobile phones can damage the DNA in the sperm of mice.

Stevens Johnson Syndrome

Wed, 16 Mar 2005 03:13:30 GMT

I just found out that a family member of a friend has Stevens Johnson Syndrome. SJS is a condition that is spawned from an adverse allergic drug reaction. Do visit the foundation site for more details on this horrible infliction. I knew nothing of SJS before today, yet allergic reactions to drugs are apparently the 4th highest cause of death in the US. This is information that must be disseminated. The drug companies don't want you to know about this.

In Jeremy's case, he was taking medication for ADD and the SJS just suddenly came on after about 6 months of use. Doctors sent him home, claiming that "he had passed all the allergy tests". Now he's fighting a condition so painful that his body is literally burning up his skin trying to get rid of the toxins in his body. Please take a moment to send some positive energy towards Jeremy, and to educate yourself on SJS.

Sump pump hose hack

Wed, 23 Feb 2005 02:39:36 GMT

Follow-up on the sump-pump hose hack from last weekend...I knew there would be at least one duh. I fed my audio lines through the same tube as the power lines, so now my speakers are piping out all the interference...time for a reload on that thought.

Weekend

Mon, 21 Feb 2005 03:59:16 GMT

Another mostly relaxing weekend -- being a parent I find I don't have much time for blogging on Saturday or Sunday. What spare time I did have that I didn't spend with family consisted of shoveling out of the dumping of white stuff this morning and cutting up and repurposing of a 1.5" diameter plastic sump pump hose into a heavy-duty cord control system for my home studio. What used to be a huge rat's nest of wires behind my desk is starting to look decent, a pretty good hack if I do say so myself :). Best $10 I ever spent at Home Depot. Ya gotta love it when you come up with a perfect solution to a problem by taking something out of its normal context.

(Funny that I never knew what a sump pump was before now -- one of these might come in handy someday considering that my basement just had water in it not more than two weeks ago...)

Another great quote

Wed, 16 Feb 2005 14:35:58 GMT

Today is full of good quotes, this one courtesy of Dave:

There are business guys (that) think a good deal is one where they make all the money and you make none. These are the ones you want to avoid doing business with.

This sounds so obvious after you read it but there's a clever, sage tone behind it that comes out of experience. I'll take a bit of wisdom when I can get it, thanks Dave :)

Wife Swap: A Conservative So-Called Christian Who Doesn't Love Her Neigbor

Thu, 10 Feb 2005 03:27:11 GMT

Tonight's swap:

an ultra-conservative Texas mother who believes gays are "depraved" trades places with a liberal lesbian mom from Arizona.

I just don't understand this Texas woman. The lesbian across the table is pleading with her to have an open mind and see the learning opportunity for her kids, and the love that she tried to bring to their house while she was there. And yet she completely berates her when having the face-to-face at the end of the show. Her behavior is a disgrace to everything that Jesus represents. WWJD? He sure as hell wouldn't call anyone "depraved".

Is this woman the kind of person who believes every word of what's published over at raptureready.com?

The Plot Against Sex in America

Fri, 10 Dec 2004 03:30:02 GMT

Oh, so all that sexual exposure is bad for us, huh, and you're out to remake us all whole? How about repressing it? How is emotional repression of any sort healthy?

No matter what the censors may accomplish elsewhere, the pop culture revolution since Kinsey's era is in little jeopardy: in a nation of "Desperate Housewives," "Too Darn Hot" has become the national anthem. A movie like "Kinsey" will do just fine; the more protests, the more publicity and the larger the box office. But if Hollywood will always survive, off-screen Americans are being damaged by the cultural war over sex that is being played out in real life. You see that when struggling kids are denied the same information about sexuality that was kept from their antecedents in the pre-Kinsey era; you see that when pharmacists in more and more states enforce their own "moral values" by refusing to fill women's contraceptive prescriptions and do so with the tacit or official approval of local officials; you see it when basic information that might prevent the spread of lethal diseases is suppressed by the government because it favors political pandering over scientific fact.

Thank you, Frank Rich, for standing up for us. For defending the American way of life, that is whatever the hell we damn well choose it to be. For our children, and our collective social well being. Not what the bible thumping leaders determine is best for us. The sheer fact that someone else wants to have the power to censor makes me sick. The fact that he's our stinkin' president makes me vomit arse about face.

(Which I did the other day, and it wasn't too enjoyable.)

Blogging drought

Tue, 16 Nov 2004 04:28:25 GMT

Hit my first blogging drought. A combination of being busy at work, post-election news apathy and disenchantment, trying to find my online voice, and most of all, overshooting my free-time points with my wife.

And my Radio trial expired.

More exit poll explanation

Thu, 04 Nov 2004 13:59:33 GMT

Is this Noam Scheiber comment a valid explanation for the exit poll results? Is the conservative-base turnout the single reason for the skew? Why didn't the Exit polls show that turnout earlier in the day?

Exit polls

Thu, 04 Nov 2004 01:26:04 GMT

Indeed, why did the exit polls in the more critical battleground states end up being so far from reality? Need to get the final breakdowns and do research on this later. I suspect Florida and Ohio are the two states with the most skewed election results compared to exit polls. Just a hunch.

Over at EDM, Alan Abramowitz tries to explain it away:

The exit polls missed the mark very badly last night (before they were reweighted to correspond to the actual results). The national exit poll consistently showed Kerry leading by 3 points--just the reverse of the actual vote. The Ohio exit poll had Kerry up by 4 and the Florida exit poll had it tied.

What happened? Some combination of bad precinct samples, resopnse bias, or failing to accurately account for early and absentee votes must have been at work. Whatever it was, it was a major problem. In 2000, the national exit poll also overestimated Gore's vote, but not by nearly as big a margin.

What does it mean for the poll results to be "reweighted"? The numbers weren't matching the actuals being reported, so the pollsters scrambled to make them look better to save face?

I'm not about to play the conspiracy card, but over at blackboxvoting.org they're sending Freedom of Information Act requests to obtain computer logs, audit trails, voting reports and other documents. Now, wouldn't it at least be fascinating to validate the election results in Florida? You'd think the President would welcome the opportunity to have his results certified by an third party, right?

For reference here's a snapshot of the original early afternoon numbers from Slate (Dated Tuesday, Nov. 2, 2004, at 4:28 PM PT):

	Exit polls
	Kerry	Bush	Nader
Florida	51	49
Ohio	51	49
Michigan	52	46	1
Pennsylvania	53	46
Iowa	50	49
Wisconsin	51	48	1
Minnesota	52	46	2
New Hampshire	54	44	1
New Mexico	50	48	1
Colorado	49	50	1
Arkansas	45	54	1
Missouri	47	52
New York	62	36	2
Nevada	49	48	1
New Jersey	54	44	1
West Virginia	45	54	1

Electing to leave

Wed, 03 Nov 2004 22:08:39 GMT

Let's not get hasty now. We all still live and were born in this country and it's here to serve everyone, not just the conservative agenda.

Election hangover

Wed, 03 Nov 2004 18:20:42 GMT

Some uneasy worries I will still have many days after today:

Social security: what will happen to it? Will my kids have anything to show for when they grow old?
Supreme Court: will it change to represent conservative values far from my own for a generation to come?
Health care: will we ever have affordable health care for everyone in America who needs it?
World presence: will we continue to piss off other countries, not to mention terrorists?
World poverty: will we continue to shun impoverished peoples in this world so that we can continue to live high off the hog? How can the conservative right continue to think that their god thinks their "moral values" are more important than solving the worlds problems?
Nuclear proliferation and terrorism: will Bush step up to the plate or are we staring a warhead in the face at some point in the future?
Environment: will Bush continue to sandbag for the fossil fuel industry to the point where Day After Tomorrow isn't so far fetched?

Only time will tell...

The echo chamber

Wed, 03 Nov 2004 18:11:17 GMT

Did all of us in the blogosphere fall prey to too many pats on the back? Did we blind ourselves to the possibility that this was coming? Andrew Leonard thinks so. I'm inclined to agree.

Number of Priorities

Wed, 27 Oct 2004 04:04:56 GMT

From the NYT Article on the missing Iraq explosives:

In several sessions with reporters, the White House spokesman, Scott McClellan, alternately insisted that Mr. Bush "wants to make sure that we get to the bottom of this" and tried to distance the president from knowledge of the issue, saying Mr. Bush was informed of the disappearance only within the last 10 days. White House officials said they could not explain why warnings from the International Atomic Energy Agency in May 2003 about the vulnerability of the stockpile to looting never resulted in action. At one point, Mr. McClellan pointed out that "there were a number of priorities at the end of Operation Iraqi Freedom."

Ha! A Number of Priorities and they botched every last fucking one of them. This takes the cake. And I thought that Abu Ghraib was it. Too bad the administration will spin and sidestep and rebuke endlessly on this issue until it is out of the media and hence the public consciousness. Would somebody step up and press the president on this?

The Home Stretch

Mon, 25 Oct 2004 03:14:12 GMT

The home stretch. It seems a bit surreal. So much, so much hype is poured into this election season as being a momentous pivot point in the history of the U.S., even the world. It's hard for me to connect my own existence to the larger-than-life story of this year's election. Nobody really has any clue what will happen on Novemeber 2. It's a total toss-up. The story of November is certainly beyond anyone's capability to predict, if 2000 was any indication.

It's the constant emotional drain of the final stretch that makes software, technology and gadgetry seem so trite and unimportant. I've only been writing a blog for a week or so and already I have no motivation to post anything.

Heard on NPR this morning that the Clark County campaign has come to an abrupt end; too bad. It was a nice idea that apparently wasn't managed well enough and succumbed to getting opened up to too wide an audience and some bad publicity.

The Times' editorial today (also reported on Slashdot) finally brings into the mainstream something that I've contemplated for many months, the idea of open-sourced voting software. To briefly quote the editorial:

Mandatory safeguards, including a paper trail, for electronic voting. Election officials like to say that electronic voting is as secure as it can be, but that is false. Nevada regulators, for example, impose far more stringent checks on slot machines than any state does on electronic voting. Congress should impose much more rigorous safeguards, including a requirement that all computer code be made public. It should require that all electronic machines produce a voter-verified paper trail.

Thanks, NYT.

Clark County

Tue, 19 Oct 2004 14:27:50 GMT

The Guardian have started a campaign to collect email from Britons describing how the Bush administration's policies affect people outside the US. The messages will be delivered to residents of Clark County, Ohio, a red-hot "battleground" state according to all the pundits.

Bush the faithful

Tue, 19 Oct 2004 04:36:11 GMT

This NYT magazine feature strikes at the heart of what irks me about Bush. He believes so strongly in his god that his every decision is being channelled by a higher power. Nevermind what reason or reality or even common sense might say about a situation. If his instinct (meaning his faith) tells him to go one way then that's the way he's going, no ifs, ands or buts.

What's ironic is that the terrorists pledge much the same approach - an "us vs. them" mentality guided by extreme faith in one's god. How many times in history does there have to be religion-driven injustice from an empire or empire-like entity against a lesser people/culture? The current administration's ideological stance seems to be no different.

Food & Wine

Sat, 16 Oct 2004 01:49:10 GMT

Food & wine is another of my passions, and I'm always telling myself to write down memorable meals. Tonight doesn't quite fall into the category of memorable, but I picked up some bread, wine, jam, and cheese to snack on.

Humboldt Fog cheese. With a thin layer of ash in the middle. Delightfully pungent, appeals to the salty side of the palate, with a little dank, musty aroma thrown in.
Pear and fig jam
Patrick and Christophe Bonnefond CÙte RÙtie 2000. This is a powerful wine from the northern RhÙne region. Nose of leather and burning matches. Takes a little time to open up, but finishes smooth, even a little smoky with no kickback. A fine example of the syrah grape.

This was the second time I've had the Bonnefond in two months; the first was at Heartland, where it was outstanding accompanying a plate of lamb chops. That was one of the more memorable meals.

While I'm at it, I might as well list my top 10 or so places to eat. Most are in the Twin Cities since I've only started to appreciate fine dining in the past 5 years or so.

Union Square Cafe, NYC - Consistent and outstanding food for the past ~15 years, and the best, most unpretentious service I've ever had at a restaurant.
Vincent, Minneapolis
Heartland, St. Paul
Balthazar, NYC
Modern Cafe, Minneapolis
Levain, Minneapolis
Solera, Minneapolis
JP American Bistro, Minneapolis
Lucia's, Minneapolis
Origami, Minneapolis

Kerry and Mary

Fri, 15 Oct 2004 02:04:59 GMT

I have yet to read a credible argument that John Kerry made a serious blunder last night in mentioning Mary Cheney by name during the question about homosexuality and choice.

The two that come the closest are:

He made Dick Cheney look like a victim. Not that DC wears the victim-status well anyway. Media hype.
He spoke on behalf of someone he doesn't know. I agree that Kerry went too far by speaking and making assumptions about Mary's value system. But the tone of the answer was respectful and I don't believe Kerry was being crafty in trying to prod at the Republican stance on homosexuality.

Thu, 14 Oct 2004 18:44:26 GMT

If you're actually someone besides me viewing this blog, give me a few days to sort out the feel of this thing.

My interests -- the topics I eventually hope to start hitting on a regular basis:

Technology -- cool stuff, my experiences with it, etc.
Software Engineering and patterns -- professional experiences and observations
Music

Plus I'll probably start a personal/diary category on the side, mostly for my own benefit.