twothirds

Bank of America just dropped a $5.95/monthly fee on me since I stopped a direct deposit into my account. Funny thing is, I had over $9k in the account, I *never* did any in-bank transactions and my account earned no interest. I am a model account holder, right? They make money off of my account. Why the hell would they be charging me for usage of my money?

Anyway, I just wanted to thank Bank of America for that $5.95 kick in the ass. That is exactly the motivation I needed to move my money into a high interest checking account at 2.5%. I have just turned that $5.95 loss into a $200+ a year gain with the earned interest. (And I get free bank to bank transfers and ATM refunds. Mmm. Gravy.)

Of course the account closure process was a total cluster. After talking with three people in the branch, I was able to walk out with a cashiers check, but my account was still open. I ended up having to call customer service to complete the transaction. Throughout this entire process, no one asked why I was closing the account. It is obvious they don’t give a shit about the customer experience.

Some day the employees at Best Buy will learn how to pick up the correct non-defective merchandise for their in-store pick-up.  So far they are oh-for-two.

Thank you for turning a five-minute trip into an hour.

The main content authoring server for sun.com has been a Sun Fire 4810. (Yeah–it’s embarrassingly old.) While this machine is still holding up strong (amazingly), it’s time for some new iron. I think the SPARC Enterprise M5000 will do the job.

First, a quick and dirty before/after benchmark*

M5000

jm___@s___new:~
> ptime gcc hello-world.c

real        0.050
user        0.022
sys         0.014
jm___@s___new:~
> ptime ./a.out
Hello World
real        0.005
user        0.000
sys         0.001

4810

jm___@s___:~
> ptime gcc hello-world.c

real        0.148
user        0.002
sys         0.018
jm___@s___:~
> ptime ./a.out
Hello World
real        0.040
user        0.001
sys         0.005

* Yeah. This is one of the lamest benchmarks you can run for a multi-processor machine. I cannot wait to do some real application benchmarking.

uname output

uname -a is: SunOS s___new 5.10 Generic_120011-14 sun4u sparc SUNW,SPARC-Enterprise

64 GB Memory

Memory size: 65536 Megabytes

32 Hardware Threads @ 2150 MHz

============ Psrinfo ==========
Status of virtual processor 0 as of: 03/29/2010 17:47:03
  on-line since 03/29/2010 16:44:19.
  The sparcv9 processor operates at 2150 MHz,
	and has a sparcv9 floating point processor.
Status of virtual processor 1 as of: 03/29/2010 17:47:03
  on-line since 03/29/2010 16:44:20.
  The sparcv9 processor operates at 2150 MHz,
	and has a sparcv9 floating point processor.
Status of virtual processor 2 as of: 03/29/2010 17:47:03
  on-line since 03/29/2010 16:44:20.
  The sparcv9 processor operates at 2150 MHz,
	and has a sparcv9 floating point processor.
Status of virtual processor 3 as of: 03/29/2010 17:47:03
  on-line since 03/29/2010 16:44:20.
  The sparcv9 processor operates at 2150 MHz,
	and has a sparcv9 floating point processor.
Status of virtual processor 8 as of: 03/29/2010 17:47:03
  on-line since 03/29/2010 16:44:20.
  The sparcv9 processor operates at 2150 MHz,
	and has a sparcv9 floating point processor.
Status of virtual processor 9 as of: 03/29/2010 17:47:03
  on-line since 03/29/2010 16:44:20.
  The sparcv9 processor operates at 2150 MHz,
	and has a sparcv9 floating point processor.
Status of virtual processor 10 as of: 03/29/2010 17:47:03
  on-line since 03/29/2010 16:44:20.
  The sparcv9 processor operates at 2150 MHz,
	and has a sparcv9 floating point processor.
Status of virtual processor 11 as of: 03/29/2010 17:47:03
  on-line since 03/29/2010 16:44:20.
  The sparcv9 processor operates at 2150 MHz,
	and has a sparcv9 floating point processor.
Status of virtual processor 16 as of: 03/29/2010 17:47:03
  on-line since 03/29/2010 16:44:20.
  The sparcv9 processor operates at 2150 MHz,
	and has a sparcv9 floating point processor.
Status of virtual processor 17 as of: 03/29/2010 17:47:03
  on-line since 03/29/2010 16:44:20.
  The sparcv9 processor operates at 2150 MHz,
	and has a sparcv9 floating point processor.
Status of virtual processor 18 as of: 03/29/2010 17:47:03
  on-line since 03/29/2010 16:44:20.
  The sparcv9 processor operates at 2150 MHz,
	and has a sparcv9 floating point processor.
Status of virtual processor 19 as of: 03/29/2010 17:47:03
  on-line since 03/29/2010 16:44:20.
  The sparcv9 processor operates at 2150 MHz,
	and has a sparcv9 floating point processor.
Status of virtual processor 24 as of: 03/29/2010 17:47:03
  on-line since 03/29/2010 16:44:20.
  The sparcv9 processor operates at 2150 MHz,
	and has a sparcv9 floating point processor.
Status of virtual processor 25 as of: 03/29/2010 17:47:03
  on-line since 03/29/2010 16:44:20.
  The sparcv9 processor operates at 2150 MHz,
	and has a sparcv9 floating point processor.
Status of virtual processor 26 as of: 03/29/2010 17:47:03
  on-line since 03/29/2010 16:44:20.
  The sparcv9 processor operates at 2150 MHz,
	and has a sparcv9 floating point processor.
Status of virtual processor 27 as of: 03/29/2010 17:47:03
  on-line since 03/29/2010 16:44:20.
  The sparcv9 processor operates at 2150 MHz,
	and has a sparcv9 floating point processor.
Status of virtual processor 32 as of: 03/29/2010 17:47:03
  on-line since 03/29/2010 16:44:20.
  The sparcv9 processor operates at 2150 MHz,
	and has a sparcv9 floating point processor.
Status of virtual processor 33 as of: 03/29/2010 17:47:03
  on-line since 03/29/2010 16:44:20.
  The sparcv9 processor operates at 2150 MHz,
	and has a sparcv9 floating point processor.
Status of virtual processor 34 as of: 03/29/2010 17:47:03
  on-line since 03/29/2010 16:44:20.
  The sparcv9 processor operates at 2150 MHz,
	and has a sparcv9 floating point processor.
Status of virtual processor 35 as of: 03/29/2010 17:47:03
  on-line since 03/29/2010 16:44:20.
  The sparcv9 processor operates at 2150 MHz,
	and has a sparcv9 floating point processor.
Status of virtual processor 40 as of: 03/29/2010 17:47:03
  on-line since 03/29/2010 16:44:20.
  The sparcv9 processor operates at 2150 MHz,
	and has a sparcv9 floating point processor.
Status of virtual processor 41 as of: 03/29/2010 17:47:03
  on-line since 03/29/2010 16:44:20.
  The sparcv9 processor operates at 2150 MHz,
	and has a sparcv9 floating point processor.
Status of virtual processor 42 as of: 03/29/2010 17:47:03
  on-line since 03/29/2010 16:44:20.
  The sparcv9 processor operates at 2150 MHz,
	and has a sparcv9 floating point processor.
Status of virtual processor 43 as of: 03/29/2010 17:47:03
  on-line since 03/29/2010 16:44:20.
  The sparcv9 processor operates at 2150 MHz,
	and has a sparcv9 floating point processor.
Status of virtual processor 48 as of: 03/29/2010 17:47:03
  on-line since 03/29/2010 16:44:20.
  The sparcv9 processor operates at 2150 MHz,
	and has a sparcv9 floating point processor.
Status of virtual processor 49 as of: 03/29/2010 17:47:03
  on-line since 03/29/2010 16:44:20.
  The sparcv9 processor operates at 2150 MHz,
	and has a sparcv9 floating point processor.
Status of virtual processor 50 as of: 03/29/2010 17:47:03
  on-line since 03/29/2010 16:44:20.
  The sparcv9 processor operates at 2150 MHz,
	and has a sparcv9 floating point processor.
Status of virtual processor 51 as of: 03/29/2010 17:47:03
  on-line since 03/29/2010 16:44:20.
  The sparcv9 processor operates at 2150 MHz,
	and has a sparcv9 floating point processor.
Status of virtual processor 56 as of: 03/29/2010 17:47:03
  on-line since 03/29/2010 16:44:20.
  The sparcv9 processor operates at 2150 MHz,
	and has a sparcv9 floating point processor.
Status of virtual processor 57 as of: 03/29/2010 17:47:03
  on-line since 03/29/2010 16:44:20.
  The sparcv9 processor operates at 2150 MHz,
	and has a sparcv9 floating point processor.
Status of virtual processor 58 as of: 03/29/2010 17:47:03
  on-line since 03/29/2010 16:44:20.
  The sparcv9 processor operates at 2150 MHz,
	and has a sparcv9 floating point processor.
Status of virtual processor 59 as of: 03/29/2010 17:47:03
  on-line since 03/29/2010 16:44:20.
  The sparcv9 processor operates at 2150 MHz,
	and has a sparcv9 floating point processor.

It appears some spammers have used my email address as a “from” for some spam messages. Rats! At least I am a [hot] russian chick. I would hate to be viagra.

From: “Russian women” <jed@mich__wicz.org>
Subject: Still single? look at my profile, Olga from Russia

Hello!

Spring has finally come! Romance is in the air!
Beautiful and still single (!!!) Russian and Ukrainian women are eager to meet you! They have placed their profiles at SingleRussianGirls dating site and waiting for your emails.
Don’t loose time and come get registered FREE at http://HELL___IRLS.INFO/?idAff=237

I had an expensive ride the other day. While clipping into my pedals, part of the front cracked. I can still clip in, but it is time for new pedals.

I am sticking with my beloved Time RXS pedals. The cleats are walkable, the pedals slip in easy and the are low [no] maintenance. Sure they may crack after 2-3 years, but I guess I can live with that tax.

“That’s weird, I’m out of my happy pills. But didn’t I put in an order a few weeks ago?”

My regular order from drugstore.com was lost in the ether. Kudos to drugstore.com for “getting it”. I called them up about the lack of goods on a Saturday and within five minutes:

• They confirm it should have arrived
• They give me the option of refund, store credit or reshipment
• The delivery is upgraded to three-day shipping for free
• An email confirmation is waiting in my inbox before I hang up

Wow. If only everyone on the interweb did business this way.

I wonder if they will figure out my new mailing address.

It is debatable whether or not people really watch this show, but if you take away the eye candy, does anyone watch it?

A webform was not working for me on a random website. Hmm. Let’s see what the javascript console says…

Yup. There’s your problem!

I ordered a multi-console connector from consoleshop.com toward the end of 2007. Guess who charged my credit card, sent me a shipping confirmation and ignored inquiries about order status? Yup–consoleshop.com.

It looks like I might be requesting my first chargeback. They have until Thursday…

Why did I not see this before I ordered? I really suck at the Internet.

Update: Chargeback initiated. Good thing I used a “virtual” credit card number.

Update++ (31 Jan 2008): Holy crap! The merchandise finally arrived. It only took a month to get here.  While the site may not be a true scam, it sure as hell is sketchy and not worth the hassle.