nuxx.net blog

There is an unexpected preauthorization for $14.99 from Black Singles on my HSBC credit card. It was just over a year ago that there were other unexpected charges on this card resulting in it being cancelled and a new number issued. I’ll be calling HSBC in the morning.

At least this time it didn’t happen just as I was leaving on vacation.

UPDATE: HSBC is waiting until the charge posts or not. This worries me slightly, as a preauth shouldn’t happen without card number and expiration date, which is a mighty hard combination to guess.

I’ve listed my Mac Pro for auction, and it can be found here, eBay item number 290375472021, entitled Mac Pro Quad Core 2.66 GHz / 7GB RAM / 640GB / eSATA. Bidding starts at $0.01, but if you are interested in buying it I’ll sell it outside of eBay for US$1800, payable via Google Checkout, PayPal, or cash.

UPDATE: The Mac Pro has now been sold. Thanks for the interest, everyone.

I love what is known as Michigan’s Scanner Law. In short, this law states that if one is charged more than the stickered price for an item rung up via a computer scanning a bar code, one is legally eligable to be refunded the overcharged amount plus ten times the overcharged amount, with a cap of $5 on this surplus. In this case I went in to Office Max to check the price on a Logitech LX8 mouse. It was marked as $29.99, so I purchased it. As expected, it rang up for the normal price of $39.99 and the cashier didn’t notice the stickered price.

After a quick walk out of the store then back in I returned to the cashier and asked her about the difference, which she promptly refunded. I had to remind her about the aforementioned Michigan Scanner Law, but doing so resulted in a manager being called over and my receiving an extra $5 cash. Thus, what’s normally a $39.99 MSRP mouse ($49.99 at Office Depot) was obtained for $26.79.

The last time I took advantage of this I obtained a large quantity of 2GB SD (20 or so) cards from Micro Center, most of which were marked $5.99. I was charged $6.99 per card, and upon visiting the customer service desk I was refunded $1/card. When I reminded the cashier of the scanner law she simply re-rang all the cards at $1.99/ea, essentially a $5 penalty per item. When multiple items have their price adjusted the store must correct the price on all and refund the difference, but they are only obligated to pay the 10x penalty once, but if Micro Center wanted to do otherwise, I was not going to go out of my way to correct them.

Today when signing into Fifth Third’s website to check my bank account, I saw a link which would allow me to sign up for a new service called Early Access. Not knowing what this is I clicked on the link, only to see that Early Access is nothing more than easy-to-use payday advance lending. More information is available about it on this page, but I think it’s particularly telling that the bank specifically states in the disclosures section that:

Fifth Third Early Access is an expensive form of credit and should only be used in situations where you need funds quickly and you do not have access to less expensive forms of credit.

While at lunch a few minutes ago I received a call from bike nashbar informing me that they had a data breech and that they wanted to inform me of it. They answered my questions and indicated that it was a credit card processing breech, and that it happened at the end of December, 2008 and the hole was closed in early March, 2009. This means that any credit card transactions made during this 2-3 month period were potentially subject to interception.

The calling then confirmed the last four digits of the card I had used there, which also just happens to be the credit card of mine which was compromised in February of this year. I can’t help but feel that the two are closely related.

Poking around a bit online showed a few other sites (1 · 2 · 3) confirming this.

Since The Reg has now posted about it, I think I can discuss it publicly: Back on 18-Feb, right before taking off on vacation, I was informed that I’d be receiving a 5% pay cut. This isn’t terrible, and I’d rather have a job than less pay.

However, last Friday I was informed that my salary will be cut by an additional 10% for the month of April. This brings my total pay cut to 14.5% from a few months ago. While this won’t cause the world to come crashing down and isn’t terribly drastically life changing, it does mean that I’ll be saving less, likely won’t be taking any far-away vacations this year, and will need to re-balance (and drastically reassess) a number of financial things.

It’s an understatement to say that this is a little frustrating.

It’s happened. The SDrive NUXX parts are finally available for ordering over on the SDrive NUXX Ordering Page. As noted here on the AtariAge forum I’ve got four things for sale:

· SDrive NUXX PCB & End Panel Set – US$35 – One SDrive NUXX PCB v1.1, one set (front and rear) SDrive NUXX End Panels, two thread-cutting screws for mounting thick-wing SIO connectors, and two 4-40 screw/nut sets for mounting thin-wing SIO connectors.

· Preprogrammed Microcontroller – US$5 – One Atmega ATmega8-16PU (PDIP28 package) microcontroller, programmed with the SDrive firmware with the Brown-Out Detection (BODEN and BODLEVEL) fuses programmed. Only available with the purchase of an SDrive NUXX PCB & End Panel Set or SDrive NUXX Kit.

· SDrive NUXX Kit – US$100 – The aforementioned PCB & End Panel Set, plus a preprogrammed Atmel ATmega8 microcontroller, and all the other parts for building one SDrive NUXX except for an SIO connector. This includes a black Hammond Manufacturing 1455L1201BK enclosure. Note that if you wish to use the enclosed DB15 connector instead of your own SIO connector, some slight modification of the IO Connector hole on the rear panel will be required to ensure that the mounting screws fit.

· Completely Assembled and Tested SDrive NUXX – US$150 – One completely assembled SDrive NUXX with SIO connector, tested and ready to use. Includes a 2GB Kingston SD card containing SDRIVE.ATR, tested to work with the SDrive NUXX. As I only have access to a limited number of SIO connectors, this is limited to a total of 10 items, to be sold on a first-come, first-served basis.

All aforementioned items ship FOR FREE via First-Class Mail to US addresses. For international destinations, postage (via First-Class Mail) is a flat-rate US$7 to international destinations for each complete SDrive NUXX, SDrive NUXX Kit, or every five SDrive NUXX PCB & End Panel sets.

From now through 03-April-2009 I will be accepting orders. After 03-April-2009 the ordering window will be closed and I will begin ordering the parts. The PCB and end panel manufacturers have quoted me three weeks lead time for manufacturing, and then a week (or so) for shipping, meaning that I should receive these parts around the beginning of May. As soon as the PCBs and end panels are received I will begin assembling and shipping orders. I will have all orders shipped out as soon as possible.

So, that said, if you’d like to place an order, please head on over to the SDrive NUXX Ordering Page. The payments are handled via Google Checkout. Note that if you are wanting to order an assembled SDrive NUXX (or get on the waiting list for in the case that ordering is full) an assembled SDrive NUXX you will need to email me directly. (See the ordering page for more information on this.)

And, finally, please be sure to review the SDrive NUXX, SDrive, and SDrive NUXX Ordering pages before ordering, to ensure that you have a good understanding of what it is that you are buying. This is a DIY project, and while all parts are guaranteed to be free from defects they are otherwise without warranty or technical support.

This morning after waking up I checked my email on my phone and found an authentic-looking fraud alert from HSBC, the bank which holds my most-used credit card. This informed me that HSBC believes one of the recent transactions on my account is fraudulent. I then tried to sign into HSBC’s online banking stuff, only to find my account disabled.

Calling HSBC I was informed that a merchant through which I used my credit card “approximately 18-20 months ago” reported to MasterCard a compromise, and my credit card info is now available publicly. This info was used by someone who manually keyed in a $4680.22 transaction at Tahitian Noni International (Wikipedia), a MLM shop out of Provo, UT. I also told that while they currently do not know which company was compromised, this information should be available to me upon the completion of MasterCard’s investigation.

Save for the fraud, this is just the system working as its supposed to. Unfortunately the timing is a little inconvenient. The charge has been delt with, and a new card with new account number and card and such is being sent to me. As I’m leaving for the San Francisco area this evening and now without the ability to use my ‘normal’ credit card, I’ll have to fall back on the backup one. This card doesn’t pay cash back, has a high interest rate, and generally doesn’t get much use. I probably should also call that card company and inform them that there will soon be charges coming from all over the country so that this one doesn’t get flagged / turned off. I guess this is why I carry two credit cards.

I’ve got a Kensington Expert Mouse (Trackball) and Nokia E51 for sale. Both are in like-new condition. The trackball was only used for a couple hours, until I decided I didn’t like it. The phone was used for a couple months, but after the recent acquisition of the G1 / Android, I don’t really need it.

Here are photos of the Kensington Expert Mouse: 1 · 2 · 3
Here are photos of the Nokia E51: 1 · 2 · 3 · 4 · 5 · 6 · 7 · 8 · 9 · 10 · 11 · 12

In case you don’t know, the Kensington Expert Mouse is probably the best trackball made. It’s got a pool ball sized ball, four large buttons, and a scroll ring around the ball which serves the same function as the scroll wheel on a mouse.

The Nokia E51 is a very nice Symbian Series 60 phone with a metal case. It’s quad band, has a SIP client for VOIP goodness, a nice browser, great screen, and 802.11 connectivity. I really like this phone, I just no longer use it. It is completely unlocked, so it’s not tied to any particular operator, SIM, or anything else. Any SIM should work in it, anywhere in the world.

For the Kensington Expert Mouse I’d like: US$50
For the Nokia E51 I’d like US$180

Wow. A refund check from Comcast. After the billing failure and terrible experience with Comcast customer service I was surprised to actually see this.