Press "Enter" to skip to content

nuxx.net Posts

HSBC’s Fraud Accounting is Silly

Published October 12, 2010

Despite getting a new HSBC credit card after some fraudulent activity HSBC still has my old account listed and accessible on their website with a $0.01 balance. When I called a few minutes ago to inquire about this I was told to ignore this info as “some people can still see it” and the lingering $0.01 is “for accounting purposes” and “won’t affect my credit report”.

This seems very strange to me. I hope it doesn’t result in HSBC attempting to improperly collect on this Purchase Debit Adjustment. Then again, perhaps them doing so would be a good exercise in small claims court.

UPDATE: A second call to HSBC, this time answered by a more friendly man with an Indian accent (as opposed to a Southern-sounding woman the first time) resulted in him looking into the case, and saying that the account is closed, and despite the reflected amount owed of $0.01 that I should just ignore the account, as from HSBC’s perspective it is completely closed.

Leave a Comment

River Bends Park Trail in the News

Published October 7, 2010

When checking the mail today I was somewhat surprised to see this on the front page of the Shelby-Utica News. Last week I was interviewed by Kristyne Demske who wrote the article and this past Saturday while doing trail work a photographer was out with us taking some photos, and this article is the result. While a few quotes seem out of context, I feel that the overall article is good and reflects what we hope to accomplish with the trails. I could probably do with learning to talk to reporters a bit better, too; more concise, better quotable bites, and a bit less wordy.

You can read the complete article online by clicking here, or see scans of the two pages of the article here: Page 1 · Page 2

Leave a Comment

River Bends Park Trail Map

Published October 5, 2010

After getting the second phase of trails at River Bends open this weekend I set to work creating a map of the trails in the park. Well, here it is. This map lists all of the two track, official single track, and asphalt along with showing the parking lot and the nearest intersection for reference.

To download a PDF of the map, click the image above or here: River_Bends_03-Oct-2010.pdf

UPDATE: The 17-Nov-2010 update of the map can be found here: River_Bends_17-Nov-2010.pdf

UPDATE 2: The 13-Mar-2011 version of the map can be found here: River_Bends_13-Mar-2011.pdf

UPDATE 3: The latest version of all maps of the trails at River Bends can be found at: http://mmba.org/library/maps/riverbends/latest.pdf

Leave a Comment

VBScript Function to Check Active Directory Domain Access

Published October 4, 2010

The following VBScript function can be used to check if a given username and password has access to the specified domain. It will return true or false depending on whether or not access was granted.

function fnCheckAccess(strDomain, strUserID, strUserPWD)
 
    const ADS_SECURE_AUTHENTICATION = &H01
    const ADS_CHASE_REFERRALS_ALWAYS = &H60
 
    dim objDSO
    dim objUser
    dim strPath
 
    strPath = "LDAP://" & strDomain
 
    On Error Resume Next
    set objDSO = GetObject("LDAP:")
    set objUser = objDSO.OpenDSObject(strPath, strUserID, strUserPWD, ADS_SECURE_AUTHENTICATION OR ADS_CHASE_REFERRALS_ALWAYS)
    if Err.Number <> 0 then
        fnCheckAccess = False
    else
        fnCheckAccess = True
    end if
    Err.Clear
    On Error Goto 0
 
    set objDSO = Nothing
    set objUser = Nothing
 
end function

Leave a Comment

Phase II of River Bends is Open!

Published October 3, 2010

With a total of 39.5 volunteer hours spent during a rainy trail day of bench cutting, installing a new bridge, (which Pete designed specifically for the space), raking, trimming, and generally finishing off the trail, Phase II of the single track trails at River Bends are now open. While the trails are still a bit slippery from the last couple days of rain, they should be quite nice to ride.

Once I was done taking a break after the trail day I then headed back to River Bends and walked the new part of the trail with My Tracks recording the route. This data, combined with stuff gathered on previous mapping trips, allowed me to make this map showing all the park-recognized paths within the park. While just the first revision, I’m still quite happy with how it’s all coming along. There’s now a ridable, cohesive loop of multiple miles of single track.

Now to get to finishing the other loops that hang off of it. They already exist, but need both some cleanup and trimming before they’ll be properly ridable. Right now getting through some parts of them is akin to riding down a corn row.

1 Comment

Surprise Freezer Defrosting

Published October 1, 2010

When Danielle and I returned from the grocery store this evening we found that the fridge (a Maytag PBF2253HEB) was much warmer than it should be; somewhere around 60°F. When it was still this temperature after eating dinner it was time to try and figure out what’s going on. As the compressor was running and the freezer was still perfectly cold I figured that the duct between the freezer (where the cooling coils are) and the fridge must be misbehaving.

Investigating the fridge portion of things showed that the servo which opens a damper in the fridge (allowing in cold air) was operating, so I started to look at the freezer. Just when I noticed some unexpected frost through the slats at the rear Danielle found this article explaining how the freezer can frost up, leading to no airflow to the fridge and thus no cooling up there.

It suggests replacing the control board to resolve a problem with Adaptive Defrost Control. Before that I decided to do a manual defrost and see if that resolves things. I’ve had the fridge for just under five years with it running non-stop the whole time with a fair bit of ice sublimating in the freezer, so I figure that maybe enough frost could have built up in that time that the automatic defrost couldn’t overcome it.

If the frost issue comes back quickly I’ll look into actually repairing it. I found a copy of the service manual here (mirror) and will just run through the diagnostics and replace the needed bits.

The photo above is the evaporator coils inside of the fridge completely packed with frost. The part that appears to be a frost bottom shelf was a solid block of ice. Here’s a handful of photos taken while defrosting things, including what Danielle feels is an extremely dorky photo of me:

· Wearing a head lamp and defrosting the evaporator coils in my fridge after the fridge stopped cooling.
· Inside of my Maytag PBF2253HEB after the evaporator coil frosted over.
· Partially defrosted evaporator coil in a Maytag PBF2253HEB.
· Defrosting the evaporator coil in the Maytag PBF2253HEB with a hair dryer.
· Shiny, dry, defrosted evaporator coil in a Maytag PBF2253HEB.

2 Comments

Red Bat

Published September 26, 2010

Here, have a photo of a furry bat that Mark found while we were doing trail work at River Bends on Phase II of the new single track. Since it was clinging to something that we wanted to cut I carefully removed the branch then re-hung it from another tree a ways off the trail all while the bat kept still.

Here is a photo of its back showing how furry it is. I originally thought that this was a Little Brown Bat (Myotis lucifigus), but I’ve since been corrected. It is actually a Red Bat (Lasiurus borealis).

Leave a Comment

Big, Heavy Rock

Published September 26, 2010

In the grass at the end of the driveway leading to my condo is a rock. It sits on the dirt and grass along side the pavement as a negative deterrence designed to keep people from cutting the corner and driving on the lawn. Whenever this rock isn’t moved back people will cut the corner, driving on the grass and killing it.

Some time between noon and 5pm today someone didn’t pay enough attention to where they were putting their car, cut the corner, and dragged the rock to the next driveway before pushing it out of the road. Due to the intensity of the scratches on the road surface I suspect it was stuck under the car, likely somewhere along the rear end as people tend to cut the corner sharply and hit the grass with their rear right side tire.

Hopefully next time they’ll pay more attention to where they are putting their car when leaving the driveway. I’ll put it back in place later this evening when I take out the trash.

Leave a Comment

Phase II of River Bends is In Progress

Published September 26, 2010

Phase II of the multi-use single track trail at River Bends that I’ve been facilitating the construction of is moving along nicely. Since completing Phase I back in June I’d written up this proposal (PDF, page 3 contains a map) for two more phaes of trail, gotten it approved by the township, and gone to work so that it can be completed by winter.

All of the Existing Segment of Phase II was trimmed back (it was quite overgrown) to a nicely rideable / hikeable state at the beginning of September, and throughout the past week I’ve begun work on the New Segment. In River Bends I’ve found that when getting started I like to clear deadfall and rake in the route. (Another photographic example.) After this then a line trimmer can be brought in to remove any small plant growth and scour the ground, and then bench cutting can be done as-needed on off-camber sections of land to provide a flat place to ride. All but ~1000′ of this new segment of trail is now raked, so I’m quite happy with how things are going. Plans are in place to do more work tomorrow starting at 3pm, so with any luck there’s only another week or two until this whole segment is ready to ride.

It was quite satisfying to be taking a break today, standing on freshly raked ground, and seeing trail rolling across the hills as far as the terrain allowed me to see. I think I’m liking this trail building thing. Not only do I get to build something fun but it costs nothing save for labor, supports another interest of mine, and being on public land it benefits anyone in the area who chooses to use it. It’s almost like open source taken to public works.

1 Comment

Mechanix Wear’s The Original® Vent Glove for Mountain Biking

Published September 24, 2010

Having lost my Giro Rivet gloves by leaving them on the rack while leaving Addison Oaks I’ve been trying to find some replacement gloves. Today I tried out some Mechanix Wear’s The Original® Vent Glove while on a ~19 mile ride around trails and pavement in Shelby Township, and they seem like they’ll be good.

As I like they have no padding and a smooth, seamless palm that’s got perforations for venting and a mesh back. The closure is on the inside of the wrist, up on a cuff that is sufficiently tall to hold on to the hand without feeling tight. The rubber flap closure also has a very fine hook and loop fastener which is not unlike that found on vegetable packing straps; something fine enough to feel smooth and not stick to clothing. It’ll be interesting to see how it lasts.

The venting is not as thorough as the aforementioned Giro Rivet gloves (which basically have mesh sides), but seemed more than sufficient for tonight’s mid-70s ride. Spreading my fingers or turning the backs of the gloves perpendicular to the wind quickly cooled my hands, but I didn’t notice the gloves while on trails, so the venting must be good enough. I suspect that as the gloves wear they’ll become even more airy as the mesh begins to wear. Having no silkscreen logo on the back would help with airflow, but being Mechanix signature logo there’s nothing that I can do about that.

Leave a Comment