Category: Life

Well, I’ve done three transactions on eBay, two of which left very poor tastes in my mouth. The first of these two was a PDA keyboard I had ordered; it came in DoA (Dead on Arrival). Though three of the keys on the wireless keyboard worked, none of the others did. Replacing the battery was to no avail. I finally confirmed that the unit was disfunctional with an infrared sensor which registered that the broken keys did not send any signal out at all. Fortunately, I was able to get an identical [functioning] replacement through alternate sources.

The second case has to do with someone I was pretty sure was attempting to defraud me. The setup: I just sold my old PDA to this individual over eBay. Here are the strings of emails and events:

February 2nd
The Clie PEG-T415 PDA goes for sale on eBay.

February 7th
The PDA is sold to someone who I shall only refer to as Herschel P.
I set up the transaction via Paypal, and he pays up. I then send him the following email:

From: Julien
To: Herschel P.

Hey mate,

Thanks for purchasing the Sony Clie, and for the rapid payment.
I’ll be shipping it to you first thing tomorrow morning, and will email
you the tracking # and more details.
Thank you so very much again, feel free to email me if you have any
questions.

-Julien

February 8th
I go to the post office and ship the item. I then follow up with this email.

From: Julien
To: Herschel P.

Hey mate,

I sent the package this morning. The post office informed me it should take 9 days.
To track it, go to the following website:
https://obc.canadapost.ca/emo/basicPin.do?language=en
If that link doesn’t work, go to www.canadapost.ca, choose “English”, and then click “Track a Package”.

Once on that page, enter “CX [removed] CA” as the Item Number (the first field of the three that are there), and click the submit button. It may take a day for the Item to be registered by the system. If the number still does not work, try removing the CX and/or the CA (ie. Item Number: [removed]).

Thanks again,
-Julien

I also leave him the following feedback:

+ Fast Payment. Smooth Transaction. A+ Seller [removed] ( 2 ) 08-Feb-05 11:39

February 15th
The post office registers him receiving the package according to the tracking site:

February 17th
He gives me positive feedback on eBay for the item he received.

+ Item as described great ebayer Buyer [removed] ( 54Feedback score is 50 to 99) 17-Feb-05 06:34

Well when someone says “Item as Described” it pretty much solidifies the fact that he received it. That and the fact that the package was confirmed as delivered to his address as per his eBay identity by the postal office.

February 24th
I get an email via eBay which goes as follows. Unfortunately I cannot seem to find the original text itself, eBay doesn’t seem to store mail sent/received via its internal messaging system. Therefore the following is an approximation of what he said:

From: Herschel P.
To: Julien

I can’t seem to get the backlight to work [on the PDA]. Can you tell me how to get it to work?

Okay, so he had gotten the unit, but he couldn’t figure out the backlight. I can’t blame him: it took me three months to figure out the PDA even had a backlight. So I sent him back another email, again through the same wonky eBay messaging system, informing him that you have to press down the power button for 5 seconds while the unit is in operation to turn on the backlight. I also told him that he could turn it on via reconfiguring the buttons in the PalmOS Preference menu.

Then, it all gets weird.

February 26th

From: Herschel P.
To: Julien

I have not received the tracking number or the item. Please let me know if you
sent it out.
Thanks
Herschel

What? He hadn’t received the tracking number, nor the item? Being defrauded once on eBay and sensing another such con coming on, I decided to tread carefully. I suspect that had I lost the tracking number, he would of tried to convince me that he had never received the unit, and therefore force me to refund him the money. For eBay/Paypal it would be another case of someone selling an item, but not delivering on it once the seller received the payments. The “backlight” message proving that he had indeed received the PDA could not be retrieved, thanks to eBay’s horrid messaging system. The only proof of my innocence left would be the feedback he had left on me stating that the item was “as described.” But feedbacks can always be removed as well.

I decided to refresh his memory:

From: Julien
To: Herschel P.

Below is a copy of the message I had sent with respect to the package number.
-Julien

PS. With regards to the backlight (as per your last email), did you figure it out?
———————————————————————————-
[Contents of original email containing tracking number…]

With the records from the post office that he received the item, there was nothing for him to do. Nothing to do, that is, but retract his statements.

February 27th

From: Herschel P.
To: Julien

I got the item, thanks great transaction and item.

Thanks

Herschel

In truth, it could be that he just got me confused with someone else with which he was dealing with. But to be honest, being already conned once, and given the likelihood of him mistaking an email adress that begins with “j”, I suspect it was an attempt at fraud. With 2 of my 3 transactions being as such, I now have a much different take on eBay. My advice: track all your shipments to eBay-ers. Even if the tracking is worth more than the cost of the item.

There was an article on one of the man at the forefront of digital media rights, Mr. Lawrence Lessig. He’s the one responsible for the creation of the creative commons liscence, which promotes a sensible application of copyrights in this new age of computer-based creativity. More interesting than the article though, were the responses from the slashdot readers.

Out of intrest , are the makers of guns liable.
if not then why not and then why should p2p companys, With a gun you can break far greater laws than with emule.

 

Oh, you’re not paying attention…

The violation of commercial property rights is the worst possible crime imaginable. Taking a human life merely decreases the surplus population.

Corporations are eternal. People come and go.

 

It sounds just like: Every kitchen tools producers need to be sued because some of their customers use those tools in 55% of murder cases.

 

…it’s a shame it’s necessary. Why is it that if I’m writing my blog, I can take any paragraph of text in the world, quote it, then tear it a part, but if I’m making a song and I sample 1 second’s worth of The Beatles, my ass will be in court before the third chord progression?

It’s definitely a step in the right direction that Lessig has codified the Creative Commons license, allowing us to make things like Wikipedia [wikipedia.org] and one or two music sites, but really the CCL doesn’t give us any rights that we shouldn’t already have under Fair Use anyway. I mean, Walt Disney has been dead for 30 years. Why the hell can’t I draw Mickey Mouse smoking a joint if I want to? Why is Magnavox [wikipedia.org] still able to get license fees from people making video game consoles? Why does Nintendo still own the D-pad and A+B buttons? And what’s up with Apple paying Amazon for one click shopping in iTunes? It’s all just so ridiculous.

I recognize the need for some limited monopoly to spur innovation, but it’s clear that at this point IP has spun out of control. Thank goodness for people like Lessig, Groklaw, and the EFF!

 

Eventually, things will become so draconian that companies and independant (often open source) developers are afraid to develop software in America, from fears of breaking things like the DMCA or being charged with “Software Patent Infringency” that they’ll have to create new silicon valleys elsewhere in places that don’t care.

Europe would be a nice setting, depending on how that turns out, but who knows? Bright young programmers could be fleeing persecution for their works in the USA to set up shop in Bangalore, where they’d probably be able to live like kings. Either way, the way things are going, only monolithic corporations will still be putting out software.

If the US government decides to ban the sale of what everyone else in the world is using, then they’ll only fall behind in technology overall…

Well, I just finished reworking on the main opening credits. I anticipate that I will tweak it, but its pretty much complete at this stage. I processed and sorted some of the live footage today that I had taken yesterday morning. I will need at least one other day of live filming before that element is complete, after which point the remainder will be in-house filming, animating, video screen-capturing, etc.

Download the updated opening credits here (2MB, WMV).

I spent approx. 6 hours working on the introduction for the show. It’s still a work in progress; it is going to be clipped down by 30 seconds.

Download EYNTO Intro: Mirror [2:06 Minutes, 3.77MB]

This being my study week, I’ve undertaken a few projects including the Eynto show. For those who missed it, the Eynto show will be my contribution in the “hacking TV” genre. The show will be split in four major sections. The first part will focus on the basics of Internet Security, which will include some demos on wardriving and ARP poisoning as well as IE6 vulnerabilities. The second part will deal with warez and the various methods by which to come across it, such as IRC, Newsgroups, FXP, Bittorrent, ed2k protocol, etc. The third section will be a quick tutorial on DVD Ripping, and the fourth part will show the audience how to install RAM/HDD/Optical Drives/Video Cards etc. as well as some hardware shopping tips.

Yesterday, after spending $15 on donuts and much coffee, I stamped out a 30 page script for the show. Today I began the filming process, and I forsee at least one other day of filming. After that, I will still need to do the voiceover work, the incredible amount of screen capturing in video format, and the copious amount of animations for the show.

It’s a huge undertaking, and unfortunately I only have 2 more days (MAX) to do it in. The rest of the time will have to be consumed preparing for my physics midterm and job searching.