The help desk shuffle.

Last week in my meeting with the Site Manager, I spoke with him about some of the stupid policies that had been instituted over the rears and that Managements inability to explain the reasons for these policies was one of the things that destroyed morale. I also admitted to ignoring particularly inane or tedious procedure when following those procedures interfered with my ability to to help the user's calling for my help.

Maybe if a Team Lead would say "Yes, I know it's a cumbersome procedure but we have to do it because the XYZ Group is accusing us of hanging up on them deliberately and we have to document what's going on," then maybe we would feel let put upon. We would be a team working together under the same circumstances towards the same goal. Perhaps with that knowledge of why such a procedure was put in place, those of us who are actually implimenting the procedure could come up with something better to resolve the issue.

He responded that he recognized those communication failures and that working with the Team Leads on that was one of his top priorities. He also expressed a committment to customer service.

A new, stupid procedure went into effect today.

Printer support in branches is provided my the printer manufacturer. They have consistantly shown a disinclination to go on site and resolve issues, I suspect because their contract doesn't pay them extra for on-site visits. So now, we have a new layer of troubleshooting. The analyst who gets the call needs to troubleshoot the issue. Then, if they cannot resolve it they must go to either J**, C**** or J*** to take the call and perform troubleshooting. If they are unable to resolve the issue then they need to conference in the Manufacturer Support Line to have them troubleshoot the call. Only if that does not work, then a ticket will be opened.

All the while, the user is waiting and waiting and waiting.

This is not good customer service. It's not good communication as to why this assenine procedure was put in place. It's not really workable. And, of course, when push came to shove, I ignored it.

Well, I didn't exactly ignore it. I waited for one of the Printer Triumverate but one was away from his desk, another was on another call that looked like it was going to take quite some time and the third, the person who is the head of our Hardware Escelation "group" doesn't usually bother with reading the entire ticket becauee he's so busy so why should I expect him to have time to troubleshoot.

I opened a ticket and said in the freeform that the "printer troubleshooting anaysts were unavailable".

D****, who I have had many a run in with before, threw a copy of the procedure on my desk, on top of what I was doing at the time. He had thoughtfully highlighted just the steps that I had violated. I was on a call, threw his paper out of my way, and took a moment to put the call on mute so I could tell him that noone had been available.

"You could have said that in the ticket."

"I did. Read the freeform again."

I'm pretty sure that D**** came up with the procedure, just as he has been the architect os so many poorly conceived and executed policies and procedures. And, that this happened yet again show me that the Site Managers rhetoric of last week was just that; empty rhetoric.

What does that mean exactly?

I received a call from someone who saw my resume on the Internet. For a moment or two I was excited but then he said that it would involve 5 to 10 hours a week and earn me $2,500 to $3,000 a month. He said it was "redirecting buying power over the Internet."

"That's sounds fairly euphemistic. What does that mean exactly?"

He said that it was difficult to explain over the phone and that he would like to meet with me for twenty minutes or so at, say, Pannera's.

"When I've spoken with potential employers before, they have always been able to tell me what job I was performing. Even in general terms."

"Oh, I wouldn't be your employer. But it's like trying to get a haircut over the phone. I'd really want to meet with you to discuss this."

"Hmmm. 'Redirect buying power' sounds like a multi-level marketing. . . er. . . program."

"Well, yes. . . "

"Thank you for calling but I'm not interest in your scheme."

Many rears ago, I received a similar phone call from a "friend" of mine. We went on for nearly half an hour with him dancing around not only what his "offer" would actually entail or on whose behalf I would be working. It turned out to be Amway but I was astonished at the level of obsfucation. And it wasn't particularly effecting dodging. In this instance, I knew it was a scam as soon as he said "5 to 10 hours a week and $2,500 to 3,000 a month." An employer going to pay me essentially $75 a hour for my technical skill? No way.

I stayed on as long as I did just to see how long it would be before I could get him to admit it was a pyramid scheme.

It was disappointingly short.

Touched by his Noodly Appendage

Buwahahahahahah!

Any description I try to make about this at this time will be inadequate. You simply must read it for yourself.

Open Letter to Kansas School Board

Upon the king!

I heard an open letter on NPR today from Stephen Mansfield, author of "The Faith of the American Soldier". In this commentary, he chided Cindy Sheehan for bringing her grief over the death of her son in Iraq into the spotlight by waiting outside the Bush ranch for an audience with the president.

The central issue is that when your son volunteered for military service, he placed himself upon an altar of sacrifice. Sadly, the ultimate sacrifice was indeed required. Yet he gave himself willingly, as all our soldiers do in this generation, and his death is therefore the noble death of a hero and not the needlessly tragic death of one accidentally or foolishly taken

When your son, and the thousands like him serving today, pledged himself to military service, he did not just "join the army." He offered himself to his God and his nation in an act of devotion that has been repeated for centuries. He entered the fellowship of those who offer their lives willingly in service to others. His death, though a horror, was a horror with meaning, willingly engaged.

My first thought at comments like these was that, in truth, these soldiers are not willing sacrifices. The vast majority of them are poor and undereducated, looking to do something better with their lives. They are enticed by military recruiters with promises of job training and money for college. I remember back in high school and early college when I was approached by these head hunters. They never talked about noble sacrifice. The never said anything about combat. They never mentioned the possibility of injury or death. They barely even mentioned service to country. No, this was a career opportunity.

The other image I had in my mind was Shakespearian. In Act 4, Scene 1 of "Henry V", the king, disguising himself as a "gentleman of a company" has an encounter with some soldiers pondering their fate and the coming battle.

One soldier speaks:

But if the cause be not good, the king himself hath a heavy reckoning to make, when all those legs and arms and heads, chopped off in battle, shall join together at the latter day and cry all 'We died at such a place;' some swearing, some crying for a surgeon, some upon their wives left poor behind them, some upon the debts they owe, some upon their children rawly left. I am afeard there are few die well that die in a battle; for how can they charitably dispose of any thing, when blood is their argument? Now, if these men do not die well, it will be a black matter for the king that led them to it; whom to disobey were against all proportion of subjection.

This is Cindy Sheehan's contention. The war in Iraq is not the noble cause the administration makes it out to be. Saddam Hussein, while a tyrant, had nothing to do with the attacks of September 11th and did not have weapons of mass destruction. Without those reasons, George W's justifications evaporate, leaving only revenge for his father's embarrassment in not bringing down Saddam in the first war.

Only if George W's cause is just, will the deaths of the soldiers that he ordered into battle have meaning. Only if the battle objectives are noble will the deaths of the soldiers be noble. The president will have much to answer for should this adventure prove to be a fools errand. And, in my view and that of Cindy Sheehan, it's not looking to well.

Upon the king! let us our lives, our souls, Our debts, our careful wives, Our children and our sins lay on the king!

Flash! AAAAA-aaaaaaa!

Do you remember the Flash Gordon film from 1980? There is the scene where Flash is in the Forest capital (or something like that) and Prince Barin (Tomothy Dalton) is challenging him to put his hand in this tree root where some deadly poisonous creature may, or may not, bite him.

Well, every day when I return to my car after work, I have exactly that feeling when I reach for the door handle. Waiting to discover if that bastard has greased my door handle yet again. I breath a sigh of relief each time I learn that he has not struck yet again.

But, I was lulled into a false sense of security today when I opened the passenger side door without problem and then got slimed wen I want around to open the driver's side door.

This makes number five.

You get what you pay for.

I got called on the carpet today. Yesterday, just when my trainees were coming in and I was hoping manage things by breaking them up into two groups, one to be in the classroom environment and the other to be listening in on calls, there was a meeting in the training room. Some Bank people were using the space to do something and noone had told me. So I had to scramble to find spots for everyone on the floor untill they got out and freed up the classroom.

During this frantic scramble to get things organized so as to not waste people's time, I ran into the HR Person and expressed my frustration over this situation to her.

This morning I was called into a meeting with the HR Person, my Team Lead and the Education Coordinator to go over how this had been unprofessional. I should not present a negative impression to new trainees.

I knew this sort of thing would come up eventually. I have not been quiet about my growing frustration over a lot of things and figured I would step too far out of line eventually.

I apologized about my emotional outburst but said I was being asked to do something that I considered impossible to do to expectations, I did not have anywhere near the resources necessary to make it happen, I am not getting enough time to reformulate plans and adapt to changing situations (this whole project had been dropped in my lap with only a week's notice) and one needs to add to the the frustration of doubled energy costs and not having a raise in three years. It should not surprise anyone that I might get a little frustrated and emotional.

The one thing that probably kept me from saying "If you don't think I'm handling this or working to your expectations then you can find someone else" is that the Education Coordinator preempted it by saying they thought I was doing a very good job of training.

"But. . . "

In spite of the compliment, they still had their concerns and the final counter I had to that was "You get what you pay for." If they want me to perform in a professional manner then they should pay me like a professional and maybe drop a little bit of money to get the resources necessary.

I did learn that they aren't hiring the second group of eight next week. That's going to be put off for two weeks or so. Gee, it would have been nice to know that in advance. Gotta' love that proactive communication.

Once the trainees came in, things went fairly smoothly. Splitting them into two groups worked pretty well except that at the end of four hours solid of training passwords I don't have much of a voice left.

At the end of the day, I was called into the office to speak one-on-one with the new Site Manager. He's been here for three weeks and this is the first time he's introduced himself.

He started off talking about the tax issues I had way back in April. The one where my local taxes were being paid to the wrong boro and the other where I had never had my Pittsburgh Occupation Privlidge tax paid. He assured me that he was putting resolution of that on a timetable but, in all honesty, I don't see how he can apply any pressure to Corporate HR to do anything.

He said that he heard lots of good things about me and had also heard some of my recently expressed concerns. I went over them again with him and he was unable to make any committment over whether we would ever start getting raises again.

All in all, he seems sincere about his open-door policy, about being an advicate of the analysts, of working on communication issues between the leads and the analysts and all the things you would expect a new manager to talk about. But I have grown quite cynical and will believe it when I see it. Until something is actually done, until I get my job description changed or I see a new number in my paycheck, whet he's putting out is just rhetoric and empty platitudes.

Flat.

Yesterday after work I drove out to the TRM Cycle shop in Monroeville. I had special ordered some Chamois Butt'r (something to keep me from chaifing during my upcoming Youghotomac bike ride) and got some tires while I was at it. My previous tires were getting very worn to the point where the tread was begining to pull apart from the core.

I can't say I was absolutely pleased. For one, they didn't have the right size. My original tires were 700x40c. The replacements were 700x38c, a little narrower, and they had more tread than I wanted. I was looking for something smoother like those on road bikes.

Well, today after work I came back to where I had parked my bike to find my rear tire flat. There was a sizable tear in the inside of the tire near the stem so it wasn't from any sort of road debris. Maybe it was just old but the pressure that probably blown through a seam. I tried to patch it but the patch just wasn't good enough.

I had parked at Golden Triangle Bike & Skate Rentals under the First Avenue T station and the sign on the door said that they were out to lunch and would be back in an hour. So, I needed to wait so I could buy a replacement tube.

They actually came back in about half an hour but they didn't have anything close to the right size tube. We tried patching the tube again but to no avail. So, I had to walk the three miles back to my car so that I could drive back to the bike shop and pick up my bike.

I had a tube at home.

And so it begins.

Today was the first day with eight new analysts that I will have to train before another eight start next Monday. Dealing with that has very clearly shown how impossible that task will be.

There is in my normal training cycle, a time where the new analyst will sit in from of the computer, typing in information and adapting to the system while an established sits behind him actually managing the call. This goes on for the better part of a week before the new analyst starts taking calls. Typically, I will have their phone system set to take only the password issues so that the calls are relatively simple.

With eight ne analysts, there are just barely enough seats during the training hours for them to sit with established analysts and, if I were to set them to "password only" then they would receive very few calls with which to gain experience.

And then next week we will have another eight show up, which will completely overwhelm the system.

This is not going to work.

That's me.

I got in the paper today. The afternoon edition of the Tribune-Review has me on page 4 between an article on a shooting and another on a guy who thinks he’s Hitler.

Piddling little crap.

For some time now, Help Desk Managers have been pushing a standard for ticket description lines. What is broken, what is broken about it and where it. To drive that, they have added description line policy adherence to the incentive program metrics. For example:

This is an acceptable description line:

LOTPGH03/SERVER NOT RESPONDING/MAIN OFFICE

While this is not an acceptable description line:

LOTPGH03 SERVER NOT RESPONDING MAIN OFFICE

See the difference? Yea, the first one has forward slashes separating the elements and the second one doesn’t.

I can understand the desire to standardize for consistency but to penalize someone for not entering a forward slash is asinine. No, really. It simply a method to prevent people from scoring perfect on all their metrics and thus keep them from winning some PTO as part of the increasingly inadequate incentive program.

So, the numbers were released today. Normally there will be four to sis names on the list of those who have made their numbers and are eligible to win. This week: no one.

I never really cared about my stats. I simply do my job and let the numbers take care of themselves. That’s worked out pretty well and I have plenty of incentive certificates to show for it. But with this new policy, that’s pretty much over. I simply refuse to waste my attentions on a stupid forward slash for a mere CHANCE to win some PTO.

To live the impossible dream.

Intitally, my rant for the evening was going to be about how the Corporate Overlords, in spite of recently landing a $150 Million contract with a major corporation, had decided to cut costs by no longer matching employee's 401k contributions. I was going to go on about how they had done this several years ago after making another announcement about how well things were going or how it had been reinstanted after last years merger.

But then the shit hit the fan.

The HR Person came to me at the end of the day and essentially informed me that hell was arriving next week. You see, as part of The Bank's cost saving measures, a helpdesk specifically for support of a major financial services subsidiary was going to be discontinued. That meant that the Corporate Helpdesk (us) were going to have to take up the slack.

Next Monday, HR will be bringing in eight additional employees. And the week after that an additional eight. I will need to train them all and have them up and running by early September.

This is, of course, impossible.

It's not that I can't teach that many people in a classroom environment. We don't have a computer projector but I can get creative around that. No, the real problem is when they have to start sitting in front of a computer. The HR Person, told me that they were working to get additional space and equipment but my point was that we didn't have the mentors.

There comes a point where the trainee needs to start taking calls. There is no way that they can go into it cold so they switch places with an established analyst who listens in on the call, coaching and, if necessary, jumping. With two or three new analysts, this isn't too much of a drain on Help Desk Resources. But eight or sixteen people essentially off the phones while trainees get their feet wet. . . Hell! We have about that many people on the phones normally. Can anyone in the IT industry anywhere imagine taking their entire staff off of whatever their doing to late an entire staff of novices take the helm? What sort of lunatic would do that?

Well, apparently I am that lunatic.

I told the HR Person outright: "It's impossible. I'll do it but I'm telling you right now that I think what you ask is impossible and will not work."

As I enumerated all the obstacles, I could hear my voice rising. More that once I stopped mid sentence to start over again at a lower volume. And then, I said what she probably already knew and I was too fed up to mince words about.

"This is a hell of a lot of work to expect from someone who hasn't gotten a raise in three years."

Years ago, when I started training, I asked about having my job title and description changed to reflect these responsibilities. I knew then that it would never happen because the title of "Trainer" would need to bring with it at least another $15,000 in salary, given market norms. I pursued it for a while because I was amused at the lengths they went in avoiding giving me an answer. They could have just said no but they kept up the pretense of trying to find out.

I'm not amused any more. This is too much and while I have too many ethics to tell them to take a flying leap over this, I am thinking that when this is all over I should just say, "You know, I really cared about being the trainer, about making a difference here at the help desk. But these past years have shown that you have been taking advantage of me by not compensating me for the work I have done. So I was thinking I would cut my losses and go back to doing the job that's in my job description and that I am currently being underpaid for anyway."

No Reported Issues.

We had a widespread issue today that brought down many of the teller systems in The Bank. But what really made the life of the Help Desk a living hell was the way in which it was handled.

It didn’t take very long for us to realize that something was wrong and not much longer after that to realize that it was such an issue that separate tickets were not going to be needed, nor was there going to be a single ticket under which multiple users would be added. We could simply tell users that we knew there was a problem, we didn’t have an ETA for resolution and that they needed to use specific offline procedure located in a folder at their branch.

Now, our phone system has what is called a "front end message", that is, a welcome message which usually says "Thank you for calling the Help Desk. We have no reported issues at this time." Under situations like this, one would think it would make sense to change the message to let people know that something was going on.

Sometimes it makes sense not to put up a front end message, especially for things like notes servers. For example, if Notes server 025 went down and we put up a front end message, people on server 030 who experienced a problem might hear the message about 025, assume it was for them and hang up so that we wouldn’t find out right away that 030 was having an issue. But in this case everyone was having a problem. There was nothing to be done and we weren’t keeping track of just how widespread the issue was because we understood that it was everyone.

But no front end message was up. Hundreds of people were calling and we were telling them all the same thing. Over and over again. Because so many people were calling, they were waiting in the queue for over 10 minutes to finally hear us take 45 seconds to explain the situation to them. If they had heard the message first thing, they could have saved themselves and us a whole lot of effort and aggravation.

Normally, I’ll take about 45 calls in a day. Today I took 150 calls. The most I’ve ever taken in a day.

Why a front end message wasn’t put up is beyond me. H**** suggested that it was because the Corporate Overlords want to leverage The Bank by saying, "See all the volume we need to deal with? We need more money or resources." Personally, I don’t think that flies very well. The Bank isn’t completely stupid and could see through such a claim with the counter argument, “These sorts of days only come every few months or so. The rest of the time you have more than enough to address the call volume.”

Some of the more cynical thoughts are that the support groups don’t want us to put up a front end message so that we get bounded and look bad. We are contractors, after all.

I am in the process of training some new analysts. The person sitting with me was wasting his time. I couldn’t put him on the phone to take what were essentially easy calls because we needed maximum throughput. There was nothing for him to learn as I said the same message over and over again. He eventually fell asleep. Literally. He was out for about 20 minutes. I didn’t care. Hell, if it were me in charge I would have sent him home.

The day was a complete waste that could have been handled so much better.

Revenge of the Squicky Vandals

After work today, I was going to go to a Geocaching Cash In Trash Out event. Essentially, a bunch of cachers were going converge on a park in Moon to pick up trash for the betterment of society. Riding home, I thought about how if the guy greased my car I would have to skip my public service and go to the police to file a report. I also thoght it wouldn't be a factor because so far he had attacked only on Fridays at the begining of the month. Today was a wednesday not quite at the end of the month so I figured I had at least this weekend to try to wire my laptop and webcam up to my car battery to set up for next week.

After arriving at my car and putting the bike on the rack I spelled the grease.

Bastard. He changed his pattern and caught me for now the fourth time. On the other hand, he is clearly not going to stop and, by falling into an increasingly more frequent pattern is only going to trap himself. I may just give up on the laptop-wired-to-the car-battery option and spend the money on the sport tracker digital camera. Sure, it'll be a couple of hundred dollars but I won't run the risk of draining my car battery or wrecking the laptop in the heat of an enclosed car sitting in a parking lot all day. I'll get a higher resolution picture, too.

Thanks, now get out.

The Help Desk's current Site Manager is apparently getting screwed again. Years ago, N*** was a Team Lead. In fact, he was my Team Lead. He left for two years to essentially create a Help Desk from scratch. When that
contract was over he came back to Pittsburgh, only to find there was no job waiting for him. When another Analyst here at the Help Desk left, the Corporate Overlords changed their minds and hired N*** back.

Except that he was hired back not as a Team Lead with Team Lead pay but as a part time Analyst, with part time pay and lack of benefits.

Great, huh?

When our Site Manager left for greener pastures, they offered the Site Manager position to N***.

Great, huh? Except that it was only a temporary position until the
Corporate Overlords found a permanent replacement. I've seen the ad online. They were offering over $100,000 a year to fill the position. And today I learn through the grape vine that when N*** is replaced, there won't be anything else for him. He won't be made a Team Lead. He won't even be a lowly Analyst like the rest of us. He'll be out on the street.

Great, huh?

Meanwhile, his replacement will be easily making twice what N*** was making doing the same job.

I'll say this, if N*** gets out in the world with a Help Desk Site Manager job, I would drop this place to go work with him in a minute. Literally. If I got the offer, I would clear out my desk immediately and be gone.

Pay Day Delay

Some three years ago, our Corporate Overlords called us in to a Help Desk meeting to give us a relatively rosy update about how the company was doing. I distinctly recall a char showing where The Company rated in relation to all our competators. It was a comfortable place to be. A week later, we learned that we we loosing our 401k matching and, shortly after that, our bonuses.

So, last week when we received a press release anouncing that The Company had landed a $150 Million contract with a major client, I could see the storm clouds. While everyone else was seeing it as a healthy thing and hoped we might start getting raises again, I remained skeptical.

Today, the other shoe dropped. The Company is going to a bi-weekly pay schedule instead of the current weekly pay and they were also going to discontinue mailing paper copies of our advice statements.

Clearly, even our new Coroporate Overlords are squeezing the stone in an effort to "maximize efficiency".

The Bank, the Help Desk's client, is also likely to be engaging in some streamlining with an expected 3,000 "displacements" on the horizon.

Squicky Glass

After work I rode across the river to the "Grand Opening" of the South Side trail between 4th Street and 9th Street. There was food and music and Mayor Murphy with a t-shirt, shorts and a well-worn bike.

But afterwards, I returned to my car parked at the Children's Hospital to find that not only had the passenger side door been greased but there were huge globs of the stuff on the windshield.

Clearly an escalation. So, I went to the police station in Squirrel Hill and filed an official "malicious mischief" report. I'm thinking of getting on of those digital game cameras, the ones that hunters use to take pictures of deer along trails. Properly set up, I could get a photograph of the vandal and seal his fate.

Attack of the Squicky Vandals

As I returned to the trail parking lot at the end of the Eliza Furnace Trail (There was rain predicted so I parked there instead of in Squirrel Hill), I was approached by another bicycle commuter. He asked if I too had been slimed. He was referring to occasions when I, and now clearly others, had automotive grease placed under their door handles.

The prime suspect is the owner of the adjacent Childrens Hospital parking lot. He apparently wanted ownership of the parking lot now owned by the city and provided free for trail users and when he didn't get it he began a campaign of petty vandalism in an effort to drive people away. I guess he figured that if he could drive people away he could claim that the space was under utilized and thus claim ownership because his neighboring lot is often full to capacity. It must gaul him to see those empty spaces that he could be making money off of.

The way he was caught (though there isn't any proof about the sliming) is that he left a note on someone's windshield saying that they couldn't park there all day and that his car would be towed. He signed the letter "Property Owner" and the phone number was that of the neighboring lot's owner.

The police have spoken with this guy and apparently the vandalism has ceased. . . for the moment. I have no doubt that he will attempt some other tactic to get what he thinks should be his. "Why should my taxes go to pay for an parking lot for bicyclists when I could be making money off of each space?"

The Fun Never Ends.

Last week, I signed up our sci-fi organization for web space at iPower. On Friday I investigated having the .NET domain we had point to the .ORG webspace as well. I was confused by the pricing structure and used the online chat to talk to someone at support. We danced around it because it didn't seem like he was sure what I wasking but he eventually said that it would cost $10.

Today, however, I learned that I had been charged $45.40. A $10 set up charge and a $2.95/month for 12 months charge for. . . something. I wasn't sure what.

I immediately got back on to the online chat and was told that the pricing structure had changed. I asked if that had happened between my request for additional service and the processing of my request and he indicated yes. He wasn't able to adequitely answer what the $3/month was for and referred me to the Additional Services department.

I called that phone number, got some running around and more insufficent answers and eventually got someone in Sales who explained that a redirect costs additional bandwidth for which there needed to be an additional charge to "deter" people from over using this service. I still wasn’t convinced but he was, at least, able to provide me alternative courses of action. One was to move my domain registry to iPower, whereupon the domain pointer redirect would be free. Second was to contact my registrar in that perhaps they could manage the redirect. In either case, he said that he would refund all of my money and cancel the redirect if I chose. He also made much of iPower’s high reputation and that it was not in their interest to jerk customers around over $10.

I contacted Network Solutions and was able to set up the forwarding for a $12/year charge.

I called iPower again to take the sales guy up on his offer to cancel the redirect and refund all of my money and was told that it was not possible. I asked for a supervisor and told that she was off the floor, apparently going over to the Sales department
to chide the sales guy for having offered me a refund.

When I finally got ahold of the manager, I was unable to convince her to agree to the terms that Sales had. Her manager was out of town. That person's manager, the CEO, was out of town. This struck me as a typical attempt to stifle the discussion so I confirmed names and the business address.

I've sent a letter to the company CEO. When someone tells me a service will cost me $10, I expect that it will cost $10. When someone tells me I will be refunded for a service who’s cost I was misled about then I expect to receive that refund. When a website says, "We make sure you’re satisfied, or your money back", I expect
that they will at the very least make an effort to resolve my problem.

Return of the Ping

The .ORG domain that I have been struggling so hard to lay claim to aggain is now mine. I almost immediately contacted iPower to purchase some web space and shortly thereafter applied the DNS settings at Network Solutions. Out science ficton organization web site is back on the air.

The Dam Breaks

I had an important e-mail waiting for me when I got home. This was from SnapNames.com, the apparent registrar above Bulk Register. It had the words "PENDING TRANSFER" which I assume means that my sci-fi group's domain will soon be transferred.

Time Warp

I just received an e-mail from Bulk Register:

BulkRegister received notification on 2005-06-15 7:52 PM ET that you have requested a transfer to another domain name registrar.

The curious thing is that I downloaded this email at 5:50 PM ET.

Is this some sort of time travel thing, are their clocks wrong or are they lying about what time zone they happen to be in?

Ghost Towns

This link was mentioned on the Geocaching.com forums:

http://www.angelfire.com/extreme4/kiddofspeed/chapter1.html

It is a photo log of a Ukrainian woman’s motorcycling travels through the "Dead Zone" that surrounds the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. As I saw photo after photo of abandoned cities, poisoned and uninhabitable for the next half a millennium, I felt a terrible sorrow. The idiocy of the Soviet regime that imposed such a shroud of secrecy that people living in sight of the disaster had no idea about what was going on. By the time they were evacuated, it was already far too late. Hundreds of thousands died.

Block lifted. Again. Maybe.

I received an e-mail from Jeff at Bulk Register saying that the block was lifted. I’m at home now so tomorrow when I get to work I’ll fax the Change of Registrar request to Network Solutions again.

Never in a Million Years.

I hadn’t gotten a response from Bulk Register yet so I first tried to contact them through the on-line chat. The question was simple enough: the guy I had spoken to had told me that he was going to ask his manager and technicians to lift the second block (that was not TransferGuard). I was simply asking if that had been done. The person I got today said that such a thing didn’t exist and that the account was expired.

I knew that. I said that I had to submit to MongoHosting’s extortion to have ownership of the domain transferred to me but that they didn’t actually do that. She said that the domain had been transferred and I countered that my name was one the account but I was completely powerless to do anything with it. It was like being sold a car but never being given the keys. Without the ability to change things, I don’t really own it. She said that my ONLY option was to pay them $20 to be placed on some sort of hold list. I responded that I had already been ripped off by MongoHosting and Bulk Register wasn’t going to get a dime. She also said that there was no record of my second transfer request. I said that I had an e-mail from Network Solutions saying that the request had been rejected by Bulk Register so there should be some sort of record as to why and when that occurred.

I had been told that a block was going to be lifted and that this would resolve my issue. If that was not the case then someone either didn’t know what they were talking about or someone was lying. In either case, that answer was not acceptable. She transferred me to Jeff, the guy I spoke to last week.

He said that he hadn’t received a response from his manager or the
technicians and that he was going to send the e-mail again. I asked again for his assurance that once this block was lifted there would be nothing preventing the transfer of the domain. He said yes, there would be no reason for the transfer not to go through.

Echoes of the Past

Yesterday’s hiking debacle affected me so significantly that I decided to call off of work. Sure, I was sore but it was my emotional state that kept me home.

I lived with my Grandfather for the last 13 years of his life. I watched his decline from an independent, capable and active senior citizen to an angry, bitter, enfeebled old man. One of the things I saw during that transformation was an inability to change his lifestyle when his capabilities changed. And in that I saw a direct parallel with D***’s behavior.

When one gets older, the body looses fat and the skin thins out. This change allows body heat to escape more easily, which is why old people often complain about being cold and, in the case of my Grandfather, can wear long sleeve shirts and not sweat even in the hottest weather. Because they don’t sweat, they don’t think they need to drink as much water. Also, older people do not process the water they drink as well as they used to, leading to more urination. These two things, not sweating and more urination, lead them to think that they don’t need to drink as much water. This is not true. Seniors are at an even higher risk of dehydration because of both the physical changes and the changes in their behavior brought on by a misinterpretation of those changes.

My grandfather did this all the time and it was a challenge getting him to drink enough water to keep him from getting dehydrated. The biggest roadblock was his own stubbornness in that he didn’t want to spend so much time in the bathroom.

D*** was doing exactly the same thing on this hike. He didn’t have enough water and paid the price. And what’s worse was that J*** was being an enabler by saying “He does this all the time.” I learned out that D*** also has circulatory problems and diabeties. Eventually, D***’s luck is going to run out and he’s going be in serious or even life-threatening trouble. And half a dozen miles back in the woods, it’s not going to be an easy rescue.

And here I was, having made a number of mistakes that could have been the difference between life and death had it come to that. I was angry with myself for not being prepared. I was angry and D*** for putting us in that situation. I was angry that I hiked back up the mountain for nothing. I was angry that, when it was all over, D*** still had no concept that he had put himself at risk. I was frightened that my lack of due diligence could have contributed to someone’s death. I was emotional because I was seeing echoes of my Grandfather’s self-destructive behavior and was powerless to do

A Walk in the Woods

I went hiking along the Whitetail Trail today with other members of the Sierra Club. The plan was to start at North Gate of the Quebec Run Wild Area and travel north to Lick Hollow. There were plans for a stop at Pine Knob and D***, the hike leader and senior citizen, had mentioned the possibility of a side trip to White Rocks, making the total for the day around 13 or 14 miles.

I had purchased a new pair of FRS radios and had thrown them into my
trail-end bag along with a clean shirt and a 32oz Nalgene bottle of extra water. I asked if we wanted to bring the radios along but no one else was interested. I was to learn later that this was a mistake. We started on the trail at 10am and it was 80 degrees with almost 100% humidity. I thought maybe my 3-liter Camelbak might not be enough for the day but also thought the 32oz Nalgene bottle might be more weight than I wanted to carry. I left it behind. Another mistake.

The trail was in many places almost completely obscured by overgrown ferns but the blue blazes kept us on the trail. Mid-June is the time for the Mountain Laurel to bloom and there were explosions of white and pink flowers all along the trail. At a point we needed to decide whether to go down to White Rocks or not. The D*** clearly wanted to go. My first thought was to stay on the trail because I was using my GPSr to map the trail for posting to LocalHikes.com but I thought it was selfish of me to vote to stay to the trail for only that reason. Instead, I said that I didn’t care one way or the other so the vote was to go to White Rocks.

On the way down the old logging road we encountered a black bear on the trail. We watched him while he sat down and watched us. Eventually he grew bored with us and wandered off. It was the first time I had ever encountered a bear in the woods.

We arrived at White Rocks and D*** laid down for a rest. He pulled out an 8oz Diet Pepsi to rehydrate and I started to get the willies. His water was gone and I could tell that he wasn’t carrying a third of what I was carrying. And a diet soda is a bad, bad thing to drink under these conditions.

After a rest, we went around and climbed to the top of White Rocks where he took another lie down. I was getting genuinely concerned.

On the climb out of the hollow, I began to realize that D*** was starting to have trouble. He was very slow coming up the hill and when he stopped to take a break I asked him if he was drinking water. He said he had plenty.

I had a 3-litre Camelbak and I knew I was beginning to run low. Anyone who claimed to have plenty of water was not drinking enough. Thus, the conspiracy began. Myself and two others took the lead and as we climbed the hill we started planning on what we should do. Way back in Boy Scouts I had dealt with a similar situation of an extremely hot day and running out of water. The plan was for us to press on to Lick Hollow, stock up on water and then to return to re-supply the second group. This was when I was truly regretting not bringing the FRS radios.

We got to the next turn where D*** had wanted us to stop. The three of us debated and decided to press on after leaving a note. We didn’t get far before we heard them coming up behind. The others had gotten him to take off his hat, which was causing him to overheat, and someone else was carrying his pack. He was making much better time but still didn’t look well. We decided to wait at Redstone Creek for them to catch up.

J*** spoke with me. He told me that the D*** did this sort of thing all the time. But from experience, just because he does this all the time doesn’t mean it’s a good idea.

At the Redstone Creek crossing it was decided that three of us would go on ahead and D*** and others would go to the end of Pine Knob road and wait for pickup at the gate. That would cut several miles off the hike. I ran out of water and the two women that were with me ran out a short time after that. It was two hours to finally get to Lick Run. We stocked up on water and drove the waiting vehicle to the gate.

Except that they weren’t there. We got really worried. They should have been there by now. Another mistake: we should have exchanged cell phone numbers (if the second group had cell phones) in lieu of not having my FRS radios. Two of us took the water and started hiking the road but she turned back because her ankle couldn’t take it. At the road that turns off to Pine Knob itself, I left one of the water bottles to make sure that they didn’t get past me and went to be sure they hadn’t make a sightseeing detour.

When I came back there was a bear sniffing around the water bottle I had left. He heard my approach and made his way into the woods. Night fell and I continued up the road. At 9:30 it was decided to call 911. It turns out that the D*** had gone to the other end of Pine Knob Rd. where it meets Skyline Dr., not the end that we were at much closer to Lick Hollow. That miscommunication was yet another terrible mistake in a day full of stupid and careless mistakes.

I had thought to bring my FRS radios but didn’t. I had thought of taking extra water but didn’t. I had thought of bringing my microfilter water bottle but didn’t. I thought about staying on the trail but didn’t.

Block Party

BulkRegister has done it yet again. Network Solutions has responded that Bulk Register has again denied my request to transfer my sci-fi club domain to myself. So, I call up Bulk Register and this time get someone named Jeff.

Jeff again gives me the story about contacting the host, MongoHosting and I again say that they refuse to respond to any of my e-mails and their WHOIS database is full of lies. I tell him that I have been at this for a month and have an authcode and the TransferGuard has been lifted, why is the transfer still being refused?

Each time he offers another platitude I cut him off saying that I've already jumped through that hoop. He uses the standard Help Desk response that "This is the first time I've dealt with this issue."

"I have been dealing with this issue for a month and have talked to at least three, now four different people at Bulk Register. Each one has told me something different and neglected to tell me some vital piece of information that has prevented me from obtaining posession of my own domain."

He said that he would send an email to his manager and the technician (Dip and Ming) to have the block lifted. I ask if this last action will finally allow me to have to domain transferred and he says yes.

I am going to hold him to this and if in a few days I don't get a positive response I am going be tracking down this Dip.

Return of the Squicky Vandals

When I returned to my car after work I discovered that some bastard had again greased my door handle. Now, instead of a one time incident a few months ago, I've got someone who will grease my door whenever the opportunity presents itself. I looked around and no one else seems to have been targeted. So what is it about a green Honda Accord with a bike rack that attracts such unwanted attention? What the hell is wrong with people?

It was raining today so I thought I would park at the Children's Hospital lot instead of in Squirrel Hill, cutting my ride in the rain in half. I suppose I'll just have to start ignoring the weather and riding the longer distance no matter what the weather. And the forcast calls for showers and scattered thunder showers all week.

The Power of Persistance.

I got a response today that my request to transfer my domain to myself was rejected by BilkRegister (oops, BulkRegister). So, I finally got ahold of someone online. First, they told me what I already knew, that the account was expired and that the Transferguard was still in place. I told them that I had spoken with a technician three days before and he said that he was putting in a work order to lift the lock and that it would take two days. That time had passed and it was still locked.

Domain Support: Are you a bulkregister member?

Geis: No I am not. And, before you say that I need to contact my reseller, I must reiterate that MongoHosting has refused to respond to any of my requests to release the lock for three weeks now.

Domain Support: Why dont you sign up with us. So that you can manage the domain yourself.

Geis: Because MongoHosting already blackmailed me into paying them for two years of hosting to get the domain transfered to me. All they did was change the name on the admin and did not release the transfer lock.

Domain Support: But if you sign up with us you can manage the domain totally.

Geis: If you release the transfer lock, like the technician I spoke to on Monday said he was doing, I can transfer the domain to another registrar and manage it there.

I could see where they were going with this as I had seen it in a number of previous e-mails and I will let the domain die rather then pay them a dime of blood money.

They tried to direct me to a phone number that didn't answer. They tried to refer me to MongoHosting who I again said had not been responding to me. I described my experience with MongoHosting in detail using words like extortion, blackmail, hostage and thievery. They tried to refer me to another number and I told them that wasn't getting through either. Then they told me to wait two days (I assunme for the lock to be lifted). I said I had already waited three days. In fact, I had already waited three weeks and have gotten nothing but the run-around.

All told, this conversation went on for an hour and a half with several long pauses as I'm sure the technician consulted with her manager. I did not let them go for too long with each pause, asking if there was a direct number I should be calling to actually talk to someone directly who could resolve this issue. I wasn't going to go away.

Finally, the word came back: "The lock is realeased"

I immediately re-faxed my transfer request to Network Solutions.

A temporary solution.

The backup domain I’ve purchased is set up. I’ve contacted my personal hosting service to add that domain to the DNS resolution so that people going to that URL will end up at my website. My website has been changed so that users will read that this is a temporary situation and that they can click on one of several links to get to a streamlined version of the website. Now, I have to disseminate the new domain address to all the search engines so we can minimize the damage.

Ten kinds of wrong.

Japan and China have been in a war of words recently over perceptions of the Second World War. It involves Japanese textbooks that do not admit atrocities committed in China. It involves war memorials that honor all of Japan’s war dead, including war criminals. Mostly I think it involves posturing and saber rattling by China to counter Japans influence in the region both politically and economically.

Well, a posting to a newsgroup has tried to defuse the situation. The posting was a photograph of a pouting 11-year old girl saying "Please stop these anti-Japanese hijinks. If you don't, I won't like you anymore."

It’s a clever personal appeal. Well, actually it’s somewhat contrived because the girl, model Saaya Irie, didn’t actually say what she’s quoted as saying. Even so, suddenly, the discussion groups went from China-bashing and Japan-bashing to conversations about how cute this girl is. But, what made it really work and what makes this so wrong is that this particular 11-year old girl wears an F-cup. Yea, the little child is completely stacked.



I recently saw an anime called Bokusatsu Tenshi Dokuro-chan (which roughly translates and “Beat-to-death Angel Dokuro-chan). A time traveling angel lives with a middle-school boy and regularly knocks the top of his head off with a big spiked bat. That’s pretty messed up but what really makes it wrong is the reason. It seems that the buy is destined to discover the secret to immortality. The side effect however is that girls will not mature beyond age 10 and the angel has been sent back in time to murder him and prevent this pedophile’s paradise.

And if the school girl fetish wasn’t disturbing enough, I found a copy of a Japanese print that is the precursor to the tentacle porn genre. It’s titled "Octopi and the Maiden" by Katsushika Hokusai (c. 1814) and portrays a woman being molested by an octopus.

I’m sure it is a cultural egotism and our nation’s puritanical roots that have me believing that the Japanese are messed up beyond all reason. Evidence shows that these disturbing behaviors occur in all cultures and have probably always been going on. In fact, evidence shows that even animals engage in what would be considered deviant behavior so maybe these sorts of things are really deviant at all. What we consider "normal" is merely an arbitrary central point in a broad spectrum of behaviors. That central point moves back and forth from time to time but the full spectrum remains.

This is not to excuse pedophiles for their criminal behavior but perhaps we need to clearly understand the foundations of what’s going on. It is normal behavior for males to seek out the best females. In nature, the best females are typically young and healthy. In early humans, these females would be "claimed" as soon as they became reproductively viable. Perhaps, even earlier to guarantee that the alpha male had first dibs. Puberty in modern humans begins at around age 8 or 9.

As society has gotten more complex, so too has the time necessary to
develop the ability to make decisions in that society increased. For a primitive human girl concerned with subsistence survival on the African savanna and might not expect to live past the age of 30, hitching up with a male at the age of 8 would be an easy and wholly appropriate decision. But to a modern girl in elementary school who is a decade away from entering the workforce and could expect to live into her 80’s, it’s far too early to be making those decisions for the rest of her life. And it’s always too early for an older male to be making that decision for her.

Does it sound like I’m defending these guys? It shouldn’t. Pedophiles are some of the worst kind of human filth I can think of. But it’s not because they are sexually attracted to young girls because we are all genetically programmed for some level of that. It’s because they prey on their youth and inexperience for their own selfish desires in violation of all the rules of modern society.

End Run.

One of the first things I did today is purchase another domain at Network Solutions as a backup for the one that’s expired through MongoHosting and BulkRegister. It’s not going to help too much as our our sci-fi organization flyers and publications have the old .ORG domain but if I can get the DNS entries changed and the new information out to the search engines we won’t be completely down.

The second thing I tried was contacting MongoHosting by telephone. As I mentioned before, the WHOIS information for Robert Dunbar of MongoHosting and Silvercities is incorrect. In one place it’s an outright lie. In another it’s merely disconnected. I tried calling directory assistance and searched on a few things and the one entry I found turned out not to be the person I was looking for.

Next, I called Network Solutions to see if there was anything they could do. Indeed, there was. Since my name is the Administrator of the domain, it should be an easy thing to transfer to myself. They looked at the entry and said that even though it was expired, the domain wasn’t locked (BulkRegister said it was) and they should be able to do the transfer. It couldn’t be done on-line, however. I needed to sign forms, provide proof of identity and fax the documents. It could take ten days, however.

One of the things on the form was something called an Authcode. This is apparently required for transfers of .ORG domains. I called BulkRegister directly and was able to get the Authcode from them. They also said that the domain WAS locked and that they would enter the work order to have that listed. Interesting, because in all their e-mails of the past two weeks they were saying that only MongoHosting could lift the lock. The discrepancies between what they say via e-mail and what they say when cornered on the phone are all the more reason to get the hell out of there.

Off the air.

I noticed that the website I had hosted at MongoHosting was off the air today. I’ve been trying for two weeks to get in touch with MongoHosting and they have not responded to any of my e-mails. Bastard. And BulkRegister hasn’t been helpful either.

Unfortunately, there isn't much I'll be able to do until Monday.

The rest of the story.

When the systems started having problems yesterday, the Help Desk got a call from a support person who said he was going to do something to try to resolve it. Because it was a production issue, he was told we would have to open a high severity tracking ticket. He said, "No, I'll take care of it."

Then it really went bad.

Whatever he did brought the whole system crashing down.

ID10T indeed.

We all fall down.

Because I'm still training, I don't get my lunch break until 2pm. It makes for a real short afternoon and isn't too bad except that it messes up my feeding schedule. I'm generally eating only one meal a day.

Anyway, on this particular day, shortly after coming back from my lunch, things went south. The Bank experienced a problem with the teller system causing users to go off-line. Our call volume went through the roof and stayed that way. At one point, we received a pop-up message from the Function Desk saying that the system "Should be back up in 10 to 15 minutes". Of course, that didn't affect the call volume.

As that deadline came and went without resolution, we received another message from the Function Desk: "If you get a branch on the line and they ask you how long it will take the system to come back up..... DO NOT TELL THEM 10-15 MINUTES..... YOU'RE NOT THE SUPPORT GROUP.... STOP IT IMMEDIATELY BECAUSE USERS ARE CALLING BACK STATING THAT THEY WERE TOLD 10-15 MINUTES."

But, wait. Didn't you just tell us that it should be up in 10 to 15 minutes? Don't you give us this information so that we can pass it on to the users who are clambering for just this kind of information? This problem came at the end of the day and the tellers needed to balance their drawers. They needed to make a decision as to whether they should stay after closing time 10 or 15 minutes to get the systems back up and balance things or just assume that it wasn't going to work at all and go to their backup procedures.

Now, that having been said, I rarely believe these ETA messages anyway. Usually they are based on the mistaken belief that a simple reboot of the servers will resolve the issue. In my experience, that is seldom the case. Whenever I give out these ETAs I do so with the qualifier that support says that it SHOULD be up in X-amount of time. I also usually say that if it's not they the user's are just going to need to continue with the specific interim procedures I've just given them.

Ugh. In any case, I took over 80 calls for the day, half of them in the last hour.

Two Minute Warning

So, the HR Rep come up to me at work and says:

"Did I tell you that you're training a new analyst tomorrow?"

"No. You didn't."

"You're training a new analyst tomorrow."

"Ah."

If this were a sit-com, that comment would have been followed by a cue from the laugh track. Unfortunately, there was no punchline and her comment was followed by a simple stare from me.

"Is that OK?"

"Whether it's OK or not is irrelevant. At this point I don't have any choice in the matter."

The Big Sleep

I received word today from The School that they gave the Help Desk position to someone else. I’ve been kind of down all day because I thought my interview had gone extremely well and my chances were good. I wanted so much to get out of my current situation that the word that I still cannot escape has me emotionally exausted.

Out of India

After yesterday’s debacle over the hardware support outsourcing their call center to India, they have reverted to their Ohio location. The word is it will be that way for a week or two. I wonder how much money that mistake has already cost them. Maybe with an additional two weeks of training the call center people in India will be able do the job they were hired to do. The job that I could train 6th Graders to do in an afternoon.

Outsourced

Sometime over the weekend, The Bank’s contracted supplier of hardware support outsourced their call center to somewhere in India. What that means is, aside from the language barriers, the time it takes to place a hardware call jumped from 3 minutes or so to over 20 minutes. Sometimes as long as an hour.

This is not a difficult job. The Help Desk calls the call center, provides customer name, address, phone number, model type, serial number, issue description and tracking number. The Call Center enters this information into a database and provides another tracking number in return. I could take nearly any person off the street here and have them doing this job in an hour. It’s trained chimpanzee stuff. I don’t know who they hired in India, but the people they got aren’t capable of doing the job.

For high severity issues, the hardware supplier is contractually obligated to respond to the user within one hour. If it takes nearly that long to get through to the call center and place the call, they are going to be constantly in violation of the contract. It won’t be long before The Bank begins reconsidering their contract.

It doesn’t mean much to me personally. I don’t call in hardware issues. But when users begin calling back to complain that their level of service has dropped, the Help Desk bears the brunt of their ire. I’ll simply blame the hardware supplier.

In a more philosophical sense, I both cheer and loathe this decision. I hate the idea that my job could be outsourced to India. But in the nightmare of outsourcing this extremely simple call center task, the likelihood of my more technically intensive job going overseas has plummeted.

Two-wheeled Paradise

I just got back from a long weekend visiting my Brother-in-Law in Madison, Wisconsin. I could go on about the trip, what we did, where we went and all the gory details but what struck me the most was the biking environment.

Everywhere I went, there were bike trails, bike lanes, bike routes, bike shops and bike racks. My Brother-in-Law lived in a new housing development in the middle of a series of shopping plazas, light commercial and restaurants but there were bike lanes available to access the whole area. All the restaurants had bike racks. In Madison proper, there was a two block section that had three bike shops.

It’s a big difference from Pittsburgh where bike routes exist only on maps and as signs on some of the most dangerous streets in town. Advocates at Bike Pittsburgh have convinced the city to allow them to install bike racks throughout the downtown area but the city didn’t drop a dime in support. There are only a handful of bike shops that are small and don’t have a broad selection of either bikes or accessories. Shopping malls and centers are designed for cars and bicyclists and pedestrians would be risking their lives to attempt an approach.

Of course, there are environmental differences between Pittsburgh and Madison that make one more conducive to bicycles than the other. First, Madison has flat, wide open spaces. Being flat is simply more friendly to biking. When the city was growing, there was plenty of space so streets were wide. When it came time for streets to be rebuilt, the availability of space made it easier for city planners to sacrifice some of that space for the use of bicycles.

Since Pittsburgh is so hilly and penned in with rivers and was born a century earlier than Madison, there isn’t a lot of space available. Bicyclists have no choice but to share the space with automobiles, trucks and busses who, because they “own the road” are not willing to share this limited commodity. And even out in the newer developments like Cranberry, the planners are still stuck in the car mentality, building exclusively for those who drive.

I fear I shall die in Casablanca.

I am reminded of the opening of "Casablanca" where the narrator details the plight of those poor souls attempting to flee Europe finding themselves trapped. “Here the fortunate ones, through money, or influence, or luck, might obtain exit visas and security to Lisbon, and from Lisbon to the New World. But the others wait in Casablanca. -- and wait -- and wait -- and wait."

It's been three weeks since my interview with The School and I still
haven't heard anything. I've left a few messages and sent an e-mail or two with no response. I would normally expect things to take quite some time but when the person who I interviewed with said that she would contact me "next week", I assumed that she actually did mean "next week." If she hadn't said that, I could well imagine a dozen reasons for it to take longer than that.

Instead, I wait. And wait. And wait. The Help Desk is my own Occupied Europe and my escape is prevented, not by evil Corporate Overlords but by what I suspect to be simple bureaucratic delay.

The check is in the mail

The Corporate Overlords didn't fix the shorted paycheck issue yesterday but this morning UPS delivered a check for the other three days I worked last week. There was no explanation as to what happened to have people receiving random hours on their paychecks.

That light at the end of the tunnel . . .

The Corporate Overlords announced a new on-line feature that allows employees to adjust their direct deposit, change their W2 tax forms and view their pay stubs. So, having the new feature we decided to take a look. Imagine my horror when I discovered that I only worked two days last week.

OK, so I had actually worked a full 40 hour week. I then dutifully filled out the timesheet and submitted my time for said 40 hours. And somewhere between the submission and the printing of the checks the 40 changed to a 16.5. Some people were lucky and got credited for having worked 80 hours but more hit by an oncoming freight train and shorted like I was.

How do they fuck this up. This is an automated system where I enter the number and someone at HR looks at that number and says "OK". The system prints the checks from there. No math involved in figuring out the hours. I work 40 hours. I enter 40 hours. They approve 40 hours. The system prints 16.5. Where the hell did that number come from?

It's nice to see that my PTO balance is now included on the check so, after a pile of math because they didn't include cumulative hours worked for the year, I was able to determine that they did adjust for the 8 hours of PTO they shafted me for before Christmas. I've only been asking about that for three months.

It gets me thinking about if I get this job I want at The School, what will happen to that PTO? About 50 hours of it. I am entitled to be paid for it. Will I get a check? When I give my two weeks notice they better have that answer pretty damn quick or I will simply submit a week of PTO and leave a week early. I'll be damned if I'm going to let 50 hours of compensation just evaporate.

I hope I'm not counting my weasels before they've popped but I really want this other Help Desk job.

It was me.

I had my interview at The School and I think it went exceptionally well. A few highpoints:

There were some 450 applications of which I am one of 4 or 5 that are being interviewed.

When the Manager took the position, the Help Desk was somewhat directionless. She has been moving towards a more customer service oriented operation which fits perfectly with my Help Desk philosophy.

She knows someone I know from another department and described him as "our best customer."

The Senior Consultant worked with my brother in-law.

The wife of the UNIX Engineering Manager works with my wife in a different department of The School.

All these connections were discovered after I made the "Final Four" on the strengths of my qualifications. These personal connections can only help to seal the deal.

The Purchasing Director recognized the Illuminiti tie-tack I was wearing. One of the Consultants also recognized it.

When the Senior Consultant was doing the first pass through the hundreds of applications, he saw that I had earned my Eagle Award in the Boy Scouts and on that alone flagged my resume for further attention. When I had been reworking my resume, my wife wondered if it was important and suggested I leave it out because it was from over 20 years ago. I insisted on including it and that decision has paid off.

The Network Manager had a sheet of networking questions. Things like "What is the difference between a switch and a router" and "What is IP?" I didn't do so well because, and I warned him about this in advance, I have worked with networks but have been out of practice. When I didn't answer the way he seemed to want he recited from memory answers that sounded right out of a textbook. Clearly, he was not focusing on the Help Desk philosophy. He also didn't seem too pleased with my lack of Linux experience.

It was immediately after that that I spoke with the Senior Consultant. "Did he ask you the 20 questions?" Apparently that sheet is a standard procedure of his and the Senior Consultant didn't seem too concerned (or impressed). As to Linux, the other Consultant in that interview said that he was hired with zero Linux experience but he learned it pretty quick.

The UNIX Manager also had the same sort of opinion of my lack of Linux experience and said that it is pretty much like Windows except that things are named differently and do things differently. That might not sound encouraging but, as with all OS systems, knowing that there is an analog makes it merely a matter of time to learn the nuances. He gave me a disk with a Knoppix version of Linux. This is a version that runs from the CD so it doesn't need to be installed, and also accesses the disk read-only so you can really work and navigate with the disk you have without risk. An excellent learning tool.

Almost everyone asked the standard question about why I wanted to leave my current position. I said that there were no opportunities for advancement, that I had gone about as far as I could and that I had not gotten a raise in three years. The Company had made a financial blunder back then and the employees were made to pay for it with a salary freeze. "That sucks!" the Help Desk Manager said.

"Yes. Yes, it does."

She said that they were going to interview 2 or maybe 3 other people this week. They would get people together to hammer out a decision on Monday and I should be hearing one way or the other after that. Probably Wednesday. When she first talked about how the process would go, it seemd like I would be brought in for another interview with the Department Manager. But at the end of the day it sounded more like that meeting would be more of a formality than a decision-making interview. Perhaps it was only an impression brought on by my good mood but I think that I really, really fit well into her idea of what she wants for the Help Desk. Whenever she spoke about her plans, I wanted to raise my hand and say, "Yea, that me."

Back on Track

A complete mystery.

The person at The School sent me an e-mail last Wednesday and I never received it. I sent her an e-mail on Thursday and she didn't receive that. Thankfully the voicemail I left today at her home number got through and so I'm back on for my interview tomorrow.

Or should I say interviews. I'm going to be meeting with various people in the department and other staff people over several hours. This is the typical "second interview" stuff that makes the final decision.

Anticipation

I haven't made any blog postings for a while. I've learned that if I wait until I get home to try to write about my day I simply don't do it. So, to combat this, I've opened up a Word document at work so that I can blog when the mood strikes me and then e-mail the text home to do the blog when I return home. It's not a great solution but it's better than nothing.

A coworker who sits next to me, the one who discovered that our employer had not been paying city taxes, has gotten another shock. He has apparently been the victim of identity theft and someone has been taking money from his checking account. He contacted Corporate HR to stop direct deposit from putting more money into the violated account. HR didn't do that. In fact, the local HR Rep said she had faxed the request out weeks ago but Corporate HR says they never saw it. Then, HR said they would overnight him a check to replace the one they had mistakenly deposited in the suspended account. When he received the overnight envelope it only contained an advice stub. Not an actual cashable check.

My own issues not only don't have a resolution but I have received no response whatsoever. It's been 4 weeks since I told them that my local taxes were being paid to the wrong municipality. It's been 6 weeks since I told them that they have never paid my city occupation tax. And it's been 3 months since they double-charged me for a day of PTO before Christmas.

I'm supposed to have a job interview tomorrow but I have not gotten a call or email from the person at The School confirming the details of exactly where and when. I sent a few reminder e-mails and left some voice mails but still no response. It's making me very nervous. I want very badly to be out of the place I am currently at.

Red shifting in place.

When I got home yesterday, there was a message on the answering machine. A job that I've been looking for and sent my resume in for several months ago looks like it may begin to pan out.

Now, at this point I will continue my policy of not identifying my employer by referring to this possible future employer as "The School."

I was very happy and my mood was pretty high all day, even though fate conspired to bring me down. The button on my pants popped off. The battery in my watch is going and I lost an hour somewhere. Someone greased the door handles on my car while it sat in the parking area. The new timecard procedures for my Corporate Overlords is a pain.

But, I got a call from The School and after a short discussion with the person there I am tentatively scheduled for a full interview in a week and a half.

I hate to get my hopes up but I can already feel myself getting ready to go.

Occupied

Occasionally when I get into work, the oversize restroom stall that I use to change from my biking gear to my work clothes is occupied. I'm pretty sure it's the same guy each time because I can hear him in there turning the pages of his newspaper. So, instead of having the privacy of changing my clothes in a stall I have to change in front of the sinks. And I am able to undress, change, pack up and leave while he's still in there reading his newspaper.

I've never figured out what it is about sitting on the toilet and reading. Am I unusual in spending only the time necessary to take care of biological issues?

And another piece of restroom etiquette that I do not understand is people talking on their cell phones. Who in their right mind wants to talk to someone while sitting on the toilet? And who would want to hear someone talking while sitting on the toilet.

"Hey, Tom. How's it going? . . . . That's great. What I'm calling about is. . . er. . . hold on a sec. . . Ennnnnnnuggghhh *ploosh*. . . OK, where was I?"

Come on, guys. That is just so wrong.

Eggs!

I've been watching the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy webcam of the Gulf Building Peregrine Falcon nest. I've known the pair have been back in the area and have been around the nesting box and have been looking forward to the real deal. Watching yesterday I saw what I assumed to be the female sitting on the "nest" all day. (The falcon nest is little more than a depression in the gravel of the nesting box).

Today, she decided to leave the nest revealing at least three reddish-brown brown eggs.

It turns out, I've been looking at an old website. The new one had updates that said that the first egg was laid on the 10th, the second on the 13th and the third earlier was earlier today.

More falcons = fewer pigeons.

Blocked and Logged

I wanted to sign on and blog about The Bank blocking access to Questionable Content, one of my favorite webcomics, only to find that they also blocked Blogger.com as well. From now on I'll have to save up these thoughts for when I get home. It kind of takes away some of the spontaneity of the blogs and takes away something that would otherwise fill the occasional downtimes.

I guess I'll have to start playing Nanaca-crash!!

Twice Shy

I was scheduled for a "Career Development Meeting" today and was completely forgotten. There is some managerial stuff going on as the Site Manager is moving on to "other opportunities" and someone else is being moved up temporarily. The Help Desk is also hiring some new agents.

So, my meeting was completely forgotten. For the second time. I was
supposed to have one of these meetings a month ago and they completely blew me off for that one as well.

But it's not like anything ever came of these meetings. The call them "Career Development Meetings" but, in fact they do nothing to develop my career. They just go over typical job performance things. Talk times, availability, all the normal day-to-day stuff. There are no more opportunities for career development here shot of going somewhere else. The use of the term "career development" is HR newspeak.

Can you hear me now?

Two weeks ago, I let my employer know that the city's occupation tax had not been taken out of my paycheck ever. Today, the HR Rep came to me on Corporate's behalf asking me to check the first paystub of the year to confirm that it hadn't been taken out.

First; don't they have these records?

Second; didn't you hear me when I said that the occupation tax had NEVER been taken out of my paycheck? Not this year. Not last year. Not in 2003, 2002, 2001 or in 2000. What part of NEVER did you not understand? Are you even listening to the words that are coming out of my mouth? For every problem I have, I seem to have to explain it in detail two or three times before they seem to do anything about it. I'm speaking English here. I'm saying the same thing each time. Do you think I'm making this stuff up? Don't you believe me?

And I think I may have mentioned this before but whenever one of these issues come up, or any issue for that matter, when I explain it to the HR Representative, she gets a very distinctive expression. I don't know what she's really thinking but her face always seems to say, "How could you even think that there's a problem?" Her expression is so vacuous it's amazing she doesn't actually become transparent.

At first, I found this vapidity somewhat amusing but I've really grown tired of it. Especially because I have to explain myself again and again and noone seems to take these issues seriously.

Another Taxing Discovery

I really should have been paying more attention to these things but I've just noticed that since the begining of the year, my local boro taxes have been going to the wrong boro.

With the purchase of The Company by The Corporate Overlords, there has been a gradual transfer of responsibilites. The 2nd paycheck of the year signaled the conversion to the payroll of The Corporate Overlords. Also, for some completely inexplicavble reason, they started paying my local boro taxes to the boro I lived in 6 years ago.

How the hell did they pull that off?

Mine. Mine. Mine.

I paid MongoHosting their ransom on Friday and checking today found that they had indeed transfered ownership of the Domain. It is now mine. Now, if I can hold out until May when the domain expires, I'll be able to make myself the technical contact. Then, I'll be able to change IP addresses whenever I want. I won't have to deal with MongoHosting at all should I want to change my hosting. I'll just log on to Network Solutions and do it. Of course that means I'll loose out on some of the two years of hosting I've paid MongoHosting for but some losses are worth it.

Bigger Pipe

I got an email response from MongoHosting concerning my bandwidth.

. . . you have a yearly paid account that was activated before we took over the company . . . the limits you you have on your account are the ones originally set for you.

Yea?

And?

Their response was completely useless. No options. No suggestions. What does it mean mean? Am I just going to have to wait until the end of the month when my allocation re-sets? I was about to pay for two years of hosting; would that entitle me to the 5 Gig of bandwidth that everyone else is getting for the same money? Since my "yearly paid account" doesn't expire till may, will I be locked into the 500 Meg bandwidth until then?

So, I had to write back and ask all those questions about what can be done about this. . . again.

On the plus side I learned that their admin, while lacking any sort of proactive thoughts, does actually work during the week.

Later in the afternoon, I noticed that the website was working again. I checked the bandwidth meter and it looked like they had upped the bandwidth to 5 Gig. When I got home I found the e-mail from the admin saying that she had spoken to the owner and he had upped the limit.

Now all I have to do is pay their ransom to get ownership of my domain.

Did I mention screaming incoherently?

Therapy

AAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!

Bandwidth Exceeded

Today I got a message that the site I am having so much trouble with at MongoHosting has exceeded its bandwidth. It's completely shut down!

So, I access the control panel and begin really researching what's been going on. Normally, the bandwidth usage is 60 or 70 Meg. But over the past few months it has been climbing until it topped out at over 500 Meg. Now I know for a fact that the people I know who visit the site have not increased their activity eight times.

The key was the bulletin board. I set up a bulletin board hoping that we could migrate away from the YahooGroup we have been using. The bulletin board had only 4 members, two of which were me, and there was hardly any messages. Just a few welcoms from me and a question or two.

Yet the web logs show that 80% of the all the traffic that comes through the domain is to the bulletin board. I can only conclude that bots are attempting to farm the board for e-mail addresses to SPAM or back doors so that they can break in an SPAM the board itself.

But here's the real kick in the head. According to the MongoHosting website, what I'm paying should get me 5 Gig of bandwidth. I shouldn't be topping out at just 500 Meg. Did they lower my bandwidth allocation? I hadn't been paying attention so I didn't notice. Honestly, I don't think they did but I have no way of finding out because, as my experience with the domain name extortion has shown me, their admin only seems to work on Saturdays.

So, my website is down until at least then.

The English language does not have curse words sufficient to express my frustration at this whole situation and I have resorted to simply
screaming inarticulately.

One of the things I'm considering is buying another domain, probably the .net version of the .org I already have, and setting up hosting with someone reputable. On the other hand, all the search engines are pointing to the original site and by the time they start re-directing people to the new location I will have solved this issue.

[Insert more screaming here!]

The deal accepted

I finally received an e-mail from MongoHosting with my requested "contract" wherein they agree to give me my domain as a "gift" in exchange for two years payment for hosting. The fact that I've only ever received e-mail from their support on Saturday leads me to the conclusion that they only work one day a week. As if my confidence in them could get any lower.

Also in the email was the suggestion that when I make the payment they will transfer the domain immediately. At least, that's how I'm interpreting it. I still intend to keep hosting with them because they are so damn cheap but, once I own the domain, should they service start down a slippery slop I will cut my losses and take my hosting somewhere else.

Get Busted

My e-mail to MongoHosting accepting their blackmain demands of 2 years of hosting paid in advance to obtain my domain has gone unanswered. Could it be that my simple request to have an itimized invoice of this transaction is too much of a paper trail for them? I'm sure the e-mail they sent would be enough for any court to accept an implied contract.

Well, someone from Bulk Register had replied to my e-mail with a phone number so that I could talk to them directly about their client. I had been putting off calling because it had looked like my negotiations with MongoHosting were advancing but now that they had stalled again, I was ready to see them burn.

Except that the number the Bulk Register customer support person gave me was incorrect. It took me to Alabanza, Inc who is apparently a sister company of Bulk Register. Thankfully, a customer support person there was able to give me the correct phone number.

Speaking with someone there provided me with the following scenerio: If the WhoIs information is incorrect then Bulk Register will attempt to contact the Registrant. If there is no reply after a certain period of time (and it is apparently often the case that they don't), the domain registry is canceled.

I gave them all the details for the inconsistancies in the WhoIs entries. I have gone to Network Solutions and put my domain on backorder so as soon as it is canceled (if it is canceled) and becomes available, I will be able to purchase it immediately. I will need to have in place an alternative hosting solution that I can impliment at a moments notice so the website will be down for only a short period of time.

In the meantime, I have resent my e-mail to MongoHosting and continue to be without a response.

Product Review: Performance Transformer Jacket

I've been riding my bike in the cold utilizing a leather jacket as an outer layer. While it is windproof and keeps me fairly warm, it is rather heavy. And Pittsburgh weather being what it is, it can warm up another 20 degrees by the afternoon, at which point I must wear the coat and sweat it out.

So, I began looking for what they call a "shell." Much of the Windstopper and Gore-Tex products were outside my budget but the Performance Gore Windstopper Shell looked like just the thing. Except that they didn't have it in my size.

The Performance Transformer Jacket was my backup choice.

I happen to be in the area between a Large and Extra Large. It depends on the clothing cut and manufacturer as to what specific size I fall into. The size Large that I ordered was too small so I sent it back and got the XL. Out of the package, even that seemed sized oddly. It seemed long in the arms and tight about the chest and neck. Are all bicyclists bone-thin monkey boys? I can understand the bicyclist's posture calling for slightly longer arms and I also happen to have trouble finding clothes with arms of the proper length but this jacket even seemed to go beyond that. Well, there are velcro cuffs to keep the sleeves above the wrist. And wearing a fleece underneath only makes it seem tighter. With the fleece collar up I couldn't zip the Transformer's collar all the way up. Apparently bicyclists are pencil-necks as well.

I like the sleeves. I have another jacket that has sleeves that zip off. The problem is that you cannot get them off without taking off the jacket. The Transformer's sleeves are one piece, the two sleeves connected across the back with zippers at the fronts of the shoulders. You could take off the sleeves without taking off the rest of the jacket. It's also lightweight and compressable so it could be stuffed into a pack or saddlebag.

This morning the temperature was 30 degrees with light winds and snow flurries so it would be a good change to put the claimed "wind resistant, water resistant" to the test. Initially, I was disappointed. It seemed that the breeze of riding cut through the material fairly easily. But after about a mile and a half, my body began to build up a layer of warmth and the shell seemed to hold it in. A T-shirt, a fleece and the shell are more than enough for 30 degree temperatures. The water resistance has yet to be put to the test. Too bad I didn't get it the day before yesterday as it rained yesterday afternoon during my ride home.

I'll grade the Performance Transformer Jacket a "B".

ur website

I received an e-mail today concerning my website wherein this writer ripped into everything. He hates my writing. He hated my costuming, He hated my crafts. He hatted my hobies. He poured huge amounts of venom into my work, his favorite adjective being "gay" and favorite epithet being "faggot."

It sad, really. I know that some of the things I have done have brought emotional responses but this is clearly the work of a pathetic, little man who's only way of inflating his own self worth is to tear down the work of others.

I was tempted to send back an e-mail; "Seek professional help." but I knew it would be wasted and only invite more attacks, like antagonizing the school bully. In the end, I didn't even bother saving the message.

Compromise

I finally received a response from MongoHosting to my statements that I never intended to withdraw my hosting, just that I had wanted the domain and that $150 was far too much for this.

I understand your point , However you have to understand that we have no guarantee that you would continue your hosting with us. After I transfered the domain to you you could move the same day.

So, they just admitted that they were trying to blackmail me. I had only paid for one year. There was no guarantee or even an implicit contract that I would continue after that. Only the power of an established domain name. They were right, however, after being shown just what kind of scum they are, I would have jumped ship as soon as I had ownership of the domain.

"But I would be willing to come to a compromise :- If you pay 2 yrs hosting in advance ($50) I will transfer the domain to you."

Actually, a very reasonable compromise. I'm actually surprised. MongoHosting claimed they had renewed my domain when, in fact, they had not. If I refused to pay their ransom I could have simply allowed the hosting and domain registration to run out. Sure, they would suspend the account when I didn't pay but once the expiration date for the domain came around it would become available and I would snatch it up and be on-line again.

It would have been a risky route because if they re-registered the domain out of spite, I would have no way short of legal action to get it back.

But it would be risky for them, too. They would loose the $150 they wanted from me in the first place and they would loose any future charges they could incur from my continued hosting. Perhaps they realized that if they pushed for $150 they would get either nothing or a court summons.

So, the compromise works for both of us. I am not charged any more than if I merely continued my hosting and they get to keep me as a customer for two years.

I'm going to accept their offer. I still do not trust them any further than I could throw them and will ask that they send me an itemized invoice.

Too bad. So sad.

My response from Bulk Register can be summed up with six words:

"Can't help you. Get a lawyer."

Well, since they were going to be absolutely no help at all, I allowed myself the luxury of venting a little at them in my reply:

"So, what your saying is that even though your website states that you "have some obligation to domain owners who need to get control of that domain name," you won't, in fact, actually help the person who actually paid for that domain get control of it. Do you not mind that your client is extorting their customers and lying on their WhoIs information?"

I should know better than to attempt to appeal to a corporation's sense of justice.

Engrish

I had sent an email to Bulk Register about my plight with MongoHosting and received a blank automated response. I'm used to automated responses but usually they have some sort of "We have received your service request" but, because this one was blank, I wanted to be sure they got it. I signed on to their realtime chat:

Please wait for a site operator to respond.
You are now chatting with 'Domain Support'

Domain Support: Thank you for contacting BulkRegister's non-member support. How may I help you today?

Der Geis: I sent an e-mail with lots of detail earlier today and got a blank response. I just wanted to be sure it went through. Look for the e-mail address **********.

Domain Support: Sir may i know to which mail id you have send the mail?

My guess is that Bulk Hosting has farmed out their online support overseas. Probably to India. That's where all the support jobs seem to be going. I'm not impressed.

Der Geis: If you mean the reference number attached to the reply description line, it has -**.*******

Domain Support: Sir please send them mail again you will surely get reply from them

Der Geis: By "them" do you mean domainsupport@bulkregister.com?

So I sent the message again hoping that the person addressing this issue is able to read my English. The way I write isn't bad, per se, but it does have some pecular mannarisms and phrases, a relic of my growing up on H.G. Wells, Jules Verne, Robert Heinlein, Ray Bradburry and Isaac Asimov.

Get Packed!

I've done some more investigating concerning the ownership of the domain I have hosted by MongoHosting. According to the WhoIs the Registrant name is Robert Dunbar, 121 Packer Ave, Sayre, PA 19012 with the phone number 215-222-2222.

Firstly, 215 and 19012 are area codes and zip codes for Philadelphia, which is in the Southwest part of the state. Sayre, which has a zip code of 18840 and area code of 570, is in the Northeast part of the state. Both cities have a Packer Avenue but the one in Philly is in the 19148 zip code, not 19012.

The phone number 215-222-2222 never answers. Directory Assistance reports that it is an unlisted number. There is neither a Robert Dunbar nor a Silvercities.com listed for Philadelphia in the 212 area code. A search of the Internet for the number brings up many returns that have the 215-222-2222 as something of a default or false phone number for a number of website templates rather than an actual contact number.

Directory Assistance for the 570 area code reports that there is neither a Robert Dunbar nor a Silvercities.com listed for the Packer Avenue location. There are a number of other Robart Dunbars listed in the area code but I feel it is inappropriate for me to call them all in the hope of tracking down the one I want. Especially when I expect that he will lie to me anyway.

A WhoIs of MongoHosting.com shows Trihost Inc., 121 Packer Ave, Sayre PA 18840. They, at least, have the right zip code. All the contact information is still for Robert Dunbar with the wrong zip code and bad phone number. Directory assistance does not show a Trihost Inc. in Sayre, PA.

A look at www.silvercities.com returns only a placeholder website. A WhoIs on silvercities.com bring up good old Robert Dunbar again but with a new address this time. Charisma computers, 475 River Rd, Nichols, NY 13812. This is just north of Sayre, PA. Directory Assistance does not list any entry for Charisma Computers in Nichols. The WhoIs registrar number listed for Charisma (and Robert); 609-699-0830 "is not in service at this time." Directory assistance gave a number for a Robert Dunbar in Nichols, NY but there was no answer and a lifeless answering machine message that just said to leave a message after the tone.

Bulk Register, who is listed as the Sponsoring Registrar for all these accounts, has this on their website:

However, a small number of Member-resellers go out of business or are unresponsive to domain name owners for a variety of reasons. In this situation we feel we have some obligation to domain owners who need to get control of that domain name. We realize peoples livelihoods sometime depend on it.

I sent them an email describing how MongoHosting is squatting on my domain name in an effort to extort usurious fees from me. I told them how they have not responded to any of my email attempts since Saturday and also detailed the above information showing that the WhoIs information for many of their registry entries are false.

The bad WhoIs information is pretty damning so I hop that wins my case and the rights to my domain.

Help Desk Quote of the Day

It's not often that you get a quote that sums up the entire day before 8:00 am. In this instance, V*** was struggling with walking a user through a workstation password reset. He would give an instruction. Repeat it. Repeat it again. Speak more clearly. Spell things out phonetically. On and on.

At one point, he hit the mute button and said:

"Are you just stupid this morning or are you pretending to be stupid?"

Gotta' love that mute button.

Back Taxes

A co-worker of mine, a resident of the City of Pittsburgh, has just discovered that The Corporation has not been withholding his city taxes. Suddenly he has a $500 bill for back taxes.

The City of Pittsburgh has what's called the "occupation tax" for people who do not live in the city (like myself). My co-worker's experience with his taxes lead me to check my pay stubs, only to discover that my occupation tax hasn't been paid either.

In the past, the occupation tax would be taken out of your first paycheck of the year. It was $10 annually but with the city operating under the Act 47 oversight board and in debt up to it's eyeballs, they have upped the tax to $50-something.

Not only was the $50-odd dollars taken out of my first paycheck of this year but a more in-depth search of my pay receipts shows that The Corporation has never paid that tax. So, I could get nailed for back taxes and interest going back 5 years. And not only me but everyone else who works at the Help Desk.

Hmmmm, DynaVox looks like it's hiring.