Rick’s Rants and Raves

I nearly got suckered into biting on a recent Facebook ad. The pitch: sign up for 6 services of your choice among dozens, ranging from Netflix to credit cards to specialty coffee, and in return you’ll get a $1000 digital SLR camera.

I reviewed the “sample” offers. They sounded like stuff I could manage (did you scroll through the whole list? I thought I did). Most of them allowed cancellation without more than $10 out-of-pocket. I figured using my Google calendar as a reminder and a spreadsheet to track the transactions, I could have a really sweet camera for less than $100 and 2 hours of time in about 8 weeks. Too good to be true?

I was toward the end of their terms and conditions, when I got to the Tax Liability section.

DCD requires that anyone receiving gifts valued at $600.00 and above in any calendar year complete and submit a W-9 form

Yeah. Right. The W-9 form requires a social security number. And by ’submit’ they mean I need to give it to them (not the IRS). I guess I understand the legal requirement. And the camera they enticed me with is worth more than $600. But I gotta give them my social? Nah, no thanks.

So next I decided to give them some bogus information to see what the real offers looked like. The first batch looked innocuous enough. Not that I care, but I could pay shipping on Acai and teeth whitening. The second set was equally easy: Tea + Netflix. Then I got to the third set. The kicker. Are you kidding me?

So, my estimate of $100 was off by a distinct lack of comprehension that I would need to commit to a minimum of $1600 in WTF. Yes. To be fair, the “representative sample” does have some high-end crap on it, but I didn’t realize I’d failed to scroll to the very end. To get your $1000 camera you’ll need to spend $1600 on a hotel room for 5 nights (which normally is only $1000 from their website directly!) plus all the other shady, worthless crapola.

Ah, that was a great scam. I’m so glad I learned of Dodgeit.com years ago to provide crap e-mail addresses to scummy dealers like this.

A while ago, we started getting this error message when copying files from our NSLU2 network drive:

“Do you want to move or copy files from this zone?”

The NSLU2 is on our local network, so it made no sense to me why it would be considered part of an Explorer zone that we shouldn’t trust. Of course I searched a bit to find a solution, but never found much that was promising. For the most part, we just put up with the annoyance.

One day, I was tired of the stupid message and went to figure it out. It was surprisingly simple.

In Internet Explorer, choose Internet Options from the Tools menu.

On the Security tab, choose Local intranet and make sure the Security level for this zone is set to Medium-Low.

Click Sites.

Check Include all network paths (UNCs). Click OK twice.

Now when you copy files from a local network device, you won’t get that annoying warning.

If this helps you, please leave a quick comment to let others know.

Last month I asked “How do you prevent digital media loss?” Well, I’ve learned the answer from The Digital Photography Book. According to the author, pro photographers use relatively small digital media cards (like 2GB), swap them when nearly full, then copy the full one to a portable photo viewer/hard drive like the Epson P-3000 40GB Multimedia Storage Drive.

That’s a great idea, and I like the looks of the product, but at $400 for 40GB and a 4″ LCD, it sure seems darned expensive given current technology. If you don’t care about the pretty LCD screen, the Wolverine Data 7080 Flash Pack is much cheaper ($100) and purports to do the same thing. Heck, even a full-featured Netbook PC with 160GB is cheaper.

Regardless of product, the key is that there are a number of ways to copy photos from cards to backup devices.

(Many of the pictures taken are linked from this post. There are more in this Flickr set.)

This year, we decided to visit Anne’s aunt Margi for one of our two week-long summer vacations. My first day of vacation from work was Friday, which we spent preparing for the rest of the trip: doing laundry, packing, cleaning (Anne hates coming home to a messy house), going to the bank, etc. We were done with everything in time to get to bed at a decent hour, but none of us got a good night’s sleep, we were so excited about leaving.

Saturday

My alarm went off at 5:20AM, and I was relieved to get out of bed. Anne went to wake the kids, bracing for a rough start to a long day. Nathan practically jumped out of bed, happily asking “Is it time to get up?!?!?” Unlike our previous trip, we were shooting to make this trip all in one day, and so our planned 6AM departure was crucial. We were in the car, backing down the drive way at 6:09. Anne thought it was great that we got to see sunrise from the freeway.

We made as few stops as possible along the way, passing into Pennsylvania after only 3 hours of driving, and into Vermont in 11 hours. We made it to their house in 13.5 hours, which is about what Google and AAA’s Trip Tik predicted. The kids were great the whole way, happily watching as many DVDs as they wanted (OH technology is Great!).  Margie and Steve planned on making dinner for us, and while we waited for the charcoal to settle, Nathan took his first try in a kayak. I wanted to take some time to give him some instruction, but he just wanted to get in and go. Oh well, I figured, I can always go get him and tow him in if he has difficulties. He immediately understood the paddling mechanics, and was off, in complete heaven.

Sunday

In the morning we had a little time to kill before our first big adventure in Vermont, which Nathan and Emily spent mostly playing on the lake. After a late breakfast, we went to see Circus Smirkus: a Vermont based traveling youth circus. We saw their opening performance and it was great fun. They had a lot of acrobatics, trapeze work, unicycles, and comical sketches, but no animals. We all had a blast.

We went back to Margi’s house, where the kids tried their hands at fishing. Nathan had been fishing before, but had never caught anything. This time, it was easier than shooting fish in a barrel. Uncle Steve showed Nathan how to put a worm on his hook, and later, how to deal with the results. Nathan was really excited when he pulled in his first after letting the worm soak for 30-45 seconds. After Nathan caught a couple of more, Emily decided to give it a try. This was her first time ever fishing, and she was just as excited with her first catch. The competition between the two grew intense, right until they couldn’t locate any more worms in the garden. Hazel judged the competition a tie. While the kids were fishing, Anne and I took to the kayaks, relaxing in Turtle cove, and taking pictures of the water lilies.

Monday

While Margie and Steve went to work, we ventured to the Shelburne Museum. This is a museum unlike we’d ever seen before: it was a personal collection of Americana, that was simply impressive. We saw nearly the whole thing, but it was definitely not a bargain at $50 for the whole family. We got to see a guest motorcycle exhibit, a bunch of circus miniatures, a wall full of stuffed animal heads, a private train car, and locomotive, the Ticonderoga, a general store with apothecary, a weaver, a toy store, a covered bridge, and a whole bunch of other stuff. It was a bit cold, a bit rainy, and incredibly interesting. Just as the kids were getting bored with one exhibit, we went to another that recaptured their imagination.
We finished the day visiting with Jessie’s ferret Faye, and posing for pictures on Champy, the fabled monster of Lake Champlain.

Tuesday

I got into a kayak before the kids woke up, and almost immediately heard a loon on the lake. It wasn’t too long before I found him. He’d let me get about 50 yards away before he’d dive and swim 20 yards away. Every time he did this, I was amazed at how far he got.
The kids got up later than usual, and we eventually decided to visit the sites around Smugglers’ Notch. Driving up to the notch was a lot of fun, especially after the sign that said “Road Narrows/No Center Line”. The notch itself is a patch of pavement around 10 feet wide between very jagged rocks–it’s a two lane road only for motorcycles. It’s not open in the winter, and never for trucks and RVs. We played in the boulders near the notch, but decided against hiking one of the nearby trails rated “Moderate to difficult”.
After lunch, we chose to ride the gondolas up Mount Mansfield (again, no bargain at $53 for a family). The worst part was that we’d taken a bit too long with everything so far that day and only had just about 2 hours before the gondola closed (making our only option for getting down the mountain a 2.5 mile-knee- wrenching-2000-foot-drop hike). The guy who helped us into the gondola explained that the hike to the peak from the top gondola stop was just over an hour for those experienced with the hike. We realized there was no way we’d make it. We got to the top of the gondola, looked around and said “well crap, we might as well hike up a bit more to see how far we can get”. We found the Cliff Trail and started up. And up. When the trail went under a boulder, then involved climbing over boulders using steel hand-holds, we decided that was enough. Fortunately, the view at that point was pretty spectacular. When we looked up the description of the trail at home, we discovered it was a “DDD … very difficult” rated trail. As we descended, I told Anne it was one of the most difficult trails I personally had ever been on, including all my time at Philmont. We made it to the top of the gondola with 30 minutes to spare.

In the parking lot of the gondola, Anne suggested the Bingham Falls trail. It was only a short distance from the gondola, and sounded like fun. We’d driven past the pull-off point twice already, but didn’t know about the falls trail because there was no sign on the road. It was an easy trail at first, but then descended pretty sharply to the base of the falls. Actually, it was about 10 different cascades that had carved deeply into the rock. We definitely couldn’t see all of it, and a memorial plaque for someone who’d died in 2007 reminded us that we didn’t want to.

Wednesday

We spent the morning being lazy, waiting for Jessie to join us. She helped capture some of the wildlife so that we could get a closer look. We then ventured out onto the lake, doing a little more fishing and loon watching. We had rain off and on all day and into the evening. The rain nearly put out our cooking fire, but then held off for an hour or two so that our dutch oven roast chicken could finish cooking.

Thursday

The rain continued unabated into Thursday, but we decided to venture into Montpelier, visiting stores and restaurants in the smallest state capital. The road into Montpelier that eventually becomes Main Street isn’t paved until 10 miles from downtown. Along that road is a “neighborhood watch” sign that is, quite literally, in the middle of nowhere. After we were finished with most of the shops in the beautiful downtown, we went on a scenic drive, crossing through three covered bridges, and near some fabulous water falls. While on the rocks near the falls, we found a pool with a couple hundred tadpoles happily swimming around.

Friday

Jessie was back with us on Friday, and led us up the side of Woodbury mountain, where we clambered around two different falls. When we returned to the house, the sun was out, and everyone took advantage to play on the lake.

Saturday

We toured around a couple of different sites with Margi and Steve. First we stopped at an arts & crafts fair being held in the Lyndonville town square. There were a lot of neat crafts, some excellent pottery, and food from local restaurants. The angry clouds let loose on the crowd a couple of times while we were there. Being an amateur photographer, I like to look at what semi-pro photographers are trying to sell–one wanted $350 for 12×14 inch prints of farm animals. Holy Cow!

Next we ventured to Lyndonville State College to investigate a celtic music festival, but decided that the “amphitheater” was really just a grassy (soon to be muddy) hillside, and that the “clearing” weather still looked more like “angry” or “temperamental“.

Next we drove up the side of Burke Mountain. When we got to the top (within feet of the summit) there was a disconcerting smell coming from the hood of our minivan, and gentle rumbling coming from a near by cloud which was about eye level. We took the ridge trail to the top (queue quote from Gimli If anyone was to ask for my opinion, which I note they’re not, I’d say we were taking the long way around. ), looked at the fire tower and cell tower, then made our way (the quick way) back to the parking lot. Along the way down, we took a picture that we’ll be submitting to our newspaper for their “Hello Columbus” column.

After we got back to Margi and Steve’s house, we played with sparklers (in between rain showers), and watched fireworks on TV.

Sunday

We loaded the van, and left Turtle Cove after thanking our hosts for a wonderful week. The weather hadn’t cooperated very much, be we had a fabulous time nonetheless.

We were planning on taking two day to go home, so we made a couple of site-seeing stops along the way. First was Button Bay state park on Lake Champlain. The history and geology of the park are interesting. But we fell in love with the view of the lake. Nathan begged us to buy a house (and a boat) right on the lake.

Next we rode the Fort Ticonderoga Ferry across Lake Champlain. It has to be one of the shortest ferry trips in the world, but it was fun, and got us to Fort Ticonderoga in style.

While at “Fort Ti” we looked at the museum displays, watched reenactors shoot a cannon twice and play fife and drum, and generally got sun-burnt while learning about early American history.

We then ventured to the top of Mount Defiance to see what Fort Ti looked like from above–pretty vulnerable.

We did some more driving and ended up staying the night in a motel on the north end of the town of Lake George. What struck us most about this part of the town was that it seemed like a throwback to the 1950s tourist beach resort. All the motels are small and locally owned, nearly all of them have a small strip of beach front. Few of the restaurants are chains. We settled in, enjoyed a great dinner at a local favorite, let the kids play in the pool, and watched the setting sun slowly put the lake into shadow.

Monday

We finished the drive home in about 10 hours plus stops. We didn’t take any pictures today. But all told, we took over 800 pictures, and drove almost 2000 miles. The kids were great. Margi and Steve were incredible hosts. Our minivan held up to all the moutainous driving. It was a fabulous vacation.