eBay getting to be a pain...

This one purchase I made recently on eBay has generated three (count 'em) emails with confusing payment instructions: one from the seller, telling me he prefers payments via PayPal; another one from the seller, which directs me to a separate web site to process my order; and the third from eBay, announcing the end of the auction, suggesting I go pay using Billpoint. Yikes!

Then there is another seller who wants me to fill out a form, should I be weasel enough to want to pay non-electronically.

A third seller chides me gently for not including an auction number in my email correspondence, which is a reply to his message, with the original message fully quoted. The original message, BTW, lacks the auction number.

Ye gods.

Segue...(or maybe not)

Getting one's paycheck in Russia can be interesting. Instead of paying with cash, this one hospital has resorted in the past to paying workers with produce, chickens, and similar goods. They may have stepped over the line with their latest payday, which provides workers with quantities of manure. This recalls various expressions from my youth that speak of eagle droppings (I wonder, would they apply if the eagle were two-headed?)

Segue....(or maybe not)

I don't know what it is about me and Wal-Mart stores, but I have experienced nothing but the most phenomenally consistent incompetence in such stores (based on visits in Houston, Dallas, Durango, and Albuquerque). I am beginning to suspect that prospective employees must be screened on the following basis:

• retail experience...disqualifies an applicant;
  
• knowledge of how to operate a cash register...disqualifies an applicant;
  
• remembering how to operate a cash register after being trained to use one...disqualifies an applicant;
  
• understanding why a customer might give you $10 and two pennies for a purchase of $7.02...disqualifies an applicant;
  
• tearing off and redeeming any "instant savings" coupons on merchandise without the express and vehement insistence of the customer...disqualifies an applicant;
  
• allowing yourself to be stopped by a customer who has a question about prices, availability, colors, etc....disqualifies an applicant (unless said applicant walks away from the customer without rendering aid or promising to return)
  

Cheers...

Purged...

Looking at my previous post, you might get the impression I left "Mr. Positive" at home today.

You'd be sort of half-right, as I forgot my JSC badge at home, and thus, had to detour myself for about 15 minutes to get a temporary badge and then wait for someone to come down and let me into the MCC. Few things will put one in a cheerier mood for work.

On the other hand, I realize that the eBay and Wal-Mart "trauma" is really quite petty. (In fact, I was almost bemused yesterday, standing in line at the Wal-Mart, as I began to think of the job "dis"-qualifications that might be in effect; heck, it was almost as if there was a method in the madness.)

Before having to go to the Wal-Mart (yes, that's right, I was there under compulsion), I visted my local CompUSA, where I became reacquainted with the prices for Linux packages. The "latest" Red Hat - ver. 7.1 - was on sale for $39.95 (this is the basic version). FreeBSD 4.2 was on sale for $10 more, and touted 10 CDs of information along with an 800-page book. Only the Mandrake Linux for Windows package was in the under-$20 range (and while I am on the subject, I was not able to find a link on the Mandrake site to this package).

I ended up getting the FreeBSD, but had to put off installing it because the videos I rented come due tonight, and as I hate to go out at night just to return videos, I decided to watch Mel Gibson's The Patriot.

It is a powerful movie, by which I mean it has the power to move one to emotional extremes (at least, it moved me). It was, in many respects, a hard film to watch; I felt my throat getting tight and staying that way almost through the whole thing.

Curiously, though, I think the movie would have been much more difficult to watch if the commander of His Majesty's Dragoons hadn't been portrayed as such a monster. All of the laws of dramatic development told you that, despite everything, he was going to - had to - Get His Comeuppance In The End. And I must confess to feeling a vicarious triumph when Gibson's character makes him eat cold steel at the film's climax.

Watching war films became more difficult after my stint in the Marines. Now I notice it becoming more difficult still.

Segue...

I've been playing around with a cheap GPS unit, and I've got to say the technology is pretty neat.

Like all neophytes to the concept, I became curious about how precise and accurate the hardware is. Accuracy took center stage, as the unit I'm using only reads down to hundredths of a minute of arc (Travis' Palm-based GPS reads down to thousandths).

Well, according to this page by Sigurd Humerfelt, one minute of latitude covers almost 1850 meters of the earth's surface, while one minute of longitude covers almost 1625 meters at 29°N latitude (this value varies from about 1850 m at the equator to 0 m at the poles). Therefore, one hundredth of one minute spans 18.5 m and 16.25 m, respectively. (One thousandth of a minute would span 1.85 m by 1.63 m, which is a square about 6 by 5 feet.)

Therefore, assuming the GPS position reported is precise, then it will be located within a box having the above dimensions. Pretty neat. A quick look at available documents on GPS precision tells me it is something to be digested separately, and later.

My work place, FWIW, is located at:
29°33.49N 095°05.38W;my house is at:
29°34.09N 095°17.10W.
Cheers...