Google News seems to do a good job of showing that there are 3,352 news articles which are pretty much all about this same piece of news. Providing the most recent, some of the most popular, video, and all other sources.

I suppose they could do a better job of showing who the originally broke the news though. The amount of generalized plagiarism online seems to have reached a point where everyone considers it acceptable copy, paste, perhaps reword the majority of the content. This almost creates a funnel system as you see larger entities pick up the story and add their spin. Share and spin alike I suppose. Where you’re lucky you’ll see the site provide a “source” or “via” link and you can eventually, hopefully, find your way back to the original source. Here’s an example of a trail for an average post on Engadget.

Google Reader for example has been great at recommendations but I’ve found that with friends and multiple sites “sharing” content, posts are often duplicated. Then of course if you want to find the source you end up having to cookie crumb your way back to what you think is the source. There’s times where this becomes a bit of a loop as well. By adding a SOURCE option and a button with a count of similar posts that might help things a bit.

Facebook can have a similar problem, of course when the stories are identical Facebook will group the posts across your friends and show you that indeed you and 4 others have posted it.

On Facebook, ideally there’d be a better way of presenting this… Both of these are talking about the same news event, one shared from Engadget, the other from Gizmodo, the photos are from Flickr and the original source for the story seems to be Neowin.

Facebook doesn’t show you similar stories and it doesn’t really help you identify the source (in this case Gallup) either.

Hmm, could probably keep going with this but need to think about it a bit more first… Note to self, update later.

Dad,
Here’s how to pick your passwords:

• So I first pick a word or phrase. For starters it could be a word that describes the institution the password is for. Say it’s your bank, greedybastards or perhaps for a dating site, romantic. Though in practice it’s probably better to pick a subject you’re interested in and pick from its lexicon. I usually go for stars and constellations…
• Next pick a letter or two to capitalize.
  greedybastards == GreedYbastards and romantic == RoMantic
• Next pick a letter or two to replace with a number.
  GreedYbastards” == GreedYb45tards and RoMantic == R0Ma7tic
• Finally replace a letter with a symbol, I usually pick the last letter of the word or phrase but sometimes if the password is short add on a symbol at the end starting with 1/!.
  GreedYb45tards == GreedYb45tard% and R0Ma7tic == R0Ma7tic!
• If you have the option set for your password to expire regularly, now when you need to change your password simply move to the next symbol.
  GreedYb45tard% == GreedYb45tard^ and R0Ma7tic! == R0Ma7tic@
• After you’ve gone through 3-9 symbols change the base word or phrase. How often you change the word is really dependent on how lazy you are and how secure you feel you need to be with the data you’re protecting.

I haven’t yet found a single password service or application that really makes life any simpler. So for now picking different passwords for each login and using a word or phrase that reminds of you what the login is for in the first does make it a little easier. Yes I know, it sucks Dad… You could always not worry and use the same password everywhere and make it something really simple that you’ll never forget. But then ask yourself what happens when it becomes compromised once. You have to go and update it everywhere and that sort of thing will happen more often than not.

Hopefully this will help since it really is a pain in the ass resolving your router issues because you’ve forgotten the password.

The second link is PDF, clicking show more results gives me the 100% of the PDF’s I need. A simple right click Save Target As and I’ve probably just saved at least 5 additional clicks and a good 30 seconds. Not only that, notice the 3rd link.  That one is arguably more valuable as far as getting additional help and resources regarding the Denon receiver.

Compared to Bing, same exact search… I know the first link is best, but if I were to look around the page I really see nothing that’d point me to a quick and immediate download of the PDF. Obviously there’s going to be a few more clicks involved here.

Anyway, I’m sure this will change soon .

The Explorer was a great tripod, and I’m pretty set on getting the new version. It wasn’t quick to set up but it was infinitely versatile. The Acratech was also a great ballhead, I can’t think of any complaints really, at least none that aren’t solved by the new Acratech GP ballhead.

I’m sort of thinking though that this new ballhead should have a pan arm though for video usage on the 7D. Thinking about it now, it’d be awesome if Acratech just added a screw hole to the right side of the quick release plate. That way you could screw in a pan arm. There’d be no question about the ballhead then. For now, it’s not that way so I’m considering options, next in line is a RRS BH-55.

Help me decide Internet! Too many forum discussions to read!

At any rate, the 7D with the EF 24mm f/1.4L II is awesome, I need to get off my ass and update the theme here and create a decent gallery. I wish this was all a lot cheaper it’s such a relaxing and enjoyable endeavor, it sucks that paying for it creates such stress.

A couple nights ago I got in the car and it was especially cold, turning it on and the tire pressure monitoring system said the tires were low. Sure enough, go to check at the Chevron outside the office and they’re all pretty low with one being below 30psi. Grab the hose, inflate to 38psi or so and call it good. After resetting the TPM and driving to give the sensors time to calibrate, all is good.

I knew about the temperature affecting TPM’s so didn’t sweat it, but still, it’s kind of nice to see that they’d send out emails to customers just in case. To top it off the link takes you directly to a video about how to reset the TPM.

This sure beats the other email I got from ISTA my water and sewer provider… Yet another thing to waste time on. Stupid e-bill shows $65 this period vs. $25 the last. Grr.

Example Dell’s Studio One 19.

While Apple and the Microsoft Surface along with other research has clearly sparked the entire multitouch movement. Right now is not the time for people to be going crazy and buying these PC’s. Apple is at least being smart about it and only adding it where it makes sense, handheld devices, touch pads, the Magic Mouse. You probably won’t ever see Apple add it to an iMac screen.

On the PC at this point I’d probably tell anyone who asked to fore go the expensive multitouch desktop PC’s and simply buy Wacom’s multitouch tablet.

It’s not even really that the features for multitouch aren’t there in software. Windows 7 and Snow Leopard both have awesome support. Right now at least the hardware just doesn’t match reality when it comes to usability.

Multitouch for desktop PC’s really isn’t going to get anywhere till we have real haptic input via a secondary display surface that can replace both the keyboard and mouse. A good start might be Senseg’s stuff. There was another thing I remember seeing but can’t find the URL at the moment.

Imagine just having a surface below your primary screen that’s a secondary display that replaces your keyboard and mimics the feel close enough. The feedback areas could easily change with what’s being displayed on the secondary display. To the right or left of the on screen keyboard could be an area for your entire hand to control and touch multiple pointers, see 10/GUI.

This is the sort of control surface that’ll replace the mouse and keyboard in time. It’s certainly not going to happen over night, but until the technology really gets to this point, multitouch displays in the primary vertical orientation just don’t make sense.

I honestly don’t know what’s with PC manufacturers, they just don’t seem to get what Apple clearly does. Here’s another example from Dell, their new Adamo XPS laptop. From the looks of it, a pretty amazingly cool piece of hardware. I’d love to know just much time and energy was spent on adding the ridiculous heat sensing strip. What real purpose does this serve? Speaking of strips that serve no purpose Dell yet again with their EdgeTouch on the Z600. Engadget has it right, “makes overcompensated CEOs out of us all”. Why the hell does anyone really need a touch sensitive strip on the right side of the laptop screen that’s going to require some crapware that undoubtedly causes more issues than anything else.

Dell isn’t the only guilty party. It’s not like Toshiba, Sony, HP, you name it have decently designed crap that isn’t just a bunch of plastic. Microsoft Hardware has done their fair share of stupidity as well. Compare the new Apple keyboards which are simple and refined to some Microsoft keyboards and you’ll notice a bunch of extra multimedia buttons those F-Lock functions, you name it. Then each new generation they change what’s included as well as the behavior. My original Natural Pro has a complete different set of buttons than my Entertainment 7000. I prefer the Natural keyboards over Logitech and Apple and just about anything else. Microsoft has an *amazingly* awesome sense for ergonomics far above Apple, that’s for sure (I’m looking at you Mighty Mouse nipple). But they’re far from perfect. I don’t really get why it’s so hard for everyone that isn’t Apple to figure out how to make decent hardware.

There’s probably 2 or 3 well designed and well made machines from both HP, Dell, Sony, hell some even like Lenovo laptops. But the bulk of the crap that’s put out by the industry is rehashed plastic crap that has bloat inside and out.

Jonathan Ive’s was right, it’s not about what you add but what you remove. This doesn’t just apply to the design of the products but the entire product line.

What gets annoying is when you have a phone call earlier in the day where a customer complains about crap not working that used to work or relatively new stuff not working. No drivers, bad drivers, whatever.

I mean come on, it’s not Microsoft’s fault. It’s not like Vista wasn’t in beta for 6 years and 7 for 2+. Hell Microsoft even helps people write their drivers. Still, we get crap drivers way too late which just pisses people off.

I’m not blaming M-Audio here. I’m just frustrated at the statu quo. I’ve not completed my search for updates bits yet so for all I know it’ll be working in 5 minutes. I’m a bit miffed it’s not just a simple plug and play. Or updated drivers off Microsoft Update. My philosophy would be to release early at every point of the process. It’s understandable if the stuff doesn’t work perfectly during the beta. But at least you won’t have customers out in the cold come RTM.

And I do have to say, Vista’s only failure was in its public perception. Yes UAC was overblown, yes they failed to deliver half what they promised at PDC03, but at the same time it was a huge improvement over XP. People will forget that XP was considered crap until SP2 made it what it is. Vista is the same deal. SP2 is amazing most of the time.

Now with Windows 7 people are finally saying it’s what Vista should’ve been, this is rather funny really because even with 7 being as awesome as it is, there’s still a lot left that was still promised and shown at PDC03.

Perhaps Microsoft’s priorities have shifted, for example multitouch wasn’t as huge as it is now. Perhaps Microsoft’s resources haven’t quite been allocated as well as they could be. Or maybe what’s actually being engineered is just a little more complicated than we expected.

I’m still thinking of that amazingly good demo from PDC03 with the millions of photos and albums shown in 3D that was completely fluid, all driven by meta data in a WinFS powered back end. The reality unfortunately is that despite what Microsoft is delivering in 7 and Apple has been delivering in Snow Leopard really doesn’t match up to demos.

Still, 7 is pretty awesome, it’s definitely the best OS Microsoft has yet to release.

You know, it could just be a consequence of trying to move technology so quickly. On both the hardware and software side.

Example, 1080p 56″ LED DLP about 3 years ago was about $3400. Now you could probably find one for $900. LED LCD purchased about two months ago, $3200, at a steep discount no less. Now, $2500, via Amazon.

That’s a pretty fast progression in both price and obsolescence. Maybe everyone just expects too much too quickly .

Maybe Michael Moore has hit on something with Capitalism, I’ve not even seen it yet but I get the feeling we in general have expected exponential growth but have the lack of widespread focus to actually get anything accomplished. And this is due to the current state of Capitalism in the US. It doesn’t seem like everyone is as focused on a singular task as they were when getting to the moon or fighting the Axis powers.

It’s not just technology either, where’s the focus on health, energy, and sustainability? I think Dawkins and Maher might agree that to some extent the lack of focus is exacerbated in part by the lack of reason and the divisiveness of US politics and religion.

But anyway, I just want to make some music damn it .

“Think you can you taste the difference between our fresh brewed and new, breakthrough instant coffee?”

If I can’t taste the difference why would I ever go visit you again? I sure hope you guys make more money on the instant stuff since the opportunities to supersize me on a Venti Mocha Frap aren’t going to work out if I start drinking your breakthrough instant stuff at home.

The world doesn’t need another instant coffee it needs… wait, err, that’s the wrong ad.

Way to play right into where McDonalds and Nescafe want you… they’ve started taking your core on the go coffee drinker away. Pretty soon all that will be left are the deliciously evil foo foo drinks that have as many calories as a damned quarter pounder with cheese:

• 24 fl. oz. Mocha Frap with cream = 500 calories / 17 grams of fat
• Quarter Pounder® with cheese (apparently McDonalds owns the rights to calling a 1/4 lb. burger that, yay for gratuitous copyright law) = 510 calories / 26 grams of fat
• Kill the cheese and the Mocha Frap has 90 more calories and only 2 grams of fat less than the burger.

I guess I’ve never been the target audience. I’ll drink Starbucks because it’s there. I refuse McDonalds and the like even if free. I’d rather make the time to prepare coffee in a French press than develop road rage just trying to get through a crowded drive-thru.

One thing I’m bummed about is that I can’t seem to find any of the Homegroup stuff in Server 2008 R2. I have a feeling I’m going to be let down. Was seriously hoping to just have the server be the media and file source but alas… Maybe I’m destined to just run Windows 7 on the server and use a WAMP type thing, no more IIS. No more virtualized server.

We’ll see.

UPDATE: One small hiccup that I ran into was with IIS after the upgrade from 2008 to 2008 R2. Any websites that had failed tracing enabled kept bringing up 500 errors. To resolve this I simply deleted all the previous FailedReqLogFiles folders, disabled the tracing, then enabled it once more for any of the sites that had it on in the first place.

But like I said, I just wanted a quick way to be notified if my server is getting to hot. Twitter has the benefit of texting me directly for stuff I choose so I figured it’d be an easy way of being notified. With the help of a few searches and some hacking and slashing of code I’ve got a nice little way of keeping tabs on my server through Twitter now. Technically since it’s using WMI, keeping track of just about anything is possible. There’s a load of data available if you check out MSDN. In my case, Dell exposes quite a bit of data against my PowerEdge 2900. In most cases this script and this sort of idea will work with just about any system out there running Vista, 7, or Server 2008. Straight out of the box no less.

First things first, I wanted to make sure I could pull the right data. In this sample, we use some simple VBS to query the WMI service and create a query to pull the current reading and status from the temperature sensor. In my first version, I omitted the if statements to make things simpler but later to make it work with the Twitter portion of the script I needed to write the WMI values to a variable. I did this a second time to pull the fan speeds as well since the first test with the temp worked well.

On Error Resume Next

strComputer = "."
Set objWMIService = GetObject("winmgmts:" _
    & "{impersonationLevel=impersonate}!\\" & strComputer & "\root\cimv2\dell")

Set colItems = objWMIService.ExecQuery("Select CurrentReading, Status from CIM_TemperatureSensor")

For Each objItem in colItems
 if typename(objItem.Status) <> "Null" then
  if objItem.Status(0) <> "" Then
  sStatus = objItem.Status(0) ' write to variable
  Wscript.Echo "Status: " & sStatus ' print out the info
  end if
 end if
 if typename(objItem.CurrentReading) <> "Null" then
  if objItem.CurrentReading(0) <> "" Then
  sTemp = objItem.CurrentReading(0) ' write to variable
  Wscript.Echo "Temp: " & sTemp / 10 & "c" ' print out the info
  end if
 end if
Next

Set colItems = objWMIService.ExecQuery("Select CurrentReading from CIM_Tachometer") ' switching context

For Each objItem in colItems
 if typename(objItem.CurrentReading) <> "Null" then
  if objItem.CurrentReading(0) <> "" Then
  sFan = sFan + objItem.CurrentReading(0)  ' increase the sum of fan speeds
  sCount = sCount + 1 ' increase the count of fans
  end if
 end if
Next
Wscript.Echo "RPM:  " & Cstr(Round(sFan / sCount)) ' take the sum total of fan speeds and average it out 

So this first VBScript really just comes in handy for making sure you’re gathering the right data and writing it to a variable then printing it out to the command line fine. Perfect little test bed really.

Next, we’ll want to make sure we can write to Twitter just fine. To do this I used this sample VBScript:

if not wscript.arguments.count > 1 then
   wscript.echo "Not enough options provided"
   wscript.quit
end if

sUrl = "http://twitter.com/statuses/update.xml"
sUsername = wscript.arguments(0)
sPassword = wscript.arguments(1)
sMessage = wscript.arguments(2)

wscript.echo sUsername & ", " & sPassword & ", " & sMessage
sMessage = "status=" & sMessage

HTTPPost sUrl, sMessage, sUsername, sPassword

Function HTTPPost(sUrl, sRequest, sUsername, sPassword)
  set oHTTP = CreateObject("Microsoft.XMLHTTP")
oHTTP.open "POST", sUrl,false,sUsername,sPassword
  oHTTP.send sMessage
  HTTPPost = oHTTP.responseText
  WScript.Echo HTTPPost
End Function

The usage is pretty simple, from the command line you run the script, twitter.vbs you pass it your username, password, and the message you want posted. If it updates Twitter you know that bit works. I honestly borrowed this code from some random find on the web, I wish I could remember which result it was but I don’t (if you recognize it please give me a link for proper credit). But honestly there’s a bunch of samples out there, Twitter does a good job of helping people with their API.

Now finally, I took the two samples above, then combined them into the code that now reads the info through WMI and posts to Twitter:

Dim strUsername, strPassword, strMessage, sStatus, sTemp, sFan, sCount ' declare variables

On Error Resume Next

strComputer = "."
Set objWMIService = GetObject("winmgmts:" _
    & "{impersonationLevel=impersonate}!\\" & strComputer & "\root\cimv2\dell") 'specify wmiService

Set colItems = objWMIService.ExecQuery("Select CurrentReading, Status from CIM_TemperatureSensor")

For Each objItem in colItems
 if typename(objItem.Status) <> "Null" then
  if objItem.Status(0) <> "" Then
  sStatus = objItem.Status(0) ' write to variable
  end if
 end if
 if typename(objItem.CurrentReading) <> "Null" then
  if objItem.CurrentReading(0) <> "" then
  sTemp = objItem.CurrentReading(0) ' write to variable
  end if
 end if
Next

Set colItems = objWMIService.ExecQuery("Select CurrentReading from CIM_Tachometer") ' switching context

For Each objItem in colItems
 if typename(objItem.CurrentReading) <> "Null" then
  if objItem.CurrentReading(0) <> "" Then
  sFan = sFan + objItem.CurrentReading(0)
  sCount = sCount + 1 ' take the sum total of fan speeds and average it out
  end if
 end if
Next

strUsername = "corego" '  Twitter username
strPassword = " " ' Twitter password, remove for testing
strMessage =  "automated message from @corego's server: the status is " & CStr(sStatus) & ", the ambient temp is " & CStr(sTemp / 10) & "c, and average fan speed across " & sCount & " fans is " & CStr(Round(sFan / sCount)) & "RPM" 'mesage that's posted to Twitter.

' strMessage is where the big ass string is put together.
' Use CStr to ensure the values from WMI are in a string format, divide the temp by 10 since it needs it.
' Take the average fan speed across the number of fans and round them to make it pretty.

' Calling the function and store the result in a variable.
Dim strTwitterXMLResponse
strTwitterXMLResponse = SendToTwitter(strMessage, strUsername, strPassword)

' Post back the result with a messagebox so you know something happend.
' MsgBox strMessage, VbOkOnly, "TWITTER STATUS UPDATE"

' The MsgBox is disabled for live, enabled for testing, uncomment this and comment your password for testing.

Function SendToTwitter(strMessage, strUsername, strPassword) ' actual send function

     ' This is the function which does all the work.
     ' It uses XMLHTTP to post your message to Twitter.
     Dim objHTTP
     Set objHTTP = CreateObject("Microsoft.XMLHTTP")
          objHTTP.open "POST", "http://twitter.com/statuses/update.xml", false, strUsername, strPassword
          objHTTP.send "status=" & strMessage
          ' The function stores the Twitter response to the result of the function so you can use this later
          SendToTwitter = objHTTP.responseText
     Set objHTTP = nothing 'Release the object
End Function

And that’s pretty much that. You could run this as a scheduled task to update regularly. You could maybe add some refresher code to leave it running all the time and only update when the temperature changes. Options are pretty much open. You could also modify this to spit out some HTML for your WordPress blog, something I might do at some point.

In the end, I used Dell’s Open Manage stuff to use the built in alerting. I’ve set it up to basically run this VBS any time the system is in the Warning or Critical levels I mentioned previously. If the temp hits 42c it’ll kick off the alert and Twitter will get updated along with the SMS sent to my iPhone. Another future idea is to write a very simple iPhone friendly web page that’ll let me manage the server. Maybe cycle IIS, restart, shutdown, etc. For now this is good enough.

I was going to create an account just for the server on Twitter but that seems excessive. I don’t like managing multiple accounts and this should only alert when it really needs to. But there you go. Enjoy.

Oh and one last thing, I’ve tested this against only a single machine, so YMMV, I’m also not a Dev, you can probably perfect the code, make it simpler, cleaner, whatever. Feel free to provide constructive feedback.

The moment I saw Natal on the 360 the first thing that popped into my head was a good porn game utilizing the technology. I figure if Vivid Entertainment got behind it then some quality entertainment could be made.

I mean combine full motion capture with a nice MMO sort of thing with XBL, maybe do some games with live action video of the big stars, maybe some POV type stuff… it could really work. And just think, there’s tons of ways to up sell add-ons, both physical and virtual, special wireless controllers, virtual toys and stuff on the XBL Marketplace, oh and various porn stars could be downloaded to offer new experiences.

Now obviously it’d be pretty amusing, I mean, could you imagine the status reporting: coreygo is playing Porn Star in a session with Sasha Grey. There would be new meaning to achievement points.

Sadly I’m pretty sure Microsoft and Xbox have standards for this stuff and these games wouldn’t pass the approval process. But seriously there’s no reason why a Adult Only category couldn’t exist. The porn industry is huge, it made VHS win, it played a part in the BD vs. HD-DVD battle. It could make bank.

Now to get in contact with the right people in the industry… Sasha, email me. ROFL.

But here’s the kicker. First they already dropped my credit limit from $22,000 to $15,400. The cheeky fuckers raised my interest rate from their supposed lowest possible rate 11.99% in Feb to more than double that. A hot rate of 27.22% in March.

So I’ve just been charged double the interest for the past two months and will be for this month and the next. Essentially they’re just crediting me my own bloody interest back. Seriously, WTF.

The real kicker here comes from using NewCreditRules.com’s Interest and Payoff Calculator. I normally pay about $750/mo towards my current balance of $13880.

Before:
Making payments of $750 on a balance of $13880 would take you 21 months to pay off with a 12% APR.
Total interest paid is $1546.20 ($15426.20 total paid).

After:
Making payments of $750 on a balance of $13880 would take you 25 months to pay off with a 27.2% APR.
Total interest paid is $4319.48 ($18199.48 total paid).

Some loyalty, the only reason why I’m paying anything right now is because I did a balance transfer from my two other cards to consolidate payments. I’ve been a customer for 7 years and am currently a share holder, not to mention my credit score of 823. Nice doing business with you too, asses.

UPDATE: It gets better. I just called to find out why my rates were doubled. It turns out they decided to put me to the default rates after I accidentally made a payment against my WaMu checking account which was closed a day prior. I actually noticed this immediately after making the payment and called them. I tried to have that payment cancelled as I added my Fidelity account and wanted to make an immediate payment from that account. I also wanted to make sure this didn’t mess up my rates, charge me a return payment fee, and more importantly not screw up my score. I was assured that everything would be fine, and got the $38 charge reversed and was assured that my rate and score would be fine.

03/13/2009*     Credit Adjustment for Returned Payment Fee      -38.00
03/09/2009*     FEE FOR RETURNED PAYMENT FEE FOR RETURNED ELECTRONIC TRANSACTION     38.00
03/09/2009*     RETURNED CHECK/DECLINED BANK TRANSACTIONS     500.00
03/06/2009*     COMPUTER PAYMENT RECEIVED – THANK    -500.00
03/05/2009*     COMPUTER PAYMENT RECEIVED – THANK    -500.00  

This was all noted on my account and to top it off my payment wasn’t even due till the 20th of March anyway. My minimum due was less than $500 to boot.

I told the first customer service person that this was ridiculous and she said “sir, it’s actually worse to have a returned payment than a late one”. I just said… interesting, could you please escalate this. American Express will lose my business and all further interest from my account unless the rate increase is reversed.

I was transferred to a supervisor (Chris x23468 – he was nice and only doing his job but reading from a script no doubt). He basically said the same thing, it wasn’t American Express’ mistake and despite the fact I called up within 10 minutes of noticing the error and corrected it, and despite the fact that they even reversed the fees they couldn’t reverse the rate increase. I said I’d be sending this all to the CEO of American Express, Consumerist, and NewCreditRule’s.

I also have an American Express Clear card, but guess what, despite making the same payment mistake my rates are still at 8.89% on that card. Talk about complete idiocy.

It’s amazing how they’d be willing to lose a few thousand dollars in interest, an excellent and very loyal customer of over 7 years, plus some additional negative publicity over something like this. At this point I’ll be taking them up on that 5.4% credit offer, paying them off completely and never using them again if possible. I won’t close the accounts since it’ll probably do my FICO no good, but oh well. I’ll just be the customer they hate, the type that earns them no interest, the type to use Visa, it’s accepted absolutely everywhere anyway.

But what else is new, everyone already knows the credit industry is fucked up. Oh and in case you didn’t already know, American Express profits are down 56%.

UPDATE: I decided to call American Express once more this morning on my way into work. I explained the entire thing again… This time around I spoke with an Ilene out of Hillsboro, NC. She was very empathetic and realized how I’ve almost always paid double and never been late, plus the rest of the documented history of how I called to try and correct the payment snafu 10 minutes after it happened. At first she said there wasn’t really anything she could do. For some reason after a short wait this changed to her dropping me from 27.22% to 13.99%, a little closer to my original rate of 11.99%. Still I’m a bit miffed since this there’s really no reason for this. I’m still out the extra $350~ in extra interest charges for the past two months as well. Plus this tells me that:

1. The two people last night lied to me.
2. The two people last night were just being lame and just didn’t care.
3. The two people last night weren’t very well trained.
4. All of the above.

My advice to American Express, listen to Barry Schwartz’s TED talk and stop screwing your loyal customers. Kudos to Ilene for trying, I appreciate it.

UPDATE: Logged into Amex’s website to verify the rates and all that. Looks like the jerks dropped my limit on the Clear card a couple grand to within $117 of my current balance. Thanks for screwing with my credit score once again Amex.

It’s okay Mr. Postman, I’ve got your $.41 covered. I’m sure Wells Fargo can’t spare any of that TARP money just yet.