House of Jorob

Jamming With Edward!

When I was younger--I was something like 12 or 13--I had a cassette copy of "Jamming With Edward!", an album featuring Mick Jagger, Bill Wyman, Ry Cooder, Charlie Watts, and Nicky Hopkins.

That cassette had some of the kickingest piano jams on it, and there was one piece at the end of the second half called Highland Fling that just ripped.

I realize now it sounded like the rest of the guys were tossing back a few between songs, and from the few reviews of the album that I can find these days, not many people cared for the resulting tracks.

But to me, and to my young mind just beginning to fight against having to listen to AM radio chosen by my parents (WIP, anybody?), that sloppy album with the Smiling Guy on the cover represented something far more.

It was freedom.

Electricity Choice: I Left PECO For Another

"Hey, have you picked an energy supplier yet?"

"Nope."

After going 11 for 11 with that question this month, it was clear I wasn't going to find a quick answer, one that would solve the problem created not by energy deregulation January 1 of this year, but by PECO's announcement of a rate hike this coming October 1.

For all the noise in the media about the damage deregulation would do to my bill back in January, it didn't happen. My PECO price never went above 9 cents per kilowatt hour. Every other energy supplier was either at that rate, or higher. Why change?

Summer wasn't much worse. The PECO over-500 kilowatts rate wasn't that bad: .10 cents. An extra-hot July produced a brutal bill for that month.....but the difference between it and the bill I would have paid had it been calculated at last year's rates was $6.

But then PECO filed for a new rate hike, one that jacked my lovely 9 cent rate up to 11.14 cents.

And suddenly I was shopping my friends and colleagues for ideas on suppliers.

I thought, given my streak of nobody's-changing-anything-yet mentioned earlier, that I might help out by posting my research....and my final choice.

My choice? 

DirectEnergy.

I'm married to a senior citizen, so we grabbed the senior rate for a year. Next March, we'll see what the market is doing and decide whether to stay or move on.

Second choice is Energetix. The rebate, delivered after two months, covered 70% of the early termination fee if I decided to leave, and the rate is still below 9 cents. A microscopic amount below 9 cents, yes. But still.

 

The Research

Streamenergy.net  --  877-369-8150

Period    rate    Type    Early Term    Green Rates

6 mo     .0909    Fixed      $75            .0979

1 yr       .0959    Fixed      $150          .1029

Var        .0969    Var         $0            .1039

Direct Energy -- Directenergy.com/protection -- 877-627-4675

Period    rate    Type    Early Term    Green Rates

1 yr        .0959   Fixed        $0             n/a

1 yr       .0879    Fixed        $0            Senior Citizen special rate

Energetix.net  --  800-544-0182  --  $25 rebate at the time of this research.

Period    rate    Type    Early Term    Green Rates

1 yr       .0895    Fixed     $35             .0925

 Var        n/a      Var          $0                n/a   

¹ An inquiry about variable rate trends was answered. See below.

Gateway Energy -- www.gesc.com  --  877-296-1645  --  $50 rebate at the time of this research.

Period    rate    Type    Early Term    Green Rates

1 yr        .09590  Fixed     $0                  n/a

Var        .1059     Var       $0                  n/a

North American Power -- napowerperco.com -- 877-572-9444

Period    rate    Type    Early Term    Green Rates

3 mo     .09990  Fixed     $0                n/a

Var       .1199     Var         $0                n/a

North American's power schedule was a problem². See below.

Constellation Energy -- home.constellation.com -- 888-900-7650 --  $50 rebate at the time of this research.

Period    rate    Type    Early Term    Green Rates

1 yr       .989     Fixed      $150            n/a

 

Footnotes:

¹Mr. Robinson,

Unfortunately, since we are new to the PECO territory we do not have any real market rate information at this time.
Thank you,
Kate Brantley
Customer Service
Energetix/NYSEG Solutions

² North American's website described a combination deal--the first 3 months would be fixed. The next 9 months shifted to variable. Variable rates for PECO customers would be recalculated "quarterly, semi-annually, or annually." I called looking for clarification of which one it would be--quarterly, or one of the others. I was on hold for 12 minutes before giving up.

The Rapture, 9 PM EDT.....

The world needs another thought on May 21's Rapture like a baseball needs an air valve.

Half the news agencies on the planet have probably done some kind of lead or another on Harold Camping's prediction not coming true today. Wire services rightly quote believers and non alike; either this strengthened the faithful or it didn't, and everyone else had a good laugh or two at Preacher's expense.

My thought is this: What if Harold Camping was right?

What if the Rapture arrived, and the only people who went were 1,459 homeless living under bridges in 23 countries and the residents of an island somewhere in the Palk Strait?

Who would know? Harold wouldn't--he'd be just like he is now, sitting and pondering things in general.

The only way, as I understand the Rapture mechanisms, is to watch for what happens AFTER the Rapture--when everything's supposed to slide into a long decline called Tribulation.

Well, damn.

I think you could define humanity's entire existence as a Tribulation.

Where's my Mayan calendar?

How to Fix Your Broken Delicious Extension in FireFox 4

I like Firefox 4.

Seems to run cleaner, faster, than previous versions.

But the new release completely busted my Delicious bookmark extension.

No more sidebar.

No more tag button.

Here's how to get it all working again.

You need a new Firefox Add-On, one called Add-On Compatibility-Reporter

Install it.

Restart Firefox 4 TWICE.

Then go to your Bookmarks button that has suddenly reappeared and turn on your sidebar!

Here's the tricky part:

If you now go back into your Add-Ons in Firefox, you will see that the Add-On Compatibility Checker is DISABLED.

DON'T enable it.

As soon as you do, you will DISABLE your Firefox Delicious Extension.

You can fix this, if you've gone ahead and done it already, by restarting Firefox twice again.

A list of companies affected by the Epsilon information theft (updated 4.15.11)

Following up last week's massive theft of millions of email addresses and names from Epsilon, I thought I'd cobble together a list of the companies known-to-date to have been impacted by the breach….because this theft is truly dangerous, in a creeping, insidious way.

Remember, the thieves did NOT get credit card information. A good hacker, however, only needs a matching real name and email address. Then s/he can build a perfectly legitimate-looking email from one of these companies, and send it to you with a bad link on it.

After all, if Best Buy sent you an email that said all you needed to do was “click here” for 400 bonus points to be added to your Best Buy Rewards program total, wouldn’t you do that?

And that’s why this theft is so scary. Because if *I* were a hacker, I wouldn’t use this information right now.

I’d do it three months from now, after you’ve forgotten all about the theft.

Be cautious with any email you receive from any of these companies, for a good, long time to come. Any links below will take you to carefully worded public statements from companies that have made them available.

(**Added to the list after original distribution. I sent this around the office on Wednesday, April 6.)

1-800-FLOWERS
AbeBooks
Air Miles (Canada)
Ameriprise Financial
**Ann Taylor credit card (by WFNNB)
Barclay's Bank of Delaware (BJ's and L.L. Bean)
Beachbody
Bebe Stores
Best Buy
Benefit Cosmetics
Brookstone
Capital One
Chase
Citigroup
City Market
College Board
**Crucial
**Dell
Dillons
Disney Destinations
Eddie Bauer
Eileen Fisher
Ethan Allen
Eurosport (Soccer.com)
Food 4 Less
Fred Meyer
Fry's Electronics
Hilton Honors program
Home Depot Credit Card (by Citibank)
Home Shopping Network
**Jay C
**J. Crew credit card (by WFNNB)
JPMorgan Chase
**King Soopers
Kroger
**Lacoste
Marks and Spencer
Marriott
McKinsey Quarterly
MoneyGram
New York & Co.
QFC
Ralph's
Red Roof Inns
Ritz-Carlton
Robert Half International
Scottrade
Smith Brands
Target
**Tastefully Simple
TD Ameritrade
**The Limited credit card (by WFNNB)
**TIAA-CREF
TiVo
US Bank
**Verizon
Walgreen's
World Financial Network National Bank (issues private-label credit cards, WFNNB, above)

 

Blockbuster Goes to Auction April 4

The once-mighty franchise will likely go for just under $300 million dollars.

Details here.

The Agony of Un-Friending

"So I got this friend," said Wallace.

He handed me another drink. Single malt, neat. I nodded him on.

"Nice guy. Known him since high school. Accepted his friend invitation soon as it hit my mailbag. Why wouldn't I? Half my Facebook friends list is high school reconnections."

"And?"

Wallace plopped onto the couch. The bowl of cheesepuff snacks on the other end of cushions tipped uncomfortably to one side.

"And the guy turns out to be a political yack. Every other Status is a rant against The Liberal Media, or the Socialist Democrats. It's like reading a Pat Buchanan riff four times a day."

I sipped. The scotch was warm on the tongue.

"After three weeks of this, I finally un-friended him. Couldn't take any more. Took me an hour to find the damn friends list controls, the way Facebook rewrites the screens so often."

"Tragic. You never spoke to him again?"

"Hell no. He sent me a new friend request a couple months later. I guess he missed me. Or something. I decided...oh, hell. I don't know. I thought maybe the second time around would be different."

I waited.

"It wasn't. Open shots at liberals--if they sound like they're in favor of ANYthing green, anti-war, or carry a Dem voter registration, bang. Doesn't matter if they're praising their kid for winning the spelling bee--he finds some way to put a damn-the-dem on the story. I get so angry...."

He topped off his mug, watching the last few drops sink into the head. "I engaged him once. On some point that was so far to the right it was off the screen. Obama's first wife was a wood-elf, or something. Didn't matter what I said, he came back with a point that sounded like it countered, only it didn't--it just expanded onto another anti-liberal plank....."

"Wallace," I said. My drink was almost empty and I rose to refill.

"Wallace, I have two words for you to consider."

I topped up three fingers and came back to my chair.

"Professional. Troll. Unfriend the yack and be done with it."

 

Please. If You're Drinking This New Year's Eve, Don't Drive.

Yeah, I know.

I sound like a killjoy.

Humor me.

Between now and Dec 31, take five minutes.

Just five.

And watch this:

Maybe it'll change your mind.

The Happy Meal Suit: If You Liked the Hot Coffee Suit, You're Gonna Love It

Apparently tired of telling her kids that they can't go to McDonalds for a Happy Meal, a mom has lawyered up and sued the fast-food giant.

According to the press release posted on the CSPI site, Monet Parham's six year old wants to go to McDonalds for the toys "based on Barbie, i-Carly, Shrek, or Strawberry Shortcake. The food seems almost beside the point to the kids, says Parham, because the toy monopolizes the attention of Maya and her two-year-old sister Lauryn."

The suit is in California, which has a strong nutritionally-based consumer-protection environment. The suit alleges McDonalds is subverting parental authority, "by bombarding children with advertisements for
Happy Meals with toys, knowing that it will result in kids nagging parents to purchase
nutritionally poor Happy Meals for their children." You can pull a PDF of the suit here. (Be careful. The pdf crashed my Firefox browser twice when trying to open it.)

Parham is quoted on the CSPI site as saying she has nutritional concerns about the Happy Meal.

This is a fast food restaurant.

You're supposed to have nutritional concerns.

And you're supposed to say no to your kids about trips to them.

It's part of the whole, "Dad, rhymes with 'No," thing.

There's a simple, non-lawyered version of addressing the Can't Say No To The Six Year Old crisis, at least as far as the Happy Meal goes. It surely would have handled Parham's nutritional concerns:

• Go to McDonalds.
• Purchase the desired Happy Meals
• Throw away the nutritionally dangerous food
• Distribute the toys until the whiny child is satiated. This should be at age 23, approximately.

 

 

DeathSpank

A silly, clever game available on PSN ($14.99), DeathSpank's a fun RPG whose job it is to provide me with comic relief when I can't keep the farkin horse going in the direction I want it to in Red Dead Redemption.

I looked at it when it was released in July, and thought I'd save my cash. The stillshots that passed for preview material didn't move me.

But when a friend told me he thought the game was off the wall, I waded around on the PSN Store until I found a playable demo. I was still laughing, hours after I finished the thing.

And then discovered PSN had the game on sale for half price. So I grabbed it.

It turned out to be a bargain (I'd have paid the full price but who am I to argue with a sale?)

In an era of $60 games, HotHead Games has come up with a little piece of magic.