Misc. Ramblings...

Driving in the Mountains

2011-05-30T10:00:00.000-06:00

We're spending the weekend at our trailer in Buena Vista. It was too windy yesterday to ride our bikes that we brought up, so we decided to drive down Highway 50 over Monarch Pass down to Gunnison. This weekend has been my first chance to drive my new VW Jetta SportWagen TDI in the mountains, so I was interested to see how it handled the higher altitude and steeper grades. The 2.0L TDI makes plenty of power to ascend even a 7% grade at 11,000 feet.

What I was even more impressed with, though, was how well the DSG transmission worked on the descent. I'd already noticed that when braking, the DSG will downshift to help slow down using engine braking. What I had not thought about was how nicely that would work when descending a 7% grade. When coming down from the pass, holding the brake for a moment would cause the DSG to downshift one or two gears. It would hold that gear until I touched the throttle again. It worked perfectly to control the speed coming down a steep grade. I know that I can use the Tiptronic mode to do this manually, and that it will even automatically match the engine speed, but I was impressed that in automatic mode it did this so well on its own.

My previous vehicle, a GMC Sierra K-2500 truck with the Duramax Diesel and Allison transmission would do downhill engine braking, but I think only when it was in Tow/Haul mode. It also worked quite well to control the speed, especially when we were pulling the trailer.

I was also quite pleased to see that for the trip to and from Gunnison, including going over Monarch Pass twice, we still averaged 36 MPG!

VW Jetta SportWagen TDI

2011-05-07T21:50:00.003-06:00

Last week I bought my new 2011 Jetta SportWagen TDI, the day before we took a 3,200 mile trip from Denver through Missouri to North Dakota, and back again. The TDI was the perfect car for the road trip, roomy and comfortable, and up to 43MPG on the highway. Based on fill-ups, my best mileage was 39.67MPG, with 486 miles on one fill-up and still a 1/4 tank left. My overall mileage has been about 37MPG, combined city/highway for the first 3,500 miles.

There are quite a few things that I really like about the new Jetta:

The fuel economy is fantastic. Even in the first 3,500 miles, I'm getting at least 30 MPG driving to and from work, and over 43 MPG on the highway, if I keep the speed down a little...

The TDI makes plenty of power, especially for an engine that gets such great fuel economy. Although its only 140 HP, the diesel makes 236 ft-lbs. of torque, which is really more important. Plenty of power to accelerate onto the highway, or for passing. I'm anxious to get up into the mountains to see how it does at higher altitude.

Even though the fuel tank holds only 14.5 gallons, with the great fuel economy that's enough fuel for a range of about 500 miles on the highway, so you don't have to stop to fill up so often.

After much internal debate, I finally decided on the DSG automatic rather than the manual transmission. While my previous Jetta has a manual transmission, and I can certainly enjoy driving a stick-shift, I thought that for the long term the automatic might be more comfortable. Since the DSG doesn't use a conventional fluid torque converter, its more efficient than traditional automatics, and in fact is often rated with higher fuel economy than the manual. I also thought that since the diesel has a lower redline and narrower (and lower RPM) power band than a gasoline engine, that with the manual you would need to be shifting constantly to stay in the appropriate gear. I decided that it would be better to let the transmission do that for me! Driving the DSG still feels a little quirky at times, although its generally very smooth and shifts very quickly. At startup it feels a little slow to engage sometimes, which can lead you to open the throttle a bit more. Once the transmission and turbo get engaged, it makes for quite a quick start, often quicker than intended. It can actually be challenging to drive this car slowly! ;-) With a bit more practice and patience, though, I'm getting the hang of making smooth starts. The other thing that is taking some adjustment is that the DSG downshifts for you when braking to help you slow down. It seems like the harder you brake, the quicker it downshifts, so braking smoothly can be challenging if you're not paying enough attention. Again with some more practice I'm sure that I'll have the proper finesse soon!

For a compact car, there is plenty of space inside. The Jetta seems almost as spacious as our Passat, and was very comfortable to ride in even for a long trip. The seats are very comfortable, and easily adjustable to keep comfy even on a long drive. The electric heat was handy to have, as it was only 27 degrees in North Dakota on the morning when we left.

The car came standard with Bluetooth integration for my cellphone. While this isn't something that I may have ordered if it were an option, I'm really liking the way that it works. Once paired with my phone, it automatically links every time I start the car. If I get a phone call while I'm driving, I can press the phone button on the steering wheel with my thumb, and it mutes the stereo, answers the call, plays it through the speakers, and has a microphone built into the overhead console. It really works quite well.

I love the soft leather-wrapped 3-spoke steering wheel, with built-in controls for the stereo, phone, and trip computer. I tend to hold onto the lower portion of the steering wheel when driving on the highway, and many 4-spoke wheels like the one in our Passat don't have enough spacing between the top and bottom spokes to fit my hands into comfortably. The 3-spoke wheel works perfectly.

The car I picked out has the panoramic sunroof and 17" wheel package. I love having the sunroof for ventilation, and it makes the car feel much more open and roomier, even in the back seat, since the glass comes back over the rear seats as well.

The TDI comes with the Multi-Function Display trip computer, which shows the instantaneous and average fuel consumption, both for the current trip and cumulatively. The trip counters reset after two hours, so it always shows your current activity. It also tracks duration, distance, and average speed for both the current trip and cumulatively. The MFD will also show the phone status, and the current selection on the radio. A new addition, compared with our 2008 Passat, is a simple, large digital speed display. Very nice...

The touchscreen AM/FM/Satellite Radio/6-CD Changer is also great. Again, although satellite radio is not something that I would have ordered, we did enjoy it on the trip. It was nice to be able to pick a channel by category, and not have to constantly hunt for local radio stations while traveling. I am having the factory Media Device Interface for the iPod installed by the dealer this week, so in the future I'll be able to control my iPod through the radio as well.

So what's missing? I think that about the only thing that would make this car better, perhaps perfect, would be if it were offered with all-wheel drive. Volkswagen has their 4-Motion all-wheel drive systems, like the Audi Quattro, which is only offered on a few of the high-end trim levels of the Passat and CC. There are European versions of the Jetta/Golf that are offered with both TDI and 4-Motion, but not in the US. Even the Audi A3, which is offered with the TDI, or with Quattro, isn't available with both TDI and Quattro. I would most likely have gone with the more expensive A3 if Quattro would have been offered.

I've heard that with the recent tragedy in Japan, that production of many Japanese auto brands may be severely limited for the near future. While Subaru has a US-based factory in West Lafayette, IN, it has closed a number of its plants in northern Japan, the area that sustained the worst damage from the earthquake/tsunami. I think that if VW were to offer a 4-Motion-equiped version of the Jetta SportWagen in the US that it would likely pick up a fair share of Subaru's market. I would guess that many Subaru buyers make their selection because of the all-wheel drive.

State High School Marching Band Competition

2010-10-24T09:57:00.004-06:00

Yesterday we went to the Colorado Bandmaster's Association State 4A/5A High School Marching Band Finals held at Falcon Stadium at the Air Force Academy near Colorado Springs.

First I have to say how amazing each and every band performed! I'm very impressed by the level of performance shown by all of these kids. I think that are far above where I remember my high school band, and possibly college bands at the time as well.

I was planning to take pictures of Arapahoe's band and color guard during the semi-finals, since it was during the afternoon when there would be plenty of natural light. We got a phone call from one of the color guard parents asking for help moving the large props that are used during the performance, as not all of the volunteers that they had arranged for had been able to make it. We were happy to help out, but it was a lot of work to wheel them down the hill from the parking lot, and into the tunnel leading to the field. It turned out that the tunnel wasn't quite as tall as they expected, and the candy cane tubes were slightly taller than they thought, so they were a few inches too tall! We tipped a couple of the at an angle to get them through, but decided that was taking too much time. We discovered that removing one of the tie-down straps that attaches the tube to the base allowed the top tube to drop down just enough to clear the top of the tunnel. A quick re-adjustment on the other end of the tunnel, and everything worked out just fine.

Unfortunately, that meant that our vantage point for their afternoon performance was from behind the end zone, instead of high up in the stands, and without my camera...

Arapahoe placed fifth in the semi-finals, so they moved on to the finals in the evening. We were told that there should be plenty of volunteers for the evening, so that we could return to the stands to watch. Even though the 4A finals were first, we wanted to watch, since we've seen some of the 4A bands at some of the other competitions.

During the Loveland High School Band performance, the woman sitting directly behind me was constantly "cat-calling" and "hooting and hollering" so loudly that I couldn't hear the band at all! I tried moving over into the empty seat next to me so that i wasn't directly in front of her, but it didn't really help... At the end of their performance, as the women was gathering her things, she hit me in the head with her bag! She muttered "sorry" and I turned around to tell her "that wasn't as bad as all of the screaming..." She then told me that "if I didn't want any noise, that I shouldn't have come." I told her that I came to hear the bands, not the parents... She then had the gall to tell me that I "should have sat somewhere else..." as if I had some choice about sitting in front of her... What a b****... I guess there isn't much "love" in Loveland... ;-) This is as bad as Little League, where the parents behave worse than the kids, and are more competitive. You know, I think that if she had said "sorry" that she "just got excited when her kids were performing" I probably would have gotten so irritated... But when she turned it back to become MY fault, it really made me angry!

Loveland ended up in second place, behind Air Academy High School, who are very impressive with their speed and precision in their formations. Loveland's show incorporates spreading several enormous tarps on the field in the shape of a crescent moon, one of the elements of their show. It takes an inordinate amount of time to lay out all of the pieces, which have to be taped together in places to hold them down. Last night, two of the kids fell on them. A trombone player seemed to have tripped over one of the edges, and one of the color guard girls seemed to have lost her footing on the slippery surface. I hope that both of the kids are OK...

Arapahoe had perhaps their best performance of the season in the finals. Since they are a smaller band than most of the other 5A bands, they don't seem to project as well as the other bands. They have a great show, though, and did very well. The color guard did a great job, with only a couple of little slips. Overall, the judges marked them 0.4 points lower than Douglas County, so they finished in fifth place in the finals as well. They were rated fifth in the state going into the competition, so really they did as well as expected. See all of the scores here.

Being somewhat new to this, I have a few observations about band competitions in general.

One of the things I find interesting is that the bands are lead by student drum majors, not by the band directors... They do an awesome job of directing, and have amusing salute routines when they start and finish, and during the award presentations. However, I guess that I object somewhat to them being spotlighted so much more than the rest of the band members. Most of them are in different uniforms than the band, which seems unnecessary to me... We can tell that they are the drum majors when they climb onto the stand. Also, some of the bands have their drum majors, who are predominately girls, dressed in evening gowns. While elegant, it doesn't seem to fit in with a "marching band."

Another thing that surprises me is that all of the bands have a "percussion pit" that seems more suited to a concert band than a marching band. Lots of bells, marimbas, and xylophones, chimes, timpani, gongs, etc. Some of it seems like gratuitous use of as many percussion pieces as possible, whether warranted or not. Some of the bands also have electric bass and guitars, and synthesizer keyboards, which are hardly classic marching band instruments. I also notice that none of the bands use handheld cymbals in the drum line, only in the percussion pit. The exhibition performance while the judges tabulated the results was by the University of Northern Colorado band, who didn't use any percussion pit, and had four cymbals in the drum line that worked very nicely.

I also think that some of the elaborate scenery pieces, particularly the tarps spread on the field, like Loveland uses, are both unnecessary and dangerous. Having to step on and off of different surfaces while marching backwards seems like too big of a risk to make it worthwhile. Douglas County High School uses tarps, too, but much smaller than Loveland, and only in one corner of the field. I think that they start out on the tarps, but I don't think that they return to them during the performance.

Again, though, I was very impressed with all of the bands, and congratulate everyone who participated, as a performer, parent or staff. Its obvious that everyone puts a tremendous amount of effort, and lots of practice time, and it all showed on Saturday.

Car Computer vs. Droid

2010-09-23T20:30:00.002-06:00

I've been meaning to post something about this for some time, but haven't had a chance...

Last year, I was making some plans to install a computer in my car, to use for navigation, entertainment, etc.

However, in February, I upgraded my cell phone to an Android phone, a Motorola Droid from Verizon.

What I've realized is that everything that I wanted to do with the car computer, Droid does!

I was planning to take my old G4 Mac Mini, and mount it in the trunk. I found a power supply from Carnetix that works with the Mini, and will wake or sleep the computer with the ignition. I found a head unit from Xenarc that is a standard DIN unit that would fit in the dash of my Jetta. The Xenarc has a DVI input to connect for the video on the Mini. It uses a touch screen, which connects to the computer as a USB mouse. It has the amplifier and radio tuner, a volume control, balance and fader, tone controls, etc. so that it works as the head unit even without using the computer.

I have an old Garmin GPS-III, with a serial cable and USB adaptor to use for navigation, using RouteBuddy as the software.

Since the Mac Mini can play DVD's, and has iTunes for music, it would be easy to use for in-dash entertainment. I was thinking that Front Row would make a decent interface to use in the car. I found a plug-in framework called FrontPython that allows adding other applications to Front Row. I was going to build a FrontPython plug-in to add RouteBuddy to Front Row to make it easy to access.

When I got my Droid, I also got the car dock, which is a suction-cup mount that the Droid clips into while driving. The phone works well enough using the speakerphone that I use it for hands-free operation. The Google Maps navigation works great, especially with the voice search. I have used DoubleTwist to sync my iTunes library to the Droid, so I have music available if I wanted. Since the Droid uses a standard 3.5mm headphone jack, I could plug the Droid into auxiliary input on my existing car stereo. I can also stream video from a variety of sources, so I can get plenty of entertainment from the Droid, including email, web, testing, twitter, etc.

Part of my reason for wanting the car computer was to keep me occupied on the frequent occasions that I was sitting in the car waiting for kids. With the Dorid, I have plenty of entertainment, and navigation, in my pocket at all times.

A Lightweight Approach to Wireless Access Point Geolocation

2010-07-17T12:27:00.005-06:00

By Brad Tombaugh 17 July 2010
Brad@Tombaugh.org
www.Tombaugh.org
Brad@FullCircleTechSolutions.com
www.FullCircleTechSolutions.com
BTombaugh@gmail.com
Tombaugh.BlogSpot.com

Draft 1.0

Introduction:

One of the side-effects of "wardriving" to detect the locations of wireless access point (WAP) using a mobile device such as a laptop computer with a GPS is that all of the locations of the WiFi hotspots all appear on a map at the location where they were detected, not where the source of the radio signal originates. This generally means that all of the mapped locations of detected networks are marked in the middle of a street.

Theorum:

The geographic location of a wireless access point (WAP) can be approximated by recording the GPS coordinates and signal strength in three or more locations. The point of origin can then be calculated using trilateration.

To optimize efficiency for use with a mobile device such as a smartphone, use of a simple algorythm to capture four points, corresponding to the minimum and maximum latitude and longitude coordinates where the signal from the WAP can be conveniently measured.

Assumptions:

The maximum signal range of a typical commercially produced, consumer-grade wireless access point is roughly 300 ft or 100m.

Since most commercial wireless equipment is provided with an omni-directional antenna, its assumed that the radio signal radiation pattern can be expected to be roughly circular.

While buildings and terrian can reduce the range of wireless signals, in a typical residential area the interference could be assumed to be roughly equal in all directions. Thus, it can be safely ignored when estimating the location of the access point.

The radiated power of the wireless radio signal decays using the inverse square law, decreasing exponentially with distance. The further from the source of the signal, the lower the power reading.

The radiated power of a typical wireless access point can be expected to be in range of a maximum of -10dBm to a minimum usable signal strength of -95dBm.

Due to a maximum distance of less than 500 feet, simple Cartesian coordinates could be used, rather than great circles or Vincenty's Formula.

The observed wireless access points are assumed to be stationery, remaining in a fixed position. I.e. not another mobile device, but a wireless access point/base station.

Approach:

To estimate the actual geographic location coordinates of a wireless access point in a residential or commercial building, readings are typically taken with a laptop computer or wi-fi equipped smartphone. A built-in or externally connected GPS is used to record the coordinates where a signal reading is taken. In practice, readings are generally taken while driving in a moving vehicle on a public street, or perhaps walking with a smartphone. Typical practice for "wardriving" applications such as KisMac are to record the GPS location at the first point where a reading of a particular wireless access point is acquired. The Basic Service Set Identifier (BSSID) and MAC address are recorded for identification. The deficency of this practice is that all of the recorded wireless access points appear to be on streets when the coordinates are mapped, and do not reflect the true origin of the wireless access point.

Commercial applications like SkyHook Wireless record a large number of readings from many points, and use a server-based application to aggregate the results. This approach is impractical for a single laptop or mobile device.

Rather than collecting a large number of points, only three points are needed to trilaterate the location. The question is how to determine which of many possible points should be recorded. My approach is a simple process to record coordinates and signal strength at the four "corner points" with the minimum and maximum values for latitude and longitude. This can be determined using a simple calculation to see if the observed point is greater than the previously recorded maximum for either latitude or longitude, or if the point is less than the previously recorded minimum values.

Once four points have been collected, the approximate location of the origin can be calculated by determining the intersection of four circles representing the recorded coordinates as the origins of each circle, having a radius relative to signal strength reading.

Since Android smartphones report the signal strength in dBm, ranging in value from -10dBm maximum signal strength, to a minimum detectable signal strength of -100dBm, it is easy to approximate the distance from the source by using the absolute value of the signal strength as the distance in meters. This correlates to an approximate distance of 30ft or 10m where the signal strength is the strongest, to approximately 300ft or 100m where the signal strength is the weakest.

Calculation:

Calculation of the intersection of four circles is based on this article at Mathworks:

yes, four circles n radii is known..... all are different radii also...... can u tell me the algorithm for it...... i must find center for the intersection area also.......... i hav an image to show the intersection area made by four circle but i don know how to post it..... recommend any site to post pic for view......

Ok, if the radii are known, then just do this. We know the equations of each circle.

(x - x1)^2 + (y-y1)^2 = R1^2
(x - x2)^2 + (y-y2)^2 = R2^2
(x - x3)^2 + (y-y3)^2 = R3^2
(x - x4)^2 + (y-y4)^2 = R4^2

Subtract one from the rest. Thus

2*(x2 - x1)*x + 2*(y2 - y1)*y = R2^2 - R1^2 + x1^2 - x2^2
2*(x3 - x1)*x + 2*(y3 - y1)*y = R3^2 - R1^2 + x1^2 - x3^2
2*(x4 - x1)*x + 2*(y4 - y1)*y = R4^2 - R1^2 + x1^2 - x4^2

This is a linear system of 3 equations in the two unknowns (x,y). Solve using backslash (\ operator in Matlab).

A = 2*[(x2 - x1),(y2 - y1);(x3 - x1),(y3 - y1);(x4 - x1),(y4 - y1)];
rhs = [R2^2 - R1^2 + x1^2 - x2^2 + y1^2 - y2^2; ...
R3^2 - R1^2 + x1^2 - x3^2 + y1^2 - y3^2; ...
R4^2 - R1^2 + x1^2 - x4^2 + y1^2 - y4^2];

xy = A\rhs

This will derive an estimate of the center coordinates.

See an illustration.

Alternate Calculation:

Since the calculation of the intersection of four circles is rather complex to perform on a mobile device, we can approximate the position by determining the bounding rectangle where the four minimum and maximum latitude and longitude points where the wireless signal was detected. This may not work in all cases, but can serve as an illustration of the approach. In particular, this approach would not yeild good results for cases where there are not detection points from at least three sides. The origin of the signal would have to be contained within the area defined by the detection points.

We can further refine the bounding rectangle which should contain the origin of the signal source by determining the boundries implied by the relative signal strengths measured at each of the points. For example, if the signal strength measured at the northern-most point was -90dBm, we would assume that the source of the signal must be within approximately 90m south of the coordiantes recorded. By calculating the coordinates with maximum distances from the points of detection, based on the signal strengths measured at each point, we can determine a small area bounded by these points. There should be a high probability that the source of the wireless signal originates from within this bounding rectangle. Taking the geometric centroid of this bounding rectangle should approximate the origin of the wireless signal.

This can be illustrated by the interactive map linked here. The white circle drawn in the center of the map represents the actual location of the wireless access point, or the origin. The blue circle represents the approximate range from the northern-most point of detection, based on the signal strength. The yellow circle represents the eastern-most point of detection, the red circle for the southern-most, and the orange circle representing the western-most point of detection.

From this set of coordinates, we can draw a bounding rectangle shown in purple, which represents the range of coordinates where the wireless signal could be detected. Based on the layout of streets and accessability of the area, the actual origin of the signal could be contained with this bounding rectange if the points of detection were accessible from at least three sides, or possibly all four sides. However, in cases where the wireless signal can only be observed from one side, such as a facing street, the bounding rectangle defined by the points of observation would not encompass the origin, but would be adjacent to it.

Because we cannot be certain that the set of detection points actually enclose the point of origin, and to determine the smallest possible area with the highest probability of containing the point of origin, we calculate a bounding rectangle by determining a set of points which are the furthest possible distance from the minimum and maximum geographic coordinates based on the measured signal strength.

The bounding rectangle shown in green on the map below represents the most likely boundries in which the signal originates, by calculating the distances infered from the measured signal strength at the extreme coordinates where the wireless access point could be detected.

Implementation Approach:

The Android smartphone environment is well suited to this approach, since it combines a wireless network transceiver, with signal strength reported in dBm, with a GPS receiver with good precision, along with enough computing power and data storage to record the detected coordinates. The Android-Wardrive application by Raffaele Ragni is particularly well-suited to this approach because it already records its data in a Sqlite3 database. It also shows a map of the detected wireless access points using the Google Maps API, and can export to an online database or a Google Earth KML file.

The first step to implementing this approach would be to extend the Sqlite3 database schema to include four additional coordinate pairs as well as their signal strength. The existing coordinates could be retained to map the initial point of detection, and could be updated by the geolocation calculation.

Due to the computing overhead involved in performing the calculations, it would not be recommended to attempt to calculate the geolocation in real time. There will be significant amount of additional overhead in collecting the additional data points, especially in an area with multiple wireless access points. Additionally, the method for geolocation requires that a reasonable survey be completed to detect the greatest diversity of locations for best results.

During the initial detection of a new wireless access point, in addition to logging the current geographic coordinates and BSSID, the initial coordinates and signal strength should be written to each of the peripheral coordinate pairs.

With each subsequent reading, the current location point would be compared with the four peripheral coordinate points. If the new reading is further North (current latitude > stored Northern latitude) then the new coordinates (both latitude and longitude of the current location) along with the signal strength should be written as the Northern-most coordiantes. If the new location is further South (current latitude < stored Southern Latitude) than the current location coordinates (both latitude and longitude) and the signal strength should be stored as the new Southern-most point of detection. Similar comparisons should be made for each of the extreme East and West points of detection using the maximum and minimum longitude. It is both possible and likely that during the initial data collection, each new point detected could replace two of the previously recorded coordinate pairs.

The geolocation calculation could either be added as an addition option under the menu, or could be combined with the Export to KML option.

2010-01-23T18:56:00.001-07:00

Getting ready to watch Madisen Beaty (@madisenofficial) in "The Pregnancy Pact" on Lifetime

Volkswagen CC

2009-11-14T20:17:00.002-07:00

We had a few minutes to kill at the VW dealer this morning, while waiting to pick up Jeannette's Passat after an oil change. We wandered into the showroom, and checked out the new CC. Its similar in many ways to the Passat, but in a very sleek package! The exterior styling of the CC has a profile similar to a Mercedes CLS, scaled down a little... The price is scaled down a little, too!

The two-tone interior is awesome. Its available with the 2.0 liter turbo, which I think is a fantastic engine. 200hp, but still over 20mpg city and 30mpg on the highway. We've gotten 37mpg in the Passat driving in the mountains, which is pretty amazing...

In another year, when Melissa starts driving, it might be a tough call for me to decide between replacing the old Jetta with a CC, or a Jetta TDI...

Google Wave

2009-11-14T20:11:00.002-07:00

A few days ago, I got an email invitation for Google Wave. In the video of the demo/presentation they made at their developers conference earlier this year, Wave is Google's idea of what email might be like if it were invented today, instead of 40 years ago... I think it looks very interesting! Sort of a combination of email, instant messaging, and an interactive "wiki" editable in real-time by multiple people at once. They showed some neat integration with Wave, Twitter, and Blogger, where the same comments posted in one place appeared in all three automatically, in real-time. I have invites left, let me know if you're interested...

My Life Just Got A Little Cheaper

2009-11-14T20:05:00.002-07:00

Had to go to WalMart this morning to pick up refills on my prescriptions. As we walked in the door, Jeannette started pointing at the sign we passed advertising Prevacid - now available Over The Counter! We had to wait awhile for the pharmacy to open, so we started shopping for some groceries and things... We walked past the display for the Prevacid, available as either 14 pills or 42, but only a 15mg dose, where the one I take every day is 30mg. The 42 pack was just over $25, which is about half of what I pay as my co-pay for a 30 day supply. Once the pharmacy opened, I asked them if Prevacid was available as a "generic" yet, and one of pharmacy techs in back said "Yes, we just got it yesterday!" So, it turns out that the generic as a prescription is a better deal -- a 30 day supply of 30mg dose was under $15! Thats much better than $50 every month!

Fetzer Gewurztraminer

2009-05-25T16:37:00.002-06:00

Last week, we had a bottle of wine that my mother-in-law brought over. It was the 2006 Fetzer Vineyards Valley Oaks Gewurztraminer. Gewurztraminer is a light grape from France and Germany, which Fetzer grows in its California vineyards. While not as sweet as the German Riesling that I usually prefer, this Gewurztraminer was actually quite nice! It was fairly smooth mouth feel, a mild fruit, good body, with a nice finish. Not overly dry, despite being 12% alcohol. It went very nicely with our dinner, grilled chicken and steaks. It actually held up nicely with the steak, as well as the chicken. Locally, Davidson Liquors carries it for $8.99, quite reasonably priced. This is one that I would definitely enjoy again!

Pay Attention, People!

2009-04-01T07:06:00.004-06:00

OK, its April 1st, and the dreaded Windows virus "Conficker" is supposed to awaken.

The article on this story at CNN.com discusses the virus, and mentions that it only affects PC's running Windows, and doesn't affect the Macintosh.

However, the photograph that they choose to illustrate the article is a late-1990's Apple Power Macintosh G3 Desktop! I recognized the machine in the picture right away, because I have one, and its still in use as one of my home servers...

While I think its great that the media often uses images of Apple products in technology stories, it doesn't seem right when the story is about another Windows virus! ;-)

Scenery Hill, Pennsylvania

2008-12-30T21:46:00.014-07:00

My cousin Ray Tombaugh was on a trip in June, and was able to visit the area near Scenery Hill, Pennsylvania. The Tombaugh family lived in this area since at least 1785, when George Tombaugh received a "land patent" for the Haw Bottom Tract. He was kind enough to send me the pictures below:

Pic 1: The entrance to the cemetery at the former site of the Dunkard Church. Supposedly some old ladies from Ohio pay to have it taken care of by one of the local farmers.

Pic 2: The Leattherman Covered Bridge - down the road from the cemetery.

Pic 3: Tombaugh Homestead

Pic 4: Headstone of Solomon and Lydia Letherman Tombaugh, Parents of Leon H. Tombaugh.

Pic 5: Headstone of Rachel Spohn Tombaugh, wife of Mathias Tombaugh. Mathias's stone was overturned.

Pic 6: Headstone of Eli and Rebecca (Wise) Tombaugh

Pic 7: Headstone of John Tombaugh

Pic 8: Home of John Tombaugh

Pic 9: Lethermen Homestead: Original graves are up at the top of the hill.

Pic 10: The Century Inn at Scenery Hill, owned by Tombaughs during the Victorian period.

Johannes Jacob Dambach

2008-12-30T21:28:00.005-07:00

I'm confident from my research that our original immigrant ancestor was named Johannes Jacob Dambach, not Tannbach. This is based on a combination of immigration and church records. He is referred to by the later Anglicized version of the name as John Jacob Tombaugh in the "Tombaugh History" book.

I also believe that he was married twice. Immigration records show his wife as Maria Helena, and there is a record of marriage in 1738, after his arrival, to Maria Elizabetha Seyboldt, who was most likely form Holland. I'm guessing that his first wife, Maria Helena, was likely from the same area in Germany as Johannes Jacob. You'll notice how the records listed below have a variety of spellings of the names.

I would love to find out if there are any burial records for Maria Helena Dambach, around 1735 - 1738, at the Trinity Lutheran Church in Lancaster. My guess is that she died during or shortly after child birth with Jacob, at about that time.

I've also found this article on the Lancaster Historical Society website that seems to be a close match to the property records for our (Hans) Jacob Dambach. I think that they have the date wrong on this page, but if you follow the "Chain of Title" page its correct...

Paraphrasing from the "Tombaugh History" says: Our earliest known immigrant ancestor left Germany for Friesland, Holland for a few years before coming to the colonies on the ship Albany in 1728. He possibly lived in Philadelphia from 1728 until perhaps 1738. The marriage record below is from 1738 in Lancaster, and the Tombaugh history states that he owned property in Lancaster from 1742 until his death in 1758. The Lancaster Historical Society article shows that he was deeded the Duke Street property in 1745, so there was another property that he acquired in 1742.

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1728 Albany
[List 7 A, B] Albany
Captain: Lazarus Oxman
From: Rotterdam
By Way of: Portsmouth
Arrival: Philadelphia, 4 Sep 1728
30 Palatine men and their families, making in all about 100 persons.

Johann Jacob Dambach
Maria Helena
Johann Philip Adam, 7
Fridrich Marcell, 5
Frederica Elisabetha, 2
from: Ittlingen, Baden
To Lancaster, PA.
Bur1983
alternate spelling: Danbach
Departure: Rotterdam, Netherlands
Arrival: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Passenger and Immigration Lists Index, 1500s-1900s
Name: Johann Jacob Dambach
Ship: Albany
Year: 1728
Place: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Family Members:
Wife: Maria Helena Dambach
Daughter: Frederica Elisabetha;
Son: Johann Philip Adam;
Son: Fridrich Marcell
Source Publication Code: 1031.8
Primary Immigrant: Dambach, Johann Jacob
Annotation: Date and port of arrival or date and place of naturalization. Span indicates period between last mention of emigrant in country of origin and first mention of his residence in the New World. "Surname, ..." indicates a variation of a surname.
Source Bibliography: BURGERT, ANNETTE KUNSELMAN. Eighteenth Century Emigrants from German-Speaking Lands to North America. Publications of the Pennsylvania German Society, 16/19. Birdsboro, PA: The Pennsylvania German Society. Vol. 1: The Northern Kraichgau. 1983. 461p.
Page: 86
Source Citation: Place: Pennsylvania; Year: 1728; Page Number: 86.
Source Information: Gale Research. Passenger and Immigration Lists Index, 1500s-1900s [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: The Generations Network, Inc., 2006. Original data: Filby, P. William, ed.. Passenger and Immigration Lists Index, 1500s-1900s. Farmington Hills, MI, USA: Gale Research, 2006.

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Church records show a marriage after his arrival, so presumably his first wife died early, and he remarried?

Pennsylvania Church Records - Adams, Berks, and Lancaster Counties, 1729-1881
Marriage Records of Rev. John Casper Stoever
about Johannes Jacob Dambach and Maria Elizabetha Seyboldt Dambach
Name: Johannes Jacob Dambach
Date: 21 Mar 1738
Event: Marriage
Relation: Groom
LOCATION: Lancaster, Lancaster CO., PA
Church: Records of Rev. Stoever
Record_ID: 315756
Source Information:
Ancestry.com. Pennsylvania Church Records - Adams, Berks, and Lancaster Counties, 1729-1881 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: The Generations Network, Inc., 2004. Original data: Extracted from microfilmed transcriptions of the original church records. The microfilmed records are located at the Family History Library.

Data Source: Pennsylvania, Lutheran Baptisms and Marriages
May 20, 2008 10:18:52 PM MDT

Marriage Date: 21 Mar 1738
Groom: Johannes Jacob Dambach
Bride: Maria Elizabetha Seyboldt
Location: Lancaster
Early Lutheran Baptisms and Marriages in Southeastern Pennsylvania

Source Information:
Ancestry.com. Pennsylvania, Lutheran Baptisms and Marriages [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: The Generations Network, Inc., 2000. Original data: Early Lutheran Baptisms and Marriages in Southeastern Pennsylvania. Philadelphia, PA, USA: n.p., 1896.

Description:
Collection of some Lutheran Church records from southeastern Pennsylvania before 1896.

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Johannes Jacob Dambach’s will lists “Bernard Hubley” as an executor. Bernhard Hubley was listed as an elder of the Church of the Holy Trinity, Lancaster, Pennsylvania in 1766

from: 200th anniversary corner-stone laying 1761-1961, the Lutheran Church of the Holy Trinity, Lancaster, Pennsylvania

About this book

Source: Original data: 200th anniversary corner-stone laying 1761-1961, the Lutheran Church of the Holy Trinity, Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Lancaster, Pa.?: unknown, 1980.

Notes:
Cover title.
Flor Peeters organ recital program tipped in.
Preface signed: Wallace E. Fisher.

Subjects:
Lutheran Church of the Holy Trinity (Lancaster, Pa.) -- Anniversaries, etc.
Lancaster (Pa.) -- Church history.
Pennsylvania -- Lancaster County -- Lancaster

Location:
Lancaster (Pa.) -- Church history.

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Passenger and Immigration Lists Index, 1500s-1900s about Hans Jacob Donbach
Name: Hans Jacob Donbach
Year: 1728
Place: Pennsylvania
Source Publication Code: 1330.1
Primary Immigrant: Donbach, Hans Jacob
Annotation: Date of arrival or date of oath of allegiance and port of arrival. Name of ship and other historical information may also be provided.
Source Bibliography: COUSINS, ELIZABETH. Immigrants Into Pennsylvania, September 1727-September 1732. np: Pathfinders, nd. 51p.
Page: 7

Source Citation: Place: Pennsylvania; Year: 1728; Page Number: 7.
Source Information:
Gale Research. Passenger and Immigration Lists Index, 1500s-1900s [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: The Generations Network, Inc., 2006. Original data: Filby, P. William, ed.. Passenger and Immigration Lists Index, 1500s-1900s. Farmington Hills, MI, USA: Gale Research, 2006.

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Passenger and Immigration Lists Index, 1500s-1900s about Hans Jacob Donbach
Name: Hans Jacob Donbach
Year: 1728
Place: Pennsylvania
Source Publication Code: 1804
Primary Immigrant: Donbach, Hans Jacob
Annotation: Taken from original manuscripts in the state archives. Names given throughout pages 1-677. Foreigners arriving in Pennsylvania named on pages 521-667. No. 3776, Kelker, supplements this.
Source Bibliography: EGLE, WILLIAM HENRY, editor Names of Foreigners Who Took the Oath of Allegiance to the Province and State of Pennsylvania, 1727-1775, with the Foreign Arrivals, 1786-1808. (Pennsylvania Archives, ser. 2, vol. 17.) Harrisburg [PA]: E.K. Meyers, 1890. 787p. Reprinted by Genealogical Publishing Co., Baltimore, 1967.
Page: 14

Source Citation: Place: Pennsylvania; Year: 1728; Page Number: 14.
Source Information:
Gale Research. Passenger and Immigration Lists Index, 1500s-1900s [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: The Generations Network, Inc., 2006. Original data: Filby, P. William, ed.. Passenger and Immigration Lists Index, 1500s-1900s. Farmington Hills, MI, USA: Gale Research, 2006.

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Passenger and Immigration Lists Index, 1500s-1900s about Hans Jacob Donbach
Name: Hans Jacob Donbach
Year: 1728
Place: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Source Publication Code: 7820
Primary Immigrant: Donbach, Hans Jacob
Annotation: An index by Marvin V. Koger, Index to the Names of 30,000 Immigrants...Supplementing the Rupp, Ship Load Volume, 1935, 232p. is inferior to Wecken's index in the third edition (above). Page 449 contains "Names of the First Palatines in North Carolina, as
Source Bibliography: RUPP, ISRAEL DANIEL. A Collection of Upwards of Thirty Thousand Names of German, Swiss, Dutch, French and Other Immigrants in Pennsylvania from 1727 to 1776, with a Statement of the Names of Ships, Whence They Sailed, and the Date of Their Arrival at Philadelphia, Chronologically Arranged, Together with the Necessary Historical and Other Notes, also, an Appendix Containing Lists of More Than One Thousand German and French Names in New York prior to 1712. Leipzig [Germany]:
Page: 57

Source Citation: Place: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Year: 1728; Page Number: 57.
Source Information:
Gale Research. Passenger and Immigration Lists Index, 1500s-1900s [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: The Generations Network, Inc., 2006. Original data: Filby, P. William, ed.. Passenger and Immigration Lists Index, 1500s-1900s. Farmington Hills, MI, USA: Gale Research, 2006.

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Passenger and Immigration Lists Index, 1500s-1900s about Hans Jacob Donbach
Name: Hans Jacob Donbach
Year: 1728
Place: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Source Publication Code: 9041
Primary Immigrant: Donbach, Hans Jacob
Annotation: Contains 29,800 names, with annotations written by Krebs (see no. 4203). Various references to the names in Strassburger will be found in other listings, mostly where authors have attempted to line up their information with that in Strassburger. This work
Source Bibliography: STRASSBURGER, RALPH BEAVER. Pennsylvania German Pioneers: A Publication of the Original Lists of Arrivals in the Port of Philadelphia from 1727 to 1808. Edited by William John Hinke. Norristown [PA]: Pennsylvania German Society, 1934. 3 vols. Vols. 1 and 3 reprinted by Genealogical Publishing Co., Baltimore, 1964. Repr. 1983. Vol. 1. 1727-1775. 776p.
Page: 21

Source Citation: Place: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Year: 1728; Page Number: 21.
Source Information:
Gale Research. Passenger and Immigration Lists Index, 1500s-1900s [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: The Generations Network, Inc., 2006. Original data: Filby, P. William, ed.. Passenger and Immigration Lists Index, 1500s-1900s. Farmington Hills, MI, USA: Gale Research, 2006.

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Passenger and Immigration Lists Index, 1500s-1900s about Jacob Danbach
Name: Jacob Danbach
Year: 1728
Place: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Source Publication Code: 6665
Primary Immigrant: Danbach, Jacob
Annotation: Lists Palatines arriving in Pennsylvania between 1718 and 1742. Note that the first printing of vol. 3, 1840, has been used in no. 2048, Filby and Meyer. Also in no. 717, Boyer, Ship Passenger Lists, Pennsylvania and Delaware, pp. 48-86; and printed in pa
Source Bibliography: PENNSYLVANIA (COLONY). PROVINCIAL COUNCIL. Minutes of the Provincial Council of Pennsylvania, from the Organization to the Termination of the Proprietary Government. (Colonial Records of Pennsylvania, vols. 3-4.) Harrisburg, PA: State of Pennsylvania, Theo Fenn & Co. Vol. 3 (1840), containing the Proceedings of the Council from May 31, 1717, to January 23, 1735-1736, pp. 299-301, 303-305, 307, 346-348, 350-351, 390-392, 409-411, 414, 436-437, 440-442, 444, 457, 460-461, 483
Page: 348

Source Citation: Place: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Year: 1728; Page Number: 348.
Source Information:
Gale Research. Passenger and Immigration Lists Index, 1500s-1900s [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: The Generations Network, Inc., 2006. Original data: Filby, P. William, ed.. Passenger and Immigration Lists Index, 1500s-1900s. Farmington Hills, MI, USA: Gale Research, 2006.

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Passenger and Immigration Lists Index, 1500s-1900s about Jacob Danbach
Name: Jacob Danbach
Year: 1728
Place: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Source Publication Code: 717
Primary Immigrant: Danbach, Jacob
Source Bibliography: BOYER, CARL, 3RD, editor Ship Passenger Lists, Pennsylvania and Delaware (1641-1825). Newhall, Calif.: the editor, 1980. 289p. 4th pr. 1986. Reprint. Family Line Publications, Westminster, MD, 1992.
Page: 54

Source Citation: Place: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Year: 1728; Page Number: 54.
Source Information:
Gale Research. Passenger and Immigration Lists Index, 1500s-1900s [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: The Generations Network, Inc., 2006. Original data: Filby, P. William, ed.. Passenger and Immigration Lists Index, 1500s-1900s. Farmington Hills, MI, USA: Gale Research, 2006.

Some Updates for the New Year

2008-12-30T21:07:00.002-07:00

OK, so I've realized that its been a long time since I've posted anything...

Many of my last posts were reviews of wines, and I haven't posted any of those for a long time, either... While I've continued to enjoy German Rieslings, I have generally been buying the same ones that I have already reviewed. I have continued to see variations in the Saint M -- some have been good, some have been not so good... I've seen some variation in the Schlink Haus as well, but not as much. Also, we've been able to see that the Schlink Haus has changed the into on their label when they are different. Of all of the inexpensive German Rieslings, it seems that the Schmitt Söhne is the most consistent.

I also had a long post about our experiences with eBay and their collection agency. After sending all of the documentation that I could find to both of them, I have heard nothing. From either party... I'm assuming that no news is good news, and that they will be leaving us alone now.

I have also been thinking that the blog might be a good venue for sharing some of my genealogy research. A few months ago, I found some information on someone else's blog, and thought it was an interesting idea. I've just emailed a few things to some family members, and thought that it would make a good start here as well.

NetFlix Keeping Profiles!

2008-06-30T23:40:00.005-06:00

Yay! Today, in their corporate blog, NetFlix announced that they would be keeping the Profiles feature. They had previously planned to eliminate the feature, which allows one customer to manage multiple queues of movies. This works out great for families, where each member of the family can select their own movies in their own queue, so that everyone gets something to watch. This is great news! I was afraid that we were going to have to resort to movie channels and Pay-Per-View if this NetFlix feature went away... They were persuaded by an outpouring of public response to keep the Profiles feature in place. Thanks, NetFlix!

eBay is stupid!

2008-06-29T23:18:00.003-06:00

We've gotten a couple of collection calls from a company called I.C. System, trying to collect on an account with eBay... Except that we don't even HAVE an account with eBay! Apparently we were victims of an identity theft last year, and someone opened a fake eBay seller's account with the stolen id... They apparently sold something to someone, and eBay wants to collect $45 for their fees.

When we were first called by I.C. Systems, we explained that we had discovered last October that we had been the victim of credit card fraud. My wife had downloaded transactions from our bank, and found several fraudulent transactions had appeared in the preceding days.

Two of the pending transactions were authorizations from eBay, and another was from Juno Online, also on the same date. The only one of these authorizations that became an actual charge transaction was from Juno, which charged our Visa Debit card account for monthly dial-up internet service. We wouldn't need to use Juno for dial-up, as I have a 7Mbps DSL circuit, and host my own website and email!

We immediately contacted our bank to report the fraudulent charges. They closed the account immediately, and issued us a new card and account number.

When the Juno authorization became a transaction, it included their telephone number, which we promptly called and explained our situation. They were very cooperative, and immediately closed the account which had been created fraudulently, and credited all charges. From the information that we were able to obtain from Juno, it appears that an account was opened using my son's name, our address, and using my wife's debit card.

However, since the eBay authorizations never became transactions, there was NO identifying information with which to contact eBay to report the fraud. Our bank advised us that since there was no charge made to the account before it was closed, that we should have no further liability.

During the phone conversation that we had with I.C. Systems, the agent said that while he could make notes in the file, we wouldn't be able to do anything else for us. He said that we would have to contact eBay ourselves. I asked him for a phone number or email address to contact eBay, and was told that they didn't have one! He said that the only way for us
to contact eBay was online, and gave some instructions on using the online “chat” on the eBay website.

When I pointed out to him that since I didn't actually have an account with eBay, I had no way to reference this fraudulent account when talking to eBay. I asked him if he could email me the account information and history for the eBay account. He said that they didn't have email available, only phone, so he read me the account “handle” and gave me the “EID” for the eBay account. This is the only information that I have on the account.

I then attempted to get to the online chat at the eBay website, and discovered that it is damn near impossible to contact anyone at eBay for help without being logged into an account, which I DO NOT HAVE!

After many failed attempts, where I ended up going in circles between the login page and the “help” page to start a chat, I was able to log in as a guest and started a chat. The first person that I chatted with at eBay transferred me to someone in their fraud department. I explained what happened to them, and they said that they would contact me for further information. However, as soon as the chat ended, the text transcript was cleared, so I have no record of this discussion! Neither of the people that I chatted with at eBay have ever followed-up on our conversation.

Since it seems that the ONLY attempt made by eBay to contact the account holder regarding this account before turning it over to collections was to continue to email the fraudulent email account at Juno which was closed in October, we never received any statement from eBay that would have alerted us to the fraudulent account. I can't believe that anyone operating a business would not attempt to send a letter or statement to the physical mailing address for one of their customers before sending them to collections! This seems like it is not only a bad business practice, but is also downright stupid!

The only documentation that I can offer as any kind of evidence is the paperwork from our bank when we reported the fraudulent charges. The eBay transaction was not listed here, since there was never an actual charge to the account, only an authorization. Its sometimes hard enough to prove that you did something when you did it, but how do you prove that you didn't do something?

I have no idea who stole my son's identity, or my wife's debit card number, as we never lost possession of the card. We have not had any further instances of identity theft since this debit account was closed. I would be happy to discuss this with them, and will provide any additional information that I can, but I do not intend to pay any amount on this account, since it was not created by me or any member of my family.

Now, there are a bunch of things that I don't understand about this whole incident...

First, someone went through considerable effort to steal the credit card number, including names and addresses... But the only thing that they actually charged on it was $10 for a Juno account? Except that the combination of the fake Juno account and the credit card number allowed them to open an eBay seller account that is pretty much untraceable.

So what would they do with that? My thought would be that they would setup a fake auction for something expensive, collect the money from the sale, but then never ship it to the buyer. If they had done that, though, it seems like eBay fraud/security would have come to us with an angry buyer to find out what happened to their stuff. That's never happened.

So what would be the advantage of having an untraceable, fake eBay account, if you're not ripping off buyers? I would have to guess that it would be to sell stolen goods that couldn't be traced? Seems like their must be easier, lower profile ways to do that?

In the end, they seem to have skipped out on $45 in seller fees on eBay... They took a lot of risk, and went through an awful lot of trouble to save $45 it seems... And they created a real mess for me!

In addition to the obvious problems of the credit card and ID theft that must have resulted from someone's online purchasing system being hacked, it seems like there are a number of flaws/deficiencies in the way that eBay operates...

Since they are only an online business, they don't have any way to physically validate someone's identity. They can't ask for a driver's license or other ID, since everything is automated and remote. They make the assumption that getting a valid credit card is a safe way to validate someone, so they request an authorization on the credit card for a buck. This still only proves that the credit card is valid, and doesn't really prove that the person is who they say they are...

Only creating an account authorization doesn't really prevent fraud, either. As in our case, we knew that the transaction was fraudulent, but there was nothing to report, as no money was taken. It seems like it would be worth the effort for eBay to charge a nominal fee, like $10-12, to open an account. This is small enough that it shouldn't keep legitimate customers away, but would create an actual financial transaction that could be disputed right away when fraud occurred. They could even credit back the fee against any charges if they really wanted, but why wouldn't they want to make the extra money to cover the costs of opening the accounts?

To prevent fraud, it seems like they could mail an account contract to the name and address that they were given, and have the form be signed and returned in order to activate the account. This would also validate the name and address are legitimate, especially if verified as the billing address used on the credit card. This would also get them a signature on an actual contract for legal purposes.

There must have been some advantage to be gained by opening the Juno account. Presumably eBay requires an email address to open an account (I don't know, since I don't have an eBay account!) and they will probably not accept a free account like Yahoo! or Gmail since they could also be easily faked. But requiring a commercial email account as a component of authentication doesn't really prove someone's online identity, either. It only side-steps the issue, and relies on the ISP to have properly verified the identity of the person opening the account. This is a pretty weak assumption.

The next place that eBay's business model falls apart is that they only email statements to the address given in the account setup. We called Juno and had them close the account the day after it was opened, so it would only have accepted email for about 24 hours. If eBay continued to send statements to that address, they must have been bouncing back to them. At that point, they should have mailed a printed statement to the physical mailing address that they had on file. eBay gave our address to their collection agency, so they must have had it themselves. Why not spend the postage to make an effort to contact the account holder themselves? To immediately turn an account over to collections seems lazy and irresponsible...

My other issue with eBay is that there is no way for a fraud victim who doesn't actually even have an ebay account to contact them for assistance. Every avenue to contact eBay seems to be through an online chat, and requires that you be logged in with your account. But what about those of us who don't have accounts? While I can understand their desire to avoid publishing a customer service call center phone number that everyone could call, it seems like they should at least be able to let their collection goons give a phone number to contact to dispute charges.

I've now written letters to both eBay and I.C. System explaining all of this again, and have included copies of the dispute forms from our bank as my only "proof" that I didn't create the account. We'll have to wait to see what happens next, I guess...

Save NetFlix Profiles!

2008-06-19T18:57:00.004-06:00

Yesterday NetFlix announced that it was going to be removing the Profiles feature of its subscription service. I think that this is a huge mistake! Profiles turned out to be the best feature of NetFlix when we switched from Blockbuster a year ago. With one account, we could have one queue for me, one for Jeannette and Melissa, and one for Eric. We all have different interests in movies, so using separate queues allowed each of us to have a movie that we would like. This also helped with the Recommendations, since it would suggest the right kinds of movies for each of us. If we were all using the same queue, the recommendations would only be able to show action/adventure/romantic comedy/science fiction movies from Disney!

I can't really understand what NetFlix hopes to gain by eliminating profiles. While it will reduce some of the complexity of multiple queues under a single account, its no different than managing subscribers and dependents for health insurance plans, or many other common scenarios. It won't reduce the number or frequency of movies being rented, which is where I would imagine their capital expenses are tied up.

It really seems like netFlix is trying to drive its customers to use several individual accounts that cost more per movie than the multiple-movies-per-month plans that are more cost effective for consumers.

Since we have already had so many issues with BlockBuster, I'm not sure that we would return to their online service. They still don't have a store that would be convenient for us, which is part of the reason we left them. Being able to return the online movie at the store in exchange for a free rental gave us a lot of flexibility.

I think that if NetFlix removes the Profiles, we are likely to cancel, and get movie channels or use the Pay-Per-View on DirecTV instead. We've also rented movies from the grocery store or checked them out from the library. Its not as convenient, but beats paying more to NetFlix to get back the functionality that we already have today...

There is an online petition to try to convince NetFlix to keep the Profile feature. If you are a NetFlix subscriber who uses the Profiles feature, please consider signing the petition to encourage them to reconsider.

Wine Tasting 16 March 2008

2008-03-16T16:54:00.008-06:00

At the wine dinner last week, we sat with Sterling Robinson, Derek's friend from Seven 30 South. We talked about each wine as we tasted them. When we were discussing the Riesling's, he suggested that I try a Riesling from Alsace, France, as they have a different character than the German varieties that I usually get.

When I stopped at Davidson's later in the week, I picked up an Albrecht Riesling from Alsace, as well as another bottle of Schmitt Söhne Riesling QbA. On Friday, a lady that Jeannette works with brought her two bottles of Riesling, to thank her for helping with a project. That gave us a Columbia Winery Cellarmaster's Reserve from Washington state, and a Schlink Haus from Germany. We thought that since we had such an interesting assortment, we should do another wine tasting.

Columbia Winery 2006 Cellarmaster’s Riesling
Columbia Valley, Washington
Our Cellarmaster’s Riesling offers fragrant honey, pear and apricot aromas that lead to delectable fruit flavors and crisp acidity. Enjoy with spicy foods, fresh fruit desserts or sipping on your deck or patio.
http://www.ColumbiaWinery.com
Produced and Bottled by
Columbia Winery
Woodinville, WA USA
Alcohol 10.0%
$8.99 at Davidson's

Had a subtle fruity, floral aroma. Medium body, with some spritz. An attack of sweetness, not so well balanced. Acidic mid-palatte, and a bit too much alcoholic finish.

I had all of the opened leftovers in the fridge for a couple of days before I finished them off. After the Columbia had a chance to breathe for a day or two, it actually smoothed out a little bit. The alcohol on the finish wasn’t as strong, and the acidity and sweetness balance seemed better as well. This wine might benefit from decanting, or at least being opened an hour or two in advance to breathe.

Schlink Haus Riesling 2006 Qualitätswein - Rheinhessen
"Schlink Haus Wine Selections represent dependable quality and great values.
The Blue-glass-bottle has been revived from a 200 year old tradition in the Nahe Valley.
The Riesling is the finest and best known of Germany’s white varieties. A crisp and refreshing wine for seafood, chicken and salads."
Bottled & Shipped by:
Günther Schlink GmbH
A.P. Nr. 7 907 008 028 07
D-55543 Bad Kreuznach
in D-54518 Esch
Produce of Germany
imported by: Wein-Bauer, Inc.
Franklin Park, Illinois 60131
Alcohol 9.5%
$5.99 at Davidson's

Light bodied, subtle earthy aroma, light straw color. Light fruit up front, apricot note on the finish. Subtle minerality, but overall very smooth.

Lucien Albrecht 2003 Riesling Reserve
Appelation Alsace Controlee
White Alsace Wine
Bottled by Lucien Albrecht
A 68500 Orschwihr Haut-Rhin
Alsace, France
Product of France
Martin Linhoff Selections
Imported by Pasternak Wine Imports, Greenwich, CT
http://www.lucien-albrecht.com
13% alcohol

Mineral presence was noticible in the aroma. Sharp mineral bite, rather dry. Rather tart/sour on the mid-palatte. Would probably pair well with something like filet of Sole with lemon and capers?

I finished the leftover portion of this on St. Partick’s Day evening with some corned beef, potatoes, and saur kraut, which the Albrecht paired with pretty nicely.

Wine Dinner at Baur’s Ristorante 11 March 2008

2008-03-16T14:02:00.014-06:00

Last Tuesday night, we had the opportunity to attend a wine dinner with Bob Bertheau, head winemaker from Chateau Ste. Michelle, at Baur’s Ristorante. Many thanks to our friend Derek Bennington of Vine Catcher for the invitation.

Baur's is located at 15th and Curtis St. in downtown Denver, about a block from the Denver Center for Performing Arts. There is an RTD Light Rail station next to the DCPA, so we took the train downtown after work. The restaurant is in a building that used to be home to Baur's catering, restaurant, and candy shop since 1891. Current owner Jimmy Lambatos opened this restaurant last fall. Our wine dinner was in the elegant "Venetian Room" for private parties.

I should mention that since I'm lactose intolerant, I had made arrangements to have whatever modifications/substitutions made for my meal, in order to avoid any dairy. The staff at Baur's were most accommodating, and made sure that everything they brought me was dairy-free. I'll only mention the regular menu items below, although I was served something slightly different in a few cases.

Before the dinner began, we were treated to several glasses of Chateau Ste. Michelle's exquisite 2006 Eroica Riesling. It made a wonderful start to the evening. The Eroica Riesling is very light and refreshing, with the hints of citrus and and subtle mineral note. The Eroica is produced as a partnership between Chateau Ste. Michelle and German winemaker Dr. Ernst Loosen. Dr. Loosen's Blue Slate Riesling is Jeannette's favorite, so we both enjoyed the Eroica immensely.

The dinner was served in five courses, each accompanied by a different wine. It began with a "Dinner Amuse" course of Honey Smoked Salmon, Baby Fennel, Chive, and Créme Fraiche, paired with the 2006 Eroica Riesling.

The Appetizer was a Vadouvan seared Diver Scallop, served in a shallow bowl of Watercrest Soup with Spring Peas and crisp bacon. It was paired with the 2006 Horse Heavan Sauvignon Blanc. This wine was light and crisp, with a subtle citrus component.

Next came the Salad course, with Prosciutto Di Parma, baby Arugula, candied walnuts and shaved Parmesan, served with the 2006 Indian Wells Chardonnay. The warm and buttery oak flavor paired quite nicely with smoky Prosciutto.

The Fish course included a grilled Alaskan Halibut, with Chantrelle Mushroom crust, white asparagus and Fava beans and smoked corn. The wine was the 2005 Canoe Ridge Estate Merlot. While I was a bit surprised to see a red wine with a white fish, the mellow Merlot actually paired nicely with the Halibut.

A Meat course followed the fish, bringing a Muntok Pepper-crusted Bison Tenderloin, accompanied by a Goat Cheese and Shallot Bread Pudding and a sour cherry sauce. The Bison was fabulous! It was so tender that you could pull it apart with your fork! The pepper and sour cherry flavors were enhanced by the 2004 Ethos Syrah, which brought warm earthy tones and dark fruits.

For the Dessert course, we had a brown butter Financier with vanilla poached pears, and a Riesling Sabayon custard. It was served with the 2005 Ethos Late Harvest Riesling. This wine was more intense than the Eroica, with rich honey and apricot flavors. It was delightful!

Between each course, Bob Bertheau gave us some history of the winery, some of his background, and a few stories about picking the frozen grapes for the 2006 ice wines on Halloween night and working with Dr. "Ernie" Loosen. The food was fabulous, and the wines were wonderful!

The staff at Baur's did a great job of delivering the food and wine quickly and unobtrusively, and whisked away the remains almost without notice. As I mentioned earlier, they paid special attention to my dairy-free diet, and were careful to mention with each course that my serving had been specially prepared so that I didn't need to worry. We had a wonderful evening, and are looking forward to their next special event!

Riesling Ice Wine

2008-03-01T21:22:00.003-07:00

My neighbor Steve called me last weekend, needing help with his printer on his home network. After spending some time reconfiguring the printer, and creating some new print queues, Steve rewarded my efforts by popping open a 2000 Plum Creek Riesling Ice Wine that he had chilling. Plum Creek is a Colorado winery, near Palisade, about 10 miles from Grand Junction on Colorado's western slope.

I’ve had a Rosé from Plum Creek last October that wasn’t really to my taste, but this Riesling Ice Wine is a different story!

An Ice wine is made from grapes that have stayed on the vine until they freeze, so they are overly ripe, very sweet, and very intense.

Plum Creek Riesling Colorado Ice Wine 2000
Produced and bottled by
Plum Creek Cellars, Ltd.
BWCO10 - 3708 G Road
Palisade, Colorado 81526
(970) 464-7586
Alcohol 8%
375ml

With a rich aroma, heavy body, and intense burst of flavor, this dessert wine is a very enjoyable experience. Long lasting finish. I'm not sure that Plum Creek produces this wine every year, but I'm going to look for more of this!

Wine Tasting 14 Feb 2008

2008-03-01T20:25:00.002-07:00

For Valentine’s Day, which is also Jeannette’s birthday, I had wanted to get another bottle of Dr. Loosen Blue Slate Riesling that we had at Christmas (See Wine Tasting 24 Dec 2007) since it was Jeannette’s favorite. Davidson’s, where I usually shop, was out of stock. I went to several other local wine/liquor stores, but they either didn’t carry it, or were also out. I decided to substitute with something else in same price range, about $13-14.

I’ve liked the other Rieslings that I’ve had from Mönchhof, so I decided to pick up their Estate Riesling, which Davidson’s has priced at $12.99.

Mönchhof (Robert Eymael) 2006 Estate Riesling
Mönchhof - Robert Eymael
D-54539 Ürzig/Mosel
http://www.moenchhof.de
A.P. Nr. 2602 029 012 07
Mosel-Saar-Ruwern Riesling Qualitätswein
http://www.germanwine.net
Imported by Cellars International, Inc.
San Marcos, CA 92078 USA
for Rudi Wiest
9.5% alcohol
Produce of Germany
Price: $12.99 from Davidsons

Tasting Notes:
pale color, medium body, some spritz, smooth, slightly sweet, good balance with acidity, nice finish. Not quite as intense as the Mönchhof Mosel Slate, but definitely very nice for the price, and a Riesling that I would consider buying again.

This update addresses compatibility with Mac OS X

2008-01-30T21:31:00.001-07:00

In the past two days, Apple has released updates to Keynote, Pages, Numbers, and tonight for iWeb, stating only that "This update addresses compatibility with Mac OS X."

Since these Apple applications only run on OS X, what else could it possibly be? I can't recall the last time that any software vendor was so vague about what was contained in an update... If they said that it was to improve compatibility with Leopard, I might understand, but they don't even specify what version of OS X is affected.

Last week, many issues with incompatibility related to the QuickTime 7.4 update were reported...

I know that we've had trouble with Numbers consuming large amounts of disk space before crashing when we try to print. I can't say that we have had any particular issues with the other apps, but I haven't tried using them much since I upgraded to Leopard.

I did have issues with iPhoto not being able to print. It would complain that "There are no themes installed" despite nearly 300 folders of themes in the /Library/Application Support/iPhoto/Themes directory. After repeatedly deleting all of the components, prefs and receipts for iPhoto, and repairing permissions, then reinstalling, and repairing permissions again, I was finally able to get it to recognize that the themes were indeed installed.

Its making me wonder if Apple has reached "critical mass" or "terminal velocity?"

Wine at Restaurants

2008-01-11T21:25:00.001-07:00

I've had a glass of Chateau Ste. Michelle Riesling with dinners at restaurants on a couple of occasions. Now that I have developed more of an interest in wines, I find it somewhat annoying that the wine list at most mid-priced restaurants provide so little information about the choices.

At Mimi's Cafe tonight, they only listed the producer and varietal... So I asked to see the bottle! It turns out that the Riesling they offered is the 2006 Columbia Valley Riesling from Chateau Ste. Michelle. According to their website, it was rated 86 points by Wine Spectator. Davidson's has it priced at $7.99, the same as the Saint M that I like. It was $5.95 for the glass, which seems about average for restaurants...

I thought that the Chateau Ste. Michelle Columbia Valley Riesling was a very nice wine, although perhaps not as interesting as the Saint M... It had a light fruit aroma, and a light gold color. It had a subdued mineral component, with subtle fruit component, hints of pear, apple and melon. There was a slight sweetness, offset by a mild acidity... Overall, not quite as intense as most of the German Rieslings that I had tried. Would I get it again? Certainly! The Chateau Ste. Michelle seems to be frequently offered at restaurants. It was definitely good enough to get again. At Mimi's Cafe tonight, I had their Diablo center cut pork chops, which paired with the Riesling very nicely.

I've also had a Chateau Ste. Michelle Riesling at the Elephant Bar, with their MisoYaki Grilled Salmon. I'm guessing that it was also the Columbia Valley...

The last time we were at Applebee's, they had just revised their menu and wine list. This seems to happen about every six weeks, or about every time that we go there... They no longer offered a Riesling, so I settled for the Ecco Domani Pinot Grigio. I wasn't terribly impressed with it... It seemed lacking in any discernible flavor, like most of the Chardonnay that I've had.

In December I was at C.B. & Potts with some co-workers, and tried the Black Swan Riesling from Australia. I think that Davidson's sells the Black Swan Riesling for $5.99, which is probably about what it cost for the one glass that I had at the restaurant! It also seemed pretty flat... I wouldn't have guessed it to be a Riesling if I didn't know that was what it was...

I haven't posted reviews of any of these on Vine Catcher since i had so little detail about what they were. Perhaps I'll post something on the Chateau Ste. Michelle, since I know what it was...

Batch or Bottle Variation

2008-01-10T21:31:00.000-07:00

One of my favorite inexpensive Rieslings over the past few months has been the 2006 "Saint M," from a joint venture with Chateau Ste. Michelle in Washington, with Dr. Loosen in Germany. My local wine shop, Davidsons, carries the Saint M for $7.99, which I think is a great value. I've had a bottle of Saint M on hand the last couple of times that I've done wine tastings, so I've been able to compare it with a number of other German Rieslings. The Saint M has come out better than several other wines that are twice as expensive. I know, I should stop equating the cost of the wine with the "quality." I still expect that better wines would cost more, so I have higher expectations from more expensive wines, but am pleasantly surprised when I find a really enjoyable wine for less than $10. The Saint M has hit that spot for me. Its light and refreshing, with a subdued sweetness, balanced with a tartness and acidity that makes it interesting. There is no one aspect that seems overwhelming. Nice by itself, but also goes well with light foods...

In fact, one of our typical Friday night routines is a late dinner, after my daughter gets done with dance class, stopping by Panda Express on our way home for take-out. Their signature "Orange Chicken" or "Thai Chicken" goes great with a Riesling like the Saint M. Slightly spicy/tangy food like Oriental is balanced with the sweetness of the wine -- a great combination, at a great price!

Anyway, back to the topic... Last weekend I picked up a Saint M, which I intended to keep for a wine tasting with my neighbor Steve. We're going to compare some of the less expensive German Rieslings head to head, and wanted to include the Saint M. Well, I couldn't wait, so I opened it early, since we weren't able to meet up over the weekend. I was really disappointed with the Saint M! Instead of the nice balance that I expected, it was more tart than usual, and seemed to be lacking the sweetness... Looking at the back label, I noticed that the last two sets of the "A.P. Number" that indicate the batch and year the wine was bottled were different than the others that I've had... I think that all of the other bottles of Saint M 2006 that I've had ended with "01 07" but this bottle was an "08 07" so it was apparently a different batch. I am sure that this isn't all that unusual, but its the first time that I've experienced this firsthand...

I was out tonight, and stopped at Davidsons for another bottle of wine. I checked the bottles of Saint M on the shelf, and was happy to discover that they were again ending with "01 07." So happy, in fact, that I bought two, so that I could open one, and save one for the tasting/comparison with Steve this weekend...

While I would expect to be able to detect differences between vintages, I was surprised that there was this much difference between two batches from the same year...

Christmas Eve Wine Tasting

2008-01-03T23:57:00.000-07:00

On Christmas Eve, we had a wine tasting with our neighbors, Steve and Diane Porterfield. Steve is the one who introduced us to the German Rieslings, so it was fun to do a tasting with him. Steve and I had gone to Davidsons over the weekend, where we each picked up 2-3 bottles. I had a Saint M already open, so we had a total of six wines to compare. We had an array of appetizers while we tried the wines, including a variety of fresh sausages (sweet Italian pork, Cajun chicken, chicken and apple, and Polish pork) from Sunflower Market, Italian meatballs, Buffalo wings, chips with various dips, and a fresh vegetable tray. Here is what we tried:

Dr. Loosen 2005 Blue Slate Riesling - Mosel Saar Ruwer
Qualitätswein - Produce of Germany
Produced and bottled by Dr. Loosen D-54470 Bernkastel/Mosel
A. P. Nr. 3 576 162 1306
Imported by Loosen Bros. USA Ltd. Salem, Oregon
Blue Slate Riesling comes entirely from steep blue slate vineyards in the Mosel valley. These vineyards are noted for their delicate aromas and vivacious personalities, which are quintessential expression of the Mosel. Blue Slate Riesling, made in the classic, off-dry style.
Alcohol 8.5%
Price: $12.99

Tasting Notes:

Had a good balance of sweetness and acidity, slightly sweet, fairly light body, with a discernable citrus note. This wine was very smooth. I think that it compares well with the Mönchhof Mosel Slate, which has been my favorite, especially at 2/3 the price!

Steve said: A blast of sweetness carried by a burst of tangy citrus to a lovely finish...

This was Steve’s favorite of the night, and my (close) second favorite. This was Jeannette’s favorite as well. I liked it enough to buy another bottle for New Years’s Eve. The only drawback was that the champagne we opened at midnight was disappointing compared to this lovely Riesling!

Wegeler 2003 Rüdesheimer Berg Rottland Riesling Spätlese - Rheingau
Weingüter Wegeler - D-65375 Oestrich-Winkel
Rheingau - Qualitätswein mit Prädikat
Gutsabfüllung A.P. Nr. 002902401104 - Produce of Germany
In 1882 Julius Wegeler established the Wegeler Family Estates which are now operated in the fourth generation. Know-how, garnered in over a century both in the cellar and vineyard evolved a winemaking philosophy that strives to produce great Rieslings that reflect the signature of both estate and vineyard.
Imported by Cellars International, Inc.
San Marcos, CA 92069 USA
for Rudi Wiest
Alcohol 8.0%
Price: $12.99

Tasting Notes:

Had a nice heavy body, full of citrus flavors, loads of sweetness, with a definite mineral bite. Had a bit of a “sour apple” tart finish. This also compares well with the Mönchhof Mosel Slate, like the Loosen Blue Slate. This may become my new favorite! (I’ve already bought another bottle...)

Steve said: A bold mineral presence mixed with a subdued sweetness and tartness with a short, fading finish.

I ranked this as my favorite of the night, and Steve placed it second. I liked the heavier body, but Steve thought it was too heavy!

Saint M 2006 Riesling - Pfalz region
11% alcohol
Bottled by Villa Wolf property of Ernst Loosen for Chateau Ste. Michelle
Qualitätswein
Product of Germany - Bottled by D-RP 142 463 in D-07231134
A. P. Nr. 5 142 463 01 07
Shipped and imported by Chateau Ste. Michelle, Woodinville, WA, USA
Price: $7.99 from Davidsons

Tasting Notes:
Light gold color, medium body. slightly sweet, off dry, a bit of a tart/acidic finish. A well balanced combination of sweetness, tart apple, mineral and acidity.

Steve said: A smooth, almost halbtrocken combination of mineral, sweetness, citrus, well balanced yet light and very tasteful.

Both Steve and I ranked this as our third pick of the night. We enjoyed the Saint M more than the Flying Ace, Rosch or Detonation, and the Saint M is considerably less money!

Josef Rosch 2005 Halbtrocken Liewen Klostergarten
(Need to get the details from the label)
Price: $16.99 at Davidsons

Tasting Notes:
A sharp attack of mineral and acid, with a tart finish. Not as well balanced as the other wines we tasted. Disappointing for the price point.

Steve said: A halbtrocken with a smooth balance yet Stronger on mineral strength, lesser on sweetness and citrus. Medium finish - not remarkable.

Both Steve and I ranked this in fourth place, after the Saint M. For the same money, I would buy two bottles of the Saint M instead of buying this again.

Flying Ace 2006 Riesling - Rheingau
Qualitätswein
The Red Baron was the original Top Gun, known for his skill and courage. Flying Ace is a deftly made half-dry Riesling from the land where this grape reigns supreme. Flavors of golden delicious apples mingle with ripe peaches and tangerine, followed by a refreshingly crisp finish. This is a versitile, food-friendly Riesling that can pair with poultry dishes, salads, and Asian cuisine. Prost!
A.P. NR. 3107102307
White Wine - Product of Germany
Bottled by Weingut Karl-Joh. Molitor
65346 Eltville-Hattenheim
Alcohol 11%
Imported by Magellan Wine Imports, Inc.
Centennial, CO 80122
Price: $12.99

Tasting Notes:
Overwhelming sour apple flavors, strong mineral component, no discernable sweetness, very flat finish...

Steve said: A definite halbtrocken not withstanding, fair balance of mineral, sweetness and citrus. A half finish as well...

We both ranked this wine as our fifth pick, although neither of us expect to buy this again...

Batterieberg 2006 Detonation Riesling - Rheinhessen
Qualitätswein - White Wine - Product of Germany
A. P. Nr. 1 907 133 190 07 - Bottled by D-RP 907 133 in D-07 135 092
Shipped by Weinhaus C.A. Immich-Batterieberg, D-56850 Enkrich
Imported by Magellan Wine Imports, Inc.
Centennial, CO 80122
Housed in a 1,000 year-old castle, the estate of Batterieberg (Cannon Hill) takes its name from its vineyard that was created in the 19th century by blasting away a mountainside with dynamite. The blasting echoed like 100 cannons in the valley and revealed the pure blue slate that the vines grow in today. Detonation Riesling pays homage to the vineyard created with dynamite.
Alcohol 11%
Price: $11.99

Tasting Notes:

Sharp mineral bite, lacking discernable sweetness, lacking balance. Perhaps too dry for my taste? Very disappointing for the price.

Steve said: Subdued mineral tastes blended with sweetness, absent of citrus, no real finish

We both ranked this as our last pick. Certainly, for the money, I would rather spend an extra dollar or two for the Dr. Loosen or the Wegeler, or even save a few bucks and get the Saint M, which is more enjoyable. This is not a wine that I would expect to buy again, and it may steer me away from other Batteriebergs, although their higher end wines are well rated... Perhaps I’ll have to try another sometime...

I finished this bottle over the days following our tasting, and it seemed to improve a bit... Perhaps it needed to breathe a little, or perhaps our palattes were overwhelmed by the Dr. Loosen or Wegeler Spätlese that we tasted first? I still didn’t like this as well as the Saint M, so it didn’t change my opinion much... Perhaps enough to tie with the Rosch?

Conclusions:

As I have developed a taste for German Rieslings, and gained some exposure to different producers and regions, I have come up with some criteria for rating them. First, do I enjoy the wine, and find it interesting? Is it good enough that I would like to have it again? Then, do I like it more than other wines in the price range? If I don’t like it more than another wine that is the same price, or less, then I wouldn’t rank it highly. So, the first cut is a pass/fail test: would I buy it again? Next question is would I spend more money for this wine that another that I like?

I noted our rankings in the notes above. The top three wines all make the cut - I would definately buy them again. In fact, I already have! The lower three wines definately fail that test - I would certainly NOT buy any of them again.

Ranking the top three picks by the second criteria is perhaps a bit more difficult. Since October, my absolute favorite Riesling has been the Mönchhof Mosel Slate, which is about $18 a bottle locally. Both of the top two from this flight are about $13 each. I definately like them as well as the Mönchhof, and since they are about 30% less expensive, I’d have to say that I expect to buy the Dr. Loosen Blue Slate or Wegeler Spätlese more frequently than the Mönchhof. The Saint M has been one of my preferred wines for “everyday” (or in my case, weekend). It goes nicely with food or by itself, and at $8 is easy to afford.

This tasting was interesting for several reasons. Most of the Rieslings that I’ve had so far have been from the Mosel region. This time we included Rheinhessen and Rheingau regions as well as the Saint M from Pfalz. Also, most of the Rieslings I’ve had before this were QbA or Spätlese, where several of these wines were “halbtrocken,” the German term meaning “half-dry.” I think that both Steve and I came to conclusion that neither of us like the halbtrocken styles. If you prefer a dry white wine, then you might enjoy the Flying Ace, Rosch, or Detonation more than we did. Also, I think that both of our wifes like the sweeter wines better, which means that we wouldn’t get into so much trouble buying them, as long as we share! ;-)

Another Class Action Lawsuit against Apple?

2008-01-03T20:08:00.000-07:00

Slashdot had an article today about another class action lawsuit being filed against Apple for monopolistic business practices, because the iPod doesn't play music in Microsoft's proprietary WMA format. I think that this lawsuit is absurd!

If I buy an iPod, I can use it with a Macintosh or a Windows PC using the free iTunes software from Apple, which works on either platform, in exactly the same way. Apple has even switched the connection that the iPod uses from its own FireWire to USB, in part I'm sure to make it more easily accessible on the PC, where FireWire ports are more rare.

With the iPod, I have the option to "rip" music from CD's that I own or buy, or the choice to purchase music through the iTunes store. I can also download music in the industry standard MP3 format from a variety of other online music services. Apple does not make it mandatory to even use the iTunes music store. If the iTunes music store were the only way to get content for the iPod, then that would be a monopoly. Apple also offers UNenrypted versions of much of the content on iTunes store, so its possible to purchase music from the iTunes store that you could play on other players as well as the iPod. The iPod can play music in either MP3 format, or a format called AAC, which is part of the MPEG4 standard used for DVDs. AAC is an industry standard format used by other manufacturers.

In my view, I have plenty of affordable options for acquiring and loading content into an iPod. If I were to choose a competing product, like a Microsoft Zune, for instance, I would be limited to use Microsoft's software on a Microsoft Windows computer, because they don't offer any support for any other platforms.

Apple doesn't claim to provide support for all formats, or for WMA specificially, so there isn't any misrepresentation about features or capabilities. Apple's product does what Apple says it will do. If you already have music that you have purchased in WMA format, and need a compatible player, then you should probably pick a different portable music player.

Not that Microsoft will guarantee compatibility even with their own products, of course! Microsoft's initial format for "Digital Rights Management" protected media was a system ironically called "Plays for Sure." When the Zune was introduced in 2006, it used a different format! The Zune uses "WMA-DRM" instead of "Plays for Sure" so if Windows users had previously purchased encrypted music from Microsoft's own "URGE" online store before the Zune, it couldn't be played on the Zune. How's that for brand loyalty, customer service and support?

Given that Apple's iPod accounts for 70-90% of the portable music player market, it might seem more appropriate for someone to file class action lawsuits against content service providers that don't support the formats that the iPod uses (with either Mac or PC).

Apple's decision to not pay to license technology from a competing company seems like a reasonable business decision to me. In most regards, Apple does a much better job of cross-platform support than other vendors.

This is no different from situations like operating systems and application software that only work on some hardware. Microsoft only offers most of its software for its own operating systems. The products that it DOES offer for Macintosh are much different than their Windows counterparts. Adobe has managed to offer its entire suite of products on both Macintosh and Windows, with the same features. Apple offers not only iTunes and QuickTime for both platforms, but also has its FileMaker products on both platforms, with the same features and file formats.

There are plenty of other cases of intentional incompatibility in consumer products that are much worse than anything that Apple has done with the iPod. Look at any game console for examples. While some older games can be played on newer consoles, there isn't any backwards compatibility at all. All of the accessories like controllers are designed to be incompatible, just to force consumers to have to replace everything with the new system. Most of the new game systems have USB ports, but they use other interfaces for controllers and accessories instead of standardizing so that controllers could be interchangeable between game systems or computers.

The same arguments could be made in the current DVD format wars, where some movies are being released only in Sony's BluRay format, while others are only available in the competing HD-DVD format. Neither format will play on a standard DVD player. Should every vendor be forced to support every standard or format available?

It amazes me that consumers have tolerated bad behavior from companies like Microsoft for decades without whimpering, but are ready to attack Apple at the drop of a pin!

Wine Tasting 25 Nov 2007

2007-12-28T20:25:00.001-07:00

Ok, so this is a little bit late, but I thought that I would copy and paste my notes here for completeness... On 25 Nov 2007 we had a wine tasting with my folks, who were visiting for Thanksgiving. We had three wines, all German Rieslings:

Saint M 2006 Riesling - Pfalz region
11% alcohol
Bottled by Villa Wolf property of Ernst Loosen for Chateau Ste. Michelle
Qualitätswein - Product of Germany - Bottled by D-RP 142 463 in D-07231134
A. P. Nr. 5 142 463 01 07
Shipped and imported by Chateau Ste. Michelle, Woodinville, WA, USA
Price: $7.99 from Davidsons

Tasting Notes:
light gold color, medium body. slightly sweet, off dry, a bit of a tart/acid finish, nice balance... I've bought this several times, and find that it compares well against German Rieslings costing double! This is a very nice wine for "everyday" with casual dinners, or just sipping on its own.

Schmitges 2006 Riesling Qualitätswein
Gutsabfüllung - AP NR 25820711007
Estate Bottled by Weingut Andreas Schmitges D-54492 Erden
Product of Germany - Mosel-Saar-Ruwer
11% alcohol
Imported by Magellan Wine Imports, Inc. Centennial, CO 80122
Price: 15.99 from Davidsons

Tasting Notes:
pale straw color, medium body, some spritz when poured. Smooth, well balanced, crisp, tart finish

Mönchhof (Robert Eymael) 2005 Mosel Slate Riesling Spätlese
Weingut Mönchhof - Robert Eymael
D-54539 Ürzig/Mosel Gutsabfüllung A.P. Nr. 2602 029 004 07
Qualitätswein mit Prädikat - Mosel-Saar-Ruwer
The Mönchhof estate was founded in 1177, and today is managed by Robert Eymael. This Mosel Slate Spätlese was selected from the famous Erden Treppchen vineyard. The vineyard consists primarily of grey-blue slate which produces elegant wines with a crisp and refreshing acid structure.
Imported by Cellars International, Inc.
San Marcos, CA 92078 USA
for Rudi Wiest
8% alcohol
Produce of Germany
Price: $17.99 from Davidsons

Tasting Notes:
pale color, medium body, some spritz, smooth, noticibly sweet, good balance with acidity, nice finish
This was the wine that we served for Thanksgiving dinner.

Conclusions:

Of these three, Jeannette liked the Saint M best. Both Mom and Rich preferred the Schmitges as their first pick. I would have placed the Schmitges second, as I preferred the Mönchhof Mosel Slate. I had served the samples in 2 oz. plastic tasting cups, which were poured about 30-45 minutes before we were able to taste. Rich commented the next day that the Mönchhof tasted much better with dinner then it had the prevous night. I’m wondering if the Mönchhof didn’t sit well in the plastic cups? I think that I may avoid using the tasting cups in the future, and stick to regular glass wine glasses! All of these three are wines that I would buy again.

NetFlix Profiles

2007-12-27T17:27:00.001-07:00

I discovered today that our new NetFlix subscription already has one of the features that I had always wished for with BlockBuster Online. NetFlix allows you to create multiple profiles, each with their own queue. You can assign the number of DVD "slots" assigned to that queue, so that the movies can be divided up between family members. Once a movie from that queue is returned, the next movie from that queue will be sent.

We always had trouble with BlockBuster when Eric ordered something like the entire season of "24" because it would send all three of the DVD's at once! Since each disc had several hours of shows to watch, it would take Eric a few days to get through each disc. In the meantime, no one else had any movies to watch, since the queue was tied up with the entire season. We tried to order each disc of the season individually, but then BlockBuster could never manage to send them in order, so you'd have to wait for the next one to come, so that you could watch it first...

I was glad to see that NetFlix has provisions for this, we'll see how it works... I entered the 34 movies that had been in my queue at BlockBuster into my NetFlix queue today. Then tonight I got several emails from BlockBuster saying that they had sent the next three movies, even though I cancelled my subscription yesterday! I guess that it is still active for another week or two...

Vine Catcher

2007-12-23T23:48:00.001-07:00

My son, Eric, has been doing some freelance web development for the past year. One of the sites that he's been working with is really interesting.

Derek Bennington started Vine Catcher as a community forum for people to share their interest in wine, and pairing with food. I think that his idea is to help make wine more accessible for the common person who isn't a wine connoisseur or expert.

You can either browse the wines and recipes in the database, or search for particular criteria. The site uses a very simple and straight-forward rating system of 1-5 starts, instead of the traditional 100 point scale (which really starts at 80?).

Its very easy to setup a free account, and enter notes on wines that you try, which you can keep private or share with others.

I've been entering the wines that I've been trying, mostly German Rieslings, on VineCatcher for the past few months. Check it out!

Note Taking and Organizing Research

2007-12-23T23:34:00.001-07:00

I have discovered a new application for note-taking and research and has quickly become my "favorite."

If you're familiar with the kind of websites called a "wiki" you know that its a webpage that users can edit. Voodoo Pad from Flying Meat is a "wiki" that runs on your own Macintosh.

If you're not familiar with a wiki, let me describe it this way: Imagine opening up a blank page in Safari that you were able to edit as if it were TextEdit.

You can create lots of pages within one document like a website, giving each page a name. Anywhere in the document where the name of a page occurs is automatically linked to that page. This makes it very easy to cross-reference items. Voodoo Pad will automatically suggest links for any text that is in mixed upper/lower case, like "MyPage" but you can highlight and link any string of text.

Imagine an electronic book with a glossary where anytime a glossary term appeared in the text it was linked to the glossary definition. I have recently developed an interest in wine tasting, so I created a Voodoo Pad document as a glossary of wine terms. I copied and pasted a glossary of terms from a website, and created a page for each term. Now as I copy and paste wine reviews and articles into my Voodoo Pad document, all of the terms are automatically linked to the glossary!

I also do a lot of genealogy research, which can quickly become complicated since one reference can apply to multiple people, whole families, or specific time periods or regions. I've tried using outlines, but have found that I have to copy lots of entries in multiple places, making it ineffective. For a while I gave up, and just collected lots of separate text files with notes, which I tried grouping in folders. Again I found that some references applied to more than one family, so my filing system approach fell apart. At least I was able to use Spotlight to search them!

Voodoo Pad has been a much more efficient tool for organizing this kind of unstructured information. I've created a page for each family name that I'm researching, and pages for each country, state, county, town, etc. When I find information on a specific person, I create a page for them. Other names or places that I have already researched are automatically linked, making it very quick to cross-reference. Entering the names of spouses, parents and children are automatically linked, without requiring any special formating.

Voodoo Pad allows you to define 'aliases' to pages, which are alternate names for the page. These aliases are also linked automatically whenever they are found in the text of any page. This works nicely for multi-language terms or names, or for people who were known by different names, or maiden vs. married names. Entering the married name as an alias to a page named with someone's maiden name ensures that either form of the name links to the same individual's page.

The pages can be plain text, or styled text. Pages can have rulers for margins and tab stops. There are basic style settings for fonts, sizes, styles, colors, and alignment. The text editing works just like TextEdit, so its very functional, although not exactly a complete "word processing" application. It also supports various styles of bullet lists and outline numbering, as well as simple tables. You can also drag and drop images, website urls, files, and applications into VoodooPad and they will be linked and ready to be opened just by clicking on the link. Linked pages can be opened in the main window, in a separate window, or in multiple tabs like in Safari. Voodoo Pad can also list of all of the pages in the document, even if they aren't linked from any other pages.

Voodoo Pad comes in three different flavors. There is a "lite" version that is completely free. The standard version has many additional features, but requires that you purchase a shareware license for about $30. There is a 15-day trial period so that you can try out all of the features. There is also a "Pro" version for about $50 that includes its own web server, so that the documents can be shared with multiple users like a "wiki" website. Their website has a cross-reference chart of features in each version for comparison.

The licensed version supports AppleScript, various plugins, and can export to the iPod, as well as multiple document formats like HTML, Word, RTF, or XML. One of the plugins can build a list of all of the pages in a document, which I use to periodically regenerate my main index page. There is also a plugin to alphabetize the lines (paragraphs) of selected text, which comes in very handy. Another plugin scans for "to-do" tags, which can collect to do items from any place scattered through your document. The licensed version also supports tagging pages with categories, so that related pages can be grouped together. You can also see a listing of other pages that link to the page you are on for bi-directional cross-referencing. See the full list of features here.

For techies, Voodoo Pad can also contain scripts in several languages, including AppleScript, shell scripts, Perl and Python. Any of these scripts can be executed from within Voodoo Pad using the "Run as Script" command.

In the couple of months that I've been using Voodoo Pad, its been updated several times for bug fixes, a few new features, and compatibility with Leopard. Its been very stable, and has always worked predictably. I have found it to be an indespensible tool for my daily work. I liked the lite version so well that I've purchased the full version, and love having the additional features.

If it sounds interesting to you, download the lite version, or the trial version, and give it a try. You can download it directly from the developers website listed above, or search for it on Version Tracker or MacUpdate. Give it a try!

German Riesling

2007-12-23T22:58:00.001-07:00

Our neighbor Steve introduced Jeannette and I to some German Riesling wines last summer, we we enjoyed immensely! About the only wine that we had really liked in the past was something like the Beringer White Zinfandel.

For those not already familiar with them, Riesling is a white wine that originated in Germany. It is light and fruity, often sweet, with a balance of acidity that gives a very nice flavor. I find it to be much more interesting than Chardonnay or Pinot Gris. See Wikipedia for more details.

The wines that Steve shared with us were inexpensive German imports from Schmitt Söhne. Their US website is Little German or their main website is Schmitt Söhne Our local liquor store, Davidsons Liquors, carries them for about $6-9/bottle. That was inexpensive enough to start trying different kinds, see what we liked, what foods it went with, etc.

Switching to Netflix

2007-12-23T22:32:00.001-07:00

Blockbuster has blown it again, at least for me... For the second time in two years, Blockbuster is closing the store closest to us, and at the same time they are raising their rates another couple of bucks a month!

We have been using the Blockbuster online service for the past year or so, and had been pretty satisfied with it... We got three movies at a time, and after we watched them we could turn them in at the store and get a free rental. By the time we were done watching we got from the store, the next movies would arrive in the mail.

The store that we used to go to a couple of years ago was only a couple of blocks from us, basically at the corner of our subdivision. When they opened a new store in Highlands Ranch, a couple of miles away, they closed the store by our house. While this was irritating, we adjusted to it after a short time. It turned out that our doctor moved their office to the building across the street from the shopping center where the Blockbuster was located, and we switched to a bank that had a branch located there as well.

The remaining locations that are near us are all about 5 miles away, with pretty heavy traffic to contend with... All are inconvenient enough that we wouldn't just want to run by them on a whim to check out movies.

Add to this the rate increase. We had been paying about $18/month for unlimited movies, with three out at a time. As I mentioned above, we could also turn them in at the store for free rentals, so we were able to watch lots of movies. With the price going up about $25 more per year, this was the last straw!

We have already started a trial subscription with Netflix, and have been pretty impressed so far. The leadtime to have movies mailed seems a bit faster than Blockbuster, typically only two days. Netflix is also nearly $5/month less than Blockbuster's new higher rate...

So, we're saying "Auf Wiedersehen" to Blockbuster...

I'm Back!

2007-12-23T22:30:00.000-07:00

Although I've had this account on Blogger for a couple of years, I really haven't used it much... I'm going to try again, and will try to post more frequently!

Add new life to an old laptop

2005-10-07T21:07:00.000-06:00

For my birthday this year, I decided that I needed to upgrade the hard drive in my PowerBook G4/667 that I've had since 2001... At one time, this was the "high-end" machine, so it came bundled with the AirPort wireless card and 512Mb of RAM, along with a 30Gb drive... That was a pretty decent size at the time, but as I've expanded my usage of iTunes and iPhoto, and development tools, etc. the 27Gb of formatted disk space just isn't enough any more...

I had a budget of $200 to work with, and wanted to get an external drive case as well as the drive. I wanted to pick out the case first, to see how much I could spend on the drive. I shopped for price ranges on http://www.PriceWatch.com first, to get a feel for what things should cost. Then I went to http://www.NewEgg.com, one of my favorite online stores, to see how their prices compared. They were close to the lowest prices on PriceWatch, but I was much more comfortable dealing with a vendor that I've had a good track record with in the past.

At NewEgg, I found a nice aluminum Macally drive case for 2.5" drives, with both USB 2.0 and FireWire 400 (IEEE 1394a), that was about $36. That would leave me a little over $160 for the drive, which should be enough for decent drive... In fact, it was enough for a Toshiba 100Gb, 5400rpm drive with 16Mb of cache. This drive is not only three times the capacity of the original, but it should be noticably faster as well.

The total for both the drive and case, including FedEx Express Saver 3-day shipping, was less than a dollar over my $200 budget. I placed my order on Sunday night, and everything was delivered on Wednesday afternoon. After using "SuperDuper!" (http://www.shirt-pocket.com/SuperDuper) to copy the contents of the original drive to the new drive, temporarily mounted in the external case, I was ready to swap the drives. Don't panic, I have a Retrospect backup of the contents, too, just in case...

Using a "take-apart" diagram from http://www.pbfixit.com, I was able to take off the lower panel of the PowerBook, remove and replace the drive, and reassemble in less than half an hour. The only tool needed was a T-8 Torx driver, to remove 8 screws from the bottom of the case, and four screws for the drive mounts. The take-apart diagram includes an organizer layout page to help keep each size screw sorted out.

A few minutes later I had installed the old 30Gb drive into the external drive case, and was ready to go. The Macally PHR-250cc case is durable aluminum, and easy to install. It has room for any 2.5" drive up to 9.5mm tall. There are two FireWire ports to allow "dasy-chaining" devices together, and can be powered directly from the FireWire or USB connection. There is also a USB 1.1 or 2.0 port, as well as a 5v power input if needed. The case came with both FireWire and USB cables, and also has a USB power cable so that the drive can be powered through a second USB connection if needed. It even came with a soft leather-like sleeve for extra protection. Because of the small size, and no need for an extra power adapter, this external drive is very easy to take along in my computer bag.

After confirming that everything on the new drive was working properly, I reformated the old drive as an MS-DOS volume using Disk Utility from my PowerBook. While this has some drawbacks for using with the Mac, such as slightly less performance, and possible complications with long file names or invalid characters in names, it offers lots of flexibility in transferring data with other platforms. I've found that transfering zip, stuffit or tar archives is the safest way to move things... This lets me transfer documents and other files between my Macs and Linux/FreeBSD machines at home, and my Windows laptop from work.

I have noticed that the PowerBook feels faster now, with the new drive, although I don't have a good way to actually measure that. The old drive in the external case will be very convenient. I could have gotten a smaller drive for less money, but I wanted to maximize that amount of stuff that I can carry with me when I travel... Overall, I'm very pleased with my update.

Blockbuster does it again

2005-09-06T22:48:00.000-06:00

Well, it seems that "The end of late fees" also triggered "The beginning of harassment" at Blockbuster... We rented a couple of movies two weeks ago, not new releases, but one week rentals. We weren't able to watch one of them the first week, so we held onto it, but returned the other. The day after it was due, we got an automated voice mail from Blockbuster reminding us that we had TWO movies overdue, and that they would suspend our rental privileges until they were returned. We finished watching the movie last night, but before we could return it this evening, we got a second voicemail!

I don't recall ever getting a "reminder" when we had to pay a fee if it was late, but now that the revenue stream has been cut off, the nagging has begun!

I confirmed with the kid at the counter that there was really only one item that was past due. He couldn't explain why the message had said two, when one had been returned before the due date...

My previous experiences with "late fees" makes me worry about the new policy. There have been several occasions that I've returned movies in the slot at the counter, and then rented a couple of new ones. Weeks later when we go again, they try to tell me that the previous movies were late, and I have to pay for them again! I've even showed the kid the date/timestamp on the receipt for the second set of movies that we got when we returned the previous ones, but he still wouldn't believe me. They even showed the two movies that I returned together being check in on different days!

The next time that an actual adult "manager" was there I was able to get a refund, but it shows the flaw in the system. Since you don't get any sort of receipt when you drop the movies into the slot, you are at Blockbuster's mercy that they will properly check them into their system. If they mess up, you could end up paying full retail price for a rental that you returned on time that they didn't check in...

My suggestion would be that every time you return a movie at Blockbuster, go inside to the counter, and make them scan it on the spot and print a receipt...

This is making NetFlix sound more and more appealing!

Karma?

2005-04-15T22:05:00.000-06:00

I saw a funny bumper sticker on the way home tonight -- "My karma hit your dogma"

First post

2005-04-14T22:30:00.000-06:00

A Google search that I did today took me to a blog, and on a whim I decided to create my own account...