Author: Krunk

Posted on

Server Change

What Grinds My Gears: Toilets should have 2 levers to tell it when to stop adding water. When a toilet is clogged, it always tends to overflow because it’s not smart enough to realize that the water is about to go past the top. But if it had a lever like it does in the tank and if the water passes a certain level in the bowl, it should trigger it and stop the water! As you may have guessed, I had an overflowing toilet. Let me tell you, it wasn’t pretty.

First of all, you should probably noticed by now on the server change and layout changes. I’ve decided to go with Gallery for images and WordPress for my blog (which I’ll be customizing the layout to fit what I want). Reason for doing this is because I’m tired of limitations on size and bandwidth and since this server gives me 5GB of space and 160GB of bandwidth, thought I’d take advantage of it since I hardly use over 1GB/month here.

Plus the fact 1and1.com just emailed me and told me I was @ 90% of my bandwidth. The old site is still available at http://s86952823.onlinehome.us/krunk4ever.com/. I’m trying to see if there’s some easy way to import my old posts, if not, they’ll be slowly imported.

Posted on

ZBB and Bowling

it was a pretty fun day. our team went out and celebrated reaching zbb (zero bug bar). went to teapot for lunch (food wasn’t that great though), but it was company paid for and then we went bowling. haha. it was embarrassing. the first round, i scored the lowest with a 60pt score. the first round was to see the skilled vs the amateurs and decide on teams. and losers had to buy donuts (one person per day, and with teams of 5, that meant a week of donuts). haha. there were 15 ppl, and everything worked out, until one of my teammates tells us she needs to go back. so what ended up happenings was i had to bowl twice for each turn on my team (since i was the worse). arm’s actually pretty sore right now. but the tides turned! i was no longer the lowest scorer! i jumped to the 80s and 90s (since i bowled for 2 people) in the 2nd game. though my team didn’t win, we didn’t lose either, so we were safe from the donut buying. we decided to have one more game. for the losing team, it was double or nothing, or if another team lost, they’d have to buy donuts = 2 weeks of donuts. but this last game was amazing, toland #1 as people differentiating between my 2 scores bowled a 143, though birthday boy (one of my teammates bday was today) scored a 157. it was pretty weird, i had multiple gutter balls and faults (this bowling alley actually records faults when your foot passes the line). 2 of my faults were strikes! and i only made 4 faults altogether. toland #1 somehow ended up making a spare strike strike consecutively. and ended with a strike strike 9 gutter. toland #2 on this game got the 90s, though i had consecutive gutter balls for 2 turns. guess what, our team didn’t lose again, but another team did lose so that = 2 weeks of donuts. i’m going to get so fat…

thanks to hung for donating this link: mario 20th anniversary memorial. pretty neat mario and luigi drawings.

thanks to cari for donating this article: Python Bursts After Trying to Eat Gator. A 13-foot Burmese python recently burst after it apparently tried to swallow a live, six-foot alligator whole, authorities said. might wanna think twice about eating that extra chicken wing when you feel so stuffed. buffets are EVIL!!!

got this article from yahoo: Language Trends in 2005 Are ‘Crunked-Up’. “Crunk” — the American hybrid for crazy and drunk — is an example of how words evolve from popular culture, according to Susie Dent, author of “Fanboys and Overdogs: The Language Report.” “Crunk is generating all sorts of offshoot terms in the U.S. — crunk ‘n’ b, crunk rock, crunkster — and looks set to catch on in Britain, too,” Dent said. “New words travel from one variety of English to another and at a rapidly increasing rate, thanks to the way language is exchanged today over e-mail, chat-rooms, TV, etc.” i think they’re talking about me. ;p

got this article from yahoo: Cops Handle Kids’ Fist Fight Over Pacifier. It all started Monday afternoon, when a 6-year-old boy dropped a pacifier. Another 6-year-old boy picked it up and refused to give it back, allegedly prompting the first child to deliver a punch. story wasn’t that interesting, but pacifiers for 6yr olds?!?! then again, i’m the one that like sucking and chewing straws. i think i’m stuck in the oral stage in freud’s terms.

got these from pya!:

Posted on

Movies Galore!

my mom’s bday is tomorrow, so

HAPPY BDAY MOM!!!

so it was a nice weekend. rained a lot. i did manage somehow to spend $320 @ costco. haha. that evil place! everything just looks like a bargain! on the other hand, i am stocked with food. frozen spicy chicken wings, croissants, salami, cheddar cheese, seafood dip, crackers, dumplings, butter, pesto sauce, and more.

so my office depot chair finally arrived. might have to put it together tomorrow since i’m quite tired tonite already.

watched a bunch of movies this weekend, unfortunately haven’t gotten to watch Serenity yet. finally watched Resident Evil – Apocalypse. wasn’t as bad as i was expecting it to be. the storyline actually continued from the 1st one pretty well and gave an ending which would probably lead to RE3. also watched Four Brothers. movie was pretty good as i’ve also been told. then i watched March of the Penguins. didn’t know it was in french so it caught me by surprise. the baby penguins were SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO cute!!! and you might guess the kid’s voice was my favorite. also watched a chinese movie called Seven Swords. it was so so. nice choreography, but storyline was pretty stale. Valiant (the bird 3d animation) was pretty good. enjoyable and not too much thinking. and to end this, i went to watch The 40-Year-Old Virgin with cdmcc and elizabeth today. movie was really funny. would definitely recommend that.

got this link from our company meeting: poorsport. i was checking out their songs and videos. they’re pretty good and then i found this video: challenge. makes me wonder what the heck baby food makers are thinking sometimes. i loved gerber baby food. they’re so good! i remember i stole some from my siblings when i was small. from the cupboard and not from their plate! i wasn’t that evil. but some flavors were just so gross, a dog wouldn’t even eat it. is it cause the baby can’t complain?

so msticazn told me about this new site: blingo. it’s basically a search engine like a9 that uses google results, but they give away prizes when you use their search engine. How Blingo works: 1. We pick a bunch of random winning times. 2. Search at the right time and you win. No registration required. 3. Then tell us where to send your prize. at first, i was pretty skeptical, but thought why not. i use a9 and they give me 1.57% off @ amazon, but i dont have to use it that frequently. might as weel give blingo a shot. later today, msticazn sends me this image:

blingo movie ticket
a movie ticket a friend of msticazn actually won from blingo

i haven’t won anything yet, but it’s only been a day, and it looks like there usually around 30-60 winners per day. do note that only your first 10 daily searchs qualify for winning. that’s probably to deter people from spamming their servers for redundant requests just to win.

thanks to belldandy for donating this article: SplashPad: Cut the power cords. remember my rant about wireless energy/electricity. well, apparently there’s been a technology called inductive charging (learnt this from a colleague at work) that’s been utilized in electric toothbrushes all these years: How can an electric toothbrush recharge its batteries when there are no metal contacts between the toothbrush and the base? however, inductive charging wastes a lot of electricity and isn’t efficient, but things like toothbrush which gets wet all the time is a good reason to use inductive charging. one disadvantage of inductive charging is it requires very close proximity to the charging base, which then again defeats the main purpose of wireless power.

thanks to my officemate for donating this link: What’s the story behind R.E.M.’s song “What’s the Frequency, Kenneth”? never heard the song, but interesting way of how the song title came about (remember to read at least the last paragraph).

got this article from /. : So what do you have to do to find happiness? the article was pretty common sense, but the /. comments were hilarious:

  • happiness is overrated. After having been chronically depressed for the past years i found out that happiness is just a balance of the right drugs.
  • <<Yes.. It’s human nature to be discontent.. and that separates some of us from the apes.>> I always thought it was the fact that some of us don’t fling poo at eachother that seperated us from the apes… I guess I was mistaken.
  • “Men don’t know what happiness is until they are married, but by then it’s too late”.

got these from pya!:

Posted on

Microwave Power Levels

what grinds my gears: how come microwaves don’t have a standard? P100 on this microwave doesn’t mean P100 on another microwave. 5 minutes cooking in this microwave at the same power level doesn’t equal the same 5 minutes in another microwave. for me, i always know to undercook in my microwave because setting the given amount of time always has overcooked anything i tried.

been a long day. tired. so short entry.

thanks to kharizma for donating this flash game: Poke the Penguin. try a few times, there’s different endings.

thanks to kharizma for donating this link: Bunny suicides. sad, yet cute.

got this article from yahoo: Doctor sued for sex treatment for back pain. An Oregon woman whose doctor convinced her that he could cure her lower back pain by having sex with her … and sent to jail for 60 days last year for charging the state’s Oregon Health Plan $5,000 for his 45-minute “treatments” involving the woman.

got this article from yahoo: Bogus work excuses on the rise: ‘God didn’t wake me’. Reasons not to show up for work ranged from: “I was too drunk to drive to work” to “I forgot I was getting married today.” One employee who did not believe in alarm clocks told the boss that “God didn’t wake me.”

Posted on

Computer is Ready

forecasts say that we’ll be getting rain on and off for the next 2 weeks.

dmv is stupid. i sent in my change of address/move out of state form for my vehicle and id and guess what they mail me here in washington. a vehicle license renewal notice. sigh…

so my computer systems have finally been completely set up. it’s been setup for awhile, but it was today when i finally closed the case. no more hdds hanging out on the side. no more ghetto-rigging some computer fans. + i finally installed my seagate backup software, so my “documents and settings” folder, along with my “program files” folders will be backed up through the network onto my raid 5 drive. currently i have 760GB installed. add on my external 120GB and my spare 160GB, i’d have over 1TB! i’d have more, but i have to ship back my 200GB drive to wdc, because UPS made a snafu, where somehow the box i shipped with a hdd, foam, and papers became an empty box. but they’re paying the insurance claim, so i have no complaints for selling a used 200GB for $100, since i can probably get a new 300GB with that money. i’ve been having horrible shipping experiences lately. office depot screws up and my chair has yet to arrive for over 2 weeks. they did drop by on friday, but no one was around. my anime order never showed up, so i just faxed in my cc dispute supporting documents yesterday. and i’ve already mentioned that time when i ordered a raid card and it came with the box and manual, but the hardware itself was missing. leads me to think that the ups distribution center here might have something going on…

got this link from /. : Star Wreck: In the Pirkinning. a star trek parody. The first Finnish full-length scifi parody is made from astounding special effects, action and loads of dark humour. It is the product of a core group of five Finns and many people who’ve helped us during the seven years it has been in the making. You can download the entire movie by clicking here. For free, of course.

got this article from /. : What’s with them young whippersnappers? Canadians between the ages of 18 and 29 are much more willing than other age groups to make illegal copies of software programs, cheat on exams or even shoplift, an Environics poll suggests. Nearly 27 per cent of younger people surveyed said they would consider cheating on a test or exam, compared with 10 per cent of the general population. do keep in mind this “study” was done by the Canadian Recording Industry Association, canada’s RIAA equivalent. they seem to be trying to associate a relationship downloading illegal files with cheating or shoplifting.

got this article from yahoo: San Francisco Street Becomes Ski Jump. After several tons of trucked-in snow were dumped on two blocks of Fillmore Street, a section so steep that the sidewalks have built-in staircases, Moseley and friends drew a big crowd on the gorgeously sunny day, and their aerial tricks as they soared across Vallejo Street had the fans cheering.

got this article from yahoo: Bar Made From Arctic Ice Opens in London. A chilly bit of Scandinavia is coming to the heart of London’s West End Saturday with the opening of Absolut Icebar, a bar made entirely out of ice right down to the art on the walls and the glasses for the drinks.

got this article from yahoo: Media boasts land top hooker in jail. Canadian Natalia McLennan, 25, sobbed uncontrollably in Manhattan Criminal Court after she was unable to post $50,000 bail and was taken away in handcuffs to jail. … In that interview, she told the magazine she generated revenues of $1.5 million annually and kept 45 percent of that sum in return for having sex with high-roller clients of NY Confidential, a swanky Moroccan-themed brothel in Manhattan. what happened to the $1.5 million?

got thse from pya!:

Posted on

Rejection Sensitivity

thought of the day: ever got so meticulous with your music library that every single info on file has to be correct. the artist, the published date, the song title, the album title, the cover art, the composer? ever had it get so bad that when you couldn’t find out the song’s title or artist, you’d rather delete it from your library than keep it in there even though it sounds good?

i was studying for my psych midterm tomorrow and came across this fact: Harsh parental discipline predicts increase in children’s RS over a year. rejection sensitivity is described as a tendency to anticipate with dread and emotionally overreact to social rejection. i was just thinking, the 1st statement applies to probably 99% of them asian population. i wonder if all asians are high in rejection sensitivity. you can take the test here and score yourself: Rejection Sensitivity Questionnaire (RSQ). after thinking about this for awhile, i realize that maybe we are high rejection sensitivity, but we’re so good at avoiding it, we don’t really see the symptoms. u know the humbleness factor in asian cultures? well, to be humble avoids conflicts and by avoiding conflicts, you avoid rejection. those asians, a lot smarter than we originally thought. now they can apply strict discipline to their children, and avoid having messed up children when they grow up! now to tie this all up, for those that know me, i hate making decisions on where to eat and probably any suggestion anyone makes, i’d agree to. does that make me high on rejection sensitivity? i had initially thought girls were just better decision makers, but i find that to be untrue. i was talking to a friend awhile ago and said that if i was alone, i’d have no problem making a decision on where to go eat, but when i went out with a bunch of friends, it’d become so hard! he would tell me that everyday at lunch, his programming group at work would spend half an hour trying to decide where to eat standing in the lobby. i only know 3 of the people in that group and all of the are asians. but does this type of personality spread to other cultures?

so i started studying @ 9pm. it’s not 4am and i think i got about 1hr of studying done. been taking way too much breaks.

thanks to ungsunghero for donating this article: The Complete List of the 1,000 Top U.S. Schools. it’s just high schools, so there’s no confusion. here’s a list of interesting high schools i’ve picked out:

  • Rank | School | Location | State | Index | Subsidiezed lunches**
  • 21 | Troy* | Fullerton | Calif. | 4.165 | 1
  • 82 | Torrey Pines | San Diego | Calif. | 2.929 | 1
  • 117 | University | Irvine | Calif. | 2.614 | 1
  • 151 | San Marino | San Marino | Calif. | 2.494 | 0
  • 278 | Diamond Bar* | Diamond Bar | Calif. | 2.029 | 5
  • 301 | Arcadia | Arcadia | Calif. | 1.951 | 6.4
  • 451 | Mark Keppel | Alhambra | Calif. | 1.657 | 59.2
  • 609 | Alhambra | Alhambra | Calif. | 1.424 | 61.7
  • 718 | South Pasadena| South Pasadena| Calif.| 1.312 |12
  • 881 | Gabrielino (tie) | San Gabriel | Calif. | 1.157 | 60

* Gave IB tests. AP and IB participation rates are indicators of a school’s efforts to get students to excel and prepare for college. newsweek excluded schools with strict academic admissions criteria that prohibit motivated, average students from attending.
**Percent of student body that is eligible for free and reduced lunches, an indicator of socio-economic status. A number of 40 percent generally signifies a high concentration of children in poverty.

Mark Keppel actually dropped from 429 in 2003 to 451 this year. shucks. makes me wonder what we were ranked back in 2001 when we graduated.

forgot to mention i watched Saw a few days ago. pretty good movie. the ending was indeed shocking. and if you don’t think so, then that just means you haven’t seen the ending yet.

went online to get my weekly itunes freebies and notice gorillaz had a free sampler. have been so long since i’ve heard of them. so i went off on a tangent from studying to find out more info about that song i used to like. remember that music video? turns out the song was called Clint Eastwood. watch the music video here: Gorillaz ‘Clint Eastwood’. itunes only had the “clean” version of this song, so i decided against purchasing it.

got this link from /. : In-depth investigation of the “Cabir-in-Cars” myth. pretty good experimentation where they took a toyota prius underground and tried to hack the bluetooth system.

got these from pya!:

Posted on

13 Coins Solution

Thought of the day: On the trip up, we saw a Transformer decal and we were wondering if it was the Autobots or Decepticons. This led to an interesting point. Does to deceive mean to lie? I personally think they’re different. If i had lied to someone, it doesn’t entail that the person believed me. But if I had deceived someone, that means at some point in time, that person was tricked. Lets use another sentence. “I deceived person x.” vs “I lied to person x.” Although both are valid sentences, they are clearly different in meanings. Personally, the 1st one sorta means, I had lied to person x and he believes in my lie, while the 2nd sentence means I had lied to person x, but doesn’t necessarily mean he believed in the lie. So all I’m trying to say is that lying is an action while deceive refers to the state after lying. Sorta like saying you can always fail at deceiving, but you can’t fail at lying.

Here are the answers to yesterday’s riddles. If you want to try it before reading the solution, I would highly suggest you read yesterday’s entry before reading the solution.

9 coins:

  • randomly chose 6 coins and weigh 3 on each side (weigh #1)
  • if scale is balanced:
    • that means the heavier coin is in the remaining pile
    • choose 2 coins from the remaining 3 and weigh 1 on each side (weigh #2)
    • if scale is balanced, unweighed coin is the counterfeit
    • if scale is unbalanced, the heavier coin is the counterfeit (u were told the counterfeit was heavier)
  • if the scale is unbalanced:
    • chose the pile which is heavier (since counterfeit is heavier, making the total weight of the 3 coins the counterfeit is in heavier than 3 real coins)
    • choose 2 coins from that pile of 3 and weigh 1 on each side (weigh #2)
    • if scale is balanced, unweighed coin is the counterfeit
    • if scale is unbalanced, the heavier coin is the counterfeit (u were told the counterfeit was heavier)

13 coins:

  • randomly choose 8 coins and weigh 4 on each side (weigh #1)
  • if scale is balanced:
    • label the remaining 5 coins: I, J, K, L, M
    • label one of the original 8 coins in the 1st weigh A (we know A is real since there’s only 1 counterfeit)
    • weigh I + J against K + A (weight #2)
    • if scale is balanced:
      • you know L or M is the counterfeit
      • weigh L against A (weigh #3)
      • if scale is balanced, M is the counterfeit
      • if scale is unbalanced, L is the counterfeit
    • if I + J is lighter than K + A:
      • you know either I, J, or K is the counterfeit
      • if I or J is the counterfeit, that means the counterfeit is lighter than the real
      • if K is the counterfeit, that means the counterfeit is heavier than the real
      • weigh I against J (weigh #3)
      • if scale is balanced, K is the counterfeit
      • if scale is unbalanced, the lighter of the 2 coins (I or J) is the counterfeit (since we already proven that the counterfeit is lighter if I or J is the counterfeit)
    • if I + J is heavier than K + A:
      • you know either I, J, or K is the counterfeit
      • if I or J is the counterfeit, that means the counterfeit is heavier than the real
      • if K is the counterfeit, that means the counterfeit is lighter than the real
      • weigh I against J (weigh #3)
      • if scale is balanced, K is the counterfeit
      • if scale is unbalanced, the heavier of the 2 coins (I or J) is the counterfeit (since we already proven that the counterfeit is heavier if I or J is the counterfeit)
  • if scale is unbalanced:
    • label the coins on the lighter side as A, B, C, D and the coins on the heavier side as E, F, G, H
    • label one of the remaining coins that weren’t weighed as I (I is guaranteed to be real since the counterfeit must be in the 8 coins that were weighed)
    • if A, B, C, or D is the counterfeit (then the counterfeit is lighter than the real)
    • if E, F, G, or H is the counterfeit (then the counterfeit is heavier than the real)
    • weigh A + B + E against C + F + I (weigh #2)
    • if scale is balanced:
      • either D, G, or H is the counterfeit
      • if D is the counterfeit, then the counterfeit is lighter than the real
      • if G or H is the counterfeit, then the counterfeit is heavier than the real
      • weigh G against H (weigh #3)
      • if scale is balanced, D is the counterfeit
      • if scale is unbalanced, the heavier coin is the counterfeit
    • if A + B + E is heavier than C + F + I:
      • given the conditions above, A, B, F, and I are real (since A and B have to be lighter to be counterfeit and F has to be heavier to be the counterfeit; I has always been real since the 1st weigh)
      • that leaves only C or E to be the counterfeit
      • weigh C against I (weigh #3)
      • if scale is balanced, E is the counterfeit (since C no longer is)
      • if scale is unbalanced, C is the counterfeit
    • if A + B + E is lighter than C + F + I:
      • given the conditions above, C, E, and I are real (since C has to be lighter to be the counterfeit and E has to be heavier to be the counterfeit; I has always been real since the 1st weigh)
      • that leaves only A, B or F to be the counterfeit
      • if A or B is the counterfeit (then the counterfeit is lighter than the real; copied from above)
      • if F is the counterfeit (then the counterfeit is heavier than the real; copied from above)
      • weigh A against B (weigh #3)
      • if scale is balanced, F is the counterfeit (since A or B no longer is)
      • if scale is unbalanced, the lighter coin is the counterfeit (since A or B is the counterfeit)
  • right now, we can only find the counterfeit with 13 coins. with 12 coins, you can find the counterfeit and be able to tell if it’s heavier or lighter. i think the original puzzle was 12 coins, but i think the more coins the better the challenge. hehe

check out what zultimaz got @ frank and sons: FMA. full metal alchemist figurines.

got this link from /. : sex bots. in this article we’ll be exploring robot love. i made a couple of simple lego mindstorms robots and programmed them to reproduce — i.e. they can swap code. effectively, two robots come together, trade their genome, die, and two new robots are born in their place.

got this article from /. : Fahrenheit FBI – VoIP Wiretapping. The Federal Communications Commission voted 5-0 last week to prohibit businesses from offering broadband or Internet phone service unless they provide police with backdoors for wiretapping access. Formal regulations are expected by early next year. … In the police agencies’ original request, submitted in March, they asked the FCC to force surveillance back doors into instant-messaging programs and voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) applications that do not use the traditional telephone network. The FCC politely declined, with Chairman Michael Powell saying those services were exempt from the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA) and that it was “unnecessary to identify future services and entities subject to” mandatory wiretapping requirements.

got this link from /. : Cell Phone with Built-in Projector. other similar products include: VKB and Canesta Keyboard. so reminds me of final fantasy – the spirits within when their whole control panel was a big hologram.

Posted on

13 Coins Riddle

thought of the day: i always had a feeling that if you double your bet every time you lost, you’re gaurantee to win. meaning, if i lost $1 on my 1st bet, i’d bet $2. if i lost that, i’d bet $4 and etc meaning if i won, i’d be actually ahead. i always thought this as a failsafe plan, but always wondered why not many people followed it. as liam points out, the expected # of rounds before you win is infinity. if you havent taken a course on probability, it basically means you’re expected to play an infinite amount of games before winning. and by starting @ $1, after 20 rounds of lost, you’re already @ the $1 million mark.

spring break’s finally over. drove up today with decathanerd, cari, mechy, ohfuee, and dng. pretty tired. think i’m going to hit the sack soon, so short entry today.

so artemyst brought up an ancient riddle where you have 9 coins and 1 of them is a counterfeit. you have a scale which you can only use 2x (load up left and right side and it’ll tell you which side is heavier of if both sides are balanced) and the counterfeit coin is heaver. how do u find the counterfeit coin? really easy to solve. shouldn’t take you so long. then now i present the super uper duper hard riddle which took me a week to solve. think i finally solved it in one of my dreams back in high school. same scenario, but variables are a bit different. you have 13 coins. there is 1 counterfeit coin which you just know has a different weight (not sure if it’s heavier or lighter). you can only use the scale 3x. how do you do it? if you need hints, feel free to im me.

Posted on

Selling a 14″ LCD

got tons of toys today! ungsunghero claimed how his toy came today also. i was VERY EXCITED. (if you know what toy he was talking about, you’d be excited too! don’t worry, you’ll find out what my toy is later on). UPS came by around 3pm-ish. they actually rang the bell, but no one heard, so they left the packages on the floor. thank god! or else i’d have to wait another day!!! well, got 2 boxes. 1 small and 1 GIGANTIC! opened the small one first and i got my IBM Optical Scroll Mouse. it was $5 after rebates and i was getting pretty mad @ the normal 2 button wheel mouse i was using. it’s like what they say, “Once you go optical, you can’t go back.” plus the wheel is always a bonus. get to scroll down those forums faster now. hehe. now time to open the mystery box! this was a 22x13x13″ box. Open it and i find… TONS OF PEANUTS!!! lol. Time to dig for the treasure. Way at the bottom I find… ATI ALL-IN-WONDER® RADEON™ 8500. (thought i was gonna say “more peanuts” huh?) hehe. it’s another Christmas present for me! I’m sorry i’m unable to disclose the price nor store I bought it at since i promised my friend to keep it a secret. but just say that i got it at a very cheap price. ^_^x too bad i won’t get to use it for another 18 days (yes i’m counting) cause my computer is back at the apartment. this is so SWEET!!! now i can have 2 TVs running on my computer simultaneously with 2 remotes. *drooooooools*

harrybons dropped by later in the afternoon. brought over my No One Lives Forever 2 which i asked him to help me buy @ Fry’s since it was only $5 after rebates. he came over leech my Hikaru no Go collection. episode 7-60 (6gb worth of anime, actually more since he borrowed some of them on cds). hehe. i also found out my firewire enclosure could act like a hub. it has 2 firewire ports in the back. i connected one end to his laptop and the other end to my sister’s computer and BOOM! XP detected a network connection and before you knew it, the were talking to each others computer transferring @ ~8MB/s. not exactly as fast as firewire speed as we hoped (sustained ~20MB/s), but it was good enough.

then of course, there was ungsunghero’s near death experience. he got to experience his power supply blow up right in front of him. mines blew up last year too, but i was in the shower when that happened. his computer automatically shut down and pushing the power yielded nothing. however the diagnostic LED was still on. so he was the cellphone with me while we tried to diagnose what was wrong. little behold who knew what was going to happen next. KABOOOM! the power supply blew up in his face. now he swears he’ll wear goggles and static wrist-wrap whenever he works on computers again. welp. problem found. now for the solution… which brings me to my eBay story:

i was auctioning off my sister’s 14″ LCD because my dad recently got her a 17″ LCD. the auction ended today on Sunday @ $167.50, however the highest bidder emails me and states that Best Buy is having one on sale for $150 and asks me to be fair and lower my price (including shipping) so it would be fair for him to buy it. i mean this is ridiculous. here are transcripts of the email the went through:

BUYER:

Hi <insert my name>, thanks for the response. I will try for the first time to pay through paypal but I have a simple request as a fellow student told me that in Sundays paper local Best Buy was seeling 14″ lcd’s at $149. instead of $199. I guess after the christmas they have reduced the price especially 14″ are not that popular as opposed to 15 or 17″. Further it is safer to buy locally but since I have made the bid I will prefer to buy it from you if you kindaly as a fair person reduce the price as I will be paying shipping in addition so it does not make sense to buy for lot more and then pay the shipping or I have no objection if you want to contact the next bidder and he is interested in buying for $165 and then I will send you the difference of $ 2.50. Please consider and let me know, thanks and have a nice week !

ME:

Hi,

I never caught your name, but I’m very sorry to hear that you would like to break your contract. As quoted from eBay:

Your bid is a contract – Place a bid only if you’re serious about buying the item. If you are the winning bidder, you will enter into a legally binding contract to purchase the item from the seller. Seller assumes all responsibility for listing this item. You should contact the seller to resolve any questions before bidding. Auction currency is U.S. dollars ( US $ ) unless otherwise noted.

As a fellow college student myself, i can understand that money can become a problem. But that’s why I wouldn’t bid on anything I believe I would not buy at the price I bidded at. I’m sorry but I won’t be able to lower the price for you. I’ve already contacted the 2nd highest bidder. If he/she responds and is willing to take the offer, all will be great. Or else i’ll still have to hold you to the price you bidded.

Sincerely,
<insert my name>

BUYER:

Thanks <insert my name> for the consideration but you did not get my point on fairness if something is available for less. Technbically you are right but I asked you on a moral basis if you would be fair and that I would not object to your selling to anther person because it is much easier to just buy cheaper locally. Please let me know what the next bidder says I will pay you the difference. Thanks and have anice day

ME:

Hi,

How can I be fair if you’re the one that’s trying to get yourself out of this contract? Unlike some stores that has Lowest Price Gaurantees, eBay sellers do not unless stated otherwise. This has nothing to do with morals. I would like to ask you think if you were in my position and what you would do if someone who just won your auction asks you to be fair and lower the price for him cause he can get it cheaper somewhere else now. Now it’s my turn to ask you to be fair. Because if you’re trying to get out of this contract, I am screwed out of my eBay fees which is $7.43. I mean if this deal went through successfully, I’d be more than happy to pay those fees, but because you’re UNWILLING to complete your part of the contract, I lose that $7.43 to eBay with no compensation! I am now asking you to ask yourself if what you’re doing is morally justified.

Have a nice day. Maybe yours will be much better than mines.

Sincerely,
<insert my name>

BUYER:

Hi <insert my name>, you are a very fine man in that you have honored me by explaining your sitaution with Ebay instead of getting mad and I do not want you to lose any fee to Ebay. Please remember I honored you too by explaining that the monitor was now selling cheaper and it is only fair since you have used it to lower. Is it fair to pay more price and on top of that pay another $17. for shipping. No matter what I will pay your ebay fees and if you can be fair to come to the fair market price that will be nice and I will just buy or you can just pay the shipping that way we split.

I cerntainly like to trust you with respect to the good condition of the monitor. I just got a note book that does not have charger and the arrow keys do not work while the seller put on the ebay that it olny needed operating system. There is another man who has not sent me the cpu ven though got paid in october; these are additional reasons for me to think that sellers on Ebay are not really fair in many ways and it is better to just buy locally.

Please be fair and let me know how we can work it out so that you do not feel bad that I cost you any loss and I do not feel bad that I paid $ 34. over the local price. You be the judge and let me know. Thanks

ME:

Hi,

I agree it’s more beneficial for you to purchase it at Best Buy, but I do not agree that it’s fair to break a contract. It is a smarter thing to do, but it is unfair to me that you bidded on something that now you’re unwilling to pay at the agreed price. it is not fair for me to lower the price for you because there were other bidders who were willing to pay just a little bit less than what you bidded for my LCD monitor. it is unfair that you cheated the other bidders from what they could’ve gotten. I’ve decided to relist this item and will be going through the Non-Paying Bidder process to get my $5.23 final auction value fee back.

I’m sorry that you’ve encountered bad sellers on ebay and had unhappy experiences. but sellers are also afraid that bidders will go back on their word and not pay. unfortunately, you’re the first bidder I’ve had this problem with.

Once again, there is nothing i’m being unfair about. The price you agreed on is higher than a price you find locally now. Being unfair is to charge an unfair shipping price. Being unfair is to ship a dead item or an item different from the description. You paying the agreed price has nothing to do with unfairness although you may feel bad for paying extra. Like I said above, I’ll be relisting the item and will be filing a non-paying bidder form to obtain my ebay fees back.

You may be read up more on Non-Paying Bidder here:
http://pages.ebay.com/help/sell/bidders_overview.html
http://cgi3.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?NPBComplaintForm

Sincerely,
<insert my name>

welp, the story ends there for now. well, why did i introduce you to this story. well, it’s true that part of it was for entertainment, but the real reason was because i found a buyer! he said he needed it asap and wondered if i can ship it out overnight and he’ll pay the extra. i was cool with it. supposedly it was for her girlfriend who was coming back tomorrow and he wanted to give it to her. i was cool with that. OfficeMax has this $10 off coupon for shipping through airborne express so i went to the one in Pasadena… (wait rewind!) I called up ungsunghero and asked if he would like to go with me. i insisted that i’ll drive him to PC Club to buy a new power supply for his system. knowing how it feels to be without my computer for 2 DAYS made me pity his situation. after arriving @ OfficeMax, the lady quotes me $60 for Express delivery. i was airborne.com only quoted me $47. she says we’re sorry, but our systems do have differences and i can’t do anything about it. i took my package and left the place. decided to go with UPS or FedEx. called up my brother and asked him to find when the fone # of FedEx in City of Industry so i can find out when it closes. he was unable to locate the service center. thanks to ungsunghero’s cuz psychobreed, he told us FedEx closes @ 7pm. we were like cool! but the traffic on the 210 was nasty. it a lot better on the 605 and 60. got there @ 6:30 and found out that Overnight delivery ends @ 5:30. b00000000000. well, the fastest delivery to TX was by Thursday and hoping the buyer would find that acceptable (since there’s no delivery service on 1/1 new year’s). we then went over to PC Club and looked around the power supplies and the cases. ungsunghero was going to purchase a Allied 250W for $30 when the sale clerk pointed that they were having a promotion on the Allied 300W for $20. he was like cool bought 2! went home and now his computer boots! w00h00! ^_^x

wow, this has been a long entry. hope u didn’t fall asleep halfway reading it. hehe ;p