This video reminds me of back in the day (circa 1994) when Joshua and I used to sneak into OU’s computer lab posing as students in order to use their HP workstations and T1 line. That was back when you could still easily ping flood people off of IRC.

I remember not long after that it was like “pulling teeth” in order to convince him to switch to Netscape Navigator Beta 0.9 because it was a “commercial” product.

More than three and a half years ago, I signed up for Vonage VOIP service. Thank God I never ported our phone numbers to them because the experience was a nightmare. I used the service for a couple of months while trying to decide if I wanted to port our phone numbers to them. All of a sudden, they began contacting me via e-mail telling me my credit card was continually being declined.

After some back-and-forth with them, they said it was being declined due to AVS (Address Verification System). I hadn’t moved, so this was strange. They eventually suspended my service due to non-payment since we couldn’t get this problem worked out. This was their response to my inquiry as to why my account had been suspended:

Dear Customer:

Thank you for contacting Customer Care.

Your credit card was denied due to an AVS check. Address Verification Service. Because of this she has another man.

If there is anymore questions that need to be answered, then please contact us by the information provided below.

Regards,
Robert Gibson
Customer Care Rep.

The emphasis above is mine. To this day, I’m still not sure what that means except for the fact that Vonage is infested with low-class moronic losers.

I permanently canceled my account the next day and have never looked back. Today, we currently use VOIP for home and work, but we user TelaSIP. Much better and cheaper.

UPDATE 3/9/07: Sweet Justice! Today, Vonage got smacked down for using some of Verizon’s patented technology relating to connecting VOIP calls to the regular circuit-switched network. They’ve been ordered to pay $58 Million. Verizon is seeking an injunction preventing them from using the technology.

Does anyone have a Joost invite that they’d be willing to part with?

I can’t believe there are other people using it before me. I feel really left out.

The result of my trip to the track this weekend to race Aaron.

My first race of the night, narrated by my wife (she couldn’t see the end of the track and initially thought I lost):

The timeslip:

In all fairness, Aaron ran a 13.87 on a subsequent run. I probably could’ve run a 13.4x if it were warmer and I could’ve gotten better traction. The tire squeal in the video is all mine.

We drove past the birthplace of the building products wholesale company founded in 1932 by my great-grandfather, Tappan Brothers (now owned by Norandex). It’s now part hand-carwash and part cab livery. Like all buildings in its vicinity, near the intersection of Joy and Livernois in Detroit, it’s in a dilapidated state. Here are a couple photos:

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My grandfather (son-in-law of the founder of Tappan Brothers) moved to Michigan from Virginia and worked for his father-in-law for almost 20 years before founding Tapco, originally a manufacturer of precast stone products. Their original building (used from 1960-1992) is on Hubbell street, between Chicago and Joy, also in Detroit. It’s now used as a maintenance hub for Detroit Public Schools.

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