I gotta say, if there was a possible way to fuck up the marketing of the NHL Winter Classic, the various outlets found a way to do so.

I should not have seen empty seats in the stands. But, when you’re setting extortionate purchase-terms for season ticket holders (you had to buy tickets to all three WC events if you wanted to be allowed to buy the “main event” tickets), you pretty much guarantee that a significant chunk of the tickets will go to scalpers ticket purchasing services and package promoters. And when those outlets are charging as much for a pair of seats as an entire season ticket plan, you’re gonna have a hard time filling all the seats.

Back in November, when the NHL Shop started the Winter Classic marketing blitz, I’d ordered a pair of “authentic” Winter Classic jerseys. I’d figured “since I can’t reasonably afford to go to the event, I can splurge on jerseys for my wife and me”. So, I put in the order for the customized jerseys - a Hartnell/19 for Donna and a Timonen/44 jersey for myself. The order sheet said to expect fulfillment around Decemer 15th. At the time, that was a nearly three-week wait, but, “whatever”.

Christmas came and went and still no jerseys. So, I called up the NHL Shop to find out where the hell they were. I was told, “they haven’t arrived at the warehouse, yet, but we’re expecting them in soon enough to have them to you in time for the game.” This was not at all reassuring, but, “what can you do?”

The week of the Winter Classic, still no box with jerseys were to be found at my door. So, I called them again. “They still haven’t arrived at the warehouse”. I was a touch incredulous at this and pointed out that there wasn’t much time for them to get them and get them to us. I was told how sorry they were for the delay but that there was nothing to be done.

The Winter Classic came and went. Jerseys never arrived and no indication of what the fuck had happened to them showed up in my email. Yesterday, I called to find out “whut the fuck.” The person I got hold of gave me the same story of “they still haven’t arrived at the warehouse.” This time, however, they told me I could call back the following week to open an investigation or I could cancel the order. Having been waiting nearly two months for this disappointment, I told the CSR that I wanted to just cancel the order since they were well late and they were able to give me no indication of when or if I might ever see them. She canceled the order and gave me a cancellation number and told me to expect cancellation confirmation to show up in my Inbox (no such confirmation ever came). She then asked if there was anything else she could do for me. I took this opportunity to point out that she and the NHL had, to date, done nothing for me, so how could she do “more”. I also pointed out that their order fulfillment was abysmal and that I’d never bother to try to use their service again (and, to anyone reading this, I’d advise a similar path). She gave another useless apology before we concluded the call.

Today, I spoke to someone that sells NHL merchandise for a living. I was informed that he’d only been able to get a very limited quantity of them and had sold out several days ago. Additionally, the manufacturer, who clearly had a hot commodity on their hands, wasn’t going to make any more (and, looking at shop.nhl.com, today, even they aren’t advertising them any more).

I am, to say the least, a touch incredulous at how stupid this is. I mean, they were selling these jerseys for $350 per unit. Rather than cranking out more to sell, they opted to discontinue them and sell only the much cheaper “replica” and “Premier” jerseys. I’m sure, at some point, we’ll hear how problematic mechandise forgeries and the like are to these companies (I’ve already seen the “don’t settle for cheap immitations from Asia” on some sites selling the Indonesian made “Premier” jerseys). Yet, when they have the opportunity to sell things that people want and are demonstrably willing to pay for, they choose not to. That leaves people with the choice: of be price-gouged by third parties that bought big, early so they could price-gouge later; settle for lesser goods from “legitimate sources” or, since you can’t get the thing you really wanted in the first place, buy fakes. If the recording and movie industries have shown us anything, it’s that people will either do without, or will resort to piracy to get the things they want.

Stupid.

All I can say is, “fuck you, NHL” and “fuck you, Reebok”. I hope the lot of them die in a goddamned fire.

As I wait for it to get closer to time to get ready for New Year’s festivities, I’m sitting here watching TV. As I scanned through the online “what’s on” guide, I saw that National Geographic TV was running one of their Aftermath shows.

The series, as a whole, is based on some fairly far-fetched premises. However, those premises were, previously, ones that conceivably have the capability of having a “life goes on” outcome. The episode that’s on,now, Population Explosion, doesn’t really fit that mold. It has as its premise that (somehow) the earth’s population has somehow managed to double overnight.

Yeah, I get that this is supposed to be a cautionary tale for our future that collapses the time-frame of whats to come as the Earth’s population doubles on a more natural time-scale. However, doubling over a course of decades versus over the course of a day (or even months) results in a completely different set of stressors and outcomes. Population is an inherently self-limiting problem. Explosive population growth is even more self-limiting. I’m not seeing on this episode that people have somehow become immortal, so a lot of the problems they’re positing seem unlikely. Long before we’d have to worry about creating new housing, beefing up infrastructure and finding more farmlands, energy and other resources, people would have already started to die, on a massive scale, from lack of food and environmental exposure. Let’s face it: if you doubled the human population, overnight, and even had double the farmland (and seed-stock) available to plant new crops on, those crops aren’t going to come online for a month or more - billions will have starved before then. Along with them starving (and running out of water), your doubled need for housing is going to disappear.

Oh well.. I guess National Geographic had to scrape the bottom of the barrel for this one. Seriously, this one borders on the mind-bendingly stupid. Would that doubled population still exist three (or more) years from the doubling-event? Don’t think so. I have my doubts that, post doubling, we’d even have our current levels of populations surviving over the course of even half a year, let alone ofter three. The damage and deprivation caused by that doubling would be severe. Not only would all of the new population not survive, but a significant chunk of the incumbent population would die along with them.

Sorry, National Geographic, but gonna have to give you a big, fat “F” for this bit of shoddy programming. This is even worse than the A&E’s Ancient Aliens shows.

So, in today’s email, I find the below image/message from Verizon Wireless:

I find it a tad confusing. I mean, I upgraded both phones to Samsung Charges in June. So, it’s not like either my handset or Donna’s handsets are eligle for a “new every 2” uprade for nearly two years. So why email this to me. Am I supposed to tell my freinds, who aren’t yet VZW customers, “hey: look at this awesome deal?” I mean, if that’s the intent, it makes no sense, either? Why the hell would I recommend, to anyone, “go get Verizon so you can stream video at LTE speeds and blow through your data cap in under a day!” Seriously: it makes no sense at all. It would only have made sense to send me this if: A) either of my phones were not recently upgrades; or, B) VZW hadn’t just put data caps in place for all new customers. Neither A nor B is true, so why spam me?

I’ll start this off by admitting that I’m an old guy for still going to concerts. I’m 41 as of this writing. I’m not yet the oldest guy at the various showsI go to, but I’m definitely at the upper end of the age spectrum. I’ve been going to shows since my late teen years. So, I’ve seen a lot of shows and a lot of changes in how attendees act at shows in that time. I dunno whether it’s just my age or if people are actually managing to become more idiotic at shows. However, last night, while riding-out the pit at The Adicts show at The Otto Bar, it definitely seemed like there was an ungodly number of idiots present. In fact, it was one of the worst shows - in terms of sheer amount of audience idiocy - that I’ve been to in over 20 years of going to live shows.

Let me start by saying, I love a good, active pit. That said, there’s a lot of things that can make a good, active pit into a royal pain in the ass like the one at the Otto Bar, last night. Chances are, if you’re doing any of the following, you’re contributing to fucking up an otherwise good pit:

• If you’re over 150-180 lbs. don’t try to crowd-surf. It ain’t cool. You’re too fucking heavy.
• If you do decide to crowd-surf, keep your fucking feet under control. While I’m not out to intentionally hurt anyone at a show, if you kick me or one of the people I’m with, I will find you and I will fuck your shit up.
• Don’t try to use random strangers as your climbing-pole to start your surf. I’m a big guy and have a fairly good ability to anchor an area of the pit: that doesn’t mean I want you trying to use me like a ladder. If you ask nicely (and aren’t obviously way too heavy to be crowd surfing) I’ll probably be happy to help you up. If you just start climbing, univited, I’ll shug you off. If you take a second shot at it, I will elbow you in the jaw and I will try to loosen your teeth. If you do it a third time, I will slam you down and beat on you. I’m not alone in this.
• If I see you climing up on something (that’s several feet higher than the crowd) in readiness to jump down on the crowd, I will make sure that where you land suddenly becomes devoid of people (see prior note on being big: I am easily able to push a significant number of people more than enough distance to make sure that your landing will be on concrete rather than on skulls.
• If you get surfed up to the stage, don’t belly flop, as hard as you can, onto the crowd. Lay yourself down easy. If your actions hurt me or the people I’m with, you can count on the pain you receive in return being far worse than what you dished out with your idiocy
• If you violate any of the above more than once, each time you do it in my reach, the repurcussions will be incrementally worse.
• (and this is a first) If you just had surgery that day, just because you’re still drugged up and can’t feel the pain doesn’t mean it’s a good idea to go into a pit. Even if you didn’t destroy your stitches, you’re probably getting so much dirty-punk funk in the surgical wound that you’re risking fun things like gangrene. Personally, I don’t feel like having to pay into the public welfare system to support your stupid ass when you lose a hand because you had to go into a pit with an open wound.

Don’t be a fucking meathead.

Couple notes to the women out there:

• Just because your female doesn’t exclude you from the 150lbs rule
• Just because you’re female doesn’t exclude you from the keep your feet under control (particularly if you’re wearing in appropriate footwear)
• Speaking of inappropriate footwear: heeled boots, flip-flops and too-loose sneekers fall into this category
• You might want to consider wearing something that keeps you from spilling out of your top
• You migh want to make an effort to not surf face-side down (I dunno, maybe you’re into being violently-groped: if that’s your thing, cool)
• While I won’t take the first shot, if you take a shot at me, I will put you down.

Contrary to what the girl-pants wearing under-25 set seems to think, a good pit isn’t determined by how many people you injure. If you think it does, then you’re, inevitably, going to find out just how hurt it’s possible to get at a show. It might not be me, but it will likely be someone you’ve pissed off as much as you’ve pissed me off. At least if it’s me doing it, there’ll be limits to the punishment. Others might not be so “nice” about it.

Not too long ago, they decided that they needed to open a new WalMart within walking distance of  my house. I dunno whether they closed the one three miles further down Route 1, or not. If they haven’t then I’m one of those people fortunate enough to have two, convenient WalMarts.

I have to assume they’ve closed the other one. Otherwise, the traffic for the new one makes almost no sense. I just can’t see that there was such a pent-up demand for an additional WalMart that it would explain the influx of cars onto the roads immediately surrounding my neighborhood.

Speaking of which: why is it that, when allowing a big, new store to move in, they don’t rework the roads to accommodate the new traffic patterns. It’s 1PM on a Friday afternoon and the area is positively gridlocked. It took 15 minutes to navigate the last mile of Route 1 to get onto Kings Highway. Then it took a further five minutes to travel the 1/5 of a mile on King’s Highway to get to the entrance to my neighborhood. Finally, I had to wait two minutes for the jack asses lined up on Kings Highway to let me into my neighborhood. Apparently, these (mostly Maryland-plated) people never quite got the concept of “don’t block intersections”. Yeah, I get that it’s only a two-way intersection. However, you’re still not allowed to block the intersection just because the traffic on the other side of your direction of travel has stopped. Being 30ft. closer to that stopped traffic doesn’t get you there any sooner. All it does is makes the people that need to use that intersection (and could use that intersection, but for you) want to hop out of their cars and beat you bloody with something heavy and blunt.

So, yeah, I still find no redeeming value to WalMart, especially when it attracts yet more idiots to my neck of the woods.

Ok, so, I wanted to transfer an installation package from my system at work to my system at home, but didn’t want to ass around with setting up trusted SSH keys. So, what do I do? I try to email the file.

Now, mind you, this was s 36MB MSI file. I knew that GMail had less restrictions on file sizes, so, I figured, “mail it to myself”. Gmail apparently sets a 25MB filesize limit. “Hmm… What to do,” says I.

AH! I’ve got Cygwin installed both on the system the MSI’s sitting on and my laptop. I’ll just split the file up into manageable chunks and email myself the chunks:

1. Take an md5sum of the source MSI
2. do a quick `split -d -b 12582912 MgtUI.msi MgtUI-chunk`
3. Email myself the md5 and the first chunk in one email, then the other two chunks as separate emails
4. Flip back to my laptop and fire up gmail
5. Download the sent files
6. Discover that Windows has saved the files with a permissions mask that Cygwin interprets as 0000.
7. Use the security editor to set the file permissions on each file, individually to something that Cygwin will accept
8. `cat` the chunks together
9. Run an md5sum on the reconstituted MSI and verify it all came through ok
10. Run the installer

I’m thinking I could probably have gen’ed a DSA-2048 key and set it up as an authorized key, SCPed the file across and installed it in well less than the time it took to do the prior ten steps. Oh well… There’s about a bajillion ways to skin a cat. My UNIX-tard brain made me do it one of the more painful ways.