e v i l _ b l e n d e r

I guess I shouldn't have been surprised.
Apparently if you change a credit card number, but register.com has an old one on file for you, and your site is set to 'auto-renew' they'll email you and tell you that you are about to lose access to your website.

Well, that's all well and good unless email from them was so much, that your email program has decided that anything coming from register.com is now 'spam'.

Then you won't get that email - won't know that you 'owe' $35 for another year of privelege for register.com to point your name server records someplace else, and instead, when you go to your website will be treated to a lovely graphic, with register.com's logo offering to auction off your domain name! Fun!

Here's the thing - I keep this website for 'fun' -- it doesn't make me any money, I don't think more than 3 or 4 people read it, and I can't imagine anyone wishing they could own the name 'evilblender' -- although _I_ think it's a really great name.
So, when something I purchase for myself, gets offered to _anyone_ else, because the people I bought it from decide that they continue to own it, and merely 'rent' it to me, and they can 'rent' it to whomever they want at any time.... that kind of pisses me off.

Like I said, I probably shouldn't be surprised - I've seen similar pages on other people's websites sometimes while surfing - and I thought to myself 'well that sucks, someone must have hijacked their domain name'...
turns out it was most likely the very company that they paid the money to, in order to get that domain registered. And now that company has turned around is trying to make money advertising off of what may or may not have been that website's popularity.
That's pretty sleezy.

I expected that someone like godaddy would do that - I mean they got the strippers selling their internet stuff - and I thought I'd read a negative story about them doing something like that... and incorrectly assumed that paying much more money to register.com would mean that they behaved differently, more 'grown-up'.

However, register.com's representative, Brian, told me, very matter of factly, that this is what they do. "They send the email, they can't control if I don't read their emai.l" It sounded a little too rehearsed. Something tells me I'm not the first person to have this happen to their domain.

Well.... I'm not sure I'll stick around with register.com. It doesn't appear that they are giving me any better service for the $35 a year than I could get @ a godaddy for $7 a year.

Dear register.com,
you've got me as a customer for just a little under a year now.

goodbye,
Jeff

Posted by vashremix at 02:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

OK --
I've made a spur of the moment decision. I'm going to change the platform that this web page is published with. Much like folks caution about constantly figuring out the best way to organize yourself so that you never have to actually do any of the work that actually needs to get done... that's what I'm going to do here.
Rather than actually post anything meaningful, I'm instead going to concentrate on changing the entire under workings of the web page.
Something that no one will notice but me.

Enjoy.

Posted by vashremix at 10:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

OK

I can't help it - I just think these are the funniest things in the world.

http://www.knitemare.org/cats/index.php?type=all

http://www.acc.umu.se/~zqad/cats/index.html?flow=no&large=no

don't change that 'no' to a 'yes' at the end... you'll bring your browser to it's knees! :)

lolcats

very funny

Posted by vashremix at 11:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Just looked over my pal's latest web artwork page and it's fantastic!

Check his stuff out @ http://blogdiss.weblogs.us/artwork/

I _wish_ I could doodle this well. Perhaps I have some other kind of hidden skill that I have yet to discover... do you think wasting time on the internet counts as a skill? Or perhaps an inability to leave a crashed mac alone? Maybe the latter... Oh, I know what it must be... the ability to watch _any_ movie, and usually enjoy it... and promptly forget everything in the plot within 2 or 3 days.

That's it, my super power is the ability to watch any movie for the second time and not realize that I've seen it before until about half way through!

Jeff

Posted by vashremix at 10:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I know I haven't posted for a bit. But figured I would again.
I don't have the patience to be a writer who goes over and over what I write correcting it... but figured I'd put up a couple of links that I want to remind myself of later on.

First off - a second - better? - social music community: Musicmobs --- and my page there: http://www.musicmobs.com/user/vashremix

Then - a link to a site that I got obsessed with over the weekend, and read most of it... http://www.dooce.com/faq.html

I found her very interesting to read.
I don't know that I've ever been interested in reading someone else's journal online before. It's kind of weird. In a way I'm worried that I'm somehow now a stalker - even though I only read what she posted online for _anyone_ to read... I guess that 'anyone' would include me... but it's still weird.
Perhaps I related to what she wrote about too much. Not all of it. Just some.

Later.

Posted by vashremix at 12:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Ah I LOVE this site!

http://www.sr.se/p1/src/sing/index.htm

Posted by vashremix at 04:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

OK - I'm stuck, stranded in Washington DC - our nation's fair capitol. (thanks United!) I guess at least they put me in a hotel, instead of letting me sleep on the floor of the airport.

Another thing I'm grateful for, is Hilton Hotel's free internet access. So, as I sit here and think about how I'm going to get from DC back to NY - I've at least got something interesting to look at for free. 'F TV' lately is how I feel about it. So for my 'news' I'm sticking to Net News Wire, and my own favorite RSS feeds.

I think that there might be something subversive about subscribing to 'news that you want to read' only... so I sometimes try to take in news from sources I don't trust/like... but I find that online, my patience for that runs thin. So, for now I just like watching news that I 'trust' ... and by trust, I guess I mean, that have written articles that I have found interesting in the past.
So from bOING bOING I found a fantastic little bizarre 'TV talk show' that takes place inside of a video game. Inside you ask... indeed - sometimes in the middle of the interviews - 'noobs' jump in and try to shoot the guests and hosts. It's a little strange to wrap your head around - I think it's the contrast of the dialogue and the video game footage that I find so interesting... machinima they seem to be calling it.

Re-working video games into 'movies' and 'tv shows' --- pretty high-brow talking for a strange looking, and what I think will inevitably be a short-lived art form. The first few episodes are fun to watch from a 'what in the world' point of view... but I can't imagine tuning in for a weekly show. Perhaps I'm showing my age, and general callousness.

I'm kind of torn about it right now. I think that because I'm not a fan of this Xbox game, I kind of got tired of the visuals after a while. And perhaps what I liked most were some of the guest's opinions about new media rather than the 'frag-fest' that seemed to go on while they were discussing how a story could evolve to inhabit a 3 dimensional world.

I suppose for some people, these video games are a world... I cannot agree with this though. RIght now, it simply seems like a way to waste time, blow off steam, and spend some cash. I'm not ready to call this the 'world of the future.'

I still recommend watching a few of the episodes of This Spartan Life just so that you can see what I mean.

Posted by vashremix at 11:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I'm not sure I ever fancied myself very smart with words. I have rather enjoyed some word games though. Something tells me that Julia might like this site - but you'll have to use firefox on the mac, as safari doesn't seem to work.

Language Is A Virus

(from 43folders)

Poets, dadaists, and word nerds: Rejoice:

Posted by vashremix at 09:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Gnod - The global network of dreams

'Global network of dreams' -- indeed - this is one of the most fascinating things I have ever seen. I am loving that I can put in music that I like, and have it pick other artists that I may like as well.
What's special about that you say... amazon.com does the same thing.
Well - visually, it's a lot more interesting - find out for yourself.

Posted by vashremix at 08:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Whoa!

Talk about a toolkit!

Over at whoppix you can find a ready to go ISO of a knoppix linux distro who's focus is breaking and entering! Guess I didn't realize how easy it _is_ to be a script kiddie. Granted, unless you are speaking #!bin/bash fluently you may not get most of the info presented... but hey - it's not that hard to learn the linux lingo.

They've got videos (although they are flash based...) at http://www.whoppix.net/demos.html

I figure if I can do it, anyone should be able to.

Not that I'm ready to break and enter - but at least now I know what I'm up against as I try and keep this server continually running.

Posted by vashremix at 12:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Here's a fun one for you!

Using someone else's data engine - I ran my del.icio.us account through it and got this.

I love it!

Posted by vashremix at 03:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Ever read a site and think - "MAN, I wish _I_ could have written that!" ?

I just read one of those sites.

http://iraszl.brinkster.net/creativebits/2004/08/how-to-come-up-with-creative-ideas.html

They write about how to come up with creative ideas. I'm especially fond of the flipping through the magazine and looking at a specific place on a page. What a great idea for somewhat random inspiration. So much of what passes for creative advertising seems to simply be a re-hash of what everyone else is already doing anyways... this at least allows you the freedom to try to use something you see in a different way.
Seeing through others eyes, as it were.
I think it's an excellent idea - and I can't help but wonder if it wouldn't work with music as well. That would be might interesting. Not sure what the equivalent of a magazine would be, but for me I'd use my Sirius radio!

Posted by vashremix at 01:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Firefox Extensions :: Apple-X.net :: Alternative Mac Tech News, Analysis, Reviews, and Opinion.

OK - I finally made it official. I've switched my default browser from safari over to firefox.

ONLY because of the extensions.

Go grab firefox - and tell a friend!

Posted by vashremix at 01:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I wish I had a better handle on this stuff.

css Zen Garden: The Beauty in CSS Design

it's a site that lets you change the look of it by just changing a pulldown menu ... it's all driven by CSS. CSS is what's making the look of _this_ site! I wish I knew what to change so that mine can be as flexible.
I'll work on it.

You know I'll get there! :)

Posted by vashremix at 11:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I like Movable Type just fine. I think it's a pretty simple way of getting info from my brain to the web relatively quickly. I wish there were some sort of auto-html-ing it would do for me. Apparently it would if I were on windows. I try not to be as much as possible. Nothing wrong with them... I just don't care for them. For now I'll keep posting off of my mac, until I get around to trying out linux (again) on my PC. There is an app for the mac called ecto that looks like it will help me out in the mean time. I've never liked trying to remember the AHREF stuff in my head all the time. I've got way too many acronyms floating around in there anyways.

MIDI stuff - SMPTE stuff - enough already.

listening to:
Mo' Fire by BAD COMPANY - )EIB(

You know what.... I ordered some EIB and Andy C stuff off of amazon a couple of weeks ago, and haven't gotten it yet! Guess that's what us cheapies get for choosing the "Super Saver" shipping. Want to listen to the albums now... not 4 weeks from now!

Posted by vashremix at 04:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)