Equifax fraudulently altered my credit report.

I subscribe to a credit score monitoring service (MyFico) that sends me email alerts whenever my score changes. It also allows me view full credit reports with analysis.

I check my email today and notice that my credit score has dropped 56 points! So naturally I log into MyFico to see what's up and it tells me that my score may have decreased for a few new reasons, one of which is a new collection.

New collection? Wtf, I've paid my bills on time for the past 7 or 8 years. So I tell MyFico run the full report. And I bring up the info on the collection. Hmm, something doesn't seem right. I pull up an old archived report that I ran May 2007 and compare the collection reported then to the collection reported now. See the title picture of this post.

Notice anything? It's the same collection from 7 years ago, but all of a sudden the "date active" and "date reported" have changed!

Is this country's economy in so much trouble that creditors are changing historical records in order to fuck us on interest rates? What's next, completely fabricated marks on people's credit scores?

I'm just so flabbergasted that records of a collection that was closed 7 years ago, water under the bridge, can come back and magically be altered with fraudulent information to drastically effect my credit score. I am so enraged about this that all I can think of is the ending to Fight Club.

So what do I do about this? Who do I call? I feel like a tiny ant being crushed by the gears of corporate America. I mean, what if I wasn't monitoring my credit score like so many other Americans don't? This little blip would probably slip under the radar and cost me tens of thousands of dollars in the long run (say, if I got a mortgage under the lower score). I want to hire a lawyer and sue Equifax.

For those wondering, my score now is 710 which does cause me to get worse interest rates compared to when it was 766.

Dead or Alive (the movie)

(image from Perspective Radio)

The Good The fighting was surprisingly good. Well, maybe not so surprising since it's directed by Cory Yuen, but still... for a video game movie starring an almost all (non-Asian) female cast, the fight scenes were pretty slick. One thing Cory understands is how to make a punch or kick look devastating. Nothing is worse than watching a fight sequence where the blows look like love taps. The punches and kicks need to "snap" and for the most part, they do.

The Better Jaime Pressley... wow. Honestly, I had no idea it was her until I looked it up on IMDB. She was in fantastic shape for this movie. I mean damn, does she always look like this? She looks like a professional fitness competitor. She also pulls off some amazing aerial kicks and flips. They are actually so good (I'm talking Jet Li good) in some cases, I have serious doubts that it's really her.

The Bad It's a video game movie. The plot and acting isn't so hot, though I have to admit that I liked Tina's (Jaime Pressley) scenes, especially with her dad. He was good too, albeit both characters are stereotypes (shit kickin hicks) that are pretty easy to play.

There was a bit too much "fan service" imo. I know, I know... the whole DOA video game franchise started on the concept of fan service, so expect to see tons of gratuitous shots of the girls in underwear and bikinis, etc. I dunno, it cheapens the whole experience for me... and also reminds me that the target audience is half my age, ugh.

The Rant What the fuck. How could they do this to Ryu Hayabusa? I mean jesus, Tomonobu Itagaki should have stepped in and said "no". Ryu plays Katsumi's protector in the movie. He's also a combatant in the DOA tournament, and while he does make it to the finals, he's by no means portrayed as the complete ultimate badass that he is. His skills take a backseat, not only to all the females, but also to freaking Hayate. Oh, it's painful to watch.

For god sakes, he has his own massively successful video game, in which he's the creme de la creme of the ninjas. The best of the best. The ultimate badass. And he pulls it off with a cold as ice, hard as steel attitude... not some lacky who blushes at the sight of a girl in a bathrobe.

Even in the DOA games, they refer to him as "the superninja", and he still has that ice cold, harder than hard persona. How did that get lost in translation to the movie?

My MacBook fiasco, Amazon redeemed, UPS sucks!

Damn you, Joooobbsss! So I finally broke down and decided to get myself a MacBook. I had gotten a Mini (and iPod) for Aimee and she's complaining that I'm on it too much, heh.

I had my eye on the lowest MacBook, but at the last minute decided that the faster processor, larger hard drive and Superdrive (aka DVD burner) is worth the extra $200.

Buying from the Apple Store sucks because you have to pay tax, which is $107 for the $1300 MacBook. Also, Amazon gives a $75 rebate and $30 instant savings if you sign up for their Visa card, which I've been meaning to do for a while.

Aimee and I have a trial Amazon Prime account, so I got the $4 overnight shipping. I placed the order on Thursday with a supposed delivery day of Friday.

Up(s) yours, Brown! Naturally, I tracked the package. At 6am, I saw it scanned in Austin and by 8am, it was "out for delivery." At around Noon, a coworker said they saw the UPS truck out front, but it just stopped for a while, no one came inside, then it left. I checked the tracking page and it said my package was rescheduled for Monday!! Ugh!

So I call UPS to inquire. Funny thing about calling: you can only get the 800 number. They don't list, nor will customer service give you the numbers for the local hubs. Anyways, customer service couldn't tell me anything more than I knew already from looking at the tracking page on the web. I called a few times more and finally someone from the local hub called me back (a one way phone number, btw. I couldn't call it back). They said I could declare to pick it up from the local hub and it would be there at around 730 pm, but they would give me a call first to make sure it came back off the truck.

730 comes and no phone call, so I drive to the damn hub (because I have no way of calling them). Long story short, they lost the package. It's not on the truck, nor can they find it at the hub. Also, they didn't seem to care. "Take it up with Amazon to refund you."

Amazon, fix this! So I get on the phone with Amazon customer service at around 8am on Sat. The girl is super nice and almost before I finish explaining what happened, she says a replacement order has been made and will be shipped "overnight" for a Monday delivery. Wow, now that's customer service!

So Sunday rolls around and I'm wondering why I wasn't emailed a new order number or tracking number.

By Monday, I'm really wondering and get on the phone with Amazon (11am). Apparently the replacement order wasn't made. Annoying... being told one thing, then another thing actually (not) happening. So this time they assure me that the replacement order is made and it will be there on Tuesday.

Curious thing... 6pm comes and yet again no replacement order number or tracking number. So I call back (and speak to a "lead" this time) and just get told "a replacement order was made with overnight shipping." Yeah? Well if it's going to make the overnight plane, shouldn't it have been shipped already? "Hrm, yeah... you're right." So why the hell wasn't it?

I'm livid now. Having competitive prices and fulfilling orders in a timely fashion are the bare minimum requirements for a company to survive. How is Amazon different? What makes them stand out over, say, Newegg? (yes, I'm saying all this to the "lead") Any company can fulfill orders (if not, they are criminals), it's how a company handles "incidents" that gives it an opportunity to stand out above the others.

"So what are you going to do about it besides apologize?" Apparently nothing... at first. ..but then out of the blue the lead calls back and admits that Amazon screwed up (more than once) and they are willing to give me a $50 rebate on my next purchase. Not bad... but how about applying the rebate to this current purchase. "Yeah, we can do that." Sweet.

So finally the replacement order is really made (I got an order number and tracking number this time, yay!) The lead said his boss had to get it approved by her boss which is why it took so long. Jeez, once the corporate gears are moving, it's hard to stop them, eh? That's for another blog post though.

So the (really) cool part is that there is a note attached to my order number, again apologizing, but also saying that I'm getting a $265 discount on the purchase! Apparently the lead's boss didn't think $50 was enough and decided to give me 20% off, plus refund the all shipping costs!

Yes that made up for everything, Amazon, and you're again in my cool book (I've always loved you though)!

The bottom line So let's tally up the damage!

From Amazon with discounts and rebates...
($1299 + $4) - ($75 + $30 + $260 + $4) = $935

How much it would have cost from the Apple Store...
($1299 + 107) = $1406

Total savings... $471

I'm so glad, not only because of the money, but because I actually like Amazon (despite generally hating huge corporations). They've always had good price, great return policy and good customer service... and I'm glad it turned out that way again for me in the end of this debacle.

P.S. I blame Steve Jobs for UPS losing the original package and for the replacement order mix ups. Damn you, Joooooobbbbssss!!

OS X Leopard Woes

(Image plucked from Google Images)

I've been talking about getting Mac for a long time. I'm kind of tired of tweaking, configuring and sometimes battling Linux. I just want a simple home computer (mostly for Aimee and her new iPod) that "just works."

And that's Mac's big schtick (sp?) right? They just work. Ask anyone who uses ones and they'll tell you... they'll never go back to the broken PC/Windows world. It seems like Mac/OS X is so awesome, that converts don't just become fans... they become fanbois (that's super extreme fanboys).

Well, I finally picked up a Mac Mini with OS X Leopard... here's my take on it.

Home/end/pgup/pgdown keys don't work as expected.
Home and end take the cursor to the beginning and end of a line respectively in EVERY F-ING OS IN EXISTANCE... except for OS X. And that's fine... I'll just learn the Mac way to move the cursor to the end of the line. Well guess fucking what... it's different for different applications!! Here's a sample of what the keystrokes are for beginning /end of a line for different OS X apps. Most OS X programs: command+left / command+right Terminal: ctrl-a / ctrl-e Firefox: who fucking knows / command+right

Massive security issue.
The first day I had the machine, I had to reinstall the entire f-ing OS because for some god knows reason, it was starting every program as root (administrator for you Windows people). There is a long thread about it that ended with the guy throwing in the towel and reinstalling OS X, just like I had to.

Sluggish and hiccups.
Sometimes when I'm typing, the cursor will just freeze for a sec and then when it unfreezes, all the characters come out all at once. Also, minor hiccups (slight delays) when choosing menu items, sending instant messages, or closing apps. There is a thread on Apple's support site about it.

The mouse acceleration is crappy and non adjustable.
Wtf is Apple such a pretentious piece of shit that they force their users to buy a $20 shareware app to adjust something that should have been adjustable in the first place?

Answer: because Apple isn't about choice or freedom... iTunes + iPod.
iTunes -> iPod is a one way street. There is no way to get songs on your iPod back into iTunes (say, in the case of reinstalling the OS like I had to do the first night I had the machine). Also, imagine this... You happily use iTunes and your iPod with your home computer, but then you take your iPod to work and decide you want to download a song and put it on your iPod to listen to at the gym on your way home from work. Think again, asshole. Can't do it without erasing all the songs already on your iPod.

No focus follows mouse policy.
This is just a personal gripe. If you're a seasoned Unix user, you might understand.

Doesn't reconnect to wireless network after waking up.
Aimee loves this one. Almost everytime she wakes up the computer, she has to connect and enter in our WEP password manually to reestablish the internet connection. I think I've tracked this down to a Keychain Access issue, but it's still not resolved 100%... and it pisses me off because....

I thought Macs "just worked."

Apple Innovation: Stacks and Spaces

This is just a rant that started as an IM conversation with a friend. Understand that this is just a lighthearted rant and I'm an Apple fan with a recently acquired Mac Mini with a possibility of buying a MacBook in the near future.

Apple is starting to pull Microsoft's bs marketing crap now... "Look how innovative we are. We created this incredible UI paradigm called Stacks." Are they kidding? That's called dragging a folder to the task bar in KDE and it's been around since the 90's (or earlier?). In fact, it's such a basic concept in any Linux desktop GUI, that it took me a while to even grasp what Stacks was because I thought it was something "new".

Same deal with Spaces. It's called multiple desktops, again a basic concept in Unix as far back as I can remember. "Oh, but Apple was the first to make a cool UI for managing them." Wrong. Compiz/Beryl/CompizFusion was around well before Leopard.

Biggest Apple Rip Off Yet

I was reading (and agreeing with) someone's gripe over Apple putting a combo drive in their "low end" MacBook when I realized that offence is nothing in comparison to their memory prices.

Recently, Apple quietly upgraded their MacBook lineup, which included officially extending the maximum supported memory to 4 gb. Great! The more the better, especially since I would be using VMware Fusion to run Windows and Linux along side OS X.

Here's the kicker, configuring a MacBook through Apple's online store will cost you $850 for 3 gb of memory. Yes, that's eight hundred and f-ing fifty dollars for a mere 3 gb of memory (remember, the 1st gb is including in the base price).

Let me put this in perspective. You can buy 4 gb of Patriot memory, specifically made for Mac notebooks, from Newegg for only $189. Yes, that's one full gb more for approximately $650 less than what Apple is charging.

Am I the only one outraged?

Dustpans are teh suck!

Have you ever noticed that you never get all the dirt off the floor when you finish a sweeping job with a dustpan? I hate dustpans. They are so primitive. Why do people still use technology that was invented millennia ago?

Check out my current sweeping technique. I sweep all the dust, dirt and crap into a corner, then suck I up with a vacuum cleaner (the hose part). It works great and it gets all the dirt.

Throw away your dustpans!!!

Useless programmer blogs.

I hate it when dipshit programmers essentially make blog posts repeating what the manual already tells me. For instance, I was looking for how to use sockets with Ruby and came across all these blog posts that told me nothing more than the Ruby manual itself. Hell, most of the posts were just copied and pasted directly from the manual.

This annoys me for various reasons.

• It clutters the internet and makes it more difficult to find actually useful information.
• These dipshits probably do this on purpose so that they can show off their "popular" blog in interviews.
• These dipshits probably get paid more than me because they are "leading the industry with their expertise as displayed in their blogs".

You know what? Next time I'm reading a programming manual online and I have an unanswered question, I'm going to blog the answer to that question, but really the blog is going to be an excerpt from the manual that raised the question in the first place. Then when my blog's popularity skyrockets from other programmers seeking that same answer (to which they'll just find the question again, hehe), I'm going to apply to Google saying, "Look at how many other programmers turn to my blog for guidance. Hire me, I'm multraleet!"