Smoke And Mirrors In Solving Global Warming

So we've all seen An Inconvenient Truth and heard the dire predictions of our climatological future. What do our leaders propose as a solution? Smoke and mirrors. Literally.

Yep, our submission to the UN report for a worldwide climate plan is to reflect some of the sun's energy back into space, through the use of giant mirrors or reflective particles shot into the atmosphere.

Would it work? Maybe. But why the heck are we resorting to lofty projects like these (literally), when we waste so much power we produce through dirty means? Let's reduce the emissions from those coal plants, for one. Let's invest more in cleaner energy production and mass transit, for another. And let's do it fast.

Funding, you say? I know where $5-$10 billion a month is going that we could put to better use...

Darfur Wall Featured In Our Local Papers

Props to Jonah for getting written up in the Seattle Times and the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. When I first blogged about Darfurwall.org, the site had already raised several thousand. Now he's over $30K. My prediction: we'll hit the goal of $400K by the end of the year.

The Most Rotten Movies Of This Decade

I like the movie review site Rotten Tomatoes. It aggregates reviews from lots of sources and gives you a sense of whether most reviewers did, or didn't, like a movie. Anything above 60% positive is considered "fresh", and anything below is considered "rotten".

Today, I became curious: what are some recent movies (say, since 2000) that rendered no positive reviews? Zero. Zilch. In other words, a 0 % rating on Rotten Tomatoes, or the most rotten rating a movie could earn.

Thanks to the advanced search features on the site, it appears there are seven movies that fit this dubious distinction.

• Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever
• Pinocchio
• Zoom
• Crossover
• King's Ransom
• Superbabies: Baby Geniuses 2
• National Lampoon's Gold Diggers

Apart from the National Lampoon's movie, I haven't heard of any of these. Has anyone had the unfortunate experience of seeing one of these?

This Is What Happens When It Snows In The Northwest

This video pretty much describes how people drive when it gets unseasonably snowy and icy up here in the Pacific Northwest, and people try to drive. Admittedly this is Portland, Oregon and not Seattle. But trust me, the the driver mentality is very close to the same.

Blog Housekeeping: Feed Update

For those subscribers to my blog: a couple of housekeeping changes today.

1. I've changed my feed to show the full post text, not summaries. Yeah, summaries are kinda irritating.
2. I've changed my feed URL to use FeedBurner. The new feed URL is here, and can also be found when visiting the blog itself. Please update your readers!

Fine print: the old URL should still work for a while, but I can't guarantee for how long.

Update: Yes, some images may appear to break when using the FeedBurner feed. That's because it doesn't process relative links as relative to my blog. I'll think about whether that tanks it or not. :)

Update 2: Looks like the feed viewed in the browser has image issues, but viewed from within Google Reader looks fine. Anyone else seeing broken images in their feed reader (example: does the picture of the robot show up in the post below?).

Washington Mutual customer service has been taken over by robots

We're getting ready to take the plunge into home ownership. Given we don't have several hundreds of thousands of dollars lying around, we're looking for a home loan. I emailed my bank, Washington Mutual, to ask them about their home loans. I had two simple questions:

• Do we need to go to a branch in person to get a good-faith estimate? Or can it be done over the phone?


• What Washington Mutual locations are staffed with people who can help me with this?

I decide to send an email to the customer service department to get these two, simple questions answered.

My initial mail:

Hi there, I'm interested in receiving a pre-qualification /
good faith estimate for a home mortgage. I have a couple of questions:
- Is this something that is done in person, or can it be done over the
phone?
- In either case, what WaMu locations are staffed with people that can
provide this for me? I live in Seattle.

Soon, the first reply comes back:

Thank you for your inquiry about your Washington Mutual home loan.

Unfortunately, I need more information to assist you with your inquiry.
Please provide your property address, and loan number so that I can
assist you.

Thank you for the opportunity to assist you. If you have any additional
questions or concerns, please reply to this email. We can also be
reached toll free at 866.926.8937.

Hmm...but I don't have a home loan or a property address. Let's try again. Mail #2:

Hi, I don't have a property or a home mortgage from WaMu right
now. I'm inquiring about obtaining a pre-qualification / good-faith
estimate from a WaMu loan officer. I'm a first-time home buyer.

I hope this clarifies my question.

A second reply comes back from them:

You have reached the home loan servicing division for existing home
loans and we are unable to assist you with new loan or refinancing
information. Please contact our New Loan and Refinancing Department toll
free at (877) 800-9268 Monday through Friday 5 a.m. to 6 p.m. CST for
assistance with your inquiry.

Oh, come on. Other financial institutions (BECU for example) provided me with this information over email. Why can't WaMu? My email #3:

My questions are very general. Can someone from Customer Care
not contact the Loan and Refinancing department with my two questions
below and report the answers to me back in email? Really, it's just:
- do I need to be present in person, and
- what locations in my area (Seattle, WA) should I contact?

I trust you'll be able to produce the answers to these questions in
short notice. As a point of comparison, another financial institution
answered all these questions over email for me with just one reply.

Here's WaMu' reply:

Thanks for contacting Washington Mutual!

To find a Washington Mutual financial center, ATM, or Home Loan Center
near you:

- Go to wamu.com
* Click "Find a branch/ATM."
* Type your local address,
*Select the desired location type then click "Find Location."

If there's anything else, you may call us toll-free at 800.788.7000,
send us an email by visiting wamu.com, or visit a Washington Mutual
financial center. To find the financial center nearest you, please go to
wamu.com and select "Find a Location."

What?! I know where WaMus are, and I know how to use the web site to find them. That wasn't my question.

I try again:

This is email #4 for me and you've yet to answer my questions.
Please try again.

And they reply:

Unfortunately, I need more information to assist you with your inquiry.
Please provide your name, property address, and loan number so that I
can assist you.

And...we're back to the initial reply.

OK, Washington Mutual. What. The. Hell. I have two simple questions for you. It's been 4 emails now, and not only have you not answered them, but you're repeating yourself word for word.

I'm convinced WaMu's customer service department has been taken over by evil, but dim, robots.

As a point of comparison, here's the single, illuminating, email I got back from BECU after asking the exact same questions. Hmm..I wonder where I'll be taking my business?

Dear George:

There's a 3 ways you can apply for a home loan.

1) Online at www.becuhomeloans.org;
2) You may go into the nearest Express Center or Financial Institution
(Everett or Tukwila) and apply in person. This doesn't require an
appointment. It's on a walk-in-basis.
3) You can also call 206-439-5772

You can also get Good Faith Estimates from our website above.

I'll update this post as the conversation with the WaMu customer service robots continues.
=====
Update #1: The fun continues.

My reply #5:

Nope, that's the same response you gave me initially. Try again.

Their reply #5:

Thank you for your inquiry about your Washington Mutual home loan.Unfortunately, I need more information to assist you with your inquiry.
Please provide your name, property address, and loan number so that I can assist you.

My reply #6:

I don't have a property or loan number. All I need is a good faith
estimate and a truth-in-lending for a mortgage. I need to know how and where to get one from WaMu.

Their reply #6:

Thank you for your inquiry about your Washington Mutual home loan.Unfortunately, Wamu does not have those documents on file. You will need to contact your closing agent. I do regret any inconvenience this may have caused you.

Does anyone want to take bets on how long this will go on?
=====
Update #2: It's still going.

My reply #7:

I have to ask - are you all reading my responses?I don't have a closing officer. I don't have a loan with WaMu. I'm just asking two simple questions
about who I need to contact, and where,for a good-faith-estimate for a home
loan.

Their reply #7:

Unfortunately, due to security and privacy reasons, I am unable to provide you with your loan information. However, you may contact your closing agent for more information. I regret any inconvenience this may have caused you.

I'm pretty sure they're not reading any of my responses. Why do they think I have a closing agent or a loan when I've repeatedly told them I don't?
=====
Update 3: I got a different reply, but quickly regressed back to the old automated pattern.

My reply #8:

Hi. I don't have a closing agent. I don't have a WaMu loan. My questions have nothing to do with an existing WaMu loan.

Their reply #8:

Unfortunately, we're unable to respond to email messages regarding consumer loans (auto loans, lines of credit, etc.) at this time. We're preparing to offer email service in the near future, but we still want to help you find the information you need right now. For information and service on your consumer loan, please call our Consumer Loan Servicing department toll-free at 888.800.8738. We're available Monday through Friday from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. and Saturday from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. (PT).

What the...? So they can't answer this question over email, but they're building some service to be able to in the future? What, they can't pick up the phone, call the number, ask the questions, get the answers, and relay them to me? I try again.

My reply #9:

But my questions are very general, and don't refer to any specific product or account. I just need to know where to go or who to call to receive a good-faith-estimate on a home loan.If the phone number is the only way to get this info, why can't you call, get the info, and relay it to me over
email?

Their reply #9:

Unfortunately, I need more information to assist you with your inquiry. Please provide your name, property address, and loan number so that I can assist you.

And, we're back to the stock line. I'm speechless...but I'll keep trying. At this point I'm just curious how many times we'll get back to stock answers, versus some actual intelligent response to my questions.

Seattle Snow 2007

No, it's not deja vu. But maybe it's history repeating itself. First we had a snow storm. Then, we had another snow storm. Then, we had a wind storm. Now that we're in a new year, I guess it's back to the snow storm.

This one wasn't as bad. Some buses actually had chains installed from the get-go. And, Seattle didn't get nearly as covered as it did last time. Still, folks in the outlying areas had trouble getting into work today because of snow and ice on the roads.

One consolation: at least it's pretty outside.

Home, Sweet Home

It's easy to lose touch with the news of the day from a place where you grew up near and lived in during college. In my case, I'm referring to Atlanta, Georgia.

Fortunately, there's news stories to keep me in touch as well as blogs. And what a great one that hit the blogosphere today: Atlanta police arrest an Oxford historian for jaywalking. That's right; Felipe Fernandez-Armesto was arrested, thrown in jail, asked to post bail, and eventually released for crossing the street incorrectly.

Check out his bio page. Wow: global environmental history; comparative colonial history; topics in Spanish and maritime history and the history of cartography. Dangerous stuff and a dangerous character, too. What, with all of that tweed he's wearing! Definitely a guy who'd disturb the peace, hmm?

I hang my head in shame.

Flip-Flopper, Part Deux

In the 2004 election, it was all about how Kerry supposedly was a flip-flopper, and wasn't a reliable, "stay the course" kind of decision maker. Putting aside where that mantra has led us, looks like one potential political candidate for 2008 has had his share of flip-flops.

I'm all about people changing their minds, provided with more information about a subject. But when it comes to some pretty key policy issues (energy, torture, taxes) that we've had enough information about for a while, these types of changes smell less like "more information" flip-flops and more like "cave to the Administration" flip-flops.

Bad Usability: US Airways Flight Status

So I go online yesterday to check on the status of a friend's flight on US Airways' website. We're picking him up, and we want to see whether the flight is early, on time, or late, to adjust when we leave our place to head to the airport.

I click on "flight status" and I get this simple form:


I enter the flight number, and I click on Retrieve. Then, I get this message:

We're sorry, but we were unable to complete your request.
Please enter a departure city in the 'From' field.

Well, I don't know his departure city. In fact, this is the second leg of his journey, so even if I knew where he was flying out of, I didn't necessarily know his connecting city.

What gives? US Air has the schedule for this flight number. Why doesn't it show me the full itinerary and let me figure out which portion I'm interested in?

Fortunately, Yahoo Travel both had this information and was willing to share it with me. Thumbs down, US Air. You took an obvious task and made it harder than it had to be.

So Long Bloglines, Hello Google Reader

A long while ago I wrote about using Bloglines to keep up with my online reading. Since then, I've tried to use a few other browser-based readers, but nothing really made me compelled enough to switch. That is, until, on a recommendation from a coworker, I tried Google Reader again. Now, I've switched.

There's a few reasons why:

• UI - Google Reader looks better. Sorry, but when it comes to spending time with something, I want it to look good. With feed reading, the presentation of the content is important. Would you read a newspaper or a magazine if the copy was not easy to parse?
• Reading experience - there's one irritating feature of Bloglines that I've never liked. As soon as you click on a feed (or a category of feeds), all the items in the feed are marked as read. Even if you haven't read a single one of them! Google Reader marks things as read as your read them. Just like email. Much more sensible.
• Importability/Exportability - All of these readers are hot to trot on allowing you to import and export your list of subscriptions. That makes sense for consumers, so you can easily move from one reader to another. This allowed me to switch without having to resubscribe to all of my feeds of interest.

What's ironic is that that last bit is what really made me switch. If I had to resubscribe to all of my feeds, I would say "no way", since I have about 150 feeds I subscribe to. Yet, with Bloglines supporting import/export of subscriptions (as most all newsreaders do), I was able to use this feature to abandon Bloglines. Compare that to Netflix: if they allowed you to easily take your queue of movies to a competitor, how many people would they lose every month?

A last note: Bloglines never approached me for feedback, in the form of a "we care - tell us what you think" link for me to voice the above. There's no feedback link anywhere in their newsreading UI, on last check. Sure, the feedback cycle back into the product isn't instant. But people who are irritated tend to share their thoughts (as I am here).

Of course, I'll occasionally check Bloglines to see if they've improved. With import/export features in all readers, it's just as easy to switch back.

CEO Harry You Named Time Magazine Person Of The Year

Time Magazine just named their Person of the Year for 2006. And it's none other than Mr. Harry You, CEO of BearingPoint! From BearingPoint's web site:

Mr. You was named executive officer in March 2005. As CEO, he is responsible for formulating and executing the long-term strategies that position BearingPoint as a professional services leader in strategy, business process expertise and technology.... Mr. You is on the Board of Directors of Korn Ferry International, the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, and the Yale Graduate School Advisory Board.

Congratulations, Harry!

Five Ways To Be A Scrooge This Holiday Season

This holiday season, you may be inundated with people spreading goodwill all around you. You know, those giving and sharing types, trying to make the world around them a better place? Well, you can do something about it. Here's five ways to be a true Scrooge this holiday.

Spare change
The holidays are a time to buy a lot of stuff for people who have a lot of stuff. As you rush from store to store in a mad frenzy to buy, you may stop in at a espresso coffee chain and purchase an overpriced holiday latte. If you pay with cash, remember to not give any spare change to those who ask for it on the streets. Just keep drinking your coffee - the steam rising from the cup will fog your glasses so you don't have to look at those who ask for the coins jingling in your pocket.

Leftovers
It's fun to go out to eat over the holidays, as many restaurants have festive menus planned. With the size of entrees these days, it's hard to finish everything you order. Remember to ask for a to-go box, but then ensure you hold on to it tightly as you head back to your car. Even though the food will probably go bad in your refrigerator before you think about eating it, why give it to someone who didn't buy it, fair and square?

Volunteering
It takes a lot of time to get everything done this holiday season. There's shopping for gifts, writing out holiday cards, attending holiday parties...and not to mention the many gatherings with family and friends. Who has time to volunteer for even a few hours at a community food bank, or any number of other non-profits that help those in need? Besides, they hire people to do that work. They don't need extra help nearly as much as you need time to seek out that perfect cashmere top to go along with you new blank pants.

Toys
Every year, it's all about getting kids to go see Santa. You have to find the best place to take your kids to have their picture taken with Santa. Cost is no matter, right? What will the friends and family think if you don't send them that cute picture of the kids screaming their heads off while sitting on a bearded man's lap? While you're waiting in line for the jolly red giant, you may notice some people doing toy drives, collecting toys for kids so they can have a few things to open for the holidays. Make sure to steer clear of that racket! I mean, come on, who do those toys really go to, anyway?

Music
Often times, musicians sing and play instruments on the streets during the holidays, in order to entertain people but also to earn money. It's great that these people want to share their talents with the rest of us, but after a while it can get pretty irritating, can't it? Make sure you never give them money or purchase any of their CDs. There's plenty of places these people can get gainful employment. If they're so into singing and playing music, why don't they audition for the orchestra?

So there you have it - five easy ways to be a Scrooge this holiday season. There are plenty more, so I welcome people's comments on ways they've passed on the grinchy spirit to others!

Seattle Windstorm 2006

Last month was the snowstorm. This month brings a windstorm. And we're not even into the wintery portion of the winter season. What gives?

Seattle weathered the storm in various ways, largely dependent on location. Downed trees and power outages were the primary problems, as were flooding and mudslides. Seattle City Light reported 170,000 without power this morning. And, there were places that felt the effects of too much water falling too quickly. The Seattle Times and PI newspapers couldn't print their dailies because of power outages at the presses. The online editions didn't suffer, however. As for us, the central city was fine this morning, as far as I could tell - no power outages, no flooding.

Redmond and Bellevue were another matter. All of the intersections I went through while driving around this morning were without power, which means no functioning traffic lights. Lots of old trees, fences, signs, and the like were uprooted and toppled. Someone calling into KUOW reported the biggest traffic backups in Bellevue to be because of people lining up for gasoline (2hr waits) or Burger King.

Island County and the Skagit Valley are apparently doing worse than King County. The same situation there: power outages, downed trees, and the like. The problem there is that there's more damage, and people are more spread out, which means it's harder to get power and services back up to a lot of people quickly.

It's been an interesting November and December, from the weather standpoint. Who knows what the new year will bring?

Christmas Song Lyrics Are Weird

Radio stations like Warm 106.9 are playing non-stop Christmas songs this month, so I've gotten my fill of holiday tunes. But, I've noticed some songs are rather weird, when you really listen to them.

One example is that festive, merry song, "It's the most wonderful time of the year." The lyrics begin:

It's the most wonderful time of the year
With the kids jingle belling and everyone telling you
"Be of good cheer"
It's the most wonderful time of the year.

Ah, yes - what canonical visions of the holidays! But then things get weird:

There'll be scary ghost stories and tales of the glories
of Christmases long, long ago.

What? Ghost stories? Glories of Christmases long ago? What is this, a song about Blackbeard and stories of plundered treasure? War and strife? What gives, song? I don't think I've ever told someone a ghost story over a Christmas gathering, especially having to do with past glories of some sort.

I must be missing the point...who can enlighten me?

The Darfur Wall

A friend of mine, Jonah Burke, recently launched a web site that smartly combines technology, novelty, and humanitarianism. The Darfur Wall is set up to collect aid money in honor of the victims of genocide in Darfur, Sudan.

The premise is simple: 400,000 gray numbers are on the virtual wall, one for every victim. For $1, you can light one up. From the site:

The numbers 1 to 400,000 cover the 40 panels of The Darfur Wall. Each number represents a person killed in Darfur. By donating $1 or more you can light a number, turning it from dark gray to brilliant white. As we light the wall, we acknowledge the importance of each life lost, we cast light upon a tragedy too many have ignored, and we overcome one barrier to peace.

Better yet, Jonah & co. are paying the costs of running the site, letting 100% of the proceeds go to four organizations which are helping address the crisis in Darfur.

Please help spread the word, and donate a dollar (if not more) when you get a chance.

Bad Video Game Advertisements

Remember those old video game print ads? Remember how bad some of them were? Well, the folks over at 1up.com are doing some round-ups of the worst. What's sad: I remember several of these. Part 1, Part 2, Part 3.

A Second Snow Storm

It snowed again this week, this time Wednesday night. A lot of people in the neighborhood came outside around 10pm to make snowmen, throw snowballs, and enjoy the winter dusting that made the familiar look unfamiliar. The snow was transient, however: most of it had melted off by the next morning.

Seattle Snow 2006

So we had a bunch of snow in Seattle yesterday. A "bunch" here is just a few inches, but with a city that's not prepared, filled with drivers equally so, that can be more than enough to shut things down. And guess what? That's exactly what happened.

First, some pictures (not mine):

• Pug in the snow!
• Icy roads
• Snowy driveways
• Snow in mid-air
• Snow man...er, snow monster!

The fun began in an anticlimactic sort of way. On Sunday night, the weather reports were wishy-washy. Would we get snow? Would we not? No one was sure. Turns out that we did get some, but it melted before the morning commute was underway. During the workday, snow would intermittently fall, but nothing seemed to stick. People gazed at the snow outside of their windows, and then got back to work.

Then, around 5pm, the bottom fell out. Tons of snow started falling, and sticking. Cars filled the streets and packed down the snow into sheets of ice. Soon, cars were spinning out and traffic came to a halt. On the way out from work, I helped push a car that was having trouble climbing up a rather shallow hill. Looking back, I saw a long lineup of cars waiting to meet this same hill, one after the other. I didn't stick around to see who else would end up being stuck.

I thought I was being smart by taking the bus in the morning. "Surely," I thought, "surely the buses will be prepared to truck folks home in this inclement weather." The short answer: they weren't. The buses didn't have chains on them, and it took hours to deliver the chains to the buses before they could commence their trucking.

After about an hour and half of waiting outside in the cold, snowy weather, a generous soul came by and offered a ride to those going to his neighborhood...my neighborhood! I hitched a ride along with two others. Fortunately the guy had a 4-wheel-drive car, so I felt pretty good about our chances of getting home without incident. Now, you'd think that we'd be home in no time, right? Wrong. It took 30 minutes to get from the parking deck to the highway, all because of traffic jams. Once on the highway, things were eerily fine; sure, there was snow on the road, but there was very light traffic. We arrived in our neighborhood about 15 minutes after hitting the highway, happy to finally have returned home.

Sound bad? Actually, we were some of the more lucky commuters yesterday. Another guy on my team took 4 hours to get from work to home (a trip that likely takes 20 or so minutes, usually), in large part to the other drivers who couldn't navigate the snow and ice. Even worse, I heard of one person who lives in Lynnwood that left work at 5pm, and arrived at 4am. That's right - 11 hours of wintery commuting hell.

The moral of this story? The only one I could glean was: at the sign of a snowstorm with accumulation, leave early. Someone that left before the 5pm downpour got home in a matter of minutes. Ah, hindsight: I shake my fist at thee!

Seattle Toll Study: Don't Mix Apples With Oranges

The results of a recent transportation study were reported on last week. The study involved 275 households being given a pre-paid "driving" account, which was then deducted from based on where and when people drove. If drivers had leftover money in the account at the end of the month, they kept it. The result: people drove less.

Great! But what I fear is an apples-to-oranges translation of this study's findings to defend a traditional toll plan in our region. And I don't think the translation holds water.

• The study had people starting with extra money they didn't have. The incentive was "drive less, and you get to keep some of this money." Toll systems are closer to "have the same as you did before, but now pay up to drive here." That's just not the same.
  
• Certain roads around the region are in very high demand during peak hours. The SR-520 and I-90 bridges across Lake Washington are two great examples. Because of this demand, I believe that, unless you charge exorbitant tolls, most people will continue to use these roads (decreasing the value of a toll as a way to reduce traffic).
• I'm not a fan of tolls costing people of different means and income the same amount. People making $20,000, $200,000, and $2,000,000 annually, and having to pay the same amount to cross a bridge daily, means that the $20,000 person feels a much bigger impact on their bottom line than the other two people.

So, let's implement a system that takes advantage of the study's findings, and addresses some of the disparity issue.

First, let's actually implement a system similar to the one in the study. People get an account (funded from a portion of the transportation budget) that they can draw from when they drive. If they don't spend it all in a given month, kick it back to them (or let it rollover to the next month, at least). The lure of "free money" to cut down on unnecessary trips, or to carpool, will be high.

Second, make tolls proportional to the car being driven. Yes, a person crossing the 520 bridge in a car worth $3,000 should pay less than a person crossing it in a car worth $30,000. To put it another way, don't make the person with less means pay the "full price" of the toll.

Third, make the toll rates simple and easy to understand. Don't charge a toll on every road driven. Make it peak time. Make it only on the roads where you actually want to reduce traffic. Make it easy for someone to understand what & when they pay.

Finally, make the system accessible to all. If folks don't have or want the "deduct from the account" system, or other automatic way of paying the toll, offer other ways to collect money for the peak roads and times (cash, for example). Don't penalize visitors, and don't penalize those who don't wish to sign up for an automated account.

Yes, Seattle has a traffic problem. Yes, tolls are a tool to help address the problem. But let's use this study as a springboard to think about new, creative ways of applying tolls, instead of falling back to something convenient, tested, but not necessarily great.