Well, it was rumored since November, but it’s official now: Costco is changing its refund policy on electronics. You can read more about it in the MSN article, but here’s the synopsis:

• Customers have ninety days to return televisions, computers, cameras, camcorders, portable music players and cell phones.
• Costco will extend the warranties on televisions and PCs for two years. I haven’t been able to verify on Costco.com if this is true or if it will extend to all electronics or just televisions and PCs.
• Costco will roll out a tech support line to assist members.

I feel like this was unavoidable, but it will definitely impact my recommendations on Costco as a “preferred vendor.” Manufacturing issues, such as the iPod 2G battery, or the Xbox 360 “Christmas tree” issue, may not manifest itself within the first ninety days. If Costco extends the manufacturer warranty to two years that’s better than nothing, but doesn’t even come close to walking into your local Costco, handing over a busted machine, and getting a new one or your cash back immediately.

CNN is reporting that the latest H5N1 “avian flu” vaccine is less effective than previously thought. The vaccine, now in clinical trials, is less than 50% effective. The vaccine for the more common influenza viruses are from 75 – 90% effective. Oh yeah, did I mention that the vaunted Tamiflu is not as effective against H5N1, as previously thought, either?

About two weeks ago New York Representative Carolyn McCarthy (D), introduced HR 1022, which will ban just about any semiautomatic firearm in production today. The two biggest catch-alls are firearms that has the capacity to hold more than ten rounds — which is any semi-automatic rifle or pistol — or a large number of weapons by specific make and model (the AK-47 family, for instance). Unlike the original “Assault Weapons Ban,” this version will be permanent, and it will be illegal to buy, sell, or transfer a new weapon that fits the criteria. It is my understanding of the bill that grandfathered weapons must be sold through a licensed firearm dealer, similar to California’s current setup.

I normally don’t get political on this site, and I normally try not to paint anyone’s political beliefs in such black and white terms, but bill HR 1022 is a horrible piece of legislation, and Rep. McCarthy should be ashamed of herself for introducing such an illogical piece of garbage. While “assault weapons” make the news highlight reel whenever they are used in a crime, these types of weapons are statistical minorities when firearms are used in the commission of a crime. As you’ll see from the suggested form letter below, they account for less than one percent of the guns used in crimes.

So, please, whether you own firearms or not, whether you live in a state that is “gun friendly” or not, please, please email, write, fax or call your representatives and tell them to oppose HR 1022. Here is a form letter that someone else on another forum wrote. I have modified it slightly to remove the word “draconian” from the original.
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Gaming site Joystiq.com has an interview with Brian Reynolds, CEO and director of Big Huge Games, who is making the Xbox 360 version of Settlers of Catan. In case you don’t want to read the interview, here are some important points for those of us who have loved this table top classic game for years:

• Klaus Teuber had direct input on the project, especially in the areas of the computer AI. Apparently he showed up with an Excel spreadsheet full of strategies and tactics, which were leveraged by Big Huge Games during the development process.
• There is a sixty-second time limit to complete your entire turn during ranked play. There is a ninety-second time limit during unranked play. You can set the limit to whatever you choose in a “custom” rule set game.
• Reynolds is a big fan of SoC, taking first place at a Maryland tournament. It’s nice to see that the person in charge of the project loves the game so much, but I’m surprised that he didn’t mention jSettlers. He also stated that all of the Settlers games are for the “PC.” It’s unclear if he means not for gaming consoles, or personal computers, wherein “PC” is often synonymous with “Windows OS machines.” The reason that’s important is that JSOC and the other online Settlers games are not Windows-only, and such an oversight tells me they didn’t trouble to Google “online settlers of catan” even once. However, I could be wrong, and Reynolds just means that Settlers has never been on a console before.
• You will be able to see how the dice have rolled for your current game. This is motherfucking awesome. No longer will a player (usually me) bitch that 6es are less common than 12s during any given game.
• There will be voice chat (a common Xbox 360 Live! feature), as well as sixteen emotes called “ticklers,” which help communicate why you’re refusing a trade, or your frustration with a die roll — in which case, a hammer smashes the dice to bits.
• The AI characters will have different strategies from one another. One might favor expansion, while the other concentrates on road building/longest road, etc.
• The game is due out in mid-to-late-March.

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With the notable exceptions of Costco, Wal*Mart/Target and the grocer, every store I frequent is what I call a “social business.” A social business sells luxury/optional goods or services. A restaurant, coffee shop, tanning salon, shooting range, doggy day care, bowling alley, roller rink. A vast majority of my time, and my income, go to these types of places. There are social businesses I don’t frequent, but are worth mentioning, such as “browser-friendly” bookstores like Barnes & Noble, a movie theater, or if you zoom out high enough, a mall.

As I was sitting in Starbucks a few days ago, I got to thinking how many people come through there every day. How quickly would a human-to-human H15N (avian flu) transmit in the small storefront, with people crowded around each other while they ordered and waited for their drinks? One outbreak, or the threat of an outbreak, could be all it took to make my local Starbucks a ghost town. Infection, or the fear of infection, would put many of the social businesses I frequent in economic jeopardy.
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I kicked off the Geeks In Moderate Preparedness topic and companion forum about four months ago. Like all things new, there was an initial rush of activity, with people registering for GIMPs (almost twenty at this point) and checking the forums a few times a day. The (important) rudimentary questions were asked, ruminated upon, and opinions given. Bug out bags, food and water storage, and basic emergency devices were covered. The mini-community slowed down through the holidays, which I anticipated. People are too busy wondering how they would survive a visit from their relatives to wonder about a disaster that may never happen.

Almost three months into the new year, there are only four of us who post to the GIMPs forum with any frequency. That’s about a fifth of our community. I am not sure what population of the group reads the forum at all, or on a regular basis. As far as I can tell, we’re coasting, and coasting slowly, at that.
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Weather permitting, I’m going on a motorcycle trip to Savannah, Georgia at the start of March. Because of the cold and fear over my exposure-blighted toes, I have been reluctant to ride for the last month or so. I took advantage of the holiday yesterday to ride one of my short routes to see how Cylon had held up after being neglected for so long.

By the first turn I’d remembered why I loved riding so much, and chided myself for staying indoors lately. I looked at sunny days through an office window instead of actively finding a way to address my cold toes. Sure, there’s a big difference in comfort between 35°F and 45°F when you’re on a bike, but it should not have been enough to keep me out of the saddle. Cylon and I whirred through a twisty-turny road in a housing development before skimming alongside a nearby lake. I finished up my mission on one of my favorite rural-burbian roads. I was shocked to see how much the landscape had changed in the last month. Fifty or more trees were cleared for a burgeoning housing development. A very large brick house was now visible, previously obstructed by the forest. It was almost as if I were travelling along a different route.

My manager the Captain once told me that it was okay to come to him with problems, as long as I had a solution. I apply that lesson at work, but I forgot how it could apply to my personal life, specifically riding. I put in an order for some cold-condition SmartWool socks, and hope to be riding around in the sunshine, instead of seeing it stream through my window.

Until last year, I played massively multiplayer online role playing games for the better part of six years, starting with EverQuest during its launch in 1999. I spent the bulk of my time in Dark Age of Camelot and World of Warcraft. I also played quite a few other MMOs, including Shadowbane, City of Heroes, Lineage II, EVE Online, and the beta for Star Wars: Galaxies.

Besides being online, these games had a few things in common: they kept me busy, and they kept me from feeling socially isolated. Whether I was living in a small mountain town in Oregon or working from home in Virginia with a very small meatspace social circle, MMOs were a way for me to jump online and adventure with friends. While MMOs are a significant commitment and aren’t always fun, I will not deny their entertainment and social value. Not only have MMOs allowed me to keep in touch with friends across the country, but they have helped me make some very real friends in “meatspace.” For some, like Alexa and Fathir, their real-life relationship started in-game.

I felt like online games were keeping me from doing other things, like writing for Gibberish. So I hung up my avatars for good last July. I haven’t regretted this decision, although Lady Jaye and I joke about rejoining WoW. After almost a year off, I’ve noticed that something strange has happened to me and my video gaming: console games are not nearly as compelling as their online role playing counterparts.
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I saw an ad for Mensa in this month’s issue of Mental Floss, and I went to their Web site to see if Mensa had some sort of online brainiac quiz. Turns out that they do. The thirty questions “Mensa Workout” test is a battery of logic puzzles, sequence analysis, word questions, and visual games that must be completed in thirty minutes or less.

The HTML title of the quiz is the “Mensa Fun Test,” and after finishing it I would say it’s fun in the way smashing your mind against a standardized test is fun.

Give it a try. I got 21 out of 30, missing the following:

3, 6, 14, 15, 19, 25, 26, 28 (which I should have gotten right), and 29.

How’d you do?

My file server was acting funny today after rebooting from some Windows XP patches. I restarted him again, only to find out on reboot that one of my 500GB drives had failed! The drive is only two months old. Given the legacy of problems setting this guy up, I’m not surprised I had a drive fail on me. For the record, it was a SAMSUNG SpinPoint T Series HD501LJ. It’s still under warranty, and NewEgg will replace the drive. I wonder if I am better off working with NewEgg or with Samsung.

Thank goodness for RAID 5.

[edit]
After Samsung’s diagnostic software crashed my computer twice in a row, I’ve decided to just return the drive to NewEgg. I’m nervous about running my RAID5 array without the parity drive. :\