March 14th, 2002:

I was going to use my Windows XP box to grab a couple images off of the card from my camera for you all to see, but Toby just now decided to chew through the cord to my second to last mouse (the last of which is connected to my Linux box). Fucker.

It turns out Brad and I have the same card reader with the same chipset, so swapping with him isn’t an option. I was so hoping someone would offer prior to this evening, but alas, no one did. Mark offered his, but I wont have time to make the swap prior to my leaving tomorrow at 10:00am-ish. I so badly wanted to play with it before I left so I could get a good feel for optimum settings so that all the images I take this weekend will have a greater chance of being decent. I would have been able to play a little if Toby (from this point forward known as El Pinche Gata) hadn’t chewed through that mouse cord.

Brad and I played around with our Compact Flash cards this evening. Something very odd is happening. He and I have cards of a different brand. His card is 128MB, and mine is 256MB. His card in my camera works PERFECTLY. My card in his camera works PERFECTLY. His card in his camera works PERFECTLY. My card in my camera doesn’t work for shit. Brad even used Windows to perform an actual sector by sector scan of the card (as if it were a diskdrive) to look for bad blocks, none of which were found. I would be inclined to say my camera was Fucked, but his card works just fine. I would also be inclined to say that I love my cat, but he just chewed through my mouse cord.

I have spent A LOT of money on replacement parts for things Toby has chewed through. I’ve punished him, but it doesn’t do any good. This time, I yelled, and re ran off before I could smack him. As I was surverying the damage, he came back for another snack. I wacked him good then. Now he’s mad, and he’ll probably piss on something of mine to tell me so, kind of like he did to the unused camera bag that I had in my closet, which I replaced this evening so I would have a something to carry my new camera in.

Quest rechargeable NiMH batteries rock. All other batteries suck. Toby tried to chew through the power cord to my battery charger, so I yelled, and he ran away again. Asshole.

I tried to find a new card reader to use for this weekend at Wal-Mart, but to no avail. They only had one, made by Lexar, that cost $50. I probably would have bought it, but it was behind the locked glass case, I couldn’t find anyone to help me, and I was uncertain if it’s chipset was supported by Linux. As I left, I thought about Toby and how much of a fucker he is.

First, I would like to apologize to Brad and Matt for unknowingly forcing them to skip lunch. Time flys by quickly, I guess.

I have a ZiO! USB Compact Flash Card reader made by MicroTech. It cost me $35. It uses a USBAT2 chipset to communicate with the USB subsystem. This is the same chip embedded in the Kodak DC3800 camera. Unfortunately, Linux doesn’t support this Mass Storage chipset yet, so I am unable to use my card reader. My card reader works perfectly under Windows XP (as I tested it) with no driver installation needed. I would be willing to trade my shiny new card reader with anyone who has a card reader of a different brand, or one of the same brand that is a bit older than this one (the chipset was changed a little while ago). Again, there’s nothing wrong with the card reader, just that I don’t have drivers for this specific chipset.

I’m glad that’s over. It took a lot of work to hunt down the internal workings of the Linux USB subsystem in order to determine WHY something isn’t working properly. Ugh.

Please let me know if you want to trade.

I told the sales person that I wanted at 49mm UV filter for the camera. He tried to upsell me into getting the full filter kit, which I declined. Somehow, he decided that that meant not to include any filter at all. It’s not on the invoice, or in the box. No big deal though. For such a small filter, it is a $15 item, at most, retail.

It’s here. Yay!

I just got home to wait for the UPS man. The InfoNotice claims the following:

We attempted to Deliver
1 Pkgs
Next Attempt will be made on [blank]
Approximate time of next attempt: [blank]
1st Attempt
Signature Required on delivery
In your absence the package(s) was left at:
Office
Comments: after 12:00

Yet, when I actually punch in the InfoNotice on their site, it says they’ll try to deliver again tomorrow. And yet the guy on the phone told me the driver would redeliver to my apartment between 11:30am and 12:00pm today. I could understand if the InfoNotice had just NOT been updated with the information the man on the phone gave me, but the InfoNotice in paper reads something totally different than the online version. We’ll see.

Brad’s meeting me here for lunch. Anyone else who is interested is welcome to do the same. Not sure where we are going yet, though.

Going home to pick up package.

Woo!

This distribution center in Dallas will be giving me a call within one hour to arrange a redelivery to my apartment office, or to arrange a meeting between the driver and I to pick up the package.

I like UPS.

Fuck. They didn’t deliver it because I wasn’t home, even though they said they would drop it off at my apartment complex office. I am on the phone with UPS now. Blech.

Wow. They weren’t lying. They actually shipped it.

PACKAGE PROGRESS
Date		Time		Location		Activity
Mar 14, 2002		7:26 A.M.		DALLAS, TX, US		OUT FOR DELIVERY
		5:55 A.M.		DALLAS, TX, US		ARRIVAL SCAN
		5:28 A.M.		DALLAS-FT WORTH, TX, US		DEPARTURE SCAN
		5:15 A.M.		DALLAS-FT WORTH, TX, US		ARRIVAL SCAN
		3:00 A.M.		GREATER ROCKFORD, IL, US		DEPARTURE SCAN
		12:31 A.M.		ROCKFORD AIR HUB, IL, US		LOCATION SCAN
Mar 13, 2002		11:42 P.M.		GREATER ROCKFORD, IL, US		ARRIVAL SCAN
		10:09 P.M.		JFK (NEW YORK), NY, US		DEPARTURE SCAN
		9:10 P.M.		JFK (NEW YORK), NY, US		ARRIVAL SCAN
		8:20 P.M.		FOSTER AVENUE, NY, US		DEPARTURE SCAN
		7:22 P.M.		FOSTER AVENUE, NY, US		ORIGIN SCAN
		6:35 P.M.		FOSTER AV-TIMES PLAZ, NY, US		PICKUP SCAN
		6:32 P.M.		US		BILLING INFORMATION RECEIVED