Ed Nisley's Blog: Shop notes, electronics, firmware, machinery, 3D printing, laser cuttery, and curiosities. Contents: 100% human thinking, 0% AI slop.
Subject: [redacted] review blog invitation about bluetooth programmer
Message: Hi dear,
Thanks for taking time to read this email.
I am Colleen from [redacted] brand, we sell two way radio on Amazon. I learned that you have wrote two way radio review blog before and I think your blog was written well.
Now we have a product named bluetooth programmer that need to be reviewed. […] We would like to invite you to write a review blog about it.
Your can earn $2 from each product sold! We promise it. Just put the link we provided you in your blog and the Amazon backstage will count the data. And we will pay you $2 for per product sold by your link through PayPal on the 30th of every month. (Please provide your PayPal account)
If you are willing to help us write a blog, please tell us if you have a radio and your address we will send you the product for free to review.
You can view more detailed information through this link:
Most likely, it’s just the result of an ordinary web search.
You might think everybody would know about Amazon’s crackdown on out-of-band review kickback scams, but either word hasn’t gotten around or the rewards still exceed the penalties. I think the latter applies, particularly when the offender (or its parent company) can spin up another randomly named Amazon seller with no loss of continuity.
“Earning” two bucks on a few purchases during the course of a year won’t move my Quality of Life needle, so I reported them to Amazon and that might be that.
Speaking of randomly named sellers, it’s highly likely any Brand Name you remember from the Good Old Days has been disconnected from the tool / hardware / service you remember. Perusing a snapshot of the who-owns-who tool landscape as of a few years ago may be edifying: I didn’t know Fluke and Tektronix now have the same corporate parent.
Enjoy unwrapping your presents and playing with your toys …
Amazon sent one of their prescription savings cards, followed a few days later by a note:
We recently mailed you a physical copy of your Amazon Prime Rx savings card, and are writing to inform you that the BIN listed on your Prime Rx card printed incorrectly. The correct BIN is 019363.
So I wrote the corrected number on my card, not that I will ever use it:
Amazon RX – BIN error
Although the BIN (whatever that stands for) is a numeric value, it’s not treated as a number by whoever reads it. I’d lay money down that the source code’s formatting string changed from %6d to %06d or the equivalent in whatever fancy language they use nowadays.
The Social Security Administration sent me an email telling me to check a corrected version of a statement they sent a few months ago. Unfortunately, attempting to do so while writing this post produces a heads-up notice:
We apologize for any inconvenience accessing my Social Security. We are aware of some technical difficulties and are working on them at this time. We appreciate your patience as we work to solve the problems as quickly as possible.
Attempting to sign on seems to proceed normally, until this technical difficulty popped up:
We’re Sorry… There has been an unexpected system error.
Your login session has been terminated. For security reasons, please close all of your internet browser windows.
The first statement put my nearest Social Security office 130 miles away in Wilkes Barre, PA. The corrected statement put it back where it belongs, in the hot urban core of Poughkeepsie.
Perhaps an off-by one error in the database lookup?
As far as I can tell, the world now depends on software nobody can understand or control.
Quite some years ago, I had a health insurance plan with Humana, although I gave it up because the premiums seemed entirely disproportional to the benefits. They have continued to bombard me with emails telling me how wonderful they are, with an obligatory sentence at the bottom:
If you do not want us to contact you by email, you can unsubscribe from our online Humana community.
I do not know anything about this “community” of which they speak, other than that they seem to think I want to be part of it.
Clicking on the “unsubscribe” link takes me to a page at their randomly named email service, whereupon I check the “don’t send me anything” box and click the “Submit” button:
Humana Unsubscribe failure
Did you see the green text near the middle, where my email address should be? Apparently somebody misconfigured the email script to not include the actual address; the %25 gibberish seems to be encoded percent signs, so it may be one of those too-many / too-few / wrong-kind of character escapes.
Just a typo that could happen to anyone. Right?
Having once been a customer, I still have an account, but there is no way to control / shut off those messages. Not being a current customer, however, I cannot use their chat interface, which would likely not be productive. I am unwilling to wait on hold for an hour, because I know my call is not valuable to them, and their customer service rep wouldn’t be competent to solve the problem anyhow.
Fortunately, I can set up a filter to route their emails directly to trash.
I hadn’t realized the “standards compliant” road design caused the death of so many street lights, but the dead bollard population is definitely under-represented. In round numbers, every traffic circle (“intersection”) always has at least one smashed bollard in addition to the vestigial stumps of those removed rather than being replaced.
The upright bollard is a relic of the earliest installations, back before they realized a bollard with an eye-level light glaring into drivers’ eyes weren’t an effective design, particularly along a road lined with dead-black / non-reflective posts.
Spotted in the Town of Poughkeepsie Highway Department compound.
I passed another dead deer on New Hackensack Rd while hauling groceries home:
Deer Collision – roadkill – New Hackensack Rd – 2021-09-08
The next day I walked past the other side of the collision at the corner gas station’s dead car collection:
Deer Collision – front end damage
A closer look at that nice rounded dent links the two contestants:
Deer Collision – front end damage – deer hair detail
The impact didn’t blow the airbags, so maybe the car isn’t a total loss, despite extensive front end damage and some scrap metal inside the engine compartment.
As far as I can tell, Vassar College has been holding a deer cull every January, but taking out a few dozen deer definitely hasn’t eliminated the road hazard. If the folks objecting to the cull set up a fund to help drivers damaged by the objects of their affection, it’d demonstrate their understanding of the problem.
The lesser kitchen faucet began dribbling and required replacement, as there are no user serviceable parts within. One of the 3D printed adapters I built during the previous iteration had disintegrated:
Beverage faucet base plate adapter disintegration
The new faucet came with a somewhat different baseplate and I managed to conjure a firm, sealed mount from the various parts without further construction.
The nicely curved brass snout is the third in my collection. Surely they’ll come in handy for something!
While I was in a plumbing state of mind, I again replaced the spout O-rings in the never-sufficiently-to-be-damned American Standard Elite (hah!) faucet, as it was also dribbling.
This time, I used oxalic acid to remove the assorted scale and crud inside the spout. It seemed to be more effective than the usual white vinegar, although nothing seems to preserve the O-rings.
We’re bicycling on Collegeview Avenue, approaching the eastern traffic circle (of three) along Raymond Avenue. I’m in the lead, hauling a trailer with the week’s groceries:
Zero Clearance – Ed Front – 2021-09-07 – 0497
The four digit frame numbers tick along at 60 fps for my helmet camera and 30 fps for the rear cameras.
Note the “splitter” (a.k.a. “pedestrian refuge”) on the left, intended to separate Collegeview’s incoming and outgoing traffic. It formerly had one non-reflective black bollard on each side of the ladder crosswalk, but errant drivers destroyed so many bollards along Raymond that they’re now WONTFIX remnants. The flush concrete disk in the lower left of this picture will become relevant in a few seconds of real time:
Zero Clearance – Ed Front – 2021-09-07 – 0593
Collegeview has the same deteriorating pavement as found along Raymond Avenue, so we must maneuver beside the potholes:
All of us are slowing to stop at the traffic circle, with Mary behind the car that will eventually stop beside me:
Zero Clearance – Ed Rear – 2021-09-07 – 1522
Mary could see the car behind her in her helmet mirror, but she’s slowing to stall speed with no time for sightseeing and no room for maneuvering. The view from the camera on the seat frame behind her left shoulder:
Zero Clearance – Mary – 2021-09-07 – 0957
Two seconds later:
Zero Clearance – Mary – 2021-09-07 – 1078
One second:
Zero Clearance – Mary – 2021-09-07 – 1110
Two more seconds:
Zero Clearance – Mary – 2021-09-07 – 1182
Mary has stopped, as shown by the parked car’s unchanging position in the frame over on the left in the next images. The driver, however, continues creeping slowly forward; there can be no doubt she sees Mary at this distance.
After three more seconds:
Zero Clearance – Mary – 2021-09-07 – 1270
One second later, the front wheel is exactly at Mary’s left foot:
Zero Clearance – Mary – 2021-09-07 – 1308
The same events, viewed from the camera on my bike, start less than one second from the 1522 image above. I’m stopped, while the driver next to me continues to roll forward.
Mary is extending her left leg in preparation for a complete stop, at about the same time as the 1078 image:
Zero Clearance – Ed Rear – 2021-09-07 – 1542
Three seconds later her toe touches the pavement, while both she and the driver continue moving forward very slowly:
Zero Clearance – Ed Rear – 2021-09-07 – 1634
Five seconds later, she is stopped with her foot firmly planted:
Zero Clearance – Ed Rear – 2021-09-07 – 1773
And the driver continues moving:
Zero Clearance – Mary – 2021-09-07 – 1333
Another five seconds and the sidewall bulge of the car’s radial tire is pressing her foot to the pavement:
Zero Clearance – Ed Rear – 2021-09-07 – 1934
A closer look:
Zero Clearance – Ed Rear – 2021-09-07 – 1946 detail
She yanks her foot away:
Zero Clearance – Ed Rear – 2021-09-07 – 1953
While the driver continues to creep forward:
Zero Clearance – Mary – 2021-09-07 – 1397
Sometimes, it’s the only way to get some attention:
Zero Clearance – Ed Rear – 2021-09-07 – 2026
Mary is now off-balance, leaning on the car door, explaining what just happened:
Zero Clearance – Ed Rear – 2021-09-07 – 2152
Mary regains her balance as the driver backs cautiously away:
Zero Clearance – Mary – 2021-09-07 – 1546
Were the bollard still atop that sad concrete foundation, the driver might not have driven up on the splitter to get around Mary, if only to avoid scuffing a fender:
Zero Clearance – Ed Rear – 2021-09-07 – 2479
Compare this clearance with what you saw earlier in the 0957 image:
Zero Clearance – Mary – 2021-09-07 – 1627
Mary can’t get far enough away, but this must suffice:
Zero Clearance – Ed Rear – 2021-09-07 – 2761
Now the driver can pass her again with more clearance:
Zero Clearance – Mary – 2021-09-07 – 1891
I pointed to the car, then to the circle, and shouted “GO!” because neither of us wanted to be in front of that particular driver:
Zero Clearance – Ed Front – 2021-09-07 – 2540
We’ll surely meet her again, ideally with more clearance.
The Smell of Molten Projects in the Morning 