Lee.org

Click here to read my blog entry and watch a video were the telemarketing carpet cleaners from  888-587-5482 threaten me.

Their invoice reads “Carpet Steamers | 888-587-5482”

I’m at the Zero Graffiti SF “Huddle” right now, typing on my iphone.  The first hour was 60 minutes of  aggrandizement. The second hour is starting with a 10 minute speech by Fred Lacosse, SF news anchor. Unfortunately it’s 15 minutes of him “newsifying” the literature we already have. He’s a good speaker but it only took me 3 minutes to read the original document. Feh.

I went outside to take a call and saw them setting up a free food bar. I’ll stay for that.

God, he’s still talking… I think my brain is going numb.

To be more specific about that first hour… Each of maybe 6 presenters had a 5 minute speech that pretty much added up to “I’m mad as hell and I hate graffiti!”

I don’t know… What should I have expected? It’s a tough problem with no single solution.

Poo.

Update: Do none of these presenters know that the are preaching to the choir? We came to a “zero graffiti” meeting, we don’t needsdxddxszxdchdhdtzgzzgzgzg. Erk. My braen I’d goone.

Wait! “introduce a new program… The ‘street smarts program’…’ the SF arts coalition… Clarion alley…”
I’m saved!

Man, blogging WHILE the event is happening is weird. At least it saved me from total boredom. It would have been rude to play video games on my phone. Blogging seems much more innocuous, yes?

4-20-09 update: Hmm, in 4 years not a single person has gotten a lee.org forwarding address or email account. I’m not going to offer that any more. This “domain not for sale” page used to live off my website homepage. I was moved with the site reorganization.

2-3-04 update: If you’d like a forwarding address at lee.org, write to me. For $10 per year, I can rent you a receive-only “lee.org” email address. For $50/year, you can have a full webmail/POP mail account with a lee.org email address and 5 megabytes of POP mail space. I’m also thinking of offering web space… buzz me if you’re interested. I might even change the homepage so it shows off all lee.org sharers.

12-12-02 update: I won’t sell you the domain, but I will rent out email boxes on lee.org. I’ll rent out a receive-only POP/forwarding mailbox to you at a very reasonable rate. I plan on keeping lee.org forever so this could be the best way for you to get a very easy to remember email address. Email me at Lee at Lee dot oh are gee!
 

I get a lot of requests by people asking if I’d be willing to part with this domain name. I’ve grown quite attached to it. I got this domain before Internic (now “Network Solutions”) was even charging for domain names. I’ve got to say that when I got this domain, I realized that I might want to become a “domain squatter” and gobble up a few thousand domains on the off chance that someone would want to buy them from me in the future. Now (11/1999) I look back at the varied history of domain squatters and think that I did the right thing in not doing that…. I think.There’s a lot of issues behind domain squatting.

• It feels immoral because you are trying to create a scarcity where no scarcity existed before. Just like DeBeers has done with diamonds (did you know that diamonds are only slightly more “precicious” than saffire except that DeBeers has total control over the world’s supply)
• It feels immoral because you’re then going to charge someone for something they wouldn’t have had to pay for in the first place.
• The legal battles of domains vs trademarks is a sticky, icky one. I would find my conscience on the trademark owners side.

But then again…

• There were buckets of money to be made.
• I remember hearing about some “big” domains selling for 100-500 thousand dollars. And it was worth it for the companies to spend that much.
• It’s just business. (I’m not sure if that is a scary phrase in this context or not

I know that domain space is a very finite resource. There can be only one “lee.org” on the planet. I used to own several domains (6 at one point) but that number has dwindled. TJIC and I had “nitrousburningfunnycar.com” for a long while. That was a gas!

With great aplomb and particularity, I present to you in majesty and grace the unofficial yet highly regarded theme song for Lee!

Theme song by Tenacious D (who by the way are the greatest band on earth). And no, I don’t have any rights to the song.

I am so Web 1.0… Here is what my homepage looked like until today.

I removed the old homepage in favor of my blog site. I folded all the old functionality into the blog.

This is a page that I had on my website at http://lee.org/cooking/index.html for many years. I post it here for archival purposes. I have much more to say about food on my blog. And I can see that how I cook bread has changed. You can see part of that here.

Continue reading ‘Cooking’ »

Update February 1, 2017: This post and the comments are, if nothing else, a plea for evidence based research. The evidence continues to mount that, actually, the polar ice caps probably are disappearing and we’re probably doing it. Please continue to comment and and use science as a tool to uncover the truths in the world.

TJIC points out that the Arctic Climate Research group at the University of Illinois has very detailed records on world ice coverage, compiled in cooperation with the  National Center for Environmental Prediction/NOAA.

There is no ice crisis. So, if you please, shut up now.

Click and understand:

That image was lifted directly from the  ACRG  site, except for TJIC’s comment of course. As of 5-14-09, you can find the most recent version of this chart on the ACRG site by looking about 2/3 of the way down on the right.

Update March 3, 2013: There is a lively and informative discussion about this subject in the comments below. I especially would like to direct you to comments by Cyrus who has some good refuting arguments.

(I posted this review to Yelp on 8-8-07)

Mina Abazari, MD
1580 Valencia St
Ste 102
(between 26th St & Cesar Chavez St)
San Francisco, CA 94110
(415) 821-0600

She’s really good.

Dearest Lazyweb

I want an application that will easily let me send and receive large files.

For example:
A customer has a set of files they want to send me but it’s too large to email. So I do the following:

1. I email the customer a unique link to my web site
2. The customer uploads their large files using the link
3. The website informs me about the upload so I can download it

Similarly, I want to give files to customers by uploading it to the service and giving the customer a web link.

I’ve found a ton of these services out there. Some look shady, some look silly expensive. But it should be open source. It’s just so very simple.

I did a bad thing ;-)

I got yet another telemarketing call from “The Carpet Cleaning Company”. Over the last couple years I’ve tried getting myself off their telemarketing list, starting with being on the National Do Not Call Registry. I tried “press 9 to remove yourself from our list” maybe 3 times in the last year (they call a lot). I tried talking to the nice lady who comes on and have alternately been hung up on and told that I’d be removed. Let me also say that I have no carpets that might possibly be cleaned! The biggest rug in the place is the throw in the bathroom.

So today I signed up to have my carpets cleaned. They’ll be here Thursday between 8 and 10 am.

I gave a ficticious name and a ficticious address. They said they’d call before coming out. I’m debating whether I should call it off when they call to confirm. I mean, all I want is for them to realize it’s not in their interest to call me. I don’t want to put some guy in a van out.

What do you suggest?

Update 4-23-09: The Cleaners Arrive

I got a call at about 9:30 from “the carpet cleaners” saying they’d be arriving shortly. At about 10, there they were!

I took a few photos of their truck, waited a few minutes and then approached them.

The conversation started out like this as best I can recollect. I’m forgetting  some little bits but you get the idea (next time, I’ll record video of everything)

As I approached from across the street, the angry cleaner  immediately asked something like, “So what about the carpets you need cleaned?” I guess I had “clean my carpet!” written all over my face. I had been trying to be all nonchalant. Oh well. ;-)

Lee – I don’t have a carpet needing cleaning. It’s illegal for you to have called me because I’m on the Do Not Call List.

Cleaner – Hey but we’re here.

Lee – Your company has called me 10.. no 20 times in the last 2 years and I’ve tried to get off your list every which way.

Cleaner – Hey maybe it wasn’t us that called you. There are a lot of companies like us out there.

Lee – Well, you’re here so it must have been your company.

I heard his phone ringing for a while and he picked it up. He handed me the phone telling me that I could talk with his company about it. There was a woman on the phone that I told much the same story to. I gave her my real name and phone number and she said something like she’d look into it or remove me from their list or something. As we spoke on the phone, the cleaner got more agitated and I ended up talking to him more than the woman. He took back the phone and we talked more.

The cleaner was getting angry that I had photgraphed his truck and said he wanted the pictures back. I saw it was getting ugly and thought to turn on the video function of my camera.

Watch the video. NSFW: profanity:

Pay particular attention where at 1:13 in the video the cleaner commits assault, gesturing angrily and saying, “I’m gonna screw your ass. I know where you live. Ok bitch?”

Get the latest Flash Player to see this player.

[Javascript required to view Flash movie, please turn it on and refresh this page]

Here is the contract from the video that the guy was so adamant about not giving me. (right-click to view a legible size)

Notes:The back of the truck has the email address  scrtysiltns@yahoo.com on the portable job box. It’s a Ford F-150 pickup truck, white with orange near the bottom. California licence plate 8T12730.

The invoice he kept waving at me has the following written on it “Rug Steamer  Tel: 888-587-5482”

Maybe I’m off their telemarketing list. It’s definite that their value proposition for using illegal telemarketing has decreased.

Update 12-10-09: I haven’t gotten a call from them in months. I think I’m finally off their list :-)