Lee.org

I got a ticket, a “citation” for having an expired car registration in Oakland. That’s handled in the “Superior Court of California, County of Alameda”. Actually my registration wasn’t expired but I didn’t have the new registration in the car at the time. But that’s not the point. The point is, I wasted 1 1/2 hours of my day this morning going to Oakland Superior Court and I’m here to tell you how to make your experience easier.

At the bottom of my citation, it said that I was supposed to go to court on 1-22-08 at 9am. This is wrong. Here’s how it really works: It takes 4-8 forever(?) weeks from the time the citation is issued until it’s in the computer. Then I’ll be sent a “courtesy notice” by snail mail telling me what I’m supposed to do. Note that my violation was on 11-22-07. Today is 1-24-08… 8 weeks later and my citation still isn’t in the system. I should also note that the phone number the officer wrote isn’t the correct number… but when you call, it tells you what the new number is.

The nice gentleman at the information booth told me to check the status of my citation every 2 weeks at http://www.acgov.org/courts. (note: the site actually forwards to this site). Or I can call the Wiley W Manuel Courthouse – Traffic Division at 510-627-4701. But I’ve called that number and sat on the line waiting for someone to answer the phone for 20 minutes in vain. Use the website instead.

The citation said that I was supposed to show up at 9am. This is wrong. The nice gentleman at the info desk told me that registration for the morning court session opens at 8am. Shortly it will open at 7:30am. But at 7:30am, there is already a long line outside so you’ll do best to show up at the courthouse at 7am or even 6:30am. That way, you’ll be able to register for one of the 120 spots in the 10am morning court session. If you don’t get into the first session, you’ll be registering for the second session which starts at 2pm (IE your entire day wasted). And if there were too many people in front of you, you’ll be told to come back tomorrow, rinse and repeat. Also note that there is no afternoon court session on Thursdays. The nice gentleman at the info desk told me that many people were turned away today (Thursday) because of that.

The address of the Wiley W. Manual Courthouse is 661 Washington, Oakland, CA between 6th and 7th st. When I approached the building, I initially almost walked into the detention center (IE: Jail) in the same structure on 7th St because it looked all governmenty. Don’t make that mistake.

Tickets went on sale at 10am. I got in virtual line at 10:15 and checked out at 1:30pm with 6,100 people in front of me. The first tier of 10,000 tickets had already been sold. But I’ve got mine.

:-)

I borrowed Barry’s Kill a Watt. It’s a gizmo that tells you how many watts and kilowatt*hours your appliances are using. I found out a couple interesting tidbits.

Electricity costs me $0.11 per kilowatt. In my small apartment, I never get out of the first tier of electric rates, which peak out at $0.36 per kilowatt.

• Baking 1 loaf of bread in my Breadman Ultimate automatic bread maker = 0.29 kilowatt*hrs = $0.03. When the electric bread maker oven is heating (maybe 1/2 the time the bread is in the bake cycle) running it uses 387 watts.
• Running the gas oven uses a constant 340 watts to keep the igniter hot. That’s to say using my GAS oven uses more ELECTRICITY than my ELECTRIC oven!

• My computer running at idle = 122 watts.
• My computer running at “full tilt” working on SETI@Home = 192 watts. So running SETI@Home is like leaving a 70 watt lightbulb on all the time in addition to running my computer. If I left it on 24×7, that’d be a $67 donation to SETI@Home each year.

• Charlotte’s laptop= variable between 18 and 50 watts
• When Charlotte’s laptop is turned off, the power supply uses <1 watt.

• My main LCD monitor running with mostly black on the screen = 33 watts.
• My main LCD monitor running with mostly white on the screen = 33 watts.
• Charlotte’s laptop uses 6 watts less when the screen is dark than when it’s bright.

• All of my gizmos turned “off” use 29 watts. Scanner=12, router=10, modem=2, answering machine=5, monitor1<1, monitor2<1, computer<1, clock radio<1. That’s $28 per year.

• Refrigerator=87 watts when running
• Catching it? Priceless.

I’m on the Emo mailing list (not to be confused with the EMO mailing list) and he writes that he’s playing in NYC January 18th and 19th. He’ll be in Boston in May. No date announced yet. You should go. He’s really funny.

Here’s the whole email

Continue reading ‘Emo Philips playing in NYC and then Boston’ »

I get so many comments from people about my first post about speeding tickets in New Jersey, I opened up this second post for comments. Note that everything you need to know is in my first post on the subject. You don’t need to read this second post.

That said, feel free to add your own comments. If you ask a question like the following, I will not answer it because those issues have already been covered in my first post:

I got a speeding ticket in xxx. I was going xx in a xx zone. I shouldn’t have gotten the ticket because xxx and xxx and xxx. How do I get out of the ticket? What should I do?

If this information saves you $500, I would appreciate a $5 donation. Don’t send me anything until AFTER you have been to the courthouse and saved money! Here is a Paypal donation link:

This guy has put together a nice way of finding and then telling copyright violators of his website to cut-it-out. He finds plagiarism with Copyscape.com and then sends them a DCMA take-down form-letter.

This works even if your site is Creative Commons Attribution… If they don’t give you attribution, it’s still an enforcable copyright violation.

I came across this because I recently found a bunch of   spam sites using my content. Apparently webkinz are very popular among the spamming set these days. After posting about them, I’ve gotten several spam pingbacks. It’s not really worth it to me to follow up with DCMA notices to spammers because they’ll never get any Google Juice from me and I know fighting stupid Nigerian and Indian spammers just takes me down an endless hole. But there’s some info for you.

You’ve got to be kidding.

This comment recently appeared under my “Webkinz” post:

hi Im Debbie Rutter and the wife of the maker of webkinz World!! I have enery rare item and I get 2000 kinzcash a day for free! My computer is hooked up to a special program that alows to buy the rare items in the w- shop even the 10th webkinz beds!!! I can get a 10th webkinz bed for 10 kinzcash!! If you want 2,000 kinzcash a day and every rare item in the W-shop then e-mail me your username and password.
Me and my huspan just want to make kids happy!!
Thanks
Debbie Rutter

Apparently there is an active black market in virtual Webkinz items. That’s pretty obscene, especially considering that Webkinz are geared for kids under 15.

I’m now a certified forklift operator, whatever that means. Flaming Lotus Girls organized a certification class with this OSHA certified guy. This was partially in response to Todd Blair, a member of SRL, being severely injured after the conclusion of Robodock; though a forklift wasn’t specifically to blame for his injury, I think it got us all thinking about safety in general.

And it’s not as if this certification will actually help keep anyone safe.

In order to pass, you had to score a 60% on a True/False quiz and drive the forklift around the yard without killing anyone. It’s hard to fail. The next time you see a certified forklift driver, know that they might have only scored a 61% on a True/False test.

The 30 minute video told us not to let people ride around on the forks, not to lift things that exceed the rated capacity of the forklift, not to lift things that are too big, not to drive around like a crazy person with the forks at head-height, to honk the horn before you go backwards, not to service the forklift unless you are “authorized”, and to never check a fuel tank with a lighter.

The hands-on instruction was fine. As has been said before, the way to get good with the forklift is to practice. I stuck around for a while watching the beginners and he helped them figure it out. Though no one I saw had any real trouble. It’s just a matter of familiarizing ones-self with the controls.

the $100 certification is good for 1 year. In the workplace, it will help protect employers from lawsuits if something unfortunate happens. (Note that FLG is not an employer). The instructor mentioned that he usually gets called out when OSHA came by for a workplace inspection of a company and the company called him so he could do an emergency certification class. He’d pre-date the certificates. Nice.

At least everyone found out that our forklift has a horn; it’s on the forward/reverse shifter.

If you really want a good forklift safety video, watch this and you’ll be all set. (no really, watch that video)

The best forklift training is
1 – a friend helping another friend with the controls
2 – practice

I’m on the marketing mailing list for Atlanta Hobby, a model airplane store I like. I just got this Christmas greeting that I rather appreciate. Here it is: Continue reading ‘Christmas Greetings from a Flyer’ »

Last year I was given a membership to the Exploratorium for Christmas by my aunt Dorothy. It was great fun going. I think I went 6 times or so, usually with a friend. I totally dig that place!

I haven’t renewed the membership yet… Memberships start January 1st. I think I’ll get one the next time I get the chance to go.

Charlotte went just yesterday and had a great time!