Joe's Random Ramblings

As I've mentioned before, I have a Barnes & Noble nook e-book reader.
A couple of weeks back, Barnes & Noble offered a book for free for one day. I happened to switch the nook on 15 minutes before midnight, saw the offer in their daily updates on the nook, and ordered it right there.
So, I should get it for free, right? Wrong. Barnes and Noble processes the order 2 hours later, at 1:51am (actually, 4:51am EST, I get to that in a minute) and charge me for the normal price.
So, the next day I called up their digital customer support. The first thing they tell me is that I ordered at 4:51am, which is of course complete BS. I tell them I don't care if they use EST, the offer didn't say anything about EST, and I ordered before midnight local time, PST. Eventually, they offer to send me a $10 giftcard. Ok, I'm fine with that.

Fast forward 2 weeks. Today, I get the giftcard in the mail. But, it is for $5 only. What idiot at B&N thought it would be a good idea to cut the offer in half?
Hello - Anybody home? I already made the effort to call you guys up over $7.50 or so. Did you guys really think I would go away quietly if you cut the offer in half??? Geez, what a way to piss off your customers... I would have praised you guys for fixing the problem. Instead, you managed to piss me off...
Of course, it was never really about the money for me. I could have just disputed the charge on the credit card. It always was about B&N honoring their offers.

So, I got on the phone again with B&N customer support. The person, after apparently checking with her supervisor, told me they are going to send me another $5 giftcard.
Probably takes another 2 weeks... Maybe they cut it in half again

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Rose Vela, the Texas district judge who had the extraordinary stupidity to buy email lists from spammers and spam people outside her state, deservedly lost in the primary election for Texas Supreme Court justice.
As I've said before, spammers belong in prison, not in a judge seat.

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As an antidote to the brain-dead, so-called "tea-party" movement, which is really just mostly a Fox News-fueled movement, i.e., not a movement at all, but just some sheep following the talking head wolfs on a far-right-wing TV station, some people have started the Coffee Party movement.
That is a real grassroots movement, not the make-believe "tea-party" stuff. You won't find political quitters here who need cheat-sheets to get through a Q&A session...

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I mentioned before that a person running for a seat in the Texas Supreme Court has taken to spam me, a California resident, with her stupid messages.
Her spam clearly shows that she is unqualified to be a judge, much less a judge on any Supreme Court.

This is the latest turd, received today:

<http://link.ixs1.net/s/om?[redacted]>
<http://static.ixs1.net/site/5621/images/rosevela2.jpg>
Dear [redacted],

<http://link.ixs1.net/s/[redacted]> <http://static.ixs1.net/site/5621/images/rose1.jpg> Rose Vela

On March 2, 1836, Texas took a stand against tyranny and oppression by adopting the Texas Declaration of Independence. The signers of this document knew the importance of constitutional rights, such as the right to bear arms and right of freedom of religion, and fought to ensure Texans for generations to come could share these fundamental liberties.

Tomorrow, on the 174th anniversary of Texas Independence Day, make sure you give thanks for your liberty by exercising your right to vote. I humbly ask for your vote for Texas Supreme Court – Place 9.

As your Texas Supreme Court justice, I will fight to protect the constitutional rights of all Texans. I will promote an independent judiciary, a strict-constructionist interpretation of the law, and will work to ensure the law works for the citizens of the great state of Texas.

As you remember Texas Independence Day, keep in mind the words of a true Texas hero, Davy Crockett: “Liberty and Independence – Forever!”

Best Regards,

<http://static.ixs1.net/site/5621/images/rosevela-sig.aspx.jpeg>

<http://link.ixs1.net/s/lt?[redacted]>
<http://link.ixs1.net/s/lt?[redacted]>
<http://link.ixs1.net/s/lt?[redacted]>

Pol. adv. paid for by the Rose Vela Campaign, in compliance with the voluntary limits of the Judicial Campaign Fairness Act. Joel Yowell, Treasurer

So, she "humbly asks for my vote"... My vote would be for her to get convicted of illegal spamming.

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I called Barnes & Noble digital support today to get the source for the GPL-ed parts of the B&N nook eBook reader.
They used to send out CDs from what I have read, but it turns out that they recently put the sources up on their website, at http://nook.com/legal (redirects to http://www.barnesandnoble.com/nook/legal/).
The B&N support people had a hard time finding this out, but they called me back and provided me with the link.

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