There goes my plans about getting a sedan like car.

So, Tuesday evening, I was blissfully unaware of the horrendous flooding, the tornado which struck a few miles (if that) from my office, and the rain. My 12 minute commute with the Wilmington traffic took over an hour. Actually I wasn’t blissfully unaware, but I was unaware that the road going to my house would look like that (and I didn’t find out about the tornado until after I arrived home). The numerous people I saw parked on the side of the road freaking out on their cell phones should have given me a clue.

The worst part about yesterday was finding the flooded out road and then trying the back way home. Thank god there was a back way. However, when I was taking the back way, I ran into yet another stream 20 feet across or so roaring across the road. This time there was a monster Ford F-150 parked in front of the stream, with a man standing outside in the stream figuring out that at it’s deepest point the stream was to his knees. So, I watched him get back to his truck, and drive across. Then another SUV came from the opposite direction and was able to make it. So, just panicked at the thought that if I didn’t cross then, the local flooding would get worse, and I wouldn’t see my daughter that night, I said a prayer and drove across.

Thankfully I made it, I got to see my daughter and the worst part about last night was that the DSL went out. I know other folks who didn’t get home or their cars were flooded.

Has any other past or present Vermonter gotten a notice in the mail of this class action lawsuit? I recieved mine last weekend and after taking a cursory lookover, it appears that a couple of Vermonters filed a class action lawsuit versus Microsoft alleging violations of the Vermont Consumer Fraud Act.

Anyway, it appears that in order to get a voucher from Microsoft (a whopping $12 for each license of Windows 95/98/98 SE or $5.00 for each purchase of DOS, Windows 1.0-3.2, Windows for workgroups, Windows NT/2000/2000 Professional or Word, Excel and Office - up to Office 2000) You have to supply a serial number if claiming 6 or more copies. Then, after getting your voucher, you’ll need to go to the Settlement Administrator to get reimbursed up to the face value of the voucher for purchasing Qualifying Hardware or Software. One could get reimbursed for purchasing a Mac, desktop, laptop or even a Tablet PC.

There are more fine print details in the accompanying paperwork, including the fact that if less than $9,700,000 in vouchers are claimed, then Microsoft will issue vouchers to schools in which 50% or more of the students get free or reduced price meals. Of course the value of the vouchers issued to these schools will only be 50% of the difference between the vouchers claimed by class members and the 9.7 million settlement amount.
Suffice it to say, I highly doubt that there are enough class members to hit that 9.7 million mark, so basically, we’re going to see Microsoft only pay a fraction of the settlement money in the end.

The only information I found about this lawsuit online were some older Vermont Supreme Court arguements (scroll down) whose audio links are borked. It is amusing though that the audio links are in .wma format. And a press release at Microsoft.com.

FAQ found here. And yup, my PowerBook has had a white spot ever since I got it, and today with a darkened desktop I noticed that there are a few more developing white spots.

My 1GHZ is covered by the program, but I dread sending it to Apple for repairs.

You can thank the guy behind the script using hijacked IPs 66.193.64.163, 209.8.161.66, and 194.8.54.249.

Most of you won’t be able to guess what I’ve been doing lately…I’ve actually switched gears and rejoined the IT world.

My full title contains the words “Web” and “Manager”, so as you can guess, I’m living the dot com life only a few years late.

I started not long after my birthday, and I can say it’s been an exciting and tiring few weeks. I can truly say I go to work and I’m engrossed in what I’m doing. My official job description describes design and marketing duties and so I sit on both sides of the fence. Even cooler, I’m getting to implement many of the ideas and practices I’ve talked about on my blog.

Besides working on the Web, I’m using Windows XP (for organizational compatibility reasons), Office 2003 and for the first few weeks I even used my PowerBook. After 4th quarter, I will be examining new ecommerce platforms to transition to and thinking about long term Web design and usability goals.

As far as marketing goes, I have a few remarks about the success of AdWords, search engine optimizers and a certain online retailer whose name we all know and love. However, I’ll save those observations for later.

Oh, and blogging did help me find my job (a whole other entry altogether). Blog early, blog often and blog intelligently.

And for now, I shalll leave you with this…. Disclaimer: These words are my own, not my employer’s.

Rate My Network Diagram

Why, yes, yes I am.

Before my head hits the keyboard, let it be known that I now have three computers sitting in my room, two of them laptops. This has something to do with the fact of why I’ve been so busy lately.