in which things are stolen
To provide additional backup space for our ever-growing collection of digital photos, I recently ordered a 1.5TB drive from Amazon.com. (I'm something of a fanatic when it comes to backups and have an elaborate but automatic system that works really well.)
Amazon shipped out the drive quickly and the package was sitting in our mailbox last night. And I knew, the instant I picked it up, that it was an empty box.
"Well damn", I thought, "someone at Amazon messed up and shipped me an empty box."
No, no, that wasn't it at all. What became clear, after bringing the box inside the house (where I could see it, as opposed to on the street where it's dark), is that the box had already been opened. The packing sheet holder had been removed. The packing sheet had been opened and read, and then someone had cut open the bottom of the box, took the hard drive out of the packing material, put the packing material back in the box (why, I have no idea) and then re-taped the box with shipping label intact.
Thank you United States Postal Service.
I called Amazon.com right away and they agreed to ship me a new hard drive (set to arrive on Tuesday next week). That's really cool of them. But I am a bit worried that now there's a note in my account: "Claims hard drive was stolen." If something like this happens again, then they're probably going to stop being so nice.
idiots strike again
http://www.nps.gov/cave/pphtml/newsdetail22725.html
Carlsbad Caverns National Park Superintendent John Benjamin announced today that evening bat flight programs at the park will be camera-free. “The park has allowed photos to be taken at the bat flight program provided flashes are not used,” said Benjamin, “and yet flash photos are still being taken. As a ‘technologically challenged’ person, I can’t figure out how to turn off the flash on my own camera. The only way to prevent flash photography entirely is to eliminate cameras altogether.”
Thank you idiots, for ruining yet another event for the rest of us. And by "rest of us" I, of course, mean the people smart enough to push the "lightning bolt" button on our cameras...the symbol that's been used on cameras with built-in flash units since they were invented.