No Goal!

I don’t get what the fuss is about.

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Jonsi – Go

Jonsi – Go  ($6.99 Amazon)

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75 Miles in Marin

Total:  75 Miles

Google Maps Link

[Cycling] Mill Valley > Olema Ride

Total Distance:  50.3 Miles
‘Hilliness’:  5 (1/2 Mt. Tam)

Other Notes:  Ridgeback Rd. is an incredible few miles.  There’s a great place to stop in Olema right before you take a right onto Sir Francis Drake.  There’s a Cafe & a small store to buy a snickers at Mtn Dew

Google Maps Link

Time Lapse of Ridgeback Dr.

Mt. Tamalpais – Ridgeback Road Cycling from Frank on Vimeo.

Time-lapse #2 – Up Mt. Tamalpais

Cycling up Mt. Tamalpais from Frank on Vimeo.

First Time Lapse Video

Timelapse1 from Frank on Vimeo.

Next up – higher resolution and a soundtrack.

Canon SD300 Bicycle Camera Mount

Canon SD300 Bicycle Mount

Much later than originally planned, but I got the Canon SD300 mounted to the bike.  It wasn’t actually the mounting that held me up, but rather the time lapse software.  I’m using 3rd party software called CHKD for the Canon, which allows custom scripts to be uploaded.  The script that I’m interested in is a time lapse script.  Basically, I can set it to take a picture every second (or 2, 3, 4 seconds) for the duration of my ride.  Then, using software, I can stitch all the images back together into a sort of a movie.

But, back to the mount.  It’s a simple as it gets.  A cheap reflector mount (free actually, from the local bike shop) secured to the handle bars with a bolt sticking up through it into the camera’s tripod mount.  There’s a few more pics of it after the break.

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Saturday Project: Canon Powershot SD300 Bike Mount Camera

Wow, it’s been months since I’ve posted here and it wasn’t due to lack of projects! So, today I’m going to try and tackle this one. Create a cheap bike mount for my Canon Powershot SD300.  The goal is to install CHDK software on the camera to enable the time lapse feature (as well as many others) and configure it to snap a shot every few seconds over the course of a ride.  Then, at the end, put together all the shots into a video. It’s certainly not an original idea, many have done it before, but it looks like fun.  Here’s another I found online.

Bike Movie from chad cheverier on Vimeo.

How to Save Money at eBay with Bing Cashback

Use Bing.com to get Cashback at eBay

Want to buy something off of eBay that is listed using ‘Buy it Now’ and save some money?  Well, Bing’s Cashback deal is your ticket.  If you haven’t heard, Bing.com is Microsoft’s new Search Engine to compete with Google.  It’s just gone through a name change – it used to be called Live.com.

Bing offers a service called ‘Bing Cashback’ which gives you money back on your purchase if you click on a Bing.com link prior to buying an item.

Click to read exactly how it works.

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SnapNames uncovers bidding fraud from a now ex-employee

All I can say is wow, what a mess.

Dear Moniker customer:

I’m contacting you today to inform you of an unfortunate incident at SnapNames, and to let you know what the company is doing to address it.

Recently, SnapNames discovered that an employee had set up an account on the SnapNames system under a false name and, under this name, bid in SnapNames auctions.  This is a clear violation of our internal policy and was not approved by the company.  We deeply regret that this conduct has impacted our customers.

Extent of impact

This conduct affected a small percentage of SnapNames auctions:

• Bidding affected approximately five percent of total SnapNames auctions since 2005, most of which occurred between 2005 and 2007.
• The incremental revenue from the bidding represented approximately one percent of SnapNames’ auction revenue since 2005.

No matter the level of impact, SnapNames takes this matter extremely seriously.  When the matter was discovered, the company immediately closed the account in question and began a thorough investigation.  The employee has also been dismissed from the company.

SnapNames further discovered that, on certain recent and limited occasions, when the employee won an auction, the employee secretly arranged to refund from SnapNames to the fictitious account a portion of the winning bid amount.

Remedy to affected customers

Though on some occasions the employee won the auction, in many instances the bidding caused the ultimate auction winner to pay more for a name than had the employee not participated in the auction.

SnapNames neither condones this conduct nor wants to be perceived as benefiting from the conduct.  Accordingly, we have decided that regardless of the circumstance, in every auction where the employee’s fictitious account submitted a bid which resulted in a higher price being paid by the winning bidder, SnapNames will offer a rebate, with 5.22% interest (the highest applicable federal rate during the affected time period), to affected customers for the difference between the prices they actually paid and the prices they would have paid, had the employee not bid in the auctions.  The rebate will be available in cash or in credit on the SnapNames platform, at your discretion.

SnapNames has moved quickly to address this situation.  The company has retained Rust Consulting, an independent third party, who will administer the rebate offer.  Within the next week, Rust Consulting will contact affected customers to provide details regarding the offer.

Your business and ongoing relationship are important to us and we can assure you that we have taken all necessary steps to ensure the integrity of the platform and reinforced controls and procedures to avoid any possibility of further breach.  These include:

• Enhanced monitoring of bidding activity for suspect behavior
• Additional controls over financial transactions
• Specific domain name registration policies for employees

In the meantime, if you have any questions, you may consult the FAQs here, or contact the SnapNames support team:

By e-mail:                      support@snapnames.com

Phone:                          +1 (866) 690-6279 (toll-free in the U.S.)
+1 (503) 241-8547 (outside the U.S.)

SnapNames, and all in the Oversee family of companies, are deeply disappointed with this incident.  Since its founding in 2000, SnapNames has been committed to the principles of fairness and trust; the company wants to assure customers—through both words and actions—that it remains committed to those principles.

Thank you again for your business, and for your ongoing trust in SnapNames.

Sincerely,

Jeff Kupietzky                                        Craig Snyder

President and CEO                                General Manager, SnapNames.com

SnapNames

1600 SW 4th Avenue, Suite 400

Portland, OR 97201