farmdevil.net

As some of you may know, I am in Florence, Italy for CHI 2008. If anybody is unsure, that is the premier Human Computer Interaction conference. I am a member of a team that designed a successful submission to the CHI Student Design Competition. Only 12 out of 40 teams were accepted to the conference. Last night we had a poster session where those 12 teams were judged to decide who would advance to the final four. Our team was selected, so now we get to give a 10-minute presentation tomorrow morning to compete for our rank within the top four spots.

The conference has been great so far and I have met many people from all over the world. I have also been working as a student volunteer, which has really facilitated networking. Iowa State’s name isn’t really out there very much in the HCI community and it has been great representing our program. Carnegie Melon has about 40 students in attendance and we only have 2. Hopefully when I get back I can help drive increased attendance at next year’s CHI in Boston. I would like to get a submission accepted obviously but, since it will be so much closer and cheaper, I would like to go anyway.

The picture above features me with Thad Starner. For the many of you who may not know, he has been wearing a computer since 1993. That thing that I am holding is the display. After this picture was taken, I joined him and a couple hundred of his friends for the Georgia Tech GVU reception. I was shocked at how many people were present and how awesome it was. I met many new people and got to know some a little better. Tonight should be even better, since there are about 5 parties to choose from, including the infamous Google party. Unfortunately I can’t be out too late, since we have our student design competition final presentation at 9AM.

I have wanted to write about this for some time but I wanted to complain to the proper people first. I have plans to start an anti-photocop website dedicated to exposing the problems and unconstitutionality of the systems. Note that this is clearly written by an angry person, but I assure you that all facts are accurate to my knowledge.

Now for the story…
I was out in Arizona last Spring and I rented a car to drive to Nevada for the weekend. The car was a Chrysler PT Cruiser and I rented it from Enterprise Rent-A-Car. I went home to Ohio a couple days later and returned to the house in Tempe in July. On the last full day of my July trip, I went through the mail that my roommate had stacked in my room for me. I found a Scottsdale photocop ticket amongst the papers. I also started getting junk mail for how to beat photocops, so apparently this ticket was publicly released.

Here are scans of what I received (click for higher resolution):

If you look critically at these images, you should easily be able to spot the error. The vehicle shown is a Jeep Liberty while the ticket refers to a “CHRY PTE.” It would be somewhat forgivable if the readers of this page don’t catch that, but a person who is trained to review these before sending them out should spot it immediately. Notice that Bill Harper has “signed” off on the ticket.

Back to the story…
I am aware that all I really had to do was throw the ticket away because they would never have been able to serve me in Ohio. Due to an experience my uncle had and other stories I’ve read online about lying process servers, I thought I’d just go down to the courthouse and clear this up (I was innocent, after all). I had been planning to drive up to North Scottsdale to work on the boat at my uncles’ house, so I stopped by the courthouse on my way. I didn’t see any reason to change into something nicer than my “working on the boat” clothes, so I wore American Eagle Jeans, a sleeveless shirt, and some Teva sandals. I got to go in and speak to the judge but, since there is no prosecutor at those hearings, he could do nothing for me. I charge that the prosecutor is not present at those hearings because the system is set up to facilitate people just paying and not fighting. All he could do was schedule a court date in a few weeks. Obviously that was not going to work for me since I was going home the next day. I did get the judge to direct me to the prosecutor’s office, which was behind the courthouse. I went over there and waited a few minutes to speak to the prosecutor that handles photocop tickets. She was friendly and agreed to get it dismissed. When I asked her who Bill Harper is, she said I was wasting her time and that she wanted to eat lunch! I told her that I had planned on eating lunch as well, at which point she sort of acknowledged my wasted time. It’s not like she really had any option but to dismiss the charges. If she had brought me to court, it would have been malicious prosecution.

A week later, my roommate in Tempe called me saying I got a letter from the Scottsdale courts. I had him open it and it turned out that the motion to dismiss had been denied! I had a court date set for the exact date of my move to Iowa. It said if I didn’t show up, I would have a default judgement issued against me. I was wondering to myself who the heck I was going to fight in court if the prosecutor agreed with me, but obviously this would not do. I called the prosecutor’s office and eventually got ahold of her. She looked into it and eventually called me and apologized and said she was embarrassed that this happened, but apparently the paperwork was filed wrong. She filed it again and the next week I got a letter saying that the case had been dismissed.

What happened…
I have communicated with several people about this. They all confirmed and enhanced what I already knew about how the system works. Apparently at the time of my ticket, Scottsdale hired Redflex to administer their cameras. Redflex is a private company that sells, calibrates, and operates these systems (an obvious conflict of interest). Apparently what happened in my case is that the license plate photo was blurry so the computer accused the wrong car. Enterprise Rent-A-Car pointed at me, so I got the ticket. Redflex is supposed to have three people look at each ticket and then, once they have approved it, a police officer is supposed to give it a final review before sending it out. It has been understood for years that the only reason that a person reviews the tickets is to pacify the public, who was questioning the constitutionality of having a computer accuse a person. In my case they all failed to notice that the vehicle in the picture said “JEEP” in large letters on the back, when they were ticketing a PT Cruiser. This is probably because the system is more interested in the money than the crime.

The players…
Some of them have been more helpful than others but none of them seem to value my time. They all have the attitude that I got lucky and handled this properly so I didn’t have serious problems. I think that my time is important and they need an exercise in humility so they should write me an apology letter.

• Frank Vardon-Dove: This is the representative that I have been speaking to from Enterprise Rent-A-Car. He initially defended their position in cooperating with police. But then I pointed out that due dilligence (looking at the citation) would have protected me from this and it was probably a legal matter to violate my privacy by giving out my information whenever someone asked for it. Also I mentioned that Enterprise is the only rental company known for doing this. Most others don’t turn the drivers over, from what I’ve read. I sent him a copy of the citation to review. [UPDATE 12/28/07: He just called me and said that they have a system in place now where they will verify the plates. Also he says he will send me a coupon for a free rental. I couldn't be happier with his response. If they must involve themselves in this broken system, they should protect their innocent customers and take responsibility for mistakes that happen.]
• Richard D. Baranzini: This is who I initially communicated with from the Scottsdale Police Department. He was very helpful, but does not value the trouble I went through and the implications of this mistake. I was basically required to go to court to fight evidence that pointed to somebody else. That a computer can cause this and that proper checks weren’t in place are serious constitutional problems.
• Robert Salcido: This is an employee of Redflex. He is obviously unapologetic and I believe he lied to me about an important detail of their system. He also is one of those assholes who points to their email signature like it’s legally binding so I can’t repeat his communications. I suspect that, in reality, it isn’t very binding at all. But it really doesn’t matter. He said exactly what was expected of a company that makes money by bending the constitution.
• Bruce Kalin: This is Richard Baranzini’s boss at the Scottsdale PD. I am still waiting on a response from him about my apology letter. I sent him an email outlining how this was a hassle for me and how any amount of hassle was unacceptable when it was completely due to a failure on the parts of the Scottsdale PD and their contractors.
• Bill A. Harper: This is the (fake?) person whose signature is printed on the citation. By him putting his name on it, it really should be him who I sue. However, I’m sure he has some immunity that protects him from the need to be ethical or legal.

If I don’t hear back from the PD and Enterprise, I will consider other action. There have clearly been laws broken with respect to my privacy and my right to confront my accuser. I understand that my ticket was released to the public due to some information request act. Since the information will be seen by companies and possibly my insurance company, it is important that a person does the ticketing instead of a computer. The release of my information, strictly based on false information that brief due diligence would have spotted is borderline slander.

If anybody knows of lawyers that deal with this sort of thing, let me know. I am definitely interested in having this resolved properly. Regardless of what statistics exist (or don’t exist) pertaining to the lives saved by these systems, any system that would falsely accuse somebody from out of state in this way is completely unacceptable. If I hadn’t gotten my mail, I could have had a warrant out for me for all I know. I dedicated a few hours of my life and many cell-phone minutes to this, some while on vacation and some while I was preparing to move to Iowa to start my Ph.D. work. This was a very busy part of my life without all of this.

As many of you know, I have been participating in The Ultimate Drive for a few years. Mike and I went to Frank Z (in Dayton) to drive a few cars on Monday. But this time was different. I had heard in the past that they have volunteers transport the fleet between cities so I asked the girl about it. She informed us that they still needed a few drivers for that night’s drive to Cincinnati. Mike and I quickly volunteered (of course). When we were getting all signed up for the drive to Cincinnati, we also found out that they needed volunteers for Thursday’s drive to West Virginia. W00T! Mike readily agreed to do that and, after some deliberation, I decided to go as well.

The way that these drives are set up is as follows: In the front of the pack is a white BMW X5. Behind him is the signature car (this year it’s a 645Ci). After that is the rest of the pack. The rest of the pack consisted of 19 silver 2005 and 2006 BMWs and 1 blue one. Behind all of us was an RV in case of emergencies. We were allowed to move around the pack as long as we didn’t pass the front 2 vehicles.

Monday’s drive was a blast. I-75 southbound was all backed up due to an accident, so we had to go around and take 675. The trip was about 1.5 hours. I drove a 330i convertible. Damn it felt good. Mike drove the 330i with a 6-speed.

On Thursday, Mike and I had to be down in Cincinnati at 7AM to get a good pick of cars. We met at Wright State a little after 6AM. I didn’t see one other person in the Engineering building at that time of the morning. We left Mike’s car up there and raced down to Cincinnati. We got there in time for me to sign up for the 330i with the 6-speed. Mike signed up for a Z4 3.0. The 330i is a blast. I always loved the clutch and transmission in BMWs. In Portsmouth, Mike and I traded cars. The Z4 was neat because I had never driven it before, but it’s a whole different car than the BMWs I’m used to. I like a little more luxury and power out of my BMWs. But the Z4 definitely moved along pretty well and the fact that it is a convertible made it fun on the drive. During this leg of the trip, one girl got a ticket for 68 in a 55. We were all pretty mad that the highway patrol would pick one of us off for a speed like that. We stopped at a gas station about 25 miles from the destination and we had to wait forever for the girl who got the ticket and an old lady who was going under the speed limits. I traded a lady who was driving the 645 convertible for the next leg. The 645 is currently one of my favorite BMWs. It’s big, fast, and sexy. Unfortunately I didn’t know where I was going so I couldn’t play around too much and the trip was pretty short from that point. At the end, when we came into our destination of St. Albans, we had a police excort through town and to the dealership. It was already after 1PM by that point so any chance of me making it to class by 6:05 was unlikely. They bought us lunch at Uno and we made the long ride back in a motorcoach. I got to school at about 7:45PM.

I definitely recommend that you all get involved with this event next year when it is in your area. It’s fun and its for a good cause.

Here are my notes from my weekend Nevada trip:

1. They replaced my nickel slots at the Searchlight Nugget. The main offense was the removal of Little Green Men. Not only that, but they replaced it with some unicorn game. The bartender told me I should pretend it was a rhino, but that didn’t make it seem any more masculine. On the bright side, I won some money (for my grandma) at a couple of the new machines.

2. It’s really hot up there. In Bullhead City, the thermometer in the Crown Victoria (It’s usually pretty accurate.) was reading 117. That’s even hotter than Phoenix has been.

3. The valley was engulfed in a dust storm (with scattered showers) upon my return. My newly detailed car isn’t looking so good now that it’s covered in dust. I had a tumbleweed hanging on for a little while but I lost it.

I plan to return next week on my way to Los Angeles.

I haven’t posted in a while. It’s mostly because I was in New England for 4th of July weekend. I figure there is no better way to tell you about my weekend than to lay it out as follows. Here is what I did:

Friday: My flight from Baltimore was delayed due to storms so I got in around 8 (about an hour delay). That night, after dinner, I went to T.D. Shenanigans to play some darts and have a beer. It’s the best place I have found near my grandparents’ place to hang out. I determined that my new darts are terrible with the steel tips on. They throw great with the plastic tips on. But, since they are only 16 grams, the extra gram added by the steel tip really makes a difference.

Saturday: I got up and went with my grandpa to pick up the John Deere from the shop. He was having a problem with the PTO that turned out to be due to a bad switch under the seat. I got to drive his old van to the shop. That’s always an experience because it’s the only vehicle I’ve ever driven with a 3-speed on the column. Then I got to drive the tractor back home. I love road trips on the John Deere. Next, I did some weedeating with the industrial grade weedeater. That afternoon I went to visit my great-aunt and then I went to my great-uncle’s farm to take some pictures with the Nikon F. That evening, we ate at the Pizza House (my cousins’ restaurant in East Hampton, Mass.). At night I went to the bars in Springfield, Mass. with my cousin Chris and a couple girls.

Sunday: We went to the annual Murkowicz family picnic. I had an alright time but, as usual, I didn’t know half of the people there. The food was good and I did talk to a few of the relatives though.

Monday: I went with Chris and his mom to Hampton Beach up in New Hampshire. We had a good time laying around in the sun, tossing the football, and having a Wiffle Ball home-run derby in which I lost miserably. I got a sunburn on my chest and back from all of the laying in the sun. Chris wanted to go in one shop to buy a knife and, while we were in there, I noticed that they had blow-gun darts. I had been meaning to get some of them so I bought them (Scott and I tested them out tonight). The day was going well until right after 6PM when we witnessed [dead link]. Supposedly these are the first drownings at the beach since 1969. We watched the entire thing. The first guy pulled from the water was lifeless and they did CPR on him for a long time. The second one pulled out was the kid. He seemed to be able to walk somewhat on his own so they didn’t give him too much medical attention. They searched for probably 30 more minutes before finding the third guy. By the time they found him he didn’t stand much of a chance. At the time there were rumors circulating about there being more people in the water and the boats and helicopters were still searching when we left. Fortunately, according to the news, nobody else was out there. It all leaves a pretty bad image in one’s mind. I was really impressed by the lifeguards though. They were out there swimming in the cold water for about 45 minutes searching and pulling bodies in. It must have been pretty hard on those guys since they aren’t used to losing anyone.

Tuesday: I pulled some weeds in one of the onion rows in the morning and in the afternoon I wandered around taking a few pics. That’s about it for Tuesday because that’s the day I had to leave. I got to the airport early and they put me on an earlier flight to Baltimore because the other flight was delayed due to weather. But, when I got to Baltimore, it didn’t make much difference because my flight out of Baltimore was delayed for a couple hours while they waited on storms to the west to clear up. I ended up getting in at 1AM last night. I’m sure my uncle was excited to come down from Scottsdale and pick me up at that time of night.

And that’s why I haven’t been online.

and sure enough, it’s still there! I was there Thursday-Sunday and not much extraordinary happened. I had the usual meals in Searchlight and Laughlin, accompanied by some gambling (not too successful overall). I removed some spyware from the neighbor’s computer and cleaned the carpet in the living room. Other than that I just hung out watching tv and playing with some C stuff on the PowerBook. There are lots of fires up there in that area. When I was coming in on Thursday, there was a pretty neat sunset in the smoke over the mountains. I wish I had a decent camera (not my point-and-shoot Canon) with me. I really do need to get some color film and play with the Nikon F a little. That would have been a great chance. Also when I was coming home this afternoon I saw how close the Cave Creek fire is to civilization. It’s pretty crazy how things were going so well and then all of them started like that.

I start with a pic that Scott took in Jerome last weekend. I took some black and white pics but they are still being developed.

Anyways a lot has happened actually since my last post.

On Friday night Scott, Pete, and I went to the art walk downtown. Now that everybody knows about it and it has become trendy it kinda sucks. We saw some cool artwork though. One day when I am rich maybe I will be able to buy some.

Sunday we went to Jerome. Pete always talks about going there so I decided that I wanted to go. We had a good time wandering around taking pictures. In the mid-afternoon, we heard a band practicing in an abandoned building. I hollered up to a balcony and they invited us up. The band’s name is Test and they are a local Jerome band. They were working on their new song, A World Of Many Deceptions. It sounded pretty damn good. Of course that’s why I hollered up at them. On the way back we stopped in Prescott to eat at one of my favorite places, The Prescott Brewing Company.

During the week I did some stuff around the house and I played with my new Fedora box. It is coming along nicely. I have set it up as a web server and done some basic tasks. I’m learning slowly but surely. I also worked on my cousins’ computer. It was so trashed with spyware and adware I decided to take it home for a couple nights. I got it all fixed up and now I gave them separate accounts and fewer permissions so hopefully they will be more contained and things won’t get so screwed up like they have been every 3 months. Most nights we also watched movies on our new 92″ screen

Hopefully in the next few days we can get our entertainment center built so my living room will look a little less trashed. Also for some reason my PHP died on the Fedora Server so I would like to fix that. Once I get that going I will work some more on the Paradise Picture Frame website and I may start working on an e-commerce site for Scott’s brother.

I just got back from Wisconsin and Chicago early Monday morning. As you can see, I got some nice pictures. In fact, the only pictures I took in Wisconsin were funny ones. They are some kind of special up there.

We left Dayton on Thursday morning at about 5:45. With a gas stop and one driver change (so I could make a business call) we made it to Appleton in 7 hours and 45 minutes total. That’s pretty good time. We stayed at a pretty nice Best Western. Well, the pool area was nice. The sauna didn’t work and the “weight” room had no weights, just broken cardio machines. On Thursday we visited Erin’s parents for a little while and we just kinda hung out. We had dinner at BW3. On Friday we went to the Casino, where I proceeded to lose $40 at slots, craps, and roulette. Then we drove around looking at the sights in the afternoon. We had dinner at Erin’s parents’ place. Saturday we got up and had some fresh Krispy Kreme doughnuts. Fresh Krispy Kreme doughnuts are like crack that melts in your mouth. I’ve always been a big fan. Then a little before noon we left for Chicago. We stayed with Erin’s friend, Elaine. Saturday night we went to Elaine’s boyfriend’s apartment, which was really sweet. He has a couple Technics turntables and he was showing me some stuff. After that we went to the bars for a couple hours. Sunday we had lunch at IHOP and then headed back to Ohio. We made pretty good time, although we did miss one turnoff which sort of screwed us up.

I have posted a couple pictures in the [dead link].

Look at me. I got a pic to upload! That’s me and Mattias at the train station before I left Motala.

So I was going to have a pic here but I can’t seem to make it happen tonight.

I guess now I need to sum up my last few days in Stockholm. On Sunday I wandered briefly but I wasn’t feeling very well after lunch so I went back to the hostel for a while. That night I went out to a couple bars with some people from the hostel (Dan from CA, Lisa from Austria, and Lut from Netherlands). At some point that night some local guy snuck into the hostel and stole a few items from one of my suitcases. Fortunately I’m too smart to leave anything good in the luggage room so all he got was my darts and some power adapters. That makes me angry. Monday I wandered around in Gamla Stan (old town) for a while and had lunch there. At 4PM I met with my cousin Margit and her granddaughter Marie. We had some coffee and chatted for a while. That night I met up with Linn again and we did a little drinking at the bar right by the hostel. Tuesday I had to leave. That is sad. My flights went pretty quickly at least.

Tomorrow I will be going to Wisconsin for a couple days and I will be in Chicago on Saturday night. I am going with my friend, Erin. Her parents live in Wisconsin and in my infinite niceness I offered to go with. I have never been to Wisconsin so it will be a good chance to add a state to my list. I will be back late Sunday night so I can drive my mom to her knee surgery at 6:30 (!!!!) on Monday morning. I will be posting pics when I return. If you need to reach me, the cell-phone should be the best way.