Monthly Archives: December 2011

Another company to avoid

Heard of SOPA? It’s the Stop Online Piracy Act.

Basically it’s punitive legislation that would effectively end the Internet as we know it. It would allow copyright holders to go after website owners for any infraction.

It might sound like a good idea, but what about this scenario? Let’s say I run a large website with billions of users, something like YouTube. I can’t possibly police a billion people. Now let’s say that one of my users uploads a webcam video diary with Miley Cyrus’ Party In the USA playing in the background. Miley Cyrus can now sue *ME* for copyright infringement. I’ve got nothing to do with this, I just run a website. Ms Cyrus should be going after the user who uploaded the video.

That’s SOPA. It’s a poorly written law being debated in Congress right now. If this thing passes, the Internet shuts down.

One of the many companies that supports SOPA is the web hosting and domain name registrar GoDaddy! There are many reasons to hate GoDaddy! So not only does GD support SOPA, they also helped write it. This was enough for me to cancel my GD services and find a new web host.

There was a bit of downtime yesterday as I moved things over to HostGator but everything seems to be running smoothly now.

If you use GoDaddy! for anything, please consider moving to a new registrar or web hosting company.

Now that I’ve gotten that done I can start writing my Congressman (Jerry McNerney, Democrat, California’s 11th district) to let him know how I feel about SOPA.

Who’s your congressman?

Companies to avoid

From today’s Penny Arcade a truly amazing tale of very poor customer service.

I got an incredible email today from a Penny Arcade reader. Dave shared with me an email chain between him and Ocean Marketing (the folks behind the Avenger controller) Trust me when I tell you that this is one wild ride. I’m serious, Mr. Toad would look at this ride and just give a slow clap while shaking his head. I have tried to arrange this as best I can in chronological order. I’ve also removed email addresses and other private information. So let’s just jump right in, here is Dave’s first mail to Ocean Marketing:

Unbelievable story. Read the entire email chain at Penny Arcade here:

http://penny-arcade.com/2011/12/26/just-wow1

I think it’s safe to say that I will NEVER, EVER do business with this company: Ocean Marketing and their representative Paul Christoforo.

PRK 4 month update

OK so it’s not quite 4 months, but close enough (only 8 more days).

So here’s my update, and this will probably be my last PRK update unless something crazy happens.

Had a checkup recently and my results are pleasing. 20/20+ in my left eye and 20/20- in my right eye. That means that I can read a couple of characters on the 20/15 line with my left eye, and I missed a couple characters on the 20/20 line with my right eye. I’m satisfied with these results.

I was hoping hoping hoping that I’d get that bionic eagle eye solid 20/15 vision in both eyes but I suppose that’s a little unrealistic. Even with contacts or glasses my vision was never that good. Right now I’d say that my vision is slightly better than it ever was. My doctor says that this is a great result.

I still have the slightest, smallest astigmatism in my right eye that couldn’t be corrected with PRK or LASIK. And that’s what causes a bit of distortion, just enough to mis-read a couple of characters on the 20/20 line.

So I think another procedure is out of the question. Not unless my eyes take a turn for the worse. But, there is no indication that would happen. I’m not worried.

I turn 40 later this month. Every time I go to the eye doctor they tell me that I’ll need reading glasses soon. I feel like the PRK procedure hustled that along. Before my surgery my close-up vision was incredibly good. I could focus with absolute clarity on very small items–I’d have to hold them inches from eyes. Now when I try to do something like that it’s blurry, like tie a fly fishing knot or read very small text on a package.

Went deer hunting last month and I was able to see things clearly far away. I was very happy with that. I’m also a sport shooter, and I’m also able to focus clearly on targets downrange with clarity. I also did a lot of fly fishing last month, and let me tell you, it was soooo nice to be able to see without correction.

My night vision has markedly improved as well. The first month after surgery I had some halos and starbursts and fogginess while night driving. Now all of those things have gone away. No more halos, no more starburst, and I can see things very clearly. I feel very safe driving at night.

So I think that’s about it. My vision has stabilized lately. I’m very happy with the results. I would do it again. And I recommend it to anyone considering laser eye corrective surgery.

Thanks, PRK.