This seemed like a nifty innovation, small, yet simple. This UPS truck was parked in Manhattan, presumably the driver might be away from the truck for several minutes, meanwhile, it serves as a convenient drop-box for passerby. I mean, the truck is there, you might as well make use of it, right?

I don’t know, perhaps others do, if they are leaving these trucks in fixed locations for predictable times, serving as reliable-if-temporary drop boxes?

I’ve been using this online backup service called Data Deposit Box for a couple of months now. It’s a piece of software that watches the folders you specify and pretty much is running all the time to upload the latest version of your documents. You get billed based on how much you store. Last week I got my first bill (the first month was free) for $19.17, for a month.

And then last night I got three emails from them

To: Steve Portigal
Subject: System – Partner Billing

Name: Interbaun
Systems: 39
Storage: 40.33 GB
Start: 2005-05-01
End: 2005-05-31
Total: 186.82

and

To: Steve Portigal
Subject: System – Partner Billing

Name: Magma
Systems: 193
Storage: 414.33 GB
Start: 2005-05-01
End: 2005-05-31
Total: 1094.02

and

To: Steve Portigal
Subject: System – Partner Billing

Name: Primus Resi
Systems: 2
Storage: 38.54 MB
Start: 2005-05-01
End: 2005-05-31
Total: 4.44

Argh, nearly $1300 was billed to me overnight? I just about flipped. I googled the Magma and Primus names and saw them listed as ISP customers of DDB, and was relieved. I sent in an urgent support request and did receive this back

I?m very sorry you received the other 3 emails. You recieved them in error. I can assure you that your credit card was not charge for these amounts and never will be.

A small problem with our email server caused these emails to go to the wrong list. The problem has been fixed and will not happen again.

Sorry for the inconvenience.

and then this broadcast email

To: Steve Portigal
Subject: Important Information regarding incorrect Invoice Emails

Dear Data Deposit Box Subscriber,

Due to an error in our system last evening you may have received three Data Deposit Box invoice emails by mistake.

Please disregard these emails as they were not intended for you.

This error was due to a mistake on our part and was not a result of any security breach.

Your credit card has not been charged.

We apologize for any inconvenience this has caused.

Now THAT is an email error you don’t want to make? They sent all their individual customers the bills from some big clients? Oops!

Wanna buy a watch?

The worst kind, isn’t it?

Gorgeous new bakery on 9th ave in Manhattan, with an example of what I guess is a food trend – the Fwinkie, as they call it, an example of what a Twinkie would be if it was made by a baker and not a processed synthetic food shmechhghh company. They had regular, and chocolate (dipped in chocolate) – which is what this is. It was pretty good. Not freak-out good, but pretty good. Looked better than it tasted, I’d say.

Getting a credit report for those in the US is probably a good thing to do. That site allows you to get a free report from each agency every 12 months. You can do all three at once, or one of each every 4 months. I finally did it after it having been available in California since December. Better late than never.

Interesting to see what’s there:
the name ” STEVE L PORTILTOGEL”

the address “1139 AMARILLO APARTM
MILLBRAE, CA 94030-” when I once lived at “1139 AMARILLO AVE APT3
PALO ALTO, CA 94303-3710″ (i.e., same address but different city)

and a reference to ” ENGINEERING-MANAGEMENT SERVICE: PO BOX 370252, MONTARA, CA, 94037″ (our current PO Box)

I called them up and in a few minutes they changed the first two items, although it can take 30 to 45 days to process it and they’ll send me an email.

Obviously, none of these are bad errors, but it seems easier to keep it clean and prevent something weird in the future.

Update: The next day they updated it. They cleaned up the variations on 1139 Amarillo in Palo Alto (there had been two, one that said Apartment 3 and one that said APART and stopped there) and took out the variations in Millbrae. They got rid of the strange verison of my last name, and they deleted the Engineering-Management Service, with this note

As a part of our fraud protection efforts, we evaluate address information. The notice, “this is a non-residential address,” indicates that perhaps at one time business mail was accepted at this address, or the address was used as a mail drop, or a delivery service. It only advises a potential creditor to assure that this is your home address. The notice is about the address, not you.

It seems that they dropped the area codes on a bunch of my old phone numbers, but that hardly matters.

I’m registered for EPIC 2005

, I’m going to Redmond in November.

The conference is designed for people who have trained for and are practicing ethnography in business contexts. This could include, but is not limited to, people who specialize in qualitative methods from disciplines such as anthropology, sociology, semiotics, art history, and linguistics.

I’m thinking hard about the categories in the Call for Participation and what I might be able to submit. Any ideas? The theme is sociality, so anyone looking to collaborate?

This one really surprises me – I thought AAA was (among other things) an advocacy group for consumers, at least related to road and car and travel issues. I guess that doesn’t preclude them from being spamming scum as well? Seems out of their brand image to me. Maybe someone acting locally doesn’t have to be accountable to the corporate parental unit?