Suck It, JumpDomain!

Among the artifacts of my former life as a builder of combat robots was my domain and website dedicated to my efforts: puppetmaster-robotics.com.

In the days before blogging (and the tools that made blogging easy), I tediously hand-coded build reports for robots I was building, and talked about the events I had attended and the bouts I had fought. During what became known as "the Great Newbie Flood", in which hundreds of fans of the Comedy Central Battlebots TV show suddenly joined the online community of bot-builders, I even penned a FAQ that became the standard reference text for answering newbie questions.

In the same way that I learned most of what I know about building such machines from the websites of others, I hoped my site would fill the same role. From the usage logs, I could see that I'd at least partially succeeded. While readership dropped off steadily after Battlebots went off the air, there was still a measurable amount of traffic to the build and FAQ pages. Interestingly, with the recent "Maker" trend, I found that readership was going back UP! So, I basically left the site up as an archive, as a record of what I'd done, and as a reference tool.

Now for the bad news: In 2002 I'd transferred domain registry and hosting of the site to JumpDomain, then a Tucows reseller, on the recommendation of a friend. For a while, everything was great, so my friend was definitely right to refer me. Then somewhere along the line it seems that the proprietor(s) for JumpDomain lost interest in the pet-venture. Basically the system runs itself, aside from a few bugs here and there... Support started dropping off, and in general service basically sucked. My friend eventually moved his domains away from them, but I waited too long, and by the time I was convinced to take my business elsewhere, it was too late. Puppetmaster-Robotics.com had fallen into the automated billing and human-less support abyss. As it turns out, one of the "bugs" I mentioned made it impossible for me to unlock the domain for transfer to another registrar.

So, every six months, I'd get an automated email telling me my credit card was being charged for the hosting service (at a rate that these days seems exorbitant). More importantly, once a year I'd be automatically charged for the renewal of the domain. Basically, it was automated extortion. Since I had no contacts to JumpDomain (their phone contact had long since gone dark, and the support portal never returned an answer), it was essentially a case of pay or risk losing the domain.

Until this cycle.

Through an interesting confluence of events, JumpDomain's automated system was forced to give out a little more information than normal, so that I could renew my credit card information. This happened right around the same time I finally had enough free time and a bug up my ass about getting the domain back that I devoted what turned out to be two weeks of effort into wresting the domain back from them. During my trial-by-fire, I called over a dozen phone numbers that were attributed to JumpDomain at one point or another (all dead, or belonging to some poor soul named Dave who wishes people would stop calling him looking for JumpDomain). Dave, if you ever read this, the reason you get called is because the BBB has your phone number listed for the (816) area code. JumpDomain used to have the same number in the (815) area code.

I submitted the obligatory support tickets, I did as much as I could do for myself (fortunately JumpDomain's system let me update the Admin contact for the domain), and I waited. On advice from my new registrar, I contacted JumpDomain's new top-level registrar eNom.com, who were eventually very helpful, after I made a few statements about their culpability for the behavior of their resellers, and how ICANN and the BBB would be hearing from me. That call netted me the Transfer-Auth code, and after that it was just a matter of time and DNS/Hosting setup at my new hosts.

So, to make this long story.... erm, end, I can finally say that I am now back in control of puppetmaster-robotics.com, and apparently free of JumpDomain's automated clutches. The only further possibility for trouble is that they try to bill my cards for domain registration or hosting I'm no-longer using, but at that point I'd be happy to sick the credit card people on them for fraudulent charges, and let them try to track those wankers down. Its still just an archive for now, but I think I'll go through and add a little new content here and there, since I just finished helping a couple of local high school kids build a robot for the Science Olympiad. But that's another blog entry....

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SDMC Membership Fee Increase

OMG! People kill me.

Here's the background: The Miata club is having its (required) Annual meeting soon. This is where we elect officers and do all the other official club business that lets us keep our California non-profit status. Among the business on the table is a proposed increase in membership fees. The stated reasoning for the fees is increased cost of club operation, insurance, sending out newsletters to our 500+ members, etc.

After six years with no increase, the proposal is to raise the fee from $25 per family to $35 per family, per year. For reference, one of our club members stated that his local Porsche Club membership is $135/year and the BMW club is $75/year.

This group is pretty damn active, averaging like 2+ events a month, not to mention monthly meetings, etc., so for myself and Kimberley, its a no-brainer decision.

On the other hand, there's always gotta be one guy who needs to be a dissenter. This was posted to the club mailing list:

=====================================================================
>From: xxxxxxxxx@xxxx.xxx
>Date: Thu Mar 17, 2005 5:05 pm
>Subject: Re: Increasing Dues?

>Not that it matters, since I'm sure it's going to happen. But I'd have to
>quit, if the dues got any more expensive. I can barely afford the $25.
=====================================================================


I admit that some of our members are under tighter budgets than most people, but this sort of blows my mind. We're talking an increase of less than 3 cents a day. I started thinking: Give up 2 trips to Starbucks, and you're there. Pass on "Supersizing" your BigMac twice a month, and you're there.

Well, being the "natural born leader" that I am, I came up with an even better solution. Here's my response the club list. Enjoy:

=====================================================================
>From: "Mike Herbst"
>Date: Fri Mar 18, 2005 11:13 am
>Subject: (NMC) Membership Fee Increase - (non)Run

<HUMOR>
I've come up with an idea to cover the potential increased membership
fees, assuming the measure passes at the Annual Meeting.

I propose to lead a (non)Run to help everyone in the club scrape
together the extra $10 to cover new membership fees:

The SDMC Membership Fee Increase (non)Run:

TIME/PLACE: Annual Meeting, Immediately after the Vote
WHERE: We will (not) be driving a scenic route through Julian and
Anza Borrego.
DISTANCE: Approximately 110 Miles (not) Driven.
WHY: On this (non)Run, we'll see (imagine) some of the most beautiful
areas of San Diego County while enjoying the comraderie of the SDMC.
Furthermore, by (not) driving this route we'll save approximately 4.2
gallons of regular unleaded fuel, which at today's prices should more
than make up for the $10 Membership Fee Increase. Members running
Higher Octane or with less efficient cars will of course save more
money. I heartily recommend these extra savings be used to purchase
regalia or be donated to the club.

I hope you'll all join me and Kimberley as we lead the (non)Run! It
should go by very quickly, as I drive very fast in my imagination.
(And apparently only in my imagination.)

See you at the Annual Meeting!

</HUMOR>

In all seriousness, I'll be voting "Yes" on the fee increase. The SDMC is a fantastic community and resource, and would be a "steal at twice the price", especially when compared to other (less active) clubs in the area. I'd like to think that I'll be able to remain a member (and keep paying whatever dues) even if I ever manage to wreck, sell, or otherwise lack, a Miata.

Cheers,
Mike "Herbie" Herbst

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"We had already given her up and let her be dead in our hearts", Teen girl upgraded to "Alive" when wrecked car found 8 days later...

Found this CNN News Story today...

I don't know which quote bothers me more:

"There was no police search," [sheriff's Sgt. John Urquhart] added. "We felt she was most likely a runaway."

- or -

"'We had already given her up and let her be dead in our hearts' the girl's mother, Jean Hatch, told KOMO-TV."

I'd hate to think I could go missing for more than a week and that my family would begin to grieve and the local constabulary assume I'd "run off" when in reality I was literally lying in a ditch somewhere...

Cheers to the Volunteers who searched, and cheers to those who found. Read More...

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