Saturday, December 29, 2007

Married!


The 29th December was a fantastic day, as Audrey and I celebrated our marriage with family and friends. Getting married is quite a unique experience and our day turned out brilliantly with our family, friends and day antics. Special thanks go to Mark for being the Master of Ceremonies at the Sandy Carson Gallery; Richard for performing excellent logistical support and tres amusing speech; the Bridesmaids for looking beautiful and supporting Audrey on the day; Audrey parents for helping out in all areas, we couldn't have done it without them; to all my family for traveling so far for the event; to everyone else for making the day great.

Friday, November 23, 2007

The Day After Thanksgiving.

We enjoyed Thanksgiving around at Audrey's parents' friend's house. Lots of turkey, sprouts, and many other dishes I am not sure what they consisted of, but still very good.

Presently I am going through the immigration process to get a residency card, commonly known as the "Green Card". One of the "rules" of this process is that I am not allowed to leave the country whilst it is being processed, which means I haven't seen my family for almost a year now. Luckily I am getting married next month, the main bonus being that I will be marrying the lovely Audrey Allison, but as an additional bonus my family are coming over to visit.

Whilst they are over we are planning on trying some of these activities:
1) Go to a movie.
2) Go to a shooting range.
3) Go to the zoo lights.
4) Go to a ski resort.
5) Go tubing.
6) Go snowmobiling.
7) Enjoy each other company.

I now have four little nephews and haven't seen them in a while so i am soooooooooooo looking forward to seeing the little animals.

Monday, October 15, 2007

Snake News Just In - "Indianna Jones Protects Girls from Snakes"

Quietly walking through a wood in Springlfield, Missouri, I heard a rustling from the leaves. Recognising the sound, from a Ray Mears-esque adventure in the Peruvian jungle, I immediately recognised the noise to be a snake. Alerting the girls to step back, I zoned in on the animal which wanted to cross the path we were walking down. Jessi - our resident snake expert - calmed all our fears when she pointed out it had a square rather than triangualar head which meant it was probably not poisenous. However we let the snake cross before continuing.


Wednesday, October 03, 2007

The Dragon In My Garage

The Dragon In My Garage

by Carl Sagan

"A fire-breathing dragon lives in my garage"

Suppose (I'm following a group therapy approach by the psychologist Richard Franklin) I seriously make such an assertion to you. Surely you'd want to check it out, see for yourself. There have been innumerable stories of dragons over the centuries, but no real evidence. What an opportunity!

"Show me," you say. I lead you to my garage. You look inside and see a ladder, empty paint cans, an old tricycle -- but no dragon.

"Where's the dragon?" you ask.

"Oh, she's right here," I reply, waving vaguely. "I neglected to mention that she's an invisible dragon."

You propose spreading flour on the floor of the garage to capture the dragon's footprints.

"Good idea," I say, "but this dragon floats in the air."

Then you'll use an infrared sensor to detect the invisible fire.

"Good idea, but the invisible fire is also heatless."

You'll spray-paint the dragon and make her visible.

"Good idea, but she's an incorporeal dragon and the paint won't stick." And so on. I counter every physical test you propose with a special explanation of why it won't work.

Now, what's the difference between an invisible, incorporeal, floating dragon who spits heatless fire and no dragon at all? If there's no way to disprove my contention, no conceivable experiment that would count against it, what does it mean to say that my dragon exists? Your inability to invalidate my hypothesis is not at all the same thing as proving it true. Claims that cannot be tested, assertions immune to disproof are veridically worthless, whatever value they may have in inspiring us or in exciting our sense of wonder. What I'm asking you to do comes down to believing, in the absence of evidence, on my say-so. The only thing you've really learned from my insistence that there's a dragon in my garage is that something funny is going on inside my head. You'd wonder, if no physical tests apply, what convinced me. The possibility that it was a dream or a hallucination would certainly enter your mind. But then, why am I taking it so seriously? Maybe I need help. At the least, maybe I've seriously underestimated human fallibility. Imagine that, despite none of the tests being successful, you wish to be scrupulously open-minded. So you don't outright reject the notion that there's a fire-breathing dragon in my garage. You merely put it on hold. Present evidence is strongly against it, but if a new body of data emerge you're prepared to examine it and see if it convinces you. Surely it's unfair of me to be offended at not being believed; or to criticize you for being stodgy and unimaginative -- merely because you rendered the Scottish verdict of "not proved."

Imagine that things had gone otherwise. The dragon is invisible, all right, but footprints are being made in the flour as you watch. Your infrared detector reads off-scale. The spray paint reveals a jagged crest bobbing in the air before you. No matter how skeptical you might have been about the existence of dragons -- to say nothing about invisible ones -- you must now acknowledge that there's something here, and that in a preliminary way it's consistent with an invisible, fire-breathing dragon.

Now another scenario: Suppose it's not just me. Suppose that several people of your acquaintance, including people who you're pretty sure don't know each other, all tell you that they have dragons in their garages -- but in every case the evidence is maddeningly elusive. All of us admit we're disturbed at being gripped by so odd a conviction so ill-supported by the physical evidence. None of us is a lunatic. We speculate about what it would mean if invisible dragons were really hiding out in garages all over the world, with us humans just catching on. I'd rather it not be true, I tell you. But maybe all those ancient European and Chinese myths about dragons weren't myths at all.

Gratifyingly, some dragon-size footprints in the flour are now reported. But they're never made when a skeptic is looking. An alternative explanation presents itself. On close examination it seems clear that the footprints could have been faked. Another dragon enthusiast shows up with a burnt finger and attributes it to a rare physical manifestation of the dragon's fiery breath. But again, other possibilities exist. We understand that there are other ways to burn fingers besides the breath of invisible dragons. Such "evidence" -- no matter how important the dragon advocates consider it -- is far from compelling. Once again, the only sensible approach is tentatively to reject the dragon hypothesis, to be open to future physical data, and to wonder what the cause might be that so many apparently sane and sober people share the same strange delusion.

Tuesday, September 04, 2007

Expedia Booked All The Hotels I Browsed [SECURITY]

I was recently passing through Lawrence, Kansas, on a road trip and needed overnight accomodation. After browsing Expedia for various hotels, I booked 1 and only received confirmation for one hotel. I proceeded with the booking only to find out that Expedia had booked all the hotels I had browsed, without every informing me. Full Story here.

Customer Service Sucks

Here is an email audit trail from Expedia, they just don't bother responding anymore:


IS ANYONE GOING TO GET BACK TO ME?????????


- Hide quoted text -

On 9/2/07, Gene> wrote:
IS ANYONE GOING TO GET BACK TO ME?????????

http://digg.com/tech_news/Expedia_error_in_booking_system_sends_your_credit_card_details_to_all



http://thinkjones.blogspot.com/2007/09/expedia-sends-credit-card-details-to.html

Gene




On 8/30/07, Gene  > wrote:
IS ANYONE GOING TO GET BACK TO ME?????????

  • The hotel have got back in contact with me and are refusing to refund the credit card transaction.
  • Please rectify this situation! I use Expedia a lot and do not want to have to swith my business to another travel provider.
  • Can someone get in contact with me using a less generic email address so I have one point of contact in rectifying this situation.
  • If this is not resoved by the end of this week I will be contacting the BBC's Watchdog program, and posting my story to www.digg.com.




On 8/29/07, Gene  > wrote:
Hi,


Can someone get back to me on this?


I asked for an update 7 days ago.


Regards
Gene



On 8/23/07, Gene > wrote:
Hi,


Can someone get back to me by the end of Friday on this please.


Regards
Dr Gene 



On 8/22/07, Gene > wrote:
Alannah,


  • The hotel have got back in contact with me and are refusing to refund the credit card transaction.
  • Please rectify this situation! I use Expedia a lot and do not want to have to swith my business to another travel provider.
  • Can someone get in contact with me using a less generic email address so I have one point of contact in rectifying this situation.
  • If this is not resoved by the end of this week I will be contacting the BBC's Watchdog program, and posting my story to www.digg.com.


Thanks
Dr Gene




On 8/20/07, Gene > wrote:
Alannah,


Please can you give me an update on this transaction, the item has still not been refunded!


Thanks
Gene



On 8/16/07, Gene > wrote:
Alannah,


Thanks for the reply.


I presume this is an admittance of a mistake on Expedia's part, given that my credit card details were supplied to the hotel in the first place, without ever a booking being made. It is quite worrying that I can view various hotels online, and when I come to choose the hotel I want, my credit card, if this mistake happens again, would be charged for the all the hotels I had been viewing. It was only through my vigilance that this mistake was spotted.


As an active member of one of the largest user submitted news websites in the USA (www.digg.com), what can Expedia do to show that this mistake will not happen again; and to compensate me for the time I have wasted chasing this matter up.


Thanks
Gene




On 8/16/07, travel@support.expedia.co.uk < travel@support.expedia.co.uk> wrote:
Dear Ms 


Thank you for contacting Expedia.co.uk with a copy of your statement.


We have contacted the hotel in regards to your query.


We have requested a refund for the amount deducted on your statement.


We will be in contact with any further information.


We apologise for any inconvenience and appreciate your patience in this matter


Thank you for using Expedia.co.uk


Yours sincerely


Alannah
Expedia.co.uk



Sunday, September 02, 2007

Expedia sends credit card details to all hotels browsed

Incorrect Booking

I was recently passing through Lawrence, Kansas, on a road trip and needed overnight accomodation. After browsing Expedia for two different hotels, The Eldrige Hotel, and The Hallmark Inn, I decided on the Hallmark Inn as it was within budget. I proceeded with the booking only to find out that Expedia had booked all the hotels I had browsed.

Booking Info

Expedia sends me a confirmation of my booking for the Hallmark Inn only.
See a print of my itinerary from the My trips page in Expedia.

The correct booking (Hallmark) was the second entry in "Completed Trips" called Lawrence KS (3) 1149724XXXXX.

The Eldridge Hotel, which is listed twice as Lawrence KS, and Lawrence (KS) 2, probably because I viewed it on two separate occasions; is listed in the section called "Non-active trips: Do not contain reserved or purchased items". I must reiterate here the Eldridge hotel is in the section stated as not containing reserved or purchase items, because I didn't book it only browsed it.

Expedia booked all the hotels and rooms I had browsed

A month later when I am reviewing my credit card bill I see an item for The Eldridge Hotel for $448. How can this be?
I contact the hotel and they tell me that they received two bookings, together with my credit card details. I ask for a refund, and they refuse because as far as they are concerned it was a genuine booking.

Hello Dr. Conroy-Jones,

We did indeed charge your credit card for $448.08 on 8/2/07. There was a reservation made, on 8/1/07, for two rooms on Expedia. com for the night of 8/1/07. Our policy is to charge for all no-show rooms unless we receive at least 48 hours notice of cancellation. Please let me know if you have any further questions about this charge. You may want to contact Expedia if you feel there was an error here.
Thank you,

Michelle Crowell
Finance Director

The Eldridge

So I contact Expedia and their response is:

Dear Ms Conroy-Jones

Thank you for contacting Expedia.co.uk with a copy of your statement.
We have contacted the hotel in regards to your query.
We have requested a refund for the amount deducted on your statement.
We will be in contact with any further information.
We apologise for any inconvenience and appreciate your patience in this matter

Thank you for using Expedia.co.uk

Yours sincerely
Alannah

Firsts I am a Mr (Well Dr actually). Secondly as far as Expedia is concerned this is the end of the issue. I have contacted them every 5 days since this last email was receieved over a month ago and have yet to receive a response.

Current Situation

The current situation is that I have a hotel that won't refund the booking because as far as they are concerned it is legitamte, and Expedia who have washed their hands of it because they have asked the hotel to refund the money. This leaves me in the situation where no-one is taking ownership of the erroneous transaction that has illegally removed funds from my bank account.

Be warned, if you are browsing hotels in Expedia there is a chance they will send your credit card details to all the hotels you browsed, not just the ones you booked, and by the way, you don't get an email confirmation from the incorrect bookings, so you will only notice if you audit your bank statements.

All I want is my refund, and a contribution for the hours of investigation I have has to pursue to track and follow up this problem.

Thanks Expedia for this mistake you have admitted to but not rectified.


Digg!

Thursday, August 16, 2007

New Office, New Book


Relaxing in the new office, reading a superbly titled book.
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Friday, August 10, 2007

Tuesday, July 31, 2007

Moving to Missouri

We have (almost!) moved out of our apartment in Denver, CO., moving to St. Louis, Missouri, some time this week. Audrey is going to college at Washington University in St Louis, to study for a Masters of Social Work. Her first assignment will be to solve all the problems in my family, ;-). Just kidding.

It will be sad to leave Denver as we have had a brilliant time here, but hopefully Missouri, the mid west and Mississippi will be just as much fun. Although I hear St. Louis, is just as hot as Denver, but with the added enjoyment of humidity. So an excellent air conditioning system will be top of my priorities when looking for a new apartment. Ahh yes, we are driving out there, and do not have anywhere to live as yet. Which is all part of the fun L.F.N.

Thursday, July 05, 2007

P-Day Pic 2

Trying very hard to look humble and casual, however any smugness in the picture, I assure you, is not intentional.

Tuesday, July 03, 2007

P-Day Has Arrived


Check out that gorgeous chick magnet, no not me, our new vehicular in the background. Here is a clue its blue.
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Tuesday, May 29, 2007

Sneak Peak @ the Creation Museum

Has it really come to this: You can now take a photographic tour of the exhibits at the brand new Creation Museum. Check out $10 million of dollars worth of exhibits that were purpose-built to debunk evolution.



read more | digg story

Saturday, April 14, 2007

Gene's News and Views Podcast

Partly as an attempt to try the technology out and as an exciting forray into the world of publishing, I have created a podcast called Gene Conroy-Jones's News and Views. It is an interesting perspective on the important scientific issues of the day and yesteryear. This podcast is available in itunes at the following link:

Friday, April 13, 2007

Wifi Ipod Available 3rd Quarter 2007

It looks as if the 6G ipod will be available during the 3rd quarter of 2007. Full story here: http://www.tgdaily.com/content/view/31609/97/

Tuesday, March 13, 2007

Engaging New York

Engaging New York (20070312)
Just had a fantasitc time in New York, New York. Went to see Spamalot the Monty Python Holy Grail musical. Has to be the funniest piece of entertainment I have ever seen, well in the top 5 anyway. Was so funny that I became anxious that I was laughing to much and hard.

Wednesday, February 07, 2007

Birthday month is over :-(


Alas birthday month has come to an end. Here is a picture of the cake Audrey made.
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