I’ve been getting a lot of search engine traffic from people searching for “united collections bureau”. The first instances of this traffic came back when i wrote a little post about them contacting me, and harassing me whilst believing I was my father. After noticing the hits tonight, I did a little grep, and found that they were still hitting the blog, and this time I found that they actually have their own swip’d block of ip addresses.

Here’s a little information for the nerds out there who are looking for information about them:

root@bonkers[/home/imikey] $ jwhois “UNITED COLLECTION BUREAU” @whois.arin.net -n
[Querying whois.arin.net]
[whois.arin.net]
UNITED COLLECTION BUREAU INC (UCB-12)
UNITED COLLECTION BUREAU INC SPRINTLINK (NET-65-168-38-176-1) 65.168.38.176 - 65.168.38.191
UNITED COLLECTION BUREAU INC SPRINTLINK (NET-63-175-135-128-1) 63.175.135.128 - 63.175.135.255

root@bonkers[/home/imikey] $ jwhois UCB-12 @whois.arin.net -n
[Querying whois.arin.net]
[whois.arin.net]

OrgName: UNITED COLLECTION BUREAU INC
OrgID: UCB-12
Address: 5620 SOUTHWYCK BLVD
City: TOLEDO
StateProv: OH
PostalCode: 43614
Country: US
Comment:
RegDate: 2004-08-11
Updated: 2004-08-11

AdminHandle: GLU6-ARIN
AdminName: lucas, gb
AdminPhone: +1-419-725-5353
AdminEmail: gblucas@ucbinc.com

TechHandle: GLU6-ARIN
TechName: lucas, gb
TechPhone: +1-419-725-5353
TechEmail: gblucas@ucbinc.com

# ARIN WHOIS database, last updated 2007-01-23 19:10
# Enter ? for additional hints on searching ARIN’s WHOIS database.

They’re probably going to come across this post some time soon. I’d just like to tell the guys that this info is available to anyone with internet access, and absolutely no laws were broken while obtaining this information.

A few weeks ago, I was looking for enhancements for my Canon Powershot a620 camera. While digging around, I found a spectacular hack which will make the camera shoot in Raw Format, instead of Jpg. However, after hacking around with it, I found that the directions are a little flawed, due to the writer of the page being russian. So, here’s the new directions:

1) Download this file, and extract it anywhere.

2) Take camera, and format your sdcard completely

3) Take out your sdcard, and put it into your computer’s card reader. If you don’t have one, you might have some good luck using This uploader, though I never tried the ladder. Uploading via usb connection to the camera will not work, because the sd-reader in the camera rejects it.

4) Navigate to the card via ‘my computer’, and put the PS_A620.FIR file into the root of your sdcard, after that’s done, turn the camera on in ‘playback’, or ‘view’ mode.

5) Hit your ‘menu button’, and navigate to the tools section (middle tab), and go down to “File No. Reset”, toggle this from off to on, or just hit the “func set” button to ensure things are cool

6) go back up to the main menu (first tab), and scroll down to the bottom. There should be a “firm update” option. Select it using the func/set button, and click okay to apply it.

7) After that, the camera will reboot. Pay attention to your printer button. It should blink blue once. This is the camera telling you that the raw shooting software was loaded. Flip the camera into shooting mode, and your lens should expand out. Take three or more demo shots, and the first one may or may not shoot in raw format. The two+ after that should be in raw format, you can tell if they are shooting in raw format by looking at the printer button. It will blink blue if you are shooting in raw format.

With each photo you take, one raw format shot will be created, and one jpg format shot will be created. The raw format photos will be up around 8MB, while the jpg format photos will be around 1.5MB. For managing your raw photos, i have had a good time using Adobe Bridge. You won’t be able to use the regular windows picture and fax viewer for these files.

With each set of photos you take between power cycles, you will need to re-load the firmware hack, this can be done by following these directions:

1) Turn camera on in view mode
2) Verify your file no. reset thing, hit the func set button to verify it
3) Navigate to play menu, go to “firm update”, say OK to everything, the camera will reboot, everything after that will be shooting in raw/jpg format.

The files will be wrote to the “100CANON” directory. If you get another directory, for instance: “102CANON”, you may be able to ignore it. However, I think the photos will get wrote to the 100canon directory whenever the hack is loaded. In your 100CANON directory, raw format photos will be named IMG_1001.jpg, while jpg should be somethin’ like IMG_0001.jpg.

If you have any questions related to the hack, I might be able to help if you comment. I got some good feedback from this guy who’s email is vitalyvb [@@@ttttt] ukr.net .

Haven’t had a bike for over a week now. Doing more situps, eating a lot less, trying to sleep more as to keep myself from eating.

Called bike shop today, they say that trek shipped out a raw-model frame. Aparently they just took one of their existing ones, and painted it. I’m not sure if it’s shipped out or not. It’ll be at least 1 week before I get the bike back.

That’s all folks.

Here in michigan, there’s a republican senate candidate named Mike Bouchard. A majority of his ads simply complain about the current representative, Debbie Stabenow, but today I caught one of the ads where he talks about himself, and he gave his url: www.mikeformichigan.com. I just had to see the genius that was brewing within that website, so I punched the keys on my keyboard, and eventually his website came up.

After reading over his issues page, I just had to send him a letter expressing how I felt about it. So, I cooked up this email, and addressed it to info@mikeformichigan.gov.

Here’s the email:

Hello Mike,

“My plan to keep America’s children safe focuses on using the recently established National Sex Offenders Database to keep sex offenders out of schools. It also contains a provision to allow the Justice Department to create a database to track the IP addresses of known sex offenders.”

Are you aware that not everyone has their own static ip address? Most people’s IP addresses are dynamic. How about those Wide-Area-Networks, where entire neighborhoods, and buildings share the same ip address? How would you feel if your neighbor was listed as a sexual offender, and you were also listed as a result of your provider’s configuration? Do want providers to start giving every single person their own IP address? There is a limit of 4,294,967,296 ip addresses under the current working version of the internet protocol. With the number of people who use the internet, I don’t think that solution would work.

Are you aware that instant messaging services don’t even establish a direct user-to-user connection during regular text based messaging, but instead simply connect each user to one server, and users never directly connect to each other? How is having a list of sex offender ip addresses going to help parents when they never even see the offender’s ip address? Do you want the IM providers to compromise user security, and make everyone’s ip addresses completely visible?

This idea protects no one, and I don’t think you took anything into account. You just wanted to appear tech-savvy to all of michigan’s idiot parents, whose only knowledge of the internet comes from what they see on CSI.

All the best,

Mike Q. Bailey
esquire

Mike was also a sheriff some time ago. I was going to include this bit:

P.S. I had hotdogs for dinner tonight. I just thought you might have been interested, having known so many dead pigs during your previous career

But I thought that might have come off as threatening. So, I just cut that little bit out.

I’m hoping he replies. I’ll let you know if he does.

A few weeks ago, I got the wild idea to learn to drive. Why? Well, winter’s coming up, and I don’t think I’ll be able to bike around to pretty picture places when there is 4 feet of snow outside. Also, I don’t think i’ll make it far in life without a car.

So, I dug out my “what every driver must know” book, and studied for my permit for a while. The original plan was to read it for 3 days, then take the test, but a lot of things happend, and I can’t quite remember what happend, but i decided i wouldn’t bike 35 miles to pontiac to get a permit, so I got a parent to drive me there.

Skip ahead to last tuesday. I’d studied for a while, and we went out to clarkston to get the permit. I went through the 50 question test, and managed to only miss 6 of the questions. It turns out, most of the test questions were not covered in the book, but only 10 of them. I did pass though. So, now I can drive.

Today I put the permit to use, and drove for the first time in many years. I’m not so good at it right now, but I’m not completely terrible.

In other news, i’m 219 pounds. That’s about 64 pounds less than when I started.

I’ve been listening to the band “Hickey” a lot lately. They’re not around anymore, but they were damn entertaining.

They’re finishing the bridge at the pollyann trail this week. It took them a long time do that.

The trouble with biking in the fall / early winter is that you have to wear pants. In recent years, I’ve had big problems with my pants getting caught, and torn by my front crank. Ripping pants every time you ride is no fun. But, I have a plan. I got this little velcrow thing that goes around my ankle, that will prevent my pants from getting snagged.

Another problem with pants is pretty much all of the ones i have are too big. It seems losing all this weight has caused my pants to fall down any time i wear them without a belt. But then there’s my belts. I’m on my 4th and final rung on all my belts. So, if I lose any more weight, I’m going to have to either make a new hole in the belts, buy new belts, or buy new pants. That really isn’t so good, because with saving money for a car, and wanting to buy fancy electronics that make me look talented, I have barely any money. So, what am I supposed to do? Does anybody out there want to sponsor me? What about work? I know things about servers, mainly freebsd, and linux systems. I also know about apache, bind, mysql, and a whole bunch of other things. If you want to give me money, just contact me, and things will be worked out.

That’s all I have for this week. Have a good life.

I really don’t like it when people say that. We should try to forget it. The more you dwell on it, the more angry / sad you get. How long did it take before we quit hating the japanese for bombing pearl harbor?

My life.. Biking a lot. Haven’t got the camera out due to rain concerns. Will be going out to addison oaks this week to get pictures of the dad’s new trail.

I’ve been meaning to break onto the land of the nearby gravel pit to get some industrial-type photos of their equipment. Trouble is, they have offices there, and guards regularly patrol the area. So, I’d have to get out there on the weekend. Another problem, the last time I tried going over there, I spotted a guard, and that was on a sunday. I could probably get out there if I entered from the south, and traveled east. One of the biggest problems with the land is there’s a gigantic fuckin’ lake between the equipment, and the main road. So, if I had to run, I would have to speed as fast as I could several miles, and they would probably have pleanty of time to get police to the gate.

Well.. that’s all I have.

Fall is coming up. that’s when the real fun comes to internet.

It rained for most of the day.

Then at 7:30pm i got pissed off and headed west on the bike.

West lasted for like 5 miles until i reached the end of the road. So, i turned north, and rode for a while until my back started hurting. So, i drank some water, and turned at the nearest east-bound road. Then i rode east up some really big hills until reaching m24. At m24 i turned south, and rode back towards town. Once i reached town, i turned back east, and went back home.

So, I guess you could say i rode like this:
___
|__|
|

17 miles total. Nothing fun. Really foggy and wet outside. Back pain didn’t help, and neither did the mud on side of the roads.

I think i’ll do it again tomorrow, when it should be nicer outside.

I got my second set of prints back from deviantart. They all look pretty great. You should buy some yourself here. I dropped all my prices a week ago, so I’m not making any profit. I would just like to know that someone has some of my photos somewhere in their house.

That’s all i’ve got. Have fun, folks.

today i got stranded on the other side of lake orion.

That was not a very fun time.

20 miles total for the day.

73.56 miles done this week.

photos and such are here and here

I’ve met a few crazy people this week. One was saturday. He told me about how he was running for senate, and then he started ranting about this nazi banker who owns all the banks, and controls the media, as well as several high-ranking politicians. He also told me about how the netherlands have an active euthanasia campaign for the elderly.

The other was a guy named travelin’ joe. He was a passive aggressive character. When i came up to him, he was cutting up his shirt with a knife. I stuck around and talked with him. He was pretty cool, but his possession of a knife scared me away.

i got some work with hostpc.com . Anky from WHT got me the job. Rockin’.

I’m out of here. Take care, folks.

hey internet,

When was the last time i blogged this thing? I can’t remember.

Well, I’m still laid off from sonataweb. Andy says he will hire me back in a month, but I’m still a little skeptical.

I went out on a few photography trips. On Saturday I went on a 20 something mile trip out to Lake Sixteen in orion. The trip was made based on art friend joe’s recommendation. The lake was alright, and there were some decent trails around the lake. I was kind of creeped out after seeing a sign warning the public about a poisonous snake in the area, So, that kind of kept me from taking any photos from the swampy side of the lake. I did get this photo at the lake though, so i’m happy with that.

I went on a trespassing adventure at the gravel pit last night. I took my bike out there, but the terrain was really rough, so I couldn’t bike for a while. As I was heading back, I decided it would be cool to head in the direction of this new subdivision, so I took what I assumed was the correct route, but I turned out to be wrong. So, I got to walk around this huge gravel pit for a while, and as it got dark, I got really creeped out. At one point, I looked up this really big hill, and I could have sworn I saw someone wearing a silver colored jacket, but when I looked back, it was gone. At that moment, I got freaked out. So I ran as fast as I could, and jumped on the bike to speed through this really rough terrain, and barely avoided crashing.

The adventure was alright, but I don’t think I’ll go out there again. this photo came from it. And, that makes everything worth it.

Here’s a photo of myself chilling out at the gravel pit.

That’s all i’ve got. Get your RSS readers on the photo blog, I update that more often.

Hello internet family,
here’s what I’ve done since the last post:

Gave up porn until friday.
Gave up eating at night until saturday when I ate a peanut butter and jelly sandwich at like 11pm
Rode bike for a long time
Did some photoshoping on some new and old photos
Published a photo blog
Rode my bike through extremely hazardous traffic to see the fireworks (forgot camera, Fuck!)
Bought a mitch hedberg cd
Tuned my bass guitar

Yeah, the porn giveup lasted 4 days. I’m happy to have lasted that long without going nuts.
Eating at night is difficult because i’m always hungry.
I rode bike every day like usual.
I photoshopped some new and old photos for that photo blog that i mentioned in the point below that.

The bike trip to orion for the fireworks was the worst idea I’ve had this year. The dad and I left home at 9pm, and biked as fast as we could to orion. I did about 20 miles an hour for the entire trip there, and i was a sweaty mess just after the first 5 mile trip. Downtown orion was barely recognizable, and I almost got hit several times.

Dad and I went out to his friend’s house where we could get a good view of the fireworks. We were able to see the fireworks for the first half, and then there was a 15 minute technical failure. Then they started again, but the barge they were firing from was floating away, thus preventing us from seeing the greater portion of the second half.

The trip back was even more chaotic. Everything was stop and go, except we couldn’t stop. So, it was slow down, and go, and then come close to crashing over this curb, and then get yelled at by a drunk girl who doesn’t seem to like people who ride bikes.

My bike was having trouble for about a week. It’s fixed now. It was making a strange clicking noise on every peddal rotation, it doesn’t anymore.

I bought a mitch hedberg cd today. It’s pretty funny.

When I got home i tuned my bass guitar. That was a time consuming process.

That’s all i have. This blog post was brought to you by winterfresh, the official chewing gum provider of mikey’s blog thing.