The good in others

Believe in the good that exists in all human beings. Never assume you know the way someone will react to a situation or believe that you understand a person enough to make assumptions about their future choices or decisions. Negativity can only make a situation worse (and if I say, "an already bad situation worse", then I'm being negative).

My Dad always says, "When you assume, you make an Ass out of You and Me", and that's exactly the way I felt last night. I assumed something about one of my tenants and it turned out to be the total opposite. When I realized how much I had been thinking negatively about the situation, I felt grateful for the opportunity to realize my mistake.

CORBAWeb Blog

I setup a blog for CORBAWeb, the new name for my web hosting business. I like the idea of having a separate blog for each of my projects or business ventures. It will allow me to post information specific to that blog instead of using this blog for everything.

It will be a few weeks before the new CORBAWeb site is up and running, but I decided to setup the blog to help motivate me to finish it. There is no real pressure to get the new site up and running, but I really feel my web hosting business is lacking that polished look. Since more and more people have been inquiring about it lately, I feel it's about time I make it look polished.

A new look for the FileZilla project

I'm not sure how long ago this happened, but the FileZilla project has a new site design and it is a huge improvement over their old site. The download section now links you directly to the files hosted on SourceForge, instead of just sending the visitor to a confusing multi-choice list on SourceForge. I really like the new logo too:

alexkovac on the FileZilla forums submitted the logo. Great job Alex!

Now FileZilla just needs SFTP and SCP support!

Here is what the old FileZilla logo looked like:

Old FileZilla Logo

Moving a CVS 1.12 repository to CVS 1.11

Over the weekend I moved my entire CVS repository from my home server to a domain hosted on the dedicated web server for my web hosting company. From what I read online, it was as simple as copying all the files to the new location. This appeared to work, but when I tried to create a new project and share it to the repository using Eclipse, I received the following error:

CVS Error

Hmm, unrecognized keyword 'UseNewInfoFmtStrings'. I tried searching Google and although I didn't find very much in the way of a solution, there were hints to the error possibly relating to differences in CVS versions. So I checked my home server version: CVS 1.12.13. Then I checked the version of CVS on my web server: CVS 1.11.17. Ah ha!

My next thought was to upgrade CVS on my web server. But then I discovered my web server (CentOS 4) doesn't have the CVS 1.12 package available because only stable packages are supported. I decided it was best to keep the server stable and starting looking for a way to "downgrade" the 1.12 repository to make it compatible with 1.11.

My eventual solution was to backup /home/dev82/cvsroot/CVSROOT/history, which contains the history information for all the files in the repository, and then delete the /home/dev82/cvsroot/CVSROOT/ directory. After this, I simply ran the following command to recreate CVSROOT and make it compatible with CVS 1.11:

root@web# cvs -d /home/dev82/cvsroot/ init

With the fresh CVSROOT directory in place, I copied the history file back to /home/dev82/cvsroot/CVSROOT/, overwriting the existing one that the cvs init command created.

My biggest worry with doing this was possibly losing history information or somehow being unable to restore files, etc. However, I was able to successfully, create, commit, and restore files from the history. I also had no errors creating new projects and sharing them with the CVS repository.

If anyone knows of a better solution, or has any information on what potential problems following this procedure might have, please leave a comment and let me know!

IMPORTANT UPDATE: I discovered any new files I committed to my repository were being saved to the ./Attic directory. The ./Attic directory is used by CVS for files that have been deleted. If someone checks out a version of the code where that file existed, CVS will pull the file out of the Attic and allow it to be checked out. The funny thing was that my newly committed file still checked out normally even though it only existed in the Attic on the server.

Eventually, I concluded the trouble of moving a 1.12 repository to a server running CVS 1.11 wasn't worth the trouble. I checked out the latest versions of all my projects, deleted the CVS meta-data from them (Eclipse allows you to do this automatically when you disconnect a project from a CVS repository), and then created a new clean repository and checked all the projects back in. My history information is gone, but if I ever discover I really need an old version of a file, I still have a copy of the original repository on my home server.

Another personal best Windows uptime

This screenshot was taken from my office computer, which is running Windows XP SP2 and has been up for 131 days without a reboot. Previously, my home Windows XP computer held the record. If this was a *NIX-based system, I wouldn't even bother keeping track of the uptime. I've had some of my Linux machines running for over 8 months. 😉

Learning not to become discouraged

Over the past few days I have been really enthused by the prospect of making a great, simple, task management site. Ever since the engineering team at work became very task-and-deadline oriented, my co-workers and I have been using a shared Google Notebook containing a list of tasks with deadline dates to keep track of things.

The Google Notebook wasn't designed specifically for tasks, so naturally I started thinking of a different solution. I wanted something that would allow us to manage our tasks online, but that would also maintain the extreme simplicity of the way we used Google Notebook. So before even entertaining the idea of working on building such a site, I did some really quick Googling and concluded there was nothing out there even similar to what I wanted.

But in the following days I did some more research. Online task management seemed like such a obvious online tool and I couldn't believe there weren't any good sites out there doing it already. The first online task management site I came across was UseTasks.com. It has lots of nice features, but they charge a fee and after trying the demo I concluded there were simply too many features.

"Good," I thought to myself, "I have an opportunity to make a great, free task management site!" So I decided on a name and registered the domain TaskZen.com. Then almost by accident I discovered Toodledo.com, RememberTheMilk.com, HiTask.com... the list goes on! Tons of great, free task management sites that were relatively simple to use! I couldn't help but feel discouraged. Only a few days earlier I ran into a similar discouraged feeling when I discovered NoteSake.com.

Why was this happening?! I have great ideas, I register good looking domains, I start jotting down killer features that I believe will make the site popular, and then I discover someone else has already done it all and feel I will be wasting my time by "reinventing the wheel". I browse the sites and while using the very features I imagined I would be the first to develop and make popular, I can't help but feel discouraged when I realize how much time and effort I will need to put into creating my own version of the same feature. I was almost ready to throw in the towel and give up. Almost.

Then I realized something: It is the competitive mind that is making me feel discouraged about following through with my own ideas of a great online tool. Prior to learning of the existence of similar online tools, the creative mind was in full swing, dreaming of features which would make my online tool useful and helpful to the largest audience possible.

The only reason I was able to quickly make this distinction between the competitive and creative mind was because I recently read a great book about getting rich which talked about them (I won't tell you the name of the book yet; that's for another post). So I knew I needed to get back into the creative mind; I needed to stop thinking about the competition and focus on how my version of the online tool will be useful for me and helpful to others. I briefly made this conclusion when I discovered NoteSake a few days ago, but discovering dozens of online task sites really tested my ability to switch modes of thinking.

My ideas for TaskZen were similar but not exactly identical to the other sites. Oddly enough, when I registered TaskZen I wrote the domain on the whiteboard in my apartment and circled it. Then I wrote down the very first idea for the site that came to mind. It was one word: "Simple". When I started consciously changing my thinking from competitive to creative, I realized that one word is what makes my idea unique. All the other task management sites are full of features which made using them slow down productivity, with some of them plain frustrating (like the Toodledo not having a delete option available by default).

While reading the word "Simple" on the whiteboard and making these realizations about competitive and creative mind states, another domain I had written on the board, CORBAWeb.com, gave me a perfect example of non-competitive thinking. I registered that domain to eventually replace Akmai.net as the publicly visible domain for my web hosting company.

It was a few weeks ago that I realized my web hosting company, Akmai.net Web Hosting, was slowly but steadily growing. I started the little web hosting business with absolutely no intention of making money. I knew the Internet contained literally tens of thousands of web hosting companies and competition for best pricing/features was through the roof. After concluding that I would always need hosting for my own domains, I quickly realized the huge number of options available to others looking for web hosting would cause those who knew me to ask for my recommendation. What better way than to be able to recommend something I manage myself? So in late 2005, with myself as it's only customer, the hosting company was started.

Today, with 15 paying customers and over 45 domains, Akmai.net rents a full dedicated server and has an 85% profit margin. Am I worried about the competition? No. Are there better priced web hosting options out there? Yes. So what makes my web hosting so special that people host with me? They know me. They know they can pick up the phone and call me if there is a problem. With so many options out there, what is the natural choice? To go with what you know and trust; to choose that which is closest to you. When someone asks my customers for their web hosting recommendation, which web hosting company do you think comes to their mind first?

The whole point of the creative mind is to forget about how "mine is better than his". There is no problem with looking at other businesses to gain ideas or learn how they solved certain issues, but its important to never think negatively about another persons' work; to never put down someone else because you think you can do it better. If you can do it better, it's because something less exists. Without many different task sites in existence, my idea wouldn't be unique.

When we are in the competitive mind we often forget those we are competing with are directly responsible for our success, and not realizing this greatly inhibits our quality of life. Selfishness is the opposite of gratitude and to be discouraged about doing something is to be selfish and therefore ungrateful. Gratitude is an important part of being creative. If you are not thankful for what you possess, and content with the knowledge you hold, you will always feel incomplete and the creative energy will not flow. We all have a desire to be successful. Creativity leads to success. Discouragement leads to failure.

Atrophy

I wish I was sweating, thighs aching, looking up a trail not knowing how much further I have to climb. Rationing my water for fear of not having enough for the way back down, while worrying about, with every step, spraining my ankle.

Instead, I'm sitting slouched in a chair in a room without windows, breathing stale used air and staring at a radiation emitting screen, feeling my leg muscles slowly atrophy.

I may as well be sitting in a wheelchair, watching TV, waiting for death.

phpBB photo-captcha image loading issues

A friend was having trouble with the photo-captcha mod he installed in phpBB. The photo-captcha mod basically presents users with a group of images and asks them to choose all images that fit a certain category (i.e., choose all cars). After installing the mod however (and fixing a couple of silly mistakes), only half of the images would show up. And it wasn't the same images not showing up, it was entirely random.

As is usually the case with debugging, I looked for a working example with which I could compare the non-working one. When I found a working photo-captcha mod, I noticed the images loaded more slowly and consistently than on the non-working example. It was as if the non-working example was on crack, while the working example was practicing yoga.

I compared HTTP headers, checked cache settings, and everything else I could think of, but nothing looked out of the ordinary. So I decided to try something. Why not force the mod to pause between loading each image?

So I opened /forum/includes/usercp_confirm.php and modified it:

$image = $sub;
@imagegammacorrect($image, 1.0, (0.5 + mt_rand(0,1200)*0.001));

header('Content-Type: image/jpg');
header('Cache-control: no-cache, no-store');
@imagepng($image);
// -------- EDIT BY RAAM --------
sleep(1);
// -------- END EDIT ---------
exit;

And it worked! The code paused for 1 second between loading each image and all the images loaded properly. I have no idea what caused this problem but if you know please leave a comment! And if you're having this same issue, at least now you have a solution. 🙂

Mount Osceola

Mount Osceola (4,340'), named after an Indian war chief of the Seminole Indians in Florida (misappropriation of Native American names was not unusual in the 19th Century), was an excellent half-day hike. The Mount Osceola Trail branches off the Greely Ponds Trail and is accessible from the Greely Ponds trailhead.

The trail quickly started its ascent, becoming quite steep at times, with the East peak looming overhead. When I did finally reach the East peak at 4,156', the in-your-face panoramic view was both incredible and dizzying. The East peak view point is extremely steep; a huge jagged clump of rocks angled in such a way they seemed to shout "don't trip here, or it will be a painful slide down!". Upper Greely pond is also visible from here and having visited it only an hour earlier made me appreciate the distance that much more.

After another short burst of unforgiving, steep trail, I reached the summit-with-views. I call it that because the true summit, which can be seen from here and is a relatively short and easy hike, has very limited panoramic views.

I didn't stay at the summit long and decided to take a break at the summit-with-views instead. Amazingly, the Northwest side of Mount Washington, the highest peak in the American Northeast, can just barely be seen from here (center of picture, behind the foreground peak, just barely visible).

Also visible from here, and probably more incredible for me, is Mount Hancock, which I climbed the previous day. It has a distinguishable “V” rock slide, which can be seen in several of the pictures I took from Mount Osceola. The V can be seen in the center of this picture and here is a closeup of the rock slide I took the previous day.

Date of Hike
2007/09/03

Hiking Time
Parking Lot to East peak: 50 minutes
East peak to Summit: 30 minutes
Total Time: 2 hours 40 minutes
Book Time: 4 hours

Hiking Distance
Round Trip: 5.6 miles

Total Climb
2,250'

More deadlines

I had another feature on Aerva's Support Center that I was supposed to finish by 09/14 (Friday). I spent Saturday and part of Sunday working on it but now it's Tuesday and it's still not finished. It is taking me a lot longer than I expected, but progress is moving along. I was up until 3am last night working on it because I could feel I was "in the zone" and making a lot of progress. However, there comes a point where your physical fatigue catches up with your brain and prevents you from even thinking clearly, so I went to sleep.

Passing deadlines and then constantly thinking about how you're going to finish the task creates quite a mental block. I need to get the stage where I can accurately estimate the time needed to finish a particular task and then meet that deadline. The feature I'm working on will be finished by this evening. I'll post the remaining hike (Mount Osceola) from Labor Day weekend tonight to prove I have finished the feature. 🙂

Upper Greely Pond

This hike was part of the three days of hiking I completed this past Labor Day weekend. I wasn't actually planning to visit Greely Pond. In fact, I was on the trail to hike Mount Osceola (I'll post that next). However it was only a short, 0.3 mile detour to Upper Greely Pond, so I decided to go for it.

The trail leading to Upper Greely Pond was simple enough, though it did require walking over log bridges and crossing streams along the way. Mount Osceola's East peak soars above the pond and is where I was headed next.

The two ponds, Upper and Lower Greely Pond (I only visited the Upper pond) are nestled inside Mad River Notch. The Greely Pond Trail actually leads all the way across to Waterville Valley, about 3 miles away.

NoteSake.com beat me to the punchline

For the past two years or so, I've been slowly working on a website called SaveNotes.com. However, while reading LifeHacker I came across a site called NoteSake.com. Apparently, they beat me to the punchline.

Their site looks great and has very similar features as what I had planned for SaveNotes.com. There are a couple of things I planned on doing differently, such as the ability to quickly create a note without logging in or authenticating yourself, but there were a lot of things I hadn't even thought of, such as the ability to export notes as a PDF or share notes with other NoteSake users.

I tried creating an account on NoteSake.com to try out the features, however I'm still waiting for the email that contains the confirmation URL (which is another reason I disliked the idea of requiring an account).

Perhaps I will continue to develop SaveNotes.com simply because it would be a tool I would find very useful. Besides, NoteSake.com doesn't really have any competition. Yet. 🙂

Mount Hancock (North and South Peaks)

Mount Hancock (4,420') was once one of the most inaccessible mountains in the White Mountains. It was remote, void of any trails, and was devastated by logging. It's now full of life and is one incredible hike! I hiked this mountain as part of my Labor Day hiking marathon. The trail head is located off the Kancamangus Highway, just past the Greely Ponds trail, labeled the Hancock Notch Trail.

The first part of the hike, crossing mostly flat ground, was as easy as the hike up the North peak was difficult. The sound of cars along the Kancamangus Highway disappeared more quickly than I imagined they would. After 1.7 miles, I reached the trail junction of the Hancock Notch Trail and the Cedar Brook Trail. From there I traveled along the Cedar Brook Trail for 0.7 miles over slightly more rugged terrain to the junction where the Hancock Loop Trail branches off to the right. Another 1.1 miles and I reached the Hancock Loop Junction. From here on, the trails were nothing short of difficult. Just before reaching the loop junction, I passed a group of hikers on their way back who told me I should take the North peak up and the South peak down, because the rock was a lot more loose on the South peak. I had planned to take the North peak anyway, but it was nice to know a group of people survived the same route I planned on taking.

As I headed towards the North peak, I noticed in the distance a huge rock slide in the shape of a V on the mountain in front of me. I later learned (on my hike up Mount Osceola) that this was a distinguishable feature of Mount Hancock that made it easy to identify from a distance. In the back of my mind, I hoped that wasn't the trail up the mountain.

After crossing a dry river bed, the trail became more and more difficult. The most difficult and steep part was a 1/2 mile section of the hike which climbs over 1,000 ft in elevation. There are several sections of the trail that have enough trees cut to give you a taste of the view at the top. And the view at the top of North peak was incredible. Mount Osceola and Carrigain are clearly visible from here. I didn't know it at the time, but I would be climbing Mount Osceola the following day!

After a short 20 minute break, I traveled across the mountain to the South peak (4,274'), 1.4 miles away, over very easy ground (a relief after hiking North peak!). It was quite amazing how clean and untouched everything was along the trail at the top of the mountain -- it was almost fairy-tale like. When I arrived at South peak, there were nice views to the East and North, though nothing quite as panoramic as the outlook on North peak. As I descended back down to the loop junction, I could see the side of Hancock I climbed earlier, as well as the distinguishable "V" rock slide. Maybe it was just my imagination, but the decent down South peak seemed very short and not nearly as difficult as ascent up North peak. From here, I hiked back to the parking lot the way I came.

Date of Hike
2007/09/02

Hiking Time (including breaks)
Parking Lot to North peak: 2 hours
North peak to South peak: 40 minutes
South peak to Parking Lot: 1 hour 40 minutes

Hiking Distance
Round Trip: 9.4 miles

Deadlines

Sorry for the very slow updates. I've had several deadlines at work that I've been struggling to meet and I simply haven't had time to post anything. I spent this weekend working on my laptop in a coffee shops or cafes from 8am - 6pm while the weather outside was awesome. I wanted to drive up North on Saturday just to go for a hike, but that didn't happen.

Also, I still need to post the two remaining hikes I did over Labor Day weekend. I'll post those within the next 24 hours, so watch for them!

Little Haystack via Falling Waters Trail

Little Haystack (4,840') is a part of the Franconia Range in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. I hiked to this peak with my sister Meera and my brother-in-law Thea.

We started the hike from the Old Bridle Path parking lot, which is located off I-93N. The exit is marked "Trail Head - Old Bridle Path". From there, we took the Falling Waters Trail to the peak of Little Haystack. The trail varied between being easy and difficult and we passed several waterfalls along the way. I was disgusted by how inconsiderate some people are, leaving a bag of trash under a rock along the trail. I later regretted not taking the bag back to the parking lot with me when I realized I could have done something to help protect the environment.

Since I am someone who is often bothered by the knowledge of germs, I was taken aback when I noticed how every tree that was positioned in the right place to assist people along the trail, was soaked with oil from the many hands that had come in contact with it. I avoided these trees at all cost for the rest of the hike, as well as on my other hikes.

Trail Map

When we arrived at the top of Little Haystack, above the alpine zone and above the tree line, the temperature dropped dramatically. It was about 85 degrees when we started the hike and at the top, with the fierce wind, it was around 30 degrees! Everyone was wearing winter hats and winter clothes. I was freezing, but I was happy I remembered to bring a sweatshirt! The other two peaks, Mount Lincoln and Mount Lafayette, are both visible from the top of Little Haystack. You could even see the parking lot where we started. Due to the cold weather, we decided not to hike any further and went back down the Falling Waters Trail the way we came.

Date of Hike
2007/09/01

Hiking Time (including breaks)
Ascend time: 2.5 hours
Descend time: 1.5 hours

Hiking Distance
Round Trip: 7 miles

Comcast is forging your data!

So apparently, not only is Comcast throttling BitTorrent traffic (as I proved with a little experiment a few weeks back), but they are forging your traffic to do it! They actually modify your individual TCP packets as they travel between your computer and their intended destination. This is the same technique China uses for the Great Firewall of China to prevent citizens from accessing certain material on the Internet deemed "sensitive".

As Slashdot seems to always have the most informative and well educated commenter's, I will post what HiThere wrote with regards to the legal implications this may have for Comcast:

If the ISPs filter based on torrent source, then they cease to be common carriers, and lose common carrier protection. Then they immediately become liable for every case of copyright infringement that they are accessory to.

I don't think they'd like that choice.

If they are common carriers, then they are supposed to be indifferent to WHAT they are carrying, like the mail or the phones. If an extortion threat is transmitted by mail, you can't sue the post office. Not just because it's acting as an agent of the govt, but because it's a common carrier. (UPS is just as protected.) They aren't supposed to know or care what they're carrying. If they did, and demonstrated the capability of filtering it by filtering some of it, then they would lose their common carrier status, and become liable as accessories to extortion, e.g.

OTOH, I don't want them pretending to be me. Not at all. That should be grounds for a suit. It should also be grounds for criminal prosecution not only of those who implemented it, but of all of their supervisors, managers, etc. also. Including the boards of directors. It shouldn't have a particular onerous penalty...say 10 days for each separate offense. Cumulative. I'll be generous, and say 1 day per instance. I.e., 1 day per false packet.

Seriously, if you have a choice, please consider switching to another ISP!

Update: Since I'm going to continue following news related to this topic, I will post relevant news articles I come across below.

Comcast is also Jamming Gnutella (and Lotus Notes?)

Forged reset packets are normally the kind of thing that would only be present if a hacker was attacking your computer, but in this case, it's the ISP you pay money to each month that is sending them.

Comcast filtering Lotus Notes (Update)

I finally have an end-to-end trace to share which shows that Comcast is filtering the port 1352 traffic. The images below show that Comcast is impersonating and using man-in-the-middle tactics to filter the traffic as stated in the CNet post.

Not only is Comcast filtering P2P traffic, it's also toying with other traffic! What a surprise!

Comcast Cheating On Bandwidth Testing?

Upon further investigation, it appears that Comcast is delivering this bandwidth only for a few seconds after any new request and it is immediately throttled down. Doing a download and upload test using a significantly large file (100+ MB) yields results more in line with everyday usage experience, usually about 1.2 Mbps down and about 250 Kbps up (but it varies).

The comments on this Slashdot article are really great. Lots of people offer explanations as to what Comcast is doing.

Comcast gets US FCC notice on Web traffic blocking

Comcast, the largest U.S. cable television operator and the second largest high speed Internet provider with more than 11 million subscribers, has repeatedly refuted allegations it blocks certain Internet traffic or applications.

The company said it used bandwidth technology on its network that can slow the delivery of files, but it would not block them outright.

BitTorrent Plugin Detects ISPs Raping Your Torrents

A plugin for Azureus allows you to voluntarily submit reports of possible sabotage by your ISP.

Comcast Makes Nice with BitTorrent

BitTorrent, Inc. maybe. The BitTorrent protocol? I doubt it.

Labor Day Weekend

I had a good Labor Day Weekend. I went up North to the White Mountains with the intention of camping and just relaxing. I ended up hiking three mountains and making myself as physically exhausted as I've ever been. It was incredible. I had never hiked to the summit of any mountain in NH until this weekend (the only other summit I have reached was in Utah, Frary Peak on Antelope Island (6,596')).

My sister Meera, and my brother-in-law Thea, drove North on Saturday morning to hike the Falling Waters Trail in Franconia Notch with me, which Thea and his friends had started, but not finished, a few weeks earlier. The trail leads up and crosses two peaks above the alpine zone before finally reaching the summit of Mt. Lafayette (5,260'). We only got as high as the first peak, Little Haystack (4,760'). Meera and Thea returned home, but I was already feeling a calling to go back to the mountains.

On Sunday I decided to hike another trail, this time along the Kancamangus Highway. I bought a small book of 200 hiking trails in the White Mountains at a local shop. After glancing at a few trails I decided to hike to Mt. Hancock's North (4,400') and South (4,274') Peaks. This hike was definitely a step up from the hike to Little Haystack. I don't like taking my time and enjoying the sights; I like to make it physical. I walked as fast as I could and kept my pace as steady as possible. My heart rate must have stayed at 120+ BPM the whole time. I was sweating non-stop for over 6 hours. My feet were so incredibly sore by the time I got back down that I could barely feel them touching the ground. I loved it and I was hooked. That night, I fell asleep at 8pm.

On Monday (Labor Day), I woke up at 7am and decided to ignore the pain and fatigue I was feeling and hike another mountain. From the trail book I choose Mt. Osceola (4,340'). The book only talked about the East Peak of Mt. Osceola (4,156') but I told myself I would push the extra 1.5 miles and go all the way to the top. This time, I made sure I packed enough water, and enough food. Hiking at such a fast pace burns an enormous amount of calories. I had about 800 calories for breakfast and 1 hour into the hike I was already hungry. Even though I consumed over 4,500 calories that day, I was probably still running a deficit. If anything, the hike to the top of Mt. Osceloa was more a test of my metal endurance than my physical endurance. This hike had the most dangerous, and challenging, climbs of all three mountains. There were a couple of places where if I slipped, I would plunge a few hundred feet to the rocks below. Definitely not for those afraid of heights!

I took plenty of pictures and I'm sure you'd like to see them, but you'll have to be patient. I've decided that I will post a new post each day for the rest of this week detailing each of the hikes. I took close to 200 pictures total and since I can see hiking becoming a big part of what I do in my free time, I'd really like to document each hike as best I can.

On Sunday morning, before my hike up Mt. Hancock, I passed a truck with a giant 350LB black bear in the bed. I stopped and talked to the people around the truck and they said they killed him last night, in Bethlehem, NH, which is only a few minutes away from were I was camping. What a waste of a beautiful animal.

Another major thing that happened early this past weekend was my firm decision about what I'm going to do with my properties. I've decided I will get rid of all of my properties, even if that means going bankrupt. I simply feel the time and energy I will spend maintaining even one property is not worth it. I would much rather have the freedom and clarity of mind that goes with knowing I don't owe hundreds of thousands of dollars on a property while still being responsible for maintaining it. Owning a property will greatly restrict my options for travel and the financial freedom to do what I want with my life. Even if it means going bankrupt, I believe I'm making the right decision. At least I'll have a clean slate to start with (excluding the fact that my credit will be screwed for the next 7 years due to the bankruptcy).

I'm glad I made this decision early in the week because the experiences I had during each of the hikes seemed to reaffirmed my decision. I'll be listing all three of my properties with a Realtor later this week for a price lower than what I owe the banks. When I have a buyer, I'll submit the offer to the bank and if they reject it, or if they accept it with the stipulation that I will still owe them the remainder, then I will tell them to foreclose on the properties and then I'll file for bankruptcy. Hopefully the banks will work with me and I won't have to go the bankruptcy route.

Making more than 50,000 percent profit from JUNK

A few weeks ago on Tuesday, the day before trash day, I saw someone put a black reclining chair outside next to the trash barrels. The chair was fully functional, but it had a tear on the front of the cushion (which by the way, was also removable). Even though I already had a bigger, more comfortable couch-like-chair in my apartment (the previous tenants were going to throw it out, so I asked them to leave it), I decided to bring this reclining chair inside.

A few weeks went by and I realized that not only don't I lounge around, but also that it simply takes up too much space -- it was getting in the way of my morning stretching routine. So I told myself I would put it back outside with the trash. But trash day came and I forgot to put it outside. Then I thought, "Hey, CraigsList doesn't cost anything. Why not list it there and see if, by some chance, I can actually make money from this.". So I listed the chair on CraigsList this past Wednesday. The following day I received this email:

Hi Raam,
I would like to have the chair please , if it is still available? Is it very heavy?What is your adress? just wanted to see if its walkable with the chair...
Thanx so much
cheers
Atreyee

I replied, and after going back and forth a bunch of times, we settled on $7. The extra $2 is for me dropping the chair off at his house, which just so happens to be even closer than my office.

I picked up the chair from the trash. To figure out how much profit I made by selling the chair, there needs to be a cost associated with it. Lets assume the chair somehow cost me $0.01. I sold it for $5 (which is 500 pennies), so I basically made 50,000% profit. Calculate in the extra $2, and its even more than 50,000%!

If you're wondering how I did the math, here it is: 500/1*100 = 50,000% (Five hundred pennies, divided by one penny, multiplied by one hundred, equals fifty thousand).

What should I do?

I haven't explained what's been happening with my properties over the past few months, mostly because I haven't been sure of what I wanted to say about them. A few months ago I listed two of my properties (Ware St and Bowers St) on CraigsList for $315k and I have been dropping the price ever since (as far down as $289k). A few nibbles, but no bites.

The past few months it has come to the point where I simply haven't been able to afford them. I transitioned from a consultant to an employee at Aerva in July, which meant I now receive $800 less every month due to taxes. The two properties have an adjustable, sub-prime, rate, and one of them recently adjusted -- the new payment is $500 more per month. So a few months ago, I stopped paying the mortgages on two of my properties. I told myself, "What was the worst that could happen? The banks foreclose on the houses and my credit is hurt." But my credit is already screwed (under 550 credit score due to a couple of late house and credit card payments) so I'm not too concerned about that. The problem is if the banks foreclose on the houses, they may still try to come after me for the money I owed, upwards of $600k between the two mortgages. This debt would most likely haunt me forever, even 10 - 15 years down the road.

I already submitted my financial statement and a forbearance letter to one of the banks a few weeks ago. They called me Thursday evening and told me they can't do anything about my monthly payment and that my best solution is to try and sell the house, even if I have to sell it for less than what I owe. This is known as a Discounted Payoff, which means the bank may accept a sale of the house, including closing costs, and forgive the rest of what I owe. This would be great because I would get rid of the houses and not have to worry about any debt associated with the properties. The standard procedure all of the banks follow is that I need to find a buyer, and fax the mortgage company a buyer pre-qualification letter, along with a HUD 1 or Net Sheet (which shows where all the money is going), and the Purchase and Sale agreement. The bank will review the information and decide whether or not to accept the sale.

So that's what I'm going to do with Ware St and Bowers St. Next week I will list them with Paul Brouillette from Century 21 for whatever price he says will make the property sell fast, which will no doubt be much less than what I owe (probably $20-$30k less). He is the one I originally bought the properties through a few years ago and I have developed a good relationship with him. Listing the houses with Paul means he will do all the work, but he will also get his $20k commission, hopefully paid by the bank. If the banks don't accept any offers that come through, they will have no choice but to foreclose on the properties. And if they foreclose and tell me I still owe them lots of money, I will have no choice but to file for bankruptcy.

So by now you might be wondering what I'm referring to by asking "What should I do?". If you've been following, you probably noticed I've only been talking about two of my three properties. The third property is the first property I purchased, Cumberland Rd, in 2003 for $213k. As much as I hate to admit it, I do have an emotional attachment to the property. I lived in the renovated studio apartment of this property for several years, built my first 16'x12' shed in the back yard, I spent countless weeks carrying out dirt from the basement to increase the height of the basement, and then many more weeks pouring concrete forms. I've put a lot of thought and planning into what can be done to make the property better and it's definitely the nicest of my three properties. But, I also owe $352,000 on the property (refinanced many times to pay for purchasing the other investment properties and for upgrades in the property). Luckily I have a fixed rate that will never go higher than 6% for the life of the loan, which means my monthly payment, barring any major increases in taxes or insurance, won't be higher than $2,700 a month. I currently have three units which can be rented, and if the basement is finished and rented I can be bringing in about $3,000 a month. Of course, I still have to deal with everything involved in owning a rental property, the very thing I'm trying to remove from my life by getting rid of my other two properties.

So the question is, what should I do? Should I get rid of Cumberland Rd as well? It's nice to have a fixed rate, but who cares about the fixed rate when I still have to worry about vacancies, property maintenance, collecting rent, and all the other responsibilities attached to owning a multi-family rental property? I will continue to dread every phone call I receive, fearing it's a property disaster. However getting rid of Cumberland Rd means I'll have to hope for a similar discounted payoff being accepted by the bank. I owe $352k on the property and in this market, I doubt the property would sell for more than $270k, an $80k difference. Will the bank simply forgive $80k? Unlikely. This means getting rid of Cumberland Rd increases the likelihood of me needing to file for bankruptcy. However there is one upside to bankruptcy: all of my credit card debt ($27k) would be wiped away.

If I could see the real estate market making a sharp upturn sometime over the next few years, I could understand why keeping Cumberland Rd makes sense. But I don't see that happening and honestly, I don't want to live the next five years of my life knowing I have a $350k piece of debt, which requires constant maintenance, riding on my shoulders. I would rather wipe the slate clean and start fresh.

As you can see, my mind is already more or less made up. This weekend I'm going camping and on the 2 1/2 hour ride up North, I plan to spend lots of time thinking about this decision. I suppose I just need to convince myself that it's the right move. Its a big decision and a major turning point for my financial life.

What do you think? What would you do in my situation?

Technical Support Patience

Why do people send a support email asking a question and then 10 minutes later call, using a telephone, to ask the same question? I can understand if the question was urgent or if the email was not responded to for a few hours, but 10 minutes?

Your question won't get answered any quicker by submitting it many times using different methods. If anything, it will slow down the process as it will become necessary to check every message to insure the question has not changed, and that you haven't submitted any additional information.