It has to be Microsoft! It’s always Microsoft. I’ve been thru this drill before. I did an XP repair ng. It just doesn’t see the WAP. Maybe I’ll try an UBUNTU LIVE CD and see if it SEES the wap. In trying stuff, without touching ANY hardware, I triggered Microsoft’s Activation. I knew I didn’t like it when I heard it. I really suspect some Microsoft Update crap. Can’t prove it but I’m suspicious. Maybe I need to say good bye to Microsoft once and for all. Then, one have to decide if it’s Linux, the Web, or something else.
TECH: HOMEDESK is still in trouble. Can’t get it to recognize the WAP.
Wednesday, August 9, 2006
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Posted by reinkefj
TECH: “CARDSCAN” aka Rubbermaid has “new” stuff coming. (Hmmm?)
Wednesday, August 9, 2006Dear F,
It seems that the good news about CardScan just won’t stop. And neither will my pleasure in sharing that good news first with our most loyal customers. This time, I am eager to tell you about the latest developments in CardScan technology – the new CardScan Version 8 products.
New scanners, even more effective software, and a totally new product, aptly named “Team”.
I think you’ll be astonished at just how different the new Version 8 scanners are from the ones you know now. They’re sleeker and altogether impressive. But your real delight will come when you experience improvements to our software, like the new navigation bar, the new export template for Apple iPod, better-than-ever drag-and-drop and de-duplication features, and many enhancements requested by our users. And I think you’ll find “Team” a terrific addition to our line – and one that will help your team do its work better, faster and more effectively.
Watch for our special “current customers only” advance notice.
In the next week or so, you’ll be receiving a special email offer from us. In it, you’ll get your first glimpse of the new CardScan Version 8 products – and a special, limited time offer to save when you upgrade to Version 8. I hope you’ll be as excited about the new products as we are and that you’ll take advantage of the offer. And, as always, if you have comments or suggestions about CardScan, feel free to contact me directly at pweyman@cardscan.com.
Sincerely,
Peter Weyman
President
CardScan, Inc.
Please do not reply to this email. The mailbox is not attended. To reach me, please send an email to pweyman@cardscan.com.
CardScan, Inc. 25 First Street Suite 107 Cambridge, MA 02141
This email is sent only to CardScan owners. If you do not wish to receive these emails in the future, please unsubscribe. For Sales or Customer Service, please call 1-800-942-6739 or for Tech Support 1-866-900-6902.
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Posted by reinkefj
TECH: “MOZY” got itself kicked to the curb for bad behavior
Wednesday, August 9, 2006MOZY was in the running to displace the XDRIVE now from AOL. I don’t like to reward bad behavior so I have been entertaining replacements for AOL’s XDRIVE. And, MOZY was certainly in the running.
HOWEVER, today it took itself out of the running.
It did an upgrade on itself and, when I didn’t allow it to restart the platform, (thanks MSFT for a crappy architecture), it seized 98% of the box and wouldn’t let go. Eventually I had to restart costing me a30 minutes of my life, what I was doing at the time, and loss of position (i.e. all the balls I was juggling dropped).
So in recognition of the PPP, I uninstalled it. Arghh!
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Posted by reinkefj
TECH: MICROSOFT activation … one more reason why I’m going to Linux
Tuesday, August 8, 2006My old desktop has always been balky with the wireless networking. I stop and start the zero wireless configuration or restart the wap and it usually works. This time it’s not. AND, somehow — by doing nothing — I have triggered the dreaded Microsoft activation! Arghh. I can’t activate cause I can’t get the wireless working. I gave up my dial up inet account besides the phone line in the room ain’t working either. (I’m a mess!)
SO I may be going to linux sooner rather than later!
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Posted by reinkefj
TECH: Yahoo adds a search control
Tuesday, August 8, 2006Offer specific searches on your web site. (This wasn’t what I thought when I read their write up?) But, I did one for Jasper Jottings and it seems to work. Now what’s the difference between this and site:www.jasperjottings.com I don’t know. Aggh, so much to learn and grok!
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Posted by reinkefj
TECH: “LINKEDIN” … a good tool … but there are some process issues
Tuesday, August 8, 2006Imagine my chagrin when I thought that I nailed a bug in LinkedIn, but was wrong!
My vampire process detected a “silent” change. Someone had shifted up a position. Immediately I was on the hunt for the “missing” record. I visually compared my two lists. And found the “lost” one.
Ahh hah! I had proof of them losing a contact’s record. I complained to LinkedIn support, and notified my counterpart.
A return email from the contact, told me he had nuked me to “eliminate my messages to him”.
How embarrassing!
Now, if he had been amenable to some question, the I would have like to ask him:
(a) What do you expect to get out of LinkedIn if you don’t want to have a conversation?
(b) How does nuking it prevent me from emailing you? Not like I am going to forget your email address. IF you had responded “buzz off”, I certainly would have honored your request. If I wasn’t on top of my game, you’d still be getting my email.
(c) I sent you exactly one personally addressed individual message. Politely, offering some ideas and extending an invite to engage in a networking conversation. And that is “too much” email. What are your expectation in networking?
Now, I am still undecided as to the value of LinkedIn. All though I did sign up for an upgraded plan, it has yet to show benefits. But, I’m hard headed enough to keep trying. I know those benefits are in there somewhere.
I did take away some lessons.
Lesson #1: Investigate the entire list to confirm that there is more than one defect. If I had done that, I’d have been more suspicious if I found every thing else was right. I jumped to a conclusion.
Lesson #2: Try to extract what people’s expectations are up front. Perhaps this fellow thinks that LinkedIn is like the yellow pages.
Lesson #3: LinkedIn’s removal process is flawed. (a) It’s a manual request. (b) It’s “silent”. They mess with my data and I don’t know about it. (c) They have a bug since it didn’t take it out of the search result set that showed him still in my contacts.
Hmmm, jury’s still out.
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Posted by reinkefj
TECH: Running a batch file … one of 72 commands … one in the middle did NOT execute?
Monday, August 7, 2006Strange!?! If I wasn’t watch it fail I’d not have believed it. The ones if front and in back all fired. Rerunning the batch job worked perfectly. Hmm. Ghost of Bill Gates!
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Posted by reinkefj
TECH: One of my website “goes bad”
Monday, August 7, 2006http://home.comcast.net/%7Ev2y2r0n27rhj6y/TURKEY/index.htm
It displays correctly in IE, but not in Firefox or Opera. It used to?
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Posted by reinkefj
TURKEY: Digital Dirt … be careful what you post … someone will read it
Monday, August 7, 2006I had an interesting experience. In doing my alumni searches, I found a blog that was from an incoming student. They were ranting about something or other. Since I know a lot of people at the place, I offered to help. The person was mortified at what they had written. I told them it was no big deal but I’m not sure they believed me.
Lesson Learnd: Be careful what you post. Some will read it.
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Posted by reinkefj
RANT: The “lottery” … a tax on the poor … another gubamint crime
Sunday, August 6, 2006http://www.acton.org/ppolicy/comment/article.php?id=185
Perpetuating Poverty: Lotteries Prey on the Poor
by Jordan Ballor, Associate Editor
**Begin Quote***
A recently released Gallup survey confirms the fears of many who oppose government-promoted gambling: the poorest among us are contributing much more to lottery revenues than those with higher incomes. The poll found that people who played the lottery with an income of less than $20,000 annually spent an average of $46 per month on lottery tickets. That comes out to more than $550 per year and it is nearly double the amount spent in any other income bracket.
The significance of this is magnified when we look deeper into the figures. Those with annual incomes ranging from $30,000 to $50,000 had the second-highest average — $24 per month, or $288 per year. A person making $20,000 spends three times as much on lottery tickets on average than does someone making $30,000. And keep in mind that these numbers represent average spending. For every one or two people who spend just a few bucks a year on lotteries, others spend thousands.
All of this is taking place in a system of legalized gambling that is monopolized and promoted by those in political power. Where state governments are supposed to be looking after the welfare of their citizenry, the commonwealth of all the people, the establishment of a lottery has in fact betrayed the citizenry.
***End Quote***
Let’s trot out my three favorite arguments about gubamint programs: ethics, effectiveness, and efficiency.
(1) Ethically
For the government to literally rob the poorest segment of its people is immoral. For the socialists, who go by the label “liberal” today, but bear NO resemblance to the Classical Liberals of history who advocated liberty, where is their justification for it. For the socialists, who go by the label “conservative” today, but bear NO resemblance to the Barry Goldwater / Ronald Regan small government low taxes conservatives, where is their justification for it. Now while the Lottery, and other State sponsored forms of government gambling, may not be a tax in the strict definition of the word. A tax is anything we pay the government that we can NOT avoid paying. You can avoid the lottery. But then the drug addict can avoid the pusher. The alcoholic can avoid the bar. The smoker can avoid the Tobacco Company. But, the State in this case is preying on the poor as surely as the Drug Pusher, the Bar Owner, and the Tobacco Company Executive. Even worse, by its vice laws, the State ensures that there is no competition to its robbery. Back in my younger days, when my in-laws played the numbers, the bookie would pay 750-1 on a straight three digit number bet. True odds were one in a thousand. The state lottery when it was introduced paid 500-1. It’s been reduced since to 250-1. And there was a huge crackdown on the numbers runners to “protect the people from Organized Crime”. No mention of protecting a very lucrative State fund raiser. But the lottery was for education. Except later we found out that it was very expensive to run the lottery and there were lots of things that were considered “education” like guards for road trash gangs. What a joke! I’d judge it as “unethical”; wouldn’t you?
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(2) Effectively
OK, ethics aside, how effective is the lottery? The stated objectives of the lottery, that I remember, were (a) to raise funds for education; and (b) eliminate organized crime. Now days, there is no mention of the reasons why we have such a “near tax”. If the objective was to raise money for state gubamint, then it’s a rousing success. “.. the gross sales for the Lottery’s first full year, Fiscal 1972, were over $137 million. The Lottery’s phenomenal growth and popularity were reflected in gross sales of some $1.2 billion only 21 years later in Fiscal 1991.” Consider that most of that comes DIRECTLY from poor people, it’s a stunning “user fee”. As far as I know, schools are still rotten and funded mostly with absurdly high property taxes. Organized Crime move into drugs. So it took them from a relatively peaceful activities to a very corrosive one. I’d judge it as “ineffective”; woudln’t you?
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(3) Efficiently
OK, ethics aside, effectiveness aside, how efficient is the lottery? From the players perspective not very. A roulette game pays 35-1 for a one in thirty eight shot. That’s about a 97% return. Using the Pick3 as a proxy, it is the best case, it pays 275-1 for a one in a thousand shot. That’s about a 72% return. Hmmm? AND, if there is a disaster, like that train wreck over the hackensack river bridge, where there is a number picture on the newspaper’s front page, they suspend play on that number. It’s amazing how many of those hit “breaking” the bank. So any time a sucker might actually win, then they change the rules. All legal of course. I’d judge it as “inefficient” from the player’s perspective; woudln’t you?
You can’t judge the “efficiency” from the gubamint’s perspective because not only does it bring lots of money in for pork projects. It also provides jobs for hacks, post-gubamint hiding places for politicians at obscene salaries. It gives contracts to the friends of gubamint. So, it’s a winner from the gubamint’s perspective.
=
So I’d say that about wraps it up. The gubamint needs to get out of the “lottery” business! IMHO
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Posted by reinkefj
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