File under “dumb useless error messages”
SERVICE: File under “dumb useless error messages”
Friday, April 13, 2012
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Posted by reinkefj
RANT: PAYTRUST has a cumbersome new account authorization process
Thursday, April 12, 2012Wanted to add a new checking account to PAYTRUST.
(PAYTRUST is a “recommended” pay-for service. Not cheap and very “risky”, but very valuable. But not without its warts, odors, and frustrations. Not the least of which is “support” tends to be “pig headed”. But if you’re persistent, you can break thru.)
So first you have to enter all the data. THEN, they tell you that you have to send a copy of your DL and a void check.
(1) WART: NJ’s DL is tough to copy. It’s pink lettering on a rose color background. I can barely read it. Had to play with the Office Jet’s settings to get something. I think it’s readable, wi’ll see what PAYTRUST thinks.
(2) ODOR: PAYTRUST should describe ALL the steps in getting a new account working.
(3) FRUSTRATING: Other than normal operations, “every thing else” seems like a pain in the <synonym for donkey>?
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Leave a Comment » | Ranting | Tagged: authorization, PAYTRUST | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj
INITIALISMS: AMTHOBAIYF
Thursday, April 12, 2012“And may the odds be always in your favor”
… from the Hunger Games.
Hopefully that’s not a prophetic movie.
Any time I thought about, the odds were NEVER in MY favor. Always the house!
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Posted by reinkefj
SERVICE: LEGACY improves
Wednesday, April 11, 2012*** begin quote ***
This Guest Book has been kept open until 4/16/2012 by Memorial Oaks Funeral Home. After that date, it will remain available for viewing-only, unless sponsored.
*** end quote ***
LEGACY, the obituary site, has new level of “service”.
Before, Guest books disappeared unless sponsored. Now there appears to be a third alternative — probably a deal struck with the funeral homes for free advertising — the guest book remains readable, but not updateable. Big win for LEGACY. Puts a LOT of pressure on folks to eternalize.
Hmmm?
All in all I think it is progress.
Which all “services” would improve their offerings! Are you listening PAYTRUST, YAHOO, MICROSOFT, 1AND1, Verizon, and AT&T? Just a quick top o’ the head list incomplete and in no particular order. Argh!
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Leave a Comment » | SERVICE | Tagged: 1AND1, AT&T, Guest Book, LEGACY, Microsoft, PAYTRUST, Verizon, Yahoo | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj
INITIALISMS: MTFBWY
Wednesday, April 11, 2012“May The Force Be With You”
Such an elementally simple concept. Hmm, isn’t the essence of humanity? All we have is OUR life force.
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Posted by reinkefj
POLITICAL: FACEBOOK picture makes me wonder.
Tuesday, April 10, 2012
I r an fat old white guy injineer. Did anyone else find the equation “fascinating” and “written wrong”? Subliminal message? Or a statement about “teachers”? P.S. IMHO teachers ARE “underpaid” because they are “on the dole”, currently “wards” of the Gooferment, inextricably tied to it, and are also slaves to their “union” who’s “in bed” with the Democratic Party “machine”. Not that anyone asked.
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Leave a Comment » | Political | Tagged: dole, teachers, teachers' unions | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj
INTERESTING: “How to Change Your Life”; always a good topic!
Tuesday, April 10, 2012ROI APRIL 4, 2012, 12:18 A.M. ET
How to Change Your Life
Arends: New research suggests the key to breaking a bad habit lies in identifying both its cue — and its reward.
By BRETT ARENDS
*** begin quote ***
The bottom line: We’re running on autopilot most of the time, and we don’t really know it. We are controlled to a remarkable degree by our habits, not just by our conscious choices.
“A habit is a choice that we deliberately make at some point, and then stop thinking about, but continue doing, often every day,” he writes.
Even people in crisis can use this knowledge to turn their lives around.
We can’t unlearn bad habits. The way to defeat them is to learn new, better ones.
*** and ***
1. Find the bad habit.
2. Find the reward.
First, experiment: Try out different alternative habits to see if you feel the same reward.
Second, after each experiment, try isolating by writing down the first three things that come to mind “emotions, random thoughts, reflections on how you’re feeling, or just the first three words that pop into your head.”
Third, after doing that, he waited for fifteen minutes. He set an alarm. When it went off, he asked himself: Do you still feel the urge … ?
3. Find the cue.
Where am I? What time is it? What’s my emotional state? Who else is around? And what action immediately preceded the urge?
*** end quote ***
I did some further poking.
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http://www.amazon.com/The-Power-Habit-Business-ebook/dp/B0055PGUYU/ref=reg_hu-rd_dp_img
PART ONE: THE HABITS OF INDIVIDUALS
1. The Habit Loop – How Habits Work
2. The Craving Brain – How to Create New Habits
3. The Golden Rule of Habit Change – Why Transformation Occurs
PART TWO – THE HABITS OF SUCCESSFUL ORGANIZATIONS
4. Keystone Habits, or The Ballad of Paul O’Neill – Which Habits Matter Most
5. Starbucks and the Habit of Success – When Willpower Becomes Automatic
6. The Power of a Crisis – How Leaders Create Habits Through Accident and Design
7. How Target Knows What You Want Before You Do – When Companies Predict (and manipulate) Habits
PART THREE – THE HABITS OF SOCIETIES
8. Saddleback Church and the Montgomery Bus Boycott – How Movements Happen
9. The Neurology of Free Will – Are We Responsible for Our Habits?
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I “amazon wish listed” it.
Noticed that the Kindle version is 12.89$. The exact same price as the hard cover. WTX?
I know from my lame self-publishing that 99% of the ebook price is profit. Why do I feel like I’m being gouged?
Strike One!
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The Pièce De Résistance (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pièce_de_résistance) was the following comment fragment:
http://www.amazon.com/The-Power-Habit-Business-ebook/dp/B0055PGUYU/ref=reg_hu-rd_dp_img
5.0 out of 5 stars
Curing Your Habits, March 19, 2012
By Ethan Jones
This review is from: The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business (Hardcover)
*** begin quote ***
My chief complaint is he doesn’t really show you how to break bad habits. For this you should consider Emotional Intelligence 2.0. That book was great for my self-control.
*** end quote ***
Strike Two!
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Jury’s still out.
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Leave a Comment » | INTERESTING | Tagged: alternative habits, bad habit, bad habits, breaking a bad habit, can't unlearn bad habits, cue, fifteen minutes, How to Change Your Life, isolating, its reward, reward, running on autopilot, writing down | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj
INTERESTING: Sixty Minutes’ Mike Wallace; was it propaganda?
Monday, April 9, 2012http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-18560_162-57411010/60-minutes-icon-mike-wallace-dies-at-93
April 8, 2012 11:12 AM
“60 Minutes” icon Mike Wallace dies at 93
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My Mom went to church every Sunday morning and watch Sixty Minutes every Sunday evening. I remember us debating about some of the content. I didn’t like some of the stories and, even at that young age, thought they were slanted. Little did I know how, why, or … anything.
When Walter Cronkite admitted that he had an agenda, the house of propaganda became obvious. My Mom never knew it. We were such fools in those days.
Argh!
So all the Sixty Minutes correspondents are suspect.
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Leave a Comment » | INTERESTING | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj
INTERESTING: Sneaky Computer Security Tips
Sunday, April 8, 2012(0) OBVIOUSLY use unique passwords in every instance. (Use LASTPASS, ROBOFORM, or KEYPASS to remember the UNIMPORTANT ones. Do you care if someone can “share” your PORN stash. (Like I’d EVER have porn. You can catch a case of the computer equivalent of a social disease — malware, virus, or data leak. I think the real kind MIGHT be easier to cure.)
(1) Never STORE financial passwords anywhere, but in your head. (And, in a sealed envelope, located in your bank safe deposit box, for your executor.) Never ever! (If you have more than 5 ± 2, you have too many accounts.) Sorry guys, I don’t even trust my most TRUSTED vendors. (Fact of life. Don’t trust. You won’t be disappointed.)
(2) If you do STORE a profile somewhere, ALWAYS use your real birthday ± 1. (It’ll be our little joke. Play along with all the FACEBOOK birthday wishes. Your real life fans will enjoy the joke. You DO have real life friends; don’t you? So sad if you don’t. You can link to me. I have very few — hi oldest, older, and just plain old!)
(3) If you do STORE — obviously not USE — a credit card number, ALWAYS do a typo with the “secret number” and add ± 1 to the last digit. (Then when someone has a security breech, they have your garbage.)
(4) If you do STORE an address for your self, put a typo somewhere so you know who to blame. (Personally I like middle name. “Hi, I’m F. 37 REINKE.”)
(5) If you can and it’s not needed for credit, add ± 1 to your SSN. (“Oh, sorry, I made an oopsie.”)
(6) ALWAYS mess with the secondary authentication questions. But do it in a consistent manner! (“Where were you born?” “Bayonne158” That’s Our Girl’s and her favorite number.) Caveat: Three sites — CAREMARK CVS, PAYTRUST, BOA — make you remember it from time to time. (If I forget, there is always “call one 800 outsourced service desk”. Reset them to colors. Then go in and immediately change them.) I always record my answers in LASTPASS ± 1. A great tool.
YMMV MTFBWY AMTHOBAIYF
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Leave a Comment » | INTERESTING | Tagged: AMTHOBAIYF, BOA, CAREMARK CVS, computer equivalent of a social disease, credit card number, FACEBOOK, financial passwords, KEYPASS, lastpass, MTFBWY, PAYTRUST, real birthday, real life friends, ROBOFORM, Secondary authentication questions, social disease's computer equivalent, SSN, unique passwords, YMMV | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj
POLITICAL: The battle between the administration and the judiciary
Monday, April 9, 2012http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504564_162-57408827-504564/appeals-court-fires-back-at-obamas-comments-on-health-care-case/
Crossroads
April 3, 2012 3:42 PM
Appeals court fires back at Obama’s comments on health care case
By Jan Crawford
Topics Supreme Court
Updated 6:55 p.m. ET
*** begin quote ***
(CBS News) In the escalating battle between the administration and the judiciary, a federal appeals court apparently is calling the president’s bluff — ordering the Justice Department to answer by Thursday whether the Obama Administration believes that the courts have the right to strike down a federal law, according to a lawyer who was in the courtroom.
The order, by a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit, appears to be in direct response to the president’s comments yesterday about the Supreme Court’s review of the health care law. Mr. Obama all but threw down the gauntlet with the justices, saying he was “confident” the Court would not “take what would be an unprecedented, extraordinary step of overturning a law that was passed by a strong majority of a democratically elected Congress.”
Overturning a law of course would not be unprecedented — since the Supreme Court since 1803 has asserted the power to strike down laws it interprets as unconstitutional. The three-judge appellate court appears to be asking the administration to admit that basic premise — despite the president’s remarks that implied the contrary. The panel ordered the Justice Department to submit a three-page, single-spaced letter by noon Thursday addressing whether the Executive Branch believes courts have such power, the lawyer said.
*** end quote ***
I think this is an epic struggle for the American Experiment.
I’m not sure that this is goign to end well.
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