SERVICE: Changes to protect your privacy!

Sunday, November 3, 2013

2013-Nov-03


We’ve made changes to your myuhc.com member website that help us further protect your privacy and security. They also make myuhc.com even more easy to use.

What to expect:

Login with higher security
We’ll ask you for new contact information. This improves site security if you forget your user ID or password or log in from a new computer that we don’t know. We have used the most current technology to make sure you are who you say you are.
Register quickly and easily with better privacy protection
We’ve made registration simpler and better, including new security questions to improve site privacy.
If you’ve already registered, you can visit the Account Settings section to change your security questions.
For more information, reference the flyer “New registration steps for myuhc.com.”

Visit myuhc.com today to update your contact information!

Tell us what you think of the enhanced security process by taking a brief survey.

Thank you for helping us keep your health care information safe.

You are receiving this email from UnitedHealthcare because you purchased a product/service from UnitedHealthcare and consented to receive important communications via email. To ensure that you continue to receive emails from us, add the email “from” address to your email address book or safe list.

Please do not reply to this email address, this mailbox is used for outbound email only. Do not include any personal health information as part of any email communication. We cannot guarantee the security of any communication transmitted via the Internet. If you have questions about your account, claims or benefits or would like additional information, please visit myuhc.com or call the toll-free number on the back of your health plan ID card.

To update your preferences for online Explanation of Benefits, Claim Letters or Health Statements to mail, please visit myuhc.com and click on Account settings.

Update your email address, change your member profile page or subscribe to other email publications.
Please note that by opting out of Legal/Regulatory emails, you will receive these notices via mail.

Your privacy is important to us. View our privacy policy.

This email was sent by: UnitedHealthcare, 9700 Health Care Lane, Minnetonka, MN 55343 USA
Insurance coverage provided by or through UnitedHealthcare Insurance Company or its affiliates. Administrative services provided by United HealthCare Services, Inc. or their affiliates.

© 2013 United HealthCare Services, Inc.

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Come on, guys, this is dumb. For one thing, two factor authentication is nice, but a giant pain. Why don’t I get a choice what risks I choose to take. Rather, you should spend your resources making a a better website, so that when I changed employers I didn’t have to create another User id because your systems couldn’t handle it. Or, perhaps, you might allow me to pick the longer passwords that are easily facilitated by LASTPASS. Some folks are further along the curve than you are. Oh, btw, the CHOMEBOOK and CHROME browser I use don’t remember cookies between restarts. So your new method ALWAYS makes it a “new computer”. But I don’t have worry about malware. I’d be amused if anyone responds to this. 

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Don’t you just love when they send from “unattended email” or “outbound only”?

Just call, hang on line, and we’ll maybe get around to you with a slew of dumb questions. 

And, oh by the way, we’re so big, you can just go somewhere else. (Like I have any choice about who my employer does business with!)

This is why “health”, “health care”, “health care insurance”, or something else should have NEVER been connected to employment.

Imagine if I changed jobs and lost my car insurance. My home insurance. My life insurance.

Crony capitalism at it best!

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HARDWARE: Changing my opinions …

Wednesday, October 30, 2013

This last upgrade to Mac OS X Mavericks appears to break stuff and change things.

Not for the better.

So, Apple has disappointed me. 

I now think they are in the same class as IOS7, Windoze, Linux, and Chromebook.

Each have their own advantages, disadvantages, and utility.

I really don’t know what I’m going to do.

Unfortunately, I just want to use the stuff to produce stuff. I don’t want to alpha test unless I volunteer.

Argh!

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OS: OSX MAVERICKS breaks BlueGriffon

Saturday, October 26, 2013

Trying to open a file causes BlueGriffon to crash. 

Workaround: Use FINDER to open the file with the “open with” option.

# – # – # – # – #  2013-Oct-26 @ 21:45  


HARDWARE: CFB on FOX on Channel 5 TV poor video quality

Saturday, October 26, 2013

CFB on FOX on Channel 5 TV

The picture quality “stinks”!

I see jitter and very poor video quality.

(Not that anyone cares!)

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HARDWARE: Crony Capitalist Microsoft subtly restrains trade

Saturday, October 19, 2013

http://www.tomshardware.com/news/nvidia-linux-basemosaic-ubuntu-parity,24519.html

Nvidia Removed Linux Driver Feature Due to Windows
By Kevin ParrishOCTOBER 3, 2013 1:28 PM – Source: Softpedia 
The reason seems a little contradictory.

*** begin quote ***

Softpedia points to a Nvidia Developer Zone forum post revealing that the company has removed a specific Linux feature as of the v310 drivers due to the Windows platform. A BaseMosaic user on Ubuntu 12.04 noticed a change in the number of displays that can be used simultaneously after upgrading from the v295 drivers to v310.

*** and ***

Yet in v295, the Ubuntu user was able to get four monitors up and running. So why was BaseMosaic altered to support only three monitors instead? Nvidia explains. “For feature parity between Windows and Linux we set BaseMosaic to 3 screens,” said “Sandpit” of Nvidia’s Linux team.

What’s interesting here is that Nvidia’s proprietary Windows driver has features not found in the Linux drivers, but the company will remove specific Linux-only features for “parity.” The comment indicates that the three-screen limit has nothing to do with a degradation of quality when using four screens, but a possible Microsoft request/demand.

Nvidia’s driver documentation states that BaseMosaic can be used to extend a single X screen transparently across all of the available display outputs on each GPU.

“This is like SLI Mosaic mode except that it does not require a video bridge connected to the graphics cards,” the notes read. “Due to this Base Mosaic does not guarantee there will be no tearing between the display boundaries. Base Mosaic is supported on all the configurations supported by SLI Mosaic Mode. It is also supported on Quadro FX 380, Quadro FX 580 and all G80 or higher non-mobile NVS cards.”

It will be interesting to see if Nvidia returns four-monitor support back to its Linux drivers, given that the reason for removing the feature seems a little contradictory.

*** end quote ***

Yeah, dumbing down the free market competitor is fair. But don’t do the something equivalent to the big guy.

Nvidia is taking a gamble.

Hope they pay for that decision.

Personally, I have placed them on my “Toshiba” list. Technology I will never buy. (Toshiba sold the US Navy sub quiet propeller design to Red China.) 

Like my “Jane Fonda” list, I have a very LONG memory.

Hope you all do too!

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SERVICE: CMT off the air

Sunday, October 6, 2013

I have a few guilty pleasures. 

One is I like Sunday morning country music while I catch up my paperwork.

Cox strikes again.

“Temporarily Off Air”!

Do I get a refund?

Argh!

It’s not worth calling or email.

The TV guide was off for 4 days.

No acknowledgment.

Argh!

No competition; so why should they care.

# – # – # – # – #  2013-Oct-06 @ 12:04  


HARDWARE: LIVESCRIBE (not recommended)

Friday, September 27, 2013

http://www.livescribe.com/en-us/

Bought one on a lark.

Some minor issues, but worked through them. 

Even liked it. 

Can think of some stuff that could be better.

BUT now I have come up with the KILLER negative.

I lost the darn thing.

OK. It’s a $200 gadget. But it was “useful”.

So I ask the question, “if I buy a new one, can I link it to my old stuff.”

Answer, <cue Jeopardy theme>, …

… NO!

Are u kidding me?

There’s an obvious “use” case!

Oh well, let me slap a big NOTRECOMMENDED on this one.

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HARDWARE: Misplaced my LIVESCRIBE pen!

Wednesday, September 11, 2013

All gadgets should have a find me feature.

Argh!

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HARDWARE: VERIZON FIOS reboot

Sunday, August 25, 2013

At 1215, the beast dropped power are rebooted.

Lost the inet for a minute, tv took much longer to recover.

# – # – # – # – #  2013-Aug-25 @ 12:20  


HARDWARE: Kindle Paperwhite

Saturday, August 17, 2013

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007OZNZG0/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B007OZNZG0&linkCode=as2&tag=reifaclif-20

Kindle Paperwhite
Wi-Fi, Paperwhite Display, Higher Resolution, Higher Contrast, Built-in Light

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OK, I relented and bought one. The IPADs, Mac reading app, and such are just too “heavy”.

I like it …

… BUT, (and there is always a BIG butt), …

It needs some UI (User Interface) help with respect to Library Books.

It’s a PIA to get stuff off the Kindle that has expired. 

It also doesn’t (easily if at all) differntiate between content I’ve borrowed and stuff I’ve bought.

Getting stuff emailed to it seems neat but width-wise doesn’t always fit.

More as I play with it.

“But choose wisely, for while the true Grail will bring you life, the false Grail will take it from you.” Grail Knight in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0097576/quotes

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HARDWARE: NEWTRENT POWERPAK+ NT135T

Saturday, July 6, 2013

http://www.amazon.com/New-Trent-Powerpak-NT135T-Incredible/dp/B009TCUPIC/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1372267456&sr=8-4&keywords=new+trent+power

New Trent PowerPak+, NT135T: (13500mAh) 2A/1A Dual USB Ports Portable Back Up External Battery Charger/Power Bank/Power Pack for Apple: iPad 4 / 3 / 2/ iPad mini, iPhone 5 / 4S / 4 /3GS, iPod Touch (all version); Samsung: Galaxy Note, S4 / S3 / S2, Galaxy Nexus ; Google: Nexus 10 / 7, HTC: ONE, One X, One S, Droid Incredible 4G; Nexus 4, LG: Optimus series; Blackberry: Z10, Torch, Tour; Motorola: Razr Maxx HD, Droid series; Nokia: Lumia 900 / 800 / 700, Sony: Xperia series, GoPro, and most 5V chargeable devices (Upgraded Version of the NT120T)
by New Trent

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It’s not intuitively obvious to use.

When it’s recharging something, it looks like nothing is happening.

You have to carry the original device cables with you.

It can only charge something that will take power from a USB. (No laptops!)

It doesn’t come with it’s own wall wart.

There are two usb output ports, but no external markings on which is the “bigger one” for IPADs and which is the “smaller one” for IPHONEs. (Would a colored dot add that much cost?)

As an OTTERBOX fan, I’d like covers on all the holes.

I’m using it, but my first experiences were 5 stars. 

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SOFTWARE: FINDFRIENDS interesting application

Monday, May 20, 2013

Interesting use for it. 

My friend Pete’s in the hospital in Jacksonville FL.

I know where is phone is!

Laff.

I assume he still has it with him.

So, without bothering anyone, I know he’s still there.

Now if it could just tell me the altitude, I’d know if he’s still in ICU or moved to a regular room.

Laff!

Stalking to a new level.

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HARDWARE: AT&T MIFI Sierra Wireless “UNITE” problem

Saturday, May 11, 2013

New AT&T MIFI Sierra Wireless “UNITE”

MTTF about a week.

LOCKED in “shutting down”.

Not easy to get access to the battery. Pulled it and reinserted. Problem solved.

Then, I had to fix what I messed up floundering around.

I popped the SIM thinking that might break the “shutting down” lock. 

No dice. 

I guess when I put it back in I didn’t ram it home. Afraid of breaking it. 

So when it came back up, it whined about “no sim card”.

Easy fix. 

But strike one!

Argh!

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HARDWARE: It’s not the PC; it’s what can you do?

Saturday, April 20, 2013

http://www.zdnet.com/windows-its-over-7000013964/

*** begin quote ***

Yes, we are entering a post-PC world. Tablets and smartphones are becoming more important… to sales. PCs are no more going to go away than mainframes did. We’re still going to be using them in offices and homes for the foreseeable future. They let us easily do things that we need to do every day that we can’t easily do with a tablet or a phone.

*** end quote ***

I didn’t like Windoze when it started. I was a UNIX guy from AT&T. Then I saw the value of insulating Users for the operating system. 

Now, I just focus on getting work done?

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SOFTWARE: Google changes CHROME and makes me reconsider that too

Monday, March 18, 2013

When Google nuked GREADER, it also took the extension that supports RSS feeds out of CHROME.

Now, I’m rethinking EVERYTHING I do with GOOGLE.

Argh!

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SOFTWARE: Keeping the site up, listening and adding new features. | Building Feedly

Monday, March 18, 2013

Have to move from Google Reader. Argh! Change is never fun. And, why should we ever trust Google again. 

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Priorities: Keeping the site up, listening and adding new features. | Building Feedly: “Building Feedly Re-imagine how people keep in touch with their favorite sites.

SearchMain menu Skip to primary content Skip to secondary content Post navigation← Previous Priorities: Keeping the site up, listening and adding new features. Posted on March 15, 2013 by @feedly More than 500,000 Google Reader users have joined the feedly community over the last 48 hours. We love passionate readers. Welcome on board.

Our main priorities over the next 30 days are 1) to keep the service up, 2) listen to new users for suggestions and 3) add features weekly.

To keep the service up, we 10x our bandwidth and added new servers.

For new features, we are listening actively to our new uservoice forum and will be pushing out new releases on a weekly basis. Be vocal: we love candid feedback.

Note 1: Here are some tips on how to make feedly less pretty and more functional.

Note 2: If you are a Google Reader, give feedly a try before July 1st, and you will be able to migrate seamlesly: Feedly for i”

(Via.)

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IPAD: can’t interact with contacts from gmail client

Sunday, March 17, 2013

Interesting.

From the natve GMAIL client on the IPAD, I can’t figure out how to save a contact.

Argh!

AND, it apparently doesn’t support the native IOS address book.

I am really getting tired of having to maintain addresses.

Plaxo had promise but all they wanted was to spam, charge, and interfere.

Maybe I should write an X500 directory service.

LinkedIn, Facebook, and everyone else has a different agenda.

I just want one synced address book!

Argh!

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TECHNOLOGY: Computers … …

Sunday, March 17, 2013

Here’s a great quote to inspire you to write:

“To err is human, but to really foul things up you need a computer.” – Paul Ehrlich

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As a corollary of this, I came up with the idea of “negative progress”! I can screw up more in a wasted effort than any profess that I can make on a good day. 

seems so obvious to me, other than the concept of checkpoints, where one can fall back to a previously know good state, that one can actually “destroy” progress.

Given enough time, I am sure I can come up with examples, but who cares?

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SOFTWARE: Googles RSS Subscription Extension, Removed From Chrome Web Store

Saturday, March 16, 2013

a reason to abandon Chrome?

 

 

Google’s RSS Subscription Extension, Removed From Chrome Web Store: “Three years ago I tried to convince the Chrome team that it makes sense to add native support to feeds. At that time, Google built an extension that showed feed previews and allowed you to subscribe to feeds. The explanation for building an extension instead of implementing the feature in Chrome was simple:

‘This decision was made based on our philosophy of trying to limit ourselves to adding only the UI features that a vast majority of users need and allow each user to customize the browsers to fit their needs with Extensions. Given that most people are not familiar with and don’t consume RSS feeds, we thought that RSS support would be a better fit as an extension, at least to begin with.’

In 5 months, more than 300,000 people installed the extension. More than 1,600 people starred a feature request for implementing RSS detection natively. Chrome still doesn’t have this feature and the extension released in 2010 has been removed from the Chrome Web Store a few days ago. The issue is that the extension used Google Reader to preview feeds and Google Reader will be discontinued in July.

‘RSS Subscription Extension’ had 869,743 users. Fortunately, it wasn’t the only extension for subscribing to feeds. Here’s another extensionbased on an old version of Google’s extension.

(Via Google Operating System.)


SOFTWARE: No More Google Reader

Wednesday, March 13, 2013

No More Google Reader: “Google announced that Google Reader will be discontinued on July 1st. It’s a sad news, but it was inevitable. Google Reader has always been ‘on the chopping block’ because it never got enough traction.

Everything started with a feed parser built by Chris Wetherell that turned into a feed reader, helped by Ben Darnell, Laurence Gonsalves, and Mihai Parparita. The product was launched in 2005 as a Google Labs project and it was significantly improved one year later, when the Google Reader team launched a completely new version. Over the years, Google Reader integrated with iGoogle, added social features and handled feed serving for all Google products. Back in 2007, Google Reader crawled 8 million feeds and 70% of the traffic was from Firefox users.

In 2011, Google removed Reader’s social features and replaced them with a Google +1 button. It was the beginning of the end for Reader, who lost all the engineers from the original team. Google Reader is in maintenance mode ever since then.

While feeds are no longer important for many users and browsers start to drop support for reading feeds, social networks make newsfeeds popular and mobile apps like Flipboard simplify reading the news. Feeds are now a behind-the-scenes technology and full-fledged feed readers seem outdated.

‘We know Reader has a devoted following who will be very sad to see it go. We’re sad too. There are two simple reasons for this: usage of Google Reader has declined, and as a company we’re pouring all of our energy into fewer products. We think that kind of focus will make for a better user experience,’ says Google’s Alan Green.

It’s hard to find a replacement for Google Reader, since Google Reader was the most popular feed reader and the competition couldn’t keep up with it. You can still find some web-based feed readers, but none of them is as good as Google Reader. Congratulations to everyone who worked on the Reader team and thanks to all the people who subscribed to this blog in Google Reader.

Here’s Google Reader’s team from 2007:

(Via Google Operating System.)


MACBOOKAIR: bought a new macbookair; lets call MCBA12

Tuesday, March 12, 2013

MacBook Air

11-inch, Mid 2012

Processor  1.7 GHz Intel Core i5

Memory  8 GB 1600 MHz DDR3

Graphics  Intel HD Graphics 4000 512 MB

Serial Number  C02JD02XF67K

Software  OS X 10.8 (12A269)

 

Let’s see how long this stays out of the obsolete file.

Brought up all my standard software

Tonight I’ll put together a manifest

Need to figure out the old MacBook Air’s software that was bought from the App Store; it didn’t come over. 

Scrivner is the only thing not over yet.

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HARDWARE: Watching ESPN3 on the big screen via Apple TV

Sunday, March 10, 2013

Watch the Manhattan College Jaspers on ESPM3 over the internet.

“Threw it” from the IPAD to the Apple TV which puts it on the TV.

Neat!

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SERVICE: TWITTER hacked; change passwords

Saturday, February 2, 2013

Dear Twitter User:

As a precautionary security measure, we have reset your Twitter account password. Check your inbox for a separate email from Twitter with instructions on how to reset your password. If you don’t see an email, you can go to this page in our Help Center to request a password reset. More information is below.

We recently detected an attack on our systems in which the attackers may have had access to limited user information – specifically, your username, email address and anencrypted/salted version of your password (not the actual letters and numbers in your password). Further information about the attack can be found in this blog post.

Since your password has been reset, your old password will not work when you try to log into Twitter. We strongly encourage you to take this opportunity to select a strong password – at least 10 (but more is better) characters and a mixture of upper and lowercase letters, numbers, and symbols – that you are not using for any other accounts or sites. Using the same password for multiple online accounts significantly increases your odds of being compromised.

For more information about making your Twitter and other Internet accounts more secure, read our Help Center documentation or the FTC’s guide on passwords.

This attack was not the work of amateurs, and we do not believe it was an isolated incident. The attackers were extremely sophisticated, and we believe other companies and organizations have also been recently similarly attacked. For that reason we felt that it was important to reset your password and publicize this attack while we still gather information. We are also helping government and federal law enforcement in their effort to find and prosecute these attackers to make the Internet safer for all users.

Twitter

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HARDWARE: Personal hotspots?

Saturday, January 26, 2013

interesting. today, my whatever wanted to use the net from his itouch. so i turned on my hotspot on the ipad3. it was very slow. Sooooo, as a youngster, he moved on to other things.

I otoh was interested.

S i tried it with my itouch and it connected but gmail fails. and who knows what else. playing with it, but nothing productive.

wonder what it’s good for?

argh!

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SERVICE: Has Google’s GMAIL broken

Monday, December 10, 2012

For the first time in a long time, I see GMAIL choking. Timeouts. The IPAD client barfing. Unable to sync and all sorts of strange errors.

Has Google jumped the shark?

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SERVICE: LASTPASS’ security check

Monday, December 3, 2012

https://lastpass.com/index.php?securitychallenge=1

The security check ignore how I use LASTPASS.

I keep my old passwords in LASTPASS as well as all non-critical new ones. (No one gets the passwords to my financial accounts. Those I have memorized. If I ever get alzs, I’m in trouble.) So what the security check calls dupes are either iteration of the same account. Not every url is a simple single entry point.

Additionally, there is a need to keep old passwords for restored systems,

Another topic, I have problem is those secondary authentication questions for lost passwords. I NEVER give the correct answers. In fact, I use last pass’ tool generate to create the answers. And they are unique by site. So my favorite book might be “4zm7#ut47” on one site and “ut47#vj4a” on another. I use special notes for those. But it would be nice if last pass helped me with them.

so I don’t agree with my score.

fjohn

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