Reinke Faces Life

It fails with a less than helpful message. "There was a problem with the transfer. Please try again or contact support for assistance".

Well it is, was, advanced as a beta. I guess I'm spoiled with Google's betas that are better than Microsoft's finished products.

And what is wrong with error messages that had a simple number.

I remember the IBM mainframe days when I had to code user errors like "IEZFJOHN001 – CVT not found! Big problem. Operator notify issue a type one alert!". A friend of mine reported that "my" error message was actually triggered during a system upgrade. Other system utilities either failed silently or caused OC4s and OC6s. My friend was able to tell the staff that he knew the anal retentive who wrote that code.

Hey, when I was a baby programmer, I didn't want a screw up on my watch. If the CVT wasn't where it was supposed to be then I didn't want to get blamed for losing it.

As I recollect, that program had 11 different error conditions. All equally improbable. But, I was conscientious and an uber nerd those days!

My friend actually won a bet on it. They didn't have the source code for it, and many other utilities. He bet that he could have the source code in hand in less than an hour after he called me. I had to hustle to find it in my garage. I was able to offer him either a listing or punch cards. Come to think of it I don't the he ever sent me my half of the six pack. 

Now, does anyone need some logical character manipulation Fortran subroutines? How about some assembler reentrant routines to do time sync?

Ahhh, those were the days when I had "real" skills. 

I noticed, when MOZY called my attention to the fact, that it hadn't take a backup for nine days. No reason that I can see. When I "forced" it using program options, it worked. So why did it take a vacation? Interesting in that it's supposed to be mindless. Guess you can't depend upon anything!

From the Ashes of Blue Frog

May 26, 2006
From the Ashes of Blue Frog
the LOOSE wire blog
technology: usage and abusage. By WSJ columnist Jeremy Wagstaff 

***Begin Quote***

The Blue Frog may be no more,  but the vigilantes are. Seems that despite the death of Blue Security in the face of a spammer’s wrath, the service has built an appetite for fighting back.
***End Quote***

Jeremy posits some interesting questions:

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Actually I thought the link Blue Frog used wasn’t unsubscribe (which is usually fake, since if it wasn’t would then pull the spammer back within the law) but the purchase link. 

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I THOUGHT that the Blue Forg team was doing analysis to find the beneficiary of the spam. AND then that beneficiary was petitioned to give relief.

I would not want to bear the wrath of the inet public should say a major company be found benefitting by spam. I'm thinking of the spammers that offer an XYZ gift card for signing up.

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Any member who is on the spammer’s list (developed by the logical subtraction from their original list by their new cleaned list) will now be vulnerable to the kind of mass email attack that Blue Frog’s destroyer launched.
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I'd suggest that deliberately letting the spammers "collect" salted email addresses could be a strategy. If for example, an ISP, Google GMail, and or Yahoo "allow" all email addresses thru. Spammers would get no feedback about bad addresses. They would lose a good way to cut their problem down to size.

For example, let's assume 8 character names, like A12345467@XYZ.com. That address space has (36)**8 possible combination. Let's further assume that a spammer sends via his botnet a spam to that address space. Assume that our spammer puts return addresses that he can check. That feedback allows him to reduce his target space. He'l get some confirmation from vacation type messages and the absence of a bounce. He can determine what are valid addresses in the @xyz.com space. If we deny him the feedback of bounces, then everytime he wants to spam, he has to cover the domain.

We lose the ability to know about bouncing emails, but … … if we use receipt, we'll knwo what doesn't get thru.

Just a thought! 

What a bunch of hooey.

First, I really don't need their usb drive. I was going to use it to put a bootable Linux on it. (I have a perverse sense of humor!) 

Second, my request was in less than an hour after it was made. (Thanks to an email alert from Google!) So the supply ran out excuse is a bunch of Baraba Striesand.

Third, it an interesting piece of propaganda they're shoveling. "OEM operating system licenses live and die with each PC–they are not transferable." Oh really. And what defines a PC. The case? Where you stuck your tag. The COA? That comes as a book. I'm not a lawyer, nor do I play one on TV. But isn't this an assertion after the contract is made. And further, isn't their relationship with Mister Dell. Whoa re they to tell me what my agreement with Dell is. Now let me understand this if I build my own box, buy all the aprts including the OS, then I can put my OS where I want it when I want it. But, if I buy the box from DELL and say the other board dies, then you expect me to buy another copy of the OS?

Wrong. Linux for me. Very shortly.

The mystery for me is why we put up with this in the first place. 

===

From: Microsoft [mailto:procurement@email.microsoft.com]
Sent: Friday, May 26, 2006 1:22 PM
To: reinkefjSubject: The mystery of the missing USB drive
Thank you for your interest in the Mystery Solved Windows® licensing promotion. We've received your request for more information to help clarify Microsoft® Windows Desktop Licensing pre-loaded on the USB drive. Unfortunately, this Mystery Solved promotion was available in the U.S. only and while supplies last. Supply is depleted at this time, so we encourage you to please utilize the online alternative today. Simply download* the Windows Desktop Licensing reference files directly at:www.microsoft.com/mysterysolved/corp

o help simplify Windows Desktop Licensing, keep these points in mind: 
There are two legal ways to acquire a full Windows Desktop license: through your hardware vendor (OEM/System Builder) or Full Packaged Product.
 
Volume licensing covers Windows Desktop operating system upgrades only.
 
OEM operating system licenses live and die with each PC–they are not transferable.

Again, thank you for your interest in Mystery Solved and for helping us spread the word about proper Windows licensing.

Sincerely,
Microsoft Corporation
     
*Internet connect time charges may apply. Offer available through June 30, 2006.

© 2006 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. Microsoft and Windows are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries.      

Interesting that every so often, like this morning, LUGGABLE didn't really awake from hibernation correctly. It was so slow as to be unusable. Outlook was complaining about not being shutdown correctly. Interesting also that I had to do a restart and everything is now hunky dorey. So perhaps, XPPROSP2 for the laptop needs soem further testing? I'll have to start to try and measure the affect or just do a hard stop when I shif locations. It can be rather useful to just pick up where one left off. But, this morning, I'd guesstimate I waste a good hour before throwing in the towel. Hmmm?

http://www.okopipi.org/

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In the meantime:

    * Okopipi-announce The announce list (very low traffic)
    * Okopipi-discuss General discussion the Okopipi project
    * Okopipi-dev A discussion of Okopipi's development
    * Okopipi-press Okopipi in the press
    * The Okopipi Wiki
    * The Okopipi IRC channel Hosted by the folks over at freenode. Also accessible over the web here.

***End Quote***

I'll be keeping tabs on this effort. The Blue Forg team had credentials. People that I recognized and respected. Hopefully this effort will attract the same type people.

I like the idea of going after the spammers by cutting off the money. I would be interested in hearing, now the Blue Frog quit, exactly how they forensically tied spam to beneficiary. It's all about the Benjamins. If we can't get to the beneficiary web site or phone number, how about the ISPs and Hosting Companies? There has to be a tie between the spam and the profiteer. Else it's just clog in the pipe.

Maybe email can't be free? But, I'd hate to give it up without a fight! 

http://www.zamily.com 

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What is Zamily?

Zamily is a social networking site that connects families together. You can use this site to connect with family, share stories, recipes, news, events, and keep in touch with loved ones.

***End Quote***

Pretty sad. And, what if different wings of your family doesn't get along? :-)  Pretty sad. 

(1) Solid case of not finding a text string in a text file.

(2) General feel like it has "downgraded" it's search capability. When it first came out, I never had it fail to find what I was looking for. Now, it does. Interesting? 

http://news.tbo.com/news/metro/MGBO3GM5INE.html

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Mike Palazzolo said he routinely faxes his daily special to regular customers. When a couple of them asked to be taken off his mailing list this year, the manager said he was unable to remove the numbers from his fax machine's speed dialer and instead entered a long series of identical digits in their place. He assumed those numbers would be meaningless, but they turned out to be Ebsary's fax number. 

***End Quote***

Now I am not sure if I believe the excuse. But it does point out that the side of technology that faces humans is often cryptic, forgettable, and the documentation stinks. I have about five cheap remotes at home whose instruction books are probably in some recycling landfill somewhere (don't distract me with that rant!). I can't program them but I can't part with them. So, I can empathize with this fellow. I see some hidden assumptions in this that make this little morality play even more interesting: (1) government "laws" that interfere; (2) free local calls; (3) Lawyers in general; (4) the fax machine maker (i.e., I sold it that end my problem. Now go ahead and use it. I dare you!); and (5)  an incomprehensible user interface. Dontcha just love it.