When the screen died on my Mac Book Air, unless you twist the top bezel, I thought I was screwed until Apple can fix it.
1-3 days for parts; 1-3 days for repair.
Argh!
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SOFTWARE: TEAMVIEWER recommended
Friday, February 12, 2010
Leave a Comment » | 
SOFTWARE | 
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Posted by reinkefj
HARDWARE: MAC BOOK AIR has a hinge problem
Wednesday, February 10, 2010mac book air has a hinge problem! screen disconnected?
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LINKEDIN: Offhandedly, just ask folks for help
Tuesday, February 9, 2010Connecting on LinkedIn: Quality or quantity?
Anna Jacobson February 4th, 2009
*** begin quote ***
However, in the middle of a detailed post about creating community on LinkedIn, F. John Reinke, offhandedly comments, “Create a LinkedIn group (It takes weeks to get this done)…”
Remember that most of the people writing about the benefits of LinkedIn have, in truth, been poking around LinkedIn answering questions and making connections for months, possibly years, before they posted their article making you feel inadequate, behind the curve, and left out.
*** end quote ***
I have been blundering about with LinkedIn since they hit prime time. I’ve grouched about their failure to be responsive to suggestions and down right hostile to their early adopters and champions. I’ve wish for a competitor to arise — I’ve dubbed it NiDeknil as a placeholder for all the things LinkedIn could have been. At no time have I ever tried to make anyone feel “feel inadequate, behind the curve, and left out”; if anything, that’s how I feel about my relationship with LinkedIn. I can’t point out many more early advocates who have been bludgeoned by LinkedIn. Figuratively speaking. The biggest misconception that I try to communicate is that “LinkedIn is NOT networking”. AND, anyone, who needs help, just has to ask! No charge for “premium membership” unlike LinkedIn.
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Posted by reinkefj
TECHNOLOGY: Motivational Posters
Friday, February 5, 2010http://www.tuxpi.com/photo-effects/motivational-poster
I’m not sure how “motivating” it is. But it sure makes me want to go on a diet!
LOL!
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Posted by reinkefj
SOFTWARE: IE6 days are numbered
Tuesday, February 2, 2010Dear Google Apps admin,
In order to continue to improve our products and deliver more sophisticated features and performance, we are harnessing some of the latest improvements in web browser technology. This includes faster JavaScript processing and new standards like HTML5. As a result, over the course of 2010, we will be phasing out support for Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0 as well as other older browsers that are not supported by their own manufacturers.
We plan to begin phasing out support of these older browsers on the Google Docs suite and the Google Sites editor on March 1, 2010. After that point, certain functionality within these applications may have higher latency and may not work correctly in these older browsers. Later in 2010, we will start to phase out support for these browsers for Google Mail and Google Calendar.
Google Apps will continue to support Internet Explorer 7.0 and above, Firefox 3.0 and above, Google Chrome 4.0 and above, and Safari 3.0 and above.
Starting this week, users on these older browsers will see a message in Google Docs and the Google Sites editor explaining this change and asking them to upgrade their browser. We will also alert you again closer to March 1 to remind you of this change.
In 2009, the Google Apps team delivered more than 100 improvements to enhance your product experience. We are aiming to beat that in 2010 and continue to deliver the best and most innovative collaboration products for businesses.
Thank you for your continued support!
Sincerely,
The Google Apps team
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TECHNOLOGY: Egg Watchers ROFL!
Tuesday, February 2, 2010*** begin quote ***
We’ve designed EggWatchers with hopes to banish forgetting, boredom, and bad cooking. We’ve done our best to make sure it’s awesome and works and stuff, but the fact is – we’re not responsible for any bad egg related incidents.
*** end quote ***
Argh, tech for tech’s sake?
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Posted by reinkefj
TECHNOLOGY: An example of a pure security system
Monday, February 1, 2010http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=CNG.1f88d16f510d886b38f9ad334219fe45.131&show_article=1
US State Department clerk sentenced for passport peeking
Jan 22 09:22 AM US/Eastern
*** begin quote ***
A US State Department file clerk on Thursday was sentenced to 12 months’ probation for illegally accessing dozens of confidential passport applications of movie actors, professional athletes and other celebrities. The employee, Susan Holloman, 58, was also ordered by the judge in the case to perform 75 hours of community service. Holloman, a file assistant at the State Department’s Bureau of Consular Affairs, admitted that between February 2007 and December 2007 she repeatedly logged on to the department’s secure computer database and viewed passport applications belonging to some 70 celebrities and their families.
She acknowledged to prosecutors that she had no reason to access the passport applications, other than “idle curiosity,” a State Department press release said.
*** end quote ***
The more interesting question with respect to technology is why was “idle curiosity” possible?
The security systems are obviously REACTIVE rather than PROACTIVE. There should be a way of specifying the “business requirements” such that there isn’t an open playground of personal data.
But, this is the gooferment, and it can’t do ANYTHING right!
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Posted by reinkefj
TECHNOLOGY: WEP is worthless!
Saturday, January 30, 2010How To Hack Wireless
Safe for work
Warning for WEP users. Don’t do your banking, or anything important, on that connection.
Don’t you just love command line stuff? How long until it is packaged for the script kiddies?
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Leave a Comment » | ADMINISTRIVIA, Technology | Tagged: Security | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj
TECHNOLOGY: Getting your data
Tuesday, January 26, 2010http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/01/14/medical.records/
Patients demand: ‘Give us our damned data’
By Elizabeth Cohen, CNN Senior Medical Correspondent
January 14, 2010 9:13 a.m. EST
*** begin quote ***
The federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, which governs access to medical records, gives hospitals and doctors 30 days to respond to a request for medical records, although some state laws provide for a shorter time frame, and in urgent situations, such as a transfer to another hospital, it’s customary for hospitals to move more quickly.
Be prepared to make your request in writing, McCabe says. You can bring it in person, or fax the request in, but make sure you confirm that the hospital’s received it.
One way to get your medical records more quickly is to seek out providers who use electronic medical records so the records can be e-mailed to you, she says. Some providers have an electronic portal so you can read your records anytime you want on a secure site on the Internet.
*** end quote ***
Here’s a great advice. With all of Frau’s medical problems, I wish I kept better records. I have a lot, but not everything. And not organized in the most useable fashion.
Argh!
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TECHNOLOGY: Can make you look dumb — TOTUS!
Tuesday, January 26, 2010http://news.yahoo.com/nphotos/slideshow/photo//100119/480/9131bc77c7534185bdbf267bb4ab8497/
Tue Jan 19, 10:54 AM ET
(AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
*** begin quote ***
President Barack Obama, accompanied by Education Secretary Arne Duncan, speaks to the media after a discussion with 6th grade students at Graham Road Elementary School in Falls Church, Va., Tuesday, Jan. 19, 2010.
*** end quote ***
What was the derisive term TELEPROMPTER instead of PRESIDENT. TOTUS?
Can he ever be unscripted?
If the media had shown this before the election, maybe we’d be screaming about McCain and stuff?
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Posted by reinkefj
TECHNOLOGY: ENUM won’t be implemented by the vested ISPs
Saturday, January 23, 2010ENUM: Dragging telephone numbers into the Internet Age
E-mail, IM, Facebook, phones—what if all of these ways to reach you over a network could be condensed into a single, unique number? The ENUM proposal aims to do just that, by giving everyone a single phone number that maps to all of their identifiers. Here’s how it works, and why it isn’t already widely used.
By Rudolf van der Berg | Last updated January 13, 2010 11:30 PM
*** begin quote ***
The main issue is that the ENUM standard (RFC 3761) demands that ENUM is a public service and that the control of the telephone number lies in the hands of the end-user. For this reason, it’s known as “Public-” or “User ENUM.” This is all in line with the Internet’s user- and endpoint-centric creed. This becomes quite clear if you read, for instance, the documentation of Nominet, which controls the UK’s ENUM registry (the +44 registry). It explicitly states that users can bypass their communications provider when they register in the ENUM registry. A significant amount of money is made by today’s telephony providers (be they traditional providers or ISPs providing VoIP bundled with Internet access). Telephony providers see User ENUM as a threat to their bottom line and are therefore not keen on introducing the technology nationally.
*** end quote ***
The inet was driven by motivated individuals, not gooferments, not ISPs, not companies.
We need to get back to the fast innovation cycle of the old inet!
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Posted by reinkefj
TECHNOLOGY: Paywalls
Wednesday, January 20, 2010*** begin quote ***
it’s been our experience that, quite often, papers initially made available for free online will eventually disappear behind the pay wall at some point. So if we post something you think you might want to reread or use in the future, grab a copy of the full text as soon as you see it. No telling how long it will remain freely available.
*** end quote ***
It’s a shame that has to happen. If it’s not “pay” to start with, then why “pay” after a time.
Unfortunately, the inet isn’t a library. And, as I find out more and more, Google ain’t that good!
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TECHNOLOGY: Lost camera
Sunday, January 3, 2010Recently I lost my camera. Argh!
Fell out of my pocket in cab.
My fault.
But it had no way to identify itself to a finder who might be interested in returning it.
The product design should have a place for a name or phone number. Maybe it should have a sensor to alert me that it was “leaving”. Or the ability to “phone home”?
Argh!
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John Edward OConnor
or maybe just use one of those address labels every charity ion the world sends you trying to guilt you into a donation?
Do you really need a technical solution where glue and paper will work? :)
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No good place on the old or new camera to put one. And, they wipe off over time. (I’ve tried it on other things. Like cars and toys.) Same the maker doesn’t do serial number registration and retrieval services. Give a token to the finder; modest recovery fee to the owner? Like an extended warranty against loss?
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Posted by reinkefj
TECHNOLOGY: Crapy User Interface “design”
Saturday, January 2, 2010http://www.macworld.com/article/145309/2009/12/10_technologies.html?lsrc=rss_main
*** begin quote ***
10. Redundant registration
Many Web sites offer some form of registration, which typically ask you to add your personal contact information and specify a username and password.
Why do some sites require me to enter my e-mail address or my password twice? They’re going to verify all this anyway. Why do I have to enter city, state and ZIP code, when the ZIP code already knows the city and state, and vice versa.
Bad, redundant and obsolete technologies make life needlessly complex, expensive, irritating and ugly. Let’s get rid of them.
*** end quote ***
Agreed!
State and zip are my particular “favorite”!
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Posted by reinkefj
TECHNOLOGY: Potential microRNAs breast cancer blood test
Wednesday, December 30, 2009Irish breast cancer breakthrough could end mammograms
Major cancer discovery from team at Galway University
By ANTOINETTE KELLY, IrishCentral.com
Published Tuesday, December 22, 2009, 1:50 PM
Updated Tuesday, December 22, 2009, 4:24 PM
*** begin quote ***
Irish scientists may have found an alternative to the dreaded mammogram in a bid to reduce the incidence of breast cancer.
Researchers from the National University of Ireland Galway have identified a new blood test that can act as an “early warning” system.
The test, which is being discussed as a potential replacement for mammograms, can alert doctors if the disease is recurring.
*** and ***
The study found a link between breast cancer and substances called microRNAs which are found in the blood of patients with breast cancer.
Professor Michael Kerin, who led the team, said there was good reason for optimism.
“This early work suggests a combination of mir195 and Let7a (two specific types of microRNA) are sensitive markers for the presence of breast cancers in over 90 percent of cases,” he said. “This raises the possibility of their use in screening for breast cancer.”
*** end quote ***
Recent gooferment “pronouncements” about cancer screening was suspect. Suspect that they were looking at the cost as opposed to the benefits. Here may be an opportunity to satisfy both conflicting priorities.
The value of human life can’t be reduced into dollars and sense.
Sorry. Apologies to all the accountants and gooferment bureaucrats, but your wrong. Heartlessly wrong.
When people buy their own health care, they make a very tough “value” judgement.
I’ve seen “old people” and “terminally ill” people make the tough decisions easily. When we insert an insurance company or Medicare welfare into the process, people don’t see the costs as impacting their legacy and their families.
So substituting a potentially cheaper and more accurate chemistry test is a real winner.
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Posted by reinkefj
TECHNOLOGY: Digital dirt
Wednesday, December 23, 2009http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/09/us/09text.html?_r=1&ref=technology
Text Messages: Digital Lipstick on the Collar
By LAURA M. HOLSON
Published: December 8, 2009
*** begin quote ***
Robert Stephan Cohen, the lawyer who represented Christie Brinkley in her divorce from Peter Cook, said a spouse’s finding out about a cheating partner by reading their personal text messages would have a profound effect on how such cases were played out, both in court and among friends and family. Mr. Cohen predicted that the battles in even the most routine divorces would become uglier with more text messages as evidence.
*** end quote ***
People really don’t understand the technology they are using. Nor, do they understand the implications of an “eternal love letter”.
And, in a corporate setting, it’s even worse. Why aren’t they REQUIRED to preserve email forever.
The “digital dirt”, created voluntarily, CAN come back to haunt you.
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Posted by reinkefj
TECHNOLOGY: Driverless cars
Saturday, November 21, 2009http://www.impactlab.com/2009/11/19/audi-autonomous-tts-driverless-sports-car/
November 19th, 2009 at 7:19 am
Audi Autonomous TTS – Driverless Sports Car
*** begin quote ***
It could also help with the more mundane aspects of driving. With the Autonomous TTS, you could let your car go find its own parking space in the garage. “The technology could return time to the cars’ owners by taking care of routine driving chores, such as winding through a parking garage to an assigned spot each morning,” Audi says.
*** end quote ***
Neat!
Perfect for Iowa driving.
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Posted by reinkefj
SERVICE: Meme – Yahoo’s Twitter
Thursday, October 29, 2009Meme – Yahoo’s Improvement on Twitter
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I don’t care for the name. Meme, like gene, is supposed to represent a defining concept. Paradigm is perception. Meme is the mental construction that we can share. (A meme can be “wrong” like government. But it’s something (an idea) we can exchange and understand. I think Yahoo has muddled the pond. IMHO!
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Posted by reinkefj
TECHNOLOGY: Nuke power from Japan?
Thursday, October 29, 2009http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=CNG.314f8f63df41800c448cd89e0a88dd31.331&show_article=1
Japanese firms to develop small nuclear reactors
Oct 24 01:08 AM US/Eastern
*** begin quote ***
Japan’s major nuclear reactor manufacturers have begun developing small nuclear power systems for both developed and emerging countries, a report said on Saturday.
Toshiba Corp. is developing an ultra-compact reactor with an output of about 10,000 kilowatts and has started procedures for approval in the United States, the Nikkei business daily said.
The new reactor, the Toshiba 4S, is designed to minimise the need for monitoring and maintenance, with an automatic shutdown function to ensure safety in case of problems, the newspaper said.
Toshiba plans to market the reactor first in the United States, while foreseeing demand from emerging countries in Southeast Asia and Eastern Europe as well as in Africa, it said.
*** end quote ***
For America’s “lost generation” of nuke engineers, I’m sure the approval of this will really put a knot in their shorts.
At one time, America “owned” the nuclear engineering niche.
France gets 80% of its power from nukes; we get near zero.
Argh!
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Posted by reinkefj
TECHNOLOGY: QIPIT down
Tuesday, October 27, 2009Thanks for signing up for the Qipit online service, the company that specializes in high quality mobile copy solutions. We are making a change in the focus of the company toward the development of smart phone applications and technology for the enterprise. In fact, our first application Qipit White, is available now for the iPhone, with more applications and platforms to follow. Starting this past Wednesday (October 21, 2009), the Qipit online mobile copy service stopped accepting new user registrations.
What this means to you?
As an existing user, you can still use the service as normal until November 9, 2009, at which time the ability to create new copies (using Web upload, our facebook applications, Shozu, copy@qipit.com, and color@qipit.com) and to share (by sending faxes and emails) will be discontinued. On December 6, 2009, the service will be completely taken offline. We encourage users to download all of the information you would like to keep, prior to this date. After the service is taken offline, your information will no longer be available.
As we say goodbye to Qipit the online service, Qipit will live on in a series of smart phone applications and as a technology for the enterprise. Back in September we launched our first smart phone application, Qipit White, for the iPhone, it shares much of the same functionality of the online service, but works much faster! We will continue to support Qipit White and future applications based on the technology behind Qipit for the iPhone, Android and other smart phone platforms. Be sure to keep an eye on http://www.qipit.com and the Qipit Blog for the latest news on new applications.
You can read more about the changes at Qipit at our blog. Please feel free to share your thoughts and farewells to the Qipit online service.
Many thanks,
~ the Qipit team
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Posted by reinkefj
TECHNOLOGY: A cost effective $23 stove
Monday, October 26, 2009Wall Street Journal
Tuesday 20 Oct 09
Page A1 and A18
(behind a paywall)
Has an article about selling things to the poor at prices they can afford.
Here’s two of the products.
http://www.instructables.com/community/Oorja-Stove-taking-off-in-India/ $28
http://www.naaptol.com/brands/WO-Brands-W77O-Brands-shopping-W139O/Godrej/Refrigerators.html $70
“Marketing ice to eskimos”?
Here are companies making stuff for poor people.
Since we in the good old US of A are poor, (just look at the dollar), maybe someone should be doing this here?
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Posted by reinkefj
TECHNOLOGY: $500 Mapleseed Drone
Saturday, October 24, 2009http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2009/10/video-500-mapleseed-drone-takes-flight/
Video: $500 Mapleseed Drone Takes Flight
* By Noah Shachtman
* October 21, 2009
*** begin quote ***
Last year, the Pentagon’s mad science arm let expire a Lockheed contract to build a mini-drone in the shape of a maple seed. Lord knows how much the project costs. But it’s a good bet the Lockheed ‘bot had a price tag several orders of magnitude higher than this $500 maple-drone, put together by students at the University of Maryland.
*** end quote ***
Neat. Pioneering work done by a grad student team?
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Posted by reinkefj
TECHNOLOGY: “Smart readers”; too smart?
Friday, October 16, 2009Smart meters could be ‘spy in the home’
Smart meters could become a ‘spy in the home’ by allowing social workers and health authorities to monitor households, adding to conce rn at Britain’s surveillance society.
By Alastair Jamieson
Published: 10:30AM BST 11 Oct 2009
*** begin quote ***
The DECC document adds households could even have their power to some appliances turned off remotely to help the national grid if there is too much demand. It says: “In terms of potentially intrusive non-physical behaviour unrelated to data, smart metering potentially offers scope for remote intervention such as dynamic demand management, which is designed to assist management of the network and thus security of supply. This could involve direct supplier or distribution company interface with equipment, such as refrigerators, within a property, overriding the control of the householder.”
*** end quote ***
I always think of what can go wrong.
Turn off the refrig to “save the grid” and the food goes bad.
Turn off the heat to “save the grid” and people die.
Turn off power to politically “wrong” people?
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Leave a Comment » | Technology | Tagged: economic freedom, Economics, Gooferment | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj
SERVICE: KODAKGALLERY makes itself less valuable
Sunday, October 11, 2009http://beta.kodakgallery.com/gallery/footerLinksContent.jsp?pageID=600010
*** begin quote ***
3. Availability
Kodak Imaging Network uses reasonable endeavors to ensure that the Service is available 24 hours a day 7 days a week. However, there will be occasions when the Service will be interrupted for maintenance, upgrades and emergency repairs or due to failure of telecommunications links and equipment that are beyond the control of Kodak Imaging Network. Every reasonable step will be taken by us to minimize such disruption where it is within the reasonable control of Kodak Imaging Network. You agree that Kodak Imaging Network shall not be liable to you for any modification, suspension or discontinuance of the Service. You are responsible for creating backups of any content you post to the Service.
*** end quote ***
Argh! Why make me responsible for backups. That’s why I subscribe to the service by my purchases!
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Posted by reinkefj
TECHNOLOGY: Use exclsion to sharpen writing
Saturday, October 10, 2009http://www.dailyblogtips.com/spellchecker-drives-a-stake-through-vampire-words/
Spellchecker Drives a Stake Through Vampire Words
from Daily Blog Tips
by Mike Marshall
*** begin quote ***
3. Use Exclusion Dictionaries to Mark Them
My favorite solution, although it requires a little more energy, is to establish an “Exclusion Dictionary”. This dictionary lists words that you want to exclude from the basic spelling dictionary within MS-Word. When the word is added to the exclusion dictionary, the spell checker will no longer perceive it as a correctly spelled word, and will flag it as an error. When configured to check spelling as you type, this prevents these nasty words from creeping into your text by immediately marking them as issues.
To create an exclusion list, you need only add the word to your exclusion dictionary (a text file) under your MS-WORD application data. Each vampire word is entered on a single line in this file, and from that point forward is considered a misspelled word and highlighted by the spell checker.
What makes this method so nice is that you can consider the word’s real value, and tell the spellchecker to ignore its use, if desired.
*** end quote ***
Here’s a great suggestion!
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Posted by reinkefj
TECHNOLOGY: Just use old technology with no added controls
Monday, October 5, 2009TN: Docs faxing patients’ data to Indiana company
Tennessean
*** begin quote ***
“Doctors’ offices in Tennessee have been accidentally sending patient information, including Social Security numbers and medical histories, to an Indiana businessman’s fax machine for the past three years. The sensitive medical information was supposed to be sent to the Tennessee Department of Human Services, but Bill Keith, owner of SunRise Solar Inc. in Indiana, says hundreds of confidential medical faxes having been coming to him. ‘This is a total breach of privacy,’ Keith said. ‘This is supposed to be confidential, and it just so happens we have some scruples here and wouldn’t do anything with that information. We’ve shredded them, but you can have a file an inch thick in no time.'”
*** end quote ***
The technology of fax has to be decades old. And, yet, the TN state gooferment still relies upon it.
There are so many things that could be done. Doesn’t take a genius to figure them out.
Why can’t they use encrypted email?
Why can’t they require a “handshake code” before faxing?
Why can’t the TN gooferment call the docs to pick up their forms?
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Leave a Comment » | Technology | Tagged: liability | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj
Reinke Faces Life 
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