TECHNOLOGY: Thinkg about non-stopping Toyotas

Friday, March 12, 2010

FROM A FACEBOOK EXCHANGE

*** begin quote ***

ABCDEF wants to know how you can be trapped in a runaway car with a stuck accelerator for 20 minutes. I would like to know if people are so stupid to not know that turning off the car will at least allow you to coast to a stop if the brakes are not working (icluding the emergency brake). Or is there some hidden part of the st…ories where the cars cannot be turned off? If there is… why hasn’t any media outlet said that?

*** end quote ***

I “believe” (Medicine from Doctor Phil, Law from Judge Judy, and Politics from Glen Beck) that the stupid things do NOT respond to turning the key OFF. (Not to ACC or to the position that allows the key to be extracted and locks the steering.) The lame street Press has reported that there is SOME kind of a button, somewhere in the cabin, that can … See Morebe pushed for an “emergency stop”. (I’d have thought pushing the brake pedal would engage the brake. OH NO, dumm, there’s some SOFTWARE involved in the process. Are they out of their freakin’ minds. Nobody involved ever done “software” support.) Sigh.

P.S. In my Mom’s garage, sometimes people block me in. I used to move cars. Now, if it’s a Toyota, I call the attendant. :-) Discretion!

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I, and others, don’t think it’s that easy. From what I understand, admittedly just from what I read, software is allowed to over ride the operator stomping on the brake. I find that incredulous. But, evidently, this little gem has a software that has a mind of its own. I’ll play Sargent Shultz, who says “I know nuthin, Nuting, Nothing at all”! But, it may not be so clear cut. Just an opinion.

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*** begin quote ***

GHIJKL: sorry , i’ve never known a car that doesn’t allow you to take it out of gear , and emergency breaks are a physical cable with 0 electronics in them ( thats sort of the point of them else they wouldn’t be able to pass inspection ) although i believe breaks could be disabled due to abs and you may not be able to turn off the engine , a gear box is a gear box , can ALWAYS put it in neutral even if you cant do park/reverse.

*** end quote ***

Sorry, but I think we are ALL going to need to do a “software update”. A month ago, I’d have said the same thing. (Probably with a lot more sarcasm!) Without having gotten one of these gems and ripped it apart, the Main Stream Media — or Lamestream Media — has led me to believe that this is no longer true. The car has a significant software …

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[JR: I’ll continue to follow the reports.]

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UPDATE

Now it appears that there is some question about the authenticity and accuracy of these claims.

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Posted by reinkefj

TECHNOLOGY: Can’t Yahoo at least id spam that claims to be from Yahoo?

Friday, March 12, 2010

*** begin quote ***

From: “Yahoo!” <jenny@networkci.net>
Date: March 12, 2010 1:53:42 AM EST
To: <jenny@networkci.net>
Subject: Verify Your Account Services!!!
Reply-To: mail.dataservicea2@yahoo.com



Yahoo! Customer Care Satisfaction Survey

                             Account Alert Yahoo!

Dear Valued Member,
Due to the congestion in all Yahoo users and removal of all unused Yahoo! Accounts, Yahoo would be shutting down all unused accounts, You will have to confirm your E-mail by filling out your Login Info below after clicking the reply botton, or your account will be suspended within 24 hours for security reasons.
UserName: ……………………………… Yahoo!
Password:………………………………….
Date Of Birth: …………………………………..
Country Or Territory:..……………………….
After Following the instructions in the sheet, your account will not be interrupted and will continue as normal. Thanks for your attention to this request. We apologize for any inconvinience.



Yahoo! Customer Care Yahoo!


*** end quote ***

This type of SPAM is exceptionally frustrating.

Yahoo should at least be able to catch it.

They even have a offering of “hidden addresses”. So you’d thing they could use that to ensure that their sers KNOW what’s really from them.

Come on, guys, this ain’t rocket science! Is it?

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Posted by reinkefj

TECHNOLOGY: Free audio books

Friday, March 12, 2010

http://www.booksshouldbefree.com

BooksShouldBeFree.com

*** begin quote ***

Your source for free audio books. Download one in mp3, iPod and iTunes format today.

*** end quote ***

The great, not so great, and terrible books for those long car rides!

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Posted by reinkefj

SERVICE: CAREMARK WEB SITE and catch-22

Sunday, March 7, 2010

*** begin quote ***

From Caremark

To Caremark Portal User

Date Sent 02/10/2010

Subject Important Information: New Security Enhancement

Message New security step on Caremark.com starting Feb. 20!

The security of your personal and health information is of utmost importance to us. For your protection, we’ll ask you to answer a “challenge question” the first time you log on to Caremark.com on or after Feb. 20, 2010. If you’re using your own computer, you only have to answer the question once, or if you prefer, you may set your User Profile to require it more often. If you are logging on from a different computer, you will be asked the question each time. If you cannot remember your answer, contact our Web Customer Care at 1-800-378-9442.

Thank you.

*** end quote ***

Arghhhhhhh!

First, this email is only available on their “portal” AFTER you logon. You can’t logon because “secondary questions” were NEVER set up. You can’t email into them because they only respond to your inbound email on their “portal” which you can’t get into. And, more aggravating is that they send you an email to saying “look at the portal inbox”. From an unattended email address.

Are they kidding? Has any one THOUGHT about this “barbara streisand”? Doubtful!

Arghhhhhhh!

(I HATE “secondary” identification. It merely provides hackers an alternative way to crack your account. How many favorite colors or mother’s maiden names do you have? My mother’s maiden name changes by web site as does my color. Here’s my five favorite colors: Cxu14, H4v4j, s7Jb5, T9B68, and 1dsz6. And, yes, I use different passwords on every site. Also stupid are those sites that force a format for passwords.)

Arghhhhhhh!

Then, you’re left with no choice but calling in to “tech support”. Innumerable prompts, and delays.

Arghhhhhhh!

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Posted by reinkefj

TECHNOLOGY: “referal failure” medical error

Saturday, March 6, 2010

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/02/100226101330.htm

The Most Frequent Error in Medicine

*** begin quote ***

ScienceDaily (Feb. 26, 2010) — The most frequent error in medicine seems to occur nearly one out of three times a patient is referred to a specialist. A new study found that nearly a third of patients age 65 and older referred to a specialist are not scheduled for appointments and therefore do not receive the treatment their primary care doctor intended.

*** end quote ***

It would seem that technology could eliminate that “disconnect” problem. It’s the “committed database transaction” problem.

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Posted by reinkefj

SERVICE: “twitter sparks…” a customer service revolution!

Sunday, February 28, 2010

http://techcrunch.com/2010/02/28/cherchez-la-fame

NSFW: Cherchez la fame – or why the media’s obsession with Twitter campaigns will make customer service smell French

   * 5 Comments

   *

   *

   Share3

   * Buzz it

by Paul Carr on Feb 28, 2010

*** begin quote ***

Time was, companies knew how to keep track of their important customers.

*** and ***

Two years ago, none of this would have been news. A cult film maker was kicked off a flight? So? What was he going to do? Make a film called ‘Jay and Silent Bob hate Southwest airlines’? (Admittedly that would still have been better than Jersey Girl). An entrepreneur’s got quietly kicked out of a members’ club to make way for more profitable clients? Tough shit: that one’s not even newsworthy enough for the most desperate trade magazine. A little known designer gets ripped off by a gigantic retail chain? Boo hoo. Tell it to someone who cares. Without a major celebrity angle, there was little to no chance of the media picking up a run-of-the-mill intellectual property complaint and forcing the company into action.

*** and ***

Really there’s only one answer – and it’s one that strikes at the very heart of the established hierarchy of customer importance. Companies are going to have to start treating every single customer like a VIP. Actually, no, it’s worse than that – consider the Hidden Eloise example; she wasn’t a customer, but just a humble designer. Companies are going to have to start treating every single person in the world like a VIP.

*** end quote ***

Twitter will burn more and more organizations that are inconsiderate, fraudulent, or deceptive.

I love the strategy: form up your ‘David vs Goliath’ story and get people tweeting and retweeting about it.

Then, watch the “blood”!

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Posted by reinkefj

SERVICE: Your ISP email address is a trap; any ATT users as well?

Saturday, February 27, 2010

FROM AN EMAIL CORRESPONDENT

*** begin quote ***

AT&T has made some major changes to its internet system. They included removing the term “worldnet” from the Email address that some of you use to contact me. They will not transmit emails that contain that term after 3/15.

*** end quote ***

https://reinkefaceslife.com/2007/07/14/productivity-changing-email-addresses/

*** begin quote ***

In my mind, it’s impossible to communicate the change to everyone who has your old email address. It may have been given to them by someone else.

*** end quote ***

May I suggest that you might want to avoid giving out your ISP’s email address?

Your ISP’s email is a trap to lock you in to their service. It can leave you high and dry at the most inopportune times.

They can: (1) be acquired; (2) sell out; (3) change their brand; (4) go out of business; (5) do something dumb; OR (6) have a meltdown of some type.

And, you can be out of luck. No email temporarily or permanently. Then you’re forced to change.

Good luck finding everyone who HAS your email address. They may have been given it by someone you know. But you don’t know them.

You should NEVER permit them to own almost the mort important thing you “own” — your email address. It’s a key to your digital identity. if they get bought out or go out.

Argh!

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TECHNOLOGY: “system assurance”; yeah, right!

Thursday, February 25, 2010

As old old mainframe guy, I am positive that most platforms have enough “junk” installed on them so that NO ONE can have what we in the old days would call “system assurance”. Say what one wants about the old centralized computing systems, they had change control. Until IBM started to NOT share its microcode and source code with its Customers, any one could sit down with a module and examine what was in fact running with what was supposed to be running. Often when there was an “opportunity”, the first thing that folks did was conduct a “witch hunt” for what was wrong. Today, that is impossible and unheard of.

What’s even more amusing to us “old hands” is the Linux movement and the Web-i-fication of applications. Funny how the world of “distributed computing” is swinging back to “centralization” with Web Operating Systems and Web Applications.

The Linux distribtuions are putting the end users back in control of the Operating System source code.

The Web application are making “system assurance” impossible.

A virus writer no longer has the luxury of the Microsoft mono-culture. Find a operating system hole and exploit it everywhere. And, the Microsoft death grip on applications (i.e., word processing) is being exploded by Google Docs, Zoho, and their ilk. As well as competed with by Open Office.

Anyone who feels confident that they, and their data, are not literally walking a high-wire tight rope across Niagra Falls on a windy day … Well, they are at best naive and at worst foolish.

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SOFTWARE: TEXTEXPANDER good but dangerous

Friday, February 19, 2010

After my visit to the Apple store for them to replace my Mac Book Air display, I found that TEXTEXPANDER had “lost its mind”. All my registration and abbreviations were gone.

Great Brother Jasper’s Ghost!!! No real backup. Argh!

I started the rebuild from an old old print and griped at the maker. Software; not THE Maker! Please, no lightening bolt for me. Surely not for something so trivial as lost data. Lost date maybe; lost partial data not so much.

Here’s their response.

# – # – #

Sorry about that, on rare occasions TextExpander can reset. If you have v 2.8 then there is a backup in TextExpander. Go to:

[Home]/Library/Application Support/TextExpander/Settings.textexpander

That Settings.textexpander file is what you need to replace with a backup to restore your snippets and registration information. Also, you will see a SettingsBackup.textexpander. Rename that to Settings.textexpander when you need to restore your settings.

Thanks for using TextExpander from SmileOnMyMac!

Regards,

TextExpander Support

http://www.smileonmymac.com/textexpander

# – # – #

Another less that satisfying reply. At least next time it happens, I will know where to go and restore a file from my Time Machine. (It just keeps chugging away. I’m kinda looking forward to a bare metal restore. How’s that for over confidence?)

And, I’ll keep a weekly print of my abbreviations file.

My response to “support”:

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Too late. I already started rebuilding it.

Really need a explicit back up and recovery option. Over on window, my copy of ROBOFORM has a really nice UI. Explicit menu choice to BACKUP and RESTORE from a user chosen location. Suggest same.

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And not a WTx, Argh, or other expletive in it. (One small checkmark for the Final Judgement?)

So my opinion hasn’t changed much on TEXTEXPANDER. Great utility; dangerous as a falling knife.

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Posted by reinkefj

TECHNOLOGY: The Intel Windoze treadmill

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Vol. 2, # 5 – Feb 4, 2010 – Issue # 21
How Well does Windows 7 Run on a Notebook with Modest Specs?
Deb Shinder, Editor

*** begin quote ***

I bought the Sony TX back in January 2007, right after Vista was released. I had specifically waited for the release so I could get a new notebook that came with Vista pre-installed, because my Sony T didn’t support an upgrade to Vista. The TX came with Vista Business edition. The hardware was very nice, but the operating system ran as slowly as molasses. I had been running Vista Ultimate on my Dell XPS for over a year (in beta and RC) with no problems, so I was shocked at the lousy performance on my brand new notebook.

*** end quote ***

Ahh, yes, the planned obsolescence of the Intel Windoze platform.

Here we have an tech editor, who by her own figures, has spent about 6k$ over 4 years on platforms. To accomplish basically the same computing tasks.

(I’d accept buying new hardware if she had a catastrophic failure, like a smoking hard disk, spill or drop. Or if she wanted to do them new flangledy U Tubby videos that need editing. But, for no “GOOD” reason?)

That doesn’t count all the “administration” costs of the platform and switching.

No, for the average use, who wants a tool, the Intel Windoze platform doesn’t make sense.

And, what happened to all the “greenies” saving the planet? (Not that I think the planet needs saving!) How about the “footprint” of three machines?

Argh!

I’m on my way to Linux when my current hardware dies.

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Posted by reinkefj

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