Lessons Learned: I need a service that notifies others who could help me.
So where is www dot if I am off line dot com?
If could be as simple as a flurry of emails that go out, if I don’t reset the clock. Say, every X hours.
For a inet o holic like me, it could be every twelve hours. If I don’t check in, send the emails out.
I’ll offer the service for 29.99 per month and stuff ads in the emails and on the websites.
I’ll be a grazillionaire in no time.
:-)
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Leave a Comment » | 
SERVICE | 
Permalink
Posted by reinkefj
FOR THE RECORD:
The DELL LUGGABLE is aka an Inspiron 9100
DELL 130 w ac adapter
model pa – 1131 – 02d dp/n 9y819
input 100-240v 50-60 hz 2.5 A
output 19.5 v 6.7A
A big power brick imho.
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Leave a Comment » | HARDWARE | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj
Under the heading of “lessons learned” recently, one really has to test one’s personal dr plan. In this case, I COULD have just carried a second laptop. That was probably the easiest solution. I COULD have completed my “uninstalled life” project where everything would have been backed up on the inet. I COULD have printed my fob’s password list. And, there are probably other things that I could have done. I’ll be working on all of those couldas in the coming weeks. It’s not that I travel much, but one should be prepared.
Upon reflection, the cheapest, easiest, no brainer solution would be to carry the second laptop.
Note Bene: For all those who say use the hotel’s business center, all the one’s that I checked only offered you a common screen – mouse – keyboard – inet connection at fifty cents a half-minute. Argh! That could run into real money very quickly. In the Golden Nugget, their “business center was two units side by side in the lobby. Not private. Not comfortable. Not conducive to work. As someone who “clocks” hours on my computer, that’s $60/hour. If I wanted to do 40 hours, then that’s $2400!! Buying a new laptop was on 500$. (It was a Gateway.) After further review, I should have pulled the trigger on Sunday night and been done with it. But, now I know.
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Leave a Comment » | HARDWARE | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj
FROM A WINDOWS SECRETS EMAIL
Microsoft updates Windows without users’ consent
By Scott Dunn
***Begin Quote***
Microsoft has begun patching files on Windows XP and Vista without users’ knowledge, even when the users have turned off auto-updates.
Many companies require testing of patches before they are widely installed, and businesses in this situation are objecting to the stealth patching.
Files changed with no notice to users
In recent days, Windows Update (WU) started altering files on users’ systems without displaying any dialog box to request permission. The only files that have been reportedly altered to date are nine small executables on XP and nine on Vista that are used by WU itself. Microsoft is patching these files silently, even if auto-updates have been disabled on a particular PC.
It’s surprising that these files can be changed without the user’s knowledge. The Automatic Updates dialog box in the Control Panel can be set to prevent updates from being installed automatically. However, with Microsoft’s latest stealth move, updates to the WU executables seem to be installed regardless of the settings — without notifying users.
When users launch Windows Update, Microsoft’s online service can check the version of its executables on the PC and update them if necessary. What’s unusual is that people are reporting changes in these files although WU wasn’t authorized to install anything.
***End Quote***
Yup, just like Darth Vader. And you wonder why I’m departing the Microsoft fold?
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Leave a Comment » | SERVICE | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj
I am just coming off a week of enforced “radio silence”. It felt strange. Like I had lost a large part of my mind. I had many interesting things happening and no place to record them. A pad of yellow paper is no substitute for a keyboard and this podium. Over the coming week as work, time, and attention permit, I’ll try to transcribe the ramblings of the “crazy man” in the electronic isolation booth.
An electronic version of a “sensory deprivation” tank?
I have eleven pages of notes. I’m not sure that all of it will make it to the keyboard. A whine looses something after it ages. Also, not being “in the moment” means the subtle details are lost. The mind plays funny tricks with what it chooses to remember. It’s probably the Intelligent Designer’s gift to us that failures are forgotten and successes are remembers.
I’m in the process of doing my after action “lessons learned”. And, boy, do I have a lot of “learning” from this trip to do!!
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Leave a Comment » | INTERESTING | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj
FROM DICK MORRIS’ EZINE
*** begin quote ***
The public face of Hillary Clinton’s new health care plan is sunny, filled with choices for consumers and bright with promises for better health care for all. But a close examination of the proposal alongside other initiatives of Sen. Clinton in the past few years reveals a dark side she wants to hide from public view until after the election is over.
*** and ***
Hillary speaks of the importance of stopping health insurance companies from raising premiums on those who are sick. But she does not mention the inevitable flip side of her proposal — to raise premiums on those who are well. On the one hand, she would cover all those with chronic conditions with low cost health insurance and, on the other, would stop insurance companies from “cherry picking” healthy and young people for their insurance plans. The net effect would be a major increase in health insurance premiums for the vast majority of Americans.
In effect, her plan would turn “insurance” into “subsidy.” The concept of insurance is that one pays a relatively low premium to guard against catastrophic expenses that are outside of our ability to meet financially. But Hillary’s program would really be nothing more than a cash transfer from the healthy to the sick, not an insurance program at all.
*** end quote ***
Hey, if the bull doesn’t see the sword behind the cape, then he’s dead. Just as dead the American health care system, if the voting public can’t see thru the Democratic smoke ‘n’ mirrors around “free” health care.
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Leave a Comment » | Political | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=481263&in_page_id=1770
World’s smallest four-seater car takes centre stage
By RAY MASSEY
Last updated at 20:29pm on 11th September 2007
***Begin Quote***
The world’s smallest four-seater micro-car was unveiled by Toyota at the Frankfurt Motor Show.
The ‘IQ’ prototype is just 9ft 9 inches long – about three inches shorter than the original Mini – and is expected in showrooms within two years priced between £9,000 and £10,000.
It has enough room for three adults and a small child, but a sliding seat arrangement means it can be driven as a two seater with added boot space.
***End Quote***
Now call me an “injineer” but since I see that most times, people commute alone, perhaps there’s a market for a single seat “car”. My only criteria is that is has to survive a crash with a Hummer.
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Leave a Comment » | Technology | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj
OK, I messed up. I went off on vacation and stupidly left the power transformer at home. Now that was the root cause.
In my attempts to “fix” my problem, singularly DELL stands out as my personal villain in this particularly morality play. Based on my prior experiences with them, I was not expecting a good results. In the list of things that I tried, they were my next to last option. True to form, they not only managed to disappoint me, but they actually teased me with a promise and then managed to dash my hopes.
Strike One: My luddite friend attempted to identify the replacement power supply from the DELL website with my service tag. (The LUGGABLE’s unique identifier.) But, the site would not recognize the tag. (That would have been too easy!)
Strike Two: I called from the hotel and, with the very same service tag, Nicholas was able to id my system, find the needed power supply, and place the order. I, very carefully, (this call is being recorded for quality assurance — my ass), expressed the fervent desire to have the power supply in my hotel in Las Vegas. I even joked that he should be sure NOT to send it to my home. He assured me that “it could NOT happen”. He insisted on sending me an email confirm with everything I needed to track the order. I explained that without the power, I had no way to check that email address without the power cord. Sigh.
(Needless to say, I pestered the heck out of the hotel bell staff about my package.)
It was amusing when I got the phone message from home from DHL telling me that they were trying to deliver my package. I called DELL and they acted dumbstruck that I wanted the package at my hotel. No problem! They could redirect my package and I could have my package on MONDAY! I calmly and quietly pointed out that I WOULD BE AT HOME by then. Then, the helpful DELL person said she have the delivery delayed until Monday and I could have it them. Argh! (No, I didn’t tell them to stick it where the sun don’t shine.) After we debated the merits of their assertion that it was “not returnable”. They transferred me to “customer (dis)service” who would decide if credit would be issued. For security purposes, I had to give my name, address, city, state, zip, phone, and email. (Security my a double Q) “Let me put you on hold while I look up your case!” Double Argh! The vocabulary just drove me nuts. Eventually, after a half hour on my cell phone, it was all straightened out.
Strike Three: The next day, I got a strange phone call on my phone. Which when I answered, they hung up. Later I picked up a long nasty voice mail from DHL saying that “they could not complete the delivery and that the extra charges would be charge to my credit card”. (This I can’t wait to see that!!)
Note for the record: the email has ship to home address. Argh!
CONCLUSION: DELL really sucks. They may sell computers cheap, but don’t depend upon them for anything after that.
(I was reminded, during my call, that if I had purchased the four year extended warranty that they would cover the power supply. “barbara streisand”!! They forget I’m a methodical record keeper –like I’d forget this one!! About a month into the new warranty, the wire to the LUGGABLE power block went bad. They did nothing but moan ‘n’ groan about replacing it. The wire would not deliver enough power to boot the box, but you could boot the box on the battery, then plug in the power supply and it would recharge the battery. I was supposed to send them the power supply with the wire, and then in two weeks, they’d let me KNOW if it was going to be replaced. So how full of it were they? I forget the power supply and they under the warranty will send me another? “barbara streisand”! By the way, that four year extended warranty would have cost as much as the machine did. When they originally tried to sell it to me, I said “I should just buy two”! And, they wanted to sell it to me. No joke!)
If you think I am really frosted, you’re right!
I have a long list of lessons learned. But the principle one is don’t depend upon DELL … ever!
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UPDATE: With apologies to my favorite Luddite (because deep in my heart I thought he might NOT have been up to the task), I too today entered the the Luggable’s Service Tag 3KZZ571 into the Dell website and it responded “service tag not found”. So, a relatively easy task, enter tag, find part, and order same, turned into the nightmare. Argh!
UPDATE: Another friend said he had DELLs and could have sent me the power supply. But I knew from my prior power problems that a lesser DELL power supply would not have worked.
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UPDATE:
My recent disaster has led me to do a slew of thinking about it.
BTW, I was not thinking clearly in LV. I could have used the hotel’s browser at 12$/hour, done gotomypc to Frau’s machine at home, where I could have reached my backup of the fob’s password file. With that I could have then done anything I needed to.
Argh! I hate when I am dumb.
So, from the hotel’s browser, or any inet connected screen / keyboard, I can now g.ho.st.
Sunday night, I should have bought the notebook at Sams for $600. I could have then used the inet from the room for 10$. At that point, I had my fob. I could have then retrieved ALL my data from MOZY. The next day, I could have gone to the verizon store and updated my vwbbie to a usb model. And, I’d have been really essentially back in business as usual.
Sigh!
Hindsight is always 20/20.
I coulda taken my employer’s notebook on vacation with me.
I should have had the replacement power cord delivered to a real person and reshipped it.
I should have brought my old dell with the bum battery.
I shoulda … remembered the cord.
The shouldas, couldas, and woulda will kill you.
Sigh!
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2 Comments | Ranting | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj
http://www.smartmoney.com/thenewretirement/index.cfm?story=september2007
The New Retirement
Don’t Believe the Hype on Medicare Part D
By Peter Keating |Peter Keating Archive |Published: September 10, 2007
*** begin quote ***
Try this on for size instead. Under Medicare’s drug benefit, you pay $4,270 of the first $5,871 in prescription costs you incur.
*** AND ***
Part D has serious problems beyond the doughnut hole. For one thing, it requires insurers to offer just one drug per therapeutic class, which means no plan may cover all of the specific blood pressure or anti-inflammatory drugs your doctor wants to prescribe. For another, Medicaid, state insurance programs and private employers are all dumping beneficiaries into Part D. That may save those plans money, but it costs seniors. In the first half of 2006, for example, low-income retirees and their insurers paid an extra $325 million to Pfizer because they lost discounts in switching from Medicaid to Part D. Most important, after a quiet period following the prescription benefit’s enactment, insurance companies got busy hiking prices: 78% of Part D insurers increased the price of their most popular drugs at least three times last year, according to a Consumers Union study of 225 plans in the five biggest states. About a quarter of them pushed prices up by 5% or more in just the first two months of this year.
*** end quote ***
You really didn’t think that this was anything but WELFARE for the drug companies?
Why DO you think they make all those big campaign contributions to both political parties? It not out of principle but out of greed.
Argh!
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Leave a Comment » | Political | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj
http://www.pickthebrain.com/blog/intelligent-leisure-time-activity
***Begin Quote***
7. Find a good hobby – A hobby is a great way to develop skills and interact with other people. Some of them can even generate income. A hobby builds on itself. You start out knowing nothing and gradually build a repertoire of skills. Even if these skills aren’t particularly useful, the process helps you learn how to learn. Once you’ve developed one set of skills from scratch, the next set is even easier.
***End Quote***
Sounds like I have to update my mantra-like spiel that I give to the youth I come in contact with.
Success for your generation is: (1) ruthless financial discipline; (2) education for a white collar job; (3) a blue collar skill — never saw a poor plumber; and (4) one or more internet based businesses.
Have to figure out to integrate: (x) have a hobby that generates income.
Here’s my new one:
Success for your generation is: (1) ruthless financial discipline — no bad debt; (2) a life long interest in learning — an education — a degree — they can’t take it away from you; (3) a white collar job in order to save big bux; (4) a blue collar skill for hard times — never saw a poor plumber; (5) one or more internet based businesses — your store is always open; and (6) a free time hobby that generates income.
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Leave a Comment » | MONEY | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj
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FJohn Reinke
Consultant at Technology Legacies LLC
Advisor, Computer Governance Committee at Manhattan College
Editor / Publisher at Jasper Jottings
Greater New York City Area
JJ Positraction JJ Endnotes Downsize DC
Philosophy of Liberty
I have NOT received any gagged governmental information requests
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