TECHNOLOGY: Don’t beleive tech support

Tuesday, January 6, 2009

Over on FACEBOOK, a fellow alum reported trouble connecting a Belkin Wireless Card to his home LAN.

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TRYING to get Elizabeth’s new wireless card working- Windows sucks!

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I had given him the following advice.

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Suggest downloading and burning the latest UBUNTU distribution. Run it as “LIVE” boot up disk. (As opposed to installing it.) THis will quickly connect to the home lan and tell you, for sure, that it is WINDOZE. That’s good confimation to have. When I have WINDOZE problems like that, I delete everything in sight. And the REBOOT cold three times. (Three times is essential, imho, because it keeps stuff around until it is purged out.) Then, magically, let WINDOZE rebuild the hardware images. WINDOZE does (magically) bring itself back from the dead. No chicken etrails required.

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He reported:

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“The computer had Windows XP from 2002 with no service packs. Even though Belkin said this wouldn’t matter- it did. I used an older wirless G card from another PC to connect to the router, ran the Microsoft XP updates and then put back the new card and it then worked fine.”

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Argh!

I never thought about the Service Packs.

I responded:

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Thanks, Don. It’s the “after action” report with “lessons learned”. I was interested in. (I admit I thought you were still playing with it.) Interesting. I have a general problem with Microsoft Service Packs in that they apply “lots” of fixes. And, there usually on the tricky ones “no retreat” possible. It’s one reason, I have left the “Dark Empire” for good with respect to my “home” computing. An employer paying me can use what ever foolishness they want. I’m happy to collect a paycheck “checking chicken entrails” on Windoze. Personally, I just want stuff that works like the old telephone – cheap, flawlessly, every time, without thought. :-) Well at least that’s the illusion.

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I still don’t like Service Packs due to the “sometimes you can’t go home again” nature of some of the fixes they apply.

That and the one size fits all nature.

And, you can’t “test”. We’re talking about most folks’ production environment now. You apply it and it breaks stuff, you’re screwed.

Argh!

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MONEY: THe FED is the “root of all evil”!

Monday, January 5, 2009

http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig2/stewart9.html

The Crisis in 10 Points
by Robert Stewart

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2. The Federal Reserve System (the Fed – created in 1913) has accommodated government’s policy of spending to excess by inflating the money supply and keeping interest rates artificially low. Today’s dollar will buy what in 1913 would cost less than a nickel. This easy-money policy has not only led to inflation but has resulted in investments taking place that would not be justified had the money supply been constrained, and had interest rates more clearly reflected economic reality.

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IMHO, this is the root of so many evils since 1913. Even the “income tax” wasn’t as bad as this. The FED allows the political class to extract value from the poor and middle class without the “bother” of taxes. It’s the hidden silent tax. And, it extracts more “wealth” than even the “death tax”.

I can’t believe that people are so stupid!

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LOCAL: Frozen lakes are trajedies waiting to happen

Monday, January 5, 2009

http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2009/01/plainsboro_woman_drowns_trying.html#preview

Plainsboro woman drowns trying to save dog from frozen pond
by Nyier Abdou and Joe Ryan/The Star-Ledger
Saturday January 03, 2009, 7:11 PM

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A Plainsboro woman fell through the ice and drowned today while trying to rescue her grandson’s dog from a frozen pond.

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Posted by reinkefj on 01/05/09 at 8:47AM

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Sad.

Interesting to see if a lawsuit doesn’t come out of this. Who owns the lake?

If it’s the town, then a simple rope with a ring would have been a great forethought. Or and after thought?

In the USAF survival school, we were taught, along with a lot of other stuff, not to go on ice with “ice picks”. (Wood dowels with nails protruding.) We had them on the hood draw strings as an inspection item for winter field exercises. Funny the stuff you remember forty years later.

Tonight I’ll remember her in my prayers for her and the family. Valiently trying to save her dog.

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SERVICE: Flash cards on the web

Monday, January 5, 2009

http://www.emilychang.com/go/ehub/app/cramberry/

Courtesy of Emily Chang:

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Jan 04, 09

Cramberry

A web app that helps people (students, actors, or anyone else) memorize things (schoolwork, lines in a play, etc.) using flashcards. Users create a blank “set” of flashcards, then name the set, and start adding cards to the set. Once you’re ready, the app presents these cards to you in a random order so you can answer the cards.

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Tried it. One link wrong on their main page. But it does work.

Needs maturation.

(1) No export. (2) No way to monetize your sets of flash cards.

Interesting concept.

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FUN: Phillie’s Football MP4Bs beat Minnie’s Football MP4Bs

Sunday, January 4, 2009

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090105/ap_on_sp_fo_ga_su/fbn_eagles_vikings

Eagles fly past Vikings with 26-14 playoff victory
By DAVE CAMPBELL, AP Sports Writer Dave Campbell, Ap Sports Writer – 1 hr 9 mins ago

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MINNEAPOLIS – Above the Metrodome’s deafening noise, Donovan McNabb stayed poised. Completing passes precisely when the Eagles needed him to, McNabb repeatedly sidestepped the Minnesota rush and sent Philadelphia to a 26-14 playoff win Sunday after being all but forgotten as a postseason contender just one month earlier.

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I’d say that the Vikings were outcouched!

With 6_ minutes to go, 4th and 10, the Vikings punted.

There went the game!

Out Coached!

Argh!

Was a good game up to that point!

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Need the title explained?

MP4B = “Millionaires Playing For Billionaires”

And, we’re supposed to cut them some slack, feel sorry for their screwed up lives, and pay tax subsidies to MLB, NFL, NHL, and others? Not bloodly well likely. They should pay their own way and kiss the ground every morning for having it so easy.

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RANT: More spending covered by “tax cuts”. Argh!

Sunday, January 4, 2009

http://online.wsj.com?mod=djemalertNEWS

From: “WSJ.com Editors” <access@interactive.wsj.com>
Date: January 4, 2009 6:52:21 PM EST
Subject: WSJ NEWS ALERT: Obama Eyes $310 Billion Tax Cut

__________________________________

NEWS ALERT

from The Wall Street Journal

Jan. 4, 2009

President-elect Barack Obama and congressional Democrats are crafting a plan to offer as much as $310 billion in tax cuts to individuals and businesses, a move aimed at attracting Republican support for an economic-stimulus package and prodding companies to create jobs.

The size of the proposed tax cuts — which would account for about 40% of a stimulus package that could reach $775 billion over two years — is greater than many on both sides of the aisle in Congress had anticipated, and may make it easier to win over Republicans who have stressed that any initiative should rely relatively heavily on tax cuts rather than.

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All you youngsters better speak up or we’ll all be in the “national poorhouse”. We’re probably half-way there already!

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TECHNOLOGY: dot com name gets jumped and “tasted”

Sunday, January 4, 2009

I sought to register “technologyforbusiness” dot com. BLUEHOST reported it “available”. So I was proceeding to close on it. Your system reset? And, now it’s not available. From my 1and1 account I see it’s for sale for 1288$. Please explain?

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Bottom line: The interest in the domain trigger a bot at one of the Domain Register that “seized” it. Domain Registrars are allow to reserve, or “taste”, domain names without paying for them for a week. It’s basically fraud. It was intended to allow registrars to hold the name while the applicant completed the transactions. Now it’s used to “front run”. On Wall Street, a trader would go to jail. On the internet, it’s a profit center.

Argh!

The laugh is that I don’t need the name!

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JOBSEARCH: Recent advice to a new “turkey”

Sunday, January 4, 2009

— In MyVirtualPowerForum, I wrote:

> > Jackie,
> > If I were you,
> > FIRST: I’d PUT JACKIE FIRST – I’m aware that this position may be

With all due deference, politeness, and know I may upset the tender sensibilities of the readers …

Dear Ms. Jackie:

SCREW THEM!

They have just “voted you off the island” and your worried about doing a good job for them?

Are you NUTS?

Yeah, you want your thirty days of continuing paychecks, BUT, (there is always a big butt), you have to “look out for Numero Uno.

You need to do a “wet ware control alt delete”. Force Quit all the obsolete notions of employment loyalty of yesteryear. (“I love you my company. You my company love me. Oh how happy we will be … as you send me over Niagara falls sans barrel.”) Don’t sing the company song on the way to the firing squad.

You have a long road to travel. I’ve been down it 6 times and am currently going down it. The “trash-situation-transition road”. Been there, done that, and have the tshirt. And the scars to show for it.

By way of help:

(1) I have a “turkey farm” (that what job seekers are) (Me included!) http://tinyurl.com/lxu93 Feel free to browse and “steal” anything useful.

(2) Feel free to LINKEDIN to me “reinkefj”. Send me an invite.

(3) Listen to VW’s sage advice. (VW: I’d have said “assess financial status” first. Then get working. Need to know how close this shave is going to be.)

(4) Browse the state unemployment website NOW. On company time. They have a check for you. Understand exactly when you can get it and what you have to do for it. They don’t make it easy. But it’s gotten easier over the years. I know personally!

(5) DON’T spend money for “job search” help without vetting it here FIRST. I know the WSAs, the “get a job fast” industry, and “work at home” “barbara streisand” is VERY attractive but it’s designed to separate you from your money and it wastes your time and attention. You may need help with a resume. But that is NOT your immediate need. And, that is relatively cheap. (The good ones that is. Some are overpriced at any price because you do all the work.)   I don’t want to overload you with too much, but you need to quickly reorient yourself to the real world, figure out your Life’s Goals, define your Unique Value Proposition (I see everyone rolling their eyes!) to state what you are going to do to release value, and your Unique Sales Proposition (More eye rolling, I see) to state how you are going to “sell” yourself. Then get going.

Feel free to use me or my stuff or my network. And remember these lessons forever. Unfortunately, too many of our fellow turkeys fall into that old thinking immediately after they land.

We are a nation of “consultants” now. Very short term ones at that!

Best of luck,
fjohn
the big fat old turkey hisself

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POLITICAL: Gaza as theater?

Sunday, January 4, 2009

http://knappster.blogspot.com/2009/01/gaza-in-brief.html  

Gaza, in brief
from KN@PPSTER by Kn@ppster

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Israel isn’t going to crush Hamas, because their meal ticket would expire if they did. Hamas isn’t going to settle, for the same reason. The show must go on.

High-quality theatre? Perhaps. But it’s hell on the extras.

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Interesting perspective. You have to think that it’s a possibility.

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RANT: Don’t listen to celebs

Saturday, January 3, 2009

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/health/article5401129.ece

From The Times
December 27, 2008
Don’t take health tips from celebs if you know what’s good for you
David Rose

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From Madonna’s quest to “neutralise radiation” to Tom Cruise’s dismissals of psychiatry, celebrities are seldom shy about expressing their views on health and science – even when they appear not to know what they are talking about.

A roll call of public figures such as Cruise and Delia Smith have offered bogus advice or “quackery” this year, according to scientists and doctors. The charity Sense About Science is concerned that celebrities mislead the public when they endorse theories, diets or health products while misrepresenting the science involved.

Some – such as Oprah Winfrey and Kate Moss – espouse “detox” regimes, while others, such as Sharon and Kelly Osbourne, believe (mistakenly) that the Pill can cause cancer.

Nor are politicians exempt from lending credence to health myths. The US President-elect is among several American public figures who continue to suggest that the MMR vaccination is a potential cause of autism, despite an overwhelming weight of scientific evidence to the contrary.

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Why do people take anything from a celebrity?

Health advice, scientific advice, or political advice. Anything!

At least when Ted Turner gets up and pontificates his liberal agenda, he has made a contribution to the world. While I don’t agree with him, he has earned a listen. Madonna, Tom Cruise, and Kate Moss — please give me a break. They have the right to free speech; I have a right to ignore them.

Oprah is a special case of “speak with forked toungue”. Her Obama endorsement was plainly racist. She fell a bunch of notches in my opinion. Like Rosie O’D who was the “Queen of Nice” until she let fame get to her, there was a double cross.

Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me.

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