Can Someone Please Tell Me Why?

Lee Harvey Oswald's used wooden coffin auctioned and sells for more than $87,000.

Is it just me or is this sick?

Martha

How About Some Imagination?

I'm talking Microsoft here!

They can't seem to come up with original names for their email clients and talk about confusion!

We have Outlook in Microsoft Office and Outlook Express in Windows XP and earlier versions of Windows.  OK, that's not too bad, but still confuses lots of folks.

Messenger and Messenger Service was also confusing to a lot of us.(Not exactly email but still...)

In Vista we got Windows Mail.  That was a bit buggy so they came up with Windows Live Mail. (That was certainly buggy for me!) Then to top it all off we get Windows Live Mail 2011!

Please, Microsoft, name the next email version something new!

Martha

Is the TSA Going Too Far?

Oh yes, they are.  I am talking about the 'search' of passengers who fly.  The initial 'pat downs' were bad enough.  Now they are assaulting passengers in a way that would be considered a sexual assault and illegal anywhere else.  Passenger Security Checkpoints

They are 'feeling up' people in a totally unacceptable way! It is absolutely outrageous!  If the people don't protest to the powers that be it will surely continue.

I know the flying public wants to be safe when traveling.  But I seriously doubt they want to be felt up.

Here is one would-be passenger's experience. TSA encounter at SAN

For what it's worth, I will never ever fly again until the TSA stops treating passengers this way!  I predict air travel will diminish, trains, buses and auto travel will get an uptick.

Martha

I really hate this stuff!

Robo calls.  These are even worse when the robo caller doesn't recognize the answer machine or voice mail.  (Do you hear me, Secure Horizons?)  And the robo caller keeps calling and filling up my voice mail.  Ugh!

It's bad enough when you call a customer service center (especially the phone company) and have to listen to some automated robot before you can get through to a real person.  Now the robot is calling us!

The supermarket keeps re-arranging where stuff is located. Pressed for time I have to search all over the store for stuff I need.

All of a sudden stuff I am used to buying is no longer sold where I shop. I really hate this!

The product I want says '0 trans fat', but the ingredients (in teeny tiny letters) list 'partially hydrogenated oi'.  Hey dummies, that's trans fat!

Those drug company commercials that want us to 'Ask your doctor'.

Those awful commercials that end up with folks in bathtubs in the middle of nowhere.  For shame!

Victoria Secrets commercials.  Just because. (I have never ever known or seen in person anyone with a figure like those models!)

There are more things that really bug me, but for now this is all I want to say.

Martha

Is the Internet making us gullible?

I keep getting an email from various friends and family about October having 5 Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. (This is true.) Then the email goes on to say "This happens once every 823 years."  (Definitely NOT true!)

How can folks be so gullible!

Well if enough people say something, then folks start to believe it however ridiculous it may be. This is true of a lot of the junk emails getting sent around in cyberspace.

There are a number of sites that have taken the time to debunk (explain) the truth about this hoax. One is the Hoax Slayer and another is Snopes.

If people would just stop to think they might realize that some things just aren't realistic, common sense should tell us it wouldn't happen only every 823 years!

Martha

Free (But only for your private information)

Some 'free' things are not free.  If you have to provide your personal detail in order to receive information, it isn't free.  Companies pay big bucks for user details, so many sites try to collect them.  That's why there are so many social networking sites.  They don't charge you a fee, but you pay with your details.

I am a fanatic about Facebook privacy.  So when I saw this 'free' offer for "The (Very) Unoficial Guide to Facebook Privacy Free Guide", I bit.

But it isn't free.  In order to get this guide I have to provide a LOT of personal information.
"Complete and verifiable information is required in order to receive this Guide."

I suspect the guide would tell me not to provide this kind of information to Facebook, but I think I'll just pass on this 'Free Guide'.

Can you say 'Hypocrite'?

Martha

The Faster My Internet Connection, The Slower It Gets

So why is that?  It's because of all those external ad servers!  More all the time.  Sometimes there are so many ads on a site it's hard to find any content.

I know folks need to pay the bills, but give me a break, enough already! First there is intelli-text with those irritating boxes that jump up and obscure what you want to see. It's not just personal sites either. Even CNN uses intelli-text!

I read a lot of stuff online, but sometimes it gets frustrating when I have to wait for all those ad servers to finish loading.

Just a few that I have waited for today:
Downloading data from apimg.video.ap.org
Downloading data from core.videoegg.com
Downloading data from cdn.eyewonder.com
Downloading data from s0.2mdn.net
Downloading data from puma.vizu.com
Downloading data from ads.yldmgrimg.net

There were more, but they loaded so fast I couldn't read them all.

Today I am waiting and waiting.........Trying to view Environmental Graffiti! The bar at the bottom of my browser says 'Waiting for dig.com'.  Why? I have no idea!
Now it says Transferring data from scribol.com...' Waiting for zulu.tweetmeme.com... I just don't have time for all this 'Waiting for', so I will pass on this today and just mark those feeds as read. maybe I will try again later, but probably not.

Martha

A Mattress Myth

Does a mattress double its weight due to dust mites and their debris?  Folks that sell mattresses tell us it will. They go on to say it will double the weight in 8 years (or 10 depending on the ad).

I don't think so! And I am not the only one not buying into this myth, either.

The Straight Dope sets us straight.

I didn't really need someone to tell me it wasn't true, but it's nice someone did!

Marketing folks will latch onto any myth if they think it will help them sell something. Buyers beware!

Martha

The Inmates Are Running the Asylum

Another example of why our schools are so far behind other countries.  The people running the show have no common sense as evidenced by this incident, Toy gun leads to Florida boy's expulsion.

Read more of the idiotic 'zero policies' enacted by the idiots running the schools.

Rules need to be enforced, but circumstances must always be considered. Is it any wonder our kids are not competing with the world?  They think and rightly so, the powers that govern their lives make no sense, so why should they care?

I read about this stuff in total amazement that we trust our children's education and futures to such total stupidity.

Martha

Dumb Things People Do

This list could be really long, but I will try not to get too wordy. I have to admit, sometimes I do dumb things as well. But then doesn't everyone?

One really dumb thing people to is park their expensive cars on the driveway because the garage is full of junk worth maybe a few hundred dollars. Dumb!

If a person drives 20 miles to save 3 cents on a gallon of gas, that's dumb!

Another really dumb thing people do is buy stuff from spam emails.  If no one bought anything from spam, before long there wouldn't be much spam. Of course there would still be some unwanted emails from Grouply and so-called social sites, but that is a drop in the bucket compared to the spam we get now.

A really dumb thing people do is sign up for those so-called social sites without knowing or understanding what those sites will do. The part I have a problem with is importing all those users' contacts from their email programs. Yikes, what a spam collectors dream!

The latest dumb thing I did was delete the wrong file from my Documents.  It held all my email for Windows Live Mail. I am consoling myself with the fact that that I think Windows Live Mail is buggy anyway, and most of the emails were really not worth hanging onto. I was planning on uninstalling it anyway.

I think I will take it easy today so I won't do anything dumb.

Martha

Something to Think About (Social Networks)

Never give your email password to one of these sites!  While you are signing up, read everything very carefully! Do NOT get in a hurry and just keep clicking 'Next' without reading! This can cause you to send 'invitations' to everyone in your address book and make a lot of folks really mad at you!

If you belong to a Yahoo Group and you give one of these sites the login and password to your email account,  this social network (including Facebook) will spam the Yahoo Group and maybe most of the members.  This kind of stuff will, of course, get you banned as most folks don't like being spammed, especially the group owner/moderators.

You can join one of these groups without offering up your email security (password).  Most if not all have a 'skip this' option.

If you think about it, how do you know what those sites will do with your email password?  I know, most of them say they won't store it.  That, my friends, may be a big fat lie!  If they don't store it, then why do I keep getting reminders in my email that someone has invited me to join them on Facebook! They at least still have all those email addresses so they can spam everyone over and over again all the folks who don't join them on Facebook!

Another thought; who's to say someone who has access to that spammer's delight of a humongous email database might decide to 'cash in' and sell that list?

So if you have foolishly given that social network the login and password so they can access  your address book, at least undo the damage and change the password to your email account. And while you are at it, make that password really hard to guess to prevent a scumbag from hacking your email account!

Martha

All Those Blog Posts I Didn't Write

I resisted the urge to post a lot of stuff. Those times I wanted to berate folks for all of the terrible emails they send about politicians.  Most of them are very vitriolic and have little truth to them.

I resisted the urge to post what I think about sites like 'Why Mommy is a Democrat' or other such nonsense. (Damaging young children's minds, well never mind.)

I wanted to write what I thought about politicians in general. (You probably feel the same way.) But I resisted the urge because I couldn't say what I thought without using some too colorful words.

I resisted the urge to write my opinions of Obama, Palin and the current governor of Texas.

I wrote about what the media does for things in general, but I didn't post it. Most folks probably don't care anyway.

I didn't post how I feel about emails with religious stuff.

Since I didn't post all that stuff, I think by now folks may figure out, politics and religion are taboo subjects for me to post ON THIS BLOG.  I may make another blog so I can really vent!

Martha

Lost in Cyberspace

Somewhere between Gmail and Outlook, an email vanished. I looked everywhere, but to no avail. Since I always check Gmail in the AM before I open Outlook, I did see the email so I know it was there.  It came yesterday into Gmail but it never came into my Outlook which stays open all day once I open it.

So where did it go?  All of the other messages received in Gmail downloaded into Outlook, but not this one. It's not in the Inbox or the folder where it should have filtered. Not in the junk maik folder, the deleted folder or anywhere else. It just didn't download.

So now I am wondering.  Did all of the extra stuff Google has added to Gmail 'break' something? Or is Outlook having hiccups?

So now I start to think, I have seen some replies to emails that I don't recall seeing.  Hmm, I will check my Yahoo mail online.  (I have two email accounts that download mail into Outlook.) I know I turned the spam filter off, but just in case I looked. There were 41 legitimate emails in the Spam filter! Is Yahoo playing a 'gotcha' on me?  (I think Yahoo is broken.)

I reset the settings, so now I will check to see if more legitimate email goes to the spam filter.  I think too much is happening with Google and Yahoo, each wanting to be a 'Social Network', and stuff may be getting broken along the way.

Martha

Guess I am an 'Old Fogey'

All of this Social Networking stuff is totally beyond me.

OK, I guess it has it's uses, like keeping up with family and friends that don't have time (or the inclination) to communicate with everyone, but I don't understand why I need to know about all of the strange creatures someone has found playing a game, or all of the other peculiar things that folks do with these games.  I certainly don't need to know one of my friends is now friends with someone I never heard of.  I don't need to know that one of my family members made a comment about one of those folks I never heard of. But I confess, I have a Facebook account.

And for the life of me I don't understand why I should 'follow' some web site on Twitter or why I should want to be a 'fan' of some other website. I don't 'follow' anyone and I certainly don't want anyone 'following' me.  I think that used to be called stalking! I had a twitter account, but I cancelled it.

I keep getting invitations from some people I have never heard of, wanting me to be their 'friend' and join them on some weird website for some specific purpose like 'studying' or whatever. I left school along time ago, so what do I need to 'study' now?

My Gmail account wants me to 'Buzz'.  What on earth for? My email is supposed to be private, so why does Gmail want me to share it with everyone? I don't know everyone! (And I don't want to, either!)  I still use Gmail, but I turned Buzz off.

Facebook wants me to let everyone in the world know what I post. Why? Does Facebook think I am so wonderful that everyone in the world is eagerly waiting for me to say something marvelous?  I am afraid they are all going to be very disappointed. Marvelous and me are not something that goes together.

There is a lot of other stuff that makes me think I may be an old fogey.  I don't like cell phones!  I have one, but I don't use it much.

I see folks everywhere with cell phones in hand. What are they always taking about?  What they had for breakfast?  Who knows, but when I am out in public I don't care to be overheard taking to anyone.  I don't want to hear them talking either, but there they are yakking away, oblivious to their surroundings and who might be listening.

The Old Fogey

Misbehaving Programs

You probably have had some of these programs.  Some but not all are free and everyone likes free.  Some free programs aren't really free.  In order for them to install, you have to agree to some stuff you don't want.  There may be an option to un-check it if you don't want it, but some of them will install it anyway. I always look to see if it did install and a lot of times I have to uninstall the unwanted junk.

Foxit is bad about this.  I love the reader and I know the folks at Foxit need to make some money so I guess this is how they do it. Because it is so much better than Adobe I just have to watch and uninstall the stuff I don't want.

I recently had an email program update. Incredimail is a good email program for folks that love the eye candy in email.  I use it just for testing an a test computer as a lot of folks sometimes have questions about it. When the update downloaded and before it installed, it wanted me to change my home page. I have no reason to make Incredimail's site my home page so I ticked no and guess what, it changed it anyway. Naughty Incredimail!

I use Snagit, a wonderful screen capture program that is so much more than just a screen capture. Snagit isn't free. But Snagit wants me to use Internet Explorer.  If there is an update, it takes me to their site always using IE.  I don't use IE. I use Firefox. It really ticks me off when a browser opens that is not my default browser unless I choose to open it.

I don't want every program on my computer to run at Startup.  But most times I don't get to choose.  After the program installs I have to first check to see if there is a way to disable that by looking at 'Options' (if there are any) and usually there is no option to stop it loading at startup.  So I have to go to msconfig and disable the program from loading at start up there. Why every program writer seems to think I want my computer to be bogged down by programs running in the background, I don't know.

There a lot more of these misbehaving programs out there, I am sure.

I'm not the only one who feels this way!  'Legal Software More Annoying then Most Viruses'

Martha

Do NOT open my browser full screen!

Never, ever! This makes me want to jump through the screen and slap the perpetrator silly!

If I want my browser full screen, I, not anyone else, will make it full screen.

Extremely annoyed,

Martha

I read the Consumerist

The Consumerist

Some stuff I have learned while reading what has happened to other people.

Be careful who you bank with, as the big banks are trying to find ways to gouge you big time. Check out a small local bank and move your accounts to them. (This is not new)

Don't get a credit card with the same bank where you keep your money.  Keep your savings account, if you have one, at a different bank than your checking account. Diversify!

Get a prepaid cell phone and forget about the telcos.  They just find ways to over charge you.

If you have Comcast, find alternatives.  Comcast does not want to help you, they just want your money.  This is true of most companies that provide TV, phone service and broadband Internet, so good luck finding a good one!

Read the fine print before you sign the dotted line.  Everywhere. For Everything. You can't believe everything a customer service representative tells you.

Oh yeah, one more thing.  Folks who write to the consumerist are telling one side of the storey. (I am inclined to believe them though.)

One thing stands out. Big banks, big corporations, big companies will lie to you to get your business.  Don't trust any of them. Once they have your money and if things aren't as promised, too bad for you.

I truly thank 'The Consumerist'  for keeping me informed.

Martha

Get your Own Email Account (Email Account Oddities)

Every now and then I see an email account that seems to belong to more than one individual.
An example is 'johnandmaryjones@some isp.com'.

You've probably seen an account like this as well.  Causing even more confusion, the email address might be johnsmith@some isp.com, but the sender signs the email with a totally different name, like 'Charles Smith'.

I suspect at least one of the reasons for email account oddities is because the owner may not be aware he/she should have a separate private email address. Or perhaps the owner of the account does not want anyone else to have a separate email account so he/she can read emails intended for the other party. (Possessive?) At any rate, this practice seems odd.

Almost all ISPs (Internet Service Providers) allow several email addresses for the account. So John Jones can have a separate account and Mary Jones can have her own account. Even if the ISP allows only one account, why don't folks make use of Yahoo or Gmail to get their own account?

I have no idea why an email account that includes someone's name would belong to another person that signs a totally different name.  I imagine there is a reason, but what it could be escapes me.

Sometimes I wonder too much about stuff, this may be one of those times.

Martha

Uninstalling AVG Link Scanner

LinkScanner supposedly stops those drive-by rogues from installing on your computer.

I installed this program because I am paranoid about security. However, it never let me know if it stopped anything and to be truthful, I suspect my ESET Smart Security was doing the same job.

Since it seemed like my web browsing was slower I decided to uninstall LinkScanner.

The uninstaller kept hanging. The only way to get out of it was through Task Manager.

What a challenge this was! Every thing I found in searches on how to remove this program indicated first I would need to install AVG's virus scanner and then uninstall it. Since I have ESET, I knew that wasn't an option for me. I would have had to uninstall ESET first and then install AVG!  No way was I going to uninstall ESET!

AVG's website was no help, or at least it was well hidden.

So I just kept trying to uninstall the LinkScanner. The uninstaller would get to a certain point and just hang. The dreaded 'not responding' message would pop up every time.

Then I tried to uninstall LinkScanner by using Advanced Uninstaller.  It finally managed to uninstall it after I performed some other steps first.

I stopped it from running by disabling it in Task manager and rebooted. Then it finally uninstalled, but there were 'leftovers'  that had to be deleted manually. When trying to delete these files I kept getting a message 'The action can't be completed' because the file is open in AVG LinkScanner©9Watchdog'.

So what is this? I did a search for this on my computer  and all it did was take me back to the files I couldn't delete.

Finally it occurred to me it must be a running service. So I went to Administrative Tools/Services and sure enough there were two entries for this stubborn program, 'AVG LinkScanner©9WatchDog and AVG Security Toolbar Service.  Once I disabled these two services I was able to finally delete the 'leftover files in Program Files.

CCleaner removed the leftover Registry entries and now the LinkScanner is finally gone.  And browsing is much faster!

Martha

Astonished!

Today I called WalMart.  I know, but I wanted to know if they carried a particular item.

I almost fell out of my chair.  It rang once and a real live person answered!  No horrible automated phone menu! I almost forgot why I called I was so astonished.

Later I called AT&T to add a service to my account. Too bad, I got that horrible automated phone menu that makes me want to jump through the phone line and strangle the jerk that came up with it, if only I knew who it was.

Oh well, can't have everything, but still I wish 'customer service' really meant something. Now it's all 'the bottom line'. Customer Service seems to be lip service and not much else any more.  I will say when I finally got a real live person, that person was helpful even though I could tell a lot of the time it was scripted.

Martha

Rooting for the Giant Asteroid

There are countless movies, TV shows, books, etc. warning us about the danger of the killer asteroid that will someday hit the earth and destroy every living thing including us. Some depict horrendous scenes of fire engulfing the planet, boiling away the oceans and turning the surface of the earth into a molten bubbling mass.

Not all of these scary scripts are the same, but nearly all indicate gloom and doom for the human race.

There are times when I wonder, 'maybe this wouldn't be a bad thing'.

One of the things that make me wonder are terrorist attrocities. How can they justify killing of innocents? They claim it is because their supreme being tells them to kill, but I don't believe that. The terrorists are destroying the airline industry in bits and bites at a time.

Another thing that makes me wonder is how greed has nearly destroyed our country's financial well being and ruined so many lives. People are still losing their jobs, their homes and their health care due to pure greed.

Corporations send jobs to other countries due to greed. Never mind more people here are unemployed when those jobs leave. It's the bottom line. Greed.

Big pharma is a major player in greed.  Paying big bucks to convince people to 'Ask your doctor' and paying kickbacks to the doctors so they can sell higher and higher priced drugs that have side effects that can and probably will kill countless folks over the years. (I think I may start rooting for that asteroid!)

It is pretty obvious the Lobbyists own most of Congress. (Look at the good things for consumers that get voted down because the Lobbyists tell the congressional members if they want support come election day, they better vote no.)

False statements like "Health care for every one will cost too much money and ration it for everyone."  Guess what, health care is already rationed. If you can't pay, you get no care and you die. It seems to me like it's a case of "I got mine, to hell with you."  Some of the more vicious of the statements about health care for everyone were saying when you get old, you get put to sleep. Maybe not in just those terms, but that is what came across to a lot of folks.

Yep, those are just a few of the things that make me think maybe the asteroid will be all for the best.

Rant over for now,

Martha

Social Networks and Some Other Services Are Getting Too Social For Me

There is Google's Gmail and Buzz.

Google made this 'Buzz' automatic. They didn't ask me, they just turned it on. As a result I decided to turn it off, but before that I deleted all of the email addresses in my Gmail accounts. (I have more than one)  Now I download the emails to my computer. I am seriously thinking of deleting my Gmail accounts and just using my ISP or my domains for email.

Facebook keeps adding changes. Facebook keeps making changes.

I looked at my privacy settings.  They had to be changed again! I am seriously thinking about deleting my Facebook account.  Who knows what they will do next?

Now it's Microsoft and Hotmail.

Years ago I got a Microsoft Passport as it is needed sometimes to get content from Microsoft.  Fortunately, there is nothing in my profile and I intend to keep it that way. I left Hotmail about 6 years ago, so hopefully that is now defunct.

Nothing concerning privacy really seems to matter to the 'big boys' (Microsoft, Google and Facebook).  Usually they make changes available to users, but it is 'after the deed is done', so in the meantime private information is exposed to the world.

I think I may have to forget the Internet and go back to socializing face to face.

Martha

Free Speech? A Sad Day!

The Supreme Court is now saying it is OK to torture animals.
The Court says "banning the videos is an unconstitutional violation of free speech".

Well they said it is OK to show videos of animals being tortured. In my book it's the same thing.

The only member of the Court to vote against this despicable practice was Justice Samuel Alito.  Too bad the rest of the members of the Court don't seem to think it's wrong. I hope they don't decide to ban the child porn laws.

A sad day for animals and animal lovers every where.

Martha

Is that all there is?

Mary is now friends with...................

John is now friends with........................

Harry became a fan of.........................

Jane became a fan of.........................

Mary and Jane are now friends.

So enough of that! Facebook Lite!!!

Then Facebook Lite won't let me sign in. AGHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!

Who needs Facebook!

Martha

Facebook Friends

Why is it so important to so many folks to have hundreds of friends on Facebook?

By far the majority of these folks don't have a clue who all of the 'friends' really are and I suspect they don't care. They just say 'OK' and 'befriend' anyone who asks.

Case in point.

I think that pretty much says it all.

Martha

Online Order Deception

With the advent of the Internet, soon came the ability to shop online. Sites like Amazon.com became the darlings of online ordering.  (Amazon is one of my favorites!) Online ordering became a major way to get goods delivered to a customer's home with little effort. (Except maybe when it came time to pay the bill.)

But unfortunately, sometimes unscrupulous merchants try to boost their bottom line by using practices that while maybe are not illegal, but are certainly shady.

One way customers are sucked in to a shady practice is the promise of a rebate for shipping.  Notice this is NOT the same as an order code for free shipping that many reputable sites offer.

Most customers are intent on what they want to order and fail to read all fine print on the site where they will order. Sometimes the fine print is in a much lighter shade and is located below the 'Order Now' button. An example of this is on this site: Plaque Attack

Notice the Free Shipping logo at the top of the page has a small wording, After Rebate. Now scroll to the bottom of the page and in a box with light gray text, read the Offer Details. In order to get the free shipping, the customer is signing up for a 'free trial' of the 'Insider's Club'.   Curious, I went to the site FreeShipping.com mentioned in the order details and nowhere could I find what the price would be after the free trial ends.

So now what happens?  Customers sign up to join to get the free shipping.  What they may not realize and most don't, after the 'free trial' they will be billed a monthly fee and nowhere does it say what that fee will be until it's too late. Then when they get their credit card statement or bank statement they learn the awful truth.  (Never ever use a debit card to order online!) Trying to get this unwanted service canceled and a return on their money can be a very frustrating experience, sometimes almost impossible.

Unfortunately there a lot of sites like this. Just check out the posts on the Complaints Board.

There are so many deceptive practices on the Internet. A lot of them are pure scams, but the sites like the one above cover their you know whats by putting disclaimers or confusing wording on their sites so when the customers dispute the charges they can claim the customer was notified in advance. So while these sites are not actually illegal, they are in cahoots with sites that are certainly out to scam the customer.

Welcome to the world of NO Privacy!

Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin and who knows how many more social networks are out there.

Very soon we will be able to see just what you post on Twitter! Yahoo! and Twitter give wings to your social world.

OK, that's what Twitter is about, but what about the secure way you set up your Facebook? Facebook Pages Now Part Of Google’s Real-Time Results.

Is it only a matter of time before your Gmail messages show up in searches? It could be if you didn't turn Buzz off!

I hope my ISP doesn't decide to be a social network!

Martha

The Internet and Trust?

What a contradiction! The Internet has taught me not to trust anything!

I learned a long time ago not to trust stuff in email, especially from strangers. Spam loaded my inbox and I quickly learned not to open it but to just delete it unopened. It's a good thing too because it wasn't long before email came bearing unwelcome stuff besides folks just trying to sell me something. Virus was first, then Trojans, worms, phishes, etc., ack! Email became dangerous!

As if that wasn't enough, so called trustworthy sites began to put stuff on our computers to spy on us. My favorite tax program put spyware on our computers! I will never use anything by that company again! Although they apologized, the trust I had in them is now gone.

I found out a music company did more or less the same thing!  They put a dangerous application called a rootkit on computers when a music CD was played on a computer. A rootkit is very hard to detect. That company also makes computers and how can we trust that those computers are not 'infected'?

I suspect those companies learned their lesson and probably won't try such tactics again, but I am suspicious. I tend to remember "fool me once, shame
on you.  Fool me twice, shame on me".

Since companies don't want to lose customers, they generally will not try stuff like that again.  But there are other things that can 'bite' us if we don't beware.

Some 'free' downloads are not free if you don't watch out when you install programs. When I installed my pdf reader (not that piggy Adobe), there
was an option to also install the Ask toolbar. The box was already checked to install it, so if I hadn't learned a long time ago to actually read what's
going to happen during the install I would have ended up with an unwanted toolbar. Other downloads have done the same with the Google toolbar.

Now Gmail has lost my trust with this thing called 'Buzz'.  I like Gmail, for email. Just email and nothing more. I don't want my email to be a social network.

I saw someone on TV talking about Buzz and how she likes it.  She can share so much like links and photos.  The first thing that came to mind was 'wow, a new way for scammers and phishers to suck people in to getting spyware, worms, trojans and the like, as if there isn't enough of this already'.

I turned Buzz off in my Gmail and I am going to go one step further.  I am going to remove all email contacts as well.  Who knows what Gmail may try
next?

Social Networking or is it Social Silliness?

After much soul searching and deliberation, some time back I finally decided to join Facebook. (And no I didn't give up my email password!) At first it seemed to be ok until my cohorts in common decided to join some of the games that Facebook seems to think we need. Everyday someone is planting something, cleaning something or finding something, all while playing in one of these Facebook apps.

One of the most annoying is the notice that someone commented on something someone else posted. Why on earth is that necessary? I really don't need to know about all those comments that are not very informative.

I finally found something I can become a fan of, it's 'I dont care about your farm, or your fish, or your park, or your mafia!!!'

I know I am perhaps a party pooper here and if some folks get enjoyment from all of the silliness, I guess that's okay, but I just can't see myself farming online or cleaning fish tanks!

Martha

Change Your Email Password!

When you joined Facebook, (or ANY other social network site) did you give them the password to your email? Why for heaven's sake did you do that? Did you actually want Facebook to send an invitation to your bank? Did you want them to send an invitation to anyone and everyone in your address book? (And remember, some email programs will save every email address for anyone you ever sent an email including replies.)

Oh, you didn't know they would do that?  What exactly did you think would happen when they said 'Find friends using your email account?' Did you think they would know exactly who your friends are and wouldn't send invites to anyone you didn't want to receive an invitation? Really, did you think that?

I suspect you didn't think at all, you just blindly followed and gave them your password. For shame! Don't you know you shouldn't give your email password to anyone?  Even your ISP won't ask you for your email password!  Your bank, your credit card company, Paypal, etc., none of these will ask you for your email password, so why on earth would you give a stranger your password?

Oh, you say, Facebook isn't a stranger.  Really? Do you know who lurks behind the site that is asking for this information? I bet you don't!

If you did fall for that 'Find friends using your email account' and now that everyone in your address book has been spammed at least once, all those
folks that didn't join you on Facebook are going to spammed again to remind them of the 'invitation' to join you. This fact makes me wonder about the
validity of the blurb below the box to enter your password.  You know, the one that says 'we won't store your password'.  Then how do they manage to send out 'reminder' spam?

I would guess it's because your password is still there. I would remove it if I were you.  Then you should go to where ever your email is hosted and change the password for your email account. And for goodness sake, don't ever give away your email password again! Ever!

Martha

Goodbye Firefox For Now

Why Firefox is no longer my default browser. I still use Firefox (I really need some of those extensions) but all of those 'Firefox cannot find the server' messages when going to websites finally just made me decide to make Opera default. Opera finds those sites just fine.

Sometimes I had to press the Retry button 3 times to get to what I know is a valid site.

At first I thought it was just my computer, but then I tried on other computers and it is the same. Then I found I am not the only one with this problem.

I looked on the Moilla forum for answers and all I got was 'you must have spyware',  it's your firewall' or some such nonsense. Sorry, I think it's a bug in Firefox that somehow is overlooked by all of those folks that contribute. Too many people are experiencing this problem. (Some from as far back as 2005) If it is a security thing, why doesn't it happen for all sites?

Even some Linux users have this problem.

You know what? Opera is faster and renders pages much better.

Martha

Updating Word Press

I just hate updating Word Press!

The newer versions of WP are supposed to have this automatic update feature, but it never works for me. Once upon a time there was a plugin for automatic update and that worked pretty well for awhile, but then it stopped working and the fun? began for me.

First I try to get it to automatically backup. It goes as far as downloading the new version and then it just stops. No more, nada. (I keep hoping, but it just won't work)  At least I don't have to update my database version every time!

I backup the site, verify the backup, de-activate the plugins and download the new version. Then I have to hunt for the instructions because I have this memory problem and follow the instructions all the while hoping it will work and I won't have to use that backup. So far I haven't had to use the backup, but you never know.

Then I have to remember to re-activate my plugins, check every thing to make sure all is ok and say a silent prayer.

So if anyone has an idea why that automatic thing doesn't work, please let me know!

Martha

What happened to Global Warning?

In case you are sitting on a sunny beach somewhere and you haven't read any news, just about everywhere in the US is covered by an arctic blast and most of us here in the Texas and other southern states are freezing our you-know-whats off.

I read it's darn cold in Europe as well.

I haven't felt this cold in many a year! It's just downright cold and there are no other words for it. I want this arctic blast to go back to the Arctic.

It's really hard for me to think we have global warning when the weather is like this!

When it's this cold I want to do is stay at home where it is reasonably warm. But then my little dog wants to go for a walk and so my parka that hasn't been used in a long time comes out of the closet and away we go.

Martha