Facebook, Do I Need It?

I keep thinking about leaving Facebook, but so far I haven’t. I just wish I could hide some posts, especially all those posts about politics.

Some folks on my Facebook are die hard political fanatics. I really don’t want to read the lies that are put out by both parties, the GOP and Dems alike.  They both have too many absurdities to be believed, but that doesn’t seem to make much differences to folks. Those political posts just keep coming.

Then there are the sappy posts. Like ‘If you love your son  share” or other goofy crap.

Ah the hoaxes! So many and so few to dispute them.

And don’t forget the religious posts. Lots and lots of them. I have nothing against religion, but is it really something for Facebook? Especially since there are so many different religions and not everyone feels the same way about others beliefs.

I mistakenly thought Facebook was for family members and real friends to connect with one another about real things like what’s going on in your lives.  Some folks seem to ‘friend’ anyone and everyone whether the know them or not. I guess that’s ok, but this is how the scammers get in and who knows what damage they will do?

I know Facebook has to make revenue in order to keep this monster going. I don’t have a problem with that. But the latest thing that Facebook wants to impose on us is just about the limit.

Oh, Brother: Here Come Facebook’s New Video Ads… That Autoplay In Your Feed

I have no doubt the marketers will jump on it. I will then leave Facebook for sure. (Maybe)

I just wish we could have rules for Facebook like the ones in my Yahoo Groups. (No political and religious posts allowed)

Tale of a Prescription Part Two

The conspiracy seems alive and well.

I did go back later that day and guess what, the prescription still wasn’t ready.  The reason this time, they didn’t have the required amount and it had to be ordered.

Sigh! I have never ever had this much trouble getting a prescription filled. It isn’t as though it had a narcotic involved, not a pain killer of any kind! Just a antibiotic to kill an infection.

I finally got that prescription. Was it a massive amount? No, just an tiny tube. I just hope it does the job after all that hassle. It has an option for refills, so if I need to refill it, I will put in the request at least two weeks before I actually need it!

 

Martha

Tale of a Prescription

If I was even a little bit paranoid, I would have been sure this was a conspiracy out to get me.

Last week I went to the eye doctor for my annual exam. Everything was as well as can be expected after having eye surgery on the right eye to repair a macula hole. However I do have an infection on the eye lids, so the doctor said he was giving me a prescription. The assistant said it wouldn’t be ready until after 5 PM, so since I turn into a pumpkin about that time I waited until the following day to pick it up

The pharmacy had no record of this prescription, so I called the eye doctor’s office to see what was up. After checking they were most apologetic and said they were sending it ‘right now’.

Now I went to pick it up, but no it still wasn’t ready as the prescription did not have the required specified amount. The pharmacy had faxed the doctor’s office, but there had been no reply. So I went back the next day and yet again the prescription was not ready as there still had been no reply from the doctor’s office.

Fast forward to today. I went to pick up the prescription and it wasn’t ready  and won’t be until 5 PM. So again, I will wait.  Since there is a major temperature drop expected tonight, I guess I will try to hold off on the reversion to the pumpkin stage and pick it up after 5 PM, assuming it will finally be ready.

If it isn’t ready, I am going to assume there really is a conspiracy concerning this prescription!

Hoaxes Abound, Especially on Facebook

I have to wonder, why are there so many hoaxes on the Internet? I suspect there is a small number of folks that just take delight in fooling people.

They used to come mainly in emails sent by worried friends who want to protect us. They warned us about all of the bad things just waiting to happen to us if we don’t watch out, so ‘forward this to everyone you know’.

They also told us about the really great things that Microsoft or other big companies would give us if we just forward the email to ‘everyone we know’.

And let’s not forget about all of the evil things that will happen to our computers, including total destruction. All of this silliness just kept coming and coming, with supposed references to the news, Snopes or other sources. However, if anyone took the time to investigate,  the hoax would be quickly determined to be just that, a hoax.

Now the hoaxers have a great big wonderful venue to perpetrate their false missives. Facebook can reach so many more folks so much faster!  I discovered that Snopes (Snopes is a site to help dispel hoaxes) now has 344 Facebook hoaxes as of this writing and by the time you read this there will probably be more.  Truth or Fiction is another site to research to ‘get the truth’. Another site is Facecrooks. (I like this one!)

I wish there was a way to convince my gullible friends to think about these things before they perpetrate the hoax. There are almost always clues to indicate it is a hoax. These warnings always seemed to include ‘send this to everyone you know’, or ‘post it to all your friends’.

If you think it’s better to be safe than sorry and go ahead and post or email that hoax, you really need to think again. That’s how these hoaxes spread, by well meaning folks who ‘don’t want to take a chance’ and don’t bother to research.

To check it out, go to Google or your favorite search engine. You will probably find out very quickly if it’s true or not. You can check with Snopes, Truth or Fiction and even the website of that TV station that supposedly reported it.

Just don’t make the hoaxers happy by posing hoaxes!

Sneaky Spam

The things that spammers try never cease to amaze me. They always try to keep a step ahead of unsuspecting folks by using new tactics to get attention.

For my website I have a contact form for users to ask questions or just make comments about the site. I made this site back when Windows XP was young and a lot of folks used the email that came with XP, Outlook Express.  I used to get a lot of questions about Outlook Express and I still get a few questions, but for the most part the feedback form just generates those folks trying to sell me an SEO service. I don’t answer those as I even have a notice telling those folks I won’t answer.

I seldom get any other type of spam, but today I did! While it was a bit clever and made me laugh, I wonder why it was even done?

The spam:

Name of sender: Kathie
Email of sender: kathiekearns@gmail.com
------------------------- COMMENTS -------------------------
Hello, I am writing in an unusual case ... Some time ago, I used your services, and one of your employees face was familiar to me. At dinner with my wife, it turned out that he was a burglar, who 5 years ago broke into our home!!! This is ridiculous!!! How you can hire criminals? I found at least 3 bad entries for him at website for background check http://everifies.com !! I am sure there are more!!! Please do something about it, things like that are ridiculous!!!

Normally I wouldn’t have clicked that link, but I did accidentally and here is what came up:



So some spammer is way behind and wasting their time.

My website needs a serious overhaul and I am not quite sure what to do about it, but turning it into a blog may be the answer.

Martha

Observations About Neo

When folks started fussing and whining about 'neo', I didn't understand. My Yahoo ID was working as always, no changes. In fact it still is but who knows for how long.

So I created a new Yahoo email account and joined with two of my Yahoo Groups.  In order to see what other owner/moderators were seeing, I made this new ID an owner on one of the groups and started testing.

Perhaps since I belong mainly to tech groups, I wasn't seeing all of the issues a lot of others were seeing. We don't really use the database option and don't rely on lots and lots of photos as these are used mainly for screenshots to aid in troubleshooting.

There was a 'glitch' in the bouncing members section, as it was showing some folks as bouncing that are no longer members, even a few that had been banned for bad conduct.

Otherwise all functions worked as they should.  Things were somewhat harder to find, but by exploring, looking and testing I managed to find just about everything. One thing of note, most everything now seems to using JavaScript. So if users have disabled scripts by using an add-on like 'noscript' for Firefox or a similar add-on for other browsers, the Yahoo Groups interface is virtually unusable.

Once noticeable thing that seemed to put a lot of folks off was the fact that the Home page has now been moved to the About page and customization that was done previously is almost 'missing in action'.

The customization does not seem so important to folks in tech groups, although it is nice. Using the neo profile, the first thing that I noticed when I got to the home page is a large somewhat blurry photo of a keyboard section with the name of the group in the lower left corner.



From comments by others and looking at some other groups with my neo ID, I have the impression that a large number of groups have basically the same photos, depending on the type of Group.

What seems odd to me is that both of my Yahoo email accounts that are IDs for Groups have  neo in the web address. Both email accounts work the same. Another thing, I belong to several groups that originated in Canada and they are still showing the old 'classic' format, but I have heard from some folks in UK groups that say they are on the neo format.

In December 2007, Yahoo supposedly had over 109 million members across 8.8 million groups.  Recent estimates by some put those numbers much higher.

I guess with that many members and groups there is bound to be a lot of problems changing everyone over to a new format.

By now there could be more or less, as supposedly a lot of disgruntled folks have closed their groups and moved elsewhere.  According to Wikipedia, nearly half a million group members have left Yahoo due to the "neo" format. The number grows each day. Keep in mind, Wikipedia can be edited by almost anyone, including unhappy folks.

Yahoo's mail servers have been glitchy off and on for as long as I have been a member of groups. It is just one of Yahoo's 'gotchas' and that hasn't improved yet. However, some folks seem to think it is neo related, but I think it's just the same as always.

So why did Yahoo change the Groups from the old 'classic' to the new 'neo' format?  My best guess is the underlying code has slowly been corrupted with too many programmers making too many 'improvements' over the years.  Like when 'too many cooks spoil the broth', it has just gotten too much to try to fix.  Most of us know, there comes a time when the old is out and in with the new.

Technology marches on, and if we don't march with it, we get left behind.

Martha

Changes

I’ve heard it said that in order to go forward we have to accept changes.

In the past year I’ve seen some changes that I don’t particularly like, but I am trying to learn about them as I know change happens and generally I can’t do much to stop them.

Microsoft Windows 8 is probably one of the biggest changes for me as well as for a lot of other folks. I have managed to learn how to do what I want in Windows 8 and Windows 8.1 will be better, but still not what I really would like.

I guess my problem stems from the fact that I am like a lot of older folks that don’t like changes as I am sort of ‘set in my ways’. Microsoft never said they wouldn’t change Windows and it certainly is their right to make changes even though we may not like them.

I have used almost every version of Windows (except ME) and I always liked each upgraded version, even Vista. It did take me a while to get used to it, but I did and I never had the problems with Vista that a lot of other folks seemed to have.

The old dependable format for Yahoo Groups is another big change that a lot of folks are so upset about. While I admit Yahoo might have handled the change better (they didn’t let folks know it was coming), I suspect once it finally completes, folks will get used to it or go another way. I am pretty sure that the new look came about as the old code was getting too big, corrupted and dated. So while the new code was being written, why not make it look better too!

Remember, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I have to keep reminding myself of that every time I boot Windows 8.

Ed Bott of Zdnet said it so well “Any corporation has a right to do whatever they want with their products.”  While he was referring to Microsoft, this certainly applies to Yahoo as well.

I suspect we will see more changes faster and faster as new and better technologies are developed and put into play.

By the way, I upgraded my iPad to iOS7 today.  I don’t like the way the new icons for apps look. I will get used to them.

Martha

The Problems With Yahoo’s Neo Groups

Seems like there are a lot of problems with neo, but it also seems like its who you ask. There is a cadre of folks trying to force Yahoo to get rid of neo and bring back the old format. (Sorry folks, it won’t happen!) Some but not too many folks say they like the new format.

As with anything new and changed, there is a number of folks that are resistant. Same is true with neo. One of the biggest problems is the change is not happening all at once to everyone to everyone or to every group.

It appears to be a work in progress. Bringing back features seem to be happening, but isn’t consistent and doesn’t always seem to ‘stick’. Lots of things are there, but hidden and some are broken for now.

Pros so far, clean interface. Ease of switching from one group to another is MUCH easier. Posts entered while on the website are almost immediate.

Cons so far, almost too many to name. Post delivery to Inboxes extremely sporadic and sometimes never happens or days later.  (This has happened many times before neo came into being.)  Some groups are neo, some are not.  Seems to be random.

For the average user neo seems to be working ok, although the banner is not what users are used to seeing. Group owners are having a hard time trying to remove or change that banner if they have been transferred to neo, impossible if they are still using the old format. The mail delivery is probably the thing that impacts them the most.

Group owners and moderators are having the worst of it. Functions they normally perform to keep the groups working are often not working and some are having a problem even finding where those functions are located.

In my neo ID, I have found most of what I need. So far what I see that will impact a lot of users, the photos cannot be downloaded easily. This wouldn’t bother me much, but for some users this is a major problem, also for some types of groups. Many owners keep track of bouncing members.  The bouncing list in my neo ID shows every member, past and present that has ever appeared on the bouncing list. This is obviously broken and is an example of stuff that stays on the web forever!

The list of problems seems endless, but everyday some more things get fixed and eventually I hope it will all work.

The biggest issue of all was the fact that Yahoo didn't tell folks about neo before they implemented it.

Martha

Uproar At Yahoo Groups

About a month ago I started hearing about neo.  At the time I had no idea what it was and for awhile I thought they were talking about Yahoo Mail, since that has been a hot topic ever since Yahoo ‘upgraded’ their mail app.

Boy was I wrong. Yahoo is again changing the feature I use the most with Yahoo, Groups. They tried to change it several years ago to resemble something like Facebook, but there was such an uproar the change didn’t happen.

But the change this time is not to each Group but to each user and the changes are not happening to everyone at once.

So what one user sees at his Group’s web interface is not what someone else is seeing and now the confusion reigns supreme.  It’s even worse for Group moderators who can’t even get logged in sometimes and when they do they can’t do the job that a moderator is supposed to do.

Since at this time I haven’t been ‘neo-nized’ it’s a bit hard for me to  understand what it means. However I expect it will happen sooner or later as I doubt Yahoo is going to back down this time.

The uproar is deafening in the Yahoo forums. Supposedly millions of members have left, thousands of Groups moved to other venues and been removed from Yahoo. At least one Group is threatening lawsuits, contacting the ADA, contacting their Congressman, the press and any other organization they think can put a stop to this ‘neo’.

I never cease to be amazed at these folks.  I suspect the majority have forgotten that the Yahoo Groups are basically a free service. Yahoo has the right to change this service at any time and even terminate the entire Groups program if they so choose.

In order to survive in the modern world of the ‘world wide web’, things must be updated. Eventually old code gets corrupted and stuff no longer works the way it should and is open to hacking.

I know these folks have been members a long time.  They have amassed albums of photos and files. Some of these Groups have thousands of members.  There are Groups for every kind of medical condition and they provide support not immediately possible elsewhere. There are Groups for dogs and dog problems and the lists go on and on. They are fighting for what is a way of life for many of them and I can’t blame them.

I think Yahoo should have let the Groups know what was coming and why. Just a warning would have made the whole neo thing easier to swallow, even though the members may not have liked it.

As a footnote, I have heard from a few members that actually like neo. As for me I will wait and see what eventually happens.

Martha

All The Posts I Didn't Make

I've written a lot of posts for my blog that never got posted. For some reason I just can't bring myself to post stuff that's either political or religious.

I have text files all over my desktop for posts that will never be posted. Most of them are just gripes.

I gripe about politics all the time. I absolutely hate what politicians are doing to our country. These politicians that we send to Washington just need to start doing their job. They all seem to want to have it "my way or the highway". Never mind what the people want.

But you know, it's the people's fault. They don't vote or if they do vote, they just keep voting for the same folks who aren't doing their job.

Then there are the religious posts I don't make. This country was founded on freedom of religion. But there doesn't seem to be anything that sets folks off than their religion. They want everyone to believe their way. Again it's almost like "my way or the highway".

I just have one thing to say about politics, I won't argue with anyone as it never does any good. And about religion, I'm not going to say anything about your religion or mine.

Now I'm going to delete all those unfinished posts on my desktop about religion and politics and try to think of something better to write about.

Martha

I Don't Want Your Newsletter Anymore

I like newsletters, at least some of them. But occasionally I find a newsletter that just doesn't cut it and I decide to unsubscribe.

They make it oh so easy to subscribe.

But if you want to unsubscribe, some newsletters may result in this when you try:

"Sorry, there was a problem processing this request. One of these reasons might apply:
Your e-mail might have been accidentally flagged as spam. This is currently happening with mailinator accounts, but we're working on a fix.
You may have already signed up for our mailing lists.
Our mailing server might be experiencing a temporary outage.
Please try signing up again later to see if the issue is resolved, or you can contact us at support@
some newsletter.com or during business hours, click on the red button at the top of the screen to speak to one of our Live Chat support staff. “

Really? As if I have oodles of time to waste trying to unsubscribe?

Another thing that I just don't understand; why does it take only a minute or less to subscribe, but up to 10, 14 or more days for the unsubscribe to happen?

Sometimes it appears you successfully unsubscribed, but the newsletters just keep coming long after the time they tell you it may take. Eventually it seems they are just like spam that keeps coming and coming.  You can try again and again to unsubscribe, but it's an exercise in futility.

So now I limit the newsletter I sign up for and usually just look for an RSS feed. Those are easy to stop and no more grief trying to unsubscribe.

Martha

Trash Can Trouble

Yesterday I bought a new kitchen trash can. It is black to match the appliances.

When I got it home, I wanted to remove the huge label proclaiming it was made by Good Housekeeping, so started to peel off the label.

It started to come off ok, then ripped and the label wouldn’t peel any more, then the fun started.

It left a big gummy patch that just wouldn’t come off.



I scrubbed and scrubbed.  Since the can has a shiny surface I didn’t want to scratch it and tried to be careful.  I put a damp rag on it, the gummy stuff wouldn’t come off. I spayed it with Fantastic and it still wouldn’t come off.

After about thirty minutes of trying to get this gunk off the new trash can, I looked on the Internet for a solution.

(What took me so long? I usually go to the Internet for everything!)

Seems like there are a number of ways to get rid of gummy stuff left behind by hard to remove labels on glass. I decided to try one method mentioned, dab it with baby oil and let it set a minute.

That worked. I still had to scrub a bit, but it all came off and now my new trash can looks like it should.



All nice and shiny!

Time Warner and CBS

I feel for the cable customers that can’t see their favorite CBS shows,  While most of those shows are now reruns, still if someone missed them the first time around, viewing a rerun is a good thing.  In case you don’t know what that is all about, here is an explanation.

I really feel sorry for the customer service reps that work for these two feuding companies. Ads are telling them to call and tell Time Warner to  get CBS back and I have no doubt Time Warner is telling customers  it is all the fault of CBS,  so call to tell CBS to make up with Time Warner.

So those poor customer service reps are getting screamed at, cursed out and they have absolutely no responsibility for the entire TV blundering mess.  They can’t do anything about it, but they are taking the brunt of the dissatisfied customers.

No, I don’t work for Time Warner or CBS.  But I did work as a customer service rep once and I know exactly how those poor folks must feel.

By now most of those reps are thinking about getting in to another line of work. I hope they find something a lot better.

Martha

Blogging

The word ‘blog’ is a contraction of ‘web log’ according to Wikipedia. That page pretty much gives us a history of blogs and how a lot of them are used.  Some are specialized and some are sort of like mine, rambling.

I started blogging way back in 2004, on July 24th that year to be exact. I used Google’s popular blogging venue, BlogSpot. It was pretty much hit and miss if I made a blog post, as I really had no idea what I was doing or even how I should do it.

I was under the rather misconception a blog was sort of like a journal, just writing about thoughts in general, or stuff that happened that made an impression on me.  In all the time from the inception of that blog until the day I made the last post in May of 2011, I made only 43 posts.

Thanks to some really great MVPs, Pat Geary and Tina Clarke, I got introduced to the king of blogging, WordPress.  But again, I was pretty much hit or miss with my ‘blogging’ and I didn’t take the time to learn about all of the ways I could customize my WordPress themes. At that time I was too focused on my web site, Martha’s Web, so most of time I was concentrating on content and how it looked.

Fast forward to today.

I am finally starting to understand this world of blogging with WordPress and how versatile it can be. While I am still in the learning mode, the light at the end of the tunnel is getting brighter.

Since my web site was made back in the day when Windows XP was the latest and greatest, it is getting very dated and really doesn’t seem to be what is needed today, especially since I no longer use Windows XP or even Vista.  It no longer gets the ‘hits’ it used to get and while I certainly don’t want to leave all of the XP users in the lurch so to speak, I find it harder and harder to keep that site fresh and useful.

I am planning to turn Martha’s Web into a WordPress blog eventually, but today is not the day. I still need to learn more about what I can do and how I can do it before that happens. But I am told that once it happens, maintaining it will be oh so much easier.

Since I made that decision, it seems only sensible to just slowly migrate stuff to a new blog. So I am transitioning new stuff and maybe some old stuff to MyNotSoPerfectPC. I’ll see how that works for now.

Martha

The Magic Word Is Free

Nothing seems to grab folk’s attention like the word ‘free’.

‘Buy one, get one free’.  It’s everywhere. Ads on TV simply shout it in all those ads about products that seem to be about making our lives so much easier. It starts with ‘But wait’ and then the pitch to buy one and get another one free (except for shipping and handling).  The fine print will bump up the free product to make the total quite pricey, but folks just buy into the word ‘free’.

Then there is the phrase ‘Free download’ for a software program. Granted, some free downloads work as promised, but those are few and getting fewer all the time.

With a few exceptions all of those promised ‘free’ programs come with stuff users probably don’t want, like the infamous Ask toolbar. This little ‘gem’ will change your home page, take over your search and generally frustrate you no end.

The problem is nothing is really free in the long run. The free programs that don’t push unwanted stuff on your computer may be free now, but they hope you will buy the pro version and/or at least donate to their cause. Some of these may contain ‘nagware’ Then there are the sneaky free downloads that aren’t even what you wanted in the first place. The How-To Geek has a great page about all of this stuff. I wrote about the sneaky install on Martha’s Web too.

The point I am trying to make though, is the word ‘free’ is what grabs people’s attention and may cause unintended consequences. If you have to buy something before you get that ‘free’ thing, it isn’t free. If you have to provide personal information to get something, it isn’t free.

Longtime Internet users got spoiled with free stuff, but those days are getting shorter and shorter and the ‘free stuff’ is not really free any more.

Got a Will?

It’s a fact of the modern day world, if you own anything of value, you need a will.

This is necessary to make sure your wishes are granted if you want your assets distributed in the manner of your choosing.  I suspect you already know that and have made sure you have a will and named who is to get what after your demise.

But what about your online stuff? What should be done about all that cyber stuff that requires usernames, passwords and the like?  Do you want it all to go on forever?

What about your online business? What if someone buys something and it never gets to the buyer? What then? Would that leave a mess for your heirs to clean up? They already have enough to deal with without that!

What if some hacker hacks your email after you die and sends spam forever to your family and friends you left behind?

Do you want your Facebook account to just site there unused for perpetuity?

All of those accounts like PayPal, other online banking accounts, investment accounts and the list goes on and on, need user names and passwords. Sure eventually they may get cleared up, but it sure would be easier if someone you trust had all of those web addresses, user names and passwords.

Want to know how to make it all easier for those you leave behind?

Setup a password keeper! A really good password keeper can handle all that for you and all your designated online heir has to do is log on to your password keeper and take care of the cyber stuff in the way you want it done.

Of course you have to make sure your designated online heir has the current password for that password keeper, but keeping up with just one login and password is a whole lot better than trying to keep up with all your cyber stuff.

Another advantage of that password keeper works for you! Most will generate really good passwords and keep them safe so you don’t have to remember them all and can make sure you are not using something stupid like ‘password’ or your dog’s name, or using the same password for all your accounts. I’m sure you don’t do that, do you?

If you want a really great password keeper, I suggest LastPass, which is free for pcs and only one dollar a month for phones. The best thing about LastPass, besides being free, you are the only one who knows the password. If you forget it, you will just have to start over again as, LastPass doesn’t have a record of your password. Since I don’t trust the Cloud, this is a huge factor for me!

But there are other password keepers, here is a list of some you can try. The best Password Managers.   Notice LastPass has a five star rating!

So don’t leave your heirs in the lurch about your cyber life, make sure they can take care of your online assets as well as the physical stuff you leave behind.

Stupidity Knows No Bounds

Somewhere, I don’t remember where, I read the Internet is making us stupid.

I don’t think that is true, but it does seem to bring out the stupid remarks at times and I have come to believe that it certainly shows that some folks are really gullible and yes, some are patently stupid about some things.

The gullible category are those folks that don’t stop to think about what they read. These are the folks that thought “Wow!” when they read about the Chinese Money Bags. and dutifully forwarded it to a bunch of folks and may have posted it in Facebook. I don’t think these folks are stupid, but if they really believe this, they are certainly gullible.

The money bag hoax is only one of many that keep re-appearing. There are the hoax emails that claim if you forward the email to oh so many friends, you will get money from Microsoft, or some other entity, for every time the email is forwarded. Really folks? There is absolutely no way to track how many times an email is forwarded, but even if there was a way, it’s highly unlikely anyone would pay anyone any money.

There are the emails purporting to be written by some famous person, like Bill Cosby. and a lot of other folks.

Then there are the nasty emails denigrating a very prominent politician. I won’t go into that , but I am sure you know what I mean. I think that comes into the category ‘If you repeat something often enough, you start to believe it.’

I once heard someone say “It must be true, I read it in the newspaper.  They couldn’t print it if it wasn’t true!” I am afraid this is the attitude of a lot of folks when it comes to the Internet!

For some really funny stuff about stupid people, read some of the things on this site, Not Always Right.  While I am not sure all of the things written about folks here are entirely true, I am beginning to think it’s entirely possible!

My father once said “Don’t believe everything you hear and don’t believe half of what you think you see”. He was certainly right!

Martha

Blog Spammers

If you have a blog, you get comment spammers.  It just happens and all you can do is periodically clean it out.

Most WordPress blogs use Akismet to control comment spam.  Akismet is free for personal use and is really great for keeping comment and track-back spam at bay.

I sometimes look at the spam comments. They all are pretty much the same. Some examples are as follows:

Dear Webmaster! Is your website not getting enough TRAFFIC? If you want to flood your website with visitors and skyrocket your income check out this brandnew traffic course –> http://bit.ly/spammy site.

Hey there, it’s Mel Spammer. As i read through your blog I discovered that you are really dedicated and provide useful information, so I checked your website at alexa.com and found out that you are not receiving very much traffic. If you want to take your Business to the next level by increasing traffic, visitors and therefore your potential income you should check out this online course for traffic generating –> http://bit.ly/spammy site If you have any questions you can send me an email, have a nice day!

The same spam comments, over and over. Of course these comments are sent out using a ‘bot’, but you would think they would change them up a bit.

But no, they just keep on and on.  Fortunately there is an option to just empty the spam folder in WordPress.

Martha

Hoarders And Storage Wars

I don’t know why I keep watching Hoarders on TV.

Is it because it makes me feel smug because I am not a hoarder?  I don’t know, but I do know, every time I watch this show I feel an overwhelming urge to clean out and get rid of stuff.

I learned during my last move that I have been ‘owned’ by stuff instead of me owning stuff. I should have learned that during the previous move from a big house to a smaller house, but somehow I still wanted to hold on to belongings that really had no place or meaning for me even though I thought they did.

I think ‘stuff’ is why folks think they constantly want a bigger and bigger house.  They need a place to keep all of the stuff that owns them.

I also watch Storage Wars some times. (I really should get a life!) Those abandoned lockers are usually full of stuff that the owners once valued enough to pay to store it. The lockers generally contain the kind of stuff a hoarder would like, no one I know would really want it.  Occasionally there is a forgotten treasure in amongst the junk, that’s what makes the show interesting. The show’s characters are a hoot!

I guess every so-called reality show has ups and downs.  one of the Storage Wars cast members Dave Hester says ‘it’s all a fake’. I don’t doubt it, but I still watch it.

Martha

TV Phrases I Hear From Marketers

“You Deserve it.”

Watch out when you hear this one.  If you buy in to it, it’s gonna cost you, usually big bucks. Furniture sales pitches may use this phrase, but sellers of other high dollar items may use it as well. This appeals to some folks’ senses that really want to indulge themselves. It must work, because I hear it again and again.

“It’s Not Your Fault:”

This phrase is being used by a local surgeon for advertising his services as a method for getting rid of excess weight. It could also be used elsewhere for the same type of service.

I imagine there probably are a few obese folks that have a medical condition that caused their over-weight condition, but I doubt that is the case for most of us fatties. It was 'my fault' for over-indulging in all that delicious fattening food I loved so well.

“The More You Buy, The More You Save.”

This one always make me shake my head in wonder. If I buy more, I am spending more money.  How is that saving?

Martha

Setting Up Email

I don’t know why I have such a problem getting email to work with IMAP.  POP, usually no problem. Except with Thunderbird.  I have one account setup with POP on Thunderbird and it works just fine.

I tried to setup a second account using virtually the same settings except for the username, email address and password, but that Tbird just doesn’t seem to like it.

My web host is Bluehost.  Thunderbird apparently doesn’t like the default settings for one of my email accounts using IMAP.  I just can’t make it work. And Thunderbird wants to set it up using IMAP.

The strange thing is, I had it setup once and it worked.  Then I setup another account and the pesky account that used to work just disappeared. I probably deleted it somehow, but it worked yesterday and today? Poof! It’s gone and seemingly won’t come back.

So I set it up in Windows Live Mail 2012 and it works just fine. Go figure!

Martha

Not Really Impressed

The preview for Windows 8.1 is here, downloaded and implemented on my Windows 8 system.

The Start button is back, but it is just a shortcut to the same start menu on the original Windows 8. If you just click on it, nothing happens. But if you right click there it is.  Or you can just press the Win key+X.

So once again, Microsoft makes us do an extra step to get what we want. Sigh!

But it IS better than that agravating 'Charms', but some folks will struggle with it.

I am still saving up for a new computer, will it be a Windows PC, a Mac or even Linux?  Time will tell, but I can say for certain, it won't be a Chrome Book!

Martha

Buying an iPad From BestBuy

After I first saw the iPad with retina display I decided I really wanted one.  Since they are not exactly cheap I didn't buy one right away.

I had a $10 gift certificate for BestBuy and when they ran an ad that offered a $30 gift certificate with the purchase of an iPad, I went for it.  I picked out a cool cover from the discounted selection and went to checkout.  I asked about the gift card as she hadn't mentioned it. She then went to get the card after verifying with another sales person that I should get one.

I learned a long time ago to really watch when checking out, so when the sales girl had a CD with a antivirus product in her hand, I told her I didn't want it. She told me that it came with my iPad! I knew better, so I watched carefully as it rang up for $27. Again I told her  'I don't want it'.  She was rather insistant and I emphasized again, "I DON'T WANT IT".

So she removed that charge and proceeded to push a waranty. After repeated "No"s by me she finished the transaction  and I paid for my purachase sans antivirus.

Since by now I was rather pissed off, I decided to request the iPad package be opened to ensure there was an actual iPad in the box. There was, so I left.

Now if I hadn't known better, I would have paid for that antivirus. I wonder how many other folks did?

Martha

Bing is Using a Captcha!

Oh my, Bing, can't you do better? Really! A Captcha?



I ALWAYS have problems with these things! I have bad eyesight and sometimes I just have to give up and go somewhere else when trying to input what they want. When I search for something, I just don't want to have to keep typing over and over again these really hard to read characters, so adios, Bing.

So I will no longer use Bing to search. I switched to Bing from Google, but now I am back to Google.  Sorry Bing!  Try something else and maybe I will come back.

Martha

 

How Was Your Memorial Day Holiday?

Sunday morning seemed like any other morning until I noticed pink liquid on the floor by the refrigerator. Having had a problem with the freezer a few months back with water been coming out periodically on the floor beneath the freezer (The defrost drain was frozen up), I thought maybe the problem was similar.

However it was not the same. I opened the freezer door (this fridge is a side-by-side), and everything in the freezer had melted. The sherbet had become a sickly looking liquid as had the fudge bars. (Turned out the pink liquid was from thawed strawberries) The meat was soft and totally thawed.

So began the process of cleaning and trying to figure out what was wrong with the refrigerator. This refrigerator is only 7 1/2 years old. However this wasn't the first problem we had with this refrigerator. Mind you, this is Sunday before Labor Day. The chances of getting someone out to see about it in the next few days is probably slim and none. Since we've already had problems with this refrigerator, do we want to throw good money after bad?

Decisions, decisions. A lot of retail stores are having great sales on the appliances for Memorial Day. They have 10 to 30 percentage off plus a sales tax holiday on Energy Star appliances under $2000.

But before we can do anything, we have to try to save the food that is still good in the refrigerator side. So drag out the cooler, go get ice and try to save what we can. Some stuff just has to go, mayonnaise for one. A lot of stuff needed to go anyway so the cleaning began. One cooler wasn't enough so 7-Eleven here we come. All 7-Eleven had were flimsy little Styrofoam containers, so we decided to go to Home Depot and look at new refrigerators and coolers. Those new refrigerators were gorgeous and very pricey. Keep in mind we don't want the same brand as our old undependable one. The coolers were pricey as well.

It's a well-known fact that Walmart does have good prices. So we go to Walmart, look at the crowded parking lot and go home.

We decided to look at Best Buy because they had a good flyer in the paper with refrigerators on sale. After some soul-searching and trying to decide whether or not to throw good money after bad, we decide to go to Best Buy and look at their refrigerators. The good news they have some nice ones that are not too pricey, although they're pricey enough. The bad news we can't get one before Friday. Bit the bullet and bought one. I certainly hope we get it by Friday!

So here we are, camping out in the kitchen using coolers instead of the refrigerator. At least we have a deep freeze so we have someplace to store the ice that we need for the coolers.

The coolers are gradually emptying out of all the perishable food, but some of it is probably going to have to be thrown away.

That old saying "you never miss the water until the well runs dry", well that applies to refrigerators as well. You don't miss it until it doesn't work.

Martha

This post was composed with my new Dragon Naturally Speaking software.

Prove You Are a Human!

Who hasn't encountered at least one or more of those little boxes with distorted letters with a request to type them in to prove we are who we say and not a spambot?



We understand why, but sometimes they can be frustrating! Sometimes I have to try several times before I get it right.  Now an enterprising company has something easier for us than a Captcha, but it is also extremely irritating, intrusive and I just plain HATE it!

I encountered this today when signing up for a forum.



When that ad started blaring at me, I almost closed the browser window! But I needed this forum so I continued on. I could read what needed to be typed in the box, but that ad made it hard for me to concentrate!
I am afraid, folks, very afraid! This sort of c**p just makes my spine tingle! What god-awful thing will they come up with next?

To see what this is all, just visit Solve Media.

Martha

This Crazy Texas Weather

This is May. In Texas. And it is cold!

It was warm yesterday, in the eighties. Today it is in the forties with wind chill in the thirties.

I suspect when August arrives it will be very hot as usual, probably 100+.

There is a saying here, if you don't like the weather stick around it will change.  But not in August because it is ALWAYS hot in August.

But then it is supposed to be warm in May and it is May and it is cold.

Martha

Don't Depend on the Cloud

The Cloud, what is it really?  It's just a big old server located who knows where. Who really has control over the server can be anyone of a number of companies, corporations  or even individuals.

Your ISP has servers.  They may own them or depending on the size of the ISP, could even rent space from some other entity.

Think you don't use the Cloud?  If your email is in the Cloud, Yahoo, G-mail, Hotmail, etc. You DO use the Cloud. Even your mail with an ISP is in the Cloud. It's all on a server somewhere and it is being scanned.  All the time. Normally the scanning is for keywords, either for advertising purposes or to be sure you are not misbehaving in some way.

Read what happened to this guy! And keep in mind, this was a PAID account. Here is another guy that lost his stuff in the Cloud! Microsoft Cloud Services Locks You Out Of Your Digital Life, Won’t Explain Why

If you keep your stuff online, better encrypt it.  That should keep the powers that be from 'scanning' your stuff. Believe it, they DO scan it.  And if they find something they don't like, well, 'Goodbye stuff'.

And don't forget about hackers! They can and do hack the Cloud, constantly. Everyday some site gets hacked and even though the site may deny it, your stuff is at risk!

If you really need to keep your email or other stuff in the Cloud for easy access from other locations, at least keep it all backed up somewhere close, like external media you can actually see and get your hands on it.

 

Martha

Playing Games

I think most of probably played the blame game when we were kids, usually trying to avoid the consequences of some action that led to something unpleasant like being grounded.

Eventually real adults figured out the blaming of others for their actions wasn't 'cool' and took responsibility for their own mistakes or actions.

Foolish me for thinking our government is run by real adults. As far as I can see, finger pointing and blaming others because the government is not working just lets me know how childish those folks on Capitol hill really are acting.

There is another game those childish folks are playing as well. I think it goes something like 'If I don't get my way, you won't either. I'll pick up my toys and go home.'

Nothing the people want is being accomplished. Everything the lobbyists want is being done.

Strange though, when something affects the Capitol Hill kids, how quickly something can happen. Like being delayed getting home on one of their many 'paid vacations' or being yelled at by the folks who voted for them the last time.

How quickly that fix was made!

Martha

Expiration Date

I noticed something this morning when I was getting ready to shower. I opened a new bar of soap and noticed an expiration date on the box containing the soap. I didn't know soap would ever 'go bad'. In fact I still don't know it.

I think as long as there is even a sliver of that bar of soap, it will still suds up and wash just fine. Maybe the fragrance in the soap will evaporate, but I doubt the fragrance is really needed to make someone clean. Or will it?

I suspect the expiration date is simply a marketing ploy. I wonder if anyone has ever tossed a good bar of soap because the box had an expiration date that had come and gone! There are a lot of gullible folks out there believing all sorts of urban legends and hoaxes, so why not soap that expires? (Could be the anti-bacterial stuff expires, but not the actual soap!)

I started to wonder, if there are other things I haven't thought of with expiration dates.  I knew food and medicines have expiration dates but not soap! so I checked my deodorant, no expiration date.  That's odd, deodorant soap does, but not deodorant. Toothpaste yes, mouthwash no.

Now that I have thought about it, I will be on the lookout for those dates! Sad to say I guess everything has an expiration date, including me.  But there is no date stamped on me, so will just have to wonder about that!

Martha

 

Capturas

I understand the need for these aggravating verifications, but gee whiz, why do they have to be so 'blurry'!

These old and injured eyes of mine have a really hard time with these.  Sometimes it's so bad I have to ask for the voice. Sometimes I just give up and forget about the whole process.

I think there has to be a better way to escape the spam bots, but so far I guess no one has come up with a better way. But sooner or later those nasty'bots will figure out a
way to get around the capturas and then maybe, just maybe someone will get working on the better way.

Martha

Bowing Out

I finally realized that all of the political inspired hate missives I've received in my email and on Facebook have just been making me stress out.  So for now I am 'bowing out'.

It started when Obama first ran for President. I have to admit I thought some of this stuff was funny, especially the 'born in Kenya' stuff.  However, I soon realized there were a lot of folks who actually believed this junk!  That whole thing started when one of the Hilary supporters made up the whole thing in hopes it would bring more support to her (Hilary) campaign. Wow, did that backfire!  Now there is a whopping thirty percent of Republicans that believe this idiocy!

The emails made fun of everything Obama related. But then they started getting nasty. Some of my so-called Christian friends started sending this stuff. (This is Christian behavior?)
Politics and religion have always let to contentious discussions and always will. Some of the early elections in the United States were really ugly, with all sorts of nasty and untrue statements being made by the candidates about their opponents. Sounds familiar, doesn't it!

Everyone is entitled to their opinion and in this country they have the right to express those opinions. I agree with that right. I also have the right to not read or hear those opinions, especially if it really stresses me out to hear what seems ugly, non-christian and downright ignorant in some instances, so I am going to just 'bow out'.

Martha