Microsoft Treats Me Like a Thief!

I am NOT a Thief!

I don't know about you, but I am really fed up being treated like a thief.

I realize that there are a lot of thieves out there, but I am not one of them.  If Microsoft is so clever, they should be able to detect my system is legit without me having to jump through hoops to prove it. But I paid for my version of Windows and I am sick of being treated like I stole it.

Why I have to prove my Windows is legitimate before I can download something from Microsoft is beyond me. Every time I have to prove my trustworthiness. This is just wrong.

Now I have to prove my worthiness just to view a video about Windows 7! (There used to be a link here, but Microsoft moved the video, so the link is gone. Maybe too many folks besides me got tired of trying to prove they are not thieves.)

This is one of the reasons that makes honest people turn to other operating systems like Linux. My next operating system may just be Linux.

Martha

What's Next?

All of us have endured the endless onslaught of Spam for a long time and there doesn't seem to be an end to it in sight.

In the last few months I am getting 'invitations' from people I never heard of to join web sites of dubious value and motives.

First it was the invitation to visit 'my Refriendz page and see my latest photos.' I blogged about this a while back.

But now it's a flood from Refriendz, FriendsClub, Question It, etc and of course Grouply. I expect others will soon follow. It makes no difference, it's all Spam to me.

I am not sure exactly how these 'social' sites work and I really don't care to find out, other than they annoy folks like me who do not want those spammy emails.

But Grouply really worries me. The concept sounds good, get all of your Groups emails on one web page. There is another way to get them all in one place, folks. Download the messages to an email program or to Gmail! That way you don't compromise your Yahoo login and password by giving it to some website!

You say, well if some fool wants to give up his or her logging credentials that's their problem. Guess what, it could be your problem and my problem.  All it would take is for some sneaky soul to scrape his Grouply site to a blog and your email address and mine are exposed to the world.

If you have a Yahoo Group and you don't want your Group posts on Grouply you can stop it. Just use the information here to keep your members from belonging to Grouply if you wish.  Tell Grouply to leave your Group alone

Once you enter your Group's owner email, you get a code to enter and then you can set the controls to allow or prevent Grouply from taking control of your Group.

Now Yahoo is trying to get in on the invitations. They call theirs 'Connections'. In all fairness, they don't attempt to have users send an invite to everyone in their address book, but some of these 'Connections' are a tad dubious.

I just wish these sites would leave those invitations, connections or what ever they want to call them, alone and not keep adding to the Spam in our Inboxes!

Martha

Those Awful Fakes!

(Why you shouldn't use Google to search for security products.)

Everyday a new so-called security program rears it's ugly head. These rogue programs invade a user's computer in several ways and one of the ways is by an unsuspecting user downloading the scumware on purpose.

A few of the fakes.

So many of these ripoff products name their scumware something close to a real and good security product. So if a user sees something that looks familiar they think it's the real deal. Not.

I've been reading a book about security on the Internet and trust me, the ways that crimeware can intrude on a user's computer is almost enough to make me stay offline and keep the computer turned off.

However, most of us will be safe if we only follow a few simple rules. Use a firewall, an updated anti-virus scanner and 'good' spyware removers. Don't click on links in email from unknown senders (better, don't even open those emails) turn off ActiveX in Internet Explorer (better, use Firefox or Opera), disable javascript in all browsers and never, ever, search Google for security products.

One last thing, if you are using a router, change the default password to something harder to guess than 'password' or 'admin'.

Stay safe!

Martha

My Email Address is 'Invalid'

Today I received an email from AARP asking me to take a survey. (Yes, I am a member of AARP.)

I went to the site to take the survey and of course they want me to log in. So I entered my email address and password and then got a message 'enter a valid email address'. So thinking I may have made a typo the first time, I entered it again.  Nope, 'Enter a valid email address' popped up again.

Well this 'invalid email address' has been receiving and sending email a long time,including from AARP so I can only assume AARP is having a problem with their site. Their email server is apparently working though, as I received their email sent to my 'invalid email address' just fine.

If this is happening to a lot of other folks and I suspect it is, I wonder how long it will take them to figure out something is wrong.

Since most of the time the emails I get from them are wanting me to send money for some purpose or other, I think I will just unsubscribe from AARP's email.  That is as soon as I can convince them the email they have been using to send me those emails is 'valid'.

Martha

Writer's Block Due to Being Overwhelmed by Political Pablum

As a general rule, I can think of a lot of stuff to write about, when I am away from the computer. But just let me decide I need to put a new post on my blog and the block looms large.

I think part of my problem right now is the fact that I am so sick and tired of all the political stuff coming at me from every direction. I have this urge to jump on folks and lambast them for such obvious one sided views that I am becoming unreasonable about the whole political thing.

All of the stuff I read is so one sided, regardless of which side. They bash everyone that doesn't think the way they think. Free speech is something I treasure and since I do treasure it, I refrain from replying in snide remarks about their choice of candidates and their derision for others in this crazy political year.

I just wish things could be a bit more positive instead of so much negative remarks. So you don't like Sarah Palin? Then say something positive about Biden. Don't like Obama? Say something positive about McCain. Can't think of anything nice to say about any of them? Keep quiet.

Don't insult my intelligence either. Don't start telling me how bad a candidate is based on what you have read. I don't care if you think someone is not fit for the job. (In my personal opinion, none of them are ready for the awful job that lies ahead for the unfortunates who mange to win this election.)

The problem for me lies in the fact that all of this political stuff just started too soon. I think we should have primaries in every state at the same time. September would be a good time. No more conventions, just let the candidates with the most votes in the primaries get the nominations. (Think of the saved money!) No more 'Super delegates'! Super delegates just totally goes against my idea of democracy. Why should anyone have more say in an election than the average citizen?

I could go on and on. Guess my writer's block lifted on this subject!

Martha

Chrome? Or Not to Chrome?

I don't 'do' betas any more since a disastrous beta several years ago (from Microsoft no less) made me do a complete reinstall of Windows.

Today I have a better system using Acronis True Image and a beta causing havoc could be taken care of in quick order by using my backup restore, but betas can be frustrating.

But that's not the reason I won't install Chrome.  Never mind it has big honkin security holes. I am not going to give Google another way to track everything I do online. In case you didn't know that Chrome will do that, better read this!

Some things are best left to what they do best, like Google has the best search engine and I will continue to use it, even though it supposedly keeps every search I make in a big database the size of the sun somewhere.

There are enough browsers now, although there could be some improvements in all of them.  If Microsoft would remove ActiveX from Internet Explorer, that would solve a bunch of security problems. (Think drive by spyware installs.)

I use Firefox as my default browser, but it too has some bugs. If I didn't use Firefox as the default, my next choice is Opera. I use Firefox because it has such nice addons known as 'extensions'. If Opera would do the same, then Opera might be my default browser.

Anyway, back to Chrome. I have heard that if it is uninstalled the uninstall might take some other stuff with it, but that is unsubstantiated at present. Some folks love it and some folks hate it.

When it comes out of beta I may install it on my secondary computer, just to check how my web sites look in Chrome. Until then, no Chrome for me.

Martha

Why I Don't Have a Newsletter

I really like to receive newsletters; at least some of them.  At one time I did think about doing a newsletter, but decided against it because knowing me, after awhile I would just stop sending them.  If I had folks that had subscribed, I like to think this might have disappointed them.

I subscribe to a number of newsletters that I really like.  If you are at all curious which ones you can read about it on the newsletter page on Martha's Web. I try to keep this page updated as all good things come to an end and so do newsletters.

Another reason I don't write a newsletter is because I don't want to give wrong information about stuff. In a newsletter (not on my newsletter page) I read some stuff about how to fix a problem with Outlook. Now I am no expert by any means, but this was basic stuff and the 'fix' was totally wrong!

I sometimes get really annoyed about folks who continually bad-mouth products I use and really like. I have discontinued two newsletters for that very reason. One insinuated if I use Microsoft Front Page to make my website I have 'bad' code on the site. I would challenge that person to find the 'bad' code on my site! True I remade it using Expression Web, but it didn't have bad code before then. I have seen bad code on sites made with DreamWeaver which is what the newsletter editor was saying everyone should use. Another kept bad-mouthing Microsoft Vista to the point I just unsubbed for that reason alone.  These folks are 'trashees', and so I left their cyber missives.

Most of the time I learn good stuff from my newsletters. But one thing I have noticed; they are all trying to get me to buy stuff. Generally it is software, usually security software. I don't mind that as everyone needs to pay the bills. I just ignore most of it as I have all the software I need. I do notice the fact that some of them are insinuating what I have is not the best available.

Again, they are just trying to make some $$ but what they are pushing may NOT be the best! So while I really enjoy my newsletters I am aware that a really good newsletter takes a lot of time and work to keep up with new trends, new and good software, accurate information about 'fixes' and it needs to go out to subscribers on a regular basis. (There are some exceptions to the regular basis.  If the subscriber knows up front the newsletter will arrive once in awhile and not on a schedule, then forewarned is forearmed.)

Since lately I can't even post on a regular basis to this blog, I suspect my decision to not have a newsletter is the right decision.

Martha

The Biggest Lies We Hear Everyday

I like making lists. This one is about the biggest lies we hear almost every day. Most of us don't believe these lies, but a few really naive folks may believe at least some of them.

"Your call is really important to us".  The truth is they just wish you would hang up.

"We take this issue very seriously". The truth is one of the following; they got caught doing something unethical, there was a
product failure or someone made a big booboo (like putting a lizard in your salad) and they wish no one had found out.

"Get a $xx rebate!"  The truth is you will forget to mail it in the time frame allowed (some as few as 5 days), they will claim they didn't receive it if you did mail it or they will lie and say you didn't send in all the required documents. (Disclaimer,some companies will do the right thing, not all of them are crooks.)

"I promise" The biggest lie of all. Politians promise anything to get elected. Once they are elected, all of the promises turn out to be fairy dust. (Fairy dust doesn't exist.)

"We care". Any statement by politians, companies or large corporations starting with these words is a blatant lie. What they do care about is your vote, either by going to the polls or making a purchase.

"Ask your doctor" The drug manufacturers know you probably don't need this outrageously expensive drug. They have bribed your doctor with food, merchandize and other goodies so when you "ask your doctor" he will prescribe this drug that may not
have been thoroughly tested and probably has some very unpleasant side effects up to and including death.

I know there are more of these big lies, if you know of some more, let me know!

Martha

What's in this stuff I'm about to eat?

Sometimes I wonder about stuff, like why does my pimento cheese spread have egg yolks as one of the ingredients? Cheese and pimentos yes, but egg yolks? But at least I understood 'egg yolks' even if I can't figure out why they put them in my cheese spread. Some of those other ingredients are a complete mystery!

I know most people don't read the list of ingredients that are in the products they buy. I understand why they don't read those lists; most folks don't have a degree in chemistry. I don't have a degree in chemistry either, but I feel compelled to read the ingredient lists anyway.

I am slowly but surely removing products from my 'buy' list. The first list of things I removed have a nasty ingredient, 'partially hydogenated oil'. This stuff is poison! Artery clogging poison! This made my 'don't buy' list get a lot longer as a bunch of food processors seem to think they have to put this artery clogger in just about everything. Bakers put it in cookies, companies like Kraft put it in everything! And just because the ingredients say '0' transfat, don't believe it! Check the ingredients. If partially hydogenated oil is listed, the product contains transfat. (Lies!)

Somewhere I read that if Grandma wouldn't recognize an ingredient, you shouldn't eat it. I don't remember where I read that, but I have decided that's a good thing to remember. The upside of changing my buy list is my grocery bill has gone down. (I don't go down the cookie aisle any more.)The downside is I have to cook almost everything from 'scratch' and I really don't like to cook!

You would think that not buying all that stuff would make me lose weight. Not true, even though I am not fond of cooking, I am fond of eating what I cook! Sigh!

Martha

Circles

By now unless you've been hiding in a cave somewhere with no communication with the outside world, you know the Olympic games are well underway. Since the Olympics are so popular, everyone wants to jump on the bandwagon.

My newspaper is no exception. Today there is an article about decorating with circles due to the fact that the Olympic symbol consists of five entwined circles. This was one subject they should have filed under 'forget it'.

I could maybe have lived with the lamp they chose, and maybe for a little while with some of the other stuff, but when I saw the sofa, I knew right away this was not the kind of stuff for me.

I know that there is always the 'different strokes for different folks', but honestly, could you live with this Marshmallow Sofa?

Martha

No Vista Help on My Website

I really thought by now I would have added pages and pages for Vista help. Not so, because I haven't had to fix any problems with my Vista. Since I haven't had to fix any problems...........well, I have no experience in that area. (I'm not fussing!)

There are a lot of people who do seem to be having problems with Vista and there are a lot of sites with 'fixes' for Vista. One thing I have noticed, is that a lot of the 'fixes' are to make things act more like Windows XP.

Nothing wrong with that I guess, but to me that is going backward instead of forward. I have Vista on this laptop and I want to use it as it was intended.

There are some problems with Vista and I am not denying they exist. The biggest problem for me is what Microsoft did to Outlook Express. They took away the only redeeming feature that led me to use OE in past versions of Windows; the ability to use more than one Identity in the same user account. The rationale was 'users should set up separate user accounts'. That's all well and good, but I have several email accounts and I used a separate Identity for each account. Gmail to the rescue here!

Not only did they 'cripple' the email client Windows Mail, but it was buggy at the start. The deleted folder wouldn't empty and the old fix for this problem in Outlook Express wasn't possible with Windows Mail. So then MS came up with Windows Live Mail. Ugh! Ick! No way, Microsoft, Windows Live Mail just doesn't cut it. Thunderbird works quite well. No separate Identities in Thunderbird, but deleted mail will delete.

I am not sure what they did to Internet Explorer, but a lot of folks have seem to have problems with IE7. I don't use IE unless I have to because it still contains ActiveX, a favorite of drive-by spyware.

Those problems are easily fixed for me; I just don't use them most of the time. There is one little problem though that I have learned to live with, although I would like a 'fix'. Why doesn't Windows Vista remember my folder settings!

Martha

Spam is down?

Could have fooled me!

According to my latest issue of Consumer Reports, "spam, spyware and virus have declined 'significantly in the past few years". They got this information on their new 'State of the Net survey'.

Consumer Reports has in the past been considered by me to be a reliable source of information about just about everything. But this little tad of information has me totally bewildered. What kind of folks were taking this survey? This statement makes me wonder about all of the other reports they publish.

On the contrary, Consumer Reports! Spam, spyware and virus have NOT declined significantly in the past few yeas, but are more and more prolific all the time! Since 2006 the total amount of spam in email has increased from 56% to 80%! Anyone who has used the same email address for any length of time can vouch for that. (Unless they have a really industrial strength spam filter. Even then spam gets through.)
Source: Spam Report

Spyware has changed it's face so maybe some folks think it's down. The 'change' has involved more rootkits, key loggers, Trojans and worms, all designed to steal your money and identity. New virus are being intoduced every day. I suspect the folks who took that survey probably are mostly behind corporate firewalls with an IT department working feverishly to prevent all of the bad suff from ever reaching the work stations of clueless users.

They should have sent the survey to those techs working behind the scenes!

All of the above reinforces the old saying 'Don't believe everything you hear or read'. (And now with PhotoShop you can't believe everything you see either)

Martha

Problem Fixed!

My Expression Web had been working just fine. Then today it kept freezing and would have to be closed.  Sometimes I got the message it encountered a problem and had to close. I used a neat utility, FPCleaner, but that didn't seem to help.

So what's going on? I am in the middle of converting my website using a new new template and DWT. Until today I had no problems What's different today that I'm having this problem with EW?

Then I remembered, I had turned 'Fast Indexing' back on. Big mistake! So I turned it off and now everything is working just fine.

To turn 'Fast Indexing' off is easy, but you must be logged on as an Administrator.

1. Click on Start button, simply type “Services” (don't use the quotes) in Start Search box.
2. When the UAC (User Account Control) asks for permission click Continue.
3. Locate a service named 'Windows Search'. Double click on 'Windows Search' to open the Windows Search properties.
4. Click on Stop button to stop the indexing service immediately.
5. On the Startup Type dropdown box, select Disabled.
6. Click on OK button.

Sometimes a problem solution is just too easy. However, sometimes it isn't. Glad this one was the 'easy' solution!

But I still don't know why Fast Indexing made EW freeze up and crash!

Martha

Poor Little Tree

We have this little mimosa tree in our back yard.

I grew it from a seedling. Fate keeps trying to discourage it from surviving, but it just keeps chugging along. In April this year we had a hail storm. A bad hail storm. In fact, at the time of this writing, the roofers are on top of the house now removing the hail-damaged shingles and replacing them with new un-damaged shingles.

The hail really beat up this little tree. It had big gouges in the bark. Nature being the survivor that is, caused a new tiny bud to sprout in each of the gouges and before long the little tree was really showing new growth in a wonderful way.

Then we had another storm, this time it was wind. Wind gusts up to 70 miles an hour and this ferocious wind lasted all day! It blew and blew and blew the fence almost down. The wind didn't hurt the tree, however the consequences of the wind certainly did!

We share fences with our neighbors in this area. The folks behind us have dogs. Well everybody in this neighborhood has dogs, but the folks behind us have big dogs. One is a curious husky. He managed to get through the half blown down fence and explored our yard.

"A tree! What's this stuff on the tree? Yummy! "This curious pup pulled the bark off one whole side of the tree! I saw him do it from the kitchen window. My neighbors chose this time to be gone of course and the pup being a suspicious canine would not let us get close to him. So we spent the next three hours trying to coax him back to his yard and keeping him from eating the rest of the bark from the tree.

Eventually the neighbors returned home and so did the pup. A temporary fence fix kept him at home until more permanent repairs could be made.  In the meantime we watched our little tree wondering if it would make it. Many of the new branches slowly turned yellow and died. Slowly several brown spots showed on the stark white left after the bark was 'liberated'. Is it a fungus? Or is it new bark? The yellowing leaves are not as many now and the tree even bloomed.

I have heard it is hard to kill a mimosa tree and I believe it. It looks like the tree will make it. Unless something else happens.

Martha

Amazed!

I never cease to be amazed at how stupid some people can be or at least how stupid their remarks can be.

I still take my local newspaper although I am not sure for how much longer. Every Saturday there is a section called 'Cheers and Jeers'. Folks write in to 'cheer' someone for a good deed or a happy thing and some write in to 'jeer' someone for a bad or stupid thing.

Today there were a few 'jeers' that fall into the 'where have you been hiding, under a rock?' category.

One numskull is jeering the airlines for 'price gouging'. I guess this turkey does't have a car or he would know gas is way expensive these days. Then again, maybe he hasn't figured out that airplanes need fuel to fly!

Then there was the guy who wants the car companies to quit running ads and ruining his TV programs. Guess he hasn't figured out those ads are what makes his viewing programs for free! Where has he been hiding? Ads have been on TV for over 50 years, has he just now noticed? (I will admit some of those ads are obnoxious, but most TV remotes do have a mute button!)

Now comes the corker, the guy who wants our elected officials to put a limit on how many babies people can have, just like China does. I wonder if he would like to have a Communist government like China does. We have 'over-population' according to him. I suspect he doesn't like kids.

Some days I just need to blow off some steam; this is one of those days.

Martha

Bottom Posting vs Top Posting in Email

As in many other computer-related stuff there are two sides to this subject.

The so-called 'right way' is bottom posting.  However I suspect this is really more for private emails and not Group lists.
Either way, private or a list, I don't like bottom posts. One reason is because most folks don't bother to trim out all of the unnessary and irelevant junk, including a lot of these >>>>. Sometimes there is so much junk I have to scroll and scroll to get to the sender's respnse. I must confess, I don't always bother. Because I sometimes receive as many as 300 or more  messages a day, I don't have a lot of time to go through a bunch of junk.

On lists like Yahoo Groups there is always a lot of other stuff appended to each message. This includes a number of links pertaining to each group's special interests and of course the group's home page. (There is also the way to unsubscribe which unfortunately some people never read and instead of unsubscribing themselves, they whine for someone else to do it for them.)

Some people do trim out the unnessary junk and while they are trimming, they remove everything. Unless this message comes through immediately after the first post or soon thereafter, often I have no idea what that trimmed post was about. This causes me to have to waste time searching for the relevant message. Again, I don't always bother.

One HUGE aggravation about bottom posting is when someone responds to a post just to say "Thank you" and I have to scroll through everything that went on before just to see "Thank you". I eventually stop reading messages this person posts and I suspect I am not alone.

I try to remain open minded about bottom posting, but sometimes it's hard.  Some people are very responsible about how they trim and those posts are mostly easy for me to read. Other folks just can't seem to grasp the concept of trimming and I soon learn whose to read and whose to ignore.

Some email programs will automatically put replies on the bottom of a message. One such program is Eudora, which is why I don't use Eudora for lists.

There is another method of replying to list posts; this is replying inline. Some of these inline replies work very well and others are such a disaster that I give up trying to read them. Some email programs make this easier to manage, but my email (Outlook) is not one of them. I suspect some people use colored text to reply in line, but if the group/list is plain text, the colors don't come through.

I wonder, do you top post or bottom post?

Martha

Snagit 9 and My Default Browser

Snagit has come up with a winner on this upgrade, no doubt about it.  I have always been a fan of Snagit and have used it for a long time.

But the folks at TechSmith sorta made me unhappy about one thing. I'll explain. When Snagit 9 opened for the first time, a window came up asking me if I was a first time user or a returning user. I clicked the previous user link and.........It opened in Internet Explorer!

My default browser is Firefox and it is my default browser for a good reason. I do not like Internet Explorer 7. Period. Since I am using Vista, that is the version of IE I have. I never use it, because I don't like it. If I didn't need to see how my web pages look in IE, it would be disabled if I could figure out how to do it.

TechSmith folks, listen up.  It is not nice to make IE execute in Snagit. Tacky! Really tacky! I hope you are listening!

Seriously folks, Snagit 9 is a winner. It's great!

Martha

Not as Young as I Used to Be

I did something today I haven't done in years. I mowed some of the lawn and I used a push mower. Not a gas powered push mower either, an old fashioned push mower.

Yep, I now know for sure, I'm not as young as I used to be. That's obvious every time I see myself in the mirror. But for some reason that didn't really make me KNOW.

Notice I said I mowed some of the lawn. I decided I wasn't ready to die, so I quit while I was still breathing, although I was still breathing hard!

But since I don't want to be a quitter, I got a cold wet washrag, washed my face and back to mowing. I decided to take a break and went back in the house. My son decided to finish the job so I wouldn't kick the bucket. (I was almost through, he needn't have worried!) So now the lawn needed trimming and away I go trimming. This wasn't bad at all and I am not as hot as I was mowing.

I finished up and came back in the cool house and looked for my wet washrag to mop my face.  I looked everywhere and couldn't find it. Then I remembered where it was. It was on the back of my neck, keeping me cooler.

I told you I am not as young as I used to be and neither is my memory!

Martha

What Kind of Eggs?

I learned something new yesterday. You can buy pasteurized eggs!  When I saw a recipe for silk pie in the newspaper that called for pasteurized eggs, I thought it was a hoax or someone who just didn't know better. Wouldn't a pasteurized egg be boiled? After all I think the definition of 'pasteurize' is to heat something, usually milk, to a temperature high enough to kill bacteria.  Heating an egg to that temperature would surely boil it, right? Maybe not.

Apparently, so goes the theory, you can heat the egg long enough to kill the bacteria and it still won't be cooked. Since a lot of recipes call for 'raw' eggs, this should be a great way to avoid the wicked salmonella that keeps popping up in everything these days.

You can even pasteurize your own eggs yourself! Recipezaar has the method on their site.

There are a lot of entries in Google about pasteurized eggs. Most of them are asking questions about them.  But I did find several interesting articles about milk and shell eggs with extended shelf lives.

This article, ULTRAPASTEURIZED & PASTEURIZED FOOD, on Chemical & Engineering News was really the most informative and makes more sense than most.

I buy ultrapasteurized milk. It is also organic and rather pricey, but since the regular milk goes bad long before I use it all and has to be thrown away, I think it is cost effective. But I have never seen pasteurized eggs for sale in any of my local markets. I think it is a good idea though, and maybe they will eventually sell those 'safer' eggs.

Have you ever bought pasteurized eggs?

Ripoff!

Every time I turn around, I see or hear about another ripoff for the average consumer. There are so many ripoffs it would be impossible to name them all.

This is not the first time I've griped about the drug companies, but today I learned about one more that really has me steamed. This one takes advantage of folks that have a hard time getting to sleep. A very heavily advertised drug that costs about $3.50 a pill (and that alone is outrageous!) on average will give the user 11 to 19 minutes more sleep. The way I figure it, if the pill taker gets 11 more minutes of sleep, those 11 minutes are costing about 32 cents a minute. Pretty pricey sleep! The commercials show folks getting a good nights sleep. Ripoff!

I like catalogs. I get a lot of them as well. I know that if I order something from one catalog, that merchandiser will probably sell my name and address to a bunch of other merchandisers which in turn will sell my information to others. It's an endless proposition.  I ordered some stuff from one of those catalogs that was supposed to remove baked-on crud from cookie sheets. It didn't work at all. Ripoff! I should have known if it sounds too good to be true it usually isn't, but even though I am generally suspicious I still get taken every now and then.

Magazines are purveyors of ads more and more. Readers Digest and Prevention magazines now have as many ads as they have content. (Maybe more ads than content!) Ripoff! I just don't think I want to pay for ads anymore. I would rather pay more for the subscription and get content, not ads. I know they have to pay the bills, but really, half of the pages are ads? Maybe they could have two types of subscriptions; they could have one with fewer ads costing more and one with mostly ads costing very little. Dream on.

Shopping on line has it's share of ripoffs.  Most reputable sites will let you know before you click the 'Place order' button what you shipping and handling will be, but I have encountered some that don't. Since a lot of sites offer free shipping you may think that's what  you are getting, but the 'gottcha' shows up when you get your credit card bill. Oh and there's another ripoff waiting to get you, the little box that offers you a 'discount on your order, just click here.' What can happen and often does, you are signed up for something called 'Rewards', Discounts' or some other misleading scam that will charge you $10, $12 or some other amount each month and bill your credit card. Ripoff!

Most likely the biggest ripoffs of all are the spurious products being advertised to make plump folks lose weight. They promise amazing results, but seldom deliver. Once you buy the product, an insert will tell you to follow the included diet and exercise regularly. Guess what, if you follow the diet and exercise you don't need their product. Ripoff!

Martha