The Disappearing Content

I am going to miss my morning newspaper. I still get a paper every morning, but it is less and less all the time.

There are a lot of full page ads, but I won't miss those. There are some articles that I still enjoy reading, but those are few and far between.  Most of what is in the paper I saw on the local news the day before, or I read it online from USA Today or CNN.

I used to get enough grocery coupons to pay for the cost of the paper. Now the coupons are still there, but not for stuff I want. Besides the store brands are less than the name brands even with a coupon.

I have been debating for some time whether or not to keep the newspaper. There has always been something satisfying about reading the paper with my morning coffee, and that enjoyment kept me from unsubscribing even though the content has been diminishing and some days there doesn't seem to be much of anything besides the comic strips. I need that morning chuckle to start the day.

Today was my decision day to stop paying over $200 a year for the paper. Sunday morning comics have always been a nice respite from all the negative news.  Today they were gone. No comics.  I called the paper to find out why and was told they were to be found in Section F. Why would you put the comics in the 'Homes for Sale section? Perverse humor? Nope they weren't there either.

"Well, look in the Your Life section, That is section F" the customer service rep said. Nope, not there either, and that section is section E not F. I know sometimes I may not 'get it', but I can read the section numbers! The comics are missing. So she sent me out another paper.

Guess what, no comics in this one either, but there were a few more ad circulars. The section numbers are still the same as the first paper. So, the customer service rep didn't know which section was which or else no one told her the comics were gone. Another thing could have been a 'Dilbert' move, they laid off the folks who know how to put the paper together.

Regardless of what happened, my decision has been made. I customized my Google page to include my favorite comics and that's the end of it.

Martha

Microsoft Antivirus NOT!

I normally do not post virus warnings, as they are generally hoaxes.

However since a lot of people will trust stuff labeled 'Microsoft', I deemed it necessary to warn folks about a new or rather updated and renamed, rogue antivirus/antispyware software being offered using Microsoft's name.

For more information, see this site.

The spyware remover being advertised on this site is SpyHunter. The site owner could be affiliated with SpyHunter and I have done some research about SpyHunter. It is a legitimate program but is not among the top ten rated removers. It also has a name that was once connected with a rogue program that is no longer available. (I suspect they should have checked that out and didn't.)

There are a number of sites that rate spyware removers, but without knowing whether or not these sites are affiliated with any of the programs it is difficult to decide which is the best.

If you want to check to see if your favorite remover is among the top scanners, here are a couple of sites to check.

Top Ten Reviews

Safer-networking

Just keep your spyware scanners updated and scan frequently to prevent malware from installing, and if a program has a name you think you can trust, check it out first!

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

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

The Comics

I can remember when I was a kid (even though it was a long time ago!) I loved comic books. I don't read comic books any more, but I do read the comics in the newspaper. I don't read all of them though, because I just don't find some of them very funny and some are just silly, not funny.

My newspaper is always trying changes with the comic strips, removing some and adding others. I just wish they would leave them alone. Most of the time they do a fair job, but sometimes they make changes I don't like, such as when they stopped printing one of my very favorites, Cathy, along with others and added some strips I just don't read because they are either not funny, just too silly or I can't get 'into' them. They move the strips around too. Dilbert is now in the 'Work & Money' section. Mallard Filmore and Doonesbury are on the Editorial page. (They had to make room for some of the not so funny newcomers.)

I think my sense of humor is starting to warp. There is one new strip that is silly, not always funny and I don't always 'get it', but I love it! It's The Piranha Club.

I have several favorites, Pickles, Dilbert, the Pajama Diaries, but my very favorite is Better or Worse.

I discovered I can get most of my favorite daily comic strips on my Google Home page. Now I can read old favorites that disappeared from the local paper. I would have preferred to read them in the paper, but reading them online is pretty cool.

Martha

Going 'Green'

There are a lot of articles in the newspaper, various magazines and news programs on TV about going green to help save the environment. This is good; we do need to do all we can to prevent greenhouse gases from increasing the advent of global warming. It is very good to recycle glass, newspapers, magazines, etc. If each of us can do our part to save some trees and save some energy, this is a good thing.

My family replaced all of our incandescent light bulbs with florescent last year. This was supposed to save money on the power bill but since we have a power company that keeps changing the rates it is a little difficult to tell how money we're saving, if any. The bulbs are supposed to last longer, but they do cost quite a bit more to buy.

We have recycled ever since it was an option to do so. Sometimes I wonder whether washing out the icky sticky cans and jars are really helping; it takes water and we have to conserve water as well.

We have a very small lawn and use a battery powered mower/trimmer and recently my son has used a push mower when the grass isn't too high.

Trips in the car are mostly for my son to go back and forth to work (no way to avoid that!) and shopping and errands are consolidated as much as possible to save gas and $$.

Today in my newspaper (If you have been following my blog, you knew that was coming, didn't you?) is a story about how four families are going green. Most of them are doing the same things that we are doing and since they have children, they are teaching them to be responsible and go 'green' whenever possible.

This is all good and I admire them for all their efforts but for one thing. I am NOT going to keep a bucket under my kitchen sink for vegetable scraps and earthworms to make compost!

And furthermore, I am not going to 'pickup' any furniture from the landfill! (The story showed a family sitting on a broken down sofa in the landfill.)

Martha

Old News From the BBB

(Very old)

In our newspaper today there were two very large notices. One was about preventing identity theft and it contained a lot of very good information.

But the other notice leaves me wondering, 'who wrote this and how long ago was it written?' The notice/ad was about buying computers. It started off by telling folks who were considering getting a computer for the very first time how to decide what to get, depending on what they planned to do with the computer. So far, so good.

Then the notice went on to say they could save money by having a custom built computer. Uh, no, they can't. This was true several years ago, but not now. The price of new computers for average personal use has dropped to unbelievable lows. Unless a user is into editing high end graphics or graphic intensive games, a very decent computer can be purchased for a whole lot less than one can be built.

It got worse. The writer told the buyer of a custom built computer to run diagnostics on it as soon as they picked it up from the shop where it was built. Now any computer builder worth using would do this before the customer picked it up, but that is not the worst. The writer went on to say 'Use a diagnostic like Norton Utilities for Win 3.1, Win 95, Mac. etc.' What time machine did this writer step from? Win 3.1? Oh dear! And I am pretty sure you can't get a Mac built by anyone except Apple!

This writer had absolutely no idea what he was writing about! However, I suspect this was a re-cycled article from archives.

See, you can't believe everything you read, even from sources that are usually reliable. While all of the above was probably true at one time, it sure isn't true now!

Martha

Ruining chocolate

I used to think you couldn't ruin chocolate. I was wrong.

There was an article in the newspaper recently describing this abomination!

How can anyone be so cruel as to cover bugs with perfectly good chocolate! What a terrible way to ruin chocolate!

Some so-called gourmet folks seem to think that it's OK to waste perfectly good chocolate to cover ants, worms, roaches and other yucky things. I can't imagine eating even one of those chocolate covered ickies! Even though I consider myself a chocoholic, I still draw the line someplace and that's the line, no bugs!

Not only do these people who desecrate chocolate sell these so called treats, they even have recipes so you can make your own. Ewwwww! A Google search for 'Chocolate Covered Insects' got over 800,000 hits!

Sometimes I think I really must quit reading the newspaper, but it's such a good source of stuff to write about!

Martha

If Someone Makes It, Someone Will Buy It

I know people can do some pretty dumb things. I see that every day on the news. I see it in the newspaper all the time. Sometimes I see or read something that just leaves me flabbergasted.

Like today! A famous designer whose name I refuse to mention has made a purse that costs $52,500. No, that's not a typo! Apparently only 24 are available worldwide and at least one of them has been sold to a celebrity. (A celebrity with more money than sense!) I have no doubt that there are 23 more idiots that will buy the rest. I say idiots, because that is what anyone who spends that kind of money on an ugly purse is an idiot! The picture shown in the paper is of a purse that I wouldn't have if it was given to me.

For that kind of money you would think it should at least be gorgeous!

It gets worse! A competitor for this designer is making a bag that will cost $260,150! But at least this purse will have diamonds adorning it. I keep thinking of that old phrase "A fool and his money are soon parted”. In my wildest dreams I simply cannot imagine paying that much money for something as trivial as a purse. If I was rich I could see myself paying that much for a car, (maybe!) but a purse? No way, never, never!

Now I know that celebrities are always doing things to get noticed, including stupid things. That's why some of them are famous. Anything to get more 'press' seems to be the norm. However, being a member of the 'super rich' for some seems to give license to another phrase "I have no common sense".

Martha 

Customer Service

Whatever happened to 'real' customer service? If you are old enough you may remember there was a time when the meaning of customer service was that someone would help you if you had a problem.

Merchants would provide this service to customers with a problem, hence the title 'Customer Service'. Years ago, there was also another phrase, 'The customer is always right'. This meant even if the customer wasn't right, the merchant would try to 'make things
right'. Sometimes merchants would even follow up with phone calls or letters to make sure a customer was satisfied with the results of contacting the 'Customer Service' department.

That was then and then there is now.

My newspaper has a column named 'The Watchdog'. The folks behind this column try to help people with problems that should have been taken care of by a now so-called Customer Service' department.

Some of the most frustrating instances seem to involve seniors, who certainly don't need to be punished by the lack of customer service. Case in point, a lady who was billed over and over again for a bill she had already paid. Numerous copies of the cancelled check were provided to no avail. If she hadn't contacted the Watchdog who managed to get the problem resolved, who knows how long this would have continued?

When the Watchdog gets involved, these problems are generally quickly solved. I suspect merchants, companies, etc. don't want to find themselves maligned in print which is read by a great many people. They manage to all of a sudden find what caused the problem and immediately get it resolved.

What I want to know, why couldn't Customer Service resolve the issues? I suspect the reasons may be lack of interest; the representatives have no real power to fix problems, not enough training and the list goes on and on. The real reason is the companies, merchants, etc. don't really care about their customers. Oh they pay lip service as in the infamous line to customers on hold, 'Your call is important to us', yadda yadda yadda. I truly believe they just hope customers will go away and stop bothering them. This is especially true for utility companies as they know there is no other place to get water, phone service, etc.

More about Customer Service later!

Martha

A Flaming Mixer

I just know I need one of these, a flaming mixer! Now it doesn't really have flames; it just looks like flames!  You know, like the flames painted on 'hot' cars! I suppose I could get by with something else, but those flames just look so cool. Apparently you can buy stickers to put on your mixer, according to an article in the paper.

A lot of other folks are making their mixers look like something they aren't, like some of the folks in the *"Bling Your Mixer"* contest. I think I would rather have the flames though, they look pretty cool.

Now if only those 'blinged' mixers could mix on their own and make delectible goodies, I would be all for having one.  However, I think you still have to put the stuff in the bowl and turn on the mixer and then pour it into the appropriate recepticle to finish it up. Sigh! One of these days they will invent a kitchen robot that can be programmed to do all that kitchen stuff. Then I will get excited!

In the meantime I think I will pass on the stickers and just leave my mixer in the pantry. Out of sight and out of mind.

Martha

The TV

I think I want my money back! The TV is not showing anything good anymore! An article in the paper described some of the new fall lineup for TV and now I know what is meant by a 'vast wasteland'.

What happened to the good shows? I guess those little jerks in TV writer-land think all of the mature people in the world don't watch TV anymore and guess what? We don't!

Is it really entertaining to watch a so-called comedy show that consists of no plot, sexual innuendos and put-downs? Not for me; and my family and friends all agree.

And what about all those Reality shows? Tell me, do you really like to watch people eat worms or try to get the other people thrown off the island or where ever they happen to be? Is this what people really find entertaining?

I recall reading sometime ago that once a writer hits the 30 year old mark; they are considered 'too old' in Hollywood. Well if that's the case maybe that explains all of the drivel being displayed on TV these days.

If it weren't for the Science, Learning, Discovery and National Geographic channels, I wouldn't have anything to watch! Except of course, my favorite sport, FOOTBALL!  (Guess I'll keep my TV for now)

Martha

Do the Paperwork

Today in my newspaper there is an article titled "Do the Paperwork and Get Your Rebate Money".

The article goes on to tell folks 'How to get your rebate'. Follow all the instructions, make copies, yadda yadda yadda. It also tells you what to do if you never receive the rebate. (Better mark this one for a follow-up!)

I have much better advice! Just don't buy anything that has a rebate! Just look what you will gain by following this advice. A huge time saving consisting of the following items. Unless you need it today, sooner or later someone will put it on sale without a rebate.

No trying to read the tiny print telling you what to send.
No cutting out all the tiny UPC codes, locating serial numbers, etc.
No having to make sure you beat the deadlines for sending all the required stuff.
No making copies and filing them away because you will undoubtedly need them later.
No checking the mail in vain looking for a rebate check.
No making calls (if you can find a phone number) to find out what happened to your rebate.
No getting denied your rebate because of a 'mistake' in what you sent. (One rebate center tried to tell me I mailed it too late. I mailed it the day I bought it! Eventually I did get the $$, but only after many calls and threats!)
No writing letters of complaint to the Attorney General of your state or anyone else you can think to write, because you didn't get what was promised.

Rebates have to be the best consumer rip-off ever conceived. They are legal (shouldn't be) ways to make consumers think they are getting a good deal and the sad thing is the fact that consumers have to jump through too many hoops to (maybe) get what was promised.

Whatever happened to just putting something on sale?  If people would just boycott those rebate promises, pretty soon they would go away and save consumers a lot of grief!

I'm still reading the paper. Where else would I get such good material to write about?

Martha

The Dress Code Re-visited

I am appalled! It's no wonder school kids think it's OK to go out dressed like they are going to a ragbag party! Their moms go out wearing their pajamas!

A front page spread in a section of today's paper showed how moms can leave the house in their sleepy-time clothes looking stylish! The title of the article was 'The Slipper Club'.

Please tell me moms don't really do this! Since all of the pictures of the 'cutesy' dressed moms in their jammies gave information on where to buy all of the so-called outfits, I thought maybe the merchants in the article were behind all of this drivel. But I am afraid that wasn't the case.

The article started with the reason why moms don't dress before they leave the house to take the kids (I hope the kids are dressed!) to school.  The poor mommies don't have time to dress!

Now if this isn't the worst reason why moms don't dress in the morning, I have yet to hear it. Don't have time? Then get up just five minutes earlier. I am not suggesting they have to put on makeup, panty hose (I bet they don't wear panty hose anywhere!) or dress like they are going to the opera, but how long does it take to put on jeans and a blouse?

Most children learn from their parents more than any other way. What they learn, good or bad, depends on what examples are set before them.  Not taking the time to dress properly before leaving the house certainly is not the way to set an example for kids.  I wonder how a mom would feel if she was involved in traffic accident and the police talked to her in her jammies? I would hope she would be so embarrassed she would never leave the house again unless she was properly dressed.

Perhaps the schools should also publish a list of what moms should wear while delivering their kids to school.  Maybe then the kids wouldn't need to be told they can't wear pajamas to school. This was one of the items on the list of 'not allowed'.

I really have to stop reading the paper!

Martha

The School Dress Code

I'm afraid! I think this is a sign of the times, and it 'ain't' good!

This week in the Sunday paper there was a big article about going back to school and the article included the School Dress Code.

There was a list of what is acceptable and another list of what is unacceptable. By the time I had read that list; I was fuming! Good grief, what are parents thinking of? If I had a school age child, he/she wouldn't even own some of the things on the unacceptable list!

Schools shouldn't have to be responsible for what kids are wearing to school! This is what parents should be doing! Parents should make sure their daughters don't look like they are going out to work on street corners. They should make sure their sons wear pants with belts so the bare parts of their lower anatomy aren't showing.

I can't imagine what parents who try to do the right things must be going through these days. There seem to be a lot of kids whose parents give in, don't care or otherwise are not involved with how their off-spring appear in public. I can just imagine the fights and arguments that parents who don't give in, who do care and are totally involved with how their off-spring appear in public, have with sons and daughters.

I looked at some of the store circulars in the Sunday paper as well. Oh my heavens! If I had a daughter I wouldn't want her to see that crap that passes for fashion! Those teen-age models look like trollups!

Again, parents are responsible for the stores sell. If parents wouldn't buy that tacky, revealing and otherwise awful stuff, the stores would not have it for sale.

I think I must have been born 40 years too soon and I also think I may have to quit reading the paper, my blood pressure may not take it.

Martha