Category: Technology

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Go pack the wagon Mabel

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I killed my Facebook account this morning.

I guess some people would say this is a huge step backwards. As if I’m reverting to some pioneer life and entering an unexplored desert.

I’m thinking it’s more of a step forward.

Like getting through that teenage phase where you’re on the phone for hours and hours with your best buddy or that heart wrenching first love. At the time you can’t believe how important it all is.

Once you’re through the phase you can’t believe how trivial it all was.

Of course Facebook didn’t want to let me deactivate my account without a few questions… “everyone loves social media” 

I answered their questions and went so far as to explain my reasoning in the little box they provided.

I doubt that anyone will ever read what I wrote, but at least I tried to tell them why I wanted to deactivate the account.

It’s nothing personal, I just was getting creeped out by the whole deal. There were a lot of “Friends” that live within 40 minutes of my house that I never see. 

It’s not that we try to get together and our schedules are too hectic…

We don’t even try. No phone calls no casual “how are you?” nothing but the occasional message via Facebook.

This led me to wonder are these people really friends? 

If they are friends and start calling on the phone because they can’t reach me via Facebook then obviously Facebook is having an opposite effect on society than was intended.

If on the other hand I never hear from them again… then they weren’t friends in the first place.

Either answer is acceptable. 

I’ve decided that I really do want a life that’s “real” not some simulation of life and friends on the internet.

So if you want to talk… call me, or email me. 

Just don’t look for me in your Facebook timeline… I’m not there.

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Lets not forget the purpose of Flight Tests People!

Morpheus test lander

I’ve been noticing a lot of negative spin from the media about the Morpheus crash.

To the MORONS in the media…

That’s WHY you have flight tests.  

You test the machine before you put cargo or people or anything of real value in it. It’s unfortunate that there was a problem during the flight. However you can be sure that the information gathered from the failure will be used to make the next craft better, more stable, and safer.

Unfortunately, the Media Idiots bitching about the cost of the program and the cost of the lost vehicle… WEREN’T on the craft or under it at the time of the crash.

You want to talk about wasted money???

Look at the presidential campaign, how about congress pissing away billions on social programs that don’t create anything except a sense of entitlement and a class of people for whom getting off public assistance isn’t an option. 

How about reporting that our politicians haven’t maintained the nations infrastructure, or that many politicians today seem to be far more interested in regulating what goes on in American bedrooms or how best to subvert the constitution than actually providing leadership?

7 Million dollars to research and build a device that flew and is designed to leave Earth to deliver supplies to the moon?

That’s nothing!

I’ve heard of  20 million dollar military projects that pissed away 20 million and NEVER produced a damn thing or saw the light of day.

At Least NASA made something tangible.

And one thing the Media has failed to mention at all…

This wasn’t the first test of the Morpheus. There had been a number of tethered tests that preceded this flight. So it’s not like NASA engineers just wheeled this craft out onto the tarmac and pushed a button flushing 500K down the tubes.

All the data that had previously been collected said that the craft was ready to fly. But as with any new device, glitches happen. The preliminary information suggests there was some kind of hardware failure.

I prefer that the machine fails now, rather than when it’s carrying a billion dollars worth of materials and equipment wouldn’t you?

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Time for us to unplug

I’ve written in the past about being asked for Twitter and Facebook accounts during Job interviews.

Like many people I don’t particularly like Facebook. When It started it was kind of interesting as a phenomenon but as it progressed I began to think it was really creepy.

If you’re face booking every event in your life, are you really living your life?

Twitter is neat, and I like the brevity of the messages. But again… There are people that tweet non-stop.

I will not and should not be asked to provide Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn, and / or Twitter accounts to prospective employers. Nor should I be forced to provide websites or anything other than my resume detailing experience, salary history, and references.

If a company wants to look me up…. GOOGLE MY ASS!

Or do a real background check. OR Hey, how about actually talking to me?

Does it matter that I’m a republican and supporting some moronic candidate on Facebook? Or should a company be more interested in whether I have a criminal record or history of violence?

I think it’s time for everyone to revolt against Social Media being used by employers to monitor our private lives. Companies DON’T OWN us 24/7 yet and what I do, who I hang out with, and my hobbies are not a corporate voyeurs business. 

There are several ways I could see this happening,

We all create the “Mom Friendly Accounts”, Only happy stuff here, no questionable fiends, no political or religious comments, and NOTHING that our great Grandmothers wouldn’t approve of.

We all flood the social media sites with the stupid inanities of our everyday lives. This would effectively poison the well of information. How many people are going to read 1000 statuses that say things like “Paid the Electric bill.”, “made dinner”, “farted”, “masturbated”, “had sex”, “paid gas bill”, “saw eye doctor”, “had prostate exam”, “gave blood”, “Oh my god, what a huge stinky dump!”…

We all simply STOP posting statuses

OR

We all close our accounts.

Roma

Speaking of closing accounts… I couldn’t believe what it took to close a MySpace Account. Remember them?

Have we become such a nation of voyeurs that we’re that interested in anyone’s life but our own? Is this why so called “reality” shows are so popular among main stream Americans? I guess that would explain my vehement dislike for such shows… I have a life that I’m actually living.

Between social media, reality TV, and a news media that provides anything but unbiased reporting of what happened during the day, we are dumbing down, tuning out and becoming oblivious to many matters that we really should be paying attention to.

If you really want a good “Reality Show” try reading a Biography, or the history of Rome. Now there’s a story!

And thinking of Rome… I swear, it feels more and more like we’re being distracted from something. Ever heard of a Roman Circus? 

The questions are… What? Why? and Who?

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PayPal #FAIL

 

Actually it’s not PayPal that’s the problem.

It’s our wondrous Federal Government. Also known as the Assholes in Congress.

Could these people be any more out of touch? 

Apparently as of April 2012 the Federal Morons, have mandated that all Money Service Businesses must have on file customer verification information. 

OK… I suppose that having a PayPal account fucking LINKED to your checking account and / or credit card accounts isn’t enough!

I guess I can kind of get it… My PayPal account is over a decade old. By this time if there was anything nefarious about my transactions I’m assuming that I’d already be in prison. But for the paltry 200 or 300 bucks that has EVER been in the PayPal Account the Government feels they have the right to know all about that money and whose using it.

Supposedly the new requirements for Identification are to prevent money laundering and terrorist activities.

I could see it if there were 10s or 100s of thousands of dollars going through the account on a monthly basis… that might be suspicious. But for the average person of an established account? Come on give it a rest!

But the real kicker is this…

PayPal, in order to comply with the FEDERAL Gestapo is demanding that I provide them with the following information either as a FAX or Emailed Scan  of my Social Security card, My drivers License, and A paper utility bill.

Do you see the problem here?

We have well known National Banks, Insurance Companies, and even the IRS, who cannot keep this kind of information from ending up on the internet.

Yet PayPal is asking that we make it EASIER for them to lose this information and set ourselves up for identity theft!

SAY WHAT? You have to be fucking kidding me! 

You’re actually saying that I should just hand this information over to a company that I barely have done business with. A company who will not service ALL Vendors. A company who allows their narrow version of morality to dictate which transactions they will process, and I’m supposed to do all of this OVER THE INTERNET and trust them? I’m supposed to believe that the information will not be distributed to criminals because after all we all know how trustworthy and secure the internet is.

BUZZZZZZ! 

I’m sorry that’s the wrong answer, but thank you so much for playing and here’s your lovely parting gift.

We emailed you a little while ago to ask for your help resolving an issue
with your account.

What’s the problem?

As of April, 2012, new Federal Regulations require Money Service
Businesses, such as PayPal, to verify the identity of a customer before we
can provide various services or product offerings. As a result, PayPal must
ensure we have collected and verified important data such as customer name,
address, date of birth, and national tax ID or social security number.
Because we were not able to fully confirm your identity based on your
current account information, we need to request additional supporting
documentation from you.

You will continue to have full access to your PayPal account, but until we
are able to confirm your identity, we may be unable to process certain
types of customer initiated requests such as adding funds to your PayPal
account.

According to their message above, there is another option. I can choose not to give them this information and simply not transfer any cash to my PayPal account.

BUT that’s not good enough… I’ve spoken with PayPal twice, informing them of my choice NOT to have cash sitting in their hands. Instead I’ve chosen to simply use them on rare occasion to facilitate a transaction with someone that may or may not be above board.

Yet I’m still getting emails like the one above, Thus far I haven’t gotten any phone calls but I’m sure that’s only a matter of time.

The way I see this… I’ve got three choices

1) Ignore them.

2) Give them the information. (Not Happening!)

3) Close the account and not do business with them.

I’m leaning to option #3. I’d prefer one less account ID and Password to keep track of anyway. My credit cards are pretty secure and I’m automatically protected in the event of fraud. So why do I need a PayPal account?

OH yeah… for Ebay… Which I don’t use either! Humm. Maybe I can lose Two un-necessary accounts!

 

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More Car Service

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At the car dealership… Again!

One of the problems with modern cars… although I think the problem is more about the people servicing modern cars is that the computer in the car dictates what service can be done and when.

For example, I know I’m taking a trip that will have me driving at least 3000 miles. 

As in the old days… I still like to have the car serviced, tires checked, oil changed, you know BEING RESPONSIBLE so that I don’t have a dead ass piece of junk off to the side of the road in the middle of an unfamiliar town and not knowing who to call or perhaps being uncertain of exactly where I am so that I can get help.

Well the computers have other ideas… Apparently, you’re not supposed to drive your car more than 300 miles from home. 

See last time I was here I explicitly told the dealership I was going on a long trip. So I wanted all services done before I left.

I didn’t have to worry about my trip being interrupted by the car bitching about service needed. Unfortunately, the computer and the people doing the service had other ideas. The computer said that 4300 miles remained before the next service. Between the time that I had the car in for service and today… I’ve driven 600 miles. The car is now saying it wants service in 2200 miles. Hummm…. Can you see the problem?

See, I know the car… I know the kind of driving I do, I know that going up & down the mountain puts a monkey wrench in the mileage calculation. But try to explain that to a machine… or the people that act like machines.

I’ll grant you there are benefits to the computerization of our vehicles. You don’t have as many situations where your spouse says “I didn’t know I needed an oil change, or I didn’t hear the squealing of the brake calipers on the rotors”

But as I say all too often… I’M THE HUMAN, you’re the machine… do what I said.

So here I sit… waiting for another 3 hours for my car to be serviced. Those 3 hours… By the way would be mine… If folks had done what I asked in the first place.

Isn’t that a kick in the pants… It always seems to come down to:

Do what I’m telling you