Cell Phones
More proof I was born 40 years too soon!
People under 30 don’t just sleepwalk, they use their cell phones in their sleep. If you don’t believe me just ‘Google’ sleep texting.
That’s something that I find hard to believe, but apparently it’s true. The experts seem to think it’s true. I am not so sure. I have heard that people have been know to drive, eat and do a lot of other things in their sleep. Since I don’t have any of those problems as far as I know, it’s hard for me to understand. (If I do those things in my sleep, how would I know?)
I just don’t understand the need to be ‘connected’ at every waking moment. I do have a cell phone, but it’s turned off most of the time. I have it for emergency use only.
The local news stations tell me I can access the weather news on my cell phone. Sounds handy, but I can do that on my computer. They say I can access the weather on my cell phone when the power goes off. I have a laptop and it runs off a battery when the power goes off.
Personally I don’t want that phone to become like a third part of me. I already have a third extension; my computer! However, when I leave the house I leave the computer at home. If I decide to work in the yard (I do occasionally), the computer is in the house, not attached to my body.
When I go shopping I concentrate on shopping. When I go to bed I certainly don’t take the cell phone to bed with me. I hear a lot of folks do that as well. When I am driving I need to be focused on where I am going and the traffic around me, not yapping on the phone.
Some jerk yapping on his phone changed lanes right in front of me once and I nearly hit him. He didn’t look or use signals, just pulled over and almost hit me. I hit my brakes and horn at the same time. He just kept yakking. It’s a good thing no one was tail-gateing me or I would have been hit from behind.
I don’t have a problem with other people using cell phones where ever they may be, but I think they shouldn’t use them while driving.
I told you I was born 40 years too soon. If I had been born 40 years later, I probably would have a cell phone attached to me somewhere, more than likely my ear!
Martha
There are a lot of these folks, Vista bashers.
I like Vista myself. It is the smoothest running Windows OS I have ever had. But I have to admit I had to get used to Vista and that took me about two weeks, digging and poking into the corners and guts of this much maligned version of Windows.
There are a lot of reasons why people don’t like Vista.
“It’s too slow.” (It isn’t really, it probably isn’t configured properly. Mine runs just fine, but I do have more memory on my Vista computer than some computers have. Windows XP runs better with more memory as well.)
“I hate that User Access Control because it’s always in my face.” (It can be turned off if it bothers that much. Once your programs are all installed, turn it back on for the added security to your computer.)
“I can’t find where anything is located.” (It took me a while to find stuff! But once you think about it, the new locations make sense.)
“I’ve heard Vista is no good, so it must be bad.” (That is a terrible reason! Try it before you badmouth it. There are a LOT of these folks and some of them are posting all over the Internet. I just un-subbed from a newsletter that was constantly bashing Vista. The author doesn’t use Vista!)
“My software won’t run on Vista” (Most of the software that ran on Windows XP will run on Vista. See Vista’s Program Compatibility Mode.All of my Windows XP software works on Vista.)
“My printer, scanner, etc. won’t work. That Vista sucks!” (Guess what, the same thing happened when Windows XP was released. New technology needs new drivers and hardware folks want to sell you new technology. One way to do that is not to write and release new Vista drivers for old hardware. Microsoft doesn’t write hardware drivers, hardware manufacturers write hardware drivers.)
I think there are probably a lot more reasons why folks don’t like Vista. I also think the main reason they don’t like Vista is ‘it isn’t Windows XP’.
My take on the whole ‘Vista bashing’ is this: If you don’t like it at first, get to know it. If you still don’t like it,you don’t have to use it; there are other alternatives. You can go back to Windows XP. You can install and use Linux. You can get a Mac.
There are some things that came in Vista that are not really up to par, like Internet Explorer and Windows Mail. There is a problem with making your Folder Options ’stick’. But I don’t use Internet Explorer, I use Firefox. I used Firefox with Windows XP because it doesn’t have ActiveX. I use Thunderbird instead of Windows Mail. More about those issues were discussed on an earlier post, The Buggy Bits in Vista.
No operating system is perfect. That’s why I like to think things keep evolving. Maybe one day a perfect OS will show up, but I doubt it will happen in my lifetime!
Martha
The first really important email newsletter, at least for me, was ‘The LangaList‘. This weekly missive by Fred Langa was something I
always looked forward to. He guided me through the ins and outs of fixing Windows problems, helped me make software decisions and just always provided a really good read. It was the first email newsletter I decided was worth paying for and it was worth every penny, plus a whole lot more.
It was with some trepidation when I received word that Fred was joining forces with Brian Livingston of WindowsSecrets (the second email newsletter I had decided was worth paying for). My fears were soon put to rest as Windows Secrets came along and seemed to get better with every issue. Windows Secrets is full of tips about fixing Windows Problems and also contains tidbits of what’s going on in the world of computing. It isn’t the LangaList, but close. I still miss those reader’s sites submitted to the LangaList. I found some real jewels there.
In my latest issue of Windows Secrets the announcement was made, Fred is leaving! So now I will no longer read those articles by Fred, at least not about computers. Fred is looking for new horizons and I hope he finds what he is looking for, as he truly deserves the best.
Maybe not all is lost, Fred does have a blog! But it isn’t about computers. It is about his new challenges which seems to be a lot of fun!
Although I don’t know if I would want to chase tornados, it sure might beat sitting at a computer all the time.
Good luck to you, Fred! Your loyal fans will miss you and a lot of them, like me, will keep up with you by reading your blog!
Martha
Advertisers are constantly looking for ways to push unwanted ads into our faces while we surf the ‘net.
First came the banner ads. These are still being pushed into our faces. Some of them just sit there on the web pages, but more and more of them are using flash to blare out their presence. A few of them are extremely obnoxious. Those are usually the ads for dubious products.
Most of us tend to just ignore banner ads, so then the ad makers tried using pop-up ads. This tactic caused another webpage to jump into our faces, obscuring what we really wanted to see. Annoying! A few sites would cause more than one pop-up to populate. This caused a flurry of programmers making applications that would stop pop-ups. For awhile this solved that problem for folks who, like me, were and still are totally turned off by pop-up ads.
Then some clever jerk came up with pop-unders. Grrrrrrrrr! I hate those as well. The pop-up stoppers don’t seem to have as much effect on pop-unders, so now we have to disable JavaScript to surf without pop-unders.
The latest ads to get our attention on websites use a method of JavaScript called IntelliTXT. The script finds ‘keywords’ on the page, double underlines them and when a cursor passes over the keywords an ad pops up, obliterating the content beneath the ad. Since there are no apparent ads on the page when the site is first accessed, this appeals to a lot of advertisers and is being used more and more.
Personally I find this method of shoving ads into my face extremely annoying and furthermore, I’m not the only one that feels this way. While some of the folks on the web using these tactics are just trying to offset the costs of maintaining their sites; others are trying to make a living or at least a decent profit. I can understand that, but the stuff that gets in my face like most of the tactics annoys me enough to leave the sites and not go back. (Another thing that will cause me to leave is sound blasting at me and no way to turn it off, but that is irrelevant to this tale of woe.)
Google Ads do it right. There they are, sitting in plain site. They don’t annoy me by jumping in my face or causing an obnoxious pop-up, pop-under or obstruct the content I am trying to view. They explain what they are and if I am interested, I can click on one. I have in fact clicked on them on occasion. I have even ended up making a purchase using a Google Ad.
One thing all of these methods of advertising does, is make revenue for folks who provide the ways to stop these annoyances. Currently I am using a trial of Super Ad Blocker to see how it works. So far I like it. The price is perhaps a little high for what it does, but I may buy it anyway just to stop all those ads from jumping in my face. Super Ad Blocker also includes SuperAntiSpyware, an excellent spyware remover.
This site Sillysot (funny name!) has a little program (Intelli: An Intellitxt link remover)that will just stop the IntelliTXT stuff, but it works best in Firefox. It is supposed to work in Internet Explorer as well, but I couldn’t make it work. It doesn’t even require installing; you just drag the Intelli to your links bar.
I wonder what the next thing will be in the world of Internet advertising!
Martha
Did you get an email from ‘Captain Greg Wallace’? I got several of them this past week. I read the first one with some amusement and dismay.
The amusement was because it is just another play on the old Nigerian scam albeit a new version. The dismay because somewhere,
someone, will probably fall for this scam and lose a bunch of money.
The email doesn’t ask for money, that no doubt will come as soon as the unwary victim responds to the email. Probably the request will be for ‘expenses’ or some other falsehood that requires money.
Supposedly the good Captain found a secret hoard while serving in Iraq. Being the good person he is, it was not reported to the
authorities, but was ’secured with a senior United Nation Diplomat in Amsterdam Holland’. He doesn’t explain how he managed to get the box to Amsterdam. He’s counting on greed to overcome omitting that little detail.
The nice little email is so full of spelling and grammar errors you just know he isn’t using a spell check.
I wonder how many people will fall for this scam? I used to think no one would fall for this kind of scam, but I was wrong. PT Barnum
once reportedly said ‘There’s a sucker born every minute’. Unfortunately this is still true. Don’t be one of those suckers, delete those
emails and forget about them.
Martha
I use a laptop like a desktop. I have limited space for a computer and my laptop with a 17 inch display and keypad work just fine, as long as I can use a mouse. I absolutely despise those touchpads that come with laptops. I have a Microsoft wireless mouse and most of the time it works just great. Today it didn’t.
I got the message popup telling me the battery power in my mouse was low. No problem, I just bought a new package of batteries (16) so I proceeded to change the battery. (This mouse uses just one battery.)
It didn’t work. I put in a different battery and it still didn’t work. I was ready to panic, that keypad was giving me fits! I tried another battery, still no mouse! I searched and found an old wired USB mouse and hooked it up. It moved sooooo slooow! The wire kept getting in the way. Ick! Maybe I just need a new mouse.
I decided to see if maybe I should find new drivers. Yep, new updated drivers were available. So I downloaded the new drivers and installed them. I disconnected the old wired mouse and hooked up the wireless mouse. Nothing doing, it didn’t work.
I don’t give up easily as most of my family and friends know. I tried yet another battery and lo and behold it worked.
By now I’m rather unhappy that I have a package of sixteen batteries that seem to be a bit old. Two of them didn’t work and that is not good! These batteries weren’t cheapies either.
So, OK, that’s life. I noticed a new icon on my desktop for Microsoft Mouse and I check it out. Oh boy I can customize this mouse! I decide to click that button on the side of the mouse that will magnify stuff and oh boy, was that ever a mistake!
It magnified all right, big time! And clicking that button was supposed to turn the magnification off, but it didn’t! I am starting to get dizzy trying to manuever around with this big box following my every mouse move.
So I just did the usual fix for stuff like this. I rebooted and was sure hoping it would work.
Everything is back to normal size now and I am going to forget about ‘customizing’ my mouse. Sometimes it’s best to just leave well enough alone.
My son decided to check those batteries that didn’t work. Something fishy going on, the batteries tested OK. I have doubts about that mouse again. I check in the Control Panel, it indicates the battery life is good. But that battery power low message is still poping up, so yes, I think it’s time for a new mouse.
Martha
I have a new mouse! It is a Logitech V320 Cordless Optical mouse for notebooks and I just love this little mouse!
Lately I see more spam like this;
Hi!
I would like to invite you to visit my Refriendz page and see my latest photos.
In order to visit my space, you must go to:
http://www.refriendz.com/?do=Login.Invite&rid=someone&email=Group@yahoogroups.com (This line edited)
(If this link does not work, please copy and paste it into your browser or go to www.refriendz.com and enter ’someon.sm’ (edited)as Invitation ID to Login to the web site.)
P.S. Refriendz is Invitation-Only, so do not miss your chance to visit my page!
Why I would care about visiting a page for someone I don’t know is beyond me. I do know this is one way to gather more information about me to sell to spammers. It could be legit, although it is rather dubious.
Some times the invitation is to update some one’s ‘Birthday list. (My birthday has been the same all my life, don’t think anyone who has needs to ‘Update’) or it could be some other type of invite.
I guess this is a result of all those ’social’ websites that are poping up everywhere trying to cash in on the MySpace craze. I can’t imagine anyone with a lick of sense actually clicking those links. With all of the malware, phishing and other types of scummy stuff out there, it’s a far better thing to just delete this junk.
I suppose this type of stuff appeals to some folks, but no one I know would want it, at least I hope they wouldn’t. I hope you won’t click it!
Martha
A lot of people are afraid these days. The reasons are many and real.
Car jackers and road rage are just a few of the things people fear and for good reason. Not a day goes by that someone or maybe several folks are victims of these crimes.
Home Invasions are on the rise, burglars want to take your property bought with your hard earned money and the list goes on and on.
The economy is in the dumper and people are fearful of losing their jobs. Easy credit is now gone and thanks to some really greedy brokers/lenders and some really dumb folks who knew they couldn’t afford that expensive new house, the Nation is experiencing a mortgage meltdown and folks are losing their homes. The stock market is in yo yo mode and people are afraid of losing the value in their 401 k funds and other investments. (They have a right to be nervous.)
Health care and medical insurance is way too expensive. If you are lucky enough to have it and there are a lot of folks who don’t, your co-payments are higher and the cost of prescription drugs is out of sight.
Enter the fear mongers. Everyday my mailbox is full of this stuff. (Snail mail spam) These are the folks who advertise they can save you by preying on our irrational and sometimes justified fears! They can tell you how to protect your investments, how to play the stock market, which stocks to buy, how to beat the IRS, yada, yada, yada.
They can tell you how to beat cancer and other awful diseases. They can tell you the ’secrets’ that will keep you from growing old and keep you looking young.
They will tell you all of their secrets, but not for free. You can buy their expensive (and useless) books! Subscribe to their newsletters! (Not free!) When you receive the books and/or newsletters, read them very carefully. Do they deliver on their promise to give you all those secrets?
Right. The secrets are mostly stuff you should have learned a long time ago, or else the advice given is so ridiculous as to be downright scary!
Along with your paid newsletter subscription will come a lot of other ‘free’ advice. Just order this stuff and you will really be ’safe’. The only folks really benefiting from all of this extra stuff will be the fear mongers selling it.
The next time you see an offer from someone selling this stuff, read it with a skeptical eye. Do you see any of these phrases? Free Reports! (They aren’t free if you have to buy something else to get them.) Super Health Cures! Lose weight fast! Free Cash! Invest with no risk! On and on go the big headlines promising miracles for money, life and who knows what else.
If there really were cures for cancer and diabetes it would be wonderful. It would be all over the news, now wouldn’t it? I am rather skeptical about trusting the drug companies, but I don’t believe they are hiding cures because they are ‘free’. I don’t believe the oil companies hid, paid off, or killed to prevent the wonderful invention that got a hundred miles to the gallon from seeing the light of day.
If I were you, I’d throw that stuff where it belongs, in the recycle tub to place on the curb. Tell the fear mongers where to go.
Martha
Thieves are everywhere, including the Internet.
By now most of us know about identity theft and are aware of all the scams out there. But there is another form of thievery as well, stealing a website or website content.
Webmasters work hard to make their websites. The really good webmasters learn how to program with HTML and write Cascading Style Sheets, commonly know as CSS. They take pictures of the products they sell. They take care to see if the pictures don’t take too long to load so their pages will load quickly. They make sure the pages are viewed the same way in all browsers, not just Internet Explorer. This process doesn’t happen over night. It takes many days and sometimes nights. Content is king on the Internet and some of us have to really struggle to get that content written. Content needs to be original and not everyone really likes to write. Trial and error is the name of the game until one day they finally get it right. All the hard work pays off at last.
Then one day, someone steals their site. Literally. They steal it by using something called a ’scraper’. It seems there are some folks who decided it would be neat to write a program (which probably consists mainly of scripts) that could capture everything on a website and then post it to another site or blog. These folks offer their site stealing programs for sale and then the inevitable happens.
Someone decided to use a ’scrapper’ or something similar on a Yahoo computer help Group with a lot of members, so there is a lot of ‘posting’ going on. While trying to find a solution to stop this streaming of posts to a blog with the very horrible name of http://how-to-make-a-computer-virus.blogspot.com/ (named no doubt to catch evil surfers). That’s when I found out about scrappers or site stealers. Some time back someone on one of my Groups had their site stolen and the wonder was how they managed to do it so completely. Wondering no more, a scrapper was used!
When this article is posted to my blog I am hoping the blog with the scrapper is gone. Complaints have been filed with the bloggers host, BlogSpot, so we will see what happens. In the meantime, everyone of us that has a website/blog has to wonder, ‘Will a thief target my site?’
Martha
Read the fine print, always!
Sometimes I get the feeling that ‘they are out to get us’, ‘they’ meaning retail or service companies. The old saying ‘you get what you pay for’ is not always true any more. Sometimes you get a lot less of what you pay for, and I have been reading instances of folks not getting anything they paid for. (I love The Consumerist!)
Recently a major department store had an ad in my newspaper for a mattress sale. (Mattresses are always on sale somewhere.) I don’t need a new mattress, but the markdown was big enough to catch my eye. The mattresses were for a major brand and the prices were good, even for this retailer. And of course there was the ‘hook’, free delivery, setup and haul away of the old mattress listed in large print.
Except one little thing. There was a minimum purchase of $699 for the free delivery, set up and haul away. I found that very interesting. The sale price of a queen size set was $599, double set was $589 and twin sets $549. If you bought a queen set, which is probably the most purchased these days, the delivery was $65 and haul away $40. The only set that would qualify for the free delivery and haul away was a king size set for $999.
I wonder how many people bought one of these sets using a credit card and didn’t notice the delivery and haul away charges. I am quite sure the retailer was hoping this would happen. If those folks are like a number of my friends, they carry a balance on their cards and probably just pay the required payments when they are due.
There are a number of retail department stores experiencing low sales these days. I don’t suppose they have any idea that legal but deceptive practices like these may just cost them future business.
Martha
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