Apparently Google has added some social features to Gmail now. I found it amusing how I could invite Dilbert to chat….
Category: Ramblings
Interesting experience selling some furniture on craigslist – got introduced to a new form of spam (the electronic kind – not the strange food-like substance in cans). We’ve all had so much fun with all the spam in our e-mail box – those wonderfully useful messages about a Prince from Nigeria. Now there’s a new and exciting form of spam – craigslist spam. When I posted my add there were clear warnings about dealing local only – avoid scams – so that’s what I intended. Then I got some inquiries – which I responded to quickly. What was strange was that they were all from out of town people – which raised warning bells in my head.
After doing some research on the Internet I confirmed that these were probably bogus. They involve someone wanting to buy the item for more than requested and have some kind of third party – like a shipping company involved. They also just say “item” often – instead of the specific thing you are selling. See below for a few examples – as I found them starting to become very similar.
The moral of the story is again keep your eyes open – be careful and check things out. Fortunately I did get an inquiry from a real person who purchased my item – cash after they personally looked at the item. So it can work – you just have to be careful.
Spam E-mails
Hello
Is it still available for sale and in good condition…………Am
interested and i want you to get back to me as soon as possible.
Thanks
Kelly….
Yes – it’s in good condition and still available…
Thanks for the prompt response and I will love to make an instant
purchase, so please do withdraw the advert from Craig list, I don’t
mind adding an extra $50 for you to take the advert down from Craig
list so that I can be rest assured that am in hand of the item. I will
also like you to know that I will be paying via check, and it will be
over night payment due to the distance. You don’t need to bother your
self with the shipment OK; I will take care of that. So I will need
you to provide me with the following information to facilitate the
mailing of the check.
1. Your full name
2.Your mailing address be it residential or postal address
3.Your phone number.
**Once again, I will like you to know that you will not be responsible
for shipping
I will have my mover come over as soon as you have cashed the check**
Hi,
I will like to know if this item is still available,please reply me ASAP.
Thanks.
Thanks for getting back with me, I wont be able to come check out the item, because of the nature of my job, please I will like to make an instant purchase so I would appreciate it if you can withdraw the ad from Craigslist. I don’t mind adding an extra $20 for you to take the ad down from criagslist, I want to be rest assured the item will be retained. I will also like you to know that I will be paying via certified cashier check. It will be overnight payment due to the distance. I’ll take care of that. I will need you to provide me with the following information to facilitate the mailing of the check:-
1.Your full name.
2.Your mailing address [residential, no po box].
3.Your phone number.
I’m presently in Florida and currently on a business trip. I just want to purchase the item for my mother,i want it for her as a surprise birthday present as this day is around the corner. I would also like to pay asap and my sister’s mover will come pick it up but i hope that it is still in a very good condition? Have a splendid day
Isn’t this life with windows now – going to your computer and finding that it rebooted for you (wasn’t that nice of it?). I feel like this happens once a week – as there are so many security threats out there now that critical updates are weekly. I just find it annoying at times…
I just renewed a domain name with GoDaddy today and remembered just how annoying their checkout system can be. They’re like the Jiffy Lube of the domain world – the king of upselling. It’s actually difficult to navigate their checkout screen without accidentally purchasing something extra – because they sure give you a lot of choices! I think I clicked through 2 or 3 screens just to get to the payment screen – often having to scroll to the bottom to find the button to click.
I managed to get through that screen and what did I get next – not a simple confirmation screen. No – I got another set of things they were trying to sell me – but I guess they did say “Thank You”. I forgot how annoying this company is – to the point now I see why my clients want me to help them with GoDaddy – as they may be overwhelmed by the screens (I almost was).
Maybe I need to think about using another domain registrar – to save myself and others the pain of that….
This morning I logged into my laptop and of course being Wednesday morning it had rebooted the night before (Patch Tuesday!). As it was loading up I looked at my desktop and was shocked at how overwhelming it was. There were tons of icons – most of which I wasn’t sure what it was. Unfortunately too many programs like to put multiple desktop shortcuts out there (Quickbooks seems to be the worst) when you install them. I also find documents I saved on my Desktop (not sure why I did that) – contributing to the mess.
I realized my desktop was a metaphor for how our lives, especially around computing, can be overwhelming. There’s so many choices, so much information, so many things to do – to the point it becomes too much. For example there are so many things right now I want/need to learn – access, jquery, CSS, WordPress, Ajax, Gallery3 – that I don’t know where to start. That’s on top of keeping up with client sites, blogging, working, spending time with my family, getting exercise, etc. (just making the list makes me tired). Be nice if life was as easy to clean up as my desktop – just to click delete. But then again, maybe that’s what prioritization is – removing some items to make room for others….
I wonder sometimes if being lazy is actually a good thing in a geek – in a tech person. Right now I’m remote controlling my desktop from my laptop – because I don’t feel like getting up and walking down the hall. Sometimes I wonder though if a stubborn laziness is at the heart of the the true geek – as we want to make things easier. How many jumps in productivity have come from not wanting to do something manually – so we create something better.
I know there have been many times at work I have just said to myself – “No – I’m not doing this by hand anymore – we’re better than this”. Then I work at it and make something better – something automated that saves time and improves accuracy. I wonder what life would be like if there weren’t more people with the same attitude. How many really cool and useful ideas have come from people wanting to do things easier – more efficient? How much innovation is driving our economy – creating jobs, new companies, new opportunities.
So keep being lazy – stubbornly lazy and making things better.
It’s fascinating as a skilled technical person how I can occasionally do such dumb things. Today I realized this website was down – due to something I did. I inadvertently changed the database password this weekend and didn’t realize that killed this WordPress blog for a few days. Fortunately I was able to fix it – as I knew how to configure apps like WordPress.
It’s amazing how we all can have moments of lack of brain function. I remember once deleting all the files off the root of my C: drive. I also remember once deleting a file that represented months of work (and of course the server backups weren’t working) – but fortunately was able to restore from an FTP site.
Maybe the truth is that even a smart geek will do dumb things from time to time. I sometimes wonder if it’s a case of momentary idiocy – when otherwise we’re pretty smart. Maybe we should give each other a break sometimes – knowing that we may be the next one who’s dumb. Maybe also those dumb moments help us with our skill – as we have to scramble to fix our own mistakes.
Maybe it makes us human – in that we make mistakes. If everything went perfectly there would be no need for us – as there would be nothing to fix or manage.
I feel like having a Techcrunch moment – where I get to rant and complain about something. My Palm Pre is getting on my nerves lately – acting up to point it’s trying to call 911. I had high hopes for this device – but they’re fading fast…..
In many ways this Palm Pre is a significant upgrade from my Palm Centro – a jump into a new world of mobile computing. The browser is great (web-kit based) and the notification system is wonderful. Having access to apps like Facebook, Pandora, Twitter Client, etc. has been great. In many ways it really is a portable computer – as I can surf the web, check e-mail, facebook – listen to Pandora, etc. So at first, and at times, I enjoy using the device. Oh – and it’s a phone too that I can hold in my hand….
Over time though I’ve been disappointed as it just doesn’t quite make it there. The battery life is horrible (I have to charge it during the day and today I was listening to Pandora while plugged into an AC adapter and it still was running out of battery). Sometimes it just acts strange – turning the orientation to the side doesn’t always work – as I think the processor can’t keep up. So sometimes I have to turn and turn to get it to shift – then it’s sometimes completely upside down. The other day I was using the Sprint navigation (which worked well) but I was fortunate the battery just lasted until I pulled into the driveway (and of course my spare batteries were also dead).
One of the most annoying features is how it dials 911 without my intent – yes it dials 911! I had a pin code set (just numbers) to lock the phone – but the problem is that the touch screen keeps registering the keystrokes wrong. It also, instead of registering I click done, will then click on the emergency mode. It did this to me twice while I was on vacation – dialing 911 for me – wonderful surprise. So last night I gave up and switched to a password I have to enter with the keyboard so I don’t have to touch the screen and it screw up.
It also has this annoying habit of showing a “too many cards” error at random times – which means I need to reboot. Something to do with memory management -as I don’t think this phone has much RAM. Again – it’s like it was close – but not quite there in how it handles multi-tasking – in that the swipe, notifications, etc. is neat – it just doesn’t work right all the time.
The other thing that concerns me is that frankly I think it’s a dead platform in terms of a smartphone. Palm was struggling against Apple, Android and others – so it was about to not make it. HP came in and bought it up – but I don’t know if they care about smartphone part and not just the OS. So I seems most of the app development occurring on the Android and Apple platforms – which the Palm Pre being left behind. I was supposed to be able to use Flash on the phone this Spring – but it’s late Summer and still nothing. I’m wondering if it’s ever going to come…
So I guess this phone is pretty frustrating at times – but I’m stuck with it for a while. On Sprint I can switch after a year – but there’s still an investment involved. I’m going to try to stick with it – using the password, charging it during the day every day, switching batteries, etc. I’ll use my apps – but have to be careful with battery life. That said, I’m not sure if other smartphones have much better battery life – as they seem to suck down battery quick….
Anybody got a recommendation for an Android phone on Sprint?
I was reading my newsfeed the other day in Seesmic Desktop. I realized I often read from the top (most recent) and work my way down until I either run out of time or start recognizing items. This results in some strange results for me:
- I ended up reading threads of related items in reverse order sometimes, unless I skip down more and then read up.
- I find myself only caring out current stories – sometimes remembering a news item I would like to no more about – but since it’s not recent I don’t see it.
- Sometimes I find myself skipping (also in Facebook) links to articles/blogs (i.e. depth) as I don’t want to take the time to read them – just give me a quick bite of information… View full article »
This was strange – I just read a small white paper @ Windows 7 user acceptance – which was researched performed at Intel. What was strange was that at the sign up for the paper it asked if I wanted to be contacted by Dell to discuss an upgrade.
The paper itself (http://www.cio.com/documents/whitepapers/Intel_Value_of_PC_Refresh_with_Microsoft_Windows_7.pdf) wasn’t surprising -as it said the users liked Windows 7 over Windows XP. They indicated the ROI was good for them – but of course Intel was talking about using Intel technologies with Windows 7. So this is not quite an unbiased review – as they’re talking about their own technology. Makes me wonder if this is really advertising for upgrading hardware now that Windows 7 is here…
