Inktrails from Alaska

The iPad Story: Why I Love Apple

 Devices come and go and become outdated and are left at the dump, or the bottom of a closet, or at the electronics recycling.

Except my iPad. It's had three lives so far and, thanks to Apple, keeps on going. It's an iPad2, the second generation, the one with the camera. I can surf the internet, use a bluetooth keyboard with it for word processing and spreadsheet stuff.

I read books, write music, put up sheet music for myself and students to read, make posters, keep books and basically everything I do on a desktop computer sans high-end image editing. I also prefer video editing and music editing on the desktop, but it can be done on an iPad as well.

The First Life

My first iPad2 lived for many years happily, and efficiently. When I first got it I could not bear to be parted from it so took it with me when I went shopping. It was in a grey Belkin leather case with a keyboard. I had it resting upright in the kid carrier in the shopping cart and because of its nondescript color, the fact that I was unused to having it, and that I'm slightly ADD, I managed to leave it in the cart when I carried my groceries outside.

Imagine my horror to realize, as soon as I got into my car, that I'd left my new $500 device in a shopping cart and I still hadn't put a password on it. I adrenaline-ran back into the store and was not discrete: I LEFT AN IPAD IN A GREY CASE IN A CART HAS ANYONE SEEN IT OR HAVE IT? I ran around the store like a demented weasel looking into carts and finally found a man with it in his hand just about to open it up. "THAT'S MINE!" and I snatched it back from him. He was naturally taken aback, "I was just going to open it and see who it belonged to so I could get it back to you." Yes, typical nice, laid-back Fairbanksian and I am pretty sure I freaked him out. I was freaked out, for sure! I thanked him and went home and never took my iPad shopping again!

A year or so later, when I owned a black car, I was loading things up to go to work. I carried out violin, guitar, books, dogs, bag, and so on and had put the iPad on the hood of the car by the windshield wipers to toss in right before I left.

Guess what I forgot to do?

It was Spring, and traffic on my two-lane, winding, country road was quite brisk, from 50 to 65 mph. I drove blithely down, going about 55. As I rounded a corner I heard a sliding noise and saw my forgotten iPad, in its nondescript, blends in everywhere GREY case, fly off the hood of my car and land in the opposite lane. I found enough road to pull off, put it in park, left it running and tore down the road toward where my iPad was right in the path of an oncoming car! Before I could get there I saw the tires go over it and flip it up in the air! My heart sank, I figured it was crushed glass and metal by now. However I'm always the optimist and as another car approached I waved my arms like a crazy person and started pointing at the iPad and screaming and miming driving around it all while running. Whether by care or accident, the second car didn't run over it and I dashed out into the lane and retrieved what I was sure would be a sad, crunchy item.

I took it back to my car. The dogs were concerned. I appreciated that. I took a breath and tried to stop shaking. I opened the case.

It was unbroken.

The keyboard had lost a few keys, but the iPad turned on and worked! The case wasn't in great shape. But the iPad was fine!

I called Belkin later and told them what had happened and thought they'd see a grand marketing opportunity when they heard it. The Belkin lady was uninspired. I thought if I told them how their case had saved my iPad that they'd be happy to use the story for advertising and send me a new case. Instead, I was laconically advised that since the case getting run over was my fault, they didn't want to send me a new one. Customer service with a yawn.

Meanwhile, over the course of about six months, the iPad began to have problems. I'd touch the screen and it didn't feel me. Turns out the metal back began to curve from being run over, so it was rather like a bowl with a glass top on it.

At the local Apple dealership they did something amazing. They took my bendy iPad and sold me a refurbished iPad that was the same configuration...for half the price of the original. We are talking three years or so out, and totally out of warranty, and totally MY FAULT. What other company does this? Seriously, how cool is that?

The Second Life

Until the end of this June, this new, refurbished iPad2 was doing just great, doing all the stuff I needed it to do. Until it didn't. Until it started dropping out of programs constantly. I could still use it to Facetime teach children out in village schools, but most of my other apps were constantly crashing. I cleared cache, I did everything. It was becoming unusable.

While on a trip to Albuquerque, I took advantage of the Apple Store there, and went to the Genius Bar. The gal there worked with it for over an hour and a half, and it just wouldn't reformat, restore, or basically do anything right. Hardware diagnostics showed a bad battery. She said you can't just replace the battery very easily, so she'd get me a new/refurbished iPad2 for the cost of a battery, $99. I agreed, happily. Unfortunately they were fresh out of iPad2s at the store, (I thought it was amazing they'd even have one at all) so she wrote up a repair order for me to call Apple when I got home, so that I could have them send me one up in Alaska.

When I got home from my trip I called Apple, and was told it was only going to be $79 dollars. There were many logistics to be taken into account to get my old iPad back to them quickly, and to get another refurbished iPad back to me. At some point in the conversation, my customer service guy decided that he was going to expedite this, and not charge me anything at all. No shipping, no repair, no money at all.

That's right: Apple would pay for it all and send me a new iPad for free. Why? Because that's the way they roll!

Not ONCE did anyone tell me I needed to buy a new model.

The Third Life

So it took some finagling to get the UPS and Fed Ex connections working, but yesterday I got my new iPad2. My fellow at Apple stayed in contact with me the whole week it took (over a 4th of July weekend!) to get my iPad back to Apple and one out to me.

All I can say is Apple totally ROCKS customer service! Either that, or I have some kind of fairy computer godmother working for me, because this is so freaking awesome!  My new iPad is working just great and I'm so relieved to have it back. Apple rules!

PS: My iPad is, and has been for some time, in a bright purple leather Belkin case with Star Wars stickers all over it. It's never fading into the background ever again!

 

"Smart" Source? I think not...

I buy brand-name Zyrtec because the knock-off generics often don’t work. So to help pay for it, because it is expensive, I take advantage of their coupons located on the zyrtec.com site. Unfortunately, these coupons are delivered via “Smart Source,” which really should change its name to something more accurate than “Smart.”

The last time I jumped through all the hoops of entering codes and so on, the “Smart Source” program told me that I had “already printed that coupon.” Which I hadn’t. In fact, I hadn’t for several months. It resets every 30 days, according to their canned help. It also mentioned making sure the printer was working, that you are allowed to attempt to print twice, blah blah blah.

So I sent in a ticket, asking them to reset my account so that I could get my coupon. Simple, right?

This is how that conversation went:


SmartSource Support
Nov 22 (2 days ago)

Reference number: XXXXXX Please use this ticket number in any correspondence with us.
Subject: Zyrtec
Dear Customer,
Thank you for contacting us.
SmartSource coupons usually have a print limit of 2 times on any one computer. If you share a computer with other users, they could have used those prints already. Also, offers can expire if the total number that the manufacturer made available has been met. This can be the case with popular items.
Does this explanation help? If not, send us a message about your problem concerning a specific coupon.
Please feel free to reply if you have any additional questions.
Sincerely,
SmartSource Coupons Support
(This is word for word out of their canned online help.)



Hello,

Yes, I read your explanation in your canned help.

No, I do not share the computer.

No, I do not think Zyrtec has limited coupons.

Can you please reset the coupon for me?

Thanks,

Jean


Dear Customer,
Thank you for contacting us.
We usually add 3 to 5 new offers a week. Check back regularly, or sign up to receive our New Coupon Alert emails so we can make it easy for you. This feature may not be available on all sites. If it is, you will see 'Sign up for email offers' near the top right of the page.
Please feel free to reply if you have any additional questions.
Sincerely,
SmartSource Coupons Support

Hello,

The last email from you did not address my problem. I would like to print my Zyrtec coupon. Please reset my account so that I may do so. There appears to be a glitch on your side, as I have not printed it in the last 30 days.

I did attempt to print it twice the day I originally wrote you, but was unable to do so, because it wouldn't let me.

I'm not interested in signing up for email alerts. I just want the Zyrtec coupon.

Thank you


Dear Customer, [Wow! Suddenly they are typing very LARGE letters!]
Thank you for contacting us.
Is your printer turned on with paper and ink?
If you were trying to print several coupons, the file size may be exceededing the amount of processing memory you have available. Try printing a single coupon. If that works you may not be able to print out all that you want in a single session.
Review the "Thank You" page message. You may have exceeded the allowed number of pritns for all the coupons you selected.

(I think this is the first time an actual person typed to me, as you can see there are typos!)


Hello,

Clearly, you are not reading my messages. Of course I have paper and ink. I am only trying to print one coupon, the Zyrtec coupon.

I have not printed this coupon for months. There is a mistake in your computer program regarding my account.

Please reset it so that I can print the coupon!

Thank you.



Dear Customer,
Thank you for contacting us.
 You usually have a second chance to print any SmartSource coupon in case the first attempt failed. We can only tell if the command to print was sent to your printer. We cannot tell if your printer completed the action. After 2 requests, a coupon is no longer available. Please check your printer before you try printing any more.
Does this explanation help? If not, send us a message about your problem concerning a specific coupon.
Please feel free to reply if you have any additional questions.
(Aaaaand round and round and round we go!)

I just sent yet another email in response. Hey, I'm "feeling free" to ask "additional questions." I wrote that I have asked this in every email: PLEASE reset my account so I can print my coupon!

I wonder what they will say?

Chicken Head

I've written lots of posts in my head lately. Unfortunately, they are still there, flapping around like chickens. They're good bits, I swear. If only I'd write them down you'd see. Honest.

I'm not going to write down the whole flock here. That would be too much committment. What if I never get to write them? What if I don't really have anything to say, even though I thought I did? What if I'm a bozo?

All of these are possible, of course. Stay tuned.

Well That Just Does It!

I have to get a new computer! I mean, there's a Princess Bride GAME out and I can't play it because my computer's operating speed (400mghz) is less than HALF the measly requirement(867mghz) for the game!

How can I live without a Princess Bride game? ::sniff::

Brother MFC-465CN: Splendid! Even with Macintosh

Brother is better known for typewriters. At least that's where I first heard of this company. Perhaps that dates me. Regardless, the Brother company has been making printers for a while now.

Has anyone ever gotten an Epson printer to last more than a few years? My old  Apple Stylewriters still work, and those were based on Canon printers. But the folks selling computers switched to Epson as the printer-of-choice for Mac users some time back and I think this was a big mistake. I've had three Epsons now, and all of them have gone kaput in varying time frames, some as quickly as one year, (just past the warranty, naturally) and others have hung in there until I had to do something simple, such as move them ten miles. Even packed up nicely, they never recovered.

It's a far cry from the days of the Applewriter and other dot matrix printers, which I think could handle being dragged down a gravel driveway on a string. Noisy as heck, slow as government, but they were the workhorses of the Mac printing world. Heck, my old Laserwriter 360 will fire right up, and it did the Alaska Highway!

Finally becoming disgusted as I tried to rotate between the variously functioning and semi-functioning Epsons (and one Canon, too) I went to Orofice Max to roll the dice and make an educated guess as to what to purchase.

Hewlet-Packard (known to us Irish musicians as Planxty Hewlett-Packard), Epson, Lexmark and Canon all had various models offered, but all were made of thin, bendy plastic that just didn't bode well. If they don't feel their miraculous computerized guts don't warrant a decently solid case, then I just have to wonder if they build them to fail. Standing out above the crowd was a Brother printer that was built like a little tank, and did everything but take the garbage out. Somewhere on the numerous explanatory labels it had a happy Mac face. Hmmmm, interesting, I thought.

So let me tell you what this baby does:

Faxes
Prints
Copies
Scans
works on a network
More stuff that I haven't even needed or tried

Since I'm a music teacher I find it annoying to go to the local copy shop all the time to print out my handwritten music. With this printer I can scan in my music, and then print it out whenever I need it. I have begun digitizing most of my sheet music and this is wonderful for both me and my students.

It has a document feeder so that I can put five or six sheets that I need copied, tell the printer how many dupes to make, push the button and walk away. I LOVE this.

The scanner gets good use with my old photos, too. I haven't set the fax up but once. I don't have a separate line and faxing is not a big priority, though sending a fax out is something I occasionally do. 

The print quality is good, not super excellent. It's far better than my blotchy Epsons, though! Those were forever getting some kind of microscopic detritus in them and then smearing ink everywhere.  You can choose the quality level, naturally, and the Brother puts out some very nice color. I make Christmas cards and various projects, and it hasn't failed me yet.

I also like very much that you can buy the ink tanks separately, and replace them separately. It will keep printing until that last moment when all the ink runs out. Instead of having to replace the entire unit when, say, magenta is all out, you just replace what is empty and keep going.

The downside of Brother is that they really don't know much about Macintosh. Their software is only partly-built! Every time I turn on the computer with the Brother printer on, I have to type in "mac-boot" to finish booting up. It's not my computer, because this happens whether I'm on the portable or the desktop.

If you start up with the printer off, and then turn it on, you get a window that says the printer didn't connect, with an OKAY button that doesn't work! First of all, it's a lie, the printer did connect and will work fine, and second of all, you can't dismiss the window! Very stupid! So you just drag it away so most of it is off the screen.

I called Brother about these things. They tried to tell me that my ROMS were going bad because I had to type in "mac-boot" but of course that is nonsense. The Mac tech told me that she just drags the annoying window aside and continues working. Which is what I do, too. I haven't checked lately with Brother, I suppose it is time to do that again.

Those two things can be annoying, but they don't make the printer unusable in my book. I'm going to keep bothering them to fix their software, but for now I am very, very happy with the performance of the machine.

Oh, and the price was right! Around $100, even up in Alaska!  You can't beat it with a stick!

What I've Learned in the Last 24 Hours

1. People who lie, lie a LOT. And continue to lie! And get very, very upset when you ask questions about how those lies fit together.

2. I am a very good judge of character. Those who I thought were my friends, really are my friends, even when the chips are down! Those who I thought were flakey, unbalanced, narrow-minded and manipulative are exactly those things.

It's very interesting. It's been more than one experience that has taught me these things today. One of the juggernauts of learning has had to do with an internet forum that I left, because there is a group of bullies over there who have made life a misery for a whole bunch of people. I was the lucky one to upset their apple cart by asking why someone lied. So lots of rotten apples have been thrown at me, but I'm okay. This goes back to #1. They do get very upset when you point out that their lies don't make sense!

This happened face-to-face with a woman today as well. Last December my band played for an arts and crafts fair for several hours, for which we were to be paid $300. When I went to collect the check at the end of the gig, I was told by the organizer that she would mail it within a week.

I bet you know where this is going, don't you?

Phone calls and phone calls later, there is still no check. I'd been promised it was "in the mail." I was told she had it "right here on my desk." Another band member was told (four months later) those same lies, plus another one, "I've been carrying it around in my purse, I just need to mail it..." Uh uh, and if we believe THAT one....

Since this is a small town, I knew if I asked around I could find out how people ever get her to pay her bills. My boyfriend knows her and her husband and they have a reputation for this sort of thing. The only way to get  her to pay you, I was told, is to go to her house in person.

So tonight my boyfriend and I went up the hill to her house and knocked on the door. She answered and it was clear by the look on her face that she was shocked to see me. Her little dog ran out the door and started dancing around my feet.

We said hello and I looked her in the eye and said, "We need to be paid now."

She said, "Well, you need to come down to my office--"

"We need to be paid now."

"Oh, my dog, my dog is going to run away!" (the dog was happily dancing all around me, he wasn't going anywhere. I picked him up and handed him to her.

"We need to be paid now. Today. Right now."

She put the dog back down and he came right back to me, all wiggly. I picked him up again and handed him back again.

"Well, I'm eating dinner or I would pay you."

"How long will dinner take? I can wait."

From the next room...."Honey, what is it?"

She says, "Oh, the band from the crafts fair, I forgot to pay them...."

(That's a real whopper, she never meant to pay us at all!)

"We need to be paid now."

"You need to come down to my office. I'll take care of it tomorrow."

"No. We need to be paid now."

"I will mail it tomorrow! I promise!"

"You've said that to me lots of times, and you said it to another band member, too. But we don't have a check and we've been waiting all these months."

"I hardly think that one phone call ...."

"We need to be paid NOW."

"If you had called ahead of time...."

"No. We need to be paid now. Right now."

From the next room again, "Honey, just pay them!"

At this point she was running out of lies and excuses and starting to get desperate and frantic. I could see that she was racking her brain for a way to keep from paying me. Then her husband appeared behind her and handed me three one-hundred dollar bills over her shoulder.

I'd finally gotten the band paid for our work in December of 2006!

"Do you want a receipt?" I asked.

"Uh, no," she replied.

I turned around and my boyfriend and looked at each other and grinned.

I actually shortened that conversation. I stood there for quite some time while she went through every excuse in the book, every lie she could think of, and I kept repeating, VERY firmly and with great eye contact, "We need to be paid NOW." I don't know how many times I said it. About twenty, at least.

Both #1 and #2, right there. From the moment I met this woman I didn't trust her. I was right.

And just for the record, we normally get at least a half fee deposit before we even play a gig. But this was part of a small-town fair and we were encouraged to trust people.

I guess if you wanted to add a third thing I've learned, it is that when you are right you shouldn't give up. In the case of the dishonest fair organizer, that worked. In the case of the forum, I think knowing when to quit is lots more sane. Sure, I could hang in there and stick to my guns, and I know I'm honest and haven't done anything wrong, but I'd rather not be a target. Let the angry ones out themselves and let everyone know who they are. They'll find they can't run the show no matter how hard they try. There is always going to be someone who says, "Hey, but that doesn't make sense!" And that someone doesn't always have to be me.

Bad Apples

Simultaneously I've had to deal with numerous trolls on the Internet forums and lists that I moderate. Now that I think of it, there isn't one list where someone hasn't been rude, cranky or outright mean in the last five days.

One forum that I've been on for years is undergoing some creepy changes that seem to have their root in one manipulative member. It has gone from being a homey place where I have friends, to a jungle that I dart in and out of, hoping I won't attract the attention of the two to four trolls who seem to never log off.

The first straw was being given the runaround by one of the trolls. I didn't realize she was a troll at first. First she set up a "club" and had people put a certain phrase in their signature. Then, when I asked privately what it was about, she lied. When another member of the "club" was asked publicly what the sig lines meant, he told a completely different story.

So I publicly asked why I'd been lied to.

And so it began.

I happen to love the truth. I tell the truth. I can't say I never lie, but I sure do my darnedest not to. I'm only human. People telling me lies makes me really, really angry.

The woman who lied then got very upset because I'd asked her why she lied,  and started harassing me in private messages, telling me that the "club" was about having been hassled by ANOTHER member of the same group. Supposedly, according to this liar, everyone in that group had been hassled by him.

Well, I asked why he hadn't been simply reported and banned from the group? Unfortunately there wasn't a good answer for that. She launched into this implausible cloak-and-dagger (I'm tempted to write "cloaca-and-dagger") scenario and told me that I couldn't tell anyone about it, that that would "ruin everything."  Oh, and when I said I'd write to the moderators of the board about it, she went ballistic. Oh no, dear God, please don't write to the moderators about this, she begged.

If you are scratching your head, you are right there with me. None of it made any sense. I DID write to one moderator and apparently they can't substantiate her "charges." The man she accuses is still there, she is still there, and she has started a whispering campaign against me, who did nothing!

Can you say...............TROLL?

 

She's quite the master manipulator and is fooling a lot of people. I do not wish to be a part of that and will step out until she is gone. The other trolls I can ignore, but I don't care to be her target like this.

There is a lot more to this story. She had her friends follow me around, informing her on what I posted, who i talked to and what I did. Even, at one point, who I emailed! I emailed one forum member to ask him what this club was all about. He had the signature denoting the club membership in his sig. I'd been told by the woman I just spoke of that he was not the harasser, so I thought it safe to ask him what was going on, since her responses didn't make sense. He and disposed of that subject with a couple of sentences and nothing much was learned. He said he wasn't the harasser and said I knew that already. Then we talked about dogs until, while writing him another email, I suddenly get a private message screaming at me for writing to him! This kind of thing is crazy. Just plain crazy.

The second straw, the one that broke my back, was suddenly having the rules to the forum changed with no notice, and being singled out as someone who —gasp— transgressed by having a link in my signature! Well, my goodness, a link to this blog, and a link to a topic-appropriate non-commercial site. How horrible!

This is just one incident. On another list a fellow who consistently insulted everyone and instigated flames finally started calling me names and ~BAM~ he is now history. Problem solved, just like that! No "clubs" needed!

 

On another board where I'm a moderator, people just started name-calling and other rude behavior, and posting entire web pages from commercial sites! (It was about dog food.) One forum member sold dog food and was spamming the group. The others were "hitting back" by posting entire web pages from the dog food companies that they thought were better. Good grief!

I'll never understand the people who join a group and then go out of their way to insult everyone, and especially direct their attention to speaking hatefully to the OWNER OF THE LIST. What the heck do they think they are doing?

Yes, I know, most of these people, including the woman on the first forum, probably have borderline personality disorder or something similar. They get their own twisted satisfaction for generating negative attention, and for being the center of chaos and attention, whether it be a huge drama or a fire fight.

The sad part is that it only takes one of these sick people to make the forum or list very uncomfortable for everyone. The forum I just left has at least four that I can count, and probably more. There are thousands of people who read that board, and about three hundred who post on it. Four is a smidgen of the total membership, and yet they can sour the whole thing for everyone. It's really too bad.

Without that forum to take up my time, I will be able to do a lot more writing. At least something good will come of this!

Web Shark Alert!

Last year I was the Media Director for the Midnight Sun Intertribal Powwow, and this year I'm wearing the same hat with another added: webmaster.

While the old webmaster had dropped out of the group, and no one was maintaining the website, the domain expired. I didn't know it had expired, as I hadn't yet assumed the webmaster responsibilities. I was told it needed to be reregistered, and I agreed to be webmaster. So I blithely went to reregister it, thinking that there was little reason for anyone else in the entire world to have coincidentally chosen our midnightsunpowwow.org name and registered it. I mean, how many Midnight Sun powwows could there be?

The answer is none, but someone had stolen our domain name anyway. When I tried to go to our old website, I didn't get a 404 (page doesn't exist) error. No, it was much worse than that. I got a page exclaiming very loudly that midnightsunpowwow.org was FOR SALE. Buydomains.com had registered the domain apparently the minute it became available. What was the price to get it back? I just sent off for a quote from them as to what they'd sell it for, but at the bottom of the form it states, and you have to click a checkbox or the form won't send, that you "understand that the minimum price for this domain will be $888.00."

Checking availability of domain names and using Whois, I found they'd also registered midnightsunpowwow.com as well.

You can go to your registrar and pay for the registration, but you are only paying for Buydomains.com's registration, it doesn't revert back to you. And it's very easy to do that by mistake. So CHECK who is listed as the owner before you click that payment button! If it isn't YOU, then you aren't paying to get control of your domain, you are just giving money to the folks who stole it!

We had to switch our domain name to a .net version, one of the only ones left that we could use. Now we'll have to change all our materials to reflect that change.

Back at Buydomains.com I decided to see how much I'd have to pay to get the old domain back. You have to click that you agree to the "terms of use" even just to get a quote.

Reading the "terms of use", you find that these folks are deep into spam. This is directly from their terms of use page:

"5. BuyDomains' Intellectual and other Property Rights

You agree that BuyDomains holds all rights, title and interest in and to the name BuyDomains, The Seeq Network, Rare Names, Seeq.com, AboutRetirement.com, AdorableCats.com, Adultfriends.net,Amazingdogs.com, AnimalWorld.com,ApprovedRental.com, AutomotiveCenter.com, BabyFriendly.com, BacktoSchoolShopping.com, BeautyGuide.com, Business1.com, CancerConnection.com, CareerGuide.com, Cash4You.com, ChampionLeague.com, CheeseOnline.com, Christiancircles.com, CreditCardClub.com, DegreeCentral.com, DietersNetwork.com, DiscountMart.com, EducationCentral.com, eSales.com, e-taxes.com, FashionSource.com, FathersDayGift.com, FindCondos.com, FoodPlanet.com, FootballAuthority.com, GamblingNet.com, GamingSource.com, GardenSeeq.com, GayTravelSearch.com, GreatDate.com, HappyMothersDay.com, HomeAnswers.com, iGuide.com, ImportAndExport.com, infoindia.com, InfoPage.com, InHomeTheater.net, InsuranceProviders.com, InvestmentZone.com, KidsGuides.com, LasVegasLife.com, LatinConnections.net, LegalOnline.com, LocalRealEstate.com, LoversLinks.com, MechanicalWorks.com, MedicalSource.com, MilitaryCommand.com, MortgageGroup.com, MovieCity.com, MusicMania.com, OnAir.com, OnlinePolitics.com, Order-Flowers.com, PhotoConnection.com, PhotoConnection.com, PureBusiness.com, RightLoan.com, SearchForGifts.com, ShopAround.com, SoccerWorld.com, SportsUnlimited.com, Stockpoints.com, TechBuyer.com, TechnologySource.com, TechShopping.com, TelecomSource.com, TherapyInformation.com, TheStartupGroup.com, TicketsCentral.com, TobaccoCenter.com, TravelChoices.com, TravelSeeker.com, TVChannel.com, WebsiteSolutions.com, WellnessPrograms.com, WineWorld.com, WonderfulWeddings.com, WorldReligion.org and you acknowledge that no license or right under any copyright, patent, trademark, service mark or other proprietary right or license is granted to You or conferred upon You by this Agreement or otherwise"

"Cheeseonline.com"? Holy Wallace and Gromit!

And even weirder enough, this company is on a page of Grassroots.org, a supposed liberal community-building site. Do these people even know what they are affiliated with? Is grassroots.org a front? This is a nestful of snakes. More than that, it's a veritable city full of snakes.

I can't imagine any 5013c buying back, that is, ransoming a hijacked domain for nearly nine hundred dollars. I would suggest that if you have a site hosted by Buydomains.com to switch host servers immediately to someone with some real business ethics. I wouldn't trust my site to them. And to boycott all the above websites as well. And spread the word. That's one thing the internet is very good for! This domain-snatching may be legal, but it's entirely unethical.

Bottom line: don't let your domain name expire or you'll be next.

Village Flamer

Village Flamer

I recently left two mailing lists. I’d enjoyed being on one of them in particular, which was all about living in Alaska. It had members that ranged from lifelong Alaskans to ignorant doofi (plural of doofus?) who didn't know that we don't live in igloos. As all lists do, it had its ups and its downs, its nice folk and its curmudgeons. There were points where I could have been accused of the latter, when I interrupted the incessant starry-eyed romanticism of prospective Alaskans with information about what it’s really like to live here. (You can’t pet the moose. Yes it's icy outside, or in the summer, there are a million blood-sucking mosquitoes, but you go out anyway, etc...) But for the most part the folks were nice, friendly and I hope to see some of them around town. For the most part, that’s the operative phrase here.

The thing about large mailing lists is that they are a sampling of the general computer-owning population. And that’s a huge group. This list has over six hundred people, most of whom don’t post. That’s about the size of a small village. Psychologists say the human brain is capable of recognizing and remembering about five hundred faces, which is why small towns are more comfortable for us in some ways. It’s wired into us. It’s also why you can remember a face, but not a name all the time. Names are on the opposite side of the brain from the faces. It’s easier to recognize the face than to connect it up with the name that has to be dragged, kicking and screaming from the left side of your brain where it has snuggled down for hibernation. Musicians have the same problem with music. Either you can remember how the tune goes but not the name of it, or the title but not how it goes. Maybe the next step in evolution will be an enlargement of the corpus collosum. It’s certainly needed!

Mailing lists are the new small villages of modern times. We like to assume that our friends are there. There is a tendency to forget about the 555 lurking members, any of whom could be sauteeing their neighbor’s cat right now. Or their neighbor, for that matter. No, people blithely see what they want to see, and they see about fifty folks gabbing away just like they grew up together all in the same clique. “I want you to be safe, so you are,” is their attitude. Unfortunately that doesn’t work. It’s exactly why pedophiles troll the chat rooms. You can be anything or anyone you want to be on the internet.

I’ve seen people build themselves up as if they are superman or superwoman, and then you meet them and realize hey, this person is really a bar fly, or a poser. Some folks are great at talking a healthy, positive lifestyle up online and then you find out they are chain smokers and drink for recreation. Real life generally contradicts what people put out about themselves. Which is why internet dating is so unsuccessful!

Within that five to six hundred person group on a mailing list, there are bound to be a wide spectrum of ages, politics, geniality and psychological makeup. Every village has its idiot, but the Forrest Gumps of the world don’t generally use computers. However I am sure that every town has its nasty, backbiting flamer. Certainly every email list does. It’s just a matter of time before your list poops out that one person who will send vicious emails attacking you or someone else on the group.

I hung in there when the first flamer was revealed. This person was and remains a master at presenting a heroic and charismatic front, when in reality his life is a study in paranoid, controlling behavior. I started getting emails from this guy, accusing me of this and that and all sorts of really out there stuff and having an agenda against him. I had said absolutely nothing negative about this person, but he was the kind of guy who assumed that what I said had some other meaning, some sly, mean objective, because that’s the way he was himself! He could not believe anyone was really honest or non-manipulative, because he thought everyone was like him. Come on, he’d seem to be saying, admit you are scheming against me, you have to be, there's no other way to be. Oh, and this person turns out to be a neighbor, too, lest you think "Oh, no one in ALASKA would act like that!" HA! Think again!

Woe betides the person who attracts the attention of a person like this. Be prepared for all sorts of accusations of plots and manipulations. You could be an Eagle Scout and an astronaut and a fireman and an All-American Mom all at once and still this person would accuse you of trying to destroy him or her or being an agent of KAOS. And he or she won't be as funny as Maxwell Smart.

I almost left the list when this person started emailing me offlist, but luckily he left the list and peace returned. For a while.

Then recently another of the same sort appeared, once again making wild accusations that could not even be taken seriously. This person attacked with an even more concentrated hate. Okay, that’s it. I’ve had enough. Life is too short for this bullshit.

If you want to be online and talk to people in chat or on a mailing list, sooner or later the Crazy Paranoid person is going to surface. Just block him/her and move on. And above all, remember: THEY are the crazy people, not you! Don’t take it seriously, block that person from your inbox and move on. It’s not useful to try to talk reason to people like this. It just gives them a reason to send you lots more hate mail. They love it when you engage them! That’s what they want, attention for their insanity and you are playing right into their paranoid fantasies if you write to them.

Block them and stay on the list or in the chat if you want to keep in touch with the nice folks you’ve found. Or just leave the whole thing.

When on a mailing list, and in life in general, I follow Johnny Cash's best piece of advice. I "keep my eyes wide open all the time." It keeps me from tripping!

Take a walk, play with the dog! Bake some bread! You’ve got a life, remember! The flamer doesn’t. Be glad you do.

Cute Li'l Clamshell

There are several things that go with me everywhere: my dog, Stevie, my violin (most of the time), and my little old graphite clamshell iBook.

I bought this computer when burglars tore down the door of my store, not to steal jewelry, not to steal violins, harps, or expensive musical instruments. They weren't interested in imported whiskey flasks, or the money in the till. Nope. They tore down a security door and a very thick entry door to steal my iMac and printer. They didn't even take the cables.

That violation prompted me to say "never again!" and I bought a used iBook that went home with me every night. I also installed a security system.

The storefront has closed (though the webstore remains, see "Celtic & More" link) and this little baby has served me well. It has gone all over Albuquerque, to Amarillo and back, to St. Louis, and Pagosa Springs. It has done the Alaskan Highway! It has been dropped a few times, gotten damn cold, survived damp and humidity so low that we had to keep a fire extinguisher on hand in case the dog scratched himself and suddenly combusted.

The door to the CD player falls off every once in a while. But I click it back on, no problem. A tiny little screw fell out of there, and I saved it for a long time, but have no idea where it goes, and my young Mac geek friends tell me it's probably redundant, anyway. The power supply's wires have been wrapped up so many times that they had split and become bare. A couple weeks ago a friend of mine got out some silicon and we swathed the bare spot with goo and let it harden into a rubbery safety coat.

I've worn the letters off most of the keys. My boyfriend, a two-finger typist at best, looked at it and said, "How do you type on this thing??" With the help of a Sharpy pen, the letters were reinstated, but they've worn off again, of course. Lucky for me I took typing in highschool, even though I refused to become the high-heeled and panty-hosed secretary they insisted so many of us girls become. I'm comforted that if I ever go blind, I will still be able to type.

The graphite cover is smeared and smudged, stained and rubbed raw in places. It's a mere 366mghz, and has only 5.6 gig of hard drive. It's maxxed out at 320MB RAM, has no read/write anything, no firewire, no infrared, just your basic USB, ethernet, phone and sound ports. The Wacom mouse and drawing pad that I use with it are in equally worn-out shape: the mouse feet are worn OFF, the mouse pad itself, the drawing pad, has a whole layer simply GONE.

I just discovered how to put Quicktime movies on the web. I am learning how to write Cascading Style Sheets (CSS). I am doodling around with cgi/Perl. Besides writing, and designing websites, and using massive amounts of computing resources for Adobe Photoshop, Image Ready and QuarkXPress. And there are a whole bunch of things I want to do, but can't, until I get a read/write drive, more hard drive, more memory, and a quicker processor.

It's time for a new system.

I'm saving up. If you need a website built, documents layed out, pamphlets or business cards designed, or you have an editing job. Let me know.