Ran into a friend last night who was aware of my job search. She asked me “what it would take” to make me move away from Raleigh.
I laughed after quickly realizing she wasn’t trying to kick me out of town.
“Oh, I’m not going anywhere,” I said, reassuring her that there was plenty of work here for a multipurpose geek like me.
It would take a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to get me to move. Unless I get a phone call starting with “please hold for the President-elect” I’m staying right here.
For the next RDU Barcamp (which will be my first, as I have yet to participate in any), I thought it might be fun to teach a mock class on how to scam people. You know: pretend I’m a big-time con artist showing the ropes to wannabe Nigerian scammers. The class will include critiques of sample scam emails and suggest easy ways to get important information. The take-away from it all would be to educate my “students” in how not to get taken.
I might not wait for Barcamp but might package this as a TriLUG presentation for a slow night. I bet it would be a lot of fun!
Why is the opposite of protractor not contractor?
I will smack the next person who asks me “so, how are you enjoying your retirement?!”
I was upset that the XMMS music player stopped shipping with recent versions of Ubuntu. I’ve used the new standard Rhythmbox Music Player and hate the way it (and iTunes, for that matter) reorganize my already-organized music collection. I don’t need a bloated, database-backed organizer – I just want to listen to some music!
Seems I’m not the only Ubuntu user who missed XMMS, because Knut Auvor Grythe built a repository of XMMS Ubuntu packages where Ubuntu users can once again have their XMMS.
Here’s another scam email, stealing the identity of a legitimate business in an effort to hoodwink folks out of their hard-earned money. This one’s been floating around since May.
Return-Path: angel2@t-email.hu
Date: Thu, 04 Dec 2008 05:17:06 -0800
From: “Applied Metal Technology Ltd. ” angel2@t-email.hu
Subject: Payment Agent Needed (Earn $5500 + $500 Bonus Monthly )
Reply-to: appliedmetaltech.ltd@live.com
To: undisclosed-recipients:;
Continue reading
Remember the Bullet Motorsports scam I mentioned earlier? Seems there is a legitimate Bullet Motorsports Speedlab in Santa Ana, California that had its name and website copied by the scammers. The owner of the legitimate site popped up on a fraud-fighting message board to ask for advice. Thus, while the email claiming to be offering a job with BMS is a fraud, Bullet Motorsports Speedlab itself is legitimate.
Ten years ago when I worked at Indelible Blue, I learned how online retailers have to deal with a myriad of tax codes. State and local governments have extremely complex tax laws – upwards of 7,500 tax jurisdictions across the U.S. It makes paying another state’s taxes damn near impossible for a small business like Indelible Blue.
That’s why I took notice when N.C. House Speaker Joe Hackney says he wants to tax online sales as if these companies are in North Carolina:
Hackney said he would talk to Pelosi about granting states the rights to interstate sales tax collection. He said it would bring in an additional $400 million to $500 million a year for North Carolina’s state budget, especially helpful given the current budget crunch.
“It’s a tax that is already on the books, so it is not a new tax,” he said. “It’s just collecting the one that’s there.”
Oh, how many ways can I say that this is a Spectacularly Bad Idea? You know that $400 million to $500 million it would bring in? The state’s check might say it came from Amazon but the money would come from the pockets of North Carolinians. In case you weren’t paying attention, these are folks who aren’t too keen on parting with half a billion right now.
Not to mention that these companies don’t benefit from anything the state of North Carolina provides, like roads, police, laws, or even a workforce. Why should they pay North Carolina when all they receive from the state is a tax bill?
We already claim this stuff on our income tax. I hope Speaker Hackney is prudent enough to leave it at that.
Its official: I’ve just been officially recognized by the gummint as being unemployed. I called the NC ESC to get my PIN reset so I could file online and a helpful staffperson named Harriet did that and filed my claim for me. I was on hold for 30 minutes before Harriet got to me but her willingness to help and cheerful demeanor made it all worthwhile.
My unemployment checks are a pittance, actually, though they’re the maximum the state will pay. The amount is a fraction of my former salary. It will be a painful transition period but we’ll be able to keep the lights on here at MT.Net.
I was told something else interesting: the ESC doesn’t want my job search records, at least not right away. I was told to dutifully fill them out and keep them around but only send them in if/when the ESC asks to see them. I suppose the ESC is so busy with claims now that they don’t have the staff to sort through mounds of job search forms.
I’m calling the N.C. ESC this morning to reset my online login. A call to their “Remote Services Center” resulted in many “all circuits are busy” calls. Finally got through just now, though their phone system tells me I’m in for a 20 minute wait.
Maybe I’ll reconsider and mail my resume to the Somali pirates. Does Somalia have a functioning postal system? (In a touch of irony, in my previous role I could’ve told you all about Somalia’s postal system).
