I really don’t get enough spam. Please, can someone sign me up for some more lists? All my legitimate email is crowding out the ads for enlargement services, fake diplomas, and penny stocks.
Please, think of the spammers! Won’t someone stand up and protect the spammers?
Looks like Raleigh’s News and Observer is playing registration games again, locking its content up behind a paywall. Seems they don’t understand the value of the Internet after all. Now they’ll fade into obscurity on the Internet as other sites collect their now locked-out visitors.
Look for more links here on MT.Net to Capitol Broadcasting’s WRAL television website. Though WRAL’s site has been devastated by the Ugly virus, at least it doesn’t discriminate against its visitors.
After watching the spectacle of ABC’s Extreme Makeover taking place in Raleigh, the head of Preservation North Carolina, Myrick Howard, questioned why anyone would tear down a beautiful historic bungalow to replace it with a slapped-together home made of cheap modern materials:
“I believe in charity, but if you really care about good housing, then renovate the existing house and it will cost so much less,” he said.
Howard added that the Riggins home was not only salvageable but made of better building materials than “Extreme Makeover” would use.
“We’re replacing real wood and plaster with chip board and sheet rock,” he said. “They’re getting showered with candy rather than a decent meal.”
Good point. It seems the family traded their fine home for 15 minutes of fame. Not only that, city officials dropped the ball by approving the demolition of an historic house in a historic district.
Would you live in a home that was built under a tight deadline of just one week? Do you think a team of volunteer laborers can do a better job in one week than the original, expert craftsmen did a hundred years ago using real building materials? This home stood proudly for the better part of a century. What are the odds that this slapped-together house will still be standing in 2106?
This is one of the things that ticks me off about Raleigh: total disregard for its own history. Tear down historic landmarks to make way for shiny new strip malls, or fake homes in this case. City officials who can’t wait to whore the city out for media opportunities no matter the long-term consequences. We live in a plastic city which has long ago lost its identity.
When the dust settles and the crowds of construction workers and gawkers have gone home, what will be left is yet another hole in the city’s historic heritage.
So now that photographs are essentially digital documents and can be digitally signed as such, why aren’t camera manufacturers making cameras which digitally sign the photos they take? The camera would have its own key and the photographer would have her own, too. Both keys would be used to sign the photo, proving that the photo came from that camera and was taken by that photographer. This would bolster the authenticity of a photograph in a world where the art of “photoshopping” can so easily fool people.
Let’s say you take that once-in-a-lifetime photo of Bigfoot, Elvis, Jimmy Hoffa, and Dick Cheney playing pick-up basketball. With the photo signed by the camera as well as you, your photographic proof becomes much more trustworthy. That lets you sell it for big bucks to the National Enquirer rather than settle for the Weekly World News.
Date and time info could be signed as well, though that would only prevent it from being changed as there’s no secure way to verify a clock’s time. No two people on the planet ever agree on what time it is, something no amount of technology will change!
(Bigfoot, by the way, would crush in basketball, even if he was double-teamed. Dunking presents no challenge when you’re 8 feet tall.)
How’d you like to have your own pet moose? (Kids don’t try this at home.)
By way of the Interesting People list, here are some interesting links about law enforcement using cell phones as remotely-operated listening devices or tracking devices:
FBI taps cell phone mic as eavesdropping tool
Use of mobile helped police keep tabs on suspect and brother
I’ve wondered before if this could be done. Looks like it can.
The Hertz rental car company apparently tried to screw me out of a pile of money on my last trip to Chicago. The bastards. I should have known something was up when my credit card didn’t get billed promptly. Here’s the story.
I fly into Chicago’s Midway airport since I like to fly Southwest. The airport’s rental car facility is small and cramped at Midway and it usually takes a long time to either get a car or return one. I’ve had to wait forever at my usual rental car vendor, Dollar, so I thought I’d try Hertz this time. I dusted off my Hertz #1 Club Gold card and booked with Hertz. After all, any company who had O.J. Simpson as its spokesperson has to be good, right?
I landed at Chicago a bit ahead of schedule thanks to Southwest’s Outrageous Customer Service ™. Walking into the garage I was happy to see my name on Hertz’s rental board, pointing the way to my waiting Jeep Liberty. Into the car I went, hassle free. Less than two hours later I was in South Bend, Indiana for the next day’s meeting.
My meeting ended Friday a bit behind schedule. I raced back across the state line but got caught in unanticipated construction traffic. Even though I was late, I searched for the closest gas station near the airport. I stood freezing outside a Citgo in a questionable neighborhood while I filled up the thirsty Liberty. As usual, I made note of my gas purchase amount before racing into the rental return garage, though the receipt printer was not working.
I got there with precious few minutes to spare. There were returning cars everywhere! The lines were so long I barely inched my car past the automatic gate before I ran out of room. I waited there a few more minutes without anyone directing me anywhere (not that I could’ve gone anywhere, anyway). Knowing how close I was to missing my flight, I was about to put it in park when a garage attendant mumbled “I can’t let him park there” and waved me back to the Hertz end of the garage.
More precious minutes went by as I dodged hurried travelers and empty cars scattered in the traffic lanes. I was waved to a spot near the booth, where I collected my things and checked my watch again.
A Hertz woman noticed me but didn’t approach. She continued to show new renters their vehicle. More minutes went by. No one came to talk to me.
Screw it, I thought. Some “Gold” service here.
I gathered my things, left the key in the car, and booked inside to my flight, making it into the jetway after my name was called two times to board. Two other hapless travelers showed up behind me, out of breath as I was. The flight was full and still not loaded, so none of us stragglers delayed the plane, but it wasn’t a fun way to end the trip.
I assumed Hertz would send me a receipt, or I could pull one up on their website. I’m a Gold member, after all.
Days went by. Kelly began asking me to file my expense reports. I still hadn’t heard from Hertz.
Weeks went by. Still no charges. I put in a call to Hertz’s customer service center. After a long wait, a pleasant woman named Celeste answered. She took my call in the midst of the huge snowstorm that had kept most of her coworkers away. As it was 5 o’clock on a Friday I felt very lucky to have gotten her.
Celeste was puzzled why I didn’t have a receipt in the system. She agreed with me that it was very ususual. She asked me if I had filled it up before returning it and I told her I did. She put me on hold for a time or two before returning to tell me she was going to work on this some more. I should expect an answer by Monday or Tuesday, she said.
I was pleasantly surprised when I got a call back from her an hour later. “I found it,” she told me. I happily thanked her for the extra effort, giving Hertz customer service a gold star for exceeding my expectations. I anxiously awaited the emailed copy of the receipt she had promised me and then turned my thoughts to the approaching weekend.
It turns out the emailed receipt that was promised “in an hour” never arrived. I decided to do my expenses anyway and checked my credit card statement online tonight to see what my rental charge was.
It was a whopping $275.85, about $85 more than it should have been! What was I saying about Hertz again?!?
A look at my Hertz receipt (now online) showed a charge for $85.08 for gasoline! The fuckers had charged me for gas when I returned it with a full tank! Hertz better be glad no one was around to take my call a few minutes ago, because someone’s phone would’ve melted.
My next step was to call my credit card company and dispute the charge. That’s $85.08 that Hertz isn’t going to get from me. When they open tomorrow morning, they will get an earful that perhaps might singe someone’s phone if not melt it. Cold weather will be the last thing on the lucky bastard’s mind when he or she takes my call tomorrow.
I want whoever ripped me off to be fired, but of course the odds of that are slim. I anxiously await how Hertz handles this. I’ll be happy to show them the gas purchase from my credit card receipt if they choose to dispute this.
In the meantime, I want to let everyone know that HERTZ RIPPED ME OFF!!. A company that rips people off doesn’t deserve your business, either.
Now, let’s see them try to talk their way out of this . . .
Living On A Thin Line
The Kinks
All the stories have been told
Of kings and days of old,
But there’s no England now.
All the wars that were won and lost
Somehow don’t seem to matter very much anymore.
All the lies we were told,
All the lies of the people running round,
Their castles have burned.
Our eyes see change,
But inside we’re the same as we ever were.
Continue reading
Since I’m on the topic of telecommunications, I think we’re going to see some interesting moves in the telecommunications industry now that the Copyright Office has ruled that as of December 1st unlocking your cellphone is legal. Read this PC Magazine article explaining what the law says is legal.
Perhaps some competition will bloom now that phone service doesn’t have to be tied to the phone.
You may or may not be aware that AT&T (actually what was known as SBC Communications before SBC adopted the AT&T name) is trying to merge with Bellsouth. This merger was announced early this year and has been held up by a deadlocked FCC. The merger would put tie together the majority of former Baby Bells into a reconstituted AT&T, reversing the decades of progress that the breakup of AT&T achieved.
Thanks to AT&T’s 1984 breakup, Americans now have more phone choices than ever before. The cost of telephone calls has plummeted. Cell phones are ubiquitous. Companies actually compete for your business (to some extent, anyway). Few of any of these would have happened – or happened as quickly – if AT&T was still guarding their mostly taxpayer-funded universe. If SBC … oops, I mean AT&T succeeds in swallowing Bellsouth it will put a huge swath of American telecommunications back under near-monopoly control, leaving only Qwest and Verizon out of this new, improved Ma Bell.
The reason for the delay is the FCC. Commissioners are deadlocked, 2 to 2, on the merger. FCC Commissioner (and Tar Heel) Kevin J. Martin break the impasse/a> by bringing back commissioner Robert McDowell, who recused himself due to earlier lobbying against similar big mergers. McDowell used to be general counsel for a trade group representing small phone companies.
In spite of Martin’s desire to clear this off the FCC’s decks, I think major changes will be needed for this thing to pass. Even though I believe McDowell’s vote may torpedo the merger, I think the conflict-of-interest laws should be respected and his participation should be barred. If the merger can’t convince the two commissioners, Michael J. Copps and Jonathan S. Adelstein, to vote yes then the two companies will just have to buckle down and make a more convincing case or call it off.
