Within the past year, there have been a lot of different things that have surfaced about privacy concerns. Although I normally don’t post anything online that I wouldn’t want anybody to find, I can understand the concerns. Recently, my son was applying for a job, and after getting an interview, they decided not to hire him. They gave the reason that they didn’t approve of things that were posted on his Facebook.
I had heard of this being something that was a concern to other people, but it was the first time I “knew” that it actually happened.
There have been several times over the past eight months that I had thought about deleting my whole Facebook profile. For a while, it seemed like there was story after story about how the information at Facebook wasn’t kept private. Depending on your settings, it’s true… some people don’t take the time to adjust their settings the way that they should, and end up leaving a lot more information “public” than they probably should.
Another concern of mine is Twitter. The settings at Twitter are not as robust as the way you can lock down Facebook. Even though people cannot post as much information at once as they can at Facebook, there is still a lot of information that can be taken from anybody’s Twitter profile.
I haven’t thought about deleting my Twitter account, though. I really don’t post enough there to justify it being a concern that I have, personally. However, I have been “blocked” from following a certain person on Twitter. I had tried to follow them on two different accounts (one personal and one business), and he had blocked me on both.
I’m not sure if he (or others) understands that even though you “block” somebody from following you, they can still follow you, just as easily. Just by visiting his Twitter page (even if I’m logged in), I can see all of his tweets, followers, and who he’s following. This includes his location information and bio, and anything that he posts… even when he posts his new phone number, asking people to text him. I’ve even included his RSS stream in the right column of this site, which can be added to any RSS reader, as well. “Hi Art! Email me!”
Twitter does have an option to “protect my tweets”, meaning that only people that are following you can see what you tweet. The drawback to this is that if you actually want more people to follow you, there is no way for possible followers to see what you’ve already posted. It’s an option, but at that point, Twitter becomes more of a supplement to something else, rather than something you can feel free to communicate on.
This is just something that has been on my mind, lately. There’s a lot of things that I have posted online, but nothing that would be considered “private”. Whenever I put anything online, I do it knowing that “anybody” could eventually find it… even possible future employers or lawyers.
So, Arizona passes a law that makes it illegal to be an illegal alien. You’d think that would be some sort of double-negative, or something. It’s already illegal, but to be able to be enforceable by the state and local law enforcement authorities, they had to create their own version of the already existing Federal law. In other words, there’s already a Federal law, but now that the state of Arizona passes a law that, pretty much, says the same thing, people are “protesting” it?
It’s been said that there are more than 4 million illegal aliens enter the United States every year… about 12,000 each day. The majority of them are Mexican! Yes… Mexican’s make up the largest percentage of “illegal” aliens in the United States. The majority of them are crossing the border through Arizona (one part of Arizona, in particular).
Hispanics think that they will be unfairly targeted, just because of their race. Some say that racial profiling is a “bad” thing; politically incorrect, morally wrong, and makes every person that fits that description a suspect. The fact is, though, racial profiling is not “illegal”, and the the majority of people that are living in the United States illegally are “Mexican”.
Looking at this in another way, if somebody that fits the description of a person that has committed a crime is spotted by law enforcement, they should expect to be taken into custody, or at least “questioned”. I’d hate to think what would happen if you saw the [insert race and shirt color of the] person that stole your car, but couldn’t describe them to police because of some “anti-profiling” law.
Of course, some people that may read this will say that I’m racist, because of my views on this. They can say that, all they want, because I know that I’m not. If the same thing were happening on the Canadian border, I would say the same thing about any Canadians that were here “illegally”.
If people take the legal channels of becoming a US citizen, I have no problem, at all. Anybody can become a legal citizen of the United States… even without any great big thing called “immigration reform”. People that are living in the United States illegally just haven’t “taken the time” to do it. (USCIS Home Page) It’s not that hard, and there’s plenty of ways to do it. Politicians and people like Rev. Al Sharpton that are now “encouraging” people to break Federal laws should definitely think this through a little bit more. If the Federal government somehow blocks this law they should expect some “major” backlash.
The project that I mentioned, a few posts ago, is getting closer to becoming a reality. We’re almost ready to launch our first digital sign at a popular Jamestown, ND location. After we test it for a couple months, we’ll be rolling it out to various other locations. The idea behind this project was brought about because of a need for current information, such as weather, meeting times, and other events.
The way that this kind of information was displayed, in the past, involved printing and posting it, daily or weekly. A lot of times, there was information that was changed or just completely left out. Using this new digital sign solution allows the information to be changed, instantly.
This is a personal venture of mine, so the digital signage and all equipment belongs to me. Because of this, I will be able to expand into other businesses, in town and across the state. The basic design and layout of the screens and any manual updating will be handled by me (or my employees, down the road).
This is something that is along the lines of what you may have seen at some grocery stores. The way that it’s different is that unlike what is on the display in grocery stores, people will be looking at the screens because that’s where the information that they’re looking for will be. They’ll be there for meetings, wanting to know the weather before they hit the road, and otherwise looking for local events or services.
Over the next month, I’ll be signing up the initial advertisers that will be displayed along-side the other information. The cost will also be much more reasonable than advertising in other places. More information can be found at the NDLogic web site.
Something that is very important to not forget about the “health care bill” that passed the House, recently is that the “nuclear option” was used. They can give it a really nice name like “up or down vote” and it still does not change the fact that this option was used to pass it.
The big push that was made as the vote became closer was the “right-to-life” topic. Bart Stupak and his “anti-abortion” Democrats were promised that the president would sign an executive order, after the bill was passed, that would not allow public funds to pay for abortion. The problem is that they could not actually create any amendments or write any statutes to the existing bill to guarantee that.
No matter which side of the isle you fall on… “pro-choice” or “pro-life”… it should be agreed that public funds should not cover a procedure that is (and always has been) so polarized. Why should somebody who is “pro-life” be required to have even part of their taxes taken to pay for something that they are “totally” against.
What the people that voted for this bill do not seem to realize is that there are so many other aspects (other than abortion) to consider with what this bill will do.
Why should you, a person who takes care of themselves, eats right, and exercises regularly, be required to pay the health care bills of people that do not? People who smoke, drink, don’t exercise, and don’t take care of themselves will be subsidized (their bills will be paid) by money taken from you.
This “should be” just as much of a polarizing issue as funding abortion.
For years and years, I’ve driven all of my vehicles without having car insurance. Getting coverage was just too expensive, and I hadn’t ever had an accident. I couldn’t justify paying so much money for something that I just didn’t need. I know that the state laws “require” all vehicles on the road to have insurance coverage, but I have never been pulled over for speeding, or anything, which would have required me to show proof of insurance.
Things all changed, the other day, when I was involved in a multi-car accident. There was a major amount of damage, but all of the people involved were alright.
Now, since there’s a law that requires insurance companies to accept people with pre-existing conditions, all is good! All I have to do is shop around for the best rate on insurance that I can get, sign the contract, and all of the repairs to my vehicle will be covered! It sure is great that the government is forcing these nasty insurance companies to pay my $2,000 repair bill, and all I have to do is pay about $400 for the six month contract.
Once the repairs are made, of course, there won’t be any reason for me to keep the insurance, so I won’t even have to renew the contract.
What? You ask, “Won’t the insurance companies lose a lot of money and possibly go out of business if a lot of people do this?” Well, of course they will. But why should I care? Once all of the insurance companies go out of business because they can’t afford to keep going, the government will take over. You know… the government… the ones that use the taxes that we pay them to pay their bills.
Of course, once the government “takes over” insurance, they’ll also have to cover those pre-existing conditions. The same thing will keep happening. Will the government be able to afford to keep running losses? Of course not. The national debt is already higher than ever before. They will have to try, though. Where will they try to get more money from? They’ll get it from the same place they always have… from the taxpayers. Of course, now that everybody from the insurance industry is unemployed, they’ll have to raise them to an even higher percentage than ever before.
Of course, everything that I wrote, above is not true, but hopefully you can see where I’m going. When the government forces a private industry into a business practice that will undoubtedly cause that industry to lose money, something is very wrong. Forcing insurance companies into covering people that they would not normally think about giving coverage to is very dangerous. Just look back and see what happened when lenders were forced to give loans to people that they would not normally take that kind of chance on. How many banks have failed since the start of 2009? Here’s a list.
A few days ago, I bought an Acer AspireOne. It’s one of those new Netbooks with the Intel Atom N450, running at 1.66GHz. It came with Windows 7 Started edition, 1Gb of RAM and a 140Gb HD. I only bought it for one specific reason and because of that, I’m sure that I’ll leave the OS alone. Although Windows 7 Starter seems pretty limited, it will do exactly what I need it to do.
The project that I bought it for will have the computer running, unattended, for months (and hopefully years) at a time. I’ve had it running since I pulled it out of the box (minus a few restarts because of software installs/uninstalls) and it definitely looks like it will do what I need it to do. There is very little heat generated, and I should be able to put it somewhere that will have very little airflow.
Even though I already use a full-size laptop, I found myself wanting to “move around” a little more with this little thing. It’s about half the size of my main computer (literally) and probably weighs one-third as much. The screen resolution leaves a bit to be desired (1024×600), but I realize that it’s not meant to be everything that a full-size computer is. For what I’m using it for, the resolution will work just fine, though. Actually, I’m turning the resolution down to 800×600 for this project.
When I get things where they need to be with this project, and leave the computer where it ends up, I will probably think about getting another one for personal use. Since I’m already mobile, and my main laptop goes everywhere with me, there might not be a reason for it, but we’ll see. If the project that I’m using it for takes off and works like I think it should, I’m sure I’ll be buying quite a few more or them.
I’ve been a customer of Electronic Arts (EA Video Games) for many years, now. My wife and I have purchased all of the Sims games and expansions and we (at least “she” does) continue to play them, often.
I recently purchased a new game from them called Mass Effect 2. I had read all of the reviews, blogs, and anything else I could find, before making the decision to pay $59.95 for the “Digital Deluxe Edition”. That version allowed me to download the complete game and also came with a “Collector Gear and Sniper Rifle” and “Cerberus Network Activation”.
The reviews of this game made it hard for me to wait for the download, but as soon as it was on my computer, I installed it and fired it up. Starting Mass Effect 2 brought up a menu that allowed me to start the game, change the settings, etc. When I pressed “Play” my screen went black, as it was adjusting the resolution of my screen. Then… “Mass Effect 2 has stopped working”…
I tried many different things in order to try and get this game working, and nothing has worked. My computer is a Pentium CoreDuo2 2.2GHz proc with 4Gb of RAM, running 64-bit Windows7. After the first couple hours of trying to get it to work, I contacted EA Support. That was on 02/19/2010 @ 04:55 PM. Since then, I have contacted them four more times.
I have not heard from anybody at Electronic Arts, at all. I’ve been on the forums, searching in vein for a solution. At this point, it seems that I am out of luck.
I gave Electronic Arts $59.95, they allowed me to download a program to my computer that will not run. They seemingly refuse to answer any of my support requests. There is nothing at all that I can do about this, though. They “delivered” the software that I paid for (did they “deliver” or did I pick it up?… oh well, semantics.). Did they lay off all of their support staff, or what? The least they could do is email me back to tell me “Sorry… I guess it won’t work, and thanks for your money”, but I have not heard a thing.
Meanwhile, I’m out sixty bucks. I will say that because of this, it will be THE LAST time that I purchase anything from Electronic Arts.
While updating a few things on the hotel website, this morning, I realized something. There is a lot of information on the internet about different businesses. Hotels and the internet have become second nature for a lot of people, and we get a lot of our reservations via online bookings. Even though we have a pretty decent rate for online reservations, there’s a few things that I simply cannot do anything about.
When people make reservations for any hotel online, they spend a lot of time looking at reviews from other people that have stayed there. Some of the reviews are good, and some of them are bad. In my mind (maybe I’m wrong) people would be more likely to leave a review of their stay at a hotel if they had a “bad” experience, rather than a good one. This is probably true for other businesses and services that allow people to give “reviews”, also.
I’ve stayed at many hotels, used a lot of different services, and done business with a lot of people in my lifetime. The only times that I ever remember leaving a review or saying something online about a business is when I’ve had a bad experience. Maybe it’s a way of “getting back” at a business for not being what I thought they should be. Maybe when I’ve had “really good” experiences, I thought it was just to be expected, and that leaving good feedback or a review for something that I paid for would serve as sort of a “double payment”, or something.
What really got me thinking about this was the fact that since the reviews are out there, there is absolutely nothing that I can do about it. There is no way to prove that what the reviewer said is true. There is also no way to prove that the reviewer had actually ever even been a guest (or customer). There is also no way to get rid of reviews (good or bad) that are so out of date that they don’t even apply, anymore.
Do the negative comments for a hotel come from truly unhappy guests? Most likely, yes. Like I said, I would be more apt to leave a review if I had a bad experience, myself. Do the positive comments come from truly “happy” guests? That’s hard to say. It seems a lot less likely. There is a possibility of “shill” hotel reviews, I’m sure.
I will say that since I work at the front desk of a hotel, I hear from guests “all the time”. As in any business, there are complaints and compliments. Taking care of the problems is a big part of any job. Not all of the problems can be handled the way that the customers “thinks” they should be handled. Taking the compliments for something that I had little or no part in happens a lot, though, also. We do get thank you notes from people who have stayed at the hotel, but I may have never seen or talked to them, personally.
Have you ever left a “good” review of a business, just for the purpose of leaving a good review?
Watching this map makes me feel lucky that I’m in one of the few counties that is still “yellow”, and I still have a job, but to see that it’s coming this way is disheartening. The data on this map (at this time) has only been updated through December 2009, when the unemployment rate was 9.3%. We all know that it’s went up, since then.
To know that there seems to be no real economists involved in making any decisions about how to recover from this makes me doubt that we will recover… at least for quite a long time.
Does anybody involved in making decisions about the economy actually know their history? I guess that they decided to skip the 1920-1940 years, since we learned that throwing money at the problem just prolonged the suffering, back then. Not only are they throwing money at a problem that they shouldn’t… they’re throwing it in all the wrong places. Top-down is not the way to fix this and stimulate the economy. This needs a bottom-up fix… something I haven’t seen anybody mention. Comment or Talk
You would think that CNET would know the difference between Steve Ballmer and Steve Jobs. I caught this screenshot, before they actually fixed the problem with the captions on this story.
I’m not judging, but it looks to me like Ina Fried has a lot of confusion in her/his life. It seems to be affecting him/her, or something. Focus!
