Belligerent Bully

"My way or the highway!"

I drove to Mount Rushmore yesterday and found the entrance blocked.

But in case any WWII vets showed up, two guys were standing guard to stop them from just moving the barricades like they did in Washington, DC.

It doesn't pass financial muster. For at least 400 National Parks, the Federal Government loses a revenue stream they normally receive from the park being open. It is actually costlier to close the park. Thus, it not for a lack of money the park is closed.

Where does the motivation come from to close the park? It comes from a page straight out of the play book of oppressive dictators - punish your opponents. Teach them a lesson they won't forget; make an example for anyone inclined to reel in a government that increasingly spends more money than it has.

Hmmm... What may have Obama learned from the Syrian dictator? Granted, closing a national park cannot be compared to the killing innocent women and children as a means to curb dissent. But the park closing methodology is the same - aggressively punish those that disagree with you rather than finding a way to address their concerns.

But wait! Obama has threatened the life of innocent persons... The road shoulder near Mount Rushmore as been barricaded anywhere someone might pull over to snap a picture of the presidents at a distance.

If someone has the misfortune of a flat tire, they are forced to change it in the middle of the highway - how dangerous is that!

Obama has indicated that if Congress does not raise the debt ceiling, the nation will default on their debt with dire consequences. That is not reasonable. The interest of the debt is only a portion of the budget, and much less than the Federal Government's revenue. The only way the government would default on the debt is if they paid that bill last. It would simply be another punitive response; political blackmail.

Sounds like childhood bullying to me.

WHERE IS HECTOR

Can you find Hector Fanandez?

I have his email address (itcincop1@gmail.com), but I have no idea of his whereabouts. Jamaica, perhaps?

I had advertised a stove for sale on Craigslist, and Hector immediately replied that he wanted to buy it. Except that he is “not in town” now because he is visiting his son. But he was glad to send me a check for the stove, and some shipping, and some extra money for my troubles. He said he was a God fearing man. He obviously does not fear the God I know!

He sent me a check USPS Priority Mail for $2355.00. Yes, $2355 for a used stove! He then wanted me to go to Wal-Mart and send the extra money via MoneyGram to a "shipper." Interestingly, the shipper’s name was also Hector, and he supposedly lives at a Wal-Mart store in Maryland – at least his address was that of a Wal-Mart store!

I thought that having a USPS tracking number for the mailed check would let authorities track down this scammer. I also thought that his accomplice could be caught trying to pick up the MoneyGram. I learned that neither is true.

It turns out that a MoneyGram can be picked up from any location, and the place you allegedly send it to is immaterial. All the scammer needs to know to seize his stolen money is the MoneyGram reference number, the amount, and the sender’s name/address.

I was also told that the guy who mailed me the check was likely scammed, and not aware of his true role. He probably answered a ‘work from home’ solicitation, and was spending his own money to print and mail checks! Hector likely emailed him the software that printed the checks, and promised he would be paid later for his work of paying company bills. Not!

In case you are wondering, the bank name on my phony check was that of an actual bank in Kentucky. And the company name on the check was that of an actual company in Kentucky. So even if the ‘work from home’ guy looked up the company and/or bank on the Internet, he would have found their websites. To actually determine it was a scam, he would have needed to actually have contacted the bank and/or company. Or gotten a clue from Hector’s really poor grammar…

So I would not be assessed bank charges for a phony check, I did not attempt to cash it. I had played along as far as I was willing to go! But I am keeping my check in my museum of computing history. And I turned in all the info to the office of the Attorney General, in the hope he can find Hector.

SOMETHING TO FEAR

Proof that the government is spying on all its citizens has finally made the headlines. This activity has been surmised for quite some time; it was self-evident by NSA's construction of a huge $2,000,000,000.00 data center in Bluffdale, Utah. The humongous size of that facility cannot be explained except for the storage demands domestic spying requires.

 

The information leak making headlines was a subpoena for all Verizon customer phone records. But rest assured Verizon is not the only telecom served with this type of subpoena – they all have been. In fact, Apple was taken to task some time ago because the data it provided did not positively identify the person associated with the data. The bottom line is that all our phone calls, text messages, emails, and web browsing is being stored by the government. But the extent of this surveillance is undisclosed because the action is kept secret by court gag orders.

 

I read posts on the Internet from people who are not concerned. Their take on the matter is that they have nothing to hide, so this ‘big brother’ activity does not alarm them in the least.

 

The people who are not concerned by this are lacking common sense. If the IRS is exercising widespread viewpoint discrimination in the application of their policies, what makes anyone think other areas of government are not doing the same? If persons in the military are now having their careers curtailed because they post on a blog that they perceive children do better with both a mom and a dad, what makes anyone think that the expression of any viewpoint will be free of punitive action by a person in power that disagrees?

 

Let’s face it. Catholics are taking a beating from the government because certain provisions of ObamaCare violate their longstanding sincerely held religious beliefs. Rest assured that their communications on that issue are being scrutinized by the government. They are given the same level of attention as any "domestic terrorist" – a term that has been used to characterize them.

 

I am not a Catholic. So none of this should trouble me in the least. WRONG! Catholicism has been a major world religion for some time. If they are being targeted by the government for their popular longstanding viewpoints, any viewpoint is now a candidate for harassment by the heavy hand of government. One would think that Catholics have ‘nothing to hide’ and therefore should have no concerns that ‘big brother’ is watching. But that simply is not the case anymore, as indicated by leaks of what is really going on in various government agencies.

 

When you express any opinion that goes counter to that of someone in a position of power, unless you do it in person privately (and they do not share it), chances are good that person in power will discover it and use the full power of their governmental agency to make your life miserable.

 

So, what we suspected for some time is now documented: Our cherished “Freedom of Speech” has been extinguished at the NSA facility in Bluffdale, Utah. And the IRS will make you pay.

 

TRAIN WRECK #2

I used to be happy with HP.

They sold reliable products that got the job done for a fair price.

But I am now convinced they are trying as hard as possible to go out of business.

At first, I thought the problems I was running into with HP were just anomalies that happen with every business. For example, just before the warranty expired, I had an external media drive begin to make grinding noises. I sent it in, but HP sent it back ‘no-problem-found’. When the drive failed a little more than a month later, I called them again. But they refused to cover the drive because it was now out of warranty, even though the problem had been brought to their attention within the warranty period.

A more sinister issue involved my laptop battery. When I purchased my HP laptop, I purchased a special ‘long-life’ battery which had a three year warranty. (Previously, my lithium-ion batteries have only lasted about two years – so paying for a three year warranty seemed like a no brainer.) Sure enough, the special high priced battery did not last much longer than a regular battery. But when I called HP, they claimed they had never ever sold a laptop battery with a three year warranty, and that I was mistaken. Before they would actually honor their warranty, in addition to my purchase receipt, I had to provide them a link to the actual battery on their own website, with the three year warranty spelled out.

I also had the crazy experience of buying an HP TouchPad. Inexplicably, HP discontinued that product approximately a month after announcing it with great fanfare. I ultimately got it for the price of a picture viewer, but one has to wonder why a company would go to the expense of designing and marketing a product only to kill it days after putting it on the market.

My latest eye rolling HP interaction relates to ordering a new PC. They took my order for a custom PC, and informed me it would arrive in 1-2 weeks. Then they emailed me to tell me they can’t sell me the configuration they proposed and that I had ordered. I had ordered it with Windows 7, and an upgrade to Windows 8 (through HP, the upgrade was a couple $$ cheaper than going through Microsoft). Inexplicably, they claimed they couldn't sell me a factory restoration CD for Windows 7 because I had also ordered the Windows 8 upgrade. They also claimed they couldn't sell me application software designed for Windows 7 because I had also ordered the Windows 8 upgrade. I asked them how I was supposed to make the installed Windows 7 work without these items, but got nowhere.

But my new HP PC order turned even more bizarre. I received numerous email notifications saying my credit card had been denied. Each of these was followed minutes later by another email saying my credit card was accepted. (There never was an actual problem with my card.) I also got emails every few days saying my order was ready to go except that one item was back-ordered. Each time, it was a different item allegedly holding up my order. Their excuses ranged from no web cam, to no Fire Wire card, to no VGA cable, to no Office software, to no video card. It has been well over a month, and I still have no PC. And they tell me it will be weeks before they expect to have all the parts available to ship it.

The bottom line is they have left this customer shaking his head numerous times in the last two years. And I doubt I am the only one.

TRAIN WRECK #1

Have you tried Windows 8? Have you read about it?

I have. My response: “What were they thinking?!”

Well, I have an idea what they were thinking… They have been saying for years they want Windows everywhere –  not just on computers, but on appliances too. I suspect that while chasing that mentality, they tried to make Windows 8 fit phones, tablets, and PCs.

And it gives users fits because one size does not fit all. Windows 8 is the equivalent of a single vehicle being billed as a truck, bus, and car.

The folks in Redmond could use a reality check. Windows Phones are used for different purposes than Windows desktop PCs. A Windows desktop PC is a productivity tool. But Windows 8 thwarts many attempts at being productive, due to its focus on communication.

Windows ambassadors point out that Windows 8 has a desktop mode. Well, admittedly, desktop mode does allow some multitasking. But it comes up woefully short compared to Windows 7. Let me explain…

Want to run a second program? Well, you have to exit desktop mode and find the program shortcut hiding amongst unrelated programs on the Windows 8 program screen haystack. You then click it, and then click again to go back to desktop mode. Four trips across the screen with your mouse.  Do you want certain programs to automatically run when you log on? I wish you luck trying to figure out how to make that happen!

In fact, I wish you lots of luck trying to figure out how to accomplish many things in Windows 8…

For example, suppose you were one of those people who took Microsoft up on the limited time offer of Windows Media Center for free. Microsoft would have sent you an email spelling out six steps you need to take. However, the moment you do step 1, the remaining steps are no longer visible – including the 25 character product key you need to enter. There is simply no way to have the six steps visible on the left side of your screen while you perform them in a window on the right side of the screen. You must either resort to getting out pen and paper to write down the steps, or print them out.

There are numerous scenarios as frustrating as the example in the previous paragraph… I initially thought Microsoft must have done little user testing of Windows 8. But the more I use Windows 8, the more convinced I've become that they must have done extensive user testing. And as soon as they observed someone ascertaining how to be productive in Windows 8, they went back and modified the code. That’s the only explanation I can come up with.