PSoTD

BTW, the PSoTD.com domain expires as of March 2nd, 2009. If you for some reason want it, probably just easiest to let me know and I can set up a transfer before that occurs. The main value to a blogger would be the redirect that can be made so that the 350 or so views each day would be to your site, rather than to an empty domain.

And I'd rather let someone from the blogroll take it than to have it scavenged by ordinary domain traffic speculators.

Another one of those sites I bookmarked at one time, this one about epublishing.

Very strange. I use Comcast's cable internet service, have for years, the past few days I cannot get to Gmail, Coolcart.net, Google News, etc. Times out every time. Coolcart.net is apparently up the whole time, I'm sure the Google services are as well, so my problem apparently is through my connectivity, either here at the house or through Comcast. Anyone else having any issues with Comcast like this?

Very strange. I powercycled my modem and it fixed the problem. I had powercycled the router a couple of times and there was no difference. Weird.

Very, very soon.

Mostly due to an acceptance of what this blog can and will be able to accomplish, and how poorly that fits into my interests and needs at this point in time. It is what it is, and that was enough. There's still a bit of string to be unwound, but like a yoyo, it may be surprising how quickly it runs out.

Still, there's loose ends to take care of, sites I've bookmarked that are worth a mention, etc., so here's a bit more string.

Seriously, I think it's questionable that the management that made this decision should should be even in charge of their own excrement. What a bunch of fools, ruining their future toy market for fifty cents a unit.

Remember last week's story about Jason Johnson, the Illinois man who sued Microsoft over his Xbox 360's alleged habit of scratching his game DVDs?

Documents unsealed in his court case revealed Microsoft discovered its Xbox 360 could scratch discs before it went on sale in 2005, and even got as far as considering three possible solutions to the problem, the Seattle Tech Report revealed today.

The characteristic circular scratches can occur whenever the orientation of the console -- which is designed to be used in either a horizontal or vertical position -- is changed while the drive is spinning. Johnson filed his suit after his console scratched three store-bought game discs, and is seeking $50,000 in punitive damages.

Testimony obtained from a Microsoft program manager indicates that Microsoft became aware of the problem months before the 360's launch when retail demonstration consoles malfunctioned. The company examined three solutions: strengthening the magnets that hold the discs in place, slowing the rotational speed of the discs, and installing rubber bumpers to cushion the discs, but rejected them all. Installing the bumpers could have cost as little as $0.50 per console, the suit claims.

Jackasses.

I wonder what the job market is doing to their revenues... I see that both are now going to advertise in next year's Super Bowl.

Based on the amount of spam I'm getting on Gmail, I'd say that the reduction of crapmail that happened a few weeks ago, when authorities cut off some of the heaviest servers sending it, is over with a vengeance.

I'm just going through old software services that I've bookmarked but never used, and am clearing the decks. From time to time I'll post a query about them. So here is today's: Has anyone used Discuss This, the discussion email list service?

I'm not sure how useful it is, but searchCrystal provides interesting results for image searches.

I Twitter. And it's amazing stuff, if, when I write amazing, you immediately think of ordinary.

There's no there there.

Well, a scanner that works. I do have an HP scanner, but haven't used it in two computer upgrades, for two reasons:

The connecting serial cable didn't have a port of the right pin/size on the upgrades; and

I rarely need to use a scanner in the first place.

But, occasion came this week that maybe I could use a scanner, and I looked to find a converter so that I could plug this bad boy cable into a USB port.

HA HA HA.

Went to 4 stores, nobody had the proper plug converter. "It's rare", "I can't find one in our computer", and the very comforting "it might be easier to buy a new scanner or a printer with a scanner" were a common theme.

I have found a workaround for my lack-of-scanner situation this week and am not going to worry about this cable any more. I wish I had thought of it before driving to to all these stores, but I mindlessly thought this converter would be easy.

And we do want to get a new printer at some point, one with wireless linkup so we can print from the laptop as well, so when that time comes, I'll look for one that also has a scanner. Forget that old HP scanner.

I noticed a few days ago that my catch-all email address, which is generally where almost all of my spam goes but requires checking every few days because some legitimate form e-mail, such as invoices, sometimes get routed there, was down considerably in volume. I was concerned, because my experience has been that this usually happens when a spamfilter has been adjusted, and adjusted poorly by an ISP to be way too aggressive and screening out too wide of a range of email.

I feel better today, because I don't seem to be missing anything legitimate - it's just that apparently a VERY MAJOR SPAMMER has been disconnected, at least for now. It has cut my spam volume from about 1500 messages a day to around 800.

THANK YOU.

QUIT CALLING US ABOUT FIOS!!!!!!! WE SAID NO!!!!!

Okay, I'll try not to be that gullible again.

I did not know that people can schedule their tweet messages.

Real life, on the map.

Funny. We have the red ring of death for the XBox we bought last Christmas, and I contacted Microsoft and they're going to fix it, and they send out a box to use as packaging to send it in. No Microsoft or XBox markings on the box, just a plain, white box.

I go into the local UPS Store, and the lady behind the counter asks, "That an XBox?"

Yes, I said - how did she know?

"Oh, we get them all the time," she answered. Turns out ours was the third one being sent back today.

And I thought - it sure would be interesting if some UPS Store employee somewhere shared that kind of information in their blog.

Ugh, what a waste of time that was. I loaded IE8 Beta on my computer yesterday, and then later yesterday I couldn't open my McAfee screen to check the status of updates. I tried to deleting and reinstalling McAfee, it didn't help. Finally, I ran across this nugget on a Tech Support Forum:

I am currently using Mcafee ver. 10.0.21 and have not been able to see anything in the Security Center window. I have tried uninstalling and reinstalling but got the same problem.

...

Further down on the page, I find this:

I had the exact problem you did. After reading your thread as well as many others, I remembered I had installed Internet Explorer 7 Beta 2. I was also experiencing computer slowdown, slow booting and non recognition of external hard drive at boot up. I removed through the Control Panel IE 7.0 Beta 2, which went smoothly and was replaced by IE 6.0. As a result I now have all those problems solved and can read the Mcafee Security Window. Short Answer- remove IE 7.0 Beta 2.

Now the versions of everything is different, but I figured, if Microsoft caused the problem in an earlier IE Beta version, why not again? So, I delete the IE Beta version, rebooted, and wala... McAfee shows up again.

What a waste of time.

Color me unimpressed. I just realized that Sprint, which promised me a tech call back on October 22nd within two days, still hasn't called back. I guess I have to call back.

I think our Xbox should have been immune.

Apparently Sprint sold off most of their cell towers back in the summer.

The flagging carrier sold off "nearly all" (around 3,300) of its wireless communication towers to TowerCo for some $670 million in cash. According to Sprint Nextel's Bob Azzi, the move to lease rather than own these network facilities will enable it to "better focus on its core business of providing communications services to consumers, businesses and government customers." He continued by noting that the transaction "provides Sprint Nextel with additional liquidity [for] greater flexibility in managing the company."

Wonder why Sprint hasn't called back to explain my Sprint signal problem here at the house when our Nextel phones get great signal... 48 hour return call, BS.

I may have the most boring Twitter stream ever.

Nobody's safe.

In a sign that cybercrime can reach even heads of state, French police are scrambling to investigate the hacking of French president Nicolas Sarkozy's personal bank account.

According to reports, Sarkozy called police in September after he noticed small amounts of money had been disappearing from his account. The story first surfaced yesterday in a report by the Journal du Dimanche.

The French consulate in San Francisco did not respond to requests for comment by press time. The U.K. Daily Telegraph quoted Sarkozy's office as saying a prosecutor is investigating, together with fraud squad officers.

My wife and I have Nextel cell phones, and they work fine at home with strong signal. Sprint bought Nextel earlier in the year. Our daughter's birthday being yesterday, we decided to get her a cell phone, and added her to our service, which is now Sprint-Nextel. Weird thing: she's on our service, but her signal strength is VERY weak at home, hovering between zero and one bar. My wife and I have full bars on our Nextel phones at home. What's up with that? Is it possible that even though Sprint and Nextel are one company now, that service to our house comes from different towers?

Just curious: with $368,895 in "html earnings" in the past six months, when 1753 html jobs have been posted in just the last 30 days, sounds like there's not much money available through this job site. So who's doing these jobs?

Anyone have an opinion on this mass email delivery software?

Somebody else wonders how it can survive without a revenue model.

Well, I guess this is why I can't successfully order our train tickets in Italy online. Not such an interconnected world after all...

I dunno, who'd be dumb enough to do this...

I am looking for someone to partner with to develope a cutting edge website for my company. They must have experience with advertising and money making end of the business as well as design. The site will be a great oppritunity to make some extra cash and add a fabulous site to there portfolio. Looking for a young energetic entrepreneur to partner with on this venture.

Thank you to all the 500,000 plus visitors who have stumbled briefly upon PSoTD since I put Sitemeter on. This graphic of Turkish money is for you. See how much effort I put into this? Sometime last night, we clicked beyond half a mill.

Apparently we're just at the surface. Blog flotsam...

Blog Strength Score: 32%

Is there a reason to use this over Google? I haven't figured it out if there is.

I wonder what the policy is for Flickr/Yahoo! for images posted to their site by eventual lapsed - and unidentifiable - and unclaimed - accounts. Let's say that for ten years I don't touch my account, I let my email address lapse, and I don't take my photos down. Are they still mine? Are they Yahoo's, to use as they please? What's the policy? What's the law? I'm just curious.

After Comcast spends over a day being offline in my area, limited to a very small area. Ugh.