Jerry's Thoughts, Musings, and Rants!

Facebook

Recently there has been a good deal of press about facebook . . . a young lady in the Philippines was banned from her graduation ceremony for posting a picture of herself dressed provocatively and with a drink . . . a job seeking in the US was told be wouldn't be considered for the position unless he passed over his facebook password so his prospective employer could see his online presence.

I'm not too worried if anyone wants to see my online presence . . . but these people should be!

There are times when I really, really, really worry about the future of the human race!

What is Next With Technology?

There are times I fear I have become a luddite.

I used to be an adapter - new things came on the market and I jumped at them. I was already for the next big thing.

Now I can't figure out how to use last week's next big thing let alone contemplate the digital tool of today!

Today two snippets of news made me wonder where this is all going . . .

It sounds like something out of a science fiction novel, but the New York Times is reporting that Google is developing a pair of electronic glasses that can stream information directly to the eyes of its user in real time, via a heads-up display. Everything can be streamed from the glasses directly to the web in real time.

Great. I am never going to the change room again!

Then came the news of a new facebook app developed by an Israeli company that will allow facebook to announce your own death when it happens. It is bad enough that I have learned about relatives dying by a facebook post but my own death????

This free new Facebook app called If I Die allows users to pass along a written post, a video or both after their physical bodies have slipped the bonds of Earth.

The posts are not immediate; Facebook isn’t that plugged in to us – yet. Instead, your pre-programmed announcement hits your wall after three designated Facebook friends have confirmed that you have indeed gone on.

The set up for If I Die has three steps: downloading the app to your Facebook profile, creating a text or video messages, and picking which three of your Facebook friends will act as “trustees.”

The app’s website says the posthumous communiques might include “your life story, a secret you haven’t shared before or even a will.”

Clearly the app has no idea of who I am. Should I everavail myself of the 'If I Die' app you can bet that my final comments will be the tirade of certain individuals that I have more or less kept in check for years awaiting the large lottery win and a live microphone in front of 100s of people.

But really, who needs glasses that stream everything you're seeing onto the web or the web into your brain? Who really needs to control the message that will be send out on facebook, of all things, upon their death.

Wouldn't it be a blast if all of the research and development cash that goes into creating these things went into something useful . . . like a cure cancer . . . new food sources . . . or the secret appeal of Stephen Harper?

Harper's Latest Crime Bill

It's been a strange day here in the frozen north.

It started when I read a column by Globe and Mail columnist Margaret Wente - for likely the first time in history I agreed with her. Had it not been for a staff meeting at the office I might have stayed home and rested in a dark, quiet room all day.

A furor has arisen over the Harper Conservative's latest crime Bill -  the Protecting Children From Internet Predators Act. As Wente points out it really should be called Licence to Snoop Law. That’s because the bill would give police the power to acquire detailed information about who you are online, without answering to anyone about why.

I suppose if the police were models of virtue and never abused their legal authority it would be all well and good; they'd only be searching out bad guys and gals. Well kids, I hate to break it to you but there are loads of examples where police acted improperly for their own self-interest. I don't want the police being able to view my e-mails, internet usage data, etc with unfettered access.

As with everything Harper does the timing is off just a smidge. Harper, tough on crime, rammed through legislation banning the gun registry since it was an unnecessary intrusion into the lives of innocent Canadians.

Legislation allowing authorities to access all of your private internet actions whenever, wherever, without any oversight apparently is just fine.

Of course the government has introduced this bill with their usual divisive and hamfisted manner. The other in Parliament the Justice Minister Toews declared that 'you're with the government or you're with the child pornographers' when questioned about the bill. He has come to regret accusing all those who oppose the bill child pornographers.

With their usual creativity, anonomyous Canadians have taken to the internet to protest the bill. A new twitter account was created and it's been streaminginformation about Toews non-stop for days. Sordid information - cheating on his wife, a love child, convictions, expense accounts, and on and on. This sharing of private information about elected officials is not normal here in the land of the frozen tundra.

Then some wag started a new hashtag #TellVicEverything and invited Canadians to tweet inane posts since Vic thought our lives should be an open book to the authorities . . .

The subversive logic of the protest runs like this.

If Vic Toews wants to know everything about us, perhaps we should just tell him.

All day long, Canadians coast to coast have been tweeting Toews ‘s own Twitter account with the most banal, mundane details of their lives.

Here is a sample of some tweets:

That cashew I lost this morning turned up in my bra. It smelled like perfume, but I still ate it. @toewsvic #tellviceverything

Hey @toewsvic, I used black beans even though the recipe called for kidney beans. #tellviceverything

Hey, @ToewsVic, ovulating. #TellVicEverything

@ToewsVic Why do I always get stuck changing the toilet paper? #TellVicEverything

I just saved a bunch of money on car insurance by switching to Geico. #TellVicEverything

.@ToewsVic My puppy pees when she's excited and now my husband has to change his pants. We're going to be late for band! #TellVicEverything

@toewsvic Always assume a 3 year old licked the cookie dough when buying bake sale goodies #TellVicEverything

I could post more but it is the number on trending hash tag in Canada right now - more than 1000 tweets popped up while I was writing this post.

I hate bullies and love Canadians who are standing up to these pinheads.

There are Times I Wish Y2K Had Worked.

Remember how technology was supposed to make life easier for us? We'd all have oodles of free time to lounge about the beach sipping a drink and enjoying the sun.

How is that working out for you?

There are times technology makes me so wildly angry that I want to practice primal scream therapy.

Today was a fine example of this.

I arrived home to a notice from UPS on my door, informing me that they had tried to deliver a package but I wasn't home - funny that someone might actually be at work during the day trying to make a living. The note also informed me that I owed $ 86 in brokerage fees.

This got my blood boiling.

I called the number on the back of the notice. Alovely, calm electronic voice answered and asked me for the 9 digit number on the form. I said the number. I was asked to repeat the number since the voice activated PC didn't quite get the number. I repeated the number F.I.V.E. times before the PC got it.

The next menu offered 6 lengthy choices to select. I wanted none of those choices. I started mumbling about how I wanted to speak to a human.

The PC picked up the mumbling and took it as a request to go through all six options again.

Rage started bubbling within.

I tried pushing 0. The computer hung up on me.

I want through the whole process again. This time I kept yelling 'human. I want to talk to a human' into the phone.

After 2 minutes of this the PC apparenly got tired of it and said 'I'll connect you with an operator'.

I thought there'd be a person right away.

Noooooooooo.

I had to listen to a long story about what I could do to try and solve the issue myself. I like solving problems myself. I don't call unless I need help. Having tried all of those things suggested I was calling as a last resort. Calling was filling me with rage.

By now I was mumbling 'operator' over and over again.

Finally I got put through to a person who was clearly not employed in North America. I'm not racist, really I am not, but if you are assisting folks in English is it too much to expect that you can actually speak the language?

In the end the person at the other end of the phone told me what I already knew - they had tried to deliver and there was a brokerage fee. This is where I snapped a titch. You see, last week I had called the UPS brokerage and provided them with my Credit Card information, they were to calculate whatever duty was owed and just charge it. I also made arrangements to just have the package delivered - no signature, no notices, no fuss.

The person at the other end said 'I'll check your file.'

Sure enough all of that was on record. So UPS clearly screwed up and was causing me grief.

What was the solution proposed? Let me transfer you to the brokerage compay and they can help you.

I was trying hard not to be enraged. It wasn't this person's fault that I was angry; they hadn't caused the screw up. It was so hard not to throw the phone. I think if it hadn't been for the 15 minutes of frustration trying to actually get to a person I might have been able to hold out for that transfer.

As it was I barked into the phone and hung up.

Remember when you used to call someone in your community and they could actually assist you? Now we get computers with a limited ability to think on their feet - being a hunk of electronics. We get long lists of options and frustration when what we need fitsnone of them. Perhaps there are millions of folks out there who call with trivial things and it makes perfect sense for the company to have a computer force the calling customer to do everything that they can to solve their own problem. I don't buy that.

Not at all.

We have companies making millions of dollars. Actually, UPS made $ 1.06 billion US last year - I know because in my enraged state I checked. They make this profit by getting rid of as many people as possible and then outsourcing jobs to lower earning countries. The result is a decidedly unsatisfactory experience for ME!

Bring back the people UPS! I want a person and I want to reach them quickly so I can get help with a limited number of clicks, transfers, and garbled computers.

One Reason Why I Am Not Chuffed About Returning to the Office

Generally returning to the office in the new year means a new password for my PC which I shall never remember!!!

ARGH

Santa Finds Facebook

A friend of mine sent this to me the other day - I had to smile. . . . and share with you!

Ouch - poor Santa. It's hard when you log into facebook and find out what your 'friends' are really saying about you!

25 Most Commonly Hacked Passwords

This list was 'making the rounds' in the office yesterday.

Internet security firm SplashData trolled through millions of stolen passwords posted in online hacker forums, according to CEO Morgan Slain, and compiled a list of the 25 most-stolen ciphers.

“Hackers,” Mr. Slain said in a release, “can easily break into many accounts just by repeatedly trying common passwords. Even though people are encouraged to select secure, strong passwords, many people continue to choose weak, easy-to-guess ones, placing themselves at risk from fraud and identity theft.” Mr. Slain said.

If you have a password that is short or common or a word in the dictionary, it's like leaving your door open.”

1. password
2. 123456
3. 12345678
4. qwerty
5. abc123
6. monkey
7. 1234567
8. letmein
9. trustno1
10. dragon
11. baseball
12. 111111
13. iloveyou
14. master
15. sunshine
16. ashley
17. bailey
18. passw0rd
19. shadow
20. 123123
21. 654321
22. superman
23. qazwsx
24. michael
25. football

SplashData provides software to help you manage multiple passwords and accounts, but even if you don’t want to go that route here are their tips for password strengthening:

“Use passwords of eight characters or more with mixed types of characters. One way to create longer, more secure passwords that are easy to remember is to use short words with spaces or other characters separating them. For example, ‘eat cake at 8!’ or ‘car_park_city?’ “

“Avoid using the same username/password combination for multiple websites. Especially risky is using the same password for entertainment sites that you do for online email, social networking, and financial services. Use different passwords for each new website or service you sign up for.”

Breaking Up in the Era of Social Media

Like the rest of the world I read about the demise of the marriage between Aston Kutcher and Demi Moore and thought - who cares?

It does say something about our world. Gone are the days when one calls close friends with the news of a new milestone in life - good or bad.

It was a marriage so entwined with Twitter; it was only fitting that when Demi Moore announced Thursday her marriage to Ashton Kutcher was over, the social media site lit up and the couple became a trending topic.

First up, the sign that the break-up was real? Ahston's following list.

“Demi and Ashton have confirmed it’s over by unfollowing each other.”

Dear lord.

Move on to things that really matter folks.

A New Cooking Blog Project . . .

Yes, here we go again.

I recall swearing off food blog projects after finishing working my way through 'The Essentials of Italian Cooking' in the spring. It takes steely discipline to cook and blog week in and week out as you work through a cook book. Imagine my happiness when Deborah contacted me to see if I wanted to join her for another walk through fire and thorns.

To make this blog challenge even more appealing - we had to create our own recipes. ARGH

Sign me up.  

The more I thought about it through the more interesting it seemed. The book we were to use as our guide is called The Flavor (sorry Brits and Canadians - those colonists and their refusal to use the Queen's proper English) Bible by Karen Page and Andrew Dornenburg.

The Flavor Bible reads like a dictionary. An alphabetical list of ingredients is accompanied by very few photos and fewer entire sentences. What remains is several categories of information for you to launch into your own creativity and desire. Most ingredients list:

• Season
• Taste
• Botanical Relatives
• Weight, volume (descriptions not measurements – i.e. heavy, light)
• Tips
• A list of ingredients to pair it with (strong pairings are indicated in bold and all caps)
• Flavour affinities (recipes without measurements – highlights combos of other flavours that come together with this ingredient

Now this started to sound exciting. I've always wanted to learn more about why some foods just seem to work in combination and others didn't. Now, courtesy of Deborah, I'd have a chance to discover and play with this myself.

The challenge works like this - 52 flavors were selected - one for each week of the upcoming year. The seven Flavor Bloggers had to develop a recipe that uses some of the compatible ingredients in it and post it on 'their' day. My day is Saturday.

I am interested to see what the participants come up with - for the first week the key ingredient was plums. So far there are recipes for a plum tart, plum filled steamed buns, a plum salad, salmon with plum relish,  plum flatbread, and a plum clafoutis. Such great variety!

You can follow long on the Flavor Blog as we work our way through the next year.

Avoiding a Smartphone Data Shock

 I have never had a cell phone for my own personal use - my employers have allowed me to use the work phone because they expect me to be working 24/7 (which can present its own set of challenges as you can imagine). Because of this I don't really think about cell phone charges or data usage. Lately there have been a raft of tales of Canadian tourists and business folks returning home to a bill of hundreds or thousands of dollars for their roaming fees.

Unlike in the rest of the world this is an unregulated industry in Canada. In fact, Canada has been found to have the highest such fees in the world.

To summarize - we are being gouged.

Now on another note - I am a tad cranky by these folks ranting in the media about the bills. You'd have to live under a rock to not know that you are being taken advantage of if you don't have a roaming plan and you use your phones data capabilities while roaming on another network. I am lacking in sympathy. Yes, lacking.

However, the point of this post is not to rail against stupid people who get into trouble and them cry in the media expecting a break for their stupidity. I will leave that to others. Or until tomorrow.

This post IS about saving you money. Look at me, economical Jerry (hmm . . .can hardly spell that word let alone contemplate the concept).

Anyway. If you want to save money consider these tips.

1. Wireless companies lock handsets to prevent you from removing the portable memory chip (known as the SIM card) when you travel and replacing it with a low-cost, local SIM card. if you can get an unlocked phone getting a local SIM card (I do this whenever we go to Italy) this is a smart move. Often supposedly locked phones can be unlocked although to be honest I don't know if this is legal or not.
2. Before taking a smartphone on holiday, call your wireless carrier and ask for tips on keeping your costs down. Record the date, time of your call, and the name of the person you spoke to. I know of two people who have gotten bad advice - however when they challenged this and provided detailed information about their calls the charges were dropped.
3. Turn off your data settings and turn on your Wi-Fi. This lets you connect to the Internet free through wireless networks in “hot spots,” such as cafés, bookstores and university campuses.
4. Buy a data roaming package if you can’t use Wi-Fi or you want your device to be on all the time.
5. Finally, call to complain about surprise data roaming charges on your bills when you get home. Ask the carrier to reduce them. I am amazed at how many of these charges get dropped - it makes me wonder why we don't all rant and rave about ALL charges if the companies are so ready to cut 'em back.

Better yet - do you really need a smart phone?

Go on vacation and enjoy yourself!