Spammers' Spamming was Clogging the Blogging

I will repost my one-word movie titles tomorrow. The problem of Spammers attacking blogger.com is now fixed (for good?).

I have a suggestion - all blogger.com accounts (old and new) should be forced into "Word Verification = ON" by default.

Roxio is the Happy Tree Friend of CD Burning Software Companies

Dear you@your.domain,

As a valued Roxio software owner, we would like to inform you that Easy CD Creator and Easy CD & DVD Creator is no longer supported by Roxio.

This means that we will not be releasing any new bug fixes (including support for new optical drives) and will not provide any phone or webticket support for these versions.

Our system shows that you have registered at least one of these products. If you own either product, you are eligible for special pricing on the latest supported version.

We recently introduced the latest version of the above software, Easy Media Creator 9 Suite.

To learn more about this new upgrade, please visit: www.roxio.com/creatorupgrade

-----------------------

ANYONE who was surprised by this should curl up in a little ball and fade away. Just as Roxio will.

-----------------------

Who is taking over Easy?

One word Movie Titles of Movies that EXIST and You Have Sat Through 'til Fini - or NOT NEVER !

Some fool I know got me hooked - DAMN YOU, STEVENS!

The rules now are:

1. One word (no articles; a, an, or the in front of the title - not allowed to qualify)
2. If the movie is not in general release, provide a link to it's site or MSN Movies (etc.) or iMDB
3. Try and honor the game: Think of the movie first, THEN check it for spelling / article usage on iMDB
4. Numbers SHOULD count; ie 2001, 1984 (even if alternate spelling of numbers don't count - an exception would be the movie "Thirteen" which is not known in publicity as "13", although "66" would count, as Route 66: as the remake became known, but "Route 66": the original movie made BEFORE the 60's TV show of the same name, would not count as a one-word title.
5. One word titles can count twice if there is a known or Euro-release title that is ALSO one word. In addition, I think we should count as good, titles like: Batman and Batman - counts once for the TV show spoof feature length movie and again for the newer comic-book-styled version.
6. One-word titles that contain two words should count as a one word title: "Scarface", "Slapshot", etc.
7. We should allow the inclusion of any stage play or stage Musical to count as a movie if it actually was made into a feature, rather than counting an old BBC taping or filming of actors on the stage in a play.
8. one-word titled documentaries should count (but only if it is the release t itle, not the working title
9. Published titles of one-worded Movie titles in production, as long as you are reasonably certain that title is NOT only the working title.
10. To add fairness, I have indicated in the title that we should have actually taken the time to VIEW the movie! (pls indicate when you have NOT seen it by typing NOT next to the title. This could also mean that you simply would never want to watch it!)

I have created another game called: One-word Movie TItles of Movies that never existed, as far as you know, but SHOULD be made! You must include some sort of treament or description or casting suggestions - just to make it more fun. If you ae a member of the Writers Guild, do not attempt such a game.

----------------------------
My kick-off; as you add your comments, once they are approved, they will drop into the list on a time-entered priority (when you first submitted, not the time when I get around to approving your comment! That wouldn't be fair.)

The Kick-Off:

Date: Aug 17, 2006 5:54 PM

Single syllable rule?
Now working titles - only rel titles
This took me about half hour - I thought of name of film I have actually seen, then double checked in iMDB to be sure---

The original rules did NOT indicate only one submission per cutomer, so...

2001
Orgazmo (not really a pattern here, I just stuck that in because 2001 makes me horny in a technical sense, and it is a film about a film maker who stars in a XXX-sci-fi flick.)
2010
1945
Aida
Smoke
Whore (starring Theresa Russell)
Evita
Equus
Tap
Brazil
Mafia (B movie, not "The Mafia" - different movie)
Respect
Vegas
Eraser
Thing (The Thing is different movie)
Frogs
Powder
Alfie
Heist (by D. Mamet (NEVER a stage play), often INCORRECTLY listed as The Heitst, but NOT))
TOBOR
Ben
Willard
Flash (Indy 2004)
Godzila
Dracula
Frankenstein
Jack
Junk
Fatso
Poker (any version !)
Jake
Scanners
Preditor
Vampire
Blade
Alien
Aliens
Texas (doc of Rusell Crowe's band, but was rel wide)
Arthur
Excalibur
Thief (w James Caan)
Ghandi



---------
NOT SURE IF THE FOLLOWING QUALIFY:
(But, then if not, Heartbreakers/Spaceballs would not either)

Earthquake
Scarface
Outbreak
Batman
Catwoman
Goldfinger

Rollerball
Stuntman
Flashback (the comedy)
Waterboys (comedy MartArts)
Brainstorm
Cowboy (in production, but is planned release title)



--------------------
Here's a stretch:
P.C.U.
C.H.U.D.
Nikita (in the UK - wouldnt count for the US release title, because that would be "Little Nikita")

------------------END first bout

------------------START second bout

The FOOL says: "You know... I thought of ALL of those... but I think the one I listed is appropriate in reference to the one above it." That fool would be Magoo. What luck you must have. Good for you. Bastard.


THAT was NOT one of the RULES at first. OK, I can play that way. And, besides, somtimes you are my supervisor, oh great wise one!

Rule 11. The name must be - in some way - connected to the name above it.

No. I say , no. That's fine, butI would have to be much more organized to pull that off. No. Not unless someone has an idea to make that work. I could make this a seperate blog so that it could accept comments without approval (spam, spam, spam, spam). Still no. Unless someone else has thought of a way it could be done. Cut & Paste the list so far, and....no, that still would not work. Dammit!

On the other hand, oh wisenhiemer Magoo, I think I could make a case for a certain symetry in my choices, too. Hmmmm. Yes, I see a pattern. HA!

----------------- Original Message -----------------
Date: Aug 17, 2006 8:16 PM

And one more 45 minute sprint (15 minutes if I don't count checking iMBD (had to eliminate one, it wasn't in iMDB)

Cinderella
Dumbo ( I don't mean Dumbo Drop)
Cinderfella
Alladin
Fallen
Herbie! (60s original was longer title)
Pinnochio
Airplane!
Goodfellas
B.A.P.S.
D.E.B.S.
Spy (2006, straight to DVD)
Spawn
Chicago
FAME!
MAME!
Taps
Hotel
Psycho
Tightrope
Cars
Big
Kundun
SHOT (aka Focus, both one!)
Unbreakable (w Willis and Jackson)
Assassins
Sparticus
Hercules
Zardoz
Prime
Benji
Bingo (twice, one for the game and one for the dog!)
Airline (the drama that spawned the spoof, Airplane!)
Shipwreck
Shipwrecked
Stranded
HELP! (the beatles)
Jason (And they got Halloween?)
Punchline
America
Colors
Lolita
Rope
Vertigo
Alfred (about A. Nobel, the prize winning professor)
Scream
Drumline
Baby (3 times !)
Coma
Cujo!
Storm (twice for me)
Volcano
CATS (did I repeat myself)
Mallrats (is actually one word in all credits and releases)
Hostage
Stowaway
Hairspray
Evolution (the comedy)
Underworld (no :Evolution version)
Candyman (The Candyman is another movie NOT by Barker)
Striptease
Entrapment
Se7en (tough call, rule-wise)
Cop (J Woods 1988 or 80)
Silverado
Driven (Reynolds/Stallone)
Bean
Nickelodeon
Moonstruck ('87, never saw the original)
Moonraker
E.T.
Darkness
Star! (J Andrews, the Musical)
Gaslight (1940, but also remake in production in 2007 for 2008 rel)
Rope (1940 aka "Alfred Hitchcock's Rope" - USA (complete title, also the original play was re-cast as a Movie for television in England in 1939 - which I have never seen, nor have I heard of until iMBD research)
Tightrope (C Eastwood 1984, but this one-word title could count 5 times - for movie!)
Lifeforce (yuck)
Ghost
Casper (one word as a feat film rel)
Robots
RV
Insomnia
Flubber (early version original, palease)
Hamlet (Two times)
Awakenings
Toys
Popeye
Zulu
1984 (tough call , but US listing)
Burglar (and not proud of having seen the whole thing!)
Carrie
K-Pax (argueable as a one-word, isn't it?)
K2 (Arguable for similar naming reasons)
Misery
Wiseguy
Wolfen
Lassie
Ultraviolet (Fang - whatever)
Gladiator
Magic (two times - completely different movies)
Sorcerer
Merlin
Highlander
Ghostbusters (working title was The Ghost Busters, I believe)
Runaway (Crichton)
Alibi (james mason)
Lolita (, just once, with james mason, I refuse to count any remake)
Sliver (Sharon Stone)
Mandingo
Rebecca
Roxanne
Jumnanji (translated, is 2 or 3 words)
D.O.A. (Quaid version - remake, original better, but I believe was billed as the three-word title)
Houseguest (again, not too proud, Sinbad)
Tremors
Bewitched
Exotica
Gattaca
Gothika
Beaches


Mistake from prvious submission-

Fog is not a movie, The Fog is. Oops.

All these I have viewed, and there's many more.
I did no go into google and type "One word Movie titles" as I am sure there would plenty for the pickin!

ADDED 1-19-2007

Topkapi



-----------Below is from the original list that got me hooked on this:

Date: Aug 5, 2006 6:38 PM

Body: One word movie titles
Think of a movie with EXACTLY one word in the title. No articles (a, an, the. So 'The Matrix' doesn't count.)

1. Michael - Clerks
2. Mariah ~ Fargo
3. Christine ~ Kalifornia
4. Katie~ Gladiator
5. Darlene - Fear
6. Heather-Friday (One of the greatest movies!)
7. Deanna - Halloween
8. Serena-Shrek
9. Jenni~ Fletch
10. Scotty ~ Saw
11. Angel ~ Platoon
12. Raul ~ Hitch
13. Shae ~ RENT
14. RecieKay~ Dogma
15. Brent~ Spaceballs
16. Rhea~Chode
17. alberto~gummo
18. lucy~jaws
19. *Wendy* - Polyester
20. SISSIE~ HEAD *by :the monkeys*
21.SONYAZSAR~tombstone
22.OB1~ Thursday (best movie ever)
23. J.P. - DOLEMITE
24. shane--mask-- you gotta love a movie about ugly guys and blind women
25. Katie- Blow
26. Stephanie~beetlejuice
27. Shannon~crash
28. layla~Serindipity
29.Hudson--Shaft
30. Tori---- "Heartbreakers"
31. Tracie---"Cellular"
32. Amanda -- "Stay"
33. Emily--Memento
34 Jenny--- "Swingers"
35. Omolo -- "Snatch" (Tee hee!)
36. Magoo -- "Porky's"


---------------
I was shocked to see that shane didn't also pick "Shane" - the Western!
And that's what got me hooked.
Dammit!

HOOK, there's another one. This game is sick.

I could go on. Next update - I'll just comment to myself newer one's.

Steve Dahl & Garry Meier getting all wet at the Beachstro

I have done a bit of "cross-posting" in my own blogs, but HAHA! They're mine!

Is it two 'r's or one?

Are they shaken or stirred?

I can answer that! Steve & Garry are stirring it up, baby! Oh, yeah, I was listening the 'G' - as I like to refer to the Chicago Free-FM Talk Station, WCKG - and Steve saw Gary eating Lunch (like that wasn't pre-planned over the phone sometime ago!) at the Oak Street Beachstro, where the Dahl Crew broadcasts live every Friday now.

When a [female] reporter from Channel 2 News (whom Steve accused of wishing she were at Channel 9 right about now) asked Steve for a short over-the-air interview, Steve mentioned more than five times, "Who's going to pay Gary?". Haw Haw Haw. Steve then, as King Arthur might have done back in the day, went around the table (it might be round?) and asked Wendy, "No", Buzz, "Nope", Stan?

A moment of silence.

Then Stan says, "I'm just lookin to keep my gig.". Haw Haw Haw, laughter all around, the crowd is pleased. But, the laughter sounded more like we were listening to a golf match when Bob Hope said something amusing before taking a putt.

Everyone loves a peek at the race card, when it leads to laughter instead of mayhem, as Stan added, "Whenever two white men get together, it's always bad for the black man.". And Haw Haw Haw, more gay laughter from the Crew and the Crowd. Who wouldn't love a good bout of race-card humor? We play a few hands everyday here at work! It's fun!

Well, I doubt very much Stan will lose his job at CBS radio anytime soon - I think he has about one more year to go on that one year contract he just signed. And, Brendan, well let's just say he is like the Womper. The Womper is a big sail made for the front of the winning boat of the America' s cup race, as portrayed in the film "Wind", now playing near the IFC channel! It stars Matthew Modine as an unrespected genius of sail and the loooove interest cutie-pie sister of Ferris Bueler, what's-her-name-and-I-am-to-lazy-to-goggle-it!

Sorry.

So, It looks like S & G are back, at least in the "media" RIGHT NOW, as it will be the second to the lead story on Channel 9, 7, 5 , and 2 NEWS ! I might tune right now?

Attittude?

Attittude? I can't even spell attittude! I will TELL you when and if I have an attitude - you will know.

Nothing pisses me off more than.....people saying I have an attitude.....when I am not having an attitude!

How DARE you?

But, I do hereby publicly apoligize to the lady in the orange shirt for "having" and attitude. Just make sure you read the syllabi.

Now it's your turn - next time; have your papers in order!

godaddy, whoa daddy!

Today has been a banner day for spammers - a lot of the domainsbyproxy.com's return emails have been hit HARD! Domainsbyproxy.com is owned and operated by godaddy.com as there offering for Domain Name Account Privacy for regular websites.

SONY is the 4 letter word - NOT DELL!

"Damn you Stevens!" Sony is in trouble. Dell hopefully has learned the old lesson - screw me once, shame on me, screw me twice you better buy me dinner first, screw me again, shame on me.

Well, something like that, huh.

Sony sold the OEM (known as Dell Computer Corp) very BAD batteries.

It's Sony's fault, NOT Dell's!


Dell to recall 4 million batteries This story first came to my attention through digg.com watchful eyes.

MY PERSONAL VIEW (8-15-2006):
It's official now, as of 2am CST today, Dell set up this newer website specifically targeting this new threat. When Dell says on their website(s) don't use something, then DO NO USE IT. Plain and simple. Take the battery out of the laptop and use the laptop on AC adaptor power ONLY. But that is not all: If I were you - more importantly, if you were me - you would be checking the serial number on the Adaptor/Charger as well as the batteries as it also may be under a DIFFERENT RECALL PROGRAM regarding adaptor/chargers sold from around the Same Time Frame is these Sony batteries were used in OEM. As the website indicates and makes very clear, the batteries affected by this recall include batteries that were shipped as extras or replacements as part of [another] repair(s) or recall!

Check on it. DO IT! DO IT!

Don't put me in jail just yet, coach, I still have so much to say!

Josh Wolf vs. OUR TAX DOLLARS. Way to go , Josh's mom! Josh's mom is keeping the fight going! (Could you just imagine: The government asks the webhost provider to shut down Josh's blog and/or website? The G8 demo would be a tea party compared to the rioting of angry bloggers....on the other hand; Tea Party. Boston. Yes. I get it!)

I believe I have said all that needs to be said.

Except:

Since when do we believe government "officials" (That We Pay) when they tell us that, "[if you (let's say a college) are federally funded, then we get to go in and do what we want, otherwise don't be surprised when your next grant application gets sent back to you marked UNACCEPTABLE]", huh? Well, that is basically what colleges all across America have been told regarding better access to campuses for Military Recruiters.

Is there a law - anywhere - that says Partially federally-funded (and I stress partially ) entities must allow all manner of poking or infiltration or management by the fed? No, there isn't, and I know of no federal grant given to colleges worded in like manner, either. I should know, as I have reviewed my old Pell Grant form copies and there is nothing of this nature in the fine print;although there may be the implicit copyright violation having copied the form! My school told me to, "Make sure to copy every single form you ever are asked to sign, and never ever sign a blank contract or form.". Well, to the latter: I have been asked to sign the occasional form once maybe three times in my life, and on those occasions of course I signed them, "RICHARD NIXON". Who doesn't in those cases. It's not like those forms ever were completed - and they weren't - so I don't worry about such nonsense. To those who asked, check the form. You will see I am correct (and do not ever ask me to sign another blank form again. I will refuse.).

If there isn't a law already on the books of what I propose, then we should get one there: ALL federally granted money shall be used for the purpose(s) so granted with absolutely no other obligation by either party to be attached thereof to said grant(s).

Let's get busy, congressmen, or I will actually decide to vote in 08. Hint: Raise your glasses in hope that a citizen of the heart, and not just of natural law, can be voted into the Presidency;

ARNOLD, THE PIG, FOR PRESIDENT (Come on, the pig was "the smart one" on that show!)

IN CONCLUSION:

The real story is not so much Journalism Shield Laws protecting those who are "legit journalists" or bloggers (whom are covered as journalists under present law), but putting to test the "notion" that just because someone (the fed, in this case) GIVES you, or GRANTS you monies for a certain purpose, the only connection between the parties should be that the honest expenditure is followed. If the government GRANTS me money for TUITION, and I decide instead to buy a car, THEN, in only that case I should expect the Feds to be asking me pertinent questions about the unethical purchase!

Associative logic is the only thing holding the federal prosecutors' argument against Josh at this point. One wouldn't expect the bank to prosecute IN PLACE OF a home owner's legal claim against a thief who has broken into that home, would one? Would the builder be a better litigator? Of course not, once the home is purchased and under mortgage and the owner holds the title, the house is owned by .... the owner! What a concept. Just extend the concept of "ownership" in case you are one of those whiners at the bar who always has to add, "The bank owns my house, I don't, he he.". NOT TRUE. Just a TRUISM. There is a DIFFERENCE!

Shut up. YOU own the house when you are holding the TITLE, which almost always occurs AT THE CLOSING. If I was a vet, and I bought my home with a GI loan (OFF base, obviously), then later the house was compromised, the government will NOT step in on my behalf and pay for the prosecution nor are they going to prosecute at all. No way.

So, why is OUR government stepping in on Josh? To marginalize the Press, little by little, obviously. By marginalizing the press - OUR press - whom is to discover for us the truth, the public in general becomes less optimistic that the press will cover the truth and therefore will not much care that journalists are getting such a "raw deal".

Hey, coach, these finger cuffs are too tight. Can I go now?

3 FUN ACTIVITIES - in triplicate!

Following is my short list of 3 types of employee actions used on the job,


LEAST DAMAGING: INACTIVE

SMALL RISK OF DAMAGE: PRO-ACTIVE

MOST DAMAGING: ACTIVE

You may be thinking: "Huh? We have heard of being inactive and proactive, but tell us how being active on the job is wrong.". I learned today, that by actively "picking up the ball" without first "recognizing the ball type" and "knowing which game is to be played with that ball" and "knowing the rules of that game" can have potentially adverse consequences.

Now we have another short triple list of:

BALL TYPE

GAME TYPE

GAME RULES

WE learn the Ball Type in High School, the Game name in College, and the real "game rules" hopefully in on the job training sessions (hence un-paid internships!). Assuming that we have those three components learned well, then we can perhaps envision that being just plain Active for the sake of looking good to the boss, colleagues, family (or even, altruistically, to one's self - as in my case today) is just plain wrong.

In other words, it feels good just to be active - rather than standing around doing nothing - if for no other reason than the relatively minor physical workout, but rarely does any good come of it. A good example at most jobs in small to medium sized companies is the "wrong package delivery" - this one seems to have everyone in an office area overly concerned for usually no good reason - other than curiosity, which as small children we learn is not always a bad thing, when we take precautions. The errant package thing happened to me today. While casually talking to a co-worker, the coworker mentioned that there was a box in the conference room with t delivery label on it indicating it may have been misdelivered. "Ooh", I thought - and I did actually think, "Oooh", I'm not "doing" anything right now - just standing around and talking about work - I extrapolated, "I'll just make the conscious effort and move this box to its rightful area" How thrilling to me. But, before I do this Samaritan deed, I stop to ask at least one other person from our area as to the packages relevancy. That coworker said, "Oh no, that box is actually [for our area]", well! I was no longer fooled by our first coworkers' curiosity. The damage possible although would have been minimal - just me running back and forth all over looking for the damned box, as I could have accidentally delivered it to someone else who might not have known its true origin or destination. Conceivably, I could have wasted up to 2 hours for one box, but using my proactive nature, I turned that 2 hours into 2 minutes, thereby saving two hours and fifty-eight minutes of the future. I this were to happen to an engineer at NASA, that 2 hours would have been better spent calling a head-hunter!

Being Proactive is when you know what you are doing, how to do it (because of excellent training and your job duties demand it *, and you do it when the time is right and other precursors and dependent jobs have been properly completed (out of breath now, must get water...).

And then there is Inactive. That lone statement is its own proof of the ineffectiveness of inactivity - neither good for mind nor body.

So, to sum up: Know the game and its rules, and above all: "BE THE BALL, Danny, Be The Ball."

-----------------------------
* such as when NASA engineers are given "free reign" in solving a problem when not on Mission Time; Mission Time being as like now during ISS. Only in emergencies would one consider brainstorming, as brainstorming has its proper place and time.

PUREHOST LAST STRAW

Mr. Engel. (Customer Service Manager of all companies run by Endurance Intl, in this case Purehostage)

A looooong email. [PLS keep in mind, I sound like a little bitch in this]

Tom (who I got off the phone with about an hour ago) is unbelievably [badly] trained. I asked him to do a UN/PW reset on my account - specifically not mentioning a Fix Permissions, he told me where to go to Change my password. I told him no, I didn't need it changed, I needed the Username Password Reset done - it only takes an hour, I tell him, and I tell him this because every other Level1 tech tells me this EVERY SINGLE TIME THEY DO IT. I told him so as well - he said that there is nothing he can do with a "so many tickets" open and that he did not have the tools to do a Password reset.

(How can this be, when I have had to have this done 5 times in 72 hours. The latest of 72 hours.)

Then after telling him what I have experienced with other Level 1 techs being able to reset, he told me to have a nice day. (apparently he did not appreciate my relay approach to what many other L1 techs have told me).

At this point, having had relatively crappy operational service since Wednesday morning passed, it sounded like he was confused, offended, and full of crap. I then started a bit of a rant.

I told him stop lying, stop the crap. He just told me to have a nice day (I kind of expected that almost at the same time the word "lying" cam out my mouth. I then asked him to transfer me to anyone else on the floor who might have the tools to do the reset (in fact I may have asked him that before calling him "out" on this issue f training). He said he was the only one there and that there was only One Level2 tech on site and that the Level2 techs are the only techs allowed to do password resets. I told him that for over 100,000 customers of shared hosting, 2 people to handle customer support (at 12:30am CST) was ludicrous.


I was harsh, to be sure. I will not gloss over that point. As the clcradio.org website has been plagued with nothing but server issues since March of this year. There has been constant permissions and roles.ini file issues that have needed constant redoing. I maybe get about a full week of uninterrupted service via using Frontpage access . Once I get the access, publishing to the site and editing live on the site has RARELY been a problem. The BIGGEST issue BY FAR has always been one of merely accessing using my regular unchanged Username and password. When I report this problem OTHER Level1 techs try it for themselves, see the same issue on their end, and then ask me to verify some account detail for security purposes - I always choose verification "before doing a UN/PW reset or a Fix Permissions on an account", and No one has EVER failed to ask me for verification. Until today, with Tom.

I called back. He answered. (I am now here thinking that perhaps indeed, although implausible, that he may be the only L1 tech there!). I heard someone talking in the background this second time. I asked him about it. Tom said it was the cable technician (or words to that effect). He then proceeded to respond to me as if I was asking him questions. An example follows:

Me: I just wanted to apologize for (being harsh earlier call). But, I have had many other Level 1 techs do a UN/PW reset and a Fix Permissions run for me - already twice today, as well.

TOM: That will be fine, sir.

silence

TOM: Yes, sir. Whatever you say.

silence (I hadn't said anything yet)

TOM: Well, if that is all you need, I can't do anything with this open ticket. And with so many tickets open I can't start another one...You have a nice day, OK?

silence

ME: Do you know that you are responding to me now as if I've said something to you? Do you know you are doing that?

TOM: Well, you're telling me how to do my job....

ME: (Interrupting) ..No, I was telling you how other Level1 techs have handled this problem before...

TOM: Well let me see if I can get permission for a Password reset with the Level2 here - only they can do a Password reset...

On Hold (no music-on-hold since Sunday, BTW) only 2 minutes goes by

TOM: Sorry about putting you on hold, I just started a Fix Permissions and that can take about 60 minutes (I had actually previously told him that is what other Level1 techs have told me recently!) and then I will be doing a Password Reset once that is finished. (I have been told by ALL OTHER L1 TECHS that Password Rest is done FIRST, THEN a Fix permissions - the reason? Because a PW reset only takes about a minute, thus allowing a customer to get to their site access quicker : in most cases.)

---------
This last bit kind of pisses me off.

---------

ME: Do you need any other information from ME before you continue with this?...(I am curious why he has started a procedure that has previously EVERY TIME called for a customer verification)

TOM: No, that is all I need. I am just waiting for the Fix Permissions to finish...Oh, jeez (here, he is probably frustrated with it taking so long) This is going to take...it will take about 60 minutes, stay out of the account for an hour, and then call back if you have any problems. OK, sir?

ME: In the past, the others were running the Password Reset first because...( I wanted to say, because a UN?PW reset takes a LOT less time to do titan a Fix Permissions)

TOM: Sir, can I help you any further?

ME: Well, Yes, I just thought you should know that the other...

TOM: Sir, you have a nice day, OK?

a bit more silence (I can tell he hasn't hung up yet...I wait about 5 to 7 seconds - I am watching the clock...)

ME: What is wrong with this fucker? (I Then hang up)

-----------------
He probably heard me say that as I was assuming he hadn't hung up yet, but I hadn't intended for him to hear that last profanity.

I truly can't figure out why (he said he has been there 3 months, which is a lie as I know I have talked with him on third shift at great length about this and that and webdesign nd things like that; Tom , this Tom, had been in your employ for at least a full year) his computer desktop wouldn't have the necessary tools one minute, then upon him "getting permission" less than 2 minutes later he is "doing his job" running a Fix Permissions, but as history shows not in quite the same way everyone else has run a Fix Permissions or Password reset - so far.

My last point: Tom did NOT ask me to verify my account details where in all other similar support calls to Purehost cases, every Level1 tech does ask me to verify either of these.]

As I am sometimes a "hard case" late at night, as most people calling late probably are anyway, putting new (3 months seems new to me for customer service reps on phones) Level1 techs on 3rd shift for customer support is a supremely bad idea.

Did you see that? Did you see what I did just then? I think I just may have told you how to do your job...or maybe I was just trying to give an example that might point to a better customer service solution for the future of Purehost, or Endurance Intl, or CrystalTech or whomever might care.

I care. I have had only ONE other Level1 tech give even (is it possible) more apparent incompetence to me. He was on 3rd shift for about a year I would say, and that one got to he point where if I heard his nasal tones answering, I knew - at least up until about a month ago - that someone else would be answering the cue on my subsequent call, and I would actually get results then.

You need to know this - the customer might always be "right" but I do not believe that should mean that the customer is always justified. I say this because, I try really hard to get to the point when on the phone, WHEN I hear from who I am talking with SOME understanding of what I am saying. Unless whom I am speaking with acknowledges what I say, I will keep talking until they do acknowledge, generally for technical matters such as a Shared Hosted website, be reading back to me what I have said by either paraphrasing or just recitation. How else would I know that something of a technical nature has been properly communicated?

For instance: If I day to a Level1 tech I am having issue with creating Subwebs (don't get us started in that mess, right now), and the Level1 tech asks me why I need subdomains. Need I go on?

Nope. Hopefully, you now understand what I occasionally go through when talking to Level1 techs - a very small few, that may perhaps need to know what they are supposed telling Purehost customers.

---------

And now, an hour has passed (I ran a spell check on this email).

I will now check to see if Tom's method of running the Fix Permissions FIRST worked. And if not, hopefully he will finish what he said he would do, as in a Password Reset AFTER the Fix Permissions was finished. I have a feeling that if he heard me say, "fucker", over the phone, then he may have not wanted to feel like finishing the work he had received Level2 permission to do. I hope that is not the case, because if it is, re-training might not be the only option for Tom, but I am not in your shoes, and Tom may have been having a Bad day, as I know I have talked with Tom at least 3 other times before today (as mentioned earlier, near to a year), and in very congenial terms. I am not kidding - he may remember, he may not.

--------------
I warned you, it was a loooong email ahead.

LG VX8100

And in fact I was NOT warned that my MP3s would no longer play after I upgraded to v7!

FUZZ VERIZON & FUZZ MICROSOFT for that. 2 bucking dollars per downloaded song to the phone, what BULLSHIT!

Now, what follows is a good example of a Verizon Store employee who is either lying or was lied to: (thank you Howard Forums)
--------------------------------

01-07-2006, 16:29

Phone Expert Phone(s): 1: 2: 3: Provider(s): Joined: Jun 2004 From: U.S. Posts: 64

No more MP3 with new software. I am a VZW employee. We just had training on the new Vcast Music service being launched soon. All phones that support VZW music will loose the ability to play MP3. NO! YOU CAN NOT TURN IT BACK ON!!!! Upgrade your software at your own risk. I personally have an 8100 for mp3 playback and will not get the software upgrade. All of your mp3 files that are on your computer will stay as mp3 files on your computer. However, when you transfer files to your phone it will be converted to WMA. The MP3 player WILL BE DISABLED. I hope that someone comes up with a hack or something to re-enable mp3 support.

------------------------------
What a genius (I say sarcastically).

There is no hack really, you just go into service and change the two settings back to ON. And he can't spell lose.

FACTOID: There will NEVER be a vendor software for ANY LG phone that can permanently disable ANY feature. ONLY the QUALCOM firmware is able to do that, and even that can be revised with the same QUALCOM chip firmware updater. I am NOT talking about bitpim, although bitpim can fuck your phone hard if you are not careful, BUT if you do screw your phone with a bitpim mistake, just re-update your firmware with the QUALCOM software (again, this is also different from the Qualcom Firmware) to reset your phone to "factory". The Qualcom software (NOT firmware) can allow you to change the Service Code Password and entry method (currently it is MENU, press 0, then press the default 6 digits). Also, there is an 800 number/website that allows you to hook to a modem/server so that you can send BREW code to your phone (iow, you can do your own OTA Programming!).

ALL LG vendor software (and only the vendor software) is DESIGNED ON PURPOSE to give the VENDORS their choice of what features they want their customers' phones to have. or NOT HAVE ! PERIOD. NO MORE ARGUMENTS. THE BUCK STOPS HERE.

And if by some off chance that a Verizon tech will not RE-ENABLE your phone settings after any software upgrade, then DEMAND a FLASHBACK (stop laughing, that is what it is called by the techs).

So you have (still have) the LG VX8100 and you want to know some tidbits? Good.

I will tell you as much as I know, so open a fresh clean thimble:

Today I went ahead and had my firmware version upgraded from 4 to 7 (I wildly ignored even asking the tech to do 5 or 6). I had heard the horror stories of , "If you update to v7, all your installed subscriptions will be deleted!" and THEY WERE to my dismay but not surprise, but what I did NOT find out about neither from the Verizon store tech nor the web yet was that this same upgrade will install a mini WMP and all of my data and MP3s and Pix located on my miniSD card would be deleted! (What really PISSED ME OFF was the fact that my Mightyphone subscription installation is NOT YET COMPATIBLE WITH v7 ! FUZZ!)

Well, it certainly looked that way. But, I need not worry because I have bitpim's latest version and a backup of all that is wholly; the spirit of my phone lives on.

Before I left the Verizon store - I had been on the phone with tech support (2 birds killed by one stone) talking of such incompatibilities of VCast AND Broadband on the SAME PHONE, hooaaa! - on a hunch I decided to ask for a "flashback" - stop laughing you bunch of stoners, that is the technical term! The nice serviceman asked, "Why?". I answered, "I already use iTunes and pay only 99 cents per song...". He stops me from talking with a wave of his Jedi hand, this Master of the Service Codes. And so, it was. I asked him, "How is this possible, that you can allow me to have not only the ability to play MP3s once again and not just WMAs, but also I can now see all of my "lost" data, mp3s and pix?!?!?!". He just nodded and said, "Service code.". "Ah.", said I, "no need to explain, thank you".

Yes.

Sorry, still on a cliff over that "incompatibility of VCAST AND BROADBAND" living together?
No worries, as the info I had received 3 months ago was a lie perpetrated by a Ludite (Really the name of an antique floor polish) still apparently allowed to continue her vast employment with the megolith known only as, V E R I Z O N !!! Basically, the two features CAN coexist on the same phone.

AND: v7 does NOT take car of the picture taking delay at all. Still the same - pun intended.
ALSO : The sound Q of Video is still CRAP, and the 15 seconds of record time is still only 13.8 seconds - but you all know you can make that any time you want. Set it to ZERO if you want unlimited (only limited to your miniSD card) video recording time (this also affects your memo recording time as well).

HOWEVA! You do need to know that with version 7, some applications downloaded from the Qualcomm program service called "Get it Now" will no longer be available for download through that service! MightyPhone for one is NOT yet compatible (or at least the MightyPhone programmers need to GET OFF THEIR ASS and make MightyPhone version 3 available for download again for the version 7 users of the LG phone firmware/flash upgrade) with version 7. version 4, MightyPhone works. So, if you like MightyPhone better than iPhonebook (and who doesn't ?) or Remo, than you are going to HAVE to for the time being get your LG flashed back to version 4.

--------------HOWEVA, Again!

It seems there is a way to get those Get It Now apps back itno your newly upgraded 8100 !

Here's another bit from howardforums.com----------(note it is from January This year !!)

01-17-2006, 18:57

OrangeGator My antenna is smaller than yours Phone(s): 1: LG VX8100 2: LG VX6000 3: LG TM510 Provider(s): Verizon Joined: Sep 2005 Posts: 387

Backing Up/Restoring Games How To Here's how to back up and restore your GIN games so that you do not loose them when flashing your phone. BEFORE FLASHING YOUR PHONE 1. Goto the Filesystem tab in Bitpim and click the Brew folder. You will see a bunch of folders with numbers as their names. These are where your games are. 2. Look at the contents of each numbered folder to see which ones have your games. It's easy to tell by the names of the files inside. For example, for me folder 3015 contains tetris files. 3. Right click the game folder and select "backup directory". It will save the contents as a zip file. Do this for each of your games. 4. In the Brew directory you will also see a bunch of files with .mif extentions that have the same number name as your game folder. For example, the mif for tetris is 3015.mif. Save these files for each of your games. GET THE FLASH 5. Open Bitpim and go to the Brew folder. You will still see the numbered folders for each of the games, but the folders are empty. Also, the .mif files are missing. 6. Unzip the backed up games into their corresponding numbered folders and copy the .mif files into the Brew folder. Your games are now restored. The first time you try them it may say "registering apps" for a minute, but should work. Good luck. I don't think this works for transfering games between phones. Probably due to esn coding in brew 2.0. Also, you can back up everything at once by right clicking the root directory and selecting "backup entire tree". But that takes a while and saves everything in one large zip file.

-----------------------

Just pissed. BUT, WAIT ! THERE's MORE !

Look what I found today (August 11th, 2006) [ http://www.mightyphone.com/how/phones.php?manuf=LG ]



Let's just say that it's all about the PID. For the layman, that means Version 7 - sort of. IOW, version 7 changed the PID of the LG VX8100. The PID needs to be listed by fusionone or MightyPeople to Qualcom or the Get It Now people.

Well, what are they waiting for? I want to GET IT NOW!

Get it? Now?

And now, you know the rest of the story.

Google inline module idea feeds the Page Load Hog

I have checked, double checked, and rechecked again, back and forth (loading, unloading), and I have concluded that - at least for digg - that coding the "inline module" way for Google's personal home page options is really dragging the page load for Google's Personal Home page.

Either the module can be recoded (so as not to cause thie slow load time - I am on a T1 leg off an OC12) or digg can decide not to use the module method.

For now I'll just stick to going to digg through RSS Reader or the like.

BUT, digg is the shiznickle in all other restecpa!

-------
Now, bcak to the Google Personalized Homey Page: Live365 now offers their broadcasters a module for the Google PHG so they can montior the server status and the listeners on line! Cool, except that their modue does not hide the password in the block. Is there a way that programmers can take advantage of SSL for this sort of nonsense?

Call me Senior COBOL, or Master of Assembly, or even Mr. "Bean" but, I certainly hope there is an SSL way to enter passwords into a module for the Google PHG at some point.

powered by Audioblog.com and Dan's brain.


MP3 File

PUREHOST

Maybe I should start to tone down a bit, after reading and finding the follwoing in response to a 2 year old query from a Lunarpages.com forum page:
-----------------------------------------------[the Raply today would be today, btw]

Re: Extensions are down for 4 Days - Support isn't Helping « Reply #17 on: Today at 08:41:13 PM »

---

A similar problem is worldwide now (no pun intended in case you are a MyWebHoster customer on their windowsworldwide servers).

The issue is the Server2003 Service Pack1 update (out on November 2005, warnings and problems first appeared in January 6, 2006). A lot of webhosting companies have in the last few weekends updated their Server 2003 machine - both 32 bit and 64 bit - to make way for the a onslaught of the poor Linux Server customers using Frontpage extensions on those Linux servers. Why would there be an onslaught? Because Microsoft as of July 12th, 2006 has End-of-lifed any support for Frontpage Extensions for Linux/Unix and has no plans to make any 2003 Extensions. (this basically means that if you applied any SPs for FPSE modules on a Linux server of any version or not, you are now officially SOL ). But if you are on an actual Windows Server box, then read on.

The Service Pack 1 as applied to actual Windows machines only running Server2003 32 or 64 bit has been malfunctioning across the world, and there is only one solution. The solution involves only a fix that only your webhoster can make: It is a registry setting permissions change The message may not appear unless the webhoster ALSO has the latest version of FPSE2002 installed (yes, 2002 (two) there are no such things as FPSE2003 and there never will be, they will be called instead SharePoint Services. Period):

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Shared Tools\Web Server Extensions\Ports\Port 80

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;264922

The above link is really only helpful to Server2003 engineers.

You may or may not also receive the following error IF you are on an actual Windows machine:

Server error: Error 2 opening registry key Software/microsoft/shared tools/web server extensions/ports/port 80

This error is coming ONLY from a Windows machine running ONLY Server2003 and only AFTER SP1 AND FPSE2002 latest version has been applied SUCCESSFULLY. If there was a failure to apply, then another message would appear on the back end at the webhosting company machine doing the install of the patch.

That is a whole other problem.

This behavior can occur if the Web Server Extensions key and its subkey do not have the correct type of access rights assigned to them.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/873148

Hey you Linux peeps, sorry to bring the bad news, but there are a LOT of webhosters NOT telling their customers of these issues.

---------------------------------------------

So I gues, MAYBE, I'll start toning down..

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