Archive for Personal
Social Networking Going Too Far or Business Just Trying Too Hard?
I’ve used Open Table for restaurant reservations for a long time. It is just so much more convenient to peruse around for what restaurant will fit your time and date and type of food rather than calling them one at a time to see if anyone has the ability to accommodate you. As an added bonus, I’ve never had a reservation lost, most likely because the reservations go right into the restaurant’s reservation computer system.
But, I noticed this today and can’t help but wonder why this would in any way be a necessary thing. Unless you were inviting people, do they really need to see that you have a reservation somewhere?
Now, posting your review after dining at the restaurant might be a useful thing, but this up front posting doesn’t really make sense to me, especially at the level that there might need to be a dedicated button to handle such a once in a year posting as opposed to some sort of manual posting.
The question then is this: Is Open Table – and several other businesses – trying too hard to somehow be linked / connected to social media sites like FaceBook and Twitter, or is there a legitimate need being met?
SmartBargains.com or Smart Scammers
I’ve ordered some things from SmartBargains in the past. I even joined their SmartBargains member club or whatever it was for $7.95 so I could save money on shipping. But, I think that I have to put them on my scammers list after this week.
On Monday, my wife emailed me a rug she liked for our daughter’s room. It said there were 8 left. On Tuesday, it still said there were 8 left, so we aren’t talking about an item that is flying off the shelves. I decided to order it Tuesday evening and the Smartbargains.com site still said their were 8 left.
I got an order confirmation email later that night. On Wednesday morning, I got an email telling me my order was cancelled. The excuse was that sometimes manufacturers sent them things that turned out to be unsalable. But, my bull detector was ringing off the hook.
On Thursday, the day after my email telling me that they were all out and that they had to cancel my order, the website said they had 4 left! My wife called the “customer service” line and got the run around. Basically, the person on the other end of the phone had to go talk to their supervisor 3 different times. Now, right there, you know that this is terrible customer service. If your person can’t answer the questions, then it is time for the supervisor to get on the line.
Only, the supervisor’s answers aren’t any better. Their answer was that the website was not up to date! Excuse me? If you put up something like “4 left” that is a indication that your site is somehow live. But, I suppose a disclaimer would take care of that.
Guess what? There isn’t one. And, there isn’t any kind of guarantee of when or how often the site is updated either. All of that “Just One Left” crap on their website it BOGUS! They can’t even tell you how often their site is updated.
Oh, and do you know what? This is the only order I have ever had a problem on. I suppose it comes as no surprise that this is also the only order I have tried to use a discount coupon on either. It was 15% off up to $300 and my order was around $250, so it was a killer deal. Of course it was cancelled.
Well, Smartbargains, you can just stop sending me those once a day emails you fill my inbox with, because you have lost a customer forever. I can understand an issue affecting an order, but I won’t do business with a company whose website is filled with un-updated lies.
Oh, and guess what? Friday Evening – That’s 2 days after I got an email telling me that they had to cancel my order because they are out of stock – It still says 4 available.
Heck, it might STILL be there — http://tr.im/hUs5
Liar, liar, pants on fire…
FAIL!
How To Block Phone Numbers On Comcast Voice Service
Use Comcast’s phone service? If so, you can block incoming calls by their caller ID number so that telemarketers, charities, and even bill collectors who use one of the loopholes to get around the Do Not Call list stop bothering you.
While the feature isn’t heavily advertised, my understanding is that it is available for all Comcast cable telephone customers. Blocking phone numbers is still necessary thanks to all the creeps using loopholes in the Do Not Call laws to keep calling you, and this great time saving strategy is free and easy on several phone company’s service. If your phone company doesn’t offer it, consider switching to their more user friendly competitors.
I was thrilled to find this service after Google bought up Grand Central and then just let it rot on the back burner. I used to use GrandCentral to create phone numbers to give to organizations and then you can customize your incoming calls to go straight to voicemail or get blocked, or whatever. But, since Google just bought the service to keep it from growing instead of because it wanted to do anything with it, it hasn’t allowed new accounts in quite some time. The Comcast blocking isn’t quite as good as GrandCentral’s is and it isn’t online, but it works and I can once again make sure computerized robots and people doing a “survey” stop bothering me once and for all.
Comcast’s Block Incoming Calls From a Specific Number Feature
To use this awesome feature, pick up your phone and dial *60. You’ll get a computerized menu that starts with Option 1 which is to turn the service on (and then off should you choose). Once you have turned it on, listen to the prompts until you get “Add number to your block list.”
Now, just dial in that annoying fundraiser that keeps calling, or the charity that calls you every two weeks to “update” you and then asks for more money just because you donated to them once. Even better, dial in the number of that stupid automated phone call for a bill collector that is for someone that doesn’t even live at your house!
To really make this effective, combine it with the Call Screening feature to block all anonymous incoming calls. That way, you will always see the number you need to block in your caller ID.
Oh, and here is a quick tip, go ahead and add 000-000-0000 as your first number. Some shifty or downright fraudulent marketers and other dirt bag callers will set there end to report all zeros as their caller ID number to get around you knowing who is calling. Oops, too bad guys, you lose, that is already blocked.
I add every number that calls and hangs up without leaving a message. I don’t know what they want, but if they can’t even give me the courtesy to leave a message, I probably don’t want to hear it.
Comodo Anti-Virus and Firewall
After experimenting with various anti-virus and firewall software lately, I’ve settled on using Comodo Internet Security for my home office network for now.
This all started when I actually caught a virus on my PC. I never did find out exactly what it was or where it came from, but I had numerous programs that would just suddenly stop receiving keystrokes for a moment or two and then start receiving them again even after I had killed every possible process on the computer to make sure it just wasn’t something losing focus. Since I type very fast, this was very noticeable to me, though it might have been undetected among non-touch typists. There were other odd things too, but I never really could track them down.
The part that was scary was that my anti-virus didn’t catch it. I ran an extra malware scanner and it picked up a few things, but nothing that seemed very serious.
In the end, I decided that while anti-virus protection is probably enough for most users, the PCs in my home office are incredibly valuable to me. Between client lists, emails, online banking for both my and my business, and numerous documents and memos that would be considered “sensitive”, my livelihood is really at stake on my computer.
Since I know that I will never win the battle versus the hackers who might someone get access to my computer, I figured that what I needed was a way to not only scan my computer, but to keep extra programs out and, in the unfortunate even that they ever got in, to keep the data that they might be trying to steal from leaving my PC.
I have a wireless router that acts as the first level firewall, but I run numerous programs to allow for VPN access to client networks, email clients, occasional Bittorrent, and so on, so there are ways in for the truly determined.
I tried a recommended freeware product since tax season was coming and I knew that I could have my pick of security software for free when I buy my copy of TurboTax. But, when I installed it on our older laptops (we still have some Dell Inspirons with just 512 MB of RAM running XP) it bogged them down something terrible.
That became test number one. If it couldn’t run on a 4-year old Dell laptop with 512MB of RAM then I eliminated it as a resource hog. Comodo seems to be doing find so far, so I’m going with it until further notice.
So, I’ll be posting updates and tips and tricks on how to use Comodo in the coming days as I start to iron out just how I want to have it work.
Hopefully, this will provide me better security and performance and maybe allow me to get a better understanding of network and PC security at the same time.
