Pilot's Log

Sagittarius Horoscope for week of April 18, 2013

The famous philosopher John Searle unleashed a witty dig about the famous philosopher Jacques Derrida, saying he is "the sort of philosopher who gives bullshit a bad name." One of your fun assignments in the coming week, Sagittarius, is to do the opposite of what Derrida's work does. In other words, give bullshit a good name. How? Well, you could engage in creative verbal expressions that boost morale and propagate delight and lubricate worthwhile connections. Make up noble fictions that are more accurate and useful that the literal truth. Spread uplifting gossip that heals and invigorates.

--"Would I Li~i~ie To You?"--The Eurythmics

AT&T has the best customer service system in the world. I mean it. They hire terrific people and you can reach some of them 24/7.

But that nice, ardent, professional woman and her good work is lost on me today because her phone makes her sound like she's way in the back of a shipping container she shares with a stepdown power transformer.

Still, in spite of this difficulty and others I've endured over the last few weeks, I was able to on this day:

*) Pay the first Wireless Internet bill for Rather Manor (although it was past due)
*) Correct the billing information for the Wireless Internet account (so it wouldn't bounce back like the first bill did)
*) Link the Wireless Internet account with the Landline account for Rather Manor so
*) We might be able to BUNDLE services and save some moolah

And I did it on ATT.com, whose veracity measures are needlessly difficult for legitimate users while still leaving gaping holes for cyberfraudsters. Tho' I doubt there can be a lot gained from the information available to the phone company and the individual endusers.

Got my umpteenhundredth con-job e-mail today.

The user's name: JOE PWN. I am not kidding. He uses Yahoo! out of Hong Kong.

Got a piece of junk e-mail tonight with some nebulous claims about some personage named Mack Michaels and the prospect of getting work or making money through his methods.

When I get something like this, it usually helps to check out at least the underlying facts.

The only facts that I could see from a cursory search, are that this Michaels character exploits the diverse structure of the Internet so as to stuff the ballot box of public opinion and inflate his reputation. Which, on the surface, isn't fraud--but just the same, is a Red Flag the size of the Empire State Building.

The "drawback about the internet" here is that anybody willing to make the effort, writing up boilerplate press releases and "fact sheets" and posting them every which way on the web, can do this. A nobody can pretend to respectability and at first glance, fool the world. But there might not be a cowboy under that hat.

As for me, honesty is the best policy. Painful as it is.

There is now an African e-mail scam claiming to aid previous victims of African e-mail scams.

I'm just shaking my head here.

FP

PS: Producers Are Money-Grubbing Scum.