Pilot's Log

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.

From e-mail, specifically my Spamtrap: Who, in their right mind, would think that I could possibly be in the market for a vacation to Pigeon Forge?

* * *

Has anybody else on LiveJournal seen a lot of sockpuppets show up in the Comments lately? I removed a couple this past week. When their statements show up 3500 times in a Google sweep, I get suspicious.

Whose @$$ Mr. President should think about kicking:

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.

More than a decade ago, between the year I left college and the year I left Florida, I was perpetually searching for work and failing miserably. (Sound familiar?) So one day my mother found an advertisement for a company that was hiring "branch managers" and she thought my combination of skills from college and youth would help me get a position. They were having a meeting that evening in a strip mall near where we were. So I went and looked them up and listened to what they had to say.

And my "internal instrument panel" lit up like a Republican's Christmas tree.

Their sales pitch was full of hype and feel-good language and left no room for silly things like facts and details.

Their business plan looked overly optimistic and didn't seem to be couched in the laws of supply and demand or market reality.

Their math didn't add up.

Their brochures were flashy but uninformative...other than the fact that the current "doing business as..." name had been put on stickers that were pasted over the previous "doing business as..." name.

I realized before the speeches had ended that I had no hope of success with these guys and it was more likely they would take ME for a ride as well as their expected customers. So I said "no".

Today I was going through my paperwork from college and came upon a scrap sheet with the information about the company I had visited so long ago. On a whim, I looked them up just now. Two Years Ago The Feds Shut Them Down For Running A Ponzi Scheme. So I feel justified in walking away.

The main downside to knowing when to say "no" is that it's no help in figuring out who to say "yes" to. Or, finding the luck to have that opportunity come your way.

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.

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Not a murder mystery, but something just as scandalous, The Disappearance of Gene Holloway. More About It Here.

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I'd seize control of all the Oak Ridge nuclear plants and all the TVA hydroelectric dams, and use that power to electrocute all those people who e-mail ads for Erectile Disfunction remedies and come-ons for bank transfer swindles. Ka-ZAPP! And None of Them Be Missed!

Anybody else getting physical mailings from on-line gambling outfits?

I got a pamphlet from "bet.us" detailing the NHS, NBA and NCAA wagering options.

Man, I hate these people. Who do I have to nuke to get rid of them once and for all? Don't think I can't get fissile material.

FP