Like what? "F U buddy for having the email address I think belongs to my friend"? How can anyone be mad at you for being at the address they're sending stuff to?
I've wondered that myself, but the company name, address, and phone numbers were all different enough in this case it didn't trip any real suspicions. It'd be one thing if they were both in the same city, but I find it unlikely a company would move across the country just to spam innocents a second time. Though if they had a sister company and shared contacts.... best not give them any ideas.
I agree it's bad in general, but I find it particularly awful when it's a tech support email that comes from a noreply address. MLB.tv has done this to me -- they respond to my technical problem with some half-assed copy-paste solution (it's not *our* site that has the problem, you need to clean your browser cache more often) and then it's from a noreply address and I've got to start over with a new ticket and hope I don't get the same stupid reply the second time around.
As much as I'm a fan of baseball, I'm not a fan of MLB.tv.
You'd think it'd be really unlikely for someone to mistype something else and get Quirkz, but I didn't count on someone buying Qirkz and then everyone in Australia being unable to type Q without following it with a U and getting me instead. Sometimes you cannot avoid the stupidity of others, and uprooting your own life to avoid some spam is not the sensible solution.
After the second call you should have thrown the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act at them. All those extra calls would have been worth tens of thousands of dollars.
Yep, me, too. I picked a domain name, one that's neither a person's name, nor even a real word, and I *still* get someone else's email because they opened a domain that's just like mine, except missing one letter. There's only so much you can do to avoid someone else's stupidity.
You're not the only one. One former occupant of my house owned a business -- a "restaurant for kids" -- that not surprisingly went out of business. They moved to another state, but we still get tax and collections notices which the post office won't deliver to anyone but us.
HIPPA laws are against *disclosing* information, not receiving it, so you shouldn't have had anything to worry about there. If your doctor tells you the name of another patient, they're the one who gets in trouble, not you.
There's a business in Australia called Qirkz which is just one letter away from my business, Quirkz. It must be a reflex to always type the U after a Q, because I get a lot of messages aimed at Qirkz, which is a music venue. I usually take the opportunity to send them an email explaining the differences and plug my own business and wares (a browser-based computer game, which at least *might* interest some Aussies). They can't call it spam, because after all they initiated the conversation by writing me.
Still, after some time the barrage of email gets pretty annoying. Some of them are downright incoherent until I get the context of knowing they think they're talking to a music venue. Some woman started up about this "kid and bear show" one day that took three rereads to convince myself it wasn't spam for weird pornography. And when the place got shut down for a few months I ended up on the mailing list with a bunch of riotous music-loving Australians who wanted to save that other business.
On a good day I settle for polite self-promotion, on a bad day I lean towards snippy sarcasm about spelling, and I'm waiting for a really bad day to rip them a new one for failing to get either of the hemispheres correct.
I've had trouble with snail mail in a couple of different ways.
1. Not a confused name, but the previous occupants of our house have done a very poor job with getting things forwarded. I've lived there for 3 years, and we still get stuff for the previous owners. Important things, like replacement credit cards, collection notices, and tax notices.We have tried repeatedly to get the post office to forward those materials, but it keeps coming back to us. After getting the same credit card thing four times in a row over the course of two weeks, I gave up and just threw it away. No amount of marking up the letter to any extent seemed to let the post office realize re-delivering it to our house wasn't going to get it to the recipient.
2. I have a very uncommon name, but someone opened an Ebay account using that name years ago. It may have been a coincidence, may have been fraud/identity theft, I'm not really sure. They made one transaction and skipped out on the bill, and I've had a few collection companies contact me (I'm the only guy in the state with that name, after all) trying to collect. It's a different company each time, so even though I'll convince one I'm not the right guy, the next starts over with me again.
Opposite your example, I went with Apple for the household laptop, and Dell for the desktop. There's REAL savings to be had for a moderately powerful desktop compared to the Mac pro line, whereas I didn't think I could find a comparable laptop for much of a discount. Main reason, though, is the sleep/wake function, which works so quickly and seamlessly on a Mac it's almost magic compared to the historical ability of a Windows PC to wake up in a timely fashion without things breaking. (I'll admit my fairly new Dell with Win 7 seems to sleep/wake properly, but it's the first Windows portable I've ever met that did -- maybe they've finally solved that problem.)
If you're a big Zork fan, have you tried Kingdom of Loathing? It's heavily text based, though it has stick-figure graphics, and a fantastic sense of humor. It's free to play, too. http://www.kingdomofloathing.com/
I guess I should also plug my own high-text, low-graphic, superhero RPG, Twilight Heroes. Don't let the "Twilight" scare you -- it's superheroes, not vampires. Also free, and also tries to be entertaining reading.
As long as you're getting a 40-hour salary, that doesn't sound so horrible. Plenty of time to work quietly on pet projects. I would have written a novel or two each year with the other 20 hours each week.
Did you point that teacher to a dictionary and get the grade adjusted? Also, what kind of teacher gives an F for one wrong word, whether it be misspelled, badly mangled, or made up?
From what I've seen from most computer users after a couple of decades of tech support, that statement isn't even remotely true. And that's without talking about complex subjects like spreadsheets, databases, and basic programming.
Through a physics class we used Excel to chart chaotic motion, draw fractal diagrams, and some other pretty wicked stuff that I'll admit a decade later I couldn't reproduce inside that program if I tried. Word is generally intuitive enough (though tables tend to give me fits of functionality-itis) but beyond the most obvious items Excel has a steep learning curve and the deep end of the pool goes very deep indeed.
but I still see a _lot_ of people getting degrees in things with absolutely no plan for how to turn it into a job when they graduate.
On the other hand, I got a degree in physics, thinking hard science was a pretty solid way to prepare myself for a job (and according to the chart in the article it is), and it wasn't until I graduated and started looking at options that I realized just how much I hated the idea of doing any of the things I'd been prepared for. At that point I fell back on my hobbies, the stuff that I liked playing around with in my spare time, and over the years I've done programming, copy editing, and computer tech support and administration. All of those things were either picked up through elective classes -- in part due to a very flexible liberal arts program at my school -- or on my own.
I'm just one anecdote, but I think my point may be that college is only a part of the process, and personal drive and ability to learn can compensate for any gaps in schooling. I could have studied just about anything and ended up with the exact same series of jobs, as long as I had some kind of college degree.
I haven't turned on my Nook in 6 months, so I guess you and I even out. The weird thing is, I do really like the Nook, but I go through spurts with it. Those spurts end when I pick up a dozen books at a library sale or on the rare occasion I make it to a Half Price Books and can stock up. When those books run out, I go back to the Nook.
It's just about every site, I'd say. There's more of a delay at work using FF4 than there is at home using FF3. And my work connection is significantly faster than my home connection. Yeah, occasionally at home the page will hang or a large file is slower because of the slower download speed, but I can tell when it's network connection problems. For general clicking from one page to the next or staring at a completely empty tab just waiting for *something* to happen, FF4 leaves me feeling impatient a lot more than 3 ever did.
There may be something to nevermore's suggestion about the HTML5 table loading mechanism, and I'll give that a shot.
It doesn't feel faster, it feels a lot slower to me. I got upgraded at work, and FF4 is the first time in ages I've actually had "gee, that's taking a long time to load" moments, with long pauses of blank pages and the spinning little icon at the top of the tab. Some of the issue may *be* tabs, which I really loathe and which I promptly disabled in earlier versions but can't figure out how to hide effectively in FF4. Since I can't get them disabled I've been trying to learn to use them, but every time one loads it feels much slower than my old FF3 ever did.
Actually, the keyboard ends up looking a bit like a typewriter. It's a little weird to modern sensibilities, but there were whole decades when most typewriter keys were round, or at least all the old-style non-electric ones I've seen had round keys.
Slashdot Mirror
Like what? "F U buddy for having the email address I think belongs to my friend"? How can anyone be mad at you for being at the address they're sending stuff to?
I've wondered that myself, but the company name, address, and phone numbers were all different enough in this case it didn't trip any real suspicions. It'd be one thing if they were both in the same city, but I find it unlikely a company would move across the country just to spam innocents a second time. Though if they had a sister company and shared contacts .... best not give them any ideas.
I agree it's bad in general, but I find it particularly awful when it's a tech support email that comes from a noreply address. MLB.tv has done this to me -- they respond to my technical problem with some half-assed copy-paste solution (it's not *our* site that has the problem, you need to clean your browser cache more often) and then it's from a noreply address and I've got to start over with a new ticket and hope I don't get the same stupid reply the second time around.
As much as I'm a fan of baseball, I'm not a fan of MLB.tv.
You'd think it'd be really unlikely for someone to mistype something else and get Quirkz, but I didn't count on someone buying Qirkz and then everyone in Australia being unable to type Q without following it with a U and getting me instead. Sometimes you cannot avoid the stupidity of others, and uprooting your own life to avoid some spam is not the sensible solution.
After the second call you should have thrown the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act at them. All those extra calls would have been worth tens of thousands of dollars.
Yep, me, too. I picked a domain name, one that's neither a person's name, nor even a real word, and I *still* get someone else's email because they opened a domain that's just like mine, except missing one letter. There's only so much you can do to avoid someone else's stupidity.
You're not the only one. One former occupant of my house owned a business -- a "restaurant for kids" -- that not surprisingly went out of business. They moved to another state, but we still get tax and collections notices which the post office won't deliver to anyone but us.
HIPPA laws are against *disclosing* information, not receiving it, so you shouldn't have had anything to worry about there. If your doctor tells you the name of another patient, they're the one who gets in trouble, not you.
Still, after some time the barrage of email gets pretty annoying. Some of them are downright incoherent until I get the context of knowing they think they're talking to a music venue. Some woman started up about this "kid and bear show" one day that took three rereads to convince myself it wasn't spam for weird pornography. And when the place got shut down for a few months I ended up on the mailing list with a bunch of riotous music-loving Australians who wanted to save that other business.
On a good day I settle for polite self-promotion, on a bad day I lean towards snippy sarcasm about spelling, and I'm waiting for a really bad day to rip them a new one for failing to get either of the hemispheres correct.
1. Not a confused name, but the previous occupants of our house have done a very poor job with getting things forwarded. I've lived there for 3 years, and we still get stuff for the previous owners. Important things, like replacement credit cards, collection notices, and tax notices.We have tried repeatedly to get the post office to forward those materials, but it keeps coming back to us. After getting the same credit card thing four times in a row over the course of two weeks, I gave up and just threw it away. No amount of marking up the letter to any extent seemed to let the post office realize re-delivering it to our house wasn't going to get it to the recipient.
2. I have a very uncommon name, but someone opened an Ebay account using that name years ago. It may have been a coincidence, may have been fraud/identity theft, I'm not really sure. They made one transaction and skipped out on the bill, and I've had a few collection companies contact me (I'm the only guy in the state with that name, after all) trying to collect. It's a different company each time, so even though I'll convince one I'm not the right guy, the next starts over with me again.
Opposite your example, I went with Apple for the household laptop, and Dell for the desktop. There's REAL savings to be had for a moderately powerful desktop compared to the Mac pro line, whereas I didn't think I could find a comparable laptop for much of a discount. Main reason, though, is the sleep/wake function, which works so quickly and seamlessly on a Mac it's almost magic compared to the historical ability of a Windows PC to wake up in a timely fashion without things breaking. (I'll admit my fairly new Dell with Win 7 seems to sleep/wake properly, but it's the first Windows portable I've ever met that did -- maybe they've finally solved that problem.)
If you're a big Zork fan, have you tried Kingdom of Loathing? It's heavily text based, though it has stick-figure graphics, and a fantastic sense of humor. It's free to play, too. http://www.kingdomofloathing.com/
I guess I should also plug my own high-text, low-graphic, superhero RPG, Twilight Heroes. Don't let the "Twilight" scare you -- it's superheroes, not vampires. Also free, and also tries to be entertaining reading.
As long as you're getting a 40-hour salary, that doesn't sound so horrible. Plenty of time to work quietly on pet projects. I would have written a novel or two each year with the other 20 hours each week.
+1 use of Best Poem Ever
What, it didn't accept the incomplete password and prompt you for additional letters, such as "II"?
Did you point that teacher to a dictionary and get the grade adjusted? Also, what kind of teacher gives an F for one wrong word, whether it be misspelled, badly mangled, or made up?
From what I've seen from most computer users after a couple of decades of tech support, that statement isn't even remotely true. And that's without talking about complex subjects like spreadsheets, databases, and basic programming.
Through a physics class we used Excel to chart chaotic motion, draw fractal diagrams, and some other pretty wicked stuff that I'll admit a decade later I couldn't reproduce inside that program if I tried. Word is generally intuitive enough (though tables tend to give me fits of functionality-itis) but beyond the most obvious items Excel has a steep learning curve and the deep end of the pool goes very deep indeed.
but I still see a _lot_ of people getting degrees in things with absolutely no plan for how to turn it into a job when they graduate.
On the other hand, I got a degree in physics, thinking hard science was a pretty solid way to prepare myself for a job (and according to the chart in the article it is), and it wasn't until I graduated and started looking at options that I realized just how much I hated the idea of doing any of the things I'd been prepared for. At that point I fell back on my hobbies, the stuff that I liked playing around with in my spare time, and over the years I've done programming, copy editing, and computer tech support and administration. All of those things were either picked up through elective classes -- in part due to a very flexible liberal arts program at my school -- or on my own.
I'm just one anecdote, but I think my point may be that college is only a part of the process, and personal drive and ability to learn can compensate for any gaps in schooling. I could have studied just about anything and ended up with the exact same series of jobs, as long as I had some kind of college degree.
I haven't turned on my Nook in 6 months, so I guess you and I even out. The weird thing is, I do really like the Nook, but I go through spurts with it. Those spurts end when I pick up a dozen books at a library sale or on the rare occasion I make it to a Half Price Books and can stock up. When those books run out, I go back to the Nook.
+1 : well said
It's just about every site, I'd say. There's more of a delay at work using FF4 than there is at home using FF3. And my work connection is significantly faster than my home connection. Yeah, occasionally at home the page will hang or a large file is slower because of the slower download speed, but I can tell when it's network connection problems. For general clicking from one page to the next or staring at a completely empty tab just waiting for *something* to happen, FF4 leaves me feeling impatient a lot more than 3 ever did.
There may be something to nevermore's suggestion about the HTML5 table loading mechanism, and I'll give that a shot.
Sorry, but I won't touch anything with "4-Evar" in its name. Ever.
It doesn't feel faster, it feels a lot slower to me. I got upgraded at work, and FF4 is the first time in ages I've actually had "gee, that's taking a long time to load" moments, with long pauses of blank pages and the spinning little icon at the top of the tab. Some of the issue may *be* tabs, which I really loathe and which I promptly disabled in earlier versions but can't figure out how to hide effectively in FF4. Since I can't get them disabled I've been trying to learn to use them, but every time one loads it feels much slower than my old FF3 ever did.
Actually, the keyboard ends up looking a bit like a typewriter. It's a little weird to modern sensibilities, but there were whole decades when most typewriter keys were round, or at least all the old-style non-electric ones I've seen had round keys.