| 4 people marked this as a favorite. |
Is it political to say let's give it up for our new poet laureate? Because that young woman is amazing.
Is that what Lady Gaga's new title is? Good for her!
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
Man you're excited about this inauguration.
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
Need a job?
Read the sourcecode for this page
Whitehouse.gov/priorities
|
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
For over 20 years now, I've been telling everyone who would listen (and even many who wouldn't) to never, ever, ever click links in emails to sign in to web sites, especially sites that store financial or personal information. I even took to filing fraud reports with Chase every time they sent me an email that provided a link for me to sign into my account.
This morning I received what I was sure was an obvious, pathetic phising attempt from the Social Security Organization: "Sign in to see your statement", complete with a link that didn't match the direct access URL. (socialsecurity.gov vs. ssa.gov).
I manually went to ssa.gov, and sure enough, my statement was ready.
Is it any wonder that internet fraud is rampant when, after 25+ years of phishing, banks and government organizations still can't figure out that providing links in emails is a horrible, horrible thing that should never be done?
The government thing here that has messages from the government for you always emails with 'there is a new message waiting for you. Please go to website'
No links, and if you put 'website' into google you get the website. They always end the email stating that the government will never email with direct inlog links.| 4 people marked this as a favorite. |
For over 20 years now, I've been telling everyone who would listen (and even many who wouldn't) to never, ever, ever click links in emails to sign in to web sites, especially sites that store financial or personal information. I even took to filing fraud reports with Chase every time they sent me an email that provided a link for me to sign into my account.
This morning I received what I was sure was an obvious, pathetic phising attempt from the Social Security Organization: "Sign in to see your statement", complete with a link that didn't match the direct access URL. (socialsecurity.gov vs. ssa.gov).
I manually went to ssa.gov, and sure enough, my statement was ready.
Is it any wonder that internet fraud is rampant when, after 25+ years of phishing, banks and government organizations still can't figure out that providing links in emails is a horrible, horrible thing that should never be done?
The government thing here that has messages from the government for you always emails with 'there is a new message waiting for you. Please go to website'
No links, and if you put 'website' into google you get the website. They always end the email stating that the government will never email with direct inlog links.
Exactly. That's how my credit union does everything. "You have a new statement. You have a new message. You have a new xxx."
Putting links into emails was a convenience for all of the first hour of emails' existence. Since then it's been the #1 tool of scammers worldwide.
I still remember the final time I worked on an older friend's computer. "Yes. You have another virus. Yes, you got it by clicking on an email link. You cannot click on links in emails, no matter who they say they're from."
"But I have to click on the links! Sometimes they have important information!"
"Then check on the link's underlying URL to make sure it's a location you trust."
"I don't know how to do that."
"I can show you."
"It's too much work."
"If you refuse to stop clicking on links in emails, then I refuse to keep helping you."
And that was that. He was so adamant that he *HAD* to click on any links that came in via email that he abandoned my help rather than stop clicking links.
It was... amazing.
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
Hello! And now back to bed to hopefully continue to sleep whatever this is off.
(It not COVID or anything like it.)
It (more or less) worked!
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
O good, a nice man is offering us all fake German bank-notes with ultra-purple features
| 8 people marked this as a favorite. |
Wisdom from the mouths of babes and all that.
As briefly as I can summarize:
(1) Contractors opened up the floor underneath the bathroom. More technically, contractors fell through the floor underneath the bathroom, and decided that while they were there, they might as well investigate.
(2) Contractors found 30-year-old termite repair work that had been done "terribly" (our old, "Big enough nails and enough scrapwood can fix anything" owner), plumbing that was done incompetently (the aforementioned connecting copper directly to cast iron, which doesn't work unless you're looking for an electric current in your water and a lot of corrosion in your pipes), and even a drain pipe that, as the contractor put it, "I put a level on it and if the previous guy hadn't been planning on making it level, he did a d**ned good job anyway." Plus no bracing on any of the pipes, explaining why we could never run cold water in the bathroom (horrific water hammer).
This led Impus Major to ask:
"In what other industry do people intentionally try to cheap out on everything? It's not like people go to restaurants and say, "I'll have the steak and lobster, but I'm on a budget. So replace the lobster with crayfish and give me the cheapest cut of beef you have."
And it's really true. I know of no other industry where you ask someone to make something for you, and then it's considered perfectly reasonable to ask them to do it as poorly as possible. It's pretty appalling.
|
|
| 5 people marked this as a favorite. |
For over 20 years now, I've been telling everyone who would listen (and even many who wouldn't) to never, ever, ever click links in emails to sign in to web sites, especially sites that store financial or personal information. I even took to filing fraud reports with Chase every time they sent me an email that provided a link for me to sign into my account.
This morning I received what I was sure was an obvious, pathetic phising attempt from the Social Security Organization: "Sign in to see your statement", complete with a link that didn't match the direct access URL. (socialsecurity.gov vs. ssa.gov).
I manually went to ssa.gov, and sure enough, my statement was ready.
Is it any wonder that internet fraud is rampant when, after 25+ years of phishing, banks and government organizations still can't figure out that providing links in emails is a horrible, horrible thing that should never be done?
The government thing here that has messages from the government for you always emails with 'there is a new message waiting for you. Please go to website'
No links, and if you put 'website' into google you get the website. They always end the email stating that the government will never email with direct inlog links.Exactly. That's how my credit union does everything. "You have a new statement. You have a new message. You have a new xxx."
Putting links into emails was a convenience for all of the first hour of emails' existence. Since then it's been the #1 tool of scammers worldwide.
I still remember the final time I worked on an older friend's computer. "Yes. You have another virus. Yes, you got it by clicking on an email link. You cannot click on links in emails, no matter who they say they're from."
"But I have to click on the links! Sometimes they have important information!"
"Then check on the link's underlying URL to make sure it's a location you...
You dont have to convince me. I work with this king of people every day.
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
...Anything you want done for insurance fraud?
And it's really true. I know of no other industry where you ask someone to make something for you, and then it's considered perfectly reasonable to ask them to do it as poorly as possible. It's pretty appalling.
Well, honestly, there are the "house flipping" people, who want nothing more than to buy a run-down house with lots of damage, make the cheapest possible fixes, then turn around and sell it as quickly as possible. I can understand wanting the "minimal fix allowed by code".
But none of this work is up to code, so a house inspector would rip it apart, and suddenly your profits would plummet by far more than the money you saved.
The only reason we could afford this house in the first place was that the inspector's report was a damning list of indictments against previous repairs, so our house was over 25% less expensive than our neighbor's house, which was smaller but in good repair when it sold the next year.
And yeah, we're finally in a position where we can start repairing it all, but some of the stuff (like the copper-iron connections) weren't listed in the report, and others (like the level drainpipe) were done by a "handyman" our realtor swore by, and at a time where I was less wary of "handymen".
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
Wisdom from the mouths of babes and all that.
As briefly as I can summarize:
(1) Contractors opened up the floor underneath the bathroom. More technically, contractors fell through the floor underneath the bathroom, and decided that while they were there, they might as well investigate.(2) Contractors found 30-year-old termite repair work that had been done "terribly" (our old, "Big enough nails and enough scrapwood can fix anything" owner), plumbing that was done incompetently (the aforementioned connecting copper directly to cast iron, which doesn't work unless you're looking for an electric current in your water and a lot of corrosion in your pipes), and even a drain pipe that, as the contractor put it, "I put a level on it and if the previous guy hadn't been planning on making it level, he did a d**ned good job anyway." Plus no bracing on any of the pipes, explaining why we could never run cold water in the bathroom (horrific water hammer).
This led Impus Major to ask:
"In what other industry do people intentionally try to cheap out on everything? It's not like people go to restaurants and say, "I'll have the steak and lobster, but I'm on a budget. So replace the lobster with crayfish and give me the cheapest cut of beef you have."And it's really true. I know of no other industry where you ask someone to make something for you, and then it's considered perfectly reasonable to ask them to do it as poorly as possible. It's pretty appalling.
LA Noire gets into this.
| 4 people marked this as a favorite. |
...This led Impus Major to ask:
"In what other industry do people intentionally try to cheap out on everything? It's not like people go to restaurants and say, "I'll have the steak and lobster, but I'm on a budget. So replace the lobster with crayfish and give me the cheapest cut of beef you have."And it's really true. I know of no other industry where you ask someone to make something for you, and then it's considered perfectly reasonable to ask them to do it as poorly as possible. It's pretty appalling.
1) Do not disparage crayfish. They are delicious. I'll take blackened crayfish pasta or any authentic Cajun or Creole recipe for a crayfish dish over lobster all days of the week.
b) Our neighbor when I was growing up was a FL state certified class C contractor. He built all of his home's inner walls and entire Florida room -- including exterior walls -- out of scraps from his contracting jobs. I mean, walls built from 3 or 4 pieces of scrap 2x4 instead of just buying a new 8'/10' studs. Used grungy/partly corroded electrical receptacle boxes and multiple short pieces of conduit instead of new. The damn drywall looked like a kid's collage project. He built it all in the late 1950s, so it's not like he was paying today's prices for stuff. And he was proud of his thriftiness. My dad had polaroids that he took when he was asked for an estimate on fixing some of this stuff by the new owners. I still wonder about what other construction horrors that house is hiding.
| 3 people marked this as a favorite. |
...This led Impus Major to ask:
"In what other industry do people intentionally try to cheap out on everything? It's not like people go to restaurants and say, "I'll have the steak and lobster, but I'm on a budget. So replace the lobster with crayfish and give me the cheapest cut of beef you have."And it's really true. I know of no other industry where you ask someone to make something for you, and then it's considered perfectly reasonable to ask them to do it as poorly as possible. It's pretty appalling.
1) Do not disparage crayfish. They are delicious. I'll take blackened crayfish pasta or any authentic Cajun or Creole recipe for a crayfish dish over lobster all days of the week.
b) Our neighbor when I was growing up was a FL state certified class C contractor. He built all of his home's inner walls and entire Florida room -- including exterior walls -- out of scraps from his contracting jobs. I mean, walls built from 3 or 4 pieces of scrap 2x4 instead of just buying a new 8'/10' studs. Used grungy/partly corroded electrical receptacle boxes and multiple short pieces of conduit instead of new. The damn drywall looked like a kid's collage project. He built it all in the late 1950s, so it's not like he was paying today's prices for stuff. And he was proud of his thriftiness. My dad had polaroids that he took when he was asked for an estimate on fixing some of this stuff by the new owners. I still wonder about what other construction horrors that house is hiding.
Makes me wonder whether my guy moved to Florida or something.
My favorite? He didn't have 2"x4"s long enough for the studio roof, so he used smaller pieces nailed together with 4" nails. When he went up to put on the shingles the roof sagged. No problem! He kept adding layer after layer of shingle until the sagging didn't show.
I pulled 7-8 layers of shingles off that stupid shed!
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
1) Do not disparage crayfish. They are delicious. I'll take blackened crayfish pasta or any authentic Cajun or Creole recipe for a crayfish dish over lobster all days of the week.
I give Florida a lot of crap. My father-in-law and his wife live there, and I've had more than a few run-ins with the Locals of Lesser Enlightenment.
However.
Some of the absolute best seafood I've ever had have been in little hole-in-the-wall places in Florida. I will not disparage that aspect of America's Boggy A~$~%$$.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
I will, I've had crayfish, I don't get why people eat them.
|
| 3 people marked this as a favorite. |
Is it political to say let's give it up for our new poet laureate? Because that young woman is amazing.
It means you're just a lover of poetry. It was very moving.
Also, she is the National Youth Poet Laureate, which is not actually the same thing as poet laureate.
| 5 people marked this as a favorite. |
Is it political to say let's give it up for our new poet laureate? Because that young woman is amazing.It means you're just a lover of poetry. It was very moving.
Also, she is the National Youth Poet Laureate, which is not actually the same thing as poet laureate.
Edited: I had it in my head you had to be the US Poet Laureate to be the Inaugural Poet. This appears to be incorrect.
No one is allowed to tell WW that I just admitted I was wrong.| 4 people marked this as a favorite. |
Is it political to say let's give it up for our new poet laureate? Because that young woman is amazing.It means you're just a lover of poetry. It was very moving.
Also, she is the National Youth Poet Laureate, which is not actually the same thing as poet laureate.
Edited: I had it in my head you had to be the US Poet Laureate to be the Inaugural Poet. This appears to be incorrect.
No one is allowed to tell WW that I just admitted I was wrong.
Hey WW, I have somethi-urk... gurgle... gasp... ~last sigh~
~gone~
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
=...It's not like people go to restaurants and say, "I'll have the steak and lobster, but I'm on a budget. So replace the lobster with crayfish and give me the cheapest cut of beef you have..."1) Do not disparage crayfish. They are delicious. I'll take blackened crayfish pasta or any authentic Cajun or Creole recipe for a crayfish dish over lobster all days of the week.
The most entertaining part of this is that I was trying to show how much cheaper crayfish meat is, but it looks like lobster meat runs around $29/pound (based on Google research on price per pound vs. yield per pound) and crayfish meat runs around $42/pound.
So it's an upgrade. Who knew?
(I don't eat shellfish of any kind, so I sure didn't...)
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
Is it political to say let's give it up for our new poet laureate? Because that young woman is amazing.It means you're just a lover of poetry. It was very moving.
Also, she is the National Youth Poet Laureate, which is not actually the same thing as poet laureate.
Edited: I had it in my head you had to be the US Poet Laureate to be the Inaugural Poet. This appears to be incorrect.
No one is allowed to tell WW that I just admitted I was wrong.Hey WW, I have somethi-urk... gurgle... gasp... ~last sigh~
~gone~
Hmm...I seem to have WW's phone number handy...
| 3 people marked this as a favorite. |
I guess I can give a small update on my folks. Had a text conversation with my Mom today. She's doing a little better, not much, but better is better. Dad, on the other hand, isn't. He isn't getting any worse, but he isn't getting any better either. His O2 levels just won't come back up. So he's supposed to get a chest CT Thursday afternoon so they can see if there is any fluid buildup in his lungs or something. Hopefully they'll be able to find something that they can work with to get him feeling better. So I guess there's some good news in there.
Best of wishes to them both. COVID19 is no joke.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
I guess I can give a small update on my folks. Had a text conversation with my Mom today. She's doing a little better, not much, but better is better. Dad, on the other hand, isn't. He isn't getting any worse, but he isn't getting any better either. His O2 levels just won't come back up. So he's supposed to get a chest CT Thursday afternoon so they can see if there is any fluid buildup in his lungs or something. Hopefully they'll be able to find something that they can work with to get him feeling better. So I guess there's some good news in there.
here's hoping your dad gets better soon. I'm glad mom is improving.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
So far Forging Hephaestus by Drew Hayes has been very enjoyable. I am 1/3 the way through so far.
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
Oh. Right. I am supposed to be dead. urk... -falls over -
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Hey there FHDM. Hopefully you are having a good day.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
I guess I can give a small update on my folks. Had a text conversation with my Mom today. She's doing a little better, not much, but better is better. Dad, on the other hand, isn't. He isn't getting any worse, but he isn't getting any better either. His O2 levels just won't come back up. So he's supposed to get a chest CT Thursday afternoon so they can see if there is any fluid buildup in his lungs or something. Hopefully they'll be able to find something that they can work with to get him feeling better. So I guess there's some good news in there.
Get well soon to them both, gran
Praying for your family, gran.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Good luck, gran!
As for me, I just attended the weekly release meeting in my manager's stead and learned that the team that's supposed to give us our lab machines is having major technical issues to the tune of, "You're not getting your final lab machines until at least mid-February."
Looks like it's going to be a slooooooooooow couple of weeks at work...
| 3 people marked this as a favorite. |
Aaaand... here we go...
Our massive winter "heat wave" has finally broken (highs in the low-to-mid 70s, lows in the high 40s or low 50s), and we're back to normal winter temperatures: Highs in mid-to-high 50s and lows in the high 30s or low 40s.
Needless to say, GothBard is freezing.
(It doesn't help that the kids were horsing around last night and managed to knock out the pilot light in the core heater, so it was in the 50s in the house when we got up.)
| 4 people marked this as a favorite. |
I'm looking through old X-Men comic books for.. reasons..
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Glad your mom is on the mend, gran. I will keep them in my prayers.
I'm looking through old X-Men comic books for.. reasons..
Sounds extremely legitimate. :D
| 4 people marked this as a favorite. |
You'll never see Batman, or Wolverine the same way.
Mostly Wolverine.
Alas, this has led me further down the rabbit hole to see how deep this runs.
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
I know, I know, "I wish I had your problems..."
But we just got told we might not get any machines before mid-February.
So... I managed to fill this week with, "Look over all the stuff you didn't think you'd have time to add to the courses and put it in."
That gives me 3 weeks with no real work to do.
I am going to be one seriously bored puppy.
| 3 people marked this as a favorite. |
So, we loved our fireplace contractor so much that we hired him to do our back deck and our bathroom. He's an amazing flake, but once he shows up, he does top-notch work at a reasonable price.
As I've mentioned, the bathroom project ran just under 5 months late. The first week, his team showed up, set up the temporary shower, tore out the old bathroom, and we were up and running!
Then... he put in the subcontractor who even he describes as a "total flake".
This guy's been working alone for 2 weeks now. He shows up between 11 and 12, works 'til 4 or 4:30, cleans up, and calls it a day. His work is top-notch, but in 2 weeks he's done the wiring. And one pipe. And today he hasn't shown up at all.
Plus side: Great work, all up to code, work site 100% COVID-safe (can't transmit with just one guy on-site)
Down side: At the rate he's working, we might not have a bathroom 'til August.
|
|
| 3 people marked this as a favorite. |
...Anything you want done for insurance fraud?
And it's really true. I know of no other industry where you ask someone to make something for you, and then it's considered perfectly reasonable to ask them to do it as poorly as possible. It's pretty appalling.
Well, honestly, there are the "house flipping" people, who want nothing more than to buy a run-down house with lots of damage, make the cheapest possible fixes, then turn around and sell it as quickly as possible. I can understand wanting the "minimal fix allowed by code".
But none of this work is up to code, so a house inspector would rip it apart, and suddenly your profits would plummet by far more than the money you saved.
The only reason we could afford this house in the first place was that the inspector's report was a damning list of indictments against previous repairs, so our house was over 25% less expensive than our neighbor's house, which was smaller but in good repair when it sold the next year.
And yeah, we're finally in a position where we can start repairing it all, but some of the stuff (like the copper-iron connections) weren't listed in the report, and others (like the level drainpipe) were done by a "handyman" our realtor swore by, and at a time where I was less wary of "handymen".
Yeah. When MrT and I were looking for a house, we saw one of those flipped houses. Not good. Luckily I got a good eye for that kind of work.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
So, this is the kind of thing that ALL user interfaces suffer, so I'm not as much ashamed as I am amused:
ChatBot: Hi, I'm <fake name>! How may I help you?
Customer: Espanol.
ChatBot: I don't speak English. Please talk to me in Spanish.
Customer: <Expletive>.
And it was a surprisingly mild mistake. The chatbot *did* correctly switch to Spanish. The prompt was just wrong.
But sometimes the wrong prompt is just funny.