I'm in everything

Why, why, why is this part of our food? I recently noticed that high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) is one of the main ingredients in maple syrup. Why? Am I buying maple syrup or am I buying maple flavored corn syrup? I’m so tier of reading the ingredients on various products’ packages and seeing high-fructose corn syrup listed. It seems that this “poison” is part of the ingredients of almost everything. Last time I was surprised to see HFCS as an ingredient was when I read the label on a Heinz ketchup bottle, where I discovered that it made 40% of the product!

Yes, high-fructose corn syrup is a cheap sweetener alternative to sugar, but its long term negative effects to Americans greatly outweigh its sweet qualities or its monetary benefits to the price of our consumables. The results can be seen in the public’s health care bills. I only mention Americans because I haven’t heard of any other country using high-fructose corn syrup in the quantities or the extend it is being used in the United States. Personally I ratter pay an extra dollar or two for a product, but know that whatever my children, my family or I are consuming has real sugar in it, and our organs or DNA (Deoxyribonucleic acid) won’t be changing or suffer some other undesirable or health hazardous effects over time.

I recently heard of some study, which was conducted by an Asian organization, it had concluded that American men, who consume large amounts of soda, have a greater risk for prostate cancer. This is not a surprise. Soda has been part of our life for over a century now, but this was never a problem before. What has changed is the fact that in the last 15 or 20 years HFCS has become the main ingredient in soda and many other product. Maybe it’s not the amount of soda being consumed. Maybe it is the amount of a very common ingredient that is inescapably being deposited in our bodies via the food we consume!

• Follow your favorite bloggers on Skribit and see their recent activity
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I do find the Skribit service interesting, and as I have see it on other sites, it can prove a valuable tool. By the way, I first came cross Skribit on Darren Rowse’s ProBlogger blog.

Bonus: There is also a promo code – ackbar42 – which you can use by Jan. 27th, 2010, to upgrade your account to Skribit PRO at half-off the cost for 1 year.

Enjoy!

On a side note: Here is an instructional video on how to properly wash your hands, filmed by students from ITE College East:

Personally I think step 4 is not necessary. Maybe more applicable when in hospital settings or out in the field.

Back to the subject at hand: At work we also have a new refrigerator that makes ice. Unfortunately, it does not mechanically dispense it. A person has to reach into the ice box and take out individual cubes. I wash my hands before doing that, because I know it is neither ethical nor healthy to take out ice with dirty hand. I have hear and read about the ice in restaurants.

Earlier as I was walking toward the fridge to get some ice, I remembered what I observed yesterday and realized that that very same person could also be consuming the ice. Knowing that he doesn’t wash his hands I can, without a doubt, be hapless he doesn’t wash his hands before taking ice, either. And for that matter any other person that takes ice out of the communal ice box.

Cold drinks … I guess that’s the end of that!

P.S. Please, do use the ass gaskets. They are there for a reason. Oh, and cast your vote in the coworkers’ hygiene poll below, and sound off in the comments.

What the heck? I have been a Verizon customer for over 10 years now. I have had Verizon land line numbers, I’ve had Verizon DSL. I have also had and still have multiple mobile lines with Verizon, but apparently none of this is a factor. What happened to customer appreciation for brand loyalty. I can tell you what happened to it. It is gone, if it ever existed! From my experience with Verizon, AT&T, Comcast and other companies, a customer’s loyalty is only tracked as long as that customer doesn’t change their number, address or service. More on that in a future post.

Unlike AT&T we have not ever had any problems with the service, but I do wish Verizon did show back some love to loyal customers when the rare call from them comes.

I could care less when people utilize their middle finger to express some sort of emotions. But, I do find it inappropriate when amongst professional peers. Despite the fact that the environment is a party, people do notice what others at the event do and say. They do talk amongst themselves and after the party, as well as almost always there is someone recording audio or video or images. Then they get posted and someone writes something about what You did, even those who do not share opinions via writing, still form an opinion about You based on your actions. All of these do affect your reputation and your company’s reputation, because when amongst professionals you do represent your company, and there is an even higher stake when you are the founder!

Reputation + business = money The better the first the more of the last!

The finger + a camera = douchebaggery

Please, do share the reason for your answer in the comments after this post.

You can find more information about the TechCrunch party even here.

Beer and Fireworks = Bad Combination

The idiot morons in my neighborhood are already starting with the fireworks. WTF?! It’s only July 1st! There are 3 days left before I have to endure the random and unnecessary thumping of fireworks. Which, the previously mentions idiots, last year were setting off randomly throughout the night for a month after July 4th. When you are trying to sleep and when you have small children it is very inconsiderate and rude to be woken up, multiple times during the night, because the mentally lacking in capacity neighbors can’t control themselves. I was finding leftover fireworks in my yard for two months after July 4th, but it was more discouraging and enraging when I found the fireworks debris on the roof of our home.

Fittingly, here is a video dedicated to fireworks idiots. Enjoy!

P.S. I like fireworks, I like watching fireworks shows. When we were on out honeymoon in San Diego, I watched a fireworks shows that was coordinated between 12 different locations throughout the city. I could see 9 of those. It was great. It was awesome. But as a home owner, I prefer to keep explosives that I’m not in control of, and knowing that if  something happens no one is going to take responsibility for, away from my property and loved ones.

Meebo home page now featuring a background ad.

Meebo has finally started to monetize its home page. I like the design. Unlike many monetized backgrounds on popular web sites, their is more integrated, in style, with the content on the page. Good job.

At this time the add is for the Toyota Prius – 3rd generation.

Meebo does have some other products and services to complement its main function – integrating various instant messenger networks and protocols on the same web site. My favorite of their products is the Meebo notifier.

The Meebo notifier is a small app that sits in your system tray and it stays connected to the Meebo network, allowing you to exit your browser. The memory footprint is small, so it is not resource hog. In addition to providing notification when contacts come online and when new IMs are received, you will also be notified when any of the added accounts, like Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo mail, have new emails. A feature, which can be disabled if you don’t care much for emails. Lastly, the notifier is not an Adobe AIR app. Something, which to some extend, I find to be beneficial.

One thing I would like to see Meebo support is micro-blogging services, like Twitter, Identi.ca or Jaiku.

By the way, Meebo powers the chat room on this blog.

So, do you use Meebo? If you do, where do you use it? If you don’t, do leave me a comment regarding the reason.

Whois domain record: Meebo

GE CEO Jeffrey Immelt

I’m all for “Made in America”. There are American made products that can be competitive in China, but we have to remember that Chinese workers work for very little, long hours, and under conditions that will not be allowed in America. These and number of other factors, like unions, cost of living, health care, taxes, etc. are affecting the cost of manufacturing these “competitive” products for the Chinese market. Because of the labor laws, or lack there of, and inexpensive manufacturing cost so many products are made in China and so many American jobs are outsourced to that country and its serfs! What makes a big difference in why the more expensive American made products/exports will sell and succeed in foreign and overseas markets is quality. American made products are better made, they last longer, they perform better and they are more desired (when they can be afforded).

“Yoo”?!!? WTF is that. First of all – I have a name, and that person is well aware of it. Second, a similar response or something in the lines of “What’s happening” will be more in line of the “topic” of what should be a dialog, but a lot of times ends up being a monologue for many people.

If it takes someone more than half a second to a second to provide a response, which at this point in their life should be automated, then don’t bother responding. It won’t be the first time. Same applies if you have to think about responding or not in the first place!

In my opinion, the time limit rule for comebacks also applies in this case.

BTW, most of the time, my verbal response to the lack of one in cases of “Good morning”, “Good afternoon”, “Good day” or “How is it going?”, is “That good, huh?”.

What topped everything was when he was done with his calculations he asked me if I would like to guess how much it would be. So, knowing about how much things cost, what others have paid, and how much we wanted to spend, I said:

$15,000

A little bit more. - He retorted!

$16,500 – I said.

A little bit more. - He retorted, again.

$18,000 - I replied.

A little bit more. – Was his answer once again.

At that point I became annoyed and I said – “We are past the “A little bit more” point. We past it $1,500 ago!“. So he gave us his figure – $36,000 and few hundred more!!! What the heck? That number does NOT even qualify for a “much more” response. It’s double what I said, plus another $6,000.

That number is unacceptable, even if the windows are guaranteed for the life of the house, and to be replaced for free if an object ever happens to go through one.

To cream that, he spend the following 15 or so minutes somewhat refusing to leave and trying to get us to place an order. At least for some of the windows, which he estimated at just above $4,000 – for 3 small windows.

The cherry was when he told us that if we don’t place an order that evening and he has to come again, so we can place an order, we will not be eligible for the 20% first time discount. Huuu?!! Everyone else I have ever done business with, worked with, worked for, as well as it being a standard in doing business, gives discount on the first order, NOT on meeting for a first time.

Unbelievable!!

Pressure sales do not work on me. I come from a family with generations of entrepreneurs and business owners of various types. As well as, I married into one of the same type. Needless to say, both my wife and I are on the same path. Same applies for my sibling.

I have the options, skills and knowledge to do things myself. Just like I have been doing for many years. But, in the last few years, available time has become a factor.

Anyways, as my Mom always tells me – “Be cheap on the expensive thing.”. In my opinion $36,000 is at a premium for hand full of windows and two sliding doors.

Below you will find a simple storage space numerical explanation.

Bits & Bytes
1,024 bits = 1 kilobit (kb)
8 kb = 1 kilobyte (KB)
128 KB = 1 megabit (mb)
8 mb = 1 megabyte (MB)
1,024 KB = 1 megabyte (MB)
128 MB = 1 gigabit (gb)
8 gb = 1 gigabyte (GB)
1,024 MB = 1 gigabyte (GB)

The easiest way to go about calculating how many gigabytes  a number of megabytes or kilobytes would be is to divide by 1,024 your megabytes number, or divide twice by 1,024 your kilobytes number. Or start multiplying by 1,024 if you need to get down to specifics. I recently had to do this when I was configuring Postfix message and attachment acceptable size. I wanted the acceptable message size to be 15 MB, but the number I needed to set in Postfix was in bytes. So I multiplied 15 MB by 1,024 to get the number into kilobytes, then I multiplied it again by 1,024 to get it into bytes.

What erks me the most is when web hosting companies do this to customers. Their price plan gives the space in gigabytes, but the admins set the actual account space to that number with few zeros tagged behind it, instead of calculating it.

Techie readers, are you also annoyed by such misleading statements? Let me know by leaving me a comment below.

People use company logos in addition to their names, emails, alternate emails, phones, mobiles and fax numbers, as well as toll free customer support numbers. To those we corporate addresses, social network addresses, instant messenger addresses and you end up with a lot of information that gets tacked to every email of an email string. Why? It is a waits of bandwidth and space, and also time consuming to sort between the signatures and the actual email content.

Not to mention people who use double and triple signatures, because they are part of multiple organizations or want to show off their affiliations and other sorts of background. Also lets not forget that if you use a free email service, like Hotmail or Yahoo, they also append their own signatures, to promote their service and that they provide free email service. Or when someone emails from a business/corporate account, then there is a security message that comes with the email to inform every recipient that the information contain in the email “is confidential” and sharing it might violate something or another.

Image thanks to Transformatum.com

Overall there should be some standards to email signatures and what other information may be automatically appended to an email. I doubt that that will come to fruition, though. People and companies have been trying to standardize emails since the email system was invented decades ago, but as we can observe today – this has yet to happen. I would only hope and wish for that email signatures are only appended in an initial email. When there is an existing string of emails going back and forth then there is no need to append a signature. The involved parties clearly know who they are and what they can do. A signature should be appended only if the email string is forwarded to a new recipient.

Another thing that I am not a fan of, but it doesn’t bother me as much is when people forward emails and I can see that the email was forwarded 2, 3, 4 times and I can see tens of emails with each forward section. Not only does this take space, it consumes bandwidth, but most importantly it is a security problem. It creates an opportunity if one of the recipients is a spammer, or pissed at the sender to harvest the emails and use them to SPAM the rest of the recipients or cause damage to the senders reputation.

Are you also bothered by the above issues? Take the poll and let me know by leaving your comments below.

Twitter can be addictive! I never got into FriendFeed, only because I find it cluttered, or better yet – way too much going on. There is way too much going on in the activity stream to keep track of and to pay attention to comments. That is not to say that I have not picked up on some good images or links from the activity stream, but I do not use its commenting system. Actually, even thought some times I spend 50 to 60 hours per week on the Internet, I really do not find it useful. I know that many content creators, just like me, prefer to have/own comments either by us or to us. What happens if these services go down? All those comments will be gone.

I used to be addicted to Twitter. Just look at the graph below. But thanks to the type of work I do and its needs I was able to realize how much time I was wasting posting and refreshing all the time. At times I would simply sit and refresh the page for minutes at a time, hopping that “I won’t miss something”. Pretty ridiculous, huhh?! To me that was the biggest waist of time, because even though I was micro-blogging I was still spending more time REFRESHING A PAGE.

Twitter Stats by TweetStats.com

Some say that Twitter and micro-blogging is the next evolution of blogging. I disagree. I think that 140 character blogging, if you can call it that is a digression, not an evolution. I have concluded that Twitter and 140 character blogging is simply a retarded form of a chat(instant messenger) system. First of all, as a blogger, I hate the character limitations. Listen I have A LOT to say. If you go back in my Twitter history, you will see that I used to use TinyPaste to compensate for the limitations and to say what I have to say. Some would say why don’t I simply write an email or use an instant messenger. Well, because emails take too long to get a response to and not everyone uses an instant messenger. The Twitter users, with whom I communicate, they would hardly be willing to spend time writing a lengthy email, when they have the wonderful use of Twitter’s instant response – in short. I’ve also expressed on many occasions my disgust with how Twitter and services alike are forcing users to become grammar unintelligent so they can say what they have to say.

Probably about a month or so ago I decided to cut down on Twitter. I still get my urges to check it out, and I do. I do glance over what others are doing, but I hardly post now – mostly in response to others. Lastly, I found Twitter to be damaging to one’s social environment. That is not to say that Twitter is not good to start new friendships, keep up with people and expend one’s views, but that’s how far its usefulness should extend. A good personal example is from my work environment – instead of simply using my voice or getting out of my chair and making 5 steps, I communicate via Twitter with my coworkers. This also goes back to my statement that Twitter is a retarded form of chat/instant messenger.

Maybe it is time to evolve from Twitter and micro-blogging back to blogs and maybe then we can come up with a new better form of instant online communication. There are web sites which are trying to compensate for the character and hopefully grammar limitations by starting services, which mimic Twitter and such, but also allowing for longer post. But, again, if you think about it, isn’t that simply creating another blogging platform?!! Looks to me that people are evolving back.

BTW, what exactly is the point of having private domaining forums? Some of the biggest and most successful domaining forums have succeeded not by being private, but by charging for services and features.

Anyways, after couple of weeks I did not receive a response to my message. So, I simply registered on the forums, while doing so I was asked to provide 3 domains to verify my identity. I listed TitanFusion.net, Innovadix.com and DomainVentory.com. All three have my name on the domain record info. The following day my registration was rejected – “did not meet our membership requirements”?!?! As domainer with few hundred domain names to my name I’m pretty sure that I do meet the “requirements”, but, whatever. The point of this post is to illustrate poor customer service and public relations. Why? Because after I received the registration decline email, I emailed back to ask Donna what gives, because she was already following me on Twitter as domainventory. I did not receive a response from her, nor did I receive one after I tweeted about it.

Not responding to a potential customers or partners after multiple attempts via different channels is a poor way to do business. Do not write off the small ones, because someday the stands might be reversed and you might be in their place. Be prepared to be treated the same way you treated them!

I am pretty sure this is system wide, based on my experience with multiple accounts, but it looks like Twitter has changed who can delete direct messages. In the past either party could delete a message and then it will disappear for both, meaning that there was only one copy of the message. Now only the sender can delete a message. So if you have a lot of people sending you messages, it makes it impossible to remove what one might not want to look at, unless the sender deletes it themselves. The problem is that some people like to keep their messages, PMs, IMs and emails. It is even worst when messages are sent from people that are not following you, so now there is no way to contact the sender to get them to remove it. The results of this are two: 1) The user cannot remove messages; 2) It makes it easy to SPAM people, because they can’t remove the messages received.

The solution to this is for Twitter to add two extra columns in their database – a delete column for both the sender and receiver. It will be a boolean column, meaning it can be only true or false. When the system filters which messages to display, whichever column says true for the delete then that user does not get to see that message. The message can be truly deleted when both users have marked it delete either during a routine database maintenance and optimization, or when a user marks a message as deleted the system can check if the other user also has marked it delete. If both have done so then the message can be completely removed, in real time.

Whatever Twitter decides as far how direct messages are managed, it would be nice to be able to delete unwanted ones once again.

BTW, if you are not, you can follow me on Twitter by following either TheTitan or DomainVentory.

So tell me, are you bothered by these changes from Twitter or not?

One would thing that when offering discount to their customers GoDaddy would check to see if it is worth doing so, when the customers are members of the domain discount club, and the company is not willing to offer a greater discount! I suppose it makes no difference, because this is a courtesy service and a money raising act, but if it was me I would have taken a different approach.

My experience with GoDaddy, as a customer since 2003, has ALWAYS been positive. I have always had a good experience with their customer support, which I am glad is located in the States and I can call them at any time. To my knowledge GoDaddy does not outsource, so I must give the company and Bob Parsons props for doing this and keeping Americans employed. I know that part of the company’s customer relations strategy is to provide courtesy services, like company representatives personally calling me and emailing me to remind me of my expiring domains. In the past I have benefited from it, I enjoy it and appreciate it.

[cb type="company"]godaddy[/cb]

Courtesy of Screw-PayPal.com

PayPal, not only does your customer service blow you out of the water in being able to be at the top of the WORST customer service I have dealt with since I have been on the Internet (20 years now), but there are some really stupid rules in place. To shop I need to add a credit card, when I already have a bank account added. When I add a credit card and remove the bank account, because it is pointless to have the first linked when it canNOT be used to show with, my account becomes unverified, even though I have been a member for NINE years and have been “verified” numerous times before. Pathetic!

I used to wonder why so many people hold a poor opinion of PayPal, but recently I have been able to understand why, by developing my own negative opinion of the service.

Courtesy of PayPalSucks.com

[cb type="company"]paypal[/cb]

yhoo stock rebound - image from TechCrunch

Last week I tweeted that Yahoo’s stock was at $10 per share and it was time to buy. Comments on my tweet (Micro post.) said that it is pointless to do so. As I was on my way to New York, I wasn’t able to provide a response to the comments.

With today’s reports about Yahoo’s CEO, Jerry Yang, stepping down I wish I had listened to my own advice. But there is still time to buy, buy, buy. People have been complaining about Yang and wanting him out of the decisions circle. Now he is out and I can only imagine that the stoke will continue going up as the company finds new leadership or is bought or merged with another one. I would like that company to be Microsoft.

[cb type="company"]yahoo[/cb]

Personally I don’t care that there is a lack of ashtrays, but I do not think that it is fair to those who have chosen the slow suicide. Yes it is an option to order one, but what if you are reselling the car. Some people won’t buy the car for the lack of one. I suppose it is a marketing and economic decision. If the manufacturer does not have to make the space for it, they won’t. Same goes for spending money on the materials to make it.

I just find this trend strange. What do you think? What new trends have you picked up on that have surprised you?

If I reject a trade then the system should record which items were involved, what type they were and their condition. Don’t offer me similar trade and at times involving the exact same items days later.

Have any of you experienced this same issues? What do you like or dislike about the service? Let me know with a comment or two below. Looking at Swaptree’s forums, I see plenty of unhappy people.

[cb type="company"]swaptree[/cb]

WTF HP? But I am determined to find a way to get the recovery performed.

I contacted their support staff and my conversation follow:

[11:39] yvebts: Hello
[11:40] ad4game: hi
[11:41] yvebts: I am trying to register on ad4game.com as a publisher, but your system will not accept my city, because the name has a space in it
[11:41] yvebts: I can’t use – or _ because they are not accepted characters
[11:42] ad4game: just use no space
[11:42] ad4game: or write
[11:42] ad4game: space
[11:42] ad4game: we will adjust it
[11:42] ad4game: what is your website please?
[11:42] yvebts: OK. thank you
[11:43] yvebts: hivemindsgaming.com and clanmp.us
[11:51] ad4game: allright
[11:51] ad4game: i see you havent finished registering yet
[11:53] yvebts: I will attempt to complete the registration at a latter time. Thank you for you assistance.

Even though I know that I can send a letter to any one address in the US just by writing down the ZIP code and 4 digit extension, I wouldn’t write “space” in the name, because it will irritate me when I see it printed on the envelop. I have observed and have experienced the results of doing something silly like that and from people making assumptions. To top that, I have seen some really odd town names, so if they actually have someone who manually enters the address, why would they think of changing the town name?

Lastly, I tried registering last night and right before I typed this post. They still have not fixed this. As a company that claims to have been in the game advertising business for over 5 years you would think that they are quick to respond and fix issues in their system. Ad4Games.com, if you ever read this, if you have really been in the business for over 5 years just think about the number of publishers you have lost on. Even worse, the amount of revenue from advertisers you have lost on, because your advertiser sign up form has the same issue. I am not going to register until this is fixed. Probably eventually I will forget about your site and will not register at all.

BTW, what does “… been in the gaming industry for more than 5 years.” mean? You have been designing, developing, selling, promoting …. games?!

UPDATE (2008-10-27): It appears that the type of character limitations in the sign up form has been fixed. When I was signing up I noticed that Ad4Game had made a positive step in password security by mandating that passwords be alphanumeric. Good job.

What do you think? Take the following poll, please:

I recently had oysters produced and canned in China, and they weren’t very good. There were bits and peaces of shells. I had to go to a more expensive store to buy ones that were made and canned in Germany. I can tell you now that the quality was significantly different . From the size of the oysters to the quality of the oil there were in – just an unparalleled improvement.

What king of sea food do you like? Have you had similar experience with can foods?

http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquirer/news/2008/09/17/google-valve
http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/09/17/google-to-acquire-valve/

I decided to send Valve a quick email, and I think that everyone that is agains this happenign should do as well.

Good morning,

TechCrunch and TheInquirer are reporting a potential acquisition of Valve by Google.

Please say it isn’t so. I’ve been a fan of you company and games since you guys first started. I have been following your company and enjoyed your products all these years. An acquisition by google might seem like a financially good choice but technology and product wise it is not.

Valve has managed to remain financially independent and overcome a variety of obstacles all this years. Please do NOT give into the google idea. Be yourselves. Visiting Valve headquarters and working for Valve is a dream for many people. Don’t destroy your fan base.

Sincerely,

Alexandar Tzanov

http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquirer/news/2008/09/17/google-valve

http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/09/17/google-to-acquire-valve/

You can email Valve at contact@valvesoftware.com, or contact the company in the following ways

Telephone:
425-889-9642

FAX:
425-827-4843

Postal address:
PO BOX 1688
Bellevue, WA 98009

The community has already started a discoution on the Steam forums.

It’s nice to be environmentally friendly, but the environment is not going to pay fees and charges applied to my account. So, companies do be environmentally friendly with something else, something that is less vital. Here is a great suggestion: you can be environmentally friendly with ALL that SPAM you send to customer soliciting for useless cards and services. You stop that and you will do a double duty: 1. environmentally friendly; 2. Preventing identity theft and credit score/history ruining.