The other day I got a robomessage (an automated email) from my ISP, Comcast.net, saying that my computer was being used for spam, and thus they were blocking me -- I would be unable to send email.
This accusation is impossible; I use ZoneAlarm Professional (and even pay for it), which blocks mass outbound emailings; and I've run three separate virus-checking programs, which have found nothing. Of course, the Comcast email had no instructions about how to argue the point, other than links to FAQs of smug instructions to use your firewall and run virus programs.
Not a big problem, I thought, I'll just use Gmail as my Reply ISP, which I did - for two weeks, and then that stopped working too.
I went to Comcast.net and drilled down until I found the "chat with a tech" link -- no way was I going to go by telephone and be driven crazy by the phone tree!
The tech said all I need to do was change my Outgoing Server (SMTP) port from the default 25 to 587. Lo & behold, that worked.
He said all Comcast had done when they decided I was a zombie computer was block my port 25.
Of course, it didn't work immediately. I was using Thunderbird, which he promptly told me Comcast doesn't "support." But after I sneered at him (in text), he suggested I delete my existing identities and re-enter them. That worked. (I hate the ease with which companies simply say "we don't support that," like it gets them off the hook. Only Outlook and Outlook Express, he said - ironic, since OE is notoriously insecure!)
I also changed the ports on Outlook, in case I get stuck using that benighted, slow-as-a-pig program.
So I'm back on track.
Sigh. Some days I hate computers.
Friday, November 14, 2008
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
Terry Pratchett Talks about his Dementia
Famed author Terry Pratchett, whose Discworld books my daughter Molly and I read with great joy, announced ten months ago that he has been diagnosed with dementia -- in his case, a form of Alzheimer's.
In this newspaper article he talks about what it's like knowing you have a disease that will rob you of your memory, your ability to work (his has written 45 books in 25 years), and your personality. Worth reading!
In this newspaper article he talks about what it's like knowing you have a disease that will rob you of your memory, your ability to work (his has written 45 books in 25 years), and your personality. Worth reading!
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Buy Gold Coins to Ride Out Disaster? Advice to a Daughter
One of my kids asked me how to buy gold coins in case the economy collapses, and how *many* to buy for that purpose.
My response:
You get them from Coin Shops, which you can find in the yellow pages under, I think, Coin Dealers. You would buy American gold coins (American money), once ounce each coin, price is the market price for one ounce of gold plus a small markup (so if the price is $895 you might have to pay $925, for example). You are NOT buying "numismatic" or collectible coins – you are buying so-called Bullion coins.
How many would you need to ride out the collapse of the economy? There's no good answer to that – as many as you could afford. Even one or two might help. To survive a period of insane inflation, you'd need as much in gold as you'd need in present-day dollars to survive – in other words, if you needed $9,000 to survive for six months of collapse, you'd buy $9,000 in coins (10 coins) – the dollar would go nuts and inflate 10,000 percent, but your gold coins would still buy what $9,000 would buy today – but in this disastrous future, your $9,000 in gold coins would be worth $90,000 in dollar bills --and would still buy what $9,000 buys today.
I think the chances of this kind of disaster are vanishingly small. Even inflation, which might very well start going up soon with all this money flooding the system, won't go to Weimar Republic levels because the Fed knows how to keep the lid on runaway inflation – now they know, anyway.
So if you could manage to squeeze out enough to buy ONE ounce of gold now; then each year or so buy another one, maybe as a birthday present to yourself – you should be fine.
More immediately relevant would be to have a fistful of CASH (dollars) on hand in case of natural disaster – in Houston during the hurricane last month, power went out and people couldn't get cash out of their ATMs and the banks were closed and the credit-card machines in all the stores didn't work. So I have a thousand or so in ones, fives, tens, and twenties in a box here, for spending money for a week or two or three if and when the Big One comes. I think tucking away some twenties now and then is your best nearterm protection......
My response:
You get them from Coin Shops, which you can find in the yellow pages under, I think, Coin Dealers. You would buy American gold coins (American money), once ounce each coin, price is the market price for one ounce of gold plus a small markup (so if the price is $895 you might have to pay $925, for example). You are NOT buying "numismatic" or collectible coins – you are buying so-called Bullion coins.
How many would you need to ride out the collapse of the economy? There's no good answer to that – as many as you could afford. Even one or two might help. To survive a period of insane inflation, you'd need as much in gold as you'd need in present-day dollars to survive – in other words, if you needed $9,000 to survive for six months of collapse, you'd buy $9,000 in coins (10 coins) – the dollar would go nuts and inflate 10,000 percent, but your gold coins would still buy what $9,000 would buy today – but in this disastrous future, your $9,000 in gold coins would be worth $90,000 in dollar bills --and would still buy what $9,000 buys today.
I think the chances of this kind of disaster are vanishingly small. Even inflation, which might very well start going up soon with all this money flooding the system, won't go to Weimar Republic levels because the Fed knows how to keep the lid on runaway inflation – now they know, anyway.
So if you could manage to squeeze out enough to buy ONE ounce of gold now; then each year or so buy another one, maybe as a birthday present to yourself – you should be fine.
More immediately relevant would be to have a fistful of CASH (dollars) on hand in case of natural disaster – in Houston during the hurricane last month, power went out and people couldn't get cash out of their ATMs and the banks were closed and the credit-card machines in all the stores didn't work. So I have a thousand or so in ones, fives, tens, and twenties in a box here, for spending money for a week or two or three if and when the Big One comes. I think tucking away some twenties now and then is your best nearterm protection......
(Just don't hide the box in the places where burglars know people always hide their cash.)
dad
dad
JK Rowling: The Fringe Benefits of Failure [aka: "I had an old typewriter"!]
This is excerpted from the wonderful speech JK Rowling, author of the Harry Potter series, gave as her commencement address at the Annual Meeting of the Harvard Alumni Assocatiion on June 5, 2008. The full text can be found here.
Rowling talks about how she had hit rock bottom--divorced, with a child, jobless, and in poverty--when she took up the work that would become the first Harry Potter book. This quote gives a good sense of her:
"What I feared most for myself at your age was not poverty, but failure....
"So why do I talk abut the benefits of failure? Simply because failure meant a stripping away of the inessential. I stopped pretending to myself that I was anything other than what I was, and began to direct all my energey into finishing the only work that mattered to me. Had I really succeeded at anything else, I might never have found the determination to succeed in the one arena I believed I truly belonged. I was set free, because my greatest fear had already been realised, and I was still alive, and I still had a daughter whom I adored, and I had an old typewriter and a big idea. And so rock bottom became the solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life..."
Rowling talks about how she had hit rock bottom--divorced, with a child, jobless, and in poverty--when she took up the work that would become the first Harry Potter book. This quote gives a good sense of her:
"What I feared most for myself at your age was not poverty, but failure....
"So why do I talk abut the benefits of failure? Simply because failure meant a stripping away of the inessential. I stopped pretending to myself that I was anything other than what I was, and began to direct all my energey into finishing the only work that mattered to me. Had I really succeeded at anything else, I might never have found the determination to succeed in the one arena I believed I truly belonged. I was set free, because my greatest fear had already been realised, and I was still alive, and I still had a daughter whom I adored, and I had an old typewriter and a big idea. And so rock bottom became the solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life..."
Tuesday, May 6, 2008
Federal Tax Rebate--When Will I Get Mine?
That depends on your Social Security number! It could be a couple of months! Didn't know that, didja?
The "economic stimulus payments" are being mailed out (or direct-deposited) based on the last two digits of your Social Security number (or, for joint filers, that of the person named first on your tax return.)
Assuming you filed your tax return on time, here are the dates:
Direct Deposit
Last 2 SSN digits Payments transmitted by
00-20 May 2
21-75 May 9
76-99 May 16
Paper Checks
Last 2 SSN digits Payments mailed by
00-09 May 16
10-18 May 23
19-25 May 30
26-38 June 6
39-51 June 13
52-63 June 20
64-75 June 27
76-87 July 4
88-99 July 11
Sweet Jesus!! July 11th!!!???
Funny how this info kind of got pushed aside. Everybody heard they were starting to send out stimilus checks at the beginning of May; I never heard that it would take up to two months for them to show up! (I owed money, so I didn't think to fill out the direct deposit info on my return!)
Oy!
The "economic stimulus payments" are being mailed out (or direct-deposited) based on the last two digits of your Social Security number (or, for joint filers, that of the person named first on your tax return.)
Assuming you filed your tax return on time, here are the dates:
Direct Deposit
Last 2 SSN digits Payments transmitted by
00-20 May 2
21-75 May 9
76-99 May 16
Paper Checks
Last 2 SSN digits Payments mailed by
00-09 May 16
10-18 May 23
19-25 May 30
26-38 June 6
39-51 June 13
52-63 June 20
64-75 June 27
76-87 July 4
88-99 July 11
Sweet Jesus!! July 11th!!!???
Funny how this info kind of got pushed aside. Everybody heard they were starting to send out stimilus checks at the beginning of May; I never heard that it would take up to two months for them to show up! (I owed money, so I didn't think to fill out the direct deposit info on my return!)
Oy!
Friday, May 2, 2008
Book review: Wine Across America--Not a Road Trip Book!
"Wine Across America: A Photographic Road Trip" by Daphne Larkin
Somehow I didn't fully grasp from the Web page that this is a coffee-table picture book of photos of wineries across America--it is NOT a guide or travelogue you could use to visit wineries as you drive across country, which is what I wanted. I allowed myself to be misled by the words "Road Trip" in the title. It's not even a narrative of the authors' driving around the country visiting wineries!
In fact, you can't *use* this book at all, you can only look at the pictures, because there is no map of where these wineries are, or addresses to find them. Not what I had in mind, and this mismatch is why I give it a low score. (As a picture book, though, it's pretty.)
Book Review: "Fantastic Voyage"--Good guide to living forever--BUT boy, is it depressing !
"Fantastic Voyage: Live Long Enough to Live Forever"--by Ray Kurzweil
I am reading Ray's Singularity book, where he makes a convincing case that tech is moving forward so incredibly fast that there's a good chance that if you can only make it to 2020 still alive & functioning, you might live a much longer life than we do now, and in a much better state of health.
I know Ray eats lots of health pills and stuff, and wanted to get his recommendations for what exactly to do to actually live to 2020 (when I will be 80). The book does a good job of methodically working through all aspects of a healthy life, from exercise and stress to diet, with a heavy emphasis on diet. It is certainly "actionable" since he tells you what you need to do.
Problem is, what you need to do is give up anything you've ever liked to eat in your life, and spend the rest of your life (or until 2020) eating stuff that has no flavor, no taste, no fun, no jazz. Give up sweets, simple starches like potatoes, macaroni, spaghetti, bread other than whole-wheat with pebbles in it, ice cream and milk and all other dairy products, and every form of meat except salmon -- not even tuna and swordfish because they have high mercury levels. No gravies or sauces, no mayo, only olive oil--and only certain specific expensive olive oils, too.
Instead you are to revert to your hunter-gatherer ancestral dietary load of raw everything, fatless everything, little meat, little sweet, little tasty -- if it's tasteless, dry, chewy, and flavorless, then good. If you find yourself smiling after you take a bite--then spit it out, it's killing you!
Kiss off mealtime and snacktime as joyful enterprises in your life. Eating is something you will from now on do for fuel only, not for pleasure.
To be fair, Ray and his partner make two points: First, if you really do try to reduce yourself to this level of eating, after a while you will get somewhat used to it -- it's supposedly true that, for example, if you eat a lot of sweets you become addicted to sweet tastes, whereas if you forgo sweets, after a while your sweet tooth diminishes. So it's not torture forever--just for the months (or years?) it will take your body and your taste buds to adjust. I suppose that might have some truth to it. God knows if I have chocolate milk for breakfast (so shoot me!), my sweet tooth for the rest of that day becomes more like a sweet fang.
Second, he says that by the time we reach 2020, medical technology breakthroughs will make it likely that we'll be able to go back to abusing our digestive tracts somewhat, since medicine will be able to offset or compensate for our poor choices and we'll have sin without guilt once again. Ah, Eden!
But for now, I just get depressed every time I look in the fridge, or walk the aisles of the grocery store, knowing that every single thing that catches my eye will kill me outright, or at least before I reach 2020. It will be really, really annoying if I am the last man to die from 20th century body malfunctions! But if I had that much discipline and self control, I'd be a much better person than I have ever been. And how likely is that?
(This review posted to Amazon May 2, 2008)
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