The nice thing about Facebook

is I can hide all the posts of the idiots that I'm too polite to unfriend. Seriously, once upon a time if you found someone annoying you could avoid them. With social networking it seems like you can never get rid of anyone.

How many points are fractional Scrabble tiles?

For WEEKS, I've been having problems with the Facebook Scrabble app:


The bottom part of the board is from a game my mom and I are playing. On top of that, when I put Scrabble tiles on the board they disappear.

Beware the Lion in Waiting

I've been trying to install OS X Lion since yesterday. Today, after many hours, I was at least able to purchase it. It has been sitting, waiting for over 3 hours now to start to download.

Dear Adobe Acrobat Pro,

You didn't do a very good job recognizing text. Smarten up!



Love,
Jsnny

Dear Firefox,

Don't be stupid, Scrabble is obviously not done loading.



Love Janny

Question about Blogger comments

I'm not sure why but I have to log in every single time I leave a comment on my own blog. It used to just come up as "Teacher Lady" and have the other log in options below. Anyone know how I can change the settings?

Sometimes Facebook Recommendations Scare Me A Lot

Mistaken Identity?

Something weird is going on with my Twitter account. I'm getting bizarre messages from people I don't know. Maybe someone is tweeting the wrong person? I need to coin a term to describe such a thing.

Error of her ways

By no means do I condone adultery but I do see the merit in this woman's lawsuit:

In documents filed in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice, Ms. Nagy seeks $600,000 for alleged invasion of privacy and breach of contract...Ms. Nagy's bill was being sent in her name until her husband signed up for Rogers Internet and home phone. Those services, along with Ms. Nagy's cellphone, were bundled into one bill, and that new invoice was addressed to her husband, the suit alleges. The invoice mailed to her then-husband contained details of her outgoing cellphone calls, the suit, filed in January, 2009, says. Ms. Nagy's husband figured out from the phone bill that she was having an affair. He left her and the children in August, 2007.
Woman sues Rogers over cellphone bill, says it ruined her marriage - The Globe & Mail

Ms Nagy fully admits that she had an extra-marital affair that lead to the termination of her marriage. Rogers had no right to bundle her cell phone plan with the other Rogers services and change the billing name without her permission. It could have been a business phone and that needed to be in her name, Rogers just doesn't know these things. The fact is that despite what the customer did, Rogers did break privacy laws.
I actually had to deal with a similar situation years ago that I blogged about:

I spent most of today calling customers to let them know when they can upgrade their cell phone. From as much as I remember, this is a VERY revealing conversation I had today. The names and places have been changed to protect the innocent (and not so innocent).

Teacherlady: Hi, is [Bob] there?
Wife: No, he's at work. Can I take a message?
TL: [Company preamble] Can you let [Bob] know that the cell phone he purchased from us about two years ago is eligible for an upgrade [later this month]?
W: You must have the wrong [Bob], we don't have a cell phone.
TL: Is this the [Bob Smith**] residence?
W: Yes, what address do you have?
TL: [Cherrytree Lane]
W: That's our house. When was the phone purchased?
TL: Two years ago.
W: Hmmm, When was the last call made?
TL: Sorry, I don't have access to that information. Only if [Bob] called directly could he find that out. If there has been some sort of mistake, tell [Bob] to call us directly so we can get this fixed.
W: Umm, [long pause] well thank you for telling me. [long pause]
TL: Well, [awkward pause] thank you for your time and hope you have a good day.

A couple minutes later I was on the phone when a co-worker told me there was a very angry woman on the phone who would talk to no one but me. By the time he tried transferring the call, she had hung up.

I explained to my co-workers and supervisor what had happened. Then I told them what I wanted to say the customer if he called in mad. "Number one: It's not my fault that you two have trust issues. Number two: It is not my fault that you are dumb enough to use your house number as your customer contact number for your secret cell phone."

** The real name is actually uncommon so it was no mistaking that I had the right house.

Ain't that the truth

Janny gets no satisfaction:

Life's Little Questions

Google search suggestions:

Dear Hackers,

You are stupid. Don't send a request for username and password to verify an account to a woman who has lesson plans on computer security. You've been reported so don't drop the soap.
Love, Janny

James' blog as a public service

See if you can spot the problem:


This morning* I was reading my friend James' blog** and noticed his latest post was post-dated Oct 25. I was going to make a joking comment that it was a post from future James and to not drink the coffee. I look at the date of the comment I had already posted was Oct 25 as well but iCal read Oct 22. Opened iCal and suddenly the date changed to Oct 25 but when I closed the program it changed back to Oct 22. Stupid iCal, we'll have to see if it sends me any notifications today.

To quote a infamous James/Janice argument
James: "What day is the 30th?"
Janice: "We've gone through this already: Friday is Thursday."


*at the ridiculous hour of 6:30AM. This is the 3rd time this week that I woke up 2 or more hours before my alarm is to go off. Blah.

**previously known as Blond Derek on this here blog

Being Present When You're Present

People and their electronics have been perturbing me of late. Consider the following scenarios:

• A university student is invited to a special school function. During the speeches plays Solitaire while sitting at the same table as the dean


• Being the only one not on a laptop during a documentary. I felt like I might as well had been watching it alone


• A business man accompanies his mother to church. He checks his email on his Blackberry instead of paying attention. Really? That email couldn't wait an hour?

I'm not sure if people see the barriers they are creating between each other; divided attention does constitute quality time.

Foolish and Costly Mistake

I spilled water on my laptop last night. Not a little bit, probably a little less than 2 cups worth. I flipped it upside down immediately so the water could run out while I went to grab a towel. I wasn't thinking and should have shut down the computer first but the time I was back it was off. I read online that it can take up to 5 days to dry out but I think it is fried.
I bought a 500 GB external hard drive last week and my most recent back up was on Sunday. At most I lost a couple emails that I received since then. I just bought a new hard drive for that computer and was hoping it would last me until next fall.
I have no idea what I'm going to do.

Who knew?

You can reset an IPod by holding down the menu and select button for 6-8 seconds.

I connected my IPod to my computer last night to charge it. This morning I discovered that the computer had not recognized the connection because the IPod was stuck on the menu screen. I only knew how to reset through ITunes so I did a little digging.

In other Apple news, I pre-ordered Snow Leopard and it should be arriving early next week. It only costs $30 for those who are running Leopard and there are some improvements that I am seriously interested in. Some Adobe CS 3 users are upset right now that Adobe tested compatibility with CS 4 and not CS 3. Some software magazines are testing it and so far there are no problems. I'm going to wait to install it until after the first OS fixes and I've heard more about compatibility with the programs I use.

Don't Copy that Floppy

I found a software piracy PSA from 1992 called Don't Copy that Floppy.

What you can look forward to

• M.C. Hart kickin' it to you public service style


• Possibly the longest rap song of all time.


• Sweet computer graphics


• Reminiscing about when a computer game was less than 1.44 MB


• Hot computer nerds ("You had me at Dungeons and Dragons!")

Sick with Worry

My hard drive crash, again. Technically it is not the same hard drive but you get the point. I have made a back up since the end of April so I've lost most* of my summer work, most** of my music and all*** of my videos. Fortunately I sent a first draft of a project I was working on to my boss and a co-worker last week so I won't have to re-write it. It makes me ill to think of everything I've lost from the last three months.

Note to self: back up work weekly.

The last thing I need right now is "Macs are evil" speeches from PC users so if you don't have anything nice to say don't say anything at all. I hate Windows so much even two crashed hard drives will not deter me from purchasing another Mac. Two hard drives? That's amateur compared to the tomfoolery I've had to put up with PCs personally and professionally.


*All except my website work which I can download from the server.
** all except what is on my iPod.
*** Good thing I purchased Dr Horrible's Sing-A-Long Blog on DVD for the extra features even though I bought it on iTunes.

Consider Reducing Your Font Size

A friend sent me a forward today and this was the size of the text:



Further down it gets smaller but not small enough to have an entire line displayed on the screen.

Ever wanted to be annoying to anybody? Here's how.

Last night I came across a "How to" wiki site. Curious what the site had to offer, I came across these gems in the Language Nuances category. This is some of the more confusing and ridiculous advice -- I wish I was making these up.

How to Be Annoying to People Who Use Expressions

Whenever somebody uses an expression or exaggeration, challenge it by being literal. Example: If somebody says: "Think outside the box," you should say: "What box?" or "How big is the box? Because if everybody thought inside it, it would have to be pretty big." or "What is it that is inside this 'box' that is so important for people to think about?" or something of that nature.

How to Think of Quick Witted Comebacks

One tactic to use is to mutter "[insult]saywhat" really quickly, and they will say, "What?"
Do not, under any circumstances, use childish insults such as "I know you are, but what am I". It does not work - at all.
Never ever, ever, ever say just "your mom" unless you are countering a mom insult with your own. And if they are actually using a mom insult, it probably isn't a serious situation.
'Leave me alone' does not work.

How to Be Cool

Being cool can be a challenge. A lot of people who aren't cool can slow your path to coolness down. So if something puts you in a bad mood, it's good to have reminders of your end goal of being awesomely cool. Also if your mood distracts you enough for you to forget your end goal reminders can help you stay positive.

How to Be Sarcastic

Example:
“You stole my homework to copy it!”
“No, I didn’t!”
“Hmmm...the dog must have eaten it, then!”