29 July 2008

Stupid TV

We just went through the cycle again. Not the washing machine, nor the Lion King symbiotic thing, but the stupid cycle of tv service. We went from Dish to Comcast. And, it is all Dish's fault. Well, sort of.

I have had a few different services over the years. I have had Comcast a few times. And, I hate the fact that they do not want me as a customer. They only want me as a new customer. They want me to switch from something else to them. But, as far as retention goes, they could care less about that. How does that work?

I would think a company would want good, satisfied customers. But no. I vowed that I would never go back to them. That would have stayed had it not been for Dish. They come in with their ten month deal, but then after that, they jump all their prices up. So, Dish is no better than Comcast. I have not had DirecTV yet, but I am sure they are just as bad.

I just want a consistent price. I don't want to have to adjust my budget constantly to meet whatever happens to be the offer currently.

I cannot believe how much we pay for TV anyway. For something that just wastes our time, why do we pay so much for it? It is this filler that we feel like we cannot do without. But wait! If I didn't spend time watching tv shows, I could:
1. Write more blog entries
2. Exercise
3. Spend more time with my family
4. Play a game.
5. Learn a new sport.
6. Read a book
7. Take a nap
8. Make a complex meal
9. Start a business
10. Do some yoga.
11. Draw
12. Clean my house
13. Pace
14. Brush my teeth.
15. Brush my hair
16. Make a pinata
17. Write a story.
18. Make up jokes
19. Drink some water
20. Dig a well.
21. Mow the lawn.
22. Do a crossword puzzle.
23. Wash the cars.

And oh, so much more.

19 July 2008

The Password is...."password"

Technology is upon us. I think I just entered my 100th unique password. What am I doing? What are we doing? All of these sites which require a username and password... It does not really seem all that secure. Apparently, somebody knows. And how do we determine which ones we can really trust?

The news talks about bank accounts getting compromised, identities being stolen, people's personal information being found in the trash, etc. We rely upon this concept of a business being honest and forthright because otherwise they would go out of business. But what if they do not care? What if they just go bankrupt and disappear as an entity? Meanwhile, they have credit card information for thousands of customers.

Sure this is the talk of the paranoid individual who watches too many episodes of CSI and Numbers. However, the concept of big brother as identified in the book 1984 is not too far off here. We have a government which continually seeks more control. (Sorry! That is just what governments do...) But, what better way to have everyone's information than on the Internet? And, it becomes so easily searchable too. Just googling my own name is surprising.

My friend was talking about facial recognition software, which is such an awesome thing, but what is that going to be used for? Well, in CSI, they are able to track down criminals. What if I look exactly like a guy wanted for murder and all they have is a video of the guy leaving a house? No fingerprints or nothing. And my alibi is that I was sitting home alone watching tv that night...

I am not sure that any of this has any credence at all, but we have to ask questions. The problem we have is that change is so abrupt now that we can hardly keep track of what is going on.

We can order all these things on the Internet and all it requires is a credit card number. That freaks me out. My credit card is in fifty different places. Is that smart? The one thing I look for when ordering something on the internet is for the url to change from "http" to "https". That is a sign of security. Somebody is paying extra money to make people feel more secure with their cards.

I am sure that once people have their identity compromised, they are really careful. But others need to be careful too. There is way too much at stake.

So here is my list of questions that I need to do. How many different websites do I have usernames/passwords with? How much information do they each have about me? Is there a more secure account that I could create, so that they do not have to access my credit card(s)? Who has my social security number? Why do they have it? Do any of my usernames use my social security number? Do any of my usernames/passwords have any vital information about me out there? Do I give personal information about myself in chat rooms, on websites or on blogs?

16 July 2008

To Kzzzzzzzzzzk From Wdddddddddw

I have infiltrated the man person's computer and I am sending a message back to my people on the planet of Kzzzzk, colony bzzzb. If you are listening, then please do a comment using W's account.

So far, all is well. They do not suspect a thing. As far as they know, I am a sweet little 90 kip old baby. It is really tough to get away. They keep a watch on me all the time. And getting out of their crib contraption is really tricky. I figured out there has to be a pin in there to keep it still. I got a good enough angle tonight to shoot some invisible sleep darts at them, so they should be out for hours. I started sleeping through the night anyway, so they most likely won't wake up.

As far as what to report, they really seem to care about me a lot. The man one tells me all about his dreams for me to be a great volleyball star one day. Doesn't he know that there is no money in that? I will placate him if that is how long my assignment lasts for. I really do not want to draw any attention to myself anyway. It already feels like I have too much.

The woman one, the one that calls herself monny or nommy or malmy is constantly feeding me. Sometimes she wakes me up when I am in the middle of a good sleep just to shove the pointy thing in my mouth. It tastes pretty good, so I rarely complain. They had to clip my tongue though early on because I couldn't pull the pointy thing far enough back. I guess they insist on gagging me with it.

They spend a lot of time looking at me and standing me up, letting me sit, putting me on my stomach. I play along with them, because it works better for the undercover work. If they could see me right now typing 90 words per minute, I think they would revisit their whole approach.

I have not given them much of a personality yet. I just mostly try to look cute. I smile at them sometimes, because they really do make me laugh. The man one sings the stupidest songs. I keep hoping that he will come up with new words instead of the same dumb ones over and over again. He does change the tune at least, but he is so offkey. When will it stop?

The only time I give a real straight face is when they change my diaper. I know I need to get better at my poker face, but I get so nervous that they will see under all the makeup. All he has to do is flick the switch down there and it is all over. They will suddenly be looking at something that is not too familiar at all.

Well, that is all for now. This couple is pretty normal. I should be able to lay low here for years. The planet is pretty silly. It's an election year and the two candidates are just like Grick and Popkin back in Silbia. You know what a disaster that was...