• How to win the war against telemarketers, junk mail

    Tips for Handling Telemarketers

    Three Little Words That Work:

    “Hold On, Please…”

    Saying this, while putting down your phone and walking off (instead of hanging-up immediately) would make each telemarketing call so much more time-consuming that boiler room sales would grind to a halt.

    Then when you eventually hear the phone company’s “beep-beep-beep” tone, you know it’s time to go back and hang up your handset, which has efficiently completed its task.

    These three little words will help eliminate telephone soliciting.

    Do you ever get those annoying phone calls with no one on the other end?

    This is a telemarketing technique where a machine makes phone calls and records the time of day when a person answers the phone.

    This technique is used to determine the best time of day for a “real” sales person to call back and get someone at home.

    What you can do after answering, if you notice there is no one there, is to immediately start hitting your # button on the phone, 6 or 7 times, as quickly as possible This confuses the machine that dialed the call and it kicks your number out of their system. Gosh, what a shame not to have your name in their system any longer !!!

    Junk Mail Help:
    When you get “ads” enclosed with your phone or utility bill, return these “ads” with your payment. Let the sending companies throw their own junk mail away.

    When you get those “pre-approved” letters in the mail for everything from credit cards to 2nd mortgages and similar type junk, do not throw away the return envelope.

    Most of these come with postage-paid return envelopes, right? It costs them more than the regular 37 cents postage “IF” and when they receive them back.

    It costs them nothing if you throw them away! The postage was around 50 cents before the last increase and it is according to the weight. In that case, why not get rid of some of your other junk mail and put it in these cool little, postage-paid return envelopes.

    Here’s another tip:
    Send an ad for your local chimney cleaner to American Express. Send a pizza coupon to Citibank. If you didn’t get anything else that day, then just send them their blank application back.
    If you want to remain anonymous, just make sure your name isn’t on anything you send them.

    You can even send the envelope back empty if you want to just to keep them guessing! It still costs them 37 cents.

    The banks and credit card companies are currently getting a lot of their own junk back in the mail, but we need to OVERWHELM them. Let’s let them know what it’s like to get lots of junk mail, and best of all they’re paying for it…Twice!

    Let’s help keep our postal service busy since they are saying that e-mail is cutting into their business profits, and that’s why they need to increase postage costs again. You get the idea !

    If enough people follow these tips, it will work —- I have been doing this for years, and I get very little junk mail anymore.

    source

  • 1979 Star Wars Drunk Driving PSA

    Following on the success of 1977’s Star Wars, a PSA featuring (presumably) the cantina on Tattooine was released in an effort to curb drunk driving.

  • Google launches Picasa Web Albums – Flickr Killer?

    Just in. Google has launched Picasa Web Albums. From the site:

    Picasa Web Albums is Picasa’s newest feature, designed to help users post and share their photos quickly and easily on the web.

    It’s available by invitation, along with the latest downloadable version of Picasa, and offers:

    * One-click web upload using Picasa’s new “Web Album” button

    * Free storage space to post and share approximately 1000 photos, with the option to upgrade to more space

    * High-quality photos, automatically resized and optimized to fill available screen space

    * Pre-loaded images enable quick scrolling using arrow keys, and mimic a desktop experience of “flipping” through photos, even on the web

    * End-to-end photo management that makes it easy to download uploaded photos back to your computer

    Quick facts

    * Cost: The latest version of Picasa with the Web Albums feature is free. It’s also free to use Picasa Web Albums for posting, sharing and viewing photos.

    * Access: You need an invitation to post and share photos on Picasa Web Albums. You can sign up for an invitation using your Gmail username. No invitation or sign-in is required to view a friend’s photos online.

    * Storage: Each Picasa Web Albums account comes with 250MB of free storage space, or room to post and share approximately 1,000 wallpaper-sized photos (at 1600 pixels each). For $25.00 per year, users can get a subscription to an additional 6GB of storage – room to post and share approximately 25,000 photos.

    * There are no ads in Picasa or on Picasa Web Albums

    * Language: Picasa Web Albums and the latest version of Picasa with web uploading are supported in English only

    * System requirements:
    o Picasa: Windows 2000/XP, Internet Explorer 6.0+
    o Picasa Web Albums Internet Explorer 6.0 (also works with IE 7 Beta 2), Firefox 1.0+ or Safari 2.0

  • Wrigley bullpen gets WiFi

    There isn’t much good news coming out of the Chicago Cubs bullpen in recent weeks, but there may be some hope if Wade Miller or Greg Maddux want to do a blog post during the 7th inning stretch:

    CHICAGO — Wrigley Field, the last big league stadium to install lights, will be the first to go wireless.

    Starting Tuesday, when Chicago Cubs manager Dusty Baker needs to communicate with his bullpen during games he’ll call on a wireless handset designed by Motorola Inc. rather than reach for the corded phone on the dugout’s back wall.

    Juan Lopez, the Cubs’ bullpen coach, will be sure not to miss the call — he’ll have one of the i580 phones strapped to his belt and it will vibrate and produce a loud ring.

    The Cubs and Motorola, who announced the arrangement Monday for both the home and visiting dugouts and bullpens, said it will be the first wireless bullpen phone system used by a major league team.

    The Cubbies need all the help they can get. At press time, they are losing 3-0 to Houston.

    UPDATE: Cubs lose to Houston 9-2. Might want to check those IP settings.


  • Jack Thompson launches new attack on video games

    In a letter to James Dobson, Jack Thompson has renewed his attack on video games.

    Here’s the letter in it’s entirety.

    In his letter, Thompson attacks the publisher of the Christian video game Left Behind: Eternal Forces .

    He denounces and cut ties with Tyndale House, publisher of the Left Behind books that inspired the game.

    The publisher has previously published both Dobson’s and Thompson’s books.

    Thompson is now threatening a lawsuit over its licensing of the game.

  • Weird Al makes more money from CDs than he does iTunes

    I wonder if this is true of all artists. Here is a question posted on his Website:

    Tim Sloane of Ijamsville, MD asks: Al, which of these purchasing methods should I use in order to make sure the most profit gets to you: Buying one of your albums on CD, or buying one of your albums on iTunes?

    I am extremely grateful for your support, no matter which format you choose to legally obtain my music in, so you should do whatever makes the most sense for you personally. But since you ASKED… I actually do get significantly more money from CD sales, as opposed to downloads. This is the one thing about my renegotiated record contract that never made much sense to me. It costs the label NOTHING for somebody to download an album (no manufacturing costs, shipping, or really any overhead of any kind) and yet the artist (me) winds up making less from it. Go figure.

    Don’t ask why I was on Weird Al’s Web site.



  • Shhhh! Google is listening to you

    Like many Google products, this one is from the very strange, potentially brilliant, and a little creepy department.

    Here’s an interesting look into something Google may be plotting for the future:

    Google is developing a system that uses a microphone on your PC to listen to what you are watching on a TV, so long as it’s in the same room. Based upon what it hears, this system will figure out what you’re watching in order to deliver more highly targeted advertising content.

    via uneasyrant:

    The system could keep up with users while they channel surf, presenting them with a real-time forum about a live political debate one minute and an ad-hoc chat room for a sporting event in the next. And, all of this would be done without users ever having to type or to even know the name of the program or channel being viewed.

    Frankly, why do we trust ANYTHING put out by any manufacturer? If the green light on your iSight isn’t on how do you know it still isn’t recording? Do some of these free web toolbars record keystrokes and audio and transmit it back to somewhere? I have a TCP/IP sniffer that alerts me to any traffic that flows over my network to make sure my programs stay honest. However, how long will the public be complacent and companies such as Google could sneak technology onto your PC’s?

    All I know is there there is some electric tape going over my iSight in my MacBook. This of course is very controversial based upon what other people are saying, so what do you think?

    A little paranoid perhaps. I think this is interesting, but utterly useless technology. But then again, it’s Google, so it will probably be a huge hit. Now I am off to disable my PC mic drivers.