wtf, google blogger?

ahhh, apparently the cookie that tells the google blogger servers whether i want to track my own page views is browser specific so not using a browser for a while (and how long is a while?... 30 days maybe?) means blogger google stats goes back to counting my page views which totally skews all the stats cuz i don't know how many page views are me and how many are readers or visitors and that defeats the purpose of keeping stats...

expiration dates on stat cookies should be years, not days...

sheeesh...

windows defender

excuse me, windows defender just interrupted my conversation with a friend and other computer usage for no apparent reason... it did not scan, perhaps because i was typing as it popped up... i never even used it, it was disabled when i installed my anti-virus software because it is not compatible... but recently when firefox crashed one time too many i opened internet explorer and suddenly windows defender is scheduled to run daily... it doesn't matter what i am doing, it interrupts... another unnecessary annoyance from the idiots at microsoft who can't seem to understand that my use of my computer should be the priority and microsoft software should not usurp control over my computer (unless they'd like to pay for it)... dang proprietary software codes, when will they ever learn they will never have satisfied customers unless they start respecting customers...

and they wonder why so many say microsoft sucks... like they care with their billions...

quibids is a scam

it works like a casino depending on the majority of people losing their money so a few can appear to win big... each "bid" costs 60 cents and each "bid" is counted as 1 cent when used, so when something is sold for $10 the quibid company actually makes $610 plus shipping and handling for the item... those $10 worth of bids actually cost customers $600... in other words, a $200 item appears to be sold for $10, but actually the company racked in over $600... the stories of iPads selling for $40 sound great, but the quibid company sold those 4000 bids (that they equate to $40) for $2400, add the $40 that the "winner" pays and shipping and handling and quibid makes almost $2000 profit on a $500 iPad... the "winner" might have used at least 500 "bids" to win (often a "winner" uses a lot more than 12% of the "bids" to "win" a product) that iPad and the "winner" had to buy those bids at 60 cents each so the very lucky winner actually paid close to $400 for that iPad - and if they used more than 600 bids they paid list price for that iPad...

they there is the bait and switch... two of the items i "won" on the site were "no longer available" and they offered a gift card to walmart or another store for what i spent - so i wasted my time to break even?... and they never sent the gift card so they flat out ripped me off on the "wins"...

additionally, the site also collects valuable information about your purchasing interests and your consumer weaknesses among other personal information... for instance, a tech support rep was not only able to tell me what computer, operating system, and browser i was using, but that my other browser (chrome) would work better with the site...

worse yet, though harder to prove, is that the quibid computers are rigged (which consumer regulatory agency has checked them?)... you don't win unless you invest a lot of time and money in the company... repeatedly i watched very suspicious timers lagging at just the right second to prevent me and others from "winning" while robot bidding was allowed to continue to bid the price of the item up... at least a few times i watched the same bids appear on two or even three different products at the same time, which means someone clicked two or three buttons simultaneous;y at the precise second needed which is impossible unless the quibid computers are making the bids for the alleged customers...

but like the rest of the gambling industry, people become addicted to the pretense of winning and the idea of getting something for nothing... casinos are packed and people know the games heavily favor the house... believing they are actually buying stuff at substantial discount is an even bigger draw for a culture addicted to consumerism and gambling... it took me $30 to learn the scam... hopefully you won't be ripped off for more...

brighthouse does it again

ever since the move, just like the last time we moved a few years ago, brighthouse internet has been intermittent anywhere but in the same room as the router... it took several home visits and changing routers and changing the wall connection and changing the external connection to get the service to produce a strong enough signal to actually provide internet through the 1200 square foot space... way too much of my time was taken up by the crappy brighthouse fixes... and here we are again... i've got to set up a service call... the green light on the router that is supposed to stay on steady is constantly blinking... the internet connection is intermittent... and cable is down again...

brighthouse is terrible service... the cable continues to have the same problems over and over and over and over (and those are just some of the records of the complaints) ... we need the internet for our jobs and it will not work consistently... i so do not want to spend hours working for brighthouse for nothing like i did after the last move and other times... we shall see if the compensation for my time, inconvenience, and frustration is worth my time or if i finally give up on brighthouse and try a different cable and internet service...

brighthouse roadrunner broadband turbo internet (updated 3/18/13, trending downward):

working near perfectly working adequately not working properly not working at all

5% of the time 5% of the time 85% of the time 5% of the time

no problems slow downs intermittent connection, reboot requires a call to tech support or repair visit

brighthouse digital hd cable tv (table updated 3/18/13, still trending downward):

working perfectly working adequately not working properly not working at all

0% of the time 0% of the time 85% of the time 15% of the time

no problems delays, box/channels reset occasionally, software does not adjust aspect ratio and picture size automatically sound does not go on at start, box resets/blinks every 60 seconds, aspect ratio and picture size are off box/channel resets every 10-15 seconds or other issue requires reboot, call to tech support, or visit

late night commercials

commercials, on the whole, are pandering to idiots but the late night commercials are so annoying because they are pumped out at about twice the volume or more of the shows they interrupt... if the companies only knew how much that turns me off to their products, they would wise up and stop forcing me to press the volume down or mute button every time... and the stations themselves blare commercials for their own shows just as annoyingly...

the bad taste lingers in the mind...