April 23rd, 2009 by Alec

Ted xxxstein & Collections Lawsuits

With the economy in, well lets just say ’serious decline,’ All SMB owners, including myself, have turned to debt collectors to try and recoup money from some of our NPC’s (non-paying clients). However, I’ve been alerted to a common trend in debt collection which is really, REALLY terrible. Apparently debt collection companies and credit card companies alike are going after people, who may have paid their debts, but can’t prove it. This has led to a rise in collection lawsuits.

Now, I hadn’t paid much attention to this topic, nor did I know that this was a serious issue. However, I added another telephone line a few weeks ago (now I think we’re over 8… oy) and I’ve been getting calls for Tex xxxstein, who apparently had the number before me. Okay, the guy could have been a deadbeat… after all, he doesn’t have the telephone line anymore, it’d make sense.

A few days ago I began receiving very aggressive collection calls on another one of my telephone lines for a woman with a foreign name (undoubetdly the previous owner of that phone number). Okay, thats fine, it happens, nothing suspicious…. I thought. Now, today, on a third line, I began receiving calls for another random person! This has to be a pattern.

If old, paid, debtors are going after innocent payees for satisfied debts, I absolutely understand why lawsuits against bill-collectors are on the rise. This is predatory, unjustified, and unethical. Worse, its turning big-companies and their army of bill-collector drone against the general public. I called off my collections-dogs today, and I’ll be sending very polite letters to my NPC’s tomorrow in an attempt to arrange a plan with them that they can afford.

April 22nd, 2009 by Alec

The Trouble with Twitter

April 22nd, 2009 by Alec

My Blog Means Something

Blogging has certainly increased in popularity, and the number of new bloggers has suggested something even more interesting: user generated content (UGC) in its proprietary form, single user contribution – like a blog, is equal if not more appealing to social networking… Why is this important? Is it the personalization factor? Or could it simply be that people like to hear themselves type?

With blogging on the rise, we must as, what will happen to professional content? Will it disappear? I believe the answer is no, but it’l take a while for use to realize this. With newspapers in serious trouble, and doctoral dissertations being read and reviewed by only the most select groups, the exposure of professional content is dwindling. On the internet, they are on a level playing field with bloggers and and other UGC. A professor can make a podcast of his research in primate behavior, and it will be less viewed than a YouTube video of a cute chimp eating a banana. In my opinion, there will be a separation between professional content, and entertainment/commentary comment….. just like the sections of the newspaper.

April 20th, 2009 by Alec

The Race For The Next U/I

Its been roughly 141 years since Christopher Sholes developed the first keyboard. However, we’re still using the same model with little advancement today. Don’t get me wrong, the keyboard was one of the greatest inventions of all time, but we’re destined for more functional and practical user input methods. Microsoft has been working on a project which illustrates our capacity to use touch screens as new U/I’s called Microsoft Surface, which seems to have a great interface, but isn’t pragmatic for home users as a full-time input method. There are a number of good ideas about what the next great user input device will be, but no front-runner. One thing’s for sure, Apple, Microsoft, Mitsubishi, Toshiba, Sony, Xerox, and a ton of others will soon be in an all-out race for the next U/I device…. and I cant wait to see what they come up with.

April 19th, 2009 by Alec

Installing imagemagick and rmagick on ubuntu intrepid

I’ve been busy today trying to get lovdbyless up and running on a fresh ubuntu intrepid slice. The big problem I’ve encountered is imagemagick’s reluctance to properly install. Anyway, here are the links you need to get the install completed:

http://rmagick.rubyforge.org/install-faq.html

https://saltalert.wordpress.com/2006/06/30/rmagick-installation-on-linux/

http://www.randycullom.com/chatterbox/archives/2006/12/installing_imag.html

After this a simple gem install rmagick should work… best of luck.

April 18th, 2009 by Alec

Happy birthday Marcie!

Happy birthday, now you’re over the hill!!

– Post From My iPhone

April 18th, 2009 by Alec

Affirmative Bidding Action

The St. Lucie County Commission has taken an inevitable step with its bid projects, (Read the Article Here) requiring that certain projects be serviced by local companies, and that local companies will be given preference over national established companies in the event of close bids. While this seems advantageous on the surface, it’s the wrong move for small cities and counties.

Outside bid holders drive more people into a given municipality, thereby increasing the number of people that local merchants can sell to. Furthermore, the aggregate ramifications of this type of closed bid system in multiple municipalities across the country will inevitably slow the advancement of technology, as large companies as bid holders are the most likely contributors towards industry development.

In my opinion, the best way for the St. Lucie County Commission to reach its goals, would be to require a certain level of community service with each bid-contract, whether its planting some trees, or contributing fixing low-income-housing projects – a little community involvement would go a long way.