ShowMeBlog

Amazon selling Windows 7

  I just got an email that Amazon is now selling Windows 7.  You get 50% off if you order now.  Supply is limited and release date is October 22, 2009.
  I have not read all the details yet I just got the email.  It looks like the three below are the full retail price.

  Now those prices are if you are  not up-grading.  Here is the prices and details if you are doing an up-grade. One of them is a dis-count of 58%.

  I am using Windows 7 RC right now and it is excellent.  My feeling is that this is the first version of Windows that works. I started out using DOS and have used OS/2 and Windows from the start.
  I have never used Apple OS.

Student twice puts planes on runway collision course

  I have posted a number of post on Howard’s Notebook about the ATC problem.  There were warnings about this sort of problem.  I hate to keep blaming President Bush and the Republicans but they are the cause of this current problem we have with ATC.
 
 

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- “A student controller was directing planes during two runway mishaps in the past month at Cleveland Hopkins International Airport, apparently giving instructions that placed planes on possible collision courses, federal investigators say.

Federal transportation safety investigators say the exact causes of the mishaps are still unknown. But in both cases, potential accidents were averted only after pilots recognized that mistakes had been made, according to the National Transportation Safety Board.

In one instance, two commercial jetliners came within 500 feet of each other, the NTSB said.

Both incidents involved a "developmental" controller -- a controller who is not certified in every position in the control tower. The Federal Aviation Administration, which regulates aviation in the United States including air traffic control, said Tuesday the developmental controller was under the supervision of different trainers during the two incidents, and that it is the controller/trainers -- not students -- who are held accountable for mistakes.

FAA spokeswoman Laura Brown did not immediately know what action, if any, was taken against the student.

But a controllers' union representative said the controller was still on the job, and deserves to be.

"This particular trainee had a total of 11 hours of training in the entire month of June. That's less then an hour a day," said Bob Kerr of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association. "He's brand new; he's going to make mistakes."

The student had completed about 30 percent of his training hours at the position, Kerr said. "He has plenty of time to not only learn from the present situation, but to continue learning and develop into a fine controller in that position."  …”

  President Bush and the Republicans wanted to break the ATC employees union.  They wanted to cut pay and take other action.  They would not hire and train new employees to do the ATC jobs and massive numbers of employees were leaving their jobs and retiring. 
  President Bush is gone but we still  have the mess that he has left behind and it is going to take years to clean up this mess.  It may cost lives.  It takes a long time to hire and train ATC employees.  Even after they get out of the school they still have to spend months, if not years, learning the job.

New Zealand flight crew in nothing but body paint

 

 New Zealand must be a pretty neat nation.  This is adv for their air line.  They are saying they have nothing to hide.  They do not add extra fees.  The employees in the adv are real employees and they have on nothing but body paint.

Microsoft Windows Pricing

  I hate being poor and broke all the time.  If you are poor you end up paying more for things. 
  
  Microsoft is saying that they expect to sell Windows 7 for $119.19 and $199.00 each.  Because I been using Windows 7 RC I can get half off.  I can get Windows 7 Home Premium for $49.99 and Professional for $99.99. 
   I am running Windows 7 RC and it is excellent and I do plan to buy Windows 7 when they release it. Because I am poor it looks like I will have to pay the $199.00 and that happens to the poor all the time.
 

   CNN reports that you can purchase an upgrade copy of Windows 7 RC for $49.99 and $99.99 each.  That offer is good for both Windows XP and Windows Vista owners.
   Now both these offers are good for a limited time and the number of copies is limited but Microsoft is not giving out a date and a number.

   If you buy a new computer with Windows Vista on it you will get a free upgrade to Windows 7 and be able to upgrade without doing a clean installation of Windows 7.

   People that are poor end up paying more for things and services and they end up paying late fees etc.
   There has been some talk of the United States having a sales tax.  I have heard a few people say that even a half of one percent sales tax would bring in tons of money for the federal government and allow us to pay for national health insurance and pay off our debt and do other things.  I wonder if that sort of tax hurts the poor more than others.  Or is it a fair tax?
 

  I guess some people are thinking of a Value Added Tax which is different than a Sales Tax.  I want to see our taxes become easy and simple but I do wonder if it would not be more fair and better for the poor if food and medication was not taxed or if a person cold get a refund for those taxes when they file a tax report.

  How did I go from talking about Windows 7 to talking about taxes?

Removed bank account from PayPal

  I was one of the first people to sign up for PayPal.  If you were reading my blog you may have heard of PayPal from me.  I made a little money from telling people about PayPal.  What was the deal each of us got $10.00 if you signed up …something like that..
  I been using PayPal for years.  We all have … well many of us have been using them. 
  I been a “Verified” user since they started the crap.  
  I think that is when they had us connect a bank account to our PayPal account…something like that…
  I told you about the problems that I have with that.. I never want them to take money out of my bank account.. I have two cards set up that they can take money out of if I am short of money in my PayPal account and that has been working for years..
  At someone PayPal has decided that it is better for them to take money out of our bank accounts and do everything and rig everything to try and force you to let them take the money out of your bank account.
  I told you about the problems I had with them back a few weeks ago with this issue.. I was careless and did not pay attention and just click on screens and took money out of my bank account when I did not want to do it…then after that I decided never again..and a day or two after that I paid for a domain name at GoDaddy and I said pay wih PayPal and for the first time every I was NOT sent to PayPal but they just said OK..paid with PayPal and of course PayPal took it out of my bank account.
  I just went to PayPal and I have removed my bank account link from them …and for the first time.. I am no longer a “Verified” user. I do not think it is going to matter to me…If I did a lot of eBay buys and sells it might matter …there might be some people that would worry about doing business with me.
  My feeling is that PayPal is NOT VERIFIED with me.

  I have heard from a few people that have had the same sort of problem with PayPal and their bank account…But PayPal is big, very big, and I do not think we can have any effect on them.

Goodbye Wackenhut

  Wackenhut Security has been the security company doing security for years for the Miami-Dade Transit system.  They been doing the security for 20 years.  They been making $17 million a year.
  I been reading about over billing for years and amounts that run from $6 to $3 million.
  It appears that a new company has the contract. 

  Last Sunday Chevor Wint a security officer with Security Alliance was shot and killed at work by two men.  I think he was doing security for the transit system.  He was killed the Metrorail’s Earlington Heights station.

  Miami-Dade moves to replace firm providing transit security
  “…The county manager is recommending that 50 State Security provide armed officers at all Metrorail and Metromover stations. A joint venture combining Professional Protection and Investigations Inc. and Security Alliance is also proposed to provide unarmed guards at all bus and rail maintenance facilities.

Separately, Allied Barton Security Services is recommended to take over security at the county's Juvenile Services Department, a job held by Wackenhut since 1998.

The proposals are scheduled to go before the Budget, Planning and Sustainability Committee on May 12 and the County Commission on June 2.

But even if commissioners agree to remove Wackenhut, the security firm may not go before its contract expires in November. The reason: Burgess said a transition to new security firms will take at least three months.

''It doesn't just happen overnight,'' he said…”

   My God, does this story, in the Miami Herald, mean that not only was the guard killed brand new to working transit security but that he was not armed? 

FTC plans to monitor blogs for claims, payments

“Savvy consumers often go online for independent consumer reviews of products and services, scouring through comments from everyday Joes and Janes to help them find a gem or shun a lemon.

What some fail to realize, though, is that such reviews can be tainted: Many bloggers have accepted perks such as free laptops, trips to Europe, $500 gift cards or even thousands of dollars for a 200-word post. Bloggers vary in how they disclose such freebies, if they do so at all.

The practice has grown to the degree that the Federal Trade Commission is paying attention. New guidelines, expected to be approved late this summer with possible modifications, would clarify that the agency can go after bloggers — as well as the companies that compensate them — for any false claims or failure to disclose conflicts of interest.

It would be the first time the FTC tries to patrol systematically what bloggers say and do online. The common practice of posting a graphical ad or a link to an online retailer — and getting commissions for any sales from it — would be enough to trigger oversight..”.  Yahoo! Tech

  I am not sure that the FTC needs to be patrolling and monitoring blogs.  On the other hand I do not make $800.00 a month from my blog.  In fact I do not make $80.00 a month.  In fact…well you get the idea.
  I am not sure on this subject.  If you go to a blog and you think it is just some personal blog and the blog talks about food or medication and they are getting paid to recommend those items that might be very important for you to know that the blogger is getting paid.

Kiva

  I am making one Kiva loan a month.  I have done it for four months so far.  I am doing $25.00 a month.  It is hard for me to come up with that money each month but I been doing it.  I wish I could do more. 
  They have teams were people join a team and pool their loan money.  Some of us could do something like that.  I noticed that the number 1 team in the amount of money is “Atheists, Agnostics, Skeptics, Freethinkers, Secular Humanist and Non-Religious” and they have made 19177 loans in the amount of $580,125.00 to help people. The “Kiva Christians” have made 14637 loans in the amount of $438,900.00 so it looks like a close contest.  Smile

How do Lending Teams work?:

Members of Kiva Lending Teams continue lending as individuals, but they have the option to count each loan they make towards the overall impact of one of their teams.

Six Flags files for bankruptcy

(CNN) -- “In an effort to shed $1.8 billion in debt, popular theme-park chain Six Flags announced Saturday that it was filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

The filing will not affect the operation of the company's 20 parks in the United States, Mexico and Canada, said spokeswoman Sandra Daniels.

"This restructuring will have no impact on families who come out to our parks. They will not see an inch of difference," Daniels said.

In an online letter to employees, President and CEO Mark Shapiro said Six Flags inherited a $2.4 billion debt load that "cannot be refinanced in these financial markets."

"This process is strictly a financial restructuring of our debt and that's how you should view it and speak about it," Shapiro said in the message posted on the Six Flags Web site.

He said Six Flags was seeking expedited approval from the for the District of Delaware of a pre-negotiated plan of reorganization under Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code…”  CNN Story

  This makes me mad.  I know, it seems like everything makes me mad now days.  I guess it is old age.  Or is it that I am getting smarter with age?
  Back in 2005 the Republicans had President Bush and control of Congress.  They passed tough new bankruptcy laws that hurt the common man.  They just sort of said fuck the guy that needs to declare bankruptcy.  The Democrats put up a fight but they did not have the votes to win.

Remember the Nude Nebraskan Wrestlers?

  On August 12th of 2008 I told you about the Wrestlers kicked off team over nude Internet photos. 
ESPN will have a documentary “Outside the Lines” this Sunday (June 14th 2009) about the entire event.  Here is a little sample of the documentary.  I was correct in the comments I made back in August of last year.  They did do it for money and they were paid for it.  I did not know that they flew out to the site and did the photos and I did not know they did videos.  Not only videos but videos of them jacking off.
  If you want to see those photos:  Fratmen