Nov 29, 2009
I read on the burg’s forum that Paul Graupe has disappeared. Paul was a resident of Crothersville for many years. I can remember that he went to C’ville school; I remember that he was a slight built dude with glasses; and I remember he used to sit outside of a house on 600 South, but I’m not sure that’s where he actually lived. I was never personal friends with Paul, but I do remember he was kind and always friendly. I don’t remember seeing him at all in the past 10 years or so.
So now he’s missing and it doesn’t sound good. I do a search and can’t find anything — not on the Scott County radio station web site, or on the Giveaway’s (Scott County newspaper) site either. Why isn’t his disappearance in the news headlines??
The thread post was started by his sister-in-law and says a suspect has been arrested and that local law enforcement joined the search. Her last post subject is “Can It Be True that the SEARCH is being called OFF,” and I’m wondering if it ever really started. Again, I haven’t laid my eyes on Paul Graupe for at least 10 years and I have no clue what his current lifestyle is. But he still isn’t home — and he didn’t just poof away or disappear.
Nov 28, 2009
After my 2nd live ‘support’ chat session with Norton, I’m wondering what they think support really is. Heck, I wonder if they know what SPAM is…
Here’s the deal:
I have Incredimail, and Norton identifies possible SPAM messages by noting it in the subject line within that program. (I also have JunkFilter Plus on Incredimail and it’s awesome!) But Incredimail doesn’t work well with Evernote — and not at all with ACT (our primary contact relationship management system). ACT refuses to be friends with email programs other than Outlook. But Norton can’t find ONE message that is SPAM through Outlook! My messages can have the subject line ‘Viagra’ and that doesn’t get filtered — and Norton can even remove a virus attachment and still think it’s an ok message.
Actual cut & paste from my logged support session:
[12:17] ~Ms. Shelley Erwin > Norton should filter email messages upon certain criteria.
[12:18] Harikrishnan > Sorry Shelley. Norton will not move mail automatically to antispam folder.
[12:18] Harikrishnan > Is there anything else that I can help you with?
Not only was Norton’s support representative rude and dismissive — but seriously, if Norton doesn’t move suspected SPAM into an AntiSpam folder, what good is it — and by definition, how can Norton call their product Norton AntiSpam??
So here’s what gets me…even in a challenging economy, Norton survives and even THRIVES. Their product isn’t cheaper, their customer service stinks, and their product evidently doesn’t work properly (at least according to their own representative). So would someone please tell me why Symantec is the market leader in almost every segment it operates in? Is it only that they offer the sweetest deals to equipment manufacturers for THEIR product to be installed? And is that why McAfee shares are trading at about twice the earnings multiple of Symantec? I wonder if the bottom line was HP’s only consideration when installing Norton on my system at the factory.
Sheesh – these issues are non-issues with a MAC.
Nov 23, 2009
Say you’re waiting on an answer for something really big coming up in your life. Do you automatically think positive? Negative? Or do you just think the odds for pretty much everything are 50/50? I’ll admit, I am a middle-of-the-roader. Now I’m not talking about being optimistic or pessimistic about life in general, because I pretty much maintain a positive attitude when it comes to my life and my work. But I’ve found that I deal with issues out of my control much better by staying 50/50.
Here’s how I figure it…
If my expectations insofar as the actions of others is in the higher percentile, I leave a ginormous amount of room for disappointment. And, if I place my expectations in the lower percentile, I go around not giving anyone the benefit of the doubt and put out some pretty ugly vibes. But if I stay at 50/50, I’m excited when the result is positive, but not horribly bummed if it doesn’t work out.
What about you?
Oh…one more thing — artsy insight and worth checking out (make sure you click the smaller pics), visit The World of 100. If the world were a village of 100 people….
Nov 20, 2009
No cat and mouse games here — I’ll cut to the chase. Here’s a tip for all my PC (and MAC) friends…
Grab a program called Open Office. See the link? Click it already! It’s FREE!
If you know me, you know that I’m a MAC girl. Still, the best contact management software for our type of business is PC platform only. So I end up with the computer where I do most of my work being one operating system — and another computer that runs on a different one. Yes, I know all about Parallels and Boot Camp…but I like my MAC just like it is. A MAC!
So I spend a huge amount of money for all the totally awesome programs for my MAC, and the PC gets the short end. For example, I didn’t mind spending the money for Microsoft Office Pro for the Mac, but didn’t want to cough up another $499 bucks just to duplicate that on the PC. So on the PC, I ended up using an older version of Office and found that if I opened one of the new .docx files and made changes, I had to save it as the older, .doc format. But not anymore!
Open Office is FREE. It doesn’t have all the really cool templates or bells and whistles — but if I want those, I’ll use my favorite computer with my favorite operating system. If you’re a home user, and don’t care about all the really high-end stuff anyway, it’s a pretty amazing solution. So here’s my suggestion — download the free Open Office platform, and put that $499 bucks into a jar. Keep dropping your quarters in there too and before you know it…you can buy a MAC — and in the meantime, you’ll have an office software suite that allows you to play with the big boys. (After you spend all your ‘jar money’ on a MAC, please note that there’s a version of Open Office for it too.)
Have a fabulous weekend — and let me know what you think about Open Office!
Nov 18, 2009
People magazine has named the 2009 Sexiest Man Alive! Do I agree with People’s choice? You betcha! Johnny Depp rocks!
So People magazine honors Depp with his face on the cover of the special double issue and everything. But wtf?? Who is the moron that chose this photo in particular? Seriously. Have you ever seen a photo of Depp where he looked more like a normal, middle-aged factory worker from southern Indiana than this one?
Now I have nothing against normal, middle-aged factory workers from southern Indiana. I’ll even admit that I’ve seen a few that I would call sexy. But this is Johnny Depp!!
So what if he’s 46 and was born in Owenboro, Kentucky (no kidding, y’all). I seriously doubt if this particular look is what earned him the title.
Maybe the whole Cheech and Chong look is back in, but I would’ve preferred something a little more like any of these…
