This evening I opened a letter from a "Senior Teller" at Colorado Capital Bank which stated that they did not have an "updated signature card" for my account. Enclosed was the "signature card" form with boxes highlighted where my wife and I were to sign and return the form in a postage paid envelope, also enclosed. I wish the only thing about this letter to be irritated about was the wasted postage and the absurd notion that our signatures would need to be updated (since they haven't changed much in nearly 20 years).
Here's a link to their Privacy Policy, which is nothing but a bunch of empty words that have absolutely NO bearing on the behavior of Colorado Capital Bank employees.
http://www.coloradocapitalbank.com/Privacy.aspx
There were a few small problems with this signature form that added up to one gigantic problem. The form included a few pieces of information in addition to the signature boxes. First, it had our entire account number (no part masked, no part truncated). That alone might have been forgivable. But wait there's more. The form also had my full name as it appears on the account, my full social security number, my date of birth, my drivers license number, my mother's maiden name, my full phone number, and my complete home address. Granted, anyone stealing this document from my mailbox could figure out the home address part, but it didn't end there. The form ALSO had my wife's full name as it appears on the account, her full social security number, her date of birth, her drivers license number, and her mother's maiden name.
There it was, all on one page, EVERYTHING anyone would need to steal our identity without making any effort at all. No social engineering would have been required, because ALL of the typical information ANY bank, utility, insurance company, credit card company, or numerous other identity dependent organizations might ask in order to verify our identity was offered up by Colorado Capital Bank on a single sheet of paper, sent to us through the U.S. mail, and expected to be returned to them through the U.S. mail.
If you have an account at Colorado Capital Bank, you should do what I intend to do and close the account immediately and demand that they destroy or secure ALL records related to the account. They are grossly irresponsible in the way they handle the vital information they have on file. If you are considering opening an account at Colorado Capital Bank, I urge you to take your business almost anywhere else. Allowing Colorado Capital Bank to mis-handle your personal information in the first place would be a VERY bad decision.
Unfortunately, I probably can't force them to be responsible with the information they already have on file. I can only close my account and hope that that removes any reason they would have in the future to send EVERY SINGLE THING required for an identity thief to make a huge mess of my financial life. A bank that acts so irresponsibly should NOT be trusted with your money, your identity, or anything else.
This is a warning for others who might find this before it is too late.
STAY AWAY FROM COLORADO CAPITAL BANK!!
Tags: complaint review bank colorado Castle Pines Castle Pines North Castle Rock South Denver irresponsible identity theft privacy policy
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
Sunday, September 19, 2010
Why are So Many Mom & Pop Retail Stores Run by Idiots?
I just want to offer a bit of general feedback to all those Mom and Pop stores that find themselves trying to compete with large, volume-buyer, retailers. It's acceptable in many circumstance to charge a little extra for the things you sell. Everyone probably understands that you can't discount your prices as much as a Wal-Mart type store that buys the same item in multiples of a billion. However, if the only way you think you can stock a common (i.e. non-specialty) item is to charge way over list price for it, you'd be better off just not stocking it at all. When your customer finds out they've been dramatically overcharged, it will likely be the very last thing you sell to that customer.
I recently visited "The Country Pedaler" in Castle Rock, CO on the way to a mountain bike ride to pick up an innertube, just in case I had a flat on the ride that couldn't be patched. It's a small shop, so I went in expecting to pay up to the full retail list price for the tube. The store location was convenient because it was along the way to the trailhead, so I didn't even mind paying a bit more than I would have paid for that item at a larger bike store like BikeSource or Performance Bicycle. I had never bought a tube of the particular size I needed so I wasn't sure what its normal price should be. I was charged $10.00, which I thought was a little high, but I trusted that even if the price was on the high end of the retail price range for that item, it wouldn't be too different than what I might find elsewhere. So, I considered the convenience factor to be worth maybe 10% or 20% and bought it anyway.
Any time I find that I have been charged more than 40% OVER the full retail list price for a basic, commodity, accessory item (like a bicycle innertube), I can't help but feel I've been ripped off. I found out later that the same exact item has a full retail list price of $7.00. To make things even worse, I found that the price for a similar (maybe even better) quality tube, at other local specialty bike stores, was as low as $5.29. "The Country Pedaler" price was marked up in excess of their competitors by a margin of almost 90%. You read it right, almost double the price other local stores charged for the same simple accessory item. It wasn't hard to find or in short supply. It didn't require special expertise or consultation from a sales person. It was just WAY overpriced.
The tube was the very first thing I purchased from The Country Pedaler bike store, and, because it was so drastically overpriced, it will likely be the VERY LAST thing I purchase from that store. They don't really have any option to correct their mistake now because they've already proven that I can't trust their prices to be even approximately fair, never mind competitive. Offering a refund or price adjustment now wouldn't even change my impression that the store generally charges an exorbitant amount over even full retail list prices. I wonder if it is any consolation to the store's owner that he gets to keep that extra $3.00 profit on that one sale (assuming I don't just return it for a refund) or if he even realizes how much it cost his business to jack up the price on a simple accessory item.
It is possible that I might decide to give The Country Pedaler a second chance several years from now, just to see if they got a clue and changed how they're setting their prices, but for now, they've lost me as a customer. Somehow I doubt the store will survive if they continue to alienate potential customers they way they have with me. I suspect anyone who finds this blog post will be reluctant to do business with them either. I certainly won't be recommending that anyone else visit that shop. In fact, I'll definitely warn them and send them elsewhere whenever possible.
Other mom and pop retailers that wish to keep customers and remain competitive should take this as a warning. You might be able to justify prices closer to full retail because you may be in a more convenient location than the "discounter" shop. Your customers might not even mind spending a little extra with you if you're able to give them more personal attention when they visit your store. But beware if you go beyond "a little extra" on your prices and gouge someone by pricing a relatively insignificant item well over its fair retail price. You're compromising the trust they have in your store, swapping positive word-of-mouth advertising for bad, and forfeiting any profit you might have earned on future purchases. All you gain for that is a few extra bucks, one time... most likely one LAST time.
I recently visited "The Country Pedaler" in Castle Rock, CO on the way to a mountain bike ride to pick up an innertube, just in case I had a flat on the ride that couldn't be patched. It's a small shop, so I went in expecting to pay up to the full retail list price for the tube. The store location was convenient because it was along the way to the trailhead, so I didn't even mind paying a bit more than I would have paid for that item at a larger bike store like BikeSource or Performance Bicycle. I had never bought a tube of the particular size I needed so I wasn't sure what its normal price should be. I was charged $10.00, which I thought was a little high, but I trusted that even if the price was on the high end of the retail price range for that item, it wouldn't be too different than what I might find elsewhere. So, I considered the convenience factor to be worth maybe 10% or 20% and bought it anyway.
Any time I find that I have been charged more than 40% OVER the full retail list price for a basic, commodity, accessory item (like a bicycle innertube), I can't help but feel I've been ripped off. I found out later that the same exact item has a full retail list price of $7.00. To make things even worse, I found that the price for a similar (maybe even better) quality tube, at other local specialty bike stores, was as low as $5.29. "The Country Pedaler" price was marked up in excess of their competitors by a margin of almost 90%. You read it right, almost double the price other local stores charged for the same simple accessory item. It wasn't hard to find or in short supply. It didn't require special expertise or consultation from a sales person. It was just WAY overpriced.
The tube was the very first thing I purchased from The Country Pedaler bike store, and, because it was so drastically overpriced, it will likely be the VERY LAST thing I purchase from that store. They don't really have any option to correct their mistake now because they've already proven that I can't trust their prices to be even approximately fair, never mind competitive. Offering a refund or price adjustment now wouldn't even change my impression that the store generally charges an exorbitant amount over even full retail list prices. I wonder if it is any consolation to the store's owner that he gets to keep that extra $3.00 profit on that one sale (assuming I don't just return it for a refund) or if he even realizes how much it cost his business to jack up the price on a simple accessory item.
It is possible that I might decide to give The Country Pedaler a second chance several years from now, just to see if they got a clue and changed how they're setting their prices, but for now, they've lost me as a customer. Somehow I doubt the store will survive if they continue to alienate potential customers they way they have with me. I suspect anyone who finds this blog post will be reluctant to do business with them either. I certainly won't be recommending that anyone else visit that shop. In fact, I'll definitely warn them and send them elsewhere whenever possible.
Other mom and pop retailers that wish to keep customers and remain competitive should take this as a warning. You might be able to justify prices closer to full retail because you may be in a more convenient location than the "discounter" shop. Your customers might not even mind spending a little extra with you if you're able to give them more personal attention when they visit your store. But beware if you go beyond "a little extra" on your prices and gouge someone by pricing a relatively insignificant item well over its fair retail price. You're compromising the trust they have in your store, swapping positive word-of-mouth advertising for bad, and forfeiting any profit you might have earned on future purchases. All you gain for that is a few extra bucks, one time... most likely one LAST time.
Saturday, September 18, 2010
Garmin PC Map Updater Software SUCKS
I'd venture a guess that Garmin spends 99+% of its software development resources on the software that is actually on the device. I have experience with Nuvi, eTrex, and Forerunner models and most of the time, the menus, functions, and display options a Garmin GPS device seem to be reasonable and stable. But then Garmin's Windows based tools to support those GPS devices SUCK. I mean they REALLY, REALLY SUCK!! My last 3+ hour episode of utter frustration using one of Garmin's crap-ware tools was while attempting to simply update the Maps on a Nuvi automotive GPS device. I know it costs money to keep map data up to date, but the $90 I had to pay was still a bit steep for the marginal improvement in usability. Roads just don't change that significantly, that often. The map updater software required the following steps before it completed the simple simple task of checking a purchase license, matching it to the device serial number, and transferring map data onto a USB device.
1. Install a "communicator" plugin into the web browser (Firefox). Web browsers already have as their single most definitive purpose, "communicating with web servers" so it is aggravating that Garmin feels it is necessary to introduce additional software to accomplish this for "their" data.
2. Realize that for some unreported, unexplained reason, the Garmin Firefox plugin just doesn't work. No error message appeared suggesting that something was wrong. It just didn't ever "communicate" anything.
3. Install a "communicator" plugin into Microsoft Internet Explorer. IE is not the browser I normally use, so I have to remember this for any other interaction with Garmin's special IE only web site. C'mon Garmin, those days are long gone. Only the worst type of idiot-clown web sites authors still lock their content into IE only.
4. Play a guessing game with the Garmin web site to figure out where exactly they have the page where I can actually purchase the map update product I'm after. Enter credit card information to pay the excessive $90 fee. In my opinion, a GPS device that includes map data, should just include the map data updates for at least 5 years or so as part of the initial purchase price. After all, the pre-loaded map data already a bit out of date when it was first purchased, presumably because it had been sitting on a shelf in a store for a few weeks or months already.
5. Go check email for a link to another web page that contained the download link for the purchased map update data. Listen Garmin, the only reason I should need to give you an email address at all is if I want to receive a receipt or some other notification from you. Once I enter valid credit card information and purchase the maps, JUST FORWARD MY BROWSER DIRECTLY TO THE !@#$% DOWNLOAD PAGE!!!! All you accomplish by making me jump through the email link hoop is to make me even more angry when I get to the next boneheaded step.
6. Realize that after all the hassle and effort to get the communicator plugin working, it was only so I could download a map updater program that must run outside the web browser in order to transfer the map data to the Nuvi USB device. What a colossal waste of time. Please, just cut all the web browser calisthenics and let me jump straight to the download. Any web browser works just fine for that task, without any modification, extensions, plugins or anything.
7. Download and run the map updater program.
8. Watch the map updater program attempt to install Microsoft's .net framework 3.5 in spite of the fact that it was ALREADY INSTALLED on the machine.
9. Watch the .net install step fail and roll back, also without any explanation, which stops the map update process with no obvious next step. Frankly I don't know whether to thank Garmin or Microsoft for this aggravation, but since Garmin chose to require the .net framework, and their map updater program doesn't properly detect whether it is already installed, I'll still give Garmin the blame.
10. Switch to another computer (which is an option Garmin should know isn't available to a large percentage of their customers) and start basically from the beginning again.
11. Install the stupid "communicator" plugin for IE.
12. Poke around Garmin's web site to eventually find the link to download the map updater again.
13. Start the map updater. BTW, the version of the Garmin map updater initially downloaded from the site immediately downloads and installs different version. This happens transparently, but WHY? Once again, Garmin has absolutely no respect for their customer's time. Whenever I have observed other software doing this, it is usually doing something sneaky. My level of trust in Garmin's software was already very low, but this just helped push it well in to negative territory.
14. Wait approximately 1/2 hour while it installs the Microsoft .net framework (and yes it was already installed on this machine too).
15. Scream loud enough for Garmin's software staff to hear every expletive I know, no matter where in the world they happen to be because at this late stage, the map updater finally checks to see if there is even enough free disk space (which is a whopping 5GB on the System (c:) drive BTW) to complete the update process. WHY DIDN'T IT CHECK THAT SIMPLE MATTER UP FRONT. Yikes, how stupid are these people?
16. Since the only machine that would get though all the .net nonsense and run the map updater was a netbook that came pre-partitioned with a small system drive having less than 5GB free, the map updater wouldn't run without playing some space-available tricks. I suspect this is also an option that is not within the know-how limits of the majority of Garmin's customers. Garmin's map updater software offers no options to choose another drive or partition to use for temporary space so if your machine doesn't have at least 5GB free on the C: drive, just give up.
17. After several hours of frustration and false starts trying to get the map updater to run, then you have to leave it all of it running for several hours. Yes, I said SEVERAL HOURS while it downloads, unpacks, and transfers updated data to the device. Just to be sure it is able to make it through this process without making the GPS device into a brick, it would be best to have a redundant internet connection, an uninterrupted power supply, and fix Windows power management settings temporarily so that it never shuts off the hard drives or initiates system stand-by. This process takes a VERY LONG TIME. By the way, the map-updater's downloader client program consumes 100% of your internet connection's available bandwidth making everything else that needs to share the connection slow to a crawl. Garmin, this isn't just amateur network client software design, it is OBNOXIOUS and RUDE!!!
Garmin should be ashamed. How they could so totally screw up such a simple piece of software is utterly perplexing. It has been a very long time since I encountered a software utility, especially something that does nothing more complicated that transferring data from a server to a portable USB device, that was SO COMPLETELY frustrating and so poorly designed. I'm hoping that this blog post eventually costs Garmin as much in lost sales as their crap-ware map updater has cost me in aggravation. Even if it doesn't, maybe it will save someone else some of the annoying troubles getting map updates for their Garmin GPS device.
CHAPTER 2
On a second Nuvi device that I now DEEPLY regret ever having purchased, the Garmin Map Updater software forced a firmware update to the GPS device and WIPED OUT ALL MY ROUTES, ALL MY FAVORITES, and EVERY BIT OF TRACK DATA that I might have been able to capture first or restore later if there had been any indication at all that the crapware was about to wipe it all out. Someone in charge of Garmin's map updater software really needs to be put in prison. There is absolutely no excuse for this blatant disregard for Garmin's customers. I expect there must be a special place in hell for the a**hole who released this stinking pile of garbage into the lives of unsuspecting Garmin Nuvi owners throughout the world. May the responsible person rot in a pit of their own waste.
1. Install a "communicator" plugin into the web browser (Firefox). Web browsers already have as their single most definitive purpose, "communicating with web servers" so it is aggravating that Garmin feels it is necessary to introduce additional software to accomplish this for "their" data.
2. Realize that for some unreported, unexplained reason, the Garmin Firefox plugin just doesn't work. No error message appeared suggesting that something was wrong. It just didn't ever "communicate" anything.
3. Install a "communicator" plugin into Microsoft Internet Explorer. IE is not the browser I normally use, so I have to remember this for any other interaction with Garmin's special IE only web site. C'mon Garmin, those days are long gone. Only the worst type of idiot-clown web sites authors still lock their content into IE only.
4. Play a guessing game with the Garmin web site to figure out where exactly they have the page where I can actually purchase the map update product I'm after. Enter credit card information to pay the excessive $90 fee. In my opinion, a GPS device that includes map data, should just include the map data updates for at least 5 years or so as part of the initial purchase price. After all, the pre-loaded map data already a bit out of date when it was first purchased, presumably because it had been sitting on a shelf in a store for a few weeks or months already.
5. Go check email for a link to another web page that contained the download link for the purchased map update data. Listen Garmin, the only reason I should need to give you an email address at all is if I want to receive a receipt or some other notification from you. Once I enter valid credit card information and purchase the maps, JUST FORWARD MY BROWSER DIRECTLY TO THE !@#$% DOWNLOAD PAGE!!!! All you accomplish by making me jump through the email link hoop is to make me even more angry when I get to the next boneheaded step.
6. Realize that after all the hassle and effort to get the communicator plugin working, it was only so I could download a map updater program that must run outside the web browser in order to transfer the map data to the Nuvi USB device. What a colossal waste of time. Please, just cut all the web browser calisthenics and let me jump straight to the download. Any web browser works just fine for that task, without any modification, extensions, plugins or anything.
7. Download and run the map updater program.
8. Watch the map updater program attempt to install Microsoft's .net framework 3.5 in spite of the fact that it was ALREADY INSTALLED on the machine.
9. Watch the .net install step fail and roll back, also without any explanation, which stops the map update process with no obvious next step. Frankly I don't know whether to thank Garmin or Microsoft for this aggravation, but since Garmin chose to require the .net framework, and their map updater program doesn't properly detect whether it is already installed, I'll still give Garmin the blame.
10. Switch to another computer (which is an option Garmin should know isn't available to a large percentage of their customers) and start basically from the beginning again.
11. Install the stupid "communicator" plugin for IE.
12. Poke around Garmin's web site to eventually find the link to download the map updater again.
13. Start the map updater. BTW, the version of the Garmin map updater initially downloaded from the site immediately downloads and installs different version. This happens transparently, but WHY? Once again, Garmin has absolutely no respect for their customer's time. Whenever I have observed other software doing this, it is usually doing something sneaky. My level of trust in Garmin's software was already very low, but this just helped push it well in to negative territory.
14. Wait approximately 1/2 hour while it installs the Microsoft .net framework (and yes it was already installed on this machine too).
15. Scream loud enough for Garmin's software staff to hear every expletive I know, no matter where in the world they happen to be because at this late stage, the map updater finally checks to see if there is even enough free disk space (which is a whopping 5GB on the System (c:) drive BTW) to complete the update process. WHY DIDN'T IT CHECK THAT SIMPLE MATTER UP FRONT. Yikes, how stupid are these people?
16. Since the only machine that would get though all the .net nonsense and run the map updater was a netbook that came pre-partitioned with a small system drive having less than 5GB free, the map updater wouldn't run without playing some space-available tricks. I suspect this is also an option that is not within the know-how limits of the majority of Garmin's customers. Garmin's map updater software offers no options to choose another drive or partition to use for temporary space so if your machine doesn't have at least 5GB free on the C: drive, just give up.
17. After several hours of frustration and false starts trying to get the map updater to run, then you have to leave it all of it running for several hours. Yes, I said SEVERAL HOURS while it downloads, unpacks, and transfers updated data to the device. Just to be sure it is able to make it through this process without making the GPS device into a brick, it would be best to have a redundant internet connection, an uninterrupted power supply, and fix Windows power management settings temporarily so that it never shuts off the hard drives or initiates system stand-by. This process takes a VERY LONG TIME. By the way, the map-updater's downloader client program consumes 100% of your internet connection's available bandwidth making everything else that needs to share the connection slow to a crawl. Garmin, this isn't just amateur network client software design, it is OBNOXIOUS and RUDE!!!
Garmin should be ashamed. How they could so totally screw up such a simple piece of software is utterly perplexing. It has been a very long time since I encountered a software utility, especially something that does nothing more complicated that transferring data from a server to a portable USB device, that was SO COMPLETELY frustrating and so poorly designed. I'm hoping that this blog post eventually costs Garmin as much in lost sales as their crap-ware map updater has cost me in aggravation. Even if it doesn't, maybe it will save someone else some of the annoying troubles getting map updates for their Garmin GPS device.
CHAPTER 2
On a second Nuvi device that I now DEEPLY regret ever having purchased, the Garmin Map Updater software forced a firmware update to the GPS device and WIPED OUT ALL MY ROUTES, ALL MY FAVORITES, and EVERY BIT OF TRACK DATA that I might have been able to capture first or restore later if there had been any indication at all that the crapware was about to wipe it all out. Someone in charge of Garmin's map updater software really needs to be put in prison. There is absolutely no excuse for this blatant disregard for Garmin's customers. I expect there must be a special place in hell for the a**hole who released this stinking pile of garbage into the lives of unsuspecting Garmin Nuvi owners throughout the world. May the responsible person rot in a pit of their own waste.
Monday, March 29, 2010
My Eye!!
Many of the Pixar animated movies have a few catch phrases like "I'm okay!!" or "My Eye!!" Having only been to an eye doctor once before, years ago, to find out if there was any reason to be concerned about "floaters," today I went to find out whether there was anything more to the blurry focus in my right eye than just the ordinary effects of getting older. I was relieved to learn that "I'm okay!!"
I learned a few more things about eyes too that I might have figured out, based on what I know about photography, if I'd given it any thought. For the few weeks prior to the eye exam today, I had been checking each eye under different conditions so I'd have more useful ways to describe how my right eye was bothering me. One thing I had noticed is that in lower lighting, one of my eyes seemed to give me a darker image but the same wasn't true in the brightly lit outdoors. The other thing I noticed is that looking at certain things like a television or the moon seemed to cause double vision worse than other things like a shelf full of small objects or dishes on a table.
So, as it turns out, my right eye is just not focusing quite right any more at a distance. However, that didn't readily explain the comparative brightness in low light only. If I had thought a bit about it, I would probably have remembered that to increase the depth of field, i.e. expand the range of things that are projected sharply on a camera's back-plane, the aperture can be made smaller. This lets less light through, so the projected image, although sharper, is also darker. With a camera, a brighter flash can offset the darker image but with an eye, the available light is fixed. Apparently, one of the things the eye will do in order to compensate for the failure of the lens shape to project a sharp image on the retina is to constrict the pupil to increase the depth of field. So, like a camera with the aperture narrowed, less light gets to the retina. It makes sense that blurry results in darker, but it isn't really obvious.
Double vision puzzled me because it seemed to only appear when I viewed things that were far away, somewhat high contrast, and, to the naked eye, essentially 2D / flat, like TV or the moon. I probably learned in grade school that the image projected on the retina is actually inverted up/down left/right from the scene that appears before the eye. The brain does the work of flipping everything back around so it all makes sense and you don't end up reaching low and to the left to catch a ball passing high and to your right. The brain also compensates a little when your eyes don't quite line up with one another. That's easy for 3D objects that are up close because the actual image differs enough that the brain is composing a 3D perception anyway. When the brain is attempting to align the distant image from two perfectly focused eyes it's easy to match up edges too, but when one of the eyes is sharp and the other is blurry, the brain-alignment doesn't work as well. The result is that the brain partially surrenders the task of compensating for what is perceived as physical mis-alignment of the eyes, and delivers a halo or a double image. This also makes perfect sense if you consider the challenge of overlaying a blurry image and a sharp image in a graphics program like Photoshop. It would be almost impossible to determine the exact positioning with crisp edges upon which to align in only one of the images.
So this simplified explanation is for my own benefit later, when I've forgotten what I came to understand today, and it's here in case someone else stumbles over it and finds my particular way of explaining it easier to understand than some other way.
I learned a few more things about eyes too that I might have figured out, based on what I know about photography, if I'd given it any thought. For the few weeks prior to the eye exam today, I had been checking each eye under different conditions so I'd have more useful ways to describe how my right eye was bothering me. One thing I had noticed is that in lower lighting, one of my eyes seemed to give me a darker image but the same wasn't true in the brightly lit outdoors. The other thing I noticed is that looking at certain things like a television or the moon seemed to cause double vision worse than other things like a shelf full of small objects or dishes on a table.
So, as it turns out, my right eye is just not focusing quite right any more at a distance. However, that didn't readily explain the comparative brightness in low light only. If I had thought a bit about it, I would probably have remembered that to increase the depth of field, i.e. expand the range of things that are projected sharply on a camera's back-plane, the aperture can be made smaller. This lets less light through, so the projected image, although sharper, is also darker. With a camera, a brighter flash can offset the darker image but with an eye, the available light is fixed. Apparently, one of the things the eye will do in order to compensate for the failure of the lens shape to project a sharp image on the retina is to constrict the pupil to increase the depth of field. So, like a camera with the aperture narrowed, less light gets to the retina. It makes sense that blurry results in darker, but it isn't really obvious.
Double vision puzzled me because it seemed to only appear when I viewed things that were far away, somewhat high contrast, and, to the naked eye, essentially 2D / flat, like TV or the moon. I probably learned in grade school that the image projected on the retina is actually inverted up/down left/right from the scene that appears before the eye. The brain does the work of flipping everything back around so it all makes sense and you don't end up reaching low and to the left to catch a ball passing high and to your right. The brain also compensates a little when your eyes don't quite line up with one another. That's easy for 3D objects that are up close because the actual image differs enough that the brain is composing a 3D perception anyway. When the brain is attempting to align the distant image from two perfectly focused eyes it's easy to match up edges too, but when one of the eyes is sharp and the other is blurry, the brain-alignment doesn't work as well. The result is that the brain partially surrenders the task of compensating for what is perceived as physical mis-alignment of the eyes, and delivers a halo or a double image. This also makes perfect sense if you consider the challenge of overlaying a blurry image and a sharp image in a graphics program like Photoshop. It would be almost impossible to determine the exact positioning with crisp edges upon which to align in only one of the images.
So this simplified explanation is for my own benefit later, when I've forgotten what I came to understand today, and it's here in case someone else stumbles over it and finds my particular way of explaining it easier to understand than some other way.
Thursday, March 18, 2010
Two Things Wrong with Health Insurance
1. Most of it is NOT insurance!
Insurance is a concept of voluntary pooling of resources to counteract a potential risk that, statistically, could never affect all of those pooling their resources, but will, statistically, affect a very small percentage of those pooling their resources to a degree that would require the most or all of the resources that have been pooled. Insurance isn't too different than a bet on a race where the loser is awarded the winnings. Just like bets though, it would never be fair to enter the game once you already know the outcome. If that were allowed, those who pooled their resources with the expectation of offsetting their own risk would ALWAYS lose.
Health insurance that pays for pre-existing conditions is NOT insurance. Because employers forcibly set aside part of their employee's compensation as a health care "benefit" and government regulation (COBRA) forces employers to accept known risk with new employees, most health insurance is a coerced sharing system where the healthy are compelled to bear the cost of the unhealthy.
2. If the health insurance business actually provided insurance, the profitability could never get so wildly out of control.
The business of insurance should be a service that is provided to those pooling resources to assess the risk, determine differential cost based on risk, and prevent fraudulent claims on the pooled resources. For this, the administrators of an insurance plan, as a neutral third party that manages the pooled resources, are due a reasonable fee for performing that service, but they are not entitled to keep a share of the pooled resources based on their ability to deny the distribution of those resources.
This may sound anti-capitalist, but it is no different than saying that a bank is NOT entitled to claim, as their own, the money they have on deposit so long as they can keep their customers from coming into the bank to make a withdrawal. There is opportunity for insurance companies to earn what they're paid by providing a legitimate service, just as banks do. That still fits perfectly in a capitalist based economic system.
Insurance is a concept of voluntary pooling of resources to counteract a potential risk that, statistically, could never affect all of those pooling their resources, but will, statistically, affect a very small percentage of those pooling their resources to a degree that would require the most or all of the resources that have been pooled. Insurance isn't too different than a bet on a race where the loser is awarded the winnings. Just like bets though, it would never be fair to enter the game once you already know the outcome. If that were allowed, those who pooled their resources with the expectation of offsetting their own risk would ALWAYS lose.
Health insurance that pays for pre-existing conditions is NOT insurance. Because employers forcibly set aside part of their employee's compensation as a health care "benefit" and government regulation (COBRA) forces employers to accept known risk with new employees, most health insurance is a coerced sharing system where the healthy are compelled to bear the cost of the unhealthy.
2. If the health insurance business actually provided insurance, the profitability could never get so wildly out of control.
The business of insurance should be a service that is provided to those pooling resources to assess the risk, determine differential cost based on risk, and prevent fraudulent claims on the pooled resources. For this, the administrators of an insurance plan, as a neutral third party that manages the pooled resources, are due a reasonable fee for performing that service, but they are not entitled to keep a share of the pooled resources based on their ability to deny the distribution of those resources.
This may sound anti-capitalist, but it is no different than saying that a bank is NOT entitled to claim, as their own, the money they have on deposit so long as they can keep their customers from coming into the bank to make a withdrawal. There is opportunity for insurance companies to earn what they're paid by providing a legitimate service, just as banks do. That still fits perfectly in a capitalist based economic system.
Friday, March 12, 2010
A "Likely Story" from an EBay Seller
I purchased something on EBay on the 3rd of the month and got a USPS tracking number back right away. I was thinking I should probably see the package on about the 9th. However, on about the 10th, the info reported on the USPS tracking web site from the tracking number I was given still said:
So, I was getting a little worried that I was being scammed (which, despite EBay's efforts to fight it, is still WAY too common on EBay), so I sent a message to the seller on the 10th to ask if the item had actually shipped yet. The reply I got was as follows:
Note: The names, etc. below are redacted (edits in [brackets]) for now, just in case it isn't that of which it reeks.
I'm posting this in case this seller's excuse for not shipping something is habitual, and so that if someone else gets a similar story from this seller, they might find this, outside of EBay, as an indication that they're being jerked around by the same seller. Other feedback comments from buyers for this seller are nearly all positive and contain many reports of immediate shipping, but curiously, there is no gap in the dates of those feedback items as you might expect if nothing had shipped for a week. Perhaps the seller was actually robbed by his shipping guy, and perhaps the timing of my purchase was just that precisely bad. However, it seems very fishy to me that the seller happened to have suffered this misfortune exactly one day prior to my purchase, and then happened to return home and discover it on exactly the day I decided to inquire. If there were a way to ask EBay to take a look at past communications sent from this seller, I wouldn't be surprised at all if I learned that a nearly identical set of circumstances happened to have been described by this seller in the past, to other buyers, as an excuse for non-shipped items.
I finally received the items I purchased on the 17th but I remain suspicious that the story I got was just a stall tactic. If anyone finds this and has been told a similar tale, send me a message with names. If they match, I'll confirm.
The U.S. Postal Service was electronically notified by the shipper on {-month-} 4, 20xx to expect your package for mailing. This does not indicate receipt by the USPS or the actual mailing date. Delivery status information will be provided if / when available. Information, if available, is updated periodically throughout the day. Please check again later.
So, I was getting a little worried that I was being scammed (which, despite EBay's efforts to fight it, is still WAY too common on EBay), so I sent a message to the seller on the 10th to ask if the item had actually shipped yet. The reply I got was as follows:
Note: The names, etc. below are redacted (edits in [brackets]) for now, just in case it isn't that of which it reeks.
I would first like to apologize for your purchase being delayed.
...My name is [---------] ...I am part owner...and I have been out of town along with [----] the other owner since [the] 1st.
...Our Shipping Manager of 4 months....has been printing orders off Pay pal to make them look as if they are being shipped.... but in fact as we found out late last night, when we returned.. They have not been shipped.
...We have basically been robbed blind by someone we had trusted.
...No orders have shipped out since [the] 2nd.
..He has stole everything we had in stock and new shipments that have come in. In all we have been robbed of over 2700 [item-1] and almost 3000 [item-2].
...where as we have had Him arrested this morning...He refuses to tell the Police where the merchandise is.
...We have another shipment coming in on the 12Th....along with other dealers who are selling us some items to help to cover shipments that have already been paid for...and we have called in extra help to assist us with getting all orders shipped out [the 12th].
..I am very sorry for any loss of business this may have caused many of our dealers...and to any of our regular customers who where just buying these for personal use.
...Please feel Free to call me if you have any questions at [000-000-0000]
..please leave a message if you get voice mail due to high call volume I will be expecting.
..I will call everyone back.
...again...There is no way to explain how embarrassing this is to us as a company and I can only Hope that you will understand that we are working hard to process each and every order to make sure we get every ones items shipped out in a timely manner.
...please, as stated above...if you have any questions ..please call me.
...thanks...[---------/----]
- [-----------]
I'm posting this in case this seller's excuse for not shipping something is habitual, and so that if someone else gets a similar story from this seller, they might find this, outside of EBay, as an indication that they're being jerked around by the same seller. Other feedback comments from buyers for this seller are nearly all positive and contain many reports of immediate shipping, but curiously, there is no gap in the dates of those feedback items as you might expect if nothing had shipped for a week. Perhaps the seller was actually robbed by his shipping guy, and perhaps the timing of my purchase was just that precisely bad. However, it seems very fishy to me that the seller happened to have suffered this misfortune exactly one day prior to my purchase, and then happened to return home and discover it on exactly the day I decided to inquire. If there were a way to ask EBay to take a look at past communications sent from this seller, I wouldn't be surprised at all if I learned that a nearly identical set of circumstances happened to have been described by this seller in the past, to other buyers, as an excuse for non-shipped items.
I finally received the items I purchased on the 17th but I remain suspicious that the story I got was just a stall tactic. If anyone finds this and has been told a similar tale, send me a message with names. If they match, I'll confirm.
SELinux becomes SDLinux
I still don't know how it happened, but on my CentOS 5 (a.k.a. Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5) system, something changed the SELinux context of the /etc/services file from what it is supposed to be to object_r:rpm_script_tmp_t. Several days later, I noticed that no messages were being added to system logs. /var/log/messages was empty. /var/log/secure was empty. /var/log/cron was empty. Just about every log file written to /var/log ended up with 0 (zero) bytes.
My guess is that some RPM I installed, or that got installed via yum, changed the SELinux context of /etc/services. So, without log messages, the security of the system is a bit degraded (so I'll dub that SDLinux for "Security Degraded Linux"). My first thought was that somehow someone managed to get past the certificate-only source-ip-restricted SSH login and zap the logs. However, since no additional log messages were being written, that isn't as suspect as I had feared.
To get logging started again wasn't too complicated:
Here's a reference to the bug that makes this quieter and uglier than it should be:
My guess is that some RPM I installed, or that got installed via yum, changed the SELinux context of /etc/services. So, without log messages, the security of the system is a bit degraded (so I'll dub that SDLinux for "Security Degraded Linux"). My first thought was that somehow someone managed to get past the certificate-only source-ip-restricted SSH login and zap the logs. However, since no additional log messages were being written, that isn't as suspect as I had feared.
To get logging started again wasn't too complicated:
- restorecon /etc/services
(changes the SELinux context back to what it should be, which is
system_u: object_r:etc_t) - service syslog restart
- logger -p daemon-warn "this is a test"
- tail /var/log/messages
- ls -Z /etc/services
Here's a reference to the bug that makes this quieter and uglier than it should be:
- http://bugs.centos.org/view.php?id=1772
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