First off, how about a $5 discount for using the online service?  That’s call an “incentive”. Penalizing people for going to a branch is called a “deterrent”.  We all know that the greedy, grubby hands down at the RMV, DOT, and governor’s office wouldn’t think of offering to charge less for something. That’s just silly.  Secondly, you should be giving the poor people who have to go down to a RMV branch $5 just for having to deal with some of the state’s worst employees. Most of the people I have dealt with down there are nasty and rude, not to mention they seem put out when you ask them to do their job. There have been some exceptions, but they are by far the exception.

This has to stop. The state just keeps asking for more and more and continues to give less and less. We need to start holding our elected officials accountable for this nonsense. Unfortunately I believe we need to remove them from office.  The fact is the elected officials today have a mindset that they can do anything they want and the people of this state will just take it. We need to start sending messages to beacon hill, continue your nonsense and you’ll be out of a job.

Next time you vote I hope you remember all the fees and taxes the state charges you and the very little you get in return.  I know I will.

Ref: Effective March 1, Online, Mail & Automated Services Will Cost Less than Branch Services

Oklahoma has a new law that makes it a crime to “fortify” a citizen’s home against possible entry by law enforcement.

State Rep. Sue Tibbs was one of the sponsors of a bill that makes it unlawful for “any person to willfully fortify an access point into any dwelling, structure, building or other place where a felony offense prohibited by the Uniform Controlled Dangerous Substances Act is being committed, or attempted, and the fortification is for the purpose of preventing or delaying entry or access by a law enforcement officer, or to harm or injure a law enforcement officer in the performance of official duties.”

The law took effect Nov. 1.

The law states that to “fortify an access point” means to willfully construct, install, position, use or hold any material or device designed to injure a person upon entry or to strengthen, defend, restrict or obstruct any door, window or other opening into a dwelling, structure, building or other place to any extent beyond the security provided by a commercial alarm system, lock or deadbolt, or a combination of alarm, lock or deadbolt.

The law carries punishment of imprisonment of not more than five years or by a fine up to $10,000 or by both.

Source: Tibbs’ law makes it illegal to ‘fortify’ a private home | Tulsa Beacon.

Anyway, I thought I’d do an attack ad with the equivalent intellectual prowess the “This Bush is Brown” ad.  Here it is:

This Martha is a crook.  This crook is a Martha.

Both of these women have robbed people of their personal property.  One by lying, cheating, and being downright dishonorable. The other by lying, cheating, and being downright dishonorable. By continuing to support either one you send the message that lying, cheating, and being dishonorable is how you want your country to be.  It will continue to corrupt our great country and continue to cost us more.  Here is a quick comparison:

As you can see, neither Martha is right for this state.  Make sure on January 19^th you don’t pick a Martha.

Ok, with that said, I’ve been really bad about spreading the word on this particular campaign, talking to many less than I normally do for other campaigns I have been in, so I am going to do something I have never done before.  I am going to use my blog to spread the word.  Now, this isn’t an advertisement, it’s my personal opinion based upon my experience and the people I have talked to about Boston Market.

Personally, I like Boston Market.  I have liked them since they opened years ago when I was a kid.  My mother and I used to visit the one in Burlington, MA and for fast food I never though it tasted fast.  I still like it today as an alternative to pizza, burger places, or sub shops.  When you want something fast but you don’t want to eat junk it’s a good option.  I’m also lucky to have 2 in the area about equidistant from my house.

One thing I didn’t know, that I have learned as part of being a BzzAgent is that they also cater.  They have many options and I encourage you to check them out at the following URL: http://bostonmarket.com/catering. It’s cheaper then going out to eat, it’s the same great food you are used to from Boston Market, and they do all the work.  You can even get 10% off an order of $100 or more by using the code: BZZAGENT.  (There are some limitations.)

If you have any comments or questions, feel free to comment here and I’ll respond (or on Facebook or Twitter as this post is cross-posted over there as well).  Thanks for helping me get a few extra Bzz’s out before this campaign ends.

If the widget is a little confusing (I think it is), here is the link to the site: http://www.letssaythanks.com

Hopefully this blog post will save someone else from making the mistake I made.  Check back soon for an update and I’ll report what, if anything, happen to my PC from pressing this little button.

Almost every site you go on has a place for a “profile picture”.  Sometimes these are square, sometime they are rectangular, but they almost all have one. Many of the sites also use a thumbnail, or smaller version, of that picture next to items you post or actions you perform.  One thing I try to do is keep my profile picture consistent across multiple sites. This allows people who “know me” from one site to quickly “recognize” me on another site.  Take Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook for example.  If you were my friend on Facebook and clicked one of my links which brought you to Twitter seeing my face next to a comment immediately tells you it’s me.  If you Google my name and my company you’ll likely get a LinkedIn profile.  Before even reading a word you would see my picture and know you were at the right place.  This really helps to provide consistency between my many Internet presences.

The other thing I try to do is secure the same user name or profile name.  If I can, I try to get the matching URL for the service I am using. Again, not as quickly recognizable as the picture, but it provides people with a way to say, “He uses that name everywhere. It’s likely him.”  No big surprise I try to get “Marcucci” as a profile name, which is getting harder as more people in Italy get connected. (I can’t image trying to get “Clark” or “Smith”.)  This is really helpful for places where profile pictures aren’t used as often, like instant messaging or user listings.

Still, with everything on the Internet being indexed and search engines providing summaries on almost everything in a search result list how important are these two items?  Are people already getting enough info to be able to find and recognize me? Are there other things individuals are doing when trying to build a personal brand online?  Let’s face it, we’re not out here blogging, networking, and tweeting to not be found, so why not spend a little time to help others find you.  Please comment with your own thoughts and suggestions.

Just press yes….

It’s amazing how much U can learn about the person in the next cube just by their phone calls. It’s hard NOT to listen. Apply Headphones

Listening to others on the phone at work is not a good thing to do and I think it’s against a lot of company policies but let’s face it, working in little boxes with nothing but the fabric of sweatshirt between you and your neighbor (an only a 4 ft sweatshirt) you can basically hear everything that goes on over there.  Now here is the difference, I can “hear” everything but it doesn’t mean I am “listening”.  I “hear” email addresses, credit card numbers, arguments with family, any other noises which I’d like to forget.  Still I’m not listening. I’m not writing things down.  This is what makes it okay. Nevertheless, I am amazed at what people say and do in their cube thinking they are inside some little personal bubble. Are they not aware of the other people around them, “hearing” them?

For those who have not worked in this environment, I’ll explain the involuntary nature of it like this:

I count cards when I gamble at casinos.  I’m no “MIT Blackjack Team” member, but I’m not bad.  Well, my wife hates that I count cards when playing casual card games (like keeping track of all the cards she picks up when playing canasta) and thinks I’m “cheating” when I do it.  I tried to explain that it’s not my fault, my mind just “does it” without even thinking.  She didn’t buy it so I set up an experiment to show her what I meant.  I said, “I am going to write some letters on this napkin and I want you to just read the letters but don’t read the word.  If you can’t do that, it is just like why I can’t stop counting cards.”  See if you can do it, below are the letters I wrote…don’t read the word, just the letters.

B                        O                        S                        T                        O                        N

“Cookies” allow web sites to store a small amount of info (4 kb per cookie) into your web browser.  It’s how web sites are able to keep you logged in even after you leave, remember your “shopping cart” items, or greet you with a personalized “Welcome Back David” message.  Cookies were a wonderful invention and really allowed sites to customize a visitor’s experience. Cookies also allowed advertisers to “track” your online activities to deliver “better” advertising to you.  This is the problem with cookies, they allowed us to be “tracked” (for better or for worse), and in a time where “personal privacy” has become a household concept “tracking” is bad (m’kay).

As natural progression would have it web browsers began to build in features to control and remove cookies.  A good example is the “third party” cookie controls.  A third party cookie is where you visit “Site A” and it allows “Site B” (like an advertiser) to put a cookie on your computer.  Most web browsers allow you to disable these.  Next, virus scanners and other tools got the ability to search for and remove “tracking cookies.”  I’m sure we’ve all seen our virus scanner report a “tracking cookie” for some random advertiser.  Now lots of people clear their cookies, selectively delete them, or use programs that have come out to block them before they even get saved based on published “blacklists”.  Still, you may be fighting the wrong enemy!

Sites have been implementing a new way to track their users.  It seems they have noticed that the average Internet user has taken countermeasures to prevent being tracked with traditional cookies.  As a result companies went looking for a new technological solution.  They needed something that would allow them to save data on the user’s computer without letting them know and something that almost everyone had installed. Flash was the perfect solution.  Lot’s of people have flash installed to watch YouTube, make JibJab videos, or listen to streaming audio.  By default Flash lets a web site store info just like a cookie, matter of fact they call them “flash cookies”, and it even allows more data then traditional cookies so advertisers could store even more info about you.

The best part was most people didn’t know about flash cookies, they didn’t know how to clear them, and there weren’t a lot of programs out there to block or delete them selectivity.  I knew about “flash cookies”, but to be honest, I didn’t know that the use of “flash cookies” was so wide spread.  Some people estimate that over half of the most popular web sites have converted or are using “flash cookies” to track their users.  In addition, when you use your browsers “private” mode it doesn’t prevent sites from storing data about you into flash.

I’m sure as people begin to realize what is happening tools will emerge to clean and prevent flash cookies just as they did for browser cookies.  Until then however, here are some options. Here is a link to an eHow page on how to remove these cookies, http://www.ehow.com/how_4450318_delete-flash-program-cookies.html, and if you use FireFox, check out the “better privacy” add on.  Be careful though, both solutions can delete more then you want to so take some time to read the screens and understand what you are deleting.