because not enough websites start with the letter “Z”
Mar 9th, 2010 by mark
This movie was mind bending when it originally came out in 1982, and it looks like the sequel will be just as good if not better. I may have to swallow a handful of pain killers and brave the insanity that is the current 3D movie craze to see it on a big screen.
Mar 1st, 2010 by mark
One of the many responsibilities that Sibylle has shouldered in the wake of her mother’s death has been managing the financial portion of the estate. Working with the local bank and the account manager there, Sibylle was able to figure out what automatic payments occur each month, and general was able to get a sense for what upcoming payments would need to be authorized.
We were able to establish online access to one account which will allow us to do some banking from here in the States rather than relying on phone calls, email or the postal service. The account security has a slightly different approach than any bank I’ve worked with here in the States. In addition to an account username and password there is a transaction number.
The bank mailed to our postal address a sheet with 100 6-digit numbers. Any transaction we want to perform online, transferring funds, making payments, et cetera, will require one of those numbers. During the process the bank’s system asks for a specific 6-digit number, say #38. As the account holder you are expected to have access to the “TAN” sheet and therefore can lookup the corresponding TAN value and enter it upon request. Each number is only used once; in fact the sheet has room for the date the number was used and the purpose. The bank keeps track of how many transactions, and therefore how many TAN numbers have been used. When you have used 80 of the 100 a new sheet is automatically sent to you. And you have to activate that sheet using one of the remaining TAN numbers from the previous sheet.
In effect this is a one-time pad form of encryption. As long as we are the only people with our set of 100 6-digit numbers, no one else can do anything with our account even if they were to somehow discover the username and password. While it seems lower-tech at first than images and other confirmations that American financial institutions use to protect your account, I think it is less susceptible to fraud and attack. You’d have to break into our house and find the TAN sheet before you could do anything to that account.
One of the things I appreciate about traveling to other countries is seeing how they address and handle situations differently. The use of a TAN sheet with online banking is a much better solution, I think, than what we have here in the States.
Feb 26th, 2010 by mark
On a whim, when purchasing plane tickets to Germany in January, I signed Sibylle and I up for Delta Skymiles accounts. We like to visit Europe and try to use Delta for those trips and it seemed like a good idea to start benefitting from our loyalty.
The miles for our flights in January appeared on both our accounts beautifully. Following the death of her mother we returned to Germany in February and again I used Delta for the flights and our Skymiles accounts. While in Germany I needed to change the return dates and therefore accessed the Delta sight and discovered that her miles had not updated like mine had. Her flights weren’t all showing up properly.
Now that we are back in the States I decided to call Delta to see what was going on with her Skymiles account. It all has to do with her name.
In September 1962 the birth registrar made a clerical error. He (or she) reversed Sibylle’s first and middle names on the form, and she (or he) misspelled Sibylle. This was never a problem and Sibylle herself wasn’t aware of the situation until she applied for a passport in her teens and had to sign her legal name, reversed from what she knew and misspelled.
Fast forward to today. Delta not only tracks your trips by your Skymiles account number but by spelling and appearance of the name on the ticket. I registered her account using her first initial and the correct spelling of her middle name, Sibylle. However that doesn’t match her passport which matches her clerically erred birth certificate, showing first name and middle name reversed, the middle name misspelled, and then last name. Nor does the Skymiles account name match her driver’s license which shows birth certificate first name, middle initial, and last name.
Delta is willing to untangle her Skymiles account and credit her with both round-trip flights to Germany but only after seeing a copy of the passport, receipts for the tickets purchased, and a request from us. They claim it usually takes 72 hours to update an account. Sometimes as long as a week. Sibylle is considering a return trip to Germany in two weeks to work on her mother’s estate some more. I’m sure that this new set of flights will further complicate her Skymiles account.
As we move more and more of our daily interactions onto computers, and as service providers work to eliminate fraud, situations like this will become more common. Accuracy in entering data (both by individuals and by organizations capturing the data) will be critical. Just having an account number won’t be enough. It may become increasingly complicated to prove that you are really you.
Feb 25th, 2010 by mark
Since December 2005 I have been using Mint to track my web site statistics. Out of the box it provides a good look at who is coming to your site, how frequently, and to which pages. Better still, Mint is extensible through plugins called Peppers. Pepper-mint, get it?
Periodically the base package and or some of the Peppers have updates available. Updating isn’t too difficult but it does require paying attention to details. Since your site is a live, dynamic thing, you want the outage of your statistics tracking to be as short as possible when updating. The ideal way to accomplish this is to rename the folders you are about to upload to your Mint installation from there real name (“default”) to an alternate name (“default-new”) so the new stuff can coexist with the old stuff temporarily.
Once you’ve uploaded all the new pieces (each renamed to end in “-new”) then you go through a two step renaming process. “default” to “default-old” and “default-new” to “default” Since renaming is a much faster operation than uploading, the span of downtime is very short. The final step is to remove the “default-old” package as it is no longer needed.
All of this worked perfectly yesterday, except that I was lazy and didn’t remover the old package from the last Pepper I updated. This meant that the directory contained both “locationsplus” and “locationsplus-old”. Seemingly a minor point. The Mint page loaded and everything seemed to be working. Later I went to my Mint preferences and the page didn’t finish loading. After a few minutes of poking around I discovered the Pepper folder with what were essentially two copies of the same Pepper. Once I deleted the “-old” version the Preferences page loaded properly.
The moral of the story is to follow all the steps, and not just the ones you like.
Fourteen years ago, on February 20, 1996, I registered my first Internet domain. This site has existed in one form or another ever since. In a real sense this site has been a constant in an ever shifting world. The nearly 1600 entries here cover all of the major changes in my life, and the site as a whole charts the shifting directions of my interests.
I have no idea if I’ll still have a web site in 2024 or what that site would be if I do. Stick around and let’s find out together.
Jan 29th, 2010 by mark
I have managed to read several books on our trip to Germany.
Jan 27th, 2010 by mark
About ten years ago the arches on my feet fell. The first indication of this was a heel spur that developed on my right foot. The spur was successfully reduced in size through a series of ultrasound treatments at my favorite chiropractor’s office. When a spur appeared on my left foot it too was reduced via ultrasound. At the time I didn’t realize that the spurs were symptoms of fallen arches, I thought they were the result of ten years in the martial arts.
In 2005 my big toes started to hurt, eventually quiet painfully. It felt like I had jammed them somehow but nothing I did released them or relieved the pain. When I described the pain to my new chiropractor she had me take my shoes off and stand up for her. She immediately said, “fallen arches.” Turns out there is a tendon the runs from the heel of the foot to the base of the big toe and a fallen arch stretches this tendon. At first my body tried to strengthen the heel end of the tendon by adding calcium to the area, resulting in the heel spurs. Now the constant pulling against my big toes makes them hurt unless I wear a good arch support.
Unless you have orthopedic supports made for you, an expensive proposition, there really aren’t too many good arch supports available. Most are “cushioned insoles” which simply don’t work. On our first trip to Germany in 2007, Sibylle and I found a pair of arch supports in a large department store in Stuttgart that I have worn ever since. The brand name is Bama, a company ultimately owned by Sara Lee. They are made out of leather with a very stiff arch support. The arch is rigid and doesn’t flex or give. Adding these arch supports to my shoes provided immediate relief. They are simply fantastic.
That first year we only bought one pair, and I Â moved them from shoe to shoe every day. In 2008 when we returned to Europe I bought four pairs, one for each pair of my shoes. The original pair, now a year old, moved full-time to my slippers.
We are now on our third trip together to Europe, and I am planning on buying at least four new pair of supports. The original pair, now approach two and a half years of age, still have a strong arch, even if the surrounding leather is starting to fall apart. Since I can’t find these in the States I want to stock up while we are here so I’ll have a supply of replacements. Having a pair of these supports in every show I wear, including my slippers, has all but eliminated the constant big toe pain I had before.
Jan 17th, 2010 by mark
If you look carefully at the fine print on the back of some books, there is a classification or genre listed, largely (I think) to help the bookseller know where to shelve the volume. In the case of Dan Brown’s latest novel I think the genre should read “hyperbole” or perhaps “suspension of disbelief.”
That the central character has survived The Da Vinci Code and Angels & Demons, and is highly knowledgeable in the arcane symbols of the world means he ought to accept somethings on faith, right? No. Apparently he isn’t willing to believe what others tell him.
I finished The Lost Symbol only to see how it ended, and I skimmed some sections rather then reading them word for word.
Jan 12th, 2010 by mark
Over the years I’ve had several favorite places for lunch during the work week.
When I worked for the Illinois Department of Agriculture my favorite lunch location was a hamburger stand located at the intersection of North Grand West and North 2nd Street. I no longer remember the name, and the restaurant itself is long gone. They had fabulous burgers and fries and an outstanding breakfast menu. It was family owned and when the parents wanted to retire none of their children wanted to keep the establishment going.
Working downtown brought me close to a number of fine eateries. The Feed Store had good sandwiches and great soups, however I’d have to say it was my second favorite lunch location. First would have to be the seasonal hot dog and bratwurst stands that you could find on the Old Capital Plaza in the warmer months. There were two regulars there in the late 1980s and early 1990s, one in particular had very good bratwurst. I believe he soaked them in beer before grilling them. He recognized regular customers and occasionally treated us to a free lunch.
Living in the large cosmopolitan area of Portland OR and Vancouver WA exposed me to lots of very good Asian restaurants, including my favorite, Pho Van, a Vietnamese restaurant specializing in beef noodle soup. While the soup was good my favorite lunch there was grilled lemon grass chicken with a side of spring rolls. The spring rolls were delicate and delicious while the chicken was hot and spicy.
My favorite lunch place in Charleston was a tiny storefront diner with the best grilled cheese on marbled rye around. He had pretty good burgers too, but I usually when to Jack’s for the grilled cheese. Second favorite lunch would have to be Bangers and Mash at the Irish pub. Â Somehow they were able to char the ends of the sausage while only cooking the middles. Excellent stuff.
After returning to central Illinois in 2000 to work for my self I settled into a weekly chili routine. Joe Rogers’s “The Den” Chili was my favorite lunch stop every Tuesday. Sometimes on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays too.
Living in a large metropolitan area again provided tons of choices, but I’d have to say that my favorite lunch spot was Mama’s Chinese Buffet in Raytown. Cheap, plain, and excellent food. Even after switching to a new employer I’d make the 20 minute drive a couple times a month to eat there.
Moving to Manhattan Kansas in January 2009 changed my entire lunch approach for the better. I now eat nearly all my lunches at home. It’s a mere 8 minute commute most days so I take an hour and relax at home with leftovers or a sandwich and, best of all, time with Sibylle.
NB: This posting languished in my drafts folder for ten months. Usually a draft that idles for more than a few days never sees the light of day. This explains why it was published in January 2010 with a permanent link date of March 2009.
Jan 11th, 2010 by mark
Yet another Prey book.