Chit Chat Thread for the week of April 6th 2009

After getting a GPS in the fall, I've spent a lot of time here and had lots of fun creating a few POIs (SEPTA, Holiday Station, OPC, etc). However, I became unemployed in January and my time has been devoted to finding a job. My experience has been that finding a job is a lot more work than having one!

For others in the same situation, the key item that I've learned about the job search process from a career management company is that it is networking, networking, networking. Staying positive at all times is a close second!

So, I haven't abandoned you all but my priorities have changed in the short term. I do continue to check in once a week or so to see if any of my POIs need attention.

Tim Updegrove
Looking forward to a Software/Test Engineering position with hardware companies such as Lockheed Martin, Motorola, Comcast, Lutron, Olympus in the greater Philly area.
www.linkedin.com/in/timupdegrove

But made the first page. Been putting in new flooring in the living room today. Sure is hard on the old knees. One week left then off to New Mexico for a week. Darn took to long typing and got pushed to second page.

and quite hot. Anyone in need of some sunshine in their area should send urgent application - might be able to send over some sunshine/heat.

Bump for the Windmill

If you really knew her, you would know that she is one of the sweetest pussycats you will find, far from being "one tough cookie" 99% of her rule is done on the QT and behind the scenes. Actually most of the boys or "men in my case" take care of themselves as well as most of the others, it's just a few of the boy's as you like to be referred to that need help because they don't get it.

Wow Tim. It kind of explains why you haven't been as active. I have been in the same situation as you several times, and I've just about finished digging myself out of the hole the last round put us in a couple of years ago.

The only thing I will offer in addition to the networking, is "Looking for a job is a full-time job."

Drop me a private note, I have some other tips I can share.

So how was everyone's Monday? Tim I hope everything works out for you.

In Ohio it is in the thirtys and it snowed all day yesterday. Poor May Flowers

Anyways I just bought my first laptop on Friday. It's an Acer Aspire One. It has Windows XP, compared to vista(Bleh!!!). It has a 160 Gig hard drive and 1 Gig of DDR2 Ram, The one they had on display had 120 Gig hard drive and 1 Gig DDR Ram. It was $298 plus tax for the laptop and $60 for the extended warranty. It's small and it has no cd/dvd drive(which is fine, I have an old computer and some flash drives). It's not a "great" laptop but for a first and for the price I would say it's impressive. I like using it with my Iaxe guitar(usb guitar with software based amps, it's fun).

With the wind blowing like it has for the last two days. I will have to do my most hated chore, cleaning out the gutters.

charlesd45,

WOOT recently had for sale the iRobot (same people that make the Roomba) for gutters. It looked like an elongated tracked vehicle with an impeller on the front to toss the leaves from the gutter. I think the toughest part of the process seemed to be the initial placing of the unit in the gutter. From there the unit supposedly runs the length of the gutter clearing debris as it goes.

It might be something of interest to ease your "most hated chore."

Will have to check it out.

Wow, leave for a few days and the next week is overwhelming. I have lots of work to catch up on. I may not get every red light camera item researched in time to make it into this week's file. I am going to be working on the content bin today to publish all the new files that have been submitted since Thursday morning.
Thanks for your patience:)
Miss POI

Thanks, That was very nice of you

I need a vacation too...

Has anyone downloaded the new Internet Explorer 8 for Windows XP and uses McAfee?I downloaded the beta and had problems with the McAfee and had to convert back to IE 7 and that involved more then just removing and installing new one.Don't want to go through that again.Just checking to see if anyone has done it with no problems on the new release?

and Symantec works OK.

I've heard pretty bad reviews for IE8. Knowing Microsoft - I will wait for a few months before trying it

I have not upgraded to IE8... I don't like being on the "bleeding edge" of technology. The answer may depend on which McAfee product you are using and which version.

Have you checked their support forum? Here's one topic:

http://forums.mcafeehelp.com/showthread.php?t=228923&highlig...

I have been reading everything I can about it.Like I stated earlier after installing the beta it was nothing but problems.You would think all you had to do was remove IE 8 and replace with IE7.Had to remove sp3 before that could happen.You know what a download that is.Found all that out later on after installing when others had same problems and started reporting them.That is why my approach this time will be more caution.

I have my MacBook Pro.

I feel your pain, Charlie. Last year I had a Microsoft critical update conflict with my ZoneAlarm internet security suite and it killed all internet access.

Its one of the reasons I have Microsoft automatic updates turned off. I get the notification and do some reading and investigating before I install them.

Updated to IE8 (beta) - had bad problems
Updated to IE8 - had problems

Went exclusively to Mozilla Firefox - no more problems

Was the problem with the anti virus program?

I can relate.

I think we can cut you a little slack this week Miss POI - glad you had a great vacation!!!!!
You deserve it!

I took "Jack" on a trip this last week- up the coast and to San Francisco. He really earned his keep while guiding me through all the new freeways. He also pointed out the many Redlight Cameras, which probably saved a ticket. He is resting now and may have to go back to work in a few weeks.

I found out last night that someone in The Netherlands is using my American Express credit card number.

Amex has been great to work with, however. The card number has already been cancelled and all charges removed.

Just to be sure, I also opened a fraud alert with the 3 credit bureaus.

Just another windmill breeze....Was that the last cold front or is there yet another?

Happy Easter. Travel Safe.

My wife and I are going through the same thing. Somebody between Pittsburgh, Pa and The Netherlands ran up charges on ours!

That seems more than a coincidence. I don't use this particular card often so the list of places (in person or online) where I used it is fairly short.

I am just now beginning to try and investigate the places where I used it in an attempt to figure out where the card number might have been "stolen."

I'll probably never figure it out. These cases rarely get solved.

Similar thing happened with one of my Visa cards 3-4 years ago. At the time, had made minimal charges with it on-line for the previous 30 days. Credit Card company covered charges, issued new cards AND found the culprits.
Was someone who hacked into an on-line service but lefty a trail of breadcrumbs !

Only PITA for me was changing credit card number for sites where I use automatic payments with card.

I'm glad they covered it OK for you.

BTW - a split so far with the Red Sox !
Go Sox and #24 (in NASCAR, that is)!

I think I'm in love....at the very least, heat.

Go Rays and #14 (in NASCAR, that is)!

How about the Os making George and boys look that bad...Laughing all the way to Boogs BBQ...

1st place in the East!! It won't last long but it's nice to see

See, I knew the Rays could take 2 out of 3 from the Bosox.

Go Jimmie NASCAR #48

Go Cubbies

Go Dodger Blue!!!!
JeffSh

Good luck to Tim in hos job search. Just remember its a tough time and there are 1 outta 10 people unemployed, so hang tough buddy!! Your not alone and we are pullin for ya!!

Save yourself the hassle, get Mozilla Firefox and forget IE8 or even 7 as far as browsers go!

Two years ago my wife and I were at home on the West coast. We both have done a little shopping. I got a call from a CC company asking if we had our cards in our hands. Could we read a number off them to prove it? We did and then we were told that someone had an actual card and using it on the East coast a few hours earlier. The only reason it was caught so quickly was the distance between the coasts.

Still a pain: We had 24 hours to complete a theft report and fax it in (our fax machine was broken) or we would be accepting the charges as ours. Bank rules, accepted when we started using the cards originally.

Enjoy and have a safe Easter weekend

I boiled some eggs this past Monday for the Easter holiday. I didn't have to color them since it snowed here Sunday night-Monday morning--a lot easier to hide for a the hunt that way.

Wow, your credit card actually called you. Lucky. I had an experience where someone used my credit card in Alaska, while I was traveling in Chicago. I only caught this while audit my statement and called the CC company. They reversed it and told me if the merchant filed a counter claim, I'd have to prove it wasn't my charge. Nothing ever came of it after that.

Boy, I got no hassle at all from AmEx. I didn't have to provide proof of anything to get out of paying the fraudulant charges. They picked up on it so quickly, actually only one of the five charges ever made it to my statement. They stopped the others before they got that far.

My billing cycle ended yesterday and they have already creditied back the one charge that did make it through. It was caught and corrected before even one monthly statement. My April statement is 100% correct.

I've received follow-up phone calls from them the past 2 days in a row. Now, if they can just find the S.O.B. I heard a statistic on a news report last night that only 1 in 700 such cases ever result in a conviction.

Since we have a few Baseball fans in here, I thought I would post this link, MLB salary's for 2009, and it's a searchable Database:

http://www.lohud.com/article/99999999/DATABASE02/90409001/-1...

This database contains the salaries of every Major League Baseball player who was on the opening day roster for 2007, 2008 and 2009, and you can search it a lot of different ways.

I can also relate. With trucking going the way of the dinosaurs, there's not much to talk about that's any good

Due to spring break a few weeks ago and my most recent vacation last week, I have gotten way behind in some of my work.

I apologize to all of you that have turned in fixes that have not been posted.

I usually try to keep up with the workload but it has been impossible lately.

Thanks,

Miss POI