Laptop security

Those folks at NetworkWorld have done a totally unscientific study on how security-minded (or not) people are at various WiFi locations. They went around various WiFi hot-spots (airports, coffee shops, etc.) & asked laptop users what precautions they were taking.

What’s interesting is that pretty much everyone (with the exception of the technician) is playing roulette with the security of their (& their employers’) data. In fact, none of them at all has taken measures to protect the laptops themselves, such as a laptop labeling or tracking service to aid in recovering a lost/stolen machine.

Of particular note was the CFO who was too cheap to buy a cellular data service & relies wherever possible on free connectivity.

NW does give you some tips on how to minimize your chances of self-immolation with your data. Some of them seem to be stating the blindingly obvious (don’t send anything via email that you wouldn’t want everyone at the coffee shop to read), but what’s obvious is that most of the people they polled were blissfully ignorant of the danger.

So take a look, see what you can implement for yourself. When all else fails—put down the laptop & get a life.

GM's art of cost cutting

GM has announced that it will cease funding the documentary work of Ken Burns (since they need those few hundreds of thousands of dollars to subsidize their ex-pat programs for senior execs who require $30K worth of private school fees per year, & all. Plus, there are those Byzantine “work 10% fewer hours & get paid 5% less; so you’re going to get 5% of your salary for doing nothing” schemes…).

Okay, they’re not talking about the parenthetical part, but they have cut off the flow to Burns.

I understand—times are hard. But it’s really a great pity. I love Burns’ work.

I think one of my favorites is “Horatio’s Drive: America’s First Road Trip”, about a medical doctor who took it in his head to be the first to drive from California to New York in 1903. He, a driver & a dog named Bud made it across the country—which did not at that time have either a real road network or petrol stations—in a little over two months. There’s something magical about that story.

Toward the end there was a photo of a family—perhaps around 1910—on a trip; males in the front, females in the rear of an open touring car. The expressions on their face were absolutely classic: this was not a family having fun.

I assure you, I’ve been on that trip.

Anyhow—at the moment no telling how Burns will finance future efforts. The final project to be subsidized by GM is on the US National Parks.

Octomom redux

I hesitated about whether to pass on the report that Nadya Suleman’s latest publicist has quit. Really—I did.

About three nanoseconds.

I mean, after all—if a train is going to derail right in front of you (again & again), aren’t you duty-bound to take the photos with your mobile phone & post them on the Internet?

It’s bad when your own publicist tells the world, “This woman is nuts.” Victor Muñoz also says, “Nadya got real greedy.”

No details, alas, but I fully expect they’ll emerge shortly.

The frugal oenophile

In keeping with last week’s news about the recession hitting the restaurant business, the WSJ’s wine columnists have recommendations on how to cut the bill when ordering wine while eating out.

I have to say that their number one suggestion, avoid wines by the glass, is tough if you’re dining alone. I’ve noticed that, outside of the Napa area, I’ve not found it a common practice in the US for restaurants to offer half bottles of wine (as you find frequently in France) or half-carafes of decent wine (as in Italy or Austria). So your only choice is the glass—unless you are ready to walk away from half a bottle.

Now, precisely because I couldn’t find decent wines by the glass at an upscale restaurant in Port Angeles (Olympic Peninsula) last November, I did ask if Washington permits carrying opened bottles in your car, & the server assured me it does. So I ordered a bottle of Pinot Gris and took it with me to enjoy for a couple more nights.

(Having grown up in California, I did jam the cork back in, wrap it in two plastic bags and stick it in the trunk of my car, though.)

I don’t get why there aren’t more half bottles around—it’s the perfect solution not only for single diners, but also for people who don’t want to order a single white or red. I suppose it’s a marketing ploy for restaurants to sell full bottles, but I think it’s short-sighted.

I do endorse Gaiter and Brecher’s recommendation of the Grüner Veltliner. That’s a terrific summer wine, perfect for sipping on a terrace watching the sun set. If you want to eat something with it, okay; but it’s fine on its own.

I haven’t seen any half-price deals around this area, although decent wines do show up by the glass at half-price during happy hours. Including sparklers, which is all I need to hear.

Qwest-Citi redux

A while ago I recounted why I fired Qwest as a landline telecommunications provider. (If you don’t want to read the post, it’s because of their bait-&-switch practices, which no one there gave a toss about until I told them I was cutting the line. At that point I was handed off to a special rep who tried like crazy to keep me as a “valued customer”—trying everything except giving me the services I’d ordered at the price I’d been quoted.)

After that call, I received the final extortionate bill (for nothing but phone service—no Internet—$65) & paid it. So imagine my surprise to receive a bill for $0.55 a couple of days ago, for “long distance”.

Naturally I called to ask why I was being billed for less than a dollar of long distance “service”, after I’d paid the final bill. I was connected to someone named Rhonda (which may, of course, be simply a nom-d'abuse for work purposes)—let me just say this about Rhonda: she should not be in a customer-facing position. & she definitely was not interested in trying to convert me back to customerhood by demonstrating her commitment to customer satisfaction.

Speaking as though to a cretin, she tried telling me the L-D service is paid "in arrears", & that $0.55 was for the final day, the day I cut off service. I said I'd received & paid the final bill, so I didn’t understand what this was about. After a few go arounds where she kept repeating that it’s because you pay “in arrears”, she finally really sullenly said she'd "zero it out", which took her about five minutes to do.

But at least it cost them about $10 to try to get $.55 out of me.

BTW—in that January post I also discussed telling CitiCard to take a hike after repeatedly applying my electronic payments late & charging me those extortionate fees & interest they so love to collect (especially since I “zero out” my bill each month).

Imagine my surprise to find that I’m now getting those “come join us” credit card offers from none other than CitiCard. Evidently they haven’t discovered the concept of the Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system, where that account manager (who also tried like mad to keep me as a valued customer when I cancelled) might have entered a notation that I’d been quite explicit about my intention to never use their products again.

I find it interesting to discover again & again that businesses seem to think we the consumer public haven’t caught on that very, very few of them are not in fact offering unique products or services, & that we really can go to a competitor when they start treating us like serfs with bank accounts.

Hello, folks—that’s a basic tenet of capitalism. Which you on the federal bailout program might have forgot. But trust me—ain’t none of you irreplaceable.

You might want to think about that before you piss off those customers who can still afford to buy your offerings.