Target loses disability lawsuit

First of all, let me say I can sympathize with persons with disabilities. I've had firsthand experience. HOWEVER, the lawsuit against Target Online and the settlement defies any logic or reason. To sum it up, some guy who was visually impaired could not easily purchase things online from Target. Sooooo. rather than try to get a friend or social worker to help, he hires Dewey Cheetum and Howe, ambulance ch... er I mean trial lawyers to file a multi million dollar lawsuit against Target.

The end result is that anyone with visual disabilities who claims to have been unable to purchase gets $3500 and, if they tried twice, they get 7 grand. Supposedly those who file false claims will be subject to perjury. Yeah right. This is going to be like one of those bus accidents where a Greyhound bus gets in a fender bender and all of a sudden you find out that there were 420 passengers on it with whiplash. Keep in mind that the trail lawyers (ie those of the John Edwards "Channel dead babies for fun and multimillion dollar profits" will get about half of the proceeds if they are doing the usual "Lawsuit Lottery Jackpot Crackpot Bingo" routine. So, for every person who thinks they tried to access Target online, Dewey Cheetum and Howe add about 1750 to 3500 to their coffers. Not bad huh?

One of the major problems with this country is out of control litigation nurtured by judges who themselves were often trial lawyers and lawyers who infest our federal and state legislators. They have a stake in making a byzantine legal structure and encouraging these kinds of lawsuits.

So, am I for throwing the visually impaired under the bus?? not hardly. My eyesight is getting closer to the legally blind status, I have the beginnings of cataracts and am a candidate for Macular Degeneration thanks to the prevelence of Lyme disease in our area. What SHOULD happen in a free society, or a society free from Lawyer-Judge-Parasites, is that the open market should decide. The Internet is still in it's infancy and a lot of the things we use daily are the result of underfunded entrepreneurs. In a case like this, if Target continued to ignore the visually impaired, then sooner or later one of the following would happen

• Another large company would choose to invest the capital to build a system that would make their site more accesible thereby gaining positive publicity and market share. -or-
• Some entrepreneur would come up with a technological solution to the problem that would allow more websites to be accessible to all with visual problems.

So, the free market would have taken care of the situation. However, that isn't good enough for some people, especially the Trail-lawyer parasites.

One final word with stuff like this, keep in mind that the upcoming Presidential election is between a bitter lawyer married to a bitter lawyer and a genuine war hero married to a woman who owns one of the largest beer distributorships in the world... Wanna guess who I'm rooting for?? When you vote in the upcoming election, consider that the judge responsible for this debacle was nominated by none other than Jimmy Carter. This is the typical liberal mindset of big nanny state governement and letting trial lawyers run the show.

Oh heck, that wasn't the final final word. I'm not sure if this was a jury trial or not, but what irks me is that the judge is making over a hundred grand a year, they defense lawyers are making something like 400 and hour and the plaintiff's lawyers get to stuff all the contingency fee cash into their pockets that they can. What is priceless is that they get to force 6 or 14 people to be jurors for the whopping sum of 9 bucks a day each while the 'people' of the court system line their pockets... Indentured servitude or slavery lives on.

• Webmaster world thread
• SF Gate Article

But for now, Vegrandis res erus caveo (Small business owner beware)

War Stories - Moving an expensive server

Sometimes I get bored and something I think "Hey, I have a few old war stories that might not be that boring...".. Oh heck, Let's post some of them for posterity and for those who have trouble falling asleep at times.

Here is the story of how you don't want to move a server if you can help it.

When I was running the IT department at a local college we were migrating our admin system from a legacy system running on cobol where only ONE person in the entire world knew the source code. This was prior to Y2K and the system would have definitely crashed on 1/1/2000 (or 1/1/00 as it was coded). The machine that it was running was an old Wang. One of my older staff members kept telling the joke about the merger between Bull and Wang. It was actually funny when he told it.

One day I was visiting one of those big data recovery centers. I had strict orders from my VP to ask about a hot backup for the Wang. Before I asked the VP of the recovery center who was taking us around, I said "Before I ask my next question, I want you to know it's OK to laugh". Well, he held his composure for about 3 seconds and then tried to get out "No we can't offer that" without rolling on the floor laughing.


We were migrating to an admin systems that ran on a Unix server. The problem was that the only shipment terms we could get was to have a 1200 pound server delivered to our loading dock. So, I hired the Larry Moe and Curley moving company to move it from the loading dock to our old data center in the basement. Problem was they only sent us 4 guys, albeit four guys who could probably snap the neck off a full grown gorrilla... with one hand.

Anyway, me and my guys had to help. The other problem was the door was about 1/2" wider than the machine. As the machine passed throught the door, Mongo, Og, Thor and KingKong had times when they didn't have a piece of it. I figured out later that there was one point where I was holding about 400 to 600 pounds of really expensive server three feet off the floor threading it through the door.. In case you are wondering why we didn't just put it on a dolly and roll it in, it was because the server was about a foot or so taller than the door height. Hey, don't blame me, I didn't put the data center in the basement. Also, at that time, IT ranked slightly below the janitorial department in the pecking order.

We got it in safely and then proceeded to put it in the only available location which was under a matrix of water and sewer pipes next to the 4000 volt electrical service entrance. It survived there for about a half a year until we were able to move it up to the newly constructed data center. This time the moving company sent two more guys, Conan the Barbarian and Hercules in addition to the previous guys. The server ended up in the new room with no problem.

Printing with Google Gmail is slow or hangs

One of our clients just went over to Gmail. He called this morning saying that printing emails was taking a long time, was crashing the machine and when it didn't crash, the print was tiny, almost like microfiche.

I looked at my GMail and found that if I went to a message and hit File, Print, it would take almost 30 seconds to see my printer list. If I went to any other webpage and did a File Print, the printer list appeared in less than 5 seconds.

The answer turned out to be simple. If you want to print a message in Gmail, don't use the File Print (Now isn't that intuitive). Instead, look right under the bold header with the subject of the message. Now look at the line below that. Off to the right, you will see show details 3:38 AM (12 hours ago) Reply and a down arrow. Choose the down arrow and print from there. You will get a much faster response and the text will not be mouse sized.

Oddball Network problem with Quickbooks and other apps

I was going nuts the other day. We are using Quickbooks 2006. The setup is that it is on my desktop computer upstairs. I also have a copy on the desktop downstairs. The Data resides on the upstairs machine. Everything worked well until we took a little trip and came back.

All of a sudden I could not open the company file from the downstairs machine. I could open it fine from the upstairs machine. I was getting errors that Quickbooks could not open the company file. I would also get a " Path too deep" error when trying to copied files on a shared folder on the upstairs machine.

I checked the firewalls, updated both copies of quickbooks, verified the data file etc.

As I was working, I remembered that I had trouble accessing a shared folder on the upstairs machine the previous night. As I double checked, the network connectivity to the upstairs machine. It finally dawned on me. The problem wasn't with Quickbooks, it was a networking issue. I have a 5 port switch and a USB print server with a 4 port switch upstairs. I repowered both of those and the problems disappeared.

Using a key from a boxed Norton 2008AV to renew a trial version

I had purchased a 3 license version of Norton Internet Security 2008. It was installed on 2 computers which left a third license available.

My laptop's hard drive crashed a while back and I had to reinstall Vista (THAT was a LOT of fun). When I reinstalled, I ended up with the trial version of Norton Internet Security 2008. That trial subscription just ended. I really didn't want to go through the uninstall and reinstall.

When you go into Licensing from the NIS control panel, you have three options. The second is to "Use my product key" and the third has to do with the key that you purchase online. I chose the second option and a series of input boxes came up that matched the format of the key that came with my boxed version. I entered the boxed version's key and all was happy. NIS now reports 196 days remaining on my subscription. Keep in mind that the countdown starts with the first copy you install of the three available licenses.

I always make it a habit to write which machine licenses were installed to and when on the CD sleeves especially for multi license products. That helps you figure out later if any licenses are still available.

Anwyay, I saved myself about an hour of time by simply entering the boxed product key.

Vista search - You need to search how to search

I needed to do something REALLY simple - All I wanted to do was show which files in a folder and it's subfolders had been modified after a certain date.

The problem was trying to get to the advanced search. I finally found what I wanted but I'm not sure exactly how I got there. The search engine has some nifty boolean type modifiers IF you know how to use them. I finally just did a dumb search and then got the "advanced search" link at the bottom. That wasn't showing what I wanted until I realized that my dumb search was still in the search box... ie. 123 modified:7/1/08 All I had to do was get rid of the 123 and I was OK.

Come on Microsoft... What are you guys thinking?? Why should I have to go on a steenking scavenger hunt just to find the advanced search. Dontcha think that people might need to search once in a while??

Verizon Fios emails to AOL bouncing - Can't these two play nice??

First of all, if you are still using AOL for your business, you want to go out and get a real email, preferrably one that goes with your domain. If you can't do that, at least try gmail.

I've been sending some things to friends and clients. I took a look through my incoming emails and looked at the bounced message details. Everything going to anyone with and AOHELL.. er I mean AOL email is bouncing. What happens is that residential FIOS gives you a dynamic IP address. AOL's spam reporting is based on IP addresses. This means you are getting an new IP address about once a week. You are, in effect, getting someone else's history.

There are a couple of ways that an IP can be considered tainted by the geniuses at AOL.:

1. The AOL users just click SPAM instead of delete for non spam messages. Believe me, there are a lot of clueless AOL users who will do that.
2. Someone was really using the IP to send spam
3. A clueless user who had the IP previously had a machine full of trojans and bots that was sending out spam without their knowing

So, when your dynamic FIOS IP changes, you can suddenly find that none of your emails are going out. The think that I don't understand is that I'm not using verizon's SMTP to send email, I'm using the email server from my domain. However, the return email from AOL is pointing to Verizon's IP, not mine as the problem.

So, what can I do about this??

1. Try to get friends, clients and associates to get off AOL. Unfortunately that isn't always possible.
2. Try to remember to send imporant emails to AOHELL users using Gmail. I have that set up as an account in outlook. I'm guessing that I might have better luck with Gmail but I'm not sure.
3. I can upgrade my FIOS to a dedicated IP. I'm not sure what that would cost but my guess is that it's not worth it just to reach folks who are stuck in AOL-Land

Sitemeter appears to be crashing IE7

I tried to visit a bunch of sites yesterday that I read daily. I kept getting an IE dialog box of "Windows cannot open the Internet site http://www.____.com operation aborted"

I found one site which was working that just happened to mention the problem. It seemed that sites runnning Sitemeter were crashing when accessed via IE7. I rememebered that I had Sitemeter on my Cafepress store. I checked my store and that too was crashing with the same error.

I removed sitemeter (fortunately it wasn't crashing the admin portion). As soon as I removed it, my store was again working in IE7.

So, if you are running sitemeter, check your site with IE7. If it crashed, yank the sitemeter.

You Will give me your laptop NOW AKA Sie geben mir Ihren Laptop sofort Schwein

This is unbelievable. The gummint can arbitrarily take your laptop when you return to the country for 'a reasonable time'. They are supposedly 'protecting us from terrorists and child porn'. Noble indeed my dear sir.

However, the hideous part of this is that they don't need to have any reason or suspicion to sieze your property. The ninth circus court has upheld this (if the ninth circus say's it's OK, you know is is a ***** Bad ***** idea... Make that a ****HIDEOUS**** idea.

They can take any device including ipods, memory sticks, cameras, hard drives, you name it.

You have to give them any passwords or they just take it and keep it.

We are planning an overseas trip and I find this to be worrisome. First of all, we are a small business with limited financial resources. Also, the government most likely would not step in to help if THEY allow my client's confidential information to be compromised and we get sued. Yeah, when pigs fly.

Here are the major problems as I see them,

1. There is something in that often ignored document called the US Constitution about "unjust taking" or "taking without compensation". OK folks, When you confiscate my laptop for an 'indefinite period" I am now without a laptop. That means that all of my information, programs and configuration is on that laptop. I now cannot work as efficiently and in some cases cannot work at all. My alternative is to purchase a new laptop for a thousand dollars, Purchase all my software for about 2000 and spend about 20 hours reconfiguring everything (about another 2000 in time I can't bill.). If a citizen steals 5 grand, that is a felony. When the Gummint takes 5 grand from you ... shut up and move on. We can thank the morons on SCOTUS with stupidity like the Kelo decision.
2. I blogged before about the possible compromise of data. If my laptop were to be detained I would have to change our passwords and those of our clients for hundreds of sites. Do I get compensated for that?? Nope.

So, How will I handle my upcoming trip. Here are some thoughts

1. I'm going to have to purchase a cheap computer and install the minimal amount of software, probably as much open source as possible. This isn't a bad idea anyway.
2. I'm going to leave a machine back in the office running go2mypc. If I have to do anything, I'll do it remotely. That way, the sensitive info stays at home
3. I'll take my files with me on an encrypted drive.... Something like the black armor drives they sell at Staples now. That will provide access to my data for those times when I can't get a decent internet connection. Before coming home I'll either wipe the drive with a utility or possibly just destroy it and trash it before coming home. You could go one better and purchase an extra drive for the laptop with an OS like Linux and remove and destroy the original drive and your external drive and put in the Linux OS.
4. I'm going to set up an FTP so I can FTP any pics home prior to returning. We are taking the trip to get info and pics for a travel website. We bloody well can't launch the website if the info is moldering in some gummnint office somewhere. So, I'll get home and the info will be there. If the gummint is interested in pics of restaurants they can intercept the data as it comes over.

Now for the rant part

1. Arent' our gummint officials supposed to follow the US constitution?? Shouldn't they go to jail if they violate it?
2. What planet or alternate universe did the ninth circus court come from?? Methinks they do inhale.
3. How the hell does this make us safer from terrorists when we ignore a bunch of imams who want seatbelt extenders, spout anti American Rhetoric etc (BTW - If you don't think a seatbelt extender is a helluva weapon, you aren't thinking)..

I understand Russ Fiengold is looking into this. I'm not a fan of him considering the McCain Fiengold monstrosity. However, I do support him on this. Let's make sure that the government follows the rules and we don't have "You Vill Hand over der Laptop PLiss - SCHELL SCHWIENHUNT"

Write or call your congresscritters and tell them to look into this and make sure that our rights are protected. As Ben Franklin said when asked what form of govenment the constitution gave us "A Republic IF you can keep it"