Category: Internet

Some random girl just IMed me on Yahoo. I thought she was pretty hot but apparently Yahoo targeted advertisements don’t agree.

I’ve used Yahoo email for about 8 years now. And I’ve noticed that when I’m actually using their email a lot, I get tons of spam. Hundreds of messages per day. All addressed to brad_the_carter at yahoo, not to the few email addresses that I have forwarded or check via POP3.

But then when I stop using Yahoo and start using another email service, like I’ve done recently, suddenly I don’t get much spam in my Yahoo account anymore. Today I’ve gotten about 25. That’s quite a drop from the usual 200 – 400 per day. It all goes directly into the bulk folder. And it’s all addressed to my Yahoo address.

Kind of makes me wonder if Yahoo just sends everyone tons of bulk email, based on how much their account is used. Maybe to make it look like their bulk filters are really useful? I noticed this last year too, when I used Outlook for about a year instead of Yahoo.

A month ago, I ordered a battery for my Pocket PC from a company on Ebay. They had a domain name, and a good rating. I paid them immediately after the auction ended with PayPal. Then, realizing that my PayPal account still showed my Illinois address, I wrote them an email explaining that I’d just moved and asked if they could ship it to my new address in Albany. I never got any kind of a response from them.

Exactly 1 month later, I start thinking I should probably get around to complaining to them, or pulling their docs or whatever I need to do. Then I get an email from Ebay telling me that they’re lodging a complaint against me because I never paid for the battery that I won. Suddenly, I think that maybe I’m dillusional and maybe I didn’t pay for the battery after all. So checked PayPal and comfirmed that I did, in fact, pay $30.00 for the battery. I wrote the company a nice email, telling them that I did pay for the battery, giving them the date, amount, transaction number, etc. No response.

A little over 24 hours, I do something a little harder for them to ignore – I file a complaint with PayPal, since they never shipped the item that I obviously paid for. Within hours the company responds, apologizing for screwing up their records and not noticing my payment or something like that. They remove the Ebay complaint against me and they assure me that it’s been shipped out via Priority Mail and that I should receive it within 2 – 3 days. That was a few days ago so it’s probably sitting in my PO Box right now, waiting for me. Unless they shipped it to my Illinois addres, which I doubt since I updated my info with PayPal and Ebay a couple weeks ago.

Just a minute ago they sent ANOTHER email to me which reads, “We have shipped out your battery last week to your new address. We are very sorry for the mixup. Please cancel the paypal chargeback against our accout. Your package will arrive shortly.” I don’t plan to cancel the complaint against them until I at least get my battery. But maybe, just to be a jerk, I’ll leave the complaint on there as long as I possibly can. It sure seems to bug them.

Maybe they just didn’t get my original emails. I should be forgiving just in case, right? Wrong – the email they just sent me was a reply to the original email I sent them a month ago, asking them to ship the battery to my new address. Assuming my battery arrives today, it’s taken them 1 month and 8 days to get my battery to me. That sucks. I should be as lazy as I possibly can about removing the complaint against them. Maybe I can hold out for 1 month and 8 days on removing it.

Feedback? I’ll give them a neutral. Take that, www DOT digitalpowerpro DOT com.

Wednesday, September 14th, 2005: I upgraded my Pocket PC this week to an Ipaq rx3700. It does so much more than my old Toshiba. It’s got Bluetooth, wifi, a camera, plays mp3s, videos and it’s much more compact. And it’s the first PDA I’ve ever owned that does long-range infrared. Plus it comes with a very nice universal TV remote program which should make my time in restaurants and bars a little more entertaining.

I think my cable internet has been fixed. The guy just left and it appears to be working. It’s been going down constantly for the past 2 or 3 weeks now and I’ve been having to use my cell phone internet connection (which is so slow) for backup. The thing that really sucks about it is when I call up tech support and try to get someone out here to fix it, they absolutely refuse to believe me. And they want me to go through all the long troubleshooting steps with them and disconnect my router and everything else. And I explain to them that it’s not just me, all the neighbors are down too. My router would not be responsible for shutting down THEIR internet.

So after being denied a service call for my cable internet, I called up support for just regular cable service. I lied and said that my TV was going out all the time. My plan was to get the guy in here to fix my TV and try and get him to look at the internet while he’s here. But then the cable truck pulls up outside and it turns out he’s there for another neighbor whose internet hasn’t been working. I go over and tell him that everyone is out, not just him. My poor neighbor spent over an hour on hold with tech support the other day, then who knows how much longer going through all the troubleshooting BS just to get Charter to visit him. Anyway, cable is working so far. It’s been a whole 10 minutes now and it hasn’t gone down. Let’s hope it stays this way this time…

Monday, 5-5-2003: That internet lady, the one who woke me up at 6:15am a few weeks ago (see 3 entries above), occasionally messages me on Yahoo. And I’m usually nice enough to her. But for some reason, I decided to try and get rid of her today:

callie: hey
callie: its Callie
callie: i know you dont like what im doing, but i cant get ahold of Tom today, are both cars home
brad_the_carter: fuck you, you retarded bitch. Quit calling him.
brad_the_carter: Go break up some other family that’s closer to where you live. It’ll be easier for you.
callie: ok
callie: You know, I could really fuck your world up but Tom doesn’t want me to. But I’m thinking I will anyway. Especially if you keep messaging me.
callie: sorry
callie: ouch i wont again
brad_the_carter: And if you ever do end up moving down here I’m going to be putting spikes under your tires. I really don’t care what Tom has to say about it either.
callie: ok

Now let’s see if she ever tries talking to me again.

Saturday, 4-19-2003: I didn’t have kids last night or today so I planned to sleep in today. It’s the only day this week I’ll be able to do this. So of course, at 6:15am my doorbell rings. I get dressed and run downstairs to see who it is. It ends up being this retarded internet girl that my married neighbor has been seeing. She’s crying, says she’s been driving all night and wants to know if she can come in and use my phone to call my neighbor. I try Tom a few times and don’t get an answer. She stands there for a few seconds, as if expecting for me to offer to let her hang out or sleep here. Finally she leaves. Then she goes across the street and starts knocking on the neighbors door. I don’t think she got an answer and she finally left. I tried to sleep after that but couldn’t. So I’m going to kill this lady for waking me up early and making me tired for the rest of the day. I went out and burned a huge pile of lumber in the back yard.