blog.bagaki.com

The necessary evil these days are credit cards. If you don’t carry plastic you are severely limited in what you can buy. I won’t rant about how “big brother” and his ability to see everything you do if you use plastic, but think about it. Anyway, I was checking my statement online and I noticed this message.

Because of the careful way you manage your account the minimum payment due on this statement has been reduced to $10.00. If you prefer to pay your regular minimum amount due, it is $20.00. Please remember finance charges will accrue as usual. Thank you.

Those bastards. You see I never carry a balance on my cards, I refuse to pay interest on something, anything. If I can’t pay for it in full, I don’t need it. So I see this message and give it some thought for a moment. They want to lower my monthly payment so I will keep a balance so they can make money on me. It is funny what these card companies will do. Another one of my credit cards I carry recently mailed me a nice letter from some a-hole in marketing telling me about the benefits of my card and what it can do for me. Well, that was desperation because I only use that card about three times a year (and again don’t carry a balance on it). It’s 2% cash back is a joke, only after you spend thousands of dollars do you get 2% back on purchases, and even then you need to accumulate over $20 before they pay you. Don’t spam me with false promises and phony marketing ploys. Give me a straight-up 2% off on EVERYTHING I purchase, then we can talk about “what my card can do for me”. Jerks!

[BEGIN PISSED OFF RANT]

This Nazi consumerism is really pissing me off. Sure we are a consumer culture (which pisses me off), but come on people. The media shows hoards of people standing in line fighting with each other for PRODUCTS!!!! TVs!!! WHY? People are becoming soulless just for that great deal on a 50″ TV. They fight each other to spend their minimum wage so they can be “cool” like their friends and neighbors with their big screen TVs and stereos (When they can’t afford the stuff to begin with). Here is your free tip of the day, don’t use credit cards, they are evil and so are the banks that push them into the hands of Americans with NO MONEY MANAGEMENT SKILLS. C’mon people, you are going to be the downfall to this country, and I sure as hell don’t want you to bring me down with you. Have any of you seen the trade deficit this country has with China? And for those who are worried about China being “bigger” than the USA, don’t worry - they already own most of this county.

[END PISSED OFF RANT]

Happy Black Friday. I am spending my day taking photos, NOT BUYING ANYTHING, and enjoying my time with family and friends. I am also exercising today, like everyday, and living within my means. Fuck the corporate holidays, everyday is a holiday - wake up and realize it.

Hey if you thought Y2K was bad, wait 31 more years.

In computing, the year 2038 problem may cause some computer software to fail in or about the year 2038.

The latest time that can be represented in this format, following the POSIX standard, is 03:14:07 UTC on Tuesday, January 19, 2038. Times beyond this moment will “wrap around” and be represented internally as a negative number, and cause programs to fail, since they will see these times not as being in 2038 but rather in 1970 or 1901, depending on the implementation. Erroneous calculations and decisions may therefore result.

I hope those zany programmers get it right this time around and cause total world chaos with their time glitch. Lets all start building shelters and stocking up on food. More information can be found in the one and only Year 2038 problem - Wikipedia.

How come this doesn’t surprise me. I have had a hunch about this kind of crap since the day I was born. Marketers and business people alike will bend truths and statistics to tell what ever story fits their interests the best.

A 31 percent reduction in heart attacks, after all, seems impressive. Yet this pervasive way of describing clinical trials in medical journals—focusing on the “relative risk,” in this case of heart attack—powerfully exaggerates the benefits of drugs and other invasive therapies. What, after all, does a 31 percent relative reduction in heart attacks mean? In the case of the 1995 study, it meant that taking Pravachol every day for five years reduced the incidence of heart attacks from 7.5 percent to 5.3 percent. This indeed means that there were 31 percent fewer heart attacks in patients taking the drug. But it also means that the “absolute risk” of a heart attack for any given person dropped by only 2.2 percentage points* (from 7.5 percent to 5.3 percent). The benefit of Pravachol can be summarized as a 31 percent relative reduction in heart attacks—or a 2.2 percent absolute reduction.

This is just another example of why statistics don’t really mean much. Sure there may be cases where cold hard statistics have a meaning, but in general when someone is trying to sell you something and they offer statistics, remember, they are trying to sell you something.

READ THE COMPLETE STORY HERE

You know what bothers me in today’s techno-driven world? Google. Now don’t get me wrong, I think that Google (or other search engines for that matter) have done an excellent job at allowing millions of users to publish billions of pages of information. Where the problem lies is when you are talking to people and lets say one of them mentions something you know nothing about. So instead of simply giving you an answer, they tell you to look it up, to “google it”. I mean what the hell is this. Google isn’t your ticket out of explaining something or defining a word when someone asks. Google can be used to reference things yes, but is isn’t the easy way out.

The next time you are talking with friends and one of them tells you to Google the answer to your question (or heaven forbid you tell someone to google the answer), stop for a minute then remind them that they too hold the answers to life’s questions and not to pawn off the work to a website. You make them answer your question in extreme detail. and if you ar the one telling someone to google the answer, punch yourself in the face will ya.

“It was enough to make me get up, tell the girls to f___ off, and walk out of the establishment in disgust”

Last wednesday evening I was invited out to grab a beer with a few old friends at the “beer buffet”. The $5 all you can drink bottomless cup is always a bargain, anyway you slice it. So i thought, why not.

We were sitting on the back patio when one of the guys commented that “the miller girls” were there. I didn’t think much of it, to be honest I thought it was just slang for some “regulars”.

So about 30 mintues later I see a couple of girls wearing miller propaghanda stick there head around the corner to look outside. Luckily we were the only people out there. I thought “good, we’re safe”, until I heard the one say “I see a few different faces”.

So they waltz up with their computer screen and and branded crap and start giving us the spiel. I just sat there, patiently waiting for them to leave.

They started in with the promo trinkets, then the one with the computer started talking. She briefly mentioned “man laws” and then asked us if we had any man laws of our own.

Here is my suggestion to you Miller… Stop sending girls with neck ties around with computers to hassle consumers of frothy beverages. I don’t give a damn about you current marketing efforts. I want to socialize in peace. I do not want to have marketing reps telling me not to put my penis into the bottleopener they just gave me.

I think you are sending the wrong message, just something to consider.

I receive a considerable amount of spam each day and choose to sift through it instead of blocking it all. I find it intriguing the kinds of things that turn up. My spam folder is a goldmine for ideas, and those not only commercial in value. One of the things I enjoy looking at in my spam folder are the names of the people in the “from” field. A quick survey for this article yielded the following:

Lakeisha Funk
Doyle Grimmett
Hudes Lukes
Bice Melancon

And none of those names were from pornographic marketing. Sometimes I wonder if there is a secret organization of spammers around the world that sit around and come up with names to use for spam messages.

I am also starting to wonder about the mental capabilities of the general public. I think that since the Internet became mainstream 15 years ago, the overall intelligence level of the common email user has dropped tremendously. Sure I am generalizing here, but the phishing and scam techniques I see in my junk folder are becoming more and more obvious, to the point that they actually read “phishing scam” in the subject field. Pretty soon they might just as well say “give us your bank information, ssn, and address and we will steal your money and make your life a living hell”. Here is an example:

[PHISHING]: Fifth Third Bank - urgent security notice [Thu, 17 Aug 2006 18:05:21 -0060]

First of all, I have never heard of Fifth Third Bank let alone have an account with them. Secondly, when you open the email, it is one large graphic OF text (instead of actual text) that links you to some scam site that requests your personal information. Have people not learned by this point that anyone ASKING for information has a 99.9% chance of being a scam. Banks and other institutions never ask for personal information, especially in an email, let alone one that says “phishing” in the title. It is even in brackets to inform you that you are about to have all of your accounts gutted and your identity stole. Here is the complete email, image and all.

—————————————————————————————————
Platinum 2006 has detected that this email could be spoofed

Take maximum precautions, as spoofed emails could be the sign of a fraud attempt.
—————————————————————————————————

fray song, ciao obey akin, vicinity area near bony
gas tyre holm aqua yogi sole
sand mad chap gala
sway vane jack
she drib cast pawn kali bast
conk nigh
any soarflux
weir pad
peer game
saga dawn yoot dell berg jerk gay zoic red
mood waft talk bi-hug
muse honk bone hard riot wellkeep
crow melt spun
tiny lockdago
kiss knapacne cane mole
pry bar tat even sure
pelf piny net hill Gael hawk bob boon mint
ness vole judo jilt small
itch make ran owl
rode Manx sue magi dado
what is host many loco just gull
chap arm hie self copy read card dub poet
yoyo lag kicky down
bass lav poll luckout damn pork
serf stymi, ruff rep pile, ox jazz debt top
because flue Jill drug sortof span
drop hush thro sea
volt haze bike
bone choosy spar vaca sty pew
wile polo
bottom zanywood
orgy weal
noon stand
ted swag O.K. mate lick jerk bosh prig saw
jot hold Jew youthcape
doom yok darn very good hog reeltout
hall rug cram
body pearfore
by- gamebent bead muir
chid idea lune of play
hist brick tomb hue dust mop yock must pare
owl mate tidy mine men
stud jump holt peal
sore tiro row tuna suit
web tamp eye burr rod pick
fat scow heel yaws weal fuzzy fade tuck ape
prep mash hope line
vet nap ping deer spar liny
leaf art, ivy rout suit, self yar bay hulk
gild cube prop pro- meed tike
lust sire bask dale
rust hind guy
tine ness rose dyer odd foil
yarl idea
slam macenoun
cam gawk
tuck mell
dine gape sap Tom flak lime Fin Whit poem
zippy pawn pull crawpawn
fawn buzz pose O` bolt ruskpeon
alms rent lake
rep Zoopay
lag dishneap are dude
akin hire away dirt big
justnow wine vaca blah anil johnny hull mell roan
drop from wept sot bleb
eddy pip vis mob
cook how are soup toll olio
pod liar pick utu we dale
fuse tank tiny vie yours trod tout case sake
jerk call hill era
kick is it arm at nor jug

—————————————————————————————————
Platinum 2006 has detected that this email could be spoofed

Take maximum precautions, as spoofed emails could be the sign of a fraud attempt.
—————————————————————————————————

I should note that when you open the email, the only thing visible is the image of text. The rest of the spam is concealed in white text, preventing it from being seen in most html compatible email clients. (Which is one reason why everyone should send email in PLAIN-TEXT) The stupidity of so many people are costing those who understand scam email a lot of money. I’m fed up, I say if you get scammed by something as stupid as the email above, you deserve to loose all of your money AND your identity. Heck, you might as well just send me a check for everything in all your accounts and save yourself the hassle of the identity fraud. I only want your money. I have an identity, that of a savvy email user.

Two weeks ago Mr Bagaki received a call from an unknown number. He answered the call and the young woman on the line asked if she was calling Bagaki Enterprises. He said yes, then she asked if she was speaking to Mr Bagaki. Again he said yes, then suddenly the connection was dropped.

He was suspicious about the call and contacted me to do some investigating.

A few minutes of digging in my database turned up the number and a company called Verifacts. I called them back using the number that was displayed on Mr Bagaki’s caller ID. I spoke with the receptionist and informed her of the situation. She looked up Mr Bagaki’s name and tried transferring me to the woman who spoke with Mr Bagaki. I was then transfered back to the receptionist, as the original woman was not available.

I asked her what exactly the company she worked for did, and why they were calling my client. She was unable to give specifics as to why Mr Bagaki was being contacted but did inform me that they verified peoples information for banks and credit companies.

I became immediately concerned when I realized Mr Bagaki was being skip traced. As Mr Bagaki’s financial counsel, I am privy to much of his financial information. I know there should be no reason a debt collector would be trying to verify his residence. With a flawless credit report and no outstanding payments, Mr Bagaki is in the clear.

I would like to take this brief moment of your time to make you aware of the skip trace. It is much easier than you think for others to locate you for a nominal fee. So the next time an unknown number appears on your caller ID, be caution of what you tell them, someone might be tracing you.

As the financial adviser for bagaki.com, I would like to take a moment of your time to recommend this FREE credit report service. With this service, you are able to view your credit report from three of the big credit service companies. This will allow you to see if anyone has opened an account under your identity, and to make sure things are in line. You are able to use this service once a year for FREE, I recommend taking advantage of it.

It should be noted that each of the three companies will try to sell you “upgraded” reports or services, but that is how they make money. It is your discretion if you buy any of that stuff, I never do. I have been using this and recommending it for a couple years now, since its inception. It only takes about 30 minutes of your time and it is worth every minute.

If you are interested in your credit score, I know that Equifax only charges $7.95 which is a good deal, considering last year they wanted almost $30.00. Anyway, if you are the kind of person who likes to know where you stand in terms of your ability to borrow, this might be of interest to you. I know that Mr Bagaki himself paid the fee and got his numbers, he wanted to know.

It never hurts to know about your credit history, especially with the potentially negative effects of identity fraud. Check out the site and save yourself a ton of trouble, you have nothing to loose.

I don’t know how many of you have been following my thoughts on the evolution of TV, but here is even more proof that TV (as it is today) is DEAD, within a year or two, television sets will be completely replaced by “displays”.

I should note… TV execs and media interests are too stupid and greedy to change their business model and fully embrace an idea of free flowing content. Revenue and control are their top priorities, which is going to be what destroys them. (I just can’t wait for the record industry to collapse, too bad it is taking so long). We as consumers need to start DEMANDING realistic pricing, oh wait we are, buy refusing to spend $15 for CDs and $19 for DVDs. Drop your prices and you will see a drop in piracy. You greedy pigs, your bacon will taste good.

WE NEED A REVOLUTION, PEOPLE NEED TO STOP THESE CORPORATE PIGS FROM EXPLIOTING US, BECAUSE THAT IS WHAT THEY ARE DOING. WAKE UP PEOPLE, WAKE UP AND SAVE YOURSELF.

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