How is it that after so many generations of people fighting for freedom of everything they can, they still just file in line to do what the next guy or gal tells them to? We held our special elections yesterday for mayor, and ended up with one of the most corrupt businessmen in the city.. I’m going to try to breakdown why this probably happened (in my own thoughts)..

First here were our choices..
Tom Richards (Dem), who used to run RG&E until he sold it off for a nice fat severance (I read 24 million dollars), leaving ~200 people jobless. ‘Nough said…

Bill Johnson (Independents & Working Family).. This guy ::sighs:: He was our former mayor, who thought it would be smart to purchase a ferry to run from here to Toronto, CA. The ferry first crashed on its maiden voyage out of a port in Australia, then crashed again in NYC. We sold it, not once, not twice, but three times, buying it back for more than we sold it twice (this means we lost more money). And then he had the audacity to say that he would purchase another ferry if it were privately invested if he won this election… Yeah, he came in second in the ballots – go figure..

Alex White (Green).. I’ve met Alex, and I’ve spent time getting to know him (prior to his campaign). He’s a highly intelligent person, who probably would have done more for the city than any mayor we’ve had in the past 30 years. This was the only one actually giving ideas and suggestions that would help build our city back up into the colossus that it once was. He went live on the net to campaign, allowing free and open suggestions and questions, without any bias, and answered honestly, without pause. Another plus? He didn’t slander – at all.

Out of the three candidates, Alex was the only one that would have brought real change to our city.. So why did Mr. Richards win? Well let’s look at the psyche of a voter.

Voters are more likely to vote for names that they have heard more. Alex wasn’t as well funded as either of the other ‘big dogs’, and didn’t get as much coverage. Johnson and Richards were both on every other commercial in this city. Richards and Johnson were both well known prior to the election. My grandmother (Dem) said something that irked me, but goes with this.. “Not too hard of a choice.. Guy [Johnson] who wants to bring another ferry, guy [Richards] who was in office with Duffy (most recent mayor), or a nobody [White].”. Obviously, she didn’t do her research on White, and just went off what others said.

A voter, especially the older ones, are diehard party voters. Since there was no Republican candidate, I assume that the percentages were split between mostly between Richards and Johnson (Based on talking to Republicans, my estimate is ~ 63% Richards and 35% Johnson, leaving 2% for White. A greater percentage were against Johnson as mayor again).

The main point of this post, is to try and rattle you out of a state of disillusion… People need to stop following what everyone else says and does and think for themselves….

You know what really irks me? People in leadership who sit there and point fingers at their subordinates. Placing all the blame on others. The simple fact of the matter is that being in a leadership role, be it a manager for retail company, ceo of some fortune 500 or just a simple project manager like myself, the majority of the blame rests on your shoulders.

Let’s take myself for example. As a project manager, it’s up to me to make sure that each project I undertake is developed in an orderly fashion with the highest quality and rid of any bugs we can find before it goes live. If it’s not on time it’s my fault, because I didn’t push myself and the rest of the team hard enough to finish with-in the deadline or I didn’t give correct instructions on what needs to be done. If the quality is crap, it’s because I didn’t force the graphic designer to put their heart and soul into the project. If it’s riddled with bugs, it’s because I didn’t make the team test it enough before letting it go live.

Now, don’t get me wrong. Your subordinates are just as guilty as you are, because they didn’t come to you with questions or concerns, or they didn’t seek extra training, but even if that’s the case, it’s still your responsibility to go around and check up throughout the day. Ask them if everything’s going smoothly, if they need any help or if they need extra guidance.

In the military we used the saying “shit rolls downhill”. Which basically meant that if someone in a leadership role got “chewed out”, then the rest of the squad, platoon, company or battalion would as well afterward by the initial person that got “chewed out”. That has to be the stupidest fucking concept I have ever witnessed. I understand that you need to maintain a level of “alpha dog” over your “pack”, but come the fuck on. Negative reinforcement is bullshit, and society has shown time and time again that it brings you barely any real results. The only way negative reinforcement works, is if you can actually do physical or psychological harm to the person (fascist dictator type shit), which is illegal in the US (aside from the military and their corrupt ass-backwards style of the legal system).

Basically, in short.. Don’t treat your employees like shit, and don’t just sit there and point fingers at them because *you* fucked up. Remember that without your employees, you wouldn’t have a business – period.

The simple fact of the matter is, you can’t just go around and share personal information across unsecure channels.

If I were to create a social network right now, ask you for your name, home address, telephone numbers and email accounts, then go on to say “All information entered within this network can and will be broadcast to whomever asks for it.”. How many people do you think would enter any information? Social networks are not meant for sharing personal information outside of its own network. People do not want their information shared, and if you do so without consent of the user, you’re liable to all sorts of lawsuits.

His points were all directed towards the “openness” of the internet – being able to access all points of information without restriction. This is still done to a point – yes, even on social networking. See, there’s this little thing called personal security settings.. A user can choose to allow information to be picked up from search engines, and any other crawlers that may scan that site, but to allow for all of a users personal information to be shared.. Well now, you may just as well create a new database account, post the credentials for it on your front page and let everyone have at your members table.

And his views on Apple, although I agree with him, are pointless. You don’t sign up to Ebay to shop for goods sold on Amazon, do you?

Seriously, some people need to think about the foolish things they say before they talk – especially when it’s going to the media, and ultimately on to the web where it does what? Gets shared freely without restriction to the whole of the web.

Good game, dumbass.

You can view the article expressing Tim Berners-Lee’s views here.

Sorry about the downtime. After about 12 hours of the site being down, it finally picked up the new DNS servers. We decided to change hosting companies, after our websites were getting throttled for hours, leaving visitors getting only half loaded pages, or pages not loading at all. Not good. So, after a couple of days of combing through web hosts, we’ve come to HostGator with the hopes of a better tomorrow.

Now, for those who don’t know, we were previously with HostMonster. They implemented CPU Throttling on their servers. They say this is for the better good of all accounts. The real reason for this? It’s likely that due to the economy (if you look at the time-line, it makes sense) they implemented a way to throttle the connections to every website across the map, to stop from “over-using” their bandwidth, which in their own writing, is unlimited. Unlimited at what cost? The cost of not having a usable website for an average of 7% of the month. This is a HUGE hit to take, for anyone.

Greedy bastards, pure and simple. And their excuses when you ask why your website is being throttled so much? “Your (As in you, the customer) scripts are faulty” or “You’re calling too many sql queries” <–WTF?! Now, I tested this with a single static pages website. No sql queries, no php. Just simple html, with css, images and some text. It was throttled for an average of 1.8 minutes every 3 hours. Total time up: ~2 days. Total hits: 7… Seven hits, no sql, no php, and it was throttled.. Seriously? All I have to say, is that if you plan on going with HostMonster, make sure you’re ready to have a lot of unexpected downtime.

Recently, I’ve been asked by a few people what my thoughts and opinions are on the fees that banks impose on their customers. Banking fees are an unneeded hassle. For a lot of people, they can be the difference between eating and going without food. There’s quite a few fees that banks impose to squeeze out every penny they can from people. I’ll be going over some of the ones that I’ve either encountered, or have enough knowledge about to post on.

Overdraft fees are probably the most widely known. This is a fee that a customer is charged because they ended up spending more money than was in their account. Now, my beef with this one is that banks should have a safety net for customers. I’m sure everyone’s aware of the magnet strip on the backside of your debit/credit card(s). This is used to identify your card, and is tracked in real-time. Now, if you take that into affect, a bank *should* be able to in fact track your purchases. Most purchases aren’t updated in your banking account until the transaction has been confirmed via the business you made the purchase at. If this were implemented, a cease could be sent if you try to make a purchase over your balance (The same way your credit cards do if you try to make a purchase over your spending limit). The average overdraft fee is $25 (United States) but, can run up to $40 depending on the financial institute you’re with.

Maintenance fees most likely come in second. This is a fee that is usually imposed if your balance is under a certain limit (determined by the bank). Honestly, you have to seriously ask – who the hell came up with this idea? Now, if my account isn’t at the predetermined balance set by my bank, how could it help to impose a fee? I know from reading that my bank imposes a $8 maintenance fee and a $35 overdraft fee. Here’s a dramatic example based on my banks fees. Say my bank account has $7.99 in it, and they decide to hit me with a maintenance fee. This would deduct $8, leaving me with a balance of negative 0.01. Now because of that, my account would then get an overdraft fee for $35, making my new balance negative $35.01. Could you imagine getting that, all because your account didn’t have the designated amount set by some six figure a year CEO…

The easiest way to avoid fees is to use the bank as little as possible. Some of you are probably saying “But all my money goes in there!”. My question to that is – why? I tell this to everyone I know, and anyone who asks me – If you only have a checking account (most people do these days), always make sure that you keep at least $50 in it at all times for emergencies. This should be your minimum balance, making sure that you won’t get a maintenance fee for not having the min balance limit. On top of the $50 you have, if you pay bills with checks, electronic payments or your debit card, make sure to have just enough to pay them. The rest can be kept in a home safe (You can get firesafe safe starting at $30 – a great investment), or a safe deposit box. If you’re into stocks, then put some into the stocks. Direct Deposit is a great invention, and I strongly suggest that you use it but, I also suggest that you withdraw what you’re not going to use on bills and put away outside of the bank.

Ya know, I was going to write an exorbitant post bashing BP but, I think we need to look at the people who have continued to allow this corrupt corporation to stay in business, continually harming the environment. Now, I’m no conservationist but, I do what I can to help and I do have a fucking problem when a company with subsidiaries that have felony charges in at least two states (Alaska and Texas) is allowed to continue to put us all in danger. The government is all about “Going Green” but, does this only apply to us, or should it in fact apply to large companies as well? Can you say fucking hypocritical?! I’m sick of hearing how the government wants me to go green, and then watch as they sit back and watch companies like BP kill our ecosystem.

Then you give them the okay to use a dispersant that’s been banned in another country, because it was scientifically found to have an adverse effect on the marine environment?! Give me a fucking break here… Hey, Lisa Jackson, I think I have some orange scrub some where around here to get the oil off your hands.

And Obama, oh man… Kick someones ass? That’s cereal business right there. You are not Clint Eastwood, and this isn’t Heartbreak Ridge. Your words aren’t worth shit. How about instead of “kicking someones ass” you actually take a corrupt business down? Oh no, that would mean losing a potential contributor – if they aren’t already… See, if you look at Mr. Barry Soetoro’s (Barack Obama) contributors for his presidential campaign, it seems he got quite a bit from investment banks, who in return received financial support after he was “elected”.

So, Obama – how do you manage to get the oil out of your suits?

Resources:
BP Cover up’s: http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2010/06/12/plans-to-clean-up-the-oil-spill–dolphins-with-mops-aquaman-or-blame-the-french.aspx
Barack Obama Contributors: http://www.opensecrets.org/pres08/contrib.php?cycle=2008&cid=n00009638

Before you read this, please be warned that there is an excessive amount of profanity, vulgar remarks towards other countries, and government officials.

Humanity makes me fucking gag. Seriously, the hypocrites, band wagoners and just plain fucking idiots that roam this planet make me sick to my stomach. All the times people have said that our economy’s in the shits. Well, I fucking wonder why. Let’s see here………

We have a war, oops, I mean a “conflict” that was started for what? Revenge? Oil? Does any one even know anymore, if they ever did. Billions upon billions of dollars from the US Government going over to support troops, not only from our own country, but from others?! We’re paying to train the Iraqi military. We’re forking the bill to keep the NATO forces there.

We’re supporting other countries in times of “need”. You had a hurricane? Alright, here’s our military, a few million dollars, food, some doctors, and whatever else we can scrounge up for you. They only need you, because their own government can’t control it’s own fucking country.

Universal Healthcare? Seriously? Have any of you ever been to a hospital in Canada? Get the fuck outta here with this shit. And they want it mandatory? Fuck you. You can throw my ass in jail, but I’m not buying healthcare because you fucking said so. The USA isn’t ran under dictatorship, bitch. Get the fuck out of office, Obama. You’re a fucking disgrace to our flag. The USA doesn’t band-wagon with other countries. We were built on the belief that we shouldn’t be forced to think how others think, or do what others do, just because some one in power says that’s the right way.

Send us to Mars? Really, Obama? For fucking what? It already costs billions to send a rover there, could you imagine the bill to send a shuttle with actual people? lmfao… You sir, are the fucking fail.

Those commercials on TV. “For just 35 cents a day, you can feed this starving kid in Africa.”. Oh really? Well for 35 cents a day, you can feed a few homeless kids in AMERICA! Instead of sending money to other countries “starving people”, why not send it to your local soup kitchen, and make a difference in YOUR country.

If you want to successfully build our country back up, deal with the issues WITHIN OUR COUNTRY. What about other countries in need? What the fuck about them? I don’t see any other NATO countries rushing in to help them, do you..? Why the fuck is it always the US? Throw another couple billion on to our debt there, asshole. No one will ever notice…

If you do any online gaming, you’ve probably run into this. It’s the idiots who seem to think that because they’re behind some sort of screen, that they can act big and tough. You know who I’m talking about. The people that try and flame you out because you head shotted them, or the players that try and bully you in a game because that’s the only place they have any type of masculinity.

Now, I see a lot of this because I play a lot of online games. I actually just had someone nerd rage on me in a free RTS game called Evony, because I took one his dozens of valleys. He decided that sending thousands of troops to my cities would make up for the less than one minute he didn’t have the valley, and then message me. Now, in this game you can join alliances, which is the same as a guild. This was his message:

I am recovering wages for lost time and lumber. :- Joining alliance I give everything back plus more….no biggie.

So, basically this player’s attempting to bully me into their alliance ::rolls eyes::. Now, for anyone who plays Evony, you know that attacking another players city costs you as well as the city you’re attacking. I’ve played this game for awhile, so I know how to defend my cities, and what to do if there’s an incoming attack. I move all my resources to another of my cities until after the attack. So, let’s take a look at what he gained and lost by attacking my cities.

The first city he attacked he sent 70,000 Archers. He lost 68,000 of them and only plundered (stole) about 4,000 in resources. That’s a serious loss, when you look at what it costs to build an archer.
The second city he attacked, he sent 60,000 Archers. He lost all of them, and plundered nothing.
The third city he attacked, he sent 1,100 Transporters and 4,300 Ballista’s. He lost all of the Ballista’s and 900 Transporters, while plundering nothing.

Now, you put in the cost of the extensive army he just sent to attack, and he’s just lost about 10,000,000 in resources, give or take. But, of course, he doesn’t care as long as he can try and bully someone in a game.

Another good example of this, is about 45% of the World of Warcraft players. You’d think that being a pay to play game, it’d have a higher quality of player, but since a lot of the players are kids who got their parents to pay their subscription fee, you end up running into quite a few of the nerd rager’s. This is done in PvP (Player vs Player). I find it quite funny, because the opposing faction player will attempt to belittle you after they’ve killed you, but Blizzard created different languages for each faction and race, so you can’t read what they say.

To you nerd rager’s: Go out, get some sun and stop trying to be something you’re not. Being able to type insults you got off Google or kill other players in a game because you spend your lives doing nothing but gaming doesn’t make you cool.

To the victims of nerd rage: Remember that most of these kid’s (and sometimes adults) are going to have nothing to show for their time on earth but a high in-game PvP score, and a lot of people who wouldn’t mind finding out where they live.

Until next time,
-Nito

Now, I’m hoping this doesn’t turn out like Cricket. I ordered ClearWire this morning, which came out to about $140 with buying the router instead of leasing it. So, I check the bank account I used to pay for it, and I have seven transactions from ClearWire – one for $16, another for $154 and five for $1… So I contact them, because well, they only gave me a receipt for $140 so wtf? Here’s the convo we had.

Kayla James [9:45:19 PM]: Welcome to our real-time support chat. How can I help you today?
Nito Belmont [9:45:19 PM]: About payment.
Kayla James [9:45:46 PM]: How can I help you with your payment today?
Nito Belmont [9:45:52 PM]: I just ordered ClearWire yesterday morning, and just looked at my bank records.
[9:46:06 PM]: 141.97 AMOUNT PAID
[9:46:17 PM]: Is what I *should* have been charged
Kayla James [9:46:39 PM]: May I have the phone number associated with your account please?
Nito Belmont [9:46:40 PM]: Why am I seeing $16.09, $154 and 5 charges for $1
[9:46:50 PM]: [censored]
Kayla James [9:47:49 PM]: There is a security question on the account. What is [censored]?
Nito Belmont [9:47:59 PM]: [censored]
Kayla James [9:49:24 PM]: You were charged $137.98. The rest are holds that will be relesed in 3-5 busines days.
[9:49:49 PM]: For some reason when new card is placed in the systm the banks like to place hold for odd amounts. But it will come back to you .
Nito Belmont [9:50:26 PM]: My bank doesn’t place a hold on any of my transactions, which means that your company is doing it, not any bank.
[9:51:13 PM]: And if they were holding transactions, they would have all been in one transaction, why is there 7?
Kayla James [9:52:22 PM]: It will be refunded to your card in 3-5 business days. I apologize for any inconveninece.
Nito Belmont [9:53:27 PM]: I’m saving this chat, and holding you to your word. Have a good day.

So, they’re holding *does the math real quick* $37.11? See, I want to believe that this is the truth, but I already know that the better conclusion for this is that they do the same thing as MoneyBookers. Funneling out little increments of money for themselves for each transaction, hoping no one catches it. Oh yes, I don’t play that “You pay us a middleman fee” bullshit with people. Only the company selling pays a fee for their services, not me, and I make sure they know that every time I get my money back from them.

Now, there is no way in hell my bank took the money I’m holding in my account in their bank and then turned around and put a hold on it. And there’s no way that the merchant they’re using did either, which leaves their company. 3 – 5 business days, and we shall see and I will update then.

Until next time,
-Nito

As most of my regular subscribers may know, I’m anti-facebook, and have been since a few months after they came out. I read a piece on their newest monopoly move the other day about their patent application, which has everyone in the OSS world in an uproar.

On August 9th, FaceBook applied for a patent on Crowdsourcing Translation.

What is Crowdsourcing Translation?
The Crowdsourcing Translation has been used for years by multiple sites to allow members to create multilingual translations for websites/pages. It is a free open way to translate web pages to other languages.

What it means if FaceBook gets the patent?
To sum it up, it means that FaceBook would hold exclusive rights to Crowdsourcing Translation software.

What are my thoughts on this?
If this gets passed, OSS is doomed. Why you ask? Because this means that the government is overlooking the fact that this has been an open source of translation for years, and just allowing the first person/company with the money for to apply to get the patent.

What do you think about FaceBook trying to patent this open translation tool?

So, I’ve been reading the newspaper the past couple of days (I’m not big on reading sell-out publications), and keep seeing articles on the Rochester airport.. Evidently it is now testing an X-ray machine to replace the current metal detectors used for scanning passengers.

Now, as this may have been an idea that *sounded* good when it was pitched, there’s a few fucking flaws in their little idea. Let’s go over them =)

First and foremost, this is a blatant invasion of privacy. I don’t know about the rest of you, but even after being in the US Army, I don’t feel like having my genitalia on a screen that some random ass security guard can look at. Can you imagine if they find a way to somehow save the x-ray images? I can see the FOX News headline now – “Airport X-Ray Porn”. Or what about children? Shouldn’t we then consider anyone not licensed by the state of New York in the medical field, who are viewing those images to be a predator?

I don’t think it’s right to be forced to get an X-Ray by anyone. I don’t go to a doctor with a cold and get a fucking x-ray, why would I want to get one when I’m boarding a plane?

Secondly, can we smoke in airports again? I mean, honestly… Cancer *is* cancer, right? Some people may try to bash me on this, saying things like “You can’t compare x-ray’s to lung cancer!”, and my reply to that is – Why the fuck not? Obviously the government is condoning cancer, so why wouldn’t it be okay to smoke too?

So, I can get cancer if the government is the one handing it out, but if I CHOOSE to smoke, I’m in the wrong? Do you see the contradiction?

I could go on about this shit all day, but I’m done for now. The government’s a bunch of god damned hypocrites.

What do you think about being X-rayed to board a plane?

After looking for another hosting company, I managed to find FatCow.com. Now, this company might look worth the little amount you’ll pay for their hosting, but remember that you get what you pay for, lol.

I think I paid around $60 for a one year lease with Fat Cow. As soon as I logged into the control panel, I noticed why it was so inexpensive – there wasn’t much there. My first issue was with cronjob’s – there simply was none. I went through 3 or 4 agents before I got it resolved with a billing guy (I was trying to cancel my account), who asked me to hold for a few minutes while he went and had it put into my account.

So now I have a half-assed cronjob – It had a combobox with ‘Daily, Weekly, Monthly, Yearly’ in it.. Seriously? I can’t even set up a cronjob to run when I want it to? Are you fucking kidding me here?! Whatever, moving on…

My next issue is with their FTP. I managed to upload a few files a day (if I was lucky) before the FTP just started timing out and wouldn’t connect anymore. So, I went into the control panel, thinking I could use their java based FTP – WRONG! Browse for a file, click upload and get a message “PHP extension can not be uploaded for security reasons” or something along those lines. Awesome, right?! I also can’t upload htaccess, so their java ftp client is useless.

I finally contacted their tech team about the FTP *goes to look for chat log*. Oh, that was the chat I actually X’ed out of due to their tech being a complete idiot, and trying to blame me for the issue. I explained to him, that I have no issues with any of the other FTP accounts I work in (around 8 or 9 other servers), but he still tried to say it was on my end. I eventually got sick of that shit, and just closed the window out of frustration.

I called up their billing department right after that, and had the hosting canceled and refunded (or so I was told), leaving me with a parked domain, that was quickly transferred over to another host. After about a week of waiting for the refund, I opened a chat session with their billing dept. a little bit ago.

info: Thank you for contacting support.

Please be prepared to answer your Security Question when we begin chatting. To enhance our security protocols, we’ll need you to provide the answer to your Security Question at the beginning of our conversation. If you have not yet set your Security Question and Answer, please log into your account now to set it up. Thank you.

Please hold for the next available operator to respond.

info: You are now chatting with ‘Nina Scott’
Nina Scott: Hi Nito. My name is Nina Scott, how are you today?
Nito Belmont: Good. I was wondering when I was going to get the refund for my hosting I canceled last week
Nina Scott: Thank you for the authentication.
Nina Scott: Could you please let me know the username of the account which you have cancelled?
Nito Belmont: The same one I entered for this chat.
Nina Scott: May I place you on hold for 2 to 3 minutes while I review your account?
Nito Belmont: Sure
Nina Scott: Thank you for holding.
Nina Scott: I apologize for any inconvenience this has caused you.
Nina Scott: I’m sorry, in order to assist you, I am going to have to ask a member of our team who specializes in this issue to take care of this for you.
Nito Belmont: Ok..
Nina Scott: Could you please hold for 2 to 3 minutes, while I provide you with the link to access the resolution of the issue?
Nito Belmont: Yes
Nina Scott: Thank you for holding.
Nina Scott: I have noticed that we have downgraded your account to Domain Parking account. I have escalated the issue for refund.
Nina Scott: You can expect a response regarding your issue within 24-48 hours. You can view the ticket status and resolution at:
Nina Scott: http://www.fatcow.com/member/sconsole/
Nito Belmont: Now, am I going to expect issues dealing with whoever takes this, due to it being opened on or after my 30 days?
Nito Belmont: Because I canceled the account last week, thinking I wouldn’t have to do anything further.
Nina Scott: No, your account is not yet cancelled. We have downgraded it to Domain Parking account.
Nina Scott: It is a free account.
Nina Scott: We will issue the refund within 24-48 hours.
Nito Belmont: But I canceled the hosting
Nito Belmont: The billing person I spoke to on the phone said I would receive a refund for that
Nina Scott: Yes, hosting plan is canceled and it is downgraded to Domain Parking account.
Nina Scott: Yes, we will issue the refund of your account.
Nito Belmont: Alright
Nina Scott: Is there anything else I can assist you with today?
Nito Belmont: Nope. Have a nice day

So after a week of waiting, and me having to contact their billing department, I should hopefully be getting a refund in the next couple of days. And now, it’s time for the actual review…

This company has semi-decent support, with the occasional assholes who think they know everything and you’re always wrong. You’ll probably end up getting different answers from each staff member you talk to. Example: Two tech’s told me Fat Cow does not support cronjob’s, the billing guy told me they did, and had it added.

Hopefully, if you decide to go with this company, you won’t have the issues I had. I don’t know how this company has managed to be ranked first in a lot of the hosting lists, but that shit needs to be changed. Fat Cow is a decent hosting company, IF you’re running html files or a pre-packaged script you install from their control panel, but that’s about it. I wouldn’t recommend this company to anyone I know after the bullshit I went through.

I think you’re better off using a free hosting provider over these fucking idiots.

[UPDATE: 1PM]

Hello,

Per your request, we have downgraded your account ‘XXX’ to Domain-Parked. This package is for free of cost with no hosting space so that you can manage your domain name. Also, I have refunded the amount of $39.16 to your credit card ending with ‘XXXX’ on July 28, 2009 which was charged towards the hosting. Please allow 7-10 days for this refund to appear on your credit card statement.

If you have any further questions, please update the Support Console.

Sincerely,

(Name Censored)
Billing Specialist

Nito Belmont contacted FatCow
How am I only being refunded $39.16. The original bill was for $62.99. If the domain parking is free that means you’re trying to charge me $23 for the domain name…

Oh yes, fun fucking times… I love when businesses try and rip you off. I’m sure there’ll be more to come, as I try and pull my money from their clammy claws.

Until next time,
Nito

Finding an apartment can be a long and tiresome process, and can be even worse if you come across falsified postings like the one I will be reviewing in this post.

My girlfriend and I are looking for a new apartment, and we found an apartment on Craigslist that was at a decent price in the same area as we are now. I sent an email asking for more information (including an address), and as soon as I got a reply, I knew it was a scam. Googling it finds one other post for the same person/website.

This is the email received, both in image and text format.

Email Image

Hi and thank you for your interest,

My inbox was flooded yesterday with inquiries so I’ll do my best to answer some of the questions:

1) Cable, wireless internet, heat, water, and electricity are included in the monthly rental fee.

2) The security deposit amount depends on your credit score.

3) Move-in can begin as early as next month.

4) I haven’t gotten around to taking more pictures yet but I will be taking groups of interested parties for showings later this week.

Due to the overwhelming response I’ve included a preliminary rental application for any interested parties. I only want to converse with people who are serious about actually moving into this property. It should take about 5 mins. So if you are interested in a showing and further information, please fill out the attached application and email it to me so that I can get back to you soon.

I’ve attached the application. Please reply with the application or paste your responses in the reply email.

or copy and paste the answers onto the reply email.

This will be given on a first-come-first-serve basis. I only have 5 more units like this one unfortunately.

Don’t Delay!

Looking forward to hearing from you,

Anna Brooks

Alright, so right off the bat it’s either an overly-eager sales person, or a template email. I copy/paste their website into a web browser, and it comes up with an empty server – Now we know for sure it’s a template email.

Empty Server Image

Now inside this email is a .DOC attachment, which at first glance looks like a legitimate rental application, but if you look at the second page “she” says she only accepts applicants who do this free credit check from a website she specifies.

Doc Image

3. CREDIT REPORT:
Like most companies today, we require a recent Credit Score. This is only to do a criminal background check and keep our tenants safe. We will only speak to renters with a credit report from ‘My Rental Credit Score’ because we have seen many fraudulent reports. This is a well known company for and should garner some trust.
You can get the free report here:

http://www.MyRentalCreditScore.com

When you go to the the website in the .doc, it will redirect to another site – gofreecredit.com – with a affiliate ID in the link. If you hadn’t already known this was a scam, this should have tipped you off.

This is a classic affiliate scam that I’ve seen been done for as long as I can remember since affiliate networks have been around. On any affiliate network, there is a clear set of ToS (Terms of Service), which layout how you can and can not post your affiliate links. This is a breach of contract, and as such I have written an email to the affiliate website.

Hello,

I was falsely directed to your site via a rental agreement posted on Craigslist. I assume your ToS states that an affiliate can not falsely send users to their affiliate link.

ID: 11619
SubID: 24544-
Redirect Link: myrentalcreditscore.com
Name Used: Anna Brook

Regards,
Nito

So let’s overview what I’ve gone through in this post.

1. Sent an email for more information and got a reply without information I asked for.
2. Copy/Pasted the repliers website into a web browser, and it was an empty server.
2. The replier asked for you to do a credit score. This is a big flag, since any reputable rental manager would have you come in to do this, and usually charge for it.
3. The Credit Score link given was a forwarding link.

What to do if you receive a scam email like this:

1. If you go to the website given, make sure to get the ID’s. The URI will look something like this:

http://www.gofreecredit.com/tab_picture.php?lte=all&id=11619&subid=24544-

From that URI, you’re going to want to grab the numbers after “tab_picture.php?”. It would be the same for any affiliate site that uses this type of link. Simply grab the info after the question mark, and send the website an email with al the info you can about how you got there, and the ID’s.

2. Blog about it. Blogging is THE most powerful tool any civilian has – period. Blog’s enable a normal person like you or I to become a sort of journalist. Just make sure that your posts are true and stay on topic.

2a. If you don’t have a blog, I have set up an email dedicated to responses and such. I will go through each email thoroughly and gather more information on the subject in order to give my readers more clarification on it. The email: reportit [at] phux.org

Legally, there’s not much you can do aside from emailing the company where the link sent you, unless they fraudulently got money out of you. This is why we try to get the information out, it helps others not fall into this sort of trap.

**TIP: NEVER, and I mean NEVER fill out an application and send it through email. If they won’t take it in person, it’s not real.

Until next time,
Nito

In my previous post, I wrote about how Everest doesn’t include back-end languages in their course of study. I sent them an email last night requesting they remove me from enrollment, and let’s just say they don’t take these things very well..

My emails to Everest Institute:

Hey XXXX,

I was asking, because I don’t want to waste money on a degree that doesn’t involve back-end languages. It seems to me that paying close to $30,000 after interest for a website development degree would include not just front-end garbage you can learn off a website in the course of a week.

Hello XXXX,

You can remove my enrollment. I have provided reasoning below.

A higher education institute is nothing more than a business, and as such should be treated like one. Potential customers (Students), should be addressed accordingly and in a timely manner.

I understand that as a Dean or Professor, they may be busy, but I also know that promptness receives better outcomes than waiting. Which is why I pride myself and my company on being prompt on replies to any and all invoices we may receive, whether they be from potential or long-time customers, and refuse to do business with any company who chooses not to.

I know that looking up information on subject matter in order to solidify a customer would have been in the best interest of your company, and would have been no more than asking the professor if subjects in my query were part of the courses. If this is what I have to look forward to by attending the Everest Institute, I’ll pass.

If there is anything I need to do in order to cancel the enrollment process, please respond via this email with instructions.

I removed the name of the person I contacted, because they didn’t do anything wrong, however, Shirley can kiss my ass on the whole fucking privacy thing, as this next part comes from her in a response email.

I’m sorry you feel as though I was not prompt enough with your response. I forwarded your email onto the appropriate people since as an admissions representative, I do not have the correct answers. I would feel more comfortable having the dean, department chair, or teachers respond to specific questions to ensure it is the correct information. The only information I received from Shirley Nagg was as follows:

Hi XXXX!

It’s not that we don’t want to include them, it’s that they go in and out of style too often to be written into a curriculum that takes time to go through accrediting agencies the way we have to (we can’t “turn on a dime”). When we include the “front-end garbage” it is because it is being used and is stable – i.e. not apt to go out of style. This has come up before, and my usual suggestion is for the student to ask the instructor for help in that area with whatever is currently popular as an add-on to the course.

I’m going to forward this to Aaron Sullivan who is the lead instructor for the “front-end garbage” with the request that he contact you.

At this point….since it was YESTERDAY that you asked, I was waiting on a response from the professor to ensure that I get you the correct information. It seems as though you were not all that serious about attending school anyway- I really don’t think it was the “timeliness” of my emails.

Good luck with “Phux” Development.

Oh yes, this is the person I would want representing my business. Get the fuck outta here. How hard would it have been to send the email simply stating that they don’t offer those languages in the course? I love how she capitalizes “yesterday” as if to be screaming it at me, lol. And the statement “It seems as though you were not all that serious about attending school anyway”, makes me lol hard.

I would LOVE to have my degree in web development, but not some bullshit degree where I learn little to nothing. We pay for college not because we simply want a piece of paper, but because we seek to further our knowledge pool. I need to learn front-end garbage, but not the crap they’re teaching there. No (X)HTML, just traditional? Are you serious… See, I know enough about the front-end crap to know if you don’t know shit about web design, you shouldn’t be learning traditional HTML. That shit will rot your fucking brain.

I guess my biggest thing with Everest now, is that they offer this bullshit degree, where you’re gong to learn “outdated” material (ie HTML, Photoshop CS3), but they say they can’t teach you back-end because the material changes too much. PHP5 was released in fucking 2004.. By my count, that’s 5 years ago. How is it constantly changing? There are NO dramatic changes to a back-end language that keep the same fucking major version number.. My guess, is that they don’t want to take the time to teach it to anyone. Whatever.

Final words.. What else is there to say, honestly.. If you read this, and you still decide to go to any Everest Institute for your degree, you’re a fucking idiot and deserve the shit you’ll have to endure there.

I’m not sure if that “Aaron” guy’s sending me another email, but if they do I’ll be sure to add that to the blog.. Oh the fun times.

Until next time.

-Nito

So as some of you may know, I decided to go back to school to get another degree. So, I look check out what everyone’s offering, and how much classes are, etc. I decide on Everest Institute. Small classes, hands on – great. I originally planned on starting in early May, but was forced to postpone as we had multiple sites that needed to be built. So now it’s July, and classes start next week, but as I’m going through everything, I notice that there’s nothing to do with back-end website development.

Now, I don’t know about the rest of you, but when I think of developing a website, the first thing that pops into my head is “How many SQL tables will it need, and what needs to go in them”. I work in *nix environments, so the whole “does it need to be ASP or PHP compatible” thing doesn’t really cross my mind. Pretty much, I’d be paying to learn a bunch of front-end bullshit that I don’t even do anyways.. Just friggin’ stupendous…

Seriously though.. $30,000 for a fucking degree, and you can’t even bother to teach the students back-end? Do they expect them to simply go get hired to do front-end bullshit? You would be jobless until you had atleast 10 outragiously styled websites under your belt (And not your own personal shit either. You better plan on doing some serious freelance work in just html, css and javascript – Because that’s all you’re going to fucking learn here). You won’t be able to realize that arraying with php is better than filling an html doc with 1,000 lines of code because you need a dozen of the same dividers on a page.

Oh no, you won’t be able to enjoy PHP, SQL or Perl. And why you ask? Who the fuck knows. They only offer two “Programmer” type courses. But I guess, you get what you pay for, eh? $30,000 may sound like a lot to you and I, but when you put it next to say – $100,000, not so big anymore, right? But then again, you learn everything for that $100,000.

I don’t think I’ll be attending this institution for a degree. As a matter of fact, I think I’ll create a sort of degree myself. Maybe name it the ‘I got this piece of paper for free’ degree. E-Book’s don’t cost a penny, and I have thousands on disc. I’ll update via this blog, or maybe just create an entirely new site devoted to free higher education. Come to think of it, guy we sponsor for the newsletter (Brandon) is starting something like that. Maybe I’ll ask him if he wants to partner up on it.. Stay tuned!

I’m supposed to go to Everest to pick up my books this Saturday, not sure if I’ll be there, but I’ll definitely be in there eventually to cancel my enrollment (If they won’t do it over the phone).

Until next time.

-Nito