08:54 – Barbara was over at her sister’s house yesterday, when I was struck by a cunning plan. I asked if Al would be willing to let me borrow his Windows laptop overnight, to which he kindly agreed. So I waited until this morning in case we got orders overnight, and then fired it up and attempted to pay for the postage labels in my cart. No joy. I got the same “payment method declined” error message on Al’s Windows laptop. Apparently, it’s not Linux that USPS hates. It’s me personally. USPS will not accept payment from me using any credit card or PayPal on any computer running any browser. I even tried creating a new USPS account and re-entering the label data. When I tried to pay, I got the same error.
Costco says my new Windows notebook system is to arrive tomorrow. It probably won’t work either. But I already have a stamps.com account set up, so I’ll install their client software and just start using stamps.com to generate my postage labels. They charge $16 per month, which’ll probably be less expensive than paying USPS directly because stamps.com discounts postage.
Just think, it could be worse, they could refuse to deliver your junk Mail:)
I only ship about six times per year, one to three packages each time, always my own box. I have had a Click n Ship account for several years. Never had a problem using three Linux distros and even Windows. It must be you 🙂
Seriously, I hope you get this solved; might make a good story. Also, a belated condolence to you and all over Sankie’s passing.
It’s me, but it’s not *just* me. That is, USPS has taken a dislike to me personally, as well as a lot of other people.
Here are a few examples on the USPS Facebook page. All of this started when they “upgraded” their website in late January. I never had a problem before that. Since then, I’m more likely than not to have a showstopper problem every time I try to run labels.
https://www.facebook.com/USPS/posts/10152235782079810
I thought the only thing the USPS disliked was making a profit. 🙂
Well, that and other people making a profit using their service.
Oops, guess I forgot the sarcasm tag. I do know that a LOT of people are having problems with the *new* USPS site. I discovered the need to enter a value for the package even though I didn’t want insurance, but got an error message. I tried entering $1 (figured that out all by myself) and was able to proceed.
I have also had Fedex and UPS accounts for a few years. Their web sites work perfectly on all my systems, but are way more complicated to set up and use. UPS is always higher cost to me than Fedex, so I have never actually shipped using their site. Fedex is great, once I figured out how to ignore all the features for high volume shippers. I mostly use Fedex for big/heavy packages going more than ~1000 miles, and USPS for others. I only use UPS to see the status of incoming packages.
Just think, it could be worse, they could refuse to deliver your junk Mail:)
Oh the agony of not having to open junk mail!
Wait, the junk mail that I mostly get nowadays looks like bills. How do they tell the difference?
Are any new government computer systems working?
This debacle isn’t getting much press outside of Portlandia. Even here *in* Portlandia the media is trying to keep a lid on things.
http://www.oregonlive.com/health/index.ssf/2014/04/cover_oregon_budget_crunch_ove.html
So bad that the people in charge are thinking about going to the Federal systems.
Besides the usual massive State incompetence, ignorance and negligence, we have this:
“http://www.sovereignman.com/trends/president-signs-law-bans-himself-from-entering-the-us-14253/
USSA-Gulag-2014.
Zek motto: “You today, me tomorrow.”
Speaking of virtual machines; just got three instances of Scientific Linux 6.2 running on the RHEL 6.5 box and now attempting a fourth instance of RHEL 7. Should be interesting and fun. (this is part of the certification lab scenario here).
And still thinking about moving this Windows 8 desktop back to Windows 7 Ultimate. I have a list of stuff I’d have to reinstall and I’ve backed up data and .exe files accordingly. Just ain’t convenient right now due to ongoing tax stuff, media, and online courses.
Mrs. OFD was just on C-Span live at the National Press Club down in Mordor-On-The-Potomac for the launch of the mental health first aid for veterans program, sitting near former RI congressman Patrick Kennedy. The First Lady and Dr. Biden were elsewhere, maybe out at Fort Campbell, KY, not sure. Glad I didn’t make it; plane ride down was badly turbulent and too much humping around airports and hotel and subway; I can walk about twenty minutes tops right now. Also woulda stuck out like a sore thumb down there with all the social workers and political and media types.
54 and sunny with blue skies here on the beautiful Saint Albans Bay shore. We had snow flurries overnight and a “Real Feel” of 17. Ice is out and the lake is at official flood level; the pier at the end of our street is totally underwater. Flowers coming up in the yahd.
I can walk about twenty minutes tops right now
Use it or lose it? Or is this nerve damage like my FIL?
My 81 yr old FIL is in rehab nursing care after two surgeries for his gall bladder and a wayward gallstone that went into his digestive system. He can no longer walk due to long term nerve damage. In fact, his legs are so weak that he can only raise them 4 inches off the bed. He can swing them down off the bed and get into a wheel chair with assistance.
And still thinking about moving this Windows 8 desktop back to Windows 7 Ultimate.
Why? Does classic shell not work very well on Windows 8.1?
http://classicshell.net/
Lynn- you actually open junk mail? I sort it over the circular file.
Classic shell works pretty well for me in Win 8.0; 8.1 fails to install on my laptop.
OTOH loads of not old yet (to me) programs simply will not install on Win 8 but work fine on Win 7.
Classic Shell is fine on the Win8 here; there is other basic functionality that was apparently lost, mostly having to do with some of Mrs. OFD’s stuff and the HP All-in-One printer, which we got for fifty bucks at a Big Lots store years ago and normally works great. And I have realized that I rarely even bother with all the apps I loaded on the Metro screen; we’re almost always in Desktop mode anyway. I’m trying to think of anything that 8 does that is indispensable and coming up short here. It came preinstalled with the machine and of course the Qualcomm/Atheros ethernet controller, which will be a possible issue again if we go back to 7; apparently HP, at least, and probably some other PC manufacturers, shipped a bunch of machines with this ‘cutting-edge’ controller but it normally only works in Windows 8; I had a tough time getting Linux to work on it and gave up on the process with two machines so far. RH, for example, does not have a driver for it yet, and is no apparent rush to create one; ditto Qualcomm. They seem to have generic Linux drivers but nothing for the RH and clones arena; although some folks have got it work, including me, on Fedora and Ubuntu. (hours of research, tinkering, and hassle).
“Use it or lose it? Or is this nerve damage like my FIL?”
I’m a bit more active than your FIL; I was moving junk around in the house a couple of weeks ago and probably pulled or tore a lower back muscle; being on my feet, whether standing or walking, is OK for 15-20 minutes and then I gotta sit down. The funny thing is that as soon as I sit, instant relief. I have to sleep on my side with a pillow between my knees and that works OK.
I need to get this fixed ASAP because we have a ton of shit to do around here, I’m interviewing for jobs again, and I am hoping to get outdoors more this year, between hiking, canoeing, target shooting, etc. We got out ONCE, for snowshoeing, with our new snowshoes, and it was a blast. Snow was three or four feet deep and I was sailing across the top like gangbusters.
Scheduled for another visit to the VA Med Center down in White River Junction next month for the pulmonary stuff; may call them ahead of time about the sore back; as it kept me from going to some events this past week.
Watched Mrs. OFD and the others, with former Rep. Patrick “Patches” Kennedy, and they all did well. Mental health first aid as a concept for veterans, who are whacking themselves at the rate of 22 a day now. Try doing multiple combat tours in the Suck or the Sandbox and trying to “transition” back into The World again, where no one has a clue about anything. One of her cousins has a son who did five years as a Ranger in the Suck and one of his best buddies just killed his parents and then himself down in Virginia. Now her son is flipping out, and he’d kept it together pretty well since he got back, went and got married, got a job, etc. It’s all coming apart somewhat now. Waiting for another shoe to drop soon with son’s SIL, former Marine who stacked time in both the Suck and Iraq. Then married a Marine drill instructor down there at Parris Island; an uber-macho lifer type who likes to drink heavily, get into bar fights, and shit all over Yankees and Catholics.
Anyway, wife did good and is flying back up here tonight, late. Then we have to get daughter back to school by Friday and my best guess is that it will all occur at the last possible minute tomorrow, while we also try to get a cat to the vet. I anticipate headaches and hassles again, so will attempt to go into pseudo-Zen mode and distance myself from the mayhem somehow.
I read Oregon’s Health Care Exchange is officially dead. With a $300 million budget, I guess they hired coders out of middle school and used MS Frontpage. I wonder if the lost millions will count against health costs, or the Feds will just charge the taxpayers out of general funds to hide it.
$300 million, $300 million there; pretty soon we’re talking about chump change. This will be charged to us, just like the mega-bankster bailouts. One way or another.
Just read a piece on Harry Reid’s biography and political history; you might think from some media accounts and blogs that he was the Devil Incarnate, but all I saw there was your typical venal political hack who’s been in the system long enough to accumulate a few million; BFD. Most of his capers even look to be small-time crook junk, nothing on the scale of what has been done lately in Mordor and The Bagel. And he keeps getting re-elected, so what does that say about the citizen-subjects of Nevada? Same deal here in Vermont with Leahy and Sanders; ditto down in MA for so many years with various Dem machine con artists and bunco scammers. These types of voters love a rascal and think it’s just swell if they end up in jail and still rule their little frog ponds from there, as with James Michael Curley in Boston all those years ago.
Yup, Murkans love a rascal: “…Curley was fond of call girls and chorus girls, frequented speakeasies and brothels, and in the process of his partying was involved in a number of traffic accidents which left several people injured. These accidents were eventually publicized and tarnished his office. Ultimately, these incidents, as well as his past associations, led to increased vulnerability to mob influence, and he was alleged to have sold pardons to state convicts and appointed poorly qualified individuals, including his brother John, to public offices…” (Wiki)
We have no one this colorful anymore.
“Junk mail” sounds like gay porn, shipped in a plain wrapper.
Only in contemporary usage; like the word “gay” itself. But “plain wrapper” or “plain brown wrapper” goes back quite a ways. So I’m told.
you actually open junk mail? I sort it over the circular file.
I use the same sorting method. But I have to open them now as many of the junk mail are cleverly disguised to look like bills.
Win 8.1 fails to install on my laptop.
I have heard of that problem a lot. One wonders what the heck MS is doing nowadays.
OTOH loads of not old yet (to me) programs simply will not install on Win 8 but work fine on Win 7.
Oh that is not good. And these are not DOS16, DOS32 or Win16 apps? Got examples?
Win 7 seems to be a golden version of the O/S. One hopes for MS sake that Win 9 acquires the same reputation or MS might find their goose cooked.
Yet another person who thinks we might as well let it burn, because burning is inevitable.
“ARIN runs out of IPv4 addresses”
“ARIN is now down to their final /8 equivalent block of IPv4 addresses.”
http://www.networkworld.com/community/node/85275
“Oh, woe! If only there were some alternative solution”
“Enterprise organizations should be actively planning to adopt IPv6. This is the only protocol that is available that is feasible for use on the Internet and it is in use today. Your organization should be making a request for IPv6 address space today and starting to plan your IPv6 deployment at your Internet edge. Over the coming years, your organization should be planning to migrate IPv6 slowly inward into your internal networks.”
And I discovered the other day that my cell phone is running both IPv4 and IPv6 stacks. No wonder it is so slow nowadays.
Hey, I liked the comment, “Lighten up. I say if borrowing about a trillion dollars a year is possible, why not borrow the whole budget ? … why do we keep annoying citizens with taxes anyway ?”.
Why not?
—-and—-
“The Dems want to drive the car off the cliff at 100 mph.”
“The Repubs/main streams think it’s the essance of conseratism to drive the car off the cliff at 75 mph.”
“To them, the 25 mph reduction is the epitomy of good governance.”
Yah.
Though he’s mischaracterizing the R half of the Ruling Class party. The D half wants to accelerate from 100 to 120 toward the cliff. The R half wants to accelerate only to 110.
I’m not doing anything to throw gasoline on the fire, but it is smoldering right now. I hope for Bob’s slow and inexorable and relatively painless (for most of us) slide into dystopia, but anything can happen to fan the embers along the way. War, pestilence, famine, disease, natural disasters, the collapse of the financial house of cards (inexorable) and/or the disintegration of the Grid.
The R half of the RC Party is Stupid. The D half is evil. That’s the diff. So pundits wish us to continue voting for the Stupid in preference to the Evil. Other pundits advocate the usually unsuccessful Third Party route; closest it came was with Perot, who ended up being a spoiler. Now I see the former hero Rand Paul waffling like a typical hack pol. Then Cruz is pushed as the next savior. On the D side the wimmenz all swoon for the Heroine of Tripoli and Benghazi, except for the harridans in Maffachufetts who get wet over Fauxcahauntus Warren. And the Incumbent POS sends a bipolar screwball like Biden over to read the riot act to Vlad while Liveshot Lurch is playing the Dennis Leary character in “The Ref” between the asshole Palestinian terrorist scum and the asshole Israeli terrorist regime. Which, for some odd reason, we have an interest in, which should be squashed utterly forthwith.
We are so fucked.
I want to see Derpie Wassername Schlitz as Prez, with Al Not-so-sharpton as Veep. If we’re going for a clown show, go for the clown show.
Oregon’s healthcare exchange was an “All Oracle All The Time Project”. The goal was to create a showpiece demonstrating to the rest of the country how the Obamacare exchanges should work.
I hope for Bob’s slow and inexorable and relatively painless (for most of us) slide into dystopia
Won’t be painless for most of us as the unemployment rate increases by a percentage point or so each year. Just because you have a job does not mean that you are getting raises, bennies increases, etc. Unemployed or underemployed people do not have a lot of money to spend.
http://www.shadowstats.com/alternate_data/unemployment-charts
“Oregon’s healthcare exchange was an “All Oracle All The Time Project”.”
Did they at least use Oracle Linux? LOL. And was it run on the “Portlandia” set?
“Just because you have a job does not mean that you are getting raises, bennies increases, etc.”
Tell me about it. That was my last temp-contractor gig. And I last got company-paid training and bonus checks at EDS, sixteen years ago.
When I say “painless” I mean something less, hopefully, than the worst year of our Great Depression in the West, and without bodies lying in the streets uncollected or dumped in rivers. There will be pain, regardless, if only no raises or bennies and higher prices of everything and regular brownouts and blackouts and shitty roads and bridges.
“Derpie and Al: 2016: You wanted Hopie-Changie? You sho nuff gonna get it now! What exciting entertainment that would be! That ticket would lock up the women, the Jewish population, the African-Murkan population, and probably the media, academia and government per usual. Roughly two-thirds of the folks still engaging in the voting charade.
OFD wrote:
“Then we have to get daughter back to school by Friday and my best guess is that it will all occur at the last possible minute tomorrow…”
She can’t drive herself or take a bus?
The R half of the RC Party is Stupid. The D half is evil. That’s the diff. So pundits wish us to continue voting for the Stupid in preference to the Evil.
Preach on brother!
And the R are also arrogant. Been in office way too long.
We need term limits to save ourselves. So not going to happen.
“She can’t drive herself or take a bus?”
We’re down to one legally working vehicle right now. Bus takes forever with interminable delay at the border. And dealing with all her stuff this past week has been like being in a time machine back to ten and fifteen years ago, culminating today with forgotten passport at MIL’s house requiring mama to drive back and forth repeatedly for that and, as predicted, being driven back to Montreal for her exam at the last possible minute. Par for the course for many years now. I give up.
The current regime will not countenance any form of term limits. We should dump the Senate in its entirety, permanently, and make the House of Reps do their jobs, with term limits, while also dumping most of the lawyers and staff. And a new Constitutional Convention. Back to the original Articles of Confederation. And cut remaining gummint to the marrow. Bust the Empire. Geez, what have I been smoking?
“Back to
the original Articles of ConfederationHer Majesty, the lawful ruler of the supposed United States, presently in rebellion against Her authority“.There, fixed that for you.
Hey, restore the rightful and legit heir to the British throne and I’ll consider returning to Perfidious Albion’s fold. The last legit dude was Edward the Confessor; everyone since has been a usurper.
Sounds like Mom is in hog heaven. Shes got one cub left in the den and she is smothering XXXXXXXXXX mothering it to her heart’s content.
BTW, if you do not get a job soon, have you thought about SS disability? Seems like a lot of people our age (50+) are going on SS disability when they cannot find a job. I am not sure what the downsides are though. BTW, I am not advocating fraud by any means.
I’ve recently started to think that Oliver Cromwell was the last legitimate ruler XXXX Lord Protector of England. He actually allowed religious freedom for the first time in a major country and many other innovations that were promptly rescinded by the following monarchs.
Dawdling, delaying, screwing around, and flailing around in a tizzy is my wife’s modus operandi. I refuse to get caught up in it. I won’t drop everything and make a two-hour round trip to bring her something, I won’t change all of my plans to stay home because she had a change in plans and needs someone to wait for a contractor to maybe show up, and I won’t take drive a handful of other people’s kids home if I get home from work and find four extra children and my wife says she’s too tired to drive them. After more than a decade of my wife making problems and then dumping them on me to fix, I started telling her she can deal with it. Yah, this causes hard feelings, but only on her side, so I don’t care.
I’m at that stage now, SteveF; you got to it ten years younger than me, and bless you for it; hope it works. I’m doing it with both kids supposedly grown and gone but as you can surmise, the 21-year-old daughter is still a yoke every time she’s here. Son is grown with two kids of his own and a third on the way; but….but….they invite us down (five hour drive each way now) for holidays and birthdays and for dinners but we always end up not only bringing the whole dinner down to them, but also cooking it and cleaning up afterward. I ask myself: what has changed since they both lived at home with us???
“…have you thought about SS disability? Seems like a lot of people our age (50+) are going on SS disability when they cannot find a job.”
I’ll work until I drop, so long as I’m physically and mentally capable of doing so, even if it’s just menial janitor crap on a night shift somewhere. It just has to be worth the gas money to get to and from it. I hope to know next week about the current status of three different gigs I applied to back at Big Blue. And a couple of others are hanging out there in the ether…
“… Oliver Cromwell was the last legitimate ruler…”
Regicide, uber-Prod fanatic, genocidal butcher. He and Henry VIII were two of the most evil rulers in human history. Credit where it’s due: in battle he was a brave and resourceful cavalry commander. And Charles did not help himself; he almost rushed into martyrdom with his various capers and shenanigans and arrogance. But Cromwell’s record in Ireland alone is more than enough to damn him as any sort of legitimate ruler.
@OFD: You drive down, take the good with, and cook it? That’s pretty far out, man. What would happen if, the next time they invite you, you just go – and show up like normal guests?
I figure our kids will be around a few more years; they’re just late teens now. Both do their own laundry, else they have no clothes to wear. Mom still does most of the cooking, but both of them can cook at least basic stuff, and when the wife and I have had an especially tough week, we tell them they they’re the cooks on the weekend. They’re both cool about it – I think they understand that these are basic life skills.
Regicide, uber-Prod fanatic, genocidal butcher. He and Henry VIII were two of the most evil rulers in human history. Credit where it’s due: in battle he was a brave and resourceful cavalry commander. And Charles did not help himself; he almost rushed into martyrdom with his various capers and shenanigans and arrogance. But Cromwell’s record in Ireland alone is more than enough to damn him as any sort of legitimate ruler.
How about Bloody Mary? How many prods did she have killed?
Bloody Mary managed to get a bunch of Protestant dissenters killed but wasn’t around as long as her dad and sister, so the count and levels of nationwide destruction do not match up. Dad wrecked a bunch of his country in just a few short years, mainly through his chief henchman, Thomas Cromwell (distant cousin to Oliver).
@brad; Yes, to your question: we haul food down and cook it there, or bring it already cooked; latest case in point: I had figured they’d at least have ham and some side dishes down there for the Easter dinner; so to pile on, I sent a koshered and roasted turkey breast. I find out when Mrs. OFD gets back: they had NOTHING. The turkey was IT. Our son pulls a six-figure salary and wifey is home ALL day with the kids, plus they were BOTH home for the Easter weekend. Mrs. OFD blows it off and doesn’t worry about it. Daughter comes home and at least cooks, but it’s all vegan, and she uses every damn utensil, pot, pan and silverware piece we have to do it, and then it all sits in the sink unrinsed. Daddy cleans it all up, per usual.
To further answer your question: we have gone down for the various dinners we’ve been invited to, with empty hands and hampers. What happens then? We have to run out and buy stuff, bring it back, cook it, and clean up afterward. And boy they can shovel in the chow, too; son is my height and probably outweighs me by twenty pounds now; wifey is a foot shorter but also outweighs me. (I’m only 275).
I just hope to live long enough to see our daughter get married, and have at least one daughter who gets well into her teens before I finally check out.
Ah, yes. Spite. The only thing that keeps a lot of oldsters going…
Spite. Rancour. Malice.
Oldster: from the Urban Dictionary:
“a hipster/scenester usually 30+ years of age that hasn’t accepted the fact that developmentally they should be beyond trendy clothes and fashionable elitist attitudes.
(“look at the Emo haircut on that oldster! skunk spots are fab, but taupish mops are not!”)
I’m twice that age and wear the same jeans, cargo pants, Dockers, flannel shirts, sweaters, etc., and baseball-type hats (worn correctly) that I’ve worn since that age. Prior to that it was cop and soldier uniforms.
I do have an elitist attitude, though. Thus my comment earlier about easily losing three-quarters of the U.S. population.