The RAnts of RA

My pet peeve for the day are  people who manage to sign up on a list but can’t figure out   how to get off.

I could see having trouble managing subscriptions if it weren’t for the fact that Yahoo Groups provides instructions at the bottom of every single email on how to unsubscribe. Yet, almost daily someone on one  of my lists will write, “I would like to cancel my subscription, thanks!”

Why is it that people can manage to sign themselves up on a list but can’t manage to figure out how to get themselves off? It simply boggles my mind. Are people just lazy or incredibly stupid — maybe it’s both.

I’ll be the first to admit that technology isn’t always so simple to use and too often it is faster, easier and cheaper to do  things the  old fashioned way — with pen and paper. If you ask me — any person who can’t figure out how to get off a list that  they signed up for, then perhaps it’s best to leave the computing to others.

I guess the reason it bothers me so much is that training is cheap and easy. There are free tutorials online for just about every topic under the sun — probably even open heart surgery — though I probably wouldn’t recommend it. Anyone, can use a search engine like Google.com to find the answers to the meaning of life. You would be surprised what interesting things you can learn — for free — by searching on Youtube.com for topics like,  “how to build a bird house.”

My son was having trouble in math. I searched on Youtube.com for “math multiplication tips” and similar searches – it brought up some very nice tutorials.

If you learn better one on one many libraries offer free computer lessons, check with your librarian for local computer clubs, members are generally very helpful. Most computer technicians offer training at reasonable prices. I know we have quite a few elderly clients, we encourage them to write their questions down and any issues they are having, so that their problems can be solved, whether it be with training or some other “fix”.

My point – help is available — use it. You are never too old to learn new tricks – so go unsubscribe yourself.   🙂

The War on Illegal Pornography will host its first online conference via its Facebook page, Dec. 9, 11 a.m. until noon, featuring experts who will discuss the pornography pandemic and its relationship to sex trafficking, effect on marriages, and the need to prosecute obscene hardcore adult pornography.

The lineup includes:

• Dr. Donna M. Hughes, professor of Women’s Studies at the University of Rhode Island. Professor Hughes is a leading international researcher on trafficking of women and children.   She will discuss how pornography leads to sex trafficking.
• Dr. Patrick Fagan, Senior Fellow and Director of the Marriage and Religion Research Institute at the Family Research Council in Washington, D.C.  Dr. Fagan will discuss The Effects of Pornography on Individuals, Marriage, Family and Community.
• J. Robert Flores, former Administrator of the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention at the U.S. Department of Justice in Washington, D.C. and former deputy chief prosecutor in the Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section of the Criminal Division at the U.S. Department of Justice.  Mr. Flores will discuss the need to prosecute obscene hardcore adult pornography.

“The trafficking in women and children for sexual exploitation is a global human rights crisis being perpetrated by individual criminals and organized crime groups, and facilitated by increased tolerance for the sexual exploitation and sexual abuse of women and children,” said Hughes. ” New communications and information technologies have are now used to facilitate the trafficking of women and children for sexual exploitation.”

She elaborates further on this issue in her paper:
The Impact of the Use of New Communications and Information Technologies on Trafficking in Human Beings for Sexual Exploitation: A Study of the Users.

“Married men who are involved in pornography feel less satisfied with their marital sexual relations and less emotionally attached to their wives,” says Fagan. “Pornography’s power to undermine individual and social functioning is powerful and deep.”

Questions may be submitted online to the panelists during this one-hour presentation.   The event will be broadcast live from the  Pornography Harms Facebook page.

About The Coalition for the War on Illegal Pornography

The War on Illegal Pornography is a coalition of more than fifty national and state groups founded by Morality in Media.  It is associated with the Pro-Family Forum on Pornography, which was founded for the purpose of education, strategic planning, and action on the issue of illegal pornography. The Forum has met on several occasions with the Department of Justice (DOJ) asking for enforcement of the current Federal Laws prohibiting distribution of illegal pornography.

Related Topics:

• Addiction to Internet Pornography
• Sex Offenders: In my neighborhood?

Intel Touch Screen Computer

Over the years we’ve grown quite comfortable using Google’s services. Let’s face it –  they do make it easy. What could be simpler than their Plain Jane website that puts the world at your fingertips? What could be better?

Well, Google really disappointed me for the first time yesterday and I am heartbroken.

We finally made time to take a much needed mini-vacation to the Silicon Valley and a visit to California’s Great America. On our way to check into our room at the Embassy Suites we couldn’t believe our luck. AMD, Yahoo, Oracle, Cisco, Microsoft, and other big techie  businesses just flew past our car window.

Yahoo Front Desk

We decided right then that we couldn’t leave the area without visiting a few businesses on Monday, since California’s Great America was closed. I am so grateful to have found the Intel Museum. While it wasn’t Great America, it was educational, fun and interactive, we all enjoyed our visit and it didn’t cost us a dime. The rest of the day, we wouldn’t be so lucky.

Yahoo's Purple Cow

Our  second stop was Yahoo, since it was closest to our location. It seemed that everywhere we turned we would find another Yahoo office location.

Yahoo's eMAIL Cow

We found the visitor’s entrance easily but sadly, the lobby was empty, there was no one to greet us. Instead we found a sign, instructing vistors to  please sign in. Well darn. We were infomed by an employee who happened by that Yahoo does have a store, where we could purchase  Yahoo products. At another location. Oh well, back in the car. 🙂

Yahoo's Purple Chair

Unfortunately, the clothing was either a size small or  2XL, too small or too big. I purchased a very large shirt to use as nightwear.

Yahoo Purple Fire Hydrant

We were disappointed but left in good spirits. We were on our way to  visit  the Googleplex and couldn’t wait to get there.  The first  impending sign of doom came by way of a fire hydrant  that had been painted Yahoo purple only a block away from Google’s main office. We were perplexed. We drove to the end of Ampitheiter Way, then turned around and headed back to the last entrance to Google.

Google Plex

We found a sign for visitor parking and headed down the walkway. We showed up at lunchtime, there were people everywhere. It was almost like we were invisible, no one said hello, no one even gave us a second glance. We tried door after door, looking for a visitor center. The “No Name Cafe” was busy, the food both looked and smelled delicious. I was hoping beyond hope that the cafeteria was open to the public, but alas I had clung to false hope.

Google has Quality Bugs

Not only was the “No Name Cafe” open to employee’s only. The entire place, including the visitors lobby we finally found tucked back in the corner requiring a badge to enter. I finally located a phone and tried three times to reach a real person, only to be informed that “Google is a closed campus.” If you don’t have an appointment, you don’t get in.

I still can’t believe we drove all that way, only to be turned away by large, cold, uncaring, super-techie’s that are far too busy to say hello and spare a few moments of their time.

Google's 'Got Badge?' sign

When we arrived back home, we checked online again. Surely, Google must have a visitor’s center with a gift shop somewhere? We were right, they have one in New York. That simply doesn’t make any sense to me — none at all. Google has a massive amount of office space. You can’t tell me that in a place that size, they couldn’t manage to squeeze out a few hundred feet to put a face to such a public company.

You know, I don’t think anyone in the Silicon Valley smiles and I find that really sad. It seemed that everywhere we went, people were unhappy, in a hurry and couldn’t be bothered to give a wave or say hello. You would think the people at Great America would all be bright and chipper, after all they get to listen to all that terrific music all day long and meet new people. All I saw was a sea of frowns on their faces.

Grandma had some terrific advice, “When you see someone without a smile, give them one of yours.” So, that’s exactly what I did.