Clever Deception

I was browsing the internet and I came accross an advertisment for some teeth whitening.  I don’t usually click the ads on sites, but for some reason I did.  I started reading the article and came across this-

Hi, my name is Tanya, I live in Chico, California and I want share with you the story about how I changed the teeth I was ashamed of into something I could be truly proud to say were my own

I thought that was interesting since my ISP is out of Chico, California.  I thought to myself, “I bet they are tracing my IP.”  So what did I do?  I grabbed a proxy, and this is what I got-

Hi, my name is Tanya, I live in Scottsdale, Arizona and I want share with you the story about how I changed the teeth I was ashamed of into something I could be truly proud to say were my own.

Pretty clever.  Makes you think that you are supporting someone local.  Makes you feel like you can trust them.  Now it makes me want to destroy their website.  If you care to do anything about it, the site is http://tanyasteeth.com.  Here is the comment that I left for them-

Trace my IP and then act like you are from my area. Not very ethical/legal is it? I think that I am going to blog about this and share it with the world. (Not your product, your deception).

Health Insurance Woes

I have been having some problems with my back for the past few months.  Nothing serious, just a little bit of pain in my lower back.  Enough pain (and for long enough) to warrant me going to the chiropractor.  Let me start off by saying that if I was not insured, I probably wouldn’t have gone to the chiropractor.  I know that they are not that expensive (compared to going to the hospital), but still, money is money.

I had a pretty good experience at the chiropractor.  I went for about 10 times (3 times per week) and am was feeling much better.  That is until I got the bill from my insurance company and found out what is going on.  You see, I found out that it might have been cheaper for me if I did not even have insurance!  The chiropractor charges $30-45 per visit (depending on what you need).  I thought that was pretty reasonable.  So I continued to go, knowing that my insurance (which my wife and I pay for out of pocket) would cover most, if not all of it.

Well, I got my bill, and what I discovered was rediculous.  The Chiropractor did not charge $30 per visit, but more like $60-$70.  Why is that?  Insurance.  It was explained to me that most physicians actually charge different rates to customers based on their insurance policy.  Generally the rates are going to be higher when you have insurance.  Even higher if insurance covers the entire tab.

Am I the only one that takes issue with this?

Social Insurance

I am not sure where I stand in the whole universal healthcare debate, but what I know is this- we are going to get screwed.  You see, there is no such thing as a free lunch.  What I mean is that if physicians are charging extra to those who have insurance, what are they going to do when everyone has insurance?  When, essentially, the government is “picking up the tab.”  I know that the system is going to be a lot more complex than that, but it still is really scary to think about what can happen.

So instead of reforming health insurance, I think that we need to reform how billing is done.  It is time that the physicians are held accountable for their practices.  I am not saying that their work should be free.  I am saying that they need to be more open, honest, and fair.  Just because you can help me when I have a heart attack does not give you the right to give me one when you send me my bill.

About Town

I have the opportunity to spend some time with a young man (10 years old) each week as a mentoring program through the YMCA.  This weekend we went out and rode BMX at a local track.  Always looking to stay fit and healthy, after riding we went straight to the nearest McDonalds to get some ice cream.  On the way there, I noted two shops that had some interesting signage.

Free List of Foreclosures

I understand that a lot of homes are in foreclosure.  I understand that there are a lot of investors jumping all over houses right now.  I get that.  Really, I do.  My dad is a real estate agent.  I get that homes need to sell in order for an agent to make a profit.  But I feel that having a huge sign out side of your shop (or prominently on your website) that says “Free list of foreclosures” is extremely tacky and unprofessional.  These are our neighbors, our friends and our family that are hurting.  Do we really need to throw it in their face?  Yes, a lot of them made some huge mistakes.  I am not saying that we should bail them out or anything like that.  I am saying that they are already hurting, and maybe we should, for once, take more into consideration than just a little bit of money.  Just a thought…

Email Me.  No, Go to my Website

Get in touch with us.  www.mcdonalds-w@sbcglobal.net.  When I was in the drive-through at McDonnalds, I saw this sign on a couple of windows.  This sign wasn’t just some employee drawn sign.  It was one of those 8.5 x 11 laminates that are all over fast food restraunts.  I just tried to contact them, but (surprise!), I got this message back-

This message was created automatically by mail delivery software.

A message that you sent could not be delivered to one or more of its
recipients. This is a permanent error. The following address(es) failed:

www.mcdonalds-w@sbcglobal.net

Seems like someone needs to do a little more proof reading before they print their laminates.

Response to a Scammer

Just had a little fun with a scammer.

Well thought out sir.  Unfortunately you are the millionth person who has tried this scheme.  Not only that, but if you were actually the president of a large bank, you would probably be using that banks’ e-mail.  I see that you are using a free account over at gawab.com.  Someone who has $17.5m in their account doesn’t use a free account.  That is unprofessional.

Sincerely,
The FBI

Mr. Nadeem A. Siddiqui wrote:
> Greetings from Dubai,
>
> This letter must come to you as a big surprise, but I believe it is only a day that people meet and become great friends and business partners. I am Mr. Nadeem A. Siddiqui, currently
> Head of International Business Officer with a reputable bank here in U. A. E. I write you this proposal in good faith, believing that I can trust you with the information I am about to reveal to you.
>
> I have an urgent and very confidential business proposition for you. On November 6, 2003, an Iraqi Foreign Oil consultant
> /contractor with the CHEVRON PETROLEUM CORPORATION, MR MOHAMMAD
> AL NASSER made a (Fixed deposit) for 36 calendar months, valued at US$17,500,000.00 (seventeen Million Five hundred Thousand Dollars only) in my bank and I happen to be his account officer before I was moved to my present position recently. Upon Maturity in 2006, as his account officer and as well the bank Manger, it is my duty to notify him on the maturity date so I sent a routine notification to his forwarding address but the letter was returned undelivered. Read More

Twitter It!

ColdFusion vs. PHP: Frameworks Part 1

Each language has a large number of frameworks available to the community.  ColdFusion has Mach-II, Model-Glue, Farcry, onTap and more.  PHP also boasts a huge number of frameworks: Cake PHP, Code Ignitor, Zend and more.  Fusebox is a framework for both ColdFusion and PHP. One might ask why there needs to be more than just one or two frameworks.  The short answer is that they serve different purposes.  Some frameworks (Model-Glue, Code Egnitor as examples) follow the Model-View-Controller (MVC) design pattern, the onTap framework uses the Service Oriented Architecture, and some (farcry, zend) claim to be a catch-all.  So again, just as it is important to develop your site (application) with the right language, knowing what frameworks are out there, and what they do, can help you to choose the right framework for the project.

Project Scope

One of the most important things to do before selecting a framework is to define the scope of the project.  If the project is a simple CRUD application, then you probably don’t want to use the Zend framework, as it is a monster.  You probably wouldn’t want to use Cake PHP either (although an ORM is included, which does aid in RAD).

Heavy Projects

I define a heavy project as a project that requires some sort of external API interaction.  The application needs to be able to be used as a webservice, and needs to be able to handle large amounts of traffic.  This is not a website for the local lawnmowing service.  Twitter is a heavy project.  Ping-o-matic, although not huge and overly complex, is a fairly heavy project. Read More

The Politics of Politics

I need to be up front with this- I am a registered Republican.  Now that I have gotten that out of the way I have this to say- grow up, politicians.  Jonathan Martin’s analysis of the state of the union (at least the state of the political union) is downright depressing.

Rush Limbaugh has long been targeting the Dems, and as a result he himself has been a huge target.  Back in October 2008 a poll was done in an attempt to discover the popularity and the polarity of different public figures.  That poll found that Rush has the lowest approval rating, especially among those younger than 40 years old.

Polls are all fine and good (although I never get asked to participate, nor does anyone that I have ever asked about it), but it is what we do with the polls that gets iffy.  The democrats quickly jumped once they saw the results of the polls.  They know that Rush is a loud voice.  Combine that loud, “conservative”, voice with deep unpopularity, and you have a great target.  That is exactly what happened.  That is exactly what should not happen. Read More

The Facebook Currency

Facebook, the Worlds Largest Networking Site, has done something really interesting.  They have essentially created their own currency.  In a time when the global economy is shrinking, Facebook is growing.  So how can they possibly sustain this growth?  Shares.  That’s how.  It has been confirmed that during 2008 Facebook attempted to purchase Twitter, a micro-blogging site valued at approximately $500 million.  Facebook went about this transaction in quite the same way that they go about many of their transactions: purchasing and selling with shares in the privately held company.

This is a very interesting strategy.  Since the company is private, they really can set the value of each share to whatever price they want (although the market does have some indirect input into this.), and sell as many shares as they want.  This creates a unique situation for Facebook and anyone doing business with them.  You can either end up with a huge gain (assuming that Facebook is actually worth what it says it is) or you can give your company away for free.

When Facebook was in negotiations with Twitter, the bluff was called.  Facebook offered $500 million, not in USD, but in shares of Facebook.  Twitter was smart to decline.  Because Facebook is not public, and their share price is not directly subject to the huge fluxuations of the stock market, that $500m is not a real $500m, but instead an arbitrary number that Facebook has (majority) control over.  It is interesting to note that once Twitter declined the $500m in shares as a purchase price, Facebook only offered $100m in cash.

Facebook is doing exactly what they shouldn’t do if they want long-term growth and stability.  Just as credit-cards have artificially inflated the economy (and we are beginning to suffer for it), Facebook artificially setting their value (no matter how accurate they try to be) is going to do some damage.  So if they want to continue to grow and remain healthy for years to come, I suggest that they need to take a deep look at themselves and realize that Facebook is not a currency.

ColdFusion vs. PHP Part 3

I have been comparing ColdFusion vs. PHP for the past two weeks, partly for my own sake, and partly to see what you guys think.  This post isn’t going to be much of a review of the languages, but a review of the language communities.  When I first begun coding I picked up a book by Ben Forta, called WACK (Web Application Construction Kit).  The book was pretty basic, but it got me hooked on ColdFusion.  I have come a long way since the days that I started reading that book, but one thing that hasn’t changed is the ColdFusion community.

When I began the comparison of ColdFusion and PHP I thought that I might get a little response, maybe a couple of comments, and that would be it.  A few days went by and all of a sudden I was bombarded with comments.  Ben Forta had somehow found my post, and the ColdFusion community hit this blog hard.  I am impressed.  There really is no community like the ColdFusion community.  The second that someone starts comparing ColdFusion to any other language, the ColdFusion community bands together and makes sure that ColdFusion is defended and represented fairly.

There are areas where PHP absolutely smokes ColdFusion.  There are areas that ColdFusion has the edge.  But when comparing the two communities, there is no comparison whatsoever.  ColdFusion takes the prize.  The community may be much smaller, but when a developer needs any help, the community is right there.  You are never alone as a developer.  Thanks to people like Raymond Camden, Ben Forta, Ben Nadel and others, ColdFusion is a language to be reckoned with.

PHP, you are a great language, but your community has a long ways to go to catch up with ColdFusion.

ColdFusion vs PHP Part 2

In my previous post comparing ColdFusion and PHP, some visitors made the point that it is dangerous to use the underlying Java methods when writing ColdFusion code.  For the most part, I agree with that.  The first issue is that a lot of developers are not comfortable with the Java methods.  When you start using the underlying Java, anyone who might work on your code might have a difficult time in understanding what is going on.  The second issue is code portability.  If you move to a server that does not support access to the underlying Java, you might have an issue (although I myself have never had any issues with this).

However, Adobe does give access to the underlying Java, and access is quite simple.  All one must do is this-

<cfset javaArray = createObject("java","java.util.Collections")>

What is really awesome is that you can actually do a cfdump and take a look at all of the java methods. This will quickly expand what you are able to do with ColdFusion. (Again, this isn’t technically ColdFusion programming, but this behavior is made available through the ColdFusion application server)  Not only are you able to access the underlying Java, but ColdFusion also enables you to access the .NET framework.  Just check out this quote from Adobe-

But what if you’re developing with Microsoft .NET? In previous versions of ColdFusion, there was no native way to integrate those assets into a ColdFusion application. You could use web services to integrate ColdFusion and .NET, but that technique often suffered from poor performance or compatibility problems. ColdFusion 8 software solves this problem by introducing native .NET integration that lets you access Microsoft .NET assembly classes as CFML objects. With ColdFusion 8, now you can leverage .NET objects as easily as Java assets.

A lot of developers don’t really care about this functionality, but for those who are comfortable with the .NET framework, ColdFusion suddenly becomes an extremely invaluable tool. Read More

Google Cache: Is it Needed Anymore?

I have been doing a lot of work on my site the past few days, trying to make some improvements, trying to get some resources together to share with you all.  In the process I had made some mistakes, and had deleted a few posts in the process of switching from a custom CMS to Wordpress.  So I of course went and searched Google for a cached version of the site so that I could just copy/paste my content back in.  What did I find?  The Google cache was only a few minutes old.  I had only created the new content within the past half-hour or so.

I know that Google has been working hard on their algorithms, and their servers.  I just read an article that stated that Google is caching the search results in RAM on over 1000 computers.  That allows for better, and quicker indexing of sites.  This is great news for those that do SEO and write a lot of blogs.  Google will keep up with your changes and index the site accordingly.

But the issue is the cache.  Google caches your site and allows you to look back at the content from a while ago.  But this is getting updated way too quickly now.  It is really getting to the point where the cache is no different from the current site.  So what is the point of the cache at this point.  I think that they should drop the cache and save themselves some disk space and bandwidth.

Update: I originally posted this at about 11:50 PST.  It is now 12:58 PST and Google has updated the cache for my site.  I really appreciate the indexing love, but updating the cache so quick?  Why?!