Eccentric Flower talk:201012/The Bones of Dead Technologies

Iain:

The Bones of Dead Technologies

Somehow, I picture these all washing up on or buried in the sandy beaches of the shores of the Island of Misfit Toys.

Since I use that card for online purchases, and pretty much only for online purchases, it's not a question of if a bogus payment will show up; it's a question of when.

Huh. You know, the only bogus payment I've ever had very clearly had nothing to do with online anything; it was the result of someone having access to information either inside Visa or, more likely, inside Chase. Charges were made in a particular way and with information that I've never put out online. Not entirely relevant, I suppose, but still. They're going to get you one way or another.

I picked a phone mostly in terms of "what is the least annoying dead weight I will now have to carry around every day?" and this was the correct criterion - because I place an outgoing call on my cell phone about once a month, and I receive incoming phone calls on it about twice a month, and they are both my wife asking me to pick up something at the grocery store on the way home.

You actually use your cell much less than I use mine. I was not sure that was even possible. (Weirdly, the only times my cell gets anything remotely like average use is when I'm out of town making arrangements for one thing or another. I expect it to burst into flames during next spring's conference season.)

By the by, I think I've partly figured out some of the logon weirdness I've experienced here. Turns out that if I login with secure mode, I have to stay in secure mode. If I use http rather than https, the system doesn't recognize that I've logged in. Which makes sense, but is one of those things it takes a bit to wind your mind around.

-- 19:54, 13 December 2010 (GMT)

ProfRobert:

I pay bills online whenever I can just to avoid the hassle of getting stamps and going to the mailbox. (BTW, you should get one of those "one thousand address lables for $3" things -- (a) they really save on handwriting time, and (b) the company sells your info to a bunch of charities, who then send you free lables forever as part of their (vain) attempt to get you to donate). But I keep my bills in hard-copy form. When the come in, they get their due date written on the enevelope and then go to my bill drawer in my office. I check that every once in a while and pay the upcoming bills. I commend this approach to you for organization and efficiency.

-- 19:57, 13 December 2010 (GMT)

Columbina:

Iain: I have noticed this peculiarity as well, although it seems to be inconsistent.

Robert: I have mailing-address stickers lying around somewhere but the problem is I can never lay hands on them when I want them.

I am astonished at the fact that you apparently manage to pay bills you keep in a drawer (i.e. out of sight) in a timely fashion. I put mine where I have to be aware of their presence visibly every time I pass in and out of the kitchen, in my incoming mail bin. If I put them somewhere where I couldn't see them and be reminded that the stack was growing, I'd never remember to pay them.

-- 20:53, 13 December 2010 (GMT)

Platypus:

We get paper bills, but use our credit union's online bill pay service to pay them. Nothing is set to pay automatically except rent; for everything else, we have to put in the amount to pay and the date to pay it. As soon as a bill comes in, we do that. The companies we're paying never get our account information. It requires trusting the credit union, of course, but if I didn't I'd be keeping my money in my mattress.

I have a pre-paid cell phone that I use only in the circumstances where I previously would have used a pay phone: if I'm out and need to call home to ask my husband something. I never wanted a cell phone, but after the time I ended up paying $25 for a one-minute local call (lost my last quarter in a pay phone, made a credit card call) it seemed like the lesser evil. But it is still an evil. I know very few people so important that they must be contactable at all times, and I am not one of them.

-- 21:13, 13 December 2010 (GMT)

Columbina:

Ooh! I do trust my credit union. I wonder if they have a service like that.

-- 21:23, 13 December 2010 (GMT)

Joy:

You are like guppy. I am like ProfRobert. I remember to pay them because something in my brain says "hmm, it is around the first of the month, time to pay the bills". Or because, now that I have enough cash flow, I pay them right away.

Before our recent home improvement spree I only had to write two actual checks a month - one to our local cable company, which doesn't have an automatic deduction option, but which I pass on foot often enough to make dropping the payment off easy, and one to my USAA credit card. Now I have two more cards to write checks for each month, bleh. And all my charity address labels are no use now that I've moved!

-- 21:51, 13 December 2010 (GMT)

Mel:

I wish somebody would tell all the people that send me junk mail that junk mail is dying. I get a ton, still.

-- 00:35, 14 December 2010 (GMT)

Bunny42:

As I said, call me paranoid.

I don't call that paranoid, I call it sensible. I have a few things that get paid automatically, but they debit my Amex card, not my checking account. Nobody (theoretically) can touch my bank account but me. I do, however, pay the majority of my bills online, through my bank account. It's fast, easy and relatively safe. (I'm assuming banks have a fairly high level of network security. Again, I could be naive on that.)

(Actually, it's already happened, and their removal/dispute mechanism worked just fine. But that was about three years ago so I figure I'm overdue for another.)

Now THAT I call paranoid. I'm knocking on serious wood, here, while tossing salt over my shoulder, but in the ten to fifteen years I've been buying online, I've never had an incident. Not even with PayPal, whose detractors are legion. Still, it makes sense only to use one specific card for that purpose.

Ah, the Postal Service. Being a quasi-government organization, I'm not sure they could ever have functioned with the efficiency of private industry. Too much baggage and red tape. Now that it has become critical for them to compete, alas, it's much too late.

As for Christmas cards, I'm sad to see them go. Even if it's only once a year, I appreciate the effort someone made to hand-write and address a card, especially if there happen to be a few extra lines of news or greetings. It still makes my day. My list is down to about 30, anymore, and so far, I've received two, one of which was from my dermatologist with a coupon enclosed towards an oxygen facial. What the heck is that? No, cards are going the way of the dinosaur. It's just another aspect of the holiday season I'll remember fondly with a heavy sigh.

-- 19:38, 14 December 2010 (GMT)

Columbina:

Bunny, I have been known to buy things from online locations which, let us say, may not be quite as reliable and fraud-proof as more well-known electronic merchants. That's why I essentially keep that credit card in quarantine.

-- 20:40, 14 December 2010 (GMT)