Category: Wednesday Whine
WEDNESDAY WHINE: Mandatory Password Changes
Web security is good. It’s always nice to know that I can safely log in to a site and have my information easily accessible and yet still remain private. The method of security adopted by most sites is a simple username and password system, which, by remembering just two pieces of information, lets you pull up whatever private data you’re interested in retrieving. But not all sites are so simple, as a few require…
Mandatory Password Changes
I recently tried to log in to an account that I’ve had for over a year and suddenly my password no longer worked. It wasn’t that I had forgotten my password or that my password had been changed, it was that it was no longer valid. On purpose.
The company has a policy of invalidating passwords every so often as a “security” measure. It required me to select a new password that was not only different than my previous one, but also different than any of my previous five passwords (if I had that many). Instead of letting me into my account and simply recommending that I change it, it was forcing me to choose a new password immediately, otherwise I received no access.
While I completely understand that changing passwords every so often is a good idea, just in case someone managed to figure out your login information and you didn’t realize it. However, I let my Web browser save my usernames and passwords so I don’t have to remember them all, as I have many different ones and generally only access certain accounts from one or two particular computers. As such, I was unable to verify my existing password when it forced me to make a new one, as my browser didn’t know how to fill this form in. In other words, I had been shut out of my account as part of a scheduled “security” check. I found this to be incredibly annoying.
What if I had some urgent matter I had to attend to in my account and didn’t have time to deal with a password change? Shouldn’t I have some option of changing my password at my leisure? Or, better yet, shouldn’t it be my own responsibility to change it at all? If I want the same password for the rest of my life, shouldn’t that be my choice, not theirs? It’s like coming home one day and finding that all of the locks on my house were changed because I lost my key, but I can’t get the new key unless I unlock one of the old locks first. It’s a system that is flawed and I wish less sites required password changes at all. Recommend them to me, but don’t make me waste my time changing my password just because some company thinks it needs to be changed.
TweetWEDNESDAY WHINE: Slow People in Checkout Lines
I try to be efficient in everything I do. Always feeling like I don’t have enough time in a day, it’s important to me to finish whatever I start as quickly as possible. That includes going shopping. Generally, I like to enter a store, grab what I need, and get out within 10 minutes. However, I often find myself gritting my teeth, rolling my eyes, and wondering what the deal is with…
Slow People in Checkout Lines
When I approach the rows of checkout lines in a store, my eyes immediately focus, not on the amount of groceries or other items that the people in line have, but rather on the people themselves. Do they look like the kind of person that will easily pile all of their items on the counter, quickly swipe their credit card, and be done with their transaction in a matter of seconds? Or do they look like the type of person who will fumble around their shopping cart, chat with the cashier about how their day is going, scold their kids for touching everything in sight, and ultimately pull the dreaded checkbook out to pay for their items? Unfortunately, the latter is more common than I’d like to believe.
It is the 21st century. We have credit cards. We have debit cards. We have the Internet. We have PayPal. Is there any reason to write a check in a store? EVER? If you have enough money in your bank account to write a check, why not get a debit card? It requires a simple swipe and, if you want, you can still write down the transaction in your ledger later AFTER you’ve left the line, allowing those behind you to continue. Moreover, if you can afford what you’re buying, why not get a rewards credit card and get some cash or points back for your purchases? You’ve got the money – just pay off the balance at the end of the month. It’s like getting things for free!
And even those who have debit or credit cards often don’t know how to use them. Here’s a quick lesson: If there’s a machine where you can swipe your card pointed at you, then swipe it! If there isn’t, then don’t wait for the total before getting your card out. Have it ready when the cashier asks for it. But if you can swipe it yourself, don’t wait for the last item to be scanned. Go ahead and swipe it after your FIRST item has been scanned. It will still work. Trust me. It’ll save you and everyone behind you time.
Then there are the people who enter the 10-items-or-less line with 15+ items and just pretend they don’t see the sign. “Oh I’ll just take my time, holding up everyone behind me with my shopping cart full of items even though everyone behind me has less than 3 things to buy. Too bad for them.” People who ignore the 10-item rule should be forced to pay 50% more on every item over 10.
Finally, there are those that take a shopping cart full of items up to the checkout counter and ask the cashier to price check every single item before they decide if they want it. Generally this results in 75% of the items being scanned, scanned again to remove it from the purchase list, and put away for a store employee to put back on a shelf. This also means that even though the person only ended up buying a can of peanuts, they had the cashier scan 10 different styles of potato chips just to see if any were on sale.
There are a number of other things people do to hold up lines but this post has gone on long enough. It hurts my head just thinking about it. I simply wonder why every time I reach the cashier, my entire transaction takes just a few seconds when other people take several minutes. The cashier starts scanning items, I swipe my card, the cashier finishes, bags the items, I grab my receipt, and I immediately walk away. So many other people seem to think that reaching a cashier means it’s social hour, completely ignoring the fact that they actually came to the store to buy something, not have a deep, meaningful conversation. How about just buying your stuff and then leaving? It simply drives me nuts.
TweetWEDNESDAY WHINE: Not-So-Lazy Parents – An Anti-Whine
Normally I reserve Wednesdays for whining about something fairly trivial in life. Today, I’m taking this opportunity to post an update to a previous whine about the group of “lazy” parents that would drive their SUVs to the edge of our housing community in order to pick up their kids from the school bus. Call it an “anti-whine”, if you will. As I returned home from getting lunch today, I spotted…
Not-So-Lazy Parents Walking Their Kids Home
I was pleasantly surprised to only find one SUV parked just outside the community gate today. Other than that one “lazy” parent, I happy to see several parents walking their children from the bus stop to their homes.
Did my previous post about the absurdity of driving an SUV 100 feet down the road to pick up kids from a school bus have an effect on them? Highly unlikely. So why the change of routine? Why did I see parents today walking with their kids instead of driving them?
Today is a very nice day. It’s not hot, but not cold. No clouds in the sky. There’s even a slightly cool breeze. Could that be it? Maybe.
Or is it the economy? Perhaps these parents realized that wasting gas by starting their cars, driving down the street, idling, and then turning around and driving back home wasn’t worth it. But I doubt it.
My guess is that I simply saw a different group of parents. Today is Wednesday and that means some schools let out early at 2 p.m. I returned home from getting lunch at around 2:20p.m., so I likely saw the latter half of kids being taken home. It’s entirely possible that the gossip-filled SUV-idling group already came and left. I can’t say for sure.
But either way, since the last post had so many comments (some not so happy with me), I figured it would be a good idea to update the situation on here and say that not ALL parents in my neighborhood are “lazy.” Just a few.
TweetWEDNESDAY WHINE: Television Previews Reveal Too Much – Part Two
This week’s whine has been bugging me for a long time. So long, in fact, that I have already whined about it once before. But this isn’t a rerun post. Instead, it’s an expansion on the fact that I am increasingly annoyed by…
Television Previews that Reveal Too Much
I can no longer escape them. As much as I try to avoid watching the “Next time on…” previews at the end of TV shows as to not spoil what plot lines or characters will show up in the next episode, they defy me, finding their way into my head when I least expect it.
I have two additional examples to add on top of my last post about this subject:
First, it appears that there now exists a trend for TV producers to think their audiences are so uninterested by what they’re watching that they need a summary of the entire episode within its first 30 seconds, revealing nearly everything that is about to happen, short of the actual ending.
This season, The Amazing Race has started adding “This week on The Amazing Race…” to the beginning of each episode, showing, in brief, many (or all) of the tasks, conflicts, and problems that are going to happen within the 60-minute show. I tune in to The Amazing Race to see great sights from around the world and to be surprised by what happens during the race. Take away that element of surprise and I’m left with just another travel show.
Similarly, on tonight’s Mythbusters season premiere (which I’m watching while typing this post), the first 30-60 seconds were devoted to showing nearly every crash and explosion that is going to happen over the next two hours. Kinda ruins the suspense.
Second, TV plot lines are now being spoiled not only on TV but also in print. I’m not referring to spoiler-filled Web sites, which are fairly easily avoided. Instead, Entertainment Weekly is including entirely too many details about what will happen in upcoming TV episodes. Worse yet, these details are included in the TV schedule section of the magazine. So if you’re simply trying to find out what’s coming on TV this week, you may inadvertently read something about your favorite show that you really didn’t want to know until you actually saw the episode. Very frustrating.
In general, I can understand needing to include enough exciting footage and plot elements in a movie trailer to make someone want to see a movie. But is it really necessary for an episodic TV show? Can’t an overall plot just be given rather than an episode-by-episode rundown? If you compare a television show season to a feature-length movie, isn’t revealing the plot of each individual episode similar to revealing what happens every 10 minutes in a film?
Attention TV producers: Enough with the spoiling previews. If your show is good enough to watch more than once, your audience will return. You don’t need to try to trick us into watching another episode by showing all of the best parts in advance. Thanks.
TweetWEDNESDAY WHINE: April Fool’s Day and the Web
This is not an April Fool’s joke. While I’m not entirely sure how a post containing me whining about something could be an April Fool’s joke, there’s a very real possibility that you might think it is given the fact that I am posting it on April 1. And therein lies the reason for my whine about…
April Fool’s Day and the Web
I think April Fool’s Day is great. Playing pranks on coworkers, friends, or family members can result in hurt feelings, embarrassment, yelling, hitting, throwing things… in other words, a whole lot of fun. Unfortunately, like anything else in real life, jokesters of the world have brought the notion of April Fool’s pranks online which often manifest themselves in fake press releases about companies releasing ludicrous products or untrue blog posts about movies that aren’t ever coming out. And they’re doing too good of a job at it.
With realtime social media outlets like Facebook and Twitter becoming somewhat mainstream, it is very easy for a simple fictitious blog post to spread across the Web as truth very quickly, resulting in a large number of retractions, corrections, and/or apologies.
I have relied lately on my Twitter stream to find if anything major or interesting is going on in the world. If something worth noting is happening, inevitably someone I follow on Twitter will write something about it. Unfortunately, on April Fool’s Day, I can’t trust anything that anyone writes. The other half of the problem is that if there is new (and real) information that I’d like to post on April 1, it is at first met with skepticism about its authenticity. In other words, productivity and efficiency are ruined on this day each year as the increasing level of lame online pranks force everyone to doubt what they read and see on the Internet.
Now, with all that said, there are always a few shining gems amongst the April Fool’s clutter. These are the gags that are obviously fake but genuinely funny. Here’s today’s best example (so far):
First, I received a tweet from Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails that said, “I’ve been busy. Brand new FULL LENGTH NIN record available now.” It linked to this site. Just the image of Reznor wearing those Kanye West-style glasses is enough to brighten my April Fool’s Day, but reading the description of the “record” makes it even more memorable:
To download NIN’s new full-length album Strobe Light, PRODUCED BY TIMBALAND, enter a valid email address in the fields below. A download link will be sent to you immediately. Your credit card will be charged $18.98 plus a $10 digital delivery convenience fee. Your files will arrive as windows media files playable on quite a few players with your name embedded all over them just in case you lose them. You will also receive an exclusive photo and a free email account with our partner Google’s Gmail service.
Combine that with a track list pairing Reznor with artists like Justin Timberlake, Jay-Z, and Bono, and it’s obviously an April Fool’s joke, but still enjoyably funny.
So although I applaud Trent Reznor and the Nine Inch Nails gang for making me laugh, I would still rather have April Fool’s Day stay offline, reserving pranks for only those you can physically watch squirm before they realize what day of the year it is.
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