Neighborhood CVS reneges on agreement to allow neighbors to park in lot, has them towed
Chapter 3: The Verdict
Alas, the magistrate ruled in favor of CVS, so I’m out the $150 towing fee, plus the $4.60 for the letter I sent them demanding reimbursement, plus the $40 small claims fee. D’oh.
https://blog.kamens.us/2023/03/01/neighborhood-cvs-reneges-on-agreement-to-allow-neighbors-to-park-in-lot-has-them-towed-3/
#Boston #ConsumerActivism #Law #SmallClaimsCourt #CVS #CVSParkingLotSaga #JikBlogFlashback

“SoftHQ” earns a place in my tech recruiter hall of shame
A SoftHQ recruiter called me four times in two days, emailed me twice in two days, all for a job that he should never have been contacting me about. My attempt to complain to SoftHQ failed because the contact email on their web site bounces.
#ConsumerActivism #OnTheJob #SoftHQ #recruiters #JikBlogFlashback

Today's #JikBlogFlashback is a step along the journey between when I thought #Comcast was decent to when I knew they're evil: https://blog.kamens.us/2007/10/09/comcast-the-bloom-is-off-the-rose/
I've written quite a bit about Comcast over the years, reflecting that journey: https://blog.kamens.us/tag/comcast/
Fortunately my house has service from Comcast, RCN, AND Verizon; the competition gives consumers choice, drives down prices, and improves service. 1/2

#3GoodThings
1. Financial aid application for kid's school for next year is done. This is one of those things that can only be appreciated as "good" after the fact. ;-)
2. I just got an invite for a job interview.
3. Someone actually found and benefited from one of the hacks I posted on my blog, AND actually left a comment telling me so (https://blog.kamens.us/2022/03/02/hack-of-the-day-stop-accidental-text-scaling-from-brushing-trackpad-in-gnu-emacs-on-macos/comment-page-1/#comment-1831062).
#JikBlogFlashback

Hack of the day: tool for maintaining a daily agenda in Toodledo
Pull your Toodledo tasks and calendar entries into a text file every morning, where you can edit, add, delete, and reorder them, and when you’re done the changes go back into Toodledo.
https://blog.kamens.us/2023/02/08/hack-of-the-day-tool-for-maintaining-a-daily-agenda-in-toodledo/
#Computers #FreeSoftware #Toodledo #Productivity #Lifehack #JikBlogFlashback

Today's #JikBlogFlashback is my daughter's 15 minutes of fame when she was ten years old and Continental Airlines (rip) put her onto the wrong plane, she ended up in Newark instead of Cleveland, and they had no idea where she was until I told them to look in Newark (read the blog to find out how I knew!).
This kind of thing happens way more often than you think.
The whole series of blog postings is at https://blog.kamens.us/tag/cleveland-or-newark/?order=asc . 1/

Why you should stop circulating that study about COVID in poop from airplanes (a.k.a. please stop screwing up the messaging about COVID safety)
It's a bad study, it doesn't prove anything about whether it is or isn't safe to fly, you should stop circulating it, and you should stop and think about the impact that catastrophizing flying is having on COVID being taken seriously (or not) by the public.
https://blog.kamens.us/2023/01/07/malaysia-covid-poop-study/
#SocialActivism #COVID19 #LongCOVID #JikBlogFlashback #BringBackBlogs

In today's #JikBlogFlashback, one of numerous consumer complaints I've had over the years with NSTAR, my electric company in #BostonMA: https://blog.kamens.us/2007/08/21/nstar-turns-off-paper-billing-without-customers-consent-again/
This was the second time they stopped sending me paper bills without my consent. I don't know if they're still doing that to people since I've since chosen online billing.
To be fair, they seem to have gotten better. I haven't had any recent really bad problems with them, and they finally brought their website into the 21st century.

Today's #JikBlogFlashback (https://blog.kamens.us/2023/01/02/your-data-is-yours-backing-up-your-mastodon-data-to-protect-against-server-failures-and-account-suspensions/) is actually a new blog posting in honor of #BringBackBlogs month (https://bringback.blog/). Here I explain what I'm doing (and you can too!) to regularly back up my Mastodon data so that I won't lose it if my server goes away. Thanks to @kensanata for writing the tool to make this possible!

In today's #JikBlogFlashback, a 2007 blog posting (https://blog.kamens.us/2007/09/18/people-unclear-on-the-history-of-religions/) so short that I can quote the entire thing here:
"""
Seen in a posting on-line from someone discussing the positive impact of taking regular breaks from one's day-to-day routine:
'I guess Jesus knew what he was doing calling for the observance of the Sabbath...'
*sigh*
"""
The problem with that statement is that it's #supersessionist #ChristianHegemony. 1/

Just in time to help with #NewYearsResolutions, today's #JikBlogFlashback is actually a new article: How I lost 40 pounds and you can too.
https://blog.kamens.us/2022/12/28/how-i-lost-40-pounds-and-you-can-too/
Spoiler: Eat fewer calories than you burn. Here's how to make that a reality.
#diet #health #wellness #WeightLoss

Today's #JikBlogFlashback (https://blog.kamens.us/2021/03/17/synology-drive-client-for-linux-has-a-data-loss-bug-synology-refuses-to-fix-heres-a-workaround/) is a bit of a cheat because I didn't actually choose it randomly.
I was reminded of it by a recent interaction with #Synology support about a #LInux issue in their Drive Client. This interaction was quite positive, unlike the one I wrote about on my blog.
In a nutshell, the Linux Drive client doesn't notice created hard links, resulting in file conflicts and #DataLoss. I reported the issue over two years ago and they still haven't fixed it.

If you would like to clear out your #Twitter account there but are reluctant to have your past tweets disappear forever, archiving them permanently in the #WaybackMachine is an option, but their instructions for doing that aren't great and may miss some tweets. I wrote https://blog.kamens.us/2022/12/21/archiving-your-tweets-at-archive-org-for-dummies/ to provide more detailed instructions and a tool to help you make sure everything gets archived. Boost and enjoy!
#JikBlogFlashback

In today's #JikBlogFlashback, a "run-of-the-mill" stabbing in #BostonMA's leather district back in 2010: https://blog.kamens.us/2010/07/09/stabbing-this-morning-in-the-leather-district/ .
An unremarkable stabbing that happened 12 years ago isn't particularly noteworthy, but let's talk about the leather district!
"Lots of gay bars there, eh?" Not THAT kind of leather district, silly. 1/

Congratulations to Jeff Gonneville on being named interim GM of the #MBTA. Jeff cares about the quality of #PublicTransit and is good at making it better.
I worked with Jeff many years ago to resolve an issue with engine fumes in MBTA buses. Although I was just some rando, he listened to me, took me seriously, and fixed the problem.
The T will do well under Jeff's leadership.
Ref: https://blog.kamens.us/2013/06/20/fumes-in-mbta-buses-significant-progress/
#MApoli #BosPoli #JikBlogFlashback @universalhub

Today's #JikBlogFlashback is about, of all things, an IMAP email-reading client for the Blackberry: https://blog.kamens.us/2009/07/21/tiggit-mail-good-program-great-author/. Although neither the client nor the type of phone it was for exist any longer (I told you, I've been blogging for a LONG TIME 😉), this blog posting is still extremely relevant to people who care about #CustomerService and #SoftwareEngineering. 1/2

Today's #JikBlogFlashback is one of the many chapters in my decades-long ongoing effort to eliminate #JunkMail (the paper kind, not the spam kind) from my mailbox: https://blog.kamens.us/2010/01/11/frank-shaw-vanguard-realty-another-junk-mailing-realtor/ 1/4

Today's #JikBlogFlashback is actually a new posting (if I write something new I'm going to share it rather than a flashback so I don't spam people's timelines) on the subject of why you probably don't want to use the #ExpressScripts mail order #pharmacy provided by your #HealthInsurance company. Share and enjoy! #healthcare #MedMastodon
https://blog.kamens.us/2022/12/19/why-you-probably-shouldnt-use-express-scripts/

Also of interest in this #JikBlogFlashback posting (https://blog.kamens.us/2016/03/29/take-back-congress-support-these-candidates/): I recommended AGAINST supporting two specific Democratic candidates because they repeatedly spammed e despite my requests for them to stop.
As I noted there (and still believe), when a campaign spams supporters repeatedly after being asked to stop, that means they either don't care about their supporters or their campaign is incompetent. Either way, they shouldn't be in office. 2/2

Today's #JikBlogFlashback: a posting I made in 2016 encouraging people to support Democratic Congressional candidates to help the Democrats take control of the House.
https://blog.kamens.us/2016/03/29/take-back-congress-support-these-candidates/
Of course, the Democrats failed to retake the House, giving the Republicans control of the House, Senate, and White House, with catastrophic results. 1/2