I’m making this  post for the real estate agents who think that buyers are suckers and can’t tell super enhanced photos. I think their real estate licences should be revoked. I guess they will learn the hard way when nobody shows up to see the houses. Generally I’ve found that photoshopping was only done in case of older houses that are probably in bad shape and once buyers see a few of those they will probably avoid all photoshopped houses. Photoshopping agents should probably take a photography class instead of just using some software to turn up brightness, contrast and saturation to make fake looking photos.

Yesterday I found this example of extreme photoshopping. I thought the photo was an awesome rendering for a proposed house. But the house looked very dated. It turned out that the photo is of an existing house built in the 50s

If you would like to look at the rest of the super enhanced photos click here.

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But now Adobe has gone one step beyond just making a crappy product – they want to covertly install other crappy products that you didn’t ask for. Click the image on the left for a screenshot of the Adobe reader download page. It wants to install “Acrobat.com on Adobe AIR” (no option to opt out) and McAfee Security Scan Plus (you can opt out by checking the box). Adobe has gone so far as to do this with Flash too and that even installs McAfee without giving the user an option to deselect it.

McAfee Security Scan Plus is just a piece of crap software that gives you the same information as Windows Security Center i.e. if you have your Antivirus, Firewall etc. turned on. If not (or sometimes even if you do), it tries to sell you McAfee stuff.

So do yourself a favor, uninstall Adobe Reader now and get Foxit Reader. Foxit also seems to have fewer security issues and it patches holes faster. It doesn’t annoy you with startup items, doesn’t install other crap without your knowing and is much smaller in size.

So far I haven’t been forced to get anything with Flash upgrades but it that happens, Flash is next to go. And thanks to Steve Jobs and his hatred for Flash, more and more websites are begining to move to HTML 5 or at least begining to offer that option. Adobe really needs to get their act together. I’ve been hit by a fake antivirus at work from what was possibly a flash (or maybe pdf) exploit and it is nasty. If McAfee suddenly appears on my machine out of the blue along with Adobe reader, how does one tell it apart from the Fake AV software?

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Now the IE Blog claims that IE9 will be better and they show a graph of how IE9 is worse than any browser out there (though better than IE8). They claim that it will be better in the future but how much better will everyone else be by the time IE9 comes out? Both Safari and Chrome use Webkit. Firefox and Opera use their own rendering engines.

Web apps are the present and the future. Everybody knows that. Also all web developers know that IE sucks so none of us use IE for anything except testing. IE is so bad that Google needed to launch a plugin that would make IE use Chrome to render web pages because there is no way some of their new and upcoming stuff would work in IE.

Back to the point. Why we web developers hate IE:

1. Everything we make generally works flawlessly in all other browsers without much effort. Then we look at it in IE and it is all messed up, especially if you use anything that is a relatively new thing. That means we need to add hacks specifically for IE.
2. All the versions of IE need their own hacks. But we can’t install multiple versions of IE on the same computer. So we have Virtual Machines or just separate computers or different members of our teams having different versions on their computers to test out.
3. Every new version of IE that comes out makes our code more convoluted thanks to checks for more versions of IE.
4. Sometimes no matter what you do, newer standards will just never make it to IE in the near future generally slowing down the progress of the web. Take for example the IE blog above. They add things like better font rendering, hardware acceleration (what good is hardware acceleration when it is accelerating something that is wrong?). The most important parts aka standards are ignored – see the 32/100 Acid 3 score. There is not even a mention of HTML5 etc.

If you read the comments, the most common comment is that Microsoft should give up on their rendering engine and just use webkit. I’m sure every web developer will jump for joy and host a party because the worst nightmare of their job – trying to be compatible with IE – will be gone. That is never going to happen so somebody summed it up in the comments:

IE is fairly analogous to the cockroach. You can step on it, blow it up and irradiate it, but now you have an annoyed radioactive abomination that’s going to go breed more annoyed radioactive abominations.

Thankfully a lot of major websites are dropping support for IE6 which hopefully will make those IE6 users out there upgrade or switch. But with IE9 there will be one more thing to test for. All of us developers want is for Microsoft to get out of the browser business. Why does Microsoft even bother spending millions of dollars to make an inferior product that is full of holes? Why can’t they just adopt the Google and Apple path of using a standard freely available engine and just improve the user experience? It can still be IE, but at least it will be a good one.

The only reason I can think that MS still works on IE is that it is integrated into everything – Windows, all their development tools and most Microsoft software somehow depends on IE. While I’m complaining here is one more – even Microsoft has a hard time developing complex apps that work in IE and other browsers. That’s why they have separate applications for Outlook web services for IE/non IE browsers.

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Since you have fewer than 10 “Available” movies in queue, we may wait an extra day or two to ensure we’re always shipping the titles you want most.

To ensure consistency in shipping, we recommend keeping 10 or more available movies in your Queue. You can also set your preferences for shipments based on speed vs. Queue order. Go to My Account; Manage Account Settings; and choose Speed vs. Queue ship preferences. We’ll ship your next movies within 1 to 2 business days once your queue meets our recommendation

While Netflix has started shipping on Saturdays, Blockbuster has mostly stopped shipping on Mondays. In my experience, if I return all three movies on Friday/Saturday, one may or may not ship on Monday, one or two ship on Tuesday and one ships even later. I’ll update in future posts if selecting “Speed” changes this stupidity.

If an item is checked in on a weekend (including Friday) the next expected business day for a new shipment would fall on the following Tuesday with limited shipments on Monday.

To ensure consistent, prompt shipments please keep 15 or more “available” titles at the top of your queue.

Related posts:

1. Updates from Blockbuster + New Throttling Methods Blockbuster recently updated the Queue options ending a longstanding complaint...
2. Blockbuster is upto it’s old tricks again Since Blockbuster started its new policy of not shipping new...
3. Some Good News from Blockbuster My last few posts about Blockbuster have all been complaints....

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But now their store return system is busted. I exchanged an online rental for a  store rental. I returned the store rental the next day. 30 hours later the disc is still in my queue.

So I click the report button, and what I get is a notification to call the store.

So I call the store and their system says I returned the movie yesterday and also have a 1$ credit for returning it in one day.

Anyway I sent in a complaint to Blockbuster both on twitter and via their Customer service contact.

I’ll update this post when I get a response. But I’m sure this is a throttling method where they don’t want you to get discs very fast. I was hoping to test that that the “Speed” option really works and I run into this. I would switch to Netflix in a heartbeat if they didn’t charge extra for Bluray and I would stop hearing complaints about new movies not shipping to heavy users. At least Netflix doesn’t lie about throttling. They are intentionally vague but at least they admit it. Unlike BB, which just comes up with lame excuses.

Update: Blockbuster online customer service already responded (in less than two hours) that they have cleared the movie from my queue and  I got the usual free rental coupon that I get every time I complain about Blockbuster screw-ups. An interesting thing in the email that the rep sent me is this

For consistent and prompt shipments, please keep 15 or more “available” titles at the top of your queue.

That totally sucks

Update: (Sat Oct 24) The Speed option is bogus. To test the speed option I put some future and long wait releases in the top 15 in my queue. That still didn’t cause anything to ship on Friday (previous movie returned to store Wednesday, system glitch caused it to be marked as returned on Thurdsay after complaining). And if the limited shipments on Monday is true, I’ll have to wait at least 2, maybe three  business days for the next movie to ship.

Update: Somehow my update to this post got lost? I got a call from BB customer service on Oct 26/27 after complaining about this problem on Twitter. It seems that the speed issue is now fixed. Since then I’ve seen my movies ship on time until now. So if you see no more updates to this BB has fixed the issue.

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But I just heard from BlockbusterCC on twitter that sometime this month, BB will give us the option of speed vs priority. Here is the exact quote

BlockbusterCC Thanks for the inqry. We are rolling out new options sometime 10/2009. U will have the option to ship by q order or by speed

What keeps me away from Netflix is no in-store exchanges/coupons etc. and they charge an extra 4$ for Blu-Ray on their three at a time plan. Also there are as many people complaining about Netflix throttling, which I will definitely face as a heavy user. It seems Netflix throttling is much worse than BB.

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As usual I have complained and as usual they will probably reply back with some lame excuse about keeping lots of “Available” movies at the top of the queue. I have more than 500 movies in my queue and many of the top ones are alwyas available.

Update on Aug 29: No movies have shipped yet. That is 4 days of no shipments!! Here is what Blockbuster has to say about it:

I sincerely apologize that we have yet to ship the next available titles from your queue.

We are aware that some customers who receive DVDs from our Richmond distribution center have recently experienced a slow-down with their check-ins and shipments. This is in line with the system enhancement that is in place to better provide quality service to our customers such as you. We are addressing this situation and it will be corrected as quickly as possible.

I also see that some of the movies at the top of your queue are on a “Short Wait” and “DVD Releases” status. We want to send you the movies that are most important to you as reflected by the priority you’ve set in your queue. If your top selections do not show an “Available” status and you have fewer than 15 “Available” movies in queue, a shipment may be skipped.

I would recommend keeping more than 15 “Available” titles at the top of your queue at all times. Once you take a few moments to do so, I’m certain you’ll see something shipped by the end of the next business day.

Since we value you as our customer, I would like to offer you 2 extra e-coupons good for free movie/discounted game rentals. Just click the link and print them which you may redeem at any participating Blockbuster store. You can expect a separate e-mail within 24-48 hours. We recommend to please check your spam or junk folder as well.

We appreciate your patience and understanding.

Should you have further questions, please let me know.

So I emailed back saying that it is ridiculous that I’m expected to constantly monitor my queue and their stupid system can’t just send me the first available movie form my queue. Here is what I got back:

I understand your concern about the movies availability and managing your queue. I also understand your inquiry about your e-coupons.

In line with our system enhancement that is currently on going, we really recommend that you keep more available titles on top and consistently monitor your queue. Once we are done with our upgrade, we will ship whatever “Available” titles eventhough it is not at the top of your selections.

In the meantime, we appreciate your patience and understanding while we work towards serving you better.

Your e-coupon was sent thru a separate e-mail. I suggest that you also check your spam or bulk folders. Some e-mail providers will not allow e-mails to your inbox unless you previously approve and set it up.

Should there be anything else, please let me know.

So now I have to keep on checking that the titles at the top of my queue are available or not and never get new releases from Blockbuster the day they release.

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1. S 1085 – Reuniting Families Act (4 sponsors)
GovTrack Link
OpenCongress Link
Vote this Up on Ideascale – Obamas official idea submission site
Relevant to Employment Based Immigration – Visa Recapture, Increase country quota to 10%

2. H.R. 2709 – Reuniting Families Act (58 Sponsors)
GovTrack Link
OpenCongress Link
Relevant to Employment Based Immigration – Visa Recapture, Increase country quota to 10%

3. H.R. 264 – Save America Comprehensive Immigration Act of 2009 (1 sponsor)
GovTrack Link
OpenCongress Link
Relevant to Employment Based Immigration – - GC for long term residents of US (5+ years and are not even subject to quota – the wording is unclear to me but it might just be that if you are in the country illegally for 5+ years, you are now legal), Aged out Children, Widow Penalty

4. H.R. 182 – Parents of Citizen Children (21 sponsors)
GovTrack Link
OpenCongress Link
Relevant to Employment Based Immigration – Will allow immigration judges to determine if alien parent of citizen child will be allowed to stay in US

5. H.R. 1791 – Staple Act (1 sponsor)
GovTrack Link
OpenCongress Link
Relevant to Employment Based Immigration – GC for folks with PhDs

6. H.R.1868 – Birthright Citizenship Act of 2009 (74 sponsors)
GovTrack Link
OpenCongress Link
Relevant to Employment Based Immigration – no citizenship for us born children of non-GC holders

7. S.887 – H-1B and L-1 Visa Reform Act of 2009 (2 sponsors)
GovTrack Link
OpenCongress Link
Relevant to Employment Based Immigration -
Bad: More stringent requirements for H1 employers – online ad for 30 days, negative impact on H1B/L1 contractors, stricter application review by DOL (marginally), new requirements for hiring at new company locations or at startups
Good: Fairer pay requirements, Employer punishment for abuse of H1B/L1 workers

Some notes about the above bills
1. and 2. were also introduced in the 110th session. 1. had only one sponsor and 2. had only 4 sponsors. This time they have 4, 58 sponsors respectively so the idea that something needs to be done is spreading.

The above thread was hidden because of the following posts:

So tell us exactly what the money is for. Be transparent. Give us quarterly or monthly reports on how the money is spent, how much is collected.

Something simple like:
1Q 2009
Carryover from before: ##,###
Total Collected: ##,###
Spent on Lobbyist for XYZ: #,###
Spent on Organizing XYZ: #,###
Spent on travel to meet REPs XYZ, ABC, QWE: #,###
Spent on the Website: ###
Total Remaining: ##,###

Then you can say.
Please donate. We need ##,### more for ABC, XYZ, ASD etc.

I can tell you this. I don’t trust anybody. So unless there is some transparency, there is no trust.

and

Originally Posted by gc_on_demand
If you need inforamtion regading account .. you can find online. If you need link to that site PM me . I think IV had concern that anti immigrants will see our financial strength and also none of non profit org out there puts there financial information online. ( I have none seen so far ).

http://indiapartners.org/about/financial.php
http://www.redcross.org/pubs/ – See 2008 – there is a financial report and tax returns
http://www.worldwildlife.org/who/fin…nfo/index.html
http://www.africare.org/aboutus/financial/index.php
http://www.scouting.org/About/Annual…tatements.aspx
http://www.voa.org/NewsPublications/…2/Default.aspx
http://www.good-sam.com/finances/information.asp
http://www.aclu.com/about/financiala…rts/index.html
http://www.numbersusa.org/forms/irs_form_990.pdf (even numbersusa publishes their numbers)

Actually there is not a single non-profit that does not post its financial info. Nobody would give them any money if they hid their financials. Every month I contibute part of my paycheck to Indiapartners. The University offers us a complete list of Charities that we can automatically contribute to and they not only have financial information they also need to show how much actually goes in charity work compared to overhead e.g. for Indiapartners you can see that 93% of their money goes toward actual charitable purposes.

If they did not do this, how would you know that they are not stealing your money?

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IV has been a great resource for me throughout my immigration process but lately there have been more and more pushes for donations. But when asked about financials or transparency, they just delete those posts. So I dug up their tax returns for the last couple of years and here they are

2006 Form 990
2007 Form 990

They also delete/hide all threads that ask for transparency or financials. They even delete threads that discuss relevant topis if someone asks for transparency in the thread. See my other post about this.

Also there are some dicrepancies between what they claim and what’s on the tax returns. For example they claim that they have hired Patton Boggs as a lobbyist but the tax returns show that payments were made to Quinn Gillespie. Also some of their budget items sound pretty suspicious like a 39,000 travel budget and a 27,000 advertising budget.

If I were contributing money to them, I’d seriously like to know whether the organization members are taking vacations with the travel budget or are they really doing something.

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