Category: Personal

I got a laugh out of this interview with Steve Wozniak.

The speculation is already raging about the next Harry Potter book. Myself, I can’t wait to get my hands on a copy that Saturday and read the whole darn thing start to finish.

Ther other day it returned. Yes, TD Ameritrade again appears to have leaked the e-mail address they have for me on file to spammers, resulting in such exciting pitches as below:

Did you get in on MBWC yesterday like we suggested?
If so I’m sure you Enjoyed the +25% gains!

Expect more Superb action in days to come from this Hot High Tech
company! A highly anticipated Profit Report is soon to be released and
send MBWC off the charts!

As with most small cap stocks,
you may need to call your broker directly.

Get in on this breakout winner early!

deal with this as it comes down We understood the political pressure that was brought to bear Benjamin Crump an attorney for Andersons parents was in Panama City with the family Tuesday and didnt immediately return APs call for comment
Video: Teen forced to the ground
Videotape of the incident showed Anderson being forced to the ground by various methods

Now TD Ameritrade in my mind has a serious issue. I use a unique e-mail address for EVERY company or group I deal with, and don’t share or overlap these e-mail addresses. This makes it very, very easy to identify who leaks my e-mail addresses, since the spam comes to an address that contains your company’s name.

The first time this happened, I was willing to consider the idea that the leak could have happened anywhere or could have been a conincidence. I changed the e-mail address.

The second time this happened, I suspected that the leak was on TD Ameritrade’s side and forwarded the spam. I received a promise to investigate and was told that it could have been multiple causes. However, I also exchanged communication with another TD Ameritrade client over the Internet who has had similar issues. The suspicion was strong, but I changed my e-mail address to something pretty much unguessable, a pseudo-random set of letters and numbers.

The third time this happened, which started within the past two weeks, I had had enough. I forwarded my complait on to the SEC’s Enforcement Division, which I do hope will contact me back. I don’t care so much about the spam as I do the fact that a company with which I do business is either sharing my e-mail address with these spammers or does not have adequate controls in place to prevent someone from gaining access to my personal information. If someone can gain unauthorized access to my e-mail address, what other information can they access?

Update: Another customer complains of the spam and the useless response of TD Ameritrade.

I was combing through today’s spam when a CNN/Money Ask the Expert article caught my eye. Usually I ignore them, given that they can often contain some pretty lousy advice, but the headline “When 401(k)s and IRAs are not enough” caught my eye.

My first reaction upon reading about Norm was “how much do you make that you can afford to max out your contributions to both investment options?” My second was, “what kind of life do you lead that you would want to?”

Not that I am all grasshoper and no ant, but if you’re saving that much in a regular job, you have to be missing out on some things in life. The saddest thing that could happen to Norm is that he never makes it to retirement. The idea of funding my retirement accounts to their max I find crazy only because there’s a fairly decent chance I won’t make it, and that I won’t really be able to enjoy it. If Norm is saving for retirement at the expense of the present, that’s just as much a shame as not saving for retirement.

Not that I want to eat there often, but I do find it irritating that Krispy Kreme has come to Tokyo before New Jersey.

I’m always searching for new movies, especially movies with a message or viewpoint or insight in to a world outside the standard Hollywood fare. To that end, I originally read about Singapore GaGa last year and wanted to have an opportunity to see it. Now that it’s been released on DVD, I’ve ordered a copy.

Update: It just arrived in the mail today!

So, I was looking back through some of my entries from the past few years. As expected, very few have any comments.

And then there are these gems.

“I Hate Steven Singer” – 13 comments & I’m the #1 result in Google for that phrase.

HP Software Sucks – 3 comments since the beginning of January & I’m the #2 result in Google for that phrase.

Lillian Pair – 3 comments since the beginning of January & I’m the #1 result in Google.

39:4-94.2B – 1 comment, but I’m the #2 result in Google.

I’ll have to finish this retrospective later, but who would have thought?

Go figure – Stephen Colbert’s prayer day is on my birthday.

The fraud/embezzlment case my uncle initiated is finally moving forward, with an indictment finally handed down last week.

On Wednesday, South Carolina U.S. Attorney Reginald I. Lloyd announced that a federal grand Jury in Charleston had returned a four-count indictment against Lillian Pair of Summerville, oncharges of wire fraud.
The indictment alleges that from February 2005 through March 2006, Pair, 41, made a series of fraudulent representations to induce investors to invest money in her company, Low Country Concrete, and then used the investors’ money for personal gain. The indictment alleges that the investors’ money was wired in interstate commerce from New Jersey to Charleston.
Pair faces a maximum penalty of $250,000 and/or 20 years in prison.
The case was investigated by agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.