Aphorism of the Day

"Nothing good ever came out of ripping a drinking hole in the lid of your coffee"

-JR

New Jimmy Raney video

from 1987 on "Autumn Leaves". check out the master!
Jimmy Raney plays Autumn Leaves

Women's Razors

I try to get the best mid-level razors I can buy and not re-use them more than let's say 7-10x (although I don't count frankly. I just stop when it stops removing hairs and hurting more). The shaves I get are ok not great and obviously get worse on re-use. The premium razors, Mach III, and other blade cartridge replacement types (you know the ones on TV commercials - aerodynamically designed and spawned from the sweat and toil of our greatest, sternest engineering minds under the hottest lamps) are much better, but just a bit too expensive on a continuing basis to warrant the cost. On the other hand, buying Good News razors or worse BIC disposable razors on the cheap...well you might as well take a butter knife to your face.

I sometimes run out of razors and am stuck with few options in the morning. So recently I crossed over the gender dividing line in the bathroom (you know- the one with the loofah, pumice rock and more expensive shampoos and conditioners?)and tried a pink and white deal on my rather tough beard. As it turned out, it was one of the best shaves I ever got. It was a Venus razor. I suddenly felt a communion and common bond of intimacy with Jennifer Lopez. Her legs to my face. Generally, the way the razor drags against the face just feels tighter and more effective. I don't have to retread over the same spot.

I suddenly mused, what exactly constitutes a woman's razor? The angle? Blade sharpness? Or do they just fashion George's razor in girly colors and call it a Jane? Maybe a product specialist could tell me. But given that the shave is seemingly superior and cheaper - if there is a difference - why bother? Or is this simply marketing, where cheaper men's razors are intentionally designed like crap so men feel the need to save themselves by buying these expensive razors that require scientific video commercials zooming in on the single beard hair?

Makes you go hmmm...
Not exactly the stuff of conspiracy theory novels but interesting nonetheless. What do you think?

Follow up: DH gate resolved

Well I guess there are some decent people out there. The DHGate rep, Blunyi wrote me back apologized and they refunded my money. Was expecting more of a fight

I suppose now I have to deal with the real crooks, HP who sold me a motherboard that crapped out in 13months and want 3x the money I almost lost at DHgate.

Onward and upward and all that stuff...

DHGate: Worst Online seller

I made the mistake of buying on the cheap (a motherboard for HP Slimline) from this online buying site from China. Avoid them like the plague.

These people have no customer service standards, irresponsible sellers, and zero oversight. Their CEO, Diane Wang must be asleep at the wheel because the Internet is just littered with complaints on forums and entries of the company into fraud complaint sites. My fault for not seeing that though. Oh well. I was too willing to take a risk and got scammed.

I bought a defective item, the seller reluctantly promised to replace. When I returned via a method that wasn't the standard courier with tracking (i.e. UPS, Fedex, etc)he had an out because I couldn't prove without a signature. Even though I showed USPS delivery to China plus customs stamp. He stopped responding to emails completely after doing so regularly and also chats (where originally I had snagged his attention to give me a return address).

Other stuff. Their system disables complaint recourse after a certain period. Which is ridiculous being the international seller they are - knowing full well that many sellers use the cheapest slowest methods available.

Customer service has no 48 hr standard. They took a week to respond and it was a boilerplate response at that. They claimed they would follow up. They didn't after several requests and week-late continued boilerplate responses. There was some dispute dept that I sent my evidence to. They responded after 3 weeks about being so sorry about my experience and saying they would investigate. They intitiated I believe after I threatened to write to the president. Then did no follow up with me. That was a month ago. It's just astounding. What can you say when you've been had. Shame on them, but shame on me for ignoring the red flags. And my case is minor compared to others.

Anybody having a direct contact email or address for CEO Wang let me know. May work up the energy for one of my "letters to the president". I have had some success in the past with some major corporate entities. Shaming them into paying attention. We'll see.

Loss of Innocence (Inner Sense?)

when in a man's life

is innocence lost

expecting everything

and fearing nothing

the touch of a hand

making him drunk

making him blind

to all else

but the woman

who is the sole planet

in his universe



Copyright © Jon Raney, 2011

Dr. Ron Daulton's Heal Your Bulging Disc: (A Reader Response)

I've sort of been waiting for this, given (as I have stated previously) to not having used the program ultimately.

I received a comment from a user with her own issue who was pointed to this:

My dentist told me he wasin agony day and night. He was in 24/7 pain, and he was scheduled for surgery. Some one directed him to the book below. He religiously followed the exercises in this book, which many in the medical profession do, and cured himself in three months...

The book is called Healing Back Pain Naturally by DR. ART BROWNSTEIN

She will get back on whether the program worked for her.

Her doctors are not on the "ice" bandwagon either. (Don't Use Ice!!) Not sure if there are dangers but for them shouldn't do it. I have used ice because I had swelling of the arm due to my nerve issue. Ice was the only way to reduce the swelling. Now whether this doesn't apply to discs at all is matter for science and study. I suppose you can only use this rule of thumb: In his book, Daulton makes a disclaimer for the treatments. Doctors really cannot. They cannot afford to be wrong.

But here is another viewpoint that doesn't discount ice

I suppose there is a fine line between open scientific research" and quackery

PS: Please review my posts carefully before commenting. I can't "pre-screen" Daulton's product for you for reasons I have mentioned.

Herniated Disc Follow-Up and Dr. Ron Daulton, Jr.

I thought perhaps I should say a few things since over the year I have gotten several emails asking about the Ron Daulton, Jr. experience. Some actually wishing me to give them some type of preview about the program's contents and whether it was worth it etc. Given this creates issues over disclosure and copyright here's a couple of facts stated outright:

1- I don't know for certain if it's effective because I didn't end up following the program. I have not received any follow-up emails from anyone indicating they did and it worked or didn't work. So you have to make your own judgement about what that means.

2- The program has since increased in money to $100 (according to what I've heard)

3- Some people have had some negative customer service experiences. A few have comments here.

4- The charge for this type of program may be a tad high. But considering some of the aggressive alternatives $100 for non-surgical seems to me a risk you should be willing to burden. How often have you bought a product that didn't work? Non surgical options via the Internet -- via some book or program always cost something. I wish there was some resource to review all of them but unfortunately there isn't. Money back guarantees for products that can be copied redistributed and potentially resold are inherently difficult.

5- My cure was most likely the epidural and maybe cooling it with stressing activities (all types). It could've been also that this was a specific injury that got out of hand.

6- There is not a direct absolute causal relationship between arm pain, swelling and herniated disc in my opinion. There is only a likely association with them based on the physics and probably other factors. I was diagnosed with cervical herniated disc way prior to pain. How can that be. The physical process of the pain mechanism is very subtle. People that have herniation but no pain are not likely to get an MRI- they don't know they have it. There is also the possibility of trigger points and not disc or both. There are also theories that triggers and herniation are linked in some way.

7- Consider the Daulton book a resource. It lists as many of the available treatments within as possible. It doesn't say that any one thing does the trick. Only that you should throw as much at the problem as possible.

8- There are a few (to my knowledge)unique suggestions within the book that have to do with certain supplements/medicines, specific use of ice (not heat), a trampoline and a medicine ball. Again whether this is worth the price is entirely up to you. Please also note that some of these exercises may carry more risk depending on where you have herniation (cervical vs. lumbar)

9- There is cross-selling in the purchase process. I for one don't care for it

10- The failure rate for surgical options quoted by Daulton is not entirely based on medical documents that I have seen available. I asked Daulton about this and didn't get what I felt was a satisfactory answer (based on some journals that he's read that I don't have access to. date unknown). However it should be acknowledged that even with available evidence "success" is not clearly defined - (e.g. how long the benefit lasted, whether follow-ups surgeries happened). Based on anecdotal evidence from people that have written me, there does appear to be long term benefits from surgery for some.

11- The cervical disc removal surgical process is life changing and frightening. This involves losing flexibility and putting a bone graft in your neck and potential further complications. Only consider this when there is no alternative after unsuccessful treatment over at least a year. In my view the body can heal miraculously provided you have the luxury of keeping an income and taking an extended leave where you can stop causing injury to yourself.

12- An epidural apparently has disc resorption possibilities for some patients. This is not widely quoted. This essentially means that the herniation can draw back in somewhat and thereby not cause the "button pressing" on the nerve. I cannot prove that this happened because I didn't immediately have benefit, just eventually. Plus I stopped playing piano and made some ergonomic adjustments at work.

13- An epidural (according to the physician performing) does carry a risk of mental side effects. I had some but was taking Ambien as well which has known adverse psychological reactions for some. So I can't know for sure.

14- Similar to point 1. The lack of corroborating evidence outside of Daulton, Jr's site testimonials after all this time should cast a certain degree of doubt - just logically. Anybody who gets something out of a product- these days - can always be found quoting somewhere on message boards free of charge. My page is still consistently ranked high on Google search results and the original posting was some time ago. I haven't seen too many others outside of Daulton's own links.

15- Some people dismiss Daulton's authority on this subject due to his being a chiropractor not a physician or surgeon. Aside from the Alan/Charlie Harper "crock" hilarity of the condemnation, I think doctors have a diffucult road to hoe claiming complete authority on this issue as well. There is NO definitive medically sanctioned cure, only treatment plans that have some measure of success - or not- depending on the circumstance. Also keep in mind that some of the advice mentioned - for free on his page and in more detail in the books are part of many doctors' regimen of recommendations. Many doctors typically prescribe physical therapy and many don't discount chiropractic or accupuncture as a supplement to pre-surgical measures. Surgery is considered last resort because of the "no turning back aspect" of disc removal or replacement.

16- Dr. Daulton's book does not describe any "magic bullet" cure. This is a reiteration of point 7

The Battle Continues (Defeating Viruses)

Well, apparently I spoke too soon. :) I was joking with a co-worker whether I'd be targeted by a hacker as a result of my previous post. I can't prove it however it's some coincidence that over the weekend I was attacked by a more virulent Trojan that seemed to trump all of the steps I outlined in the previous post. This is the ysh.exe hack virus. I may upgrade my firewall to something that monitors my ports. I used to have Zone Alarm but it was pain in the ass. Now I may need that pain in the ass:) I almost feel like this is like fighting "the Borg" which learns a little more with each battle and makes it harder to defeat. The ysh.exe plant is designed to do these things in addition to what I described previously:

1. To transplant itself at the top of the list in terms of processes. So it's running when your computer boots up windows. You can't beat it to the punch with ctl alt del early.
2. It can run in safe mode. So you still can't run your anti-virus software
3. Looks for any type of antivirus launch or install and runs its malicious fake antivirus programs instead.
4. Effectively trumps Malwarebytes because it cannot be run
5. Renaming Malwarebytes exe or install file DOESN"T work. That is often a recommended procedure
6. The malicious programs are NOT located in convenient places with C:Windows or C:Temp as I mentioned in previous post.
7. Some malicious asshole.dll files referenced in start-up process (run: asshole.dll)cannot be deleted without a special tool.

The only way to find it is to be able to know all the registry keys and delete them. If you don't know what you're looking for it's pretty hard. There is only one reasonable solution that I found. It's a dos kill process designed by a programmer that kills the virus exe load. I'm not even going to list it here for fear that the hackers might design a workaround. After that kill process Malwarebytes was able to get the rest of it.

In terms of not paying for a monitoring program. I've changed my tune. It's too difficult to prevent the virus from working once it gets in. You need a realtime virus monitoring program (or real firewall) that prevents the drop of the trojan. Avira free version is not up to that task. I'm now using Malwarebytes real-time monitoring. At $25 it was well worth it. Apparently either I had a hacker on my tail or was not fully rid of the virus. I was treading out on the Internet and all of the sudden noticed my search page was redirected from Google to MonsterBargains which is the sign of the hack, then the java6 launch started happening. Malwarebytes caught the trojan drop attempt and killed it. whew. This was after I killed all the trojans with Malwarebytes previously. After this I researched my registry thoroughly and deleted every rogue key I could find. This is not a process for the faint of heart. I think I am effectively virus free.

Round 3 I guess.

Fighting Computer Viruses and Getting the Last Laugh

Over the years I've gained some experince in how to defeat some nasty computer viruses. Some virtually prevent you from using your run command and your antivirus software. The most recent ones I've seen transplant themselves on your system tray as antivirus programs. And they often can't be shut off with the task manager. They keep running and telling you your computer has a virus.

Here are some of the most useful programs I have found. I don't use the paid for antivirus programs (they're overpriced and often ineffective):

1. Hijack This - This basically is for detecting browswer hijack but it can also tell you about registry entries designed to run at startup (autoload programs), browser helpers, toolbars, and other things. Using the "fix this" process should be done with care. Look for (unknown) entries. Don't delete programs you are unsure of. I have been somewhat fearless with my hunches about suspicious programs and have not been burned. But I don't recommend this. There are also some free log analyzers out there that can make recommendations. Be aware though that in the case of browser hijack, they can often prevent you from navigating to the known hijackthis pages. You'll need to save the log to your thumb drive and try it on an uninfected computer at hijackthis log analyzer page.

2. Killbox - This has a very specific purpose. It deletes files that seem to keep growing back because the rogue program manages to exploit Windows to regenerate it. You have to know exactly what the file is and the path. It gives you some options for killing- delete on reboot, rename, standard kill etc.

3. Avira - IMO, the best free antivirus program available. Better than AVG and Avast! it generally detects viruses the others cannot. I've run tests with several programs present. Sometimes Avira cannot get rid of the virus and keeps redetecting it. But it at least gives you a clue about what and where it is.

4. Malwarebytes - This can find and delete many viruses that others cannot including (sometimes) Avira. Generally it can get rid of anything it finds. Full scan takes a long time so be patient, because it sometimes finds viruses way towards the end. But sometimes it can't find viruses and trojans. No program is perfect.

There are some 1 time applications and programs I have used called CC Cleaner and Spybot but generally the programs above in concert are generally enough to defeat the problem.

Some horse sense methods:

Sometimes you can beat the virus before it starts up. If you invoke the task manager early (ctl alt del) you sometimes can catch the program loading and stop it by looking at the PC activity. This can buy you time and ability to defeat the program before it defeats you. However be aware that it may not be listed there. This step can be helpful if the rogue program is designed to defeat the run: program: msconfig.

Make sure to disable your Internet connection. You don't want your computer connecting to the Internet if you have a real hijack happening that is communicating with your computer. Check your Tools/Internet Options Homepage. In particularly nasty cases it can be redirected to a specific IP. In extreme cases (after you have defeated the rogue processes), you may have to use "reset" on your browser to get it to navigate properly again.

Presuming the rogue program hasn't disabled it. The run commands, msconfig and regedit. msconfig can show you what programs are designed to run at startup. You can uncheck any suspicious entries in the startup panel. Look for wierd names that are unsigned. Regedit is direct registry edit. Most people would advise extreme caution with monkeying around with this. If possible back up the registry before changing anything there. You can find and delete an entry that was found by Antivirus programs or from your hijack this log.

Explorer/Search. As Windows O/S systems upgrade it seems like they let you see and find files less and less (don't get me started on Vista). If you're trying to find files in Temp or Windows (often places were rogue programs are hidden) but somehow the path doesn't show them after you navigate to my documents/all users etc then make sure your that your view/folders options is set to show hidden folders and files. Look for files that were created within the last week or few days. Or look for *.exe. If you know your activity you can often find programs that you didn't have a hand in downloading and delete them.

Be careful with deep searches on lesser known webpages. I often have found I get a quick virus attack just by navigating to a search result or someone's blog page that turns out to be fake(sometimes in a foreign language page that is translated). These places can be hornet's nests. A recent problem seems to be a Java 6 pop up exploit that transplants itsef in the registry processes immediately. This is often a prelude to the phony Antivirus transplant on your system tray. Deletion of this entry via Hijack this/fix this (look for the java6 entry) is usually enough to start the process of getting control of your computer back. It's not everything. you have to find the program it's referencing as well (usually somewhere in your .tmp internet or mydocuments/`/temp directory).

Make sure to get a good thumb drive. Sometimes you need to find programs on the Internet on another computer and load them on the infected computer with the Internet connection disabled. In worse case you have to use all of your available options and work quickly before the trojans take hold of your processes. I've literally restarted dozens of times and used each time as a learning process to figure out which programs to invoke. I ran into a trojan that disables some popular antivirus programs and hijack this. If you run in safe mode sometimes this can prevent the rogue program from running which may require full blown Windows to do it's dirty work.

Good luck! (you're gonna need it)

Good 'ol Snail Mail Issues

In the wake of all the telemarketing and Internet spam complaints we hear about lately, I think we've lost sight of one good old fashioned pain in the ass: junk mail. Lately I've been drowning in it.

Recently, Asurion (the phone insurance partner of T-Mobile) has ass-uredly crossed into the realm of the ultimate boneheaded company. Aside from the T-Mobile rep signing my daughter's phone up without her permission, Asurion has been stuffing our mailbox with a steady torrent of welcome letter packages. Not just 1 but 6-10 DAILY for over a month. I contacted them after the Thanksgiving holiday about this problem. After 3 transfers and redial to the ultimate responsible dept, I complained to a representative who assured me the problem would be fixed. It wasn't. With the holiday mailing season, Asurion's collective brainfart, our mail carrier's devil-may care delivery schedule (she's like Newman, she doesn't believe in creeds) and the recent snow problem, all my mail has been backed up. I'm now fortunate to receive all the backed up mail from December a day at a time. A few days ago I called and gave them an earful and they obviously knew about the problem and said the "glitch" was fixed just last week (that would be the first week of January). Given that I have received 6-10 pieces daily up until Dec 22. I may have as much as 6-10x6x2=72-120 pieces of mail coming before the paperworks shuts off. Fun.

Mailing lists. Remember them? They are much harder to prevent and get off of. Plus getting your post office not to deliver is a bit more involved then a click on your spam filter. By some inexplicable means, my wife has gotten on an expectant mother mailing list. (FYI - we are both about 50 with a college student daughter). It started with Babies-R-Us discount postcards. Then various mail with the baby-centric theme. Then Baby-Talk magazine. After the second came, I sent them an email to stop the unwanted magazines. I think the effort just initiated a form of junkmail virus cell division as we then started receiving American Baby magazine - 2 at a time. The next day, a UPS package of Similac formula. 2 16 oz jugs.

With all the fighting I have done over the years to fight & right dumbassed wrongs over customer service issues, I'm really losing my oomph for engaging in new mindless battles. I have enough to worry about.

What do you think?

*update Thu, 1/13/11 6pm.

8 Assurion letters received today. All dated Dec 13th

The letters



The pamphlets



So perty. Can't wait til tomorrow...