Scams

For a while I have been using ZoneEdit as my DNS hosting service for name resolution. To those of you who have no idea what DNS is all about here is a very short intro: DNS (domain name system) is a Yellow Book of the internet – it matches names (such as www.google.com) to internet addresses such as (8.8.8.8) . Without DNS we would have no user friendly names for websites sites.

So, this perform this basic but very important function I have been using ZoneEdit – a company providing reliable DNS service. However a while back it announced that they have been acquired by DynDNS ( a competitor providing paid services) and will be moving to paid services for majority of its users. You see, DynDNS with their ridiculous prices could not grow while companies like ZoneEdit provided the same quality of service for free. So to remove the threat – they started buying them one by one.

We own two small dogs and as a result have to visit pet stores in the area in order to stock up on pet food, toys and other items.

A few days ago I've stopped by to get some food for the upcoming week and was asked at the checkout if I wanted to contribute $.99 for their adoption program. Now, just like many other people, I consider pet adoption programs extremely important and helpful as otherwise many of these wonderful creatures would be put down. So of course I've agreed to contribute this small amount to the "Adoption program". I've paid for the food and was about to step out of the store, but before I did so, I've asked the teller a question - "What is your pet adoption program and how is the money spent?". The response shocked me. The money donated to Petco for their "Adoption program" pays for one tennis ball that is given to people who adopt a dog or cat through Petco. You see, you don't actually contribute money to pay to get them out of a shelter, for veterinarian to check them out, to get the shoots, to get anti-flea treatment, to buy food for homeless animals or to keep them in the shelters just a bit longer before they are put down. You are buying a tennis ball from Petco and that's how your money is spent. Not only does the Petco make money by helping people adopt animals simply so they now become customers and buy food, toys, accessories, etc, but they also use the claim of having Animal Adoption program to sell you tennis balls.

I found this very disturbing and needless to say, I won't contribute to their program any more. Instead the money will be given to a no-kill shelter or Humane Society to be used for animal medical services.

If you had WaMu checking account and since had your account converted to one of the Chase checking accounts, you may want to know the following rules that Chase will apply to any and all of your accounts. Some of these rules are strange, others are simply ridiculous:

 -    Unless you sign a paper releasing the bank of any liability in case you are robbed or assaulted when you withdraw large amount of money (cash) you can’t get your money. The issue is twofold:

     a) You can’t get YOUR money, unless you release all liability the bank may have. While this doesn’t sound like a big deal, read the point “B” and see why it actually matters.

     b) Imagine a scenario where a bank employee learns about you taking a large sum of money from your account and then tipping off local thugs…If during the investigation you learn that someone at the bank was involved – you can’t sue the bank for poor security, lack of employee background checks, or any other reason.

We get a lot of junk mail almost daily. Most of it is coupons, advertisments, free catalogs, free news papers - just the regular junk we americans receive every day. While i dislike all this unwanted mail, I usually tolerate it by putting all of it into a bin for recyclabale materials. However one mail card has caught my attention - at a glance, it appeared that we were being notified that we are due for our regular AC and heating maintenance tune-up. The "Service reminder" did say that we are DUE. However, we just had our system installed half a year ago by my father, so I knew very well that we were not due for any service.