myJason.com

Jason's Blog

One of the best deals of the summer (so far) has been with the Overstock 30% cashback offer through Bing.com. This was valid on any item including the preorder of Starcraft 2. I personally missed out on ordering sc2, but had I been a few minutes earlier I would have likely purchased 2 or 3 copies (instead I ordered from dell.com. Bing hasn’t acknowledge the cashback yet). This ranks above the Napster screw-over I mentioned a few months back. Customers getting the Bing rejection emails have already received their items. What’s the plan now Overstock.com? I’ve been told this may in fact be illegal. If you want to save your image, make it right with your customers, and fast. Check out the slickdeals forum at http://slickdeals.net/forums/showthread.php?sduid=405472&t=2149148

Update 8/1/10: Overstock now pointing the finger at Bing for canceling the cashback. Bing points the finger at Overstock.

Slickdeals forum suggests returning items and/or issuing a chargeback with your credit card company.

http://www.overstock.com/Bing-Cashback-Rewards/481/blogpost

Finding great deals online is something many people enjoy doing. If you need convincing, just look at the popularity of websites such as slickdeals.net, dealnews.com and even pinchingyourpennies.com. Getting a great deal take patience, flexibility, time and perhaps a bit of luck. Yesterday slickdeals, passwird.com and many other deal websites posted a Napster.com promo code offering 60 free downloads and a year subscription to online streaming music. Within hours the promo code was pulled and emails sent out saying the account had been closed. Fine. It’s ok, we understand. Sometimes a promotion wasn’t supposed to be so popular, or your system didn’t have the code setup as a one time use coupon. We get it. I personally was ready to walk away and count myself out a few minutes of my time. Then today I get another email, this time with the subject in all caps: “FRAUDULENT NAPSTER PROMO CODE”. Wow, okay, that is interesting but why did I care? Then I start reading the message and it makes me feel like a fugitive. Seriously, I just found a great deal posted on slickdeals, I go through YOUR checkout, YOU hand me a receipt then you wait a bit and run after me like a SHOPLIFTER?!?! Wow. I won’t be back. You seriously treat your potential customers like this? Shame on you Napster. Shame on you.

On March 3, 2010, a private-use customer service promotional code, offering an annual Napster subscription that includes 60 MP3s, was illegally shared on multiple public websites. Because these subscriptions were created in a fraudulent manner, Napster expired these accounts, including the MP3 credits, at 9:30 PM the same day.

This code was neither made available via Napster.com  or any of its partners’ sites, nor was it promoted in any way by Napster or its partners. We encourage consumers to ensure the validity of a promotional code, for Napster or any other service or product, before attempting to redeem.

We apologize if this caused any disruption in service to any of our subscribers or visitors.  We believe Napster is the best value in digital music.  For as low as $5 per month, subscribers enjoy unlimited on-demand streaming music plus 5 song credits.  Go to www.napster.com to check it out.

Please do not reply to this email as the mailbox is not monitored.  To reach Napster Customer Support, please visit www.napster.com/support.

Ok Ok, settle down people. Here is my view on all of this. Facebook is nothing more than a place for those of you with over zealous personalities to wage the ME! ME! ME! war. I call it FaceButt!

Here is what I mean:
If you answer an absolute YES to any of the following, then you are part of the reason I’ve been avoiding joining facebook.

Do you insist on being the first person to tell as many people as possible about absolutely horrific news?
Do you insist on being the first person to tell everyone someone else’s great news?
Do you insist on broadcasting to everyone know how wonderful or how miserable your life is — All the time?
When someone is getting all the attention does it make your unbearably jealous?
You absolutely cannot stand to be the last person to hop on the popularity bandwagon?
You rarely hang out with people more intelligent than you are? You prefer those you can educate.
You avoid people that know more than you do about things you are interested in?
You are a leader or a follower but never a ‘walk the other way-er’
Most of the time you aren’t stepping back, thinking of others as if you were in their shoes?
Does it anger you when people are in your way? On the road? In grocery stores?
Does it anger you when other cars are going faster than you are?
Do you find obscene gore humorous? jk.
Is your car faster than most anyone else you know?
Is your truck lifted higher than half the other trucks?
Is your house bigger than half the block?
Do you hire a maid service because you are too good to clean your own house?
Anytime you buy something, it has to be the newest technology — no matter the cost?
You spend more money on clothes than all of your friends? For your dog.

Alright, you get the point. I’m not the type of person who wants to instantly jump on facebook to declare that Chris just had her baby. I don’t really want to know how someone is feeling now that they woke up. And I don’t need to feel stalked online by creepy predators from my past.

With all that out in the open, I think I’ll join facebook today — and here’s why.

My wife is really getting into Facebook. All my friends are into Facebook,  I’m curious what is so wonderful. Now that they are both in Saudi Arabia, Nathan and Camille are a million miles away.  Of course its a way to stay connected and read about what the rest of my family is up to. There are a lot of my family that doesn’t sign into google talk or msn messenger.  They seem to only use Facebook. Its possible they have been avoiding me — I guess we will find out.

So I’m giving it one week.

In one week we will see if it is really worth it. I’ll attempt to keep my thoughts documented here on myjason.com and hopefully integrate some facebook wordpress plugins.

Utah, the land of the free and the home of the LDS church. Don’t get me wrong, there are many nice people here and the scenery is wonderful. Unfortunately most people here are egocentric and they seem to enjoy constantly judging others and pridefully flaunting their successes. Nothing makes them feel better than to know they are above someone else. Everything everywhere is a competition. When someone doesn’t come out on top, they are always quick to give excuses as to why. Congradulatory remarks are often brimming with jelous malignity. It is quite depressing to just step back and watch how some people act.

People live as though they exclusively untouchable. They act like no one and nothing else in the world is as meaningful as they are. When they begin to feel insecure, that’s when they get nasty and are unable to resist the urge to attack. Its not safe to go out anymore simply because you may become a victim of roadrage or get scrutinized about why you don’t go to church (or didn’t go last week). You will get the most powerful stink-eye in public if you look or talk a certain way or you appear to be from a different class of society. Every set of eyes that lays upon your body is just tearing you apart limb-from-limb.If you could feel the pain, it would be everywhere and it would be unbearable.

Self esteem everywhere seems to be low. Everyone wonders around smelling of jealousy and ready to strike with anger stemming from general unhappiness. People are constantly faking how they really feel and refuse to be honest for the fear of further judgment from their peers. They are unable to be happy with themselves because all that mattered in their life is what other people think of them. Without peer-reviews, they have no self worth.

In my life I have found it is really hard to be friends with people who aren’t being completely honest about how they feel. It is like being friends with a rock. The best friends are those who won’t judge you in any way no matter what. They won’t judge you because of the house you live in, the car you drive (or how many you own), if you go to church or not (or which church), how much money you have, or your personal thoughts or opionions. Real friends are there to pick you up when you have a bad day, and they are able to because you are honest with them about your feelings and that you are indeed having a crappy day. It is a mutual relationship. If you cannot be honest with your best friend, they may as well be nobody. And nobody’s perfect.

I love my wife Mandy, both our families and my best friends Trevor and Michelle, Nate and Chris, Korban and Nessa, Nathan and Camile. Thanks you guys for not being like typical Utah people.

So today it really ticked me off when my wife’s laptop was all bogged down by yet another program. Apparently UVSC/UVU/UVSUCK decided to force her to download and install their McAfee Enterprise virus protection instead of the AVG one we have been using. Well even after installing, clean access wouldn’t let her through. So all of this for nothing! Now for the fun part, trying to uninstall McAfee. I went online and looked on the official support website for McAfee and found nothing. I opened up a support chat and was told they couldn’t help and to call some 800 number. WHY!?!? Sooo then I found a website with specific helpful instructions which I would like to share with you. After all, you are reading this post because you too are interested in removing McAfee. If I can help one person, it was worth my time. Props to THIS website for the info.

Uninstall McAfee ePO Agent (3.6) and McAfee VirusScan Enterprise 8.5i
For installations prior to Mar. 5 2007 for faculty and staff for XP

Note: First you will need to remove the ePO Agent, otherwise it will continue to try to install. Then you can add/remove the McAfee
 program. Ensure you have administrator privileges.

1. Right-click on the McAfee shield in the bottom right-hand corner of the screen (the tray).
2. Left-click to select 'VirusScan Console' from the list.
3. In the console highlight 'Access Protection'. Right-click and select 'Disable' to disable Access Protection.
4. Go to 'Start' then select 'Run' from the start menu.
5. In the text area type 'cmd'
6. A black MS-DOS prompt will appear.
7. Enter the drive letter of the appropriate installation (typically c:)
8. Enter the command 'cd\' to navigate to the root folder
9. Navigate to the McAfee Directory, typically C:\Program Files\Network Associates\Common Framework or 
C:\Program Files\McAfee\Common Framework You can follow the steps below.
10. Type 'cd Pro[tab]' where [tab] denotes hitting the tab key. You should see cd "Program Files". Continue to hit the tab key
 if this is not displayed.
11. Now type '\netw[tab]'. You should see cd "Program Files\Network Associates". Continue to hit the tab key if this is not displayed.
12. Now type '\Com[tab]'. You should see cd "Program Files\Network Associates\Common Framework". Continue to hit the tab key if this
 is not displayed.
13. Hit the enter key to change the directory.
14. Now that you are in the proper directory type the following command to uninstall the ePO agent: 'FrmInst.exe /forceuninstall'.
15. A pop-up should be displayed and give you the status of the uninstall.
16. You should see a message similar to 'setup completed successfully'. Click 'OK'
17. Go back to the start menu and select 'Control Panel'
18. From the control panel window select 'Add/Remove Programs'.
19. In the list select 'McAfee VirusScan Enterprise'. Click 'Remove' to begin the uninstall process
20. Once the uninstall completes, you should reboot the computer.