The Traversalist

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Love is a very powerful human characteristic and one, which seems to make all the difference between a fulfilled life and an unfulfilled life. Love is therefore a very good thing and you should be glad that you are able to experience it. Many researchers and biologists believe that the release of chemicals in the brain which we interpret as love release these chemicals, which increase or boost our immune system and that is a very good thing for our long-term and short-term health.

It is also a very powerful thing to say that you love to go to work or you love to jog or you love that record or you love just about anything as what you are really saying is that those things cause the same or similar reaction of chemical releases in your body and brain; again all this is very good for you.

When some says that they hate something chemicals are also released some good and some bad. The bad ones are hurtful to your body, they deplete vitamins, cause stress, anxiety and hardship on the immune system. So, it goes without saying that love is better than hate and those who love more and hate less are much further ahead than those who live angry lives for bitter and revengeful or resentful reasons. I hope you will fully consider all this in 2006.

“Lance Winslow” – Online Think Tank forum board. If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; http://www.WorldThinkTank.net/wttbbs/

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Back in the days, when home was a cave stuck on the face of a
cliff.

Kids, babies, cubs, kittens or whatever you like to call the
offspring, all have one thing in common. They love to play. So I
think we can safely assume that caveman kids played. But with
what did they play with.

What amused the minds of our ancestor’s kids. When they were
lying around the fire after a hard day learning about staying
alive. We are still trying to work out the minor details of the
past lives of children of prehistory, but we can dream.

Anyway, were the first jigsaw puzzles just leaves that had been
ripped up into little pieces so the little ones could put them
back together. Was this a teaching aid so the kids could learn
which plants were safe to eat. We will possible never know but
it is good to ponder.

Back in prehistory, before houses and cars and TVs, video games
and all the modern gadgets that we have nowadays. What toys did
caveman kids play with, when daddy was out hunting the mighty
mammoth or giant sloth. And mommy was gathering vegetables and
herbs and grasses and whatever else they ate back then.

Anyway many artifacts have been dug up, mostly bone and rock
carving of people and wild animals. Beautiful carvings,
something to be really proud of. Don’t you think that maybe,
just maybe, it might have been made by a dotting daddy for his
little son.

In the future when future man digs up what we leave behind,
what conclusions will they come to. Looking at some of the
dinosaur toys available, would they conclude that these beasts
actually walked among the skyscrapers. In the 25th century if
you dug up an old car toy that hadn’t rusted away, how would you
explain it. Would you say it was some sort of God that we
worshiped, or was it a decorative item we used to show power. It
could have been a model of the king’s chariot. But do we stop to
think, that it may have been something for our kids to play
with. While we were out making more money to buy even more
things for our kids to play with.

We have war games with tiny toy soldiers and cowboy and Indian
sets. What is to stop the tiny carved human figures from
prehistory being toys to teach the kids the best way to hunt
down a mammoth or rhino or deer.

If we made some replica models of some of the artifacts, and
gave them to our kids to play with in the sand pit. We might see
them reenacting a mammoth hunt or chasing a wild deer into the
ground.

Some of the most valuable artifacts would suddenly be delegated
from God status to kid status.

I like to look at what we do now and them dream about what
could have happened in the caveman days.

Nowadays in any toyshop there is a shelf of toy plastic
animals. Anything we see in the wild or on the farm or in the
home is there in little packets.

Did the caveman kids also have collections of toys. Now, our
kids even have toy cavemen to play with, so what did caveman
kids play with.

I can remember **Fred Flintstone** on TV but did Pebbles and
BamBam have any toys. All I can remember is BamBam running
around with this big club. Now you can buy big air-filled clubs
and hammers that don’t hurt when they hit you on the head.

But back to reality, kids love to play and caveman kids would
also have played, but with what.

Toy bows and arrows and toy spears. Like kids today who love
anything to do with war. Would all the spear points belong to
daddy’s toolbox or would the smaller ones belong to the son.

They must have had something to play with, but with what. Maybe
in the future someone scratching around in a long forgotten cave
will unearth the **Barbie** prototype. Or the lovely bird carved
from a long dead mammoth tusk just might have been from mummy to
daughter. And not some elegantly carved offering to an unknown
God.

Article by copyright © Peter Legrove 2006, at
www.animalsdinosaursandbugs.com

**You have permission to reprint this article. Use it on your
website, in your ezine or newsletter. The only requirement is to
include the footnote at the base of the article.** Thank you
Peter Legrove

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Muscle cramps are temporary contractions of the muscles and they usually appear during physical effort. The sensation is similar to the one you have when you feel a strong, involuntary tightening of the muscle group that you can’t control any more. There are many causes which bring about cramps, but they happen most often because of insufficient warming up before training.

Good and correct warming up has two stages: the general one (cardio), for increasing the body temperature (running, cycling, etc.) and the specific one, during which the main joints and groups of muscles which will be involved in training are warmed up. It is enough not to give, from different reasons (rush, superficiality, ignorance), the necessary time or importance to one of these stages, and cramps can become a current phenomenon.

As important as warming up is the relaxation stage after the training. This has, like warming up, two stages: a dynamic one (aerobic) and a static one (stretching). It is meant to ‘calm down’ the body and to eliminate the muscular tension and the catabolic products resulted from the training. Lack of relaxation can slow down the process of recovery of the body, having often as result cramps during the next training and sometimes even during repose.

Cramps may also appear because of electrolytic misbalance, which can result from massively losing electrolytes through abundant perspiration. Recovering hydro-electrolytic balance is a priority and it can be realized through balanced and varied nourishment, rich in vegetables and fruit and completed periodically with nutritional supplements, poly-minerals and poly-vitamins.

When muscular cramps appear during training, the first thing you must do is stop the effort which produced the cramps. Massaging the affected zone is a good idea. This will intensify blood circulation in that group of muscles and will remove faster the catabolic products resulted from the training.

It is also the moment for light stretching, from which will benefit not only the affected zone, but also the antagonist muscles. This exercise is meant to put again in place the muscular fibers, in their usual alignment, contributing to the relaxation of the muscles, but also to elongating and making the muscular group affected by cramps more elastic.

Another benefic element could be a warm shower, which will contribute to bringing the tensed muscles back to normal through peripheral vascular dilatation.

Ignoring the cramps can have as a result more or less grave situations, from muscle tightening to muscular rupture. Besides the physical effects of the cramps, the sportsman can also be affected psychologically. He will not dare intensify the training any more, being frightened of these casual contractions. He can even become hypochondriac, suspecting any common muscle pain during effort or post-effort to be a symptom of cramps.

Experience in sport will provide the best prophylaxis for these situations, the practitioner being able to make the difference between the real situations and the false alarms, contributing, this way, to increasing the effectiveness of the training.

Isabel Curini is a fitness trainer and editor at http://www.healthfitnessworld.com HealthFitnessWorld.com – Health, Fitness, Body Building, Weight Loss, Nutrition – Articles and Resources.

HealthFitnessWorld.com is dedicated to providing high-quality, free advices, tips and resources on health, fitness, body building, supplements, nutrition, weight loss, beauty, massage, acne, medicine, depression, massage.

This article may be reprinted or published without the author’s consent as long as the “About” and “weblinks” are kept intact and active.

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Microsoft Business Solutions Great Plains has Project Accounting module where you can budget the project, assign it to customer contract and then log expenses, timesheets, inventory spending, and finally bill the customer against the project or contract. Microsoft Great Plains Project Accounting does excellent job, but there are cases when you need developer or MS SQL DB Admin touches.

• The first script transfers salesperson and sales territory from Customer master file to Project master table

update PA01101
set
SLPRSNID=b.SLPRSNID,
SALSTERR=b.SALSTERR
from
PA01101 a
join RM00101 b on a.CUSTNMBR=b.CUSTNMBR
where a.SLPRSNID<>b.SLPRSNID or a.SALSTERR<>b.SALSTERR

• The second scripts unlocks Project Accounting user, this rare and funny one – really hard to get it from Microsoft Business Solutions Tech Support site:

delete PA000001 where userid=’put user id here’

• The third script is really advanced one – it is for users trying to place billing address with contact info on the PA invoice form at the bottom section – address comes from Contract – not from the project

/*
Updates Primary Bill To Address Code for Billing invoice to be the one from Contract Master table,
instead of Primary Billing Address Code from Customer

*/

update PA13100 set PRBTADCD=c.PRBTADCD
from PA13100 a join PA13200 b on a.PADocnumber20=b.PADocnumber20 join
PA01201 c on b.PAPROJNUMBER=c.PAPROJNUMBER

/*
update PA13100 set PRBTADCD=c.PRBTADCD
from PA13100 a join PA13200 b on a.PADocnumber20=b.PADocnumber20 join
PA01101 c on b.PACONTNUMBER=c.PACONTNUMBER
*/
/*
Fill user defined 1 on the Billing HDR to contact person from the appropriate customer master address rec.
*/
update PA13100
set PAUD1 = left(b.CNTCPRSN,20)
from PA13100 a join RM00102 b on a.CUSTNMBR = b.CUSTNMBR and a.PRBTADCD = b.ADRSCODE

Good luck with customization and support, if you have issues or concerns – we are here to help! If you want us to do the job – give us a call 1-630-961-5918 or 1-866-528-0577! help@albaspectrum.com

Andrew is a Great Plains specialist in Alba Spectrum Technologies ( http://www.albaspectrum.com ) – USA nationwide Great Plains, Microsoft CRM customization company, serving clients in Mexico-city, Chicago, Houston, Atlanta, Phoenix, New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego, Miami, New Orleans, Toronto, Montreal and having locations in multiple states and internationally

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Creating a basic, functional work wardrobe is not complicated, but it takes a bit of planning. Depending on the job you do and the environment of your workplace, you need to make some very specific choices about your clothes.

You may be a white collar worker in a corporate office. If so, the company atmosphere will dictate your clothing choices. Working for a company with a casual atmosphere will let you opt for chinos, a few pairs of cords, and some sport shirts or tees, perhaps with a blazer or two and some great cardigans for cooler weather; add some stylish loafers to finish the look. You may still want a business suit or two and some ties in case you have business meetings, either in-house, or at another location, with clients.

A more formal office may require a selection of business suits for everyday wear. Look at your colleagues, and consider adopting aspects of the styles of the best-dressed ones. Better yet, look at your higher-ups and aim toward the style and quality of their daily wear. Whatever your clothing choices, opt for the best quality and best fit your can afford; even in a casual atmosphere, you need to be able to stand out and look professional.

If your job requires physical labor, you need clothing that is comfortable, affords freedom of movement, and is rugged enough to stand up to hard wear. Jeans may be appropriate, or rugged work pants, paired with jerseys or work shirts. Make sure if you work with machinery your clothing can’t get caught in any moving parts, and if necessary, wear steel-toed shoes. If you don’t need protective footwear, a few rugged pairs of athletic shoes with ankle support can see you through a long day on your feet. If you work outdoors, the right outerwear is essential, especially in cold weather – make sure it allows for easy movement, keeps you warm, and breathes to prevent build-up of moisture. Of course, plenty of socks and underwear are a necessity.

Don’t Forget Maintenance!

Don’t forget to factor in the time and expense involving in maintaining your wardrobe. If your work involves wearing business suits, you can choose wash and wear suits that can be thrown into a washer and dryer and come out fine; or you may choose natural fibers which require dry cleaning. Wash and wear suits are getting better looking all the time, but a distinctively styled wool suit has a unique look that can’t be equaled. Whether you go for easy care or the highest quality dry-cleanable suits, you need to have enough suits to last through your scheduled laundry days or to cover your dry cleaners’ schedule.

The same goes for work clothes; if you have laundry facilities at home you can maintain your clothes easily in your off hours; if not, you need enough of a wardrobe to last you between laundry days. Whether you’re white collar or blue collar, making the best impression, all the time, will make a lasting favorable impression on your boss.

Aldene Fredenburg is a freelance writer living in southwestern New Hampshire. She has written numerous articles for local and regional newspapers and for a number of Internet websites, including Tips and Topics. She expresses her opinions periodically on her blog, http://beyondagendas.blogspot.com She may be reached at amfredenburg@yahoo.com

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To gamble is to take a chance.

Looking at the odds it is most likely that when we gamble, we
lose. In fact, when we take that as a starting point – losing
that is – we are already one step closer to handing in our
money.

A lot of texts from the early 1900’s suggest that whatever
dominates our thoughts will be what manifests in our lives one
way or the other. In my experience there is a lot of thruth in
this, especially if our dominant thinking goes hand in hand with
strong emotions. Telling ourselves ‘we will win’ with a tight
knot in our stomach is a sure (warning) sign that we will
probably lose. While it may appear that we are focusing on
winning we are in fact emotionally bound by the fear of losing.
People who won lotteries in this frame of mind usually end up
losing all the money they won – and sometimes more.

So how can we use this to our advantage?

First of all, be grateful for what you already have right now.
Chances are it’s a lot more than most people on earth have. He
or she who succeeds in being truly grateful will live a much
happier life.

Then imagine what it would feel like to win this prize and or
what you would do with the money. Do this until it brings a
silly smile to your face. Does this guarantee you will win the
next draw you enter? No, of course not, but you will feel pretty
good anyway.

After this, when you wake up to the ‘real life’, ask yourself:
“What would a successful person with a lot of money do if he or
she was in my position?” If your answer is that he or she would
gamble within his or her means and thoroughly enjoy it as a game
and an adventure, do that! When it is more likely that this
person would first improve upon his or her current financial
position, do that.

In case you decide to play a game, take a chance or place a bet,
why not do it so as many people as possible benefit? Play a game
with good odds. Make sure that if you don’t win, a lot of others
do. Look for organizations that will spend part of the proceeds
on charity.

In case you do win (and you might start to win more if you
become more grateful for what you have now) why not spend 10% of
your winnings on a worthy cause as well?

After all, most machines run a little better with a little
grease!

Have fun!

Mark Luyk http://www.freewebs.com/one-in-five-chance

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America was in a depression. Seabiscuit the little horse that nobody
wanted, helped American’s believe in themselves.

Seabiscuit: The Long Shot That Captured America’s HeartBy: Shadow & Smokey

In the 1930’s the realities of the Great Depressiondrove deep into most men’s hearts. At the time the average American worker was earning about $500 a year. At least those who were fortunate to find work.

Times were hard, there was little to cheer about.Adolph Hitler was in the news and everyone knew trouble was brewing in the world.

Ten years of hardship had just passed, the hardesteconomic times in our history. Americans needed something…..something that they could relate to, something that theycould find hope in…..something that would givethem encouragement.

Encouragement….hope…..faith, that the little guycould pull out of this depression and make a go of it,that men who were formerly down and depressed could come from behind and make a decent life for himself and his family.

America found it’s hero in a rather unique form.

A horse named Seabiscuit.

He had short legs, asymmetrical knees that didn’t quite straighten all the way giving him a crouching stance and an odd, inefficient “eggbeater” gait that one writer likened to a duck waddle.

No one ever thought Seabiscuit would amount to much,his career had been noteworthy only in its appalling rigor.

Seabiscuit was a horse that no one really wanted.

Yet, he had something inside of him that was inherited from his grandfather, the immortal racehorse, Man O’ War. That something was a tenacity, a bull dog determination, a spirit of winning.

With that spirit and the determination and patienceof his owner, trainer and jockey, Seabiscuit began winning.

Seabiscuit was something that folks could relate to.Something that had been given little chance of eversucceeding, something that had a lot of problemsand adversity to overcome…..Seabiscuit was nowthe little guy who came from behind and beat the odds.

Seabiscuit gave people hope. Hope that they too couldcome from behind and win in life.

In 1937 Seabiscuit garnered more newspaper columnthan Hitler, Mussolini, Roosevelt, Churchill, or anyother public figure. He had won 10 major events, broken 5 track records and taken in the most winnings ofany race horse that year….yet he was not namedHorse of the Year.

An eastern black beauty that had won the Triple Crownnamed War Admiral was instead, picked as Horse of the Year.

But, Seabiscuit was rapidly becoming the heart throb of America. His owner, Charles Howard was a worthysalesman who knew how to “play the press” …America soon clamored for a match up.

On November 1, 1938 the two horses went head to headon a small race track that held just 16,000 seats.By race time there were 30,000 fans in the standsand another 10,000 in the infield. The rest ofAmerica virtually shut down to listen to the broadcast.Even President Roosevelt delayed a press conferenceto listen.

It was no contest. Seabiscuit hit the finish 4 fulllengths in front and had ran the race in near worldrecord time.

The little horse from nowhere, the little guy withthe wobbly gait, the horse nobody wanted, beat War Admiral,the big strong guy with all the right moves and withthe big money behind him…..Seabiscuit had become thelong shot that captured America’s hearts.

By the end of 1938, Seabiscuit had won 33 races, set 16 track records and equaled another. He was literally worth his weight in gold, having earned a world record $437,730, nearly 60 times his purchase price.

With the looming war in the papers, America nowhad something they could relate to, something thatgave them the hope and determination they neededto understand and know they could survive whateverwould soon come and know that they could come outof the Great Depression on top and victorious.

We all need something to believe in, we all can relate to the little guy who comes from behind, the onewho is forgotten and made fun of and who nobodyreally gives a chance to make it….the long shotthat overcomes and makes good.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Shadow & Smokey, the Horses at Pet Care Tips
Copyright ©

For more really cool information about Horses, check
out Shadow & Smokey’s Equine Health Care & Horsey Fun
Stuff site:
http://www.petcaretips.net/horse_care.html
And, see pictures of the horses, Shadow & Smokey there.

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Check 21 is the common name for the Check Clearing for the 21st Century Act. It’s new legislation that was recently passed by congress and made a law when signed by the President of the United States (remember “I’m just a bill” from Saturday morning cartoons). Check 21 basically streamlines the traditional check processing system by incorporating new electronic technology. This new system replaces an outdated check clearing system that banks and other financial institutions have used for many years. The advantage is the ability to cut the time it takes for a check to clear from days to hours.

The process to do this involves a pseudo or substitute check. Check 21 now allows banks to use this in place of original checks. The technique to make this a reality involves converting the information on the check into an electronic file, which is then sent to the maker’s financial institution for payment. This significantly speeds up the check clearing process from days to hours. The original check can even be destroyed because a substitute check can be made at any time during the process. This image can be used as a proof of payment just like an original check. In fact the checks look almost exactly like original checks except for a slightly reduced image of both the front and back of the original check.

You can expect to see a substitute check if the original check was converted to an electronic file during the payment process and the check turns out to be a bad check due to non-sufficient funds in the payee’s account. The bad check you receive will actually be the substitute check. You may also receive a substitute check if you request a copy of one of your own paid checks provided that check was converted to an electronic file during the payment process. Don’t worry the Check 21 law allows you to use the substitute check the same way as if it were the original check involved in the initial transaction or payment.

However, don’t expect a rapid rollout of electronic file conversion of checks right away. First financial establishments (such as banks and credit unions) or not required to change from paper to substitute checks due to the large upfront cost associated with investing in the equipment needed to comply with Check 21. Don’t worry though many financial institutions will gradually switch to the new system since it will save money over time on the transporting of checks, improve security and mitigate the loss associated with check fraud.

The consumers affected the most by this new change in check clearing will be those individuals that write a check one day and then attempt to transfer money into the account the next day or write a check a day earlier then they are paid via direct deposit. This method of floating money won’t be as easy to duplicate since in many cases electronic checks can clear in a little as 4 hours. So although some consumers may feel an initial wakeup call many will embrace the new act simply based on the fact that it should curtail the fraudulent activity currently seen in the financial industry.

Timothy Gorman is a successful Webmaster and publisher of Debt-Relief-Solutions.com. He provides more debt relief, consolidation and credit repair information that you can research in your pajamas on his website.

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Real marketing, business processes and service in cyberspace. Call this the best chance for anyone who can grab a computer to go online and start a business from home that is almost guaranteed to make millions.

From my perspective I wanted to provide a good service, at a good price, and make money working from home. I have been a road warrior and I have been an expert out there in the cruel business world. I have been in charge. I have seen a lot of greed, back-biting, out right sabotage, and a general apathy once people get to the level where they make enough money, have enough power, or can use enough people. Some reach the top level where they can have money, power and use people! It really is too bad that the world is like operating this way in many countries. I guess that is why it must have policing and rules.

The strangest part of this whole concept of getting rich while working from home is so far out of sync with what people should be doing that I find I must write something to tell people what I know and what is going on out there in the “byte” world!

There really are some people out there who want to share knowledge like I do, however, there are many more that find something that works and they go copy it, or create a derivative of the original, so they can scam the general population too. My personal research has come up with a figure of over 97 % of the “get your money too, like I did!” crowd are nothing but con artists.

It is like my mom said when I was fairly young and I traded a dime for a nickel because it was bigger “son, you can never take something at face value and believe it is a good deal when the guy giving you the deal is laughing all the way to the bank.” She was indeed a very smart person though she had little schooling and dropped out of school to support her family and let her sister finish school. She was smart enough to hold together a family with five children, a father who was worn out from the war (WWII) while working five and six days a week in a sewing factory. Not to mention she did all the cleaning, cooking and washing until my sisters were old enough to help her. Anyway the point is that she decided to make the family stay together and do what she could to help us know something about God…..and survive.

Now back to the scamming (not spamming) on the Internet. The scam is not new at all. It is just like the old westerns I watched on the babysitter (TV). A lot of the shows had some guy hawking “snake oil” that could cure any ailment and only cost a dime! The point is that everyone wants something to make them feel better and they want the value to boot!

The gist of it all is that I have something to pep you up, cure anything, and I can prove it. I have a witness. I have somebody who was afflicted but now is free from the demons of health and welfare. That is what they all want you to believe or swallow as it were. Point is there is no cure-all, do-all, or fix-all! The only way to do it right is to develop a plan and follow it. Get help when you need it. Find the expert on what ever piece you can’t handle properly!

I am going to make this a whole lot easier for you than it has been for me. You see I started out in the computer business and have come across just about everything in the past 35 years. I met the lady who discovered the term “bug” in the computer. It really was a moth. She also showed me what a nanosecond looked like when she gave me a length of wire that represented how far an electrical current would travel in a nanosecond! I actually programmed plug boards in the old accounting machines. I wrote in assembly language and macro level languages. I also wrote in a business language the lady helped develop call COBOL.

From the meager beginning I saw all the major changes. I saw IBM grow to have more in “unallocated reserves” than the revenue of all the other computer manufacturers put together! Everyone wanted more power and in IBM lingo it was called “more iron”. I had a sign
made up and put on my mainframe. It said succinctly “old blue”. I bought one of the first things called a PC. It was an IBM 5110 and it seemed almost like a dumb terminal. We wrote a few Fortran programs. The thing cost $7200 and I couldn’t get anyone to buy it a year later.

Well a year after that I was working on one “slick” PC. It was a Vector Graphics brand running an operating system called CPM. I programmed in a language called BASIC and really had a hard time with the concept of having to write my own “bubble” sorts to get data in a format that I could print grouped information on reports.

This guy came out with an Apple PC and Texas Instruments came out with one that was not really too good. Anyway, then another guy came out with this operating system called MS-DOS based on the original IBM 8080 and 8088 processor. The next few years were kind of tough for these folks. I even had a calculator that I could program and load tape strips of code to do things like calculate the present value of some asset.

Before I end up writing specifically on the history of computers let me just say I grew up with mainframes, minis, and PCs. I wrote in many languages and I even wrote in the forerunner of the internet browser, a language called MOSIAC.

I can tell you that the first Windows OS 3.0 was trash. Windows 3.11 however was the start of something big!

There are many, many writings on Microsoft so I won’t belabor the point except to say Radio Shack and Texas Instruments and Apple had the jump on the market usability. Their stock went through the roof and this Gates guy (Bill) started playing hard at making deals with manufacturers to put his software on the PCs they built so the general public could have a machine that worked when it was brought home and turned on the first time!

All this was to provide a perspective on where the links were and how we got to a point where the government came up with the idea of being able to communicate over the air with computers sort of like with telephones. ARPINET was born and it was not long before you could take most any PC, put a modem on it, reach some access point out there and from that point go almost anywhere to connect to a web address (URL) or a mail account.

I know I have digressed on computing history but I wanted to cover the background and some concepts before I got into what I want to provide you based on my experience in this field and the research I have done over the years into what makes sense out there on the internet. My big guide has been “what can I do that does not violate the rights of others or hurt others.” With that in mind I had immediate problems when I started looking into all the marketing gimmicks out there and the fact that many of them were copying each other and most were outright lies. I tried many of these before I learned how bad it was. Many just gave you a song and dance. Some tricked you into paying with little chance of getting a refund because they tied it to quotas.

Well I got pretty discouraged when I went to a group setting at our convention center and sat through this program on websites. The hawker was showing us the web, showing us how easy it would be to develop something much better than the yellow pages so that business owners would jump at the chance to pay us to get onto our directories. In fact they had a Mall that we could sell people on and get them into this virtual mall setting so shopping would be just like going to the physical place. Problem was there were only about five pages actually out there (me being smart and already into the net, I went and checked right away to see if they even had a real site!)
They had a real site but no tenants to speak of for a mall. That is when I got suspicious and tried to contact the person who sold me the site. I could not reach the guy so I called the convention center to find information on his company and what recourse I would have through the convention center that sponsored the event.

Bottom line was the center has no responsibility to check out the sellers, nor do they have insurance or recourse on what is sold within certain limits. They could restrict weapons and ammunition but were free to have con artists take people’s money! My particular recourse was to call my credit card company and try to stop payment. Smart guys that the cons are, the money was transferred immediately to another account and the guy I dealt with moved.

I pursued the credit card charge with the card company and got the charge dropped as I had not received any merchandise or service. They agreed and took the $400 in charges off my card. That was not the last larger dollar missed opportunity. I bid on a great laptop with eBay and went to bed as the auction was to end at 4:30 A.M. my time. The seller represented that they had some 24 of these educational, purchased, and loaded PCs that a school system decided not to use. They got them cheap because of the school purchase price. Anyway all were being offered in a Dutch auction.

When I got up the next morning I checked my eBay bids and WOW, I won this fully loaded Sony laptop for $1,000. I was really happy as I had recently reviewed the same model and I knew it was a great deal, not to mention that I won it for less than half the going price!

Unfortunate for me was the fact that this was a new seller, was from an Eastern European country and sent an email congratulating me on my win. You see there was a stipulation on the shipping and payment that instructions would be given to the winners on shipping and payment was through Western Union. I could pick the shipment method and they were including the laptop case in the deal. So I told them that I wanted Federal Express and went about getting Western Union to take my American Express cash advance for payment.

You see the con was probably an insider with eBay and the payment functions. They knew how to write up the auction and terms that enabled them to get the money and run. The Eastern European country turned out to be “Bucharest” and the cons were staying in a hotel across the street from Western Union. They went over to the office, collected what monies they could and skipped out!

In the interim I had tried to stop payment, had called eBay and had researched the fraud laws. All this was on Monday! It turns out that eBay was able to get a bulletin out for winners not to pay on the Auction based on my information and another eBay winner. So the con collected various amounts that came up to $89,100 for this fraudulent auction!

The national fraud service could only take the information for reference. They would not go after foreign parties. Their specialty was to go after fraud in the United States that affected many people! Happy ending for me anyway was that I convinced American Express that I received no benefit from the purchase and they took the charge off my account.

All of this was to show how easy it is to get taken. Your results are entirely up to you….it is your business after all! Just remember that you need technical assistance and you need common sense.

Click on this Real Marketing, Real Millions, Really Yours link to the web site of Marty Floyd.

© Copyright 2000. All rights reserved. Marty Floyd

Marty Floyd has over thirty years experience with private and public companies ranging from retail, catalog, mass retail, city, state, Navy, DOD, Engineering, Microsoft Partner and ecommerce. He holds an AS in MIS, a BS in Computer Information Systems, is Project Management Professional and IBM certified.

Marty has written many articles and information briefs on Project Management, Hazardous Substance Management and Reporting, Software Development Lifecycle Development, Software Development and Software Cost Estimation. Marty started his own retail and ecommerce businesses.

Marty has expertise in Software Integration, Business Processing Management, Software Deelopment Management, and General Management. Marty enjoys reading and writing for pleasure.

Marty retired from Federal Civil Service (early) to begin working as a consultant in systems analysis.

Marty lives in Chesapeake, Virginia since 1981 when he relocated from Charleston, South Carolina. He was the Director of MIS for Sam Solomon Company, Inc. until Service Merchandise Company merged with Sam Solomon in 1981. ©

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