SCAM ALERT: Dante Marketing, LLC

I just left the local bank with mom, who came in to file a charge dispute. Three of these charges came from a company in Florida called “Dante Marketing, LLC”. They go by various names, such as “IDProtect”, “IdentitySweep”, and other unknown names. It turns out that these people were charging my mom up the wazoo monthly for services she never ordered. After doing some research online, I found out my mom wasn’t the only victim. Several people reported online about how they were ripped off by this entity.

Mom was lucky, as the bank was able to get them to refund the charges, before she cancelled the check card they used to charge my mom. However, there are others out there who might have been ripped off. So be on the lookout for these people in your bank statements.

Live Spaces on life support (and other bad jokes)

Been a while since I posted from here and out into the world, but a quick update for those not in the know.

Family’s been doing fine for the most part, the sole exception being my brat of a nephew who came over to Texas seemingly to consume like a locust swarm… Suffice to say, it didn’t work out, and after he nearly got ran out of the county because of an altercation that got the law involved, he ran off to his mother’s place out of state.

Speaking of family issues, my mom celebrated her 1 year anniversary of my stepdad’s passing away back in August, crying for three days while holding his ashes. Shortly after he died back in 2009, mom found that she had breast cancer. Fortunately, it got caught in time and over the course of the past year, received chemotherapy and radiation.

I ended up taking a summer job this past summer at a local water park, which out here takes a lot out of you. On the plus side, I saved enough money to rent my textbooks for fall and buy myself a new BlackBerry(R) Curve 8530.

Right now, I’m in my usual state of post-Thanksgiving blah, further being compounded by being a publicly-closeted gay man (in an area that is decidedly

    not

a gay mecca) and a furry without a significant other. I’m planning out my tax refund to be received late Jan-early Feb 2011, of which I plan on building a new computer.

Finally, a quick note to all people catching my blog mirror on Windows Live, this will be the last post mirrored onto Windows Live Spaces, as Microsoft is closing it down and migrating everyone to WordPress.com hosted blogs. Since I self-host the main blog mirror and crosspost using WordPress and/or notify the mirrors and such on other services (LiveJournal, MySpace, Twitter, etc…) I have decided to just delete the Spaces crossposting plugin for WordPress off of the main blog mirror after this post and save my Windows Live Spaces blog mirror contents for offline consumption and possible upload, then delete the blog mirror. I apologize for any inconvenience caused.

-Biafra

My predictions for what will happen by 2015

Here are a list of various predictions I have for what will happen over the next five years:

  • Apple is forced to unlock the iPhone after the U.S. Supreme Court denies to hear its appeal of a lawsuit filed by the EFF.
  • iPhone OS is still not Flash enabled, however the suit requires Apple to fully open the source code of iPhone OS.
  • Mac OS X becomes legitimately available for PCs. InsanelyMac and InfiniteMac close down, as they have no purpose left.
  • Boot Camp for PCs is released open-source. GRUB becomes obsolete.
  • Mandriva, TurboLinux, openSUSE, and Fedora merge into one hyper-distribution of Linux.
  • Canonical takes over the Debian Project, merging the mainline and fork back together.
  • SEGA West further consolidates, closing down all US-based functions. All nine Community Managers engage in a fight to the death for the four openings left.
  • SCEA is shut down, its function effectively split between Europe and Japan.
  • Nintendo releases the successor to the Wii, which incorporates cloud-based gaming. It’s jokingly referred to as the “Skynet”.
  • Steam buys out SecureROM, and suppresses the once vaunted DRM mechanism to the delight of pirates everywhere.
  • The Pirate Bay wins their appeal. The MPAA succeed in appealing the appeal; by then, newly-elected Sweedish PM Richard Falkvinge issues a general pardon and/or amnesty, much to the chagrin of the other WIPO signatories.
  • Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act of 1998 is overturned in a overwhelming display of near-unanimity (the sole dissenter being his widow, Mary).
  • Defense Of Marriage Act is overturned in the US Supreme Court as 2 conservative justices are replaced with more liberal members, giving Republicans new reason for fear.
  • A constitutional amendment barring states from defining marriage by either law or State constitutional amendment is passed with overwhelming support from Middle America.
  • After the Mossad screws the pooch over an operation against the West, public opinion goes sharply against Likud. Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu is toppled as the people overhwhelmingly vote mainly Labor (the more conservative voters pulling for minority partner Kadima). The new Israeli government makes a seperate peace with the Mahmoud Abbas-led West Bank.
  • Benedict XVI dies. The ensuing Papal Conclave is deadlocked on his successor.
  • The Church of England votes to solemnize gay and lesbian marriages. Peter Akinola and the Global South primates leave the Anglican Communion in protest and form their own union.
  • Dissenting churches and dioceses are brought back into line in the Episcopal Church USA, the last act of outgoing Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori. Gene Robinson is elected Presiding Bishop.
  • Mass anarchy in the People’s Republic of China causes the Communists to open talks with the Dalai Lama.
  • Nationalists gain the upper hand in Northern Ireland, and in the ensuing plebiscite, vote to leave the United Kingdom and join the Republic of Ireland. Much work is credited to an accounting scandal in the DUP, and the work of future Taoiseach Gerry Adams from Sinn Féin.
  • The British cabinet is embroiled in sex scandals, 3 of whom are engaged in a love triangle. Five general elections later, no party is able to form a majority.
  • France elects their first Socialist president since Mitterand.
  • Silvio Berlusconi is toppled from power in another Romano Prodi led government, convicted, and sentenced to life inprisonment.
  • Greece forced to unban video games to get their financial house in order.
  • Hosni Mubarak voted out of office. Despite vowing to stay on, he reluctantly steps down after threats from the US, allowing Mohammed El-Baradei to become the first fairly elected President of Egypt.
  • Helen Zille becomes the first white President of South Africa since de Klerk, heading a coalition of Democratic Alliance and Congress of the People.
  • AOL shuts down all dialup services, followed swiftly by MSN, AT&T, Verizon, Earthlink, and Qwest
  • Houston Astros become the only MLB team to have never won a World Series, despite winning back-to-back National League Championships.
  • Houston Texans narrowly lose the Super Bowl the season before going 0-16 and tying the Detroit Lions record

Sports: The very rare, very evil vice.

Then again, when else but every four years can you watch Football, Bobsled, Basketball, Golf, Baseball, and Soccer, and all in the space of six months…

What the hell, I just needed to post something aside from Twitter updates here and on LJ and such…