Doc Rat: Finally

Looks like Ben's going to make his move, after having discovered whatever it was he was so frantically and surreptitiously hunting for.

Go Ben!

Meanwhile, Kenneth has some real gaps in his Social Skills inventory. Like in the "clueless" and "tactless" departments. Sheesh.

Hope we get to find out what's going on, as well as Dani.

Kudos I - Outblaze

Every now and then you find a company that has a soul as well as a bottom line. I reported another Nigerian Spammer to the relevant ISP, and today got this back from Outblaze:

Thank you for contacting the outblaze.com abuse desk.

The account you reported is now terminated, along with today's quota of sundry other Nigerian generals, bankers, engineers, attorneys and relatives of dead dictators.

Outblaze is one of the largest providers of webmail services in the world. As a responsible ISP, we hate spam, and we do not allow our network to be abused by spammers.

There is only one thing that we hate more than spammers - 419 (nigerian) scam artists abusing our systems.

I love it. These guys get a huge thumbs up from me.

Kudos II - MTA Bridges and Tunnels

Back on May 20, 2009 I posted an open letter to the relevant authorities of New York about an unpleasant encounter with one of their toll booth agents. The hard copy was finally dispatched on August 16th. On 9/19/2009 I received a response indicating that my comments had been forwarded to the correct department for review. Today, the matter has been resolved. Brilliantly.

I received a letter from a Mr. Frank Pascual, director of the Special Projects Unit for the MTA Bridges and Tunnels Special Operations Division. His letter was forthright and professional, addressed my concerns instead of blowing them off, and assured me that steps had been taken to provide their personnel with additional training. You can't ask for better than that.

I was especially gratified to learn that:

1. Paying a toll for those behind is a common occurrence, in such events as weddings, funerals, etc. They do have a policy about accepting things to pass out, which I mentioned in my earlier post would not have been surprising, and I understand their policy completely. Despite this, I was given to understand that the agent handled the situation poorly, which was my feeling in the first place.
   
2. The officer involved made a bad judgment call about my automotive signage, ostensibly assuming that my car was illegally operating as a commercial vehicle - which are prohibited on the parkway.
   

The letter ended with a sincere apology and an expression that such incidents are not the standard that they expect from their personnel.

That is the New York that I grew up in, and that I still cherish - rough and gritty in spots, but with a good heart.

Abundant kudos to Mr. Pascual and his department - he'll also get a hard copy of this, or a reasonable facsimile, expressing my gratitude.