Of Cold And Flu
Dec. 8th, 2009 02:45 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
plonqEven though it is on the wane, the H1N1 hysteria continues...
"You’ve been identified as a [our company] employee critical to maintaining our business in the event of a wide spread outbreak of influenza..."
Except that I have not.
The message goes on to outline how they will be holding special, mandatory town hall meetings for all of the critical management and specialist personal outlining their strategy of distributing Tamiflu® to those individuals in the event of a flu outbreak. The only reason I knew about the message is because a couple of the other managers in the office asked me why I hadn't been included in the distribution list, and one of them forwarded me the original message.
I'm not really upset about being excluded, in fact it's nice to know that I am not considered critical. I will bring this up the next time they try to turn down a vacation request because of an important project.
The traffic guy on the radio this morning launched into a rant about a subject that has been a sore point with me ever since I moved here. Every year when the temperatures begin to drop, the traffic lights around town start malfunctioning. Either they will get stuck red one direction and either green or yellow the other, or they will simply go dark for fifteen to thirty seconds at a time.
One would expect that since the city has been situated here for well over a century, somebody might have come up with a way to upgrade our traffic control system so that it does not fail every time the mercury drops, but it seems like every time we get into the double digits, the switches freeze. A large part of the problem is that some of the switch boxes that control the lights here have been in operation since the 1940s. That would also explain why they are constantly, woefully out of sync.
They are affected by the rain as well. Not like it ever rains here. Oh wait, it rains here all the time.
On another annoying front, we got a call from our bank's security department last night. Apparently my ATM card got caught by one of those skimmers that are rampant in this town. When I stopped at the bank today they couldn't tell me where it got scanned, or how long ago it happened. The girl at the bank said that it probably got skimmed months ago, and either the bank had finally got around to identifying my card as being potentially at risk since it was used in the same machine at the same time as others that had been used fraudulently, or somebody (probably in Quebec, since that's our resident criminal hotbed for card and phone fraud) had tried using my card and PIN and it had been flagged.
We keep pretty close tabs on all of our card activity, and we haven't seen anything that caught our attention, so I am thinking it is probably more like the former explanation. In any event, I have a new PIN, and a new card coming to me in the mail. It has the same number as my old card, but this is one of the new cards with the embedded security chip.
The tinfoil hat person in me wonders if this was just a ruse on the bank's part to foist one of their chipped cards on me. They are being pretty aggressive about trying to get those out there. Easier for the black hats in government to track you with one of those.
Or it might just be a case where I need to start paying cash for my porn.
"You’ve been identified as a [our company] employee critical to maintaining our business in the event of a wide spread outbreak of influenza..."
Except that I have not.
The message goes on to outline how they will be holding special, mandatory town hall meetings for all of the critical management and specialist personal outlining their strategy of distributing Tamiflu® to those individuals in the event of a flu outbreak. The only reason I knew about the message is because a couple of the other managers in the office asked me why I hadn't been included in the distribution list, and one of them forwarded me the original message.
I'm not really upset about being excluded, in fact it's nice to know that I am not considered critical. I will bring this up the next time they try to turn down a vacation request because of an important project.
The traffic guy on the radio this morning launched into a rant about a subject that has been a sore point with me ever since I moved here. Every year when the temperatures begin to drop, the traffic lights around town start malfunctioning. Either they will get stuck red one direction and either green or yellow the other, or they will simply go dark for fifteen to thirty seconds at a time.
One would expect that since the city has been situated here for well over a century, somebody might have come up with a way to upgrade our traffic control system so that it does not fail every time the mercury drops, but it seems like every time we get into the double digits, the switches freeze. A large part of the problem is that some of the switch boxes that control the lights here have been in operation since the 1940s. That would also explain why they are constantly, woefully out of sync.
They are affected by the rain as well. Not like it ever rains here. Oh wait, it rains here all the time.
On another annoying front, we got a call from our bank's security department last night. Apparently my ATM card got caught by one of those skimmers that are rampant in this town. When I stopped at the bank today they couldn't tell me where it got scanned, or how long ago it happened. The girl at the bank said that it probably got skimmed months ago, and either the bank had finally got around to identifying my card as being potentially at risk since it was used in the same machine at the same time as others that had been used fraudulently, or somebody (probably in Quebec, since that's our resident criminal hotbed for card and phone fraud) had tried using my card and PIN and it had been flagged.
We keep pretty close tabs on all of our card activity, and we haven't seen anything that caught our attention, so I am thinking it is probably more like the former explanation. In any event, I have a new PIN, and a new card coming to me in the mail. It has the same number as my old card, but this is one of the new cards with the embedded security chip.
The tinfoil hat person in me wonders if this was just a ruse on the bank's part to foist one of their chipped cards on me. They are being pretty aggressive about trying to get those out there. Easier for the black hats in government to track you with one of those.
Or it might just be a case where I need to start paying cash for my porn.
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no subject
Date: 2009-12-08 10:09 pm (UTC)I have a few choice words for them!
Also, what's the point of that chip? Many places (if not most) don't have the scanner for them anyway. If I were a thief and I got a hold of someone's card information and PIN, I'd just go to a place that didn't have the scanner. It would barely slow me down.
And I'm sure it's just a matter of time before someone figures out how to reprogram a chip from home to completely circumvent the entire system.
Then again I'm super pessimistic.
no subject
Date: 2009-12-08 10:23 pm (UTC)Interestingly, a few months ago when I was trying to make a U.S. hotel reservation, they actually refused to make it on a chipped card. Thankfully I had a second card that hasn't been chipped yet and still has a way to go before expiring.
no subject
Date: 2009-12-08 11:23 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-12-09 02:08 am (UTC)But yeah, my Visa card has an RFID chip in it now. Come to think of it, I've already forgotten the PIN number they sent me, which arrived in a separate envelope. I think you're supposed to use your PIN in lieu of a signature, assuming the place you're buying from has the reading device.
I also heard that US passports might be getting an RFID chip in them too, but I haven't followed up on this to know if it's true.
no subject
Date: 2009-12-09 11:46 pm (UTC)Apparently, it was a full 3 days after their release before a security expert managed to crack it.
But yeah. RFID on a credit card.... that's just asking for trouble. Pickpocketing is SO 2008.
no subject
Date: 2009-12-09 01:41 am (UTC)ATM cards
Date: 2009-12-09 01:38 am (UTC)It's totally surprising the bank didn't try to talk you into one of those spiffy, sub-dermal implant thingies!
the mother-in-law
no subject
Date: 2009-12-09 03:50 am (UTC)So that's why they make those industrial-rated IC's!
Brrrrr....
...and the electronic equipment I'm currently designing has to start and run outdoors...in Sudbury Ontario...this coming February.
At least the only bugs I'll be worrying about will be in the software!