Subj : deaf and dumb
To   : Charles Pierson
From : August Abolins
Date : Tue Jan 26 2021 22:33:00

Hello Charles!

** On Tuesday 26.01.21 - 09:08, Charles Pierson wrote to August Abolins:

 AA>> ..Since I can't just grab a pile of my book stock and
 AA>> trade that for food, drugs or booze, he probably realized
 AA>> the same thing.
 AA>>

 CP> Much to my wife's displeasure, I'm sure, I'd likely be
 CP> willing to operate on a barter system if books for food.

What I find disconcerting is that the gov't taxes me on stock as  
if it has value, yet I can't use that stock and buy anything  
with it.  :/

I get crazy people who bring in their used books and point out  
specific ones are "brand new", and expect me to therefore pay  
them full retail price.  Sheesh.


 AA>> I am not necessarily willing per se.  I would not be
 AA>> comfortable to involve the police.  I have the local
 AA>> police emergency number plastered on my cash register so
 AA>> it's nice and handy. But it has not been necessary for all
 AA>> the years that I've operated.

 CP> Why is that? I mean your not being comfortable with
 CP> involving the poluce?

I don't like the idea that I would need to get the police  
involved.  I wouldn't like to deal with the drama.

I had an incident of vandalism a few years ago. I reported it to  
the landlord first. They inturn reported it to the police.  
Apparently it was serious enough to report to the police. But my  
first thought was not to bother with the police.

This winter, I decorated the outside of my shop with a couple of  
seasonal potted decorations. I paid a local artist about $50  
each. One morning, I found one of them missing.  I could have  
taken those piece in every night (but they were heavy), so I  
left them as is each night. It wasn't a problem for over a  
month. But then, some punk decides to help themselves to one of  
them.  I didn't bother reporting that either.

Prior to that, it was known that some punk was going around town  
and turning off the propane tanks of the businesses. But I  
didn't know that until I spoke to the propane company.

If the reporting is to be effective, it needs to be reciprocal.   
In otherwords, it there is reason to suspect that someone is  
going around town vandalizing things, then the store owners  
should be notified by the police.  But that doesn't happen.  We  
may only read about certain events a week later in the  
newspaper.


 AA>> The phone companies claim that spoofing is necessary to
 AA>> support the callfowarding and re-direction features they
 AA>> sell.

 CP> I highly doubt that. More lijely they just don't want to
 CP> spend more money on a bit of additional code to fix the
 CP> problem.

I read into this matter some time ago, and it turns out that  
their excuse is that different countries have different  
equipment and it is therefore hard to unify everyone on a single  
stategy or "code" to fix the problem.

But I also read that allowing such calls to come through is a  
money maker. The receiving country has a billing mechanism to  
charge the calling country.  So, why would the receiving country  
deny *any* calls when there is opportunity to collect calling  
fees. Blocking all those spoofing and spammng calls would be a  
big loss of revenue.


 CP> So now you have the problem of people calling back those
 CP> spoofed numbers to complain instead giving some sweet old
 CP> lady an earful.

Not sure what you mean by that.


 AA>> I think people respect (or fear) people who are fit,
 AA>> poised, and limber more than those that are not.

 CP> Probably, Although at 6.5 feet tall or so, I have been told
 CP> I tend to look intimidating even though I am thin.

Height is another plus factor.  There is probably less chance  
that any punk will want to mess with someone who towers over  
them.

--
  ../|ug

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