Chase Slate, Opt Out of unsolicited mailings

Alright, enough is enough. A few years back my bank was swallowed up by Chase and I had a five per cent cd there. I had missed a renewal/cancellation date after the five year period and had to leave this note another year at their terribly low interest rate or suffer a penalty greater than a year worth of interest. Okay, since taking the money out of and closing this account over a year ago I have been receiving their mailings offering me a balance transfer to their credit card account with regularity. So regular that it began to cause me grief at just the sight of seeing another solicitation in my mailbox. I have not tracked it to days but seems like twice a month I get one of these. I have been shredding these checks because you do not want them to fall into the wrong hands.
Now, today I decided to take the time to search the web on how to stop these Chase Slate mailings. I came across a link to their website with opt out steps. I saved the end screen shot showing the URL for you to see. The only problem I have with these opt outs is they are only good for five years. Whoever is responsible for that I would like to break their damn neck. When I opt out of something I want it permanent. I do not want to start getting this crap all over again and then have to struggle with wasting my time to have to figure out how to stop it again. There needs to be a law on the books that the perpetrators need to put the opt out link on their mailings or suffer great fines. This will be my next quest to find out who will write and push this through our halls of congress. Are you not outraged enough already like I am with this junk? You should be and you should be pitching in to help like I am. So, get off your duff and opt out now, with everything that you do not want. I will write more on this in the future. Now, get going.

Update: 9/14/2012 - Fri. - Received another mailing with 'balance transfer' checks. I know there are some of you that would love to get another chance to put off paying on debt but I am one who pays off any balances on anything at the end of the month or when billed. I think I paid enough to banks over my younger years and I do not want to pay them another cent if I can possibly help it. Other than mortgages of course. There is just no way out of paying monthly on a mortgage unless you happen to be handed a large sum of money for some strange reason or from some loved ones death. So, I have another Slate Chase J.P. Morgan mailing to shred again today. I have just about gotten my USPS mail weeded out of all the junk with the exception of the local crap that keeps coming. Update: 10/30/2012 - I may have missed updating this post a couple of weeks back now. But, yesterday I received another mailing with these balance transfer checks. In the shredder it goes. Screw you Chase Bank! UPdate: 1/4/2013 - Another mailing yesterday from these turdheads. I guess my opting out is not working. So much for that idea. What does it take? Into the shredder again with this junk. "Cardmember Information Enclosed' printed on the envelope. Yeah, sure, right. Like I have no idea what is in that envelope. I am not even a member. WTF? These banks are all alike. I have no account with Chase any longer so what is so damn important. Hah, important that they get my business back of course, but, that will never happen again. There are too many other banks that deserve my business now.Screw you again, Chase Bank for not respecting my wishes. Update - 1/10/2013 - another unsolicited Slate invitation today. Same wording, 'Cardmember Information Enclosed'. Into the shredder...

Update-01/10/2013 - have eliminted any profane or obscene wording from this post. Update-02/16/2013 - received another mailing of offer checks...shredder revisted today! Update-06/07/2013 - I know I have received at least two more mailings but I have not gotten around to posting the exact dates received. Probably not worth the time and trouble that I am doing this. I just shredded another mailing just now. I have been researching bank credit cards lately and it's looking more and more like the Bank of America Cash Back card is the way to go now with the money you can earn back into your account to be paid toward the balance. I just need to make the plunge and go after it I guess. 06/15/2013 - I have read the fine details on a Chase $200 cash offer to open a new bank account and have decided one and a half percent on my cash for six months is terrible. I can do lots better with real estate. Chasing after these little bits of money is not worth my time. Am still on the fence with the cash back card though. Still considering. Am also considering moving all of my credit union business to Chase. The credit union touts how much it benefits it's members but I really do not see any benefits and I have looked it over and over through the years. Hell, to get a mortgage on a house costs more than some banks I have applied with. I have tested this out twice now. Another Slate mailing received on 6/12/2013, into the shredder with it.

RNC and Tampa Bay

Are we lucky to have this convention in our fair city? Some would think so. Others possibly not. I for one do not know what to make of it all. One thing for certain though is there is a lot of preparations being made. With security at a heightened alert now it is going to be almost impossible to navigate downtown one would think. The police presence will be unbearable I feel and anyone stopped for a car search and who knows what else I wish you all the best. I cannot wait to hear read some of the stories that will come out of this next week. Many people are looking for how they can make money off of this event. Most citizens that are able will be offering their places up for rent and making a the most of it. For the visitors though there is plenty to see and do in Tampa. Bern's steakhouse will be a favorite I can bet. The locals will be sure to offer suggestions to the best of the best that Tampa has to offer. So, if you are reading this just ask anyone and you will get a kind response to your question. I have watched Tampa grow from a small town starting back in 1963 when I moved here as a young boy. I played on the interstate when it was being built as it was right in my back yard when I was in grade school. Those were happy days. I never thought I would see the congestion of traffic and people that we have here today. Of course I saw animations and cartoons depicting our cities of the future jamming to a cluster and everything coming to a sudden halt. Hopefully I will never see that happen. Other than the negative side of things there is a lot still to be hopeful and smiling about. So, let us enjoy while we can. Come to Tampa and you may never want to leave.

Phone Companies Losing Broadband Subscribers

Having just read a news article online about this headline leads me to post my opinion on this. Do a search on Google for the article or articles on this today. Yahoo Finance is where I read this story. Here are some facts that are not pointed out in the article. Some areas of the country and maybe your neighborhood do not have FIOS fiber to your home. You are only able to get DSL High Speed internet over the phone company land line or copper lines. Or, the other option is maybe you have a second choice and that is cable. A cable modem then would be the wiser choice as it is faster than DSL High Speed over copper. I know this much from experience. I have had all three and now am using the not the fastest, but fine with me, Verizon FIOS 35/35 connection and I am happily satified with that for now. I do not download or stream movies to watch on my computer monitor. I am sure I would not have any trouble though with my current connection Other than all that I am sure your budget will most likely dictate to you what you will be willing to afford. As far as a monopoly goes I would have to say that if the phone companys and the cable companys would allow each other to offer the others services I would venture to say it would not make much difference in the dollar grabbing landscape. The problem is though it is mostly a one way street and the advantage is for the cable company as the cable company cannot offer the FIOS speeds over their cable system. So, the phone companys would be disadvantaged to say the least. These headline grabbing news articles do not go far enough to point out all the facts. Probably because they just do not have all the facts and do not understand fully what they are writing about. With this I end my diatribe today and wish you well in selecting the best internet connection that satisfies you best.

Headphones for All Occasions

Who does not have a set of headphones today? I had my first pair when I was in junior high school. I can still remember the gray plastic set with the large stereo phone plug. I had to be handy to be able to adapt the plug to fit a small connector in some devices back then. We had this old am/fm radio record player console that was really nice for the time back in the late 60's. It was wooden and had two large ten inch speakers, one on each side. I was able to install a 1/4 inch phone connector so that I could plug my headphones in and listen really well. I also installed a switch whereby I could turn off the speakers so that I could listen to my records with the headphones and not disturb anyone else in the room. I thought that was really cool at the time and I was quite proud of myself with that accomplishment. But, now every device comes with some type of connector and you can get an adapter to fit any headphones. Some headphones packages come with the different connectors. Currently I have a nice set of regular stereo headphones made by Koss. I also have a set that are bluetooth that I use for the tv when everyone in the house is asleep and I cannot sleep. I like being able to get up and go get something in the kitchen and even be able to go to the bathroon and I can still hear the audio with never any interference or break up in the sound. If you have been thinking of buying a set, now might be the time. Check out Amazon and their headphone month link above.

Time to Copy Video Files in my Stora 2tb NAS RAID

This is a test that I have been wanting to do since gettting the Stora NAS backup device. In selecting 109 AVCHD .MTS type video files that added up to 15.6gb, the estimate window showed 50 minutes to do the copy. This was a copy from a folder in Z:\MyVideos/ to a folder in Y:\FamilyLibrary/FamilyVideos. Having read the Stora manual several times the understanding is that the Z:\MyLibrary/ folder is for you own backups, you the user logged in at the time. The Y:\FamilyLibrary\ folder is for sharing on the network. I had turned on full sharing within my network in order that I can find and store, backup or copy and file to anywhere on the network. It works out well for me I have found. Okay, the results are that the 50 estimated minutes actually clocked in at only 33 minutes using the stopwatch on my smartphone. I am okay with the fact that file copying is not a fast thing and you have to take breaks and check back often for large copy jobs. I want to keep things organized on the Stora. My only concern is duplication of these files. I will come up with another organization scheme as my mind is coming up with a solution as I type this. Little by little, things get done. Now, go look at the specs on these NAS devices made by Netgear by clicking on the Amazon links below. Now is the time to get into backing up your files and especially your photos if you are not doing so now. The sooner the better or someone will be telling you, 'I told you so' or, 'You should have been backing up your photos.' Take a look at all of the NAS RAID devices offered. So many it will confuse you. It took me quite a long time to decide on the Netgear Stora. BestBuy has offered it off the shelf back then also, probably still do. But, you can get the same price or better right here on Amazon. Take a look. Netgear Stora NAS RAID

My Next Upgrade, RNDP400U, Netgear ReadyNAS 4 bay

To note the exact model I want to add to my network here now. The reasons are many for this particular model. If you click on the ad link below for the ultra box you can read all about the specs and what this box offers. Yes, it is pricey but I think it will be worth the investment and it should last for many years. I believe this model also offers a three year guarantee or warranty. A couple of features to note is the dual ethernet ports. It is almost like doubling your speed. A dual core processor. And, it will backup your Tivo video recordings. I am still using a Tivo model II that is over ten years old now and still running. I cannot say enough about Tivo. That is another post for another day. If you have been following my posts about a network attached storage backup system and are considering one, do take your time and look at all that Netgear has to offer. My suggestion to anyone just getting into this would be to get the lower end consumer model, the Stora, to get familiar with using a NAS backup before diving into a higher priced model.

Netgear READY NAS Stora 2tb upgrade completed

I have been lacking in my posting for over a month now. My how the time does fly. This post is to update the fact that the Netgear Stora upgrade from 1tb to 2tb RAID was completed without a problem. It was so easy. Just pop out the two 1tb drives and slide in the new 2tb drives. Power up and let it format and configure for use. The circuitry or rom chip remembered my settings so I did not have to configure the setup from scratch again. Within minutes the Stora was ready for use again. Something new I did also was to plug in my external BlacX doc with the 1tb drive into the USB port on the Stora to see how that worked. It worked perfectly. I was able to copy the data and files back to the Stora from where it originally came. And the BlacX external drive showed up as another device in the network just like before but now was copying directly to the Stora instead of going through the computer. I then began to drag and drop one folder at a time from the external drive to the Stora. I would walk into the office and drag over the video photo. Let that take time to finish. Then walk in and drag over the photos folder and let that complete. In a short time I had all of my files and folders copied back safe and sound to the Stora. Now it is just a matter of doing some clean up work to get rid of some of the oldest and useless files I had put on the Stora when I first set it up and was trying it out. I am still imagining some day when I have four drives in a rack type shelf mounted underneath the top shelf of my computer desk. The four drive bays would be divided up into two RAID backups. Sort of a double backup system. I can imagine all sorts of possibilities for backup expansion in the future. In the short term I am thinking of buying another Stora or one of the newer models I had selected when I was browsing the Netgear website about a month ago. I forget the model number at the moment but I am sure I will write about it one day in the future. It is a four drive bay model that caught my attention. It might make sense to get a duplicate of the Stora though just to have around in case my original Stora fails. You never think too much of the box itself failing, just the drives but hey, stuff happens. One other thing, can you believe Amazon sent me an email last month when I made my first post about this Netgear Stora, thanking me for including the NAS into the description. They had not done that and saw where it was part of what actually describes the product. I thought that was really cool. Hey, NAS is network attached storage, in case you did not know.