One of the questions that Bank of America uses to verify your identity for helping over the phone is 'Which branch did you open your account at?" But then, for some people, they have a trick answer. For some reason, B of A unilaterally changed that information for my account, and then expect me to give the false answer in order to access my account. They can't explain why it was changed, and are incapable of setting it back to a true answer. I argued this all the way up to the Office of the President, and nobody there would even acknowledge that it was a bad precedent for them to insist that a customer intentionally lie to them.

To make matters worse, their customer service claimed to be able to leave a note instructing agents not to ask that particular question. However, the note doesn't appear on their screen until AFTER they have asked their stupid questions.

P. Orin Zack

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Read my fictional account of corporate incarceration in the Business Short Stories section at http://klurgsheld.wordpress.com/

...every election that these machines have been used for in each of those 34 states. If the machines should not have passed certification, and yet they were certified (were they?) then the agency doing the certification ought to be brought up on charges as well, and any OTHER systems that they certified ought to be open to question as well. This could get you dizzy.

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Read my political short stories at http://klurgsheld.wordpress.com/

My wife is currently on contract to Microsoft, and works in a building right on NE 40th at the overpass, so I see that mess a lot. The Seattle Times had a map showing the proposed overpass. It connects a road inside of Microsoft Campus on one side of the highway to a road inside campus on the other side by making an angled crossing of Highway 520. According to the story, the road on the overpass will be two lanes, and the overpass will also have foot and bicycle lanes, as well as trees. Knowing Microsoft, the edges will probably be grassed between the trees, so it seem like you never leave their wooded maze of parking lots and connecting streets.

If the road was being built to take traffic from Redmond in general, it would probably be designed without the foliage and have only a sidewalk, like NE 40th. People don't drive through Microsoft as a shortcut, because it's not designed for that sort of traffic, so the only users of the new overpass will be people going between buildings within Microsoft. There are a lot of people working there, so being able to do this without exiting onto normal Redmond roads and crossing at NE 40th will reduce a lot of congestion on that road. The benefits touted for Redmond are a side-effect, and presented as they are for PR reasons. The design of the overpass is to look like it is a part of their campus. The direct benefits will be to Microsoft. I therefore agree that Microsoft should foot the entire bill.

Please note that this project is being brought to light fast on the heels of the 10% pay cuts that were forced on the a- contract employees, so seeing how much money Microsoft will be paying for this fancy overpass, while cutting the wages of people who make their products possible, is especially galling. (The contractors affected by this have started discussing strategy at a website created by one of them, http://www.msratecuts.org/.)

Also, the a- folks who are being moved into at least one of the new buildings this week are going to be working in an even smaller space that they were in. Each contractor gets a 4-foot table and a single shelf. Some of these people have been working with multiple PCs and multiple monitors in order to do their jobs. The new space has been dubbed a slum by some of those who have already seen it.

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Read about how a fictional job action might go down at http://klurgsheld.wordpress.com/2009/03/12/short-story-contractor-uprising/.

It seems to me that equating the output of a text-to-speech process to the product of a human reading the text as an audiobook debases the value of the people who provide the voices of so many audiobooks. Now, granted, at least some of the people who read for audiobooks are volunteers helping our libraries, but there are also audiobooks that are read by professional talent. Consequently, this claim equates professional actors, or professional voice actors, with a bit of technology. Shouldn't the actors' union get involved in this fight?

P. Orin Zack

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I write pointed political and business short stories at http://klurgsheld.wordpress.com/

Why limit the reason for having reactive body armor to avoiding incoming projectiles? If you create a body-covering platform that can sense the environment and react to it, you might as well complete the job and have them act as an ad-hoc network, such as the ones in the recent story about the placeable cookie-sized units. Other areas of military readiness would start piling on, too. But like all tech, there's also the risks inherent in such a system, like the one I explored in a story I wrote called 'Infantry Hack'. It starts like this...

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"If you don't back off right now, I'll tighten your LifeSkin tourniquet the rest of the way. You know I can do it!"

That's Edgar Brannock screaming in my earbud. He's been rocking back and forth behind that grimy warehouse window over there for the past ten minutes. See the glowing smudge in the infra-red overlay of my gunsight? Yeah. That's him. For someone responsible for a major terror attack on New York, you'd think he'd be geek enough to know not to yell at a bugged window.

"I'm not going anywhere, Edgar."

Cripes. Why do these jerks always have to be so melodramatic? It's not like I haven't noticed the auto-constriction band digging into my arm. Targetting someone with something as fuzzy as an IR overlay is hard enough when you can feel your fingers, but doing it with purple sausages is a real thrill. And telling me to back off? Give me a break. They've even given up using that tired ploy in the movies.

"How's you're arm? There are lots of other constriction bands in that thing you're wearing, you know. Want a demo?"

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You can read the whole story (and lots of others) at my short story blog, here:

http://klurgsheld.wordpress.com/2007/06/12/short-story-infantry-hack/

P. Orin Zack

The idea of having varying levels of endorsement can be used in other contexts as well. For example, when someone offers indirect information, you would be wise to consider how much you trust the person relaying the information when assessing its validity. The more remote the source is, the more you want to suspect the credibility of the report. That's why hearsay evidence is inadmissible in court. But how would this be implemented in daily life? I took a whack at exploring the idea in a short story called "Business Decision". It starts like this...

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Evan studied the portly man standing in front of the curved dais for a moment before answering.

Jason Sweeney had attended Council meetings before, a silent but imposing presence brooding in the far corner. A curious glance was enough to influence the more convivial constituents in the room, causing them to stay well away lest they become enamored of whatever unsavory business had paid for the custom woven fabrics of his business suit, and led him to wear such uncomfortable-looking shoes. But something was different today. Something had driven him to exchange the shadows at the edge of the room for a brightly lit moment at the center of attention.

"I can offer this Council the means to retire its debts," he had said. "It's just a simple business transaction. What harm can that do?"

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You can read the whole story here:

klurgsheld.wordpress.com/2007/06/14/short-story-business-decision/

P. Orin Zack

So they'll be able to set up covert checkpoints that people walk past without knowing they're being assessed, and they're looking for 'malcontents'? In other words, this is a system for picking out people who are not thrilled with whatever the current government (or junta) is doing, so they can be charged and locked up in those shiny new detention centers that Cheney's company Halliburton have built in the US. That's an easy way to cut down on the possibility of protests in general, and of 'undesirables' at any sort of public or private gathering. Private companies will want to install them in their facilities to monitor employees. This sort of thing has no redeeming social value.

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I write pointed political short stories at klurgsheld.wordpress.com

Whatever is decided, some industries will gain and others will lose. Those which see that the projects would cost them, either financially or in the strength of their influence, will attempt to change the plans to suit their needs. They will do this by attempting to sway the people making the choices, either with threats or rewards. Congress is their playing field, and they know very well how to manipulate its members. Therefore it seems to me that in order for any plan to stay on course we will also have to intervene in the cycle of manipulation of our government. Any suggestions on how to accomplish that?