Yahoo! & their latest "requirement."

Several email accounts are owned/used here at the The Think Tank. The majority of the accounts are probably Yahoo! accounts however, the number of Gmail accounts possessed here at The Think Tank may soon overtake the number of Yahoo! accounts.
Why?
For one, Yahoo! has recently been trying to change things way to much. If it is not broken don't fix it! If it is broken, FIX IT! Yahoo! appears to be going about this backwards.

Recently The Think Tank has been being instructed by Yahoo! that they "will not be able to sign in to Yahoo! services unless [they] provide the requested information on this form."
If you are like The Think Tank and don't want to give Yahoo! more information, know that there is hope and help! The "requirement" can be waived by a simple click of a button. Simply clear your computer's cache and delete the cookies. The Think Tank likes to make things a little faster.

Here, the settings on FireFox have been adjusted so that when FireFox closes, everything is cleared. This is a great fix, as the next time you open Yahoo! tries to require something from you, simply close the window and open FireFox again, now you can log in as normal. The Think Tank likes to have anywhere from 2 to 30+ windows open at a time. The advice above is not helpful if you have more than one window open. To solve this, The Think Tank either opens Yahoo! accounts first or last. Never during the middle of an online session, as they never known when Yahoo! will try to "obligate" them to give more information. Clearing the computer's cache impacts all windows. Making it so you have to login to your accounts again.

We understand that Yahoo! wants to make things better. However, Yahoo! is becoming less desirable. Their "search" engine for looking for emails is hit and miss. Sometimes it finds the email and other times it does not.

Spam flies through the spam filter at Yahoo! like it is nothing, even though Yahoo! is supposed to be sporting an "Award-winning security and spam protection." More spam is received in The Think Tank's Yahoo! inboxes than any other account, period. The painstaking process of sorting junk out of an inbox is almost annoying enough to abandon an account altogether.

If Yahoo! is listening. Stop trying to obligate us to give you more information and do try to solve the issues at hand. All the bells and whistles that you are adding to people's Yahoo! accounts are more like a band-aid to hide the real problem. Sure, the band-aid looks cool, with all the flashy lights and new things added to make things "easier." However the infected area is only getting worse and people are opening new accounts in greener pastures. Take a hint from Google, make the changes options, not mandatory. Google offers hundreds of different combinations of their settings, themes, etc... that their users can freely choose from. With a Gmail account one has the freedom to make their account, their own.

OEM vs refill

Like anyone, The Think Tank needs ink from time to time. However, after being shocked by the OEM prices for years. The noggin' got to thinkin. Is there really any reason to buy ink at RETAIL? There isn't a benefit of it, no warranty is going to cover something not printing correctly. And yes, refill nightmares are out there. For any industry, product, location, even a visit to a National Park, one can find dissappointment and regret.

After months of searching The Think Tank has finally come across the best place for them to buy their ink. Since everyone is different, you make your own call. The thoughts here are pretty clear here.

The Thnk Tank purchased the following three cartridges of ink:
HP95 - Color (HP C8766WN)
HP94 - Black (HP C8765WN)
HP110 - Color (HP CB304AN)
At a retail store, The Think Tank would have paid close to $60 for these three items. Maybe closer to $55 if they purchased a 2 pack Combo from HP, as they do sell 94 & 95 together. These prices do not include taxes or shipping.

Through The Think Tank's store of choice, the total charged was $39.56 This includes taxes, and as always, free shipping on every order, regardless how much the order is for. On top of that The Think Tank received $6.55 cash back on this purchase just by buying the link through their BigCrumbs account (please feel free to see the screen shots below).

Buying the ink through The Think Tank's BigCrumb account brought the total paid down to $33.01! A savings of nearly, if not more than, %50 off of the retail price!

Use Coupon Code: 5OFFSMILE and Save 5% on Printer Cartridges at InkSmile.com.
The Think Tank's InkSmile Order
The Think Tank's BigCrumb Cash Back / Instant Discount
Problems with the "refilled" in thus far, zero.
The Think Tank understands that not everything is for everyone. The Think Tank likes to look at Big Crumbs as an instant coupon. Buying ink and other items through BigCrumb, is easily a no brainer, for The Think Tank.

Verify your Facebook account or else!

Over the last few weeks observations have been made about Facebook's policies. Interesting enough, those on Facebook who signed up as a "male" have to continually "verify" they are "human" by typing in two words. Each time someone who said they were "male" places a post on a group that "he" has joined, he is asked to "verify" by typing in the two words. (There is a screen shot below, from most recent update).

Interestingly enough, those who say that they are "females" do not have to "verify" anything after the first one or two times.

Recently a "male" joined a group on Facebook for his favorite online retailer, Newegg. When he tried to post a comment on the group's wall, he was told that he could not post until he "verified" his phone number. Oh, and yes, Facebook doesn't charge for this verification, but your provider "might."

After this guy avoided the demand to be verified several times, he found himself being asked to "verify" his account once again. Being told by the warning that he could not leave a post until he verified his phone number.

If Facebook is going to "require" people to verify things, they should pay you or reimburse you for that single text. Yes, this is "silly" to say, however it is even more silly for a company to REQUIRE that their users give them their phone numbers. If Facebook starts spamming people, or marketing through the phone numbers obtained, they should be in trouble legally. As it isn't right for them to limit "males" from posting.

Why is it that "females" are not continously asked to verify every email or "friend" invite sent, when men are asked to confirm/verify the two words EACH and EVERY time.

This begs the question, is Facebook, sexist? If not, why do they treat "males" differently than those who say that they are "females?" Hmmmm...

**UPDATE**
Several days have gone by and still the male that verified that he is a human, by submitting his cell phone number and entering the confirmation code that Facebook sent him, is being stopped by Facebook "Security Check! This check came up when he went to send an email to a friend. No pictures, no nothing, just an email.

Will it ever end? Or should he go change his profile to say "female?"

Stop Skype from highlighting your numbers in Firefox.

This morning an email was received that had a list of people's names and numbers in it. When the recipient opened it, they were surprised to see that Skype had translated over half of the numbers into "buttons." The downside of this is that the buttons prevented the recipient from reading half of the numbers.

After completing several Google Searches and coming up no where for nearly thirty minutes. The recipient finally came across the solution.

If using Firefox (as the recipient does, 99% of the time), simply follow this path.
Tools > Add-ons > Extensions

Then turn off the "Skype extensions for Firefox."

Skype changing numbers into buttons was the "straw that broke the Camel's back." Stop Skype from highlighting phone numbers in Firefox. This was the first, of many posts to come.

A blog has now been born.

The Think Tank is here to shed a little light, show a little love, save some cash, share some "common sense" and more, a whole lot more.

The road in front of this blog is as uncharted for The Think Tank as the Atlantic was for sailors of a time since past.

Moving forward...one thought at a time.