Here is a good look at the far-too-complicated Bell bicycle carrier system. I was expecting to attach carrier unto the car and drive away. I mean, bikes and cars have been around for a hundred years plus. Boy, was I dumb. The test drive up to Arnel’s was via side roads, by necessity. The straps slipped off three times and the assembly swayed on any corner, bump, or speed above 35 mph no matter how tightly cinched.
Field modifications are necessary and this carrier is meant for one bicycle only. I will hack off the extra piping and replace the nylon with real ratchet clamps. If a second bike is ever needed, throw it on the roof rack. Bell, your carrier is a dangerous piece of junk. This product does not meet minimum utility or safety standards. From now on, I stay ten car lengths behind any car that looks like this.I watched the shop today so Fred could go fishing. Two customers all day. One was that minister/doctor/credit repair guy into half the pyramid schemes that claim they aren’t. We yakked for an hour. Talk about polar opposites. Doctorate or no, he is just not as well-informed on most of the basics to be able to persuade me, for one. It was a hoot listening to how some people think. I’ll share it.
He is working on a database which, stay with me here, gets the name of every one of the six billion people on the planet into his records. (Haven’t the world’s richest governments failed at that within their own borders? You know, getting everybody on file.) I think he is planning to import computerized phone books for a start. I didn’t tell him that his chosen application, MS Access, will only hold 1/60,000th of the records he envisages.
Now the scary part. I asked if he had these people’s permission to put their names on his computer. He was stunned. What do you mean, permission? Like ask if it is okay with them? Suddenly, he wasn’t a minister any more. Why, he explained at length, only career criminals, draft dodgers, and sundry con artists would ever conspire to withhold their personal information from such a swell guy as him. I don’t think he was kidding. Why, he’s even got a privacy policy. Meaning as long as you do what he says, he’ll put good things on your report card. Holy Equifax, Batman.
There’s more. He also thinks this database is “progress”; anybody who objects that it has serious potential for privacy abuse is, he opines, living in the past. He pointed out that China and other nations are already using such databases. He was flummoxed when I indicated those nations had another thing in common: lack of personal freedoms. But that just put him back on the religion track, presumably because even thinking about personal freedoms is, indeed, most incomfortable for individuals of a certain disposition. Wait, there's more.
He even diagrammed for me the pathways to Heaven which all people must, he stated, take when they die. If they have never heard of Christianity, they will be “informed” of it after death but prior to final processing. It will be their only chance to embrace it regardless of what kind of life they once led. Serves you right, Mohandas. The doctor did acquire an enlightened look about him when I referred to all this as “God’s Database”. Me and my big mouth.
ADDENDUM
Last month, I worked with an overseas technician who used remote logon to troubleshoot my client’s computer. This is nothing new, but it is something I could do. Today I researched this. It took scarcely twenty minutes. You activate the “host” computer to accept the remote “client” log-on. The host computer remains locked and nobody can snoop in on your session. From the guidelines given, I have an ideal setup at the shop to emulate the operation with a view to profit.
True, many people will be suspicious of somebody else controlling their mouse. From what I hear, they’re all just crooks anyway. Just confer with the doctor above, administrator of God's Database. It’s not me you need to worry about--unless I’m smarter than a "doctor". But when You-Know-Who decides to take over your computer, make sure you stand up for roll call. You got nothing to hide.
