[pianotech] dues payment fiasco

[David Love]

Huh?

David Love
www.davidlovepianos.com


-----Original Message-----
From: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf
Of Horace Greeley
Sent: Wednesday, February 01, 2012 4:28 PM
To: pianotech at ptg.org
Subject: Re: [pianotech] dues payment fiasco


Hi, David, All,

At 12:57 PM 2/1/2012, you wrote:
>One thing though is to make sure that your pop-up blocker is disabled.

Please be aware that a blanket/complete disabling of a browser's 
pop-up blocker is considered one of the first steps in "best 
practice" securing a Windows machine.  While many website developers 
don't like it, and it can slow down one's Internet "experience", 
purging both the main browser cache and deleting "cookies" can save a 
great many headaches with security issues.

Most modern browsers will allow the user to selectively enable 
pop-ups from specific sites while still keeping the blocker otherwise 
in place.  Competent web developers actively test their work product 
across (at least) Chrome, Firefox, IE, Opera, and Safari, each on 
several different platforms (which means multiple versions of 
Windows, MacOS, and, yes, Linux...in today's world of being able to 
run multiple virtualized machines on a single physical devices, 
failing to do this kind of testing is simply unprofessional).  As 
much of the world moves to more WebKit and Java-based browsers for 
things like iWhatever and all the look-alike tablet-type devices, 
developers are going to have to keep up with a greater number of such 
interfaces.  One snare that keeps surfacing for Windows-based 
back-end webservices (servers, applications, databases, and the like) 
is that the platform still does not play nicely with other, non-MS, 
software and/or operating systems.  Choosing to use an MS back-end 
presupposes an assumption of responsibility to make sure that other 
software will interface at least reasonably well.

Users of IE should be aware that patch levels on Windows machines are 
critical to security; and functionality/usability of various tools 
within the Windows environment (including IE) will be affected 
(sometimes dramatically) if/as there are any mis-matches.  While one 
can still get into trouble by enabling Windows to automagically 
update, that process is safer than it used to be; and is definitely 
better than nothing.  There is a bewilderingly huge amount of 
information on line about how to configure various Windows versions 
so that they are at least marginally secure and still usable.  While 
much of the stuff on the MS site is primarily aimed at institutional 
and/or commercial users and their service personnel, following their 
security guidelines will help minimize potential problems.

Another thing to consider is that, if you're running an older system 
and/or operating system and/or software, you're running out of time 
for your current setup to be able to handle the volume of data that 
is being forced down the wire to your electronic workspace.  Several 
iterations of various MS and Mac OSes will be "end of life" within 
the next year.  Part of the reason for that (beyond security issues) 
is that they don't "speak" IPv6, which is the "new" (which means 
finally officially implemented) addressing scheme for the entire 
Internet.  If you know the difference between IPv4 and IPv6, then 
you, too, probably know too much about this stuff already.  For 
everyone else, it simply means that, unless your ISP starts turning 
hand-springs and keeps backward compatibility alive for their 
customers, your machine really won't be compatible with the overall 
Internet infrastructure for more than another couple of 
years.  You'll have less trouble with this if you're using some 
flavor of Linux because most distributions already have the new 
coding built into their OS kernel; and, only FWIW, if you can tune 
and regulate a piano with any degree of competency, you can use Linux 
for your workstation...it simply isn't rocket science.  For everyone 
else, there's Windows 7 (Pro version, please; the lower versions 
don't have enough turned on and all that "Ultimate" really gets you 
is advanced language support) and/or Mac OS flavour du jour (currently
10.6.8).

Anyway, if your Internet connection is less than broadband ethernet 
or ADSL2 (compliance with ADSL2 standards will work, too).  That is, 
if it's taking 30 to 60 seconds for a webpage to load or to navigate 
from one to another, it's time to re-evaluate your present overall 
setup and decide if what you have is sufficient (and won't make you 
too crazy) to keep using.  If you've been thinking about making any 
changes...looking into another ISP, getting a new computer, 
etc...now's as good a time as any.

In any event, there's more to this set of issues than meets the eye; 
and, especially as everyone's setup is going to be almost 
definitionally different, there simply isn't a one-size-fits-all solution.

Sorry the above is complicated.  I hope that it is of some help.

Kind regards.

Horace



>
>David Love
>www.davidlovepianos.com
>
>From: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] 
>On Behalf Of David Love
>Sent: Wednesday, February 01, 2012 12:40 PM
>To: pianotech at ptg.org
>Subject: Re: [pianotech] dues payment fiasco
>
>I saw your  posting that you are using IE after I wrote that and 
>yes, you're right, IE is generally supported, though it has other issues.
>
>David Love
>www.davidlovepianos.com
>
>From: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] 
>On Behalf Of Encore Pianos
>Sent: Wednesday, February 01, 2012 12:33 PM
>To: pianotech at ptg.org
>Subject: Re: [pianotech] dues payment fiasco
>
>A good comment David, but one tends to think that Internet Explorer 
>would be supported, since it is still the 800 pound gorilla of the 
>Browsers.  If it is not, that should raise some eyebrows.
>
>Will
>
>From: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] 
>On Behalf Of David Love
>Sent: Wednesday, February 01, 2012 2:47 PM
>To: pianotech at ptg.org
>Subject: Re: [pianotech] dues payment fiasco
>
>Comments made about various browsers having problems might be worth 
>looking into.  My own website, for example, using earthlink is 
>temperamental when I try and edit or even view it using Mozilla 
>Foxfire.  The display using Foxfire is distorted in a way that 
>doesn't happen with either Google Chrome or IE.  I've had certain 
>sites advise me that they aren't supported by various browsers and 
>suggest others to use.  Sometimes technologies aren't compatible.  I 
>don't know if that's the case here but probably worth the home 
>office checking.
>
>David Love
><http://www.davidlovepianos.com>www.davidlovepianos.com
>
>From: <mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org>pianotech-bounces at ptg.org 
>[mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf Of Encore Pianos
>Sent: Wednesday, February 01, 2012 11:14 AM
>To: <mailto:pianotech at ptg.org>pianotech at ptg.org
>Subject: Re: [pianotech] dues payment fiasco
>
>Where, since you are so knowledgeable?
>
>Will
>
>From: <mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org>pianotech-bounces at ptg.org 
>[mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf Of 
><mailto:tnrwim at aol.com>tnrwim at aol.com
>Sent: Wednesday, February 01, 2012 1:52 PM
>To: <mailto:pianotech at ptg.org>pianotech at ptg.org
>Subject: Re: [pianotech] dues payment fiasco
>
>I tried it in both places with the same results .
>Will
>
>Will
>
>It would seem to me that when there are people who have no problems 
>paying dues on line, perhaps the problems lies elsewhere.
>
>Wim
>
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: Encore Pianos 
><<mailto:encorepianos at metrocast.net>encorepianos at metrocast.net>
>To: pianotech <<mailto:pianotech at ptg.org>pianotech at ptg.org>
>Sent: Wed, Feb 1, 2012 8:46 am
>Subject: Re: [pianotech] dues payment fiasco
>I tried it in both places with the same results .
>
>Will
>
>From: <mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org>pianotech-bounces at ptg.org 
>[mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf Of David Boyce
>Sent: Wednesday, February 01, 2012 1:02 PM
>To: <mailto:pianotech at ptg.org>pianotech at ptg.org
>Subject: Re: [pianotech] dues payment fiasco
>
>Well, I too left paying my dues until the last minute.  I didn't 
>have any problem doing it online; the transaction went 
>smoothly.  BUT I did it on <http://www.ptg.org/>www.ptg.org and NOT 
>on my.ptg, where I couldn't see a place to do it.
>
>Some months ago I had a similar frustrating "round in circles 
>logging on" experience when I was trying to do something else; I 
>forget exactly what, perhaps by some Care of my Piano booklets. I 
>emailed the home office who were very helpful, and told me to clear 
>my browser cache and try again on <http://www.ptg.org/>www.ptg.org.
>
>Clearly, there are problems which are not yet resolved.
>
>Best regards,
>
>David.
><http://www.davidboyce.co.uk/>www.davidboyce.co.uk
>
>Ok, so I am going to do some venting now.  I just spent a 
>frustrating 50 minutes trying to pay my dues, and by some miracle 
>was finally able to actually do so.  It only took me about 50 tries 
>to log in, although my username and password information were 
>entered correctly.  It simply just kept going around in circles and 
>kept asking me for the same info on the page I started with, again 
>and again and again.
>