I am looking for a Twitter client for Windows 7 that will allow me to monitor multiple Twitter accounts at once and have an option to remain static until I refresh it. I hate it when I’m reading something and it disappears because it’s auto-updated.

I went to Seesmic and Tweetdeck today to check out their browser-based and desktop-based options but I am having issues with both of them. I have accounts with both because I used to have them both installed on an old computer.

When I went to Seesmic I tried to log in with my email address and password. It said I had incorrect credentials and to try again. So I clicked the <Forgot your password?> link. I put in my email address and it came back with: “Something went wrong, or we could not find the email in the database”. Then when I tried to sign up, it told me my email address is already in the database, use another.

When I went to Tweetdeck I had a similar problem. I tried to log in with my credentials and it said to “Please check your password.” So I clicked the <Forgot your password?> link there too. The screen flashed for a moment, but nothing else happened. No confirmation that the request was received, no notification that an email would be sent, nothing. A short while later I received an email with a link to change the password. I clicked the link and entered the new password twice as required. Then it told me I hadn’t requested a password change – or I had clicked the link twice. Nope. I hadn’t clicked it twice.

I just tried again and got a notice that an email was sent., but it’s been half an hour and I haven’t received the email.

Tried again and received an email. Clicked the link, entered the new password twice. Received this:

This is all very frustrating.

Does anyone have any suggestions?

Update: Finally got logged in to Tweetdeck. Still no luck with Seesmic. (01/03/13 10:50 pm CST)

Wishing every one a happy, healthy, and prosperous New Year!

I’m hoping for more business in 2013. I’d like to be able to finance a family vacation. We haven’t been on one in many years.

Schratwieser Consulting

Armistice Day, Veterans’ Day, Remembrance Day

The 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month…

In Flanders Fields

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe;
To you, from failing hands, we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

Written by Lt-Colonel John McRae (1915)

Can we get a GOP with sound economics and a commitment to individual liberty?

I hope so. We need fiscal responsibility along with liberty. We need to drop “special” rights for anyone. We need to do away with affirmative action. We need to do away with legislating “health” such as Bloomberg is trying in NYC.

We need freedom to choose in everything – schools, health, everything.

Stop telling insurance companies what they must cover and allow people to buy insurance that covers what the person wants covered. My mother has no need to cover maternity or prostrate issues. Why should she be paying for coverage for those things?

Allow people in New Jersey to buy insurance from a company in North Dakota if they wish.

Divorce health insurance from employment. Allow us to purchase it like we do our auto, home, and life insurance. Let us bundle it with auto, home, and life if we wish.

Make health insurance actual insurance again, not the pre-paid health it is now. When I was a kid, we paid the doctor when we went (or had a payment plan). One had insurance for catastrophic and hospitalization. You know you’ll get sick – that’s something you plan for. The hospitalization is what you’re insuring against.

I should also be able to choose the level of deductible that I want. Government shouldn’t set deductible levels. If I would choose a $5,000 deductible for lower premium payments I shouldn’t be limited to a $2,500 deductible with a higher premium because the government doesn’t think I should (could) pay that much out of pocket.

Health Savings Accounts (and health reimbursement accounts) should be available to everyone without a use-it-or-lose-it aspect. If I don’t use all my health care savings in one year, I should be able to carry it over to the next. Maybe next year I’ll have more illnesses than I did this year.

Being able to save this way can allow one to have the money in the health account when it’s needed as one gets older.

All pensions need to be defined contribution rather than defined benefit. One has control over how much to contribute to retirement, one can’t know that there will be a certain amount available in 20 years…

Local bumper sticker:

Spock ’12

The Logical Choice

Arrgh! It be Talk Like a Pirate Day!

So, Mayor Bloomberg got his wish and the New York City Board of Health voted to ban “sugary” drinks over 16 ounces everywhere except grocery and convenience stores. Because they’re trying to fight obesity. The ban only applies to “sugary” drinks, not diet drinks. Restaurants with self-serve fountains are limited to the 16 ounce size, but patrons can get their free refills. Now since this applies only to “sugary” drinks (I assume that’s drinks with High Fructose Corn Syrup and drinks with sugar) and not to diet drinks how can they enforce it ($200 fine) in a restaurant with a self-serve fountain? One would think a customer could order a 24 ounce “diet” and then go fill it up with a non-diet beverage. Or restaurants will have to drop all cup sizes over 16 ounces regardless of whether the customer wants diet or non-diet, effectively banning any soda over 16 ounces.

But, as the ban does not include grocery and convenience stores, you can still go get your Big-Gulp at Seven Eleven. And your huge Slurpees too.

Sugar contains 15 calories per 4 gram serving (1 teaspoon). I can make a 16 ounce cup of iced tea and use 2 teaspoons of sugar to sweeten it. That’s 8 grams of sugar, 30 calories. I could have that same tea at 20 ounces and still only use the 2 teaspoons of sugar.  I can’t buy a sweetened tea with that low a calorie count. High Fructose Corn Syrup, in most of our sweetened “sugary” drinks has 53 calories for a 19 gram serving (1 tablespoon [equal to 3 teaspoons]). Why can’t beverage companies make a lower calorie, yet non-artificially sweetened beverage? Pepsi came out with Pepsi Next a lower sugar beverage. I was excited. I thought perhaps they’d just lowered the sugar/HFCS content. But no. They lowered the sugar/HFCS, but added in artificial sweeteners. So it became a kind of “half-diet” drink.

Restricting the size of a “sugary” beverage isn’t going to change people’s behaviors. It isn’t going to stop obesity. It isn’t going to start a “national dialog”. And it’s not really for people’s health. It’s for power. We can do this so we will. Mayor Bloomberg would force chefs to not use salt in cooking. He’s banned trans-fats, but it was the government that insisted on using trans-fats in the first place. Supposedly they were “better” for us. The prevalent use of HFCS is a result of government policies as well, farm subsidies and sugar tariffs.

Maybe soft drink manufacturers should add fiber to all their drinks. That might alleviate the problem listed in the article:

While plenty of foods contribute to the problem, some experts believe soft drinks deserve a greater share of the blame, in part because the body doesn’t scream, “I’m full!” when someone downs a 32-ounce soda, even though it has more calories than a typical fast-food cheeseburger.

There are tasteless, colorless, non-thickening fiber powders that can be added to beverages that should not affect the taste or mouth-feel of any soda pop.

Senator Schumer was also in the news this week regarding laundry detergent pods (via Overlawyered). Apparently the brightly colored detergent pods look too much like candy and children are eating them. The New York Daily News tells us that 40 children in the city eaten them since April. Some had to be hospitalized. Sen. Schumer tells us that “200 cases had been reported to poison control centers nationwide as of May, but that figure jumped to 1,210 by the end of June.”

I’m sorry Mr. Schumer, but I really don’t need the government to be a parent. If I were single I wouldn’t need the government to be a husband. I, and most of the people I know, are perfectly capable of taking care of ourselves and keeping ourselves and our children reasonably safe. Nothing is 100%, nor can anything ever be so. Stop trying to make it so.

We just got new windows and every one had this (removable) warning sticker on it:

If we know about White House staffers owing the government taxes, why wouldn’t we know about Mitt Romney?