Advanta and Credit Card Woes

We've been using an Advanta MasterCard for our business for several years now. So today I get an e-mail that they're canceling all their credit card accounts - in four days. Thanks for giving me time to get a new card.Apparently we have not been like their typical customer. We paid our bills on time consistently. This article in Consumerist says that they had a 20% default rate. Hmm ... maybe we

Dyslexic SEO with Flash

If you don't find this funny, you don't get SEO.And if that doesn't persuade you, this is from one of their sites:Apparently optimizing for misspellings. Or Mineloa is an fff'ing long Hawaiian island.On the bright side, the lawyer probably ended up paying them $19.99.Seriously, today's keyword is proofreading!

Traffic Court: New Milestones

New milestones for our traffic court website. As shown below, over 150K visits in the last 31 days, and over 130K unique visitors.For those unfamiliar with our stats, the peaks are Mondays and the valleys are weekends.Moreno Valley Court in California is the busiest on the site, with over 1400 pageviews in that 31-day stretch. They must write a lot of tickets out there.I just looked back and we

GPS, Privacy, and the NY Court of Appeals

Great decision by the New York Court of Appeals, in the case of People v. Weaver. Police, without a warrant, placed a GPS tracking device on the underside of the defendant's car - for 65 days. They later used the GPS evidence against him in a criminal trial where he was convicted.The Court of Appeals, in a 4-3 decision, reversed the conviction and held:Under our State Constitution, in the absence

Me, Rudy Giuliani, and some other guy

Here's a picture for ya!I'm kidding about the "some other guy" in the title. That's Peter King, a congressman thought to be a candidate for US Senate in 2010.The Rudy thing is funny. I have been critical in the past of him: Rudy Giuliani and Ron Paul. I've never quite figured out why he's a hero for 9/11. He showed up and made a speech or two.If he had recognized that the buildings were unstable

Hate Lawyers?

Just stumbled on an article by Andrew Fischer on LewRockwell.com. It's one of those "hate lawyers" stories. Normally I like what I see on that site, and I'd probably agree with a lot of Fischer's other articles, but I have to rip this one apart. Quotes from the article are in italics.I had three college chums who ... decided to become lawyers simply because it was a way to "make a good living."

NY, DWI, Ignition Interlock, and MADD

Great story on Capital News 9 last night. The NY State Assembly has a bill (A-7196) that would require ignition interlock devices for everyone convicted of DWI. Specifics from the bill are below.In the News 9 story, Laura Dean-Mooney of MADD said: "If there are detectable levels of alcohol, their car simply will not start." So in other words, if you have any alcohol on your breath whatsoever,

Albany Lawyer Gets Rear-Ended

There's some kind of irony or poetic justice in this. I got rear-ended yesterday. Stopped at a traffic light, and an SUV behind me bumped my car. Even though my kids were in the car, it's easy to laugh about it because the damage seems so minimal. There's a crack in the top of the rear bumper. That's the only visible damage.I'm going to get it checked out. Bumpers have something inside to absorb