Time Warner - to start charging by bandwidth

There's been a lot of talk about Time Warner starting to charge by bandwith and internet usage for their RoadRunner service. My mom got wind of this and when she called them tonight to pay her bill over the phone she inquired about it. The rep told her that there will be a 3-month trial that everyone will be able to gauge what their usage is. Sort of like a water or gas meter. I'm not sure where it will show - if you can log in to see your usage on your account, or if it just shows on your bill or what.

But anyways, the rep said that customers will be capped at $150/month just for their RoadRunner internet service - so that's the "max" you could pay for RR, but that most people wouldn't have to pay that much. They will allow you so much bandwith GB and if you exceed it, it would be $1 per every GB that you exceed past your limit.

Apparently they are doing this because of services such as Vonage, those who download movies, etc. My thought was, then why not just charge THEM more - why penalize everyone? But apparently they are not able to do that. So, we must all suffer the consequences.

Seems fair, huh?

Auctiva users - no longer free as of July 1st!

What a shocker (not). In this article today, it was announced that Auctiva will be charging fees according to AuctionBytes, starting July 1st. Their users as of today still have not been informed of the changes. And they are hefty ones too. Looks like they are following Vendio's pricing structure. Quite a jump from free.

• The Professional Seller plan will cost $34.95/month plus 12 cents/listing, with zero transaction fees. It includes a free Auctiva Commerce store, and fees are capped at $250/month.
• A High Volume Seller plan costs $24.95/month with zero listing fees and a 1.75% transaction fee - Auctiva said this is good for sellers with high listing volume and low average sales price.
• The Part Time Seller plan costs $9.95/month plus 6 cents/listing and a 1 percent transaction fee. It includes an Auctiva Commerce store for $4.98/month.
• The "No Monthly Fee" plan for casual eBay sellers costs 12 cents/listing and a 1.25 percent transaction fee.
• Auctiva's Image Hosting plan will be free for the first 1 megabyte of storage, and $1.95/month for between 1 - 5 megabytes of storage up to $34.95/month for over 250 megabytes of storage.
• There's also a Big Ticket Seller plan. Auctiva said templates come free with all plans, but cost $4.95 for people who do not list with Auctiva and do not want to select any of its pricing plans.

For those of you getting ready to go into panic mode, let me suggest Turbo Lister. It's one of the very few Ebay owned products I would recommend. It's free, it's user friendly, and did I mention it's free?

Looking for Dental Insurance!

I'm in the market for some decent dental insurance.

I left my F/T job time back in October to work from home and had filled out paperwork with my employer at the time to keep my dental through COBRA for 18 months. Made an appt with my dentist yesterday for next week and found out my ex-employer never submitted my paperwork, so I have NO dental insurance! I even have confirmation emails from my HR dept at my old job assuring me they submitted my paperwork. I have a really bad teeth-grinding problem and I have a chipped & cracked tooth and a cavity, so this is going to cost me quite a bit if I don't get dental by next week. People who can't do their job correctly (and get paid very well not to) need to be fired.

Warning about dialing 90# scam from your phone!

Just received this in a bulletin, this is good to know!

I dialed '0', to check this out, asked the operator, who confirmed that this was correct so please pass it on . . . (l also checked out Snopes.com . This is true, and also applies to cell phones!)

PASS ON TO EVERYONE YOU KNOW

I received a telephone call last evening from an individual identifying himself as an AT&T Service Technician (could also be Telus) who was conducting a test on the telephone lines. He stated that to complete the test I should touch nine(9), zero(0), the pound sign (#), and then hang up. Luckily, I was suspicious and refused. Upon contacting the telephone company, I was informed that by pushing 90#, you give the requesting individual full access to your telephone line, which enables them to place long distance calls billed to your home phone number.

I was further informed that this scam has been originating from many local jails/prisons; DO NOT press 90# for ANYONE. The GTE Security Department requested that I share this information with EVERYONE I KNOW. After checking with Verizon they also said it was true, so do not dial 90# for anyone !!!!!

PLEASE HIT THAT FORWARD BUTTON AND PASS THIS ON TO EVERYONE YOU KNOW!!!

Cucumber & Tomato salad

I ran down to the local grocery store this morning. To my surprise they had cucumbers for 50¢ each (usually they are over $1 ea) so I bought 10 of them and some tomatoes.

Came home and washed them and cut the cucumbers into small, bite-sized chunks. I put them in a Lock & Lock storage container. I cut up the tomatoes into quarters and squeezed all the juices from them into the container, and then cut up the rest and put them in the container as well. Then I got out a bottle of italian dressing (I prefer Wishbone's Robusto) and poured a whole bottle into the container. Put the lid securely on and gave it a good shake and stuck it in the fridge.

That will be soooo yummy for tonight I can't wait! One of my favorite summer foods... a tasty cucumber & tomato salad!