Wouldn't the world be a better place if things worked as they should?

[reldnahkram]

Being a bridge inspector for PennDOT is not about engineering.  It's about data management.  PennDOT pays people to look at bridges.  They'd be better off using the inspectors to look at bridges, and to pay the people to work with the data and make the computer systems work together.  The maintenance database doesn't talk to the bridge database.  In district 6, where I work, the two least competent people deal with one of the most complicated pieces of software in the office.  Operations officially involve 3 calls to Harrisburg.  Well, that's the impressoin I get, anyway.  I'll see what I can do.

Is it so hard to forward mail?  FMFCU said that they were sending the VISA based cards June 14th.  The address I have registered with them is my swat address, which is then setup to forward to Bryn Mawr.  It's now June 25th, and I still don't have it.  The Phillies wouldn't take the old card (which I assume is because it's now been deactivated), so I'm annoyed.  I also don't have tickets for Monday night with folks - but it'll be good to see y'all, and we'll work something out.  Mm...dollar dogs.

But life is good, I can't really complain.

Comments

[indecisionwins.livejournal.com]

Apparently, the Swat post office isn't allowed to forward stuff from them, because they think somebody else might get your account information that way. (Of course, I really don't understand how that can happen, and it seems more likely that the only thing this policy does is make it so YOU can't get your account information.)

Here's what the manager of the credit union said when I asked her:
"In reference to the new debit cards being sent out. Your are absolutely correct that it was a challenge for us to get the cards to the students for security reasons the college can not forward credit union information. This is to prevent your member information from getting into the wrong hands. Unfortunately most students did not give us their summer addresses which would prevent them from getting their cards in a timely fashion.
If you have any questions please do not hesitate to call me. "

(In case you're wondering what that was in response to...I actually did get my debit card, since I have a summer mailbox on campus. But somehow, they said that they tried to send one to my mother and it got returned, so they E-mailed me about that. And since I was at Jonathan's when I got that message, I mentioned this to him, and he actually had no idea that they were even deactivating the old debit cards, and it really made things kinda difficult for him for this weekend. So I asked her why he wouldn't have gotten one, and said that I thought they needed to do a better job of getting the cards to the students even though I realized it was probably difficult, and this was the reply.)

So you may need to just E-mail them your home address directly--that was what I told Jon to do. The E-mail address of the person I talked to is KellyL@fmfcu.org. Of course, it seems like just E-mailing them an address is much less secure than just letting the college forward the cards, but, mm, yeah...

[tirerim.livejournal.com]

In general, people do not understand that email is not secure.

Also, the Swat mailroom takes several weeks to a month to forward anything, in my experience.

[uncleamos]

Dollar dogs? What's this? When?

[reldnahkram.livejournal.com]

A couple of times during the season, all of them Monday nights.

[elizaeffect.livejournal.com]

Heh...same situation here, different reason. I called the office when I first got the notice about the cards and the lady said to call back when I had my summer address. I wasn't assigned a mailbox until June 12th, at which point I called and was informed that they needed my change of address request IN WRITING, and by the way, they'd already sent mine to my home address. My family was in England for two weeks and didn't get home until today, so nobody could send it to me, so I don't get it until next week.

I hate bureaucracy SOOOOO MUCH.

[deathbysnusnu.livejournal.com]

Ha! I have mine. Albiet my account currently has exactly $0.01 on it, and I can't put more money on it until I got back to Swat. But I have my card. So ha!

FMCU's change from Mastercard to Visa confuses me... I mean, aren't they practically the same thing? I've never seen a place that accepts only one of the two. Remember those VISA commercials from the late 90's? All they ever, ever said was "But they won't take American Express". I guess it's some corporate-level thing that makes a bank partnership with VISA better for the credit union. The only substantial difference between the two from a user level, though, as far as it's ever been explained to me, is that VISA has a slight tendency towards cash back while MasterCard tends to give consumables like gas. Even that's not hard and fast, though. In summary, I don't know.

I think part of the reason the least comptenent people deal with the most complex software is that no one wants to. My experience with database software has pretty much instilled the idea that they're as tedious to manage as they are useful to have around. Therefore, it makes sense to foist them off on the intern or the graduate student or the new guy or whatever.