I Shoulda Stood in Bed - Technology Edition

1) Someone was coming over to pick up some stuff I had listed on freecycle. So I gave her directions and told her to call me from the phone / intercom when she got to the lobby of my building. What I didn't know was that they'd relocated the phone / intercom thingie to the other door. Which is sort of good in ways since it takes people to a staircase that doesn't have another lock they can't open. But it's now also at a place where one can't legally park. I don't understand why they can't just have two of these units.

2) My main computer at work has this security software that is normally invisible but kicks in after long weekends. (Don't ask me to explain this.) It also somehow seems to screw up my mouse / cursor. The best the help desk has been able to tell me is to turn off the other two computers on the switchbox and then reboot (i.e. shutdown and restart) this one. Which usually works in one or two tries. Today it took about 8 tries. I even let it sit for a while between some of those attempts. I was actually at work slightly early and then spent nearly an hour before I got everything working.

3) I came home to discover that my cell phone is not working. None of the buttons do anything at all. I looked at Kyocera's troubleshooting page and they suggest a hard reset, by removing the battery and waiting about 15 seconds before reinstalling it. The problem is they tell you to turn off the phone before removing the battery and it won't turn off. And I had just recharged the phone so waiting for the battery to die is not a good option. I'd go ahead and take the battery out anyway, but I also can't manage to open the battery compartment. I think I am following the instructions, but nothing moves at all.

Normally I wouldn't care much but I am traveling next week on business and the cell phone is useful for that. I think I need to search for what I did with the phone manual. Or I could call tech support.

I suspect I should step away from my computer while I'm ahead.

Sometimes Things Work

I did, eventually, manage to open the battery compartment for the cell phone. And, sure enough, the battery reset did the trick.

Yay!

What does John Smith do?

There are approximately 80,000 people in the U.S. with my first name.

There are about 2500 people in the U.S. with my last name.

It is not all that unlikely that there is at least one other person in the U.S. with the same first name and last name, particularly since both names are closely associated with a particular ethnicity.

However, that person is, apparently, a deadbeat, and therein lies the problem. I had several messages on my answering machine a while back from "Portfolio Recovery Services." Since they never identified what this was in relation to and just told me to call a toll-free number, I assumed they were junk calls. Eventually, they reached me while I was home (and answering the phone - something I often let the machine take care of, given the imperfections of the "do not call" list) and told me they were a collection agency and were calling regarding "my car in New York City."

Since I haven't lived in NYC since I was 3 years old and never had either a driver's license nor a car in New York State, this was news to me. The caller then provided an address on 96th Street for the person they were trying to reach. I was able to persuade them that it had to be some other person of the same name as I had never lived in Manhattan, never mind 96th Street.

The answering machine messages stopped. But tonight I got a call again from them. (I was expecting a call from somebody else, which is why I answered the phone.) This time, it was in relation to a "Consolidated Edison account". Again, I have never had a Con Ed account. The only places in which I have had any utility accounts were in California and Virginia. The caller just said she would put this into the disputed file.

That sounded considerably less convincing to me. I believe I need to report this to some sort of authorities, but I have no idea who the right people are. In the absence of anything better to do, I will probably call the police and report it as suspected identity theft, but I'm not sure it really meets the definition of that. But I assume they would know what the right thing to do is.