Monday, September 18, 2023
On Friday, September 15, 2023, I noticed for the first time that the New York Times Hardcover Bestsellers lists on the WiredPages Libraries page were out of sync.
For some reason, I thought the New York Times updated their hardcover bestsellers list late Saturdays to be ready for the Sunday edition. It turns out the new bestsellers are released each week on Wednesdays at 5:00 PM.
Why, had I never looked this up before last Friday? Because I am a programmer who relied solely on API feeds for the real time dynamic information used on most areas of the WiredPages News Service.
Why can I no longer rely on those real time API feeds? Though I can rely on the New York Times API (the list in the sidebar without the book cover images), Amazon's Associate resources for programmers have undergone many changes- restricting a lot of the access programmers using those resources once had.
So why did I update my Amazon Affiliate Links Database for the NY Times Bestsellers a moment ago and provide the updated information here...
For the week of: 9/18/2023
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As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
... in this blog post and not the WiredPages Libraries page? Because over the weekend, I decided I was not happy about my site visitation numbers in a number of areas and thought I would stop thinking about it and watch movies instead (also watched a little football, cooked, etc.).
I thought these movies (all new to me) great for the weekend distraction I wanted.
- Deadfall
- Headhunters (I loved the subtitles for this Norwegian thriller).
- Eastern Promises
Okay, where was I? My last post touches on some of the issues that seem to be at odds with my visitation data and I am frustrated. Visitation data impacts my access to the Amazon Product Advertising API (real time Amazon Products data) and the ads I run.
I cannot explain why the numbers are not syncing up. I would love for DOJ to respond.
P.S. I will update the WiredPages Libraries page on Wedenesday, after 5:00 PM and each Wednesday after that, with the new release of bestsellers- until my access to the Amazon Product Advertising API is restored.
Friday, September 15, 2023
Recently, I think because of an uptick in blog posts- I noticed the numbers from the header bidding resource I integrated on areas of qisoftware.com in October 2018 began to show an increase.
Based on the information in this IAB Tech Lab discussion Why the ‘OWNERDOMAIN’ & ‘MANAGERDOMAIN’ fields are important
additions to ADS.TXT...
... I added (late September 13, 2023) the following lines to my ads.txt file as illustrated below.
My sellers.json file was left unchanged.
After updating the qisoftware.com ads.txt file the analysis resource offered by sellers.guide for my domain, qisoftware.com changed as noted below.
Just for information, how my Google Adsense and header bidding resource
(UAM) accounts report my seller
information...
On September 14, 2023, my header bidding numbers decreased to ZERO and today, though still early, the numbers appear to be headed in the same direction (ZERO).
My header bidding numbers are now zero after updating my ads.txt file. It also appears someone else is selling my ad space. Maybe I should not have done all of my site's ad integrations, however it seemed pretty straight forward after lots of research. What am I missing?
Reference discussions about QiSoftware advertising resources and integrations:
Friday, September 01, 2023
When I first decided (September 2021) to go online with my own ecommerce shop WiredShops I was very excited about the prospect. The entry I posted as a new shop owner.
I had several limiting factors:
- Website cost
- Domain Registration Costs
- Hosting
- Custom Site Design
- Listing Products
- Inventory Costs
- Time Available For This New Business Activity
I cannot say this online shop is a failure, because I love the fact I own it and my cost to own is/was very low.
The time it took to populate the shop was expensive and I use the API service offered by my drop shipper which is not as straight forward as I would like. I did not use a service like Shopify, which in most cases has an associated cost, whereas the API does not- other than my time. Coming up to speed on the OpenCart software was not as time consuming.
That said, I have only had one sale and that- because I asked a relative to ensure my cart/payment hookups were working. They are.
I also tested with the Paypal sandbox cart however, sometimes the results seemed to vary, the reason I tested with an actual sale. I believe there is unlawful interference with this business venture. I have asked DOJ to look into this.
- I registered the wired-shops.com for about $10 a year. wiredshops.com was available, however a lot more expensive.
- I installed the custom OpenCart site design myself.
- I decided drop shipping- at the time, was a more cost effective solution.
- The actual inventory acquisition costs were low.
So why have I decided to revisit my efforts in this area?
Lately, I have made a lot of garden salads and decided I needed a salad spinner.
I checked with my drop shipper and found a spinner I thought would also be
perfect for my online shop. Now, keep in mind, I have done some research since
the pandemic and knew shipping costs had been affected by the global issue and
then more recently- inflation rates. So I was sort of prepared for the new
shipping rates. Are you, if you are thinking about opening a shop?
Wednesday, August 16, 2023
Yesterday, I developed a new Microsoft Access Database to handle Amazon affiliate links I use throughout my sites.
The rather involved illustration below shows what the new database accomplishes.
Do you want to ask, why not use Amazon's Product Advertising API to pull my affiliate links? Years go I created an application (quite frankly, several) to pull Amazon affiliate links for use on WiredPages.
The problem with using Amazon's Product Advertising API you must generate a number of orders to be able to use the resource. I never have any sells. If you think otherwise because you have clicked and purchased from my Amazon affiliate links (any link that points to Amazon.com on any part of the qisoftware.com and related domains) then contact IC3.
When my access to the API was suspended (no orders, several years ago), I integrated Amazon Native Shopping Ads into the programs. When the API was unavailable I provided the Native Shopping Ads.
Recently, it was announced Amazon's Native Shopping Ads resource is
being retired so I am coming up with new ways to show data and ads I
think are relevant to the areas on my sites where I place them.
I am a software developer who likes demonstrating the type of custom applications I can provide using popular APIs like Amazon's Product Advertising API. Some of the APIs I have worked with are found on this page.
Wednesday, August 16, 2023
In the last post, I discussed Youtube rules related to eligibility for monetization. I watched a Youtube video of someone discussing new monetization rules and checked my Youtube Studio page for more information. Sure enough there was a new section on my page which I highlighted in the following illustration.
The new section refers to access to useful tools and forums and connecting to your fans. It appears I need 500 subscribers to be able to do this.
Earn income by connecting with your fans and gain access to support forums and creator tools
I did not read the fine print carefully after watching the Youtube video. Nevertheless, I stand by my original giggle. My Youtube subscribe button does not work, no matter the requirement for 500 or 1000 subscribers.
DOJ you can take me seriously.
Sunday, August 13, 2023
Over the past week, I have been able to get back to some of the business related issues I put off while adjusting to a new project.
One of my business related issues- involved Amazon's retirement of their Native Ads resource. Though I have not completed the work, I have updated several areas, including:
Another area, promotion and other services related to online content creation. I continue to practice creating my own video content- focusing on technical issues rather than the content itself.
What do I mean? I look at issues- like how to insert video into a round shape which is then overlaid on a larger video. The video editing software I use, Active Presenter is pretty sophisticated.
I want to partner with professionals on a new site WiredCreators.com to offer both promotional and a wide range of technical services for content creators.
Is this market oversaturated? I have audience though my numbers appear to suggest otherwise. Who do you call for help with content creation? Or did someone call you?
What I think I have noticed- content creators are relying on a limited number of technical service providers. Does everyone do their own editing? My information is no and when the brand has a problem- the face on the brand cannot do much about it- because the technical know-how is really someone else's.
How do I know? I have been asked to give up my brand and allow others to keep my face, however promote their products through me. I routinely decline offers of this type. This more to do with the products I chose to promote and not my software development efforts.
Why continue calling or asking about my business if I have no audience?
As related to software development efforts, I get a lot of calls from overseas software developers/businesses to outsource my software development efforts. I also decline these requests, however it is more a legal question. If my brand is on the software, I write the software.
I cannot afford someone else writing software under my brand. I have noticed that on one or two of the applications I have developed for WiredPages- my program has been substituted with someone else's. I have asked DOJ to look into my complaints. Most often the program malfunctions and I can show my code does not.
Okay, you say a Java program is not an edited video from a software package like Active Presenter. Yes, but have you used the many features of a program like Active Presenter? I have tested a lot and know how powerful the software is. That said I understand software. I program.
The other thing I have noticed? Sometimes the videos I upload lose the original resolution. Why?
A lot of folks stopped blogging when they were unable to earn money. What makes you think other content creators can make money? Audience. I can provide audience.
Why continue asking when I have already said no. I have no audience? This post was originally about something else. My new financial efforts, healthier meals, and my new Youtube short video. I have inserted the video. Not because it is great content, but more because it shows I am a legitimate business owner.
DOJ I said no. I used to upload all of my videos to my own site, however cannot afford the bandwidth. I have to use other resources. I have audience- I cannot afford the bandwidth for that audience. What gives? Fraud?
Now I feel less annoyed. Maybe I will remove this post next week.
Thursday, May 04, 2023
Since the beginning of the year (2023), I have had a number of problems with my new real estate site.
I installed the core site area on a subdomain (realty.reginathomas.studio), because I decided to use the WordPress CMS.
I used Wordpress quite a bit in the past, however in 2011 decided the program's programmers changed too many core features for new releases.
In addition, my web hosting services regularly requested I allow the updates for outdated Wordpress installations. This meant I had to stop what I was doing and "fix" any problems that arose because of a new Wordpress update.
This was very time consuming, so I moved on to Thingamablog.
The main site (reginathomas.studio) area is a Thingamablog. I use the main site area as a blog and the subdomain (realty.reginathomas.studio) to maintain property listings.
When (March 2022), I initially installed Wordpress for my new real estate site- the Wordpress version was 5.9.2.
In March 2023, when I began having issues with the automatic updates installed on my site, I changed the wp-config.php to disable the automatic Wordpress updates. See the following illustration.
My current Wordpress version is 6.1.1 and no longer works. The latest release of Wordpress is 6.2.
I spent most of yesterday researching this problem with no luck. It was almost as if someone else was online at the same time changing my .htaccess file as I was trying different options. The error is a 403 code which is normally very easy to correct.
Long story short, I have updated most of the links to the Wordpress site to the blog on the main area. When I stop screaming (get off my site), I will look at this issue again.
Tuesday, April 11, 2023
Lately, I have been preoccupied with personal and home security projects, so in addition to holiday meal preparation, my short term goals through last weekend included those efforts.
This morning, with most of my short term goals in place (have one or two remaining issues with the security projects) I refocused my attention on business efforts.
I have done a lot of research into online content creation resources, income potential, and those currently working in this area.
Though my research provides you probably should not give up your day job to become an online content creator- there is the potential for side income if you have the time.
That said, in my opinion part of the problem lies in how search engines find your content. Bloggers and other content creators used to use online forums and backlinks to create their web presence. Now it is more social media links and the number of likes.
The problem with someone like me? I do not chase social media likes nor posts.
I prefer backlinks and directories. For example, one of the Facebook groups to which I belong- provides membership for regional content creators. When I posted a question to the group searching for a post with a list of links for our members' content- the admin for the group responded that there was an old post somewhere. Upon further research, I discovered Facebook had deleted the post.
When I developed the Blogger Calendar Java application in 2004 for the blogger.com platform, I created a blog post titled, "Dating Your Blog" using "Blogger Calendar" as a keyword.
I then posted to a great many online forums about my new application. Web directories and the older forums services (e.g., BBS) do not delete old forum threads with links.
When using Google, Yahoo, etc. to search for the term "Blogger Calendar" there were many returned references all pointing to one of my forum posts or the blog post itself. And my results were always at the top.
Content creators do not have as many backlinks to their content, instead a person on Facebook or Youtube liked your post. This does not provide the same backlink coverage the old forum posts and directories used to provide.
Of course you can always purchase the top of the search results list. How is that done today? In the past it was the backlinks from forum posts and online directories. I am no sure how Google creates backlinks today or if they are even needed to reach the top of their search results lists.
Social media 'likes' do not create backlinks.
When the Facebook admin responded to my query, I started thinking about how creators might be found without sinking entire budgets into advertising to get top search engine results. That is why I registered MarylandBloggers.com in late February 2023.
SEO (Search Engine Optimization) used to mean- those offering those services went out and did what I did when I developed the Blogger Calendar app, post to a lot of different forums to get top ranking in search engines.
Forums have gone mostly by the wayside, so today I am unsure as to how those providing those services obtain top results in search engine rankings. Backlinks are important. Someone liked your page? Does that get you a backlink? That may get Instagram a backlink.
Because I have created my own online content, I know videos are especially time consuming and you need the right equipment. I use starstat.yt to provide income data for Youtube channels. Given the number of subscribers and the work effort to create some of those videos, I find it a little shocking as to the dollar amounts those creators are generating. Virtually nothing. Can you buy subscribers? It seems the subscribers are not returning.
Someone is making money. I am not sure if it is the creators. I get hits. I do not get credit. I have asked DOJ to investigate.
How do I know I get hits? One, I have to restart my private Tomcat servers on both my hosts too often which tends to show it is not only me visiting my sites. Two, there is other evidence, however a little harder for me to prove. Three, I am the sole admin for my high school alumni group of 6K members. I am sure they are curious about who I am. Why? I always get hits on an external alumni group I belong to. Though the Facebook group is active my business/personal site analytics do not reflect any traffic from this rather large group.
Last year, a large power admins group on Facebook invited me to join because of the high school alumni group. My group is considered clean and rates high on Facebook. Why are those members (Facebook high school alumni group) not curious about who I am- and those on the external alumni group seem to be? The external sites sends email messages about profile hits.
I do not think I am the only content provider not getting credit. What am I trying to do? Old School. Provide a way to have links found.
Sources suggest hits from this blog and other sites I offer do provide audience for links I include in my posts. I registered two new domains this morning- MarylandCreators.com and WiredCreators.com at $10.74 per year for each.
Can I get you hits? I think so.
Tuesday, February 07, 2023
Yesterday, Maryland updated their records reflecting the change of address for my business (QiSoftware). See this Business Blog Remix post for how to search Maryland's records for current business related information.
The comptroller's office updated the records in November 2022, however, the Trade Name Program with the Maryland State Department of Assessments & Taxation took a little longer.
Though the old address will be available for a limited time, on
Monday, January 30, 2023 I stopped by the post office to submit the permanent
forwarding address.
I have held the same business address since 2004 when I setup shop. The
many updates I have to make reflecting the new address is staggering. Shown
below, just some of the updates I have started to make.
I started the update process in November 2022, and continue to find services affiliated with my business that I need to update.
That said, I am happy the Maryland update is now official, in that my business bank required the state to update their records before they (the bank) would update theirs. I will set up an in person appointment for the bank update.
Tuesday, January 31, 2023
Every morning, I check my sites, various site analytics, and my current financial picture.
As I have discussed in recent posts; CD Shopping Update and mid December 2022 post, I have been tracking annual percentage yields (APYs) for 5 year CDs offered by two of my banks hoping to take advantage of rates in the 4.2-4.5% range.
Tomorrow, February 1, 2023- no matter where the rates, I planned to open the
new CD. This morning I was a little more than surprised to learn that APY rates
were down with American Express, the bank I wanted to use. I am not sure
exactly when the rate dropped, but it went from 4.25% to 3.75%.
I was so busy Monday (January 30, 2023) morning, three trips to different area markets, Columbia, MD to my business address, and then the post office to submit a permanent forwarding address for my business- that I may have missed an update on APY rates later in the day.
In addition, in the afternoon (Monday), I had several calls to Maryland taxing agencies concerning business mail I picked up earlier in the day.
On Friday (January 27, 2023), the van I use to do most of the chores would not start. Yes, I do have other vehicles available, however I allowed the van that would not start to annoy me.
Lucky for me, I noticed a charger my brother used once and I purchased something similar not long after. I used the charger to start the van, and then reconditioned the battery (button on the charger), however did not do any of the shopping I planned for Friday. I waited until Monday. I was so happy I could get to all of my shopping and Columbia that I was not going to do anything but handle issues that came up.
Translated, the (AMEX) bank CD rates going down did not jump up and scream like all of the mail from my business address.
This morning, wide awake and happy most of my business issues were resolved, I got back on track and discovered I missed the CD American Express bank rate change that was lower.
Before eight this morning, I opened the new CD with Synchrony for 5 years at 4.30% and directly set up an external transfer from the American Express savings account to the new Synchrony CD account.
I decided not to bore you with some of the details, however to change a business address in Maryland seems so hard I believe they want me to ask an attorney to do it. I set up the business, I am not sure why I need an attorney to change the address. That said the Comptroller of Maryland (taxing authority) had no problem updating the address when I sent Form 109-B MARYLAND CHANGE OF ADDRESS FOR BUSINESSES in October 2022. One of my calls on today- spoke with Brittany. I also registered with bFile the interactive business tax filing service even though I have had no sales since setting up my ecommerce shop. I file something known as a ZERO Return each quarter.
When I check the APY rates tomorrow morning, I am not going to scream if Synchrony's rates are higher.
By the way, I think all girls with vehicles should have automotive accessories in their garage similar to these in my garage.
Friday, December 09, 2022
Yesterday, I went by two supermarkets for staples and Costco for gas. I spent a total of $145 with about $35 of that for the gas. Yesterday, gas was $2.95 per gallon at Costco.
Monday, November 14, 2022
In a recent blog post, I discussed issues I noticed with my FICO score when I applied for the Amazon Store Card.
This post provides a bit of an update in that my FICO score, as reported by Mint- as of November 9, 2022, based on the TransUnion VantageScore® breakdown, increased by 7 points to 766 from the low of 759 after the application process for the Amazon Store Card.
What happened on November 9, 2022? There was another credit inquiry from Chase Bank because on that day I applied for the Amazon Signature Visa Card. So why did it go up? I am researching all of this.
Why was I applying for credit cards, anyway?
- Credit reporting agencies contend negative data because I did not have enough debt or credit cards. Only one Mastercard and several personal & business debit cards.
- Rewards on existing Mastercard not as attractive as offerings from other banks.
- Amazon Signature Visa offers rewards, not the Amazon Store Card I applied for on Oct. 6, 2022. In both cases I received Amazon Gift cards when my applications were approved for a total of $160.00.
Why do I share this type of information? I need total transparency. Odd things happen to me. Recently (Sept. 30, 2022) I received two invoices via PayPal claiming I owed $299 each for something to do with Microsoft applications. Had no idea why those invoices were sent to me.
When I tried to have Paypal correct these issues, they indicated I could just ignore them. That said, the invoices are still showing on my dashboard and I cannot seem to report I did not order any software from Microsoft.
I use PayPal for my ecommerce shop, and most other payment options. I have had some pressure to switch (not sure why since I get no hits on WiredShops), however, my business bank and other payment options are not as cost effective as PayPal at this time. I am not sure if this is why I have noticed more odd issues than normal.
Prior to that, for some reason, Facebook decided QiSoftware was no longer a legal business entity. Instagram thinks QiSoftware is a business, my banks, PayPal, etc. all consider QiSoftware a business entity. Facebook recorded QiSoftware as a business entity in 2008 when I first joined.
In June 2022, they decided QiSoftware was not a business. I can ask them to reverify, however during the time of the verification process I was getting strange calls on my business line from characters with heavy accents. It may have been one of those calls that determined I was not a legit business, however I am not sure what happened. Just not in the mood to argue about this with Facebook. After I have my banks and Maryland update my business address I will look into this again.
I should also provide, in April 2022 QiSoftware was again verified as a business on Facebook and then in June 2022 for some reason they requested a reverification. It failed. If you are a Facebook developer you may know they do this a lot with applications. Why do you need those permissions, etc? I can easily prove QiSoftware is a business entity so I was surprised they did this.
Other minor issues that seem odd. Decided at this time, I want full transparency.
Friday, August 26, 2022
The general idea of my financial planning is to save every penny possible, only allowing for business and limited social expenses, i.e., birthdays, holidays, and every now and again a treat.
For legal reasons, which I am not going to reiterate in this post, I also like my financial picture to be totally transparent.
This- the reason I provide the illustration below of the "overview" of my Mint account, showing a redacted accounting of all of my active financial accounts.
If this is meant to be a transparent overview, why is the illustration redacted? Legal authorities, businesses, agencies (e.g. Maryland Real Estate Commission) and higher education institutions can all easily verify the information I am providing, so I mean transparent in that regard.
Recently, I have had a series of appointments with one or two of my banks for a couple of reasons. One, I needed a notary and two, I have a 5 year CD that is about to mature.
You will note from the above illustration, most of the financial institutions I deal with are primarily online service providers. Wells Fargo and Bank of America have local branches that I visit on occasion and represent the institutions I use for both business and personal checking and savings accounts respectively.
Interest yield rates are going up, and my business bank no longer charges as much for the monthly service fee and has also lowered the amount I need to maintain to avoid the fee altogether. So I no longer need to maintain a $10,000 CD with the bank to avoid the monthly service fee and I wanted to ensure the CD would not automatically rollover when it matures next month.
I also needed a notary for some legal documents. I made three appointments and attempted one walk-in (UPS Store in Hanover), before I finally had my document notarized. I was surprised by how hard this was, especially, in that I made appointments. The last bank appointment worked.
I have no choice at this time but to save money and try to find the best rates possible. I really cannot afford a financial planner (for market investments) so as with everything else, I learn what I need to learn and do it myself which means in my case, no risky investments.
Some of my recent issues rather surprised me, so I thought I would note it for the record. I mainly do things like this for legal authorities.
Tuesday, April 26, 2022
Yesterday, my brokerage office sent over a copy of the PDF file, the Maryland Real Estate Commission (MREC) issued to my broker, providing a copy of my license and pocket card.
Monday, December 27, 2021
As previously discussed, site promotion for the new QiSoftware shopping site, WiredShops, was cancelled for the upcoming holiday season. The site went live the beginning of November (2021), however because of problems with payment processing and shipping times, the decision was made to forgo heavy site promotion.
Though the site has been live since November, there have been no sales. If you feel this is in error, please contact the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3).
The site is driven by the Opencart platform. At any given time, the Opencart administration panel reflects the number of visitors to the site.
Payment processing issues included problems with non-registered PayPal buyers. For some reason the payment processing for these types of purchases would hang and not process debit and credit card information.
Tests showed, buyers registered with PayPal accounts had less problems.
At this time, PayPal is a cost effective solution which protects both my commerce enterprise and buyers. I have no immediate plans to switch to merchant services offered by my business bank, even though this option is available.
Since mid-September, I have submitted 5 separate orders to my suppliers to check products and understand the process. I am pretty happy with the products I received and received all of the items ordered.
The early orders seemed to take forever to arrive, so I have tested other shipping options with better results. A big reason for the "no holiday promotion" decision this year, I wanted to understand how to correctly select shipping options.
The items I ordered as holiday gifts, using revised shipping options, arrived well before the holiday. I did not use next day service, and the order took about 12 days. WiredShops does offer next day service for an additional fee.
Abstract noise has provided that I have other problems that I would like the proper authorities to look into. Since, I cannot prove any of the allegations, I am looking into other ways to have this checked.
Thursday, December 09, 2021
In March 2020, because of COVID-19, spending outside of normal upkeep was only done if absolutely necessary. Some years earlier, I setup all of my accounts in in the Microsoft Money Sunset Business version. I have 4 banks, PayPal and at any given time, several accounts associated with each bank, including checking, CDs and savings accounts. Today, I have 8 bank accounts, including the funds I maintain via PayPal.
All of my accounts are linked, in that I can easily transfer funds between external accounts if needed.
In 2020, I started handling all my mother's accounts. Mainly, because the trip to HR & Block was a trip she did not want to make at the time. My mother has 3 banks, however she is not a business owner, so I setup her financial data in the Microsoft Money Sunset version for personal use.
Before my father died, I used to do their taxes. Because of my own legal issues, I stopped doing my mother's taxes about 5 years after his death, then started again in 2020 because of the pandemic.
Quick frankly, my business does have assets, so mostly to avoid any legal issues where tax filings were concerned, in April 2021, I setup legal assurances to ensure everyone was protected.
I have always had my mother's permission to act on her behalf, as many of her household account organizations i.e., electric, phone, cable, etc. can attest to. I also set her up so she could pay bills online. She likes checks and the USPS.
Me, when I write a check, I use a form I created using Microsoft Publisher and blank checks I ordered from Amazon. I seldom write checks. The last, a redacted copy as rendered by Microsoft Publisher is shown below.
The check was deposited from my personal checking account to my business savings account before I linked all of my bank accounts.
I am very happy with Microsoft Money, in terms of cost to own, and the power it gives me to track everything to the penny for both me, my business and all of my mother's personal accounts. She has many.
Over the last 2 years, interest rates on CDs have not been great. I used to routinely, setup 12-18 month CDs at Synchrony (one of my banks) with rates well over 1%. The only CD I have now is a 5 year CD I setup in Sept. 2017 at my business bank. The rate is only .35%, however I set it up to ensure I avoided a $14.00 monthly maintenance fee on my checking account.
At the time, if I maintained $10,000 or more in combined accounts I could avoid the monthly checking and savings account fees. So I set up a CD for $10,000.
Since then, my business bank has revamped their charges (COVID impact), and now the fees are under $10 however I continue to maintain the combined balance to avoid maintenance fees, altogether.
CD rates are picking up again. Both my mother and I maintain too much is low interest bearing checking accounts and I have been researching ways to invest in CDs with higher rates. Why not stocks? I like more guaranteed returns on investments. When setting up savings accounts with the corporations I worked for, i.e., Boeing, GE, Rockwell, I always selected guaranteed returns though I could have invested in higher return options with less guarantees. I never gamble with money. Not mine, not my mother's.
When I setup the legal paperwork for handling financial planning, I was taking a real estate course and did quite a bit of research into the types of legal documents I needed to protect all parties.
I am told, I did a great job with the legal documents I created which were notarized in April 2021. Actually about 2 years ago, it was a customer service rep with BG&E who suggested this legal solution.
Why all of the transparency? You would not believe the legal issues I have had over the years, or maybe you would. I am owed an explanation from DOJ.
FBI, over the many years I have maintained my business (since 2004), I have noticed anomalies where my business banking is concerned. This is a legal notice of shorts. I am aware you have looked into some of these issues. I am hoping you are still looking into these issues.
Wednesday, November 17, 2021
My mother's birthday is normally a week before Thanksgiving- so I have had more projects than normal this year.
The following, a list of projects over the last week- in addition to my normal activities.
- Wednesday, November 10, 2021, ordered a new over the range microwave (handle broke on the old)
- Microwave delivered, Friday, November 12, 2021
- Went shopping for holidays, birthday (11/12/21)
- Saturday, November 13, 2021 family emergency health issue.
- November 15, 2021 went by Lowes to sign contract for microwave installation.
- Went by PNC Bank in Odenton to take care of some paperwork. (11/15/21)
- Went to the market for more holiday, birthday items. (11/15/21)
- Tuesday, November 16, 2021, made lemon loaves and buttermilk cake with chocolate butter cream icing.
- Today is Wednesday, November 17th, 2021.
Photos over the last week...
Peak autumn colors in our area over the weekend...
Long day of deliveries, shopping, and taking photos. I look tired.
Yesterday, I started the baking for the upcoming birthday and holidays. The lemon loaf recipe is discussed in this post.
I think I have perfected the recipe for the buttermilk cake and will provide the exact details in a later post.
Are you ready for the holidays?
Update: Nov. 18, 2021. The new microwave was installed today in less than 30 minutes.
For some reason, I thought I would have a difficult time coordinating the purchase, delivery, installation, and haul away for this project. Very pleased with how all of this worked out, especially in that the new microwave was larger than the original and the guys had to install new brackets in the upper cabinet and the wall behind the oven.
Ordered last Wednesday (Nov. 10, 2021), installed and working by the following Thursday, with all of the details handled by Lowes.
Wednesday, October 06, 2021
I spent most of September (2021) learning about online commerce and why Amazon.com is amazon.com.
WiredShops is now open and the cart is in production mode. Note, I am using PayPal exclusively to handle all transactions securely through their gateways.
I am happy I decided to add to my skill set in this area. Opencart was an easy application to install and configure for my needs and I am satisfied with the results. Some of the major tasks associated with this project, included:
- Understanding drop shipping.
- Automating the process using APIs.
- Creating a Microsoft Access database to track all of my orders.
- Selecting and obtaining inventory I could afford to maintain.
- Analysis of shipping times and costs.
- Ensuring compliance with the state of Maryland insofar as sales tax.
- Research of products, sourcing the products (ensuring I can backup sales activity with actual inventory), and adding the items to my shop.
- Issues with browsers and CORS. Spent a Sunday afternoon researching Font-Awesome problems which turned out to be because of browser CORS related issues and the fact my sites use Apache Tomcat.
- Legal disclaimers.
The illustration below shows the new sales and use tax number I applied for to ensure I am in compliance with Maryland laws and sales tax regulations.
My core business is software consulting and advertising. I pay taxes on income derived from consulting and advertising activities as reported to the state and IRS. Sales tax on items sold in state through commerce is different and must be reported and collected at the time of sale.
As noted above, I also created a new database to maintain orders. I needed to ensure my orders and the drop shipping orders were in sync. Below an illustration of the design view of the Orders table.
Finally, one of the items I wanted to have on hand, the earrings shown below.
Quite honestly, I used to wear a different type of earring to the office. Today, I wear a pair of inexpensive diamond-like studs. I do not want my mask to snare an expensive earring. I was pleasantly surprised by the weight and how these earrings looked. I can also afford to lose one.
I enjoy researching products and adding them to my shops. I wish I could afford to order everything and ensure it is exactly- what I hoped it would be, however WiredShops does accept returns.
I will probably get back to programming and other projects, but I have to say- I thought this whole experience, very interesting. I am happy I have something to do if other areas of my life and business are not taking up too much of my time.
I worked at Circuit City part time for about three of the four years while in college. A lot of the part timers were college students. I enjoyed my experience in this area-- and understand retail operations in the "brick & mortar" sense. I love learning new things.
Friday, June 11, 2021
In September 2018, I developed a new world weather interface for WiredPages. I discuss the new tool (September 2018) in this blog post.
The following illustration is the same graphic used in the post referenced above, to show in September 2018 I was still doing most of my software development work using my MacBook. You can tell by the standalone application shots running in the Mac version of Firefox.
In January 2019, the original Yahoo! API was retired so I had to come up with another source of real time weather data.
Luckily, Yahoo! had another offering, although more complicated to integrate than the original, I worked out the issues and reinstalled a revised WeatherTool in late January 2019.
In late April 2021, I was notified that the Yahoo! Weather API was being retired and thanked for my interest in the resource. I wanted to believe the notification referred to the resource retired in January 2019 and not the feed I was currently using for the weather interface used on WiredPages.
That said, just in case my Yahoo! powered tool would become inoperable on June 1, 2021, as the email indicated, I developed another interface using a new data source. I wrote about the new interface on Mother's Day of this year, in this post.
The illustration below is from the May 9, 2021 (Mother's Day) post. It shows the then current Yahoo! WeatherTool side by side with the new interface using WeatherAPI data, running in my standalone development environment.
So why are you seeing a Weather Widget from WeatherWidget.io on the main page of WiredPages, as illustrated in the screen grab below and not the new WeatherAPI powered interface?
Too many security issues. As I have already indicated, the Yahoo! Weather interface developed in January 2019 was difficult, and should have been the tool I would not want installed on a less secure server. I like the new WeatherAPI tool, and it is ready for installation, however there is just something about the many issues I am having of late, that I do not like and so I am going to hold off on installing my new interface.
Tuesday, May 18, 2021
In late 2004, I converted my local news service, MarylandWired to WiredPages which offered more in the way of national/international news and services.
I wanted to showcase my custom software solutions and felt a news service would be the perfect vehicle to highlight what could be done with software to enhance any online presence.
Recently, because of security and cost issues related to the online installation of new tools and interfaces for WiredPages, I have sought less costly development avenues using economic data provided through the Federal Reserve FRED resource.
Two of the latest FRED interfaces will be showcased on the WiredPages Business & Markets page and are illustrated below.
A potential client of QiSoftware may inquire- if you cannot afford to install your software online, why can I? Reference the following link while going through the list below.
- I host my software on two sites, qisoftware.com and hosting-q.com. There is already a lot of software running, more than a normal personal or small business site, simply because my business is software.
- Software security, I noticed long ago my custom databases were being hacked. The celebrity birthday database is one example. I keep a master copy of the MySQL database offline for development purposes. I also have the CIA World Factbook database. Both databases are very popular. My servers at this time, are not as secure as I would like and I cannot afford to install software that others can access and decompile. Why is DOJ/FBI not on this? I am not sure of the answer to this.
- Cost to run tools like Alexa Site Rank, Google Places (replaces the eventful tool on the WiredPages Style & Events page), real time market data, etc., cost.
- Tools like the Youtube Music Video Search and FatSecret were installed a long time ago, however although the software is ready for installation, are not installed. This is because, even though I believe I grandfathered in with Youtube API services, once installed online, this status may change. The old Youtube interface was rewritten to handle updates to the API service.
- The NPR offering, was complicated to implement. I want a secure server.
Someone once advised, look into hosting your own sites and perhaps think about employing your own expensive security team. Did I think they were kidding? No. I can afford to do neither of these things.
He felt my two biggest expenses should have been, hosting my sites and a personal security team. T1 lines are very expensive. In any case, why on earth would I need personal security? What I can say, I have seen some pretty amazing things since the mid 90s. I used to ask why me. At the time, I had not developed the custom solutions, I have today. Part of the legal case, provides that my business is being interfered with. I did not start my business until 2004.
What happened to me-- insofar as a legal case, could be worth a lot. As a matter of fact, I am told my legal "worth" is considerable. My actual worth? One other factor. When I am out, people do suggest they understand that part of the equation. What do you think?
I get a lot of offshore partnership requests. In response to these requests, I provide, because of ongoing legal issues I cannot afford to partner with anyone. I have to be able to account for anything I do as related to business or my personal activities. Sometimes other business organizations do not see the problems that might happen. I can assure you, problems exist.
FBI/DOJ, problems you see and hear. I said no. I cannot afford my own security. The front door was smashed in, August 2018. I said no. Hard heads are not listening.
