Just saw this interesting article about Windows 8 reporting everything you install to Redmond. Mountain Lion phones home too, ostensibly for security updates, not to tell Apple exactly what applications you are running. Of course, if you purchase from the App store, it’s sort of a moo point.

From the eBay help page:

If the buyer is still registered, please give the buyer 4 days to pay.

Okay, that sounds reasonable. You need to wait 4 days before taking any action against a user who hasn’t paid. In all of my auctions, I always specify that payments must be made within 3 business days of the auction’s termination, but apparently eBay is giving everyone a free 4th day.

Where things go bonkers is when you read how you have to resolve the situation once the first 4 days have passed. You open a case and then…

The buyer has up to 4 days to send a payment after the case is opened. During this time the buyer can also contact you to request a payment extension or make another arrangement. Of course you can agree to the buyer’s request, but you’re not obligated to make special arrangements.

So wait… no matter what I specify in my auction, any buyer can just wait 8 days before paying me. Here’s why that’s a problem: if the winning bidder waits 8 days, then decides not to pay, anyone else whom they outbid has probably already moved on. Heck, they could have paid and had it arrive in the mail before eBay lets you cancel the winning bid. So as a seller, I’m basically going to have to relist the item, wait another 7 days, then hope that this time the buyer pays, and that the auction sold for relatively the same amount.

Good to know that no matter what, you can always wait 8 days before paying for something you win on eBay.

I signed up for the App.net alpha, mostly to reserve my username. However, based on what’s happening at Twitter, it will probably be nice to have an alternative soon. It will be interesting to see how a social networking site driven on revenue from users rather than advertisers scales.

appdotnet - “App.net”

See also all promos for Instagram, Tumblr, Facebook etc

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I hate pretty much every website related to paying bills, and it’s not only because they make use of irrelevant stock photos:

“Would it be possible for you to tell me if there is an online bill pay there, and if so sir, may I converse with her briefly?”