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By Posted on Posted in Not Workers Compensation, Technobabble Tagged with , , , , , ,
May
27
2009
SPAM so fresh, you can eat it as sushi!
SPAM so fresh, you can eat it as sushi!

Several months ago I listed several obvious and non-obvious benefits to owning your own domain name. 1  One of the less than obvious benefits was a way to avoid and stop spam.  Two easy ways to do this are to:

  • Set up a default e-mail address  to collect all the misaddressed mail.  Then, if you have to sign up for something or give out a valid e-mail address, you just make up an e-mail address at your domain.  It will go to your server and then be directed to your “catch-all” address.  If the made-up address includes the name of the place you gave your e-mail address to, then you know the source of your spam.  This is easy to fix by just creating a filter at the server for that one address.
  • You can also create an address just for the purposes of giving out to sites/people you think will send you spam.  If you get too much, just delete the account.

In just the last two months I’ve been getting spam about:

  • Why celebrities love the acai berry
  • Free life insurance quotes
  • Discount ink and toner
  • Protecting my family against financial hardship

A while ago I sent an e-card to a friend of mine.  EVER since then I’ve been getting these spam e-mails to that address.  How do I know these e-mails are from that e-card website?

All of these spam e-mails are being sent to:  happy.birthday.from.me@pdrater.com !

  1. Photo courtesy of chotda [↩]

By Posted on Posted in Not Workers Compensation Tagged with , , , , , , , ,
May
21
2009
Chuck Season 3
Chuck Season 3

The NBC show Chuck is about a nerd turned hero.  I found out yesterday that it was renewed for a third season.  This got me thinking – why not a dramedy about a devilishly handsome workers’ compensation defense attorney?  Here are a few ideas:

  • “Readiness to Proceed” – a wacky romantic comedy about two attorneys afraid to “compromise and release”
  • “CA-PD New (Schedule)”
  • “EAMS: Rise of the Machines” – Jay Shergill fights against a cyborg-govenor and travels back in time to stop the DWC from adopting EAMS
  • “Stip and Order“

NO!  Even better:  “Stockton Legal”1

  1. Denny Crane! [↩]

By Posted on Posted in Author, PDRater Tagged with , , ,
May
19
2009
A blustery day at the Stockton WCAB
A blustery day at the Stockton WCAB

I’ve got a hearing at the Stockton WCAB this morning. 1  Stop by and say hello if you’re in the area.

  1. Photo thanks to Google and their StreetView [↩]

By Posted on Posted in 1997 PDRS, 2005 PDRS, Author, Calculators, Cell Phones, Combined Values Chart, DFEC Rebuttal, Free, Ogilvie, PDRater, Technobabble, Website Updates, Workers Compensation Resources Tagged with , , , , , , , , , ,
May
18
2009
Permanent disability calculators that will fit in your pocket!
Permanent disability calculators that will fit in any pocket!

I was at the San Jose WCAB on Friday.  Since recently discovering that I could run this website’s permanent disability rating calculators from my phone’s web browser, this was the first time I left my rating manual, money chart, and date wheel in the car.1

It was great.  That morning I used my phone to:

  • Find the ADJ number associated with the legacy SJO number on my file
  • Calculate an Ogilvie adjustment of a rating string
  • Calculate the number days between two dates
  • Perform old and new schedule ratings
  • Perform a CVC (combined values chart) calculation2

The benefit for me is not so much that I don’t have to carry the rating manuals, dollar value charts, and date wheels.  Unlike these tools, my phone is not something I’m going to misplace or loan and never see again.

The best part is that if I want to refer back to the calculation I just performed, I can just e-mail it to myself!

  1. Photo courtesy of .robbie [↩]
  2. Oh, and I called my client at one point.  Ha! [↩]

By Posted on Posted in 1997 PDRS, 2005 PDRS, AJAX, Average Weekly Wage, Calculators, Cell Phones, Free, Javascript, PDRater, Technobabble, Website Updates, Workers Compensation Resources Tagged with , , , , , , , ,
May
13
2009
This phone will not run PDRater calculators, but yours might!
This phone will not run PDRater calculators, but yours might!

I recently discovered that installing the Opera Mini web browser on my “smartphone” has allowed me to run this website’s workers’ compensation calculators from my phone.1

Since launching this website I’ve given a lot of thought to support for cell phones.  There just are not many phones that can run these calculators.2 The glaring and notable exception is the iPhone.

Amusingly, one of this website’s users has asked for an “iPhone app” version of this site.  Seriously, you’ve got one of the few phones that can use this site and that’s not good enough for you?  (Thanks Chris!)

This is huge.  It means:

  • I can blog from the Board3
  • More importantly, no more bulky money charts or rating manuals at the Board!
  1. Photo courtesy of storm gal [↩]
  2. It would be more correct to say there are not many phones that support javascript and AJAX well enough to interact with this website in a meaningful fashion. [↩]
  3. Probably a lot more interesting for me than it is for you… [↩]