2023 Quick Daily Posts

[Mabel Figworthy]

What interesting looking birds!

[Serinde]

Just a reminder to our happy forum users to be very careful and guard against credit card fraud and copyright infringements. I'm sure we are all good kiddos, but the number of stitching business owners out there who have fallen foul of thieves and miscreants is rising again. My heart goes out to Yvette Stanton and Jessica Grimm, two in a long line. Can't tell you how angry it makes me.

And to any trickster reading this (there were 12 non-members reading when I logged on; not all intent on trying to do bad things, I optimistically presume), know that even if you are "successful" in your thievery today, karma -- in a whole host of forms -- will get you tomorrow.

[rcperryls]

What interesting looking birds!

They are so much fun to watch as they do their diving for fish. And we are lucky that the males are in full courting mode while they are here. The white hoods are brilliant in the sun. The creek is a tidal creek so we get a lot of water birds at different times of the year and every once in a while will see one that is new. My next door neighbor and I are often texting about "look out the back door." It's either a new bird we haven't seen or returning ones, like the mergansers.

Serinde,
I was not happy to hear that copyright infringement is on the rise. Not about credit card and other frauds which are perpetual problems. There is something a little uglier about copyright infringement because it seems more personal to me. And I feel this way about any art or craft that this happens to.

Carole

[Mabel Figworthy]

My heart goes out to Yvette Stanton and Jessica Grimm, two in a long line.

Is this a recent development? I've not heard anything. What a worry for them

[richardandtracy]

I really feel for those who do lose out as a result of card fraud or copyright theft, to have a business undermined by those who steal & grab is awful.

I was amazed at being the 'victim' of copyright theft this year.
Amongst other things, I create sets of poses for 3D figures so that people making pictures can get their figures to a believable pose they want quickly & easily. I generally put them up on a content site in bundles of 5 as freebies. Earlier this year, I was informed that someone at an adult site had copied & was selling one of my poses as part of a saucy set of 15 poses. Not great. I made a copyright infringement complaint, which was upheld and the product was withdrawn.
Absolutely ridiculous.

Anyway, I am fortunate that I lost nothing apart from (possibly) the kudos of a couple of extra downloads being flagged next to my set, and it was sorted out pretty quickly.

Regards,

Richard.

[Serinde]

My heart goes out to Yvette Stanton and Jessica Grimm, two in a long line.

Is this a recent development? I've not heard anything. What a worry for them

Yes, Mabel, it is for Jessica (read her blog for the detail), and apparently Yvette has been struggling with this for a while. Grrr.

@Richard: I remember when that happened. It makes me so flipping cross.

[fccs]

I get so angry with people who violate copyright laws, not only for the smaller business owners but for the big companies as well. There are several open cross stitch groups on Facebook that allow people to share photos of their "illegal" WIPs, even allowing them to share where they obtained the charts and/or kits. What the heck? It doesn't matter if you're stealing from an individual or a small business or a large corporation. Theft is theft.

[Mabel Figworthy]

The credit card problem is a really difficult one. We had a customer from Australia reverse a credit card payment because he couldn't remember having authorised it and "he didn't know who the payment was to", even though he had just ordered some very expensive parts from us and his own credit card statement (which we later saw a scan of) actually had our company name on the transaction.

Even so, we never got the fine back, or all the time, effort and money we had to spend fighting the claim - the moment a customer says "I didn't authorise that", without any backing up, the money is taken from you. We simply refused to deal with him anymore, but we were still financially the losers.

[rcperryls]

That's a new kind of theft that happened to you and your DH, Mabel. One that I never thought of but I'd be willing happens to companies more than I would imagine. Ordering things online and then reversing the charge and denying that you made the charge in the first place. I expect that doesn't hurt large companies because they just write it off, but for small businesses that is no different than plain old stealing.

Debby, I'm never surprised when I hear that the large social networks do nothing to prevent copyright abuse. They don't do much, if anything to prevent violent, prejudiced and other assorted evils from their pages.

I try very hard to avoid them. I'm sure I miss out on some really good and positive stuff also, but the only time I'm on FB is the times we have forum problems. Then it doesn't see me again.

Carole

[Serinde]

Part of DH's family run a WhatsApp group, so I now (very recently; almost never used) am on that. Otherwise no social media at all, which apparently makes me a very suspicious sort of person in this day and age. I only vaguely wish I was able to go on Instagram. I had "free" access to the Guild account when I was secretary, and was absolutely blown away and inspired by all the creativity I found. It also seemed easier to avoid the cruddy stuff.

[richardandtracy]

I've heard that the credit card companies are very quick to blame the retailer, but hadn't known that there are additional fines etc. That's not nice at all. Can't blame you for not dealing with the customer again.

On a slightly nicer note, I got home to a warm house yesterday. Very humid, but warm.
Our boiler died on 11 October and on Wednesday a plumber came in to replace the boiler with a modern, more efficient one.
By last night the system was installed & working. It was very nice, but due to the damp the house had picked up while only sporadically heated by the fireplaces, the humidity was noticeable when walking in through the front door - even though at that point we were experiencing the lashing rain of the last dregs of Storm Ciaran (an Irish name, pronounced 'Keer-on' apparently).

The cats - well, they appreciated both getting the house back and the warm radiators.

Regards,

Richard

[Mabel Figworthy]

Glad you're back to warmth, even if it is a bit muggy for a while!

Yes, Ciaran (and the female version Ciara) is pronounced something like "kee-er-e(n)". I also give you Siobhan (shuh-vawn) and Niamh (neeve).

[richardandtracy]

Not to mention 'Eithne' - pronounced 'Enya' (elder daughter's anglicized name & spelling)

Regards,

Richard.

[Mabel Figworthy]

Excited squeak!

I learnt about the Treasures of Gold and Silver Wires exhibition (which celebrates the 400 anniversary of the Worshipful Company of Gold and Silver Wyre Drawers) just after I'd come back from teaching in London last month

But DH convinced me I shouldn't miss this, so I've booked the train and the exhibition for next Tuesday - yay !

[Serinde]

You will really enjoy that, Mabel. Hope we'll get a report!

[Mabel Figworthy]

I haven't even done my benton & Johnson report yet - there is rather too much going on at the moment. But I'll try and show some pictures. My Dutch fellow RSN student Marlous, whom I usually meet up with at the K&S, had been but didn't mention it to me! She wrote a bit about it on here FB page here, with some stunning pictures.

[richardandtracy]

That exhibition is going to be an eye opener.
I'm always awed by what can be done by a skilled metalworker. The industrial processes commonly used these days are so limited in comparison, just to keep the labour down. When the cost of labour is comparatively insignificant to the article's value, you can do almost anything you can imagine.

Regards,

Richard

[Mabel Figworthy]

I must say that being shown around B&J for 80 minutes has definitely opened my eyes to the amount of labour that goes into goldwork materials - some of them took 6 or 7 passes/processes before they are finished, and although there are machines there is an awful lot of hand work. I am much more sympathetic to goldwork material prices now!
Really looking forward to the exhibition, especially the opportunity to see in real life the mermaid I wrote about on FoF

[Serinde]

Whisper it... DH is installing new gubbins for the new network provider... and it's working...

[richardandtracy]

That's good. Hope it continues.

Regards,

Richard