TruXter Tech

A Letter to Wamu-Chase

Posted on2009/05/08AuthorTech News4 Comments

I am upset with the measures of Washington Mutual’s online checking.
The past 2 months i am getting $150 in overdraft charges because their system has a crappy update and refresh. Why do they assure you they have online account status when what you get is just account related items. Let’s look at the word “status”
http://www.answers.com/topic/status There are 4 definitions. The fourth one is what we believe they mean, but it looks like the first is what protects them from a lawsuite.
Here is the letter i sent, angry and frustrated.

Message Sent: 05/08/2009 10:16 AM (Central Daylight Time)
Confirmation Number: ________________
Subject: Technical Problems

Platform: WinXP
Browser: Other
Internet Connection: Cable Modem
Why is it that your online checking status does not show charges for almost four days, unless you go over draft?

There is something fishy about the way this happens. is there a bug in your mysql db? If so i probably can fix this. Is your php script not functioning? or , just to go out on a huge limb here, is this the only way you make money ? i mean that is far fetched but it seems you are leeching on the poor. If you say you have online checking status, can you at least make it actual status? Really, why is there a “pending” and then weird limbo charges. should they all not be pending untill complete? the credit machine makes an query to verification, then it reports it’s charges, then it confirms.

I can build this junk, I do it all the time, but i am crappy at bookkeeping.

Maybe I should gather more information and make a blog about this and put advertisements around it and try and get my money back at your expense. sound fair?does to me.

I used their “message system”.
The best explanation i have recieved for this is “well our online status is not perfect”.
My response is ” You hold my money with the impression you can help me with poor book keeping, looks like your crummy ‘professional service’ requires me to save the receipt to every hot dog and coffee I buy, so basicly you do nothing but hold my money and charge me for trusting your software”.
The person replied “well the software is not mine”
My forehead bulged out, I felt like they just yelled ” I know you are but what am I” left me lost for words.

*************UPDATE**********
This is their response.

Dear TruXter:

Thanks for contacting WaMu, now a part of Chase!

A pending item is an item that has not yet posted but is held against
your account, and can include debit card transactions, pledges, deposit
holds, and other legal restraints. The Transaction History page for your
account on wamu.com displays only two types of pending items: A deposit
hold based on our funds availability policy; and, some but not all
pending Debit Card transactions held against your account.

The amount of the pending item transaction or hold reduces your
available balance and therefore is included in your available balance
amount on the “Your Account” page.

Pending items are not included as part of the running (ledger) balance
on the Transaction History page. You can continue to visit your
Transaction History Page to confirm when these items post to your
account, at which time they will be included in the running balance.

We have added these items to the Transaction History page to provide
additional account information to you. However, since these are only
some of your pending items, you need to continue to track all pending
account transactions.

For pending debit card transactions, the pending item typically posts to
your account within three business days. However, if a merchant does not
complete the transaction it will expire and the temporary charges will
be removed. Also, sometimes the pending transaction may be different
from the amount you anticipated because of an estimated authorization or
a tip. However, when your purchase posts, you will see the correct
amount.

Of course, if you ever see a pending transaction that for some reason
just doesn’t look right to you, give us a call at 800.xxx.xxxx and we’ll
be happy to assist you.

Sincerely
(name not needed)
WaMu Technical Support, now backed by the strength of JPMorgan Chase

Pretty Automated. They didn’t want to even read the thing and they just sent me a blur of a response.
Well it has been about 15 transactions and 9 days since I started timing them, still no updates yet.
My account has one pending item on it that has been there since before I started freaking out about the service. and yes I have plenty of cash in there.

******update ended****

Terminator Predator Or Transformers?

Posted on2009/05/06AuthorTech News2 Comments

Simply put, who would win?
Terminator is like an Earth created computer virus. Then again, so are transformers. Predator is the most advanced of fleshly beings in that mythical triangle so they might be advanced enough to say ” yeah we have done this before” . But they are of the flesh and they can only learn so fast.
Terminator Has the Mercury(?) shape shifter dude from T2 and the female from T3, and a few from the chronicles.
Transformers are freaking tough and advanced but how advanced? I don’t think the Decepticons where so brutal as terminators.

So question is.
Who do YOU, think will win?

Post a response and please explain don’t be a newb.

What is wamu’s Motive?

Posted on2009/05/05AuthorTech News

I signed up to Washington mutual after a friend of mine suggested I give the online registration a try. I was really impressed with how easy it was to set up my account. My friend did not have a current back account for some reason or another so he had to go to a wamu in person and do his first deposit in person. I on the other hand have an account at another bank and it was a snap to use routing numbers blah blah yadda, and transfer funds to the wamu account. If I would have used a credit card, the least I could have transfered would have been $50. Since this is something I am “trying out” I do not want to flop around fifty freakin bucks. Ya know? really that is no issue at all, I completely (almost) understand .

So I go to my local Washington mutual and swing by to set up my atm card and deposit a little bit of money into my checking account, I did have a couple bills to pay and they where kinda on my way so I was going to just make a few rounds and get some stuff done. I handed the little blinky eyed dude my check and he suddenly bloated up on my and before I could say how much I wanted deposited and how much cash I needed he informed me they would be hanging on to my check for a week to verify that it is a legit check. I tell him and assure him that it is not a personal and point the difference… lol that ticked him off. :P

Well after a little bit of huffing we decided it would be in my best interest if I just went to my current bank and cash my check there and come back to wamu deposit what ever I want to, in cash. Ok he decided he was not going to help me and I suggested that I come back with cash for his ghetto bank.

What ever.

So that is what I did. I put a little in the free online checking and a little in the free online savings.

Now we all have seen teh commercials with a skinny dude and the butt load of snotty bankers who want to charge atm fees and check fees and all of that, right ?

Well now the story gets really good. I decide to go a month or so and not touch that account I was already ticked off pretty good. Before I leave work one I look into my account information at an atm… Just a balance inquiry, not a withdrawal. Should be no fees if there are NO atm fees. . hmmm $2 less than what I put into my account, why is this like this on my statement ?

I go home and check my balance and low and behold, Tadda, Washington mutual charged me for a balance inquiry. How do I know this? well I use that same atm who is through citibank, and not through my other bank, well I have used that atm for years on my other bank never a fee for just a balance inquiry, hell one of my friends from work uses wells Fargo and is never charged a fee. So I call Washington Mutual and see what the deal was, I call my wamu . The guy on the other end informs me he is not capable of helping me and that I need to call the help desk for the online. ok I call the 1800 or 188 number. after going through this endless circle of pressing one for English and two to speak to a human and getting forced into a f.a.q. section repeatedly I finally talk to a human, the lady on the other end tells me that it was the atm carrier that charged the fee.. nfw! I explain to her that I do and did my research before I do and did anything.. Ever. and she responds with ” you must be wrong” So I ask her for email address so I can send her a copy of my bank statement from the other bank. She told me that would not be necessary and I asked her “with that kind of response you do not care how right or wrong you might be, you are just certain that you are correct because you are saying what you are supposed to”. lol, she flipped out. I asked her if she was supposed to go ” all robot with pride” on me lol and she responded with “you’re an idiot’ and hung up on me. Ok maybe that was overboard of me but I was frustrated with their whole set up.

I call my buddy back and begin to tell him about the way I got charge an inquiry fee, I got all the way up to “hey man I went to check my balance” and he jumped all over the conversation with “I know man I checked mine and got charged 14.95 to look at my balance”

Now why in the blue hell did they charge him $14.95 and me $2 ?

Yes the fee carried over and is still there , yes it has been longer than a month and no they did not refund it after the statement and balance was complete. No there where no strange circumstances that would leave them a reason to penalize me or my friend for any activity. If I was supposed to do a chicken dance or bite the head off a bat or something I was not informed of this . I just know that the commercials are false and misleading.

Watch yourself on the fees.

The savings account is rocking though, I like the way you can just chunk your change in there and all is good in the world. that part is smooth and pretty. so if you get an account there , go for , may as well sign up for the savings, the interest is better than most bank’s c.d. accounts and does not penalize you for changing by withdrawal or deposits.

I have no idea how well they are with building business credit, business bank account, business checking account, business credit card , business money market. So good luck with that.

it’s kinda cool.

GLHF!

I did just talk to a representative and she explained that it is free checking with no atm fees….. for using atm at a wamu bank..

doesn’t every bank do that for you?

$35 for an over draft is pretty steep. I refuse to use their service ever again. Nickle and dime ya?…… nope they go straight to the 20s and 30s.

GTA IV Commandline.txt (gtaiv fix)

Posted on2009/04/23AuthorGame News1 Comment

If you have been trying to learn how to use the Commandline.txt
For GTAIV, just right click that file there and save the file to
your hard disk. Open the file and look at the content.
copy the file to your GTAIV main Directory and boot the game.

EXAMPLE
You will be playing the game at very low settings. I myself enjoy it
windowed.
The reason to use half memory instead of what everyone says about setting it twice memory

Is so that you are not maxing your resources. It makes more sense to me. You can edit as you wish.

but at least try it.

I just ctrl esc and use the mouse to drag the sides out and the corners out
enlarging the visual area. You can now actually play across two screens now.
-windowed
-height 600
-width 800
-refreshrate 60
-minspecaudio
-viewdistance 1
-detailquality 1
-shadowdensity 1
-renderquality 1
-texturequality 1
-availablevidmem .5

Once you get your pc version up and running feel free to swing by at gtaclans.com

Feel free to ask any questions.

New WINDOWS LIVE Breaks GTAIV even worse

Posted on2009/04/22AuthorTech News16 Comments

Today April 21st, Microsoft released a new update to WINDOWS LIVE . The forums at GTAFORUMS.Com goes crazy.
Looks like Microsoft bundled some lines of code that totally trashed what few users and players of Grand Theft Auto IV, that Rockstar Games had left. The game seems to work fine in Multi- Player , but has traumatic effect on Single player mode. You can no longer tweak and adjust your game. The game stutters so bad and hangs up, that no one can get even four minutes of play time to test out said tweaks. It kind of looks intentional.
Picture this:
Rockstar games might have actually put the screws to Microsoft, for allowing cheats in thier online community, and well, looks like they might have barked up the wrong tree. Sad part is, they are contracted to them, so they can’t just drop the windows live program.

This of course is where the modders and tweakers need to come together. MTA-IV and Iv-mp need to band together and make something quick to save Rockstar in this.

Now this is pretty much speculation, but man it would be scary if it was true.
Xliveless is the way to go, but patches are hard to get and use once you do that.

If you feel that Microsoft needs to Address this, Sign below with a response.
Let our Text be read, we need to prove there are more than just a hand full of out there.

Call it a petition. Call it a group effort. I just consider it a gathering of upset customers.
We are customers of Microsoft, we are displeased.

Even if you do not agree with my opinion, let your’s be read and lets let Microsoft hear from us.
Just reply to this with your opinion on the matter.
Digg it for me

Hands on (Dead Space)

Posted on2009/04/19AuthorGame News

The game is great, but there are so many sounds.
The look is amazing and the 3d, you almost feel it. The voice over is excellent acting. EA has a great team on this game. So long as they don’t do what they did the rest of the games. You know, cut corners and costs and press fast timelines to pump out so much garbage to keep us pacified, that the game becomes stick figures and “speed racer” sound effects.
Level 6 the hard mission with the 10 k ton goat see thing with three red arms that come out and slap you.
Level Six Big Boss
Shoot the arms with your fastest gun, shoot them at the brown and yellow glowing balls. It takes about 10-15 shots each.
Do not waste time with the explosive canisters. Keep in mind that you will have to destroy those arms twice.
At the mouth of the beast you will see he will shoot meteor looking objects at you. When you shoot the meteors, they will not explode till second shot. first shot will send them back in the direction they came from, unless they build momentum. If they get fast enough before you shoot them, they will just stop, until the next one slaps into it and causes it to explode. Soooo , with that said. here is the trick:
As the beast opens it’s mouth you will see one meteor about to launch, shoot that , the next one will smack into the back of it, causing them both to explode in it’s mouth. This causes a bigger effect than if you just shoot him. Easier said, keep shooting him in the mouth while it is open. Steadily keep blasting. If you can, walk in a clockwise direction around the rim of the tube you are in.

You will kill him.

After the mission is complete, get directions
End of level 6 dead space
Chapter 7 Into the Void
More Missions
Mining Deck

10 minutes into this level and you will see a familiar face. Have your gun ready and your clip full. you will be protecting this person. If you are not a complete jerk.!
Now be on the lookout. Level 4 suit coming soon. Cost 35 big ones.
in the changing room
New suite!!!!

Win Fights In Mobsters Myspace

Posted on2009/04/18AuthorTech News

Sometimes the best offence is a good defence, so look through your equipment tab and find the weapon with the highest attack. If you have 500 mobsters, buy 500 of that weapon. If you have 258 buy 258, and so on and so forth. This will help you attack rival mobsters. Once you have the best attack weapons go to the armor tab and do the same for the armor, and once more for the vehicles.

But you also need to protect yourself against other people that are attacking you. So go to the weapons tab once more and buy the weapon with the highest defence. You will use the weapon with the highest defence if your defending. so it only makes sence to buy the best defence weapon. Then go to your armor tab and do the same thing, buy the armor with the best defence. and once more for the vehicles tab.

When attacking other mobsters you will use the best attack weapon/vehicle/ and armor to fight them so by buying the most amount you can use of each you are inreasing your chances at winning the battle.

Same goes for if you are attacked, best defence weapon/vehicle/armor will be used to defend you so buy the same number of each as you have mobsters.

EX: 500 mobsters buy 500 of the best attack weapons/vehicles/armor

EX: 200 mobsters buy 200 of the best defence weapons/vehicles/armor

And us at Attack At Will are always looking for new recruits to teach and fight along side with us. We will also help you reach the long awaited goal of 500 mobsters if you still need to. So come join us at Attackatwill.com. Tell them that Poit sent you.

GTAIV issues, what works for me.

Posted on2009/04/18AuthorTech News

Playing Grand Theft Auto IV I was having the issue of images vanishing after just minutes of gameplay. The more the stuff I had going on, the worse it got. I looked online for the capacities of my motherboard. I found that the native memory I was using, What the manufacture says on the box that my motherboard came with is 667mhz. No where on the box did it signify that I could go any further. So I Googled my motherboard. What I found was lots of people like myself did what I did. We all bough what we thought was the max memory for the board. 2 Gigs of 667mhz ddr2. but others experimented and found that it can handle greater than 800 mhz ddr. So I headed to the electronics store and bought 4 gigs of pc 6400 800 mhz ddr2 memory. Then when I got home, I tried to find teh forums that I saw earlier. By that time I found a handfull sites selling the same motherboard, the specs they had on those sites showed greater than 800 mhz..Dang. but I did the install.
You would not believe the speed increase I gained from this. The game has no lag issues. I stay at 30 fps min, and never have any stutter, never have any vanishing items. just that small step up and doubling my memory, the game plays like a gem.
The canned air in the heatsinks didn’t hurt me . So I think I am well on my way. See you online. I will be at gtaclans.com when I am not actually in game.