Same problems as the rest of us!
938857
Everyone likes to read about celebrities if only to remind ourselves that they are just like us.  Reading this story helps to remind us that it's a true.....problems, drama, etc exist in everyone's lives.  Of course being able to drop names that we hear/read/see about is something else in it's self.  Some surprises, but overall a pretty good read!
2496063
There are certainly many issues facing those who are trying to climb up from low paying and/or minimum wage jobs.  However, this author's attitude that all those in this position are helpless victims doomed to lifelong poverty is ridiculous!  As is the idea that anyone NOT mired in a tedious, low-paying job is somehow bad and to be blamed for those who are.  She identifies with the poor almost pathologically without fair consideration to all involved, including the employers.  And I found that very strange considering she is a well paid, successful writer living in a very high-rent area of this country (Key West, Florida) in her everyday life!

She herself enjoys all the benefits of the upper middle class lifestyle, and more power to her for earning them, yet, she rails relentlessly about others in this position and blames them for the plight of the working poor.  When she works as a maid for a cleaning service, she comments about how insulted she is by one of the home-owners choice of books!  Huh?  She is angered that another home-owner has the audacity to own a set of copper pots and other home furnishings and decor that she finds disdainful as if these people are somehow at fault for being successful and having purchasing power, and heaven forbid, opinions and tastes that she does not share.  She makes it clear that she herself does not regularly employee domestic help as that would just be, well, disdainful, yet, she admits to having done so on certain justifiable occasions.  Really Barbara, you can't have it both ways!!

When an immigrant dishwasher at a restaurant where she works is caught red-handed stealing from the storehouse, she immediately identifies with the thief and becomes defensive of him.  So stealing is OK if you're working for minimum wage?  Would she have been so protective of the thief if he'd stolen say HER laptop or HER car or HER food?  I wonder.

And did anyone notice that on two different occasions, regarding two of her jobs, the author brought up the widely held (and grossly misguided) concept that employers "hold back" the new employees first week of pay?  As a human resources professional, I've battled this misconception amongst both white and blue collar employees for years and find it unfathomable that a person with a Ph. D. does not get it that the time she works this week is not actually paid for until the following pay period, usually the next week.  There is no "holding back" of any pay, merely a lapse in time in which payroll processing takes place and a check printed.  I found it incredible that this author did not grasp the logistics of this simple concept, and instead, clung to the ignorant idea that an employer would actually "hold back" pay until some such future date at their self-declared discretion, a practice that would be in fact, illegal.

Where is the balance in this so-called reporting?  It's all and only about one side of the picture.  And where are the suggestions? solutions? ideas for a better system?  The concept of this book has great potential, but sadly, it falls flat and short of meeting it.
1564883
Sure get tired of the constant blame.  And then the TOTALY INCORRECT CRAP about running out of oil!  Like we haven't been hearing that crap for 40 years now....!
1665159
So many missing, incorrect, or misprinted pieces in this game is unplayable. We tried to use their parts replacement option but there were so many issues with our box they wouldn't even let us replace them all! Seriously terribly, how did something so bad make it to customers?
4823391
Just finished a Voices From The Storm. To me it sounds like the tragedy of people that depended on welfare and government for their lives instead of being self-sufficient. A woman who has six children, and no husband? No wonder she can't get by. A lot of very ignorant sounding people who evidently have money for beer and cigarettes and drugs. Still it is a tragedy especially with the men who were locked up in prison without water and our governments horrible in efficiency of course. Our government left the gold standard in 1968 and since then people can't even figure out how to cope with what it's done to our nation. The real tragedy is we cannot support people who won't work no matter how many times we try it it's socialism and socialism is basically a nice word for communism and it always fails. I have earned a very low wage and have worked two jobs for 27 years to buy just a modest Cottage and a used car no complaints, America is the very best. People seriously need to look to the Lord and Trust Jesus and work harder than they ever thought they would have to, especially since our nation is in such deep debt.  It will fail these people again and sometime soon I believe, as all of the governments of the world seem to have engaged in the same Ponzi scheme.
2639537
I've had nothing but issues with this router since day one (Feb '15). Wifi inexplicably drops clients (sometimes all simultaneously). WAN will randomly drop out and won't renew an IP. Meanwhile, I'm power cycling equipment and trying to get into the web interface (which sometimes refuses to come up at all). Wired seems to work well as I'm writing this review directly connected. And I'm not the only one.. so many people seem to be having these exact same issues as well.

My biggest beef out of all of this is the way TP-Link is handling these complaints. I'm looking through these 1 & 2 star reviews and I see broken promises for an RMA, excuses about why these issues are occurring, and an attitude of "we know our routers are faulty, we're sorry our service sucks, but please keep us in mind for next time you want to drop $100+ on a crappy piece of equipment". Go ahead and read them! They basically say exactly that and it blows my mind. How about you get your dev team on another firmware update to maybe fix this mess and in the meantime, tell your service dept to issue those RMAs like your customers were promised?? I just don't feel like dealing with that headache so I'm just going to bite the bullet and buy another router which is not a TP-Link. Never. Again.
2575760
We just got Civ 4 for Christmas and have been doing nothing but troubleshooting for 2 days. After searching the web and the user site [...] it appears that this game has a lot of video problems that need to be resolved. A lot of people are having problems. We love Civ and hopefully they can get this problem fixed.

Do not buy until you can confirm that the developer has fixed these problems.
1958954
This book by American hero Ralph Nader speaks to important issues on several levels.  First, the use of the US Postal Service, a beloved American institution that has been in the crosshairs of crass oligarchs in the US Congress for years and those "representatives" have so hobbled this fine institution that the USPS struggles all the time to survive, in spite of American CITIZENS wanting to preserve and support it!  The vile burden put upon the USPS that no other government or private entity has ever had to meet has all but bankrupt it and then the "representatives" put the double-whammy of blaming the USPS for what "Congress" did to them!!  Absolutely reprehensible and no American patriot should let them get away with this, yet another one of their attempts to privatize everything so they and their oligarch cronies can take their greedy profits.  Benjamin Franklin, founder of the USPS, would spit on them.  Second, the non-responsiveness of our government "representatives" to CITIZENS is just the tangible evidence of their non-accountability and non-response as "representatives" in general. This should not be tolerated by American citizens. Where are the protests of ordinary Americans, not rioters, but protesters - demanding that OUR government paid for by OUR taxes conduct OUR affairs the way WE demand!  Third, Ralph Nader is a hero for so many reasons. He has never given up.  Many years ago, when I was particularly discouraged about things our government was doing, I wrote Nader a letter - and he wrote back; he kind of chastised me against becoming cynical and apathetic. I took it to heart. He is a role model for good citizenship. Last, he has been so very wrongly accused of being the cause of Bush winning the Presidency over Gore.  That is absolutely false and has been promulgated by those who want to undermine a genuine progressive, populist movement. Gore lost that election, granted with the aid and abetting of Florida, and Governor Jeb Bush, and the Supreme Court, but it was not Nader's "fault."  If anything, it was the disreputable Bill Clinton's fault as America was sick of his sordid, lewd associations with our government and Gore was part of his administration.  Bush fooled (some) people when he said he would clean up the White House, and blah blah blah, and people who were sick of the Clintons' never-ending porny soap-opera went along. What a disaster. Imagine if people had elected Ralph Nader, where we would be now. Wall Street, the environment, consumer protections, evil wars and invasions - all would be different now, just as things would have been so different if Jimmy Carter had been elected a second term. People have another change now and his name is Bernie Sanders. Don't keep making the same mistakes, voters! No more Clintons and no more Bushes! Put Ralph Nader and Elizabeth Warren in as advisors and elect Bernie Sanders.  Meanwhile, read Ralph Nader's letters and think THINK about what kind of government we need and want, and think that at very least, our elected "officials" will respond to voters' letters.  When I was a kid, I wrote to Everett Dirksen - a famous elected official of the time - HE wrote back to me, a kid.  Think, people. Read Nader's book.  And support the United States Postal Service and tell Congress to take off the shackles from the USPS!!
1815837
We bought the machine and it was fine for a while.  Then it started to make noise like an airplane taking off in your house.  So we we were told the cost of the repair and parts was more than double the cost of the machine -  try that for logic!  So we complained and Maytag said they would provide the drum to us free of charge...allegedly a $900 part, which makes it more than the cost of the machine.  But then we get the honor to pay about $450 for labor to the person who repairs it!  So please follow this:  Maytag recognizes the problem but leaves us high and dry to pay to replace the defective parts.  I told my wife that we should get the drum (which they will ship to us) and then give it away (or throw it away) with the machine and buy a NON-MAYTAG machine and save money.  Wow....to think that we trusted the name Maytag!!! One big joke.  For those reading this...this is not a joke and if you have had a problem like this let us know and we can try and get the machine recalled or the company executives held responsible for their gross misconduct and coverup.  This is outrageous.

UPDATE:  NOW THEY TELL US THE PARTS ARE NOT AVAILABLE....BUT FOR ABOUT $300 THEY WILL SEND US ANOTHER OF THEIR MACHINES.  TO THINK THIS IS HOW THEY RUN A COMPANY....  They sell you a machine that is defective,  don't have the parts to repair it, and do you the honor of paying for a new machine at a "discount" price.  Problem is you are stuck with their brand and their lack of credibility. Just hope the government doesn't use public money to bail this company out when reality catches up!
4254065
We have this system at the community I manage and they are horrible.  When there is a problem, they get stuck closed which is unacceptable!!!!
1318429
We purchased ACT 3 years ago and startined using it and it has been nothing but a major inconvenience.

As others have noted, the program slows your PC down to a crawl creating very frustrating days. You wait and wait and wait. But there are also many other things that contribute to more frustration.

There are so many bugs in the software that you frequently are forced to re-install and regenerate "remote databases."

BUT the most dreaded of all prblems is getting synchronization to work consistantly. You do get it working and very soon in the future, you're out of luck and you have to start the whole setup over again.

And if you think Tech support can help ...they could in theory. However, prepare to wait on hold for 30 minutes at a time. I recently hung up after my call was not taken for 45 minutes. On occasion, I have got through only to be told that there would be a price to be helped; that's right they want you to PAY for a product you purchsed!! This company is outrageous.

I support two different comany's networks and ACT and ACT is loathed by both for the three years they've had it. One of the two is completey abanding it.

For the life of me, I cannot understand how this product is used by so many. And everyone (my colleagues) I talk to have the same issues with the buggy program. all the people that use it cannot understand how ACT still sells.

If you buy it; be prepared to be frustrated!!
4071542
Another pitiful release from Quicken. I have been a Quicken user for over 20 years. Apparently over time, they've gotten a lot worse in their QA process before releasing product and over the last 10 years, every release has had more bugs than the prior version. I should note here that I am an IT Engineer and have 40 years in the IT business, so I do know my way around a computer and operating system, etc. Let me get down to it:
- Bought the upgrade (Home & Business) and as soon as I installed it, it stopped working. They've now integrated their User ID into accessing your data file as well, so if you can't register or login in with your ID, you can't use the product at all.
- User ID I had wouldn't work. Reset password, no luck.
- Tried uninstalling and reverting to 2014 version, upgrade crippled that one too.
- Called Quicken Tech Support. In summary USELESS! They take you through a standard recipe of attempts to fix, then (and I am not making this up) They said "I'm sorry, but we've reached the end of our attempts and have nothing more we can do!"  Unbelievable!! I've been in Tech Support for years and if I'd said THAT to a customer, I'd have been fired on the spot!
- Their Tech Support has no escalation procedure. When the phone minions run out of ideas, you are out of luck. Their are no "smart people" in their technical department to help with more difficult issues.
I should add here that this problem of not accessing their server to register the product is a common one and others who'd upgraded had the same issue (and got the same treatment from Quicken Support). Best I could ascertain in troubleshooting was there was a DLL somewhere in their install that was not making the correct API requests through the network interface and it just threw up an error saying the "Server wasn't accessible - try again later". Since my 2014 product worked fine before the upgrade, it was clearly their issue, and they refused to assist me further in getting this fixed. I was willing to spend the time it took, and we could have gotten a fix that would help others doing the upgrade, but "No - not interested".
MY SUGGESTION IS - Don't upgrade. I did an upgrade to my tower since this debacle and decided to reinstall a fresh copy of the OS, and reinstalled the 2014 version again and I'm back to where I was before the upgrade. I will not be upgrading this product until I absolutely have to as the feature they purportedly put in are ho-hum and are not worth the headache again. I am also evaluating a product called Ace Money that is a financial management package. It's light on a few features but has potential.
IF YOU MUST UPGRADE - If you are adventurous and want to try this anyway despite my warning, I would HIGHLY SUGGEST you uninstall the prior Quicken product FIRST! Use their Removal tool to remove any remnants of the prior program, then do a clean install of the 2015 product. You will likely have better luck.
I, as well as many of the Quicken users, are very disappointed in the drop in quality of the product. With many people tied into using Quicken for years, there is a commitment from users on staying with the product. Unfortunately, they don't really care much about their users as they have a pretty exclusive market and their are few competitors at their level of retail financial management. MS Money tried, and failed. The hope now is another company will take on the Quicken Goliath and provide some real competition and conversion options to get off this pathetic train of ill-devised upgrades.
4463529
The most important step is to realize we have a problem.  The good news is dozens of polls show the people (by a significant majority) realize this.

The next step is a discussion of ideas toward solutions.  Mark Levin thoughts hit most (not all) of the issues.

Working 4 areas over 40 years...the auditory function of:  1.)  government operations (executive branch); government management/oversite and decision-making (legislative/judicial) is inadequate and not properly addressed in his book. Probably because he's never worked in the government "system" (leave it at that).

The GAO...IG...OPM...CBO and others are not allowed to do their jobs independently, and thus are manipulated politically.  Government employees want a better, a more accountable government just like all of us do.

Experiences have clearly shown most of our elected officials are not properly qualified for their positions, nor see themselves as the problem.  Dozens of personal experiences are that they are well meaning, but are there for not fully altruistic reasons (get re-elected...power and greed?) and please their "parties"and constituencies, thereby promoting groupthink, its almost cult-like through lack of understanding and ignorance.

Hint:  Why do we have a majority "whip" and minority "whip"?

A systematic discussion (like the federalist papers?) over an iterative, period of time, would strengthen these ideas.

Suggestion: The key proposals in this book need to be vetted, culled and simplified to the most salient points, complexity will lead to more corruption, not less (Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, Obamacare?).  I know!  The waste is beyond what most can grasp.  This is not discussed here, nor in hardly any venue (strengthen the auditory aspect, as mentioned earlier).

Its about strengthening key principles and processes outlined in our founding documents that maximizes openness...leading to accountability...then solutions.  That is what functionally "self governance" is.  Which is what James Madision and many of our founding fathers are quoted as striving for.

BTW...projects/areas worked over 40 years encompass TRILLIONS of dollars (science, military platforms, energy, research).  It is worse than many...maybe most realize.  Personal view: The entire government, despite efforts by many, are a huge, self serving bureaucracy that is out of control.

Hence, WE THE PEOPLE lose.  The system will work, until it no longer can, as nature always wins in the end...history clearly shows this.

Final point:  Its about strengthening key principles and processes.  People, ideologies and parties are part of the problem.

Again, the good news is we realize we have a problem.

Let the conversation begin!
4208387
The problem is stated succinctly.  It is huge. We are acting as if there is no cost to us as a population.  Thenhe States the solution as a bigger version of the same thing we have been doing.  In fact there is no solution but delaying the worst impacts of the ultimate destruction of the wild.
3393546
Awful so many problems I wish I didn't buy this!!
2627003
This illegal price fixing which has been forced down our throat is sickening.

The actual book is almost as bad.  The first 4 were pretty good, but few folks will even be able to get through this garbage.

I hope the Government fines the publishers and puts a few in prison - now that would be a very happy ending!
3055471
Same old same old with a few minor tweaks. The servers are horrible and have many issues.