Saturday Evening Post

Popping up in the mulch just outside the front door.

Earlier today, BB and I took a walk up the block, and just as we got back, BB stepped off the sidewalk and quickly hopped to her right with a squeal.  She pointed at the foot-long snake, curled in the sun, which she'd nearly stepped on.  

I went on around the block and it felt good all the way.  No pain, no problems with fatigue.  By the time I finished the lap, the snake was gone.

Last night, Microsoft notified me that I had violated their terms of service, and that my account had been locked.  I dutifully filled out the form asking for more detail and got none in the quick reply.  Just that my account was blocked permanently.  No more email, OneDrive, or Office 365.  And that's how you fire one of your paying customers.  Further forms were ignored.  A couple of public tweets to Microsoft and OneDrive were ignored.  

Following that realization, I learned that many others had been through the same one-strike-and-you're-out process.  They fought back and got nowhere.  A couple of people had actually received some sympathetic responses, which gave them hope, but their accounts were never re-opened either.  

What was it I'd done to deserve it?  Going through the closet in one bedroom, I'd found a DVD of a movie BB enjoyed.  Since we got Tivo, we don't have a DVD player, so I used VLC to rip an MP4 and put a copy on a thumb drive.  Unfortunately, I did not delete the original MP4.  That was the pretext they used to ban me.  No questions about whether the copy was legal, no warning that the copy had to go.  Microsoft is really strong for IP rights, I get that, but they were wrong about this one.  How many other customers have they thrown away like this?

And believe me, I'm gone for good.  I've deleted as much Microsoft software as possible on all devices, and spent time this afternoon changing the email addresses on file for the credit union, the mortgage company, the credit cards, and so on.  

This whole thing was shocking for several hours, but now I've done something about it.  Moving on.