Zecco Customer support via email

I sent an email to zecco asking whether they offered after-hours trading. Unfortunately the answer is "not at this time," but the nice thing is that it was answered in about 23 hours. So far, so good. That's not the fastest support I've ever seen, but I have been on hold with Dell's technical support for longer than that, so I won't complain too much. :)

~Bryan Pryor

Successfully trading with zecco.com now

I've successfully placed my first few trades with zecco. I am starting out VERY small to test the system, but so far, so good. Bought 2 shares of Microsoft (placed the order around 7:00 a.m., it was executed at market open of 9:30). The price dropped later in the day, so I purchased another share to DCA my cost down. That order was filled almost instantaneously.

However, I do have another poster who was complaining about zecco, but with no real details. I'd be interested to hear more of their problems, so we can hopefully avoid them in the future.

Blame it on the guns

Quote from this article:

The shootings were likely to renew the debate over gun control and gun rights that has surfaced regularly over many decades.

Some foreign commentators were already blaming the lack of gun control laws on leading to the deaths.

I can't help but draw a parallel here:

Teen 'sport killings' of homeless on the rise

If guns are blamed for the deaths in virginia, I think baseball should be blamed for all deaths caused by baseball bats. After all, we don't have any background checks in place at all for buyers of baseball bats. How are we supposed to know if a teen has a previous history of beating bums with baseball bats?

It's far time that we realize the problem: People are the problem. Until we start holding people responsible for their own actions and stop placing the blame on an inanimate object that becomes a deadly weapon in the hands of these criminals, we will continue down this path of worsening violence.

College Safety is a Hoax

The recent tragedy in Virginia reminds me of my own years at the University of Missouri-Rolla. I remember once during a city-wide power outtage that lasted over 18 hours, professors refused to cancel classes. Especially disturbing during this power outtage was the fact that professors did not want to cancel classes in the Chemistry building, even though it was stated as unsafe to enter without ventilation due to the chemical stores. So, we were forced to sit in whatever classrooms had windows and try to make out the scribbling of the professor on the chalkboard and/or take tests/quizzes that day.

With that in mind, it comes as no surprise to me at how poorly UMR handled the recent bomb/anthrax scare. It also appears that the same mentality was at work at Virginia when officials failed to realize the magnitude of the threat when a double homicide was discovered in a dorm room. We all are now seeing the dire consequences of this arrogance.

Here's more about the recent bomb & anthrax threat on the campus of my alma mater. Campus was not shut down immediately. Students could freely roam for hours, unaware of the potential danger. The fact that the bomb threat was literally yards away from a nuclear reactor seemed to be overlooked by campus officials.

Here's an interesting link to a forum frequented by on-campus students:
http://r01ajrhc8.desktop.umr.edu:8080/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=18133&highlight=bomb

I'll just quote the first post:

Newschannel 5 has been talking about a standoff in butler carlton that has been going on since 2 am and now classes are cancelled until 10.
http://www.ksdk.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=113598

That was posted at 8:51 a.m. The standoff began at 2:00 a.m. Obviously someone on campus must have known about it by then, so why in the hell would they only temporarily cancel classes until 10:00?

Here's another good post from a student:

Right now the people out there are doing a decontamination process and they can't tell me anything else. They said nobody was allowed in the civil building and probably not the physics building either and they had no idea how long it was going to take. Interesting side note they think we're having classes.

Sounds like some bulletproof security if a student was allowed to wander into the 'decontamination zone' and then return home.

Here's some more good quotes, showing just how poorly UMR's campus was handling things:
Ongoing investigation... bomb team searching the building... sending in a robot later... Basically, they have yet to announce when we'll have class. I need to know, because I have a test scheduled for 11.

I need to know when we'll have classes because I live 30 minutes away. I'm not going to drive up to rolla for shits and giggles.

And, my favorite one. Looks like some professors never change:

ha! My arsehole Chem3 professor wants us to come in a few minutes before 10:30 so that we can take a quiz...

http://www.collegehumor.com/picture:1745016

http://www.hindu.com/2007/04/02/stories/2007040210630400.htm

http://www.columbiatribune.com/2007/Apr/20070411News033.asp

zecco.com update

No cash in the zecco.com account yet. (mostly my fault, I've been too busy lately to think about it.) However, I did get an email from zecco, asking me to fund my account, and also lowering the minimum starting deposit to $1000. That's nice. Even nicer once I realize that I'm not going to be paying $20 per trade, too, so I can trade small balances without much worry. So, I started the process of ACH linking, we'll see how long it takes to get useful money to zecco.
Later,
Bryan Pryor

DMA reverted to PIO Error in WinXP

Yeah, I just had the joy of encountering this error. I noticed for the past few weeks that whenever I was reading from a CD or DVD my computer was brought to a screeching halt. This is a relatively new machine, with a Core Duo T2400 Processor and a Gig of RAM, so I wasn't expecting this.

Turns out that DMA had been disabled on my DVD drive, and the max speed was set to PIO. I did find some good information on this here. Hopefully this helps you, too.

Bryan Pryor