Time Capsule: Headlines from 6 Months Ago, Dec 08

Here are some local (Nor Cal Headlines)

• 7 arrested in L.A.-area protest of Propostion 8
• Carlsbad man arrested in fight over Prop. 8 signs
• Hundreds of Prop 8 protesters take to L.A. streets
• Schwarzenegger proposes 1.5 cents sales tax increase to close budget gap
• Craigslist to crack down on prostitution ads

And CNN Headlines from today, the 6th of November, 2008

• Emanuel accepts chief of staff offer, aide says
• CNNMoney: Dow falls in accelerated selloff
• Democrat Merkley takes Oregon Senate seat
• Rabid fox bites jogger, hangs onVideo
• WCVB: Zoo gorilla gets colonoscopy
• WNEM: Car slams into house, 2 dead
• At 90, Billy Graham remains 'America's pastor'
• Factors in the retail price of gas
• Real 'man cave' priced at $900k
• CNNMoney: Oil falls as demand woes resurface
• CNNMoney: Gas prices down 2.6 more cents
• CNNMoney: Gas falls to $2.45 a gallon
• DOW Down 435.44 after Obama elected.
• Dow tumbles below 9,000
• Fidelity to cut nearly 1,300 jobs

It's Your Head: Wear A Helmet

by Bruce Simmons

First I have to say that I rant because I care. I want to see people getting the best opportunities afforded to them whether it be with consumer knowledge to save money, save time, save being ripped off. At other times, I just want to vent so I can get someone thinking and maybe, just maybe, I help one person with my work. My ranting, if you will.

See the entire post over on my new publication site, Bicycle Helmet Safety at Bruce's Place of Thoughts.

Is Piracy No Longer Piracy, Or Just An Excuse?

Over on ScreenRant.com, an article was published talking about the X-Men Origins: Wolverine movie leak where an uncut rough draft of the movie made its way onto the internet a few days back.

The article questions the premise of piracy and that despite the social issues, bottom line is that it is illegal to make available, download and view copyrighted content without paying for it.

Despite the letter of the law, there's an amazing perceived gray area to the issue.

Read more after the break over on my new "Thoughts" page. (This link takes you away from Blogger.)

Time Capsule - Headlines from 6 Months Ago (Oct 08)

These are headlines from early October of 2008

• Market Confidence Plunges
• Bailout Package Sparks a Worldwide sell-off
• Bank of America Reports 68% Profit Drop
• EBay To Trim 1,600 Jobs
• Dow Dips Below 10,000
• Rescue Plan Woes Contribute to Sell-Off
• European Governments Go Their Own Way on Crisis
• Fed to Provide As Much As $900 Billion In Loans to Banks
• Oil Prices Fall as Financial Turmoil Heats up Worldwide
• Iceland Going Broke?
• All 5 Stock Market Measures drop

A chilling Headline from that week:

• N. Korea to Restart (Nuclear) Facility.

I have to wonder as I put this together in October, what things will be like when this post goes to print from it's timed posting.

The day before I wrote this, I was in the dentist office getting a tooth filling and I watched the DOW drop 200 points while I was in the Dentist chair. (He's got TV's hanging over the chairs.) My filling represents a 200 point drop in the stock market.

A New Term

I was chatting with someone today and called them "Snarky Dark"

They always have something pessimistic and sarcastic to say on their comments on blogs...

I like it.. Snarky Dark.  Dark Snark.

What's Comcast Up To?

So I got a notice in my mailbox that says I need to contact Comcast before April 6th and let them know how many TV's I have that are not on cable boxes.

They say that for me to continue to get a sub-range of channels, I need a box on these TV's.  No extra charge they say.  Once they found me in their database...  (for some reason my only phone # didn't come up with the 3rd party they've contracted with to carry out these communications) I've got my adaptors coming.

Now all I have to do is once I receive them, hook them up, have Comcast initialize them once connected, and away I go.

My normally suspicious nature makes me a basket case when things like this happen.  Why?  I remember some years ago when my "cable provider" distributed a "survey" asking what channels we, the subscribers like.

Afterward, it seemed that the channels that were upvoted by many people, were then put on their own additional entertainment tiers and we were then charged more for our "favored" channels.  That's why I'm nervous. 

I'm waiting for this extra information to bite us in the back side later on down the road.  Bookmark this post and wait.  I'm a gambling man.

Travel and Your Passwords

How often do you change passwords? Once in a while? Sometimes? Never?

In theory, one should change their passwords every 6 months to a year. In practice many never change their passwords because it's just too much trouble, but changing your passwords is one proactive method for protecting your online accounts, financial data and other personal information.


Concerns When You Travel
When you travel, public computers are a great sand trap for keylogger software and spyware. A multitude of users have access to the computer and you never know who's been on it last.

But you're probably thinking that these computers have password controlled access and you have to be a hotel guest to use it. Sure, but web bots can find these systems, or a disreputable user might have a network drive out on the internet that he can access his malware from and install it. For the general user, it seems insurmountable to break a login screen. To the professional, it can be a matter of minutes with the right software.


Travel Security Tips
When you know you're going to travel, change your passwords before hitting the road to online accounts you know you'll be accessing. Change them back when you get home.

If you end up using an account you weren't planning to while you're on the road, change them to something new when you get home.

When you're done using a public machine LOG OFF properly. Don't just close the window with the X in the upper right corner.


What Kind of Passwords to create / use?
When creating passwords, try using a combination of upper and lower case letters, numbers and or symbols with a minimum of 6 characters.

You want to make it as complicated as possible to break while still being able to remember it.

One common piece of advice is don't use things that are related to you: Birthdays, anniversaries, initials, etc..

I create sentences to make my passwords. Today is Monday the 31st or TiMt31st. Ok, that's too many t's, but you get the idea.

It's up to you to create some simple first defense to your sensitive information because if you don't, you only have yourself to blame if someone happens across your unprotected account, and I don't want you regretting any lack of action on your part and saying, I should have listened to Bruce.

It's your financial information online or on your computer. Protect it accordingly.

image: freedigitalphotos.net

Comcast And The Most Inopportune Advertising

So I am trying to contact COMCAST because my cable reception was pretty iffy.  So I am already somewhat miffed.

While I am on hold, it probably isn't the best time to try and advertise to me an additional service to tack onto the system that's presently ticking me off.

Do ya think?

Word Of Warning To New New Real Estate Agents

It's been a few years since I got out of the real estate business and canceled my real estate license. You'd think that once you got out, you're out.

Nope.

To this day I still get loads of junk email from all these prospective business partners who have all kinds of good information to share with me.

First off, if you're going to be spamming people as a real estate professional, you should try your own domain you lazy twits. Hotmail and gmail business offers just look terrible and don't inspire anyone. - Well, at least not me.

Secondly, once you scrape the real estate association list of realtors, or buy them from the associations, you ought to do it more than once every few years. For example, Jerry AT The TallGroup seems to think that despite my using their opt-out links in their emails for the last few months consistently, that I still want their emails. Boy, do they have a surprise coming. That's because violating the spam email laws can land you a fine of up to $10k. Hope it was worth it.

IF YOU ARE THINKING OF GOING INTO REAL ESTATE:

First, you're nuts. But if you have an in, more power to you. But what ever you do, set up your email or new domain account before you jump in.

Brand yourself by using your name as your brand, but whatever you do, go make an email account that you want to give to the different associations you are forced to sign up with and pay dues to. (You see, even in an iffy economy, all the associations with their required annual education restrictions guarantees that the backing associations will still do well, regardless of the individual state of business. Nice, huh?)

I recommend Yahoo or Gmail for signing up with the associations. I leave out AOL because they filter some mail before it even gets to you and you may never see it.

If you don't plan ahead, you'll be getting 10 to 20 wonderful business offers every day AT EACH email you've used, for quit a few years to come. Yea... you see, my problem was that I used one email, then thinking I'm being smart, changed it to another. Now both are getting spammed regularly, years after the fact.

Maybe I should make a list of the spammers and publicize it... let you know who the unprofessional, desperate entities are... hmm. I like that.

Why I Like Photobucket Over Flickr

I just tried uploading a bunch of pics to Flickr. I've liked the service, but found out their free service limits you to 200 viewable images. Meanwhile, Photobucket doesn't.

Flickr won't let you put video out there, Photobucket does.

I didn't look to see if there is a bandwidth limit on Flickr. Photobucket has a 25Gb monthly limit, so for most, that should be fine.

Of course, regardless of the service, you can always get around the limitations by upgrading to their pro services!