Bravo, Maryland! + Troubleshooting USB + More

Today’s reading includes a download for help in fixing troublesome USB ports.

Big, big news: Maryland Lawmakers Ban Employers from Requesting Facebook Credentials from Employees or Interviewees

“Last week, Maryland’s House and Senate passed legislation prohibiting employers from asking for a current or prospective employee’s logins to Facebook and other social media sites. Once Governor Martin O’Malley signs the bill into law, Maryland will become the first state in the nation to pass legislation protecting employees from having employers access their social media accounts.” Read more..

(I think this absolutely should be Federal Law, and I wonder why they (Congress) voted down similar legislation. Oh. Wait. I don’t wonder at all actually. But if we have to gain this “protection” state-by-state, let’s do so. If your state doesn’t have at least one politician looking out for their constituents and smart enough to propose this — start a Proposition.)(Unbelievable there’s been no public outrage on this..)

* Map and troubleshoot your USB ports with Microsoft USB View

“After some deep investigation, Greg Shultz came across a Windows 7 compatible version of the old Windows utility USB View.” Read more..

These next two might be a little too corporate for most readers, but..

* Five ways companies use social media and look like jerks

“Let’s take a look at five ways companies use social media and end up making themselves look like complete and utter fools.” Read more..

(I enjoyed this one.. even though I don’t use “social media”, or work for the man.)

* Connect your iPhone to Microsoft Office 365

“Office 365, the cloud-based collaboration platform from Microsoft, can actually be iPhone-friendly. Will Kelly shows you how to connect your iPhone to Office 365.” Read more..

And.. this can’t be good..

* Seventeen years worth of Emory patient data missing

“Emory Healthcare in Atlanta lost the personal information of surgery patients treated at its three hospitals when 10 backup discs went missing.

How many victims? 315,000 patients treated from September 1990 to April 2007.

What type of personal information? Names, Social Security numbers (on 228,000 patients), surgery dates, diagnoses, and other information about the procedures, such as whom performed them and what types of devices were used” Read more..

More news on the Apple botnet..

* Russian security firm says Flashback infection rates still high

“Last week’s reports of a sharp decline in infections by the Flashback malware may have been premature. A new report by Dr. Web says 566,000 Macs are still infected, with new infections appearing.” Read more..

* New Flashback variant silently infects Macs

“A new Flashback Trojan has been discovered that infects Macs without prompting the user for a password. If you haven’t updated Java on your Mac, or disabled it entirely, you could be a victim.” Read more..

And in the News From Around The World Department..

* In China, plagiarization is an established business model

“Copying business ideas from both foreign and domestic firms has been standard operating procedure for Chinese Internet companies. But these borrowing practices could be losing their momentum.” Read more..

Well, I’m out of time for today. See you next time.

Today’s quote: “Success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome.” ~ Booker T. Washington

Copyright 2007-2012 © “Tech Paul” (Paul Eckstrom). All Rights Reserved.

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All we really have, in the end, are our stories.
Make yours great ones. Ones to be proud of.

Hooray For Jon Leibowitz

FTC to ban most telemarketing ‘robocalls’ Sept. 1

“American consumers have made it crystal clear that few things annoy them more than the billions of commercial telemarketing robocalls they receive every year.” (Robocall = recorded telephone spam)

This is amazing and impressive to me on a couple of different levels. For one, Mr. Leibowitz is a bureaucrat (not just any bureaucrat, he’s in charge of the FTC). It seems to this lil’ ole country boy that for the last several decades, a prerequisite for being in Government is that your only concern for your constituents is obtaining more of their money, and eroding their civil liberties as much as possible. Mr. Leibowitz sure seems to defy that.

If you read my recent article, Don’t Call Me, I’ll Call You, you know that I didn’t come right out and call telemarketers bottom feeders and scum, but I think I made my feelings pretty clear. I absolutely, totally, completely support the ‘curtailing of free enterprise’ if it means that “Daisy” from the “carpet cleaners” will stop calling my business number several times a week.

Sadly, this new law will not terminate-with-extreme-prejudice the perpetrators of spam phone calls, but it will clearly define their activities as illegal and impose a $16,000 fine — per call. (With this formula, the “carpet cleaners” folks would be dinged $1.6 million just for their calls to me! Ha!)

In a nutshell, the ban stops spam calls unless the telemarketer has written permission from a customer that he or she wants to receive these calls. What kind of loon would willingly do that? If you want the full skinny, here’s the link, Federal Trade Commission rules. To read the Associated Press news story, click here.

I hope that there will be the action and enforcement promised, Mr. Leibowitz. I, for one, support you.

Copyright 2007-9 © Tech Paul. All rights reserved. post to jaanix

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Banned From The Internet For File Sharing?

Internet service providers are cooperating more and more with copyright holders to crack down on illegal downloading and peer-to-peer file-sharing.

Becky Waring published a very interesting ’round-up’ look at the current state of the ‘battle’ between copyright holders (primarily RIAA) and the very popular (yet largely illegal) “Torrent” P2P file-sharing phenomenon on Windows Secrets.

There are some tough new laws recently enacted, or under consideration, in many countries following the recent convictions of the operators of the popular Pirates Bay Torrent search engine in Sweden ... laws that could get people “blacklisted” from the Internet.

Internet Service Providers are coming under increasing pressure to use technology to identify people using Torrent applications and punish them, and Torrent users are using technology to escape detection. This ‘battle’ poses some very serious questions about the issues of privacy and technology.

Ms. Waring has done an excellent job with this article, and I invite my readers to read it. Please click the link below.

ISPs assist in cutting off file-sharing users

Today’s free link: KidZui – Free, Safe Internet Browsing for Kids

Copyright 2007-9 © Tech Paul. All rights reserved. post to jaanix

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Crazy People

Have you ever noticed? Some people are just not right in the head.

* Catching Snowflakes, Photo courtesy of Corbis.com

Of course, by “not right in the head”, I mean they don’t view the world the same way I do.
And over the years I’ve discovered.. there’s a lot of those.

There is no doubt in my mind that the young lady in this picture is — at least temporarily– insane.
And probably.. not very bright.
She’s clearly completely out of touch with REALITY. (aka “nuts”/”bonkers”/”cuckoo”)

It is perfectly obvious that this person has chosen to ignore the FACTS.
* Snow is the cause of fatal highway accidents.
* Snow requires strenuous exertion to shovel (or plow, or blow) out of your way. Which can waste hours of your precious time.
* Snow cost us $ millions a year in salt and Highway Maintenance crews and specialized snow removal equipment. Not to mention the damage to our vehicle’s undercarriage that road salt does..
* Snow and ice interferes with commerce.
* Has she ever had to put chains on her tires???!!!???
* Snow buries people alive and kills them in sneak avalanche attacks.
* Snow is wet and it is dang cold! Frostbite cold.

Yes. In my view, snow should be outlawed. Banned. Or.. at least, Feared and Respected.
Look at that picture again, will you? You agree with me.. right? Nuts?

Tip of the day: Let’s “get right” today, people. Let’s not be like this young lady. Let’s all start becoming more in tune with the FACTS of this planet we live on.
Step 1: Watch the infotainment (oops! I meant “News”) religiously. I don’t mean just the Evening news.. or the “Top of the Hour” news headlines. I mean, start your day with the news; eat your lunch to the news; and eat your dinner to the evening news.
Then watch the World News. The 10 o’clock news, and the 11 o’clock news. You have a lot of catching up to do.
(In a pinch, such as a power outage, you can read a “newspaper”.. but choose one that has lots of gory pictures of catastrophe.)

Step 2: Reprogram your car’s radio preset buttons. Get rid of the music, and start listening to NPR, at least one All-News-All-The-Time station, and both a left, and a right-wing talk radio station (one for even numbered days, the other for odd).

Step 3: Frown and avoid eye contact everywhere you go. (If you do Step 1 properly, this will be easy to do..) This shows the world that you are a sane and responsible person. And it’s infectious. You can help others become sane and responsible with a really professional frown (ask any mom).

Today’s free download: CamStudio is able to record all screen and audio activity on your computer and create industry-standard AVI video files and using its built-in SWF Producer can turn those AVIs into lean, mean, bandwidth-friendly Streaming Flash videos (SWFs)

Copyright 2007-8 © Tech Paul. All rights reserved. post to jaanix

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