This Week’s Items of Interest

Here are a few items for your consideration.

* How Ordinary Skills Led to an Extraordinary Life for ‘Dilbert’ Creator

“While there is a continuous stream of articles toting the amazing qualities of entrepreneurs, the secret traits of successful people and tricks for making it to the top, Scott Adams, the creator of award-winning comic series Dilbert, thinks it’s hogwash.” Read more..

* The First 100% Free Mobile Phone Service

“If you’re shackled by an unwieldy wireless plan that’s costing you an arm and a leg each month – FreedomPop is here to change all that. Unlimited voice, text, and 500MB of data on a 4G network is unheard of – but how can you make history if you don’t break boundaries?” Read more..

* Massive German hack sees one fifth of population’s passwords stolen

“The passwords and other details of 16 million email users in Germany have been stolen- the equivalent of almost a fifth of the German population being at risk.” Read more..

* A few security lessons from the Target breach

“The Target breach points out some facts of life on the Web: We’re all targets (pun intended) of cyber thieves.

Fortunately, there are steps we can take to protect ourselves. Here’s how to protect yourself from the next big breach.” Read more..

* Can a Tweet Put You in Prison? It Certainly Will in the UK

“Tweeting racist or otherwise libelous bile can land you in jail in the UK, but the victim, as ever, is not the target of the tweet but free speech.” Read more..

* Where can you still find a PC running Windows 7?

“If you want a PC running Windows 7, where do you look? Skip your local office superstore or big-box retailer and go where the business buyers go. In those channels, you’ll find that Windows 7 never went away. In fact, it’s not just alive, it’s thriving.” Read more..

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Today’s quote: “It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble. It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so.” ~ Mark Twain

Copyright 2007-2014 © “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.
And please, never forget – one person can make a difference.

Why Did 9,000 Porny Spambots Descend on This San Diego High Schooler?

Folks, a rather interesting read to recommend to you today.

* Why Did 9,000 Porny Spambots Descend on This San Diego High Schooler?

“A voyage into the strange underworld of spambots, shady marketing, and non-human intelligence.” Read more..

[… “non-human intelligence” … I think we need a new term. ]

Today’s quote: “When angry, count to four; when very angry, swear.” ~ Mark Twain

Copyright 2007-2013 © “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.

The Week In Tech

Well, folks.. I’m kind of hard up for anything to write about today. Looking back on the week, well.. let’s review.

1) You probably have seen the ads, and know that the most amazing piece of technology (yet) is now available. I refer, of course, to the new iPad “Air”. I also refer to you to a recent ‘debate’ titled Are iPad/iPhone buyers suckers? and posit to you the idea that if a question is even being asked, the answer is ‘yes’.

2) And the Blackberry sale fell through. BlackBerry CEO Out As Takeover Bid Fails

“BlackBerry charts yet another course as Fairfax Financial invests $1 billion and former Sybase CEO John Chen takes the interim CEO reins.” Read more..

Which neither surprises nor interests me..

3) And we’ve seen these before as well:

* Zero-Day attacks hit Windows, Office, Lync

“Certain versions of Windows, Office and Microsoft Lync are being attacked in the wild via a new remote code execution vulnerability, says Microsoft in a disclosure. ” Read more..

* Limo breach impacts hundreds of thousands of high-profile clients

“The CorporateCarOnline website states in bold letters: “TRUST US; YOUR DATA IS SECURE.” Hundreds of thousands of clients beg to differ.” Read more..

Just a reminder: “breach” means “the hackers broke in”; and “Zero day” means “we don’t have an antidote just yet..”

4) And yet another IPO. Twitter is next, and I heard they’re hoping the company will be valued at $16 Billion.

Yes, with a “B”.

Which makes me think absolutely everyone has lost their freakin’ minds.

Didn’t Dot Com Bubble-Burst 1 teach a dang thing? Or, proved to even the densest in Dot Com Bubble-Burst 2?

5) I’m seeing some amazing prices on tech, and it’s not even Black Friday yet. Prices so good that last year I would’ve bought simply because it was so cheap. But this year, I don’t want anything, regardless of price. I’m tired of being spied on and shown commercials. I’m tired constantly having to ‘update’ and even more tired of having to reinstall backup images because the update broke my machine.

6) I understand people are voicing displeasure at Apple (well, those who bought the new iPad a mere 6 months ago, or so) because they’re finally figuring out Apple’s business model. But did that stop them from lining up outside the store? For the 5S? So they could get last year’s phone in teal or pink?

Bah.

I am no longer amused.

Today’s quote: “Do not bite at the bait of pleasure, till you know there is no hook beneath it.” ~ Thomas Jefferson

Copyright 2007-2013 © “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.

Now, this is interesting…

Let me start today by not only predicting the future, but spreading a rumor!

* Rumor: Microsoft Bringing Back the Start Button With Windows Blue

“Redmond is reportedly building new version of Windows with the option to boot to the traditional Windows interface instead of Windows 8’s “Metro”-style Start Screen.” Read more..

[ Yes. I’m chuckling. ]

Progress Marches On

* Twitter Rolls Out Keyword-Targeted Ads

“Twitter has added a new layer to its advertising platform that will let partners target their ads based on the content of your tweets.” Read more..

[ Isn’t that great?! Just what I’ve been waiting for! ]

* Number and Power of DDoS Attacks Skyrocket

“Distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks are on the rise and becoming more sophisticated, according to new data from Prolexic.” Read more..

* CISPA passes U.S. House: Death of the Fourth Amendment?

“The controversial cybersecurity bill has passed the U.S. House and is now on its way to the Senate chamber. Privacy groups believe this tramples on the Fourth Amendment.” Read more..

[ What’s kind of weird is, nobody I’ve asked has even heard of a “sispah” {CISPA}.. ]

And let’s not forget the fast and easy money

Okay. I’m done.

It just keeps getting better and better, doesn’t it?

Today’s quote: “If you’re going through hell, keep going.” ~ Winston Churchill

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Folks.. that one about the 4th Amendment? And CISPA? Kinda important. I hope you’ll read it slowly and carefully.. Maybe.. write your Senator?

Good thing no one will see this (it’s on WordPress)..

Seriously?

Copyright 2007-2013 © “Tech Paul” (Paul Eckstrom). All Rights Reserved.

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>> Folks, don’t miss an article! To get Tech – for Everyone articles delivered to your e-mail Inbox, click here, or to subscribe in your RSS reader, click here. <<

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

A Job I Could Get Into? (And Twitter in the news — again.)

Once again, a “reader comment” makes me think I may be in the wrong line of work..

Do I have to say it? Interesting as it may sound, a site you don’t want to visit.

Wonder how much that pays?

(I hope you’ll forgive the lack of a real article today. I’m still suffering from Super Bowl Heartbreak.)

Headline News: Twitter succumbs to “extremely sophisticated” attack

“Twitter, with more than 500 million registered users globally, may soon be adding additional login protections. The company disclosed Friday …” Read more..

Wednesday Weirdness

Folks, every ten years, or so, the planets align with the tides of the Fourth House, and ‘ole Tech Paul actually gets to feeling a tad unorthodox. And so, on this day of preparation for many people’s favorite holiday, I have decided to post something a little different, I hope you’ll enjoy.

It is a wee bit premature, but I’d like to ask you to be a little bit more conscientious of those around you today, and please, be safe.

And, yes.. the “shopping madness” is soon to begin, and the roads/malls/parking will be packed. For those of you who are planning to avoid the mobs and do your shopping online (for the so called “Black Friday” deals, etc.) please take a look at my Season’s Reminder (it’s fairly short).

Today’s reading reco: Twitter, Tumblr Become the Latest Fronts in Cyberwar

“The causes may have changed and the weapons may have advanced, but people have waged wars for centuries. In today’s high-tech battles, the barrage of information — or digital warfare — is becoming almost as critical as the salvos of bullets and rockets.” Read more..

Tis the season …

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Today’s quote: “Party on, Wayne.” ~ Garth Algar (Dana Carvey)

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

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>> Folks, don’t miss an article! To get Tech – for Everyone articles delivered to your e-mail Inbox, click here, or to subscribe in your RSS reader, click here. <<

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

Netflix Streaming Outage?

There seems to be a small problem with my Netflix service here where I am (Silicon Valley, CA.) .. like, a total service outage. (Noticed it about 8:50 pm.)

Anyone else?

Wow. Their website doesn’t load, either.. I get a blank (all white) page.. 11:40pm The website is back

I appreciate your input, folks.

(DownRightNow say Twitter is having outages too)

(Cloud computing can be great when it works… but a wee bit aggravating when it doesn’t.)

[update: 6/30, 11:30am: Netflix still appears to be down, Twitter back, and now Facebook and Tumblr down..]