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Month: June 2010

Lisbeth Salander is Not Completely Fiction


Thursday June 24, 2010

Reading Time: 3 minutes

I am been reading and enjoying the books by Stieg Larsson which started with The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Lisbeth Salander is an amazing character and one of her traits is the ability to hack into computers. I certainly know that spyware exists and I try to protect myself with virus protection software. However I felt that Lisbeth capabilities were more fiction than fact.

This morning I read this article in the LA Times –FBI charges O.C. man in ‘sextortion’ case.
In summary a man was arrested for hacking into women’s computers and finding compromising images that they had stored and threatened to send it to their families unless they paid.
According to the article
“The complaint was filed after a two-year investigation by the FBI’s cyber squad and alleges that Mijangos, 31, used software to hack into computers and extract data he would later use to threaten his victims. The software gave him access to all the files, pictures and videos on an infected computer. It also allowed him to remotely access any web camera and microphone attached to an infected computer to watch and listen to unknowing victims, according to the criminal complaint.”

 

While it is easy to say just don’t keep compromising images on your computer, if the computer was in a bedroom this gave him access to what was going on.
Of course he had also had access to any financial or personal information stored on the computers.
My advice would be to use your virus and anti-spyware software, keep them up to date. Don’t store images you would not show the world. I keep my financial records on a USB device which I unplug when I am not using it. None of this is perfect. You just have to be cautious.
Reading Time: 3 minutes

Did you know you can subscribe to our Webconsuls’ Blog? Simply go to any page of our website and look for the bright orange RSS button near the bottom of the left margin. Press it and go from there. Once you subscribe you will always know when we have a new post to read.

Do you know why you should subscribe to our blog? It is a resource for you to use as you promote your business with your website, your Facebook page, your Twitter account, and your business blog. In the last month our blog has covered the following topics:

Today Judy wrote a post “What I Learned from Julie and Julia”. She talks about how she came to build a personal blog and how our clients might enjoy this and use a personal blog as a training ground for their business blog.

Let us know what you think. Subscribe…it is FREE!

The Webconsuls Team

Reading Time: 4 minutes

Exactly two months ago I wrote a blog about Twitter and the things that I learn from Tweets. That day I made the following observation:

“Here is some other interesting news I picked up by following Rick Klau. On March 11th Blogger announced a new Blogger Template designer. The reviews so far have been very exciting. I am thinking of trying it to create a new personal blog. What do you think of that idea?”

Guess what? Not one of my Webconsuls’ readers offered any feedback about me creating a personal blog.

Quite unexpectedly on June 5th, I watched the movie Julie and Julia. Have you seen the movie? What I love is that it tells a true story and allows us to eavesdrop on the lives of two couples from different generations struggling with identity and goals.  And of course, it also tells a successful story of a BLOG.  So, as the movie closed, the wheels were spinning in my head. On Sunday June 6th I joined in a #blogchat and the rest is history.

I invite you to visit Judy’s OP-ED blog, particularly the About Judy’s OP-ED page where you learn how #blogchat influenced my decision.

But today I would like our clients to mull over these facts:

  • Webconsuls has many clients and a good number of these clients have great blogs. These blogs have been customized to match their websites. They actively post interesting news about their business or their industry. You can see these clients on our Blogroll (in the left margin.)
  • Many of our clients look for guidance about blogging, both technical and creative guidance
  • Creating a personal blog can serve as a training ground for your business blog, allowing you to get comfortable with the software, adding images, videos, links, etc.
  • A personal blog can be a virtual family scrapbook. You can ‘turn the lens on your family’, involve other family members to participate with comments, be guest bloggers, etc.
  • You can keep your personal blog private, only share it with designated readers.

I want you to know that I built my personal blog by myself. I was tempted to call Malik Moosa-Soomar, but I felt strongely that I needed to learn how to do this by flying solo.

Now I hope you will read it, ask questions, post comments, and join in the fun.

And here for today’s fun is a trailer for Julie and Julia. 

Reading Time: 5 minutes

I remember being bored. I think you know what I mean. It was usually a state of mind that a young adolescent or teenager experienced and felt the need to call out to the nearest parent something like this, “Mom, I’m bored. There is nothing to do.” I don’t know about your mother, but mine would usually come back with: “If you’re bored then go outside, read a book, or I will find something for you to do!” Thinking back on this, I think my mother was tired. But those were the days that we learned to explore the canyons around our neighborhood (before they turned it into a golf course), we found trap-door spiders and brought them home in jars, we went to the library and checked out books to read, we started following certain Soap Operas, we walked to the public pool to swim with our friends, we played street games (kick the can) until well past 10:00PM and one summer I was even invited to be the piano player in a combo band! (Summer 1963,The Finnegan Combo took 1st Prize at the July 4th Fair Talent Show)

You are probably wondering why I am even discussing this topic today. Yesterday I happened to see an interview with James Bennet, Editor-in-Chief of The Atlantic, where he discussed the 3rd annual “Ideas” issue. You will see from the video interview and this essay from Walter Kirn, the 3rd biggest idea of this year is BOREDOM IS EXTINCT.

As Mr. Kirn says: “Thanks to Twitter, iPads, BlackBerrys, voice-activated in-dash navigation systems, and a hundred other technologies that offer distraction anywhere, anytime, boredom has loosened its grip on us at last—that once-crushing “weight” has become, for the most part, a memory.”

Just recently Blog World New Media Expo posted a blog Poll: Should There Be “Gadget Free” Sessions at BlogWorld? You might find it interesting, it doesn’t deal directly with boredom, as such, but with the grip that technology has on all of us, so we can’t seem to sit in a conference session and just listen and learn. This post opens with: “After a member of the BlogWorld Facebook page posted a seemingly innocent comment about having a session at BlogWorld discussing multi-tasking during a gadget free session, the little hamster in my head began spinning her wheel.” (DISCLAIMER: I am the member being referred to in this opening sentence.) I don’t know what will become of this idea, but I will keep you posted.

I need to get back to work, but wouldn’t it be a nice day for a daydream? Your thoughts…

P.S. I just went to check Twitter and it is over capacity. That is your ticket to daydream.