Tech in the country

Email Me

Other Sites

Web Links
Buddy Icons
AIM Girl
LunaPic Photo Editor
Bots
AOL AIM Expressions
AIM News
James Powell
Photo Editor




Technorati Profile

#1 in google for: Photo Editor
Thanks to all the sites that help my site (Mytheme photo editor, aka lunapic) become the number one site for searches on "photo editor", "photo editing" and "picture editor". My site out ranks what many consider better (yet harder to use) online and desktop photo editing programs. I continue to receive lots of emails every day, keep them coming: "At work and I needed something fast. Your's was the third online editor I tried. Love it and will keep coming back." "I LOVE IT" "I would just like to say, I love your photo animator. I just found it and it's awesome.'
 

A Smaller Footprint
asmallfoot.com details how you can create a smaller environmental footprint on this planet. It's only just begun, so stay tuned.
 

Get Rich Slowly
Get Rich Slowly is a good new blog I ran across. They seem to incorporate many of same ideas I try to tell people about money management and investing. They pointed me to a great list of financial resource links including the very important High Yield Online Savings accounts. They also have a good review of "The Secret" with it's Law of Attraction, along with frugal tips for managing life. Take a look.

Labels: frugal, rich, secret

 

4 Hour Work Week
Ever want to quit your job and travel around the world? Ever get sick of having a long commute only to report to a boss who doesn't appreciate you? Me too. That's why I work for myself. That's why I'm trying to cut my work week down to 4 hours. Timothy Ferris, author of "The 4-Hour Workweek" did just that. You don't have to be rich, and you don't have to have a "killer" invention. There are a lot of "not so shiny" ideas that can help you escape the 9-5. My personal favorite is content websites. I've created two of the top 25 teen forum websites, and my site mytheme.com was ranked the #3 teen site online. So, come up with some ideas and let me know if you need any help.
 

Continued Security Problems with HSBC online banking
While HSBCDirect will offer you a great rate for online savings account, I can not recommend them. Over 6 months ago I noticed a serious security problem with their online banking site. I notified them immediately , and I received a response that they'd look into the problem. While they quickly attempted a Band-Aid(tm) fix for the problem, the have not fixed it to my satisfaction. It also should not be satisfactory to their security team. It may be that they are just incapable of fixing the problem. At this point I don't know what else I can do besides steering people away from their site. More banking security holes here. (Disclosure: I used to work for on several online banking sites, including HSBConline, but not on this portion of the site)

Labels: banking, login, security

 

Auction off your loan. Get better rates
There is a huge and growing community of lenders and borrowers at Prosper.com. If you want to consolidate credit card debt, (a very good idea, you should never carry a credit card balance) or just need funds for other things, you can go to this site and tell your story and request a loan. People will bid on your loan (in $50 increments) and as more people bid, you interest rates falls. There are some real restrictions, and don't plan on skipping out on your loan because it's backed up with collection agencies. It also might be for you if you have money to lend. Instead of getting a few percent at your bank, lend it out for 10% or more.

Labels: borrow, consolidate credit card, interest rates, loan

 

Coffee and Cash at Gold Cafe
I'm typing and posting this message from a bank, and a coffee shop. This strangeness is brought to me by Gold Cafe, an integrated coffee shop and bank. It's more of a coffee shop where they try to sell you banking products, or a bank where they try to sell you coffee. They have weird video tele tellers that look like atm machines, but act more like a drive up bank, but on foot. Well, at least they have free wifi.

Labels: banking, coffee, free wifi

 

AutoPay Credit Cards
Today's rant is on how hard credit card companies make it to set up AutoPay or other form of automated bank payment of your credit card balance. It is very important to pay off your full balance of your credit cards each month, and automated payments from your bank account make this super easy. However, banks generally make you fill out a form, send it in and wait a few months. I recently found this out when I went to change my designated bank to make auto payments. They'd rather you miss a payment or just make direct monthly payments online. Still, it's worth the effort. You'll never miss a payment again, and it always gets pushed back to the last possible day.

Labels: banks, credit cards, savings

 

Site Updates
I've been lax in publishing new updates, mainly because the connection with blogger was broken. With this post, it should hopefully be working again. I'll be changing the focus of the site off the myspace junk and more towards personal advice and happenings.

Labels: financial

 

The Great Global Warming Swindle
Here is an excellent video documenting the argument against man made climate change. It's amazing to me how many programs on global warming, like Al Gore's film, completely ignore data that is counter to their argument and sensationalize the effects that global warming may have. I'm not a climate scientist, so I don't know which model is right. However, I don't think that in general we're seeing a very balanced view of the "problem".

The main points of this film:

• CO2 increases are caused by temperature rises, not the other way around.
• Water vapor by far the largest green house gas.
• The Sun activity is the main predictor of global temperature.
• Scientists have a profit motivation for supporting global warming.
• Those rejecting this theory are ignored and are cast out.

 

Picgames.com: #3 most popular teen site?
I was just reading this article in the Washington Post About MySpace, when I noticed a mention of my site, PicGames.com.

"They're not loyal," Ben Bajarin, a market analyst for Creative Strategies Inc., said of the youth demographic. Young audiences search for innovative and new features. They're constantly looking for new ways to communicate and share content they find or create, and because of that group mentality, friends shift from service to service in blocs.

Consider the most popular teen sites tracked by Nielsen-NetRatings. Topping the list last month were Snapvine.com, PLyrics.com, Picgames.com -- none of which appeared among the top 10 for April, or the list a year ago.

Hmm, the most popular teen sites are changing? I'm not even sure why they brought this up. My guess it's just the crazy way that Nielsen-NetRatings calculates what makes up a teen site?

Well, there you have it, I have the #3 teen site for last month!

In other news, I've just launched my updated LunaPic Photo Editor site. Edit, crop, retouch and perform amazing effects on your photos with the click of a button. Not need for advanced PhotoShop skills.

 

MySpace Codes
Still having a problem with your myspace profile? I've updated the MySpace Codes page to included image hosting and an improved Myspace Layout editor. Let me know if you need other fixes to your myspace profile, or check out the forum.
 

Vonage voice spamming their customers!
Over the past month, I've gotten nearly 10 sales calls from Vonage. I haven't been happy with my vonage line lately, but they think I might like a second line. This is a private line, I don't want sales calls. They interrupt my life. In general, the line has been very free of salesmen. But not now.. Vonage, you too need to resort to telemarketing? The "hillarious" part is that I was having voice quality issues with this very call. The sales guy was not able to help me. I've send 20 emails or so to their support department with no luck.
 

Privacy outrage of the day.
People usually value the pricacy of their personal home phone number. Why is it then that some stores, like Linens -n- Things, will ask you for your phone number while you are checking out? Don't they realize that anyone can overhear and remember you number? Why do they need to take it anyway? Seriously! And they have like a line a mile long and the cashier is collecting phone numbers from everyone. More suprising is that people give them their number! The last time I went through the line and they asked "May I have your phone number?" I said, "No!! And I'm pretty upset you asked for it in the first place. Don't you realize how your customers lose their privacy with that question? I think I'll call the girl that just left. Her number was 555-2121." You should say that too. Everyone should.
 

Photo Gallery Up!
I've started putting up some of the many pictures I have taken. I had a gallery elsewhere, but it was lost. So, bare with me as this new gallery goes up. Use the pics to create a nice Myspace Bulletin if you like (just copy the image url and use the image as your background).
 

Why is Vonage lying to it's customers?
Vonage is a VOIP phone company that advertises it's service as "it sounds just the same as any other call" and "Your callers will never know that it's any different since it sounds just like a regular phone call." These quotes are takend from this vonage.com page. Their TV ads say similar things.

I've had the service for years, I just don't need a real phone with my cell phone and internet. I can tell you that it's not just like a real phone. The quality is closer to a cellphone call than a real call sometimes.

Now that Vonage is going public, they have detailed some of their problems in thier Prospectus. For example, they detail how their calls are different than a regular call:

Certain aspects of our service are not the same as traditional telephone service. Our continued growth is dependent on the adoption of our services by mainstream customers, so these differences are becoming increasingly important. For example:

Both our new E-911 and emergency calling services are different, in significant respects, from the 911 service associated with traditional wireline and wireless telephone providers and, in certain cases, with other VoIP providers.
• Our customers may experience lower call quality than they are used to from traditional wireline telephone companies, including static, echoes and delays in transmissions.
• Our customers may experience higher dropped-call rates than they are used to from traditional wireline telephone companies.
• Customers who obtain new phone numbers from us do not appear in the phone book and their phone numbers are not available through directory assistance services offered by traditional telephone companies.
• Our customers cannot accept collect calls.
• In the event of a power loss or Internet access interruption experienced by a customer, our service is interrupted. Unlike some of our competitors, we have not installed batteries at customer premises to provide emergency power for our customers' equipment if they lose power, although we do have backup power systems for our network equipment and service platform.

It's just sad that vonage can't admit these faults to new users. I find it funny that they are more honest to the wall street crowd than their main street customers.
 

Linux "fixed" to run virus
Linus has released a patch for the latest version of Linux so that it will be able to run an old cross platform virus. Really he's just fixing a small bug in the code, but the effect is that a virus now runs on it. From Slashdot
 

Is Your Bank's Login Really Secure? Probably Not!
After working in the internet banking industry for years, I get asked a lot about the security of banking sites. "Is my banking site secure?" Probably not. "Am I vulnerable to phishing or other attack?" Yes, almost anyone can fall for a phishing scam. "What is my bank doing to protect me?" Not enough. They think you want convenience over security.

To give you an example of how bad it is in the US financial industry, I list 10 major finanical sites with weak logins. The list includes Chase/Bank One, BoA, US Bank, Wachovia, Amex, Key Bank and more. These login pages are vulnerable to the "man in the middle" attack. You should never login to your bank from one of these pages. These logins are insecure because they are not placed on "https" pages. Listen to your browser, not the webpage.

"Don't the banks know about this problem? Why do they have insecure logins?" Marketing, convienence and backward compatibility with browsers not supporting encryption. They think that having a "secure login" on their homepage makes them look more secure. The fact is, any HTTP page can be modified in trasport to your browser, and can not be trusted for sensitive information.

"I'm a programmer. I looked at those logins and they submit to a secure site. How is that vulnerable? My browser will warn me if going to an insecure site!" The fact is, you can not always tell where a browser form is going by looking at that source of the page. I set up an example secure login that demonstrates how to hijack a secure login form. Go ahead, look at the source and tell me where the form is submitting to. It's not where you think. A hacker could modify your banks login page on the way to your browser, redirecting the login information to their secure server. The html of the page may not tell you and your browser would not warn you of an insecure submission.

"What can I do to proctect myself?" Very simple, always use HTTPS to login. Don't trust your bank's HTTP site. You can also try TrustBar for FireFox that will help you identify insecure login pages, and automatically redirect you to the secure page if available.

 

Flash XSS security hole lets MySpace hackers run free.
Flash allows free execution of javascript. (details here) MySpace allows users to embed flash objects into their profile. While myspace does some checking on embedded flash, services like SpySpace and clones actively get around that. Spyspace uses javascript to determine the identity of the myspace user, then reports to the profile owner who is viewing their page. Spyspace uses and number of techniques to hide their motives. First, their swf is compressed, so parsing you can't see the functions. Secondly, they change the extension on it (using http headers to report that it's flash)

To me, this is a problem with flash, which should not be allowed to script. In the meantime, don't use myspace for anything private, because almost anyone you view can have access to your account.

 

Mark this date: February 17, 2009
The end of an era is soon upon us. TV as we know it will be turned off on February 17, 2009, according to a new law signed by Bush. All broadcasters in the US must switch to 100% digital TV by that date. Old TV that only pick up analog transmissions will no longer be able to find a station. Here is the story and here is the FAQ. If you want to still use your old TV, you'll have to buy a converter. This is certainly a win for Big Media and Big Electrionics Manufacturers. The little guy will have to foot the bill on their conversion. Why can't they just let the market decide how fast to switch to DTV?