Your Worth on the Black Market

I suggest you try this instead of on-line games:

‘The Norton Online Risk Calculator, unveiled within a microsite to coincide with the launch of Norton 2010, calculates your net worth on the black market by asking a few questions about your personal Internet use.

‘It takes a few minutes to answer the questions, after which you get three results: how much your online assets are worth, how much your online identity would sell for on the black market, and your risk of becoming a victim of identity theft.

‘The main point isn’t to promote software or instill fear, but to spread awareness on cybercrime, said Marian Merritt, Internet security advocate for Symantec.’ -IT World

WikiHow

If you find that Wikipedia is too strict, snobbish, or too academic, try writing as volunteer for Wikihow. It’s only strict concerning sources which is just as any site should be. Wikihow is also a carbon neutral website.

Is Owning a Computer Shortening Your Life?

This is a guest-post from Rick Robinette, a great blogging buddy:

I was recently thinking about the entire ownership process of the computer; from the time of shopping around for a PC to the time of disposing of the PC, and arrived at the conclusion that owning a computer can actually be a stressful experience that ultimately may be affecting our health and may be shortening our lifespan. Of course I am no doctor and have no data to backup my colorful comments in this article, but I can attest from personal experience of maintaining PC’s and assisting others, that the “computer equals stress” AND that “stress equals health problems”. I do not want to sound too negative about computer ownership to the point that it discourages you from owning a PC; but, let’s have a little fun and take a look at this process (through a scenario) and list some potential stressors that could be associated with owning a PC, then I will let you be the judge.

I encourage comments and any other stressful experiences that you may have experienced and/or should be included in this list. This list of stressors are examples only and no names are reflected to the protect the innocent; BUT, this is what can happen.

Stressful Experience #1 – Shopping around for a PC

Stressfull Experience #2 – Purchasing the PC (especially if you purchased it online)

Stressful Experience #3 – Setting up the PC.

Stressful Experience #4 – Setting up the PC and realizing you need to buy other things (e.g. printer, surge protector, external drive to backup files, etc.).

Stressful Experience #5 – Contacting Tech Support and spending an hour to talk to a tech in another country.

Stressful Experience #6 – Sending the PC back to the manufacturer due to a defect; which starts the stress process all over again when you get the PC back.

Stressful Experience #7 – Finding an Internet Service Provider and getting your PC on the internet.

Stressful Experience #8 – Starting up the PC for the first time and that “deer in the headlight look” sets in and you are being prompted to install this and buy that, etc…

Stressful Experience #9 – Your taskbar that was at the bottom of screen has now somehow moved to the top of the screen.

Stressful Experience #10 – Contacting Tech Support because of Stress Experience #9 to only hear the other tech’s laughing in the background.

Stressful Experience #11 – Your computer is finally setup and your family is now using the computer.

Stressful Experience #12 – Everyone in the family is using online services such as Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, ITunes, Babe Pics of the Day, file sharing, instant messaging, different browsers, and on and on…

Stressful Experience #13 – Computer is running slower. Spyware and virus warnings are popping up informing you your PC is infected. You pay with your credit card to fix the problem and the problem worsens.

Stressful Experience #14 – You contact tech support because your PC is still running slow only to learn your PC is out of its’ warranty period and you now have to pay for tech support.

Stressful Experience #15 – Tech Support informs you that the PC is beyond cleaning; that you were a victim of an online scam; that your credit card has been compromised and the only way to fix the PC is to do a recovery.

Stressful Experience #16 – You forgot to make the recovery disks. You buy the recovery disks through tech support.

Stressful Experience #17 – As a result of Stressful Experiences #13, #14, #15 and #16 you are now back at Stressful Experience #3.

Stressful Experience #18 – As a result of stressful experiences #1 – #17, you learn the value of maintaining your PC and securing your PC; however, you just can’t let your subscription to “Babe Pics of the Day” go… “What Momma doesn’t know won’t hurt her!”

Stressful Experience #19 – You have survived numerous experiences over the lifetime of your PC and it is time to get rid of it and you decide to donate it to your Church to use with their projection system. You are happy that you survived these experiences, handed off the PC to a good cause, and now you are ready to kick back, because you now know everything about a PC.

Stressful Experience #20 – You did not remove the personal data from the PC (that you donated to the Church). Remember “Babe Pics of the Day”; well, let me tell you…

Stressful Experience #21 – Judgment Day
What’s on my PC

Zombie Creatures Possessed by Parasites

The bigger question is this: What Happens When Humans Are Possessed by Malicious Puppet Masters?

‘From fungi to flies, some parasitic species have figured out how to control their host’s behavior to get what they need. See what happens when bugs go really bad.’

(ON THE DARK SIDE?: Some tiny organisms can make much larger animals do their dirty work for them. Find out how parasites can take control of bodies and minds. -STEVE YANOVIAK)

‘A spider, seemingly possessed, spins an uncharacterisitic web—just before wasp larvae nesting on its abdomen suck the last nourishing juices from the spider’s dying body and make a cocoon in the weird web.

‘A worm gets into the brain of a shy, shade-loving snail, compelling it to crawl out of its safe home and into the open where it gets attacked by a bird—which is destined to be the parasite’s next host.

‘Creepy tales like these are happening all over the animal kingdom, and not just on Halloween or under a full moon. Some organisms have taken evolutionary advantage to a whole new level, achieving success by insidiously—and still quite mysteriously—changing the behavior of another animal against its will.’ -By Katherine Harmon -Sci Am

Killing for Someone Else’s Fat

A new kind of business is becoming popular. Some are even killing for it:

‘Peruvian police today arrested four men accused of killing dozens of people and selling their fat to cosmetics companies in Europe. At a news conference that featured several bottles of fat, which police say the gang sold for $60,000 per gallon, authorities didn’t produce any evidence of sales, and experts tell the AP they doubt much of a market exists.’ -BBC

Sezmi: Cable and Satellite Killer

The Sezmi TV service aims to provide a more personalized, Net-savvy, inexpensive alternative to cable and satellite. -Harry McCracken, Technologizer -PCWorld

Twitter’s Stone Gives NewsCorp Wise Advice

Google just found another big ally against NewsCorp: Stone of Twitter.
And Stone offers a basic and wise advice to Murdoch:

‘Biz Stone says he’d “love to see what happens” if Rupert Murdoch really yanks his newspapers from Google, predicting that he’ll “fail fast.” The Twitter co-founder thinks News Corp would be better off trying “to make a ton of money from being radically open rather than some money from being ridiculously closed,” he said at an event in London.

‘Murdoch recently opined that search engines shouldn’t legally be able to use headlines from his papers in search results, and he’s announced his plan to put all of News Corp’s papers behind paywalls. Twitter by contrast is totally open, but some have questioned how it’ll make money. Stone says they’ve got monetization plans, notes the BBC, including “explicitly commercial accounts,” that allow users to pay for analytics. It’s also considering selling data to search engines.’ -BBC

Tech Tips – PeerBlock and FlashRecall

Top 10 Star Trek Technologies that Actually Came True
-by Josh Briggs -How Stuff Works

PeerBlock lets you control who your computer “talks to” on the Internet. By selecting appropriate lists of “known bad” computers, you can block communication with advertising or spyware oriented servers, computers monitoring your p2p activities, computers which have been “hacked”, even entire countries! They can’t get in to your computer, and your computer won’t try to send them anything either.

FlashRecall is a little program that remind you not to forget your plugged in flash drive when you shutdown windows or logoff the current user. A handy tool for people who often forget their pen drive at their office or friend’s PC.

Hackers Indicted for Stealing $9M ATM Cash

The cyber-criminals which hacked and stole $9 million+ from more than 2,100 cash-dispensing machines in at least 280 cities on three continents were indicted after one year. -see story at Sci Am

Top Ten Homemade Remedies

Samples: Clear nail polish or hot water for bug bites and duct tape for warts.

‘Feeling under the weather? Thinking—as you look around your office—that you might be soon? Hone your home remedy skill set with a look at 10 of our favorite DIY (do-it-yourself) cures for illnesses and your body’s annoyances.’
-see full list at Lifehacker