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Showing posts from 2010

SPAM & Protecting Your Online Accounts

Recently (as of 2010) hotmail, yahoo, and gmail accounts have been under increasing attack by spammers because once they break into valid accounts, spammers can get around most spam filters (because email from known hotmail, yahoo, & gmail accounts are "trusted" by other systems and the email is sent to addresses from those accounts' address books). The only current solution to this problem is for everyone to practice safe computing: 1) use very strong passwords on all of your accounts 2) don't use the same password on different accounts, use a unique one for each (so that if one system is broken into it does not expose a password used elsewhere) 3) be very careful when on unprotected networks or computers 4) keep your own computers and networks well secured and free from malware. These are not necessarily easy things to do although tools such as LastPass ( http://lastpass.com/ ) can make #1 & #2 easy (otherwise #2 is impossible for most people). #3 can be ach

11 Steps for a Super Efficient and Effective Shower

Here is the best way I've found to take a shower efficiently, effectively, and ecologically. Why a shower rather than a bath? Because it uses much less water to get you clean and rinses all the dirt off of you rather than you sitting in it. 1) Put your dirty clothes in a proper and safe location as well as your clean clothes (a place they won't get dirty or wet but separate from each other). 2) Put your shampoo and soap in an easy to reach location in your shower and have a towel within easy reach as well. Also keep a squeegee in your shower (more on this below). 3) Get the water hot without wasting it. Use an on demand hot water heater or on demand water recirculation system ( http://www.gothotwater.com/ ). Or capture the water in a bucket to flush the toilet or water your plants. Or do it military style and just jump in regardless of the water temperature -- let it get warm while you are in it. 4) Make sure all the water stays in your shower. Shut the shower door or tuck the

There's a sucker born every minute

"There's a sucker born every minute." (quote possibly from P.T. Barnum) The counter to this is don't believe everything you read or are told (whether on the internet or elsewhere). While I believe that most people are generally honest and trustworthy, there are many unethical people who are eager to steal from you. Online marketplaces & exchanges (Craigslist, eBay, freecycling lists, online classifieds, email lists. etc) are great enablers of more efficient distribution of goods, but be warned -- they can be misused as well. The following article from PC World about Craigslist scams applies to all electronic venues. Please read and be careful out there! See: http://www.pcworld.com/article/188584/keep_clear_of_craigslist_scams.html And for freecyclers see in particular: http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=20070405&slug=webhouse05m A similar scam occurred on a San Jose freecycling list in 2004/2005.