Good Economic/Ecological Practices for Consumers

"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." - Arthur C. Clarke When we look at life in the United States (and many other countries) and place it within the context of human history, we are wizards! With a few finger strokes we can instantly pull up information on any topic from a vast globe spanning library far beyond any that existed before. With a few more strokes we can instantly communicate to individuals or millions of people across the world with text, sound, pictures, and video. Or we can watch or read just about any movie or book ever written. Slim, black, pocket sized obelisks allow us to do much of this on the go. We can fly, travel the world, and avoid or recover from innumerable mortal afflictions that would otherwise have killed us not so long ago. Clean drinkable water is instantly available in our homes. Automated machines carry us comfortably in climate controlled convenience from place to place. Our biggest challenge: how do we use...

These days many accounts are getting hacked, especially email, because the password was weak (too short), the computer was infected, or someone was fooled by a phishing attack -- going to a site that looked real, so they entered their password, but the site was actually fake. Plus many use the same password repeatedly -- so one compromised password can give access to many systems. Your email account is especially sensitive because it often contains records for many of the systems you use, as well as lots of other confidential information about you and others. And your email account is how many other systems verify your identity. Here are a few of the things that could happen if your email is hacked: personal (and possibly sensitive) information is revealed, your other accounts get broken into, you send dangerous infected emails to your friends, and all your email history and contacts are deleted. It just takes once and most of you probably don't want strangers to have access to all...