Category: General
Home Away… Really Away
I was down at Iola, Kansas today doing some title work at the courthouse. It had probably been a few years since the last time I was there. I noticed a few changes. One that threw me was the highway had been changed so it comes in East of town, instead of basically right into the West side of town. I actually missed the exit and had to do a U-turn right on the highway to get back to the exit. After finishing at the courthouse I decided to take a drive by the old homestead. It had changed quite a bit. Here’s a picture. You can click it to see bigger picture.
Upgrade, Upgrade, Upgrade…
No sooner did I heed to the urgent message from WordPress to upgrade to version 2.8.1 than here comes the message to upgrade to version 2.8.2. Well, I think it’ll wait a day or two. Y’see, I not only have to upgrade the Chappell Family Blog, but my Oil & Gas Attorney Blog, and Bandolero’s Blog, and the Black Star 231 Blog. Bob Hanrott got frustrated with blogging, otherwise I’d also have to upgrade his Epicurean Blog, which was probably the best blog of the lot.
Besides blogs, though, the Chappell Family Website itself got a sort of upgrade with the addition of site search feature from the home page. I’ve been playing with some search scripts off and on (mostly off) for a few months. The scripts that didn’t involve a “hook” to Google or some other commercial facility were generally too convoluted and/or unreliable, but using Google or some other “easier” search method came with a price — adverts. For now, I’ll live with the adverts.
Meanwhile, the notion of upgrading my life continues to be stuck in a rut.
:shrug:
Beware Email Address Theft
October 10, 2009
General, Rants, Wisdom
1 Comment
John
BEWARE, people. Some jerk (or maybe just idiot if allowed the benefit of the doubt) has been using, and trying to hijack, my bandolero email address. He’s been using it as the “contact email” for accounts he creates on unsavory (though some would say titillating) “social” websites, and also when ordering “toys” from advertisers on such websites and other online sellers. He’s also been trying to get Gmail to give him my password by means of the “I forgot my password” link. He’s also stupid, as I have acquired his name and address, and even had a look at his house from street level courtesy of google maps.
But here’s the warning: on some sites where he set up such accounts, his profile included links to my FaceBook and MySpace pages, where my bandolero address is supposedly only visible to “friends” and “friends of friends” according to my privacy settings. Whether there is more sharing among social sites than they let on, or more hacking between them than they’d care to admit, I don’t know. But, it was somewhat surprising to see my FaceBook photo and Gmail photo (he’s apparently uglier than I am though claiming to be only 40) next to photos of his (or should I say “my”?) admirers that were, well…, I’ll just say I’d have preferred seeing pictures that at least aspired to Playboy standards.
Okay, okay, I know what you’re dying to say, but don’t, I’m serious here. A couple of security newsletters I get have recently warned against FaceBook and Twitter accounts. I border on paranoid when it comes to guarding “personal information” but the focus is usually on things like account numbers, SSNs, passwords, etc. Theft of one’s email address used to mean seeing it forged on a gazillion spams. But now we also need to think about how much personal info somebody can get and use to our detriment by stealing just our email addresses, even without stealing our email accounts.
Think about it, and be prudent. I don’t think I’m ready yet to abandon FaceBook and LinkedIn, though I should’ve ditched MySpace a long time ago. On the other hand, I’m beginning to think again about chappells.us or something like it as a better vehicle for sharing things we’d really like to share but which it would behoove us to protect.