I went for dinner at a new Thai place tonight and saw these animated figures across the street (see video below). I’m not sure if it is significant to a specific event at the Phoenix Art Museum, but I thought it was interesting anyway.
The display is rather large, as can be seen here during the day:
Has anyone let you know, recently, that you are being watched? There’s proof. Just open the file attached to the email and see for yourself. They’re recording your phone conversations and reading your email, and you can make it stop. Don’t worry about that file. You have virus scanning software on your computer and it didn’t flash any red lights or make any alerting noises or pop up any windows telling you it would quarantine this file, so you’re safe, right?
The Email
I got the above pictured in my email today. The text of the email claims the following, attempting to convince the recipient that he or she should open the attached file.
I am working in a private detective agency. My name is not important now. I want to warn you that i’m going to watch you and overhear your telephone line. Do you want to know who is the customer? Wait for my next email.
P.S. Probably, you don’t believe me. But i think the record of your yesterday’s telephone conversation will assure you that everything is real. The record is in archive. Archive password is 123qwe
What is all this?
Of course, the attachment is a compressed file with a password. The password is to thwart the valiant efforts of your virus software. You see, most (all?) virus software can’t open compressed files protected with a password, so they never see the virus inside. Getting past your protective software is half the battle. If they can then convince you to open the file, game over.
How can I protect myself?
The sad fact of life is that there will always be people out there creating the latest computer virus, hacking sites, phishing for passwords, etc. The best things you can do are to NEVER open any file that you aren’t 100% sure of and keep informed about scams. And keep your friends and family informed. Let them know that you received such an email and that they should watch out for scams like it. Here’s a few examples to get you thinking:
Last week, I posted about my latest contest, Join my MyBlogLog Community, Get $100. Here’s an update: This past week, I’ve been working hard to hold onto a couple top 5 positions in the contest. Currently, my blogs are in 3rd, 5th, and 8th positions as seen below:
I will keep working hard to move to the top, but I need your help, too. Remember, if I win, there’s another hundred bucks going to people who helped me, so you can win, too. First and foremost, take a minute to join my blog communities at MyBlogLog (see contest details). If you join all 3, you triple your chances of winning. Next, blog about my contest and get even more chances to win my money. Send a message to your own community members letting them know about my contest so they can have a chance to win as well. Finally, tell a friend because the closer I get to the number one position, the better your chances are at winning money from me.
Last month, Donors Choose launched a campaign, asking bloggers around the world to help raise money for School projects and classroom needs. You may have seen the Donors Choose widget at the top right of my blog. I initiated a goal to rais money for some of their projects and posted about it , hoping people would kick in with some donations to help the cause. While I fell horribly short of my goal, the campaign as a whole was pretty successful. Read the letter below for deatils.
Today, I received this letter from Donors Choose, thanking me for my participation:
Dear Joseph,
You helped make Internet history by participating in the DonorsChoose.org Blogger Challenge, and we want to thank you with a $100 gift certificate.
During the month of October, more than a hundred bloggers inspired their readers to give $420,000 to classroom projects on DonorsChoose.org, reaching 75,000 students from low-income communities. You were a part of this amazing outpouring of blogosphere generosity.
To thank you and to help even more students, we are giving you a $100 DonorsChoose.org gift certificate (provided by one of our supporters) to spend on the project of your choice before Dec. 15, 2007.
To redeem your gift certificate, simply pick a project on DonorsChoose.org, click “Fund” and enter the following gift code:
[code removed]
If you’d like to help public school students while showing support for your favorite presidential candidate, spend your gift certificate through our "straw poll that makes a difference."
Please remember - the sooner you redeem the gift certificate, the sooner students in high-need classrooms will get the resources they need to learn. On behalf of the students and teachers whom you’re helping, thank you!
Sincerely,
The DonorsChoose.org Team
Now I can do no more than speculate on who sponsored my additional gift, but it's probably from Google. I will be making my donation later this afternoon or tomorrow.
I have a new contest. I want to give you cash for Christmas shopping for helping me win a race! Ready?
The Goal
The goal is to get as many new members to my MyBlogLog communities as possible and win MyBlogLog’s contest.
How to Enter
Make sure you’re logged into your MyBlogLog account (or create one if you don’t have one yet). Then head to my member page at http://www.mybloglog.com/buzz/members/joetech/. Click on each of my communities and join each one. You MUST JOIN ALL THREE. For each one you join, you get 1 entry. Post about my contest in your blog, (linking to this page), and I’ll give you 10 more entries (your blog must be established to the extent that I can tell you didn’t just create it to get more entries). If you post about my contest on your blog, post a comment here to let me know and link to it.
How to win
This contest runs from right this second until November 30th, 2007. At that time, I will choose a winner at random and announce that winner here (so subscribe to my RSS feed, too)
Other info
If I get enough people, I may increase the prize amount. If I win the MyBlogLog contest, I will choose second and third place winners of my contest to get $60 and $40, respectively, so help me win! If anyone tries to game MyBlogLog or cheat some other way, they forfeit any entries.
