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I’ve been phished!

March 8, 2008 By 1 Comment

Well, I knew it would probably happen to me sooner or later, and it did. I have been phished! If you’re unfamiliar with the term phishing, it simply means scamming someone into handing over his/her personal information, credit card or bank account numbers, or user names and passwords using any number of nefarious methods.

These days the most common (and most effective) way of phishing for sensitive information is via email. The scammer simply sends out a flood of emails that are designed to look like they were sent from legitimate companies requesting that the recipients log in to their accounts (PayPal, bank, credit union, Ebay, etc.) to update their personal information.

But instead of the targeted company’s real website, the authentic-looking link in the email takes them to a non-functional replica site – a fake site – that captures the unsuspecting user’s login details. The scammer then uses that login information to log in to the victim’s real account and clean it out or do other serious damage.

Another common ploy (the one that I fell for) is to set up a fake website at a domain that is very similar to that of a legitimate website. Careless users (I’m kicking myself now) mis-type the real domain name and end up on the scammer’s site instead.

In my case, I was attempting to log in to godaddy.com in order to renew a couple of expiring domains. Instead, I accidentally left off the leading “g” which sent me to a site named odaddy.com. Check it out for yourself if you want – just type www.odaddy.com into your browser’s address bar and you’ll see a website that looks exactly like www.godaddy.com.

The scary part is I would never have even noticed that I wasn’t on the real godaddy website if I hadn’t just happened to glance at the address bar and notice that it read www.odaddy.com instead of godaddy.com! Luckily, I did notice, and I logged into my account on the real site and immediately changed my password.

I have always been very careful to avoid being phished, but the scammers are extremely adept at their craft and it’s really easy to fall into their traps. Here are a few tips that might help you avoid falling victim to a phishing scam yourself:

1 – Never, ever click a link in an email that claims to have been sent by a legitimate company that requires a login to access your account. Instead, type the company’s URL into your browser directly or click on a known good bookmark and log in from the website’s home page. These phishing emails typically look quite authentic and they are designed to create a sense of urgency and an immediate call for action. Always simply ignore their links and log into your account directly!

2 – Be especially careful when typing in URL’s. A simple typo in a domain name can leave you in a whole heap of trouble if you don’t catch it. (Can I stop kicking myself now? It’s really starting to hurt!)

3 – Virtually all websites that collect, store, and/or share sensitive information are hosted on a “secure sever”, and if the URL in the address bar doesn’t start with https:// instead of the usual http://, you are almost certainly on a fake website. You should also see a little icon that looks like a padlock somewhere near the address bar indicating that you’re on a secure site. 

4 - Always remember that the IRS NEVER notifies taxpayers of unclaimed refunds via email. Yes, that’s NEVER. If you receive an IRS email notice explaining that you need to log in to some account to claim an unexpected refund, send it directly to the trash can. It is guaranteed to be a scam, each and every time!

Well, I consider myself pretty lucky. Even though I fell for an easy-to-avoid phishing scam, I noticed it quickly enough to log into my real account and change my password before the scammer had time to perform his/her dirty deed(s). I’m breathing a bit easier now, but I need to go take something to ease the pain in my sore leg.

Filed Under: Technology

Red Skelton’s commentary on the “Pledge to the Flag”

March 1, 2008 By 1 Comment

Many of you might remember the late, great comedian Red Skelton and his long-running variety show on CBS television. This link will take you to a wonderful YouTube video snippet from the January 14, 1969 edition of the show on which he expounded on the true meaning of the “Pledge to the Flag”. If you’re a true patriot you’re sure to love it. If you aren’t, it’ll probably make you wonder why.

I would like to express a big “thank you” to Mr. Doug Thomson for sending me the link!

Filed Under: Things I like

Barack Obama

March 1, 2008 By 2 Comments

Who would have thought even a year ago that Barack Obama would be able to transform one of the leanest of political careers into a force that could overpower the mighty political machine of the Clintons?

Well, he has managed to do just that, and as much as I dislike Hillary and the things she stands for, at times I find myself almost feeling sorry for her. After all, not all that long ago the Democratic nomination for President seemed to be hers for the taking, but now it appears that she’ll be lucky to even garner the nod to be Obama’s running mate.
 
What Barack Hussein Obama has been able to do politically is nothing short of amazing. With only a short stint in the Illinois State Senate and less than a single term as a U.S. Senator under his belt, he managed to put together a coalition of voters the likes of which have never been seen before.

He has pulled well ahead of Clinton in virtually every demographic group, leaving her struggling to find a way to wrestle her once devoted constituency back into her camp. Frankly, I don’t see it happening – which brings me to the point of this column.
 
A huge segment of the U.S. population (possibly even a majority) seem quite willing to buy a proverbial “pig in the poke” come election day. Why? Well, there are three main reasons:

  1. He has the looks of a movie star.
  2. He is well spoken and exudes a certain charm that many find irresistible.
  3. He is the first African-American presidential candidate with a legitimate shot at actually getting elected.

Of course none of these are very good reasons to vote for someone who will become the most powerful individual on the face of the planet if elected, but this time around the voters seem to favor form over substance. While Obama is big on hyperbole and a master at delivering it, he has never faced a hard interview by someone who would press him on the monumental issues facing our country.

Instead, he goes on Oprah, The Today Show, and other “soft venues” where he knows the questions will be both easy and complimentary. He has promised to do an interview at some point with Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly, but I wouldn’t hold my breath if I were you.
 
Yes, it’s hard to get a grasp on exactly what Obama stands for. We know he is adamantly against the war in Iraq, but he has yet to clue us in on how he plans to deal with the aftermath once he pulls our troops out (which apparently will happen very quickly once he is sworn in).

He says he will protect our nation from Islamic terrorists, but he has yet to explain how he plans to conduct the war on terror. He says he also supports the socialist staple of universal health care, but he has yet to explain how the nation could possibly afford it and how we could ever hope to pay for it. In short, Obama is big on ideas but rather lacking in details.
 
The good news about Barack Obama’s rocket-like rise to the top of the Democratic ticket is that it proves once and for all that we Americans have moved past the racial divide of old. Not only are we ready, but we are even eager to elect someone other than a white male to be President of the United States. And that is a good thing.
 
The bad new is that Obama is the wrong man for the job. After all, he has barely more political experience than your average county supervisor and no clear plan for running the country. The mantra of his campaign is “Change we can believe in”. Just remember come election day that “change just for the sake of change” can be very dangerous, as proved over and over again throughout the course of history.

One would be wise to demand a few details about the changes he plans to make before casting a vote for him. Do we really need to “buy a pig in a poke” to run our great country?

Filed Under: My thoughts on...

Our loving God and the death of “innocents”

February 24, 2008 By 2 Comments

1 John 4:8 – He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.

In my virtual travels around the web I often encounter atheists who have made it their mission in life to try to make our wonderful God appear as unattractive as possible in their attempts to cause believers to lose their faith and non-believers to avoid finding it. One of their favorite tactics is explaining the “unfairness” of God’s many judgments as depicted in the Bible.

These severely misguided individuals typically point to events like the great flood and the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah and insist that “innocent” people must surely have suffered and died along with the “guilty”, and that any God who would allow that to happen wouldn’t be a God they would be interested in serving even if He existed. Well, like I said, they are severely misguided…

The mistake they are making is that except for the Lord Jesus Christ Himself (when He was living on earth in human form) there are no “innocent” human beings. Romans 3:23 says “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;”… And that does means everyone. But you’re probably asking “What about small children and babies?”

While it’s true that infants and small children do not consciously commit sins, the corrupted blood of Adam still courses through their veins, making them sinners. This state of sin is inherited, not a result of any decision(s) they made on their own. And since the wages of sin is death, babies and small children are subject to dying a human death just like adults are. Thankfully, most of them end up growing up and living into adulthood, but many don’t for one reason or another.

But that sad fact is not the fault of God. When a person of any age feels the sting of human death, he/she is simply receiving the punishment that was levied on all of mankind after the fall of Adam. It’s a fate we all must eventually endure.

Like most people, I am deeply saddened when I hear of a young child dying from a terrible disease or due to some other type of misfortune because they will never have the opportunity to experience many of the wonderful things that God blesses us with during a long earthly life. And of course I’m always heartbroken for the child’s family.

But we also have to remember that God is love, and He ALWAYS takes care of His children. Even though a young child is a sinner from birth, because of His endless mercy God forgives his/her sins in the event that he/she dies before reaching the age of accountability. Countless babies and children who “died” at a very young age are already enjoying magnificent lives up in heaven, and many more will follow after them. And the good thing is they were spared most of the hardships and troubles that go along with living a long human life.

You see, we humans simply cannot comprehend the greatness of our amazing, supremely loving, and all-powerful God. His plans are not our own, and His reasons for doing the things He does are not for us to question. To us, it seems that taking an “innocent” to heaven prematurely is a bad thing, and it’s absolutely right for us to feel that way out of our own love, compassion and limited human understanding.

But from God’s point of view, calling one of His children home early is actually a blessing, affording him or her the rare privilege of getting to “skip” most of the bad things about life down here while getting a “head start” on enjoying the magnificence of life in His holy presence up in heaven.

Of course it still breaks our hearts whenever we hear that a child has passed away at an early age, and so it should. But we also need to understand that God knows what’s best for His children, and we humans are simply incapable of comprehending His tremendous love and endless fountain of mercy and wisdom.

God is love. He always has been, and He always will be, and we should never question His reasons for allowing things to happen that we don’t understand.

Filed Under: Devotions

Automatically flushing toilets

February 20, 2008 By 2 Comments

One of my biggest pet peeves is the automatic flush toilet – you know, those toilets that have a little electronic sensor that tells the plumbing that you’re all done and it’s ok to go ahead and flush. Well, all too often you aren’t done when you hear that tell-tale swoosh, and things really go downhill from there.
 
The concept of automatically flushing toilets is a good one. In a perfect world it would ensure that a toilet never goes unflushed while allowing you to avoid touching a nasty handle in a public restroom. It’s in the implementation where the idea breaks down. Simply put, the sensors are easily tricked into thinking you’re done when you’re not, and fewer events in life are more disturbing than having a toilet flush on its own while you’re still sitting on it.
 
Now I can’t say that every model of every brand has a problem with pre-mature flushing because my experience with them is limited to the units you find in department store restrooms and the like, but I can say that virtually every automatic flush toilet I’ve ever used has left me feeling like my life was totally out of my control. I mean really, who wants to use a toilet that has a mind of its own?
 
Now, if they could just do something about those automatic faucets that turn the water off while you still have soap all over your hands!

Filed Under: Pet Peeves

Never host your website with your domain name registrar!

February 19, 2008 By Leave a Comment

In my last post I told you about a great web hosting deal and it reminded me of Rick’s first rule of domain name registration and web hosting: Never, ever register your domain name and host your website with the same company!
 
I have been building websites for a number of years, and I learned early on the hard way that it is never a good idea to mix your hosting accounts with your domain registrations. Everything is just fine until you decide to move your site to a different hosting company, at which time all types of snakes tend to begin rearing their ugly heads.
 
All too often you’ll have a heap of trouble trying to change the DNS server settings to point to the new server because the registrar/host is upset that you’re moving the most profitable part of your business elsewhere. In other words, don’t be surprised if “glitches” arise during the transfer process, and don’t count on getting much help from the registrar to resolve them!
 
A similar and usually even more insidious problem often occurs when you allow the person or company who builds and hosts your website to also register and control your domain name. By now you should be able to guess what often happens when you decide to take your site’s hosting and maintenance business elsewhere. Yep, your domain name is held hostage, causing you to have to go to great trouble and expense trying to gain control over it.
 
I know of many instances where the rightful owner of a good domain name ended up having to simply abandon it (along with its inbound links and search engine rankings) and register a new one that was nowhere near as good as the original. As a matter of fact, I have a good friend whose Celtic Music group just went through that very scenario.
 
Now I’m not saying that every domain registrar, hosting company and web designer out there is up to no good – quite to the contrary. But I can tell you from personal experience that there are plenty enough bad ones to absolutely ruin your day if you choose to break the rule explained in the first paragraph.
 
If you wish to hire someone to build a website for you, the first thing you should do is register your own domain name, by yourself, listing yourself as the owner AND the “Administrative Contact”. I also recommend opening your own web hosting account, and then setting up a limited FTP account that the designer can use to upload and manage the various files.
 
Then once a week or so, use your own FTP program (I use an outstanding free one called FTP Commander) to download the latest files from the server to your local computer. Also, if you have a blog or some other site that uses a database, make sure you periodically download a backup copy of it as well. That way, should you ever decide to move your website to a different web hosting provider and/or switch web designers, you’ll already have everything you need in order to successfully complete the move.
 
Registering a new domain name is cheap and simple. I have used Godaddy, the largest (and in my opinion the best) registrar out there exclusively for many years with nary a problem. There are many good web hosting companies to choose from, but I think it would be a bit difficult to beat the deal currently being offered by Webhostingpad . Just my two cents worth…

Filed Under: Technology

The best web hosting deal I have ever seen!

February 19, 2008 By Leave a Comment

Many visitors to this site have blogs or websites of their own, and if you’re one of them please allow me to take a moment to tell you about the best web hosting deal out there.
 
Webhostingpad is currently offering an almost unbelievable deal. For as little as $4.95 a month you get a whopping 1,700 GB of disk space, 17,000 GB of bandwidth, and all the bells and whistles you could ever need or want for your blog or website.

They will even assign one of their professional webmasters to your account for a free consultation to answer your questions and help get your site up and running!
 
Would you like to set up your own WordPress blog? Their Fantastico automated script installation feature will install it for you in about 10 seconds flat!

Want to host dozens of different websites to take full advantage of all that storage space and bandwidth? With Webhostingpad you can literally host all the domains you want until your massive server space runs out (probably somewhere around 2025 would be my guess).
 
There are just so many features and benefits included in this plan that I can’t possibly cover them all here. Click here to visit Webhostingpad and check it out for yourself!

Filed Under: Technology

The high cost of inkjet printer ink

February 17, 2008 By 1 Comment

This evening I did a little math and discovered that I pay approximately $108 for every ounce of colored ink that I use in my HP Deskjet 3910 printer. No, that’s not a typo, that precious ink really does cost a whopping $108 per ounce! You don’t believe me? Well, here’s the proof:
 
The 3910 uses the HP 22 colored ink cartridge which costs approximately $18 per unit. Each unit contains .17 ounces (that’s 17/100 of one ounce). Divide .17 into 1 and you discover that it takes just about 6 cartridges to hold one ounce of ink. Now, multiply $18 by 6 cartridges and you’ll see that the total amount I pay for a single ounce of colored ink is indeed $108!
 
Of course the other printer manufacturers are just as bad, and some are worse – I just happen to use the HP 3910 so I used it as an example. To add insult to injury, it’s often impossible to completely use up all of the ink that comes in a cartridge. Many inkjet cartridges these days have a little sensor in them that tells the printer that the cartridge is out of ink. The problem is, it often isn’t empty at all, even though the sensor says it is.
 
How do I know? Because I can shake some of my “empty” cartridges and feel and hear the residual ink sloshing around inside. Does the printer care? Of course not. If the sensor says the cartridge is empty, it’s empty – Period, end of story. Never mind all that ink sloshing around inside. I can almost hear my printer talking to me right now: “Just throw it out and buy a new cartridge if you ever want to print again, you cheapskate!”
 
Granted, there probably isn’t very much ink left when the sensor tells the printer that you need to spend another $18, but at $108 an ounce I should be able to use every single drop of that .17 ounces of ink.
 
I can remember a time when the cheapest inkjet printers you could buy cost around $300, but nowadays you can pick one up that is a heap better than those dinosaurs were for a measly 25 bucks at Wal-Mart. You see, a few years back the printer manufacturers realized that electronic items were constantly getting better and cheaper at the same time, a fact that would eventually make it pretty difficult for them to make any real money by selling the printers themselves.

The solution they came up with for this dilemma was both brilliant and devious: practically give the printers away and then sell the proprietary ink cartridges to match them for outrageous prices! And it has worked wonders for their collective bottom line.
 
So the next time you head over to your local computer supply store to pick up a new inkjet printer cartridge, bear in mind that you too are most likely spending $100+ for every ounce of ink that runs through your printer. Doesn’t it give you a warm, fuzzy feeling knowing that you’re helping the printer manufacturers resolve such a sticky problem with their business model?

Filed Under: Pet Peeves

Josh Turner’s “Long Black Train”

February 17, 2008 By 1 Comment

Josh Turner has taken the world of Country Music by storm. In his young career he has already turned out several smash hits and built a fan base that rivals those of many seasoned Country veterans thanks to his friendly, down-home personality and an amazing voice the likes of which comes along about once in a generation.
 
Josh’s first big hit was the Country-Gospel tune “Long Black Train”, a strikingly beautiful song with a captivating melody and a powerful message that seems to resonate very well with Christians and non-Christians alike, especially given the state of the world in which we live today. In a nutshell, the lyrics explain that the ways of the devil are very enticing, but following him instead of the Lord will have serious consequences down the road.
 
But it also offers the message that God is a loving God, and if we repent of our sins and make the decision to follow Him instead of satan, we’ll be much better off, and much happier in the end.
 
The only line in “Long Black Train” that I take issue with is the one stating that the only destination for the devil’s train is “the middle of nowhere”. Quite to the contrary, satan’s train surely does have a destination, and everyone who succumbs to his enticements and climbs aboard will some day find themselves in the pits of a fiery hell, never to escape the eternal misery and shame.
 
That being said, I don’t think Mr. Turner had any ill intentions for including that regrettable line in the song. The overall message is a good one, and given its immense popularity and radio play, perhaps some people will be drawn to Christ by it who otherwise would not have been. And that is a very good thing.

Filed Under: Things I like

The “Living Water” of Jesus Christ

February 15, 2008 By 1 Comment

John 4:14 – But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.

When Jesus encountered the woman at the well in Samaria, he knew right away that she was in need of much more than just a pail of water. She had lived a life of grievous sin, and Jesus could tell that she was searching for a way out of what had become a miserable life.

As Jesus conversed with the woman, she came to the realization that this was no ordinary man. After all, Jews of the day simply didn’t associate with Samaritans, and when Jesus began talking to her she was quite taken aback. But what she didn’t realize was that Jesus wasn’t just any Jew, He was the very Son of God who would soon be willingly laying down His life so that all who believed in Him could be saved.

And His grace was certainly sufficient to save Samaritans as well as everyone else. This special man – God in the flesh – would soon be shedding His precious blood on the cross at Calvary for the remission of the sins of the entire world, not just the Jews.

When Jesus began telling her things about her personal life that he never should have been able to know, she had a true epiphany concerning His holy status. She quickly became convinced that this amazing man who offered her a drink from a very special well was indeed the Messiah, the Son of the Living God – the Saviour of the world.

Still today Jesus is offering everyone who will accept it a drink from the well of “Living Water”, a drink that will quench the most desperate thirst for forgiveness and redemption. Have you accepted a drink from that special well? Have you accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as your personal Saviour? If not, I urge you to click here to find out how you too can be saved and spend eternity in the glorious presence of our magnificent Lord!

Filed Under: Devotions
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