Saturday, July 30, 2005


mark cuban talking about blogs on cnn

Friday, July 29, 2005

Hewlett-Packard Drops IPod

Wired News: "Hewlett-Packard decided Friday to stop reselling Apple Computer's popular iPod digital music players in September, ending a high-profile deal that combined two of Silicon Valley's best-known companies.
Both companies confirmed the decision to end the arrangement, which was unveiled with great fanfare in January 2004. Currently, HP-branded iPods make up about 5 percent of the popular music player's total sales. "

The state of Internet security

Express Computer: "What a difference six months can make. In the previous edition of the bi-annual Internet Security Threat Report (ISTR), covering the period January 1, 2004 to June 30, 2004, Symantec identified phishing as one of the top threats to watch out for in the coming months. Phishing is an attempt by a third party to solicit confidential information for financial gain. Perpetrators attempt to trick users into disclosing credit card numbers, online banking information, or other sensitive information that is then used to commit fraudulent acts. The prediction proved to be on the mark. Symantec detected 10,310 new phishing attacks in that six-month period. "

Are you a PDA addict?

News Sentinel : "It�s a dead giveaway: the bowed head, a shift of the eyes downward to sneak a look at e-mail during a meeting. Call it the �BlackBerry prayer.�
Some BlackBerry owners are such heavy users of the cell phone/e-mail/ personal digital assistant device that they call themselves �Crackberry� addicts, referring to the highly addictive type of cocaine.Research in Motion, the Waterloo, Ontario, manufacturer known as RIM, reported in June that the number of BlackBerry subscribers rose during its first quarter to 3.11 million, up 24 percent from the previous quarter. RIM is the PDA market leader, with 20.8 percent of the pie as of March 31. Its closest competitor, with 18 percent, is Palm Inc., according to research by Gartner Inc."

Stopping Mobile Assets From Running Amuck

InformationWeek : "Cell phones, smart phones, and PDAs find their way into the workforce when employees buy them and use them without regard for official company and security policies. And even as more employers provide handheld devices for everyday communications, they still aren't treating them with the same level of security, policy, and cost controls as laptop and desktop machines. "

Realty Q&A: Who protects your sensitive mortgage data?

Investor's Business Daily: "WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- Issues on people's minds: how do you make sure your personal financial data is protected when you apply for a mortgage and is there a way to transfer title among family members without incurring tremendous costs?"

Memo to IT security: Think globally act immediately

GCN.com: "LAS VEGAS�IT security is more complicated than packets, bytes and bits, a former White House adviser told security experts gathered this week for the Black Hat Briefings conference.

The economic, political and possibly even military consequences of a cyberattack extend beyond its immediate impact on networks and systems, said Bryan Cunningham, now a principal at the Denver law firm Morgan & Cunningham. In a worst-case scenario, a cyberattack launched against another country by a third party from compromised computers inside the United States could be construed as an act of war on the part of the United States. "

Car computers at risk as viruses go mobile

Wireless World - MSNBC.com: Warning that Bluetooth technology could be culprit

"HELSINKI - Here's a new excuse for not getting to work on time on a Monday morning: My car caught a virus.
Car industry officials and analysts say hackers' growing interest in writing viruses for wireless devices puts auto computer systems at risk of infection."

Navy IT officials at Naples issue warning about computer virus

European and Pacific Stars & Stripes: "NAPLES, Italy � Fear not, Navy flag officers are not personally e-mailing you.
A virus has been worming its way through military e-mail accounts in messages purportedly from Navy admirals seeking to give readers updated information on the London terrorist bombings, officials said.
On Thursday, Navy information technology officials at Naval Support Activity Naples issued a stern warning via in-house messaging to the nearly 2-week-old problem that could let outsiders gain access to users� computers."

What's Needling Net Users?

eMarketer: "Pop-ups, site registration, slow pages, dead links... These are just a few of the many things that Internet users don't like. "

Thursday, July 28, 2005

Cellphones can hurt your eyes?

IsraCast: Technology in Israel: "In a recent scientific study conducted by a team of researchers from the Technion, a possible link between microwave radiation, similar to the type found in cellular phones, and different kinds of damage to the visual system was found. At least one kind of damage seems to accumulate over time and not heal, challenging the common view and leading the researchers to the assertion that the duration of exposure is not less important than the intensity of the irradiation. The researchers also emphasized that existing exposure guidelines for microwave radiation might have to change. "

Take browsers to the limit: Google

ZDNet Australia: "The only way to transform the Web into the desktop platform of the future is to fully embrace bleeding edge features in browser software.

This advice came from the lead engineer of the Google Maps project, Lars Rasmussen."

Privacy Guru Locks Down VOIP

Wired News: "First there was PGP e-mail. Then there was PGPfone for modems. Now Phil Zimmermann, creator of the wildly popular Pretty Good Privacy e-mail encryption program, is debuting his new project, which he hopes will do for internet phone calls what PGP did for e-mail.
Zimmermann has developed a prototype program for encrypting voice over internet protocol, or VOIP, which he will announce at the BlackHat security conference in Las Vegas this week. "

Cisco Security Hole a Whopper

Wired News: "LAS VEGAS -- A bug discovered in an operating system that runs the majority of the world's computer networks would, if exploited, allow an attacker to bring down the nation's critical infrastructure, a computer security researcher said Wednesday against threat of a lawsuit.
Michael Lynn, a former research analyst with Internet Security Solutions, quit his job at ISS Tuesday morning before disclosing the flaw at Black Hat Briefings, a conference for computer security professionals held annually here. "

Blind Teen Gamer Obliterates Foes

Wired News: Blind Teen Gamer Obliterates Foes: "LINCOLN, Nebraska -- Brice Mellen is a whiz at video games such as Mortal Kombat.
In that regard, the 17-year-old isn't much different from so many others his age. "

Except he's blind.

The Birth of Google

Wired 13.08: "It began with an argument. When he first met Larry Page in the summer of 1995, Sergey Brin was a second-year grad student in the computer science department at Stanford University. Gregarious by nature, Brin had volunteered as a guide of sorts for potential first-years - students who had been admitted, but were still deciding whether to attend. His duties included showing recruits the campus and leading a tour of nearby San Francisco. Page, an engineering major from the University of Michigan, ended up in Brin's group."

Wednesday, July 27, 2005

We Are the Web

Wired 13.08 : "Ten years ago, Netscape's explosive IPO ignited huge piles of money. The brilliant flash revealed what had been invisible only a moment before: the World Wide Web. As Eric Schmidt (then at Sun, now at Google) noted, the day before the IPO, nothing about the Web; the day after, everything. "

The latest play on passwords

Tech Target: "The mantra within security circles this year has been to strengthen enterprise-level authentication to stanch the flood of data thefts enabled by dictionary attacks and increasingly clever phish scams. But a new vendor-sponsored survey suggests not all companies can manage a more complex system. "

Data loss

Infoconomy - Numbers: "Stories of customer data being lost are hitting the headlines and scaring consumers.
Information security issues have been making regular headlines in the business press over the past two years, but when IT security makes it to the front page of The Sun, the UK's most lurid and sensationalist tabloid, then it is clear that things have reached a crisis point. "

Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo

Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo - Sony Pictures Official International Site - ok the premiere is in Las Vegas, more info to come.. but I am going.

Monday, July 25, 2005

Lost Laptops Sink Data

RedNova News : "LOST BACKUP TAPES may be the IT security issue du jour, but stolen laptops are a bigger and more intractable problem. Critical business data walks out the door every day on notebook computers. Increasingly, those devices are going missing. "

Can you keep a secret?

SC Magazine:

With increasingly extended and dynamic enterprises, the distinction between insiders and outsiders is becoming blurred and what organizations can expect to control is less clear.

"Before the 80s, IT functions were localized in physically secure and tightly controlled environments. The rise of the Internet saw the distinction between external and internal networks, with the DMZ (De-Militarized Zone) emerging as the perimeter between the two. But today, with demand for anytime, anywhere access and more mobile devices, the distinction between what's in and what's out is disappearing. In effect, the walls are coming down and the enterprise is becoming de-perimeterized. "

The Insider: The Threat Insiders Pose to Confidential Information

KSBI-TV - Business: "
'The Insider: A True Story,' by author and security expert Dan Verton, goes beyond surveys and news stories about identity theft and credit-card fraud to reveal the true extent of the insider threat to proprietary data and personal privacy.

The book, published by Llumina Press, is a study of the little-known and little-understood threat that security breaches by insiders pose not only to personal, corporate, and governmental data but also to America's economic competitiveness. "

Software menaces move ahead with the times

Business Standard: "The personal electronics that are increasingly so important to executives - mobile phones, PDAs and so on - are ever more powerful. Unfortunately, it has not escaped the notice of virus writers that the mobile in your pocket today is as capable as the PC you used four years ago. It can probably download e-mail, act as an organiser, send attachments and browse the web, raising the question of whether your phone can now catch a virus, just like your PC. "

Christus Spohn says stolen laptop held patient information

KRISTV.COM : "CORPUS CHRISTI - Some former Christus Spohn patients received a letter with some disturbing information. They're being notified that a laptop computer, containing personal information on patients was stolen back in February.

According to the letter, the information 'included birth dates and social security numbers of patients.' People who receive the letter are being advised to contact their credit companies. The stolen computer belonged to a University of Michigan doctor who was part of a research team."

Lost a BlackBerry? Data Could Open A Security Breach

WasingtonPost.com: "The ability to carry vast amounts of data in small but easily misplaced items such as computer memory sticks and mobile e-mail devices has transformed the way Americans work, but it has also increased the risk that a forgotten BlackBerry or lost cell phone could amount to a major security breach."

Internet Security Risks on the Rise

ABC News: "July 25, 2005 � It's been years since a major online computer virus or worm such as Nimda or Red Alert has crippled millions of computers across the Internet.
But don't breathe a sigh of relief just yet. There are plenty of dangers out there, and many of the newest target popular programs like iTunes or RealPlayer. "

Computer viruses leading financial losses

Antivirus Software Archives: "Computer viruses leading financial losses
The 2005 CSI/FBI Computer Crime and Security Survey has been released. The study indicates that computer virus attacks present the greatest financial losses but conversely reveals that financial losses from cybercrime are decreasing while Web site attacks have risen dramatically. Victims continue to be reluctant to involve law enforcement. According to the survey, 'The key reason cited for not reporting intrusions to law enforcement is the concern for negative publicity.' "

Hacker brings down libraries' computer systems

ABC7Chicago.com: "A computer hacker tapped into a network that serves nearly two dozen suburban library districts, snarling their electronic catalog systems and leaving some librarians to record check-outs with pen and paper.
Arlington Heights-based Cooperative Computer Services, which serves 21 libraries in the north and northwest suburbs, earlier this month noticed a breach in the computer server used to catalog and check out material, administrator Richard Shurman said. "

Docucorp - insurance documents

Docucorp -
Docucorp, a public company since 1998, is traded on the NASDAQ under the symbol "DOCC." The company is headquartered in Dallas, with major operations in Atlanta; Silver Spring, MD; and London. Docucorp's enterprise information management solutions facilitate customer statements and billings, electronic bill presentment and payment (EBPP), insurance policy production, electronic document archiving, financial fulfillment — any kind of business information needed.

Docucorp markets a solution portfolio of information software, application service provider (ASP) hosting and professional services that enable companies to create, publish, manage and archive complex, high-volume, individualized information for optimizing business relationships.

Docucorp has an installed base of more than 1,300 customers, including many of the largest insurance, utility, financial services and health care organizations.

Naming Names

Naming Names by Shannon Sullivan: "Establishing and building credibility is crucial to any company. In conjunction with building awareness, these two elements are commonly the most important objectives for companies to generate sales, secure funding and establish partnerships. While awareness can be built through advertising or other controlled initiatives, one of the fastest ways to establish credibility is by using customer names in testimonials, press releases and case studies. "

When Cell Phones Become Oracles

Wired News: "Cell phones know whom you called and which calls you dodged, but they can also record where you went, how much sleep you got and predict what you're going to do next.
At least, these are the capabilities of 100 customized phones given to students and employees at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology -- and they may be coming soon to your cell phone."

Zero Day Initiative | 3Com | TippingPoint, a division of 3Com

Zero Day Initiative | 3Com | TippingPoint, a division of 3Com: "The Zero Day Initiative (ZDI), founded by 3Com and TippingPoint, a division of 3Com, represents a best-of-breed model for rewarding security researchers for responsibly disclosing discovered vulnerabilities. The program's goal is threefold:

1. reward independent security research
2. promote and ensure the responsible disclosure of vulnerabilities
3. provide 3Com's TippingPoint division customers with the world's best security protection "



hackers can get paid!!!

Yahoo! 360� - My Page

Yahoo! 360� - My Page - Yahoo! starts a blogging network... it's kind of easy to do.. but kind of weak as far as design, etc... but the integration with restaurant reviews and mapping is nice... very well thought out in terms of funcationality.

Gravatar - Globally Recognized Avatar

Gravatar : "What is a gravatar?
A gravatar, or globally recognized avatar, is quite simply an 80�80 pixel avatar image that follows you from weblog to weblog appearing beside your name when you comment on gravatar enabled sites. Avatars help identify your posts on web forums, so why not on weblogs?"

Corporate and Employee Blog Policies - Unplugged

Media Guerrilla - if you read my blog, then you know about some of the corporqate blogging info that i have sat in on. if not, scroll down... but apparently I keep getting the beginner's version of these seminars... good information posted on this link on corporate blogging.

Saturday, July 23, 2005

Supreme Court Judge Nominee John Roberts

NOMINATIONS OF JOHN G. ROBERTS, JR., OF
MARYLAND, NOMINEE TO BE CIRCUIT
JUDGE FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
CIRCUIT;the last time they confirmed hiom as a judge.

Exclusive: "Superman Returns" Logo




Dark Horizons: "In 'Superman Returns', the Man of Steel comes back to Earth after a several year absence. While an old enemy plots to render him powerless once and for all, Superman faces the heartbreaking realization that the woman he loves, Lois Lane, has moved on with her life. Or has she? Superman's bittersweet return challenges him to bridge the distance between them while finding a place in a society that has learned to survive without him. In an attempt to protect the world he loves from cataclysmic destruction, Superman embarks on an epic journey of redemption that takes him from the depths of the ocean to the far reaches of outer space."

Google Scholar


James Doohan

Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: "James Montgomery Doohan (March 3, 1920 � July 20, 2005) was a Canadian character and voice actor best known for his portrayal of Scotty in the television and movie series Star Trek. His characterization made him one of the most popular characters in the Star Trek franchise universe."

Friday, July 22, 2005

Longhorn Gets a Name: Windows Vista

BetaNews : "The folks at Redmond have long pointed to the user interface of the next generation Windows release as one of its major selling points. Now, Microsoft has chosen an official name for Longhorn with just that in mind. Enter: Windows Vista.
Word of the new name leaked out late Thursday after Microsoft tipped off journalists and enthusiast sites of an impending Longhorn-related announcement due Friday morning. 'Windows Vista' was first mentioned at a Microsoft sales conference in Atlanta, according to reports."

San Andreas rated AO, Take-Two suspends production

PlayStation 2 News at GameSpot: "After percolating for weeks, the Hot Coffee controversy has finally boiled over. Today, Take-Two Interactive announced that as the result of an investigation by the Entertainment Software Ratings Board (ESRB), all versions of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas will now bear an AO for Adults Only rating for 'Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Strong Language, Strong Sexual Content, [and] Use of Drugs.' Previously, the game was rated M for Mature. "

Five most overhyped security threats

ZDNet India: "A Gartner analyst has sought to debunk the most common security myths affecting the technology industry.
Research director Amrit Williams identified so-called threats to IP telephony, wireless technologies, the Internet and business conduct and explained how they could be overcome at a Gartner security summit in Melbourne this week. "

Waking Up to Warjacking

DevX News: "Have you ever hopped onto a stranger's unsecured Wi-Fi connection? If so, you're not alone.
According to Jupiter Research, 14 percent of Wi-Fi consumers have logged onto a neighbor's network in the last year.
Leeching off a neighbor's wireless connection seems pretty harmless. But it gets ugly when the leech uses that connection for activities that are illegal and/or reprehensible. "

Learning the hard way

Geee, this happened to me day before yesterday, but luckily we restored my hard drive.

ZDNet Australia: News: Hardware: "I suffered the misfortune of my notebook hard disk giving up the will to live recently. (I suspect as a general result of abuse, but the official line is that it suddenly stopped working.) Although I religiously back up all files -- every four to six months or so -- I'd forgotten how many 'work in progress' documents and e-mails I'd stored locally, rather than on the network."

House votes to extend Patriot Act

CNN.com: "WASHINGTON (AP) -- The House voted Thursday to extend the USA Patriot Act, the nation's main anti-terrorism tool, just hours after televisions in the Capitol beamed images of a new attack in London."

NASA Aims for Tuesday Launch

Wired News: "NASA will try to launch Discovery on the first shuttle mission in more than two years next Tuesday, after tracing last week's fuel gauge failure to, most likely, an electrical grounding problem lurking inside the spacecraft.
Shuttle program manager Bill Parsons said the only way to thoroughly check the system is to fuel Discovery and have all its equipment running."

Driven to distraction by technology

CNET News.com: "The typical office worker is interrupted every three minutes by a phone call, e-mail, instant message or other distraction. The problem is that it takes about eight uninterrupted minutes for our brains to get into a really creative state. "

Thursday, July 21, 2005

Google Sees Record Search Queries In Second Quarter

InformationWeek > Search-Engine Market : "A Web-tracking firm says that Google attracted a record amount of traffic in the second quarter and that rivals Yahoo and Microsoft's MSN also saw more Internet visitors in the same period. "

Do Not Call list under attack, activists say

U.S. Business - MSNBC.com: "They're back. Or they might be, those pesky telemarketing calls, after nearly two years of peaceful, interruption-free dinners. That's the warning a consumer protection group is about to issue."

ITunes-Disguised Worm Spreads Via IM

TechWeb : "A worm disguised as a file coming from iTunes, the popular online music service from Apple Computer Inc., has been found on America Online Inc.'s instant messaging service, a security firm said Wednesday. "

Google Visits The Moon, Finds Cheese

InformationWeek > Online Mapping Tools > : "Users today can zoom in and move around on the lunar surface, thanks to NASA, but perhaps someday there will be something on the planet for which to use Google's search engine, too."

Word of Mouth - BuzzMetrics Mouthpiece

BuzzMetrics Mouthpiece - Mouthpiece is an official blog of BuzzMetrics, a word-of-mouth research and planning firm, and co-founder of the Word of Mouth Marketing Association (WOMMA). The mission of Mouthpiece is to reflect on the discipline of word-of-mouth marketing and the societal and business impact of consumer-created content.

a guy from Sun's blog.

ongoing � PR Week: "My The New Public Relations piece has provoked a ton of really interesting commentary and I will do a follow-up, but I think I'll wait till after this Thursday, (today is thursday actually, what I am listening to while i am blogging this - paisley)when I'm joining in a Webcast for PR Week, billed as Guide to corporate blogging. They tell me that they'll have hundreds of people there; my goal is to learn more from them than they learn from me."

Stonyfield Farm Blog

Stonyfield Farm Blog - a blog from a dairy somewhere.

Blog Seminar

PRWeek on blogging -
Join Tim Bray of Sun Microsystem’s and Chris Halvorson of Stonyfield Farm for an insider’s look at launching and running a corporate blog. More and more organizations are entering the blogosphere, aiming to create an informal dialogue with consumers, employees, and other stakeholders. But there are risks as well as potential rewards to communicating this way.

In this PRWeek webcast, we will tap these experts in this field of corporate blogs to discuss the pitfalls and opportunities of this new medium.


What questions should you ask before launching a corporate blog?
What are some of the biggest mistakes companies make in the blogosphere?
How do you know if your corporate blog is having a positive impact on your customers?


Sun Bloggers

Sun Bloggers

Data Security - Spies Like Me

Accountancy Age: "Encryption technology can safeguard a company against potentially massive corporate destruction at the hands of hackers. So why are company boards so slow to adopt it?"

Schools & Youth

StatesmanJournal.com: "Dozens of case files detailing children's medical, family and behavioral histories were posted on the Willamette Education Service District's Web site, violating state and federal privacy laws.
The district began posting the files in April 2004. By July 2005, more than 1,000 pages about 56 children were online and available to the public."

Internet criminals are stronger than ever

Business Edge News Magazine - businessedge.ca - Ontario Edition : "Extortion, damage to reputation, fraud, service disruption and information theft are all growing categories of cybercrime that are costing companies more money each year - while at the same time eroding confidence in the online environment."

Financial Companies Risk Data Security Breeches

TMCnet: "One third (33%) of financial companies do not have a formal procedure in place for the disposal of key information and the least up-to-date on the Data Protection Legislation, according to research by Coleman Parkes, commissioned by Fellowes, leading manufacturer of personal and office shredders. "

Is wireless security pointless?

Is wireless security pointless?: "



WASHINGTON D.C. -- What with country singer Lee Greenwood's recorded rendition of patriot songs like 'Glory, Glory, Hallelujah' and 'God Bless America' playing over the sound system at 8:30 a.m. in the Commerce Department auditorium in Washington, D.C., one could have been excused for thinking the July 20 conference: 'Pharmers and Spimmers, Hackers and Bluejackers: Combating Wireless Security Threats' was taking place during a national emergency. Far from it. "

Computer hacker accesses ISU alumni information

DesMoinesRegister.com: "A computer at Iowa State University�s Alumni Association was hacked into, allowing outside access to thousands of social security numbers and pages of credit card information, university officials said."

Teen Depression - VitaSync: Depression Relief, Anger, Anxiety, Stress, Anger Management, Attitude Adjustment. - Teen Depression

VitaSync: Depression Relief, Anger, Anxiety, Stress, Anger Management, Attitude Adjustment. - Teen Depression: "Changes in your teen's behavior: Are these just typical 'teen' changes.or are they signals that something is seriously wrong? Could your teen be suffering from depression? Teenage moodiness is normal and just knowing this can help teens get past these feelings. For most, the symptoms are short-lived and disappear when the immediate cause dissipates. But, for some the symptoms don't go away. Teen depression is not as uncommon as you might think. According to research, up to one third of all teens experience some symptoms of depression. "

Next up for handhelds: device management and video

Techworld.com : "Improved wireless device management tools and IP-based video-over-wireless applications were among the technologies that IT managers want to see within the next few years.
IT managers are looking for the ability to use embedded tools to centrally manage handhelds in order to make sure that the devices are secure and running the designated applications. This consensus emerged at Computerworld's Mobile & Wireless World 2005 conference this summer, which was attended by about 300 IT managers. "

Corporate Death Penalty

Corante > Moore's Lore : "When Visa pulls its business from a processor, even for a little while, it's terribly destructive. When they do it permanently, and publicly, it's time to get out the resumes. When they do it alongside American Express, it's a corporate death penalty."

Fighting Data Theft

Line56.com: "If you've even glanced at a newspaper, newsletter, or trade journal in the past few months, it would have been hard to miss: data thefts, in large numbers, with alarming regularity. Organizations afflicted include BJs Wholesale Club, Polo Ralph Lauren, Bank of America, Citibank, DSW Shoe Warehouse, CardSystems, and Lexis-Nexis, among many others. Similarly, the toll these breaches, and the subsequent rise of identity theft, take on business continues to rise. "

USC says database hacked

CNN.com - : "LOS ANGELES, California (Reuters) -- A University of Southern California database containing about 270,000 records of past applicants including their names and Social Security numbers was hacked last month, officials said Tuesday."

Securing Wireless Technology: Communication, Part II

IT Observer - Securing Wireless Technology: Communication, Part II: "The beauty of wireless communication is that it frees the user from the limited reach of wires or a dock. Mobile data systems pass information from mobile devices in remote locations to the enterprise data center via radio waves in "free space." This area in the middle, between the device and host, is where the information is transported or communicated. This layer must be secured as well. "

AloAchoo! - The next generation of viruses has hit mobile phones

Business Today Egypt: "Mobile phones can act as organizers, video game consoles or cameras and even allow you to surf the web during downtime. So, it was only a matter of time before viruses started infecting "smartphones" like they do computers."

Securing mobile devices with PicturePIN

CIOL : News : "BANGALORE: 'Women love flowers daily'. Now, what in the world is that supposed to mean? Well, that's actually a unique picture based information access control, called PicturePIN, for mobile devices such as PocketPCs and PDAs. A patent-pending authentication software from Pointsec, a mobile security solutions provider, PicturePIN consists of a series of pictures that can be randomly manipulated in place of the conventional password. "

Rachel Beck: We need a law concerning identity theft

MySA.com: Business: "The names and bank account details of as many as 40 million credit-card holders have been exposed to fraud, and that breach was made public only because of California. "

Laptop Theft: do not becoming another Statistic

Security Park : "When laptops were first available, they were treated with great care and attention. To be given a laptop by your company marked you out as someone special. Today, the laptop is commonplace. They are no longer the possession of high powered business executives or IT developers. Everyone from geeks to the occasional home user is moving away from desktop computers to the laptop."

LoJack now offers software to help you recover your stolen laptop

News 14 Carolina: "As laptop computers become more powerful, more of us are using them for day-to-day business. But bringing your business with you everywhere means a greater likelihood it can get stolen.
You can't really say it's "like" LoJack for your computer, because it actually is LoJack for your computer. The name that's synonymous with finding stolen cars is teaming up with the folks at Absolute Software for CompuTrace: LoJack for Laptops."

Freelance Writer, Artist, Consultant, Professional Blogger, Podcaster, Vlogger, Online Instructor, Trainer, Publisher

ShaiCoggins.com - one of the experts on About.com has a decent blog and is kind of cute despite what the trolls say about her.

Tuesday, July 19, 2005

Fighting a Broadband Battle

WSJ.com: "New FCC Chairman Martin
Argues Looser Rules Will Boost
High-Speed Internet Service"

Marketing Unplugged: CRM Hits the Road

CIO Today - Customer Relations: "Rocket Builders, a marketing consulting company, used to access customer information on the road using laptops. But this wasn't a very practical solution, says Dave Thomas, a partner at the company. Now they use BlackBerry handhelds. "

Wireless Risks: How To Avoid Common Pitfalls

InformationWeek > Wireless LAN Infrastructure July 18, 2005: "Building a wireless LAN infrastructure isn't cheap or without risk, but there are steps businesses can take to protect their investments and avoid potential problems."

Handheld Crime Fighting

DevX News: "Police officers use dash-mounted laptops in cruisers to access criminal databases. But what if they're patrolling on foot, bike or horse? A telecom giant and a mobile software specialist think they have the answer. "

FBI: Online Crime Losses Down, Attacks Up

InternetNews.com: "UPDATED: Average losses from cybercrime declined dramatically in 2004, according to a new report from the FBI. "

Protective Layers: Securing Corporate Networks

Techworld.com : "With so many types of malware stalking the Internet, companies pile on their email defences. "

Foiling e-document hackers

PhysOrg.com: "A worker sends an office colleague an e-mail with a corporate document attached, but the seeming routine message turns out to harbor a malicious passenger, because the attachment contains hidden pornographic images that were inserted by a hacker during it's transmission over the Internet. When the document is opened by a female employee, she files a lawsuit for sexual harassment. "

Mobile politics - Do mobile phones invade our privacy? British MPs give their views

sp!ked-IT : "The spiked/O2 online debate Do mobile phones invade our privacy?, which explores the implications for privacy of new developments such as camera phones, location-based services, data retention and spam, has attracted a number of lively responses from readers. But what do policymakers think about all this?"

ID theft: It's only a matter of time - Jul. 18, 2005

MONEY Magazine - Jul. 18, 2005: "NEW YORK (MONEY Magazine) - The personal data of nearly 50 million Americans have been exposed this year. As many as one in six people are now vulnerable to identity theft. "

Data breaches: turn back the tide

Cyber Ark: "An information security best practices primer to minimise the risks posed to business and customer information."

Why and how the IT department needs to be involved in termination of employees

IT Manager's Journal Why and how the IT department needs to be involved in termination of employees: "Letting an employee go can be a dirty job, but the IT department must help do it. It is necessary to involve IT in the employee termination process because the former employee who still has access to a company's network and proprietary corporate data is a security threat. "

ICE melts mobile phones? Probably not

Cell Phone Virus News: "MORE DETAILS have emerged on the ICE mobile phone virus scare. Below is an expert from an email showing how seriously some IT managers are taking the threat."

South Texas Residents Prepare for Emily

Wired News (AP) -- South Texas residents boarded up windows, put sandbags in flood-prone areas and moved their RVs from the edge of a beachside park that could be swamped by Hurricane Emily.
'Your luck can't be that good all of the time and we've been lucky,' Cameron County park Ranger Arnold Flores said Monday. 'We haven't been hit like Florida has.' "

Mind May Affect Machines

Wired News: "For 26 years, strange conversations have been taking place in a basement lab at Princeton University.
No one can hear them, but they can see their apparent effect: balls that go in certain directions on command, water fountains that seem to rise higher with a wish and drums that quicken their beat."

Monday, July 18, 2005

Google investors find new project

Tech News on ZDNet: "Google rainmakers and venture capitalists John Doerr and Ram Shriram are pinning their hopes--and millions--on yet another Stanford University spin-off with a nonsensical name. "

Lost Laptops Sink Data

Computerworld: " Lost backup tapes may be the IT security issue du jour, but stolen laptops are a bigger and more intractable problem. Critical business data walks out the door every day on notebook computers. Increasingly, those devices are going missing. "

Where the Dangers Are

WSJ.com : "In the world of cybercrime, the bad guys are getting smarter -- and more ambitious.
In recent months, hackers have carried out a flurry of increasingly sophisticated attacks, highlighting the vulnerability of key computer networks around the world."

Securing Wireless Technology: Wireless Devices, Part I

IT Observer : "Wireless networking frees mobile workers from wires and cables, allowing them to collect and view data whenever, wherever they choose. The popularity of wireless networking is broad and continues to grow. The Gartner Group stated in an April 2005 study that by 2015, the average urban citizen in the United States and Europe will use at least six wireless networking technologies per day. "

Gartner Advises Businesses to See Beyond Mobile Malware Hype

Data Manager on line - - Fast spreading virus or worm on mobile devices unlikely before the end of 2007
- Mobile network operators must develop antivirus strategies

Egham, UK – 18 July 2005 – The conditions required for a virus or worm to pose a rapid spreading threat to more than 30 percent of mobile devices will not converge until the end of 2007, according to new research by Gartner. For this reason, businesses should not focus their immediate wireless security efforts on device-based malware solutions.

Quocirca's Straight Talking: The way to mobile security

Breaking Business and Technology News at silicon.com: "With more and more people using handhelds and mobile phones to store critical corporate data, the need to secure these devices has becoming increasingly dire. Quocirca's Clive Longbottom offers advice on how to safeguard your IT systems."

Online Privacy Regulations Forcing Better Handling of Data

Technology News: Security: "In essence, computerized banking transactions and Internet commerce practices have put new twists on old identity theft methods used by criminals. Federal guidelines are just now starting to focus on electronic processes that did not exist when other federal regulations were first designed."

Windows users resort to throwing out PCs rather than cleaning spyware, malware infested machines

MacDailyNews - Apple and Mac News:
'Add personal computers to the list of throwaways in the disposable society. On a recent Sunday morning when Lew Tucker's Dell desktop computer was overrun by spyware and adware - stealth software that delivers intrusive advertising messages and even gathers data from the user's machine - he did not simply get rid of the offending programs. He threw out the whole computer,' Matt Richtel and John Markoff report for The New York Times."

Hurricane Emily

Bloomberg.com: Latin America: "Hurricane Emily Pounds Mexico's Yucatan After Hitting Cozumel "

Jail for Nigerian bank fraudster

BBC NEWS | Africa : "A court in Nigeria has sentenced a woman to two and a half years in prison for her part in the country's biggest ever international fraud case. "

Microsoft Courts Hollywood Allies

LaTimes.com: "Humbled by Apple's success in music, the tech giant mends fences with the film world as it tries to conquer the home entertainment market."

Google Growth Yields Privacy Fear

Google Growth Yields Privacy Fear - Google is at once a powerful search engine and a growing e-mail provider. It runs a blogging service, makes software to speed web traffic and has ambitions to become a digital library. And it is developing a payments service.

Although many internet users eagerly await each new technology from Google, its rapid expansion is also prompting concerns that the company may know too much: what you read, where you surf and travel, whom you write.

Saturday, July 16, 2005

You have been warned. Now, what are you gonna do about it?

Court Gutting in Congress
Congress is quietly considering whether to destroy one of the pillars of constitutional law: the habeas corpus power of the federal courts to determine whether an indigent defendant has been unjustly sentenced to death in state courts.

A bill making alarming progress in committee would effectively strip federal courts of most review power and shift it to the attorney general. That's right: the chief prosecutor of the United States would become the judge of whether state courts behave fairly enough toward defendants appealing capital convictions. If a state system was certified as up to snuff, then the federal courts would lose their jurisdiction and condemned defendants their last hope.

It is appalling that lawmakers would visit such destruction on a basic human right that's been painfully secured across three centuries of jurisprudence. Repeatedly, federal court scrutiny has laid bare the shoddy state of capital justice in the states. DNA science has drawn attention to the frequency of false convictions.

The injustices of the criminal court process flow considerably from the widespread lack of competent defense counsel in the first place. Yet the proposal would allow state courts greater cover in pronouncing their own flawed convictions as too "harmless and nonprejudicial" to merit further review.

Proponents insist that truly meritorious complaints would somehow survive under this oppressive bill. In fact, it would make the execution of the innocent even more likely than it already is.


JUDGE RON CHAPMAN, Retired Justice, 5th District Court of Appeals

Friday, July 15, 2005

Bill Strives to Protect Privacy

Wired News: "A bipartisan group of senators introduced comprehensive identity-theft legislation Thursday that throws some of the burden for preventing the increasingly common crime onto businesses and other organizations that collect personal information. The new legislation also would give consumers more control over their personal data.
The Identity Theft Protection Act, introduced in the Senate commerce committee by a bipartisan coalition, addresses problems with recent high-profile data breaches by requiring entities that collect sensitive information, such as Social Security numbers, to secure the data physically and technologically and to notify consumers nationwide when data is compromised. "

Joe Wilson's Top Ten Worst Inaccuracies And Misstatements

GOP.com : CIA Said Wilson’s Findings Did Not Resolve The Issue. “Because [Wilson’s] report, in our view, did not resolve whether Iraq was or was not seeking uranium from abroad, it was given a normal and wide distribution, but we did not brief it to the president, vice president or other senior administration officials. We also had to consider that the former Nigerien officials knew that what they were saying would reach the U.S. government and that this might have influenced what they said.” (Central Intelligence Agency, “Statement By George J. Tenet, Director Of Central Intelligence,” Press Release 7/11/03)

Thursday, July 14, 2005

TechSpeak: VOMIT

vomit - voice over misconfigured internet telephones

Free SpyWare Removal Tool

Zone Labs: Special Offer - Spyware is any software program that secretly collects information from the computer on which it is installed, while broadcasting the information back to an outside party that controls the program.

Many Internet users have downloaded free software or clicked on banner ads without realizing that some of these files could contain spyware. Some spyware programs cause increased spam or pop-up ads, while others can steal your personal information and threaten your security. Once spyware is installed, it’s very difficult to prevent your data from being sent out. And spyware also has the ability to install additional software onto your computer without your consent. Find out if your computer is infected.

Has pod-slurping moved to mobiles?

IT Week: "In 2004, I wrote about the impending security nightmare that was likely to be caused by the large number of portable storage devices in users' hands. Six months of industry ignorance later, some helpful soul invented the buzz-term ' pod-slurping', and now suddenly everyone is talking about it."

E.R. for Hard Drives

GoUpstate.com | Spartanburg Herald-Journal | Spartanburg S.C.: "NOVATO, Calif. - He knew it was important, but backing up his hard drive was the last thing on Ryan Risdal's mind. Mr. Risdal, 35, was too busy rearing four children and caring for his ill wife.
One day after her death last August, Mr. Risdal was trying to recover some pictures from his computer to display at his wife's funeral. But the computer would not cooperate, and the local repair shop told him he was out of luck. The drive was inoperable, and nothing could be retrieved."

Motivating IT and business executives to buy into security

Tech Target: "SAN DIEGO -- Though only a year into his new role as a CISO, former consultant and security vendor Scott Blake believes he's gained enough insight to pass along a few tips on how to sell security to executives. For starters, use fear, uncertainty and doubt, or FUD, as a last resort. "

Return to Paper

Computerworld Malaysia : "Yet again another case of notebook theft has occurred in the capital city. This time, it happened to one party who travelled all the way from Singapore to meet with their customers, besides meeting us at Computerworld. When they called up to cancel the meeting, we were shocked to hear that a couple of notebook computers went missing from the locked boot of the car they parked outside a restaurant, ostensibly to enjoy lunch before meetings proper. They only discovered that when they wanted to remove their luggage and unpack them. How unfortunate. "

Data Breaches : Turn Back the Tide

IT Observer : "Despite the hundreds of millions of dollars that organizations have invested in information security technology to secure their critical business-technology infrastructures, the bad news keeps breaking. In the past year, dozens of companies have had to inform their customers that the exposure of their personally-identifiable financial information had placed them at great risk of identity theft. The incidents range from fraudsters successfully establishing bogus access accounts to steal legitimate consumer information to hacked networks to lost backup tapes containing the financial information of millions of consumers. "

Public Relations Blog

M/C/C Public Relations

Wednesday, July 13, 2005

Energy-beam weapons still missing from action -

Tech News & Reviews - MSNBC.com: "ARLINGTON, Va. - For years, the U.S. military has explored a new kind of firepower that is instantaneous, precise and virtually inexhaustible: beams of electromagnetic energy. �Directed-energy� pulses can be throttled up or down depending on the situation, much like the phasers on �Star Trek� could be set to kill or merely stun."

Karl Rove, Whistleblower

WSJ: OpinionJournal : "Democrats and most of the Beltway press corps are baying for Karl Rove's head over his role in exposing a case of CIA nepotism involving Joe Wilson and his wife, Valerie Plame. On the contrary, we'd say the White House political guru deserves a prize--perhaps the next iteration of the 'Truth-Telling' award that The Nation magazine bestowed upon Mr. Wilson before the Senate Intelligence Committee exposed him as a fraud.
For Mr. Rove is turning out to be the real 'whistleblower' in this whole sorry pseudo-scandal. He's the one who warned Time's Matthew Cooper and other reporters to be wary of Mr. Wilson's credibility. He's the one who told the press the truth that Mr. Wilson had been recommended for the CIA consulting gig by his wife, not by Vice President Dick Cheney as Mr. Wilson was asserting on the airwaves. In short, Mr. Rove provided important background so Americans could understand that Mr. Wilson wasn't a whistleblower but was a partisan trying to discredit the Iraq War in an election campaign. Thank you, Mr. Rove."

Good Technology acquires assets of JP Mobile

siliconindia.com: "FREMONT: Good Technology has acquired the key technology assets and engineering talents of Dayakar Puskoor founded JP Mobile.

The acquisition will give Good Technology access to advanced server technologies that connects with a variety of back-ends, including IBM Lotus Notes and Domino, Novell GroupWise and IMAP, developed by JP Mobile."

Tech Tips from Left Field

Opinion Column by PC Magazine: "Good advice can come from traditional and unexpected places�people you meet on the street, e-mail, Web postings, and even the general manager of the New York Mets. I proved this theory earlier this month when I got some useful and interesting advice from all of the aforementioned sources."

Bank of America adds new online security

Consumer Security - MSNBC.com: "CHARLOTTE, N.C. - Stung by recent high-profile security breaches, Bank of America Corp. is rolling out a new online banking security system aimed at making it harder for cyberthieves to crack customer accounts."

Medical firm's files stolen

The Arizona Republic: "The personal information of 57,000 Blue Cross Blue Shield of Arizona customers was stolen from a Phoenix-based managed care company"

The Brand and the Brain:What science is telling us about consumer behavior

Guest Columnist: TalentZoo.com
What science is telling us about consumer behavior
: "Recently a team at the Baylor College of Medicine in Texas studied the brain scans of 67 individuals who were asked to do blind taste tests of Coca-Cola and Pepsi. Participants were split virtually 50/50 over which soft drink tasted better. But when the same people were tested again and told which brand of soft drink they were drinking, 75% said they preferred Coca-Cola."

Free SpyWare Removal Tool and Free Download and Spy Ware Scan.

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The specs on eBlocs Spyware Removal Tool look pretty good. I normally use AdAware by Lavasoft for Spy Ware Removal. You can scan your PC for SpyWare for Free!.

Remote Spy Software by Explore Anywhere Software


iSpyNOW
- Remotely deployable spy software.



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Tuesday, July 12, 2005

The Official Charlie and the Chocolate Factory Film Site

The Official Charlie and the Chocolate Factory Film Site

Fans tinker with latest electronic gadgets -

washingtonpost.com Highlights - MSNBC.com: "Fans of the TiVo digital video recorder have discovered how to break it open and install a larger hard drive. Early users of the Roomba, a robot vacuum cleaner, are rewiring it to serve as a 'mobile security robot.' Owners of the new Sony PlayStation Portable have figured out how to use the game machine to surf the Internet and exchange instant messages."

Paisley does Dallas: Spy Equipment

Paisley does Dallas: Spy Equipment - started another section on my other blog on spy equipment, hacking, spyware, hidden cameras, computer security and some other spy stuff.

London Bombing Virus Attacks PCs

NewsFactor Network - Enterprise Security : "The virus, which can affect Windows 2000, 95, 98, Me, NT, XP and Windows Server 2003, arrives in an e-mail message with 'TERROR HITS LONDON' in the subject line. "

Is Your Business Safe From Internet Security Threats?

Entrepreneur.com: "Spyware, viruses and hacker attacks can be devastating to small businesses. Here's how to protect your company from internet security threats."

Thieves steal UK government computers

SC Magazine: "The UK government has been hit by over 150 cases of computer theft in the last year, newly released figures show. "

Document security? Tell me another joke

Perspectives | CNET News.com: "Hardly a week goes by without a report of confidential information leaking from a supposedly secure document. Breaches affecting both the public and private sectors are constantly making the news. "

Spy Cam Surveillance Equipment: Hidden Cameras and Spy Cams

Spy Cam Surveillance Equipment: Hidden Cameras and Spy Cams - this link has a HUGE list of Spy cameras.

Spy Equipment and Computer Security

I recently saw a video where it explains all the techniques about eavesdropping, phone bugging and how to hack a cell phone. So i got interested in all the kinds of spy equipment out there. Scanners, Digital Recorders, Spyware Software, Data Encryption and all kinds of neat stuff... so I will be posting lots of links to places that sell spy stuff... Now some of this stuff is complete crap but some of it is not, so first thing to do is buy this video for $99 (see the link to www.tscmvideo.com , the guy that does the production is an instructor from Texas A & M (please don't hold that against him.), who knows his stuff. check out the website if you can, the video is very long but also has very good information on industrial espionage.

spy equipment, surveillance equipment, spy camera, night vision, spy cam

spy equipment, surveillance equipment, spy camera, night vision, spy cam: "a uk based manufacturer and supplier of some of the latest state of the art spy equipment surveillance equipment and counter measures devices available. Using the latest surface mount technology our spy equipment is among the best and reliability is second to none. Our equipment is designed so that it can be used in any country in the world where legaly permitted, with the same operational quality. We also supply covert surveillance equipment specially designed to your requirements from audio surviellance to video surveillance."

Spy Equipment, Security Cameras, GPS Tracking, Surveillance Equipment, Spy Store, Spybase

Spy Equipment, Security Cameras, GPS Tracking, Surveillance Equipment, Spy Store, Spybase: "Surveillance Cameras & Spy Equipment at SpyBase.com where we offer spy equipment and surveillance cameras, video recorders, home security Devices, Night Vision, Wireless Devices, Telephone Recorders, Digital Audio Recorders, Pinhole Cameras, Hidden Cameras, Security Cameras, 2.4 ghz, 900 mhz, dvr cards, mini transmitters, wireless, hidden nanny cams, spy gear, spy equipment, digital video recorders, home security cameras, surveillance, surveillance equipment, spy, surveillance products, electronic surveillance, pinhole cameras, miniature cameras, hidden and disguised cameras, taser, transmitters, telephone recorders, telephone tap indicators, telephone security devices, voice scramblers, caller id, listening devices, scanners, tap detector, video monitors, video recorders, video transmitters, CB radio, Devices, radar, radar detectors, police scanners, vcr, drug test kits, bug detectors, countermeasures, wire tap detector, parabolic microphones, shot gun microphones, wireless cameras, vehicle tracking system, facial disguises, spy products, security, spy supplies, wireless transmitters, wireless receivers, lockpicking, locksmithing, counterfeit money detectors, security briefcases, voice changing, audio jammer, private eye, private investigators, personal protection, corportate protection, video monitoring, disguises, tracking systems, transmitters, camera & transmitter, Keystroke recorders, Magnetic Card Reader, Magnetic Card Recorder, and much More. "

Spyworld.com - Spy Tools - Telephone Surveillance - Video Surveillance - Spy Gear

Spyworld.com - Spy Tools - Telephone Surveillance - Video Surveillance - Spy Gear - available in french, german, italian and english.

New 'Harry Potter' book leaked

CBC Arts: "The Canadian publisher of the Harry Potter series has filed a court injunction barring anyone from leaking the plot of the latest book after a store accidentally sold copies ahead of the release date. "

The Filtered Future - China's bid to divide the Internet.

By Tim Wu: "The end of June marked the deadline for independent Chinese bloggers to register with the government. That requirement is another sign, along with Microsoft's recent admission that its Chinese blog site would block titles like 'freedom' and 'democracy,' of the country's efforts to control the Internet. In the United States, the mainstream assumption is that such controls are easily evaded and will do little to slow China's inexorable march to democracy. The country's leaders are 'digging the Communist Party's grave, by giving the Chinese people broadband,' writes New York Times columnist Nicolas Kristof. 'There just aren't enough police to control the Internet.' "

Video Game Industry Applauds Worldwide Piracy Raids In “Operation Site Down”

ESA: "July 11, 2005 -- Washington, DC -- The Entertainment Software Association (ESA) today hailed the work of U.S. and foreign law enforcement agents and prosecutors for their work in �Operation Site Down�, a recent global anti-piracy enforcement initiative that resulted in the dismantling of at least eight major online distribution servers offering millions of dollars worth of illegally pirated games and other works for download."

The hacker who sent Viagra to Bill Gates

BBC NEWS | UK : "Convicted teenage hacker Raphael Gray harvested thousands of credit card numbers from the net. Then the FBI turned up in his Welsh village knocking on his door, as he explains in our weekly Real Time series. "

Key hacker magazine faces closure

BBC NEWS | Technology : "The in-house magazine of the digital underground, Phrack is closing after 20 years as its editorial team steps down. "

Giving New Meaning to 'Spyware'

Wired News: "Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart famously said that he couldn't define obscenity, but that he knew it when he saw it.
The same has long been the case with spyware. It's not easy to define, but most people know it when parasitic programs suck up resources on their computer and clog their browsers with pop-up ads."

Monday, July 11, 2005

Feds Fear Air Broadband Terror

Wired News: "Federal law enforcement officials, fearful that terrorists will exploit emerging in-flight broadband services to remotely activate bombs or coordinate hijackings, are asking regulators for the power to begin eavesdropping on any passenger's internet use within 10 minutes of obtaining court authorization.
In joint comments filed with the FCC last Tuesday, the Justice Department, the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security warned that a terrorist could use on-board internet access to communicate with confederates on other planes, on the ground or in different sections of the same plane -- all from the comfort of an aisle seat. "

Friday, July 08, 2005

London Death Toll Expected to Surpass 50

Guardian Unlimited : "Friday July 8, 2005 5:31 PM
AP Photo XLST117
By PAISLEY DODDS
Associated Press Writer
LONDON (AP) - Police raised the death toll Friday to at least 49 from London's terrorist bombings but said more bodies may be trapped in a subway car deep underground. "

Users Wising Up to Spyware

Wired News: "Internet users worried about spyware and adware are shunning specific sites, avoiding file-sharing networks, even switching browsers."

Cops Watched Sex Offender's Blog

Wired News: "Law enforcement agents tracking then-fugitive sex offender Joseph Duncan had been carefully monitoring the suspect's weblog in the hopes that he would reveal his whereabouts, officials told Wired News this week.
'We went on and hoped that he'd tip his hand as to where he was, but he never did,' said Sgt. Jeff Skuza of the Fargo Police Department in North Dakota, where Duncan lived until becoming a fugitive from Minnesota child-molestation charges in early May."

Quotes

How do you tell a communist? Well, it's someone who reads Marx and Lenin. And how do you tell an anti-Communist? It's someone who understands Marx and Lenin.
- Ronald Reagan
Not only is the universe stranger than we imagine, it is stranger than we can imagine.
- Sir Arthur Eddington
Sanity is a madness put to good use.
- George Santayana

Thursday, July 07, 2005

A chronology of explosions in historic areas of London

HoustonChronicle.com: "Timeline and topography of four terrorist blasts. Times listed are local; London is six hours ahead of Central Daylight Time."

Organic Results or Sponsored Links?

Before getting into the advantages or disadvantages of organic and sponsored search results, it is important to understand what is organic and what is not. Organic Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is modifying or constructing the web pages within a website specifically to improve the ranking or visibility of a company's website in search engine results. The reason the term "organic" is used is because rather than using sponsored, or Pay Per Click (PPC) links to rise above the other search engine results, the pages are modified or "grown" to achieve higher spots. Pay Per Click, or PPC, is buying a "click-through" from another website to your website. Pay Per Click advertisements are usually text ads based upon a keyword. When someone searches for a particular term then clicks on the advertisement using that term, the advertiser is charged for a "click".

Long Term or Short Term?

When you first launch a website, Google requires a short time to determine the credibility of your website. Some of the factors include where you host, how long the domain has been registered and how many sites link to your website. So after submitting your website to Google, it may take several weeks before it will show up in Google’s search results. Yahoo! requires that you submit your website via Yahoo! Express which takes a minimum of seven days to list your website. Google Directory or the Open Directory Project (DMOZ.org) can take weeks or even months before your website is listed. While time consuming, creating organic search results is something that will affect your website for years to come. So while organic SEO is “slower” to market than PPC, but serves as the better long-term solution.

You can begin a Pay Per Click campaign by visiting the Yahoo! Advertiser Center (formerly Overture) or Google AdWords, creating an account and bidding on the keywords for the search engine queries that you wish your advertisements to be displayed on. With Yahoo! Advertiser Center, your ads show up in three to five days. With Google AdWords there is no waiting. Ads show up almost immediately after you create them and set your “click through” bids. This can get visitors to your website the same day that you launch it, or make it “live”. However once your daily budget runs out your website no longer will show up in search results. Pay Per Click is quicker to market but most definitely a short-term solution to be monitored daily.

Expense or Investment?

Pay Per Click budgets can be great or small depending on the competitiveness or popularity of the keywords or phrases that you select. The phrase “Search Engine Optimization” currently costs $4.23 per click. In May 2005, 159916 searches were performed on the Yahoo! Pay Per Click network. At a cost of $4.23 per click, the expense for just one term could be $676444.68. This is at the current rate, and that rate can increase at any time. Balance this with the fact that research has shown that the majority of search engine users prefer to click on the first three “organic” results before they explore PPC listings.

Organic SEO requires that the pages within your website are optimized based on keywords. The SEO professional modifies the HTML to have certain properties that search engine determine to be relevant in their ranking methodologies. Before you can optimize a website for keywords, you must determine the most effective keywords. To do so, your SEO professional may use customer surveys, popularity of search engine keywords, keyword terms used in competitor’s websites or the text used to explain a company’s products or services. If an existing website is to be optimized, it may require some modification of textual content, Meta Tags, navigational structure or other HTML code properties. For budgetary reasons, organic search engine optimization is most cost-effective during the reconstruction or redesign of a website.

Investing in organic search engine optimization is always a good idea and the sooner you start, the better. Optimizing a website for search engines is something that does not have a daily cost. Normally the investment is upfront – to determine the keywords needed and the process to insert them into your website. If the website is already listed in search engines but not listed favorably, organic search engine optimization can take less than 48 hours to begin to take effect. If the website is brand new, plan on a study of your keywords and budgeting for Pay Per Click expenses until your website can be found on organic search engine results.

Organic search engine optimization is a necessary part of any website’s budget and is a long-term investment in the future of your business much like having a sign in front of your physical location. Pay Per Click is like the budget line item expense for renewing your listing in the in the phone book every year. If enough people drive buy and see your sign they will remember you and not have to look up your name every time they are looking for your product or service.

Tuesday, July 05, 2005

Fueled Card Holders - Clients -

Fueled - Clients - Dallas website designers, Dallas SEO Companies, Dallas Internet Advertising Agencies: Organic Search Engine Optimization Specialists: website trouble shooting, Interactive Internet Marketing, web design and development.

Six months in and look what is going on.

Tropical Storm Cindy

Bloomberg.com: U.S.: "Tropical Storm Cindy Threatens Gulf of Mexico Coast" - here we go.... it's hurricane season!!!! Any predictions?

Monday, July 04, 2005