For the grizzled internet veterans out there, details on the seedy underworld of cyber-crime is nothing new. For the rest of us, let me present some of the sordid details. Have you wondered why you get so much spam and who is responsible for it? Surely it is just the equivalent of junk mail in our home mail box right?

Understanding there are Risks

Sadly enough, in many cases no. Spam, phishing emails, and spyware are just the tip of the iceberg for the many tools that cyber-criminals use these days to steal millions of dollars every year from every day people like us. How real is this threat? Consider this account and the level of detail that the criminal had to have to pull this off

It was July 2004 and Brian Campbell had been on Isla Mujeres off the coast of Cancun for three days for a relative’s wedding when he discovered he’d been scammed.

An American MBA student studying in Australia at the time, Campbell (not his real name) was accustomed to checking his investment portfolio daily over the internet. But the wedding distracted him a couple of days, and when he finally got online, he found he was locked out of his Schwab trading account.

He called Schwab and discovered that his user name and password had been changed. What’s more, $106,000 had recently been wired from his account to a Fortis bank account in Belgium. Campbell hadn’t requested the transfer.

Unknown to Campbell, a cyber thief who went by the nick “desertmack” had gained access to his e-mail account and had been watching him for weeks. The Mexico wedding was the break desertmack needed. He’d been hoping a little tequila and sunshine would distract Campbell from obsessively checking his brokerage account long enough to steal the money and send it to Brussels, where an accomplice would withdraw it.

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Imagine that you were in an accident and left paralyzed. Your first thought is likely similar to mine, that is, the impact of not being able to walk on your life style and being able to get around and interact as easily with friends and family. I would have to relearn how to interact with major portions of my life. People that can overcome tragedies like these have my respect for having the persistence to move past these

However, what if you were left a quadriplegic? How would you life change then? I would have to relearn how to interact with even the most basic of elements in my life. Eating, working on the computer, calling people are all things I would have to relearn how to do. I would could it a success if I could get my life as close to its previous state as possible. Taking up new endeavors would seem forever out of reach.
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So how often do you buy a new car? Every 3 years? 4 years? 5 years? So how much does it cost you to buy that car new car in the long run and are you really saving money by having a car in warranty and not having to worry about repairs? A recent Consumer Reports Article tackles this question and provides some great insight into the costs paid for people that keep their car for 200K+ miles (15 years) vs. those that buy a new car in 5 years.
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I have been in more than a few meetings where I seriously questioned the wisdom of the decisions being made. However, nothing compares to this humorous list of pictures found from the outer recesses of the internet by OneMansBlog.

What if I told you there was a town that caught fire in 1962 and has been burning ever since. The town of Centralia, Pennsylvania in 1962 was a small but growing coal mining town. At its height it had over 2500 people in the town and surrounding area. In 1962 the town was burning its landfill to reduce the volume and in doing so an exposed vein of coal caught fire.

The fire spread underground and continued to burn for 2 decades before the full scale of the problem was understood. In 1981 a 12 year old boy was outside when a sink hole opened up underneath him. If it weren’t for his cousin’s help he would have fallen 150′ to an underground inferno. By this time the fire had spread to affect 200 acres of land recent studies show that it could burn as long as 250 years.
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I saw this and thought the idea was really cool. The concept behind “Steam Punk” or Steam Works is what if technology had developed differently. For example, what would machines have been like if computers and the industrial revolution occurred at roughly the same time. Leave aside the obvious problems with that concept and enjoy the designs for their ingenuity. They strike me as something for a H. G Wells or Jules Verne novel. They are fascinating to watch and intriguing to consider the possibilities.

Steam Powered Robot Centipede

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With the cost of movie tickets reaching close to $10 per person and the concessions costing close to the GDP of many small countries it can be daunting to budget fun time with the family if you budget is tight. Too many times we equate fun with $$$ and forget that there are a ton of simple ways we can enjoy time together with out vegging out in front of the the TV or movie screen. So I ran across a site with a great list of 100 ways to have fun with your kids with minimal cost involved.

Enjoy and let me know what your suggestions are.

100 Ways to Have Fun With Your Kids for Cheap

John reminded me of a video I saw a long time ago of Bill Gates and Steve Jobs on stage together doing a funny sketch back in 1983. The clip was recently played during D5 when they were once again on stage for a more serious discussion. In it, Jobs plays host of the Mac Dating game and has 3 developers (including Gates) talking about why they are the best choice for the Mac platform. They all exude that powerful 1983 fashion style that I am sure will hit the Paris fashion shows next year.

Enjoy

Ever wonder what one has do to be called great? Consider Alexander the Great. There have been several people that have ruled great portions of land through out history. What is it he did that causes us to identify him by this one key characteristic?

Here is a list of 10 reasons why we call him great.

I noticed that the siege of Tyre wasn’t included on the list and shows both his determination and creativity but if they included everything it would be a lot longer than 10.