To my amazement, I picked up at least 20 different devices. I had setup my mom’s phone to be discoverable for 2 minutes only. I could not believe how many people had their devices on discoverable, seeing as there were about 50 people in the restaurant at the time.

Having your Bluetooth set to ‘discoverable’ isn’t all that bad per se, but it can leave your device vulnerable. For one, once discovered, someone could theoretically track you if he/she stays in range of your device. Secondly, your phone or device could get bluejackedBluejacking is the sending of unsolicited messages over Bluetooth to Bluetooth-enabled devices. or bluesnarfedBluesnarfing is the unauthorized access of information from a wireless device through a Bluetooth connection.. The former is harmless, but irritating, as someone could potentially send text messages to your phone via Bluetooth. The latter however, can be quite harmful. Bluesnarfing is basically hacking someone else’s device over Bluetooth. They could theoretically get access to the information on your device.

There have been television shows that have shown how hackers can make money or steal information from devices over Bluetooth in public locations. So the threat is very real.

The safest option is to keep your Bluetooth off. However, nowadays with handsfree devices and OTA (over-the-air) syncronization, Bluetooth has become a requirement for many environments. The safer option is to keep your device non-discoverable, and only to make it discoverable when needed, ideally using a temporarily discoverable option (usually for a couple of minutes).

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Now, my first thought was to purchase an online gift certificate for iTunes and have it sent to my friend’s email address. I figured it would be the cleanest and fastest way. Alas, it was not. After browsing the Apple site and finding the electronic gift certificate options, I decided to buy. To my disappointment, I could not buy this online as there was a message displayed on the screen saying “Download iTunes Free”. Given the situation, I figured “Why not? I can just install it, order and remove it.” So after downloading iTunes, waiting a remarkably long time for it to install, I finally start it up and create an account for myself. I then proceed to put in my credit card details, and go off to the iTunes Store to find the electronic gift certificates. To my dismay, after pressing the “Buy Now” button, I was informed that my account is not able to send electronic gift cards, and that I should visit a local store to purchase one. Some swearing occurred, followed by a swift uninstall iTunes and its components.

Later that day, we discovered that we ran out of beer. So I decide to take a trip to the corner store to get some. While there, I noticed the stand of gift cards, and decide to look for an iTunes one. Once again, I found myself rather disgruntled to find out that they only had the ones for iTunes music and movies, but not the ones for the App Store. This is another thing I heard about from a friend, and I do not understand it. I cannot see why Apple decided to split up their gift cards into two categories and making the end-user have to choose.

Upon returning to my friend’s place, I chose to simply put my credit card information in his iTunes account, and we then proceeded to purchasing the app we wanted.

Like so many things, I feel like iTunes chose to follow the “Why make it simple when you can make it complicated.” approach.

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For those who have heard about the How It Should Have Ended videos, there is an animated version of Frodo and the Fellowship going to Mordor on an Eagle, with emphasis on the swiftness of the journey.

Every time I heard this question, I thought to myself that this particular option would make for a very poor story, let alone a novel or movie trilogy. Nevertheless, there has to be a feasible reason in the storyline to explain this.

I recently found an excellent explanation listed on the IMDB FAQ‘s:

Q. Why did Frodo have to make the long quest to Mount Doom on foot? Couldn’t he fly there on the back of a giant Eagle, like Gandalf does?

A. The book is more elaborate on this point than the film, and Peter Jackson also explains the reason during the audio commentary on the dvd. The Eagles did not take sides in the War of the Ring until the end, so they would not have assisted Frodo when he started his quest. This is similar to the Ents, who only participated when they felt they were drawn in by Saruman. The Eagles are also very proud creatures, who will not allow themselves to be used as just a means of transportation. The Eagle that rescued Gandalf (Ian McKellen) from the tower of Saruman (Christopher Lee) did so as a special service to Gandalf, whom he knew personally (Gandalf had previously saved his life). In addition to this, there are allusions that while Sauron was still in power, the Eagles would have struggled getting to Mount Doom, not least because of the wraiths on their fell-beasts and other dark creatures and powers that Sauron had at his disposal. Sending Frodo on the back of an eagle into Mount Doom would have been effectively air-mailing the ring to Sauron. A ground-based approach was decided to be much more effective and appropriate. Finally, the ring corrupts the proud much more easily than the humble. While there is no proof that the ring has the same effect on an Eagle as it does for men, there may have been too much risk in tempting the extremely proud Eagles.

After reading this, I felt the need to share it…

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The approach I’ve taken myself and recommend to others is quite simple, and should work for everyone who is dedicated. To start, a goal is defined. The goal should be an overall objective for weight, body fat, muscle mass and fitness level. Now that a goal has been identified, the next step is to identify the current situation, and this means logging. For easy log evaluation, using a decent cycle period based on a multiple-week schedule is helpful, as cycles can be set to end during the week-end. I would recommend a cycle length of 4 to 8 weeks.

For many, the most difficult aspect of this method is logging. It does take quite a bit of time to setup, and keep track of logs. The most important thing to log for weight loss purposes is, obviously, the daily calorie intake, but daily body weight and body fat are also important. Getting into the habit of noting down everything meal, and properly identifying the caloric content of the meals and snacks can be challenging at first. For the first few weeks or so, logging may involve some research online to find out how many calories are in the common meals, drinks and snacks. This is usually where people get shocked to see exactly how many calories they ingest on a daily basis, as it usually is much greater than they expected. After one cycle of calorie and weight logging, the logs will offer a good idea of the daily and weekly caloric intake, as well as an indication of current weight tendencies. With a month’s worth of daily logs, it becomes simple to identify if weight is going up or down or remaining stable.

Now that the goal and current tendencies are noted, the plan must be defined. This is the part where the willpower will come into play; especially in situations where the current tendencies are contradictory to the goals, for instance if you are currently gaining and want to start losing. In most cases, a daily or weekly limit on caloric intake would be required, as well as a minimum requirement for weekly physical activities. Naturally, reducing the amount of meals with high calories, or high sugar content as well as increasing the amount of fruits and vegetables is always a good way to help.

After one cycle of following the plan, it’s time to evaluate the results, and modify the plan as necessary. The trick is to do this after every cycle until the goal has been reached. Once reached, the weight loss method should become a weight maintenance plan, and should only be terminated once the new nutritional habits are proven to be good for weight maintenance. Only then should the logging become unnecessary. Nevertheless, I would still always recommend a mild weight management plan to be drafted, followed and evaluated periodically. Otherwise, the road back to weight gain could be closer than expected.

Disclaimer:
Please note that this methodology should always be done with guidance from a doctor or health care professional. This information is offered in good faith, no warranty is given to the accuracy or effectiveness, or any of the comments, suggestions or information provided herein.

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Seldom have I heard any single comedian who has made me laugh quite so much.

Michael McIntyre is en English stand-up comedian, whose quick rise to fame was met with both criticism and applause.  McIntyre’s comedy is often based on the simple and the obvious facts of everyday life, which makes his routines relate to virtually everyone; yet he delivers it with such energy and enthusiasm that it turns dull everyday activities into a hilarious, and very enjoyable time.

Enjoy…

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I just hope the NHL is listening.

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Finally a voice that can be heard, money. Throughout the year, fans from all over have been complaining about the lack of discipline regarding dangerous hits, particularly hits to the head in the NHL. Even strongly worded comments from former superstar Mario Lemieux regarding the League’s position on violence in the game went considerably unnoticed.

I applaud the initiative that Air Canada has taken to strike at the backbone of the NHL management. I sincerely hope that this initiative will be followed by other important sponsors in the NHL, in an effort to bring back the glory of what was once our sport.

I think the current management has had plenty of chances to attack this problem that is plaguing the NHL and damaging the sport. They continue to fail at seizing chances to ‘send a message’, which leads me to believe that their intents are insincere. I can only surmize that the NHL management supports the violence level in the game nowadays, and simply tried to quiet down angry fans by creating a false campaign to ‘deal with the problem’.

My opinion is that the current management has overstayed its welcome. It is time for a change, new blood, less politics.

As a fan, all I can do is wait and see what happens now. I can only hope that the NHLPA takes a stand and pushes it to management.

Go Habs Go.

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Chara was assessed a 5-minute major penalty for interference, and a game misconduct.

Now the NHL must decide additional disciplinary actions against Chara, though I personally doubt that the ensuing suspension will be greater than an additional 2 or 3 games.  Looking at it from the Bruins’ perspective, and you most likely took out one of their top scorers for the rest of the season, at the cost of losing a top defenceman for 3 or 4 games.  One could argue that the act could end up beneficial to Boston, especially if the two teams should meet in the playoffs.

I sincerely hope that Chara did not have the intent to send Pacioretty to the hospital, nor that he came on the ice with this in mind as a premeditated intent, but there was definitely a form of intent behind this hit.  Looking at this from a criminal perspective, Chara had motive, from a previous somewhat unsportsmanlike reaction from Pacioretty after scoring the overtime winning goal on January 8th; this would be seen as a crime of opportunity.

I have seen so many dangerous hits on the ice during games this year to safely say that the new rule 48 against head shots is nowhere near sufficient to deal with the problem at hand.  I am of the opinion that the NHL needs to take an approach similar to civil felonies.

My hope is that the league creates a new rule to deal with situations like these.  I think that a randomly selected committee needs to be selected, similar to a jury selection, given the task to assess the level of sentencing needed for the act in question.  The committee would have to take into account the act itself, the result of the act, the possible motive behind it and whether or not the player is a repeat offender.

As far as sentencing itself, I find that the current suspension lengths seems disproportionate to the acts themselves.  A player could be taken out for weeks, months or even for his career, and the guilty party will most likely be suspended for up to 10 games, and having to forfeit a tiny part of his salary to the players emergency assistance fund.  Looking back at some of the longest suspensions handed out by the league, most of them were caused by intentionally hitting another player with a stick or skate.  Take the same action off the ice, and you have either aggravated assault or even assault with a deadly weapon, which in Canada could lead to up to 10 years imprisonment.

If the idea of the NHL is to send out a message to stop hits to the head, I truly believe that the only answer is swift and strong repercussions.  In addition to players forfeiting their respective salaries for the suspended games, add in hefty fines to the player and the team itself.  The NHL has to make these types of hits so costly to the players and teams that it doesn’t even cross their minds.  Consider a team losing a player for a relatively long period could be compensated by having the responsible team transfer salary cap to the affected team as compensation.  Another method is parallel suspensions for any act that results in an injury: in the Chara-Pacioretty case, I would personally put Chara on suspension until Pacioretty is able to skate again.  Perhaps a bit firm, but that is the idea.  After 4 or 5 players are taken out of the line ups for weeks at a time due to lengthy suspensions, I’m quite confident that the dangerous hits would quickly come down to a minimum.

In the end, I hope that the NHL takes this year’s failed attempt with rule 48 as a clear message to solve this problem swiftly and properly.

Wishing Pacioretty a speedy recovery…

Go Habs Go.

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Since the budget for this was negligible, I searched around for free solutions that could support this type of setup.  I decided to set it up using the new Windows Live Mesh program that comes with Windows Live Essentials, and that works with the Windows Cloud.

The setup in itself was very easy and straightforward.  I downloaded the client on the main computer, installed the Live Mesh application whilst ignoring the other application options, and setup the login with a new Windows Live account.

Once the application was installed, all I had to do was a simple folder synchronization by choosing the folder with the documents, and setting up the sync with SkyDrive, Microsoft’s free online storage.  The program then proceeded to upload all the documents in the folder to the SkyDrive, therefore providing the backup functionality that was needed.  Once completed, I setup the Live Mesh client on the other two computers, then saw the shared Documents folder from the main computer, and setup the synchronization with a local folder on the computer, the client downloaded all the files to the respective folders.

Additionally, there was also a feature to synchronize the Internet Explorer favourites; as well as a Microsoft Office synchronization feature that allowed styles, templates, custom dictionary and email signatures to be transferred to the other computers.

The installation, configuration and synchronization of roughly 5,000 files, taking up roughly 400 megabytes of data, took less than an hour.

In the end, I was quite pleased with the simplicity of the new Live Mesh application, and I then decided to setup it up on my own computer to sync documents to my laptop.

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We Have A Part Time Job For You!

Seistran Ltd – “Don’t leave your career or selection of candidates to fate.”

WHO ARE WE
Seistran Ltd is a team of seasoned top executives in Finance and Investment Operations who have unparalleled track records of success in brokerage operations. We have earned the trust and confidence of business owners in United Kingdom with our expertise, credentials, and commitment to create value.

Seistran Ltd provides investment assistance resources to all business owners willing to invest their capital in order to expand their companies.Our FSA Approved personnel takes care of operations like stock price evaluation, simulations and risk evaluation, in order to provide our clients with the safest way to make investments and expand their businesses.

Since 2006 the our company has grown dramatically , becoming one of the most successful brokerage firm in the United Kingdom.Due to this growth we have registered requests for investment contracts from Canada.

Individuality is the key to our success. We treat each client, candidate and employee as an individual with their own individual needs and tailor our service offerings to best fit these needs.

We can advise our candidates and clients through the maze of recruitment issues that they face daily because we have the experience, knowledge and resources to do so.

Our company has reached enormous sales volumes in major European countries. We are currently trying to expand our services over in USA and Canada. The CRA (Canada Revenue Agency) directly supports the market testing efforts of agencies by providing general guidelines, through the development of Market Testing Toolkit and providing guidance regarding the related agency banking framework. Therefore, Tay Logic LTD has been granted a Market Test Authorization from the CRA (Canada Revenue Agency) in January 1st, 2010 and is valid until January 29th, 2012. This Market Test Authorization allows great flexibility regarding taxes.

Seistran Ltd is currently recruiting Regional Financial Managers who will receive payments from our Canadian customers and redistribute the funds as needed.

-Why do we prefer hiring people instead of opening an office over in Canada?
-Because it is far cheaper paying a 10% commission rather than going through all the paper hassle of registering a business in Canada and opening offices all over the country. Besides, there is no certainty that our company will succeed selling the products in Canada, that’s why it is called a Market Test. Upon, a successful result, we will being opening offices in Canada.

LEGAL

The job we are offering is perfectly legal , legit and all our transactions will be verified by our Financial Department before they are forwarded to our employees for cashout.

JOB DESCRIPTION
Agent’s work consists in receiving payments from our customers in Canada and making further payments as instructed to a regional affiliate department, depending on the customer’s location. Being a part-time job, it should not take more than 2 hours per day.
Agent’s commission is 10% from each transaction (for instance: you receive CAD1,000.00, you will keep CAD100.00 as payment for your service). All further money transfer charges and fees are covered by our company. So you will be responsible just for making proper payments in time. Each transaction will be made only after prior notification by phone call or e-mail.B

You are not required to:
Have any extra knowledge or to be experienced in this business and this occupation can endow additional income to you and your family as it will not require more than few hours per week. If you are interested in our offer, please feel free to ask for the general provisions of the contract.

PAYMENT/SALARY
The payment system if flexible and easy for everyone.Each Executive Financial Manager will receive a monthly base salary of CAD2,000, plus a 10% commission from each transaction processed.

Financial Agent Requirements:

1) Only Canadian residents
2) One of the following :

- Chequing account ( existing RBC account only )
- Chequing account ( any bank , you will be receiving Interac E-mail Money Transfers from our customers )
- Credit Card ( the customers will be sending payments directly to your credit card )

For further information and inquiries about the job offering, please feel free to
contact us by e-mail at any time at recruiter.seistran@xooorx.net

HOW TO APPLY

Send your resume to : recruiter.seistran@xooorx.net ( or manually recruiter.seistran@xooorx.net ).

Seistran Ltd. – An UK Company

I hope that anybody reading this would immediately think to themselves that this has to be a fraud attempt.  Any company that would state “The job we are offering is perfectly legal…” and willing to pay you $2,000 per month, just for receiving and transferring money to them, is making it ridiculously easy for people to just laugh at them.

Analyzing this in detail directs me to some facts that can only confirm what I already know.

- Strike one, I Google “Seistran Ltd” ( link ), using the “I’m Feeling Lucky” button, and I get to a terrible looking website, with no information that would confirm any of the statements mentioned above.
- Strike two, the email address they promote is a domain which is completely unrelated to the company mentioned, so one quick look at their site ( link ), and I can see that it’s a default site page without any content.
- Strike three, the statement “the customers will be sending payments directly to your credit card” should alarm everyone.  Who would get paid via their credit card..??  Credit cards have a single purpose, sending money out, period.

For those of you who are unaware of how scams like this may work, there are a few options.  It can be a fun activity to contact them and act like an idiot, stringing them along until the point where you are required to divulge personal or private information, only to finish by saying “You must think I’m an idiot…”  I’ve done this many times, and it is a great way to find out how these scams work.

Option 1
You are an RBC customer (as requested), and provide your information to them for your so-called salary.  Doing so, you become one of their so-called customers who will send a payment to some other agent, this will be done without your approval of course, and you just got defrauded for $1,000; or how ever many payments they get to make depending on your account balance.

Option 2
You are not an RBC customer, so you provide an email address for Interac online money transfers.  You will receive a phone call from them, stating that a payment will be made within minutes, they will ask you to accept it right away, then to take the money out in cash and send it to them most likely via Western Union.  By the time your Western Union transaction is completed, you will most likely receive a call from your bank’s security department, stating that you received a fraudulent payment in your account, and that the amount has been deducted from your balance.  In the end, you’ll receive no salary, and will lose any multiple of $900 (since you do get a 10% commission) depending on how many times they will get you to do it before they are caught.

Option 3
You do not own a bank account, and offer your credit card number, for ‘payments’ to be made to it of course.  You will soon discover that your credit card is now full, and have been defrauded.

–

I truly hope that people these days are aware enough to research any email or offer that falls into the ‘too good to be true’ category.

Cheers,

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