Financial, Help, Advice, Money, Savings, Free, Budgeting, Taxes, DVD’s

The article describes how Microsoft IE’s browsing safety concerns took a back seat to the desire to cater to advertisers who want to know what you’re doing online.

[more here] by Nick Wingfield, wsj.com Technorati Tags: IE, Firefox, Browsing, Security, Safety, Advertising

As a Roku user and In-Home digital distribution believer, I am always happy when a new service is connected, bringing us closer to the black box days when all is readily available from the comfort of my cushioned couch.  So while I am not sure how often I’ll use the service, (I usually make my decisions by word of mouth) it’s good to know that I will be able to have a look at the occasional “must see” trailer.

Here are a few of the numbers I found most fascinating in his article. My comments are in italics.

Netflix shipping costs are going down as more people tune in via digital distribution channels: Netflix spent $24 million in its most-recent quarter shipping DVDs by mail, compared with $43 million during the same period last year, and despite adding millions of new customers.

Netflix is seeing a HUGE increase in streaming viewers: Subscribers who watched at least 15 minutes of streaming content in the second quarter grew 61 percent, up from 37 percent in the year ago period.

Netflix subscribership is growing rapidly: From June 2009 to the same month this year, Netflix added nearly five million subscribers, a 42 percent increase. By the end of this year, the company says it could possess as many as 18.5 million subscribers.

Netflix is starting to rival Comcast in subscriber numbers: Sometime in 2011, Netflix will likely top the 20 million subscriber mark, making it a peer to Comcast, the nation’s largest cable company with 24.6 million cable TV subscribers.

All in all, it seems that Netflix is poised to take a leadership position in in-home digital distribution nationwide, and, per the Netflix Blog, they keep adding more ways of getting product into subscriber hands.

From LightSquared: “LightSquared will be a disruptive force in the U.S. wireless landscape by democratizing wireless broadband services, [...] providing everyone [...] with a fast, reliable experience regardless of where they are located in the United States…”

It seems unclear as to who will actually be delivering the service at retail level to consumers, will it be the usual suspects who’ve made such a botch of wireless until now? I’m thinking of Verizon, ATT, Sprint/Nextel, Time Warner, CableVison/Optimum, and so on, or will new companies spring up to market this? I don’t know, but this is great news for everyone, both those in hard to reach areas, and for all those longing for a all-access broadband solution.

Here’s his opening paragraph, from a review titled, “Lunar Toons and Cookie Capers“.  Is there a meaningful distinction to be drawn between exercising the
imagination and just making up a bunch of stuff? When it comes to
children at play, probably not: the pleasure of inventiveness matters
more than the quality of the particular inventions. But children’s
entertainment, made by grown-ups at great expense in anticipation of
even greater profit, is another matter. The difference between inspired
creation and frantic pretending is the difference between magic and
mediocrity, between art and junk, or to cite a conveniently available
example, between “Toy
Story 3” and “Despicable
Me.”

Read the whole review here, Published July 09, 2010, New York Times Movie Section

This year, it’s hoped that even more people will attend, and with a theme of “Figment: What are YOU bringing?” many people will be bringing their own creative works, and there are several hundred scheduled and placed.

What will visitors find? Live music, a free minigolf course, tons of children’s activities, Interactive Art and Sculpture, Dance Performances, Costumed performers of all kinds, DJ’s, and, well, you never know.

You can check Flickr for photos of previous years FIGMENTs, and see the official FIGMENT trailer, and video of Jen Upchurch’s Temple of Wonder and Animus Collective’s 1,000 Pieces sculptures as described by their creators.

The event is being highly recommended in Flavorpill, the Village Voice, and elsewhere. Check it out if you can. You will be delighted at what you find only a 5-minute free ferry ride from Manhattan or Brooklyn.

You can find the full performance schedule here, and connect to the project on Facebook and Twitter.  If you’re twittering the event, or adding photos to Flickr, use #FigmentNYC to add to the group narrative.

DISCLAIMER: I am involved in helping make FIGMENT known on social media and the interwebs.  As with everyone involved in helping make this event happen, I am a volunteer. There are no salaries at FIGMENT, all the funds we raise goes to financing the art and sculpture.

Want to contribute? That’s awesome, you’re helping gift free public art to NYC and its visitors. Either go to the FIGMENT donation page, or donate $5.o0 by texting the word FIGMENT to 20222.

• “So & So”  liked YOU WILL LOVE THIS! on Facebook and suggested you like it too.
• “So & So” suggested you like SEE VVHO HAVE VIEVVED YOU!

There’s a good article about it on CNet: Five hidden dangers of Facebook (Q&A), and here are some tips and links to help you stay safe.

* Verify Links with Sender Before Clicking: Don’t click on Social Media or IM links to Videos, Pages, Apps, etc., before personally verifying with the person who’s sent them to you.  (We’ve know this about emailed links, but now the spammers & scammers have moved to IM and social media and we need to be more on guard).

* Raise your Alertness Level: Realize that viruses no longer need you to download a film, they can get to you just be luring you to the right page, and they can send that link to you in an email or an IM from a friend.

* Check for Viruses Regularly: Use free resources to stay safe: AVG, Avast (good boot-level scan), Malawarebites, Zone Alarm.  There are others, but these will do most of what you need done.  Remember, one programs’ scan is not enough, run as many as you can. I run pretty much all of them monthly, and have some of them on all the time.

* Back up your files regularly: I use a backup drive at home, and Mozy for offsite backup.  It’s the best $5.00 you’ll spend all month.  This way if you do get bit, you have uncorrupted versions saved.  I backup locally every week (I should do every day, I know) and remotely every two weeks.

Lastly, the Koobface Virus: The most coherent instructions I’ve heard for dealing with this insidious bugger is this page here: Remove the Facebook Virus (Koobface, video, caught on camera). Print out the instructions and follow them, then you can at least feel safe.  For now.

OK, there’s a ton more resources out there, but that’s it for me for now, happy socializing.

This site is a stalkers best friend and a marketer’s dream. It offers age, location, photos, financial information, credit standing, personal interests, family dynamics, relationships, you name it. From their site:

Spokeo is a search engine specialized in organizing people-related information from phone books, social networks, marketing lists, business sites, and other public sources. Most of this data is publicly available on the Web. [...] only Spokeo’s algorithm can piece together the scattered data into coherent people profiles, giving you the most comprehensive intelligence about anyone you want to find.

I didn’t believe my friend and went to check for myself, and sure enough there I was, as you will likely find you are too.

What can I do about this?

Well, you can start by realizing that for those who want it, the internet has made it all too easy to gather a pretty comprehensive profile on you, and make it available to anyone willing to pay, say, $2.95 a month.

Scary? Yes indeed. Will this make you suicide yourself off of all your social media lists? I’ll bet not. Because  even then, good data digging will likely get into records that exist off the social media radar, and you’ll still be exposed, but with no input at all.

As for Spokeo, Here’s how to remove your name from their search database.

• Go to their page, Search for yourself,
• Copy your location URL,
• Click the PRIVACY button on the lower right,
• Past your URL in the URL box (skip the advertised “Reputation Defender”)
• Enter your email (they already have it, but need to send your confirmation somewhere)
• Enter the Captcha
• Go to your email, click the confirm link
• Reload your previous url and search for yourself to make sure you’re not unavailable.

I fully expect this to be just the newest level of privacy warfare.  For anyone unversed in Huxley or Orwell, this is just another step as Science Fiction is rapidly becoming Science Fact.  The bleak endings to their Utopia may be instructional as well.