Spammers Invade Facebook

We’ve all received the email promising something wonderful like a million dollars. All we need do is click on the link in the email to find out how to get it. Instead the email is the work of a spammer hoping to gather your personal information for their own illegal use. This is called “phishing”. Seems most of us have studied helpful hints and tips on how to protect ourselves from spammers; because they have moved into new territory.

Spamming is quickly becoming a problem on Facebook. Want a free iPad just for filling out a survey? Would you like to see a video of a whale slamming into a building during Japan’s tsunami? If you see these sorts of things on Facebook, BEWARE! Don’t click on any links. These are most certainly spam.

These kinds of attacks have long gone on in email. The attackers have now set their sites on a new target, social media. Facebook has 500 million users and counting. Think they’ll be able to hit this target? You bet! Spammers look at Facebook as a gold mine of untapped riches…your riches. And, you have all your connections on Facebook; so these criminals won’t stop with you. They hope your friends, family members, and co-workers will bite, too.

Spammers make money by driving people to sites that pay them for clicks. Facebook users get tricked into “helping”. Spammers rely on your social media relationships to help them spread the word, so to speak. If you see something on a friends page, do you believe it’s okay? There’s the built in trust factor that spammers count on.

Phishing uses fake messages to get you to sites or pages that can capture your computer. It also is used to trick you into downloading malware onto your computer. Malware is triggered when you click on a button on a scam Web page. Then, it sends your friends messages, directing them to a website that will infect their computer; and so on.

Remember that survey to get a free iPad? If you complete it, you just may be subscribing to the joke of the day for $5.00 each charges to your cell phone. If you watch the whale hitting the building video you probably instantly spammed all your friends and family…all your connections. One internet worm can hijack your Facebook account and send messages to all your friends; then steal their accounts and passwords.

So, what do we do to protect ourselves? Here are some Facebook Security Tips:

Review your security settings and consider enabling login notifications. In the drop-down box under Account on the upper right hand corner of your Facebook home page choose Account Settings, then click on the Notifications tab.

Don’t click on strange links, even if they’re from friends. Notify the person if you see something suspicious. If you come across a scam, report it; so that it can be taken down.

Don’t download any applications you aren’t certain about. Don’t accept friend requests if you don’t know the person. Remember, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

Go to Facebook security and read “Take Action” and “Threats” for more information. Portions of this article are from “Spammers fast becoming huge Facebook problem” by Pete Carey of Bay Area News Group.

Shea Paul's Exotic Woodworking

We visited a friend’s workshop whose artistry and talent for working with

exotic woods was awe inspiring. Walking into the shop you see a table saw, small planer, cutoff saw, drill press, and some hand tools. It’s a small shop with the smell of wood and linseed oil in the air. The impression left us with the feel and smell of an artist’s loft.

We noticed a purple night stand on the workbench; and wanted to know if it was stained purple. The master craftsman explained that Purple Heart Wood is a natural purple wood that he finished with hot linseed oil then hot Danish oil. We asked why use hot oil and not a varnish or polyurethane? He further explained that hot oil is used rather than cold oil because it provides a deeper penetration with the added benefit of being able to reapply and rejuvenate the wood throughout the years. He said “It’s really all about what the customer wants for a finish or the type of wood used”.

We saw a half-round table against the wall and asked him what kind of wood he used. He told us it was “certified cherry”. We did some research; and found that certified wood and paper products come from responsibly managed forests as defined by a particular standard. With third-party forest certification, an independent organization develops standards of good forest management, and independent auditors issue certificates to forest operations that comply with those standards.

We were looking over the purple heart nightstand and opened the drawer.The drawer was easy to use and didn’t bang shut when we closed it. We wanted to know what was different about the construction and how his pieces of furniture were built. He explained that he uses solid wood construction with pinned mortice and tennon joints and dovetail drawer sides. We knew this was not your typical furniture store item. This was old school construction with a modern twist. He uses special Blum European Style Drawer Guides that gently close drawers without slamming.

We asked to hear more about the woods he uses. He told us most of the true exotic woods come from the rain forests of South America or Africa. Woods from these countries have strange sounding names like Bloodwood, Bocote, Ziricote, Bubinla or some not so strange sounding like Purple Heart, Canarywood, Teak and Zebra Wood. A lot of exotic woods are close to extinction; and as a general rule are not used. The biggest gripe at Shea Paul’s is the burning of the rain forests. This creates pollution, affects our oxygen supply, and destroys the woods themselves - a tremendous loss. He is angered and saddened that all the beautiful exotic woods are going up in smoke. He told us that if the loggers would clear cut before they burn, then the woods could be available for years. His wish is to at least let this beautiful lumber be harvested and used instead of burning it. We had to agree!

A strange feeling came over us as we were leaving. We felt as if we had just visited a great artist’s loft; and traveled back in time. We saw a glimpse into the “old world” of master craftsmen where quality, caring, and workmanship were important. For more information on how you can own one of these beautiful works of art, phone (510)-338-8749.

By Law You Will Be Forced To Use Neurotoxins In Your Home

As federal and state mandates for energy-efficient lighting take effect, tons of mercury is being released into the environment every year! Going green, in this case, is not green. Instead, going green has created an environmental nightmare. A fluorescent tube is filled with a gas containing low pressure mercury vapor, argon, xenon, neon, or krypton . A fluorescent tube contains12mg of mercury and a CFL bulb contains 4mg. An incandescent bulb has no mercury, but is rated at 10mg of mercury, because of the coal used to produce the energy. We hate data like this because they don’t add the mercury from the power plant to the total fluorescent bulb figures. We call this flawed data. You can read our article on flawed data here as an example.

Recycling, of CFLs and fluorescent tubes are also problematic because of how fragile the lamps are. How do you deal with a fragile toxic item waiting to be recycled in your home? It is impractical to run to a recycle center with one CFL or tube. The question then becomes; how do you store toxic CFLs and tubes until you go to a recycle center? You don’t want your children to get into these items so; what should you do? Keep them under lock and key in a padded container wrapping each bulb in bubble wrap? Not practical. To make recycling practical there needs to be an easy way to do it. When the recycling of household trash began it was a flop. People were not going to sort, wash, and place items in separate containers then drag them out to the street for collection. Only when people were given a recycle cart that they rolled out to the curb along with their regular garbage did recycling work. The same holds true for e-waste; it will not work very well until there is an easy and practical way to do it.

 

Finding a place that will take CFLs is hard; but finding a place that will take fluorescent tubes is even harder. You can find a list of  recyclers here; or by phone at 1-800-253-2687. Your local home depot will take CFLs; but in our area, they will not take fluorescent tubes. At some point they have to go to a recycling center or waste management location. Do they carefully wrap and store them in special containers? Or are they thrown into a big heap of broken glass and toxins then dumped into landfills?  The cost to carefully take each bulb apart in a controlled environment, with each component of the bulb being reused, including capturing and recycling of the gases would be astronomical. We have a bad feeling that a lot of recycled products get dumped into the landfills because of the cost involved to dispose of, and recycle them properly.

 

The use of LEDs and other technologies will help with the problem of mercury toxins in the home. A bigger problem is burning coal to produce electricity.

If the mercury released to run a light bulb is 10 mg; what amount of mercury is released to run a city?

Flawed Data

In an article by Jerry Hirsch of the Los Angles Times, “Tips to improve your vehicle’s fuel economy”, were some good tips. In our opinion some of the tips have flawed data. The reason most people want to improve their fuel economy is to save money; and that is where the flawed data comes into play.

A few of the useful tips included properly inflated tires, drive more smoothly, change the oil, remove excess weight, and turn on the ventilator and turn off the air conditioning. All very good tips!

In our opinion the flawed tips were; reduce idling, use a lower grade of fuel and slowing down. We will take each of these points one at a time and explain the problem with his tips.

"Reduce idling: Turn off your engine if you’re waiting for more than 20 seconds. Idling wastes more gas than turning off your engine and restarting it.”

This is good idea with a few flaws that make it a bad idea. At every stop light you have to wait over 20 seconds. So you are restarting your car as many as 10 to 20 times more a day than is necessary. The wear and tear on your starting system will cause premature part failures, costing you a lot more in the long run. Also, starting the car causes the largest drain on the battery thus overworking the charging system, creating premature wear. The alternator uses horsepower from the engine to recharge the battery. The larger the drain the more horsepower the alternator uses to recharge the battery. The excess drag on the motor uses more fuel than you will save. The greatest wear on the motor itself is during start up; more premature wear. If your battery is not up to par; added start ups may not let your charging system have enough time to charge the battery. You could be stuck at a signal with a dead battery. We could go on and on about the flaws in this practice, but we think you get the point. If he meant while waiting for a long train or in front of someone’s house, etc.; then he should have stated this in the article.

"Use lower-grade fuel: Regular unleaded fuel won’t hurt most vehicles even if premium unleaded fuel is required. Unless your engine starts to knock or ping when using a lower-grade fuel, stick to regular.”

Not a good idea. There are good reasons for fuel recommendations. Premature engine wear and damage to the valves should be considered. Although, spark knock and pinging exaggerate the wear, spark knock and ping should not be the determining factor. Excessive wear should be! Also one other point here; if you fill your tank with a lower grade of fuel and you have spark knock and or pinging what can you do about it before damage does occur? Drain your gas tank? Play chemist and try adding different additives to stop the knock and ping? You could cause even more damage trying to fix the problem.

“Slow down: Most vehicles get the best fuel efficiency at 45 to 55 miles per hour. Driving more than 60 mph can cut fuel efficiency 7 percent to 23 percent.”

The only thing to say here is; driving too slow is a ticketed offense; and for a good reason. It’s dangerous!

Here is a great tip on fuel economy: Only fill you gas tank half full. Gasoline is heavy and only filling the tank part way will increase your gas mileage.