Monroe

Email Fraudsters Scam US Company Out of Nearly $100 Million April 15, 2016 http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2016/04/15/email-fraudsters-scam-us-company-out-nearly-100-million.html?intcmp=latestnews U.S. officials said Thursday that an unidentified company was defrauded out of nearly $100 million by individuals who used a fake email to pose as one of its vendors. Reuters reported the U.S. government has filed a civil forfeiture lawsuit in federal court in New York seeking to recover nearly $25 million derived from the fraud which is being held in approximately 20 bank accounts around the world. Authorities said about $74 million has been returned to the company, according to Reuters. Tom Brown, the managing director of Berkeley Research Group’s cyber security practice, told Reuters the lawsuit “appears to be the largest email scam that I’ve seen." The email scheme is believed to have taken place between August and September after a Cyprus-based bank identified some suspicious transfers, authorities said. The fraudsters carried out the scheme by creating a fake email address posing as one of the company’s legitimate vendors in Asia. The individuals posed as a vendor while communicating with a separate company that was hired to handle the logistics of vendor payments to the American company, the complaint said. The American company sent $98.9 million meant for the vendor to a bank account in Cyprus, according to the suit. Authorities said at least $25 million was laundered through separate accounts in Cyprus, Latvia, Hungary, Estonia, Lithuania, Slovakia and Hong Kong. The Cyprus bank was able to restrain nearly $74 million. Authorities believe that this case is the latest example of fraudsters targeting businesses with foreign suppliers or that regularly complete wire transfers. The FBI issued an alert to companies last week that businesses have lost $2.3 billion globally from wire fraud from October 2013 to February of this year. ...

I almost didn't post this story ... my thinking was that the story can't be true ... who doesn't have some sort of backup to rely on. So I guess maybe this guy didn't ... I have no servers to fool with ... just a simple XP computer setup but I would hate to face a complete reinstall of the OS with all my settings and software added through the years. I do have that backup ready to go. However, the story had some information in it that might be useful to someone working with servers ... the code that he used and that forum for "server experts" called Server Fault. Maybe that forum was already known by people here ... maybe not. Still hard to believe there was no backup. ...

Man Accidentally 'Deletes His Entire Company' With One Line of Bad Code ‘I feel sorry to say that your company is now essentially dead,’ one person on a coding forum advised Marco Marsala. Thursday 14 April 2016 http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/news/man-accidentally-deletes-his-entire-company-with-one-line-of-bad-code-a6984256.html A man appears to have deleted his entire company with one mistaken piece of code. By accidentally telling his computer to delete everything in his servers, hosting provider Marco Marsala has seemingly removed all trace of his company and the websites that he looks after for his customers. Mr Marsala wrote on a forum for server experts called Server Fault that he was now stuck after having accidentally run destructive code on his own computers. But far from advising them how to fix it, most experts informed him that he had just accidentally deleted the data of his company and its clients, and in so doing had probably destroyed his entire company with just one line of code. The problem command was "rm -rf": a basic piece of code that will delete everything it is told to. The “rm” tells the computer to remove; the r deletes everything within a given directory; and the f stands for “force”, telling the computer to ignore the usual warnings that come when deleting files. ...

This new update from two days ago sounds important after reading about it ... but then all Adobe Flash Updates always seem to be important. Adobe patches actively exploited Flash Player vulnerability in 24 flaw fix The new Flash Player update squashes a bug that hackers have been using to infect computers with ransomware April 8, 2016 http://www.pcworld.com/article/3053090/security/adobe-fixes-24-vulnerabilities-in-flash-player-including-an-actively-exploited-one.html Adobe Systems released a security update for Flash Player to fix 24 critical vulnerabilities, including one that hackers have been exploiting to infect computers with ransomware over the past week. The company advised users Thursday to upgrade to the newly released Flash Player 21.0.0.213 on Windows and Mac and Flash Player 11.2.202.616 on Linux. The Flash Player Extended Support Release was also updated to version 18.0.0.343. As usual, the Flash Player build bundled with Google Chrome on all platforms, Microsoft Edge and Internet Explorer for Windows 10 and IE for Windows 8.1 will be upgraded automatically through the update mechanisms of those browsers. Twenty-two of the newly patched vulnerabilities can result in remote code execution on users’ computers, one can lead to a security feature bypass and one can be used to bypass the memory layout randomization mitigation that’s supposed to make exploitation harder in general. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Warning: There’s a major security flaw in Flash and you need to update immediately By Zach Epstein on Apr 8, 2016 http://bgr.com/2016/04/08/adobe-flash-security-flaw-update/ Stop us if you’ve heard this one before… dozens of times. A very serious security flaw has been discovered in Adobe Flash and millions of users are impacted. The zero-day vulnerability allows hackers to exploit the flaw and crash a user’s system, or even take control of the system and steal private data. It’s one of the most serious types of flaws out there and in this case the vulnerability is being actively exploited by hackers. In other words, this isn’t some tiny bug discovered by researchers and handled privately with Adobe behind closed doors. Hackers are using the security hole to attack users as you read this — and now Adobe has released an update to patch the flaw. Here’s what you need to know: All desktop versions of Adobe Flash player are affected, including builds for Windows, OS X and Linux. So basically, if you have a computer you need to install the update. ...

I installed a little free flash cookie cleaner over two years ago ... I was always getting one flash cookie in particular and sometimes several flash cookies would show up in this little program. Finally today ... like two years late ... I took the time to find out exactly what "settings.sol" was and where it came from. I will add that sometimes there are a crazy amount of "flash cookies" to delete but most of the time maybe just two or three. I found this interesting blog article from Oct 2010 ... Part 2 ... haven't found Part 1 but it looks like Part 2 is the one to read. Adobe Flash, The Spy in Your Computer – Part 2 By ESET Research posted 6 Oct 2010 http://www.welivesecurity.com/2010/10/06/adobe-flash-the-spy-in-your-computer-part-2/ This small part is from the article: "There is one spy aspect of Flash that this configuration did not stop. Adobe has a default cookie that records each Flash enabled site you visit. Using the web-based Flash Settings Manager, if you go to the website privacy settings or storage setting panels and delete all websites it will delete this history from the default cookie, but what if you don’t want the sites written at all? I decided to see if I would prevent this from happening. The default cookie is called settings.sol and its location depends upon your operating system and version. I first use the web-based panels to configure flash how I wanted and then marked settings.sol as read only. Next I went to sites that use flash and went back to check the settings.sol file. I think it is appropriate to mention here that “SOL” in English is an acronym for Sh*t Out of Luck. I do not think this is a coincidence. When I went to look at the sol file I discovered that Flash had written a file called settings.sxx that contained the website I had visited. After marking both the sol and sxx files as read only, Flash finally stopped tracking the websites I visit." There is a nice little free program called Flash Cookies Cleaner v1.2 ... the home website doesn't seem to offer the program anymore ... at least I could not find it but it is at this site as a free download ... all the information below is from SOFTPEDIA. SOFTPEDIA - Flash Cookies Cleaner v1.2 http://www.softpedia.com/get/Security/Secure-cleaning/Flash-Cookies-Cleaner.shtml Save precious disk space and keep your virtual identity safe by deleting Flash cookies with the help of this lightweight application. Flash Cookies Cleaner is a compact application designed to scan your computer for the cookies saved by the Adobe Flash Player application in order to remove them. These cookies, also known as Local Shared Objects, are responsible for remembering the volume level on Flash video players and other settings for each website. Helping you save some disk space If you are not comfortable with having these settings saved on your computer you might want to delete them. The problem is that these cookies are not removed in the same way you clean the cookies saved by your browser. Actually, completely cleaning the browser has no effect on these items. Since every Flash cookie can save up to 100 kilobytes of information, the space used for an intensive Internet user can be quite significant. It is recommended to remove them if you want to clean your hard drive and to avoid the privacy issues. Quickly identify and remove cookies The application has an easy to use interface that allows you to detect and to delete all the cookies with a couple of clicks. You can also review the detected items before deciding to delete them. Unfortunately, you cannot select the items that you want to remove since the app deletes all the detected cookies. It has a small footprint and barely uses the CPU even when scanning or deleting cookies. The response time is above average since in our tests it detected and removed over eight hundred entries almost instantly. Straightforward with little features This app detected more items than the Adobe Website Storage Settings panel and removed them with no problems. However, it lacks the ability to change the maximum disk space for each cookie and to disable the local storage. In conclusion To sum it up, Flash Cookies Cleaner is a useful application for the users that want to completely remove the browsing traces from their computer with minimum effort. After intense use of the computer for entertainment purposes you might want to give this little utility a try. ...

Very interesting ... I don't have a smart phone but I'm thinking the lawsuit could at least make the phone company tell the actual memory size still available after everything has been placed on the phone and the box has been sealed and ready to be sold. At least a person would have some idea of what they actually have in total available memory when they buy the phone. What happens to the memory total from future updates and whatever else after a person buys the phone ... that's something else but at the time of purchase a person would have some general knowledge of how much actual memory they have at that time. Sort of like buying a hard drive listed at 100 GB on the box but in reality the actual GB size is around 80 GB (+ or -). Has that ever been challenged in a lawsuit after all these years. The common person who doesn't understand MB and GB size is probably easily fooled ... of course there is always some fine print somewhere on the box with that warning explaining all this ... but they advertise 100 GB. ...

Another possible example of the Mediterranean diet with fresh air and walking for a longer life along with something else ... the herb Rosemary. From the article link and a nice photo of Acciaroli ... Could a HERB be the secret to living to 100? Diet rich in rosemary linked to good health and long life expectancy in Italian village. Medical experts will examine pensioners living in Acciaroli near Salerno They have remarkable record for living for longer but also free of disease Population of a few thousand has about 300 people who are aged over 100 By Kate Pickles 30 March 2016 http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-3515735/Could-HERB-secret-living-100-Diet-rich-rosemary-linked-good-health-long-life-expectancy-Italian-village.html Rosemary could be the secret to living to 100 according to researchers investigating 300 centenarians in a remote Italian village. For the herb appears to be commonly used by a group of pensioners who have a most remarkable record of not just living longer but free of heart disease and Alzheimer’s. Teams of medical experts have been given permission for the first time ever to examine the residents of a coastal hamlet called Acciaroli, near the resort of Salerno. Nestled between the sea and the mountains the area has a population of a couple of thousand or so yet among them are at least 300 men and women who are already 100 years old or more. This is a phenomenal ratio compared to, for instance, America where just 0..02 per cent of the population will live that long. It is believed that factors for their long life and low rates of both mental and physical illness include the famously healthy Mediterranean diet that is popular throughout the region. But rosemary is particularly prevalent in their cooking, said researchers from the University of California San Diego School of Medicine and University of Rome, who are carrying out the study. Other influences include, perhaps obviously, the fresh air and walking - the residents regularly walk or hike through mountains to go to the shops or to work for instance as part of their daily routines. San Diego doctor Professor Alan Maisel said: ‘We are the first group of researchers to be given permission to study this population in Acciaroli, Italy.’ The teams will look at diet, lifestyle and take blood samples and distribute questionnaires to the 300 centenarians of Acciaroli. Professor Maisel added: ‘The goal of this long-term study is to find out why this group of 300 is living so long by conducting a full genetic analysis and examining lifestyle behaviours, like diet and exercise. ‘The results from studying the longevity of this group could be applied to our practice at UC San Diego and to patients all over the world.’ ...

Not exactly sure what you mean ... the Windows XP Startup sound can do that. The Windows XP Initial Startup Music is long playing and probably better to listen to and enjoy. They are two different items ... if someone starts Windows XP for the very first time with a new computer out of the box and they don't have any speakers hooked up until later ... they will never hear that particular Windows XP sound since it only plays that one time and never again. That Windows XP music may be known as Windows XP Welcome Music. I just checked as the music is playing ... it is titled - Microsoft Windows Welcome Music. It is over 5 minutes long ... 5:24 to be exact but it ends at around 5:22. This is from an old 2009 forum dealing with the sound ... "I don't think that's what the OP was referring to. He's talking about the song (and not a "chime," "sound," etc) that plays only when you turn on your PC for the very first time and go through the start-up and registration screens. Beyond that point, the song never plays again unless you restore the computer or track down the file manually." ...

Adding some additional "facts" ... at least one. I really liked the Windows XP Initial Startup Music ... you only get to hear it that one time when you start XP for the first time. I searched Google and actually found out where it was located and saved it to play every so often. It's a great sound that MS included with XP. *** If you're interested in the location of the XP music ... use a good set of headphones to really enjoy the experience. C:\WINDOWS\system32\oobe\images\title ...

Came across this list of 20 facts at The Fact Site ... I think this list could be from 2015 but not 100% sure ... so some "facts" may have changed. A few facts I was not aware of ... from the page ... 04 The rolling hills background for XP sold for millions of dollars! Charles O’Rear is a photographer for National Geographic and was the man who captured the beautiful photo seen on all XP operating systems. The photo is taken in California and is said to be the second most valuable photo ever! 10 It’s impossible to create a folder named CON. Odd as this sounds, it’s true. If you’re running XP you cannot name a file CON. This is because there’s already a file in the system named that, but not one you can readily access. 12 The XP stands for Experience. A random but little known fact that the XP is for eXPerience. One of the few Windows OS with a name instead of a number identification. 20 Facts About Windows XP http://www.thefactsite.com/2015/09/microsoft-windows-xp-facts.html Everyone remembers the beloved Windows XP that operated truly as an OS should. It was intuitive, streamlined, and not filled with the horrible kinks and problems seen in Vista or Windows 8. Despite Windows XP officially being made redundant due to the three new operating systems released since, there is still a strong following of individuals who continue to download and use this OS. If you’re one of those hardcore XP supporters, or simply someone curious to learn more about this operating system, then continue reading! We’ve got twenty facts about the Windows XP operating system that may surprise even the most tech savvy readers! All 20 Facts at the link ...

A touching story ... with all the predators in the ocean ... I hope he can make many more trips. Some nice pictures with the article. Penguin Swims 5,000 Miles Every Year to Visit Brazilian Man Bird swims 5,000 MILES every year to visit Brazilian man who nursed it back to life after he found it covered in oil and dying on a beach. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3482978/Penguin-returns-home-year-Brazilian-man-saved-it.html By Keiligh Baker and Janet Tappin Coelho In Brazil For Mailonline 8 March 2016 | * Pensioner Joao Pereira de Souza, 71, discovered dying penguin on beach * He nursed creature, which was covered in oil, back to health at his home * Mr de Souza named the creature Dindim and released him back into wild * Dindim goes off to breed but always returns to stay at Mr de Souza's home This incredible video shows the touching relationship between a penguin and the Brazilian man who rescued him from certain death. Retired bricklayer and part time fisherman Joao Pereira de Souza, 71, from an island village just outside Rio de Janeiro in Brazil, discovered the tiny penguin languishing on rocks in 2011. The helpless creature was starving and covered in oil but Mr de Souza took him in and nursed him back to health, naming the South American Magellanic penguin Dindim. It took him a week just to clean the sticky black residue from the bird's feathers. When Dindim was well again Mr de Souza released him back into the sea, never expecting to see his new friend again. He was astonished when, just a few months later, the penguin returned to the island where he recognised Mr de Souza and returned home with him. Now, Dindim spends eight months of the year with Mr de Souza and spends the rest of his time breeding off the coast of Argentina and Chile. The flightless bird is believed to swim around 5,000 miles everytime he returns to Mr de Souza. 'I love the penguin like it's my own child and I believe the penguin loves me,' Mr Pereira de Souza told Globo TV. 'No one else is allowed to touch him. He pecks them if they do. He lays on my lap, lets me give him showers, allows me to feed him sardines and to pick him up.' Mr Pereira de Souza said he fed Dindim a daily diet of fish to improve his strength then took him back to the sea to let him go. 'But he wouldn't leave, he stayed with me for 11 months and then just after he changed his coat with new feathers he disappeared,' recalled the retired builder. 'Everyone said he wouldn't return but he has been coming back to visit me for the past four years. 'He arrives in June and leaves to go home in February and every year he becomes more affectionate as he appears even happier to see me.' Biologist Joao Paulo Krajewski, who interviewed Mr Pereira de Souza for Globo TV, said: 'I have never seen anything like this before. I think the penguin believes Joao is part of his family and probably a penguin as well. 'When he sees him he wags his tail like a dog and honks with delight.' Another expert said it appears as though Dindim recognises Mr de Souza as he would another penguin, and acts accordingly. ...

Interesting fact ... from the article below. "On Wednesday, the moon will blot out the sun, creating a total solar eclipse that will darken the sky over parts of the western Pacific and Southeast Asia. The spectacle will begin on March 9 and finish on March 8. Yes, truly." Total Solar Eclipse Will End the Day Before It Begins http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/08/science/total-solar-eclipse-will-end-the-day-before-it-begins.html?_r=0 By NICHOLAS ST. FLEUR MARCH 7, 2016 On Wednesday, the moon will blot out the sun, creating a total solar eclipse that will darken the sky over parts of the western Pacific and Southeast Asia. The spectacle will begin on March 9 and finish on March 8. Yes, truly. That’s because the moon’s shadow will first fall over parts of the Pacific on Wednesday morning local time, and then cross the international date line and appear visible on Tuesday afternoon local time. Total solar eclipses occur when the darkest part of the moon’s shadow, the umbra, encases part of the Earth. Anyone standing where the umbra falls will see the moon engulf the sun for about four minutes. This year, people in parts of Indonesia, Borneo and Sulawesi within a narrow strip stretching about 90 miles wide — the line of totality — will experience a blackout at some point from 7 to 11 a.m. local time. (The total eclipse will occur sometime from midnight G.M.T. (7 p.m. Eastern) to 4 a.m. G.M.T. (11 p.m. Eastern). “The cool thing for those who are going to be in the path of totality is that they are going to be able to see the outer atmosphere of the sun called the corona,” said C. Alex Young, a solar astrophysicist from NASA. The corona will look like flames streaming from behind the moon. “This is only visible from the ground during a total solar eclipse,” he said. Those in Australia, South China, and Southeast Asia as well as Hawaii and Alaska will stand in the shade of a partial solar eclipse when the moon’s second shadow, the penumbra, catches them in its shade. From their perspectives, it’ll look as if some galactic giant took a big bite out of the sun. If you’re one of the billions of people who will not see this year’s eclipse, don’t fret; there are consolation prizes. The San Francisco Exploratorium will live stream the total eclipse from Micronesia on its website. And Jupiter will be at opposition Tuesday, allowing stargazers everywhere to see the planet at its brightest in the night sky without needing a telescope. Finally, for those who live in the continental United States, the next total solar eclipse will pass through the middle of the country in August 2017. Total solar eclipses occur about once every one to two years, the last one being in March 2015. It’ll be the first time in nearly 40 years the spectacle will be visible from the continental United States, and it’s expected to bring in a flood of viewers, so consider stocking up on some protective glasses. ...

Nice link to the PSA article ... lots of additional information there. How close those cards came to be thrown out with other junk. They were at the bottom of the bag ... usually people might be expected to be in a hurry to get everything cleaned up and in order. Very good someone took their time to check the bag out. From the article: "The cards discovered in 2016 were unearthed in a rural town after a southern family was combing through the possessions of their great grandparents. The cards were found inside a torn paper bag on the floor. Initially, the family thought the bag was merely filled with trash and planned to discard it. One of the family members decided to sift through the contents, which included a number of postcards and other paper products. Beneath this small pile of items were the Cobb cards lying face down at the bottom of the bag." ...

Another reason Windows 7 usage figures might be suspect and that Windows XP usage may be higher and probably is higher ... could be with people using Proxomitron. https://www.netmarketshare.com/operating-system-market-share.aspx?qprid=10&qpcustomd=0 I have been using it since Windows 98SE and since 2012 with XP ... works just great ... may also work with Windows 7 ... I have read it does. I am using the filter set by Sidki which was set up to tell a site that the computer has Windows 7 installed. So everywhere I go ... Windows 7 gets all the "credit" instead of XP, unless I place Proxomitron on Bypass ... which I have to do every so often to get a web page to open properly, but not often. I use K-Meleon v1.8.24 ... when I have Proxomitron working as normal ... this information is seen: What Browser am I using? You appear to be using: Firefox 31.0.9.9 on Windows 7 When I have Proxomitron on Bypass ... this information is seen. What Browser am I using? You appear to be using: Firefox 31.0 on Windows XP http://www.thismachine.info/ So if there are many people using Proxomitron with XP ... then the XP usuage figures could be much higher or somewhat higher anyway. If anyone has never heard of Proxomitron and would be interested in checking it out ... here's some information. Once you get to know this program you may like it ... it's always working when I'm online ... sometimes I have to put it on by-pass. You will learn as you use it. It may be of some help when online. The Proxomitron by Scott R. Lemmon http://www.proxomitron.info/ The Author: Scott R. Lemmon originally developed the Proxomitron for his own use. He then decided to release it to the public and made himself available to users via email and in several Proxomitron user-discussion groups. His support, like his program, was always free. With the release of Naoko 4.5, Scott discontinued all further development and support of his program and pulled the official home of Proxomitron off the Web. We respected his decision to move on and wished him all the best -- which is, after all, what he consistently gave to us. Sadly, one year later, Scott died -- but his brilliance of mind and spirit lives on. Simply put, Proxomitron is a reflection of its creator: To know Scott's program . . . is to know Scott Lemmon. The Un-Official Proxomitron Forum http://www.prxbx.com/forums/ There is a filter set by Sidki that many people use ... it replaces nothing that Scott Lemmon placed into Proxomitron ... it adds to it. sidki-config: Oct 23 2010 http://www.prxbx.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?fid=44 The program may be of some use with various browsers. Just experiment and see how it might work on your computer. Just to add ... he has a Google filter set and Sidki has added to it ... really a big difference in using the Google search site with Proxomitron installed ... that alone makes the program worthwhile. With the Sidki filter set ... ads are gone and the page is a dark blue ... there is also a gray color setting but the blue page is great. I have not mastered all the settings but there is help at the Sidki forum ... if you want or need additional settings. *** Just to add, I always have to put Proxomitron on Bypass when I go to the MS Update site so MS will read that I actually have XP installed ... then I can get any current updates. It's always been this way ... I have IE 8 installed for that. Of course, I'm only getting MS Office 2007 updates these days for Office 2000. ...

Better than finding a bag of gold coins. From the article: "Card experts in Southern California said Wednesday that they have verified the legitimacy — and seven-figure total value — of seven identical Ty Cobb cards from the printing period of 1909 to 1911." Southern California man finds cache of century-old baseball cards in paper bag March 03, 2016 - Associated Press http://www.foxnews.com/us/2016/03/03/southern-california-man-finds-cache-century-old-baseball-cards-in-paper-bag.html?intcmp=latestnews LOS ANGELES – From a crumpled paper bag in a dilapidated house came a baseball-card find of a lifetime. Seven of them actually. Card experts in Southern California said Wednesday that they have verified the legitimacy — and seven-figure total value — of seven identical Ty Cobb cards from the printing period of 1909 to 1911. Before the recent find, there were only about 15 known to still exist. Joe Orlando, the president of Professional Sports Authenticator in Newport Beach, California, who verified the find, said it is "spectacular" and "miraculous" to have come across such a cache. "I am not sure if any other baseball card find is more remarkable than this new discovery," Orlando said in a statement. The family who discovered the cards in a neglected paper bag at the run-down house of a deceased great-grandfather has asked to remain anonymous. Publicist Donn Pearlman, who helped announce the finding, said only that they are from a southern state and that the cards were first taken to a dealer in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina That dealer, Rick Snyder of MINT State Inc., said his initial reaction after getting a voicemail from the family was "absolute skepticism." "I doubted they were authentic because finding seven of these cards at one place at one time seemed almost impossible," Snyder said. But after examining photos and then finally seeing the cards themselves a week later, he became convinced. Orlando said he was also dubious at first. But after his office and an outside expert examined the cards, he became a believer. The cards with the famed Detroit Tigers slugger come from a lot known as T206, the group most prized by collectors that also includes the Honus Wagner card, arguably the most famous sports card ever. They say on the back "TY COBB — KING OF THE SMOKING TOBACCO WORLD" in green ink. The cards' value is sure to shift now that there are so many more in existence, and an exact figure is difficult to pin down. But Orlando said the total worth of the whole cache should exceed $1 million. It's not yet clear what the family who found them intends to do with them. On a scale of 1-10, 10 being mint condition, the cards range from 3.5 to 4.5, which is high for cards that are more than a century old. "This is one of the greatest discoveries in the history of our hobby," Orlando said. ...

This article is from May 2013 and deals with smaller billboards as you walk by them. So three years later ... have these smaller billboards become more "enhanced" ... now also picking up phone data with eyes and face ID ? New Billboard Tracks Your Eye Movements by Fox Van Allen May 01, 2013 http://www.techlicious.com/blog/new-billboard-tracks-your-eye-movements/ Welcome to Minority Report: Researchers at Lancaster University in England have created a new type of digital billboard capable of tracking your eye movements. The system, called Sideways, uses a small camera to locate faces, identify eyes, and then track their movement. The content displayed on the screen can change as your eyes move, allowing you to scroll through menus simply by looking at them. Of course, more interesting to retailers is the possibility of using the tracking tech to perfect the art of the advertisement. Say you were in the supermarket checkout aisle, and a candy bar catches your eye. The monitor might display an ad for a different type of candy, or possibly highlight a discount. Shift your gaze to a tabloid, and you might get a few tidbits of hot gossip. And while the advertisement is tracking your eyes, it’s capable of tracking the eyes of 13 other people as well. You can be forgiven for thinking this brings us uncomfortably close to Minority Report, the sci-fi movie where billboards can identify individual passersby using facial recognition. After all, if Facebook can identify you from a picture, so can an advertisement. Technology also exists to track your reaction to ads, so if a pitch isn’t working, the billboard might change its style to better grab your attention. Isn’t technology simultaneously awe-inspiring and terrifying? ...

I dug up some more information on the billboard thing. As for myself, I just find it hard to believe that someone traveling at 50 miles an hour can be "seen" or have their phone ID on record just passing a billboard but I guess it can happen that fast and at a distance. What about many vehicles rapidly going by all at once (rush hour traffic) ... the system can sort all the phones out ? ... what about three or four people in one car, all with phones ... who gets tracked? I suppose if you live in the country and travel old country roads ... with no phone ... but then there are drones hovering around. This is from the article below: "In the United States of America, billboards now see you. Or at least they see certain data from your mobile phone — age, gender, and location — which they can then sell to advertisers." also ... just for walking around with a phone on and certain apps installed, it will be more than billboards tracking a person. They used the term "enhanced billboards". ... also from the article below: "In some cases, Clear Channel will be able to track whether someone who views a billboard ends up accessing the product advertised. If a mobile user has installed the Placed app on their phone, and he or she passes a billboard for a new bar in town, the app will know and be able to report whether the user ever ends up trying the place out. The plan may sound sketchy, but considering the enhanced billboards go on sale Monday in Clear Channel’s 11 major markets, including Los Angeles and New York, it appears to be inevitable. The company plans to open sales to the rest of the country soon as well, meaning the age of billboards that only look one way is effectively over. Now, billboards will always look back at you. Radar also signals the possibility that this strategy may soon be coming to other forms of advertisements including bus stops, signs and city streets. If the data is easily accessible, it would probably pay for the owner of the advertisement to know it." Billboards to Begin Tracking Viewer Locations, Selling Data to Advertisers Radar is the first billboard software that looks back. Adam Toobin February 29, 2016 https://www.inverse.com/article/12141-billboards-to-begin-tracking-viewer-locations-selling-data-to-advertisers In the United States of America, billboards now see you. Or at least they see certain data from your mobile phone — age, gender, and location — which they can then sell to advertisers. Clear Channel Outdoor Americas, an advertising company with thousands of billboards across the United States, will announce its plan, called Radar, to begin tracking information from passing mobile phones on Monday, reports The New York Times. The company is only planning to record demographic data about users in the aggregate, meaning it is disassociated from any unique personal data. So in theory, Radar won’t be able to tell advertisers you’re on a road trip across the country after seeing you jet across the Midwest. There are, however, plenty of ways you make it possible for advertisers to figure that out on their own. “In aggregate, that data can then tell you information about what the average viewer of that billboard looks like,” Andy Stevens, senior vice president for research and insights at Clear Channel Outdoor, told The New York Times. “Obviously that’s very valuable to an advertiser.” Clear Channel is partnering with AT&T Data Patterns, a segment of the company that tracks users, PlaceIQ, an app-based location sensor, and Placed, a program that actually pays users to let it keep tabs on their whereabouts. Radar will have access only to information that has long been accessible to mobile advertisers, according to Clear Channel Outdoor. Tying information like age and gender to a particular location will allow them to sell a more precise profile of the people who see a particular billboard on an average basis. In some cases, Clear Channel will be able to track whether someone who views a billboard ends up accessing the product advertised. If a mobile user has installed the Placed app on their phone, and he or she passes a billboard for a new bar in town, the app will know and be able to report whether the user ever ends up trying the place out. The plan may sound sketchy, but considering the enhanced billboards go on sale Monday in Clear Channel’s 11 major markets, including Los Angeles and New York, it appears to be inevitable. The company plans to open sales to the rest of the country soon as well, meaning the age of billboards that only look one way is effectively over. Now, billboards will always look back at you. Radar also signals the possibility that this strategy may soon be coming to other forms of advertisements including on bus stops, signs and city streets. If the data is easily accessible, it would probably pay for the owner of the advertisement to know it. So it may be an invasion of privacy, but it’s definitely coming to a city near you. ...

It only gets worse ... maybe time to keep the phone turned off ... but then it's not ready to use for a 911 emergency. See That Billboard? It May See You, Too By SYDNEY EMBER FEB. 28, 2016 http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/29/business/media/see-that-billboard-it-may-see-you-too.html?_r=0 Pass a billboard while driving in the next few months, and there is a good chance the company that owns it will know you were there and what you did afterward. Clear Channel Outdoor Americas, which has tens of thousands of billboards across the United States, will announce on Monday that it has partnered with several companies, including AT&T, to track people’s travel patterns and behaviors through their mobile phones. By aggregating the trove of data from these companies, Clear Channel Outdoor hopes to provide advertisers with detailed information about the people who pass its billboards to help them plan more effective, targeted campaigns. With the data and analytics, Clear Channel Outdoor could determine the average age and gender of the people who are seeing a particular billboard in, say, Boston at a certain time and whether they subsequently visit a store. more at link ...

For myself, the main selling point with the Nophone ... it doesn't need any batteries. So rare in today's world !!! ...

Glad I have kept my flip phone from 2004 ... I can connect with USB to get on the internet all under the "voice minutes plan" ... it wasn't long after I got my phone that the companies started splitting Voice and Data. My internet is slow but it works for news, e-mail and Amazon orders and such ... just can't watch videos. I mostly use WiFi these days but every so often I have to get the old USB cable out and connect with the phone. Digitally weary users switch to ‘dumb’ phones http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/01ba2970-9e70-11e5-8ce1-f6219b685d74.html February 22, 2016 In January, British actor Eddie Redmayne made headlines around the world as he became the latest in a growing band of smartphone refuseniks. “It was a reaction against being glued permanently to my iPhone during waking hours,” he explained, turning instead to an old-fashioned “dumb phone” handset that could only make and take calls. He is not alone. There is a small but busy market for phones that are simple and cheap at a time when smartphones are becoming ever more complex and expensive. Feature phones — handsets with some basic functions such as playing music and accessing the internet — are gradually being replaced by low cost smartphones, according to Francisco Jeronimo, research director for European mobile devices at IDC, the research group. But there is still a significant demand for older-style phones. Strategy Analytics, a research group, estimates that 44m basic phones were sold in 2015, accounting for 2 per cent of the global market. Some phonemakers, such as Sony and LG, have already turned their back on the market. But others like Microsoft and Samsung are still producing devices every year aimed at the feature market. Many smartphone users bemoan having to buy devices that are easily broken, require daily recharging and which will be superseded by a new, better version within a year. Even basic smartphones offer computing power that not many people need. Some users buy phones with limited or no internet connections in a conscious attempt to decouple from the modern digital world. Light Phone founder Joe Hollier falls into this camp. The 25-year-old former skater has developed a credit card-sized phone without a data connection and no extra functions other than to make calls. He describes a feeling of huge relief when the ability to check emails or status updates is removed. Analysts say that there is a growing number of “second phoneys” who use an expensive smartphone or “phablet” during the day, but turn to cheaper, pocket-sized devices when they go out in the evening. more at the link ...

The article below mentions that in 1969 the Apollo 10 astronauts, while orbiting the Moon, heard music from the dark side of the Moon. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3456741/Apollo-10-astronauts-heard-mysterious-music-far-moon-newly-uncovered-tapes-reveal-no-wasn-t-Pink-Floyd.html?ito=social-facebook Was it Pink Floyd? Apollo 10 astronauts heard mysterious 'music' on the dark side of the moon, newly uncovered tapes reveal While orbiting the moon in 1969, the Apollo 10 team heard 'weird music' They were on the far side of the moon, so it couldn't have come from Earth The team debated whether to tell NASA command back home Recordings of the event were declassified in 2008, and will be played on Science Channel's NASA's Unexplained Files this month See the latest Nasa updates at www.dailymail.co.uk/nasa By James Wilkinson For Daily Mail Online 21 February 2016 Apollo astronauts who orbited the moon two months before Neil Armstrong's famous 1969 landing heard mysterious and unexplainable 'music' on its far side, out of the range of Earthly radio transmissions, it has emerged. Recently unearthed recordings made by NASA of the journey, which took the Apollo 10 capsule around the far side of the moon, show the astronauts reacting with surprise and confusion to an unearthly howling noise in their headsets. The sound began once the capsule was on an hour-long trip around the far side of the moon, out of the range of any Earth broadcast. At one point the baffled astronauts can be heard discussing whether they should tell NASA command or not. more at the link ...

I use Youtube Downloader HD for videos directly from YouTube ... it never fails. When you right click to copy the video link ... it is automatically copied to be downloaded. So those videos are no problem so far ... just download into a Video folder or wherever. I only use the "portable" version so if there is an update, it's easy to just delete the old folder and add the new version folder. They don't update too often unless YouTube makes changes. Youtube Downloader HD v2.9.9.27 (current) http://www.youtubedownloaderhd.com/download.html Main Downloads: Download Youtube Downloader HD Version 2.9.9.27 Free. 9 MB. With installer. For Windows 2000/XP/2003/Vista/7/8/10 FLV Converter Version 1.2 Free. 3.6 MB. With installer. Handy free tool to convert FLV files to AVI video Youtube Downloader HD - Portable Version Version 2.9.9.27 Free. 10 MB. Without installer. Standalone exe file. For Windows 2000/XP/2003/Vista/7/8/10 I don't know about Facebook and such ... I will check out what you posted. Thanks again. monroe

bphlpt ... thanks for the information and the video. I had a few videos last year that I wanted to save but couldn't figure out how to do so. I noticed after I posted the last post ... the ID of the video source. I have downloaded the Comodo Dragon browser and will give it a try. HarryTri ... I was mostly trying to work with sites where you put the actual link in but it didn't work. What bphlpt posted about Comodo Dragon and the Comodo Media Grabber extension may be of interest ... I'm going to work with it and see if I can get it to work for any future videos. thanks again ...

Check the picture out ... it is interesting. Does the the so-called laptop have USB ports or some type of ports in it's side ??? Is This an Ancient Laptop? February 06, 2016 http://www.foxnews.com/science/2016/02/06/seriously-that-ancient-greek-statue-does-not-depict-laptop.html?intcmp=hpff There's a new conspiracy theory out there, but instead of invoking big government or aliens, it questions whether there's a laptop carved into an ancient Greek statue. That's right — there's a theory out there saying that a funerary statue of a woman, dated to about 100 B.C., shows her looking at a modern laptop or a handheld digital device. The theory, proposed by the anonymous YouTube user StillSpeakingOut, ventures that the ancient Oracle of Delphi may have foreseen the invention of laptops, and told people about it. "Just so we are clear, I'm not saying that this relief was depicting an ancient laptop computer," StillSpeakingOut said in the 100-second-long video. [supernatural Powers? Tales of 10 Historical Predictions] But "Greek tales about the Oracle of Delphi, which was supposed to allow the priests to quote-unquote connect with the gods and retrieve advanced information of various aspects," made him wonder whether the statue represented a prediction, StillSpeakingOut said. In fact, the object depicted on the statue does look something like a laptop, said Jeffrey Spier, the senior curator of antiquities at the J. Paul Getty Museum in Malibu, California, which owns the statue. But, of course, it's not, Spier said. Instead, the object may be a jewelry box, a shallow chest or possibly a hinged mirror, as "we have hinged mirrors from this time period," Spier said. Perhaps it's a box containing incense, although there's no incense burner in the scene, so that may be a stretch, he added. Another historian debunked StillSpeakingOut's idea that the so-called laptop has USB ports in its side. "The 'USB ports' are drill holes for the attachment of a bronze object, or perhaps a separate piece of marble," said Jeff Hurwit, a professor of art history and classics at the University of Oregon. more at link ...

Thanks for IDing the possible container ... I couldn't even do that. Still can't figure out how to save the news video. Just to add ... they ran the trailer for the show last summer in Aug, Sep and Oct ... when this show statrted filming last summer Maya the winner was only 13 ... the youngest one of all the teens on the show ... she learned to sew from watching YouTube videos ... so mature for her age ... the teens were so much better than the adults on the regular Project Runway show. I tried to post the official Project Runway Junior trailer link that ran last Summer but it doesn't work right. Here is a link to the page ... it is eight videos down ... if anyone might be interested. PROJECT RUNWAY JUNIOR TRAILER https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=project+runway+junior&page=3 ...