Free Energy Truth - E-Cat Energy Catalyzer Andrea Rossi

Rossi Energy Catalyzer: "Threatens Entire Industries and Countries"

Tuesday, April 12, 2011

 Andrea Rossi At The First Public Demonstration Of His Energy Catalyzer

In one of the most recent question and answer sessions on Andrea Rossi's "Journal Of Nuclear Physics" Rossi confirms that provision has been made in the event he were to be suicided or the project was forcibly shut down.

Many people have been concerned that such a disruptive technology such as Rossi's energy catalyzer would provoke a strong negative reaction among elements of the military industrial complex and corporations hell bent on protecting their power and profit.

"Obviously you are threatening entire industries and countries with  this technology. I really hope you have spread the knowledge far enough as to avoid being a target yourself or just having the project shut down."

Question: Dear Ing. Rossi,

"Amazing work. I am a good friend of Martin Fleischmans Grand Daughter. We have been keenly following your work since January. Anna and I have talked a lot about the  turmoil He experienced back then. As you probaly have heard from him during  your visit a few weeks ago, he has some depressing stories.

Obviously you are threatening entire industries and countries with this technology. I really hope you have spread the knowledge far enough as to avoid being a  target yourself or just having the project shut down. Have you considered sharing the exact workings of the device; catalysts, quantities, pressure, ect?

I understand the financial benefit you stand to make but maybe the world needs this out there so we can start to put right the damage done during the oil age. If you were to ask for donations for the download of the design I think you would still end up one of the richest men in the world along with the most well
remembered. Think what happened to GM electric car, Stanley Meyer and others. I think I speak for most of the worlds youth when i say please share before its too late!! You will be Leonardo Divinche [sic] of the 21st century."

"Dear Mr Aron Duckworth:
As I said many times, Fleishman and Pons have been the ones who gave us a dream following which the present results have been achieved. We owe this to them. As for what you ask, yes, I have made the necessary deeds.

Please present my best wishes to Martin Fleishman.

Warm regards,
Andrea Rossi"

 

3 E-Cats Stripped Of Their Insulation

A Closeup Of The Main Chamber

E-Cat With Insulation Stripped

Other Rossi News: A Theory

Rossi has been holding off presenting a theory on why these reactions are taking place and what he thinks is the underlying theory behind the energy catalyzer.

Yesterday he confirmed again that when the 1MW plant starts up in October he will release his own theory on what he thinks is happening.  This is one of the reasons that his patent has hit a stumbling block as it was not accompanied by a theory of operation.  From comments Rossi has previously made in the last few months he has already said that he doesn't believe that it is "cold fusion" in the true sense, but that it may be neutron capture that is enabling the reaction.

Whether he presents this as his actual theory, we will need to wait until October to find out.

"Dear Mr Paul Fernhout:
Thank you for your insight. In October, with the start up of the 1 MW plant I will also release the theory behind the effect.
Warm regards,
A.R."

via freeenergytruth.blogspot.com

Posted via email from moneytalks's posterous

Free Energy Truth - E-Cat Energy Catalyzer Andrea Rossi

Rossi Energy Catalyzer: The Story So Far - Part 1

Monday, April 25, 2011

Rossi Energy Catalyzer: The Story So Far - Part 1 - The first in a series of videos where we'll be tracking the major events and information while following the commercial rollout of the first cold-fusion devices for industrial application in 2011.

 

via freeenergytruth.blogspot.com

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Free Energy Truth - E-Cat Energy Catalyzer Andrea Rossi: 97 E-Cats In Operation Right Now Accross 4 Countries

97 E-Cats In Operation Right Now Accross 4 Countries

Friday, April 29, 2011

Andrea Rossi Pictured With E-Cat

Yesterday we found out some amazing information. In one of Andrea Rossi's question and answer sessions on his blog he was asked some questions to which he gave some startling answers.

How many e-cats are in continuous operation today? - 97
How many geographic locations are e-cats running today? - 4
Are there any e-cats running in the US with businesses you own or individuals you trust? - YES

So to recap on this, Rossi is saying that at this moment there are 97 e-cats installed and working accross 4 different countries, with some already installed in the businesses of trusted individuals. The 4 countries are presumably USA (Rossi's Company Leonardo Corp), Italy, Greece and it's anyone's guess what the 4th one is.

Andrea Rossi is the inventor of the e-cat (energy catalyzer).  A commercially viable cold fusion technology which is going into full production later this year. If you are new to the story and need some some quick facts on this remarkable technology please watch this video.

Please share this information as far and as wide as possible as we are encountering a high level of resistance in the mainstream media over the non-coverage of this important discovery.

via freeenergytruth.blogspot.com

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Cape Fear Business News – Wilmington NC Business News – Brunswick County – New Hanover County – Pender County – Columbus County – Southeastern North Carolina » Poll: 60% Reject Government ID for Online Security

Poll: 60% Reject Government ID for Online Security

- April 25th, 2011

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In an effort to enhance online security and privacy, the Obama administration has proposed Americans obtain a single ID for all Internet sales and banking activity. But a new Rasmussen Reports poll finds most Americans want nothing to do with such an ID if the government is the one to issue it and hold the information.

The Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey shows that just 13% of American Adults favor the issuing of a secure government credential to replace all traditional password protection systems for online sales and banking activities. Sixty percent (60%) oppose such a credential. Twenty-seven percent (27%) are not sure.

Only eight percent (8%) of Americans would be willing to submit their personal financial and purchasing information to the government or a government contractor to receive a secure government credential for online transactions. Seventy-six percent (76%) would not be willing to submit this information for that purpose. Sixteen percent (16%) are undecided.

Aware of concerns that have been raised in the past about a national ID card, the administration appears to be downplaying the government role in the process but is clearly encouraging the development of a single personal credential to limit the security risks from multiple – and more easily hacked – passwords.  Unclear is the role that the Department of Homeland Security, a key mover behind the single credential, will play in the future.

Most adults across virtually all demographic categories oppose the issuance of a single secure government credential for online purposes.

Seventy percent (70%) of Republicans and 65% of adults not affiliated with either major party oppose such a credential. Among Democrats, however, 19% like the idea, 45% oppose it, and 36% are undecided.

But even 64% of Democrats draw the line at providing their financial and purchasing information to the government or a government-designated contractor. Republicans (87%) and unaffiliated adults (79%) are even more adamantly opposed.

Government employees aren’t much more thrilled with the idea than those who work for private companies.

Fifty-seven percent (57%) of Americans are at least somewhat confident in the security of online transactions and banking, including 17% who are Very Confident.

Eighteen percent (18%) of Americans with at least one credit card say they have had credit card information stolen online.  But voters believe free market competition will protect Internet users more than government regulation and fear that regulation will be used to push a political agenda.

The latest findings echo suspicions Americans have voiced about the federal government in the past. In fact, 69% of Likely U.S. Voters remain at least somewhat angry with the current policies of the federal government, up slightly from 65% last August.

Most Americans trust the decisions made by business leaders more than those made by government officials when it comes to the economy and the creation of jobs.

Just 28% of voters believe the federal government today has the consent of the governed.

The survey of 1,000 Adults was conducted on April 18-19, 2011 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC.

Rasmussen Reports is an electronic media company specializing in the collection, publication and distribution of public opinion polling information.  For more information, visit http://www.rasmussenreports.com.

via capefearbusiness.com

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Apple Patent Reveals Extensive Stalking Plans

Ryan Tate — The spying iPhone is no accident. A recent Apple patent application reveals that the location-tracking dossiers accumulated in iPhones are to be used in apps from Apple and any number of other companies.

Ronald Huang, an Apple senior engineering manager, filed patent application 12/553,554 last month, "Location histories for location aware devices," which explains how Apple can amass and use location data in the very ways Apple critics fear. The patent application, for example, envisions a searchable map plotting the owner's location history; tying location to financial transactions; transmitting location data over the internet to remote servers; and many other uses.

Apple has been enmeshed in controversy since computer researchers disclosed last month that the iPhone stores indefinitely data about its whereabouts gleaned from cell phone towers and wifi access points. The data collection started with the release of iOS 4 last June. The iPhone puts the location data in an easily read file called "consolidated.db," which is apparently never pruned for old entries.

Privacy advocates, politicians and the press have loudly raised concerns about how this extensive history of personal movements is going to be used. Senator Al Franken and Rep. Ed Markey, for example, both wrote letters to Apple demanding to know why the location dossiers are being created, and today the Illinois attorney general followed suit. The information is also collected even if the iPhone's "location services" preference is set to "off," the Wall Street Journal reported this morning.

Apple hasn't officially commented on why iPhones are compiling such a long history of information on their owners movements. But it does appear to be trying to quell the controversy. Apple CEO Steve Jobs recently sent an email to a concerned customer, writing, "We don't track anyone. The info circulating around is false." Apple has also done nothing to dispute a widely read report that a software bug is the likely reason so much data has been compiled on iPhones. And someone or something prompted the Journal to write an article earlier this month saying that Google's competing Android phones engage in similar behavior.

Full size

But Apple's patent application makes it seem highly unlikely the location gathering is due to a bug. Indeed, the company outlines big plans for the troves of data it has quietly created. Apple includes an illustration of a mapping app called simply "Location History" which very much resembles the "iPhone Tracker" application expressly designed to raise alarm bells about all the data being collected (see figure 3A and 3B in the PDF embedded below, page 4-5). The patent also spells out how the location database could be "correlated or related" to other personal information, including "but not limited to: Data associated with a picture taking event, data associated with a financial transaction, sensor output data, data associated with a communication event (e.g. receipt of a phone call or instant message), data associated with a network event.... etc." (sections 0020 and 0021, on page 9 in the PDF below).

Apple also says several time that the collected data will be transmitted to remote servers, including in section 0018, which discusses a "remote reference database," and section 0035, which discusses sharing location data with other wireless devices "or with a remote service (e.g., navigation services)." Apple has said before that such data is only shared with express user consent, although it clearly caught customers by surprise with the compilation of the iPhone location database.

The patent makes it clear that Apple has been planning an extensive, rather than a very limited, location database. One section, 0032, even spells out using data compression to reduce the amount of storage needed to store repeated visits to the same location. Elsewhere in the patent application, for example in section 0004, Apple describes the possibility of managing the size and "freshness" of the database by pruning older entries. This is listed as a possibility "in some implementations" but no hard, specific cap on data collection is ever suggested.

Clearly, Apple sees big potential in exploiting the iPhone's ability to record our every move. Now it just needs to explain to its users how far this practice will be taken, and how much consent it will seek before building up movement dossiers and before using them in its own software. Its track record on disclosure thus far is not encouraging.

via gawker.com

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Lock Down Your Wi-Fi or the FBI Might Come Knocking - Yahoo! News

Lock Down Your Wi-Fi or the FBI Might Come Knocking

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Tony Bradley Tony Bradley – Mon Apr 25, 1:20 pm ET

A New York man learned the hard way that leaving your wireless router open to the general public can have some very negative consequences, and that the authorities tend to act first and ask questions second.

You might think it's no big deal to share your wireless network with your neighbors. But that altruism can bite you in the butt when a less scrupulous neighbor, or a random stranger connects to the wireless network and uses it for illegal activity. As far as the authorities are concerned, that illegal activity originates from your wireless router, so you are the primary suspect.

So, what happened? Well, this guy left his home Wi-Fi network unprotected, and a slimy neighbor piggy-backed on his "free" wireless network to access thousands of child pornography images. He's not the first to fall victim to this scenario, and, unfortunately, he won't be the last.

It is important that you lock your wireless network down. WEP (wired equivalent privacy) encryption has as many holes as Swiss cheese, and can be easily cracked in a matter of seconds, but even turning on such weak protection is better than nothing. If you scan any given neighborhood for wireless networks, you will find at least one that has no encryption turned on, and that low-hanging fruit is the network that will draw attention rather than a network that requires hacking to connect to.

But, to provide better security you should use WPA or WPA-2 encryption. With most home and SOHO (small office / home office) wireless routers, it is as simple as logging in to the Admin console, enabling the encryption, and setting a password. However, as this recent incident demonstrates, "simple" is relative, and enabling wireless encryption is easier said than done for many users.

The real answer, though, lies with the wireless router vendors. Unfortunately, convenience and simplicity trump security. Wi-Fi routers are designed to just work right out of the box. They live up to the claims in most cases--as long as your only concern is being able to connect to the wireless network and start surfing the Internet. But, if you also want your wireless network to be secure, they don't work so well out of the box after all.

Users who are not tech savvy, and want the convenience of a wireless router that "just works" are not likely to invest the time and effort to learn about the inner-workings of the router, or to understand and enable the security features. Wireless routers should be designed with encryption enabled by default, and part of the initial configuration should involve stepping the user through the process of establishing a unique SSID, and setting a secure password.

For now, though, that ball is in your court. Do yourself a favor and take the 15 minutes to figure out how to log into the admin console for your Wi-Fi router and turn on encryption to prevent unauthorized piggy-backing. If you don't, the next knock on your door might be the FBI--and they might not be there for pleasant chit-chat.

via news.yahoo.com

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Researcher: iPhone Location Data Already Used By Cops - BusinessWeek

GigaOm April 21, 2011, 6:01PM EST text size: TT

Researcher: iPhone Location Data Already Used By Cops

The "news" that iPhones and iPads keep track of where you go has been known in forensic circles for some time

By Bobbie Johnson

When British programmers Alasdair Allan and Pete Warden took the stage at the Where 2.0 conference to unveil their work on iPhone location tracking, it was clear they had some big news on their hands. The duo outlined what they called "the discovery that your iPhone and 3G iPad [are] regularly recording the position of your device into a hidden file." Their findings started a firestorm of media coverage.

But as the details came to light, one researcher was left scratching his head—because he'd already made the same discovery last year.

Alex Levinson, 21, works at the Rochester Institute of Technology in western New York, and he has been studying forensic computing and working with Katana Forensics, which makes tools for interrogating iOS devices.

In a post on his blog, he explains that the existence of the location database—which tracks the cellphone towers your phone has connected to—has been public in security circles for some time.While it's not widely known, that's not the same as not being known at all.In fact, he has written and presented several papers on the subject and even contributed a chapter on the location data in a book that covers forensic analysis of the iPhone.

(One blogger reviewing the book in January mentioned the cell-tower data and says, "more and more you realize how much information Apple's mobile devices could contain and how valuable this could be for your investigation.")

Ignoring the Obvious

In his post, Levinson takes issue with the claim of "discovery." In fact, he told me by e-mail that Allan and Warden had apparently missed a whole area of existing research conducted by forensic analysts.

"It was a shock to me when this came out labeled as a 'discovery,'" he explains. "I watched the video, and they don't appear to be interested in the forensic side of this, which is honestly where the research lies."

Part of it seems to be a failure of researchers across different disciplines to plug into each others' work. As Levinson put it, "They basically built a bridge without turning to the civil engineers—I'm not the only one familiar with this stuff."

Bad communication among researchers, however, isn't the only culprit. Levinson adds that the press missed the story first time around and now seems more focused on the horror of data storage than the reality (for example, there's no evidence, at least at the moment, that the data are sent back to Apple).

"I do blame the press somewhat for sensationalizing [this] without recourse," he says. "I e-mailed 20 of the top media outlets [that] covered this, linking them to my side—none of them replied, except a famous blogger who cursed me."

Sometimes this is the case with research, and just because it's not new to you, doesn't mean it's not news. Sometimes the people credited with breakthroughs are the ones who have been able to communicate their ideas to the right people. And clearly Allan and Warden's presentation is having a lot of impact, not least because they have released the tools to make the data obvious to users.

Just an Internal Log?

The truth is, there may be more important things to consider than the issue of who discovered what. Levinson's revelations are more important than that, because he explains that the location data are already being put to use. In his blog post he says (my emphasis):

"This hidden file is nether new nor secret. It's just moved. Location services have been available to the Apple device for some time. Understand what this file is—log generated by the various radios and sensors located within the device. This file is utilized by several operations on the device that actually are what make this device pretty 'smart.'

"Through my work with various law enforcement agencies, we've used h-cells.plist on devices older than iOS 4 to harvest geolocational evidence from iOS devices."

That's very interesting. It's not that people in some circles already knew about the location data; in fact, the data are actively being used by law enforcement agencies as part of their investigations. Levinson declined to divulge the names of those agencies but told me he had worked with "multiple state and federal agencies both in the U.S. and internationally."

So when Allan and Warden say, "Don't panic … there's no immediate harm that would seem to come from the availability of this data," you have to ask whether that's the case. No court orders are needed to track your location history via an iPhone, since the devices are relatively open. All the investigator needs is the device itself.

via businessweek.com

Posted via email from moneytalks's posterous

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Newly Graduated And Drowning In Six Figures Of Student Loan Debt

Recent graduates attend a job fair at Rutgers University.

First Posted: 04/26/11 06:25 PM ET Updated: 04/26/11 10:23 PM ET

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NEW YORK -- Hardly a day goes by where Ashley Angello doesn’t fret about her student loan debt.

Angello thinks about it at night, when packing tomorrow's lunch means a few saved dollars. And she worries about it the next morning when deciding what to wear to work, since she hasn’t been able to afford any new clothes since starting her job.

“I used to joke when I was in college that I’d be paying off these loans for the rest of my life,” says Angello, 22. She graduated nearly a year ago from Ithaca College, where she majored in communications. “Little did I realize that I actually will be.”

Angello is on the hook for about $120,000. With six-figures in debt, she has little choice but to save every little bit that trickles in. And still, it's a struggle.

Midway through college, Angello wouldn’t have been able to graduate had she not been willing to go into debt. “I needed that loan no matter how much it was going to cost me in order to get my education.”

Like the home buyers who took on outsized mortgages in order to realize the American Dream of home ownership, students like Angello are struggling with piles of educational debt assumed in service of financing a similar goal -- the American Dream of a college education.

“Thirty years ago, college was a wise, modest investment,” says Fabio Rojas, a professor of sociology at Indiana University. He studies the politics of higher education. “Now, it’s a lifetime lock-in, an albatross you can’t escape.”

Like Angello, many recent graduates are straining under the increased weight of such an albatross.

Recently, student loan debt exceeded credit card debt, meaning that Americans now owe more on their student loans than they do their credit cards. By year’s end, student debt is on track to hit the trillion dollar mark.

While Mark Kantrowitz, who publishes the financial aid sites Fastweb.com and FinAid.org, reports that last year’s average graduate walked away with about $25,000 in debt, many juggle significantly more.

“It’s one thing to pursue your dreams, but if you’re borrowing to pursue them, you have to make sure you have a plan to pay them back,” says Kantrowitz, who reports that graduates with large amounts of debt tend to subsequently delay other life cycles -- things like buying a car and getting married, not to mention saving for retirement and eventually financing their own child’s education.

Kantrowitz is particularly alarmed by the number of students overborrowing to pay for an undergraduate degree in fields that historically don’t pay well -- majors, for instance, like theater, religious studies or art history.

But dream schools or ideal occupations aside, Kantrowitz also sees recent graduates encountering a harsh reality once they enter the job market. Specifically, when debt at graduation exceeds their starting salary.

It’s a phenomenon of which Angello is well acquainted.

After graduating from college last May, Angello returned home to her native Rochester, N.Y., where she moved back in with her mother and worked as a server at two local restaurants in order to get by. Her mother works as an administrative assistant.

Angello, a scrupulous saver, finally moved to New York City earlier this year, where she began work as a full-time, paid intern. It pays $12.50 an hour. Her hope is that it might transition into a permanent job -- with benefits.

Currently, the bulk of Angello’s weekly paycheck goes toward splitting the rent with a roommate and a few basic utilities, but not much else. Her mother pitches in where she can, but Angello’s contribution is hardly enough to begin paying down the vast sums of student loan debt. The monthly payments on her private loans, while manageable for now, will only increase when interest rates begin rising again.

So far, while her debt has yet to fundamentally realign the direction of her eventual career path, Angello says that she’s now willing to take any permanent offer that comes her way, so long as it's in her related field, rather than hold out for the possibility of something better coming along.

“My mom has assured me that she’s not going to let me go hungry," explains Angello, during a recent lunch break. Her monthly rent is more than her mother's mortgage. "I guess what I didn’t expect is that it’d be a year later and it’d still be so difficult just to get by.”

via huffingtonpost.com

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Wi-Fi security flaw for smartphones puts your credit cards at risk | Technology | The Guardian

Wi-Fi security flaw for smartphones puts your credit cards at risk

BT Openzone and other hotspots can be easily mimicked leaving consumers vulnerable, Guardian investigation finds

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• Charles Arthur and Steve Boggan
• guardian.co.uk, Monday 25 April 2011 21.00 BST
• Article history

The Guardian tests equipment to set up fake Wi-Fi hotspots at St Pancras International station in London. Photograph: Frank Baron for the Guardian

Millions of smartphone users and BT customers who use Wi-Fi wireless internet "hotspot" connections in public are vulnerable to fraud and identity theft, a Guardian investigation has established.

In tests conducted with volunteers – to avoid breaching telecommunications and computer misuse laws – security experts were able to gather usernames, passwords and messages from phones using Wi-Fi in public places.

In the case of the best-selling Apple iPhone 4 and other smartphone handsets, the information could be harvested without the users' knowledge and even when they were not actively surfing the web if the phone was turned on.

BT, the UK's biggest provider of such hotspots with five million of its "Openzone" connections in the UK in train stations, hotels and airports, admitted that it has known of the weakness for "years" and that it is working on a permanent fix. But it has no timetable for when it might be implemented.

Using a £49 piece of communications equipment and software freely available for download from the internet, the investigation established that crooks could set up bogus Wi-Fi "gateways" to which the latest generation of mobile phones would automatically connect. Once a connection is established, all the information passing through the gateway can be either be read directly or decrypted using software that will run on a laptop.

In another test, a fake Wi-Fi hotspot invited people to "pay" for internet access with their credit card – but required them to click a box to accept terms and conditions which clearly stated "you agree we can do anything we like with your credit card details and personal logins".

A number of people entered their details. The Guardian did not retain any users' details in the experiment.

Not only could the information be used to steal identities, hijack email accounts and commit fraud but also to gather information about individuals and company employees. With the information gained in our investigation, fraudsters could have bought goods online or sent multiple e-gift vouchers worth as much as £1,000 each to pre-set email addresses. It is believed that such vouchers are already being traded by crooks over the internet.

The attack works because public Wi-Fi hotspots have no form of identification except their name, which an off-the-shelf device can mimic. Many smartphones are sold with automatic connectivity to BT's Openzone Wi-Fi hotspots to enhance the contract and reduce the load on the mobile carrier's data network from the phones, while offering faster connectivity.

Jason Hart, chief executive of the security company Cryptocard in Europe, said: "An O2 iPhone will automatically connect, because BT Openzone connectivity is usually part of the package for free internet access. It will pass over its credentials and because it can see the internet through the hotspot, it will start sending and receiving data."

BT, which boasts of having 2.5 million Wi-Fi hotspots available to its 5 million broadband customers said: "This hack is known as 'Evil Twin' and has been known to the industry and others for some years."

The company is working with the Wireless Broadband Alliance, an industry group which aims to help hotspot providers deliver a "reliable and trustworthy" service, to introduce a security system known as 802.1x, which forces detailed authorisation when devices connect. But it is not clear whether the devices themselves will be able to detect fake hotspots.

Apple, manufacturer of the top-selling iPhone series, declined to comment. O2 did not respond to requests for comment.

BT broadband customers who agree to allow a part of their Wi-Fi bandwidth to be used publicly are, in turn, allowed to use the Wi-Fi of other subscribers. The resultant Wi-Fi community is called BT Fon and utilises wireless routers – boxes which broadcast the Wi-Fi signals – in people's homes. BT Openzone users have to provide usernames and passwords. Subscribers may use both services through their smartphones. On the first use anywhere, they must give a username and password – but after that, their phones forever hunt out hotspots with the names "BT Fon" and "BT Openzone" hotspots automatically, and will join them.

Stuart Hyde, the Association of Chief Police Officers' lead on e-crime prevention, said: "We became aware of the potential for criminals to use Wi-Fi in this way last year and have become increasingly concerned. All they need is to set themselves up in a public place with a laptop and a mobile router called 'BTOpenzone' or 'Free Wifi' and unsuspecting members of the public come along and connect to them.

"Once that happens, there is software out there that enables them to gather usernames and passwords for each site a user signs in to while surfing the net. And once criminals have access to your email accounts, Facebook account, Amazon history and so on, the potential for fraud and identity theft is very serious indeed.

"Until there are improvements in security, I would advise people to be very wary indeed when using insecure Wi-Fi in public places."

Professor Peter Sommer, a cyber-security expert at the London School of Economics, said: "This is all very alarming. It means that literally millions of people who use Wi-Fi in public could be at risk. If criminals are able to harvest the usernames and passwords of all the websites you visit, they could do significant damage in terms of identity theft and fraud.

"The safest route for existing users of mobile phones, particularly if they use BT Fon or Openzone, is to switch off their Wi-Fi when they leave home and only use it on systems they know to be secure – such as at home or at work. Everywhere else you use Wi-Fi – whether in a coffee shop, an airport, a railway station and especially out in the street – you are taking a calculated risk."

The experiment: how we set up 'evil twin'

Experts commissioned by the Guardian conducted two exploits to demonstrate how crooks could cash in on bogus Wi-Fi gateways. In the first, Jason Hart set up his mobile Wi-Fi router, the size of a cigar packet, at St Pancras International station in London and soon saw half a dozen smartphones try to connect to it.

Only the phones of our volunteers were allowed to connect. Because modern smartphones regularly "push" email and other updates automatically, they sent the owners' usernames, passwords and messages through the bogus BT Wi-Fi gateway, in one case while the phone was in a volunteer's pocket. Free software downloaded from the internet was then used to decrypt and display the information on a computer attached to the router.

The Guardian is withholding details of this software, but was shown details of its workings, which uses the power of modern graphics chips to decode encrypted data.

For the second exploit, Adam Laurie, director of Aperture Labs Ltd, demonstrated how bogus Wi-Fi gateways can be used to harvest credit card numbers. He established a fake paid-for gateway with its own website at Waterloo station. Users are allowed on to a gateway web page but must pay to use it to access the internet.

First they must provide their name and credit card details – including the CCV security code on the back and the expiry date – and agree to a terms and conditions policy. Our usage policy warned potential subscribers that it provided no protection for their private information. Incredibly, during a 30-minute period in the station, three people agreed to the terms and conditions and tried to log on and provide credit card details. To avoid breaching the law, Laurie rejected all these approaches.

via guardian.co.uk

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Window Garden Planter

Window Garden Planter

Utilizing Rubbermaid containers for planters

 

 

Rubbermaid Roughneck Hi-Top 54-Gallon Storage Box

Product Height (in.) : 21.5
Product Length (in.) : 42.5 in
Product Width (in.) : 18.6 in

Model # FG3A05H2MICBL

Store SKU # 801975

Price $20 each

Home Depot has them here

 

This setup utilized 6 containers and 20 bags of potting soil place in front of a large south facing window

 

For drainage use a 1/4 inch drill in these locations

 

This rubbermaid container works ideal in these locations so the water does not pool at the bottom

 

The lid then works as a perfect drain pan

 

Fits perfectly underneath the planter

 

Each container held 3 1/3 bags of 1.5 cu ft of potting soil

 

The handles have holes so you want to be just below the handles

 

Planters now ready to be planted with seeds

 

 

Each planter now has approximately 11 to 12 inches depth of soil

Plant seeds in 3 rows 5 inches apart (20 inch width divided by 4 sections equals 5 inches)

 

 

Results from planting on 03-11-2011

 

03-19-2011

 

 

03-25-2011

 

 

04-01-2011

 

 

04-13-2011

 

Ready to eat

 

 

via dreamhillresearch.com

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Should You Outsource Your Social Media Efforts?

7 days ago by Leyl Master Black 0

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This post originally appeared on the American Express OPEN Forum, where Mashable regularly contributes articles about leveraging social media and technology in small business.

According to a recent MerchantCircle survey of 8,500 small businesses across the U.S., more than two-thirds of small merchants are using social media to market their business. At the same time, one-third of these companies say that lack of time and resources is their top online marketing challenge. Together, these two data points underscore a growing need for social media support among small businesses.
 
But hiring a social media consultant may not be as straightforward as hiring other types of professional service providers, such as a web designer or an accountant. For one, you may not be clear on the value or immediate impact of social media relative to other marketing channels. You might already be handling this yourself and aren’t sure if it makes sense to get help. And unlike one-off projects such as a website redesign or tax preparation, social media support is typically an ongoing monthly expense.
 
Here are four questions to consider when deciding whether to outsource your social media:

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1. Can effective social media drive your business growth?

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Randa Yezak of Southern Jewlz spends three hours per day on social media sites.

Just like with any other marketing effort, it’s important to look at the potential impact of social media on your business goals before investing time and money in the process.
 
For some small business owners, social media is the lifeblood of their business and warrants the time investment. Randa Yezak, founder of women’s apparel company Southern Jewlz, spends at least three hours a day on social media marketing. 
 
“I have a young clientele that utilizes Facebook all day, every day,” says Yezak. ”When updating between my Facebook, online store or e-mail list, Facebook is always first!” This approach has helped Yezak grow her fan base to over 11,000 Facebook users.
 
But while investing in social media might make sense for an online merchant or local restaurant, a small tax preparation service or local plumber may have more difficulty justifying the time and effort. These businesses may get a better return on their time and money by ensuring that their business shows up in online searches, or by engaging with customers for positive reviews.

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2. How well is your social media working today?

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Assuming that social media is important for your business, chances are you’re already engaging and seeing some results. You’re posting regular updates, you’re connecting with fans and followers and you’re getting creative with your social marketing. Some small business owners strike the right chord from the start and see their social media fan base skyrocket, and they want to continue driving this on their own.

  Yezak attributes a big part of her social media success to the personal connection she creates with her customers.

  “The majority of my customers are just like me. I’m a 23-year-old business owner with a funky boutique, so I always make everything sound really fun and sassy,” says Yezak. “I have not justified hiring a consultant yet, because I like to stay up-to-date with Facebook myself.”

  For many business owners, though, it can be tough to continually come up with new ideas and programs to engage fans on their own. It’s also not easy to keep up with the ever-evolving capabilities of Facebook and Twitter — and stay on top of new third-party tools and features — and still have time to run your business.  

  An experienced social media marketing consultant has the advantage of thinking about social media 24/7 — with multiple clients, they’re also sharing the cost of staying ahead of the curve. They not only know what works, but they also have the luxury of experimenting and trying new things with different clients. 

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3. Could outsourcing free up your time to focus on business operations?

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Consultant Kesten Migdal works with PROBAR on its social media programs.

While there are many ways to find efficiencies in your social media efforts, the fact remains that effective social media takes time. You need to respond quickly to fan queries and thank people for their retweets and posts. You need to monitor your social media channels for complaints and immediately attend to these. And these are just the basics — actually engaging, growing and monetizing your fan base can take several hours a day or more.

  Even if you’re pretty savvy when it comes to social media, you wear many hats as a business owner… and you probably want to have a life outside of work. For some businesses, the choice to outsource social media comes down to the relative value of their time.

  “A big part of our growth will come from new product development and expanding distribution channels, and this takes a lot of dedicated focus. At the same time, we want to make sure that we’re building a thriving community, engaging customers and broadening awareness of our products,” says Trisha Layton, marketing coordinator at PROBAR. “We believe we get much more leverage on our time by focusing on the things that we can’t outsource and working with trusted partners in areas where a consultant can be just as effective, such as social media.”

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4. How do you measure ROI?

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The costs for social media support can vary widely — some social media consultants charge a flat fee per month for an agreed-upon scope of work, while others charge by the hour, at rates varying from $50 to $100 or more per hour. Whatever the cost, the bar for success will be set much higher when you’re actually paying someone to do it. Make sure you’ve established some measurable goals to ensure that your social media spending is moving the needle for your business.

  Examples of common social goals and ways to measure these include:
 

• Fan base growth: Hitting 1,000 fans or followers over a set period of time
• Customer acquisition: Getting 50 redemptions per campaign on social media offers
• Support of direct marketing: Adding 200 names to your e-mail database per month
• Engagement: Achieving 20% participation by your fan base (e.g. Facebook “likes” and comments)

What went into your decision to outsource your social media or keep it in-house?  Let us know in the comments!

via mashable.com

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More Bills to Criminalize Naturopathy | Health Freedom Alliance

More Bills to Criminalize Naturopathy

Submitted by Lois Rain on April 15, 2011 – 4:58 pmOne Comment

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Medical Monopoly is becoming a more finely tuned machine every day. It is no coincidence that other states are suddenly creating bills to criminalize naturopathic practices and other holistic modalities like ayurvedic, midwifery, aromatherapy, and more. Gaia-Health highlights news from the National Health Federation that provides full information on Nevada’s new bill SB 412 where practicing alternative health services without proper licensing and official approval is a felony. Below is information about the most recent state bill to show up on the radar.

Additionally, Marti Oakley of PPJ Gazette online writes about taking a closer look at North Carolina’s broadly written SB31 and other such acts NC has in production. It is very telling of their persistence in circumventing the people, and keeping the agenda rolling. When SB31 wasn’t meeting their end due to the backlash and necessity to rewrite, they simply introduced three more like bills: SB 467 Naturopathic Licensing Act (Hartsell, R-Cabarrus), HB 522 Midwifery Licensing Act ( Human Services Committee), and HB 847 Naturopathic Doctors Licensing Act

When Oakley started researching the NC bills, she found that nearly every state was introducing like bills simultaneously. A pattern emerges: broadly written, no clear statements of legislative intent – leaving things wide open to interpretation, lack of definition, i.e. “what is medicine,” and making that which is unregistered, unlicensed, and unapproved by “officials” criminal.

Both sources highlight the role of Codex Alimentarius which can’t fully be in place here if all states aren’t behind its regulatory wings. Oakley writes, “What is apparent is that it is the first step in implementing various aspects of Codex Alimentarius which excludes any health practice not listed in the Codex. Codex specifically targets and intends to end the use of alternative therapies and also vitamins and supplements.”

Think puffed up profits from synthetic “natural” medicine and more revenue collected from licensing fees and required “education” to satisfy bureaucratic boards. In other words, natural practitioners can’t serve clients, and you won’t have any freedom in choice of health care. For how can a natural health practitioner truly practice when it must now enter a contract that strictly abides by Codex guidelines?

If you have any information about such bills developing in your state, please email tips@healthfreedoms.org. Please try to include bill number if possible and a link to the bill or source article. We will compile them and be on the watch so that everyone is aware of their current state legislation regarding natural health care.

~Health Freedoms

Nevada Plans to Make Practicing Natural Medicine Without Official Sanction a Felony

The National Health Federation asks us to oppose the Nevada bill that wants to make practicing natural medicine without a license a felony. It’s yet another attack on our right to choose how we manage our health.

by the National Health Federation

The National Health Federation is the only agency that represents the interests of natural medicine and non-corporate-controlled medicine on Codex Alimentarius. They have put out an urgent call to action on behalf of the people of Nevada to save natural medicine from the clutches of government bureaucracy. Here’s what they have to say:

The Bill—Nevada Senate Bill 412 (SB 412) provides for the regulation of the practice of complementary integrative medicine by creating a government-sanctioned Board of Complementary and Integrative Medicines to control all natural health care, backed by the power of the State to imprison and fine all offenders. Just imagine when, as with other such medical boards, the power seekers and control freaks who naturally gravitate to positions of power in government come to have the say over what type of natural medicine may be practiced and what type may not. Will your favorite form of natural medicine survive? Or will it be branded a heresy and persecuted? It does not take a rocket scientist to see that this Bill is the road to ruin for all of those creative natural health practitioners who refu se to conform. This Board is just a not-so-clever attempt to create and enforce a monopoly that will end up strangling CAM practice.

SB 412 must be defeated or amended to protect natural health and its practitioners.

This legislation would put alternative practitioners of Nevada in serious jeopardy of felony fines and imprisonment for practicing complementary and integrative medicine that does not fit within the proposed Board’s licensing requirements and “accepted” practices. It is intended to define all natural healers and have them tested and/or approved by conventional doctors. There will be no grandfathering, no CEU (continuing education unit) for practicing licensees (under the Drugless Practitioner status), and it will make practicing any form of complementary health care a felony if the practitioner is not licensed.

Alarmingly, to become a “licensed” Complementary Integrative Physician under this proposed law, an applicant would have had to attend medical school or have “received an equivalent education satisfactory to the Board.” He or she must also be “of good moral character”; and we all know how other medical boards have used that requirement to persecute innocent practitioners. In short, the bill gives the Board great powers to set the bar at whatever level it wants to screen out unwanted alternative practitioners.

This is the Medical Monopoly at its finest, acting to stifle their competition and those they disagree with, the natural-health practitioners, all in the interest of course of “protecting” the public. This Bill would criminalize victimless conduct. After all, there should be no penalty at all – even a misdemeanor penalty – unless someone has been actually harmed and such harm has been proven in a court of law. This Bill is typical government overkill and completely unnecessary. Besides, the cost to the State of Nevada, once they create the Board and then try to license all these practitioners, will be far greater and more troublesome than they anticipate. In the end, as attractive as it might seem now to have a “stamp of approval by the State,” the Board will become just another costly, rigid, and loathed government agency, out of touch with reality.

Where This Bill Stands Now

The Bill is in the Senate Committee (Commerce, Labor & Energy) and is to be heard on Friday, April 15th, just two days from now.

National Health Federation: Established in 1955, the National Health Federation is a consumer-education, health-freedom organization working to protect individuals’ rights to choose to consume healthy food, take supplements and use alternative therapies without unnecessary government restrictions. The NHF is the only such organization with recognized observer-delegate status at Codex meetings. www.thenhf.com.

Link to original article at the NHF.

Editor’s Note [Gaia-Health]: The NHF is trying to get the word out on this. It’s critical that everyone respond to their call—unless you want to see natural medicine become as rigidly controlled and limited as allopathy has become. At this time, any doctor who tries to act outside the mainstream is at great risk of losing his or her license to practice. The NHF’s description of a Natural Medicine Board becoming “just another costly, rigid, and loathed government agency, out of touch with reality” must be avoided—or we can kiss our most basic freedom, the right to manage our own health, goodbye.

My only quibble with the NHF’s commentary is that I do not believe that amending such a bill is adequate. Once the door has been opened to this sort of regulation, it can only become more and more grinding, until the entity being managed is destroyed. That’s a big part of what has happened to allopathic medicine. Don’t let it happen to natural medicine, too! [Emphasis added]

Sources:

http://gaia-health.com/articles401/000438-nevada-natural-medicine.shtml

http://www.activistpost.com/2011/04/north-carolina-not-only-state-trying-to.html

via healthfreedoms.org

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