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It looks like my favorite comedy duo, JV and Elvis, have split up. Who knows what the future will bring, but JV has committed to still doing the internet thing on the side. It is very clear that the way Dog House FM has been broadcasting for the past few months is the future of entertainment on the Internet. Unfortunately without the duo, with JV looking for full time employment there will probably be some other group that will make multimedia broadcasting a household name.

I wish nothing but the best for our boys, and hope they continue in the entertainment field.

The other day I was at a T-Mobile hotspot. I used to have an account, but couldn’t remember it. I have various standard usernames and did a password recovery on one. I was prompted for my city of birth, which I entered and I was allowed in. It turns out that the person who owned the account had two things in common with me, Username and city of birth.

I quickly noticed that I had logged into the wrong account when T-Mobile logged me in and said “Welcome SomebodyElsesName”. I looked at the contact info, logged into Gmail and wrote an e-mail to the owner of the account to let him know his new password and that the whole thing was an accident. He was very understanding and thanked me for behaving this way.

Just thought I’d bring some attention to this problem. As more of us go on-line, this is something that is going to happen more often as time goes by unless companies wise up and require some form of verification before allowing password recovery. If T-Mobile logged me in for 30 minutes and made me confirm by entering a code sent to my e-mail account, this wouldn’t be such a serious problem.

I recently ordered a Kurobox. This thing is a low powered computer that can run Linux. So far I’ve not done much with it, aside from installing Debian. So far so good.

I hope to test out some neat features with it, such as using it as my dedicated file and print server for the home. My regular desktop has a 500 watt power supply and the electricity costs for a 24×7 file and print server at home isn’t that bad, but a penny saved is a penny earned.

I got hit with credit card fraud after using a site online. My Girlfriend is against mined diamonds, she saw Blood Diamond and came to the conclusion that she doesn’t want to contribute to the whole diamond economy. After seeing an advertisement for lab diamonds in the LA Times, she asked me to get her a pair of earrings from Diamond Essence for $50. I said sure, and performed my regular due diligence before putting my CC online. I first Google’d the name for horror stories, followed by checking of the SSL Certificate, and then checking the CRL for revocation. All looked good, so I put my card in.

The next day I wake up to a phone call from my credit card company asking about weird charges. I had been hit with 2K worth of charges that had been declined by the CC Company as possibly fraudulent. Only $10 actually went through. Not sure of where this came from but suspecting Diamond Essence, I decided to try again. This time using a one time use Virtual Debit card from Paypal. I checked out, and entered the card number in. The next day I woke up to a ton of declined charges for my account. I gave Diamond Essence a call to inform them of this and was basically told that I probably have spyware on my machine. I informed them that I had passed the “one time use” anecdote along to my bank and that they would be contacted, and reassured the manager that he had been hacked and that I had no malice in my intentions. He then said “that’s okay, we’ll deal with the bank” and we hung up.

Long story short, be careful out there. A hacked server will look completely normal to anyone but will copy the credit cards off to a hacker. An SSL Certificate only ensures that the connection from your browser to their server is secure and nothing more. Use one time use “virtual debit cards” whenever possible online, that way you can limit what damages can occur. Most hackers test cards by charging $1-10 dollar onto the card, so using virtual debit cards will usually limit how bad they get you. Good Luck, and Happy Shopping….

Recently the Sci-Fi Channel ran a Heroes marathon. After all the hype surrounding the show, I decided to give it a shot. I got sucked in. The show was pretty interesting and I await the next season.

The first TV show to suck me in during a marathon was Arrested Development. The Arrested Development marathon ended with me purchasing the three seasons to fill in the holes without ads. I probably won’t be buying the DVD’s for Heroes, as I used my TiVo to record all the episodes and fast forward through the commercials. I did, however, enjoy watching a full season in a couple of sittings. I wonder if others are getting into the “TiVo + Marathon/DVD Seasons” way of watching TV these days. . .