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Messy, Messy, Messy

07
May 2010

I realized this morning that my online life was very very messy. It took a phone call from my website’s abuse department, which was a scary phone call before 9 a.m. (although this phone call would be scary at any time).

Apparently, someone took advantage of my messy online life and created some very authentic looking web pages in order to phish account information from unsuspecting people. The pages appeared on my web site. They wanted to know if I could please delete the offending files. They were actually pretty nice about it, and the default setting wasn’t “You are guilty” but “You are a victim too.” Whew.

The suggestion was that if I was hosting a blog, my blog application was out of date, which would make my site vulnerable. I immediately logged into my blog and confirmed that I was using the latest application.

It wasn’t until I opened up the screenshot sent to me as well as my FTP that I realized it wasn’t my current blog that was the problem. It was one that I still had that was now just a redirect to the current blog. I hadn’t logged into that blog account since I combined all of my blogs into one spot and changed the name to Digital Rhetoric. And that meant that blog’s software wasn’t updated to the latest and greatest.

When I first did the redirect, I deleted all of my FTP and photo and teaching blog stuff, which left a messy “file not found” problem for the pages within those blogs. And that is when I realized I could just use a redirect, so that is what I did for my lindasherwood.com blog. And it was the lindasherwood.com blog that phishers used to create the fake pages.

The first email notifying me of the problem was sent to me at 11 a.m. yesterday. Of course, I hadn’t read my email yet. If I hadn’t got the phone call this morning, I’m not sure I would have realized it today. Or more likely, I wouldn’t have realized it until after I left the house and didn’t have the means to fix it until I returned home later today.

And as I was going through my various files for lindasherwood.com, I realized that the background stuff of my web site is very very messy. I installed WordPress in 2009, and I made my site function using blog software then. Before that, I had a regular web site with lots of pages, and you can still see some of those pages by typing the URL directly: www.lindasherwood.com/portfolio.html I had forgotten that web site version was even still available! And most of the links still work.

So, in an effort to clean up my website, I have deleted a bunch of files this morning. And in doing so, I made my main page, lindasherwood.com not work. I’ll fix it later. The important part is that I also got rid of the phishing pages.

This is also why my site’s main page: lindasherwood.com isn’t working right now.

And here is a couple of links about phishing that was sent to me by my hosting site’s abuse department:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phishing
http://www.antiphishing.org/

Have you cleaned up your website lately?

Category: Freelance Writing Tips, Web/Tech, Weblogs  Tags: , ,  Comments off

Cellular Confessions

05
Apr 2010

My two-year contract is expiring for our cell phones, and I have been shopping for new phones and trying to figure out the best deal since I will soon have two texting cell-phone carrying teenagers.

I remember a few years ago when I was shocked to learn 7th graders carry cell phones, but I realize it makes MY life so much easier when I can reach my 9th grader and 10th grader when I want to and need to, and since my 7th grader is staying after school for practice or going away to an away game I won’t be attending, her carrying a cell phone makes sense although I am not yet convinced any of my children need them to be permanent appendages.

But this isn’t really about the kids. It is about me. I have a new toy cell phone, and it is so much more than a phone. In fact, it is so much more than a phone, I do not yet know how to do everything with it.

I am happy to report that the built-in flashlight on my new phone came in very handy the other day when we lost power.

I am not so happy to report that I’m still not sure how to use the internet/email features on the phone, and while they sound great in theory (and cheaper than the $60 a month for the USB internet thingy), I am not yet convinced they will work for what I need. That is, I don’t need them until I do, and when I do, I need them to be easy to use.

I did not get the latest and greatest phone out there because I didn’t need my first phone to have all of the bells and whistles. (That is, I do not have a Droid or an iPhone, and I wouldn’t have an iPhone because I hate AT&T.) I do have a Samsung Omnia.

I must admit I picked this phone because it had one of the best cell phone cameras I’ve seen with 5.0 megapixels and a built-in flash instead of the normal 2 or 3 without a flash. Apparently, I was shopping for cameras instead of phones.

It took me a bit to figure out how to even get the phone features working. The new phone is a touch screen, and I am working on figuring it all out like how to access my voicemail.

I am also trying to figure out how to handle my children calling the home phone from their cell phone to tell me something when they are still in the same house as I am. And why my child feels the need to send me a text that says, “Just waking up” when I actually see her walking around before I see the text message.

My phone has Word and Excel and Power Point on it, but I have not yet used them (interpret this as I have not yet figured out how to use them).

I have figured out the camera features (I have priorities).

And for a while, I have to carry my old phone and my new phone because unlike most people, I could NOT transfer my old number to my new carrier. This involves the FCC and anti-competition laws, and it is way too complicated to explain, but it happens even in this new “take your number with you” environment. And technically, my new carrier owns my old carrier, but eventually my new carrier will sell off my old carrier because of those fair trade laws. And if you understood that, maybe it wasn’t too complicated to explain.

So, right now, I know my phone can do a lot of cool things, but that I don’t know how to do most of them. I do, however, know how to take a picture, video, make a phone call, send a text message, and use the flashlight. The rest should come with time and need.

Later today, I may even attempt to make my first mobile post to Facebook. Or maybe not.

Category: Life with Linda  Tags: , , ,  Comments off

Costly Mistake

21
Mar 2010

I just realized today that when I was switching all of my financial information, I neglected to switch the information with my web site hosting, and I lost the hosting to my blog, Fat Man’s Daughter. Everything was deleted, and I didn’t have it backed up. I might find some of it, but I am not sure.

I should have known better!

At this point, I am not going to do anything. I think I am ready for a new blog design, and I might look into that this next week. I also want to rethink what I am doing. Right now, I have about four different blogs, and I have been neglecting all of them. I may try to switch to just one blog with various categories that covers everything. First, though, I have to find a new blog design that I like.

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Financial Fraud

09
Mar 2010

(and I can’t write anything here because everything I think of is a swear word, and I try not to swear on my blog.)

In the last month, I have had to close my checking account and open a new one due to fraudulent activity. It could have been a nightmare, but my bank had a program in place, and it was still a nightmare, but it was less of a nightmare than it could have been.

And just when everything was looking GOOD, I had a typo, and I tried to transfer $10,000 from my account to my daughter’s Paypal debit card instead of the $10.00 I intended to transfer. IN my defense, this transaction did not offer me a confirmation page to ask “Are you sure you want to be that generous,” and I could have responded, “NO!!! Are you insane? This is the same child who eats everything that is remotely good and is secretly scarfing down the GOOD coffee cream.”

But the confirmation screen didn’t ask, and much like my teenage daughter, it just took the money that does not actually exist in that account. And when I called Paypal immediately, I was told 1) They can’t stop the transaction and 2) There is ALWAYS a confirmation screen.

Those people (I spoke to two men) are LIARS!

A different (direct) number to Paypal connected me to someone who stopped the insane transaction within 5 minutes, and I was thankful. The last thing I needed was more checking account drama.

I have had the drama, and it is almost over. When faced with fraud, my bank did help me. (And this was fraud and not stupidity and/or fat fingers.) Somehow, the bank hooked up my old account and my new account, and things that were supposed to go to the new account form the old one would get there eventually.

Originally, the bank lady told me it would take one business day for this transfer to happen. And I learned (once again) that banks do math and calendars differently than everyone else in the world. Because it actually takes two business days. It takes an entire day before it even shows up in a place where the banker (but not me) can see it, and it takes another day after that before it ends up in the right place.

Apparently, everything going into the old account is rejected at first and then sits in bank purgatory until my banker can see it and move it to where it needs to go, and THAT trip takes another business day.

A single business day sounds reasonable. But that means deposits made on Friday can’t be rescued from purgatory until the following Monday and won’t be in my account until Tuesday.

This makes it difficult to do things like pay bills, put gas in the vehicles, etc.

But it could have been worse. It could have been that everything was rejected, and it would then be weeks and months before things were put right. This was my fear, and in comparison, my nightmare is pretty mild.

But it was still a nightmare.

This week? Things are supposed to have SWITCHED and go directly into the new account without any purgatory time. I hope it is true.

I also hope that my new checks arrive soon. (And I can’t believe that after all of the problems I had last time I ordered checks that I had to do it again so SOON and all of those other checks had to be thrown away. Sniff).

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The Family Techie

17
Feb 2010

…or why I know the Philippines doesn’t like “Valentine’s Day” the movie.

My in-laws made an unexpected stop at our house on Valentine’s Day to deliver the children’s gifts and to make use of their family techie — me.

I was spending a wonderful Valentine’s day napping on the couch while Hubby sat next to me watching the Daytona 500. We know how to be romantic.

Anywho, the in-laws had bought a new Tracfone and wanted my assistance. The father-in-law wanted a phone with a camera in order to snap photos of his fish while ice fishing. Swapping fish photos by phone is a big event in my extended family.

My boy was very upset to learn he would have to give up my computer so I could use it to log onto tracfone.com.

I went through the various information, filling in things and recording serial numbers from the old phone and the new phone, and I had it all set to transfer the phone number and minutes to the new phone. In fact, the internet said it had worked. (My father-in-law would point out the internet didn’t SAY anything. I had to read it.)

I was instructed to turn the phone off and on rapidly and then wait 15 minutes. I did. The phone number showed up on the new phone, but the minutes were missing. I waited some more, shutting off both phones, but nothing happened.

And then I called customer service. The lady I spoke to was very nice. She spoke very clearly, which is a good thing when it comes to customer service, but I could tell she wasn’t a native English speaker.

I talked to this woman for a long time. Most of the time our conversation went like this:

HER: Can I put you on hold for 3 minutes?

ME: Yes.

HER: OK. I put you on hold for 3 minutes. OK?

ME: Yes.

HER: OK, I have to contact another department, and I put you on hold.

ME: OK.

(Finally, I am put on hold. Three minutes pass.)

HER: I still talking to other department. Can I put you on hold?

ME: Yes.

HER: OK, I put you on hold for three minutes.

ME: OK.

You can just TELL this was fascinating conversation. As I remained on hold, life passed around me. My hubby and the kids and his parents all talked and watched the race and the pavement deteriorated, and I was on hold.

Once in a while, I would have to go to various menus on the phone and tell the operator about various results, but mostly it was me waiting and every three minutes agreeing to remain on hold.

At one point, the customer service rep was waiting for her supervisor to come to where she was working. The supervisor must have been a LONG way away because the customer rep started asking me off-topic questions.

HER: Happy Valentine’s Day!

ME: Happy Valentine’s Day to you too.

HER: Are you doing anything special?

ME: No.

HER: Me either (obviously since she was working).

ME: Hmmm.

HER: What movies there?

ME: What?

HER: (and she asked very strangely, and I didn’t understand.)

HER: (clarifying) Movie “Valentine’s Day.” Is it playing there?

ME: Yes.

HER: Did you see it?

ME: No.

HER: I did, but I didn’t like it. (and at this point she launched into a movie review.)

(And the people in the living room with me starting looking at me like I was on crack because I was discussing Valentine’s Day and movies when I was supposed to be updating the TRACFONE for my in-laws.)

HER: Lots of little stories… big actor names… Julia Roberts…too good of actors to be in this bad movie….

ME: (responded appropriately, I actually enjoyed her review.)

HER: My supervisor isn’t here yet. What’s there? (I was confused but I figured out she was asking me what other movies were playing in the theater here.)

ME: The Lightning Thief. (I had to repeat this a couple of times. Apparently I am not as easy to understand to her as she was to me.)

HER: Here too. (and she seemed surprised). I’m in Philippines. (We also discussed what it costs to see a movie.)

ME: (conversation continued and the supervisor finally showed up and I was put on hold a couple of times and then before I knew it she was saying goodbye).

HER: Everything will be there in 15 minutes. Thank you for being a Tracfone customer and thank you for being such a good customer to me today.

ME: Wait. What? It’s done? I don’t have to do anything?

HER: Yes. (We ended the call.)

I waited 15 minutes. 30 minutes, and there were NO minutes.

I called customer service back. This time the person answering wasn’t as easy to understand. He put me on hold several times (every 3 minutes) and didn’t offer any movie reviews. We made it through, and I figured out his 8 sounds like a, but by the end of it, my father-in-law’s minutes had transferred to his new phone.

And it only took me almost three hours to do it. The good news is that I didn’t realize it was almost 3 hours because I was kept entertained. ;-)

It was refreshing to have a nice person willing to go off the normal script. Plus it was SO worth it to get the reaction of my family when they heard me talking about Valentine’s Day and movies.

And the very next day, I had to make a house call for my in-laws. My mother-in-law had purchased new cordless phones. When she was trying to figure out the directory feature, she switched the language to Spanish and couldn’t figure out how to get it back to English. That went much smoother. ;-)

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