In an old game, Shadowrun, IC were virtual reality Intrusion Countermeasures players used to fend off hacks and attacks. No one said at the time, Ha! I’m a Mac, you can’t touch me. But that’s what tons of users are doing in real life today and there’s bad news dumping by the metric ton out the pipes about MacHacks.
More... 6 May 2011
The IC Man Cometh to Mac Computers Link
21 January 2011
Modern Network Neutrality: Fight the Copper Internet
Before 2005, Network Neutrality was less popular in daily vernacular and not pumped so voraciously through the Blog-o-sphere and was understood more commonly as forcing a distinction between websites and services based on packets of information (that all sites send and receive) whose total measure was in excess of some undefined average.
Nothing is messier than arguing a term that changed definition completely – today, people just aren’t sure if they’re for or against it. Today, Net Neutrality is defined as absolute non-discrimination…
More... 2 July 2008
Dinarius Cancels Kontera For-Webmasters
To say Kontera’s contextual advertising is a scam is not accurate. It’s is a thorough disappointment. If you’re considering placing script that manages contextual advertising or already do, please consider the following, balanced arguments against Kontera Technologies service.
28 May 2008
Web 2.0 Bubble Trembling. Special-Section
The danger of Web 2.0’s collapse first became clear to me with an unpublished article entitled My Dear John To Web 2.0 In it are examinations of the mentality that has returned Mystery Meat Navigation to the forefront of site design. The height of this absurdity is Microsoft’s desire to be the first Operating System that the next one BILLION computer users see. In a move that is completely at odds with this welcoming ease-of-use is Windows Vista’s utter lack of a “Start” button. Only if you already have familiarity with the product do you know that the Windows Logo is actually the old Start button.
22 August 2006
Online To Nowhere For-Computer-Users
8.22 – A reprieve has finally arrived for Travel Agents. Even though it seems to have taken ages for it to happen, the Internet watering hole of Travel Planning websites has been invaded by scoundrels. The highest profile bust to date came over the weekend in London. A thirty-something female with brains but no morals, is alleged to have conned more than three thousand people out of money by offering planned vacations (holidays) and running with the money.
HolidayDaysForUnder200Pounds.com was re-registered today as were the fraudulent sister-sites: UnbeatableHolidays.com, SunMedResorts.com, and HolidayRez.com. HolidayEZ.com, however, is still active as of this posting. It resembles one of those crappy search pages that have been known to appear on the displays of high-jacked computers. It comes complete with a pop-up that our machines blocked and we recommend you not explore.
“The Association of British Travel Agents (ABTA) has warned people to be careful about buying trips online. The organisation [sic] advises people to check it own Web site or that of other affiliated organisations [sic once more] like ATOL – (Air Travel Organisers’ [sic – it’s the British spelling, okay?] Licensing to make sure any holiday firm is bona fide.” – This is quoted from Reuters.
The simple request, “find online travel agency,” delivers “about 99,100,000” results in 0.23 seconds. You may agree that this is a disgusting number of results. Interestingly, Travelocity.com comes in at number one over Expedia although it’s Internet rating is 303 against Expedia’s better rating of 212. Before Google lists Expedia in the results, FunJet and AppleVacations appear to the searching surfer.
On travel scams, CruiseCritic.com and HomeBasedTravelAgent.com and TravelSense.org offer further stories and advise about avoiding and identifying scams. The main theme is that if it seems too good to be true, it often is.
But then there are sites offering trips to New York and Las Vegas starting at $70. There are combination packages at unheard of low prices. What’s a traveler to do? You can verify most anything on the Internet with a quick visit to any number of sites including www.dot.gov for air travel, www.ahma.com for the American Hotel and Motel Association, www.arda.org for time-share stuff per the American Resort Development Association, www.fmc.gov for the Federal Maritime Commission to do with cruise ships and www.ASTAnet.com for the American Society of Travel Agents.
Protect yourself as you would protect several hundred of your hard-earned dollars. If Google search results are any indication, other online travel services are coming up loudly to compete with Expedia and Travelocity quickly. Scams are either mixed in or not far behind. By the way, ASTA (like ASTAnet.com above) also happens to be the old name of a favorite resort of ours in Barbados. We got great rates to it; if you’re interested, blindly send $1237 to Dinarius.com and we’ll get back to you. We’ll tell Elvis (really) to make you a cozy table on the patio.
| DINARIUS Bryan's old Digital Interest blog |
