So many of you may remember that I had my credit card compromised over the Christmas holiday and the culprit drained my checking account dry at a online poker site. Although I was able to get all my money back, I learned alot.

Don’t use your debit card for online transactions.

I am still not sure how or where my card was compromised, although I have a suspision that it was from an online music retailer based in the soviet union – just a hunch.

So I have since stopped using my credit cards for any online transactions. I have however signed up for a PayPal credit card. It’s a MasterCard that uses the funds directly from my PayPal account.

This protects my personal bank accounts and I’m still covered through MC if my PayPal account gets compromised. So protect them credit cards people. Iif you aren’t into PayPal, just get a credit card that you only use for online purchases.

How much time do you spend wilfing?

A survey shows that millions of Britons are wasting swaths of their lives surfing the web without any real purpose.The research by YouGov found that seven in ten of Britain’s 34 million users fall into the habit of Wilfing — What Was I Looking For? — both at work and at home. One in four internet users spends nearly a third of internet time Wilfing — equivalent to spending an entire working day a fortnight randomly browsing the net.

Men are much more likely to be Wilfers than women. A third of them said that the habit had damaged their relationships with partners. One in five men was “distracted” from work or study by adult entertainment or sex websites.

Jason Lloyd said: “Our study shows that although people log on with a purpose, they are now being offered so much choice and online distraction that many forget what they are there for, and spend hours aimlessly Wilfing instead.

(Not to be confused with Milfing – which is a whole other thing)

So the latest Global Warming report is out and the results are consistant with what most reasonable/rationable people believe. WE’RE SCREWED unless we start to act. Whats interesting is that this report is written by hundreds of scientisits from many different countries (not just the US, people!). The other interesting fact is that it’s getting very little press here in the US. White House pressure on news media not to report it? Nah!

Rising global temperatures could melt Latin America’s glaciers within 15 years, cause food shortages affecting 130-million people across Asia by 2050 and wipe out Africa’s wheat crop, according to a U.N. report released Tuesday.

The report, written and reviewed by hundreds of scientists, outlined dramatic effects of climate change including rising sea levels, the disappearance of species and intensifying natural disasters. It said 30 percent of the world’s coastlines could be lost by 2080.

Scientists with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change outlined details of the report in news conferences around the world Tuesday, four days after they released a written summary of their findings.

Read the full article here

So you think you know your guitar players? Yeah?

Well here is a little quiz where you match the name with the picture.

I scored 42/50

Interesting New York Times article that claims as the CD killed the 7″ single, the digital music revolution is bringing it back and redefining the music industry.

The major labels wanted to kill the single. Instead they killed the album. The association wanted to kill Napster. Instead it killed the compact disc. And today it’s not just record stores that are in trouble, but the labels themselves, now belatedly embracing the Internet revolution without having quite figured out how to make it pay.

The days of the music store is long gone. If you need a physical CD – they are available at every WalMart/Target/Gas Station.

Read entire article here