Technology Blog

Are you a gamer? I’m getting into that headspace again. Surprisingly I’m starting to get into MMORPG type games which surprises the heck outta me.

In any case if anyone is bored today and not quite sure what type of game you’re interested in playing during your … ahem “downtime”, check out this site that has some decent ratings of online games. I picked one that was a flash game because they tend to load quickly. Not too sure but I think I was blowing up eggplants. Who wouldn’t enjoy doing that?

Wireless security is very important for home based internet users. Although more and more people are becoming net saavy, this area is still something that’s not addressed by most people. A user connects to highspeed for the first time and their main interest is being connected and stop at making their connections more secure.

How To Secure Your Wireless Network is a comprehensive article that help guide users how to secure their connections.

While you’re at it, you might want to take a look at this contest the blogger is promoting until the end of June. The winner will receive a Wireless Router. Cool!

A few days ago I post about paid survey sites, and my experience at trying to get even $10 out of one site that was free with nothing but links to other survey sites (and so the circle jerk went). One of the sites I landed on asked for my personal info in case I was interested in “legitimate earn at home” opportunities, oh and get this… specific to CANADIANS.

Now, I’m a bit of an american-phobe when it comes to “business opps”. I have this belief (since I am Canadian) that the scams come from south of the border. SO NOT TRUE.

If you’ve ever been trapped in an Amway call, by say, a sister, a brother, a brother-in-law, an uncle, a cousin, or some other close relation, then I strongly urge you to AVOID THIS WEBSITE NOW: canadianhomebusiness dot ca. I hate their tactics so much that I absolutely refuse to give them a direct link. Considering the methods of operation and communicating is so INDIRECT, they deserve nothing from me, except this negative commentary.

I made the mistake of providing my cell phone while filling out the info for a “survey site”, completely forgetting that I’d be using my cell phone quite a bit while visiting family in Toronto. I received about 2-3 calls, one as late at 10pm EST on a Sunday from a number I didn’t recognize. Not only was it a private number, but they left no voice mail. Shortly thereafter, I received an email from these guys asking me to call them to discuss this “wonderful opportunity” blah blah blah, yadda yadda yadda, etc etc etc. No details on what the company/opportunity is actually about.

To my anger, surfing to their website was also a waste of time because once again no details are provided.

I’m reminded of the time a good friend of mine was encouraged by his work buddy to attend a “meeting”. My buddy knew I was looking for potential opportunities for self employment and suggested I give this a try. He was busy with work, but figured I could go and check it out for the both of us. His work buddy, a very nice guy and programmer was quite enthusiastic about this business “opp”. Very enthusiastic. Ok, so I bit.

The first thing I noticed when I arrived at the hotel was that there were no signs, no company logos, no brochures, no reports, not even a single page handout. In fact, the conference room sign was not labelled announcing the name of the company that had rented the room in the first place. RED FLAG #1. The next thing I noticed was my friend’s work buddy up on the podium talking about the business opportunity in very broad general terms without announcing the name of the company. RED FLAG #2.

I sat in that chair in frustration as my confidence in these characters was quickly slipping. After about another 15 minutes, the “final reveal” took place. The “opp” was for distributing skin products for none other than: NuSkin international.

I felt completely had by this guy that I was somewhat friendly with since I’d met him a few time previously. Naturally, to be polite I stayed for the entire schpeel about NuSkin, the whole time wholely aware that I was suckered into listening to these clowns talking about their obvious pyramid scheme.

Now, my opinion on MLM (multi-level-marketing) is somewhat mixed since my foray onto the internet for employment. I believe people should be rewarded when they refer other people to business opportunities. But when a scheme is almost entirely about creating sub groups or seller underneath you and the general jist about the opportunity is nothing but referring other people to your “pyramid” we might as well start talking about the circle jerk again. I’ll say this much, J. did not have any luck in recruiting me to this scheme. My hope is that he never quit his day job.

Although I mention Amway in the title of this blog, I would like to say that I did visit their website to compare it to the canadian business opp site that I went to. To my surprise Amway was very upfront about their MLM, and discussed their model of people buying products, everyone buying products from the same suppliers thus sharing the profits/savings amongst themselves. That’s pretty much the jist to most MLM’s that I’ve seen.

I think I’m done kvetching about this on my blog for now. The one site I will share directly however is this one: http://www.falseprofits.com/MLM%20Lies.html

This is a good read if you’re looking for work or if you feel like someone is trying to get you interested in an opportunity that appears too good to be true. As for me, this is just continued validation to trust me gut more and be very cautious as to what information I put out on the net.

I should pay attention more to tech news (funny considering I’m starting this blog).

I’ve been a happy Vonage customer for over a year. I’ve been an internet ‘phone’ enthusiast for 12 years. Watching the technology of voIP mature to the arena of regular use has been a dream come true. My wife and I are able to stay in touch since we live in separate countries. Vonage has saved us literally thousands of dollars in communication costs.

While I’m sure other companies will continue to spring up, I do hope that Vonage will continue. I don’t want the dream to end.

Vonage Chief Resigns; Company to Cut Marketing Costs (Update2)

… or are they?

Are they so powerful, and so believable that people get suckered into the ultimate April Fool’s prank by the biggest search engine company in the world?

I’ll admit, I was almost suckered in. But when my friend showed me the link to GMail’s paper service I cracked up.

Yeah ok Google, you’re funny.

http://mail.google.com/mail/help/paper/more.html

Google’s Free broadband service

I do wonder… how long will these links have a PR that’s higher than 0?

In any case, happy April Fool’s Day.

I couldn’t help but have a bit of a chuckle when I saw this article this morning.

Is Google Too Powerful?

Where did I find it? Why, in my gmail account of course. THAT’S how powerful Google is. Long ago I pretty much ditched my hotmail account and adopted Gmail by the mere fact that I changed service providers for the first time in 8 years.

Fact is, I’ve lost literally thousands of dollars in lost revenue from personal web pages on old ISP servers that I could no longer retrieve because I either moved or they were bought out by another ISP, or some other sillyness that ensued.

The bulk of my business contacts have now reside with my gmail account and though that makes me slightly nervous, I embraced it on the basis of google’s continuing longevity.

But everything has it’s heyday. There’s always a new mover and shaker, always a new trend. Youtube is my favorite example of this.

Is Google too powerful? Maybe, but while I may have a bit of a love/hate relationship with google right now, I’d like it to remain powerful for a while.

News Article: WiMAX was the belle of the CTIA ball
Sprint is deploying WiMAX, others carriers are considering it

One day I was sipping drinks at a very push martini (or was it a sushi) bar in downtown Toronto sometime back in ‘94/’95 (could have been ‘97 but my memory escapes me).

I’ll never forget this conversation because a good friend of mine (programmer) was debating the technical limitations he felt existed in phone lines, stating it was an engineering impossibility for DSL to be as fast as what this investor was claiming. This investor wasn’t a complete slouch in the technology department but he was more of a money man than he was a tech guru. At least, given how often he slurred his words, that’s certainly what I thought of him. He made an impact when he told my programming buddy that they already had a DSL testing market in Ottawa.

From then on, I was hooked. At that point, my only access to highspeed internet was at work. In 1995 we were connected by an ISDN line (for speed references we’re talking about a 1/4 - 1/8 speed of the average DSL line to individual homes). The ISDN line served 50 workstations. Before long, we bumped up to a T1. But highspeed for consumers? That didn’t exist on a large scale until 1997. That was the pivotal year. When I later moved to Nova Scotia, things had advanced so quickly, I made the jump in my thinking that Nova Scotia must be so advanced in delivering DSL to a higher population percentage than what was happening in Toronto. The reality is: DSL along with highspeed cable internet access simply just took off.

The drunken investor knew what he was talking about.

In 2001, my ex girlfriend and I won some points from an affiliate program we were promoting, and we promptly made the jump from wired router to WIFI. This was practically unheard of at the time, especially in a small town in a small province. I rigged up all the Linksys components and within a few hours the three of us (including her computer addicted 9 year old son) were connected to the internet without the need for anymore cables ever again.

There days, friends from back east tell me that if they take their trusty laptops into town, they can usually pick up 3-5 WIFI connections from their friend’s places. *cough* not that I’m encouraging anyone to go “war driving” anytime soon.

After reading an article on WiMax in an obscure free Toronto newspaper back in February of last year, I made the prediction that WiMAX could become the next wave in internet connectivity within a 2-5 year window.

It looks like my prediction might start to come true.

WiMAX was the belle of the CTIA ball
Sprint is deploying WiMAX, others carriers are considering it

So I have a hope of course. It is my dream that I will one day ditch my cantenna device (a tube attached to my network card to boost wifi signals for better reception), ditch Wifi, and adopt WiMAX, and hopefully stay connected in real time on road at all times. I am amused that I once chatted with a friend on MSN while my wife was driving the car in and around Victoria, BC (that’s how many wifi connections there were in the city core).

Imagine not having to hop from one connection to another like that anymore. Imagine just *being* connected. Anywhere.

That’s my hope for WiMAX. It’s the next phase people. We all want it, we’re craving it. It’s time.

More information on technical aspects of WiMAX

Spam spam spam, and more spam!

I’ve seen this ad several times now: “I got scammed 37 times!” So naturally, I’m curious, I click.

Only to be lead to one of those typical one page spreads that have a link to ‘find out the truth to money making programs’, along with an opt-in email newsletter, not to mention 2 links to other one page ads to programs/tips on how to make thousands of dollars, and assurances that these are not scams, and 100% satisfaction guaranteed (if of course, you legitimately do all the steps they suggest, over a 90 day commitment).

Did I mention that these are the typical “act now and we’ll give you this program for 49.95, a full $100 off the full price” ads? Did I also mention that both links from this “info” page, just like this info page has similar popups? oh, and of course, there’s testimonials, and while I didn’t look any further, I’m sure one of more of these links has a link to an image of an “actual paycheck”.

I once got suckered into a scam like this supposed “none-scam” is, and low and behold, I was linked to a website with information alright… information that’s already free for anyone who’s curious: how to place ads and make money on Adsense.

But what gets me frustrated is the way this guy chooses to get people interested. His claims of being scammed in the past, get people interested in his story, and somehow, you the reader should feel sorry for him, identify with him, and therefore, trust that he’s giving you real information without any kind of direct benefit to himself.

That’s marketing.

It also sucks.

Why not be a little more upfront and honest about it? Do what I do, and countless others do: provide honest opinions, on sponsored blogs. Yeah, there’s advertisements. Absolutely… just look to your right, and you’ll see my Adsense banner. I’m not going to white wash this and say I’m not getting compensated because I am. (ok, this is not something I’m going to say 99% of time as blatantly as I’m stating in this blog).

But seriously folks. I want to be a respected as a surfer and possible marketer. I know that information, good solid information isn’t always free. But is the dress up really necessary? His whole schtick is: he’s been scammed 33 or 35 times, but he wants to show you 2 *true* programs that he’s making money on. uh huh. Ok, that makes you even more believable dude, thanks.

The other thing that bothered me was, his leads you into the page by saying, hey, don’t trust the get rich quick schemes, go with the one of the two programs that I recommend, they don’t make you as much money as quickly, but they work. (I’m paraphrasing here)

Well, I don’t know about you, but when one of the programs bragged about making $50,000 in one month, that screamed SCAM to me. Right there and then.

Is it impossible to make $50,000 in a month on ad placements on the net? No, in fact it’s very possible. (have I personally done it? No) Do I think that it’s possible within their 8 week guarantee? Highly unlikely.

As far as I’m concerned. I just got scammed. Scammed for reading spam.

And no, I’m not going to link to this guy’s website. Not directly anyway. You might find it on an adsense ad to this page, you might not. I leave it up to you to search for this site and judge for yourself.

Feel free to come back and tell me if I’m off base with my general discontent for his antics.

Recently, I read an article about getting paid survey work from online sources. A click here and a click there and within a matter of minutes I landed on a “free” survey site. Surveys and claims that you can be compensated by participating in surveys have been around the internet for as long as I’ve been online. In fact, I’m sure that beside this blog entry, the adsense ads on this likely have advertisements to various survey websites.

The free survey website I went to yesterday guaranteed that if I completed their 10 buck challenge, they would promptly send 10 dollars plus a 3 dollar bonus for signing up straight into my paypal account. So, what did I have to lose?

What I lost was time and interest. I was amused by performing this stunt. I landed on sites for “free” ipods, “free” digital cameras, sign up incentives for casinos, sign up incentives for *other* survey sites. I was spinning around and around so fast, to various sites all pointing to similar survey sites, that it reminded me of landing on (or I confess) searching for adult related websites. It was the ultimate circle jerk. This is a rather vulgar metaphor, so rather than have you thinking I’m a dirty pervert, I’ll quote from my favorite website for information: Wikipedia.

They can refer to a situation, often in the workplace, politics or academia, where people are stroking each other’s ego without producing anything of value.

Quite honestly, survey filling can be rewarding if you know where to find these. I don’t have that talent, or more to the point, I don’t have the interest. It wasn’t long before I realized that pointing me to other survey sites was making this guy about $1.00-1.75 per referral. In other words, he kept his website free because he found ways to be compensated. I would have to sign up for about 15-20 websites to receive 10 bucks from him. You do the math. He was going to essentially keep half his money.

Are free websites therefore as scammy as paid ones? I’m not sure I have an honest answer to this question. I’ve decided to keep TechJobs free for now, because I firmly believe there are jobs out there available for telecommuters that do *not* involve paying a cent for this information.

If *anyone* has ever stayed on a survey site long enough to actually get direct payment for your opinion, I’d love to hear your experiences. Incidently, if you spam me with your affiliate link, I’ll simply ignore and delete your comment.

My little venture yesterday only did one thing for me: it brought me close to poking my own eyes out with the sharpest tool I could find on my desk. I concluded that as hard as it is to build a website up or a blog, I find this kind of work 1000 times more rewarding than filling out my personal information over and over again for…… essentially nothing.

For the last couple of weeks, my curiosity has peaked as a canadian commercial for blogtv.ca has made its rounds across several Canadian television networks. I’m not even going to bother to find a commercial link on YouTube. So unless anyone is really interested in seeing a singing belly promotion, I’m not going to bother.

Article link:Blogtv.ca hits the streets

I surfed over to the site today wondering about the format, not to mention how this site will make its money. This project is backed by Alliance Atlantis which explains the intense commercial campaign. But will a Canadian only video blogging site take flight the likes of YouTube?

We’ll soon find out but have mercy on us Canucks, eh? No more singing bellies.