Google Search Query: This site may harm your computer message

This morning I was performing a Google search query for identity of the suspect in the Annie Le case. The police have not issued the name of the Yale Lab Technician yet, and I was curious if the suspect's identity had been released to the public by the blogosphere or the Twitter community. I noticed that there are some sites listing the name "Lei Zhang" but appears these sites are posted by Phishers (Wikipedia: those engaging in phishing or the criminally fraudulent process of attempting to acquire sensitive information such as user names, passwords, credit card details), spammers and possibly black hat affiliate marketers. If you see a warning message from your browser: "This site may harm your computer" you should immediately close your browser window and not click on any of the links on that site.

Update: Raymond Clark is now being named as the suspect in the Annie Le case.

http://gawker.com/5360215/report-suspect-in-yale-killing-is-identified

Shino is the Asian Line Judge in Serena Williams U.S. Open Incident

If you want to know the identity of the Asian line judge in the Serena Williams U.S. Open tennis match, her name is Shino.

According to the New York Times in an article that was later changed, the identity of the Asian Line Judge or Asian lineswomen is Shino which would probably make her of Japanese ethinicity or heritage.

Whenever there is a breaking news story, I personally believe I can find just about anything on the Internet. This morning someone called to ask me if I knew the name of the line judge. I told them I would try and find it, so here it is.

Finally, does it really matter what the race, ethnicity or heritage is of the line judge? Why does the media always use the race card?

Source:
http://www.mediaite.com/tv/serena-williams-tennis-tantrum/

Airlines Twitter - A list of Airlines on Twitter

See the link below to the list of Airlines on Twitter. If you haven't added these to your Twitter Friends list, you should do so now!

List of Airlines on Twitter

Here’s the list of Airlines with Twitter Accounts.

@AirFranceUS - Air France Twitter account
@AlaskaAir - Alaska Airlines Twitter account
@AAirwaves - American Twitter account
@Continental - Continental Twitter account
@DeltaAirlines - Delta Twitter account
@JetBlue - JetBlue Twitter Account
@FlyHawaiian - Hawaiian Arilines
@SouthwestAir - Southwest Airlines
@SpiritAirlines - Spirit Airlines
@UnitedAirlines - United Airlines Twitter account
@USAirways - USAirways Twitter account
@VirginAmerica - Virgin Airlines

Updating to iPhone 3.1, iTunes 3.1, iTouch 3.1

I started updating some of my iPhones today. The first thing I noticed is that there is a new iPhone Configuration Utility that is downloaded and installed with my iPhone Windows installation. This program is downloaded and installed separately.

Here are the software items that were downloaded:
- QuickTimes (Mac 59.4MB)
- iTunes 9 upgrade (Mac 85.5MB)
- iPhone Configuration Utility
- iPhone Software Update (306.2 MB)(iTouch Mac 238.2 MB)

Here are some iPhone 3.1 and iTunes 9 installation tips.
- The download and installation process could take 45 minutes to 1 hour+
- The size of the file downloads is large so you might want to ensure you have the fastest Internet connection.
- You will need to restart your computer during the installation.
- The iPhone Configuration Utility is only for Windows PCs.

Here are the updating steps:
- Extracting Software
- Backing up "User Name's iPhone".."
- Verifying iPhone update with Appple...
- Preparing iPhone for software update...
- Waitng for iPhone...
- Updating iPhone software...
- Verifying updated iPhone sofware...
- Updating iPhone firmware...


Here are the iPhone 3.1 Features
- Genius recommendations for Applications
- iTunes 9 Support
- Genius Mixes
- Organize apps directly in iTunes
- Improved synching options for music, movies, TV shows, podcasts and phots
- Itunes U content organization
- Redeem iTunes gift cards, codes and certificates in the App store
- Display available iTunes account credits int he App Store and iTunes Store
- Save video from Mail and MMS into Camera Roll
- Option to "Save as new clip" when trimming a video on the iPhone 3GS
- Better iPhone 3G Wi-Fi performance when Bluetooth is turned on.
- Remotely lock iPhone with a passcode with MobileMe
- Use Voice Control on iPhone #GS with Bluetooth headsets
- Paste phone numbers into the Keypad
- Option to use the Home button to turn on Accessibility on the iPhone 3GS
- Warn when visiting fraudulent websites in Safari (anti-phishing)
- Improved Exchange calendar synching and invitation handling
- Fixes issue that caused some app icons to display incorrectly.


Other Notes
- On my MacPro, I also run Parallels.

iTunes 9 and iPhone 3.1 to be available today

iTunes 9 and iPhone 3.1 should be available later today according to the Apple Keynote today.

iPhone Tethering

We'll see if this works after the iPhone 3.1 Update.

iPhone Tethering

ttp://www.fastcompany.com/blog/chris-dannen/techwatch/simple-secret-iphone-tethering-fix

iPhone Mobile Safari Link
http://help.benm.at/help.php

Michael Beasley - Top Google Search Term Today

On Sunday afternoon, I was reading my Twitter account and read some not so nice things about Miami Heat forward Michael Beasley. At the time, I was angry at one of the
local reporters for posting a blog entry about it and decided not to comment on his blog in the best interests of Beasley. I have been following Michael Beasley and some of the other Miami Heat on Twitter and I thought that this use of social media was great for both NBA basketball, the fans and the players. Unfortunately, today the top Google Search term of the day was "Michael Beasley", his Twitter account is closed and he is now in rehab.

In retrospect, since I am a loyal Heat Season Ticket holder, I guess it may not be all that bad. After spending some time in rehab, maybe Beasley will start the 2009-10 season with renewed explosiveness after finding his way once again in the media for an off the court incident.

As far as the social media angle, let's hope this incident doesn't deter any other NBA players from twittering. As a fan, Twitter is a great insight into the players lives.

Finally, what's the World come to? An NBA player goes into rehab and he becomes the top Google search query term of the day?

Bose Quiet Comfort 15 Getting Great Reviews!

The Bose Quiet Comfort 15 Headphones are getting great reviews on PCMag.com site and others. If you have an old pair of the Bose QuietComfort 2 and are looking to upgrade, it might be the perfect time. I checked the American Express Rewards site and they don't yet have the new headphones on their site. I did notice that the Amazon.com site says that Amazon is now shipping them!

AMEX Membership Rewards - A website that's hard to find in Google!

If you have an American Express card and are looking for the AMEX rewards site and you are performing a Google Search Query, you're not alone. Every time I go to their website, it always leads me to some bogus www.AmericanExpress.com webpages and I can never find the rewards site from my American Express account profile. So here's the link:

http://membershiprewards.com

In Google, I tried searching for "American Express Membership Rewards", "AMEX shopping", "American Express Shopping", "American Express Rewards", and "AMEX membership rewards". Even "membership rewards" does not return a description for the site, but the words, "process direct".

BTW, I usually redeem Apple iTunes 50 song e-certificates for 8K points. A gift code is delivered in less than 3 hours. I am also a big fan of Bose Headphones and the Quiet Comfort 2 are 35K points and are usually delivered in a few days.

102 Famous People Picture and Answers

I was forwarded the 102 Famous People Picture so I thought I would publish the picture and the answers in a separate blog post.





















View Answer

102 Famous People - Answers

Here is one possible answer.























1. Socrates
2. Cui Jian (father of Chinese rock music)
3. Vladimir Lenin
4. Prince Charles
5. Ramses or King Solomon or Sinuhe of Egypt
6. Bill Clinton
7. Tsar Peter The Great Of Russia
8. Charles de Gaulle
9. Margaret Thatcher
10. Ulysses S. Grant
11. Bruce Lee
12. Winston Churchill
13. Raphael Sanzio or Matisse (French Painter)
14. Robert Oppenheimer
15. Elvis Presley
16. William Shakespeare
17. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
18. Genghis Kahn
19. Napoleon Bonaparte
20. Che Guevara
21. Fidel Castro
22. Marlon Brando
23. Lao zi or Hokusai
24. Marilyn Monroe
25. Yassar Arafat
26. Julius Caesar
27. Mike Tyson
28. George W. Bush
29. Luciano Pavarotti
30. Salvador Dali
31. Empress CiXi
32. Liu Xiang
33. Kofi Annan
34. Prince Charles
35. Ariel Sharon
36. Ho Chi Minh or Qi Baishi
37. Osama Bin Laden
38. Qin Shi Huang
39. Mikhail Gorbachev
40. Mother Teresa
41. Song Qingling
42. Otto Von Bismarck
43. Saint Peter or Rabindranath Tagore
44. Li ZhenSheng
45. Voltaire
46. President Hu Jintao
47. Dante Alighieri or Julius Caesar
48. Pu-Yi or Dai Dudu
49. Saloth Sar (Pol Pot)
50. Yi Sun-sin líder or Yue Fei
51. Michael Angelo
52. Hideki Tojo or Hiro Hito
53. Michael Jordan
54. Dwight Eisenhower or John Calvin Coolidge
55. Corneliu Baba, Romanian painter
56. Claude Monet
57. Mahatma Ghandi
58. Vincent Van Gogh
59. Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec
60. Marcel Duchamp
61. Confucius
62. Noah
63. Li Bai the Chinese Poet or Caravaggio
64. Mao Zhedong
65. Johan Wolfgang von Goethe, German Writer
66. Zhou Enlai
67. Marie Curie
68. Abraham Lincoln
69. Pablo Picasso
70. Stephen Spielberg
71. Freidrich Nietzsche
72. Karl Marx
73. Leonardo Da Vinci
74. Josef Stalin
75. Queen Elizabeth II
76. Lu Xun, Chinese Comunist Writer
77. Jose Francisco San Martín
78. Deng Xiaoping
79. Sun Yat-Sen
80. Theodore Roosevelt or Gen George Custer or Maxim Gorky or Philippe Pétain
81. Saddam Hussein
82. Benito Mussolini
83. Adolf Hitler
84. Guan Yu
85. Pele
86. Bill Gates
87. Audrey Hepburn
88. Ludwig Van Beethoven or Chopin
89. Charlie Chaplin
90. Henry Ford
91. Lei Feng
92. Victor babes or Norman Bethun
93. Mike Tyson
94. Sigmund Freud
95. Erich Honecker (leader of the GDR)
96. Vladimir Putin
97. Charles Dodgson (aka Lewis Caroll)
98. Shirley Temple
99. Chang Kai Chek
100. Leo Tolstoy
101. Albert Einstein
102. Ernest Hemingway
103. Franklin Roosevelt
104. Woman from photograph by Cartier Bresson or Mother Teresa
105. Dolly (The cloned sheep)

Media Getting Edgier - Flo Rida and the Residue Is Evil Ad

If you don't think TV and Online media is getting edgier and edgier lately, here are two recent examples. On the NBC Today Show this morning, viewers and their children were having breakfast to the tunes of Flo Rida Right Round - "You spin my head right around, right round, when you go down... I understand that these are the songs our teenagers/children are listening to anyways, but I was a bit shocked because of the some of the subliminal or not so subliminal messages in the lyrics in these songs.


Example 1: Flo Rida Low on NBC Today Show

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Example 2 - An Internet Ad - What is This?



The ResidueIsEvil Ad believe it or not is an Old Spice Men's Deodorant ad. This ad appears on many of the twenty-something men's websites for sneakers and X-box items, which I'm sure are also includes teenage boys. And if you you don't think there are any subliminal messages in this ad, then I'm not sure you are living on the same planet.

So many of you may not be surprised by this, but it seems like just the other day Howard Stern was publicly criticized by the language he used on the radio and then there was the Janet Jackson incident during the Superbowl.

Twitter Status Updates from Twitter.com Still Not Working

After the 3 hours that Twitter.com was down this morning from 9 a.m. Eastern Time to 11:45 a.m. E, even this afternoon as of 3:45 p.m. ET, when I try and update my Twitter Status from Twitter.com, it does not allow me to. The request keeps loading. According to the Twitter.com status site http://status.twitter.com/:

"As we recover, users will experience some longer load times and slowness. This includes timeouts to API clients. We’re working to get back to 100% as quickly as we can."

I am able to Tweet from my Twitter Desktop Client TweetDeck and Tweetie, my iPhone Twitter App. Here is a list of reliable Twitter Desktop Apps.

• TweetDeck http://tweetdeck.com/beta (uses Adobe Air works on PC and Mac)
  
• Tweetie http://www.atebits.com/ (A Mac Application)
  
• Seesmic http://www.seesmic.com (uses Adobe Air works on PC and Mac)
  

Twitter still Down - 10:34 AM ET

Twitter is still down as of Thursday, August 6, 2009 10:34 AM Eastern Time. To check if Twitter is down you can also go to the site below rather than hitting their home page www.twitter.com:


http://istwitterdown.com

The Twitter.com Website is Down Thursday Aug 06 9:03 AM ET

I noticed this morning on the Twitter Status Page that Twitter.com confirmed that their site is down. Go to http://status.twitter.com The message on their site says: "We are determining the cause and will provide an update shortly."

This also means that Twitter Clients such as TweetDeck, Tweetie etc. are also down because the Twitter API access is also impaired.

Downloading Your NBA Team Schedule to Outlook and iCal

The NBA 2009-2010 Schedule has recently been released and if you are a fanatical NBA basketball fan, you might want to import your teams schedule into your Microsoft Outlook or Apple Entourage and then synchronize it with your iPhone or Blackberry.

Since I am a Miami Heat fan, today I exported the file off the Miami Heat NBA website and followed their well-written directions to import it into my Microsoft Outlook. Here are some helpful hints.

Microsoft Outlook

- Microsoft Office Outlook Import and Exporters - To import the Windows .csv file, you may need the Import Filters which should be installed automatically from the Office Local Installation Source (C:\MCOCache a hidden folder). If you receive an error message, then you may need your original Office Installation disks. If you are not able to add the Import/Exporters, I would not recommend proceeding unless you want to re-install Office.

- Microsoft Outlook Calendars - Before you start the import process, check to make sure what your primary Microsoft Outlook Calendar is. Some users may have more than one which might cause problems later when synchronizing with your iPhone or Blackberry.

- Print the instructions on your team's website. You need to follow them very closely or you may create many 80 something plus entries in your calendar that will need to be deleted manually .

Microsoft Entourage on the Mac
- Save the Heat.ics file to your Desktop, then add the New Event to your destination calendar in the list box. I clicked on the Heat.ics file and was prompted through the process. If you make a mistake, you can click Edit, Undo to your last import.

Google Calendar
- If you use Google Calendar, open the Miami Heat 2009-10 Official Schedule then click on the +Google Calendar in the bottom right corner of your screen. It you are already logged into your Google Calendar, it will add the Miami Heat Schedule.

Good luck!

Verrus Mobile Parking Payment by Phone - A Must Have To Avoid Parking Tickets

If you haven't tried the paying for your parking by cell phone yet, the Verrus Mobile Parking Payment system has now arrived in 100+ cities in North American. The key benefits are include:

1) Pay your parking by credit card.

2) Auto Text Message Reminders to your cell phone. If your dinner or movie runs longer than expected, then you can refill your meter from your cell phone automatically. This is a huge benefit!

3) When the parking meter is either out of paper or not able to scan your credit card (it happens too frequently in my city Miami, Florida), which could be embarrassing if you are with clients or are out on the town during the evenings. To use Verrus Pay by Phone, you merely, dial the Pay by Phone Number, Enter your location and Enter the number of minutes you would like to park.

The Verrus Pay By Phone mobile payment system is now operational in cities across the United States like Aspen, Chicago, Coral Gables, Dallas, Hawaii, Madison, Miami, Milwaukee, Minneapolis, New Haven, New Orleans, Oakland, Redwood City, Santa Ana and Seattle. If you plan on traveling to any of these cities, it doesn't hurt to sign-up because it's free.

Okay, if it sounds too good to be true, it is. There is a $.35 cents charge on each transaction, even re-filling your parking. However, it wouldn't take too many $25.00 parking tickets per year to offset that fee.

You can sign up by calling Verrus using the number on the parking meter, but it is much easier to do so online. To sign-up for the Verrus Pay By Phone, go to http://www.paybyphone.com or http://www.verrus.com There is no registration fee. They accept VISA, MasterCard, and American Express but AMEX is not available at all locations. You also need to enter the license plate number to your vehicle(s).


Verus Mobile Payment Locations
http://verrus.com/verrus/where.aspx

Verrus Sign Up Form
https://www.verrus.com/verrus/SignUp.aspx

iPhone 3.0.1 - Why You Should Update ASAP

iPhone users can thank two researches Collin Mulliner (a Ph.D. student at the Technical University of Berlin) and Charlie Miller (Security Researcher) who presented at a Black Hat Security Conference in Las Vegas that they could take control over an iPhone merely by sending a SMS message. It was described by CNET as a serious memory corruption bug in the way the iPhone handles SMS messages.

Although there are no reported incidents of users phones being affected by this security issue, I would recommend all iPhone users upgrade as soon as possible. Unfortunately, it will take a little less than an hour including the backup time, much less if you don't have much data on your iPhone. Before you upgrade, make sure you have the lastest version of iTunes.

I upgraded several phones this evening on both my Windows PCs and Macs without any issues. Thanks to my friend Jose A. who alerted me of this release via text message. I am now subscribed to the Apple Dev Team's Twitter account @iPhone_Dev so that I can monitor these types of issues.

Picasa for Mac Sizzles, much better than iPhoto

I finally installed Picasa for the Mac Version 3.0.6 today and it absolutely sizzles! It is much better than Apple iPhoto for cleaning up pictures. I've been using the Windows version for a number of years and finally decided it was time to switch!

I especially like the "I'm Feeling Lucky" feature for Basic Fixes or photo touch up and the Crop feature.

If you haven't tried it yet, here's the link.

Google Picasa MAC version
http://picasa.google.com/mac/

Google Picasa Windows version
http://picasa.google.com/index.html#

Also, I usually select the option to have Picasa search my entire hard drive for photos. However, be careful with that feature since Picasa will possibly find every joke email attachments that people sent you and who knows what else. You might have to do some clean-up after it is installed.

Atlantic Broadband Starter Service - 320 Kbps - It's Too Slow

A client of mine recently recently re-located to a new location complained that their Atlantic Broadband Service was very, very slow. When I went to diagnose the issue, I discovered that Atlantic Broadband provided them with a High Speed Internet Service of 320Kbps for $34.95 + $25.00 installation.

First of all, I was insulted to think that any "broadband provider" would have the audacity to charge $34.95 for such a service. It was President Obama in his election campaign who said, "It is "unacceptable" that the U.S. ranks 15th in the world in broadband adoption (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OEC)" and "Here, in the country that invented the Internet, every child should have the chance to get online, and they'll get that chance when I'm president -- because that's how we'll strengthen America's competitiveness in the world."

I seriously doubt that President Obama with his $8B Broadband Stimulus Package was envisioning our children and students in America surfing the Internet at 320Kbps with services like Atlantic Broadband High Speed 320Kbs Internet Starter Service allegedly targeted at low usage Internet users and students (according to the Broadband Tech Rep I spoke), it's no wonder our country is in its current state.

First of all, I allege Atlantic Broadband's Internet Starter Service is a deceptive marketing practice and should be either taken off the market or upgraded to a higher speed. Yes, it's faster than dial-up, but at only 320Kbps it is 25 times slower than their next 8MB $50.95 package. Even AT&T High-Speed Internet packages are sold at 1.5MB, 3MB and 6MB package. It really seems like a classic bait and switch.

Also, when I called Broadband Customer Service about this, they told me that's what the customer ordered. My reply was, would you buy this service for your mom or dad? They also said, Comcast their competitor offered a 1MB package. My reply, THAT DOESN'T MAKE IT RIGHT!

In any regard, NO ONE SHOULD buy the Atlantic Broadband Internet Starter Service Package, it's way too slow. The Atlantic Broadband's Preferred Service is $50.95 +tax in my client's area and if that's not within your budget, there are competitive services offering better alternatives. My client's Internet service was enabled over the phone in a few seconds and the service was downloading at well over 7MB, even on wi-fi. The Atlantic Broadband Rep offered no discount for my client's lost productivity.

If you have the Atlantic Broadband Stater Service or some other High Speed Internet Service and it is running slow, here are some sites to test the speed of your Internet connection.

http://speedtest.atlanticbb.net/
http://speakeasy.net/
http://www.speedtest.net