Net Crimes & Misdemeanors

Thursday morning hit the fitness center, showered and dressed, then went to breakfast and let Gretchen know I'd be back to go over my presentation and our panel that afternoon. I went to "play tourist" for the morning and walked down to Union Square for a free shuttle on a double-decker bus I'd gotten with my airline ticket when I booked it through Expedia. I won't mention the company, but the tour guide, Phillip, was an ass. He was British and bad-mouthed the other tour bus companies and was not only really boring in his "narration," but was kinda condescending. I didn't leave him a tip. Got off at Pier 39/Fisherman's Wharf and visited the aquarium first. I will be posting some cool photos and videos I took there later. It was a small aquarium, but interesting. Next was the Hard Rock Cafe - I have an "all access" pass and found out I had $40 to spend on it, so I got Chris a t-shirt and a little nightie set for me and only had to pay $7...

I couldn't make this up if I tried. . .Bad Grammy http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090221/ap_ on_fe_st/odd_phone_sex_bill;_ylt=AsiKPbI LYbt04Q3SQrTBfmLtiBIF BELLEVUE, Neb. – The family of an 86-year-old woman who was billed for over $1,000 in phone sex calls suspects identify theft. Arlene Hald recently received a credit card bill addressed to her husband, Sylvester, who died nearly 20 years ago. Hald said they never had a credit card, yet an account in his name was charged. Hald's daughter, Peggy Rytych, believes her father was the victim of ID theft. She called the billing company, Preferred Platinum Plan, which agreed to remove the charges. Rytych says they thought that was the end of it ­ until another bill arrived for over $70. The California-based company agreed to remove the latest charges and never bill Hald again. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Visit WHOA on the web at http://www.haltabuse.org * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *...

My second day was productive - networked at breakfast, caught up on email, then networked again at lunch. Then I was a lazy bear and took a nap after lunch to make up for being out so late the night before. I'm gonna be so tired when I get home Friday night. I attended one of the panels in the afternoon called "Real Lusers!" which showed results of a survey of consumers and their knowledge of spam, viruses, etc. It was interesting and a short video at the end where real people were asked questions like "What is a botnet?" and "Who do you think is responsible for sending spam to you?" were really funny. Waited for the bus to take us to the MAAWG social night at E & O Trading Company , a "southeast asian grill." I met one of my good friends, Cass, there. She was my pseudo-spouse/date. We hung out with a couple of other women from the conference, Gretchen and Kathie, then picked up another, Mary, along the way. Cass and I had red wine, the o...

First, I forgot to mention what happened to my Vaio laptop - the one that crashed to the floor. System recovery and the recovery CDs I had didn't work, so I took it to my friend's shop, Upsurf.net in town. He took a look at it, tried some tests and sadly informed me the hard drive was toast. Since this Vaio is one of the "slim" ones that weighs less than three pounds, he had to order a hard drive for it, so I'm using my old, heavier (6 pounds) Vaio. Man, I've been spoiled by my smaller Vaio! Flew into San Francisco yesterday via Detroit. In Detroit, the flight was delayed a bit due to rain and wind in SF, but we finally got on the plane, then had to wait on the runway for takeoff. I'd forgotten how long this flight was - 5 hours. It was a full flight and although I had an aisle seat and neck pillow, the woman in the middle seat (in her 70s or so) took control of the armrests on both sides of her and it was an uncomfortable flight. In addition, her lunch f...

Flew to Columbus, Mississippi last Tuesday (2/10) and had no delays on either of my flights - hooray! Was picked up by Heather Ford of the Junior Auxiliary of Columbus, who booked me for my presentations. She reminds me of my stepsister, Sharon. Took me to my hotel, a Holiday Inn and I promptly showered, changed into my jammies and fell asleep (after talking to Chris, of course). The next morning she picked me up and we headed to Lee Middle School . I thought it was funny before my trip how she let me know a few times the school was 95% black. The Internet knows no racial boundaries and I told her that. I could care less if my audience were purple, pink or blue. I have never had students come into the auditorium so quietly before. The principal there kicks ass. There were about 700 students and they really listened. I have two parts that are interactive, so I chose a boy and girl for each, then get responses from the audience, which went over well. I covered cyberbullying, predators an...

I couldn't make this up if I tried. . .Stupid criminals - smart victim Wash. burglary victim drives off in thieves' van http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090214/ap_ on_fe_st/odd_outwitted_thieves;_ylt=AuYd yxEPNuTY8Pf7QoUJgY7tiBIF BELLEVUE, Wash. – A man in Washington state made sure a pair of burglars didn't get away with his three flat-screen televisions ­ he moved their getaway car. Patrick Rosario was in the basement of his Bellevue home on Tuesday when he heard the burglars upstairs. The Seattle Times says the 32-year-old Rosario, who had been laid off from his job as a Washington Mutual manager, called 911 while he sneaked out of the house. He saw a white van sitting in front of his house with the motor running and the keys in the ignition, and he got in and drove it to a friend's house. Police say the burglars left the televisions, a laptop computer and a jewelry box by the door and took off on foot. The sheriff's office said no arrests had been made. * * * * * * ...

I couldn't make this up if I tried. . .Stupid bank robber Lost thief holes up in bank lavatory http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090202/od_ nm/us_thief_lavatory;_ylt=AhC3noEVmD_Wv_ ka8b0lTa8SH9EA MARSEILLE, France (Reuters) – A hapless thief drilled his way into a French bank at the weekend, but missed the safe and instead found himself in a lavatory where he was promptly arrested, a French newspaper reported on Sunday. The 21-year-old broke into a building adjoining a branch of Banque Populaire in the Mediterranean port city of Marseille in the early hours of Saturday morning, La Provence newspaper said. The paper said the man, who came from Belgium and was not named, thought that he was going to end up in a room housing safe deposit boxes but instead drilled into the lavatories. Alarms were triggered when he broke through the wall and police caught the man when they arrived on the scene. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Visit WHOA on the web ...

(It's about frelling time) College gossip Web site shuts down, citing economy http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090205/ap_on_re_us/campus_gossip_1 Wed Feb 4, 11:25 pm ET TRENTON, N.J. – A Web site that publishes anonymous, sometimes malicious gossip about college students has agreed to cease operations. Matt Ivester, founder and chief executive officer of Los Angeles-based JuicyCampus.com, announced his intention Wednesday in a message posted on the Web site. The message cited the national economic meltdown and falling ad revenue. The shutdown comes nearly a year after New Jersey authorities subpoenaed the company as part of a probe to determine if the site was failing to comply with rules requiring users to agree not to post abusive or obscene content. The site's operator, which denied any wrongdoing, was also facing a federal lawsuit filed by a University of Delaware student from New Jersey, who wanted to find out who was responsible for posting gossip about her on the site.

So on Monday, I'm catching up on my email and work and go upstairs to get more coffee. Bandit needed to go out, so Phoebe followed us downstairs. I opened the back door and she shot out. Didn't think twice about it. Suddenly I see a dark gray squirrel flying across the snow from the bird feeder in the middle of the yard and begin to climb the fence. Phoebe pounced, grabbed it by the tail and began swinging it around. I still had Bandit in my arms (he's blind and I have to carry him to put him outside) and began yelling at Phoebe to drop it. She did. Looked at me. The squirrel tried to climb the fence again. Phoebe pounced again. The squirrel was squealing. I yelled at her to drop it again. She did and when the squirrel moved, she went towards it, but I ordered her to come in the house. Thank goodness she listens. She wasn't happy about it, but she came inside. I put Bandit on the floor and looked out the window. The squirrel was still alive, but not moving much. Yes, I ...

Happy Groundhog Day - even though it means six more weeks of winter for most of us I couldn't make this up if I tried. . .and his name was Sue NY boy dressed as girl to cheat on exam http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090130/ap_ on_fe_st/odd_gender_bending_cheat;_ylt=A gxueur_8b0jt1Myp.KwG37tiBIF SCHENECTADY, N.Y. – Dressing as a girl to take a high school Regents exam in place of another student landed a 17-year-old upstate New York boy in some serious detention. Deandre Ellis, 17, of Schenectady was arrested on a felony charge after the incident Tuesday. City school officials said a monitor verifying that each student was taking the proper exam suspected something was amiss when the name on the test and the person taking it didn't match. District spokeswoman Karen Corona said a closer look revealed the test-taker was a boy masquerading as a girl. Police said Ellis, who was released to probation authorities, was charged with burglary for entering the school to commit a crime. His pu...

On Wednesday flew from Norfolk to St. Louis on American Airlines. What's wrong with this picture? (taken on the plane) Got to St. Louis fine, shuttled to the hotel, checked in, then went downstairs to register as a speaker at the DoD Cyber Crime Conference and give my "mom" her taffy. She's the coolest. Got my bag with goodies inside, then went to see Jay, who books me for the conference every year, gave him his taffy, saw his wife Dawn, then saw my "boyfriend" Alex, Amy, Jim, Jim Christie and Bill, the guy who booked my travel. It was like old home week. I asked them what was up for dinner, they said we'd go to the hotel bar at 530 or so. This gave me enough time to go to my room, shower and change and unpack and unwind a bit. We went to the bar at around 6 pm and a bunch of us took up a few tables, ordered drinks and dinner and began to catch up on things and joke around. It was like being with family, but more fun, haha. This photo shows "mom...