I'm over the top! Going for the JUGULAR on this!

I've really had it with the JUNK TWEETS! Even people I follow on twitter because I am really interested in what they have to say and what they are doing have taken to sending out s**t!

I'm NOT talking about, nor am I condemning "advertweets" where the tweeter employs a service that pays them back for clicks. I'm talking about tweets referencing old outdated blog posts and/or defunct websites. What an embarassment and a smear on the reputations of some of the most wonderful bloggers around!

SHOCKING DISCLOSURE! A blogger whose tweets I once followed, let's call her "Miss M" --- she spent a lot of time bragging about her "5000+ followers on twitter" - until she discovered that because of all her junk tweets, several times a day, sent out via automated services - most of her followers had turned off her tweets - she was actually only reaching the dozen or so regular blogging buddies who spent hours commenting on hers (and one another's) blogs. Not only that, Miss M runs three other twitter accounts where she does the same thing! End result: she's wasting her own time and everyone else's... plus... she has delusions of internet grandeur! LESSON: unless you are following a celebrity, beware of anybody with more than 1000 followers on twitter!

Be more responsible about what you share - and with whom! Don't "junk up" your twitter account

Don't be a TWIT on Twitter!

Read my article: Are you reading the tweets of those you follow?

Tweeturbed

"You've got mail!"

Although nowhere near as funny as the letter I received from Mrs. Esther Swally, a literate person may derive a few chuckles from this masterpiece: (Mouseover and Click on the image for a larger version)


Anti-Terrorist and Monitory Crime Division.
Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Daniel McMullen (Special Agent in Charge)

Attn: Beneficiary

This is to officially inform you that it has come to our notice and we have thoroughly investigated with the help of our Intelligence Monitoring Network System that you are having an illegal Transaction with Impostors. We the Federal Bureau Of Investigation want you to stop further communication with any Impostors claiming to be official. During our Investigation, we noticed that the reason why you have not received your payment is because you have not fulfilled your Financial Obligation given to you in respect of your Contract/Inheritance Payment. Therefore, we have contacted the Federal Ministry of Finance Nigeria on your behalf and they have brought a solution to your problem by coordinating your payment in total $5,900,000.00(Five Million Nine Hundred Thousand Dollars).

Since the Federal Bureau of Investigation is involved in this transaction,you have to be rest assured for this is 100% risk free it is our duty to protect you. We the Federal Bureau Of Investigation want you to contact
the ATM CARD CENTER via email for their requirements to proceed and procure your Approval Slip on your behalf which will cost you $150 and note that your Approval Slip which contains details of the agent who will process your transaction.

CONTACT INFORMATION
NAME: Mr. Kelvin Williams
Address: 18 Koffi Crescent Apapa Lagos Nigeria
EMAIL: kelvinwil205@blumail.org
phone : +23480-6111-25-03

email from Nigerian "Monitory Impostors"

Watch Rebecca Black "My Moment" Music Video!

For the past 18 months, Ness Computing has been very quietly working on some new technology that they believe will be the next big thing in search. It’s a new, highly personalized search engine that they hope to launch in the coming weeks.

Ness secured the likeness.com domain, where you can sign up now to learn more about the company

The Federal Bureau of Investigation has made 14 arrests nationwide after raiding a series of homes across the U.S. in connection a sweep designed to dent the Anonymous hacking group, concerning pay pal fraud. Two others were arrested on separate charges.

According to CBS News, the FBI sweep was a major operation in New York, California, New Jersey and Florida.

Twitter to Promote and Preserve Underrepresented Languages

The project Indigenous Tweets started by Kevin Scannell has been tracking and highlighting Twitter accounts that have been using the microbl... More »

NetActive 19 July 2011

#delete If you see this link Anywhere : DO NOT CLICK ON IT "Charlie Sheen Dead in His Room - Exclusive Video"

A new lease on life for the old facebook virus! It uses your Facebook account to perpetuate itself and potentially install malware onto your hard drive... and now some versions are able to insert a small file onto your smartphone! It is difficult to locate and hasn't caused any trouble anyone knows of --- yet!

Message to the Minds

Here's a comment I left on the Blazing Minds blog:

Karen, I tweeted a warning out about this yesterday, and when I saw the headline for your article I was glad you jumped on it - until I read your article.

You are usually very savvy about internet stuff - this Charlie Sheen is Dead thing dates back to May, although the newest threat attached to it involves smartphone technology.

Your readers should know that if see any of this "Charlie Sheen is Dead' stuff on twitter, facebook or anyplace else, they need to AVOID it like the plague - because it IS the plague!

Click on one of the CSID links with an iPhone and PRESTO you have a VIRUS on your iPhone or Android! You won't be able to find it, and so far it hasn't done anything...

If you are on Facebook and click through CSID, you will need to check your news feed and make sure you aren't spamming the message to your friends. If you are, you need to remove the item from your wall by clicking the small "x" in the top right hand corner of the post.

Be sure to join the Facecrooks page on Facebook to stay updated on current security issues.

Permission to reprint this blog post in whole or in part is hereby granted, provided that the author (or authors) and Dave Lucas are properly cited. Permission to reprint any comments below is granted only for those comments written by Dave Lucas and staff.

"Charlie Sheen is Dead" VIRUS

"Bottom line: All good things can be turned into bad things. The globally networked digital world we all rely on is no exception. This magical world is as fragile and vulnerable as your new car parked on a dark street in a bad part of town." ~ John Mariotti

BE VIGILANT! Nothing is safe in today’s internetworked digital world. This afternoon, the Times Union website reported that New York State Police are looking into a spam email created to resemble official email from the Department of Motor Vehicles. The email subject line may contain the title "UNIFORM TRAFFIC TICKET."

Troopers said the hoax email asks the recipient to open an attached zip file that contains an as yet unidentified virus.

Microsoft recently warned that one out of every fourteen pieces of software we are told to download to watch videos or Web pages contains “malware.”

John Mariotti blogs on American Express Open Forum ::: "Cyber-threats are growing exponentially, and no one really knows how to stop them... This week it is the bold invasion of Lockheed Martin... Then we learned that PBS had also been hacked. The hackers altered a website for the PBS show NewsHour placing a bogus article telling readers that rapper Tupac Shakur, murdered 15 years ago was still alive.

SECURITY BULLETIN Cyberthreats Increasing

I have to laugh when I see people who obviously are not celebrities and have nothing worth twittering about racking up thousands of followers. It makes no sense!

I don't know about you, but I sure get sick and tired of what I call "spam twitter followers" who obviously are looking for folks who auto-follow back new followers. Here's one that showed up in my twitter alerts this morning: Rene Kabler.

So who IS "Rene Kabler"? "She" is selling stuff: one of the links that appear in her tweets direct your browser to "sticky" pages, difficult to get out of. The other lands on a "blog" that presents itself as being authored by "Deon Phillips".

I clicked on links contained in what appeared to be legitimate "personal tweets" - and - you guessed it - the links connect with marketing sites. You won't find "Rene" on Facebook. Google turns up nothing. No blogs, no social media websites. Nada. You will find "Deon Phillips" on social media, but not the one portrayed in the twitter account.

Anybody out there who can figure out where these pictures associated with the twiter accounts came from and the real identities of the two women pictured?

Beware of false twitter followers!

SOME WAYS TO SPOT FAKE FOLLOWERS

They use odd names.

Their tweets seem to only contain RTs (re-tweets), either with the new style or the old RT style or both.

Most tweets are from twitterfeed or similar services.

They follow too many people.

They follow you but they don’t put you in their listings. The list feature is there for us to categorize people we follow so if they follow us based on certain interest they should have put us in a certain category.

They never use the default web interface but tweet only from clients (desktop/mobile). Real people use the web interface from time to time.

They just followed you today but their last tweets are ages ago. Or they have "0" tweets. Worth blocking!

Their tweets always contain something like “How to get more followers for free” or anything similar. Real people don’t care about getting more followers because what matters is getting real followers, not fake followers

Another Spam Twitter Follower

Pictured: 'Guo Meimei Baby'

The incident has ignited debate regarding corporate social responsibility in Asia.

CHINA'S Red Cross Society on Wednesday was forced to explain several discrepancies in its budget last year, as it battles to quell public anger and mistrust following accusations of corruption.

The aid agency has been hit with claims that a young woman who posted photos online flaunting her wealth is the daughter of one of its vice presidents, and that her lavish lifestyle is being bankrolled by embezzled charity funds.

On Monday, the state auditor also said it had found five problems in its review of the Red Cross' 2010 budget, such as money allocated for training that did not take place, further fuelling suspicion about how donations are used.

So, she has taken the Asian internet by storm. 20-year old Guo Meimei has been the #1 search item on Baidu (the Chinese equivalent of "google") and the subject of much debate: Guo Meimei showcases her lavish lifestyle on her Sina micro blog— she lives in a villa, owns several luxury sport cars and expensive handbags from international brands.

"The row broke after Guo uploaded pictures of what she claimed were her Maserati and Lamborghini cars... She has since become the hottest topic on the country's major micro blog website, weibo.com (the Chinese version of "twitter") . The number of her "fans" on the micro blog shot up from several hundred to more than 108,000 by Thursday night." [1] (AS of now, 309,300+!)

Just like in the USA, SMS messaging plays a role in the unfolding story: "One netizen claimed to have connected Guo Meimei to the Red Cross Society of China's vice-president, Guo Changjiang, and alleged that Guo Changjiang had a micro blog of his own that followed only four other people's micro blogs. One of the four allegedly belonged to Guo Meimei.

In response, Guo Changjiang said Guo Meimei was not his daughter and later shut down his micro blog."[2]

DAMAGE CONTROL ::: On Wednesday, Guo Meimei herself wrote on her micro blog that she had no relationship with the Red Cross Society of China or Guo Changjiang, and that she was indeed an actress and hurt by the negative responses:

"I am an actress the rumors have hurt me," she wrote. "I and my family members are taxpayers. How can people attack us about how we spend our money?"

And indeed, curious netizens uncovered that, in the past she worked as a model and actress, in Shenzhen, but was little known to the public. Her family apparently is not wealthy, and are said to now be wondering how, in the last two years, she has become this rich.

"The conclusion appeared to be obvious: Guo was siphoning off charitable donations to fund her lavish lifestyle. The Red Cross was forced to set the record straight. There was no such thing as the Red Cross Commerce Association and Guo had no connection whatsoever to the Red Cross, it said." [3]

Fauna @chinaSMACK has written up a summary ::: the complete saga of Guo Meimei.



Tags: Baby Guo Meimei, Chinese Red Cross



Permission to reprint this blog post in whole or in part is hereby granted, provided that the author (or authors) and Dave Lucas are properly cited. Permission to reprint any comments below is granted only for those comments written by Dave Lucas and staff.

Guo Meimei and the China Red Cross Scandal

Punk'd in Pink? ::: Hot on the heels of the Gay Girl in Damascus hoax (perpetrated by Thomas MacMaster, a middle-aged American man), comes "Marc" the gay activist of indeterminate nationality who, in his telling, was spurned by the Gaza aid flotilla. Leave it to the Christian Science Monitor to get to the bottom of this one: Marc is in fact Omer Gershon, an Israeli actor and PR person! Details »

Gershon has been profiled in leading Israeli publications such as Haaretz, Maariv and Ynet (here and here).

A 2008 report gave his age as 33 and said he lived in Tel Aviv. Gershon was described as a “producer, entrepreneur, and PR manager for clubs.” Gershon says he went to school in New York where he got a degree in marketing and advertising at the age of 25 and lived there for almost four years. He also said he had volunteered for IGY (the youth LGBTorganization in Israel) and a women’s rights org called “Ladies Circle.”

In 2011, he appeared in a promotional video for XL Energy Drink featuring a man beating a Muslim woman...

Miss Info blogs ::: Well, it looks like sh*t is hitting the fan for bloggers across the world... A 16-year old from the Czech Republic is facing serious jail time for a website (cinema-world.biz) he started, that happened to link to copyrighted materials, mostly movies. Now, for hip-hop blog readers such as yourselves, the crime might not like seem much but record and movie companies seem to be going harder than ever in stopping consumers from enjoying their products for free (in this case copyrighted music and movies). Read about the latest in record companies-trying-to-stop-us from-promoting-their artists-for-free, while their marketing teams send us music to post, here.

Unfortunately, for this unlucky 16-year old he may be facing 2.5 to 4-years in jail. Check out the press release (translated via ZP) and more from Min »

Soledad_OBrien Soledad O'Brien

Hot off the presses: artwork promoting

Battle for Blair Mountain.

Airs 8.14 on #cnn Share pls (often!)

http://twitpic.com/5hv0b8

We turn to the National (US) ECONOMY ::: Doug Powers blogs "When I heard that CNN was bringing in psychics I just thought they needed help in determining where Eliot Spitzer’s ratings were buried, but nope — it was to talk about the future of the global finance." Read More »

BBCWorld BBC Global News

VIDEO: Difference between Bachmann and Palin

http://bbc.in/kZFGVM

THE EDITORS' BLOG has uploaded an interesting post on Bill Clinton's housing initiative, Building Back Better Communities (BBBC), which “seeks to construct housing projects across the nation of Haiti”, but upon closer examination, “seems as though the initiative won't live up to its name and in fact will build worse communities than even before the earthquake of January 12, 2010.” It's all here »

CBSi CBS Interactive

Check out this blog @Gamespot on Video

game music and get ready to hear some amazing music!

http://ow.ly/5rier

NetActive 27 June 2011

Whether one enjoys high school years or not, the yearbook is a cherished document representing four years that come to shape the future outcome of one's life.

Ms. Kurchner talked about the yearbook indident Thursday on Fly 92.3. She plans to attend Berklee School of Music in Boston after graduation. She is a singer and songwriter whose music is available online.

HOVER AND CLICK ON KURCHNER's "GOOD" PHOTO ABOVE TO SAMPLE HER MUSIC!

Kurchner's father reportedly dismissed the idea that the doctored photo was part of a publicity ploy. The yearbook company says whatever happened to the picture happened before they received it.

The Post Star newspaper account makes a yearbook misprint sound like an awful incident of cyberbullying gone too far:

The doctored photo showed senior Maya Kurchner wearing a black dress, pearl necklace and a single gold tooth.

The actual yearbook photo looks like this (you be the judge):::
Also: apparently, the student's name is also spelled (incorrectly) as Maya Kirchner.

MORE Good news to report: Principal Brett Miller tells the Times Union that all Saratoga High students who purchased yearbooks will get new copies this summer at no additional cost. Meanwhile, the New York State Police Computer Crimes Unit will look into the matter.

At the very very least, the individual(s) who perpetrated the incident should be made to make full reimbursement for the reprinting of the yearbooks. Put college on hold and get a job until every penny is repaid.

Of course these days, we are so touchy-feely that won't happen. Just like I heard a local radio talk show host Thursday afternoon whining about Albany County's cyberbullying law. Seems the host, who seemed to enjoy making fun of the new law, would rather let arrested student Marquan Mackay-Meggs go than face the music. Problem is, the kid is then more likely to get involved in a more serious crime later on down the line.

UPDATE! Yearbook Photo Removed: Altered Image?