As per my earlier post Verizon Sucks – Support net Neutrality they just proved once again why completely out of touch companies such as Verizon and Comcast should not have any significant control over the Internet. The reason is called cluelessness.

Case in point is I just received a Pay Pal phishing email and is my practice I quickly forward them to the appropriate entity. This protects those who aren’t as experienced as it gives Pay Pal for example the ability to get the offending site shut down. The sooner the malicious site is down the less likely it is that someone will have their Pay Pal account stolen.

Now the standard address for users to send such phishing attempts to for PayPal is spoof@paypal.com which I just did. HOWEVER, Verizon’s geniuses at their spam filtering service decided it was spam and blocked the email.

Which means my alert to PayPal that someone is attempting to steal PayPal accounts didn’t get to PayPal because Verizon blocked it as “spam.”

Hopefully someone else who is vigilant will notify PayPal before some grandmother innocently enters her data at the malicious site and gets ripped off.

The problem here is that it’s Spam Filtering 101 to create what’s called a white-list. White lists are just lists of email addresses that are allowed regardless of content.

One of the reasons you do this is because Internet security minded people ARE forwarding examples of malicious emails to the appropriate people such as the security folks at PayPal.

Apparently the rocket scientists at Verizon’s spam filtering haven’t gotten to that part of the text book yet.

Which is absolute proof that they shouldn’t hire freshman. A sophomore would have known this!

And why net neutrality is essential to prevent these clowns from ruining the Internet.

Wikipedia – What is Net Neutrality?

Save the Internet

“We Are Well” so starts the note the trapped miners sent to the surface. I’m assuming by now most of the on-line world is aware of the 33 miners trapped in a northern Chile copper and gold mine and awaiting rescue. A rescue that could be as long as 60-120 days in coming.

I can’t speak for anyone else but for me I’m damned impressed with the spirit and courage these guys are displaying. So much so that I created a site to let others show their support. (Please do!)

Not surprisingly the biggest concern for these men is maintaining a sound psychological state. Consider being trapped with 32 other co-workers in an area that’s about 500 square feet in size. That’s an area about 22′ x 22′ (6.7m x 6.7m). On top of being rather “limited” for space it’s darn hot. Around 95 degrees F (35C) hot. You’ve already been there almost a month now. And you’re going to be there for the next 60 to 120 days.

I have to believe a show of support from around the world would have to be of some encouragement to these men. To know how many others around the world are aware and watching and hoping and praying.

If you would please consider hopping over to Chilean Miners and making an entry in the guest book.

As soon as we start getting some entries I’ll find out how to let the people involved in the rescue aware of the guest book’s existence and perhaps they can pass that along to the trapped miners.

I’m not making any profit from this nor am I trying to. In fact hosting and building the site has already cost me a day of time and small bit of money. To me it’s trivial but well invested if others will show their support for these men.

Thanks!

Mike Shafer

The entitlement mentality here in the US is soaring to all new heights while simultaneously America continues to sink to new lows by just about every reasonable measure. Yet few see, or at least have the guts, to address the matter. The unwillingness to openly discuss the issues is certainly at least in part a function of that most idiotic of concepts known as political correctness. The former is a function of ignorance in regards to the lessons of human nature that a perusal of history so vividly reveals.

One of the most puzzling aspects of the entitlement brain is that anything, regardless of their own actions, can simply be demanded. Take the concept of respect for example. For many of this bent of thought the slightest action that isn’t glowingly positive is often taken as “dissing” (being disrespectful of) them and can often lead to mild to violent confrontation. Yet the very social entities that are typically most sensitive to this point are the same ones that make trash dumps of where they live. And who have high rates of drug and alcohol abuse, crime and internecine violence.

And there is absolutely no excuse for the behavior. What sort of poverty of the soul is it that makes people throw trash in the streets and have little regard for anyone but themselves? Lack of respect for yourself and your neighborhood is the only answer I can fathom.

Moreover only a fool believes that they can command respect. Violence against those weaker may gain compliance but not respect. Force engenders only a hidden contempt. And contempt leads to revolt.

Real respect is only gained through actions and behaviors others consider worthy. Like success in endeavors whether they be athletic, academic or business. And a demonstrated respect for ones self, their peers and neighborhood.

Ten years back the neighborhood where I currently live had clean, quiet streets. Now there is increasingly extemely loud music thumping from cars, people yelling to each other from a block a part and trash every where. This isn’t behavior that earns respect; just disdain.

As per the title I say to those who want to be respected, “earn it by walking the talk.” In looking at the America I see growing around me there’s a lot of walking to be done.

Anyone who has ever taken any concern with their physical well being, at least in the United States, has certainly encountered the incredibly flawed measure of weight to height known as the Body Mass Index. I suppose if all humans on the planet we popped from a standard mold at creation the index would be more legitimate. Given the vast variation in human physique BMI is at best a laughable joke and for many a curse that holds them as forever struggling with their weight.

On the healthier, laughable side let me use myself as the example as it’s the basis for my ire with this foolishness. Some time back (OK 20 years ago) I was an active distance runner who regularly ran 35-40 miles total per week. Whether you have ever engaged in distance running or not that likely seems like a fair amount of mileage for one week (which it is for the average slogger). And typically, as soon as you go over about 30 miles of running per week, you get what’s referred to as “marathoner’s build.” You know, those really slender people where you can see their eye muscles move. That’s about where I was then (sigh.. not now).

Now even at my leanest I have a naturally thick build. My ancestors didn’t will me those slender, petite bones all those 20 something male models have in the fashion mags and there in lies the flaw, the grievous flaw, with BMI. As the case in point I refer to above when I was my leanest running that 40 miles per week I was tested at 8-9% body fat which is *very* lean. I was 195 pounds at 72 inches of height which gives a BMI of almost 27! Yes, according to the BMI I was over-weight! Well actually I was extremely lean and fit.

In short, BMI doesn’t cut it as a measure of body fat and needs to me either dumped as a measure of physical health or at minimum reasonably altered to allow for the vast variations of human bone structure and conditioning.

The good news is that I’ve noticed a growing trend with some online BMI calculators to allow for frame (bone structure) size which at least in my SWAG (aka Scientific Wild-Assed Guess) style testing seems to give a more accurate result.

Hats off again to Randy Glasbergen (who clearly gets it) for permission to use the cartoon. For more great cartoons give Randy a visit.

So you were born about 2000+ years too late to have been one of the 300 heroic Spartan warriors that fought at Thermopylae? Not to worry because here’s your chance to be one of 300 modest heroes that helps to support a great cause, that being the Great Allegheny Passage.

On July 17-18, 2010 Venture Outdoors is sponsoring the Venture Outdoors 2010 Relay Ride to raise funds to maintain and improve the trail. As in the past two years the event will start in Georgetown with the cyclist covering the entire 184 miles of the C&O Trail in approximately 12 hours before arriving at Cumberland, MD by evening. From there other team members will “carry the flag” riding through the night the 150 miles from Cumberland, MD over the Great Allegheny Passage into Pittsburgh the following morning.

As a team member who will be riding from Cumberland to Pittsburgh (how come I’m doing this riding at night thing again for the 3rd. time ??? ) I’ve committed to raising a minimum of $550 in donations.

And I need your help.

A number of generous donors, including First Commonwealth Bank, have already “stepped up to the plate” and made donations of just short of $250. I need $300 to reach the goal. A friend suggested it would be super-cool if 300 people each donated just $1. That would be really cool.

Will you help and be one of the 300?

I can’t put all your names on the t-shirt but I can list them here if you like.

Here’s How to Help

No amount is to small. Grab change off the dresser, stuff two bucks in an envelope, send a check or click the PayPal link. Whatever works for you will be most appreciated. Let me clarify that I’m committed to paying the $550 and if donations fall short of that amount I make up the difference.

I’m making the commitment because I have more than enough faith that donors will come through to sponsor my participation. Even just a little helps a lot so please lend a hand and make a donation whether large or small. Even $1.00 by PayPal is very cool.

- If you have questions or to contact me privately email Mike

- To send a sponsorship donation via US mail:

Mike Shafer
2148 Ardmore Blvd.
Suite 2
Pittsburgh, PA 15221

While I don’t recommend sending cash via the US mail it’s your call of course. If you would rather send a check please make it payable to “Venture Outdoors”.

- Donate by PayPal:

Given the time limitations I haven’t been able to set up a separate PayPal account so I am using my business one temporarily. Any donations made will be listed on the donation form provided by Venture Outdoors and I will then make a check for the total to give to V.O.

To donate using PayPal:

1. Click the “Donation” button below to be taken to PayPal

2. Enter the amount you wish to donate and click the “Update Total” button.

3. Log into your PayPal account.

One last thing. If you donate (or even if not) please leave a comment encouraging others. This about a community sharing something fun together.

Thanks Again!

That is one pissed off kitty. Guess he got tossed in the drink and isn’t real happy with that fact. But then no matter how ticked he is irrelevant. He’s still wet; in the water and needs to swim out of the situation to survive. In other words, suck it up and get the job done.

For those not familiar with the term, “suck it up” is defined by one online source (urbandictionary.com) as:

“To endure a period of mental, physical, or emotional hardship with no complaining.”

or as per the second definition:

“To cope with something unpleasant without complaining–usually because you have no choice.”

I would say that about gets it right.

I sent this picture to a number of friends and associates around the world in reference to the current world economic slowdown and the results were interesting. A lot found it amusing but the only group that universally found it funny were US business owners. A result that got me thinking about why that would be and is there anything of value in that observation.

OK, first for all the obsessive statisticians out there no the data set isn’t sufficient to really draw a conclusion to satisfy the requirements of Statistics 101. But then I learned a long time back it’s this sort of “gut stuff” that matters in business and besides I never met any rich statisticians. As per my earlier post, Opportunity Knocks, one of my beliefs is that successful entrepreneurs learn how to laugh at most of what life throws at you and move on. Be it an unexpected toss in the “drink” (as per our ticked off kitty) or a round of financial pain known as bankruptcy. They find a way to reasonably deal with the adversity and keep focused on the core issue of building the business.

When I was an active kayaker I had my share of “unexpected tosses in the drink” ( as in swimming in big rapids because you weren’t successful in rolling the capsized kayak) and just a year ago at the end of December 2008 I had to file for personal and business bankruptcy. A combination of economic slow-down and credit card practices that amount to a legalized criminal cartel in the US finally took their toll. My problem was I wasn’t a Wall Street banker or a well connected executive of a failed major corporation so I had to file bankruptcy instead of receiving government aid and bonuses but I digress.

This year (2009) I’m well into a solid rebound by redefining my consulting business and expanding into several new areas. And that picture above is my current background for my main Linux work station. That’s right, about 20 times a day when I see my desktop I’m reminded to “Suck it Up, Cupcake” and get on with being successful. What happened last week doesn’t matter.

Some folks will find all this rather “edgy”; in other words confrontational and lacking politesse. But there I believe is one of the traditional core attitudes that in general used to, and still may, make American businesses so successful. They knew (perhaps still know) how to “suck it up” when hard times hit and ultimately get the positive results. Wimps, whiners and victims be damned.

Preface: This little rant is somewhat for fun but contains a serious message. The large corporations like Comcast and Verizon who are now major players in providing Internet access would like to have a high level of control over the Internet. It was the openness and unfettered freedom of the Internet that has given birth to so many unique and successful ideas. Allowing large bureaucratic entities to have a high degree of control does not bode well for future innovation and economic development. Economic development that the US and other economies badly need. — Mike Shafer

As if you really didn’t know that the major service companies like Verizon really suck when it comes to having a clue about technology, at least Internet technology, let me not so gently burst your bubble. Having done IT consulting part time since 1986 and full time since 2002 I’ve developed a particularly strong dislike for the PHBs (Dilbertian Pointy-Haired Bosses – Exhibit 1 below) that make the “less than optimal” decisions that we “consumers” have to live with.

Exhibit 1: A Pointy-haired boss

For example Verizon has in the past been dubbed the master hell hole of spam bots since a high percentage of their Internet subscribers are relatively unaware users running some flavor of that security sieve called Windows with no or outdated anti virus software.

In response Verizon decides to force everyone to send out bound email on port 587 to utilize the authentication method in that service. In other words you have to logon to the Verizon mail server using a login name and password before the server will accept the out bound mail. Not a problem and in all a good thing to cut down on home machines infected with spam bots that are happily spewing out junk mail for all sorts of obnoxious topics on the standard SMTP (out bound mail) port 25.

However things turn to a posture of recto-cranial inversion (head up tush) when they simultaneously utilize an overly restrictive spam filtering service which for me has been nothing short of a complete PITA (Pain-in-the-ass for those of you not familiar with such idiomatic speech and acronyms) at times.

Exhibit two in the prosecution is the following, very time sensitive email I attempted to send to a fellow with whom I collaborate in the area of IT consulting.

NOTE: the hxxp and fake url below is intentional to keep this from appearing to be a broken link to Google’s search engine spider.

=== Begin Obviously Spammy Email:

Hey Tom,

CCL teleseminar in a few minutes. I’m probably just going to grab the
replay but thought you might want to grab it live.

hxxp://www.some-domain-name-here.com

Cheers!

Mike S.

=== End email

And this isn’t the first one. How much simpler can an email get and it was sent to one recipient. But I couldn’t get it to my associate in a timely manner because Verizon’s spam filtering decided “THIS IS SPAM.” Who in the hell are the people running these spam filters is what I want to know. Has to be the suits as no real geek could be that bad! And that’s the core point. The people who understand the technology (the Geeks) for the most part aren’t the ones making the decisions. Which is why we have to be on guard against letting *ANY* large group with it’s own agenda from having any major control over the Internet.

If you needed ANY other reason to keep the major players like Verizon and Comcast from having too much control over the Internet than this should do it. If not then please take a few minutes and visit Save the Internet. Ah hech why not visit it anyway!

• What is Net Neutrality?
• Save the Internet