Technical Tidbits™

Archive for the ‘Rants’ Category

Nothing like a B#llsh@t email to get my blood boiling first thing in the morning!  Heads up! This is a rant!

I received an email from YouTube saying someone sent me a personal message on my Channel. So, I went in to accept some friend invitations and opened the personal message.  Here’s the message but I’m not going to honor this person by giving out his link!

Hi, I see that youre an internet marketer like I am.

Not to worry, I am not going to try an pitch you on a business:) I hate when people do that to me!

I have some information that will EXPLODE whatever business or opportunity youre trying to advertise or promote. This is serious, no joke!

I have done most of my advertising with payperclick (Google Adwords) and (Yahoo Search Marketing) for years! I have since closed both of my accounts, I don’t need them anymore!

I now advertise on Google, Yahoo, MSN, etc, for FREE, No Paid Advertising Ever!

I was very skeptical at first, but this works!

Check out: http://www.bsmarketinglink/  (Not real!)

Drop me a line sometime.

Take Care…
Jerry

How feaking stupid do you think I am Mr. Internet Marketer? Don’t insult my intelligence while you’ve got your hand in my pocket!

First of all, you obviously paid no attention to my channel or anything said about me there because you would know I’m NOT an Internet Marketer!

Secondly, you’re not giving me a sales pitch? What the hell is that then?

And this is just a typical example of typical Internet Marketer’s B.S. But it’s not just Internet marketer’s that are guilty of this. Regular businesses are too.

Do your freaking research people!

Don’t label me! Yes, I may be the “age group” of the Baby Boomer’s. But do I look like I’m ready to kick the bucket? Do I talk like I’m retiring soon? Do you READ ANYTHING I say? Do you REALLY look at any of my websites? No! You obviously don’t.

Don’t send me crap through email or regular snail mail until you do your homework! Because if you insult me through your lack of research, I will throw your marketing message in the recycling bin or garbage – depending upon the venue in which it was delivered.

AARP, shove your invitations to join. I’ve read the news. You offer great low car insurance to get people to join and then you jack up the rates after you’ve got them on board. Secondly, I am a smart consumer. You are a lobbying group. Supposedly you are lobbying on behalf of seniors. RIGHT! I’ve seen what you’ve done with your lobbying efforts.

Health Insurance companies, don’t send me any offers to join your company because even though according to you I’m a baby boomer and reaching my “old age”, if you truly bothered to research me, you’d know that I’m a holistic practitioner and I don’t believe in medical insurance. What? Yes, you read that right! If I do happen to need my physician, I pay cash for my visit but for the most part, I heal holistically and naturally – myself! The body is equipped to do that without lining your pockets with profits by making me unhealthy.

And while I’m on this rant, that goes for you too President Obama, and the entire government. (I warned you this was a rant!) Keep your health care reform until you do what is right for the people of this planet and that would be educating them and supporting a healthy lifestyle!

I’ve also received emails from folks saying they’ve looked over our website and find it very “this” or very “that”. You DIDN’T LOOK! Because the “this” or “that” you mentioned in your email does not even remotely fit with what we do or what our website says.

And that goes for the Internet marketers on twitter too! If you send me a DM (direct message) promoting that male chauvinist pig, Donald Trump, I will remove you immediately!

One last gripe and I think I’m done. A note to MySpace predators: I am not a lonely, desperate woman looking for someone to love me.  I really believe that you are the gorgeous looking man in the picture, who’s wife died and left you with a young child to take care of (who’s in your picture also), and that you just happen to be away in Nigeria on business. Yea, right! I believe in extra terrestrials more than I believe that!

If you are going to stick your hand in my pocket and want me to line yours at least have the freaking decency to do so intelligently!

Thank you. I feel much better now!

“If you don’t stand for something you will fall for anything.” Malcolm X

While I do not agree with some of the methods Malcolm X used to get his point across, I do agree and admire the fact that he took a stand for what he believed in.

I have a tendency to lean towards the statement made by Mahatma Ghandi who said, “In a gentle way, you can shake the world.”

I’ve seen a lot of behavior on the Internet lately that is disturbing me and since MICE has rededicated its commitment to education, it’s time I stand for something.

I wrote a post today on my metaphysical blog about an incident that occurred in a chat room in MySpace Bingo.  And the more I thought about this incident throughout the morning, the more I started seeing some disturbing connections around me.

Specifically, the Internet is a global community of participants from all parts of the planet.

There are writer’s, websites, blogs, and shops with Christian’s, Jew’s, Gnostic’s, Muslim’s, Atheist’s, Buddhist’s, and on it goes until you have every religious belief – or lack thereof – represented.  There is a wealth of information and commentary about politics, news, food, conspiracy theory and everything in between.  And we have rants and opinions being broadcast on Internet radio, YouTube, blogs, and so on that cover everything from Fascism to Utopia with again – everything between.

The beauty of the Internet as this global community is that it offers people the venue to speak what is on their mind and find other like people with which to communicate with. And that’s important to keeping our Internet a place of Freedom and free speech!

However, with freedom comes responsibility.

Each and every one of us has a responsibility to the entire Internet Community to be responsible users of this resource.

Freedom is a two-edged sword. The same freedom that allows you to post a rant about President Obama’s speech also affords an Obama supporter to post a glowing review of the same.  To restrict or to call for censoring of any single opinion or view is a direct hit to your individual freedoms!

If some post or opinion doesn’t agree with yours, you have a choice. Click off the page! No one has a gun to your head making you read it! Click away.

I am appalled and sickened by some of the comments and posts I’ve seen from people lately. People extolling the virtues of their view while crushing another all in the name of Free Speech! Guess what? Those people have a right to express their views also! That very same freedom that gives you your right, gives them theirs!

We also have the responsibility of educating ourselves in discerning what is real news and what is opinion, commentary, or just plain out comic relief or satire.

Have you ever noticed how 3 people could be watching the same event, let’s just use an accident for example, and each person comes away seeing something totally different? You hear it repeatedly on the news when eye witnesses are interviewed after a major accident or event in their neighborhood.

If all these people are seeing the EXACT same event, yet describing it differently, who’s right?

The point is, they all are! They are seeing the accident and reporting on it from their view. We all bring our own slant, judgments, beliefs, prejudices, and past experiences into what we see. That’s science.

But what’s important is knowing that this is true! And knowing when you are seeing, reading, or hearing something from someone’s view and NOT taking it as the real truth.

Opinions are like a**holes, everyone has one! And on the Internet you will find every single one of them – opinions and a**holes! (Pardon my use of language to get my point across.)

While even I point you to some of the news, my blog posts are opinions. My opinions based on how long I’ve been on the Internet, how long I’ve been in technology, how long I’ve been teaching, and how much I’ve seen in all those years. My opinions are shaded and clouded by my experiences with companies like Microsoft, McAfee, and the like. And my opinions are colored by my disillusionment with academia.

As human beings, we need to remember to question everything – even our leaders and teachers – and never take anything at face value! That’s just downright good common sense!

We’ve seen throughout history charismatic leaders who’ve become tyrants because of the blind faith of  their followers. We’ve seen science thwarted by the beliefs of religious leaders who also used tyranny to keep people in line despite the evidence to the contrary.  And we’ve seen genocide and oppression of our fellow human beings occur under our noses while the Internet community continues to declare its freedom and claims a watchful eye on the world.

The age of information has brought us an explosion of words, ideas, and beliefs. From doe-eyed political candidates to hate and fear mongers. But it is your responsibility to separate the wheat from the chaff.  (And for those who do not understand what that phrase means, I provided the link – to educate you not to look down on you! There’s a difference!)

People like Glen Beck and Rush Limbaugh are not the mouth pieces of the Republican party nor are they news reporters.  And Democrats are not socialists! Socialists are socialists and if you don’t know the difference, you should really look that up!

Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart are not news reporters their shows are on Comedy Central! The same network that brings you the comedians on the Blue Collar Tour! (AKA Redneck Comedy)

Bill Maher is on HBO – not the nightly news!HBO is the same network that brought you Sex in the City and True Blood. If Bill Maher’s a news reporter, than there are vampires living among us!

And even the nightly news you watch is slanted based on the political opinions of the owners of the station. That is why you get so much disparity between television stations! Do your own experiment.  Record on your DVR Fox News and another major station like MSN, CNN, ABC, or CBS. Watch them both one right after the other. What’s the difference in the way two of the same stories are presented? Do you see their lean to the left, right, or down the middle? You’ll find the same thing in newspapers!

With freedom comes great responsibility. There is no greater responsibility you have than to yourself. You owe it to yourself and to the entire Internet community to educate yourself and afford the same freedom to other Internet users that you so aptly insist on affording yourself!

Debbie Mahler

As promised, here’s the story about the cheap shot Richard Mead, a member of the Symantec Corporation Group at LinkedIn took at me after we published our DriveBy Download Killer.

My response to his message was, “I’m glad I can keep you entertained.”

Here’s the message and if you click the image, you will see the full image of my LinkedIn account in my browser, lest I get accused of manipulating this message!

(Click on the graphic to see the full screen view)

According to his profile, Richard Mead is Manager, Enterprise Backline Support at Symantec.  A manager, no less!

Self-acclaimed teacher about hacking? EXCUSE ME!?

Very professional Dude! Very professional! Does trying to make other people feel small make you feel like the big man? Or is it because I’m a woman that you think you can get away with this kind of trash talking?

You are not only a discredit to your gender but a discredit to the profession and the company you supposedly represent!

Symantec, am I to assume that this man represents your opinion of me and our company? Or does he speak from his a** on his own? I’d really like to know!

I am not a self-acclaimed instructor about hacking. My credentials can be seen at colleges and Universities globally in the online catalog at Ed2go.  I’ll even provide you the link!

Introduction to PC Security

Advanced PC Security

Over the years, I’ve had students from all walks of life, including: police officers, IT professionals, Network Administrators, teachers, government officials,  FBI agents, and maybe even some of your co-workers prior to their taking certifications take my courses! I’ve received nothing but praise and repeated gratitude for what I teach!

I teach on this site privately for individuals and companies who want to have unlimited access to their courses, don’t want the time limit constraints placed on them due to their schedules, and want direct access to their instructors through live chat, phone, and e-mail.

And even if I did just teach on this site alone, who gave you the right to judge me and my qualifications?

In my enthusiasm to get our first application out there, I may have presented it wrong in your eyes and others. I’m going to correct that with our next revision. But many of the people who have already downloaded it, have been subscribers here since our site first appeared in 1997 and almost all are former students of mine or clients of our company.

But you wouldn’t know that because you’ve got your Corporate nose so far up in the air that it’s a wonder you don’t trip and hurt yourself!

You, Richard Mead, are a rude, crude, socially unacceptable, arrogant, egotistical, ass.

And even in saying that, I’m being polite!

I expect a full, public apology from either you, your company – Symantec, or both. And you can better believe, they are going to hear about it from me!

I might also recommend that you sir, take my course. Because one of the things the recently revised Introduction to PC Security course teaches is how to cover your assets on Social Networking sites because it can come back to bite you.

But I’m sure you don’t think you need it, because I’m sure you’re thinking that this little e-mail message, to a self-acclaimed hacking teacher, will never come back to haunt you.  I guess we’ll just have to see how powerful the social network can be because this feed not only goes to my tweeple on twitter, but it also gets published on my LinkedIn Profile and my FaceBook page! And I just never know who’s going to pick up this story in my Digg account, FriendFeed, or StumbleUpon; or who  might republish it with commentary of their own about how employees of major corporations should never be rude to others on social networking sites! It really reflects poorly on the corporation you represent.

This is even a PERFECT example for newspapers and television stations who want to reiterate their stories on how your social networking blunders can hurt you!

Readers & Students! Don’t forget to catch me on BlogTalk Radio live, today at 11:30 AM CDT!