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Yearly Archive: 2008

Wanderings > 2008

Thanksgiving Over?

December 6, 2008 Faith

Not the way I see it. Everyday should be a reason for giving thanks. It's kinda too bad that people make a big deal about Thanksgiving Day, and then try to stumble through the rest of the year.

If you have ever suffered any disaster in your life – fire, auto accident, major surgery, etc. then you know what it feels like to "be better." Too many people forget how bad it was, and only want to moan about how bad it is now. I won't talk about the "guy with no legs", but forget about the people around you who are having problems. Look instead to where you have been, and be thankful that you are not in that particular pit right now.

The Apostle Paul, over and over again reminded the early church and us that we need to be

  1. Thankful wherever we are
  2. Give thanks to God for everything
  3. When you ask God for anything, do it with thanks!

So, when do we stop saying "Thanks?"

Are Facebook and MySpace Good Ideas?

December 5, 2008 News, Technology

Seems that nothing is safe from scammers and other bad people. If you think all those people who are your "friends" are really your friends, you might want to think again. If you have ever gotten an anonymous invitation to accept someone as your friend, then you may have fallen for the scam – and that's just the beginning of the tower of trouble.

IT World's headline reads "Why you can't trust 'friends' on Facebook". They even walk you through how the scam is done. Think about how many people can access your MySpace or Facebook page and see all your friends. From there, it's an easy jump to who knows what. Watch yourselves, it's a jungle out there – and you don't have any weapons except common sense.

Teacher Almost Jailed

December 5, 2008 News

Twice this week, there have been enewsletters about the Connecticut teacher who almost went to jail for "porn in the classroom". As you know, I am no champion for most public school teachers, but in this case, the poor lady lost her teaching credential because of "malware".

Malware is the bad software that can infect computers – yours and mine, if we are not vigilant about anti-virus and anti-adware. To top it off, she was not even the regular teacher in this classroom, so the computer wasn't even hers.

You can read the the report by Robert Cringeley or the followup piece in IT World. The teacher is Julie Amero, and contrary to what you might see on CSI, there were no intelligent crime scene investigators in this case. Outside security consultants – on their own – took on the case. Their investigation found several things, but the biggest was that the school district's own policies prevented Julie from being protected.

Truly a case of bumbling – poor computer security, poor police work and poor investigation of the evidence. Too bad they took her credential and then granted an appeal. She will never teach again, but who knows who will be struck next.

The real issue here was not "bad" teacher, but rather bad malware that popped up those pictures, on someone elses computer which she just happened to be using.

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