The Tragic Australian Bushfires

I live in New Zealand, by all accounts we are just next door to Australia and we have been saturated by the shocking TV images of the bushfire's raging across Victoria.

I really hope that the firefighters manage to bring the devastating fires under control and allow the people to return to their homes safely.

This is not a good time for the lucky country, in a cruel twist of fate there are also floods raging across the north of the country in Queensland. I am glad to see that Kevin Rudd has suspended parliament and I hope that if someone indeed did start these fires, that they are brought to justice quickly and tried for the mass murderers that they are.

NZ Herald > : BBC News > : Sydney Morning Herald >

Bloody Aussies.

This is one of those things that make me glad that I live in New Zealand, bloody Aussies!
Hilarious!

Anonymous Surfing? Check your Digital Footprint

We all do it, we surf the web and we leave footprints. A Digital Footprint is a term used to describe the digital traces that we leave behind on the world wide web.

In the organisation that I work in, I have reminded staff of the traces they leave behind when visiting websites and leaving their mark on them. This is important because a few slips of the keyboard and an individual can easily bring their organisation into disrepute.

The most basic footprint of all is your I.P. Address.

Every single computer in the world has a unique identifying number (address) and from this IP number you can find out several things about a person when their IP number has been recorded online. The information collected includes your operating system, geographic location, what ISP you are using, how long your visit was, what path you took to the recorded online site, where you went afterward and how many times you come back.

Google Analytics is a great example of how someone can track and trace your visit to a specific website. The level of detail this information contains is incredible, legal and slightly scary.

According to Wikipedia : In an online environment a footprint can be stored by a user being logged into a site when making a post or edit, that registered name gets connected to the edit.

Two years go I caught out someone who was trying to defraud my organisation by amending the terms and conditions on their website after we had agreed to them. I simply checked an Internet cache of what their indexed web page looked like a week before and of course, the terms and conditions were different. Fraud.

Very recently, I was able to successfully trace a username who left a suspicious comment online. A few queries to google later I was able to retrieve their full name, age, location, birth country and even a list of their facebook friends!

I believe everyone should regularly Google their name, username, email address and aliases just to find out how much detailed personal information there is about you online.

Bear in mind that the information on the Internet are just billboards on the highway, they are already there, they are not hidden. If you have anything about you on the net, the information is already more public than you can imagine.

Just remember, as you surf, consider those footprints and think before you say something stupid.

Joke: Hell is not so bad

One day a guy dies and finds himself in hell. As he is wallowing in despair, he has his first meeting with the devil...

Satan: 'Why so glum?'

Guy: 'What do you think? I'm in hell!'

Satan: 'Hell's not so bad. We actually have a lot of fun down here.

You a drinking man?'

Guy: 'Sure, I love to drink.'

Satan: 'Well, you're gonna love Mondays then. On Mondays, that's all
we do is drink. Whiskey, tequila, Guinness, wine coolers, Tab and Fresca. We drink 'til we throw up, and then we drink some more!
And you don't have to worry about getting a hangover, because you're dead anyway.'

Guy: 'Gee that sounds great!'

Satan: 'You a smoker?'

Guy: 'You better believe it'

Satan: 'All right! You're gonna love Tuesdays We get the finest cigars
from all over the world, and smoke our lungs out. ;If you
get cancer - no biggie, you're already dead, remember?'

Guy: 'Wow...that's awesome!'

Satan: 'I bet you like to gamble.'

Guy: 'Why, yes, as a matter of fact I do.'

Satan: 'Good, 'cause Wednesdays you can gamble all you want. Craps,
blackjack, roulette, poker, slots, whatever. If you go bankrupt, it
doesn't matter, you're dead anyhow.'

Guy: 'Cool!'

Satan: 'What about drugs?'

Guy: 'Are you kidding? Love drugs! You don't mean...?'

Satan: 'That's right! Thursday is drug day. Help yourself to a great
big bowl of crack or smack. Smoke a doobie the size of a submarine.
You can do all the drugs you want. You're dead so who cares.'

Guy: 'Wow! I never realized Hell was such a cool place!'

Satan: 'You gay?'

Guy: 'No...'

Satan: 'Oooo, Fridays are gonna be tough...'

Ruffling Feathers in the Blogosphere.

Ruffle (someone's) feathers, to make someone annoyed or upset. Etymology: based on the idea of a bird whose feathers are not smooth because of fear or excitement.

Well it certainly appears that the above is very very true.
One of my blog posts that I published a couple of weeks ago has managed to garner quite some attention by people on both sides of the argument. See the offending blog post here >>

6 months ago if someone talked to me about 'blogs' I probably would have yawned, but now I can see how blogs can be eye-opening. Once upon a time, many people would have thought that the Internet was only fun and entertaining where there was rich media, videos, interactive games to be had. Even I would not have expected that a few words on a blog post would generate readers and make some of them upset. I thought that job was left to controversial journalists and perhaps celebrities.

The Internet is an incredible tool for free speech!

Keep on Blogging.

London Snow !

Those lucky Londoners, I cannot beleive that they are being caked in a sea of the white stuff!

I guess a lot of them wont feel so lucky though, but it sure looks pretty doesn't it? A few inches of snow brings such a huge city to a standstill but I can see why, "they ain't used to it!"

I reminds me of what happens in Canada a lot. Places like Nova Scotia and New brunswick get tonnes of snow every year but as soon as a few inches fall in New York, it hits the headlines! Lol.

I hope those London kids enjoy it coz I reckon its going to be a while before London gets any more.