Wednesday, May 29, 2013

TechnoGrannyShow, 13 Unlucky Ways that Criminals Use Social Media & Prevention

TechnoGranny

Topic: Ways criminals use social media + prevention tips

Are those who refuse to use Social Media because they don't want to be exposed on the internet paranoid? Maybe not! Are you too casual with what you post on social media? Probably! From the ordinary threats like PHISHING and MALWARE to Affinity Scams and Cybercasing and Cyberstalking find out how you may be exposing yourself easily to the criminal mind. It may not be today, it may not be tomorrow that your careless info is used but remember how long that info stays on the net. Listen in so that you can learn to be more vigilant.

To Get the Full Story Listen Here:

It's not just about protecting your passwords!

With online users consistently tasked with sharing more personal information -- and generally receiving less disclosure about it -- just who can access that information becomes difficult to tell. This culture of sharing, whether purposeful or not, can leave users vulnerable to criminal attack, a topic that I have explored before with regard to Facebook Friends and who you accept and also Identity Theft.

Like many of us, I have a friend who refuses to use social media, convinced the sites make it too easy for the government and criminals to keep track of individuals. Though that may seem farfetched, there is much research to shed light on criminal activity on the web.

For example, users who openly discuss not being at home in posts on Twitter might as well leave their doors unlocked. While sharing your plans to take in a play may seem innocent, it allows for cybercriminals to gather all the information they need if they want to rob an empty house, particularly when coupled with the sophisticated software they can use to amalgamate data.


Is that gift worth exposing your vacant home?

In the same vein, although I advise my marketing clients to offer rewards for geo-checkins into locations via FourSquare while they may be good for businesses, I stay away from that practice I caution you to consider the same as to not make it easy for potential cyberstalkers to narrow down interests and locations frequented by specific users. When you are tweeting or posting that you are leaving for the beach, you might want to consider who is staying behind to watch the family homestead. After all considering how easy technology has made it to harvest information, many criminals now case their prey exclusively online.

When it comes to attempted online crime, I can speak from experience. In fact, were it not for my online savvy, one of my close friends could have lost a thousand dollars through a fraudulent Craigslist transaction. You can hear this story on the show.

"Cyber casing" often goes unnoticed.

Some of the things that I discuss on this show: Now ubiquitous term, phishing, which, at its root, simply refers to trying to attain personal information from an online user through deceptive means. Since phishing scams are well-publicized, their success rates remain quite low, but, with such a high volume of attempts, just a few successful schemes can net a profit for online crooks.

Another information outlet criminals can prey upon is geotagging. Many pictures and videos posted online contain easily accessible metadata that contains the geographic coordinates that content was shot at. While such information is used for a public feature like Instagram's photo maps, it is also of great interest to criminals. There are studies that show how quickly and accurately geotagging can lead a criminal to a target.

Not every internet pitfall has a warning.

Aside from discussing several more studies and methods of online criminals, I offer several tips on how to stay safe online. Personally, I abstain from connecting with anyone I do not know on sites like LinkedIn. I keeps my birthday off social networks and proactively claim my name on social networks to protect against the threat of profile cloning, or the act of posing as an individual on social networks, maybe in an attempt to commit affinity fraud (scheming family and friends through the trust of knowing someone personally).

I offer additional tips, too, underlining the importance of choosing a strong password and exercising care when using third party sites and applications, amongst other safeguards.

This blog post can be reproduced in its entirety with the following information:

Dreamweaver Marketing Associates, Pittsburgh, Pa. 15230, 412-628-5048

Listen at: http://tinyurl.com/TechnoGrannyShow

Or on its unique radio channel at:

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Additional blog posts at: http://technogrannyshow.com

Joanne Quinn-Smith is the Creative Energy Officer of Dreamweaver Marketing Associates in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and an expert on Web 2.0 Branding.

2009 SBA Small Business Journalist of the Year

Tuesday, May 28, 2013

TechnoGrannyShow, Can You Really Make Ethanol at Home for $1.00 Per Gallon?

Do-It-Yourself Ethanol

Title: Techno Granny, Can You Really Make Ethanol at Home for $1.00 Per Gallon?

05/27/2013
Episode Notes: Techno Granny has been following the release of EFuel100 MicroFueler(TM) from a Business Wire since 2008. It looks like it is finally here. So if you have a vehicle that can run on Ethanol, you might want to listen in. We are just going to talk about what the company has put out there so far in information and hope we can get one of the principals on at a later date.

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger unveiled the fuel maker in 2012 and it is apparently shipping. If you are in Callifornia this is a reality but what about the rest of the country? Perhaps it's a good investment opp for someone who would like to be a distributor? The company gives seminars on the opportunity.

At least we can investigate our options. Listen in for a few for a teaser on making your own fuel at home. For those do it yourselfers who make their own wine or home brew, it just might not be a stretch to think about making your own fuel.

Listen to Show Here

The world's first home ethanol system, which allows consumers to create their own ethanol and pump it directly into their cars, was unveiled by the E-Fuel Corporation in 2008. The EFuel100 MicroFueler(TM) was the first product that allowed consumers of all sizes to reduce their dependency on oil, greatly diminish their carbon footprint and produce fuel for under $1.00 per gallon.

The MicroFueler is a leading edge product that allows consumers to create ethanol, simply and safely, with the readily available ingredients of sugar, yeast and water, and a standard household 110-220 AC power supply. Cars running on sugar-based ethanol produce 85% fewer carbon emissions than gasoline. Businesses, such as breweries, bars and restaurants can even use discarded alcohol beverages to create ethanol, for as little as $0.10 per gallon.

The portable MicroFueler works on a user-friendly LCD touch screen interface and hose pumping system found at the corner gas station—your own gas pump at home.

The E-Fuel Corporation was founded in March 2007 by Tom Quinn and ethanol scientist Floyd Butterfield to create efficient micro ethanol refinery products for people who want to break their dependency on oil. As chairman of E-Fuel, a privately held company, Quinn at that time had solely funded the company.

E-Fuel creates ethanol micro refinery products that conform to U.S. safety and durability standards and include modern safety features. E-Fuel products are available for purchase online and through a network of worldwide resellers. For more information, visit http://www.microfueler.com/

That was the news in 2008, Fast forward to Today

2012: The final production model of the revolutionary MicroFueler was unveiled to the world by California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger in Sacramento, CA. (See the official press release and the Governor's comments.) The enhanced MicroFueler builds upon the original MicroFueler announced in New York in March of 2008. Enhancements include substantial reductions in size (60%) and weight (80%), and 24x7 user accessible monitoring via the Internet. The MicroFueler now "phones home" whenever it needs attention for service by the dealer or ready-to-report status when desired by the owner.

More at: http://www.microfueler.com/

Depending upon your particular circumstances, E-Fuel has different scenarios to offer with regard to purchase and support of the MicroFueler. You can purchase the self sufficient model for $40,000.00 and a $99.00 per year maintainance plan or you can purchase the distributor serviced model for just under $10,000.00

(1) Self-sufficient user: Such a customer is one who has their own source for organic fuel (waste feedstock) or does not require an organic fuel supply service by one of our distributors. Such a customer is typically self supporting (i.e. a brewery, farmer, educational institution, etc.) and requires minimal support from E-Fuel. In such cases, E-Fuel offers our "Ethanol Producer Service Kit" for a one time cost of $40,000 which includes a MicroFueler (MFC200-001), Fermentation Tank (OFT200-001) and 5 days of expert on-site training (travel and expenses additional). The training is tailored to your specific feedstock processing needs and production targets. Click here if this is your situation.

Claim is that you can make this fuel for $1.00 per gallon.

Assuming you use a tank of gas a week which is about 15 gallons and you now pay $3.60 per gallon.

You could save $2020.00 a year so it would only take you twenty years to liquidate the cost of the machine. That’s for a self sustaining machine. So you would probably need multiple vehicles as in a fleet or a farm to make this sustainable.

Is ethanol really more eco-friendly than gas?

Ethanol Controversy

In its current status as a low-percentage fuel additive, the benefits of ethanol are obvious. Since ethanol contains a lot of oxygen in its chemical structure, it burns pretty cleanly. Added in small amounts (typically one part ethanol, nine parts gasoline) to the gasoline that fuels our cars, it reduces greenhouse emissions like carbon monoxide and nitrogen oxides. Argonne National Laboratory reports an approximate 10-ton (9.07-metric ton) decrease in greenhouse-gas emissions resulting from the use of ethanol fuel in 2007 alone [source: Biofuels Digest]. A 2006 study in Wisconsin showed 16 percent fewer high-ozone days since the 1994 introduction of 10-90 fuel [source: Ethanol].
From blog by Julia Layton http://auto.howstuffworks.com/fuel-efficiency/alternative-fuels/ethanol-facts1.htm

Also from the same blog post:
According to Cornell University professor of agriculture David Pimentel, producing ethanol actually creates a net energy loss. According to his calculations, producing corn and processing it into 1 gallon (3.7 liters) of ethanol requires 131,000 BTUs of energy; but 1 gallon of ethanol contains only 77,000 BTUs [source: Health and Energy]. And since farmers are using fossil-fuel-powered equipment to plant, maintain and harvest the corn and are using fossil-fuel-powered machinery to process that corn into ethanol and then, in almost all cases, to ship the product to collection points via fuel-powered transport, the ethanol industry is actually burning large amounts of gasoline to produce this alternative fuel. That ethanol could end up containing less energy than the gasoline consumed to produce it. Read more here http://auto.howstuffworks.com/fuel-efficiency/alternative-fuels/ethanol-facts1.htm

Questions and assumptions raised by TechnoGranny and participants in chat room and call in by Capricious, Author of Continuous Learning Forum.

1. You could end up using more oil just in preparation, growing and processing of plants or sugar that lend themselves to creating ethanol.

2. The only way this would work is if the Micro Fueler basically works on garbage, grass clippings, rotted fruit, manure.

3. Finally, as with the Model T when it first drove the roads of the U.S., Where do you find filling stations of your own. Will you need a map for stations that serve ethanol, how prevalent is it. At time of this writing in Kentucky, caller mentioned that ethanol was not available in Kentucky.

4. However we did find online confirmation that ethanol sells for around $2.00 in Nebraska but then gas is a lot cheaper there also.