My WitzEnd

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noreply@blogger.com (Annette Witzel) — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 20:44:00 +0000

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Socially Ambiguous Ethics on Social Media: aka "When is is justifiable to hack someone's Facebook?"

noreply@blogger.com (Annette Witzel) — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 18:04:00 +0000

I'm no girl scout. I will never claim to be an angel. Yet when it comes to other people's privacy, I draw the line.

If I'm working with a client and they need to log in to something, I turn my head out of respect for that person. Not that I have any spare hours in the day to break into someone's email, mind you -- but the mere idea of invading a client's privacy is a no-go zone for me. I don't hack, don't want to learn to hack, and find it incredibly offensive for the rare individual to assume that all computer professionals are inherent hackers. I had this sweet little old lady neighbor, many years ago, who I helped on a daily basis, turn to me one day and tell me that her electricity got turned off because of some computer malfunction at the power company... and asked me if I hacked in to her account.

I choked on my tea. She was 84 years old and knew absolutely nothing about computers. She heard the power company say "computer malfunction" and immediately thought of the only person she knew that worked on computers; me. So I tried not to take offense at the question and calmly explained to her the reality of the situation.

Someone I know, in the last year, decided to blithely inform me that he was a spammer and could easily harvest all our emails and eat up our bandwidth, just for fun. That immediately rankled me and I let loose with both barrels -- this is not something I condone under any circumstances. His relative, in an effort to save face, scrambled to claim he was kidding. He did not. In fact, he didn't speak another word. That, to me, spoke volumes.

Now I'm faced with another ethical issue; the issue of social media. Is it ever ethical to hack into a friend or family member's profile, for the purpose of removing something you don't like?

Naturally, I say no. Apparently my moral compass appears to point true north more often that the ones that show up for church every sunday.

Hacking into ANYTHING is a moral minefield. We all know if you hack into a bank or a government institution, you're going to jail for a long time. Yet somehow, hacking into your friend's MySpace page is considered okay? Why, because there's no money involved, no national security to compromise?

I'm on Facebook. I take my privacy seriously. And if someone I know, decides to hack into another's profile, well, that does tremendous damage to my respect for that person. Trust is gone; it doesn't matter if it was my page or someone else's. But the only punishment for such an offense is banishment from Facebook. Big Deal. People that hack will just do it again -- I was proven right in this conclusion recently. They hack you, you change your password. They figure out your password, hack you again. They get banned from Facebook, but they come back under another name and do it again.

Being in this business, you hear all the horror stories -- and six months ago, a friend of mine on MySpace was hacked into by someone she thought was her best friend. This friend deleted things she didn't like (music, quotes, etc) and put things on the page that actually got my friend fired. She thought it was funny.

We're not talking about asking your best friend, roommate, sister, etc to log in for you because you're away from a computer and need to have something put up or taken down. That's not hacking. Hacking is when you go in, without permission, and do something that the owner did not ask you to do.

The next time you log in to that Twitter page, Facebook page, or MySpace.... consider how you would feel if your privacy was violated in such a way. If you knew who did it, and it was someone you trusted like a friend or family member, how would it make you feel? Would you consider the seriousness of what just happened, or would you try to shrug it off and simply change your password?

Think about it. Then tell me what you think the punishment for hacking social media should be.

Conficker Worm...

noreply@blogger.com (Annette Witzel) — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 16:33:00 +0000

Well if you're reading this, you've managed to escape the stupid worm that was supposed to wreak havoc on machines today. The Conficker worm, as it's been named, has not taken hold as expected mainly because people have been on high alert -- meaning that many of you listened, updated your operating system, and woke up those antivirus programs.

Some of you even turned off your computers and refuse to turn them back on till tomorrow.

But regardless of what you did to protect yourself, just remember this; protection against viruses is not a "special occasion" event, it's a full time job. Conficker may not have been able to do too much today, but the idiots who created it may have decided to change the date of attack - or done some other modification to the worm. This worm does an E.T..... it "phones home" to get further instructions. Annoying, isn't it?

So stay on alert, keep that antivirus running, and as they used to say on Wayne's World, "Party On, Garth!"

Oh good lord, I just dated myself.

New Worm April 1st

noreply@blogger.com (Annette Witzel) — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 03:39:00 +0000

Some of you may have heard about the Conficker Worm scheduled to hit April 1 ( a few short hours); this is yet another warning that if you are one of those that don't have your antivirus or your Windows OS getting its updates, DO IT NOW.

I know that the excuse for some is that they had gotten an update at some point that "screwed up their computer" and they've vowed to never get windows updates again, but this is a dangerous practice. You need your updates. Even if you know it will conflict with that game of yours you absolutely have to play... GET THE DANG UPDATES, FOLKS.

What would you rather have -- the inability to play a game for a couple of days, or your entire computer infected and the contents lost?

Sunday Afternoon...

noreply@blogger.com (Annette Witzel) — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 22:45:00 +0000

Yesterday I came to the conclusion that my clients who have online shopping are in need of help -- and I think I have the answer. See, if you have a shopping system and a product to sell, someone ends up having to take the pictures, edit the pictures, take down product information and prices, and load all that stuff up into the shopping system.

It takes some time to do that. And if you hire someone like your web designer to do that, it's going to cost quite a bit. Since most webdesigners charge between $50-$100 an hour, it would tend to make the task of loading up your shopping system quite expensive.

Here's the big question... if you were given the option of having someone from our service that could put the products in the system for you -- and all you had to do was provide a list of products and prices -- at under $15 an hour, would it be worth it to you?

Fire up those emails, folks. If there is interest in this service, I will be hiring and training to provide it. Speak now, or forever hold your peace!

The Economy and Your Website

noreply@blogger.com (Annette Witzel) — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 07:17:00 +0000

Do you have a small business? Are you trying to start a business? Well in this current economy, the whole proposition can be made easier by making sure you have a website -- one that establishes your presence on the web, one that can be found in the search engines.

Compared to what other advertising and marketing costs, websites can be remarkably cheap. For example, I've been trying to come up with packages for people who are truly struggling to find a way to get online with a minimal amount of money -- and one of the cheapest ones I could come up with is my E-Business Card site, a concept I came up with about 10 years ago while building up the city website of a small coastal town.

The E-Business Card site is $199 to set up and $4 a month. It's a single-page site, which features your basic services, contact information, logo and 2-3 pictures of product or store. The cost includes your domain for the first year, and every year after that, your domain is just $15 per year.

Compare that to advertising in your local paper. The last time I tried to place an ad in the local paper, they wanted to charge me $299 a MONTH.

So if you're looking for a way to get exposure quickly and inexpensively, the E-Business Card site is the way to go.

Now, we all know everyone's cutting corners and looking to trim costs. Most people that know me, even just a little, know I charge some of the lowest fees in the business. They generally appreciate that little aspect of me that pretty much assures I'll never get rich.

When a website is built, there is always the initial build -- the setup fee. This is the most expenisve part of your website, but at WitzEnd Consulting we try to make this easier to handle in this uncertain economy. You need just 50% down to start the site and the remainder in 30 days, billed easily to your credit card.

Here it is, in a nutshell: the average custom website costs anywhere from $1500 to $3000, depending on content. (we're assuming no "membership sites", anything with databases, flash, etc). A template site, about half that. (and you update it yourself)

The hosting of the website is the second cheapest part of the whole website. (only the domain itself is cheaper). The economy hosting at WitzEnd Consulting is $90 a year (we will let you know when estimating your site, what type of hosting you will need).

Recurring costs for a website are always a) hosting, b) domain renewal, and c) updates done by your web designer. Even with a template site, where the client does the majority of the updates themselves, a web designer can help you out by making some of the "hard stuff" like emailable forms and flash enhancements. You control how much you spend; any good web designer will tell you in advance what the charge would be and wait for you to approve the charge before the work is done.

Moral of the story; the build of the site is your biggest investment. Talk to your web designer if you have questions or need help. If we don't know you're confused or are having trouble updating, we can't help you. And we want your website to be a positive experience.

Has it really been that long?

noreply@blogger.com (Annette Witzel) — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 06:31:00 +0000

Yes folks, she's back.

True to the old adage that it's the roofer's house that's always got the loose shingles, my website is always low man on the totem pole in the WitzEnd World. But it finally got its due, this month.

New stuff is UP!

And more is coming. Although I've wanted and planned to upgrade for some time, part of this was motivated (and definitely pushed by) new Flash classes I was teaching. It seemed a little silly that here I was scheduled to teach Flash and I still hadn't even finished the flash I was planning for my own site. So sad!

But hey, I did it! Or at least got a large chunk of it up... keep checking back. I have a whole new section coming that may surprise some of you (but not all of you who know what I used to do prior to morphing into a computer geek!). It's major.

And as is the norm for a little brown geek on a Sunday night, approaching midnight... I'm working on more stuff.

Just keep checking back. Trust me. :)

New Trojan this week

noreply@blogger.com (Annette Witzel) — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 15:52:00 +0000

This week, the world was introduced to the latest computer threat, a trojan that comes in your email claiming to be from United Parcel Service with the subject line "Re: UPS Tracking Number" and having a zip file for an attachment.

DON'T OPEN IT. DELETE IT.

IT people usually know the golden rule of attachments, which is basically, don't open .exe and .zip files... especially if it's from someone you don't know, and if you dare to try, scan it with your antivirus first. And that's all well and good, except right now, only 3 of the 34 Antivirus engines out there in the free world are even detecting it.

That's right, all of you with McAfee and Norton's and AVG and... well, pretty much EVERYONE.... your antivirus will not pick this one up yet.

If you think you may have opened this little slice o'hell yet, here's what to expect:

BSOD (blue screen of death)
Strange "XP Antivirus 08" program popping up on your screen, claiming to be scanning for threats and it won't clean them till you "register it"
Blue background on your desktop and the ominous warning that your system is, or may be infected (IT folks, it will remind you of SpySheriff here)
Extremely slow system
Firewalls magically disabled (and can't enable)
Windows Update is disabled (but when you go to turn it on, it claims it is turned on)
An RPC Countdown till shutdown
No access to the registry or MsConfig

What does this trojan do? Same thing that previous "Russian Mafia" trojans have done, only with a new variant; they steal credit card numbers, online banking logins and details, etc. This one actually takes screenshots of your banking info.

If you're a client of mine, you know what to do if you are seeing these symptoms... shut down the computer, disconnect it from the internet, and call me immediately.

And when I get done cleaning this out of your system, CHANGE EVERY PASSWORD YOU HAVE.

Thanksgiving Week

noreply@blogger.com (Annette Witzel) — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 09:15:00 +0000

Well folks, it's sunday night and while every other sane person in america is sleeping in anticipation of tomorrow's work day, I'm baby-proofing my bedroom at 1am.

Okay, don't faint in shock. Look out your window. Do you SEE three wise men coming from the east, bearing gifts? Or just three big dumb guys wanting 10 bucks so they can get some brewskies?

Yeah. I've purposely shut down the baby factory folks; I make a better aunt than a mother, so just do NOT go there. The baby factory's been replaced with an amusement park.

But I am an outstanding aunt.. just ask my nephew Jerry. (ha ha) For thanksgiving, my grandniece and grandnephew are coming for the second time in a week, and this time I'm plunking that little family in my bedroom. So heigh ho, heigh ho, it's babyproofing I go. Gone are the dangling power cords, the tempting tissue box on a low shelf, just begging for a 1-yr old to empty it one tissue at a time, and all the clever little candles and tchotchkes that babies just looooove to pick up. And put in their mouths. Or fling haphazardly across the room when boredom strikes or when they spot something new and shiny to grab... whichever comes first.

See? Told ya. I'm an outstanding aunt. On weekends and holidays, that is. Monday through Friday I'm your computer guru, missing her turban, rescuing the virus-infected and updating websites all over the country. Dang. Where IS that turban, anyway?

So at 1:00am on a sunday (excuse me Ms. Computer Geek, it's actually Monday) I'm cleaning and rearranging all the little things that look just fabulous to an adult, and dangerously captivating to a toddler.

After you read this, you're probably thinking that they're coming tomorrow (today you geek, it's MONDAY, remember?). But no. They'll be here Wednesday night. But being that I'll be knee-deep in website updates and broken computers for the next three days, I'm taking every available moment to get the personal stuff done.

The dog is snoring. I think she's giving me a subtle hint that maybe sleep would be a good idea.

But just a hint before I log off... the new website is up. Missing a few items I didn't get a chance to finish, but it's up and I provided a few helpful downloads for those of you in dire need of a copy of Spyweeper that will actually clean up your infected files prior to the end of the 30day trial. Click here to jump to the downloads section.

It's an earlier version of course... but hey, you're welcome.

Welcome to My WitzEnd!

noreply@blogger.com (Annette Witzel) — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 00:12:00 +0000

To all who pass through here, welcome....

This blog is comprised of the meanderings of a computer consultant/writer/artist/caregiver... which means , in the immortal words of Forrest Gump, "Ya nevah know what you're gonna git!!"

Some days you may get computer advice. Other days it may be an introspective on the day's events. And most of the time you'll get something completely twisted. But you WILL be entertained. (at least this appears to be the consensus of anyone who knows me...)

To which I say... get in, sit down, strap in, shut up and hold on.