Psychologically Dependent

Friday, December 19, 2008 Posted In , , , , , , , , , , , , Edit This 3 Comments »
You've heard the saying, "A clean house is the sign of a broken computer." This is appropriate in my case, or more fitting for me would be, "A neglected and filthy house is the sign of a mind-bogglingly addicted, internet lunatic." Yeah, that's more like it.
So, I decided to figure out where my time went yesterday, after the kids were safely deposited at school...(I won't include all the driving around I did but suffice to say, I left the house six times yet never felt like I went anywhere.)

9.30 - 10.30 - emails.
10.30 - 11.30 - create posting for blog.
11.30 - 1.45 - genealogy online, nutella sandwiches for lunch.
2.00 - 2.30 - pick up child, talk to him a bit whilst folding Mt Everest pile of washing.
2.30 - 3.30 - pick up other kids and talk to them a bit, drive child to Den Meeting.
3.30 - 4.30 - assist with homework i.e. pretend I know something, go pick up cub scout.
5.30 - 6.30 - cook dinner, assist scout to bake cookies for Pack Meeting, eat most of them.
6.30 - 9.30 - eat dinner though curiously not hungry, clean-up, finish folding Mt Everest, watch one tv show, send ratbags to bed.
9.30 - midnight - chat with hubby for two or three minutes, read emails, blog, reading blogs, emails, blogs, more blogs, a bit of genealogy, blogs, blogging blogs...

So, I count SIX and a half hours a day doing something online!!! Granted, the genealogy thing is related to my desire to do temple work, (and I'm a ward Family History Consultant) and every day is different but do you see how much I neglect my house...and possibly...my life??

Am I the only one who suffers from this disease?

Wii Refuse to Buy It

Monday, December 15, 2008 Posted In , , , , , , , , , , Edit This 2 Comments »
This week I watched a science show that predicted that we soon won't need to step foot outside our doors to get what we want, because our homes will be able to fulfill our every wish. Our houses will be our computer/fabricator, able to create food, furniture and electronics.

All we will need to do is download blueprints to the fabricator that will construct any "thing" in 3-D. From cutlery to candles, to scrambled eggs and floor lamps, the sky is the limit.

They already have a prototype that I watched make a very crude fork... out of wax. So, they have a ways to go. The scientists are lauding this as a great leap forward in technology, and an all round neat idea but is this really a good thing? How fat and useless do we need to get?

Lucky there is Wii-fit.





Cellphone Hackers Can Get You!

Tuesday, December 02, 2008 Posted In , , , , , , , Edit This 0 Comments »
We went to Mexico for a day trip two weeks ago. Whilst there we had an interesting adventure recorded on this blog entry here. We took our three phones so we could call each other if necessary. Unbeknownst to us, one of our phone numbers had been hacked and, according to the invoice we got today, used to call various numbers in Honduras and Mexico bringing our bill to $1800.00.

Apparently, it is not difficult to mess with people's phones. I copied this from the WIRED website... "In the 17 minutes we wandered around, Laurie's computer picked up signals from 39 phones. "It takes only 15 seconds to suck down somebody's address book, so we could have had a lot of those," he says at last. "And at least five of these phones were vulnerable to an attack."
The "attack" Laurie mentions so casually could mean almost anything - a person using another person's cell to make long distance calls or changing every phone number in his address book or even bugging his conversations. There are, he says, "a whole range of new powers" available to the intrepid phone marauder, including nasty viral attacks." Click here to read the article in full.

Call your cellphone provider TODAY and find out how secure your phone is. Don't bother, we just spoke to ours and they told us, "Our system is absolutely secure. It was a one in a million occurence!" which is complete ROT because I looked it up already. If you have the right equipment, it's easy as pie. The trouble is that technology changes so fast the security measures have difficulty keeping up. It's not just your cell phone you need to be worried about. Anything that utilizes wireless technology is vulnerable.

So we are waiting with bated breath to see whether the cellphone company insist we pay the bill. We kindly reported the breach in their system to them. They cancelled the number. We requested a credit. They are thinking about it. We better get the whole thing credited or heads will roll.

Be aware. Turn your cellphone off when you don't need it. (Kind of defeats the purpose though eh?)

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