KC News

Here's the Scoop on "SEO" and how Kahl Consultants does it.

2008-05-08T13:26:00.000-07:00

Search Engine Optimization, aka SEO, is a term used to describe how to get your website noticed. It is a rapidly growing and quickly changing field.

Like all marketing, online marketing and website promotion in particular should be an ongoing effort. Focus your efforts on the rule that says "Content is King" and create valuable unique copy for your website. Then use SEO to get more traffic.

Kahl Consultants offers our clients a variety of SEO packages for very reasonable rates. Here are two examples:

STARTER SEO/SEM PACKAGE

Our STARTER PACKAGE gets you started to help you increase your ranking and traffic.

The Kahl Consultants SEO STARTER PACKAGE includes the following one time web marketing services:

1. Consulting related to online marketing and integration of online and offline marketing efforts

2. Consulting related to corporate identity, branding, marketing to client target audience

3. Web site analysis and traffic analysis

4.Optimize Meta Tags in your source code (DESCRIPTION, KEYWORD, etc) and TITLE tag with keywords, add additional tags for search engines

5.Edit home page text content to maximize search engine rankings (E.g. do keyword research to optimize text and tags with keywords)

6.Register with popular SEARCH ENGINES and Directories (Google, Yahoo, MSN, AOL, ASK, DMOZ, etc)

7.Register with relevant local search engines and directories (E.g. Get listed with online yellow pages, local and regional business directories, etc.).

8.Register with relevant industry search engines, directories, and industry portals

9.Recommend options for external paid registration services (paid placement and pay-per-click marketing such as google adwords paid separately)

10.Provide client additional marketing recommendations (including content improvement, articles, blogging and social networking advice)

ANNUAL SEO/SEM PACKAGE

Like all marketing, website promotion should be an ongoing effort.

Our ANNUAL PACKAGE is a detailed marketing campaign integrated in your existing marketing plan which maintains and builds on your existing promotion and helps increase your ranking and traffic.

The Kahl Consultants SEO ANNUAL PACKAGE includes the following web marketing services:

1. Consulting related to online marketing and integration of online and offline marketing efforts

2. Consulting related to corporate identity, branding, and focussed marketing to customer target audience

3. Web site analysis and traffic analysis

4. Analyze marketing plan, budget, requirements and existing marketing and advertising efforts

5. Update and reoptimize meta tags and title page text (E.g. do keyword research to optimize text and tags with keywords)

6. Register with top search engines and directories

7. Register with local search engines and directories

8. Register with industry search engines, directories, and portals

9. Recommend options for external paid registration services (paid placement and pay-per-click marketing such as google adwords paid separately)

10. Exchange links with other sites

11. Create social networking pages for client to promote their website, service and/or product (e.g. build a squidoo lens)

12. Include additional content on relevant social networking sites (e.g. LinkedIn, facebook, myspace, flickr, youtube)

13. Add descriptions, recommendations and reviews to relevant business directory websites (e.g. yelp, insiderpages, yahoo local)

14. Locate relevant and beneficial forums for client to participate in

15. Provide client additional marketing recommendations (including articles, blogging and email marketing advice)

If you would like further details check these links:

Kahl Consultants SEO Packages

Site Submission Tips

Multiple Submission and Online Marketing Tips

HIPAA, Websites and Email

2008-03-19T08:44:00.000-07:00

HIPAA

HIPAA security rule enforcement is on the rise. HIPAA is the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. This law regulates the privacy and security of individually identifiable patient information.

HIPAA affects any company that regularly transmits or stores employee health insurance information (e.g. healthcare providers, health plans, healthcare clearing houses). Even organizations outside the heathcare industry must consider regulatory compliance requirements associated with HIPAA and implement "appropriate administrative, technical and physical safeguards to protect the privacy of patient information".

PHI

Protected Health Information (PHI) is "any information which identifies or could be used to identify an individual and has anything to do with past, present or future physical or mental health conditions, care or payment for care".

HIPAA and Email

HIPAA privacy provisions pose a compliance challenge. Organizations that fail to protect this information face stiff fines and possible jail time.

The privacy of PHI extends to email and computer files. HIPAA requires organizations to reduce or eliminate the risk of interception of emails and receipt of emails by unauthorized persons.

A new security rule focusing solely on PHI that is stored and transmitted electronically is part of HIPAA. The requirements of this rule, which are simply information security best practices, focus on the three cornerstones of a solid information security infrastructure – confidentiality, integrity, and availability of information.

HIPAA enforces well-known best practices that include:

* Ensuring that e-mail messages containing PHI are kept secure when transmitted over an unprotected link

* Ensuring that e-mail systems and users are properly authenticated so that PHI does not get into the wrong hands

* Protecting e-mail servers and message stores where PHI may exist

So HIPAA has requirements for transmission, storage and discoverability of private information (PHI). The technical standards of HIPAA's security rule require the use of encryption, such as PGP, for electronic communication of protected health information over open networks.

What Do We Do?

So what does your organization need to do about HIPAA?

Most likely you will be doing these two steps:

1) use a secure server for your website.
Rather than emailing PHI data send links to the secure server.

2) set up encrypted email via PGP.

Still not sure what you need to do for HIPAA? Look here for answers:

H&HS Office for Civil Rights - HIPAA

http://www.hhs.gov/ocr/hipaa/

H&HS HIPAA FAQ

http://www.hhs.gov/hipaafaq/

California Office of HIPAA Implementation

http://www.ohi.ca.gov/

Email Tip

Many healthcare professionals add postscripts to their email signature lines. They are for the security of protected health information

Here is a HIPAA compliant example:

First Name Last Name

Organization

example@example.com

w xxx.xxx.xxxx

p xxx.xxx.xxxx

c xxx.xxx.xxxx

http://example.com

This message may contain private information for persons named above. Please don't share that information with anyone without a need to know. If you received confidential information without a PGP wrapper, assume it was compromised, delete it, tell the sender, and try to tell the victim. Please don't send someone else's private information if you're not reasonably certain the recipient has a need to know and that the message will be kept private. Plain email is not private. In some cases, such as health information protected under the US HIPAA law or information protected under the US Privacy Act, plain email may be illegal. If you must relate a person's identity to their private information in email, use Hushmail or insist your recipients provide you their PGP public key. You can get my public key from the keyservers or my webpage.

E-mail Marketing and Spam

2007-12-21T12:30:00.000-08:00

This is the summary of a lecture I recently gave to a local group of small business owners about email marketing and spam.

E-mail Marketing and Spam
==========================
by Alex Kahl, Kahl Consultants

What is Spam?
===============
Spamming is the abuse of electronic messaging systems to indiscriminately send unsolicited bulk messages.

* e-mail spam
* instant messaging spam,
* newsgroup spam,
* Web search engine spam,
* blog spam,
* mobile phone messaging spam,
* junk fax transmissions.

How much?
=========
Kahl Consultants receives approx. 10,000 spams per day (but only has to read abut 10-20)
Bill Gates receives 4 million spams per year
In 2001: spam accounted for 5% of all e-mail .
In 2007: 95-98% of all E-mail is spam
Spam costs businesses over US$20 billion per year - lost productivity, additional equipment, software, and manpower

Why Spam?
=======
E-mail is extremely cheap. Spamming can be very profitable even at extremely low response rates.

Who Spams?
=======
28% USA
5% South Korea, 5% China, 5% Russia
80% of US spam is generated by a group of 200 hardcore professional spam gangs

How is spam sent out?
========================
Most ISPs do NOT allow spam. So spammers conceal the origins of their spam by sending it through insecure servers belonging to unwilling third parties. These "zombie networks" of infected PCs span the globe

How do spammers get my e-mail address?
=========================================
* E-mail addresses posted on Web sites in plain HTML (unobscured) attract the most spam as they are harvested by spambots
* Basic e-mail addresses (short names, initials like bob@ or tse@, basic combinations like larryt@ receive more spam
* "brute force" or "dictionary attacks" (e-mail is sent to common surnames and first initials)

Fighting Spam
==============
Best solution: an "Antispam Cocktail" (a mix of strategies)

* Remove or obscure address from public websites
* Use multiple e-mail addresses; create a free email account (aka disposable e-mail address)
for use when registering with websites (recommendation: Gmail)
* DNS-based blackhole lists (lists of IP addresses of known spammers, open relays, zombie spammers etc)
* Don't respond to spam from unknown companies
* Don't buy from a company that spams. Don't visit their website, don't ask for more information
* Disable HTML in email software
* Switch from Outlook to another email software (recommendation: Mozilla Thunderbird)
* Set up multiple levels of spam filtration
* Contact your ISP and ask for help setting up a spam filter
* Use spam filtering in your email client (* Spam filters detect spam based on the content of the e-mail)

Kahl Consultants and Spam
==============================
* Strict no-spam policy
* Hosting clients caught spamming are terminated
* 2 levels of spam filtration on our website servers (blacklists and SpamAssassin)
* Request our clients to help fight spam

Kahl Consultants and Email Marketing
=======================================
* We support our clients in all forms of online marketing (web and email)
* Email marketing cheaper than website marketing, both are best done synergetically
* We practice double opt-in email marketing
* We set up and monitor email campaigns (e.g. constantcontact.com)

Great sites for Music Listeners

2007-11-28T14:07:00.000-08:00

OK here is a quick introduction to some very cool websites that will let you listen to music online - each has it's own incredible features so have fun exploring!

http://pandora.com/
Pandora is your personal online radio station (or you can call it an internet jukebox) that only plays musics according to your taste. You tell it what song or band you like, they choose the tunes to match your preference. Then you help it along by voting what you like and don't like. Works great. “Social radio” at it's finest... so far!

http://musicovery.com/
Another personal online radio station cum jukebox - you choose the music you like by cool categories such as: genre, mood, decade, popularity, and danceability!

http://www.slacker.com/
Online radio - choose by music category.

http://songza.com/
Super simple: you pick the exact song you want to hear (from a huge selection) and then you listen and enjoy!

http://www.jango.com/
Simple to use “social radio” - choose a station (a pre-mixed selection of artists), or artist — and you are ready to enjoy!

http://www.deezer.com/
Listen for free to any song you like. Create playlists and rate songs. Share your faves. Repeat as often as you like or until the boss catches you procrastinating!

http://www.purevolume.com/
Listen to cool new bands. You can even legally download free music from signed and unsigned artists. Free signup required.

You still here? Not enough online fun with music yet? OK wise guy, try this list of links from Technology Magazine!

Free Online File Conversion Tool media-convert.com

2007-11-27T15:54:00.000-08:00

What if I told you I know a website with a free tool for file conversion for literally hundreds of file formats? Plus it requires no installation, and works in realtime, meaning it converts the file right away and fast.

Sound too good to be true? That's what I thought too until i found media-convert.com!

Well the fact is, there really is such a website, and it is called Media Convert.

So the next time you need to convert a TIFF to a JPG or a XLS to a PDF and so forth, try it out!

So be sure to bookmark the link:
http://media-convert.com/

Mozilla Firefox Extension: Tab Preview

2005-12-06T17:42:00.000-08:00

Here is a must have extension for Mozilla Firefox users:

Tab Preview is an extension for Firefox 1.5 that shows a preview of tab contents when you move your mouse over a background tab. It's simple to use, but surprisingly useful.

http://ted.mielczarek.org/code/mozilla/tabpreview/

How To Speak to A Human Being when calling Corporate America

2005-11-29T14:44:00.000-08:00

Tired of speaking to computers when you call a company?

Here is a neat site that lists the secret numbers and tips to bypass the Interactive Voice Response (IVR) that many companies use to get to a human:
http://www.paulenglish.com/ivr/

Share Large Files - for free!

2005-11-18T10:04:00.000-08:00

Need to SHARE A LARGE FILE? Want to send a LARGE file to colleagues or friends? But you don't have server space or are not familiar with FTP?

Then use one of the many websites that let you SHARE LARGE FILES for free! Just remember that normally uploading takes considerably longer than downloading, so be patient!

Try any of these file sharing sites:

http://www.yousendit.com/
(max 1 GB)

http://www.filefactory.com/
(max 500 MB)

http://megaupload.com/
(max 250 MB)

http://www.4shared.com/
(max 100 MB)

http://www.theupload.com/
(max 100 MB)

http://www.dropload.com/
(max 100 MB)

http://turboupload.com/
(max 70 MB)

http://www.yourfilehost.com/
(max 50 MB)

Government Tracks Printer Usage with Secret Dot Code Found in Color Laser Printers

2005-10-19T11:29:00.000-07:00

Secret Code in Color Printers Lets Government Track You

Tiny Dots Show Where and When You Made Your Print

A 2004 article in PC World magazine noted that printouts from many color laser printers contained yellow dots scattered across the page, viewable only with a special kind of flashlight.

The dots contain information useful to law-enforcement authorities, a secret digital "license tag" to track criminals.

The content of the coded information was supposed to be a secret, available only to agencies looking for counterfeiters who use color printers.

Now, the secret is out.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) broke the code behind these hidden dots.

The EFF found that the grid of yellow dots, best seen under blue light, encode the date and time your document was printed, as well as the printer serial number.

EFF spent months collecting samples from printers around the world and then handed them off to an intern, who cracked the code in about a week.

The U.S. Secret Service admitted that the tracking information is part of a deal struck with color laser printer manufacturers, ostensibly to identify counterfeiters. It's a countermeasure to prevent illegal activity specific to counterfeiting, the agency stated.

But this is also seem as an issue of consumer rights and privacy. There are no laws to control the use of the information gleaned from the codes. The EFF calls for greater transparency in the workings between the technology industry and the government.

The logical next question is: What other deals have been or are being made to ensure that our technology rats on us?

EFF: Is Your Printer Spying On You?

List of Printers Which Do or Don't Print Tracking Dots

Washington Post:
Sleuths Crack Tracking Code Discovered in Color Printers

CNET News:
Cracking the Xerox tracking code

Mobile Mag:
Secret Service can track what you print

Printer Cartridge Recycling

2005-10-05T12:34:00.000-07:00

Your computer printer ink cartridges are recyclable.

In fact they are worth several dollars. Which is why many companies worldwide will let you mail them in for recycling. You can even get prepaid (free shipping) envelopes to mail them in.

Folks in the USA who want some cash back can use companies such as:

AAA Environmental

Seacoast Inkjet Recycle

Toner Buyer

Also in the USA the warehouse discounter Costco makes it even easier for you! No more excuses now.

No need to go anywhere to drop off cartridges, and no need to pick up the proper mailing envelope.

Just visit the Costco TONER RECYCLING WEBSITE where you can:

1) order a bunch of free postage-paid envelopes

2) print out a pre-paid, pre-addressed shipping sticker (to paste on any envelope you have handy).

Curious about how ink cartridge recycling works?

Find out in this TONER CARTRIDGE RECYCLE BROCHURE put together by the Recycling at Work campaign

You can also learn more from the ENVIROSMART EnviroFacts - Ink Jet and Laser Toner site.

Online Data Storage Choices

2005-09-28T10:59:00.000-07:00

Need to access your data while on the road?

Or maybe you're as lucky as a friend who is going trekking in Nepal and wants to upload digital photos every time there is an internet cafe along the way?

Here are a few choices for ONLINE STORAGE, along with some reviews:

Box.net
Box.net Epinions reviews

Driveway.com
Driveway Epinions reviews

IBackup
IBackup PCMag review - Editors Choice
Consumersearch review

Xdrive
Consumersearch review

Yahoo Briefcase
Consumersearch review

More reviews of these and other companies at:

Ciao!

FindApps

Mouthshut.com

Online Printing - Good and Cheap!

2005-09-27T16:03:00.000-07:00

Time to print some business cards? Or maybe some flyers?

You could do this at to a local Print Shop, but check out these online deals!

1) VistaPrint.com

VistaPrint offers FREE color business cards. And they do postcards, fridge magnets, and other stationery with your name on it. You get high-quality card stock, sharp text and vivid color printing, and some colorful templates.

FREE?? Well not exactly, but almost.

First catch: you have to pay postage, so 250 cards will set you back less than ten bucks.

Second catch: there is a small ad for VistaPrint on the back

Not professional enough for you? VistaPrint premium business cards get rid of the ad and let you upload your own logo or picture for about twenty dollars per 250 cards, plus postage.

Note: VistaPrint may not be the best of the online printing companies for custom jobs, they have gotten rather low reviews on epinions.com

2) OverNightPrints.com

Use OverNightPrints for competetive overnight services in premium quality. Create your order online. Choose from their designs and customize or upload your artwork. Prices start at $15 for 100 single sided cards.

So next time you need some business cards save yourself time, money and a trip to the printer and try an online service!

But wait!

Here are many other online printing companies - and we've posted some reviews to help you choose:

http://www.iprint.com
Epinions Reviews

http://www.jakprints.com
Found only a few reviews online, but all were positive!

http://printingforless.com/
Epinions Reviews

PrintQuick.com
Epinion Reviews

http://www.ezprints.com/
Epinions Reviews

http://www.tinyprints.com/
Epinions Reviews

And these have also received good reviews:

Gotprint.com

Psprint.com

Let us know if you have found another online printer that deserves to be mentioned for quality or price or some other unique feature.

Eco-friendly printers:

Greenerprinter

En Masse Media

Does anyone know of any other USA online printers who specialize in eco-friendly printing besides Greenerprinter?

Microsoft: Criminal Company. No Longer Welcome

2005-08-19T15:38:00.000-07:00

No MSIE Microsoft must be stopped. If not stopped, slowed substantially. The company is a bully. The protests now are loud and clear: “Microsoft! Change Your Ways.”

Why? Standards. Or, rather, Microsoft’s inability to adhere to standards developed by world bodies, committees, and groups which benefit customers and competitors.

Since Microsoft owns approximately 90-percent of the desktop computing world, it could be argued that they set the standards, not others. Yet, the worldwide community of standards bodies will disagree.

That’s why there are basic standards for data sharing, standards for Internet protocol, standards for web page code, and so on. To provide for effective, efficient communications standards that the world agrees upon. Microsoft flouts those standards.

How? For many years the Redmond software giant, convicted in court of monopoly abuse of competitors and vendors (partners), has used an effective tactic against standards not developed by Microsoft. Example? The so-called Triple E tactic.

Embrace. Extend. Exterminate.

Read the full article here:

Bambi Hambi & Tera Patricks Mac 360 - Microsoft: Criminal Company. No Longer Welcome"

Kahl Consultants certified as a Green Business

2005-08-10T11:07:00.000-07:00

Congratulations Kahl Consultants!

Kahl Consultants is certified as a Bay Area Green Business.

The Green Business Program is a partnership among business leaders, government agencies and nonprofits.

It recognizes businesses that:

Demonstrate compliance with environmental regulations
Conserve energy, water, and other materials
Implement environmental practices that prevent pollution
Share environmentally responsible practices with other businesses

The Marin County Green Business Program is part of the Bay Area Green Business Program.

Kahl Consultants invites your business to join a similar program in your community.

Google Site Ranking Secrets!

2005-06-21T11:58:00.000-07:00

Google recently filed a patent showing how they rank your web site.

Here are the highlights!

1) Domain name registration

How many years did you register your domain name for?

If it's only one then that's a point against you.

Why? Most Spam websites only register a domain name for a year.

A domain registered for a longer period implies that the owner is more likely to be legitimate and serious about their web site.

2) Links to your site

Google relies heavily on inbound relevant links to rank a site.

As well as the number, quality and anchor text factors of a link, Google considers historical factors.

Googles 'sandbox' or aging delay begins countdown the minute links to a new site are discovered.

Google records the discovery of a link and link changes over time. The speed at which a site gains links and the link life span.

You must grow your links but be careful who you exchange links with.

Your link anchor text should vary but remain consistent with your site content. No more using your main keywords on every link exchange you gain. That's 'anchor Spam'. Instead vary them around your top five to ten keywords.

Link exchanges are still very important but you must work and utilize them ethically.

3) Click through rates (CTR)

CTR may be monitored through cache, temporary files, bookmarks and favorites, as well as via the Google toolbar or desktop tools.

Sites are rewarded for good CTR with a raise in ranking.
This is similar to how Google Adwords works.

CTR is monitored to see if fresh or stale content is preferred for a search result.

CTR is monitored for increases or decreases relating to trends or seasons (yes seasons - think Ski Resort websites).

• Web page rankings are recorded and monitored for changes.

• The traffic to a web page is recorded and monitored over time.

As Google is capable of tracking traffic to your site you should closely monitor the small amount of copy returned in search results. Place a call to action in there to increase CTR.

Clicks back to the search results are also monitored. Make your site "sticky" to keep visitors there longer. Ask your visitors to bookmark you.

4) Updates

The frequency and amount of page updates is monitored and recorded as is the number of pages.

Depending on your market, fresh content may not be needed. If the information your pages contain does not go out of date then updating may not be necessary.

Changes don't have to mean fresh content. They could involve simple edits to current content.

5) Use of keywords

Changes in page keyword density is monitored and recorded as are changes to anchor text.

6) Domain owner addresses

The domain name owner address is considered, most likely to help in a local search result.

7) The technical and admin contact details are checked for consistency.
These are often falsified for Spam domains.

8) Your hosts IP address.

If you are on a shared server somebody else on that server may use dirty tactics or Spaming. If so your site will suffer since you share the same IP.

Whew! That's a lot to consider! So what does a small business owner do?

Any of these tactics will help:

1) Grow your site as organically as possible.

2) Carry on with link exchanges but consider each site carefully.

3) Vary your anchor text.

4) Add small amounts of good quality content to your site regularly.

5) Check your search engine listings. Edit your site to include a call to action in them if possible.

6) Make your site more 'sticky' to encourage visitors to stay a while.

7) Encourage visitors to Bookmark your site.

8) Register new domain names for at least two years.

P.S. Kahl Consultants is experienced in performing these tasks.
Please contact us for further details!

Recycle your old Hardware!

2005-05-27T21:30:00.000-07:00

By now it almost goes without saying that you should reuse and then recycle all your old computer hardware.

For those of you also here in Marin County you can drop off your outdated computer equipment at the warehouse of RENEW COMPUTERS, a San Rafael based company.

Visit their website for further details:
Renew Computers

Want to learn more abour GREEN COMPUTERS? Check out the "Green PC" section at our KC Shopping site:
The Green PC

Resolutions for E-mailers

2005-05-26T15:44:00.000-07:00

Dear Fellow E-mailer,

My resolution is:

I WILL NOT FORWARD ANY E-MAIL THAT IS A TYPE OF CHAIN LETTER.

I WILL NOT FORWARD ANY E-MAIL INDICATING GOOD OR BAD THINGS WILL HAPPEN SHOULD I FAIL TO DO CERTAIN THINGS.

I WILL NOT FORWARD ANY E-MAIL THAT MAY BE A HOAX WITHOUT CHECKING WITH AT LEAST TWO AUTHORITATIVE WEBSITE SOURCES TO BE POSITIVE IT IS NOT A HOAX.

I WILL NOT FORWARD ANY E-MAIL ABOUT A VIRUS UNLESS I HAVE CHECKED WITH AT LEAST TWO AUTHORITATIVE WEBSITE SOURCES TO VALIDATE THE VIRUS.

I WILL NOT INITIATE CHAIN LETTERS, HOAXES OR VIRUSES.

Make this your resolution! Also remember:

I WILL NOT FORWARD THIS TO ANYONE ON MY ADDRESS LIST BUT I WILL RECONSTRUCT IT SO IT WILL APPEAR AS MY RESOLUTION AND SEND IT TO MY CONTACTS.

I WILL KEEP A COPY OF THIS RESOLUTION FOR FUTURE REFERENCE

I WILL VISIT THE FOLLOWING SITES FOR INFO ON CHAIN LETTERS, HOAXES AND VIRUSES.

Bookmark these websites for checking on the latest hoax, chain letter, virus, etc.:

http://www.kahl.net/hoax/
(Kahl Consultants portal to hoax and virus infos)

http://www.ciac.org/
(US Dept. of Energy's Computer Incident Advisory Capability)

http://hoaxbusters.ciac.org/
(US Dept. of Energy's site referencing hoaxes)

http://www.vmyths.com/
(about computer virus myths, hoaxes, urban legends, hysteria)

http://vil.nai.com/
(Virus information site)

http://www.symantec.com/avcenter/
(Symantec's virus site)

http://us.mcafee.com/virusInfo/
(McAfee's site for virus info and other links)

http://urbanlegends.about.com/library/blxatoz.htm
(alphabetical listing of hoaxes, myths, chain letters, etc)

http://scambusters.org/
(Internet fraud information)

http://breakthechain.org/
(info on chain emails)

http://snopes.com/
(info on hoaxes, scams, rumors, etc.)

Thanks for helping clean up the Internet.

How To Stop Unwanted Junk Faxes

2005-05-18T10:20:00.000-07:00

If you have a fax machine, you've probably received annoying ads that you didn't ask for.

Like junk mail and spam e-mail, "junk faxes" are another way businesses waste our time and invade our privacy. Problems created by "junk faxing" include:

Blocked Communication. All fax machine owners can have important communications disrupted by junk faxes.
Shifted Costs, Environmental Waste. Junk fax recipients pay for wasted paper as well as the ink and electricity required to print the unwanted ads.
Lost Business. A fax machine cannot receive orders and other business correspondence when junk faxes tie up its phone line.
Lost Sleep. Some automated junk fax systems ring fax numbers day and night. The ringing can wake people who have fax machines at home.
Lost Time. Faxes are potentially urgent documents, but a junk fax is a let down and a waste of time.

Often, junk faxes have no business name or address, and even if there is a number to call to be removed from the junk faxer's "list," it takes up a lot of time to call for every ad received.

Junk faxing in the U.S. is illegal under federal law, but many junk faxers continue to ignore the law.

Learn how to use the law that lets you sue advertisers for at least $500 per unwanted fax!

Here's how to do it:

1. Save and date your faxes.

2. Identify offenders.
More details at consumerwatchdog.org

3. Find out if the business has been cited by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and file a complaint.

4. Send demand letters.
More details at Nolo Press

5. Sue in small claims court.

6. Sue in state court.
More details at consumerwatchdog.org

Good luck fighting back!

Further resources:

Reduce Junk Mail
http://www.kahl.net/reduce/

JUNK FAXES Stealing Time, Resources and Privacy
http://www.consumerwatchdog.org/other/junkfaxes/

'PHARMING' - New Twist on 'Phishing' Scam

2005-05-05T10:51:00.000-07:00

"The pharmers are coming! The pharmers are coming!" Hang warning lanterns all over the Internet: It's under attack by a new scam.

For years users have been hearing about "phishing," the sending of bogus e-mails - allegedly from a bank or other online business. Those who click on a link in the e-mail are shipped off to a phony but authentic-looking site and asked to enter sensitive information. If they type in their passwords or account numbers, thieves have that data.

Now phishers have been joined by "pharmers," who have made the ruse more sophisticated by planting a seed of malicious software in the user's own computer - or poisoning servers that direct traffic on the Internet. The result: Even if you type in the correct address of a website, the software can send you to a bogus one.

Phishing attacks require participation of the victims who must click on a link within an e-mail. But not clicking on such links is no protection against a pharming attack.

Here's how the scam works. The URL you use, such as www.my-bank.com, is connected to a distinct numerical IP address. Pharming replaces the number with a fraudulent one, sending you to a criminal site instead of the real one.

Besides keeping antivirus and antispyware programming up to date on their PC, users have few other ways to defend themselves from pharming.

Any site conducting financial transactions should be able to maintain a secure website. The corner of the browser should display a padlock symbol, and the address in the address bar should begin with "https," not simply "http." Click on the lock symbol and make sure it displays the address you are expecting to be at.

Another kind of pharming, sometimes called "domain spoofing," "domain poisoning," or "cache poisoning," attacks the servers that route traffic around the Internet. These so-called domain name system (DNS) servers also link the word address to its underlying numerical address.

To corrupt a DNS takes significantly more expertise than attacking PCs. Thieves first will try to get into individual computers.

The Internet was designed to make sharing of information between scholars and researchers fast and easy, not for secure financial transactions. Now new layers of security continually must be added, as criminals probe for weak points.

Phishers and pharmers set up their fake websites for only a few days or even a few hours, then move on before they can be found out.

But even if crooks can't get at your PC or the DNS server, they can always hope that you just can't spell.

Example: a malicious website was set up at www.googkle.com, just one keystroke away from www.google.com. Users who accidentally went to the site (using the Internet Explorer browser) were inundated with spyware, adware, and other malicious software that tried to secretly load itself onto their PCs. Similar attack sites have been created just a slip of the finger away from sites such as CNN.com, AOL.com, and MSN.com.

The people behind the malicious sites can be anywhere. The PC operating the site could be "somebody's grandmother's computer" being remotely controlled without her knowledge.

"Phishing" FACTS:

• Since 2004, the number of sites linked to the scam rose an average 28 percent a month.

• The US hosted a third of the phishing sites - more than any other nation - followed by China (12 %) and South Korea (9 %).

• Financial services are the most frequent target.

• Scam sites only last an average 5.8 days before they're taken down.

Christian Science Monitor May 05, 2005

Also check out KC Virus & Hoax Alert at:

http://www/.kahl.net/hoax

UPDATE:

This website is good source for phishing news - if you get a "phishy" email look for it here:
http://www.millersmiles.co.uk/

T Clock Light - Great Add on for Windows Taskbar

2005-03-30T13:08:00.000-08:00

TClock Light is a very handy applications that allows you to modify the clock on the taskbar in Windows.

Highly recommended!

Free download here:
http://homepage1.nifty.com/kazubon/tclocklight

Instructions:
1. download
2. unzip to a directory (e.g., C:\Program files\TClockLight\)
3. create a shortcut to tclock.exe in your START | All Programs | *Startup* folder
4. reboot
5. right-click on your taskbar clock and select "TClock Properties", then "Clock | Format"
6. Configure to your liking.

Green Business Program

2005-03-24T11:55:00.000-08:00

Kahl Consultants has applied to the Marin Green Business Program. It's the local version of the San Francisco Bay Area Green Business Program.

We strongly encourage you to get your business approved with any similar Green Business programs in your area. It is good publicity and it will help you save money and protect the environment. Can't get any more sensible than that!

Here is the Marin website:
http://maringreenbusiness.org/

And here is the Bay Area website:
http://www.greenbiz.ca.gov/

Paying by Fingerprint at the Supermarket

2005-03-14T13:55:00.000-08:00

Customers of a German supermarket chain will soon be able to pay for their shopping by placing their finger on a scanner at the check-out, saving the time spent scrabbling for coins or cards.

An Edeka store in the southwest German town of Ruelzheim has piloted the technology since November and now the company plans to equip its stores across the region.

"All customers need do is register once with their identity card and bank details, then they can shop straight away," said store manager Roland Fitterer.

The scanner compares the shopper's fingerprint with those stored in its database along with account details.

Edeka bosses said they were confident the system could not be abused.

Fingerprint templates are stored on a local server which manufacturers say cannot be accessed from outside but some consumer groups are concerned about security issues.

"We see the risks that arise from the data-gathering and also the insecurity factor which is inherent in this process, as more serious than the advantages," said Evelyn Kessler, spokesperson of the Consumer Advice Centre in the Baden-Wuerttemberg region.

Source: Fingerprint billing for Germans

Cheaper Domain Names

2005-02-08T17:48:00.000-08:00

Kahl Consultants announces a steep price reduction for
domain registrations!

The price for .com, .net, .org, .biz, .info, and .us
domain registration is now just $9.95 per year.

This applies to all new domain name registrations,
domain name renewals, and registrar transfers for our existing clients.

Kahl Consultants registers domain names with registrar Verio/Melbourne
IT, a world class hosting company.

Together we offer our clients professional domain registration with complete access to domain name registration records.

So if you wish to register some new domain names to help promote your business please let us know.

Slim Down Your System Tray

2005-02-01T13:19:00.000-08:00

Got a lot of programs running in the system tray on the right end of your taskbar? Want to prevent some of them from loading every time Windows starts up?

These days every program seems to put its icon in your system tray. The icons do more than just fill up the taskbar. Each system tray icon represents a running program that's using system resources.

To identify a program, hold the mouse over an icon until a title pops up. Ask yourself if you need that program running all the time. If it's a firewall or an antivirus program that does something constructive while in the background, yes. But if it's a little AOL icon or something that helps ou launch something, you can do without it.

Right-click the icon and examine the menu that pops up. There's often an Exit or Close option. When you select this, you may be asked whether you want the program to restart the next time you restart Windows; tell it you don't. (You can turn off AOL's system tray program in this way.)

If that doesn't work, examine the pop-up menu for an option named 'Preferences' or 'Options'. Or open the program itself and check its menus for an option that will prevent it from loading on start-up.

It the program doesn't include a way to turn itself off, you can do so through Windows.

In Windows 98, Me, or XP, click on Start, Run, type msconfig, press Enter, and select the Startup tab; uncheck the box for anything you don't want starting up with Windows. Recheck the box to change it back again.

Want to learn more? Read these articles:

Reduce Windows Clutter, Improve Performance

System Resources Tune-Up

Keep Your PC Purring: More Troubleshooting Tips

Distributed Computing grows and grows

2005-01-12T19:48:00.000-08:00

The original idea was brilliant in its simplicity: why not harness the unused capacity of personal computers for some productive purpose?

In a time when scientists often struggled - and were sometimes unable - to find sufficient computer time for their computationally intensive research, it seemed like a logical idea.

Untold amounts of computing power lay dormant in millions of homes and offices around the world, ready to be used, if only one knew how to reach them... But until five years ago, no one did.

Then came SETI@home. Launched in 1999, it quickly became a huge international success. Within a few months, millions of personal computers that had been launching flying toasters across dark screens in their spare time, were displaying the famous dynamic power-bar graphics of SETI@home.

Not only did SETI@home users make possible the most sensitive search for extraterrestrial intelligence ever conducted, they also demonstrated the power and potential of distributed computing. SETI@home became - by far - the largest and most powerful supercomputer ever assembled, accomplishing within months calculations that would normally take years or even decades.

Scientists in other fields were quick to take note, and look for ways to make use of the enormous potential of distributed computing in their own research.

The first to follow SETI@home’s lead were scientists working on specific research programs, who set up distributed computing programs tailored specifically for the project at hand. The most famous of these was folding@home, a Stanford University-based project investigating patterns of protein folding, which published its first scientific results in October of 2002.

The problem with such projects was that it was extremely difficult for research teams to set them up. Setting up a distributed computing program is a challenge even for professional computer scientists, and for scientists in other fields it is a truly daunting task. Reaching enough users who will run the program on their computers can be even harder. Most research programs that could potentially benefit from the approach wouldn’t even attempt to use their limited resources on such a venture.

To address this problem, a new generation of distributed computing programs is now coming on-line. BOINC - the Berkeley Open Infrastructure for Network Computing - provides a platform that any project can use. Scientists in any field can now sign up for BOINC and with only minor modifications immediately become part of an established and successful program of distributed computing.

Not only are they freed of the need to set up this complex system themselves, they also gain access to the millions of users who are already processing data for other BOINC projects. Users who participate in BOINC can choose which projects they wish to run on their computers and how much processing time they devote to each.

Launched earlier this year by the same team that created SETI@home, BOINC has gotten off to a fast start. It already has five projects signed up, researching topics ranging from climate prediction (see climateprediction.net) to gravity waves and protein folding.

Anchoring the BOINC family is the tried and true SETI@home, which is currently moving from its - classic - format to the new BOINC platform, bringing with it millions of devoted users.

BOINC now has company: Earlier this month IBM launched its own - World Community Grid, which like BOINC is intended to provide and easy-to-use distributed computing platform for scientific projects. IBM’s Grid is powered by software developed by United Devices for their own distributed computing platform (www.grid.org), which focuses on research in the biological and medical sciences.

As of now the World Community Grid has only one project - the Human Proteome Folding Project, conducted by the Institute for Systems Biology to help predict the shape of human proteins. But with IBM’s power and reach behind it, the Grid has the potential to expand quickly.

While both projects are intended to help researchers launch distributed computing projects, BOINC and the World Community Grid differ in some important ways. BOINC is an open source program, which means anyone can access its programming code and adapt it to their specific needs. The Grid code, on the other hand, is only accessible to IBM programmers and engineers. BOINC, furthermore, is not centrally controlled, and there is no one deciding which projects will or will not be included. In principle, any interested researcher can launch his or her own BOINC project. The Grid, by contrast, is controlled by IBM, which decides which projects to accept into its family and which to reject.

While the two programs differ in their approach, they share a common goal: to expand the reach of distributed computing, and make use of the untapped resources of personal computers in scientific research.

As SETI@home has demonstrated, untold millions around the world are ready and eager to donate their computer time for the advancement of knowledge and the benefit of humankind. The story of distributed computing is only just beginning...

Source: http://planetary.org/html/UPDATES/seti/SETI@home/Update_112404.html