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Image from here A few weeks ago I started receive strange notifications on Myspace stating “Click Here To See How Much I’m Worth” and “RANDOMUSER just bought you - click here to see how much I think your worth”. I was puzzled. I was confused. I ignored it for a few weeks. Eventually I clicked and found the “Own Your Friends” application.

From the help information: Welcome to Own Your Friends![click here to show help] Using Own Your Friends, you can: - Buy and sell your friends as ‘pets’. - Make your ‘pets’ hug, punch, and poke each other! - Change your pets’ status messages to whatever you want! Make Money by: - Being bought! You earn half the profit everytime you are bought. If you’re a hot commodity, you’ll be rich! - Having your pets bought. You earn half the profit when someone else buys one of your pets. Choose pets wisely and make money as an investor! - Logging in every 8 hours. You earn $1,000 for logging in, but only once every 8 hours. - Give a Human Gift to a Friend. Earn $1,250 by giving a friend one of your pets as a human gift. Just go to the ‘Buy Friends’ tab and choose a friend to give a gift to! - Hint: Use our new My Bargains feature. Find hot deals on cheap friends, then gift them away or sell them to profit! The key feature is to buy people you know and sell them later for a profit. I play this game, I enjoy this game, and I don’t really plan on stopping, however…… One of my friends the other day was talking with me. I told him I owned him. He didn’t understand. He didn’t consent to play the game, nor was he even aware of it. I was able to purchase him and pull him into my world with out consent. I can also make him hug, poke, punch, etc. other people I know. All without his consent, and specifically he wants nothing to do with this and isn’t too happy about it. I can even change his status message (within the application not on his actual profile) with this i can make him “say things” or express view points that he would never do in normal context if he was in control. Other friends of his could see him saying that he is going to go off ot India to eat a cow or that he just got a job at a college teaching molecular biology. Whether he was or wasn’t isn’t the fact, other less savy users may actually believe he is doing/saying this. Now the initial knee jerk reaction is what does it matter it’s just a stupid game between stupid people. Well let’s put it in another perspective. Say you purchase Obama and give him a status that is against his own platform, or McCain. Say you own coca-cola’s profile and change the status to “I prefer pepsi”. Now this starts to harm brand image and the reflection on the public that reads this. It can cause irreparable harm to the right people with the wrong message. This is why it really needs to turn into an opt in environment, or at least changes to something where you can block your user profile from being used in these sort of application that goes against brand management. It needs to be simple and it needs to be able to be done within two clicks. It should also default to being “do not use my profile for these applications”. We can say this is the Web 2.0 world and brand management has changed greatly from where it was just a few years ago. I don’t believe in companies removing blog posts and I don’t believe in DMCA takedowns from stories that aren’t up to the approval of the companies. I do believe I own the lists of my friends, but I don’t believe I should be able to make changes to their status in any context nor do I believe I should be able to make them perform virtual actions without their consent. That being said yes I enjoy the game and I’m going to keep playing, but i think it’s in a different context. I’m going to be targetting celebrities and brands in myspace to change the message to something unsuitable (but within Myspace’s TOS) to help raise awareness on this issue. Brand management is very important to companies and yet they have allowed these applications to yank quite a bit of control from them. I can make Pepsi my pet (slave) and have it pimp products for a competitor. If it’s right or wrong is for you to decide, but I’m sure Pepsi won’t be to happy about it. Original From: Myspace’s Hottest App Teaches Slave Trade 101

Last night I watched Gone With the Wind. Contrary to belief (since I’m the go to movie guy) I have never seen this movie. It wasn’t any reason in particular that I hadn’t seen it. I had wanted to see it for a long time, I just never had gotten around to it. I can say Gone With the Wind is a really long movie, really long. Just a nip under four hours long, with htat I believe it’s the longest movie ever to win a best picture award (I may be wrong). That being said Gone With the Wind is a great movie. It was orchestrated and designed to be a great movie from the very beginning and the genius shined through. On the other hand we have Casablanca, the great Bogart/Berman romance movie that some people also hold in such high regard. Casablanca has been a love of mine for years and I’ve seen it dozens of times, noticing something new with each viewing. What most casual viewers don’t know is that Casablanca is a train wreck of a movie. Casablanca, which was based on a play, was a movie that the Studio didn’t expect to be anything ordinary, just a vehicle to keep the stars in the public eye. Filming started before the script was finished and they were often giving the cast the next pages they were going to shoot the morning of shooting. The editing was rushed with many issues, but beyond this the acting and the stars shined through. So in the end I leave it to you the reader, which type of masterpiece is better the accidental or the designed? (continue reading at http://s3nt.com/b7m, to read all my posts past, present and future go to http://creeva.com)

The 2007-2008 season of the Ashland Community Band is over. It will resume back up in the Fall (September 2nd) but for now the musicians receive a reprieve and a break from the weekly practices. It is interesting, I originally joined community band to get back into shape for my high school Alumni Band which lasts only one day a year. What I found was another experience. I am a member of two community bands, the Ashland Community Band and the Vermilion Community Concert Band. Neither one is really better then another, they are both different and have their own strengths. The Ashland Community Band is lead by my college band director Leonard Salvo (pictured above) so I have a feel of consistency there. I can say playing music from a theory perspective, jumping to different keys, improvisation, and playing by ear that I am about 60-75 percent from where I was 13 years ago when I stopped playing. My range is fairly solid now but at a loss of an octave that I had back then. What I have gained is better tonal quality then I ever had, better tongueing technique, and I’m sure some of my past band directors are happy I don’t puff my cheeks out as much - though I don’t really think that ever had any bearing on my playing. I’ve also gained a new group of people that I have gotten a chance to know. I’m playing regulary and I am enjoying it. It’s not normally like it was back in high school when i would push and get a “high” for lack of a better term, but it’s still kind of there. I don’t have the ambition to practice hours and hours every single day, though I should. Ashland’s final concert of the season took place last Sunday, and Xie stated it was a good concert, but we did not manage to get it video taped this time around. So as I look forward to September when I play with the band again I leave you with these video clips: [googlevideo 3772350019750599694] [googlevideo 8135501231799261536] [googlevideo -8516440237695368753] [googlevideo 5271146182332359203] [googlevideo -8767703652331988877] Previous stories I did on the Ashland Community Band: Concert Number Two Complete Ashland Community Band’s Spring Concert Ashland Community Band Concert 4/27/08 (continue reading at http://s3nt.com/b6p this has been brought to you by creeva.com)

still now working correctly

I received an Iron Key unit to see evaluate and see how it would integrate into our environment. I can say I was skeptical and didn’t think it would have amounted to much, encrypted flash drive that we’ve all seen from a dozen vendors. I was not too worried about if there was an actual encryption chip on the device as much as functionality. I had expected this device to perform as well as all the other devices in the same vein. I was however, pleasantly surprised. While I can say that for the most part this will work identically to other devices you may use that support encryption, the one thing that allows this to stand out is how it acts for user privileged access. For a custom desktop setup we are working on it would not allow a user to have administrative access to the computer. The lack of administrative access caused the software that came with our standard Lexar thumbdrives to not be able to work in encrypted software vault mode. It code still do standard file encryption, but you wouldn’t be able to have an encrypted partition. The Ironkey however worked just fine in this configuration. It was able to decompress the data and look at the data as it was a normal partition. Since this functionality is a must have it exceeded expectations. Let’s take a look at the packaged software:

When you first insert the drive this is what you see. You can notice that it creates two drive letters (E and F on my computer). The first drive letter is unencrypted and only has the software unlocking program on it. If you click on the second partition Windows asks you to put a disk in the drive. So it’s not truly mounted nor readable.

After you run the software on the first partition, you can notice the second drive now states “IronKey Secure Files”. At this point the partition is unencrytped and ready to read.

This is the first screen you see when you put in the flash drive (and you have auto-run enabled). If you do not have auto-run enabled you can start this from the first partition. The interface is straight forward and unassuming, perfect for someone like me.

After two wrong passwords this is the error message that pops up. If the password is entered in ten times incorrectly the drive will be permenantly locked and the data will no longer be able to be retreived.

When you are successful with entering in your passphrase this is the interface the software presents. You have four options from this screen. The secure files option just brings up the encrypted partition, which is the same thing you can do by going to “My Computer”. The secure backup allows you to make back-ups of your encrypted partition. The settings option allows you to amek device changes. Finally the lock drive option re-encrypts the contents and logs you out of the software taking you back to the first screen.

The first screen of the secure backup utility prompts you for the location of your Ironkey you wish to backup (I’m assuming this is in case you are using multiple Ironkey’s at once). It also allows you choose the location to save teh backup to.

The second secure backup screen is as unassuming as the first. It allows you to browse to the back-up and restore it directly to your IronKey that you have plugged in.

I can say, when I open a settings screen I would have thought there would have been more options then this. The first preference on give you the option reformat the drive. The lost and found screen allows you to display a simple message that pops up on the unecrypted login. If some soul find your drive they can then send it back to you. The real question is if they will burn through the ten password attempts before they do.

The last option is solely for changing the passphrase that you use to unlock your Ironkey stick. It is simple and precise. If you need a device that allows full encryption and that is functional when you do not have administrative access to the computer it’s used on this is it. I will say I’m not too happy that they haven’t the OSX or Linux clients that they have been working on, but they state on their site that they will be forthcoming. If your interested in picking one up from Amazon here are some links for you: IronKey 1GB Secure Hardware-Encrypted Flash Drive IronKey 2GB Secure Hardware-Encrypted Flash Drive IronKey 4GB Secure Hardware-Encrypted Flash Drive Original From: Iron Key Product Review

I really wish I didn’t have such a cheesy title, but the movie was incredible. Unlike the movie released a couple years ago this movie actually felt like the Incredible Hulk (granted when I saw the last one the CGI wasn’t finished but the story and acting still sucked). Edward Norton played proper homage to the Bruce (David) Banner character made famous by Bill Bixby. A lot of his acting and character motivation literally felt like Bill Bixby and I could have asked for anything better. There was the correct amount of inside jokes going around also - from the Stan Lee to Lou Ferrigno cameos which were both excellent to the opening montage of the movie which essentially was a remake of the 1970’s show opening. There was a nice amount of side stuff like a comment about purple pants and hte fact that in the end he receives a package to D. Banner. This would be a nod to the fact that (according to Stan Lee) the Studios thought Bruce sounded to homosexual so they renamed him David in the show (*roll eyes*). The one thing they got right once we jump from Edward Norton’s Banner to the CGI Hulk is that the Hulk felt right. There was enough anger and pain that he truly was the hulk. Granted the CGI could have been better, but the character felt right, at no point did I feel that it wasn’t the Hulk, or think “The Hulk wouldn’t do that”. I know I am beginning to sound like a fan-boy gushing away, but the movie was just incredible. I went in with low expectations and thinking it might be slightly better then the movie made a few years ago, because of Edward Norton’s involvement. What I came out with was the surprise and joy of seeing what felt like a continuation of the 1970’s TV show I loved as a child. For a little side story while I loved the Hulk TV show as a kid, when he changed from Banner to the Hulk the transformation scene scared the hell out of me. I used to go hide behind the couch until he was done transforming and would then come back and watch. Better then Iron Man (which Tony Stark does have a cameo in the Hulk) and better in the Indiana Jones sequel, the Hulk so far is my pick for movie of the summer, but there are many movies yet to come.

Original From: The Incredible Hulk Movie - It Was Incredible

Original From: The Beginning

Even though I managed to score an invite, someone thought I was still in need. I have one I can forward along to the first commenter below on creeva.com at http://creeva.com/2008/06/12/i-have-one-bright-kite-invite/ Original From: I Have One Bright Kite Invite

I have 10 Iminta invites, my crossposting has made it so I’ve jumped through hoops across multiple networks giving out my last bunch. So here is what you have to do - you have to go to creeva.com and post a comment on this thread there. The URL is http://creeva.com/2008/06/11/10-iminta-invites-available/ Make sure you include your real e-mail address in the proper field (which is hidden and I won’t share) so I have an address I can send the invite to. The first 10 people get invites. You don’t have to leave your e-mail address in the comment body. Original From: 10 Iminta Invites Available

Picture taken from here Introduction

Picture from here E-mail in the clouds. Essentially back in 1996 when Hotmail was first released (in the pre-purchased by Microsoft era) the dawn of popular cloud computing for e-mail began. The main issue was storage space. I believe that Hotmail launched with 5 megs of storage space for all of your e-mail. It is frustrating to know all the e-mail that’s been lost over the years due to inadequate storage space. I now have single pictures in my email archive that are larger then 5 megs. Times change and space get’s cheap.

Picture from here When Google released Gmail into the wild it was a game changer. By offering 1GB of storage space it made it seem that you literally could keep your e-mail forever. Other providers such as Hotmail and Yahoo were maxing out at 25 MB at the time, this seemed ridiculous in comparison. Currently Gmail supports almost 7 GB of storage space and Hotmail and Yahoo went to “unlimited”. I consolidate almost all of my e-mail to Gmail. Data Types To utilize e-mail storage you can attach any (supported) file and keep it in your mailbox. Data Security While you have to rely on a username and password to access your e-mail as the security barrier entry, if you want true protection from snooping it is suggested that you either get a web plugin that allows you to do encryption with Gmail, or keep your private messages encrypted and use them with an offline client. Data Redundancy Since you can forward e-mail from Gmail, I have it configured to forward all incoming mail to both my Yahoo Mail account and my Hotmail account. If for some reason GMail loses my data or in the unlikely event Google goes out of business I’ll still be able to access my e-mail messages. It is recommended that you keep an offline backup of your mail messages so they can be accessible while being off the grid. Data Accessibility With Gmail offering accessing via a rich web interface, a basic web interface, a mobile web interface, POP3, SMTP, and IMAP; it seems unlikely that you are going to find an Internet device that can not access it in some way or fashion. Conclusion This is the e-mail scenario that works for me. Since encryption really isn’t ubiquitous across the board I don’t use it like I should. Beyond that this scenario is highly redundant and should allow you operate from anywhere with a network connection without worrying about losing your data.

Previous entries in the Living in the Clouds Series: Living In The Clouds Part 1 - Introduction To Cloud Computing

Original From: Living In The Clouds Part 2 - E-Mail