eHow Featured in ABC News and Sacramento Bee

7 On Your Side

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- In economic times like these, it is good to do more things yourself. Say change the oil or cut your families hair. The website www.ehow.com is helpful to some and a money maker to others.

The website eHow.com can show you how to do just about everything. A pretty big brag, but not that far off the mark.

Log on and learn to build rabbit cages or start an Internet business from scratch.

"You can imagine, tough economic times people feel a little more empowered. They want to do things themselves, they think twice about calling that plumber who charges $85 just to ring the doorbell," said Gregory Boudewijn from eHow.com

"Have you ever logged on to find out how to do something?" asked 7 On Your Side's Michael Finney.

"Yes, I do, every day," said Boudewijn

"What?" asked Finney.

"I have fixed my garbage disposal. My wife has learned to hang a pendent lamp in our dining room. I have gotten some tax advice -- a lot of information," said Boudewijn.

Amy Kniss uses the site a lot, too.

"I am not good at following real directions, like reading a VCR manual -- that is going to be a disaster, or whatever, how to connect my DVD player to something, it is probably not going to work out. But this, this, is written in basic steps," said Kniss.

And where does this advice come from? From people just like Amy. She writes articles.

eHow pays for advice based on the subject matter and how many read the articles.

"I started writing because it was kind of fun and basically you could write about what you know about and didn't have to do too much research. And from there I figured, 'you can actually make some money doing this'," said Kniss.

And she is, although she won't tell me how much she earns. Some writers are making $10 or so a month, others are actually earning a living, thousands of dollars every month.

"They are everyday people like you and me. People who have free time and expertise and sure there are some aspiring writers who like to be on our site and getting a portfolio of their work, but then there are just average people who are sharing information they have accumulated throughout their lives," said Boudewijn.

They check for plagiarism and have editors going through the articles as well.

www.ehow.com

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Omegle: As Anonymous as You Want to Be

Omegle pairs up strangers for a random conversation about anything, everything or nothing. The site bills itself as "a brand-new service for meeting new friends."

Assuming you make new friends with people whom you know nothing about, don't necessarily share any common interests and may or may not live anywhere near one another. If you like making these sorts of new friends, then yeah, Omegle is the perfect service for you to meet.

When you access Omegle, its algorithm pick another user at random, shoves you together into a virtual version of an empty elevator, then slams the doors closed, leaving the two of you alone together in silence. You may choose to speak, mutter a few pleasantries or wait out the ride in silence until one of you reaches your floor.

What is the intimacy factor of sitting at your keyboard waiting for someone you don't know to enter your life? What words do you hope will appear? What will you say to a stranger that you won't say to your non-virtual friends. Will this format of anonymous conversation become a means of therapy for the uninsured or out of work?

While Omegle says the "chats are completely anonymous," it notes, "there is nothing to stop you from revealing personal details if you would like." What's more, there is nothing to stop you from making up any personal details you'd like. This sounds eerily similar to Hitchcock's "Stranger on a Train."

Perhaps this "service" will grow more sophisticated. Will there eventually be an option to select a topic for the chat before being paired with a stranger? Say if I wanted to talk about Congress or the 2010 CA governor's race, then I could enter that in a text field, and a stranger could select that topic? Also, how will this be monetized and what's to keep it from becoming some creepy anonymous sex-chat platform?

Google Gains Ground in Quest for World Domination

It's true: "You can decline to submit personal information to any of our [Google's] services, in which case Google may not be able to provide those services to you."

But it's important to know what Google considers "personal information" and how it handles said information.

How does Google handle "User communications", like your gmail account and its included chat features? Well, according to the company's Privacy Policy, "When you send email or other communications to Google, we may retain those communications in order to process your inquiries, respond to your requests and improve our services.

Wha? First of all, few of us consider that our email or IM exchanges are "sent to Google" rather than through Google. Unlike the phone company, or even a cellular service provider, that keep records that a call took place, between which numbers, when it occurred and how long it lasted, Google's retention of your exchange includes the actual content of the conversation. Google does not disclose how long it retains this content, presumably it does so in perpetuity.

We may soon see the day when our gmail conversation of today is subpoenaed, to prove anything from ongoing infidelity in a divorce proceeding to undeclared craigslist earnings in a tax or fraud investigation. I realize that once sent, emails exist in cyberspace indefinitely. Still, it is creepy to know that they also exist in Google's archives, where one day scholars may pour over them like they once examined the correspondence exchanges of great thinkers, wtiters, celebrities and politicizations.

Be careful what you say and where you say it.

If it's any consolation, Google makes its users this promises:

"If Google becomes involved in a merger, acquisition, or any form of sale of some or all of its assets, we will ensure the confidentiality of any personal information involved in such transactions and provide notice before personal information is transferred and becomes subject to a different privacy policy."

Big Brother Is Watching

Here are a few aspects of your life that Google is watching:


Log information – When you access Google services, our servers automatically record information that your browser sends whenever you visit a website. These server logs may include information such as your web request, Internet Protocol address, browser type, browser language, the date and time of your request and one or more cookies that may uniquely identify your browser.

Location data – Google offers location-enabled services, such as Google Maps for mobile. If you use those services, Google may receive information about your actual location (such as GPS signals sent by a mobile device) or information that can be used to approximate a location (such as a cell ID).

Google only processes personal information for the purposes described in this Privacy Policy and/or the supplementary privacy notices for specific services. In addition to the above, such purposes include:

• Providing our services, including the display of customized content and advertising;
• Auditing, research and analysis in order to maintain, protect and improve our services;
• Ensuring the technical functioning of our network;
• Protecting the rights or property of Google or our users; and
• Developing new services.

Sensitive information

“Sensitive personal information” includes information we know to be related to confidential medical information, racial or ethnic origins, political or religious beliefs or sexuality and tied to personal information.

Will Castro's New Trigger Violence

You've got to give it to the owners of Trigger for their responsiveness. The auspiciously titled night club, set to open in the Castro in April, that drew controversy for its name's violent connotations -- not to mention its tagline: "With a vengeance" and gun logo -- quickly remade its website post haste.

Trigger spokesman Lord Martine denied the violent connotations of the club's name. He described Trigger as: "A fun, sexy, young, original name - an impetus for excitement and energy."

Perhaps his claim is not so misguided, given that the Castro hasn't been among the San Francisco neighborhoods where night life turns violent when partiers bleed out from the closing clubs.

While San Francisco residents, and anti-gun zealots, have every right to take issue with Trigger's name choice. They may be better served by taking a deep breath and consoling themselves with the fact that Trigger is not opening in North Beach, Mission or Tenderloin neighborhoods, where last-call often breeds drunken aggression and street fights.

Who's Most Likely to Commit Fraud?

What do Bernie Madoff, R. Allen Stanford and most of the other names that make the papers for perpetrating fraud have in common? That's right, they're men. More often than not they're also white men. Make that white men in management positions with advanced degrees.

So, who is most likely to commit fraud? Yeah, those guys (75% of those who committed fraud were men). Or at least guys very much like them. That is according to the results of a recent KPMG study that surveyed senior executives including CFOs and vice-presidents, across Canada, to find where the fraudsters lurk in corporate cultures. That the scamers were white wasn't actually among the study's results, but it's Canada, so of course they're white.

Strangely, an article published in this week's Business in Vancouver reports: Uneducated men in their 30s and 40s are among the most likely people to commit fraud.

The facts on this are a little confusing, according to the article: About 40% of fraudsters had no post-secondary education; 30% did. What about the remaining 30%? Did they have some post-secondary education? Were they raised by wolves without any formal education?

The report's credibility came under further question when it reported: Almost 70% of fraud cases were inside jobs; 20% involved outsiders. Eleven per cent involved both insiders and outsiders, according to the report. Almost 75% of fraudsters acted alone.

How could eleven percent of fraud involve both insiders and outsiders, if almost 70% were inside jobs and "20% involved outsiders"? 70%+20%+11%=101%

Maybe these guys didn't actually mean to commit fraud, they just never learned math.

Govt Owns 80% of AIG. Why does it ask for records?

I'm confused about something. If a stakeholder owns 80% of a business, wouldn't that stakeholder have access to the company's transaction and financial records?

Yes? Of course it would? I thought so.

How is it different when the stakeholder happens to exist in the collective form of the American taxpayers, whose more than $170 billion dollars were used by the Federal Reserve to bailout a failing company: A.I.G

As this is the case, why did members of Congress have to beg for the names of "partner companies" to which A.I.G. further doled out the bailout money? And it appears, taxpayers and Congress only received this concession as means of distraction. A.I.G. released the names of its payees just after A.I.G. revealed nearly the billion dollars in bonuses it released to upper management in the particular division of the company that spawned a national disaster.

As an 80% shareholder in the company, the Federal government should get up off its knees and stop begging. Instead it should grab A.I.G. by the throat and promise to break its financial windpipe if the company doesn't get its act together.

See which companies
A.I.G disclosed as partners.

Newspapers and Thinking the Unthinkable

If you want to know why newspapers are in such trouble, the most salient fact is this: Printing presses are terrifically expensive to set up and to run. This bit of economics, normal since Gutenberg, limits competition while creating positive returns to scale for the press owner, a happy pair of economic effects that feed on each other.

Read more of Clay Shriky's article: Newspapers and Thinking the Unthinkable.

Schools Prepare for On-Campus Threats

Will the economy tanking and the upsurge of people facing foreclosures, unemployment and bankruptcy erupt in increased levels of violence? How could it not? Coping with the stress of a life on the brink of disaster, whether real or preconceived, isn't a usually a recipe for calm or foresighted action.

Maybe schools and companies should be doing more to prepare for an armed attack. In the last decade, in the U.S., more students were killed on campuses as a result of gunmen than from earthquakes, fires and tornadoes combined! Yet, schools around the country still spend time each month practicing disaster drills, despite the infinitesimal percentages that such an event will occur.

It seems that some California elementary schools are not only revising their "Lockdown" procedures, but eliminating mandatory drills that prepare students for a natural disaster. Instead, these schools will instead practice for more realistic threats: Gunfire on campus, armed assailant in the building and civil disruption.

Students practice laying on the floor of their classrooms in the dark for a minimum of 30 minutes. They also learn where the safest places to hide from an attacker on campus and what a secured room looks like. According to one school's "Lockdown" procedure teachers should only resume normal classroom activities after a "recognizable school staff person" directs them to do so over the school intercom.

While admirable, school's efforts to prepare for a more likely threat seem less than adequate. Couldn't a gunman take a "recognizable school staff person" hostage and have her give the all clear over the intercom?

After all, you never know where a man with a grudge will decide to release his wrath.

Promises, Promises & an Ethics Pledge

Why would the Obama Administration require all new administration hires to pledge: "6.Employment Qualification Commitment. I agree that any hiring or other employment decisions I make will be based on the candidate's qualifications, competence, and experience"?

What other criteria would Administration officials use in "any hiring or other employment decisions," if not those "based on the candidate's qualifications, competence, and experience"? Oh, that's right, political hiring is less often about who you know than what you know. Provision six of the Ethics Pledge implies that the Obama Administration is less that fully confident in the decision making abilities of new executive branch hires.

Change you can believe in. But make sure to require those agents of change to pledge not to employ the shady hiring practices the Obama Administration swears it is above.

Read the Executive Order for Yourself: Ethics Commitments By Executive Branch Personnel

Taking Facebook to the Grave

It's not morbid to consider how you'll be remembered when you're dead or to whom you'll leave what. But this parceling out of our estate is more complicated than ever: who gets our virtual remains?

I know I've thought about it. More regarding my Gmail account than anything else, but the same goes for my Facebook, MySpace, PayPal, eBay accounts. If my obit be posted on my Facebook page, who's responsible for posting it? You've thought about it too, right? Maybe not quite in the same way, but you have.

It matters who knows what secrets my digital world holds. The emails I saved. The back-and-forth re-hashing of relationships with exs. The continuing conversations with those you swear you have no contact. Email expedience of secrets you promised to keep or the venting you do behind your partner's back.

The Pay Pal transfers, purchases or secret accounts. That stuff is private.

I'd feel more violated if my text messages or emails were read than if my "snail mail" were opened. For those of us under thirty emdash; hell under 40 emdash: our essential communications take place online. And if we want to preserve our reputation after death, we must take some precautions to make sure we tie up our digital loose ends.

Well, worry no more: Legacy Locker will keep your passwords safely vaulted and only release them to the person named by you, in the event of your death. The digital equivalent to a safety deposit box.

MacBook Ruins Writer's Life

Dear Steve Jobs & Apple Geniuses:

I am dissatisfied with my MacBook, despite its sleek exterior and sex appeal. I want a divorce; our relationship may be unsalvagable. We began on a faulty foundation: the first two computers were defective from the start, but not one to rule out a whole class by a few bad experiences I persisted.

That first year things ran smoothly, but as the months passed my MacBook became less and less reliable. Like my uncle Jerry who promises to fix the leaky faucet but three days later the kitchen's flooded. Its applications would stall and it took to ignoring my comands.

"Not responding." Thanks a lot. Our relationship soured. The difficulities in our relationship may cost me my job.

This is a subpar product. I have had problems with it since day one. I will not recommend the MacBook to anyone, in fact I will go out of my way to detail the issues I've faced and attempt to dissuade whomever I may from buying an Apple product. I would like to see my computer replaced, so I could return to work without forfeiting anymore of my income or losing any clients as a result of my MacBook-related technical difficulties.