ispgeek

I don't blame him....I did the same thing.

This is actually very common with COMPTIA....Although the certifications are nice to have do not put all your job eggs in the certification basket. Most employers know the difference between booksmart and experienced candidates the guy/gal with the experience nowadays is going to get the job over the guy with a ton of certs. Now for a while that was different...but employer experiences with the heavily certified and non experienced person is that they are totally useless in a crisis because they can't think outside the book. Your best bet is to get as much experience as you can...starting from the ground and working up....you will be far better prepared and qualified than your cert smart equiv.

And for all you Christmas shoppers, here is a "list" that will have you fuming for years to come. Many merchants now subscribe to a Chexsystems like database that is essentially a blacklist of consumers that have been reported for "returns" abuses. Once on the list you remain there for 5 or more years and will find it next to impossible to return things to participating merchants. What's worse is if you do end up on the list wrongfully there is almost no way to get removed from it. I witnessed a lady at Target (who uses the system) being casually being blacklisted on the spot. RULE #1. IF THEY ASK FOR YOUR DRIVERS LIC TELL THEM YOU DON'T HAVE IT WITH YOU...because that is how they got her....the clerk casually asked for her DL and then placed her on the list because this woman had brought back a ton of returns (as the clerk put it). Then the clerk bragged openly after the lady left that she won't be making any returns for a very long time.....this happened less than a month ago at a Target here in FL. http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/return_policies.html http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20041228/news_1b28returns.html

Here is another example of information mining that has an effect on you every day since insurance companies, employers and private investigators all have access and disputing this information on behalf of the consumer is next to impossible. It's commonly called your MIB and here is some information about it... http://www.privacyrights.org/ar/speech2.htm http://www.yourcredit.com/disclosure/MIBprivacy.jsp

I like it....I wonder if they come in different sizes...but if they are mass marketed will they too come with RFID's?

Here is some more information on RFID's that you might want to read....this is good stuff actually and it really should be watched closely. http://www.uwrfidlab.org/news/docs/LabpressCNN_RFID.pdf http://rfidlawblog.mckennalong.com/archives/100-print.html http://www.epic.org/privacy/rfid/

Ah yes....a forceful press.....even more encouraging....thank you all the mods for contributing your "opinions"...nice to see we have a nice open forum of communication here.....that open forum is what has made TMN such a special place......

Yes you are correct....it's called an RFID and very soon they will probably be in everything regardless what store you go to. Now walmart says they are just for inventory control and tracking but the real story is......With RFID technology a merchant could literally do an inventory of your body as you come into their store or department and within seconds target YOU specific advertising based on it. But it goes much deeper than that...the technology would allow them to scan for ANY RFID embedded device on your person and this includes drivers licenses....and to the extreme some form of implantable body chip (guess the noids weren't so crazy after all).....Now what could possibly go wrong? Here is some references to gobble up... http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/12.07/shoppers.html http://www.spychips.com/ http://www.silicon.com/software/applications/0,39024653,10005771,00.htm

I am not surprised....thats okay....you are entitled to your opinion...thanks for voiciing it...

Thank you for your fine contribution.....ah yes....freedom of the press.....gotta love it.... Here's another...(back to the topic).... There are now cameras at virtually every major intersection in our town...and a whole bunch not so major. Now the obvious use is for traffic control (we all know that)....but very same cameras that give us traffic control capabilities also give people the capability to scan license plates in real time (not to mention snap that digital photo of you hookin that ever so bothersome boogie at 4th and 21st streets). What could possibly go wrong? :2funny: edit: to paraphrase what he really meant

Oh h^ll no....Wallmart is one of the biggest data mining companies out there. Their database of your purchase habits even dwarfs Sears who for many years held the title there. Any time you purchase anything at Walmart your entire purchase record along with your id (cc, atm, check info) goes into their database. What's really scary is all those cameras above the registers....well they arent just to keep safe watch over the checkers...they are there to snap digital images of you if the checker scans items that meet certain watchlist criteria....example you buy more than one package of pseudoephedrine (pardon the spelling) or combine that purchase with with octane boost (common ingredients of mfr of meth). Your picture, your purchase history along with all the credit cards you have ever used may then be shipped to authorities or other agencies wanting such data. Same thing goes for cell phones or more than one high dollar ticket item. Walmart is no different than any other company in its class....they make money on you any way they can...if selling your buying habit data will make them money...be sure its being done...because it is....

List all the ways that data is collected about you on a daily basis including but not limited to video, credit card, employment, any form of internet, you name it....anything that you can think of that actually contributes to your cyber entity on a daily basis....and please give specific examples that you know of that might be limited to your area. Once we get the list compiled then we will have some fun as to how it is currently abused or could be abused by anyone wanting to gather information on you. Here goes.... Any time you take your car to one of those places like Jiffy Lube etc...they do a car health report....and from your perspective they try to get you to buy this, that or the other additional service in addition to that like el cheapo oil change. Well that aint all they do....the data they collect about your car, including VIN and condition, diagnosis info, car computer data, over all wear and tear and maint and what you actually had serviced, your name, your drivers lic, your credit card info...all goes into a database they sell to companies like carfax, insurance companies, investigation companies, anyone who might want information about how you take care of your car. Now what could go wrong?

I had some very (I mean very!) strange things happen with XP64 while I had it loaded. When certain pc's would connect to my network the XP64 box network adapter took on a mind of its own....almost looked like a broadcast storm (or depending on where ya come from...a packet flood). I had to go into tcpip settings and disable some things that normally one would not mess with to get it to go away and even then I suspect that there was still some driver issues even though I had the current ASUS networking drivers. The alternative was to not allow the box that seem trigger XP64's reponse to stay on the network very long or do any major data transfers from it and to be honest...I had so many compatiblity issues with XP64 and usb devices etc...that I went back to 32 bit pro.

What you are trying to do sounds wonderful.....great concept....but knowing as little as I do about Vista and only going by what I've heard it also scares me to death....I guess if I had nothing to lose with my data and alot of time to mess with it this might be a cool idea (or if I knew more about how Vista will work).

Please be careful....none of these things are very safe.....in fact they aren't safe at all and depending on your health and body chemistry they can do some really nasty things....