The Refresh Orlando Heirs

Lately, I have read several articles and heard a presentation about keeping the information on your computer safe from internet thieves. We know them as “hackers,” “phishers,” “pharmers,” and whatever other name the media calls them. One thing is clear from recent publications. The thieves are getting smarter and using more sophisticated methods to steal private information.

For example, Business Week, April 17, 2006, reported that the thieves recently sent thousands of emails telling people that a lawsuit had been filed against them. They used legal references that made the emails seem authentic. The emails advised the readers to open the attachment to learn about the details of the lawsuit against them. The attachment contained a computer worm called “Bagle” that harvested all of the readers’ email addresses. The thieves used the addresses they stole to send out more bogus emails that the recipients thought were coming from people they knew.

I personally was the victim of an attempted “phishing” scam that apparently was used on thousands of other people. I received an email purportedly from Citibank that asked me to confirm my personal information in order to protect my account. Fortunately, I called Citibank, and their representatives told me that they would never use an email to ask for personal information. I have no idea how many other people were the victims of this scam.

Never underestimate the internet thieves. They create software to steal data, and they embed code into articles and links that we will open and give them access to personal information. They have software that records our keystrokes so that they can find our names and passwords. They have taken their craft to a higher level, and they are now breaking into the computer systems of banks and credit unions.

They are also pooling their resources and forming “hacker” think tanks. There is a black market book called Hacker’s Handbook and a $20 kit called WebAttacker that tries to defeat firewalls and record keystrokes. Business Week estimates that internet fraud losses in 2005 were $1.5 billion.

About the author:

Jo Ann Joy, Esq., MBA, CEO

You may contact Jo Ann by phone at (602) 663-7007, by fax at (602) 324-7582, by email at joannjoy@Indigo Business Solutions.net, and by mail at 2313 East Ocotillo Rd., Phoenix, AZ 85016

For more information about these and other important business topics and for legal consultation, please visit our website at http://www.IndigoBusinessSolutions.net

Copyright 2006. Indigo Business Solutions is a registered trade name.

The future of your business starts here.

Jo Ann Joy is the CEO and owner of Indigo Business Solutions, a legal and business consulting firm that differs from other business consulting firms, because it offers comprehensive legal and business counseling. Jo Ann has a law degree, an MBA, and a degree in Economics, but she is not a traditional attorney. Rather, she is a strategic business attorney who works closely with clients to create and implement strategies that will greatly improve their performance and success.

Jo Ann uses her talents, expertise, and education to inspire enterprising and imaginative people to make their goals a reality and enjoy professional and personal growth. Her background includes commercial and real estate law, accounting, financial planning, mortgages, marketing, product development, and business strategies. She ran a successful business for 10 years, and she has written and given presentations on many different legal and business subjects.

One of the easiest ways to perk up your house is to add some
amazing candle holders to your room décor. These candle holders
are inexpensive and they look great in any room of the house.
And lets face it, if you love candles you need to have some good
candle holders or you could be facing quite a problem.

You see, candle holders are not just for looks but for safety as
well. Good candle holders can mean the difference between a
candle simply going out or burning down your home. If you forget
about a candle, which we all do sometimes, it will be much less
likely to start a fire if you have it in one of the many
fantastic candle holders on the market today. When the candles
are in candle holders they will simply sputter out when they get
down low and burn themselves out harmlessly. Of course you still
need to make ever effort to make sure you put out the candles
before you leave the room or the house but if you do happen to
forget one day, you will at least still have a home to come home
to!

Anyone, no matter what their taste in home décor can find some
fabulous candle holders. Candle holders come in all different
colors and shapes and sizes. You can get cut glass or cut
crystal candle holders, Venetian glass candle holders or even
ceramic candle holders. You can get candle holders that are in
the shape of animals or people, flowers or just simple random
geometric shapes. There are literally millions of different
candle holders for you to choose from. You will never have more
fun than shopping for candle holders, the selection can keep you
busy for years!

The best place to look for candle holders is online. When you
start shopping for some new candle holders on the internet you
are gong to have so many more choices at your disposal. And
finding just what you are looking for has never been easier than
it is today. The search engines o the internet are so powerful
that all you have to do is type in just what you are looking for
and you will get tons of results. Each of the websites that get
show on your results page will take you to just what you have
been looking for. You will never have to struggle to find the
perfect candle holders again, ever.

And the price of the candle holders online is another fantastic
part of shopping for them this way. You will be able to purchase
the perfect candle holders online for a fraction of what you
would pay in stores. Take a look around the stores and malls in
your local area and then look at the prices of the candle
holders online. The savings that you will find online will blow
you away. So the next time that you are in the market for new
candle holders check the internet first.

I am very much in tune with my inner child and the other side and I live in a world with magic all around me AND around the people I am close to and around on a regular basis and I encourage people to open up and embrace it, just as I have because it’s a blessing in disguise.

Imagine meeting and having someone come into your life that can open you, your children, your friend or other loved one or family member or your entire family (provided they are open to the idea of opening) to spirit relatives and beings from the other side and right out of the fairy tales that we are told NOT to believe in and that we shouldn’t believe would EVER walk and live around us, when we are children. They exist and I have gone into peoples’ lives and brought that back to them. I love doing it.

Allow me to give one example. This is just one example, mind you, there have been others. I had been away from my old school friends for about 11 years, their children were babies when I was around them last. In January of 2004, we met up again. I adopted them as my spiritual family, what I refer to as my 2nd family, and with time, their children have developed their own abilities, even though they are well past the age where they would outgrow seeing beings in their house and around them.

Their son had dreams and predicted something that happened on the news as well as communicates with the beings in the house. Their daughter even gets escorted to school, she is that close with the spirits. He was skeptical and even mocking the idea of what I saw and knew, but he was close to me, so I think he opened easily anyway. I passed it to them and realized the potential from that. That, and several other coincidences, led me to realize that I have the ability to open others, instead of merely channeling for them or telling them what their guides are like or what they are doing. This is different than that.

People can really get somewhat close to me and become “in tune” with the other side. The fact is, people that are not open to it as well as those that are more open have been affected, somewhat, as well, before I ever realized what I was doing and capable of.

Those kids from my family are 13 and 14 and they see and communicate with and even get tickled and play and laugh and joke with spirits, on a daily basis. They will be moving out of state soon and those spirits will be going with them.

Why does this happen? People, all of us, give off different vibrations. My particular vibration is one that can loan, trade and send a portion of my abilities out to others. ( **That does not mean everyone can go around BORROWING or STEALING just anyone else’s abilities. That cannot and should not happen. It means my vibration is set to give off more than I take in, in an exchange. )

I am offering others the opportunity to inherit the ability to see and be around spirits and beings, on a normal basis. If you want to inherit & have passed onto you the ability to see and feel beings, even if you have no prior knowledge or memory of any around you, even if you have no prior training, I can attune you to that. I can light, in you & in others, a spark that will open up your own natural abilities, even if you have not ever known you had them before.

Even if you think you are the one person that walks all alone in the world, you have the ability to see and know and have contact and communicate with those beings, whether they be Fairies, Elves, Sprites, Brownies, Gnomes, Angels, your Spirit Guides, your animal guides, your own passed away relatives & more. If you are open to the idea of these beings, you can know them.

I had one man that just talked to me over the phone several times and he opened and started seeing things that others did not, where he went. He got messages from his grandmother that he hadn’t seen since he was a teenager. There are more out there.

Most psychics and their sites tell you that you have the ability to open, that you have your own gifts, but they do not go further into detail than that, they do not help people to become psychic. I am offering the chance to/for anyone to have their own ability activated and opened, so they get the chance to see & interact with guides and beings on their own.

Please understand that individual results will vary, depending on how open or resistant someone is to the concept of this. It will take more time for someone that is resistant than it will for someone that wants to see their lost loved one, but they can open, because even people that weren’t even open to the idea of opening have opened around me, and I didn’t even realize I was doing it at the time. There is proof in numbers, I think.

Malina Havard is the owner of A Mystical Creation, http://www.amysticalcreation.com, a site that offers psychic & magical intervention, protection, as well as psychic readings and other things at affordable rates. She is a Reiki Master and has studied independently for many years. Her first reading was performed without any divination tools when she was in high school and she has many spirit guides & animal guides as well as fairy folk and other beings around her, in her daily life. Malina knows that it is in her nature to help people, to heal and to teach. She is now offering people the chance to become psychic, through her guidance.

Want to bring your hardwood floors back to their former beauty, but don’t have the money? Then read on for some tips on how you can refinish the floor yourself.

If you have the time and don’t mind doing the work, then refinishing your floors yourself is a great option but before starting out, it’s not a bad idea to get an estimate from a professional so you can compare the cost of doing it yourself to what they would charge. You’ll get quite a shock at the amount that is charged. It may cost over $1000 to have just 1 room done. You could carpet over it for less, but doesn’t carpeting over beautiful hardwood floors seem, well, wrong?

It is actually rather easy to refinish a wood floor – if you pay attention to what you are doing. To sand the floor, you need a drum sander and possibly a belt sander which can be rented at your neighborhood Home Depot or hardware store. They can help you figure out which machines you need to rent, what kind of sand paper you should buy and also can help with the type and amount of stain and finish for the floor. You might also want to get some dust masks and plastic to section the room off from the rest of the house. Fine particles of dust will get everywhere – even if you section off the room, but you may be able to minimize the impact on the rest of the house.

The most important part of refinishing your floors is learning how to control the sander. The key to running the sander is to make sure it keeps moving at all times, otherwise they are simple to use, although a bit hard on the ears. If you stop in 1 spot, you will probably get a big gouge in your floor. Equate it to using an iron on your clothes – if you stop in 1 spot too long you’ll burn a hole. The sander is similar since it creates a lot of heat, keeping it in 1 spot can burn or dent your floor.

You do need to be careful with the sander as it is self propelled. When you first start it up, make sure you hold on firmly. Don’t be afraid of the machine but make sure you maintain complete control. Relax, after a few spins, it may even start to seem like fun.

After the old finish is removed, you need to apply the stain and new finish. Think of this as the same as doing your nails – first you remove the old finish, then basecoat, color and topcoat. Sometimes you don’t want color on your nails so you skip that part. In your floor you might also skip that part (the stain) but you still want to use a finish to protect the floor.

When selecting a finish you can pick from an oil based or polyurethane (water based) finish. When selecting an oil based finish you will need to decide if you want a satin, gloss or semi gloss finish. It’s probably best for you to use satin on a hardwood floor as it will help hide any flaws in the wood and is much more pleasing then a bright shine Using oil based finish is better for wood floors as it casts a warm amber glow. Water based, on the other had dries quicker and resists yellowing.

No matter which you choose, you must let each coat dry before putting down the next coat. Think back to the nail polish analogy! Follow the manufacturers instructions on the finish before you occupy the room again. Usually you can move your furniture back in after about 24 hours.

As you can see, the task of refinishing your floors need not be overwhelming. Think of it as giving your room a manicure. Take it one step at a time and use care in the process and you can have a great looking floor and save yourself almost $1000 to boot!

About the Author

Lee Dobbins is a contributing writer for home improvement resources such as http://www.refinishing-hardwood-floors.com. Visit our site and see how you can refinish your hardwood floor: http://www.refinishing-hardwood-floors.com/Solid-Hardwood-Floor.html

The movie Little Black Book features a young woman, Stacy, who is frustrated when her boyfriend refuses to share information about his past relationships. When his PDA, a Palm Tungsten C, falls into her hands, she is faced with a conundrum. Does she give it back, or does she explore it? If she gave it back, we wouldn’t have a movie, now would we? Stacy then proceeds to identify his ex-girlfriends and contact them. Let the games begin.

Could this really happen? Of course it could. Most PDA’s contain a plethora of information about a person and their activities, their digital footprints. People store contact information, appointments, meetings and midnight rendezvous’. They store passwords, login ID’s and PIN numbers. They have photos of people they know and sometimes in awkward circumstances. It’s a lot to have to explain. The courts are only beginning to grapple with how to handle the content in a PDA. One person’s little black book can be very incriminating indeed.

For the rest of us, we have nothing as exotic; however, we are all in danger of exposure and threat. Identify theft has become one of the largest white-collar crimes. There is enough information in the average PDA for someone to take over your life. So, what’s the solution? Give up your PDA? No. You face the same problem with the typical day planner. It has all of the same information, it’s just not as accessible. In fact, a PDA has certain advantages over a planner. You can password protect some of the data. You can even encrypt data. Most importantly, you have a backup. The data is safely stored on your computer and archived on external media if you have taken the proper steps.

That duplication of data also means an identity thief has more ways to get to it. So, what can you do? Well, the first concern is to make sure that you backup your data. Synchronize your PDA at least daily. I synchronize my Treo 600 2-3 times each day, usually when I arrive at my office or leave it. Backing up your data means that you should be creating a copy on tape, CD, zip disk, flash ROM or other external media and storing it offsite. If you are not, you are asking for trouble and your business is at risk. If your PDA is ever stolen, you will need to restore that data on a new PDA.

Next, you need to minimize the amount of data someone can actually access. Let’s face it, if a hacker really wants to get your data, they will succeed. However, not every criminal is a super hacker. Sometimes you just want to keep your information from prying eyes. Just because you labeled something as private in your PDA doesn’t mean someone else can’t read it. It depends on what application you synchronize with. If you sync with Outlook, records that are private on your PDA may be public in Outlook.

The best way to protect passwords and PIN numbers is to store them in a password application that encrypts the data. The best applications have both a PDA application and a desktop application that allows access to the information from either system. The trouble is converting that data from whatever format it’s in currently. I’ve struggled with this one myself. There is no easy method I’ve found so far. Just set aside time to copy and paste the data into the password application. It might take a few hours to get that information into a secure application.

If you’re worried about someone viewing your schedule, the best approach is to archive your past history periodically. Outlook has settings that allow you to specify to how often calendar events will be archived. This will wipe the history from your PDA also. Archives are usually stored in an external file that can be accessed later.

If you have incriminating photos, delete them. If you want a copy, save it on external media like tape, CD and flash ROM. For contacts, you can archive them or simply move the record to an external file. Outlook allows you to create a .pst file that you can use to save email, calendar, address, tasks, or other information. Once you move a record, it will be removed from your PDA.

And, don’t forget to delete the cookies and memory cache on your PDA’s web browser. Remember that website you checked out last week? Is that something you want everyone else to know about? I don’t think so.

Don’t forget physical security; keep an eye on your PDA. It’s possible to take steps to protect your data and remove your digital footprints. Protect your little black book and it will protect you.

Rick Cooper, The PDA Pro, is the PDA Coach for productivity anytime, anywhere. He is a national speaker on business productivity and sales. Rick is President of StratAchieve, a company specializing in coaching services to improve productivity and increase revenues. For more information, visit his website at www.thepdapro.com or call (800) 677-6708.

118118 is an English supplier of directory enquiries services, allowing individuals to unearth phone data in addition to more useful info.

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