Stolen Goods - $6298

Over the past week I received two emails from Paypal telling me that my request to withdrawal money was approved and there was going to be a transfer to my bank account. Great I thought, if I have a balance for a certain number of days, it will automatically be put into my checking account... no hassle, right?

I check my Paypal account yesterday and see that I received two payments for $3,200! Both of them were immediately transferred out to the bank account... however... checking my bank accounts, there was a Bank of America account that somehow mysteriously appeared. I only work with Fifth-Third… Weird....

So I called Paypal to report the activity. The first time I talked to someone, they weren't very helpful, but after calling back, I got the answers I needed.

Apparently, someone hacked my Paypal account and was sending money to it from stolen credit cards and then withdrawing it to their account (or something like that). That way the credit card companies wouldn't be able to trace where the payments were ending up.

Paypal said they would reverse the charges within 10 days. At the time of the phone call I had 30 dollars in my Paypal account, $26 of it, which was, actually mine.

Last night out of curiosity, I check my account again and see that I now have a balance of $6,298 and some change... HOLY COW! So they reversed the transaction from the bank account back to my Paypal account. Now I just have a whole lot of money sitting in my Paypal account...

... are you thinking what I'm thinking? ...

What would happen if tried to withdrawal all this money to my checking account? Is that grounds of jail time? Haha... I didn't steal the money, it just happened into my hands. These people with the credit cards didn't have to pay the balance since their card was stolen and such... What do you think?

Haha... I wonder what would happen. Can I claim ignorance and say I didn't think that'd be wrong, or that since the money was in my account, isn't it technically mine?

If I were to steal credit cards and go through this scam/fraud, I would do things a little differently... I would deposit the $3,500 into someone's Paypal account just as they did to my account. But then, here is the key... when this person withdrew the $3,500 I would have only withdrawn $2,900. Why not leave $600 in the Paypal account. That isn't too much of the larger sum, and maybe the person with the Paypal account would keep their eyes looking the other direction if they are mysteriously getting all this cash. Eventually Paypal would catch on... but by then I would have already transferred more than enough money through that account, and just move on to the next one... Genius!

Someday, if my conscience ever decides to pack up and leave... maybe I'll give it a shot. Until then... I guess I'll keep my cursor away from the withdrawal button.

One more thought though... if I go a month and that money is still in my Paypal account... it is definitely past the 10 days Paypal said they would need... so is the money mine? Haha... let's cross fingers, wait and see. Maybe this will turn from feeling completely violated to being in the right place at the right time.

Later!

Google is a Genius!

Google is a genius... they really are, they get people to do things for them for free, because they are such neat/cool/interesting/fun/strange/unique things to do!

Let's take for example their picture tagging 'game'. I don't know if this game is still around but I used it a number of months ago. The entire concept of this game was to write tags for pictures that were shown on the screen. Here's how it worked. You were partnered up with some other random googler and shown pictures. You would type in words that you thought represented the picture (tags) as did your partner. Once you and your partner both typed in the same word, you moved onto the next picture. The more pictures you got through the higher your score... what do you do with the score? NOTHING! The top five or so scores were posted on the games front page, but that's it. What did Google get from this? EVERYTHING! Not only did Google get people to use their service, but they got them to do the dirty work for them. Sure you can program web-bots to dig through sites and come up with tags that represent the sites content, but try doing that with a picture. How can you program something to look at a picture and decide a tag? Conclusion... Google is a genius.

And now I come across something new... http://mail.google.com/mvideo.
So this is a very neat concept that is a great advertising method for Google. What you do with this concept is you print out a PDF provided by Google that looks like an oversided envelope with a giant red 'M' (Gmail logo...). Then once you print it out, you make a less than 10 second video clip of the 'M-velope' entering from the left side of the screen and exiting the right side of the screen. From this Google will compile their favorites and make a little movie of the travels of this M-velope.

How cool of an idea is that! Seriously!

I watched the beginning of their compilation, where the M-velope starts at the Googleplex... its fun, check it out, really!

Here's my thoughts...
Everyone wants to be a little more than they currently are. A little more famous, have a little more money... ya know? So people will happily advertise Google with the hopes that their video might make the final cut. Google is a genius... I know that I am already trying to come up with the best 10-second video clip idea!

Happy Friday!
Happy Birthday Sean!
Happy Birthday Joanna!

PS... Thanks to all who read, this is post number 100!

FlyingPage.com has Arrived!

Hello, World! I would like to introduce you to FlyingPage.com!

Long awaited code name 'Project Melon' is now being released to the world. I teamed up with my little brother, Tyler, and we have created a site I am rather proud of. Tyler is a whiz at the graphics, so he took on the challenge of creating the flash animation that is the homepage, and I took care of the business related/advertising/finances areas along with creating and maintenance of our databases through the HTML pages. (asp is my friend)

We have released advertisements for our page in hopes that we will bring in traffic that would, in fact, like to advertise with us. Our target audience is the online business that has some advertising money to play with and sponsor a new endeavor (at least for now). I think our adventure has potential of great success, we just have to get the name out there, and that's where I would like your help.

I am very excited about FlyingPage.com and would love for it to grow. If you know anyone that would be interested in helping us begin our business endeavor, I would be much appreciated if you could send them in the direction of the page. Also, they are more than welcome to email me at jason@flyingpage.com.

Hopefully this site will help take a little stress out of the flying lessons fund, and maybe bring in a little extra play cash as well!

Wish Tyler and myself the best! Thanks in advance to those that give us a helping hand!!!

Back to past ideas...

Not much time today to sit and write a halfway decent post (at least in my mind)

Team Pawlak is now on the prowl... you remember me mentioning Project Melon??? Well its back. Tyler and I are hard at work trying to bring this idea to life. I have a few other ideas that I've been working on behind the scenes as well. I don't even care if we really making any profit of the website... I'm just hoping for a little bit of traffic to boost a little bit of self-confidence for each of us.

No details yet.... soon though.... very soon!

Email Etiquette... It's the law (well not really)

Some people need to just plain learn how to use email.

Now if anywhere in this post I offend you by criticizing your current email usage... well, I can't say I'll be sorry. At this day in age though, certain things just need to be known about writing emails.

We all know the little things like make your font readable and colors viewable... we all know that WRITING IN CAPS IS THE SAME THING AS YELLING... SO DON'T DO IT! But let's delve into a few other less noted details.

My biggest pet peeve while holding conversation back and forth, whether related to a technical issue at work, or the weekend plans, is this... Reply with history... PLEEEEEASE. I'm sorry world... I didn't put my life on hold, waiting... on the edge of my seat, sitting on my hands, just watching for the screen to flicker and increment my inbox by one. Sometimes I can't remember what I wrote to you... especially if its over a weekend and Monday morning when I arrive in the office I have a message in my inbox that simply states...

Yes... that sounds great, can we have that done by lunchtime Monday?

I can confidently say I will have no idea what you're talking about. I do my best to not think about work at all during the weekend... and that's not a struggle, believe me. Reply with history folks... it is for the good of all humanity.

Next…

Have you seen that commercial about the unlimited texting or something... the Mom is talking to her daughter and the daughter is talking back in all those acronyms? I get a headache just watching that commercial and attempting to understand what's going on. Listed below is the official list of acceptable non-English words

- brb [be right back]
- lol [laugh out loud]
- haha [computer laughter]
- np [no problem]
- btw [by the way]

Let's have none of the silly crazy acronyms like...

- CD9: Code 9 Parental Units Nearby????
- IMNERHO: In My Never Ending Remotely Humble Opinion????
- JK: just kidding... I hate this one with a passion...

Yes I know I'm bordering on talking about instant messenger conversations and not just email... but sorry, this is my post :-P

(And yes, I approve of all smiley faces as long as they are easy to understand what they are representing)

Sometimes with acronyms I have no clue what they are... or like the first and second ones on the don't list… are pretty ridiculous. When my friends and I were little we just had a code word or something we'd say when someone was walking near the phone when we were talking about something we didn't want anyone else to hear. I think we said some type of fruit... Looking back, my parents probably thought I was pretty strange. They'd walk into a room and hear this much of my phone conversation:

Yeah, and did you hear about... (pause) ...grapefruit?

Now a note about email signatures:
I love them! The sillier the better. A guy at work here has one that is a gif animation of a fly fisher. I get a report from him once a month, and I enjoy seeing his signature every time. Let's just not get too carried away folks. A signature is a place to provide personality along with your contact info... but I don't want any spastic flashing colors, or animations of people/stick figures getting shot/stabbed/run over/committing suicide or any other something that someone walking by my cube would stop to take a second glance at.

And finally I will talk about the three fields that are such a mystery to so many... To: Cc: Bcc:

Let's knock them off one at a time shall we?

To:
The people that the email is addressed to should have their addresses placed in the To field. If the email is an FYI for someone, their address does not belong in the To field.

In both examples, President Bush is the recipient we are concerned with.
Example 1 (good usage): I'm writing an email to President Bush telling him that I approve of his immigration reform
Example 2 (bad usage): I'm writing to members of congress to remind them that the status quo sucks and even if the entirety of Bush's plan isn't perfect, its better than what we have now.

Cc:
The Cc field, which is an acronym for Carbon copy, is just that, it’s a carbon copy. You know how when you go to the store and they give you a carbon copy of a receipt that you had to sign? Well this is the same thing. The email is meant for someone else (the store needs your signature on the receipt) but you are getting a copy to just for your records... Cc is an FYI field.
Use the previous examples for To:, just switch them around, bad -> good and good -> bad... got it?

Bcc:
Blind carbon copy is what we're looking at now. This is probably the least used field. When you put an address in the Bcc field, it means that they don't need to know whom all the email is going to. They will just see that the email was sent to them, but won't be able to see any other addresses in the email header.
Example: I am sending out a mass email to all the members of my website forum. I don't want their personal email addresses out in the open... so I address the email myself… To: jason@blarged.com and then I Bcc: everyone else

Got it?

Email is a great tool and great way to stay in contact with people you don't see all too often. Let's make sure we use it correctly though.

If you just skipped down to the bottom of the post and haven't read anything else... just read this.
REPLY WITH HISTORY

Do you have any other Email Laws you'd like to post?

UTube and YouTube - so close but yet so different

I heard about the troubles with UTube a few years back, but hadn't heard anything surface since... until now.

UTube.com is the website for Universal Tube, a tube and pipe manufacturing company found in Toledo, of northern Ohio. Back in 1996 Universal Tube opened its website http://www.utube.com to the public in hopes of driving buyers through an easy online purchase process. It was a success! About 75% of their current business now goes through their website which was getting about 1,000 hits per month... prior to YouTube.com.

After the launch of YouTube.com, Universal Tube's website popularity increased many fold. At first thinking that it was free advertising, Universal Tube did nothing... however, now, with their servers crashing under the weight of 150,000 hits daily raking up hosting costs upwards of $1,700 per month they are giving second thoughts. That's not the end of it though.

As smart as most internet users are... cough cough ...many that find UTube.com are not looking for pipes and tubes... surprise! I myself, an avid domain name checker for the common misspellings or similar words, just to see what sites there are, or to check domain availability, visited UTube.com once the video monster YouTube.com first came to popularity. And apparently users aren’t too happy to find giant green pipe making machines when looking for videos of people eating their own boogers.

Universal Tube is filing suit with Google for Time and Expense charges related to the site mishaps. Some users when finding UTube.com send nasty emails cursing and ridiculing them for not being YouTube.com… the world is full of morons.

I personally can't see much of anything coming from this suit though. As I said in a few posts ago (Read-Only Moderation is Crucial) "According to present day, internet law, website owners are not liable for comments users make on their site". Does this apply to other sites? I would think so. Google, being the company that it is, might decide to help out the little guy a little bit if the suit is dropped, along with a plan to help smooth the uneasy waters.

This is really an unlucky turn of events for Universal Tube.

If I were the owner of Universal Tube here is what I would do:
1.) Email all my clients telling them that we are changing our domain to a less known and less trafficked outlet
2.) Sell the domain UTube.com for tens of thousands (if not hundreds of thousands or even... millions) of dollars in a domain auction.

This would help the company in saving on server costs as well as putting a pretty penny in the pocket for the domain sale. I am sure Google would be willing to buy the domain for more than a few dollars. Just think of the 11 years spent at UTube.com as an investment towards the end goal of selling the domain.

Another option is to just park the domain and let it sit there raking in dollars through ads...

If only I was the one with 150,000 hits daily... what a day that would be :-D

Read-Only Moderation is Crucial

The internet can be an extremely educational playground when used appropriately. However, as in the second grade, there are bullies just waiting to steal your lunch money and walk all over you.

The latest example of this is from a site autoadmit.com which made NPR headlines in this article about the slandering of female law students at Yale. The site labels itself as "The most prestigious college discussion board in the world." which it proudly stamps at the top of its homepage. I had never heard of the site before listening to the story so I decided to check it out. My first reaction to the initial presentation of the site was positive. I liked the layout, it’s not the prettiest and definitely not the easiest to navigate, but that in itself can be a quality for a discussion board such as this.

I figured that since the site wasn't the most user-friendly, the comments might actually be viable and worth my time as a reader... a quick search proved me wrong. Of course being a student at The University of Cincinnati I immediately search Cincinnati to see what results are returned. I find a thread discussing why UC is such a rotten school that is only considered a backup school for local Ohio residents and that no one can understand how UC receives funding when average SAT scores are so low. It is true; UC was considered a backup school for many a few years ago, but not so much anymore, and only in certain fields (this is not going to turn into a post defending my university... but it was rather frustrating getting through that thread).

Back to the original story. Two females from Yale are suing > $200K for comments made about them on the AutoAdmit discussion boards which they fear has influenced possible employers to not pursue them for open positions. There is a board on this site where apparently local students talk about these girls in very derogatory terms, talking about what they wear and what they do before and after class. Comments make up facts about the girls having certain diseases or preferences... and when you search their name on Google, guess what shows up?

AutoAdmit refuses to moderate these comments with concern commenting, “deleting posts is a slippery slope that could lead to broad censorship”. According to present day, internet law, website owners are not liable for comments users make on their site. The poster themselves can be held liable, but herein lies the issue. The site has anonymous posting enabled, which is a serious mistake. With the internet being so open and possibly dangerous in this present day, I am a firm believer that identification is a necessity. I'm not saying Bush needs to be sent daily emails with your cookies and history (which I'm sure he would be very happy to sign a bill putting that into play) but I'm saying that when it comes to your comments, your discussion, only cowards hide their faces... and there are many cowards out there. If this discussion board had a mandatory log in feature, this issue could be dealt with in a professional fashion.

I know people can be more honest when from an anonymous face when dealing with the honest opinions about a university they might attend, but as long as you don't use a self-identifying alias you should have nothing to worry about. If you threaten someone, your information is then compromised through the terms and conditions of the board to the proper authority. No one would have to know who you are just from reading your posts.

I personally have never had a problem with my identification online... however, I see this as a very large issue in the very near future. Web admins need to start taking responsibility for their sites content and the safety of their users. I am against censorship, however, as made evident by AutoAdmit, a level of read-only moderation is crucial.

[edit: yes i am aware i have anonymous comments enabled on my blog... maybe if commenting ever takes off on this blog i'll rethink my security settings, but until then....]

Websites

You know how in the movie 'Office Space' the main guy is talking about his high school guidance counselor and the topic of your career path? 'What would you do if you had a million dollars? That answer is suppose to be what job you take...' (or something close to those lines...) Peter (the main guy) says he wouldn't do anything. He would sit around all day doing absolutely nothing. Me, well I could go for a little bit of nothing. My life isn't all too busy right now, but I think it is the combination of class being over with for the quarter, the thoughts of no class until September, and of course the nice warm weather accompanied with the desire to be no where else other than a tennis court of golf course. I'd like to take a nap, but I think I'll go to work instead.

So I'm working on updating my blarged.com website. I want to make the format myself, and I think it is kind of ridiculous how my current format only uses a fraction of the screen size. I have the new format posted in a subdirectory, can you find it?

As prompted a post or two ago, here's a run down with summary/review of a few websites I frequent.

http://www.google.com
- Does it really need an explanation

http://www.woot.com
- Every night at Midnight (Central Time) this website posts a new (usually electronic) discounted deal. They have limited for sale and are most of the time a good find. I have bought a good amount from woot over the past year or two. For each new item they have a discussion board where the cult following of woot can discuss the related prices found elsewhere along with the general use/purpose of the item. Great site to check out... if you're the person that always gets the impulse purchase of a Hershey bar at the checkout lane of Kroger, you may, however, want to avoid this one.

http://www.digg.com
- Digg is a user driven community of news articles. Their stream is mainly technology but there are sections for 'normal' news as well. Users of the site submit links to articles they have found elsewhere and Digg hosts discussion boards and the link. Those traversing the site are able to 'Digg' the article if they like it, or 'Bury' if they don't. When a profile is created you can befriend fellow diggers and see what stories they find interesting (what they've dugg). I spend a lot of time on this site getting caught up on my tech news and seeing all the neat things going on around the world.

http://www.facebook.com
- What would college be without Facebook? I would be scared to find out. Facebook is a online community phenomena that became popular at the beginning of the 2004-05 school year. On Facebook, you create a profile where you can post pictures and list personal favorites in areas like TV Shows or what activities you are involved in, where you work... (you know, all the fun stuff a stalker would like to know). I have used Facebook to keep in contact with old friends that have moved away from home after high school, and friends from Indiana University, that I have since lost other forms of contact with after transferring to UC. To those who unfortunately use MySpace... Facebook can be described to you as MySpace with morals. Check out the links on the left for a link to my facebook.

Those are my four basic sites that I use all the time. Of course I'll update with the new sites as I find them. I do frequent many others, but this post is long enough already, and well yeah, this post is long enough already. I'm off to work, Later.