Peter Adler
Peter Adler has been a journalist for longer than he'd want to admit.Not that his memory has been failing him, but when you spend more than a half of a century in this racket, a certain hesitation might be understandable, advisable, even. Banned in the then-communist Czechoslovakia for his writings a few decades ago, he immigrated to Canada where he again returned to journalism. In 1995, he was one of the founding parents of www.canada.com. Later, he also created content for the original version of www.faceoff.com. He worked as editor on www.cyberwalker.com, and
www.triviamonkey.com, too. For a decade and a half, he has been serving as one of the judges on the panel for the Editor & Publisher and Mediaweek's world-wide competition for best news web sites, EPpy. Originally, Adler, a.k.a. Uncle Pedro, trained to become an economist, and that science has kept its hold on him since his university days. And so has his passion for economic and political history. But journalism and other creative endeavours, such as live theatre, have won. His hobbies include his family, reading and writing non-fiction, book editing, live theatre and music. In his writing, he prefers real-life stories. He hates passive verbs. “We can do it” sounds much better to him than “It can be done.”
Does the Bell Toll for Smartphones? Not Really, But They Have Some Catching Up to Do
Filed under: Buyer Beware, Consumer Complaints, Technology
It's not as if smartphones were bidding good-bye, but their popularity has been sinking lately.Thus a report by British international marketing research company, Intersperience.
Why? Simply because the technology hasn't been keeping up with the Joneses, such as tablets, laptops, PCs, and other such paraphernalia.
What's going on? Simple: smartphones' access speed to the Internet hasn't slowed down, but all the other equipment has found ways to speed up. And since we live in the era of institutionalized impatience, the dip in smartphone popularity has been inevitable.
High-Tech Devices Do Not Travel Well
Filed under: Buyer Beware, Credit Cards, Fraud, Identity Theft, Technology, Travel, Holidays
Life's tough. And dangerous. Even when you go on vacation. Why? Forgot to shut the windows? Or turn the bathtub faucet off?No. It's the high-technology you own that's causing you wrinkles.
It doesn't have to.
High-tech devices and their use anywhere, even in the midst of a five-star resort, can bring untold troubles upon you. Especially if you resort to using your credit cards and communicating with others, using WiFi services you're not familiar with.
Here are some basic instructions to keep your mind at ease (and your devices safe).
BizPaL Helps Small Business Cut Through Government Red Tape
Filed under: Entrepreneurship, Investing, Small Business
Small businesses must have had it up to here with all the paperwork they've got to go through to be able to open their doors – and keep them open afterwards, so long as there is enough custom.All that at a time when the prevailing thought is we should have gone paperless long ago.
Enter BizPaL. That's an online business permit and licence service that saves time spent on paperwork and helps entrepreneurs start up faster.
While general readers might question the need for licences and permits in the first place, they exist. And so long as we do not raise a revolution against them, might as well make the process as efficient as possible.
Beware Fraudsters' New Tricks, Financial Consumer Agency Warns
Filed under: Buyer Beware, Credit Cards, Fraud
The phone rings, and a polite voice on the other end of the line enquires after your health and whatnot. The voice says it's your financial institution's representative calling, and while they're at it, they find out from YOU which financial institution they represent, actually.And then they proceed to ask questions that are none of their business. If your answer is anything else than asking them for THEIR number, checking it, and reporting it to the police AND to your financial institution forthwith, blame yourself. You've just been had.
Your Smartphone is Being Targeted. How to Reduce Your Risk
Filed under: Credit Cards, Fraud, Identity Theft, Technology
The world is a dangerous place. No matter how safe you think you are, there's always someone, or something, lurking, waiting to strike at any given moment. Hollywood has been feeding such fears for a long time, but with smartphones the hope is that help would be on its proverbial way within minutes of a frenzied SOS text message.But what if that very device you hope will save your butt actually poses just as much risk to your well-being? Then what?
Trouble Remembering Passwords? New Technology Can Help
Filed under: Technology
Don't make your passwords too obvious so any with the barest of imaginations can break them.That's the mantra.
Some sites that require passwords even tell you whether your chosen password is weak, regular or strong enough. And there are several specialized sites that will help you if you want to confirm the strength of your password.
If you don't like Microsoft's monopolistic approach, there is, for example, How Secure Is My Password. In this case, after you've typed your password in, the site will tell you within seconds how long it would take an average hacker, equipped with a PC, to break your password. How they arrived at the number remains a sweet mystery.
Phone Still Beats Social Media as Marketing Tool: Research
Filed under: Budgeting & Planning, Shopping
Guess what? So Facebook isn't the be-all and end-all communications tool, after all. The good old telephone, even if some of its mobile incarnations, is still winning the battle for consumers' hearts and souls.As the internationally known British marketing research company, Intersperience, found, we have come to view young consumers as "self-contained Facebook addicts who only communicate by text." If this were true, it should be very easy for companies to reach them with a few clever viral campaigns and self-service customer help desks – so why isn't it?
Tax Department Challenges Online Filing Mythology
Filed under: Fraud, Identity Theft, Taxes
Quite a few people don't feel right when they handle their business transactions online. It's so impersonal, they say, you don't know whom you're dealing with, and who else can see what you're doing, and whatnot.Those same people are perfectly willing to pay using their credit cards in store, seeing with their own eyes that the transaction proceeds through a wireless contraption all the way to their credit card company and back.
Report Scareware Attacks to Law Enforcement Agencies Forthwith
Filed under: Buyer Beware, Fraud, Identity Theft, Technology
Your computer is being frozen because you're a child pornography suspect. Signed: Your friendly neighbourhood Royal Canadian Mounted Police.This message pops up on your screen and you gasp. What? Me? A child pornographer?
Within seconds the first part becomes reality: your computer is frozen. The second part of the message was a perfect lie, of course. The RCMP had nothing to do with it. And neither had the Canadian Security and Intelligence Service (a.k.a. CSIS). Or any other law enforcement agency, for that matter.
Social Media's Quasi-Social Activities Endanger Users
Filed under: Buyer Beware, Fraud, Identity Theft, Technology
Do you still trust social media? Are you still using them?If you have no problem with others knowing intimate details of your life, and not only those facts that you have chosen to put on your pages, fine. But what if you are of the opinion that your credit card number, plus details of access to your bank accounts should be exclusively yours and nobody else's? Real-life stories confirm what many have suspected all along: social media networks are sieves. Some more than others, but all of them are.
Here's a real-life story that should scare the heck out of all Facebook users.
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