One Of Thousands To Have Their Facebook Accounts Hacked By Spammers?

If you are one of the thousands out there to have had your Facebook account hacked by spammers, you will delight in reading this article released by Steven Musil (CNET) ZDNET on 10-30-2009. Having 2 computers destroyed by Facebook hackers myself, I most definitely understand and can relate to those of you undergoing this misfortune as well. "Facebook beats the 'spam king'" "Here is the real difficult question: if you can only have 5,000 followers on Facebook, how could he have made so many spams to get fined $711 million dollars? Do you think he used a email address harvester and collected emails illegally? But how could he unless he was someone's "friend" on Facebook? Maybe he assumed 110 identities?" In order to read the entire article on ZDNET, you will need to complete a short member signup. Well worth the signup and superb up-to-date articles to keep you abreast current cyber-news. View my comments to this thread here. Continue...

Transition From Windows XP to Windows Vista Premium

Alright, I normally do well with new challenges. They usually bring life and excitement to an otherwise boring life. I switched from Windows XP to Windows Vista Premium this last week. Excited? I was. Frustrated? I am :) What was wrong with "Add / Remove Programs" in the Windows Vista control panel? Simple, to-the-point and made perfect sense calling this feature "Add / Remove Programs". Someone thought it made our lives easier to change the name to "Programs And Features". No more "Outlook Express either". Our mail is now called "Windows Mail". Not complaining here, the name fits but it only took me forever and a day to find the program and set it up :) Oh, the Quick Launch from XP. I am a neat-freak and like to have all my icons neatly arranged. In Windows XP, I was able to easily drag my Quick Launch Toolbar to the top of my screen then auto-hide it. After spending way too much time trying to figure this one out on my own, I decided to Google for help. Luckily I ran across this wonderful post written by Deb Shinder: 10 things you'll miss when you upgrade to Vista (and how to get some of them back). Written in 2007. No procrastination on accepting the "NEW", my XP worked perfectly fine and I saw no need to upgrade until my puter died from a horrid virus attack. Overall, Vista has some great new features and has made many security improvements as well. Two years from now, I will have completely learned all the tweaks, work-arounds and fine-tuning. Windows 7 will have worked all their future glitches out. Service packs, security updates, hardware compatibility issues,... we all know the routine. Then it will be time for me to accept the NEW...excited, then frustrated...Deja Vu! Continue...

Facebook Computer Hack And Virus Attack.

Hi. I have missed all my great friends in the Blog / Contests / Sweeps and Freebies Community. My 2 networked computers (mine and my daughters) were destroyed 5 hours after turning several Facebook computer hackers in for investigation. I had to wait for the funds to purchase a new computer as it was only slightly more expensive to purchase a new computer instead of replacing the hard-drive and motherboard. Sad that you can't even enjoy a simple game without hackers, viruses and malware. I had AVG, Avira, Spybot & Adware all running and up-to-date. The virus does not get detected as all these programs simply run their daily scans, appear to be up-to-date, ect.... You're computer administrative rights are taken over and the only detectable trace of a virus is extra processes running. Especially SVCHOST & NETWORK processes. The attack itself: My motherboard Bios was flashed and hard-drive crashed with bad sectors. Well, it's great to be back and I look forward to entering all your great giveaways again :) Continue...

Victims Of Sept 11, 2009. God Bless You. Our Prayers Are With You Today.

I go through life day by day not paying much attention to what I ate, my activities or my thoughts. I couldn't tell you what I did last week on a given day, much less a day eight years ago. September, 11th-2009 is a day that I can recall every detail of my life, the horrid thoughts that ran through my brain, where I went, each person I saw, and how I felt. I felt so insecure, so apprehensive and my sense of safety was rattled (for lack of a better term that's actually an understatement). My heart ached for the victims of 9-11, their families and their friends affected. At the same time, I was so grateful the attacks did not hit my hometown, that my family, my friends and my loved ones here were safe. Then I felt so guilty, "How awful to think that!" The entire day ran in slow-motion. In fact, anytime a tragedy strikes my life, the world stops turning. Alan Jackson's song, "Where were you when the world stopped turning" says it all. There are several songs written in tribute to the World Trade Center attack on September 11th, 2001. They all tell a story that spans from how I felt then to how I feel now and everything in between. I've added my favorite videos below to share with you. Most importantly, lets keep the victims of September 11th, their families and loved ones in prayer today. Let's be thankful for our loved ones and our lives. We are not guaranteed a tomorrow so let's live life! Continue...

Learning To Blog Article #1: Step-By-Step Guide To Backup Your Blogger Template. Backup Your Blogger Post And Comments. Backup Your Blogger Widgets

As a new Blogger I was overwhelmed and frustrated with the process of setting up my Blog. I had no clue what I was doing and I had so many questions. How do I setup the RSS feeds, How do I change templates, add widgets, and create banners? Through trial and error, searching instructional articles and totally crashing my own Blog, I was able to learn. I plan to write a series of articles for the new Blogger out there facing the same hurdles. Hopefully, the articles I write will be of use, easy to follow, and clear some of the confusion you are facing. To Begin: I am going to assume that you have created a Blogger account, chosen your title, template, and familiarized yourself with the dashboard. *Note: Blogger has no limit on the number of blogs you create. I highly urge you to create a second blog and name it “Temp” to avoid making the same mistakes I did. Creating a 2nd blog allows you to make changes and see how they appear prior to implementing them on your original. I totally crashed my blog and lost all data, widgets and posts simply because I was bored with my template and wanted a new one! 1. Creating the 2nd template is easy. Sign in to your blogger account. From the main dashboard (same place you view your profile), there is a link to create a new blog. Follow this and create your 2nd blog the same way you did the 1st one. 2. Backup your template. From within the dashboard, choose the blog you wish to backup and select "Layout", then "Edit HTML", then "Download Full Template". The "Save File" menu will then open and simply save your template to your computer. NOTE: Backing up your template does not back up the posts you have written, nor does it backup your widgets.         3. Export And Import Your Blog Posts And Comments: This step is vital and why I totally crashed my blog, lost my posts, comments and widgets. I backed up my template thinking all was good and was not aware as a new blogger that I had to also backup my comments/post and my widgets. From the dashboard of your blog, click on the "Settings" tab, then the "Export Blog" link. The "Save" dialog box will open, then simply save the export file to your hard-drive. (Be sure to name it post / comments backup or something in that line so that it won't be confused with your template backup. They are both XML files. This step will backup your post and comments. It does not backup your widgets.   4.Backup Your Blogger Widgets: From within your dashboard, choose the “Layout” tab (this defaults you to your “page elements” “widgets” or “Gadgets”). Backing up your “widgets” is a little more difficult because each will need to be backed up individually. Select “Edit” to open each widget, then copy and paste the HTML code from each one into “Notepad”. Be sure to save the document as a “.txt” file. I am here to help, please feel free to comment and ask any questions you may have. Continue...

Dropdown Menu's Or No Dropdown Menus.

I've always wondered. I myself prefer a drop down menu rather then a category listing of my links. From what I've read and hear on other sites. It's not a good idea to use them but I find they help a great deal. They provide me the advantage to neatly organization my links and provides a faster page load. However, The category type link-list gives us the advantage of sharing the exchange of links with our peers and index back-links with all the major search engines. Not able to decide, I am hoping to get input and advise from my readers. For the time being, I created and neatly organized drop-down menu's at the end of this blog. This way my readers are able to quickly jump content from my homepage. For my sub-pages, the category listing remains the same and offer me a way to exchange links with my peers that best fit their category. I would love to know your opinions, thoughts, and criticism on this topic. Continue...

Autographed Copy of The Second Virgin Birth By Tommy Taylor Ends 09/20

Thanks everyone for entering my contest! Congratulations "Marianna" You are the winner of my Autographed Copy of The Second Virgin Birth by Tommy Taylor! I've sent you an email. Please contact me within 72 hours :) Enter to win a new autographed copy of "The Second Virgin Birth" by Tommy Taylor. I won this book in a contest but simply have no time to read it. Editorial Description and author comments are taken from Amazon.com HERE. Description: "Do we have the technology enabling Christ to be born again of a second virgin mother? A six year old little girl in Alabama knows we do. The Pope is afraid we do. The world asks "should we if we can?" The book follows the life of a little girl in Alabama who goes completely insane at the age of six and is confined to a state mental hospital. In a strange twist of fate, she is chosen, "by God," to become the mother of his son, the next Madonna in the second coming of Christ. Explore her life as there are those who adore and worship her and there are those who loathe her and will do anything to end her life before her son is born. This story is a true "can't put it down" book." From the Author "As the author of the book "The Second Virgin Birth," I thought you might be interested in why I wrote the book in the first place. I truly believe that each one of us has inside our very souls, something that we need to accomplish before we pass from this world to the next. Mine was to write a book. One that was not just entertaining but inspired thought among its readers. One that could cause heated debates among friends about its not so simple and clear-cut meanings. I feel that I have accomplished my goal with a book written on a subject that could touch us all and with characters that are so lifelike that they could become your true friends or your worse enemies. My idea for this book began after a personal tragedy in my life. I began to wonder what if we could truly bring a loved one back. Do we have the technology to cause them to be able to walk among us again? But I did not stop there, if we could bring back a loved one; why not bring back the most unimaginable loved one of all. After reading this book, it is my wish that you question all the possibilities and let your imagination ascend to a new elevation while contemplating our future. To question is the first step in understanding." Contest is open to US Residents Only, Ages 13+ And ends 11:59 MCT 09/20. Extra entries available: Favorite me: Follow Me On Twitter HERE Grab My Button (Right Column) Continue...

Beware Of Using Google Adsense With Any Other Link Exchange Program

I recently ran across a post in the LinkReferral Program I currently use. Apparently Google does not allow you to place any type advertisement banners or links from any link exchange programs on your site while displaying any of the Google Ad-sense banners and links on your blog or website. This member’s blog was removed for violating Google’s “Terms of Service Agreement”. Seeing as you need to be a member to view the forum posts in the LinkReferral Program, I’ve included the forum post and the letter received by this user. Forum post: “I received the following email from google today and will be removing the ads from my site. I’m sure adsense can be successful but it’s really not necessary for this site and definitely not worth a few pennies a day.” If you happen to be a LinkReferral member, the direct link to this post is HERE. Email that was received by this member from Google: "It has come to our attention that invalid clicks or impressions have been generated on your Google ads, posing a financial risk to our AdWords advertisers. We’ve found that users of third-party programs have been paid or provided with other incentives to visit your site. Such programs include, but are not limited to, auto-surf, pay-to-surf,pay-to-read, or pay-to-click sites. Please note that any method that artificially generates click or impressions on Google ads is strictly prohibited by our program policies, as such activity may artificially inflate an advertiser’s costs or a publisher’s earnings. We understand that you may want more information about the activity we detected. However, because we have a need to protect our proprietary detection systems, we’re unable to provide our publishers with any details about their account activity, including any web pages, users,or third-party services that may have been involved. Thank you for your understanding.We recommend reviewing these references to learn more about invalid click activity and other activities that could endanger your account standing: https://www.google.com/adsense/policies?hl=en_US https://www.google.com/adsense/localized-terms?hl=en_US http://www.google.com/adsense/support/bin/topic.py?topic=8426&hl=en_US If you need help logging the traffic on your site to determine the source of your visitors, we recommend trying these Google search terms: Webmaster resources Website tracking and logging Site traffic analysis In addition, because we credit advertisers for any invalid activity we detect, we may adjust your account earnings for any days during which such activity occurred. Lastly, please note that if we continue to detect invalid activity from these services on your Google ads, we may take further action on your account in order to protect our advertisers’ interests, and payment may be withheld. Thank you for your understanding. Sincerely, The Google AdSense Team" New UPDATE: I recieved this email from the Google Team this morning: 07/27/2009 Hi, We're writing to let you know about an upcoming update in your AdSense account designed to help you generate the maximum revenue from your ad units. You'll soon be able to allow multiple ad networks to show on your pages, which means that advertisers from external Google-certified networks will be able to compete with AdWords advertisers for your ad space. If you're unfamiliar with what ad networks are, they're companies that partner with advertisers and publishers to buy and sell ads on sites they don't own themselves, similar to AdSense. Ads from these networks will compete with Google ads to show on publisher sites, and the ad generating the highest revenue for publishers will be displayed. To ensure the quality of the ads appearing on your sites, we're certifying all participating ad networks for adherence to our standards for user privacy, ad quality, and speed. You'll also have control over which networks can show ads on your pages -- you can choose to opt out of receiving ads from specific networks, or all networks completely. This means you can continue to show ads from only AdWords advertisers if you'd like. Finally, some ad networks use tools similar to Google's interest-based advertising to show more relevant ads to users on the sites they visit. These ad networks won't be permitted to collect data from your site for the purpose of subsequent interest-based advertising, but we'll allow those who comply with user privacy guidelines to show ads using these tools. You'll have the ability to opt out of showing ads based on user interests from these ad networks, and we've changed our requirements for third-party ad serving to reflect this. More information is available at http://adwords.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=94230 . These new capabilities will automatically be enabled for your account, and you'll see a new section in your Ad Review Center where you can allow or block specific ad networks. Please note that we'll gradually be adding new ad networks to AdSense accounts over the next few months, so you won't see any immediate impact on your ads or your earnings. To learn more about this launch and managing the ad networks appearing on your pages, visit the AdSense Help Center at https://www.google.com/adsense/support/bin/topic.py?hl=en&topic=13522 and watch our video demo at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4HyJPOVLd3I . Sincerely, The Google AdSense Team Continue...

$30 Skin Free Gift Certificate Giveaway At Night Owl Mama's Ends 08/29

Head on over to Night Own Mama to enter her fabulous giveaway as Skin Free has generously offered a $30 Gift Certificate to one of her readers! Enter giveaway HERE. Continue...

What Are Affiliate Programs? How Do Affiliate Programs Work?

An affiliate program is simply a way for companies to use online advertisement to boost their product awareness and sales. Traditional door-to-door sales, the use of product fliers, telephone solicitation and billboard advertisement remain vital and continue to be very affective in boosting company sales in today’s society. However, Affiliate programs are economical and have been shown to be quite successful. Companies are able to attract and accurately target sales of their product to an audience more likely interested in their product. Additionally, they are more likely to attract more return customers. Advertisement online is as diverse as it is offline. Billboards are replaced with company banners. Posted product reviews, newsletter sign-up and email solicitation replace word of mouth, door-to-door sales and company fliers. Affiliate programs work because companies are willing to pay a portion of their sale revenue to anyone willing to effectively advertise their product online. Rewards received may arrive in any form or combination. Most often rewards are given as free product, discounts, prizes and / or cash. Most affiliate programs are free to join, open to most everyone and very easily managed once setup is completed. The list is endless. If you are new to this concept and would like to participate I would suggest first joining the better-known online giants: Google, Ebay, YouTube or Amazon. They offer detailed setup guides, online help and strategies to effectively manage the program. I love comments and input. If anyone knows of some great affiliate programs, tools, tips or has any advice, please share! Continue...

Advice And Tips To Boost Your Sites Usability

We all can use some great tips on how to boost our sites usability. Can my visitors navigate around my site well? Are there too many Ads? How should I place my graphics, widgets and Ads? Site Sketch 101 has written a really great post on this topic. "10 Killer Ways To Boost Your Site's Usability". He is also holding a contest but hurry, it ends 08/18/2009. " I’ve decided to give away 3 prizes to 5 random winners here at Site Sketch 101: A one-year membership at Elegant Themes, a copy of Darren Rowse’s Problogger: The Book, and $15 cold, hard cash! If you’re one of the five winners then you get to choose which one you want!" All you have to do is sign up for his news letter which which is filled with great tips and advice for newbies as well as seasoned blogger's. Enter contest HERE. Continue...

Huge List Music Sites For Online Listening Or Downloads

Really great list of free music downloads and free online streaming music. Courtesy of Mashable. A must visit site! There is so much really great information here on a wide-range of topics. I visit often as just about anything I am looking for is here. For detailed information and links to each site click HERE. Continue...

How To Increase Page Rank

This morning I ran across a post with some very good information to increase your "Page Rank". The higher your page rank, the more traffic you receive resulting in more reads to your articles. I have been working on this for some time and I am sure that it takes time but if your want to speed things along here are some great tips. Nicholas Z. Cardot has shared his list of "40 Ways To Build An Army Of Inbound Links". "1. Write amazing articles 2. Write a huge list post 3. Offer something for free. 4. Put on a fun contest. 5. Write a critique of something. 6. Demonstrate authority on a subject. 7. Write great link bait. 8. Link to other people’s articles. 9. Talk positive about other bloggers. 10. Thoroughly revise your articles. 11. Have an amazing design on your blog. 12. Think outside the status quo. 13. Write a tutorial. 14. Submit your site to free directories. 15. Submit your site to paid directories. 16. Publish an interview with a leader in your niche. 17. Publish an article about a leader in your niche. 18. Guest blog on other related blogs. 19. Buy a link from another blog owner. 20. Sponsor a post on another blog. 21. Hire someone to build links for you. 22. Post your link in your signature in a forum. 23. Comment on dofollow blogs. 24. Exchange links with a peer. 25. Sign people’s guest books. 26. Ask for a link. 27. Leave your reviews of products you use. 28. Ping Technorati and others with your new articles. 29. Get involved at Yahoo! Answers. 30. Make friends with other bloggers. 31. Create and use a del.icio.us account. 32. Create an about page. 33. Create a contact page. 34. Only post original content. 35. Stay with it for the long haul. 36. Ask your readers to link to your articles. 37. Link to articles that have trackbacks enabled. 38. Make friends with some other bloggers. 39. Don’t be a spammer. 40. Buy a review from another blogger." Visit the author's post HERE as he has written several more amazing articles! Be sure to to leave a comment to thank him! Continue...

Shareaholic Multi Social Network Tool Supports Sharing Among 60+ Networks

With all the social networks these days, everyone joining a different one, installing multiple chat engines. Who can keep up? Social networks are becoming more and more popular. That is why I was so happy to find this great tool that supports sharing in 60+ social networks, "Sharaholic". I love to enter blogger contests but by the time you tweet, mention on Facebook, Post to your blog, Stumble it ect... Your exhausted! Interested? Follow the link below and make your life a little easier! Shareaholic for Firefox - The browser add-on extension to share, tweet, bookmark, save and e-mail web pages quickly Continue...

Movie Lovers Will Love This Post! My Collection Of The Very Best Sites Offering Free Full-Length Online Movies & TV Shows. Downlaods & Live Stream.

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Mommy Has To Work: A Box Tops for Education Giveaway and Sweepstakes

Mommy Has To Work is holding a "My Blog Spark" back to school prize-pack giveaway. Contest ends 08/08/2009. Click "HERE" to go directly to her contest page and enter! Continue...

Favorite Kid Photos "Don't Blink" Blog Hop

I have so many favorite pics! But I did manage to narrow my pics to one of my son and one of my daughter. What a fun bloghop! This 1st one is my son Joshua. We went fishing in Cloudcroft NM. The first few fish we caught he was scared to death of! By the end of our trip he decided he liked the fishies :) Lol,It was soooo cold in the morning and I didn't bring him enough clothes. What a parent huh? So that's a pair of my warm ups I put on him. This next pic is my daughter Jeanette graduating from kindergarten. She was so excited! And we were so proud and teary-eyed :) Ugh! She is now in college. Then for her H.S. graduation they sung "Don't Blink by Kenny Chesney", talk about pulling on the heart strings! Below is a YouTube video. Not mine, someone else uploaded it. I just added it to share it with you. Ok, blog posting is not suppose to make you cry! Continue...

KIDO'Z Kidsafe Web Browser

I am an odd one I know ;) My children are already raised. I have no grand-babies or any on the way but I have a hobby (maybe an addiction?) of downloading all the newest freeware programs, games and cool stuff for kids. I have already downloaded all the nursery rhymes, learn to read, learn to spell, learn Spanish and keep collecting all the Disney films because someday my grand-babies are going to think grandma rocks! Or who knows what the terminology will be by then! I have always thought it would be wonderful to see someone create a browser just for kids. This last week I received an email introducing me to the new KIDO'Z web browser. The KIDO'Z browser is free to use, free to download and best of all it is completely kid-safe. Needless to say, I now have my own copy of the KIDO'Z web browser to add to my collection! It took me about 2 minutes to download and install this cool kids browser and it's not a memory hog on your system resources either! Of course, I had to play with a few of the games, puzzles, parental settings and so forth. This browser is great! Your children won't be able to wonder off to any inappropriate sites. KIDO'Z web browser is totally kid-safe and all links within the browser are self-contained. All outside links are blocked. Yet, this browser offers a large variety of fun kid things to do. Children are able to surf sites, play games, and watch video's, read books and so much more. KIDO'Z is simple to use even for the youngest of children because it is point and click and very interactive both visually and audibly. For the real test, I had my sister-n-law bring over her twin girls. I turned the browser over to them and of course they loved it! Not only that but, they found games that I had no clue existed? Educational games to challenge their spelling and math skills! Ready to try this browser for your little ones? Simply Click Here to begin download of your KIDO'Z browse safe internet. Continue...

MckLinky Blog Hop Favorite Recipe Or Meal July 21st 2009

Old El Paso Enchiladas Being born and raised in the great southwest,I've come to love spicy foods. My favorite meal comes from Old El Paso Products. A plate of Enchiladas, re-fried beans and Spanish rice. I have a short story to share with you before posting this recipe: I am sure it’s pretty much the same for most of us. We grow up not thinking much about how food, music, tradition and so many aspects of our lives stem from our roots. I am addicted to Jalapeno’s! I knew that but I did not realize the impact it would have on me if I were not able to get my hands on them. Did you know they don’t sell jalapenos at the Burger Kings in Hawaii? They offered me hot sauce instead! They don’t sell them at the Pizza Hut and they don’t carry them in the grocery store! The canned ones yes, if your lucky but the fresh ones? Forget it. Two weeks, no jalapeno’s. My digestive system went haywire! Anyone been to Hawaii? Finding a good Mexican food restaurant? Not happening! I now add a few to my purse when traveling! No Joke! With that being said, here's the recipe. I am not Mexican. I’m a whitey. I don’t boil red chili pods to make my enchilada sauce, and rarely do I cook Spanish rice from scratch. I use Old El Paso products to create my favorite Mexican dinner. Ingredients: 1 – 32 ounce cans of Old El Paso Enchilada Sauce. 1-16 oz can of Old El Paso re fried beans 1-16 oz can of Old El Paso Spanish rice. 1 Package Of Old El Paso Taco Seasoning Mix 1 lb. of pre-cooked ground beef. Drain fat. ½ cup of finely chopped white onion 1 lb of shredded sharp cheddar cheese 8-12 Corn tortilla shells Fry the corn tortilla shells lightly, only till they are soft (3-5 seconds on each side). Use a paper towel to blot excess oil and set aside. Grill onion in one 1tablespoon of cooking oil until lightly browned; add pre-cooked ground beef and the package of Old El Paso Taco seasoning mix. Cook another 2 minutes or so until well-mixed then set-aside. Heat the Old El Paso Enchilada sauce and line up your serving plates. Submerge one tortilla at a time into the sauce and place onto your plates. Top each with some hamburger mix and some shredded cheese. Pour some extra enchilada sauce onto each and repeat the process for desired number of enchiladas. Serve with Old El Paso Refried beans and Old El Paso Spanish rice. 1 fresh jalepeno Yum! Continue...

A little of this and a little of that!: How young is too young

Haunting text messages sent to your childs cell phone. She has included a video link to her post. If I were 10 years old and got that, it would scare the crap out of me too. A little of this and a little of that!: How young is too young Continue...