Internet

Having a rather complicated home network, I?ve struggled to find an Internet filtering product that lets me work like I need to AND doesn?t need to be ?installed? on the devices that my kids use. I was excited to hear about the KoalaSafe kickstarter campaign then, that promised a safe WiFi network of its own.

Just a quick heads up on this one. I was sent a LinkedIn connect request by someone from a state-level sporting organisation who had a title of Finance Manager. We had a Group in common, so I accepted.

This was quickly followed by a message from him, stating that he was interested in our IT services. I was a bit surprised as he was in a different state, but the main alarm bell ringer was the slightly poor English phrasing. He made a point of telling me that NSW is in Australia. Would you seriously do that to someone you connect to who is in Queensland?

Over the last few days, a few articles have come my way (including one I wrote myself) about smartphone addiction and the impact of our �always connected� society. My favourite so far has been this fromm Joe Kraus at Google Ventures:�http://joekraus.com/were-creating-a-culture-of-distraction

Hi, my name is Sonia and I�m addicted to my smartphone. Except it�s not my phone itself per se, it�s that feeling of knowing what is going on right now and what my internet friends are talking about. I�ve reverted to my teenage self and I don�t want to miss out, on anything, even for an hour.

Thanks to Kate Booby at Spinefex (www.spinefex.com.au) for alerting us to this one!

�I thought I should bring your attention to a scam that we have 3 separate cases of occur within our immediate friends/family.

All of these people had advertised to sell items (2 x cars, 1 x horse) and had been contacted by email and phone calls from a buyer.

The buyer has asked to pay for the items through paypal (and the sellers had to set up paypal accounts) because the buyer is overseas or can�t use their internet banking (one case the man said he was on an oil rig, another was overseas).� Paypal is generally a safe & secure way to receive funds or pay for items.

I�ve always been very vigilant about watching the transactions that appear on my credit card, which is even easier to do when you can view them online via internet banking before they disappear off to your paper statement copy.� Fortunately the fraud department at my business bank is just as vigilant, stopping a transaction from Cebu Air and notifying me about it.� We played safe and cancelled the card, which saw me issued with a new number.� And wouldn�t you know it, a week later the second card (different number, same linked account) of my husband�s also was subjected to a declined Cebu Air transaction.� Yup � cancelled and reordered his too.