SketchUp Model Updates & Optimization

I'm a huge fan of optimization... as a programmer and web developer, improving the performance, simplifying algorithms and reducing resource utilization in my code is something that I constantly strive to do. I'm rarely satisfied by simply writing or using code that is "dirty but gets the job done".

Yesterday I made some updates to the SketchUp models of the Commodity Exchange Tower, Royal Bank Building and Winnipeg Square. Since I didn't originally create these models, they were noticeably lacking a lot of detail. The changes that were posted yesterday mainly consist of a little bit more detail enhancement... but probably a more noteworthy change in my opinion, is that the Commodity Exchange Tower model has been "optimized".

The original model actually contained a lot of detail, with hundreds, maybe thousands, of lines and faces making up the facade & windows. I shudder to think how much time and effort it must have taken to do this... unfortunately, all the extra geometry made the model swell up to a file size of 2.26 mb, or over 800 kb for the Google Earth rendition.

The updates I made were actually more of a redo -- I completely deleted all the extra geometry and created a couple of simple replacement textures for the windows and external panels. By doing this, I was able to reduce the file size to a mere 188 kb, or an impressively tiny 42 kb for the Google Earth version; a whopping 91.8% reduction for SketchUp and about 20-fold improvement for Google Earth!

Winnipeg Building Model #14

The Winnipeg, Manitoba 3D Warehouse collection seems to be slowly growing to a more respectable size now. I found a few more Winnipeg-located models to add to the collection last night, although they are mainly of the residential variety.

Although these newly added models have apparently been posted in the 3D Warehouse for quite a while already, I didn't catch them earlier because they aren't tagged well enough to be locatable through searching. I only found them by installing the 3D Warehouse Network Link for Google Earth... which I had somehow missed and only discovered yesterday evening.

Anyway, I have decided to release my 14th contribution: the Canadian Grain Commission building. This brings the current tally of models in the Winnipeg, Manitoba collection to 22.

Canadian Grain Commission Building by ahsy This building houses the... View in Google Earth

Although this building is among one of the more distinct and prominent buildings seen on the Winnipeg skyline near Portage & Main, I think a lot of Winnipeggers probably don't know very much about this building (or maybe it's just me?)... it actually took a bit of effort for me to research just the name of the building. My reasoning for this lack of awareness is that because it is a federal government office building, the majority of people probably would not have very much reason to visit this building under normal circumstances.

Addition to Google's North America Collection

Good news... my Winnipeg, Manitoba buildings collection was approved by Google yesterday and has been added into the Cities in Development/North America collection in 3D Warehouse.

New Google Earth Model: St. Boniface Old City Hall

I have just posted another new Google Earth model... the old City Hall of St. Boniface (probably one of my better efforts in comparison to the last five).

Old City Hall of St. Boniface by ahsy The old Saint-Boniface city... View in Google Earth

I always thought this building was pretty neat... especially the clock tower. The whole building has a certain character & charm about it, although I have probably only ever been in it a few times.

On a somewhat related note, I noticed that there currently seems to be something wacky happening with the Google 3D Warehouse website... about 4 of the models in my Winnipeg collection are not showing up. The collection search result says there are 19 models in total in the collection, but once you click to view the list of models in the collection, only 15 appear. The missing models include three of my own (Canwest Global Place, the Chinatown gate, and the Scotiabank building), as well as one other model contributed by somebody else (I believe it's the rough model of the new Manitoba Hydro building). The models are still online, and you can access then via the links I provided in my previous blog posts below, but you just can't search for them or see them listed in the Winnipeg collection. I suspect this is probably just a temporary issue though.

[Update 2008-01-19 23:45 CT: My suspicions were correct; said problem with 3D Warehouse seems to be resolved now.]

Five More Google Earth Models

I decided to release 5 more new building models for Google Earth last night. Although they are not really finished or could still use much more work, I figured that I may as well put them out there... perhaps somebody else would be able to take and improve them eventually.

Additionally, since these buildings are arguably some of the most prominent and defining buildings in Winnipeg, having them publicly available in Google Earth sooner is probably better.

The only model of these five that was built from scratch is the Royal Canadian Mint model. The other four models that comprise the Winnipeg Square complex were actually taken from another existing model of the whole Winnipeg downtown area that two other people had contributed. I only made some minor modifications and broke them up into separate buildings for a few reasons:

• Although the models of the entire downtown area are very nice, they lack a lot of detail and probably cover too large of an area (and uses too much bandwidth) for Google to consider putting it into Google Earth.
• Makes it easier to work with and modify individual building models for myself and others -- making a change to one building wouldn't have to require uploading all the buildings together again.
• Separated models would probably load faster in Google Earth, since they can be downloaded individually and possibly concurrently. If the KMZ file is too large, it may take forever for one huge model to appear.
• It ups the count of building models in Winnipeg ;-)
  

Here they are... enjoy!

Royal Canadian Mint by ahsy The Royal Canadian Mint (RCM,... View in Google Earth

Scotiabank Building by ahsy The Scotiabank Building is... View in Google Earth

Royal Bank Building by ahsy Built in 1965, the Royal Bank... View in Google Earth

Winnipeg Square by ahsy The Shops of Winnipeg Square... View in Google Earth

Commodity Exchange Tower by ahsy Completed in 1979, the... View in Google Earth

My Latest Google Earth Model

My latest 3D model for Google Earth has been completed;

Circle of Life Thunderbird House by ahsy At the centre of Winnipeg’s... View in Google Earth

I'm currently targeting for at least three more "good" Winnipeg-based 3D models to be added before I submit the collection to Google.

Fun with Google Maps

Some time ago, one of my co-workers showed me an "Easter egg" in Google Maps; if you try to get directions from London England to New York USA, the route would include a suggestion to "Swim across the Atlantic Ocean" (unfortunately Google has already removed this and it no longer works).

I was browsing Digg today and came across another Google Maps trick... while it's not really a Easter egg in the same sense as the one mentioned above, it's still fairly amusing (in a stupid kind of way)... apparently Google Maps can tell you how to get from Here to There, and it is a 7 hour & 51 minute long drive.

Comments from other users included suggestions such as how to get from Heaven to Hell in 4 hours 19 minutes and Birth to Death in 9 hours 5 minutes.

Here's my suggestion; how to go from Rags to Riches in 1 hour 24 minutes.

Anyways, the list can probably go on... feel free to leave a comment with your own suggestions!

Winnipeg in 3D

One of the things that I have recently been dabbling with a bit is building 3D models using Google's SketchUp software. Other than making it fun and very easy to build 3D models, one aspect that I really like is the ability for anybody to be able to contribute geographically-located models of real buildings into Google Earth.

Obviously, exploring your own home city/town/village is something that a lot of people who use Google Earth or Maps do, and being able to explore 3D models of buildings that you may or may not be familiar with only makes the experience that much more cooler.

Google Earth's 3D buildings layer only had two models for Winnipeg though, and since Winnipeg is a medium-sized city (pop. ~800,000), I really didn't expect very much. Searching Google's 3D Warehouse for more Winnipeg-related 3D models also didn't locate very many results... there were several good models, however they were either not geographically placed, or too broad and not detailed enough, or too simple, and of no real public significance (i.e. private residences). There wasn't even a Winnipeg collection under the "Cities in development" collection (which is Google's official collection of 3D model collections), whereas collections exist for some smaller Canadian cities & towns. I would presume that 3D models belonging to any "official" collections would have a significantly increased chance of being placed into Google Earth's 3D Buildings layer.

It might be naïve to think that an indicator of a city's importance or skilled population is somehow correlated to the number of 3D models available for it in Google Earth, but I figure that for a city the size of Winnipeg, there have got to be some people out there who would volunteer to contribute... from the standpoint of potentially increasing worldwide exposure and interest in a modest city like Winnipeg, I figured that I might as well be one to do so, even if it's just something that I can only do in my spare time. The way I look at it, it could be considered a leisure activity like playing video games, only you end up producing things that are interesting, useful, contributes to the collective knowledge of humankind, and you learn a potentially useful skill like 3D modelling in process.

All that being said, here is my collection;

Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
by ahsy
A collection of model structures located in the city of Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada and its environs.

Here are some of the models that I have created so far:

Canwest Global Place by ahsy CanWest Global Place is an... View in Google Earth

270 Sherbrook St Winnipeg MB by ahsy An improved model of a... View in Google Earth

Upper Fort Garry Gate by ahsy Fort Garry also known as... View in Google Earth

Winnipeg Esplanade Riel Pedestrian Bridge by ahsy An improved and geo-located... View in Google Earth

Winnipeg Chinatown Gate by ahsy Winnipeg's Chinatown gate... View in Google Earth

Winnipeg Chinese Cultural and Community Centre by ahsy The Winnipeg Chinatown... View in Google Earth

I will be submitting my Winnipeg collection to Google once there are a few more "high quality" building models added, and I think the collection meets the all of the qualifications that are necessary for inclusion. Hopefully we will soon be seeing more of this beautiful city in Google Earth for people from all over the world to explore and enjoy.

The Reinvention of the PC Power Switch

In around 1998 or so, I noticed something a bit peculiar that was starting to happen with brand-new PC computers.

At the time, I was still taking PC technical support calls, and every now and then, I would get a customer calling in who needed help installing software, drivers or whatnot for their brand new Pentium PC (running Windows 98, of course). Depending on the extent of changes, rebooting the computer was sometimes warranted. For good measure, performing a "cold boot" was a typical course of action.

In case you are unfamiliar with the term, "cold booting" means to shut down the OS and physically switch off the power of the computer, wait several seconds to let all the internal fans and drives spin down, then switch the power back on (as opposed to warm booting, where you would simply tell the OS to shutdown and automatically restart the computer right away without any power interruption).

Anyhow, the "strange" thing was that some customers would get to the point of shutting down Windows, but then when they went to press the power switch off, they claimed that the computer was frozen, and it would not turn off no matter how many times or how hard they tried pressing the power button... they would literally have to pull the plug out of the wall (or switch off their powerbar) to actually cut the power.

It didn't take me very long to figure out what was happening -- why all these brand new state-of-the-art Pentium computers would simply refuse to turn off...

Before I continue, a little bit of backstory; having used PCs since 1988, all the computers I ever had at home up to that point used the old-school manual toggle-type power switches, which could only physically be in either on or off states. I only had to look down at the workstation that I was using on my desk at work to see an example of these new-fangled computer power switches. Of course, we would hardly ever have much reason to turn off our workstations at work (unless the computer crashed), so this phenomena of "the computer won't turn off", wasn't really something that I had personally experienced or really took very much notice of.

But getting back on track; The cause of all this peculiarity was due to a new industry-standard technology called Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI). Originally developed as an open-standard near the end of 1996 by a consortium of industry power-players such as Hewlett-Packard, Intel, Microsoft, Phoenix, and Toshiba, it wasn't until around 1998 when many of the major PC manufacturers started putting ACPI into all of the new PCs that they built as a standard feature (presumably so that their systems could meet the required qualifications in order to wear the Windows and Intel compliancy badges).

What the manufacturers didn't really make clear however, was exactly how ACPI changed the way computers are turned on and off. Beyond the basic "push the button to turn it on" concept, which doesn't exactly require a Ph. D. to figure out, and the apparent behaviour that computers can now turn themselves off upon shutting down, perhaps nobody really thought that there was any purpose to explain things much further... after all, if you have a new ACPI-compliant system, why would you be concerned with comparing the process to the old way anyhow? Besides, to most average novice or intermediate computer users, anything beyond the basics would probably just be confusing, intimidating and a plain "turn-off" (sorry for the pun). I would even speculate that any modern computer usage course -- whether it be an introductory computer usage course for absolute beginners, right up to courses for the advanced power user -- probably wouldn't touch on the subject of how to operate the power switch in very much depth.

I'm not saying that nobody has ever documented or explained it properly... some computer manufacturers do in fact provide excellent documentation. However, many people tend not to read their computer manuals, and I have encountered quite a number of people who just couldn't figure out why their computer can not turn off... even people who have a relatively extensive familiarity with computers.

Even though PC power switches have already been working this way for the past decade, laugh as you may, but there undoubtedly are people out there who have gotten stumped by their power switch before. So in case nobody ever told you, you never figured it out, or maybe if you are simply too embarrassed to admit that you didn't know it before... I'll basically sum things up here;

• To turn ON an ACPI-compliant computer, simply depress and release the power switch.
• To turn OFF an ACPI-compliant computer safely, use the shutdown command of your operating system (only if your operating system supports ACPI). The operating system should automatically power off the computer on its own once the shutdown process has completed. You should not have to touch the power switch to turn off the computer.
• If you press the power button while an ACPI-compliant computer is running, depending on how the operating system is configured, any of the following could happen:
• Nothing will happen.
  
• The OS will ask you what you want to do (standby, hibernate, shutdown or reboot).
  
• Put the computer in stand-by mode (turns off certain parts of the computer such as the hard drive and display, puts the CPU in low power mode to save energy).
  
• Hibernate the operating system and power off the computer.
  
• Initiate the operating system shut down procedure and power off the computer.
• Initiate the operating system shut down procedure and immediately reboot the computer.
  
• Immediately power off the computer without initiating a log-off or shut down (this might indicate a problem with the power supply/circuitry, or the OS does not support ACPI).
  
• And finally, the special case: If the operating system has already finished shutting down (or not), and the computer still won't turn off by itself, and pressing and releasing the power switch has no effect, there is no need to pull the power cord or switch the power bar off. All you need to do is hold down the power switch for about 10 seconds, and the computer power will switch off. This can also be done to manually switch off the computer without shutting down the OS in case of emergency or for whatever reason.
• If you have held down the power switch until the computer has turned off, but the computer turns back on immediately after you release the button (I have a older computer that actually does this sometimes), either the OS was unable to set the ACPI interface properly for some reason, or the power supply might be bad and needs to be replaced. In this case, you can either try allowing the computer to boot up completely, then try properly shutting down again (hopefully this will allow the OS to reset the ACPI interface properly), or you may in fact have to pull the power cord in order to shut off the power. The computer should stay off when you plug the cord back in.
  

Of Scams, Spam and Other Cybercrap...

In my posting about "get paid to..." websites like Bux.to, I had quickly mentioned that I would try to write something about how to recognize scams, hoaxes, urban legends, phishing, get rich quick schemes, etc... I would even include chain letters / e-mail forwards (ugh) in this list of what I consider to be nefarious "social engineering"-type activities. I will just be collectively referring to these using the term "cybercrap" going forward for lack of better terminology and for simplicity's sake.

Getting duped by cybercrap is probably more common than anyone would like to admit or imagine. It can sometimes happen to even the smartest, web-savviest of people. Some schemes have become so sophisticated and persuasive, that being able to recognize them as cybercrap would require a deep understanding of how certain Internet communication protocols and software work... knowledge that most average Internet users would most likely have virtually no familiarity with.

• Perhaps the most obvious and telltale sign of scams in general (not necessarily web or e-mail based scams, but also those that come via phone, postal mail or in person) are ones that come unsolicited, asking you to disclose financial or socially sensitive information -- things like bank or credit card numbers, driver's license or social insurance numbers, etc. -- usually on the premise that you have won some type of prize in a draw that you do not remember entering, or a promise that you'll be receiving significant sums of money, exotic vacations or major prizes like automobiles & appliances in return.
• My basic rule is that it is usually harmless to provide personal information that can be found in a phone book like your name, address and phone number... but even then, it is advisable to use caution and discretion, since you probably don't want to verify this information to suspicious parties in case it is used for a junk mail or calling list.
• If the offer comes disguised under the name (or variation of a name) of a reputable company, service or charity that you are a customer of, there is no reason for them to be asking you again for information that they should already have records of. If information needs to be verified, you can ask what they currently have in their records and confirm whether updates are needed.
  
• If you have won a prize, there is no reason that you should ever have to provide financial information such as your bank account, credit or debit account numbers, have to commit to purchasing something first, or have to be charged any type of "handling" or "processing" fees -- even if it is just a penny... once a scammer has access to your accounts, it is already too late.
  
• Your Social Insurance/Security number should never have to be disclosed to any commercial organizations. The only parties that should ever need this information is yourself, the government, your employer and your financial institution. If you are requested to also provide one or more pieces of government-issued identification number such as your driver's license or passport number, etc., this should immediately raise red flags, there is a very good chance the information will be used for the purposes of identity theft, or for applying for credit cards or bank accounts fraudulently under your name.
• All your correspondence with a reputable company that comes unsolicited should always remain courteous and professional at all times. If the representative that you are corresponding with becomes pushy, rude, impatient or excessively persistent, even after you have repeatedly declined, you can safely bet that you are probably not dealing with a legitimate organization. It would be safe to consider that the person is probably trying pressure and extract information from you. Even if they are indeed legitimate, you should always be treated respectfully as a prospective or valued customer. You have every right to choose to refuse your business to them if you feel that you are being not being treated respectfully. You have no obligation to provide explanations for refusals, and you certainly do not have to try ending the call politely. Simply hang up.
  
• If you receive a phone call and a recorded message instructs you to press a number on your phone keypad to "claim your prize" or to "speak to a representative", do not press any numbers. Simply hang up. There is no reason that you should need to take any action to speak to somebody when you were the one who received the call in the first place. There is a chance that by pressing the indicated number, that you will be transfered to a line where you will be changed expensive tolls or overseas long distance fees.
  
• When registering accounts on websites, consider the information that is being asked for. Again, it would be wise to use the "phone book" rule.
• Because the nature of the Internet is virtually "anonymous", there is nothing stopping you from "testing the waters" by providing inaccurate or incomplete information. This is an especially helpful tactic if you are in doubt. You should always be able to go back to edit or correct your profile information afterwards if you choose or need to do so. At the very least, you should be able to simply cancel your test account and register a new account using more accurate information.
• In addition to your regular e-mail address, I would advise setting up at least one semi-anonymous "junk" e-mail account using any of the myriad of free web-based e-mail account services that are available (such as Microsoft Hotmail/Windows Live Mail, Yahoo! Mail, Google GMail, etc.). You can then provide your "junk" e-mail account for website account registrations, mailing lists, and other potential spam-generating sources. This can help you to keep your main e-mail account cleaner for personal or professional correspondences only.
  
• On a side note, speaking as somebody who has experience developing and maintaining various websites, I would personally just hate it if people kept registering dummy accounts. Providing false information when registering a profile may be against the terms of service for some websites, and impersonation or using information that does not belong to you may even be unlawful depending on where you live. Please use discretion. If possible, cancel any dummy accounts that you have created if you decide not to use the website.
  
• If you need to provide payment via credit card, verify that the website is using a secure form of data encryption or authentication system (known as Secure Sockets Layer - SSL). Most modern and widely used web browsers should indicate this by displaying security icons (e.g. a lock/key) somewhere, and change the colour of the your address bar (usually yellow -- use caution or avoid submitting data if the address bar turns red or remains white). Also check to ensure that the URL in the web site address bar begins with "https://" (secure HTTP) instead of the standard "http://". Depending on your web browser's security preferences, you may also see a confirmation prompt dialog window.
• Note that just because a website uses SSL and data encryption, this does not necessarily guarantee legitimacy. It is quite easy to create fake signed certificates -- although it may not necessarily appear to be issued by an authentic "root" certificate signing authority. Most web browsers should (depending on your security preferences) display a prompt dialog to warn you of this, but more often than not, the average Internet user would probably not understand or basically ignore the prompt anyway.
• If available, using trusted third-party escrow payment services like PayPal could help to provide an extra layer of security and peace-of-mind.
  
• Be extremely cautious if you choose to respond to unsolicited offers via e-mail -- better known as "spam". As a matter of fact, you should always simply ignore and delete spam messages. Never click on any links, images or download/open attachments in suspicious e-mails.
• Never reply or click links that are provided to "unsubscribe" from spam e-mails. Spammers usually use responses to in order confirm that your email address is an actively used e-mail account with a real live person on the other end. Chances are "unsubscribing" from spam message will only result in you getting even more spam, as your e-mail address will probably be sold to other spammers looking for verified working e-mail addresses.
• Checking the e-mail header data and sender domains may help somewhat, however for most average Internet users, deciphering this information is probably not practical. Also, the presence of faked headers may easily mislead or confuse even those with intermediate knowledge. Checking that the domain of URLs in the message simply by eyeballing the status bar of your web browser or looking at the sender's email address domain is also not always reliable. Checking links, form targets and other references would likely require examining HTML source. Not only would you need to have good knowledge of HTML, but without very careful evaluation, some of the more well-crafted phishing messages obfuscate or create illusions that links are pointing to legitimate domains when in fact they are not. In short, the only way to really determine with absolute certainty if a message is a phishing scam, is if you have the knowledge to properly analyze headers and HTML source code... knowledge that average non-technical users most certainly wouldn't have.
  
• Phishing schemes are typically e-mails sent to you disguised to be from reputable organizations that you might actually have a prior established relationship with. Obviously if you do not do have prior business with the organization that you have received the message from, you can be fairly certain that the message is part of a phishing scheme. Make it your practice to never click any links or send any information requested via e-mail. Even if the message is threatening that your account will be canceled or that your service will be in some way affected unless take some kind of action, you should never click any links provided in the e-mail message. Open the website directly by typing the URL yourself in your web browser address bar (or use your bookmarks/favorites), and confirm on the website if action really needs to taken on your part. If so, you should be able to enter the needed information on the website itself.
• Help to stop fraudsters by reporting them to the appropriate authorities. In Canada, PhoneBusters is a government and RCMP/OPP-operated public service programme devoted to investigating and stopping fraud. Their website also has a lot of very helpful information about how to recognize, report and stop fraudulent activity, as well as a list of known popular scams that are currently making rounds.
  
• Hoaxes, urban legends, chain letters & forwards: these are e-mail messages that your friends, family, co-workers and other contacts forward en-masse to practically everybody they have listed in their e-mail address book. Forwards could be considered as any innocuous viral FUD (fear, uncertainty & doubt) "news" stories, rumours, plain text games, images, slide shows, movie clips or documents that usually have some kind of message -- sappy, scary, mundane, offensive, x-rated or otherwise.
• Forwards are mainly just harmless fun that you or your contacts just want to share for a laugh. Sometimes they can be interesting or entertaining, but other times they may be annoying, impersonal, or a nuisance if you have received the same thing multiple times before from other contacts.
• Chain letters, hoaxes and urban legends are those that attempt to play on your emotions or make dubious claims. Usually they include claims that by simply forwarding the message on to as many of your contacts as possible, wonderful and magical things will happen to you (or terrible things if you don't). Regardless of whether you are superstitious or not, there is nothing that any e-mail message can technologically, physically, metaphysically or magically make possible by simply forwarding the message to X number of your contacts.
• Bill Gates or insert_name_of_a_famous_billionaire_or_corporation_here can not track private e-mail messages and certainly nobody could know who you are & where you live based on your e-mail address alone. There's a good chance that nobody, no matter how rich or famous they are, is going to be sending their fortunes out to millions of random people any time soon... that's a whole lot of tax paperwork!
  
• A deposed Nigerian prince probably wouldn't be needing the help of a completely random stranger to help him wire large sums of money from his bank account.
  
• A gorgeous babe, handsome hunk or your secret crush will not be spontaneously compelled to call or show up on your doorstep to passionately make out with you because you were such a big hero and you forwarded an ancient druid prayer to 50 friends.
• Something "special" or "totally worth it" will not pop up on your screen after you forward the message and press random key(s) on your keyboard... OK, maybe something can, but that only means that either you were duped into doing something that your computer operating system or application already does anyway, or that your computer has been infected with a virus, worm or malware.
  
• Little Timmy who fell down the well and died will not come to haunt you at night because you neglected to forward his tragic story to at least 20 of your friends.
• Perhaps the only thing that might happen is that you would make yourself look foolish to your friends for believing such nonsense (unless all your friends also don't know any better).
  
• Snopes.com is a fairly extensive website resource which contains lots of excellent information debunking many hoaxes, myths, urban legends (there are other hoax-busting websites out there, but Snopes is probably the most well-known in my opinion). Chances are, there is already something there that covers or touches on the very e-mail forward (or a variation of it) that you received. Instead of impulsively believing information that has been forwarded to you via email, do some research and get the straight facts & truth first.
• Search reliable and reputable news outlets and find credible sources to verify claims. It is absolutely frightening how many people just take information that has been sent to them from friends via e-mail as truth without checking. Even though so-called "references" or "authoritative" sources may be provided, references can be faked very easily. It is generally not a good idea to just take the word of a complete stranger as truth, even if it is from a "friend of a friend's sister's ex-boyfriend's aunt". If a story really is as significant as it appears, there should probably be something about it that has been reported recently by major news outlets.
  
• If you must forward a message, help to stop spread misinformation and FUD by replying or forwarding the facts along with the message. Not only would you look smart, but you would be helping to better inform your friends, relatives and overall make the world a better place. ;-)
  

Phew! This was an exceedingly long and rambling post! I hope it helped, even if you might have already known some or all of this already. Even though a lot of this could probably be considered as common sense, the fact is that year after year, people really do still continue to fall for scams and hoaxes. I don't claim to know everything or be a fully qualified expert on this subject matter, but having an extensive background in computer programming and having been on the Internet since the early WWW stages around 1993, I merely just wish to share my own personal experience.

What I have touched on here barely scratches the surface of the subject of cybercrap -- this is such an broad, extensive and voluminous subject that I can not say that I have covered every aspect. I might write more about this in a future posting. Stay tuned!

Get Paid To...

Does anybody remember those "get paid to surf" websites back in the late 90's? Does AllAdvantage ring a bell? I never made very much from those programs, but I do fondly remember getting cheques in the mail and cashing them in. It was such a satisfying feeling to make some extra bucks without hardly any effort.

After the so-called "Internet bubble" burst, it seemed that the free ride was over and the Internet advertising industry was all but dead... eventually Google came along, and it seemed that with their Adsense and Adwords programs, Internet advertising was making a slow but steady comeback... It was only a matter of time before real "get paid to..." websites would start reappearing.

I have seen a handful of "get paid to..." websites over the past several years -- most of them offering a few cents or fractions of a cent, or points which could eventually be convertible to cash payment or other rewards. Typically all you would have to do is complete surveys, or get ads sent to you via email.

Bux.to is a more recent "get paid to" website that I've encountered and seems fairly promising. From what I have seen so far, it looks fairly safe and legit (I think I might write up something later about how to recognize hoaxes, scams, phishing & get rich quick schemes).

The account registration does not require that you provide much personally identifiable information or any payment. All you need to provide is an email address and the email address that you use to receive PayPal payments (so as a matter of fact, you can register virtually anonymously if you choose to do so).

They offer 1 cent for every ad you visit, and the only condition is that you have to keep each ad page open for at least 30 seconds. Obviously, you probably wouldn't be able to make very much money just by viewing ads alone; you can probably expect to make about only 10-30 cents per day directly. However, the amount multiplies if you have referrals. The minimum cash-out amount is $10.00.

You literally have nothing to lose, and a little bit to gain, so why not at least give it a try? Gather up a bunch of your friends and check it out: http://bux.to/?r=ahsy. Remember to make sure that my ID "ahsy" is in the referrer field when you register! ;-)

Happy 2008!

Over the holidays, I had a little bit of time on my hands, so with nothing else better to do, I decided to look through some of my old web accounts/sites... of course Blogger being one of them.

It's hard to believe that my last posting here was three years ago! As cliché as it is to say it, it really does seems like just yesterday. (Aside; the fact that I neglected this blog for so long just goes to show how lazy I am, and that the predictions I made in my first few posts were indeed accurate -- I'm really good at predicting things like this! :-P)

Now that I read back some of my old posts though, it's somewhat interesting to see how some of my opinions have changed or stayed the same over the past few years, how some things have come true or haven't, and how some things I've written are now funny, disturbing, slightly embarrassing, stupid, dorky, etc.

Anyway, I think that I still won't be making a regular habit of regularly posting blog updates any time soon.