A Midwest Journal

A “cracker” isn’t a southern derogatory term – it’s someone gaming a computer or Internet system (or both) for personal and nefarious gain.

What brought this to me was an email from an associate, who was reportedly over in London (suddenly) and had been robbed a gunpoint – now needing a wire transfer. Which, of course, I’m too happy to help with, even though my savings are hardly enough for myself these days.

But I was given Western Union’s web address and went to their site to find locations. While there, I then looked up their page on fraud. And that page matched in their description what I had received in email:

Hello,

I’m sorry for this odd request because it might get to you too
urgent but it’s because of the situation of things right now, I’m
stuck in London with family right now, i came down here on vacation ,
i was robbed, worse of it is that bags, cash and cards and my cell
phone was stolen at GUN POINT, it’s such a crazy experience for me, i
need help flying back home, the authorities are not being 100%
supportive but the good thing is i still have my passport but don’t
have enough money to get my flight ticket back home, please i need you
to loan me some money, will refund you as soon as I’m back home, i
promise.

Thanks

And of course none of that occurred – my friend was busy working on his meditation and marketing in a nearby town. He emailed me shortly after to tell me so.

Of course, this got me curious how it could have happened.

The Gmail scam hack heard ’round the world

The exploit for Gmail hacking was posted some time ago, as covered at GHacks.Net

But even though that’s nearly a year ago, it is apparently still possible to get your gmail account hijacked.

And the result of this can be very hazardous to professional business, as David Airey found out last summer when his business domain was moved after he left on vacation – however, due to the outpouring of friends and strangers willing to help him, he got all of his domains back and is piecing back his SEO standings (and hopefully that is accomplished by now).

What you can do to protect your gmail account

Essentially, the way they get your data is to hack into your gmail account when you browse online – a filter is inserted into your gmail through some web-designed sabotage, which then forwards anything with “password” over to that site.

Some solutions:

• The trick is to not be logged into your Gmail account at all times. It’s that “sign in” button over at the end of your Google Toolbar. Keep logged out except when you are actually accessing your email. And don’t browse with your gmail tab open.
• Another solution is to use Firefox and search for security plug-in’s which detect fraudulent websites.
• And many say not to use Gmail for your business traffic at all. If you have webhosting, it probably also has free email accounts which you can set up and manage yourself
• If you do use Gmail, some say to access it through Thunderbird or similar, like you would if it were a hosted account. Never access through your browser.
• My friend also had his Yahoo account hacked at the same time. And since that was his backup email, it was difficult for him to regain access to his Gmail account. So your back up should be a non-freebie email provider.
• This exploit apparently only (hopefully) works over wireless – and the workaround is to check gmail through a client rather than directly.
• Always use https://mail.google.com – and log out each time.

Of course, this rolls into best business practices, that you check your email on a set schedule and then get out of it and not spend time chatting away all day. And check out ITPro for their take on best business practices for this.

Your own simple precautions are as above – and add to this to check any filters you’ve set up in Gmail to be sure that they are all yours.

That this exploit has been known about for a year and is still effective is not good news.

But now you know…

Is Robert Worstell a scam?

Sure I am.

Fully 97% of what I say here is useless to you. And I can admit this with complete certainty that it is true.

Because it’s based on the scientific certainty of all those graduate and post-graduate studies cover on human behavior, commonly described as a “Bell Curve.”

Their descriptive mathematical profundity says that out of all the stuff you study, you reject around 97% of all that you read or listen to or experience – because it doesn’t meet your own belief-system, your own world-view.

You are only going to use about 3% of anything I bring up here.

Of course that’s true for every single thing you study, every single website. So I’m really a scammer now – I’m saying that everyone else out there is running a scam also.

Well — they are, you know. Down deep, you do know.

The other thing that makes me a scam is that I only deal in Metaphysics and all that la-de-dah stuff which you have to believe first in order to make it happen. I’ve even got degrees in this stuff – no, they aren’t from any Ivy-covered, Alumni-sponsored, Good Old Boy Academia. But I paid my dues to study all this stuff, wrote my papers and theses and so on. I can quote all this Metaphysical stuff by the yard.

Of course, there’s no “real science” to it. Sure, it’s been proved that a lot of this actually heals people, actually will help people achieve their goals, actually makes people feel better one-for-one — provided that they actually have faith in the books and writers and material that I present here.

But the super-science boys are all against this type of stuff. But they’ve reached a dead-end. It actually happened years ago – when they went beyond the smallest possible particle they could study. None of all the various “laws” and “rules” they had established for how the Universe operates – none of that seemed to work dependably at quantum levels.

Turns out they found the scientific equivalent of God down there. And several of them returned to ancient spiritual texts to actually start making sense out of it all.

And that heady stuff is where I started – and what you’ll find here.

So all that I cover is simply and easily attacked as a scam.

Welcome to being scammed – and feeling good about it.

I offer a complete line of all those “get anything and everything you want in life” books over at Lulu.com, where you’ll find all the authors like Wallace Wattles, Charles Haanel, Earl Nightingale, Napoleon Hill, Dale Carnegie, – tons of all those “feel good” authors who made a living from inspirational and motivational books.

All scammers and quacks. Well, at least if you listen to the hard-boiled skeptics.

But you can live a better life – and the people who buy these books know that. They aren’t deterred because people around them are skeptical, critical, and generally negative. And they can generate faith at the drop of a hat.

The reason came up because I ran across a professional skeptic – who trusts things so little he won’t even use his real name online. And when I pointed out that being critical all the time would wind up with very few true friends (well, only those who didn’t mind being criticized right, left, and center.) He thought I “doth protest too much”. And my considered opinion was that he “doth skepticize too much.”

Different strokes for different folks.

So, join me in my scams. We can have some fun and maybe find personal freedom and happiness beyond anything anyone of his science boys has dug up.

Good Hunting!

www.flickr.com/photos/deapeajay/

There’s (at least) two different approaches to making a living.

You can have fun at what you’re doing, or you can do something else.

Usually, that something else is “making money”. People who work for someone else for “a living” are just exchanging their time for someone else’s money. There are a very few people at the top calling the shots and everyone else dances to their tune.

This is what’s called a wage slave. You “get” some time off to enjoy some of your own time doing whatever you want to do. And the bulk of your week is doing whatever someone else wants you to do and sleeping and eating.

And under the guise of “making money”, you are able to work some overtime where the employer has to legally pay you more for working over and above some arbitrary amount – usually 40 hours.

Under the guise of “saving money”, some employers (like Wal-Mart and others) don’t employ you for a full 40 hour week and so you don’t have to get paid benefits. And you aren’t being paid enough to pay your own benefits.

But entrepreneurs have their cake and eat it. They are doing whatever they feel like doing and have figured out how to “make money” at it. And self-employed persons who are incorporated as a business get the best tax breaks. So the government (bless their soul – if there is such a thing) is really telling people to quit working for anyone else and start your own business.

The bulk of humanity has been trained to and accepts simply working for someone else – trading their time on this planet for enough money to live on, which is the same thing as saying they are being paid to come to work the next scheduled day. That old saying, “I only work as much as I get paid, and I only get paid as much as I won’t quit.” That’s a wage slave.

If you want a raise at work, you have to be doing 150% to 200% or more of what your job description is. The guys who get laid off can be afforded by the company. Not invaluable to keep.

Entrepreneurs have it better – they only get paid as much as they work, also. But there’s no cap on how much they can get rewarded. I’ve heard of some salespeople who only do one sale a year – but that sale is a really big one.

And there is also the approach that you cut down your expenses and debts so that you can work for hire to someone else minimally – and do whatever you want the rest of the time.

One story I was told goes down this line: A lady wanted to get a high paying job, so she got trained as a dental hygienist. After she had graduated and worked full time for awhile, she found out that her (California) taxes were such that if she worked half as much she’d have the same take-home pay. So she started skiing and swimming at the beach the rest of the time.

If she had been contract labor with her own corporation, she would be able to take all that money and invest in her own benefits and retirement savings, plus cover her work-related travel and living expenses and only get taxed on what was left over = profit.

So it’s no surprise that some analysts report that 40% of Americans pay no income tax at all. It’s just another penalty for “making money”.

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But that whole diatribe above is a little off-beat.

The only people who actually “make money” work at the government printers where the stuff comes off the press. (And credit card companies make money by charging interest – think about it.)

Earning money is where everyone else lives. Earning money is giving something valuable as an exchange for something else valuable.

That’s the real basis of economics (which originally meant “managing the household.”)

On the Internet, this is much more well understood. All those people rabidly pitching their wares are mostly ignored. And I saw some statistic lately that advertisements are being ignored more than twice as much as they are read. (That’s not “clicked on”, that’s being noticed at all.)

But there is a lot of money being earned on the Internet by people who are providing great service first and then people want to know how they can support them. And this is how they then end up buying something after they’ve been well serviced and well treated.

This, then, finally comes back to the two ways of making a living I was telling you about.

You can “make money” working for someone else. Or you can “earn money” giving away valuable stuff to other people – and earn a living doing just this. (Preferably through your own private corporation.)

Who’s the winner on this? You are, and all the people you help. Essentially, any community you want to contribute to.

Who’s the loser? Anyone who depends on requiring an exact exchange of money for time – handouts, basically. Meaning: all government, “Big Business”, centralized power structures.

Think it over. Decide for yourself. See if it makes sense.

Either way, agree or not, let me know what you think…

Erica Preuss gives this great four-step plan to convert your/any business over to social media:

Increasing You

r ROI Through Social Media Ecology And The Engagement Lifecycle by Social Networking Information for Business: “If you are working way too hard on your social networking campaigns, and seeing few results, it’s time to step back and look at things from the ecological point of view and take the following actions:

1. Zoom out to the big picture: Approach your global social network as a living ecology, a Social Media Ecology made up of many living cultures and social networks.

2. Examine each culture closely and look at your interactions within that culture: Has it been effective? If not, how can you better fit the cultural community? Before you start a new community, make sure you know what you are getting into.

3. Within each social network: Engage, Listen, Interact

4. Measure: Measure each social network’s effectiveness in your marketing strategy, and measure your global effectiveness as well. This will help you identify where your engagement is having the most impact.

5. Repeat the lifecycle: The interaction lifecycle is continuous, see it as a circle of life that cycles continuously in your Social Media Ecology.

In summary, your ROI can be improved in your social media marketing campaigns by seeing the big picture. Just as the Earth’s global ecology is a balance of life”

What to do with the NY Times and other rags…bonfires?

Seth argues for saving the Times by their own petard.

My crux argument: newspapers always have (and always will) write stories that boost their circulation so they can sell advertising.

Seth’s Blog: All the News That Fits (do what you’re great at):
“I’d argue they have two opportunities:
1. If it’s in the Times, it’s true
2. If it’s in the Times, it’s important

I should clarify. By ‘true’, I mean vetted as well as can be vetted, I mean more true than other places. They can never reach this level of course, but they can try harder than most and they can be transparent and they can admit when they’re wrong and correct it. Lots of noise online, not so much truth.

By ‘important’, I mean ‘important because everyone else is reading the same thing.’ So, for example, the NY Times bestseller list is important. A half page story about the last factory making washboards is important. A glowing, thoughtful review of an overlooked opera is important. It’s important because the Times becomes one of the last cultural touchstones, the thing the other smart people read.”

Two points: TRUE is arguably what does some good for someone. In engineering and auto mechanics, it’s what works consistently. In politics, it’s what gets you re-elected (and won’t show up later to haunt you). Newspapers have had the situation that “true” is what keeps circulation up so they can sell advertising. And so they are distrusted.

IMPORTANT can’t mean publishing only the mainstream peak of the curve and overlooked interest stories all at the same time. Or could it. Reporting what’s popular for your readers would make or break trends – and get big box suppliers buying your advertising. Because they need lots of viewers to by their low-profit-margin items. Searching out overlooked quality means directing “the people’s” interest to see what only a niche has been able to utilize so far. And so, make a local trend go regional or national. Again, this sells advertising. (Offer small companies which are featured can be offered an intro ad rate to get their business as they grow.)

The Times, since it serves a massive community with untold niches and sub-niches, can afford in its web edition to publish everything for everyone. And, with unlimited advertising space online, can afford to give niche rates. It can actually be everything to everyone who reads it. Couldn’t be done with the press edition.

With web news, a person can focus on those items which builds their personal world-view. And that is very valuable. Because that is security – something everyone wants.

What people don’t want is to feel more insecure, something which modern reporting specializes in – figuring that human nature loves gore on page one (or conflicts with Al Gore, much the same). But that’s never been true. Sensationalism is the most pop of pop trends (try following What’s Hot on Google Trends for awhile in an effort to make sense of it – makes your head spin, as these things can become popular and disappear within minutes or even seconds). Titillation became obsolete with Burlesque.

And that’s why I tell people to turn off the TV, quit reading newspapers (except local small-town editions, where they are still valuable) and get your news in small, subscribed doses. Only the news you need to improve your life for real. Use social media like Digg and StumbleUpon to filter it for what you are interested in. Use RSS readers to save time.

Should old traditions like the NYT be preserved? I’ll leave it up to their subscribers. People vote with their wallets. But any editor of the Times should be running intense, continuing surveys to find out what people really what to fit in their paper – not finding out by taking the biggest advertisers out to lunch.

Here’s my full disclosure: I’m a recovering Scientologist.

I’ve often mentioned a “corporate cult” I left – this is it.

Bitter – no, I’ve gotten over that. Look, if you have a problem with Scientology, take it up with them. Go to their website and comment. Make a video about it and post it to YouTube. Visit the other sites about them and leave your comment there – or join in their forums. Visit their buildings and talk to them. Find out for yourself.

But Scientology doesn’t matter.

You see, it took living 20-plus years in that sociological cult to learn what I have. And I’ve made far, far more gains since I left than I ever did while I was in. Ever.

Because it’s a limited theory. Doesn’t practically apply to the actual, real world – just the world Hubbard created for those who bought into his ideas.

The trick is that he isn’t wrong in what he talks about (except for some errors in details here and there), because the principles underlying what he says and writes are inherently correct.

And when you chase up his back-trail, you find where he cherry-picked the data and then fouled the trail so others wouldn’t look there. Fact.

Because there are in fact “many ways up the mountain”, as the ancient Japanese said. And the even more ancient Polynesians hold that “no one school has all the teachers.”

But, like Nature can grow crops anywhere on this planet if it’s not too hot, too cold, too dry, too wet, or too rocky (or poisoned) – there is a single underlying system of thought which can set you free, make you wealthy, give you more free time, improve/repair your relationships, – anything anyone markets.

You could even find that underlying system if you got that list of books in their Qual libraries and studied each one of them (the one of all the references made by Hubbard from his tapes). You just won’t get it by listening to Hubbard solely.

Just like you can’t get there by only listening to Zig Ziglar, Robert Allen, Tony Robbins, Jay Abraham, or any other of these inspirational greats. And studying only one religion’s books will also not particularly get you on the road out (although there have been some saints and mystics who may have).

Because – it’s someone else’s road. And you have to make your own path. Someone else’s path isn’t the one you would take. Reason is: we’re blessed/cursed with Free Will. So every single person born on this planet is different, ever so slightly, than the one born in the next split-second.

You have to find your own way out. But you’re in luck – there are hundreds of thousands of people who are willing to help you find your way. You only have to ask and you’ll get help by the dump-truck load – right into your lap.

But don’t believe anyone who says they have the only way out, that there is only one trail and all other trails are booby-trapped. Because they are only trying to keep you buying their stuff – literally or figuratively.

Read, study, get all sorts of books both modern and ancient. This is the Internet Age – you can get almost any information you want online and store it on your hard-drive. But don’t just read one author – read tons. Listen to recordings. Try out what they say.

You can make it – which is what this evolution thing we’ve been trying here is all about.

Yes, I’ve got a lot of books I’ve republished down that line – and it would be great if you bought these and supported my research. But you can also get those authors for free (even my personally written books are floating around on the Internet if you look closely enough).

The point of this post here is to let you know exactly where I came from and what I’ve been doing.

And to give you your chance, whether you’ve ever encountered Scientology, L. Ron Hubbard, or not.

Because it’s a wonderful world out there, full of hope, promises, joy – just as you create it.

So get your books, tapes, MP3’s, videos – and study the hell out of them. Discover that natural system for yourself. And we’ll all go free that way.

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Good Luck – and Good Hunting!