WHO@ Newsletter

December 29, 2008


Well, folks, this is the last newsletter for the year. I hope your New Year's is a safe and fun one - see you next year!!!

I couldn't make this up if I tried. . .And I get only a toy in my box of cereal?

Calif. family finds $10,000 in box of crackers
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081227/ap_on_fe_st/odd_cracker_box_money;_ylt=Al_jKfUYusGM8BLV3uXUIF3tiBIF

The box of crackers Debra Rogoff bought from the grocery store had some crackerjack in it ­ an envelope stuffed with $10,000.

Yet the Irvine woman was more curious than ecstatic about her daughter's find. After all, who would leave money in such a place?

"We just thought, 'This is someone's money,'" she said. "We would never feel good about spending it."

Rather than go on a shopping spree, the family called police and was initially told the money could be part of a drug drop.

Police later heard from store managers at Whole Foods in Tustin that an elderly woman had come in a few days earlier, hysterical because she had mistakenly returned a box of crackers with her life savings inside. In a mix-up the store restocked the box rather than composting it.

The Lake Forest woman, whose identity was not released, had lost faith in her bank and decided the box would be a safer place for the money.

Luckily for her, the box of Annie's Sour Cream and Onion Cheddar Bunny crackers were bought by the Rogoffs, who discovered the crisp $100 bills in an unmarked white envelope on Oct. 10.

The Rogoffs never heard from the woman and didn't receive a reward, but Rogoff did return to Whole Foods a couple weeks later.

"I asked them if I could have another box of crackers," she said with a laugh. The store obliged.

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(DISCLAIMER: The following news items were found on the web and were not written or endorsed by WHO@; they are for informational purposes only)

Protests gather against Facebook 'no breast' rule - 12/29/08
http://www.thetechherald.com/article.php/200852/2681/Protests-gather-against-Facebook-no-breast-rule
Recent moves by Facebook to govern potentially sensitive and inappropriate content posted to its pages has left the social networking service suffering something of a user backlash after it removed personal photos of women breastfeeding.

The top underreported tech stories of 2008 - 12/29/08
http://tech.yahoo.com/news/infoworld/20081229/tc_infoworld/120647
Did you know that a vicious price war is threatening to upset the wholesale bandwidth market? If you didn't, you might not be prepared when your provider is "de-peered," leaving your Web site as isolated as a tiny Pacific atoll. Or maybe you haven't heard much about application virtualization, a technology that could change the way you manage networks of PCs.

Harassment Case Stokes Xenophobia at Seoul Nat`l Univ. - 12/29/08
http://english.donga.com/srv/service.php3?bicode=040000&biid=2008122989238
“To avoid suspicious eyes, I used to walk all the way to a classroom instead of riding a shuttle bus.”
So said a 24-year-old graduate student at Seoul National University who also heads the Indian students’ association there.

Cyber Seniors Prime Targets of Online Frauds - 12/27/08
http://www.spamfighter.com/News-11535-Cyber-Seniors-Prime-Targets-of-Online-Frauds.htm
Almost 60% of the users who reported falling victims to cyber crime were sufferers of malicious programs or 'malicious intent', comprising either of spam, phishing, ID theft, fraud, or a computer infringement. This is as per an assessment of data gathered through the "Take a Byte Out of Cyber Crime" campaign, under the initiative of the CMO (Chief Marketing Officer) Council and its partners from the public sector.

Tiny Company Sues Apple, Microsoft, and Google, Has Balls the Size of Texas - 12/27/08
http://gizmodo.com/5119074/tiny-company-sues-apple-microsoft-and-google-has-balls-the-size-of-texas
Cygnus Systems Inc, a small Michigan company, was recently awarded a patent for thumbnail previews of a file, and celebrated by immediately suing the biggest names in town.

Online security hit by new level of threat - 12/27/08
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/8b48e5aa-d3b6-11dd-989e-000077b07658.html
Internet security has deteriorated markedly this year as a new generation of invasive computer attacks, often masterminded by criminal gangs, has reached a heightened level of sophistication, according to the latest studies of online threats.

Protected mail program gives abuse victims relief - 12/27/08
http://www.pe.com/localnews/inland/stories/PE_News_Local_S_safer28.30c59de.html
A California program that lets victims of domestic violence and sexual assault hide their whereabouts turns 10 next year after aiding more than 4,000 people.
Safe at Home lets participants have their bills, magazine subscriptions, voter pamphlets and other mail sent to a state address in Sacramento and then secretly forwarded to their homes.

Verizon Wins $31 Million Judgment in Cybersquatting Case - 12/26/08
http://tech.yahoo.com/news/pcworld/20081227/tc_pcworld/verizonwins31millionjudgmentincybersquattingcase
Verizon Communications has won USD$31.15 million in damages in a cybersquatting case it brought against domain registry OnlineNIC, while Microsoft is seeking judgment against the same company and Yahoo has recently filed similar charges.

Uproar in Australia over plan to block Web sites - 12/26/08
http://tech.yahoo.com/news/ap/20081226/ap_on_hi_te/tec_australia_internet_filter
A proposed Internet filter dubbed the "Great Aussie Firewall" is promising to make Australia one of the strictest Internet regulators among democratic countries.

Social Networking and the Peril of Legal Entanglement - 12/25/08
http://www.ecommercetimes.com/story/Social-Networking-and-the-Peril-of-Legal-Entanglement-65608.html
There's something about the Web that makes some people just want to let it all out, compelling them to type things they'd hesitate to speak out loud. However, words on the Web can sometimes have real impact in the office -- and in the courtroom. Web or no Web, talking trash about your employer can get you fired, libeling others can get you sued, and some lies are far from harmless.

Audit: Online abuse at DEP - 12/25/08
http://www.connpost.com/ci_11308882
Employees of the state Department of Environmental Protection have stopped visiting international matrimonial Web sites, but dozens are still abusing state policy on the personal use of computers, according to a new audit.

Georgia Man Sentenced for E-Rate Bribery - 12/24/08
http://tech.yahoo.com/news/pcworld/20081224/tc_pcworld/georgiamansentencedforeratebribery
A Georgia man was sentenced to five years in prison on charges of bribery and conspiring to bride a former Atlanta Public Schools official for work related to a U.S. government program designed to help schools and libraries in poor areas connect to the Internet.

Case of cyberstalking turns out to be prank - 12/23/08
http://www.enctoday.com/news/cyberstalking_4942_havelock__article.html/year_case.html
An apparent case of cyberstalking that initially concerned police turned out to be a prank delivered via e-mail from a 12-year-old Havelock girl.

Fake Antivirus Peddlers Helped by Microsoft, IRS - 12/23/08
http://tech.yahoo.com/news/pcworld/20081224/tc_pcworld/fakeantiviruspeddlershelpedbymicrosoftirs
Just weeks after the U.S. Federal Trade Commission shut down two companies accused of selling fake antivirus software, a new player has moved into the market, aided by glitches in the Microsoft and U.S. Internal Revenue Service Web sites.