New Profile Photo

Decided that I needed to update my profile photo because the current photo on there was probably taken about eight years ago. My wonderful husband just took this photo of me today with his new iphone. I was able to upload it from email to blogger, but I can't recall how to make it appear on my profile page! Help...?

Update: Hubby to the rescue! Was able to upload on my profile page. Apparently, it may take a while to appear on the blog page.

Storm Worm Virus Warning

If you have ever been a victim of email malware, you might agree that to be forewarned is to be forearmed. It can be quite valuable to be alerted about them before you mistakenly open a storm worm spam email that is making the rounds on the Internet. I thought that this alert was important enough to pass along.

FBI Warns of Storm Worm Virus

Wednesday, July 30, 2008 2:18 PM

By: Newsmax Staff




The FBI and its partner, the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3), have received reports of recent spam e-mails spreading the Storm Worm malicious software, known as malware.

These e-mails, which contain the phrase “F.B.I. vs. facebook,” direct e-mail recipients to click on a link to view an article about the FBI and Facebook, a popular social networking website. The Storm Worm virus has also been spread in the past in e-mails advertising a holiday e-card link.

Clicking on the link downloads malware onto the Internet connected device, causing it to become infected with the virus and part of the Storm Worm botnet. A botnet is a collection of compromised computers under the remote command and control of a criminal “botherder.”

Most owners of the compromised computers are unsuspecting victims. They have unintentionally allowed unauthorized access and use of their computers as a vehicle to facilitate other crimes, such as identity theft, denial of service attacks, phishing, click fraud, and the mass distribution of spam and spyware.

Because of their widely distributed capabilities, botnets are a growing threat to national security, the national information infrastructure, and the economy.

“The spammers spreading this virus are preying on Internet users and making their computers an unwitting part of criminal botnet activity. We urge citizens to help prevent the spread of botnets by becoming web-savvy. Following some simple computer security practices will reduce the risk that their computers will be compromised,” said Special Agent Richard Kolko, Chief, FBI National Press Office.

Everyone should consider the following:


Do not respond to unsolicited (spam) e-mail.


Be skeptical of individuals representing themselves as officials soliciting personal information via e-mail.


Do not click on links contained within an unsolicited e-mail.


Be cautious of e-mail claiming to contain pictures in attached files, as the files may contain viruses. Only open attachments from known senders.


Validate the legitimacy of the organization by directly accessing the organization's website rather than following an alleged link to the site.


Do not provide personal or financial information to anyone who solicits information.

I have also learned that it is important NOT to click on every link to your blog that pops up on an Internet search. I don't know what the "techie" word for it is (maybe "phishing?"), but some of them are "traps" to get you worried about viruses, worms, spyware, malware being "detected" on your computer. Usually, there is some sort of "counter" running madly along - deceiving you into thinking that their "product" is detecting - and accumulating via a counter - viruses being found on your computer. The thing is, it's all just a "show." Has this ever happened to you? Maybe I'm the only idiot who has fallen for that type of ruse. The first time it happened to me I got scared! I admit it, I'm just not very tech savvy.

I hate this kind of stuff...don't you? What an empty life these people must have who think up and do these types of destructive things on the Internet.

New Template!

When it comes to utilizing new blogger widgets and improvements, I often shy away because I worry that I'll screw things up! Well...that almost happened last night!

Fortunately, I didn't "save" the errors I made while transferring links from my old template to this new one. Whew! That was close!

It may take a while to get all of the links on my new webpage. Hope you like this new look for Talk Wisdom!

Christine

P.S. I am looking for additional links in the following categories:

1. Christian blogs
2. Christian news sites
3. News/politics blogs
4. News/politics websites
5. Truth/discernment sites
6. Apologetics sites
7. Bible prophecy sites
8. Classic biblical scholar sites
9. Conservative websites

If you have links that you think would fit well into any of those categories and you would like to share them, please include the links in the comment section!

Thanks and God bless!

My Cable Chewing Puggle!

Our internet service stopped working sometime yesterday afternoon. I was out doing various errands for most of the day. My car desperately needed servicing. When the mechanic told me that it would take about 90 minutes to get to my vehicle, I decided to walk to a nearby shopping center. It was a 20 minute walk. Called my friend Kelly, and she decided to meet me there. We shopped, then enjoyed a great Greek salad lunch at Daphne's Greek Cafe. It was so nice of Kelly to come and meet with me! She's such a great friend! After lunch, I was grateful that I didn't have to walk back to the servicing center to pick up my car.

When I arrived home, the internet was down. My son came home during his break from work, and he tried all the usual plugging and unplugging the cable modem and wireless router so that we could get back online. To no avail. We figured that the server must be down.

This morning, it was still out so I decided to call the cable company. A nice man answered my call and was willing to help me solve the problem. When I described that we were getting a "network cable unplugged" message, but as far as I could see, everything was plugged in, he instructed me to follow the main cable line and be sure that it was connected to the outlet. I proceeded to crouch under the desk in my husband's office, crawling along as I followed the familiar white cable wire towards the outlet. Welp! Didn't get very far! Oh my. Problem solved! Our dog had chewed through the cable cord!! The tell-tale splash of vomit nearby indicated that her chewing frenzy didn't sit well in her stomach!

The guy on the phone and I started laughing. He told me that the "dog chewed the cable cord" problem is usually the one that he typically gives as an example of problems not covered for a service call!!

I was really surprised. I can't remember the last time our puggle had chewed something she wasn't supposed to! Sasha is 2 1/2 years old! She's supposed to be trained not to do that! Sneaky doggie!!

Of course, I had to bring her in and show her the damage saying NO!! She knew she had done something wrong! But how could I stay mad at her? One look at her cute little face just melts my heart!

Sent a text message to my husband and son letting them know that I found the problem. They both called me at different times. My husband said that he would get new cable cord and fix it later tonight.

My next thought was...oh well, no blogging today! So, I decided to get some spring cleaning done! It's a beautiful day...mid 70's! I love it when I can open all the windows and let the fresh air in the house.

Late this afternoon, while taking Sasha out for a walk, I noticed a cable guy fixing something at the cable box on our property. We chatted briefly. Apparently, our neighbor across the street was having cable internet problems. When I returned from the walk, I asked him if he had any spare white cable cord line that I might buy. He offered to come in and look at the problem. He then spliced the lines and put connectors at the two ends. That was much easier than replacing the entire cable cord!

Next, I unplugged the cable modem and router (as the technician on the phone had instructed), waited 5 minutes, then plugged in the cable modem wire. Waited 5 more minutes, then connected the router. It worked! Here I am back online!

I thanked the cable guy for being so gracious and willing to help me! He didn't charge me anything, but I gave him money anyway and said, "have lunch on me!"

So...how was your day?

Time Out: Widget and Template Problemos!

Yesterday, I was in the process of obtaining an RSS feed here at Talk Wisdom. I found a website that provided detailed instruction on how to proceed. It was aptly called, "Blogger for dummies - how to add widgets."

O.K.

I figured that if any dummie could do it then perhaps I should give it a try.

;-)

I got almost all the way through, but then found out that I would have to "upgrade my template." Started to do that, then got the message that I would lose some of the recent content that I had placed here.

Arrgghhh!

Didn't want to deal with that right now, so my template upgrade (and, thus, the addition of an RSS feed) is on hold.

The page advisor did state that blogger would save a copy of my old template in order to add any lost content that would occur as a result of the upgrade. But I got scared! And, like I said before, I didn't want to deal with it all right now.

In the process of trying to install an RSS feed, I discovered that I had an "error" message concerning my Technorati blog reactions at the base of each blogpost which I had placed in the Template one or two days ago.

Arrgghhh!

Removed that this morning.

I hate being tech challenged...