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Changing pace from negative Cyber-terror post, lets recapture our fun. Today’s video is not music video, nor is it anyone playing at the beach.

It is very informative 8 minutes or so video, helping to explain the intricacies of Financial Markets Turmoil that occurred recently, including the infamous Sub-Prime Lending fiasco. British humor at it’s finest! Thanks, Marc, for the tip!

Now, once you watched it and ready for real educational part, and you do have some money you are saving for a rainy day, here are some of my personal investment tips:

• Stay Away from any Fund that is called Enhanced, High or Structured. In other words, stay away from Hedge funds!
• Don’t invest in anything which you can’t explain how it works. So do invest in CDs, and companies that you trust. Like my favorites of late Microsoft, Yahoo! and Kraft Foods. Use a company like ShareBuilder to simplify your investing.
• Want higher returns and willing to take on some risk? Try Prosper loans marketplace. At least here you know exactly who you giving your money to, what is their income and credit score. Plus, they have 100% identity protection guarantee, so if anything fishy is uncovered, you get 100% refund of your funds.
• Of course, good old 5.00% Savings Account is a simple option also

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It is becoming increasingly clear to me that Cyber Terrorism has won. It has all of us running scared, increasingly not trusting our own PCs, we are afraid to visit even secure bank web sites, and overall don’t trust the Internet.

Today I was trying to get ToonTown going on an old laptop. Actually, it was the second PC where I had to struggle with the same fiasco. Internet Explorer 7 upgrade made ActiveX controls, even approved and signed ones, unusable! I knew enough to move toontown.com domain to trusted status, but that did not suffice! Apparently, even in Trusted domain, signed ActiveX controls aren’t simply ‘allowed’ any longer. I had to manually reconfigure IE security settings for trusted site to make ToonTown work.

How would your average joe user, trying to setup ToonTown for his impatient child, supposed to figure this out?!? The usual end result would be very annoyed parent, and traumatized child, left without a game and with agitated screaming/cursing parent.

Is this a technology issue? I don’t believe so, same technology worked just fine when I first installed ToonTown for my kids a year or so ago. And this isn’t just Microsoft and IE crazy security. The most popular Linux distribution today, Ubuntu, also uses similar UAC features.

And you think it’s just the Internet that has us running for hills? Endless productive corporate hours are lost waiting for PC to respond while it’s too busy trying to scan for "viruses", and "trojans" and other such pests. The Antivirus that is probably installed on your computer as you read this, isn’t keeping you safe as much as it’s there to kill the speed of your computer, in half, and sometimes more!!

Are there any good news?

I say we stop running and take charge. It is clear that security software is a necessity in these turbulent times, but lets be smart about it! As companies, don’t release Antivirus software to all your desktops that endlessly scans all file accesses. Scan once a week, or only overnight, and NEVER in real-time!

As home users, lets be smart about web sites we visit, software we and our kids download and what antivirus programs we use on our PCs. Turn off your real-time protection, most often it’s just there to kill your whole PC experience. If you are going to click on that urgent email from "PayPal" and give out your username/password to a phishing site, No Amount Of Real-Time Protection can help you!!! Configure your antivirus software Not to run all the time, and only scan on schedule, overnight or once a week is usually plenty! Really, the only thing you need in real-time is that built-in Windows Firewall, just make sure to REVIEW any prompts asking you to open it ;-).

To summarize, I want to pimp Windows Vista a little. Even with it’s quirks, it is a more secure alternative to XP today. Furthermore, if you insist on running that Antivirus, Windows Vista introduces background priority scheduling for disk access. This feature should make your computer much more responsive, even as Antivirus is chopping away at it’s resources trying to "protect" you in real-time.

Let us prepare for round 2 of the cyber-wars, and let’s make sure we, the good guys Win this time!

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When I launched this site, several months ago, a good friend asked me why would I bother the expense, the time and the complexity of having my own separate Dot Com blog, when there are so many other web sites out there for blogging these days.

Well, here’s a perfect example why: Yahoo! 360, home of my earlier blog, is being “turned off“. Yes, they are promising to keep our content, although at this time they aren’t sure on what site or in which form…

Actually, I trust Yahoo! and I think they are doing the right thing. I wouldn’t have created my blog there in the first place if I did not have full trust in them (Full disclosure: I own some Yahoo! stock). They are going through some management turmoil now, and these are rough times while many leading tech companies (Microsoft comes to mind!) trying to figure out what works and what doesn’t, and what is the best model for the future of computing for masses.

So, back to the issue at hand. When this blog launched, I actually used another Web Host. Since I own my domain, it took only about half an hour to completely move my blog with All Its Content to a new provider. And the best thing, my readers did not feel a thing. I still have the same address in the vastness of the Internet, which is very important.

By the way, same thing goes for email! In this day and age I am just shocked when I hear anyone using their Internet Provider email address. What is this qtpie@comcast.nët email you are giving out to people??? What will you do when you change to DSL provider next year? Or move to a state without Comcast? Why loose your email identity, your connection to friends? Why not utilize Yahoo! Mail or GMail or Hotmail (by Microsoft), which are all free!

If you are still reading this long post, then here are some things useful for you. Probably, one of the easiest options to get your own .Com with Blog going these days is provided by WordPress.com. For a little extra pay you can even point your actual .Com domain there, giving you a complete solution. If you are more adventurous and feel comfortable with uploading PHP sources and creating MySql databases, check out complete Open Source solutions from WordPress.org or MovableType.org .

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I think I tackled this in the past, but here is a brief reminder, yet again. I am against bloging senseless! I really don’t enjoy blogs that post 10+ times each day, that’s just ridiculous! Yes, there may be a lot to blog about, and there is a lot going on in the world all the time. But, putting this many posts ends up only hurting your readers, in my humble opinion. It becomes impossible to read every post, and since there is no way to know which posts may be important to you without reading them all, people just stop trying!

So, philosophy of this blog is to weed out the essence from the noise, and bring you just things of interest. Plus, don’t forget the hourly updating Latest Shared Links section on the right. That’s where I bring you latest deals, news of interest, and other fun things. That section is updated frequently, but don’t worry if you don’t keep up.

Now, onto the promised Weekend Fun. This weekend I bring you the amazing advances in Computer Graphics Technology, using 3D shaders rendering, bump-mapping, and other such hard to pronounce methods that lead to the amazing creation on the right. If you are not a fan of that sort of stuff, please don’t click on any of the links below, you’ve been warned!

Now, if you are still reading, I presume you enjoy this skillful art and technology coming together, like me. So, here are some video clips from the excellent Dead or Alive: Xtreme 2 game. It’s just a compilation of mini-games, but Who Cares! when the graphics is this good!!! And you probably would want to visit the game developer site, just make sure to click on the English magazine laying towards the bottom of the screen, that’s how insiders get in.

Still reading this? Ok then! Check out this Promotional Trailer and then Game Opening Movie. Done? Did I mention that this game plays via HDMI on your 42″ or larger HDTV screen!!! So, go on and buy the game, with XBox 360 if you still don’t have it!

PS: I was trying to stay family friendly blog by avoiding words like Sexy, Blonde and Girl, but the traffic spike from the search engines seeking just these words is something I can really use right now

PPS: For some reason there is one new Amazon favorite item (on the right column) which isn’t showing image, but be sure to click through and find out what it is!

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Netflix quietly rolled out yet another wonderful feature! By now most of you have heard about Watch Now feature on Netflix, which allows you to watch up to your monthly dollar amount of hours of Movies "On-Demand" over the Internet. For example, if your subscription is $18 per month, you get 18 hours of Watch Now viewing for anything you can find in their, still limited, online library of movies.

But in a very exciting twist, Netlix now allows you to catch up on popular TV series via the same Watch Now feature! Have you heard all the buzz about Heros? I have! And I am the first to admit that I haven’t watched a single episode, although this show is in its second season, I believe.

So, instead of renting DVD after DVD of past seasons, simply navigate to proper Netflix Watch Now page, click Play and enjoy! Of course it still doesn’t work on airplanes or in other such places without Internet connection. Obviously, you will also need an active Netflix account (if you don’t, check out my earlier post for other TV catchup ideas). Plus your common 18 hours a month may not suffice to catch up fast enough, but no-one is preventing you from renting Season 2 on DVD while watching Season 1 streaming.

Did I mention there are No Commercial Interruptions, as of course you would expect from a DVD watching experience. Heroes Season 1, Heroes Season 2, The Office Season 1, 2 and 3 are just some of the examples I came upon. Or how about old Sci-Fi classics: Quantum Leap or Sliders ? Did you forget October is Halloween month, celebrate with Alfred Hitchcock Presents, by watching in dark isolated space over your wireless network, in the middle of the night!

Ah, the long overdue Media Buffet is almost here!

Remember, folks, You heard it here first! Now go tell your friends about it, and about where you read all about it, of course!

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Today’s post is about The Environment. Our Planet, and what are You doing to help save it? What actions are You taking daily to better the planet for our Children?

Blog Action Day organizers have big time sponsors on-board, all coming together in a common goal to promote message about the importance of saving our planet and the environment.

Our household, for example, has been using Fluorescent Light Bulbs for years, almost exclusively. Although it costs more per bulb, it pays for itself in no time. Of course it saves energy, using as little as 25% of the energy versus regular light-bulb. But then it’s also long lasting, so we usually don’t need to replace light bulbs for years. Win Win! The only issue with them is the trouble of recycling old bulbs properly, since they contain a little bit of mercury. Speaking of Recycling, this is another something our household been doing since forever. Recycling Plastics, Cans, Glass Jars is easier than you may think, and it also helps Our Planet!

Finally, we are always looking for more ways to save energy. Solar panels are still very expensive, unfortunately, which is shame since there is plenty of sun here in Georgia. Buying Energy Efficient Appliances is the other big way to save energy!

All other ideas are welcome, so go ahead, don’t be shy and comment away!

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Little known fact (or maybe it’s famous fact?) about me is that I am a video technophile. I love to capture/convert/archive videos in all their form. Whether it is first time my child walked, or my favorite Music Video, and so forth.

Aren’t you upset with pathetic quality of YouTube? The dismal video size and the awful compression artifacts in there are not driving you insane? In this day and age the technology has come far enough where we should expect more from our Internet video!

Yes, there is a better way! Enter Stage6 from Divx. Just about everyone has heard about this video compression technology by now. There is a whole range of consumer devices today that can play Divx video, and the format continues to gain acceptance. And, Stage6 lets you easily upload and share your own videos, with family and friends, either directly or through their high quality Windows utility that will encode and upload your video to Stage6 for you. In my opinion Stage6 and Divx offer highest streaming quality available on the web today, though competing technologies are coming, in Microsoft’s Silverlight and with H.264 support in future Adobe Flash.

Today’s music video is from Linkin Park, one of my favorite bands. I am not sure why this particular clip hasn’t gained wider popularity here in the USA, but it sure is very popular on charts around the World. Perhaps the implications of reflecting on What You Have Done is something many people feel uncomfortable with. For me, however, watching this music video makes it even more of a time "not wasted".

Remember, the quality of this wide-screen Linkin Park video is so high, I couldn’t even fit it into this blog! Instead, click through to Stage6, install the little player plug-in, and enjoy video in all it’s glory! Make sure to click the little ‘maximize’  button on the lower right of video, to watch full screen. Happy Friday!

UPDATE: Looks like some "entrepreneurs" already using Stage6 to host wealth of high quality no cost movies, cartoons and what not. Of course, just like YouTube, they claim Safe Harbor. Enjoy it while it lasts, folks: Joox.net (Thanks for the tip, Russell)

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