Internet Fraud Loss For 2007 Tops $239 Million

Sounds low to me. I would have guessed ten times that.

Along with all the other new features we have at the redesigned WBIR.com is an online community discussion forum (Which will soon have its own name. Suggestions welcome!).

I am your intrepid moderator for this new community, and I'd like to invite you to visit, to join the discussion, and to share your ideas and suggestions for getting the conversation underway.

Check us out at: Link...

Cheers-

Katie

"Janice Velva"

This is one of the better spam e-mail names I've seen lately. "Janice" is selling fake diplomas.

I have a homegrown spam filter for our business account and the top four hits are "viagra" (yes, they still use the correct spelling), "save" + ".com", "penis", and "rolex" + "watches" in that order.

They all had hits as recently as today, and combined they have filtered approx. 80,000 emails since I wrote the program and added the terms to the filter list a while back.

The next Blogfest is this weekend at VS a new business downtown. Meet other bloggers face to face and play video games! They have 2 Wiis, 2 xboxes, and 2 playstation 3s as well as Rockband and many many games for each system. There are 5 iMacs and wifi so you can blog. Downstairs is a congregating area away from the games with a stage which can feature live performances. Games are free to bloggers from 7pm to 9pm Saturday, May 10. VS is located just two doors down from the old Harold's. See you there!

As a side note, the wifi is free ALL the time so if you are ever downtown, needing a connection and a comfortable place to sit, slip into VS!

You Tube is either down this morning or they have finally decided to bar me for the poor quality videos I have uploaded of late. I don't even see the embedded videos here at KV or over at The Home.

If the servers are truly down, should we get a cold compress and head over to Astonishingly Nine's place?

In fury and despair, patients harmed by Lasik eye surgery told federal health advisers Friday of severe eye pain, blurred vision and even a son's suicide. The advisers recommended that the government warn more clearly about the risks of the hugely popular operations.
...
And while the vast majority benefit — most see 20-20 or even better — about one in four people who seeks Lasik is not a good candidate. A small fraction, perhaps 1 percent or fewer, suffer serious, life-changing side effects: worse vision, severe dry eye, glare, inability to drive at night.

Eye surgery so I don't have to wear glasses sends chills up my spine, but then I'm not one to have ever worn contact lenses either.

Be careful out there. Don't be sold. Do your homework.

I spotted a Honda Insight in Alcoa yesterday. Even though I could not see any hybrid label I knew by the look (different, weird, ugly, whatever) it had to be a hybrid. Honda stopped making the Insight in 2006.

This summer Honda is introducing the FCX Clarity hydrogen car to the U.S. Initially it will only be available in selected locations in California, i.e. Torrance, Santa Monica and Irvine.

Honda has to make fueling stations readily available. They are also working on home energy stations. Although, I suppose it could be a problem in the future to be dependent on natural gas.

Check out the reviews from The New York Times and USA Today.

What are US car companies doing? I still can't find a Ford Escape Hybrid and they seem to be even less available than they were a couple of months ago in the larger market areas, e.g. Atlanta, Orlando, etc.

Found this via the Metro-Pulse Earth Day issue. Take the home energy audit to learn how you can be more energy efficient in your home (and get free "stuff"!).

TVA Offers Energy Efficiency Kits With Home Energy Audit

Take the Home Energy Audit before June 30, 2008, and TVA will send you an Energy Efficiency Kit with tools to help you save energy and money. [Kits are mailed in four to six weeks.]

The kit includes the following items:
Two compact fluorescent bulbs
Outlet and light switch gaskets
A filter whistle
Two faucet aerators
A hot water temperature gauge
A home thermometer
"How to Save" brochure

Interest in alternative energy such as wind, geothermal, and solar is spreading beyond so-called "fringe" environmentalists and "tree huggers" to the business world.

If there is any doubt, consider this: U.S. clean energy venture capital investments totaled $2.7 billion in 2007, a 70% increase over 2006. Worldwide investments in clean energy totaled $148 billion, a 60% increase over 2006. Alternative energy is going mainstream.

Blockbuster offers $1 billion for Circuit City

Blockbuster says the offer is intended to "capitalize on the growing convergence of media content and electronic devices."

But neither company has an online digital delivery presence to speak of. Then there's this:

Last week news leaked out that Blockbuster had a set-top box under development that would stream video content directly into homes, which was seen by many as a last-ditch effort to adapt its business.

That's great, except you can already do that with Amazon Unbox and Tivo (which is pretty cool, except for the "one day only" rental aspect). Then there's this.

Knoxville based LAGtv Network is an internet based TV network with international reach.

The brainchild of Shane Latham, LAGtv is a "live internet television station with shows focusing on video games, online tournaments, pro-gamers, casual gamers, product and game reviews."

According to producer and writer Jessie Greene, also of Knoxville, LAGtv broadcasts from its studio in Knoxville. The network’s inaugural broadcast aired on February 1, 2008.

Looking around the site and some of the show archives, the productions are slick and the on-air talent appears to be having a lot of fun even if I don't know what they're talking about most of the time. If you are an XBox 360 fan, I'm sure it will make sense to you and you'll like it.

Apparently gamers can also participate live by way of their XBox 360 video chat and messaging features. Or if your XBox-fu is weak, you can join in the online chat room, send a plain old email, or just call in on the phone. Shows air live every day at 9PM.

LAGtv looks like another high score for Knoxville's reputation as an evolving center for creative broadcast video and internet production. Check it out.

WASHINGTON - The Bush administration is likely to move its research on one of the most contagious animal diseases from an isolated island laboratory to the U.S. mainland near herds of livestock, raising concerns about a catastrophic outbreak.

A new facility at Plum Island is technically a possibility. Signs point to a mainland site, however, after the administration spent considerable time and money scouting new locations. Also, there are financial concerns about operating from a location accessible only by ferry or helicopter.

Somehow this doesnt surprise me. The goverment is worried about "substantial money" (nevermind the fact that the administration has supported a soon to be trillion dollar war in Iraq) already spent scouting out different mainland locations for the new facility, so it is a 'done deal'? Being told that they can now control the virus/sterilization etc...much better than they could when the Plum Island facility was originally built doesnt instill confidence in me or the thousands of farmers who could see their herds destroyed.

South Korea paid Russia $20 million to get their first astronaut (participant) in space. Yi So-yeon, a South Korean bioengineer, was picked from 36,000 applicants. She was actually South Korea's second pick. Ko San made a boo boo and, alas, he was replaced.

The Soyuz flight also marked a milestone for the mission commander, Volkov, who became the first second-generation astronaut or cosmonaut to reach space.

Volkov's father, Alexander Volkov, is a decorated cosmonaut from the Soviet era. On his last journey, he left Earth as a Soviet citizen and returned as a citizen of the new Russian Federation, following the breakup of the Soviet Union.

Pretty cool.

Will we ever know the absolute truth?

According to an article in The Independent (UK):

Mobile phones could kill far more people than smoking or asbestos, a study by an award-winning cancer expert has concluded. He says people should avoid using them wherever possible and that governments and the mobile phone industry must take "immediate steps" to reduce exposure to their radiation.

...

It draws on growing evidence – exclusively reported in the IoS in October – that using handsets for 10 years or more can double the risk of brain cancer. Cancers take at least a decade to develop, invalidating official safety assurances based on earlier studies which included few, if any, people who had used the phones for that long.

What is the truth anyway? We have selective truth. We have scientific truth. Some have religious truth.

We have never used our cellphones very much. We probably average 75 minutes or less a month for the two of us. I wonder what France, Germany, and the European Environment Agency consider reduced use.

Protein Discovery, Inc. Completes $10 Million Private Equity Financing:

Protein Discovery, Inc., a developer and marketer of products that simplify biological sample preparation for mass spectrometry applications, today announced that the company has closed a $10 million Series C round of equity financing.

The company's product is used to "prepare biological samples for mass spectrometry analysis in common life science R&D applications such as protein biomarker discovery and small molecule quantification," whatever that means, and is said to reduce the time required for the process from days to hours.

Apparently it has nothing to do, however, with sports, trucking, or strip mall development.

The DOE has selected Knoxville as one of twelve cities to receive solar energy grants:

U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Secretary Samuel W. Bodman today announced that DOE will make available up to $2.4 million to 12 cities across the country selected as Solar America Cities, chosen for their commitment and comprehensive approach to the deployment of solar technologies and the development of sustainable solar infrastructures.

[..]

Cities designated as Solar America Cities, which will each receive $200,000 from DOE to integrate a variety of solar energy technologies throughout the city, include: Denver, CO; Houston, TX; Knoxville, TN; Milwaukee, WI; Minneapolis & St. Paul, MN; Orlando, FL; Philadelphia, PA; Sacramento, CA; San Antonio, TX; San Jose, CA; Santa Rosa, CA; and Seattle, WA.

According to the DOE press release, the selected cities will also receive hands-on technical assistance with integrating solar technology into energy planning, zoning, local regulations, best practices, solar financing options, and incentive programs. The grants are part of the DOE Solar American Cities program.

$200K ($2.4 million overall) is a rounding error in terms of federal funding for alternative energy technology research and programs, but we should be happy they are doing anything at all and take what we can get.

(Here's a previous report on Florida's solar incentive program and some others around the South along with a discussion of some of the issues involved. Some interesting comments, too.)

UPDATE: Here's the City of Knoxville's Solar Cities grant application, courtesy of Bill Lyons. There are some interesting ideas, such as integrating solar technology into the new transit center, solar powered affordable housing development projects (as mentioned yesterday), education/outreach programs at the Ijams nature center, and lots more.

The U.T. School of Journalism and Electronic Media is hosting a "Public Conversation on Web Journalism," beginning Thursday, April 3rd and continuing on Friday, April 4th at the U.T. Black Cultural Center.

There will be open forum panel discussions on a variety of topics related to web journalism and publishing, featuring a a diverse group of professionals and academics with a wide variety of backgrounds and experiences. I have been invited to participate on two of the panels.

Panel discussions are open to the public and admission is free.

The Tennessee Journalist has more details:

• Washington Post exec to headline April conference

• Tentative schedule for the Public Conversation of Web Journalism conference, April 3-4

• Guess who's coming to dinner? Participants in the Public Conversation Conference

6 cities that were caught shortening yellow light times for profit.

Both Nashville and Chattanooga are on the list. Surely this couldn't happen in Knoxville?

You will be missed...

Writer Arthur C. Clarke Dies at 90

By RAVI NESSMAN – 15 minutes ago

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — Arthur C. Clarke, a visionary science fiction writer who won worldwide acclaim with more than 100 books on space, science and the future, died Wednesday in his adopted home of Sri Lanka, an aide said. He was 90.

We debated whether to go see the 2:28AM scheduled launch of STS-123. We went back and forth all day. It's an hour's drive down and back. It's scheduled for 2:28 AM. It might get scrubbed because of cloud cover.

Around 9:30 PM we decided we're here, the latest NASA reports said weather conditions were 90% go for launch and the main engines were fueled, so we figured why not. We loaded up and headed down to Titusville.

Some photos after the jump...

Per the KNS today...NASA is having a contest to name the new GLAST (Gamma-ray Large Area Space Telescope) telescope. Here's your chance to become part of space exploration history!

Before the latest chapter in the search begins for supermassive black holes, new laws of physics and the mysterious dark matter, you’ll have the historic chance to help name the satellite that makes it all possible. This unique opportunity is open to the public across the globe. Now, YOU may be the one to offer the name which will be given to the Gamma-ray Large Area Space Telescope (GLAST) after its launch in 2008. GLAST is NASA’s next generation gamma-ray mission, designed to explore the most extreme phenomena in our Universe and probe energy regimes far beyond anything possible on Earth.

Go here to enter your own suggestion!

I did!...May the best namer win!

KNS reports that U.T. has a new interim Chief Information Officer, Jesse Poore. He sounds like a smart and accomplished guy. With a background in scientific and engineering computing, though, I'm not sure he's the kind of person they need.

It reminds me of back when the industry was desperate for programmers trained in business, accounting, and COBOL, and U.T. only taught FORTRAN.

A major IT department is a huge and complicated business within a business, especially at a university where it's hard to imagine a more diverse set of applications and users. Running it has to be one of the toughest corporate type jobs there is, and I wouldn't wish it on anyone.

From a systems management standpoint, the scientific and engineering applications seem like only a small part, used mostly by uber-geeks who do their own thing but probably can't balance their own checkbook much less put out a payroll for ten thousand employees every two weeks.

And somebody has to deal with the thousands of mortals trying to install the latest virus protection updates on their bloated and broken Windows boxes lest the latest round of infected "ten reasons dogs are better companions than men" email forwards crash The Matrix. Come to think of it, that might actually be a bigger challenge than aiming a neutron beam at a specific electron and hitting it or whatever it is those uber-geeks do.

Anyway, see the previous discussion with a lot of free advice here.

The KNS reports that Knoxville City Council let Knology off the hook for hundreds of thousands of dollars in accumulated fines for not complying with their cable contract's buildout provisions, opting instead to accept their promise to invest $750K in expanding their service area.

Sounds like the City has come up with a new concept in corporate subsidies: "Penalty Increment Financing," or "PIFs."

The Knoxville News Sentinel had a bold headline on the front page of today's local section proclaiming "Electronic exchange of patient info close" with the sub heading "AT&T and Tenn. create system for accessing, sharing medical records." The opening paragraphs state:

AT&T Inc. is partnering with Tennessee to provide the country's first statewide system to electronically exchange patient medical information, the telecommunications company will announce today.

The system is designed to securely transmit detailed patient information between medical professionals.

It will allow doctors to access medical histories, prescribe medicines over the Internet and transfer images like X-rays, MRIs and CT scans.

The problem is that the system is not a medical records system and it does not manage patient histories or medical imaging as one might conclude from reading the article.

Instead, if you read closely it says that the system allows "exchange" and "access" and is designed to "securely transmit" information. That's all it does, as far as I can tell. But what do you expect from a cut and paste wire report rewrite of an AT&T press release?

It's like the cable guy coming in to your home or office and setting up a broadband modem and a VPN ("virtual private network") for you and then giving you an 800 number to call if you have a problem. That's what they're selling.

Occasionally I go to the Firefox Extensions site to see what goodies I can add to my favorite browser.

During today's visit I came across one called Access Flickr developed by Hamed Saber who writes:

In my country (Iran), unfortunately, the flickr.com is banned. I'm a fan of that photo-archive website, so I wrote this extension just to help my dear friends who can not access flickr.com from Iran.

According to the description the extension

Bypasses the flickr.com filter in Iran, UAE, Saudi Arabia, China and other banned countries and places...

Fortunately we don't need to download this (yet) but what is to keep these governments from just banning access to Firefox Extensions?

A Memphis blogger apparently received inside information from the police which he published on his blog. Is he entitled to a journalist's shield? Should Randy watch this case with interest?

Link...

Perfect launch execution, Shuttle Atlantis has just entered Earth orbit...

It's been a long time coming, and the road has been rocky, but Tesla production car #1 has been delivered to company chairman Elon Musk. Photos at link to Treehugger.

There's still a long journey ahead for Telsa to become successful and toward making plug-in electric vehicles practical, but this is a major milestone. Congratulations to Tesla and to its former employees who helped realize this achievement!

A cool new hyper-local video website has launched this week called KnoxTube.

It's a free video upload/sharing site with a local focus and flavor. There's even a KnoxViews channel in case any of y'all are interested in doing some video blogging.

From their About page:

KnoxTube is Knoxville's first serious video sharing community, covering Knoxville, Farragut, Chattanooga -- in fact, all of East Tennessee. How many times have you searched your favorite video sharing Web site for a local video, only to give up in frustration? KnoxTube is owned and operated by East Tennesseans for East Tennesseans. We're taking the video sharing concept one step further and providing a central place for users to find videos about the area, events that take place here, and so on, across more than a dozen categories or channels.

Check it out at www.KnoxTube.com.