We have a lot of fun on this blog.  In between bringing you the latest tech news, we have our chuckles at some of the more obscure and humorous happenings in the world of the web. 

But there’s nothing fun about war.  It’s easy to forget–being so far removed from the situation ourselves–that American soldiers are risking their lives on a daily basis.  One of Eric’s friends, a Major in the National Guard, recently mentioned the regular need his troops have for the everyday comforts of home.  Stuff like playing cards, DVDs, and headache medicine are often in short supply for deployed soldiers, but can go quite a long way toward improving morale.  Hearing this inspired us. 

So we’re kicking off the Keystone Collection Drive for the Troops.  We’re asking our clients and readers of this blog to find something on the list below that they can purchase.  We’ll collect donated items here in our office through the month of November–and we’ll come pick them up if you’d like as well (for you Nashville businesses, that is).  Then we’re going to box it all up and send it over to the Major to distribute to his battalion.  If enough of us participate in just a tiny way, we’ll have a lot of “the comforts of home” to send. 

The Major has even promised to send us an update after the shipment, to let us know how everything was used. 

So if you have a spare few dollars on your next shopping trip, consider picking up one of the many inexpensive items below.  Ship it to us, drop it off, or let us come pick it up.  You’ll be happy you did.  Help us make some soldiers’ lives just a tad better for even just a little bit.

Here’s the list:

• International Phone Cards

• Playing Cards & Chips

• Batteries (AA/AAA ONLY)

• Nerf Balls

• Movies (DVD’s)

• Twin Sheet sets

• SEC football stuff (Especially with this battalion, I.E. UT)

• Pillows

• NASCAR stuff

• Towels/ Wash clothes

• Gloves & Baseballs (They really need baseballs)

• Blankets

• Frisbee

• Stress Balls

• Body Wash /Soap

• Game System Games (Xbox, Playstation, etc.)

• Body/Foot Powder

• USB thumb/Jump drives

• Baby Powder (Including Gold Bond)

• Shaving Cream (non-aerosol)

• Puzzle books (SODUKU, CROSSWORD)

• Reading material

• Q-tips/Cotton Balls

• Moist wipes/Clorox wipes

• Pens (black ink)

• Eye Drops/Eye Wash

• Blank CD’s/DVD’s

• Aspirin/Tylenol/Motrin

• Antacids/Diarrhea meds. (The soldiers have a LTD #)

• Powered Drinks (single serving) (CRYSTAL LITE)

• Crackers & Easy cheese

• Coffee/Cold tea bags/Hot Chocolate (BIG TIN OF COFFEE)

• Chex & Trail Mix

• Slim Jim’s

• Beef Jerky

• Cookies

• Snack Crackers

• Nuts

• Breakfast Bars/Pop tarts

• Snack size Fruit /Pudding cups

• Granola/Power Bars

• Salsa, Dry

• Individual Chips (snack size & Pringles)

• Sunflower seeds

• Hard candy/Gum (GUMMIES/GUM )

• Sugar & sweet-n-low (individuals) (SPLENDA)

• Peanut Butter/Jelly

• Dried Fruit

• Movie theater candy boxes (the troops love these!)

• 2 pronged electrical cords

• Copies of sports magazines or magazines worth reading (can be previous month)

How do you pick the perfect password?

(Here’s a hint:  Don’t use your first name, or the word “password”).

Yahoo Tech has put together a nice roundup of articles they’ve featured regarding password security.  Most of us know not to write down our passwords for email, programs, and other online accounts.  A post-it note on your computer screen with your password is not the most secure method of remembering it. 

However, most people go too far the other direction.  They know they need to keep their password private and in their memory, so they end up choosing something easy to remember.  Problem is, most hackers have learned how to guess the “easy to remember” passwords. 

Here’s a list of the 10 most common passwords.  If your password is on that list…change it immediately. 

They also have an article on how to properly choose a safe password.  It’s full of great ideas such as using words that are easy to pronounce, but are spelled wrong (like “piktshure”). 

Here’s a great round-up of all sorts of general password safety tips. 

It’s pretty depressing to read that, given enough time, a hacker can figure out any password.  But that’s all the more reason to make it as tough for the hackers as we can.  Hopefully, they’ll move on to another person who hasn’t put as much effort into creating a secure password. 

Google has a little page up patting themselves on the back for stopping so much spam–rightfully so, I guess.  The article mentions that 70% of all incoming mail to Gmail accounts is SPAM.  Wow.  That’s quite a lot.  But thankfully for Gmail users, only 1% of that SPAM gets through to the user. 

What’s strange to me is why Google wouldn’t mention Postini.  After all, it is Postini’s revolutionary SPAM filtering system that is catching all these unwanted messages. 

Then again, Google owns Postini–bought them for $625 Million back in July–so I suppose they can give or take credit for Gmail’s SPAM filtering as they see fit.

How does all this apply to you?  Well, you may or may not remember that Keystone offers Postini service to our clients at a very reasonable price.  As the stats from the Gmail article show–it is an extremely powerful tool in the fight against SPAM.  If you spend even 10 minutes a day going through your email to weed out the SPAM from the real messages you need, that is equivalent to an entire week over the course of a year.  Think about that.  What would it be worth for you and your employees to have one more week per year of actual work time?  Whatever that number is, Postini is less than that.  Check out our website to learn more, or give us a shout and we’ll be glad to talk about it further. 

CNN has a helpful article today called “Tuning in to your Wired Teen.”  As those of you with teenagers surely know by now, this generation’s young people are plugged in and “wired” in ways you probably don’t comprehend. 

They’ve grown up with the internet, text messaging, and other technologies that we adults are still struggling to comprehend.  For some parents, it is apparently a difficult generation gap to bridge.

The article closes with a nice little list of tips for parents hoping to connect a little better with their teen’s internet habits and tech gear. 

It’s just like when I was a kid and my parents couldn’t comprehend my newfangled compact discs. 

Of course, if you’re reading this…then you’re already aware of the internet. 

Have you heard of Facebook?  Your college kids have.  It’s the MySpace competitor that started out as a social networking site for college students.  Last year, Facebook opened up to include anyone and everyone and has since grown to 47 Million users (compared to MySpace’s 110 Million users). 

Rumors swirled this week that both Microsoft and Google were in talks to fund a hefty investment in Facebook that would include a minority stake in the site.  Looks like Microsoft won this round, with an investment of $240 Million. 

Facebook is rumored to be worth nearly 15 Billion–not bad for a company that is barely four years old.  This is a significant step in the life of Facebook (as well as in the war for web dominance between Microsoft and Google).

Remember those hacked iPhones that became expensive paperweights when Apple sent out an update?  And tons of users who had installed unofficial software on their iPhones found the gadgets useless?  That’s going to be a non-issue soon.  In fact, Apple appears to have done a complete about face on their stance that no one should “hack” the product, announcing that they will open the iPhone to third party developers. 

In February, the company will release a “software development kit” to third party developers that will allow for the creation of applications that will work on the iPhone.  Apple, who had been heavily criticized for keeping the phone locked to outside developers, believes the move will only encourage a more vibrant iPhone community and help them sell more of them. 

Another major gripe users have had–that the iPhone is only able to be used with AT&T’s wireless service–goes unanswered:  the iPhone will continue to be AT&T-only…for now. 

Google continues to have more money than you–or anyone, for that matter–as their 3rd Quarter profits rose nearly 50%.  Having recently passed the $600-per-share mark, their stock continues to climb. Their market value is over $200 Billion, which makes them worth more than pretty much any web-based company except for Microsoft (which, it should be noted, began operations when the founders of Google were still in diapers). 

What has caused Google to continue surging?  Most analysts suggest it has a lot to do with how the company stretches itself.  After establishing dominance in the field of search, Google has rolled out products and services almost constantly, including online office tools (like word processing, spreadsheets, and presentation software), email (Gmail), advertising, and much more.  Rumors even abound that there will soon be a Google Phone hitting the market to compete with Apple’s iPhone. 

If you own Google stock, good for you.  You should be dancing.  If not…it’s never too late to start, since the company shows no signs of slowing. 

HealthVault is a new venture from Microsoft that aims to create a place where health data can be stored and managed without the fear of data leaks. 

Google has long been planning a similar project, and online health data is poised to be the next big battleground between the two technology giants. 

From the article:

“Microsoft’s HealthVault lets people stockpile records such as blood tests, vaccinations and medical history and control access to select portions of the data to health care providers. ‘Our focus is simple: to empower people to lead healthy lives,’ said Microsoft health solutions group vice president Peter Neupert.”

I’m not really crazy about putting my personal health information online just yet, mostly because it sounds like the kind of thing that’s going to immediately be a favorite target of identity theives and hackers.  And Google already knows so much about me simply from the data they mine from the Google toolbar and usage of their search engine…I’m not sure I want them to know what medication I’m on and where my aches and pains are.  However, there is clearly a benefit to the consumer to be able to view, manage, and transmit your medical records online; and Microsoft (and Google) are claiming they are developing secure systems that will guard and protect your health data. 

The RIAA has won a their lawsuit against a woman accused of illegally sharing 24 songs online.

Jammie Thomas, a 30-year-old single mother from Minnesota, must now pay more than $220,000.  She had been offered an initial settlement, and could have paid just a few thousand dollars to get off the hook.  But Ms. Thomas decided to fight the lawsuit and took it to court.  That ends up being a lot more expensive for her. 

Thomas’ case  is just the first of 26,000 similar lawsuits to go to court.  Something tells me that about 25,999 people just broke out in a cold sweat.   

Quick math for you:  the fine works out to $9,250 per song shared. 

Microsoft has Internet Explorer.  Mozilla has Firefox.  Apple has Safari.

And now, finally catching up to the pack, Miss America has released her own internet browser, called the “Miss America Kid-Safe Web Browser.” 

I know many of you have been anxiously awaiting a web-browsing experience brought to you by the winner of a beauty contest, and now your wait is over.

But seriously, the Miss America Kid-Safe Web Browser is two products in one:  a web-filtering system that keeps the bad content away from your kids eyes, and a marketing tool for the pageant. 

A bit about the filtering:

“The browser permits access to 10,318 Web sites, all of which were prescreened and determined to be kid-friendly by the Miss America Organization and the Children’s Educational Network, which developed the software for it. It has a feature enabling parents to lock the computer and prohibit Internet access with any other browser, and it lets parents add sites to the approved list.”

And regarding what I’m calling the marketing angle:

When a surfing session begins, the theme song “There she is, Miss America” plays as an animated version of Nelson walks forward on the screen in a gown, complete with a tiara that glistens every few seconds. The image floats around the screen as her arm and hand do the sweeping pageant wave.

“Hi, it’s your Miss America, Lauren Nelson,” the image says. “Let’s hang out and surf the Web!”

Try going to an unapproved site, and the animated Nelson gently rebukes, “This Web site is not on the master list. Please ask Mom or Dad to add this site for you.”

She also offers reminders like “Don’t forget to e-mail your parents now and then!” She also gushes, “I love getting e-mail!” or “Great! No spam!” when the e-mail icon is clicked.

The browser is available as a free download at this website.

I’m all for Miss America doing what she can to help keep kids safe online, but I’m not terribly crazy about a browsing session hosted by an animated beauty queen.  But I suppose I’m not the target audience for this one.