A lot of the SPAM email you see in your inbox comes from strange email addresses.  I’m sure you’ve noticed some of them. 

Some SPAM even appears to come from your own email address.  If that happens… don’t worry.  We get SPAM messages all the time from ourselves.  It’s often a source of amusement to me, in fact.

As this article points out, the email address that appears in the “from” field has basically nothing to do with where that message really came from.  Sadly, it’s terribly easy to set up a message to appear as though it’s coming from a trusted source.  From the article:

In fact, so-called address spoofing is such a common trick that it’s become a major tool in phishing scams. The hope is that a suspicious recipient will just look at the sender, see it says “admin@ebay.com” or “service@paypal.com,” and assume the message is legitimate. Of course, it’s as phony as a three-dollar bill, and if you click on the links in that message, you’ll be whisked off to a scam website.

Long story short… you should have good antivirus and anti-spyware software running to protect your machine, just in case you ever click on a phony link unsuspectingly. But, in general, getting SPAM messages from yourself doesn’t mean that your account has been compromised. 

Okay, so our Keystone University doesn’t actually offer a Bachelor’s Degree in anything.  But if it did, it would be in the areas of Fun and Eating.  We have a tenured, experienced staff of instructors who basically majored in those areas themselves. 

What is Keystone University?  Well, I sure am glad you asked, because the whole point of writing this post was to tell you about it. 

Keystone University is a free, hour-long class, taught by Keystone Business Solutions professionals.  Each session covers a different topic in the area of technology like “Everything You Need To Know About Search Engines” or “Why Your Company Needs A Blog.” 

We’ll feed you lunch, teach you something useful in a fun way, and we’ll even throw in a free “Keystone University” T-shirt!  Now how can you turn that down? 

If you’d like to learn more about our upcoming classes, or how you can sign up to be a part of one, stroll on over to our official site.  Classes are limited in size due to the fact that only so many people will fit in our conference room, but we’ll gladly reschedule extra classes when the demand is high.  We want to make sure we’re providing the kind of technology advice our clients find useful, so we hope you’ll check it out.  Maybe you have an area of interest we’re not currently covering, and if so… we’d love to hear your suggestions too. 

Hey, no textbooks to buy, no papers, no final exams.  It’s all the good stuff you remember from college, minus the tuition! 

I’m constantly trying to educate my search clients on the benefits of “drilled-down” keyword phrases.  If you own a website that sells porcelain goat figurines, you don’t want to make the single word “goat” your target keyword phrase.  You’ll have a hard time ranking #1 for that.  But if you drill down to the phrase “porcelain goat figurines,” you’ll have a much better chance at owning the search results. 

Well, now there’s some empirical evidence to help support my argument.  ClickZ says that more people use multiple words in their searches.  It breaks down like this:

• Two Word Searches - 31.9%
• Three Word Searches - 27.0%
• One Word Searches - 15.2%
• Four Word Searches - 14.8%

So there you have it.  Not only is it harder to rank for one-word phrases, but it turns out that very few search engine users are even using one-word phrases.  Search users are growing up, tuning in to the power of drilled-down keyword phrases. 

I’ll even give you a little homework to prove this point.  In a few days, after the engines have time to index this very post, go to Google and type in the one-word phrase “goat.”  See if you see this blog anywhere in the rankings (hint:  you won’t).  Then type in “porcelain goat figurines” and see if we come up… I’m betting we do, and probably near the top.  Then let me know in the comments below what you find. 

UPDATE: Less than an hour and 15 minutes later… and this blog post now ranks number one on Google for “porcelain goat figurines.”  So… I think that proves my point to some degree.  It also proves that if I actually had some porcelain goat figurines to sell, I could maybe make some money. 

I went home on my lunch break and what did I find in the breezeway of my apartment building?  Phone books.  Gobs of phone books.  Two books in each bag, and a bag at every door.

Now, I have many issues with this, not the least of which is the fact that I can’t remember having ever asked to receive a new pair of phone books every year.  I know, I know… I work in the technology world and with search engines, so I have more impetus than the average person to completely eschew phone books. 

There isn’t a single thing the phone book can tell me that Google cannot in terms of my local search needs.  Google (and other online search engines) have officially carved a serious piece of the local search pie, which must have the phone book people scrambling for answers.  Kelsey Research even says that more than 50% of Google users have abandoned the phone book altogether, so I must not be alone in my dislike of them.  For me, phone books are just a waste of space…something else for me to find storage space for (and something else for me to throw away every time a new one is delivered to my door unrequested). 

This is basically real-world SPAM–unasked-for junk mail.  But it’s representative of the dwindling power of phone books.  They deliver them to me, unrequested, because they have to.  They have no other way to try and make me use it.  They also promise their advertisers that they’ll get their books in front of a certain number of eyes.  They promise their books have a large number of users, and then they achieve that number of users by putting phone books on every doorstep. 

What about people like me and the other Google users, who not only don’t use them, but get upset about it? 

I’m toying with the notion of simply leaving the books there and seeing how long they’ll stay there before someone else disposes of them for me.  I also toyed with finding someone I could complain to about this, but that would just be wasted breath, I’m afraid.

It reminds me of that Seinfeld episode where Kramer gets so fed up with all the Pottery Barn catelogs he gets that he decides to cut it off at the source:  the post office.  First, he bricks up the inside of his mailbox, but his mail just ends up in Jerry’s box.  So he wanders down to the local branch, where Newman works, and tries to “cancel the mail.”

Postal Employee: “May I help you?”
Kramer: “Yeah, I’d like to cancel my mail.”
Postal Employee: “Certainly. How long would you like us to hold it?”
Kramer: “Oh, no, no. I don’t think you get me. I want out, permanently.”
Newman: “I’ll handle this, Violet. Why don’t you take your three hour break?
Oh, calm down, everyone. No one’s cancelling any mail.”
Kramer: “Oh, yes, I am.”
Newman: “What about your bills?”
Kramer: “The bank can pay ‘em.”
Newman: “The bank. What about your cards and letters?”
Kramer: “E-mail, telephones, fax machines. Fedex, telex, telegrams,
holograms.”
Newman: “All right, it’s true! Of course nobody needs mail.” 

Funny stuff.

Speaking of that, there’s a new startup I should mention, called Earth Class Mail.  Like Kramer, they seek to help you end the viciuos cycle of mail.  Users create an account, and then have their mail forwarded to Earth Class.  They open the mail for you, scan it, and send it to you electronically.  So basically, instead of junk mail, you can get SPAM.  Hooray!  Same junk, different format.   They also shred it after forwarding, I’m told.  It costs a lot of money, certainly more than someone like Kramer could afford, but it might be in your price range.  And there’s no denying the appeal.  I presume you can tell them what kind of mail you have no need for, and eliminate it from what they forward on to you.

Much like a recent post I wrote about the dying business model of cable television, the phone books are going to go away… it’s an eventuality.  That’s why each of the books has their own website where you can search their listings for whatever phone number you want.  But the paper books are just outdated and sad.  Everything is going digital, and I’ll be happy when the day finally arrives that I no longer get unsolicited yellow pages left at my door. 

Look… I’ve been saying for years to anyone that will listen (which, admittedly, hasn’t been a lot of people) that Big Cable is going to die. At least…Big Cable, as we know it, is going to die.

Digital downloads of TV shows and movies are going to kill the basic business model for companies like Comcast, Time Warner, Cox, and all the rest.

Let me explain what I mean. Here’s my set up at home: rabbit ears for local channels and major networks, high-speed Internet service for downloading individual episodes of all my favorite cable-channel shows. Now, instead of paying a monthly fee to Comcast for a hundred channels–many of which I do not use–I pay a small, per-download fee to iTunes or Amazon, and only pay for the content I want.

And virtually all television shows are available online now, some for a fee and some for free.

Once broadband Internet access becomes the norm (if it isn’t already), there is no more need for a set-top box from a cable company. Period. It’s over. The future is in a la carte content.

This is why I’m not surprised at all with the move Comcast made into offering telephone service. They spent the last few years building themselves into a player in the internet service provider industry as well. But actual cable television? Soon to die a wretched death, by my estimation.

And now we have new evidence: Comcast has unveiled a new website called FanCast. FanCast is basically a TV guide mashed together with a video site. They have content deals with all but one major network, and are working on deals with major movie studios. They clearly want FanCast to be your one-stop shop for information and downloads. And so far, that’s fine with me. Go here to check out FanCast.

They have a TON of television shows–full episodes–already available, with promises of more. And the TV shows are free. I guess eventually there will be shows as well as movie downloads that will cost money. Again… fine with me. A la carte, baby!

And this is why a lot of people are saying the HD-DVD versus BluRay war is now over before it’s begun. It’s only a matter of time (years…maybe months) before digital downloads a la carte are the norm. There won’t be a need for a physical disc of any kind, nor a physical “player” to put those discs in. Instead of a DVD in a plastic case, my $15 will buy me a digital copy of that film–at much higher quality, mind you. There are so many benefits to doing it this way, it’s not even funny: no more trips to the store for DVDs, storage space eliminated as a need, higher quality film presentation, less equipment to buy, etc.

This is a very good, bold move by Comcast. They are the first of the big Cable firms to step into this arena, and it’s a signal that they know the days of monthly cable subscribers are numbered. They want to grow this new revenue stream so that when regular cable dies (honestly, probably not for several more years) they won’t have a huge dip in their profits. Smart.

It’s almost enough to make people forget Comcast’s recent not-so-positive headlines, such as the FCC probe into possibly shady restrictions on some customer’s web access, or thelocal Nashville blog for Comcast-haters (people fed up with bad customer service). Almost enough.

If you have broadband, go check out FanCast and watch a TV show, and ask yourself… do you really need to pay those monthly cable fees?

That’s right. Indian automobile manufacturer Tata has announced its newest model, nick-named “The People’s Car,” the Tata Nano will retail for around $2,500.

The Nano is intended not for heavy drivers, but rather for the masses in India who never had a car, but would use it to shuttle to and from work every day.

In fact, the car would officially top out at 75mph, but anything over 45mph would see the thing deteriorate much more rapidly than intended, because they used cheaper parts. I mean, it’s a $2,500 car, for Pete’s sake… how much wear and tear did you think it could handle? I half expect the thing to be made of aluminum foil.

The car would also fail U.S. emissions tests, so put your checkbook away for now. Heck, it’s likely to fail emissions tests in India when that country adopts tougher standards (as they’re expected to within a few years).

From the article:

“Driving the cost-cutting were Tata’s engineers, who in an earlier project questioned whether their trucks really needed all four brake pads or could make do with three. As they built Tata’s new car, for about half the price of the next-cheapest Indian alternative, their guiding philosophy was: Do we really need that?”

Man, do you really want to buy a car whose manufacturer’s philosophy is “Do we really need that”?! I don’t. I mean, I’m as much in favor of cheaper cars as the next guy, but let’s not forget that “you get what you pay for.” I don’t want my surgeon digging around in my body saying “Does he really need that?” Likewise, I sort of like a lot of the features my car has–such as having all four brake pads–even if it cost me 10 times what the Nano would.

So why am I writing about this mega-cheap car if I think it’s such a bad idea? Well, I think it’s a bad idea for me to buy one. And it’s probably a bad idea for you to buy one too. That doesn’t mean it’s a bad idea in principle. There are a lot of folks in India who can now afford transportation, and that’s a good thing.

Also, this car is expected to revolutionize the auto-manufacturing industry…forcing Big Auto to completely reinvent the way they build cars. Consumers are likely to demand cheaper and cheaper vehicles, and car makers are going to meet that need.

Of course, this comes on the heels of GM’s proclamation that self-driving cars will be on the market within 10 years. So we sort of have conflicting ambitions here in the world of car makers. On one end, they’re working feverishly to develop insanely low-priced economy cars for the masses. On the other end, they’re working on robot cars from science fiction movies (and, I’m just guessing here, but I bet those won’t be cheap).

Personally, I’m holding out for the best of both worlds. I want a robot self-driving car whose manufacture built it on the slogan of “do we really need that?” so that it’s super cheap. It’d be like the most flimsy robot car on the road, probably made of cardboard….but hey…it’s a robot car!!

Sony has revealed that they are working on a technology they call TransferJet, and it’s just about the coolest thing I’ve heard in a long time.

TransferJet will allow you to transfer files from your digital camera or mp3 player to your computer (and back again) simply by holding the device in close proximity to the PC. Yeah, it’s the Exxon SpeedPass for your tech gadgets. It’s wireless syncing, and it’s going to make gadget nerds everywhere very happy. No more wires, USB cables, memory cards, or docks.

Just wave your mp3 payer in front of your computer and Presto!… your files are transferred. Geeks everywhere can feel even more like a Jedi, with the simple hand wave to command an army of digital files to do your bidding.

It’s apparently a strong and fast enough connection to allow the transfer of HD video files without any hiccup or problem, which means it can totally handle your digital still photographs too. No word yet on when it will be released, but hopefully it’s soon. The future is now!

Sears is a fine enough store. I don’t have any philosophical issues with them.

At least… not before today.

Seems they started their own MySpace-like social network (apparently they feel that their customers are nothing short of fanatical about all things Sears and that they’ll all leap at the opportunity to join an online community with other Sears afficianados). That’s all well and good, I suppose, except for the fact that signing up for the community somehow installs spyware on your computer. Spyware that tracks your every movement online, including logging in to your online bank account. Yikes!

(Look at the guy in the picture…he’s so giddy about stealing my bank account information!!)

Sears is claiming that they clearly notify customers during the sign-up process, but that’s got to be the thinnest excuse ever. What did it say to notify them, “Hi there, the form your completing actually installs tracking software on your machine that shows us all the sites you visit and your passwords?”

I know Sears is after the same thing every other store is after: demographic data. They want to know what you surf so they can better sell stuff to you (or so they can sell off the data about your habits to marketing companies). But if there isn’t a better way to get that data than this…then Sears should just accept that there’s only so much you’re allowed to know about your customers.

So, unless it’s too late… don’t sign up for the Sears online community. If you already did… well, my condolences. I also wouldn’t do any online banking or anything like that in the near future. (Geez, and people think Wal-Mart is evil!)

I guess I’d better write something about the Netflix/LG television set-top box. The whole free world (wide web) is gushing and oohing and aahing over this new development.

Here’s the scoop: Netflix, which already lets you download content to your PC, would like you to start downloading movies straight to your television. But apparently that’s only possible with another piece of hardware. So they’ve partnered with LG to create a box. This box–once you pay for it–will sit atop your television or entertainment center and will basically be a liaison between your Internet connected Netflix download service and your TV.

I’m sure Netflix is supposing that you’ll then be much more inclined to use the download service, and that helps them make more money. And believe me, if I paid a few hundred dollars for this set-top box, I’d sure as heck be more inclined to use it… just to get my money’s worth.

Problem is, for Netflix, that I’m not going to be buying that box.

First of all, isn’t this the exact same thing as the Apple TV? And isn’t the Apple TV being called one of the biggest failures of 2007, meaning, that hardly anybody bought it?

Secondly, can someone tell me why this box is necessary? I download content to my laptop all the time, and I’m able to watch it on my TV without any kind of magic box. I use a magic cable instead; it’s called a VGA cable. I plug my computer into my TV and just like that my TV becomes my computer monitor, and I’m able to watch my content on it.

I guess that some people don’t have laptops, and if their PC isn’t sitting right next to the TV, they’d have a problem running aVGA cable between the two. Okay, fair enough. But is this seriously the only way we can do this? We have to have an expensive box to make this work? Come on, people, we cracked the gene code! We’re going to send astronauts to Mars for Pete’s sake! We can’t come up with an easier and cheaper way to get our content from the PC to the TV?

Everyone keeps telling me that in the future, the TV and the computer will both be rolled into one piece of equipment. Why don’t we skip this set-top box step and just go straight to that, huh?

People who drive while talking on the phone are most likely to blame for traffic increases, at least according to a new study from the University of Utah.

Even when using a hands-free headset, cell talkers “just don’t keep up with the flow of traffic.” And when they’re a part of commuter traffic clogs, they move at an average of 2mph slower than the average phone-free driver.

From the article:

“The distracted driver tends to drive slower and have delayed reactions,” said Strayer, whose study will be presented later this month to the Transportation Research Board of the National Academy of Sciences. “People kind of get stuck behind that person and it makes everyone pay the price of that distracted driver.”

Cell users, on average, take 3% longer to reach a destination through highly congested traffic. And when you consider that nearly 1 in 10 drivers is talking on the phone, it can add up pretty quickly.

The most alarming thing to me about this survey is that they project the number of cell-chatting commuters at a mere 1 in 10. That, to me, is ridiculously low. Feels like every driver I see on the road is gabbing away, but maybe that’s just my perception. Or maybe I only drive on roads that teenagers drive on.

And I’ll go ahead and tell you that I talk on the phone while I’m driving. So I guess the next time you’re stuck in traffic, you can blame me. Sorry about that. Couldn’t be helped.

Oh, and let’s not forget this recent study that says that people driving while sending text messages cause accidents (Yeah, I know…from the Well, Duh Center for Research & Obvious Findings). What person in their right mind says, “Yeah, I know I’m driving…but I think I’ll send a text message”?! Wouldn’t it be less distracting and use fewer of your hands to simply call that person you’re texting…considering you need at least some of your appendages to operate the vehicle?

What I want to see is a study about how much traffic congestion is caused by people who put on makeup while they drive… or people flipping through their CD storage case while driving. I guess this study could just as well read “people who carry on conversations with their passengers while driving cause traffic congestion” because the real problem is that their not focused on driving… they’re laughing at something Billy said in the back seat. Driving, of all things, is the worst candidate for multitasking. I, for one, am calling for an immediate ban on doing anything while driving except for the driving itself. I know, I know…it’s a revolutionary idea.