Welcome to Smuggle Me

I recently found one of the most recently popular websites on Wordpress.com called What did Materazzi say to Zidane? Fortunately for me I read, speak and understand Italian and so I was able to read many of the funny descriptions of what Materazzi could have said. It really reminds me of something that David Letterman or Jay Leno would do on their show. I tried to translate the website using Google’s translate, but it didn’t work so good. I think part of it may have to do with all the slang and Italian dialect that is used on the site.

So, I’ll translate a few of the things that Materazzi might have said to Zidane to make Zidane headbutt Materazzi in the World Cup final.

Matt: I have your sister’s name tatoo’d on my chest. Want to see?
Zid:

Matt: Zidane’s mom is in a window in Amsterdam, Amsterdam…Amsterdam
Zid:

I think you have to read most of them in Italian to enjoy. So, all you have to do is learn Italian.

Many corporations are looking at ways to monitor their employees computer usage. I found a great corporate product for computer monitoring called SpectorSoft(http://www.spectorsoft.com).

Here’s an overview of their corporate computer monitoring feature set:

Record, Archive and Review.
Spector CNE (Corporate Network Edition) is Internet monitoring software designed to be installed on any or all PCs on the network, at the touch of a button, from one central location. Once installed, Spector CNE will record all employee Internet and PC activity, automatically archive these recordings to a centralized server and allow you to review the recordings remotely across the network.

Record Everything
Spector CNE automatically captures and lets you review your employees’: emails sent and received, chat conversations and instant messages, files downloaded, removable media transfers, web sites visited, network connections established, applications launched and keystrokes typed. In addition, by taking screen snapshots, Spector CNE creates the equivalent of a digital surveillance tape so that you can see the exact sequence of everything your employees are doing on the computer.

Be Notified as it Happens
Immediate email alerts notify you whenever certain words (and phrases) you specify are typed by the user or are contained in an email, chat, instant message or a web site. (Spector CNE’s email recording is so comprehensive that it covers Outlook, Exchange, AOL, Hotmail, Yahoo and any SMTP/POP3-based architecture.)

Save Money
Spector CNE will save your company money by reducing the amount of time employees waste online. See how much you stand to save by installing Spector CNE on your company network.

Increase Employee Productivity
Implementing a Spector CNE network solution will increase employee productivity, provide a safeguard in the event of inappropriate employee behavior, and protect your company from electronic information leakage. Additionally, Spector CNE can help address the following issues:

• Conduct Investigations on Employees Suspected of Inappropriate Activity
• Increase Employee Productivity
• Eliminate Leaking of Confidential Information
• Recover Lost Crucial Communications (Email, Chat & Instant Messages)
• Assist Help Desk Staff With PC Recovery
• Meet or Exceed Federal, Industry or Agency Compliance Requirements for Keeping Records of Company Communications and Transactions.

Award Winning Technology, Worldwide Recognition
Spector CNE is built on award-winning internet monitoring technology found in the SpectorSoft family of products Spector Pro, eBlaster and Spector for Mac OS. SpectorSoft products have won numerous Industry Leader awards and coverage including: PC Magazine Editors’ Choice in 2002, PC Magazine Editors Choice in 2004, 5 Star highest rating from About.Com, a Feature in Time Magazine’s Cover Story “How to Protect Your Privacy Online”, and dozens of other national stories in newspapers (New York Times, Wall Street Journal), magazines (BusinessWeek, Fortune), and network television (Today Show, CBS Evening News., 20/20).

There is some controversy when it comes to corporate computer monitoring. However, I’m of the opinion that if people have nothing to hide then they won’t have any problem with corporate monitoring.

One other important point for managers that may want to employ corporate computer monitoring is that if you are up front and establish a policy of what you find appropriate and inappropriate then computer monitoring will go better. If you just do it behind their backs or if people aren’t clear what you are monitoring for then it is not fair or a smart idea.

Let the computer monitoring BEGIN!!

I was looking around for some nice web based games to waste some time and I ran across this web based game that I think has been around for a while. However, I had never run into it before so it was new for me. Maybe it will be new for you too.

It is called Hapland. Try it out. Good luck not letting it drive you nuts. I think a lot more games like this could be made and could make a lot of money.

This newbie website(http://electronics.newbie.org) on computers and electronics is greatly needed. Take for example the Digital Cameras and Photography section. This information is needed so that people stop asking me. I think when people ask I’ll just direct them to this website.

I also liked that they reviewed a bunch of different digital cameras like:
Canon PowerShot A80 4MP Digital Camera w/ 3x Optical Zoom
Canon PowerShot A70 3.2MP Digital Camera w/ 3x Optical Zoom
Canon PowerShot S410 4MP Digital Elph with 3x Optical Zoom
Canon PowerShot A300 3.2MP Digital Camera
Fujifilm A210 3.2 MP Digital Camera w/3x Optical Zoom

This is great info since technology changes so fast I don’t think anyone can keep up on all the different technologies.

I can still remember the days that IE and Netscape were duking it out. I honestly liked Netscape better than IE. However, then I left the country for 2 years where I couldn’t do anything on computers. When I got back I was in love with IE and Netscape had dwindled into this non existent not quite a web browser(in my opinion). I decided IE was fine for me and it didn’t make sense to waste my time using Netscape when some websites didn’t support it.

Then, came along Firefox which was all the rave. I tried it and found the same problems with it as I did with Netscape. Some apps didn’t open it and so I’d be using IE anyway. What a pain.

Finally, I tried firefox again and used its tabbed browsing. Now I’m converted to firefox. Tabbed browsing is better and firefox is it for me. At least for now.

I ran across a large set of quotes(http://www.onlinediscountmart.com/quotable-quotes.html). They are nicely grouped into a lot of categories like Birthday Quotes, Inspirational Quotes, Love Quotes, and just about every quote I think possible.

Here’s an example of one of the birthday quotes:

“I’m sixty years of age. That’s 16 Celsius.” George Carlin

I like the birthday ones because they were so funny.

Here’s an example of a post about mothers.

“God could not be everywhere, and so He made mothers.” -Jewish Proverb

That is an oldy, but a goody. Quotes have an interesting affect on you when you read them. I prescribe one quote a day to keep the psychiatrist away.

Maybe I shouldn’t be introducing these websites to all of you out there that have addictions. Too bad. I love this addiction. It’s called Digg and it is a website where different tech news items are posted. Then, the community votes on the items that will be displayed on the main page. It’s amazing the things you’ll find on that site. It’s like Slashdot, with a little bit of life to it not just open source news that many are not interested in.