Beware of scammers

My client brought this Asian domain name scan to my attention this morning. Emails like this (bottom)certainly catch you off guard. The scammers are getting smarter and smarter.

Upon first inspection this actually appears somewhat legit, but there are a few factors that prevents me from replying - like it is:

• No company name
• web url in signature does not work
• What registrar actually researches domains in the name of company branding and turns down sales? None!

After 5 minutes more research we discovered it was definitely a scam. Take a look at the link below:
http://tim.safitech.com/2008/07/asian-domain-name-fraud-warning/

If you want to protect against scammers, talk to me or your web designer about private registration.


Here is the original email:

(If you are NOT CEO,please forward this to your CEO, because this is very urgent.)

 Dear CEO,

We are the department of Asian Domain registration service in china, have something to confirm with you. We formally received an application on February 22. 2010,one company which self-styled "Fed Investments Co., Ltd" were applying to register "yourdomainname" as Network Brand and following domain names:

yourdomainname.asia
yourdomainname.cn
yourdomainname.com.cn
yourdomainname.com.hk
yourdomainname.com.tw
yourdomainname.hk
yourdomainname.in
yourdomainname.net.cn
yourdomainname.org.cn
yourdomainname.tw

 After our initial checking, we found the brand name were similar to yours, so we need to check with you whether you has authorized that company to register these names. If you authorized this, we will finish the registration at once. If you did not authorize, please let us know within 7 workdays, so that we will handle this issue better. Out of the time limit we will unconditionally finish the registration for "Fed Investments Co., Ltd".

Best Regards,

Nicholas Lee

Senior Consultant

Room520,Unit A,International Shoes City,No.1775 CaoAnRoad,Jiading District,Shanghai,China

 Postal Code: 201824

Tel : +86-21-69106-991
Fax : +86-21-69106-670

P Please consider the environment before you print this e-mail.

Anthem Blue Cross Raising Rates Up to 39%

We hear all the time about rising health care costs, but this really takes the cake.

I believe in free enterprise. Everyone has the right to make a profit. However, to raise rates this high in a time of financial turmoil should be no more legal than the price of goods raising in a time of crisis. (Think Katrina)

Blue Cross has just announced that it's immediately raising premiums charged to hundreds of thousands of individual customers by as much as 39% -- even though their parent company's profits soared to a record $4.7 billion last year.

Even worse, the insurer has so far refused to explain why they're increasing their rates, and warned that they might do so again this year without warning. I wonder how the CEO can sleep at night raising rates this high in a time of financial turmoil.

The Obama administration is demanding answers from Anthem Blue Cross, and Congress has opened an investigation. But Blue Cross is only going to respond if this story becomes a major public-relations problem for them.

So it's time to turn up the heat. I just signed a petition calling for an explanation from Blue Cross -- will you join me? Click here to sign the Anthem Blue Cross Petition.

Thanks!

-teakettica

Designers! Get over your hate of IE

I get into this a lot. Is Internet Explorer terrible? Truthfully, it's irrelevant — it's the #1 browser.

I get into debates on whether or not it's even the #1 browser. I say yes, according to Wikipedia and a lot of other sources. Some swear by w3schools.com, like my twitter buddy @pissmeoffand, (after all, it does come up #1 on Google. coincidence... probably not), but if you look in the fine print, it states: These statistics are based on W3Schools users.

Wikipedia takes the data from 6 reliable stat services. There is a discrepancy between the two sites, but honestly, I'm more inclined to go with the majority on this one, and all say that IE leads by quite a bit. Some designers are down right shocked that IE is the #1 browser. Why? It's been that way for over 5 years and Windows is still the best selling OS out there, of which IE is packaged.

So, it's probable that w3schools.com stats don't match the others because a lot of developers do in fact hate IE. Again, totally moot.

But, for the sake of conversation, let's assume w3schools.com is right and that IE is the #2 browser.

If you're a front or back end developer, and you don't design for the #2 browser, and yes, I've seen sites simply not work at all, you're alienating almost 40% of users. This isn't good for your client's SEO and their users certainly can't get their information. Of course, if you're targeting designers and you know that most of them are on Firefox, you may be able to get away without optimizing for IE.

Honestly, it's a mistake either way. If you hate IE, get over it. This is business; it's not personal. Design for your client's target audience and be sure your design can be viewed decently across all the major browsers.

Happy designing!

Simplify

Here are a few of my favorite quotes of all time, from Henry David Thoreau:

"Be true to your work, your word, and your friend."
~ Henry David Thoreau

"Do not be too moral. You may cheat yourself out of much life. Aim above morality. Be not simply good; be good for something."
~ Henry David Thoreau

"Our life is frittered away by detail. Simplify, simplify."
~ Henry David Thoreau

I think the last one is my favorite of all time, and absolutely applies to design of all types.

Simplify.

New website launched: Interiors Revisited, servicing areas in and around Newark and Wilmington Delaware

We launched a new website today for an interior design company, Interiors Revisited. It was such a pleasure!

www.interiorsrevisited.com

With matching business cards to boot!