WELCOME TO LIFE IN THE FAST LANE!
Tuesday, May 22, 2007
My Blogging Experience
Saturday, May 19, 2007
Shopping for a GPS...
Thursday, May 17, 2007
Identity Theft - Be Cautious!
Our most unique feature in life is our personal identity. Wikipedia defines personal identity as "an individual's comprehension of him or herself as a discrete, separate entity". Many things we loose in life can be easily replaced, but how does one repair the loss of their own personal identity?
Advances in technology affect different product, services and industries in different ways. The information highway has revolutionized the financial services industry. Unfortunately, with unlimited options for exchanging information electronically, criminal minds have tapped into this, resulting in a huge increase in identity theft.
In Canada in 2006, 7778 cases of identity theft were reported to the RCMP totalling losses of $16,283,776.91. The RCMP define identity theft as - "involves stealing, misrepresenting or hijacking the identity of another person or business and provides an effective means to commit other crimes". Most often these crimes are typically for financial gain. The RCMP are attempting to educate the public with an informative video. The Federal Government of Canada also provides numerous resources for consumers on identity theft.
Phonebusters, the Canadian Anit-Fraud Call Centre gives us the following advice on identity theft; recognize it, report it and stop it. If something seems to good to be true, it probably is! Be wary of scams and if in doubt, report your doubts to phonebusters!
Another safeguard for piece of mind is the fact that identity theft insurance can be added to your home insurance by most major insurance companies for a small fee.
The most important advice all parties seem to agree on is to take time and educate yourself via the available resources so you are able to recognize, report, and stop identity theft!
Sunday, May 13, 2007
Lassie Come Home!
Saturday, May 12, 2007
Drive Safely With Your Cell Phone
Transport Canada's "Road Safety Vision 2010" is targeting a decrease of 30% in the average annual number of road users killed or seriously injured during the 2008–2010 period compared with 1996–2001. Research for this vision studied Rural Canada Cell Phone Use by Province or Territory as well as rural seatbelt use.
Reed Berry "The Traffic Guy" sums up driver responsibility and gives us cell phone safety tips to drive by. Take a moment, read his tips, and practise cell phone safety!
Friday, May 11, 2007
Bright Idea...Go Green!
Our advances in technology have definitely increased our energy consumption. Computer technology and communication devices use a tremendous amount of electricity... to operate, as well as constant recharging of everything from cell phones, laptops to MP3 players
Canadians currently produce 700 megatonnes of greenhouse gases per year. The biggest contributors to greenhouse gases are coal for electricity and oil for transportation and heating fuel.
The main causes behind climate change are greenhouse gases, deforestation, farming, tar sands, electricity production and heating. FLICK OFF is a movement to fight climate change by getting people to use less energy. Flick Off want us to think about our lifestyles, our habits and save our planet by making changes in our everday habits to fight global warming.
Turn off those old lightbulbs! Go green with energy efficient compact fluorescent light bulbs. Depending on the size of lightbulb you can save from $35 to $45 per year per bulb. Energy efficient lighting uses 50 - 80% less energy than incadenscents. Replacing a single incandescent bulb with a CFL will keep a half-ton of CO2 out of the atmosphere over the life of the bulb.
Recycle!
Treasure our natural resources!
Save our environment take the pledge!
Join the Flick Off Movement!
Hi-Tech Seniors...dedicated to Mum & Dad
Many studies show that one of the fastest growing groups of internet users are seniors.
The top Internet activities among seniors who go online: 93% of wired seniors have used email; 58% have gotten hobby information online; 55% have read the news online; 53% have searched for health and medical information online; 53% have browsed the Web "just for fun"; and 53% have checked weather updates, according to Whotspot WiFi Solutions, an American Wi-Fi service provider.
Our Federal Government Public Health Agency of Canada provides seniors with Fact Sheets on Technology with information on such topics as; telecommunications, banking, computing, health care and technology safety. These resources provide a wealth of information to educate seniors with questions on technology.
Now if there was only a technological means for my mother to email me one of her home made donuts to have with my coffee as I work on my computer!