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Since the cost of sending email is pretty much free, especially when bots do it for you on compromised machines, spam email will continue to be a nuisance. According to MAAWG, the Messaging Anti-Aubuse Working Group, in a study they did called "A Look at Consumers’ Awareness of Email Security and Practices or "Of Course, I Never Reply to Spam – Except Sometimes," 1 in 6 people are interested in the offers they receive from spam.

1 in 6 is more than enough people keep the spam coming. Spam is here to stay!

For the full report go here: http://www.maawg.org/about/publishedDocuments/2009_MAAWG-Consumer_Survey-Part1.pdf

Recently I decided to add a double din GPS unit to my 2004 Dodge Ram. This is not normally a hard thing to do but the 2004 Dodge Ram is only made to fit a single din. Follow these steps at your own risk. I assume no responsibility. Do your own research and you know what you will be getting into.

What you will need:

Dremel
Replacement Bezel (not required)
Bondo
Rough to fine sandpaper
Spray paint
Plummer’s Floss

I wont go into the particular unit I installed in the truck or how to wire it because it is pretty easy to figure out. The first thing I suggest, although not required, is to buy a replacement bezel incase you ruin yours. I found one for $50 on ebay. If you ruin yours, you should be able to buy a replacement from the dealer but it will be pricey.

The first step, is to buy your double din stereo and see if it will fit in the area where your stereo goes. I think a 1 and 1/2 din unit will fit with no modification to your truck. If it fits, no modification is necessary to the dash. If however, your double din does not fit, you will have to cut away some excess plastic so it will fit with your Dremel.

As soon as you can snugly fit your stereo in place, you will want to use plummer’s floss or some sort of bracket to mount your unit in place. As soon as you know you can get your unit in the place you want, go ahead and wire it up if you want to. My suggestion would be to buy a $5 wire harness adapter so you don’t have to cut your truck’s factory plug and can easily plug or un-plug your unit.

Now it is time to measure or eyeball if you are me, and cut out space for your unit. I held my plastic bezel over the unit about 10 times cutting and shaving off plastic a little bit at a time making sure not to cut too much with your Dremel. You might want to tape off where you need to cut.

Once you are satisfied you have cut enough plastic or cut too much, it is time to get messy with Bondo. You may have noticed there is some spare space on the left and right side of the unit with the bezel installed. Before moving to the Bondo, I cut away some plastic and used plastic resin to glue them into the sides.

Ok now Bondo. Just get some Bondo at your local Lowe’s or Home Depot and get ready to have some patience. If you have never experienced Bondo before, you must know you have to act quick and it will probably take you many applications to get the shape you want. You may even get to the point where you think you are finished, sand it, and find you have to add more because of a bubble. As long as you mix it correctly, (instructions are on the box) the Bondo will harden really quickly. If you have to add a lot of Bondo to one area and it wont stay in place before hardening, you can tape cardboard in place to hold it.

Once you feel you have the desired shape, time to get sanding. I would first cut away any access Bondo, sand the excess, and make sure it fits. If you don’t like the shape, add more Bondo making sure all dust is gone before applying it. As you can see, this took me many times before I got it where I wanted it. I also could have kept going to perfect it more but I got to a certain point where I was satisfied.

When you are ready for final Sanding I suggest this is where you put your effort. I did not mention this earlier but it is important to make sure your Bondo is dried and hard before sanding. Start with rough paper and move to very fine. My final sanding ended up with a sponge.

Once you have finished sanding, time to paint. At first, I decided to go with a glossy color but my horrible sanding stood out so I decided to go with a flat black. You also may have to paint the whole bezel in case you nicked a part or sanded an un-intended area.

The original Gray I decided to use looked great when painting but from the driver’s seat, some minor imperfections showed up and I went with a flat black which turned out much better. If you want to go with a glossy color, make sure your sanding is good. Finally, the finished product is below (not flat black) I’ll add that picture later.

Tell me what you think.

Greg

****Update 02/15/2010. I decided to paint the whole thing flat black. I found there were much less visual defects you could see with my bad sanding this way.

All you need is $250, a one time fee for the equipment, and you have free phone service for the rest of you life, that is if the company stays in business that long. Ooma is a pretty revolutionary device that uses your internet connection to make regular phone calls. The amazing difference that Ooma has over many of the other VoIP phone systems is that it is built to use the infrastructure in your house. The only important thing you must have in order for Ooma to work well is a decent high speed internet connection.

The installation is easy, you put the Ooma main device between your internet modem and your router or computer and also between a telephone jack and your phone. The connection from the Ooma hub to you phone jack is only necessary if you want to use the other phones in your house with Ooma. That’s right, you can  use any of your other phones in your house with Ooma. A little device called the Ooma scout is required but for every other phone jack that you want a phone on. Ooma will work with your existing phone number or you can eliminate the monthly bill from the phone company and port your number to Ooma. I have high hopes of Ooma to survive because they have a great business model with tons of extra features they call Ooma Premier and you get them for free for 60 days with your purchase.

Here is what you get with basic plan:

• Ooma Hub and Scout.

• Unlimited U.S. calling.

• Caller ID, call waiting, and voicemail.

• Low cost international rates.

• Hear voicemail not only from the unit but also from a web site.

• More little features here and there

Here is what you get with the Premier plan:

• Everything above.
• Instant second line, yes you can be on the phone and someone else can pick up a phone and make a call.
• Three way conferencing
• Message screening (works just like a traditional answering machine).
• Send to voicemail.
• Voicemail forwarding to email so you can listen to messages from email.
• Do not disturb
• Personalize a second number on all Ooma devices or one specific one.
• Private voicemail.
• Customer rings for callers.

I have been very happy with my purchase of the Ooma phone system. It was very easy to setup and configure. I got mine on Amazon.

Given some recent events, I decided to get a camera system. For the low price of $700 found at Costco.com (at the time of this writing), I feel I have had good enough results with the Q-see QSD6209 9 channel DVR System. As far as functionality, this thing is far from professional but is good enough for a one day project for any DIY’er.

First the good:

• Price – $700 for a 9 camera DVR system is a great price
• Bigger Hard Drive – I called Q-see to see if I could upgrade the standard 250GB drive and they said yes. I popped open the box and swapped the SATA drive with a 500GB with no problem. Once the system booted, it formatted the drive and I was ready to go. The person from Q-see did tell me the max was 500GB so I am not sure about anything higher.
• Long 60 foot cables (I actually had to pick up 3 50 foot extensions which was easy and cheap.
• VGA, BNC, RCA USB, or web for viewing the video.
• Home alarm system hook up.
• Availability to upgrade to motion sensors.
• Night Vision camera.
• Color cameras

Now the bad:

• The web interface is horrible and most people wont use it. Their software is not signed by Microsoft so it wont install from the web interface unless you turn off your Active X security controls. Just take care of that Q-See!
• Did seem to freeze or at the remote was not responsive at one time

Honestly, it is a great price to deter theft and catch some punks doing pranks in the act. Other people might want to consult a professional but for the DIY person, this kit is perfect.

You can pick up yours at Costco.com

Been busy lately! I wiill be writing about some product reviews and showing off some cool projects soon. Stay tuned…

Because fraud is so rampant on ebay, many ebay sellers are requiring their buyers to confirm their address so that they will be covered by ebay and Paypal’s Seller Protection Policy. But what does this mean? This is ebay and Paypal’s way of verifying your identity. The system they have built covers the seller in the event of fraud and they buyer gets some other benefits too.

So how as an ebay buyer do you do this? Generally, you add your bank account to Paypal, Paypal sends you two small deposits, and you then report back the deposits. It is not full proof but it must have good enough success for ebay to support it.

As an ebay Seller, I have had Paypal tell me that someone fraudulently stole one of my buyer’s account to buy something from me. When this happens, I am liable and Paypal will always reverse the transaction taking the money out of my account but since I shipped it to the address given in Paypal and they had a confirmed address, they covered it and did not take the funds from me.

Had I not followed ebay and Paypal’s rules and the buyer’s address was not confirmed, they would have taken the money from me end of story. Im pretty sure if you add your bank account to Paypal as a buyer, you get coverage in the even that the seller is fraudulent.

As a buyer or seller, you will run across someone who will try to rip you off. If you are going to sell or buy on ebay, please read ebay’s policies before buying or selling anything. Many people jump right in and get ripped off right away. Others who are more cautious, get through without ever getting ripped off because of ebay’s policy.

It is not your fault and it is easy to do, but getting you identity stolen via a fake email is a serious issue. Unfortunately, we live in a world where their people are evil and prey upon the good and unsuspecting. Most people may know by now but if you have not heard, you can get fake or spoofed emails from a spammer that leads to a fake financial institution or some other scheme in an attempt to steal your personal information or gain access to your bank account. To help prevent yourself from getting your identity stolen, I have compiled a simple list of rules to follow.

• Assume all from anyone you don’t know is bogus and fake
• Assume all email from any financial institution is fake
• Do not click any links in email

On another note, you should turn off the html preview in email so you don’t get a virus but that is a story for another day.

If you receive an email from you bank or financial institution, it could be real but there is a good chance it is fake. Usually, they will say your account is about to be canceled and to click a link to fix or update your information. The email will look just like it was from you bank and the link will take you to a site that looks just like you bank but it is not. when you log in, they phishing is done. You just gave your username and password to your bank and now they are free to drain your account. Some really bad and obvious links will ask you to update your information while asking for your name, address, drivers license number, birthday, and social. Sadly, do not trust anything of this nature from your email. If there is a problem with your bank, go directly to their web site by typing the web address in your browser. Obviously, if there is a problem, your financial institution will tell you.

If you think you are a victim of identity theft, here are some steps as they are found on the ftc.gov website.

• Try to document and make a record of as much as you can regarding the theft.
• Place a fraud alert on your credit report. Get the info below.
• Notify the companies who own the accounts that have been compromised. If your American Express info was stolen, call American Express immediately
• Close the accounts that have been compromised
• File a complain with the Federal Trade Commission. Use the online complaint form or call 877-ID-THEFT
• File a report with your local police department (in the place that the theft took place)

Equifax: 1-800-525-6285; www.equifax.com; P.O. Box 740241, Atlanta, GA 30374-0241

Experian: 1-888-EXPERIAN (397-3742); www.experian.com; P.O. Box 9532, Allen, TX 75013

TransUnion: 1-800-680-7289; www.transunion.com; Fraud Victim Assistance Division, P.O. Box 6790, Fullerton, CA 92834-6790

Again the steps and more details are from the ftc.gov web site found here

Yes that is right, that thing your kids buy music on is now 5 years old. Introduced today back in 2003, iTunes and iPods have developed and shaped people, Apple as a company, and much more. iTunes has taken the world by storm so much, you will often see references to iTunes in TV shows or animated comedys. With sales rising to the top as the number 1 online music seller, I must say well done Apple. Happy birthday iTunes.

If you need at a minimum, weekly dose of tech news and commentary, please tune in to KFI am 640 talk radio on the weekends from 11 am to 2 pm for Leo Laporte The Tech Guy. If you cant tune in your radio, you get the stream from KFI at KFI640.com, or twit.tv/live which will soon be twitlive.tv.

Leo is amazing at helping people learn and solve everyday technical problems an average user might have. The show may sometimes get geeky, but is made for an audience that may or may not know anything about tech. Leo has been a source of inspiration for me and I hope for you too.

Leo also creates too many to count, podcasts that release just about every day. Check out twit.tv for getting any of his shows delivered to you via RSS or iTunes.