rayzoredge

The company works like this, simply put: AmeriPlan sells discount plans for health, dental, ID theft, and automotive, and soon they will be offering veterinarian services and others as well. Each plan is a monthly subscription between $14.95 and $59.95 a month, and plans are also stackable, meaning that you can combine plans to create your own discount plan to fit your lifestyle and save as much as you can. Also, AmeriPlan has its subscription fees to be an IBO, which is a straight $50 per month. There are also one-time non-refundable registration fees for discount plans, typically $30 per plan except for the Dental Plus plan, which is $20. All this, and factor in all the customers they have, and you have a decent sizable capital. The company has been around for 17 years (since 1992) so I don't think they're doing too badly. But with all this money come expenses. I'm sure that AmeriPlan has to pay providers money for the discounts that members save FROM the providers... which I'm sure are fixed rates paid out whether customers utilize the discount plans at their businesses or not. That way, businesses and providers actually have the incentive of becoming part of the network. I have no idea what AmeriPlan pays out to providers... that's something someone in the business sector that is part of the AmeriPlan network would have to tell us. The IBO part of the company is on a per-individual basis where the "employees" make money on commissions and future-generation sales. For every sale that an IBO makes, he or she makes 30% of the price tag on that sale. He or she also earns a smaller percentage for every IBO he or she recruits under her wing AND an even smaller percentage for IBOs recruited by those IBOs... all in multi-marketing fashion. This still leaves a sizable amount of sales profit to fund AmeriPlan's capital, even after paying all of those IBOs. But remember, every IBO is trying to sell discount plans, so they essentially have employees working for them or at least spreading the word. That, in a nutshell, is how the company works. Now, for your trust, you're going to have to do your own research to draw that personal conclusion. I've already provided links, facts, and concepts to let you know and choose whether this company is trustworthy or not. With the added facts of being around for 12 years and that they are part of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which means that they have NEVER had a legal dispute, I think you're safe there. Like I said before, it doesn't hurt to be a skeptic. Hell, I was a skeptic about this too. But the concept works, and the history is there. Really, you have to spend money, time, and effort to make money... there really isn't a way to just sit on your butt at home and hope that money comes your way. You could do something like this or you could also make a site on Xisto for "free," but you still end up spending your time and effort in making posts here, then spending time and effort making your website, then try to make money by putting up advertisements that LEAD people AWAY from your website and/or offer your services, and now you have the added problems of trying to find a way to make yourself prominent for free... I'm sure it's been done, but I think that things would be much easier if you actually bought some business cards, put up some flyers, purchase SEO services to make sure that you are being seen most prominently out of the million other folks trying to do the same thing you're doing for free... you see where I'm going with this? I don't know how old you are, but there are a few people on Xisto that are younger than 16-18 and I can understand that they can't exactly afford a monthly bill of $50 a month. Some of us got an allowance, and some of us worked for our cash. It can be hard, but anyone can do this, really. (I'm sure a heck of a lot of IBOs are stay-at-home moms... or at least that's the trend that my team has. ) But in the world of business, you have to spend something to make something. It's the unfortunate reality of how things work nowadays. I also would not sign up for this if you don't have the drive and be committed to something like this, because you would literally be signing up for a discount dental plan and a discount "Freedom" plan and be forking $50 a month for it... which you could possibly find a better deal somewhere else. But if you put some time and some effort into it, you will earn something out of it.

First off, the company was established in 1992, which brings the foundation of 17 years of stability. Can't be that bad if it's been around that long, right? To be honest, the first thing I did was Google for these exact terms: "ameriplan" and "scam", and within the first couple of links, I found this: Is AmeriPlan A Work-At-Home Scam? I also found an actual scam that apparently is going around with the AmeriPlan guise, because it sounds nothing like what you would do working as an IBO for AmeriPlan. It's the third link in the Google results. The blogger seems to be a decent guy, not exactly slamming AmeriPlan because he seems like more of an Internet person than a phone person and said that it wasn't for him. But it wasn't the article that was interesting... but the commentary. There's a hell of a lot to read on that page itself, but there were some good points, including points from people of AmeriPlan that were going through the whole thing themselves. Some excerpts: One prominent member of the company has pointed out that she did most of her work on an online basis, spreading the word and advertising herself all over cyberspace to let people know about the discount health plans that AmeriPlan offers and the opportunity to work from home. Apparently she's been doing this for quite a while, because she's pretty successful with this tactic. Obviously, I'm doing my recruitment as well as my "sales" in the same fashion and approach. A skeptic pointed out that the BBB apparently has an F grade for AmeriPlan. However, this same experienced person pointed out that AmeriPlan is part of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which only allows members that have no legal blemishes on their records. She explains this whole thing better with the history behind the F grade: Although these tidbits of information didn't exactly sell me right away, it did take away a bit of doubt... and the concept makes sense, much like every other business concept that makes sense. I never really figured I'd try it until now... my circumstances compelling. About competition: there isn't really any competition, as far as I know. It probably depends on your "team," and the team that I'm part of is moreso focused on helping each other succeed instead of fighting each other, and the approach that they publish as their training aid promotes that you have people come to you and not the other way around. As I've mentioned, you don't have to be an aggressive salesperson. Heck, you could and be successful doing this, or you can do it passively and let people who are genuinely interested in the plans or opportunity to work from home. I personally am not a salesperson, and I don't like pushing people or trying to coerce them into something they don't want or need. (Putting myself in those shoes and having been placed in that situation only gets people frustrated, pressured, and possibly drives people away... or ropes them in, if you have a sweet tongue and a way with sales. ) Out of curiosity too, I searched my area for people in my city and even my state for AmeriPlan IBOs... and for some reason, both searches came up empty, which says one of a few things: either the search is broken, or there are really NO other IBOs in New Hampshire other than me. Wouldn't be surprised, though... I've never heard of AmeriPlan until this opportunity popped up. Then again, some people still think New England is a state. I'm not sure how hard it would be for local competition, but I would think that as long as you have the drive to post flyers, talk to people, hand out business cards, etc, that you will be successful in your area no matter how many IBOs are in your state or region. I've never met anyone online that was an IBO, and I've never been approached for a discount plan, so nation-wide, the opportunity may be good, too. And that's why I'm here, posting about this opportunity and posting about the discount health plans to let Xisto peruse them and choose whether they want to do this sort of thing with me or not. Also, another point to consider: If you are interested in both working from home and having the discount plan, you COULD literally work for the plans, since the payments would be taken out of your earnings, essentially. However, when you sign up to work from home, the $50 per month fee also includes the Dental Plus plan (described in my thread here) and a discount "Freedom" pass that gives you discounts on day-to-day things that you can use to save money on automotive costs, eating out at restaurants, clothes, and other things. Take a look at the website, or just click here for the calculator to see how much you COULD save with a Freedom Pass. So, really, for $50 per month, it may seem steep initially, but with the Dental Plan provided (which is normally $14.95/mo) and this Freedom Pass that can save you money, you can potentially make back the money you spent on that monthly fee plus more.

Yes, it seems a little hyped up. It probably is. But if you're looking for a discount health plan to reduce the cost of health care and any costs incurred within the medical field, you might want to take a look into AmeriPlan. I'm not going to give you a sales pitch. I would rather tell you straight-up that if you went to go check out the AmeriPlan website right now for potential members to see what they can offer you, you would either be signing up or leave skeptical because of the hyped-up language that they use on their website. First off, AmeriPlan offers discount plans, which are NOT health insurance policies. (This is explicitly emphasized on their website.) The difference is that a discount health plan offers discounts on various medical-related costs, including prescriptions, procedures, and even office visits, whereas health insurance COVERS most if not all of your costs, but with a hefty monthly premium. Discount plans, on the other hand, cost much less per month, but you also have to factor in the possibilities of incurring enough medical costs in a given period of time to match what you would pay for an insurance premium. Personally, I would encourage that you get insurance, but in the case that insurance does not cover what you require medically, or if you can't afford insurance, or if you believe that you could possibly save money with a discount health plan instead of a traditional health insurance policy, you might want to consider AmeriPlan's offerings for their medical, dental, chiropractic, and vision discounts with their various plans. With that being said, you may be wondering what each plan may offer for you. Straight off of the website, here are the various plans that you can sign up for and what they cover, in general: Medical Care - Basic Wellness and Total Health and Total Health Plus ($14.95/$29.95/$59.95) Dental Care Plus ($14.95/mo) Also being offered is SecureNet, which is basically an identification-theft service that you can tack onto any combination of plans for an additional $20.00 per month or purchased separately for $24.95 per month. I personally hate how murky some descriptions are for medical coverage, so I will try my best here to cover what each plan will cover. - Basic Wellness Simply put, this provides discounts for vision, nurse-line medical assistance, prescription drugs, and a hearing plan for the entire household. For vision, you can save from 10% up to 60%, plus additional discounts on: frames, lenses, tints, scratch-resistant coatings and UV protection ophthalmology eye exams, LASIK surgery contact lenses, including daily wear, extended wear, disposable, tinted, bifocals, and gas-permeable designer non-prescription sunglasses For prescription medication, you can save 10% up to 85% on: most brand-name and generic prescription drugs over the counter medications For the NURSELINE program, you get: a staff of highly-qualified registered nurses (RNs) that can give you and your household members immediate and unlimited access to healthcare professionals and providers, available 24/7 For hearing, you get 25% up to 40% and additional discounts on: hearing services hearing products - Dental Plus Simply put, this provides discounts for dental, vision, prescription drugs, and a hearing plan. Dental has discounts for things like: exams x-rays cleaning fillings root canals crowns orthodontic treatments dental work (including ongoing dental problems) Chiropractic has 30% up to 50% discounts for things like: all diagnostic services and required x-rays treatment and most other services Vision and prescription medication benefits are as described for Basic Wellness. - Total Health This plan basically includes everything described above plus additional services. It includes: Dental Vision Prescription Chiropractic Medical Ancillary Services (includes physical therapy, labs, imaging, hearing, mental health, and diabetic services) Hospital Advocacy NurseLine Podiatry Services - Total Health Plus This plan is the whole enchilada. It includes EVERYTHING the Total Health Plan has, and also includes the following: AmeriPlan Auto Club - Compare this with roadside assistance or AAA and you've got the idea of what this plan offers. The first $50.00 of emergency roadside or towing services are free; additional services are discounted by at least 25% of retail price. AmeriPlan Identity Theft Assistance - This plan addresses the main problems of today's identity theft issues: prevention and resolution in the case that it happens to you. AmeriPlan Legal - If you ever need legal assistance, this plan gives you a free one-hour initial consultation for each occurrence and any ongoing legal fees receive a 25% discount, along with resources for your own research provided by AmeriPlan. - If anyone wants any more information on these plans or if you are interested in signing up for them to complement your health care plan, let me know and I'll hook you up. The great thing about these plans that I didn't mention earlier is that they are refundable if you aren't satisfied! (The red tape with that is that there is a one-time, non-refundable registration fee of $30 for each plan - out of the four available - you sign up for. The dental plan actually has a registration fee of $20.) Edit: I also forgot to mention that if you are interested in any of these plans, please take a look at seeing if there are adequate providers in your area before PMing me. if you forget to, I'll probably check for you anyway... no sense in signing up for a program that you can't benefit from, right? You can find a list of providers in your area here.

We've heard about it, seen it, read it, and the trend is everywhere: work from the comfort of your own home, made lots of money, blah blah blah. A lot of things just seem too good to be true about the whole work-from-home scheme, so a lot of us are skeptical about it. However, since money was tight and I was desperate for a secondary job for another flow of income, I decided to look around on Craigslist for jobs. I sent out my resume and a basic "cover letter" to about a dozen listings that I thought I was able to do or that I was qualified to do. I only received two replies back, which incidentally I've replied and out of those two, only one replied back. The job was described as a position in selling health plans. I figured I could do it, so I followed through with my e-mails and got more information. The person that I talked to told me about the opportunities of Ameriplan and how I could work from home and essentially, work for myself. Blah blah blah. I was still skeptical, but I was also desperate for another job. So I took interest in it and called the recruiting person back. And then the person who I was working with asked me for money up front. This usually raises a red flag with me. It actually did while I was listening to her explain why the $50 up-front fee was necessary. It was the first of a recurring series of fees (per month) that individuals would accrue while working for Ameriplan. The fees would help "pay for brokers fees, maintaining the website, pay the customer service people, blah blah blah..." which made sense, but it still rose the red flag in my head nonetheless. But this time I threw caution into the wind... and I'm now starting to think that this is the real deal. So here it is, and this is what I've been telling others in my attempts to get others into this opportunity: Simply put, I would be assisting others in purchasing a discount health plan from a company called Ameriplan, which is also the same company you would be working "for." I say this because you would be doing stuff under their flag and their rules, but for the most part you will be doing a lot of stuff on your own and keeping in touch with your upline team (including me) to get help, help each other out, and learn a ton of stuff from each other. It's pretty crazy at first to take in all the information... I was actually dumb and jumped on board before I understood everything. One thing to understand: you ONLY can get out of this what you put into it. There are a multiple of ways to do what you need to do. You can start networking right away and talk to people to see if they would be interested in a discount health care plan or whatever else Ameriplan offers (including dental). Or you can set up a base (like a website, making up flyers, etc.) to advertise yourself passively. You don't have to be an aggressive salesperson to do this... it's really moreso of a helping hand for those people that are interested in signing up for the plans. With that being said, YOU would be the person to network with to get them to be interested with the plan. In addition to that, you would also be getting to know how the whole thing works and then recruiting other people of your own. Here's the multi-level marketing portion of it: the more people you recruit on a 2nd-generation basis (you being the first), the more you are paid from their commissions. The more people they recruit, the more you get paid at a 3rd-generation basis (which is a smaller percentage). As far as base pay goes for helping sell health plans, you will be receiving 30% of every product that you sell. There are health plans for $19.95 up to $49.95, and they can all be purchased in conjunction. So basically, the earnings process is commission-only with the addition of MLM-style commissions from your recruits. There's even a promotion portion to it too. For example, if you recruit a number of people and make a number of sales, you move up from an IBO (Independent Business Owner) status and pay bracket and become a regional sales director, where you begin the MLM commissions concept of earning a percentage off of the sales of the people that you've recruited. This is a lot of information to take in, so please read and understand what I've put out, and if you're still interested, PM me and let me know. - Basically, the system works in theory and I would expect it to work in practice. You can only get something out of this if you put effort, time, and maybe some money to set up your base, get the word out there that you exist and what you can offer, and have people come to you. I'm planning on doing just this and not chasing every potential client down, because, face it, no one likes someone who will badger and break down your door to sell you something you don't want or don't think you'll need. The discount health and dental plans seem like pretty sweet deals, and especially with today's uncertainty with health care costs and insurance, I would think that everyone would jump at these sorts of discount plans. The funny thing is that as big as this company is, I've never heard of it... until now. And I want to be able to share the options with everyone I know about these plans as well as the opportunity to work from home and be doing what I'm doing now. It's not a get-rich-quick scheme, and you can only get so much from what you put into it. And if you work at it long enough, recruiting people and selling plans to become promoted to the higher levels to collect on the multi-level marketing scheme, you can literally be one of those people who don't do much of anything and collect a decent pay check on top of doing what you're doing for a current job. If anyone wants more information about this sort of thing, send me a message/PM here and let me know. There are some people that know me on Xisto and know that I'm not going to scam you, and if you don't know me, you can obviously see that I'm not a hit-and-run forum person, signing up for Xisto only to make 3 posts about "how you can make millions" and disappearing. Obviously, I'm here to recruit others under my wing, but that's what it literally is going to be like: I won't be ditching you after "adding you to my ranks" because that's not how it works with this team that I'm in. We look out for each other, talk to each other, keep in touch, and try to help each other with how to advertise ourselves, become confident in what we do, know what to do, and become more capable of working for ourselves as well as working as a team to help each other succeed. There is no pressure in making quotas because YOU decide whether you want to make those commission sales to earn money and eventually become promoted to earn percentages off of the people YOU'VE recruited and fostered, and in turn, you will also earn profits off of who THEY foster... so you can see how it's actually a good thing that everyone works together. This is a nation-wide opportunity, not just limited to certain places. If you want any more information or are interested in doing this gig with me, let me know.

I spend too much time here.I basically spend my free Internet time here when I'm bored, almost once a weekday but I'll have my moments where I don't visit for a month or so. I'm here for the myCents, yes, but I also like some of the topics that come up from time to time, not to mention some things that I can share with the community. When I'm extremely bored, I end up keeping Xisto available to refresh the View-New-Posts page to see if anyone actually responded to my posts or if anything new or cool came up.

Nokia unveils new mobile financial service There's the official announcement. Now for adoption... and potential rise in phone-hacking. *dun dun duuuun!* Funny that Inverse_Bloom turns his BT off on his phone to prevent such attempts at attacks... I keep mine off just to save on battery power!

Everyone's going to suggest everything under the sun... but I'll provide some helpful tips that ultimately brought me to buying a 2003 Honda Civic EX. * Know what you want. Is your mum a no-frills sort of gal or does she enjoy some extras? Does she want to "upgrade" or stay at her current class of car? Is it just a commuter? (I'm assuming yes.) There are a ton of cars that are classified as a hatchback, some bigger than others, but possibly with more bang for the buck. * Check out professional review sites for good or bad first impressions. One I like to use is NewCarTestDrive.com, but from the looks of it, it doesn't include some European makes like Opel or Citroen. * Try out CarBuyingTips.com. Wealth of info... not sure how much can apply to you, but it's worth checking out. * Shop around and see what's available. Sometimes it might be easier to do it that way so that you can refine your search to something that's actually within reach. That way you don't waste time in research the crap out of a vehicle only to find out that the nearest one for sale is over 100 km away. As far as experience with cars you might have available, I've only had experience with a '94 Dodge Shadow ES (which I've seen some in Germany), an 80's Volkswagen Golf, and my '03 Honda Civic EX. I drove the Dodge into the ground until the transmission literally died somewhere above 150K miles (I think), then I left for the Army and couldn't afford to restore it, so that was crushed. The VW Golf was a headache of problems, but it was probably due to age and bad luck (replaced the existing burnt clutch, replaced some $7 transmission part that prevented it from starting in place, the driver's side door lock was messed up and you couldn't open that door, and the driver's side window randomly shattered when my buddy closed the passenger side window... funny incident). Of course, after we sold it to someone else, that car ran peachy-keen. I have to say that the Civic has treated me very, very well. No-brains upkeep with regular scheduled maintenance and you're good to go. I'm not sure if my Civic is Japanese or American-made, though... there's a way you can tell from the VIN, and I can't remember if this is a minor/critical difference or not. It seems to me that diesel may be the way to go with your high petro prices over there, but that severely limits your choices. I remember reading up on a VW Jetta TDI, but apparently maintenance and parts are expensive and... well, frequently needed. Then again, it's hard to tell whether a car is good or not based on customer reviews, considering that I would think more people would complain about the car than praise it.

First impressions are important, as everyone's going to judge you for how you present yourself. However, aside from the horrible English typos, misspellings, and grammar, Willmark has contributed more to this thread than most new members contribute to the whole forum. I don't need to point any fingers... they make themselves prominent by flooding the board with one-liners that make no sense or have no value. If Willmark throws out some lesson plans on how to be a criminal, then yes, I stand where you guys are. However, if Willmark is able to display his knowledge and experience so that we can learn from his mistakes, take it in as we will, and make something of it, I am going to have to say that a lot of people are going to miss out on the stuff that he could share with us just because they're going to "shun the criminal." Depending on what criminal activity you partake in, you'd be amazed to find a lot of education and hidden talent that most people go to school for, like economics (supply and demand), psychology, political science, and what-have-you. Think about it in that sense... like in the sense that although a stay-at-home mom may not be employed, but she does the job of a cook, a custodian, a psychologist, a counselor, a therapist, etc... like in the sense that a member of the armed forces can share his or her experience and wisdom in military science, tactics, leadership, psychology and sociology, management, business skills, administrative and clerical tasks, etc... are people catching my drift here? He also did not mention what he did, but he did mention that he did not hurt anyone in the process. This reminds me of the convict episode of The Office where everyone was wondering what the guy did time in jail for... and it was as "mundane" of a crime as manipulating stocks. Was the guy bad? Probably. Did he think outside of the box? Definitely. Did he do it illegally? Obviously. Could he share something about economic elasticity, teach something about how the market behaves, show people the many options of investing and how to benefit from that information? Hrm... Obviously, I'm playing devil's advocate here, but for good reason. Everyone loves to jump on the bandwagon... I like to view things from both sides.

Took the words right out of my mouth. However, I'm sure that even the best of us fall for some legitimate-looking items, like allowing svchost.exe in Windows XP to access network resources. (I'm guilty. As in a good hour's worth of cleaning-up-after-a-Trojan guilty. )

Damn good points, WaterMonkey. As far as Bluetooth goes, isn't it hackable as long as it's enabled or just while it's in discovery mode? The video I saw back in the day (which I'll have to do some digging to find... it was probably last year) showed some teen whiz making a "gun" out of a Yagi/panel antenna and some sort of module to access some random guy's Bluetooth-enabled phone.

I have another article that bolsters the statement that Apple is indeed more "physically" insecure than Windows, yet is more secure because there isn't much of a base to write malware... yet. Lazy Link Addendum: Snow Leopard is going to have an anti-malware feature. Smart.

+1 on the Awesome bar.I'm probably just used to it now, but I'm starting to notice (thanks to you bringing it up) that as soon as you start typing and as you continue typing something into it, it immediately shows you relevant results by keyword, part of a word, part of a page title, or part of a URL out of your history. Pretty crazy, really.I'm moreso used to just using the Awesome Bar to the extent of typing in part or most of a URL and then hitting Down and Enter to get to my frequently-visited sites. That already in itself is pretty awesome.

Welcome to Xisto, Willmark.After having read everyone else's responses, I'm not going to reiterate rules or the usual basic stuff that most people say. However, I'll chime in on your "particular" situation that you've presented us.I would like to say that I personally don't care what your background is, and you've already mentioned that due to your "criminal activity," no one was hurt as a result of it. As long as you have something to share, that's great. I have a couple of friends (one being a best) that did some time and one that never got caught, but decided to come clean... nothing huge, but then again, crimes are subjective to various degrees. However, my best friend knows his sh*t and a lot of it, and even though he has a criminal background, he is a wealth of knowledge and experience. (He's even going to college right now for pre-law, which I'm even proud of.) I'm sure that you have a lot to share in that same sense, whether it be street smarts, what you've learned over the years, and/or life lessons that you can pass on.One thing that I will suggest, however, is working on that education, or at least on your typing skills or English, whatever plagues your posting. I know that in this day and age of texting, acronyms, online shorthand, and just plain ignorance, I've learned to read some really hard-to-interpret crap on the Internet, so if you could work on that aspect of your posting, that would be awesome.Again, welcome to Xisto.

See my thread on OS security. OSX and Linux are similar in certain ways, such as having to have an administrator password (or the all-mighty root for Linux), but at the same time, I've explored some stuff as to how each operating system works and saw a security article as to why Apple's OS is actually the least secure in terms of exploits, security holes, and penetrability. (It doesn't mean that it's not a safe OS to use, since every one out of a hundred computer users brag about the security of the all-mighty Macintosh. These are also the same people that probably don't have a clue as to why it's so "secure," not to mention that the made-up ratio I gave gives you an idea as to why attacks on OSX are menial compared to the amount of attacks on the Windows platform.)

It's funny that this question is even asked considering the stigma behind Windows Vista. Windows 7 has the unusual advantage of attracting new customers to the Windows OS platform and especially current Vista customers because it's what Vista was supposed to be but with a fresh new name. Initially with a change/upgrade to a new operating system, I would advise to let the guinea pigs have at it first to check out any potential bugs and/or instability issues, but then again, Windows 7 has been under constant scrutiny and testing thanks to a world-wide participation with the beta variants and "leaked" versions of the RC, creating enough of a buzz to focus attention on a Microsoft product that, surprisingly, isn't too bad. Driver-wise, migrating customers and early adopters will be all set thanks to the utilization of the Vista driver concept that thankfully is more mature than when Vista first came out, giving developers and consumers much of a headache with hardware support. Feature-wise, the operating system seems to be rich and rife with eye candy and an actual user-friendly interface. As people have already mentioned, the RTM still has problems to date, but we can always count on the Microsoft development timeline of RC = alpha, RTM = beta, SP1 = RC/RTM, and SP2 = final release. It's ultimately your call, but personally, as cool and as good as Windows 7 is and the fact that many users are already praising a Microsoft product, and even with the fact that Windows 7 has been available for consumers and testers to explore for over a year now, I would still wait. Then again, I'm viewing it from the perspective of being an XP SP2 user. You, on the other hand, may have quite the gain jumping ship from Vista SP2 to 7 RTM.

It does and doesn't matter if you put up personal information on your profiles for social networking sites... it depends on how sensitive the information is TO YOU.Facebook has enough privacy options to even exclude you from searches, not to mention limited profiles to give yourself some sort of exposure for others to find you on the network. There really is no excuse as to not having a Facebook account due to privacy issues, but then again, maybe you just want to stay invisible, in which I would say: suit yourself. Technology is progressing at a fast rate, and everyone's information is becoming more and more accessible, and there are pros and cons to being accessible, especially for networking purposes, learning about people, and stalking them. You have to take the good with the bad, and it really depends on how you look at the Internet. Do you see it as an opportunity, or yet another way for others to intrude into your life? People can only see what you share with others, and with the case of Facebook, people can only see your limited profile until YOU accept their friend requests, and vice versa. From there, they can only see what YOU decide to share.What about phishing, hacking, getting into your account and using your pictures, your words, or even "being" you online? That would be your own d*mn fault, whether it was because you were careless and installed a malicious app (unknowingly) that opened up access to your profile, or you are ignorant and don't follow personal security to let someone hijack your profile (by sharing a computer and saving password fields, etc.), or if you pissed someone else enough for them to target and hack you, or if you just drew a bad card in life and just have that luck. Even then, the damage done could possibly hurt you professionally or socially IF people even knew about your profile (if a hacker or hijacker decided to slander your profile or send messages as you).The gains of having a social networking profile can work for you as a networking agent and as a way for others to see more than you are used to sharing in person, which can help or hurt you. It really depends on how you present yourself. But of course, this is if you do decide to use it in this way, or just use it for what it is: a social networking site. For me, the potential networking is an additional bonus, and it provides for me some exposure on the Internet to allow for potential employers to see that I'm out there.I have a Facebook account. I think it's good and dumb, considering the fact that I had Facebook before apps became a big thing and now I just ignore most of them. Facebook has always been a plus over MySpace for me except for the part where you can't customize your profile page as much as you can with MySpace and working around its strict coding layout, but I can live with that when it offers on-the-fly updates, reliability, and a clean site that's not too over-laden with irrelevant information and advertisements. I'm not saying it's the best, considering that some features are more to be desired (like being able to write a Note without having to go back to your Profile, clicking on your Notes tab, then doing it from there), but maybe Notes weren't meant to be super-easy to get to.

This would be a multi-faceted argument for me.Free hosting for credits was my first draw to Xisto. I don't even remember how I found Xisto... I just remembered that it would have been cool to get "paid" to post and since I've always wanted to do a website, I signed up and started posting and hoarding credits.Then the myCents overhaul went into effect, and I lost my hosting credits, but it doesn't bother me now considering that I actually do post enough and contribute enough to buy myself a decent hosting package and sustain it for over three years (I think) without ever posting again.The myCents program is awesome. I love knowing that for every word that I contribute, I am getting "paid" in credit to host my website if and when I actually get around to doing it. It is one of the reasons why I'm still here, posting away.On the forum perspective, however, there are just too many people continually posting with what I consider in my harsh opinion garbage. I hate spam, I hate wasting my time with reading useless posts, and as unfair as it is to people with English as a secondary language, it sucks when I have to sift through their posts and even ignore some of them because they have no intellectual value whatsoever. Most likely, this works in conjunction with spamming... the same "offenders" do it over and over again, but with varying cultures, varying levels of language proficiency, and various outlooks on what a forum is, I can't exactly point fingers and say that they're doing it wrong. Yes, I have the option and the freedom of ignoring these posts, and fortunately there are enough topics to keep my interest on Xisto, but it irks me when I make up a topic and then someone chimes in with "Hi im joesnuffy134 and i understand your problem thanks." Maybe they meant well and were trying to sympathize, or finding a thread to skim and add a few words to increase their post count, or just spamming to see how many credits they can score. I have no idea. I don't mean to pick on anyone about it, but it's one of those problems with forums that you'll get anywhere, but moreso here with the incentive to post AND spam because no one reads the rules. They're too busy being excited over earning free hosting credits until someone slaps them on the hand, then they either clean up their act or leave us with crap and an inactive account... or they can't help it because they just don't understand the concept.On a more positive note, I have found some cool people here that I enjoy chatting with or reading their topics. I won't name them, but I'm sure anyone can figure out who actually puts thought into their posts and who just mindlessly post. That's what I like. But then again, that's completely subjective.

To be literal, you are the safest Internet browser. To mitigate online threats, you have to avoid risky online behavior. This includes but is not limited to: downloading possibly-infected files (which, basically, is inclusive of anything you download from the Internet), visiting possibly-hazardous sites with malicious code, looking into spam e-mails, getting phished, and not browsing with security deterrents (router which provides an internal firewall, software firewall, etc.). You also have to watch out for exploits (security holes) that malicious code and hackers can penetrate to gain access to your machine and/or its resources. This is where your operating systems and browsers come in, which everyone has seemed to suggest. If you want complete security, go with a Linux-based operating system. The reasoning behind this is a robust community that continuously works to update and improve the operating system, keeping you up-to-date with security, features, and other goodies. It also isn't as targeted for attack because of the fact that Linux holds a very small audience with operating systems compared with the alternative. You could also look into Apple's OSX, which is the second-best for security. OSX is actually the least secure out of all of the popular operating systems available, but as with Linux, it does not have as much of a market share in operating systems as the ubiquitous Windows platform, which makes it secure in the fact that there isn't a lot of threats specifically made for a small audience. Makes sense, right? Last but not least, we have Windows. Each version of Windows will have its own security flaws and strengths, but keeping up to date with system updates and patches will help prevent the many attacks, exploits, holes, and malware that Windows is infamously plagued with. It is imperative that with a Microsoft OS, you utilize a firewall in conjunction with anti-malware/anti-virus software and whatever else you may deem necessary. For browsers, it seems that Microsoft Internet Explorer is the large target with its large number of discovered exploits and ActiveX vulnerabilities. Everyone guns for IE because everyone else seems to use it. For this reason alone, you should avoid using Internet Explorer. However, the use of Mozilla Firefox is growing, and I'm sure that in the future, there will be more guns pointed in this direction. But Mozilla has more than a handful of features to throw back and keep the guns at bay. With extensions like NoScript and built-in security features, along with a robust community and continuous improvements and updates, Firefox may be the most popular and considerably-secure browser to use today. Opera, Safari, Chrome, and other browsers are still rather low-key as far as market share, so they may or may not be the safest out of the major key players. Like with operating systems, the guns are pointed at the more popular choices, so you are probably good to go. They all seem to have good development, and Safari has the native advantage of being available for OSX, which already houses the security advantages I outlined above. Chrome may actually become a larger player just because of Google's name behind the project, but I believe that it will have the benefits of gradual adoption along with fewer attacks as Firefox had when it emerged to compete with Internet Explorer. Opera, as good of a browser as it is, hasn't garnered as much of an audience as its fans would like, but maybe that's a good thing. I am currently using Mozilla Firefox with NoScript, Windows XP SP3, and Windows Firewall on my work computer and the same but with SP2 and Norton Internet Security 2009 on my home laptop and I believe that combination of software should suffice for most users. Feel free to play around with other combinations, but just keep in mind that the end-user is the one line of defense that could render all of these security deterrents useless.

I'm really sorry to hear about all the crap you've gone through... and it's one of those harder lessons in life that it may seem that no matter what you do right, crap happens in the worst way. I hope that something good comes up. You seem to deserve it. As far as the real world goes, there's always going to be someone you rub the wrong way or that someone that's just a natural douchebag, no matter what. The hugely-unfair practice here is that even though people sympathize with you, I didn't hear one mentioning of anyone actually sticking up for you. If I was your supervisor to read that evaluation and if I had the authority to, I would throw it out... and if I couldn't, I would at least challenge it. Who actually supervised you, the douchebag or someone else? I know you were all over the place, but I don't understand how they could pinpoint just one person to do your evaluation. Given the fact that you probably worked unsupervised helping everyone else out and that not just one person actually witnessed your work ethics and your performance, I would think that upper management asked for your evaluation and the douchebag volunteered just to give you a hard time.Like I said, natural douchebags are beyond saving. Your only hope for comeuppance is if he or she slips and everyone else pounds on that person for the mistake, driving her back into the ground.As far as actually talking about this particular issue, I would bring it up as soon as you can to a supervisor who will actually help you. Every company has a sort of open-door policy where you can voice out certain issues, and if you're going to be staying in the company, that sort of evaluation will keep you from moving upwards. Even if you don't stay within the company, and if a future employer calls up Target and asks human resources about you, and that HR person has no clue about you personally so he or she pulls up your file and sees that evaluation, HR will reiterate what's on that paper. Just think about how much harm one piece of paper can do.Talk to your human resources representative/director and your first-line supervisor (or one that you are comfortable with that knows you well professionally), and address these concerns.That's my 2 cents.

Another thing that no one seemed to have mentioned is network traffic. Are you getting your Internet directly from the cable/DSL modem, or on a wireless router? If it's a wireless router, did you secure your network with a WEP/WPA key or utilize MAC filtering to keep others from leeching your bandwidth? We're all guilty of it at some point or another, and that's usually the case when you experience slowdowns with your Internet speed. Something could have also affected the way or speed that you transfer data packets, like malware or an "update" from Windows (which you can fix using LvlLord's Event 4226 TCP/IP patch). It could also be your antivirus, as someone mentioned, scanning web sites as it loads content. (Never heard of it actually actively scanning what you access on the web, but then again, it may be a new thing.) Your browser could be at fault too if it actually interprets code slower... which is why you'll be hearing lots of jargon involving Javascript engines and rendering speeds with each browser. If you already have a high-speed connection, you won't see much in that aspect, but if things are nearer with 56K death, you probably and most likely will see a difference with that feature. (Take a look at Opera's Turbo feature, which caches web site content and loads it directly from the hard drive instead of requesting redundant data.) And of course, you can always put some blame on your ISP... Most of what people mentioned with registry cleaning, defragmentation, and whatnot involves the speed and efficacy of the system itself and not so much on the network or your bandwidth, although it never hurts to pick up after your computer and make it run better, faster, and cleaner.

That's actually how they garnered the audience that they did, because it was an easy name to remember, you went to Google JUST to search (whereas Yahoo is more laden with content to distract you from searching, plus they did it to try for a one-stop site where you could have access to everything), and it was very fast since there was nothing to load. Nowadays, everyone is crazy for dynamics, interactivity, and on-the-fly work... which probably makes Facebook laden with code and "weight" because it calls from a million sources to update your news feeds, highlights, recommended friends, tracked requests and invites, etc. Yahoo is still Yahoo: the one-stop site that gives you access to your Yahoo Mail, your Yahoo Chat, Yahoo Groups, blah blah blah... It's not the best way to go, but think about how some websites still garner an audience and sustained customer base despite an overload of information and/or data on one page (Amazon, anyone?). The ideal website is light to load and full of relevant content, but the balance is hard to strike, especially when you have a lot to share. We all know that not everyone has a high-speed connection to the Internet, but then again, we don't always design web sites for each and every potential client. FYI, Facebook is working on a "lite" version of their social networking site. CNet provided the goods in a brief article about Facebook's Twitter-like site, which should be moreso focused on the hard goods and less on apps and other bandwidth-hungry data.

Robert Kyosaki can only be taken at face value with his words. Think about the "teachings" and the points that he stresses. I've only read Rich Dad, Poor Dad but it was enough for me to figure out how it makes sense. If anything, I took this message from it: in order to make money, you have to take risks. Take his points about creating a cash flow utilizing your current assets. In order to become rich, you have to take risks and invest your money... not just in stocks and mutual funds, but in other fields that can yield a return on investment. There are many ways to make money, but you have to figure out what your financial goals are and how to attain them. Right now, I'm trying my hand at a steady growth of income with mutual funds. (Look at how that turned out.) But even with the recent decline in stock potential, it shouldn't scare anyone away. I took a risk when I threw money into four separate mutual funds. They did grow, but I didn't pay attention to the market when things started to tank, so I lost money when everything crashed. However, this would be a decent time to invest, since the market is recovering and stabilizing (back upwards since September 2008). If you're smart about it, you can make a steady, gradual climb in a return on investment (ROI) with mutual funds. You could also do it with stocks, but again, you take more risk. The more you invest, the more you earn OR lose. You also have to pay attention to what the market is calling for, what your companies are doing, and how it may affect the future outcome of share value. Just because everyone is bailing out doesn't mean that the company doesn't have a card up its sleeve. By the time you hear about a company's success, it's usually too late to reap in the rewards of consistency and persistence in investing... so stick to your guns and/or invest smartly. Robert Kiyosaki uses as an example the wonders of real estate. It's a tremendous risk to purchase a piece of property in hopes of being able to buy it, "flip" a house and sell it or rent it out. It's also about the luck of the draw and paying attention to the housing market, because you can do a land and property grab for a steal that no one paid attention to, or lose out because you bought at the time that the housing market was at a peak. In order for you to do this sort of thing you have to take a huge amount of risk in getting a loan approved, purchasing a piece of property, and making the decision to either destroy it and build something of more value, remodel or refurnish the current property to raise its value, and then either sell the property for much more than you paid for it or rent it to tenants that you can trust not to destroy it from the inside. Rent is a great cash influx, but it might not be worth it if it doesn't offset your costs in maintaining the property, fixing damages, etc. He also takes into account the risk of starting a business. This is the hardest part for us non-creative, non-outside-thinking folk because you have to come up with something that will draw an audience and sustain your existence. Think about how each large, successful company started its roots. Some started with an idea for a brand new product or invention. Others took a current product and put a spin on it. A lot of risk goes into a business because you have to take the road that no one has traveled and hope that what you do brings in a following that will bolster your success in the long run. Look at fashion and apparel with The Gap, Abercrombie and Fitch, Levis, etc. They took a step in another direction and now those companies are raking in profits for being "fashionable" and the current trend, in which they have to maintain by coming up with new trends, ideas, etc. Their names have been established, so it's purely maintenance and the occasional new thing from there. Robert Kiyosaki's advice isn't for everyone because not everyone can be hugely successful as he has been. Not every entrepreneur makes it to the big shots because there's a lot of work, effort, capital, and even a splash of luck here and there involved. Who knew that Google, a simple search engine start-up, would be this huge now? How did they stay competitive and then rise up against then-giants like Yahoo, Lycos (Infoseek), and all the others that we've already forgotten? Most of us have already jumped on to the path that Kiyosaki preaches on avoiding: thinking like everyone else. You want to start something that pays you first, then everyone else. You want that something to be something that drives college graduates to work for you because what you thought up was legendary or awe-inspiring. You want to be that guy that sits back and plays management while everyone else assists in keeping you top dog in your field. But not everyone can follow the advice given AND be as "successful."

I don't see how or why you would get hacked by posting your profile up for all to see, unless you pissed someone off enough for them to hack you, you got phished, you had a Trojan, someone shared your computer, etc. Sorry to hear that you had to deal with that... I'm sure that wasn't any fun at all. I can see how someone could target you right off the back with your user name, but that would mean that they would have to guess or brute-force-hack your password or acquire it by some other means (packet-sniffing, phishing, etc.), and I'm not sure but I would think that eBay would have a three-strikes-out script to prevent brute force hacking. It's kind of scary knowing that you can be hacked via eBay, but how did they get into your PayPal? Even when you're legitimately logged into eBay, the site has you log into PayPal using your separate credentials.

Now only if we would equate ourselves with other living things that we deem inferior... what happened to Animal Farm. Oh, right: "... some are more equal than others."In my case, dear 'ol Dad probably fits into the deadbeat category, which makes it ironic because he passed that judgment right along onto some other ex for one of his previous girlfriends. I can't really judge him too much though, because I don't know how hard it is to get a job with a felony on your record. Financially, he's not paying crap right now... but my fiancee's focus is moreso on him being a father to his kids, and I don't think that he knows what he's doing wrong because the kids are literally "out of sight, out of mind" until he has them that weekend. I can somewhat sympathize with that because I don't think about the kids a heck of a lot while I'm at work or busy doing something, but maybe that's how males are: one-track-minded. (Probably more on that later in another thread... ) I do have the luxury of seeing them when I get home, which would make things easier in thinking about the kids and asking about them and getting to know them and spend time with them... all the things that Dad doesn't even ask about until his time with the kids comes up.I just don't know... and I'm more worried about our finances than with his relationship with the kids, because that's his thing and I'm not going to egg him about spending time with his own kids. It's just not my place. I can judge all I want, but it won't change a d*mn thing. It's going to be his loss with his kids when he faces the music years later and they won't really want to do much with him anymore since he didn't seem to want to back in the day. It probably frustrates my fiancee moreso with that fact and the fact that the kids need their father now more than ever, probably on the same level on how I'm frustrated with the fact that he can't/won't provide a stinkin' dollar to help with our sinking budget... and having to pay for all the crap that we have to keep a roof over our heads, transportation, bills, and living life doesn't happen too smoothly for a household of two adults and three children on one income that would be decent for a single person.Rawg.

Yes, the President often makes promises and statements that he has no control over or even is involved in. With the state of the economy, the President usually wrongfully credited with its ups and downs... but he does make some decisions that can affect the mindset of the people that ARE responsible for the economy: us. The problem is for the most part, exactly what you stated with the mass media feeding us the Kool-aid and making us think to save when we really should be spending. That's why Obama actually threw out the stimulus packages for the consumer: for us to do a jump-start on the economy. Instead, we as idiots (including me) saved that money... but in my defense, I saved it to pay off the credit card debt I accrued during the 2008 Christmas season, so I'm sure I did my part in spending. The media isn't totally at fault... the market and the knee-jerk reactions of investors and Wall Street are also at fault with the "recession." (And of course, the honey dripped in our ears by Alan Greenspan.) To me, I think it's been over. To me, it seems that companies are finally finished with cutting back on jobs, re-evaluating their programs and branches, and cutting back on unnecessary spending, possibly becoming more focused on their goals to provide QUALITY crap to the consumer instead of inundating the shelves with junk. The car companies are re-evaluating their focus not so much on the "green" issues, but on the fact that consumers need a good, reliable vehicle that doesn't cost a fortune to get good gas mileage. (Note hybrids and how many people actually foot the bill for one.) The market has been stabilized as it looks by the DJIA, but time will tell whether that squiggly line dips or rises in the short term... and how fast it will grow over the long term. We've already had the dot com bubble burst and now this... maybe we'll actually be careful this time or maybe history will repeat itself.Health care is a touchy subject, because it makes sense to be insured and have a plan, but at the same time, it is expensive. But think about how expensive things would be if you were to hurt yourself... or better yet, go to the emergency room for a random sever pain in your knee that no one can explain. I forked over $2000 for something that went away on its own... is that something you can afford to fork over right off the back? I don't think most people could. And that's why I'm all up for everyone having health insurance... but not in the way that universal health care will provide it. I don't usually pay attention to politics, so forgive me if I ask: what's wrong with Medicare and Medicaid? How did we go about actually thinking about universal health care if we already have options for those who can't afford health care? There are some of us who can't because we're actually trying to make it work with ourselves and might not be able to afford health insurance but yet not qualify for Medicare/Medicaid... but that's when you have to make do with what you have. Add yourself (or keep yourself) on your parent's plan, or go through your employer. Or work another job... or do nothing. It's our personal choice. If we want to save a few bucks by not getting insurance, then it's our loss when the bill comes in the mail (if we get hurt).I never heard of Obama proposing a universal sales tax, but then again, it wouldn't be that surprising considering that we do have to pay the deficit somehow.I think that Shawn Hannity is a smart dude, but I can't stand listening to talk radio. Plus, I think that if I started exposing myself to just one medium, I would lose out on being able to think of political issues on both sides of the fence... not to mention that I don't care that much. Politics can be interesting at times to discuss, but in the end, it's like trying to convince a rock that it's a hat: no one wins, and everyone kind of leaves either ticked off or unchanged, with nothing that works to show any productivity in the manner.