KZIONradio

Microsoft said that it will keep the new version of Microsoft’s IE Web browser available only as part of the recently released Windows XP operating system, Service Pack 2. In other words, unless you run XP you can not get any future security or performance upgrades to IE. One more reason I will never go back to using IE.

I stumbled upon this thread about LDS music and it disappointed me that LDS music is still being perceived as being sappy and that the Mormon pop culture is somehow inferior to that of the worlds pop culture.

The world judges the value of music and its players by production, lights, sex, controversy, rumors and image. I judge the value of music by what it speaks. Does it speak to me in a way that I can relate to? Does it speak to me about my values and lifestyle? I don’t care about how wonderful your bed partner’s body is. I don’t care about the drugs you take while touring and the family you left behind because your music was more important. I care about how you made your relationship work in spite of the trials of life. I care about the love you have for your family and the romance you share with your wife. I care about how you overcame a restless soul.

LDS music does not have to be religious in nature LDS music is a lifestyle music format. In other words it is written from an LDS perspective. LDS music can be about relationships, love, depression, struggles, death, divorce, politics, patriotism, recreation, etc.

I am vivid and magical.
I’m careless and practical.
I’ve got music in my soul
I can be spectacular,
I am straight laced and angular.
You’d be surprised to know just what I know.

How am I to see the rain
Through the coming clouds of pain?
When you’re here
There’s an anxiety of nearness.
How am I to see the sun
Knowing I’m the only one
Who lives and lets love
Build the things we’re made of.

Luckey’s Boats got a fine full cutty,
Ah Ha every seem
Mmm Hmm chinked with putty
Hoist up Luckey’s Boat’s got a high stop jig
and a patent block with a for most jig

Snippets of lyrics written by members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Do you see any mention of a prophet, holy ghost, sacrament meeting, or being a child of God? When can we get past thinking about worship whenever we hear the words LDS music?

When I tell people I meet about KZION their usual reaction is, “Oh, cool” and that’s it. There’s no interest in wanting to learn more. There’s no follow up question about how to listen to the station. Because when they hear the term LDS music they’re turned off, thinking it’s all primary music and the MOTABS.

LDS music can be in the form of sacred, inspirational, instrumental, rock, pop, country, electric, new age, folk, dance, ambient, jazz, etc.

Don’t misunderstand me. I love listening to the MOTABS. Sunday’s on KZION is one of my favorite days to listen. But, there is so much more. I love the way Cary Judd rocks me, I love the jazz of Michael Dowdle, I love being carried away by the storytelling style of David Edwards, I dig the grooves of Alex Boye, I want to grab Shelly and slow dance to the R&B sound of 4PM, I want to two-step to the fiddle of Ryan Shupe, and the classical music of Kevin Kiner takes me to a place of reflection.

No smoke, lights, scandal, sex, controversy, or inappropriate lyrics. Just music that speaks to my soul.

When you hear the words LDS music have an open mind. Don’t box it in with the usual stereotypes because LDS music can take you to a much better place then what you listen to on the car radio.

A teenager dressed as pizza mascot Chuck E. Cheese was pelted with pizza and threatened with a beating by an angry parent who said the mascot wasn’t paying enough attention to her child. We scratch our heads when we see kids beating the crap out of each other at school and wonder why they behave this way.

The US Supreme Court wrapped up its session by announcing a decision which bars the enforcement of the Child Online Protection Act (COPA). The law would of required age verification prior to admittance to adult sites. Thanks ACLU for caring more about pornographers than children.

Have you been phished? Chances are you have. Phishing is a form of spam but much more harmful. A phisher sends out eMail’s that appear to be legitimate to unsuspecting Ebay, PayPal, or other financial customers asking them to update their personal or financial information. The eMail looks credible and the website the recipient is directed to looks exactly like the company’s legitimate website.

Here’s how it works.

I receive an eMail that looks like this.

You have added laptopseller@yahoo.com as a new email address for your PayPal account.

If you did not authorize this change or if you need assistance with your account, please contact PayPal customer service at:

https://www.paypal.com/row/wf/f=ap_email

The link displays what you see above but it actually takes you here

http://cgi5-paypal-changemail.us/cgi-bin/login.html

Notice it is not a PayPal weblink!

Thank you for using PayPal!The PayPal Team

Please do not reply to this e-mail. Mail sent to this address cannot be answered. For assistance, log in to your PayPal account and choose the "Help" link in the header of any page.

PROTECT YOUR PASSWORD

NEVER give your password to anyone and ONLY log in at https://www.paypal.com/. Protect yourself against fraudulent websites by opening a new web browser (e.g. Internet Explorer or Netscape) and typing in the PayPal URL every time you log in to your account.

The return address is

service@paypal.com <service @paypal.com></service>

and so everything looks official. Of course I’m concerned as it appears that an unauthorized eMail address has been added to my account so I better log in and check it out.

When I click on the link provided in the eMail, I am sent to a website that looks exactly like my PayPal login page. I enter my login name and password and I’m then directed to the real PayPal website. I’ve been phished! The phisher now has my PayPal login name and password because the PayPal login form was not on Paypal’s website, but on the phishers website. The login form I used relayed my private information to the phisher’s eMail box and now he’s shopping on the Internet using my PayPal account.

Here’s another one from what appears to be Ebay.

Dear eBay User,

During our regular update and verification of the accounts, we could not verify your current information. Either your information has changed or it is incomplete. As a result, your access to bid or buy on eBay has been restricted. To start using your eBay account again, please update and verify your information by clicking the link below :

http://cgi3.ebay.com@reg-cgi.com/eBayISAPI.dll?...

Thank you very much for your cooperation!

eBay Customer Support

Remember: eBay will not ask you for sensitive personal information (such as your password, credit card and bank account numbers, social security number, etc.) in an email.

Copyright 1995 - 2004 eBay Inc. All rights reserved. Designated trademarks and brands are the property of their respective owners.

The same thing happens here. I submit my login information thinking that I’m logging into Ebay but instead I’m sending personal information to a phisher.

Be careful. Always verify the URI before you click on it. Ebay and PayPal always use a secure https:// site for user logins. A good rule is to never use the link provided in an eMail. Always go to the website yourself and login as you normally do.

I was driving my sons car to the windshield repair shop to get a cracked windshield replaced yesterday and I was pulled over by a policeman. My son’s car had an expired temporary registration by a few days and I was taking the car to get the windshield replaced and then to the DMV to get it registered. My wife was following behind me in our van, and the policeman about ran her off the road as he cut in front of her to get behind me. I explained what I was doing and he let me go without a ticket but I wonder about his judgment to endanger my wife to get behind me. Was I going to escape? Was he afraid he was going to lose me?

It reminds me of when I saw a policeman race through a school zone to pull over a car that was speeding through the school zone. I wrote a letter to the police chief asking how one of his policeman could justify placing children at risk to pull over someone who was speeding. Couldn’t he of just safely drove through the school zone and then sped up to catch the speeder? The police chief wrote me back to apologize and tell me that he had read my letter to his officers during roll call.

Apparently this guy was a little upset at seeing a deputy speeding so he decided to pull over the cop. As much as any of us would love to do that it doesn’t sound too bright as this guy found out. The altercation escalated and the motorist found himself in jail, and then his family came to his rescue and they all ended up in jail too. I think I’ll stick with writing letters.

I saw The Day After Tomorrow a few weeks ago and it scared the heck out of me. The special effects were amazing and seeing the movie has made me more aware of how awful we are treating the environment. I found this article which sounds like part of the script from the movie.

...the current concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is 380 parts per million—higher than it has been for at least the past 430,000 years…In the next 100 years, unless immediate action is taken, carbon dioxide levels will rise to between 800 and 1,000 parts per million. The last time carbon dioxide was that high was during the Eocene, 55 to 36 million years ago…At that time palm trees lived in Wyoming, crocodiles lived in the Arctic, Antarctica was a pine forest and sea level was at least 300 feet higher than today.

If Greenland and the West Antarctic ice sheets melt they could add 41 feet of water to the sea.

This would be enough to swamp most of Florida, Bangladesh and Manhattan

Of course it’s the US government and Americans in general who are not taking this threat seriously. We refuse to embrace alternative fuels and at the same time we keep buying bigger vehicles that guzzle even more fuel. The big thing here in St. George as well as in many cities across the US are SUV’s and Hummers. Is it any surprise that the United States is the world’s biggest polluter, producing 36 percent of warming emissions?

I’m not sure if things will change. We are very much into a “me” mentality and really all that matters is if I get what I want, now. People are more busy than ever before and so who has time to be concerned about the environment when we’re just worried about getting through today? I suppose if we care at all for our children and grandchildren we better get off out butts and do something about it.

Will you please stop clicking on the pop-up ads. There is a war going on between pop-up advertisers and pop-up blockers and the advertisers get fired up even more when statistics show that between 2 percent and 5 percent of the people who get a pop-up ad will respond with a click. That is a far better response than 0.35 percent for web site banner ads.

How can Women Outspend Men on Electronics? Men unite! We can’t let the women take over our DVD’s, big screen TV’s and iPODS. Women, electronics belong to us, Ok? One of the few joys in life is going to the big electronic stores and watching sports or Star Wars on the 61” plasma screen while my wife is shopping at Bed, Bath & Beyond. Now when I go into Best Buy they’re gonna have TLC or Lifetime on my 61” plasma screen! The End really is coming…

No surprises but Bob’s latest column has a few quotable quotes.

A study by the Pew Research Center this weeks shows that national reporters – TV, radio and newspaper – self-identify as liberals 34 percent of the time and as conservatives 7 percent of the time…Among Americans in general, 20 percent of us say we’re liberal and 33 percent of us say we’re conservative. So, if you do the math, liberals are almost 75 percent more common in the media than they are in society, and conservatives are almost 80 percent less common in the media than they are in society.

For example, among journalists, less than 15 percent believe that faith in God is a necessary part of being a “moral person.” Among the American population, however, the number is 60 percent. Americans in general are four times more likely to value religion as a part of personal morality than are journalists.

He concludes that we obtain our news from a minority viewpoint and so what we hear and read is often skewed. Hollywood is the same way. The people who provide the majority of our entertainment do not represent the morality of the people who partake of it. Unfortunately, most of us just accept it.

I just received an e-mail from MSN concerning my Hotmail account. “As a valued customer, we want to remind you that if your e-mail account goes over the 2MB storage limit, it will be automatically frozen.” Are you serious? 2 MB? I get 4 MB on Yahoo which soon will be 100 MB. Apparently MSN is asleep at the wheel.

Update: I just checked my Yahoo! account and I actually have 6 MB of storage.

Six Apart recently released the highly anticipated version 3.0 of their weblog publishing tool, Movable Type. MT is arguable one of the most popular weblog publishing systems available. Until recently MT was considered donation-ware and was used by many of the high profile weblogs on the net. With the release of 3.0, MT migrated to fee-based licensing and thus the exodus.

My understanding is people are not upset that Six Apart implemented a fee structure but that the licensing is restrictive which goes against the free-sharing software culture that made up the MT community. The fee structure is based on support level, number of authors permitted, and the number of weblogs permitted per license. Source code was made available and hackers were free to hack and create patches and plug-ins and share their creations with the MT community. You can’t do that with a fee-based licensing structure.

Mark Pilgrim runs 11 blogs, under the new fee structure it would cost him about $700. There are many bloggers who run multiple blogs with multiple authors, which are features that MT excelled in. Eleven blogs with 25 authors before version 3.0 was free. After 3.0 it’s $700+ and from what I understand 3.0 did not make a radical transition from 2.xx. A few new features were added, namely moderated comments.

The official 3.0 release will contain a significant change to the existing interface that embraces web standards, usability and localization. This will also be reflected in a new set of default templates that will implement more of the best practices that both Movable Type and TypePad have become known for.

From what I’m reading, Wordpress is getting many of the dissatisfied MT bloggers. I think they’ll be satisfied with the move. I began using WordPress back when it was known as B2. The support community is strong and there’s always a never-ending supply of hacks, plug-ins, and tweaks available for perusing.

WordPress is GPL-licensed which translates to free and open. With all the interest in WordPress, its future is even brighter.

In the really stupid department a teacher bet a student that if he jumped from the classroom’s second story window that he would be injured. The student disagreed and jumped. He wasn’t injured and returned to class to collect his 20 bucks. The teacher lost his job and $20.

In the really stupid even stupider department a school bus driver was asked by students to pull over after an alligator crossed the road in front of their bus. Of course the bus driver agreed and the kids got off the bus and chased down the 4 ft. alligator.

Four boys ran off the bus, hopped a fence, chased the alligator into a mud hole, got it to clamp its teeth around a stick and wrapped its head with their shirts. A fifth boy happened to have a roll of electrical tape handy, which took care of keeping the reptile’s jaws shut.

The kids then brought the gator onto the bus and took it home. One of the fathers came home to find the reptile hog tied in the back of his truck. One of the kids said about the bus driver, “I liked her a lot,” another boy on the bus said, “She was cool.” If only all bus drivers were as cool as she was.

It’s rumored that the recording industry is forcing Apple to raise single track downloads from 99 cents to $1.25 on some of the more popular tunes.

Under the terms of some of the deals, the prices for some of the most popular singles could rise to $1.25, according to sources familiar with the negotiations. Songs have previously been priced at 99 cents across the board.

Last year at this time the RIAA was making zero dollars from the download of their music. Today, millions of dollars are being made and more importantly shared with singers, songwriters and musicians. But that’s not good enough for corporate execs at the RIAA.

Luckily, this maybe just a rumor.

I have been using the K9 email filtering application for a little over a year now. I get bored with most software I install on my system but this one has performed well and I can’t imagine going back to fighting with all the spam I receive. I have listed the stats that K9 provides below and what is shocking is that of the 117,000 emails I have received, 80% or 94,000 of them were spam!

Sure, spam costs businesses billions of dollars annually but it also makes communication via email difficult. I have an Ebay business and I waste so much time on people who don’t receive my emails due to spam filters. AOL is a huge offender. It’s virtually impossible for me to get an email past AOL, I usually have to log onto my Ebay account and use their system to communicate which eats up my time.

Do everyone a favor, if you use a spam filter be sure to check it on occasion for legitimate emails that get trapped.

Since 4/20/2003 12:00:00 AM (380 days)

Total number of emails processed – 116,710 – 307/day
Number of Good emails processed – 22,904 – 19.62%
Number of Spam emails processed – 93,806 – 80.38%
Number of emails re-classified to Good – 309
Number of emails re-classified to Spam – 569
Percentage emails misidentified as Spam (false positives) – 0.26%
Percentage emails misidentified as Good (false negatives) – 0.49%
Overall accuracy – 99.25%

Note: In this blog entry I am using the * in place of the o in the word p*rn so I don’t get blocked by some Internet filters.

I would really like to see some debate on the issue of LDS owned businesses offering products and services that are forbidden by members of the church. For example, we have a grocery store here in St. George that is owned by a respected LDS family. The store sells tobacco. The owners make a living in part by selling tobacco. We have several members who own convenience stores that sell alcohol. The Mariott chain of hotels, owned by members of the church have p*rn movies on demand in their hotel rooms.

The American Family Association and two subsidiary groups, One Million Moms and One Million Dads, spurred members to send thousands of e-mail messages to the addresses of executives at the Marriott Corp. asking the company to stop offering adult movies in its hotel rooms.

What is up with that? A member of the church has respected family organizations lobbying him to stop showing p*rnography.

Let me say that I’m probably crossing the line of judging others but it’s on my mind and the reason I started this blog was to share what’s on my mind.

I understand business, I own a retail store and know that you have to keep up with your competition or you’ll fail. But when do you decide it’s time to get out of a particular business when the pressure is such to do things that are not acceptable for you to partake, yet you’re a supplier? Or do you just not even get into a business that could eventually lead to having to make these kind of decisions?

Is it Ok to sell p*rn, alcohol, and tobacco but just not partake of it? Is it Ok to play professional sports on Sunday but just not watch them? Is it Ok to point out the faults of others but just not your own?

It’s a scam. With just an hour left in the Ebay auction the pair of Temple Garments are up to $15,200 with 17 bids. There is NO way that someone would pay 15 grand for garments. It must be a group of anti-mormons who are trying to bring attention to Mormon’s with horns who wear secret underwear. The Ebay ID’s are all hidden so it would be easy for a group of people to bid up an item for show.

Now there is another pair going for $5,000. I make my living on Ebay and I’m telling you making money is not this easy.

Now see, I had an idea to sell garments on Ebay for $6 to disrupt the guy who is going to pocket $2,000 for a pair of underwear. It was a little extreme. These people had ideas too but they were much more logical and pretty entertaining.

This auction is titled, garments – Mormon under garment EXTREMELY RARE The description is as follows: Do yourself a favor. Instead of wasting your money on the increasingly common Mormon temple garment, consider the following: You will be bidding on the VERY RARE, SELDOM SEEN, Mormon sport undergarment. The general public is COMPLETELY UNAWARE that Mormons frequently remove the standard temple garment before participating in athletics. This sport undergarment, worn by thousands of Mormons during such sport activities is EVEN MORE RARE than its temple-variety counterpart.

And this auction is titled MORMON GARMENTS, Sacred NOT Secret but has the following as the description:

You are bidding on one game. It is called Snackopoly. Made by McKee Baking Co.(Little Debbie) Its like Monopoly except its based on Little Debbie snacks. Great for a monday family night! This is a very rare game because it was only given to the factory workers on Christmas of 2002. To make it even more rare. They had a misprint on one of the properties and made us all a special sticker to put it on our selves. I have that as well. The game is new and still sealed in the box. God be with you till we meet again ! ;o)

And finally there is this auction.

Titled, Secret Mormon Recipe (used by those who wear garments) and the description says, “Up for auction is a recipe for a sacred desert eaten by an overwhelming majority of Mormons. The recipe is for GREEN JELLO WITH SHREDDED CARROTS!

“Mormons have a select number of secret, traditional food recipes that they often partake of in the sanctity of their homes and at church social activities. If you don’t believe me, ask any Mormon you know. They’re everywhere! I am offering one of the most well-loved Mormon recipes for sale on eBay! Yes, it’s true! This is not a hoax, unlike those Mormon garment auctions where an inner circle of losers have conspired to bid on an item that nobody will really pay for in order to generate press and piss off Mormons! I am in this for the money and my eBay feedback speaks for my integrity as a seller.

“The recipe is surprisingly simple, but has eluded non-Mormons for decades. I have included a picture of two of the main ingredients. Green Jello and carrots. The third ingredient is not listed. To the winning bidder I will send the final ingredient with directions on preparation!

“Why spend your hard earned bread on a set of underwear that Mormons use? Just stick with Hanes. If they’re good enough for Michael Jordan, they’re good enough for you. Unless you think you’re better than MJ, which would make you a flaming racist and I don’t want you bidding on my item!

“Note the low starting price with no reserve. I expect this recipe to sell for at least $1000, so bid early and often. Recipe to be shipped by overnight express for $15.00 flat.

“DISCLAIMER: I am NOT a Mormon. Please do not contact me with questions about Mormon doctrines. I am an evangelical born again whacko who has no respect for the beliefs of others because they are ALL false! Think about it … Hindus think cows are sacred, but that’s not going to stop me from eating a freaking Big Mac!.”

Are we having fun yet?

Someone is selling a pair of garments on Ebay and the bidding is currently at $2,000. Is that insane or what? It’s so tempting to place some garments on Ebay for $6 as Buy-It-Now auctions. The high bidders of the current auction would probably retract their bids and the guy selling the garments would lose his precious $2,000. If only I had the guts.

I mean come on…they sell for $5 at the garment store and any yahoo can walk off the street and purchase a pair. I was going to write to the high bidder informing him/her that they were stupid but the auction is private and all the email addresses are hidden.

Before you send me hate mail I don’t condone the sale of garments on Ebay and would never actually do that myself even to disrupt a guy making 2 grand. It’s just so ludicrous to me that people would pay $2,000 for my underwear.

First, I went to fill up my gas tank in my mini-van and it cost me $45, then I heard some statements by John Kerry about President Bush trying to take care of the world but at the same time neglecting America’s economy. Then last night at the gym I was listening to the press conference given by President Bush and he appeared to be unable to answer any of the questions directly. I understand that politicians are double talkers and rarely answer questions directly but this was really bad in my eyes.

One of the reporters asked Mr. Bush if he had made any mistakes preceding the 9-11 incident and if so what did he learn from the mistake(s). He could not answer the question. Come on…There were several other questions that Bush just stumbled through.

This was President Bush’s first press conference in over a year so what the heck is he doing besides fighting a war? Family incomes have gone down over $1200 dollars under his watch, the labor market is short several millions jobs, long-term unemployment remains near record highs, and families have a hard time affording rising health care costs, while becoming more mired in debt on a daily basis.

Because job losses have mounted in the past three years, families had to borrow more to make ends meet. Household debt has reached record highs as has the level of debt service relative to household incomes. Consequently, the default rates of households on their loans have been comparatively high, despite low interest rates. That is, families may not get to enjoy their new homes as they struggle to repay their debts.
Tompaine.com

I like Bush and I think he has done a fair job with terrorism and the war in Iraq. But dang-it, let’s keep the American economy in check so I’m not paying $45 to fill up my vehicle.