Current News at Loafin' Tree
Below you will find current news pertinant to our customers and news from the ever changing technology of the internet and business.
Some of the news items include the personal views of the management at Loafin' Tree and we cannot be liable for false interpretations, or true interpretations for that matter. Other news items are brought to you via an RSS feed. The views and information through these sources may not be the same as the management of Loafin' Tree LLC. We cannot be liable for that either.
24April2006
IE - The Enemy
Since Microsoft can't seem to come up with a operating system that works right out of the box without some type of security holes, it has become necessary to get updates regularly. We applaud Microsoft for at least attempting to fix the bugs in their software. However, you might note that after the latest update, some sites now require you to activate a flash object by either hitting the enter, space key, or clicking on the object before it becomes active. This became rather cumbersome to this site because we use SWF files to create our main menu. So suddenly, you needed to click the links twice before they worked.
Fortunately, we ran into a bright man who created a fantastic method of correcting this problem in Internet Explorer. (BTW, this problem doesn't exist in any of the other major browsers that we could tell.) For any of you developers looking for a fix, we highly recommend going here: http://blog.deconcept.com/swfobject/. Here you'll find a brilliant piece of javascript written by Geoff Stearns. Thanks to brave programmers worldwide, we can overcome the monster called IE. For those who wish to have an excellent and very capable browser without the headaches, we suggest you switch to Firefox. And sorry for the temporary glitch. It wasn't our fault! Really! It was Bill!
13April2006
Domain Robbers
Our latest unpleasant experience involves the 'run around' and robbery. Purchasing a domain name should be cheap, simple and straight forward. However, as with everything else, there are those that would take advantage by buying up domain names that they believe will be of high worth and selling them for $100's, $1,000's or even much more. I'm not talking about those. This case involves two companies that seem to be completely competent when providing web hosting services and domain names. However, we found out the truth when one of our websites suddenly became a marker page. The site was down for no apparent reason at all. The domain was good until 2007 and we didn't change the DNS records, so who did? Well we may never know. What we do know is that it took many e-mails, calls and IM's to get anyone to talk to, then they simply pointed to their "partner" company as responsible (the run around).
After a week of this game we decided we had enough. We finally wrote a threatening e-mail to both "partners" that got results. We didn't threat to bomb them or give them a 'time-out.' We used publicity. We told them that if we didn't get results within 24 hours we were going to tell the world what we thought of their lack of customer service, and we cc'd a few others to get the point across. Suddenly, they both accomplished the very simple task we had requested and begged our pardon. Ugh!
This is precisely the kind of service you can expect today and exactly the kind of service we try to avoid. If you have a problem, we're here to solve it, and solve it as quick as possible. Sometimes a robbery of time is the worst kind.
8Mar2006
Urgent for Bank Customers!
I've concluded that I must be rich beyond my wildest dreams because according to my e-mail(s), I have accounts at every major bank in America. In case you don't know, there are more unscrupulous characters that send e-mails with valid looking logos and URL's looking to lure readers to click on a link and give all their private information. This allows the e-mailer the chance to steal your money and your identity. The most recent of these sent to my attention was setup to appear from Chase Bank. The funny thing was the call to action at the end of the e-mail. It read: "This instruction has been sent to all bank customers and is obligatory to fallow." Yes, that's fallow with an "a." I realize that many make spelling errors, including myself, but I would hope that in such a short message, of such great importance, someone at Chase would notice this error.
6Mar2006
Free?CreditReport.com
Recently someone we know decided to take advantage of the "free" credit report on freecreditreport.com and was unpleasantly surprised. Let's preface by saying that you will get a free credit report (which you are entitled to anyways from all credit reporting agencies once per year or anytime you are refused credit). A few months after requesting and receiving their free credit report, they noticed deductions of $12.95 each month for a membership they never knew they had. This is an old technique and extremely devious in my opinion. In fact, unless you read the less than obvious, low contrast text on the left side of the home page, you won't know until you go to balance your credit or debit card account. My experience is that if you have a worthwhile product or service then someone will buy it. Those who don't have a good product or service, often resort to trickery and thievery to steal people's money. So, the next time you see something that is "free," double check all the fine print, and contact your better business bureau. Chances are you'll waste your time or be had.
For a truly free credit report from all three agencies you can visit www.annualcreditreport.com which allows you to get your free annual reports allowed by law.
23Feb2006
The War on Spam - Part 3
In our latest efforts to reduce spam, we've eliminated all "catchall" e-mail aliases. These aliases do exactly what they say; they catch all e-mails to your domain regardless of if it is a legitimate address or not. Many spammers have taken advantage of this in phishing schemes. If you feel that you need to have a catchall account, we encourage you to find an alternative which we may be able to help you with. Please contact us if you need more information or would like your "catchall" account restored.
16Feb2006
The War on Spam!
We've currently added 15 spam lists to our e-mail server. With our weighted system, if any e-mail IP address shows up on any 2 of these lists, it is automatically re-routed to our spam box temporarily and then deleted. We've already seen a significant increase in spam captures. We hope you notice a difference.
Beware of adding your e-mail to forms online without at least reading the privacy statement of the company you are submitting information to. Also, do not "unsubscribe" to unknown lists, as this is often a ploy to verify live e-mail addresses.
14Feb2006
We are working hard to safely eliminate spam without eliminating legitimate e-mails. This is a problem that many are facing and few are winning. There are hundreds of spam lists, but some include 'good' addresses and potentially block those who are not spammers at all. We are selecting researched lists and adding them to our weighted system in order to block as much as possible but make sure your friends, family and business associates still get through. If you are having extraordinary problems with spam, please contact us and we will do our best to correct the problem.
e-mail | Loafin' Tree LLC © Copyright 2005, 2006, 2007 Loafin' Tree LLC Privacy Policy
Valid XHTML, CSS.
Below you will find current news pertinant to our customers and news from the ever changing technology of the internet and business.Some of the news items include the personal views of the management at Loafin' Tree and we cannot be liable for false interpretations, or true interpretations for that matter. Other news items are brought to you via an RSS feed. The views and information through these sources may not be the same as the management of Loafin' Tree LLC. We cannot be liable for that either.
24April2006
IE - The Enemy
Since Microsoft can't seem to come up with a operating system that works right out of the box without some type of security holes, it has become necessary to get updates regularly. We applaud Microsoft for at least attempting to fix the bugs in their software. However, you might note that after the latest update, some sites now require you to activate a flash object by either hitting the enter, space key, or clicking on the object before it becomes active. This became rather cumbersome to this site because we use SWF files to create our main menu. So suddenly, you needed to click the links twice before they worked.
Fortunately, we ran into a bright man who created a fantastic method of correcting this problem in Internet Explorer. (BTW, this problem doesn't exist in any of the other major browsers that we could tell.) For any of you developers looking for a fix, we highly recommend going here: http://blog.deconcept.com/swfobject/. Here you'll find a brilliant piece of javascript written by Geoff Stearns. Thanks to brave programmers worldwide, we can overcome the monster called IE. For those who wish to have an excellent and very capable browser without the headaches, we suggest you switch to Firefox. And sorry for the temporary glitch. It wasn't our fault! Really! It was Bill!
13April2006
Domain Robbers
Our latest unpleasant experience involves the 'run around' and robbery. Purchasing a domain name should be cheap, simple and straight forward. However, as with everything else, there are those that would take advantage by buying up domain names that they believe will be of high worth and selling them for $100's, $1,000's or even much more. I'm not talking about those. This case involves two companies that seem to be completely competent when providing web hosting services and domain names. However, we found out the truth when one of our websites suddenly became a marker page. The site was down for no apparent reason at all. The domain was good until 2007 and we didn't change the DNS records, so who did? Well we may never know. What we do know is that it took many e-mails, calls and IM's to get anyone to talk to, then they simply pointed to their "partner" company as responsible (the run around).
After a week of this game we decided we had enough. We finally wrote a threatening e-mail to both "partners" that got results. We didn't threat to bomb them or give them a 'time-out.' We used publicity. We told them that if we didn't get results within 24 hours we were going to tell the world what we thought of their lack of customer service, and we cc'd a few others to get the point across. Suddenly, they both accomplished the very simple task we had requested and begged our pardon. Ugh!
This is precisely the kind of service you can expect today and exactly the kind of service we try to avoid. If you have a problem, we're here to solve it, and solve it as quick as possible. Sometimes a robbery of time is the worst kind.
8Mar2006
Urgent for Bank Customers!
I've concluded that I must be rich beyond my wildest dreams because according to my e-mail(s), I have accounts at every major bank in America. In case you don't know, there are more unscrupulous characters that send e-mails with valid looking logos and URL's looking to lure readers to click on a link and give all their private information. This allows the e-mailer the chance to steal your money and your identity. The most recent of these sent to my attention was setup to appear from Chase Bank. The funny thing was the call to action at the end of the e-mail. It read: "This instruction has been sent to all bank customers and is obligatory to fallow." Yes, that's fallow with an "a." I realize that many make spelling errors, including myself, but I would hope that in such a short message, of such great importance, someone at Chase would notice this error.
- Things to do when suspecting a Phishing
scheme:
- Look for mispellings (ha)
- Look for strange URL and sub-domains like "...chase.schemer.com/login.php"
- Enter a blatantly wrong user name and password and you will still be allowed entry.
- DON'T ever give your private information - Banks will not ask for information in this fashion
- Call the bank using a legitimate number from a phone book or other reputable source.
6Mar2006
Free?CreditReport.com
Recently someone we know decided to take advantage of the "free" credit report on freecreditreport.com and was unpleasantly surprised. Let's preface by saying that you will get a free credit report (which you are entitled to anyways from all credit reporting agencies once per year or anytime you are refused credit). A few months after requesting and receiving their free credit report, they noticed deductions of $12.95 each month for a membership they never knew they had. This is an old technique and extremely devious in my opinion. In fact, unless you read the less than obvious, low contrast text on the left side of the home page, you won't know until you go to balance your credit or debit card account. My experience is that if you have a worthwhile product or service then someone will buy it. Those who don't have a good product or service, often resort to trickery and thievery to steal people's money. So, the next time you see something that is "free," double check all the fine print, and contact your better business bureau. Chances are you'll waste your time or be had.
For a truly free credit report from all three agencies you can visit www.annualcreditreport.com which allows you to get your free annual reports allowed by law.
23Feb2006
The War on Spam - Part 3
In our latest efforts to reduce spam, we've eliminated all "catchall" e-mail aliases. These aliases do exactly what they say; they catch all e-mails to your domain regardless of if it is a legitimate address or not. Many spammers have taken advantage of this in phishing schemes. If you feel that you need to have a catchall account, we encourage you to find an alternative which we may be able to help you with. Please contact us if you need more information or would like your "catchall" account restored.
16Feb2006
The War on Spam!
We've currently added 15 spam lists to our e-mail server. With our weighted system, if any e-mail IP address shows up on any 2 of these lists, it is automatically re-routed to our spam box temporarily and then deleted. We've already seen a significant increase in spam captures. We hope you notice a difference.
Beware of adding your e-mail to forms online without at least reading the privacy statement of the company you are submitting information to. Also, do not "unsubscribe" to unknown lists, as this is often a ploy to verify live e-mail addresses.
14Feb2006
We are working hard to safely eliminate spam without eliminating legitimate e-mails. This is a problem that many are facing and few are winning. There are hundreds of spam lists, but some include 'good' addresses and potentially block those who are not spammers at all. We are selecting researched lists and adding them to our weighted system in order to block as much as possible but make sure your friends, family and business associates still get through. If you are having extraordinary problems with spam, please contact us and we will do our best to correct the problem.
e-mail | Loafin' Tree LLC © Copyright 2005, 2006, 2007 Loafin' Tree LLC Privacy Policy