Greetings from Dave

January 28, 2009 9:12 AM

In This Issue:

• Greetings from Dave
• Upgrade to DSL
• Important Privacy Law News
• SPAM & Phishers
• The Indian Chief and the Weather Forecaster

Greetings from Dave

I was driving into work this morning and heard this joke on the radio. It was a bit funny, but it also made me think about how much supposed "experts" influence our lives and behavior.

We are being pounded by constant negative information about our economy all day long. This has made lots of people nervous, and has made lots of people change their behavior, which has caused lots of businesses to suffer, which further feeds the statistics that justify the negative information. Perception drives reality.

The world is not ending. Be happy, be healthy, and be optimistic.

Regards,

Dave Flaherty
President

For the joke, read "The Indian Chief and the Weather Forecaster" below.

Important Privacy Law Changes

Massachusetts has a new privacy law that will require changes in the way businesses in Massachusetts handle your confidential data.

If you have a website that does not encrypt or protect Personal Information, you could be subject to fines of up to $5000 per violation effective May 1, 2009. Please call us at (413) 584-8600 x301 and we will help you upgrade your website and secure your data. Costs vary, but typically a small to medium sized business with "web mail" type forms should expect to invest about $400-$600 to secure the data and install PGP Encryption software on your computer.

Spam & Phishing Alert

Recently several customers have contacted us regarding emails that they have received asking for their usernames and passwords. These email looked like they might have been sent by eclecTechs, but after a brief review, they were clearly send by phishers.

The goal of the phishers in this case was to gain access to email accounts that they could use to send SPAM.

Be aware! This type of thing is happening all over the internet to internet service providers, banks, credit companies, phone companies, utilities, finance companies, and benefits companies. It it very easy to create fake emails or websites that collect private information. Please be very conscientious and never give your login name, passwords, or other personal information to internet solicitors.

eclecTechs will never need to ask for your password, and we'd certainly never ask for it via email.

The Indian Chief and the Weather Forecaster

It was autumn, and the Indians on the remote reservation asked their new Chief if the winter was going to be cold or mild. Since he was a new Indian Chief in a modern society, he had never been taught the old secrets, and when he looked at the sky, he couldn't tell what the weather was going to be. Nevertheless, to be on the safe side, he replied to his tribe that the winter was indeed going to be cold and that the members of the village should collect wood to be prepared. But also being a practical leader, after several days he got an idea. He went to the phone booth, called the National Weather Service and asked, "Is the coming winter going to be cold?"

"It looks like this winter is going to be quite cold indeed," the meteorologist at the weather service responded.

So the Chief went back to his people and told them to collect even more wood in order to be prepared.

A week later he called the National Weather Service again.

"Is it going to be a very cold winter?"

"Yes," the man at National Weather Service again replied, "it's going to be a very cold winter."

The Chief again went back to his people and ordered them to collect every scrap of wood they could find.

Two weeks later he called the National Weather Service again.

"Are you absolutely sure that the winter is going to be very cold?"

"Absolutely," the man replied. "It's going to be one of the coldest winters ever."

"How can you be so sure?" the Chief asked.

The weatherman replied, "The Indians are collecting wood like crazy!"

One Month Free

If you change your billing cycle from monthly to annually, we'll give you 12 months of service for the price of 11. This helps us reduce the overhead associated with billing small amounts, reduces your monthly paperwork, reduces your total costs, saves on postage, and reduces the amount of paper we consume. Feel free to switch plans at anytime - just send a quick email to billing@eclecTechs.com.

Posted in News (8)