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EU Says Sanctions Necessary - Iranian Leadership Must Allow Election Anniversary Protests

On the occasion of the UN Security Council's vote on sanctions against Iran and the first anniversary of the protests against electoral fraud during the Iranian presidential elections of 12 June 2009, … Read more

World | Friday, 11 June 2010 | Hits: 20 | Comments

Given that over 90% of the jobs gained in May were public sector jobs, and 95% those were temporary census workers, AND given that we already knew that there was fudging done by the U.S. Census to pump up those employment rolls, this new flavor of corruption comes as no surprise. O'Keefe closes his BigGovernment post thus:

Exposing corruption requires standing up to power, because power hates sunlight. We should have known they would try and ruin the reputations of those who try and expose them. But in response, we are going to build an army of citizen investigators. There's hundreds more where I came from. You have awakened a sleeping giant. And you can't ruin us all. In fact, in the coming months you will see this army expanding into every state, every statehouse, every city council, every school board, and everywhere people are conspiring to keep themselves in power, practice favoritism, or line their pockets with tax dollars.

Let's hope that O'Keefe becomes an inspiration for a new generation aspiring journalists everywhere who are actually interested in the truth and willing to take considerable risks in order to fight the corrupt progressive government under which America is now being oppressed.

On an incorruptible tip from cowlove.

The privacy practices of the world’s three largest search engines are under fire in Europe again. European Union officials sent letters to Google (PDF), Microsoft (PDF), and Yahoo (PDF) yesterday claiming their data protection policies (PDF) flout EU data retention rules.

Under those rules, search engines must anonymize user data after six months. And while most search engines have reduced their data retention periods, none have truly complied with EU regulations. Google (GOOG) keeps user data for nine months. Microsoft (MSFT) keeps it for six, but holds on to software cookies and whatnot for a year beyond that. And Yahoo (YHOO) eliminates user data after 90 days, but only partially.

“On behalf of the data protection authorities in the EU united in WP29, I call on you to improve the protection of the online privacy of users of your search engine services,” the Article 29 Data Protection Working Party said in its letters.

“Besides limiting the retention period of personal data,” the letters continue, “measures include a reduction of the possibility to identify users in the search logs and the creation of an external audit process to reassure users that you are delivering on your privacy promises, i.e. by involving an independent and external auditing entity.”

Regulators had a particularly stern rebuke for Google, whose privacy practices have come under intense scrutiny this month after the company admitted its Street View cars had been–heh heh–“inadvertently” collecting and storing payload data from unsecured private Wi-Fi networks for three years.

“Considering Google’s dominant position in almost every EU member state, with a market share of up to 95 percent in some national search engine markets, the company has a significant role in European citizens’ daily lives,” the regulators wrote. “The company’s apparent lack of focus in data retention is concerning.”

Tom Cruise’s former auditor, high ranking former Scientologist Marty Rathbun, has come forward with claims that Scientology head David Miscavige not only didn’t hold Cruise’s confessions sacred, he regularly taped them and read out transcripts of the star’s auditing sessions at parties. Rathbun has previously said that Miscavige assigned him in 2001 “to coordinate Tom’s divorce from Nicole and to serve as his auditor,” something that Cruise’s lawyer confirmed with a harshly worded letter warning Rathbun not to disclose any personal information that Cruise revealed in his auditing sessions. (Auditing is a Scientology process of eliciting secrets from members. It serves the dual purpose of indoctrinating them into the cult and collecting personal information to use against them.) Rathbun has promised to hold Cruise’s confessions sacred, but Cruise’s buddy Miscavige hasn’t done the same. According to Rathbun, Miscavige would regularly get drunk at parties and reveal Cruise’s secrets. What’s more is that all of Cruise’s auditing sessions were videotaped by Miscavige’s orders:

I audited a number of intensives of confessionals on Tom Cruise from July through November 2001. By order of Miscavige many of those sessions were secretly recorded by a well-concealed video camera and voice recorder system built into the VIP auditing room at Celebrity Center International. I was r-factored that it was for the purpose of having the CS check up on the quality of my delivery. All I knew at that time was that I forwarded the videos to my CS at Int (RTC). I was also required by Miscavige to write reports on the content of every session I delivered during that period and send them directly to Miscavige. I was told by him that he needed to know because recovering Tom to Scientology was the most important mission possible. I never received a single suggestion from Miscavige during the recovery process. He quite apparently wanted to keep his distance until the messy divorce was over and there was no chance of Scientology becoming an issue.

The only C/S comments I received during that period, besides “VWD”, and during the subsequent 2 1/2 months of full time auditing I delivered in 2002, were out-tech suggestions to re-check things that were confirmed as FLAT by me. They were forwarded from COB Asst Shelly (who had virtually no tech training); all of which I refused to carry out in order to protect the pre-OT. Finally, I unilaterally decided to stop recording sessions in Feb 2002 – despite flak from Shelly for ceasing – on the basis that it was simply unethical to record him for no apparent purpose (the video was certainly of no importance for auditor correction purposes) and without his knowledge.

Well, my suspicions about DM’s real purposes for recording Tom’s confessions have been confirmed as warranted. I have recently learned from a very reliable witness that DM regularly held court with others in his personal lounge in the roadside Villas at the Int base, and while sipping scotch whiskey at the end of the night, Miscavige would read Tom’s overts and withholds from my reports to others, joking and laughing about the content of Tom’s confessions. My witness is unimpeachable in my eyes as his account contains too many accurate details from someone who had zero reason (or ability) for being anywhere near Tom’s folders, videos and reports direct to DM. I also know he was a regular, preferred guest at DM’s scotch night caps during that period.

[From Mark Rathbun's blog via Gawker]

Not all of that makes sense to non-Scientologists, but I guess Rathbun is saying that there was no reason to record Tom and that it served no purpose for what he was doing. He also was able to verify that Miscavige did reveal the content of Tom’s confessions by the fact that the stories contained details that only people who had seen or read the actual auditing sessions would know.

Of course I’m curious to hear what Cruise confessed to, but more than that I’d love to know how Miscavige is going to explain this to Cruise. Is he going to deny everything and blame it on some kind of anti-Scientology conspiracy? Will Tom buy that excuse or is he starting to get wise to what a criminal organization Scientology is?

We just heard details from ex Scientologist Amy Scobee’s new book about how Miscavige regularly had Tom’s all-Scientology staff spy on the star and his then-wife, Nicole Kidman. It sounds like Miscavige was collecting damning information to use against Tom in the event that he ever wanted to leave the cult. Maybe by using Tom’s personal stories for his own amusement Miscavige has so overstepped his bounds that Tom won’t be intimidated into keeping silent and supportive. This whole sordid plot reminds me of Cruise’s film The Firm. If only he’d get wise and start to fight back like one of the characters he plays.

Everybody likes to moan about Microsoft products (I do, too), but there are a number of security options available with the Windows operating system that are really quite phenomenal. As an administrator, you have the ability to control just about every aspect of the user's working environment, network or local. Windows is not famous for having a lot of effective default security settings to choose from, however and the Windows desktop is easily open to abuse because of this - if not tweaked properly.

This can be easily achieved by taking a few simple precautions, however. And here is a small collection of seven of my favorite Windows lockdown tips.

Tip 1: Keep your Email in simple text format. It's this simple: there is no way to stop all of that spam, adware, spyware and hacking if you don't give yourself a push and configure your mail as text. The mails containing HTML content might be beautiful to look at, but you are opening the door to abuse and trouble.

Tip 2: Don't keep potentially dangerous files closed for business. Have you ever stopped to think about locking away the System32 folder from Joe User? You ought to. There are way too many executable files in there that he or Joe Intruder can exploit. Just remove the unnecessary permissions.

Tip 3: Put the registry off-limits. Nobody needs to fool around with the registry, ever. Well, nobody except you, that is. Take the time to block access to potentially dangerous registry keys. These include the auto-run keys and startup folders - favorites for those who like to fiddle around with your system. Simply use the NTFS permissions to limit access to these files. Lock out the possibility of making file associations while you are at it. Make a list of types of files you do not want to run on your systems then take away their read and write permissions using NTFS (a group policy would be the best policy here).

Tip 4: Turn off unneeded services. The fewer services you have running on a system the less area of attack you leave open to those who wish to do you harm - or to those who play around with their systems as a hobby. You know, less is more. If you don't need the service, turn it off. You can also run the services you need on non-default ports. This makes it harder for hackers to get at and exploit the services that have to run.

Tip 5: Only allow booting from the primary hard drive disk. If you take away the possibility to boot from diskette, for instance, you take away the possibility of using many forms of hacking and cracking (password) programs. Boot viruses are then no longer possible. Remember to prevent allowing the possibility of changing this (or the boot sequence) by applying a secure BIOS password.

Tip 6: Never allow a user to login with administrator's rights. Most things that go wrong on a system have to do with the fact the user can simply do too much. Some time it is necessary to give a user local administration rights in order that he or she can install new software, for example. But if you don't take these rights away afterwards, you are opening up the door for calamity. Now any new program can be installed, without your permission or without your knowledge. And in the end, if you can't stop unauthorized programs from being installed and executed, you can't guarantee security on that system.

Tip 7: Rename your administrator account. And while we're at it with the administrators rights… Don't forget to also rename your administrator account. Most attackers are looking to exploit the administrator account and if they know what the name of the account is, half (okay, maybe a third) of the battle is won. Rename all sensitive accounts while you are at it. And then, “just for fun”, create bogus accounts for the accounts you have just renamed and audit these for attempted access.

That should do it - for now! You may not be able to achieve absolute security by utilizing these lockdown tips - nobody will ever achieve absolute security, of course - but you can at least rest assured that, for the time being at least, you have made it next to impossible for malicious intruders to exploit these tightly-secured systems.

BREWSTER, Wash. – Five months after Gebbers Farms fired an undisclosed number of undocumented workers during a federal audit, Jamaican guest workers have started to flow into Brewster to fill some of the jobs.

That’s a welcome sign in this town, where residents who held jobs here for 10 and 20 years were suddenly let go following the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement action in December.

Months later, some say the impact wasn’t as great as they feared. Many people stayed, or left and came back. The school district – which prepared for a major drop in student numbers – reports that enrollment remained steady, currently at 912 students.

Even if some of those fired moved away to find work, some businesses believe the worst is over. And with new workers arriving, there’s a renewed hope that business will continue to pick up.

People here are accustomed to migrant labor. This time, instead of workers from Mexico, they’re seeing Jamaican men who are all staying at a newly built Gebbers Farm camp northeast of town.

The camp is made up of rows of bright white buildings separated by walkways and flanked by a large building where dozens of men eat, wash up after their evening meal, or sit at a long central table to watch a big-screen television at one end of the room.

Some were reluctant to talk late last week.

But those who did had few complaints, despite the cold and rainy weather so distant from their tropical island.

“I know it’s going to get hot, like, next month,” said Leon Campbell, outside the doorway of one of the farmworker houses.

Campbell, 39, said he misses his 16-year-old daughter and 10-year-old son back home in St. Mary, Jamaica. “I call and I speak to them, like, twice a week,” he said.

The work in the orchards is “very hard,” he said. A builder and mason in his homeland, Campbell said the living facilities are good, and he’s happy to have the work. He wishes Brewster were a little closer to Seattle. “This is the last spot in America,” he said.

Clifton Brown, 33, said back home he’s a farmworker, also from St. Mary. As for coming to the United States, “It’s all about work, you know,” he said. After just 15 days here, he already decided, “I love it here. I look forward to next year.”

Gebbers Farms – a family owned business that operates a packing house and 5,000 acres of orchards – declined to talk about changes in their labor force.

Okanogan County Sheriff Frank Rogers said he was told that the Jamaican guest workers were coming in stages, and would eventually number about 300 workers.

“I think it’s excellent,” he said. “They’re a really good group. Really polite and fun to talk to. It’s amazing to me – they’re gone so long from their families. That’s what I think would be hard,” he said.

Business owners said that after the massive firings at Gebbers just after Christmas last year, people stopped spending money.

“That was very painful. Very painful,” said Robert Webster, owner of The Music Store on Brewster’s Main Avenue. “It lasted quite a while. I think the panic of it was as bad as anything,” he said.

Many people stopped spending money because they worried about the impacts of suddenly having so many people out of work. Gebbers Farms would not say how many people were fired, and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement wouldn’t comment on whether Gebbers had been audited.

Enrique Campos, owner of La Moda clothing store, said his sales are still very low, and he doesn’t expect that guest workers will bring his business back to where it was.

“They come in to work, but they don’t spend money. They keep it all to send home,” he said.

The Mackinac Center for public policy found that the MEDC should be credited with only 1 in 4 jobs that it claims to have created, and even then that assumes those jobs wouldn't have been created anyway. The auditor general confirmed those figures. Mackinac's Michael LaFaive laid right into the above open letter:

LaFaive said the MEDC didn't put any facts to support its claims in Tuesday's open letter. The letter stated that the MEDC has “gained ground” in establishing new industries and that it has played a part in making the state “the national leaders in high-tech, high-skilled, cutting edge, research and development driven job creation.”

“Here's an idea,” LaFaive wrote in an e-mail. “If the MEDC leadership feels that criticism of the agency is unfair or wrong, it should at least try to repudiate with evidence of its own the hard data brought forth by those of us who question the agency's work.”

Mackinac Center President Joe Lehman said the think tank's research isn't jeopardizing businesses coming to the state.

“The only jobs our research might jeopardize are those at MEDC headquarters,” Lehman wrote in an e-mail.

A study by the Kalamazoo-based Upjohn Institute presents what many — including LaFaive — consider the most positive view of the MEGA program's effectiveness. It found that the program provided a net gain of 18,000 jobs spread out over 11 years, or about 1,636 jobs for each year.

By comparison, the state of Michigan had a net loss of 203,240 jobs in 2008 alone, the last complete year of data provided by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Ouch. Ive said many times on this blog that if tax incentives are so great that they pay for themselves, then they should go to every business in the state. What's with the obsession in picking winners and losers?

Yesterday’s momentary bright news in the housing market turned out to be even more transitory than first thought.  Sales jumped by 7.6% in April, but home prices fell by 0.5% in March despite the efforts of the Obama administration to incentivize home purchases.  The new Standard & Poor’s survey shows a “renewed weakening” in home prices — which may have consumers once again on the defensive:

Home prices fell in March from the previous month, a sign of a weakening housing market despite historically low mortgage rates and now-expired tax credits. …

The numbers are especially disturbing because they show that improved sales due to the tax credits didn’t translate into higher prices, said David M. Blitzer, Chairman of the S&P index committee.

“When you loot at recent trends, there are signs of renewed weakening in home prices,” he said in a statement.

In a healthier economy, extraordinarily low mortgage rates would pump up demand for homes. But economists say the job market is too weak and credit is too tight.

Sales of previously occupied homes rose 7.6 percent in April, theNational Association of Realtors said Monday. But the sales were boosted by government incentives that have now expired and economist don’t expect the improvements to last.

A separate report by Bl0omberg yesterday shows how fragile the housing market has become.  FHA has moved ahead of the combined efforts of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in guaranteeing mortgages in the first quarter of this year, giving direct government support to most of the home lending occurring in the US.  It’s a market on life support, analysts conclude (via the Daily Caller):

Loans guaranteed by the Federal Housing Administration, the U.S.-owned mortgage insurer, may be involved in more home-purchase transactions than borrowing financed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

FHA lending last quarter may have topped the combined volume of government-supported Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in a home-lending market that’s still a “government-financed market,” David Stevens, the agency’s head, said today at a conference in New York, citing research by consultant Potomac Partners.

“This is a market purely on life support, sustained by the federal government,” he said at the Mortgage Bankers Association conference. “Having FHA do this much volume is a sign of a very sick system.”

The FHA, which backs loans with down payments as low as 3.5 percent, insured $52.5 billion of home-purchase mortgages in the first quarter, compared with $46 billion of purchases of the debt by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, according to data compiled by Washington-based Potomac Partners.

What could go wrong?  Seven months ago, Edward Pinto — who ran Fannie Mae in the late 1980s — warned that FHA would be the next bailout:

A former Fannie Mae executive warned a House panel Thursday that the Federal Housing Administration is destined for a multibillion-dollar taxpayer bailout in 24 to 36 months, an analysis that the agency’s top official immediately dismissed as “completely unfounded.”

At a hearing before a House Financial Services panel, Edward J. Pinto predicted that the FHA will suffer $40 billion in losses, leaving it unable to cover its bad loans without taxpayer help. Pinto, a real estate finance consultant who served as Fannie Mae’s chief credit officer from 1987 to 1989, said he testified so lawmakers would “not be able to say that no one told them of the magnitude of the impending losses.” …

In his testimony, Pinto called the audit’s underlying assumptions “overly optimistic.” The FHA’s escalating default rate, its rapidly eroding reserves, and a recent dramatic increase in the amount of money people can borrow on FHA loans will have disastrous consequences, he warned the panel. FHA loans are especially vulnerable because they require only a 3.5 percent down payment — well below the 10 to 20 percent private lenders demand.

Pinto compared the FHA loans with Fannie Mae’s book of loans in 2006, which he said have similar characteristics, and he applied the default rate on the Fannie loans to the FHA mortgages. By that measure, the FHA was short $40 billion on its main financing account as of Sept. 30, in effect stripping the reserve account of its required funding and leaving it $14 billion in the hole, he said. The FHA, based on its history, will not be able to modify enough loans to thwart the losses.

The Obama administration is using FHA in the same manner Democrats used Fannie and Freddie from the late 1990s to the crash of 2008.  Obama needs cheap lending to continue and especially wants to encourage lower-income entry into the housing markets.  In order to do that, the White House has pushed FHA to broaden lending in exactly the same manner as Fannie and Freddie, right down to the mortgage-backed securities that triggered the 2008 panic in financial markets that threatened to destroy the Western banking system.

History is repeating itself at FHA, all to postpone a rational revaluation of the housing market.  We’re extending the pain rather than eliminating it, and we’re positioning ourselves for a completely unnecessary second collapse in the process.

My syndicated column today takes on the First Lady’s hypocritical war on junk food. You can find the White House obesity task force report that lays the groundwork for Mrs. Obama’s nutritional power grab here. Or as White House aide Melody Barnes puts it: “It will serve as a roadmap for the work we need to do together to make sure that our kids grow up healthy and have the opportunity to live active lives.” My roadmap on the SEIU connection to Mrs. O’s campaign is here.

Related: Food police state alert – 3rd-grader gets one-week detention for possessing a Jolly Rancher candy. Michelle Obama gives the punishment two thumbs up!

***

Big Momma Michelle Obama: Food profiteer-turned-food cop
by Michelle Malkin
Creators Syndicate
Copyright 2010

Let me summarize first lady Michelle Obama’s anti-obesity agenda: Shed as I say, not as I gain. While she crusades for organic foods and puts government pressure on corporations to stop marketing fast food and junk food to children, Mrs. Obama herself profited from the very same processed food industry she now demonizes.

In June 2005, a few months after her husband was elected to the U.S. Senate, Mrs. Obama hustled a seat on the corporate Board of Directors of TreeHouse Foods, Inc. Despite zero experience, the food-processing company put her on its audit and nominating and corporate governance committees. For her on-the-job training and the privilege of putting her name and face on their literature, the company forked over $45,000 in 2005 and $51,200 in 2006 to Mrs. Obama — as well as 7,500 TreeHouse stock options worth more than $72,000 for each year.

The chairman of the TreeHouse Foods board, Sam K. Reed, was a top executive at Kellogg’s and Keebler Foods, home of that great menace to children, the Keebler Elf. Before that, he headed up Mother’s Cake and Cookie Company. The conglomerate sells cheese sauces, Cremora non-dairy creamer, instant soup, puddings and powdered soft drink mixes. Hardly the stuff of Mrs. Obama’s new vision of nutritional paradise. TreeHouse is also a leading supplier of pickles used in the burgers of evil fast food chain McDonald’s — exactly the kind of corporate restaurants Mrs. Obama is now targeting in her war on urban “food deserts.”

The corporation-bashing Mrs. Obama would have continued raking in her TreeHouse cash if it hadn’t been for her husband’s pesky pledge to pander to Big Labor and swear off Wal-Mart. The retail giant, you see, happened to be TreeHouse’s biggest customer. And Wal-Mart is to Big Labor as sunshine is to Dracula.

In May 2007, Obama told AFL-CIO workers in Trenton, N.J., that Wal-Mart was dead to him. “I won’t shop there,” he pledged, with an eye toward embarrassing then-chief rival Hillary Clinton, who had served on Wal-Mart’s board from 1986-1992. The AFL-CIO has waged relentless attacks on Wal-Mart, dubbing it the “Poster Store for Greed.” That, by extension, would make Mrs. Obama — all-too-happy recipient of a Wal-Mart dependent compensation package worth more than $100,000 in 2008, according to Securities and Exchange Commission records — a Poster Child for Ancillary Avarice.

Candidate Obama shrugged off his wife’s conflict of interest. “Michelle and I have to live in the world and pay taxes and pay for our kids and save for retirement,” Obama explained to Crain’s Chicago Business magazine before his White House bid. Political expediency, alas, required that the candidate’s wife step down when the issue reared its head after Obama’s Wal-Mart bashing during the presidential campaign cycle. True to form, Mrs. Obama turned the decision into an ostentatious display of martyrdom:

“As my campaign commitments continue to ramp up, it is becoming more difficult for me to provide the type of focus I would like on my professional responsibilities,” said Chicago’s Joan of Arc in a resignation statement eight days after her husband declared his boycott of the stores stocked with food items processed and distributed by her TreeHouse colleagues. “My priorities, particularly at this important time, are ensuring that our young daughters feel a sense of comfort and normalcy in this process, and that I can support my husband in his presidential campaign to bring much needed change to this country.”

She saw no conflict then. And she sees no conflict now in wielding her East Wing clout to restrict the advertising free speech of the food industry that lined her pocketbook with big, fat paychecks. The Obama White House is on an insatiable control binge. No private space has been left behind — not your grocery aisles, not your children’s TV shows, not even your refrigerator.

Give the first lady this: She has an uncanny knack for wrapping her self-interests in the mantle of self-sacrifice and public service. It’s the Obama way.

A mix of traditional vendors, startups, and specialists are working to meet the demand from doctors needing to transition. And even though there are specific definitions for what constitutes an EMR solution, each doctor faces a complex solution.

According to Howard, his company has found that the average size of an office is less than nine doctors - which means that in many cases, a very busy doctor is also a part-time CTO.

The business of health care these days requires that a lot of paper is generated - a lot of it by fax - and all of which must be protected by compliance regulations such as HIPAA. Other technology challenges include having older browser technology, no Internet connection, no wireless access. or not having a digital camera. When technology investments are made, there is a desire to get extreme value out of them.

Practice Fusion's Dell-based hardware system bundles a heavy duty scanner and printer, as well as a camera for digitizing visual records. Integrating these devices seamlessly with the cloud applications is one area where vendors will need to create tight integration with the PC.

Below is an example of a what a doctor sees when adding patient immunization information into Practice Fusion. The system is a great example of where a broad set of available data can be powerful to patients, doctors, and communities. And an example of how small businesses need a deep connection between local hardware and cloud applications. (More Practice Fusion product images can be viewed at the companies Flickr account.)

Portland, Oregon-based TripWire plans to raise $86.25 million by going public on the Nasdaq under the ticker symbol TPWR.

J.P. Morgan and Thomas Weisel Partners will share the underwriting role.

TripWire builds enterprise security and privacy applications that make it a lot easier for companies to adhere to regulatory standards such as HIPAA, and best practices rules like FISMA. Security and compliance are considered fairly recession-proof industries, because of recession-proof Federal regulations and the regulators who enforce them.

According to peHUB, TripWire, founded in 1997, has raised over $110 million in VC funding. Current shareholders include Advanced Technology Ventures (22.38% pre-IPO stake), Bessemer Venture Partners (10.06%), International Venture Partners (8.71%) and Industry Ventures (5.7%).

Next Story: Brilliant Telecom dials up $1.3M for IP server products Previous Story: House passes increased tax on carried interest, and VCs hate it

Physical security is the controls over computer hardware form the foundation of an organization's Information System (IS) control environment. The computer must be secured from earthquake, hurricanes, floods and other hazards like bombings, vandalism or theft. That's why all organizations should have internal controls in place that help reduce the impact of the disasters.

It is the role of auditors to identify significant physical security control weaknesses then submit the recommendations to management to resolve it. As example, a physical security review of a purpose built computer centre housing a large IBM mainframe computer may require a specific audit of several weeks duration. Here are some of the aspects which need to be considered:

Fire Protection
Fire represents a key area of risk to IT (Informational Technology) infrastructure and good fire protection systems are essential. Fire protection is generally considered under the following headings: fire prevention systems - these include nonsmoking policies, good housekeeping practices such as the prompt removal of waste paper or the use of fire proof materials fire detection systems. It's including the use of smoke and fire detectors in ceiling and floor voids and manual fire alarms, which should be connected directly to a central monitoring station.

Flood Protection
Flooding can be caused by both internal and external sources and the impact can be significant, particularly if the water is contaminated, in which case equipment may be damaged beyond repair. Water detection systems should be installed and where possible, water supplies should be routed away from IT equipment. Care should also be given to the sitting of IT equipment so that it is protected from local hazards, such as being below ground level in an area prone to flooding.

Biometric Hand Geometry Readers
Biometric hand geometry scanners or readers are utilized along with an encrypted or coded database and visual confirmation ensures that only authorized person have the right access to the servers within the data center. Using Pattern Recognition Systems, a device of Access Control Reader, can incorporate proven, biometric technology within the same framework of the data center's security system. This is because authorized person must pass through biometric hand scanners at first for every access checkpoint, the device is able to keep track of any activity such as where and when someone has entered and exited a building or room.

Video surveillance cameras
Can act as an effective deterrent to unauthorized activities and provide critical evidence in criminal prosecution and employee misconduct. Positioned in strategic locations that afford full views of the doors and/or equipment to protect. Previously the video tape was used, now it was changed to newer version of digital video surveillance system.

When facing the birth of a child, some parents decide that one will stay home while the other will continue to work. Usually, if it is just one child, maternity leave is usually enough to cover the transitional period between having a baby and going back to work. However, when faced with multiples, one parent will more likely than not become a Stay At Home Parent (SAHP). As everyone knows, multiple births bring on many more expenses than just one infant. How is a family with more than one infant at home supposed to survive on just one income? The cost of diapers in a week alone could knock out half of a paycheck.

Working from home is not as impossible as it seems. Of course, we have all received those SPAM email messages, encouraging work-at-home-wannabes to head to a website to register to “make thousands while working at home,” only to find that it costs upwards of $50 to join in the first place. If we are looking to make money from home, why do these companies think that we have the initial money to lay out? It is ridiculous, really, and completely unfair. Yet, thousands of people do this every day, only making the companies that promise the jobs richer, and not making what they think they were promised. (Read the disclaimer, people.)

Still, there are many ways - especially on the internet - that people can actually work from home and legitimately earn the income that they need. And, you don't need money to get started. All you need is the drive and determination to put yourself out there and take advantage of any opportunities that come your way. It isn't difficult. It may be tedious and time-consuming, but it certainly isn't difficult.

Some ways to earn money at home aren't time-consuming at all. You can pencil it in when the twins are napping, or have your spouse take care of them for an hour while you accomplish what you need to do. You can seriously earn thousands a week, but only if you put your mind to it. These resources are available to you; it is completely in your hands to take advantage of them.

FOR WRITERS

Writing comes naturally to many people. And, let's face it: We have all had to write at least one term paper in our lives. Before you start writing for money on the Internet, there are a few things that you need to know. First of all, you aren't being graded on what you write. Most times, people won't even know who you are. For example, if your name is Tara Smith and you write something, it could appear under “Tara S.”, “Tara”, “T.S.” or even a screen name that you come up with yourself. Many sites on the Internet do not require that you publicly expose yourself and your personal information. However, if you are working on a website to earn money, chances are that you are going to have to give all sorts of information, including your Social Security Number if you make over $600 in one year. (This is solely for tax purposes.) If you aren't comfortable doing this, then you shouldn't be writing for money.

Secondly, in order to earn money by writing on the Internet, make certain that you follow the guidelines set forth by the various websites that you are going to write for. If they need at least 500 words per submission, you will not be able to get away with 150 words. If they say that you cannot submit your work anywhere else, then you need to make sure that you do not. Most times, a website will offer a higher pay rate for articles not posted anywhere else on the Internet. Do yourself a favor and read their guidelines before submitting your work.

Third, get yourself a PayPal account. It is free to sign up for one, which you can do at www.paypal.com. For those of you that don't know what PayPal is, take a tour of their site for the details. PayPal is the best way to send and receive money online. Most companies send you money through PayPal rather than a paper check. This is a great thing, as you can program PayPal to directly deposit into your bank account. Talk about convenient.

Even if you aren't a natural when it comes to writing, you should give it a shot anyway. What is the worst that can happen? You just end up not making as much money as you would like in this category. Most websites are looking for reviews from real consumers, not professional writers. Give it a shot - you never know. The following websites are great ways to get started.

Epinions (www.epinions.com)
Owned by Shopping.com, the parent company of EBay, PayPal and Half, Epinions is a website dedicated to educating consumers about products, services and other goods directly through the voices of other consumers. While they have a “Writers Corner” where members can write non-reviews, Epinions only pays for reviews of products, services, places and other goods. Unfortunately, Epinions doesn't pay all that well for reviews. However, they do have contests and promotions throughout the year, usually every month. For example, during the month of December 2007, users can write 10 reviews for $10. If you write 100 reviews, that is an additional $100 in your pocket. The reviews are rated by other users: Off Topic, Not Helpful, Somewhat Helpful, Helpful and Very Helpful. The higher the rating, the more money you will make because it will appear higher in the listings of the product that you have reviewed. Epinions pays through paper checks, which takes about two to four weeks to arrive. If you live in the United States, you can cash out when your account reaches a minimum of $10. Unfortunately, if you live outside of the USA, you have to wait for your account to reach $100 before you cash out.

Associated Content (www.associatedcontent.com)
Associated Content is a wonderful site where members can really make a lot of money. Associated Content does not require members to specifically write reviews. Instead, members can write on a variety of topics, including events, news, personal stories, prose and more. Payment ranges per article from $0 all the way up to $25, depending on the quality of the article that you submit. While some articles aren't paid, they still have the opportunity to earn royalties, known as “Performance Payments”. You see, each article you publish remains on the Associated Content website for others to read. The more people that read your content, the more you earn in Performance Payments. Even though these payments might be just pennies, they really add up with the more articles that you write. If you don't know what to write about, check out the Call for Content feature, which lets you know what topics they need stories for. They often have bonuses, such as a $10 guaranteed payment, for articles on these topics. Payments per article come within a week of acceptance, and Performance Payments come once per month. You absolutely must have a PayPal account in order to be paid for writing on this site.

WCities (www.wcities.com)
WCities is a city guide written by people living locally in the cities that are reviewed. Please note that you must be accepted as a writer to this website before being able to write for them and earn money. Reviews on this site include various attractions in your city, such as restaurants, wineries and so forth. Each review must be 100 words long and written based on experience. There is a flat rate of $10 per review written, which is paid once per month via PayPal.

FOR PHOTOGRAPHERS

Finding websites that pay for photography is pretty difficult. Furthermore, many of the websites that do pay for photography have incredibly high standards, usually just so that professional photographers can earn an income. The websites here may give you some pocket change, which is better than nothing at all. Again, just like the writing section, make sure that you thoroughly read the guidelines before submitting your work.

Gather (www.gather.com)
Gather is a website for both writers and photographers. Instead of being paid in cash, however, members earn points that they can exchange for a variety of things, including merchandise, gift certificates and even money. It does take a while to accumulate, but it is really fast to upload your photos and write a quick caption about them. You can start redeeming at 625 points, which will get you one of a variety of $10 gift certificates. The more points you earn, the better the reward. If you earn at least 3,000 points per month (the equivalent of $50), you can cash out as often as you like.

Shutterstock (www.shutterstock.com)
Do you have a ton of photos on your computer, but don't know what to do with them? Upload them on Shutterstock, and you can earn a quarter each time one of the photos is downloaded. Considering you can upload 750 photos in 30 days, you can make a whole lot of money just by uploading the photos once. Once you reach $500 in earnings, your commission jumps to 30 cents per download. Be forewarned, however, that you must upload a government-issued photo ID or allow a credit card to be charged one penny so that your identity can be confirmed. There is a minimum $75 payout rate per 30-day accounting period. If you do not meet the $75, your royalties will be carried into the next period until you make the minimum.

FOR TALKERS

There are many websites that connect people to people for sales-related calls and chats, personal calls and chats, and even advice calls and chats. If you are personable and like talking or chatting online with strangers, then this is certainly a category for you. Of course, if you take phone calls, you will have to worry about interruptions such as the baby crying, toddlers demanding your attention, dog barking and so on. Chatting might be a bit easier, even if you have a couple of infants in the room. Granted, you may not be able to focus on the task at hand with the distractions around you, but that is the case for all of these categories. The only problem here is that there is another person waiting on the other line.

Keen (www.keen.com)
Acquired by AT&T in November 2007, Keen has been around since the late 90s. It originally started as a website where people could connect with other people for advice about virtually anything: taxes, finances, legal issues, personal advice, and even psychic readings. Now the site has been whittled down to eight categories: Personal Advice, Love and Relationship Readings, Psychic Readings, Tarot Readings, Spiritual Readings, Astrology and Horoscope Readings, Other Psychic Readings and En Espanol Readings. Whether you are psychic or not, read tarot cards or not, you can always join to give personal advice. This works great for the person that all of their friends turn to for advice. The best part of Keen is that you set your per minute rate. Granted, Keen gets a portion of your rate, but you can still make some serious dough. Plus, you can get paid daily via direct deposit into your bank account, if you want to. You can also opt for monthly direct deposit or monthly checks.

Kasamba (www.kasamba.com)
Much like Keen, Kasamba is a site where people turn to for advice. Unlike Keen, Kasamba offers a chat and live phone advice in a plethora of topics. Whether you want to give accounting advice or offer writing services, you will find an area that you can work on with Kasamba. You have to make at least $50 in order to cash out, and will receive your payments via PayPal.

Alpine Access (www.alpineaccess.com)
We have all heard about the people that work from home as Customer Service Representatives (CSRs), but how do they do it? Well, with companies such as Alpine Access. In order to work for Alpine Access, however, you must fill out a very tedious and long application. Unfortunately, you will not find out if they are hiring in your area until after you go through this process, which can be extremely frustrating. However, if you do get into their program, you will be earning at least a part-time job salary almost immediately. That chance in and of itself is worth going through the process.

FOR THOSE THAT WANT TO LEAVE THE HOUSE

While many parents that are looking to work from home don't really want to leave the house, there are others that would like to venture out, even if it is for just a couple of hours. Mystery shopping and movie audit companies offer a way to earn money while doing things you would normally do. For example, if you go to the mall and need to buy something, you might learn of a mystery shop in the same mall where you can earn a quick $10. Perhaps you and your spouse plan on going to the movies one night. If you do a trailer check or other movie audit, you can earn some quick cash and potentially see the movie for free.

Never, ever, EVER pay to join a mystery shopping company. There are many legitimate companies out there that allow people to join and earn money for free. Each company has its own set of rules and guidelines, so make sure to read the fine print before signing up. Most of these companies will pay via mailed check within a month of the completed assignment.

Theatrical Entertainment Services (www.rapidchek.com)
Do you like movies? If so, then Theatrical Entertainment Services (known as TES) is the company for you. Assignments range from trailer checks (writing down all of the trailers and ads before a movie) to lobby checks (writing down all of the materials displayed in a theatre) and even sneak preview audits (watching a sneak preview and writing the audience's response to it), not including the various other assignments they have. Payments range from $8.40 for a visit to over $300 for an entire weekend of open checks. All of your assignments will come via email or phone. You will enter your responses either through their website or via fax.

Certified Reports (www.criny.com)
If you are looking for a company where you get to go to the movies, shopping, and out to restaurants while making a little extra money, then Certified Reports is the company for you. Certified Reports is broken into three different divisions: CMS (for in-store marketing services), CRI (for theatrical services) and CRMS (for mystery shopping, audits and surveys). You can sign up for all three in one fell swoop, and make money doing things that you would normally do anyway.

ChannelForce (www.channelforce.com)
If you are into sales and marketing, then ChannelForce is a terrific company for you to work with. There are a variety of different projects that you can work on, such as in-store training, customer exit surveys, and even sales calls. The pay is excellent, but you must go through an application and interview process to be hired.

FOR THOSE THAT THINK THEY HAVE NO TALENT

Let's face it: Many people think that they don't have any talent at all. Virtually all of these people believe that they have absolutely no chance whatsoever of making money from home. Guess what? They are completely and totally wrong.

Of course, in order for people in this category to make money, they must think outside the box. Oh, there are ways to earn money… It's just a matter of whether or not you have the patience and drive to do it, even if it isn't writing, taking photos, mystery shopping or merchandising. And all of these ways are perfectly legitimate.

EBay (www.ebay.com)
You have watched the commercials. You have seen the advertisements online. You have even heard someone talking about what they bought on eBay at such a great price. Well, in order for people to buy, there must be people to sell. Have you ever heard the saying, “One man's trash is another man's treasure”? EBay is the true testament to that cliché. You can sell virtually anything you want on eBay, and make money from it. People have successfully sold old clothes, unused baby gifts, jewelry, even cars on this amazing auction site. Think of it as the world's largest yard sale. You can find a huge variety of items on eBay, not to mention a plethora of categories in which you can sell your items. Even if there isn't a specific category, you can list your item in “Everything Else”. If someone wants it, they will find it. Of course, eBay has listing fees and final value fees, which are paid once per month through check, PayPal or credit card. By using PayPal, sellers can accept money immediately. Of course, you have the option of accepting payments through the mail as well. It is completely up to you as to how much you want to sell an item for and how you will accept payment for it.

Half (www.half.com)
Do you still have textbooks from college? Are those old romance novels just collecting dust on your shelves? Did you have a large DVD collection that you just don't bother watching anymore? Turn your media into moolah on Half. Think of it as owning your own bookstore. Sellers list their inventory basked on the SKU numbers of the books, DVDs, CDs, VHS tapes or whatever media they are listing. They give a short description of the item's condition, then choose how much they want to sell it for. Then, you wait for your customers. Once you make a sale, you are notified via email, and must ship your item within a set amount of time. Half includes shipping costs, but takes a small commission on what you do sell. You never have to pay Half, though. They take their cut directly out of yours before sending your payment twice a month. Listing an item on Half.com can take between 30 seconds to a few minutes, depending on how well you get to know the system. Once you are done, you never have to worry about it again until you make a sale. Then, just wait for the money to roll in!

My Survey (www.mysurvey.com)
If you enjoy taking surveys, then you will really enjoy My Survey. This websites offers users a variety of different surveys, for which they take to earn points. Once these points are accumulated, they can be redeemed for cash, gift certificates or other merchandise. The checks take about a month to arrive, and some gift certificates and merchandise may take a little longer. Plus, you might not qualify for every survey available, so it may take some time to accumulate enough points to redeem something.

These fourteen sites are just the tip of the iceberg. Unfortunately, the legitimate websites are hidden by the scam ones when doing a search for “Work from Home” on the Internet. Do not be deterred by the sites that require money; they aren't all like that. And, as mentioned before, do not waste your money signing up with a website that requires you to pay before they pay you. In the long run, it just isn't worth it. Feel free to sign up with more than one website to increase your income. The only person you are responsible to is yourself, unless you accept specific assignments that must be completed by a certain date.

There are real “Work From Home” websites out there within your reach. It is just a matter of finding the right ones in order to bring home the income that you need. There is nothing better than working from home and being able to spend time with your kids. Fortunately, there are many legitimate ways for you to do so.