Ah, I think we’ll roll the dice and go with a climbing post. Enough about those dirty “phishers” out there, right?

Andy & Brooke popped out this evening for another fun climb. This was a later expedition, as Andy needed to get one of those $300 haircuts today. If you hadn’t noticed in recent posts, his hair had gone wild (I worried he was on his way to hippie fast).

We decided to go back to Thor’s wall, and give the hard stuff another whirl. It was worth it, but a much shorter climbing experience.

Brooke really laid into the climb again today. And she got further than last time out. Actually, we all did, so that’s a positive.

I was the next up after Brooke, but didn’t get super far. My arms were still sore from trying out a new way to strengthen them (hmmm). So, my first shot was short, but the second worked out much better. Next time I’ll get a little further once more.

Andy basically completed the climb today. It might have to do with his more aerodynamic hair, or just that he really pushed through the climb. Probably a little of both. Way to go Andy!

Of course, in the end Andy found himself climbing through a large segment of bird poo. Yup, you heard me right. Something I’d like to avoid climbing in personally.

After we wrapped up we walked back up onto one of the ridges in the Dells, and we were treated to quite the view. A storm had been brewing all afternoon, and the skies were very dark. Except in one spot, and it made for a great photo!

What a fantastic site!

There’s the climbing wrap for the day.  As always, click my flickr badge in the right column if you want to see more shots from today!

Before this site devolves into “Gadget’s Spam Chronicles” I thought I’d post something different. Apologies for all the scammer information lately all, but somebody has to document this stuff and get the word out to job seekers. Every one of these phony jobs I get I research no matter what. And I figure I should document it for others. I don’t want to see anyone get ripped off.

Alright, on to a non-spam topic.

My latest favorite photos from the past few days have been updated to my Flickr account. I’ve neglected it lately, but caught up this morning. You’ve probably seen several of the shots here, but I thought I’d add them there as well. The calm lake the other day made for some wonderful photos!

This afternoon some more shots will be taken.  Andy & Brooke will be popping over to do a little climbing again.  Nice!  That will definitely make for a fun entry.

Once again, sorry about all the recent posts on the job scams.  I’m happy to post them though, and it’s clear that the posts are helping other job seekers avoid scams. 

I’ve known for days now that Monster.com (another internet jobs board) was hacked. I even know how it occurred. Tabatha Marshall has a sizable explanation at her web site, and it’s worth a read.

This morning I received a letter from Monster regarding their recent hack, and I thought I’d share it.  If you’re a job seeker today, and you’re using the Internet it’s now getting harder to stay safe.

Dear Valued Monster Customer,

Protecting the job seekers who use our website is a top priority, and we value the trust you place in Monster. Regrettably, opportunistic criminals are increasingly using the Internet for illegitimate purposes. As is the case with many companies that maintain large databases of information, Monster is from time to time subject to attempts to illegally extract information from its database.

As you may be aware, the Monster resume database was recently the target of malicious activity that involved the illegal downloading of information such as names, addresses, phone numbers, and email addresses for some of our job seekers with resumes posted on Monster sites. Monster responded to this specific incident by conducting a comprehensive review of internal processes and procedures, notified those job seekers that their contact records had been downloaded illegally, and shut down a rogue server that was hosting these records.

The Company has determined that this incident is not the first time Monster’s database has been the target of criminal activity. Due to the significant amount of uncertainty in determining which individual job seekers may have been impacted, Monster felt that it was in your best interest to take the precautionary steps of reaching out to you and all Monster job seekers regarding this issue. Monster believes illegally downloaded contact information may be used to lure job seekers into opening a “phishing” email that attempts to acquire financial information or lure job seekers into fraudulent financial transactions. This has been the case in similar attacks on other websites.

We want to inform you about preventive measures you can take to protect yourself from online fraud. While no company can completely prevent unauthorized access to data, we believe that by reaching out to job seekers like you, the Company can help users better defend themselves against those who have attacked Monster as well as other databases.

We are committed to maintaining an ongoing dialogue with all of our job seekers about Internet security and the steps Monster is taking to protect its job seekers. The Company has placed a security alert on Monster sites offering information to educate you about online fraud. This information can be found at http://help.monster.com/besafe/. We have also included information on Internet safety and examples of fraudulent “phishing” emails at the bottom of this letter.

Monster has launched a series of initiatives to enhance and to protect the information you have entrusted to us. Some of these steps are being immediately implemented, while others will be put into place as appropriate.

We believe these actions are the responsible steps to protect the trust you place in Monster. We are also working with Monster’s hundreds of thousands of employer customers to ensure a safe and effective online job search. We will continue to share information with you about the enhancements we are making as we serve as your online career resource partner. We invite you to keep reading to learn more about how to use the Internet safely.

Well, Monster did let it’s users know about the attack (a few days later).  Guess it took a while to compose the letter above.  Several paragraphs you know…..  

You know the best way to protect us from online fraud?  Identify the fraudulent sites and shut them down.  Several bloggers have outed some of the scammers.  Now that we know who they are, turn their site off.  Simple.  Probably too simple.

Another afternoon spent wandering through the Granite Dells. This time I made it to the cap rock, but didn’t like the lighting again. Looks like it’s a morning photo.

Since the cap rock is pretty close to the shoreline I decided to make my way along the shore for some new views.  The lake was relatively calm, and pretty reflective.  That made for some photos that I like, and they’re posted below. 

The bands of gray rock along the shore show how high the water in Watson Lake was “once upon a time”  And you can see the dam in the distance.  The lake is still low compared to earlier times.

As I was making my way back along the shore the sun dipped behind the clouds.  The streaks of light from behind the cloud were pretty cool, and I captured a few shots, including the one below.

Rather than go back the standard route through the Dells I followed the shoreline back to the small city park that sits on the lake.  Along the way I came across a few climbers from Prescott College, a couple of guys out fishing, and two kids fishing with their mom along the shore.  It was certainly a good day to be walking along the lake.

Before I hit the park I stopped at a nice spot on the shoreline and sat for a while.  With the recent rain the trail was pretty well grown over at points.  And those spots were as green as they could be.  Nice to see grasses growing up from the normally sandy and dry spots.

Finally I hit the park, strolled on through, and made my way around the traffic circle back toward Point of Rocks.  Out for a few hours today, and I forgot the sunscreen (and it shows).  Whoops!

Just a quick site update all.

A friend got in touch this morning and they were having a hard time viewing the blog.  Internet Explorer was the browser in question.  Ah, good old IE.

In the left column of the site there’s now a link to Firefox (a better web browser).  If you’re an IE user and you’re having a hard time viewing the site, I’d suggest it’s time to change browsers.  Really, you’ll like it better! 

So, there’s the quickie update.

For the evening I took a stroll out into the Dells once again. It’s nice to go out there.

The plan was pretty simple.  Head over to the cap rock I’d seen recently near the dam.  But I wasn’t sure if the light would be right by the time I got there.  Plus I was waiting on Sadira and her friend Rusty to come out.  Rusty had just gotten into town to visit, and wanted to take a walk in the rocks as well.

While I was waiting on Sadie I decided to take a few random photos.  I’m finding the stock photo sites like very generic shots.  I’m betting the one above will be accepted by them.  Don’t ask me why, but I’m willing to bet on it. 

My walk took me near Thor’s Wall, Perfect Dome, Emerald City, and finally Time Zone.  Covered almost all the major walls in the Dells.  Every spot was familiar, but I looked for new takes on the area for my photos.  Sadira and Rusty popped up near the Emerald City, and walked in with me to look over the lake.

Unfortunately the cap rock I was looking to shoot was already well into the shade.  Looks like it will have to be a morning photograph.

Update

The scam with Harvey Investment I’d written about yesterday continues today.  In total I’ve received four e-mails from them in 2 days.  And I’ve had countless visits to this website looking for information on the scam.

After posting yesterday I wrote to the real Harvey Investment Company, and then I called them as well.  The receptionist was aware of the issue, and their outsourced IT department is working on it.  I could not speak directly to the outsourced IT group, and I really wanted to.  I’m pretty sure they aren’t aware of the total scam, it’s relation to 2 other scams, or the need to really track these folks down and stop them.

This morning the wakeup time was earlier than 6. Get the day started early.

Andy, Brooke, Hallie, Beth, and Scott were slated to be here around 7:30. Almost everyone arrived just a bit after that time. Early day of climbing. Beth & Hallie needed to be back to their school in the afternoon.

After today’s climbing I think Brooked joked that the blog entry should be all about Hallie. Pretty accurate as far as the climbs go. Andy and Brooke are still new to the sport, Beth just started, and I’m restarting after a few years. But Hallie was all over the climbs today! Way to go!

We started the morning out on Perfect Idiot once more.  Just a climb that really sticks with you.  Andy, Beth, Hallie, and I all climbed it.  And I finally climbed it clean.  I figured out the secret watching Andy today.  1 simple move, keeping your left hand to the left before crossing over.  Finally got that stupid climb’s number!

Beth got up Perfect Idiot today as well.  I think she’s been out 3 times now….hmmmm.  She’ll be moving right along for sure.

We then moved over to Thor’s Wall.  Harder climbs in there.  We climbed between Thermocouple and Monarch.  They were rated 5.11 for Thermocouple, and 5.10 for Monarch (we stayed more toward Monarch).  And got a first crack at it, and found the entrance to be a pain (so did I for that matter).

Hallie took a shot at it next, and with a few harder points, finished out the climb.  Actually, she’s the only one who made it all the way up.  Pretty cool too!

Brooke also headed up the route.  I’m going to say she made it 50% of the way.  Through the entrance, past a really strange spot, and about to the middle of the climb.  And I really messed up on the photos of her and every one was in the “blurry zone.”  Sorry Brooke, I owe you some good photos.

I took my shot as well.  Through the entrance, although I picked a different way to enter.  About 25% of the way, then that was that.  I really need some more upper body strength, so I’ll see what I can do about that.

Beth reached about the same point I did as well today on Thor’s Wall.  Andy took another ride, and went past the halfway point.  He also illustrated why being a little taller is a cool thing for this particular climb (that extra reach in one spot).

Overall, another nice day out in the Dells with a great group of people!

Oh, and by the way…….many of these photos today were shot by Brooke.  When I’m belaying Brooke is the designated shooter!  Thanks Brooke! 

The other day while checking out the Promised Lands I took one photo I forgot to post here. I posted one of the run down windmill photos, but forgot this one.

While parked near the windmill a hawk came along and perched right on top of the windmill.  Pretty cool.  I didn’t have the zoom handy, but took several more shots of the windmill.  During that time the hawk took off, and flew right behind the windmill.  You’ll see above and to the left of the Aeromotor logo the hawk launching off to do “hawk like” things. 

Other odd stuff - Wordpress Banned in Turkey

Several days ago I logged into my Wordpress.com site to check out my stats.  The main page of the Wordpress Dashboard also has news from Wordpress, and one item caught my attention.  It seems all of Wordpress.com has been blocked in the country of Turkey!

Apparently a blogger at Wordpress has several blogs regarding a religious figure in Turkey.  The figure was not happy with what was being blogged about him, so he found a lawyer.  The religious figure has a book out there going after Darwinism, he’s had some criminal issues in the past, etc.  Public figure, and somebody is saying something about him which he doesn’t like.

So, to deal with the blogger who is slandering or libeling him he does what any rational person would do.  He seeks a ban on an entire domain, in this instance, Wordpress.com.  And Turkey goes along with it!

Why go after the one person you have the issue with?  Instead why don’t you ban all Wordpress Blogs, and then send a request to Wordpress to stifle someone’s freedom of speech.  Sounds rational to me!

Fortunately Wordpress is hanging in there.  I bet this type of issue will pop up more often.

Well, there’s this morning’s notes. 

As readers know by now, I’m hunting in the tech realm again for work.  I’d really like to get back into wireless, but we’ll see.

In the meantime, I do small web contracts here and there.  And that’s always useful.

Last night I got an interesting contract opportunity, and it was a “last minute” deal.  A contract company needed folks in the area to install systems for a new company.  Sounded very interesting, so I responded.  The contract was to last 2 weeks in the area, and was slated to start tomorrow, August 23rd.

This morning I received an e-mail from Sam (names changed) regarding the contract, and confirming my interest.  Of course, I replied that I was, and was looking for more information.  Scott told me to give “Kathy” a call, and included her number.  I gave Kathy a buzz, and was disappointed to find her phone line had been disconnected.

After failing to contact the person who could give me additional detail I wrote back to Sam once more, CC’ing Kathy and Beth.  Sam responded almost immediately and told me to call Beth, and provided her number.

This time around I did get a real line.  Beth’s voice mail.  So I left a message for her.  An hour later I received an e-mail from Beth telling me she would call in 1 minute.

Several hours later I gave up on hearing from Beth and headed to Brooke & Andy’s Subway for a salad.  The salad was really good, and it made sense, unlike the contract I was looking into today. 

When I returned there was still nothing from Beth, Kathy, or Sam.  Very confusing indeed.  My first thought, write it off.  Then I received another e-mail.  But this mail wasn’t from Beth, Kathy, or Sam.  It was from another company, apparently the company they were contracted to.  Installation instructions, directions to the work site, and the time I should arrive.

Talk about confusing.  No documentation in hand from the recruiter yet.  No call back.  No W2 or W9 information.  Nothing.

I forwarded the correspondence to my new friends, and let them know I would not be on site at 7 a.m. until I spoke with one of them regarding the contract.  Reasonable, right?

Finally, Kathy called.  She apologized for Beth not getting in touch.  I didn’t ask about her disconnected phone, things were already weird enough.  Finally, I got to ask my questions.  W2 or W9 work, an actual contract, payment options, etc.  Also, I asked about the length of the contract.

Kathy’s answers weren’t to my liking.  W2 work (that’s fine), but the documentation wasn’t available today.  They’d send it to me tomorrow after I’d worked on the site.  The time sheet information wouldn’t be provided until after I worked the site too.  And the length of the contract was only 1 day, not two weeks as initially suggested in their first correspondence.

After telling me all of this Kathy pressed to have me say yes.  I pointed out to her that I was uncomfortable, and listed the issues:

• Working on a job site with no contract in hand.  Receiving payment information after the job was completed.  Concerning to say the least.
• Liability issues.  Until documents are signed I felt I was acting on my own, not as a representative of any group.  If I damaged a piece of equipment, who would be liable?
• Personal risk.  Working without documentation of a contract in place, if I was injured (the facility is still being constructed), who would be liable?

Maybe I’m too picky.  But I used to deal with OSHA regulations at my switch locations, and I know the myriad of issues when you bring someone into an active work site still being constructed.  I also know about liability issues when putting in expensive equipment.  It’s better to make sure you’re covered.

So, I asked Kathy if they could get the contract documentation today.  The answer was a simple, “No”.  It would be e-mailed to me tomorrow after the work was completed.  Hmmmm, if it’s in e-mail format, why not send it today?  No answer for that one I’m afraid.

In the end I took a pass on the one day installation gig.  Nothing formalized, no assurances for me, and a very odd way to conduct business.

Now, let me ask you…..is this odd, or is this the way business is conducted now?

Yesterday I made plans with Andy and Brooke to take a climb in the Dells today. Hooray!

As an added bonus, we now have some new climbing friends to head out with. Today we met up with Hallie & Beth. They live less than an hour from Prescott. Hallie has been climbing for a while, and Beth is learning and clearly enjoying it as well.

For our first climb of the afternoon we hit the Perfect Idiot once again. We haven’t done that one in two months, and it showed with me. My first go round with it went very poorly, and the second was still rough as well. That darned entrance is a bear. Let’s think……other excuses…..the rock seemed pretty greasy……the rocks were super hot and radiating heat big time…..the moon is messing with my sign…..

Brooke was the smart one in the crowd today. No messing with the Perfect Idiot. The rest of the group all took shots at it. Only Andy cruised right up it with little trouble. Go Andy! Oh yeah, Brooke’s going to need to deal with his ego tonight!

After playing around on the Perfect Idiot we headed over to Time Zone again. We’ve been there a good bit, but Perfect Idiot mellowed us a bit for the day. While Andy setup near our favorite 5.8 / 5.9, Hallie led the 5.6 that Bob had gotten me started on several months back.

Brooke had no trouble with “Nick of Time”, and Hallie had a good climb up “Can’t Wait Gotta Go.” Afterward Beth took a climb up and cleared off Hallie’s gear. The photo above shows Beth on the left and Brooke to the right, both finishing up their climbs. Dueling climbers.

We all rotated through several routes, and it made for a good afternoon. It was especially nice when the sun eased up and the rocks stopped reflecting so much heat!  Andy had an extra bonus today.  He led “Can’t Wait Gotta Go,” and did it in style!

The shot above is Beth working out the 5.8/9.  For somebody starting out she did a great job, stuck with it, and finished out the climb as well.  I think today was her second time out.  Pretty good, eh?

Summing up, it was a pretty good afternoon.  New friends, added abuse on Perfect Idiot (I didn’t smack my knee), and then running between two climbs on a familiar wall.  I think we’ll be doing this again Friday too.

Almost time to get some rest.  Night all.