E-Commerce Security and Privacy

By Patrick Darnell

Discuss the problems surrounding E-commerce: such as, Security, and Privacy.

Your brother is still not convinced that security is an important issue, and he bluntly tells you that he does not have the budget for an elaborate security plan or complex security tools. How can you protect the Grandma's Treats website and customer privacy with as little expense as possible? Research the Internet and all other materials at your disposal.

Discuss the problems surrounding E-commerce such as security and privacy. Use effective communication techniques.

An Online Schema: So much Information in such a Short time, or, The Art of Providing Security per Byte.

1. Blog entry:
“Dear Brother, you bonehead.
“You are so conservative, and yet you want to go into the traffic jam at sixty miles per hour, without brakes, and without insurance?”

example: “Consider the following Website capture. Who was captured? I was captured.”

“hit counters by www.123count.com Geographical Location account count123 [ stats menu ]
Geographical location of last 100 visitors show [ 100 ] [ 500 ] [ 1000 ] lines "

# time stamp IP domain location of visitor: 1 Wed Feb 1
at 09:37:31 AM 71.113.232.76 pool-71-113-232-76.h
erntx.dsl-w.verizon.net United States
College Station (Texas)
2 Wed Feb 1

Copyright © 1998-2005 123Count
All rights reserved Home Check Stats Control Panel Register FAQ Site Map Contact Us
Website Design by Infocreek as in up one without a paddle
Please reply soon, PD>

2. Blog entry:
“Dearest Brother: Are you paying attention?
“The company, 123Count, is one of ten thousand, that advertises a “response software” that can produce efficient reports on every person visiting a Web Site. Mine is only a knock at the door, no information has yet been given by me. If the visitor seeks information from this Site, and puts some information into dialogues, the visitor is subject to what?”
“http://www.123count.com/

Ease of use : We offer stats that make sense, …, that can be read, understood in a few minutes. Each day, find out in one quick glance all you need to know about the health of your traffic.
Speed and reliability : We use several dedicated servers to run our stats, connected into the Internet backbone with redundant optical lines…result we have one of the fastest loading hit counters out there with hardly any downtime. We have been in constant operation since Feb1998.

“Search engine and referrer tracking : We have developed search engine and referrer tracking further than anyone has in this business. The 'Referrer Tracker' records the number of visitors sent each week to your site by all search engines and referrers. It allows you to see how your referencing/marketing strategy works over the long haul (for instance, …, the traffic sent by Google to our sample site, week by week, over the last year ; AltaVista, Yahoo, and so on). The referrer tracker automatically detect all search engines and can be customized to track email advertising campaigns, banner advertisements, even referrals from print advertisements ! “
Scary, Huh? Pilfer, pinch, snitch, Filch, purloin catastrophe PD Out>

3. Blog entry:

Dear Brother:
Is it not your goal, in going into E-commerce transactions to: Develop “one on one” real time dialogue, with strangers, while sharing infinite layers of information released to satisfy any marketing query, in a virtual (fake) environment? Or, rather, is your GT aim, for Instantaneous Gratification; for some schmuck hack?
blind continuous origins doom
Brother, you are scaring me. Just don’t expect me to be there when you need a place to stay. Are you listening? I know you are opening the b-log, please reply, PD>

4. Blog entry:

“Dearest Brother, still not listening? Why won’t you reply to my comments? The first rule of boxing: Protect yourself at all times. Do you think the hacks and whacks don’t protect their setups?

“The day you install your security system for your own counter, you stop flying blind: you start measuring and understanding the results of your promotional strategy which means better results, less time wasted and a nice, exponentially growing traffic curve.”

“One very effective way to alleviate the purveyor’s timidity, is in offering information as they visit our websites.

>>F.A.Q. Frequently “Answered” Questions<<

“Tap into the WHO, WHAT, WHHERE WHEN, HOW. See if our GT’treats can be put on the shelf of “Chicken Soup for the Person” who: learned everything he needs to know in Kindergarten. A milk and warm cookie from grandma’s kitchen is our number six on list of everyday activities. Less sugar and fat would be in order; pedantic ads would workout very well here. Only if the patron feels secure,

Use a shopping cart and the Four steps to final checkout. Nurse you patrons to complete Information forms, and close the deal. You need to find out what it is all about, and find a suitable SSL.

GT’s treats will boost your appearance and keep your taste buds happy.
“Your GT’treats are akin to treatments, for those who have not been able to purge the wrong kind of treat from their diets. Will your vocation be to advise strongly the patrons of GT’s treats, to cut back on sugar, and detox themselves like Jared and SUBWAY?
Our GT’s are for a special interest group, are they not?”

WARNING
Our target customers may be profiled as:
Anxious
Uncertain
Suspicious

Thus, will you be offering a job: hoping and wishing to make your already suspicious patrons feel secure in their shopping? If we have a bouncer at the door, who provides the promise “no bad boys will be entering this Site,” is that the http://www.trustgauge.com/ that GT is looking for?

>>>>Hiring Security: Bubbaganoosh Bruin, Coxswain, Esq.<<<<<<

Please respond very promptly, PD>

5. Blog entry:

Dearest Brother: Do we have the same Dad?
I am aware of the following facts: You just borrowed $7,000 to buy a used truck. You financed $20,000 to go back to college to get your real estate license. In addition, you refinanced your house mortgage to pay for new computer equipment and the addition of your home office. Leave out the Italian crystal lighting fixtures, and leather wallpaper, and buy yourself the best security system we can find.

Don’t you think you might want to think even further into the future, when your computer business is in obsolescence; because, the lag time for computer industry is less than five years. Your financing is for 10 years. I don’t need you divorced, and wrecked, because you failed to see the wisdom. Some things take much prayer, y Dios Mio.

“You need to build in the best security system available today. I don’t feel right letting you commit E-commerce suicide. I know you are depending on GT sales to cover your debt consolidation when a gas giant hacker waylays your Website. Reply in the next eight hours, PD>

>>1. Blog reply>> Yeah, so? Bro.

6. Blog entry:

Dear Brother:
Oh, so you are there? Simply put, this is the skinny: four steps, and you are further along to success than all your competitors.

1. Decide/Install on a commercial
firewall software with intruder alert, IDS (intrusion detection
system).
2. Put an anti-virus
strategy in practice. Your policies will cover actions you and employees will
take against threats to our information, confidentiality, integrity, and
privacy. Piracy today on the Boulevards of Internet is new but detection is
almost instantaneous. GT can beat the
odds.
3. Fulfill GT Web security
needs.
4. Structure the security
environment, and monitor the entire perimeter you set up.

>>2. Blog reply>> Costs too much. Not interested. Bro.

7. Blog entry:
Dear Brother: If it weren’t so dreadfully important, I would give up on you.
That is why I jacked your new truck last night, to prove to you how vulnerable and lax you are.
Yours, PD>

>>3. Blog reply>> You little @#%^&*^&! Dirt bag. Where’s the truck. Errr!

8. Blog entry:
Dear Brother: Are you listening now that I have your Truck hostage?

http://www.goalcentrix.com/?src=overture&OVRAW=intervention%20business%20strategy&OVKEY=business%20strategy&OVMTC=advanced

Summary: PRIVACY/SECURITY
A. FIREWALL: allocate the funds now to get the job done so you have a willable business to leave my nephew and niece.
B. Protocol: Protecting a site from hackers is done with security software, encryption algorithm, and methodology
C. Perimeter Monitoring: Develop new system with the security and privacy environments in mind:
a. Test out new system to detect security flaws.
b. Improve system while in operation as needed, with scalability built in.
c. Use internal or external security monitoring to check for holes or flaws, and run system changes back through development stage.
D.And, Make it Scalable,
Have a nice day. PD>

>>4. Blog reply>> Paddy, you are a dweeb. Have you visited GT Website recently? All that stuff is installed. I bought it all the second week you started ragging on me.
Blooming skeptic, one need not travel far, if travel at all.
I guess the nut doesn’t fall far from the tree. The police are on their way.
>Bro.

Finally, we offer many options and some unique features, including, don't just say no :

• invisible counter (no ads, no links, nothing on your page)
• monitor your web
• site uptime and connect time
• receive a warning email if the site goes off-line
• click-paths and page views analysis
• repeat visitors versus first time visitors traffic analysis: excludes your own visits from being counted

END. Patrick DARNELL

Project X Hurdles forward, Like the Texas Two Step

Unlocking Potential at Project X By Patrick Darnell
Risk Management Integration -- Managing Project Risk and Opportunities

Introduction
This paper introduces the work Project Risk Management Team is doing to analyze and mitigate risks on Project X. Comments are directed to stakeholders of the prototype early completion goal, thereafter continuing production of AMD. Please note unlocking risk is ongoing and determinant, and is supported by Performing Management Organization, PMO, who uses bodies of knowledge to identify, and qualify risks in each of the sub-processes.

Monitoring with tools of comparison, Risk Management will have determined risks most impacting life-cycle and put some heavier tools of quantitative analysis to work. This will have unlocked potential for increased probability and impact of events positive to the project’s realization.

Description: Task Detail
How will you address varied interests of stakeholders when you present your plan? Develop an idea or two for each stakeholder to "sell" them on your plan” (CTUOnline; 2006).

In concert effort scientists in PMO dedicate their efforts to principle that “projects have to meet all stakeholder expectations... [And] Identifying stakeholders is a primary task because all the important decisions during the initiation, planning and execution stages of the project are made by these stakeholders” (E-Coach; 2006).

Because “Projects and project management are carried out in environments broader than that of the project itself” (PMBOK Guide; 2004, p 19) at all times the PMO will:

· Apply basic competencies of project management in understanding and planning for risk
· Use effective, understandable communication techniques.
· Communicate risk effectively to all project stakeholders throughout life of Project X (CTUOnline; 2006)

Mitigating Materiel Substitutions Risk factor discussion relates to:
· Procurement and Resource Stakeholders
· Stakeholders in DOD, US Government Quality, and Expectations of Project X
· Design / build personnel
· Final documentation and Printing

In mitigated response to stakeholders we have looked at scope, budget and time for procurement of certain materiel. We made a Risk Log to identify, qualify and quantify risk of substitutions in metallurgy of the project. This scope risk involves either protecting specifications for the deliverables or reducing scope requirements.

In first two weeks of the Risk Management Plan, PMO gathered much information from supplier stakeholders who had been specified and identified in project design documents. The initial trend in shop drawing checking, PMO was to find, was numerous submittals of substitutions for those resources specified. Articles reviewed specified materials armor steel, stainless steel, and sheet metal manufacturing standards, and testing values.

PMO determined this risk to be immediate, and invited input from those suppliers. Resource stakeholders wanted to know what savings would be realized if substitutions were approved. Also, they wanted all test data on alternate materials in question. Using qualitative technique PMO qualified several non-issue risks. Yet with careful analysis of the inputs, PMO found there to be no significant savings by using substituted materiel in metals.

The PMO mitigated the risk by finding the tests and certifications of almost half of the alternate materials are non-existent, or pending. In interest of stakeholders, PMO suggested to DOD that there be no substitutions in metal resource scope materials. Also, “metrics drive behaviors ...provide information needed to improve processes and to detect when it is time to modify or replace existing” (Kendrick, Tom; 2003). Therefore, all substitutions are subject to metrics discovered in building the prototype.

To our stakeholders of resources and procurement in scope, PMO submits no changes in engineered design drawings in order to preserve anticipated performance, reliability, and effective deployment of AMD. PMO restriction on substitutions reduces time needed to check shop drawings. All risk mitigation will have been included in “as-built” documents.

Controllable and Uncontrollable Communications
This proactive risk discussion is for:
· All stakeholders Note: One special risk generating dynamic affects all stakeholders in Project X Prototype. Because, materials and components of Project X are technologies that were not available just five years ago, communications plays pivotal role in entire project. The systems used to move project communications as pooled interdependencies between manufacturers’ are also interdependent systems in other branches of the DOD, and designed for optimum security available today.

It may be possible to avoid damage to overall planning and budgeting, “if communication knowledge base is consolidated on collaborative level” (Kendrick, Tom; 2003). PMO has put communications on its list of highest priority. Two categories are at stake:

· Communications used in interdependence of workers and supervisors
o New technology requires unanticipated skills
· Communications being tested and installed in the AMD itself
o Learning curve is too high

To compensate for unfavorable communication situations, such as security leaks, PMO is exploring assigning additional staff to avoid later critical path failure. Fortunately those personnel will come from lower priority tasks and will make little impact on budget and human capital.

Also, vendors are providing services to identify those risk areas that could jeopardize due date, assembly and security of Project X. Additionally, a proactive budget reserve has been requisitioned, in effect to add consulting partners introduced for training on the advanced communications testing and installations for Project X communication systems. Those vendors will be found in the listings of companies suitable for “working on these DOD projects” (US DOD; 2006).

At this stage PMO has not determined the risk trigger event, or when residual risk exposure could cause the use of contingency planning or fallback strategy. Most feel stakeholders throughout the project should first become very comfortable with the pipeline of communications in use, and security avoidance enhancements of the IT.

Qualitative survey will follow employee usage to determine further risk avenues. But note security leaks are out of the hands of PMO. Those uncontrollable risks are part of the stakeholders’ responsibilities to mitigate or resolve; “provide prevention or recovery” (Kendrick, Tom; 2003).

Because the far reaching nature of unlikely-to-happen, worst case risk in communications security, all stakeholders must be on high alert throughout manufacturing and assembly all the way to closure. Stakeholders could introduce effective opportunistic incentives for its workers as each increase skill set to include the communications objective.

Customer Relations Management
The stakeholder addressed in this section is the US citizen. The root basis for customer relations in this project is fourfold:
· Avoidance
· Transfer
· Contingency planning
· Passive acceptance

As any process, “any brainstorming process will be effective so long as it is successful in determining conditions or events that may lead to risk” (Kendrick, Tom; 2003) It became more evident in qualitative study that the US clientele is very interested in a passive defense system, land based or otherwise. Since the Star-Wars initiative in the Reagan presidency, the major cause for this type defense has not been fully understood by the larger external stakeholder, the taxpaying US citizens.

Moreover, in initial brainstorming where the risk steering team applied scope, budget, schedule, resource and other root cause descriptors, the ubiquitous stakeholder US citizenry kept coming up. Then in the recent elections of 2004, the legislature was swept with a majority of chair changes. In use of its opinion to act with balance of power, voting public is watching the scale of measured consequences of war more closely than could be predicted. Also, if public opinion sways future defense developments with budget cuts, interruptions, Key contributors will be unable to complete critical activities. The project could be abandoned because technology supplanted the designed systems.

This risk can be mitigated with stakeholders’ providing public access to limited and less secure aspects of the project. Public Tours or internet news releases could help spread out the risk of uncontrollable risks popping up. When elections are held, contributing parties could add urgent support work in CRM. Tom Kendrick begins discussion of Project risk Management: “Far too many technical projects retrace the shortcomings and errors of earlier work.” Macro-risk management of the US citizenry is effective technique to avoid those errors of the past (Kendrick, Tom; 2003).

Loss of Key Personnel
This section addresses the employees who as stakeholders identify skill sets on the project.
Loss of personnel can affect internal workings dramatically:

• Reciprocal interdependence


• Pooled interdependence

According to PMBOK Guide: Quality risk management also is paramount to end-users’ enduring stability. Cross-functioning influences of multiple categorical stakeholders will play heavily in the “acquisition and final use of the war machine developed” (2004).

PMBOK Guide claims the “key stakeholders on every project include:"
· Project Manager
· Customer/ End-users
· Performing management organization
· Project team members
· Project Management team
· Sponsors
· Influencers

Also, as described in section 2.2 PMBOK Guide, the interdependence of the project management and the stakeholders is prevailing, and immediate (2004, p 25-26).

Kendrick has generalized in his book that “Mitigation strategies that reduce probability and impact of potential problems are best described:”
· Good communication
· Using specialists and generalists
· Strong sponsorship
· Continuing user involvement
· Clear decision priorities (Kendrick, Tom; 2003)


The best of class shown here is obviously a list of the risks that have been fully identified in risk management registers. Qualitative and quantitative analysis proves the mitigation strategy. Why mitigate? Most employee involvement is already well entrenched in the internal aspects of projects. Mitigation is a proactive technique that could delay employee attritions, when used by skilled functional managers.

Stakeholders can release through clear communication “unambiguous project documentation that is easily accessible by the whole team. Communication can significantly reduce risk probabilities,” concludes Kendrick (2003).

References

E-Coach (n/d) Project Stakeholders, their Roles and Contribution (2006) by E-Coach, retrieved from the World Wide Web 11-27-06 from 1000ventures com business guide crosscutting project stakeholders

Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge, A 3rd Edition (2004) Project Management Institute, Newtown Square, PA

Kendrick, T; (2003) Identifying and managing project risk New York, NY: American Management Association

US DOD; US Department of Defense (2006) Contracts, Retrieved Dec 15, 2006 from defense link mil Contracts Contract 3386

It's Information that Generates New Ideas and Drives Decisions for SMB... Small to Mid-size Businesses... and XEROX

"According to IDC Research Firm, offices around the world will produce 4.5 trillion pages of hard copy information by 2007." Introduction to Smarter Document Management
1 “The Role of Documents in Effective Business Processes,” Angele Boyd, IDC, October 2004.

Every organization – small start ups, growing mid-size and global corporations — has made an investment in Information Technology. From 1997 to 2003, U.S. companies spent $2.5 trillion on IT, according to the research firm IDC. IDC research house goes further to state that by 2007, offices around the world will produce 4.5 trillion pages of hard copy information.

The emphasis for businesses as they try to reduce costs and improve productivity is not to eliminate paper, but to streamline how the information embedded in the paper documents is handled.

Many organizations are looking beyond adding technology in order to improve the bottom line; they are looking to the people and processes actively shaping their workplace. They are interested in growing smarter, not bigger.

With the shift in focus, new questions are raised; how can they tailor and manage the technology to best meet their needs, and how can they later alter their processes to best use the technology? When it comes to investing in IT, there is a marked shift from the “T” to the “I” — from the technology to the information. It’s information that generates new ideas and drives decisions (Boyd; 2004).

The Big “I” and Document Challenge

Documents are one of the most critical elements of working life, the key connectors between IT infrastructure, people, and critical business processes. A recent report from IDC characterizes the growing importance of documents as “driven by regulatory compliance, the need to communicate with customers, suppliers and employees across multiple media, and the role of documents in effective business process solutions and related investments”(Boyd; 2004).

The costs that lie in the production, distribution and use of documents are a hidden, overlooked and generally misunderstood aspect of business cost and productivity. In all cases, the documents carry content that constitutes the backbone of work processes. However, that content is still mostly unstructured and hidden within the verbal expressions of text. It is up to individual users to figure out where to take it, what to do with it, how to process it and take an action on it (Boyd; 2004).

Copyright © 2005 Xerox Corporation. Xerox®, Smarter Document Management smb and DocuShare® are trademarks of Xerox Corporation in the U.S. and/or other countries.
Microsoft® is a trademark of Microsoft, Inc.

These Colors Don't Run

Hello all,

A friend of mine, Melany Grant, sends me inspirational emails quite often. Today, I've decided to send this one on to all of you...it's especially touching and appropriate for us all!

Have a great day fellow colleagues!

John McCain's remarks about the Pledge of Allegiance! In light of the recent appeals court ruling in California, with respect to the Pledge of Allegiance, the following recollection from Senator John McCain is very appropriate:

"The Pledge of Allegiance" - by Senator John McCain

"...As you may know, I spent five and one half years as a prisoner of war during the Vietnam War. In the early years of our imprisonment, the NVA kept us in solitary confinement or two or three to a cell. In 1971 the NVA moved us from these conditions of isolation into large rooms with as many as 30 to 40 men to a room.

"This was, as you can imagine, a wonderful change and was a direct result of the efforts of millions of Americans on behalf of a few hundred POWs 10,000 miles from home. One of the men who moved into my room was a young man named Mike Christian. Mike came from a small town near Selma; Alabama. He didn't wear a pair of shoes until he was 13 years old. At 17, he enlisted in the US Navy.

"He later earned a commission by going to Officer Training School. Then he became a Naval Flight Officer and was shot down and captured in 1967. Mike had a keen and deep appreciation of the opportunities this country and our military provide for people who want to work and want to succeed.

"As part of the change in treatment, the Vietnamese allowed some prisoners to receive packages from home. In some of these packages were handkerchiefs, scarves and other items of clothing.

"Mike got himself a bamboo needle. Over a period of a couple of months, he created an American flag and sewed on the inside of his shirt.Every afternoon, before we had a bowl of soup, we would hang Mike's shirt on the wall of the cell and say the Pledge of Allegiance. I know the Pledge of Allegiance may not seem the most important part of our day now, but I can assure you that in that stark cell it was indeed the most important and meaningful event.

"One day the Vietnamese searched our cell, as they did periodically, and discovered Mike's shirt with the flag sewn inside, and removed it. That evening they returned, opened the doorof the cell, and for the benefit of all of us, beat Mike Christian severely for the next couple of hours. Then, they opened the door of the cell and threw him in.

"We cleaned him up as well as we could. The cell in which we lived had a concrete slab in the middle on which we slept. Four naked light bulbs hung in each corner of the room. As I said, we tried to clean up Mike as well as we could. After the excitement died down, I looked in the corner of the room, and sitting there beneath that dim light bulb with a piece of red cloth, another shirt and his bamboo needle, was my friend, Mike Christian.

"He was sitting there with his eyes almost shut from the beating he had received, making another American flag. He was not making the flag because it made Mike Christian feel better. He was making that flag because he knew how important it was to us to be able to Pledge our allegiance to our flag and country.

"So the next time you say the Pledge of Allegiance, you must never forget the sacrifice and courage that thousands of Americans have made to build our nation and promote freedom around the world."

Remember our duty, our honor, and our country:
"I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all."

From: file:///C:/mailto:Mcgrion627@aol.com

MooPig Ranks Four W's... out of three

Hello PD,
Thank you for the mail. The letter from Pam is a "Medal Winner". Jesus loves me and you.

The Blog is outstanding but I don't know know how to post to it. I love hearing Vinnie "Blog". I'm serious, it is very well put together and full of deep doo-doo and just plain doo-doo.

You know in North Carolina they probably can't buy boots with high enough tops to keep their socks clean.

You have gone beyond our expectations with this wonderment of the world wide web.It is a WWWW.moopig.extreme>entertainment_excitement/informative-wisdom.whoopee.

Tell me how to post. Keep your thinking cap on, You Go Brah! We have several goals here in Pearland, which is similar to College Station only fruitier. I'd love to talk with you.

Your servant and believer, DPD

Gee Thanks DPD: From Blog to Everywhere, the multinationals are pouring $ billions into B'Logs worldwide as the most efficient method of advertising and spreading the word. I just want a piece of that, say a 1% for mi familia. Y Tu?
You betcha! You just click and write in the Publish window. PD

ATT: Letter From Pam: WOW ........ is this laying it on the line or what?
The lady who wrote this letter has been in business since 1980 doing interior design and home planning. She recently wrote a letter to a family member serving in Iraq . Read it!

"Are we fighting a war on terror or aren't we? Was it or was it not started by Islamic people who brought it to our shores on September 11, 2001 ?
Were people from all over the world, mostly Americans, not brutally murdered that day, in downtown Manhattan , across the Potomac from our nation's capitol and in a field in Pennsylvania ?
Did nearly three thousand men, women and children die a horrible, burning or crushing death that day, or didn't they?
And I'm supposed to care that a copy of the Koran was "desecrated" when an overworked American soldier kicked it or got it wet?
Well, I don't. I don't care at all.
I'll start caring when Osama bin Laden turns himself in and repents for incinerating all those innocent people on 9/11.
I'll care about the Koran when the fanatics in the Middle East start caring about the Holy Bible, the mere possession of which is a crime in Saudi Arabia
I'll care when Abu Musab al-Zarqawi tells the world he is sorry for hacking off Nick Berg's head while Berg screamed through his gurgling slashed throat.
I'll care when the cowardly so-called "insurgents" in Iraq come out and fight like men instead of disrespecting their own religion by hiding in mosques.
I'll care when the mindless zealots who blow themselves up in search of nirvana care about the innocent children within range of their suicide bombs.
I'll care when the American media stops pretending that their First Amendment liberties are somehow derived from international law instead of the United States Constitution's Bill of Rights.
In the meantime, when I hear a story about a brave marine roughing up an Iraqi terrorist to obtain information, know this: I don't care.
When I see a fuzzy photo of a pile of naked Iraqi prisoners who have been humiliated in what amounts to a college-hazing incident, rest assured that I don't care.
When I see a wounded terrorist get shot in the head when he is told not to move because he might be booby-trapped, you can take it to the bank that I don't care.
When I hear that a prisoner, who was issued a Koran and a prayer mat, and fed "special" food that is paid for by my tax dollars, is complaining that his holy book is being "mishandled," you can absolutely believe in your heart of hearts that I don't care.
Everytime I see those lazy hacks go face down to the East and stick their smelly asses to the West, I say attack with ram force.

And oh, by the way, I've noticed that sometimes it's spelled "Koran" and other times "Quran." Well, Jimmy Crack Corn and ---- you guessed it - - I don't care ! ! ! ! !

Work file... must've been a bad day.

You might be from North Carolina... or a lot of places

Wendy Ballard says: Things I have learned living in North Carolina
1. Possums sleep in the middle of the road with their feet in the air
2. There are 5,000 types of snakes and 4,998 of them live in NORTH CAROLINA
3. There are 10,000 types of spiders. All 10,000 of them live in NORTH CAROLINA, plus a couple no one's seen before.
4. If it grows, it sticks; If it crawls, it bites.
5."Onced" and "Twiced" are words.
6. It is not a Shopping cart, it is a buggy.
7. Fire ants consider your flesh as a picnic.
8. People actually grow and eat okra.
9. "Fixinto" is one word.
10. There is no such thing as "lunch". There is only dinner and then there is supper.
11. Ice tea is appropriate for all meals and you start drinking it when you're two. We do like a little tea with our sugar!
12. Back'ards and fer'ards means "I know everything about you."
13. The word "Jeet" is actually a phrase meaning "Did you eat?"
14. You don't have to wear a watch because it doesn't matter what time it is. You work until you're done or it's too dark to see.
15. You don't PUSH buttons, you MASH them.

YOU KNOW YOU'RE FROM NORTH CAROLINA IF:
1. You measure distance in minutes.
2. You've ever had to switch from "heat" to "A/C" in the same day.
3. You use "fix" as a verb. For example: "I'm fixing to go to the store
4. All the festivals across the state are named after a fruit, vegetable, grain, insect or animal.
5. You install security lights on your house and garage, then leave both unlocked.
6. You know what a "DAWG" is... ate the kids homework, fer'instance.
7. You carry jumper cables in your car .. For your OWN car.
8. You only own five spices: salt, pepper, Texas Pete, Tabasco and Ketchup.
9. The local papers cover national and international news on one page, but require 6 pages for local gossip and sports.
10. You think that the first day of deer season is a national holiday.
11. You find 100 degrees Fahrenheit "a little warm".
12. You know all four seasons: Almost Summer, Summer, still Summer and Christmas.
13.. Going to Wal-mart is a favorite past time known as "goin' Wal-martin"
or off to "Wally World"
14. You describe the first cool snap (below 70 degrees) as good soup weather.
15. A carbonated soft drink isn't a soda, cola or pop ... it's a pepsi, regardless of brand or flavor. For example: "What kinda pepsi you want?"
16. Fried catfish is the other white meat.
17. We don't need no stinking driver's Ed. If our mama says we can drive, we can drive.
18. You understand these jokes and forward them to your North Carolina friends (and those who just wish they were).
Not EVERYONE can be a North CAROLINIAN, it's an art form and a gift from God! AMEN!!!!!
W. Ballard freewolfsprit@yahoo Feb 2007

Sex Offenders In Your Area

"IMPORTANT" Check to see who's living in your neighborhood... step 2 fill out address, do a search!!!!

---

www.FamilyWatchDog.us

Copy / Paste this site in your Browser

Hey, then: Pass this on

When you visit this site you can enter your address and a map will pop up with your house as a small icon of a house. There will be red, blue and green dots surroun di ng your entire neighborhood. When you click on these dots a picture of a criminal will appear with his or her home address and the description of the crime he or she has committed.

The best thing is that you can show your children these pictures and see how close these people live to your home or school.

This site was developed by John Walsh from Americas Most Wanted. This is another tool we can use to help us keep our kids safe.

Please pass this on to everyone!!!

This site does work - it's scary!!! VV

JD and The Deodorant Sniffing Mexican

There was a time when we were all happy sitting in one spot having a good time when JD decide to visit while on his break, until it happened. The deodorant sniffing Mexican showed up and all he wanted to do was sniff and not buy. So we confronted one of the sons and he claimed he did not touch the deodorant with his finger, when you can clearly see that there has been a mark across the top and plus we all saw him.

While we were confronting the son, the little 10 yr old wanted to jump in to defend his big brother and he got shoved to the side. His mouth was worse than his brother's!! Then the dad approached the table and suddenly started to curse out my mother calling her all sorts of rude names, we had to put an end to it all.

It was JD, El Padre, and I, surrounding these three Mexicans. JD was on the left, I was on the right, and El Padre was in the middle. El padre looked to his left and right and spoke to the man, "You are not going anywhere Jack."

As El Padre wasted a can of shaving cream under his hand while trying to control himself. We called the Sheriffs over to the table and what do you know, the Mexican doesn't speak any English when the Hispanic Sheriff shows up. What a coincidence, everybody shouted, now he doesn't speak any English!! The Sheriff pretty much told him, "pay for the deodorant you touch and get out of here, and if I see you back here again you will go to jail".

The moral of this whole story is don't mess with the Italian family or you will get messed up, and that is a proven fact by El Padre, JD, and I. We are the unstoppable trio, you can't mess with us, nobody can!!! HA HA HA

Heavy or Light Sleeper ?

Are you a heavy sleeper, that is the question? I personally thought I was a heavy sleeper, you can shout and wake me up but I will not stay up. So then one morning I discovered I could possibly be a light sleeper as I grew older.

For instance, this morning I wake up to the slightest sound of the children's screaming voices from a distance yelling the dog's name to bark back. I was up, so therefore, everyone can change their sleeping moods from either light to heavy or heavy to light.

Some Lyrics to start the Healing

Desperado Lyrics
Desperado, why don't you come to your senses?

You been out ridin' fences for so long now

Oh, you're a hard one I know that you got your reasons

These things that are pleasin' you... Can hurt you somehow

Don' you draw the queen of diamonds, boy She'll beat you if she's able

You know the queen of hearts is always your best bet...

Now it seems to me, some fine things Have been laid upon your table

But you only want the ones that you can't get

Desperado, oh, you ain't gettin' no younger

Your pain and your hunger, they're drivin' you home

And freedom, oh freedom well, that's just some people talkin'

Your prison is walking through this world all alone

Don't your feet get cold in the winter time?

The sky won't snow and the sun won't shine

It's hard to tell the night time from the day

You're loosin' all your highs and lows

Ain't it funny how the feeling goes away?

Desperado, why don't you come to your senses?

Come down from your fences, open the gate

It may be rainin', but there's a rainbow above you

You better let somebody love you, before it's too late.

Eagles

...her ptolemy as verbena... Made me look!

I received a junk email for some investment scam that had this headline in the subject header. I was fascinated with the word-jazz of it.

• Can you explain why?


• Does it mean anything?


• Is it a "poetry" thing? Her Ptolemy as verbena .........


• I can't stop saying: Anebrev sa ymelotp ..... backwards doesn't seem to do any thing for it........ Maybe numerology is needed?

Gotta go -- Roscoe Compostholesto


Dear RC:
Ptolemaic would be of a cartographic representation, or a mapping... and the Verbena is the small foliage at the base of the car-touche... like in the statuette shown... but in context of financial planning I am completely Stumped! L&H, PD.

Team Rally Speech

Managing Project Risk and Opportunities
Monitor, Leverage, and a bit of Respect By Patrick Darnell

Introduction

Now that Project X is in Early Start Mode because of inducements supporting fast delivery of the prototype, Project Risk Management must further its mission. There is a notion among stakeholders that massive amounts of substitutions have been made in critical areas of controls, especially wireless and fiber optics. Also, for security reasons military IT mesh network system of Project X does not align with standard, popular IT. Internet Technology and Engineering is backlogged with shop drawings, comparing them to specified units. The departments called in an army of temps to get back on target, by increasing hours using two shifts.

Manufactured piece parts ordered from Poland are on schedule but held up in special coating factories at Swedish plants in Romania. Stainless steel production is experiencing slow downs and shut downs in Eastern Europe. The manufacturers are renegotiating prices since the US dollar is plummeting, with two years to go in the Bush administration. Sounds like bad news? It isn’t because Project Risk Management Plan, PMP, saw those coming.

The test now is to winnow concurring risks that are waiting in the wings like villains who sweep in, to ruin the baking of the pie, putting their thumbs all in it. This is also not bad news because the Project Manager Office, PMO, has put together team monitoring and controlling processes to make early identification of unanticipated stumbling blocks falling from the ceilings.

Discussion: who monitors the Monitoring?

As will have been instilled in new Project Risk Team Managers, we will have an unusual opportunity to combine already learned processes of previous risk management parlays, with newer identification of enduring stalactites like risk-plagues common to all early-start projects. The key seems to be respect, as a proper spelunker knows; do not touch the conical hanging pillar hanging over your head; let it be. Two reasons for respectful delayed reaction:

· Each risk has a life cycle, like a project, and if disturbed too early or too late will likely end in disaster
· Latent Risk hanging over one’s head is what makes the project flourish, in other words is the prime motivation

It turns out “keeping track of identified risks, re-analyzing existing risks, monitoring trigger conditions for contingency plans, monitoring residual risks, reviewing and evaluating the effectiveness of risk responses” is ongoing by PMO reporting agents. And, make reports every shift changeover if possible. Reporting three times daily is very possible with wireless and radio frequency identification, RFID, and many other tactical Internet Technology, IT, based products.

The process is self iterate, according to Douglas B Boebinger, PMP, founder and President of Integrated Process Developers Inc, a project management and process re-engineering consultant and corporate trainer. After checking the overall plan to note if our response is clicking with core competency, and accepted standard mode of operation: ~Create workarounds, ~Control the project risks, and ~Refine and update the risk response plan.
This is very respectful spelunking when the risk, or stalactite, is worked around, and preserved for what it is, a relic, in a safe and controlled environment. This quarantine allows properly timed managing of latent risks.

Discussion: Iterative Teamwork

What then is the reaction that will seal the fortune of early start Project X in regards monitoring and processing of latent risk? First we discern external or internal root of incoming risks. From there we apply our guided “Risk Management Paradigm: Communicate ~ Identify ~ Analyze ~ Plan ~ Track ~ Control,” (Dorofee; Apr 97) and;
Implement an alternate strategy
· Execute a fallback strategy
· Modify the PMP
· Take corrective measures
· Update organizational process assets
· Puts lessons-learned in computer database for future use

Jump-starting the risk evaluation during tasks depends very much on the project management team and its reciprocal interdependence. Extreme teams can be formed where “ordinary people are called upon to achieve extraordinary results, and ...not be burned out when they are done” (Thompson; 2004).

In the 1990’s Mrs. Thompson points out that “134 separate project teams in 88 countries in the USA ...indicated that ‘despite positive indicators... overall results show companies [were] generally doing a poor job of team building’”(2004; p 72). Despite the team’s mission internal dynamics will be done in three phases:

• Task Analysis: what work needs to be done?
• People: how many people should be on the team?
• And, Relationships: What roles are implicitly negotiated among team members?” (2004; p 73)

Please, lead risk Management team members, oblige your self to remember to bring in other persons to your latent risk identification process, as it makes higher probable recognition of threats. Accomplish interpersonal work through well-planned facilitated group meetings, and individual interviews. Keep the I.D. process simply “known/ unknown, important/ unimportant, external/ internal, or predictable/ unpredictable” (CTUOnline Task Multimedia PPT; Dec 8, 2006)

Team Risk Management should keep the edge on and capture the vehemence of the project workers and sponsors to accomplish this prototype early finish. Remember to structure your interview questions to your best understanding of psychology of your guest, and to power of listening by you the interviewer. Allow the workers and teams to vent, and otherwise stay loose in the environment of the interviews and meetings. I trust you will all capture and document all that is to be discovered in your sessions. The interviewees are reaching into their past experiences in context of what’s happening now, to give you a glimpse of the next round of situations (Para, CTUOnline Task Multimedia PPT; Dec 8, 2006).

Conclusion

In conclusion the struggle upfront to instill risk management is beginning to pay off. When sponsors came in project management’s first meetings they wanted not much to do with the qualitative research needed to identify major risks. Yet, now that it has been done, and is ongoing done, almost everyone in the entire project from Poland to Thailand cannot wait to tout their latest brain-surge that identifies upon the horizon an incursive risk. At last we all know what it means to say, “We welcome the unwelcome intrusion with its usually unpleasant and damaging effects.”

References

CTUOnline Task Multimedia PPT; (Dec 8, 2006) questions and answers
CTUOnline, (October 2006) Task Detail, HRM345-0604A-05: Building Effective Teams
Boebinger, DOUGLAS B, PMP (Dec 2006) CTU Online, Risk Management Tricks of the Trade for Project Managers, Rita Mulcahy, PMP dbb process developers Integrated Process Developers Inc
Dorofee, Audrey J, Walker, Julie A, and Williams, Ray C; (Apr 97) Risk Management in Practice, SEI, Carnegie Mellon U, retrieved 12/7/2006
Thompson, Leigh L; (2004) Making the Team, a guide for Managers, Prentice / Pearson Hall, Upper Saddle River, NJ, second edition

Camouflage

There was a once in a lifetime trip to Monroe, La. which was the greatest time ever to spend with their mother of course. There is always one thing to set of the beginning of the worst of the vacation. That is when I realized that camouflage should be banned from being worn in certain parts of the states. When I moved to Texas, all I thought about was the great weather, being down with family, and of course, the women.

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The beginning of the trip was great, I took the initiative to make the drive down so mother could relax for once, because I know personally, she is always on the go. We did check in to the so called Hotel, which ended up being a Motel, but hey we enjoyed our stay. I THINK!! As the days went by, we made friends to talk to and had a blast at the civic center. The civic center is where we set up for the big boat and gun show, where I finally discovered that camouflage makes me sick every time I see it now.

I realized the more I help the mother out with the sales and all, I have found out that I have the potential to talk to people and sell. While were down in Monroe I did all the driving around, (I felt like a taxi/limousine service) which felt great. We shared such a love and hate bond that weekend, which was lovely. There's two more things I forgot to mention, the crazy drivers, and the paper mill that blew towards the motel every morning.

The crazy drivers out there truly are crazy. We went to Wal-mart, that was another disaster, inside was huge, I would like to add. Leaving out of the parking I was trying to make a right, this other car came from nowhere and almost took us out. I gunned that big Impala V-six to just get out of there. That’s Chevy power for you.

Drive back was tiring, as I had to read the map backwards. I stopped four times in the median to double-check directions, because as one gets older you know the eyesight goes (HA HA).

It was the worst and best time with my lovely mother. We got home and the first thing we saw was my little brother and sister... dressed, of course, in camouflage.

Sales War-Rooms: What up?

You are a salesperson for a small boutique shop, Studio Productions, specializing in print design, web design, motion graphics, DVD production, and presentations. Your company is located in an urban area where there is much competition in a dwindling economy.

The company consists of the original 2 owners/partners, 1 office manager, 1 project manager, 3 designers, 1 technical support person, and 3 salespeople. Although the company is small, they have been in business for over 10 years and have some key alliances. Some of the large advertising firms and public relations firms outsource work to your shop. Some of your projects are outsourced for: printing, slide production, high-end video edits, and illustration.

With the changes in the economy, the company has chosen to stay small in order to respond quickly, but revenues are continuing to drop, and repeat business is slowing considerably. More often, the owners are bartering services with alliances because liquid assets are unavailable. The 2 owners serve as artists/ designers, sometimes salespeople, and also attempt to lead marketing efforts, but without a strategic marketing plan.
Clients tend to be friends of the owners, one-person businesses, advertising agencies, large internationally recognized companies, and marketing or sales professionals in various industries.
In this small firm, many times salespeople and/or designers act as project managers, which takes them away from bringing in new business or working on projects. This has been a frustration for the sales people since they work on commission and they are not paid separately for managing projects. The designers also get frustrated when this happens, because they end up receiving creative direction from a sales person and not an art director/creative director. Also, when the designers end up project managing, their time is split and objectivity on the project may suffer, resulting in a less refined outcome.

To turn the company’s business around, the company owner decided to boost sales. As a result, your responsibilities as a salesperson will be expanded to include: prospecting new business, servicing existing clients, keeping clients informed of project progression and listening to their feedback, communicating with internal staff regarding client projects, generating more business from existing clients, participating in networking/ business events to generate more contacts for building new business opportunities.

You and your sales colleagues at Studio Productions have a lot of sales experience, including dealing with objections. From these methods of responding to objections:

...forestalling, direct denial, indirect denial, translation/boomerang,
compensation, questioning/assessing, or third-party reinforcement,

choose two that you believe are the most effective. Identify and explain (with an example) why you believe they are the most effective.

References

Textbook reading: Ingram, Chapter 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 Textbook reading: Swarzlander, Chapter 12, 13