Thursday, March 09, 2006
BYU Tanner Building Preview
Today, I attended a meeting with Ned Hill, the Dean of the Marriott School, who shed some light on the upcoming plans of the expansion to the Tanner Building at BYU. The expansion looks like a miniature of the current Tanner building (it's about half the size) and will connect to the west side of the current building, connected by an atrium. Based on the plans, it seems like one of the emphases is to expand student study and group areas, which I think is a very good idea, since students are randomly located in nooks and crannies around the Tanner building. There are also some new classrooms, which will allow for more students to attend the Marriott School of Management. Here's a cool video that gives a virtual tour of the expansion. I'd highly recommend taking a look at it.
Be Careful of Scam Internet Companies
Be careful the next time that you use an escrow (or any) Internet company to secure your eBay transactions. An associate of mine showed me USA-Trader, which claims to be a leading escrow provider. However, the funny thing about the web site is that all of the business information has been stolen from EscrowTech, a legitimate company.
The web site (USA-Trader) has done everything possible to make the company look legitimate. They have the entity number, license type, and state origin right on the home page. They have a Lindon, UT address where the company is located. Yet, all of this information is actually related to EscrowTech. Another item that is meant to "legitimize" the company is the customer service phone number, which is actually a New York phone number. Or look at the secure connection certificate on the login page. The fraudsters have taken every effort to show people that they are a real company.
Defrauding people over the Internet is very easy. A rule of thumb is to only trust companies which are well established and that other people recommend. Yet, then you run into the pyramid-scheme technique of fraudsters where they intentionally build trust in current customers. That way, they can lure more people into the fraud. At USA-Trader, the first few transactions are run properly. Then, the third or fourth never goes through and suddenly all contact with the company is gone. An extremist would say to not do business over the Internet. But that is the direction of our economy. Just remember how easy it is to set up a web site, make up some information, rent a P.O. box, get a phone number, even get a security certificate. Take everything you read on a web site with some healthy skepticism, especially before sending your money to it.
The web site (USA-Trader) has done everything possible to make the company look legitimate. They have the entity number, license type, and state origin right on the home page. They have a Lindon, UT address where the company is located. Yet, all of this information is actually related to EscrowTech. Another item that is meant to "legitimize" the company is the customer service phone number, which is actually a New York phone number. Or look at the secure connection certificate on the login page. The fraudsters have taken every effort to show people that they are a real company.
Defrauding people over the Internet is very easy. A rule of thumb is to only trust companies which are well established and that other people recommend. Yet, then you run into the pyramid-scheme technique of fraudsters where they intentionally build trust in current customers. That way, they can lure more people into the fraud. At USA-Trader, the first few transactions are run properly. Then, the third or fourth never goes through and suddenly all contact with the company is gone. An extremist would say to not do business over the Internet. But that is the direction of our economy. Just remember how easy it is to set up a web site, make up some information, rent a P.O. box, get a phone number, even get a security certificate. Take everything you read on a web site with some healthy skepticism, especially before sending your money to it.
Tuesday, March 07, 2006
Quicken Update
Quicken is one of the best things that I have found to manage my finances. When I got married, my wife and I tried to manage our finances just using the basic checkbook ledger and writing out a budget on paper. But I've never really been that great about keeping the ledger up-to-date (even though by profession I am an accountant) and it was difficult to calculate whether we were staying within our budget. But in Quicken, we can categorize our expenses and incomes, manage our investments, download our transactions directly from our banks' web sites to reconcile, and the list goes on. It's made it a lot easier to manage our money... maybe even fun.
I have an older version of Quicken and they are starting to phase it out, though. We've decided that it will be a good investment to purchase the latest version. I found this web site called SoftwareOutlet.com, where I can get the Premier Version for $34.99 (or you can get the Basic version for $21.99), which is half the original cost according to the web site. That's a lot better than going to Best Buy and paying $79.99 for the Premier Version. I guess according to Best Buy, SoftwareOutlet.com is more than half the cost. :) Either way, though, it is a great investment.
I have an older version of Quicken and they are starting to phase it out, though. We've decided that it will be a good investment to purchase the latest version. I found this web site called SoftwareOutlet.com, where I can get the Premier Version for $34.99 (or you can get the Basic version for $21.99), which is half the original cost according to the web site. That's a lot better than going to Best Buy and paying $79.99 for the Premier Version. I guess according to Best Buy, SoftwareOutlet.com is more than half the cost. :) Either way, though, it is a great investment.
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