Hey, we grown ups need a summer vacation too ya know?

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Two high school seniors in California now face as much as 38 years in prison for basically changing their grades in the hopes of increasing their chances of getting into a good college.

Well, that worked, didn’t it.

At least where they are going the government will educate them, and it will be free

Of course, this wasn’t something as minor as a kid putting two curves in front of an F on a paper so it looks like a B. These kids stole passwords, a master key to the school, got into teachers computers after hours, installed spyware so they could control the computers off campus, and eventually changed their grades, in major ways, for a period of over 4 months.

Moral of the story; Earn your grades. And maybe try your little spy games while you are a juvenile, not before you start packing up for college.

 Read more here.

When cell phones first came out with cameras built right into them, we thought we were in heaven. Sure, the quality lacked significantly, but it was still a camera, and it made it easy to send photos and videos to other cell phone users.

But as a legitimate digital camera (good for printing or editing photos), they were useless. Phones gained the ability to surf the web, be used as a GPS device, and now many have fold out keyboards, but for the most part, the digital camera portion stayed under 2 mega-pixels (Though you can find some that are up to 5 mega-pixels). Frankly, though my phone does have a camera, I can count on 1 hand how many times I have used it’s camera. My real digital camera gets used at least 3 times a day.

Sony - Ericsson is coming out with an 8 mega-pixel camera that should be in my pocket soon if it has all of the features that I use on my Verizon XV6700. And with 8 mega-pixels, you can take photos that you can eventually have professionally printed in very high quality, even for large prints.

I carry around my Sony CyberShot 7 mega-pixel camera almost every where I go. But, I also carry around my Verizon SmartPhone. Both my phone and my camera are kind of large as cameras and phones go, so my pockets look very full when carrying them both. If I can get them in one package, awesome. And the fact that Sony is going to make this phone is even better news to me as I love Sony for digital photography.

Naturally, other vendors will follow the lead of Sony. Prices of course will be high at first, but as they come down, camera phones of this ability will be the norm.

This has been a long time coming. I often wondered why cell phone makers would cram so much ability into a phone, yet let the camera portion fall behind. Prayers answered!

 Click here to read more.

Back in November, I wrote about Predator Panic; a symptom many parents get when they hear all the negative news stories about online predators and stories about horrible things that happen to children as a result. I really try to speak out against parents getting “Predator Panic” so I hate to talk about a story like the one below, but at the same time, parents need to be aware. But remember, shutting down communication between your kids about online dangers and just pulling the plug can have a negative effect on your relationship with your child and the communication the two of you should be sharing.

From this news story, it appears that some sexual predators are using a gaming consoles Internet connectivity (Like the XBOX or the Wii) to stalk children, even by sending them nude photos. From Netfamilynews.org: “Last year a 30-year-old woman was arrested by the FBI for using Xbox Live to exchange nude photos with a teenager in another state” Some men have been caught “Grooming” young boys in other gaming communities accessible from the gaming consoles.

Netfamilynews.org has a great article about teens being exploited while gaming, read that article here.

It is just one more reason parents need to be even more aware of what their kids are doing, and to work on opening up the lines of communication and setting some basic ground rules in the home. it is for their protection, even if it is at the cost of you losing “Cool parent points.”

I haven’t posted coupons for Dell in quite some time so I hope this makes up for it, remember you must use the links in this post. The coupon codes associated with these links will automatically be filled in once you do the checkout.

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Thought I would also toss in a great deal on a nice digital camera:

$450 off Canon EOS 40D Black 10.1 MP Digital SLR Camera (Body Only/No Lens Included)

Identity theft is a real threat, now more than ever.

And due to this influx of crime, many companies boast about their abilities to prevent you from becoming a victim and they may make you consider opting to go this route. Besides, you may think, 10 bucks a year or so isn’t much for peace of mind…

But if you have ever heard of LifeLock, you know that the owner puts his Social Security number all over TV and radio ads “daring” criminals to steal his identity.

Well, one did.

And as a result, many LifeLock members are suing the company claiming that it doesn’t do what it promises.

Read the news story here.

The truth is, protecting yourself from ID theft is mostly a matter of common sense.

Be very careful when you give out personal information, such as a mother’s maiden name and a Social Security Number. Companies rarely need this information and if you are suspect, ask them to give you a number that you can call them back on to give the information to later.

Don’t give any personal, bank account or credit card information to anyone who calls you on the phone. Instead, always ask that they mail you information about their company and their services. If you are interested, you’ll call them back.

 Destroy receipts as some criminals love to go “Dumpster Diving”. Shred them, and if possible, shred again.

But in all honesty, most ID theft today is done on the Internet and through email.

So, to avoid being a victim digitally, never, for the love of everything that is sacred and holy, e-mail your Social Security number, credit card number, or anything else that is vitally personal to your financial security. E-mail is very insecure and can be easily intercepted read by anyone.

Also, if you get an email claiming to be from your bank, eBay, PayPal, the IRS, or any other financial institution, handle with care.

Criminals send out fake emails to look like they really came from these entities. They ask that you click a link in the email to ensure your account doesn’t get canceled, or to learn more about an attempt to break into your account.

The website you go to will look real. And it will ask you to enter in a username and password, or a bank account number, or any other personal information.

Once you do this, the criminal has all they need to steal your money.

If you get an email from your bank and you are concerned about it, call your bank. Do not reply to the email and do not click any links it it.

If you get an email claiming it is from PayPal and you don’t have a PayPal account (Or don’t even know what PayPal is) then delete it. They were trying to scam you.

Another hint that an email you are getting is fake is that it will not have a greeting or will have a generic greeting like “Dear Member” Or “Dear Sir/Madam”.

Trust me, your bank knows your name and they will use it to ensure that they are who they claim to be. Also, your bank will almost never email you if there is something wrong with your account.

Were you lucky enough to get some of your tax money back, interest free? It may be a raw deal, but I found some fantastic deals from Dell on laptops, desktops, and notebook computers that will allow us to get the most out of the refund check!

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On my Friday show I wanted to educate parents and teens about the pitfalls new graduates can encounter these days when applying for jobs in the job market, particularly when it comes to background checks based upon a teens online behavior.

To help me learn more about this was Francina Harris, a career coach, also known as the Career Engineer.

Francina runs the website www.thecareerengineer.com and has a great radio show on the Blog Talk Radio network called, what else, The Career Engineer.

The Career Engineer has been interviewed on the nationally syndicated Tavis Smiley Radio Show. She has also been interviewed on Entrepreneur Magazine’s Women in Business Radio Show, Wall Street Journal and by The Chicago Tribune— a few in a long list of various public mediums.

What Francina does is partners with career seekers/career changers, business owners and employers to increase their performance, connectivity, strengthening one’s mind-set and unlocking personal and professional potential.

She also has a book you can find on Amazon.com called A Mind to Work: The Life and Career Planning Guide for People Who Want/Need to Work.

Below you will find a player that you can play the show in right in your Internet browser. or you can download and listen to the show by going here.

For whatever reason, Microsoft decided that with their new version of Office (Office 2007), they would change the file formats so that you can’t open 2007 documents in older versions of Office.

There are two ways to combat this; Save your 2007 documents as 97-2003 documents (As file format .doc), or, download the Office Compatibility patch from Microsoft by clicking here which will allow older version of Office to read 2007 document files (Known as .docx files)

I did a how-to video as seen below that shows you how to do both of these.