Michael Chang

The best thing since the do-not-call list is the pre-approved credit card opt out. Tired of receiving all these pre-approved credit card mailings via snail mail (“Urgent: Open within 15 days,” “Special Offer,” “Please do not discard,” etc.)?

Now, you can opt out of pre-approved credit card mailings (and insurance mailings) for five years by signing up online here:

https://www.optoutprescreen.com

Yes, you do need to enter in very sensitive data like social-security number, birthday, address, and telephone number, but this is a legitimate site. Opting out will prevent the major credit bureaus (Equifax, Experian, TransUnion) and personal-data sales companies (Innovis) from giving credit approval information to insurance and credit card companies. The companies will take your name off the list for preapproved offers for five years– a do not mail list. If you want back in, you can always opt back in electronically on the same site.

Opting out of these preapproved offers should increase your identity security. We don’t need hundreds of pieces of mail with our name, address, and blank forms for credit cards floating around everywhere. Our shredders will be much happier with an opt out.

Also, go ahead and perform a Google (or your favorite search) to verify my link. In general, you should never follow a link from any blog or webpage for transmission of sensitive data. Some unscrupulus thieves may set up wannabe sites that look identical (with very similar URL or masked URL) to collect your data. Do a search on “credit card opt out” and get the URL straight from the horses mouth!

Why the gaudy logo, Nikon, why, oh why?… Yes, it’s a marketing opportunity, but do Nikon users really want to flaunt the make and model of our camera in yellow-on-black fashion? Nikon straps can either say, “Steal my D2x!” or perhaps, “Do you really feel like stealing my D40?” The older forrest green and brown straps were a nicer color scheme, in my opinon.

So why not use the old Nikon straps? The issue with the older Nikon straps is that they contain metal clasps/parts that can scratch LCD screens. All newer Nikon straps have wider loop threads and plastic parts, making them better for carrying heavier DSLRs with scratchable LCD screens. So, our choices are to use the gaudy straps or buy some new ones. Domke makes some really nice, black straps (“Gripper” series), and Op/Tech always has a nice series of padded neoprene ones. I just end up using Nikon’s OEM strap by taping up the huge Nikon logos and makes with some heavy-duty gaffer tape…  A $0.10 solution!

The next big internet business is still in information, but with storage rather than information distribution. How such a business would integrate with internet service providers is another problem, but I’m confident that there are viable solutions.

We all have a lot of electronic data that has accumulated. The amount of data that we’d like to keep (photos, videos, music, documents, etc.) keeps growing. I’m betting that photos and videos far outpace personal documents in the MB/GB race, so multimedia dominates our storage needs. People will soon realize that hard disk drives are unreliable for long-term data storage and that, worse yet, CD’s and DVD’s have finite shelf lives. Many dollars are put into personal mp3 investments (rather than CDs), and someday video (movies) will take the same sort of download model. What happens if your iPod dies and your laptop HDD breaks (or worse yet is stolen)? Will the music play on?…

The answer is online data storage. I advocate it for non-sensitive data like mp3 files, photos, and videos. The problem with data these days is that multimedia files are huge and keep growing as we push high def technology. Now, families can easily have 200-300 GB of data on the home PC.

The biggest bottleneck to a successful online storage business model is the upload link speed to the storage server. Our ISPs are the key to unlocking online data storage. If I were an ISP, I’d partner with a giagantic storage solution partner (maybe Google, IBM, Amazon S3, etc.) and write special software that would allow high-speed uploads (software that would enable a high-speed, high bandwidth mode on the DSL/cable modem). The ISP pipe would be allowed to open up for these special online storage softwares, and the cost would be bundled with ISP coverage.

Currently, the only way to upload 300+ GB of data online is sending in your hard disk (not always an option and clumsy, too) or going to your local high-bandwidth university and uploading that data over many hours. Perhaps Web 3.0 will address personal storage solutions. The need is silently growing… I’m looking forward to the solution!