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The Latest Mobile App Scam

administrator — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 23:04:17 +0000

It is amazing to me that every time new technology surfaces, immediately thereafter someone figures out how to scam it.
With mobile apps the emerging technology, it’s no surprise that not-so-honest schemes are being offered to businesses eager to get on board, but who are not up on the lingo and looking for cost savings.

The lingo
To protect yourself, you first need to understand the terms used in the Mobile App industry.
• Mobile App – Although the term Mobile App is being used to relate to any software that is made to run on a smartphone, we are referring to the mobile apps that users usually download and access by an icon. When you are making a decision to acquire one for your business, and you want a fully functional app, it becomes much more technical. Make sure you are discussing Native apps, or hybrid apps, not mobile web apps. Native and hybrid apps are written specifically for each client and compiled for the specific platforms they want to be seen on (i.e. Android, Apple iOS, Blackberry, etc.).
• Mobile Web App – Mobile web apps are a cheaper and easier way to acquire a Mobile application for your business, but at this stage of evolving technology, they have their limitations. Generally, mobile web apps on link to pages on your website and attempt, most of the time successfully, to render that page to a mobile phone sized display. A mobile web app lacks the ability at this stage to provide interaction – push technology and independent upgrades separate from the website.
• RSS feed – RSS feeds allow businesses to stream content and data to their mobile application. A typical use for this technology would be to allow clients to keep up with news releases, or to stream data such as menu items, products and videos. For instance a bar or restaurant may have their menu databased on their website and streamed to their mobile app. That way, and changes to the menu would instantly show up on the mobile app.
• Push Technology – Push Technology, or server push, as used in mobile app technology, is the ability for a website operator to “push” new information instantly to a mobile app. An example of this would be (again using a bar, lounge or nightclub) sending an instant message to their app users alerting them to tonight’s entertainment or a onetime food special. This message could appear on the app as a popup.
• App Store – Here is a biggie – native and hybrid applications can be compiled and submitted to the various app stores, thus making them available to everyone. Mobile web apps cannot. Apps downloaded from an app store automatically install an icon so that access is easy. Again, Mobile web applications cannot. They can be installed on the smart phone by users who are savvy about these things, although it is a process.
That brings us to the scam part of this article. There are a lot of unscrupulous entrepreneurs who are “leasing” or “renting” mobile apps that are actually mobile web apps.
The scam works like this. You pay a setup fee, usually several hundred dollars, and then a monthly rental fee. You are told you will have an instant mobile app when actually they are simply linking to pages on your website using a wrapper, a mobile website app. On many Smartphones, the web pages are not rendered properly and appear on the mobile app much larger than the screen. You will not be given any ability to use RSS feed, Push Technology or have your app available on the app stores. Basically, your clients could accomplish almost the same thing by just accessing your website on their mobile phone. You just wasted your money!
Protect yourself and your business. When you are in the market for a Mobile App, make sure you ask all the questions, and make a decision that best fits your needs. Sometimes, relying strictly on budget will land you without anything usable.

Healthcare summit

administrator — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 19:26:17 +0000

I know I am not the first or the last to address this sentiment, but I am fed up to HERE with “politics as usual”. I am probably going to make enemies on both sides of the fence with this writing, but as it has been famously said before, frankly, I don’t give a damn.
I watched the healthcare summit with little interest, since recent history foretold the play I was about to watch. In the end, what I got out of it was that the Republicans were intransigents intent on stonewalling a bill no matter what, while the Democrats were right with might, and damned what the public they served wanted. Neither party is serving me and my interests, and if the polls are any reflection of the truth, they aren’t serving very much of the public–at-large. Where is the wrath?
Having said that, the problem is much bigger that healthcare. I believe that healthcare in this country is broken, and needs a lot of fixing, I personally have been a victim of this, but nothing can get fixed until we rebuild our political system. The sad thing is, we allow this while mass corruption goes on day-after-day and is reported in the news. Just another headline. Boys will be boys.
Corruption is running rampant in politics, the most recent being Rep. Charlie Rangel, chairman of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee. I won’t waste article space on Rangel since he only a drop in the political bucket. Nor am I going to do more then mention that Pelosi has time and again been the firewall that protected these cheats. She is not the first or the last, the biggest or the smallest of this organized “do what you want and don’t get punished” old boys (and girls) network. It seems that the only real crime in politics is infidelity, all else is fair game. Personally, I would like to put up with their personal family problems and get the lying, cheating and ignoring public will taken care of.
It would be nice if we could get a “Tea Party” That really was a tea party. I would like to see large enough segment of the American public get outrages that they band together and get rid of all incumbents without prejudice. That’s the only way we are ever going to get the rules changed so that the public is again asked what they want.

When are we going to quit yelling at each other across the great political divide called the two party system and agree that most of us are unhappy no matter which party is in office?

History is History

administrator — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 18:42:45 +0000

(author unknown)
Without history, we will continue to repeat bad things. Remembering is a warning – a lesson.

History is history!

No matter what aspect of history you look at there will be someone who is annoyed by it. There are several aspects of USA history that I am not proud of but it is our history. We must learn from our mistakes not hide them.

General Eisenhower Warned Us

It is a matter of history that when the Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces, General Dwight Eisenhower, found the victims of the death camps he ordered all possible photographs to be taken, and for the German people from surrounding villages to be ushered through the camps and even made to bury the dead.

He did this because he said in words to this effect:

‘Get it all on record now – get the films – get the witnesses -because somewhere down the road of history some bastard will get up and say that this never happened’

Not long ago the UK debated whether to remove The Holocaust from its school curriculum because it ‘offends’ the Muslim population which claims it never occurred. It is not removed as yet.. However, this is a frightening portent of the fear that is gripping the world and how easily each country is giving into it.

It is now more than 60 years after the Second World War in Europe ended. This e-mail is being sent as a memorial chain, in memory of the,6 million Jews, 20 million Russians, 10 million Christians, and 1,900 Catholic priests who were ‘murdered, raped, burned, starved, beat, experimented on and humiliated’ while the German people looked the other way!

Now, more than ever, with Iran , among others, claiming the Holocaust to be ‘a myth,’ it is imperative to make sure the world never forgets.

How many years will it be before the attack on the World Trade Center ‘NEVER HAPPENED’ because it offends some Muslim in the U.S. ?

FREEDOM ISN’T FREE…SOMEONE HAD TO PAY FOR IT