John Hoyle - Web Design and Consulting

After publishing the previous article entitled “Watch out for ‘news alerts,’ I did some updated checking to see if either CNN.com or MSNBC.com have acknowledged the problem and have tried to do anything about it. I’m pleased to say that progress is being made - I think…

MSNBC.com has actually put up a blog article about the “news alert” problem. Why they haven’t given it more visibility and have chosen to hide it back on a more obscure spot on their website is, at the minimum, a mystery. You would think that they would want to get the word out and put more emphasis on the problem. Maybe they are afraid that somehow it will diminish their appeal to their readers. If that is the case, it is definitely a misplaced caution.

One of the comments to the MSNBC.com blog article mentions that in order to watch the live Olympic video NBC.com is offering, NBC.com requires that you download a special viewer program. This is exactly what the sp@@mers are doing - so it is very easy for viewers to get confused? In both cases a properly configured web browser will throw up a caution and require you to confirm that you really want to download the new program. If yours is not doing this, then you need to update your browser to IE7 or a later version of Firefox.

Snopes.com is also reporting this scam and confirming that a very dangerous virus is attached to the program you are asked to download. It also reports that “FBI Bulletins” have been duplicated to spread similar viruses. Take time to read this article as it is very informative. Snopes.com can be relied upon as a good source for information of this type as well as “urban legends.”

I’m disheartened by the fact that CNN.com has not even mentioned the problem - either on its newscasts or on its website. If you go to their website and do a search, you will only get generic Google.com searches. Most of their articles are very out of date and none mention the “news alert” or “CNN.com Top Ten” emails that are being sent out with their design and logos all over them.

You’d think that a big news corporation like CNN.com would want to inform its viewers and readers that such a scam is out their and misrepresenting CNN’s good name. Whatever happened to “The News You Can Use” objective of CNN.com?

I’m sorry, but I have to once again give high marks to MSNBC.com for staying on top of important issues while giving CNN much lower marks for seeming to be oblivious to real news. CNN used to set the industry standard and has the resources to be the real leader in news. But they have faltered in my eyes and are falling way behind MSNBC. In fact, they may only be running neck and neck with FoxNews in terms of relevancy. Sad, very sad indeed.

Over the past few weeks many of my email accounts, especially Yahoo!Mail and Hotmail.com, have been inundated with messages purporting to be from CNN.com and MSNBC.com. They are “phishing” emails, trying to harvest new active email accounts by either (1)registering the emails that actually open the messages, and/or (2) by capturing emails from people trying to unsubscribe by following their bogus links set up for that purpose.

Here is a link to an article about this problem: MSNBC, CNN Breaking News Alerts Really Malware

I’ve reported these incidents to the security departments of both CNN.com and MSNBC.com. I did get one response back from CNN.com affirming that the emails were bogus, but other than simply telling me to delete them, they seemed not to be interested in pursuing the problem any further.

I would think that due to the fact that the spammers are using exact replicas of their webpages and their logos, that both CNN.com and NBC corporation would be all over these guys and do everything in their power to shut them down. It shouldn’t be difficult to trace the sources (I can do it in less than 30 seconds) or the email addresses that any responses are directed.

I think the problem is that these big corporations, when they do decide to go after somebody, usually go after some little guy with a small website and no money. They are easy and quick to comply simply because they don’t have the money to fight. Usually their transgression is to use a logo or photo that is copyrighted or appeared on the larger corporation’s site.

The real problem lies with the governments of China, Canada, and the USA. These guys can block messages (as China has done) that the government deems to be anti-establishment, or to track personal emails (as the USA is doing) supposedly to search out “terrorist” messages. If they have that level of technology and can control and monitor the emails of common people, they can certainly track the source of the millions of spam messages that go out to every email account.

I guess the real question is why they haven’t used their technology to put a stop to these harmful emails? Who is really behind this whole industry? Every so often they do catch one or two of the major spammers, but it usually because these guys have overreached and involved innocent people in their scams.

The bottom line is that there is obviously a lot of money in sending out spam emails and some of it is finding its way into the hands of those who are supposed to be policing this issue.

The CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 defined what was illegal and what each emailer must do to comply. Among other things, it clearly bans:

• It bans false or misleading header information. Your email’s “From,” “To,” and routing information – including the originating domain name and email address – must be accurate and identify the person who initiated the email.
• It prohibits deceptive subject lines. The subject line cannot mislead the recipient about the contents or subject matter of the message.

The real problem is that you never really know why the spammers are sending out these emails.  Are they loaded with a virus?  Is there a “spybot” or some other piece of software built in that might be able to clone or take over your computer.  Some software can actually capture your keystrokes and then email them back to the spammer. If you have accessed a credit card or bank account and actually typed in your passwords, then they have everything they need to crack your account and steal whatever they can.

I truly feel that the U.S. government spends so much of its time and resources cracking down on minor or victimless crimes, while letting these internet thieves continue to steal identities, bank accounts, and personal data from the public.  Our governments, both state and federal, would rather punish “sign laws,” the personal use of marijuana, licensing laws, and pornography than to go after mass conspiracies that pass on computer viruses, identity theft, and credit card abuses.

The real question here is “Whatever happened to common sense and real public protection priorities?”

My final entry for today is about another new website that I am currently working on for Bend Cascadia Nursery, a Bend, Oregon wholesale nursery company. I stumbled across this client after looking at some computer “gigs” on Craigslist.org.

Once in a great while I’ll get the itch to go check the Craigslist ads just to see if I can find someone in trouble that could use my help. My intent this time was to see if a deserving small business might need someone to build a professional level website for them at a relatively low cost - or to help them figure out how to build one themselves.

After looking through Portland, Salem, and Corvallis classifieds, I finally found one posted from the Eugene. The ad basically stated that they needed a new website in a hurry and that their old webmaster had simply “bailed out” on them. I sent them an email and offered to help. As it turns out, I should be able to provide them with a very nice website for very little money. Hopefully I’ll get another happy long term customer.

Bend Cascadia Nursery

This website is just now being set up. I will probably be the end of July before I actually turn it over to the client, but in the meantime I’ve setup a single-page “business card” website for them. I wanted to get something online so that Google and Yahoo could find them over the next couple of weeks. They also desperately needed a webpage to point their print ads to. I think the page I put together for them does both of those things and, I think, does it pretty well.

Bend Cascadia Nursery is located in beautiful Bend, Oregon. Located on the eastern side of the Cascade Mountain Range, Bend is known for its excellent climate and beautiful surroundings. My client actually lives some distance from Bend in the shadows of the “3 Sisters” mountain peaks.

To capture the feel and beauty of the area, I chose a header image with a northerly view of the 3 Sisters peaks in springtime. The green color scheme used on the site was the same as an earlier choice determined by the client and the now disappeared webmaster.

Even though the site is simple and only one page, I’ve set up a mini-gallery near the page footer that shows some of the heavy equipment that the client leases and sells. There are oversized thumbnails that go to full page photos of each piece. The site has a rather unusual feature - namely a “page slide” - allowing critical contact information - to remain locked on the screen at all times as the reader scrolls down the page. A simple, but very effective and useful effect.

As I mentioned, this page is only temporary (definitely beats “Page Under Construction”) just to give the client something to work with while I build the actual site. The new site will be based on a static version of WordPress. It will have a News or Update page where the client will post his latest sales and available heavy equipment.

I’ll add a post on this blog when this new website is tested and up and running.

As I mentioned in my earlier post, I’ve been keeping busy building and supporting some new websites.  I’ve not done much in the way of active marketing for new business, but I have managed to keep a steady flow of small business owners inquiring about my services. 

I think most are surprised at how inexpensively I can put together a new website for them.  Most competing and so-called  ”small business” web design companies want to quote “big business” pricing - but then provide cheezy websites that look like a high school student put them together.  It’s too easy for them to simply create a site from one of thousands of existing page templates. Or they may use one of the many free or low-cost online web page makers intended for amateurs and then pass their efforts off as being “professionally designed.” 

In other cases, some small business web designers will simply create one or two standard formats or designs and then sell them over and over again - just changing the background colors and maybe the header font to make them look a little different.  That’s why you’ll see so many sites (especially for mortgage and real estate companies) that all look so much alike.  They all look alike, and in many cases like one case (South Shore Financial), the web company sold the exact same website - text, graphics, headers - to several hundred clients.  Fortunately that web design firm was forced out of business over a year ago.

I choose to take a different approach, and try to create a unique site for each of my clients whenever possible.  I may borrow from and modify some existing designs that appeal to me, but my client gets a site that is unique to their company only.

Poulton Imaging

Joe Poulton is a Vancouver, Washington photographer who found me through some Craigslist.org advertising I was using.  Joe already had a site, but was not completely happy with it.  The site completely failed to show off his artistic talents and used a lot of bells and whistles that fell out of favor around 1998.  Quite frankly, it was a confused mess.

Joe decided to give me shot at putting together a professional looking website that would allow him to do his own updates and to upload his own photos into manageable galleries.  I threw up a temporary web page after he registered a better version of his domain name through my  ALowCostWebSite.com company site.  I then built a completely new WordPress based site for him. Within a few days he was online and managing his own site.

Besides being a talented photographer and hiking enthusiast, Joe is a quick learner.  Other than the usual updates and some very limited support from me, Joe has taken complete control of his website.  He makes regular postings and has several galleries going.  His photo subjects include mountain and forest scenery, cityscapes, local rock bands, and, of course, his friends.

I’ll be doing some minor design changes over the next few months and maybe try out a little different look and layout.  His site is really expanding and could probably use a little larger format.

Joe was surprised and pleased that I could provide him with a new, quality website, along with hosting and support for a very low price.  We’re both happy about that…