University life (and student survival) is a big deal and every student has a different reaction to his or her circumstances (it is a very different story for everyone) making extra money, saving extra money, getting your hands on the hottest new music, sharing your entire personal life with everyone you know, putting together bibliographies and adding the finishing touches on class assignments--life has to be perfect and nowhere is that more apparent than when you're a student in college and (if things aren't perfect our first instinct is to want to shoot ourselves in the head). Below are 50 Free Tools--a list of resources every college student should have (and not only is this the closest thing to free money) it is a list to be savored!

Every blogger knows that good blogging takes time and patience--which usually pays of with an invitation by subscribers all over the blogosphere to join and recognize your blog as a great place for them to benefit from your blogging research. No matter what you're blogging about here are 14 tools and tips to make sure your blog runs great (whether you're a professional blogger or dabbler) so your blog doesn't suffer from the same weaknesses many bloggers may have experienced when they first began blogging. Pass these tips along and they'll help other bloggers form the foundation for a better blog.  Here they are:

14 FREE POWERFUL TOOLS & TIPS EVERY HARDCORE BLOGGER SHOULD USE

3. Here are five practical dead link checkers that crawl internal and external links on your blog, and find which links are broken then spit out a report about specific links that are not valid. Definitely a time-saving alternative to manually going through every link on your blog and testing each one.

5. Freefind.com let's you give your blog users site navigation by adding a cool search feature to your blog. It's free, and there's nothing to download. You can customize your search engine with phrase matching, Boolean searches and more! 6. Tired of paying domain hosting fees for your blog? Would you like to host your blog on a free server without any account fees, no quibble, straightforward and free?

7. Want to integrate message boards or forums to your blog? Nabble.com or invisionfree.com both offer you free message boards forum hosting to customize and extend the user experience to your blog. 8. Want to broadcast a video blog over the Web or mobile? At

9. If you're a blogger working with hyperlinks, texts, spreadsheets and other applications for the purpose of sharing data with an audience, hyperdata will improve the camaraderie between your links, files, applications and adoring blog subscribers. Up until the advent of hyperdata whenever a file, Web link, or application was changed (or removed) the result was as if everything had been blown to pieces--visitors to your blog felt trapped crying in agony holding nothing more than a bunch of dead links in their hand after you or someone else ordered the ropes cut.

10. If you haven't heard the buzz about snap.com and how you can interbreed snap expandable Web links throughout your blog we encourage you to visit snap.com to see just how quickly and easily you can add visual previews of another Web site (or blog) to your own links in place of using traditional text links. A Snap link will also allow you to integrate video and audio without using large embedded images in your blog and customize your snap shots color, theme, language and more so when visitors mouse-over a link you've provided, they instantly get a preview (or snap shot) of the Web site they are being sent off to. 11.

12. Easyresponders.com will provide you with a free auto-responder service that will send automated and customized email responses to anyone trying to contact you via email while you're unavailable. If you think this means you can tailor your auto-responses to say whatever you wish and this free auto-responder will send unlimited email responses (including newsletters) for you so you can continue to make inroads even while you're away--absolutely! 13.

14. At problogger.net you can pick up some great blogging tips on how to be a better blogger.

Need more tools?  Click here

Or

<<Click Here to Go Back to The Q-bicle Home Page

The Q-bicle neither warrants expressly, written or otherwise, neither is liable for any representations in content, delays or errors in content, nor actions taken due to content

If you've ever been an identity theft victim you know identity theft is a "Who Done it?" that can leave its victims scratching their heads. Hundreds of thousands of unsuspecting people have their identity stolen every year. The most frequent types of identity theft include having your credit and debit account abused, fraudulent mobile phone account usage, having fraudulent checks passed in your name, having loans or lines of credits taken out in your name, even employment being sought after in your name--the list gets even longer.

Identity theft victims commonly find themselves investing large amounts of money and time as if preordained in righting wrongs committed in their names by identity thieves. Are you a present identity theft victim? The following checklist will let you know if you need to worry.

• You find charges unaccounted for in financial statements.

• Checks begin to bounce when you should have sufficient funds inside an account.

• You begin receiving a sudden influx of telephone calls or correspondence from creditors demanding payment for purchases you haven't made--can be a sign you've been had.

• PIN numbers no longer grant access to accounts.

• Bank, loan, or credit statements cease to arrive in your mailbox.

• You're frequently rejected when applying for loans or lines of credit but have had excellent credit history and score in the past.

ACTIONS YOU SHOULD TAKE:

• Check credit report regularly--at least twice a year.

• Share joint credit, debit or savings account with a significant other? If so, keep detailed records and receipts of each others purchases (in an envelope, jar, shoe box, etc, doesn't matter just make sure you have them) to account for all transactions made.

• Haven't received a notice or bill lately? Didn't put in an address change? If not, someone else may have. It's not unheard of for identity thieves to mask their illicit activities and even go as far as paying the minimum balance on an illegal loan or line of credit while bleeding you dry so as to remain undetected by radar. Don't ever take for granted the fact that an account can be opened in your name at any time if a scoundrel is armed with your personal information.

• Do not simply discard old financial statements, credit card offers, and other documents containing personal information. Make it a habit of shredding all personal information before tossing it away. Shredders these days cost next to nothing and by far outweigh any expense you will bare trying to recover from an identity theft experience. Like the old saying goes, "an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure".

• Don't make it a careless habit of leaving your outgoing mail in your mailbox where identity thieves can simply walk up and walk off with your personal information. Instead make it a routine to drop all outgoing mail either at the post office or U.S. mail box for pickup. If you will be going away on vacation, visit your local post office and have them put a hold on all mail until you're back from hiatus.

• To make it even harder for identity thieves to come across the most basic information about you, you can also opt to have your name, address, and phone number withdrawn from telephone directories.

• If you realize you're a victim of identity theft be sure to report this immediately to all three major credit bureaus--Trans Union, Equifax, and Experian and have a fraud alert put on your credit history file as soon as possible. Don't stay put. File a police report and keep a copy of the report for creditors, banks, and credit bureaus. If your social security number has been compromised report it to the Social Security Administration immediately. If unauthorized accounts have been opened in your name immediately alert the institutions where these accounts have been opened and suspend all activity on these accounts so that Identity thieves cannot continue to abuse them.

• File an ID Theft Affidavit with the FTC 1-877- ID-THEFT (438-4338) ID Theft Affidavit

• Minimize future mistakes. A few common errors most identity victims have made include not meticulously scrutinizing credit reports and financial statements until it was too late. This is how identity crimes commonly go unnoticed until the bottom of the ninth inning in the identity theft game.

• Have a strong suspicion you're being victimized? Have one or more financial statements cease to arrive at your mailing address? This may clearly be a good time to take action and call a few companies to inquire whether your billing address has been fraudulently changed without your expressed authorization.

• Play it safe on and offline. Countless people have become identity theft victims as a result of sharing personal information online, through U.S. mail, and over the telephone by individuals or groups posing as potential employers, utility company representatives, and government employees. Identity swappers will even go as far as scavenging your garbage for personal information. Use these tips as a guideline to keep your personal information safe and encourage those around you to keep theirs safe too.

<<Go back to Scam Alerts

<<Go back to The Q-bicle Home

Copyright 2008 The Q-bicle. All rights reserved.

www.theqbicle.com

The Q-bicle neither warrants expressly, written or otherwise, neither is liable for any representations in content, delays or errors in content, nor actions taken due to content

Too often we get separated from the very information we need--not because we're tone deaf to what is being said rather all too common the information being sought after is being filtered or banned. It's not unusual for certain types of content to be banned or filtered in some parts of the world, perhaps even on certain computers we use to access the Internet (such as the Library) and for good reason, however there may be legitimate reasons where you would need to get around Web filters in order to get just what you need.

Webmail servers are pretty smart when it comes to circumventing these Web filters and allowing the information junkie in all of us to feed itself--you won't need to spend the next seven months or so trying to send and receive messages in a bottle. You may be thinking that's all good information, but what are Webmail servers?

Webmail servers are intermediaries which allow users to bypass Internet filters in order to access banned information they may want to reach. For instance, say you are in a country which prohibits access to certain sites or types of information by use of Web filters which restrict access to these informational resources, what you would do is basically send an email to a Webmail server with the URL or web address of the web page you wish to access and the Webmail server will fetch these pages for you and email them back to you thereby circumventing the filter.

So now you're thinking "wow, Webmail servers really can make a difference!" While the technology is good enough to email you both the graphics and text of a given site you're trying to access, only some Webmail servers will email you both graphics and text while others will only retrieve and send you text (a good alternative--perhaps even better than Webmail servers--would be using a proxy server such as aplusproxy.com  or proxydom.com where you would enter a URL  of a filtered Web site you were trying to access and the proxy server would  bring it up while simulataneously masking your IP address).

To contact a Webmail server your request cannot be unstructured. You will need to use the proper syntax or command to have the information you seek sent to you by a given Webmail server (with a proxy server you wouldn't have to worry about this, simply enter a URL and you're good to go). Syntax varies among Webmail servers. For instance, say The Q-bicle (www.theqbicle.com) was filtered at your job or banned in your country because as a result of it you're becoming too enlightened, if you wanted to access information from our site through the Webmail server at agora@capri.mi.mss.co.jp you would email the following syntax to their server:

To: agora@capri.mi.mss.co.jp    (You would address an email to the Webmail Server like this).

Subject: none (You would leave the subject box blank like this).

SEND http://www.theqbicle.com (You would place this syntax in the body of your email like this).

Because Webmail servers have low patience levels, this would tell the Webmail server what pages precisely you wish to have sent back to you. Here's a list of a few Webmail servers along with commands to retrieve pages you may have otherwise trouble accessing through filters or bans:

• agora@capri.mi.mss.co.jp SEND <URL>
• getweb@usa.healthnet.org GET <URL>
• web@pagegetter.com GET <URL>
• www4mail@ftp.uni-stuttgart.de GET <URL>
• www4mail@collaborium.org GET <URL>
• wwwmail@bnl.gov GET <URL>
• webmail@www.ucc.ie GO <URL>

<<Go Back to The Q-bicle Home

As emotionally difficult as it is, even the best laid plans won't always ensure a flawless escape route for becoming a fresh victim of a new scam (or old con game being revamped as new). For perpetrators of con games, not only are these great fun they're very profitable. Here at The Q-bicle we're constantly on the lookout for new scams that create havoc to warn you about--there are numerous examples--today we'll focus on a con you may easily find yourself identifying with if you're not on your guard.

The prospective employment scam is so insidious that individuals looking for jobs may not even know they're being scammed until it's too late. The scam works by con-workers trolling popular job sites and scanning resume and contact information being posted then masking as employers possibly interested in hiring you. Be careful. This scam is a huge draw.

The scam is then subsequently taken offline where they'll place a phone call in order to glean personal information from victims (in this case, individuals seeking jobs) which in turn provides them with the information needed for them to obtain credit cards and tap into other financial accounts under the marks name. Taken together in its entirety the con game is rather convincing the way it looks on paper.

Con-workers are savvy and will explain their reason for requesting more detailed information as necessary for conducting your background check before setting up the job interview in order to expedite the hiring process. By looking at this as a job opportunity where you have the potential to make considerably more money you may assume giving out your social security number over the telephone to Human Resources or a hiring manager for the purpose of a background check sounds reasonable. Beware--victims who have been desperate for work have been taken advantage of in these situations!

<<Go back to The Q-bicle Home

Copyright 2008 The Q-bicle. All rights reserved.

www.theqbicle.com

Do you have a history of panic attacks? Those of us who've experienced a panic attack here and there know first hand how much a panic attack can really open our eyes to the world around us. It's not uncommon for many of us to suffer in silence in cases where panic attacks seem to appear almost daily. The problem isn't only that we're subject to the whims of anxiety.

Panic anxiety itself carries its own medical risks and may explain the relationship we may be having with our own depression. It may also be cold comfort to realize panic attacks may be indicators of cardiovascular risk which is why it is important for us to get regular checkups--see our doctors and not miss follow-ups--panic attack sufferers may be at risk of having a stroke.

A measure of satisfaction can be gained in knowing increasing our serotonin can help ease panic attack anxiety. Believe it or not cutting caffeine out of our diet--such as soda pop and coffee and switching over to a more soothing herbal tea in any variety of flavors--can also help ease panic attack anxiety. A regimen of exercise such as walking, jogging, bike riding, running, swimming, kick boxing, weight training, and other forms of cardio go a long way toward naturally easing panic attack symptoms.

A good and balanced diet is key. Foods rich in complex carbohydrates such as pasta, bread, potato and rice can help spike serotonin levels. Chocolate is also an excellent serotonin boost--all these will affect each of our individual outcomes. If you've been suffering silently from depression, get treated for depression. Depression not only hurts but can lead to panic attacks. All of this adds up, so it really does matter. You'll feel much better if you stay healthy and active!

<<Go back to The Q-bicle Home

Copyright 2008 The Q-bicle. All rights reserved.

www.theqbicle.com

If you own one or more credit cards chances are you've experienced the benefits and the stress that go with it. Granted, credit cards may keep fun in your life and the benefits are tremendous in having them around but it takes discipline to quickly notice the convenience of having one. Today's lesson if you have debt, is making a plan for paying it off. The following are do's and don’ts you should follow as you draft your plan.

I spent this past holiday weekend alone beside a dumpster behind Papa John Pizza--I'm not a freeloader. Didn't feel much like eating anyway. Fine, don't believe me. There was a four star restaurant directly across from me equipped with trash bins and fresh leftovers fit for the folks who rode steerage on the Titanic. Trust me, if I got hungry, I could've probably scratched something up. The rich sure know how to live.

You may be wondering why I didn't use the holiday as an opportunity to get a decent meal. I'm kind of up in the air about it myself. Basically when it comes to holidays, I have a do not disturb policy. Let's be honest here, people tend to shy away from squeezing a hobo's hand on the holidays as if it had pulp.

I'm really bad at showering, and this has really been an issue for people. Sure, the rugged approach is perfect for Russell Crowe and the rest of the cast in 3:10 to Yuma, but if you're not rehearsing the part, yet you look the role, when you stink everyone thinks you're on the sauce. The last thing I need is to be hauled down to county jail for something I didn't do.

The other day a guy and his old lady got into it on the top floor of their tenement, next thing you know she throws a T.V at her old man which barely misses him and goes flying straight out the window. Half a minute later, my partner Ugly Joe is getting arrested for strapping a TV to his face.

Besides, why look for a handout on the holidays anyway. I never hear positive words of encouragement like "It's good to have you back". and I've been doing odd jobs for the local watering holes around here for years--cleaning up some blood here, getting rid of some blunt trauma tissue there, re-transplanting another dead body across town--you know, the usual.

I try to stay out of plain sight during holidays. A few things I've noticed is things tend to get crazy really fast, and paintballs can really sting in the face--increasingly more kids like to use these on us especially on holidays. For me, this alone is enough to eliminate the need to get out of bed on a holiday.

P.S. What are you still staring at! Find something to do under your own roof so I can get back to my life.

Yesterday, I was called to another one of our inter-departmental meetings. Suffice to say, I became very resentful and almost walked off the job for the 83rd time--a record low for a day. We've been without adequate air conditioning and central heating for 3 years. Upper management won't hire a heating and refrigeration expert to fix it.

We all feel shoveled in but no one says anything. No one here wants to speak up when there's a problem. There seems to be a fear among all of us at Corporate America that if we complain something really bad is going to happen.

The last time I went to personnel and complained about a wayward paper shredder--a really bizarre incident occurred--I was hung upside down the main elevator shaft by my ankles, just short of dying. Nobody really knows about it. Like everything else around here it was hushed then forgotten. Article 33 Section 103 of the employee handbook.

After the first hostage-taking-situation, you become a different person--voiceless. Besides, it's a private matter right? Today, I can honestly sit down and tell my therapist I am unaffected by the feelings. She confirms my uniqueness by giving me another round of mediction. I get to see her 3 or 4 times a week--I get a lot of attention. She has no problem billing me, yet each time I visit she worries she might have a breakdown.

A lot more goes on at my job than people are willing to admit. I'm not quite sure why I put up with the abuse. Kind of gotten use to it so I stay. During reflective moments I'm shocked at my own bizarre behavior. I put up with daily insults by people who can't experience their own feelings. It's part of going up the corporate ladder right? But hey, how bad can things really be?

Don't feel sorry for me. Really, I get by. Though I kind of got spooked after an edict had gone out. Let's just say if I get caught playing computer games around here it's an automatic can for me, and leave it at that. Phyllis and Phil do it all day long. My instinctive reaction was to remove all pre-installed games in Windows Vista. Complacency keeps me here. Hoping one day I may be bestowed with a powerful mentoring role.

Really don't feel sorry for me. It's how my life is supposed to be. Face it guys, this is normal for me. I accept it. At least I'm not on drugs. I mean, getting to see Phyllis is some form of gratification isn't it? I love my job. I have friends here. Besides, I'm a fixture here. Where else will I go and feel needed? What will I do? I'm poked, prodded, and ridiculed--so what right guys? I'm the protector around here right? Why doesn't it feel that way?

P.S. I enjoy the role of being her slave. I'm planning to stay no matter how dysfunctional.