Original post removed on 7/5 due to threat of legal action by the owner of the Curves franchise but I don’t like being censored so I have decided to put the original post back and reopen comments.
I have a new policy: I will not remove posts because people don’t like them
After speaking with the owner I believe that the Curves in question takes this matter (data security) very seriously and that a similar situation will likely not take place. I believe that this was an isolated oversight and that the owners have learned a valuable lesson.
I should clear some things up:
- Beyond the phone numbers and addresses contained in the letters (WordPerfect docs) there was no other data found on the system.
- The Curves database was encrypted and NO EFFORT was made to circumvent this encryption; no billing information (if any existed) was exposed.
- I was slightly misquoted on The Consumerist - no credit card information was found. My original post pointed out the potential for billing information to be found based off information I read on the iGo software.
- The hard drive was wiped (by me) using DBAN and no copies of the data exist.
- Upon
request demand of the owner the computer (and hard drive) were returned to them.
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This post (and the changes it refers to) was trumped by this one.
Changed theme, adjusting things… some stuff might look funny or be broken.
Update to the update:
Things are back up and running full swing(ish). Awaiting Inspiration is now using the Simplr theme by Scott it’s a beautifully simplistic, full featured theme that I feel works with Awaiting Inspiration very well. I have also implemented SlideShowPro for some posts, it’s a nice, easy to use and implement image gallery. I have also decided to limit the ads to to showing at the end of every post and only on posts that are longer than say a paragraph. Ads won’t show on the home page or in the middle of posts anymore. While this may not be a smart thing from a profit stand point, I don’t care… I haven’t made a dime from AdSense which makes one wonder why I keep running them but I guess I haven’t given up on the idea completely. I will also, when relevant (like in this post) link to Amazon for products. Clicking on those links and buying the product will result in Amazon paying me but like AdSense this has yet to happen, I don’t care and I’m not holding my breath… I just figure… why not?
Also, Awaiting Inspiration comments now support gravatars. If you don’t have a gravatar the system will generate a unique MonsterID for you; which is actually funner that gravatars.
In case your wondering the Tandy is handling the changes just fine.
In my post “Framing a t-shirt (on the cheap)” I used an acrylic box frame to frame a t-shirt. The acrylic frame worked well but admittedly it was a bit haphazard and the masking-tape backing (which held the t-shirt in) was starting to come off. So while perusing the local Michaels for something unrelated I came across some shadow boxes and thought that they might work better.
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