Rather than relying on check Kiting, which Frank Abagnale Jr. played by Leonardo DiCaprio did in Catch Me If You Can, these criminals took advantage of a security issue that allowed them to download copies of scanned check images. From there the criminals printed counterfeit checks which they then passed off to “money mules” to be cashed and wired overseas.

In this case, the money mules, were job seekers who were looking for an on the level job but as Elizabeth Clarke, vice president of corporate communications for SecureWorks, told eWEEK, ”People caught on when they got the second set of instructions that says, ‘OK, now you are going to send the money to St. Petersburg in this amount.’”

SecureWorks analyzed a database that the criminals left in a public location and found the personal information for close to 3,000 job seekers who believed that they were applying for legitimate jobs. In a tough economy, the desire to land a job can lead job seekers to respond to job ads and take steps they wouldn’t otherwise give a second thought, which the criminals capitalized on in order to keep themselves out of the physical act of cashing a bad check and wiring the money overseas.

SecureWorks has recommended that banks switch to a Positive Pay system that matches the information on the check with actual checks issued by the company to help prevent this kind of fraud, but job seekers should also be prepared to take a step back from job offers that require them to cash a check and wire the money to another person to decide whether or not the job offer is legitimate.

If you are a Windows 7 user you can check out my Windows 7 remix of XKCD’s Sudo Make me a Sandwhich posted below which illustrates how to achieve the same superpower in Windows 7.

Remixed under creative commons.

For all I, a reasonable individual can ascertain, reading the stars and sawing a pretty lady in half as anything I deal with the pricing of eBooks as anything else on this planet.

After reading a Tweet about Seth Godin’s The Dip I decided that knowing when to quit would be a really great skill to have so I set out to look for a copy of this sage advice. With the beautiful screen on my new Motorola Droid providing a great screen for reading and the release of the popular eReader software I set out to procure an eBook of The Dip so I could read it wherever I was.

The first link I found was to Amazon where you can purchase a hardcopy of The Dip for $9.36, but for the want of portability I set out to find a digital copy. What I Found where prices ranging from $10.36 to $12.95 with both the high and low belonging to a Barnes and Noble store.

To this day I cannot understand why I should be charged more for a digital copy of a book; especially if it comes with some form of DRM. While I can’t carry my hardcopy with me all the time, I can share it with anyone I want.

I won’t begrudge an author just rewards for his or her hard work, or even the publisher what they have coming for formatting and publishing a book, but given the fact that they say it costs the same to create an eBook as it does a hardcopy; why the hell do I have to pay a premium for a digital copy?

I welcome your thoughts and explanations.

It’s easy enough to do, just look at everything going on behind the scenes!

There’s links and tags and categories and comments and a billion other things screaming for your attention and on top of that you have 1- Firefox tabs and a Google search bar to distract you with the answers to minute details that you think will make you sound witty and intelligent but in the end only take up 20 extra minutes of your time.

Lately my solution to writing stagefright or distraction has been to switch up where I write a post. My two favorite resources are Dr. Wicked’s Write or Die, which forces me to just write, and Word, because it fixes most of my typos saving me time later. If neither of these are doing it for me I’ve also found that Google Docs and yes, even notepad can be just the change of scenery I need to get an idea out. There’s always time for cleaning up spelling, grammar and formatting later. Now you can even buy an Adobe Air version of Write or Die with more options for just $10.

I know that there are special programs that black out your screen to focus you on your task, and admittedly I haven’t tried them, but I really enjoy the ability to write on any computer I find myself in front. Being able to write anywhere, without a need for a specific tool, location and setting, is just an added bonus of my change it up writing program to fight the distractions and stagefright that comes from associating writing with a specific screen.

Have you faced a problem like this before? How do you tackle these problems and stay on top of your writing?

I saw a cool new key in Wired that isn’t just amazing and practical but it’s also affordable. Meet the Split Ring Key or the Keybrid.

This cool keyring is also a key which saves you space and is just plain cool. When you purchase the Keybrid, 2 for $7, you get key blanks that can be cut at almost any key cutter. This is the best technology to come to keys since the first time someone added lock/unlock buttons to the actual key.

If your keychain is this slick looking you better have somewhere cool to hang it so why not get the Magnetic Keychain Holder from ThinkGeek? No more trying to find a hook in the dark or not lifting up enough and tearing a chunk of plaster off your wall! With the $13 Magnetic Key hanger you’ll never be troubled with the need for accuracy again. It can even hold keys that come fully loaded with a remote control and various other odds and ends.

For the past few weeks I’ve been looking for a great flash based camcorder, buying the Kodak Zi6 and returning it in favor of the Kodak Zi8 but I was content to keep waiting until I saw this deal on the newest Kodak Pocket Camcorder.

Right now if you add the Black Kodak Zi8 to your cart on Kodak.com It comes up with a $26 discount dropping the price to $152.96 with $8 in shipping charges. This discount is going on behind the scenes at Kodak as part of a promotion valid until October 12th and you can stack coupon codes on top of it!

So I found a coupon code at RetailMeNot.com that gave me 15% off bringing my total discount to just shy of $50!

That coupon code is: KODAKGOLF09 if that one fails go look for another code at RetailMeNot.

When all was said and done I got the brand new Kodak Zi8 with Macro mode, external Mic jack and great video quality for $144 but that’s because I went with Second day delivery, if you can stand to wait for Standard Ground you’ll pay just $138.52 for a brand new Kodak Zi8.

Want to know more about the Kodak Zi8? Check out the review video Chris Pirillo shot and read the reviews at the Boston Globe and at Gizmodo. This looks like a hot camera and I can’t wait to have it.

Evernote fell to the side primarily because I couldn’t find a good way to work it into my workflow but now that I’ve been writing for WalletPop.com and trying to line up some other writing projects I really felt the need to get back on the elephant (get it? their logo is an elephant! Elephants never forget…Ok Ok.).

Here’s how I had been doing things for the past year. I kept a variety of notes and digital stickies if you will in the following locations; sometimes related sometime not.

• Gmail
• Starred items in Google Reader
• notepad files saved to Dropbox
• notes in Moleskin
• notes tucked into a Moleskin
• drafts in Blogsmith
• del.ico.us links
• snapshots on my smartphone
• several other random places where I’m sure my million dollar idea rests unaccounted for

The fact that I use 3 computers, and a smartphone on a daily basis coupled with trying to write a solid post for WalletPop.com and stay on top of a new directive at my day job aptly named “Big ideas” made this system difficult to use and worse inefficient even if I managed it well. If there’s one thing I learned from Tim Ferriss, doing something well doesn’t make it important, so I set out to find a better way.

Now that I’ve dusted off my Evernote notebooks and installed some version of it on my computers and my smartphone I’ve condensed the above system into this.

• Start a new note in Evernote.

That’s it; have an idea, enter it in Evernote. Find a cool story for WalletPop; enter it in Evernote until I can write about it. Have a millionaire infomercial idea while reading an issue of Esquire; enter it in Evernote with a picture of the page. Come up with 5 questions I want to ask Obama; well you get the idea!

I know there are several other ways that I could accomplish the same one place to rule all my ideas result I get from Evernote but the many ways I can start or add to an idea are what really seal the deal. You see, most of my ideas come to me away from the keyboard, whether that’s on a walk, driving with the windows down, having dinner, taking a shower etc. Trying to capture these ideas on a Windows Mobile phone without Evernote is a pain due to the poor note’s app and the fact that syncing notes inside OneNote to 3 computers without a magician is best described as futile.

With Evernote installed on my phone and computers I can enter new information by:

• Evernote Desktop
• Evernote Mobile
• A Firefox extension
• Twittering
• Emailing
• Uploading a picture
• Uploading a pdf

Putting an idea into Evernote using any of these ideas, from any computer, from any location assures me that I won’t lose track of a story or idea. When I need to find an interesting link or notes for a post I just have to go into Evernote and it’s right there; searchable by tags and in text so it’s easy to find.

Here’s a look at the latest version of Evernote:

The base version of Evernote is available for free and for now meets all of my needs; there is also a $5 a month premium version which unlocks better security, more file upload options and other bonuses.

You can use Evernote at your desk or on the go on the following systems:

• Mac OS X Leopard
• Windows
• iPhone / iPod Touch
• BlackBerry
• Palm Pre
• Android
• Windows Mobile
• Web Clippers
• SanDisk U3

For more info on Evernote check out the Evernote Blog as well as Ron’s Evernote Tips blog which is full of tips to get the most out of your Evernote notebook. It will be interesting to see how Evernote evolves over the next year to meet the competition that will come from OneNote which will be included in all versions of Office 2010 and include some form of online syncing.

Have any questions about Evernote or how I use it to stay on top of my life? Ask away!

I had asked to be notified in the past but just resigned up and before I could switch to my Gmail tab I had recieved the download token.

Sign up for Trillian Astra Now

Via Lifehacker

Finished product in use

Even though I love using my HP Mini 1000 to blog on the go and my Tablet works out well at home, I’ve longed for a nice widescreen monitor and full size keyboard. Since we live in a small one bedroom apartment, adding a desk to our dining room/library/reading room was out of the question and so was setting up shop in full force on the dining room table.

Rather than purchase an Anthro eNook or an Ikea knock off I decided to turn our kitchen table into an office that had a zero footprint when we wanted to have people over for dinner and thus the “Wall Mounted Office” was born.

I purchased a wall mount from Telehook Articulating Mount for $45 from ProVantage (which ships extremely fast) a 19 inch widescreen Acer monitor and a Microsoft keyboard and mouse for a total cost of under $200 excluding the laptop I already had.

You can checkout the slideshow below and head to the Flickr page to learn more about each step.

Feel free to ask questions or share your thoughts in the comments.

After installing the beta software my new Microsoft Laser Mouse 6000 is good as new, which is a good thing since it is BRAND new.

You can find the full details as well as direct Windows 7 Intellipoint download links at My Digital Life.

Stay tuned for my attempt at a zero footprint home office coming soon.