On average, Google’s Gmail is pretty good at catching spam and scams. But one got past their filters today I want to share with you so you won’t mistake it for a legitimate email should it show up in your inbox.

A quick glance at the “reply to:” address might lead me to think this was a legitimate email from the I.R.S. But then I looked at the body of the letter.

The first thing to catch my attention was the graphic. The scammers shouldn’t have made it so large. It appears pixelated. If this had been an official government email, the image would have looked better.

The second thing the scammers didn’t consider is that since I do my own taxes, I know for a fact that I wouldn’t be eligible for a refund beyond what I’ve already gotten. If by any chance I had mis-figured my taxes I would receive a letter in the U.S. mail, not an email.

Lastly, and I encourage you to do this with any link in an email that raises your suspicions, I right-clicked on the link and selected “properties”. This revealed that the link actually leads to a foreign site, tcho.ch/annonces/***.php. Notice that part of the URL is misspelled (annonces), hardly something you’d expect to see in an email from a government agency.

Obviously this email is a scam intent on getting me to click that link. Instead I forwarded the email to the government’s phishing report address, phishing-report@us-cert.gov. If you receive a bogus email supposedly from an agency of the U.S. government, I urge you to do the same. You should also report the email as spam to either your ISP (internet service provider) or your email provider (in this case, Google). Then delete the email from your inbox.

A shot taken this evening of the sun setting through the smoke of San Diego’s wildfires. I am in what has become the center of the unburned area. All around us, North, East and South, wildfires are burning out of control. If any of them reach the ocean, we will be completely surrounded by fire.

The air smells of smoke and ash is falling like dust. My co-worker is among the thousands that have been evacuated from their homes ahead of the approaching inferno. Luckily, I live in an area of the city not threatened.

With the lack of rain recently, I think we all knew the likelihood of wildfires was great this year. But I doubt any of us could have predicted just how severe the situation would become.

It’s a shame that in a city as large as San Diego mass transit isn’t more popular than it is. While the numbers of riders has increased, still the majority of San Diegans drive their own cars. Yet the transportation board is in large part responsible for the lack of mass transit usage.

Bus routes are confusing and often don’t service the areas most in need of public transportation. The MTB fails to properly police its vehicles, violence and disturbances are common on the buses and trollies. And now, instead of making buses and the trolly more accessible, they are determined to further erode its user base.

On Thursday, across-the-board fare hikes were proposed at a Metropolitan Transit System hearing, as was the possibility of eliminating bus and trolley transfers.

Despite the fact that San Diego’s buses and trolleys are attracting more riders than ever, officials said finances are stretched thin and that they may be forced to increase fare prices.

“My concern is: Why go up, when I can barely get around now?” said bus rider Sherry Madison.Officials with the MTS said they are dealing with a $9 million deficit.”There are 100 people here today, and we agree with their messages,” said Rob Schupp of the MTS. “We don’t want to eliminate services. We don’t want to raise fares. That’s not what we’re all about, but we don’t have many choices.”

Some critics, though, said that raising fares was not the way to find money to solve the problem.”They’re trying to cut corners wherever they can, but you shouldn’t look to … poor people and working-class people who are serving the community to hit them with that burden,” said Marlena Lewis of Citizens for Effective Transportation.

“It’s an unjust situation.”Among the proposals being floated are increasing the local service price by a quarter this year and another 25 cents next year. Also changing would be the monthly pass, which could jump from $60 to $68 over the next two years.

One of the most controversial changes, though, has nothing to do with raising fares. Instead, it is the elimination of transfers.”I think eliminating the transfer system — after people in San Diego for so long have become accustomed to that method of the transfer system — is something that does not need to occur now,” Lewis said.MTS officials said that some people are cheating the transfer system, so they are mulling its elimination in favor of a $5 day pass.”A number of agencies around the country are eliminating the transfers and going to the day pass,” Schupp told NBC 7/39. “It’s much simpler to administrate, simpler to sell, it’s simpler to enforce.”

The MTS board approved the rate hikes and transfer-elimination proposals on Thursday. Now, the proposals must be green-lighted the San Diego Association of Governments, which will vote on the plan on Friday.

(Source)

So here’s how I see my future;

I get a lot of fun invitations and I try to attend most of the events to which I’m invited. This week I received two invitations that exemplify the range of those I receive.

Shortly I’ll be taking part in a taste testing for Jack in the Box, a San Diego corporation. I believe they intend to introduce some new salads to their menu and want feedback from regular customers. Sad to say, I am fully qualified. There’s a JitB far too close to the store where I work and I find myself there several times a week to scarf up a quick lunch. I used to be a bit of a health nut, but I find as I get older attempting to preserve my youthful appearance and vigor are less easy to justify. That’s not to say I’ve allowed myself to totally go to hell, it just means when Jack invites me to taste his new salads, I’m pleased to accept.

The other invitation I received is far more exciting. I get to attend the official launch of KDE 4.0 (that’s the Linux K Desktop Environment) at one of the shrines in Geekdom.

This is an official invitation to the KDE 4.0 Release Event at
Mountain View, California. This event is being held to celebrate the
release of KDE’s latest computing environment, KDE 4.0. Alongside
numerous KDE community members, this event has been opened to our
industry partners, and members of the press. This is an opportunity
to take a closer look at the KDE 4.0 release, and mingle with the KDE
community at large. Presentations will be held on the architecture of
KDE 4.0, prominent KDE applications, KDE’s various communities and
plans for the future. This event provides an invaluable opportunity
for members of the press, I.T. industry and the KDE community to meet
in person and discuss the free software movement.

Where: The Google Headquarters, Mountain View, California
Hotel: The Wild Palms Hotel, Mountain View, California
When: January 17th to 19th, 2008.

Hotel rooms have been kindly sponsored by Google for those with
official invitations, and all event meals will be catered. The only
thing you need to do is get there!

Oh, I’ll be there alright. My deepest thanks to Chris Pirillo for the invitation. He obviously knows my interests.

It seems over 90% of the social events I attend are technology related. I couldn’t be more pleased. After all, I’ve got to keep my inner geek well fed.

My new ride.  Hell on wheels at 25MPH. So much fun.