Microsoft is reporting a HUGE upswing in the amount of phishing attempts that are being made by some really un-nice people. Here is Microsoft's words on it:

http://www.microsoft.com/protect/yourself/phishing/spoof.mspx

Really what it comes down too if it sounds too good to be true, if someone is asking for your personal info, make sure you know who it is, why, what, where, and any other question that might come up on why this person needs your info.

In the im-mortal words of an ex First Lady: "Just say No"!!!

I am of two minds as I type this blog so I'll start with the really important part first.

We at LTOL are very much impressed with the way that the fire fighters are handling the fire in South Lake Tahoe, these men and women are a dedicated group of individuals and are doing an outstanding job during a very difficult time. I'd also like to recognize our Lt. Gov John Garamendi who declared a state of emergency and hopefully is making sure the needed resources ares getting where they need to get.

Lastly our thoughts, prayers, good wishes go out to those folks whose lives are being effected by the fire be it a home owner, someone renting, someone driving through or someone that had a job and now the building may be gone, whatever that might be you are in our thoughts. Good luck everyone.

Have you ever wanted to take a train ride? Did you think it would be fun, a whirlwind of new experiences? Were you under some impression that an Amtrack train runs on time? If any of your answers were yes, Amtrack might not be for you.

I should start at the beginning. The upper management of LTOL had decided that a 'recharge day' might be in order. LTOL has been quite busy of late and a day off doing something new would be just the ticket. The LTOL planners looked around some and put out the suggestion of a train ride to Sac, perhaps see a movie, shop, something to just not do computers or computer like activity. You could bring a cell phone but you could NOT bring a computer. LTOL has been experimenting with being a 'green' shop and we decided no cabs either but only public transportation busses, light rail and or walking would be the watchwords of the weekend.

So, tickets were purchased for the 10:15am train leaving Truckee going to Sac and getting in about 4 hours, not the quickest ride ever but it was the train, most had not been on a train before and the few that had, had not used this train either at all or it had been a while.

The first inkling of trouble is when the very nice lady from the Truckee Chamber of Commerce (www.truckee.com) came to tell us that the train had not left or had not even yet been to Reno and this was at 10am, no let us remember too that it is about a 1.5 hour trip via train from Reno to Truckee. So sodas were purchased, papers were read, someone else read 'Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince' and read aloud some of the amusing quips from the book so 1:15pm finally came around and so did the train. Our happy throng boarded the train and off we went.

Now I should be clear the train trip itself, the seats, the crew, the food we brought, all were excellent and I feel for the people working for Amtrack I mean that crew had been onboard since Chicago and I think that was like 5 days back. The train is often to always late according to the Chamber folks and that 3 hours was pretty good. It just does not bode well if you have an appointment it would seem and luckily we did not.

We had reservations and the VERY nice lady on the train charged us a cheaper price then we had been quoted, I don't know if that was because we were late but we saved over a 11.00 a person we were quite happy. We even bought beer with the savings to celebrate. :)

So, we were suppose to get into Sac around 2ish and wound up getting in about 5 or so, we take the light rail, which was RIGHT at the station, to the next stop, switch light rail trains from a blue one to a yellow one and we are a block away from the hotel. The hotel was a Hyatt, right on the green at the capital, it was great. We had drinks down on the patio, little hamburgers akin to a White Castle, and enjoyed ourselves. We all watched "Blood Diamonds" on an in room movie and then cheerfully went to bed.

Woke up, had a GREAT breakfast again patio side which was included in the room rate if you decide to do this make sure to look at all the listing prices for a room we found the breakfast coupon at the very bottom and it was for the same price if you didn't ask for the coupon so always good to check, free is better then not free. So anyway we read poolside, pack up, head to the light rail. Now this is the lucky part we board a train that is taking us directly to the Light Rail because it is the first trip of the day the driver has to go there to get on the right 'track' so really lucky for the group.

Now, we go to the station, we have reservations and the lady wants to charge us MORE then what the orginal ticket was going to cost us, so after some discussion with the lady we at least get the price that we were quoted in the first place. The train is only 5 or so minutes late coming from Emeryville which we think is HUGE luck for us.

Train happily goes along that is until we get to McIver's Crossing. First I would like to thank Caltrans and the Sierra College for letting me know that WAS McIver's Crossing, never knew what that area right after the roundabout was called. Be that as it may, we sit there for about 30-40 minutes while we are told that the Union Pacific won't let us leave where we are, now if you know the area you know that we are what 200 yards from the station? Union Pacific won't let us in the station, Amtrack won't let the Truckee passengers off the train, too dangerous...so we sat.

We finally get approval from the Union Pacific people and we pull into the station, now they get this little yellow metal stool out for people to get off the train. Now why it is less dangerous in the station then at the Crossing is WAY beyond me but that is what we were told. As an aside the train was going to be there at least an hour they were being told and more people were boarding the train I suppose they had been waiting a bit and they had seen the train. I just hope they weren't going to Chicago.

So, to wrap this up, if you have NO time table plans the train is the way to go, you just have to be patient which luckily we all were since we had no plans besides getting there, the trip was the train and we all agreed we enjoyed that. You just have to wonder why they can't get a schedule right.

Anyone that knows me knows that I am 100 percent AGAINST pirated anything. From pirated movies, songs, and I don't know comic books, if you don't purchase it you should be ashamed of yourself!!

Well Walt Disney is swinging into action, while not saying what they are doing a WD rep is quoted as saying: "We take reports of a suspected infringement very seriously"

Weinstein Co. has sent out private eyes out to hunt out the person or persons responsible for stealing a copy of Michael Moore's "SiCKO" after it showed up online last week.

Eli Roth is blaming a pirated copy of his movie: "Hostel: Part II" were found online. (Not that we do movie reviews but a premise that rich people pay for the ability to kill kids in a hostel doesn't do a lot for me spending my movie going dollars.)

So, if you haven't paid for the song, if you haven't paid for the movie don't kid yourself you are a thief, you have done something wrong, your karma will pay, and it is really just not the right thing to do. Everyone wants to get paid for what they do, roofers want to get paid for putting on roofs, painters for painting, hairdressers for cutting your hair and if they don't get paid for what they do they would be upset why would the movie and or music industry be any different??? (Oh, computer consultants and or repair people want to get paid for THEIR work too. :) )

Have you ever heard of Facebook? I hadn't until about 3 weeks ago. Facebook is the number 2 social networking site in the world. In case you were curious MySpace is number one.

Ok, so Facebook is the same thing as MySpace but according to those industry folks Facebook is COOLER. For example a high school dropout, two ex Microsoft employees and more then 800 other people have offered to help get Facebook up and running and making it number ONE.

Rupert Murdoch has even been quoted as saying: "No, they are all moving to Facebook."

So, instead of me telling you about it? Here's a link check it out yourself and tell us what YOU think: www.facebook.com

We at LTOL cannot say we have seen this with our customers or with the DSL from LTOL but the WSJ is reporting that kids aren't leaving the Digital Nest.

What does that mean? It means that children leave home, get jobs but still have the parents pay for the internet and cell phones for the kids. We'd like to say right now any parent out there that wants to pay OUR internet bill? Please contact us at 530-582-2080 and we will set up a payment plan for you. :)

The WSJ suggest this for any of you that are in this Digital Nest Syndrome to try the following: "Make the kids start paying for overages. Pay for only one year after graduation. Require them to manage the family bill. Cut them loose once they get a job."

Now, we are not saying these are all things you have to do, should do, just thought we should report what we know or have learned.

On June 15th in the Marketplace section of the WSJ *www.wsj.com* there was an article on reading and it made me stop and think. It said that low income homes have about 25 hours a week of shared reading times with their kids and that medium incom homes have between 1000-1700 hours of shared reading time with their kids. I actually could not fathom how these numbers worked. Can you? Well intrepid readers of this blog, lets delve further shall we?

These numbers are from a book from 1990 titled "Beginning to Read: Thinking and learning about Print" The low income stats come from 24 children in 22 low income families. For the middle income figures she extrapolated from the experience a single child, the authors son. Can someone say ASKEW????? The author laid out their own calculations and sources carefully over the five pages, attempting to be anecdotale about the differences.

Since that time groups like: United Way, Kids in Common and Everybody Wins have used those 5 pages into a singe sentence such as: "Low income kids don't read".

The rest of the article boils down to this statement: "In even the 'best' of families, 'shared reading time' occupies very little of a child's time." "Income is a weak predictor of a parental-child chatter, the author adds, "So any statement about middle class and low income might be a little to glib."

The author of the article can be reached at: numbersguy@wsj.com

I have to agree with him, that article just scares me that anyone would use that as a basis of fact when only a total of 25 children were used at the test group.

How can we not stop and wish everyone a very nice Summer Equinox to all! Yep today is the first day of summer, this will be the longest daylight day of the year so we hope you will all get out and enjoy the daylight and the day.
The weather is great, the nights are cool, and there is plenty of things in Truckee to do. (almost poetic) At any rate, please do get out and enjoy! Happy Summer to All!!!

Well fellow campers it has been a bit, we have been quite busy at LTOL. First and foremost we'd like to say THANK YOU!!! We cannot tell you how much we appreciate our customers referring other customers for service. We have seen a BUNCH of people coming in to purchase computers, ask about and sign up for having a website done, for our SLA (Service Level Agreements) where we come out once a month and check that your computer or computers are up to snuff and a WHOLE BUNCH of other services that we offer and people are taking advantage of which is great. Don't forget to refer your friends for DSL through Lake Tahoe On Line and YOU, yes YOU get a month free. So, thanks again and that is why the blog has been on hiatus, ok get ready now for a BUNCH of postings!!!!!!