My little corner

One Life to live, One chance to make a difference

We all have one life, what will you do with yours?

I am JMR and this is My Little Corner on JMRPub.com

Tis the season to be….

THANKFUL!!!!

When the world shows us temptation, lets show them Christ
When the world shows us suffering, lets show them Christ
When the world shows us enmity, lets show them Christ
When the world shows us a helpless baby, in a manger, protected by a donkey, showered with gifts of earthly riches,
Lets show them a Son, hanging on the cross, taking OUR temptation, OUR suffering, OUR enmity
and DEFEATING them all by rising from death.

I am JMR and this is My Little Corner on JMRPub.com

Well it’s done…

Can you believe it, as of Friday last week, this planet has held on to me for 3 decades. I thought my 30th birthday would be the same as any other, but it turned out to be a real stressful time. I won’t go into too much detail at the moment but I have hinted in previous posts about the exact thing that was keeping my mind occupied the whole weekend.

I am going to keep this a short one because I am still feeling a bit miff (Sorry, thats a South African word and I don’t an english word which quite describes  the feeling adequately.) and don’t really feel like posting but wanted to get my blog updated again.

I am JMR and this is My Little Corner on JMRPub.com

Should parents ban Social engineering from their kids?

My personal opinion is no. First of all these sites are the future of the internet, coined Web 2.0 by those who feel they can name the internet, social engineering sites have exploded in as little time as one year. But what does that have to do with your children? Well take a look at the article from USA Today and see what the opinion of a youth pastor is.

Please parents, take an active role in your child’s online life, because there are some real sickos out there just waiting for your childs personal details.

I am JMR and this is My Little Corner on JMRPub.com

War on Spam

Wow if I believed in modern day prophecy I might just call myself a prophet

If you recall my post entitled spam rants about a month ago, you may remember that I mentioned the possibility of hearing from the spammer’s lawyers, well today I received a second legal notice from his lawyers regarding my complaints about the spammer.

I must admit today’s letter was worded a bit better, however it is plain that the legal firm has very little knowledge on the internet. They demanded, and I quote “that [I] contact the administrator of gmail that you used and retract the statements made and post an apology”. Their idea is that I can ask Gmail to recall the email that I sent to the spammer, even though he has already read my mail.

It really annoys me that a company can be allowed to bully a potential client like this. How much does it hurt the company to write a personal “Hey there buddy, I got your details off xyzwebsite.co.za and thought you may be interested in our product. If you are not interested, don’t hassle, you will not receive any further correspondence from us unless you specifically request it.”

Now that is a perfectly legitimate commercial mail. It tells me where they got my details from and does not automatically assume that I am interested in the product, they give me the option to sign up or ignore this once off mail. Instead I get this mail from a spammer, assuming that I am definitely interested in his product and only gives me a link to click to unsubscribe. Everyone knows that 90% of the unsubscribe links simply confirm the address as a “hot address”, in other words, a valid email address checked by a real person, and the spammer sends more mail to that address and possibly sells the list to other spammers. Now I am not saying that this particular spammer that I am talking about falls within that 90%, he may very well fall within the 10% who has a legitimate unsubscribe process, but I need to ask myself, do I really want to take that chance? I have a 1 to 9 ratio of success, so the odds really are not in my favour.

Therefore I decided to take the legal route, to challenge the spammer according to the South African Electronic Communications and Transmissions act. He simply responds that I am giving his business a bad name by doing this, and threatens to sue me if I lay criminal charges against him.

Well I guess we are going to see what happens, I am going to print off all his mails including the headers, and go and open a docket with the police tomorrow. That docket will then be escalated to the Commercial Crimes Unit and said spammer will receive a calling card from a detective  whose job it is to evaluate the conduct of the business activities of the spammer, and hopefully he receives his rightful sentence.

As a South African I stand against spam, and I call everyone, South African or not, to stand with me. If you have any legal qualifications in this regard, I invite you to contact me by commenting on this post and I will send you my contact details. I would like to get some advice on where I stand with this issue.

I am JMR and this is My Little Corner on JMRPub.com

No words, watch the video…..

Back home

I am back home and back to my internet addiction

For those interested in the post I wrote about a month ago regarding the horrible spammer, his lawyers contacted me and threatened to sue for defamation. All I need to do is lay a charge at the Commercial Crimes unit of the SAPS and they will charge him according to the ECT Act. I am also toying with the idea of sending my proof to the websites that he scraped to get my email address. They could sue for copyright violation

Anyway, check out these funky Marriage laws, Crazy:

Ever since the first man and woman were joined in marriage to go forth, be fruitful, and multiply — laws became necessary to maintain order in a civilized society. Many laws were enacted at specific points in history to respond to specific needs of that particular time.

A number of our current laws of marriage are deep-rooted, and have been modernized over the years to keep abreast of our ever changing society. However, there are still some on the books which have not changed with the times — yet still enforceable.

For instance, if you are prone to hastily act out of character after a few drinks, you might consider moving to Pennsylvania. Clergy in Pennsylvania can not perform a marriage ceremony if the bride or groom is drunk.

An allergy suffering husband in California can have his wife jailed if she doesn’t cook her dust cloth after using it. A husband in Tennessee can divorce his wife — if he leaves her with 10 pounds of dried beans, 5 pounds of dried apples, a side of meat, and ample yarn to knit herself stockings for a year.

Husbands in Hartford, Connecticut, you can not kiss your wife on Sundays, but you can in Halethorpe, Maryland — providing it lasts no longer than one second.

It’s safe to get married in Chillicothe, Missouri because they can’t throw rice at you. However, play it even safer and get married in Colorado — where no one can throw shoes at the bride and groom.

In Virginia, a man can curse and/or abuse his wife provided he does it in a low voice, but she’ll have to leave the house naked in Michigan if she decides to leave him — he owns her clothes and the law says he can follow her into the street and remove them.

Wives, here’s your chance. You can berate your husband in public in Dixie, Idaho, but if a crowd gathers, your husband can be fined. However, your marriage can be annulled if you entered into it on a dare — in Delaware.
For loving wives, it’s illegal to remarry the same man four times in Kentucky. Go to West Virginia where first cousins can marry — unless the bride is 55 years old.

In Lebanon, Tennessee, a husband cannot kick his wife out of bed even if her feet are cold; however, a wife can kick her husband out of bed without provocation. That doesn’t work in Florida because even if she does get mad — a wife is limited to breaking no more than 3 dishes a day.

For you wives in Owensboro, Kentucky, you can not buy a hat unless your husband has had the opportunity to try it on himself first.

In the Balanta tribe of Africa, a law states that a bride must remain married until her wedding gown has worn out. However, if she’s desperate to get it over with quickly, she only has to wait a month — then rip up her wedding dress.

In France, a woman was granted a divorce after she told the judge that her husband played the bagpipes, and made her keep time with a flyswatter.

In Greece, if a man is caught kissing his wife or any other woman in public — he can get the death penalty!

So you wanted to get married?

I am JMR and this is My Little Corner on JMRpub.com

TORNADO WARNING!!!!!

Maybe the title gets your attention, or maybe it doesn’t. It certainly got the attention of a multitude of people in the Gauteng area yesterday.The South African Weather service issue a thunderstorm warning yesterday morning for the greater gauteng area. They could not predict the exact location until closer to the time of the storm, but some enterprising person decided that they would embellish a little on the details of the warning.
I suspect the warning started off innocently, very similar to the warning issued today on their website: (Just found the actual warning http://www.weathersa.co.za/Pressroom/2007/2007oct08severeweather.jsp)

busy busy

Wow I have really been scarce lately. Strangely enough I am still number 1 on Google for the keywords “Recovering Introvert”.

The reason I have been scarce is because I have been doing quite a bit of things after hours. On Tuesday I prepare for Bible Study and Wednesday I am at Bible Study. Thursdays are for Hermeneutics and Friday is AWANA. Every second Saturday is worship practice at church and a public speaking course at the chapel. Oh and I started teaching Sunday School to see what that is like. All these things have sort of eaten my time but have been really edifying. Especially the Hermeneutics course. I am learning to look at the bible in a new way, using commentaries  and books as tools rather than crutches to try and understand the scriptures.

Well gotta go again, will try and be more frequent in posting in the future.

I am JMR and this is My Little Corner  on JMRPub.com

a Visit from an old friend

Well if you have been constantly coming here to try and find some of my witty (it’s my blog and I can describe it how I want ) writing then you will be glad to see that there is something here today. I have taken on quite a bit in my life lately and it has been taking its toll on my time. Here is a run down of my week. Monday I am studying for my Microsoft DBA exams and preparing for the rest of the week, Tuesday is for Bible study preperation when I am leading and if I am not leading I need to actually do the homework I gave to everyone the week before, Wednesday is for Bible Study itself. Thursday is for a course in biblical Hermenutics, Friday is for AWANA. Saturday (every second saturday) is for Worship team practice and a public speaking course. Sunday is put aside for Church and sometimes friends.

In between the long list above is preparing various homework including bible observations and speech preparation for Saturday.
I do want to however make a conscientious decision to keep the blog going strong.

So in light of this decision watch this video which has given me the inspiration to juggle things which just don’t wish to be juggled

I am JMR and this is My Little Corner on JMRPub.com