Greener Living thru Technology

I already talked about an alternate way that the Bank Bailout could have been orchestrated, but that got me thinking… here’s another idea:

Interest Rates

Why haven’t people been saving much (until just recently)? Interest rates have been crappy! Honestly, they’re not keeping up with inflation, so why would the average American save money in a savings or money market account, or even in a certificate of deposit? BY the time you pull it out the money plus its accrued interest will have less purchasing power than if you’d just spent it all as soon as you got it.

The conspiracy theorist in me wants to think this is exactly what “they” want. The less money you have, the easier it is for you to go into debt and become a “slave” to “them”.

Of course that’s just crazy talk (or is it?!), but the result is the same: people are investing a little (at higher interest rates) but they aren’t really saving money.

Credit

How much interest are you paying on your credit cards? On your line of credit? On that payday loan? Chances are you’re into the double-digits! Sometimes as high as 20%+. How insane is that?

So, let’s say you have a Discover Card at 19.99% variable interest. They big banks “needed” a bailout because people weren’t paying their bills, they didn’t have enough liquid funds to be able to extend new credit (or make good on credit that had already been issued).

How could we get the big banks a big, immediate influx of liquid cash? Why not require them to let you deposit money into your account at a few percentage points under your current rate? Even –5% would mean you’d be getting 14.99% on your money. Who WOULDN’T want to do that?!

Obviously, it would be better to pay off your 19.99% interest first, but in both cases the banks would get a huge influx of money by those that were able to actually save money.

Thoughts?

It seems that my “What is a .MENC File?” article was HUGELY popular (pulling in around 750 page views per month)! That tells me there are a lot of people that had the same questions that I did:

1. What on earth is a .MENC file?, and
2. How do I get my data out of a .MENC file?

So, let’s jump right in…

What on earth is a .MENC file?

Here’s what Microsoft has to say:

What’s with the MENC extension?

The files are stored on disk with a MENC extension – this lets the encryption filter know quickly which files are encrypted and if they match the key on the device. If you put the storage card in a desktop card reader, or put it in another device, you will see that the files have a MENC extension. The point of the extension is that you can’t read those files, so the extension makes it harder for you to try to load those files into an application that won’t be able to read them anyway. We also were able to associate a lock icon with the extension to add an additional hint.

If the encryption filter on the device is able to read and decrypt the files, it hides the MENC extension so the file looks like normal.

Basically, Microsoft introduced a rather novel file encryption technique with Windows Mobile 6 to help keep your data secure in the event of a lost or stolen mobile phone (or storage card). WinMo can use what’s called “Windows Mobile 6 Storage Card Encryption” to encrypt your files so that they can be easily accessed by the unlocked device, but are very secure otherwise.

When you unlock your phone you have access to your internal and external storage just like normal, no delays, no passwords, nada. The OS takes care of the encryption and decryption on the fly, similar to EFS in the desktop version of Windows.

When you remove your storage card and try to read it on a desktop computer, you can’t get into the files, they’re encrypted, and that computer doesn’t have the key (or method) to unlock them.

So, back to the phone, if you can’t unlock the phone (because you don’t know the PIN or password to the device) you can’t access the card. If you hard-reset the phone the encryption key is lost and a new one is generated, so you still don’t have access to the files.

In the scenario it was designed for, the system functions great!

Where it runs into complications is (1) if you want to transfer a bunch of files (images, photos, documents, etc.) off the phone to a desktop computer via a card reader and (2) if you get a new device (or have to hard-reset your old device).

In the first scenario it’s just frustrating, you have to go through a process to get the files onto the desktop/laptop/netbook. In the second scenario, your data is inaccessible, kiss it goodbye.

That leads us to the next question…

How do I get my data out of a .MENC file?

Do you still have access to the phone that you created the file on?

• If the answer is no, it’s time to cut your losses and mourn over the fact that your data is gone.
• If you do have access to the phone that created the file, continue on… your adventure is just beginning.

Have you had to hard-reset (or replace) the phone that created the file(s)?

• If you’ve replaced your phone (warranty replacement, upgrade, etc.) the encryption/decryption keys are no longer the same and your files are inaccessible.
• If you’ve had to hard-reset (erase everything back to factory defaults), again, the encryption/decryption keys are no longer the same and your files are inaccessible.

So, the other scenario is that you still have access to the phone, and it hasn’t been hard-reset, great! We can probably get your files off! W00T!

But what if you’ve forgotten the PIN or password to the phone? Then what? Well, if you sync with an Exchange Server, you can potentially recover the PIN (and then have access to the files)… Here’s what MSDN has to say about how to do that:

“You can escrow a recovery pin up to the exchange server. Retrieve the recovery pin via OWA and use that to locally reset the password on the device.”

Next thing you need to do is figure out how you want to get your data off. You can email it to yourself, you can use Live Mesh or some other syncing strategy, or if you have an FTP client you could even FTP it somewhere… You could Facebook the pictures… yadda yadda…

But if you want to unencrypt the files and copy them off the memory card, you’re doing to have to turn the storage card encryption off (at least temporarily). Go to Start, Settings, System, Encryption (or someplace similar) and uncheck the “Encrypt files when placed on a storage card” box. Now all NEW files will be in-the-clear, but existing files will still be encrypted. (Don’t forget to toggle this back when you’re done if you want to.)

Next, navigate to your File Explorer, then to your Storage Card. Make a new folder (name it something obvious like “Unencrypted Stuff”). Now, find whatever files you want to unencrypt and move (or copy) them into this folder.

Tada! Your files are no longer encrypted.

You can now pop your storage card out and read them on any other computer (or on any phone for that matter). You also freed up between 8K and 16K per encrypted file.

I’d suggest moving the files back into the folders that you got them from to ensure they’re still accessible by your programs.

You can thank me later™.

What was at the core of the financial crash of 2008/2009? In a word: credit.

Hear me out on this… Banks were lending people money. This is money that the people didn’t have to begin with, but spent it anyway because of the culture that big banks created and marketed.

People then lost their jobs and were unable to pay their bills. Food and utilities got paid first, but mortgages, credit card payments, and auto loans/leases started being paid delinquently, if at all.

With credit cards (and lines of credit, including Home Equity Lines of Credit or HELOCs) no longer getting their monthly infusion of payments, but still paying out to merchants, things started to get bad – fast.

The government finally had to step in and give the big banks loans (even if the big banks didn’t want them, they were forced to take them).

My Novel Idea

Rather than loan the big banks money at the tax payers expense (which equates to even more money out of the pockets of those who need it most), why not refund the tax payers directly – with the condition that 100% of the money must first go toward paying down debt?

This helps the tax payers (it was their money to begin with) get out of debt quicker (ala Dave Ramsey) and helps the banks by them getting an infusion of cash when they need it most.

Those living frugally or not in debt (and good on ya, if that’s you!) would be required to put the funds into a savings account or investment vehicle of their choosing for a minimum of 90 days. This would also help the banks by giving them more liquid assets to be able to continue their business.

Of course it doesn’t matter much now, but it’s fun to muse with what could have been done with $1,000,000,000,000,000+, isn’t it?

Some of you may remember when Google teamed up with the credit score company (anyone remember the name?). They’ve laid low ever since… until today.

Via Twitter, Google is preparing to serve ads for “high-end” or “luxury” goods and services to people with higher credit scores. No one is going to complain about that, right?

It’s what’s been unsaid that worries me. What about the people with low credit scores? Will Google Ads now target the less financially savvy with ads for payday loans and high-interest “same as cash” credit cards and other predatory lending schemes?

What do you think?

According to Robert Disque, SittingDuckPolicy.com, and Utah Shooting Sports Council, as of the 1st of July, the State of Nevada will no longer honor the Utah or Florida Concealed Firearm Permits due to “material differences” between them and the Nevada permit.

Florida’s is issued for 7 years, 2 years longer than Nevada’s 5.

Utah’s doesn’t require live-shooting as a pre-requisite to issuance, Nevada’s does.

From the Utah Shooting Sports Council Information Alert:

“Utah Shooting Sports Council and the National Rifle Association will continue to pursue actions to restore recognition of Utah permits by Nevada, but it may take several years and changes to the Nevada laws.

“Meanwhile, DO NOT CARRY IN NEVADA with a Utah Concealed Weapons Permit!”