An expensive problem, a cheap solution

I saw this while watching the news yesterday (CP24 in case anyone's wondering)

Vaughan mayor's counter surveillance-measures cost taxpayers nearly $3,000

Linda Jackson, the besieged mayor of the city of Vaughan, is coming under scrutiny again after it was found that she spent nearly $3,000 to sweep her office for spying devices, a published report says.

Gino and Mary Ruffolo -- two Vaughan residents -- discovered that the mayor's office paid Protech Consult Services $2,730 for "manual and electronic counter surveillance," the Toronto Star reports.

The Ruffolos uncovered the information through a Freedom of Information request. The newspaper also reports that having the mayor's office swept for bugs was a practice used by Jackson's predecessor, Michael Di Biase, as well.

But it appears Vaughan is on its own when it comes to having the mayor's office checked for bugs. The mayors of Toronto, Brampton and Mississauga, among others, told the Star that they have not had similar checks, and they didn't even think about it.

Reports also say the company that performed the security check has links to a company cited for a possible conflict of interest due to links to a city staffer.

Mayor Jackson sent an email to the Star where she acknowledged that her office was checked for bugs, but she wouldn't say why.

Well, While I was flipping through The Star this morning, I came across this article....

$50 solves Vaughan mayor's 'bug' worry

Ursula Lebana has a $50 solution to Vaughan Mayor Linda Jackson's political problems – and 2 cents worth of advice.

"People never believe it, but 90 per cent of the time, it's the person you trust the most," says Lebana, who opened Canada's first "spy shop" back in 1991 and can attest to the fact that Cold Wars are still being waged in offices, marriages and even babies' bedrooms around the world.

And for $50, the embattled Jackson, who spent $3,000 in taxpayers' money last year to have her office swept for listening devices, could have rented one of Lebana's do-it-yourself bug detectors.

Lebana has armed everyone from entrepreneurs to parents with electronic surveillance gadgets since she hung a few Bond posters on the walls of her Yonge St. Spy Tech store and created the first Teddy cam to help parents keep an eye on their child's nanny.

But she's never been asked to sweep for bugs in a mayor's office.

"That's strange, now that I think about it," says Lebana, her thick German accent dropping to a perplexed whisper. "Maybe it's because they're only around for four years and then they're gone."


The revelation about Jackson is bound to be good for business at Lebana's shop, where stories of stalkings, break-ins or bad caregivers always seem to fuel paranoia that translates into the sales of more spy paraphernalia.

In fact, one of her most popular items – next to the $59 CheckMate Infidelity Test Kit – are DIY bug detectors, ideal for almost any office, which sell for $500 or rent for $50 a day.

Even in bad times, business is booming in the surveillance business, as a steady stream of customers line Spy Tech's two glass-enclosed display cases, trying out everything from pen recorders ($99 plus taxes) to baseball caps with hidden cameras ($295 plus the cost of a tiny video recorder).

Surprisingly, only one guy is wearing a trench coat. (let's hope that's not all he's wearing?.. just saying it all...don't tell me you weren't just thinking that!)

Lebana takes the business of spying seriously – well, seriously enough that the door of her cluttered office features two-way glass. Her son Hans, who manages the Ottawa store, walks in wearing Men in Black sunglasses, even on a grey day.

On the other side of the office door, things get decidedly more high-tech, with steady demands for the latest digital devices from business owners looking to crack down on employee theft or spouses launching sting operations against husbands or wives they suspect of cheating.

There's also a fairly constant stream of people seeking hidden cameras that let them keep an eye, right from their office computers, on how their children or elderly parents are being cared for when they aren't around.

When the big boys call – i.e. the banks – Lebana has a secret weapon, retired RCMP security expert Doug Ralph, a good-natured guy with more than $250,000 worth of counter surveillance equipment. The latest is a $38,000 gadget that can sweep a bookshelf-lined room in under 20 minutes and detect a bug hidden in a binding. He admits he's made that rare find just "a few times."

Ralph has seen both sides of bugs, having planted them for the RCMP as part of organized-crime cases, and now hunting for them when corporations suspect competitors of trying to crack into their phone lines or computers.

"I try to stay away from the domestic issues. They can get pretty messy."

But sometimes trouble just finds him, like when he was driving downtown recently. His monitoring devices picked up voices coming from a Bay Street bank.

"It was a financial planner talking to clients, discussing their assets and where to direct (investments), their names, phone numbers and all this other information. I made sure that what I overheard got back to the director of security so that he would know that one of his employees was using a wireless (headset) so he wouldn't have to stay saddled to his desk – and I was hearing it a block away with my equipment."

(Note: When you use a wireless headset, the base keeps transmitting even when you're not using the phone. Ralph drove by City Hall late one night and could hear a cleaner vacuuming an office.)

Lebana considers what she does "regular things for regular people," and laughs that her German accent – she was born in East Germany but grew up near Frankfurt – is always a big hit with first-time visitors to the shop.

"A lot of them joke that I'm KGB or Mossad, because of the accent."

About 50 per cent of the time, when people think they are being spied on, they really are, Lebana contends. And almost always it's by the person they least suspect.

She's got lots of stories to prove her point, the most telling about a women who was terrified after months of stalking and scratching at her apartment door that escalated into death threats. The frightened woman took her brother-in-law to Spy Tech and he helped her install a peephole camera that turned up no suspects, although the harassment continued.

It was only when Lebana's staff installed a tiny surveillance camera in an exit sign down the hallway that the culprit was outed.

It was the brother-in-law. Seemed he quite liked getting her panicked calls for help and rushing in like a white knight.

in case any of you were curious or wondering, Spy Tech is located at:

Spy Tech
2005 Yonge St
Toronto, ON M4S 1Z8
(416) 482-8588
Get Directions from where you are

Users baffled as Zune MP3 players freeze up en masse

Many Mp3 music consumers are left baffled and griping about a mysterious glitch that appeared to cause thousands of Zune music players to simultaneously stop working late Tuesday and early Wednesday.

message boards across the internet have been flooded with complaints about Zune's 30GB model Mp3 players freezing, prompting Y2K-like speculation about end-of-year hardware or software problems.

"It seems that every Zune on the planet has just frozen up and will not work," posted a Mountain Home, Idaho, user on CNN's iReport.com site. "I have 3 and they all in the same night stopped working."

Another on the same site said he was working the night shift at a Toys R Us store in Puerto Rico when his Zune player and the Zunes of four co-workers all failed about 1:30 a.m. ET Wednesday

"It froze and there was no way to turn it off so you just have to wait until the batteries went dead. You can't push any buttons or anything," says Carlos Colon. Colon said he owns a first-generation 30GB model.

Other users report their Zunes reboot but freeze when the startup status bar reaches 100 percent. A post on Zune.net titled "Help-frozen zune!!!!" had attracted more than 19,000 comments by Wednesday afternoon.

Some Zune users have dubbed the crisis "Y2K9" or "Z2K9," a reference to New Year's Eve and concerns over potential widespread computer failures on January 1, 2000 -- fears that ultimately were proved to be unfounded.

Zune users were still trying to discover the cause of the problem Wednesday afternoon.

Microsoft Corp., maker of the Zune, posted this statement Wednesday morning on the Zune Web site: "Customers with 30gb Zune devices may experience issues when booting their Zune hardware. We're aware of the problem and are working to correct it. Sorry for the inconvenience, and thanks for your patience!"

Contacted Wednesday morning by e-mail, a Zune spokeswoman said, "We are actively working now to isolate the issue and develop a solution to address it. We will keep customers informed on next steps via the support page on zune.net.

Microsoft released its first Zune 30GB music player, as a competitor to Apple's popular iPod mp3 player, in 2006. No widespread glitches have been reported this week in its second-generation 80GB or 120GB models.

After some more digging around on the issue, I was able to find a posting from a user who seemed to have discovered a fix for the problem:

IF ANYBODY STILL HAS NOT BEEN ABLE TO GET THEIR ZUNE TO WORK, THERE IS A SIMPLE SOLUTION: PRESS AND HOLD THE BACK BUTTON AND UP ON THE TOUCH PAD TO REBOOT YOUR ZUNE.

I personally do not own a Zune player, but for anyone reading this posting that may be having the same problem.. Give the fix a shot, hopefully it works for you as well... leave a reply post and let us know if it or anything else you've tried, does.....

Mom Was Right

Mom probably isn't the type of person to say "I told you so!!" (is she??) but new research proves that failing to bundle up can cause you to catch a cold.

The cold and flu bugs are swarming: This year there will be 1 billion colds and 95 million (that's right MILLION) cases of the flu in just the United States alone. But while a billion colds is a statistic, two colds — the likely number that you'll catch this winter — is a tragedy. Getting sick just twice can put you weeks behind at work and in the gym. It's also a leading cause of being quarantined in the spare room.

Sorry, science doesn't have a cure yet (we can send a man to the moon, we can clone a sheep, but we haven't found a cure for the common cold yet, but i'm sure someone is working on that.. keep at it guys!!). But doctors have figured out how these viruses conspire to make you feel lousy. Thwart the bugs' insidious game plan and you'll not only get sick less often, but also be able to bounce back faster if you do catch something. So have a look at the sad, sniveling life of a common virus, then take the necessary steps to squash it like the annoying bug that it is.

CONTACT

If your partner starts sneezing, the co-worker in the next cubicle begins hacking like a coal miner, or the kids run a fever, heighten your alert. They might be packing a cold or flu virus, one of a horde of strains that plague people all winter. Those bugs want you next, but there are only three ways to get in: your nose, mouth, and eyes.

Your Best Defense: Keep your hands clean. Viruses are often passed from an infected person to a phone receiver or some other surface that other people then touch with their hands. In the case of the flu, they fly through the air and stick to things! To keep a virus from latching on to you, wash your hands every time you shake hands or wipe your kid's nose. Packaged hand wipes and hand sanitizers let you clean up without leaving your office.

INVASION

Too bad you didn't duck or pull off a matrix like maneuver when your kid coughed, or wash up before licking your fingers during that fried-chicken dinner. Within minutes, the virus you picked up or inhaled has settled into its spacious new home: you.
But don't worry; it's not too late to ward off trouble.

Your Best Defense: First, get a flu shot. Second, from September through March — prime cold and flu season — drink even more water than usual. The mucous membranes that line the upper respiratory tract, one of your body's first defenses, work best when they're thoroughly moist, says Mary Hardy, M.D., of Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles USA.
Eight 8-ounce glasses of water every day is the minimum; drink more and you're ahead of the game.

INCUBATION

Soon after entering, the virus has worked its way from your mouth or nose through the mucous membranes to your body's cells. The bug fools the special receptors that act as doorways, then walks on in and makes itself comfortable — and you miserable.

Your Best Defense: Start every day this cold season with a walk around the block. Contrary to what your mother told you, brief exposure to cold — after a good warmup — stimulates the immune system. Exercise can also help you feel better, as long as you don't overdo it. Although a study reports that working out neither lengthens nor shortens recovery time, the feel-good hormones you produce, called endorphins, will boost your mood.

INFECTION

After attacking a cell, the virus injects its genetic material inside and copies itself. This process takes about 12 hours, and you won't actually feel sick until two or three of these cycles are complete.

Your Best Defense: Within 24 to 48 hours of a flu strike, ask your doctor for Amantadine — it'll cut the duration of your misery. Tylenol will help aches and fever. As soon as you notice cold symptoms — runny nose, scratchy throat, fatigue — take a decongestant. But only one dose. The active ingredient, usually a pseudo ephedrine combination, will open up the nasal passages and help your body flush away the invaders. Australian researchers found that taking a decongestant just once cut symptoms by 13 percent.

ILLNESS

All the copies the virus made, now break out of the host cell and look for other cells to infect. This period, which lasts 3 to 5 days, is when you'll feel your worst. Your nose starts running to wash away a cold virus, and you sneeze — another way the body tries to expel the infection. Your body tries to burn out the flu virus; that's why you have fever, chills, and fatigue.

Your Best Defense: If you feel really horrible, take a day off to rest. If you're still functional, just take it easy, cutting your usual workout in half and skipping after-work drinks. (Alcohol will make you feel worse.) Also: Wipe, don't blow. Blowing your nose can clog your sinuses with germ-laden mucus. You'll feel better faster if you let your body flush out the virus naturally.

GET BETTER OR WORSE

All those symptoms that make you feel lousy — sore throat, headache, congestion — should be gone within a week, the average time it takes for the body's infection-fighting forces to eradicate a mild virus.

But if you haven't been following the feel-good advice here (and why not??? what's wrong? don't believe me???) , an infection can move deeper into your upper respiratory tract to infiltrate your lungs and drag on for another week or more. If this happens, you'll be coughing — another attempt by your body to rid itself of the nasty virus.

Your Best Defense: See your doctor. He may prescribe medication that can help keep you from developing a secondary infection, such as bronchitis or pneumonia.

GET OUT AND STAY OUT

A whole army of cells within your body has been working since the initial contact to suppress and destroy the virus — one of countless viruses you could be exposed to this winter. Your body's cells then work feverishly (I know, I know, a great choice of words) to clean up the mess that's left behind. The only things that remain once the infection has been cleared out are memory cells. These will help protect you from that same virus for the rest of your life, making it much less likely you'll suffer from that strain again. Your collection of memory cells is the reason you now get fewer colds than you did as a child.

Your Best Defense: Go back to your usual day to day activities, as long as you're feeling better and symptoms are under control. Wipe, don't blow. Researchers have found that when you blow your nose, you can clog your sinuses with germ-laden mucus.

So as you can see, mom was right, but you were right about some things too.. just don't gloat about it.. she's your mother!!!