The online shopping industry in South Africa is pathetic. There are a number of reasons people do not shop online; security, stupidity and general lack of trust in the general process.

At 08:37 this morning, I received the following email (hyperlinks taken out of course - wouldn't want someone else changing my own password!) - although perhaps this is more cautionary than anything else; they do state the passwords were encrypted after all (yet perhaps more of a worry, since Graphics Processing Units (GPU's) seem to be fairly good at brute forcing passwords these days).

Sadly I did not get a chance to put this blog up yesterday due to the fact that rains affected the ADSL so was stuck and tired so just hit the bed.

So after the recent news of Gawker Media having their websites hacked, I've received countless e-mails from many other services, all in a flurry and panic that the password that I've used will have been hacked, and that I should change them all immediately.

Now I'd like to think that, as a non-causal user of the Internet, that I have pretty secure passwords (which if I count on fingers, usually pass over the 15-digit value including the use of alphanumerical and non-standard keys) so I'm fairly confident that it would take more than a few years worth of processing power to brute force one of my passwords.

So why is it now, all of a sudden, YouTube sends me a mail to inform me that my account has been accessed by a third party, and that it's been suspended (its not all that much of a biggie for me – I rarely use the site anyways). I just begin to wonder how it's been accessed by a third party – since I know for a fact that my password is roughly 14 characters in length? Methinks this is just more wide-spread hysterics, or the beginnings of a story of how insecure their own IT Infrastructure might be...

Overall, I'm actually rather tired of all this spam I'm getting from different services I've signed up to (which makes me think its time to go on a mass-exodus from these other ventures). The Web's paranoid, methinks. (and what really gets me is that people know they should be using strong passwords, and yet still fail miserably at generating them. Find a pattern, differentiate that pattern between each site – its really not all that difficult to do).

I'm surrounded by bad parents. Tis true. The guy next door constantly shouts and screams and bangs stuff. I'm not sure what he's throwing around, but I sure hope its not his wife or child. Or else he should start praying to whoever it is prays too that I dont barge in there one day and give him a piece of my mind. He's smaller than me anyway, and I dont scare easily of little men going around with inferiority complexes. Whenever he starts throwing his toys out the cot, he's toddler cant handle it and cries uncontrollably, which makes the dad scream and shout more. Really now. I found him on the fire escape one day crying his eyes out because dad was raging again and mom was the victim. Took me to get cooldrink and cups and go sit with him on the stairs until he was calm again.

Parenthood should come with a license. If you don't pass, no children for you. You are not allowed to drive a car without a driver's license, but children? Ah lets just see how many we can make while we wait to grow up and mature into sensible adults. Isn't it ironic that there's a 18yr age limit on buying porn or alcohol, but a 14 yr old can get an abortion without parental consent.

No, this is not a rant about underaged mothers and promiscious teens. Its about parents. Bad grown up parents who dont have the first clue as to how to raise children. I'm not a mother, I don't have children and I dont think I'd be ready to have children any time soon, thus I'm no expert when it comes to child care. However, common sense tells me certain things are essential for a child's wellbeing. Love, a safe environment to grow up in, moral guidance and instruction. Just to name a few. I might not have a clue what I'd be doing, but I'd teach my children right from wrong, I'd love them and make sure they feel safe at home. Parents don't have to be abusive either to be bad parents. I sat at wimpy the other day, enjoying a coffee. I go there sometimes to write when the walls are crushing in on me. A  mother took her son to wimpy. All good and well, he had a nice decent wimpy meal and milkshake. Can't be that bad, right? They were there for about an hour, and during that time she didnt say one word to him. He just sat there, eating his burger and chips slowly, never looked up. Mommy sat half with her back to him the entire time, staring in the opposite direction.

Like I said, I'm no expert. Not at all. I'm aware of the fact that nobody really knows what to do or where to start once you get to be someone's mom or dad. But come on. Common sense cant just fly out the window the moment we become parents?

Unless you do, the contents of your computer, your emails, are open to the world!

It was reported on BBC News that Google has admitted wrongly collecting samples of emails sent over unsecured W-FI networks over the past three years. This was done while taking photos and videos for their 'street views' in Google maps. Google said it was a test application, wrongly used, and have now asked for an audit of what was collected.

There has been a marked increase in phishing attempts by 'bank-look-alikes' in the past year. They are also becoming more sophisticated, correcting spelling and grammar, and starting to copy the 'look and feel' of the genuine item. So how to combat it?

A report came out about two weeks ago basically telling people to: