The owner of the domain is not the Mozilla foundation. The current domain owner is “INTERNETWIRE COMMUNICATIONS GMBH”, web site: http://www.internetwire.de. They do not appear to have any connection with Firefox or Mozilla.

Just to check that someone is not doing some weird hoax or distributing a version with spyware or a virus, I downloaded the version from firefoxiiL.com and did a compare to the one from Mozilla. They are identical files, so at least no one is being harmed by this stunt.

So the question is, why would someone create a hoax site and pay Google to advertise it?

Update

@blookins from twitter replied with the lookup of the IP address of the server hosting firefoxiiL.com, it is hosted in China. Very suspicious.

Google

Why are you selling your Adsense service to a potential fraudulent web site?

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The mechanic at my local dealer was explaining to me that they rebuilt one other Si 6 speed transmission this past weekend and were starting another rebuild that day. He gave me a peak at the transmission they’re currently rebuilding. The area marked in red are the gears that they replace. He also pointed to a vertical rod and underneath where one other part is replaced in the rebuild. I’m guessing that they replaced 2nd and 3rd gear. Any transmission experts want to comment?

They received the wrong bump stops so they were unable to replace those at this last visit. I’ll post a follow up when the bump stops arrive and are installed.

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I was made aware of this by a local TV station here in Columbus, Ohio.

When I spoke with WOW today, they informed me that I was recently made aware of this change when they sent me a notice in the mail of recent change in the terms of service. Like any trusting customer, I did not read the fine print. The notice did not come with a cover letter explaining what part of the notice changed and/or why. See Third Party Advertisers section of WOW Internet Terms.

Notice that in the WOW Internet Terms they created an acronym for “Personally Identifiable Information” as “PII”. The way the acronym is written in the sentence it implies that it encompasses other items. Make no mistake, they clearly state that PII is your name, address and phone number and nothing else. They do not state that IP addresses are PII. In my opinion, your IP address on the Internet is just as personally identifiable as your telephone number or street address. An IP address identifies you on the Internet so data knows where to be directed over the entire World Wide Web. The same can be said about telephone calls and snail mail. Apparently WOW does not believe that your IP address on the Internet is considered “personally identifiable information” even though IP addresses have been continually used to identify individuals and is commonly added to header information of many Internet protocols such as email and web browsing.

Users may opt out of the service on a per browser bases using cookies. This means that anytime I decide to switch from Internet Explorer to Firefox, Opera, Safari or another computer for that matter, I have to remember to follow a procedure (that I currently do not know) to add a cookie to each browser I use to turn this tracking off. Further more, I now have to do this for every computer in my home and for anyone who visits who uses my Internet. This means that browsers used in my home must support cookie handling, removing my choice (or anyone else in my home’s choice) of turning off cookies in web browsers. For 3rd party applications (Non web browsers) that use the Internet (such as to download or check for product updates) will continue to be tracked by WOW.

WOW Internet is the 12th largest Cable provider in the United States. WOW has been using NebuAds to profit from its customers since March/April of 2008. For the past three months, WOW has made more than $7 from myself alone. I have yet to see any savings passed onto my bill. It appears this $2.50 is an additional revenue stream for WOW and is not something they are using to pass savings to their customers in exchange for invading their privacy.

The 3rd largest cable provider, Charter Communications, recently decided not to use the NebuAds service to make money from its customers. Charter decided to abandon the practice following the release of a report that caught the interest of the United States Congress into the legalities of the adveritsing targeting mechanisms.

The most upsetting aspect of this whole thing for me personally, is that I’ve discovered that this tracking is known to cause problems with Google Gmail. I use Gmail and Gmail for my domains and have come to rely heavily on Google’s Gmail service. Since March I have experienced issues with Gmail and for the longest time have presumed Gmail was the problem. Now that I know that my ISP, that I’ve been paying over $100 a month to provide me reliable access to the Internet, may have been the cause of the problems I’ve been experiencing with Gmail frustrates me greatly. I’ve lost a lot of time and productivity with the problems I have had with Gmail. Email is a vital service, especially for someone who requires not only for tracking and paying bills but for employment and work as well.

I’ve called and notified WOW that they will have to contact me in 7 days to let me know that they will no longer be tracking my Internet and have stopped modifying my Internet traffic. Otherwise I will switch to another ISP. They have until July 7th to resolve this issue, or they will loose me as a customer. If after July 7th, they do not rectify this problem with their service, I will contact federal, state and local government representatives in my area of WOW’s shady practices, notify my neighbors what WOW is doing with their Internet usage, and make it a point to NOT recommend WOW for Internet services.

WOW, you have 168 hours. What is your answer?

UPDATE (GREAT NEWS)

WOW cable called me today (Thursday) at about 4pm to let me know that they are removing the NebuAds for all of their customers! I no longer need to switch ISPs! What an emotional roller coaster but unlike some businesses apparently WOW does listen to its customers. I’m going to stick with WOW now that they will no longer deploy this questionable intrusion of advertising in my web surfing.

As soon as I have a press release to link to I’ll create a new blog post about it.

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This was a true learning experience. For those thinking about putting up your own fence, I recommend putting the project into prospective. How ever long you think the project will take, quadruple that number. I thought the fence could be put up over a 2 day weekend, it’s taken one 3 day weekend and two and a half 2 day weekends to get the fence done. Granted, I spent a lot of time leveling each picket and using screws instead of nails. I think a nail gun would have shaved 1 day off the project. Had we not run into WOW’s cable line a number of times while digging, I think we would have saved 1/2 a day digging holes too.

Anyway, fence is up and it looks great!

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The Tweetup was organized by @JenniferLaycock. You can learn more about today’s meetup at Jennifer’s Small Business Answers web site.

Check out the pictures: http://www.flickr.com/groups/792807@N23/pool/

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So here’s the story. We got a quote from Lowes a little over a month ago to have the fence installed. They quoted us about $1,200 for treated pine lumber plus labor, roughly $2,500. So moving forward with the idea that materials would be about $1,200, we decided to install the fence ourselves.

As the process moved forward, I did some research on some home improvement web sites and found that the treated pine tended to warp, split, crack, etc.. over time. From observing our 15 year old treated pine deck, I do believe these home improvement web sites are right. So I decided to go with red cedar since it has a better reputation for holding up with minimal shrinking, cracking, cracking, etc… So now the material expenses are up near $1,600.

We wanted to match our neighbors fence as closely as possible. Both Home Depot and Lowes only sell 6″ dog ear pickets, which doesn’t match our neighbors 4″. After making some calls, I was recommended to call Sutherlands. After a quick call with them, I found that all for the materials for the project were priced competitively and they have 4″ red cedar dog ear pickets too. So I ordered all the materials on Wednesday, everything arrived that Friday.

The first step in installing the fence was to dig the post holes. I called 811 on Wednesday afternoon to get the utilities marked in the back yard. On Friday, I rented an auger from Home Depot with a 10″ bit to drill 10-12″ post holes. It took my brother-n-law and I about an hour to drill one 30″ hole with the 10″ bit. We kept hitting rocks in the ground which made the process take a lot longer than it otherwise would have. The whole was between 12-15″ wide. We decided to get a 6″ bit for the auger after starting hole number 2. An hour later, we got the smaller bit in, and started drilling the holes faster, though by hole 4, we didn’t just have rocks to deal with. We hit an unmarked coax cable in the ground. After further examining ,we determined the cable was for Time Warner Cable to my house. I’m currently a WOW customer, so we decided to just keep going on our path.

We then started drilling our holes across the back of the property. This is where the real fun started. At our 4th of 9 holes, we hit the main WOW cable. It was marked about 2 feet from where the cable was actually in the ground! Needless to say, we knocked out cable service for the rest of the neighborhood. In the process of waiting for WOW to come fix their cable, we started remarking the fence 3 feet from the back of the property line since we no longer trusted the markings. As the WOW repairmen came to fix the line, we started drilling our remaining posts on the new 3 foot back line. Just as the WOW folks left, we were finishing the last hole and discovered their line again. This time, we were 5 feet away from the closest marking on the ground. luckily we caught it before the auger tore through the cable.

The rest of the weekend Heather’s dad, my dad set posts and mixed concrete. On Sunday we only got 2 posts completed mixing the concrete by hand. On Monday, we rented a concrete mixer, thankfully Home Depot Rents was open that day! If you have more than 4 bags of Quikrete to mix, I highly suggest renting a mixer. It cost about $45 and was worth every penny.

On Monday, Heather’s dad and I got the remaining posts set and concrete poured, except for the remaining hole where we discovered the WOW cable a second time. Heather’s dad did a great job setting the posts, they are very level and plumb with each other.

On Tuesday afternoon, the WOW folks returned, tested their line and decided to replace the portion of the line where I found their main cable. Once the guy left, I hand digged another foot beyond the cable line to reach 30″ for the last post. This manual digging was a pain and I believe resulted in seriously hurting my back. Then I plumbed up the post, mixed the concrete and set the post just before the sun came down.

On Wednesday, I returned the extra materials (3 posts, 8 bags gravel, 4 bags Quickrete) I purchased as well as exchanged 20+ pickets that I discovered were damaged from the original delivery. That evening, Heather and I returned the truck (we’re on our own now).

This morning I did some clean up and removed the remaining braces holding up the posts. Phase 1 complete!

Next weekend my dad and I will be working on phase 2, which includes installing the runners and the pickets. Dad has a pretty nice wireless drill, so this process should go rather quickly. The red cedar pickets are rather fragile though, I am planning on pre-drilling the holes for the screws, but besides that the picket installation should go as quick as any other picket fence.

Materials

• 19 4×4x8′ red cedar posts
• 32 2×4x8′ red cedar rails
• 6 2×4x12′ red cedar rails
• 310 4″x4′ red cedar dog ear pickets
• 2 self closing spring hinge gate kits
• 2 5lb boxes 1-5/8″ cedar screws
• 1 5lb box 3″ cedar screws
• 24 80lb Quickrete
• $10 scrap lumber for plumbing up posts
• 36 lawn stakes
• 2 day Auger rental from Home Depot
• 1 day concrete mix rental from Home Depot
• A lot of patience

Conclusion

I’m never installing a fence myself again. Installing a fence is a lot of work and full of obstacles that cannot be foreseen. Looking back, it may have been worth $2,500 to have someone else do it, though I will have to say that I don’t think the installers would have put this much care for quality as we are.

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I first started taking Claritin for my allergies but found Zyrtec worked much better. I am not sure what exactly I am allergic to, but every April I sneeze and have irritated eyes for 7-14 days. It always happens at the first sight of dandelions. After the first week, I started having other symptoms and apparently now I have a virus. No one else I’m around is sick, so that is good. I am glad I am not getting others sick.

The Benadryl is powerful stuff, the first time I took it was in the afternoon. I was out the rest of the night! It sure helps to take it about 1 hour before going to bed.

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Heather and I didn’t time our tree planting around Earth Day, but that’s ok because we do care about the earth. This weekend we planted 3 new trees in our yard. This is significant because our yard doesn’t have a single tree in it. Reminds me of the house/yard I grew up in which also had no trees.

In the front yard between the sidewalk and street we planted a RedPink Flowering Dogwood. In the back yard, we planted a RedSilver Maple and a Colorado PineBlue Spruce (pictured).

So what did you plant for earth day?

CORRECTIONS

I had the tree names wrong. We purchased a Pink Dogwood, Silver Maple and a Colorado Blue Spruce.

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We currently walk Ty 2+ times a day and walk him around the yard 1+ times a day. Both Heather and I are starting to feel like we’re holding him back on the leash though. He can really run if you let him. So a fenced in yard will really help him out.

I’ve been thinking about a lot of home improvements we can make. The HGTV improvement shows really put ideas in your head, one week I want to re-do the kitchen, the next week I want to redo the bathrooms. In reality, we really don’t have any pressing home improvements to make. But it is fun to think about them.

Here’s my dream list:

• Ceiling lights for the 2 smaller bedrooms and in deep closet over the stairs.
• Finish the basement - This is one that we may want to do once we have kids.
• Redo the deck - The decking on the deck is in pretty bad shape. luckily the under framing is in good shape, this should be a project we can do this year, if we have the funds of course.
• 1/2 bath - The sink drain needs some TLC. I got the replacement drain last weekend, I just have to find the time to replace it. We also purchased a new faucet for that sink.
• Master bath - The master shower needs some TLC, and the 2 sink counter us ugly.
• Garage - Insulate, drywall, add electrical outlets on west wall and add shelving.

I can always dream right? What sorts of home improvements do you want to do to your home and why?

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