It seems that Equifax, one of the three giant credit reporting agencies, and also a company that offers various "security" products (as I think of them) that may alert you to potential problems appears to have leaked my private information.

You see, in December 2007, I signed up for Equifax Credit Watch monitoring because it was free for me (because the Workers Compensation Fund of Utah had a data breach which may have compromised some of my data and offered this service for some months for free). I signed up and provided Equifax my private information, including my Social Security number. I also gave Equifax an email address to reach me, a custom address created new exclusively for the Equifax Credit Watch service. The address was unique, and I only gave it to Equifax. Nobody else knew it, or even knew it existed. And the address was very unlikely to have been guessed at random using a brute force dictionary attack.

So imagine my surprise when I get in my mailbox, addressed to this Equifax-only-knows email address, junk mail advertising "No cost coupons for local Restaurants". How did this spammer know the email address?

I suspect that Equifax has leaked it. Either directly (i.e. perhaps there's been a security breach at Equifax that leaked my email address), or indirectly (i.e. Equifax shared my information with a third party and that party has suffered a data breach). Either way, I consider Equifax responsible for leaking my information. And this drastically worries me. Was my Social Security and other important private information leaked too? Or just my email address?

Equifax, I would have sent a message to your security officer about this problem, but I cannot find any publicly available contact information. Therefore you get a 'blog post.

So many organizations, institutions, and individuals trust Equifax. Should we really trust them if they can't keep even a simple email address private?

COMMENTS:
On 01 Jan. 2012, Steven Bernstein commented:On 05 Jan. 2012, Dale commented:On 06 Jan. 2012, the article author and web site owner, Aaron D. Gifford added:On 11 Jan. 2012, Matt commented:On 18 Jan. 2012, someone calling himself/herself Equifax commented:On 18 Jan. 2012, the article author and web site owner, Aaron D. Gifford added:On 24 Jan. 2012, Duane commented:On 15 Apr. 2012, mpa shared:On 17 Apr. 2012, article author and web site owner Aaron Gifford added:On 27 Jun. 2012, SIngh commented:

Cover for The Alloy of Law, a new Mistborn novel to be released at midnight the morning of 08 Nov. 2011According to author Brandon Sanderson's web site, his new book The Alloy of Law, set in the same world as the Mistborn trilogy that I love so much. Brandon Sanderson and TOR, his publisher, have released several sample chapters already to whet my appetite:

1. Prologue & Chapter One
2. Chapter Two
3. Chapter Three
4. Chapter Four
5. Chapter Five
6. Chapter Six (This chapter is/was not yet online as of 17 Aug. 2011) [UPDATE: 26 Aug. 2011—It is now online. Brandon announced it on his 'blog.]

This new standalone book, while set in the same world, takes place 341 years after the concluding events in The Hero of Ages (the third book of the original Mistborn trilogy). I've been devouring the chapters the instant I learn a new one is available online. And according to Brandon, one more chapter (chapter six) should be available online from TOR sometime before the end of August.

Sam Weber's artwork for The Mistborn Trilogy ebookI'm excited! The chapters I've read have me hooked. But then again, I've said that before. And I've been a Sanderson fan for over six years now, and even met him in 2007 at a book signing where I covertly captured a brief video at that signing.

Mistborn: The Final Empire hardcover artThe Well of Ascension hardcover artThe Hero of Ages hardcover artWhile I'm on yet another Sanderon kick, I have to comment on the cover art. I really like the art on the original Mistborn trilogy hardcover U.S. editions.

Then while surfing around tor.com, I stumbled on this article by artist Sam Weber whose artwork for the Tor's ebook release of The Mistborn Trilogy which (I assume) encompasses all three of the first Mistborn books. Wow, Sam's art is practically perfect!

Mollie's Nipple as seen from the road atop the Hurricane Cliffs looking northward in April 2004Having grown up in Hurricane, Utah (well, mostly), no one in town would think twice to announce "I'm going to hike up Mollie's Nipple" when talking about hiking up the nearby Hurricane Cliffs escarpment and then surmounting the 400 foot hill on top, Mollie's Nipple. It was just the name of a geological feature overlooking the Hurricane Valley, albiet descriptive.

I recall while in Varsity Scouts ascending Mollie's Nipple with mirrors to send signals to other Varsity Scouts on surrounding mountaintops as part of On Target. Quite fun!


Mollie's Nipple on New Years Day 2011Owen Sanders of Hurricane—a neighbor of mine who has since passed away, a kind and talented gentleman who befriended me as a teenager and who would share his poetry with us fellow Hurricaneites—composed a poem that is inscribed on a historic marker in Heritage Park in Hurricane, placed there in 1991. The poem by Owen Sanders and subsequent marker text reads:Even though as a kid I thought Mollie's Nipple was a volcano, it is not. It is a remnant of an ancient lava flow that ran in a valley, subsequent erosion and the changes in the Hurricane Fault having left it now a high point overlooking the valley. Todd Furse pointed out this article, titled Inverted Topography in St. George Area on the Utah Geological Survey web site that describes the process that formed Mollie's Nipple.

Being a Geocacher, I placed a cache up on top appropriately titled the Mollie's Nipple Cache in the summer of 2001, and have revisited it periodically to do cache maintenance.

When I placed the cache, using some topographic map software on my PC at the time, I searched the U.S. Geological Survey database included in the software for the term "Mollie" and discovered there were five peaks in the state of Utah bearing the name "Mollie's Nipple".

Prior to posting ths 'blog entry, I decided to search again for "Mollie" and "Molly" within the state of Utah. Using the online U.S. Geological Survey National Geologic Map Database I learned that there are indeed five hills or peaks in Utah that are officially named "Mollie's Nipple" but also a few more named "Molly's Nipple". Additionally, there's a place called "Tatow Knob" that unofficially is yet another "Mollie's Nipple". Wow!

Here are the one's I found this time:

• Mollie's Nipple, unofficially know as Molly's Nipple, Kane County, Utah at 37°16'15"N, 112°03'16"W—Northwest of Kanab
• Mollie's Nipple, Beaver County, at 38°22'30"N, 113°04'24"W—Just west of Milford, Utah
• Mollie's Nipple, Utah County, at 40°00'15"N, 111°43'14"W—South of Payson, Utah and west of Spring Lake
• Mollie's Nipple, Utah County, at 40°09'08"N, 111°22'23"W—Between Mapleton, Utah and Strawberry Reservoir
• Mollie's Nipple, Washington 37°07'42"N, 113°17'50"W—Hurricane's own Mollie, often spelled Molly by locals
• Tatow Knob, unofficially known as Mollie's Nipple, Millard County, at 39°27'12"N, 113°20'24"W
• Molly's Nipple, Davis County, at 40°52'30"N, 112°11'14"W—On the southern end of Antelope Island in the Great Salt Lake
• Molly's Nipple, Uinta County, at 40°03'25"N, 109°34'12"W—Southwest of Roosevelt, Utah

NOTE: Apparently the USGS removes apostrophes from place names in their database. As all of these are obviously possessive terms, I have retained (or re-added) the apostrophes.

Mollie or Molly apparently was quite the explorer and managed to make a name for herself all over the state of Utah. If the Molly in question was a Mormon, then she must be the very Molly Mormon I've heard so much about. Or perhaps not.

It turns out, someone has put together a Mollie's Nipple Wikipedia article that lists most of these places too.

UPDATE: 24 Aug. 2011
I found this page with pictures and information about the Mollie's Nipple northeast of Kanab in the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument.

COMMENTS:

The U.S. is speeding rapidly towards a giant cliff, national bankruptcy. It's a problem for all of us here, we all know it's coming, and blaming this group or that is really irrelevant. (I personally think both of the two big parties have made choices that have led here and pointed us on this disastrous path.)

Dave Ramsey puts the current national debt in perspective very well:


So very often I hear someone say that the solution is for some particular group or demographic to "pay their fair share". I too agree in fairness. But I will never ask you to pay what I am not willing to pay myself. So I have to ask of those who want Joe Demographic to pay his fair share, will you, the asker, also voluntarily pay the exact same percentage on April 15th this coming year? If not, I'm sorry, your "fair share" doesn't sound very fair to me, and instead sounds rather hypocritical.

It is very easy to spend someone else's money. That's part of why it has been easy for past leaders of the various political parties to get us into this trouble. And it's very easy to feel good doing it (spending money), particularly if it's for a good cause. That's why it's such a dangerous and slippery slope, granting our government the power to tax us. With that great power comes immense responsibility. And our leadership over many, many years, as evidenced by the predicament we're currently in, has failed in this responsibility.

I support a constitutional balanced budget amendment. I want any such amendment to include provisions that require a super-majority to raise taxes/fees, and a simple majority to lower taxes/fees. Why such a hard nosed stance? Because if the "good cause" that our elected officials believe in is truly so very good for us as a nation, there should be broad agreement, more than even a simple majority. And if some small minority believe the "good" is not worth forcibly taking money from those to whom it belongs in the name of this public good is in fact NOT good, not worth it, if that minority is significant enough to prevent a super-majority vote, I firmly believe that, even if I personally support the "good cause" and personally think that the public should support it, we the people as a government, should not force someone else to go along with us. Hence the super-majority requirement.

This is going to hurt. Fixing the problem. Like an addict, we will go through withdrawal. But in the long run, we will come out stronger.

And can you imagine, if we cut spending from the $75,000 per year (listen to Dave Ramsey's aforementioned national debt explanation to know what I'm talking about) down to $58,000 per year and live within our means, eventually we WILL pay off the debt, suddenly freeing up over $10,000 additional per year that now we CAN spend in those places we the people (via elected officials) deem appropriate. Or even cut taxes if we so choose so that those whose money we are taking by force of law can keep more of it and spend it as they choose. What a blessing that will be in the future, to be out of debt!

I think that about sums up my personal beliefs.

This evening I logged into my Lending Club account. Lending Club, like Prosper, is a social lending site that lets people lend to or borrow from other people in a peer-to-peer fashion. I've been a member for over a year now but only have about $1,400 invested in 71 different loans.

With social peer-to-peer lending and borrowing, when someone borrows money (let's say $5,000), there may be from 50 to 200 separate lenders participating in the loan. I like to keep my participation in any one loan at the minimum of $25.00. This lets me spread my money out over many loans (I mentioned 71 currently), so that if any single borrower defaults, I only lose a small amount.

So far, I've been quite lucky. No borrowers have defaulted on any of the loans I own a piece of. And that's let me do a bit above the average. According to Lending Club, my account is getting a net annualized return of 13.59% (that's of course before paying any taxes) while the average return for most investors is only 9.64%.

Hopefully this means my filtering and screening methods are valid. But I really can't be sure until I've had more time and owned more loans.

Some might consider me a little odd to periodically post here on my 'blog about my struggles to get out of debt and here I go lending money on a peer-to-peer lending site that may have been more wisely used to pay off my own debts. That's a valid concern. Even though I am earning more interest than I am paying—so far, that is. And that could change quickly should a few borrowers default and cause losses for me. That's not accounting for paying taxes on interest earned, which takes me closer to breaking even, and then when one considers the monetary value of spending 20-30 minutes a month on the site, I'm really losing money.

But it's fun! Sadly, "fun" has been wisdom's bane in my life far too often. *sigh*

Did I mention that Lending Club is running a promotion where if you join and invest $2,500 or more, they give you a $100.00 bonus when I (or another Lending Club) refers you? Yep, it's true. So if you're NOT currently a member but want to join, feel free to click "Contact Me" in the left-hand menu column and send me your email address. I'll send you a referral through Lending Club so you can sign up for the promotion.

Like any investment, there is substantial risk involved when investing. It's been a learning experience for me. I hope I can keep picking loans that give me a great rate of return and minimize my losses, and I hope this remains fun.

Over the long Memorial Day weekend, I decided to do something to remember my grandfather Gerald Kendall Gifford's World War II service. He served in the 100th Infantry Division and was wounded in the Battle of Heilbronn (Germany) near the end of the war in the European theater on his 28th birthday. He then spent two-and-a-half years recovering in various hospitals having multiple surgeries. All while his wife took care of three very young children. They both sacrificed so much.

I wanted to know more. So my dad let me borrow folder with a bunch of hand-written memories from Gerald's LDS missionary service before the war for two years, and his memories of his service in WWII.

Not only was there transcribing to do. My curiosity drove me to spend hours online searching to find more details about the places Gerald had been. Prior to searching online, I didn't even know what unit Gerald served in, nor where exactly he'd been wounded.

Here's where I put Gerald's information: http://www.aarongifford.com/gerald/. On that page are some links to his war memories, which now includes an audio cassette recording from 1991 of Gerald sharing some of those same memories to me, my parents and siblings.

Both Gerald and his wife Aleath passed away in the 1990s. I miss my grandparents. But this Memorial Day weekend has been made wonderful by learning more about them. Thank you, Grandma and Grandpa Gifford, for your sacrifices to your family, to me, and to this nation during World War II.


Comments

Okay, I admit it, I like this:



Here's a direct link to the video on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rR94NDIfGmA

Paul Anderson and the others at The Piano Guys (Paul and Tony Beatty sold me my piano—they're a great group of talented folks) really did a good job putting the video together.

That and I like Jon and Steven's music.

Very nice!

Hike route to cacheCache Found: If You Dare Drive by Baad Daata

Saturday, 30 April 2011 - 2:00 PM MDT (-0600)

On this cool, windy last day of April, I went hiking with my brother. We parked down by the stream at the base of the hill near Harrisburg. We then proceeded up the road toward the cache site.

The hike is uphill nearly the entire way, ascending about 580 feet in altitude from the stream bottom to the point above the cache overlooking Quail Creek Reservoir. Although the distance is only about nine tenths of a mile one way, because the trail is continually climbing, it takes more time to hike it.

Originally, I'd intended to find this cache, then continue on to my Quail Creek East Overlook cache further southeast along the ridge, but due to time constraints, and the fact that up on top, the breeze was more of a wind and I was beginning to feel the cold, this trip became a one-cache-only hunt. There were several caches close to the bottom where I parked my vehicle that I would have visited too, had there been more time. (I'll definitely be back.)

The desert was in bloom. All over the hillside, bushes and shrubs were blooming, some bedecked in yellow flowers, others white, and the prickly pear cacti sporting pink petals a-plenty. I love hiking in the desert in springtime.

About the wind. At the bottom, it was mostly a gusty, hearty cool breeze occasionally blowing hard enough for me to classify it as a wind. But as we ascended the hillside, the wind decided to breeze no more and just blow. But it was nice having the air as we hiked, keeping us cool. It was only when we stopped at the top to survey the vistas around and hunt for the cache that we felt the chill.

The cache was nicely hidden in an excellent spot. I made a brief log entry in the notebook. Wow, it appeared we were the first visitors since October 2010. Then I traded a couple of gold dollar coins for a carabiner with key ring.

Did I mention the view? The view was superb! Quail Creek Reservoir was below us, a few brave jetskiers braving the wind, the wind pushing moving patches of scaly-looking waves and ripples across the surface. Sand Hollow Reservoir was also visible in the distance, as were the sewage evaporation ponds across the Virgin River.

Of course all the mountains and hills around us were visible too. Pine Valley Mountain, still with snow patches accenting the cliffs, with those stunning red sandstone cliffs below, was most prominent. The sky was mostly blue with patches of white, fluffy clouds scudding around the mountain top. It was gorgeous! Stunning! Beautiful! What a beautiful area southwestern Utah is!

Thank you for a great cache!

TO DO: Add pictures from the hike...

I've had an Ebay account for over seven years, but never really used it. So this afternoon, I decided to try selling a DVD I don't need.

Their web interface let me create my listing and preview it. Then before allowing me to post the new listing as available for sale, their system decided it needed to verify my identity by calling my phone.

No problem... Except that my home phone system is a VoIP PBX (a Voice-over-IP system) that requires all callers to navigate a menu before my home telephone handsets will ring.

Ebay's automated callback system failed to make my home phone ring. On multiple attempts.

And their web page would not allow me to continue until their failed system somehow magically started working.

Oops! Can you say "design flaw" for an "edge case" Ebay programmers?

Of course on the page I was stuck at there was a handy link suggesting that if I was having any trouble at all, I should contact Ebay.

That's what I did. But sadly their contact system has ZERO option for sending a detailed technical explanation of the issue by email. Instead, the only contact option open was for me to call them.

That's what I did, from my phone, the very one their automated system was failing to ring.

After explaining that I was stuck at a web page asking for a PIN that would be provided to me by an automated calling system to the Ebay support rep, we explored options. Apparently NOBODY but ME has EVER had this problem. So no one has ever provided a phone to Ebay that was a PBX system with a menu before. Ever. (I find that very difficult to believe. There have to be users who have used business phone numbers on their accounts that connect via PBXs with front-end menus.)

Needless to say, I was bounced from department to department, forced to explain my situation again from scratch to each person. All-in-all, I was on the phone or on hold, talking to 4-5 different people, including one person in their account security department, for nearly an hour.

And still I am unable to list my DVD for sale. I'm now awaiting a call-back. Allegedly a human being is supposed to call my phone number to verify my identity for my account. But I have doubts. I suspect the Ebay customer rep is just going to click whatever button tells their automated call-back system to give me a call.

And it will fail. Again. After explaining to Ebay their system deficiency in considerable detail multiple times.

So...

Anyone know someone technical at Ebay who actually can do something to remedy system bugs like this?

One potential work-around is the ability for a technically savvy Ebay customer support rep (perhaps the Ebay telephone contact system really ought to make an attempt to connect to the correct department with someone who can escalate these edge case issues to a technically savvy person with authority) to be able to include the equivalent of an old fashioned modem dial string where commas represent pauses. Then all that person would have to do for their automated system to reach me is append ",,1" to my phone number, just this one time.

Inevitably in order for me to use Ebay to sell stuff, I'll have to disconnect my PBX and program a VoIP ATA for temporary use just to work around Ebay's design flaw. It's not like a giant organization with a veritable army of programmers can be expected to fix customer support issues that only affect 0.01% of users, no?

I've actually kind of enjoyed laughing at the ridiculousness of the whole situation. Sooo easy to fix, were I an Ebay VoIP automated callback system programmer...

Last month I restated my goal, to get out of debt (except for my mortgage) by tax time 2012. This is my monthly progress update, a little late.

A quick spot check of my total non-mortgage debt liabilities compared to mortgage debt as a percentage ratio is currently at 29.17%, down 1.65 points from last 'blog check-in's 30.82% ratio. That's progress in the right direction, but a little slow to reach my goal. And with tax time coming (and I'll have to write a check to Uncle Sam and the State of Utah this year), the next two months may be slow too. *growl*

I hope I can make it up the following few months.

Nevertheless, I'm happy about making headway in the right direction. Last year I'd been backsliding and acquired some new debts. Next month, one of those will be retired and I can "snowball" that monthly amount to help pay off another. A month later (April), depending on how much I end up owing Uncle Sam (I'm still working on my taxes), I may be able to retire the other acquired-last-year liability balance. That will be sweet.