What a long day today was.  Thursdays are usually my longest of days.  I will work in the morning until about lunch time and then it's off to school.  On Thursdays I have Assembly and Physics.  Now, I'll admit that I know more about computers than the average person, but this assembly class takes it to the next level - no, the next three levels.  After this week, I could tell you all the logic behind an counter circuit with an LCD display.  It's an interesting class, but I wonder how I will apply it to my career.  I figure if nothing else, it will give me an idea on logic and circuit design even though my major isn't computer engineering.  I'm majoring in software engineering by the way.

So then after the assembly class, I went straight to Physics for an exam over point charges, current, capacitance, resistance, blah, blah, etc, etc.  Physics is the only class this semester that is not computer-related, but it's still a cool class.

So why am I glad tomorrow's Friday?  Because I have no classes to worry about.  I have one trading assistant pickup scheduled and then I can work on my websites the rest of the day.

There was some threads on My World today, it seems that people are expecting the My World page to replace Me Pages, but two different employees posted that it wasn't going to happen.  I believe them, but there are some community members that don't.   Guess we'll know soon enough.  It is interesting to see how much eBay is leaning towards the personal and social side of people like MySpace.

I was going to write about something eBay related tonight, but it's late, and I don't remember what it was.  Maybe I'll remember and mention it tomorrow.

I changed my theme today, and I used a tool that I found on shipscript's website.  Check his blog out at http://blogs.ebay.com/shipscript for great online tools.

"My World" is eBay's way of allowing users to group all their information into one area.  Using this new feature, you can have your personal profile, business policies, blog entries, and guides in one area for everybody to see.  Want to see yours?  Just go to http://myworld.ebay.com/USER_ID to see it.  When you are signed in, you will be able to arrange content and add to it.

I think it's a nice addition to eBay because it allows you to group all your information, but be sure to get yours organized before late October, because eBay will be linking your user ID to this page instead of your feedback profile by the beginning of November.

So I put mine together this morning, and I didn't like that default picture, but I didn't want a picture of me up there, so I decided to use one of my favorite avatars.  That's where I came into a problem.  Now somebody correct me if I'm wrong, but when I uploaded a picture with a transparent background, it took it as white, and it looked pretty bad, like the screenshot below.



At first, I was just thinking that I just needed to match the background, but then I noticed that it had a gradient background.  This was really annoying to get around, but if you looked at my My World page, you will see that I did get it to blend in perfectly.  I used these images below.

   

Using either of those pictures under your transparent picture will give you a transparent-like background on your picture.  Just a tip if you have the same problem I did.  These pictures will work as long as they don't change the theme.

Yes, I know most eBayers know about common scams out there, however, there are many people out there that don't.  I still hear about people getting scammed on the forums, and just within the last week, there have been over two people calling into eBay radio saying they used Western Union to wire cash to strangers for off eBay transactions.  So until I don't hear the sad stories anymore, I will take time to educate people as best I can.

If you are concerned about getting scammed, follow these simple points to stay safe.

1. Western Union is not to be used to send money for eBay sales - never.  I don't care if you got an email from eBay authorizing the payment.  I don't care if the other party says Western Union payments are secure.  They are not.  The company itself advises against sending cash to strangers.  If you use Western Union to pay for an online purchase or to reimburse a seller from a money order overpayment, you won't see that money again.  Guaranteed.
   
   Now in a way I do feel bad for WU because they get allot of bad publicity from all these people bad-mouthing the company.  Western Union is a great way to send money to people you know.  Anybody you meet online does not fall under that category.
   
   
2. Don't accept all emails as the truth.  Assume all emails from eBay are fake unless you see it in your My Messages section.  Assume all second chance offers are fake unless you see it in your My Messages folder and the message is from your seller.  If somebody emails you from another country saying you can get a large sum of money that belongs to the diciest, it's a scam.
   
   
3. Never conduct off-eBay transactions that are found on eBay.  Some people think that eBay says this just so they get their fees, but that's not true.  They really do say this to protect you.  Scammers want to get you off eBay for a reason.

Now I can't guarantee that you will never run into a problem with this information, but it's a start to get you educated.  The basic rule is to use your common sense.  If something sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

For more information, you can see my guide on scammers and how I dealt with one that tried to have me sell their stolen iPod on eBay - true story.

http://reviews.ebay.com/Know-When-You-Are-Getting-Scammed_W0QQugidZ10000000000840374

That iPod case wasn't anything like I've read online.  It was the most unique case to date, but I was able to catch them using common sense.  Common sense will be your best friend if you use it.

Over the last year, I have been introduced to open source software which in a nutshell, I believe will take a massive cut out of Microsoft's market share in the long run.  It is obvious to me that free software will become extremely popular in the years to come because of two main reasons:

1. It's free as in free speech.  In order for software to be published under the terms of the GNU General Public License, it must be released with the full source code along with it.
2. It's free as in free beer.  The software is to be released freecharge.

For information on the GPL, see http://www.fsf.org/licensing/licenses/gpl.html

In an effort in comparing free software to proprietary, I am going to compare Linux to Windows.

First off, if you haven't seen Revolution OS [http://www.revolution-os.com/], you should.

My computer is a P4 1.6GHz with 512mb memory and a GeForce fx5500 video card.  I am not proud of owning a Pentium machine, but a friend of mine gave it to me.  Once I have some spare change, I will be getting an AMD Dual Core .  I have a dual boot setup with WinXP Professional and Ubuntu 6.Dapper Drake.  For Ubuntu, I am using the Gnome desktop.

The following are my personal opinions on how both operating systems operate on my computer.

Windows:
Pros:

• Generally runs faster.
• Networking is easy to setup.
• It's convenient because most everybody uses it.
  

Cons:

• It's open source
  
• WGA - need I say more?
  
• Costs $$$.
• Limited support.
• Bugs take forever to get fixed
  
• Huge virus/spyware problem
  
• Windows tracks your moves and saves information even after you delete it [http://www.microsuck.com/content/ms-hidden-files.shtml]
  

Linux (in this case Ubuntu 6.06)
Pros:

• Many distros to choose from. [http://distrowatch.com/]
• Software packages are updated in one program.
• Programs can be downloaded and installed using the packmanager.
• Most software is free
  
• Many support options. (free and paid)
• ighly customizable
• IMO - easy to use
• No viruses/spyware
  
• No WGA - don't have to worry about my computer sending off information to HQ
• Better file system
  

Cons:

• Runs slower on my machine for some reason.
• Some functions aren't exactly user friendly yet (e.g. editing the config file to get dual head working)
  

Another downfall to Linux is that it has limited hardware support, but I don't count it as an official mark against them because it's not their fault.  The manufactures are starting to distrubite Lindistrubite for their hardware, but some have yet to get on the boat.

Overall, I prefer Linux.  It is more useful to me and it is obviously less expensive.  I recently saw a RC of Windows Vista, and I noticed that Microsoft obviously copied some GUI Linux characteristics, and I noticed that IE7 copied the tabs feature and more from Mozilla and other browsers (whichever company thought up of it first)

Now with that in mind, I am not an anti-MS extremist.  I still learn their languages (C#, C++.net, VB.net), but I don't prefer it.  Microsoft is a smart company because I can tell that they really try to market to young people.  How do I know?  I'm one of them.  I can get MS titles for $10 at my campus bookstore.  So guess what?  Since we all can get that software so cheap, all the college students are going to be so used to using MS software.  What are they going to want to use in the workplace?  Do you think MS gives companies a break on software?  Something to think about.  That's why they has some Monopoly lawsuits in the past.  WGA is also another lawsuit / topic in itself.  Again, I don't approve of some of their actions, but I will still use their stuff.

Here is another reason why I find Linux useful.  This past summer, I setup a perfectly working webserver.  First off, the best part is that it didn't cost me a dime.  I built it out of spare computer parts and the software is...free!  With all the support available out there, I was able to set up a fully functional web server to run right out of my office.  Try to do that on the same budget with Windows Server 2003.  There is a reason why 70% of all webservers run Linux.

I created this blog quite a while ago and then forgot about it until now.  Since I didn't feel like doing any work or school work today, I just spent most of my day lurking on the Community Boards which reminded me of this.

So in thinking on what I would 'blog' about, I was curious what other people post about at my age.  If you're as board as I am, click on the 'student' keyword on the left-hand side of my blog page to find other blogs with that keyword.  Some are interesting.

Anyways, so a little about me.  My full profile is on my me page, but I can repeat some stuff here.  I live quite a full life being a college student as well as working a full-time job.  I guess that's the standard life of most students, but I am privileged to be self-employed.  I design websites for several companies and also do some computer work as well.  I wouldn't recommend running out and starting a company for anyone, and I don't say it to be arrogant or anything either.  It is more work then it seems.  I didn't know what I was getting into until I already got started.  Granted, I could close up shop and go out again and get a job again at any time, but I kept pushing.  It's been almost two years now, and I'm still going at it.

Before I started to earn a living on eBay, I bused tables at a local restaurant.  I was working with some nice people, but the hours were terrible as is all jobs in the restaurant.  To make a long story short, I was looking for a technology job for over a year with no luck.  Because I didn't like working the holidays and it was really starting to annoy me, my dad suggested that I started a company of my own.  I didn't have much to lose at the time (like a house), so I went for it, and I still have the same job today.

Doing the work I'm doing now has been such a learning experience.  I keep telling myself that even if I have to close my business like tonight, everything was still worth it.  As my friends are going to the same job day after day and having the same routine, my job is hardly the same from week to week.  I've dealt with so many people for being as young as I am.  I have personally dealt with many different types of people from scammers to the nicest people ever.  The life lessons I have learned so far are amazing.

Ok, so enough about myself.  Any further posts I make will be based on whatever I did for the day or week, so it will most-likely be technology-related.

Oh, and I probably will change this theme...eventually.