Blog O'Blackmore

Blog O'Blackmore has MOVED

2008-06-10T01:09:00.003-04:00

That's right, I'm leaving Blogger after only 3 or 4 weeks . . . they have a good blog network but in the end I want more freedom. So I am moving over to Wordpress. You can now find me at

http://blogoblackmore.com ---> that's right, my own domain.

See ya all over there, loyal readers.

Hiatus

2008-06-07T17:45:00.001-04:00

Blog O'Blackmore is undergoing a be redesign and will be out of commission for a week or so. Please keep checking back!

Stanley Cup Finals: Game 5 - Detroit Red Wings vs Pittsburgh Penguins - 6/02/08

2008-06-03T20:58:00.002-04:00

OT Thriller!

A win is a win, and an overtime win in a game you didn't deserve, is even better.

Game 5 was HUGE game by Marc Andre Fleury! His saves kept me awake for all 3 overtime periods (as if the gravity of the situation wasn't excitement enough)

I say they bench Malkin for game 6. I know, I know, he helped set up the overtime winner - but he is a freaking liability out there! He needs to play better or not play. He has made some of the worst passes of any player in the series. Did you see that great one he made to Zetterberg during the 3rd?

Let's go Pens to force a game 7 on Wednesday night!

Hell's Most Wanted

2008-06-01T22:06:00.003-04:00

Funny religious wing-nut poster! How many of these are you?

From the freethoughtpedia.

Stanley Cup Finals: Game 4 - Detroit Red Wings vs Pittsburgh Penguins - 5/31/08

2008-06-01T17:59:00.001-04:00

It's not looking good for the Pens.

They played a pretty decent game last night, but the goose egg during the MINUTE & A HALF, 5 ON 3 power play late in the 3rd was the nail in the coffin.

I think that it will likely go down as the series turning point. A goal there could have really turned things around.

But it's not over till it's over. Here's hoping the Pens can make a series of it and win in Detroit Monday night.

My 5 Favourite Social Networking Websites

2008-05-31T14:44:00.005-04:00

The internet has come a long way since my first experiences with it in the early nineties. When we first got the internet at my house, I connected through a 9600 Kilobaud modem, using something I barely remember called Winsock and browsed around using good ole' Netscape Navigator 2.0. The net has gone from text pages, slowly loading 10k images and fodder for cheesy movies starring Keanu Reeves, to the immense, sprawling and endless trough of news, videos, music, opinion and social connectivity that it is today. One of the biggest changes of the past few years is how ordinary people use the internet to produce their own content and share that content with others using social networking platform sites such as MySpace or Facebook. Being that Facebook is not the be all and end all of social media, I have decided to do a little write up on 5 social networking websites that I think are cool and I use the most frequently recently.

Disclaimer: I am not the king of the interweb. You may have never heard of any of these sites, or you may be a power user at all of them. If they are new to you, great, check them out if you think they are interesting. If not, then good for you! You are a savvier web user than I am. Please don't flame me about it.

Last.fm is a site that's new to me, but a quick Wikipedia search tells you it's been around since 2002! Why haven't I heard of this until now? (Answer: because I am not nearly as hip as I think . . .)

Basically, you join the site and start listening to the Last.fm "radio" which plays songs either by tag (rock, indie rock, classic rock, etc.) or by similar artist. That's actually cool enough as Last.fm will continue to stream music you like, but may not have heard of, for hours while you do something else. Just like a real radio, but no DJ's, no commercials, and less of what you don't like. Plus you can ban things (i.e Nickelback) so you never hear it again.

But Last.fm gets better! Socially better.

It has combined listening to songs you like and sharing the songs you like with friends and other users of the site in one slick package. Like a Facebook for music lovers, you create a Last.fm home page with a picture and an about you section and they fill in the details of the songs/artists you have listened to. It creates charts of your most listened to artists/songs and you can even put your custom playlist on your website or blog (see below and to the right for mine).

You no longer need to wear trucker hats or have an asymmetrical hair cut to prove that you listen to cool bands. Last.fm shows off your hipster taste for you.

CreateDebate IS a new site for sure this time. It even has a beta tag on the logo (which for some reason isn't there when you try to save the image and include it on your blog). You also can easily tell that CreateDebate is a fancy Web 2.0, social-networking-platform site because of its logo. It's two colours with a little image on the left and it has a reflection of the log on the bottom. This tells you that the site is cutting edge!

While the logo may be a little cliché the site concept is really cool if you are a nerd like me that likes debating as much as other things that end in bating.

People join up for the site get screen names, home pages and all that jazz, then they start debating. You can either create a debate, or just argue in someone else's. They spit the page in two, and you argue on one side or the other. You can vote peoples arguments up or down, respond to them to oppose or favour or link to other web pages or even embed a video. You can create a whole network of users and classify them as allies or enemies.

If you want to challenge me to a debate, click here.

Metacritic.com is not exactly the most social website when compared to either of their other four. However, there is a social aspect to it, and it is one of the most useful sites I have found in years. The premise is simple: Whenever a new movie, DVD, album, book or video game is released, Metacritic searches the web for all of the major critical reviews of the release. They then take the review, give it a score out of 100 and add it to the rest on the page concerning the movie, DVD, album, book or video game. Then all the reviews are added up and averaged out, giving the new movie or game or whatever a total score somewhere between 0-100 and giving the reader a good idea of exactly how well it was received by critics.

The social aspect of the site involves users signing in and writing their own reviews. All of the user reviews are then totalled and averaged out as well, so for every new movie, DVD, album, game or book released, not only is there a meta critic score, but also a meta user score – for those of us that don't trust professional critics.

Metacritic is so comprehensive and so accurate that it's now my first destination when I am thinking of buying a game or going to a movie.

If any diggers ever read my blog, they would flame me left and right for including Digg in this list, because as far as the average Digger (read: male techie geek) is concerned, Digg always was and always will be the greatest social-networking news site on the internet. Everyone knows about Digg by now and therefore it needs no introduction.

However, if they ventured out of their internet bubble for a few minutes and asked members of the general population if they use Digg to get news, 90% wouldn't know what you are talking about.

Like most good concepts, the concept for Digg is simple. Users submit articles from anywhere on the web and other diggers either digg (vote) it up or bury it down. Only the most dugg stuff in a short period of time makes it to the front page. There is also a very lively comment section that is often at least as interesting as the submission itself.

There is a whole bunch of controversy surrounding Digg's power users and how much influence they have and about a group called the bury brigade that bury some legitimate stories so they never see the light of day. However, just like elementary school, if you avoid the playground fights there is a lot of interesting stuff being uploaded every day. Of course if you liked playground fights back in school then feel free to get involved!

Technorati is another site that probably doesn't need much introduction to all you savvy websters out there. I have been aware of Technorati for years, but I just started actually using it this past couple of weeks. Considering Technorati is the most popular, most sophisticated, portal to the global blogosphere out there right now, it spot on my radar probably has everything to do with the fact that I just started this blog.

If you like blogs, read blogs, or want to be a blogger, immediately sign up right away. If you are a blogger already, there's a 99% chance you have an account. Technorati is set up in such an intuitive way you are going to find new blogs with interesting articles within 10 seconds of being on their front page. You can submit your blog; favourite other people's blogs and start connecting with a community of likeminded bloggers through the sites well designed interface.

The only problem I have found so far is that the site tends to go down a little too often. So far the frustrations have been minor and I strongly recommend this site to anyone interested in the blog world.

Stanley Cup Finals: Game 3 - Detroit Red Wings vs Pittsburgh Penguins - 5/28/08

2008-05-29T23:54:00.002-04:00

Finally!!

Sidney is very close to living up to the unbelievable expectations placed on him since a very young age. One of the most inspired playoff performances I've seen in a while.

Ex-Leaf Hal Gill nearly blew it for them with his dumb penalties. He had been playing so well for the majority of the playoffs, but since the finals started he has been reverting back to Maple Leafs ways!

This game was a good example of the type of game I expected in the series. Fast paced, great chances at both ends. I'd like to see this kind of style keep up for the rest of the series.

Stanley Cup Finals: Game 2 - Detroit Red Wings vs Pittsburgh Penguins - 5/26/08

2008-05-27T22:08:00.003-04:00

Are the Pens ever going to score a goal??

This is crazy! They have Crosby, Malkin, Hossa, Staal, Sykora . . . they should be able to put a few in the net.

Is it youth? Are they "just happy to be here"?

This is quite a big hill to climb. They better be better come game 3 or this series is over.

7 Money Management Tips from a Guy Who Just Figured Out How to Manage His Money

2008-05-26T22:24:00.011-04:00

Back in my late-teens and early-twenties, I got myself into a little bit of money trouble. At the time it seemed like a lot of money trouble, but now looking back, because the dollar amounts were low, it really was only a little. However, I still learned a lot about managing money the hard way, by messing up and finding ways to fix my own problems. Here is my laundry list of dirty deeds that weren't so cheap:

I skipped out on $1200 bill in my name because I didn't have money at the time to pay; I did the same thing for a cell phone bill totalling nearly $200; I didn't make payments on my $500 limit credit card, which ended up being revoked; and I was always scrambling for money to pay bills.

Eventually, (around 23) I got tired of being broke and in debt and I started to take my financial responsibilities seriously. Here are 7 strategies I have used in the past two years to right the good ship Personal Finances and lead a fiscally sound lifestyle.

Make a Budget

And write it down or document it in some way! This seems like a very obvious statement to those people who are already good with money management. However, if you were like I was 3-5ish years ago, your "budget" was something that was up in your head and was easily forgotten about or misremembered. "Budgeting" like this can lead you into lots of problems when you inevitably overspend. And don't start subtracting things in your head, like "well, if I spend $100 at the bar tonight; I should still have enough for the rent so long as the phone bill less than $50, and oh yeah . . . is this the month when the hydro bill comes or is that next month?". You'll fuck up. Trust me.

The only way to keep your head above water is to keep track of the bills, know when they are due, know about how much they are and ensure you have money put away to pay them; which leads me to my next tip:

Create Multiple Accounts

Once you have taken all your bills, averaged out how much they are, and noted when they are due, total up the monthly amount. For example say you pay $400 for rent, $150 for Rogers (home phone, cell phone, internet, cable), $150 for your student loan payment, $100 for your monthly transit-pass, and typically $300 for groceries, total it all up and you get $1300 per month in bills to pay. Most people get paid twice per month, meaning for this example, $650 per pay period needs to go into a separate account that you use only to pay bills. As soon as you get paid, take out the money and put it into your bills account and don't touch it expect pay them.

When I started doing this, it took a huge load off my mind. Even if I inadvertently spend all the money in my chequing account, I know I am not going to get kicked out of my place or have my phone cut off. Follow this advice and you will always get by, of course if you are looking to do more than just get by read the next tip.

Put Saving Money into Your Budget

For years I thought I never made enough money to save. There were so many things I wanted, and because I wasn't separating my pay into spending money and bill money, I always felt like I was scrambling to balance paying my bills and keeping up a decent lifestyle. Once I started separating my pay into different accounts, saving became a little easier. If you are paying your bills account $650 a month already, what's another $50? Trust me, you won't miss it (if you really are going to miss it, scroll on down to the point about living within your means). Open up a 3^rd account at your bank, or open up an ING Investment account and put that $100 per month away.

One year later and you can walk around with that rest-easy feeling, knowing that not only is your budget balanced and all your bills are paid, but you have money in the bank backing you up no matter what happens (except your bank going out of business due to some kind of global depression caused by sub-prime mortgages – if that happens I've got no answer for you . . . get a thick mattress maybe?)

Live Within Your Means

If you follow these instructions and pay yourself first by taking money from your pay check and putting it into bills and savings accounts right away, you will soon see if you are living within your means or not. If what you are left with is a measly amount of money you couldn't expect anyone fully grown to live on – say less than $100 of spending money for two weeks - then you are living WAY above your means. You should take no more than 60% of your take home pay and earmark it for bills and savings. I mean, you still have to live right? There are clothes to buy, movies to see, dates to go on, beer to drink, concerts to rock and life to live. If you don't have a decent amount of money to just spend as you like, you are going to feel pretty stressed out.

If you find yourself unable to pay bills, save money and still have 40% of your take home pay left to spend, you need to rip out a page from the modern corporate playbook and downsize. Since you don't have any useless employees to lay-off, you'll need to think about scaling back on the lifestyle. Can you really afford the high-definition cable? Can you really afford cable at all? Do you need to move even deeper into the ghetto? No one said it was going to be easy, but cuts need to be made so get out your scissors. Of course, the alternative is to make more money, but since that's pretty much the accepted meaning of life here in North America, I'm assuming you are probably making about as much as you can pull off right now. If you can take on a second job then maybe that's an option, but don't wait for that to happen, cut first, and buy it back later if you can.

Use Cash as Much as Possible

Banks love to ding you with charges every time you use your debit card. They also like to ding you with charges if you use anyone else bank machine to get cash. It's annoying but they are the ones who make the rules, so unfortunately, we are the ones who need to play by them. I try to take out a decent amount of cash at the beginning of the week, from my bank's ATM so it's free, and then spend that as much as possible without using the debit card.

Not only does this save on service charges, but there is something more psychologically impactful with actually spending paper money. If all you need to do is push a few buttons to buy something, it kind of feels like you didn't spend any money. When you have to hand over the hard earned cash, it really hits home.

Use Credit Sparingly and ALWAYS MAKE PAYMENTS to Anything You Owe

Credit cards are great to use in emergency situations when you don't have the money, (i.e. the dog needs an operation, your car needs repairs and without it you can't get to work). They are also great to purchase things on the internet that you already have the money for, or to use at places like restaurants, or for car rentals when you already have the money, but paying buy credit card is easier. Once you have made the purchase with your credit card, you need to go to your online banking website and transfer the funds as soon as possible.

Anything else will just get you in trouble. You will eventually have to pay it all back with interest. Why prolong the process? There is no getting away from debt. Once you owe it, you owe it forever until you pay it off. When you die, they will come after your kids! If you are like the old me, when you get a letter in the mail that you know says you owe money - more money than you can likely afford right now - you get this feeling that tells you it would be better to just not open the envelope. Just pretend you never got it.

This is wrong. This is the worst thing you could do. If this is something you have a tendency to do, then please:

Pull Your Head Out of the Sand

If you are facing a tough financial situation, do not ignore it. Trust me. This bombs your credit rating. And yes, your credit rating ends up being extremely important. If you attempt to ignore or run away from a debt too many times, you could very well end up not being able to get a home loan, a car loan, a business loan, a student loan, a job, an apartment or any sort of even the most basic credit cards (let alone any sort of fancy black/platinum card that says "yeah I'm rich").

If you owe any money that has gone to a collection agency, you need to call your creditors right away and make some arrangements to pay. Then you need to actually pay. Every single payment. On time. If you are having trouble doing this, see tips number 1 and 2 and apply the same strategy. If you still think you can't afford to make payments to your debt, see tip number 4.

FOX Pundit Wishes for Obama Assassination, Laughs

2008-05-25T23:19:00.003-04:00

Just another extremely distasteful comment from a FOX News pundit. Not only does she joke about his assassination being beneficial, she also gets his name mixed up with Osama's.

Canada should feel proud we don't have this kind of journalism.

Stanley Cup Finals: Game 1 - Detroit Red Wings vs Pittsburgh Penguins - 5/24/08

2008-05-25T13:03:00.004-04:00

I've decided to do a 4-7 part series covering the Stanley Cup Finals here on Blog O'Blackmore. I feel this fits in well with the blog theme - anything I want. No fair and balanced reporting here; I'm cheering for the Pens. Despite living in Michigan for 2 years, and despite the fact that my family still lives there. If it was Detroit versus any other team (except for the Leafs) it might be a different story, but I think this Penguins team has the talent to possibly become one of the greatest dynasties of our generation and it would be cool to see them win lots of Stanley Cups. I could tell my kids about watching the old Pens play the way my folks told me about the Oilers from the mid eighties.

So I'm disappointed by the results of the first game. I expected a lot better effort from Sydney Crosby and company. I think they only had 19 shots the whole game! Malkin is a hart trophy candidate this season but he sure didn't play like one last night. I give him the most disappointing player of Game 1 award.

I guess you have to give it to Detroit's defense for keeping the Pens at bay, and the few good chances they did get were well handled by Chris Osgoode.

I might edit this post between now and Game 2, so keep checking back. The highlights, courtesy TSN/YouTube are above. Watch for Fluery to fall down coming on the ice! He must have been a little too excited.

GASP! OH NO!

2008-05-24T13:12:00.005-04:00

I'm just glad these hackers are on our side, and not the terrorists!

Found on Digg

Biting The Bullet: 5 Reasons Why Arguing With Unruly Clients Will Get You Nowhere

2008-05-23T22:40:00.005-04:00

I came across this list on Digg this morning; it's from a blog called Freelance Folder, which looks like a fantastic resource for those "independent" types who can't handle real jobs ;-) Despite the fact that I am not a freelancer, I do work in a sales office and deal with my share of pissed off customers, and I can tell you these are all very good suggestions.

The 5 reasons from the website:

Time Away From Your Other Clients

Breaks Up Your Concentration And Creativity

Anger Spills Into Your Family Life

It Won't Make You Any More Money

The Client Gets A Kick Out Of Making You Mad

Check out the original post here.

Poor Dick Gaywood: Kicked Off Xbox Live Because His Real Name is Offensive

2008-05-22T12:27:00.007-04:00

Richard Gaywood (his real name) has been kicked off Xbox Live because they have deemed his gamertag "RichardGaywood" to be offensive. While I find this to be hilarious, others have expressed concern over Microsoft's arbitrary decisions on what is or is not offensive. The response from Xbox Live is below:

Kotaku.com - "We want the Xbox LIVE community to have the freedom to express themselves, but we also have a responsibility to create an inclusive, safe environment," said Microsoft's Stephen Toulouse. "While it may be clear to some that Gaywood is a legitimate surname, it may not be obvious to other Xbox LIVE members. In this case, a complaint was filed by a member of the community, requiring the Xbox LIVE team to examine the gamertag within the context of the Xbox LIVE Terms of Use. Based on the these guidelines, it was necessary for the gamertag to change."

What do you (non-existent) readers think? Is Microsoft in the right or the wrong here?

For more information visit Kotaku.

The Words Right Out of My Mouth: Netflix Introduces Unlimited Streaming Movies

2008-05-21T23:41:00.005-04:00

An article on Ars Technica caught my eye at work this morning - it turns out Netflix has stepped up and is doing (almost) exactly what I said needs to be done in my post from 2 days ago and are the first one to allow unlimited movies for one low monthly fee!

Okay okay . . so they offer unlimited movie streaming and I said they (or someone) should offer unlimited movie downloads, but it's a step in the right direction.

The only downside here is that for some reason you have to buy this little box, which is $99.

But hey, they throw in this little remote for free so you can emulate the experience of watching a movie on your TV, but on your computer.

Check out the article for the full story and then bookmark Ars Technica because they are always bursting with cool tech news like this. I only understand about 50% of it, but what I do understand always enlightens me.

arstechnica.com - Finally living up to its name, Netflix today introduced the Netflix Player by Roku, a small piece of hardware that can play any Netflix titles available for Internet streaming. With a cheap price and Netflix's signature subscription model, the Netflix Player brings a new set of rules to the video distribution table.

The Difference Between Regular and High Definition TV

2008-05-20T20:15:00.005-04:00

You can really notice the difference:

*Wow, I can't believe something from the Christian Science Monitor actually got a laugh out of me.

read more digg story

Mininova Faces Legal Action: Filter or Else

2008-05-19T22:50:00.006-04:00

No torrent site on earth is more popular than Mininova. Surprisingly, however, all the legal pressure seems to have been focused on sites such as The Pirate Bay. Mininova - against all the odds - appears to have stayed under the radar. All that changed today as Mininova is now facing legal action by Dutch anti-piracy agency, BREIN.

http://digg.com/tech_news/Mininova_Faces_Legal_Action_Filter_or_Else/

Is this the beginning of end for downloading our favorite movies and shows for free on the internet? It seems like every other day I read another article about the same thing; first TorrentSpy closes down, then the Pirate Bay gets sued, and now Mininova too. While I am sure nothing is going to change overnight, I am getting a feeling that the piracy gravy train is slowing down and one day our kids are going to be jealous that we downloaded all this stuff so easily without getting caught. The double 00's will surely go down in history as a golden age for internet piracy.

I have to admit though, that I feel conflicted over this issue. On one hand I enjoy having all this content available for free. I also think it's nearly impossible to limit spread of digital media. It is so easily copied and transferred from one computer to the next, why should we (or they) fight it? However, I also realize that if the people who are responsible for creating the content that we all enjoy do not get paid, we will see less and less quality content being created in the future, and that hurts everyone.

So what is the solution? Should the RIAA go around suing random people, one by one until widespread internet piracy comes to an end? It seems like that solution is never going to work. While these organizations can surely sue a lot of people, the scale of the problem is so large that the very best they could do is to successfully sue 1% of the people downloading, - which would be probably more then 100 000 individuals - meaning that anyone who wants to download illegally stands a better than 99% chance of getting away with it. Clearly these lawsuits are not much of a deterrent to anyone.

They can shut down Mininova and the Pirate Bay, but something else exactly like them quickly take their place. After all, Mininova is just a meeting place, it's the hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of anonymous users that make it work. Where there is a will there is way, and the people who want to pirate will just meet somewhere else.

I think the solution has to come from the content providers, and it has to address the main reasons why people illegally download and also address the main problems illegal downloaders face. People put up with a lot of crap to download off Mininova, and despite it's popularity, only young, net-savvy individuals are doing it. For someone who knows that this stuff is out there but doesn't know where to start, pirating movies is a complicated, daunting task. First, you have to download and install a bittorrent client program. Most aren't exactly user friendly and it takes a while to get used to how they work and what the associated terminology means. Then you need to find a site like Pirate Bay or Mininova, which is another challenging step for a noob. Once your are there, you then have to sort though hundreds of potentially bogus torrents to find the one you want. And pirate beware if you download the wrong one and follow the "instructions" to open it, you will likely end up installing a trojan or virus on your computer that fucks you up for weeks.

So why do people put up with this? Well yeah, because it is free, of course. But they also put up with it because the legal solutions are expensive and mind bogglingly even less accessible then the illegal ones. People have been downloading DVD rips for at the past 5 years at least using bittorrent and P2P, but it was just 6 months or so ago Netflix started letting people rent downloadable movies. What on earth took so long? The studios where so against letting people pay to download their movies, in fear of them copying and distributing them, they just stuck to their guns and tried to blow online piracy away. This response was despite the fact that the industry and been down this road before. There is little to no conceptual difference between copying a VHS tape, ripping & burning a DVD or sharing a file over the internet. Before downloading was an option, people bought plenty of VHS movies, and plenty of DVD movies even though they could likely get illegally pirated copies for free if they tried hard enough. At the time there was a scare that copying tapes would hurt the music industry, but it didn't happen.

Why not?

Because in the end, why go though the hassle of stealing, when what you want is easily affordable and easily obtained?

If I could pay 40 to 50 bucks a month to download unlimited movies and music I would sign up right now! Why would I go through all the work, trouble and risk to pirate it for free, when it wouldn't cost much for me to enjoy the ease and accessibility of purchasing directly from a legitimate source? Who cares if there is not enough seeders for my torrent? Who cares if the guy with the album I want just logged off Soulseek half way through my download? I can just download it directly from the source - no muss, no fuss. Why am I going to call my friend and bother him to send me a copy of the movie he just downloaded, when, for not too much money, I can just go get it myself!

The only reason this solution has not been implemented yet is because there are about 20 middle men between you and the artist and under this sort of system there would be just one. This means a lot of big business, who for years have been making a killing buying intellectual property off of record labels and movie studios, just to turn around and sell it to retailers (or in the case of retailers, directly to the public) would need to find another stream of revenue or face the music and fold their hand.

In my mind, the perfect distribution system is easy to envision:

iTunes and similar services work out a fifty-fifty split of revenues with record labels and movie studios and call it a day. Artists work out deals with labels to get a proportionate amount of cash based on the number of downloads they get during a specific time period. The end result would be piracy going down, subscription sales going up, the internet service gets paid, the label or studio gets paid and the artist gets paid. For the online distributor, such as iTunes, their business would model the cable industry, where the goal would be to increase subscriptions their service. They would compete for customers on the basis of who has the better media playing software or music playing device. Studios, labels and artists carry on with business as usual, expect they stand to make a bit more money because they are closer to the end user and would get a higher percentage of the total industry sales as there are no big price mark-ups between them and the customer. Everyone is happy except for the distributors, who unfortunately are no longer needed, but hey that's life and things change!

At some point, content providers will need to stop blaming end-users for piracy and realize it is their inefficient industry system that allows it to continue. Then they must effectively address the root causes of piracy by providing easily accessible downloadable content at a price affordable enough for most people that they would rather pay then deal with the headache of piracy.

read more digg story

Anatomy of a Craigslist Scam

2008-05-19T15:09:00.007-04:00

So . . . Jen and I are looking for a new place. We've both got some decently paying jobs in the last 18 months and we think we can afford something $2-300 more per month for some nicer digs. We live in a one bedroom, in a decent building, in a shady neighborhood now, and we are looking for a 2 bedroom in a decent building in a decent neighborhood to move into.

As you would expect, one of the websites I used to search for apartments was Cragislist.org. Most of the stuff on there is legitimate, but sometimes you come across some real flagrant attempts to rip you off. While I have no solid proof, I think this was one of those times.

This guy was offering a 2 bed 2 bath luxury condo in Yorkville (crazy posh neighborhood in Toronto - condo's sell for millions)for $1200 a month. I had a feeling this was a scam, but like all good scams, the bait was too good pass up an attempt to at least inquire about the apartment.

Here is the link to the posting so you can see it for yourself: http://toronto.en.craigslist.ca/tor/apa/684239171.html

This is my email correspondence with the guy. Just reading it is pretty hilarious in and off itself. He says he is the Pope Benedict's body guard and is so holy he couldn't think to rip me off. Just send him a deposit, he says, and the apartment is mine.

Hello,

I am interested in viewing/quite-possibly renting the apartment you are listing on Craigslist.org. Please get back to me at your earliest convenience at either of the phone numbers below or via email to schedule a time to view the apartment.

Thanks,

James Blackmore

From: Mary and John Welsh
Sent: Monday, May 19, 2008 4:39 AM
To: James Blackmore
Subject: [Bulk] Re: $1200 / 2br - Stylish Bay/Bloor-Two Bedroom/Two Bath Condo Available for Rent (Toronto)

Hello,

Calvary greetings to you for the swift response regarding my advert, I am so much pleased with the enquiry you make regarding my property for rent. My name is John Welsh, I'm born in Dec 26, 1967 in Canada. I work with the holy father Pope Benedict XVI as his personal body guard you can see our blog at http://itsmaryjohnandbaby.blogspot.com (Primarily pictures of the baby, but you'd see picts of John and I too. My wife (Mary) and myself have been busy serving the lord with all our heart and also the holy father Pope Benedict but presently now we are in London, england on an official assignment that the holy father sent us to do over here in England that is why we decided to place our property out for rent to a good christian family that is responsible that can we can trust to take property responsiblity of our property for us. Just remember to check on our website for all our informations.

This is the exact Address of my place 1121 Bay St Toronto, ON Canada

So if you can promise us that you can take good care of our property like yours then you can reply back to us again so that we can know how really serious you are in renting our property because we are so busy serving the lord and also the holy father. We want you to let us know if you are absolutely interested with all your heart because we do not need someone that just want to deceive us. Kinldy get back to us with the fill out of the rent application information below as soon as possible inorder to know when to send you the keys and documents for your viewing because we are so busy and we don't want to waste any time.

1)Your Full Name
2)Your Full Address & Phone Number
3)How old are you?
4)Are you married?
5)How many people will be living in the house?
6)Do you have a pet?
7)Do you have a car?
8)Occupation?
9)When do you want to move in
10How long do you want to stay in my apartment
11) Pictures of all the Occupant that will stay in my apartment

The Almighty God Bless You.

Mary And John Welsh!

On Mon, May 19, 2008 at 7:05 AM, James Blackmore wrote:
Hi John & Mary,

Thank you for replying so quickly to my email. I am very intrigued by your story; it's not often you hear from someone who is working as closely are you are with someone as world-renowned and inspiring as Pope Benedict XVI. It is good to hear that there are people such as yourselves, following their hearts and making a difference in the world.

My name James Blackmore, I am 25 years old and live and work for a software company in downtown Toronto. I live with my spouse, Jennifer, she is 24 years old and works for one the big 5 Canadian banks at their head office, also in downtown Toronto. We are both hard-working, professional and responsible people and we gladly promise to take the absolute best care of your property. We believe that the way you keep your home is a direct reflection on who you are as a person; and we try to send a message that says we care about ourselves. We also have a 1 year old Yorkshire Terrier named Bella. She is fully house trained, weighs only 5 lbs and true to her breed, does not shed.

Let me try and answer your questions

1. James Blackmore
2. Toronto, ON Canada
3. 25 years old
4. Jennifer and I have been living together for 2 years and will be getting married in the near future
5. Only 2 people will be living in the house, myself and Jennifer.
6. Yes, we have one little Yorkie named Bella
7. We do not have a car.
8. I work in sales for a software company on Bay Street, Jen works for a big 5 Canadian Bank at their downtown headquarters.
7. July 1 is our ideal date, but we can work with others.
8. We are looking for a semi-permanent home, 3-5 years. We are planning to move to a fully detached home outside of Toronto when we are ready to start a family, but that be until our early 30`s.
9. See below:

Thank you for your consideration and we look forward to hearing from you soon.

Kind Regards,

James and Jennifer

From: Mary and John Welsh
Sent: Monday, May 19, 2008 10:59 AM
To: James Blackmore
Subject: [Bulk] GOOD NEWS!!!______HALLELUYAH YOU ARE ACCEPTED

Hello James Blackmore,

Thanks very much for your reply also thank you so much for the information provide. Everything is okay and am pleased with it.I can see your willingness in this rent !!! So as i shall be giving you our place, please again take care of the place so that i might be glad when i come back. The Almighty God will continue to guide you and your family because when i read your full information i pray for you all and i know that the almighty God will always be there for you and your family. my family are so happy that we have found a good tenant as you.

As i have ealier told you,the money involved is not the problem,but i only need my house to be kept clean always until i will be back.You will be paying $1200 Monthly including the utilities inside, it all depends on the period you wish to stay in my apartment,i will not want you to get worried okay.you only have to tell me the numbers of months in which you can be able to pay as upfront/deposit e.g 1 month:$1200: 2months: 2400 or the deposit of $800 etc. As a Man Of it word,i always have this human feelings so i will not do anything to stress or be difficult to my fellow human and this is why i want you to tell me the numbers of months in which you can be able to pay as deposit. also we would like to send the following document to you via DHL courrier service to your address provided by you which

Please We will want you to confirm your deliverey informatyion Again before will forward it to our lawyer over here with us for the delivery of the keys and documents to you once you are ready to make the payment upfront of the numbers of months rent you can afford. So confirm your informationb below.

Packages Receiver's Name: James Blackmore

Packages Receiver's Address: 191 Sherbourne Street, Toronto, ON Canada

(1) Entrance and the rooms Keys
(2)Paper/Permanent house form(Containing your reference details)
(3)The house documetary file.
(4)Payment Receipt.
( 5)Full address and description of the place.

These will be sent to you in the address you have provided to me in the Applicant form and the tracking number will be sent to you so that you can possibly occupy our place immediately. Once again, i am giving you this on trust and do not disappoint me and i promise you that you will love the house. i shall be coming in the middle of the year to check on you so that i can know how you take care of my place for me and if it is okay by me, then i shall be collecting the rest of the fee from you by myself.

Me and my family are really happy to find a good person to occupy the place and i still want you to promise that you will not dissapoint us.after then i will let you know the next step to take in getting the documents,keys and security code to our place

Hope to read from you soon.

Thank You and Remain Blessed

On Mon, May 19, 2008 at 8:16 AM, James Blackmore wrote:

Hi John,

Before I accept that apartment I need to clarify a few things.

Firstly, I want to actually see the apartment before I commit any money or make any down payment. As I am sure you can appreciate, doing anything else would be foolish.

Secondly, as per the standard course of action, once I have seen and accepted the apartment, I will be glad to provide the first and last months rent as a deposit, and then pay month to month from there on out. I am concerned by your email in terms of wanting money up front. That rings alarm bells that make me feel as though I may be falling into an internet based scam. We don't know each each other, and I must be very careful.

Thirdly, please let me know when the apartment will be available and for how long you plan to rent it out.

Please address these concerns and we will be glad to move forward.

Regards,

James Blackmore

From: Mary and John Welsh
Sent: Monday, May 19, 2008 11:27 AM
To: James Blackmore
Subject: [Bulk] Re: [Bulk] GOOD NEWS!!!______HALLELUYAH YOU ARE ACCEPTED

Calvary greetings to you for the quick message, We understand what you said and we want you to know that i have been working with the holy father benedict for the past 3 years now and i have been so sincere and clean to him and i will never do any that relate to SCAM because we are a God fearing family that was i gave you the website that covers all our information. We are not after your money because we are already blessed by the God. We are here to alos assist people and we have our help foundation called MaryJohn Foundation. if you are not ready to make the first and last month's rent upfront then we will advise you to only make the security deposit so that we can instruct our lawyer over here with us to send you the keys and documents so that when you have receive it to see the inside and if you like it then you can make the first and last month's rent that you said. we would have loved to come and show you the apartment but you know that we are very busy because of the assignment that was given to us by the Holy Father Benedict, We will instruct our lawyer to send you the keys and documents through DHL courier servive to your address once you are ready to make only the security deposit. You can call jus on our cell phje number anytime
+447031926680

Hope it is OK with you because we are ready to give out the place to you.

God Bless You.

Mary and John Welsh!

On 5/19/08, James Blackmore wrote:
John,

I understand what you are saying, but I am not able to make a down payment until I have seen the apartment first hand. Do you have any property managers on site who we could book an appointment with to show us around? If this is what you say it is then you should have no problem with us seeing the apartment before sending you money. I need to be %100 certain this is a legitimate offer before any money changes hands.

The only way I can be sure is by seeing the apartment first hand.

Please arrange this.

Regards,

James Blackmore

Hello James,

Thanks for the message, I do understand what you said and i want you to know that we are doing this legitimately, we are not after your money and your money is not the issue. As soon as you are ready to make the security deposit mu lawyer will proceed with the delivery of the keys and documents to you asap the security deposit is refundable. There is nobody over there for now because we are a very busy servant serving the ord with our assignment with the holly father.I am assuring you that this is 100% legitimate offer that you cannot afford to miss. Just jhave believe and faith in us then we can move further.

Mary and John Welsh!

Russia beats Canada, wins 2008 World Hockey Championship . . .

2008-05-19T11:45:00.008-04:00

I missed this game because I was at my girlfriend's grandma's house for a Sunday picnic. Typical of a Grandma, she only has up to channel 28! I was disappointed at first but now I am glad I missed it because it would have sucked to see Canada lose on account of such a dumb penalty.

Later on HNIC, (which is on channel 6, so I got to watch it) Don Cherry called the guy at the NHL who invented this rule an "idiot" and I couldn't agree more. He's right; it should just be a faceoff in your own end and not be able to change lines, like an icing.

The one good thing that came out of this is that I found a cool blog called The Faceoff Circle, which looks like a pretty good spot for hockey news and comments. I added it to my blogroll.

Here`s a video of Kovalchuck scoring the winning goal for all you sadists and Russians out there.

Cadillac Escalade Owner Makes Major Mistake Parking on Beach

2008-05-19T01:31:00.005-04:00

The environment makes a comeback!

read more digg story

First Ever Post

2008-05-19T00:43:00.001-04:00

Hey Everyone (and by that I mean probably no one . . . because I just started this blog, and who really reads other peoples blogs anyways? Everyone is just concerned about them and their blog that no one reads, am I right?),

So this is my first ever post and I guess I should spend some time talking about what my blog is going to be about. I plan on using this space to publish any comments, ideas, opinions or links to or about anything that I think is cool or interesting in any way. It's not going to be a specific blog like many people write, you know, about their careers, or parenting, or their favorite band or their swinging, sexual, key-party lifestyle. Blog O'Blackmore is going to cover all of that and much more (or it might just be something I update a lot at first, then forget about, I don't know yet.)

Blog O'Blackmore (is the name really stupid and corny? Yes. Is it the first dumb thing I came up with that I'm now stuck with? Also, yes.) is mostly going to be where I comment on any and all of the wide gamut of crazy shit I come across on the big wide interweb. I'm hoping to sharpen my writing skills, meet some people that have the same interests and attitudes as me and maybe even learn a little about myself along the way.

Psych! I am me! I with me all the time, I know everything about me and there isn't anything else I can learn.

Now that I have totally lamed up my first blog post with pathetic attempts at humour, I am going to sign off before I can do any more damage.

Talk to you next time, loyal fans.