Updates, odds and ends

Update – Poetry.com
Over the past couple of weeks, I have received different email from four different organizations, all telling me how wonderful my poetry is, and offering membership and all manner of plaques, pins, medallions, coffee mugs, etc, etc, etc. The last was from an outfit called Noble House with offices in London, Paris and New York. The problem, of course, is that Yahoo tells me the emails all originated from the same source in Maryland. Uh-huh.

Dear Matt,
Recently, I was discussing the appointment of this year's Poet Fellows with various editors, colleagues, and publishers. The Poet Fellowship is an elite group of international writers who share a common passion for writing. In recent years, the number of Poet Fellows has grown with members from all over the world. It started in London and then quickly spread to New York, Paris, and Venice . . . and now its members literally circle the globe. It is with great enthusiasm that I am officially inviting you to join this legendary group as a Poet Fellow.

In addition to the honor and prestige afforded by being a member of this organization, they are offering a Poet Fellow Pin and a limited edition medallion at a cost of only $74.95.

Apparently, this scam is one of the most persistent on the net. The reason they can get away with this stuff is that they maintain a façade of legitimacy by actually publishing books (anthologies) from time to time and even holding annual “conventions” with an attendance of up to 4,000 would be poets. But, the biggest reason they get away with it is that people, once they come to realize they’ve been scammed, are too embarrassed to admit it.

There are literally dozens of sites out there reporting on scams or suspicious activity. You can utilize these sites to gather information on any activity you may be thinking about getting involved in. I’ve found RipOffReports(.Com) particularly helpful.
Related Posts: I won! I won! Oh shit.

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Free software links
In some of my posts, I’ve pointed out the benefits of freeware and free open source software. Freeware is fully functional software that is available without charge and with no strings attached. Open source software is essentially the same thing, except that there is an additional bonus in that you can also download and modify the source code if you wish.

In order to be considered free software, users must have the following four freedoms:

• The freedom to run the program, for any purpose.
• The freedom to study how the program works, and adapt it to your needs. Access to the source code is a precondition for this.
• The freedom to redistribute copies so you can help your neighbor.
• The freedom to improve the program, and release your improvements to the public, so that the whole community benefits. Access to the source code is a precondition for this.

For more information about free software, visit the Free Software Foundation.

I’ve added a new links category, “Five Star Freeware”. I’ll include the links to any freeware apps I review on this site, so that readers can navigate to these websites without difficulty.

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The Music Player
You might have noticed that I’ve changed the MP3 player to something a little more elaborate. The player is provided free (for a little advertising and a link) by MyFlashFetish. I’ll be trying to update the play list over the next couple of weeks.

It’s annoying as hell to have the player start playback from the beginning every time you move from one post to another, but that’s the nature of the beast. One way to avoid this nuisance is to click on the month of the posts, rather that the post itself. By clicking on November, for example, all posts published in November will appear on a single page, allowing you to scroll from post to post and allowing the MP3 player to play continually.