Bicker, Back & Forth, PS.

Citing a story in this morning’s Washington Post, Senator Chris Dodd (D-CT), Chairman of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, today slammed financial industry groups who have expressed opposition to the Obama Administration’s proposal to create an independent consumer financial protection agency. Dodd is an outspoken advocate for the creation of such an agency, and reiterated his strong support for the idea at today’s Banking Committee hearing where Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner testified about the Administration’s proposal to modernize the framework of American financial regulation and supervision.

“At the end of the day, the success of what we attempt will be measured by its effect on the borrower, on the shareholder, on the investor, the depositor, the consumers, and taxpayers, seeking not to attain extravagant wealth but simply to grow a small business, pay for college, buy a home, and pass on something to their children. That’s the American dream, and that’s what we’re gathered to restore,” said Dodd.

“When I pick up the morning newspaper and I read the first headline that ‘Fault Lines Emerge and Industry Groups Blast Plan to Create Consumer Agency,’ what planet are you living on? The very people who created the damn mess are the ones now arguing that consumers ought not to be protected. They’re the people who paid this price. And the idea that you’re going to first attack the very clients and customers who depend on you every day is not the place to begin.”

Full transcript of Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn’s remarks can be found here: http://dodd.senate.gov/?q=node/5035
The video of Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn’s remarks courtesy of Bloomberg’s can be found here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AsNAzJ_WcZQ

Microsoft Live Skydrive is a great free solution which provides 5Gb of encrypted storage with the ability to selectively share photos or files with your Live network members or anyone on the internet. Skydrive is great for photographs for example, or other docuements or files that you upload a few at a time. The problem with Skydrive is that there is currently no facility to drag a folder to Skydrive and have it automatically upload all the files and folder structures that exist on your hard drive, i.e. you cannot just drag “My Documents” to Skydrive and have it backup everything.

I’ve taken a look at Mozy, BackBlaze, SugarSync, IDrive, SpiderOak, Carbonite, IBackup, Elephant Drive, and Box.net. Essentially trying to find a solution to my ongoing woes with Vista. In short, it seems I have to do a full reinstall about every 6 months. HP Upline has already ceased service, effective March 2009, unable to react promptly to their more limber competitors.

Here is a feature/price comparison with my conclusion below

For my purposes, given that I do not need to work with mapped drives or with collaborative file-sharing (I use Office Workspaces for that), Mozy is the best option for me. If you look at the top of the page you’ll see a Mozy icon, click on it and you will be referred to Mozy.

Disclaimer: If you click on the link and sign up for Mozy services I receive an additional 256Mb of free storage for each person that signs up. You must sign up AND initiate a backup (of course they want you to use it don’t they!) My referral ID for Mozy is: https://mozy.com/?ref=THQYYI

I have been chatting recently with a friend who attended the Seattle International Film Festival and viewed a new documentary called “Food, Inc.” a film by Robert Kenner.

GM or genetically modified food is an active debate in the UK and many other EU countries, a position paper on the issue and reporting on a major “non-labeling initiative” in the US is covered in a PDF position paper published by the Soil Association.

Finally HuLu just added “The Future of Food” which offers an in-depth investigation into the disturbing truth behind engineered foods that have quietly filled U.S. grocery store shelves for the past decade.

The issue is even more sinister when one considers the manner in which conglomerates such use US Patent law to actually claim rights to things such as “rice” and take action against farmers in India. These illiterate farmers abandoned their own seed stock when lured by cheep GM seed only to discover that the seed they are buying are so called suicide seeds which once grown produce sterile seed so farmers must return to buy more. See this clear and thought provoking report including interviews with a former Nuclear Scientist turned seed activist Vandana Shiva and the documentarian who produced “The World according to Monsanto”. The documentary can be viewed in its entirety by following the link above. It has been pulled from Google and YouTube shortly after posting on numerous occasions.

There is a growing movement against the corporations and GM seed itself though – listen to this NPR report which estimates that a quiet revolution is sweeping through Indian farmers no longer willing to be held hostage by GM food/seed makers.

A reminder to my friends (and anyone else who reads this) – FreeCreditReport.com despite the snappy song is run by Experian (and produced by the director of Dude Where’s my Car! and Harrold and Kumar go to Whitecastle). In small print on their website it says:

“When you order your free report here, you will begin your free trial membership in Triple AdvantageSM Credit Monitoring. If you don’t cancel your membership within the 30-day trial period, you will be billed $12.95 for each month that you continue your membership. If you are not satisfied, you can cancel at any time to discontinue the membership and stop the monthly billing; however, you will not be eligible for a pro-rated refund of your current month’s paid membership fee.”

They are taking advantage of a provision in the Fair Credit Reporting Act which requires the major credit reporting agencies, Experian, Equifax and Transunion to provide consumers with a free credit report every 12 months. Despite FTC fines and an apparent investigation by the Florida Attorney General apparantly FreeCreditReport.com has been allowed to continue spewing out $700 million worth of deceptive ads a year. Don’t be fooled.

The website for REALLY FREE annual credit reports as required by the FTC is AnnualCreditReport.com actually if you alternate the providers you can order one every 4 months at absolutely no charge at all.

The FTC fought back with a few ads of their own.