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Free Six Info: Mafia Wars Cheats and Tips

Update 09.07.2009
I have posted new mafia wars tips on

Searching for some Mafia Wars Cheats or Tips? Then you are on the right site.

My high school buddies are asking me why I don’t write about Mafia Wars Cheats just like what I do with Farm Town Cheats. I told them that I will create one in due time. I remember this Mafia Wars game app in Facebook several months ago. Many of my friends liked it and invited me in, but since I am not a Facebook addict (yet) I just ignored their app request. But now that I’m enjoying the game I will be sharing my findings. In the tradition of my free six video, my six mybrute cheats and tips posts, my six cafe world cheats, my six fishville cheats and my six farm town cheats, I am sharing some Free Six Info on Facebook Mafia Wars Cheats and Tips.

#1. First, you should have a Facebook Account. Why? Because Mafia Wars is a application/game in Facebook. If you still do not have a Facebook account because you are living in an isolated world, try grabbing one: go to facebook.com and register for a free account.

#2. Mafia Wars is a product of Zynga. Zynga is the same company behind the other great games in Facebook like FarmVille, Texas Hold ’em Poker, YoVille, Vampire Wars and Fashion Wars.

#3. My next tip is to get into the game and gain experience points to level up. Doing a Job or fighting other Mafiosi can give you experience points. If you plan of doing some jobs, you will need energy while fighting other mafia players will require stamina. If you have some money already I suggest buying some properties later in the game.

#4. Next tip will be to use up skill points as soon as you have received them. Skill points are awarded whenever you level up, mastered a job or mastered a job tier (e.g. Street Thug Job Tier). These skill points are very useful in the game. If you are not decided on where to put you skill points, my suggestion is to put it in energy, so that you can perform more jobs.

5. “Ask and you shall receive!” This saying is very true in Mafia Wars. If you need help on finishing a job or need some items, loots, ask your friends and post it in your Facebook wall. Mafia Wars is a social game and I know if some of your Facebook friends are into Mafia Wars they will gladly help you since they the two of you earn both some money and experience by helping each other.

#6. And to complete the free six: last but not the least: DO NOT CHEAT! Why? Like what I advised on my MyBrute Cheats post and my Farm Town Cheats post: Cheaters never win! Hey guys and gals Mafia Wars is a social game, and there is really no need to cheat. Also beware of the executable programs that supposedly will do some cheat and tricks for you and your Mafia. Many sites are offering these kinds of tools and engines, but unless you know what you are doing (read: can reverse-engineer an executable file and know exactly what it is doing your PC or Mac (file, system, registry level) then don’t try to run it on your machine. There are a lot of malware, keyloggers, and Trojan downloaders out there that is just waiting to trick and fool you. Better safe than sorry!

I will be doing another post when I have new tips for Mafia Wars!

Hope you like my Facebook Mafia Wars Cheats and Tips post.

Enjoy the game!

If you like this post please feel free to leave some comments here.

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I’m a Guerilla Blogger and I’m Proud to be One

On my post last week, I promised that I’d be doing some link love post as a sign of my appreciation to my blogging “mentors”. So here we go:

Before I was quietly living my normal life as a normal office person (read what I do full time here) who’s into LAN/online gaming and have some good share of gimmick time too. Some of my “perceived” handicap on blogging:

  • I’m not into web designing
  • I don’t like to code/ to program
  • I’m not a good writer. Most of the time I love my “barok” English
  • I have little interest in blogging (aside from my personal fun diary in blogspot.com that I update once in a blue moon)

Then came the Guerilla Blogging concept. I’m referring to the ebook of Marhgil of Macuha.com and Zigfred of Zdiaz.com. So what did I do? I am hesitant at first, but what the heck, let me give it a try:

  • I owned/pwned menardconnect.com (OK the correct term should be register my domain)
  • Signed up for some web hosting
  • Decided to use WordPress and tried out several free themes
  • Applied the concepts that they wrote in the ebook
  • Experimented with some stuffs and keep on writing
  • Added a little bit of me and more of me along the way (Yup I personalized, I think thats the art of blogging)

And the rest is … history… written on menardconnect.com 🙂
Some notable highlights are PR update, PR Part 2 and first google adsense check and more to come (Yes. This is a declaration that there will be more to come).

Don’t get me wrong; I’m not claiming that I’m a blogging expert now. I admit that I’m still a newbie/noob in blogging and this blog-thing will be a continuous learning process for me. I’m also not bragging about my milestones. What I’m posting here is the story of My Blog and Me. I’m sharing the experience and in doing so may I hope that this post serve as a testament that I did this and maybe it can be an encouragement/inspiration that you can do it too.

So who are these 2 guys: this Marghil Macuha and this Zigfred Diaz? For me they are two normal Pinoy dudes. They have a full-time job (Marhgil is an IT-guy, Zigfred is a lawyer). As the ebook put it

The authors themselves hold other jobs and wear several hats while at the same time excelling on how to make cash online

I initially thought they were either snobs or elitists or will try to sell me something if I approach them. It turned out I was wrong. They are very friendly people and they entertained my questions on blogging. They shared their tricks and tips in blogging freely. They even inspired me when I was contemplating of giving up on my blog.

Not to spoil the ebook, but I’m sharing some key learning’s that I had (maybe make it free six in the tradition of my free six video, six MyBrute Cheats, six Farm Town Cheats and more free six to come)

#1. Get a blog and start blogging.

Whether this be a free blog or a hosted one, the important thing is start one and get it moving.

#2. Join Communities and interact with them

“No Man is an Island” and “No Blog is an island”. Very true. I’m guilty that I have very little interaction with the community and my fellow bloggers but I promise that I will do my best to reach out more.

#3. SEO + Optimization

I admit that given my background and my line of work, I am very much wary of SEO in the beginning. But later on I realized that “SEO is not bad” (hey this is worth some post in the future) but like any other useful tool out there, it can be used in a bad way (read: cyber criminals and Blackhat SEO).

#4. Ads + Monetization

There are a lot of options on how to earn from your blog. The ebook have some examples and you will discover more along the way. Try out some and see if it will work for you. I know not all options will work, but the key here is to pick what will fit for you and your blog.

#5. Content is still KING

Write good content that people will find interesting to read (and not just please big G and other crawlers). I am striving to be better on this area since I believe this will be beneficial in the long run

#6. Blog about your passion/s

Yes, there will be times that you will have no idea on what to blog and you will be discouraged to blog and get back to the “old life”. But if you blog about things you like, things you love, things you are passionate about then it will be easier to write a post and keep on blogging.

Wow! Post is too long na (800+ words already) I got carried away 🙂
If you want to get the complete ebook you can get it from  Zigfred’s or Marhgil’s sites

I heard that they are cooking up the next version of the ebook: maybe a Guerilla Blogging Ebook 2.0 (two-dot-oh). So watch out for it soon, I’ll keep you posted!

Let me end this by saying “Marhgil and Zigfred, Thank you very much!!!”

P.S.
Other Pinoy bloggers who helped me in one way or another deserve some link love posts too, but alas, that’s worth another post or two in the future.

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Effective Security Practices in the Workplace: Keeping Your Business Safe

Note: The article below was published in Computerworld Philippines July 2009 issue (print edition, Web Security Lifeline, page 55). I got permission from ComputerworldPH to republish it in my personal blog recently.

Computerworld Philippines

Effective Security Practices in the Workplace: Keeping Your Business Safe

By Menard Oseña

When it comes to information security, the human element is still the weakest link. More than a strong network infrastructure in an organization or strong antivirus protection at home, what’s important is an informed and conscious user.

Companies and individuals are increasingly being threatened by cyber security problems as they grow more dependent on technology. According to the UK government’s Information Security Breaches Survey 2008, 96% of companies with over 500 employees suffered a security incident in the previous year.

In 2008 alone, the Internet Crime Complaint Center received a total of 275,284 complaints, a 33.1% increase over the previous year. The total dollar loss linked to online fraud was $265 million, about $25 million more than in 2007. The average individual loss amounted to $931.

Figure 1. Reports of online crime hit a record high in 2008 (2008 Annual Report by the Internet Crime Complaint Center).
Figure 1. Reports of online crime hit a record high in 2008 (2008 Annual Report by the Internet Crime Complaint Center).

Cybercriminals know just how to exploit the human vulnerability to their advantage. Here are what you as a computer user may be doing to put your information at risk, and what you can do to mitigate attacks:

Failing to implement the principle of least privilege

The principle of less privilege is an information security tenet that requires every module to access only such information or resource that is specifically necessary to its legitimate purpose. In practice, it requires that each user be granted only the most restrictive set of access rights on a need-to-use basis for the performance of authorized tasks. This limits the damage rendered in the event of accidental, erroneous or unauthorized use.

Overlooking the basics

  • Passwords – A weak password can be easily cracked within hours by a cybercriminal or even a free, downloadable application. Create strong passwords, which have six to eight characters, use both upper and lowercase letters, and always include at least one numeral and one special character.
  • Use of digital certificates for transmission of data
  • Installation and updates of antivirus and antispyware software
  • Improving and maintaining site security and credibility

Being lenient with the use of portable devices

Removable and physical drives are the fourth highest source of infection globally. Both the NASA and the U.S. Department of Defense have banned external storage drives as well as mobile media devices. According to reports, this was allegedly put in place after officials detected virus threats in their network systems late last year. USB sticks and mobile gadgets can be used by employees to copy classified data to or from the network.

Being on social networking sites during work hours

Social networking sites do not just eat a chunk of your employees’ productivity and time. They can also be proponents of malicious attacks. Exercise best judgment. Trend Micro has tracked several malware attacks that started within these so-called trusted portals.

Not keeping backups of your files

In the event of data theft or loss, damage can be mitigated if backup procedures are performed regularly.

Glen Kosaka, director of DLP (data leak prevention) products in Trend Micro, lists five ways to raise security awareness and gain employee support for initiatives:

  • Make data security part of the company culture

    Protecting sensitive information should not be the sole responsibility of the security and executive teams. Employees and managers alike share the responsibility for not only their own use of sensitive data but also can serve to watch over others to ensure that everyone is observing these policies.

  • Integrate data leak prevention processes into overall workflow

    Many companies have lost control over their sensitive data because the identification, access to, and movement of sensitive data is not integrated into their overall processes. In addition, the introduction of new mobile devices or remote development sites can introduce new threat vectors for data leaks.

  • Make employees feel like security assets, not liabilities

    If employees can feel as vigilant about protecting their company data as they do about meeting other business objectives, they become an extremely valuable asset to their company’s data security programs. Training and awareness programs around the costs of various types of breaches and what they can do to prevent breaches will sensitize employees to the challenges faced.

  • Prevent the temptation to engage in “harmless” policy violations

    These include sharing contact lists with friends at other companies, “backing-up” sensitive data to home systems or unauthorized storage devices, and copying intellectual property to USB thumb drives to transport them to a remote development site. All of these violations, while they may seem harmless to the employees who commit them, can lead to costly breaches.

  • Teach employees about policies while enforcing them

    Employees should be educated about the company policies, ideally at the “point of use” or “point of violation.” Raising employee awareness of data protection policies, especially at the “point of use,” can reduce or even eliminate the large percentage of breaches which occur accidentally and unintentionally.

CWP-July-Edition
ComputerWorld Philippines July 2009 cover

*****

My special thanks to my teammates in TrendLabs Tech Marketing Team: Macky, Leng and Jercyl, you’re the best! Naks!

Thanks also to Ms. Deb of ComputerWorldPH/MediaG8way for the permission to repost at menardconnect.com.

*****

Visit my Computerworld November 2008 Article:

In-the-Cloud Technology Beats Malware Pollution

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August 22, 2009: Flash Flood in Manila

As far as I can remember heavy rains started around 2am, with matching lightning and thunder. By 3am it is still raging. By 4am, we noticed that the water level at the walkway/garage is rising fast. I helped my nephew and niece (who are staying on the apartment on the first floor) move some of their stuffs to a higher ground (but still inside their sala). Floodwater started to invade the the house, so we decided to act fast: put all important stuffs to a safer ground and turn off main electrical switch in their circuit breaker. By 5am water is still rising. This is really unexpected because we know that our area in Manila is not prone to floods, our street/area stands on some sort of a higher ground when compared the nearby streets (see pictures below).

Water level stopped rising at around 6am. I tried to search for news about this flash flood in the major news sites but no success 🙁 . I tried to search via twitter and have few success with pinoy related terms (baha and ulan) and it seems Sampaloc area, Sta. Mesa (Altura and Pureza areas), Espana, and some parts of San Juan and Q.C. (Greenhills going to Gilmore) are already flooded.

Fast-forward. 9am, Spiderham was in LRT2 Pureza station taking some pics. After 3~4 hours since it stopped raining the flood water in the area have not subsided fully 🙁
flood-manila-pureza1

This is Ramon Magsaysay Blvd. cor Pureza St. (Going to Nagtahan/Quiapo area). You can see in the middle that kids are playing and swimming in the flood. You can see here part of the CitiMed Pharmacy and the De Ocampo School in the left part of the pic.

flood-manila-pureza2

You can see here that only the truck braved the deep flood waters.

flood-manila-pureza3Still in Pureza Street. This one showing part of Citimed pharmacy and 7-11 convenience store (near waiting area for Pedicabs going to Polytechnic University of the Philippines (PUP)). I heard that flood water inched their way to the 7-11 store too.

flood-manila-pureza-ama2This is in front of AMA-Pureza. Flood water at the stretch of Maganda St.

August 22, 2009. A busy busy day indeed.

Photos courtesy of SpiderHam.

Update 09.27.2009

Another typhoon (Ondoy, International name Ketsana) hit Manila yesterday and caused massive flooding in Metro Manila and nearby provinces. As per last update, some 80+ people perished because of the rains/ flooding.

If you want to help the flood victims, kindly visit my Blog Action Day for Typhoon Ondoy

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Another SMS Spam

We got another annoying Spam SMS making rounds this week. The message goes:

PGMA CHARITY FOUNDATION, informing you that ur CELL# had w0n 950,000,00 2ndprize last Aug13,09. DTI#01401 series of 2009 PLS call us NW,im,£eah lopez,

Sender’s Number:
+639265433382

Setting aside my political opinion (especially on the choice of foundation name 🙂 ), here are some of my advise on unsolicited sms messages:
1. Any message telling you that you have won a big prize via SMS is either a SMS Spam or an SMS scam.
Why? Simple logic will tell you that if the organizers can really give that much money, then they should have means to call you (via mobile phone or landline) and not send SMS.
Also in my opinion prizes this big needs some notification via telegram of postal mail.
2. Beware of sketchy SMS messages that have DTI (Department of Trade and Industry) permit number xxxyyyzz, series of year wwww. Scammers think that putting this will add credibility to their modus operandi, but they are mere numbers for me. You can check it with DTI yourself.

If you also receive similar unsolicited sms messages, kindly leave some comments here.

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Hot Topic: Lowest Unleaded Gasoline Prices

I have revisited my old posts on gasoline prices. I have two updates for January here and here, one for February, one for March and one for April . And since this is a hot topic in the news lately, I’m posting an update on the lowest unleaded gasoline price that I found:

august

This was taken last week around Tuesday, but as per my experience they (the Big 3 oil companies) do their increase on Friday or Saturday midnight so I expect some 1~2 peso discrepancy already.

I won’t rant about the oil price hike (and how the Energy Secretary seem to defend his Big (3) Brothers 🙂 ), that’s for the TV and newspapers na!

If you are interested to know where exactly is this gasoline station (this might save you some money especially if you’re in the vicinity), please feel free to leave some comments here.

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Menardconnect’s First Google Adsense Check

Yup! It’s official! I got my first Google Adsense check last week. I would like to post it here but I don’t know which info I can share safely (and block out the other confidential ones). I will research on this and update this post as soon as I have sorted it out. I’m really happy that after seven months of blogging, menardconnect have its first GA check (and hopefully not the last).
And now my thank you notes…

First of all, I am very thankful to God for all the blessings that He have given me this month. I really consider this check (and the new mini-laptop too) blessings and it will always remind me to use the blog and technology for good and meaningful things.
Second, I would like to thank my family and friends for the support, encouragement they have given me. They are the source of my strength and they are my inspiration to continue to make this blog grow.
Third, my sincere thanks to my blogger-friends (and mentors too). They shared their blogging knowledge and skills to me freely. Their tricks and tips in blogging really helped me along the way. You guys deserve some link loves and blog posts, which hopefully I can complete by the end of this week.

Next, my thanks also to the blogging community. I promise that I will try to interact and help out more.

And lastly to the readers and supporters of this blog: Thank you, from the bottom of my heart. I will do my best to share my knowledge, experience and expertise in this blog, and strive for a better blog and posts for all of you.

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Facebook Farm Town Cheats and Tips Part 4

This is the part 4 of my Facebook Farm Town Cheats post series.

I will discuss 3 different styles of play in the Farm Town game.

1. Power Levelling Play. Power levelling means gaining great amount of experience points (XP) so that you will level up in a short number of days. If you have plenty of time to spare, my suggestion is to do the following:

a. Choose either one of the following seeds to plant the super fast raspberry:

raspberry

or the 4-hour grape seeds.

grapes

b. After 2 hours (or 4 hours) they will be ready for harvest and hire online friends or anyone from the market in need of a harvesting job

c. After harvest, let them plow your fields and plant again.

2. Busy-Buddy Play. The busy buddy play is vey useful when you have limited time to login in facebook (in a span of 1 week). This is especially true if you cannot login in FB everyday given that you are travelling or busy with work. My suggestion for this type of play is to go for:

pumpkinthe ever reliable pumpkin.

If you can plant the pumpkin seeds because of your level allows you, you should forget about the cotton seeds since the pumpkin seeds will give better number of coins in return (ROI). Waiting time is 4 days (so you can login every weekends.)

3. Good ROI Play. The Good ROI play is very useful if you are middle or high level already (25+) and you cannot afford the Power Levelling Play since you can only login FB once everyday. Good ROI play means planting the best seeds that will yield great number of coins in return.

a. If you prefer 1 day seeds go for cabbage seeds:

cabbage

b. If you prefer 2-day seeds I suggest you go for either carrots:

carrot or pepper

pepperb. If you prefer 3-day seeds then the way to go is to plant blueberry:

blueberryor better yet go for the best: pineapple (if your level will allow you, since as you can see my farmer needs some more XP to unlock it)

pineapple

This post is just giving you some tips depending on your preferred style of play.

If you are not after the coins and experience and just want to make your farm look great then plant whatever you like (or what you think will look good in your farm).

The important thing to remember here is you enjoy the game and have fun OK?

If you like this post or have other play styles in Facebook Farm Town Game, feel free to leave some comments here.

If you miss my other Farm Town Cheats and Tips post, kindly visit the following:
Free Six Info: Facebook Farm Town Cheats and Tips
Facebook Farm Town Cheats and Tips Part 2
Facebook Farm Town Cheats and Tips Part 3
Facebook Farm Town Cheats and Tips Part 5
Facebook Farm Town Cheats and Tips Part 6: Free FarmCash

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WordPress 2.8.4

I updated to WordPress 2.8.4 security release today. It was quite a challenge since internet connection in Manila is slow due to some underwater cables connecting the internet infrastructure in Asia was damaged. How critical is WP 2.8.4 for me, well lets just say that its high: I got some notification email from my blog that someone is trying to change the password of one of the accounts (hehe creepy!). So if you are a wordpress blog admin, I highly suggest that you update to WP 2.8.4 as soon as possible.

Quoting official wordpress developers blog:

Yesterday a vulnerability was discovered: a specially crafted URL could be requested that would allow an attacker to bypass a security check to verify a user requested a password reset. As a result, the first account without a key in the database (usually the admin account) would have its password reset and a new password would be emailed to the account owner. This doesn’t allow remote access, but it is very annoying.

Its good to hear that the vulnerability does not allow remote access, but I agree its annoying nonetheless.

Again my thanks to the WordPress dev team for the timely action. This really shows that we have a great community here at WordPress (naks!)

So if you are a wordpress blog admin, I highly suggest that you update to WP 2.8.4 as soon as possible.

As per my other WP updates, I also give some heads up info on what posts I’m brewing now. The WP 2.8.2 update promises are still 25% complete 🙁 but I’m adding that over the weekend I post some historic “firsts” for Menardconnect.

Watch out for it!!!