I’ve answered the rest of the pending FAQ questions.  If you have a question that isn’t there, submit it.  Even if I don’t think it’s a good FAQ entry, you’ll get a personal answer.

It’s difficult for me to classify this as an Internet story since it involves AOL.  Anyone who has been in the technology industry as a profession knows all too well that AOL is anything but an Internet service.  In fact, seeing the acronym “ISP” used in reference to AOL must surely insult real Internet Service Providers in the most demeaning way.

As proof of AOL’s continuing inability to provide any level of security with their service or their internal network or their employees, hackers last week were able to compromise AOL’s internal — yes, I mean internal — network and Merlin, the internal database which AOL uses to track the account information of its 35 million subscribers.

This most recent hack of AOL gave the attackers full and unfettered access to Merlin.  Since Merlin is an internal database application, yet hackers were able to break in and compromise the system, it should certainly beg the question of how safe the AOL service itself really is (if they can’t even protect their internal network).

Since Merlin requires a user ID, two passwords, and a SecurID, it raises serious concerns over how the system could have been compromised.  Well, it would seem the hacker or hackers in question utilized a series of attack vectors in order to gain access.  None of the possible attacks are new to anyone in the technology industry, and they certainly are not new to AOL (since most, if not all, have been used to hack AOL before).  Some of these possible vectors are “social engineering” of an AOL employee, password trading, and spamming the AOL employee database with false security updates — to name a few.

This is not an isolated incident with AOL, so don’t panic over this single incident.  You should panic over the frighteningly large number of successful hack attacks on AOL over the last several years — against both their internal and their external networks.

Given AOHell’s apparent inability to secure their service from inside or outside, given their history of exposing their customers’ personal account information to hackers or anyone willing to call and ask for it, and given their apparent inability to provide any level of safety to their subscribers, I would personally recommend not using any AOL product.

If you’d like an example of how easy it is to hack AOL, just do a search at Google for “aol hacks” to find out.

If this single story doesn?t scare you away from AOL and it’s apparent disinterest in providing for the security of its subscribers’ information, then perhaps the following references to previous hacks and security incidents will.

September 1995 — Hackers access the email of AOL’s CEO

September 1996 — Hackers deface Court TV on AOL

March 1997 — AOL’s The Hub hacked

April 1997 — AOL’s GameWIZ hacked — twice

April 1997 — AOL employee FTP sites hacked

September 1997 — Business Week on AOL hacked

December 1997 — AOL’s NetNoir are hacked — twice

January 1998 — AOL personnel freely give out personal information on account holder

May 1998 — AOL’s ACLU area hacked

May 1998 — CNET reporter’s AOL account hacked after investigating the ACLU AOL hack

June 1998 — AOL database of volunteers hacked

September 1998 — AOL’s NetNoir area hacked again

June 1999 — AOL’s Academic Assistance Center content is hacked

January 2000 — AOL’s employee bulletin boards compromised

January 2000 — Big back door found in AIM service

March 2000 — “MacGyver” AIM account hacked NOTE: This was two weeks after AOL said it had fixed this security hole)

June 2000 — AOL says hackers may have stolen credit card numbers

July 2000 — AOL flaw allows children to bypass parental controls

April 2002 — AOL Instant Messenger hacked by three 17-year-olds

Rather than bore you with the enormous list of hacks, you can check out a list of related articles and resources here.

And remember, friends don’t let friends use AOL.

When I was in high school and had the metabolism of a rabbit, I didn’t worry about taking any supplements to augment my exercise routine.  I worked out regularly and saw almost immediate results.  Since there’s no way to regain that hormone-driven state of being, I’ve started using supplements to ensure I stay healthy and that my workouts are productive.

I’ve never advocated steroid use, so I’d never consider those types of supplements.  If I can’t achieve the results I?m looking for through hard work, good diet, and healthy dietary supplements, I simply need to set different goals and move on.

There are non-steroidal anabolic/anti-catabolic supplements that can be used without the deleterious effects proven to go hand-in-hand with anabolic steroid use.

First and foremost, I take multivitamins each day.  The brand I use, Body Wise International?s Right Choice AM/PM vitamin supplements, was originally recommended to me by my roommate’s friend who is a health fanatic and a doctor.

In addition to multivitamins, protein supplements are important to building and maintaining lean muscle mass.  My best experience is that you should be taking 1 mg of protein for every pound of body weight.  On even the most health-conscious diet, this is nearly impossible to achieve with food alone.

For that reason, I use two separate protein supplements from Cytodyne Technologies.  Both offer high-quality, ultra-pure, highly bioavailable, cross-flow whey protein (what my research indicated to be the best for supporting lean muscle growth), but they also offer the anabolic/anti-catabolic, non-steroidal 5-Methyl-7-Methoxy-Isoflavone (Methoxyisoflavone).

The first is Methoxy-Pro protein drink.  I take four helpings of Methoxy-Pro per day (one in the morning, one at lunch, one around 7:00 PM, and one just before bed).

The second protein supplement is Methoxy-Pro Bars.  I use the bars as “mini-meals” twice each day (normally around 9:00 AM each morning and again around 4:00 PM each afternoon).

Since I try to eat five or six meals per day (to keep the metabolism on high, one might say), the bars make a great meal replacement due to their size and convenience and health-packed ingredients.

Because I’ve only recently gotten back into a healthy lifestyle and started using these supplements, I don’t have a wide amount of experience with other products.  As I progress and become familiar with the results, I may try other things or may stick with what I’m on now.  More on that as I move forward.

If you’ve been on the Internet for more than five minutes, it’s likely you’ve received or read something about the so-called “419” scam.  There are many examples of the intitial contact available for perusal on the Internet, so knowing it when you see it shouldn’t be difficult.  Despite the fact that this scam has been around for years and has been perpetrated via snail-mail, e-mail, telephone, and any other means of communication available, people still fall for it on a regular basis.  This time, however, the victim decided to strike back — with deadly consequences.

Warnings and precautions about the so-called “4-1-9” scam abound (see HoaxBusters, the US Secret Service, the 419 Coalition Website, the Better Business Bureau and snopes.com for a few examples found via a simple Google search).  Despite the overwhelming number of warnings and precautions and public awareness campaigns about it, people continue to fall prey to this global industry of grifters.

On Friday, February 21, 2003, the scam took a deadly turn.  An unidentified 72-year-old Czech man, having had his bank account drained after he provided his account and personal information to someone posing as a senior Nigerian official, visited the Nigerian embassy in the Czech Republic in an attempt to recover his stolen money (something he had done regularly over the past year).

On this occasion, he was referred to 50-year-old Michael Lekara Wayid, Nigeria’s consul in the Czech Republic.  Soon after his meeting with Wayid began, raised voices and shots were heard, at which point the embassy receptionist went to investigate.

Apparently still in a rage, the Czech man then shot the receptionist in the hand, but she was able to flee and contact embassy security.  The man was taken into custody at the scene but collapsed shortly thereafter.  He and the receptionist were both taken to Prague’s Central Military Hospital for treatment, and both are expected to make full recoveries.

As sad as it is that this man, obviously in his retirement years, lost his financial stability to one or more unscrupulous heathen, this scam is not new and has been publicized in a wide variety of mediums.  It’s also only for a lack of common sense that anyone could fall for this (I know that’s harsh, but it’s also quite true).  For that reason, I have very little pity for those, apparently trying to make a quick buck, who fall prey to it.  In addition, I cannot believe for a moment that the Czech man in this case truly believed the Nigerian consul was involved in any way with the scam and that the Nigerian government could somehow be held accountable for the crime committed.

In an age of victimization, we have only ourselves to blame in such cases.  In times past, I would have felt sympathy for those who fell for such well-thought scams and crimes, but no more.  If we have not learned by now that the world is full of criminals and those who would take advantage of us, and we have not learned that, if it sounds too good to be true, it likely is, then we have no one but ourselves to blame.

If you’re looking to make a quick buck, play the lottery or go gamble at a legal casino.  Your chances may be small, but the money you lose is lost willingly and legally and in a way that is state-sanctioned.  To engage with total strangers based on the belief that they somehow have your best interests in mind reveals a level of naiveté that boggles the mind.

It’s time for people to take responsibility for their own actions.  It’s time to stop being victims.  It’s time to evolve beyond this insane stupidity or to wholly and personally accept the consequences of our actions sans the need to point fingers.

A recently taken “snapshot” of the universe shows details so vivid and peers so deeply into the past that it may represent “the most significant scientific achievement of recent years.”

You can see the picture and read more of the details here.