We wish all our Naples Free-Net members a prosperous, joyful, healthy and Happy New Year!
Thank you to Steve Hart, Relevanza for finding this animated Gif
Happy New Year!
5 Alternatives to SwapShop and Craigslist (Classifieds)
For a few years, the Naples Free-Net has hosted a Swap-shop online, where Southwest Florida residents were able to post wanted/sell ads online. With the arrival of Craigslist in Southwest Florida the NFN Swapshop was hardly used and we only had about 1 new ad per month posted over last two years. So it was time to discontinue the service and we shut it down per September 30, 2014.
The largest online classified sites is Craigslist Southwest Florida, but we also found a few more sites, some of them much more modern and optimized for mobile consumption.
We scouted around the Internet and found a few more.
If you have a favorite classified sites that’s not listed, feel free to let us know about it in the comment section below.
Local Elections on August 26, 2014 – Better Government Committee released endorsements
The Greater Naples Better Government Committee announced endorsements Friday for Collier County Commissioner District 4 and District 1, 3 & 5 School Board Races. Candidates were interviewed at the law offices of Cummings & Lockwood. Each candidate receives 30 minutes to elaborate his or her platform and answer questions asked by the Committee.
Penny Taylor, Collier County Commissioner District 4, Endorsed
Ms. Taylor demonstrates an accountable, no-nonsense approach to using taxpayer resources. She seeks to promote efforts to make Collier County a national center for medical diagnostics and patient wellness, while working with residents to diversify the economy.
Penny Taylor’s website : www.votepenny.com
Also running: Lavigne Kirkpatrick
Jacob Winge, Collier County School Board District 1, Endorsed
The committee sees a strong and dedicated candidate. As a 2011 high school graduate of Barron Collier and 4-year Jr. ROTC member, this candidate exemplifies both civility and a commitment to the County, earning a degree at Edison State. Winge also served as President of the Student Government Association. He hopes to build a “constituent roundtable” in an effort to build communication and accountability on the school board, and to shrink county mandated testing of students.
Jacob Winge on Facebook
Also running: Kathleen Greenawalt, Kelly E Lichter
Luis Bernal, Collier County School Board, District 3, Endorsed
As a consultant for international development, who also boasts a Master’s degree in Public Policy, Bernal brings a fresh approach to ethics, good behavior and common sense. Rising from humble beginnings, Bernal hopes to close achievement gaps in the local school system while also looking for ways to cut wasteful spending.
Luis Bernal’s website: http://luisbernal.co/
Also running: Erika B. Donalds, JB Holmes, Kathy Ryan
Roy Terry, Collier County School Board District 5, Endorsed
Terry is an incumbent school board member who has successfully met his previous campaign promises to cut impact fees by 50% and reduce referendum liability. He also helped implement online kindergarten registration and hopes to expand web registration to all grades in an effort to improve the school board planning process.
Roy Terry’s profile on Collier County Public School Board website
Also running: Thomas Andler
- August Primary is on August 26, 2014
- Election to Collier County Commission in District 4 is an open primary, which means all residents in District 4 can vote for their next Commissioner, independent of their party affiliation.
- School board elections are county wide, Collier County voters can vote for candidates in all districts.
- Learn more about the election and the candidates on the website of the Supervisor of Elections: www.colliervotes.com
Established in 1991, The GNBGC serves the community through providing objective evaluations and endorsements of Collier County candidates for office, in an effort to help residents learn about their platforms.
Each Committee member must disclose, prior to the endorsement vote, any campaign involvement or monetary contributions made to a candidate being considered for endorsement by the Committee. These Board members abstain from the discussion/vote in that particular race.
“As dedicated members of this committee, we have a great responsibility in honestly evaluating our local candidates. It’s often a very tough job because most are very qualified.” says Sally Tiffany, President of the GNBGC. “With these endorsements, residents of Collier County can expect critical assessments.”
Important Updates for our DSL Users
This message was sent out Monday, May 5, 2014 by Roger Kastel, NFNPresident
To provide better support to our current NFN DSL users, Network Tallahassee (NetTally) – our current whole-sale partner, will take over existing NFN DSL operations effective with the June, 2014 monthly dsl billing period. All billing and support for dsl will be done by Network Tallahassee rather than NFN DSL. This change will NOT affect members who are using DIAL UP services or other Internet Service Providers for their connections (for example, Comcast, Century Link, Nu-Vu/Summit Broadband, etc.).
This change applies only to our current NFN DSL high speed Internet users and they will be given a toll-free number to call for support or billing questions. If you are uncertain whether this change applies to you, please call the Helpdesk at 417-1400 between 9:30am -1:30pm Mon-Sat with your username and a volunteer will look up your account and confirm whether this applies to you.
DSL operations have become increasingly more complex over the years as changes in technology have increased Internet options and Internet-enabled devices. Our all-volunteer staff has decreased in size over the years as volunteers age, move away, or leave for personal reasons. Members currently using NFN DSL will be better served with direct technical support from Network Tallahassee (Nettally) who offers support during their business hours of 9:00 am – 6:00 pm Eastern time and on a callback basis at other times.
Active NFN DSL users will transition over to Nettally at their existing rates but will need to provide Nettally with billing information. This protects you by ensuring that you are the one providing information directly to Nettally. More information will be sent directly to all active NFN DSL users in a separate e-mail from NFN DSL Administration and active NFN DSL users will have until the end of May to provide Nettally with their information.
Active NFN DSL users who do not provide Nettally with their information will be suspended from NFN DSL on May 31, 2014 and will be required to contact Nettally directly after that date for re-instatement which may cause a delay in their re-activation. Seasonal NFN DSL users who are currently suspended need not do anything until they wish to re-activate. Information will be posted at dsl.naples.net.
The Naples Free-Net continues to expand their offerings to members through Education, One-on-One Tutoring, NFN4Good for Non-Profits, Tuesday Tuneups, and E-mail Services. Memberships include premium accounts for a $68 annual tax-deductible donation as well as standard nfn numbered e-mails for which any voluntary contribution is appreciated. We appreciate the many loyal members we have and thank you for your continued support as we seek to serve you in the best way possible.
Roger Kastel
President, Naples Free-Net
NFN users and NFN4Good site owners secure from Heartbleed bug on Open SSL
The good news first, our system administrator , Warren Anderson, reported earlier: “
“The “Heartbleed” bug affects OpenSSL versions 1.01 and 1.02. Naples Free-Net does not use the affected software. External tests have shown that we are not vulnerable.”
In other words, NFN users information is securely stored and was not exposed.
Mashable posted: The Heartbleed Hit List: The Passwords You Need to Change Right Now
Thank you to Steve Hart, who allowed us to use his article, published this morning on Relevanza.
Heartbleed bug on OpenSSL is an open wound
You’ve no doubt read about the Heartbleed bug that could affect websites using OpenSSL encryption for secure services – like financial transactions.
There is certainly no shortage of posts about the bug and it presents potential danger for some websites. An estimate published by ARStechnica suggests approximately 600,000 of a reported 28 million servers and other devices responding to a SSL connection request remained vulnerable to the Heartbleed bug. That estimate was made April 8th and at the time it was suggested a third of all servers had received a security patch to fix the vulnerability.
Other estimates suggest two-thirds of all servers dependent on OpenSSL have the potential to be affected.
OpenSSL is an open-source system of software networks which works to encrypt just over half of all websites which need secure connections to do business. SSL stands for Secure Sockets Layer and if your website URL adds an “s” to the http preface on the URL – https – you are probably using OpenSSL.
The Heartbleed bug, as it’s come to be called, is a recently discovered vulnerability in the software that could allow hackers to access sensitive, important encrypted information such as passwords or, even, credit card numbers on the way from your computer to the web site using the data. There is currently no way to know if any particular site has been exploited because of the flaw but companies are moving very quickly to make patches and mend the flaw.
There are at least two sites (probably others) website users can go to check a site for vulnerabilities. One site is was set up by the security firm, LastPass. Another site was set up by Filippo Valsorda, Twitter and GitHub and can be found here.
Links reading more:
- Huffinton Post: How The Internet’s Worst Nightmare Could Have Been Avoided
- What You Need to Know About Heartbleed, the New Security Bug Scaring the Internet
Photo: The Mothership by Trey Ratcliff, StuckinCustoms.com