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  • Greg Collier 9:56 am on July 11, 2016 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , , Pokemon Go   

    What exactly is Pokemon Go and is it safe? 

    What exactly is Pokemon Go?

    In case you haven’t heard, the new must have app among mobile users is Pokemon Go. If you’re not familiar with it, it’s a mobile game for both iOS and Android that is based on the wildly popular Pokemon video games made by Nintendo. In the original games, the player travels around the confines of the game capturing the fantastical creatures known as Pokemon. One of the great features of the games was that you could play and trade with your friends.

    Pokemon Go is what’s known as an augmented reality game. That means that it overlays elements of the game into the real world through the screen of your mobile phone. The game puts you into the role of a Pokemon trainer and allows you to catch virtual Pokemon in the real world. The game was designed to not only get players to get up and move around but it also has a social aspect that allows other players to meet in real life.

    Even though the game is incredibly popular and fun to play, that doesn’t mean that there haven’t been drawbacks. The first thing to consider is that the game keeps its players looking down into their cell phones. If a player is not aware of their surroundings it could lead to injuries and in fact it has. Any game ultimately leads to cheating and in the case of Pokemon Go it has led at least one man to use a drone in order to try to locate rare Pokemon without putting in the footwork. Some people have even used Pokemon Go to allegedly rob players when they show up to areas where Pokemon are said to be.

    However, having said all of that Pokemon Go can be a fun and safe time for both adults and kids and even parents and their children as long as you use common sense.

     
  • Greg Collier 11:33 am on July 8, 2016 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: Jeff Wysaski, , Obvious Plant, ,   

    Off Topic Friday: Jokester posts funny fake facts at L.A. Zoo 

    Off Topic Friday: Jokester posts funny fake facts at L.A. Zoo

    Recently, at the zoo in Los Angeles, California, someone posted fake but funny placards around the zoo that contained phony facts about the zoo’s animals. All of the silly signs were in good nature as they contained such goofy ‘facts’ like “If you give a tiny If you give a tiny trombone to 76 ducklings, they will lead the most adorable parade you’ve ever seen.”

    The signs were all part of comedian Jeff Wysaski’s Obvious Plant project. All the different signs that Mr. Wysaski left at the zoo can be seen here.

    Not to sound like a Pollyanna about things, but we need more jokes like this and less mean-spirited pranks like ‘swatting’ and similar trolling.

     
  • Greg Collier 11:15 am on July 7, 2016 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: Cabin Creek, , ghost town,   

    Colorado ghost town for sale online 

    Colorado ghost town for sale online

    Do you have $350K burning a hole in your pocket and you’ve always wanted to live in rural Colorado? If so then do I have a deal for you. Cabin Creek, Colorado, which is 45 minutes from Denver, could be yours. The property contains five acres, a gas station with a garage, a small hotel, a diner, an RV park and two homes. The property isn’t in the best condition but the current owner has said that he has installed modern security equipment. Cabin Creek became a ghost town after a murder there in the 1970s. The current owner says that he is selling the property in order to travel.

    If you’re interested in purchasing Cabin Creek or just checking out its history you can go to the town’s website or its Facebook page.

     
  • Greg Collier 10:02 am on July 6, 2016 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: ,   

    Facebook changes its newsfeed again: How to keep Geebo on yours 

    Facebook changes its newsfeed again: How to keep Geebo on yours

    In today’s digitized society almost all of us have to use Facebook. We have to use it because that’s where most of our friends and family are and how we stay in touch with them. Because of that publishers, businesses and content creators are almost beholden to Facebook since that’s where a great deal of their traffic comes from. That made Facebook a destination for multitudes of people looking for the latest news by liking the Facebook pages of their favorite news outlets, blogs and brands. This would allow the news that users would be looking for to be mixed in with the posts from their friends and family on their newsfeed. That all changed recently.

    Not too long ago Facebook made announcements that it would not only be changing the newsfeed feature once again, as it has done so many times in the past, but that it will now focus more on friends and family than publishers and the like. I’m sure many people will enjoy this new feature but what about the people who use Facebook for their news and consumer information? Major publishers are claiming that their numbers are down, bloggers that I’ve talked to have told me that they’re numbers are down, and sadly even the numbers for the Geebo Facebook page are somewhat down.

    For those of you who want to keep the news, and Geebo, in your newsfeed there is a solution. Many news organizations have posted detailed instructions on how to keep your favorite Facebook page in your news feed. For example you can check out this one from the Minneapolis Star-Tribune here. You can use their guide not only to get your favorite news pages back in your newsfeed but hopefully you’ll use it to get Geebo’s back in as well.

    Thank you for your continued support and patronage of Geebo.com, the safer community classifieds.

     
  • Greg Collier 11:38 am on July 5, 2016 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , school bell   

    Find of the Week: Cast Iron School Bell 

    Find of the Week: Cast Iron School Bell

    In case you were busy celebrating our nation’s independence yesterday you may have missed this find posted to one of our social network feeds yesterday. A seller from Ogden, Utah, had posted an ad for an old cast iron school bell. The seller says that the bell is 1′ 10″ tall by 2′ 10″ diameter.

    Not exactly sure what one might do with an item like this, besides annoy your neighbors, but this piece could definitely be an interesting conversation starter. Who knows? It could even be a rare historic find. Antiques Roadshow anyone? Although, your mileage may vary, so to speak.

     
  • Greg Collier 10:16 am on July 4, 2016 Permalink | Reply  

    Happy Independence Day 

    Happy Independence Day

    From all of us here at Geebo.com have a safe and happy Independence Day.

     
  • Greg Collier 9:58 am on July 1, 2016 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , alcohol, , ,   

    Off Topic Friday: The 4th of July is the deadliest holiday 

    Off Topic Friday: The 4th of July is the deadliest holiday

    Fireworks notwithstanding, the Fourth of July is the most dangerous American holiday of the year when it comes to vehicular incidents. One might think that it would be New Year’s or St. Patrick’s Day due to the amount of alcohol consumption that is synonymous with those holidays however, the National Safety Council has dubbed the Fourth of July the most dangerous holiday of the year.

    If you plan on doing any traveling this weekend please buckle up and it should go without saying not to drink and drive. If you do plan on celebrating the holiday with a drink or two and find yourself incapable of driving, arrange alternative methods of transportation like Uber or Lyft or even a taxi. Also as always, alcohol and fireworks are never a good mix, leave the fireworks to the professionals.

    On behalf of Geebo, have a safe and fun holiday weekend. We want to see you back here on Monday.

     
  • Greg Collier 10:38 am on June 30, 2016 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: ,   

    Woman has puppies stolen after posting ad online 

    Woman has puppies stolen after posting ad online

    Previously, Geebo CEO Greg Collier posted on this blog why you shouldn’t post ‘free to a good home’ pet ads online. I followed it up more recently with a post about how the animals could be used for pet-flipping. Now a story out of California shows yet another reason why offering or selling pets online is never a good idea.

    A woman from Fresno, California, posted an ad online for her Husky puppies. This brought a man to her home whom she said asked all the wrong questions and that he had brought a little boy with him. Later that night someone had hopped the fence and stolen the five puppies. Not only could these puppies be either flipped, abused, or sold for research but now this woman has had strangers at her house who could have cased it for possible additional robberies.

    As Greg mentioned in his initial post on the subject, if you’re going to sell or offer pets for adoption your best bet is to reach out to your own personal network or a shelter that has a good record on re-homing animals. Posting pets for sale or adoption online just invites too many forms of trouble not only towards the animals but also into your home.

     
  • Greg Collier 10:12 am on June 29, 2016 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , ,   

    Don’t make this mistake when selling your computer 

    Don't make this mistake when selling your computer

    So you’ve decided to sell your computer or laptop online. Before you post that ad online you want to make sure of one thing. You want to make sure that none of your personal information is left on the hard drive. Now you may think you have just because you deleted all your personal files. Unfortunately, that doesn’t actually delete the files, it moves the file to a section of the computer’s hard drive where it waits to be replaced by some new data. If your old computer were to fall into the wrong hands after the sale, your personal information could be compromised.

    What you should do before selling your computer online is to first backup all your data. You can backup your data to either USB thumb drives, an external hard drive or a cloud based backup service. Then you need to reformat your hard drive. How to do that depends on what kind of operating system (Windows or Mac) that your computer uses. There are several utilities and resources available online that will help in either reformatting your hard drive or permanently deleting the previously deleted files on your computer.

    It may be a difficult chore in reformatting your hard drive before selling your computer but a few minutes of difficulty can prevent a lifetime of headaches.

     
  • Greg Collier 10:00 am on June 28, 2016 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: ,   

    Are your online accounts secure enough? 

    Are your online accounts secure enough?

    What are your most important online accounts? Probably your bank, your email and your social network of choice in that order. Now you may have those accounts protected with a strong password, but is that enough? You may have a password that contains alphanumeric characters both upper and lowercase among non-alphanumeric characters and that is 12 characters long. That’s all well and good but it’s not perfect. Having your accounts protected by a strong password is only one layer of protection but it is also one level of failure.

    Most online services today offer a feature that’s known as two factor authentication. When you activate two factor authentication your username and password is only one step to logging into your account. The second part to the authentication, in most cases, is that the service you’re trying to access sends you a personal one-time code, usually through a text message. That means that if you activate two factor authentication, if someone were to ascertain your username and password they still wouldn’t be able to access your account without having your cell phone.

    While two factor authentication isn’t perfect it can go a long way in keeping your online life secure.

     
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