The Prisoner 2009

Nice!

The Prisoner is coming to AMC in November of 2009.

With Ian McKellan as Number 2 no less.

I wonder if they will hold to the original premise for membership in The Village or if they will create a new reason for bringing in the prisoner?

While The Prisoner hit the small screen in the late 60's, I didn't know about it until I was well entrenched at the Institute. I was first introduced to The Prisoner while walking down the Infinite Corridor after a class. Rover was bouncing across the screen and I was simply mesmerized.

And after that, I was fascinated by the plight of Number 6 who, in spite of his antics and his absolute refusal to comply with the local order, was never able to get out of The Village.

Maybe, if we are really lucky, some innovative director will create a mini-series reboot of Nowhere Man. I'm all for a little conspiracy theory concerning a shadowy covert organization composed of rich and powerful men determined to gain absolute control of the government.

Images from Iran

Raw video footage from Iran of the crackdown on the protesters. The establishment makes good on its promise. Not for the faint of heart.

The voice of the resistance. In spite of the established order, they can't stop the signal.

Find more images of the situation inside Iran here.

Cleveland Marathon 2009 Completed

Finished the Cleveland Marathon last week in 3 hours 51 min and 26 seconds (adjusted time, of course).

An improvement over last year's 3 hours 56 min and 46 seconds.

We'll see what the summer's training program can do to reduce the time

Results can be found at www.marathonguide.com/results/index.cfm

New Blog Site

There's a new blog site. You can see posts and updates at www.larryprevost.com.

Enjoy.

Akron Marathon Completed

Last week, I finished the Akron RoadRunner Marathon. Still to close to 4 hours. In the process, I managed to cramp up my calf, pull a hamstring and tore off a toenail. Still finsished.

Probably shouldn't do this, buy I think I'll run the Columbus Marathon on the 19th.

Cleveland Marathon Completed

I finished the Cleveland Marathon last week. It took me almost 4 hours. Now I know that it’s been 7 years since my last marathon, actually since my last road race. But I think the thing that really did me in was the ‘new’ training method I used for the past several years.

For the last 7 years, I have trained without speed work. No fartleks, no track work, no tempo runs.

Nothing.

I did run plenty of long runs and the only timing I used was to run for 1.5 hours, 2 hours, 2.5 hours with no regard to distance. Great for working off stress, but not so good for improving performance.

It all comes back to the notion of what gets measured, gets managed.

Time to get back to measurements and managing performance before hitting the Akron Marathon in September.

NatWest Bank Customer Service: Security Warning

Recently I have been getting emails from banking institutions stating something like the following:

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Dear NatWest Bank customer:

NatWest Bank is committed to safeguarding customer information and combating fraud. We have implemented industry leading security initiatives, and our online banking services are protected by the strongest encryption methods and security protocols available. We continue to develop new solutions to provide our online banking services and their customers with confidence and security.

The added security measures require all NatWest Bank customers to complete on a regular basis Online Customer Form.Please use the hyperlink below to access Online Customer Form:

http://www.natwest.com/onlinebanking/customerform.aspx?computer_id=029789959191966784907203976137768159766430601810518

Thank you for banking with us!

NatWest Bank Customer Support

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The interesting thing here, aside from me never even hearing about NatWest Bank, is the link. When you mouse over the exceptionally long link, you’ll see that the printed domain, www.natwest.com does not match the site that the link actually points to: www.natwest.com.ke6ue.hk.

You’ll see the actual site destination, or anchor, down at the bottom of your browser in what is called the status bar. If the status bar is not visible and you are using Internet Explorer 6 or 7, go up the menu bar, click on “view” -> “status bar” and the status bar will appear at the bottom of the window.

Incidentally, the target website has a lifespan of about 4 weeks. After that, it disappears only to be reborn as another incarnation, such as www.natwest.com.xoleer.hk, or www.natwest.com.27dec.ph but always with the visible domain of NatWest Bank.

This is what the real NatWest Bank has to say about fraudulent or phishing e-mails:

Watch out for fraudulent (or 'phishing') e-mails

Phishing is a fraud technique commonly used to attempt to trick people into revealing their security number and password to fraudsters.

Here is how a phishing scam typically works: The fraudster sends out a fake e-mail that has been designed to look like it comes from a reputable source (like NatWest). This fake e-mail asks for security details or directs customers to a counterfeit banking or commerce site. At the counterfeit site, the fraudster asks the customer to enter their complete security details - password, security questions, user name... the sky is the limit. These stolen security details are then used to commit fraud.

If you receive an e-mail requesting your security details do not reply and do not follow the instructions even if the e-mail suggests that you need to take immediate action to stop your account being frozen or it indicates that you may incur a fine if you don't. These are just tricks that the fraudster is using to manipulate you in to giving away your vital details.

If you suspect a phishing attack, call us at 0845 605 0789 or forward the suspect e-mail to phishing@natwest.com

See the entirety of the NatWest Online Banking Safety suggestions on their site at the following link:
http://www.natwest.com/global_options.asp?id=GLOBAL/SECURITY/ONLINE_BANKING_SAFETY

Be safe out there.