Frontline aired a special this week called Digital Nation. You can watch it online at http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/digitalnation/view/

It runs about 90 minutes, but it offers a great glimpse of the issues surrounding being “wired” from how it affects kids brains, to education, and to what may be in store for the future.

We are all familiar with the Nigerian scams, and can usually spot a scam however our office was recently “probed” by a very sophisticated scam.

First of all, the email correspondence was well written, no typos, bad grammar, etc. It came from an Asian company with a link to their website in the email. The company really existed. They wanted us to collect debt from a Hawaii company that really exists and the connection between the two companies made sense (one manufactures an item that the local company installs) The BIG hook was that they used the NAME OF AN ATTORNEY FORMERLY ASSOCIATED WITH OUR FIRM AS A REFERRAL!! Unfortunately, this attorney received a cold call and was asked for the name of a Hawaii law firm that could help them and he did indeed give them our name.

The scammers hook the attorney into an attorney/client relationship (thus barring you from reporting them), then request funds to be sent immediately upon receipt of funds from the local company. (you get a check from the local company for “amounts due”, you deposit it, then wire the funds out before making sure the local check has cleared) Attorneys on the mainland have had hundreds of thousands stolen from their IOLTA accounts.
Things that should set off alarm bells:

1. The urgency of acting quickly. You must do due diligence.
2. Client wanting funds before checks deposited have cleared your IOLTA account;
3. When a logical referral name is used, check with the referral source about the legitimacy of the referral.
4. They make excuses that they cannot find a convenient time to talk on the phone, they strictly stick to email correspondence.
5. The email is different from the company email.

Make sure your attorneys do not make referrals to cold callers, let the HSBA referral line do that.

We have had a staff meeting regarding this latest development so everyone in the firm is aware. I have attached some info to supplement any staff meeting you wish to have.

lawyers targeted.pdf

Here are some pics from the Employee Party we had earlier in the month.

I wanted to share some pictures of our new place and our first, and probably only, snow fall:

Snow is just starting here at about 2PM PST on 12/29

Front lawn area with a splashing of new snow

Fresh snow coming down in the neighborhood

Me getting snowed on… Its so cold here >.<

This is about 3:30PM PST, I’d say 3 inches had fallen then

Picture of the other side of the house. Wind was blowing some, so was getting even colder >_<

Small tree on the front side, getting a good amount of snow

About 4 inches total I’d say from this storm. Not bad!

Car after the snow.

Hope all is well, talk to you soon.
–
Brannon Huffman

http://www.supergeeks.net

(808) 531-GEEK

The personality of the Scion is different than the Mini so it makes sense to flow with it rather than ignore it. At the time we did the Mini, not a lot of companies were using it, especially as a “responder vehicle.”

The Scion has been around a while and the street racer guys have a particular way of using graphics and the custom decals.

The language on the scion comes out of Scion car culture, specifically the language they use to describe the names of companies or products that each Scion owner decides to use. The geeks are different so let’s celebrate it.

I made up the phrases to try and blend geek and scion culture. The graphics are intended to be made out of reflective material.

Mobility Systematics:
The Scion systematically transports people, parts and computers around town.
Repair Disorder: When something is in a disordered state you fix it.
k eeg on front of car: gee k in the mirror of the car in front. It’s too normal to not have the space, makes you wonder a bit.
k eeg powered: Geek Powered, same idea.
2.0: A pun on race car numbers and web 2.0. Also, this car is version 2.0 for the geek carfleet