Brett Schulte

CNN: "Google+ has a 'celebrity acquisition plan'"

Great article from @markmilian of CNN.

No, I don’t really work for the FBI, but I can see why you might think so.  Years ago when I first got brettschulte.com I wanted to use it for email, but didn’t really care about having a website.  I thought I’d do something funny for the people who bothered to look at my site so I forwarded it to fbi.gov as joke.  My site was then crawled by alexa.com and, despite the fact that it was registered to me personally, alexa.com thought I was a government site and listed me accordingly.  I thought that was funny too.  A couple months ago when I updated my Facebook profile I listed FBI under employment because I thought it was more interesting than “self employed”.

Why am I thinking about this today?  Because I’m having lunch with a couple REAL agents from the FBI tomorrow and I thought “crap if they look me up I don’t want them to think I’m impersonating an agent”.  So for the record, I am not, and never was, employed by the government.  Except on TV.  At least, not on anything I can discuss publicly.  Ahem.  ;)

Sincerely,

Brett A. Schulte

Federal Agent Brett Schulte (not really)  

How many people are PROUD of their cellular rate plan?  I am.  Because I believe with T-Mobile, I’m getting fastest network, with the monst innovative features (UMA), at the most competative price.  That’s SMART.

And it just got even better with their NEW plans.

I had a grandfathered plan for my three lines they called “Unlimited Loyalty” for $89 (for two lines / unlimited calls), + $39 for additional line, + $10 unlimited family texting, + $60 for data ($20 each line for “Preferred” Android X 3) = $198 - 15% corp discount on features ONLY (didn’t work on “Unlimited Loyalty” base rate) = $181.65 ($60.55 per line).  Not bad?

The plan I switched to was just a tiny bit higher, but the corporate discount applies to the entire plan, so it ends up being even less.

$99 for two lines (including texting) + $30 for additional line + $60 for data ($20 each line for “Preferred” Android X 3) = $189 - 15% corp discount on entire plan = $160.65 for THREE lines of unlimited everything ($53.55 per line), which is less than even Cricket, Boost, or MetroPCS… let alone Verizon or AT&T!

At the end of the day, it’s really NOT about the money.  I’d pay more for a better service if one existed, but to have the best service AND pay less than almost anyone else, well, that IS pretty satisfying.  What are YOU paying?

Out of the blue today I got the message that my Gmail, or more specifically my Google Apps account, was “locked”.  There was a link that told me:

“If we detect abnormal usage that may indicate that your account has been compromised, we may temporarily disable access. It will take between one minute and 24 hours for access to be reinstated, depending on the behavior detected by our system.

Unusual account activity includes, but is not limited to:

1. Receiving, deleting, or downloading large amounts of mail via POP1 or IMAP2in a short period of time. If you’re getting the error message, ‘Lockdown in Sector 4,’ you should be able to access Gmail again after waiting 24 hours.
2. Sending a large number of undeliverable messages (messages that bounce back).
3. Using file-sharing or file-storage software, browser3 extensions, or third party software that automatically logs in to your account.
4. Leaving multiple instances of Gmail open.
5. Browser-related issues. Please note that if you find your browser continually reloading while attempting to access your Inbox, it’s probably a browser issue, and it may be necessary to clear your browser’s cache4 and cookies.

If you feel that you have been using your Gmail address according to the Gmail Terms of Use, please contact us.”

I particularly like that last part… “please contact us” without a link, instructions of any kind, or EVEN ACCESS TO EMAIL. Remember?  And good luck getting a Google response anyway, clearly, I was stuck with the 24 hour penalty?  Reallly?

Like most criminals, I was convinced of my innocence but had nagging doubts.  Was it that email Linkin spaammed my addressbook with?  No, that didn’t send through Gmail.  None of the offenses that they described really seemed to fit.  I’ve long since migrated from Mac Mail to browser based use of Gmail (so no iIMAP or POP3), and my Android phone uses a native Gmail client (I did double check, and POP and IMAP were disabled in my account).  My password is a “strong” one, a long combination of letters and numbers that don’t spell anything and would not likely be beaten with a brute force attack.  My browser extensions are pretty trivial.  Nothing made sense.

While I will probably ever know what triggered the lock out, it was a sobering experience.  Because I use Gmail in a browser and not a client, I had access to NOTHING.  No saved mail.  No contacts.  If I’d been on the floor needing to call a doctor I’d have been out of luck.  Yes, there IS always 911, but you get the point, and it’s really not that unlikely a scenario.

Few if any of us can survive (at least in a professional sense) without email for 24 hours, so I pulled the plug and changed my MX records back to GoDaddy mail <yuck>.  No sooner had I done so, when Gmail let me back in.  It wasn’t 24 hours down, it was MAYBE one hour, but it was enough to disrupt my day and redefine my workflow which is unacceptable for a product designed for groups.

So Google, here are my thoughts.  If you need to disable the ability to send / receive mail, by all means do so, but don’t lock me out of my own data.  More importantly, I couldn’t even log in to sign out of other browser sessions, review my account for suspicious activity myself, or otherwise follow your good advice.  That seems dumb.

I’ll be watching this closely, but I would hope that Google builds some intelligence in to look at accounts and account behavior BEFORE locking users out.  How long has the account been in use?  Has it been used daily?  Is it tied to a phone?  Is it in the USA on a residential IP?  By those measures, my account is pretty clearly benign.  If Google can be so awesome at identifying spam, they should be at least that awesome in checking accounts before locking them, something that could literally be life or death.

The best way to buy a new domain is NOT to go through a registrar like GoDaddy, Hover, Namecheap, 1&1, etc.  Why?  Because not only are you paying their full retail price, but they’ll also try to sell you add ons and features you don’t want.  Some registrars like GoDaddy even charges for features like “privacy” that keeps your information form being listed in the public WHOIS domain registry.

The BEST way I’ve found to buy a domain is through Google Apps, the free suite of services offered by Google that includes Gmail as well as word processing, spreadsheets, and more.  While Google is not a registrar, they partner with some of the big ones like GoDaddy and Enom, but they charge a flat $10 and INCLUDE features like “privacy”.

Best of all, when you set up your domain through Google you’re automatically using Gmail for your domain accounts without any complicated configuration.

Here’s the link to start:  Buy Your Domain Through Google

David - I love your product and have been a long time supporter.  I love that OpenDNS let’s home users and have a fast, reliable, DNS option to their ISP and adds fantastic free features like blocking inappropriate content for free.  I use OpenDNS at home, on my Mac, even my Android phones using SetDNS.  As an OpenDNS user, it seems that OpenDNS has veered from your consumer centric beginnings to being more interested in supporting the interests of advertisers.

I would like to see OpenDNS offer features that enhance user privacy and block ads like your new competitor FoolDNS offers.  While I don’t currently subscribe to OpenDNS paid services, I would absolutely subscribe to these kinds of features.

What is particularly interesting is unlike browser based ad blocking software, a DNS based solution would block “in app” ads and provide protection for phones, set top boxes, and other newer classes of devices.  I think a premium service that blocked phishing, known malware sites, protected privacy, and blocked ads, perhaps bundled with an anti-virus package, would be the ultimate “all in one” security solution the community could get behind.

You’ve experienced tremendous success by giving the community what we NEEDED…  fast, reliable, and secure DNS.  Please consider now offering us what we WANT, which is more control over what we download.  I’ll pay for it, and I’m sure others would too.