Like most good novelists, Diane Collman likes to lead her readers into her stories until they are comfortable with their surroundings and feel fairly certain they know what’s going to happen next. But what if the readers are wrong, and something entirely different happens? That is the beauty of her technique and one of the […]

Today’s Taxi Truth comes from a New York City taxi driver from Bangladesh, who came to America as a child, in order to escape the war that was going on.  Like many immigrants, he came here with nothing, struggled with the language and school, never went to college and found work as a taxi driver.  After […]

The world of debt collections is hardly a glamourous one. Many years ago I recall being on a visit to a secret location just outside of San Diego. It was part of Security Pacific Bank (now Bank Of America). It was the heart of the recovery (repo) arm of Security Pacific Auto Finance. My guide […]

Perhaps you’ve read that “HTTPS” at the start of a website address means that the site is secure, encrypted. However, a feature of the HTTPS can track you, says an article at theregister.co.uk. HTTP is not secure. Carnegie Mellon University in a Register article states “HSTS”, which is “Strict Transport Security” redirects users to HTTPS. […]

By John Donovan The Observer/Guardian newspaper and the Daily Mail newspaper both published articles yesterday on The Pieter Schelte Nazi Ship Controversy. The response has been staggering. THE HEADLINES Jewish outrage as ship named after SS war criminal arrives in Europe: The Observer/Guardian Named after SS Nazi war criminal: World’s largest ship sparks outrage as […]

  Born in Yugoslavia in the 1970s, Marija Bulatovic, along with her parents, immigrated to the U.S. in the 1990s just ahead of the 1990s Yugoslav wars and the breakup of the country.  An accomplished business professional with years of experience driving enterprise business with Fortune 500 companies, Bulatovic graduated from Colgate University. Marija Bulatovic […]

By John Donovan An article published hours ago by the GUARDIAN ONLINE website, which will also appear in The Observer newspaper on Sunday 25 January, was prompted by a petition I recently launched objecting to the Nazi name of The Pieter Schelte, claimed to be the largest-ever ship according to its owner, the Allseas Group. […]

While Herbie isn’t around these days, the diner with his name is still in business forty miles south of Sacramento, California. It is a good location if you don’t want to work much during the off season as hardly anybody comes by on that lonely stretch of road. For private detective John Harwood, it is […]

For most folks it was a calm Tuesday in Magnolia Parrish in southern Louisiana. For a few others, such as the unlucky folks who worked at the First Gold Bank it has been an hour plus of sheer terror on this mid-August day. A man walked in, robbed the place, and then attempted to leave […]

In today’s Taxi Truth, I’m going to dispute the nonsense about taxi medallion loans going bad at Signature Bank (Nasdaq:SBNY) and Medallion Financial Corporation (Nasdaq:TAXI).  There has been a lot of speculation by the media and infamous short-sellers that taxi medallion prices are falling, and that competition from rideshare is going to cause drivers to […]

In today’s Taxi Truths, I received an email from a New York City cab driver.  A real one!  He had quite a few things to say about rideshare.  Here is his Email, in full, unedited: “Dear Isaac, I read your blog and have a truth to share. I am a second-generation NYC hack with too […]

As readers of my column know, a wobbly short-selling “investment report” (or rather, “professional investment report”) was issued last month on Medallion Financial Corporation (Nasdaq:TAXI), which offers consumer loans to the public and also has a business in lending against taxi medallions. This “investment report” was issued by a non-existent entity called “HVM Capital”.   The […]

Have you heard of iDict? It’s a tool that hackers can use to get passwords via what’s called brute force attacks. It’s designed to crack into iCloud’s passwords, and supposedly it can circumvent Apple’s anti-brute force attack security. But iDict doesn’t have as big a bite as you might think. A long, strong password is […]

Welcome to Taxi Truths, a new blog from Isaac Howe. I’ve been in the taxi industry for more than 30 years in NYC, in many capacities. Taxi Truths is intended to provide readers with the truth about the taxi situation in America, primarily NYC.  I’ve seen so much bad reporting and misrepresentation, that I decided […]

Linda DeFruscio is the founder and president of A & A Laser, Electrolysis & Skin Care Associates in Newtonville, MA. In addition to Cornered, her memoir about her friendship with Richard Sharpe, she is currently writing a book on skin care and completing a book of profiles based on interviews with transgender people, many of […]

BloggerNews has been uncovering the story of James Fowler Hickman aka Jay Hickman, who violated Connecticut Securities Laws and is under a Consent Order in that state. Last week, we revealed that he published a short-selling “investment report” on Medallion Financial Corporation (NASDAQ:TAXI).  There’s nothing wrong with that, except that the report was filled with claims […]

I will once again flag this as NSFW (Not Suitable For Work). Sam is a very creative writer – Simon CHAPTER 19 Midgets They drove and chatted for about 45 minutes when the rain came down, as they say, in buckets. “Well, looks like all the information that Spitz taught me about collecting water was […]

You can’t change your fingerprint like you can change your password. But why would you want to change your fingerprint? The thought might cross your mind if your fingerprint gets stolen. How the heck can this happen? Ask Starbug. He’s a hacker who demonstrated just how this could happen at an annual meeting of hackers […]

If you plan on getting a new smartphone, have you ever thought of what the next user of your old smartphone will find on it? This assumes you’ll be selling or donating it, of course. Are you SURE those risqué photos are totally gone, or that your diary entries have been wiped clean? Experiments have […]

I hate being held hostage by a piece of software, particularly one that I didn’t want in the first place. You can read my story about Enigma Software and their SpyHunter 4 product here. Realizing that Enigma Software had no intentions of helping me in the quest, emails and trouble tickets are being ignored. I […]

2015 brings us no closer to putting the lid on hackers as any other year has. The crime of Criminal hacking will prove to be as big as ever in the new year. Here’s what we have to look forward too: Bank Card Breaches There will always be the bank card thieves, being that stealing […]

I am sure that many people share my gripe about software and the baggage it comes with. I get nagged to upgrade Adobe Flash and without carefully reading the install instructions you end up with the ASK toolbar, which at best is a worthless addition to any browser. AVG anti virus does a similar thing, […]

  Harris Kern is recognized as the foremost authority on providing practical guidance for solving management issues and challenges. He has devoted over 30 years helping professionals build competitive organizations. His client list reads like a who’s who of American and International Business. His client list includes Standard and Poor’s, GE, The Weather Channel, NEWS […]

This past week I’ve been investigating a shady short-selling “investment report” by an entity called “HVM Capital”, which doesn’t actually exist.  The authors are James F. Hickman — a “financial felon” under a Consent Order in Connecticut – and Gordon Gossage, a driver for Lyft. There’s some very odd elements to this story. Why would the […]

No decent person can condone the events last week in Paris. The attack on the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo was an outrage. While I think it is in poor taste to publish cartoons lampooning religious beliefs, it is hardly grounds for a mass killing. Satire is funny to some and not so funny to others. […]

I’ve been investigating the shady short-sellers who issued an “investment report” on Medallion Financial Corporation that is riddled with mistakes and misrepresentations.  James F. Hickman, who is under a Consent Order from Connecticut’s Department of Banking and, as such, is considered a “financial felon” in the eyes of this reporter, has been asked some very […]

What’s one billion? That’s about the number of possible permutations of the Social Security number. Which begs the question: What happens to an SSN when someone kicks the bucket? Currently, SSN’s are never repeated when they’re issued by the Social Security Administration. As of June 2011, the SSA made the issuance entirely random (previously, for […]

James Fowler Hickman aka Jay Hickman, who identifies himself as the “Chief Investment Officer” of a non-existent entity called “HVM Capital”, today admitted that he had run afoul of Connecticut authorities, which I reported here earlier this week. As also reported, commenters on SeekingAlpha have been attempting to bring this information to light.  However, Hickman […]

When it comes to online security, don’t let your guard down just because the holiday shopping frenzy has passed. In fact, this may be the very time to put your guard up even higher. Though it’s smart to have your radar on for the scammers during the holidays, the scammers don’t exactly go slithering back […]

Yesterday I wrote a story on the mysterious entity, HVM Capital, and its equally shady “investors”.  This entity is shorting the shares of Medallion Financial Corporation, and published an “investment report” riddled with holes that somehow caught attention of major media. Since publication, the co-author of the 23-page “investment report” by this non-existent entity, Gordon […]