If you already know all about vlogging and some of its most famous personalities (besides Chris), check out the list of who’ll be in attendance. It’s happening 9 am-6 pm Saturday and 9-noon Sunday; if you’re interested in going, you can register here.

P.S. We also congratulate photojournalist Nick Adams, whose excellent work has graced WSB and our partner sites White Center Now and The South Park News over the past year – as an independent entrant including work done for several organizations, Nick received the regional third-place award for online photography.

CITY’S TECHNOLOGY SURVEY: The City of Seattle is asking questions about your use of everything from Internet access to mobile devices to TV, to try to understand how its citizenry is using technology. You can take the city’s tech survey here.

DISTRICT’S SECOND ‘STRATEGIC PLAN’ SURVEY: If you’re interested in helping Seattle Public Schools shape its goals – and the verbiage that communicates them – take this one. It’s the second community survey that’s been offered as part of the district’s creation of a new Strategic Plan.

-Tracy Record and Patrick Sand, WSB owners/co-publishers

6:42 AM NOTE: The tinkering is finally over as of about half an hour ago, and WSB has fully moved onto a more-powerful new server. Seems to be running well, but it’s early, so if you hit any speed bumps, please let us know.

SATURDAY, 7:31 AM: Looks so far like the move was a success – please let us know in comments or via e-mail (editor@westseattleblog.com) if you encounter any error messages or unavailable pages. Meantime, we’re moving on to catching up with some stories we covered yesterday/last night that were delayed by breaking news and then the technical move. Thanks for your understanding!

It can happen to anyone. Spoofers have targeted two well-respected consumer protection agencies in an attempt to harm the very people those agencies protect.

In mid-January, the Federal Trade Commission warned people that scammers had sent e-mail messages that appeared to be from the FTC to thousands of businesses claiming that people had complained about them. The email included a link or attachment to a document including more information. The goal? Entice frazzled business owners to click on the link or attachment then dump malware on their computer.

Today, the Attorney General’s Office learned people are receiving e-mails that appear to be from the AGO Webmaster or other “@atg.wa.gov” e-mail addresses with the following subject lines:

• New Pick Coming! But First I need your help, details inside

• Pick Of The Week

• This Stock is another monster week ahead

• DON’T MISS TODAY’S TRADING IDEA

• Your Mind Blowing Monster Pick!

• News Out & Must Read Inside.

Let us assure you. These are spoofs. Scammers know how to make a message appear to be from one e-mail when it’s really from someone completely different.

The goals are usually the same: Use a person, agency or business’ good name to trick people into parting with their personal information or lure them into clicking on a document or link that will infect their computer with viruses or malware. This is also known as “phishing.”

Here are some clues you’ve received a spoof e-mail:

• It asks you to provide log-in information like your user name or password.

• It contains an attachment or includes a claim a virus is found.

• It appears to be a reply from someone you’ve never contacted.

• It includes an error message from a system administrator that includes an attachment for you to view or a URL to click.

• The message includes a lot of obvious spelling or grammatical errors.

Sometimes these messages look very professional. Scammers work hard to replicate messages from legitimate sources like government agencies or banks. They’ll include a link with text that says, for example, Attorney General’s Office but the hyperlink itself goes somewhere else. You can check whether a link is for real by hovering over the text and reading the link that pops up—but be careful not to click on the link while hovering or you could end up on the scammers site!

OnGuardOnline.gov, the federal government’s Internet safety Web site, offers the following tips:

• Use trusted security software and schedule regular, automatic updates.

• Never e-mail personal or financial information.

• Only provide personal or financial information through an organization’s Web site if you typed in the address yourself and you know the site is secure, including a web address that starts with “https” –rather than just “http.”

• Review credit card and bank statements as soon as you receive them— and if you notice you’re not receiving your statements as expected, check with your bank or card company right away.

Finally, be very careful about opening attachments or downloading files from e-mails—no matter who sent them. No one is safe from spoofers!

BOUNDARIES: *Don’t* get fixated on the borders shown on Gigabit Squared’s online map, they say. These are NOT the final boundaries, Ansboury told us – they are flexible right now as they continue with engineering work. Plus, they are also paying close attention to where they’re getting requests from (here’s where to sign up on the GB2 website). Eventually, he said, they would love to be citywide. And Devoto added, “Ultimately we want everybody to have it.” But they have said from the start that they would launch with a demonstration project of up to 100,000 households.

PRICING: “Well below 100 dollars,” per Ansboury, but they “haven’t picked the actual number yet – depends on the final cost structure.” He says they’re “trying not to offer lots of tiers,” though the service will come in various forms depending on a customer’s needs (examples here) – whether they’re a business or home, for example – and might be accessed wirelessly rather than by directly connecting with fiber. (Their technical FAQ answers a lot more questions here.)

HOW CLOSE IS THIS TO REALITY? Ansboury’s assessment is “Highly likely.” They’re working to secure financing in a variety of ways – including possibly New Markets Tax Credits. And they’re doing “due diligence, asking the hard questions” right now. They’re also spending $1.5 million on engineering and planning, for starters. “We think Seattle is the right place, right time, right commitment.” Devoto explained that a big part of the plan is the city offering leases on some unused fiber, so there’s pre-existing infrastructure for some of the system, while some of it will have to be built – especially “into neighborhoods, close to homes.” So if it can be done with fiber that exists now, we asked, why aren’t the existing providers doing it? They’re saddled with old infrastructure, according to Ansboury, while Gigabit Squared gets to start from scratch. “There’s a reason (those companies) are not reinvesting right now … they have other priorities. Yet there is this hunger and need” for the kind of service Gigabit Squared hopes to provide. Devoto points out that the city isn’t spending money on this, but they’re watching critically – if ultimately GB2 can’t deliver, others have expressed interest.

WHY IS IT A ‘DEMONSTRATION’? That’s because it’s not citywide to start with, says Ansboury – currently they’re looking at about 70,000 homes. They want to have a “sustainable business strategy” – but “assuming early success,” he added, “some investors have talked about possibly investing more.”

WHEN? Next step is for Gigabit Squared to finalize an agreement with the city – they’re hoping that will happen in April; the ongoing engineering work will have a lot to do with that. If it does, construction is likely “in the summer time frame,” Ansboury says, and the would “hope for soft launch of a smaller part of the demonstration area in the fourth quarter of this year,” launching more in the first quarter of next year.

WHY? “We got into this business because we wanted to be catalytic,” Ansboury explained – basically, while the U.S. is supposed to be pursuing world-class broadband service, things weren’t moving very fast in reality, so they jumped in. Everyone’s calling for “innovation” in so many things, he notes, “but if we don’t have broadband, we can’t have innovation.” So – they’re innovating to get mega-fast broadband to more people. “You don’t have to be a Google to do this.”

Again, if you’re interested, sign up here – no obligation, but their website promises that areas showing lots of interest could move up the priority list.

P.S. Here’s the prepared text of the mayor’s speech, which includes another West Seattle reference of note: “We’re also working with Sound Transit to accelerate their planning process, including a Ballard to Redmond [rail] line via 520 and a route from downtown to West Seattle.”

SUNDAY BREAKFAST AT THE EAGLES’ HALL: You’re invited to breakfast at the West Seattle Eagles‘ HQ, next to the post office in The Junction, 9-11:30 am, details here.

WEST SEATTLE FARMERS’ MARKET: 10 am-2 pm, 44th and Alaska in The Junction. See the Ripe-n-Ready List here.

STITCH & SEW STUDIO OPEN HOUSE: Grand-opening weekend continues with day 2 of the open house, noon-3 pm, 5910 California SW. (Here’s our preview report from last weekend.)

FIGHT LIKE A GIRL! BREAST-CANCER BENEFIT: 12:30 pm, special event at Seattle Integrated Martial Arts. By donation, for the battle against breast cancer. Details here.

DELRIDGE CIDER PRESSING: 1-4 pm in the Delridge P-Patch, today! Full details on the North Delridge Neighborhood Council website.

GREYHOUND MEETUP: Got a greyhound? Join the meetup today at West Seattle Petco (41st/Alaska), 1-3 pm.

COMMUNITY ART SHOWCASE AT SOUTHWEST LIBRARY: Starts today! Library at 35th/Henderson is open 1-5 pm.

FAUNTLEROY FALL FESTIVAL: No matter what the weather does, festival organizers say it’s on! Just doublecheck the on-site posted schedule for times/locations of events when you get there, as some likely will be moved around. Festival hours are 2-6 pm; location, 9140 and 9131 California SW, at the church, Y, and schoolhouse (9100 block of California SW) – for general reference, here’s the most recent version of the event schedule (but again, changes are expected).

LIVE MUSIC AT C & P: Caryn K and Meg Miller are the locals performing this afternoon at C & P Coffee Company (WSB sponsor), 5612 California SW.

‘TRIBUTE TIMES TWO – ANTHEMS OF ACTIVISM’: A double bill at The Admiral Theater starting at 4 pm with a Pete Seeger tribute by Peter McKee, followed by the 7 pm Steve Goodman tribute with Clay Eals, Tom Colwell, Bruce Hanson, and Mark Myers. Details on this Facebook event page – and in our preview from earlier this week. It’s music, history, stories, even humor – go to one or both shows!

SONGWRITERS’ SHOWCASE: 8 pm at Skylark Café and Club (3803 Delridge Way SW).

More on the calendar!

(Google Street View car near WSB HQ in July 2011 – thanks to Tony for the reminder comment!)
Two people have mentioned this to us today so far, so we’re sharing it: Google Maps‘ “Street View” 360-degree photography apparently has been updated for West Seattle – so if you have a minute, you might want to go see if that goes for your neighborhood. We can attest to one change: For a LONG time, if you looked at the Google Street View for California/Edmunds in The Junction, you would have seen the West Seattle Summer Fest road-closure signs and tents … from three or four years ago. Now, it’s a clear view (see here).

*If you already have a WSB Forums user name, sign in and go here
*If you don’t, go here first to register
*Then when you do, go here
*Please be sure the subject of your post includes the sale’s date(s)

That’s it! Free listing for your yard/garage/rummage sale.

P.S. If your school, church, or other large nonprofit organization is having a big benefit sale, you are also welcome to send an announcement for the WSB West Seattle Events Calendar – editor@westseattleblog.com (as with all calendar items, please include the who/what/when/where/why/link info in your e-mail, NOT as an attachment, and please e-mail us at least a week in advance – thanks).

P.P.S. Yes, we’ll be presenting West Seattle Community Garage Sale Day again next year – mark your calendar(s) for May 11, 2013!

Work on the Seattle Municipal Tower electrical system scheduled for Labor Day weekend has been completed ahead of schedule. The City’s website and online applications are up and running and no longer impacted by this maintenance work. Maintenance work was conducted after City staff discovered a power transmission problem that impacted the Data Center.

“I want to thank the City staff who worked hard on this maintenance project, especially the employees of our Department of Finance and Administrative Services and the Department of Information Technology,” said Mayor Mike McGinn.

McGinn also announced that the 2013-2014 Proposed Budget includes $3 million in funding to plan for the next generation Data Center. This funding will allow the City to begin planning and designing alternatives for a new Data Center that will provide more capacity, redundancy and resiliency.

On Monday, July 23, 2012, the city of Seattle identified a power transmission problem in the Seattle Municipal Tower that directly impacts the Department of Information Technology’s (DoIT) Data Center and IT infrastructure of City Light and the Department of Transportation. One of several electrical busways used to provide power to different portions of the building had a higher-than-normal temperature level, which indicated that sections of it were in need of replacement. The city reduced the electrical load, which stabilized the bus and allowed the city to schedule the replacement for Labor Day weekend.

After the data center loads were moved to other electrical infrastructure, the bus was powered down on the evening of Friday, August 31. Maintenance work proceeded more quickly than anticipated due to favorable conditions. After testing and certification to ensure it was operating at a normal temperature level and could handle the load, the data center was returned to the restored bus late Saturday evening.

The City’s website and most online applications are functioning normally. Some non-essential applications, such as live traffic camera feeds, were powered down for the duration of the weekend and will be restored on Tuesday, September 4.