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The 404 351: Where we decode our paychecks with the Jill of all trades

It's no surprise that Jeff, Wilson, and Justin don't know jack about the economic financial crisis, so we invite CBS MoneyWatch.com's Editor-at-Large Jill Schlesinger on the show to break it all down. She preps us with tips on what young people can do to secure a stable future and she gives us three very important ways to keep the money we earn.

First of all, be sure to have six months of living expenses in the bank. If you don't have a steady, stable job like a tenured teaching position, a three-month rainy day fund in the bank will do you some good, if, God-forbid, something happened. Second, pay off your debt. Sounds obvious, but most Americans haven't saved a dime since the '90s.

Last thing she says is to take advantage of your company's 401k. Yes, your parents retirement and pension funds might be gone, but if you're like us, in our 20s and barely employed, you should throw money into your 401k. If you want, Wilson will manage your 404k--if you want a negative return on your investment.

Unfortunately, we didn't have time to show off all of your submissions for our logo contest, but let's face it: some things are more important than logos. But rest assured that we're going to go over ALL of them on tomorrow's show, not to mention a huge "Calls from the Public" to make up for today. Keep sending in your submissions to the404 [at] cnet [dot] com--they've all been amazing. We've gotten so many that we're EXTENDING the contest to next week! Don't forget: all submissions should include a JPG/PNG as well as a high-res file. Thanks all!

EPISODE 351 Download today's podcast Subscribe in iTunes audio | Suscribe to iTunes (video) | Subscribe in RSS Audio | Subscribe in RSS Video… Read more

Gadgettes 138: The Type A Episode

If it's not a right angle, it's a wrong angle. That's exactly the ethos that has inspired the type of precise, structured and rigidly useful gadgetry that we highlight in today's episode.

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EPISODE 138

The perfect father’s day gift for the Type A griller

Size your burgers your way

Cocoon’s laptop bag is perfect for type A personalities

Sensor-laden kokoro adjusts playlist to match the rhythm of your heart

GameDr destroys recreation of youth

Sony’s 400-disc BDP-CX7000ES Blu-ray Mega Changer reportedly coming soon… Read more

Tip: Get free iPhone apps without a credit card

The iTunes Store rarely listed free items until the debut of the iTunes App Store. Now, you'll find thousands of free iPhone and iPod Touch apps there, none of which require a credit card to download--a nice change for anyone loathe to hand over private card information.

Apple has released a new technical bulletin that gives explicit details on how to create an iTunes Store account without a credit card, entitled, surprisingly enough, Create an iTunes App Store account without a credit card.

The bulletin's instructions are straightforward, but just remember that you need to have opened and … Read more

Report: Payment card data was top target in 2008

More records were breached in 2008 than in the previous four years combined as a result of a few large breaches involving payment cards, according to a report released on Wednesday.

Last year, 295 million records were compromised and there were 90 confirmed breaches, the Verizon Business 2009 Data Breach Investigations Report (PDF) found.

The top five breaches accounted for 93 percent of total records compromised and as a percentage of caseload, 80 percent were payment card breaches while payment card data represented 98 percent of all records compromised last year.

PIN data was increasingly targeted in 2008 in attacks … Read more

Facebook: Pay to make your friends feel better

I know there are some bloggers who would like to charge people for leaving comments on their posts.

Not I. Here at Technically Incorrect, you are totally free to besmirch or befuddle without charge.

However, Facebook is now testing a rather interesting way for members to show appreciation for the quality of their friends' updates--giving them credits. And, as I read the smaller print of the scheme, it seems to be something of a dripping revenue stream.

Essentially, the idea is that when you decide that an item on your feed deserves a comment--"How lovely! That's YOUR … Read more

Symantec investigating customer credit-card data theft

Updated at 9 p.m. PDT with more details from a Symantec representative.

Symantec is investigating allegations that a call center in India leaked credit card numbers of its customers to someone who then sold them to BBC News reporters posing as criminals.

The security company has informed U.K. privacy authorities and attorneys general and officials in eight U.S. states and Puerto Rico of the allegations that three U.K. customers had credit card information leaked and that about 200 U.S. customers may have been affected because of interactions with the call center, Symantec spokesman Cris Paden … Read more

Stolen credit cards exposed on Google- report

Credit card information of 19,000 British Web surfers was exposed on Google search before being removed, according to a report this weekend.

It is unclear exactly when and for how long the information was available to Google searchers, although most of the cards had been canceled, The Telegraph reported the UK payments association APACS as saying. Visible were names, addresses, and credit card data for thousands of people.

Originally, the data was posted on an unsecured server in Vietnam used by criminal gangs that was closed in February, the newspaper said. However, the "cached" version of it … Read more

Credit card data breached at unnamed payment processor

Another U.S. payment processor has suffered a database breach that exposed credit card and debit card information, according to several credit unions. The name of the payment processor has not been released and it is unclear how many consumers are affected.

Blog site DataBreaches.net has been tracking the reports here and here.

Community Bankers Association said in a statement on its site two weeks ago that Visa announced that an unnamed processor reported a data breach and that the name of the processor was being withheld pending completing of a forensic investigation.

The breach appears to have affected … Read more

A new way to pay: Noca's credit card alternative

When you buy a product online and use either a credit card or Paypal, a significant percentage of your transaction cost--from 2.5 percent to 4 percent when all the fees are considered--goes straight to either the credit card processing company or to PayPal. With so many retailers operating at such slim margins already, this is a material expense. While payment processing will probably never be free, a new company, Noca, is launching today that undercuts payment processing by an order of magnitude: It charges just 0.25 percent for transactions.

Noca, CEO PJ Gupta told me, does not enable … Read more