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Last updateThu, 19 Sep 2024 5pm

East Coulee SpringFest slate fresh as ever

crystal plamondon

The SpringFest has always lived up to its name as the first festival of music of the season, but this year’s schedule is especially crisp, with over half the lineup performing in East Coulee for the very first time. 

Seventeen of the 33 acts slated for both Friday and Saturday night in the East Coulee School Museum are new faces, and SpringFest organizer Barb Steeves said it’s no mistake. 

“It’s one of our mandates to feature up-and-coming artists. We always try to pick locals and others who are just starting to get their momentum, but we also bring in some old favourites that will draw a crowd.

Sam Lundell is an emerging Alberta musician who has been a finalist in the Calgary Stampede talent search competitions and is preparing to record his first album this year.

“I’m in the midst of a super exciting season of life, so I’m stoked for the opportunity to share some of my excitement and joy through music,” said Lundell, who plays at 7 p.m. Saturday in the Green Room.

This year’s featured artist is Crystal Plamondon, “Canada’s Cajun Cowgirl,” who’s scheduled in the community hall at 7 p.m. Saturday. 

Plamondon sings in three languages and has been in the business for 20+ years and garnered quite a following both here and across the border.

“People drive for miles around just to catch her shows,” said Steeves, “no one leaves disappointed, and people feel like they’ve made a lifelong friend after seeing her.”

 Alt-rock/country/folk artist Blake Unruly spent part of his childhood growing up in the valley is excited to return for the first festival of the season.

"I'd even go as far as to say I wouldn't be as 'unruly' were it not for the badlands. It means a lot to be able to play the festival."

Organizers are in need of additional volunteers for security on Saturday night. If anyone is interested, please call the school museum at 403-822-3970.

SpringFest starts at 6 p.m. to midnight on Friday and noon to midnight on Saturday at the school museum and the East Coulee Community Hall.

A detailed schedule and links to artists’ music for SpringFest is available online at ecsmuseum.ca/springfest


Rotary ready for White Elephant Sale

rotary

It’s that time of year again, to dig deep into the garage or basement to support the Rotary Club’s annual White Elephant Sale.

The sale is this coming weekend and promises deals galore.  Rotary President Doug Stanford says already the club has accumulated a treasure trove of items. One man’s junk is another man’s treasure.

“There is some really good stuff,” said Stanford, adding there is more than 15 bikes alone at the sale.

Members of the club have already been out picking up donations, and Stanford says there are a couple instances where they are having the contents of entire homes donated.

“We have quite a good crew picking up, it is one of he best out-turning I have seen,” said Stanford.

 This week members of the club are available to pick up items for the sale. They are typically able to pickup between 4 p.m. and 8p.m. until May 5. To arrange a pickup contact, Dave at 402-823-9111, Bob at 403-823-4407 or Graham at 403-823-2856.  

 Please note, the club is not able to accept mattresses, Hide- a-beds, cribs, car seats, older style televisions, computers and organs. 

MASSIVE data breach for Hotmail, Yahoo Mail, Gmail and others

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If you use any of the above services, change your password RIGHT NOW!

​Multiple sources are confirming a massive data breach of over 272 Million passwords have been compromised.  AND, better yet, according to sources at Reuters, and Hold Security the password lists are readily available for sale right now on the darkweb for less than a $1

To be clear, this could mean one of many things happened...

1 - People may have used the same password on multiple sites and a DIFFERENT site was compromised, leading the hackers to be able to sign into the email providers listed above.

2 - Hackers may have gained access to the passwords via malware or phishing attempts.

At any rate, go change your password RIGHT NOW!  Or, better still look into a EXCELLENT tool called LastPass.  LastPass allows you to securely store all your passwords in one place.  It works on desktop AND mobile devices.  It also fills in your username and password for you automatically.  AND last but certainly not least, in the event of a compromised breach like today's event you can have LastPass lock down your digital life within a few simple clicks!!

Alex Holden, chief information security officer of Hold Security, has told Reuters that 272.3 million usernames and passwords have been stolen from users of Hotmail, Yahoo Mail, Google's Gmail and Mail.ru, Russia's largest email service. 

The majority of data comes from Mail.ru. Fifteen percent of data is known to come from Yahoo Mail, 12 percent from Hotmail, and 9 percent from Gmail. Usernames and passwords for banking and retail are also among the stolen information. 

Holden advised all users of the email services to change their passwords. All of the affected email services also offer a two-step verification process, which will ask for extra information if there is an attempt to log in from a new device. The discovery came after researchers from Hold Security found a young Russian hacker – referred to as "The Collector" – who was caught bragging about the "heist" in an online forum. Experts from Hold Security began talking to the hacker, expecting that he would ask for a high price for the extremely valuable and sensitive data. Bizarrely, the hacker asked for just 50 roubles (around 75 cents) for all of the data. 

Instead of big money, all he asked was that people post positive comments to his social media page. Since the hacker released the information so readily, Hold Security fear the data could already be circulating around the online criminal underground. Google told Tech Rader they are already looking into the issue and Mail.ru told Reuters that they are in the process of discovering the affected accounts. Microsoft, who own Hotmail, said they already have "security measures in place to detect account compromise." Yahoo has not yet responded.

courtesy iflscience.com

At Reality Bytes we are constantly working on ways to make your technology more efficient and easier to use.  Feel free to contact us for more information.


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