Twitter Overload?

I was a reluctant convert to Twitter, and I'm still not sure what value it really brings to the evolving world of social media. I started out slowly, only following people I know. Then people I didn't know started following me. I thought it was pretty cool that people I didn't even know would be interested in what I had to say. Then I set up a TweetLater account so I could automatically start following these interesting strangers.

Next thing I know I've got hundreds of people following me and in turn I'm following hundreds of people. That means I'm now getting as many as five or ten tweets every minute! Thank goodness I found TweetDeck! This nifty little app runs on PC, Mac and Linux. TweetDeck lets you filter the tweets you receive so you can see more of what you want with less of what you don't.

The key is that TweetDeck allows users to group the folks they are following into categories. I have a category for people I know, one for other people I find interesting and one each for direct messages and replies. Everything else goes into an All Friends category. The categories can be arranged into columns and the columns can be arranged or hidden as desired. Users can click on Tweets and get profile information regarding the sender, follow or unfollow the sender and more.

As a user, you can Tweet directly from the app. TweetDeck even includes a utility that allows you to shorten URLs using any of several programs. Best of all users can post simultaneously to their Facebook account with a simple check of a box. I really enjoy being able to browse the hundreds of Tweets I get and unfollow the hucksters and nutjobs that seem to crop up wherever you go.

For me the jury is still out on Twitter, but now that I have a tool that filters out all the noise I think I'll stick with it a while longer. Now if they'd create a similar app for my phone...

Someone Has A Crush On Me and My Friends Think I'm An Idiot

I haven't had much use for the time-wasters my online friends toss my way. You know what I'm talking about - "Four of your friends thinks you're an idiot, find out who" or "Someone has a crush on you" are a couple I see a lot. You answer a few questions, but to see the results of your IQ test or find out who your secret admirer is, you need to enter your cell phone number. Oh yeah, and forward this message to all your friends. That always seemed a bit fishy to me, but I didn't give it a lot of thought.

Last night I caught a story on KOMO 4 TV that confirmed my suspicions. Seems that if you enter your cell phone number you'll find yourself receiving text messages with your horoscope or other information and you'll have a hard stopping it. Even worse you may find some new charges on your phone bill for the subscription to this service.

A quick Google search for "someone has a crush" yielded acouple of entries referring to these annoying emails. It seems another variation of this bothersome also harvests emails of you friends by asking you to enter the email addresses of the friend(s) that think you're and idiot or may have a crush on you.

Come on folks, aren't there enough ways to waste your time on the Internet? OK, I admit to forwarding "(Lil) Green Patches" and tossed a water balloon or two, but I'm amazed at the number of these things I get from my online friends. If you've got the time to spend writing 25 random things about yourself more power to you. But please don't send those to me. I haven't got the time. And do me and your true friends a favor: when someone or something online asks for our screen names, email addresses or anything else, please don't give it out.

Now, please pass this along to everyone in your address book.

Are You Vulnerable?

There are a couple of things that can really ruin your day when it comes to using your computers. The biggest issue our customers face is Malware (viruses, trojans, spyware, etc.), followed closely by compromised security. Protecting yourself from both is really not that difficult.

There are several providers of anti-Malware software. The trick is to find one you're comfortable with. We like eSet's NOD32 (Save 25% on ESET NOD32 Antivirus System. Download Now!), but there are others like AVG from Grisoft that work well. We aren't too keen on some of the big-name brands. They tend to take up a lot of system resources and slow down your computer.

There is one critical elememt that so many people forget about: virus definitions need to be current. If you have a laptop or if you turn your desktop off at night, your anti-virus program may not be getting updated. Without the updates, new viruses can sneak past even the best anti-virus program. Your anti-virus protection also has a license that will expire after a period of time (usually a year). If you don't renew your protection, it will not update.

The other critical element is security. If you use wirless networks (at home or on the road) you need to be especially vigilant. On a wireless network you need to implement some sort or encryption (called WEP or WPA). This will slow down anyone who wants to poach your Internet connection or access your data. But encryption is kind of like a deadbolt on your door. It's good, but someone who really wants to get in can. So what do you do?

Setting passwords on your user accounts is a good start, but for less than $50 anyone can by software on the Internet that will bypass these locks in short order. And many computers have simple passwords - or no password - on hidden accounts. Your real protection comes from putting secure passwords. I posted a blog on the Byte Slaves Bits site that has more information on this and other ways to secure your data.

The bottom line is this: If you're using a PC then you need to be extremely careful about exposing yourself to viruses. Even makes are becoming targets now, and if you share files between PCs and Macs you can share viruses. If you have a ny sensitive data on your computer, user-level passwords aren't much of a deterrent. You need to lock your data down at the program level or encrypt your entire hard drive. And, no matter what you do, if someone REALLY wants your data, they can get at it eventually. But unless you've got nuclear launch codes or something like that, basic protection is as good as the deadbolt on your front door. Theives will move on to easier targets.

"Tis The Season

I'd like to take a Time Out from technology and see if I can't raise some money for the Salvation Army. Times are tough many this season, but there are some that are in desperate need. The Salvation Army does a lot of great things in our communities. Please help them help others.

"Tis The Season

I'd like to take a brief Time Out from talking about making money to focus on Giving. I want to help the Salvation Army raise some cash. The programs they sponsor in our local communities are outstanding. Business may be tough for us, but life is a lot tougher for others.

OfficeLive Is Up - Finally

Yesterday I actually got a call from an escalation tech. Of course he called the office and got voice mail. Never mind that I told everyone I talked to to make sure the cell number was primary. Wouldn't have mattered anyway. He was telling me that the escalation folks had determined my problem was complicated enough to be referred to product development. Only they were doing a softeare update (in the middle of the day?) and so it wouldn't go through until the afternoon.

I called my speed dial buddies for an update again at the end of the day. Much to my surprise I was told access had been restored (no mention of the cause of the problem). He also said that everyone had been talking about the Vista/IE lockup problem. Seems the OfficeLive code doesn't play well with Google Analytics. Never mind that it seems to work on pretty much any other site and with every other browser and OS except for Vista and IE. But it was my problem, not theirs. Once I removed the tracking code from all the pages everything seems to work. Supposedly there are work-arounds out there somewhere. Time to start digging.

Total down time: five days

Wednesday Update

I called for my mid-day update. Seems whatever Carrie did last night is now undone. I was unable to log in again. Locked out of everything. I was told the escalation team has been in my file a lot, but no updates.

I still need to find out why most of my entries have three or more instances and how I'm going to resolve that.