Month: February 2009

The good

What most people conveniently overlook about the Internet (or any technology in general) for all the good there is also bad. However, here’s an example of where the good makes an impact.

 

I recently highlight the changes Facebook were planning to their Terms Of Service. It now seems that after a ‘backlash’ those terms have been rolled back as this story highlights. The global Internet is a very powerful thing and as a business you need to realize you can potentially have millions (if not billions in the case of Facebook) examining your every move online. Once the word gets out it moves at the speed of light so there isn’t too  much change of slipping one past all those people these days.

 

Would I still trust Facebook? No. Would I put all my personal stuff up there? No way. My privacy is worth far more than that I’m sorry. I realise that most people still don’t appreciate that but, hey that’s going to be their problem going forward isn’t it? Why? Because, simply, information wants to be free – once you realise it, chances are it’ll never come back!

Mobile security

Almost everyone these days has a mobile phone. A significant number know what a problem it is if you lose your mobile. Some of these people only now understand how expensive it can also be if someone gets hold of your mobile and starts placing calls to Tibet and Greenland. But consider this, with more and more of our personal information on our mobile devices what security do we have in place to protect that?

 

Do your emails get delivered to your mobile? Do you have other sensitive information on there (i.e. PIN numbers, passwords)? What about customer information? Stop and have a think about what information your mobile would divulge if it fell into someone else’s hands. Now think about how much damage that information could do both personally and commercially.

 

Worried? Well you should be. Even the bosses at Telstra get their mobiles stolen and like this story highlights it can represent a huge commercial risk. Not only to you personally but also your customers. If you have a mobile device that holds data that you want to remain private then make sure you secure it. Make sure you know how to prevent it falling into the wrong hands. Many devices these days have the ability to be remotely wiped if needed but also look at things like encryption to protect sensitive data.

 

As more and more data ends up on mobile devices that get smaller and smaller (read easier to steal), then they become just like the PC on your desk. Now, you wouldn’t want that to fall into the wrong hands would you? So maybe it’s time to look at how secure that little computer you carry around with you everywhere is!

Live push

Interestingly, I’ve just come across this Live@edu site from Microsoft. IT appears to basically be the application of the Microsoft Live Services to the education market. Basically it is out sourcing a lot of the common IT components of education (emails, storage, etc) directly to Microsoft.

 

Can anyone else see where Microsoft is going with this? What’s to stop them offering Live for small business, medium business and even enterprise business? Nothing. I must say that I do use a lot of Live services and find they work really, really well so they get the thumbs up from me and I say bring on more Live services.

Facebook worries

It seems that Facebook have changed their Terms of Agreement according to this report:

 

Now, anything you upload to Facebook can be used by Facebook in any way they deem fit, forever, no matter what you do later. Want to close your account? Good for you, but Facebook still has the right to do whatever it wants with your old content. They can even sublicense it if they want.

Now, most existing Facebook members probably won’t care but I believe it does illustrate the extent to which we have sold out our privacy. People blindly join Facebook and then upload every aspect of their lives not understanding that it is all going into one great database that Facebook is going to sell to make money.

 

People, companies like Facebook are commercial entities. They survive only by making money. Your information has value, otherwise why would they be selling it? Please think long and hard about the information (text, pictures, etc) you divulge on the Internet because once you do it becomes public domain and can never be made private again. Worse still, in this case, it actually ends up being owned by Facebook.

 

Remember that information about you has VALUE and should treated as such. We are giving away our privacy for effectively nothing in return. Don’t do it.

WSSOPS March update

The March update for my Windows SharePoint Operations Guide (due out soon) will give subscribers information about how to install and use the new Microsoft SharePoint Administration Toolkit v3 that will assist in troubleshooting and optimization SharePoint performance. I’ve also included instructions on how you can embed Google maps into your SharePoint site (to see this in action go to the http://supportweb.ciaops.net.au/ and scroll to the bottom of the screen).

 

The March update also has updated information for SharePoint Application Management about deleting SharePoint sites. As well, it includes how to vary the time that the !New icon is displayed (and even getting rid of it if you want!) and a whole lot more updated content.

 

The fact that my Guide is updated monthly is another benefit you get over other SharePoint sources. As the latest information and functionality becomes available I put it in the Guide. As a subscriber you receive these updates for a whole year.

 

For more information about the Windows SharePoint Guide see www.wssops.com.

Email addiction

Here’s an interesting article about what people are actually doing when they attend conferences.

 

The survey found that three quarters (75%) of all participants ignored requests to switch off their mobile devices during sessions. Of this 75%, a further 40% admitted to checking PDAs, BlackBerrys, iPhones and mobile phones at least every 30 minutes; and 10% said that they check their phones every 10 minutes.

and

 

More worryingly, 91% of those who check their phones every 10 to 30 minutes said that they felt anxious when unable to access emails.

How unproductive is that if you are checking email every 10 minutes when you are supposed to listening to a conference that someone has paid good to attend? Imagine what the routine of these people must be like in the office. How would they get anything done? You have to ask yourself whether emails are that important that they need to be checked every 10 minutes!

 

It is interesting that we carry around mobile phones that allow anyone to interrupt us at any time. Now that they are also email-enable we are also allowing any email to interrupt us at any time. It is a wonder that anyone gets anything done these days.

 

Take control of your mobile device. Turn it off and get some work done.

Chatswood course

I forgot to let people know that I’ll also be running my networking basics course at Macquarie Community College Chatswood campus tomorrow (Tuesday 17th February). It will run over 3 consecutive Tuesday nights and give you the fundamentals of networking computers together including information about TCP/IP, routers, firewall and the like.

 

Information about the course, including enrolment (it is never too late) can be found here:

 

http://www.macquarie.nsw.edu.au/index.php?action=course&course_action=detail&code=109C103

 

I look forward to seeing you there.