Now, what I find interesting is the simple fact that they must have in turn received this from one of their contacts but they chose to believe it to be true immediately. It certainly doesn’t appear that the question was asked to whether this was legitimate before it was forwarded to me. If someone did that to them in the street they certainly think twice before accepting anything. Why doesn’t the same apply with technology? To those that know there is plenty to give away the fact that it is indeed a hoax.
The problem this highlights is simply how easy it is to bypass most security technology by convincing a user to take steps to circumvent security. This is how most security issues spread, by people believing carte blanch that what they have received is legitimate. I’m afraid that no technology is going to ever be able to mitigate the threat users pose to their own systems. The only method is training and the attitude to trust nothing from the Internet with verifying it.
When most employees go to work in a business they are not taught how to use emails are they? They are likewise not taught how to use the Internet and clearly they are also not taught how to search as the following from Google illustrates.
Now, apparently these are the top ten terms used in Google searches according to Google (yet to see this posted on the web by Google – maybe soon):
Ahhh, hang on. Why are people typing Google into Google search? It sorta indicates to me that people don’t know what they are doing, just like in the following video clip.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5oCHxB8d20s
Don’t forget typing Google into Google is the sixth most popular search term. Now it is my understanding that these words are the top ten single words searched for on Google. Hello. Doesn’t that sort of tell you that people don’t really know how to use search engines? Look at the other words as well, many are domains (i.e. Hotmail, YouTube, Facebook, etc). What’s going on here. How can we have had the web for all these years and yet so many people don’t seem to even understand the basics!
We spend so much of our time encapsulating our lives with technology when in reality most people have very little idea about it all. In our jobs we are simply expected to know how to use emails, the web, office applications etc but are never taught. So how are we going to use them? Via the lowest common denominator. We are afraid and too time poor to try and learn any features or configurations that would really help. Our employers take for granted that employees know how to use all the technology and yet employees, without guidance and training, are the best threats to circumvented security that any organization faces. Also think about the time people waste struggling to use technology tools they have only learned by trial and error. Maybe this in another reason people haven’t adopted Vista – to much change.
The answer is not more technology it is understanding how to use the technology better.
Connecting to local drives in Virtual PC
When you run up a Microsoft Virtual PC chances are you are going to want to copy files from the host system on which the Virtual PC is running to the actual Virtual PC. This is possible by simply going into the settings for that Virtual PC and selecting the Shared Folders option as shown below:
If you then select the Shared Folder button over on the right you are able to select a local directory which can be mapped a drive letter on the Virtual PC. Perfect for copying files up and down.
It is not possible to use this option to connect a Virtual PC drive to a network mapped drive you may have on the local machine. It only works with drives that are local to the host machine on which Virtual PC is running.
Get the picture?
The blue line that is trending down are Google searches for “computer consulting”. The read line at the right are Google searches for “cloud computing”.
With things like Microsoft Azure coming the red line is only going to be rising up and up, while the traditional blue line is going to keep going south.
Even if you have reservations about cloud computing as a viable solution, clearly more and more people want to know about it. Doesn’t it make sense to learn about opportunities (red line – cloud computing) rather than traditional (blue line – computer consulting) contracting markets? Because that’s were customers are going to be prepared to pay money. With the economic challenges ahead it certainly makes sense to me to move towards opportunities where customers ‘want’ to spend money (red line – cloud computing) rather than ‘having’ to spend money (blue line – computer consulting).
Wireless networking course starts on Thursday
My Wireless Networking course will run this Thursday at Macquarie Community College at Carlingford. If you are interested in learning about wireless technology and how to make it work then you should get plenty of value from what’s on offer.
If you are interested in enrolling call the college on 02-8845 8888 or check the following web page for more details:
http://www.macquarie.nsw.edu.au/index.php?action=course&course_action=detail&code=408M299
This will be my last technology course for 2008 and I’d like to thank anyone who has attended my courses throughout the year, I hope they provided value. I have proposed a range of new courses for 2009 as well as my existing ones on Networking Basics, Networking with Small Business Server and Computer Security. If the new courses get a start then I’ll post information about their content here.
Once again, to all who attended Merry Christmas and I hope to see you again in the New Year.
You are the average of your surroundings
So you want to get ahead in life and improve your lot as well, here’s an interesting concept I came a cross a while back. Where ever you go you are probably going to be the average of those around you.
Here’s an example to explain. Let’s say that you want to improve your golf (and who doesn’t), you are not going to do that by playing with people who you are better than. To improve, you need to play with people who are better than you so your game will tend to move upwards towards the average of the group.
Now let’s apply that to business. If you want to be more successful in business then you should be hanging around with people who are more successful than you. Same law will apply, as your average success will tend to increase to that of the group you associate with.
Stop and think about the business people that you associate with on a regular basis. Are they lifting your average or dragging it down? If you want your average to increase then perhaps you need to look at associating with a different set of business people.
It is a rather simply concept but I recommend you take a few moments to consider what groups you are the average of. If their average is not what you want your average to be then maybe it’s time to make some decisions.
Who programmed this?
Now, I’ve been using this service for a few years now and have watched hundreds of DVD’s via this method. When I log into my DVD portal I get something like what you see below with suggestions of what I might like to watch from the library.
The issue here is that every DVD you see in the above list I have watched and returned from this DVD library site. Why doesn’t the web site know that? Doesn’t it look stupid by suggesting things I’ve already seen? I would think that it is pretty easy to at least check my viewed DVD list to see if what is being recommended has actually been viewed!
When you see things like this you gotta question the value of technology. In my books it is simply not adding value to the site and should not be there. Also, it is very lazy programming simply to throw up any list of DVD’s for me to watch without the most simply qualifiers. Do I feel I’m a customer that matters? Nope. This tells me that the site doesn’t know who I am from a bar of soap. How is that adding value in my mind to what I pay for? Does it provide a unique selling point? Nope. It just shows me how poorly put together the site is.
Companies who develop web sites and technology need to understand the value from the customer’s perspective. Don’t do something because it is technically easy or look pretty – give us something that is practice, otherwise as a customer you are simply wasting my time. Even if doing something simply is technically difficult (which it normally is) don’t do something technically easy that doesn’t work (like the above) because it shows me you haven’t thought about me as a customer. The next time I need to make a decision about whether I continue to use such a service this sort of stupidity is going to count against you.
For heaven’s sake, give us practical technology not technology for technology’s sake!
Security videos
Have a look at these security videos from Watchguard. Down the bottom of the page you’ll also find some videos that may help ‘non-IT’ people understand some simple security principles.
The good thing is that you can download the videos and use them offline.
The value of “clear space”
I was reading an article from Intel recently saying they have noticed a decided drop off in innovation with the advent of interruptions (linked to things like email). They believe that because people’s head are so full of things that are perceived to be urgent that there is little room for new ideas to form. Intel are trying to foster the idea of “clear space”. Time simply devoted to thinking rather than doing.
I can’t but equate this back to the eastern philosophy of meditation. Many people I know laugh meditation off as some ‘new age hippy’ treatment and would never be caught engaging in the practice. To these people I’d content that it far more difficult to empty your mind of thoughts and keep it empty for a period of time. If you don’t believe me then try it for yourself. See how long you can go without thinking about anything. I’m certain you’ll find all sorts of things popping in there. Maybe then you’ll appreciate that finding ‘clear space’ is far more difficult that first imagined simply because we have become so accustom to filling it.
If your mind is a cup and constantly overflowing how is anything else ever going to get in? If you feel your mind is always preoccupied with ‘stuff’ perhaps you need to look at exactly what ‘stuff’ is in there. The problem is that most people believe they have to remember everything they need to know in their heads. For example, some time during the day you drill yourself into ‘remembering’ that you need milk. Later on, you find yourself standing in the dairy isle of a supermarket trying to rack your brain for what you needed to remember. Everyone’s been there.
The simplest way to empty the cup of your mind and allow it some ‘clear space’ is to move information from your brain to a trusted location where you can retrieve it if necessary. Where this information ends up doesn’t really matter, what matters is that your brain is confident that it is somewhere safe where it can be retrieved later and so no longer was to worry or ‘think’ about it.
Personally, I find a pen and paper to be the fastest, most convenient and flexible way to get things down however electronic means like OneNote, Evernote or whatever can achieve the same result. The secret is you have to find out what works for you. You’ll also find that you’ll improve the system that you use as you go along, which is exactly what is supposed to happen. The important thing is to take steps to free you mind from the mundane issues that can easily be dealt with in other ways.
I think that you’ll be surprised at how quick it is to create some mental ‘clear space’ and how easier things become once your mind has room to accept and process information. Your mind is like a high performance engine. If you keep filling it with crap fuel it is never going to reach its potential. If however, you highly refine what goes in then you are guaranteed of top performance.
CIAOPS 
