Tag Archive for Social network

Never Check Email First Thing In The Morning

Business Sid Savara a widely regarded personal development trainer published 7 Reasons You Should Never Check Email First Thing In The Morning at his site sidsavara.com.

#1 – Ignorance Is Bliss..fully Productive – When it comes to email, ignorance is bliss. That’s why if you’ve got something important you want to make progress on, the author offers these four words for success:

Don’t check your email.

EmailsAs soon as you get in, work on something important for 30-45 minutes, and only then check email. If you can stand it, wait even longer. The article suggests that as long as you’re ignorant of everything else that’s going on outside, you can concentrate on what you want to work on.

Any new information you get can cause you to get distracted.

#2 – It’s Not Your Todo ListMr. Savara you know what is most important for you to work on the first thing in the morning you should go ahead and do it!

By checking email, you risk doing what someone else wants you to do. Or more bluntly, when you check your inbox, the emails you get are a todo list someone else makes for you.

Who is in charge of your time – you, or the person emailing you?

Changed priorities#3 – It’s An Excuse To Lack Direction – The author says that checking email is a low priority activity and that you may be checking email first thing in the morning because your todo list has gotten off track somewhere. He argues that when you don’t have a clear list of priorities, checking email becomes an urgent activity that you do at the expense of your important ones.

#4 – Reaction vs “Proaction” - When you check your email, you end up with more work to do – and because we’re in “check email” mode, we start replying to them at the expense of the task we were just working on. Rather than actively setting an agenda, email forces you to react to items as they come in – regardless of their true priority.

Mr. Savara says he prefer taking proactive actions, proaction. Work on the things that are important to you, regardless of whether they’re urgent or simply at the top of your inbox. Stop wasteful actions, and focus on productive actions instead.

Social networking sites#5 – Searching For Excuses Blindly checking email (or Twitter, or Facebook, or any number iTime wasters) is usually just searching for an excuse to not do the work that must be done according to the author.

Don’t fall into that trap. Don’t give yourself an out by checking your email for an excuse to fail. He urges, Don’t check your email  – acknowledge the task you need to get done, and do it.

Cross that bridge – it’s not going away.

#6 – There’s No Set Time Limit – Meetings get a bad rap for being a waste of time – but at least you usually know how long a meeting will last. But do you know how long you’re going to spend on email once you open your inbox, odds are you don’t know – or you’ll underestimate it.

The problem is, checking email only takes a minute but you can get sucked into follow-up activities that result from opening your email, and there’s no way of knowing how much time these will take.

You have a set time limit for how many productive hours you have in a day don’t let email suck you in and cause you to devote more time to it than you can afford.

#7 – It Builds Expectation – A lot of people says, “But I have to check my email! People expect a response from me in the morning!” The author believes that there are some requests that need immediate responses, but they’re much less frequent than you might think.

He argues that people expect a response from you in the morning because you’ve always responded first thing in the morning and you’ve built that expectation. The more often you check email, the more often people will expect you to check it. Just stop checking it first thing in the morning, and people won’t expect it anymore.

Mr Savara recommends the following email rules:

  • Only check if there is something specific you are looking for. Most important – don’t go fishing around. Check it with a specific plan, a specific email you’re looking for from a specific person.
  • Separate low value emails via filters (“rules” in outlook) or separate email addresses so you don’t even see them in your inbox when you check
  • Set a time limit. Commit to checking for 5 minutes, just to look for that one piece of information – and have your exit strategy ready. Before you open your inbox, decide what you’ll do if 1) the email is there 2) the email isn’t there 3) the email is incomplete. Don’t be reactionary – proactively decide what action you will take based on the outcomes you expect.
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Spot Can Run, But He Can’t Hide

Internet of ThingsThe new pet-oriented Global Positioning Systems (GPS) on the market, now make it possible to constantly track your best friend according to a report in MIT’s Technology Review.

Garmin GPSThe GPS devices made just for pets are generally small enough to be attached to a collar which allows Owners to track their furry companion’s every paw print in real-time. The New Jersey Star-Ledger points out unlike microchips embedded in the skin of an animal which store identifying information, these devices aren’t invasive, and owners don’t have to wait for a stranger to find and bring their lost pet to an animal shelter to scan the chip.

“This could easily be a multimillion-dollar category,” David Lummis, a “pet market analyst,” at New York-based market research firm Packaged Facts, recently told the New Jersey Star-Ledger. Pet owners are now more “crazy” about their four-legged friends than ever. If the recession is any indication, Mr. Lummis told the paper that he $58 billion pet products industry has merely slowed a few percentage points during the recession.

Tagg the Pet TrackerThat kind of consistent growth has attracted attention of  Qualcomm (QCOM) the biggest maker of mobile-phone chips.  San Diego-based Snaptracs, a wholly owned subsidiary of Qualcomm, has released Tagg the Pet Tracker.

The rechargeable Tagg device can be attached to a collar (provided it’s not a spiked or bejeweled one), plus a home base unit. Owners are able to set a virtual perimeter for Fido to wander. TR says a text message or email alert will be sent if Fido strays too far. The device has a battery life of some 30 days and is water-resistant; it’s intended for dogs (or cats) 10 pounds or heavier. The necessary hardware and one year of Verizon (VZ) service costs $200 according to Technology Review. The service costs $5 a month after that. It’s a small price to pay, Dave Vigil, president of Snaptracs told the paper, considering pets are becoming increasingly “like family members.” Users can also find their pets at any time through a computer or smart phone.

Jessie and WileyGPS giant Garmin (GRMN), has also entered the doggie lo-jack market. The paper says the Olathe, Kansas based company released the GTU 10 device, a 1.7-ounce gadget. Garmin users can also set up a perimeter and receive alerts, or track real-time from a mobile device or computer. The GTU 10 operates on AT&T‘s (T) wireless network and costs $200 for the first year and $50 a year after that.

Another competitor is Retriever. TR says Retriever has similar functions with virtual fences and alerts but adds a social networking element. Retriever will share Spot’s location with a friend, presumably so if your old pal Spot gets loose while you’re out-of-town, you can help steer the on-site rescue. To judge from its site, Retriever appears to not yet be on the market, nor is a projected price listed.

Technology Review also notes other products in this niche. Global Pet Finder, is not available anymore on Amazon (AMZN) as of this article. The SpotLight device costs $169.99 and is limited to T-Mobile coverage. SpotLight costs $179.88 per year for a subscription.  The Love My Pets device and 1 year subscription costs $189.95 uses the Sprint (S) network. The Love My Pets system costs $14.95 per month for a subscription according to a CSR.

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Qualcomm’s goal is to encourage new uses of its radio chips, not to make a hit product. These products are part of the Internet of Things. As the Apple (AAPL) iPod and iPhone have shown, people are willing to shell out a lot of cash for the things, but it is in the services where the money is to be made on the Internet of Things. Content is still king.

Staff End Runs Security

Social networkingWhen I in my remote Bach Seat, contemplating sharing tech services, I am constantly facing the consumerization of IT. The iPads have made an official beachhead and Skype has made it inside the perimeter. So I should not feel alone according to recent reports from Trend Micro and Cisco (CSCO).

Facebook Help Net Security reports that despite more workplaces regulating social networking site access, employees bypass security roadblocks to engage in social networking. The research by Trend Micro says that employees are finding ways around security roadblocks, making social networking a way of office-life around the world. Trend Micro’s 2010 corporate end-user survey, found that globally, social networking at the workplace steadily rose from 19 percent in 2008 to 24 percent in 2010.

The survey also found that laptop users are much more likely than desktop users to visit social networking sites. Globally, social networking usage via laptops went up by 8 percent from 2008 to 2010. In the U.S., it increased by 10 percent In 2010, 29 percent of laptop users versus 18 percent of desktop users surveyed said they frequented these sites at work.

MalwareThe survey also found that laptop users who can connect to the Internet outside of company network are more likely to share confidential information via instant messenger, Web mail and social media applications than those who are always connected to a company’s network.

A 2010 Cisco survey, which looked at the security impact of personal gadgets and social networking in the workplace, found that employees are consistently (Cisco’s words) finding ways around security policies. 68 percent of those surveyed by Cisco said that employees use unsupported social networking applications.  Heavy use of unsupported collaboration, P2P and cloud applications were also reported. More than half said social networking is one of their organization’s three greatest security risks. More than a third reported that their company lost data or experienced a breach because of employees using unsupported devices.

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So why is Facebook such a problem for enterprises? For one, it is a huge time waster.  Datacenter Knowledge reports that Facebook users spend a total of more than 16 billion minutes on social networking site Facebook per day. Facebook VP of Technical Operations Jonathan Heiliger stated that 3 billion photos are uploaded to Facebook each month and users view more than 1 million photos every second during a presentation at the Velocity 2010 conference

The more popular the social network, the more effective social networks become as malware distribution platforms. KOOBFACE, the “largest Web 2.0 botnet,” controls and commands compromised machines globally. This demonstrates the scale of the threat, and emphasizes the need to educate users and implement strong policies.

Trend Micro says that trying to just prevent users accessing social networks from work could potentially increase the risk to an organization as users look for ways around computer security possibly increasing the chance of exposure to security threats. The lesson, in Cisco’s view, is that you better find the technologies–and resources–to support personal devices and applications because they will be used regardless. “The best strategic approach is to focus less on restricting usage and more on effective solutions to ensure highly secure, responsible use,” said Fred Kost, Cisco’s director of security solutions.

Call me old-school but  it seems that employees have always learned to work within reasonable company boundaries. Another option for those organizations that need web 2.0 in the organization should tale a look at Palo Alto Networks who have developed a firewall that can block the wasteful parts of social media and leave some parts of the web 2.0 app accessible.

Consumer technologies evolve faster than the IT department budget, and it could be a constant game of catch-up trying to accommodate the latest rogue gadgets and widgets. Ultimately, rogue IT use is not so much a failure of technology, but a failure of policy and policy enforcement.

LinkedIn Pulls A Facebook

LinkedInLinkedIn made me get out of my Bach Seat and jump up and down this morning, LinkedIn (LNKD) pulled a Facebook and made user’s names and photographs available to advertisers if they want to use them. Thankfully BrandImpact tells how to maintain your privacy.

    LinkedIn 

  1. Click on your name on your LinkedIn homepage in the upper right corner. From the drop-down menu, select “Settings.” I
  2. In the “Settings” page, select “Account.”
  3. In the column next to “Account,” click “Manage Social Advertising.”
  4. Uncheck the box next to “LinkedIn may use my name, photo in social advertising.”
  5. Now check the new default settings under “E-mail Preferences” and “Groups, Companies & Applications.” Make sure to opt out of “Data Sharing with 3rd-party applications” as well.

In the face of negative user reaction and a growing media firestorm, LinkedIn has decided to make a change in the policy. That’s a step in the right direction. I have written about social networking’s assault on privacy here, here and here.

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Even though LinkedIn has backtracked on this it still irks me. I believe that most people on LinkedIn are working on their professional brand and do not want to be associated with ads. Facebook is for kids who don’t care, LinkedIn was for professionals. This seems like LinkedIn is wasting the goodwill they’ve built up over the years as it tries to justify its $9 billion IPO valuation. This is not a good sign for LinkedIn, I doubt they can beat Facebook in the teenier-bopper social network segment.

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10 Security Reasons to Quit Facebook

Social Media Joan Goodchild, wrote an article for CSO Online that said Baby Boomers quit Facebook faster than they join based on information from Inside Facebook. The data indicates that after a huge growth in Facebook membership among the over-55 age group that same demographic began to defect in large numbers, just months after signing up. The CSO Online article quotes Scott Wright, a security consultant based in Canada and runs the site streetwise-security-zone.com says Boomers leave Facebook because they have discretion.

Here are 10 ways that Facebook does not allow for discretion, driving Boomer permanently off of Facebook.

Facebook1. Your Privacy is History Mr. Wright recalled an academic claim that the notion of privacy differs widely among generations. “The 20-something view of privacy is basically that their parents not see what they are doing. That’s about it,” he said. Apparently Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg agrees. He claims that openly sharing information with many people is today’s social norm. He went on to say “We view it as our role in the system to constantly be innovating and be updating what our system is to reflect what the current social norms are.” Many have translated this to mean Facebook doesn’t think its users want much privacy, and the policies of the site reflect that view. “If you can’t maintain privacy online and off, then you can’t speak freely,” said Bethan Tuttle, an Washington-based independent consultant and privacy advocate. Tuttle says in the article that the massive and quick growth Facebook has experienced, coupled with a lack of privacy-centric leadership has left end-user privacy as casualty.

2. They don’t have your best interests in mind Tom Eston, creator of the web site socialmediasecurity.com points out, the business models of Facebook and  Twitter, is to make user information as public as possible to generate new ways to make money. Mr. Eston said in the article

They are really startups if you think about it. They don’t have a true business model … Their philosophy is the more you share, the more information they have to make money with. With that in mind, can you really count on them to protect you?

And do you know just how much information you are sharing that can be used not only by Facebook, but by the application developers that create those fun quizzes and games? Wright says most people don’t. (I wrote about this problem here).

3. Frequent redesigns affect privacy settings Mr. Wright in the CSO Online article said,

Just when people figure out the privacy settings on Facebook, they go and change them again … It always seems like it is being done in everyone’s best interest, but if you really examine it, they have never done anything other than to try to get people to share more information.

Facebook redesigns often makes public, and searchable, certain user information that was previously private and many of the features you can make private are left public unless you go in and adjust your privacy settings. This is no small task, according to Ms. Tuttle, “I am really good online but it took me several tries to get my Facebook privacy settings where I needed them to be.”

4. Social engineering attacks are getting more targeted Most Facebook users have received messages on their wall asking “Have you seen this video?” or “Is this you in this photo?” By clicking on the link, the user runs the risk of being infected by malware. These are known as social engineering attacks, and they are becoming more sophisticated said Mr. Wright. “They are becoming very targeted. Even seasoned security professionals are falling for them,” he said. The more information you share, coupled with a decrease in privacy, only means it is even easier for cyber criminals to get information about you that can be used to trick you into clicking on a bad link.

5. You can’t trust the ads Most web users think advertisements are  harmless, unfortunately some contain malicious links. One common scenario involves a pop-up from the ad that claims your computer is infected and prompts you to download software to fix it. Instead of helpful software, you end up downloading something nasty. This is now commonly known in the security community as “scareware,” and it’s still a very effective way to snare unsuspecting users.

6. Spam Spam claiming to be from Facebook has increased according to the article. “I think it’s a security concern,” said Mr. Eston. “Mostly because spammers can use that vulnerability to make you think the message is coming from Facebook when it is not. Many users simply wonder “Why is Facebook sending me this?” and instinctively open the message and log in to what turns out to be a fake screen that steals credentials.

7. You don’t really know your friends The author cites a report from security firm Cloudmark which concluded that close to 40 percent of new Facebook profiles are fakes.  Having lots of friends is dangerous because it opens you up to additional security risks. Mr. Wright said those who get targeted for hacking are the users who have lots of friends (here is an example). The more friends you have, the more reach a criminal will have when he breaks into your profile and sends out a bad link to everyone.

8. You can’t help yourself from being dumb The attention around the site pleaserobme.com brought to light the safety concerns around social networking. Pleaserobme aggregates the Twitter feeds of people who play Foursquare, a location-sharing application. The problem is while playing the game, many users are also publicly broadcasting that their home is likely unattended and a good “opportunity” (as the site terms it) for thieves. As Ms. Tuttle put it, you need to think about what you are doing and many people are not. You’re putting yourself out there in potentially dangerous ways, particularly if you don’t know all of your “friends” that well.

9. The great unknown CSO Online says there is a lot of speculation about a Facebook IPO and future business strategy. What does this mean for users? Mr. Wright said some fear it means an increase loss of privacy as the social networking site inevitably looks for ways to make money by offering up valuable user information to advertisers and developers. Mr. Wright said,

One of the things I find most interesting is that there are still many people who are scared to death of social networking sites. These are usually the people who don’t see value in them. In the end, they may be the wisest of us all.

Bill Clinton

Listen Zuckerberg - Stop changing the settings or I'll tell Hillary

10. Ex’s, creeps and parents Facebook is making it possible for people to be cyber stalked, even if they aren’t friends anymore, said Mr. Eston. Although the physical and virtual connections are broken , having mutual friends makes it easier for your ex to keep tabs on you. The same goes for any creepy guy or girl you are trying to avoid. Or you may get a friend request from a parent, which Mr. Wright claims many 20-something users consider the worst thing that could ever happen in the history of social networking. “That is big driver for quitting,” he said. “Once the parent friends some of these people they immediately think ‘I’ve got to get out of this!’”

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