Saw a good article this morning on LinkedIn. Read it here.
It’s a great way to break the ice with new connections, find out what type of content appeals to them and show a genuine interest they will remember when it’s time for them to consider your services.
Doesn’t it just drive you nuts sometimes? Drowning in all the options in social media. It’s so overwhelming to many folks, they don’t know where to start.
That’s where we can help out. There is a place for you and your business – out there, somewhere, but it takes asking the right questions and more importantly, listening to the answers that come back and acting upon them. Don’t be afraid to ask, because if you don’t ask, you’ll never know and you might be missing out on some amazing opportunities to connect with an important part of your client base. Aren’t they – and you – worth it?
Time for some more links to more beautiful icon sets. If you are doing your website yourself, you’ll find something for your style here.
Okay, so this is why when I updated to the latest WordPress build today, it broke my ‘site:
Start the day out right by loving yourself and celebrating your purpose!
If my Facebook friends have taught me anything, it is how much they hate Facebook, yet they still use it to talk about life off of Facebook. If this week of homophobic hatred, church burnings and Donald Trump giving the finger to illegal aliens and the all-mighty NBC has taught me anything more, it is how passionately we take to social media to talk about things that are not computer related.
The insane extremes of being a human being are at once maddening yet fascinating, infuriating yet entertaining. And it’s only just now as I ditch my desktop PC for my netbook, WiFi signal and the cooler weather in the bedroom, that I realized that.
My dad would have been proud of me balancing both with the skill of a trapeze artist today. He was an older man who had served at Forth Worth, TX, as a glider pilot instructor during World War II, and yet after the war, he acquired a passion for Japanese post-war advances in the world of photography by collecting 35mm cameras (you younger kids wouldn’t recognize those types of cameras – they actually had physical film in them – what’s film, you say? Never mind).
Even if the generations reading this had never lived through the Big W (another vague, historical reference), you can probably appreciate the irony of being a fan of emerging technology out of a former Communist enemy of the United States and it’s Allies. At least I hope you can. If you can’t, you seriously need to get your head to Google and search up, “World War II” and “japanese cameras of the 1960s and 70s”, then take your iPhone to a museum of history – yeah, that’s what I’m talking about!
Confused yet? Welcome to the world of Living in Balance with Technology and the Real World outside social networking.
I do it every day, live it, love it, experience it by taking a walk one minute and Tweeting about it the next. It isn’t that hard, really, for someone who wants to make it work in this insane world of love ’em, hate ’em, us vs. them when it comes to technology vs. life outside the wifi. And for business networkers in this day and age, it is an absolute MUST if you are to pimp yourself in social media and make a profit at the same time.
And while the world seems perfect this morning because I can take my netbook and wifi into a part of the house that isn’t roasting from an 80 degrees at 8:00 am start to my day, it wasn’t that that made me realize how lucky we are to have technology and humans in balance in this house.
It was my cat, Rhubarb.
He followed me into the bedroom and sat beside me as I leaned against the headboard of our bed, typing a mile a minute, fighting to get these thoughts down before they disappear. You see, he’s lonely. We lost his 11-year old mom, Harley, this past weekend, to cancer and now he’s my constant comfort, my constant companion. even moreso than he was before.
I went kind of insane with grief last week as I watched my beloved Maine Coon struggle to breathe as that tumor pressed against her windpipe. How they hell do I know when enough is enough, I begged my vet. I don’t want her to suffer, but human asthmatics suffer a little at a time everyday, yet no one rushes to put them down because of it. She can’t tell me what hurts…how the hell and I going to know when enough is enough when she can’t talk to me?!? I can’t wait until she’s gasping for breath, because by then she’ll have only a precious few minutes left – and it takes 40 minutes to get to the vet from where we live. I wanted her to have a peaceful, pain-free death.
How in God’s name do I do this?
The internet had answers we were too late to implement, answers the vet had either held back, wasn’t aware of or simply didn’t believe worked. The ‘net gave me hope at the same time it forced me to realize that we were just too late to use them.
Sometimes the ‘net is evil like that – just like life.
The two are not mutually exclusive – not anymore. Tech is here to stay, it’s only going to get more invasive from here on out, so we as human beings better learn to live with it and when you want that human touch, just reach down, pull your new, baby kitten into your lap and take a picture of her to share with your virtual world. Then, and only then, will you understand that balance is indeed possible.
So yesterday we warned our readers of a security flaw in Samsung’s Galaxy phones series 4-6. That same evening it was clarified that the flaw was in the way the Swype technology software was installed into the Samsung phones and that the danger of being hacked existed when, “the device reboots, and when the keyboard software automatically updates at any random time”. Samsung has stepped up and issued this statement on the situation:
Information Regarding the Keyboard Security Issue and Our Device Policy Update.
What does this mean for Samsung users? Nothing has really changed. I recommend you keep your wifi off until they issue the patch. The phone will not alert you when the language update is being performed on your phone, hence, because of the large amount of public wifi signals around us 24/7, it could happen at any moment.
And when will the patch be issued? Hopefully soon.
Yesterday we also promised to explain why the carriers – T-Mobile, Verizon, AT&T, etc, are at fault for this pathetic mess. We drew your attention to the fact that the carriers knew about this “at the start of 2015” when they were warned and patches were issued by Samsung, who had been informed by NowSecure in December 2014. NowSecure also informed the United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team (CERT) and Google’s Android security team about the problem. So everyone knew in a timely manner, issued the patches and said, “Okay carriers, the ball’s in your court. Issue the patch and fix this”.
They dropped the ball, kicked it into the neighbor’s yard and claimed it never even existed.
Doesn’t it make you feel good that this is what you pay upwards of $100s of dollars a month for?
I usually ignore most announced Samsung security flaws. They rarely are enough of a threat to get my attention or that of my networkers. Today that drastically changed when a mobile security researcher with NowSecure blew the whistle on a flaw noticed by Samsung itself way back in December 2014 AND NOTHING HAS BEEN DONE ABOUT IT.
I’ll just quote ABC7.com’s opening line on their online article to get you all up to speed. “A security flaw discovered in Samsung smartphones has left as many as 600 MILLION Galaxy phones at risk of being hacked.”
Don’t have your attention yet? Don’t care because you don’t HAVE a Samsung Galaxy phone? Maybe you don’t have that model and you are breathing a sigh of relief.
One tiny word of advice. DON’T!
I have a Samsung Galaxy Note IV – which, by the way is NOT affected by the security flaw, BUT I am plenty worried for my networkers, my clients, my customers…my HUSBAND who just got his brand new Samsung 5 corporate work phone a month ago.
Six hundred million is a helluva big number, and to put it in even tighter perspective for you – in my smallest networking venue (at which about 15-20 people show up each week) FOUR OF THEM HAVE AN AFFECTED PHONE!
That’s 20-27% of the room in that tiny little group. ONE QUARTER of the room I had to pull aside and give copies of the article and direct how to patch this train-wreck of a customer service disaster the carriers have on their hands.
309 million is THE POPULATION OF THE UNITED STATES, by the way. So it is the equivalent to TWO UNITED STATES worth of people that are scrabbling ’round the globe to deal with this mess.
Or, well, it WOULD be if the word got out as fast as the carriers lack of attention to the problem THEY KNEW ABOUT LAST YEAR!
So, enough torch-handling and pitchfork wielding. Right now you need to know what to do if you have a Samsung Galaxy 4, 5 or 6 phone and how to stay safe until your service provider gets off its collective butt and decides to let the world know if they issued the patch yet.
What to do if you or anyone you know is affected:
1. Turn OFF your wi-fi in your settings. The hackers get in through open wifi ports. The carriers say to avoid wifi areas, but that’s like trying to avoid the entire planet. EVERY major chain restaurant, Starbucks, government building, school, company that has a network-run computer system has open wifi broadcasting round the clock – even when they are not open!
2. Disable language updates. This is harder to locate and the best thing to do is take your phone to your carrier and have them do it and/or walk you through it so you know they did it correctly.
3. Call your carrier and find out the status of the update. Don’t be meek. THIS IS YOUR FINANCES AND PERSONAL SECURITY THEY ARE ENDANGERING BY STALLING IMPLEMENTATION OF THIS UPDATE! I cannot emphasize this enough! If they give excuses, claim they never heard of this security breach, promise to get back to you – DON’T BELIEVE THEM AND DO NOT let them blow you off. Ask for their supervisor, email them DAILY – do what it takes to get them to get you off their back and give you an estimated patch implementation date.
These are simple steps that can save your contact list, your bank account access information, your credit card numbers from being taken without your knowledge and consent.
Tomorrow I will detail why this was NOT Swype Key’s or even Samsung’s fault, but the CARRIERS…ALL OF THEM. And I apologize in advance, but you are not going to like the answer. They need to take responsibility for this mess, and believe me, if they know what’s good for them, they will fix this flaw like, YESTERDAY.
Phone review time again at Civic Site Design. Wow, well, this one was out fast. Why the rush, Samsung? I’m still getting used to my Galaxy Note IV. Losing the micro-sd card wasn’t a bright idea, imo and I was surprised to max out while at a convention, but to be fair, I do have 6 pages of apps and hadn’t downloaded my earlier pics yet. The average user probably doesn’t need that many apps. They may accumulate them, but I like to review and clean them out once in a while, along with my photos after I upload them to social media. And pushing 1K??? C’mon, Samsung, don’t be so greedy. Keep the reasons I love you more than iPhone or you’re going to have a mass exodus on your hands.
What do you think of their official introduction? Leave your comments here.
In the recent Digg article “Anatomy Of A Fake, Viral Story“, we see a perfect example of a hard-to-believe story going viral and driving massive traffic to websites around the world. Few stories that hit this legendary status are broken down in such a way that you can see exactly how it happened, which is what makes this story fascinating to myself and marketers everywhere.
Most people want their piece to go viral for one or both of two reasons – money and/or fame. Will fake viral stories accomplish this? Is such a story worth the traffic it generates? Let’s explore that.
Money – Is viral traffic interested enough in your fake story to contribute to your bottom line? The majority of viral story seekers are looking for quick entertainment. They are rarely interested in little else the hosting website has to offer them. Sure, they might sign up for updates, but a look at the statistics of whether they actually open and read the emails sent to them reveals the truth; often the emails are deleted and after the third or fourth email, they hit the “unsubscribe” button, or worse, flag it as spam and get your company in trouble with your internet service provider.
Fame – No one likes being lied to and a fake viral story’s job is to look credible to the reader long enough to get them to click. How would someone view your website if they found out that you were peddling fake sensationalism? Would they trust you in the future? Would they trust your products, your customer service or warranties on anything they purchased if you are a retail business? Would they trust your word on anything in the future? Doubtful. We all have experienced how hard it can be to convince someone to buy from us and not our competitors. Starting off with a lie to draw them in is the worst possible strategy imaginable, unless, of course, you are the National Enquirer or Onion.
In the final analysis, it is pretty cut and dried that fake viral stories are responsible for traffic that hits hard and fast, but rarely sticks around. They are off as soon as the next sensational piece hits their radar and won’t even remember you the next day. Hardly the type of loyal customer that anyone in business could benefit from.
Credits: Anatomy of a Fake Viral Story written by Craig Silverman. Read his research project report, “Lies, Damn Lies and Viral Content” for the Tow Center for Digital Journalism at Columbia University.
Civic Site Design deals only in reliable information from verified sources. If you have a need for such on your website or in your social networking circles, please feel free to contact us at info at civicsitedesign.com (replace the “at” with an @ sign).