SOS Tech Solutions

Five Tips For Your 2012 Social Media Strategy

admin — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 01:33:24 +0000

Whether you run a business employing one person or work for a corporation of 250,000, you’ll need a social media strategy for 2012. As more people embrace Twitter, Facebook, Google+, and other networks, it’s time to make social media an integral part of your marketing strategy.

1. Claim Your Name Everywhere

The social media world is no longer limited to Facebook and Twitter. You’ll want to stake your claim on Google+ and LinkedIn with a company page as well. Make sure you are taking advantage of any directories available on the websites of any professional associations you belong to, as these valuable links back to your website help build your credibility both with potential customers and the search engines.

Even if you can’t commit the resources to updating a Google+ or LinkedIn page, at least get them started so that you have the link and more relevant results for your company show up when a potential client is searching for you.

2. Do a Month-By-Month Plan With Clear Goals

Come up with a clear goal for what you want to do with social media. Do you want to help customers, make more sales, drive more people to your website, or a combination of all three? Then come up with a plan to meet those goals month-to-month and assign the proper resources to it. If you want to make more sales using Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, make sure your sales force is trained in social media tools early in the year.

3. Find a Way to Measure Results

Planning is futile without a way to measure results. Get familiar with Google Analytics andHootsuite. Google Analytics lets you track visitors to your site for free. For example, I can see how many visitors came to my site from LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook. Google recently revamped Analytics to include real-time tracking data. Google Analytics let you see how many visitors came to your website from Twitter, but you can’t specifically see which campaigns drove them there (at least not yet; Twitter’s analytics tool isn’t likely to roll out fully until 2012). For beginners, Klout is a good way of measuring how effective your social media efforts are, with a number and practical suggestions for improvement on a week-to-week-basis.

Hootsuite is the best free tool for managing multiple social media platforms, with a professional version available at $5.99 a month if you need to monitor more than the five different profiles allowed on the free version. While there is no Google+ support yet, users are pushing hard for it. SayitSocial starts at $9.99 a month for 15 social profiles. SocialVolt is more of a mid-range agency solution, starting at $250 a month. Both SayitSocial and SocialVolt are looking at incorporating Google+ early in 2012.

If your company has the budget, Adobe’s SocialAnalytics starts at about $20,000 a year. With this, for example, you can see that 400 people hit your Facebook page, and out of that 120 went on to your website, and that out of that number, 20 made a purchase. Attaching a proper ROI number to your sales is worth the budget spend. Granted, if you spent enough time doing custom reports with Google Analytics, you could approximate these results, but only as percentages rather than as hard numbers.

You could log in to Hootsuite to monitor multiple accounts across various channels, but not with the same level of detail. Adobe’s tool allows for close, top-down monitoring of social media all in one dashboard without the need to produce complex reports for simple inquiries.

4. Don’t Be Afraid to Outsource

At a small or midsize business, people power usually comes at a premium. It’s easy to let personnel who should be handling sales or customer service wander off into social media land. However, these people are much better at doing what you hired them to do: sell products or services, and help customers. This is where outsourcing comes in.

Ask your Web design firm either to quote you on social media services or recommend someone who does it. When it comes to hiring for this position, you’ll want to go with someone referred to you since it is too easy for anyone to hang out a shingle and call themselves a social media consultant. Ask which companies they’ve worked for, what their results have been, and how they measure results–essentially questions they should answer easily if they’ve done the job correctly.

5. Add Your Social Media Links to Online and Printed Collateral

Once you’ve got your social media profiles set up and launched, make sure that you’re adding your Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google+ pages to business cards, brochures, fliers, and any other printed materials. Make sure that links to all of your social media profiles are on your own website and any other Web properties your company may run. If you want a custom Facebook URL instead of just letters and numbers, you need to set up a user name for your company Facebook page. Google+ is a bit more problematic; you can embed the URL online, but for printed material it may be easier to say, “Look us up on Google+”. Hopefully Google+ will fix this issue in 2012.

In the end, if you are making any kind of an effort on social media where you weren’t making one before, you will see results. Just make sure to measure results so you can evaluate and use the data to plan for 2013.

Facebook had to buy Instagram: Here’s why and what it means for you

admin — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 22:01:26 +0000

By Molly McHugh
Provided by

By now everyone knows Facebook has acquired Instagram for $1 billion cash and stock – which is a lot, to be sure, but it’s money that Facebook can stand to spend; and more importantly that it had to spend. Instagram has risen so high so quickly, and the recent Android launch gave Facebook the green light to buy what has become a serious competitor.

Last summer, reports that Facebook was creating its own photo filter feature began circulating, with nothing to show since, other than a few subtle platform tweaks. Instagram was the means to an end: Facebook needed to introduce some sort of imaging client beyond what it currently offers, and Instagram has catapulted to a threatening status. Its position in the social-mobile arena is where Facebook wants to be. Facebook has said that if it were to start from scratch today, it would create a mobile app, not a Web client. It wants mobile and it wants mobile bad – $1 billion bad.

The Instagram acquisition killed two birds with one stone. Facebook has managed to reassert its photo-sharing dominance, complete with necessary upgrades, while buying out arguably its largest mobile social competitor.

What it means for Instagram

Without a doubt this has implications for Instagram users, although both Facebook and Instagram say that all will remain independent.

“We’re committed to building and growing Instagram independently,” says Mark Zuckerberg. “Millions of people around the world love the Instagram app and the brand associated with it, and our goal is to help spread this app and brand to even more people.”

“It’s important to be clear that Instagram is not going away,” CEO Kevin Systrom said via the app’s blog today. “We’ll be working with Facebook to evolve Instagram and build the network. We’ll continue to add new features to the product and find new ways to create a better mobile photos experience. The Instagram app will still be the same one you know and love. You’ll still have all the same people you follow and that follow you. You’ll still be able to share to other social networks.”

But still, those of us who use the app on its own have reason for concern. Except for a handful of images, all of my Instagram posts stay there and there alone and that’s the way I like – and I’m not the only one. You’re even the slightest bit concerned about where old photos are going, then it’s time to get your hands on an Instagram export tool. Instaport.Me sends them all wherever you want incredibly easily. It’s still not clear how much and what exactly is going to be sent to Facebook, but if you want to play it safe then this is the smart move. For the record, Facebook says you’ll still be able to keep Instagram posts off the site at your discretion.

There’s going to be resentment though, because Instagram is a clique-ish community and its users are passionate to say the least. While everything might look and function the same, it’s not going to be business as usual. You can expect a huge influx of new users, and a feed that moves much faster. And while Instagram hasn’t had a terrible amount of glitch issues, you can bet that having Facebook’s infrastructure and engineers under the hood will keep things running smoothly (relatively), despite the larger community.

What it (might) mean for Windows Phone

This is more of a bullet point, but worth mentioning.

What the deal could very well mean is that Instagram will speed up its Windows Phone push. Microsoft owns a stake in Facebook, so they might throw some weight around. And Facebook likely wants technology it owns available to as many mobile users as possible, so keep those fingers crossed Windows Phone users.

What it means for Facebook

Remember that recent report revealing that one of the biggest Facebook irks is the flood of Instagrams hitting the site? Well steel yourself, because the acquisition is hardly going to help matters. In fact, don’t be surprised if soon, most of the images uploaded to the site have a Lo-Fi filter and tilt-blur effect.

It also means that some elements of Instagram will be built into Facebook. “We will try to learn from Instagram’s experience to build similar features into our other products,” Zuckerberg wrote this morning.

Finally, Facebook will have some semblance of an editing feature. Unfortunately, it’s not quite what users have been requested. Simple adjustments, like rotation, crop, red-eye fix, contrast and brightness manipulation, have been what Facebook Photos desperately need. Instagram doesn’t have many of these features, so the acquisition doesn’t necessarily mean that those are on their way. But more options for photos are inevitable.

While your Facebook News Feed will feature more Instagrams and Photos will get a feature upgrade, the biggest implication isn’t terribly user-oriented. The acquisition signals that Facebook will buy when it has to, and it will pony up the big bucks if need be. And in its final pre-IPO days, it’s a strong stand to take.

The deal is also indicative of Facebook’s focus on mobile. Facebook wants to be a mobile first company, but it still isn’t one. Recent reports showed that the site is still mostly accessed on the Web, and that’s because it simply hasn’t refined its tablet and smartphone experience. The company’s S1 filings revealed that mobile is the number one priority, and while Facebook isn’t expected to go buying up each and every competitor in this space, you can bet this is only the beginning of its mobile expansion.

Cool Stuff You Can Really Use from the 2012 Consumer Electronics Show

admin — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 03:28:05 +0000

At last year’s Consumer Electronics Show, it was the 3-D television sets that drew heavy attention—but few sales when they hit retail stores. This year, ultrathin, large-screen TVs featuring organic light-emitting diode (OLED) technology with extra-vivid colors dazzled critics, although they likely will be slow to catch on at $10,000 for a 55-inch set. In contrast, some of the products introduced at this year’s show in Las Vegas are useful and inexpensive enough to wow consumers as much as critics. Here, some of the most appealing… CALLING OPTIONS Two handy new devices for making and receiving phone calls… Videophone that can make free calls through your TV. You may already have heard of Skype, the service that offers free video calls through your computer. Now a pair of new wireless devices makes it possible to make and receive Skype calls through a high-definition TV so that you can see the high-quality image on a big screen in your living room. TelyHD from Tely Labs already is on the market ($249, www.Tely.com), while the similar Samsung inTouch is due out soon ($199.99, www.Samsung.com). Though a computer is not necessary, these devices do require high-speed Internet service and a TV with an HDMI port. Easy cell phone. If all you want from your cell phone is the ability to make and receive phone calls easily, the emporiaSOLIDplus might be for you. Emporia, an Austrian company, has been making easy-to-use communication products for 20 years, but it only now is entering the US market. SOLIDplus has an oversized, easy-to-read display, large buttons, an extra-loud speakerphone, a simple user interface—none of the complexities of smartphones—and a one-touch “call for care” button to quickly reach an emergency contact. It’s also rugged enough to survive most drops. The SOLIDplus is expected to reach the US market this spring. The company had not yet announced which carriers will offer the phone, but AT&T and/or T-Mobile are the most likely, based on Emporia’s technology. Price: Less than $150 unlocked (adaptable to various carriers)…or less when subsidized by a carrier. www.EmporiaTelecom.com VIDEO CAMERA A great new video camera to transmit events live… Digital video camera that can send images directly to the Internet. The new Sony Bloggie Live HD Camera is a compact, lightweight digital video camera that lets users live-stream video directly to the Internet. Now if a family member can’t make it to Junior’s graduation or basketball game, you can shoot it so that he/she can watch it live online.Important: For the live-streaming feature, the device requires an accessible WiFi signal at the shooting location. The Bloggie also can record high-definition video on the camera’s eight-gigabyte internal flash memory and upload it wirelessly to the Internet or a computer later. It’s capable of taking 12.8-megapixel still images, too. It’s already on the market. Price: $249.99. http://Store.Sony.com ENERGY SAVERS Hundreds of products at this year’s show claim to reduce electricity usage. Trouble is, most of them save only pennies a day or less, not enough to justify their cost. Among the energy savers that might save enough to be worth buying… Simple, inexpensive home automation. The Belkin WeMo Home Control Switch lets you turn on or off an electrical device in your home from anywhere in the world, with an app for your smartphone. It could be a money saver if you use it to turn off an electricity-hog home appliance, such as an air conditioner or your computer, that you forgot to power down when you dashed out the door. Or combine the Home Control Switch with theWeMo Motion Sensor so that lights and other electrical devices turn on or off whenever you enter or leave the room. (Both devices draw a nominal amount of electricity.) These are far from the first home-automation products capable of these feats, but unlike earlier devices, WeMo is inexpensive and WiFi-based, so there are no installation costs. It’s due out this summer. Price: $49.99 for a Home Control Switch that controls one outlet, or $99.99 for the Motion Sensor and a Home Control Switch. www.Belkin.com Thermostat that teaches itself to heat your home efficiently. The Nest Learning Thermostat studies your family’s daily and weekly habits by asking you a few simple questions after installation and analyzing when you adjust the temperature manually during the initial week or so of use. The Nest has sensors that can detect if everyone leaves the house without remembering to turn down the heat or air-conditioning. Then it attempts to adjust your home’s temperature to minimize heating and air-conditioning bills without sacrificing comfort. It has WiFi, too, so you can access it from a computer or smartphone when you’re out and ensure that the home’s temperature will be comfortable when you return earlier than usual. The Nest’s makers say that the device will save home owners an average of $173 in year one. If so, it will pay for itself in a little over a year, particularly if you’re capable of wiring in the thermostat on your own—it’s about the same difficulty as installing a light fixture. Price: $249. www.Nest.com Affordable LED lightbulbs. You may already know that LED lightbulbs use significantly less electricity than other bulbs—85% less than standard bulbs and 35% less than compact fluorescents. But if you are like most people, you haven’t switched to LED bulbs yet because of their price—typically upward of $35 per bulb. Lighting Science’s A19 LED World Bulb is a new omnidirectional 60-watt equivalent bulb that is expected to sell for less than half that price. Its maker says that the bulb will pay for itself in about eight months—not bad for a bulb that may last 17 years. It’s due out in the US by the end of 2012. Price: Less than $15. www.lsgc.com FITNESS MONITOR Digital devices that track activity and estimate how many calories have been burned are nothing new, but a clever device has improved on the concept… More accurate exercise tracker. The BodyMedia FIT Armband doesn’t just measure how long you’ve been exercising to gauge how many calories you burn. It collects data from the surface of your skin, including skin temperature, perspiration rate and rate of heat dissipation, then uses that information to estimate caloric burn with 95% accuracy. It compares the number of calories burned with the targets you have set and acts as a coach, offering detailed advice for how to meet your goal—spend a half-hour walking on the treadmill before bed, for example. Price: $179 plus $6.95 per month for access to the FIT coach personal feedback and occasional software upgrades. www.BodyMedia.com Source: David Carnoy, an executive editor with the technology Web site CNET, New York City, a division of CBS. He has been reviewing consumer electronics for more than 15 years. www.CNET.com

7 Basic Tips for Twitter Success

admin — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 22:18:44 +0000

Acquire Twitter followers – quantity is important
Engage and develop Twitter followers within your niche using Tweepi (Tweepi.com makes it easy to follow followers of influential bloggers on Twitter) or Twellow.com (Twellow provides a tool that enables you to find powerful Twitter follower lists in your niche) – this is the quality part of the Twitter equation
Share the content of influential Twitter people and let them know by including their Twitter name eg @Jeffbullas
Automate the tweeting of other bloggers content that you trust and add value to your followers with other peoples articles and content
Tweet regularly and consistently the posts of other influential bloggers in your topic category
Automate the retweeting of your great content so it is not forgotten and buried in the archives (SocialOomph professional can be setup to do this)
When tweeting your posts include # tags that deliver the Tweet to # groups/lists eg #SocialMedia

SchoolFeed: The Facebook app everyone needs to avoid

admin — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 23:08:46 +0000

By Andrew Couts
Provided by

Late one evening about a month ago, I received a notification on Facebook saying that one of my friends had invited me to join SchoolFeed, a Classmates.com-like social network that connects users with old high school buddies. The service uses a Facebook Canvas app to scrape a wide breadth of user data, and automatically build user profiles on Facebook and its stand-alone site. Mindlessly, I approved the SchoolFeed app — which is the only way to join SchoolFeed — and promptly forgot all about it.

The next day, I noticed a surprising number of notifications from SchoolFeed in my inbox saying that others had added me to their network. Intrigued that so many were using the service — I clicked on SchoolFeed, and quickly realized that I would likely never use it. I’ve already connected with most of my classmates on Facebook, after all. Why do I need an entirely separate service to do the same? Bored and put-off, I promptly removed the app from my Facebook account, and decided to forget the whole thing all over again — or so I thought.

Frustration builds

Since deleting the SchoolFeed app on Facebook, I have received more than a dozen notifications saying that “so-and-so has added [me] as a friend on SchoolFeed.” Odd, I thought, considering I’d removed the app weeks ago. I checked my list of apps on Facebook and, sure enough, SchoolFeed was nowhere to be found. I asked some of my friends on Facebook if they’d had a similar experience. They had.

“I’ve told it I dont know how many times to block the [SchoolFeed] app, but it doesnt do anything,” says Alan Hughes, a friend and fellow Facebook user. “I just told a post from the app on my Timeline two times to ‘Remove All Actions by SchoolFeed,’ and then marked it as spam, and each time the post stays exactly where it is, nothing has changed. and it has never even been listed in my apps list.”

A number of other Facebook friends told similar stories. Those I spoke with also said they didn’t know that they were signing up for an entirely different service, outside the confines of Facebook, when they approved the SchoolFeed app. With my suspicions confirmed, I decided to look deeper into why SchoolFeed maintains user accounts even though those users have revoked approval for the Facebook app. So far, I’ve been met only with silence.

What is SchoolFeed, anyway?

Before I go on, some background: Founded by Lance Tokuda, co-founder and former CEO of social game-maker RockYou, SchoolFeed is a free “classmate network.” SchoolFeed allows users to not only find people who attended the same high school, but also people in the same graduating year — a granular search option that Facebook lacks. Unlike its competitor Classmates.com, SchoolFeed is free to use. SchoolFeed users can earn virtual currency on the site by posting content, adding friends, or other activities. As TechCrunch reports, the virtual currency can then be used to play Bingo, or access real-life yearbooks, which users can upload to the site. And just this month, SchoolFeed debuted a new service that allows users pay $40 to have SchoolFeed upload their entire yearbook for them.

Launched last summer, SchoolFeed currently boasts around 10 million users, and has so far raised about $1.75 million in funding from First Round Capital, CrossLink Capital, Interwest Partners, and SK Telecom.

Questions, questions, questions

The SchoolFeed app pulls nearly all your personal and network information from your Facebook account — a detail I foolishly overlooked before approving the app. This includes all your basic information (name, gender, list of friends, etc), profile information (likes, dislikes, movies, books, music, etc), and all your photos. It also allows SchoolFeed to send you emails at the address associated with your Facebook login, and to post updates and game scores on your behalf. While this might be a bit much for some users, access of this kind is not out of the norm. Naively, I assumed that access to this information would be revoked as soon as I disallowed the app. Not so.

After I realized that removing the SchoolFeed app did nothing, I visited the SchoolFeed website to see how toactually delete my profile. I immediately hit a brick wall: In order to delete your SchoolFeed account, you must re-approve the Facebook app, once again allowing the service access to all your information. At that point, I started to get angry. So I did what any perturbed tech journalist does in such a scenario: I started asking questions.

My first email went out to Facebook. Here are the questions I sent:

1. If a Facebook user approves SchoolFeed, but later removes the app, is SchoolFeed violating any terms of service by keeping a user’s Facebook data, even though the user has revoked the app’s approval?

2. If yes, do any other apps do this, and can you provide any examples?

3. Have a significant number of users reported SchoolFeed for being spam?

4. Has Facebook received any other complaints about SchoolFeed?

I then took a look into SchoolFeed’s Terms of Service, and privacy policy – documents I imagine practically zero users read before approving the Facebook app. What I found did not boost my opinion of the site, to say the least. Like this bit from the privacy policy, for example:

“SchoolFeed may disclose your personal information to third parties from time to time in our sole discretion. For this reason you should not disclose information to SchoolFeed that you do not want shared with third parties.”

The only contact information I could find for SchoolFeed was a mailing address (useless for my purposes), and a customer support email address. I sent over an interview request to that address, and a day later received an email from none other than SchoolFeed CEO Lance Tokuda, asking that I direct my questions to Vinay Mahagaoka, SchoolFeed’s chief technology officer. So, I did just that.

Here are the questions I sent Mr. Mahagaoka early Tuesday morning:

1. Why did your company choose to require that users sign up/log in via a Facebook application?

2. Why does SchoolFeed maintain a user’s profile after that user has deleted the SchoolFeed Facebook app?

3. Have you received any complaints about keeping users’ profiles open after they delete the Facebook app, and would SchoolFeed considering changing this requirement? Why, or why not?

4. SchoolFeed’s privacy policy reads: “SchoolFeed may disclose your personal information to third parties from time to time in our sole discretion. For this reason you should not disclose information to SchoolFeed that you do not want shared with third parties.”

Does this mean that SchoolFeed may, at any time, sell or lease user data imported from Facebook via the SchoolFeed app to third-parties? Does “third-parties” ever include advertising or marketing companies? And does SchoolFeed’s policy on this matter differ in any way from how Facebook handles user data?

At the time of this writing, I have heard back from neither Facebook nor SchoolFeed — not particularly surprising, considering all the other press I’ve come across about SchoolFeed has read like press releases.

Conclusion

In the end, I begrudgingly re-approved the SchoolFeed app, and went through the laborious process of skipping setup steps, so that I could actually delete my account. To SchoolFeed’s credit, they make this option bright and clear at the top of the “Help” page.

So, if deleting a SchoolFeed account is so simple, why this superfluous tirade? Because I feel genuinely deceived by SchoolFeed. I believe my right to share my private information how I see fit was violated by not explicitly informing me that my Facebook information would be ported to an entirely different website. Moreover, I’m supremely annoyed that deleting my unwanted SchoolFeed profile required such a run-around — and I know for certain that at least some other Facebook users feel equally duped and frustrated. It is precisely these kinds of garbage tactics that app makers should avoid. Not only does it make me despise your service, it sheds ill light on Facebook, as well. And the fact that neither company bothered to respond to my questions suggests they have no good justification for doing business in this manner.

Perhaps I’m wrong about all of this. Perhaps I’m just cranky and need to relax. Perhaps I’m just wasting my time. But if my silly little diatribe about a spammy Facebook app saves some equally poor sap from going through the same hassle, then I’m happy.

What’s The Best Cross-Platform File System?

admin — Sat, 17 Mar 2012 02:18:26 +0000

Good question. It’s something that I’ve been thinking about and something that for a while annoyed the hell out of me. Realistically there are three operating systems that someone (or at least a tech-geek) might have on their system –Windows, Linux (of some variety) and Mac OS X (apple-labelled or otherwise) and the ideal filesystem is one that works properly on all three.

By doing this it makes it much easier to realistically use your music, documents etc properly and successfully on all three. As an example, I might have 3 primary partitions, – one for each of the operating systems – and then a logical partition for documents (plus another for linux swap). Of course this will work equally well with another drive acting as the documents repository (something that I’m planning to do shortly as a multitude of home videos, photos, music and podcasts threaten to completely fill my current drive). External hard drives are a must have device nowadays.

So let’s survey the contenders.

FAT32 Cross-Platform File System

Advantages:

Works natively and perfectly in all three operating systems.

Disadvantages:

No journalling.
Relatively low maximum partition size (2 Terabytes – not attainable yet but will be).
Inefficient at large partition sizes.
Maximum file size limited at 4GB.

NTFS

Advantages:

Works natively and perfectly in Windows.
Other operating systems support read support natively.
Robust and journalled.
Very high limits on maximum partition size
Very high limits on maximum file size.
Generally efficient at large partition sizes.

Disadvantages:

Requires third party software to allow for write support on Linux and Mac OS X.
Slower on Linux and Mac OS X because of the use of FUSE.
Proprietary filesystem patented, and at the whim of, Microsoft.

Ext3 - Cross-Platform File System

Advantages:

Works natively and perfectly on Linux.
Generally fast, journalled filesystem.
High file and partition size limits.

Disadvantages:

Requires third party software to allow for any access under Windows or Mac OS X.
Third party software tends only to support ext2 resulting in extra file system checks (and these are slow).

HFS+

Advantages:

Works natively and perfectly on Mac OS X.
Works natively and perfectly on Linux (without journalling)
Generally fast, journalled file system (but journalling must be disabled for Linux)
High file and partition size limit

Disadvantages:

Requires third party software to allow for any access under Windows.
Linux access requires disabling journalling.
Free HFSExplorer is not integrated into the Windows explorer.
Commercial MacDrive (with full Windows explorer integration) is not free of charge.

One important point to note is that until not so long ago NTFS write access was just impossible outside of Windows but thanks to the fine NTFS-3G project that limitation is now not an issue.

So what’s the verdict? Well, only last year I couldn’t possibly imagine myself saying this but for me the answer is NTFS. Pretty much all the NTFS features of importance are supported by the aforementioned NTFS-3G project while ext3 features only limited support due to only ext2 support with most options on the other operating systems. Needless to say, FAT32 is something I ruled out because I constantly hit upon the 4GB limit – though I must add that for the longest time (i.e. before NTFS-3G) this was the filesystem of choice for me. HFS+ is ruled out due to its commericial software requirement on Windows (although if you are comfortable using it without Explorer integration or paying for the software, then it may be an option for you, especially if OS X is your primary OS).

As mentioned Windows of course features native support for NTFS (how could it not!) but for Linux and Mac OS X a little work will be required. The great thing about NTFS-3G and linux of course is that in the future it will probably find its way into the kernel, or if not then at least into many distros. This hopefully will mean that no extra work is required! [Update: As of Ubuntu 7.10, NTFS write support is enabled by default.]

For now though there is stuff to be done but it’s not hard. I followed the instructions over at the Ubuntu Forums. Mac OS X installation instructions may be found at Mac OS X NTFS-3G’s unofficial homepage and is made possible by the fortunate and timely release of Google’s MacFUSE project.

The end result? Beautiful cross-platform file system bliss as I can read, write and modify to my heart’s content whichever OS I happened to have booted. The one problem with FUSE hinted at earlier is because it’s a user-space system it runs a little slower than a natively supported file system. However given that the solution is (IMHO) so much better than FAT32 and will probably get better in the future I think it’s just fine.

As the years go on the operating systems will consider becoming compatible with each other. Macs and Windows are getting closer every day.

Happy filesysteming!

Pandora is giving ‘mass quantities’ of your information away

admin — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 20:03:12 +0000

By Molly McHugh
Provided by

This week in Apps That Screw You Over, Pandora comes front and center.Federal investigators set their sights on the music streaming site’s mobile app to determine whether or not it was collecting and distributing private user information to third parties – illegally. Of course, Pandora isn’t the only app being surveyed, and claims that apps are being looked at “on an industry-wide basis.”

While the results of the investigation aren’t in yet, Internet security firmVeracode decided to conduct its own research into the matter. And according to the company, “your personal information is being transmitted to advertising agencies in mass quantities.” Veracode claims that its own tests revealed that the Pandora app for Android is tied to advertisement libraries for AdMarvel, AdMob, comScore (SecureStudies), Google.Ads, and Medialerts. The study also took at look at what kinds of data Pandora is storing in these libraries. GPS locations, user birthdays, genders, and postal codes were among the types of information the app has been giving away.

Of course, Pandora does have a decent defense in this situation. The music streaming service claims that in order to generate music based on your preferences, it needs to access some of this personal information.

Finding that mobile apps are sharing user info with third parties isn’t a revelation, but Pandora is currently in the midst of going public and would do well to stay out of any legal trouble during the time being. Veracode puts its allegations into context, saying, “consider for a moment that your current location is being tracked while you are at your home, office, or significant other’s house. Couple that with your gender and age and then with your geolocated IP address. When all that is placed into a single basket, it’s pretty easy to determine who someone is, what they do for a living, who they associate with, and any number of other traits about them.” Of course, this won’t get too serious until the federal investigation comes to a close, whenever that will be.

Facebook Spy Software – Protect Your Children

admin — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 00:58:37 +0000

Facebook Spy Software is designed to give you the inside edge on keeping tabs on your child’s online activities. Facebook spy apps are ideally suited for parents who want to shield their children from online threats like bullies or sexual predators. Specifically, Facebook monitoring software provides parents with the inside information they need to identify and respond to potential threats, including:

Access to Sent and Received Messages

When your children are “chatting” through social networking platforms like Facebook, they are vulnerable to predators of all types and ages. Facebook spy apps send a copy of all chatting sessions to the parent’s user account where they can review them in detail and take appropriate action where warranted. And with Facebook Spy Software, your children will never be aware that their chatting activities are monitored.

Full Access to Your Child’s Social Circle

One of the biggest reasons to consider using a Facebook Spy App is because your children may try to hide acquaintances that you do not approve of or other people whom you have never met. Because there are blocks on Facebook and similar programs, they may succeed in hiding their social network from you. But when you monitor computing activities using Facebook Spy Software, you will be able to keep tabs on the people that you child “follows” online and see all of their friends—even those they try and hide from you.

Security and Safety

Chances are your children know more about the computer than you do and are skilled at hiding activities they don’t’ want you to know about. For example we showcased some tricks that children know in an article titled “7 Computer Tips You Won’t Learn From Your Mom“. Facebook Spy Software allows you to monitor your child’s communications and connections in secret.

By giving parents the peace of mind to know what their children are up to, Facebook Spy Software is an indispensable tool for online safety. But while Facebook Spy Apps are great for monitoring social activities on Facebook, they cannot track all computing activities.

To fully track and record all computer activities, look for complete PC Monitoring Software with the following capabilities:

Keystroke Logging
Yahoo Messenger Spy
Facebook Spy Software
Surround Recording
Yahoo, Skype and MSN Call Recording
Automatic Screen Shots
Location Tracking (for laptops)

Facebook Spy Software is one of the most useful applications for monitoring a child’s communications on the most popular Social Networking platform on the planet. Once installed, Facebook Spy Apps provide parents with the surveillance tools they need to secretly monitor communications and identify potential threats to their children. While some may question the need for monitoring children using tools like Facebook Spy Software, the proliferation of online threats like bullies or sexual predators warrants their use. Here’s how you can quickly use Facebook Spy Apps each day to protect your children from potential threats:

Facebook Spy Software Lets You View All Incoming and Outgoing Instant Messages

“Chatting” or the use of Instant Messages is one of the most popular ways for sexual predators to meet potential victims as the television show To Catch a Predator illustrates. To protect your child from potential threats, Facebook Spy Apps let you see what your kids are talking about – even when they delete their IMs afterwards.

Facebook Spy Software Reveals Your Child’s Entire Social Network

Unless you use Facebook Spy Apps, your children will likely be able to hide their friends and connections from you. These can include untrustworthy acquaintances, bad influences, and people your children may never have met. These are hardly people you would want your child associating with and they can be quickly uncovered using Facebook Spy Software—even hidden contacts.

Checking on your child’s social network privacy settings is also essential and can not only protect them but to also stop them from putting their friends at risk from identity theft.

But Facebook Spy Software Cannot Monitor All Computer Communications

Although Facebook is certainly the largest social networking platform, it is by no means the only platform. Yahoo, MSN, and Skype are just a few of the other ways for your children to connect to other potential online threats. So rather than relying on a tool that monitors just one communication platform like Facebook Spy, you need comprehensive PC Monitoring Software.

To best protect your children from online threats, looking for computer monitoring software that includes the following surveillance applications:

Automatic Screen Shots When New Application Used
Skype, Yahoo and MSN Call Recording
Surround Recording
Keystroke Logger
Facebook Spy Software
Yahoo Messenger Spy Software

3 Tips For Making You Computer Run Faster

admin — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 22:45:06 +0000

3 Tips For Making You Computer Run Faster

We all get annoyed when our computers are slow but unfortunately most people put up with this state as they do not know what makes a computer run faster. The steps to speed up your computer are very easy to follow.

Whether you need a temporary boost in speed or something long-term, here are 3 tips for making a computer run faster, from easy tips like plugging in your laptop to difficult tips like over-clocking your computer processor.

Computer Tip #1: Turn Off Anti-Virus (Leave On Firewall)

When you need a quick speed boost to play a game or finish an assignment, try turning off your anti-virus software. As long as you don’t open any infected files you should be safe and the speed increase can be significant.

However, make sure that you don’t turn off your firewall when you disable your anti-virus. Firewalls use very little computer processing power but protect you against threats coming from the Internet.

Make sure you turn your anti-virus back on when you don’t need the extra speed anymore.

Computer Tip #2: Plug In Laptops

All laptops built in the last 10 years make their batteries last longer by slowing down the computer processor when you don’t seem to be using all of it. Although this works great to prolong battery life, it means that your laptop runs slower when it runs off battery.

To switch your laptop back into normal mode, all you have to do is plug in your laptop and the computer processor will run at full power, giving you 100% of the speed you expected when you bought the laptop.

Computer Tip #3: Close Unnecessary Programs

Right now my computer says there are 198 programs running—but that’s a lie. Computers can only run one program at the same time for each computer processor in your computer. My computer only has one processor, so it can only run one program.

Computers hide this secret by switching between running programs thousands of times faster than humans can perceive. They switch between programs so fast that computer processor times are measured in nanoseconds.

But keeping up this illusion of running multiple programs at the same time requires extra computer processing speed—speed you can easily add to your most important programs just by closing down your least important programs. If you need a speed boost, start by closing any applications you’re not using; then close any programs in your task bar that you’re not using.

Closing unnecessary programs can easily double the speed of an overloaded computer.

Google’s privacy shift: Everything you need to know

admin — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 19:43:30 +0000

By Geoff Duncan Provided by Google’s new all-encompassing privacy policy went into effect March 1, meaning the company has started treating information it gathers across dozens of its subsidiary sites — things like GMail, YouTube, Blogger, Shopping, News, Maps, Books, Google+, and more — all as a single entity, rather than as dozens of little sub-entities each with their own caches of information about a user. Google says the new policy isn’t really a change: it’s not collecting any new data about people, it’s just going to start using that information uniformly across its services. For example, interests and topics Google picks up on by reading your Gmail might influence the recommended videos and advertisements that appear on YouTube. Shopping habits of your friends on Google+ might influence ads appearing in your Google search results. For some people, this is no big deal — in fact, many Internet users assumed Google had been doing this all along. For others, it’s a tremendous shift away from the company’s now almost-forgotten mantra, “don’t be evil.” By combining user information across accounts and services, not only will Google have one-stop-shopping for potentially enormous amounts of personal information about users, but that information will be used to target advertising. And even more people may have no idea the change is imminent: according to Big Brother Watch, only 12 percent of Google users have actually read Google’s new privacy policy. (We recommend you give it a glance.) So — how is all this going to work? It’s mostly about Google accounts The first (and perhaps most important) thing to remember is the bulk of information Google collects about users — and, in turn, uses to fuel its ad sales and to customize your Google experience — is associated with Google accounts. That means as soon as you’re logged into Google (whether to check email, upload a video, check your Google+ profile, comment on Blogger, view your custom News page, etc) Google is tracking your activities and associating them specifically with you. Over time — and really not very much time — Google may be able to assemble a surprisingly complete dossier of your location, career and work, interests, friends, social circles, habits, and more. This process produces even more-comprehensive results for users who stay logged in to Google constantly, whether from a traditional notebook or desktop computer and/or an Android-powered device. Although Android smartphones don’t have to be tied to a Google account to use basic phone features, they do have to be tied to a Google account to use things like Gmail, Google Talk, and the Android Market. If you use a Google account, here are some ways to limit what Google tracks about you: Web History: Google keeps track of every Web search you perform when you’re logged in to a Google account, storing it all in the account’s “Web history.” You can view the Web History associated with an account (you have to be logged in). Google provides access to the information by date (you can potentially see your Web searches for as long as your Google account has existed; Google even provides a total number of stored searches), and enables users to remove selected items of their Web history — so those searches of manga sites you did while trying to figure out what the cool kids were talking about won’t come back to haunt you. Web History can be limited to just searches, or can be expanded to include full text of pages you’ve visited. The Web History page enables users to limit Web History to just pages they’ve visited, or turn off Web History entirely, so Google doesn’t store any history information. Users can also delete any existing Web history altogether. For maximum privacy, turn off Web history and delete any history Google has stored. Doing this also means Google will not be able to use the information to personalize your search results or ads. (A terminology note: Google doesn’t consider Web History disabled or turned off, merely “paused.”) YouTube History: Google may be unifying all its privacy policies under one umbrella, but that doesn’t mean all of Google’s services have their settings in one place. (There is the Google Dashboard, which at least collects together links to individual services’ settings.) If you use YouTube, it’s a good idea to check your account’s YouTube History, which includes both a history of videos you’ve watched and searches you’ve conducted on YouTube while logged in to an account. YouTube divides these into two separate tabs in the YouTube settings: to maximize privacy (and reduce the amount of information Google uses to customize services and push ads) click both “Clear all search history” and the “Pause” buttons for viewing and search history. Again, Google doesn’t actually say it turns data collection off, it just “pauses” it. Gmail: Gmail is, of course, a treasure-trove of information about individual Google users. Google employees don’t read Gmail, but Google’s computer programs do, looking for words, phrases, and contact information it can use to bolster your dossier. Once Google has read a message (which it does even before it arrives in your inbox) any information gleaned from it is whisked away. You can delete the message, but it’s already too late to prevent Google from analyzing its contents. However, by default, Google saves Google Talk chat histories in Gmail, and since Gmail has integrated Google Voice, that can include records of voice calls placed from your Google account. To disable Google Chat history, go to Gmail’s preferences (choose “Settings” from the gear icon within Gmail). To delete existing chat records, go to the “Chats” folder within Gmail, where you can manage chat records like they were email messages. Ads preferences: Are you a long-time Google account user? Here’s a setting that might scare you: if you’ve been carrying around a Google “id” cookie, you can look at a bit of the dossier Google has assembled about you in Ads Preferences. Depending what activity Google has monitored — and what information you’ve given to Google in your profiles and account data — Google may have a pretty accurate picture of your gender, age, location, and key interest areas. Google does enable users to opt out of its “id” cookie; if you opt-in, you can even tell Google what sorts of ads you’re most interested in seeing. Use other Google services (like News, Docs, Calendar, or Blogger) that might store information about your activities? Check out the Google Dashboard: it does not provide access to all settings, but should at least provide links to get you to the right place for any Google services associated with your account. What if you’re not logged in to Google? If you’re not logged in to a Google account, Google can still track some of your activity. If your browser or device doesn’t have one already, Google will give it a unique cookie so it can anonymously keep track of your activity on Google sites as long as that cookie is set. That enables Google to know the same person (or at least the same browser), which can be linked to Web searches, YouTube video views, and more, even if no account is signed in. Several popular Google services operate just fine without being signed in to Google: these include Web search (it won’t be personalized with social connections), Google Maps (Google will still use any location info entered to serve ads), and YouTube (you can watch, but you can’t comment or share). However, even if you’re not signed in, Google still keeps track of plenty of personal bits. First off, it notes what IP address you’re using when you connect to Google, and uses that information to generate your location. Although most IP addresses don’t identify a particular location (like 1001 Sample Street, Sausalito), they are almost always good enough to get a general area (like “San Francisco” or “North Bay.”) However, enough information is associated with some IP addresses to let Google narrow down location to a particular address, and there’s no easy way for users to tell if they’re using one. Examples would include cafes, libraries, and other places offering Wi-Fi, as well as businesses and other organizations with static IP addresses. You cannot turn off Google’s efforts to assess your location by IP address; it considers this action essential to providing their services. Google will also store search strings, note what search results and advertisements you click, and keep track of what videos you watch, even if you’re not logged in — the information is just stored with that anonymous cookie instead of an account. If you then log in to a Google account while that anonymous cookie is on your browser, Google can then tie the two together. Google also collects information about the devices and software you use to connect to Google services — although they’re absolutely not unique about this. Virtually every Web site on the Internet does the same thing. How to control what Google knows… at least a little If you’re concerned about what Google might collect about you once the new privacy policy is in effect, here are a few additional things you could do: Remove the Google Toolbar: The Google Toolbar is a browser add-on for Internet Explorer and (formerly) Firefox that provides quick access to search history, bookmarks, and email that’s often distributed as an add-on bundle with third-party products. Google Toolbar makes it convenient to search the Web and email, but the Toolbar also relies heavily on Google’s Web History (see above), and can provide location information to third parties. These days, Google Toolbar’s functions are largely subsumed by search fields and other function built into browsers: if you’re still using Google Toolbar and are concerned about what Google knows about you, uninstall it. And “pause” your Web History (see above). Don’t Log In: Of course, the simple way to avoid having Google track your actions is not to use Google services, or at least not to log into Google services when you don’t need them. For desktop computer users, there are plenty of alternative services available, from Vimeo for online video to Yahoo and Hotmail for free email to Bing for searching to Mapquest for mapping. Of course, all those services also do everything they can to track users’ actions and interests. Android users, however, are kind of stuck: once an Android device has been associated with a Google account, the system offers no way to log out, and the only reliable way to remove the account association is through a factory reset. Android does offer some settings and preferences to help secure information (for instance, users can choose not to share location information), and several utilities are available to protect access to things like Gmail, and to remote wipe lost or stolen devices. Again, users’ best option to prevent Google from assembling or augmenting a dossier is not to use the Google services built into Android phones — including Search, Maps, YouTube, Gmail, Calendar, and more. What about Do Not Track and Third-Party Cookies? Desktop and mobile browsers increasingly offer advanced settings to disable so-called third-party cookies — tracking cookies set by a service other than the particular Web site you’re visiting. Similarly, modern browsers are increasingly supporting Do Not Track, a new standard that requests remote sites not engage in user tracking for a particular connection. Google’s even getting in on the act, pledging Do Not Track support for Google Chrome. Disabling third party cookies won’t help you stay private from Google. When you execute a search on Google or watch a video on YouTube, you’ve explicitly chosen to use that service: Google is a first party, not a third party. It will, however, help keep Google’s advertising subsidiary, DoubleClick, from placing cookies on your browser when you visit sites using DoubleClick services. Google has pledged to honor “Do Not Track” requests as a participant in the Obama administration’s Consumer Privacy Bill of Rights. However, Google has not yet implemented support for Do Not Track across its services, and clicking a Do Not Track button in a browser will do nothing to change the amount of information Google gleans from users who are signed in to Google accounts or, say, reads from Gmail. It’s not the end of the world Users who are deeply concerned about their online privacy can take additional steps to ensure the information Google and others potentially collect about them is minimized. Popular options include anonymization services and proxies (which essentially route Internet traffic through separate computers so there’s no direct link back to a users’ device — but, of course, you have to ask yourself whether you trust the service). The National Advertising Initiative also supports a way to opt out of advertising by its members, which includes Google and most of the major players in the online advertising arena — of course, it works using a cookie, so if you delete cookies (or switch to a different device) you have to opt out again. Add-ons and plug-ins accomplishing similar things are available for Firefox and Chrome. (See a list here, at bottom of page.) Despite the uproar about online privacy, however, most consumers just don’t seem to care. Many don’t see the harm in Google and other companies knowing about their interest, movements, and location in exchange for free services and directed advertising — some consumers like personalized advertising that’s aware of their preferences and current location. And it’s important to remember that a huge number of online sites and services are supported solely by advertising: the more relevant that advertising is to their users, the more clicks they get, the more commissions they earn, and the longer they can continue offering their service — or (gasp!) even improve it. Whether you’re a privacy maven, a happy fully-logged user of Google services, or somewhere in between, the most important thing is probably to understand what information Google is collecting, how it’s being used, and being sure you’re comfortable with it.