Sea (or River) of Information

If you are like me, you remember the whine of dial-up internet when it was quicker to just go talk to your boss than it was to send him an email. Yes, the early days of the "World Wide Web." Before we even knew about Google and when we did we had no idea that it would be an important or even vital part of our day when looking for information on line.

I actually "googled" the question "How many websites are launched each day?" politely read on the link listed, "No answer!"

But as I read down I did find something from the BBC that was listed:

August 1995 - 18,957 - I can believe that.
December 2001 - 36,276,252 - I can believe that (and it was a long time ago)

Then there is all this geek speak about indexing, pages vs. real websites, blah, blah, blah... my point is to look at the growth of the information available to us in just a few short years and it is going through the roof everyday.

How do you find what you are looking for, especially when you aren't quite sure exactly what it is that you are looking for?

I mentioned previously in a post about recipes, you have a snowy day on your hands, you have a little time to unwind and cook up something fun, only you don't know exactly what it may be? Also I did another post about Movies, how do you know you will like the one you choose, or if it is appropriate to take your kids to?

Too many sites, too many choices. Not enough time and you want your choice to be a good one.

The same goes for books. We all know that Amazon is not only a 4,000 mile river across Brazil, but it is also a behemoth of a website that sells just about everything you can imagine including books.

How do you find just the right book?

I have the answer. This gem of a website called Flashlight Worthy self proclaimed as "Handpicked Book Recommendations on Hundreds of Topics" they really are especially good if you are in search of something special for a relative or a friend and you aren't exactly sure which book to buy!

FLW asks for real recommendations from real people. They ask for people to share their book lists. They are 2 people trying to help people find the right book and I think it works. They have passion.

They also get a referral fee from Amazon for every time you use their site and end up on Amazon's. (So Amazon sees FLW's value.) AND you are being good to real people at the same time! (And no, I am not getting paid for this recommendation, nor am I for any!)

Consider this, the next time you think about going to the "Big Daddy" of websites, try out Flashlight Worthy, first - you won't be sorry!

Don't blame it on the internet!

It seems that all around us are scams.
And more identity theft.

I had a friend of mine say to me around Christmas, "I never use my credit card online because of the risk of it being stolen." At the time I was saying, "Well, you know ANYTIME, anywhere you use your credit/debit card, you run a risk of it, or the personal information attached to it, to be stolen."

I know, we all are shaking our heads, right? It can be stolen even if it is swiped in a machine at grocery store checkout line. It happened here in Maine - Hannaford Supermarket. Got people pretty mad. It can be stolen just about anywhere these days. It wasnt long ago we were just rummaging through the trash to make sure the carbons were ripped up! Now it isn't that easy!

The latest big one is Heartland. Again customers in Maine were effected. I had a friend that was on the road and learned by a "CONTACT YOUR BANK" notice after attempting to purchase something. So don't let that happen to you.

First, to see if your bank is on the list check the link here. It is being billed as the Year's First Major Information Breach by bankinfosecurity.com.

Isn't that "special" to be first of 2009?

I guess short of putting all your money in your mattress, since Banks have warehoused data (all on line), there really isn't much you can do. Their Data Warehouses are as secure as the next hacker attack, I am afraid.

Other banks effected by other breaches this year.

She said "WHAT?"

I finally figured it out. I have been getting a bit frustrated with the tone of some of the email messages I have been receiving over the past few months. They seemed to be from the same people, some of the emails were fine, clear and normal, while others seem well a bit snarky. Now anyone that knows me, realizes that I can "snark it up" with the rest of them, but I was surprised by some of them honestly. I was wondering what I had done wrong?

Then I got a new cell phone. Then I saw the light.

One liner emails may often send the wrong tone and you may not even know that you are doing it. I previously had this Motorola Razor phone for about 3 years and loved it, but I hated having to text from it, so I didn't.

If you are "text-ing" from your cell phone to someone else's cell phone and using their cell phone number, people expect short messages - it is a cell phone.

If you have a new fangled phone like I do, iPhone, HTC, Blackberry, etc. and you are sending a text message to someone's email address, it may land on their laptop or desktop or their phone. If they dont understand you are trying to get a quick reply off to them via text message, they may feel a bit jilted, where your normal messages may have a greeting or some pleasantries attached, most often text messages don't.

A little advice, if you have customers that you are trying to serve, keep this in mind. Let them know your "additional way of communicating" may be a means of efficiency in replying and not poor customer service. Their business is very important to you as well as offer them the alternative NOT to have you answer them through your phone. Often their relationship INCLUDES you as well as the service you provide them. Don't let speedy, new technology chip away at something you may have spent a long time time working at!

How many ways can you spell D-I-R-T-B-A-G?

Rather than to repeat two gems of data, I am going to provide you with links for each of them.

It is just more a sign of the times, right? More desperate people, more crime, more opportunists. Father Tom wrote in his blog about someone stealing a cell phone, then the thief calling cell phone owner's Granny and getting money transferred into a bank account in Canada, that was the "dirtbag's" and not the cell phone owner's.

I asked my friend Paul Hilchey Chandler about it, (he is my all favorite & time cell guru), he wrote some suggestions to help prevent this, so he wrote about it.

Both are great reads and worth your time. Especially, if you have kids that leave their phones unattended! Of course the kids "know it all" but they lose their phones anyway!

Peanut Butter & Tuna.... My favorite!

HA! I know, wierd science, right?
This morning I was listening to the local news and it was mentioned that my favorite tuna "Tonno Genova" was on the recall list, because even though it reads "with olive oil" there were a few batches made with SOYBEAN oil. Not a big deal to some people, but I have someone special to me with a soybean allergy and that makes buying food an adventure checking every label to make sure it mentions no soy, no vegetable oil or shortening, whatever. Our "effective" way of subsidizing the soybean industry makes them cheap so they are used in ways you never would believe. Even many peanut butters actually remove the peanut oil replace it with vegetable oil.

Here is my segway to peanut butter ... I went to the cupboard and found my tuna cans and went out to my favorite website for recalls. There are tons of them, but here is my favorite. It is a portal and you can access almost anything from there. You can even subscribe to a news feed for it, if you don't know how to subscribe to a feed, you may look at the post I made on a diffent blog about using Google Reader. This gives you a direct feed for anything posted and also you are able to add information to help other people. There is also a site from the Consumer Product Safety Council, neither of these sites are very sexy, but they are government sites and I think if less sexy is cheaper to the tax payer than I can handle it!

Here is the link with all the pertinent data for the "offending" tuna cans. But while I was poking around, I noticed information about the dreaded peanut butter recall that I wasn't expecting.

I have no children. So when peanut butter crackers and cookies, things like that were on the list, I thought I was doing my good deed for the day when I called my girlfriend with a daycare and passed on my brilliance. (Hardly, she knew about it of course, but I felt good sharing anyway.)

As I paged down the recall site today, I saw this.

American Nutrition, Inc. Announces a Voluntary Recall of Baked Dog Treats

Did anybody out there, hear about dog treats, dog bones or even consider that perhaps dog treats could be on this list?

Check your pantries and check this list over, because they are very much on the list from lots of different companies and products. And just like with people, salmonella can really take a fatal toll on puppies (we all give them some sort of chew bone while they are teething), older or immune compromised dogs (ie. cancer).

If it is true that all dogs "go to heaven," I hope it is also true that these "responsible" individuals from PCA, or Peanut Corporation of America in Blakely, GA~ GO TO HELL! (Too bad they are just going bankrupt!)

PS. Just posted on a news website today: ICE CREAM 2/28/09 (where will it end?)

Bad weather or weekends, must be time to cook!

I feel badly for the "printed word" business. At least when it comes to me. Newspapers, books and general cookbooks are not things I see myself buying anytime in the future. Most of my news I get as a feed to my Google Reader account, nearly all of my books I download from my audible account and cookbooks I use the internet to find some very neat recipes often many I see on the Food Network.

When you are using the internet for your recipes, there are no storage issues on bookshelves with old cookbooks that may only have a few recipes you like as well as the time it takes to find those gems. Searching through cookbooks takes forever and searching Google takes seconds. On foodnetwork.com or allrecipes.com you can have your own online recipe collection to look when you have time, access and print them when you are ready to use them. You also can go back to your account to these recipes the next time you want to use them. Here is a Tyler Florence Brownie recipe that I just tried. Yum, yum!

I guess my favorite site and where I feel most welcome as well as for efficiency sake and interaction is allrecipes.com. This is not a collection from chefs or contest winners. These recipes are generate by it's users. There are nutrition facts and you can also customize the recipe, there is a calculator that allows for how many servings and you can make shopping lists. Keep in mind these people are just like you and me and things are not tested in the famous Food Network kitchen like those on their sites. But I have never been steered wrong by anything I have tried on this site and it has become my site of choice.

I just set up my own account on allrecipes.com and am quickly gathering recipes. I can really see the benefit in doing that. Before I didn't bother to register on this site, I just poked around and found what I liked and printed it. So you can do what is right for you.

I also have my own blog that I have been gathering some of my own favorites, this is a benefit cookbook my friends and I are doing for an Atlantic Salmon River (the Margaree) in Nova Scotia. These recipes are our own and are simple and intended for the cook that is also a fisherman and wants a delightful meal that is easy at the end of the day of a long day in the stream.

I love internet sites for planning meals. I can do it anytime, now with my allrecipes.com account I can go in and see what I chose during a break at work and know what I am cooking on the weekend. I like to make things that I can simmer in a crockpot or freeze for eating during the week.

Movies are expensive enough - Make sure you are picking the right one!

I am getting a bit grumpy with listening to the phrase, "in these tough economic times..." we all know times are tough and I am not thinking that we need to be reminded 10 times a day!

But we do start looking at how we are spending our money as well as evaluating that once it is spent, how did we feel about spending it? No one loves to buy snow tires for their car or fix a water pipe that bursts, but in this post, we are talking about entertainment and that is a bit trickier. When you decide to part with a few bucks for a night out to see a movie with your kids, you want to make sure it is a great experience, right?

Finding the right movie is a trick. I am a bad one for this, because I usually talk to my girlfriends and then wait to rent it and watch it at home. But I have several friends that love a night or a rainy weekend afternoon out with the kids to be entertained. And often this is a last minute decision.

Using the local newspaper doesn't seem to cut it anymore and neither do a lot of websites. Most highly ranking googled websites are run by movie companies. Do you think they will tell you about their movie not being as great as it looked in the commercial?

A friend of mine recently (over the holidays) he took his son to Marley and Me.

When he told me, I said, "Wow that looks like a cute movie."
He said, "Did you know the dog died in the end?"
I said, "NO WAY!"

He said, "Neither did I - it certainly wasn't the kind of movie I expected and there wasn't a dry eye in the place when we left."

Oh boy, what a bummer. If you are prepared for this type of ending (Old Yeller, for example), perhaps you may make a different choice, or at least you are ... prepared!

My niece (9 y/o) loves Wall-E. In fact, we watched the DVD at our camp on Christmas Day. I thought it was silly, but very content appropriate for the people stretched out on couches in front of the woodstove watching it. NO TEARS!

But how do you know?

I remembered watching ABC Good Morning a few months back and they interviewed these two very sharp and amusing seniors that like movies and put together a YOU TUBE has a channel called "REEL GEEZERS." (website) "Marcia and Lorenzo" banter away (here is a great article about them in the LA Times) they don't always agree with each other, but they always cover how much violence or language is in a particular movie and lots of other things- ESPECIALLY if you are looking for something age appropriate and don't want to be slumping down in your chair or explaining things to your kids all the way home!!

The Reel Geezers are very amusing and very smart- they have an extensive background in stage and screen. Most of their reviews are about 5-8 minutes long and they are well worth watching and listening to, it is YOU TUBE it is FREE. If you decide to create your own channel, you can always save the reviews as favorites so you have them for later. Reel Geezers also seem to keep up with the latest releases, but when you are in the "renting mode" and are entertaining children that aren't your own it is really handy!

Time to get organized

January just ended and if you are like most people, you are going through the teeth gnashing experience of preparing your taxes. In previous years, maybe those little deductions weren't all that important, but boy don't you wish you had kept better track for this year? Now is the time with only one month into it to make it easier on yourself for year end 2009.

First, in my opinion, there is no substitute for a great CPA. Some one who is a friend and not a robot, someone you can tell your dreams to and share with. I am learning more and more each day the value and satisfaction of someone I can trust and shoots me an email when he thinks I should know something. His name is Tom Hicks and we call him "Father Tom" so you get the idea the type of person he is. His blogpost is a great one for you to peruse, it can help make your preparation easier. It is all about figuring out where to start!

I have a couple of my own tips to prepare me for the year ahead.

1. I went to an office supply store and bought an accordion file that lists the months on each tab. I didn't go on the cheap (tho what I bought was something like $13.99) and buy one that has only 6 tabs, buy one that has at 12 - 15 tabs. Mark the months on them yourself if you cannot find one with them marked all ready.
   
   
2. I Put the file next to my desk. I am throwing everything into that month for receipts as I get them. With this year being especially odd, new promises for change (who knows what that means at this point) - include gas receipts, meal receipts, car repair receipts. Keep them all together. If you are self employed or a small business, this is especially important. You don't want to lose a legitimate deduction, just because you forgot about it.
   
   
3. Easy online file sharing that is SAFE and SECURE! myclientvault.com is like a file cabinet with a user name and password for all your tax documents. If your CPA doesnt use it, it is a very economical way to store pdf files and very easy to use. Once you go there, you will see a video how to use it. It is great for the nights you wake up at 3 in the morning and you need access to a file you cannot find at home.
   
   

You could go to Turbo Tax or some other online service to file and I have to say, these services don't impress me. Call me old fashioned, but I am going to just load up all my personal information and ship it off to someone I don't know and it is nearly impossible to reach a live person if you have a question. Tactically, it seems to solve a problem of filing THIS year, but it is difficult to do any long range planning. I also found this interesting link of a security compromise in the Turbo Tax soft ware. How would you like other people looking at your stuff and you can look at theirs? You are a hacker and you didn't even know it!

And what about a more timely one of Giethner the new Treasury Secretary blaming Turbo Tax for his tax issues. If he can't figure out what Turbo Tax is doing, I surely can't! There is no substitute for real people.


Thank you Staples.com for the image.

It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, World

Are we hiding behind comments on blogs and news stories to vent our frustrations?

This is a particularly sad story involved a tragic fatal accident with a Fort Kent boy on a sled. When I read the comments, (before they had been deleted), I was disgusted and it made me never want to read the Bangor Daily News again. But this isn't their fault, this is our fault.

What is wrong with us?

I read the comment section to learn more, it is a habit of mine, maybe there is fresh perspective from the "citizen journalist" but lately the comments are personal attacks either between the "commenters", the news source, or the people involved with the news stories.

On 1/28/09 at 04:47 PM, JoshAlves wrote:

First, my sincere condolences to the families involved in this tragedy.

The comment section of this site is meant for readers to express thoughts, opinions and insight on stories. After receiving multiple reports concerning the disregard for common decency found in the comment section of this story, and reviewing them, all prior comments have been deactivated and a few accounts suspended for review.

Josh Alves

Manager of New Media

Bangor Daily News

Thank you Mr. Alves. I do not know you, but you obviously are a sensitive and sensible person. I do not believe your actions were censorship, but were defining the lines between free speech and bullying.

For readers out there, please - times are tough and people are mad about a lot of things, but please remember to READ these things OUT LOUD before you send them.

• Do you really want to say what you are saying?
• Would you say it to your mother?
• Would you want to hear your kids say it?

People leaving comments on blogs and news stories is growing- especially in Maine where we are often behind the power (or digital) curve.

We all need to do it sensibly.

iPOD, iTOUCH, iPHONE, (Aye, Aye, Aye!!)

I get it.
It is confusing.

And in the technical vernacular of a 6th grader, I am going to try to explain it. As usual I have to try it myself, so I can learn. So this is what I know about these things and what each product means to me as a potential user or purchaser.

1. iPOD - a music machine. Great place to put all your old Aerosmith tunes or Sonny & Cher CD's that your kids burned. Or things you download from an online music store. Simply put, it plays the things you put on it. My brother has an iPOD shuffle which is a tiny thing, he isn't a techie, but I also know a lot of techies that have them. I also have an iPOD, it was the first thing I truly fell in love with as a lover of music and audiobooks. But I'm not a lover of having to haul CD cases around all the time, or to get some place only to find that I am missing the perfect CD because I neglected to bring it. iPODs come in all sizes and colors to satisfy whatever you want to carry around with you. And they are so convenient!

2. iPOD TOUCH- this is a music machine and more, here is a video you can watch by clicking here. It plays music you load on it like iPOD, and it also works through an open WIRELESS connection. So if you have wireless in your house you can get on the internet and look up your favorite recipes on line and and use it in the kitchen. It also can download and play video only I don't think my old eyes could watch a full movie on that small screen. The screen is a "touch screen," holds calendars that you can synch up with your laptop (through iTunes), and iTunes works with PC's too (watch this video.) Also holds contacts, email, as well as many other applications you can download wirelessly, most are free. My favorite one is pandora.com - it is an internet music station. (another day for that one!)

I particularly LOVE the iPOD Touch because as I mentioned it works by wireless and not cellular. As long as there is a wireless connection available, once we bought it, it was paid for, no surprise bills or monthly fees. I can use it all over the place. I know there are tons more applications, but so far I have focused on the ones important to me.

3. iPHONE is a music machine and internet machine along with being a cellular phone. This is the key here. It works through CELLULAR, so you will need a contract with AT&T. I have nothing against AT&T, except we have terrible coverage up here in Maine (and I have been told poor coverage in many rural areas) so roaming and all kinds of other things may apply. For me, my real concern is the lack of coverage. When cell phones are searching, searching, searching, searching for a signal the batteries drain quickly. Often times I know I am in an area where there is spotty coverage (like Kingfield, Maine- for example) and I just turn my cell phone off to save the battery for the time I get to a place that has coverage.

So which is better?

I think it all comes down to lifestyle and where you work and play. For me, since I play off the grid and often travel off the grid, I don't want to have a phone that is off the grid 50% of the time, or roaming when my current service provider (Central Maine Wireless- US Cellular) covers me 98% of the time. ALSO I can still use my iPOD TOUCH for many other things whether I have a wireless connection or not. It still works and my music is there, my photos are there, calendar, etc. So it is very effective even when I am in a place where wireless isn't available and in the meantime I still have battery power to use it!

More Identity Theft

This is a scam that originated in August of 2005, settled down for a while and now seems to be ignited again.

You are to do your civic responsibility and report for Jury Duty. Most people don't like having rearrange their whole lives around sitting in a room awaiting for their to be name called. And more and more people are deciding to skip out on this responsibility. But arrest warrants can be issued for people that fail to appear for jury duty, so deciding not to or thinking you didn't report when called on, can create an intimidating situation.

Of course then enter the "opportunists." The phone rings at your house and the caller claims to be a jury coordinator.

If you tell them you never received a summons for jury duty, the caller asks you for your Social Security number and date of birth so it can be verified.

Once they "verify your PERSONAL information" they tell you they can cancel the arrest warrant. What you don't know is they aren't verifying anything, they aren't canceling any warrant, they ARE stealing your identity, but in reality, you just gave it to them.

This all may sound silly to you, but do check in with your parents or other seniors in your life. They are particularly at risk for these schemes and the callers tend to be bullies.

The FBI and the federal court system have issued nationwide alerts on their web sites, warning consumers about the fraud.

Here is a link to the page on the FBI site, so you can read it for yourself. And like a previous post on this blog, snopes has it too.

A funny thing happened while Social Media - "ing"

Most of the readers of this blog are new to, or trying to deal with, technology and how it effects their lives. I don't mind mentioning I am in that place too! That is the objective of this blog. I share as I learn and hope you will share what you learn with us too!

Many of you may have heard of FACEBOOK, MYSPACE & Linked-In and I have talked about them here and they are becoming bigger and bigger and there are more users using them every day. There is another tool, called a microblog named Twitter. I linked these all to descriptions on my website that explain them so if you have questions you can get answers there.

But here is the funny thing. I joined Twitter a little over a year ago (I think.) It was something I heard about people doing and at first I didnt understand it. There are countless blog entries "preaching to the choir" about how Twitter works and all us Twitter users read them, comment on them and we think it is great. But WE ALL READY know Twitter works, it is how you can use social networks to YOUR benefit, maybe the less - techy type that perhaps may think it only works for geeks. (I cannot blame you, really!)

Here are a couple of examples of my own experiences:
A week ago my girlfriend told me her sister was going to need a headcovering or hat for some cancer treatment that was going to wipe out her hair (again) and reveal some scary looking scars on her head and neck. I can knit a scarf - period. I put on my Facebook "wall" that I needed some help. I got 3 replies right away from people I do not normally interact with - and 2 got an emails yesterday that these hats were being mailed to me! That is a non-techy request to a very real situation that any of us could be in at anytime.

Another example: Along with my business, I teach Marketing at the New England School of Communications, I ask all students to "Friend Me" on Facebook and establish Twitter accounts. Paul Hilchey Chandler (twitter id: hilcheychandler) of Central Maine Wireless was a guest speaker in my class and talked about cell phones, marketing and social networking. One of my students revealed that she was in the 8,000+ of monthly text messages. (Makes my thumbs hurt just thinking about it.)

This morning, I was away from my computer and while I was away, one of our local newscasters Kara Matuszewski (twitter id: karamat) WLBZ2 had tweeted something about texting and Paul suggested she contact me (twitter id: ladyotrout) about this student I had. I also follow Kara, but do not know her personally and due to a very busy morning for me, I would probably have missed it, so thank you Paul! After a few direct messages and a phone call we have a "shout out" for high volume texters for a story she is interested in doing. I posted that on my Facebook wall and guess what? Two responses all ready! This is less than an hour and I am not kidding.

So what you may say?

These tools are very helpful in a busy life. I like to get alerts from media sources of what is going on, the weather, etc. but mainly I use Twitter as a bulletin board for articles and information that people that I feel like minded with (remember I know hardly ANY of them PERSONALLY) to share. I also share what I am reading & learning there. The internet and other media is so vast and there is so much information that these tools help me prioritize what I need to learn right now. And they cost me nothing out of pocket except the time to do it.

So I thought I would mention this to you, if you have a mother or father or know someone with a small business that is trying to do more with less (time and money) I cannot recommend these things highly enough! If you feel you dont have time to do the work yourself and you are a small business, give us a call and we can help.

And stay tuned for the WLBZ2 story...I am sure we all will be tweeting about it!

Email Scams, Urban Legends, etc.

How many of you have friends or relatives that constantly "forward" the latest and greatest news that they got forwarded to them, PLEASE READ, FIREFIGHTER NEEDS HELP, the lists go on. I have an "all time favorite" cousin that sends me this stuff and it drives me crazy! I love her, I want to stay in touch with her, but I don't want all this stuff stinking up my in-box that almost every time turns into being untrue. But how do you know?

For an example: She sent me this email about the Swiffer Wet Jet being poisonous to dogs and causing liver failure. Given the fact that Eukanuba had a massive recall in March of 2007 because of some ingredient from China that was causing liver failure, this concerned me. I am dog lover and dog owner. (here is a link to that story).

I definitely was going to read that email she sent me. I went to my cupboard and looked at the labels and because I am no chemistry whiz I didnt know what to think.

So how do you know if these emails are urban legend or as some of the guys in my office call it "FACT or CRAP?"

Here is a link to a source that can explain why this happens and why people spread these rumors, of course my first reaction is "GET A LIFE!"

And here is a web source called Snopes that allows you to check out the story yourself. Snopes is interesting because the format is such that you can see the year of origin these rumors start, a quick synopsis of what it is, as well as often they cite verbatim the text in the email you received. AND most importantly, there is a line right up front indicating TRUE or FALSE. In my cousin's email it indicated that this rumor was verified by snopes so at first I thought - "Oh, oh..." then once I logged into snopes.com myself, I learned it was a hoax all along. Not even to mention that I received this email in December of 2008 and the origin was 2004! If it were true wouldn't we have heard about a recall by now? I feel bad for the Swiffer Wet Jet people, how many people have stopped buying a product because of something they received on the internet?

Snopes has all kinds of content on it, Political, Fauxtography and many more. You can even subscribe to updates if you want to know what is being posted. I am not willing to say Snopes is 100% accurate, because I don't know that it is, but it is an easy to use tool that provides evidence to back up its claims which is a lot better than I can say for these emails people send me that create fear and uncertainty. Happy Snoping... you wont be sorry!