The Golden Rule of Security

Last week, my job sent me to a Security + class. I now have to study and take the test for the certification.

The instructor reminded me of the Golden Rule of Security: I will not spend more (money/effort) to protect the asset than the asset is worth.

When you're dealing with an enterprise network, you may need advanced encryption and security features. But you also have (hopefully) enough properly trained and qualified employees to carry it out. You can also configure your workstation images so most of it is an abstract to your users. They don't have to think about it.

A home network is a different story. I'm an IT and cyber security professional, but my wife and children are not. I also don't have the resources and budget or an enterprise network. But the majority of my equipment and data don't require that budget or resources either.

I once locked a home network down too hard. While still married to my ex-wife, "somebody" was getting into my accounts and sending nasty messages from my accounts to hers. Taking everything at face value, I overreacted and locked everything down. I set an overly complex password to access the wireless router. I changed several passwords to a much more complex schema.

And of course, it only worked for me. At the time, I was a geographical bachelor living and working in Virginia while my family stayed in New Jersey. The job market up there sucked, so I went where I could get a decent enough job. So while I was away, for some reason, other devices couldn't access the network. They'd have to wait for me to come home every other weekend. I think my ex's parents just bought a new router and set it up.

During all of this, my ex received another message from my gmail account, signed with "Sent from my iPhone". When I have an iPhone, I never leave that line in the signature.

I consulted with several cyber professionals, and the best they could come to was that it was an inside job. I realized that my ex knew my common passwords and PINs. I changed them, and the next time I went "home", I took every possible device she could access and use out of the house.

The "hacking" stopped. I can't prove it, but it does seem like an inside job. I still don't completely understand why, but I have several theories. All I can say is, once a woman turns on you, there is no going back.

So, I've learned to apply an appropriate level of security to my network. I lock it down as best I can, but not so hard my family can't use it. My wife, at times, can't tell the difference between her Yahoo!, Google, Microsoft, and iCloud accounts. I have to accept that and account for it. I also can't expect my children to understand MAC address filtering.

One neat thing I learned in the class, for those of you fluent in the OSI model, is Layer 8. Layer 8 is the user or PEBKAC layer. And you have to account for it. Some people are completely ignorant of technology, and are proud of it. They refuse to learn. They're proud to still have "flip" phones. They don't know the difference between Windows XP, Vista, 7, 8, or 10. And they don't care. They install Weatherbug and every stupid toolbar that asks to be installed. And people like us have to clean it up when they complain their computers stop working.

A friend of mine used to have his network locked down as hard as possible for a home network. He didn't broadcast his SSID and had to manually approve every MAC address. He finally realized that when you lock it down too hard, people start wondering what exactly you're protecting. Then, having become curious, they'll try to break in. He relaxed his posture somewhat.

Wikipedia Is Replicating Infogalactic

When I got into work this morning, a discussion with a coworker led me to a joke that was put on Wikipedia. If I went to the Wikipedia page for our organization, and clicked on an "other links" for a guy we used to work for, I'd get a surprise.

So I went there, clicked on the link for the guy's name, and was taken to the page for "analingus". Heh, heh, that was funny! So I emailed a friend who also used to work for the guy, figuring he'd appreciate it.

I saw some outdated information, so I went to the same page on Infogalactic and made some quick edits to bring it up to speed. (I was one of the "Original Galaxians", who contributed to the project the day Vox Day announced it.)

Later on, I heard back from my friend, who said he didn't see it.

I went to check Wikipedia, and found the exact edits I'd made on Infogalactic had replicated back to Wikipedia. It was the same page, and unfortunately, removed the "other links" section with the joke on former boss, which was not on Infogalactic.

I emailed Vox Day to ask if they were replicating our changes back. He told me to check the editor, and see if it was a person or a bot.

It appeared to be a bot.

So I assume, for some reason, Wikipedia is replicating changes back from Infogalactic. I think that means we (alt-right) have started to control the conversation. Or the SJWs at Wikipedia are just that freaking lazy and letting us to their work for them.

Modern Website Templates Make Me Want To Bash My Head Against The Screen

OK, I get that outside of very niche specialized member sites, NOBODY is going to pay for access to a website. I also get that advertising and impressions and all that stuff are they only way they can stay in operation. But they're practically unusable.

I mostly get my content through RSS into Feedly, and when I do visit a site, it's usually a blog or alt-right site. But every now and again, I have a need to access a somewhat "mainstream" site. And it's usually a painful experience.

First, there are those stupid toolbars or whatever you call them. Some stay on the screen at all times, taking up screen space. Some will hide while you're scrolling down. But, have you ever scrolled and realized the last paragraph didn't register in your mind, so you have to scroll back up? Then the stupid toolbar comes back into play, blocking your view of the article. This is even worse on mobile. Breitbart not only has a top bar, but a bottom bar that pops up when you try to scroll back up a couple of lines. Then they have shit pop out of the left and right with "Here's some more shit you can read while you're here!"

Another annoyance is breaking an article up into multiple pages. You get five paragraphs per page, then you have to click a link to go to the next one. If it's even worth saving to something like Evernote, that's too much damn work. Forget it. I can scroll infinitely; why do you break a short article into 5 pages?

Now they're blocking you if you use an ad-blocker, the staple of the Internet user. Even if you disable the ad-blocker, you still can't access the site. I can't get to Forbes or Wired in Chrome, even though I shut off Ad-Block Plus for their sites. If I want to read one of their articles, I have to use another browser. I haven't reached the point where I HAVE to get to either site bad enough to troubleshoot any deeper.

Considering how prophetic South Park has been over its 19 years, I'm starting to wonder if their last season finale will come true in a few years. I'm glad I'm married. The last thing I would want to do is meet a girl, then realize I'm banging an ad.

That's why, for this blog, I've stuck to the same old template I've had since about 2007 or so. I've tried blogger's new templates, and they suck.

Marketing Tactics You Shouldn't Use (at least, if you want to do business with me)

Marketers are annoying. I know, there are tons of "boot camps", "webinars" and "master classes" out there to tell you how to supposedly sell your material. Most of them suck, and make you look annoying if not dishonest, greedy, and stupid.

I've been exposed to many of them. There are some people, like Mike Cernovich, that get it right. Mike recently put a new book up for pre-order. He wrote a blog post, and sent out a SINGLE email to his mailing list with a link to the post. Essentially, it was low key. "Hey, guys, I have a new book coming up. Here's what it's about... You can pre-order it here." That's all. I pre-ordered it, because I like Mike's work and he didn't annoy me with his sales pitch. I also read his book "Gorilla Mindset", which I haven't gotten around to reviewing. You can buy it here:Gorilla Mindset.

Contrast that to some other techniques, most of which send me running the other way.

Using the words "webinar", "boot camp", or "master class".

These words do not resonate with me. Webinar for some reason, I associate with scaminar. Somewhere back around 2008 or 9, I signed up for some free "social media webinar". It was an hour and a half of things I already knew, followed by a sales pitch for some multi thousand dollar "social media bootcamp".

I have been to boot camp (called Recruit Training in the Navy). Whatever you call your scaminar, I'm sure it is NOTHING like a real military boot camp. Your marketing doesn't even come close in association to me. Maybe some non-military, baby boomer draft dodger will see it as an elite term. To me, you look stupid. And I don't do business with stupid.

You want a real boot camp? Spend 8 weeks living in open bay barracks, doing pushups every time you or anybody else screws up, stand watch at night, march, go up to 10 hours in between head calls (bathroom breaks), try to stay awake through classroom instruction, eat crappy food, get yelled at, experience the "gas chamber", and so on. That's a boot camp. You also get paid for boot camp, although it's probably several thousand dollars less than most of these idiot camps cost.

Master class is another word I associate with a scam. What makes your class any better than any other class? I have a bachelors degree and am more than halfway to a master's. I've been to many classes; real classes put together by people who are hopefully subject matter experts and accredited by an association. Is your "master class" accredited by anybody or anything? Then what value can I expect from it, especially when it costs more than a regular college class, many of which are too expensive anyway?

Repeated emails

I don't mind giving my email address. Sure, it's your prerogative, maybe even right as site owner to ask for an email address before allowing access to site content. But then the emails keep coming, and coming, and coming, until I'm forced to either unsubscribe or create a filter that just routes them to a label in gmail where I can mark them all as read and delete them at one time. Or mark them as spam.

I recently gave my email address for access to a site. And I haven't had a chance to go through the "free" material yet, but now the guy sends me 4-5 emails a day. Most of which are just repeats. That's Eben Pagan.

Donald Miller is about to get unsubscribed from too. I've read and reviewed a couple of his books, and enjoyed them. I guess I subscribed to his list at some point. Now, I get 3 or more emails a day from him about his story something or other program. One is enough. And I don't mean one a day. Send me a single email announcing it, with the details, and if I'm not interested or able, I'll delete it and move on. Send me more, and I'm off your list. Your precious list.

Subjective value

"This information product is valued at 18 trillion dollars, but I'll sell it to you for $79.95"

People will try to sell a 30 page "ebook" for $40-$70 or even more. Unless you can provide some REAL reviews, I'm not biting.

I can't believe you didn't take advantage...

One of the fastest ways to get me to delete your email and unsubscribe is this tactic, which I see as dishonest. It's normally matched to my name, but I know email autoresponders can do that so I'm on to your dishonest game. "Eric, I can't believe you haven't taken advantage of my $79.95 a month Social Media Master Class!"

Right, as if you're sitting around with my picture and my resume, praying and fasting to God that I'll register and pay so you can fill me with your Holy Spirit of Internet marketing. Kiss my ass. Unsubscribe. I used to follow Michael Hyatt, and unsubscribed from his emails shortly after he tried this bullshit with his Platform University. Believe it, Michael, I haven't taken advantage of your offer. And by this point, I won't. And I'm not buying your book either.

The fake superior requesting somebody do something to get me to buy

This one is even worse. You get what looks like an email forwarded from a higher up to the lower level sales guy "Bob, see what you can do to reach out to Eric. I've been trying to contact him, and he's a perfect fit for this offer- Harry Balls, Supreme Diety of Marketing".

I don't know if anybody is stupid enough to fall for that one. Car dealers around here do this all the time. I'll get a letter with what looks like a photo copied sticky note from the Sales Manager telling a salesman to reach out to me about some great deal, or to get me to trade in my current car for a supposed great deal. I wish they'd just throw them away on their end to save me the trouble.

I've been trying to contact you!

I hate this tactic. If you've been trying to contact me, why don't I see ANY evidence of it whatsoever? No emails, no phone calls, no voice messages. You obviously have my email address. If you want to come off as dishonest right out of the gate, use this one.

Not providing a real unsubscribe

Some people build email lists, and there's no way to unsubscribe from them. Sure, there's an unsubscribe link at the bottom of the email, which you click, enter your email address, and get confirmation that you've unsubscribed. But the emails keep on coming. And you unsubscribe again. And nothing changes.

Mike Adams "The Health Ranger" is a good example of this. I once thought it might be worth being on his email list. But he sends out more than 6 emails a day, which is far too many for my tastes, especially when hardly any of them have value. So I tried to unsubscribe several times. Each time, I got confirmation that I unsubscribed. But nothing changed. So I was left with no choice but to mark his emails as spam. And sure enough, every morning when I check my spam folder, I have six or more emails from Mike Adams in there. And every other email list that doesn't actually let you unsubscribe. It's getting overwhelming to the point where I have a hard time filtering out the real email that got marked as spam for some reason.

Changing your autoresponder email address

This one really annoys me. I prefer to keep my inbox only to emails that are important to me. If I decide your email is low priority but still worth reading WHEN I DECIDE TO READ IT, I create a filter and have it shunted off to another folder. Then you change your address, and I get a ping on my phone telling me I have a new email in my inbox. Hoping it's somebody I actually want to drop what I'm doing to hear from, I check email and find it's only you. So I set another filter, and you change addresses again. This is annoying. What are you, an attention whore? Nobody likes an attention whore. Go post selfies on Facebook like a good attention whore and leave me alone.

Countdown

This one is just as bad as too many emails. Brian Tracy is famous for this, among others. "Only 24 hours left to get this great deal!" "Only 23 hours left to get this great deal!" And so on.

You will never see this deal again!

Bullshit. I've been on your list long enough to know you've been running this same deal every 3 days for the past several years. Liar.

Conclusion

I do business with you for the value it gives me. Not the other way around. I don't care what you get out of the deal. I don't even care if you're still around next month, and the more you annoy me, the more I hope you're not. If you provide value, and don't annoy me, I hope you're around for a LONG time.

So for you younger guys getting into Internet marketing, please remember. Create a product that brings value to people. It's probably useful to offer some free information to show that you have value to offer from your paid products. Great examples of this are Ramit Sethi and John T. Reed. Both provide a lot of useful free information, and their paid for products are an even better value. I haven't taken any of Sethi's classes, but I have bought his book. I've bought and read 4 of Reed's books. Good stuff. Follow their examples, and the examples of men like Mike Cernovich and Roosh V, not Brian Tracy, Eben Pagan, and some of the others I've mentioned. Don't annoy people. Remember, it's about what's in it for me. (Me being each individual customer you hope to acquire- and of course, ME).

Reconsidering Anonymity

Up to this point, I considered anonymity a form of cowardice. Why can't you write under your own name? What are you afraid of?

Return of Kings anonymous writer "runsonmagic" wrote a post that discusses why anonymity is a good thing.

Among the benefits to anonymity is it forces discussion to be about the ideas, not the personality. Many people seem to respond to ideas they find controversial with ad-hominem attacks rather than discuss the ideas. Without knowing who is behind the idea, it's harder to make an ad-hominem. It doesn't completely remove the possibility though. Most will leave something like "probably some loser living in his mom's basement" like that has any bearing on the actual idea.

I've always written under my own name. If anything, it keeps me honest. I don't say anything on this blog or on social media that I wouldn't be comfortable saying in public, or to the face of any personalities I'm writing about.

On the other hand, there is probably a lot I would say if I could write anonymously; without worry of the ideas being linked back to me.

A big problem on the Internet is anonymous trolls. Have you ever heard of the "Greater Internet F-wad theorem"? Normal person, plus anonymity, plus audience, equals total F-wad. People will say things in blog comments that I doubt they would be willing to if you were standing right in front of them.

So Who Has the Copyright?

A subject I'm gearing up to tackle is intellectual property (IP). I don't feel ready to engage this subject from an educated position yet. I've had several thoughts on it, but nothing I'd consider coherent or that I could present from a position of authority.

Stephan Kinsella's "Against Intellectual Property" is on my reading list for the near future. Like the majority of their great literature, it is available as a free download from the Ludwig Von Mises Institute.

Also available as a free download is a book I just became aware of, Michael Boldrin and David Levine's "Against Intellectual Monopoly".

Intellectual Property makes for an interesting subject. Physical property is one thing. If I am a producer of cars, a physical object, then I make the car and I sell the car to you. We can't both have the same car at the same time. This would violate logic and physics.

Stuff Like This Makes Me Happy Nobody Reads My Blog

As I was going through my RSS feeds this morning, I noticed "The Oatmeal" published a response to somebody. I started reading it. The "TL;DR" {Too Long; Didn't Read) urge started building, because it was long.

Some "Journalist" named Jack Steuf apparently wrote an article on The Oatmeal without bothering to fact check anything. The Oatmeal wrote a response, in the vein of his "I just wish I could write comics instead of having to respond to stuff like this" meme of the last couple years.

This "article" was also written on a site called Buzzfeed, which I'd never heard of, and have no interest in typing the URL in to see what it's about.

My opinion, for what it's worth, is that Matthew Inman (The Oatmeal's real name) should just ignore this kind of stuff. There was once a time when journalism was a serious and hard hitting profession (or at least, one made up by a few serious and hard hitting professionals). Today, journalism is a field of study and work that Aaron Cleary wrote his book "Worthless" to help prevent you from falling into. Gone are the days of Woodward and Bernstein. Now it's lazy liberal arts majors on web aggregators insinuating you're a millionaire and calling you a "Republican". And not even the classical liberal arts majors, like I'm self-studying. The modern liberal arts of no math. Rack up $60,000 in debt for a philosophy degree and wonder why only Starbucks will hire you. "But mommy and daddy and the college recruiter told me I'd make tons of money if I just went to college! And all my college professors agreed!"

I hope, if I ever find a fallacious article about myself or my work written by a nobody on a no-web site, I can simply ignore it. That's what The Oatmeal should do. That's what adults should do. I typically enjoy The Oatmeal's work and humor. Every now and again, he publishes a comic that I don't like or don't find funny. One or two have royally pissed me off. So I closed the browser tab and waited for his next comic to come out.

Why I'm Pretty Much Through With Facebook

I've been slowly growing tired of FaceBook in particular and social media in general. I think of it as a bunch of people shouting in a large, crowded room, hoping somebody is listening and will shout back.

FaceBook in particular has taken inane topics to a whole new level.

I know, it's free. And when you're receiving a service for free, you're not the customer. You're the product. FaceBook needs to earn money. They're a business. Nobody goes into business to not make money.

FaceBook presents material to you in a way that will somehow make them money. And that's fine. We all agreed to the user terms of service and the privacy policy. But I'm reaching a point where my interests and FaceBook's are diverging. I'd simply like to follow people's (interesting) statuses. I don't really give a crap who likes who's photo. I don't care what new gardening tool people accessed in the newest game.

 

Every couple of days, I get one of those "Look what you've been missing by not being on Facebook!" notifications. And they do nothing to interest me in coming back. Look at this:

Ooh! Somebody liked somebody else's photo! I've been totally wasting my life not being on FaceBook. Does this work for anybody? When you haven't been on FaceBook for a couple of days and get one of these, do you think "Oh, no! Somebody liked somebody else's photo and I wasn't there! I wasn't there!"

I do check FaceBook once a week or so to see if any of my updates (from Twitter) were commented on. And as usual, I got lost in the noise. I'll get over it.

 

Has Social Media "Jumped the Shark"?

In Internet years, I've been on social media a long time. I was on Twitter before anybody got the stupid idea to call themselves a "Social Media Consultant". I was on FaceBook in 2007. I was on Google Plus when you had to be invited. I can claim to know a few things about social media.

And lately, I'm sick of it. I don't know if it's just because this is an election year, and everybody has lost their mind. Maybe things will get better in December or next year.

Until then, I've pretty much lost my enthusiasm for social media. I ways, that's great. I have a lot more time back since I only check FaceBook twice a week. I post to Twitter occasionally, but don't bother to see if anybody retweeted or responded (hint: they didn't).

I came up with a description of social media. Social media is like screaming a one-liner into a crowded room full of other screaming people, hoping somebody might hear you and laugh or scream back. But that rarely seems to happen.

It doesn't help that I'm coming to see social media as a tool for attention whores. "Look at me! Look at my picture of Denny's at 3 AM! Look at the political demotivator I shared! It's so witty, it should definitely show the idiots from the binary other side of the political spectrum how stupid they are, because all political issues can be boiled down to a picture of the other guy with a word like 'bankers' or 'socialist' under him."

I've started gravitating back to narrower communities. Rather than being in the crowded convention hall that is FaceBook, Twitter, and Google Plus, I've started hanging out online in communities dedicated to a narrower focus. 

Yahoo! Releases New Browser

Yahoo! released a new browser/extension called Axis. I watched the video, and since it got me interested I downloaded the Chrome extension and the iPhone browser. I'll give it a try.

It's supposed to give you a "new kind of search". That's not what pulled me in. Everybody is a "new kind of search". That kind of line does nothing for me. Bing is supposed to be a "new kind of search". There used to be a grocery store called Bloom, which was advertised to be a "different kind of grocery store". I went in, and didn't see any difference at all between Bloom and the others in this area, like Giant, Wegman's, Harris Teeter, and Food Lion. There was nothing different about it, including the universal militancy in joining their shopper's program. Want to be a "different kind of grocery store"? Then stop asking me for my loyalty card every time I run in to buy a 6 pack or a back of chips. Bloom was so different, they apparently went out of business and all their stores are now Food Lions, which is no different from the days when they were "Bloom".

When I see that something is supposed to be "new" or "different", I roll my eyes. They're guilty of being the same as everybody else unless they prove to me otherwise.

What pulled me in on Axis is the ability to continue reading on another device. This is something I've been wanting for years. Google Chrome is supposed to be able to sync tabs through their service, but I've never seen this work. So if I don't save a tab to Pocket or the Safari reading list, I'm stuck until I get back to the device I opened it on.

My initial review of Axis: it opens a small search bar in the lower left hand corner of your screen. It allows you to bookmark a page or see your "personalized home page". The only complaint I have so far is it keeps refreshing and opening a new tab to my "personalized home page"..

I'll give it a shot and let you now if it really is a "new kind of search".

Linux Magazine: Why Did Flock Fail?

This post probably won’t mean anything to any readers I may happen to have. It’s a geek post, but I’ll make it as simple as I can.

Years ago, I used to get email from Linux Magazine. Those emails stopped at some point in the past (2008 according to a glance through my gmail archives). I didn’t notice. This week, I got a new email from Linux Magazine. Weird. So I checked it out. I found an article that was another blast from the past, asking why Flock Failed.

What is Flock?, you may ask. Flock was supposed to be “the social web browser”. I tried it very early in it’s development, then dropped it and forgot about it. It was an interesting concept, but was missing the most important part for me in using a web browser: a session restore feature.

Gmail Will Allow Users To Turn off Conversation View

From the “I Didn’t Realize This Was A Problem” department: Gmail will soon allow users to turn off conversation view.

Apparently, some people hate the conversation view. Are you one of them? I actually like it. I used it in Outlook too. Sometimes it’s easier to follow an email train in conversation view.

Who Hacked My Facebook Account?

Somebody has apparently hacked into my Facebook account and sent nasty messages to my wife as me. I’m trying to imagine who has the skill to pull this off, plus the time to bother to do it. I’m also wondering who could consider me important enough to mess with like this.

If you happen to know who has done this, please let me know. If a similar thing has happened to you, let me know how you dealt with it. It happened last year, which caused me to change my password. My password has apparently already been hacked again.

___________________________________________________

Upon further investigation, these messages aren't coming from my account.

Google Is On A Roll This Week

Lots of good things came out of Google recently. OK, 2 things. One is interesting, and the other should be highly useful.

One of the reasons I stick with gmail is for the storage space and the world-class spam filter. I rarely have a problem with spam thanks to gmail. I also like that I can get my mail just about anywhere: on the web, in Outlook, on my iPhone, or on just about any other device I might have. The convenience is great.

The interesting thing Google rolled out is the ability to make calls from gmail. I say it’s interesting because I’m not sure I’ll use it much. I can’t get Christina to test it with me. I called my iPhone from gmail and had the boys take it into another room, but they started fighting over who was going to hold the phone and ruined the experiment.

The next thing Google rolled out is called Priority Inbox. This is based on gmail’s spam filter and addresses a very real problem: email overload.

Gmail already has a heavy filtering system built in. You can create folders (or labels) and then filters based on those labels. I probably have 200 filters already, and it seems like I’m creating several more each week. I hate when I’m out, and expecting an email. Every time my iPhone tells me I have a new email, I rip it out of my pocket, enter the passcode, go to email, and find the whole experience anti-climactic. Rather than the important email I’m waiting for, it’s only  the 14th special offer GoDaddy has sent me this afternoon. Like I buy that many websites from them. Or it’s the AFA whining about another secular news organ being biased against Christian interests. Or it’s an automated reminder telling me my cable or cell phone bill is due in 3 weeks. Nothing important, and definitely not the email I was waiting for.

It seems that no matter how aggressively I filter my email, I still have to deal with tons of non-important “bac’n” in my inbox taking up time. I prefer to filter those into other folders then deal with them when I feel like it.

Because I handle email similar to the principles taught in “Getting Things Done”, I don’t mark an email as read or delete it (gmail archive) unless all actions required by that email have been completed. So while I’m out for a while, I can build up a ton of email in my inbox until I get home and can set up new filters so those kinds of emails will skip my inbox in the future.

I’m looking forward to the Priority Inbox. It would be nice to spend less time setting up filters in gmail.

The Key Word in Social Media is Social

Social media is a double edged sword. Through social media, I’ve reconnected with high school friends and Navy buddies I thought I’d never see again. I’ve even kept in touch with family, and formed closer relationships even with those in driving distance. I’ve been able to get a glimpse into the minds of business leaders I respect and admire. I’ve been able to see what celebrities I like are doing, like the Ghost Hunters and the Deadliest Catch fishermen.

Social media provides a business advantage. I can promote my listings a lot easier through social media. I can broadcast a lot farther and a lot faster about open houses and new listings. It’s a great business tool.

But I can also be spammed relentlessly by others promoting their own businesses and interests, who have no filter between their mind and keyboard. I routinely get friend requests from people, only to have my status stream and messages filled up with “business opportunities”, webinars, demands for information, and other distractions. All this from people who totally ignore the social aspect of social media.

Just now, I cleaned out 8 messages from my Facebook inbox. All were from people who “friended” me only for business promotion purposes. One guy sent two messages about a video of a friend who is supposedly making $1000 a day.Great. Believable. Somebody else sent out 3 messages about how he’s looking for short sales. That’s just the Real Estate and “Internet Marketers”.

I’m all for using social media for business. But I think you need to form a relationship. The founder of the company I’m affiliated with says “people buy people before they buy (anything else)”. So if you’re expecting me to buy your product through Facebook, then who are you? What are you thinking about? What are you doing? What do you like to do? What books are you reading?

I don’t turn down friend requests unless they’re obvious spam, but I tend to ignore those people who do nothing but shamelessly market.

What about you? Do you run into shameless promoters on social media? Do you think it’s OK?

Finally, Social Media Expert Defined

From Jason Dunn. I’d say this video sums it up nicely.

I need to find out what program is being used to create these things.

Why Do People Waste So Much Energy Worrying Their (fill in the blank) Makes Them Dumber?

I'm starting to think there is something wrong with me. Am I missing something?

I don't spend any time worrying that my (iPhone, Dell, netbook, nook, TV, DVR, refrigerator, washing machine, GPS, reading lamp, stand-up shower, power mirrors, RSS Reader, or whatever the heck else) is making me dumb.

None. I don't waste any energy worrying about it.

Yet I read tons of content from other people worrying that such and such is killing their brains. Consider this from The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW): Is My iPhone Making Me Dumber?

I don't get it. But I see these things as very useful tools. I enjoy them while I have them. If they all disappeared some day, I'd find a way to get by. I'd really miss my broadband Internet and air conditioning though.

Do you worry about these things making you dumb? Destroying your ability to think? Why? Do you have any objective evidence for this, or are you just following "conventional wisdom"?

The Last Barrier To Me Using Internet Explorer

Internet Explorer has come a long was over the years. Version 6 was one of the most insecure and painful web browsers I've ever used. I still can't believe some organizations (like the United States Navy) still use it exclusively. As in, they actually design websites that will not work in any other browser but Internet Explorer 6. This is despite the fact that Microsoft has released 2 newer versions of the browser, both of which work a lot better.

I've been using IE8 a little more lately. I actually like it. It starts VERY slow. It's one of the slower browsers to start. But once it's running, it runs pretty well. It finally has a session manager, so if I have a lot of tabs open and have to restart my computer, I can pick up where I left off. I don't have to set a lot of bookmarks.

But there is one thing that is stopping me from using Internet Explorer more than Google's Chrome or Mozilla's Firefox: this stupid dialog. I wrote that blog post more than 3 years ago, and that prompt is still a part of Internet Explorer.

If Microsoft could either get rid of that prompt, or at least let me click "Don't ever bother me with this again", I would probably make the jump to using IE8 a lot more often.

Are you using IE8 more than another browser?

How I Decide Who To Follow Back on Twitter

I've been on Twitter for a couple of years now. I've been active for at least 2 years. I have over 200 followers now. I have no idea how many people have unfollowed me. I've unfollowed quite a few.

When it comes to social media, I tend to want to emphasize the social part. I want to know what people are thinking about and what they're doing. I want to interact with them. I'm especially interested if I'm following somebody successful that I want to be like someday. Make sure it's actually the person you're following though. Thanks to the rise of ghost blogging, some people don't even write their own tweets anymore. They pay someone to do it. Robert Kiyosaki is a case in point. He uses a “ghost” to tweet for him. So do John Maxwell and Dave Ramsey, although they are open about it and will occasionally write their own tweets. No matter how successful I get, any tweets you see with my name on them will come from me.

Interesting Social Media Statistics

I’m curious to know what this means. I pick up followers on Twitter and Facebook that I don’t know. That’s not unusual; I routinely find people through social media that I don’t know. I’m interested in what they have to say and in what they’re doing. I follow them.

The types of people most likely to follow me on Twitter that I don’t know are pastors and Internet marketers.

The types of people most likely to follow me on Facebook that I don’t already know are Real Estate investors.

What about you? What kinds of people, besides friends and family, follow you on the social media sites?