So I have my Facebook account (which I actually like using); a Bebo account (which I never look near); a Twitter account (which I've only just started using in order to find out what the fuss was about); a LinkedIn account (which is useful for my career); a Blogger account (thus this posting); a Plaxo account (in an attempt to synchronise my contact details across my various client machines); a Flickr account (which I rarely use and may be tempted to ditch in favour of Picasa); a Friends Re-United account (which doesn't seem to be a school friend hook-up tool anymore).
What I have created, however, is a social network which is difficult to maintain! I want to be able to find out what my friends are doing and tell them what I am doing. Facebook seems to fit the bill in that regard, though I guess Twitter would probably achieve the same thing.
I'm not into the Facebook applications to be honest. "What's Your Real Age" and "What Lord Of The Rings Character Are You" may seem like fun, but they are fairly trivial and quite franking a waste of time. So I find myself updating my status and writing on friends' walls (though mainly updating my status).
I've managed to get Twitter to update my Facebook status automatically which is great and I've installed a Twitter addon to Firefox which allows me to update my status through the address bar.
All fine and dandy but...
When I signed up to Twitter, I managed to get a "follower" immediately. A pretty young girl from somewhere I've never been to. Why was she interested in me? My first posting said something like "This is my first posting" so it can't be for the intellectual stimulation I provide. Ulterior motives, for sure.
I get friend requests through Bebo from people I've never met. Friend requests from people who were in my year at school (though I never spoke to them then and can't think why they feel the need to speak to me now).
Do social networking sites actually have a negative impact on our sociability? I'm guessing if I write on someone's wall, then I can feel that I've "connected" with them to an extent which removes any obligation to actually go and visit!
I'm also guessing that my "school chums" want to connect with me in order to get their friends number as high as possible? (For the record, I have about 20 friends on Facebook which I think is a lot bearing in mind that I probably only have 2 or 3 friends and they don't even use Facebook!)
The really concerning thing for me, however, is that these applications communicate with each other and share my user details. If one of these applications gets compromised, I maybe in bother! A Google search of my name yields some very disturbing results. Some results are links to pages I have created either on my personal website, this blog or LinkedIn. Some, however, have been created automatically by sites that have skimmed information from my primary sites without my permission. Even though I only have a couple of friends and just a handful of acquaintances on Facebook, it seems that I am a fairly popular guy net-wise.
Herein lies the problem. I want to use these tools to connect with a select few people and while these tools manage to do that, I can't help but worry that too many of my personal details are now public knowledge.
Right... I'm off to tell Twitter that I've blogged some old nonsense in the hope that Twitter will update Facebook with a link to this post!
Sunday, February 08, 2009
Monday, January 12, 2009
Joined Up Contacts
So my new Blackberry turned up today and I can't sync my contacts and calendar entries from Thunderbird to that bad boy.
Disappointing... but time for a bit of googling to see how to get around the problem.
And the answer? I'm still disappointed.
I have managed to sort my email accounts in Thunderbird with the help of Folderpanes and I now have access to Hotmail from within Thunderbird using the webmail add-on. I've even sync'd my Google contacts with Plaxo (although that only works one way.... WHY!!!!).
I've downloaded Sunbird (though this gives me no benefit above and beyond the Lightning add-on for Thunderbird).
So... I have all this software, but no way to sync to the Blackberry unless I get radical as such:
Maybe I should write my own routine!
Disappointing... but time for a bit of googling to see how to get around the problem.
And the answer? I'm still disappointed.
I have managed to sort my email accounts in Thunderbird with the help of Folderpanes and I now have access to Hotmail from within Thunderbird using the webmail add-on. I've even sync'd my Google contacts with Plaxo (although that only works one way.... WHY!!!!).
I've downloaded Sunbird (though this gives me no benefit above and beyond the Lightning add-on for Thunderbird).
So... I have all this software, but no way to sync to the Blackberry unless I get radical as such:
- Use Outlook (which is too expensive)
- Use Outlook Express (which is too nasty)
- Use Live Mail (which I just don't like)
- Buy some additional software
Maybe I should write my own routine!
How To Search
So... I have a home network and a Mac Mini which is being used as a Media Server. It will stream video around my home network and I have a Pinnacle Show Center 200 which is a hardware based media player.
However... my Show Center isn't behaving itself. The picture is a bit 'slanty' and the sound is a bit tinny. My understanding is that this is the first sign of a power supply problem! At least, that's according to the horror stories online.
Replacement media players are going to cost anywhere between £100 and £200 and I can't justify that kind of expenditure just now. It would be simpler for me to reuse one of the old laptops with a software based media player installed and stream the output to a television.
What could be simpler?
Well, it is simple - once you have found the necessary software. A bit of googling and job is a good one. Except, googling for "upnp media client software" wasn't that helpful.
The On2Share plugin for WinAMP sounded promising so I downloaded and installed WinAMP. I downloaded and installed the On2Share plugin and the result? It doesn't stream videos at all. In fact, it downloaded the entire video before playing. Rubbish!
Kinsky and 4U2Stream appeared in the search results. I looked at their websites and the terminology used was alien to me. I downloaded them, installed them and.... rubbish! They aren't clients at all - they are remote control clients for UPNP servers.
VideoLAN Network Client also appeared in the search results and after it was downloaded and installed, I found that, once again, the software didn't work.
At this stage, it seemed that too much time and effort had been spent trying to solution what I figured would be an easy problem to solve. Windows Media Center can't play streaming video from a UPNP Media Server; Cyberlink's Media Center wouldn't bother to play streaming video either.
I promised myself just one final attempt and downloaded the XBMC Media Center - the software behind the XBOX Media Center. A quick download, and easy installation and guess what? IT WORKED! It actually worked and it worked brilliantly.
Why oh why was it so difficult to find it? I like to think that I'm skilled in the use of search engines but I'm finding that it is becoming more difficult over time. I recently had a requirement to relocate a DB2 database from one drive to another and my db2relocatedb command was failing. Could I find an answer to my problem? Not a chance.
The problem is that there is just too much information on the web and a tremendous amount of it is just garbage. And this tendency to end up at a site which is merely a site devoted to hosting paid-for banner advertisements is really winding me up.
What am I to do? Maybe the answer lies in storing the decent information when I find it and getting some trusted companions to also store decent information. I'm not talking DIGG here though. I'm not talking blogs. I merely want a repository of information that was difficult to find but was incredibly useful.
Anyone got an answer to that problem?
However... my Show Center isn't behaving itself. The picture is a bit 'slanty' and the sound is a bit tinny. My understanding is that this is the first sign of a power supply problem! At least, that's according to the horror stories online.
Replacement media players are going to cost anywhere between £100 and £200 and I can't justify that kind of expenditure just now. It would be simpler for me to reuse one of the old laptops with a software based media player installed and stream the output to a television.
What could be simpler?
Well, it is simple - once you have found the necessary software. A bit of googling and job is a good one. Except, googling for "upnp media client software" wasn't that helpful.
The On2Share plugin for WinAMP sounded promising so I downloaded and installed WinAMP. I downloaded and installed the On2Share plugin and the result? It doesn't stream videos at all. In fact, it downloaded the entire video before playing. Rubbish!
Kinsky and 4U2Stream appeared in the search results. I looked at their websites and the terminology used was alien to me. I downloaded them, installed them and.... rubbish! They aren't clients at all - they are remote control clients for UPNP servers.
VideoLAN Network Client also appeared in the search results and after it was downloaded and installed, I found that, once again, the software didn't work.
At this stage, it seemed that too much time and effort had been spent trying to solution what I figured would be an easy problem to solve. Windows Media Center can't play streaming video from a UPNP Media Server; Cyberlink's Media Center wouldn't bother to play streaming video either.
I promised myself just one final attempt and downloaded the XBMC Media Center - the software behind the XBOX Media Center. A quick download, and easy installation and guess what? IT WORKED! It actually worked and it worked brilliantly.
Why oh why was it so difficult to find it? I like to think that I'm skilled in the use of search engines but I'm finding that it is becoming more difficult over time. I recently had a requirement to relocate a DB2 database from one drive to another and my db2relocatedb command was failing. Could I find an answer to my problem? Not a chance.
The problem is that there is just too much information on the web and a tremendous amount of it is just garbage. And this tendency to end up at a site which is merely a site devoted to hosting paid-for banner advertisements is really winding me up.
What am I to do? Maybe the answer lies in storing the decent information when I find it and getting some trusted companions to also store decent information. I'm not talking DIGG here though. I'm not talking blogs. I merely want a repository of information that was difficult to find but was incredibly useful.
Anyone got an answer to that problem?
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
200mbs At Last
I've been suffering for a number of years now with the pain and heartache that is a dodgy USB wireless connection from my desktop to my router in another room in the house. Dropped connections, slow transfer speeds... I've tried a number of different wireless technologies but they all suffer similar symptoms.
Of course, wired is the way to go, right? Of course it is... unless you live with someone who finds wires so abhorrent that they just cannot be laid down in the house!
I've known about ethernet over the copper wiring in the house for a number of years now but never believed that it would "do the business" as it were. I finally gave in yesterday, parted with £50 for a value pack which supports 200mbs transfer speed.
Prior to installation, I ran a speed test at www.speedtest.com and scored 3,600Kbps.
I plugged my new kit into my router and the reciprocal component near my desktop and bingo - connected. Trotted off to speedtest.com and scored a whopping 19,700Kbps.
So, my dodgy 54g wireless connection got stuffed out of sight by my new Home Plug connection.
Why, oh why, did I wait all these years?
Of course, wired is the way to go, right? Of course it is... unless you live with someone who finds wires so abhorrent that they just cannot be laid down in the house!
I've known about ethernet over the copper wiring in the house for a number of years now but never believed that it would "do the business" as it were. I finally gave in yesterday, parted with £50 for a value pack which supports 200mbs transfer speed.
Prior to installation, I ran a speed test at www.speedtest.com and scored 3,600Kbps.
I plugged my new kit into my router and the reciprocal component near my desktop and bingo - connected. Trotted off to speedtest.com and scored a whopping 19,700Kbps.
So, my dodgy 54g wireless connection got stuffed out of sight by my new Home Plug connection.
Why, oh why, did I wait all these years?
Wednesday, July 11, 2007
Loose Coupling
I stared at the price of Microsoft Office 2007 Standard edition (£300) and then stared at the price of Microsoft Office 2007 Basic edition (£100). The difference between the two products? Microsoft Outlook 2007 which costs about £100 as a standalone product.
Basic + Outlook (£200) = Standard (£300).
Am I missing something here?
Anyway, I bought the basic as I use Thunderbird as my mail client. And I have extended Thunderbird with the Lightning extension (for calendar functionality), Google Calendar extension (for Google calendar integration with Lightning), Plaxo extension (for synchronisation of my contact details across multiple platforms) and a few other minor extensions.
The result is I have a joined-up-in-a-loosely-coupled-way PIM for free.
My understanding is that Outlook is very powerful - I couldn't possibly deny that this is the case. But I also believe it can be a drain on system resources and it does cost £100!
So, I have my T'Bird, my LinkedIn, my Plaxo, my GMail/GCal and I'm liking my web based way of working. Now, all I need is a really good online document management repository which I can share with specific people. Time for a bit of investigation...
Basic + Outlook (£200) = Standard (£300).
Am I missing something here?
Anyway, I bought the basic as I use Thunderbird as my mail client. And I have extended Thunderbird with the Lightning extension (for calendar functionality), Google Calendar extension (for Google calendar integration with Lightning), Plaxo extension (for synchronisation of my contact details across multiple platforms) and a few other minor extensions.
The result is I have a joined-up-in-a-loosely-coupled-way PIM for free.
My understanding is that Outlook is very powerful - I couldn't possibly deny that this is the case. But I also believe it can be a drain on system resources and it does cost £100!
So, I have my T'Bird, my LinkedIn, my Plaxo, my GMail/GCal and I'm liking my web based way of working. Now, all I need is a really good online document management repository which I can share with specific people. Time for a bit of investigation...
Monday, April 16, 2007
Personal News
Back in February, I sat my CISSP examination. I completed the 6 hour test in 2 hours, then spent 2 hours checking my answers then left the examination before I started to change my mind again!
I walked out of the examination and went through various emotions:
I walked out of the examination and went through various emotions:
- Relief
- Uncertainty - I thought I had done enough to pass, but wasn't sure
- Forgetfulness - I could barely remember any of the 250 questions
Well, the results came through and I'm pleased to announce that I can officially use CISSP designation.
With my IBM Tivoli certifiations and ITIL certification, I'm now completely "certified".
Friday, February 09, 2007
Within Six Degrees
There is a saying that we are within "six degrees of everyone in the world". At least, that was the saying when I was growing up and we believed there were 4 billion people on the planet - maybe it is seven now!
Anyway, knowing someone, who knows someone else, who knows someone else, etc., etc. seems a little fanciful, doesn't it? Not really...
I found out recently that I am only 3 degrees away from David Kearns - a man whose work I read every week and I have the utmost respect for, though sadly, I have no contact with. Having said ithat, I did sit beside him at lunch one sunny day in 2004 at an Identity Conference in Sydney, Australia!
How did I find this out? http://www.linkedin.com/ that's how!
I know someone, who knows someone else, who knows David. Judging by the number of contacts David has on LinkedIn, I might be only four degrees away from everyone on the planet.
Anyway, http://www.linkedin.com/ is quite a powerful tool in that only people I truly respect and trust are listed as my contacts. I'm quite sure this is true of most people who use http://www.linkedin.com/. Why is this relevant? Well, the ability to verify who you are isn't just a matter of producing a passport, or entering a UserID/Password into a keyboard, or typing a PIN into a "hole in the wall", or using any of the myriad of authentication devices available today. In the old days, verifying your identity could have been as simple as having someone else "vouch" for you.
This still occurs today to some degree - joining some exclusive clubs is more a matter of who you know rather than who you are or what you know! Password resets could potentially be performed in the work-place not by the forgetful employee herself, but by her colleague who is already trusted (although ideally, two colleagues).
Can we computerise the concept of a vouch-for authentication system in the future? Maybe. And maybe, it will be social networks like http://www.linkedin.com/ that will hold the key. After all, I'm not going to let any Tom, Dick or Harry be listed as a contact against my name! My identity is too precious to have it be let down by some unsavoury type!
BTW... If you are desperately interested, my LinkedIn profile can be viewed at http://www.linkedin.com/in/stephenswann.
Anyway, knowing someone, who knows someone else, who knows someone else, etc., etc. seems a little fanciful, doesn't it? Not really...
I found out recently that I am only 3 degrees away from David Kearns - a man whose work I read every week and I have the utmost respect for, though sadly, I have no contact with. Having said ithat, I did sit beside him at lunch one sunny day in 2004 at an Identity Conference in Sydney, Australia!
How did I find this out? http://www.linkedin.com/ that's how!
I know someone, who knows someone else, who knows David. Judging by the number of contacts David has on LinkedIn, I might be only four degrees away from everyone on the planet.
Anyway, http://www.linkedin.com/ is quite a powerful tool in that only people I truly respect and trust are listed as my contacts. I'm quite sure this is true of most people who use http://www.linkedin.com/. Why is this relevant? Well, the ability to verify who you are isn't just a matter of producing a passport, or entering a UserID/Password into a keyboard, or typing a PIN into a "hole in the wall", or using any of the myriad of authentication devices available today. In the old days, verifying your identity could have been as simple as having someone else "vouch" for you.
This still occurs today to some degree - joining some exclusive clubs is more a matter of who you know rather than who you are or what you know! Password resets could potentially be performed in the work-place not by the forgetful employee herself, but by her colleague who is already trusted (although ideally, two colleagues).
Can we computerise the concept of a vouch-for authentication system in the future? Maybe. And maybe, it will be social networks like http://www.linkedin.com/ that will hold the key. After all, I'm not going to let any Tom, Dick or Harry be listed as a contact against my name! My identity is too precious to have it be let down by some unsavoury type!
BTW... If you are desperately interested, my LinkedIn profile can be viewed at http://www.linkedin.com/in/stephenswann.
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