Geek-Tips

I’m not your typical conspiracy theorist by any stretch of the imagination, but I ran across this video which really makes you think.

For those of you that blog, post photos on sites such as Flickr, or use social networking sites such as MySpace or Facebook; be careful, be very careful. Read the terms and conditions (aka contract) fine print, as you may be giving away your work (writing, photos, etc.) and it’s a given that you’re giving away your personal information. You can almost guarantee that this data will be used, at a minimum, to market products and services to you from the company that owns the service you’ve signed up for and, at worst, will be sold to third parties so they can market to you.

I’ve always struggled with this. On the one hand you want to use these services but on the other hand, you have no control of their terms and conditions. I can’t blame these guys for using the data, If it were my business, I’d use it! That said, I’ve made it a practice to ALWAYS provide the minimum amount of information when signing up for a service and to use dummy information where possible. I figure things like my birthdate and telephone number are my business and I’m not going to share it easily.

If you have the skills and wherewithal, consider hosting your blog and photo galleries yourself, this way you’re in control. If you’re like most people though, this isn’t an option so shop around and find a service provider that has terms and conditions you can live with.

~GT~

Keeping in touch in today’s world has never been easier. Most of us have a home phone, work phone, cell phone, work email, and personal email. If you’re hip, you also use your cell phone to text message with friends and family, which is very convenient when your in meetings or in a noisy place like a concert or restaurant.

How about IM, this has to be one of the best communications tools ever. If you’re not familiar with IM then you should be. The acronym stands for Instant Messaging and it’s like text messaging but on your computer. I use IM every day because it allows me to multi-task. When I’m on the phone, believe you me, I’m also doing email and often times, IM too because it’s a great way to get stuff done. What’s also cool about IM is that, like text messaging, it’s not a real-time conversation which means you can do other stuff and come back to the conversation when time permits.

Now the down-side. When one decides to jump onto the IM bandwagon, they quickly realize that there are multiple services and that none are compatible with the others. The most popular services are Yahoo!Messenger, Microsoft Live and AOL’s AIM. Where this becomes a problem is in giving your information to friends. Let’s say you sign up for a Yahoo account (all services are free BTW) but you find out your friend or family member has AIM. Unfortunately, you have to have an AIM account if you are going to IM with them. The best way around this issue is to setup accounts on all three services and then use a multi-service client such as Trillian or the web-based meebo. This is a practical approach that limits you to a single client yet gives you the ability to IM with as many friends and family as possible.

If you’re not IMing today, do yourself a favor and setup your accounts, you’ll be glad you did.

~GT~