Recently, my wife saw some posts on the wall of some “not-so-nice” relatives, who were obvious newbs to the facebook world. Follow this rule… Don’t post anything if you dont want *everyone* to see it. The only thing you should rely on being private is a message (which is really like an email). And even then, treat that with a bit of caution. Your trusted friend might walk away from their computer and leave themselves logged into facebook one day, at the mercy of their roomate or sibling. Hijacked!

Your wall on facebook is PUBLIC. People in your network (sometimes this means city) can see your wall. This means that you shouldn’t write wall posts about how many donuts your Aunt Sally ate this weekend. When she finds and friends you (and she will find and friend you), you’ll regret it. Be the smart one. Wait until Aunt Sally joins Facebook, friends you, and then go read her wall posts. I guarantee there will be some good stuff up there if she hasn’t read this yet

P.S. Facebook’s help is really great. I recommend you read Facebook’s help privacy section.

Tagging- tagging is a way for people to classify items (online, usually) based on words they associate with them. You might see a picture of casey and tag it “dog, cute, puppy, lab…”. You might bookmark a website about facebook (on delicious.com or such) and say it is “goodread, news, technology, etc). It’s referred to (by groundswell) as the “folksonomy” of the internet and allows you to find information based on your own classification, plus teaches the computers and other users how to classify that information.

Facebook tagging – facebook lets you tag your photos with the names of actual people who are part of facebook. They have a lot of features surrounding this. One such feature is that if you go to my profile ( on facebook), you will see that there are >100 photos of me. I may have submitted about 20 of them, but I was “tagged” in other people’s photos. This means there is no need for me to have my own copy of their photos of me, plus others dont have to dig through my photos to see me. The more you tag yourself, the more people will be able to see you in those photos.

I, personally, use facebook photo tagging as a way for people to stay current with what I am doing…. example… After uploading my photos from halloween, I tagged myself and my wife in the photos. That resulted in a “news feed” item in facebook that said “Ben tagged himself in this photo”. All of my friends get that “news feed item” and can then go see that photo. Having done this, many of my friends commented on those photos and told me how ridiculous my costume looked. It’s my way of telling people what I am up to, without actually having to do anything.

Many of facebooks principles are based on the “beacon” approach. I am active on facebook, so that whoever cares can visit my page to see what I have been up to since I am broadcasting it like a beacon! It sure beats sending all of my friends photos after every party.

I just had to post this advice based on the recent domain name/business I just saw on the side of a box somewhere….

http://www.conlinscopy.com/

Now what do you think that says at first glance… Yeah, so did I!

What’s next? What could the next major disruption be to change the internet forever, and what will the result of that disruption be? Comment your thoughts…

Kingmax Super Stick – 2GB USB 2.0 Flash Drive (World’s Tiniest)

Check out this great deal on a Garmin Nuvi GPS. A top rated item on Amazon, this is sure to get you around faster and easier and will not break your wallet.

Be able to work from anywhere…

Location independence is key. If you can work from anywhere, then you can work at any time. Location is the hardest thing to overcome between yourself and your customers. With the right technology, you can leverage the internet to bridge the gap between you and your customers and “seem” always available.

1. Laptop. Carry the “best of the best” laptop. As a long time PC guy, the PC vs. Mac commercials made me switch and I am glad I did…I am now younger and trendier! Well not younger, but Macs are head and shoulders above PCs. I leave the desktop of choice to your choosing for working at home, but this laptop is definitely a must.

Apple MacBook Pro MB133LL/A 15.4″ Laptop (2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo Processor, 2 GB RAM, 200 GB Hard Drive, DVD/CD SuperDrive)

2. Blackberry. Respond as if you are online, even when you are not. The Blackberry has two serious work-related advantages over the iPhone: 1. Push Email: emails are sent down to the phone, not requested. 2. Full keyboard: My fingers cannot type an email on the iPhone, can yours?
Blackberry 8300 8320 8310 Curve Smartphone Accessory Bundle Kit- Transparent Clear Silicone Skin Case + Premium Reusable LCD Screen Guard Protector with Lint Cleaning Cloth By Ikross

3. Kindle. Staying up to date on reading is important, and it best for technical people top do so with technical gadgets. Also, how many times have you wanted to “Edit | Find…” within a book, and never could. The kindle is, no doubt, a revolutionary product.

Kindle: Amazon’s New Wireless Reading Device

4. WiFi Keychain. How do you know when you can pop open the laptop and get to work? Detect wireless networks with this gadget.

IOGEAR GWF001 Wireless WiFi HotSpots Explorer

Get comfortable where you work best…

You will not always be on the road, so when you are denned up and working from your home or office, make sure that the products sitting there make you the most comfortable and productive.

5. Flatpanel Widescreen Monitor. Bigger is better. Dell makes phenomenal monitors and widescreens increase productivity ten-fold.

DELL E207WFP 20.1″ DIGITAL/ANALOG TFT FLAT PANEL MONITOR

6. Ergo Mouse. A comfortable mouse leads to happy hands, leads to a happy back, leads to a happy life. Don’t miss out on features like side-scrolling and zoom buttons. If work were a battle, using a two button mouse with just a scroll wheel is like going to war with a pocket knife. Choose a sword.
Logitech MX Revolution Cordless Laser Mouse

7. Docking Station. What do you do with the laptop when at home-base? Dock it and get to to work. Again, comfort is key.

Logitech Alto Notebook Stand w/Integrated Keyboard

8. USB KVM. Not well known by non-techs, but this is key to integrating tools. Set this up so you can dock the laptop, plug in one or two USB cords from the notebook stand/docking station and you are on your way to working with both the laptop and your desktop on the new big screen. This is essentially double the computing power.

TRENDnet 2-Port USB KVM Switch Kit w/ Audio (Includes 2x KVM Cables)

Enjoy and capture the moment…

Let’s face it, life isn’t always about work. Sometimes, you need to enjoy your technology. A portfolio of fun technology tells people that you have a fun side and truly leverage technology to get the most out of life.

9. Digital Camera. The Canon Digital Elph speaks for itself. No-one is ever disappointed with it as it ranks at the top in all categories. Pocket size? Check! Power zoom? Check! Easy to use? Check! Stellar photos? Check! It is the total package.

Canon PowerShot SD1000 7.1MP Digital Elph Camera with 3x Optical Zoom (Silver)

10. iPod. Last, but never least, I am sure you know all about the iPod by now. The iPod is now a stable of every day life for people that own it. Get a set of good headphones and this will make walking, jogging, biking, working and yard work all the more enjoyable. Plus, once behind a computer and in the zone, nothing helps you focus better than some good tunes. (For me it is Jack Johnson, Coldplay and John Mayer, but to each their own!)

Apple iPod nano 8 GB Black (3rd Generation)

Now that you are geared up and set up, work is easier and more enjoyable. It will make you a better communicator, seem always accessible and mobile.

As a free spirit, you need room to roam and when you are happy, the sky is the limit!

Message to Facebook Support______

Maiden Names…Since the point of FB is to reconnect with friends and the community of users is getting older, I am finding it tough to find people I went to school with that may have changed their names. I have no idea of knowing what their married name is. I would think that my wife’s friends may not even know that she got married as they could have not spoken in a while.

Response from Facebook Support_____

Hi Ben, Please note that users are able to include their maiden or former names. You are able to do this by going to ”edit’ next to the ‘Profile’ tab. From here, you will be able to add your maiden name under the ‘Relationships’ tab in the ‘Former Name’ section. Please let me know if you have any further questions.  Thanks for contacting Facebook.
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Did you know this? The question now is does this show up in search results? If not, then what’s the point?