Sunday, January 24, 2010

The 3 Facebook Settings Every User Should Check Now

The 3 Facebook Settings Every User Should Check Now

By SARAH PEREZ of ReadWriteWeb (nytimes.com)
Published: January 20, 2010

In December, Facebook made a series of bold and controversial changes regarding the nature of its users' privacy on the social networking site. The company once known for protecting privacy to the point of exclusivity (it began its days as a network for college kids only - no one else even had access), now seemingly wants to compete with more open social networks like the microblogging media darling Twitter.

Those of you who edited your privacy settings prior to December's change have nothing to worry about - that is, assuming you elected to keep your personalized settings when prompted by Facebook's "transition tool." The tool, a dialog box explaining the changes, appeared at the top of Facebook homepages this past month with its own selection of recommended settings. Unfortunately, most Facebook users likely opted for the recommended settings without really understanding what they were agreeing to. If you did so, you may now be surprised to find that you inadvertently gave Facebook the right to publicize your private information including status updates, photos, and shared links.

Want to change things back? Read on to find out how.

Entire article from nytimes.com.

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

FAQ: Cloud Computing, demystified

FAQ: Cloud computing, demystified
What is cloud computing, and can it be trusted? Key questions answered

By Jon Brodkin, Network World May 18, 2009 12:03 AM ET

Everyone in the IT industry is talking about cloud computing, but there is still confusion about what the cloud is, how it should be used and what problems and challenges it might introduce. This FAQ will answer some of the key questions enterprises are asking about cloud computing.

What is cloud computing?

Gartner defines cloud computing as "a style of computing in which massively scalable IT-related capabilities are provided 'as a service' using Internet technologies to multiple external customers." Beyond the Gartner definition, clouds are marked by self-service interfaces that let customers acquire resources at any time and get rid of them the instant they are no longer needed.

The cloud is not really a technology by itself. Rather, it is an approach to building IT services that harnesses the rapidly increasing horsepower of servers as well as virtualization technologies that combine many servers into large computing pools and divide single servers into multiple virtual machines that can be spun up and powered down at will.

Complete FAQ article.

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Help Haiti, send donations with a text message

Want to help Haiti? Just send a text to donate. (But do be wary of scams)

Group's like Wyclef Jean's Yéle Haiti and the Red Cross are offering services in which you can donate $5 or $10 for Haiti relief efforts just by sending a text message from your cellphone. But watch out for scams.

By Matthew Clark Staff writer / January 13, 2010

Following the success of "text to donate" services made famous by American Idol - which in one night this year raised more than $450,000 from more than 90,000 cellphone donors for the Keep a Child Alive charity – a number of groups are allowing generous souls to help Haitians just by pressing a few buttons on their cellphone.

Foremost among them at the moment is hip hop star Wyclef Jean's Yéle Haiti charity where you can text YELE to 501501 to give $5 to help with earthquake relief efforts.

The US State Department seems to favor the Red Cross, where you can text "HAITI" to "90999" to donate $10 to the Red Cross. The donations are added to your cellphone bill.
In Canada, people can donate $5 to the Salvation Army by texting "Haiti" to 45678 through a system set up by the Mobile Giving Foundation.

But be careful.

Not all "text to donate" services are created equal. Opportunistic scammers typically come out of the woodwork in the wake of catastrophes, hoping to strike it rich through fraudulent schemes. Haiti's 7.0 earthquake, in which hundreds of thousands might have died, is no exception.

Complete posting.

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Google Docs To Store Any File

Google Docs To Store Any File

It's not quite "GDrive," Google's long-rumored cloud storage service, but it's a step in that direction.

From informationweek.com

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By Thomas Claburn InformationWeek January 12, 2010 09:00 AM

In a few weeks, Google plans to allow Google Docs users to upload and store any type of file, up to 250 MB in size. "No, this is not GDrive," said Google product manager Vijay Bangaru in a phone interview, who characterized the announcement as an extension of Google Docs.

The existence of GDrive has been rumored since at least 2006.

A year ago, Brian E. Ussery, director of search engine optimization at Search Discovery, spotted a reference to GDrive in a JavaScript localization file associated with Google Pack, Google's free software bundle. The file, which has since been altered to remove any reference to GDrive, described GDrive thus: "GDrive provides reliable storage for all of your files, including photos, music and documents. ... GDrive allows you to access your files from anywhere, anytime, and from any device -- be it from your desktop, Web browser, or cellular phone."

The ability to upload, share, access, and search any file of 250 MB or less isn't quite the ultimate cloud storage solution -- graphics professionals, for example, often use much larger files -- but it's a significant expansion of the utility of Google Docs for making modestly-sized files more easily accessible online and for collaboration.

"Instead of sending five attachments out, there's a folder that you always go to," said Bangaru. "In terms of consumers, it replaces all those times you e-mail a document to yourself."

Entire posting.

Monday, January 04, 2010

iPhone or Blackberry: Which is Better for Business

iPhone or Blackberry: Which is Better for Business?

By Chuck Goldman, CEO Apperian, and Brian C. Reed, CMO and VP Products, BoxTone, Network World

from pcworld.com Business Center.

Artwork: Chip Taylor

The Blackberry has been the smartphone of choice in the enterprise for some time, and for good reason. It mastered the most important business app, e-mail, and comes with all the controls IT requires. But enter the iPhone, stage right. A slick device that everyone craves and the dev world is smothering with new apps. So the question is, what ultimately wins in the enterprise? Arguing for the the BlackBerry: Brian Reed, CMO and VP Products, BoxTone, and on the iPhone side Chuck Goldman, CEO Apperian.

Blackberry article

By Brian Reed, CMO and VP Products at BoxTone

With about 36 million BlackBerry devices in use globally, half of which are enterprise-connected, BlackBerry has about a 17 million to 18 million device lead on the iPhone in the enterprise. Hundreds of organizations around the world have 5,000 or more BlackBerry devices, and a few run more than 50,000. In the past decade, BlackBerry has set the standard for enterprise-grade, reliable and secure mobility. Entire article.

vs iPhone article

By Chuck Goldman, CEO, Apperian

The iPhone has invaded the enterprise fueled by consumer-sales success. There is no going back.

According to recent surveys, when companies give employees a choice between an iPhone and other smartphones, users choose iPhones more than any other device. Although Blackberry has historically been the backbone of enterprise mobile deployments, the single-vendor model is eroding. Entire article.