Fire and Theft and TORNADOS!! OH MY!!

Everyone thinks it will never happen to them until it does. Don't let yourself "get caught with yer britches down". Make sure you have a backup of your backup and then;
1.) Make an excel spreadsheet of every item in your house (and otherwise too) that has  a value of more than $100. Make sure include important info like serial and model number as well as a picture of said item too. If you are the unfortunate soul with one of these horrific events in your future, you will be prepared. If not, you will still be prepared.
2.) Make digital copies of all vital documents. Taxes, Marriage Licenses, Social Security cards, Adoption paperwork, citizenship, birth certificates, a photocopy of each person's ID or DL... you get the picture!! These copies, even thought they are copies will save you a HUGE hassle that you really don't need if you already have "other issues" to deal with.
3.) Take your excel sheet, your digital copies and all your important photos and back them up to two hard drives. put one in a safety deposit box and the other into a fire box at your house.
I know we are all very busy people and this is a very time consuming task, but you can really save yourself some heartache for later if you get it done now while you can.

HEY! Get your hands off my "STIK"!!!!

I keep seeing this STIK.com all over my Facebook page, and frankly, it makes me sick. For me, it all goes back to privacy and rights. STIK.com takes my privacy settings and throws them out the window. Once I give them the go-ahead, they run right over me and every one of my FB friends. STIK takes the personality out of FB and gives anyone that creates a STIK user account and is my FB friend (or a friend of a friend) access to my friendlist. Now, I don't know about you guys, but I definately have "friends" on my account that aren't "really" my  FRIENDS. No, I am not talking about you ;). There is that crazy old lady accross from my house that I just can't say no to even though I am sure she has a split personality. There is creepy Uncle Bob that we all try really hard to avoid at every family function, and there is the real creep that my Aunt Sue friended because she plays Farmville with him. So, please excuse me if I wouldn't refer every "friend" on my list to you, your Aunt Betty, and your "creepy Uncle Bob". I would rather keep my friends well protected from the sleazier side of FB.

Stop being a "tool" and get the right tool for the job!

Session Manager is such an awesome tool! I have actually started using this tool because I like to research different apps and tools for my clients (as well as myself) and this tool allows me to do it in my time without wasting time. What that means is, I can now start researching, and if I get engrossed and then have to leave in the middle and don't want my laptop in standby running my battery dead, I can now save my web browsing session and shut down my machine without loosing all my open tabs and interesting tidbits. WOOO HOOOO!!! Google Chrome is so awesome! By the way... this is only ONE of MANY different extensions for Google Chrome.

Precious in Their Sites

If you have children, or grandchildren, nieces, nephews, younger brothers, sisters, a neighbor kid, you get the picture, you really should heed this  particular tidbit because Lord knows all of them have a Facebook(FB) page. ANYONE who has a Facebook page should take note of this information. What could be so ever important you ask? Well, YOU and all the above are most important. When you have a FB account, it isn't private. The default settings are usually set to allow for optimum socialization. The problem with this rather considerate gesture made by the FB gods, is that it really isn't all that considerate at all. These settings leave you wide open for perusal by "everyone". Who is "everyone" you ask? Well, quite literally, it's everyone. Your mama, your dentist, the guy at the carwash down the street, the weirdo that was gawking at your teenage daughter at the local Starbucks. All these people are included in "everyone". So, to keep the weirdos out, you must change your settings.
Make sure you set all pertinent information to "friends". We don't want Suzy's "crazy Uncle Bob" to have access to all your little girl's pictures, her graduation date, her address, phone number..... kids will put the darndest stuff on their FB profile and in their posts.... you just never know who is reading them. If you aren't sure how to change these settings, I would be glad to help you. Give me a call anytime at 316-312-0419. Don't leave your precious children targets in their sites, the sites of the strangers on the internet.

Beep... Beep... Beep...

Backup, backup, backup…. I can’t tell you enough how important it is to keep a backup of your stuff. Let me ask you; would you miss the pictures that you have deleted from your camera, but only have sitting in a folder on your desktop? How about the quicken files that you have been using for 5 years and never backed up? What would you do if you lost all of the contacts that you have in Outlook?

More and more of our lives are tied to our computers, and all too often we place too much confidence in technology that is frequently unstable and unreliable. To prevent this catastrophe from happening to you, make sure you; first- know how to back up, second– have somewhere to back up, and last– DO IT!! I say this with love, if you don’t back up your stuff, and your computer crashes, while I will try to get as much of your stuff as I can, it is not my problem if it is not possible.

If you are unsure about backup possibilities and/ or how to  perform a backup, there are a few options for you. You can use an online backup system, or there are a few backup programs that you could use with a portable hard drive as well. Online backup systems will have step by step instructions, as will most programs you might install on your pc, so you shouldn’t feel anxious about backing up your files and documents. If anything, you should feel worried that you haven’t backed up your files. So, why are you sitting here reading, when you could be getting started on your back up?

Getting Hacked

It used to be “okay” for the everyday computer user to have a fairly easy to recall password that didn’t involve having a doctorate and a cast-iron, leak proof skull to remember it. Unfortunately, those days are gone.

In today’s world, it is common to have a friend call you and ask “Why are you sending this video link to everyone on Facebook?”. Then you get to find out that you have been hacked . Your Facebook friends are “hacked” as well and your day isn’t getting any better at this rate.

So, to avoid all of these issues, we create a more complex password. NO, you do NOT use your dog’s name. That is not secure either, I promise you have mentioned “pookie” on Facebook somewhere, so they have that one too. No, you need a much sturdier password, one that will pass the unspoken techie geeky tests.

What I recommend is for you to use dates and names combined. Use you anniversary, your son’s birthdate, and your daughter’s nickname. It would read something like 08pumpkin16. (08-anniversary, pumpkin-daughter’s nickname, and 16– son’s birthdate) If you need to make it a bit more clever throw a special character in there like an asterisk or a dollar sign.

The bottom line is that in this day and age, Obama isn’t the only one that needs to use a secure password, and it isn’t like we need to be any smarter than him to accomplish this task either.

Social Media is Your Friend

     One user on a social site may favorite, follow, or Digg something about you, and suddenly your brand and name is now being shown to all of their friends, and if they repost, they open your brand up to all of their friends, and so on, and, well, you et the picture.
     Businesses can start with a company presence or profile on different, but appropriate, social media sites. You can create a Fanpage on Facebook, get your employees on LinkedIn, sign up for Twitter, or start submitting relevant articles and content to social bookmarking sites, like Digg and StumbleUpon. You can also use free blogs like Blogger to open a discussion between your business and potential customers.
     When creating profiles on these sites, remember to link them up. For example, on your Twitter profile you can include a link to your blog or Web site. On Facebook you can install a Digg application so others can see what you favorite, and a Facebook Twitter application lets your Tweets become your Facebook status update. Twitter feeds can be added to your blog, and so on. By linking up your profiles, with one update you can blast your message to multiple social sites.