January 07, 2006
Blog Guru
You know your way around the vast blogosphere (universe of blogs). You're able to find your way through a blogstorm – a flurry of blog conversation – to start making connections. As a result, you may have scored an invitation to a "dark blog" [a blog visible only to members]. You may even have your own blog. However, as web saavy as you are, you don't need to be a web guru to know that many soldiers have established 'milblogs' from the frontlines in order to give voice to their experiences. With time, you too will be part of the blogerati.
Your blog style takes you beyond the fluff of the blogosphere and into the substance. Blogs can be a powerful and informative resource. Blogs give everyone a chance to be heard, even the trolls (disruptive bloggers). Of course, you can always "blurk" – read without posting – instead. You, however participate on your own terms and in your own way.
You're such a blog junkie, that others refer to one of your blogs as 'blogfood' (refer to obliquely). Your blog's blogroll (list of favorite blogs) has more links than Colin Farrell has phone numbers on matchbook covers. You could use this network to your advantage, but you don't, instead prefering to enjoy the digital landscape you're a part of.
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January 06, 2006
Published by Financial Times at FT.com on January 6 2006 10:53am | Last updated: January 6 2006 18:39
A third child from the same family in Turkey died on Friday of bird flu after tests confirmed that two of the victims had been infected with the H5N1 strain of the virus.
Eleven-year-old Hulya Kocyigit died a day after her 15-year-old sister, Fatma. Their 14-year-old brother Mehmet Ali, died on Sunday. Ali Hasan, their six-year-old brother, appears to be recovering. The children had all eaten infected chicken that had lived partly in their home.
By late Friday, hospitals in the east of the country near the Iranian and Armenian borders had reported that at least 34 people had been admitted with bird flu-like symptoms.
more...
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Sselect a gender-neutral username for your e-mail address or online profiles for chat rooms, forums, etc. DON'T pick something cute, such as misskitty@aol.com or use your first name if it is obviously female. Since the majority of online victims are female, this is what predators look for. Also, be cautious of using your first and last name as your user name. If you are listed in the phone book, having a user name such as firstname.lastname@hotmail.com makes you an easy target.
Instruct children to never, ever give out any personal information - their real name, address, or telephone number on-line without your permission.
Keep your primary e-mail address private. Use your primary e-mail address ONLY for people you know and trust. Get a free e-mail account through someplace like Hotmail, Juno or Yahoo! and use that for all your other on-line activity. Make sure you select a gender-neutral username that is nothing like anything you've had before.
DON'T fill out profile forms completely! When you sign up for any e-mail account, whether it's through your ISP (Internet Service Provider such as AOL or Comcast) or a free provider (such as Yahoo! or Hotmail), fill out as little information about yourself as possible. You do NOT need to fill out everything they ask for. When you sign up you'll see what information is absolutely necessary to get your account opened. You may give ficticious information (just make sure it isn't somebody else's address). The same goes for profiles in IM (Instant Messenger) programs such as ICQ or AOL, and chat rooms. Never, ever fill out your profiles, unless you want the whole world to know everything about you.
DO block or ignore unwanted users. Whether you are in a chat room or using IM, you should always check out what options/preferences are available to you and take advantage of the "Block all users except those on my buddy list" or add unwanted usernames to an Ignore list in chat. If anyone bothers you and won't go away, put them on block or ignore!
DON'T defend yourself. Yes, this is the most common reaction when someone begins to bother you on-line. Most people naturally want to defend themselves, but a reaction from you is just what the harasser/predator wants. He or she is "fishing" for someone to latch onto and harass. When you reply to them, whether in a chat room, via IM, e-mail, in newsgroups, message boards or anywhere else online, you're letting them know you're upset, and thus have given them the first clue or button to begin pushing. That's exactly what they wan.t No matter how hard it is, ignore these people. When they realize they can't bother you, they'll either go on to the next chat room, newsgroup, trying to find another "fish" or they will escalate by trying to reach you in some other way. This is where not having your address on your profile is very helpful. If someone does contact you directly after you've blocked them consider contacting authorities, there's nothing they can do but they can advise you as to current laws that might protect you if things become worse. Save the information sent to you and note date and time you were contacted.
Lurk: Lurking is good! Reading messages and not getting into discussion online gives you the opportunity to get to know the participants and the Forum/Chat room or Blogger's boudaries and limits. Respond or post to newsgroups, message boards, mailing lists, chat rooms, etc. only after you know there's adequate monitoring of discussion and good behavior observed.
Watch what you "say" or write on-line. When you do participate on-line, be careful--only type what you would say to someone's face. If you wouldn't say it to a stranger standing next to you in an elevator, why in the world would you "say" it on-line?
Signature Files. If you use a signature file (a short attachment or textual message composed by the e-mail user that common includes name, name of organization, job title, address as well as telephone and fax numbers) make sure you know what information is in there. Check to be sure you're not giving out your full name, address and phone number. If you must have some or all of that information, see the advice below.
Get a free fax/voicemail number. If you absolutely must have a contact phone number anywhere on-line, whether on a website, in your signature file or in your profile (remember what we said about profiles!), get a free fax/voicemail number from someplace like eFax. It's easy to register, you get a free number and can then post it on your web site, sig file, etc. If someone calls, they'll get a pre-recorded message stating you are unavailable and they can leave a voicemail message. If a fax is sent, it's just like a regular fax machine. You then get notification in your e-mailbox when a voicemail message or fax has arrived and can play the voicemail message through your computer (you need speakers and a sound card for this) or open up the fax and then print it out if you want. W.H.O.A. has one - you can get one, too!
Get a P.O. Box. If you need a contact mailing address, spend the money and get a P.O. Box in your town or the next town over. It's better to be safe than sorry!
Get an unlisted telephone number. Yes, you may have to contact everyone you know that you've changed your phone number, but which is more important - protecting yourself and your family or being listed everywhere? If you're currently listed in the telephone book, then anyone can find you on-line. Go to the The Ultimates White Pages (www.theultimates.com) and do a search for your phone number, or do a reverse search with your phone number. If you are listed, you need to contact each and every phone listing website and find out how to get your name/phone number removed. But remember, if you are listed, next year when the new phone books come out you'll go right back up on their sites.
Get Caller ID. If you insist on keeping your listed telephone number. Then, if someone begins harassing you on-line, looks up your listed number on the net and begins calling you, you can sometimes figure out who it is if their number shows up on Caller ID.
Ego Surf. At least every 6 months put your first name and last name in quotes in search engines (such as Yahoo!, Google or Altavista) and personal data providers (such as Anywho.com, Superpages.com, and Addresses.com, to see if you get any search results regarding your personal information. If you do you can write to them and request to be removed. Warning: you must do this every year as your name, address, etc. will be relisted. You will be surprised at what you find. Make sure you also search the names of your loved ones and/or children. Remember to put their names in quotes to refine the search results to them.
Never give your password to anyone, especially if someone sends you an email or IM (Instant Message) requesting this information to verify your membership. Your ISP will never, ever ask you for your password.
Don't provide your credit card number or other identifying information as proof of age to access or subscribe to a website run by a company you are not familiar with.
Always check the Better Business Bureau to check on the legitimacy of an online vendor.
Don't flirt online, unless you know the other person well. Diana's internet friendship and innocent flirtation led to her disappearance and sexual assault at then tender age of 15. She thought she was flirting with another boy from her school. In reality she was flirting online with a middle-aged predator who had two convictions: one for sexual assault and another for attempted murder.
TEENAGERS SHOULD NEVER GET TOGETHER WITH SOMEONE THEY MET ONLINE.
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January 05, 2006
It all started with me coming across some of my friends winter clothes tthat were given to after they died. On one cold night I wore Larry's old FDNY sweatshirt. On another I wore Mike's favorite long sleeve black tshirt. Its comforting to have something of theirs that I can wear. Its like having a big long hug.
I think the rest of the emotional shift began when I wrote my annual holiday letters to my deceased friends, sharing my year's hilights. In writing, I felt as if they were with me and we were having a conversation. It was the closest I felt to them since there death.
That sensation brought me to a place of healing and peace. A place I've not been to in many years. I hope and pray its a place I'll be abe to return to often in the days and months ahead.
.
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January 03, 2006
Tadaa! I'm blogging straight to Munu from my Treo phone, something I've wanted to do for some time. This will be a work in progress, so please be patient!
Some time ago, when I first got my nifty little smartphone, one of my dreams was for Treo users to be able to blog easily and navigate through sites as if they were using their PC's. In doing so one of my hopes was that it would redirect technological research to expand the horizons of mobile users and the web.
Well, ever so slowly it's coming to pass. I have 2 people to thank for this little post. The first person I need to thank is my blog brother Jon, of We Swear. He and I had a phone conversation, (while he was visiting NY in July) on how he wished he could blog from his PDA about his NY/NJ trip while commuting back to NJ. His major complaint was not having the ability to blog due to the time constraints on him and his limited PC access. When he got home he began to blog less and I thought to explore PDA blogging for our mutual benefit, so that our sites wouldn't languish and become part of the abandoned blog statistics.
I tested a few applications to see if it could be done, after all my Treo was able to handle everything else so far, except make me a sandwich. There were no good solutions for the blogging platform he uses. I however, fell in love with the opportunity to blog directly and seamlessly from my Treo to Blogger and used my camera on my cell to revive an old love of photography. The result was my companion site, NYC Postcards, which has been linked to by About.com, and several major European travel sites. Actually, in the short time that site's been up it's garnered more hits than my .munu blog. Go figure.
But the 2nd, and most important person I have to thank is Eric of Eric's Grumbles Before the Grave. He has helped me to search for a solution and has painstakenly tested out several in the hope of blogging directly to his site. He's gone out and not only done research, but also tested some of these apps on his own time and pocket. He not only came up with the template for Munuvians to use. He also discovered that Google recently developed "a WML gateway. It works in your regular browser OR your [web enabled phone] browser" so that it converts "any HTML page into WML" enabling anyone to view web pages easily on their phone." Just input the following URL and add the URL of the page you want to view through your phone at the end. He put my url at the end so I can easily see it. I have enabled the link so you can see what I see on my phone.
http://www.google.com/gwt/n?u=http://lettersfromnyc.mu.nu
In doing all of this he's made all our sites easier for PDA users to read. Now you can put a link on your site so that PDA users can download or email the appropriate link to their phones and view any blog more easily.
I'm very grateful for all he's done as he's made this medium available to those overseas by simply sharing this information. You see in many countries in Asia, blogging and reading of sites is done via a small phone interface. His template has enabled my small European and Asian readership to see/read my site easily and without crashing. They are grateful for his efforts too.
So stay tuned as Eric pushes the envelope of Technology in small ways with big results. Don't believe me... then you need to read Eric's post on Technology and Liberty. He writes eloquently about the importance and role of Technology in extending our freedoms. These are the very reasons I am so passionate about pushing the limits of technology. If there's only one post you read this week, I suggest you read that post!
ps. I went in directly after my initial Vagablog transmission to update this post via my pc. Sorry, had too much to say.
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The Meme of Four
Four jobs youÂ’ve had in your life: Analyst, Project Manager, National Customer Service Rep., Education Lobbyist.
Four movies you could watch over and over: Star Wars (original trilogy), Pride & Predjudice (Colin Firth's version), Sense & Sensibility (Emma Thompson's version), The Bourne Identity.
Four places youÂ’ve lived: New York City, Europe (Paris/Rome), Puerto Rico & the Phillipines.
Four TV shows you love to watch: I watch TV only if I'm sick (like this past week) and the shows I watch are: Law and Order Criminal Intent, CSI NY, Local TV news (NBC).
Four websites you visit daily: Yahoo news, Boudicca, Miasmatic Review, & a number of the Bad Example family.
Four of your favorite foods: Pizza, Swordfish Teriyaki, "Everything" Bagel and Thai Jasmine Rice.
Four places youÂ’d rather be: Watching Sunrises on the East Coast of Puerto Rico, Sunsets on various Hawaiin Islands, Any time of day on the Northwest coast of the US and parts of Virgina.
Four albums you canÂ’t live without: Springsteen's early cd's, Sade's Lovers Rock, Chopin's Etudes, and everything by The Clash.
I'm going to add the following category since I'm such a heavy drinker:
Four of your favorite drinks: Decaf-Latte, water with wedges of lemon, Decaf Latte, Indian (not British) Darjeeling Tea, Chinese Jasmine Tea and did I mention Decaf-Latte.
If you're reading this you may consider yourself tagged (if you like).
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Your New Year's Resolutions |
 1) Get a pet wallaby [Interesting] 2) Eat more escargot [Not Happening!] 3) Travel to India [It's already on my list to travel to someday] 4) Study japanese pop culture [Lived it firsthand, so don't need to] 5) Get in shape with pilates [Yes, on my list already!] |
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January 01, 2006
Well, now you can do all that and more by simply visiting the Times Square New Year's Eve Virtual site (best when viewed with a hi-speed connection). Now you can be there and join the crowd anytime you want. Enjoy!
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