Category: Uncategorized

Over the last couple of months Pinterest has become a super popular website among people who love arts and crafts and has steadily been filling up my facebook timeline with stuff they want to do or think is “really cute”.  I really hadn’t given much thought to the website until someone asked me how to secure their account (then of course I was hooked).

The first thing I noticed was the pinterest is in a “closed beta” right now and you have to be on a waiting list or have a member invite you. Luckily just by asking on Twitter and Facebook I was able to snag 8 invites!

When you get an invite it looks like this:

From there you are asked to connect it with your Facebook (or Twitter) account:

On this screen is where you get to decide who gets to see your pinterest “pins”.

I configured mine to Only Me. At a maximum yours should be set to Friends. I couldnt see a time when having it open to the Public would be smart. 

From here your Facebook and Pinterest account are connected and you are given an opprounity to go back to the Pinterest website.

Once there you need to take a look at your setting on pinterest:

On the settings page the one thing I noticed you should do is to “Hide your Pinterest profile from search engines”. This will stop your pintrest board from coming up when people google your name.

As with all social media services you need to perodically look at the setting pages and see what they have added. As of now Pinterest doesnt have a monetization plan (that I can find) so your information seems to be safe. At some point they will likely either add ads to the site or start selling your information. At that point I will revisit this blog post.

My son raps ice ice baby! Yes, he did get his dances moves from me. Why do you ask?

Success is never owned, it is only rented; and the rent is due everyday.

I just read this press release from the FBI.

 ST. LOUIS—The United States Attorney’s Office announced today that a former employee of a local shipping company has pleaded guilty to damaging their computer systems.

According to court documents, Jason Schrum was employed by Axis Worldwide Supply Chain & Logistics, Inc., a company that provides services related to international and interstate shipping and logistics, including shipping large materials used in construction projects. Schrum was a transportation manager for Axis and an administrator for their computer system until his termination over a dispute in April 2011. He then went to work for a competitor of Axis and had no reason to access their systems or any Axis computer after mid-May 2011. On June 12, 2011, in the late evening, without authorization, the Schrum accessed the Axis computer system and carried out numerous actions, including deleting customer shipment records, customer shipment history, and manipulated shipping rate tables. The company has estimated that the damage/cost was more than $25,000 to repair and correct. JASON SCHRUM, Desoto, Missouri, pled guilty to one felony count of computer fraud before United States District Judge Henry Autrey. Sentencing has been set for May 8, 2012.

This charge carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and/or fines up to $250,000. In determining the actual sentences, a Judge is required to consider the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines, which provide recommended sentencing ranges.

This case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Assistant United States Attorney John Bodenhausen is handling the case for the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

When I see stories like this my questions are always:

What responsibilities do companies have when they let an employee go to make sure they no longer have access to their network?

Obviously what this guy did was bad but is there a legal liability for companies who have turn over in their IT shops to make sure their ex-employees cant access the network?

Get it, SUPERBOWL? ROFLCOPTER!

This is a super simple recipe but it is awesome!

You need:
2 pounds of cubed steak
5 cans of black beans
3 cans of pinto beans
2 cans of tomato sauce
1 can of diced tomatoes.
1 Jar or spicy salsa.

Brown the steak and then mix everything together in a crock-pot and let simmer until half time (6 hours). The spicy salsa really is all the flavoring my family needs but spice to taste.

Have the humility to prepare but the confidence to perform!

Let this be the official record of The Great Twinkie War of 2012. 

Thursday, January 12th:
An innocent conversation was had about Hostess filing for bankruptcy protection. One of the new developers in my office admits that they hate Twinkies.

Friday, January 13th:
I happen to have some Twinkies in my office. I leave a Twinkie on the new developers desk.

Monday, January 16th:
The Twinkie is back on a desk with a sticky note saying “Eat Me”.

Tuesday, January 17th:
I deposit 10 freshly bought Twinkies on the developer’s desk.  He neatly stacks them on the corner of his desk where they remain for the next 7 days.

Tuesday, January 24th:

This Happens:

I have now been Twinkie bombed with 60 Twinkies. I now have to let this go or retaliate by locating the nearest hostess distributor and buying 600 Twinkies (Which cost $167.87 with tax delivered, if you were wondering).

Really, what is it that you hate about SOPA? Is it the blocking of trafficking in inherently dangerous goods or services or is it protecting U.S. businesses from foreign and economic espionage.

Or is it that your best friend’s sister’s boyfriend’s brother’s girlfriend heard from this guy who knows this kid who’s going with the girl who knows something about DNS that told you it will force YouTube off the internet. I guess it’s pretty serious.

The truth is that bill does have some obtuse language that if twisted around and ran through enough Outrage Enhancement Filters™ could lead you to believe that if you have a link to a Jay-Z MP3 on your blog that it will get taken off the internet and you’ll never be able to get it back.

That needs to be fixed and the House Judiciary Committee is going to have to a hearing in February to mark up the bill (read: re-write it) to clean up some of the language.

This bill is obviously about large scale pirating sites like the pirates bay. The fact companies like Wikipedia, Reddit, Tumblr, OpenDNS and Thinkgeek are standing up for these pirate websites has to have them feeling like they won a huge battle.

This weekend Zappos announced they were hacked and lost a DB that had your name, e-mail address, billing and shipping addresses, phone number, the last four digits of your credit card number and/or your cryptographically scrambled password.  For some reason it was also important to let people know their server was in Kentucky?

Ok? So what does this mean to someone with a Zappos account?

It shouldn’t mean anything unless you reuse your online passwords. Then you NEED to change your passwords on all sites that share your Zappos password.  

It is really important to stop reusing passwords on the internet. It’s the fastest way to go from a small incident like this to someone having access to your email, banking, corporate and social media accounts.

Here is how I stop password reuse. Its simple, cheap and effective.

Today is the 2,061st  anniversary of the crossing of the Rubicon by Caesar.

It got me thinking about how it is recorded in history and what it can teach us about decision making skills. 

I know of two places it is prominently recorded:

The Life of the 12 Caesars has it recorded like this:

When he came to the river Rubicon, which parts Gaul within the Alps from the rest of Italy, his thoughts began to work, now he was just entering upon the danger, and he wavered much in his mind, when he considered the greatness of the enterprise into which he was throwing himself. He checked his course, and ordered a halt, while he revolved with himself, and often changed his opinion one way and the other, without speaking a word. This was when his purposes fluctuated most; presently he also discussed the matter with his friends who were about him, (of which number Asinius Pollio was one,) computing how many calamities his passing that river would bring upon mankind, and what a relation of it would be transmitted to posterity. At last, in a sort of passion, casting aside calculation, and abandoning himself to what might come, and using the proverb frequently in their mouths who enter upon dangerous and bold attempts, “The die is cast,” with these words he took the river. Once over, he used all expedition possible, and before it was day reached Ariminum, and took it.

Plutarch’s Life of Caesar has it recorded like this:

Then, overtaking his cohorts at the river Rubicon, which was the boundary of his province, he paused for a while, and realising what a step he was taking, he turned to those about him and said: “Even yet we may draw back; but once cross yon little bridge, and the whole issue is with the sword.”

Caesar showed his true decision making and leadership skills here (while deciding to start a civil war).

Caesar did the three things it takes to make a good decision:

• He took time to himself to think about his choices and the consequences of his actions.
• He inquired of his mentors and advisors.
• He calculated the odds and decided the risk was worth the reward.

When it came down to it Caesar didn’t have a clear answer if crossing the Rubicon was 100% going to work but he had put enough thought and time into the decision making process that he knew it would gain him more than doing nothing. It ended up gaining him the world.