Kids are on social media. It’s part of their culture and embedded into their lives in a way even the most social media-savvy adults I know don’t fully comprehend. Because it’s such a part of how they interact with others, it’s essential we teach them about online safety when they are young much like my parents taught me not to talk to strangers or look both ways before crossing the street.

As I ponder on this idea and talk with parents, it hits me that most of us are pretty well versed in teaching our kids about online safety, but when it comes to kids’ online reputations we are far less prepared. Quite often I get asked about teaching kids about social media safety; and, when talking with other parents we usually come to the conclusion that we’re not doing too badly teaching our kids about that. But my next question always is: “What are you doing to teach your kids about protecting their online reputations?” That usually results in a blank stare from the other person.

I don’t think the blank stares result from carelessness or neglect on that parts of those parents. I believe it stems from the fact that we are not as plugged in as our kids.

in the 1960s Timothy Leary popularized the counterculture phrase “Turn on, tune in, drop out.” Today, that phrase could almost be said among our web-connected kids. They are turning on to social sites via their portable devices, tuning into what other kids are doing there and dropping out their own contributions to the web of conversation. As younger and younger kids get smart phones capable of text messaging and connecting them to Facebook and MySpace they start setting up an online footprint sooner and sooner. As much as some of us adults contribute to the collective conversation, our kids will out-contribute us before too long.

This isn’t necessarily a bad thing. But, because these young ones are “on there” we need to help them understand that their online reputation will follow them wherever they go – for good or for bad.

At one point, not all that long ago, if a kid had a bad reputation at a school the parents could move them to another one either by placing them in private school or moving. This tactic may not work if the kid’s reputation problems follow them online. All the kids at the new school need do is a quick Google search and *BAM* the new start is stopped quite abruptly.

I also wrote in the article referenced at the start:

Kids need to understand that online is pretty much “forever.” Once something is posted and indexed by search engines it’s nearly impossible to get rid of and it can pop back up during searches for who knows how long. Younger kids talking smack and older kids posting pictures of themselves acting the fool at parties may be all fun now, but they can come back to haunt them later. Though this point probably applies more to older kids and young adults who may be soon entering the workforce, it’s important that kids learn early on about the basics of online reputation management.

Even Google CEO Eric Schmidt has chimed in on this topic, opining that one day everyone would have the right to change their name upon reaching adulthood so their youthful indiscretions would not follow them. While this idea may seem incredible to many, it is no secret that many who do hiring for companies will search a person’s online reputation to screen out applicants who have derogatory information posted somewhere.

As parents, we needn’t panic. What we need to do is arm ourselves with information so we can arm our kids to learn how to take care of themselves. If you are totally clueless about online reputation management, I suggest you check out Radical Transparency by Beal and Strauss. While this book is more about the marketing aspect of social media use, there are some great tips for personal reputation management you certainly learn from.

Start talking to your kids now about their online behavior just as you do about their behavior elsewhere.

What about you? Do you have any tips for parents who are bringing up social media-savvy kids? What do you tell your kids?

photo credit: wickenden

Last week my colleague deployed an update to one of our many web sites. This particular site was originally coded in Microsoft’s .NET Framework 2.0 using Visual Studio 2005. She updated it in Visual Studio 2008, successfully using the automatic update tool VS offers to run when you open up a project created in an earlier version of whatever VS you open it in. There were no issues when we ran through the site on our test web server.

All was looking good until we moved the web site code to our production web server. All the apps on the web site were working properly except for one file upload application. For whatever reason, this one hunk of code decided to malfunction. We’d run into problems similar to this one which turned out to be caused by a missing patch – so that was the first place I looked.

Sure enough, for some reason our WSUS server didn’t push out all of the service packs for the various versions of the .NET Framework to this server. To fix this, I ran Windows Update on the server. As it started the service pack install I got an error: 0×643. Bummer!

A quick search found the solution on Microsoft’s support site in Article ID 923100. The short version: manually uninstall all versions of the .NET Framework, reinstall them and then run the service pack install. Easy enough, I supposed.

I spent 2 1/2 hours of my Saturday uninstalling and reinstalling. When I was all done I opened up the web site only to find it was erroring out with the “Yellow Window” generic error message. Time to stop, think, and not over-react.

Thankfully, we have a VPN and Remote Desktop so I could multitask from home that day. After taking time to swap laundry loads from the washer to the dryer it hit me to check the web site settings in IIS. Good thing I did because there was the problem, bigger than Stuttgart (as we used to say when I was in the Army) – the ASP.NET version selected in the ASP.NET tab in the web site properties was 1.1xxxxx instead of 2.0.50727. A quick change and a restart of the IIS Admin Service got everything working as it should.

I can only guess that the IIS settings were automatically changed when the .NET Framework 2.0 was uninstalled from the server. It makes sense – and it makes sense that one would need to go reselect the proper version of the Framework. Since that wasn’t spelled out in the Microsoft article, I’m warning you here.

Hopefully you won’t have to go through this yourself. If you do, though, don’t forget to check the IIS settings before declaring yourself finished.

Well, Sort Of
I’m not really going to take a shot at Apple. There’s no need since there are plenty of others jumping in, for example Consumer Reports won’t recommend the iPhone 4.

The other mobile phone hardware manufacturers seem to be holding their own in the debate, too. But the real reason I won’t jump on the “Bash Apple” bandwagon is because the truth is, Steve Jobs was correct in his demonstration that other cell phones have similar issues. While I found his demo there in front of a live audience to be a staged PR stunt, his facts were correct.

A Little History
I’ve owned almost a dozen different mobile phones by five different manufacturers. In the users manual of each of those phones a paragraph (or more) was included stating that holding the phone by the antenna (for models with external antennas) or near the antenna location (for models with internal antennas) will degrade performance. This issue has been around since day one of the mobile phone.

It’s All About The Waves, Man
The most daunting aspect of modern mobile phone antenna design is matching the wavelength of the transmitting frequency used by the phones transceiver. Wavelength is the physical length of radio waves in space. It’s an inverse proportion to the frequency (the higher the frequency, the shorter the wavelength). For a short explanation of wavelength calculations for radio waves, check out “Frequency vs. Wavelength” on DXing.com.

Correct matching of antenna length to wavelength is critical for efficient operation of the transceiver, which can have a tremendous impact on battery life. If the match isn’t right, not enough radio frequency (RF) energy will go out the antenna. At best this will cause dropped calls, at worst it will cause damage to the transmitter and make the phone inoperable. Neither of these is ideal.

Back in the day (which wasn’t really all that long ago) cell phones would operate in one or two frequency bands. This made antenna design rather straightforward as it was somewhat of a “one size fits all” situation. Even so, design compromises needed to be made in order to keep the antennas small enough to be convenient. Remember the switch from the pullout metal antennas to the stubby rubber-coated ones? Stashing the antenna inside the phone’s case makes the situation even more complicated.

Because the newer generations of devices do so many things, they need to operate on many different frequencies almost simultaneously. A recent article in the L.A. Times Blog by Mark Milian titled “Building a Better Cellphone Antenna” mentions that new 4G phones will need to operate in up to 40 modes in 50 different frequency bands. This means that the antenna systems in those phones will need to be able to adjust on the fly, switching from one frequency band to another as the phone goes from voice to data to Bluetooth to Wifi modes – and it needs to happen quickly enough that the user doesn’t notice. I’ve read a number of very technical articles over the past few days describing different ways to approach this problem. It’s a technological marvel these newer devices work as well as they do.

A reasoned comparison specifically covering the differences between the first generation iPhone and and the iPhone 4 can be gotten on the AntennaSys, Inc. blog. In this article, the author points out two other very important challenges to mobile phone antenna design: RF energy exposure limits imposed by the FCC and the fact that human tissue conducts and absorbs electricity.

In order to address possible health issues related to long term RF exposure, the FCC places strict limits on how much RF energy can be emitted* from devices based on their frequency (wave length) and proximity to humans. Since mobile phone transceivers operate in the microwave band (typically at frequencies 1 Ghz and up) and microwave length RF energy is easily absorbed by human tissue, placement of the antenna and output power of the transceiver must be carefully balanced in order for a device to get FCC approval. By placing the antenna at the bottom of the phone, more transmitter power can be used in order to allow the device to have better range and (hopefully) reduce dropped calls.

As the author of the AntennaSys, Inc. article points out, the hand is not always taken into account when testing RF exposure limits. The hand conducts electricity just as well as the rest of the body, so when your hand blocks the antenna some of the RF goes into your hand instead of out into the air, thus blocking the signal from the cell tower and increasing the chance of poor performance. Covering the antenna with a bumper case or even duct tape addresses this problem, but doesn’t completely resolve it.

The bottom line is: You have to keep your hand away from the antenna for peak performance. Because people want the antennas to be hidden and marketers like the sleek look of a smooth case, compromises in antenna design are made. As antenna designers continue making improvements, I think you can expect some performance gains. But, since the laws of physics cannot be changed, RF will always be blocked by the human body. There may not be a perfect solution found on the device end. Maybe it would be better to look to the cell tower end of things to help solve this issue.

Why Am I Writing This?
I’ve been playing and working with radios for almost thirty years and I often tell people I’m a radio geek. What started out as a hobby became a big part of my professional life. I first got interested in radio when I bought a boom box which could receive signals on the shortwave broadcast bands. I spent many an hour listening to broadcasts from around the world. Later, my jobs in the Army allowed me to work with many different kinds of radios in different settings. I’m also an amateur radio operator licensed by the FCC (KB5NJU. 73 to all my ham friends).

While I am not an antenna guru, I’m “smarter than the average bear” when it comes to knowing how they work and what what makes one antenna better than another in certain circumstances. I’ve bought, assembled and built from scratch quite a few antennas. While some worked better than others, each one had plusses and minuses. I expect the folks who design mobile phone antennas have similar results in their work, and they’re a whole lot smarter than me on the subject.

Since mobile phones are, at their core, radio transceivers, I hope I explained things in such a way as to help those who are not radio geeks better understand what’s really going on and why mobile phone antennas are very complex and take a lot of delicate balancing to get right.

FootNotes:
* I hesitate to use the words “radiate” or “radiation” because most people think of the type radiation which is emitted from radioactive decay and is much more dangerous than exposure to RF. “Nuking” your food in a microwave is really a misnomer because a microwave oven uses RF energy to cook the food, not atomic radiation.

Top Photo: photo credit: CalypsoCrystal

Bottom Photo: photo credit: ebmarquez

My friend Nadine (not her real name, of course) is a wonderful lady. I met her, her husband and their children while we were working together on a volunteer project. You wouldn’t know unless she told you, but Nadine has a somewhat checkered past. There is someone from her “previous life” who has stalked and threatened her over the course of a number of years. The thought of this person even just contacting her brings up feelings of terror. Thankfully, he has not been able to track her down for well over ten years, though she has heard through the grapevine he has tried from time to time.

Nadine has family and friends spread across the country, and many of them are on Facebook. Of course, they want her to join so they can stay in touch easier. She wants to join, but hasn’t thus far. She and her husband are very cautious when it comes to social media. This is quite understandable given Nadine’s situation. It’s one thing to join Facebook and lock down your privacy settings knowing the odds of someone stalking you are quite low; but, it’s quite another when you know there is a real “someone” out there who may want to get you. “Paranoia may destroy ya” as The Kinks used to sing, but in Nadine’s case a healthy amount of caution is called for.

I have to admit, at first I rather drew a blank when she emailed and asked if I could advise her how she might get on Facebook and stay safe. Knowing the inherent privacy issues in Facebook, I thought long and hard. I certainly could not tell her she could get on there and know for sure her information was safe. There are no guarantees for any of us, but she certainly has a reason to be extra cautious. While telling her to carefully consider whether or not to join I made sure to stress there is always a risk of exposure, I wrote the following in an email to her for consideration if she does decide to sign up:

1. Pick a fake name. Although this is technically against the Facebook terms of service, it most likely won’t be a problem unless someone complains about it. She should pick a fake location, home town, etc. too.
2. Set up a bogus email address based on that fake name and use it for Facebook. I reminded her she’ll need to check this email address periodically.
3. Don’t put pictures of herself up anywhere on Facebook. I told her if she gets a message that someone has “tagged” her in a photo, she should go and remove the tag immediately. There are settings which can restrict tagging a bit in the privacy settings, but they may not work as advertised. Sharing pictures of her kids should be OK, though she may want to watch who “likes” them or who comments because those comments can be seen by others.
4. Tightly restrict all her Facebook privacy settings to share information with “Only Me” and “Friends Only” as appropriate.
5. If anyone of her Facebook friends pass your information on to this person, all bets are off. Even the cleverest disguise is worthless if someone tells on her.

I consider the last point to be the most important because there are no guarantees of privacy and safety once you put your information online. When you consider the importance of online reputation management and how easy it is for employers to find information about potential employees, it’s quite easy to see that personal information is very hard to hide once it’s posted.

I pose the question to you: What would you tell Nadine in this situation? Would you advise her to stay off Facebook and other social media sites completely? Do you have any tips for Nadine or someone in a similar situation as the one she is in? Please feel free to leave your answers and suggestions in the comments.

photo credit: MartynvanDeelen

Unfortunately, the story is no longer available on their web site. I’m looking for another source.

Background
This particular piece revolved around a school bus driver who thought a dog belonging to one of the students on his route had been found by one of his neighbors. The neighbor was about to take the dog to the animal shelter. Concerned for the pet’s safety, he contacted the 13-year-old female student via a Facebook message asking if the dog in question was hers. Apparently, when she didn’t respond, went to her house and knocked on the door.

The concern here is (as spoken in the story): “When is it appropriate for an adult to contact a child on the internet?” I’m sure opinions vary. In this case, the school district leadership is convinced the driver’s intentions were honorable. Still, the incident did raise a bit of concern for school district – and it should.

Kids are on social media. It’s part of their culture and embedded into their lives in a way even the most social media-savvy adults I know don’t fully comprehend. Because it’s such a part of how they interact with others, it’s essential we teach them about online safety when they are young much like my parents taught me not to talk to strangers or look both ways before crossing the street.

School Is Teaching Kids
Apparently, the school district spent some time during the course of the last year teaching kids about online safety. That is excellent. Although I believe parents should be ultimately responsible for monitoring their kids’ online activities, it is an excellent idea for schools to help by offering some instruction. This may offer the chance for the kids themselves to look out for each other and help each other succeed in keeping not only their personal information, but their persons safe.

Social Media Policies for Employers
From what I gather of the superintendent’s comments, the school district does not have a social media policy for its employees. I firmly believe all organizations should have a social media policy, and this goes double for schools. I don’t think social media policies for school need to be draconian to the degree that social media contact between school personnel and students are cut off totally. There are some excellent and legitimate uses for social media contact, especially between students and teachers. However, there should be some guidelines to help prevent a situation like the one in this story; to help keep “honest people honest.”

Social media can be a great tool to help schools communicate. For example, I have a friend whose highschoolers are involved in Theatre Arts. The teachers have a Twitter account which they use to let parents know what’s going on when students are on field trips and traveling to competitions. Certainly a Facebook fan page for a teacher’s class would be of great help with communication of lessons and such between the teacher and students and parents. I know many teachers who use email lists for this type of communication – perhaps it would be more efficient to post message to social media sites.

Some Points to Ponder
During the interview I did with Megan we discussed a number of points about how to help kids make good decisions when it comes to their social media activities. Here are a few:

• It is mainly the responsibility of parents to teach their kids how to be safe online. Some parents are overwhelmed by this because they don’t understand social. If this is the case with you, concentrate on the basics like, “Don’t talk to Strangers,” “Treat others as you want to be treated,” “Don’t spread gossip.” Teach them not to share their personal information such as address, phone number, pictures, etc. with those not personally known to them.
• Foster a relationship with your kids that encourages them to let you know when something untoward happens. Often times communication between parents and kids is the best tool to keep them safe. Of course, when they become teens and think they know everything this gets tougher, so you have to start early.
• Anyone can figure out how to send a message to anyone else. That’s how spam works. Getting emails from strangers is nothing new. Teach your kids to ignore and delete messages from people they don’t know.
• It’s not a bad idea to put the family computer in the living room with the T.V. and other entertainment items. This way, you parents can keep an eye on what the kids are doing online.
• Check your kids’ social media accounts from time to time. Not only should you check the security/privacy settings on their accounts, you should check to see who they are interacting with and how they interact. Cyberbullying and such can be cut off if parents are involved in monitoring their kids’ online activities. You kids may complain about you “invading their privacy” but in the end they will appreciate that you care.
• If you are technically savvy enough, you can install various filters and limit your kids’ time online. This way you can help prevent them from Facebook-ing or MySpace-ing at all hours of the night.
• Kids need to understand that online is pretty much “forever.” Once something is posted and indexed by search engines it’s nearly impossible to get rid of and it can pop back up during searches for who knows how long. Younger kids talking smack and older kids posting pictures of themselves acting the fool at parties may be all fun now, but they can come back to haunt them later. Though this point probably applies more to older kids and young adults who may be soon entering the workforce, it’s important that kids learn early on about the basics of online reputation management.

Please check out the tips I gave in my last TV interview in my article “Social Media Safety & Security.”

How about you? What tips do you have regarding keeping kids safe online? Please feel free to share them in the comments.

Background
When I was an up-and-coming young soldier, recently promoted to the rank of Sergeant, I went to the required month-long training at the Army’s Primary Leadership Development Course (PLDC). The particular school I attended was the 7th Army NCO Academy in Bad Toelz, Germany. This PLDC had the reputation of being the toughest in Europe. One feature of the school was the infamous “Autobahn,” which was the main hallway through the classroom portion of the building. It had a black strip in the middle and an alternating color on the sides. The black strip had to be polished to a mirror finish each day and no students were allowed to walk on it.

In the time leading up to my departure, I wasn’t exactly looking forward to the experience.

I showed up at the school and was assigned to a squad of about twelve to fourteen other young soldiers. We were all from different units and had different specialties and different backgrounds. The one thing we all had in common was that we all wanted to finish the class successfully so we could keep our newly-acquired rank or be promoted.

One person from the squad was assigned to be Squad Leader. This person was in charge of making sure all the squad’s tasks were completed each day and inspecting each squad member’s uniform before the morning inspection by the school cadre. A goodly portion of each soldier’s successful completion of the course was riding on the evaluation the cadre gave them for their time as Squad Leader. Because there were around fifteen soldiers in our squad, this job rotated every two or three days.

Each squad was assigned different duties which the members had to perform as a team after classes were over and the classroom floors were mopped and polished and before lights out. The trick was, these jobs had to be finished with enough time left over before lights out so everyone had opportunity to polish their boots and press a uniform for the next day.

One squad was assigned the task to wax the “Autobahn” each evening, another was directed to clean all the showers and latrines in the basement of the building, a third was tasked with waxing the other hallways. Our squad was assigned the task of cleaning the Commandant’s office and the rest of the headquarters building.

The Plan
The very first day the group got together and divvied up the individual portions of the building to clean. One person vacuumed the carpeted areas, another mopped and waxed the tile floored rooms, still another cleared out the trash from all the wastebaskets, etc. Each person had a task and we all worked together and finished the entire job in about two hours.

I wish I could take credit for the stroke of genius which came out of the meeting we squad members held after the cleaning was done. Someone suggested that to make sure we all got good evaluations as squad leaders we would all agree to do the same jobs we did that first day; and, no matter who was in charge we would work together for the success of everyone. We all shook hands and “pinkie sweared” and agreed that’s how we would do it.

The Result
It worked, too. The next day we had our cleaning time down to one and one-half hours. The day after that, it was down to an hour. By the end of the first week we had our time down to thirty minutes. Done, done and done – and done to the Commandant’s satisfaction.

After we had our duty time down to thirty minutes, we had lots of time for boot polishing and uniform pressing. We also had time to play cards and nightly Spades tournaments were held.  At one point I found myself wondering what all the fuss was about before I went to the class – the class was turning out to be quite easy.

At one point, about half way through the course, our instructor came in for the first class of the morning. He closed the door and motioned for us to gather around his desk at the front of the classroom. He looked around as if making sure no one would overhear what he was about to say. He asked us, in hushed tones, what we were up to.

None of us quite understood what he was talking about, so he clarified. Apparently, the members of the other squads were complaining that our squad didn’t have enough work to do because we were finishing our cleanup duty in the Commandant’s office in thirty minutes and they were working right up until lights out. They thought it unfair that we were “getting over” and were demanding we be given some of their work. Our instructor was quite puzzled because there were no complaints from the Commandant. In fact, our instructor told us the Commandant mentioned at a recent staff meeting that his offices had never been cleaned so thoroughly.

We all broke into smiles as the squad leader for that day explained what was going on. He told our instructor about the meeting we had on the very first day and how we agreed that no matter who was in charge, we would do the same job every day and work it so every succeeded at that part of being squad leader. The reason we were finishing up so quickly was because of teamwork and lack of egos.

The other squads hadn’t worked out such an ingenious plan. I saw them, every day, argue amongst themselves about the best way to do this or that task. Every time a new squad leader took over (mind you, this was just about every other day) he or she would impose on the others “The Way It Ought To Be Done.” This would result in arguments and delays in getting the work started, thus more time taken to complete their tasks. While we were playing cards, they were fighting over whose way was best.

A huge smile broke out on our instructor’s face. He told us not to tell anyone about our conversation. He said something like, “Very few people get it when they come here. You guys did. Keep up the great work.”

You see, it was all about working together as a team for the common good. Instead of PLDC being a dreaded experience and a time of torment, we actually had a good time. Don’t get me wrong, we did work hard. In the end, though, checking our egos at the door and working together made the experience a whole lot easier.

How about you – do you have a teamwork story? Please feel free to share in the comments.

Top image:  photo credit: The National Guard

Bottom image: My personal collection

When I worked in tech support there were many occasions when I would be handed a desktop or notebook computer with a crashed hard disk or some other problem which caused data to be lost. I wonder if the feeling I got telling someone they lost all their work, pictures of their kids or grandkids, music collection or what have you was the same as a doctor or nurse has telling someone about the death of someone close. Even if it wasn’t I still felt terrible about it.

The saddest part about this is that data loss is preventable. Here are some tips to get you thinking about it:

Business Machines

• For desktops, consider using a product like Acronis. If you cannot make images of your hard disks, at a minimum back up document and data stores.
• For servers, Acronis or Syncsort’s BEX are good considerations. (Note: I only recommend Acronis or BEX because I have had good experiences with them, this is not a paid endorsement.)
• Store your backups on removable media and store them off site. Your backups will do you no good if they are burned up in the same fire that destroyed the computers they came from.
• If you only have one or two machines, consider using thumb drives or external hard disks for your backup media.
• There are also a number of offsite “cloud based” backup solutions like Barracuda Networks or Carbonite you may wish to consider. I’ve not used either of these solution, so I cannot comment on their service.

Home Machines

• If you are running Windows 7 as your operating system, it has a backup feature built in.
• Other operating systems may also have built-in backup applications as well.
• Home machines can be backed up to thumb drive or external hard disk.
• Back up your documents, photos, music files, checkbook databases, etc.
• Store your backups somewhere else if possible. If you leave them with someone else, make sure it’s someone you can trust with intimate, personal data!

Hosted Web Sites or Blogs
Even if your web site host backs up your data for you, it is to your advantage to back up your data and keep it close. Your host could go under or you might have a billing dispute. There are a myriad or reasons to keep your data with you as much as possible. Each web host and hosting platform has its own unique features that it’s difficult for me to give any specific recommendations other than to “just do it.”

One important thing most people don’t think about is to test your backups. Having the data stored nicely somewhere isn’t going to do you much good if you can get it back in a usable form. Restore some data every so often to not only make sure your backups are complete, but to also make sure you can use the data when it is restored.

What About You?
Is there something you feel I missed? Do you have any backup or restore hints? Do you have a horror story you don’t mind sharing to help us all learn better? Please feel free to share in the comments.

Bill Detweiler of TechRepublic mentions a poll he conducted last month in response to a CBS piece which covered this subject showing many don’t bother wiping information from the hard disks of multifunction copying devices which have them. Bill also refers to an article he wrote back in 2007 which mentioned the security problems with digital copiers.

This problem, however, goes back further than even 2007. I remember working tech support in the late ’90s when we had some digital multi-function copier/fax/printer devices which operated on a system based on Microsoft Windows NT 4 running Internet Information Server (IIS). We didn’t realize they were based in NT 4 with IIS until an internal security scan revealed them as such. We assumed, up to that point, they would have been Linux-based or working on some proprietary system. These devices had no interface to the internal operating system and could not be patched – even by the manufacturer (or so we were told). That made them vulnerable to cracking. Remember the “Code Red” worm? Needless to say, those devices were replaced as quickly as practical.

To maintain good information security, it’s best to treat all systems with any kind of memory whatsoever with care when replacing. If the device has any type of memory, whether hard disk, RAM or flash, it needs to be wiped before disposal. When in doubt, wipe it out. If it cannot be wiped, it needs to be destroyed or turned over to a reputable service which will certify its destruction.

Treat the devices as you would a piece of paper which has sensitive information printed on it. You’d shred the paper, so you must do the electronic equivalent with documents stored in electronic devices.

photo credit: vvvracer

Here is a test using the video I used in my Chaos Scenario post a week or so ago. In that post I used the insere IFrame plugin, which worked great in the post but didn’t work in the RSS feed or the email.

It looks like this is going to work quite well.

I still would like to find a more elegant solution to the IFrame problem, though. There are times I might want to embed a map from Google and I think IFrame is the only way to do that.

Most of these books are from the Recommended Reading List on Dave’s web site. Here they are:

• “The Chaos Scenario” – Bob Garfield (March 2010)
• “Linchpin” – Seth Godin
• “Radically Transparent” – Andy Beal
• “Good To Great” – Jim Collins
• “The Millionaire Next Door” – Drs. Stanley & Danko
• “How To Win Friends and Influence People” – Dale Carnegie
• “The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership” – John Maxwell
• “QBQ” – John Miller
• “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People” – Stephen Covey
• “Thou Shall Prosper” – Rabbi Daniel Lappin
• “The Legend of the Monk and the Merchant” – Terry Felber

I have some other books I plan to read as well including “Everyone Communicates, Few Connect” by John Maxwell. (April 2010

I may have already read one or two of these, but I can’t remember for sure. I guess if I can’t remember reading them, it’s probably a good idea to read them again.

You may very well be wondering what all of this leadership development talk has to do with web marketing and such. The answer is quite simple: If you’re going to be working on teams, you may very well be looked to or even appointed as the lead for the group. Development outside IT or Marketing subjects is important in such cases. Even if you’re not the appointed head of the group, knowing about leadership and business will help you be a better technician or marketer.

Tunnel vision can limit you – don’t let it.