USB Drives are not for working data
0This is a topic that comes up every so often when someone comes to me saying that their USB memory stick has stopped working or that they broke it. I usually reply with “ah well you’ll have to get a new one” to which I get “but my files…”. Do we all see the problem here? People are using their memory sticks as their main storage device, which is not their intended function.
A memory stick is a backup and file transfer device. It should be used to save copies of files on your computer or transfer files from one computer to another. The files on a memory stick should never be the only ones because guess what? these things die, get lost/stolen or get broken.
Why I’m writing this post today is that I was given one such memory stick yesterday. The stick was in 2 pieces, the USB connection had been broken away from the body of the stick. I figured this was a lost cause but I enjoy a challenge so I set about seeing what I could do. I removed the inner workings from the memory stick body to see that the USB connection had broken cleanly away and caused no damage to the circuitry. Now I thought there might be a chance of getting something off the stick if I could somehow connect the two parts together again. To do this I got a short strip of CAT5 cable and soldered it to each part to once again connect them. Plugging the new device in my PC I got nothing and thought that was that but just on the off chance I thought I’d try it in my MacBook. Plugging it into the MacBook suddenly it lit up and appeared on the desktop. I quickly copied everything I could from the drive in case it decided to disappear but no the device stayed and actually seems to be preforming normally.
Now ok I managed to save the data on this USB memory stick but please people only use these devices to backup or transfer your files, always have a copy of any work on a computer somewhere to avoid any future panic when something happens to your memory stick.
What a business should do starting on twitter
0Recently I had to contact a work client and explain to them how to use twitter. I went through the different options for them but when I had sent the email I seen that there was some good general information in it that any business could use so I’m going to share those bits of advice here for everyone.
The first thing with twitter is don’t wait for followers to start tweeting, you need to be using twitter in order to get the followers. Get used to using the twitter website and any clients so that when your follower numbers do grow your ready to take full advantage.
If you have a website get your designer to put a twitter widget on it, this is the easiest way for your customers to find you on twitter and to see what you’re doing. The widget will link to your twitter account and display your recent tweets, this makes it a nice way to make your website look fresh and updated.
You might be inclined to link your facebook page to your twitter account so that anything you post on facebook will get posted to twitter automatically but this won’t increase the number of people that follow you by very much. People on twitter are looking for interactions so that means you need to use twitter differently from facebook.
A simple way to increase your interactions on twitter is to follow groups and individuals that work in the same area of your business. Mention these people in your tweets or retweet some of the things they’re posting.
On twitter you can setup saved searches, these are useful if you’re looking for certain things or if you’re looking for people to interact with and help. You should setup searches for things to do with your business, products and maybe even the local area. The idea is to find people that are posting messages about things you have an interest in, in the hope that you can offer them help either with a business related matter or maybe they’re just looking for somewhere to eat in the area. Make any interaction a positive one and hopefully you’ll gain a follower.
The main thing to remember is that twitter is all about what you post and how you interact with others. Portray a positive image of your business and be proactive in helping your customers.
Vodafone need to learn how things work before using them
0Today Vodafone Ireland lunched a competition on their facebook page, http://www.facebook.com/vodafoneireland
The competition is there are 5 images at the top of their page which make up a bit.ly URL.
The idea is for people to put the images in the right order so that the address will take them to a secert page where they can enter the competition.
Now anyone that knows how bit.ly works can look at the images and see that there are 2 possibilities
Now as it turns out the correct URL is the second one http://bit.ly/hoTT4r so everything is fine right? Well no because what happens when people put in the other address?? Go on try it…. oh look it takes you to my twitter page 
Now what this shows is that the people at Vodafone are obviously not thinking things through. I could have quiet easily pointed that address at the o2.ie website or worse some adult site then how bad would that look for vodafone, but what’s more frightening is that if I had spent and bit of time and effort I could have put together a dummy Vodafone competition page that collected people’s details.
On top of that, bit.ly is also case sensetitive so the following addresses also come into play
http://bit.ly/t4rhoT – points to my twitter
http://bit.ly/t4rhot – points to my twitter
http://bit.ly/T4rhot – points to my blog
http://bit.ly/hotT4r – points to my twitter
http://bit.ly/hoTt4r – points to a formspring page
http://bit.ly/hott4r – points to an iJuntine video on Justin.tv
So currently there are more variations of the URL pointing to me than there are pointing to the competition page.
This is becoming common place for companies now trying to use social media but not having a clue of what they’re doing. Can someone please teach these companies how to use some of the websites before they cause some serious damage.
On a side note my links have pulled in 110 clicks so far in 2 hours and I’ve gained 3 new twitter followers.
How to use Facebook Places on your desktop
1In this post I will explain how you can use Facebook places, which is normally used on a mobile device, on your desktop.
But why would you want to use Facebook places on a desktop computer or laptop? Well there are a few good reasons why this is useful:
- See how Facebook places works
- You can easily see if your business is listed
- Can easily find a business to claim
To be able to use Facebook places you will need to have Firefox installed along with the Geolocater plugin. The Geolocater plugin is used to set your location for use in Facebook places.
The first step is to open firefox and browse to http://touch.facebook.com this will bring you to the mobile version of Facebook.
From here you will see the places tab on the right. When you click the places tab firefox will go to the page but pause asking you to select your location.
At this point you will want to open the Geolocater plugin by going to Tools > Geolocater > Manage
Create a new spot by clicking the Create geolocation button in the top right corner. Search for the loaction you want and click the Switch from Select to Search geolocation, give your location a name, fill out any other information you want and click save. You will then be asked Do you want to use this new geolocation? click OK.
Returning to the open firefox tab you will now see your new location selected in the dropdown in the location bar at the top of the window.
Clicking on the Share Location button causes Facebook to use that location for Facebook places.
You are now able to view all businesses listed in that area, check-in to places and even create any business that might be missing.
A useful tip here is that you are able to create multiple locations in geolocater so if you are managing business in different areas you can setup locations for each and just select which location you want to use when going into the places tab.
How to use Facebook to Promote your Business Part 1: Profiles, Pages and Groups
2Introduction
With the recent updates to facebook pages I needed to go back over all my client training documents and redo some sections to reflect the changes and additions. I’ve decided to put together a few blog posts covering the topic of using facebook to promote a business. This is the first post and the others will appear in the facebook category over the next few days.
In this post I will briefly describe the differences between profiles, pages and groups.
Profiles
A profile is a personal page for individuals. A profile is needed to use either pages or groups.
To create a profile sign up on facebook.com by filling in your details.
Once a profile is created you have the choice of what you want to do with it. You can make your profile as public or private as you want, the default is public. If you are going to use facebook to promote your business your profile should not be the main focus of your customers and you can keep it private with no connections, no photos. and no status updates. If a business feels they’d rather keep everything professional they can setup a dummy profile for the business that’s only used to administrate the business’s page or group alternatively they can turn their employee’s personal account into admins for the page. The second option might not work for every business since it would mean people would be logging into their personal facebook accounts at work.
Depending on your needs for your business there are some limitations of a facebook profile. A profile has a limit of 5000 friends, when this is reached no more friends can connect with you and what’s worse is the friends can not be transferred to another profile, page or group. Anyone that requests to be a friend of a profile has to be approved so this can lead to spending quiet some time approving friend requests each day if your profile became popular.
Another issue from a business point of view is that facebook has evolved in such a way that it is expected that a profile is an individual and so the applications available for profiles are more geared toward the individual rather than having any real business use.
Pages
Facebook pages are a step up from profiles. They are designed to handle so called “public profiles” of celebrities, bands, businesses and brands. Because of its’ intentional design a facebook page has become a powerful business tool and has attracted many application developers that have created additional applications that are specifically aimed at helping businesses to promote themselves.
With the recent changes a facebook page can do everything a profile can do. The differences for a business are that a page does not have a friend limit and a page does not have any privacy functions, in essence a facebook page is an online public profile for the business. Another feature of a facebook page is that it can be controlled by several different users each with their own profile. If an administrator posts something on the page then it appears to have come from the page rather than the individual and as with profiles anything posted on the page gets distributed to the entire page’s friends.
One of the new changes and a huge addition for businesses is that a business can now use facebook as their page. Under the Account menu there is an option to “Use Facebook as Page”. This option lets the user select a page that they can use as their profile. This enables the business to go on to fans profiles and other business pages and leave comments and posts as the business instead of their own personal account.
Groups
Groups are used for discussions and events etc. Groups are a way of enabling a number of people to come together online to share information and discuss specific subjects. They are increasingly used by clubs, companies and public sector organizations to engage with stakeholders – be they members of the public, employees, members, service users, shareholders or customers.
Who Wants to be a YouTubillionaire
0I’m sure most people would have see this by now but I thought it was worth a mention as it’s really well done.
It’s an interactive YouTube video based on the quiz show “Who wants to be a millionaire” made up of several different videos from different users. You make your way through the videos by answering the questions and if you get stuck you can call one of the familiar faces from YouTube to ask for help.
If you haven’t seen it before give it a go
Rebel Scholar iPhone Case Update
0In my previous post about the Rebel Scholar iPhone Case I said that I would probably be getting the Poison Petals case and that’s what I did.
I’ve had the case and been using it for several weeks now and it’s been a mixed reaction. When the case arrived it looked and felt great, I got my iPhone and slid it into the case. As the iPhone went in one of the rubber runners on the inside came away from the case folding over behind the iPhone and jamming it inside the case. When trying to pull the iPhone back out the case cracked and broke so that was the end of that case.
I decided that I did like the case and would like to try another one so I went on the website and ordered a second case. This case arrived quickly, everything went smoothly and I’m still using it today.
The next issue came from FedEx. Both cases were delivered by FedEx but for some reason they decided to charge me for customs on just one of the cases. This was pretty shitty but there’s nothing that can be done it seems to be pot luck as to why some things get through and some don’t. It just means that for the whole thing, 2 cases plus customs charges, I could have had one of the high end $100 cases.
To finish off the case feels great, it fits perfectly and after several weeks of constant use it still looks brilliant with no noticeable ware or fading on the pattern. If you’re considering getting a case for your iPhone I’d still recommend the Rebel Scholar but just to be aware of what I went through that it may end up costing more that you thought.
Rebel Scholar iPhone Case
0Since I’m planning on getting the new iPhone 3GS, whenever O2 Ireland sort out their stock issues, I’ve been looking around at the different cases available.
The first thing I learned is the best place to find out about iPhone case is from a guy called Carlos who runs the itsmemorphious YouTube channel (http://www.youtube.com/itsmemorphious). I’ve been looking through his videos trying to see what case would best suit my needs. What’s great about Carlos’s videos is that he actually uses the cases, he tests them out and really knows what’s what when he does his reviews but it’s his latest video on the Rebel Scholar that has really caught my attention.
The case he got to review just looks so good and it also fits well and would seem to give great protection to the handset. Now of course I went straight to the Rebel Scholar website (http://www.rebelscholar.com) only to find that the case Carlos reviewed was one of the high end $100 cases and to make things worse there were others there that looked better! I especially liked the Silver and Blue
OK so the high end cases are well outside my budget for a case but when you look down the product line, the mid range cases are $34.99 and the lower range cases are $19.99. The lower range cases are plain colours but I’m sure are still made using the same quality material as the high end one and so would be a good buy at that price. I think I’ll go that bit extra and go for one of the mid range cases, looking like it’ll be the Poison Petals case.
For anyone interested in getting a case for their iPhone or iPod Touch you should definitely check out Carlos on his channel http://www.youtube.com/itsmemorphious and consider the Rebel Scholar as a possibility.
The present meets the past….
0I like my retro things and so was drawn to article on the BBC News website, “Giving up my iPod for a Walkman“.
The article is about a 13-year-old boy named Scott Campbell who is asked to swap his iPod for an original 30-year-old Walkman.
The quote from the article that sums it up best is
It took me three days to figure out that there was another side to the tape
Now some of us might laugh at that but think about it, how was he suppose to know the tape could be turned over? CDs put a stop to the whole A side B side, which actually takes away from the music singles but that’s another discussion.
What I thought was strange about the artilce was how slow Scott was to figure out the Walkman. If he had been given a new mobile phone, MP3 player or computer he’d have most of the functions worked out within a half hour but give him something out of the ordinary and unfamiliar and he’s lost.
Simply an Unreal Shot
0This is the best video I’ve seen for awhile on the net. All I can say is enjoy
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