Lipps's blog

The unrest and political upheaval blowing across the Middle East and North Africa right now is something the US Government has tried to fan for decades. By fueling Afghani fighters during the Cold War to counter the USSR by proxy, or trying to install the Shah in Iran, the US has tried to shape a democratic and/or friendly government in various countries. These operations always seem to have “blowback” like the Mujahedeenfighters of Afghanistan who were trained at President Carter’s orders to fight the Russians, but who we in turn had to fight in the 00s, possibly including Bin Laden. Did Facebook, Twitter and YouTube do in five months what 50 years worth of US presidents, secret ops, wars and funding failed to do?

Change Must Come From Within

This is going to be ugly, but it needs to be said: I get it. You love your kids. We all get it, all of us on Facebook. We've all seen the endless stream of toddler-related minutiae and "cute" photos of Jr. drooling on some leaded piece of plastic shipped in from China. Don't do this mommies! Please! In the business world of social media there is an 'old' ratio, 1/3 business, 2/3 value; maybe we can adjust that for mommies. Let's do 1/3 babies, 2/3 anything else...? Fair?

This is a polite note. To be honest, if you are an over-posting Facebook Mommy, people have already hidden you.

Facebook is fumbling with security, allowing for breaches in your security, hackers are searching for password information and your frienemies are cruising your profiles for reasons to start rumors. What can you do? Well, you should know that anything you post on sites like Facebook and Flickr becomes their property. Yep, even those cute pictures of you in the shower with the dogs.

Here’s an idea: don’t put anything into these sites you wouldn’t want your mother to see. Pretend that everything you put into Facebook is public. How does that change your perspective?

I am the Family IT Guy. From wiring telephones and faxes to full service internet technician and printer serviceman, I got it handled… usually. Who’s with me? Anyone else ever found themselves outside on a ladder looking at a satellite dish with a phone in one hand and hammer in the other? No? What about unplugging, powering off and re-plugging the router? OK, I thought so.

I have the skills of your average Mumbai Academy of Technology graduate just from years of customer service run-throughs. I could walk you through a DVR install with my eyes shut and setup your modem after a six pack of Martinis, I’ve done it. Viruses? Call me the Vaccine. I got it handled.

One of our good friends over at awesome Finnish security company F-Secure has been tracking a Twitter phishing scam this weekend. By sending one on one messages to Twitter users the hackers are trying to get you to follow their link, which takes you to a fake Twitter page.

Apparently the goal of these guys is to access as many Twitter accounts as possible to keep the viral scam moving. So by entering your log in info into the fake Twitter, you give them access to your real Twitter, which they will then use to repeat the whole thing on all of your contacts. This of course, is a major hassle, and makes your friends think you are a real a-hole.