People
PleaseRobMe.com: Social Network Cautions
Feb 17th
Many people don’t worry about how much information they share on social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, Foursquare, etc. With people entering more detailed information, including geolocation data, maybe they should. At least that’s what Barry Borsboom, Boy van Amstel and Frank Groeneveld of PleaseRobMe.com believe.
They drove that point home by creating PleaseRobMe.com, which shows the most recent Foursquare checkins that were posted to Twitter as potential burglary targets. They stated that the purpose of the site is not to help burglars to pick potential targets. They created the site because they believe that giving away your location on social networks doesn’t just tell people where you are. Read the rest of this entry »
Guard That Password…Or Else!
Feb 7th
Security requires a strong lock that is used properly.
Almost everyone has heard that they need secure passwords that are changed often or their accounts could be compromised. The problem is that secure passwords can be difficult to remember, especially when you have different ones for every account. I always believed that many people used insecure passwords, but a recent report from Imperva that analyzed 32 million passwords that were released due to a major security breach, really pounded that idea home.
According to the report, only 0.2% of the passwords were secure. That’s a fifth of one percent! So, what is a secure password? Read the rest of this entry »
A Post On Procrastination? Let Me Check My Email First.
Jan 18th
Where is he? Shouldn’t he be working?
This post is written as both a reminder to myself and to all of you. Procrastination is the biggest obstacle to success. Some people think it is lack of time that is the problem, but for most people that isn’t the case. Think about how much busier you are now than when you were in school. Yet, back then you probably felt like you had no time to do everything you wanted and needed to do. And you didn’t. Just like now. No matter how much or how little we have to do, we never have enough time to do everything we want. If we can avoid procrastinating though, we’ll usually have enough time to do the things that are the most important to us. Notice I didn’t say the most fun. I said the most important.
Now I know those of you who are self proclaimed procrastinators are nodding your heads. But the rest of you are probably saying, “Hey, I don’t procrastinate! I’m really just so busy that I don’t have enough time.” Read the rest of this entry »
Don’t Give Up! Unless You Should…
Jan 10th
What are you talking about?! Run! It's already dead! Photo by Daniel Hollister via Flickr
I’m never an advocate for quitting a project. Unless it’s already dead. Believe it or not, there are many zombie projects/businesses out there. Entrepreneurs are a tenacious lot, after all. They rarely know when to call a project dead. Often, they pour more and more money and time into a project even after they have exhausted every avenue possible to make it a success. There comes a time when you just have to let a project go.
Knowing when is a difficult thing, though. I can’t say exactly when the right time is. If you asked me, I would have to respond with some wise words from one of my management professors from Santa Clara University. When we tried to get a specific way to handle a hypothetical situation from Professor Moberg, he would all too often answer with, “It depends.” Read the rest of this entry »
Keep An Open Mind
Dec 31st
From Blocks to Bucks
Several days ago, my son was playing with his toys when he decided to push a few through a cutout in the back of one of the kitchen chairs. Once they were all through, he decided that he wanted them back. So, he reached through the cutout and started pulling them back through, one at a time. The first couple were small and passed through easily. The last toy though was a wooden block that was almost the size of the hole. When he tried to pull it through, his hand got stuck because the hole wasn’t large enough to accommodate his fist as long as it held the block. I watched him struggle to pull the block through until he cried out in frustration, then showed him that he could reach around the chair back and get the block back that way. Then I took his hand and had him do the same. Once he had the block, he pushed all the toys back through the hole and the scene repeated itself. For some reason, he really wanted that block to come back through the hole the same way the other toys had, instead of the way I had shown him.
Now a lot of you might be wondering why I brought that story up. “Is this a daddy blog in disguise?” some of you might be asking. If that has you worried, relax. If you are excited that I brought my son up, well…he might come up from time to time. The reason for that is simple. Some situations that we encounter seem daunting because there are so many factors at play. If you boil a situation down to something simpler though, it becomes easier to understand. So, rather than start off with a complex business issue, what could be simpler than the issue of a toddler? Read the rest of this entry »
