Facebook Security Settings

Here is a sight reclaimprivacy that was featured in Wired Magazine and on Lifehacker.  They made a simple browser bookmark that will scan your security settings in Facebook and tell you where you may want to make some changes.

Nurture Shock

NurtureShock: New Thinking About Children Just picked this one up last night.  Just in the first chapter I've found several things I'm going to change about the way I encourage my daughter with her school work and life in general.  Started chapter 2 last night and found more good points for me to work on.

My first thought after reading and realizing that I need to change how I act was... back when we attended a local group called ToughLove, their main teaching was: "We can't change others. We can only change our own behavior."  By changing our selves we affect others.

Why Don't Students Like School

Maybe with this book I can be better at helping my daughter with her homework.  The first chapter was compelling so I bought a copy from Amazon.

Why Don't Students Like School: A Cognitive Scientist Answers Questions About How the Mind Works and What It Means for the Classroom

Droid Software Update!

My Droid Eris from Verizon Wireless just received the System update notice! The phone is downloading it now 77.7MB large over the air. Definitely seems like the Android OS update to 2.something. Probably 2.1. It appeared right after I plugged it into the charger. I wonder if that was a trigger for the update notice? or was it because it just rolled over to midnight. ;-) Only 2-3 bars but the download went pretty quick ~5 minutes or so.

The update is ready to install. Pressing the Restart & install button now!


I'll post more after the update is successful.

Ok, Expect about 1 - 1 1/2 hours to finish the update and recreate your screen layouts.  I had to place all the application shortcuts back on the various screens.  Google Voice wouldn't run after the update finished and the phone booted up.  However after I shutdown and re-started the phone all was back to working.

It did remember my Google account login and was able to re-sync all my email, contacts, favorites, etc with no problems.  Adding my office Google apps account as an additional email account was simple.  I updated about 4 apps to match the new OS version.  Navigation looks good and will easily replace my Garmin GPS I had for the car.  I finally get to try out Google Goggles, and Google Buzz as a native app!

Some things I've seen people having trouble with...
Before you install the update, it says some things will be reset to the defaults.  What I experienced is just my screen layouts or "scenes" were reset.  All my Google login information was retained so all I had to do was go to settings, Accounts & Sync and click Sync now.  Then all my contacts saved in my Google account re-synced to the phone.  My facebook, flickr, & twitter accounts also re-synced..  The toughest part was putting the icons back where I had them on the various screens.  This gave me the opportunity to re-think which icons I needed and I put some new ones from the 2.1 update on instead.

I guess there is a way to backup the "scenes". I think I saw an app for that.

I had to go to Settings and Personalize to reset my Home wallpaper and Lock screen wallpaper but the image I used was saved on the SD card with all my other photos, videos, and files, so it was easy to reset.

PS Remember to go to the market and under menu select downloads and check which of the apps you had installed now have updates.  There should be several to bring the apps up to compatibility with the 2.1 update.

Sunset at Dana Point, CA

Boogie Board

Recently I found a neat new writing tablet that is thin & light and easy to use.  It uses very little power (one watch battery will last it for years).  It only uses power when you erase what you have written.  It's was only about $30 with shipping.  Anna is having fun using it too.  Check it out Boogie Board LCD Writing Tablet.  I found out about it before it was available so I got a bit of a deal when I did a pre-order. It's made by iMPROV Electronics, and they have their own ideas for target markets.  They are pushing the "green" angle with the idea that you'll use less paper once you start using this device.

Your copier may know more about you than you know!

I should have posted this sooner.  It has hit the news recently but it has been discussed on security blogs & podcasts for a few weeks.

Copiers in offices get replaced as they age or new features are needed.  The old copiers are hauled away by the vendors and nobody is aware that all those documents that have been scanned, copied, printed are saved on an internal hard drive.  These copiers are then either refurbished and re-sold or if they are out dated sold over seas.  All those documents are shipped with the copier on the internal hard drive to whom ever buys the copiers.

See this discussion / report from the Security Now podcast at grc.com.  The part to look for starts only about 4 paragraphs down “Steve: It was a hopping week, Leo. CBS did a report…”

Facebook's Eroding Privacy Policy: A Timeline

This is a problem and making things worse, many people don’t even think about the security & privacy settings or they mistakenly ass-u-me Facebook’s settings default secure or private.  In fact Facebook’s defaults on a new account are to share as much as possible to make the service “more useful”.  Yeah right.  More useful to whom?  Facebook and their advertising partners!

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2010/04/facebook-timeline