Techplanations

For something that was so geeky when it started out that even geeks didn't know what to do with it, Twitter  sure has taken off like a rocket. When I first tried it in January 2007, I didn't get it. The idea was that your tweets  answered the question: "What are you doing?"

And what most people posted was what they were doing:

"I'm having coffee with friends."

"On my way to the office."

"Heading home."

If your friends weren't on Twitter it wasn't very interesting.

In part 1 of the Vancouver Observer Telelympics Tutorial, I talked about setting the stage for working at home during the Olympic games. Here in part 2 we're going to roll up our sleeves and get stuff in place and working. We've got a little over a month to go before the throngs pack our fair city to the gills, so time is of the essence.

Because working out the software bits might get a little detailed, I'm going to stick to hardware and office set up for the most part, next week we'll get geeky with it and set up some software to help you collaborate with your co-workers and the rest of humanity while you live in Olympic exile for a few weeks.

(Side note: In all honesty, I'm not going to completely hide out during the games. I have been practicing my German and Spanish to help travelers and look forward to some parts of the experience.)

Get that home office in shape!

What would you do if you got an email that went something like this:

"From American Express Cards: Warning your account has been compromised, click this link right away to verify your card and reactivate it. You won't be able to use your card until you do! Please act now!"

Would you panic? Would you click? I hope, for your sake and your credit score, that you answered "No." to both questions. That is a pretty standard "phishing" message (even though I made it up) and is just one of the many forms of social engineering that we all can fall prey to online. To help you out, and all of us really, here's a little primer on how to avoid getting scammed, bilked, or  having your computer become infected with nasties let's call it: Social Engineering 101.

Wikipedia defines social engineering as:

Are you ready for BC's ban on talking on your cell phone while driving? Actually, it isn't a ban on talking it's a ban on holding your cell phone when you're talking. Regardless, starting January 1st the police will start giving out warnings about the ban with enforcement starting February 1st (oh goody just in time for scads of tourists to descend on the city). While there are additional penalties for texting or emailing, we're just going to talk about talking right now. Essentially the rules allow for you to keep talking on your phone, as long as you're using a hands-free device. So if you have a headset (wired or wireless) or other in-car hands-free systems (our Nissan has a hands-free system built in) you're fine. I'm going to skip wired solutions because those are soo 20th century, we're going to talk about wireless, specifically Bluetooth.