Archive for January, 2009

The Death of A Monster?

Friday, January 30th, 2009

So, as this post back in October says, I am looking for work. I am not the only one – there are many of us out here right now. Yes, I am still doing okay – about to lose the house my wife and I bought two weeks before doomsday, but still okay because things just seem to work out sometimes. I am optimistic. YOU should be optimistic. You NEED to be optimistic. Ok, Ok, I was optimistic until….

Finding Rachel Steinberg’s blog through Twitter user @themediaishirin. What is going on there is great, by the way – themediaishirin is posting 140 character resumes in hopes to find people employment! On to the point here, this post hit like a hurricane: Job Site Fail. She references the original article that alerted her to the true gravity of the situation on USAToday.

Monster was hacked into again….

Again? Why is it so Monster? Why? Seems also they didn’t have a way to “effectively” inform the millions whose data was just HACKED and put at HIGH RISK. VERY HIGH RISK. Seems an email wouldn’t be wise – can we kind of see their point in their notice (linked below). Twice in the past 6-months according to the article where Rachel found out about it from. Twice? Six months? They have got to be kidding, right?

Why is it Monster can not just look through all that data, the “public” resumes, oh wait they nearly are all public it would seem – well not the resumes according to the Monster Security Alert, and find a competent web team that knows something about security? Oh they might want to add some network security, and maybe, just maybe some physical security as well. You think?

This is inexcusable in my eyes. What about YOUR eyes, YOUR life – is it inexcusable?

There is no reason for this to happen TWICE. None. Monster account deleted. Time to take chances of finding a job elsewhere. Not that Monster ever had much that wasn’t a “pay for work” scam or some other “scam” on there in the first place. Maybe they should require employers to actually have either a Federal Employer Identification Number (FEIN), or State business license number before they can post a job? Maybe, they should only accept employers that have true domain name email addresses, complete with a phone number, rather than accepting Yahoo and Gmail address and job postings without a bit of identifying information – “Company Confidential”, yeah, right. Where was their users’ confidentiality?

The link to the Monster Notification – it points out several things of important note:

“It is important to know the company continually monitors for any illicit use of information in our database, and so far, we have not detected the misuse of this information.”

Yeah, and WE trust Monster to monitor the entire Internet for use of OUR information after they couldn’t even monitor their systems well enough and secure enough to prevent such potential? Twice?

“…we will be instituting a mandatory password reset for all accounts that could potentially be affected. Those affected users will be prompted to change their password on their next login to the site…”

For accounts that could potentially be affected??? Why not for all, just for extra measure? Seems good anyway to do it that way – why “guess” or “get close” to notifying all those that “could” be effected?

“…and create a permanent password that is in compliance with Monster’s password standards.”

If their password standards are like their security standards, maybe it is time find a competitor that does it better and SAFER

” Requiring these password resets helps us ensure that accounts are secure from any fraudulent activities.”

See the first Yeah above. Why should anyone trust them to ensure accounts are secure now? After this again?

Anyway….do you know of a secure employment site, that offers relevant jobs, with actual company data listed that takes care of its people? Share it if you know it – many are in the same situation right now!

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Three Things That Always Sell

Thursday, January 29th, 2009

I was speaking with a friend the other day, and of course we were talking about the economy and how things are in general – and not just in America, but globally the economies are taking a beating. This friend brought up a great point about three things that always sell, that people seem to always buy no matter their personal or the national economy.

Food, Tobacco, and Alcohol.

Food is pretty obvious. People need to eat to live. Tobacco?? Alcohol?? Some would argue that the latter two increase during recession – people calming themselves, “taking the edge off” as it might be put.

That brings up this idea – if people spend wastefully during a recession, and I am just as guilty being a smoker, who at one point quit for 2 years and then started up again about a year ago, what else will they spend wastefully on?

Now let’s look at the value in what we spend our money on when times are tight. What products services do you offer that create a positive value for people otherwise struggling to make sense of things? What could you offer that would create a positive value or help ease the struggling?

I know what I am going to do…..how about you?

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A Twitter Rock Concert

Monday, January 26th, 2009

Over on TechCrunch there is an article by Digg founder Kevin Rose. He talks about how to gain followers, and lots of them (at the time of the article he had over 88,000 followers behind only President Obama).

Hmm…..originally I had started a comment over there, but decided to write about my thoughts on it here and link to the article (link above, or here again).

Maybe I am missing the point of the article, but isn’t social media just that “social”? How social can you really get with 88,000 people?

A Twitter Rock Concert

It’s like a rock concert where 25-50 lucky people get a back stage pass to interact with the band personally and the other 87,950 are a mix of catching good sound and visual (front row) to seeing dots bouncing on a stage and a horrible audio mix bouncing off the rafters (nose bleed section!).

What interaction is there at the concert outside the first row or to those who get the occasional high five from the singer, or the few that get the mic held out to them during a chorus? A bunch of yelling and screaming from 87,950 that you cannot discern a single voice from.

How many @replies are missed from crowd like that on Twitter?

Enough that it takes the term social out of the equation I would think.

If we look at basic web usage, any decent web developer, designer and web site owner has always understood that a high number of visitors is always a good thing. However, a lower number of quality visitors is even better. We also know that quality content that is of interest to visitors is what gains more visitors, more shares and more visibility. If you can gain a high number of quality visitors, then that’s the best.

I kind of think Twitter follows that same basic principle….follow quality and produce quality. The numbers will come about on their own to the proper mix if you have done it right.

Social Is About Quality Interaction

Think of it this way – the 87,950 people at our rock concert that have the potential to scream (in this case Tweet) back are trying to gain the attention of one person, attention that is already being gained and utilized by a small few. At what point is one person so overloaded, especially with all the interactions so many already have online and offline, that they just get glazed over and only pay attention to the backstage pass people, and those in their front row? They may create quality for many, may even get a bit of quality from few but the rest is garbled screaming coming from the crowd – ignored.

Another analogy? Sure. Ok. What if say, Dell or Wal-Mart started a Twitter account for the sole purpose of getting as much exposure and as many followers as possible? People would be outraged and would call it for what it was – a disrespect for the medium used and a disrespect for those that either one of the two entities wish to “communicate with”. You can be for sure that the communication “given” would be much more than what either of the two “received”, which makes it very one sided…..and who likes a one sided conversation?

That’s not quality at all in the social web world we have at our hands right now. Remember, there have been numerous rock bands that really weren’t that great that were able to sell out arenas. They aren’t around anymore, are they? I didn’t think so.

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Looking For A Project Or Two

Sunday, January 25th, 2009

I am looking for a freelance project, a contract position, contract-to-hire position or a permanent position centered around web design & development. Want to know more about what I know how to do? Check out my Resume, my Portfolio and why not go ahead and follow me over on Twitter too?

If you don’t have anything that you need services for, why not think about passing along a link to this post or a link to my resume to someone you know who might be looking for a web designer & developer.

Very many thanks and much appreciation!

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Evolution Of A Blogger

Sunday, January 25th, 2009

Have you noticed what seems to the traditional evolution of a blogger? If there is such a tradition in such a relatively new area. I have noticed it, and the following seems to be what I have found most commonly.

  1. Free Blog Hosting: Starting out, many sign up for Blogger, Wordpress or some other “free” hosted blog. This gives them a great URL such as http://southplatte.wordpress.org that they can blog on and test the blogging waters out with. There is very little knowledge needed to do this, no hosting to figure out and pay for, no domain name to register or anything else. It also isn’t the best way to brand or build a phenomenal and popular blog, though it can be done.
  2. Commercial Hosted Blog: This is the next step for many bloggers. Registering a domain name, buying a blogger or basic hosting packing from a hosting company. Many times the domain is less than $10USD and the hosting as low as $5USD. Usually a host is found that is blogger friendly – meaning they will have a control panel with a one click installation of Wordpress or some other blogging software. Many time they will have a selection of themes to go with the blog package so users can get a good looking blog without any coding, graphic design or layout knowledge. This works great and there are many blogs that are popular that do just this. Many times in this area users will scour the web finding free themes for their blog – installing many, selecting a few and hoping that the design looks good and works for visitors. They hope and pray that 10,000 other blogs haven’t chosen the same theme, since after all they are trying to set themselves apart, right?
  3. The Custom Blogger: This blogger knows that to stand out they need it all. They need a custom domain name, custom hosting package and a custom design or theme. This blogger sees the value in being who they are, how they are. They also understand they should not have a blog that looks like 10,000 other blogs on the planet if they want to make a name for themselves. This is the blogger that is in it for the long haul, constantly writing, improving and trying new things.

Agree or disagree – leave a comment and discuss it and let’s see what others have to say!

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