Buried Virtually

I know someone who absolutely, positively, unwaveringly refuses to own or condone a smart phone. And I get the point. To a degree. The argument goes that the smart phone is just another way for already overburdened and harried individuals to be forced to carry more workload and stress themselves out even further. I mean, how can you go on vacation when your email follows you everywhere and you can research any project at any time and edit that Google doc that the team needs and schedule a meeting and attend a web conference and EVERYBODY KNOWS IT?

So, okay, I get that part. And the temptation is always truly there to take care of these things in the middle of the night, and sometimes I secretly do just that. But other times, especially when the mountain is just getting so tall, I remember Nancy Reagan and I just say NO! As in Not Online. Not going online, not acknowledging online just keep me away from it and it from me. And you know what, it works. The alerts turned off, the phone silenced, nothing coming through (unless I am really online but *GASP* not working??).

The temptation is still there just to peek at the email, keep the pile from piling, the stacks from stacking, and the docs from docking, but why? Somebody else is just gonna come along and pile and stack and doc me again, so really, what IS done? Clue: It's the yeti's cousin who lives up in the mountains and howls elusively down at us as we struggle to emerge from our smart phoned world and taunts us that we are down here buried and he's running around free. Nobody has ever seen him and lived to tell, the only ones that can accurately identify him are those that have been "done in" and they don't tell tales. Or "done for" but they really haven't seen him yet, they just think he's on the way.

In other words, the phone is a tool like everything else. But now, I can if I choose get some things done while I am out doing fun stuff that otherwise I wouldn't be getting to do because I really should be in front of the computer monitor but I don't wanna right now. Like those Colorado commercials for the bank where they say they get us? Call in to work because of 6 inches of snow and drive through 12 to ski? Yeah, you know who you are. So smart phones are more like that, the office we don't really have to sit in. For the rest of you, one word. Really?

Speech Recognition

Okay, I admit it, I'm weird. I watch documentaries over dramas, prefer history over fiction, and would just generally like to learn something whenever I can. Don't know when or how that started, but I can remember as a kid being taken to historical sites and being fascinated, trying to think what it would have been like to be there when history was being made. (Although one of the biggest things I remember about Gettysburg was the dead copperhead in the bottom of the trash barrel.) I have always liked figuring out how things happen, how they work, and how they connect. So maybe it was just inescapable that I was a Trekkie before the term existed. Lots of other folks were, too, and the futuristic technology from the show inevitably made its way into our reality. Even the speech control.

Windows 7 supports it natively, which has camps sprouting up on the side of the old standby Dragon, and in the opposite corner with Windows. I have worked with both, and overall there are pros and cons with each. As with lots of computer changes, it is generally most comfortable to stay with what you know, but if price trends and stability reports are any indication, Dragon may be on its way out. So heads up to any of you hard core Dragon users, be prepared to have to consider some further changes down the road. Who knows? Maybe they can work out the bugs that plague it with Windows 7 installs, maybe not. Heck, it took Microsoft a couple years to work out the Vista kinks and release 7, maybe Dragon is just in the same situation. Either way, there will be options, it just isn't going to be like Scottie issuing engineering commands on the Enterprise for a long time still.

The Pile On My Desk

Responsibility. There's a word that has changed connotation a whole lot since I was a kid. Used to be a great thing, 'she's responsible' was a pat on the back. A good thing. Made you want to be responsible. That's something I still strive for, staying on top of things, being responsible, and not 'letting it slide' just to see if I can avoid something.

Of course, sometimes that means working long past the hours you mean to, often without charging more, to make sure that the work is properly done and fairly priced. Avoiding nasty surprises for the client on the back end. To me, that's just responsibility. If I know something is going to be a pain and can let them know the most cost efficient means of repair on the front end, I do. Sometimes I'm wrong, and then it's my job to make it right by that client, at times the midnight oil is burned, and at others used up.

Because of that, there is a stack on my desk and file cabinet, things I am responsible for, that either have been taken care of and not put away, or just pushed to side because I can't deal with it right now, and when I do find a minute, it feels sooooo good to be irresponsible and ignore it! I work in a lot of different environments, and I seriously envy the clean desks, though sometimes I run across desks that make me fear for my safety. And there are all levels in between. The cleaners have it all filed, the floor sorters are on their way to getting it filed, the stackers have it all filed on top, and the tossers have no discernible order at all.

Ever seen the sign claiming that the clean desk is a sign of a deranged mind? Don't know that I would agree, but I think the author of that statement must have been a quite responsible person.

Leverage

I used to love watching "Hustle" on AMC, but alas, the powers that be pulled the plug. Granted, if you missed two seconds you could lose track of the whole deal for that week. Now we have "Leverage" on some other station, similar but slower paced, takes less concentration. If you haven't seen either, they are con-artists-gone-good, helping victims out-scam the scammer. With recent events what they have been, there has been some wishing for someone like this to intervene.

But there's more than one type of leverage, and learning to use all the tech out there to its best advantage is one. For me, minimize devices and maximize interchange is the key. This provides both time and fiscal optimization, and can be a lifesaver. Google and Android provide a lot of seamless and time saving options for busy lives and small businesses, and these options are getting better it seems by the day. Of course, with Google pulling the plug on their 411 service, makes me wonder if using some of their features like Voice to their fullest extent might not leave a person high and dry down the road if not enough users are on board to continue the service. But with the numbers of Gmail addresses out there, we can be pretty certain that isn't going anywhere.

Another form of leverage I just learned of goes along with Gmail. Everybody has heard at least once by now to always keep a "spam" address on hand that you never have to check, then just use it for stuff you know is gonna get you on lists of the junk. There's a site that now offers truly disposable, and still green whoda-thunk-it, email! 10 Minute Mail is just exactly that, email for 10 minutes, then it's gone, self destructed like a Mission Impossible cassette, and after that the messages bounce! So next time you are logging on to a site that says you have to supply an address that they are going to use to send your login stuff to, but you really don't want the junk you know is going to follow, head over and snag a toss-out address to toss them. Later, if you want a more permanent connection, go for it.

Time is money for us all, and using it wisely can be leveraged with good tools. Have fun!

Best Practices

Best Practices is a term for using your computer in the safest way, the least chance of loss to either you or it. There are so many scams and cons out there, some coming in through email and some in other forms, that adopting a safety first attitude should apply to all you do.

I am quite focused on that right now due to recent events in my own family. A family member received a phone call from someone impersonating another family member and using names and details that we can still only surmise the origin of. The caller claimed to have been arrested in Canada, and needed help being bailed out, and of course under the duress of the moment, and subsequent calls from "law enforcement" in Canada, was convinced of the authenticity of the call and wired money. Lots of money. None of which, I am sorry to say, will ever be seen again.

Or other common scams that are being seen recently like pop-ups claiming to be able to clean your computer if you pay. Guess what? You just paid to be infected. Then there's always the infected email link or attachment that nails you.

The so called "grandparent scam" has been going on for years, and my first guess is that lots of information is being harvested from social networking sites. Be ultra aware of what you post. Assume thieves are reading it and using what they find. Set it to only allow trusted others to access the information. For emergency phone calls, use a password the whole family knows. Then stick to it. The people on the other end are either family members that will understand or crooks who will move on.

For anything that seems odd, either a phone or computer attack, GOOGLE IT!!!! Like Solomon said so long ago, there truly is nothing new under the sun. Someone out there has had a similar experience and put it out there. Knowledge is a powerful defense, but gotta have it to use it. So pause before you run out to wire the money, or click the link, or open the attachment. See where the email is from, write the person and find out why they sent it. They may know nothing about it. Scan the attachment, mouse over the link and see where it is really taking you. If people are calling you asking what the attachment was for that you didn't send, get your computer cleaned up immediately if not sooner. Just be careful. If crooks want it badly enough and are willing to search enough places, imagine the kinds of information they can gather and make sure not to help them do it. Please.