Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Pfishing and other scams

How timely. I used to say that I have never had any problem with identity theft.
That is until last month.

And it wasn't via my pc or at a credit card reader.

I pay my cable bill directly through the cable using the digital cable box and my remote.
You select a 'customer account channel' and fill in the info. I have been doing this for two years using my bank atm card. Last month however, about two hours after I paid the cable bill, I went to the bank website to check to ensure that transaction registered...and lo and behold there was another online purchase showing. In that short time, someone...somehow had secured the card info.

I am not sure what made me think to check my balance so quickly...I shudder to think how much damage they could have done with the card info for, say 24 hours. I shut the card off immediately. Next step was to call the cable company who seemed very unconcerned about it!
Saying, they would look into it. (That was two weeks ago, and no response.)
Obviously, there is someone there who is dishonest OR they have a network security problem.
Needless to say, I will no longer be paying using this method.

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Growing, Learning, Evolving

Learn 2.1, Librarians as Learning Leaders, Professional Development opportunites with ALA; there's a plethora of opportunities for learning here at OCLS.

But it doesn't stop there. We are experimenting with eHow.com to share our knowledge with others. Online learning is rapidly spreading, and we need to be there.

I am always amazed at not only the quantity of information on the web, but the increasing level of quality. Last season, I mentioned how I got explicit (and simple) repair instructions for a washing machine malf.

I am finding that I am doing a lot more on my smartphone as well. More and more sites are being presented in mobi formats...including PapaJohns. All I need to do is bring up my favorites, click a couple radioboxes and the pie is ready on my way home.

Getting caught up


Wow, the holidays sure caused me to get behind in my blog.


While reading through the early December topics (re: Library 2.0) I recalled the evening that Helen Thomas graced a full audience in Library Central with her presence.

I spoke with her afterwards and she (at 87) has no plans of slowing down. "What would I do?" she asked when posed with a question about possible retirement. She's one spunky lady. And this photo was uploaded to the Orlando Memory History section.
Programs like this are vital to the community and I was proud to see the Library step up and offer this to our residents.
Can't wait to see her grill the new president.

Monday, November 24, 2008

Exploring the best of Web 2.0

So I go to SEOmoz's site and check out some of the best rated web2.0 apps:
Interestingly, I have already seen quite a few of them...the biggies, Facebook, igoogle, twitter, the photo sites, linkedin, etc.

But there were a couple that caught my eye.

Just the other day, I was looking for a quick and easy way to do online contributions for an organization I belong to. Wufoo offers a number of prewritten web forms and has lo-and-behold, there's an online form for contributing with options for three or four different handlers. Will definitely pass this along to them.

And then with the holidays coming up, coctailbuilder.com is a must. Just add your bar inventory, and it makes suggestions on what you can provide your guests along with recipes and shopping list for items you might want to consider. Be the consummate host/ess.

OCLS' Changing Mission

Tom posed the question, "How do you see OCLS creating a well informed, well-connected community, making Orange County a great place to live, work and play?

I think OCLS has always been a leader in information. Notably, print information.
Where change is happening is in other mediums and platforms. Our 'e-offerings' have exploded and have given members of the library an opportunity to download books, research information using top authoriative sources, manage their library relationship with ease, use our wireless access, etc.

Further, we have assisted them to make the most of this by offering classes to make with the tools and applications to get the most out of it.

And all for free! What's not to love.

Wednesday, October 8, 2008

Info sharing

The youtube post discussed empowering people to communicate across wide and new communities that never existed before, allowing people to get information from non-traditional sources. What I am finding in this election cycle is that it has an even more critical function holding political candidates' statement to verification. No longer can a candidate deny a comment at a rally, or a position (s)he has taken. Now, not only can it be uncovered in a text article on the 'net, but eith youtube et al. it comes in their own words and image.
- One single video ended the career of George Allen who was running for Senator last year in Virginia.

Check out the multitude of 'answers' sites. I did some research on them about two years ago, and they have come along way. On a personal note, I saved a service call for a problem I had with my clothes dryer, after posing a question to yahoo answers...turns out, that a software (YES software) reset in my clothes dryer control panel fixed a problem that I was having.

Open Source can play a prominent role at OCLS. Our biggest software engagement is with our circulation system. Special, local enhancments will be easy to enable in open source (III, are you listening?)
Customer computers may have OS applications running locally on them, rather than shared-license applications. It will likely be cheaper, and very likely be better.

Hard to argue with.

Thursday, October 2, 2008

One of my favorite blogs...David Pogue




David Pogue is the tech editor at NYTimes.com. He writes a weekly column in the Sunday New York Times, but has a more timely blog running at http://pogue.blogs.nytimes.com/

This week he talks about all the little techy tidbits of information that he has accumulated in his brain cells and how he ought to write a book called "The Basics."

Things like:

* You can use Google to do math for you. Just type the equation, like 23*7+15/3=, and hit Enter.

* You can switch from one open program to the next by pressing Alt+Tab (Windows) or Command-Tab (Mac).

* Just putting something into the Trash or the Recycle Bin doesn’t actually delete it. You then have to *empty* the Trash or Recycle Bin. (Once a year, I hear about somebody whose hard drive is full, despite having practically no files. It’s because over the years, they’ve put 79 gigabytes’ worth of stuff in the Recycle Bin and never emptied it.)

and,

* You don’t have to type “http://www” into your Web browser. Just type the remainder: “nytimes.com” or “dilbert.com,” for example. (In the Safari browser, you can even leave off the “.com” part.)

There's a whole lot more at http://pogue.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/10/02/tech-tips-for-the-basic-computer-user/#more-553 AND, he is looking for your input for things he's missed.

Go there.