Sign Up at irs.gov Before Crooks Do It For You - http:/
Safeguarding your identity
1 min read
Sign Up at irs.gov Before Crooks Do It For You — Krebs on Security
If you’re an American and haven’t yet created an account at irs.gov, you may want to take care of that before tax fraudsters create an account in your name and steal your personal and tax data in the process.
Useful tip to prevent others from filing and receiving your refund, and a cautionary tale about how easy it is to claim someone's identity.
Good intentions and poor results – John Steinbeck’s lessons on humanitarian aid
Aid can disrupt local economies and isn't always what the local population needs. Bureaucrats from afar need to listen to the people they are trying to help.
A Handy App for Converting Google Sheets into Google Docs http:/
What People Are Really Doing When They’re on a Conference Call - http:/
HTML Email Design Guide – The Basics!
Doing some work with EDM Designer to create email templates. This a handy short guide of things to remember.
Hard evidence: why pump prices haven't fallen as fast as oil has - http:/
Owning your data
3 min read
Over the years, I've used many different tools and services to post information to the web. A non-exhaustive list would include: Twitter, Facebook, Blogger, Wordpress.com, Movable Type, Google+, Buzz, FriendFeed, etc. While I've yet to find myself spouting profundities, I do often refer back to what I've shared for my own purposes. Frequently, a situation arises where I'd like to recall something I know I've shared in the past. The problem is where does it live, and is it still there (see Buzz, et. al.)
I've started to use Known as a tool to post my own thoughts and to share them with anyone who may be interested. I don't expect that to be a large group, but I do it for my own purposes and to help me make sense of what I read, hear, see, and experience.
I'm hosting Known on a webserver that I have full control of, so I don't have to worry what might happen if Known stops development, changes their terms of service, or gets swallowed up by another company (see FriendFeed, et. al.) I would miss the further development of Known, but I could continue with what I have and make changes myself (I'm not a PHP developer, but was able to make a couple of small contributions to the project already, through GitHub.)
Using this known-powered site, I can post lengthy posts (assuredly, these will be rare), post to Twitter, Facebook, and other social media sites, interact with other capable sites, eschew advertising, change the style, delete, edit, etc. What I post is mine, and I can do with it as I please.
Running your own server (I pay for hosting, so I don't run the hardware) and installing and administering Known is not for everyone, but it could be. Services are better these days about letting you export the data you created, but knowing that you own it and control it is a nice feeling to have.
I admire the principles that drive people like the folks behind Known or Dave Winer and others in the indieweb community. In a way, it's a return to the early days of the web where people owned and managed their own sites. Today the tools are in place to allow us to do just that, while still allowing us to share with others on our social networks.
Collaboration, from the Wright Brothers to Robots - HBR - http:/
