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Email security note

Claire Scholz — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 18:56:49 +0000

If you receive an email from ‘The Electronic Payments Association titled ‘Rejected transaction’ or something to that effect – don’t respond. It is a phishing attempt.

The opened email looks like this:

_____________________________________________________

Canceled Transaction
Transaction ID:	5645746324515345353
Reason for rejection	View details in the report below
Transaction report	report_5645746324515345353.pdf

13450 Sunrise Valley Drive, Suite 100 Herndon, VA 20171 (703) 561-1100

2011 NACHA – The Electronic Payments Association

_____________________________________________________

The real NACHA has made a statement on their website stating:

‘NACHA – The Electronic Payments Association has received reports that individuals and/or companies have received a fraudulent email that has the appearance of having been sent from NACHA and signed by a non-existent NACHA employee. Specifically, this email claims to be from the “Electronic Payments Association” and appears to be coming from the email address “payments@nacha.org.” See a sample of the email below.

Read the rest of NACHA’s statement here.

2010′s Internet numbers

Claire Scholz — Fri, 11 Feb 2011 22:06:12 +0000

Back in the old days of advertising we used to look at media reach – how many subscribers a newspaper had, how many viewers watched a tv show, how many ears tuned into a radio broadcast. Then we would apply what now seems like caveman-like formulas to calculate what kind of return on investment an advertising campaign might deliver.

Even though most of us have moved over to the digital world, some more willingly that others, the power and reach of the Internet in numbers seems almost unbelievable.

For example, the number of emails sent over the internet in 2010 was 107 trillion. This and a whole slew of other internet usage statistics was reported by Royal Pingdom, a web performance and monitoring service out of Sweden.

So what other interesting facts did they uncover?

1. As of June 2010 there were 1.97 billion worldwide internet users – a 14% increase over the previous year

2. The number of Tweets in 2010 – 25 billion

3. The number of new Twitter users in 2010 – 100 million

4. By the end of 2010 there were 600 million people on Facebook

5. The number of new Facebook users – 250 million

6. There are 20 million Facebook apps installed each day

7. There are 2 billion videos watched on YouTube EVERY DAY

8. 35 hours of video is uploaded to YouTube every minute

9. As of September 2010 there were 5 billion photos hosted on Flickr

10. The per minute Flickr upload rate is 3000

To see the whole roundup of numbers head over to Pingdom.

Qwiki.com – a new search tool to get excited about.

Claire Scholz — Wed, 15 Dec 2010 00:35:31 +0000

I don’t often get giddy when I read about new software, search engines or products – actually that isn’t true at all, I have just taught myself to curb the enthusiasm and to take the wait and see approach.

Once in a while though the little kid in me just jumps up and down for joy and say, ‘Looky, looky, LOOK! This is soooooooooo cool!’

It happened to me when I started using Twitter and it happened again today when I previewed Qwiki.com. As is often the case, the site was introduced in a Mashable tweet (you may have seen it on Facebook as well) titled 5 New Online Services Perfect for Small Business. Four of the services were interesting, indeed but when I viewed the interview with Qwiki’s founder, Doug Imbruce, my Wow-ometer blew through the roof.

They label their service (software) as, ‘the world’s first information experience, powered by a technology that transforms static information into interactive stories.’

It is wiki-like in that its algorithm gathers great amounts of data stored on the internet and magically brings it together on the screen for searches on almost anything. And it is quick because it doesn’t depend on individual contributors to add content. Rather in a very sophisticated way it blends photos, videos, maps and animations along with text which is read to you in a pleasant female voice.

Qwiki.com is still young so we need to give it time to grow. But hot, dang it’s exciting and it could just turn out to be one of the best new search tools, er ‘information experiences’ of 2011.

I can’t do service to Qwiki by trying to explain it here. You just have to give it a whirl yourself. Do it! Qwiki.com cuz it’s waaaaay cool!

This week in tech

Claire Scholz — Sat, 20 Nov 2010 00:20:48 +0000

This week one of the most talked about online events was Facebook’s introduction of its new ‘Messaging System’. It was labeled by most of the industry experts as the ‘Gmail killer’. At the Nov. 15, press conference Mark Zuckerberg said, not so. “This not an email killer, this is a shift towards more and more real-time communication. “We expect more people to IM and more people will engage with this.” You can watch the live stream via Facebook Live.

For anyone who would like to know more about how the internet works but was afraid to ask there is a new shining light. It is a nifty interactive picture book titled 20 Things I Learned About Browsers and the Web. It is written in plain old English and adeptly explains how the web works, what cloud computing, cookies, phishing, malware and a host of other things are and why it is almost ok if a truck runs over your computer.By far the most important message it delivers though is this one - ALWAYS UPGRADE TO THE LATEST VERSION OF YOUR BROWSER…words to live by.

If you give it a quick look through you might get an idea of what we do here at good old Asia Studio and why it is a bit more complicated than putting pretty pictures and words on a page.

Following Google’s announcement of Google Instant Preview last week, this week Yahoo announced that it is soon to introduce Yahoo Rich Search Assist. They are rolling out the beta version slowly and we don’t seem to be among the chosen who get to play with it in the early phases. So we will just have to wait and see. What we do know is these advancements in search are making the already slippery SEO slopes just a little bit slicker.

And last but not least Google is planning to change the way we shop for clothes. It has launched its very own fashion site Boutiques.com. It is at the intersection of sheek fashion geek super skill – a junction that rarely comes together.

On its blog http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/11/introducing-boutiques-new-way-to-shop.html<">Google explains, ‘The new website will be a personalized shopping experience that lets users to find and discover fashion goods, by creating their own curated boutique or through a collection of boutiques curated by taste-makers – celebrities, stylists, designers and fashion bloggers.’

In other words, as with all other things Google, they learn what you like and at least in theory they serve up results that match your preferences.

I’m sure Google is monetizing the heck out of this new offering. It is an interesting concept though, one that will be worth watching (probably a lot more worth watching for Google than for us ever so fashionable geeks.)

OH NO – NO ICED VENTI CUPS! –Or- Never underestimate your customers’ expectations

Claire Scholz — Tue, 21 Sep 2010 18:41:23 +0000

Bonny and I went to Starbuck’s drive thru this morning just like we do on way too many other mornings. We ordered our usual two iced venti lattes – one with two raw sugars.

The speaker voice said, ‘Um, we are all out of iced venti clear cups.’

‘Well,’ Bonny said, ‘How about putting them in your hot venti cups instead?’

‘Ok,’ said the speaker voice.

We drove around the building to the window where we chatted with the server and picked up our paper cupped ice lattes.

Back at the office Bonny said, ‘Does your coffee taste awful?’

‘Yes,’ I said, ‘I’m transferring it to a clear cup to see if it helps,’ (as mentioned, we go to Starbucks often.)

‘Oh,’ she said as she proceeded to do the same. ‘I wonder if we should add some milk.’

‘No,’ I said taking a drink through the familiar fat green straw. ‘It tastes fine now.’

She took a drink of hers, said, ‘It tastes like it’s supposed to.’

Then she looked at me with a confused expression and I said, ‘I don’t even want to think about it.’

But I couldn’t quit thinking about it. Are we such creatures of habit that two different presentation of iced coffee would actually make it taste differently? Apparently so.

My take away is pretty simple. Customers want consistency. They want to get what they expect to get. In our case, even though we requested the change, the end result wasn’t what we expected. Dissatisfaction ensued.

Was it the lack of fat green straw? Or maybe sipping cold coffee through what should have been a hot coffee cap? Maybe it was because we couldn’t see the happy little ice cubes through the sides of the cup. Whatever it was, it was an eye-opener – and so was the coffee.

Email newsletters – are they still effective?

Claire Scholz — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 23:12:06 +0000

The oldest (and in my opinion one of the best) social media platforms is email newsletters.

Today I received newsletters from both the US Forest Service and the Game Fish and Parks.

The Forest Services’ was an information blast on how they were taking action to control noxious weeds in the Black Hills. And the GF&P’s was a roundup of this weekend’s Labor Day events in South Dakota’s State Parks.

Both were full of information I wanted to read about, and I did. Good marketing? You bet!

6 things you (probably do but) might not know you can do on Facebook.

Bonny Fleming — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 18:00:55 +0000

I was talking to my Dad on Fathers day and inevitably the conversation turned to Facebook and before long I was spouting off tip after tip of Facebook knowledge when it dawned on me that others could benefit from this information as well. So here you are…

6 things you may not know you can do on Facebook!!!

These particular 6 things will be presented one thing at a time every day until the 27th of June. That’s nearly a full week’s worth of things you may or may not have known! WHAT A DEAL!!!!

Enjoy the things.

Hey, Check out the bottom half of my face!

Cropping your Profile Picture:

Maybe it’s just the photographer in me but I can’t stand it when someone’s profile picture shows half of their face, half of their buddies face and then most of a tree they are standing next to. It’s super easy to adjust the way your profile picture shows up in the little box, here’s how:

First go to your profile page and click on your profile picture in the top left corner of the page and you’ll notice that it says “Change Profile Picture”

After you click this Facebook will give you a menu of options. If you scroll down and click “Edit Thumbnail”. A new window will open and you will then be able to drag the thumbnail around to get the cropped photo you desire. Drag your profile picture to desired crop and click save…. noting more too it!

I don’t really care how your farm is doing… go away!

Hiding Stuff from your news feed:

By now most of you have found the handy little “hide” box in the top right corner of a status update but incase you’ve missed it; Facebook allows you to turn off those applications (or friends for that matter) you find just a little to annoying.

If you’re like me you don’t really care about Farmville, or horoscopes, or “What type of shoe defines you” or the super awesome high score someone got in Farkle. Facebook allows you to block information you don’t want to see by clicking the Hide button. You can find the hidden ‘Hide’ button by rolling over the application update you wish to remove. When you do this a button will appear in the top right corner that says… oddly enough “Hide”.

When you click the button a box will pop up

This box allows you to block the application or to block the person posting the application (more on this later).

Once you’ve blocked the application its gone forever… poof! No more Farmville.

BUT WAIT!

This new page I’ve turned in I’m my life has made me a more tolerant person with a much more addictive personality. I totally WANT to play Farmville now!

Not to worry, you can get it back by following these steps:

Navigate to the News Feed page and make sure that you are looking at the Top News option (this option can be changed at the top of your home page). Scroll to the bottom of the page and click on the “Edit Options” link. Select the “Applications” tab and click on the “Add to News Feed” button beside any third party application that you would like to add back to your home page.

Yeah, but… its not the applications so much as it’s my really annoying neighbor who wont stop talking about his dog Fluffy!

“Well, just delete him.”

“I can’t”, you say… “He’ll cut down my tomatoe plants.”

Well, there is one more option. You can turn off status updates for people too.

Same as before. Roll over, click Hide but this time click “Hide (Person’s name)” instead of the application.

Done and done….

Oh, but 6 months later when you play poker with the guy and you get to talking about Fluffy, ‘Woof”, he comes over and falls asleep in your lap and now you to want to know every cute thing he does from now to eternity. Not to worry, you can turn your neighbor back on too:

Scroll down to the bottom of your News Feed and click “Edit Options.” If you are looking for a friend, scan the list to find that person. If you are looking for a public profile, select the Public Profiles tab. Click “Add to News Feed” to see their posts again. Click “Close” to save your changes.

Now, if you were paying attention you might say at this point… “But Bonny, when we did the thing before where we turned the applications back on I totally saw a box next to the Applications button that said Friends! Cant we just add our friends back there?”

The answer is “Yes” and you get a big fat gold star for being such a good student, and heck even a pat on the back while we’re at it.

…Moving on.

I know how awesome Frank Bob and June Summertimington are, if only the rest of Facebook could too…

Link to other profiles in your status updates

Lets say that you spent an afternoon at the lake with your good friends Frank Bob and June Summertimington. Now, you had a great time with them and you want to tell the whole Facebook world about it, but by golly, it isn’t enough to just tell them you want to show them who these fantastic people are you spent your whole weekend with. No problem, you can do this by linking their names to their profile pages in Facebook.

Start by typing up your status update as usual: “We had the best time at the lake this weekend with Frank Bob and June Summertimington” (great update!) but when you get to their names type the @ sign first. You’ll notice that when you type the first letter of their name it will pull up a list of everyone you know what that letter in their name. A few more letters will narrow the list down and you should be able to select Frank Bob’s name. Once you do this you’ll notice the name will change to blue. This means you did it right.

…Now of course a much more effective way to use this would be to help promote a friend or an event. Example:

Stupid Facebook, that’s not what my link was… it should say _______

Change the description text in your link

I see this one all over Facebook. Its actually something I discovered on accident, and I love it!

Sometimes when you put a link to a new story on Facebook, depending on the settings of the site you’re linking to or a gambit of other circumstances, the title of the page and the link descriptions can vary from exactly what you want to say to some sort of internet gobbldygook no one can understand. Facebook gives you control over both of these things so you can change them to say what ever you want.

What in the Sam Hill are you talking about Bonny? … well, let me show you…

HOLY COW! I just read the most amazing story on this super awesome website and I want everyone I know on Facebook to see it. I go through the common steps: Go to web page. Copy web page URL (Web address) and Paste into my Status box. YAY! Now everyone will know about this thing I found and the world will be a better place!

Oh no! when I pasted it in the box it put up some weird title that doesn’t explain what the story very well, and the text below the title is a description of the website, not of the story… no one will click on my link now and I will be sad.

Alas, check this out:
If you hover over the title of the story when it appears below the status box you will notice that it turns yellow. This glorious transition of color means you can click on that text and change it to WHAT EVER YOU WANT, so instead of the link text saying “bla bla bla, I’m not text that’s relevant to anything” it can now say “Hello, I’m something super important, relevant and descriptive, you surely want to click on me now!”

While we’re here lets just touch briefly on the thumbnail selector at the bottom of this box. you can change the photo that appears with your link by cycling through all the images on the page. This is particularly useful if for some reason Facebook thinks the Budweiser logo is more important than you’re best friends daughter knocking the ball out of the park for the game winning triple. Additionally, you have the option of displaying no thumbnail if, after you’ve cycled through the selection of photos available, none seem appropriate.

My buddy from high school keeps sending me event invitations, but I don’t want to look like a jerk and click “Not Attending”.

Remove yourself from events with out grief

You can remove yourself from events completely. This means you don’t have to lie and say you might be coming to an event you have no intention of attending or worse yet, you wont show up on the Not Attending list and hurt anyone’s feelings.

Facebook recently changed the way they handle events so this actually took a little digging to rediscover but it would appear that it is pretty easy. All you have to do is go to the event page and look under the event photo in the top right corner.

Man, Facebook Chat is so annoying. Frank Jim keeps talking to me but I really dont want to go off line in case Dreamy McHearthrob wants to talk to me….

Turn off and sort chat

Most people know that you can turn off the chat function if you are feeling particularly antisocial but what you may not know is that by using Facebook’s list function you can actually sort groups of people into friends, family, people you saw once in the hallway in high school and most importantly, people you really don’t care to chat with.
What this does is makes you appear off-line to one group of people while appearing online to another group. For example:

I like to be online when ever grandma pops up because I love grandma and want to talk to her every chance I get but I don’t really like talking to the pimple faced squirrelly boy who sat next to me in math class in the 8th grade and he seems to want to talk to me all the time…. gawd he’s dumb!

Here’s how we fix this:

Start by creating friend groups. You do this by clicking “account” in the top right corner of Facebook and then clicking “Edit Friends”. A box will then pull up containing all of your Facebook friends. Name the group by clicking the box at the top then you can sort through your friends by scrolling down or by typing their names in the search box in the top left corner.

You can create as many groups as you’d like. This function is also nice for sending messages and filtering status updates from friend groups as well as some other handy dandy stuff, but I suppose that’s another article.

Now that you have all your friends sorted nicely into nice folders lets move over to your chat box in the bottom right corner of the page. This will open a list of everyone who is online at the moment. You’ll notice though that now they are sorted nicely into the groups you’ve created.

To the left of the list groups is a green toggle switch. If you click the switch for each group it will change your online status. This way you can control who you appear to be online to at any given time.

Sticky: 6 things you (probably do but) might not know you can do on Facebook – Intro

Bonny Fleming — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 20:51:51 +0000

6 things you may not know you can do on Facebook!!!

These particular 6 things will be presented one thing at a time every day until the 27th of June. That’s nearly a full week’s worth of things you may or may not have known! WHAT A DEAL!!!!

Enjoy the things.

Freaked Out Tuesday

Dylan Fleming — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 19:23:21 +0000

Tuesday gets concerned about noises coming from the floor.

Everybody Like This!

Bonny Fleming — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 17:44:38 +0000

So, Hank Harris just stopped by to drop off the a copy of his latest album “Shortcut to Hanksville”. I’m listening to it now, I’ll report back with a review after I’ve spent some time with it, but for now I wanted to show you the stunning graphics designed by, who else, ME!

We’re working on getting the album up on his site soon I’ll keep you posted as soon as we get that done.

It was a fun project. We’ve been Hank fans for a long time. It was fun to design an album for him. The album is a mix of songs, emotions and styles. So far the songs Everybody Like This! and Vacuum are my favorites. Other musicians who play with Hank on the album are:
Jimmy Goings, Mike Miller, Jeremy Hegg, Jon Hegg, Peter Neussmann, Ricky Jacobsen, Kenny Putnam, Matt Berry, Matt Wallace, Tommy Hartig, Jimmy Sanchez, Andrew Reinartz, Genevieve Goings, Tony Baker

The complete track list is:
1. Amanda Lee
2. Everybody Like This
3. Women Choose
4. Typing and Entering
5. Vacuum
6. The Way to Heaven
7. I See Your Face
8. Love Doesn’t Stick
9. Nothing 2 Wear
10. Voodoo Avenue
11. Hope Dies Hard
12. What Am I Gonna Do?
13. Hypnotized
14. After All