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2 Things Everyone Needs to Know about the WPS Vulnerability

January 9, 2012 By Leave a Comment

I Promise Not to Own your WifiYou may have heard recently that there is a vulnerability affecting many wireless access points. It has to do with Wi-Fi Protected Setup (WPS) which is supposed to make it easier to configure devices to use your wireless network. The problem is the WPS system is vulnerable to a brute force attack that will allow a malicious attempt within range of your wireless signal to access and change settings on your device. Once the foot is in the door there are many other things that can be done, especially if you have un-protected devices on your network.

The two things you should know if you own or are responsible for any wireless access points are:

  1. There is no practical universal solution to the problem.
  2. You may have to use the hacking tools themselves to be 100% certain you are not vulnerable.

If you feel you have anything someone might want to steal, the smartest thing might be to just disconnect the wireless access point or turn it off. Then live without it until the manufacturer has clear information on your make and model of wireless device. Of course if your wireless access point is also your Internet Router this could be problematic.

There are more questions than answers right now and while you can’t tell with certainty if you are not vulnerable a list is being compiled of devices that have been confirmed to be vulnerable. You can access the WPS Vulnerability Testing Document to find devices that have been confirmed.

Known and potential solutions

Solutions to this issue will be updated here as they become available

Belkin (Does not note if this fully disables WPS!)

Netgear (Home Routers)

Additional Resources

Vulnerability Note VU#723755 (US-Cert)

Special thanks to @Shonali for sharing the Bart Simpson Chalkboard Generator.

This article originally appeared on my business blog on 1/6/2012.

Filed Under: Business, News, Productivity, Technology Tagged With: , , ,

Yelp Doesn’t Understand Your Small Business

October 25, 2011 By Leave a Comment

understanding my businessI received an Email this week from Yelp reminding me that they do not understand my business. The first thing in bold red header images I read was:

Don't ask your customers for Yelp reviews.

What Yelp continues to fail to understand is that many small businesses and self employed professionals don’t have a massive amount of customers. To put it bluntly if we did not ask our customers to review us, there probably wouldn’t be any reviews and we think that is a shame because we’ve worked hard to build up our reputation. The message went on to talk about one of the more frustrating aspects of Yelp:

Another reason to avoid asking for reviews: solicited reviews may get filtered, and that will drive you crazy.

This is Yelps story and they are sticking to it. Every time I’ve gotten a call from their sales reps I complain about the fact that the limited reviews from legitimate customers that I have received over the years ALWAYS seem to get filtered. So unless you fall under a couple of key criteria:

  1. Pay to play (advertise on Yelp)
  2. Drive a lot of traffic to their site (read: have a lot of customers, are more Business to Consumer Oriented)
  3. Get reviewed by people contributing frequently to Yelp (their reviews don’t seem to get pulled)

It is easy to conclude that Yelp does not really want you. I think the real answer is to focus on Yahoo Local, Google Places and LinkedIn recommendations. At least none of them are calling me asking for money, yanking legitimate reviews or otherwise gaming me to try to get me to do things “their way”.

Rocky Past

Yelp has a bit of a rocky past, a lot of business owners have felt extorted by the tactics Yelp has used to try to encourage advertising. I know I get a bad feeling every time they solicit me. I bring up the issue of the positive reviews being removed and they do their dance then call me back again in a few months. The whole thing seems like a classroom full of kindergartners in charge of a candy store.

What do you think? Have you experienced similar frustrations with Yelp?

This article originally appeared as a guest post on Danny Brown’s blog.

Filed Under: Business, New Media, News, Public Relations Tagged With: , , , ,

What expecting Mothers and Entrepreneurs have in common

August 30, 2011 By 9 Comments

Have you observed a expecting woman’s behavior closely? It’s fascinating to watch expecting moms organizing, cleaning, arranging and planning for their babies (father’s get involved, too of course!). Many refer to this as nesting behavior, did you know that entrepreneurs do the same thing? A couple of weeks ago I was meeting with a friend of mine who is CEO of a successful company. We chatted for an hour and at the end of the hour I walked away realizing:

  1. My friend is very good at giving critical commentary in a constructive way.
  2. I was feeling really good about who I am, what I have accomplished and what I am capable of.
  3. The bar had been raised.

That was a great example of Leadership, a great leader brings out the best in others.

It’s awesome to see people succeed, to be passionate and to be inspired. Though the road to that success is not a ten lane freeway at midnight or a short flight with clear skies and no turbulence. It is usually a winding road with periods of dense traffic, accidents and other disruptions or setbacks. One way to reduce these disruptions is to occasionally take a step back and carefully evaluate, clean up your house, and plan a route that avoids obvious peril. Take inspiration from a nesting mother, there is nothing more important than what she is doing and let her attention to detail inspire you in your preparations.

My Entrepreneurial Nesting

I started my entrepreneurial nesting around my home office and garage after the inspiration unleashed by my friends leadership had surfaced. In my garage I methodically but purposefully separated equipment to keep, sell and e-waste. You could say not unlike a soon to be mother would be preparing the babies room.

Have I mentioned I love the symbolism between garages and startups?

I have also felt quite un-settled, knowing that my blissfull ignorance about my professional future has been shattered. Then I posted this on Facebook:

Facebook Update

Within an hour or so of that wall post I had started writing this blog post, recognizing the genesis of that un-settled feeling.

Hindsight evidence

My Drobo that I use for my personal bulk storage has dropped from 2.4TB of data to well under 1TB of data in less than 1 week. Instead of buying a crib, baby toys and pastel colored paint I bought 4 2TB hard drives to consolidate some of the archives in the data vault (tip – low cost serial ata hard drives + a usb to sata adapter is the cheapest and fastest archive media system money can buy).

Clean, Organize, Clean, Organize, Archive, Plan, Brainstorm, Clean, Archive… Repeat…

I have zealously defended my inbox, not allowing more than a dozen or so messages left that require action at the end of each day. I frugally re-purposed my old laptop to act as a local virtual server. My office environment is calm, clean and quiet. I’ve re-organized 2 of my desk drawers and have amassed a large pile of paper and other documents to shred. Our trash can and recycle bin have remained full. I’ve enjoyed using my evenings, free time on weekends and even part of my birthday to do these things. The excitement is building….

I am at the precipice of where any hint of complacency is getting properly obliterated by un-bridled entrepreneurial spirit.

I’ve run my IT business Managed Solutions since January of 1997. During those years I’ve observed huge swings in some of my clients fortunes. Many of them have made it, some have not and others have struggled for long periods of time. I’ve watched a lot of people succeed and I feel very fortunate to have been able to do what I’ve been doing for so long. I’ve been a student of success and failures both of my own doing and those of others. I’ve operated instinctively and with little direction from any mentors or leaders and that is the biggest thing that has changed.

The Leadership examples that I have experienced the last couple of years have made me realize that in the future that leadership is the one that is going to matter the most.

I promise not to ask any of you to buy me pickles and peanut butter or put any A1 sauce on my Macaroni and Cheese….

Stay tuned for more.. :)

Filed Under: Business, Inspiration, News, Productivity Tagged With: , , , ,

Introducing Internet Radio Mashup

August 25, 2011 By 5 Comments

Since November of 2009 I’ve been maintaining an internet radio talk show on Blog Talk Radio. Since I don’t have a commercial incentive/requirement and do it largely because I enjoy it, it’s provided me with complete flexibility of subject matter, frequency and format. A few trends have evolved over time, so many of my shows fall under these general guidelines:

  1. Most involve 2-3 “panelists”
  2. Technology, Science, Non-Profits and Social Media are my main subject matter topics.
  3. Most episodes are just about 1 hour.

Why panels?

I do enjoy one on one discussions but the chemistry that emerges from groups is way more powerful. Panels that I’ve organized have discussed everything from what it is like to participate on TV’s Survivor Reality Series to Measurement, a Life Saving Gov 2.0 Application, Branding, and even a PRapalooza. With good panel chemistry the discussions can be hilariously funny and really shorten the perceived distance between the panelists and listeners. I’ve also been fortunate to have some excellent repeat guests perhaps most notably Yau-Man Chan, Kathrina Rashid, and the dynamic trio of Shonali Burke, Danny Brown and Gini Dietrich.

A new concept is born!

Recently I had an idea to bring together a mashup of interesting panelists to not necessarily tackle any topic in particular but to discuss issues of the day. The first panel of this kind is scheduled for Wednesday August 31st at 3PM Eastern time when guests Adriel Hampton (Nationbuilder), Melanie Burkie (SonRise Equestrian Foundation) and Rachael Seda (Host of Two JMU Alum Podcast) join me for Internet Radio Mashup Episode #1. Planning to listen, check out this post about getting the most out of Blog Talk Radio as a listener. Check out the official logo:

Internet Radio Mashup Logo

Want to join me?

I encourage my friends and readers to inquire about participation on my podcast. Just use my contact form and let me know that you’re interested.

Filed Under: Interviews, News, Podcasts, Productivity, Public Relations, Social Media Strategy, Technology Tagged With: , ,

Coffee Shop Insights from Dups

July 22, 2011 By 5 Comments

"Dups" Duleepa WijayawardhanaAre you familiar with Empire Avenue? I met with co-founder and CEO Dups (aka Duleepa Wijawardhana) for coffee this past Wednesday in San Mateo, CA. Dups is one of a team of 5 that built and operate the Social Stock Market Empire Avenue. In all the pictures I’ve seen of Dups he is always smiling and he is no different in person, though he does blame his persistent smile on his 3 hours of sleep per night that has become typical for him. After chatting for about an hour with Dups, I had a much better grasp on what Empire Avenue is really about and felt grateful for time well spent.

(Please note all quotes in this post are paraphrased, I was not recording or taking notes, Dups if I got something wrong let me know.)

Value is relative and Virtual Currency.

While discussing virtual currency and the possibilities it represents, Dups was quick to point out to me that value is a very relative thing. We all see value in different things, it’s not always cash in hand. Sometimes it is virtual currency or even a Castle upgrade for your personal empire on Empire Avenue. The fact is people will trade resources for almost anything, and if I understood Dups bullish position on virtual currency it seems he has a strong belief that virtual currency can in fact drive profits and opportunity for a tech start up.

Good questions make good conversations.

You’ve probably heard that you can learn a lot about someone by the questions they ask.

Dups: “What do you hate most about Empire Avenue?”

Me: “I can’t really think of anything.”

Dups: “What would you change if you could change one thing?”

The follow up prompted a long explanation about how I was not a heavy user of the site and eventually I did come up with the fact that I had asked fellow EAV member Laurie DesAutels a few questions about how some things worked.

Dups: “Yes, you need more information about how the site works. We know that, we can do better there.”

Putting the Social in Social Media

One of the topics we covered in our discussion was social interaction. When I was queried about why I had reached out and invited Dups to connect while he was in town it led us to discuss the “in person” versus “online” connections. It’s definitely clear that you can establish meaningful relationships online. The best example I know of this is Shonali Burke, she met her husband online and he flew half way around the world to marry her without ever meeting in person. Online relationships and friendships are great but at some point human beings will want to communicate directly with each other. We need and crave this connection.

Influence

Many people have observed that as EAV supports a broader range of services than Klout. EAV also does activity based scoring and one’s share price may be an alternative to a Klout score. Dups did not think that Klout considered them competition and he indicated also that EAV does not consider Klout competition. He was very clear though that he does not believe you can fashion an algorithm to truly analyze influence. In fact he went so far as to say:

Dups – “Show me any algorithm designed to measure influence, and I will show you where it is flawed.”

The most convincing supporting argument that Dups mentioned was the fact that different cultures measure influence differently. Think about that for a minute and you will see why any algorithm designed to measure influence is flawed. There are simply too many variables that cannot be included that will prevent the results from being accurate.

Robert Scoble vs Joe Hackman (Influence Part 2)

One interesting point that Dups brought forth to further his position on influence was when he asked me:

Dups – “How many Twitter followers do you have?”

Me – “Just under 3,000″

Dups – “Ok, well you may have under 3,000 followers and Robert Scoble might have a whole lot more but I’ve met you and you have the same influence over me as Scoble.”

What a great explanation. So I’ve long been planning a podcast about measuring online influence and now I have a must be present candidate in mind. Clearly Dups has put a lot of thought into the subject.

Check out EAV

So I am going to give Empire Avenue a little plug here. I think they have some pretty interesting things going on, it wouldn’t hurt you to create a profile and link up your social networks. You may not have time to “play” the stock trading game but consider it a hedge against some kind of explosive growth in the future. If Dups is right about virtual currency you might just find some value that you might be missing out on.

Filed Under: Business, Empire Avenue, Interviews, Networking, New Media, News Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Thatguy called!

July 21, 2011 By 15 Comments

I always wondered who “that guy” everyone keeps talking about is. Turns out evidently he is the guy with the openings for the front page of Google, Bing, Yahoo and other search engines. Who knew?

The sad thing is someone is calling these people back, please don’t be one of them. I think it’s time to put that guy out of business.

Don’t see this video? You can access it via this link.

Filed Under: Business, News, SEO, Video Tagged With: , ,

Google Offers live in the Bay Area, NYC and Portland OR

July 12, 2011 By 4 Comments

Groupon had the opportunity to sell to Google for $6B (Billion with a B) not too long ago, with Google launching offers do you think they are kicking themselves for not taking it? I know many readers of popular PR/Marketing Blog spinsucks.com thought so when Gini Dietrich wrote “My Groupon Prediction” and got me interested in the subject.

Creeping out of the woodwork it seems Google Offers Beta is now operating in several major metro Markets including NYC, Portland, OR, Oakland/East Bay, San Francisco and reportedly coming soon to Austin, Boston, Denver, Seattle and Washington D.C.

Google Offers Beta Locations

In all likelihood the entry of Google into this space may not indicate the end for Groupon, but how much is enough to satisfy the founders and investors in Groupon?

Filed Under: Business, New Media, News Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

Exporting Facebook contacts to Google+. Facebook > Yahoo > G+ = #win

July 8, 2011 By 34 Comments

I was really disapointed when Facebook slammed the door shut on the friend exporter. I don’t even think the app was live for 24 hours before it was blocked. There is a way to bypass Facebooks desire to prevent this from occurring and here you go!

Amplify’d from plus.google.com
Ok now here is the post I will burn my daily re-share on. This works, just did it. Welcome Facebook friends!Edit
David Orban's profile photoDavid Orban originally shared this post:
Here is how you can reliablyimport your Facebook friends into Google+1. Set up a Yahoo email address on http://mail.yahoo.com/
2. Click on the Contacts tab in Yahoo Mail and import the contacts from Facebook (see image)
3. Click on the Circles tab in Google+ and connectYahoo Mail (see image)While the import step 2. is manual, and you might want to periodically repeat it, the connection on step 3. o Yahoo Mail and Google+ is automatic, and persistent.

You will find the new contacts coming from Facebook automatically suggested by Google and you can drag them into the circle of your choice!

 -  Comment  -  Share  -  Share on…

Read more at plus.google.com
You can also EXPORT the contacts as a CSV file in Yahoo Mail then Import them into Gmail. You may want them there anyway, I created a new group called Facebook when I did it so I could best organize them.
Filed Under: Facebook, Google +, News, Social Media Strategy, Tools Tagged With: , , , , ,

Interview with Martin Seibert CEO of Twentyfeet

May 25, 2011 By 7 Comments

I was interviewed this morning by Martin Seibert the CEO of Twentyfeet about their service. The last time I wrote about Twentyfeet I had interviewed Martin so it was his turn this time. I’ve been a paid subscriber of the service and as I noted in the interview found it very useful for informing me of activity outside the norms on my key Outposts – Twitter, Facebook (Business Page) and Youtube. I was not compensated in any way for this interview and the opinions expressed are my own.

Browser doesn’t support flash? You can watch the video here.

Filed Under: Interviews, New Media, News, Video Tagged With: , , , , ,

3 Survivor Panel on Blog Talk Radio March 23rd

March 17, 2011 By 1 Comment

If you are a fan of Survivor you need to mark your calendars on March 23rd for a 3 Survivor panel on Blog Talk Radio. I have arranged a panel that includes courageous cancer survivor Sonja Christopher from the first season, “Chess Grandmaster” Marty Piombo from the last complete season as well as one of the fan favorite and two time participant Yau-Man Chan. They will be live answering your questions and discussing past and present CBS Survivor series. You can follow the link above to the episode or just call 917-889-7887 at 7PM PDT on 3/23/2011.

Here are the panelists that will be speaking live with me and answering your questions on the air:

Sonja Christopher – Borneo

Sonja Eve Christopher was born and raised in Olympia, Washington. Her studies at Whitman College in Walla Walla, Washington, the University of Oslo in , the University of Washington in Seattle and the University of California, Berkeley, produced a Bachelor of Science degree in psychology, along with a teaching credential.

In December of 1997, Sonja was diagnosed with invasive breast cancer. She underwent pre-surgical chemotherapy, followed by lumpectomy and radiation and has resumed a full, healthy life.

(Source – Survivor Wiki)

Sonja was the first person voted off Survivor losing to a 4-3-1 vote.

Yau-Man Chan – Fiji – Micronesia

Yau-Man Chan (born August 26, 1952) was the fourth place finisher in the reality television series Survivor: Fiji. He returned to the show in Survivor: Micronesia, where he was the third contestant to be ousted. He was born in Hong Kong to ethnic Chinese parents and raised in Sabah, North Borneo, Malaysia.

He is the Chief Technology Officer for Computing Services, Network Services, and Telecommunications at the University of California, Berkeley’s College of Chemistry and a champion table tennis player. Chan was also the 2005-06 Northern California Division Director for the National Collegiate Table Tennis Association. He has a Bachelor of Science (physics) from MIT and a Masters from UC Santa Barbara.

In the polling at the official Survivor website, Chan was voted as being the favorite survivor of the Fiji season, with a 65.5% popularity rating. The second-most-popular, Earl, only had 10%.

Jeff Probst called Chan an “unlikely hero.” There are just some people who have a way about them – instantly charming – that makes you want to pull for them.”

(Source – Wikipedia)

Marty Piombo – Nicaragua

Marty was a contestant, and Jury member on Survivor Nicaragua. Originally from Argentina, with the exception of his two sisters, Marty’s entire family still lives there. As a kid Marty travelled extensively due to his father’s work as an international engineer. After moving 16 times before high school, Marty attended boarding school in Connecticut while his parents remained in Argentina. Following high school Marty attended Swarthmore College, and later earned his MBA at Pepperdine University in Los Angeles while working full time for 3M Company. For the past 14 years Marty has concentrated his work in High Tech, working for companies like Excite@Home and Yahoo!.

Marty lived in LA for 9 years before moving to San Francisco, where he currently resides with his wife Kathy and three kids – Sebastian 17, Sofia 8, and Cristian 6. Marty is an avid outdoorsman – enjoys winter mountain climbing, rock climbing, biking and swimming. Anything that contains a competitive element is what turns him on.

(Source – Marty Piombo)

Access the Episode Page

Do you have any questions for the panel? Call in and ask live or leave them in the comments.

Filed Under: Events, Interviews, News, Podcasts Tagged With: , , , , ,
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