Thom Allen Weblog

Thursday, November 29, 2007

Facebook Alters Beacon System

Changing the way Facebook handles the Beacon system was inevitable based in user concern. While they are trying to calm the waters with this change, they still need to take a few more steps. At the very least they need to provide a page of companies using the Beacon system and let Facebook users choose who they want to share data with. This is what Facebook has chosen to do:

Users must click on â€œOKâ€ in a new initial notification on their Facebook home page before the first Beacon story is published to their friends from each participating site. We recognize that users need to clearly understand Beacon before they first have a story published, and we will continue to refine this approach to give users choice.

What I find amazing is as of this writing nothing is on the Official Facebook blog. All I've found are reports from bloggers who follow technology and Facebook. Why is that? Why hasn't Facebook just come out and publicly said they have made changes to Beacon? What I know is they have made an effort to improve the service and give their users more control over how and what is used.

I still think Facebook rocks. I think the entire social network platform has many positive advantages. I also think its great the community can come together and police itself. These are the types of issues that should be taken serious by community builders.

Do you think Facebook went far enough? Is the Beacon system too personal?

Utah Geek/Blogger Dinner Tonight

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Tonight is the Utah Geek/Blogger dinner at Sampan at the Southtowne Mall in Sandy. Here is a link to the details.

Wednesday, November 28, 2007

Backing Up Your Trusted System

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I'm finding that most people never think twice about backing up the things they write in a notebook. They feel secure in the fact you can't break a notebook. This gives them a false sense of security. You can just as easily lose your analog trusted system as you can a digital one.

I spent some time last night and today searching for someone who had a backup problem with their trusted GTD system. There's plenty of hack information available, but I tried just about every possible method I could think of to find something someone may have written or suggested. I just couldn't find anything. So I decided to create a list of things I do (or should have been doing) to back up my notebooks and other documents.

If you are carrying your trusted system with you on a trip, store the notebooks in a plastic baggy of some kind with n airtight seal.

During your weekly review make sure you are transferring important information to a backup notebook (which stays in your home or office) or an electronic device like a computer or PDA.

Take a digital photograph of each page in your notebook. You can store these pictures on your computer, your PDA or online with a service like Flickr.

Scan each page of your notebook. This has the same affect as taking a snapshot only you probably get a cleaner image.

Put a trusted system backup on your schedule. Typically you schedule a backup of your computer, make sure you add a trusted system back up too.

These are just some options you can take to prevent complete data loss if your trusted system disappears.

What are your suggestions for backing up your trusted system?

Tuesday, November 27, 2007

My Moleskine Crashed Hard

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Have you ever discovered something so horrific that you nearly threw up on the spot? That happened to me today. Every once in a while I take public transit to my office away from home. Today was one of those days. I hastily put everything in my backpack and ran out the door to catch the bus. Somewhere between my office door and the bus, all of the Moleskine's I was using were gone. I must have forgotten to zip up the pocket they were in. All of my notes. All of my design drawings. Some personal information. Receipts. Names. Numbers. All gone.

This is the risk of a paper based lifestream. I have a PDA, a T-Mobile MDA, but I only use it to make phone calls, store documents, email, Twitter, and keep my lists. I never kept lists in my Moleskine. Typically I scan the notebooks for relevant tasks, notes and list additions, and type them into a note file I keep on my PDA. I felt good about it. I had a digital copy of some notes and lists and everything else just stayed in the book.

Remember the IT guy always telling you to backup? Well, it had been months since I'd backed up my Moleskine. There is no recovering months of work. There are things in those books I can't remember, and I planned it that way. My poor execution in backing up my trusted system came back to bite me in the ass.

So now the question; do I go out and buy new Moleskine's or do I abandon this type of collection system all together? At the moment I'm just sick and pissed all at the same time. I went back later to trace my steps and no luck finding them. Hopefully someone will find my business cards in the back and call me, but nothing yet. My instinct is to go get the books and quit whining, get over it, move on. So I'll wait until tomorrow. Maybe I will have a clear head and make the right decision.

Cammeron Reilly pointed me to a blog post of his when he first made the leap to a paper lifestream, and the concern he had about losing it. I never really had that problem. Maybe naively I assumed nothing would ever happen because I was always careful. But this one day when I rushed instead of took my time, really messed me up. I guess now I have a reason to write more blog posts on the subject.