What does a hashtag mean?

You hear and see the expression everywhere - follow me on # and then the company or individuals name (or you hear follow me on hashtag then the company or persons name -  - but what does that mean....
 

One of the most popular questions we are receiving in classes and via email is this one..  “What is a hashtag”.. Simply put, it is the “#” sign...

“Hashtags” are used by quite a few social media sites to indicate a name to whom you can then send/or follow for messages & updates...  Social media sites using “hashatgs” are those like Twitter, Flickr, Instagram, Tumblr, Tout, Google+, Facebook and others...

For example.. if I said to you what are each of these next two phrases in red.....

www.anycompany.com – you know it is a web address because the prefix is “www”

Susie@anycompany.com – you know it is an email address because of the @ sign

And if you hear.....

#anycompany,  it indicates that you can follow/connect to that person or company's group of common messages by entering their #hashtag id on the social media site you are registered with... Yes, you also have to be registered with that specific social media site with your own #hashtag name...

How to "unhide" someone in your Facebook?

Unhide stories from a person, Page, group, event or app

We've all "hidden" someone, or a page, or a group, or an event or an app - from what we see on our home/wall page both intentionally and unintentionally...

When you want to "unhide" someone, it's easy to remedy:  

• On your home/wall page, hover over news feed in the left sidebar menu.
• Click the pencil icon (which means edit) that appears to the left in that section.
• A list of people, apps, Pages, and groups you’ve hidden or unsubscribed from will appear in a pop-up box.
•  Click the X next to each one you'd like to remove from this list. 
• Click Save

Facebook - Using lists to customize who sees your posts

Using "lists" in Facebook allows you to create a post (with or without photos or videos) and share that post with a specific list of people that you have created, instead of sharing it with "everyone" in your friends list... 

You must be signed into your Facebook account and Remember in Facebook you have 2 different pages: a timeline page and a home page.

·       Your timeline page shows everything you have written/posted - as well as easy access to all your friends, photos, maps & likes (companies, groups, artists etc)

·       Your home page (or wall) shows your own postings as well as postings by those you are friends with and comments/likes made on those various posts

To create or edit a custom list, go to your home page. 

P  Click the Home link (along the top-right of every Facebook page)

P  Choose "Friends" from the sidebar on the left side of your home page

P  Press "Create List" at the top of the page

P  Type the name of your list in the "List Name" field. Type the names of Friends into the "Members" field

P  Return to your lists page. Your new list that you created should be on the page

To edit a custom list, go to your home page. 

P  Click the Home link (along the top-right of every Facebook page)

P  Find the list you want to edit in the left column, or click the More link next to Friends

P  Select the list you want to edit or click Create a List

P  Search for your friends in the search bar at the top of the page, or add people from the List Suggestions on the right

You can add individual friends to lists by hovering over the Friends button at the top of their timeline and selecting from the list names that appear. If you don't see the name of the list you're looking for, click the option to show all of your lists.

To delete a custom list that you have created, go to your home page (you are only deleting the custom list - the individuals in that list remain in your friends list)

P  Click the Home link (along the top-right of every Facebook page)

P  Click on name of the list you want to delete

P  Click on the Manage List dropdown and select Delete List

You will notice there is a RESTRICTED LIST category provided by Facebook, people you add to your Restricted list. When you add someone to your Restricted list, they'll only be able to see your Public content or posts of yours that you tag them in

What is a "Read It Later" service?

Whether you use your computer, tablet, laptop, eReader or other mobile device - such as a Smartphone or iPhone to "surf the web" we all have the opportunity to read numerous articles, watch videos and other information from friends & family on Facebook, Twitter or maybe Pinterest; or you get News Feeds from your favorite media websites... BUT you don't have time to read or view them all now..  

That's how a "Read it later" service or app can help.  These "apps" saves the information - link - etc. so you can view the article, photo, video later at your convenience (yes-this is also cloud computing).  So with thee services, you establish an account, meaning you have to have a username & password and that allows you to access "your account" and whatever you've saved... 

Many of these services are free (including my 2 personal favorites) but some are not - but they all allow us to  manage articles and other media that we want to access later...  Apps for these services can be downloaded to your computer, tablet or other mobile device and they are very very easy to use..... 

If you have a Pinterest or Twitter account they also offer this service and Facebook will offer it very soon....

I've been playing with 2 different services and really like them both - and yes, both are free

Evernote is my personal top choice abs quite honestly the one I now use daily, because I can store anything I want to remember including quick reminder notes (my family and associates will tell you I'm a constant list maker so this is great for me), and I can save anything I want to view or read later.. www.evernote.com

Pocket (formerly known as Read it Later) is my 2nd favorite and worked wonderfully.... www.getpocket.com

Others you may want to check out...

Instapaper, website is:  www.instapaper.com - Free and paid versions

SnipIt, website is: www.snip.it/#welcome - Free 

Side note... For those of you with tablets and other "Android based devices" some of my students in Arizona are loving this new free app - called "CRACKLE" which is a totally legitimate app offering free streaming of TV shows and movies.  I found that it doesn't have all TV shows, but there are lots of old favorites and some of the new ones as well; same goes for movies...  But again, it's free so a great way to play with "streaming" before you move on to one of the paid services, such as Netflick or HBO... so you might want to give it a try... I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the picture...  I don't think this available for Apple devices yet, but keep checking back - no doubt it will be...

Update-heard from several "Apple/Mac" users and I was wrong - Crackle has been available for "i" devices for quite a while now... so enjoy everyone.....

Check it out: www.crackle.com

Facebook Glossary & Helpful Tips

Whether you are new to Facebook, or have been using it for awhile, there are times when we all run across a term for a setting or feature that we don't understand...  Facebook has a wonderful glossary that gives us easy to understand explanations...it is their Facebook Glossary   Check it out – you will see a list of terms – simply left click on them and you will see a full description as to what they mean and how they work…

www.facebook.com/help/glossary

Another favorite website within Facebook, is their “Facebook Tips” section – with help in every conceivable aspect of using Facebook for your personal use, as well as for work and organizations you might belong to…

www.facebook.com/facebooktips

Smartphones – 3G, 4G, Data Plans, Wi-Fi And More…

Recently in our classes (back east) we’ve been discussing “Smartphones” and these are a few of the questions that were raised which might be of interest to you... 

What does the G mean in Cell phones – 3G, 4G etc?  That’s easy, the “G” stands for the “Generation” for cell phone technology…with new generations coming out about every ten (10) years – the technologies were introduced as follows but usually were marketed by cellphone companies a year or two after introduction…

·         1G was introduced in 1981 (analog)

·         2G was first transmitted in 1992 (digital)

·         3G which offers multi-media support came out in 200, but came to the US in 2003

·         4G introduced in 2010 but widely used by cell phone carriers now in 2012

If you live in an area that doesn't have 4G coverage, there's no advantage to a 4G phone. In fact, you'll have serious battery life problems if you buy an LTE phone and don't disable 4G LTE, as the radio's search for a non-existent signal will drain your battery quickly…  Before you buy any cellphone “smartphone or not” be sure to check the coverage offered by the different carriers…one of the most important considerations before you decide who to go with, so you know you’ll be able to send/receive calls where you normally live, work or visit..

What does all this “data” stuff mean on a cell phone?  Most activities on “smartphones” will consume data – the exceptions are making a phone call and sending a text messages.  Remember, voice and texts require a very small amount of bandwidth, as opposed to data, which requires carriers to continuously build up their networks to support exploding demand from smartphones and tablets..

That is why activities, such as browsing the web, reading and sending e-mails, browsing Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, or sharing photos, downloading applications, downloading music, listening to online radio and watching videos on YouTube, viewing maps, instant messaging applications such as Skype, BlackBerry Messenger, WhatsApp, Google Talk and Facebook Messenger – all of these activities use up data and quickly…

Many phones consume data in the background even when you’re not using it – maybe you have the weather widget on your homescreen, so periodically it’s downloading the latest forecast from the internet or your email app, might be checking for new messages..  it all adds up.

What if I use the Wi-Fi with my phone?  Good news-Any data transferred over a wi-fi network WILL NOT count towards your download limit.  Data transferred over a wi-fi network does not pass through your mobile operator and so it won’t be counted towards your monthly download limit. So it’s best to use a wi-fi network for all of your bandwidth-intensive activities such as listening to online radio, making calls over Skype and watching online video. But be sure you know if you have a separate download limit with your home broadband connection.  You can set your smartphone to find available Wi-Fi networks for you…

What about the data plans that say they are unlimited?  According to some experts, “Paying for an “unlimited data plan” (even if your carrier offers this, which many don’t anymore) doesn’t mean you get unlimited access to your carrier’s bandwidth. AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon Wireless “slow down or what is called throttling” data users after they reach a predetermined limit. Sprint is the lone hold-out, but rumors point to the possibility that the carrier will begin to throttle data on its Virgin sub-carrier plans. The justification for this process involves regulate network traffic and minimize bandwidth congestion. And with the rise in 4G data usage, carriers claim their networks are jammed, so what this means to all of us – the consumers – is that we may not get to take advantage of all the speed promised by our new 4G smartphone” quoted from PC Net Magazine – Feb 2012

No doubt, all of this will continue to change – so keep your questions coming and we will help you find the answers – remember there are no foolish questions – all of the technology today is changing so rapidly that it’s a challenge for all of us to keep up with what’s happening, never mind understanding all the ins and outs entirely…  It’s simply a constant learning experience..

Who and what is Pinterest..

Pinterest - Social Networking site-Yes; but different from Facebook & Twitter... 

#1 – everyone seems to agree that this is the fastest growing Social Networking website today…

#2 – so many people, including some of our own daughter-in-laws – seem to feel it is “seriously addicting”

Pinterest’s goal is different from Facebook, Twitters and the others – as more of a bulletin board forum and Pinterest hopes hope to connect everyone in the world through the things they find interesting sharing inspiration and ideas…

Pinterest is very popular with teachers of all ages, moms and grandmas, brides to be, those looking for ideas to spruce up their homes inside and out, or throwing a party or other event, looking for a new recipe… and it’s a great source for sharing “deals” before spending money…  An everyone seems to mention that it’s bright – colorful – and easy to view…

Check it out today at www.pinterest.com and if you like what you see, you can go to the top of their Home Page and request an “invitation to join”.  As with most email and social media sites, you will need to establish an account with a user name & password and give them an email address…

Pinterest is very new – in December 2009, it began development by co-founders Ben Silbermann and Paul Sciarra.

They first launched an iPhone app in March 2011 and by Aug. 2011, Time magazine listed Pinterest in its "50 Best Websites of 2011" article and by Dec. 2011 Pinterest was one of the top 10 largest social network services with 11 million total visits per week (most of whom are women)

As of March 2012, it is said to be the 3rd largest social network in the United States (Facebook & Twitter being 1^st & 2^nd) and it has surpassed Linkedin and Tagged…

Facebook's New "Timeline" Design & Features

WHAT IS FACEBOOK’S NEW PRIVACY FEATURE CALLED “TIMELINE”..

If you don't have Facebook Timeline already, you will soon - during the next month or so, Facebook is introducing its updated “Timeline” design to all Facebook users.

Facebook Timeline is basically a cosmetic design change, but it will affect the layout of your profile and also has some functional changes intended to make it easier for others to see your Facebook history and parts of your profile and this is where you want to pay attention, because now others will be able to see those embarrassing photos, status updates when you didn’t know any better, and what your friends have posted on your wall since the day you joined Facebook.

Profile (Timeline) Review is a new privacy option that lets you approve or reject posts that you've been tagged in before they go on your profile (timeline). When you turn it on, posts may already be visible in other places on Facebook, but they won't appear on your profile (timeline) until you approve them. When you have a post to review, it will show up in the Pending Posts section of your profile or in your ACTIVITY LOG (if you you've upgraded to timeline).

• Note-Your ACTIVITY LOG is a list of your posts and activity, from today back to the very beginning. You’ll also see stories and photos you’ve been tagged in, as well as the connections you’ve made, like when you liked a Page or added someone as a friend.

Many articles and forums are saying the same thing – Facebook Timeline is a great new feature, but Everyone should take some time to review exactly what is available on our own profiles, especially reading those old, forgotten posts that we may have written a long time ago, because now they will be a lot more visible for people to read (same goes with pictures from those late night or weekend escapades!!).

You may want to start deleting what you don't want anyone to see and setting limits on "the audience" (such as friends, friends of friends, vs. everyone)  for the content you want only some people to see.

New Computer Class Series Begin Next Week-November 1st

Just a reminder that our new series will begin next Tuesday, November 1st at 9am at Union Tower I - 11th floor . This series will continue thru January 2012..

For those of you who attended the current series, please know that your seats will be held for you on the same day and time for the upcoming new series, unless you make changes with Denise...

Other than a few new students who are just beginning their classes, we will be discussing a lot of great topics that you've askedfor during this new series, including:

• Updates on changes using Internet & Email
• Helping you get comofrotable using our class and other blogs
• Reviewing Word Processing Basics, using clip art, creating labels and tables & more
• Using our Flash Drives & organizing what’s on your flash drive and in your computer folders
• Social Networking including Facebook and
• A favorite topic we’ll cover after the holidays: tips on using your new holiday toys..

If you know of someone who may be new to the world of computers (or new to the Union Tower Family) be sure to encourage them to talk to Denise and join in... It's always enjoyable to register with a friend so you have someone to motivate you to use your new skills

And of course, keeping the classes full always help to ensure the continuation of the program

For those of you at Union Tower II, next month I will schedule time in early December to review the Skype with anyone who is interested, so for those who want to join our classes can without having to drive in the cold weather.. we will work out the specific details for this in the upcoming weeks..

As always, if you have ideas or suggestions for topics that you would like us to be teaching, be sure to let us know… These are your classes and we want to be sure you are learning the skills important to you…

Using Facebook's top bar for navigation

It's helpful to know how to "navigate" around Facebook and an easy way is to use the Navigation Bar which is located at the top of your Facebook page - to the right of your profile photo...

Here are brief descriptions of each of the available options on this navigation top bar..

Home (facebook logo) - Clicking this logo will take you to your wall (News Feed) that shows all friends recent posts.

Friend requests - If any friend requests are waiting to be approved this icon will show a notification of how many friends are waiting for approval. This icon can also be clicked when you want to view any friend recommendations or search for friends on Facebook.

Messages - This section allows you to send and receive private messages between one or more people you're friends with.

Notifications - Any time a friend or Facebook application creates a new post you'll be notified in this section. Clicking this icon will show all recent notifications. If you wish to change what is capable of sending you notifications including any Facebook applications or games click the See All Notifications link at the bottom and check or uncheck what you want to be notified on.

Search - Finally, the search box in Facebook can be a powerful tool that can be used to quickly find any current friends or people on Facebook. In addition searching for terms such as a company name, product, sports team, music band, etc. will find fan pages and groups that can be joined.

Facebook - Update your privacy settings

Despite all the bad press Facebook gets about their site and the privacy issue, one of the basic reasons there is a problem is that we, the users, don’t pay close enough attention to our privacy settings, which we should carefully and often..

As technology changes, Facebook has also changed and continually is adding more privacy options for us to use to help protect ourselves –but we have to use them…

Not sure how and what to do – then see what’s news:

Click Account in the top right corner of the Facebook window and then click Privacy settings to adjust who is capable of seeing what on your Facebook profile. We highly recommend going through all the privacy settings to verify your privacy is properly protected.

Understand, that anything that is not set to FRIENDS ONLY or FRIENDS OF FRIENDS can be seen by anyone searching on the Internet. Some good tips for most of us…

• Under Search in Privacy settings uncheck Public Search Results. This will prevent users from finding your account and profile picture in search results such as Google


• Under Application settings, make sure you're only allowing applications you want to have access to your information. Applications that you grant rights to can have access to your Facebook profile information.

Internet - Online quizzes and surveys

Quizzes and surveys you find online, including those on social networking websites like Facebook, Twitter and others are usually entertaining and may seem like a harmless pastime.

But remember quiz and survey companies are for-profit businesses. So consumer information about you and I are a definite commodity, and I think we should always assume that information that we enter when we are taking these quizzes and surveys, is going to be sold – and also assume you have no idea, and therefore no control, over who the information will be sold to..

Some websites allow users to create their own quizzes and surveys but in most cases they are still making money from the answers.

Just by reviewing the types of surveys or quizzes you take, a criminal may learn a great deal. Answering if you’re Hot or Not, a Fashion Disaster or Diva provides not only businesses in the fashion or teen magazine industries with information, it also provides information to a potential predator about topics that interest you. Some quizzes and your answers get displayed on your social networking sites, which is something to consider carefully if your site is publicly viewable as your answers may expose personal information to a criminal.

Quizzes and surveys on senior social networking sites are typically more financially or medically invasive. For example, the information from a medical quiz may be passed directly to pharmaceutical companies, online drugstores, or insurance companies. After answering a quiz you may find you receive spam targeted to your medical conditions or financial interests.
Make sure you understand the reputation, privacy policies, and terms of use of the site creating or hosting the quizzes.

Before taking any quiz or survey consider the answers to the following questions:

• Why did the company create this quiz?



• What will they do with the information?



• Who will see my answers?

Personally I never participate in any online quizzes and surveys – it’s hard enough to control my personal information and privacy online, and it’s also quite easy to be “tricked”, so I don’t feel it’s worth taking the chance… but it’s a personal choice..

What’s happening with “social networking websites” online..

There are several types of websites where everyday people communicate socially - we hope these definitions will help you understand them a little better...

A wiki is a Web site that allows anyone visiting to contribute (add, edit, or remove) content. Wikipedia, for example, is a virtual encyclopedia built by user’s providing information in their areas of expertise. Because of the ease of collaboration, wikis are often used when developing group projects, or sharing information collaboratively.

A Blog is an online journal (short for weB LOG) that may be entirely private, may be open to select friends or family, or available to the general public. You can usually make settings so that visitors to your blog may or may not be allowed to comment on your entries – our class blog that you are visiting now is set for public viewing and commenting so that you or anyone else who visits the blog is welcome to comment…. Many families today are creating their own family blogs, so that information, photos, videos etc. can be shared and accessed more easily by family members anywhere in the world...

A social networking site allows people to build and maintain an online Web page and create networks of people they are somehow connected to –their friends, work associates, other members with similar interests, and so on. Most social networking sites, such as Facebook and My Space also host blogs and have social networking functions that people allow people to view information about others and contact friends. And of course we’ve all seen the results of hitting the wrong button when you send a tweet via Twitter and it goes to everyone/anyone who follows you and not just to an individual… now being referred to as the Rep. Anthony Weiner tweat fiasco…

Note:
Posts are the actual articles or updates put on blogs, facebook and myspace websites by the owner/author of that site...
Comments are the comments made by others who read a blog or facebook posting about a specific post
Tweet is the short (no more than 140 characters) message sent via a twitter account to someone or everyone who follows you or someone else on twitter.

Facebook - Photo Tagging Safety

One of the most popular features on Facebook is "photo-tagging" but it's also an easy way for companies to "send advertisements" by tagging their products with your name & your friends. Hopefully these tips will help you to avoid that from happening and also show you how to protect your privacy and your friends...

The privacy settings on Facebook allow you to limit who sees photos tagged with your name, and you can even prevent your name from showing up in your friends' photo-tag suggestions. But you can't opt-out of photo-tagging completely, and you can't stop third-party applications from tagging your friends' names on photos on your wall once you've accidentally given the apps access.

It's important to be careful and to make sure your privacy settings are “secure” so that you don't inadvertently allow advertisers and/or spammers to see your profile and get to your friends to spread their advertisements via your Facebook wall, for all your friends to see! across Facebook

How it's done: When you click the link to the photo album, thinking you're about to see a photo album of your cousins wedding or your friends birthday party, instead, it's something like a photo album full of the amenities at some hotel or the latest menu specials from a local restaurant chain and they are tagged with many names of people who don't appear in the picture but have simply been “tagged”. When you first see it, if you don’t see your cousin or friend – don’t go any further, because if you do click on the photo to find out more and go too far, you might just be agreeing to give the application access to your account and your friends on Facebook will begin to receive notices that you’ve been tagged in a photo – and the unfortunate cycle has begun!!

Hopefully we’ve warned you in time, but if not it’s easy to remedy-just remove the application from accessing your profile by:

• Immediately remove any contents (posts, photos etc) that the “company/spammer” has posted on your Facebook wall about the phony event
• Now, go to your Account Settings in the upper right side of your screen
• When the drop-down menu appears, click/choose Privacy Settings
• On the bottom right side of the Privacy Settings Page, click/choose the Apps & websites link
• Now choose "Edit your settings."
• On the App page, next to "Apps you use," select "edit settings"
• Now you will see the third-party apps that have access to your Facebook profile. Delete any applications you don’t want and try to check this setting regularly to protect yourself and your friends
• Apologize to your friends who might have been tagged by this company and remind them to do the same thing to protect "your name" - together, if we are all diligent about our privacy settings, we can help to minimize these problems....

Facebook - Privacy for Photo Albums

A question raised quite often about FACEBOOK is how to set privacy settings for photos and photo albums that you put on your FACEBOOK account.. Again remember that in your Account Tab, there is a help button to answer this and many other questions about using FACEBOOK…

HOW TO EDIT THE PRIVACY SETTINGS FOR YOUR PHOTO ALBUMS in FACEBOOK? It’s important to edit the privacy settings for your photo albums, especially when there are photos of children-changing the settings is easy:

1. Go to the photo album.
2. Select the "Edit Album Info" button in the lower left side of the screen.
3. On the "Edit Info" tab, select the "Privacy" drop-down menu to customize the privacy settings for your album.
4. Your choices will be: Everyone; Friends of Friends; Friends only and Customize
5. Customize option allows you to be very specific: naming those you want to see the album or even block certain people from seeing the album or choosing that only you can see the photo

Remember-only the owner of an album can adjust the album privacy. This may affect the visibility of photos you are tagged in when your friends look at them. Also, if you share a high resolution photo or album with someone, that user will be able to download those photos.

You can also access privacy settings for photo albums by doing the following:

1. Click on the "Account" menu and select "Privacy Settings" from the drop down menu.
2. Click "Customize settings."
3. Choose "Edit album privacy for existing photos." Alternatively, you can click the "Album Privacy" link on the "Photos" tab of your profile next to your albums.

What is a smartphone?

We are all hearing the phrase “smartphone” – but how is a “smartphone” different from a cell phone?

Typical cell phones allows us to make and receive telephone calls; text messages and to take, send and receive photos and videos…

Smartphones offer greater functionality than regular cell phones, so that you can...

• use a full “qwerty” keyboards for easier typing
• have access to the Internet to access your email, Facebook and Twitter accounts
• work with all your Office documents, such as word & excel,
• sync data with personal and business computers
• send & receive instant messages
• play music
• show streaming video
• edit photos
• get driving directions from the GPS
• play countless games and
• work with hundreds of other “applications referred to as “apps”

All of this is in addition to making phone calls of course.. And many of the smartphones have touch screens..

Smartphones are actually mini-computers with an OS-Operating system (such as the BlackBerry OS; Palm OS or Windows Mobile OS); Smartphones have internet access so that you can download countless applications, including GPS systems, you can link to your social networking & email accounts; many smartphones give you the ability to not only take photos but edit them; you can view, update & edit Office documents and they can be synchronized with your computer for all the updates you make, as well as synchronizing your address book, calendar and tasks list quickly and easily – similar to what a PDA used to do – only faster and more easily… And of course the applications allow you access, via the internet, to hundreds of games, music, video and other sites…

This, like all other computer related technology, is changing almost daily so no doubt, as soon as you buy a new “smartphone” it’s going to be outdated and topped with a newer version with more bells & whistles… leaving us all to wonder where it will end…

Skype - Version 5

With Skype you can make free video & voice calls over the Internet to other people anywhere in the world on Skype for as long as you like, wherever you like. Some features of Skype include free Skype-to-Skype calls, free video skype to skype calls, conference calls, instant messaging, SMS messaging and the ability to forward all calls to your mobile phone when you're offline. Skype to Skype is totally free.

Skypes “free software” must be downloaded on the computer you are using, to use Skype to make free calls or video calls.

The newest version of Skype is their 5.0 version, and the main feature that I can see is allowing group video calls. I've used Skype for more than 6 years but originally it was just a voice service for free calls from one computer to another..

We are also seeing that Skype and Facebook are working together so if friends and family have Facebook, you can make free Skype-to-Skype calls and send them “text” messages to their cell phones.

To download skype or check them out, go to www.skype.com

Skype was launched in August 2003 and it’s reported that Skype has almost 15% of the international voice market and 40+% of the video call market – so they seem to be doing something right. On Skypes Blog, they’ve stated that the word Skype is a Chuvash word ... meaning "The whole world can talk for free"

Warning-Phone Numbers on Facebook!

Do you, your friends or family have a facebook account?? Then it's possible your home, cell, work and other telephone numbers are listed on Facebook?

Yes that's right - If you or your friends or family, has a friend on Facebook that posts or reads posts on Facebook using their iPhone app (on any smartphone) to access Facebook, then it ‘s more than likely that your private phone numbers (home, work, cell and any others they have noted in their contact list) and those for everyone else in their contact list that has a Facebook accounts - will all be matched up and listed on Facebook!

How & Why?? Because Facebook's "Contact Sync" feature, which synchronises friends' Facebook profile pictures with the contacts in their phone. So it imports/uploads all the names and phone numbers you have on your (smart)phone, uploads them to Facebook's Phonebook app and then matches them up with all users on your account and so on & so forth...the implications are overwhelming on our personal information being shared..

Be sure to check your friends & change your Privacy Settings:: When you are on your Facebook Account, go to the top right corner of your screen, click Account, then Edit Friends. Go to the left side of your screen and click phonebook. Everyone's phone numbers are now being published.

Let friends and family know this, so telephone numbers can be removed.

To change privacy settings: go to Privacy settings, then to phone, then to customize and choose "only me"

Remember - options change in your privacy settings, so check them often to be sure of what is and isn't activated...

New Wi-Fi Memory Cards for Digital Cameras

Have you heard of the new “wi-fi” memory cards for use in your digital cameras and camcorders… Check out this website:

www.eye.fi

The Eye-Fi memory cards look, stores media, and fit into cameras just like a regular SDHC memory card. On top of that, the Eye-Fi card has built-in Wi-Fi that uses your wireless network to effortlessly transfer photos and videos

The Eye-Fi card uses your home or office Wi-Fi network-Upon setup, specify which networks the Eye-Fi card uses to transfer your media. You can add up to 32 networks for your card to use. The next time your camera is on and within range of a specified network, your photos and videos will fly to your computer and to your favorite sharing site.

The Eye-Fi cards (4GB – 8GB for $40-$150 each) are the first wireless memory cards.

Features (from their website)

• 4GB memory. Store up to 2,000 photos or 90mn of video with top-notch Class 6 speed. Works just like with your regular SDHC memory card. Perfect for your compact camera
• Wireless. Upload JPEG photos & videos fast through your home Wi-Fi network thanks to built-in 802.11n speed
• Endless. Get the only card that can free-up space for you after pictures are safely delivered. Never worry about running out of space again
• Automatic back-up. Wirelessly upload JPEG photos and videos to folders of your choice on your computer, or even directly into iPhoto for Macs
• Organized. Photos and videos can automatically land in date-based folders, so memories are organized effortlessly
• Compatible. No need to buy a new camera – visit their website to confirm that your camera can be turned into a wireless uploading machine
• Effortless sharing. Wirelessly send your JPEG photos and videos to a popular website. Visit their website to see a complete list that you can choose from, which includes Flickr, Facebook, Picasa, MobileMe, and YouTube
• Pick your pics. You can select which photos and videos are uploaded
• Get notified. Get email, Facebook or Twitter alerts when your photos are uploading online
• Quick and sweet. Set up takes just minutes

More about Internet memes - such as "I like it on..."

Further to our blog posting, about what is an "Internet Meme", the following is the article that was on MSN that provoked my curiosity... This particular Meme is intended to raise Breast Cancer Awareness...

'I Like It On': Sexy Status Updates Sweep Facebook
Suggestive Status Updates Intended to Raise Breast Cancer Awareness
~ By KI MAE HEUSSNER - Oct. 7, 2010

Want to know where women "like it"? Check out your Facebook newsfeed. In status updates across the social networking site, women around the world are going risqué with suggestive messages saying, "I like it on the floor," "I like it on the kitchen counter" and even "in the back seat of my car." Despite the naughty-sounding notes, they're not referring to places to pucker up, but rather places to leave their purses

Despite the naughty-sounding notes, they're not referring to places to pucker up, but rather places to leave their purses. The origins of the viral campaign are unknown, but over the past few days potentially millions of women across Facebook have posted the messages in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Though the purse reference itself doesn't seem to bear any direct relationship to breast cancer and has left many men (and maybe women) scratching their heads, crowds of women continue to rally behind the viral message.

This latest Internet meme is similar to the bra color status update that swept Facebook in January. As part of that campaign, women on Facebook randomly posted the color on their bras on their status updates to raise awareness for breast cancer research.