(Columbus Circle Sculpture)

JOE: Good morning Calliope.
CALLIOPE: Good morning Joe. How are you today?
JOE: Quite good.
CALLIOPE: What have you been up to?
JOE: My major accomplishment yesterday was completing a critique of a friend's new book. I also posted my Sliding Otter News newsletter to my mailing list although I still need to post it to my website.
CALLIOPE: Sounds like you have been busy.
JOE: I have. I also found some good information in Internet marketing and development of keywords. Steve Weber also sent me a very useful link for small business resources at http://www.monstersmallbusiness.com.
CALLIOPE: So you social networking is paying off.
JOE: It is. Also Writers Digest recently opened a site for writers at http://writersdigest.ning.com. It is already quite active and appears to be a very promising on-line community. I'm excited about it.
CALLIOPE: It's about time you got excited.
JOE: I agree. Sometimes I seem to just plod along. It's nice to have some enthusiasm.
CALLIOPE: Use it to good advantage.
JOE: I will. Talk with you on Monday.

 


(Vigo Herb market)

JOE: Good morning Calliope.
CALLIOPE: Good morning Joe. How are you today?
JOE: Fine. Yesterday I talked with you about getting serious about the business aspect of writing.
CALLIOPE: Was that just talk or did you do something about it?
JOE: I did something. First I signed up for two workshops through Score in Rochester on Writing a Business Plan and Marketing on the Internet.
CALLIOPE: Good start. anything else?
JOE: I started looking for what I could find on Internet marketing in the obvious place, the Internet.
CALLIOPE: What did you find?
JOE: Lots of things, mostly advertising for expensive programs. I started wading through some of the offerings.
CALLIOPE: Did you reach any conclusions?
JOE: No. I felt overwhelmed and had to take a break.
CALLIOPE: And then?
JOE: Then I looked through my bookshelf to see if I had anything useful.
CALLIOPE: What did you discover?
JOE: Steve Weber's book Plug Your Book: Online Book Marketing for Authors, which I read a while ago. I realized that most of what I have done so far to market my book was based on his excellent suggestions. I started reading it again and found a treasure trove of ideas I did not explore before. I'm excited about the find. Talk with you tomorrow.

 


(Now What)

JOE: Good morning Calliope.
CALLIOPE: Good morning Joe. Did you finish your column?
JOE: I did and found it went smoothly. Thanks for listening yesterday.
CALLIOPE: Now what?
JOE: I worked on distribution of our e-book yesterday.
CALLIOPE: How's it coming?
JOE: It's little hard to say. I checked with one person who was able to download it successfully but another could not access it and got a message that it didn't exist.
CALLIOPE: Strange.
JOE: I thought so too. I am able to access it easily in Firefox and Internet Explorer but then I'm not distributing it to myself.
CALLIOPE: What do you plan to do?
JOE: I will ask a few more people to download it and see what their experience is.
CALLIOPE: What do you think the problem might be?
JOE: It could be that his browser does not allow download of PDF files with passwords. But that's just a guess. I will try sending him the file by email.
CALLIOPE: Another mystery.
JOE: What would life be without them. Talk with you tomorrow.

HAWLEY HELPS PASS BILL TO SAFEGUARD CHILDREN

Legislation to Protect Against Sex Offenders Passes Both Houses

Assemblyman Steve Hawley (R, I, C – Batavia) voted in support of legislation that would help safeguard children from sex offenders by allowing residents to sign up to receive e-mail alerts when Level 2 and 3 sex offenders move into their neighborhood (A.1242-B).

“In today’s busy world, not every parent or guardian has the time to constantly check the Internet database; however, as a parent myself, I know there is nothing more important than keeping our children safe.  This bill helps parents and guardians do that in a quick, free and common-sense manner for today’s world,” said Hawley.

The service would allow residents to sign up for the e-mail alerts through the Division of Criminal Justice Services website.  The resident would be able to specify the geographical area of concern for them and then receive e-mail notifications if a Level 2 or 3 sex offender moves into that area.

The bill has now been passed in both houses and is before the Governor for his consideration. 

###

It might be obvious to most, but you should probably stick to logging in to your own Internet accounts. In fact,  you can get in trouble for logging in to another person's Web site accounts and making changes. 

A Darien teenager is learning that lesson right now as 17-year old Brittany N. Barto was issued a ticket to appear in Darien Town Court on March 24 after logging into somebody else's account, where she made unspecified changes.

According to The Buffalo News, it caused the victim "a substantial inconvenience." 

Everywhere I go I see people texting or talking on their cell phones. Now the craze of constantly checking each other’s status has gone to the next level. Technology today offers numerous ways to not only stay connected to friends and family, but to keep a constant eye on them, to know wherever they are, whenever.

On Wednesday, Feb. 4, Google launched Latitude, a location-tracking service that uses GPS hardware found in smart phones to pinpoint your real-time position on a map and share that information with friends. The program seems simple to download: enter your cell phone number and wait for the link to arrive to your phone.

Seventeen-year-old Oakfield resident Justin Potter said he would love to try the new Google Latitude application. “Cool, I would love to check this out,” Potter said after he heard what Latitude was all about.

Before users are able to see where their friends are, they must first have an account with Google, have Latitude downloaded, and make sure their phone is compatible. Potter was eager to try it. Unfortunately, his cell phone was not compatible, and the only other way he could use the program was through his computer at home.

“I would rather have it on my cell phone,” Potter said, disappointed.

Even though Potter wasn’t able to download Latitude to his phone, he said this would be an easier way to connect with his friends.“I will definitely check out this program,” he said, adding that his friends would likely enjoy it, too.

At first, Potter thought that anyone would be able to track his location. Latitude’s maps shows the user’s location, marked with a picture of the person that has been uploaded onto their Google account. But users must add friends and then send an invite, similar to the friend request system used with Myspace and Facebook. Your friends must accept before you can track their location.

Batavia resident Alicia Philips, 40, screamed with excitement about using Latitude.

“Heck yes! I would love to use this,” she said. “This would be so beneficial, especially in case of an emergency.” Phillips is the mother of three and said she would love to use it as another means to find out exactly where her children are.

Google gives the user three privacy settings: a user's location can be updated automatically, manually updated, or they can hide their location from friends. And, of course, they can always just turn Latitude off.

Not everyone is so enthusiastic, however. A "privacy" group based in the UK that goes by the name of Privacy International issued a full statement on what they found to be a major security flaw with the program: the potential for a third party to hack into the program. The group's conclusion sounds damning:

Privacy International believes Google has created an unnecessary danger to the privacy and security of users. It is clear the company is aware of the need to create a message alert on Latitude-enabled phones but has chosen to launch the service without universal access to this safeguard. The Director of Privacy International, Simon Davies, said:

"Many people will see Latitude as a cool product, but the reality is that Google has yet again failed to deliver strong privacy and security. The company has a long way to go before it can capture the trust of phone users."

"As it stands right now, Latitude could be a gift to stalkers, prying employers, jealous partners and obsessive friends. The dangers to a user’s privacy and security are as limitless as the imagination of those who would abuse this technology."

As to be expected, Google was swift to respond.

“We recognize the sensitivity of location data, so we've built fine-grained privacy controls right into the application,” Vic Gundtra, Google's VP of engineering wrote in a blog post. 

The program can be installed at Google Latitude.

Latitude is currently available in 27 countries, and Google hopes to expand. The program is free but there may be carrier charges. Phones that are enabled to use this program include: T-mobile Android, Blackberry, iPhone, Motorola, Nokia, Nokia S60, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, and Windows Mobile.

     A toast to friendship and find something old in something new.

     Earlier this week I went out on a limb. I had heard about My Space and Facebook but I didn't know much else. I decided that while the the snow was blowing and the kids were down for a nap I would wander through one of these sites. I chose Facebook just because it was the first one alphabetically.

      I found that registering was easy however I realized that I had already revealed more info then I would ordinarily prefer. No woman wants everyone to know her age and birthdate. I had put it out in cyber world that I was OLD.  This however was easily corrected.  I had dodged a bullet.

     Next came the question of how  and where do I go. How do I communicate with others? Can I really find anyone that I know? Amazingly enough it's easy. I put that I graduated from York Central and SUNY Fredonia.  To my amazement I found friends that I had long given up hope of ever hearing from again. With a few key strokes and an invitation, they were back in my life.

     Catching up after over 2 decades was easier then I thought.  We shared similar stories. There were moves, divorces, kids, and more kids, illnesses and loses. Some stories were suprising while others seemed to fit  just fine.

     The memories started to flood back of moments shared. How in my senior year a tight group of us did everything together. Instead of  individual crazy pictures for the yearbook, we chose to take ours together. We were in silly outfits because of spirit week. We hung upside down on the jungle gym. I remember almost passing out from having to hang there for minutes at a time. It is immortalized in the yearbook.

     As we share the stories of our lives, it is almost as if we have never been apart. Some people went on to do exactly what they had said they would. Others had wandered down different paths. Economics and hardship had also played a roll.

     I listened to one friend that said he left his chosen career on the day that an accident had almost killed him. He was one of the lucky ones that survived a roof collapse in a print shop. It killed three of his co-workers. He never went back.

     People asked how I had switched from Political Science to becoming a Paramedic. I told them my story. How on a dark night  just before Halloween, I was in a car accident. That moment was life altering for me. If it were not for the First Aid training a friend of mine had just finished I wouldn't  be here. He saved my life. When I asked him one day how I could ever repay him, he said "Lori Ann - Just take a First Aid class. Some day someone will need it."   I hope that I could make him proud.

     I have lost classmates too. In fact, we lost one the day I joined facebook. We as a "family" found out together. We were there to comfort each other, to send condolences to those Chris had loved.

     These past friends of mine were near and far. Some  were as close as the next town over. We wondered how our paths had never crossed. Then I found  that one of my dearest  friends from college was in Bahgdad. I didn't realize that he had returned to the military. September 11 had had a powerful impact on him. He felt compelled to re-inlist in to the Army. Now here we were, talking by IM (instant messaging) as if we sat across the table from each other. We laughed at things we had done in college. We remembered things that we probably shouldn't have done too. It was decided that some things should just stay in the closet. As they say, "No harm - no Foul."

     Facebook had done something that I could not. It had opened doors that long ago had been closed. So as I said in the first sentence. Something old came out of something new. Old friends are now in my life again. We are writing, talking, having fun and laughing.

     See - trying something new isn't so bad.  Hey, If you are bored try looking up an old friend. You might be pleasantly surprised.  I was.

Old Handyside Factory- Wyoming, NY)

JOE: Good morning Calliope.
CALLIOPE: Good morning Joe. What news?
JOE: Progress on the marketing videos. I found the activation key for my editing software and got that working.
CALLIOPE: And then?
JOE: I recorded a video clip with my Kodak still camera and was able to edit it with Movavi Movie Suite and Windows Movie Maker.
CALLIOPE: Are you satisfied with the results?
JOE: Not yet. I plan to work on takes until I am satisfied with the results. Then I will move on to posting them on MySpace and YouTube.
CALLIOPE: Sounds like good progress.
JOE: So far so good.
CALLIOPE: Keep at it. I hope you're patient.
JOE: I usually am but sometimes I get frustrated.
CALLIOPE: Any other progress yesterday?
JOE: I started looking on the Internet for teen writings to use in Commonsense Wisdom for Teens.
CALLIOPE: How's that coming?
JOE: I'm just getting started but at least I'm on the move. One step at a time. Talk with you tomorrow.