Most Likely to Take Over the World

In 1999, a young girl was voted by her classmates “Most Likely to Brainwash America and Take Over the World” for her senior yearbook Who’s Who. Eleven years later, she’s working on the world domination part via the medium of social media.

Her degree in psychology from Rutgers University may come in handy later when she begins work on the brainwashing. (continue reading…)

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At 7:00 PM tonight, October 5, 2010, I’ll be one of two presenters (the other being the Queen of Digg and all things bacon, Amy Vernon) speaking about Foursquare at the Princeton Public Library as part of their Tuesday Technology Talks series.

Even if you already know the basics, which I’ll be covering, stop in tonight to hear the second half of my presentation, in which I put the smackdown on the Agony Aunts and Helen Lovejoys of the world who are afraid that you will ruin your life if you use social media.

Hope to see you there!

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Pizza Hut: Free breadsticks for the Foursquare Mayor when you purchase a large pizza!

Domino’s Pizza: Free pizza once a week; free side dish for anyone who checks in and spends more than 10 GPB (UK only)

Radio Shack: Mayor receives 20% off; 10% off for the pleebs when you check in.

Whole Foods: For every 5th check in, receive a free small scoop of housemade gelato.

Aerie by American Eagle: 15% off entire purchase when you check-in at one of their stores.

Know of another Foursquare Deal? Let me know in the comments below!

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On July 27, 2010 I addressed the Social Media Club of North Jersey on the Individual and Business user experience within Foursquare. There’s a recap of the event (along with a photo that has shamed me into rejoining Weight Watchers) available at the Axiom Media Service blog.

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Dreamhost, our webhost, completed a database upgrade a few months ago, which means that I cannot upload files using WordPress among other WordPress oddities due to the database change. So, I’m going to attempt to install WordPress and hope that these entries remain intact afterwards. If not, there is (of course!) a backup, but the site may be down for sometime while I restore from the backup.

Thanks for reading!

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The last time I counted, there were 198 Foursquare badges available for the avid collectors such as myself. Imagine my surprise and glee when I fired up my laptop this morning and found out that now there’s 199!

Meet the “Mile High Badge”!

To earn the “Mile High Badge” (pictured above), you’ve got to be on Gogo in-flight internet on onboard a Gogo-equipped airplane. Check into Foursquare from the plane and you’re golden!
– Jaunted.com

After checking out the new badge and lamenting that my membership in the other Mile High Club doesn’t count, I decided to check out some of my favorite sites for looking up Foursquare badge information. After going through about twenty or so, three rose to the top as the creme de la creme of Foursquare badge information, perfect for anyone such as myself who will spend a day in a city on a Foursquare scavenger hunt, desperately trying to collect as many badges in one day as possible.

1. http://tonyfelice.wordpress.com/foursquare/: As of 1:00 PM EST, this was the only site I regularly check to have the Mile High Badge listed. Tony keeps this lists as up-to-date as humanly possible, but if you want to get specific instructions for how to get your hands on a badge, you’ll have to go somewhere else.
2. http://www.4squarebadges.com/foursquare-badge-list/ That “somewhere else” by the way is 4SquareBadges.com, a complete Foursquare devotee site with detailed information confirmed by users on what to do to get your hands on the precious, precious badges we all so desire. This is probably my first stop when looking up badge info, but as of 1:15 PM EST, they still didn’t have Mile High Club listed.
3. http://thekruser.com/foursquare-badges/ TheKruser.com’s list of Foursquare badges isn’t as comprehensive as the first two sites, and the WordPress Theme they use along with the style of the post can be a little grating at times, but I love the organizational structure of the site — badges are organized by general and the specific location you must be in (or event you must attend) to get a badge. I’d definitely check in here if 4SquareBadges.com left you questioning where you need to be to get a badge.

Know of another great Foursquare badge information page? Tweet it to me: @girlpluscamera hashtag #4sqbadges

More:

• Foursquare and Gogo Form Their Own Mile High Club Mashable.com
• Foursquare’s In The Air WithNew Mile High Badge for In Flight WiFi Jaunted.com

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What does Facebook know about you, and what is it telling the rest of the world?

Recently, much ado has been made about Facebook’s privacy settings, and that’s not just from the Libertarians and the tin-foil-hat people. In fact, according to a recent post on Mashable, the privacy setting fiascos have left Facebook with one of the worst customer satisfaction ratings in its category, one point ahead of MySpace (who took the honor of being worst, for obvious reasons.)

The 2010 American Customer Survey Index conducted by ForeSee Results gave Facebook 64 out of 100 points in a customer satisfaction survey; that’s lower than any other business in its category. However, it’s not at the bottom of the social media heap; MySpace received one point less.

ForeSee Results CEO Larry Freed says that “privacy concerns, frequent changes to the website, and commercialization and advertising” are responsible for the low rating.

–Samuel Axon, “Facebook Among Web’s Worst in Customer Satisfaction”, Mashable, mashable.com

However, while Facebook continue to constantly change their website for no discernable reason — even recently playing with the idea of removing my favorite feature the “Most Recent” news feed — you can combat the private information purge of Facebook by using 4 pages, all located under the Account Tab to the far, top-right of your Facebook page.

1. Edit Friends: This may seem like a strange place to start when talking about privacy online, but your privacy is only as strong as its weakest link, and for many people, that’s your friends list. Sure, some people take pride in maxing out the number of “friends” on Facebook, but those people tend to not be too concerned with hiding embarrassing or important information from employers, hiring managers, or litigious ex-spouses.On the menu on the far-left side, click “All connections”. Now, go through those connections, including the companies you friended instead of fanned, and ask yourself “Do I trust this person enough not to share or leak my information?” If the answer is “No” or worse still “I don’t know,” it’s time to ax them.

   If you want to keep those friends of a friend, you can get a little more sophisticated and create individual Lists for trusted associates, and in later settings only allow certain lists to see certain things. Click on the “Add to List” drop box next to a name, scroll down until you either find the appropriate list or type in the name of the list in the empty box at the bottom. I have my friends divided up into lists such as “High School” “Past Employers” “Clients” “England Friends” etc. but yours can be as simple as “Trusted” and “Not Trusted”

2. Account Settings: There are a lot of important settings that you should check out under the Account Settings section of your Account Tab, but we’ll just go through the basics here. In Account Settings there are seven tabs to become familiar with:Settings: Want to deactivate your account, change your password or your name? This is where you do it.Networks: This lists the networks you’ve joined based on your alumni status, work history, and location. Don’t want the entire Penn State alumni community knowing about the killer keg stand you did over the weekend — when you were supposed to be networking for your company? Keep your networks in mind when posting.Notifications: Want to know when someone on Facebook sneezes? Well, there isn’t an app for that yet, but this is where you can set your account up to receive emails and text messages based on other events including status updates, birthdays, being tagged in a photograph, and more. I, personally, am notified of almost anything involving my name on Facebook–it makes it easier to untag myself in compromising photographs that way.

   Mobile: Want to be able to post to Facebook by phone? Add your phone number under the mobile tab and you can “receive friend requests, messages, wall posts, and status updates on your phone, or upload photos and videos on the go.” I have no idea why you’d want to know that Liz is having a Lemon party or Bob’s having a spaghetti breakfast, but if your identity and brand is that important, you might want to keep tabs on your network through this feature.

   Language: Set your native language here.

   Payments: Farmville addicts and individuals who buy little buttons and graphics to paste on each other’s walls can use this tab to monitor their credits, payment information, etc.

   Facebook Ads This page is very important to people interested in Privacy. Not only can you set the page to disallow ads to use your information when broadcasting to friends (for example: Wegman’s, a company I’ve friended might want to put “Elizabeth Likes This!” under its ad when targeting my friends. I can turn off their ability to do that here.) This is also where you stop ads from using your profile photo.

3. Privacy Settings: Quite possible the most important and misunderstood setting in the accounts tab is the Privacy Setting. If you’re serious about Facebook privacy, this is where a good chunk of time should be spent!

   Basic Directory Information: Click on the link to “View settings” to determine who can search for you, send you messages or friend requests, and see your education, work, interests, and activities information.

   Sharing on Facebook is where we put some of the prior information like custom lists to work to keep privacy high. Select “Custom” from the types of settings in the Left-side column, then click on “Customize settings” like to get down an dirty with your privacy. Now, you can select from a drop down list who gets to see the things you share, the things others share about you, and your contact information. The settings range from the exhibitionist “Everyone” to the super-private “Customize” setting. Selecting “Customize” will bring up a pop-up of fine-tuned selections–it’s here where you can select to share certain information with friends only, specific networks, or even “Only Me”. There’s even an option to hide information from specific people.

   Block Lists At the bottom of the page, there are links for Applications (which we’ll go into more in-depth on the next settings page) and Block Lists. If there are people that you want to completely block your profile from (in my case, embarrassing relatives), this is where you want to go once you know their name on Facebook. Pop in their Facebook name here, and not only will you never show up on a search in Facebook while they’re logged into their account, but they won’t be able to see your posts on mutual friends walls, you won’t appear as tagged in any photo they view, and you won’t even show up on the lists of mutual friends! I cannot recommend using this feature enough, especially when you’re concerned about your employer finding out about the things you get up to after hours!

4. Application Settings: You know all of those fun games, quizzes, and websites you’ve visited or used via Facebook or Facebook Connect? Well, they’re leaking a lot more information than you realize. Take the ACLU’s “What Do Quizzes Really Know About You” to see how much information leaked out when you found out how many Disney characters you can name.

   Worried about those apps and quizzes now? Well, this is where you control them!

   First, from the drop down box marked “Show:” select “Authorized” to see all of the applications you’ve authorized to see your data. 90% of the time, you’ll be shocked to realize who is seeing your information and how much access they have!Next to each application, there are important links for you to get familiar with.

   Click on “Edit Settings” to see what information that application can access, click on “Profile” to see the application’s profile on Facebook, and finally click on “X” to get that “Which Team Am I?” quiz to stop viewing your information.

This is only a basic guide to privacy within Facebook, but it should be enough to help you staunch the bleeding of your personal information to the world at large.

This post is part of Problogger’s 31 Day Challenge series. Take the challenge!

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1. First Post: I Write To Know I’m Alive — back when I first started posting here, I used this as a writing journal, and this was my first post in what was, for a few brief months, another online journal of mine.
2. The Post I Enjoyed Writing The Most: The Internet Doesn’t Hurt Kids; Bad Parenting Hurts Kids – This is such a sensitive topic for me, not because I’m a parent (I’m not) but because I was a child who grew up (from age 13 in 1993 using BBSs to interact with adults and students alike at the library) with the Internet. I’m so tired of the Internet being vilified, whether it’s another sensational “My child had [insert dramatic incident here] because of someone they met / something they saw online” or the ubiquitous “Social Media Can Get You Fired” posts that every newspaper, blogger, and freelance writer feels compelled to write without saying anything that most 14-year-olds already know but apparently adults don’t.
3. A post which had a great discussion: — Hear crickets chirping? That’s because my readers (and I use Google analytics, so I know you’re out there!) don’t tend to comment on the site. Overall, though, I got the most Twitter feedback and relinking from the above-mentioned The Internet Doesn’t Hurt Kids; Bad Parenting Hurts Kids.
4. A Post On Someone Else’s Blog You Wish You Had Written: You mean other than everything Laurie has ever written, especially back in her “Zen and the Art…” days? I lament that she gave up online journaling. She was brilliant
5. Your Most Helpful Post: – How do I know what has helped the most people? If I have to guess, I’d say Jimmy Choo Joins the Cult of Foursquare insomuch as I know a lot of my Twitter followers ended up retweeting and following CatchaChoo, so I can only hope one of them won a pair of ridiculously expensive sneakers.
6. A Post With A Title of which I Am Proud: “Foursquare Reaches 1 Million Members, Is Joined By the WSJ, and Thus Harkens the Apocalypse” which was later shortened due to the fact that such a long title is bad for Retweets.
7. A Post You Wish More People Had Read: – Besides The Internet Doesn’t Hurt Kids; Bad Parenting Hurts Kids, which I think everyone should read before they bitch about the internet on the Internet, there’s also the Internet For Beginners primer “No Expectation of Privacy on the Internet” that I’d love to see become required reading for everyone before you join your first social network.

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On July 27th, from 8-10AM, I will be at the Foursquare 4 Breakfast event, talking about one of my favorite subjects ever: Foursquare! I hope to see you there.

Foursquare 4 Breakfast: Geomarketing in North Jersey Tickets at Houlihan’s, Secaucus – NY Daily News.

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Monday, June 7 at 10am PST, all Apple nerds, geeks, and fangirls (myself included) will collectively hold their breath as Steve Jobs takes to the state in San Fransisco to deliver the keynote address at this year’s World Wide Developer’s Conference (WWDC). Now, with a past year of ups and downs, concerns and doubts plaguing everyone’s favorite fan of Rory Cochrane’s wardrobe in Empire Records, this in itself is a Big, Fucking Deal. But, the rumor mill is making things especially interesting.

For years now, almost since the birth of the iPhone, there have been rumors that an iPhone on Verizon was on the horizon, that the exclusivity with AT&T was merely momentary. Every year, we –the Mac Addicts with a love of Apple products and a hatred for AT&T, especially after the NSA wire tapping scandal– have waited with baited breath for an announcement, and every year, the announcement of an iPhone for Verizon — or any other non-Evil Empire carrier — has eluded us.

But for some reason, people began early with rumors of this year being The Year!

And then there was a lawsuit in California against Apple, revealing an exclusivity contract between Apple & AT&T, signed in 2007, that would run for five years, making the iPhone only available to we the faithful few in 2012.

Perhaps it is this event, I began to believe, that the Mayans were predicting with that calendar of theirs.

But the rumors were persistent. I’d point out the exclusivity contract. I’d point out that Verizon is developing a new network (set to go live in 2012, by the way) that will match the European standards of it’s parent company, Vodaphone. I’d point out that creating a phone that will only work on a network for two years before you’d need to develop another one made little sense, especially since the first version of anything is a bit buggy, therefore leaving Apple fixing the kinks in the first Verizon version only to launch a new one with new, fun bugs.

But the rumors kept coming, fueled last week by an announcement that AT&T would be raising the price of their Early Termination Fee from $175 to $325. I tried to downplay this rumor by suggesting that this gave more proof for a 2012 date than a 2010 date. New customers would be effected, and if they announce a new iPhone for new networks now, no one will be signing up with AT&T for the new phone with the new contract. The new contract, if anything, could be strategically put into effect to run out a month or two before the 2012 release date of the Verizon phone, thus forcing early adopters to pony up more dough to leave AT&T’s clutches.

But then….

Today, MacLife announced they’ve heard a rumor from a reputable source who works for Sprint that both Sprint and Verizon will get the iPhone this summer. This rumor comes straight on the heels of word spreading that Steve Jobs (or an assistant using his iPhone) has been emailing everyone asking him about WWDC since the Friday announcement, telling them that “You won’t be disappointed.” when asked about any big announcements at the WWDC.

Sounds like a man drumming up a lot of anticipation for something fabulous, and this is not a man known to underwhelm.

Right now, I’m booking off for June 7th, 2010; I’m not sure that the announcement will be an iPhone free from AT&T; I’m not even suggesting it will be. However, for all this hype, I want to see exactly what is going on — and since I’ll be in NYC for Internet Week at the time, I’ll at least be satisfied by the crestfallen look on the faces of the Hopeful when there is no freedom for the iPhone.

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