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My thoughts and advice on personal branding and privacy

Let’s face it, we all share different amounts in our lives. Depending on the environment we are in, and the people that we are with. What you share with a close friend in the safeness of your own house will be worlds apart from what you would share whilst talking to a stranger in the park.

We have lived like this for decades. Why is it then, with the all consuming Internet, and increase  in social media that people seem to be comfortable walking around the park with mega-phones in their hands and leaflet-bombing the grass with their personal information?

Whilst many people will not care about this, you absolutely should if you care about you reputation. Then again, you might be of the opinion, “what do you care what people know about you?”

Personally, my view as a potential client, or as a potential employee is that I absolutely care! My reputation is important to me and  I want to be seen for the values that I believe in and for who I am. I know full well that when I go to a meeting with a new client that there is a high probability that they would’ve Google’d my name – wanting to know who I am. Why do I know this? Firstly because those that I have met have known more about me than I’ve presented them with, and secondly because it’s what I do myself.
Google is king
If I am meeting someone for the first time, I Google them, and if you have never Googled your own name then I suggest that you stop reading and you do it now!

The Internet, and especially social media is like a forever absorbing sponge, it just keeps soaking […]

Ok – So it looks like I am back for another year!

Yep – it’s either a good thing or a bad thing for you, but I have decided (been bullied) into doing this for another year. So after a month’s?sabbatical?I am back with a new site, and new photos.

I decided to create a separate site for this years project, as one of my biggest grumbles is that this theme doesn’t make the job very easy. So the new theme should back it easier and therefore less of a hassle to get the blog posts done every day. We shall see!

The new site is at http://david.baldaro.me.uk/365

#355 – Summer has been blown away

Well apparently the English Summer was here but has now been blown away! Only the other week I was sat outside in baking sun, this morning the wet weather had been joined by gale force winds! The back garden has been battered last night and needed some tidying up this morning!

Other than that it’s been a good day intermingled with some battering on the motorway whilst driving to and from the office!

#355 – which means that I only have another 10 (11 if we are counting the fact it’s a leap year!) photos to go in this project! The reality of this is now hitting home, and I am starting to think about what to do after this project has run it’s course. I would like to try and collect all the photos together into a printed book, but just debating if to carry it on for another year, or do something different. Ideas?

#316 – TalkTalk Arrives

Well, I have been working at home today anticipating the arrival of my TalkTalk Business Broadband switch-over from BT at any time. Expecting some issues, complications and time with broadband I was was pleasantly surprised to see my BT line drop, and by the time I had configured my router and restarted TalkTalk Business was there. A little tweaking with the SNR values, got me a lovely 20MB download and 1MB upload. Happy days. Sorry BT, but until you upgrade the exchange to Fibre this is the best that I am going to get!

#173 – Christmas Shopping has Started

The Christmas shopping started in earnest today with trips to Costco and ToysRus. Costco was also to stock up on some essentials, but presents were also being found on the shelves. What was left for the kids was then scooped up from ToysRus. Job done, time for a rest!

#85 – Sunday Evening Routine

A busy day today, late start, bowling, Sunday lunch and swimming runs topped off with the Sunday evening routine. A routine of tidying, cleaning and of collecting together all the kids stuff ready for the morning. Then just enough time to sit down briefly before heading to bed. Night night world.

 

#76 – A View into Wine-o-clock

I’m going to admit it, “It’s been a reality check coming back to work!”. There, I’ve said it. However on the flip-side it’s now 5:30 on Friday afternoon and I’ve had a glass of wine lovingly delivered to my desk. Therefore, by my clock it’s Wine-o-clock in the UK. Enjoy!

#60 – Roaming free with the Huawei MiFi E585

I think that I have managed to overcome my fear of surfing whilst abroad! Any seasoned traveler will know that using your laptop or smartphone abroad can lead to a hefty invoice from your mobile provider upon your return, especially with the current rip-off charges being applied to data roaming across the globe. It’s not a problem if you can find a WIFI hotspot somewhere, but that is not always possible and even when you do you may still be subjected to high data charges to use the service.

Enter my new gadget, the Huawei Mifi E585, a wonderful small little unit that acts as a portable modem and personal WIFI access point. The Huawei E585 can be obtained through 3 (hence the big logo on the front of mine) but it can also be purchased unlocked (this enables you to use it with any providers SIM card). The Huawei Mifi E585 unit is battery powered and will happily last for 5 hours on a charge. Configuration was pretty easy as well – just a case of inserting the SIM, switching it on, browsing to the Huawei’s internal configuration pages and setting up any further details. The Huawei Mifi E585 will allow up to 5 devices to be connected to the WIFI access point, and you can configure the security and WIFI settings as you so wish. It includes a built-in firewall, DHCP server and the option of inserting a MicroSD card for shared data storage. The unit has a nice screen that displays a selection of useful information, such as the signal strength, how many devices are connected to the WIFI, the provider and a tally of how much data has been used.

Personally, I purchased an unlocked version of […]

Take-a-Note App Review

Note taking whilst on the move should be simple and effective. Well, that’s what I want anyway – one quick and easy way to quickly jot down a note and then have it saved for review later. The developer for Take-a-Note kindly gave me a sneak peek into his new app recently, and it was a pleasant experience.

 

The whole concept of Take-a-Note is to keep the process easy, efficient and effective. There’s no abundance of screens and menus to get involved with, just open the app, press the button to record some audio or type in some text and press ‘OK’. Take-a-Note will store the note, assign it to an appointment in your calendar and even fire off a reminder at a set time to review them. Notes can be assigned as individual events, or digested together so you are only reviewing one item in your calendar.

Take-a-Note also stores the location of the note, which can be handy at times for me.

Take-a-Note costs £0.69 from iTunes
The Good
Take-a-Note is clean and efficient. I like the straight forward nature of this app. Your in and note taking within a second. This is great if you are on the move and need to capture a note quickly. The audio works great on the iPhone and recordings are clear and audible.

The ability to set the preferences to automatically start recording when the app is started is also very useful, allowing you to cut out even more clutter and tasks.

The daily digests and notifications are also very useful. Especially for me when I am out and travelling. I can record notes after phone calls and thoughts and them review them before the end of the day. You never know I might get to a point […]

Palm WebOS 1.4.1 hits UK

Palm hasn’t been doing particularly well recently, with failing shipments – which is a crying shame, and something partially to do with their marketing team I feel, especially when users are creating better adverts than they are.

However the 1.4 made some excellent updates and now 1.4.1 has arrived in the UK, which adds the support for Paid Apps to be purchased from the Palm App Catalog. Hopefully this will help fuel developers to create more apps for this excellent device.

It’s also reported that 1.4.1 also enables Mobile Hotspot for O2 customers. Mobile Hotspot can be downloaded from the Pre App Catalog and supports secure WPA/WPA2 connections for up to five devices, with a range claimed to extend out to 50 meters.