Enough already

OK, so I'm a boring old... person. But I'm getting a mite tired of seeing "I got... [insert Muppet character, place to live, musicals]" on my timeline.

I laughed at the first few. Joined in with one or two. Giggled at a few friends' results (my husband getting Oklahoma - which he hates - as his musical was worth a smile).

But this morning, I lost patience. Of the first ten postings on my timeline, FIVE were the results of one or other of these quizzes. Yup, half my news for the day. And they all came from a site called Buzzfeed.

It's not a virus ("going viral" being, of course, something totally different). Yes, it's making great use of other people's material, and yes, what it posts is often pretty trite, but that's not a crime. It is a highly successful corporate initiative, making, it would appear, serious amounts of money for the folks behind it (as does Facebook), and good on them for that. It's no more (or less) offensive in the 'information' it provides than a lightweight magazine or freebie newspaper. This article gives a bit more detail.

However, my main problem is that it's drowning my timeline.

I like Facebook. But I like it for knowing what my friends (and yes, they are real friends) are genuinely doing and thinking. I like it to keep me informed about local events and about what old colleagues are doing now and about triumphs and challenges. I like it for learning and inspiring and understanding and introducing. And I'd prefer my newsfeed not to be flooded with results of quizzes that are, broadly speaking, entirely pointless. I'd sooner know about your new family member, whether feline, canine or human, than which animal your personality type (might) identify you with.

So: I've hidden the Buzzfeed postings. You can do this very easily with any application (or person): click on the down arrow top right of any posting, and you'll get a set of options. They vary depending on whether it's posted by a page, an application or a person, but the gist is the same: you can block. In this particular case, I was able to choose "Hide all posts from Buzzfeed".

NB: If I ever feel that I'm seriously missing out on vital 'buzz' and want to welcome the posts back, it's easy. Hover over the pencil icon next to the Newsfeed link on the left of the page, choose Edit, and find the item you've 'banned', and click on the x to remove it from the list.

Finally: you can do this with any page, person or app. Let's say that you happen to be one of my friends on Facebook and you get tired of seeing what I post ("not another 'photo of the day', please..."), but you don't want to actually unfriend me: the same procedures apply. Just hide my posts from your timeline, but you can always drop by my profile if you are curious about whether I'm still being annoying at a later date.

Oh, and if you're interested: my musical was A Chorus Line. You know, the one with a bolshy character called Cassie who muscles in where she's not wanted? That one.

Skype voicemail scam

Boring, boring, boring. No, not Skype. Skype is good, and useful, and free, and fabulous when you want to talk to your sister in Spain for an hour without worrying about the cost. What's boring is the latest scam going around.

Have you received an email recently telling you that you've got a Skype voicemail - and to 'open the attached file' to listen to it?

This is an automated email, please don’t reply.

Voice Message Notification

You received a new message from Skype voicemail service.

Message Details: Time of Call: Wed, 27 Nov 2013 16:59:10 +0200

Length of Call: 37sec

Listen to the message in the attached file.

Take a closer look. The email address it's coming from, for a start. Mine was sent by izgsikige@business.telecomitalia.it. Looks like an authentic Skype Customer services address, doesn't it? Not.

Don't even go there. Firstly, it's a zip file (clue: anything can be hidden in a zip file, which includes malware, so always view these with extreme caution to start with).

Secondly, Skype voicemail messages are only ever delivered through Skype itself; if you get a notification that you've a voicemail, it will be in the form of an alert to log on to your Skype account and listen to it there. If you want to check, do just that: log on to your Skype account in the usual way. If there's a legit voicemail for you, it will be waiting for you there. But there won't be: Skype wouldn't be sending it as an attachment.

Actually, almost any message that tells you to 'open the attached file' for further information has the potential to be dodgy. The bank? Ebay? PayPal? Facebook? All these will direct you to log on to your own private account, and any genuine requests or messages will be found there.

Oh, and what's that you say? You don't even have a voicemail facility set up on your Skype account? Well, there's a surprise.

Delete, delete, delete.

And tell your friends to do the same.

Fake 'burglary' accusation

I was rather startled this morning to receive the following email in my capacity as President of apdo-uk - the Association that supports, promotes and develops our industry of professional organising and decluttering.

Name: Kathie
Email address: kathiekearns@gmail.com
Organisation: Kathie

Hello, I am writing in an unusual case ... Some time ago, I used your services, and one of your employees face was familiar to me. At dinner with my wife, it turned out that he was a burglar, who 5 years ago broke into our home!!! This is ridiculous!!! How you can hire criminals? I found at least 3 bad entries for him at website for background check!! I am sure there are more!!! Please do something about it, things like that are ridiculous!!!

I didn't have serious concerns about it, for several reasons. Firstly, apdo-uk is not an employer at all, but an Association, and we have clear disclaimers all over our site: it's the clients' responsibility to check the appropriateness and credentials of any of our members they wish to work with. Secondly, the email refers to a man, and out of 105 current members just five of them are men. They picked an organisation with entirely the wrong demographic for this message.

And then, of course, there's the overall style of the email. Poor grammar, excessive exclamation marks... the hallmark of a spammer.

I replied briefly in any case, pointing out the above, and also that I'd need explicit details before investigating any of our members further. However, a quick trawl on Google afterwards proved my suspicions. The (probably fictitious) Kathie Kearns has sent many such emails, especially to folks in the hospitality industry, as I found on this online noticeboard. [This particular gmail address appears also on several lists of noted spammers.]

The question was: why? The email I received contained no links nor attachments. If it was spam in the real sense, one of those would surely have been present. However, looking at the reports on the above forum from other folks that have been spammed, this idiot proves to be exceptionally bad at their job: in my email, they've missed out the link (to a site called Everifies, ostensibly providing online checks on businesses). I don't suggest clicking on it - although according to the forum, the website has now been taken down in any case.

I'm posting this to flag up the situation in the hope that my article will also appear in Google searches for key phrases or for this email address, if anybody else, like me, is suspicious. However, as one poster on the forum put it, "with 40 branches around the country it had me going for a minute". It would be very easy for a member of a large corporation to take the accusation seriously, and to follow a link to a site that may well have had malware.

Honestly. Even the quality of spammers is deteriorating!

Private by default?

I know that there's a lot of banging on about privacy, or the lack thereof, on Facebook. However, there's one small thing that may have slipped your notice.

Your original 'default setting' was probably to publish your posts to 'friends only', which is sensible. (You'll find the 'default setting' under the 'cog' icon, along to the right of your name on the upper toolbar, under Privacy & Settings.) However: do you realise that if you change the privacy of an individual post, you then change that setting for the next time you use it?

Let's say that you've been happily publishing updates to 'friends', and then along comes one that you want to share to a wider audience - perhaps you want to advertise an event you're involved in and don't mind who sees it. More likely, you've 'shared' a public post - one of those 'thoughts for the day', charity appeals or attractive or funny images - which comes as 'public' to start with. When you share it, you keep that public status - and change your own default status to public, too.

It's very easy to tell what the status is that you're using. Look at your last post, and look at the icon at the right-hand end of the post. Here are a couple of mine.

I've got a cold right now (a particularly nasty one). Hence my silly post. It's shared with friends: that's the little two-person icon on the right, after the date and location of the posting. (Not that there's anything very security-sensitive about the fact that I'm feeling like death warmed up at the moment, but it's only really meant as a flippant remark for those on my friends list.)

This one's a bit different. It's a sharing of a video that I found funny. I have no problem at all with the post being seen by friends, friends-of-friends, or total strangers. So the privacy setting after the date is the little globe: public.

The point here is that after I'd shared, to a public audience, the silly Cockatiel video, my default setting for posts became public. So when I published my next update I needed to remember to change it back to Friends. Like this.

Why on earth you'd want to publish a post as 'only me' - in other words, nobody else could see it - I really can't imagine. However, the other settings all have their uses. 'Custom' gives you the choice to include or exclude specific people, and Public and Friends are what they say.

Have a check back on your Timeline and see what is posted as Public and what is shared with Friends. You can also view your Timeline as a non-friend would see it. Go back to the Privacy settings mentioned earlier, choose Timeline and Tagging Settings, and click on View As under 'Who can see things on my timeline?' It will display as a non-friend would see it. This gives you the chance to change anything that's not as it should be.

Going forward, it's easy enough to control as long as you keep your wits about you: every time you post, look for the little icon and make sure it says what you want it to say.

Special offer: Back to school

Nearly the end of August, my goodness. At least this year we've had something approximating a real summer! I hope you've enjoyed it as much as I have.

Now we're all in that final week or so of 'back to school' mode. If you have children returning to school or college, you might be relishing the thought of regaining a bit of time and space for you! If it's back to your 'normal' (whatever 'normal' might be) routine after time away - or simply time out - you might (as I did) have had a bit of time to think about any changes you'd like to make to that life. There's nothing like a pause, or a different environment, to give you a change of perspective.

Are you wondering whether you could get your life into better working order? Looking at clutter that has accumulated and unable to know where to start, or where to dispose of it? Thinking (don't shoot me) about the fact that the Next Big Thing is Christmas, and all the organisation that goes with that?

You might be wary of spending a whole day on this project. It might be hard to find enough time - or enough money. However, you'd be amazed at how much can be achieved in a short space of time. (For a few ideas, have a look at this post from last year.)

As a 'back-to-school' incentive, I'm rerunning a successful promotion from this time last year: a two hour session at a special price, allowing you the opportunity to either target one specific matter and get some ideas and motivation, or to use it as an introduction to the huge difference that can be made to your life by a slightly longer-term approach.

Two hours of consultancy time is usually charged at £80. From now until the end of September 2013, I'm offering this at a very special £50. (See 'Practicalities' below.)

What could I help you with in two hours?

• We could go through your house or office and find opportunities to improve storage, shelving, furniture placing, sourcing appropriate items online where necessary and creating your shopping list if needed.
• We could actually declutter that cupboard, that set of drawers, that wardrobe you can't face - yes, it really could be possible in that time.
• We could spend time at your computer, finding easy ways to achieve regular tasks, or helping you find faster, more elegant ways to do things.
• We could look at ways in which you might streamline your diary and contacts.
• We could work together on your use of social media, showing you how to control Twitter and Facebook, rather than letting it control you.

These are just a few ideas. What do you think? Go on, give it a try... contact me today, and let me know how I can help you.

A few practicalities:

• This offer is open to work booked by 30th September, and performed by 31st October, 2013.
• Travel expenses will be charged at 45p per mile.
• For a two-hour session, it's not really practical for me to travel further than around 15 miles in each direction! So this offer is limited to those roughly within that area (have a look here for my location in the heart of Norfolk).
• Usual terms & conditions and payment conditions apply.
• This offer cannot be combined with any other special offers (e.g. the Taster session).

Selling things

Putting my money where my mouth is...

From time to time, I have a major blitz in my own home. Books, music and clothes are our main clutter culprits (yes, even when it's my profession these things happen). A lot of the stuff goes to local charity shops; but there are a few places where I can make a bob or two by selling things reasonably easily.

If you'd like to see what I have available, please follow the following links to my accounts and listing pages:

Green Metropolis: books sold at a fixed rate of £3.75

Amazon.co.uk: mostly books

Ebay: anything and everything

- and, of course, if you want to try out these selling avenues yourself and want some help, just let me know!

PS: and when I want to get rid of something really obscure, or large, or heavy, and just want it to go to a good home, there's always Norfolk Freegle.

Facebook scams & hoaxes: fight back

It's no news to any of my friends that I turn into a Rotweiller when faced with yet another pointless / manipulative / malicious / downright brainless posting on here. I love Facebook for the social, sharing, inspiring and amusing possibilities it affords, but I suppose it's human nature that there will always be morons who want to spoil it for others.

Some will be seriously harmful (taking you to websites with malicious code). Some will compromise security. Some will be 'likewhores' (gathering as many likes and followers as possible purely in order to sell the pages on at inflated prices). Some will be tasteless and distressing. Whichever category they come into, these are the clutter of social media (the more of the ugly and useless you can discard, the easier it is to find the useful and the beautiful).

So here's a very quick set of tips:

• When you see something SHOCKING and using LOTS OF CAPITAL LETTERS and EXCLAMATION MARKS! - be suspicious.
• When you see something that urges you to 'share this with all your friends now' - be suspicious.
• When you are asked to do something that seems entirely pointless ("Name a drink without an E in it! I bet you can't!") - be suspicious.
• When something (e.g. a free iPad or Macbook Air, a high-value voucher, a hugely expensive airline ticket) sounds too good to be true... well, you know the rest of that one.

Not sure?

• Google a key phrase from the posting.
• Search Facebook for the real page for the business purporting to give away some high-value prize. It will be there, trust me.
• Check out one of the pages listed below.
• Ask me.
• Above all: please, please don't repost it 'just in case'.

Now: Follow the guys who know. Ensure that these pages' posts turn up in your Timeline and you'll quickly become aware of what's real and what's best avoided.

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Hoax-Slayer/69502133435

https://www.facebook.com/Facecrooks

https://www.facebook.com/thatsnonsense

https://www.facebook.com/SophosSecurity

https://www.facebook.com/snopes

Just do it. Click through to these, 'like' them, keep an eye out for what they say. It's not hard, it can save us all a lot of irritation and hassle, and it keeps our social media lives the way they should be: fun, informative and generous.

Oh, and if you need to ask a specific question and you want a friendly geek, you know where I am:

https://www.facebook.com/workingorder