No more blog

That’s the future I saw when, with a sick, sinking feeling in my stomach, I realized that I had just deleted ALL of andrewandlisa.org. Four years worth of thoughts, news, and photos were gone without a trace. I searched in vain for a way to recover what I’d deleted, but I found no viable options. The sick feeling didn’t abate.

Luckily, I found a month-old backup that I was able to restore. Then, with a bit of help from my friend (Google Reader), I was able to painstakingly reconstruct the last month’s worth of blog activity. So pardon the blog for acting a little weird in some spots. There are rough patches that won’t be going away.

Is there a lesson in all of this? Oh, yeah, there is! We all need to be thinking about backing up the data that matters to us. Imagine if that loss wasn’t just a blog that contained your second child’s birth announcement, but was instead your financial records or all your family photos. Do you feel that sick feeling? I know I get nauseous again just thinking about it.  If you haven’t backed up your important data, YOU SHOULD NOT SLEEP UNTIL YOU DO.

I recommend backing up your data to an external hard drive.  They are getting cheaper every day, and they are very easy to use.  If you don’t know how to start backing up your important information, please call me and I’ll help you get set up.  This is too important to skip.

Be safe out there,

Andrew

Liam’s sickness and the power of social networking

Two interesting parts of my life coincided this week: illness and online social networking.

I’m notorious for trying out new internet-based services and web sites. Jott.com takes voice notes from my phone and either schedules appointments with my Google calendar or adds them to my to-do list at rememberthemilk.com. Recently, I linked my account at twitter.com with my profile on the social networking site facebook.com. When I tweet (update my current activities on Twitter in 140 characters or less), a widget on my blog updates, my account at pownce.com updates, and my facebook status updates, as well.

I used to wonder if all this interconnected geekiness held any utility. After all, most of my posts are pretty mundane, to wit:

Today I stopped wondering about the utility because of this post:

Since posting that tweet, I’ve been contacted by three different people to ask how Liam is doing. A family member wrote an e-mail because she saw the news on the blog. A friend sent a text message because he caught the news on twitter. And another friend stopped by our house because she saw my status on Facebook.

This online social network that is usually just a toy now means something; it’s extended the awareness of my friends and allowed me to share the smaller news in my life with people I care about but don’t usually get to see face-to-face. These aren’t some random online friends from a chat room somewhere; they are my real-life friends and family with whom I connect via the increasingly digital fabric of our everyday lives. I may not sit down to coffee with them every day, but we share over HTML tables instead of cafe tables and via Javascript instead of the black caffeinated stuff.

So I challenge you, Shinnfans, to live the digital life with intentionality. Take advantage of ever-easier online social tools and use the opportunity to be transparent and share from your life-stream. Whether you need to e-mail someone an encouraging note or you link with me at twitter.com and sharing your small daily news, be real, caring and Christ-like about it.

And as for Liam, I wish I could report better news. He’s a pretty sick little boy right now, and it’s hard on all of us. But I guarantee that when I have better news to report, you’ll see it in one of my data feeds!

Photoshop for free – online!

Okay, this is a little geeky for andrewandlisa.org, but I had to put it out there. Many of you know that I love Photoshop, and I know that many of you don’t.  There are two reasons people don’t use Photoshop:

  1. It’s hard.
  2. It’s expensive.   Most people don’t want to shell out 600 Big Ones just to try software that’s probably too complicated, anyway.

Well, with Adobe’s new announcement of Photoshop Express, a whole new world of free, super-easy photo editing and sharing is available for the masses. And that includes you. There’s nothing at stake, you should try it. You should try it now. Just click here!

Reedley Downtown Association

If you look closely, you may see a familiar hand at work in the creation of this new web site: www.reedleydowntown.com.  I put it up last night.  Let me know what you think!  Anything else that may belong on a downtown association web site that isn’t there?

Tired,

Andrew

My identity was almost stolen – again

Two phone calls today.  I answered the second one.  302 area code.  It was an automated system claiming to be the Bank of America fraud protection department.  The automated system wanted me to verify my social security number and address.  My eyebrow raised, I got the tinfoil hat out of my wallet, and I prepared to put it on.  “Not quite yet,” I told myself.  I hung up the phone.

I got my laptop out and checked my e-mail.  Two e-mails, both claiming to be from Bank of America’s fraud protection folks.  The URLs check out; not a phony URL, but a Bank of America subdomain.  Hm, wierd, I thought.   They want to verify some transactions for an account number that doesn’t look familiar to me.  There’s a phone number in the e-mail.  I called.  Big phone system, kept me on hold for like 9 minutes.  Kept reminding me that my call is important to them.  It felt like I was talking to a bank.

Nice-sounding guy answered the phone.  He asked me to verify some information.  I gave him some.  Billing address; no big deal.  I told him I was calling about an account number that didn’t look familiar to me.  He said Bank of America is merging with MBNA and I’ll be getting a new credit card number.  This was it.  I hit the Google while we talked and verified that Bank of America is, in fact, merging with MBNA.  Ok, this seemed legit.  I told him I wanted him to verify for me that he’s actually Bank of America.  He told me I could call the number on the back of my card if I was nervous.  That allayed my suspicions.  He asked for some more information.  I gave it.  Then he asked for the names of some of my closest relatives.  Alarm bells went off.  I dove for figurative cover, got my tinfoil hat out and put it on, and nervously said, “I, uh, don’t think I’ve ever given Bank of America that information.  It shouldn’t be in my account record.”  He said that Bank of America is a big organization with the capability of finding out such information.  I hung up.

When I talked with the real Bank of America people (I actually called the number on the back of the card), they said the whole thing sounded fishy.  I verified my last few transactions, with information flowing both ways.  We determined together that I hadn’t given out enough information for anyone to access my accounts, so they’re not in any direct danger.  But I was, and still am, scared.

These people are good.  They got my personal cell phone and e-mail address, crafted some very convincing-looking e-mails, web sites, and phone calls,  treated me professionally like a bank would, knew the latest in banking business news, and reminded me at all turns to keep my personal information safe.  They even had a phone tree, for goodness sakes, that contantly reminded me that my call is important to them.  If these people are setting up a fake banking operation, they’re doing a darn good job of it.

I thought I was the last person to fall victim to a scam like this.  But the scams are getting better.  Please be careful, friends.  If you have any questions, initiate contact with your bank by making a phone call to a trusted number or by going DIRECTLY to the bank’s web site.  That means not clicking on a link in an e-mail and not calling a number you’ve never seen before.

And don’t forget your tinfoil hats!

Are celebrities above the law?

I guess not.  The following link is evidence: www.thesmokinggun.com/mugshots (new window).  Why do we revere these people?  Notice the notoriety of the names on the list.  Everyone from Paris Hilton to Tom DeLay is here.  Please, never let me be famous!

Meta note: This reminds me of the good old days when you used to come to andrewandlisa.org for weird links to web sites you never would have found on your own.  Now you come for compelling content and cute baby pictures.  Remember the good old days?