Online Career Dangers

A recent ZDNET blog (http://blogs.zdnet.com/projectfailures/?p=1703) discusses the security risks of Twitter. Apparently people are updating and inadvertently exposing confidential information. It really makes my latest mishap seem even more minor than it is. Yes, I inadvertently offended a co-worker by stating that I "survived" a meeting with him. He of course does not have access to my twitter account, but another co-worker was kind enough to share it with him. I of course apologized for the hurtful comment and explained that it was not intended to be hurtful. He is not yet over it. You would think his skin would be a bit thicker than that. The irony of this is that on Friday I am giving an interview about the importance of protecting one's Facebook and online identity as it relates to future careers. You don't want to be exposed as unprofessional and should keep everything set to private. Of course, I did set everything to private but failed to be picky in the friends I allowed to view my updates. I am now appropriately paranoid. Lesson learned. If I work with you, you no longer have the ability to spy on me.

Oh the huge manatee

Google blamed human error for its mishap this weekend. For a period of time the search giant incorrectly labeled all of its sites as malware. My first thought was "well, someone lost their job." But perhaps not. One of the problems we face in IT is that sometimes really good people mess up big. They are the ones we entrust with responsibility. Oftentimes they are the ones we over burden. Then they mess up big, and questions are asked and consequences must be handed down. While the mistake may be a fire-able offense, this must be measured against the track record of the individual. From a simple cost benefit analysis we can see that firing a good person will result in lost productivity and advances for years ahead. Other punitive courses of action are then up for grabs - but what does this do for morale of the individual? If you do nothing, people (including those who work for you) think the quality of service has degraded and respond accordingly. I think we should focus on empowering our staff to not make mistakes. Are errors the result of short-cuts or sloppiness? What are the underlying reasons? Is the individual overworked and overwhelmed? What measures are in place for quality control? What are we doing to prevent good people from messing up big?

Seriously?

Again, the webmaster is NOT a seer! Just received this message....


Hello,
Will I be able to take classes over the coming summer on campus?

Some Guy

Real Tales of the Webmaster

As the person who gets to review the inquiries sent to the webmaster (yes, I requested this), I have a few concerns about our fellow human beings. For those of you wondering at home, a webmaster is not a magical seer. I just want to make that clear. There seems to be some confusion. I do not know why I can navigate the morass of our institutional webpages to find what you were looking for and you cannot. (Hint: Use A-Z) Perhaps I am used to it? I do not know where you can find a transcript of a talk you attended several years ago at your social club given by an individual who no longer works here. If I had to guess, I would assume no such thing exists and you are SOL. I sincerely doubt that your white old guy club took the time to record and youtube the talk oh so many years ago. I cannot tell you where the ACT will be offered off-hand. I think you can call the testing service as well as I can. I do not think it is a national crisis that you could not find the area code on the homepage and had to click on one of the millions of other pages to find it. Oh, and Greg who graduated in 2007 and saved his screen play on our virtual lab server instead of one of the many online storage resources that were available to you... ha ha! Dumb ass.

Webmaster Letter: Google Lessons

Dear Sir or Madam;

I am an alumnus of ABC University (BS 2004, M.Ed 2005) and have been trying to get my picture removed from the former 777 website removed for some time. When I have contacted the 777 chapter about it, they say that they no longer have access to the page to delete it, as they now have a new webpage. I would like for this page to be deleted because I am now teaching and have been for three years. When my students decide to Google search me(which they have, every year,) they find this picture. The newest twist has been that they have now used this picture and 'photoshopped' me into other pictures inappropriate for teachers, to say the least. I have also been 'elfed,' 'blinged,' and I'm sure others that I don't know about. My students have been disciplined, but this will continue to happen each year unless this is taken off the website. Is there any way you can help me? The url is below. Thank you so much for you time and support in this matter.

Sincerely,

Young Teacher
6th Grade Accelerated Social Studies

Hey, I Just Work Here

So, I happen to work in IT, that does not mean I know IT. I simply know about it. My actual technical skills are pretty limited. So funny things sometimes happen to me that are IT-related. Case in point - unwanted porn. I behave myself online. I don't go surfing around the Web - especially not on my work PC. Yesterday, I was reading through the Webmaster's mail. Someone was kind enough to share that one of the university's sites had been hijacked and provided the link. Of course, curiosity being my middle name, I had to click to see what the site had on it. There it was a snap shot of someone's twat. Logically, I yelled for my husband. I am not certain if I was trying to blame him or if I just thought he would be able to get rid of it for me. Either way, he was not around. I was at work and despite any rumors that may exist to the contrary, I cannot yell, "Honey" and have anyone respond. The site itself had some sort of active script so pop up after pop up and image after image continued to come into view. Now, I have that equipment, but I don't usually look at it. It isn't visually interesting and I was raised by New Englanders so my Puritan genes kick in full force at times like these. (Side note: traveling through Amsterdam's Red Light District with my dad was hilarious). I yell for the security officer to come to my rescue, but I don't want him to actually see what is on my screen. So, I hold my hand up - twat blocking - the entire time while he closes the window that I cannot close. Then I run spybot to remove the 70 items that the site had placed on my machine. Good times.

More Webmaster

Hello all,

My son is doing some kind of paper in one of his 6th grade classes and he chose to do his paper on

your fine school and he asked me if i could get him some pics to do with your school and the only way i could think of

was to come to your web site and see if i could down load some some how so please dont think i am trying to steal

any of your logo some how.My name is Paul %%^&%$ and my phone # is 281-###-#### and the pics are for a paper

he is doing for highlands jr. school in highlands texas.

Thank you for your time

Paul %%%%%%%