Should Your Kids use Facebook? It’s a pretty straightforward question and, for most parents, the answer is No. But, life is never that simple. This raises other issues: should kids have a mobile phone, or a Playstation, or big Macs? Here are some dos and don’ts.

Should Kids Be on Facebook?

The first point is that Facebook is, I believe, for over 18s. But, it’s a real world and under 18s get into pubs, bars, movies and so on.

Of course, this doesn’t make it right or justify shoddy monitoring.

Nor, does it abdicate responsibility from the store owners or Facebook.

Strictly speaking in an ideal world kids wouldn’t be on Facebook, right?

But, if they are not on Facebook, then where do they hang out online?

Why Kids Use Facebook

With the breakdown of the family unit and the tendency of kids to spend more time indoors – getting them out of the house is an issue now – it’s understandable that they want to connect online.

• Kids use Facebook to connect with each other. It’s a logical extension of texting each other, which paradoxically is another issue.
• Kids use Facebook to express themselves.
• Kids use Facebook to connect with distant friends.
• Kids use Facebook as they are more digital savvy. What’s an issue to you is the norm to them.
• Kids use Facebook to form groups (as they do offline) and share information with their inner circle.
• Kids use Facebook to demonstrate loyalty to each other. I’ll friend you but not him.

How Kids Abuse Facebook

But then there is the less pleasant side.

• Kids use Facebook to intimidate others – as they do offline.
• Kids use Facebook to exclude others – as they do offline.
• Kids use Facebook to isolate themselves – as they do offline.

The pattern here is that most of what happens is mirrored offline.

The difference is that the expression – eg likes v party invitation – has changed.

Kids on Facebook – Dos and Don’ts

I lived in the UK, USA, and China most of my adult life. My spectrum of friends is worldwide. Indeed I have more distant friends than local ones. Sound familiar?

And our kids are the same. Thus the attraction of Facebook when they want to connect.

But this still doesn’t explain how to manage Facebook when your kids want to use it. So, here’s what we did.

• Tell them that you will periodically check their Facebook page to make sure all is well. Don’t spy on them. Be honest and they will respect you more.
• Before they use Facebook explain how it works. Show them how you use Facebook’s security settings.
• Change their privacy settings so that only friends – and not friends of friends – can see their pictures, posts etc.
• Explain what to do if/when they start to get bullied, harassed etc.
• Remind them that not everyone will accept your friend request.
• Change the Facebook settings to Https so the connection is more secure and others can’t hack into it. See Privacy settings.
• Teach them how to create a strong password.

Like I said, the easy option would be to ban Facebook in the house. But this can backfire.

Conclusion

Studies have shown that discussing these issues – and other sensitive issues such as alcohol usage, drugs etc – is more productive than hiding and pretending that it will go away.

The challenge is to help your child navigate its way through life. Facebook is one of the many little journeys they will have to make.

The challenge for us is to show – not tell – the best ways to use these tools to enhance their life.

These are some ideas I quickly put together this Sunday morning before we head off to mass, so forgive the poor grammar in parts.

Please share your thoughts – and this blog post – with your friends.

How strong are your passwords? I attended a course in London last year and one of the topics covered security. In Mel Brook’s movie SpaceBalls, the password to all the earth’s natural resources was…12345. It’s a comedy but you get the idea. All those efforts to control the planet and the password is child’s play. Here are some ways to strengthen your passwords and also how to show others the mistakes to avoid.

9 Ways To Create Supe Strong Passwords

This week we look at how to setup a strong password and test its strength. I’ll also look at the type of mistakes people make when creating passwords and how to avoid these.

1. Passwords should be 8 or more characters in length; 14 characters or more is ideal.
2. Strongest passwords combine both length and different types of symbols.
3. Long passwords are stronger than short ones.
4. The more characters you add to your password, the more you increase its level of protection.
5. Use symbols by holding down the ‘Shift’ key and typing a number are very useful in developing strong passwords.
6. Choose symbols unique to your language.
7. Use the space bar in passwords.
8. Combine letters, numbers, and symbols.
9. The greater the combination you use in your password, the harder it is to guess.

10 WAys to avoid weak, easy-to-guess passwords

Here are some of the mistakes to avoid when creating passwords:

1. Avoid using look-alike substitutions of numbers and symbols. This means that you don’t replace an ‘i’ with a ‘1′ or an ‘a’ with ‘@’ as in “M1cr0$0ft” or “P@ssw0rd. These are too easy to guess.
2. However, these substitutions can be effective when combined with other measures, such as length, misspellings, or variations in upper and lowercase, to improve the strength of your password.
3. Avoid sequences of word or repeated characters. Examples of these are “12345678,” “778899″ “abcdefg,”
4. Letters on your keyboard that sit next to each other are also a mistake. For example, qwertqwert.  These are very weak passwords.
5. Avoid your login name.
6. Avoid words from the dictionary.
7. Don’t use any part of your name, birthday, social security number.
8. Tools can guess passwords based on words in multiple dictionaries, including words spelled backwards, common misspellings, and substitutions.
9. Use password combinations. If any one of the computers or websites using your password is compromised, then all of your other information protected by that password will be compromised as well. Use different passwords for different systems.
10. Don’t store your password online.

I know this sounds obvious but, if others find your passwords stored online (or on a networked computer), they have access to all your information.

Remember to change your passwords on a regular basic, for example, every six weeks. If you’re planning on opening a PayPal or Ebay account to buy and sell goods online, then I think you should read this. There’s no point making all this money, if someone can walk in a run off with your profits.

What do you think? How do you create strong passwords?

Facebook’s new security features help control your privacy, especially if you log in on cybercafés, hotels or at airports. You can now force Facebook to logoff from a remote location and create one time passwords. These are easier to use than you’d think and, for me, give greater confidence when using Facebook on business trips. Here’s how it works.

How to Sign Out of Facebook Remotely

Facebook has added more security features to its social network. I’ll avoid the technical details and explain three ways to protect your privacy and stay more secure on Facebook.

1. One Time Passwords

Facebook has released one-time passwords to make it safer to use public computers in places like hotels, cafes or airports. If you have any concerns about security when accessing Facebook, they can text you a one-time password to use instead of your regular password.

To do this:

• Text “otp” to 32665 on your mobile phone
• Facebook will send you a password that can be used only once.
• It expires in 20 minutes.
• To access this feature, you’ll need a mobile phone number in your account.

2. Sign Out From Facebook Remotely

You now also sign out of Facebook from a remote location.  These session controls are ideal if you log into Facebook from a friend’s phone or computer and then forget to sign out.

To do this:

• Go to your Account Settings, you can check if you’re still logged in on other devices and remotely log out.
• Under the Account Security section of your Account Settings page you’ll see all of your active sessions, along with information about each session.
• If someone accesses your account without your permission, you can also shut down the unauthorized login before resetting your password and taking other steps to secure your account and computer.

3. Keep Secrets Secret!

When you log in to Facebook, it will regularly prompt you to keep their security information updated.

If you ever lose access to your account, having this information helps us verify who you are and get you back into your account quickly.

Tip: You don’t have to wait for us to prompt you; you can update your Facebook security setting here.

Want to Know Even More?

You can get more security tips and updates on the Facebook Security Page at www.facebook.com/security.

I’ve never had any issues (touch wood!) with Facebook and it’s security.

What’s the best trick you know to protect yourself online?

This week we look at how to setup a strong password and test its strength. I’ll also look at the type of mistakes people make when creating passwords and how to avoid these. Remember to change your passwords on a regular basic, for example, every six weeks. If you’re planning on opening a PayPal or Ebay account to buy and sell goods online, then I think you should read this. There’s no point making all this money, if someone can walk in a run off with your profits.

How to avoid weak, easy-to-guess passwords:

1. Avoid sequences of word or repeated characters. Examples of these are “12345678,” “778899″ “abcdefg,”
2. Letters on your keyboard that sit next to each other are also a mistake. For example, qwertqwert.  These are very weak passwords.
3. Avoid using look-alike substitutions of numbers and symbols. This means that you don’t replace an ‘i’ with a ‘1′ or an ‘a’ with ‘@’ as in “M1cr0$0ft” or “P@ssw0rd. These are too easy to guess.
4. However, these substitutions can be effective when combined with other measures, such as length, misspellings, or variations in upper and lowercase, to improve the strength of your password.
5. Avoid your login name.
6. Don’t use any part of your name, birthday, social security number.
7. Avoid words from the dictionary.
8. Tools can guess passwords based on words in multiple dictionaries, including words spelled backwards, common misspellings, and substitutions.
9. Use password combinations. If any one of the computers or websites using your password is compromised, then all of your other information protected by that password will be compromised as well. Use different passwords for different systems.
10. Don’t store your password online.

I know this sounds obvious but, if others find your passwords stored online (or on a networked computer), they have access to all your information.

How to create strong passwords:

• Passwords should be 8 or more characters in length; 14 characters or more is ideal.
• Strongest passwords combine both length and different types of symbols.
• Long passwords are stronger than short ones.
• The more characters you add to your password, the more you increase its level of protection.
• Use symbols by holding down the ‘Shift’ key and typing a number are very useful in developing strong passwords.
• Choose symbols unique to your language.
• Use the space bar in passwords.
• Combine letters, numbers, and symbols.
• The greater the combination you use in your password, the harder it is to guess.

This article explains how to convert large files between Microsoft Word and Adobe FrameMaker.In this tutorial, the source file is the file being converted (Word) and target file is the file that it will be converted into (in this case, a FrameMaker file).

Our goal during this process is to reduce the Word document into an (almost) plain-text document — but keeping its style names, as these will be used to match styles and tags later in the FrameMaker document.

The overall process involves three stages:

• Preparing the Word file for conversion.
• Refining the FrameMaker file in line with the Style Guide.
• Creating the PDF file.

Note: Before you start, print out the Style Guide and use it as a reference during the overall process. This saves you time moving between files and also helps you become more familiar with the Style Guide’s format and presentation as it sits on your desk and is more accessible.

Preparing the Word file

The first step is to prepare the Word file so that its contents will convert more easily into FrameMaker. This involves deleting all formatting that is unique to Word, such as Text Frames.

For example, FrameMaker has very powerful Table of Contents generation features, so you can rely on this rather than trying to import Word’s or hard-coding it to match the FrameMaker format.

To start the process, delete all the Word constructs that need to be removed before the conversion process can start. This involves the following steps:

• Deleting the Table of Contents (TOC)
• Deleting headers and footers
• Deleting local paragraph overrides
• Deleting local character overrides
• Deleting text frames
• Deleting ALL Word specific features
• Deleting linked graphics

The next section explains what needs to be deleted in Word, and provides some information on why we use this approach.

Table of Contents

As FrameMaker has very advanced Table of Contents (TOC) functions, it is much simpler to delete the TOC in Word and then rebuild it in FrameMaker.

In Word, select the TOC and delete it. Save the file.

Note: If you’ve used bookmarks in Word to generate a TOC, delete them as well. The effort it takes to import them into FrameMaker is not worth the effort. FrameMaker can do it quicker.

Headers and Footers

Both Word and FrameMaker have a different approach to Headers and Footers. In FrameMaker, these are setup in the Master page and controlled from there. Trying to import Word’s header and footers into FrameMaker will only confuse it.

In Word, open the header and footer option. Select each one and press Delete. Save the file.

Local paragraph overrides

This involves deleting any formatting in paragraphs (which should have been formatted with Body styles) which has been done manually — rather than formatted with a Word style.

If you import these local paragraph overrides into FrameMaker, they will confuse the tag settings. It’s much simpler to delete them in Word and then rebuild in FrameMaker.

In Word, select the entire document and press Ctrl+Q. Save the document.

Local character overrides

An example of local overrides is when, for example, in Word a paragraph is entirely Times Roman except for the 3rd word, which is in italic. If the italic was set using a character style, the FrameMaker file may assign that style to the 3rd word AND to the remaining words in the paragraph—not what you want!

My suggestion is to delete all local character overrides in Word.

In Word, select the entire document and press Ctrl+Spacebar. Save the file.

Later, in FrameMaker, you will use the Paragraph Designer to modify the style correctly.

Word specific features

All Word specific features have to be deleted as they cannot be interpreted in FrameMaker. Even worse, if you do not do this, they may corrupt the FrameMaker document.

In Word, delete all borders, WordArt, callout boxes, arrows, text frames, etc. Save the file.

Text Frames — Word uses text frames to create what FrameMaker calls a side-head, i.e. text that appears in the left margin column. To recreate the Word text frame in FrameMaker, create a tag in FrameMaker called ‘TextFrame’ and design this in accordance with the style guide.

Linked graphics

Some Word documents ‘link’ graphics (Insert | Picture | From File) to the document rather than using the traditional cut/paste approach.

For a Word to FrameMaker conversion, this means that when you open the RTF file in FrameMaker the graphic file have to correctly link to the same folders as those in Word. In theory, this should work, but in my experience, this does not always work. Instead, follow these steps:

In Word, select each graphic file, save it with a unique name, e.g. Architecture.gif etc, and store it in the project folder. Once this is done, delete all graphics, and Save the file.

Note: In FrameMaker, you will import all these graphics back into the document.

Once all these steps are completed, you then need to modify different parts of the Word file, depending on how it was created.

Note: This does not involve deleting content as we have done above, but modifying how it is constructed, for example adjusting how the number and bullet lists are formatted in Word so that they can be imported into FrameMaker with less data corruption.

You don’t need to delete these constructs, but you do have to adjust their presentation otherwise they will create confusion in the FrameMaker file, for example you could end up with two bullets for every list entry rather than one.

For the conversion project, this involved managing the following areas:

• Master Pages and sections
• Headings
• Numbering
• Bullets
• Cross-references
• Artwork
• Spanned Columns
• Books and master documents
• Styles and tags

Master Pages and sections

FrameMaker uses Master Pages; Word uses sections.

In Word, sections are often used to insert different headers and footers throughout the document. FrameMaker’s approach is totally different.

Figure 1 – How to access FrameMaker Master Pages (View | Master Pages).

In Word, delete all section breaks. You can search for ^b to find all occurrences. Save the file.

Headings

FrameMaker doesn’t care how headings are named. Because of this, you don’t have to modify the style names in Word before the conversion — unless you want to change the style names to reflect the target template.

However, it’s recommended that you delete all redundant headings, and other redundant styles, as they hold no value.

In Word, delete all redundant headings (Format | Styles and Formatting) and save the file.

Figure 2 – In Word, delete all redundant styles and headings

Numbering

If your Word document uses automatic numbering and styles, you’re in luck! However, if the numbering has been done manually, delete the numbers (but not the styles) in Word.

Then, when you open the file in FrameMaker, you can attach a style with numbering applied. You will probably have to do some resetting to 1 and so on, but this is straightforward process in FrameMaker.

In Word, search for all numbers applied manually. Delete the numbers, but not the styles. Save the file.

Bullets

Like numbering, Bullets were done hopefully with styles and not manual overrides. If styles were used, then keep the style names but delete the bullet from the definition.

In Word, search for all bullets applied manually. Delete the bullet. Save the file.

Figure 3 – In Word, select pre-defined bullets and numbers

Note: If the bullets were done by hand in Word, you may find numbered paragraphs in FrameMaker with two bullets—one defined by the FrameMaker tag, and one kept from Word during the import. The quickest way to fix this is to delete the unnecessary bullet by hand. When you open the file in FrameMaker, the bullets should appear correctly as a result of FrameMaker‘s numbering system.

Cross-references

In Word, you can only cross-reference within the same file; by contrast, FrameMaker can cross-reference among other files within a Book. When FrameMaker reads a Word file with cross-references, it finds obscure marker such as “_Ref565989”. These are of no use to FrameMaker and need to be deleted.

In Word, delete all cross-references and re-create them in FrameMaker by hand. Save the file.

Artwork

Any artwork that was cut and pasted into a Word file can be imported directly into FrameMaker. However, there are two issues to consider:

1. The quality of ‘Cut and Paste’ files that you bring into FrameMaker often degrade, i.e. lose quality. Though it may be time-consuming, it’s recommended that you re-create these in PhotoShop and then import them into FrameMaker.

2. Linked graphics in Word files will not work in FrameMaker as the link settings affect what happens on the FrameMaker side. As discussed earlier, delete these files, save them individually, and then import into FrameMaker (File | Import | File).

Spanned Columns

In Word, delete spanned columns. These could open in FrameMaker as one pica wide and confuse FrameMaker’s setting. Delete the spans and re-build them in FrameMaker.

Books and master documents

Word has a Master Document feature that can be used for managing complex long documents. However, I strongly advice against using this feature; it is very unreliable and prone to corrupting documents. In turn, FrameMaker uses the concept of a Book to assemble project files and is very stable.

Figure 4 – FrameMaker’s Book feature

For the test conversion project, we use three files to create the overall ‘Book’; cover sheet; table of contents; main user guide pages. When working in FM, note that each of these files has a different master page and you need to update each master page where necessary.

Styles and tags

Wherever possible, use similar-named styles in both applications, for example, Copyright style; the only exception is when matching Word’s default Normal style with FrameMaker’s default Body tag.

Note: The fewer styles/ tags in FrameMaker, the easier it is to manage. Delete all redundant styles or tags and merge those that are similar.

Saving the RFT

After completing all these steps, save the Word file in Rich Text Format (RTF).

You can now open it in FrameMaker and refine it in accordance with the style guide.

Figure 5 – In Word, save the file as Rich Text Format

Preparing the FrameMaker file

You now have a modified Word file, saved as RFT, with all Word-specific features removed. The next phase involves:

• Returning the content deleted from the Word file, such as Artwork, headers, footers.
• Updating cross-references, indexes, TOC etc.
• Matching the file with the Style Guide.

To start the process:

In FrameMaker, in order to open the RTF file:

• Select File | Open | File Types | All Files (*.*).

Figure 6 – Select All Files (*.*) to view the RTF file.

• In the Unknown File Type pop-up window, select Microsoft RFT and click Convert.

Figure 7 – Select Microsoft RTF and click Convert

This opens the RTF file, though the format and presentation will be modified slightly from the Word version.

Save the file with a .fm extension. The next stage involves returning all Word content that was deleted (or modified).

Importing Graphics

You have two options when bringing graphics into FrameMaker. You can either:

• Option A – Cut and paste from Word or
• Option B – Cross-reference to a project directory.

Option A usually results in large file sizes as the file has to hold the graphics, whereas in Options B they are cross-referenced from their respective location.

The problem with using Option B is that you have to include the graphics folder when sending the FrameMaker files to other users.

However, the good news is that when you need to update any graphic file in the document (or documents) instead of manually going through each page, you simply update the relevant graphic – and all files are updated automatically!

Figure 8 – Option B – Import files by reference

Unwanted Tags

After you’ve opened the RTF in FrameMaker, you may find that you’ve gained a character tag called Default Paragraph Font.

The only way to delete it is to select the text, choose Default ¶ Font, and re-assign it.

Custom table ruling and shading

To delete custom table settings from the entire FrameMaker document, do the following:

• Select the document.
• Choose Table | Custom Ruling & Shading.
• Select both of the ‘From Table’ settings, and select all check boxes.
• Click Apply.

Updating the Header and Footers

As mentioned earlier, both Word and FrameMaker have a different approach to Headers and Footers. In FrameMaker, these are setup in the Master page.

FrameMaker provides default settings for each document’s headers/footers. Use the Paragraph Designer to modify them and, when finished, select ‘Update All’. You can then return to the Body Pages.

Note: when a Book is comprised of several files, you need to set the page numbers so that there is consistency between each file. To do this, open the FrameMaker file:

• Select Format | Document | Numbering | Page.
• Enter the start page number and Save.

Updating the Table of Contents

This process has 2 options depending on whether you want to integrate your TOC in the main document or you want to create a standalone TOC. For the Klariti project, I used Option B as outlined below.

• Option A – this places the TOC within the main FrameMaker file. This option makes sense when you have a small file that is easy to update.
• Option B – this involves creating a standalone TOC that will form one part of a large FrameMaker book. In this project, we used Option B as the main file was very large and other sections used different master pages, styles etc.

To create the TOC, follow these steps:

• Open the FrameMaker Book.
• Add files where necessary.
• Click Add | Table of Contents.

Figure 9– How to create a Table of Contents

This creates a standalone TOC file. Open this and check that it matches with Style Guide. To update the design/layout, open the Master pages and make the required amendments.

PDF Setup

Before you create the PDF document, you need to define the conversion settings in FrameMaker. To do this, go to:

• Format | Document | PDF Setup.
• In Settings, select Print and for Page Range, select All.
• In Bookmarks, check Generate PDF Bookmarks, and for Include Paragraphs add Chapter Title and Headings 1, 2, and 3.
• In Tags, check Generate Tagged PDF.
• Click Set to finish.

Figure 10 – In PDF Setup Settings tab, select Print from the drop-down menu.

Figure 11 – In the Bookmark tab, add the Chapter Title and Headings

Creating the PDF file

The final step involves converting the FrameMaker files into PDF.

In this test conversion project, we have used 3 FrameMaker files which together form a FrameMaker Book. A book, as the name implies, is a master file that controls the relationship between the files that it contains.

To do this, follow these steps:

• In FrameMaker, open the Cover Sheet FrameMaker file.
• Click the Print Option (File | Print). Select the PDF prnit driver from the Print drop-down menu, for example, Adobe PDF.
• In the options screen, select All and Convert PDF Data.
• Click OK.

Follow the same steps for the other two FrameMaker files. You now have three PDF files based on the FrameMaker files. After all files are converted, close FrameMaker and open Adobe Acrobat.

The next step is to create a master PDF file that will contain the 3 PDF files in the correct sequence. To do this, open the Cover Sheet, and add the other two files as follows:

• Open the Cover Sheet pdf.
• Click Edit | Insert Pages and Add the TOC pdf file.
• Click Edit | Insert Pages and add the Klariti.pdf file.
• Once all files have been added, choose File | Save As and save the file.

You now have the entire FM file in PDF format. The next step is to create hyperlinks for the main headings.

Creating Hyperlinks

In FrameMaker, when you add a table of contents, there is an option to create hyperlinks automatically. However, during this project, this option failed to work. An error message stated that it required additional fonts in order to compile. Therefore, the table of contents file did not create hyperlinks to the chapter titles and headings.

Nonetheless, in Adobe Acrobat, you can manually create these links. To do this, you select the heading and cross-reference it to the relevant page in the file.

Figure 12 – The Link tool in Adobe Acrobat

To do this, follow these steps:

1. In Adobe Acrobat, open the master PDF file, e.g. UserGuide.pdf.

2. Select Window | Bookmarks to display the bookmarks. This option shows the Chapter Title and H1/H2/H3 headings.

3. Navigate to the section of the document where you want to create a link.

4. Select the link tool.

5. Create the link rectangle in one of the following ways:

• Drag the mouse to create a marquee.

• Press Ctrl (Windows) and select the target text with the I-beam. This allows you to fit a link rectangle exactly around the selected text.

6. In the Create Link dialog box, choose a rectangle type.

7. Select a highlight option for when the link is selected.

8. Choose an action type.

9. Choose a magnification option.

10 Click Set Link.

Complete this step for all headings in the TOC.

Figure 13 – The Link Properties option in Adobe Acrobat

This process will create hyperlinks from all headings to their respective sections in the PDF document.

Security Settings

In Adobe Acrobat, there are various security options available. The most relevant for this project is to ensure that unauthorized personnel cannot modify the document.

In particular, you want to disallow unauthorised personnel from copying text from your PDF into their documents, for whatever reason.

Figure 14 – The Document Security option in Adobe Acrobat

To do this, follow these steps:

• In Adobe Acrobat, go to File | Document Security.
• Choose Adobe Standard Security from the drop-down menu.
• Under Permissions, check the four options, e.g. No Printing etc.
• Click OK. Click Close and then File | Close to save the settings.

Figure 15 –Security options in Adobe Acrobat

When you re-open the file, these settings will apply.

Matching the Style Guide

To get the styles to match, review the styles/tags in the FrameMaker file against those in the Style Guide.

For example, if the Style Guide’s Body style is Arial 10 etc, and the FrameMaker file has it set to Times Roman 11, you need to correct this as follows:

• Open FrameMaker and select all content marked as Body.
• Open Paragraph Designer and update the Body fields.
• Select ‘Apply to All’. This updates all occurrences of the Body style in the document.

To stop other technical authors from using the wrong styles, delete ALL redundant styles. For example, the RFT file may have several body styles, e.g. Body, Body + Left, Body + Indent. In FrameMaker, delete all of these otherwise future authors may use these inadvertently.

What do you think?

This approach has worked well for me when converting Microsoft Word documents into FrameMaker. I should add that the latest versions of Adobe FrameMaker offer a more streamlined approach to converting the docs.

With that said, you’re still going to have to clean up the Adobe FrameMaker docs to some extent regardless of how well the converter works.

Over the next few weeks, I’ll look at conversion software and work on the latest version of Adobe FrameMaker, which I’ve now got my hands on.

Let me know if you’ve come across better ways to convert these docs or maybe some of the issues you’ve had in converting these docs.

Thanks.

Zong offers web users who don’t have a credit card a simple way to pay for online goods. Zong is designed for online businesses that offer web-based products and services and accept real-time mobile payment for those services. It has processed mobile payments for 10 million unique users in 2009. Zong is especially popular for online gaming sites.
There are several ways to do this:

1. Making on-site payments from your bank account with your phone
2. Setting up a bank account specifically for mobile payments and
3. Making payments for services that are charged directly to your phone bill.

How it works

1. Customer goes to the gaming site
2. Finds a game they want to play
3. Enters their mobile phone number to pay for the game
4. Payments show up as a charge on the customer’s mobile phone bill
5. Customer has immediately access to the game

Key drivers for using this payment service

The popularity of using such services is:

Instant access
You don’t have to wait for your order to be processed. It happens in real-time.

Security
Customers seem to be more comfortable entering their mobile phone number into sites rather than making online payments with a credit card.

According to Zong, over 60% of web users don’t a credit card — but do have access to a mobile phone.

Upselling

Other web companies can ‘piggy back’ on Zong’s services as it tends to convert browsers into buyers, compared with sites that only offer credit card processing.

Zong’s CEO David Marcus adds, “Our ability to serve 10 million customers already in 2009 was fueled by our understanding of consumer behavior across the social web, the ease-of-use of our pay by mobile solution, our extensive global network of direct carrier relationships and our nine years of operating experience at the nexus of the web, media and mobile content.”

Availability
Zong is available in 19 countries across one hundred different mobile phone carriers. It plans to expand into Russia and Eastern Europe, Southeastern Asia and parts of South America.

Ukash, the online payment specialist, closed a deal with epay, a division of Euronet, to make its online cash vouchers available in Italy. The expansion of Ukash into Italy will see Ukash vouchers available at 1,250 epay locations across the country. The deal lets internet users in Italy pay, play and shop online using cash for free without having to pay for a prepaid card.

Internet shopping in Italy turned over 4,868 billion euros in 2007 and continues to grow.

This deal allows Italian online merchants to tap into the growing customer base of consumers who prefer to use cash as a safer way to complete transactions online.

How it works

1. Ukash vouchers do not attract a service or convenience fee.

2. Customers exchange their cash for a unique 19-digit code to use online.

3. This provides them with a secure payment system where they don’t need to reveal any financial information, enabling those without access to credit or debit cards – or those with fears of online fraud – to shop online.

Mark Chirnside, chief executive officer of Ukash, adds, “Italy is a key growth market for Ukash, where ecommerce is on the up and consumers are becoming savvy about the safer ways to pay online. By partnering with epay we are able to reach a broader scope of potential new customers and expand our global footprint.”

“This deal also opens the virtual door for many online retailers as they can now offer alternative payment methods and attract the cash consumer, as well as eliminate any risk of online fraud.”

Ukash vouchers are now available at 1,250 physical point of sale terminals operated by epay at independent supermarkets, petrol stations, call shops, drug stores and convenience stores in Italy.

The vouchers will be available in €10, €20, €50 and €100 and can be combined, split and/or converted.

Ukash is undergoing a period of rapid global growth and this year has expanded into Germany, Poland, Australia and Spain with epay.

Posted via web from ivanwalsh’s posterous

Posted via web from ivanwalsh’s posterous

Yesterday we looked at how to setup a strong password and how to test its strength. What I’d like to cover today are the type of mistakes people make when creating passwords and how to avoid this. If you’re planning on opening a PayPal account or use eBay to buy and sell, then I think you should read this.

How to avoid weak, easy-to-guess passwords:

1. Avoid sequences or word or repeated characters.

Examples of these are “12345678,” “778899″ “abcdefg,”

2. Letters on your keyboard that sit next to each other are also a mistake. For example, qwertqwert.  These are very weak passwords.

3. Avoid using look-alike substitutions of numbers and symbols.

This means that you don’t replace an ‘i’ with a ’1′ or an ‘a’ with ‘@’ as in “M1cr0$0ft” or “P@ssw0rd. These are too easy to guess.

However, these substitutions can be effective when combined with other measures, such as length, misspellings, or variations in upper and lowercase, to improve the strength of your password.

4. Avoid your login name.

5. Don’t use any part of your name, birthday, social security number.

6. Avoid words taken out of the dictionary.

7. Tools can guess passwords based on words in multiple dictionaries, including words spelled backwards, common misspellings, and substitutions.

8. Use multiple passwords

If any one of the computers or websites using your password is compromised, then all of your other information protected by that password will be compromised as well.

So, try to use different passwords for different systems.

9. Don’t store your password online.

I know this sounds obvious but, if others find your passwords stored online (or on a networked computer), they have access to all your information.

Takeaway tips:

• Long passwords are stronger than short ones.
• The more characters you add to your password, the more you increase its level of protection.
• Passwords should be 8 or more characters in length; 14 characters or more is ideal.
• Strongest passwords combine both length and different types of symbols.
• Use symbols by holding down the ‘Shift’ key and typing a number are very useful in developing strong passwords.
• Choose symbols unique to your language.
• Use the space bar in passwords.
• Combine letters, numbers, and symbols.
• The greater the combination you use in your password, the harder it is to guess.

PS – If you’ve found this article useful, please consider giving us a Digg or StumbleUpon.

Regards,

Ivan

Twitter: @ivanwalsh

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/ivanwalsh

Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ivanwalsh

Templates: http://www.klariti.com

Tips:  http://www.ivanwalsh.com

Paypal Do Stuff For Money

Originally uploaded by Tech Writer Boy

Ask your friends to do stuff for money. This is a light-hearted site from Paypal that lets friends ask others to do small things for money, which they can send by Paypal.

Your offer may be made public on this site as soon as you click “send offer”

Here are examples of what people want done for money:

dan offered mike $50.00 to “take the rest of his calls for the day”

sabrina offered sean $1.00 to “love me”

Megan offered Kim $1000.00 to “Let mom come live with you.”

Jem offered Alan $1.00 to “Come to our house for dinner tonight”

Jeff offered Shari $5.00 to “go to a star trek movie with me”

Diane offered Lori $1.00 to “go grocery shopping for me”

Jeff offered Anyone $1.00 to “Donate me money for a college laptop ”

Dad offered Cory $10.00 to “Tell Chris to stop picking his nose!”

Kat offered Willy $18.00 to “Be a back up singer in my Boyz to Men cover band”

AP offered Kenneth $1.00 to “Get me another diet coke later.”

www.paypal-dostuffformoney.com

There is a wonderful future ahead for internal communicators who focus on content as a productive asset.

Giving control of an intranet to a traditional communicator is a bit like giving a pub to an alcoholic. It’s happy days. There’s so much to publish. All the stuff they never read offline can go on the intranet. The homepage can be covered with news because the communicator with a hammer will see nails everywhere that need to be hammered home. And of course the intranet can reach everybody (in theory, at least), not like those magazines, brochures and flyers. 

The future of internal communications is about helping employees do things, rather than getting employees to do things. It’s about the word in action. The intranet is not a place to change hearts and minds. It’s a functional utility space where employees come to complete basic day-to-day tasks, like finding people, checking procedures, searching for job vacancies and training opportunities. 

News is important to employees but it’s not the be-all and end-all. News is vastly more important to the communicator than it is to the typical employee member.

So, what is the traditional communicator to do?

Force news down employee throats, whether they want it or not? That approach won’t work. At best they’ll just ignore the news and at worst they’ll think the intranet is a waste of space.

I remember one intranet manager telling me the reason that news stories dominated the homepage, and that employees had to scroll down to get to tasks that were really important to them was that they “would read the news on the way down.”

I have heard variants of these statements made by many internal communicatorsover the years. They are the inebriated thoughts of people drunk on power. They control the intranet, at least at the homepage level, and they’re going to turn it into a newspaper front page whether employees like it or not.

Intranet internal communications is radically different from print internal communications. The intranet internal communicator facilitates rather than dictates. They help people find. They guide rather than lead. They support the completion of a task such as checking up a procedure or a job vacancy.

They focus on creating clear menus and links. 

In a world of social media where people make their own news or get the news from their peers, where even the traditional news media is being rocked to its foundations, how relevant is the traditional internal communicator anymore? Just because you can publish on the intranet doesn’t mean anyone cares. 

In a world where the first step in so much activity on the Web is to search, if employees are not actively searching for your content, how is it going to get found? In a world where the homepage is becoming less and less important, is covering it with news going to work? Did it ever really work?

This is a call to arms.

You young ambitious communicators, get involved in making search work better, focus relentlessly on the quality of menus and links, simplify the steps and words used in software applications, make policies easier to understand and forms easier to complete. There is so much to do, so many areas where you can make your organization more productive, efficient and effective.

Gerry McGovern

www.gerrymcgovern.com

Posted via web from ivanwalsh’s posterous

PayPal Donations is a very nice way to let people donate a small amount of your site, usually as a thank you for providing quality information, tips or advice.

You can use this to collect donations from a PayPal Donation button on your website, or even using it as a link in your email. PayPal won’t automatically place the button code on your website, but it’s very easy to copy and paste the code into your blog or website’s code. The PayPal Create Button designer screen also lets you customize the look and field of the button, set-up  donation amounts, currency types, and other options. You can also create a library of buttons and re-use these rather than starting from scratch every time.

Benefits

• Easy to implement – no programming experience necessary. Jus copy and paste the code.
• No up-front costs – same low fee schedule as other PayPal payments
• No hidden charges – PayPal don’t charge for this service. There are no
  hidden costs
• Reports – PayPal maintains detailed transaction records so you can track your donations
• Flexibility – your donors can choose to give an amount of their choice
  (recommended) or you can set a fixed amount

To add PayPal Donations to your website, follow these steps:

The webpage you use to design the buttons has three sections. You only need
to use the first one: the others are optional.

1. Choose the button type and enter the payment details

2. Save your button (an optional step)

3. Customize the advanced features (also optional)

Let’s get started.

1. Log in to PayPal or setup a new account.

2. Click the Profile tab.

The Profile Summary page opens.

3. Under Selling Preferences, click the My Saved Buttons link.

The My Saved Buttons page opens.

4. Click Create New Button.

The Create Payment Button page opens. This is where you will create the
actual button.

How to Choose the button type and enter payment details

Let’s get started and choose the button type we want to use.

1. In the Accept payments for dropdown menu, select Donations.

2. In Organization name/service, enter the name of your organization

3. In Donation ID (optional), enter a unique number if you want to track the donation.

The next step is to customize the button. In other words, do you want a
simple image with only the word ’Donation’ or do you want to add credit cards to it?

You can also upload your own image, which can be useful if you want to blend
it into your site’s color scheme.

4. Click the blue triangle next to Customize appearance.

5. Click the PayPal button box.

You now have two options:

• Customize the PayPal button or
• Upload your own.

6. If you want to customize the PayPal button:

6.1 Click Use smaller button – if you want a Donate button without any
branding or credit card logos.

6.2 Click Display credit card logos – if you want display credit card logos
such as Visa and MasterCard.

6.3 Select the Country and language for button.

FYI: I recommend United States – US – English.

When you change the settings, a preview of your image appears in the Buyer’s
View pane.

7 If you want use your own image.

7.1 Click Use your own button image.

7.2 Enter the URL of where your image is located on the web. At the moment, you can’t upload an image to PayPal directly.

Note: PayPal will not show your image onscreen when you use this option. But, when you create the code later on, it works fine. You can always go back and change it, by the way.

Next you’re going to select the currency.

8. Choose a Currency from one of these:

USD AUD GBP CAD CZK DKK EUR HKD HUF ILS JPY MXN NZD NOK PLN SGD SEK CHF.

Again, most of you will select USD (US Dollars but you can choose what you
want).

Tip: If you choose a currency other than USD you run the risk of people not
making a donation. People don’t want to get tricked into paying with a currency they don’t understand. If you make them go check the currency rate, they might have second thoughts on paying.

Keep it simple. Use the USD option.

Next up is the contribution amount.

9. In Contribution amount, select one of the options:

9.1. Click Donors enter their own contribution amount.

Let people choose to donate 1 dollar of 1 million. It’s their choice. Never under-estimate how generous people can be if you provide really
useful content (like this!)

9.2. Click Donors contribute a fixed amount.

I’d avoid this. It’s a bit ham-fisted and forces people to pay when you think
they should, under-mining the principle of making a donation. To me, this looks more like a pseudo-payment. I’d suggest you avoid it. But, hey, it’s your site. Don’t let me stop you.

10. Next, enter the email address where the donations are sent to. Usually you’re PayPal account email address.

Step 2 and 3 are optional, so you can ignore these for now. Take a peek if
you want or you can skip ahead and create the button.

The final step is to get the code for the button.

11. Click Create Button at the end of the screen.

This opens the Button Code page.

12. Click Select Code to select the HTML code.

13 Copy the code (CTRL+C for Windows and CMD+C for Mac)

14. Paste the code into your blog or webpage (Ctrl + V)

We’re not finished yet!

15. PayPal also gives you the option to add the button to emails. Fantastic
if you’re selling things via email or are big into good ol’ web marketing.

Just copy and paste the link into your email. Send a few tests to yourself to
check that it works. Also try the link in Yahoo, Gmail and Hotmail to check that everything works fine with these.

Now you’re finished!

Other things you can do on this page

• Click Create Similar button if you want to use the button you just
  create as a template for your next button. Nice time-saver as you can use the same configuration settings.
• Click Create a new button to create a new button from scratch.
• Click Create Similar button if you want to create another button, withall the same/similar configuration settings as this button

I hope you enjoyed this article and that is made the whole process of
creating PayPal buttons a little easier.

Next week, I’ll show you how to use more advanced features in PayPal, like
setting up a Thank You page or sending customers to a download page
automatically.

To setup a new PayPal account, please go here.

Yesterday we looked at different ways to protect your PayPal account. We looked at how to setup a strong password and how to test its strength.

There are a few other things I wanted to add to the last article so I’m adding them here. If you’re going to open a PayPal account or use eBay to buy and sell, then I think you should read this. There is no point making a successful online business if others can highjack your account.

How to create a strong password:

1. Write down a sentence that will form the basis of strong password. For example, “My son Ivan was born on May 7 1998.”

2. Check if your computer supports pass phrases.

If you can use a pass phrase (i.e. spaces between characters) on your computer, then use this approach.

3. If the computer does not support pass phrases, convert it to a password.

For example, take the first letter of each word of the sentence that you’ve created to create a new password.

Using the example above, you’d get: “mstwbom71998″.

4. Combine uppercase and lowercase letters and numbers to add an extra level of complexity.

You can further strengthen this by adding letter swapping and misspellings.

For instance, in the pass phrase above, consider misspelling Ivan’s name (e.g. Evan), or substituting the word “seven” for the number 7.

Remember: the longer the sentence, the more complex your password will be.

Your pass phrase might become “My sOn evan waS bORn on MAy 7 1998″

5. Add special characters.

Use symbols that look like letters, combine words, remove spaces between words to make the password more complex.

Using these tricks, we create a pass phrase of “MysOn ev@n waS b#Rn o% M*y 7 1998″ or a password (using the first letter of each word) “MsewaSbMAy71998”

6. Test your password with Microsoft’s Password Checker

This is a non-recording password checking site that helps determine your password’s strength.

http://www.microsoft.com/protect/yourself/password/checker.mspx

Test the strength of your passwords: Enter a password in the text box to have Password Checker help determine its strength as you type.

Note: Password Checker can help you to gauge the strength of your password. It is for personal reference only. Password Checker does not guarantee the security of the password itself.

PS – If you’ve found this article useful, please consider giving us a Digg or StumbleUpon.

Regards,

Ivan

Twitter: @ivanwalsh

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/ivanwalsh

Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ivanwalsh

Templates: http://www.klariti.com / Tips:  http://www.ivanwalsh.com

Yesterday we looked at different ways to protect your PayPal account. We looked at how to setup a strong password and how to test its strength.

There are a few other things I wanted to add to the last article so I’m adding them here. If you’re going to open a PayPal account or use eBay to buy and sell, then I think you should read this. There is no point making a successful online business if others can highjack your account.

How to create a strong password:

1. Write down a sentence that will form the basis of strong password. For example, “My son Ivan was born on May 7 1998.”

2. Check if your computer supports pass phrases.

If you can use a pass phrase (i.e. spaces between characters) on your computer, then use this approach.

3. If the computer does not support pass phrases, convert it to a password.

For example, take the first letter of each word of the sentence that you’ve created to create a new password.

Using the example above, you’d get: “mstwbom71998″.

4. Combine uppercase and lowercase letters and numbers to add an extra level of complexity.

You can further strengthen this by adding letter swapping and misspellings.

For instance, in the pass phrase above, consider misspelling Ivan’s name (e.g. Evan), or substituting the word “seven” for the number 7.

Remember: the longer the sentence, the more complex your password will be.

Your pass phrase might become “My sOn evan waS bORn on MAy 7 1998″

5. Add special characters.

Use symbols that look like letters, combine words, remove spaces between words to make the password more complex.

Using these tricks, we create a pass phrase of “MysOn ev@n waS b#Rn o% M*y 7 1998″ or a password (using the first letter of each word) “MsewaSbMAy71998”

6. Test your password with Microsoft’s Password Checker

This is a non-recording password checking site that helps determine your password’s strength.

http://www.microsoft.com/protect/yourself/password/checker.mspx

Test the strength of your passwords: Enter a password in the text box to have Password Checker help determine its strength as you type.

Note: Password Checker can help you to gauge the strength of your password. It is for personal reference only. Password Checker does not guarantee the security of the password itself.

PS – If you’ve found this article useful, please consider giving us a Digg or StumbleUpon.

Regards,

Ivan

Twitter: @ivanwalsh

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/ivanwalsh

Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ivanwalsh

Templates: http://www.klariti.com / Tips:  http://www.ivanwalsh.com

Personally, I don’t use PayPal Buy Now or Donations when sending out emails. There are a couple of reasons for this.
1) it’s too hard sell – selling directly through email rarely works.

2) spam filters will pick it out and send your lovely email to the spam filter, adding your email address to the ISPs blacklist in the process (which you can’t undo) and

3) many people (myself included) turn off images in their email.

In other words, I never see any images when I use Yahoo or Hotmail. This means that my emails download faster (less bandwidth required) without images and most are just eye candy with no value add.

To quote Ken Brockman – Just my 2 cents.

Yesterday, when I went to login Clickbank, I got an error message.

It told me that there was a problem with the digital certificate (i.e. what makes the communications between my PC and Clickbank safe). If you get the same message, here is what’s causing it and also some tips on how to avoid this happening in the future.

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When this error message appear, the web browser makes the following suggestions.

1.       The security certificate presented by this website was issued for a different website’s address.

Thanks but that doesn’t help very much, does it?

2.       Security certificate problems may indicate an attempt to fool you or intercept any data you send to the server.

A little better but the error message isn’t instilling much confidence in me. The words ‘may indicate an attempt to fool you’ make me feel like Babe before xmas dinner. You need to see the movie.

3.       If you arrived at this page by clicking a link, check the website address in the address bar to be sure that it is the address you were expecting.

If I clicked on a link, then it’s probably the one I was sent or use all the time.

4.      When going to a website with an address such as https://example.com, try adding the ‘www’ to the address, https://www.example.com.

Now, this makes a difference.

What the error message is trying to say is this: entering or using an address without www will (not may) confuse the certificate.

Why does this happen?

Let’s say that when you login Clickbank, you visit five different pages.

Then, the next day, you type Clickbank into the address bar.

Your web browser tries to anticipate the pages you’re going to visit and displays the pages you visited yesterday. You click on the page you want to visit, for example, the monthly reports.

This confuses the digital cert.

It doesn’t know how you got to http//:www.Clickbank.com/whatever/ without authenticating the cert.

Ideally, the page should be https//:www.Clickbank.com/whatever/.
The h in https stands for secure.

How to fix this problem

Enter www.clickbank.com into the address bar and log in as usual.

The certificate will now work correctly and hopefully you’ll sleep a better at night.

PS – If you’ve found this article useful, please consider giving us a Digg or StumbleUpon.

Regards,

Ivan

Twitter / Facebook / Flickr / Templates / Tips

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Can I use Wordles for...

May I make money off of Wordle images?

You must first display your Wordle at the desired size, then take a “screen shot” or “screen capture”. Here’s a link to a web site that gives instructions for creating screen shots on various kinds of computer. By linking to this external site, I do not endorse it: take-a-screenshot.org.

How is Wordle licensed? May I embed your applet?

Creating a strong password helps in protecting your account information and, if you run an online business, access to your financial data. For example, if you decide to open a PayPal account and want to buy and sell stuff online, then you need to think carefully about the type of password you’ll need to use. So, here are some tips and guidelines on setting up a super strong password. We’ll also show you how to test the strength of your password.

What makes a strong password?

A strong password must use a random string of characters.

In other words, using the following string – LiVerP8%%L- is better than Liverpool. You can see straightaway how complex the password is
and the effort it would take to open.

Use the following as when creating your passwords:

1. Long passwords are stronger than short ones.

2. The more characters you add to your password, the more you increase its level of protection.

3. Passwords should be 8 or more characters in length; 14 characters or more is ideal.

4. A 15-character password – made up of random letters and numbers – is 33,000 times stronger than an 8-character password composed of characters from the entire keyboard.

5. If you cannot create a password that contains symbols, make it very long to get the same degree of protection.

Symbols are characters such as @,#,$,%,^,&,*,),_,+, and |.

6. The strongest passwords combine both length and different types of symbols.

7. Use the top keys on your keyboard (@,#,$,%,^), not just letters.

8. Use symbols by holding down the ‘Shift’
key and typing a number are very useful in developing strong passwords.

9. Choose from all the symbols on the keyboard, including punctuation marks not on the upper row (top) of the keyboard,

10. Choose symbols unique to your language.

11. Many IT systems now support use of the space bar in passwords. This means you can create a phrase made of many words (a ”pass phrase”).

12. Combine letters, numbers, and symbols.

The greater the combination you use in your password, the harder it is to guess.

PS – If you’ve found this article useful, please consider giving us a Digg or StumbleUpon.

Regards,

Ivan

Twitter: @ivanwalsh

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/ivanwalsh

Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ivanwalsh

Templates: http://www.klariti.com

Tips:  http://www.ivanwalsh.com