I’ve been away for a few days – nine in total.

I had precisely two bits of “tech” with me as I was more than happy to shed the need to connect. In reality, I could have reduced the tech to one – my iphone as it has a GPS built in and thus makes my Garmin surplus. Well not yet it doesn’t – that is not until the battery life improves and the accuracy gets locked down.

But I digress.

In the nine days we were away as a family I seriously used my tech once – and that was the GPS when we did a day of geocaching around Saundersfoot and Caldey Island.

Other than the very rare phone call or text message I checked my emails once a day at the most.

We enjoyed, as a family, getting away from the TV, from the computers, the Nintendo DS, the xbox, the … well you get the picture.

It’s good to detach, de-stress and recharge (oh look, a tech play on words).

Whilst I don’t think we need to go as far as committing Seppukoo it is important that we identify the distinction between real life and online.

Equally it’s important we take time to detach ourselves from the addiction that online life can so easily become.

Don’t get me wrong – there is great value in our online personas and one hopes that the person I meet online is the same as the one I’d meet in real life.

There is great value to be had online and great stores of knowledge to be tapped but let me ask this:

For those of you, like me, who are over 40 – how much did you rely on technology as a child?

My fear is not that we over-utilise the tech or get caught up in it (though that is a genuine concern as a parent) but it’s what being online might be doing to our creative selves.

I refuse to let my two youngest (the same for the eldest but he’s an adult now) ‘play’ with or via tech all the time. I make them ((horrid dad that I am) go outside or build something with lego or play a game with cards or … again, you get the point.

I come across so many young children these days that are listless or agitated or hyper or angry or bored or … and whilst I don’t have any facts to back it up (do you?) I do have a very strong belief that most if not all of this is caused by being too connected.

Or as I’ve seen it said – hyper-connected.

Let me ask you this:

• Are we sometimes too hyper-connected?
• Do we not spend enough time away from technology?
• Have you ever passed up opportunities in real-life due to your online activities?

I’d love to hear your thoughts on this one so please dive in and comment – especially if you are a first time commenter or vehemently disagree with me.

Have you ever considered hiding your IP address?

It’s a bit like trying to hide your post or zip code – it’s not easy but it can be done. But today’s post is focusing on why we should consider this and not a one of them is for illegal reasons.

Here’s some reasons why you might hide your IP:

• to protect your privacy from search engines ‘profiling’ your surfing habits.
• or from marketing companies sharing information or profiling.
• to stop your ISP from keeping logs of your activities.
• to overcome geographic blocks.
• to stop competitors knowing about your research of them.
• fear of being persecuted.
• or simply as a matter of principle – after all how many of us are ex-directory with our phone numbers?

Have I missed any obvious reasons?

Do you hide your IP?

Why or why not?

I’m still wandering through the #31DBBB project that OurChurch.com has running and today’s task is to effectively introduce you to one of my readers.

I can think of nobody better than a fellow blogger – Greg Simmons.

Greg has been a loyal reader and commenter at my site almost since it’s inception.

It may be that he’s also a fellow geek (though he’s a self-confessed one and I’ve been labelled one by friends & family) or that he works in the same industry as myself or any number of reasons.

Also, in a similar vein to me he has served his local church for over 20yrs and most of that in some technical capacity.

It may be that my affinity to Greg is to do with the fact that he’s a fan of coffee and getting away to unique locations rather than re-visiting the same old same old.

Greg is also one of my fellow writers at ChurchTechMatters.com.

Whatever the reasons, Greg has made valid and valuable comments to many of my posts that not only enhance the subject but take it in a direction I hadn’t previously considered.

However, right now I feel it is very appropriate to bring Greg to your attention as he is very shortly going to be heading off on a foreign mission. I’ve been on some of these (and hope to again) so I get some of what he’s feeling and going through.

Right now Greg and the rest of the team are in the less than 10 days to go zone and he even has a countdown on his site showing how long is left. They are off to Romania on June 10th and whilst most of their physical and practical needs are already taken care of they would still value your prayers and any donations you can make.

Here’s a little list:

• That their ‘individual testimonies’ are powerful tools
• That flights and journeys go smoothly and without problems.
• Funding – for individuals and the end aim of the mission trip.
• That all paperwork is in order.
• That God gets the glory.

And I’m sure if you ask Greg he’ll happily add any specific requests.

Greg’s personal website is an eclectic mix of everything from technical thoughts to spiritual challenges to ministry opportunities.

Please allow me to thoroughly recommend Greg and TheBetaVersion.org.

A goodly number of years back…2002 to be precise, the EFF published a whitepaper on protecting your online privacy.

Despite this being 8yrs ago now the advice is still apposite and really it mostly boils down to common sense. I’ve linked to the original as they go into greater detail but here for your edification are the main points:

• Do not reveal personal information inadvertently.
• Turn on cookie notices in your Web browser, and/or use cookie management software or infomediaries.
• Keep a “clean” e-mail address.
• Don’t reveal personal details to strangers or just-met “friends”.
• Realise you may be monitored at work, avoid sending highly personal e-mail to mailing lists, and keep sensitive files on your home computer.
• Beware sites that offer some sort of reward or prize in exchange for your contact information or other personal details.
• Do not reply to spammers, for any reason.
• Be conscious of Web security.
• Be conscious of home computer security.
• Examine privacy policies and seals.

That’s it – ten succinct and common sense pointers.

Have you any old advice that still applies equally today?

Do you bother to protect your privacy?

So the church hosting account got hacked.

I don’t really know when but the first I was aware was a very terse email from our hoster:

Hello,

We regret to inform you that your account has been suspended for the following reason:

compromised account, spamming

Please contact us as soon as possible to discuss your options for reinstatement.

Sincerely,

Well ok that’s fair but surely they could have given us a clue as to what caused them to be aware of this so we are better able to fix it, prevent it happening again and discuss it.

Turns out the rather simple password that was used for the cpanel account was just that – too simple and consequently the hacker placed a few ‘iffy’ PHP files that were (so I’m told) sending out spam.

I’ve passed the file onto my eldest – he does PHP – and asked him to look it over.

The lesson today … use strong passwords.

Don’t know how or worried about remembering them? Then read this about various password utilities. Need to create a strong password and don’t have one of the listed tools in my link then try this online password generator. My advice, at the very minimum use the defaults but preferably up the character count to 16 or more.

Want to know what makes a strong / secure password? Then have a read of this article.

• Do you use strong / secure passwords?
• Do you have a different one for each site you access?
• Do you use any tools to help you?

First off, what is phishing?

phishing is the criminally fraudulent process of attempting to acquire sensitive information such as usernames, passwords and credit card details by masquerading as a trustworthy entity in an electronic communication. [quote]

According to the Anti-Phishing Group this type of attack is very much on the rise – it is, as I’ve maintained before (e.g. 1, 2), that we should learn about the hardware and software we use and understand what we need to do to ensure the security of said items.

Let me state upfront – you can’t prevent phishing attacks, but you can prepare yourself by taking certain precautions.

• Ensure you keep your computer OS, software, drivers, etc., up to date.
• Ensure you frequently scan your system (either schedule it or manually run) with a top class security tool such as Malwarebytes or similar.
• Ensure (especially Windows OS users) that you keep your anti-virus up to date; that it is running and that it is still working as well as you hope. Check out what independent reviewers / testers such as AV Comparatives think of your AV.
• Always check the full URL of a financial site to ensure you are where you think you are – better still, type it yourself rather than use links in an eMail.
• Don’t trust any eMail that asks for any personal information, especially financial.
• Always check that the email from your financial institution is actually from them.
• Never give out your personal logon details to anyone – this includes your bank as they should never need that information.
• Take the approach of never trusting any eMail or web link unless you are 100% satisfied that it is genuine or has come from a trustworthy source.
• Equally, never open any attachments (especially from friends) unless you know they are sending it. It never hurts to double check.
• Finally, when logged in, ensure your browser is in secure mode.

In short, apply some common sense and avoid providing anything of a financial nature to a faceless website or eMail.

As I said above, you can’t prevent phishing attacks but by applying the above steps you will go a long way towards avoiding falling for their traps.

Also remember that only a few ever fall prey to these attacks and I’m hoping the above advice will reduce those numbers even further.

Have I missed any advice in my bullet points?

Do you take active steps to avoid scams?

Or are you a blind truster?

I want this to happen but at the same time I’m not sure I want to hear what you folks really think about this blog!

Do I honestly want to know what you think or am I happy to live on in blissful ignorance? Being the person I am I’ve opted for the latter and am grateful to Paul at OurChurch.com for giving me the opportunity to be reviewed by my fellow bloggers on the 31 Days to Build a Better Blog challenge.

So onwards then.

To give some idea, I’d really appreciate feedback on the following items (one, many or all), but do feel free to throw any brickbats my way no matter how trivial they may seem to you.

So, layout and design first:

• General layout, font size, width of the text (I want it wider – do you agree?) or blog, readability, etc …
• Colour / graphic elements. Is it too blue? What about the header – I know I need a graphic / specific ChurchTechy logo but I’m grappling with lack of ideas – can you suggest something or better yet design me one?
• Sidebar elements. Is there too much, too little? If so, what should change?
• Would you prefer the “alternative layout” (see bottom of the post for an image and the bigfoot bit would become a CT image)?
• Advertising – I’ve been an avowed anti-adverts person partially because I don’t want to get into the battle of trying to understand them and integrating them but mostly because I’ve not taken the blog that seriously. But if I included adverts would you care? Would you click through if relevant?
• The “more tag” – until recently I’ve been a regular user of the more tag so as to keep the homepage down to size, but of recent have stopped that as most folks land directly on the post page anyway. But I really want to know if you click through when you see the “read more here” tags or not?
• Does the blog display well in your browser of choice? If not, what’s wrong / missing / broken?
• Is it easy enough to find other content?
• Have you noticed the Skribit tab on the right hand side? Would you ever use it? Or should I dump it?

And now some thoughts about the content:

• Are my posts too technical or too dumbed down?
• Do I come over as patronising?
• Am I covering the topics that interest you?
• If not, what’s missing?
• Do you like my use of graphics? I decided about 6 to 8 months ago to start using them in every post – should I do more, less?
• I know this is a technically aimed blog but of the posts you’ve read are they aimed right for you? Would you care if I included off-topic posts? Please also tell me if you are a technical or non-technical person?
• Are my posts too long? Or should I offset those by including shorter ones?

And a final area of thoughts comes under other:

• Does the site load quickly?
• Do you like the use of the IntenseDebate plugin?
• Would you like more options to register for commenting?
• What about my ‘About‘ and ‘Vision’ (EDIT: no longer present)pages – are they useful? Do you ever read these things? Are they missing anything or do they have too much/ little in them?
• If I didn’t have a tag line (mine’s “Where Tech meets Church”) would it matter?
• Anything, and I mean anything else?

Click for larger version

Thanks for taking the time to read this request for a review and I do hope you take the time to consider and answer as many of my queries as possible.

If you only have the time or patience to answer just one point then that too would be as useful as answering all the points. Finally, if you want to address any of the points in greater length then do feel free to use my contact me form.

Today I’m starting a new series on “Internet Safety”. And I’m going to call it Internet Safety Sunday or ISS for short so that it can be utilised as search keyword on Twitter.

The idea being that every Sunday I publish a tip, software review, advertise links, give my opinion, etc… on the subject matter of internet safety. Although not directly related to the most recent lessons in the ProBlogger 31DBBB course, not indeed any of its lessons, I feel a series is something this blog is lacking.

So to start the series off here’s my opening tip:

Establish Guidelines

Be you a parent at home, a business or a Church then you need to have clear and established guidelines.

• Establish a policy for acceptable computer use.
• List what may or may not be allowed including clear rules about time limits.
• Be upfront with your children / employees / volunteers that this policy will be enforced and monitored.
• Try to set a policy that respects their privacy whilst maintaining your rights over the equipment.

Specifically I’d add the following when children are involved:

• Don’t allow internet enabled computers in a child’s bedroom. Keep it in a public area.
• Set time limits.
• Consider their age, maturity level and inclination towards risky behavior when setting any guidelines.
• Discuss beforehand what to do if any issues arise.

What about your guidelines?

Do you have any at all?

Why / why not?