Culture Shock - Hospital iZation

Yesterday I spoke with a friend who had been to India for several weeks as part of a Rotary Club outreach.  She indicated that she had met a gentleman who had lost his family in a plane crash and subsequently started a hospital in India.

It was a touching story, but there was a strange twist that I was having trouble following. Several times, instead of simply calling it a hospital, she called it an iHospital. For the life of me, I could not figure out how this worked. Was this some new technology by Apple? Was this an online method of working on patients? Unfortunately, I was so caught up in this, that I missed some of what she was saying and ended up destroying the heart warming nature of the story with my big reveal.

As the story progressed, it became clear to me that I was missing something very important.  It turns out that this iHospital has several iDoctors who were helping out somewhere in the neighborhood of 150 iPatients a day.

That's when I realized my error. She was talking about an Eye Hospital.  Yeah, I shared my ignorance, and we had a good laugh.

I blame Steve Jobs.

Paid For Writing - Sorta

When writing e-mails at work, be aware that you are still writing.

Recently, I put together an e-mail article to a friend of mine. (Yes, sometimes my e-mails are much more than simple messages and are, in fact, articles.)  This friend has influence with one or two organizations who could use the services of my employer. So, I wrote the message with sales in mind. I also billed my employer for half of the time spent writing the e-mail since the organization could potentially benefit from it. To be fair to my employer, I forward the message to my boss and told him what I had done. He was pleased with the message and asked if he could post the message in his blog!

So, I have been paid for an article and have had it published.  Successful writing has humble starts.  Here is a link to the post containing my article:

The Perils of Out-Of-The-Box Thinking

Enjoy!

Advice to Computer Users

My cousin's computer was recently infected by Koobface.  Her system is now down and unusable until we can find a trustworthy source for removing it.

Some time ago, a company with which I worked was hacked through a phishing scam.  This event cost them about $750K in actual banked money.  Beyond that, they lost about a week of productivity from their accounting, legal, and IT support staff.

Both of these events could have been avoided by following a two simple rules when surfing the Internet:

1. Never click on links in unsolicited messages from anyone.
2. Never click on pop-ups.

Following those two rules religiously will go a long way toward guaranteeing safe surfing.  But, as stated, they are at the same time too rigid and not cautionary enough.  I presented them that way for ease of memory.  If in doubt, follow them religiously.

Added Cautionary Warnings
Unsolicited messages are messages that you receive by e-mail, twitter, chat, or any other form of Internet communication.  Chat can be on Facebook, AOL, Microsoft Live, Skype, etc.  Messages can come through your social network sites as well. These messages can appear to be from friends, from your bank, from some service you use on the web; they can come from sources that appear trusted.  They might ask you to click a link to go verify your account. They might ask you to watch a video.  They might appear very professional or very personal.  Resist the urge to trust them.

Relax
So what if your friend really does want to send you a link to a video with you in it?  What if your back really does have  a problem with your account?  Following that above advice to the letter will cause you to miss it.  There are never exceptions. Follow the advice.  But, if you get a message from a professional organization, call them.  If they're not a brick & mortar organization, navigate to the website directly, using the links that you normally use and not the links in the e-mail.  You will most likely find that there is no problem.  If the message is from a friend, send a separate e-mail back.  (Don't reply to the message or send a copy of the link!) Ask if they sent you a link.  If they don't respond, or if they say they didn't, then delete the message.  If it came in chat, strike up a conversation, ask them to send it to you via e-mail.

Pop Ups
Use your judgement here.  Some pop ups are not only fine, but they are required.  (It annoys me when a professional website requires them, but it happens.)  Use careful judgment.  When in doubt, don't allow the Pop Up.  If you are ever told in a Pop Up that you might be infected with a virus, do not click anything on the window.  Look at the task bar. You should see an icon related to that window.  Right click on it and select close.

There is so much more I wish I could tell you.  Maybe I will over time. For now, just follow this advice and you will avoid most problems. Every blogger should have a post like this or a link to a post like this.