Todd Lyden

Image via  CrunchBase Firesheep , you've heard of it by now right? Barely around for a week in the world, this wifi hacking tool that apparently lets ANYONE hack your  Facebook ,  Twitter  and more already has an answer. An Icelandic student came up with a  quick response  this week called, appropriately enough, Fireshepard. Wow, problem solved for all those Wifi -using, coffee-sipping folks. We live in an age when problems are arising, but the solutions are coming almost as quickly. It begs the question , why do we have such problems? Those providing the tools are not obligated to our safety are they? It is taking the public to oversee and manage it. Faster and faster is good, but especially if you are solving the problem. Related articles PSA: Firesheep  ( balloon-juice.com ) Stop Firesheep With FireShepherd  ( gigaom.com ) "Firesheep," "Idiocy" Reveal Gaping Privacy Holes in Twitter, Facebook, Foursquare, More ( fastcompany.com )

So this blogging thing is fun. Between all the people hawking their wares, pitching their webinars, seminars and ebooks, there are people who are just using the medium and the tangents (most notably Twitter) just to meet other people. I think the information sharing and the exchange of opinions are the two most important things that are derived, weak ties be damned. I highlighted three bloggers a few weeks ago and I would like to do so again. First,  @damondnollan . I mentioned our  exchange a week ago  but really think you should give him a chance here at  his blog . Second,  @danperezfilms . Some might say I took it too far this week with  my open letter to Dan.  But his unhealthy obession with Tom Cruise (and mine too apparently) aside, Dan does great stuff online and you can find him  here . My only question is can he show me where how and when two of my favorite shows are shot, The Glades and Burn Notice.  Finally,  @markwschaefer ....

As I have become more enmeshed in blogging, communicating more online, and sticking my nose where it apparently doesn't belong, I've discovered that pretty much any with status ABOVE newbie has their own rules for how to interact on   Twitter , Facebook and the like. This is good. What is not so good is thinking that your  rulebook  should be everyone else's rule book.  Photo:  mrwrite People have no issue telling you the unwritten rules (or often written) that they operate by. This is probably good, because otherwise as you stumble through social media you are going to stub your toes on plenty of objects in the way. I wrote about having no social media strategy two weeks ago . To me, the biggest thing whether you are a newb or genius is to have realistic expectations. I suppose if you have 100000 followers on Twitter, you can place yourself way ahead of the pack and follow a completely different set of rules from the person with only 100 followers. Go write you...

Image via Wikipedia To: @danperezfilms Here is my rebuttal to your Why I Like  Tom  Cruise…And Why You Should Too Dan , you do a great job highlighting Mr. Cruise's career, but sir, you are glossing over too much. Between his STAR-making role in Top Gun (1986) and his turns in Rain Man (1988) and Born on the Fourth of July (1989), Cruise took on the colossal Cocktail (1988). I dare say that you have four movies in a row that pretty well established the character that Cruise would become for the rest of his career with a few exceptions. I firmly believe that Cruise was always looking for award bait early on and Born on the Fourth was first legit attempt.   In the Cruise filmography, you then noticeably skip some time. You skip his duds Days of Thunder (1990) or "Top Gun on a racetrack" and then Far and Away (1992), an excuse to star with his wife, work with Ron Howard, and presumably again, get some awards.  You move onto A Few Good Men (1992), (Top Gun in ...

Image via  Wikipedia I love  Scrubs . Even the last season, god help me. I watch every single episode and my DVR has burned through at least each season (except for the last two) at least twice, if not three times. There are a myriad of lessons that come from a show that I would put up with  MASH - oh yeah, I went there. The writing was great, the performance were awesome, and  Donald Faison  is one of the nicest Tweeters I ever met (go watch his  stop motion here ). Ok so one lesson that always stood out from early in the show was when JD was supposed to write his own evaluation of himself, but wanted  Cox  to do it. Some dialogue: Dr. Cox: It's time. Sit down, and listen up Newbie. I suppose you want me to say you're great? That you've raised the bar for interns everywhere? J.D.: I'm cool with that! Dr. Cox: Well, I'm not going to say that. You're doing ok. Someday you might even be better than that. But right now, all I see is a guy who's so p...

What I am thankful for. Have a great holiday!

So another slate of blogging proponents are quitting?  Nathan Hangen ,  Jim Kukral ,  David Winer  are amongst the names. Hangen was the most recent- his reason? No reason for posting any more or that it was a content dump? Do I feel like I am giving anything away? No. I've been worried about this because I was getting burnt. Mostly on my own self-imposed schedule of a post per day, but also on keeping up with the flow of information out there. The case for not giving up blogging? It only has to be part of the pie,  here Joel Spolsky  explains why this company is "taking it off line", but it seems like when blogging is what got you there, why would you just diss it? Hubspot had the rebuttal here:  http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/5680/Why-Joel-Spolsky-Should-Not-Quit-Blogging.aspx Kristi Hines explains why 5 common reasons for giving up blogging are bunk: http://kikolani.com/5-bad-r...