Richard Callaby – Page 14 – Online adventures of a modern Renaissance man…..

Some thoughts on Privacy in the age of Social Media.

Privacy on the internet has become a major concern for many people, especially as it relates to social media. Social media platforms collect a vast amount of personal information about their users, including their names, location, age, interests, and even their relationships. This information is often used to target users with advertisements and to build profiles of their habits and preferences.

One of the main concerns with privacy on social media is the lack of control that users have over their personal information. Once you share something on the internet, it can be nearly impossible to take it back. Even if you delete a post or account, there is still the potential for that information to be saved by someone else or to be cached by a search engine.

Another concern is the use of third-party tracking and profiling. Many social media platforms allow third-party companies to track user’s activity and use that information for targeted advertising. This means that even if you are careful about the information you share on social media, you could still be tracked and profiled based on your online activity.

There are steps that you can take to protect your privacy on social media. One of the most important is to be mindful of the information you share. Think carefully about what you post and consider whether you are comfortable with that information being publicly available. You should also be cautious about accepting friend requests or connections from people you do not know.

Another important step is to review your privacy settings on social media platforms. Most platforms allow you to customize your privacy settings to limit the information that is visible to others. You should also be careful about the apps and services you connect to your social media accounts, as these can also access your personal information.

Overall, it is important to be aware of the potential risks to your privacy on social media and to take steps to protect yourself. While it may not be possible to completely eliminate the risks, being proactive about your privacy can help you feel more secure when using social media.

Why I deleted most of my social media accounts and the reasons you should consider doing it yourself.

Recently, I have been deleting and removing just about every social media account I created in the past. Now, this is for a multitude of reasons. Many of these accounts I just simply neglect, I don’t have the time or the energy to maintain them all.

As well, many of these accounts were created simply for reasons to advertise my website or other reasons other than just what those platforms were meant to be used for. Meaning, that the motive behind some, but not all, social media platforms was simply to try and drive traffic to where I wanted it to go.

That is really a bad motive to create something that is a “social platform”, it contradicts the intentions of the creators of those platforms. It is selfish to do this, you wouldn’t want someone to create an account on a website you built just to convince others to visit something you did on a different website.

As well, the reason I deleted many of these accounts is that I wanted to make my online profile as streamlined as possible. If someone wanted to find me, then they can do so here, on my own website. There is no reason to go to other websites such as Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Quora, and so on.

Having multiple accounts all over the internet increased the chances of my username/password being breached in a data breach. While I strive to make sure each password, I use is different on each website the usernames may overlap. The more data I put out there for someone to find the more likely they may be able to guess a password of mine.

You are not obligated to create accounts on all these social websites. The fact that each website is free simply means you are the product. Why chose to participate in something like that? You aren’t being paid to share such information, and the people who are enriching themselves off your data aren’t exactly doing so for charity or to make the world a better place. Many of these upper executives have very bad motives for the profits that they derive from the data you freely share.

Choosing to not participate in something is empowering. Not being a part of an endless cycle of spreading hate and misinformation means you can live truly free.
I believe as a society we must get back to being more private about our lives. We don’t need to share every aspect of what is going on.

Now, I may still use some of these platforms, but to spread education. I want to spread positivity, not hatred. We need to design platforms that discourage hatred but encourage positivity. Currently, these platforms base everything upon engagement and not the intent of the message. That needs to change.

Choosing to delete your social media profiles may be difficult to some, but I believe the rewards far exceed any potential drawbacks.

Get That Job – Resources that may come in handy to pass a technical interview!

When preparing for a technical interview the more questions you go over and the more comfortable you are with answering technical questions the probability of you getting job increases. That is why I have assembled some useful resources to help you with that, of course, you can always check out my YouTube channel where I am going over these questions individually.

Here you can see some of the resources that I have found useful in this YouTube video below:

Of course, I am going to recommend websites like Codefights, as the premise of using this website is to connect you to future employers through their questions and answers. The way Codefights is setup is that they have gamified the whole process of the technical interview. You can see these questions beforehand and gain confidence in how to answer what questions may come up. The more you practice solving algorithms, the more you will be able actually to get a job.

There are other resources that I mention in the video, and I would encourage you to watch the above video throughout its entirety. Of course, if you know of any more websites or resources to help others prepare for their technical interview leave them in the comments below.

Get That Job – An Exciting New YouTube Series

Hello,

As some of you may be aware I was a Technical Trainer at one time in my life. As I am attempting to get back into that field I thought that the best way to do that is to start a series on YouTube where I cover the most common coding questions asked during a technical interview.

You can find the playlist here:

As I have just started creating this playlist there may be not a whole lot of content covered. However, I can assure you there is going to be plenty more questions and answers covered. With a series such as this, there really is no end. So, hopefully, this will become a go-to resource for any college graduate that wishes to obtain a job in the software development field.

29 Most Useful Websites/Apps for College Students

Recently, I have been busy creating more Kindle books and now a Udemy course. These events have been fun and actually quite challenging at times. Whenever I create something new for people to see and use in their everyday lives I always learn something new.

In order to get more people interested in this subject, I have created a small but very useful min-course by the same name on YouTube. You can find the playlist here:

As well you can find the Kindle book on the Amazon Kindle store. However, you may get more use out of the Udemy course as I will be updating that on a more regular basis.

The Unvarnished Truth about Prolific Authors

Recently, I came across a blog post from someone in my past. In that blog post, this person mentioned she was part of some group where there was an author who has published some 100+ books in his lifetime. While this number is very impressive, it is also a sign of someone who truly understands the business of writing and publishing.

You see prolific authors are so prolific because fundamentally publishing books or other works is in itself a business. Each work can act very similar to an annuity of sorts in that the payment for any written work can be paid over the course of one’s lifetime. So, therefore it behooves a writer to be as prolific as possible to keep growing this level of income.

The simple fact is that many of the most prolific authors didn’t write every single word they had published. It wouldn’t make good business sense to do so! Rather, by outsourcing, at least some of their time to researchers or even those who help create rough drafts is a better use of their time.

How would I possibly know about this? Well, I have spent some time ghostwriting for some of these so-called prolific authors myself. Of course, because of privacy reasons, as well as Non-Disclosure Forms, I am not able to talk about whom I have helped in the past.

I also know there are several large businesses that supply ghost writing services for some of the most famous authors that you may read. Again, this is something not talked about in the writing community, but it does happen.

It is folly to compare yourself as a writer to those whom you may feel are more prolific than yourself. In fact, it is folly to compare yourself to anyone else.

As well, in regards to the ethics of using ghostwriters to help you out that is beyond the scope of this particular post.

My point in writing this is that once you fully grasp that writing and publishing are, in fact, a business, you will be better able to leverage your time and resources to become far more productive. You can’t just blame your current situation for your lack of time to get things done.

Just write, write every single day.

My Return to Facebook – How to use Facebook to your advantage!

Hey,

As everyone is removing or deleting their Facebook accounts I want to just briefly mention the reasons why I returned to Facebook. Quite simply this is best said in my YouTube video I posted up just a few hours ago.

Of course, not everyone will agree with me and that is perfectly fine. Using social media should be to your advantage and not to the detriment of your own social life. As always, be cautious of what you read, think critically, and just be wise about your time.