This headline may sound a bit facetious, but it’s actually almost word for word from a friend of mine. He is currently fighting with Paypal to get the money back. Apparently it was used to buy “tokens” for some Facebook application or other.

Being the curmudgeon I am, I have never played a game or loaded an app on Facebook. Presumably, I’m there to keep up with friends and family, share some of my writing via links to other web pages, and to complain about day to day life. I get regular requests from friends and family to join some game or other, or to participate in their birthday calendar, or whatever. One thing and one thing alone has kept me from doing any of those things; it is that little warning you get right on your computer screen that tells you that if you allow the app or game to load on your account, you will have given the app or game permission to access your information and even your friends’ information on Facebook. I am just paranoid enough not to say “allow,” and quickly back out of whatever it was I just clicked on.

My friends, however, don’t have the same alarm bells ringing in their heads, and allow all sorts of things to get their information. Polls, applications, games, you name it, anything you “allow” by clicking through, have access to all sorts of information that you may not think should be that easily available. But if you’ve ever linked your paypal account to your facebook account so that you can play a game, you’ve just made an allowance for that game to have access to that information. So my friend, by agreeing to “allow” a game access to his information, is out $200 in tokens for a game he has not played in months. Good going.

The fact is, you have very little recourse to recover lost monies for something you agreed to in the first place. Many think, “it’s on facebook, it must be okay. Facebook would never hurt me.” Many of the apps, games, and polls on Facebook are run by third parties, and not by Facebook itself. Facebook, when pressured, will remove offensive or dangerous apps, games, and polls, but it is not checking all of those up front to be sure they are legitimate in the first place. It is definitely a “buyer beware” situation.

And why write about this on a website presumably catering to techs who should know better? Because if we’re not participating in these things, we certainly know family members and friends who are. And it is in our best interests (and theirs) to be sure they are being safe out there.

Just say no to Facebook apps.

[Article inspired by Facebook’s fantasy games cost more than time by Helen A.S. Popkin over on MSNBC.com.]

My particular area of geekdom involves finding alternatives and accessible solutions for technology issues for disabled students and college staff members. Throughout the country, geeks like me working in colleges/universities and corporations struggle in making basic and advanced technologies available to disabled students and staff. Up to five percent of the population of the United States’ workforce is disabled, and up to thirty percent of students are classified as such. Statistics indicate that as more wounded soldiers return from overseas and our country’s population grows, our disabled population will only increase, and that naturally means more disabled persons in the workplace. And of the workplaces in America, more than 60% do their day-to-day business using technology, i.e., computers.

What does that mean to people like us, who are the backbones of our company’s IT organization? It means we may be called on to provide adaptive technology or solutions that are outside of what we know. If you aren’t disabled yourself, you may not understand the needs of a disabled person just trying to do their job. But all organizations, regardless of funding or makeup, are required by law to provide accessible options for all workers.

Some of us may never encounter a disabled person in the workplace that needs our help. But most of us will, and we should be prepared for that time when it comes. And we do that by making an effort to understand disabilities, and learn about accessible solutions, whatever they might be. Over the next few weeks I will be posting several articles with disability services in mind. Hopefully these articles are helpful and timely.

In the meantime, you might want to check out the government’s ADA website, to get a handle for what is required and expected of employers. My future posts will concentrate on specific adaptive technology that you may encounter in your workplace. I will also discuss adaptive changes you can make to existing software and hardware as quick ways to add adaptability for user needs. There is no such thing as “Universal Design” when it comes to adaptive technology, but there are some standards that can be followed, and I will cover those, as well.

Please feel free to leave a comment asking for me to cover a specific item or topic, and I will be happy to accommodate that.

I’ve just been talking to a colleague in the US and it’s clear that one of the few “technological” differences between the US and Europe is in the cell phone market, so for the benefit of  US readers, here’s a top ten guide to the basics of European mobile telecoms.

i) They’re called mobile phones.

ii) Wireless carriers are network operators, though most people would just ask, “What network are you on?”

iii) The caller always pays for the call. Regardless of whether I call from my mobile phone or someone calls me while I’m on my mobile phone, the caller always pays. I don’t pay to receive calls except when I’m roaming –see below.

iv) All phones use the GSM standard, so as long as I have an unlocked phone and a SIM for the particular mobile network, I can use the phone with that network. All SIM cards are made to the same standard, so they’re interchangeable in the phones (unless there’s a SIM-lock).

v) Mobile phone numbers are not geographically attached, i.e. looking at my phone number will not tell anyone whereabouts I live.

vi) When I’m in my home country, e.g. UK, I can only use the network for which I have a SIM, even if I’m out of coverage of my network but another is available.

vii) When I’m abroad in a different country, that’s roaming. I can use any network available, though usually my home network will have preferential rates with a local network. In this instance, if a caller calls me, he will still get charged for a calling a mobile phone at home but I get charged extra for the privilege of taking the call while abroad.

viii) There are two business models – contract and pay-as-you-go (PAYG). I don’t think that there’s much difference here between the US and Europe, only that PAYG is much more popular in Europe, whereas contracts are the norm in the US. Feel free to correct me if I’m wrong.  PAYG SIMs are nearly free on most networks, so if you have a GSM phone and you are visiting from the US, it’s a great way to make local calls on your phone, without incurring huge transatlantic charges.

ix) Most networks don’t bother with customisation of phones beyond putting their logo on the body or setting the home page on the browser.

x) There are only four operators with their own network in the UK (O2, Orange, T-Mobile & Vodafone). However, there are a couple of mobile virtual network operators – MVNOs – such as Virgin Mobile, which piggyback on someone else’s network.

Hopefully that clears up some of the confusion between the two markets and provides useful info for visitors.