The social networking aspect of Internet life these days is intriguing and, for some, even fun, but there can be a downside to providing too much information. For an example, see this story about a man who was offered a lucrative job and probably should have kept his thoughts to himself.

The lesson bears highlighting: Never put on the web (and that includes e-mail!) anything that you wouldn’t want seen on the front page of the New York Times.

By the way, after you read the article, be sure to check out the R-rated (for language) YouTube spoof that it mentions.

I’m back from the lovely Little Dix Bay Resort in Virgin Gorda and yes, I had a wonderful time. My only complaint is that, while we were away, the lady who was watching our cats did something that shrunk all my clothes, even the ones I took with me. I’ll have to ask her about that…

But I digress. Virgin Gorda is part of the British Virgin Islands, which meant that I had no direct cell phone service unless I wanted to pay the exorbitant cost of using my iPhone internationally without an international plan. Since I don’t travel abroad all that often, such a plan would not be cost-effective, so I was left with four apparent choices if I wanted to call home: Use the cell phone anyway, use the hotel phone (also not cheap), use iChat (or similar) for audio chats, or do without.

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It’s that time of year when I can leave my cares behind and go on a nice, long (well, nice, anyway) vacation. I will be departing tomorrow, March 7 and returning on March 17, 2009.

This time, we will be shrunk to the size of a peanut and inserted into the stomach of a deep-sea-bound dolphin. While on this magical journey, I will have no contact with the outside world (and would sound really tinny even if I did), but fear not! Ed Covelli is standing by, ready to ably deal with any and all issues. As always, he can be reached at 212/201-1465 or via e-mail at ecovelli at mactechnologies.com. (You will have to edit the e-mail address after you click on that link.)

However, kindly postpone all unnecessary emergencies until my return. I don’t want Eddie to have all the fun, and it will give me something to look forward to as I eagerly contemplate my return home.