http://www.jimmyr.com/blog/Online_Education_Free_201_2006.php
Is it the piece of paper or the wisdow that you want? If paper, skip this. If wisdom, here’s free dikw for you.
TURKEY: A seeker could … … “Getting an Education Online for Free”
Monday, July 24, 2006
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Posted by reinkefj
TURKEY: OK, now you have an offer, what should you do … …
Monday, July 24, 2006This reminds me of the Sultan’s Dowry problem.
http://mathworld.wolfram.com/SultansDowryProblem.html
***Begin Quote***
A sultan has granted a commoner a chance to marry one of his n daughters. The commoner will be presented with the daughters one at a time and, when each daughter is presented, the commoner will be told the daughter’s dowry (which is fixed in advance). Upon being presented with a daughter, the commoner must immediately decide whether to accept or reject her (he is not allowed to return to a previously rejected daughter). However, the sultan will allow the marriage to take place only if the commoner picks the daughter with the overall highest dowry. Then what is the commoner’s best strategy, assuming he knows nothing about the distribution of dowries (Mosteller 1987)?
***AND***
The problem is most commonly stated with n==100 daughters, which gives the result that the commoner should wait until he has seen 37 of the daughters, then pick the first daughter with a dowry that is bigger than any preceding one. With this strategy, his odds of choosing the daughter with the highest dowry are surprisingly high: about 37.10% (B. Elbows; Honsberger 1979, pp. 104-110, Mosteller 1987; Havil 2003, p. 136). As the number of daughters increases, this tends towards 1/e approx 36.787…% (Sloane’s A068985).
***End Quote***
The best thumbnail answer is to listen to about a third and then take the next one that exceeds the highest you’ve heard so far. Not a perfect answer but surprisingly it gets the nod about a third of the time.
So to, the seeker, with an offer in hand, will rarely get a second one to weigh against the offer in hand.
As the inveterate tinkerer, I have some wisdom (I hope it’s wisdom and not barbara striesand) to offer:
(1) I evaluate offers on: (a) actual dollars, (b) commute, (c) “feel”, (d) potential earnings, (e) “potential opportunity”, and (f) “durability”. Being a mathematical kinda fellow, I have established “minimally acceptable” criteria in each dimension.
(2) One dimension doesn’t get to “trump” another dimension. Twice as much money with an arduous commute is not a good trade. I’ve done it I know.
(3) So as not to be labeled “job hopper”, I have to be able to keep the job for at least a year. That looks like two on a resume. That’s durability!
My policy is to take the first offer over the minimum in these six dimensions.
FWIW YMMV
Fjohn
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Posted by reinkefj
TECH: Microsoft Outlook has morphed once again into LookOut!
Monday, July 24, 2006After a recent mandatory Outlook update for “security”, I see two things have happened:
(1) Links are turned off in all email messages. Who agreed to that?
(2) The junk mail filter is capturing good emails. Even people who are in the Address Books. What’s that about?
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Posted by reinkefj
TURKEY: A current or future jobseeker should … …
Monday, July 24, 2006… alwaysbe “findable”.
In my mind, that means never using your employer’s email address in your networking activities. (I have gmail invites if you need them!)
So, that means you shouldn’t use an email you don’t control for networking sites like LinkedIn and Plaxo.
So, that means that you should join and use address synchronization sites like Plaxo.
So, that means you should track and measure the responsiveness of the people in your address book.
IMHO
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Posted by reinkefj
TURKEY: Allocating time among unending processes or projects?
Sunday, July 23, 2006I have lots of projects and processes that could be worked on endlessly. Looking for fellow alums, networking with LinkedIn, vampiring web data bases. Each of those worked on alone could absorb all the time. It’s not about perfection; it’s about a vast space that can possibly ever be covered. Argh. What happens when there are multiple of those.
I think the trick is to IDENTIFY those black holes of time. Then allocate some amount of time to be spent on that project or process.
In my mind, a project is a series of discrete steps that eventually complete. A process is a series of steps that you wish to perform each time. They are much alike hence confusion. So a project with a huge problem space (i.e., vampire an alumni database of all ~7k records) could be a time hole. So could a process of connect with every new fellow employee (an MSFT Exchange GAL).
Having accepted that there is no possibility of perfection, no possibility of completion, one must be satisfied with just good enough within limits of time available.
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Posted by reinkefj
MUNY: Throw away “lose-able” passport akin to the throwaway wallet.
Saturday, July 22, 2006http://www.kk.org/cooltools/archives/001308.php
When I’ve been outside the USA, I’ve always have normal copies of the passport on white paper. Always afraid of it getting lost or stolen. This seemed like a good idea.
It’s like the throw away wallet that I carry. (An old NYC trick. A wallet that is a real wallet, has some money in in it, old expired drivers license, expired credit cards, and “stuff”. The real one is not a wallet but a billfold, or an envelope, or an altoids box, or an empty card deck or cigarette pack! Really doesn’t matter what it looks like as all long as it doesn’t look like a wallet.)
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Posted by reinkefj
TECH: ZIGGS is a social networking site that was seeded with all public pages
Saturday, July 22, 2006It’s interesting that the site started by taking every public page that cited people and using that to see its social networking site. Now you can go an put your own page there. Interest for turkeys, seekers, and egotists who can brag about themselves. Not sure what the business model is?
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Posted by reinkefj
MUNY: Here’s a bunch of free tips about money!
Thursday, July 20, 2006
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Posted by reinkefj
TECH: Vampiring a website database
Thursday, July 20, 2006For many reasons, I often want to vampire an online site. I first tumbled to the concept when a certain online resource that I was using for my alumni research activities went offline for good. I was kicking my self for not having a copy. So I developed the technique of vampiring a website manually in a very organized fashion into a local copy. The problem occurs when you want to stay in sync sort of with it. That is can you come back to it a month later and find the adds and deletes. Changes are a much more complex problem. So here’s how I do it for the XYZZYX website.
(1) I use a spreadsheet to track the “database”. The first column is the web page sequence number and the second column is the entry number on the page. So the Fifth Sequential Page Seventh Item referred to Jones, I would represent it as “5”, “7”, “Jones”, and anything that was important to me.
(2) I’d open the Jones subpage and copy it to a text file (much smaller than HTML) saving it in a directory XYZZYX. If it’s going to be a LARGE number of entries, I may create 26 subdirectories A thru Z.
(3) I’d go thru the website db capturing data. When I revisit the database, since some most are too big to suck out at one sitting, I can then check key pages to see that the last entry on a page still lines up with my sequence number.
(4) If it lines up, I resume where I left off.
(5) If it doesn’t line up, I split the difference and check that page. In a 500 page database, I see I am out of sync when I try to resume at page 450. I’d go check page 275 and see if I was in sync there. When I find the discrepancy, I insert a new line in my spreadsheet for the new data and adjust columns 1 and 2.
Is this ugly, yup. Does it work? Sort of. It is posible to keep tabs on website data bases if you have an organized approach.
When you come back to look at it, you can spot check as above.
It is ESSENTIAL that you have an organized approach. It’s easy to become confused and frustrate yourself.
Questions?
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Posted by reinkefj
TECH: “OUTLOOK” does a lookout again!
Thursday, July 20, 2006(1) Apparently, LookOut (Microsoft’s Outlook’s evil alter ego) doesn’t honor the don’t send until flags. Argh!
(2) Apparently, Microsoft in its infinite wisdom has decided that now before I can click a link in an email, I have to say ‘mother may”. That’s is it turns off all links and it takes two clicks where one would do! Arghhhhhh!!!!
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Posted by reinkefj
TECH: Understanding the value of RSS as opposed to email.
Wednesday, July 19, 2006http://www.llrx.com/features/rss.htm
The Future of RSS – Is E-Mail Publishing Dead?
RSS-based Information And News Feeds: Pros and Cons For Content Distribution Through RSS
By Robin Good
Published September 29, 2003
Robin Good (Luigi Canali De Rossi) is the Editor of Sharewood Tidings, the alternative and independent news source on the effective use of new media technologies for online communication and learning. He is the author of several web guides, including Robin Good’s Mini-Guide, Become A NewsG-d.
***Begin Quote***
E-mail is a two-way communication medium while RSS is only a distribution one.
***End Quote***
To that, I would add that IM is email in real time.
This is still an excellent summary of the value of RSS. Or, distribution as opposed to communication.
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Posted by reinkefj
TECH: Determing age for legal purposes to a legal certainty!
Monday, July 17, 2006Jul 17, 2:10 PM EDT
Online Age Verification May Prove Complex
By ANICK JESDANUN AP Internet Writer
***Begin Quote***
NEW YORK (AP) — At MySpace.com and many other popular online hangouts, a 30-something woman can celebrate her Sweet 16 over and over with just a click of the mouse. A 12-year-old can quickly mature to meet the sites’ minimum age requirements, generally 14, while an adult looking to chat with teens can virtually shed several years.
***End Quote***
It would seem that the ISPs know who to bill for the cost of an internet account. That consists of a primary and zero or more secondary ids. It would seem that if there was a secure protocol to establish and transfer that knowledge this could be a solved problem.
Let’s assume for a moment that the unit of identity is the email address. The email address is defined by user name and ISP name separated by an at sign. A web site could inquire of the ISP does this email represent an adult, a teen ager, or a child. The ISP would have to provision the status of the email address by a query to the primary id. Ideally when the primary permits the secondary account it could be characterized at that time. I’d envision: adult, tween (i.e. between 13 and 18), and child (i.e., under 13).
To prevent spammers from using the service, the service could make it a stylized communication. The web site could inquire of its hosting entity. The hosting entity could inquire of its ISP. The ISP could inquire of its peers. It’s not a high volume transaction requiring fast turnaround.
SO a spammer could NOT say verify live email addresses or derive live address by submitting every address in a name space.
I’d also envision some type of micropayment per inquiry. Let’s say the inquiry costs the website a penny for the hosting company, a penny for the first ISP, and a penny for the final ISP. ISPs would surely net. It’d all be electronic so it would just be to ensure fairness.
Then web sites could establish reliably legally the age of a user presenting an email. The ISPs could help protect their Customer’s secondary users.
This represents my opinion and not that of my employer. I don’t design protocols for living; I’m just a philosopher. I’ll defer to the experts for feasibility.
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Posted by reinkefj
TURKEY: Business card jpeg as a networking tool?
Monday, July 17, 2006An email from a former colleague:
> Curious – do you still have that card scanner device? I was
> just wondering if there is some way to scan my card and
> insert it as a digital picture into Email communications
> for more effective networking, etc.
Sure, still capture every card I get my hands on.
Send one of yours and I’ll scan it for you.
I think the thing still sells for ~200$ I may have a coupon for the new one if you’re interested.
Effective networking? I’m not sure that will make a big deal.
I find that a web page, a blog, using Plaxo, using LinkedIn, and attaching a vcard to message might all be better, more effective, things to do to get networking.
I have a lot of stuff available thru my web site http://reinke.cc and my “I’m not a Nigerian spammer” page http://home.comcast.net/~v2y2r0n27rhj6y/My_generic_survival_pack.htm always get raves.
FJohnR
The Big Turkey
===
p.s.: Offer good to all my favorite turkeys
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Posted by reinkefj
TECH: “COMMONGATE” a free social site exposes another users info!
Monday, July 17, 2006After registering, going to the account page shows you someone else’s info. Doesn’t bother me because I use different stuff at different sites!
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Posted by reinkefj
TECH: “GMAIL” … is unavailable!
Monday, July 17, 2006On Mondat 2006-07-17 at 0445 edst! I guess Google Gmail has some warts despite what everyone thinks.
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Posted by reinkefj
LIBERTY: Money is no longer, and hasn’t been for a while, a store of value!
Sunday, July 16, 2006http://www.freemarketnews.com/Analysis/110/5618/texas.asp?wid=110&nid=5618
FEDERAL RESERVE POLICY DESTROYS THE VALUE OF YOUR SAVINGS
Tuesday, July 11, 2006
***Begin Quote***
The Treasury department parrots the Fed line that consumer prices, as measured by the consumer price index (CPI), are under control. But even many mainstream economists now admit that CPI grossly understates true inflation. The most glaring problem is that CPI excludes housing prices, instead tracking rents. Everyone knows the cost of purchasing a home has increased dramatically in the last ten years; in many regions housing prices have more than doubled in just five years. So price inflation certainly is alive and well when to comes to the largest purchase most Americans make.
When the Federal Reserve increases the supply of dollars in circulation, both paper and electronic, prices must rise eventually. What other result it possible? The supply of dollars has risen much faster than the supply of goods and services being chased by those dollars. Fed policy makers have more than doubled the money supply in less than ten years. While Treasury printing presses can print unlimited dollars, there are natural limits to economic growth. This flood of newly minted US currency can only increase consumer prices in the long term.
***End Quote***
When most people think of gubamint, they think of it’s “benefits”. Or, perhaps what they would like it to do for them.
Nice people, who would not think of pickpocketing your wallet, have no reluctance to authorize gubamint to do it for them.
Just as it is wrong for YOU to steal my wallet, it is just as wrong for YOUR gubamint to do YOUR dirty work for you stealing my wallet.
Now when we think of government theft, we might think of TAXES. But that, while bad, is just the tip of the iceberg. The gubamint has other tools that are worse. So, you pay your unconstitutional income tax and your immoral sales tax and your unbelievable property tax and you’re smugly happy. Let’s see how the gubamint sticks it to you!
Inflation, a tax upon your savings, is the bottom of that iceberg. That iceberg will sink the USA. If you think as you were taught by classical economics, then money is a store of value. But, it hasn’t been since Roosevelt took gold out of the money! The gubamint can finance all the guns and butter they want by just printing more money and you are none the wiser. Except your dollar buys a lot less year after year. This tax is FAR more devastating than those income, sales, and property taxes combined.
Unavoidable fees are taxes in dusguise that give the policticians and bureacrats slush funds.
Laws that the gubamint passes are taxes since they increase our costs directly and indirectly.
Regulations from the unelected bureaucrats are taxes since they increase our cost directly and indirectly.
The taxes, laws, and regulations imposed by the gubamint on corporations just get passed along to us people disguised in the price.
Don’t forget this is AFTER you paid income, sales, and property!
And, then you die, and then you get to pay a DEATH tax.
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Posted by reinkefj
TURKEY: Watch good movies that motivate you
Sunday, July 16, 2006I’m adding a movie to my turkey watch list!
Last Holiday with Queen Latifa
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/10004662-last_holiday/
Queen Latifah communicates a life-affirming spirit. This joins my list as something that a seeker can take a moral from and use. That message can motivate the seeker into action on what Covery calls “the things that matter most” which should never bump “the things that matter least”. While not as good as “Rudy” or “It’s a wonderful life”, it does communicate an important message.
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Posted by reinkefj
LIBERTY: Welfare, in all it’s guises, is about gubamint control!
Saturday, July 15, 2006http://www.mises.org/story/2218
The Welfare State’s Attack on the Family
by Vedran Vuk
Posted on Wednesday, July 12, 2006
***Begin Quote***
The agenda of the state is to break up the family. The more you depend on the state, the more you justify its existence, and the larger it grows. The idea that people can provide things for themselves either individually or through the family frightens the state. It delegitimizes its role. The role of the family is dangerous to its survival.
***End Quote***
The Communists attacked the family unit as part of their strategy to completely control everything. The Socialists do the same for the same objective. Welfare is that Trojan Horse into people’s minds. They don’t see the hidden agenda. Power!
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Posted by reinkefj
TECH: “OPENDNS” … an interesting alternative!
Saturday, July 15, 2006http://www.broadbandreports.com/shownews/76218
OpenDNS
Everyman DNS services
Posted on 2006-07-10 17:37:27
Kind words
“OpenDNS has done an amazing job running this free Internet resource. It’s a very impressive service built by experts in the field.”
—David E. Weekly, founder, PBWiki
****
Worth trying.
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Posted by reinkefj
LIBERTY: USF … yet another gubamint joke … but the jokes on us!
Saturday, July 15, 2006http://www.broadbandreports.com/shownews/76234
USF: The Bureaucrat’s Dream
Fraud, waste, and no oversight
Posted on 2006-07-11 08:48:54
*** QUOTE ***
We’ve long illuminated the fraud, waste and dysfunction inherent in the FCC’s USF and E-rate systems, which you pay into each month via various bills to help fund rural telecom deployment. Because the system is poorly monitored by the FCC, some allege it’s at best a slush fund for the incumbent telcos.
*** QUOTE ***
And, this is a surprise! Eliminate the FCC; the marketplace will organize itself faster, cheaper, and better.
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Posted by reinkefj
TECH: “CHOICEMAIL” definitely gets my “don’t bother trying” rating!
Saturday, July 15, 2006My free trial of CHOICEMAIL ended after thirty days. Remember it was pitched as “free for one account”. Guess it isn’t. Cause it just stopped working. Then, when you refuse to spend 59$ it picks up it’s marbles and goes home. That is it doesn’t restore your old email settings. AND, it doesn’t allow you to leave email on your email account forever and ever, it deletes it upon receipt. Arghh! Well, from free or beta software, I don’t expect much, or even that it’s housebroken, or even a well mannered guest. From a commercial product trying to convince me to buy, I expect a lot more. On a picky detail note, the product never figured out no matter how many times I told it, that YAHOO GROUPS was OK, not a spammer, and to pass it right along. So, I definitely will return to the trenches fighting spam on my own. I’ll just pray to Great Blue Frog Spirit in the sky for the coming of the Giant Blue Frog to save us all. Maybe that is IPv6!
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Posted by reinkefj
TECH: My “Bat Line” for urgent contact
Friday, July 14, 2006http://2idi.com/contact/=reinkefj
People have expressed interest in my “Bat Line” for urgent email contact.
I use different email accounts for different purposes and handle a LOT of email. So, it would be nice to have a spam free channel for urgent emails. Outlook rules move mail to the correct account if someone uses an odd one wrong.
A gmail id was created just for this purpose with one of my “patented” email addresses (i.e., long random gibberish string for the name). So it’s unguessable or find-able by the alpha spammers. I also use
But, friends, Customers, and others who know my system can get my immediate attention by putting a message in via this mechanism.
If I’m on any one of my computers, then the IM client tied to that email address will fire and alert me of “incoming” on that special account. I attend to anything coming in on that one ASAP.
It’s my signal to don my cape and save the world. :-) At least in my own mind!
Questions?
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Posted by reinkefj
LIBERTY: Forget free speech!
Friday, July 14, 2006http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/nevada/2006/jul/13/071310623.html
July 13, 2006
Valedictorian sues Nevada school for cutting off Christian speech
By RYAN NAKASHIMA
ASSOCIATED PRESS
***Begin Quote***
LAS VEGAS (AP) – A high school valedictorian who had the plug pulled on her microphone as she gave an address referring to Jesus Christ sued school officials Thursday, saying her rights to religious freedom and free speech were trampled on.
***End Quote***
That’s the problem with gubamint skoolz. First Amendment says the gubamint has NO right to prevent free speech. Any time one is placed in a situation where you have conflict, then you have to go back and study the rules. In this case, her free speech rights trump the gubamint. If it was a private institution, then the administration could enforce whatever rules it chose. See those administrators don’t see themselves as part of an oppressive gubamint. But they are. To the students of that skool, I’d say “learn what’s in store for you”. You’ll see the boot of the gubamint soon when you get your first job, your first car, or take your first trip. Remember that when the revolution starts.
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Posted by reinkefj
TECH: Feds can force you to a video?
Thursday, July 13, 2006DRUDGE REPORTS
http://www.breitbart.com/news/2006/07/12/060712191204.9i5b29n0.html
US unveils emergency alert system for mobile phones, computers
Jul 12 3:12 PM US/Eastern
***Begin Quote***
The US government unveiled a communications system that in case of emergency should soon allow it to send SMS alerts to Americans’ mobile phones and computers.
“We have the ability to do this. It’s a major step,” Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Director David Paulson told reporters outside the US capital as he unveiled the program’s design.
The Digital Emergency Alert System (DEAS) will include the participation of television networks and public radio stations and be based on an existing alert system built in the Cold War era for use in the event of a nuclear attack.
*** AND ***
Internet-linked computers will automatically switch on to a video message from the US Department of Homeland Security while downloading instructions prepared specifically from natural disasters, chemical and nuclear attacks, and other calamities.
***End Quote***
HUH! What else can they do? And, how are they doing that. More importantly, what else can they do with “my” equipment without my permission. Arghh!
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Posted by reinkefj
LIBERTY: NJ Sales Tax increase was unneeded!
Wednesday, July 12, 2006How about recognizing that government is the only entity that can “provide a service” that an individual doesn’t want and then force everyone to pay for it? The logical extension is that if you have to FORCE people to pay for something then that probably is NOT a good idea. The next realization is that people should be allowed to CHOOSE peacefully and without coercion those services that they want and those that they don’t. They can then pay for those used.
If MickyD’s said “everyone has to buy soda”, then my wife who doesn’t like their soda, wouldn’t shop there and they’d suffer. But, if it was the government, she had to pay for that soda even when she wouldn’t drink it.
It’s all about FORCE. The government will kill you if you don’t go along with it. Try not paying your taxes or not showing up for a speeding ticket.
We DO NOT have to pay taxes. We can pay for the services we use and NOT pay for the one’s we don’t want.
We DON’T have to give up local control. I can choose Burger King, McDonalds, or Theo’s to get a hamburger. Is there duplication? Yes. But, I am not FORCED to subsidize the joint that I don’t like.
If this was a private enterprise supplying a valuable service, the employees could take the service “private”. It happens on Wall Street, Information Technology, Drugs, and the Internet all the time. They may lose a job and find a career!
Pensions. Guess the judges and politicans will not be able to rip off the future taxpayers by working “multiple full time jobs”, “many part time jobs”, or packing the pensions with sick time and OT. We’ve been getting ripped off for a long time. It’s time that it stopped!
Campaign finance reform! Please, let’s stop kidding ourselves. It’s about free speech. If there wasn’t Big Government, then there’d be NO NEED for campaign finance reform.
IMHO, you’re shifting all so slowly to the realization that the taxes are not needed. The market place can be used to peacefully supply all our needs. The voluntary free exchange is the way to freedom.
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Posted by reinkefj
TURKEY: Find all my linkedin tips … …
Wednesday, July 12, 2006… … on my blog here. You can Google them, (and just them, thus avoiding all the ranting and raving on various topics), by feeding google “linkedin site:reinkefj.wordpress.com”.
The wordpress gurus told me this one. Didn’t want anyone to think I was smart enough to figure it out myself. Sigh!
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Posted by reinkefj
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