TURKEY: Allocating time among unending processes or projects?

Sunday, July 23, 2006

I 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, 2006

http://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, 2006

http://www.ziggs.com

It’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

http://financialplan.about.com/od/personalfinancebasics/a/TopMoneyTips.htm

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Posted by reinkefj

TECH: Vampiring a website database

Thursday, July 20, 2006

For 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, 2006

http://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, 2006

http://tinyurl.com/lmup3

Jul 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, 2006

An 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, 2006

After 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

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