RSSBANDIT failed in initiation. Stopping and starting didn’t help. Reviewing the task manger I couldn’t find anything to nuke. A reboot was required. The reboot process exposed a hidden window that was recorded as RSSBANDIT’s. I don’t know how one could find and nuke it without the restart. That seems like a design failure.
XPfails – luggable – RSSBANDIT fails
Tuesday, October 24, 2006
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LUGGABLE | 
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Posted by reinkefj
XPfails – luggable – wsod
Tuesday, October 24, 2006The white screen of death hit at 1215. Argh!
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JOBSEARCH: Think strategically; not tactically
Tuesday, October 24, 2006What does one tell a new turkey about learning the ropes? (A new turkey is a now unemployed person who has yet to realize that, de facto, they are a turkey!)
When this one turkey contacted me for help, he seemed pretty far up on the learning curve. He had a networking profile! Although he didn’t call it that. He thought it was just a short one page resume that he used for “non specific job opportunities”. But, that’s for another email.
So, it wasn’t long (less than a week), that I saw something that clicked his name in my mind. (I put any active turkey’s networking profile on my wall — not for them — to remind me it’ll be my turn soon!) The email’s quoted below. I immediately drop kicked to him. My thinking was that just because it wasn’t spot on, it was a GREAT opportunity in several dimensions.
My thought was that he could springboard off it to: (1) make contact with one of my silver hunters for future consideration; (2) learn everything he could about the 18 other opportunities that she said she was trying to source; (3) identify all those companies or agencies who were hiring; (4) identify all those supplier, customers, competitors, and cooperators who might have needs. AND (5) possibly trigger an idea for a new product, service, or niche that he could exploit.
Because he was presenting (A term I like from the TV show ER) like an experienced turkey, I did NOT go into this level of detail. I just mumbled something about it not being “spot on” but “exploitable”.
He kicked it back with he didn’t want to do intra-week travel on a steady basis.
First, he was focused tactically; I was thinking strategically.
Second, in consulting, there’s travel, and then there’s “travel”. I had a consulting job with 100% travel, and never left the tri-state area. What they meant was that you didn’t have an office. I was either working from my in home office or the client prem. So, he closed it down without learning what does travel really mean. (I was “out” when that consulting gig said “100% travel” and I was hungry enough to say “yes, but what does that mean?”!)
Third, he missed the point. Early in the jobsearch, you want a huge sales funnel. Premature pruning of leads eliminates all possibilities.
If you have and use a methodology, then you won’t do this. It used to be, when I was “out”, and I may well be “out” again, to never say “no”. That wasn’t my job. My job was to be always saying “yes”. “yes, maybe”, “yes, perhaps”, “yes what if”, but always “yes”.
When we hit them saying “no”, that’s when I would stop. (Usually because there was nothing further to be gained.) But not before I drained every drop of value.
A premature “no” in this case denied him the chance to find out who this silver hunter knew, to learn what he truly might not know that no one can tell him, and to practice the craft of interviewing.
(Yeah, yeah, you know what’s coming … a long boring lecture on the Johari window.)
We don’t know what we don’t know. Watch the quiz shows when someone gets a question wrong that they were 100% dead certain they knew. We need to minimize that column (i.e., that which we can’t see).
So, I would suggest that all turkeys always need to be thinking strategically and that a methodology will help you do that. It can be Lucht’s, Parachute’s, or a roll your own. The methodology will help decide when it is safe to safe “nah!”, “ney”, “nyet”, “no”, or “are you kidding me”.
***Begin Quote***
From: A Silver Headhunter
Sent: Monday, October 16, 2006 12:42 PM
To: John Reinke http://public.2idi.com/=reinkefj
Subject: Can you recommend someone for this job?
If you have a moment, I’d appreciate your help. Please take a look and forward this job on to anyone you think would be interested in the position, or anyone else who could help me find a great candidate.
We also have needs for the following types of people:
BLAH, blah, blah.
Thanks for your help!
-Lauren
Company: Management Consulting Firm
Job Title: ASSOCIATE PARTNER-OPERATIONS STRATEGY
FOR MERGERS & ACQUISITIONS
Description: INDUSTRY EXPERIENCE: Defense & Aerospace; Manufacturing, Automotive, or Hi-Tech
LOCATIONS: Most Major Cities
TRAVEL: Mon- Fri
The Candidate must meet the following requirements to be considered qualified:
BLAH, Blah, blah
COMPENSATION: 165-200K + bonus (35%)
———-
This email was sent to you by XYZ through LinkedIn because XYZ thought you might be interested in this job opening or know people who would be interested in applying.
If you wish to change how you receive future job notifications, please click here.
***End Quote***
###30###
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Posted by reinkefj
ALUMNI: Reconnecting with an old acquaintance
Tuesday, October 24, 2006Last night, when I went to my “computer governance” meeting at my alma mater, the Intelligent Designed sent me a present.
I was in a real funk with life in general, and the death of a fellow I knew in high school and college. He was number 5 of the 91 guys I graduated high school with in 1964. Seems like ages ago!
So, I guess The Intelligent Designer sent me a “pick up your spirits”!
My best friend in high school died in a 1974 traffic accident. (I think he was #1 of those 91, I talked about earlier! Hell of a time for him to get out and lead the group.) I think about him from time to time. When I want to go back to simpler times, when I was smart, and “rich” (I felt like I was rolling dough), and thin. (Ok I have never been thin! But, I was only chubby then.) But, I had a job, money, a car, friends, places to go and things to do! It was a “better time”; remembered times ARE always better?
So, last night, at this meeting, I reconnected with HIS old girl friend. She had to remind me who she was. I was blind sided, shell shocked, and tickled all at once.
We had a ton of laughs. Remembering the crazy things we did, the weddings, the parties, the formal dances, and my old truck that everyone piled into.
I guess the laffs were pretty loud. When people asked me how I knew her, I explained that “She’s one of the few people that I know longer than my wife.” ;-) She, of course, told lies about me when we were both a lot younger and crazier. I don’t think I did half of those things she remembered. Her memory wasn’t so good … she forgot the group’s many outings to the Red Garter for a lot of singing and drinking. Or visa versa.
Baring any mishaps, I’ll see her at these meetings twice a year. She promised to dredge up forgotten memories for out next meeting. I promised to pick Frau Reinke’s brain ’cause she’s better at this stuff than I am.
It was a hoot!
When I got home, I played “You’ll never guess who I met?” with Frau. After the litany of names, she didn’t want to play any more. Frustrated by my “not even close” responses, she asked for a hint. I said “wrong sex”. And, guessed it right away. How DID she do that? I can think of a half dozen other women that she might have answered.
Was this an example of synchronicity? Or perhaps “empathic marital telepathy”? Or a good old fashioned lucky guess.
It was an interesting evening.
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Posted by reinkefj
LIBERTY: The Churches should have been a counter balance to gubamint
Tuesday, October 24, 2006http://www.lewrockwell.com/rozeff/rozeff113.html
The Church’s Losing Strategy
by Michael S. Rozeff
October 24, 2006
The Louis M. Jacobs Professor of Finance at University at Buffalo.
***Begin Quote***
If churches are so short-sighted as to agree to play ball in the state’s ballpark by the state’s rules, and even anxiously elbow their way into the park to sample the goodies, they will have no one to blame but themselves when the state locks and bolts the exits.
***End Quote***
The oft repeated canard “those who ignore history are condemned to repeat it” could be amplified to say “those who don’t understand history are condemned to repeat it”.
In the Middle Ages, the Church was a counterbalance to the State. Who hasn’t read the government propaganda The Three Musketeers, where the valiant servants of the King battle against the evil cardinal. Unlike most kids, I rooted for the Cardinal’s Guard. Even at that tender age, I understood that the Church was voluntary, but the King wasn’t.
At one time in America, before the Gubamint changed it to Amerika, there was lots of competition to help the poor that didn’t involve the theft by the gubamint called taxes.
In my lifetime, I knew people who got help from: the fraternal organizations like the KofC, the Lions, and the Masons; all manner of vets (VFW, American Legion, & DVA); from the Churches (generically referring to the Catholic Church, the various flavors of Protestant, the major strains of Jewish tradition, and even something called the Ethical Culture Society), as well as ad hoc efforts by the local fire department, PBA, or such.
Now they are all but a shell of their former selves. They ceded the moral high ground to the gubamint in exchange for the proverbial thirty pieces of silver.
I remember a time when the poor were really educated in schools that really worked. There were public schools, but there was real competition for students. Parents sent their children to the Churches for a “good education”, or was that an “education in good”.
Eventually, the State’s high taxes and “free offer of education” seduced people into believing they could get something for nothing.
The Church’s didn’t fight that battle, when they could have won. Now they have to fight the battle when they are doomed. Remember Winston Churchill’s advice about fighting that went along the lines “when shall we fight?”. If you don’t fight the battle sooner rather than later, then you will fight it when you are weaker.
The Churches didn’t stand up and fight when it was easy and they were strong. Now they are forced to fight when it is hard and they are weak. Remember the parable of “The Wild and Free Pigs of the Okefenokee Swamp” http://www.geoffmetcalf.com/790.html
And, the cause of Liberty has lost a valuable ally in the war to keep the overbearing gubamint in check.
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Posted by reinkefj
FUN: The anti of fun – cruise ship with blocked toilets
Tuesday, October 24, 20061,500 cruise ship passengers without toilets for ‘three days’
23.10.06
***Begin Quote***
Around 1,450 passengers on a luxury cruise ship have been left without toilets for three days, according to people on board.
***End Quote***
I can’t imagine anything less fun than this. Unless it was that cruise where everyone one had Montezuma’s revenge.
And they say this is pleasure?
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Posted by reinkefj
LIBERTY: Why is the gubamint involved in car registration?
Monday, October 23, 2006http://www.popularmechanics.com/automotive/jay_leno_garage/
3475911.html?page=1
title
***Begin Quote***
Just think: In those days a 17-year-old could go to the motor vehicle bureau to get license plates for a homebuilt, motorcycle-powered vehicle. The folks at the office would say, “What kind of car is that?”
“Oh, I made it myself.”
“Lights work? Horn work? Okay, here are your tags.”
Can you imagine?
***End Quote***
This article gave me a new respect for the American ingenuity of days gone by.
I already like Jay Leno. This just added to that.
This article begs the question of why the gubamint is involved with cars and roads.
We could do much better without their “service”.
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Posted by reinkefj
LIBERTY: Taxes are theft and chasing after “government benefits” weakens us all
Monday, October 23, 2006http://www.lewrockwell.com/higgs/higgs51.html
How Government Destroys Moral Character
by Robert Higgs
October 23, 2006
Robert Higgs is senior fellow in political economy at the Independent Institute and editor of The Independent Review. His most recent book is Depression, War, and Cold War: Studies in Political Economy. He is also the author of Resurgence of the Warfare State: The Crisis Since 9/11 and Against Leviathan.
***Begin Quote***
“Thou shalt not steal” is a rule as old as human society itself. It must have been, else no complex human society would have proved viable.
***AND***
Government as we know it, however, rests entirely on this kind of sociopathy. Rulers take what does not belong to them and dispose of it to suit themselves.
***AND***
In some cases, especially in societies with governments that attempt to justify their existence and their actions on “democratic” grounds, many people may be taken in by this ideological sleight of hand. They may actually believe that “we tax ourselves” so that the rulers “we choose” can dispose of the loot in ways that “we voted for,” failing to appreciate the gulf that separates this pristine ideological vision from the sordid facts on the ground.
***AND***
The prevailing attitude seems to be the one expressed by farmer Charles Fisher, of Tulare County, California: “Whether it’s right or wrong, if they are offering it, you’re foolish to turn it down.”
In that single sentence, Fisher has encapsulated the rotten core of the welfare state, and he has concisely expressed how such a state destroys the people’s moral character. The loot is there for the taking; you’re a fool not to take it, notwithstanding that your taking it may be wrong. Financial gain trumps moral probity. Don’t be a chump; take the money.
I don’t know Charles Fisher, but if he is like a great many others who profit by despoiling their fellow man, with government acting as the facilitator of the crime, then I suspect that he is probably not the kind of man who would pocket his neighbor’s wallet if he saw it fall to the ground unnoticed, and he is almost certainly not the kind of man who would wait beside the road to carry out an armed robbery of the first passer-by. Yet he will steal from countless strangers – in effect, a little bit from everyone who pays federal taxes – “whether it’s right or wrong,” simply to bulk up his income from farming. (Needless to say, the so-called disaster payments rarely go to anyone who has suffered a genuine disaster; like most of what the government does, this program is for the most part a sham from the get-go.)
***AND***
“The state,” Frédéric Bastiat told us long ago, “is the great fiction by which everybody tries to live at the expense of everybody else.”
***End Quote***
I think, in a nut shell, that this fellow has wrapped up the issue of “government theft” and put a bow on it for us.
Taxes are theft. Thou shalt not steal. Seems pretty obvious to me. You?
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Posted by reinkefj
TECH: New version of copernic; locks up my platform
Monday, October 23, 2006http://www.copernic.com/en/products/desktop-search/index.html
http://www.webpronews.com/blogtalk/blogtalk/wpn-58-20061019CopernicDesktopSearchIsAMustHave.html
***Begin Quote***
<superlatives deleted; nothing left>
***End Quote***
I did try the new version. But the darn thing locked up the whole setup during install. So, I’ll wait to hear how others do.
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Posted by reinkefj
TECHNOLOGY: Search, even Google Search, has huge limits
Sunday, October 22, 2006I have canned searches to find my fellow alums. I am finding that more and more of the inet are not indexed at all. There is a TREMENDOUS amount of the inet that isn’t spydered at all. In my nievete, I used to think that Google and the other engines were pretty good. Now, I think they are mediocre at best. Arghh!
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