JOBSEARCH: Don’t discount age in search time

Saturday, March 10, 2007

I guess I was 40 when it first slapped me in the face. A Wall Street HR type, bluntly, unprofessionally, and oblivious to the fact I might be wired, told me to my face that I was “too old” for Wall Street.

Actually the bozo did my a favor.

I immediately updated my emergency fund formula with a factor for age. I put a multiplier in the calculation that guesstimated weeks to find a paycheck that was age specific.

(It’s currently still set at 30=1/40=1.5/45=2/50=3/55=4/60=5/65=6! I have no idea if that is the right setting, but you should see the newly minted turkeys eyes bug out when they catch a glimpse of that.)

In actuality, I am coming to the realization that at 65, all you’ll get is my career aspiration — to be the old fogy that’s the WalMart greeter. Seriously, maybe then I’ll get over being an introvert.

Point of emphasis, I think at these advanced ages, you ARE after all just one step from the nursing home and another step away from the grave, only likely to succeed in your own business.

As Amerika grays, I think those that can grasp the prejudice, like a nettle, will succeed. The rest will be eating dogfood and playing mahjong at some retirement village in lower slobbobia.

Depressing. “I coulda been a contenda!”


XPfails – luggable – Lost DNS; shift to VWBBIE

Saturday, March 10, 2007

Apparently have lost DNS, shifted to VWBBIE, called “home”.

Time to think about OPENDNS again. Put it on the 2do.

VWBBIE feels downright “spritely”

Download Speed: 495 kbps (61.9 KB/sec transfer rate)
Upload Speed: 33 kbps (4.1 KB/sec transfer rate)

And, I even “see” that the venturi caching server is offline. Interesting.


GUNS: Of course the Second Amendment recognizes an individual right.

Saturday, March 10, 2007

http://www.nraila.org/Legislation/Federal/Read.aspx?id=2724

http://tinyurl.com/33zr23

D.C. Gun Ban Ruled Unconstitutional, Violates Individual Right To Own A Gun
Friday, March 09, 2007

***Begin Quote***

This week, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the Second Amendment is an individual right and concluded that the District of Columbia’s ban on guns in the home is unconstitutional. According to the majority opinion, “[T]he phrase ‘the right of the people’…leads us to conclude that the right in question is individual.”

***End Quote***

In a victory for all the little people of the District, our right was affirmed.

Now let’s see what roadblocks the “state uber alles” throws in everyone’s way.

I find it hard to believe that it was 2-1. Send that judge back to private life. I bet she has an armed security detail everywhere she goes. Taxpayer funded of course. If I was a citizen of the District, then I’ve have demanded her recall. (Yes, it’s a she. Appointed by Regan!)

Of course, if I was a citizen of DC, I’d have moved eons ago.

Let’s face facts. Most of DC’s violence is caused by the “War on Drugs”. End drug prohibition and you’d end the violence. End the various wars on nonsense (drugs, gambling, prostitution, and all “victimless” crimes) and it would be a peace in minutes.

What does an out of work drug dealer do?

End welfare, absurd taxation, and ridiculous regulation as well.

You’d have a city that would rival Singapore in a matter of “minutes”. People would be moving to DC as opposed to fleeing from it.

And, maybe bribing politicians wouldn’t be its only industry.

With a tax, regulatory, and legal environment like that maybe we could make something useful there.

One can only dream!


JOBSEARCH: Handicapping jobsearch / networking tools. Everything has value.

Friday, March 9, 2007

In alpha order:

* ACT is a true CRM, does email, but doesn’t sync like Plaxo, and doesn’t interface with LinkedIn. No support.

* JibberJobber is an up and comer. It is a true Web20 application, allows you to get your data in and out, doesn’t do email, but is more like a CRM for jobsearch. And, the support is responsive. (This is my current front runner.)

* LICM is not CRM, has a harder interface, and is tough to get into. It depends upon LinkedIn. Has support.

* LinkedIn (MySpace for Business) enforces its model of networking, doesn’t allow you to input stuff, and doesn’t make it easy to keep your data. It doesn’t talk to anything else. Support unresponsive for the most part.

* Outlook is ugly, but it does email. (I’ve tried the BCM addon and it was terrible.) Microsoft and support in the same sentence; that’s a joke.

* Plaxo syncs but not much else. (But its vendor never claimed it was a CRM.) Has good support.

* ZIGGS20 is really slow, brain dead, ugly, doesn’t sync, and appears to be a dead end. Data in but it doesn’t come out. No support.


INTERESTING: Cryptology should be practiced by all

Friday, March 9, 2007

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml;
jsessionid=UXQ40JSPCWITXQFIQMFCFGGAVCB
QYIV0?xml=/news/2007/03/08/wmafia08.xml

http://tinyurl.com/399emv

Mafia boss had messages delivered by bus
By Malcolm Moore in Rome
Last Updated: 1:57am GMT 08/03/2007

*** begin quote ***

Investigators, including a team from the FBI, have spent the last eleven months deciphering his code. The investigation has led to dozens more arrests, as his crime syndicate was dismantled. Earlier this week, Vincenzo Piraneo, who drove a bus down the 189 road between Palermo and Agrigento, was arrested for allegedly helping Provenzano distribute his pizzini. A further 21 arrests were also made.

*** end quote ***

Interesting that if one does cryptology right, then no arrests would have been possible.

One time pads, RSA, and cyclic substitution ciphers are virtually unbreakable. The British had to capture the Enigma to break it. The Americans broke the Japanese codes because of a breakdown in transmission security. The FBI broke the mad bomber’s rants because he left a worksheet around.

The amateur should look for the crystal box. How does it work and how do I know it’s secure. It doesn’t matter what the claim for a black box, you can NOT trust it.

How many of us have encrypted stuff and forgotten the key? I have.

Interesting problems.

 


XPfails – luggable – BLOGDESK loses the ability to talk to the target

Friday, March 9, 2007

Interesting. Every once and while, BLOGDESK loses its mind. It fails to complete a conversation with the target blog it is storing into. I don’t know who to blame (i.e., the Blog site, XP, or BlogDesk). But only a reboot will clear. After a restart, everything works fine. Now that I have gotten in the habit of SAVE then PUBLISH, it’s NBD (no big deal).


FUN: Cute joke I hadn’t heard before.

Friday, March 9, 2007

FROM LUDDITE’S WIFE

*** begin quote ***

Finally, a new bumper sticker for BOTH political parties.

This hottest selling political bumper sticker: “RUN HILARY RUN”

Democrats put it on the rear bumper.
Republicans put it on the front bumper.

*** end quote ***

But, where would a Libertarian put it?

… anywhere he could in New Hampshire?


GUNS: Gun used to stop an attack. No shots fired. Kudos to the hero.

Thursday, March 8, 2007

http://www.clarionledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/
article?AID=2007703050350

http://tinyurl.com/3bsdt4

March 5, 2007
A death averted
# Passer-by uses gun to halt attack
By Nicklaus Lovelady

***Begin Quote***

As customers watched in horror Sunday afternoon, a man stabbed a woman and attempted to set her on fire in the parking lot of a Jackson store, witnesses said.

The attack was stopped by a passer-by, who held the man at gunpoint until police arrived, witnesses said.

***End Quote***

This writer is going to be drummed out of the liberal media union.

Violating the “gunz is bad” mantra.

Here we have a passer by using his tool to save a woman.

Other passers by didn’t interfere. Going face to face with a knife wielding nut isn’t good for your health.

What would they have done if they had been suitable armed?

It’s my “sprinkle a few sheepdogs amoung the sheep” argument.


LIBERTY: Death by Gooferment — Category: Skoolz

Thursday, March 8, 2007

http://www.lewrockwell.com/rockwell/
death-by-emergency.html

http://tinyurl.com/2a2ddg

Death by Emergency Plan
by Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr.

***Begin Quote***

A strange culture of emergency has taken over this country, and the slightest provocation triggers it. It could be an expected terrorist or just an old-fashioned weather warning. The officials are quick to swing into action, and tell you what to do.

The problem is that these demands are often based on nothing other than government plans that are not in your best interest. It behooves all of us to think carefully about genuine preparedness, which might often involve bucking the system and telling the emergency nazis to mind their own business.

*** and ***

The best approach to an emergency is simply to let people make their own judgments about how to stay safe. Instead, we have developed a system whereby a central plan goes into effect that applies to everyone. This is why evacuations tend to be mandatory these days, and why you are not allowed to rescue your own children from danger.

This brings us to the final presupposition of emergency management in this country: officials assume that you are their property. You have no rights, no freedom of choice, and no volition of your own that should be respected. Your one job is to obey them, and at least if you are killed, they can have bragging rights that they got everyone to go along.

At some point in the coming years, you will probably face this problem. There will be some emergency in which you will be told to put your life or that of your children in the hands of experts, who pretend as if they know what is best for you. Chances are that they don’t, and this emergency will be the time when you need to think seriously about fundamental values. Is obedience to authority more important than life itself?

***End Quote***

Here’s how the government kills its citizens. It tells them to do the wrong thing.

I’d charge those 8 deaths to the Skoolz and Mandatory Attendance laws. Wouldn’t you? The parents couldn’t get their kids because they were IMPRISONED in the gooferment jail-lite aka the skoolz!

You have to love how Lew rips the argument apart.

It all boils down to do you own your own body. If so, then NO ONE has the right to tell you what to do. It’s your problem. It’s always your problem. The gooferment’s courts have ruled that the gooferment has no specific duty to protect you. So why do people think otherwise.

Choose life. Ignore the gooferment. Make your own choices and deal with the consequences.

Any thing else, you’re just kidding yourself.


LIBERTY: Jury Nullification and 15 minutes of fame!

Thursday, March 8, 2007

http://www.drudgereport.com/flash1.htm

LIBBY JUROR: PARDON HIM
Wed Mar 07 2007 19:21:48 ET

***Begin Quote***

MSNBC host Chris Matthews spoke with Libby juror Ann Redington on HARDBALL. Juror [#10] says she would support a Bush pardon for Libby.

Transcript:

Chris: You’re for a pardon out of sympathy for the defendant.

Ann: Yeah, I think in the big picture, um, it kind of bothers me …

***End Quote***

Sorry, Ann, your 15 minutes is up. Now is not the time to have reservations. You could have “nullified”. Just like the juries that tried John Peter Zenger. Just like the juries that effectively ended Prohibition. Just like the OJ jury. Just like any juror could do.

If you have misgivings, then you just say “not guilty”. Don’t explain it. Don’t comment it. Don’t answer any questions about it.

Just exercise your sovereign right as a juror and then keep your mouth shut!