LINKEDIN: May I suggest that you might want to add more contacts to your LinkedIn profile?

Thursday, November 22, 2007

SHARED WITH ONE OF MY LINKEDIN CONTACTS

May I suggest that you might want to add more contacts to your LinkedIn profile?

LinkedIn is the “find” and “be found” site. But your profile has to be “real”. There are many suspicious profiles on LinkedIn. My taxonomy is: ghosts (abandoned), strawman (owned by a recruiter advertising a real someone and who will “toll booth” you to make contact), scarecrow (owned by a recruiter who will try to sell you a substitute), a zombie (an identity of potentially a real person setup by someone else for other purposes like expanding a contact list to look more popular), and an alter ego (a second profile to feature a different persona). One characteristic they all share is a single, or sparse, contact list. Your contact list is like that. If you’re not getting the results you want, that might be the reason.

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INTERESTING: grieving for US social welfare programs

Thursday, November 22, 2007

http://seekingalpha.com/article/54831-the-5-stages-of-grieving-over-the-u-s-dollar

***Begin Quote***

Finally, stage five, acceptance. The foreign currencies rise to sustainable levels versus the US dollar. Inflation and real economic activity decline in the foreign countries. They begin buying more goods and services from the US, and dollar claims are redeemed. Inflation and interest rates rise in the US, as we have to produce more to pay off the dollar reserves now being redeemed by foreigners. (Send us goods and it will pay off your debts! Amazing how the US got good terms on both sides of the transaction.”)

Well, maybe. It will take a while before all major trading parties in the world float/adjust their currencies to fair levels. At the time that happens, though, it will be obvious that the US is less important to the global economy. The relative value of all US assets will be a smaller proportion of global assets, though it will still likely be the largest share in the world. My view is this process to get to stage five will take no more than 10 years.

By that point, the hopelessness of Federal social insurance programs like Social Security and Medicare, plus underfunded Federal and state retirement plans, will force benefit reductions and tax increases on the US, and crimp borrowing capacity, unless they borrow in a currency other than dollars.

There are five stages of grieving for US social welfare programs as well, but I am afraid we are only in the first stage now, denial.

That is a topic for another day, and not one that I am excited to talk about.

***End Quote***

Happy tday! Enjoy it. The tough times are most certainly coming.

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TECH SERVICE: GOOGLE is a complicated beast!

Thursday, November 22, 2007

Just when I think I am at the top of my game, I find out how little I really grok!

Take the mighty GOOGLE for instance. It too can be a little schizophrenic!

For the longest time, I thought I was the one going nuts. When I would post on fellow blogger’s blog hosted at BLOGGER, now a GOOGLE minion, I’d try to use one of my funny email addresses tied to reinkefaceslife dot com like “The Big Turkey” for Dave Opton’s blog about job search.

(You know how I try to partition my life despite Gandhi’s admonition and GTD’s paradigm. Maybe I am the schizophrenic?)

So for the longest time, I when I’d want to make a comment at Dave’s blog — something truly insightful or witty imho — I’d tap out my comment and then try to authenticate to BLOGGER using my GOOGLE account. But, I always had trouble and eventual would take one of the other options.

Had similar problems, at the South Brunswick blog where I wanted to be “a libertarian in 08824”.

But authenticating to and signing in to Blogger was always a hassle. And, I attributed to a hidden Google cookie.

Being the naturally insistent jerk that you all know and love, and like pet with a quirk you see on America’s Funniest Videos, I kept trying. I wonder how many hours I’ve wasted banging my fingers on the keyboard just trying?

SO for the South Brunswick blog, I came up with a workaround. Before I’d post at BLOGGER, I’d log on and off and on again to GMAIL with “a libertarian in 08824”. Then, having cleared the “mythical GOOGLE cookie”, I could go an make my comment and BLOGGER would find my old “a libertarian in 08824” GMAIL signon cookie from the other FIREFOX tab and all would work perfectly.

(Note that this workaround reinforces my belief in the magical GOOGLE cookie that prevented my from using the BLOOGER “use your GOOGLE account” authentication mechanism.)

So I thought I was pretty smart!

So, now, I want to comment and use “The Big Turkey @ Reinke Faces Life” account to comment on a different BLOGGER blog. (It was going to be a wonderfully insightful and funny comment about cannibalism on Thanksgiving being unacceptable to the the big fat old turkey hisself. I thought it would be funny.) But, I could NOT authenticate to BLOGGER. (and, for it to be funny, it had to come from “The Big Turkey”!) So I tried my magic workaround. Which, of course, when needed would NOT work.

Now, I am faced with evidence. (Always, an annoying fact of life!) TBT @ RFL is working for email purposes cause I can see it in outlook. I KNOW the passwords for sure because ROBOFORM keeps all my passwords precisely! I can NOT authenticate to BLOGGER to make my comment. I can NOT authenticate to GMAIL to use my working email. I can not authenticate to GOOGLEACCOUNTS even though … hmmm.

Eureka!

TBT @ RFL is a GOOGLEAPPSFORDOMAINS account!

Remember back when Google announced APPSFORDOMAINS? You could turn any domain into a fully functional one for free. (Hey I admit I’m cheap, but I also like to try everything.) So, I put RFL on GAFD!

BUT, that’s not the same as having a GOOGLE ACCOUNT!

Cute.

GOOGLE is the one that’s schizophrenic.

By way of a test I created “yet another blogger” at rfl dot com. And, proved you can sign in to GMAIL or GOOGLEACCOUNT with it, but you can logon on to GMAIL via the GAFD interface. (How’s that for confusing!) And, even stranger, using that id you can create a GOOGLEACCOUNT with it.

(Now I have to go create GOOGLE ACCOUNTS for those email addresses in RFL that are in GAFD!)

So the moral of the story, is GOOGLE has some split personalities.

And, keep poking at something and eventually all will be revealed.

(But does it have to take so long and make me look so dumb?)

Happy tday.
from the big fat old turkey hisself

Turkey illustration

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JOBSEARCH: “career plan” – 1

Thursday, November 22, 2007

Answer #1

***Begin Quote***

The best one is a combination of your own brain, a pencil and a piece of paper (back of an envelope if you’re a startup kind of guy). Simple is best.

***End Quote***

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TECH SOFTWARE: YAHOOMUSICJUKEBOX does an update when it wants too!

Thursday, November 22, 2007

It’s bad enough when a big giant takes over a software product. It’s bad enough when it insists it’s going to do stuff it’s way. It’s bad enough when it takes all the file associations for its own. But, today to listen to an MP3, it decides on doing a mandatory upgrade. No explanation; just goes off an does it. Never mind that I don’t have time for it now. Never mind that I may not necessarily want their “upgrade”. Never mind that it fires up YIM which I don’t want up. Argh! And, it wants a mandatory reboot. Double Argh!

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