MONEY: “Phantom loads” cost you money in power bills

Thursday, November 29, 2007

http://www.backwoodshome.com/blogs/JackieClay/2007/11/26/we-made-another-giant-step-yesterday

***Begin Quote***

We’re still kind of working the bugs out of the system; we’d gotten lazy about things like turning off the lights (with the generator on, what the heck?), phantom loads (unpluging the TV when you’re finished, not just pushing the off button, cause it’s still ON!), etc.

***End Quote***

Maybe I’m anal, but I hate to pay for nothing. And, that’s what “instant on” translates to.

Also, don’t forget those “warts”, you know the various and sundry “wall warts”, power “adapters”, the things that convert AC to DC. Running all the time.

I put them on a power strip with a switch and click off the entire strip when I’m not charging something.

A penny here and a penny there, and before you know it you have two whole cents.

;-)

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PRODUCTIVITY: What’s the usefulness of PLAXO? the jury’s still out imho.

Thursday, November 29, 2007

FROM AN EMAIL BY A FELLOW LINKEDIN-ITE

>Do you use any of the other online networking forums/tools such as Plaxo?

I’m very active on LinkedIn, Facebook, and have accounts on many other sites that I don’t use a lot. New one comes out I try it just to see if it’s the LinkedIn replacement.

I am a blogger here, so I spend a lot of time on that. I frequent a slew of LinkedIn related forums. As well as many Yahoo Groups

Plaxo is a strange duck. As an email address sync tool it was: lame in V1, good in V2, and broken in the new V3, what they call “beta”. I use that and Corex Card Scan, which was flawless, but is now just average and has intermittent problems.

Plaxo is now trying to morph into LinkedIn. LinkedIn is trying to morph into Facebook, Facebook is trying to morph into LinkedIn.

Nobody wants to focus on their own niche and focus on doing that well.

>I’d like to know which is most useful or if they all are useful in their own right.

The problem is no one is satisfied to just do something well. Every one wants to be a “swiss army knife”. SO your “useful” question can NOT be a static answer.

With the new limits of Plaxo and now ISPs becoming involved with Plaxo, it’s all muddled.

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LIBERTY: Wave bye bye to the First Amendment!

Thursday, November 29, 2007

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Judge Napolitano hits Congress.

Sigh!

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LINKEDIN: Updated taxonomy of LinkedIn “identities”

Thursday, November 29, 2007

My taxonomy of things you might see on LinkedIn

===beginning of list===

ABILLGATES – high value contact, who may or may not have authorized it, guarded by a troll, who doesn’t permit access to the contact except by preapproval.

ALTEREGO – a second profile of an individual to feature a different persona; seen by a doctor musician or was that a musician doctor.

BEAUTY – recruiter creates an identity, with all the characteristic of someone they wished they represented. When people connect, they then try to form up a solid opportunity with the person so they can represent to the real person.

CLONES – recruiting troll takes a profile that is liked and “replicates” it into his geographic hunting zone for the purpose of finding “buyers” and like minded “sellers”.

DUPLICATE – a second profile to segregate their “open” and “regular” networking. Or, created in order to “start over” with LinkedIn from a clear slate. Or, a just blunder.

EMPTYSUIT – just abandoned

GHOSTS – really deceased, like my high school chum

PRANKS – people set up profiles of people for hahas responding or not as the spirit moves them.

PSUEDOS – I’ve seen no degree candidates create a virtual “clone” of themselves and add a degree. Then, control access to the “psuedo” and, when approached, they will try to sell into the opportunity.

RECRUITER – executive search, retained, contingency

SCARECROW – recruiting troll creates a mythical person as “bait” with the characteristics they see in “their” candidate. They do this to encourage connections from inside or outside recruiters where they can then “switch” in their candidate.

STRAWMAN – owned by a recruiting troll, advertising a real someone, and who will “toll booth” you to make contact)

ZOMBIE – an identity of potentially a real person setup by someone else for other purposes like expanding their contact list, looking more popular, or writing their own recommendations)

===end of list===

One characteristic to look for is a single, or sparse, contact list.

Another is there are several “stubs” found “close by” a single recruiter:

I only tumbled to this “barbara streisand” when I tried to reach an old College friend and hit a toll boother.

Another time I found my “credentials” on LinkedIn copied to someone in Kansas City. Exactly; my babblings are pretty distinctive, so they do show on searches. So my curiosity was piqued, I pinged, and never heard anything again. I deemed that was a “clone”, designed to flush out a buyer in that area?

This is posted not to give you ideas, but to give you an insight as to what you might find.

Remember, on the net, no one knows your a dog!

I’m just an injineer; not a hunter, nor a seeker, and I haven’t stayed in a Holiday Inn Express lately.

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20071215 Found a new type of troll — POLITICIAN — like a “doll”?

There’s a “Hillary Clinton” and a “Ron Paul”!

Those have to be a violation of the LinkedIn TOS, contrary to the spirit of LinkedIn, and injecting your politics into an inappropriate venue.  IMHO.

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TECH SERVICE: FACEBOOK has HONESTYBOX

Thursday, November 29, 2007

http://manhattan.facebook.com/profile.php?id=32104185

***Begin Quote***

I don’t get it. What is Honesty Box?

People who choose to have an Honesty Box on their profile can get messages from anyone that has access to their profile. These messages are anonymous. That means you will never find out who wrote on your Honesty Box. It’s fun because you can find out things people think about you that you wouldn’t otherwise.

***End Quote***

So the person has to be a registered Facebook user. If your comments get “ignored” to many times, you get locked out as a spammer. (Not sure that really follows.)

So being a glutton for punishment, I put it up. :-)

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