I had an interesting experience. In doing my alumni searches, I found a blog that was from an incoming student. They were ranting about something or other. Since I know a lot of people at the place, I offered to help. The person was mortified at what they had written. I told them it was no big deal but I’m not sure they believed me.
Lesson Learnd: Be careful what you post. Some will read it.
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Posted by reinkefj
http://changethis.com/25.01.PolkasPyro
25.01
POLKAS, PYROTECHNICS and POINT Ds: Pieces and parts of Seth Godin’s new book, small is the new big.
by Seth Godin
Here’s just a sip from Seth Godin’s latest book, small is the new big, a plentiful well of inspiration for your business and you.
***Begin Quote***
The end result is that it’s essentially impossible to become successful or well-off doing a job that is described or measured by someone else.
***End Quote***
WOW! What a slap in the face. It means thems that follows the “old rules” or an old paradigm will be like that Coyote chasing the Road Runner. This is the gauntlet that challenges all the Dilberts to escape.
I’m not even sure I want to survive in this Brave New World?
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Posted by reinkefj
http://www.jimmyr.com/blog/Online_Education_Free_201_2006.php
Is it the piece of paper or the wisdow that you want? If paper, skip this. If wisdom, here’s free dikw for you.
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Posted by reinkefj
This reminds me of the Sultan’s Dowry problem.
http://mathworld.wolfram.com/SultansDowryProblem.html
***Begin Quote***
A sultan has granted a commoner a chance to marry one of his n daughters. The commoner will be presented with the daughters one at a time and, when each daughter is presented, the commoner will be told the daughter’s dowry (which is fixed in advance). Upon being presented with a daughter, the commoner must immediately decide whether to accept or reject her (he is not allowed to return to a previously rejected daughter). However, the sultan will allow the marriage to take place only if the commoner picks the daughter with the overall highest dowry. Then what is the commoner’s best strategy, assuming he knows nothing about the distribution of dowries (Mosteller 1987)?
***AND***
The problem is most commonly stated with n==100 daughters, which gives the result that the commoner should wait until he has seen 37 of the daughters, then pick the first daughter with a dowry that is bigger than any preceding one. With this strategy, his odds of choosing the daughter with the highest dowry are surprisingly high: about 37.10% (B. Elbows; Honsberger 1979, pp. 104-110, Mosteller 1987; Havil 2003, p. 136). As the number of daughters increases, this tends towards 1/e approx 36.787…% (Sloane’s A068985).
***End Quote***
The best thumbnail answer is to listen to about a third and then take the next one that exceeds the highest you’ve heard so far. Not a perfect answer but surprisingly it gets the nod about a third of the time.
So to, the seeker, with an offer in hand, will rarely get a second one to weigh against the offer in hand.
As the inveterate tinkerer, I have some wisdom (I hope it’s wisdom and not barbara striesand) to offer:
(1) I evaluate offers on: (a) actual dollars, (b) commute, (c) “feel”, (d) potential earnings, (e) “potential opportunity”, and (f) “durability”. Being a mathematical kinda fellow, I have established “minimally acceptable” criteria in each dimension.
(2) One dimension doesn’t get to “trump” another dimension. Twice as much money with an arduous commute is not a good trade. I’ve done it I know.
(3) So as not to be labeled “job hopper”, I have to be able to keep the job for at least a year. That looks like two on a resume. That’s durability!
My policy is to take the first offer over the minimum in these six dimensions.
FWIW YMMV
Fjohn
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Posted by reinkefj
… alwaysbe “findable”.
In my mind, that means never using your employer’s email address in your networking activities. (I have gmail invites if you need them!)
So, that means you shouldn’t use an email you don’t control for networking sites like LinkedIn and Plaxo.
So, that means that you should join and use address synchronization sites like Plaxo.
So, that means you should track and measure the responsiveness of the people in your address book.
IMHO
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Posted by reinkefj
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
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
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
I’m adding a movie to my turkey watch list!
Last Holiday with Queen Latifa
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/10004662-last_holiday/
Queen Latifah communicates a life-affirming spirit. This joins my list as something that a seeker can take a moral from and use. That message can motivate the seeker into action on what Covery calls “the things that matter most” which should never bump “the things that matter least”. While not as good as “Rudy” or “It’s a wonderful life”, it does communicate an important message.
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Posted by reinkefj
… … on my blog here. You can Google them, (and just them, thus avoiding all the ranting and raving on various topics), by feeding google “linkedin site:reinkefj.wordpress.com”.
The wordpress gurus told me this one. Didn’t want anyone to think I was smart enough to figure it out myself. Sigh!
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Posted by reinkefj
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FJohn Reinke
Consultant at Technology Legacies LLC
Advisor, Computer Governance Committee at Manhattan College
Editor / Publisher at Jasper Jottings
Greater New York City Area
JJ Positraction JJ Endnotes Downsize DC
Philosophy of Liberty
I have NOT received any gagged governmental information requests
Reinke Faces Life 
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