TECH SERVICE: Hushmail offers “encrypted” e-mail … almost!

Sunday, November 11, 2007

http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/Hushmail-Privacy-Limits-Revealed-89283

 

Hushmail Privacy Limits Revealed
Significant difference in java, non-java versions
01:20PM Friday Nov 09 2007 by Karl

***Begin Quote***

Hushmail offers encrypted e-mail services for the paranoid and/or privacy conscious. The company uses cryptographic and encryption protocols OpenPGP and AES 256 to scramble the contents of messages stored on their servers. According to the company, “not even a Hushmail employee with access to our servers can read your encrypted e-mail, since each message is uniquely encoded before it leaves your computer.”

However, Wired News’s threat level blog notes that this protection only goes so far. The blog notes that one version of the company’s platform contains a loophole that allows law enforcement to request un-encrypted messages en masse, defeating the purpose for some of the service’s regular clientelle:
A September court document (.pdf) from a federal prosecution of alleged steroid dealers reveals the Canadian company turned over 12 CDs worth of e-mails from three Hushmail accounts, following a court order obtained through a mutual assistance treaty between the U.S. and Canada.

***End Quote***

Don’t bet your freedom on anything you don’t control.

# # # # #

Leave a Comment » | SERVICE | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj

TECHNOLOGY: Chase sucks

Saturday, November 10, 2007

http://www.chase.com

Just wasted a half hour of my life with Chase. I pay my Mom’s bills. Been doing it for awhile. Today, I go to logon and the account is suspended. Huh? Worked last week. They tell me that “the account is set up wrong” and it will be fixed on Wednesday. Huh? Argh! What changed? What a bunch of bozos. Doesn’t inspire confidence.

# # # # #

Leave a Comment » | Technology | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj

LINKEDIN: “Liveliness”

Saturday, November 10, 2007

At the end of the first week: (for all contacts older than one month)

%Dead 0.0720
%Unresponding 0.6490
%MyEmployer 0.0719
%HeadHunters 0.0182

# – # – #

My original focus was on “breakage”. But at a little more than 5%, that’s not terrible. I am attempting to “reach around” the break. That’s how I describe sending an InMail directly to a contact of the “broken contact”.

Since my first email only induced about 30% to respond, I’ll have to figure out a better approach.

Sigh. Always more to do!

# # # # #

Leave a Comment » | LINKEDIN | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj

TECHNOLOGY: Visible Path helps business people manage social networks

Friday, November 9, 2007

https://hooversconnect.visiblepath.com/

 

***Begin Quote***

Visible Path helps business people manage social networks and build relationship capital.

Our free service helps business people map and manage their professional social network, connect to contacts, collaborate with colleagues and gain insight into the relationships they have and access to the ones they need. Our paid corporate networks help companies connect their employees and provide access to the corporate social network to sell, market and recruit more effectively.

***End Quote***

Looks like they dusted it off and spruced it up. Maybe the feed the hamster inside cause it seems to be working now. As opposed to the way it was, which was to just sit there. Never would get off the front page. But it’s doing stuff now. We’ll see if it is of any value.

By the way, it should say “manage its own social network”; it doesn’t speak to LinkedIn, Facebook, MySpace, or any of the other 80 or so social networks that I know about. So that certainly “observation #1”.

# # # # #

Leave a Comment » | Technology | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj

LINKEDIN: Track the origin of the species

Friday, November 9, 2007

In building your LinkedIn circle of connections, it appears wise to have some organized system of tracking them from the beginning. Lest, awhile down the road, you WILL be asked “How do I know you?”. Sometimes that’s a tough question. Unless you have anticipated it.

# # # # #

Leave a Comment » | LINKEDIN | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj

LINKEDIN: Reaching out to your LinkedIn contacts

Wednesday, November 7, 2007

FROM A LINKEDIN QUESTION, MY ANSWER:

*** begin quote ***

I recently started a new job. How can I send an update message in to all of my LinkedIn connections letting them know?

*** end quote ***

I’d suggest going the extra mile and send each person a personalized email.

It can be identical in content but you’ll find that individual messages get through spam filter easier.

Also, if by chance a email address is out of date — not likely that would ever happen with LinkedIn-ites — my current number of bum address is 7% — you’ll have some personalized text to resolve it. Sometimes bounces don’t really give you enough to go on.

You can even repay the Universe for your good fortune by asking if they need you help.

If you use Microsoft Word, Exce, and Outlook, it’s pretty easy to do a merge. I download LinkedIn contacts into an XLS sheet. Spruce up the name field. Create a message in Word. Then run a merge. It’ll stuff them in your Outlook email outbox and they ship out on the next send receive.

All pretty easy to do.

# # # # #

Leave a Comment » | LINKEDIN | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj

TECH SERVICE: TinyLoad – a file upload service

Wednesday, November 7, 2007

http://tinyload.com/

 

***Begin Quote***

TinyLoad – a file upload service started in Columbus, OH by a student of The Ohio State University – offers a solution to the overwhelming mayhem. The service allows users to upload a file once and distribute to various storage platforms depending on size or other requirements. TinyLoad does not currently account for the 80+ sites listed on Mashable, but includes more popular services like RapidShare, Amazon S3, FileSend, EasyShare, DivShare, and five others.

***End Quote***

Interesting. Store “important” files in multiple free places. Can you spell “encryption”? But an interesting concept for disaster recovery purposes.

# # # # #

Leave a Comment » | SERVICE | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj

LINKEDIN: Getting a subtotal by first letter of last name

Wednesday, November 7, 2007

You can subdivided you contacts into “panels” by the first letter of their last name. (It’s useful for may things. Days Outstanding measurement. Balancing what LinkedIn thinks you have versus what you have in Outlook.)

I have a little trick for finding out how many of a certain letter LinkedIn has. If you go to the “contacts” screen in LinkedIn and tap on the letter in the index, then up at the top is “showing xxx of yyyy connections”. And there is your check total. It’s better than trying to count, or print to count.

fwiw

# # # # #

Leave a Comment » | LINKEDIN | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj

LINKEDIN: LinkedIn requires a lot of activity to stay in sync

Tuesday, November 6, 2007

In my LinkedIn Outlook folder, I have 1109 contacts. In LinkedIn, I have 1100. Why the discrepancy?

And, it’s not easy to figure it out.

One can count until you’re bleary eyed. But it’s like counting sheep, it’ll put you to sleep.

And, is it an “activity trap” type of activity? Or, does it lead to something useful?

Don’t know.

# # # # #

Leave a Comment » | LINKEDIN | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj

LINKEDIN: You can be in LinkedIn’s “dog house” and not even know it!

Tuesday, November 6, 2007

FROM AN EMAIL TO A LINKEDIN CONTACT WHO HAD BEEN “POUNDED”:

*** begin quote ***

FYI Your profile has been sent to the “dog pound” by LinkedIn. I think you need to take some action on that, but I don’t know what to tell you. It’s my understanding that you will not, repeat NOT, be found in any LinkedIn searches if you’ve been “pounded”. So right away, I think you have a problem. It’s my again my understanding that LinkedIn has done this to anyone who has their email, or other strange characters in their name field. The hard part is only YOUR first level connections can see this “pounding”, and tell you about it. Others that I have told, have “fixed” the problem and about a week later were “un-pounded”. Please advise if, after you “fix” it, you want me to check for you again.

Fjohn

*** end quote ***

AND HERE”S WHERE I FIRST HEARD ABOUT IT:

*** begin quote ***

Is Your Profile Ending Up In The Linkedin Dog Pound?
Posted by: “Vincent Wright”
Tue Nov 7, 2006 10:01 pm (PST)

Because of the way the symbol for it is pronounced, I think of the “#”
Section of Linkedin’s Remove Connections as “The Dog Pound” . (Some may
think this a good name for certain types of profiles. :-))

In case you’re not familiar with the “#” Section on Linkedin, it’s located
at the end of the alphabetized list of your contacts at:
http://www.linkedin.com/connections?displayBreakConnections

You and I cannot place any contacts in this area. Profiles are assigned
there by Linkedin’s contact algorithm based on certain types of elements
being present in the name field – I believe.

Food For Thought: Some people may use this as a way to clean up “weak”
connections en masse. If this happens, your profile may unintentionally be
removed even by a connection who may know you pretty well as a “strong”
connection.

—
Thanks!
Vincent Wright
Chief Encouragement Officer
www.VincentWright.com

*** end quote ***

# # # # #

Leave a Comment » | LINKEDIN | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj

« Previous Entries
Next Entries »