IMHO, based on my measurement that an address book "rots" at about 10% a MONTH, you can count on not be able to find someone when you need them. Visa versa, when someone wants to find you, depending upon when your last contact was, they may not be able to find you! That's disastrous. Plaxo is free. And, I have even figured that the 50$ per year upgrade is cheap. (Especially when you think that LinkedIn wants 30$ per month!) So, I try to nag my contacts into Plaxo-izing!
TURKEYTECH: PLAXO, the antidote to losing touch with people.
Thursday, June 15, 2006
Leave a Comment » | 
JOBSEARCH, Technology | 
Permalink
Posted by reinkefj
TECH: “SCANSHELL2000N”, a notebook scanner
Thursday, June 15, 2006OK, I have an illusion that I will "be organized" just as soon as I don't have piles of paper. Instead I will have organized piles of electrons. :-)
Of course, no technology comes without "baggage".
First, why do I have to have windoze install the pig everytime I connect it? My Nikon camera shows up in "My Computer" even when it's nowhere around.
Second, how can I get this puupy to scan index cards?
Leave a Comment » | Technology | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj
Why Vin ain’t a conservative and it’s really about “tech”
Wednesday, June 14, 2006Vin points out the Washington shell game. And these are the people that are deciding how to regualte the internet, what technologoies win lose, copyright patent laws, regulatory agencies, the courts, and all manner of such stuff. We have outsourcing and the cubicle nation because of tax laws. And people say that politics ain't tech!
Leave a Comment » | Technology | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj
TECH: “MOZY” the auto backup service didn’t. Why?
Tuesday, June 13, 2006MOZY is telling me it hasn't backed up in seven days? Argh, not to useful for an automagic backup utility.
Leave a Comment » | Technology | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj
TECH: “LINKEDIN” tips (?)
Saturday, June 10, 2006http://www.socialnetworking-weblog.com/50226711/linkedin_tips_for_virtual_networking.php
Linkedin tips for virtual networking
Filed in archive Using Social Software by robyn on October 17, 2005
**Begin Quote***
If you're in a business function, you need to meet and contact new people all the time. One of my favourite tools is LinkedIn, a virtual networking system with a free level of access. The goal is to meet up with people of similar interest for mutual benefit and/or gain.
*** AND ***
Here are a few tips to get the most out of LinkedIn:
* Connect with everyone
* NEVER turn down a connection
* Make sure your profile is heavily detailed [I agree!]
* Endorse others [I agree!]
* Upload your contacts into their system to see who's a LinkedIn user that you can easily connect with [I agree!]
* Reconnect with their "Find a colleague" feature.
* Spend time searching for contacts on a regular basis
***End Quote***
Perhaps the key is how the writer sets it up as "need to meet" as part of a business like headhunter. As a seeker, I'm not so sure.
Leave a Comment » | Technology | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj
TECH: What is “LINKEDIN” and why should I care?
Saturday, June 10, 2006http://www.linkedin.com
(a social networking site for professionals)
The inet is expanding everything so fast that it's hard to keep up on everything. LinkedIn is a site (free! sort of!) in the social networking genre. Like MySpace is for kiddies of all ages, this purports to be a "networking" site for professionals.
It's networking … sort of. It's free … sort of.
It allows you to join up and put up a profile. That profile used to be visible only to "members". Since it's a free site, membership is kind of misleading. Now you can make your profile visible to the world. Mine is at:
Once you have joined, giving a "name", email address, and promise that they can never be held liable for anything, you can then invite people to join and be part of your "network". Sort of like MultiLevelMarketing but it's free. (They try and monetize it by getting you to pay to send lots of emails to strangers.) By judicious choice of your name, you can get your email address into it and people can find and contact you. Or put it in your short description.
I have written some suggestions about LinkedIn in the past on my blog.
So, now, you are all signed up, and you find out from various ways that I'm there. You can propose to me that because "we know and trust each other" (yeah right!) that we can do the LinkedIn version of the Vulcan Mind Meld. We can become "LinkedIn" "blood brothers", which allows you to look at my contact list and me to look at yours. You can then send a note to my contacts, which if I "bless", gets passed along.
That's what a LinkedIn user means by "look thru my contacts and see if there is someone that can help you". The implication is that they will forward your messages along.
You can search LinkedIn for say "AT&T" and, if someone who worked there or works there is registered with LinkedIn and put that in their employment history, it tells you all nine grazillion. If the person is within four hops of you (four degrees of separation), it will show you their description and you can seek a connect via "passing notes" over LinkedIn. If they are not, you can pay to send them an email if they allow it. It used to be FIVE hops but they tightened it down. It used to be unlimited communications but they tightened it down. There's no guarantee that the note will be passed along. There's no guarantee that it will move quickly (in fact it often dies of old age. There's no guarantees about anything in life so you roll the LinkedIn dice.
So that is LinkedIn. I think the jury is still out on it. I am not sure that it is as valuable as they would like everyone to believe. There are on it what I call "scalp hunters", who are running around making connections to have big numbers. They have no intention of carrying on an ONGOING conversation. They are the one night stand of LinkedIn. Do whatever they have to. Get you to do the Vulcan Mind Meld thing. Slam, bamm, thank you mam, and off they go. Never to be heard from again. I have been doing LinkedIn for two years now, and it is "different". It is FANTASTIC for identifying targets. As a networking resource, it's "useful".
So if we did the LinkedIn Vulcan Mind Meld, you could peruse my contacts for people that might be useful to chat with. That's what I often suggest to people. Because I don't know which one might be useful to you.
FAIWWYPFI FWIW IMHO YMMV
Hope this helps.
FjohnR
Yet Another Big Turkey
Leave a Comment » | JOBSEARCH, Technology | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj
TECH: “HAMACHI” a free VPN proxy … plus KAREN’S REPLICATOR … equals a backup! (via Japan?)
Friday, June 9, 2006Ahh, isn't it entertaining. HAMACHI gives me connectivity to the OLDLAP sitting on my sofa at home from LUGGABLE sitting on my lap at the Jersy Shore on VWBBIE. And, I can run KAREN'S REPLICATOR to back up my creations yesterday from LUG to OLD. In a few seconds, that's all it took. Now did they really go via Japan? Hmmm.
Leave a Comment » | Technology | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj
TECH: It’s Wireless Wednesday. I use my Verizon Wireless Broad Band all day?
Wednesday, June 7, 2006Yup, it's wireless wednesday again. You know fans the day I try to use my "beloved" vwbbie all day, or until I get frustrated and drop back to my employer's utility network.
And this morning, vwbbie is doing a little more poorly that usual. It's raining. Or at least threatening. And, we all know that stormy weather is the bane of the Internet Surfer Pro and all ISPs worldwide.
Here's the current speed reading!
***Begin Quote***
Download Speed: 125 kbps (15.6 KB/sec transfer rate)
Upload Speed: 101 kbps (12.6 KB/sec transfer rate)
***End Quote***
Of course, your mileage may vary!
Leave a Comment » | Technology | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj
TECH: “HAMACHI” a free VPN proxy … … just playing around!
Tuesday, June 6, 2006It's free. It installs. (Wonder if Nuance Scansoft knows this trick!?!)
=
Update: I have it up on LUGable and OLDLAP and did a ping between 5.44.69.171 and 5.44.68.254. The time was 4.5 secs. Does that mean it went from my sofa on LUG, to Japan, to OLD, to Japan, and back to LUG in 4.5???? Has to be a trick there!
Now what?
=
Update: Went to work, and despite the fact, or maye because of it, that it is wireless wednesday, (the day I run LUGable off VWBBIE all day, or for as long as I can stand it, I was able to reconnect with my HAMACHI vpn. I did a directory of OLDLAP and it responded as if I was sitting on my sofa last night. Hmmm, I'm STILL not sure what I can do with this, but it is neat!
Leave a Comment » | Technology | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj
TECH: “MOZY” the auto backup service didn’t. Why?
Tuesday, June 6, 2006Once again this week, MOZY is signalling that it hasn't abcked up in week. Why? It's had ample opportunities. So, there clearly is something that I'll have to report to beta test hq. Hmm. How did this get through alpha?
1 Comment | Technology | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj
You must be logged in to post a comment.