TECH: “MOZY” the auto backup service didn’t. Why?

Tuesday, June 13, 2006

MOZY is telling me it hasn't backed up in seven days? Argh, not to useful for an automagic backup utility.


TECH: “LINKEDIN” tips (?)

Saturday, June 10, 2006

http://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.


TECH: What is “LINKEDIN” and why should I care?

Saturday, June 10, 2006

http://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:

http://www.linkedin.com/in/reinkef

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


TECH: “HAMACHI” a free VPN proxy … plus KAREN’S REPLICATOR … equals a backup! (via Japan?)

Friday, June 9, 2006

Ahh, 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.


TECH: It’s Wireless Wednesday. I use my Verizon Wireless Broad Band all day?

Wednesday, June 7, 2006

Yup, 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!


TECH: “HAMACHI” a free VPN proxy … … just playing around!

Tuesday, June 6, 2006

It'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!


TECH: “MOZY” the auto backup service didn’t. Why?

Tuesday, June 6, 2006

Once 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? 


TECH: “OUTLOOK” does a “LOOKOUT”

Sunday, June 4, 2006

Most interesting.

This morning a routine email out to my isp started failing.  OK, no big deal. Often stuff has to try more than once to get out. After the third try, it was time to look into it. The message was "needs authentication". Huh? I haven't changed anything in my email accounts since I abandoned a spammy email address and created a new one. But that was a while ago. OK! Let's debug. Can we do the Outlook Lookout test account? Hmmm, everything works EXCEPT the send. OK, let's look at the email address. Looks good. Other settings? Hmmm, the outbound "needs authentication" box is unchecked. That's not right. Check it. Test it. OK. Send mail. OK. Hmm so how did that box get unchecked. Ghosts? The wicked witch of the west. Or just Outlook donning it persona of Lookout and making life interesting for the poor dumb user. And, people wonder why I want to leave Microsoft? At least, an open source vendor would be interested in my problem. Or at least feign interest if I was a donor. Heck, the beta software guys actually respond. Sigh!


TECH: “NUANCE” support “IBM VIA VOICE” sucks — buyer beware!

Saturday, June 3, 2006

http://www.gripe2ed.com/scoop/story/2006/6/2/04149/00911

http://www.gripe2ed.com/scoop/story/2006/4/11/0950/03255

Important points to note about the "doc with the broken software"

(1) It was the install that was broken, as well as the software.

(2) I paid for the support incident for which I got one email message to "try again".

(3) After a while, it is just not worth fighting about. They count on that! Give up; they win.

(4) After that, it is useless to resist. As a result, I will not BUY software retail. I will use Open Source and make a donation. But if it ain't fully functional, then I don't trust you.

(5) Guarantees, warranties, and rebates are worthless because they are not honored.

AND

(6) Never recommend anything altruistically because no good deed goes unpunished.

(7) Scansoft aka Nuance Sucks!


TECH: Verizon Wireless Broad Band (VWBBie) in Seaside Heights speed test results

Saturday, June 3, 2006

479.2 kilobits per second
Communications 479.2 kilobits per second
Storage 58.5 kilobytes per second
1MB file download 17.5 seconds
Subjective rating Not bad