Google’s Notebook is a winner imho when I’m doing web research

Friday, May 19, 2006

I "prospect" for my fellow alums for a number of different purposes. What started as doing an alumni ezine morph into agreat job networking tool. Google's Notebook makes the process even easier.

FOr example.

I'm mining Ziggs. I have Zigg search for "manhattan college". It pops ten or so links per page for pages and page. Arghh.  It was too hard to go line by line and not lose one's place. I do this when time permits.

Now, with GNoteBook, I bring up the page with the links. Open each link in a new window.  Highlight what I want name and email. Tap on the note icon and it's capture. Pretty swift.

You need a Google email to use GNoteBook. If you need and invite, yell. 

Leave a Comment » | ALUMNI, JOBSEARCH, Technology | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj

When running multiple platforms, use dedicated email to ensure consistency.

Friday, May 19, 2006

I use lots of platforms — LUGGABLE, OLDLAP, DSKTOP, WORKTOP, SPOUSETOP, ANCHOR, JOKE, BROKETOP, and OFFAL. Each of those has, or had, a specific purpose. When I wonder how I keep, kept, or am keeping everything straight, I always come back to "email". Each machine has it's "own" email address. "Directives" can be sent from a "master" email to these secret email addresses and form a todo list when appropriate. It should be possible to form up a private Google or Yahoo group to keep it all flowing nicely. Interesting concept? It works for me. When all you have is a hammer, then every problem is a nail. Pity what happens to a screw!

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Posted by reinkefj

ElephantDrive, yet another xdrive competitor, can you say “commodity pricing”

Thursday, May 18, 2006

http://www.elephantdrive.com/ 

***Begin Quote***

How much does it cost?

ElephantDrive is free during the beta period, but ultimately will be offered as a paid service. The current plan is to launch the paid service in June 2006, with standard accounts tentatively priced at $9.95/month for 10 GB of storage, decreasing for larger accounts. We are offering the service free during the beta period not in effort to trick users, but because your feedback is extremely valuable to us and will help us create the best possible product.

There will always be free accounts of limited size available, and we will never “hold your data hostage” if you decide not to continue with ElephantDrive after it moves to a paid service. In the event you decide that ElephantDrive is not for you because of pricing (or for any other reason for that matter), we will hold you data for at least 30 days while you move it to an alternative location and then remove it from our system for your privacy and protection.
***End Quote***

Another offer of free web space? Wow an embarrassment of riches. What data shall I put here? Obviously nothing too valuable or irreplaceable. I've actually started "pairing" free services. Put data store X on vendor A and B. Put data store Y on vendor C and D. Two of them won't go belly up at the same time. Will they? And it's just backup data.

Hmmmm? 

2 Comments | Technology | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj

What to do if all the “good” domain names are gone?

Thursday, May 18, 2006

An irate inet fellow was grousing about the "good" names are gone and "they" want 100k$s (new dimension of money  — hundreds of kilo dollars) for them. What is one to do?

Being an injineer, trained to solve other people's problems at the drop of a hat, I came up with a question and at least one alternative.

Question: What makes a domain name "good"? Short, memorable. Maybe?

I understand well the game that is being played on us.

https://reinkefj.wordpress.com/2006/05/17/yahoo-wants-to-get-you-interested-in-registering-a-domain-why-bother/

BUT having said that you need to be in the “game”.

I have two thoughts.

(1) Go offshore. I took Reinke dot cc because it was my last name and available. The "CC" in dot-cc refers to a tiny island chain in the Indian Ocean. It's the Cocos Islands, a 5.4-square-mile territory of Australia, population 650. Maybe I'll go visit someday? So QWERTY in Western Samoa is available. Just checked. You could be G @ QWERTY dot Web Site. Or there is .nz for New Zealand, .kz for Kazakstan. Mississippippians can go to .ms for Montserrati. Or Marylanders to .md for Moldova. There's lots of TLDs out there.

OR

(2) Go long. Buck the trend. Become G at QWERTY PLUMBING CONTRACTOR dot com which is also available.

I’m not so sure that the common wisdom is correct on short domain names. Yes, if you’re advertising on TV and you want someone to remember your phone number or website then you have to be as memorable as possible. In your case, I don’t think that applies.

Just my thoughts for what it is worth.

Remember you’re reading a fellow who uses <14 character random string> @ ISP dot net.

Will you every remember and type that? No. (Hell NO! but you could in a pinch, if you really really wanted to?)

But it’s very usable because you either reply or fire off a mailto weblink. 

So does dot com or short really matter? 

My answer is no.

Your Mileage May Vary. 

Now let me see if I can beat you to those names and sell ‘em to you for a big profit.  Was that QWERTY or YTREWQ? Dot CC or WS or TV or RADIO.

(You get the idea. Beat'em at their own game.) 

1 Comment | Technology | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj

Why is everyone now forcing password changes?

Thursday, May 18, 2006

Latest is verizon wireless. With a minimum of 8; max 20. No previous. Why are they "helping" me? Think I'm too stupid to manage my own life or did they lose them all?

Leave a Comment » | Ranting, Technology | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj

The need for a “good” email address!

Thursday, May 18, 2006

Permit me to offer some unsolicited advice?
I'd like to share something I wrote a while ago. I think it is even more true now. And easier to implement.

People sometime judge you by your email address.

I see that you have changed from Yahoo to Hotmail. IMHO I don’t think that’s a good change. People want to do business with people they can trust. Hotmail is associated with kids. Free services don’t engender confidence.For example, which would you trust more ReinkeFJ AT reinke DOT cc or ReinkeFJ AT hotmail dot com or supernerd @ gmail dot com?

I have two hosting companies I use at a very modest cost that I can recommend. If you’re interested?

Jasper Jottings is hosted by http://www.1and1.com/?k_id=9113251 and YAG is hosted by http://www.aplus.net/ (AP2297627204). I prefer 1and1 but either is good. And cheap. You can lock in a good deal for between 120 to 240 per YEAR! I think that is a minimal investment for a professional image.

FWIW

===

04/30/04

<snip> 

You should learn form the mistakes of others. You are not obligated to make EVERY mistake yourself into order to acquire wisdom.

IMHO the gold standard solution is to attach it to your own website with a hosting company. For example, me@mydomain dot com. When you buy your domain name mydomain dot com with a hosting company, they usually throw in email addresses with the deal. At least the good ones do. You MUST choose a good domain name for job search purposes. Use your name if you can get it. Mine was not available. Who ever heard of the Reinke Pivot Irrigator Company? But I did get reinke dot cc. But that is another story.

The silver standard is to buy your own email separately from a well-known financially sound company like Yahoo. AOL make you look like a kid. The bronze solution is to purchase or use a free redirector. Bigfoot has a pay service. For a while when email wasn't common and anyone would ask about the funny name, I used the lock in story in interviews to advance my value proposition. ("I minimize lockins personally and can do it for you"). Alumni associations and groups like IEEE all have free redirectors for their memberships. Anything is better than allowing an ISP to lock you into to "your" email address.
The bronze standard is use an ISP based account.

The lead standard is to use a free service like HotMail, or such. 

 <snip>

Your mileage can, and will, vary.

Good Luck,
fjohn

###

Leave a Comment » | JOBSEARCH, Technology | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj

Yahoo Phone: It had a hard start this morning!

Thursday, May 18, 2006

It took three cycles this morning before I could get YIM to open a phone line this am. That's not good. To compete with a land line, it has to be seven 9's reliable AND cheap. Just cheap doesn't cut it.

Hmm? 

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Posted by reinkefj

Yahoo wants to get you interested in registering a domain. Why bother?

Wednesday, May 17, 2006

Received an email from Yahoo offering a domain name for 2.99! 

***Begin Quote***

How long will you wait to get that domain for your business, hobby, family, or anything else that interests you? For only $2.99 for the first year, you'll get your domain name plus:

>  24-7 toll-free support: Get help if you have questions.
>  Bonus starter web page: Establish your web presence in minutes.
>  Domain forwarding: Easily send traffic from your other sites.

Your domain name is out there. Go get it. 

***End Quote***

 But, I've read GoDaddy's description of the add drop scheme.

http://www.bobparsons.com/index.php?/archives/116-guid.html

***Begin Quote***

Millions of good .COM domain names – on any given day over 3.5 million and climbing — are unfairly made unavailable to small businesses and others who would actually register and use them in ways for which the names were intended. Many times businesses accidentally let their domain names expire. When they go to renew them, they find they have been snapped up – and taken away with a huge expensive hassle to follow – by an add/drop registrar.
***End Quote***

So it's a waste to even bother looking for "good" domain names. They're all tied up by these phony registrars.

So Yahoo don't waste my time. 

1 Comment | Ranting, Technology | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj

LUG running wxp sp2 seems to “disconnect” every night?

Wednesday, May 17, 2006

Seems like at midnight or there abouts, LUG "disconnects" from my home network. Interesting because nothing will convince it to reconnect but a reboot. Interesting?

Leave a Comment » | Ranting, Technology | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj

Karen’s Replicator is a straight-forward backup utility that copies individual files and folders to another location

Wednesday, May 17, 2006

http://www.karenware.com/powertools/ptreplicator.asp

Karen's Replicator is a straight-forward backup utility that copies individual files, folders and even entire drives to another location. Its key feature is to schedule automatic backups. Simple, effective and … … free!

I use it to backup my luggable to my home desktop and my old laptop. While not precisely the same, if luggable would die unexpectedly, then I could take my oldlap laptop and not miss too much data wise. I would really like to be in the position of having two identical platforms but who can afford that? If I ever do it again, then that's what I'd do. It would be interesting since one would know what fouled up the environment. Sigh. Till then, I'll be using Karenware's replicator to duplicate data directories.

Of interest, the only trick I had to use was to define the other machines on the network to LUGGABLE so that they would each have drive letters. 

Hmm, other ideas?   

Leave a Comment » | Technology | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj

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