Reinke Faces Life

http://www.getdemocracy.com/

“Want to see the future of Net video? Download the open source Democracy Player”
Wired Magazine, May 2006

***Begin Quote***

Stop squinting at tiny web video. Instead, download and watch all the best internet TV shows in one powerful application: any video RSS feed, video podcast, video blog, or BitTorrent file. Fullscreen, high resolution, 100% free and open source. New channels arrive daily in the built-in Channel Guide

***End Quote***

Looks very VERY good to me.

http://www.privatephone.com

IT’S A FREE* PHONE NUMBER AND VOICEMAIL

***Begin Quote***

What is PrivatePhone?

* A NEW phone number, with BETTER privacy features, and a voicemail that gives you MORE CONTROL over your social and professional life.
* Access your voicemail messages any time, anywhere over the phone or on the web.

Is my PrivatePhone number really FREE?

* Yes, your PrivatePhone number is free. There is no obligation, no hidden charge. No Catch.
* PrivatePhone will be introducing future enhancements that will make your PrivatePhone experience even better; some enhancements will be available for a nominal fee, others for free.

How can I use my PrivatePhone number?

* Use PrivatePhone whenever you meet interesting people and want to get to know them better while maintaining control of your privacy.
* Use it on sites such as eBay, Craigslist and Rapleaf.
* When you want just your friends to hear your funny messages.
* These are just a few of the many uses for PrivatePhone; watch the videos for additional inspiration.

***End Quote***

Of course, I think it MIGHT be very useful for RESUMES, especially if you only have one line into your home, and confidential job search when you’re fully employed.

http://www.alphecca.com/

October 31, 2006
Hubble to be Repaired

***Begin Quote***

Finally some good news for the “aging” space telescope. From the AP:

*** AND HE QUOUTES ***

NASA will send a space shuttle to repair the 16-year-old Hubble Space Telescope, agency Administrator Michael Griffin announced Tuesday, reversing his predecessor’s decision to nix the mission.

*** END HIS QUOTE ***

Something I can actually agree with Sen. Mikulski about. I am sure that there are plenty of folks who will gripe about the price tag but this country has wasted far more on far less.

***End Quote***

Now this is disappointing from a Libertarian. But, we all lose our heads from time to time. Heck, I’m sure I liked some benefit or another from the fascist Big Gubamint.

Why should I be forced at gunpoint to fix the Hubble?

It’s not “mine”. I certainly didn’t put it up there. No one came to my door — virtual or physical — and said “knock, knock! We’re collecting to put up a space telescope and would you like to kick in a few bucks?” A local boy scout did that for his Eagle project.

NO, using tax money, collected by violence on our fellow citizens, is immoral and wrong. No matter how neat the pictures are.

I always look at the margins. (Read the great Austrian economists to really grok it.) Somewhere, something was silently crowded out by this theft. Maybe a Mom could make a special cake. Maybe a Dad couldn’t buy his kid something they wanted. Maybe an investment was missed. Maybe a privatized Hubble was precluded. By stealing our money for this, they preclude us from doing that! It always happens because we live in a world of scarce resources.

We see the pictures; we don’t see the silent harm!

I hope that this Libertarian can convince that Libertarian.

http://www.jibberjobber.com/blog/archives/142

Here’s the topic/theme/question:

> Yikes! You just lost your job!

Hey, no surprise! The First Sunday of every month, I have a meeting with my mythical team of me, myself, and I. We discuss the implications of “the only paycheck you’re assured on is the one that is in the bank”. I’ve been expecting this to happen ever since I took the job.

https://reinkefj.wordpress.com/2006/10/04/
jobsearch-youre-only-as-good-as-your-last-
paycheck-you-cashed/

http://tinyurl.com/y2ll2y

> You’ve been so busy at *work* that you don’t feel your
> network is as strong as you would like it to be!

Kick myself in the ass. I knew better than not to trust them bastards. Sneaky SOBs. Can’t trust them. OK, now it’s time to find my “last job”. (Given my age, I’m only planning one more job max before I go teach, consult, and write. Shift job search activities from “passive and fussy” to “active and discriminating”. (Yes, there are other gears, frenzied & panicked & desperate hamburger flipper & WalMart greeter.)

>What are you going to do with (and to) your network in the next 6 weeks
> as you begin an aggresive job search campaign?

Week 1: Immediately, draft a press release! Ring up my three friends, consume a suitable number of adult beverages, and commiserate how life sucks. Update my Plaxo mini bulletin board with my new status.

Week 2: Reopen consulting efforts; tell existing clients that their free ride is over; retainers anyone?; contracts? orders?

Week 3: Notify my graduated turkeys that their tuition bill is due and they are now on the hook to help me. Reactivated the resume and automatic job feed on the NINE boards that I watch regularly (weekly).

Week 4: Notify my 900 LinkedIn contacts that I need their help. Notify the three job search groups I belong to that I am now in play.

Week 5: Message my 1750 fellow alums, who read my ezine, that I’m available to make big bucks. Message the other 9k fellow alums that I can be hired for wakes and weddings. Message the 3k of non-alumni non-linkedin contacts that I’m in play.

Week 6: Now, grow up, get over it, pull up your big boy shorts, and get to serious work. What IS the UVP and USP that I am trying to exploit.

>And, outside of your network, what job search tactics will you employ?

Machine gun mass mailing of it (resumes) to public lists.

Shotgun it to some various subset of good companies.

Rifle shots it at key targets of known entities.

Pistol shots putting it up close at personal networking meetings.

Job search is WAR. Hence the metaphor!

>Or your best networking tips related to job searches.

Awareness, prior to being nuked, that it could happen. The first Sunday morning of every month should have an hour dedicated to the topic. Fore warned is fore armed! Or is that four armed.

https://reinkefj.wordpress.com/2006/07/05/
turkey-seekers-need-a-monthly-staff-meeting/

http://preview.tinyurl.com/yfebmh

Establish which of your value propositions that you are going to sell by market testing. Test, test, and test! It’s not your opinions that count, it’s evidence that leads to results.

Follow a sales funnel approach. Selling yourself is not different than selling any other product or service. No, no, no, … … YES! It just wading thru the NOs to get to the YES.

###

TECHNOLOGY: Sharewood Picnic 77 delivers a winner, three maybes, and six nahs. Same as last week!

http://www.masternewmedia.org/new_media/new_media_tools/
best_new_media_tools_of_the_week_20061105.htm

http://tinyurl.com/yxfnkl

November 5, 2006

New Media Tools Of The Week: Sharewood Picnic 77

Livia Iacolare and Robin Good

{Once again, they challenge us with new web services.}

*** Begin Their List ***

1. Windows Live Mobile http://mobile.live.com/GoLive/ is a service that brings e-mail, blogging, web search, maps, and driving directions directly to your mobile phone.

FJR> Nah, I want nothing to do with Microsoft!

2. PhotoShow http://beta.photoshow.com/home is a photo sharing service that allows you to upload pictures (even from URLs) and create slideshows.

FJR> Nah, why would I want another one?

3. Desktoptwo http://desktoptwo.com/ is a free web-based desktop that imitates the look, feel and functionality of a local computer, all contained within one browser window and fully accessible from any Internet-connected device.

FJR> Maybe, might be useful.

4. Instan-t Express http://express.instan-t.com/ is a web-based instant messaging service that allows you to sign onto public and IM networks with your existing usernames and passwords offering complete interoperability with MSN, AOL, ICQ and Yahoo! Messenger.

FJR> Nah, I already have MEEBO.

5. Compete http://www.compete.com/ is a search engine based on Yahoo! that records what its users are searching for to profile any websites they visit.

FJR> Nah, why would I want them to do that?

6. Zamzar http://www.zamzar.com/ is a service that allows conversion between a wide variety of different file formats.

FJR> Maybe, it could be useful in a pinch.

7. Wikiupload http://www.wikiupload.com/ is free file hosting service for all file formats including video, mp3 and images.

FJR> Nah, already have many such services.

8. Gickr http://gickr.com/ is a web tool that enables you to create animated gifs with whatever picture, even on Flickr.

FJR> Nah, I have no need for it.

9. Open Stock Photography http://www.openstockphotography.org/ is a site that helps designers find free stock photography.

FJR> Good, that’s a winner.

10. FundooWeb http://www.fundooweb.com/ is a mashup search tool that enables users to retrieve information from several sources in a single click.

FJR> Maybe, if it’s fast and easy.

*** End Their List ***

Always worth spending a little time with!

http://www.myuninstalledlife.com

***Begin Quote***

So one day I decided to look for alternatives. We’re starting to see interesting services online. You can’t find a complete replacement for your desktop using your browser (yet) but it’s getting there. So I decided to start this website to share my story of trying to get it to work. But I want to take it to the extremes! I want to challenge the technology!

***End Quote***

An admirable objective.

It’s certainly one way to deal with win rot!

I think with a healthy shove from a stupid Microsoft with Vista, there are three interesting “prime directives” of the users — use the web for everything, Linux not Microsoft, and wireless uber alles.

MYUNINSTALLEDLIFE is on the crest of the first wave. (Although I’m not sure what one does when the web is offline).

The second one is all those who are not going to pay Microsoft, or Dell / Intel for new hardware to run Microsoft’s new pig (Old hardware on Ubuntu works nicely!)

The third is wireless connectivity everywhere (free?) to use zero or thin footprint clients. (Although I don’t know what one does when that wireless ain’t there or is expensive?)

It is certainly going to challenge my view of the world.

I have always used my framework (Users – Systems – Apps – Data – Wire) where Systems covered Platforms and Operating Systems.

http://yetanotherguru.com/Component%20Security%20Approach.htm

I may have to rethink this paradigm.

;-)

http://www.resourceshelf.com/

A Brief Intro to Congresspedia
By Shirl Kennedy, Senior Editor

***Begin Quote***

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Congresspedia

Congresspedia is part of SourceWatch, a wiki-based project of the Center for Media and Democracy, which defines itself as “a directory of the people, organizations and issues shaping the public agenda.” If you’re one of those people for whom the word “wiki” is synonymous with “chaos,” you need to know that there are real, live human editors behind Congresspedia — experienced investigative journalists, researchers who verify contributions and sources. A powerful concept. In true wiki style, anyone is welcome to register and contribute; you don’t have to use your real name.

***End Quote***

An interesting resource!

We need more ways to keep track of the criminals in Washington DC.

http://www.networkworld.com/news/2006/
110206-reports-microsoft-novell-to-strike.
html?page=3

http://tinyurl.com/yg7mzg

Microsoft, Novell partner on historic Windows, Linux interoperability deal

***Begin Quote***

Microsoft and Novell Thursday announced a wide ranging business and technology partnership designed to make it easier for companies to run, integrate and manage Linux and Windows in their environments while steering clear of patent and intellectual property concerns.

***End Quote***

Sorry, but I don’t trust either corporation to do what’s best for me. Whatever that is. Let’s look at some motivations.

Microsoft is in a dying desktop monopoly position. And, there server position isn’t so hot either.

They have just shot themselves in the foot with Vista; does any one really expect consumers to buy new hardware with Vista and consign what is working to the trash heap? Or, go thru the techie high jumps trying to “upgrade”? Or, invest money for Vista and the try to make Vista run on old hardware. Don’t forget “You’re a thief” WGA! And you’ve bought into “Only One Activation”! And, those are the swords behind the matador’s cape we know about. What don’t we know?

No, I expect Microsoft’s consumer market to fragment into three distinct parts:

(1) Users got to the web to sites like Google to replace fat client desktop software. Office replaced by Writely. Project by Basecamp. MSNIM by MEEBO. Outlook by Gmail. Any desktop will do for web users. Ubuntu Linux for them. No dollars to MSFT any more ever again.

(2) Users go to Linux like Ubuntu, but don’t trust the web. SO they deploy Firefox, OpenOffice, Thunderbird, and other Linux Open Source stuff as needed. A little bumpy but no dollars to MSFT either.

(3) Users, who can afford to, may need a new platform because hardware breaks or winrot becomes so bad. For most people a bare metal restore is undoable, unthinkable, or just too much work. So they drink the Microsoft KoolAid and get Vista as part of a hardware deal. An ugly migration but it’ll work. But very few new dollars to MSFT either.

SO I expect MSFT wants to FUD Linux and mess up the works.

NOVELL is acting as if they were LINUX! They have A distribution. But they are by no means the MSFT of LINUX. I’m sure of that based on their past history of shooting themselves in the foot. (Remember at one time they OWNED the word LAN in the world’s mind! MSFT edged them out of that position.) SO they are probably looking an the “declining mountain range” (business profitability chart used in all the cartoons) and saying “help!” or worse.

SO here we have two sinking ships, one the Titanic, and one the SS Minow, trying to stay afloat making a “historic” deal. I’d call it histrionic!

And, you think this is good for the industry, or you in particular?

No, I think the partnership is to try and allow them stay afloat. To do that, they have to FUD the Lunux space, and convince the public (mostly CEOs, CIOs, CTOs, and the ultimately important CFOs) that their “Edsel” is the best.

I don’t trust ’em and I ain’t buyin’ that particular load of barbara striesand!

MIKI> Me and my tech are trying to insert links to books at Amazon into my
MIKI> blogs (using WordPress), but when we Save and Update the blog the link
MIKI> that we pasted in seems to reformat and contains random characters.

Dear Group:

I blog at WordPress and have always had prompt responses to all my questions when I use the feedback mechanism from the dashboard. I usually get it in hours, sometime minutes, I think once was a day. Sometimes the answer is “no you can’t do that” but at least I didn’t waste a lot of cycles frustrated. I’d ask them for a definitive answer.

I have two suggestions, despite my ignorance of what the real cause is, that might be a work around.

**********ONE*****************

First, may I suggest that you use TinyUrl to create a “short link”. For example, I took your link and “tinyurled” it (i.e., went to www.tinyurl.com, pasted in your long amazon link, and got this back.

***Begin Quote***

TinyURL was created!

The following URL:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html?ie=UTF8&location=
http%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2FDelusions-Intelligence-Enigma-
Secure-Ciphers%2Fdp%2F0521855225%2Fsr%3D11-1%2Fqid%3D1162613
487&tag=rampupsolutio-20&linkCode=ur2&camp=1789&
amp;creative=9325

has a length of 237 characters and resulted in the following TinyURL which has a length of 25 characters:

http://tinyurl.com/ymn94l

***End Quote***

In my mind, it would seem that 200+ plus character link could easily title something. Maybe wordpress, the browser, or some other component has a hidden limit? Maybe there a code combination in their that has a magical mystical value, that gets translated, like %22 for quote, by some “helpful” piece of software.

Shortening the URL, may help.

There are some people who suggest for security reasons that one should never click on such a link because I could have put a tiny link for the latest Russian exploit. (I used to be a security weenie so I have heard ALL the arguments.) To which, my answer would be, “so why click on any link at all?”, but the paranoid whiz by that. TO cut down on the discussion I usually just give people both links.

Also, when I want to find a link I recommended, I can usually want the “read site” not the tinyurl. SO it really self-interest that I do that.

**********ONE — FOOTNOTE ******

It is possible in Firefox and IE to get a TinyUrl widget on the toolbar so that, if you have the URL in your frame, clicking on it, gives you the TINYURL for it. It saves a few keystrokes. I use it extensively.

**********ONE — DISCLAIMER ****

There are many URL shortening sites out there. TINYURL is the first one I found, and I have never found any reason to change. I guess that is one argument for quoting both the original url and the tiny one. Should TINYURL fold, you could always use the long one.

**********TWO*****************

I use a free tool called BLOGDESK. It seems to do quite nicely getting my wonderful lucid ramblings from my desktop to WORDPRESS quickly and accurately. I use it because, from time to time, when interacting with WORDPRESS directly, something would happen in the cloud and I’d lose my content. I suspect some type of network error would occur before the screen was really saved and one of my pearls of wisdom would be lost for ever. AND, it was SO GOOD, that I couldn’t remember it, despite having just wrote it. I lost several good zingers. I could generally recreate it but I KNOW it wasn’t as good a post as the one I lost. BLOGDESK, has some other nice features, in that it keeps copies of all my wisdomly words for me to reuse and it allows me to template certain topics so I stay with a consistent format. It might help you all with your url problem.

**********END*****************

https://reinkefj.wordpress.com/2006/11/02/
technology-skype-doesnt-integrate-completely-with-outlook/

http://tinyurl.com/yy7rsg

I did get a very nice response from the SKYPE folks. And, while it’s just a “we know”, it was nice to get a response.

(If I owned the problem, I update the docs so people didn’t waste time reporting stuff I already knew. But then I’m lazy and like to avoid work when I can.)

***Begin Quote***

Hello reinkefj,

Thank you for contacting Skype Support.

This error is known by our development team and will be resolved in a future release of Skype.

We apologize for the inconvenience.

Best regards,

Ekaterina M.
Skype Support

Visit www.skype.com for latest news, updates and tips.

— Original Message —
From: reinkefj
Received: 2.11.2006 19:31:42 GMT Standard Time (GMT – 0:00 )
To: support@skype.net
Subject: GQW: Outlook import

Name: reinkefj
Skype Name: reinkefj
E-mail: pia at somewhere.in.universe.org
Subject: Outlook import
Message:
—————————————————————-
The import from Outlook only takes the single file \”contacts\”. I have my outlook directory organized into different subfiles for simplicity. Thoughts?
———————————————————————-Skype Version: 2.5.0.151
Browser: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8.1) Gecko/20061010 Firefox/2.0
IP address: 001.002.400.677
Department: Technical Problems

—— Please do not remove your unique tracking number! —— <<#410808-552234#>>

***End Quote***

AND, I think I have a work around.

Copy LOOKOUT’s “contact” folder to “holding”.

Empty it. (Can’t deleted it cause LOOKOUT will throw a hissy fit. It’s one of the golden four!)

Go to “othercontactfolder” (or any other LOOKOUT folder where you have contacts) do the old CNTLA-CNTLC and shoot back to “contact” and do the old CNTLV.

Go for your favorite adult refreshment. Watch some tube, TV not UTUBE, cause your puter is very very busy as LOOKOUT does lots of indexing. When the green light of disk activity stops its nervous breakdown, feed “contacts” into SKYPE.

Then, focus on “contacts”, CNTLA, DEL, and go to bed. It’ll be a while as LOOKOUT basically undoes it all.

In the morning, compact outlook, defrag, and reboot.

And, take a peek and see if it worked. If it did you’ll see you LookOut contacts in SKYPE. Hey let me know if it works for you, then maybe I’ll try it.

Remember how lazy I am. Man-yawn-a is gud enuf 4 me.

(And, this is seriously one of the 250 most important? Some people must be smokin those funny cigs out there.)

https://reinkefj.wordpress.com/2006/11/02/
technology-skype-doesnt-integrate
-completely-with-outlook/#comments

http://tinyurl.com/yy7rsg

Annie Alba wrote:

***Begin Quote***

“We will be following your work in this blog, because it is a serious candidate to be included amoung the 250 most important blogs of this year.”

***End Quote***

Awww, I bet you say that to all the bloggers! Nice to believe. For thirty seconds. If this is amount the most important 250, then the blogging world is in pretty sad shape. But, I’ll pretend that I believe that illusion.

So I wandered over to the site.

http://www.freewebs.com/blogotion/

(Well, it’s not like she promised me a free laptop if I just clicked this link to http://NirobiTrUsT’n’BaNK.com!!!)

The site did ask one interesting question!

***Begin Quote***

Describe your blog:

***End Quote***

Wow, that’s a tuffie!

Here’s what I came up with:

“Reinke Faces Life” is just another free WordPress weblog. It’s more like a daily stream of consciousness, or maybe conscience. Is there such a thing as an unending whine about the human condition? Maybe it’s best called a plog — a personal web log — of things that attract my attention, bother me, or pique my curiosity. I’m gonna Lulu it so that I can give my Mom a book and tell her now I’m a “published author”. She’ll be so pleased. She doesn’t have to know it’s a vanity job. Anyway, thanks for giving me the opportunity to waste your time. If you find anything useful, feel free to “rob” it … with attribution … of course. I need any modest success I can find. Email me at http://2idi.com/contact/=reinkefj

Comments?

BLOGDESK took some type of a hit. The symptom was that it went to post to the blog at wordpress and then went unresponsive. Nuked it. And, tried again. Luckily it had saved my sarcasm before going alzheimenrs. Tried again. Did same thing. Reboot. (Arghhh!) All better now. AND, the post even made it to the blog. Try and figure that one out.

BOTTOM LINE: Don’t commit anything (e.g., a priceless piece of prose) without creating a backup text file with one’s favorite text editor. Mine is EDITTEXTPRO. Best 30$ I ever spent.

That didn’t take long did it?

Before I found the first “feature”.

I have outlook’s contacts divided into different files. SKYPE only sees the main contact address book ‘contacts”.

Lame!

I have about 20k of contacts and need some sanity.

;-)

http://www.skype.com

***Begin Quote***

Calling any phone within the US and Canada is free until the end of the year. To make a call to a landline or cell phone, click on the “Dial” tab, insert the country code +1 in front of the number and press the green call button.

***End Quote***

New download. Version 2.5. Old ids work. EWeek October 30 has a big write up saying how good it is and the corporate IT type can’t really keep it out of the network.

Free calls until end of year. Neat!

Hey, FEEDBLITZ ate my content. (sounds like the dog ate my homework!)

I actually sent in a report to them like the good internet user I am.

(If they GIVE it to me free, then there’s a moral obligation to PAY BACK by letting them know that they have a problem.)

Within an hour, they sent me an email that acknowledge the problem was on their end and that they were fixing it.

NEAT!

Usually you get silence, or worse, where they want you to do lots of WORK!

For example, I went to my Job Seeker’s PIM and said hmmm, let me plug in my favorite recruiters.

So I took my list of 2006 “award winning” hunters.

http://home.comcast.net/~v2y2r0n27rhj6y/GOLD_hunters_for_2005.htm

and plugged them into the recruiter relationships.

It appears that it took it. What it did with it I have no idea? It doesn’t even tell me that I plugged in their email. It should at least echo it back to me that x@y.z was submitted, ending, rejected, or bounced.

It would be nice to see, and modify, the text of the email.

Maybe they are being send and invite and an invoice? I wouldn’t know.

I don’t understand why they are not just like a contact.

A lot of room for improvement here.

***Begin Quote***

Dear Reinke’s R&D Techie Nerd Persona,

Thank you for contacting us and we are sorry for the delay to responding to your email.

It looks like you have blocked iframe in your blog and that is why the style code is shown on your blog. Please try again after allowing <iframe> if you still have the problem please let us know the version of your WordPress. We will investigate the issue.

Best regards,
ThinkFree Support Team.

***End Quote***

I didn’t do anything but use the various stuff.

And, what makes them think that I’m gonna spend time working on THEIR problem. I just move along to stuff that WORKS. I thought I was being nice just telling them.

Sigh!

http://www.mediafire.com/

http://beta.localhostr.com

I needed a place to quickly stuffing a 2 meg mp3 file for a friend to listen too.

Normally I’d have emailed it, but yuck! It would have been left spinning several places for eons.

From his POV, both worked perfectly and flawlessly.

From my POV, mediafire was faster and worked on the first try; the other was slower and two two tries.

Isn’t the net amazing?

http://www.jibberjobber.com

ONE: Sitting looking at the network contact screen, it is not dead drop obvious who among my contacts are on JibberJobber and who are not. I know I have one because I signed up a Zombie and cross linked them. So that contact should be differentiated from the rest.

TWO: Looking at my contact list, I’d like to recommend this site to them, but it’s not apparent how to do that, and it is not brain dead easy to do. Like check contacts and hit a button somewhere.

THREE: After I do figure out how to recommend, those contacts should have a differentiator.

PS: Did I mention that the screen doesn’t fit. Too much info so one has to right an left screen.

http://www.stumbleupon.com/

I’m Stumbler #1863639

http://tinyurl.com/ugqpf

http://weblog.infoworld.com/gripeline/archives/2006/10/
cox_clobbers_co.html

October 31, 2006
Cox Clobbers Competitor’s Customers

***Begin Quote***

Any company that will only give customers 30-days notice that long-time e-mail addresses are being eliminated sure seems like one that thinks it can do whatever it wants. “From here it looks like a pure convenience and/or profit motive for Cox, and the customer can just live with it,” the reader concluded. “Where else do we have to go?”

***End Quote***

One doesn’t have to be held hostage to the whims of the ISP.

My current favorite WSP (Web Site Provider) “1and1” offers. A “beginner” package with a domain name; 5 GB web space; 500 e-mail accounts; and 250 GB traffic for 3$/month.

{{Use my referral code and they even give me a kickback! http://www.1and1.com/?k_id=9113251 out your 3 bucks. Wonder how much it is? Three cents?}}

That beginner package is better than what most ISPs give you for “free”. It’s certainly better than what I used when I first got started.

I tell jobseekers (aka baby turkeys) that they never want to have their “stuff” held hostage to:

• their current employer (an absolute no no!);
• any free service (like gmail);
• any site with a poor “image” (like AOL or @pinkpussycat.com);
• “their” Internet Service Provider that they are currently using; or
• any Web Service Provider (even 1and1).

If you “own” your domain name, like I do, “reinke.cc”, (who really cares what country it nominally belongs to), then you are ALWAYS in control.

SO, in the case of the poor fellow ranting to Ed Foster about “losing his email address”, it would have been trivial to say go into 1and1 and re-aim your email from, in his case, from CableAmerica to Cox.

AND, that assumes you’d want to use their lousy email anyway. Most WSPs offer better.

If he followed the advice and bought say “poorfellow.za”, then he could have used a personally branded email address like poor.fellow@poorfellow.za. All the people, who had his personally branded branded email address (i.e., poor.fellow@poorfellow.za) would still have it, And never had to know about the underlying change from poor.fellow@CABLEAMERICA.com to poor.fellow@COX.com! Nothing would be necessary.

I used to mess around with redirectors like bigfoot and others until I just but the bullet and went “bigtime”. I think I paid 25$ for a three year take on the reinke.cc domain and 10$ for 1and1 to aim it where I want it to go. Now, it’s even cheaper and I see a rush to the bottom of the price curve between GoDaddy, Yahoo, and other WSPs.

I feel comfortable with 1AND1 because they are deadly cheap, they advertise in Network World and industry trade rag, and they’ve done well for my consolidation project. (I moved seven websites with various WSPs, each placed with the “best” at the time, to them and saved some pocket change. And, my sanity. No more remembering which WSP had “creative driving techniques” web site. That was a joke!)

I have put commercial enterprises on their facilities back when I was consulting and have never heard a gripe.

In summary, I don’t have sympathy for this fellow, (well I do; maybe he did realize it.), but it COULD happen to you. Do something NOW to avoid it.

Besides having your own domain is snazzy kool!

JotSpot is now part of Google

We’re writing to let you know that Google has acquired JotSpot. We believe this is great news for our users. More importantly, we want to reassure you that you’ll continue to have uninterrupted access to your account. Both Google and JotSpot are committed to supporting our customers, and we understand that users have invested a lot in our products. In the near-term, we’re focused on migrating JotSpot to Google’s systems and datacenters. We’ll work hard to make that move as seamless as possible so that customers won’t be inconvenienced.

Why is Google acquiring JotSpot?
Google shares JotSpot’s vision for helping people collaborate, share and work together online. JotSpot’s team and technology are a strong fit with existing Google products like Google Docs & Spreadsheets and Google Groups.

What does this mean for JotSpot customers?
We believe that joining Google will accelerate our team’s vision of offering users the best collaboration platform on the web. Google shares that vision and presents us with the world’s best environment for delivering on it. We’ll be taking advantage of Google’s world-class systems infrastructure and operations expertise to ensure that access to your JotSpot is fast and reliable. We can’t share any of our plans publicly just yet, but we can tell you that we’re incredibly excited about the possibilities. We can’t think of a better company to have been acquired by.

Will paying customers still be charged?
We will no longer be billing customers for the use of the service. Although you will still have use of the product at your current pricing plan, we won’t charge you anymore when your current billing cycle expires.

What about security and privacy?
Your data is yours — that doesn’t change at Google. We will continue to work to ensure the privacy and security of your data. Furthermore, Google is as committed to privacy and security as we are. Since the user information you provided to JotSpot will soon be transferred to Google as part of their acquisition of JotSpot, we want to provide you with the opportunity to retrieve your user information and cease usage of the JotSpot service before the transition. If you do not wish to continue using JotSpot, send an email to privacy@jot.com in the next sixty days and we will reply with instructions for retrieving your user information.

Answers to more frequently asked questions are available at http://www.jot.com/. If you have any other questions, please email support@jot.com.

In closing, we wanted to offer our sincere gratitude to you — our customers — for believing in us and helping us achieve success. We look forward to continuing that relationship at Google.

Best wishes,
The JotSpot Team

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JotSpot
167 Hamilton Ave.
Floor 2
Palo Alto, CA 94301
Read the VerticalResponse marketing policy.

http://tinyurl.com/ykeh5n

http://www.realsoftwaredevelopment.com/2006
/10/best_of_the_bes.html?

October 26, 2006
Best of the Best Web 2.0 Web Sites

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Web 2.0 sites are cropping up all over the place! From Social Bookmarking Sites, to Real Estate sites, this list has only the best Web 2.0 Sites available today! What makes a site a Web 2.0 Site? Web 2.0 is the second coming of World Wide Web. New and improved sites that make the web their platform, provide users a way of interacting with each other, and organize and categorize their content are perfect examples of Web 2.0. Below is a list of web sites that are the best of the best!

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There’s an exhaustive list of “stuff” to be looked at. It’s too much. The whole application space is truly out of control.

http://www.weboffice.com/EN/Services/

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WebOffice brings together powerful, professional web-based business applications specifically designed to make collaboration easy and cost-effective. Everything you need to manage your business on the web is together in an integrated, centralized place.

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Sounds like about 80$/month for a fully integrated web offering.

… for pictures?

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PrinterAnywhere™ WebPrint

You can now print documents directly from the web without having to install the software on your machine. The number of supported formats is limited to the following:

* JPG
* GIF
* BMP
* PNG

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