Reinke Faces Life

http://www.collectivex.com/intro

***Begin Quote***

What are Groupsites?

Groupsites make it easy for groups to share, communicate and network, by combining the best features of discussion forums, email lists, calendars and social networks.

Groupsites are powered by the CollectiveX platform; are FREE to set up; and can be configured to be public, semi-public, or private and secure.

***End Quote***

FREE social network?

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http://pulse.plaxo.com

Plaxo is entering the social networking space. Your Plaxo Pulse Network only allows “family”, “friends”, and “business network”. How lame is that? I have many different labels that I would like to use. For example, Jaspers, MCers, Prespters, MP64ers, Linkedin-ites, EUNers, LNJ, LPU … … ad nauseum. Why restrict me to your three choices? Argh!

Jury still out but not looking good!

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http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/146118898/

***Begin Quote***

Troy Schneider received such a notice, advising him that in 8 days his Grand Central number would be canceled and that he would be required to immediately start using a new number allocated to him. Judi Sohn received the same message: with no prior warning she had 8 days left on her existing phone number then it would cease to operate. Sohn was fortunate to some extent: Google has offered to pay for the reprinting of her business cards, but that would appear to be a one off, and a token gesture at that.

***End Quote***

Glad I only dipped my toe in that pot!

Of course, a curse upon their house and never use it.

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LEGACY is a site that does obituaries.

In “doing” Jasper Jottings, I collect Jasper obits to share with my fellow alums. I leave a little message in the “remembrance book” for a variety of reasons.

Sometimes it’s the only thing there. That really saddens me. Sometimes fellow Jaspers reach out to me. Sometimes … … if I get forgetful, it reminds me “been here. done it.”

I always leave my email in case the family wants to connect with a specific Jasper and so that it doesn’t appear as a “strange” self-serving entry. Over the time, I’ve been doing it I have had some interactions with the deceased family members. Some times it’s just to listen; some times they needed information. I try and help.

But today, I got my first piece of SPAM from that activity on Legacy.

I know it’s from there because it came on their email address to a special email address only used for that purpose. (You know how I like to have different email address for different purposes. This is why! I can pin it down easily.)

Just goes to show how low a spammer will go!

I hope the Intelligent Designer has a special ring in Hell for those low lifes.

fwiw!

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(1) It has lost my connections that if I switch to Plaxo2 are there all fine.

(2) It forces me to go to the connections screen to switch back to Plaxo2

(3) The switch from 3 to 2 seems to take forever.

(4) An email to get some support for a paid account doesn’t get answered

(5) It seems to be forcing me to invest time with a new product that I didn’t volunteer to do. I have other things I’d rather be doing than testing their crap!

imho

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http://franticindustries.com/blog/2007/07/12/5-simple-ways-to-store-your-files-online/

5 Simple Ways to Store Your Files Online
Published by Stan Schroeder
July 12th, 2007

*** begin quote ***

When it comes to online backup of your data, there’s probably more options than in any other web 2.0 space

DropBoks

DropBoks is the king of simplicity. Open the page and you’ll immediately know what to do, as the whole service consists of an upload form and a file listing. Your account has 1 GB of storage space, and individual files can be max. 50 MB in size. Another nice thing about DropBoks is that it’s not only free, it also has no ads whatsoever – it’s fully donation-supported.

*** end quote ***

Why? Security? Simplicity?

Have to think more about this.

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… … I can easily stick a YouTube on my blog.

http://www.google.com/support/youtube/bin/answer.py?answer=62369&topic=10836

*** begin quote ***

How do I add a blog to my YouTube account?

To add a blog to your account, follow the steps below:

1. Click the “Video Posting Settings” link (http://www.youtube.com/my_profile_blogs) on your account page.
2. Click the “adding” link (http://www.youtube.com/my_profile_blogs_add).
3. Choose your blog service from the drop-down list provided and enter your username and password.
4. Click the “Add Blog” button.
5. Wait a moment while we retrieve your blog information. (Note: If you have more than one blog under the email you’ve entered, you’ll be directed to a page where you can select which of your blogs you want to add.)
6. You’ll receive a message saying your blog was successfully added!

*** end quote ***

Some observations, since nothing is as easy or as good as it seems.

(1) It works BUT it puts it in with no title and the default category.

(2) I’m not sure how this hits your performance.

(3) I’m not sure how this adds to YOUR value. You could just put a link. In my case I’m running a “plog” (i.e., a personal weblog that whines about whatever interests me) and I have no illusions of fame, fortune, continued employment, or my “brand”.

You might care (i.e., be careful of what you host or refer to). It becomes YOUR digital dirt.

I wonder that a screw up on youtube could reflect badly upon you. You see a picture of puppies. Include it in your blog. YouTube screws up. You now have animal porn on your blog. How do you explain that in your interview.

I might want to host some of my training videos I make for fun. And, display them for fun. (I don’t have an ego problem. I star in all my own videos. Making it into the horror genre!)

It presents an interesting oppty?

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>You really need a resume import function. If not a LinkedIn API,
>then an XML file imput. imho

***Begin Quote***

Thanks for contacting Jobster with your feedback.

While we do provide the option to upload a resume in .doc, .txt, or .pdf format to your Jobster profile, we don’t have a resume import function that can directly upload your information into your profile. We want to provide our customers with options that are a little different from the traditional resume format that is used by LinkedIn and some other websites (this is why we offer options such as tags and video resumes as part of the Jobster profile).

However, some people who use Jobster will want to upload information from their resume into a more traditional format, so I’ve passed your suggestion on to the relevant people in our company for their review.

Thank you again, for your feedback. We appreciate you using Jobster!

Warm Regards,
Rebecca Vaux
Jobster Client Support
www.jobster.com
206 1st ave s., suite 300, seattle, wa 98104

***End Quote***

Shuffle off.

# # # # #

My Plaxo Premium subscription ran out and I didn’t find out until I went to use it today. Argh! That’s a surprise.

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http://www.ittoolbox.com

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What is ITtoolbox?

A community where peers share knowledge about information technology.

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With some LinkedIn type features.

Hum?

As exclusive as rain, if they’ll have me as a member.

Sigh!

# # # # #

Promptly a week after I had the problem and they changed the webpage causing the problem. They may be “happy” but it’s not timely.

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—–Original Message—–
From: Yahoo! Music Jukebox [mailto:yahoomusicengine-feedback@cc.yahoo-inc.com]
Sent: Tuesday, July 17, 2007 4:35 PM
To: Reinke’s Catch All Email
Subject: Re: Yahoo! Music Jukebox non-tech issue (KMM100278139V4440L0KM)

Hello Reinke’s,

Thank you for writing Yahoo! Music about Musicmatch Migration. We’re happy to help you with this question.

A tool to automatically convert your Musicmatch subscription to Yahoo!
is now available. The Migration Assistant is built into the latest release of the Yahoo! Music Jukebox. Please follow the directions below to download the Jukebox, and the Migration Assistant will walk you through this process step-by-step.

Download and install the new Yahoo! Music Jukebox here:

http://music.yahoo.com/jukebox/mm/ymj/?OEM=29

Important: Even if you already have Yahoo! Music Jukebox, you must install this special version in order to see the Migration Assistant.

When you start the Jukebox, the Migration Assistant should appear.
Follow the instructions on each page (a link to the FAQ is available from most pages).

If you have a Musicmatch On Demand subscription, you will be able to migrate it to a Yahoo! Music Unlimited subscription

If you have unspent Musicmatch Music Store Gift Certificates or Allowances, you’ll be able to convert them to Yahoo! Music Unlimited Gift Certificates

If you wish to transfer your music library, you will be offered this option.

Please refer to the Frequently Asked Questions for more information:

http://help.yahoo.com/l/us/yahoo/music/jukebox/update/update02.html

*if your problem persists please follow the steps below.

We are having difficulty pinpointing the cause of your problem based on the information you’ve provided. If you could provide answers to the questions below in your response, that will help us provide you with more assistance:

1. Can you describe the problem in more detail?
2. What error message(s) are you receiving, if any? Please send us the exact wording of the error message if you see one.
3. Please describe what happened leading up to this problem, and provide as much detail as possible.

For complete Yahoo! Music Jukebox online help, visit:

http://help.yahoo.com/l/us/yahoo/music/jukebox/index.html

Once again, we regret the problem you’re having with Yahoo! Music services. If the solution provided here does not resolve your concern, please reply to this email so we may further assist you. Thank you again for writing Yahoo! Music.

Regards,

Bob
Yahoo! Music Customer Care

For assistance with all Yahoo! services, please visit:

http://help.yahoo.com/

***End Quote***

A blog is an excellent tool for keeping notes about a specific topic. The free, and unequaled, wordpressdotcom gives you a free blog that youcan configure for your own use alone. If allows you to have a rolling log of notes on a topic that is search able, and categorize able. Wish I had been doing it two years ago.

# # # # #

FEEDBACK submitted

***Begin Quote***

This may sound dumb, if it was available I’d use it.

I think that blogs with “fresh content” are more interesting that those with “stale”. As a hobby blogger, I’ve realized that my site postings get “clustered” around when I can produce them. Some of my posts get “pushed” out of the lime light too quickly.

I’ve been struggling with this by adjusting the time stamps. But, it’s hard and cumbersome.

So like drafts, and the roles of author and editor, I’d like to propose an “inbasket”. The user would specify say minimum interval say in hours. The free, and unequaled, wordpressdotcom would then “post” from the inbasket when the time expires. If you wanted to get fancy, it could sense how “full” the inbasket was, and adjust the time based on a minimum / maximum exposure time (i.e., based on % full basket set minimum 2 hours; maximum 6 hours).

This would ensure that the blog might have fresh content around the clock with minimum angst by the creator.

Just in case you were sitting around with nothing to do! ;-)
fjohn

***End Quote***

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***Begin Quote***

From: Customer Care, Musicmatch
Sent: Sunday, July 01, 2007 10:56 PM
To: reinkefj
Subject: Important Information About Musicmatch

Important Information About Musicmatch

Greetings Musicmatch Customer:

As you may already know, Musicmatch is now part of the Yahoo! Music family. The same team that brought you Musicmatch products and services over the years has been working hard to bring you the next generation of world-class music services and software. As part of this integration, Musicmatch services will be discontinued on August 31, 2007, and Musicmatch customers will have the opportunity to migrate to the Yahoo! Music Jukebox.

Migrating is free and takes only a few minutes to complete. If you have a Musicmatch Jukebox Plus key, it will be upgraded to Yahoo! Music Jukebox Plus at no additional cost. If you have a balance in the Musicmatch Music Store, it will be transferred to Yahoo! Music Unlimited for the purchase of music downloads.

What You Need to Do

Migrate before August 31 by following these steps:

1. Go to the Musicmatch Migration information page
<http://newsletter.musicmatch.com/rdr/?Rn190380101,1903801,74356739,19038010
1> .
2. Click “Update Now.”
3. Download and install the latest version of the Yahoo! Music
Jukebox.
4. Once installed, start the Jukebox. You’ll be prompted to
begin the process using the Migration Assistant.
5. Follow the instructions on each page and make your
selections. For more information on a topic, click the FAQ link.
6. During the process, we’ll transfer your:

* Account information
* Local Library settings
* Musicmatch Store credit
* Plus key (if applicable)

PLEASE NOTE: You MUST have the latest version of the Yahoo! Music Jukebox to get the Migration Assistant. If you already had Yahoo! Music Jukebox installed on your computer prior to receiving this notice, please click here <http://newsletter.musicmatch.com/rdr/?Rn190380101,1903801,74356739,19038010
1> to get the latest version.

Yahoo! Music Jukebox is the best of Musicmatch Jukebox, plus much
more:

* Play music, import and burn CDs
* Manage your entire digital music collection
* Listen to free LAUNCHcast Radio
* Access our 2 million song catalog (twice the catalog size of
On Demand) with the Yahoo! Music Unlimited service (additional fees apply)

Click here
<http://newsletter.musicmatch.com/rdr/?Rn190380101,1903801,74356739,19038010
1> to start the migration process. View the Frequently Asked Questions
<http://newsletter.musicmatch.com/rdr/?Rn190380102,1903801,74356739,19038010
2> for more information.

Thanks for supporting Musicmatch over the years. We look forward to delighting you with exciting next-generation music services and software for many years to come.

The Yahoo! Music Team

Please do not reply to this message. You received this administrative email as a result of a Musicmatch purchase or subscription.
For more information about how Musicmatch, a Yahoo! company, uses your information including the use of web beacons in HTML email, please see the Musicmatch Privacy Policy

Yahoo! Music Musicmatch is located at 701 First Avenue Sunnyvale, CA
94089

***End Quote***

First of as an old drafteee, anything that starts off “greetings” doesn’t engender a warm and fuzzy feeling.

Second, my musicbox play is a piece of software. Are they telling me it ain’t going to work anymore.

Third, Yahoo is what I call a zero support organization. I avoid them for just that reason.

Argh!

# # # # #

Email from yahoo photos.

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——————————————————————————–
From: Yahoo! Photos [mailto:directmail@yahoo-inc.com]
Sent: Thursday, July 05, 2007 8:16 AM
To: reinkefj
Subject: Yahoo! Photos is closing — Action Required

Dear Yahoo! Photos user,

For some time now, we’ve supported two great photo sharing services: Yahoo! Photos and Flickr. But even good things come to an end, and we’ve decided to close Yahoo! Photos to focus all our efforts on Flickr — the award-winning photo sharing community that TIME Magazine has called “completely addictive.”

We will officially close Yahoo! Photos on Thursday, September 20, 2007, at 9 p.m. PDT. Until then, we are offering you the opportunity to move to another photo sharing service (Flickr, KODAK Gallery, Shutterfly, Snapfish, or Photobucket), download your original-resolution photos back to your computer, or buy an archive CD from our featured partner (for users of the New Yahoo! Photos only). All you need to do is tell us what to do with your photos before we close, after which any photos remaining on Yahoo! Photos will be deleted and no longer accessible.

Of course, we hope you’ll join us at Flickr (you can even use your Yahoo! ID), but we also realize that Flickr may not be for everyone. In the end, we want you to find the service that’s right for you, and we hope you take some time to learn more about your options before making this important decision.

Please give us your decision by Thursday, September 20, 2007, at 9 p.m. PDT. After that time, any photos remaining in Yahoo! Photos will be deleted. Click here to make your decision, or review a list of our frequently asked questions.

Thanks for being a part of the Web’s largest photo sharing service — we hope to see you over at Flickr!

The Yahoo! Photos team

Please do not reply to this message. This is a service email related to your use of Yahoo! Photos. To learn more about Yahoo!’s use of personal information, including the use of web beacons in HTML-based email, please read our Privacy Policy. Yahoo! Photos is located at 701 First Avenue, Sunnyvale, CA 94089.

RefID: lp-11393112
***End Quote***

So I go there but am totally blocked from seeing what photos they are talking about?

*** begin quote ***

Yahoo! Photos is Closing

We’re sorry. Yahoo! Photos is closing on September 20, 2007 so we are no longer accepting new accounts or allowing users to upload photos if you don’t already have photos in your account. We’ve decided to focus all our efforts on Flickr – the award winning photo sharing community that Time Magazine has even called “completely addictive”. Why not head over to Flickr for a look?

*** end quote ***

You can’t find out what photos they are refering to. Oh well. Another reason why the web isn’t perfect.

# # # # #

GRANDCENTRAL goes to GOOGLE

***Begin Quote***

——————————————————————————–
From: GrandCentral [mailto:support@grandcentral.com]
Sent: Wednesday, July 04, 2007 3:08 AM
To: reinkefj
Subject: GrandCentral is now part of Google

July 2007

We’re now part of Google!
We wanted to let you know that GrandCentral has been acquired by Google! We’re particularly excited about this because it ensures that not only will we have the resources to continue to bring you even more innovative communications features down the road, but that we will be able to continue to offer you the service, with many features for free, for a long time to come.

We started GrandCentral because we wanted to create a service that puts users in control of their voice communications and not the other way around. As you have discovered, with GrandCentral you get all of your phone calls through just one number that never changes and you can link and ring up to six phones when somebody calls you. But that’s just the start. You can set different rules for each caller (some ring all your phones, others can go straight to voicemail), create personal voicemail greetings for each of your callers, and even check your voicemail on the web with all of your messages in just one inbox. We’ll even save your messages for as long as you want.

Have you ever tried to save a message on your cell phone but it gets deleted after a few weeks? Or have you wished you could hear your voicemail messages while they are being left like you used to be able to do on your old home answering machine? Have you ever been on a call on your cell but wished you could switch it to your desk or home phone? How about having a filter to weed out unwanted telemarketer calls automatically? With GrandCentral you are in control and can do all of this, and this is just the beginning. As part of Google we’ll be able to create even more unique features to let you control your calls the way you want.

Many of you probably have questions about what happens to the service now that we’re a part of Google. We’ve created an FAQ–which will answer most of your questions, but a couple of highlights:

Our priority now is to ensure that you, our current beta users, continue to have a great user experience. While we scale the service, we are moving to an invitation-only model for new users. If you’re a registered user today, you can invite five of your friends to join. In addition, GrandCentral will continue to remain entirely free as we work with Google to add capacity, work out any kinks, fix bugs, and add a ton more great features. We hope you continue using the service and send us feedback about anything we can do to improve it.

Thanks for your support so far. We’ll always work to earn it.

Craig Walker and Vincent Paquet, GrandCentral Founders

——————————————————————————–
Moving Your GrandCentral Account to Google
Don’t worry, the GrandCentral service won’t be interrupted as a result of the acquisition by Google – you don’t need to do anything, and your account and service will be transferred over to Google. As part of this acquisition, we are transitioning to Google’s Privacy Policy and Terms of Service. If you’d rather not maintain your account as a result of the acquisition, no problem: you can choose to discontinue your account any time before August 1, 2007 and your account won’t be transferred over to Google – we’ll delete your account and all related information. To discontinue your account, email support@grandcentral.com. We will contact you at your registered email address to confirm your deletion request before completing it.
©2007 GrandCentral Communications, Inc. 48389 Fremont Blvd., Suite #110, Fremont, CA 94538 unsubscribe

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http://recp.rm05.net/servlet/MailView?
ms=NjEwODQ3S0&r=Mzc1ODE4NDEyMQS2&
j=ODY3MDQwNzYS1&mt=1

http://tinyurl.com/364x2r

Jigsaw

***Begin Quote***

Jigsaw was founded, like many businesses, on the firm belief that there had to be a better way. Specifically, the idea for Jigsaw came in 2003 when I was VP of Sales at a public company in the Silicon Valley. Sick and tired of getting worn out lists of incorrect data from traditional data companies, I was struck by the idea that the only way to solve the problem was to somehow motivate a whole bunch of people to each provide a few pieces of the data puzzle. I figured that, due to dynamic nature of corporations and their employees, the only way to keep up with this rapid rate of change was to create an open and collaborative system. The analogies drawn were as follows:

***End Quote***

Yet another data compilation effort — LinkedIn, Spoke, Spock, yada yada yada! The space is crowded!

# # # # #

http://www.grandcentral.com

Grand Central

***Begin Quote***

One Number

One Voice Mail

So many features

***End Quote***

Hmm, one phone number which you can aim where you want! Interesting concept.

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http://www.spock.com/about

Spock

***Begin Quote***

Spock is the online leader in personal search, helping users find and discover people. With over one hundred million people already indexed and millions added every day, Spock is building the broadest and deepest people specific search engine.

***End Quote***

In light of my prestigious postition in the field of blogging about technology, … … ok I asked when they said “any fools out there will to test our stuff for no money … I’ve got one of the “rare” spock accounts. (I have invites. What’s it worth to you?)

It’s pretty neat a service. I found some Jaspers I didn’t know about.

# # # # #

FROM AN EMAIL EXCHANGE WITH A FELLOW ALUMNI

>I’ve thought about getting a domain, but when I asked one of my “gurus” about it,
> I discovered there was more to it than I realized, and I haven’t finished off the
> research yet. (Be on the lookout for non-ingineer questions.)

That might have been true a while ago, but now it’s drop dead easy. And, cheap.

I can walk you through either of two methods.

Method Number One is “more professional”, gives you future flexibility (it’s really a web site package), and costs about 50$ a year from my WSP. http://www.1and1.com/?k_id=9113251 (I use a version of that package on steroids — 240$/year — for my consulting sites; Jasper Jottings rides on the coat tails of that.) Note: you can get just the email for ~14$/year, but that limits you to just email.

Method Number Two is more limited as far as future flexibility, depends upon the “generosity” of WordPress and Google (I use that for my blog reinkefaceslife), and costs about $15/year.

Either way, your email is yours and private. Even if you use the web interface for work, it’s accessed by https and as such it is encrypted from anyone’s prying eyes.

As you see below, you can have [his name] dot com.

Hope this helps,
yell if you need more,
fjohn68

Just to call your attention to a neat use of Skype.

Recently Frau was in the ER. Aside from being banned, cell phones weren’t working that well. I assume the building and well as all the electronics around were part of the reason. The fact it was around the corner from an XRAY MRI lab may account for why we were all “glowing”.

Any way, Frau wanted to talk to some relatives.

(Hey what else does one do during the 7 hour wait? If this is far better than socialized medicine, you can keep Hillary care!)

So, I had the idea to Skype. I had my laptop up on the hospital wifi, so I brought up skype, plugged in the headphones, and poof she was talking to relatives.

Everyone reported the calls clear and crisp.

For fun I went up on VWBBie (Verizon Wireless Broad Band) and it worked to. I could have opened my own phone booth.

(Maybe I should have called the ER doc on the phone and asked for them to shake a leg! I could have called the aide. That’d have been a hoot!)

Any way something to keep in mind if you’re stuck for a phone.

# # # # #

When the hospital’s free wifi (beggars can’t be choosers) was blocking FTP, I pinged my WSP for help. A day later (Drop Dead While Waiting), I get this useless “help”. Argh!

*** begin quote ***

From: support @ 1and1
Sent: Monday, June 04, 2007 12:54 AM
To: reinkefj
Subject: C75194506 – 1&1 Internet Support

Dear Ferdinand Reinke, (Customer ID: 9113251)

Thank you for contacting us.

Unfortunately, FTP is universally using only port 21. We have no alternaltive ports for FTP. You can use the Secure FTP or Secure Shell to upload the files however, this is not supported in your current package. SSH (@port 22) is only available in 1&1 Business Linux and higher packages.

If you have any further questions please do not hesitate to contact us.

—
Sincerely,
Neil Parilla
Technical Support
1&1 Internet

*** end quote ***

Why bother? I didn’t ask for alternative ports. I ASKED for an alternative PERIOD.

I find their service highly available (I can’t ever remember being “out of service”) and “cheap” (I pay about $250/year and “collected” all my web sites in one place with gobs of space and bandwidth left over).

But they could do a better job answering questions faster and should really have an non-FTP alternative to updating a web site. What happens if this core protocol has a major problem (unlikely, but someone always wins the lotto!) and they have to take down FTP.

Seems like an SPF (Single Point of Failure) to me?

Argh!

# # #

Note: Updating my Alumni News webpage until I got home to my great cable ISP. :-) When everything always works PERFECTLY! :-)

# # # # #

Argh! And, the WSP does appear to support anything other than FTP to update websites. Argh! Argh!