LINKEDIN: Getting a subtotal by first letter of last name

Wednesday, November 7, 2007

You can subdivided you contacts into “panels” by the first letter of their last name. (It’s useful for may things. Days Outstanding measurement. Balancing what LinkedIn thinks you have versus what you have in Outlook.)

I have a little trick for finding out how many of a certain letter LinkedIn has. If you go to the “contacts” screen in LinkedIn and tap on the letter in the index, then up at the top is “showing xxx of yyyy connections”. And there is your check total. It’s better than trying to count, or print to count.

fwiw

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LINKEDIN: LinkedIn requires a lot of activity to stay in sync

Tuesday, November 6, 2007

In my LinkedIn Outlook folder, I have 1109 contacts. In LinkedIn, I have 1100. Why the discrepancy?

And, it’s not easy to figure it out.

One can count until you’re bleary eyed. But it’s like counting sheep, it’ll put you to sleep.

And, is it an “activity trap” type of activity? Or, does it lead to something useful?

Don’t know.

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RANT: Put the sheeple in their proper place in the pecking order!

Tuesday, November 6, 2007

This morning I went to vote. Hey, I’m insane. Keep doing the same thing year after year, expecting different results. Today it was raining. As I walked past all the parked cars, in the rain, thru the puddles, it struck me. These are the worker’s cars.

What monumental disrespect!

It’s a peek into their souls. They took the first space and they will be their for their full shift. And every voter will have to trudge by their car. If you were really interested in “serving” the people, wouldn’t you have parked you car a little further away and left the close to the door spaces for the myriad of voters who would come to “duck in and out”.

No, they are the sheeple who can be treated with such disrespect.

Sigh!

Is it uncharitable to wish that all their tires go flat?

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JOBSEARCH: Updating my mental model

Tuesday, November 6, 2007

ATTENTION K-MART SHOPPERS:

The model of success is changing again.

***Begin Quote***

Success, in a job search sense, is found by having:

(1) ruthless financial discipline — no bad debt;

(2) a life long interest in learning — education — a degree — certifications — credentials — they can’t take it away from you;

(3) a white collar job in order to save big bux;

(4) a blue collar skill for hard times — never saw a poor plumber;

(5) one or more internet based businesses — your store is always open;

(6) a free time hobby that generates income; and

(7) a large will-maintained network of people who can “help” you.

***End Quote***

Please exchange your old memes for new ones at Customer Service.

We are not responsible for adverse consequences of using old memes. Bankruptcy, divorce, alcoholism, sleeplessness, depression, and lost of self-esteem are side effect of using the wrong meme. See you certified Turkey Master for the correct meme in your specific case.

We take visa/master card and most insurances.

This is not an offering to buy or sell securities which can only be made by formal prospectus.

This is only for illustrative purposes and not indicative of anyone’s actual results.

Your Mileage May Vary.

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LINKEDIN: You can be in LinkedIn’s “dog house” and not even know it!

Tuesday, November 6, 2007

FROM AN EMAIL TO A LINKEDIN CONTACT WHO HAD BEEN “POUNDED”:

*** begin quote ***

FYI Your profile has been sent to the “dog pound” by LinkedIn. I think you need to take some action on that, but I don’t know what to tell you. It’s my understanding that you will not, repeat NOT, be found in any LinkedIn searches if you’ve been “pounded”. So right away, I think you have a problem. It’s my again my understanding that LinkedIn has done this to anyone who has their email, or other strange characters in their name field. The hard part is only YOUR first level connections can see this “pounding”, and tell you about it. Others that I have told, have “fixed” the problem and about a week later were “un-pounded”. Please advise if, after you “fix” it, you want me to check for you again.

Fjohn

*** end quote ***

AND HERE”S WHERE I FIRST HEARD ABOUT IT:

*** begin quote ***

Is Your Profile Ending Up In The Linkedin Dog Pound?
Posted by: “Vincent Wright”
Tue Nov 7, 2006 10:01 pm (PST)

Because of the way the symbol for it is pronounced, I think of the “#”
Section of Linkedin’s Remove Connections as “The Dog Pound” . (Some may
think this a good name for certain types of profiles. :-))

In case you’re not familiar with the “#” Section on Linkedin, it’s located
at the end of the alphabetized list of your contacts at:
http://www.linkedin.com/connections?displayBreakConnections

You and I cannot place any contacts in this area. Profiles are assigned
there by Linkedin’s contact algorithm based on certain types of elements
being present in the name field – I believe.

Food For Thought: Some people may use this as a way to clean up “weak”
connections en masse. If this happens, your profile may unintentionally be
removed even by a connection who may know you pretty well as a “strong”
connection.

—
Thanks!
Vincent Wright
Chief Encouragement Officer
www.VincentWright.com

*** end quote ***

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LINKEDIN: Aligning what LinkedIn has

Monday, November 5, 2007

Arghh! This is annoying. I have ten discrepancies between what I show and what LinkedIn has. And, I didn’t even start reconciling what Outlook has.

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LINKEDIN: LinkedIn missed the boat?

Monday, November 5, 2007

A LinkedIn Question
by Rob Richard
Entrepreneur & IT Consultant

*** begin quote ***

Has LinkedIn missed the boat?

Is it me or does LinkedIn seem stagnant; complacent? I’ve not seen any new features in eons, and it really is getting rather old.

With the recent and sizeable cash infusion to facebook from Microsoft ($250 million worth!), what is LinkedIn’s response? There are so many things that could enhance the service. Open it up to developers just as facebook has. I think facebook is more young-people / early adopter centric, but LinkedIn could at least learn a lesson from them and stake their claim in the business and professional networking sites by adding more stickiness.

On more than one occasion I’ve sent suggestions on how to improve the site and its offerings and never heard anything in return. Now as a web entrepreneur, if I have people giving me free suggestions on how to make it more useful, I’d listen. So the question I ask is: “Has LinkedIn missed the boat?”

*** end quote ***

A very tough question.

I personally am not sure of the benefits versus costs of LinkedIn. It may well be an “activity trap” where effort far exceeds results. I think that they have a tiger by the tail.

I haven’t seen anything better.

Facebook came the closest with it’s using college email addresses to define “networks” and with some widespread adoption. But they were aiming at a different value equation.

I think LinkedIn’s poor (in some case non-existent) customer service, it’s new five “idontknows” lockout, and the MONUMENTAL blunder about hassling the LinkedIn affinity groups like LinkedInNewYork and all of Vincent Wright’s efforts is indicative of their “cluelessness”.

Have they missed the boat? No!

Have they failed to capture the wave? Yes!

If Amazon, Ebay, the Ron Paul Presidential run, and other web20 successes taught us anything, it should be that within a very well defined meme let the users surprise you with their energy. And, then hang on tight.

I suggested eons ago, that LinkedIn give me three fields for each of my contacts. One for a private note, one for a note visible only to them, and one was a “last contact date”. The private note was for my use to trigger my memory or record an important fact.The mutually visible note would be for me to record how I knew the person or what I owed them. The date was so I could produce a “days outstanding” metric and sort a “make contact list” by age. NEVER, never, never heard anything back on the idea. It showed me that they weren’t serious about servicing my needs. Only their own.

Later when they hassled the user groups, I knew they had NO CLUE about making LinkedIn a success from my point of view.

So, “No, they haven’t missed the boat” only because there is NO competition to jump to.

imho.

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MONEY: A tale of two employers

Monday, November 5, 2007

http://www.getrichslowly.org/blog/2007/10/28/build-wealth-with-a-virtual-employer

Build Wealth with a “Virtual Employer”
Sunday, 28th October 2007 (by J.D.)
This article is about Money Hacks, Hints and Tips

***Begin Quote***

Here’s the longest “money hack” I’ve ever posted. This is another reader comment from our recent discussion about the transition from “becoming debt-free” to “living debt-free”. In this guest-post from James, who is new to GRS, he describes how he created a “virtual employer” in order to limit his natural spending habits. By playing games with himself, he was able to go from $20,000 in debt to having over a million in savings in just fifteen years. This guest-post is long, but I think it’s worth it.

How is living debt-free different than becoming debt-free? If you are rational (and fortunate) it shouldn’t be different at all.

***and***

A tale of two employers

My real-life employer direct-deposited my paycheck into a money market account. This account used an automated bill-payment service to make deposits into my regular checking and savings account every two weeks. This last set of accounts was used for ATM transactions, and for paying all of my bills. Income into this account was my “salary”. I had to live within my means just like I ought. However, it was like I did not work for my employer, but for a fictitious employer. When I got raises or bonuses, they went into this fake employer’s money market account and did not appear in my salary — they were left to build my savings faster.

Once a year, I gave myself a raise by changing the amount of the bi-weekly salary that went into my personal bank accounts. My income kept rising, just a bit more slowly than in my real-life job. I never felt that I was scrimping because my virtual job was increasing my virtual salary faster than inflation. It took me about two years to pay off debt, and another 4-5 years to build up emergency savings and open a brokerage account and start investing.

***End Quote***

Here’s a great idea.

If only the tax code would let one be one’s own employer.

But, in any event, here’s a way to fool yourself into living within your means.

I think this is one of the more innovative things I have read.

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INTERESTING: Thinking about PaiGow

Monday, November 5, 2007

Can’t say if it’s “fun”. I think imho you are playing for the bonus. You’d have to be incredibly lucky to beat the house at this game. I’m focusing on how to exploit a “positive lucky streak” and stop an “unlucky streak”. We know from probability that there can be streaks. We’re not going to hang around for a long time and get ground up by the house edge. So we need to sense the streak, exploit, and exit.

(I watched carefully the big winner at the 60$ table. He was pushing in more when he was winning and less when he lost. I should have charted his play; not mine!)

At a twenty dollar table, can you play 30$? Assume not! But if you can, that might be a way to play more after a win. So, at a twenty dollar table, I’d suggest that you want to play $40! And 5$ for the bonus. Ignore for the moment pushes.

Start with two basic stakes — one for the game and one for the bonus. Let’s say 300$. Five losing hands?

So we start by setting up five “soldiers” at 40$ each and five for the bonus (45*5=225). The last soldier is a “double” of $80 and ten for the bonus ($90). And a stack of fives ($100) for the bonus replacement’s on pushes. ($415 total) That’s the exit indicator, soldiers gone, we leave.

So here’s how it operates:

Area#1 is for the “soldiers” playing the game. Area#2 is for the bonus play stack. Area#3 is the “bank” — once money moves in there, it’s going home.

Bonus wins, restack the 20 chip bonus stack; excess to the bank.

Bonus stack depleted? A soldier is sent to reinforce. (We’re playing for the big hit.)

Game wins:

If you win, you get $38 (if.eat., 40 minus the two commission). You should add 20, going to 60. Put 18 in your kitty.
If you lose, you’re out -40.

If you win the 60, you get 57. And add 20 going to 80. From the 37, put back a 25$ soldier and the rest back in your kitty.
If you lose, you’re out -40+18=-22.

If you win the 80, you get 76. Add 20 going to 100. From the 56, put back two 25$ soldiers and the rest back in your kitty.
If you lose, you’re out -40+18+37=+15

If you win the 100, you get 95. Add 20 got to 120. From the 75, put back three 25$ soldiers and the rest back in your kitty.
If you lose, you’re out -40+18+37+56=+81

If you win the 125$, call and quit your job cause the world is going to end.

And hope you catch a streak or a big bonus.

Now that’s gambling.

Do you agree with my numerology?

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PRODUCTIVITY: do think them there silver bullets grow on trees, me bucky

Sunday, November 4, 2007

FROM AN EMAIL INQUIRING ABOUT BULLETS

***Begin Quote***

I actually have another side question. I am a big fan of David Allen’s “Getting Things Done.” I recently was looking over a recommendation that you made of someone mentioning an encoded value you put next to someone’s number which told you “to return the call, regardless of rain or shine.” I was curious about your thoughts on personal work flow and automation. What silver bullets do you have in your arsenal that you would be willing to share?

***End Quote***

Ahhh, so it’s some of me silver bullets ye want, argh, do think them there bullets grow on trees, me bucky?

I haven’t found anything in the way of silver bullets. I too would love if GTD was easier than it is. Nothing is organized for GTD.

One think that I do is in LookOut, in the FileAs field for a contact, which you can’t see, is your name field says “XXXXyour last name,your first nameXXXX [LKDN] [HH3] [UNK] [ZO] [ZE]”. Now if you’ve read my stuff, you’ll know that “HH3” has special meaning (The codes all do but that extraneous for this email.):

*** begin quote ***
HH1 Gold (got interviews – the gold standard of hunters),
HH2 (Did great but never delivered an interview),
HH3 Average,
HH4 Below Average (talks a great game but delivered nothing while waste copious amounts of time),
HH5 Don’t bother (In some way really annoyed me, dropped the ball, does NOT play nice).
*** end quote ***

You’d also see things like LKDN1-5, MCALUM1-5, and all sorts of other strange initials usually with 1-5 after them. The absence of a 1-5 means I haven’t formed an opinion.

I have played with all sorts of software. None has done thinks “my way”.

You’ll also notice that I have a large number of email accounts — probably in the neighborhood of 200. Each “activity” has its own email account. {That’s how I know, for example, that an ebay message on a networking account is prima facie a spam or phish.} And in LookOut, I group inboxes into priority buckets. So PriorityOne is family, friends, my lawyer, my accountant, and my broker … AND all the people who are PRIORITY ONE. After that I I have different priorities reflecting my interests. So my Jasper Jottings activities are Priority Six. Any way, long and short. I can look at my LookOut inboxes and NATURALLY spend my time on higher priority activities.

I use a little utility note2email http://www.note2email.com/ to send myself email which in the subject line I put “keys” that sort into the correct email box. I also use a utility called texter http://lifehacker.com/software//lifehacker-code-texter-windows-238306.php to handle all sorts of keystrings (i.e., email addresses; key codes for subject lines).

So no “silver bullets” just trying to get by.

l8r,
fjohn

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