Relationships come in all shapes, sizes, and durations. They're all different, but they each help us in some way or another. Some help us to grow, others to remain a child. Some help us to find out who we really are. Others provide the opportunity to enrich our lives by simply lending a hand where one is needed.
As I was playing with the kids in the driveway the other day, my neighbor poked his head out the window and informed me that his son was out of work. In this economy, he's got a lot of company unfortunately. He was laid off about a month ago, and has been unable to secure a job sense. Knowing that I was in the same general field of work, her asked if I had any leads, suggestions, ideas that I could pass along for his son. I searched my brain for a few moments, and finally asked that he send me his resume and I'd forward it along to those that might be able to help.
I wasn't in a position to hire him, and I'm not sure that my company is either, but over the years, I've built up a little network of people in a similar line of work as mine that might be hiring. And even if my contacts aren't hiring, they might know someone that is. It's all about the network. My neighbor's son's networking had not been enough so far to land him a job, so he expanded his network to his Dad, who expanded it to me, who expanded it to my contacts. The idea is that the larger your network of (qualified) relationships, the more likely it is that you'll get ahold of the right person to accomplish a goal.
The Media are calling it "Social Networking" and have dubbed it the current craze. Sites like MySpace, Friendster, and hundreds more provide a place for people to connect, relate, network, and generally hang out on the 'Net. While these sites focus mainly on social networking, Linked In's focus is on business networking.
LinkedIn allows you to manage, discover, assist, and to get assistance from your network of business contacts. After telling it about who you know (a very easy import task, or enter them manually), they will tell you who is already a LinkedIn member. With this knowledge, you can invite those persons to join, sorry Link to your network. They bring along all of their previous contacts as well, building your network more quickly. Once your network has been established, you have an organically growing group of people that you can tap for all sorts of business related tasks. Track down a connection that works for a company you're having a sales meeting with and get a lay of the land ahead of time. Find people that have a specific skill set or expertise that you need to finish that critical project. Find people that work for companies that are hiring. Find people that you used to work with, but lost track of (it really is a small world; they're likely to turn up as someone else's contacts sooner of later).
Basically, the site works like this: If you find someone that you need to contact, your request is send to the person you know, who knows someone that knows someone that knows the person you want to connect with. Or some abbreviated or drawn out trail similar. At each step along the way, you're using trusted contacts to vouch for the person that sent them the request to forward on. The assumption is that if you're a good person, then you generally have good friends. And if the people you have as contacts as good people, the same assumption is made about them. This strengthens the relationship network and keeps the spammers out.
At the current moment, I have 73 direct connections, but I "have access to" over 300,000 connections who are friends of my friend's friends. There are over 10 million people on the network! Ok, maybe the world isn't so small after all.
Monday, April 30, 2007
It's all in who you know, and who THEY know, and who THEY know, and...
An afternoon craft
I don't remember when I came across this site, but it's one that sticks in the back of my mind. A piece of paper, some scissors, a little glue (sticks worked best for me), this site and a little time and you've got yourself a 3D model (completely colorized), of an Apache helicopter, or the US Capitol Building, or Santa, or a Harley, or Tyrannosaurus Rex. The models are very detailed, and yet easy to put together
Saturday, April 28, 2007
Pregnant?
Bet that got a few friends and family to link in :-}
No, not me silly. Not my wife either. Nor anyone else I know of right now. But if I did know someone who was pregnant, and a geek too, I'd suggest that they check this out (full site here). I've seen (and even used) wedding planners, but this is the first time I've seen a commercial product to keep track of infant timings -- diaper changes, sleep patterns, etc and chart them all out. I found the site as part of my data visualization blog search (another interest of mine).
Thursday, April 26, 2007
Need a place to bunk?
I posted about my brother's travels earlier and happened across this site today while cleaning out a few flags from a recent magazine ( I use the Post It 1.5 x 2" pads to mark interesting articles to read or URLs I come across that I need to act on later). Couch Surfing should appeal more to his taste and adventures than mine, but thought it was an interesting concept.
According to their website, "CouchSurfing seeks to internationally network people and places, create educational exchanges, raise collective consciousness, spread tolerance, and facilitate cultural understanding." Yeah, like I said - a place to bunk... or meet fellow travelers (online or in person).
Tuesday, April 24, 2007
Been there...NOT. Done that...maybe.
My younger brother is amazing. He's been to more countries than I've been to states. I'd known that for a while, but decided to actually ask him to enumerate them today... This is what I got back...
"The unabridged list of countries, territories, colonies, autonomous districts, and otherwise hard to categorize places in the world that I remember having been to is as follows:
...some of them for longer durations than others.
I think he forgot a layover in Japan, but I may be remembering it wrong... That's at least 25 countries!
Me? I've been to USA, Mexico, Canada, China, Hong Kong, Japan (if that layover existed) and I guess that's it.
Not that I'm jealous or anything, but he's 12 years younger than me with a full head of hair too!
Been around the world? Where have you been? Leave a comment with your list of places you've left your footprints.
Looking for someone?
There are literally DOZENS of places that you can go to on the Web when you're trying to track someone down. You give them a little data and they'll search through terabytes of data and tell you where someone lives. All very nice and tidy if that's what you're looking for, but WhitePages.com just released a new tool that makes looking for someone a little more fun. Instead of looking for anyone in particular, this site will tell you where they're most likely to be.
Searching for a friend named Robert Jones - your best bet is in California, Texas, Florida or Pennsylvania. Those states have more than 500 listings for Robert Jones in the WhitePages.com directory. Looking for (someone named) Paradise - take a trip to New York or Florida. The main WhitePages.com site has a lot of useful tools when you really want to find someone, but this one is just fun to play with.
Sunday, April 22, 2007
Better mouse trapped
I was so excited when our new computer came with an optical mouse a couple of years ago. Until then, I hadn't bothered to upgrade the one we had. I was well versed on cleaning the mouse ball and rollers, but tired of it. The optical mouse worked well for a couple of years, and then, through normal wear and tear it finally started showing its age. I replaced it with a MS mouse, but got annoyed with all of its "special features" that popped up when you didn't want them to and some of the issues with movement control. I replaced that one with an el-cheapo but popular Belkin branded mouse... Now that one is having trouble. I'm starting to think that there's something else going on...
Basically, the current mouse won't keep track of where you are well and when it gets confused, it hides in the corner. Some quick wrist tricks or physically tapping it on the desk will usually snap it out of hiding, but this is becoming more a more difficult to deal with. Occasionally, when trying to draw it from it's lair, it ends up closing the app you were working on. That's not good...
I've tried updating the drivers, using generic drivers, ripping out (as best I could) the MS driver/apps they installed, but nothing seems to work. I'm gonna try the kids non-optical mouse once, but if that doesn't work...
I'm also gonna have to find a way to upgrade my Flash player soon. I've found documentation that describes my issue and inability to upgrade, but even following those directions and remedy haven't worked. Computers are supposed to make our lives easier and more productive, right?
Wednesday, April 18, 2007
My money troubles are over...
Not sure that this is legal, but I made some for myself anyway (unless Big Brother is reading this and then I'm just kidding!)
Red light, Green light...
I sometimes get a little peeved about the littlest things. There are about five or six national companies that will never see another cent from my wallet because of what others may consider "minor issues." There are plenty of competitors who are happy to take my business. This pet peeve is more than just a matter of pennies or brand loyalty. This one could kill you!
Red means STOP – Green mean GO…
We learn that early in life. We play games in kindergarten to help us remember it. The color scheme is used in advertisements as a call to action. And yet, some people just don't get it!
On my roughly 30 mile round trip to work and home each day, there are probably 4 or 5 intersections where these "ne'er do wells" tend to congregate. The two worst spots involve getting off of the expressway. On the way to work, getting off the expressway there is a stop sign on the service drive to allow the freeway traffic to exit on to the service drive. on at least 3 of the 5 work days, I see people blow through that stop sign while I'm sitting on the exit ramp. Not slow down and make a rolling stop, then continue -- blow right through without even a hit of red glare coming from their tail lights. The only way I can imagine that no one has been killed in a crash there is that those of us getting off the freeway just expect them to blow through the sign and are that much more careful. That's not the way it's supposed to happen though!
There is a similar issue on the way home. Getting off the expressway, I need to cross 3 lanes of service drive to make a right turn. The service drive has the yield (though not a stop if I recall). More often than not, people blow right through that merge without a second glance. In a little poetic justice, the day I almost get side swiped at that intersection, as I was mumbling under my breath, "where are the darn cops when you need them," I looked back to see the bubble lights flip on and a police officer pulling over the offender behind me. :-}
Back stepping a bit, the first critical intersection is actually at the end of my street. There is a 4-way traffic light at the intersection. Usually the way those work is that 2 sides are green and the opposing two sides are red. Well there must be an awful lot of color-blind people in my city, 'cuz they certainly can't see it change from one color to another... Thankfully, the local police officers need to keep up their funds so they occasionally will sit there and wait for the law breakers. I always stop and say "Thanks" when I see them sitting there (of course they reach for their sidearm when some cook approaches their car for no apparent reason, but they seem to be thankful for the appreciation after the fact.)
So, whether you're in a hurry because you're late for work, distracted by your cell phone, or changing the CD in the stereo... PLEASE, for all our sakes, PAY ATTENTION at intersections.
Monday, April 16, 2007
A night (or day) at the movies
Buried really deep, beneath at least a micron-thickness layer of the web is a LOT of video. Not all of it is "quality," but it's there. Some of it is useful. :-}
One source of videos that Google doesn't publicize much (if at all...I stumbled on to it by chance I think.) is their collection of Movie Trailers. Some of these are available on YouTube or the other video sites as well, but Google has collected them all in one place for the moviegoer here. You can view movie trailers for current and Coming Soon movies. You can even hop on over to movie times for local theaters. I use it to help preview the tone of movies the kids want to watch as well as to look for something for my wife and I to see on the occasional night out without the kids. You can also read or leave comment for others.
Tickets anyone?
= = = = = = = = ?!
Raising three children is tough, but it's a real joy. I've learned A LOT about life just by being around my kids. They are exposed to things, do things, think about things, read about things and enjoy things that I never thought of when I was their age (at least that I remember). Occasionally they even learn things from me. One thing that I'm really struggling with right now, though, is equality.
My oldest two were born pretty close (13 days short of a year apart -- I'm told that qualifies as "Irish Twins"). As they grew, my wife and I tried really hard to treat them equally. We didn't want one of them to get a new toy, or get to do something special, if the other one couldn't as well. If one got to spend the night at Grandma's, the other one had to be able to as well. If one got to stay up a little later watching a movie, the other one was allowed to as well. Perhaps that wasn't the right thing to do, but it seemed only fair.
There were a few things that the younger of the two had to defer a little because of age, but developmentally they were so close, it seemed like we were almost punishing the younger if they didn't get to enjoy the same things.
It doesn't matter what the topic, the region of the world, the media -- it seems like everyone is looking for equality. "They got this so we should too." "They are allowed to do this so we should be able to as well." That's the problem, though. It's a sense of entitlement. That's not always possible, nor is it always the right thing to do.
We're focusing on the wrong things. Let's shift our focus from equality to fairness. Instead of allowing someone to do the same thing that someone else is allowed to do, focus on an equivalent, fair alternative. That eliminates the monotony of the event. It allows each to grow independently on their own, as opposed to in the shadow of whoever got the first reward. It allows them to shine in their own space. It shows them that things are not always better just because other people are doing it (this will help with the even harder battles with peer pressure they'll face later in life).
Instead of focusing on equality, balance the scales with fairness. (Now about that "Life's not always fair" quote...)
Pandora's box
As I sit here typing this blog I'm listening to music I've never hear before -- and actually liking it! All of this is delivered right to my dual auditory channels free-of-charge, on-demand by Pandora. In this case, however, it's not the evils of the world that are unleashed, but instead a plethora or songs that you may or may not have heard, but will probably like to listen to based on as few as one artist or song that you already enjoy.
You can help it improve it's accuracy by telling it if it happens to pick a song not to your liking, but I've found it pretty accurate. All of this is based on a music genome project -- the same kid of mapping being applied to the human (and other) DNA used to determine what's similar about different music. Essentially, it all gets boiled down to a few hundred characteristics of music that are then used to find similar songs for your enjoyment. It's really interesting to have Pandora tell you why she chose to play a particular song. Never knew I was that predictable.
You can set up different "stations" to listen to as well. When you need some good workout music (come one, you're not just sitting in front of the computer wasting away right now are you?) you pick one channel of upbeat bass-thumping get-your-heart-pumping tunes. Maybe you like to relax with a little jazz as you empty your mailbox of all the SPAM (or maybe you just like to listen to Jazz.) And for those night when you and your significant other are embattled in a tournament of World of Warcraft, maybe a little medley of love songs...
When you find one that really strikes your fancy, you can link right over to Amazon or iTunes to add it to your permanent collection. Pretty cool...
Sunday, April 15, 2007
Fred? Is that you?
Several years ago I had the opportunity to listen to a speech by Mark Sanborn entitled The Fred Factor. I gotta tell ya -- it was riveting. The story seemed oddly out of place -- those guys don't exist anymore, do they -- but riveting, nonetheless. It harks back to the old "chivalry is dead" era -- no one really still holds doors open for women (or anyone for that matter) anymore do they? (Guilty, by the way). Freds do exist and they are celebrated locally in every organization in some way. We need to a better job of publicizing Fred outside though. He may still be a rare breed, but if people forget about him, he'll be extinct...
The FISH Philosophy is another similar story that's making its rounds worth looking at.
Thursday, April 12, 2007
Summer Vacation ideas
Kellogg's Cereal City in Battle Creek Michigan closed this year. :-{
There are a lot of other factories to see throughout the country, though... Visit Factory Tours USA and find one...before they close too!
What's the 411?
Goog411 launched a little bit ago. Interestingly, this one is labeled "experimental", not "beta" as per Google's usual release.
Cell phone companies (and land line for that matter) charge a lot when you call Information - from 50 cents to over $3 -- PER CALL. There have been alternatives for a while, (have you tried 800-Free-411 or Tell Me (800-555-Tell) Business Search yet?) Google has had an SMS service you can use from your phone for residential and business listings for a while too. That saved me a lot of time and energy on our last trip to Florida!
Anyway, back to Goog411. Besides it's cheesy name, I was also disappointed by the service itself, sadly. Having used TellMe for quite a while, I became quite used to superior voice recognition, natural sounding responses and even natural conversation. While the Goog411 service did find the businesses I was looking for (with the exception of the "I'm sorry. You seem to have encountered a minor bug in our system. We'll get someone working on a fix for that right away" and the multiple attempts that just plain went unanswered - the system never even picked up, thought eh call had connected.) The response is very robotic sounding too.
I understand that this is still bet..., er um, "experimental," but I think that this one is a little to early to release even for Google.
Sync My Ride
Ok, I'm officially offering up myself as a test subject to Ford and Microsoft if they want more testers for their Sync project. Though I don't own an iPod, Zune or even a BlueTooth compatible phone at the moment, if they'd like to provide said products, I'd be happy to help out. Even without those products, this Sync thing sounds really cool. I've always thought about how cool it would be to surf the web for sites or information mentioned on the radio – real time, compose and read email – when the thought hits me, not when I remember again, get turn-by-turn driving directions spoken as I drive. I'm not much of a music aficionado, but I bet those that are would really like the features offer for that too – full voice control of the player plus voice search for artist, track, etc. Synch may or may not help with all of my issues, but it'd be nice to try it for a while… can you hear me Ford and Microsoft? (Hey, don't laugh! It worked for this guy)
Tuesday, April 10, 2007
Disposable email...
Occasionally I go cheap and sign up for the free samples that are all over the web. A lot of them ask for an email address. A lot of those are vacuums used to collect spam destinations. Some sites entice you into giving them the email address by saying they'll send you a link with the document or site you're looking for. I don't care about receiving "physical mail spam," and although Google does a great job of filtering out the spam from my email, why tempt fate. For those sites -- Mailinator to the rescue!
Mailinator is a (keeping with the theme) free site that allows you to make it up as you go along. You don't need to register ahead of time. You don't need to worry about conflicting with an address that someone else is already using. Just use anyusernameyouwant@mailinator next time you need to enter an address when you don't want to use your own. Then head on over to Mailinator and type in anyusenameyouwant and read the mail being sent. Read it quickly though, because after a couple of hours the mail is automatically deleted - long enough for you to get the email or link you need without ever receiving any spam (attributed to that site anyway...)
Beware, that if someone else has already used that email address in the past, it may already be receiving spam that is "not intended for little eyes."
Something stupid this way comes
Since I upgraded to DSL a while ago, I've fallen into the same trap as many (many, many)millions of others. I admit it. I like to watch those silly videos on YouTube, and elsewhere. Some are interesting for their technical knowledge (a white board that can actually animate a wagon rolling down a hill), some for their simplicity taken to the extreme (all of the Line Rider artistry), and the rest just for their "entertainment" value. I also use Viral Videos, GoogTube, and Unique Daily to make sure that i don't miss things like the beer throwing refrigerator...
Link Error
For some reason several of the links on this blog were prefixed with AWorldDiscovered prior to the real URL. I've scanned through and I think I caught them all, but let me know if you find any broken links.
Monday, April 9, 2007
Search Engine Smackdown
Think you know a thing or two about search engines? Prove it! SearchEngine SmackDown
CRM - Crap Removed from Mailbox
CRM used to stand for Customer Relationship Management - the philosophy, practice and industry around managing the managing a customer - from pre-sales and acquisition, through customer orders, returns and inquiries, up selling and finally through the departure of that customer for whatever reason (after of course attempting to win the customer back if possible).
I'm not opposed to getting junk mail - I actually like it. There are literally only about 2 non-holiday days a year that I don't get something in the mailbox. I do my duty and recycle the mail at my kid's school so that they get a few cents a pound toward the budget. I like seeing interesting stuff in the mail. But... What I don't like is when I get credit card offers from companies I already have a credit card from. And even worse, when they send the offer not as an up sell to a more premium credit card, or one with a different reward structure, but when they send it to me like I'm an average Joe off the street that they don't already have a relationship with. I've been a customer of theirs for years and they still don't know me? They could tell what I had for breakfast the other day if asked, but yet when it comes time to cast a wide net for new suckers, er um, customers, they can't even scrub my name off their list 'cuz they already caught me?!
I know that the credit card companies make billions of dollars a year and the purchases I make and fees that I pay contribute to that, so I'm not out to try to save them money. I'm not living in a fantasy world that thinks that they're gonna lower my credit card fees or give me something back because they're saving money on their mass mailings. But even stepping into their shoes for a second - you'd think that they would want to save some money -- money that would go straight to the bottom line.
I know that they buy lists from a variety of sources. Lists of people that might want another credit card. Lists of people that want to transfer balances over for a low introductory rate. And those individual companies may not know that they each have my name listed, but certainly the big guys could scrub the list before sending to the bulk-mailer. They know more about me than I do (ignoring that fact most of the time is necessary to allow me to sleep at night).
It's just a little pet peeve of mine, but hey! AOL doesn't send CDs in the mail anymore. They're still hope for this cause too... :-}
Wednesday, April 4, 2007
Even Computer Geeks Have a Sense of Humor
As witnessed by their yearly April Fools jokes (this year featuring Google Paper Archiving and TiSP, a free wireless broadband offering), there are at least a few Googlers with a sense of humor. I occasionally catch a mention of other little "Easter Eggs" hidden within Google tools, like the one in Google Maps that suggests that you swim across the ocean. I remember working on a help desk supporting a new software application many years ago and finding things inserted in the index of the instruction manual that shouldn't be there, or other little hidden phrases that "midnight programmers," as we came to know them, had inserted. Everyone needs their little escape... :-)
Just Google ...
Just saw this on YouTube... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KO_ey4v1ccA
Now if only I could remember where the other video is that went something like... the future of search. a guy calls a pizza place, and you see the pizza place's computer monitor showing his caller id, then his name, his address, then his occupation, his weight, his healthplan, etc...
Working for "The Man"
A lot of people talk about working for "The Man," but who is "The Man?" Is he the corporations that make a lot of money off the sweat and ingenuity of their employees? Or is it YOU?!
It's all about perspective. You choose who to work for. You may have the wherewith all to strike out on your own and start a business of your own. Or you may not. Regardless of who actually "pays you," you must choose to work for you self -- to make things better for yourself, to further your goals, dreams and ambitions. Only then will you enjoy what you're doing and feel a real sense of accomplishment.
There are story after story after story and quote after quote published about the people that we all recognize as famous, or rich, or talented, or happy. Stories where those people shared the fact that life was not always what it is for them now. They struggled. They had bad times. They failed. And many failed more than once, but they persevered and kept on working toward their goals. And they came out on top.
My wife and I took the kids to see Disney's Meet The Robinson's over the past weekend. In it one of the character's catch phrase was "Just keep moving forward." It reminded me that no matter how big the challenge, no matter how insurmountable it might seem, it can be overcome with dedication and perseverance, and steps in the right direction.
Who REALLY wants you...
So I started, or rather re-started, thinking about the ads that Google AdSense places on my blog. It's all based on content already on the page. It's kind of interesting to see what it matches up on. Currently, my story about my youngest in the pool is grabbing "its" attention.
There's actually a whole industry around Making the most of your AdSense program. There are articles out there telling you what words to use on your website, blog, etc to get the most high-paying ads delivered to your page. Essentially, to make the most money, you want ads that when someone clicks on it, nets you the most revenue. To get those ads you need to grab AdSense's attention with the highest Cost per Click value. You get a portion of the money that Google makes on each click, so the higher their profit, the higher your percentage rakes in.
If I wanted to maximize my AdSense revenue and get two free lunches a year from Google, I would have to use words like Loan Consolidation, Student Loan, Car Insurance Quote, Cash Settlement or take another genre and use things like Business Degrees Online, Online College Degree, or Online Doctorate Degree. With these words in my blog, a match with AdSense and a LOT of luck, I may be up sizing that fry from Wendy's – courtesy of Google and AdSense and of course the people who were interested in reducing their debt or learning even more while in their boxers and slippers…
Tuesday, April 3, 2007
Take a Message...
I've been using Jott for a couple of months now as a quick way to send reminders to myself. Basically you sign up at the site, give it your cell number and a few contacts (phone or email) and that's it. Then, when you're driving down the road and something hits you that you want to remember to take care of (or post about), you simply dial Jott (it recognizes your cell as a login)and tell it who you want to Jott a message to and then say the message. It transcribes the message and sends it on it's way. It even includes a link to the actual recorded message in case the transcription is off a little (though it's been very accurate for me so far). Best of all it's FREE!
Lifehacker suggested a more structured way use to this service -- use it as a to do list with a couple of GMail filters.
I thought of another way to use this service. I listen to talk radio on the way home from work each night. Occasionally there is a topic or something that I want to add my two cents to, but I have never called a radio show and am not likely to start now, so I just kinda let the moment pass. I could however, set up the show's email address as a Jott contact and simply transcribe the message to them over email. I hear them reading email from listeners on the air all the time in response to the immediate topic on air, and Jott is quick with their transcriptions, so I think it would work... Maybe I'll get around to it one day...
