JAFDIP

Just another frakkin day in paradise

Archives for 2011

The reality of Facebook influence

Many social media experts tout the brilliance and viability of Facebook. They shout about ‘like’ metrics, friend counts and login durations as being the key to evaluating the return on investment of the social media platform. I propose that these metrics are nothing more than vanity and prove absolutely nothing more than the mythology of Facebook’s dominance.

Image representing Facebook as depicted in Cru...
Image via CrunchBase

So you have published your product/business’s page on Facebook. Now you engage in a campaign to garner as many ‘likes’ as you can because you read somewhere or hired someone that informed you that you must do this. At some point you earn thousands of like but less than 1% commentary on your page. In effect you have a vapid following on your professional Facebook page that does extremely little to enhance your brand and absolutely nothing to further the original goal of social network which is interaction. Sadly liking something does little to improve the brand’s real presence or recognition.

There is a similar phenomenon in promiscuously befriending everybody and their brother. Just because you have hundreds of friend on a social network does not mean that they are actually your friends. How many of these social media friends do you engage with on a monthly let alone daily basis? How many of them really merit the term friend? Sadly my personal impression is that as a result of the current trend in social media the term friend no longer bares the meaning it once did.

A vapid following on your professional Facebook page that does extremely little to enhance your brand

Finally let’s examine the latest metric that has sprung out of the Facebook camp: “Logon Duration.” This is the duration of time spent logged into a social networking site. I can honestly say that this means absolutely nothing and should not be a determination of anything other than the laziness of the site’s users. In my own home there are four Facebook users and three of them are logged in practically 24/7/365. In fact all of us have the requisite Facebook app installed on our Android phones as well as iPods and iPads. However none of us are actually cognizant of what is happening on the site at say 3 AM. The research on average login duration is so severely skewed that it amazes me that anyone would have postulated it in the first place.

So how should do you think we should measure our Social Media influence?

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Of fire, wheels and other important inventions

A brief expose on the most important inventions of human history and you will undoubtedly arrive at the wheel as being one of if not the more pivotal. However I would argue that there is another that the rivals the wheel as the quintessential most important invention of all time. That being of course the toilet.

Consider for a moment how important the flush-able toilet is to our civilization. Not since fire has there been any other device as important to the health and care of humanity. Sure wheels help you go places but have you even taken a three year old on a long car ride? If you have then you know that all they care about is how long until you reach the next bathroom.

Toilet in german theater munich
Image via Wikipedia

 

A night out on the town after consuming a wee bit too much fun and we are all equalized in the presence of the porcelain alter. No other invention is so welcoming after your bachelor/bachelorette party. Is there any room that offers so much privacy as your bathroom? Why else would people claim to meditate while enthroned?

As anyone who has traveled internationally there are few modern conveniences that you miss more when you have to live even a day without. So I urge you to contemplate the incredible value of such technology and ponder that few other advances in human history can render a Blackberry, iPhone, or Andriod device equally undesirable and unusable in one flush.

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More Veterans job services

While honoring our Veterans the past week keep in mind that their numbers will swell in the forthcoming year. The number of vets will reach record levels when these service personnel return from Iraq and Afghanistan. Many hope to return to the jobs they had before being activated however with the collapse of so many companies during this recession it is unlikely that those jobs even exist for them to return to. Worse there are entire communities that have been decimated by this near depression.

In light of all this there are a handful of corporations that are actively engaged in helping our former service members acclimate back into civilian society. One of the largest is Chase Bank which is spearheading the 100,000 Job Mission. To learn more about this effort or to investigate employment opportunities go to the 100000jobsmission.com site. The following are founding members of the project:

Recently the following companies have signed on to help in this effort:

  • Alelo
  • Delta Air Lines
  • ManTech International Corporation
  • Pitney Bowes
  • T & M Protection Resources

Although their focus is for service members who have been directly affected by the current conflict this should not deter members of earlier conflicts from utilizing this valuable resource. In fact it is rather unfortunate that our nation goes through cycles of ignoring our vets. Veterans comprise a highly dedicated and skilled work force as well as being possibly our greatest human asset.

Additional resources for unemployed vets are civilian service member organizations like the American Legion, AMVETS, VFW and many others. These organizations will often assist members accessing services at the VA or through other local government agencies. Just keep in mind that you usually need to be a member of the respective organization and each has it’s own eligibility requirements.

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Veteran’s day & 11^6

Today is a special day for more than the obvious reasons. If you are a US citizen then it is one if the days that we honor those who have served this nation. Generally this federal holiday is for honoring those Veterans of the US Armed Forces. Many organizations like the American Legion, AmVets and VFW also honor those who have passed on. Officially there is a holiday specifically for those service members who have given that ultimate sacrifice which is Memorial day.

However honestly a vet is a vet alive or dead so please take a moment and consider the freedoms granted you as a citizen under the Constitution of the United States. Protection of those freedoms is the cornerstone of the oath that all of these Veterans take upon entering the service. Not matter how trivial is may seem try to imagine living without even one of those freedoms and perhaps you will begin to comprehend the commitment these brave souls have made.

In other news today also hold significance albeit it somewhat arbitrary in that it is a once per century occurrence where the date and time is marked on the 11s. This means that at the moment of this articles publishing it was exactly 11/11/11 11:11:11 (that’s AM by the way because PM is 23…) and that will not align again for another 100 years. Of course next year it will occur on the 12s. In light of that wherever you are consider these moments and enjoy your freedom to enjoy this holiday as you see fit.

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How to burn a DVD on Mac OS X using Diskutility

So you want to make a backup of some data you have on a DVD and you use a MAC. This is no where as difficult as it is made out to be, sure you could buy some cool software like DVDRemaster, or Toast Titanium 10 Pro. Or if you are a Unix pro you could install the MacPorts and roll you own solution using Handbrake and various other utilities, however; you could just use the built-in Disk Utility tucked neatly away in your Utilities folder.

Figure 1::Disk Utility icon
Figure 1::Disk Utility icon

Open Disk Utility (referred to as DU here after) and insert the DVD media you wish to backup. Once the media with your content has been loaded it will appear in the left pane of DU under the drive description. Refer to figure 2 for an example.

Figure 2::Media selection
Figure 2::Media selection

The next step is to select New Image from the tool bar above the right pane and the resulting dialog will ask you to title your new image. This step will copy the content from the media into a disc image file, that you could email to other Mac users, if you needed to send this to a PC or Unix/LINUX user then you would need to convert this image to an ISO. We will cover ISO images at a later date.

Figure 3::Create an image of the media
Figure 3::Create an image of the media

Once you are satisfied with your image name and select ‘Save’ it will begin the imaging process. Figure 4 demonstrates the action window that displays the progress.

Figure 4::Imaging Progress
Figure 4::Imaging Progress

Once the image of your content has been successfully created on your hard disk you will observe (see figure 5 for details) that it is auto mounted by DU and you may eject the disc in the DVD drive at this point.

Figure 5::New Created Disc Image
Figure 5::New Created Disc Image

At this point you can insert a blank media and select the ‘Burn’ option from the tool bar above the left pane. It’s the one that looks like a radio active warning. If the media is properly loaded in drive a context menu as shown in figure 6 will display. Select the ‘Burn’ button to proceed with the operation and the disc burning progress will be displayed in a window similar to figure 7.

Figure 6:Disc Burning Menu
Figure 6:Disc Burning Menu
Figure 7::Disc Burning Progress Window
Figure 7::Disc Burning Progress Window

You will be notified upon success or failure. Assuming that all went as planned you will be able to mount your backup copy and verify that the content is intact.

Figure 8::Burn Success
Figure 8::Burn Success

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