JAFDIP

Just another frakkin day in paradise

Archives for 2011

GooglePlus is just another channel of static

The feeling exhibited by the current tide of social media offerings is that everyone is attempt to our maneuver each other. At this point you have the obvious Facebook and Twitter but even now Google has entered the foray with Plus. What is interesting is that Google announced plus a month before I landed on Diaspora and the two look eerily similar. Both have a clean minimalistic feature that funnily enough reminds me of the difference that Facebook was when it openly took on MySpace.

Image representing MySpace as depicted in Crun...
Image via CrunchBase

 

The difference is that Facebook has learned from the failure of MySpace and improved enough to maintain their market share. This is not to say that GooglePlus has fallen short it’s just that in this arena I believe that Google may have miss calculated. The problem is that they only offer yet another channel of noise in an already over crowded experience. At this point (I over heard someone remark) GooglePlus remains an Empty playground. You only need look at the list of early adopters compared to the ones that jumped on board when it opened up.

No one’s grandmother or even children are going to step off of Facebook the now ubiquitous social media platform. The current user base is made up of the same early adopters and curious nothing more. Sadly they did not really make any earth shattering improvements. It is rather quite a disappointment to be honest.In fact with they’re blatant disregard for stand social media meme for instance take HASHTAGs. Google has gone to great lengths to rend hashtags irrelevant in their search metrics.

Image representing Zagat as depicted in CrunchBase
Image via CrunchBase

The reason is that they have fallen into the trap of trying to corner the social media market. This is simply amounts to another attempt at reinventing the wheel. In fact I Google has stopped allowing Twitter to influence their page ranking algorithm. Why would they decide to pick up their toys and build their own sand box? If you listen to their CEO and marketing fluff it’s because they want to build an environment that is open for everyone, however how open can their environment be if they are continually cutting users off from their tools?

Take Yelp for example if Google were truly concerned about transparency and open solution then why would the disconnect Yelp from their search traffic? When because they bought their own equivalent with Zagat. Google is engaging in practices that can only be summed up as predatory. Every step they are taking is to ensure their continued dominance in two key areas search and advertising.

Google built something that people neither need nor wanted. Honestly they got sucked into the Field of Dreams theory and will soon be adding this to an ever growing list of failed experiments. At this point everyone in the startup community is looking for the next big social media player. Everyone is trying to reinvent the same wheel over again. Honestly we do not need more options just better ones.

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What is the Field of Dreams Theory

baseball fieldThe Field of Dreams Theory of internet startups is extrapolated directly form the film of similar name.  Basically the in the movie states the if you build it they will come. However, one thing we learned from the DotBomb era of internet statrups is that nothing could be further from the truth. This is a lesson that has been learned and revisited many times since that implosion.

If you do not build what people actually want they will not come…

Most recently this phenomenon was experienced by the startup ToVieFor (see what’s related for more info). The basic rule of business is to solve a need so that you can make money to continue solving customer issues. The problem that many startups face is that they have a new cool idea but have not really done the necessary research to determine if the idea actually solves a need. All too often they do not and as a result fail.

The essence of the Field of Dreams Theory is that if you build it they will not come unless you tap into the wants and needs of the client. This is basic business boiled down into an internet byte sized nugget. It is very rare for someone to build something without anticipating the need for that product.  Look at every business with a successful product and you will see that the product fills some sort of need. It is likely that the leadership of that business anticipated that need or at the very least seized it when it appeared and built upon it.

The Field of Dreams Theory states: that if you build it they will not come unless you tap into the wants and needs of the client.

Twitter is an example of a product that was built before the need was apparent. In fact most of the social media based solutions we take for granted every day were all cart before the horse type of enterprises. At this point we have become dependent upon the virtual social interaction that services like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn provide.

Everyone is trying to build the next big social media home run but unfortunately it just doesn’t work that way. The current late day new comer isn’t even new but Google has recently opened up their new plus social media platform in an attempt to displace Facebook from it’s social media thrown. The failure here is that they have not really built anything new it’s analogous to the long slow death of MySpace.

MySpace as we all remember or should anyway was plagued with numerous add-ons that cluttered the flow of information and diluted the  value of the platform. Along came Facebook which was invitation only and open to college students long before it opened to mom and dad. The initial influx was similar to what i have experienced on g+. Everyone exclaimed how simple and clean the interface was how uncluttered by annoying profile tweaks and games that slowed performance. It should sound familiar.

So some people are flocking to g+ but honestly not in droves because Google has not solved a need well other than their want to finally be in the social media game. Ultimately where does this leave us? Well before you decide to quit your day job to join some new startup you have to ask yourself this important question:

Will this new idea break through the Field of Dreams Theory?

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Mikel King has been a leader in the Information Technology Services field for over 20 years. He is currently the CEO of Olivent Technologies, a professional creative services partnership in NY. Additionally he is currently serving as the Secretary of the BSD Certification group as well as a Senior Editor for the BSD News Network and JAFDIP.

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How To Back Up Your Twitter Stream

DDS-3 Data Cartridge

So there’s a lot of discussion about backing up your status update stream on twitter. There are several products available that you are certainly welcome to pay for but if you are a long time JAFDIP reader you will know that we like to offer some more frugal possibilities.

This simple twitter hack will backup your status update starting from the moment that you turn it on. It is not something that will dig into your past tweets and archive them.I my estimation it is a fruitless endeavor to try and pull back those ancient tweets as no program can dig beyond that last 3200 updates.

Before you begin you will need to inventory you personal computer to determine if you have an application that can not only read an RSS feed but download the content as well. The example system that I will use to demonstrated this simple hack is a MacBook Pro.

The first step is to change how your system handles RSS feed data. TO do this you must open the preferences panel for Safari. If left to the default then Safari will attempt to handle all of your RSS reading needs which is just not going to work for our purposes. By changing it to the Mail app you have much greater control. It’s actually one of the hidden gems of the Mail app. As you can see from the following image the change is simple and immediately effective.

One word of caution however it will not retroactively change RSS feeds you’ve previously viewed. From this point going forward any RSS feed you select will open your Mail app asking if you want to install the feed in your account. For obvious reasons you will want to do this. One of the main benefits of moving your RSS feeds to Mail is that the text can be viewed while you are offline so you can always catch up on your RSS feeds when other things aren’t working. Another benefit is that you can create rules that alert you when key content is received but that’s not really in the scope of this article.

As I have already mentioned the next step is relatively straight forward. Simply highlight and cut the following URL then paste it into Safari. Remember to substitute your ID for the XXXXX‘s and then hit enter. The Mail app will open and once you approve the feed it will download the recent updates.

http://api.twitter.com/1/statuses/user_timeline.rss?screen_name=xxxxx

Mail will automatically retrieve all subsequent updates based on the settings in the Preferences Pane. The default is every 30 minutes.

At this point you can experiment with various options and even try to setup some rules if you like, however; this is a topic I will discuss in a forthcoming article. The important thing is that as long as the machine has a reliable internet connection it will check your stream regularly and download those tweets. This can be very handy if you tweet URL or notes that you would like to review again at some later date. It really doesn’t matter what you reason for backing up your updates is at least you have a fairly reliable method you can control.

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10 Tips For The Modern Job Search

As anyone who has spent more than an hour searching for a job using modern tools knows searching for employment is unbelievably exhausting. The problem isn’t any better for the employers who have to cull viable candidates out of the cruft that many job search sites allow through the gate.

Sadly too many employers rely on specialized sites that insist you maintain a profile in their proprietary database. While many of these systems provide a resume scanning system that will extract key elements from the document, the process is not without it’s issues. Many of these systems are extremely error prone and your mileage will vary. The worst offender is the US federal government I have spent upwards of 3.5 hours completing their online profile system. After doing this a few times I summarily gave up on the federal sector because those jobs are generally very low paying even at the executive level.

I have discussed this issue with many other searchers and you would be surprised how many will opt out of even attempting to apply for a job when they see that they must do so on through Company’s Website in lieu of some place like LinkedIn. It has become such a phenomenon that even TheLadders has stop notifying you in their listing that you will be redirected to an external site to complete the application.

Honestly can you fault people for not wanting to spend 3.5 hours completing a single application when they can breeze through so many more on another site? You can argue that only the best qualified will make it through because they will take the time to complete the application, however; we both know that you are fooling yourself. It is basic human nature like electricity to follow the path of least resistance.

The key to winning in the job search game is not tiger blood but to remain positive!

I honestly believe that both the prospective employers and potential employees are suffering at the hands of the greedy job search and resume crafting service providers. Consider that TheLadders a very popular job search site recently opened their doors to EVERYONE but they are continuing as always to charge the searcher for the ability to use their service. I honestly do not know how much they charge the job poster if anything but if you are on unemployment drawing that fat weekly check of approximately $400 how ever are you going to afford the likes of this service and still pay your mortgage?

Image representing TheLadders as depicted in C...
Image via CrunchBase

 

There are other issues with TheLadders as far too many of the vague ‘too good to be true’ listings are from confidential companies. Most are scant on any sort of real details and you are left without any means of researching the company, which means you can not tailor your resume to that job as so many experts direct you. It is extremely frustrating to say the least. The worst part is I have heard rumors that they only really care about the membership fees and these type of listings are not even real. Carefully crafted ruse to encourage you to open your wallet.

 

Image representing Taleo as depicted in CrunchBase
Image via CrunchBase

I know many HR managers just love sites like Taleo-X because it gives them the power to cull many applicant easily based on a standardized database scheme however what makes the job they are paid to do easier does not necessarily improve the quality of the jab applicants themselves. As I have mentioned previously many applicants view such specialized systems as return later if nothing else pops up.

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

While LinkedIn could improve their listing system a bit, such as adding a follow up system as well as the ability to flag the state of a listing as applied and not just to save the job for later. I must admit given the choice I will take LinkedIn over TheLadders, JobVite, TaleoX and just about any other service out there. Sure they have some really annoying quirks that hopefully will get worked out before they IPO, but for the most part they offer the best of breed solution.

In an effort to allay all of the seemingly negative vibe regarding the modern job search let’s discuss a few positive points. I hope that the follow tips will allow you to better work with those previously feature entities and improve your progress.

Ten Tips to help you complete your job search

  • Remain Positive- Your attitude says a lot about you and will shine through everything you do
  • STAND- On phone interviews do not sit down because you breath more clearly standing
  • SMILE- Yes even on the phone smiling projects a positive attitude
  • Get Organized- many job search site fail to email you a link to the job you just applied for so DO IT yourself. I also recommend using a shortening service like bit.ly because you can check it remotely
  • Professionalize your Email address– if you don’t have one already get an address that best represents you professionally.
  • Email yourself a current copy of your resume in several formats. Thank goodness PDF is becoming more uniform but many still require Word formatted documents. Both Yahoo and Google have document storing features so use them.
  • Setup search agents- Sites like TheLadders and LinkedIn offer search agent services can be scheduled to send you listing via email
  • Follow- your target companies on LinkedIn, recruiters on TheLadders and hiring managers on Twitter because you never know what may help you during an interview
  • Expand your network- You need to wisely expand your social network to better help you search and land that new job
  • Letter writing- Polish your letter writing skills because you still need cover, follow up and thank you letters

I hope that you enjoy this tangent from our normal coverage. After being thrust back into the job market again I thought it would be nice to share some of my insights. I also feel that many of the job listing companies could stand for a good kick in the backside and hope to spark some strong user discussion about personal experiences. I also hope that my tips will enable you to land that perfect job you’ve been seeking.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Mikel King has been a leader in the Information Technology Services field for over 20 years. He is currently the CEO of Olivent Technologies, a professional creative services partnership in NY. Additionally he is currently serving as the Secretary of the BSD Certification group as well as a Senior Editor for the BSD News Network and JAFDIP.

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How To Setup a Minecraft Server

Now let me set the record straight before I begin. I do not play Minecraft but my 11 year old son and ALL of his friend do. He actually ponied up the $20 from his allowance to buy the beta version of the game. Honestly I do not believe in paying for beta which is why I do not run anything produced by Microsoft but that is a different story entirely.

One of the main advantages of paying for a legitimate license for this beta is that when the game is actually released if ever then he should get an automatic upgrade entitlement. Whether or not the developers take the Microsoft model of charging for upgrades or not however remains to be seen. In any even it is irrelevant to this discussion. The point of paying is to unlock the multiplayer feature because who really wants to play a game alone? It’s really hard to cheat as the banker when you play Monopoly all by yourself.

The main problem with playing on multiplayer systems is new players tend to become targets for just about every other player. My son only wants to play with his friends who are around the same age and skill level that he is. Fortunately Minecraft does have a server available which makes this possible. What’s even more interesting is that the server is available in a java implementation which mean just about any system running the latest version of java in addition if you lack the expertise of deploying the server on a TCP port 25565 and programming the appropriate network address translation (NAT) through your firewall you can use a virtual private network VPN.  The documentation recommends using Himachi a VPN product released by LogmeIn.

Fortunately the Minecraft WIKI has a pretty good page detailing the steps necessary to set up MCS using the jar file provided. A couple of thoughts about the wiki page that I discovered while installing the the system. The first is that the user id you wish to run MCS as must have complete read & write permission on the entire directory where you launch mcs from. This is necessary or mcs will not launch properly. I also created my own startup script to make things a little easier. The following is a copy of the start_mcs script that I placed in /usr/local/bin.

#!/usr/bin/env /bin/bash

MCSPath=/Volumes/Data/media/minecraft/
MCSJar=minecraft_server.jar

cd ${MCSPath}
exec java -Xmx1G -Xms1G -jar ${MCSJar}

Notice in the above script that I left off the -nogui option and this is because when you first start mcs you should watch the server console to ensure that things are working properly. Honestly there is no reason that you can not just run with the gui on but some people like their servers to be fully daemonized. This means that unless you look for the process specifially you won’t see it because it will be running as a service in the background.

As you can see these two screen shots display the gui on my Mac OS X Server.

One of the advantages of running the mcs gui is that you have access to console commands. The above is a listing the help commands. I recommend keeping this available until you become familiar with what each command actually does and how to manipulate the results from the command line. For instance if you make a player an op and then wish to remove that advancement you can use the gui or you can edit ops.txt in the mcs startup directory.

Once you have the console up and running you can attempt to connect your client computers (i.e. friends and other players). Think of the console as your safety net to remind you that everything is working. This was how I discovered the permissions issue because I installed everything as one user but launched the server as another and well things just didn’t work. I corrected the permissions and ownership and well now the kids are playing. Well they would be if they cleaned their rooms but that entirely a different issue.

One final advantage to running your own game server is that if someone becomes abusive in the game you have the ability to bounce them. In addition you can limit the connections to only your child’s friends which given the state of things on the internet these days is probably a good thing. Happy gaming!

 

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