Tag: Internet

Making your online presence speak for you

Recently I have been asked to become a contributor to the Internet Evolution blog. My first article there, Making Your Online Presence Speak for You discusses how things like forum contributions, an online resume and a personal website (like this one) can have act as an extension of your resume.

In a Web 2.0 era where a prospective employer is more likely to Google your name than to check your references, what is your online presence saying about you?

A surprising number of people still seem to fall into one of two categories when it comes to posting their profiles online: they either indiscriminately post everything about their lives, blissfully ignorant of how it may affect them in the future, or they avoid putting their name on anything online, blissfully ignorant of how an online presence could help them. If you fall into either of these categories it may be time for a change.

Check out the full article on www.internetevolution.com and join in the great discussion on the topic.

Search pages in Firefox with just one key

So here’s a nice little Firefox easter egg for vi users:

In Firefox (at least version 2.0.0.6 on the PC, I haven’t confirmed this on others) you can search for text by simply typing a slash (/). As long as you’re not in a text entry box the / character will open up the find dialog box just like control-f would.

For those of you who don’t understand the significance of this, in the popular UNIX command line text editor vi you search for text by typing /string to find. This is typical of how vi works: powerful, simple commands which are rarely obvious.

vi, unix, linux, firefox, web, internet

Re: The web is becoming a dictatorship of idiots – Part 2

After my first response to Donald Burleson’s article The web is becoming a dictatorship of idiots Donald responded. Here is his response followed by my response to him.

From: Donald Burleson

Here are my guidelines for finding credible information on the web, and advice on how-to weed-out crap, sound advice.

In my opinion (and in my own interest) I think everyone should be able to publish anything at anytime.

Me to. I’m all for free speech, but it’s the search engines problem that they cannot distinguish between good and bad information. I don’t like the “clutter” it’s causing for the search engines. It ruins my ability to find credible sources of technical information, and I have to wade through pages of total crap from anonymous “experts”. For example, scumbags are stealing credible people’s content and re-publishing it in their own names, with free abandon. Look at what has been stolen from Dr. Hall.

So the system can (and will eventually) balance itself.

I disagree, not until “anon” publications and copied crap is unindexed from the search engines.

If I’m using Google to find technical information I give zero credibility to anonymous sources, and it would be great to have a “credible” way to search the web for people, so they can find stuff from folks like us, who publish our credentials.

We’re in the information age and the flood gates have opened!

Flood is the right word. Some of the Oracle “experts” who publish today would never have been able to publish in-print, and for very good reason. There are many self-proclaimed “experts” all over the web, people without appropriate education or background who would never be published in traditional media. And just like “Essjay” on Wikipedia, many of them either fabricate of exaggerate their credentials. They carefully hide their credential (resume or CV), so nobody knows the truth.

I think it’s up to culture to catch up to technology

I disagree, it’s not “culture”, it’s a simple credibility issue. And what about Wikipedia? Any 9th-grade dropout crackhead can over-write the work of a Rhodes scholar. That’s not a culture issue, it’s about credibility.

It’s a dictatorship of idiots. One bossy Wikipedia editor tossed-about his credentials (“a tenured professor of religion at a private university” with “a PhD. in theology and a degree in canon law.”), when in reality he is a college dropout, a liar and a giant loser.

Wikipedia is the enemy of anyone who wants to find credible data on the web, and they are actively seeking to pollute the web with anon garbage. Read this for details.

It’s the balance between free speech and credibility. Just the raw link-to counts are deceiving. I hear that the #1 Oracle blogger got there only because he wrote a hugely successful blog template, totally unrelated to his Oracle content quality.

The solution is simple. Sooner or later, someone will come-up with a “verified credentials” service where netizens pay a free and an independent body verifies their college degrees, published research, job experience and other qualifications.

Until then, netizens must suffer the dictatorship of idiots, never sure if what they are reading is by someone who is qualified to pontificate on the subject. I do Oracle forensics, and the courts have very simple rules to determine of someone is qualified to testify as an expert, and there is no reason that these criteria cannot be applied on the web, assigning high rank to the qualified and obscurity to the dolts. Until then we must suffer weeding through page-after-page of questionable publications in our search results.

My response

it’s the search engines problem that they cannot distinguish between good and bad information. I don’t like the “clutter” it’s causing for the search engines.

There’s no doubt that web indexing and searching is an imperfect science but identifying the quality of resources is beyond its scope. Search engines like Google, Yahoo and MSN should be considered tools to help find a site with information matching a term or pattern, not necessarily a good site.

scumbags are stealing credible people’s content and re-publishing it in their own names

Plagiarism is not a new problem and, as many have found, search engines can be instrumental in identifying plagiarism. The site Copyscape which you pointed out to me makes great use of Google’s API to do exactly that.

> So the system can (and will eventually) balance itself.

I disagree, not until “anon” publications and copied crap is unindexed from the search engines.

If I’m using Google to find technical information I give zero credibility to anonymous sources, and it would be great to have a “credible” way to search the web for people, so they can find stuff from folks like us, who publish our credentials.

And you should not give credibility to a source just because Google finds it. That’s not Google’s job. Google’s job is to find pages (every page if possible) that match the terms you’re entering. Popular sites are weighted to show up earlier in the results, but yes, only because they are popular.

Wikipedia is the enemy of anyone who wants to find credible data on the web, and they are actively seeking to pollute the web with anon garbage.

I think it’s unlikely that Wikipedia is actively trying to pollute the web. Wikipedia is fundamentally flawed for many of the reasons you mention but it remains accurate on many topics. There is no disguising of what it is and it has been largely condemned as an academic resource, but when I need a quick ‘starting point’ reference or the answer to some pop-culture trivia it’s still the place I go.

It’s the balance between free speech and credibility. Just the raw link-to counts are deceiving. I hear that the #1 Oracle blogger got there only because he wrote a hugely successful blog template, totally unrelated to his Oracle content quality.

Actually, I think you’ll find that the #1 Oracle blog you mention is actually the non-topical personal blog of an Oracle administrator. The point that he composed an attractive and well written WordPress theme is a testament to the quality of his work.

The solution is simple. Sooner or later, someone will come-up with a “verified credentials” service where netizens pay a free and an independent body verifies their college degrees, published research, job experience and other qualifications.

Verified credentials would only solve one small piece of the problem. Many people with verifiable credentials are still dead wrong and/or cannot communicate their ideas efficiently enough to be what I consider a good resource.

An even simpler solution already exists. Leading organizations like the Independent Oracle User’s Group could take it upon themselves to compile and publish lists of quality resources in their field. With some additional effort I bet these lists could be combined with Google’s search API to provide a web search which only searches a number of “verified” sites.

This type of compilation would not only provide a fantastic list of resources (especially for beginners) but would also shape search results by increasing the page ranking of sites which the organization identifies as good resources.

web2.0 web, internet, blog, wikipedia, free speach, net neutrality, online, anonymous

Upgrade are failed!

While applying a firmware upgrade to my Linksys WRT54G router today I encountered the following error:

Upgrade are failed!

This is right up there with “All your base are belong to us!”

On the up side, Linksys support was fairly helpful. Despite asking me “Have you tried to check the memory of your computer?” and “Have you tried to change the browser settings?” (those are exact quotes from the live chat) they got me to a download of the firmware that worked.

Overall, for $50 (on Amazon) the Linksys WRT54G router has been a damned solid and easy to configure wireless router with the nice benefit of four wired ports (in addition to the uplink.)
error message, funny, fun, humor, bad translation, bad english, engrish, router, wireless, internet

Why Blog – Followup

Sometimes the comments are better than the original article.

Last week Mike Schaffner left this fantastic comment on my article Why Blog? He brings up several great points and I wanted to give it more attention than it might get just as a comment. Thanks Mike!

— Begin comment by Mike Schaffner:

Blogging can also be a useful tool in your job search as a way of establishing your “brand” and differentiating yourself.

During my job search I’ve gotten to know Kent Blumberg. Kent is a dynamic manufacturing and process industry operation exec also conducting a job search campaign. As part of his marketing plan Kent uses a weblog or “blog” ( Kent Blumberg ) to discuss timely issues in Leadership, Strategy and Performance.

Because of my desire to stay current with the issues facing IT and never having been shy about voicing my opinion I’ve taken my lead from Kent’s example and have started my own blog ( Mike Schaffner ) . In it I discuss “Management of Information Technology for Strategic Alignment with the Business” plus other related topics that come to mind.

When I started to think about it, blogs offer a number of advantages in a job search. They don’t replace any of the standard techniques but they can complement them.

** It is yet another form of networking
Through blogging and linking and contacting other people you have the opportunity to expand your network in way you could not have done otherwise

** It helps to “refresh” your name with your network
One of the rules of networking is to keep your name in front of your contacts so they don’t forget about you. RSS feeds and email subscriptions make this easier and can give your contacts useful information without the overt pressure of you asking for a job lead

** It is a great form of viral advertising
Blogs can help to give you a web presence and get your name out to the whole world. Many prospective employers will google you before the interview (as you should google them). Blogging will build your search engine presence. One master of blogging says that “blog” stands for “Better Listings On Google.” In my experience, that is certainly true.

** It is a great form of “push” marketing
It is a promotional strategy to create a demand complementing the “pull” marketing of your advertising i.e. resume

** It keeps you in the game
When we start a job search we leave our professional world behind and concentrate on networking, resumes, networking, interviews and networking. In today’s world, a few months away from a subject is an eternity. By writing about current topics in your field you “stay in the game”

** It demonstrates comfort with and a mastery of current technology
It shows that you “get” current technology which is especially important for more senior job seekers. Blogs can help counter the perception older folks don’t understand the use of technology

** It shows a maturity and depth of experience
Blogs give you the opportunity to showcase your expertise and thinking in more detail than a resume. This can be especially useful for younger job seekers by countering the perception they lack “depth”

** It helps to answer the third question
Hiring manager basically have 3 questions: (1) Can this person do the job? (2) Will this person do the job? and (3) Will this person “fit” with our culture? A resume goes a long way toward answering the first 2 questions but provides no insight to the all important third question, a blog does.

** Its fun
Blogs offer the opportunity to discuss issues with others and what can be more fun than a good healthy debate?

Blogs are relatively inexpensive. You can get one going for about $50 to $150 per year depending on what you want to do. The hardest part is the commitment to make 3 to 5 postings of roughly 300 words each week. Fortunately this should only take a few hours and depending on the blog host you choose you can prepare your posts in advance and schedule them to post whenever you want. Writing well is tough, and the discipline of saying something meaningful in 500 words or less is even tougher. Blogging builds writing muscles.
It is too early for me to personally comment on results but I’m optimistic. However, Kent who has been at this much longer than I have reports “It can be a great source of interview questions. In my last three interviews, my blog came up (positively) in each, and generated questions that allowed me to expand on my approach to the world.” and “One of the interviewers had googled me, and then read my blog and my comments on others’ blogs. About half her questions were related to those links. Since I blog about areas that I believe are my strengths, it gave me a great chance to reinforce what makes me different.”

— End comment by Mike Schaffner

If you made it through all that (easily the longest comment I’ve ever had posted here) and like what Mike has to say, check out his blog. He talks a lot about communication, management and all sorts of other business and IT related topics.

blog, blogging, information technology, web, internet, career development