Diary of a Network Geek

Hmm, maybe I could have a second job…

So, I saw a guy adverstising on the web for “Internet Marketing Services”, specifically, “Business Blog Services” and “Social Marketing Services”. Sounds simple enough to me. Frankly, I’ve done plenty of blog work for folks and I can’t imagine adding a business component to it would be that much extra work. But, this guy was asking for $600 to set up a blog! With WordPress, I’d be done in about 30 minutes, including upload time and configuration. $600 for less than an hour worth of work… Oh, and then, if you want his “daily blogging” service, wherein he will make a blog entry for you, seven days a week, that’s $500 per MONTH! And, if you want him to optimize your blog for the search engines, that’s another one-time fee of $500.
But, what got me was the ad copy for what he called “Social Media Optimization“. That service, his site claimed, includes “Search Engine Reputation Management, Social Marketing Team Launch & Management”. “Search engine reputation management”? Are you kidding me?! For not submitting your page to the search engines too often and making some minimal effort to make sure you don’t get black-balled by Google, he’s going to actually negotiate a fee? What’s more, it’s a variable fee, no doubt based on how much you know about search engines and the web. I have a feeling that the less a customer knows, the higher the fee.

Wow, I could make a bundle at this kind of thing. If only I didn’t have ethics and the last vestige of a conscience…

(And, if you haven’t voted yet, check out the pictures from two posts ago and vote!!)

I’m of two minds on these.

When I was in Boy Scouts I earned Wildernes Survival Merit Badge. One of my Merit Badge Councellors at the time mocked survival kits saying that it seemed to him when he most needed such a thing, it would be no where to be found. So, mostly, I learned to make do with what I carried in my pockets. I think that was about when I developed the habit of always carrying a pocket knife and a lighter, come to think of it.

In any case, with hurricane season growing ever longer, and all sorts of terrible disasters looming on the horizon, according to the television press, I suppose it’s not a bad idea to have something a little more substantial around. Cetainly, I’m not the first blogger to talk about survival kits, nor will I be the last. And, I have to admit, I have other reasons for thinking about this. Not only am I a bit of a survival nut from way back, but I’ve been reading a book called The World Without Us that’s set me to thinking about this sort of thing.
Earlier this year, Wired Magazine reviewed several emergency survival kits, and after a lot of searching, I managed to find a link to it. (Scroll down, past the speaker reviews to the survival kits.) More recently, however, Wired ran an article on making your own kit from scratch and building the “smarter emergency kit“. That article makes a great supplement to the suggestions made at the Department of Homeland Security sponsored site, Ready.gov. They’ve got a whole list of emergency preparedness documents, in PDF format, including a list of suggested emergency supplies. Incidentally, that was what Wired Magazine rated as the best emergency survival kit, the one you made yourself following the Ready.gov guidelines. Keep in mind, though, the advice my Merit Badge Councellor gave in his smarmy way… Make the kit portable and keep it near you in case of emergency. (If you want to include food in your kit, you could do worse than using stuff from Mountain House. But, make sure to rotate it out every couple of years!)
Also, for you fellow dog owners, you might make a kit for your best friend, too. Again, from the Wired blogs, there are pre-made dog emergency kits. But, mainly, I just keep extra dog food on hand and allow additional drinking water.
Another idea for readers who are, like me, very digital in nature, having a spare laptop in an emergency “bug out” laptop kit isn’t a bad idea at all. In fact, now that I’ve got a spare laptop, and a bit of time, I may just make that myself!

(Don’t forget to check out the pictures in the last post and vote!)

Advice from your Uncle Jim:
"Being right means never having to say you're sorry."
   --Vernor Vinge

My sister and nephew were here this weekend.

My sister and her son should be home by now. Their flight for Chicago left this afternoon and everything was on time. They got in Thursday and stayed with me and Hilda while they were here. It was sort of nice having visitors, even relatives. I thought I’d be glad to see them go, so I could get my house back, but, honestly, until they left, I had no idea how much I missed having people around. I think Hilda misses having a younger person around to shower her with attention, too.
In any case, Friday we went to the Downtown Aquarium. It was okay, but, well, I think it was geared more toward small kids and families. There weren’t a lot of exhibits and there was a fair amount of “touristy” stuff. Still, the exhibits there were good. They were clean, the animals were healthy and active, and pretty much everything worked. Besides, in spite of feeling relatively good and strong, I’m still recovering from having cancer and the treatment, so a little less to do on that first day was probably for the best.

Saturday we just hung around the house. Though, we did run out to the office to look for a cable for their camera and to try a Vietnamese noodle shop. The night before, we hit my new favorite Thai restaurant, which was fairly brave of them, considering how much Asian food they get in their small, rural hometown.
Saturday night we went to church, where they got to meet a bunch of my friends. I hope it wasn’t too overwhelming for them. Either my family or my friends! After church, I was forced to choose the restaurant, so we all went out for Mexican. Also, not an option they normally get. At least, not authentic Mexican.

Sunday, it was off to the Houston Zoo. Again, we got there early and spent quite a bit of time, which was nice, but tiring on these old bones. I haven’t been to the zoo in ages, so I had a good time. And, because the weather was a bit dicey, the crowds were light. Luckily, the weather held and we had a good time. We left a bit early for dinner, but we stopped by Goode Company and got some “to go”. It was great, even warmed up in the microwave. And, I got to show them a great taste of Houston to boot.

Since I know you all have been wondering what I look like without hair, or with my hair growing back, I got my nephew to take a couple of pictures. I’ve got them here, below, so you can see them. I’m also asking you all to vote on them, so I know which one to use to update my Match.com profile with my new “look”.

This is sort of mugshot looking to me, and a little out of focus, but it’s a simple shot. I hope I don’t look too scary with such short hair! It does kind of look like an ID photo, though, doesn’t it? I don’t know, I guess the full on portrait is always a kind of classic.

This is an attempt at a “candid” shot. Naturally, I’m sitting in front of a laptop. What else would a professional computer geek and hopeful author be doing? Right? And, maybe that’s also its weakest point. It shows me in my natural environment just a little too much.

And here is a close-up version of that last shot. I don’t know… Do I look too serious? Ha, if you know me in RealLife, you’d know that I’m almost never serious! Ah, well, it is a pretty good picture, I think. Still, do you think it makes me look too grim? Like I’d be no fun on a date? I only get one chance at a first impression you know!

And, finally, a shot from the other side. And a little smile, which I think is better. Oh, these shots show off my new glasses, too! (So, tell me, you totally want to rub my short hair to see how it feels, don’t you?)
Okay, so, make sure to vote for you favorite picture!

I should write this up for my writing blog…

You all are probably familiar with Wikipedia, the most famous wiki. But, there are other wikis out there for various other special interests. As someone who loves science-fiction, this particular wiki caught my attention. It’s called Galaxiki and it’s an open wiki meant to catalog a fictional galaxy. For the “price” of setting up a free account, you can setup and design your own solar system. If you want to support the project, you can “buy” a solar system, which is sets aside a star that only you can edit, and, frankly, is just a cute way of making a donation.
Though there’s not much to see on it, I have a personal Galaxiki home page. Hopefully, more will follow soon!

In any case, the sci-fi geek in me thought this was a cool site, so I thought I’d share.

For the perfect cup of coffee or tea.

No, really, these mugs have Pantone colors on the inside so that you can match the color of your coffee or tea, with milk and other impurities, and make the “perfect” cup of your favorite hot, caffeinated beverage. Personally, I take mine pure, but whatever floats your boat!

The cold war didn’t start in the U.S.

You know, sometimes, we think that the U.S. invented bomb shelters back in the late Fifties, but, really, they weren’t an original idea. The Brits, who frankly have a lot more experience with actually being bombed than we do, have had bomb shelters for far longer than we have. In fact, theirs are organized and, in some cases, state subsidized.
Here’s an article about one such bomb shelter that’s been abandoned, sadly.
Actually, with land prices being what they are in the UK, I’m surprised they haven’t rented it out!

I do things on the cheap.

I’m so used to working with a minimal budget, or a non-existant one, that I can pretty well come up with software or IT resources for any project for nothing or almost nothing. Granted, it may take some time, but I still manage to do it. Well, project planning and management are no different.
I’ve been trying to get reorganized since getting out of the hospital and stabilizing my health. This is no small task, especially at work. So, I’ve been thinking of ways to organize my thoughts, goals and projects, both at work and at home. That led me to search for free project management templates of various kinds to move me closer to that goal. You, my faithful readers, reap the benefit of my efforts.

First, I found a place called BusinessBalls.net. Not sure where they got that name from, to be honest, but they’ve got a great collection of free templates you can use to layout both business and personal projects.
Next, I found Matt H. Evans’ collection of free Excel templates. Though he didn’t create them all himself, he’s got quite a collection of financial, budgeting and analysis spreadsheets there that should help with all kinds of project management issues.
Finally, there’s the Free Project Decision Templates from RFP-Templates.com. Again, a fairly good selection of decision making templates to make project management a “kinder, gentler” process. A word of warning about this site, though. It seems to be more geared toward advertising their Request for Proposal “package”, for which they charge. Still, some of their stuff is free, so they can’t be all bad.

Oh, and if you need a free office suite to do all this with, why not try OpenOffice? It’s free and compatible with Microsoft Office, so there’s nothing to lose but the download time!

Now, I’m off to plan and implement Operation Wacky Weasel!
(No, I don’t know what that is, but the name sounded so, so good, I couldn’t pass it up.)