A few interesting links

Happy Black Friday to all! I hope Thanksgiving went well and that your Black Friday goes smoothly–the only thing I bought was purchased online

Over the past couple weeks I have found some interesting links; hopefully you agree.

As I move closer to graduation, the job hunt is on my mind. Here’s 13 ways that social media can help: http://davefleet.com/2008/11/13-ways-social-media-can-improve-your-career/

Wonderful post on how to write effective email: http://thinksimplenow.com/productivity/15-tips-for-writing-effective-email/

I’ve maximized the viewable space in Firefox to my choosing. Here’s the extreme case and how to truly maximize the viewing area: http://www.ghacks.net/2008/11/19/setup-firefox-to-use-minimal-screen-estate/

Do bloggers do any real work? Read and find out: http://www.avc.com/a_vc/2008/11/do-you-ever-do.html

2008 has been an expensive year so I’m planning to choose gifts from the heart rather than the wallet. This link had a few inexpensive gift ideas (I like the reusable water bottles in particular): http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/SmartSpending/FindDealsOnline/great-gifts-that-arent-gift-cards.aspx

Lively is shutting down. I am sad because I believe virtual worlds are a valuable tool; if Google can’t do it right, who can? http://www.lively.com/html/landing.html

More managers need to read this one. Guy Kawasaki’s amazingly humane, common-sense tips on how to lay people off: http://blogs.openforum.com/2008/11/18/the-art-of-laying-people-off/

Big day for Students in Software Engineering… and a few links

Today is a very exciting day for the Students in Software Engineering (SSE)! Chairman Ambler will be presenting today. He is ostensibly the biggest name we have had yet and we expect a large turnout. I hope we got enough food!

In a similar vein, the updated Software Engineering website is up. I think it looks clean while intuitively presenting all the useful information.

On a completely unrelated note… Rock Auto parts is an amazing online catalog of (believe it or not) auto parts. I was able to find a random knob for an affordable $6! If you need some parts, check it out.

Also, if you haven’t seen this site before, 123 people aggregates online information about people. Apparently I have a web presence that I can be proud of. Do you?

A few interesting and timely links

• Today’s top story on CNN is about how Palin is going against her own campaign in an effort to save herself a shot for president in 2012.

• Another about Palin’s incompetency: She may not even be smarter than a 3rd grader.

• And onto the financial crisis which is showing few signs of letting up. This could be because banks have better things to do with their free money than lend it to Joe Sixpack. Banks are not free markets–they’re highly regulated–so we may as well give them some criteria to meet so they’ll help the overall good instead of themselves.

A few interesting, if not frustrating, articles

• AIG is burning through money from the federal bailout with no hopes of paying back taxpayers. Horray for the bailout! I guess I’m not surprised that this would happen at a time when schools no longer have grades and competitive sports are outlawed because they expose failure.

• Greenspan admits he was “partially” wrong with his direction for the economy. This is dangerous because people are using Greenspan’s admission as a way to trash capitalism; however, America is not a shining expample of laissez-faire markets. I’m not positive that unfettered capitalism works, but I don’t think we’ve tried it yet. The greedy Wall Streeters were hardly Objectivists.

• McCain and Palin continue their despicable smear campaign. Also, why is having an elite government a bad thing? If you haven’t seen Idiocracy (the movie) before, watch it and vote for the most elite our nation has to offer–for the future’s sake.

A few useful political sites

I previously talked about voting early and gave my opinion on the candidates; now that the election draws near I offer a few useful sites:

• http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/
• http://services.alphaworks.ibm.com/manyeyes/browse/visualizations?q=elections
• http://factcheck.org/
• http://www.selectsmart.com/president/2008/comparethem.html

If you’re still undecided, do America a favor and vote for Bob Barr.

A few interesting links

After an excellent weekend that went by in a fast, I’m watching some Battlestar Galactica and reading. The more you know, the more you realize you don’t know! Definitely some interesting reads today…

There are some very interesting articles on economics of technology, growth, free products, and the Internet.

Hackers and evil-doers continue to innovate; ransomware is now using advanced encryption. As hackers get more sophisticated the personal computing landscape will change–as will laws on cybercrime. Terminal computing, here we come! A number of groups are providing free kits for a variety of hacking tasks. It amuses me that anyone would trust malware as evidenced here.

Andrea’s been looking for a program to edit her digital photos. Photoscape looks like a promising option. We’ll have to try it out.