The Firewall
My attempt at a short cartoon.
Latest Publications
Put your LinkedIn profile anywhere with a widget.
So you want that cool LinkedIn widget to show your profile on any webpage? Well the code is really easy to incorporate?
| This is what you get (Click to see): |
| Founder, CEO NextEmployee.com Diran Afarian |
look here:
The Code
Add the LinkedIn Javascript file to your <head> section. (It will work anywhere before the other code really, even in a blog post as you see here)
<script type="text/javascript" src="http://www.linkedin.com/js/public-profile/widget-os.js"></script> |
Wherever you want a popup to appear, add the following :
<a class="linkedin-profileinsider-popup" href="http://www.linkedin.com/in/dafarian">Diran Afarian</a> |
Or if you want the info to be inline, then add this instead:
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HTML Example
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This is what the in-line version looks like:
Twitter buys Notificator Aug 1935?
The original Twitter in 1935:
(This picture came from dontwasteyourtime.co.uk)
It’s not as fast as twitter is, but hey, that was 74 years ago! There must have been some version upgrades since then right? And yes, to this day, some people still don’t understand what it is. It falls into the, “Some things our fathers will never understand ” category.
Sponsored by: BuildWebsite.com
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Your own website and Blog for less than $10/mo. Go to www.BuildWebsite.com
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Yammer, a corporate version of twitter!
At TechCrunch 2008 I saw a demo for a product called Yammer. It is yet another social networking tool in the mocroblogging space, ut it is positioned as an “Enterprise Microblogging” product.
Do I need another hole in the head, network to be a part of? If I am in a corporation and I need to communicate with people around me, instead of doing this on twitter (where I would create a busID or a version for my business self), then sure I would use it. But you know what is getting to me? The number of parallel networks you have to be on to be communicating.
It is getting very redundant, so when the first social network goes down you can use another?? I like Facebook’s Connect feature where they have made the API available so if you have a FB account, you can just use the same user ID in other sites. So the user doesn’t feel uncomfortable registering in a new site run by people you don’t know.
Facebook has been on a tear when it comes to releasing technologies that make it more indispensable. I didn’t join Facebook because I needed to connect to friends, I joined because I had to be there.
So with Yammer, you have to have the need
Need more spam? Go to the Whitehouse.org
Apparently some people are getting spammed by the Whitehouse’s website. I read (and heard on CNN) that some people reported getting spammed on the Healthcare issue by just visiting the whitehouse.gov website.
Now I don’t know how the Whitehouse can get their emails by just visiting the site. Maybe they are filling out a comment form or something. But still, I feel if this is true, it is very inappropriate for such an entity to be doing this.
Major Garrett asked Gibbs about the spamming issue but Gibbs just danced around it. He also asked if the Whitehouse has hired an email or marketing firm(s) to get these email addresses and Gibbs response was, “I’ll look into it.”
Use an iphone, mac, macbook or ipod. Get your apple a day, keep the doctor-ed away.
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Your own website and Blog for less than $10/mo. Go to www.BuildWebsite.com
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Upgrade from Vista to XP for $50 !!
I recently wrote a letter to a magazine editor for an open call to people that have been urged to upgrade to something they did not need or regretted. This is the equivalent to people being “promoted to their level of incompetence” that I learned about in one of my organizational behaviour courses when I was doing my MBA.
I think Microsoft should top your list for this topic. I was perfectly content with Wordstar and Windows 3.1 (This was a Steve Bass inside joke).
But on a serious note, I wish I never went for the Vista upgrade hype. I think Vista was an insider move from an Apple double agent. You have people upgrading to XP (yes upgrading, see links below). I would pay $50 for my notebook and Desktop to be upgraded to XP now.
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| Brief time on dell. I guess Microsoft had them remove the word “Upgrade” and replaced it with “Downgrade”. | Google search showed this type of pages. |
Anyway, after leaving Apple for 23 years (my first Apple IIe 1983-84, My first IBM compatible 1986), I finally cracked and went to a Mac. Can’t say I am not having withdrawal symptoms, but the withdrawal symptoms are for the XP, definitely not the Vista.
Anyway, I have 5 computers now. I am going crazy. I have an XP desktop (Still hanging on), a Vista desktop (quad processor), A Vista notebook (Hate the OS) so bought a netbook with an XP processor, and of course now the MAC. You cannot get more geeky than that.
Also don’t start me on the browser issues, now I am running browsers like an application, I think this is a trend:
- - I use IE for business sites (They don’t show well on other browsers) but the IE7 & 8 crash like a *** driver (you fill in the ***).
- - Chrome for Gmail coz it’s faster, and I like the search from the address bar.
- - I use Firefox (most stable), I love the addons
- - Safari & Firefox on the Mac (Safari because it comes up automatically, I override it with firefox)
So I use IE 40% of the time, Chrome 30% of the time and Firefox 60% of the time and it somehow adds up to 100% of the time 
Anyway, that’s my 2 cents worth.
United Breaks Guitars viral video
Although I don’t really listen to country music, this video is pretty catchy:
United breaks guitars
It is a prime example of how you can get a company to comply with your wishes to fix what was done wrong by their employees.
It seems like this guy, David Carroll, a member of the band Sons of Maxwell, sent his guitar as a check-in through United. United airlines employees, just as any other airline employee, tried to take gingerly care of the checked in baggage. But for some “Unforseen” reason, maybe it was turbulance, or taking off at 150 MPH, or landing at 125 MPH and 5 Gs of force, the guitar lost its neck.
So Dave, tried to get restitution for the damage, of course United denied the claim. So Dave thought, there’s more than one way to skin a cat, he made a song, United Break Guitars, and put it on YouTube. Of course 2 million people viewed it and now Dave is a household name.
United found out, and offered to pay him for the damage, of course Dave doesn’t want to take the money because he is enjoying fame and fortune because of that mishap. Apparently there is a rumor that United promissed to use his video to train baggage handlers. So how would it go United? See here what happens if you mistreat luggage? You make someone rich and famous, so stop doing it
So there the story goes. He will be signing with Simon for the next season of American idol (NOOOOOTTTTT!).
Why does the US Dollar go up and down against the Euro?
The US Dollar goes up and down, although we hear that it has something to do with consumer confidence, or other nations’ confidence in our currency, the fact remains that we are still the most consuming nation in the world. In the U.S. we consume 40% of the products in the world (heard it somewhere, I’m sure it changes a bit here and there).
But the U.S. Still controls things everywhere. We can spend like there is no tomorrow. Most people have not read “The richest man in Babylon“, but still spend like they are the richest man in Babylon without knowing what the strategies behind the richest man in Babylon were.
So, when it (The U.S.) wants to hurt Europe (Typically before summer when people are thinking about going to Europe for vacation), the dollar falls, and everything there becomes more expensive. Even pasta costs more. Did you know Europe is less than 1/4 the shipping distance from Saudi Arabia as the U.S. is, yet we pay almost half of what Eurpeans pay for gas? They get us back though, the Smart car is their station wagon
Anywhooo, Just some tidbits and my opinion. If you don’t like it, tough! I’m an American and I am entitled to my opinion, just like you are yours (however demented yours might be).
Why doesn’t the UK use the Euro instead of the Pound Sterling?
While all countries (including the turkeys in Turkey) are clammouring to join the EU and use the Euro (EUR), England, or the United Kingdom if I want to be proper, while joined in the EU, is staying away from using the Euro as it’s formal currency. I first thought it was odd, but if you look at this:
$1 will buy you only .61 GBP – Pound Sterling
$1 will buy you only .71 EUR – Euro
or maybe I should say
1 GBP will buy you about $1.64 US Dollars
while
1 Euro will buy you only about $1.41 US Dollars
No wonder the British didn’t want to switch to the Euro, their currency is stronger.
Isn’t that interesting? I thought it was.
Did you know?
What is the most worthless curency against the Dollar?
If you answered the VND or the Viet Nam Dong, you would be correct, followed closely by the STD or Sao Tome Dobra & TMM – Turkmenistan Manat .
$1 will buy you 17,800 VND – Viet Nam Dong
$1 will buy you 15,485 STD – Sao Tome Dobra
$1 will buy you 14202 TMM – Turkmenistan Manat
OK, How about the strongest currency against the U.S. Dollar?
If you answered the MTL or the Maltese Lira, you would be wrong, it is the second strongest, behind the Kuwaiti Dinar.
$1 will buy you .30 MTL – Maltese Lira
$1 will buy you .287 KWD – Kuwaiti Dinar
OK, now how about equal to the U.S. Dollar?
Yes, you are right, the Panamanian Balboa and the Bermuda Dollar, they are equivalent to the U.S. Dollar.
$1 will buy you 1 PAB – Panamanian Balboa
$1 will buy you 1 BMD – Bermuda Dollar
OK, now you are probably asking, “How about the Euro? and the English Pound?”
No wonder the British didn’t want to switch to the Euro, their currency is stronger.
$1 will buy you only .61 GBP – Pound Sterling
$1 will buy you only .71 EUR – Euro
I thought this would be interesting to know.
-Diran Afarian
