Month: March 2011

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I just don’t get LinkedIn, do you?

I’ve tried. I’ve tried several times. And every time I try looking at LinkedIn I always end up staring at it and thinking, “What is the point?”

OK, I do get part of it, that it’s sharing your network of contacts so that everyone can benefit. But to me it seems like a lot of overhead for an as-yet-undefined benefit. It’s Yet Another Database To Maintain.

That, and I get frustrated because there doesn’t seem to be a neat way of saying that I’m a freelancer, working for myself and not a company, and that I want to connect to people in that capacity. See what I mean?

So are you using LinkedIn? How do you get value from it? What am I missing?

[Update 30 March 2011: I’ve closed comments on this post, and on the follow-up post, So LinkedIn is a giant Rolodex, eh? You can continue the conversation at my most recent post, Getting to grips with LinkedIn.]

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Weekly Wrap 41

A weekly summary of what I’ve been doing elsewhere on the internets. Another week of doing most of my work from my temporary home in the Blue Mountains.

Podcasts

  • Patch Monday episode 80, “‘Arrogant’ Apple battles over copyright”. Australian TV production company Jigsaw Entertainment is suing Apple for selling an iPhone app containing their copyright material. Apple declined the opportunity to comment, but Jigsaw were happy to speak. Indeed, on Tuesday Apple complained in court about some of the comments from Jigsaw CEO Nick Murray. The federal magistrate thought that on the face of it they seemed “unhelpful” and were “close to the wind” in terms of possibly being in contempt of court. I was amused to hear Patch Monday described as “a quasi-radio program”. Maybe the Federal Magistrates Court isn’t up to the word “podcast” yet.

Articles

Geekery

  • I didn’t do this personally, but via my little business the Fender Australia website was made to look like the US, the Fender Musical Instrument Corporation. Well, the home page was. Our next project is to turn that 950-page manually-maintained site into something built with WordPress.

Corporate Largesse

None. Again. I’ll have to fix that. In fact there’s a big corporate party next Friday, but I’m wondering whether I can be bothered coming down to Sydney for it.

Elsewhere

Most of my day-to-day observations are on my high-volume Twitter stream, and random photos and other observations turn up on my Posterous stream. The photos also appear on Flickr, where I eventually add geolocation data and tags.

[Photo: Railway Parade, Wentworth Falls, in the fog, taken on 16 March 2011. This is the regular path I take when walking from Wentworth Falls station back to the Bunjaree Cottages.]

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Weekly Wrap 40

A weekly summary of what I’ve been doing elsewhere on the internets. Despite succumbing to a random fever for two or three days, I got quite a bit of writing done — and then forgot to post this until Monday. Sigh.

Podcasts

  • Patch Monday episode 79, “Cybercrime convention: civil liberties risk?”. Australia intends to sign on to the Council of Europe Convention on Cybercrime. My guests? Cybercrime specialist Nigel Phair from the Surete Group, who’s previously been with the Australian High Tech Crime Centre. His second book has just been published, Cybercrime: The Challenge for the Legal Profession. And Electronic Frontiers Australia chair Colin Jacobs.

Articles

Media Appearances

Corporate Largesse

None.

Elsewhere

Most of my day-to-day observations are on my high-volume Twitter stream, and random photos and other observations turn up on my Posterous stream. The photos also appear on Flickr, where I eventually add geolocation data and tags.

[Photo: Tea Tree Cottage, one of the Bunjaree Cottages at Wentworth Falls, where I’ve been living. I’ll write more about this experience very soon.]

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Goodbye, Apollo

I’ve avoided saying this, because there was enough to cope with last month and I was indulging in wishful thinking. But the time has come to say it. Apollo has disappeared. I don’t think he’ll be seen again. Good luck, my feline friend.

When I bumped out of the Enmore house and just before I left for a trip to the US, I took Apollo to stay with Googler Anthony Baxter. Alas, on his first night there, Apollo found a way to escape — no doubt spooked by the strange environment including three other cats. He hasn’t been seen since. The Baxter residence was far enough from the Enmore house to be well outside his territory, so I don’t think he’ll have found his way to familiar ground. If he had done, we’d have heard by now.

Given that Artemis’ life ended only a month beforehand, I was suppressing the emotions of this second loss. No longer. It seems appropriate to be writing this at Tea Tree Cottage while a night-time thunderstorm rages outside, the rain sweeping through the scrub.

[Photo: Apollo, photographed on 16 November 2008.]

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Weekly Wrap 39

A weekly summary of what I’ve been doing elsewhere on the internets. With three full working days occupied by conferences, I still managed to get a few things done. And not all of it was drinking.

Podcasts

  • Patch Monday episode 78, “Bionic eyes, gigabit Wi-Fi and the NBN”. This is my wrap-up of the NICTA Techfest, including an interview with Dr Terry Percival, one of the inventors of Wi-Fi, about potential future uses of the National Broadband Network. He reckons video will be the killer technology, with the world returning to non-written communication as the norm.

Articles

Media Appearances

  • This week’s edition of the Business 21C Weekly podcast from Sydney community radio station 2SER was all about the Australian government’s plans for internet censorship, and I was one of the guests. The program also features web developer Scott David from Flock and the president of the Internet Society of Australia, Tony Hill.

Corporate Largesse

  • The Kickstart Forum on the Gold Coast continued on Monday and Tuesday. My airfares and accommodation were paid for by the organisers, Media Connect. Monday’s lunch was sponsored by Samsung. There was also plenty of freebies from the vendors, though notably less than last year. And substantially fewer USB memory sticks. Should I bother reporting all this stuff? If nothing else, it’s interesting to document for posterity.
  • On Thursday I attended the Digital Directions 2011 conference as their guest. They provided food and drink. Stories relates to the event will appear next week.
  • The lovely folks at Saasu — well, their CEO Marc Lehmann — decided to give me a three-month extension on my subscription, just as a gift. I’d still say it’s a delightful online accounting system even without that.

Elsewhere

Most of my day-to-day observations are on my high-volume Twitter stream, and random photos and other observations turn up on my Posterous stream. The photos also appear on Flickr, where I eventually add geolocation data and tags.

[Photo: The view this morning from the front door of Tea Tree Cottage, one of the Bunjaree Cottages at Wentworth Falls, where I’m living this week. I’ll write more about this experience very soon.]

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Weekly Wrap 38

A weekly summary of what I’ve been doing elsewhere on the internets. This is being posted rather late, Wednesday rather than Sunday or so, because I was flat out at the Kickstart Forum. Must. Do. Better.

Podcasts

Articles

  • AFACT versus iiNet appeal decision resolves nothing, for Crikey. In summary, while the Australian Federation Against Copyright Theft’s appeal against the Federal Court’s decision in favour of iiNet was lost, this’ll probably all end up being appealed again to the High Court.

Corporate Largesse

  • On Wednesday I attended the NICTA Techfest and was provided with free food and drink.
  • Starting on Sunday I was attending the Kickstart Forum on the Gold Coast. My airfares and accommodation were paid for by the organisers, Media Connect. On Sunday evening security firm AVG bought me a drink. Sunday night’s dinner was sponsored by MyNetPhone.

Elsewhere

Most of my day-to-day observations are on my high-volume Twitter stream, and random photos and other observations turn up on my Posterous stream. The photos also appear on Flickr, where I eventually add geolocation data and tags.