The Blog of Hans Eisenman

Twitter Tutorial Series: Adding Friends, Searching Twitter and More

Twitter is such a powerful program (yes, it is a program even though it is not something you download and install on your PC--it just "runs" via the Web), that I want to focus a bit on it in this and future posts.  It's also very, very simple, so it's power can be easily overlooked.

This morning I was logged in to Twitter and just poking around on some of the links and found some features that I hadn't used before particularly, like:

• How to quickly search the Twitterverse (what every one is saying on Twitter) from Twitter.com
• Saving those searches for ease of checking back in on those conversations whenever you want.
• How to quickly check places like Gmail or Yahoo Mail for friends you already have who might already have Twitter accounts.  If you're going to follow someone, follow your friends, right?

I put together a screencast on how to use these features in case you haven't tried these features yourself. 

Is there something you "don't get" yet about Twitter?   Want it to be doing more for you or your business?  Leave a comment and I will see if there's something I can post about it that might help you.

To see a larger version of this screencast go here: http://www.screencast.com/t/LmMxZ9t2

This Ain't No BS (bull shark) Part II

Julie Valdes of Arial Innovations adds this to the whale shark discussion (see previous post below) which I'll add here just to cap it all off for fun:

I chatted with Betsy this evening.  Her husband, Smitty, was about 40 miles off of Clearwater when they saw this on Saturday.  The whale shark was going after their chum.  The back of the boat is 18 feet so the guesstimate is that this shark was 25'  When Brennan and I saw it, we were half way between Honeymoon Island and Clearwater Beach.  About 200 yards off shore.  I think this whale shark is off course because it is ill or something is wrong with it/s navigation system.  They are not common in our area of the Gulf of Mexico but they are common in the northern section of the Gulf of Mexico, near Mississippi and Louisiana.

This Ain't No BS (bull shark)

The other day I posted a FriendFeed update that the helicopter pilot and photographer with him saw a "12 foot bull shark" off Clearwater Beach.   They were guessing it was a bull shark.  Turns out it was a whale shark (which is great because bull sharks are aggressive).   Here are some photos and a note from Julie, the Aerial Innovations photographer who was on the chopper:

Check out these photos.  This is the same Whale Shark that Brennan and I saw before landing at Clearwater Exec on Monday.  We told you it was huge and look, one of my girlfriend's husband took these photos of it when they were fishing on Saturday.  Obviously they let it go.  I confirmed that they were fishing in the same area we saw it!

The Death Of Common Sense

This just landed in my Inbox and it's too good not to post.  ~Hans

An Obituary printed in the London Times - not a joke [and if it is, it shouldn't be! -HE] makes you think!

Today we mourn the passing of a beloved old friend, Common Sense, who has been with us for many years.

No one knows for sure how old he was, since his birth records were long ago lost in bureaucratic red tape.

Test before you hire

This is a great service.  It's probably the most accurate test I have ever seen for a company could use before hiring people. 

And if you're not sure about whether it would work, just try it yourself (be sure to leave a way to contact you though--the results are automated but get relayed in person by someone who knows how to interpret the test results)!

Employee Testing Center

Firefox Running Slow Thanks To Addons and Extensions

Don't know about anyone else, but my Macbook has been running at high speeds (hint: racing fan) for the last couple of months and it's been bugging me.

It obviously wasn't bugging me enough or I would have fixed it months ago instead of today, but it just wasn't a priority compared to some of the other projects I have running.

It seemed as if today the racing cooling fan thing hit an apex though, which is good.  It gave me a clue as to what was causing the problem. 

HITLER’S BANK GOES GLOBAL

Here's the second installment (first is here) from Bruce.  Read this and please act while we still can.  We're letting this happen, people.  And it's happening.  Act now or kiss liberty goodbye and embrace tyranny once again. 
"Act" = Share this and call your congressman, minimally (see Solution section of the article).  ~Hans  PS: As outlandish as this all may seem, this is not a work of fiction. Brace yourselves!                    

 

May 2009

by Bruce Wiseman

 

 

THE PURPOSE OF THE FINANCIAL CRISIS

 

A towering citadel housing what is essentially a sovereign state known as the Bank for International Settlements is located in Basel, Switzerland. The bank now controls the financial affairs of planet Earth.                                                           

 

                                                                       

 

       

If you think this is an exaggeration or the conspiratorial ramblings of the author . . . or not, I invite you to read on.

I wrote the first installment of this article—“The Financial Crisis: A Look Behind the Wizard’s Curtain”—in mid-March of this year.

The article included the following statement:

The purpose of this financial crisis is to take down the United States and the U.S. dollar as the stable datum of planetary finance and, in the midst of the resulting confusion, put in its place a Global Monetary Authority—a planetary financial control organization “to ensure this never happens again.”

This purpose has now been accomplished.

Jeff Jonas: Six Ticks till Midnight: One Plausible Journey from Here to a Total Surveillance Society

This is thought-provoking stuff on not only how close we could be coming to a "total surveillance" society, but how/why consumers would love it.

Jeff Jonas: Six Ticks till Midnight: One Plausible Journey from Here to a Total Surveillance Society.

The ACLU has recently announced a Surveillance Society Clock which depicts, in their view, how close we are to a total surveillance society. At the time of this writing the clock sits at 11:54pm – just six minutes from midnight! This clock got me thinking about what series of plausible events might lead up to total surveillance. Unfortunately, such an exercise turned out to be spooky because I quickly concluded that a total surveillance society is not only possible but a certainty. It will happen through a series of fairly quick small steps, it will be irreversible, and the real shocker is that I suspect consumers will find it "irresistible!"

The Six Ticks till Midnight... [click link above for rest of article]

Social Media: Is There A Point...Really?

A fellow Bizniker (a bit like LinkedIN only more dynamic) emailed me and asked this question below.  She is probably right about these being common questions so I thought I'd make it the subject of my next article.

Her question:

"I think I'm like a lot of people: don't understand how social media helps me connect REALLY with people I can make relationships with. Chatting online is one thing...a relatiionship is quite another.

"Secondly...time. It's hard to find the time to socially network, when I can't see a direct benefit. For my two businesses...require that people actually try my stuff, and see if they like it. I know I should blog about cosmetic issues..but really...what's the point"  -G.A.

What's the Point?
This is a GREAT question because I think a lot of what we see on social media sites begs that question.

To help answer that, let me ask you first to forget social media for a moment.  Instead, let's look at a more "traditional" method of "getting business". What does it really mean to get business?

Chem industry is killing our bees and the EPA says okay

t r u t h o u t | Honeybees in Danger.

When I was teaching at Humboldt State University in northern California 20 years ago, I invited a beekeeper to talk to my students. He said that each time he took his bees to southern California to pollinate other farmers' crops, he would lose a third of his bees to sprays. In 2009, the loss ranges all the way to 60 percent. Honeybees have been in terrible straits. A little history explains this tragedy.