Whatever happened to that One Red Paper clip?

PaulOctober 21, 2008

Kyle MacDonald: “One Red Paper Clip”

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What did happen to that One Red Paper Clip? We know Kyle MacDonld traded that paper clip for something more valuable and sooner or later it got all the way to a house? So he’s trying to sell this house of his. Here’s the quote:

“We’d like to trade the house because it’s kinda sitting empty most of the time, and it’d be great if somebody was in there!” As to his barter options, MacDonald is playing his cards close to the vest. He will reveal only that he has received 300 offers so far. “I’m keeping them all a secret until I make my decision who to trade with,” he says.

[Via PC World]

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So what did happen to that Red paper clip? I hope it didn’t get thrown away or stomped on? Will we ever know. I doubt it.

Silverlight 2.0.31005.0 Is release today.

PaulOctober 21, 2008

I woke up this morning and found there was an update. I thought to myself this isn’t the second Tuesday, that was last week. So I click on my update tab to see what it was all about? Wouldn’t you know it, an update to Silverlight 2.

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I will be looking into the new Microsoft Silverlight. I have heard on the wind, that this might be due to the PDC coming Oct 27-30. This has something to do with Windows 7, I’m almost sure of it. I am sure as you can see this is most interesting. I’m also sure this has to do with some security fix but why push it out now when there is no need too. This update effects Windows Xp/Vista/and 2000 so we will see what they have in mind the coming weeks.

Are you asking to be scammed?

PaulOctober 15, 2008

As we go further into the economic death, we are faced with the most undesirable aspect of the human culture. That is to say, scammers are going to use the chance to find people to scam. I don’t say this lightly because scammers have become more cunning and dubious through the years. They are actually using the internet as well as most companies. They are going to sites like Monster.com, Careerbuilder.com, and other hiring sites to get people to apply for jobs.

<<See Previous Post — Nationwide Marketing Scam

Having said that, I recently had a problem with being tried to be scammed. I applied to a job posted on Careerbuilder and that is how they got a hold of my home address. I did not think about the security problems associated with applying for jobs on line, until recently.

As you can see that is how they got a hold of my information and have made myself vulnerable to scams and also, other potential problems. I am talking about Theft ID and also spam. Although spam is to be expected with anything we do online. I’ve come to the conclusion that we will always have to deal with spam. I wanted to talk about how to be careful when you apply for online jobs and put your information out on the internet. I’ve started taking some steps to prevent this from happening again.

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No Longer am I going to apply for any more private companies — if I can’t see who they are then they have something to hide.

To prevent spam — I am going to make an email address just for my resume. That way I don’t have to worry about spam on my main account.

If it’s too good to be true, it is probably not — I am going to start using that philosophy when I’m about to apply for a job. See picture above, advertising way to much money for a Customer Service rep.

Don’t ever put your Social on your Resume — That is the most crucial part, if you want your identity stolen that is one sure way to get it stolen. Even though that should be painfully obvious it is sometimes overlooked.

I am sure there are more but that is the basic idea of the whole thing. I will probably come up with even more ideas later on but this was one thing that I have been thinking about all day. I also think we have to starting asking the questions before the seriousness of the scammers come to bear. They will never go away but until we get serious, they will always be there to taunt us and laugh us. I am not sure how to do it, Do you? Are we just supposed to sit here and take it or do we fight back and how? These are importantquestions for anyone to consider when you are faced with the possiblity of fraud or being scammed? How do we deal with it in the future? Should scammers be punished serverely or moderately?

5 ways to improve your chance of getting hired.

PaulOctober 10, 20083 Replies

Having seen the economy this week, I’ve come to the conclusion that it is time to redo all the important essentials and get all my ducks in the order as they say. I’ve been thinking of how best to be ready in case the dreaded day comes when my employer no longer needs my assistance and what could I do to be prepared.

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Get Someone to Critique your Resume — This is the most important step because this is the first place employers look when they want to hire someone. So how do you get it critiqued? Here are some good links to help you start off with: Careerbuilder Critique, Mind of Root Peer Critique(Last until Oct 30, 2008).

Have your Resume Ready to upload to Resume sites — You should always register at all the important resume sites just in case. The Sites that I recommend are : Monster, Career Builder, Hot jobs, Dice, US jobs, Best Jobs USA, Computer Jobs, and Nation Job.

Use your website as a place to put your Resume — Have your resume available in case some contacts you and tells you they know someone who is looking to hire people. Have this resume hidden and only give it out to people you know. This is also known as networking.

Network as much as possible — There are sites out there that have made it easier to network. Sites like linkedin.com, this site is great because of the 6 degrees of possibility as I call it. You know someone, they know someone, and then you will both know the same one!! This also will greatly increase your chance of an employer finding you.

For those who want to be Self employed — I wanted to say that most people who want to be self employed know just how hard it is to begin with. So I’ve got some interesting links to help start you on your way. First link is Technibble.com Computer Business Kit, This has Maintenance Sales Letter, Work Order, Marketing Analysis and Payment Overdue Letter. It is also a good idea to have an MP3 Advertisement that you can give to podcast and throw them the link to it. You will need to market yourself to the public in ways that no one has thought of. You will on an occasion have to spend money in order to get money, it’s always been that way but it seems to work.

These are some great tips that will greatly improve your chances of landing that job or becoming even more chance of you making money. If you have any tips or want to suggest ways to improve upon these tips please email me. If you like what you see discuss it on the blog or click on my ads to help offset the cost of this blog.

Google Ups the Anti!!

PaulOctober 4, 2008

As part of our effort to protect the accounts of AdSense publishers, we have mailed a Personal Identification Number (PIN) to the payment address entered in your account. This PIN must be entered on the PIN Information page before any payments can be issued to you. In the meantime, your account remains active, and you may continue to show ads and accrue earnings.

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Well that came unexpectedly, Google actually is trying to protect our accounts now from getting phished and or/taken over by some malicious person. This is called two factor verification**, Something you know and something you have. You can also get verify through your Cell Phone. Here is what they said in my Email:

Hi,

In an effort to protect the accounts of Google AdSense publishers,
we've starting using automated telephone number verification to
ensure that your information is accurate and up-to-date. As a result,
you should see a Required Action on your Payment History Page to
'Please verify your phone number' after you log in to your account.
To initiate this process, lick the 'Please verify your phone number'
link and follow the instructions.

Keep in mind that you have 6 months to enter the verification code.
If you have not entered your verification code within 4 months, we'll
start displaying Public Service Ads (PSAs) on your web pages. If you
have not entered your verification code within 6 months, your account
will be disabled and any unpaid earnings will be refunded to the
appropriate advertisers. You can learn more about our phone number
verification process at
https://www.google.com/support/adsense/bin/answer.py?answer=32055.

For additional questions about getting paid, please visit
http://www.google.com/adsense/payments.
If you prefer a video presentation of this information, we encourage you to watch our Payment
demo (currently available in English only), located at http://www.google.com/adsensedemo4 .

Sincerely,

The Google AdSense Team

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So here’s my take, you don’t have to verify both of them just one or the other. It is going to be rather difficult that people get paid. I don’t think this will be a big problem for most people, but I am sure some are going to get annoyed having to enter their* pin every time they want to get paid. So what do you think? Is this a good upgrade or a bad upgrade you decide and leave your comments. I want to hear them.

(*) Thanks to the Diggers to showing me I had a mistake.

(**)Someone ask why I capitalise the two in so I changed it!

(The Google Letter) That text is from my email no changes have been made except line breaks, so if there is an error it comes from Google.

Paul's Tech Talk

Category: Will

Whatever happened to that One Red Paper clip?

Kyle MacDonald: “One Red Paper Clip”

Silverlight 2.0.31005.0 Is release today.

5 ways to improve your chance of getting hired.