It can be hard to find something to be thankful for during this current economic recession.  Perhaps you or someone you know is struggling to stay employed or worse, the job you had is no longer there.   Some Thanksgiving celebration it’ll be.  Or will it?  I guess it depends on your perspective.  It reminds me of a short story I wrote several years ago that might help put some perspective on the employment uncertainties we are all facing and maybe help you find some additional things to be thankful for this week.  Happy Thanksgiving!

It’s What We Do – A Short Story by Paul Kulpinski

The town of Billet Falls has always been this way for as long as anyone can remember.  It’s a town, not unlike many others.  It’s full of people who are all busy doing the things they do in the places they do them.  There’s the banker who works at the bank.  The butcher who works at the market.  The nurse who works at the hospital and of course the Mayor who works at City Hall all working to keep things running along smoothly and without disruption, because that’s the way it’s always been done.  The people of Billet Falls liked living life that way and no one ever dared to try living life any differently.

It was the first warm day after a particularly long cold winter when Mr. Lincoln and his family moved to Billet Falls.  Their home, while new to them, had previously been occupied by the dry cleaner who ran the laundry near city hall.  It was a beautiful house, located right in the heart of town.  So it was that after unpacking their belongings, Mr. Lincoln decided to conduct some business and establish themselves as the town’s newest residents.  His first chore was to open a bank account, so he went to the bank and met the banker.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Lincoln”, said the banker.  What do you do?”

Mr. Lincoln noticed the family pictures on the banker’s desk and replied, “I do the same things you do.”

“Oh, you’re a banker too?” asked the banker with a tone of concern.

“Not at all.  I rear two beautiful children with the help of my lovely wife,” said Mr. Lincoln.

This puzzled the banker who replied, “Oh, that’s nice, I guess.”

The next morning, Mr. Lincoln decided to buy some fresh bread and pastries for his family’s breakfast.  So he ventured out early to the bakery where he met the baker.

“Welcome to Billet Falls Mr. Lincoln”, said the baker.  What do you do?”

“I am a father.” replied Mr. Lincoln.

The baker chuckled, “I see, and do you do any work?”

“Oh, there is a lot of work to do rearing two beautiful children.  Without the help of my lovely wife, I don’t know that I could get all of the work done!”  exclaimed Mr. Lincoln.

This confused the baker who was left to wonder as Mr. Lincoln walked back to his home in the heart of town with his fresh bread and pastries whistling a happy tune in the morning sunlight.

By the third day, Mr. Lincoln began preparing for a far-away trip he had scheduled so he stopped by the barber shop where he met the barber.

“Have a seat, Mr. Lincoln” said the barber inviting him into the chair by the front window.  “I’ve heard all about you.” As indeed word was spreading about the strange ways of Mr. Lincoln and his family.

“Oh, that’s wonderful,” said Mr. Lincoln.  “Then you know about what I do.”

“Well, no not exactly.  What is it that you do?”  asked the barber as his scissors began snipping away around Mr. Lincoln’s head.

“I’m the husband of a beautiful lady who has the deepest green eyes and who embodies that joyful feeling of a cool summer breeze,” said Mr. Lincoln with admiration.

“That doesn’t sound like a lot of work,” commented the barber as his scissors snipped on around Mr. Lincoln’s right ear.

“We’re quite busy actually, what with our two little one’s there’s barely a moment where we’re not doing something new and amazing!”

This wasn’t quite good enough for the barber so he pressed on.   “That’s nice, but what’s your real job,” he asked.

“I can’t think of any more important job than that!”  Mr. Lincoln thought for a moment then said, “Perhaps after the children are grown, I’ll find one.”

After Mr. Lincoln left with his fresh haircut, the barber turned the sign on his door to “CLOSED” and collapsed into his barber chair, stunned by what he had just heard.  If what Mr. Lincoln had said was true, this wasn’t good for Billet Falls.  For as long as anyone could remember, the people of Billet Falls knew each other by what they did and the very important titles they held because of it, like the banker, the baker and of course the barber.  What could it mean to be just a father?  The barber thought long and hard and it could only mean one thing.  So he went to the police station where the police officer worked and after talking for a moment, they went to the hospital where the doctor worked and after a while they went to the accountant’s office where the CPA worked and soon a large crowd of the people of Billet Falls, not knowing what to do about this new threat to their way of life went to City Hall where the Mayor worked.

The Mayor was outraged to learn that there could even be one citizen of Billet Falls who was not working at doing something productive.  So the Mayor marched off to Mr. Lincoln’s house in the heart of town followed by the banker, the baker, the barber, the policeman, the doctor, the accountant and the large mob of the other townspeople of Billet Falls which had become quite agitated.

The Mayor pounded on the door of Mr. Lincoln’s home.  When the door opened he demanded to know what Mr. Lincoln did.

Once again, Mr. Lincoln calmly replied,  “I am rearing two beautiful children with the help of my lovely wife.”

“What does it mean to rear two beautiful children with the help of your lovely wife?” blurted the Mayor.

“It means that I build model rockets with my son.  It means that I have tea parties with my daughter.  It means that my two beautiful children, my lovely wife and I take regular picnics in the parks around Billet Falls.  It’s that simple,”  said Mr. Lincoln.

“Ah, ha.  So you are unemployed!” the Mayor said accusingly.

“No, not at all!  I fly airplanes for the airline at the airport.” declared Mr. Lincoln.

The townspeople gasp in unison and then shouted in relief, “Oh, you’re a pilot!”

“No, I’m a father,” insisted Mr. Lincoln.  “It just so happens that I fly airplanes to earn money.”

A low murmer arose from the crowd as they grew uneasy again.  “I am no different from any of you,” Mr. Lincoln added.

But this did nothing to calm the crowd, until the fireman spoke up, slowly.  “So, you’re saying that because I am rearing my son that I am a father, who happens to put out fires for money”?

“Exactly,” said Mr. Lincoln.

Then the nurse spoke up, “I don’t have any children, Mr. Lincoln.  Does this mean that I am no body?”  There was a great commotion, as the crowd now believed that Mr. Lincoln had been defeated and maybe life could return to normal.

“Not at all,” said Mr. Lincoln.  “You’re someone’s daughter and perhaps even someone’s friend, correct?”

“Yes” she said.

“Then you are a daughter of two people who love you very much, who happens to take care of sick people for money,” said Mr. Lincoln.

The Mayor, still frantic about maintaining order in his town shouted, “How can we have a town full of fathers, mothers, sons, daughters, friends and neighbors?  We will never get anything done!  The town will collapse!”

But Mr. Lincoln knew that would never happen.  “Mr. Mayor” he said, “jobs come and go but the relationships you have with your family, friends and neighbors will outlast them all.”  Then Mr. Lincoln extended his hand to the Mayor, “my name’s Tom.  Tom Lincoln.”

The Mayor stammered slightly, then with a laugh he shook Mr. Lincoln’s hand firmly and replied, “my name’s Robert James Turner.  My friends call me R.J.”

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, R.J.,” said Mr. Lincoln.

And with that handshake, the matter was settled.  Before long, the people of Billet Falls began to think of themselves as fathers, mothers, sons and daughters; friends and neighbors all of whom did this or that for money.  Did the town collapse?  On the contrary.  It thrived as an amazing thing happened – some people actually decided to swap the jobs they did for money, because the banker really didn’t like banking and the plumber hated water.  What would have been the scandal of all scandals in the history of Billet Falls in the past, was now a minor event because Susan was a better banker than she ever was a plumber and Henry became the best plumber the town of Billet Falls had ever known.

© 1999, 2009  Paul Kulpinski

All metal edges that must be used for cutting in order to be tightened at a specific time for them to get there ledge to change, no amount of technology ever.

Hundreds of thousands of years before man discovered that he could even win metal from ore he could realize that his agents to achieve a sharp edge for optimum results is required. Flint tools, the precursor to metal tools easy to raise, a new edge has been worked on the chip surface by striking the toolwith another piece of stone.

Obtaining a keen metal edge was then, and is now a totally different process. As we all know from our school days each time you cut something with a metal blade the blades dulls very slightly. Different materials have a differing affect on the blade and by how much it dulls it.

As time went by man had to learn the art of sharpening an edge, initially this was achieved by stroking an edge across a very basic sharpening stone, which was nothing more than a Stone! Soon he realized that certain types of stone, was a better edge than others, cleaned coarser stones on one edge, but not raise the blade enough to cut stone is also a fine edge, but only after much work. To this day, many tools are sharpened with a stone yet, although sharpening stones are a much more scientific equipment.

Whetstone[http://www.ceramic-knife-sharpener.com/The_News/Latest_News/Tips_To_Extend_The_Life_Of_Your_Knife] work by grinding the surface of the edge of a cutting tool, with prolonged use of a tool laps over the edge and needs. Not all metals are the same, some are better than others to keep on its border, if one is a metal too hard it will raise an eternity, but the edge will last longer, though a soft metal is used the edge, is easy to get so boringeasily, so it is very important that the correct steel is used for the tool.

Woodworking tools are usually steel, which is easier to ensure that the sharpening steel is made a little softer than steel, in making a pair of secateurs or scissors budget goes.

Craft, scalpel and razor blades are made of extremely hard steel that normal people would take an eternity on the street, refine, so why throw away these products.

Sharpening stones generally needOil or water to help the work of steel, a few drops of either applied to the stone in the sharpening process, a sharper edge to achieve the faster. With too much oil your knife will glide over the surface of the stone and the stone will prevent sharpening your edge. Because dirt and dust can invite oilstone as well as sharpening dust and metal particles, stones, always covered and in a clean place between the various purposes. Grinding stones are available in many grades, from which avery roughly 100 degrees all the way up to a fantastically beautiful 12,000 Class Japanese stone.

Diamond stones are now very popular for sharpening, it is a lot wilder than a stone and must be used properly. Is a grindstone ten to twenty is a blade can to sharpen it could be a diamond stone to take only three or four passes. Diamond stones usually do not need oil to help the process, although some people apply a drop or two. Diamond stones are alsoavailable in various grades, suitable for all sharpening jobs. The advantages of the diamond is that it is much easier to get a specially designed diamond stone for a particular application. In general, sharpening stones come in uniform sizes, generally eight inches by 2 inches by one inch, because diamond stones are applied as a rule, a strip of diamond to a wooden or plastic body can be manufactured to any size.

Most households and nearly all chefs feel at home with Cutlery Sharpening SharpeningSteel, this work in the same manner as a grinding stone, but are better suited to be used with kitchen cutlery. Steels are also a diamond sharpening steel.

These are the basics of sharpening an edge of the hand, as technology has moved on machines were invented to simplify the process of sharpening the edge, these are varied and you can usually find a machine for most of the instruments or Multi Spitzer sharpen, sharpen more than one type ofTool.

http://diyhouse.blogono.com/ http://diy-interiordesign.blogspot.com/

It lied there. Forgotten, caked in the dried blood of what may have been a Russian Cossack, or a British Dragoon. Perhaps, it was the blood of a general or, perhaps, just of a simple infantryman. The soft grey blade rested amongst the stems of grass, it’s grim ornamentation glistening in the noon sun.
I touched the hilt and felt the twisted leather’s rough texture underneath my palm. I pulled it free from it’s prison and raised it above my head. Unlike what I had heard from those who tell stories, it did not shine brilliantly. The only thing that happened was that more light was cast upon the scratched, bloody surface.
I wondered, with some childish excitement, who could have held a sword as fine as this. It could have been a  mounted cavalryman or an officer, perhaps even a general! I lowered it and dragged it’s edge along the grass, watching the grass bending underneath the blade. Holding it in my hand, I could feel the power, the essence of it’s glorious owner overtaking me. I imagined that I was the Emperor himself, riding into battle, the cavalry of the Guard struggling to keep up with me and artillery firing in the distance, the loud explosions frightening man and beast alike. Of course, that’s not how it happens. He doesn’t ride into battle like a suicidally brave soldier. He stays behind the lines and plans, thoughts and strategies swirling in his mind, until he comes up with something so perfect that it cannot fail. And, usually, it doesn’t. He has tasted defeat, of course, but not nearly as much as his enemies.
Slowly dragging the sword behind me, I left the field and stood on the road that led to a city. I imagined that along this road with me walk the grenadiers, fusiliers and many other soldiers, the music of the drummers ringing in my ears, the song of these frightening citizen-soldiers striking fear into the hearts of the enemy.
I sang with them that day. I walked along the dusty dirt road and sang every song I knew, whether it was a marching song I heard from the storytellers or a lullaby my mother taught me.
I could see the ghosts of the past coming back to life in the fields around me. Tens of thousands of soldiers rose from the fields, like armies doomed to fight for an eternity. To my sides stood the fusiliers, the glorious Guard, the cuirassiers  and carabiniers with their shining armour. On the opposite side stood the the vile enemy, who only come to burn the land, steal treasure and enslave us.
As quickly as they appeared, the ghosts vanish. I sit down in the shade of a tree and wait, minutes passing slowly as I lean on the sword, staring at a ditch in front of me. Perhaps, this reality is better than the one I imagined. It is peaceful now. The sea is not far. Birds sing as they soar across the sky and the lazy spring dust settles upon the road I’ve walked since I was born. The snow had already melted and the may sun sends it’s warmth down to us earth dwellers.
I heard something and looked to the skies. It sounded like a dragon, roaring and spitting fire, but there was nothing.
I stood once more and walked into the centre of the road. Dust was  being raised in the distance.
This was something I had not seen before.
Slowly, it was moving towards me – the cloud of dust, so thick I couldn’t see anything. It was frightening, but I held firm the sword and stood my ground. It was closer now and I could make out what was coming.
Barrels jutted like spikes from the cloud as the tanks neared, the black crosses on their sign appearing as the eyes of the beast. Tracks pressed into the dirt, but the war machines moved swiftly.
My father had spoken of them. He saw some, in the War. The roaring returned and I looked up. This time, the sky was filled with dark shapes. Many dark shapes, similar to still birds, their wings extended. Hundreds, maybe.
The dust cloud was now only a few kilometres away and I could see the trucks, the war machines, artillery. I stood on the side of the road, to let them by.
The steel beast passed me, it’s dark grey frame like a monster from ghost stories. They were all grey. The machines, the trucks, the artillery and even the soldiers. A single man broke off the final column and approached me. He asked me what was I doing here and I answered, with unnecessary bravado, that I was watching for the enemy and defending my homeland. He just laughed.
He removed a small blue helmet from his side and placed it on my head. Now, I was a real soldier. With another laugh, he stood back up and appeared much taller than he was before. He grinned down at me and said, with a heavy accent:
“To protect your homeland, you’ll need a lot more than a stick and a helmet.”
And then he left, running after his platoon. I dropped the stick, which until now was a sword, and ran towards home. That day, I learned a lesson. Sometimes, the enemy is far closer thank you think. And sometimes, he is not even my enemy.

An organization will not begin the transformation until it is aware that the quality of the product or service must be improved. Awareness comes about when an organization loses market share or realizes that quality and productivity go hand in hand. It also occurs if TQM is mandated by the customer or if management realizes that TQM is a better way to run business and compete in domestic and world markets.

Automation or other productivity enhancements might not help a corporation if it is unable to market its product or service because the quality is poor. The Japanese learned this fact from practical experience. They could sell their products only at ridiculously low prices, and even then it was difficult to secure repeat sales. Until recently, corporations have not recognized the importance of quality. However, a new attitude has emerged—quality first among the equals of cost and service—the customer wants value.

Quality and productivity are not mutually exclusive. Improvements in quality can lead directly to increased productivity and other benefits. The improved quality results in improvement in productivity, capacity, and profit. Many quality improvement projects are achieved with the same workforce, same overhead, and no investment in new equipment.

More and more corporations are recognizing the importance and necessity of quality improvement if they are to survive domestic and world-wide competition. Quality improvement is not limited to the conformance of the product or service to specifications; it also involves the inherent quality in the design of the system. The prevention of the product, service, and process problems is a more desirable objective than taking corrective action after the product is manufactured or a service rendered.

TQM does not occur overnight; there are no quick remedies. It takes a long time to build the appropriate emphasis and techniques into the culture. Over-emphasis on short term results and profits must be set aside so long-term planning and constancy of purpose will prevail.

My Consultancy–Asif J. Mir - Management Consultant–transforms organizations where people have the freedom to be creative, a place that brings out the best in everybody–an open, fair place where people have a sense that what they do matters. For details please visit www.asifjmir.com, and my Lectures.

Some things are more important than work.

This isn’t true.  If it was, why would Stevie say “Developers, developers, developers”!  Click here to read.

Hi,

I just wanted to share a new direction I am taking about testimonials! I used to be happy about written testimonials from my clients about their experience with my service. I have now decided to go with another route with video testimonials that I will be doing with my Photo camera. This will allow me to get an advantage since people will be listening from my clients about their  experience. I will learn to better edit these with time. This will be a big learning curve for me.

Here is where i got the understanding of it’s importance: http://www.awideo.com/

Video testimonials offer a lot more strength behind the words since they are spoken by someone who is not factor by my presence. I ask all my client’s the same question and even requesting some bad comments if there are any! These video will show real proof and will overcome objection’s better then the plain written testimonials.

Will you use this weapon?

Here is a look at one testimonial that I have edited: http://sebmour.smugmug.com/gallery/2945147

Have a great day!

The physical demands of landscaping and gardening can be “backbreaking”. The lifting, bending, and twisting involved in everyday work results in frustrating injuries to the back all too frequently.

http://www.progardenbiz.com/wp/back-problems-the-importance-of-prevention-through-strength-and-flexibility/

Counting time is not so important as making time count.

The world has never been more connected like nowadays, as we might see there are a lot of ways for us to communicate no matter how far we separated. Rapid growth of technology development makes our life easier than before. But in other hand, it’s impossible for us to feed our needs without anyone helps, that’s why we need to build a good rapport with others.

In cross-country relationship, which has their own native languages, to bridge those differences we need international language, which is English. So, because of the importance of English as key factor to build good understanding among nations in the world, mastering English is inevitable.

Firstly, I plan to pursue Master degree overseas in English speaking country. I think it’s not enough for me just holding Bachelor degree to get good job because competition would be very hard and tight, and we need to be specialized in such particular expertise or diverse our skills in others field. Even from now, my lecture notes and text book all written in English, the better I know English the better I understand them. Thus, I believe that mastering English is an important start to succeed in Master degree and seize the bright future.

Secondly, I want to learn about cross-cultural ability in terms of the ability to work effectively and efficiently with people from different countries, cultures and traditions. The world now globalized, somehow shrinking in sense of we’ll have to interact with foreigners more frequent, and consequently to cope that situation we need to understand English well. Apart from that, I genuinely interested in American culture as I used to watch on Hollywood movies. Experiencing eight weeks in United States, will provide me an inside view about American culture and their daily life. In reverse, I can promote Indonesian cultures as well.

Thirdly, I’m very interested in English debate because it will improve my public speaking skill, develop critical thinking, understand such an issues better, and ability to see things from different perspectives. Debate is more than about right or wrong, but it’s about to think logic and sharp. In order to be a good debater, basic requirement is good both oral and written English command. To put it another way, criticism can be brought into classes, so that I can understand course I study far better.

‘Interesting article on twitter public. Thanks to you I am there.’ — Paulo Coelho, twitter, 12:19pm 11 November 2009

Can we rank twitter streams? What I mean by ‘rank’ is best illustrated by example.

I carry out a search on google for any of the following: Puerto de la Cruz, Guildford, Washingborough, Harry Parkins, Paulo Coelho. My first examples I am seeking information on place, if google returns information on flights, schools, football clubs, property for sale, then google has failed me. If I desired information on these topics I would add further key words accordingly. In my latter two examples I am searching for specific individuals, a veteran of WWII Bomber Command, a Brazilian writer. If google supplies different individuals, which may be what others desire on their search on these same names, then the onus is on me to refine my search with additional keywords.

How then can this work for twitter? The ranking we use with google has no meaning for twitter. Let us take an example.

A group of a dozen friends on twitter, each has around ten followers, chit-chat flows between them as would flow over a garden fence or down the pub. The group is an isolated network, ie no links external to the group. The group is not closed, ie their tweets appear on the public time line. Unless a third party stumbles across this network, no one would be aware of its existence. But even if they did, of what interest would they be other than to those students of social networks and micro-blogging? On the other hand the information flow within the network is of high value to the participants, that is why they participate.

Large number of followers is an indication of popularity, thus could be used as a ranking metric.

A crude measure at best. Every celebrity would have a high ranking. As does news sources, though I am surprised how relatively low at just over 27,000 is the excellent news source @bbcnews.

With around 50 followers I would fall way way down the ranking. It would be several times this figure, but I check out every follower, and unless they have something worthwhile to contribute, I delete them. If they are con merchants, flogging something, then I report as spam.

Numbers of followers grows exponentially. From 1 to 10, takes as long as from 10 to 100. The reason for this is if you have no followers, no one knows of your existence, with followers, more people know, the effect snowballs. Eventually though it must saturate.

If you wish to influence, to change the way society works and thinks, then it would be of greater value to have fewer followers who are themselves of influence, who in turn have followers of influence, than to be followed by the common herd, especially if followers of influence re-tweet your tweets all the way down the line.

Large amount of traffic, large number of tweets.

Celebrities tend to tweet all day about their meaningless existence. If I wanted this garbage I would subscribe to Hello and OK magazines.

I tend to avoid high traffic as it swamps out everything else. Or, it will have to have high merit. I will look at websites for example BBC News, Indymedia UK, but then I am being selectively in what I read. I look at @ClimateCamp, as they have high value, ie has merit, but I dip my toe in their stream, rather than subscribe as a follower. On the other hand I follow @airportwatch as they have high value but do not swamp me.

According to a Harvard study, around 10% of twitter users account for 90% of the traffic. The average tweet is less than one a month. Many users never tweet at all. I am one of the contributers.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8089508.stm

My tweets are an eclectic mix of environmental information, philosophical musings, links to articles, links to pictures, quotations, re-tweets and chit-chat with friends.

Does a stream have merit? A measure of merit is are the tweets re-tweeted? My tweets are regularly re-tweeted, then often re-tweeted again.

Re-tweet can be seen as a signal-to-noise filter. It picks out what is worthwhile or of value from a twitter stream and thus enhances the signal-to-noise ratio.

Is there engagement, a dialogue, an interchange of views? Our network of friends would score highly, a celebrity merely broadcasts drivel to the mindless masses.

The Guildford Book Festival has a twitter account, but failed to make good use of it during the 2009 book festival. Occasionally during the book festival they would say what was happening that day. Comments to @GfordBookFest were rarely re-tweeted, unless from one of the invited authors (though my comment on this was at least acknowledged). A complete failure of engagement, no attempt to facilitate a discussion on the festival, which would of itself created more interest in the festival.

http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2009/10/440470.html

How many others users point to that twitter account? Another measure of the value of that twitter stream, cf a link to a web page or citing a reference.

Paulo Coelho is a Brazilian writer who has sold over 100 million books worldwide. First published over twenty years ago, The Alchemist has sold 20 million copies and recently celebrated two years in the New York Times best-seller list. Not surprisingly @paulocoelho has approaching 200,000 followers on twitter. He is regularly re-tweeted by his followers, some like parrots re-tweet everything they receive, others add value by adding variants. There is a dialogue and discussion, the traffic is two way. His twitter stream drives traffic to his blog, the blog drives traffic to his twitter stream. The blog is often more of a discussion forum. Paulo Coelho poses a thought or a topic, there is then a discussion between all participants. He has also devised a novel use of twitter, for interviews. Followers are invited at an alloted time to post questions, the first five in English and Portuguese he answers.

I recently heard a puerile discussion on twitter on the Moral Maze on BBC Radio 4. The participants did not use twitter, had no idea how twitter worked.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00nkcfk

Twitter and social networking came of age during the flawed Iranian elections this summer. Twitter, and to a lesser extent facebook, were used to organise street protests, to avoid trouble. The face of the revolution was Neda. The first I knew of Neda and her senseless slaughter, was when Paulo Coelho posted a video clip on his blog. This was a day or so before it was picked up by the mainstream media. Those who saw it on his blog, reposted, tweeted, what he had shown. It went viral and spread around the world. Following the Iranian example, activists are now making use of twitter, both to provide information and to coordinate actions. For weeks Neda and Iran were trending topics on twitter.

http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2009/07/434151.html?c=on
http://paulocoelhoblog.com/2009/06/23/iran-by-neda/
http://paulocoelhoblog.com/2009/06/26/the-doctor/

I was recently at a meeting with a surviver of the Tiananmen Square Massacre of twenty years ago. He spoke of how it had been erased from the Chinese collective consciousness and how important it was to keep that memory alive. He said the Chinese feared the internet, that there were more police patrolling the internet than patrolling the streets.

http://keithpp.wordpress.com/2009/10/23/eyewitness-account-of-tiananmen-square/

How therefore to rank twitter streams or twitter users? There are those who are trying. On the metrics I have discussed, our isolated network of family and friends would rank very high. They would agree with that ranking as they would value their network, but would it be of any interest to those outside of that network? Paulo Coelho would also rank very high, and for those who follow him they clearly place value on what he has to say, but would those outside his followers express any interest? Celebrities would rank low, even though they have a large following and often generate a large amount of traffic, for the simple reason they have nothing worthwhile to say and there is no engagement.

What we are trying to measure is influence and the numbers influenced, which may be via re-tweets. Influence does not directly correlate with number of followers or the number of tweets, indeed the higher the number of tweets the likelihood is the lower the signal-to-noise ratio, but these are factors to be taken into account. The ratio is likely to be logarithmic, that is going from one to ten followers has the same impact as going from 10 to 100 or 100 to 1,000. With the number of tweets and lowering signal-to-noise ratio, there must be some ceiling or saturation point that is approached.

What is your TweetLevel? Is it a meaningful measure?

For what it is worth the day before this article was posted tweetlevel gave me 34 and for comparison Paulo Coelho 73. I am advised to follow more people, to increase my followers, engage more, my trust level is pretty good. Maybe more interesting is how these scores vary over time. The danger of course is that people will tweet to maximise their metrics rather than because they have anything useful to say (always assuming of course they had anything interesting to say in the first place).

In reality not something to get hung up about. A bit of fun, nothing more. Rather like those machines you find on the pier where you grip a handle or place your hand on a metal plate and out pops a little printed ticket with your future mapped out. The value of any particular twitter stream is going to be what value you put on it, unless you follow like sheep.

Special thanks to Paul Coelho, whose tweet of a couple of days ago gave me the germ of an idea.

Also see

how to measure ‘importance’ on Twitter

He’s also got a cat called Retweet …

The Winner Stands Alone

Malam yang dingin

Malam yang dingin, membuat seorang mahasiswa berjalan sendirian yang larut dengan kesendiriannya karena mengikuti kuliah di IT Telkom yang penuh dengan duka dan lara.

ini searching ato indexing ?

Mahasiswa keren itu sedang mencari-cari kuncinya yang hilang. Mahasiswa tersebut bernama G@#$fg(taulaaa). Karena habis kuliah information retrieval jadi harus pandai-pandai searching kunci yang hilang.

Beeeuhh ... datang preman

Tiba-tiba ada mahasiswa lain datang, dan meneriaki mahasiswa tersebut dengan teriakan,”Maling… Ayo Hajar!” Tiga mahasiswa tersebut mempunyai informasi yang sama tentang keberadaan maling yang selalu meresahkan mahasiswa.

apa lo liat2 ????

Ketika berhasil menemukan kuncinya, dan berusaha menyalakan motornya, mahasiswa keren tersebut bingung dengan adanya teriakan maling tersebut. Mahasiswa keren hanya bisa bingung dan pasrah, karena tidak bisa melakukan information retrieval.

ciaat...ciatt.... hiyaaaa ... Rasengaaaan !!!

Gustaf langsung dengan sigap lompat dari motornya. Sedangkan yogi dan pongki sudah bersiaga juga akan menangkap gustaf dan akan memberi pukulan dengan pembobotan. Semua jurus-jurus pukulan ala google.

hiyaaa... Gomu-gomu goo

Dengan sigap, jimmy dan pongki segera menghadang gustaf yang mereka anggap pencuri dengan hadangan inverse document frequency dicampur indexing.

Ampuunn bang... ane emang ganteng...tapi bukan maling @#@$@$#

Akhirnya gustaf tertangkap, dan tanpa basa-basi langsung dihajar dengan pukulan yang bertubi-tubi. Pukulan crawler, tinju indexing, jotosan recall, semuanya pokonya dikeluarkan.

haiiiiyaaaaaaa ... lu sala olangg... haaa

Kemudian dengan tampang kesakitan gustaf berusaha menjelaskan tentang identitas dirinya dan relasinya dengan motor tersebut.

si jimmy lagi melihat BB17 ... hahaha

Jimmy dan pongki segera melihat identitas yang tertera dalam STNK tersebut. Dan guastaf masih mengerang kesakitan karena pukulan-pukulan yang dasyat yang telah dipelajari dalam padepokan information retrieval.

gw bata loo ... maw ???

Karena merasa bersalah jimmy dan pongki meminta maaf kepada gustaf. Gustaf menasehati supaya jangan langsung menghakimi orang dengan seenaknya. Dan akhir kata dari jimmy dan pongki,” Ya maap lach”.

Asdos yang anehhh

Hari ini kuliah tentang information retrieval. Tapi kok quiz ya. Asdos yang jengkelin, ech Soalnya gak mutu juga. Dasar kuliah information retrieval yang aneh.

Mahasiswa yang anehh

Tiba-tiba datang mahasiswa yang ambil matkul information retrieval juga tapi terlambat. Mahasiswa tersebut bernama G*s**f. Puff.. Asdos yang belagu. Qta buat indexing baru tahu rasa tuch asdos.

Mahasiswa-mahasiswa serba aneh dan membingungkan

Tiga mahasiswa yang bingung dengan soal quiz yang diberikan. Mau ketawa bingung, mau sedih juga gak tahu caranya. Dasar quiz informationretrieval yang aneh.

Format Tempat duduk yang aneh

Formasi tempat duduk yang aneh. Masak harus selang-selang. Ini asdos harus dilakukan pembototan dulu dech biar tahu rasa tuch asdos.

Quis yang benar2 aneh

Seperti biasa kalo quiz. Asdos lengah, kita bertindak. Ha.ha… Setiap quiz information retrieval pasti begitu. Namanya jugal kuiah information retrieval, jadi harus aktif mencari informasi jawaban ke teman.

Situasi yang anehh..apa yaa ????

Asdos merasa heran dengan bentuk formasi kita yang baru. Yach, asdos information retrieval cuma bisa bingung dengan apa yang telah terjadi. Wkwkwkw…

Soalnya aneehh siiihh ...

Asdos ini memberikan muka yang sinis kepada kami. Seperti mau mengatkan,”Mahasiswa sekarang payah-payah. Masak quiz information retrieval yang mudah ini aja gak bisa di kerjain!!”

beeeuuhh malah pesbukannn...anehh pisann euyy !!!

Seperti biasa kebanyakan asdos, selalu melihatt profile tentang mahasiswanya. Untuk menggali informasi tipe-tipe dari mahasiswa tersebut.

Maksa ngumpulinn...anehh banget ssiihh

Quiz sudah berakhir. Tapi Jimmy jelek belum selesai mengerjakan. Maka terjadilah tarik-menarik anatara mahasiswa dan asdos. Please dech mas, ini belum selesai beneran.

awasss lww yaa ...anehh !!!

Dengan tampang belagu, asdos information retrieval ini melihat hasil quiz dengan nada mengejek. Dan kedua mahasiswa ini, Yogi gendut dan Jimmy jelek berjanji akan memberikan pelajaran terhadap asdos tersebut.

Anak Pulau - Langit Biru di pantai matras

keindahan pantai matras di pulau bangka pada sore hari, langit yang membiru serasa ada laut di atas langit … beeuhhhh.. 4 thumbs up

Anak Pulau - ganteng

Pemandangan pantai dengan langit biru di sore menjadi background yang bisa membuat pria manapun serasa ganteng… apalagi ane, makin ganteng

Anak Pulau - Langit Biru lagi

Keren euy, pemandangan pantai di sore,mana langitnya biru … pulau di tempat ane emang mangstab 4 thumbs up …againn hihi

Anak Pulau - Aernya biru

Gelokk , aernya cuy … ini nih dapat dipastikan bakalan saingannya Bali.. hahaha … serba biru langit+aer ,.maen2 kesini, full recomended

Anak Pulau - Putra Daerah

beuhhh, senengnya maen di pantai … pasirnya euuyy … putihhhh … pake citraa white kaleeeee ….hahahahaha .. garing !!!!

meng-arak bade

Di bali “bade” merupakan wadah yang digunakan untuk meng-arak orang yang telah meninggal dunia(layon) secara beramai-ramai oleh keturunannya dan masyarakat setempat menuju ke kuburan/setra untuk diaben. Hal ini sebagai bentuk penghormatan kepada orang yang telah meninggal dunia.

pemidahan ke wadag

setelah sampai dikuburan, layon dipindahkan dari bade ke wadag untuk dilakukan prosesi ngaben bersama wadag tersebut. Wadag merupakan sebagai simbol kendaraan sang roh menuju ke alam roh (swah loka).

pembakaran layon

setelah menjalani berbagai tahap upacara ngaben barulah dilakukan pembakaran layon. Hindu percaya manusia terdiri dari 5 unsur(api,tanah,air,udara,ether) dan jika manusia tersebut meninggal maka harus dikembalikan seperti semula. Pembakaran layon merupakan prosesi untuk mengembalikan layon menjadi unsur api,tanah, dan udara.

meng-arak abu layon

dalam ngaben setelah pembakaran layon maka layon yang telah dikembalikan menjadi tanah(abu), maka prosesi selanjutnya abu tersebut akan diarak menuju pantai untuk dilakukan pengembalian ke unsur air.

penghanyutan abu layon

sesampainya abu layon di pantai, maka selanjutnya abu layon tersebut akan dihanyutkan ke tengah pantai untuk mengembalikan layon ke unsur air

Bandung,Tempat Makanan.

Sebenarnya gak ada yang spesial di hiasan dinding ini, cuman tempatnya itu yang rame pas sebelum hari lebaran.Ada yang tau hiasan dinding ini dimana?

si doggie,, eh catty

Putih, Ngegemesin, Kadang-Kadang Nyebelin.Ada yang bisa sebutin Kucing Jenis apa nih ?

lebaran cuuyy

Hari pertama lebaran harus kita isi dengan…..Silaturahmi dengan Pegawai Fast Food!!:hammer: :hammer:

ke lautt ajee !!!

Very NOT Recommended…Ane pengen moto laut gan, tapi….sambil nyetir!!jangan ditiru ya….Langitnya biru banget ya….

Mewah = mepet sawah

pemandangan yang udah sulit dilihat lagi di perkotaan,Sawah yang subur…yang membuat negara kita dijuluki negara Agraris.Dulu……

Malam yang indah.

Malam yang indah. Mobil-mobil berlalu lalang sesuai dengan kehendak pemiliknya. Mencari keinginan dan informasi yang diinginkan oleh pemiliknya. Karena setiap orang pasti akan menemukan informasi tentang arti hidup ini.

cahaya malam

Berkas cahaya pada malam ini menandakan cahaya juga bisa memberikan informasi kepada semua orang. Berkas cahaya ini menunjukan tingkat kesibukan di kota besar. Infromation retrieval.. itulah yang terpenting saat ini.

Tempat makan

Tempat makan di pinggir jalan. Semua tempat makan punya keunikan masing-masing. Pada tempat ini memberikan informasi tentang dinginnya malam, sunyinya malam. Semuanya tergantung kita dalam menggali infromasi tersebut.

lampu-lampu

Nyala lampu pada malam hari, menandakan aktifitas yg masih berlangsung meskipun hari sudah malam. Lampu ini memberikan informasi kepada kita tentang kesetiaan lampu untuk selalu menerangi manusia.

Tempat makan

Tempat makan di daerah burangrang. Hayao deskripsikan tentang informasi apa yang di dapat dari foto ini.

Do you ever wonder just how much you mean to people? Have you ever realised that maybe you’re not as important as you thought? Have you ever discovered that people think higher of something or someone else than you thought they did?

The conversation that has been going around this week is on what is really important in your life. If you had one month to live, what would you do, and what would you refuse? It’s interesting when you think how much of what you would do normally is not considered important if you had a limited life span.

Am I important to you? Would I be invited to spend your last day with you? Would I be invited to your celebrations, would I be near the top of your list for parties, would you share your secrets with me? Sometimes that giant light bulb gives you awesome insight to something, however sometimes you wish you hadn’t realised certain things. On the other hand, once you’ve come to terms with something it saves those times you’ve mulled over the subject for no apparent reason.

How do you feel when you’re hanging out with someone, and your getting along fine, and then someone else comes along and the mood completely changes? Do you feel like you can’t have fun anymore? Does the other person change how they act? Do you change how you act?

What and who is really important in our lives? Do you rate others as highly as they rate you? Do others rate you as highly as you rate them? What happens if you think you are less important to someone then you really are?

Holy Qur'an

Corán: Ayat Al-Kursi – Recitado por el niño Hasan Bin Abdullah Al Awad

Shaykh Muhammad Salih Al-Munajjid | Language: English | Format: PDF | Pages: 06 | Size: 1 MB
Islamic Legislation takes great interest in, and attaches great importance to children, and many rulings,  etiquettes and instructions were laid down concerning them. Unfortunately, we live in a time were the radiant sun  of Islamic rulings has set; knowledge has disappeared; and blind imitation of the west and ignorance in general is  widespread. Many Muslims who fell in love with the western way of life became interested in how the westerners take care of their children, as well as what they do to bring joy and happiness to their children; at the same time,  these Muslims neglected everything that Islam has to offer in this regard. This book is an adaption of a friday  khutbah given by Sheikh Muhammed Salih Al-Munajjid explaining how the Muslim should raise his children.

-

Download From RapidShare

Download From MegaUpload

-

No Password