My last post briefly touched on Facebook as a tool for networking. Yes, I am endorsing it over MySpace, Friendster, and anything else. If that feels kind of like endorsing the Yankees, I can live with it. When I'm looking to get in touch with my old classmates, colleagues, and friends, economy of scale is a beautiful thing.
On a separate, related note - how to find and network with former and current colleagues. For this purpose (purely professional) I love LinkedIn.
Why? Granted, it's not as extensive or personal as FB, but what I like about it is the ability to recommend and get recommendations from people you worked with, or people you currently work with.
What if you were an employer and you were trying to get some background on a potential employee? Which would you rather know - someone's religious beliefs, their favorite books, and their friends names; or would you prefer to hear recommendations from people in a professional context?
That sounds like a no-brainer to me...
The answer is that the two sites can peacefully co-exist, and I hope they stay separate and distinct. While I certainly have a fair amount of colleagues as friends on Facebook, it's because I'm friendly with them outside of the normal work context. LinkedIn I reserve for people I've actually done work-related projects with. Just a personal guideline.
Then again, I'm one of those people who thinks that while you can be friendly, cordial, and respecftul to your boss or your direct reports, it's a really bad idea to be friends outside of work with your boss, or your direct reports. Again, just a personal preference. Do with it what you will.
Friday, October 10, 2008
Facebook - MySpace for Grownups
I've been on the hunt for a way to get back in touch with some of my classmates from Santa Clara University (class of 92), and from De La Salle High School (class of 88). Not to mention, in this economy, and with my eclectic skill set, I've had to move jobs a few times in the last 20 years.
That's just the tip of the iceberg. But you can see where the rest of the iceberg is going - it's hard to keep in touch with people when you move around and change lifepath.
Years ago, I heard on the radio about a social networking site called "Friendster." I decided to give it a try; I figured, you know, what the hell.
Quickly I found that my inbox was stuffed with messages from women who only gave their first name, and the subject line was always the same - just the word "hey." I thought that was kinda weird.
When I went to the Friendster site to further investigate, I noticed that most of the messages either had no picture, or the picture was the same person two or three times, with different names.
You guessed it - Friendster got pornitrated. Look it up on Urban Dictionary, but it basically is a word I invented to describe when a site gets overrun by porn spammers - the "come see my webcam" kind of garbage.
What about MySpace, you ask? Oh, that was even more fun...I was told by a family friend that I could find people who went to my high school - good way to get in touch. Sounds good, right?
Remember when you get advice to always consider the source. Kristina is a smart young lady with a good head on her shoulders. But let me clarify - she's 21 years old!
So she was right. I did in fact find people who went to my high school. But most of the people who listed De La Salle as their school were still going there.
OK, that's just creepy. 38 year old guys need a different site than 18 year old ones. Bye-bye, MySpace.
And then, my best friend from high school wrote me to tell me of Facebook - there were actually people from our class on there.
And people from my office. And people from my college - who graduated with me.
And I can play late-night games of Scrabble against my boss, share recommended reading with co-workers, and get notified when my favorite musicians are playing in my area.
Don't get me wrong, it's not perfect. Still some get-rich-quick spammer scammers on there, still some people whose energy exceeds their intelligence. But on the whole, I'm pretty pleased. I've managed to find some old SCU classmates I haven't seen since I left, and some found me.
You know what's nice? When you get a friend request from someone you respect and really like. That's happened several times. After we went to my wife's high school reunion, a few of her friends sent me requests. Felt like a validation of sorts.
Sure, some people just try to artificially inflate their friend count. But I just use it to keep in touch, and hopefully network with some people.
Try it. You might like it.
That's just the tip of the iceberg. But you can see where the rest of the iceberg is going - it's hard to keep in touch with people when you move around and change lifepath.
Years ago, I heard on the radio about a social networking site called "Friendster." I decided to give it a try; I figured, you know, what the hell.
Quickly I found that my inbox was stuffed with messages from women who only gave their first name, and the subject line was always the same - just the word "hey." I thought that was kinda weird.
When I went to the Friendster site to further investigate, I noticed that most of the messages either had no picture, or the picture was the same person two or three times, with different names.
You guessed it - Friendster got pornitrated. Look it up on Urban Dictionary, but it basically is a word I invented to describe when a site gets overrun by porn spammers - the "come see my webcam" kind of garbage.
What about MySpace, you ask? Oh, that was even more fun...I was told by a family friend that I could find people who went to my high school - good way to get in touch. Sounds good, right?
Remember when you get advice to always consider the source. Kristina is a smart young lady with a good head on her shoulders. But let me clarify - she's 21 years old!
So she was right. I did in fact find people who went to my high school. But most of the people who listed De La Salle as their school were still going there.
OK, that's just creepy. 38 year old guys need a different site than 18 year old ones. Bye-bye, MySpace.
And then, my best friend from high school wrote me to tell me of Facebook - there were actually people from our class on there.
And people from my office. And people from my college - who graduated with me.
And I can play late-night games of Scrabble against my boss, share recommended reading with co-workers, and get notified when my favorite musicians are playing in my area.
Don't get me wrong, it's not perfect. Still some get-rich-quick spammer scammers on there, still some people whose energy exceeds their intelligence. But on the whole, I'm pretty pleased. I've managed to find some old SCU classmates I haven't seen since I left, and some found me.
You know what's nice? When you get a friend request from someone you respect and really like. That's happened several times. After we went to my wife's high school reunion, a few of her friends sent me requests. Felt like a validation of sorts.
Sure, some people just try to artificially inflate their friend count. But I just use it to keep in touch, and hopefully network with some people.
Try it. You might like it.
Tuesday, July 08, 2008
Why VBA?
I have the great fortune, if you want to call it that, of being the Microsoft Office expert in my office. This is yet another one of those accidental tours of duty that I never saw coming, but I sort of landed here without knowing how.
(The most likely answer, by the way, is that I'm an Office geek instead of an Office user. What's the difference? Office users use the application out of job necessity, learn new application features out of that necessity, and stop when the necessity does. Office geeks use and learn the application out of an obsessive curiosity, and never know when the hell to stop. But I digress.)
Based on having been anointed said expert, I saw it my sacred duty to beta test Office 2008, so that I could warn my peers about what was ahead for them. (I got the little key fob and the copy of Office 2008 to prove it.) Before I go any further, let me say that this entry will do nothing to slam the Beta team; Derek and the rest of the guys and gals were wonderfully receptive and supportive the whole time.
As anyone who knows Office 2008 knows, Microsoft made the business decision to remove VBA from it. And as anyone who knows me knows, I make a large part of my living using VBA in Excel.
And I'm not going to add my voice to the sound and fury in response to Eric Schweib's blog about this subject, which you can find here.
Instead, I'm going to ask a different question:
What did we need VBA in Excel for in the first place?
Speaking for myself, it's because my various and sundry applications that I have to use don't do what I want them to, so I have to use Excel to scrub and unify that data. Granted, I can do most of the aforementioned scrubbing with some rather lengthy formulas, but macros automate even the process of inserting said formula and AutoFilling it down, thereby resulting in one less step.
Ugh.
I start to think sometimes that keeping VBA in Excel up until Excel 2004 enabled people like me to create unsustainable, house-of-cards processes that were doomed to fail eventually anyway, and taking away VBA might be the best thing for us.
On the other hand, I don't have anything cross-platform to replace it with, because I work in a mixed platform shop.
But I guess what I'm really wondering is, "Where's the VSTO for the Mac?" What I really need is the ability to create custom applications that can "hook" into Microsoft Excel, and SalesForce, and other applications.
Anyone?
(The most likely answer, by the way, is that I'm an Office geek instead of an Office user. What's the difference? Office users use the application out of job necessity, learn new application features out of that necessity, and stop when the necessity does. Office geeks use and learn the application out of an obsessive curiosity, and never know when the hell to stop. But I digress.)
Based on having been anointed said expert, I saw it my sacred duty to beta test Office 2008, so that I could warn my peers about what was ahead for them. (I got the little key fob and the copy of Office 2008 to prove it.) Before I go any further, let me say that this entry will do nothing to slam the Beta team; Derek and the rest of the guys and gals were wonderfully receptive and supportive the whole time.
As anyone who knows Office 2008 knows, Microsoft made the business decision to remove VBA from it. And as anyone who knows me knows, I make a large part of my living using VBA in Excel.
And I'm not going to add my voice to the sound and fury in response to Eric Schweib's blog about this subject, which you can find here.
Instead, I'm going to ask a different question:
What did we need VBA in Excel for in the first place?
Speaking for myself, it's because my various and sundry applications that I have to use don't do what I want them to, so I have to use Excel to scrub and unify that data. Granted, I can do most of the aforementioned scrubbing with some rather lengthy formulas, but macros automate even the process of inserting said formula and AutoFilling it down, thereby resulting in one less step.
Ugh.
I start to think sometimes that keeping VBA in Excel up until Excel 2004 enabled people like me to create unsustainable, house-of-cards processes that were doomed to fail eventually anyway, and taking away VBA might be the best thing for us.
On the other hand, I don't have anything cross-platform to replace it with, because I work in a mixed platform shop.
But I guess what I'm really wondering is, "Where's the VSTO for the Mac?" What I really need is the ability to create custom applications that can "hook" into Microsoft Excel, and SalesForce, and other applications.
Anyone?
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