Massey Welch Innovative

When I think about all the tasks I do on the internet and all the great services that I use on a day to day basis, I have realized that my name and information is scattered all over the place. I have decided to try and organize and professionalize my online persona. This article is about my experience with different services and web sites that allow you to do just that. I am sure that there are all kinds of other services that will allow you to show off your stuff but the following sites our my favorite. If you think that I have missed any good services, please post them in the comments.

Organize Yourself

It is often hard to tell whether or not the person who goes by Cory on one website or service is the same Cory that you know from another website or service because it is not always possible to use the same user name for every service. For example, the username “coryholt” might be avalible on flickr but not on a forum that I frequent. It is always better for websites to use your email address as your user name for convience but not all sites are perfect. This is where you run into the problem of using multiple services, but having a long list of usernames.

So after doing a little research, I came across a great website that helps you do just that: keep track of your online persona. In short, ClaimID lets you track and share all the information on the internet that is about you. For example, my ClaimID profile shows links to all of my various pages such as this blog, Teen Tech Talk, and my flickr account as well as all of my profiles that I use such as my LinkedIn resume and my MySpace page.

Other uses include linking to places in which you are referenced for you work such as on a news site or even a CSS design gallery such as CSS Vault.

Now, with this innovative idea comes a new form of plagiarism or a kind of identity theft. Since ClaimID lets you link to pages that you claim to be owned by you or about you, anyone could simply add a link on thier ClaimID profile to teentechtalk.com and suddenly they are now a part of it; or atleast according to ClaimID. That is where MicroID comes in. MicroID is a standards-based way to claim a page that’s yours. Basically, in order to verify that a link is genuinely yours, you must paste a block of code somewhere on the page.

Then you just tell the site that you have indeed pasted the code somewhere on your page, and withen an hour or so, the Mirco ID “Ninjas” will search your page looking for that code. Once your page is verified, you’ll see a “Verified” mark show up next to your link in your claimID page. So, in the eyes of ClaimID, if you have write access to the page that you are linking to, then you must be the owner of it. Now, that is all fine and dandy, but what about a reference to you on another site that you feel like linking to. Well, there really isn’t an answer to that or atleast not yet.

Other problems that I have run into when trying to verify my various sites and profiles, is that if you are trying to verify your MySpace profile, for example, you are out of luck. When you paste the code that MicroID gives you, MySpace’s horrible standards and code strips out important parts of that block of code, making it impossible for you to verify your profile. Also, other services like LinkedIn will not work because they do not allow you to insert the specific HTML tags that are needed for ClaimID to verify your page.

An Online Resume

Resumes have always been one of the most important things you need in order to get a decent job. People focus so much on their resumes because that one peice of paper (or more) is what determines whether or not you are even eligible to get the job that you are applying for. It is the first thing that employers/clients look at before even meeting you, so you want to get it right. Earlier in this post, I mentioned something I called my LinkedIn profile. As of now, it is my official proffesional online resume. LinkedIn is a great service focusing on more than just a plain online page with your experience, education, and what-have-you.

It also allows you to connect with other people that you may have worked with in the past. Once these people are connected with you, they can write endorsements or testimonials about you. According to LinkedIn, people with endorsments from people such as former managers, colleagues and co-workers, customers and clients, and business partners are up to 3x more likely to be found in searches. Not only do they help you get out there and found, but they also make your resume look good.

The only con that I can find with LinkedIn’s method of endorsements is that in order for someone to write an endorsement for you, they must have a LinkedIn account for themself. They can’t simply send an email or use some other method as I have seen on other online resume websites.

Conclusion

So, as I have said in this article, there are all kinds of great and innovative services out there to get yourself out there and stay organized with who is you and who is not. If you know of any other great services like the ones mentioned above, please leave a link to them in the comments. Thanks for reading.

For more articles like this, please read my blog linked below:

Cory Holt
cholt.net

Tags: identity, online

I would love to be able to use DSL or Cable internet service, but being way out here in the boon docks, it isn’t possible. I could easily sign up for satellite internet if I wanted to pay one hundred dollars a month for it. No thank you! I’m cheap and I like it that way! But, that leaves me with dial-up, and everyone knows dial-up is sad. Sad and slow, especially if the phone company haven’t updated the outside wires since 1950. So I add static noise to sad and slow.

Dial-up isn’t all that bad anymore, though. They’ve added accelerators, boosters, turbos, speedband and all sorts of stuff to make your surfing better, faster, and more enjoyable. And, it works most of the time. Even the cheapest ISP’s include these accelerators for under ten dollars a month. I chose one without a ‘My Home’ page; that alone makes it a winner for me. It’s neat, clean and fast for less money and no stress. They get me online quickly and that’s all I ask of them.

I’ve used other services that force a home page on you. I’ve even used the ‘Big One’ a time or two. You know, the one that sends out the free cd’s so crafters can make those neat wind chimes? By the way, I wonder if their subscribers realize they’re paying for all those wind chimes?

I don’t mind trying new isp’s, but I avoid those that insist on including a ‘Home Page’. I don’t like their intrusive way of doing business. The home page is so ‘busy’ I can’t find what I’m looking for. I looked for five minutes one time for my account link. The window was full of news, movie stars and sales ads; none of which I’m interested in. It’s so crowded with ’stuff’ along its borders, it reminds me of my attic.

They usually aren’t user friendly either, at least not to this user. When I feel the stress begin to build, I minimize their window and open a new IE window. A couple I’ve tried won’t allow me to use a Blank home page (which is what I do with IE). To get online with the service, I must open their slow-loading, image-filled page. Being forced to do anything causes stress and who needs it? Not me!

I don’t want an intrusive update downloaded every time I log on and off, either, and I don’t want to be ignored when I say no thanks. Paying thirty dollars a month for services that are certainly no better than ISP’s charging ten dollars or less is incomprehensible to me. Why would anyone waste their hard-earned cash like that? Especially those paying with their Social Security allowance. Not this cheapskate!

There are many, many good, cheap ISP’s worth checking out. Support is always good on those I’ve used, and when they’re new businesses you know they try harder. Give them a chance.

Search ‘cheap isps’ and save some money; you might even save yourself some stress, and that’s what it’s all about. I’m running a wonderful one I began this month. I was charged only .99 cents for the first month, and that includes the accelerator! I won’t tell you the name though, unless they give me a year’s free service.

esprit is a reviewer of new writers and has written newsletters and articles on the subject of novice writing and reviewing with common sense and encouragement. Her portfolio may be found at http://www.Writing.Com/authors/storytime
She is an author on http://www.Writing.Com/
which is a site for Writers.

Tags: cheap isp's, cheapskate, creative, dial up, reading, stress-free, writing

In the good old days, back when the Internet had about 10 users and the web was a far off vision, PCs were called Home Computers and anyone could learn to write computer games. Three of us set up in business to write and sell our own games for the ZX Spectrum (Aka Timex/Sinclair) and Commodore 64. We didn’t sell many games but we were saved by getting into the game conversion business. A publisher would release a hit on the Commodore 64 and we’d write the Timex, Amstrad, MSX, CBM 16 etc versions. It took about 3 months for one person to produce a game.

That was 20 years ago and things have changed a lot since then. The games industry is now a massive multi billion dollar business and development teams can number 50 or more. My first game had me as programmer, artist, and beep designer – (well it wasn’t proper sound!). I did everything. Back then games were written in assembler and you had to learn 6502 and Z80. Nowadays with a few exceptions games are written in C and C++. The days of back room programmers aren’t entirely gone- there is also ‘retro remake’ and ‘indie’ scene, e.g. http://retrospec.sgn.net/ but unless you have an exceptionally brilliant idea, you are not likely to get into the mainstream game business as a one man outfit writing Blockbuster PC games.

It’s not all bad news though- if you can program to a very good standard and have learnt some of the techniques- eg 3d maths, artificial intelligence (ai), and can produce demos of your code then you may be able to get a job in the market. There are plenty of books and websites that will guide you through the intricacies of DirectX and before long you’ll be a guru on vertex shaders etc. Sign up on games development sites like http://gamasutra.com/ (it’s free) and look for jobs. You will have to be good to get a job and prepared to work long, in some case very long hours. It is quite a tough business – when a game is under development, you’ll live breathe and eat it for 18 months-two years. And you probably won’t work 9-5 all the time.

There are however other ways to get into the games business and I don’t mean console development. There are other ‘genres’ of games that are much easier to get into.

1. MUD – Multi-user dungeons. These have been around for 30 years and were the precursor to the MMORPG (Massive Multiplayer Online Role-playing Games) that now exist. These are still popular and you can find the source code to several of these. I don’t know if any make money- most people are now used to playing them for free. Look here: http://www.ability.org.uk/mud.html

2. Internet/Web based games. There are hundreds of these around. A good starting point is the vast directory at http://www.mpogd.com/ . These range from free to monthly subscriptions. Anyone can set up their own website and games using any web technology- e.g. Perl, PHP, Java.

3. Play By Mail. This has now largely but not entirely moved into the Internet/Web Games area. Flagship magazine is a good source of information – their website is http://flagshipmagazine.com/

4. Flash Games. Flash development is a skill in itself, though programming in ActionScript (which is JavaScript under a different name) is not that hard. There is a definite career path available through programming Flash games and there are plenty of books to teach you to write games in Flash. Flashkit website http://www.flashkit.com/index.shtml is a good starting point online.

5. Mobile Phone and PDA games. This has become a big growth area recently and is likely to continue its growth as phones get more powerful. Its also one of the easiest to get into though not all phones are the same. All you need to know is how to write Java games running on the J2ME (Java 2 Mobile Edition) platform. Unlike the console world, Software Development Kits (SDKS) are available for free from mobile phone manufacturers. E.g. http://www.forum.nokia.com/main.html and the best IDEs for J2ME development (Netbeans and Eclipse) are available free. Expect to see MMORPG (Mobile Multiplayer Online Role Play Games) before too long.

Much of this can be done part time in your evenings/weekends but be careful that you don’t let it take over your life and also that your employer doesn’t have any claim on software that you develop. Some employers have clauses that let them claim anything you develop. There are ways round this, often involving a wife or loved one who can be assigned ownership but take legal advice if in any doubt.

If you are learning to program games, don’t neglect the power of the web. Sourceforge.net is home to thousands of open source projects and many of those are games. Also game source for commercial games Quake I, II and III has been released by ID and can be found here http://www.idsoftware.com/business/techdownloads/

These are GPL’d so you wouldn’t be able to write games based on them and sell them without giving away the source code but you could write Mods. Several game modders have released very popular Mods free and have managed to get into the industry because of their quality. There are many games projects where you can sign up and program- this is an excellent way to learn new skills and make friends.

David Bolton is a software developer with an extensive past programming games. He co-founded Choice Software in Carrickfergus, N. Ireland between 1984 and 1987 and won an award for his original computer wargame Johnny Reb II (published by Lothlorien). He designed and programmed the Postal game Quest, which has also won awards and is still played (postally and online) 15 years after it was first developed. He worked for 12 months as game designer at Microprose (Manchester) in 1992. He is currently designing a large multiplayer role-play game, but it’s not due out until 2006.

Tags: mobile games, Mud, pc games, Play By Mail, rpg