December 4, 2008

There were 9 posts published on December 4, 2008 (this is page 1 of 1).

Wall Street Journal interview

I just got interviewed by the Wall Street Journal about my recent layoff. The story seems to be focused on how the newly jobless are dealing with the upcoming holidays.

I don’t know if or when the story will run, but the reporter was interested in speaking to others who were laid-off. If you fit the bill, drop me an email and I’ll put you in touch with the reporter.

Move? For a job? Are you kidding?

Ran into a friend last night who was aware of my job search. She asked me “what it would take” to make me move away from Raleigh.

I laughed after quickly realizing she wasn’t trying to kick me out of town.

“Oh, I’m not going anywhere,” I said, reassuring her that there was plenty of work here for a multipurpose geek like me.

It would take a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to get me to move. Unless I get a phone call starting with “please hold for the President-elect” I’m staying right here.

How to become a scammer

For the next RDU Barcamp (which will be my first, as I have yet to participate in any), I thought it might be fun to teach a mock class on how to scam people. You know: pretend I’m a big-time con artist showing the ropes to wannabe Nigerian scammers. The class will include critiques of sample scam emails and suggest easy ways to get important information. The take-away from it all would be to educate my “students” in how not to get taken.

I might not wait for Barcamp but might package this as a TriLUG presentation for a slow night. I bet it would be a lot of fun!

Its official

I will smack the next person who asks me “so, how are you enjoying your retirement?!”

Putting XMMS back in Ubuntu

I was upset that the XMMS music player stopped shipping with recent versions of Ubuntu. I’ve used the new standard Rhythmbox Music Player and hate the way it (and iTunes, for that matter) reorganize my already-organized music collection. I don’t need a bloated, database-backed organizer – I just want to listen to some music!

Seems I’m not the only Ubuntu user who missed XMMS, because Knut Auvor Grythe built a repository of XMMS Ubuntu packages where Ubuntu users can once again have their XMMS.

Applied Metal Technology Scam

Here’s another scam email, stealing the identity of a legitimate business in an effort to hoodwink folks out of their hard-earned money. This one’s been floating around since May.

Return-Path: angel2@t-email.hu
Date: Thu, 04 Dec 2008 05:17:06 -0800
From: “Applied Metal Technology Ltd. ” angel2@t-email.hu
Subject: Payment Agent Needed (Earn $5500 + $500 Bonus Monthly )
Reply-to: appliedmetaltech.ltd@live.com
To: undisclosed-recipients:;
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