Twitter doesn’t suck just isn’t intuitive.
I started out with Twitter a few years ago but never got much into it.  When you first sign up you end up with an account and nobody to have a conversation with.  Reflecting back it is really depressing when first start out.  I felt like I was the new kid at school, that everyone knows is trying to meet new people, but still is given a hard time when trying to approach them.

For me I started searching for keywords using Twitter Search and as I found matches I would check each persons profile to see what other Tweets they had made.  If they seemed interesting I would follow them.  After I had a few people to follow I would Tweet into converstatiosn when I had something of value to add.  I’d start out with conversations that seemed professional.  I’m not looking to BS with people online I have a 2 year old to do that with.  I will rag-chew from time to time with people I know but I like to have more “stimulating” dialog with people.

Later I found various Twitter groups and started to following one group that of interest to me.  After a while I added myself to the group index and that introduced me to a lot of new people.  That helped me find more conversations about topics that interest me.  I have started building my own Twitter group for one of my many hobbies.  Once I get that going I’ll be sure to share what I learned.

LinkedIn is better then posting your resume on your own website.
At the end of every year I usually take some time to update my resume.  In the last 8 years I have learned that if the ax is going to fall, it will be near the end of year, to get everyone off payroll before the new year.  I have been very lucky to make it through many “downsizings”, “rightsizing” and just regular “layoffs.”  In an effort to be somewhat proactive, I usually update my resume and post it on a few job boards just to see what is out there.

Well a few years ago I found LinkedIn which allows me to post something like a resume in a central place and network with people I meet including coworkers, bosses, ex-coworkers, ex-bosses, etc.  I allows you to build references (which I am still working on) and grow your professional network.  Over the years I have learned its more about who you know then what you know.  If you don’t know about the good jobs then it doesn’t matter how skilled you are.  I have even had a few companies contact me after finding my profile on LinkedIn.  I was really pleased to know that my skills and experience are in demand.  But due to my current curcumstances and the economy things haven’t line up.  Either its a job that doesn’t meet my personal needs (flexability) or its a job that doesn’t meet my financial needs (everyone is trying to get a bargin).  But its still a kick to feel wanted.

MySpace is dead the future is Facebook (future being the next 18 months ).
I had a MySpace account a while back.  After finding all the people I hadn’t talked to in 20 years I deleted my account.  I learned why I hadn’t tried to contact people from my past in 20 years.  It was because people change and sometimes thats a good thing and sometimes that bad thing.  To see that the people I thought were “cool” or people I wish would be my “friends” turned out pretty bad was a little gratifying.  A few turned out good and I wish them all the best.  But like my past aquantances, MySpace was also something I really didn’t want to be part of anymore.  For me it turned into a screwed up pandora’s box of stuff I have worked really hard to move past.

So I moved over to Facebook which is at least until recently a little more starile then MySpace.  Even if I wasn’t a security geek (hate XSS), I really hate most of the “themes” I see on peoples profiles.  With Facebook I have been able to take some of the professional connections I have made on LinkedIn and Twitter and connect on a more personal,yet still professional level with people.

What was the point of this post?
Social networks have been all the buzz for the last few years but until recently only the Gen Y crowed used them. Now everyone else is starting to join which adds a little more to the quality of the social networks.  So if you have been on the sidelines of social networking or just been a lurker, wade on in the water is fine.  I would suggest using Twitter for random Q&A stuff.  I find myself using Twitter to get answers to some things rather than Google.  That is assuming you have a group of knowledgable people to Tweet. 

If your a professional with a resume in any field I would give LinkedIn a try.  Job boards are great but I think its better if a company finds you rather then you trying to find a company.  If you start to build bonds with people on Twitter or LinkedIn see if they are members on Facebook.  You will be surprise how many people have Facebook accounts.

Just remember the Internet is not a safe place and anything you post online could be viewed by friends, family, bosses or future employers.  So have fun, build connections, but keep your sensitive and private information protected at all times.  Also never trust anyone you meet online.  Even with some of the people I network with now, I keep at arms length.  It’s a wild world online which is why it’s so fun.

If you use Twitter, LinkedIn or Facebook I would like to hear about how your using social networking and what tips you have to share with others in the comments section.

Technorati Tags: Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook

At this time I am not aware of a fix.  I am also not sure what VMware is planning on doing or if anyone is working with Ubuntu on the issue.  If you need to run a working Ubuntu desktop in VMware, I would stay with 8.04.1 for the time being.  I would only suggest people upgrade to 8.10 if they are doing an install onto a physical (not virtual) machine at this time.

I did try to install 8.10 in VMware Workstation 6.5 and got the same error during the VMware Tools install.  So again just stay on 8.04.1 for now and upgrade to 8.10 in VMware in the future.  If anyone finds a fix to this please post it in the comments.

I like OpenBSD and FreeBSD but I like them in different ways from Linux.  I like Linux as a regular client or server OS.  But for infrastructure roles I’m a BSD fan.  DNS, Firewall, BGP, NTP, CSV, etc. when I have the choice I prefer to use BSD

So if you have been playing with Linux for a while, but never tried BSD, I would suggest you check out OpenBSD or even FreeBSD to see what they have to offer.

After taking a closer look at my upgrade it seems I did have some stuff break.  I have a rule that if it takes more than 30 minutes to troubleshoot/repair I just wipe the system and start over.  That is what backups are for anyways right?  It helps keep my “recovery” skills tuned.

Also if you haven’t checked out TF they have a pretty good site.  Remember to get good Torrent karma you need to seed until you have a 1.0 ratio.  I tried to give a little more and killed my seeds after reaching a 3.0 ratio.

Soon as I get the last upgrade completed I get an advisory for 8.10 (USN-661-1: Linux kernel regression).  Nice.