Showing posts with label LinkedIn. Show all posts
Showing posts with label LinkedIn. Show all posts

Saturday, June 30, 2018

Piqued Enough to Peek into Offbeat LinkedIn Video Posts

On LinkedIn news feeds, what would be offbeat, you might wonder? From Dictionary.com, "differing from the usual or expected; unconventional". Let's first consider a basic premise about LinkedIn. Google answers for my query about what LinkedIn included several hits to non-LinkedIn URLs and also common q/as. Best answer I consider is from WhatIs.com.
a social networking site designed specifically for the business community. The goal of the site is to allow registered members to establish and document networks of people they know and trust professionally. … A LinkedIn member’s profile page, which emphasizes skills, employment history and education, has professional network news feeds …
My LI news feeds have included a few videos that have intrigued me for entertainment value. Imho, they don't have anything to do with the working world, but they sure have been entertaining! Another commonality, besides non-work entertainment, is tendency for skimpiness of posts' intro details. Thus, the paucity of info piques my curiosity to dig for alternative info or extra details. (Dang! Seems that the noun form for curious should be spelled "curiousity"!)

The LinkedIn URLs for the posts definitely work for members logged in. Only one seems to require login or joining. Maybe those LI links work for public visiting for a limited time until LinkedIn detours to a join window.

The videos pertain to the following topics:

 A skier for all surfaces (Audi Quattro ad)
 Anna's Hummingbird, which displays dazzling iridescence
 Dragon fruit
 Wednesday Addams giving Lurch dance lessons
 Manta rays playfully leaping out of water
 ZeNa Attachment, different kind of toilet paper roll replacer

Audi Quattro Ad with Compiled Clips of Extraordinary Skier on Dissimilar Surfaces

The LinkedIn poster's video runtime is 2:52. I wanted more details about the video scenes and whether Audi used different athletes. I was surprised to learn the skier was the same guy! Visit "French skier Candide Thovex reaches new heights in Audi advert". The extended video is viewable there.
Thovex ups the stakes, travelling to the far reaches of Europe, Asia and America in search of new and challenging terrain. He floats along water, skis down the Great Wall of China and whizzes through the jungle …
Thovex and the rest of the team had to contend with bad weather in northern Europe, damaged equipment from sand dunes, blazing hot temperatures and tricky visibility in the jungle and obstacles from the rocks on a still-active volcano.
Anna's Hummingbird, which displays fascinating iridescence

From the intro text—
when the light reaches the bird, called Anna's hummingbird, it passes through two kinds of feather filaments called barbules and is reflected in different colors ... which gives the impression that the bird changes steadily.
The video piqued my interest to find additional Anna's Hummingbird videos on YouTube:
"Anna's Hummingbird Macro 4k 60FPS", "Stunning up-close footage of an Anna's Hummingbird"

Dragon Fruit Harvesting

The topic intrigued me enough that I Goggled it and found "What Is Dragon Fruit and Does It Have Health Benefits?"—"Its taste has been described as a slightly sweet cross between a kiwi and a pear." Coincidentally, a well-known beverage purveyor is releasing some dragon fruit beverages very soon.

Wednesday Addams Giving Lurch Dance Lessons

Note: The LinkedIn post's URL opens a join window, unlike other LinkedIn URLs that I list.  BTW, vlicking works if you're a member and log in first.

"The Wednesday Dance" YouTube site provides more description—"Wednesday Addams teaches lurch to dance in Season 2 Episode 29 Lurch's Grand Romance". (Lisa Loring is Wednesday Addams, so adorable with her dance moves!). IMDB info shows the episode released on April 1, 1966, making Lisa only 8 years old then.

Mantas Playfully Leaping Out of Water

I felt the post had very little info and wanted to see and know more. I found a similar video about mantas leaping out of water. "INCREDIBLE FLYING RAYS!" from BBC had added bonuses of pelicans and a large group of rays. In further searching, I ran across the apparently full BBC video that the poster seemed to have excerpted—BBC's "Mobula Rays belly flop to attract a mate - Shark: Episode 2 Preview - BBC One". The synchronization at the BBC's video seems to start at ~1;23 and stop at ~2:19.

About the time that I wanted to find more info about the rays, an old curiosity resurfaced--what's the difference between a manta ray and a stingray? DifferenceBetween.com's "Difference between Manta Ray and Stingray" has helpful sections that describe mantas, stingrays, with a nice pic of each. The site also has sections describing similarities and differences.

More videos to consider:
"Manta ray, a giant of the ocean", "COOL STINGRAYS", National Geographic's videos for each ray—"Gigantic School of Rays | Untamed Americas",  "Stingray | National Geographic"

Stingray Infamy—One impaled Steve Irwin in the heart and killed him. "September 4, 2006: 'Crocodile Hunter' Steve Irwin killed by stingray while filming TV show".
Attacks by stingrays are extremely rare – and while their barbs are coated in venom, it was the strike to the heart, not the poison, that caused Irwin’s death. ... "They have one or two barbs in the tails which are not only coated in toxic material but are also like a bayonet,” explained Australian wildlife filmmaker David Ireland.
Ay, caramba! As I was wrapping up and ready to publish this article, I stumbled onto "Mobula" in the BBC video title. It turns out mantas are now reclassified. From "Manta rays reclassified as mobula after DNA study":
Manta birostris (the giant, or oceanic manta) and Manta alfredi (reef manta) are no more. Instead, they are now known as Mobula birostris and Mobula alfredi. … NOTE: A possible third species – Manta birostris sensu, is yet to be formerly reclassified but is currently under DNA examination by Dr Andrea Marshall of the Marine Megafauna Foundation.
I think it's going to be awhile before I use the term "mobula ray". Too used to "manta ray".

ZeNa Attachment (Innovative Replacement for Toilet Paper Holder)

The design was interesting for one-hand switching out, quite a time-saver. I wanted to find more info. At KickStarter's "ZeNa Attachment: Update Your Existing Toilet Paper Holder", the following info:
Funding Unsuccessful
This project's funding goal was not reached on October 5, 2017.
A few days later, I re-watched the Cheddar video and noticed the blurb at about 30 seconds into the Cheddar video about project not reaching its Kickstarter goal.

I don't foresee the end of offbeat video posts to LinkedIn. Fun to watch and poke for extraneous info!

Tuesday, July 18, 2017

Cicada Wasp N Cicada a Month Apart

The last few weeks while taking daily walks and pix, we've spotted some unusual buggy items that warranted closeups. (I’m getting better about carrying and whipping out a measuring stick so I can scale the objects.) My pixstrip with composites shows three related objects—cicada wasp (dead), cicada exoskeleton (aka "exuvia"), and cicada (dead), approximately scaled with my trusty 6” rule.

Some LinkedIn connections IDed the first bug as a cicada wasp (from June 12). Cicada wasp? It’s a wasp that zeros in on cicadas as they emerge from their hibernation. Note that the underside of the image pair shows the stinger. I created a composite with pastes of measuring stick segments and the camera pouch. I was amazed at the over-two-inch wingspan. According to "The Texas-sized cicada killer", the females have the stingers and are docile, and males don't have stingers but are aggressive.

The second image section (July 11) shows a cicada exuvia that hung vertically from a curb. You can see a hollow inside where the insect emerged from. For the image, I used masking tape to affix the measuring stick near the body length to get a sense of scale.

8/10/17, WRT to exuvia/exuviae—from Steve Schwartzman of Portraits of Wildflowers
from what I can tell, entomologists normally use the plural exuviae. The singular would indeed be exuvia, but entomologists seem not to use that form. While exuviae is formally a plural, it carries something of a singular force as a set of sloughed-off parts.
https://www.ahdictionary.com/word/search.html?q=exuviae
https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/us/exuviae

The third image section (July 12) shows the topside and bottom side of a cicada. I had help from additional LinkedIn connections in IDing it. Two commenters provided the same wikipedia link (endorsement!), which conveniently includes an audio link near the picture. In the last few weeks I sure have heard a lot of the same sounds. View the following YouTube videos for closeup motions and sounds.
View videos of cicadas starting out as muddy-looking bugs. Watch them detach from their exoskeletons and emerge as elegant, transparent-winged cicadas—
The following three videos show closeups of cicada wasps and their distinctive yellow markings. Two of the videos show wasps hauling their much larger prey.
Past Articles about Cicadas

Last year, I had written a couple of articles about cicadas, but was more focused on the exoskeletons than the wasp predator or winged insects. Both exoskeletons in those images had wound up on the same porch column at different times. Incidentally, one set of images includes wasps, but they seem to be maybe curious paper wasps buzzing at the empty shell.
Lots of thanks to LinkedIn people who helped ID my pictures in my feed and also commented! If you're a LinkedIn member, you can visit the following topics and images:

For more articles about cicadas, enter "cicada" in the search box at the upper left of this window. Or find and click "cicada" link at Partial Index of Keywords section (just below Popular Posts section).

Sunday, July 31, 2016

Closeup of Molted Cicada Exoskeleton (and More Info)

Earlier this week, I spotted a sizable empty shell of a bug, maybe a beetle, I thought. It was about an inch tall, stuck to a corner of a porch column, seemingly hugging it, about three feet above the porch. It looked like all the innards might have been cleanly sucked out, maybe consumed by parasitic larvae, leaving only exoskeleton and maybe other chitin.

For a larger, unreduced image, click here.

Not being an entomologist or gardener who might know about bugs, I wondered how to get information about the shell's former occupant and how it departed. A Google image search yielded seemingly countless, overwhelming results.

I decided to turn to LinkedIn connections, and posted a pic and update, hoping to get someone to identify the item. I was in luck! Two people, John Rothgeb, and Steven Schwartzman, replied with great leadoff info.

From John, a declaration and web link: "Looks like cicadas or even a Giant cicada - http://texasento.net/Cicada.htm". The website images and first .wav file sent me off to Googling more info.

From Steve, a strongly specific term and also two links to blog articles he had written about cicadas himself:
The thing in your picture appears to be the exuviae of a cicada. That word is a Latin plural that entomologists use for the exoskeleton that an insect casts off as it grows from one stage into the next.

Here are a couple of instances from my blog:
https://portraitsofwildflowers.wordpress.com/2014/07/22/exuviae-2/
https://portraitsofwildflowers.wordpress.com/2011/07/18/exuviae/
A third LinkedIn connection declared the shell to be cicada. (Happily, LinkedIn networking can be fruitful for topics besides work, careers, and occupations. (My LinkedIn home page shows more number of views for the exoskeleton picture and inquiry than any other topic I've announced in recent memory.)

Besides increasing my curiosity about the animal, the terminology I was encountering sent me hunting down definitions and pronunciations for chitin and exuviae. Interestingly, the first "c" in cicada, according to both m-w.com and dictionary.com, is pronounced as an "s". I've heard people pronounce it as only a "ch" sound. And I myself pronounce it as "ch". BTW, those two dictionaries also provide long/short vowel pronunciation options of "i", and the first "a".

I have listed some links about cicadas, many of them YouTube videos that show cicadas molting.
Anyway, the bottom line about the clinging bug shell on the porch column: It's a castoff exoskeleton after a cicada molts and flies away, not shell remains after parasitic larva(e) dined on the insect. Coincidentally enough, a wasp that captures a cockroach for its larva's future food supply uses similar methodology as a wasp that targets cicada.

From "10 Facts about Cicada Killer Wasps"
  1. The adult female wasp will paralyze the cicada with her venomous sting.
  2. The wasp will carry the cicada to a burrow, where it will place the cicada.
  3. The wasp will lay an egg under the left or right second leg of the cicada.
  4. The egg hatches, and the larvae begins to eat the cicada, while taking care to keep it alive.
  5. Once the larvae [sic] has had its fill, it spins a cocoon, in which it will change into an adult wasp.
Such behavior looks similar to that of jewel-wasp-on-cockroach, in comparing information in "How a Wasp Turns Cockroaches into Zombies" of Scientific American.
venom compounds work fast, paralyzing the cockroach …
leads her victim to its final resting place …
Once inside her burrow, she attaches one egg to the cockroach's leg, then seals her offspring and the roach in.…
wasp larva hatches from its egg, its meal is ready to eat. And soon enough after that, a new wasp emerges from the burrow, leaving the roach carcass behind.
Note: The SA article states that the larva hatches and emerges as a wasp, omitting the details of how the larva becomes a wasp. The m-w.com site explains that the stage between larva and wasp is pupa, "usually enclosed in a cocoon or protective covering".

For more articles about cicadas, enter "cicada" in the search box at the upper left of this window. Or find and click "cicada" link at Partial Index of Keywords section (just below Popular Posts section).

Thursday, May 22, 2014

LinkedIn Connection Request for Favor--Job Hunt

As a blogger, sometimes a blog article opportunity arrives like a fish that jumps into my boat while I'm fishing, metaphorically speaking.

Someone sent me email through LinkedIn to ask if I knew someone at a particular workplace. Turns out, I do have a first-degree connection there, but I didn't feel I knew the person well enough to ask about positions on my inquirer's behalf. After I wrote back, my emailer took a second look at the original inquiry, with thoughts that maybe initially proofreading before clicking Send might have been reasonable.

Note: As a courtesy to the inquirer, I requested and received permission to quote most of the email.

"Hey [me as email recipient], for the advise about getttig back into looking forwork.soi was wonderingif you kow someboday a [undeterminable name of potential employer]!!"

I replied as factually as I could, and asked confirmation of the company name.

"I'm not sure I can help. What is '[indecipherable company name]'? [industry guess]? I have one first-level connection for [guessed company name], but ... [allusion to barely knowing other connection]".

For others who might not have asked LinkedIn connections about potential employers, the approach is reasonable, but maybe do spellcheck first, and afterwards, re-read for thought before sending the email.

Let's revisit the original text, lightly edited for obscuring some context and ID:
Hey [me as email recipient], for the advise about getttig back into looking forwork.soi was wonderingif you kow someboday a [undeterminable name of potential employer]!!
And now, a suggested inquiry, edited for sendout:
Hi, [me as email recipient]. I'm getting back into the job market. I was wondering if you know someone at [company name] that I should contact. Would it be ok if I mention that you provided me that person's name?
At the time of considering sending such a message, do some LinkedIn research first. If you have a company in mind, do a LinkedIn search for the company name. As you start typing the name, LinkedIn starts suggesting the following categories:
  • Jobs at [company name]
  • People who work at [company name]
  • People who used to work at [company name]
  • [company name] (not shown on pixstrip)
My focus is on the first three links and results when you click each of them.

Jobs at [company name] The Jobs page opens. You want to know that a suitable job description is at the company--such as a mutual fit for skills and experience. You might want to filter the results to more manageable numbers, At the Search area on the left part of the results window, filter by adding criteria, then click the Search button. In this search case, maybe enter your occupation title into the keyword field and also make choices for geographical restrictions (Postal Code, followed by Within distance choice).

People who work at [company name] The People page (current workers) opens. Scan the list for 1st-degree connections of prospective people to write to. Also consider 2nd-degree connections. People who actually work at the workplace of interest can fill you in on their current work environment and co-workers.

People who used to work at [company name] The People page (former workers) opens. Try out this webpage for completeness of research, or if you did not find prospective people to reach out to in the current people webpage. Scan the list for 1st-degree connections of prospective people to write to. Also consider 2nd-degree connections. People who used to work at the workplace of interest can tell you about their work environment and co-workers while they were there.

The people who currently and formerly worked at the workplace of interest can be especially helpful if they can help route a resume to hiring types directly. They can also be helpful if they know people you will be interviewing with. Look into interviewers' profiles ahead of time, and ask your connections questions about the interviewers, whatever the profiles prompted you to wonder. Ask about interactions between your connections and interviewers, if any. Ask about connections' perception of interviewers' demeanor and professional expertise.

You can send LinkedIn email directly to 1st-degree connections. Ask them a few crucial questions. Ask if it's ok to call them. Ask them to call you. Look into their profiles and see if they list a phone number, and call them. Call the company phone number and use the corporate directory to call them, leaving them a message if their voicemail picks up. Be courteous and brief. (I myself prefer to contact by email than phone, maybe because I'm a writer and feel I can better articulate in text. YMMV.)

Saturday, April 13, 2013

Crosstalking Aggressors and Victims

A few weeks ago, I encountered "aggressor" and "victim" in a document that I needed to format and refine. I had not heard of them, and the anthropomorphic nature made me cringe. They pertained to crosstalk, a term I AM familiar with.

My curiosity nudged me to find out more about the terms. I did some Google searches and saw "aggressor" and "victim" commonly used in numerous articles.When I used to design printed circuit boards, crosstalk was described, but not in terms of doer and do-ee. (My blog, my prerogative to make up terms.)

I looked at some PCB design books. The Design & Drafting of Printed Circuits (1979, Darryl Lindsey) doesn't even index crosstalk, but I remember my instructor talking about crosstalk and EMI. Design Guidelines for Surface Mount Technology (1990, John E. Traister) does not index crosstalk, doesn't list crosstalk headings in TOC.

Printed Circuits Design Featuring Computer-Aided Technologies (1991, Gerald L. Ginsberg) does index and discuss crosstalk. However, no "aggressor" or "victim". I thought he might not be around to ask, or his knowledge no longer up-to-date. His most recent book was 1994, the earliest was in 1976. I didn't spot his name on LinkedIn.

I sent emails to some LinkedIn connections that I thought might be able to suggest alternative terms. The people who replied had no suggestions of alternatives, and they all stated that the terms were very common. I'd say institutionalized and ingrained.

Another avenue I tried was sending out an inquiry to five LinkedIn groups—Society for Technical Communication, STC Technical Editing SIG, Adobe FrameMaker, Door64: Austin High Tech STEM Events, and IPC - Association Connecting Electronics Industries. I received several pairs of suggestions. (To readers who recognize their contributions, thanks!) It was nice to see that people gave the terms some thought. However, I thought some terms might possibly evoke more confusion or misunderstanding than using "aggressor" and "victim".
  • crosstalk cause, crosstalk reaction
  • crosstalk-initiator, crosstalk-recipient
  • crosstalk source (ref'd as source later), crosstalk sink (ref'd as sink later)
  • exciter, reactor or responder
  • ingress, egress
  • interfering signal, affected signal
  • noise generator or radiator, noise receiver
  • source, target
Someone suggested "conversant" or "intruder". Not sure "conversant" applies for either "aggressor" or "victim", as it's an adjective. I thought "encroacher" might sound a reasonable "aggressor" replacement, but I couldn't think of a good parallel opposite term. Eh, as for "ingress" or "egress", seems weird that entering and exiting might pertain to crosstalk.

Tom Hausherr, long-time PCB designer, and I exchanged emails. Besides discussing board design (interesting and very techy medical equipment company for his workplace), he also recalled the arrival of the accompanying terms.
The first time I heard of the term aggressor and victim was doing PCB layout for AMCC component manufacturer trying to produce chip sets that exceeded 1 GHz and actually we were going for 3 GHz. The aggressor/victim pair of terms is in our everyday conversation today.

The aggressor is the electromagnetic waveform from high-voltage parts (power supply), high speed (clock) or audio/video traces and vias that interfere with other transmission lines. The victim is the weaker, affected neighbor (or more neighbors).
I've concluded that "aggressor" and "victim" are entrenched terms. I think replacement terms are unlikely for the following possible reasons:
  • Many more characters
  • Ambiguity because of more than one meaning
  • Unclear imagery
Any other candidate replacement terms? Anyone? Anyone?

Monday, March 26, 2012

Tagging Your LinkedIn Connectees

October 18, 2013: LinkedIn changed the Connections interface, integrating interaction info. The methodology I explained in this article no longer applies. For LinkedIn non-newbies, click Network > Contacts, filter and sort for your contact, hover over the contact, click Tag, and make your tagging changes accordingly.

April 22, 2014: I updated the LinkedIn tagging process—"Revisiting Tagging Your LinkedIn(r) Connections". The PDF file of the step-by-step procedure, including screen captures, is downloadable at https://app.box.com/s/ju04h698elb8j5dc0m0.

LinkedIn account holders might or might not be aware of or use the feature of connectee Tags, a way to customize and categorize connection groupings. Veteran account holders might already be familiar with Tags and make good use of them. Newer account holders might be still be working on filling their profiles and adding new connections. This article is for newbies and others who want to be able to go into their Connections page and quickly find connectees grouped by common keywords, or use the feature for related purposes.
Note: Although connectee is not listed in dictionaries, I use the the term for this article. I feel it more indicates a person than connection does for LinkedIn context.
You can create custom groups and assign names (called Tags, functionally keywords) that indicate characteristics for your connectees. For example, the default Tags that LinkedIn assigns are based on the original invitation reason, such as colleague, classmate, group member, partner, and friend. Untagged, I have concluded, apply to connectees that I invited or who invited me and had inserted an email address after selecting Other (reason for connection). Your invitation choices might vary slightly from what I list.

By grouping your connectees, you can filter and find specific connectees by company, function, profession, or other category. You can assign multiple tags to connectees. For example, a connectee can be a co-worker, a professional organization associate, and a classmate.

A practical use for grouping connectees by a Tag category is using it for creating a recipient list for an outgoing email. By assigning one particular label, you can display all the appropriate connectees and send the message to only those people. And you can skip needing to view and review your entire list of connectees.

LinkedIn default Tag categories are few, but you can create additional ones. You can add new Tag names as a Manage Tags task, or add them when you review any connectee "skeletal profile" (my term, now referring to as SP). Adding a new Tag name in an SP adds the Tag label to the connectee's profile, and makes the label selectable for any connectee SP that you edit.

Click Contacts > Connections to open the Connections page (Connections tab displayed).
The left section (Filter Connections) displays the number of connections you have, the expandable and collapsible Tags link, the Manage link, and other expandable and collapsible links (but not discussed here). The Tags labels are keywords for your connectees. With Tags expanded, click a category for alphabetically displaying your connectees of that category to the middle of the page. Each of those entries in the list displays the connectee's thumbnail picture or icon, name, number of connections, and Headline text.

Clicking an entry in the list highlights it in blue and displays the SP to the right of the page. Among other pieces of information about the connectee, the SP displays the connectee's name, Headline text, current Tag labels, if any, and the Edit tags link. Click the Edit tags link for adding, changing, or removing keywords that are associated with the connectee.

If adding new Tags (keywords) is something new to you, you might add them by using the Manage function. Click Manage for opening the Manage Tags window. In the text field, enter a keyword, and click the Add New Tag button. Consider keywords that reflect your present company, a previous company, a professional organization, a LinkedIn group name, a profession (particularly for other connectees). The keyword shows up in the list. Continue adding keywords. If you want to remove any keywords, click the choice, and confirm the removal. After modifying your list, close the window by clicking Finished.

One connectee group you should review and assign meaningful Tags to is untagged. Click untagged. In the list of untagged connectees, associate each connectee to at least one keyword. Another group category maybe worthwhile reviewing and reassigning labels is friend, reserving the label for people you truly consider to be actual friends rather than professional acquaintances. Additional ideas for Tags keyword assignments are realtor, recruiter, landscaper, and other roles that your connectees fulfill.