Category: Light hearted

The 2000-person Twitter “speed bump”

Speed BumpIt took me a while to figure out the Twitter “speed bump”.

Once you get to 2000 people whom you’re “following” (or somewhere in that vicinity), Twitter won’t let you follow more people until your ratio of following-to-followers comes to within about 10% (I don’t have the precise numbers, and the way Twitter works, they’re not important).

My understanding is that this “speed bump” was put into place in order to inhibit spam accounts. That’s fair.

I had found that following people was a good, though imprecise, way to get followers.

The “speed-bump”, which everyone encounters at that “following 2000” level, does have a workaround, and that is the “unfollow” feature. You can do that one or two at a time, or you can use one of a number of tools, including “justunfollow” and “manageflitter”, that let you locate and unfollow the people you don’t need to follow any more.

So for newer Twitter users, just be aware that the speed bump exists, and it can be gotten over. In the last several days, I’ve unfollowed several hundred accounts, which has freed up space for me to follow new people.

Like the “speed bump” that slows down traffic in the parking lot, if you take it slow and resolve to get over it one axle at a time, the “speed bump” is no more than just a minor annoyance.

I’m @johnbugay

Twitter and me

Twitter LogoIf you follow me on any of the “social media”, you’ve likely seen a lot from me, in the form of re-tweets and six-second Vine videos.

A couple of articles inspired me:

The New Résumé: It’s 140 Characters
Subhead: Some Recruiters, Job Seekers Turn to Twitter, but Format Is a Challenge; Six-Second Video Goes Viral

How to Tweet Your Way to Your Dream Job
Subhead: Three Out of Four People are in Constant Job-Search Mode and, Increasingly, Twitter is Their Tool of Choice. Here’s How to Make 140 Characters Work for You.

Here’s my 140 character résumé, give or take:

@johnbugay: Email marketing, marketing automation, Eloqua user. Marketing manager, copywriter, content, data analysis, segmentation.

When I interview, here’s how I roll

This is a sequence of @vineapp videos that I took earlier this month while preparing for and driving to a job interview. It’s a bit of tongue-in-cheek humor (but producing these things is fun!) – but if you decide to call me in for an interview, this is who you’ll get (if the videos don’t start, click on them):

I found a typo in the WSJ

Normally, the Wall Street Journal’s editorial process is impeccable. But this morning I found a typo in an AP news feed that they picked up. Here’s the paragraph:

Iraq is more secure now than in the past years of war, but lethal attacks persist and political reconciliation among the countries [should be “country’s”] diverse factions has yet to occur. U.S. combat forces pulled back from cities to bases outside urban centers at the end of June, signaling confidence in the ability of Iraqi forces to keep order.

The downside of “magicJack”

On my Facebook site, I’ve written fairly extensively about the technology troubles I’ve been having, mostly with the eMac. It’s still dead. I use this machine for desktop publishing, and so I need to get a replacement soon. Fortunately, thanks to a program called “DiskWarrior,” the files are saved and able to be retrieved. I think. That’s what they say, anyway. My hope is to get this done soon, although, I’ve had a $500 repair bill on the van, in addition to my other expenditures.

Which included the need to replace my cable modem and router. I had an all-in-one Linksys unit; this was down late in the week last week. It was another $130 to replace it (this time with two units).

In exchange for these expenses, enabled by technology, there are compensations, provided by technology. I bought one of those magicJack units to enable me to scale back the cellular service, and also to avoid the monthly phone bills. But the unique downside comes when you need to call the cable company to report that your cable is out. You need to use the cell phone, and waste precious and sometimes costly minutes.

This is not, I suppose, the fault of the magicJack people. The unit is doing what it’s supposed to do.

The First Day of my Summer Vacation

Maybe I’m dating myself here.

STUDENT:
Okay. The first day, no, my vacation, what I did on my summer vacation, the first day on my vacation, I woke up.

Then, I went downtown to look for a job.
Then I hung out in front of the drugstore.
The second day on my summer vacation, I woke up.
Then I went downtown to look for a job.
Then I hung out in front of the drugstore.
The third day on my summer vacation, I woke up…TEACHER:
Now that’s fine, young man!

STUDENT :
…Then I went downtown to look for a job…

TEACHER:
Now that’s fine, young man!

STUDENT :
…Then I got a job, keeping people from hanging around in front of the drugstore.

The fourth day on my…