Beauty

I could have sworn that I reviewed this site already. Must be the lack of food has made me amnesiac.

Anyway, this site is all photos and little verbiage. For some reason it has a high hit count despite being non-porn. Uh-Oh, I let the cat (meow) out of the bag. This is not a porn site. Now nobody will visit it.

Actually tomfoolery aside I'm not sure if this site was designed for women or for men. It appeals to both genders.

Beauty
http://www.squidoo.com/_Beauty__

The Military

If you are poor and have no options, then you can die. The rich do not serve. Bush was AWOL for his National Guard years working for chickenhawk Republicans who also were pro-war and did not serve. Bush was never prosecuted. His daughters did not serve although we were (and still are) in a state of war.

During the Vietnam years everybody knew that to get out of going to Viet Nam, you either had to do stateside in the National Guard or flee to Canada. Bush chose an arrangement (wink, wink) with the Guard. Kerry could have dodged alltogether but he actually VOLUNTEERED to go into combat and the Republicans made fun of his two Purple Hearts at their convention. Anyone can go dig out the archival video footage if they doubt what millions saw on television. Republicans pro-military? and making fun of Purple Hearts?

Obviously I need a job with the Republican Party so that I can screw the public too.

If you really need a job, then go into the military. They aren't the bad guys. Read the above to find out who the bad guys are.



http://www.todaysmilitary.com/careers

Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines but maybe not the Coast Guard.

America's Job Bank

I can only go by what I experience. Not economic statistics. Jobless recovery? An oxymoron. If there are no jobs, there is no recovery except for Wall Street. Our government taxes the poor to give to the rich. A reverse Robin Hood.

America's Job Bank, as I have experienced it over the past few years, is a lot a paperwork. They roll out the red carpet for those filing for unemployment while those seeking employment get the proverbial dirty end of the stick.

Hey, if I'm not wanted in this country, I am more than willing to bail and move to another country and get citizenship elsewhere. Too expensive an option at the moment but I'm open to it.

Job Service or whatever name du jour the Employment "Security" Commission is using is a total waste. I have haunted their offices for years even when I was working for somebody else. That's right: I followed that old maxim that says the best time to look for a job is when you have a job. So much for wisdom.

http://www.jobbankinfo.org/

Monster

This site has wasted countless hours of my precious life letting me think that material that I had typed in, inputted, uploaded or cut & paste were saved only to find my material wiped clean. It is amnesiac. No leads USA or international, full time, part time, perm or temp.

Now it just so happens that on my last job, while everyone else had their hours cut back (including people with babies and grandchildren that they had to support) my hours were always increased. I had the feeling that if the doors closed and the place was boarded up, that I would be the last employee laid off. A compliment I suppose but I'd rather have an increase in pay.

Anyway, that's only some of what a site like Monster and my previous employers threw away.

I left my last employer because a fall (no injury fortunately) wised me up that, like previous employers, they intended to use me up.

http://www.monster.com/

Careerbuilder

Tis the season to be unemployed as Mister Potter arranges a layoff for you while he gives bonuses to the bozos who bankrupt companies too big to fail.

My own experience with Careerbuilder is this. It is fairly good at keeping and maintaining the resumes and cover letters you input. It oftens refers completely irrelevant jobs to you.

I gave up on the site two years ago and last week got an email from someone offering me a job with a decent salary and asking my phone number. Needless to say, I gave my phone number and have received no call.

I challenge any career site to find me a job. I'll give you a plug here. I know of no one who has found work through Careerbuilder other than Careerbuilder employees, some of whom I have dialogued with online.

http://www.careerbuilder.com

Webgarden

This is a review of a free web site provider. All such providers of course don't mind if you upgrade to paid services but even if you don't, they can put ads on your free site to turn a profit.


Webgarden immediately lets you pick your subdomain. It is interesting what each site's emphasis is.


http://www.webgarden.com/

Moogo

This is a review of a free web site provider. All such providers of course don't mind if you upgrade to paid services but even if you don't, they can put ads on your free site to turn a profit.

Moogo pushes you toward the pay option.

http://www.moogo.com/

Cabanova

This is a review of a free web site provider. All such providers of course don't mind if you upgrade to paid services but even if you don't, they can put ads on your free site to turn a profit.

Cabanova takes you straight into building then later asks if you want what you've built for free. If you're into Flash, this is for you.

http://xl.cabanova.com/

The Second Great Depression II

As if to underscore that it is now the first or the famous Great Depression of history this Squidoo lens calls itself Second (Great Depression) II.

It is still building. I am told that it will double or triple in size. But it is already large for those interested in studying the fall of America under Bush and now Obama.

If you still have the means (and haven't pawned your internet access) go visit
The Second Great Depression II at --

http://www.squidoo.com/SecondGreatDepression

Infiltrator: The Cameron Annals

Okay, I watched the cancelled TV series Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. It had problems such as too much violence and being moved around to progressively worse schedules. Its premise was depressing because it mirrored the real world to some degree: automation, World War Three, nuclear holocaust, biological warfare, Apocalyptic End Times Biblical references, crime, insanity, et cetera.

Fans of the show want it back. Some fans write fan fiction. This site takes the process two steps further. It is about fan fiction that hasn't even been written yet. I actually have known about this site for months but dismissed bothering to review it because it seemed too inconsequential. It still is a small site (not like some mammoth Sarah Connor Chronicles fan sites, one of which the webmistress for this site also maintains) but you have to admire the moxie in putting out there for public discussion, thoughts that go through a writer's head that are still marinating and ruminating. As a writer myself, I serve few thoughts until I have them fairly well thought out.

Or not. You've read this blog. I leave that judgment up to you. And speaking of Judgment Day, this lens wants to avoid all that nasty business of doomsday and find something better.

Infiltrator: The Cameron Annals

http://www.squidoo.com/Infiltrator-The_Cameron_Annals

Yahoo! Pipes

Yahoo! Pipes is gooey. Not as in delicious or other bookmarks, but as in GUI. Graphical User Interface.

Yahoo! Pipes is a web application from Yahoo! that provides a graphical user interface for building data mashups that aggregate web feeds, web pages, and other services, creating Web-based apps from various sources, and publishing those apps. The application works by enabling users "pipe" information from different sources and then set up rules for how that content should be modified (for example, filtering). A typical example is New York Times through Flickr,[1] a pipe which takes The New York Times RSS feed and adds a photo from Flickr based on the keywords of each item. The site is currently in beta. [direct quote from Wikipedia]

Quoting from the site in question: "Pipes is a powerful composition tool to aggregate, manipulate, and mashup content from around the web.
Like Unix pipes, simple commands can be combined together to create output that meets your needs:
combine many feeds into one, then sort, filter and translate it.
geocode your favorite feeds and browse the items on an interactive map.
power widgets/badges on your web site.
grab the output of any Pipes as RSS, JSON, KML, and other formats."

"Powerful" is corporate speak for buy it or ours is better than yours. You judge.

Yahoo! Pipes --

http://pipes.yahoo.com/pipes/

Drupal

That's Drupal not RuPaul.

Drupal is an open source content management platform. Drupal is a free software package that allows an individual or a community of users to easily publish, manage and organize a wide variety of content on a website. Tens of thousands of people and organizations are using Drupal to power scores of different web sites. It enables features such as Electronic commerce, Blogs, Collaborative authoring environments, Forums, Peer-to-peer networking, Newsletters, Podcasting, Picture galleries andFile uploads and downloads.

To give the reader some idea of how far I wander off whatever is the beaten path, this is for system developers and programmers. This review blog is supposed to be for the general web cruiser not the specialist. But then I am dipping a toe into high finance sites so why not computer engineering sites?

I only heard about it because I am seeking alternatives to widgets and modules in the simple webmaster work I do (obviously I am no expert).

If interested in dowloading Drupal or learning more, go here --

http://www.drupal.com/

Twine

Twine is social bookmarking and recommendations. Different visual look from StumbleUpon and similar sites but the idea is the same. I wonder if it fills up my email box like those others with recommendations? I am not willing to find out. I don't bookmark either.

For people who do bookmark and who do want recommendations from friends, the combination and visual appeal might be what the doctor ordered. If that is the case with you, don't mind my sour attitude on the subject.

Why bookmark? So you don't have your screen cluttered with wall-to-wall icons. I have seen people like that and I have to wonder if they are not constantly hitting an icon by mistake and disrupting their work. Icons and bookmarks are both hyperlinks so bookmarking may may sense for those who like a blank (or at least uncluttered) screen.

Recommends are a matter of whether you are seeking a non-medical second opinion. Perhaps you want to hear the pros and cons of a given matter before you make up your mind. Then you want a recommend site.

This is both.

Twine --

http://www.twine.com/

Instant Re-review:

After writing the above sour notes and observations, I went back and explored Twine a little. Squidoo it's not (I think there is a more severe limit to customization) but you can fiddle with it a little. Emphasis on little. On second look, the site could reflect your interest and link you to similar thing. On third look, it is all links and appears more and more an empty matrix of synapses and switches (depending on whether you want comparison to a human brain or an electronic brain). This is doubtless what they had in mind because you can see it reflected in the Twine logo.

According to Wikipedia: Twine combines features of forums, wikis, online databases and newsgroups[2] and employs intelligent software to automatically mine and store data relationships[3] expressed using RDF statements. Twine services information storage, authoring and discovery through its website and browser-based tools.

Forums can have echoes when they are inactive and lonely. Wikis are reference tools that I use. Online database? Not like Lexis or Nexis. I have never been in or used a Usenet Newsgroup. If one matched my interest, I'd look over newsgroups. We all know what browsers are. I still stand by my original review. Useful but no big whoop.

Engadget

I am not into gadgets but for the gadget freaks out there, this site tells you about the latest gizmos and consumer electronics. All you need is Bill Gates' bank account and you will always get what you want. This site is considered the ultimate gadget site. If you disagree, then send me a nasty message telling me why I am mistaken and what site I should be reviewing instead.

Engadget --

http://www.engadget.com/

Walhello

I don't know how old this search engine is but I am always on the lookout for new search engines.

Their advanced search allows you to select proximity in characters between keywords; select whether keywords must be in the right sequence [I prefer straightforward exact phrase but this is an alternative]; whether page must include pictures or not; search for pages written in a given language; and search for pages in certain domains [both of which Google and other engines do]. But overall, it is a nice alternative.

Oh how I miss the old Dogpile meta-search that gave several categories of result with the number of hits per category displayed to give the skilled searcher (like me) an idea of the weights of each area of results. Walhello is not that but it is worth checking out.

Walhello --

http://www.walhello.com/advanced.html

In Search of th' Old South

I decided to take a break from reviewing Squidoo lenses that interested me and see what other home pages of hobby sites are out there.

If you think the Deep South is full of psychotics, this site makes no attempt to convince you that The South is sane. Quite the contrary, they actually have a page for South Haters titled "The Lost Art of South Bashing" to encourage excellence in South bashing. If that isn't neighborly and showing hospitality (another of this site's specialties), I don't know what is. The site basically tries to identify and show the things that makes the South unique and that give it "character." That generally translates to ku klux klan night riders but this is no hate site and there are no pictures of lynchings, bombings, arson, or other acts of the devil (although I would not put it past them to add that later). This site is mostly genteel and features Southern belles.

One warning: the site is migrating to different software and so I may re-review them when it is upgraded and expanded.

Enjoy and watch your back!

In Search of th' Old South is found at this link --
http://southern-belle.tripod.com/

Guide to Intergalactic Travel

Defiantly hyper-specialized, this Squidoo lens frankly excludes those without an interest in the subject (like the Immortality lens in that regard).

It is exactly what it says: intergalactic travel. Not interstellar and not interplanetary. If you don't know the difference, like the site says, you don't belong here.

Guide to Intergalactic Travel --

http://www.squidoo.com/intergalactic_travel

Google search for venture capital, part 3

I got a response from an email I sent to an American venture capital firm. If I abruptly drop this blog, then you'll know I went on to bigger and better (meaning more lucrative) things. Not to worry though, I have a lifetime of disappointments to prevent me from having high expectations.

No luck yet finding any Israeli venture capital firms online. Due to lack of venture or any other capital on its home turf Israeli companies in the 70s turned to Wall Street to fuel their expansion. The first generation of venture capital funds began to operate in the late 1980s and this movement accelerated in 1990s. Local and international "money men" were noticing that Israel had become second only to the United States with its number of start-up companies.

I now have names of Israeli venture capital firms but no contact information or information about the specialties of each firm. VC's tend to specialize in different industries.

Views

View is a Squidoo lens with a theme I can't figure out. It is about views. Scenic views, points of view, views as in opinions, and even ABC's "The View."

Have a view at --

http://www.squidoo.com/Viewpoint

Google search for venture capital, part 2

Directory of venture capital firms, angel investors, sample ...

Directory of venture capital resources and related services.

This is an intermediary. Okay if you want that. I don't want an intermediary charging me money to get money.

http://www.vfinance.com/

National Venture Capital Association

Aims to foster greater understanding of the importance of venture capital to the United States economy and to support entrepreneurial activity.

I have an directory from them. How old I won't say except it shows how long I have been looking for money and why I have such a negative view of American investors. That said, if you're going to deal with American VC (that stands for venture capital not Viet Cong), then deal with them direct and not through an inrtermediary.

Believe it or not, I actually have a good opinion of this association despite my personal situation --

http://www.nvca.org/

Google search for venture capital

First sponsored link:

VENTURE Capital

www.NextLevelFunding.com Working capital with No Collateral & PG of owner- Up to $250K Fast!

This is business loans. Venture capital generally connotes equity not debt. For debt, you can go to a bank and American banks are notoriously hostile to startups.

Second sponsored link:

Venture Capital

www.amerifinancial.com Venture capital for early-stage tech, medical & consumer companies.

I have initiated contact and am awaiting response.

Third sponsored link was a business brokerage. Where are you supposed to get the money to buy one of the businesses they sell? Obviously from venture capital or running up your credit cards or begging from relatives (who have no clue and will hate you when you lose their nest egg and you will never again be welcome at family gatherings).

Advent

Wow, they've even commercialized Advent the season before Christmas, which for those who don't know, starts on December 25th. Most uninformed people think the Christmas season ends at midnight on December 24th, which is why so many trees are out on the curb by noon on Christmas Day. Understandable, since commercialism in the retail sector starts putting out Christmas stuff before Thanksgiving. We all have seen Christmas stuff before Halloween. And I used to work for a store that opened and still opens its Christmas shop (I kid you not) in August! Every year. Some of you can guess which retail chain.

Any way, Advent is supposed to be almost a full month (four weeks or so) of prayer, fasting (starving to you godless atheists), and quiet sober reflection before you drink yourself into a coma and gorge yourself almost as much as you did on Thanksgiving. If I was going to preach at you or psycho-analyze you, I'd say that you were trying to fill the emptiness which you need to fill with either Jesus or something meaningful depending on whether I was wearing my preacher hat or had you on my Freudian couch. Either way, something to think about.

As always, I wander off on pointless tangents as a pretext to minor remarks about the link or links. In this case, Advent dot net, "the leading Christmas Advent Calendars Site on the Net."

http://www.advent.net/

When I typed in Advent dot edu, net, org, and com I expected some Seventh Day Adventist site or something better. Dot com is an investment management software site. In view of my foregoing rants (please re-read my Thanksgiving rant), do I really need to say anything about Wall Street?