SUNY Poly Utica Computer Chip Commercialization Center (Quad-C)

Yesterday before a meeting at SUNY Poly Utica I had the chance to go on a tour of the almost completed Computer Chip Commercialization Center (Quad-C) building located on campus. Here's a few specs on the facility:

• 253,000 sq. ft. including 56,000 sq. ft. of Class 100 and Class 1000 capable cleanroom space.
• Will host phase one public-private partnerships highlighted by a consortium spearheaded by SUNY Poly CNSE that includes leading technology companies such as Advanced Nanotechnology Solutions Incorporated (ANS), SEMATECH, Atotech and CNSE partners, including IBM, Lam Research and Tokyo Electron. 
• Annual operating budget to exceed $500 million
• Projected to result in the creation of 1,500 high-tech jobs, groundbreaking academic programs, and cutting-edge workforce training opportunities.
• The cleanrooms are stacked - not something you see much of outside of highly populated places like Singapore.

Here's a few pics I took on the tour.

Shot of the new building between Library and Admin Buildings

Flexible space - could be used for cubicles, walled offices, etc or configured as cleanroom extension

Above each cleanroom air handlers, sprinkler system etc. These systems can be maintained, upgraded etc with contaminating cleanroom

One of the huge cleanrooms and yes those little specs are people doing a final cleaning

Workers adding the CNSE sign to the building

Those 1,500 new jobs will have an average annual salary of $91,000, and an estimated annual payroll of more than $136 million once full-scale production is achieved. I am a strong believer in public-private partnerships and the SUNY Poly CNSE effort is one of the most successful I've had the opportunity to see.

Automobile Collision Avoidance: Ultrasonic Sensors

It's been a while and I wanted to expand a little bit on my June intelligent car post and discuss collision avoidance technology in a little more detail. All collision avoidance technologies use sensors that collect information that is processed by onboard computers in the car. Let's talk about ultrasonic parking sensors today.

Ultrasonic parking sensors are typically mounted in the bumpers and used for parking systems. Effective distance for a transducers depends on the circuit and signal sequencing that is being used so the sensitivity varies across different devices. Parking sensors are designed for relatively short parking distances of 0-5 feet. 

You may have noticed them on car bumpers and wondered what they were. Here's a close-up picture of one on an Audi A4 (pic source: goo.gl/fOhcQy). They are about the size of a nickel.

Distance is commonly indicated by a sequence of beeps and the closer the obstacle is to the sensor the faster the sequence of beeps until a continuous tone is emitted indicating that your bumper about one foot (or less) away from the obstacle. Here's a short 58 second demonstration video demonstrating BMW's Park Distance Control (PDC).

Ultrasonic means above the audio frequency range and these sensors typically operate somewhere between 40 kHz and 70 kHz. In future posts I'll describe camera, radar, and lidar systems.

LED Light Bulbs That Repel Bugs

Most of us are familiar with those ultraviolet bug zappers. They're not as popular as they once were but I do still see (and hear) them around on hot summer nights here in New England. 

They operate on a basic principal - bugs (mosquitos, etc) are attracted to light in the ultraviolet and visible blue/green wavelengths. Once the bugs get inside they get electrocuted by making contact with high voltage wires surrounding the light source. Most of us have probably questioned the effectiveness, wondering if more bugs are being attracted than zapped.

A group of researchers at the University of Southern California Dornsife led by Professor Travis Longcore came up with the great idea of flipping things around. In a paper published by The Royal Society last week titled Tuning the white light spectrum of light emitting diode lamps to reduce attraction of nocturnal arthropods Longore and his group describe how to make LED bulbs that significantly reduce the amount of blue/green light and effectively repel insects. 

By mixing the right wavelengths, light can be made to still look white to humans while minimizing those attracting blue/green wavelengths, Longcore's group found that by doing this, approximately 20 percent fewer insects were attracted. Pretty cool stuff.

Longcore's group is doing additional testing and Longore is hoping they can further target specific wavelengths to repel even more of those pesky (and sometimes disease carrying) bugs away.

5G? 6G?? How About 200G?!

Back in 2013, Verizon ran a successful 200 Giga-bits-per-second (200Gbps or 200G) trial in collaboration with communications equipment manufacturer Ciena. The trial was done over optical fiber using a single wavelength. Well - trials are trials - done in optimized and controlled laboratory type settings by people in white lab coats. Experts speculated whether these kinds of bit rates could be achieved in the real world. Well.... guess what?

Earlier this month, Verizon provisioned 200G technology using the same Ciena gear on an ultra-long-haul production network between Boston and New York without impacting live customer traffic on the same network and without making any modifications to the existing fiber or network infrastructure equipment. The new Ciena gear was only added on each end of the communications channel.

Significant? You bet. More information on a single wavelength over long distance without any loss of signal quality. All this without having to upgrade fiber and infrastructure equipment in the field. It opens the door for the possibilities of much higher bit rates over existing fiber-based networks. We'll see 400 Gbps soon and yes even Tera-bit-per-second (Tbps) rates over existing optical fiber infrastructure soon.

Closing the loop with IP/Optical Integration

I've spent the last 17 years focused on Internet Protocol (IP) over various transport systems - wired (copper), wireless and optical. With the explosion of video, social media and other bandwidth hungry applications we've seen fiber moving closer and closer to the end user. Wireless is the perfect example with towers back-hauled into the network by fiber. It's really just the last mile/final connection that is typically not optical fiber based for most of us.

We're seeing IP/optical integration today really ramping with these things called software defined networks (SDNs). I wrote a post defining and describing SDN's last month titled SDN: When The Hardware Becomes A Little More Soft

With the move to all-IP, SDN and cloud services, many service providers are now integrating IP routing and transport. In this short 4 minute and 50 audio clip, Arnold Jansen discusses how IP/optical control integration can help operators simplify and streamline their operations and drive better cost synergies.



 Smart, fast, efficient. Good stuff.

SDN: When The Hardware Becomes A Little More Soft

I grew up in the dedicated hardware world. Switches and routers that – sure - included processors and a little bit of memory.  Devices with pretty basic operating systems that kept track of addresses to move content around on a network, making sure stuff gets to where it is supposed to go. Nothing fancy but it has worked pretty good with the build out of the internet over the past 20 years or so. 

Today, we’re seeing a pretty major shift to what people are calling Software Defined Networks (SDNs). You may have seen SDN also referred to as elastic computing and/or elastic networks. The idea with SDNs is to not just try and make the network more efficient but also make it flexible and scalable. The concept is pretty simple and SDN Central explains it pretty well:

Software Defined Networking (SDN) is a new approach to designing, building and managing networks. The basic concept is that SDN separates the network’s control (brains) and forwarding (muscle) planes to make it easier to optimize each. 

In this environment, a Controller acts as the “brains,” providing an abstract, centralized view of the overall network. Through the Controller, network administrators can quickly and easily make and push out decisions on how the underlying systems (switches, routers) of the forwarding plane will handle the traffic.

So, you’ve got a smart controller looking at the entire network including applications running on the end devices. The controller communicates with network controlling devices (switches and routers), adjusting and optimizing the network to real-time conditions. Sort of like a maître d / head waiter in a busy restaurant.

For providers (Verizon, AT&T, etc) , SDNs reduce equipment costs and allow the networks to be more efficiently controlled. These networks are optical fiber-based and that has me pretty excited with my new position at the NSF-funded OP-TEC ATE Center. 

Centralized, programmable optical networks that dynamically adjust to changing requirements. Nice. I’ll be writing more about SDN and a number of other optics based technologies in future posts.

Storage Tiering

This is another topic I’ve been reading a lot about lately.  Storage tiering uses expensive faster access drives for frequently used data and slower less expensive  access drives for older archive type data. 

Typical fastest level tiers in a data center will use an optically connected fiber channel disk array, followed by Small Computer System Interface (SCSI) attached drives, followed by Serial Advanced Technology Attachment (SATA) drives followed sometime even by tape drives. Tape drives – I know – but yes they are still used - typically to take content completely offline and store.

Mechanical drives have been historically used for the fastest tier but as prices drop and operating systems include better support , we’re seeing a lot of much faster solid state memory devices (solid-state drives (SSDs) and I/O accelerator cards (sometimes referred to as solid-state accelerators [SSAs]) used for the faster level  tiers now.

What’s the difference between a SSD and an SSA? They both basically do the same thing – the only difference is the data interface. 

• SSD’s look like a mechanical hard drive and the server operating system uses standard BIOS calls to access. 
• SSA’s are a little different and use a PCI Express (PCIe) interface. The operating system must use a unique set of software drivers specific to the SSA device being used. 

Because SSA’s use drivers that have been tuned specific to the device, they tend to be a little faster. Both SSD and SSA devices can work together on the same server.

Calculating Wavelength If Frequency Is Known

I get this question a lot. It’s not exactly phrased this way though. Typically it’s along the lines of “What’s the wavelength of the WiFi signals in my home or office?”

Good question and a pretty simple calculation! I do realize with a quick Google search you can look the value up but….. that takes the fun out of it J

First, let’s define wavelength. Electromagnetic radiation is sinusoidal in nature and wavelength, represented by the Greek letter lambda (λ), is a distance measurement usually expressed in meters. Wavelength is defined as the distance in meters of one sinusoidal cycle as illustrated in the figure below.

Most WiFi signals run at around 2.4 Giga Hertz (GHz) or 2.4 Billion cycles per second!

Now, in you home or office, you’ve likely got a lot of other wireless devices (microwave, ovens, cordless phones, baby monitors, etc) operating in this same 2.4 GHz frequency range. In the WiFi world, the 2.4 GHz WiFi signal range is divided into 11 channels and channels can be selected when setting up a wireless network to avoid other devices transmitting in the same frequency range.

Ok – back to our question – what’s the wavelength? Here’s how we do the calculation:

12.5 cm is approximately 4.92 inches and...... that's your wavelength.

Cloud Computing Closer Look - Infrastructure as a Service (Iaas)

Let’s take a quick closer look at cloud computing today starting with Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS). IaaS is one of the three main categories of cloud computing services. The other two are Software as a Service (SaaS) and Platform as a Service (PaaS) – we’ll cover the last two in later posts.

So, basically an organization (larger or small) outsources equipment (hardware) that can include servers, routers, switches, storage, backup, etc. The service provider handles all of the maintenance, updating, connectivity, etc and the client pays on a per-use basis. Some of the common IaaS components include:

• Billing.
• Automation of administrative tasks.
• Dynamic scaling.
• Desktop virtualization.
• Policy-based services.
• Internet connectivity.

IaaS is a cost effective option, especially for small companies that do not want to invest directly in hardware and staff to maintain it. That’s why it is sometimes (and perhaps more accurately) referred to as Hardware as a Service (HaaS).

Who are the big IaaS service providers? Today it’s Amazon, Google and Microsoft. Security has always been a concern when it comes to cloud-based processes and there are a number of smaller enterprise level companies involved including Adallom, Alert Logic, FireBlade, FortyCloud, HyTrust, Imperva, JumpCloud, and Porticor.

The Rise Of The HetNet

I’m starting to see the term HetNet used in my reading and even had a student ask me for details this morning. That said – I figured it would make a good blog post.

HetNet is short for Heterogeneous Network and is a term currently being used in the wireless world. Most of us are carrying around smartphones with a number of different antennas built in for access via different network technologies. The neat thing about HetNets is they are able to maintain mobile connectivity (no dropped connections) when switching between different wireless connection technologies. 

The three different connection technologies getting all the HetNet buzz right now are LTE, Carrier WiFi, and enterprise femtocells. LTE is 4G cellular service and Carrier WiFi is just WiFi service provided by a wireless carrier. Femtocells are small cell devices that are connected to an Internet broadband connection. 

So HetNets allow a user device to seamlessly switch from network type to network type– LTE to WiFi to femtocell and vice-versa back and forth without dropping a connection. Pretty neat.

Now, not too long ago, it was believed LTE would be the dominant mobile technology and there would not be a need to alternative type technologies like Carrier WiFi and femotocells. But think about it…… there is only a limited amount of spectrum and bandwidth so providers are looking for ways to lower the number of devices per cell. There are also advantages to having users as close as possible to the different types of base stations. 

As a result, we’re seeing providers like Verizon Wireless and AT&T use HetNets to improve the coverage of their network, increase network capacity to match user demand. enhance the user experience, and lower the cost of delivering mobile broadband services.

Checking Available Disk Space on a Mac

I get asked this question lots - here's how to check your available space step-by-step when running Apple Operating System  OSX 10.7 or greater.

Step 1
Click the Apple icon in the upper left hand corner of your screen and this drop-down menu will appear.

Step 2
Click About This Mac from the drop-down menu. The following dialog box will appear.

If you are not sure which OS version you are running you can see it here. Notice I'm currently running OS X Version 10.8.4

Step 3
Click the More Info... button and the following will appear (note: I've covered up my serial number).

Step 4
Click the Storage (top of dialog box between Displays and Memory) option for the following.

There you have it broken down nicely into Audio, Movies, Photos, Apps and Other categories.

So..... this is a little embarrassing..... I've only got a little over 1.7 GB free..... looks like I need to do a little drive housekeeping or I'm going to be out of space soon :)

Talking and Surfing Same Time Yet? The Verizon iPhone 5s and 5c

Most of us have taken a peak at the exterior and reviewed major specs for Apple’s two latest phones. If you are a Verizon Wireless customer there is one technical detail you may have missed. The new Apple phones are still not supporting SVLTE and SVDO. What’s SVLTE and SVDO? Here’s some details on these two protocols / technical standards:

Simultaneous Voice and LTE (Long Term Evolution)

Referred to as SVLTE, allows a mobile phone to use both voice and data networks at the same time – specifically when the voice network is CDMA 1xRTT (what Verizon uses) and the data network is LTE (what providers are calling 4G. By not using SVLTE, Verizon’s 4G data network is not available while on a voice call.

Simultaneous Voice and Data Only

Referred to as SVDO, this is the older standard for 3G networks. If you have an iPhone 4 or older, you have a 3G phone. Later iPhone (5 and on) have both a 4G and 3G radio and the device will fall back to 3G-mode when not in 4G coverage areas.  Similar to SVLTE, when the voice network is CDMA 1xRTT and the data network is CDMA 3G (also referred to as CDMA 1xEV-DO) the data network is not available while on a voice call.

Is this significant? Yes and No. The lack of SVLTE should not matter once VoLTE (Voice over LTE) launches on a large scale, allowing both voice and data to operate seamlessly on one Verizon Wireless 4G network.

What’s really interesting is Verizon Wireless has required their handset manufacturers to support both of these technical standards – that is - all manufactures except Apple.

DOJ Rejects Transparency Request by Microsoft, Google, Facebook, LinkedIn

Last week the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), the primary federal criminal investigation and enforcement agency in the U.S., rejected a request made by Microsoft, Google, Facebook and LinkedIn to be allowed to share more details on what data the companies are providing to the U.S. government. The rejection was made in the name of national security and filed with the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act Court (FISCA).

The DOJ's petition to FISCA claims:

The companies’ contemplated disclosures risk significant harm to national security by revealing the nature and scope of the government’s intelligence collection on a company-by-company basis throughout the country. 

Such information would be invaluable to our adversaries, who could thereby derive a clear picture of where the government’s surveillance efforts are directed and how its surveillance activities change over time. If our adversaries know which platforms the government does not surveil, they can communicate over those platforms when, for example, planning a terrorist attack or the theft of state secrets.

FISCA now needs to rule on this.

There is more - other tech people (Twitter, Apple, Tumblr, Yahoo, etc) are getting involved with 72 companies and non-profit organizations signing a letter on September 20, 2013 to the U.S. Senate and House Judiciary Committee chairs supporting two surveillance bills (S. 1452 and H.R. 3035) currently moving though the Senate and the House of Representatives. Here's the full titles of those bills:

S.1452 - To permit periodic public reporting by electronic communications providers and remote computer service providers of certain estimates pertaining to requests or demands by Federal agencies under the provisions of certain surveillance laws where disclosure of such estimates is, or may be, otherwise prohibited by law. 

H.R. 3035 - To permit periodic public reporting by electronic communications providers and remote computer service providers of certain estimates pertaining to requests or demands by Federal agencies under the provisions of certain surveillance laws where disclosure of such estimates is, or may be, otherwise prohibited by law.

A Family Without A Phone

I probably should be writing something about iOS7 but.... just a minute..... I gave this assignment the first week in a telecom class I'm teaching this semester. The short student essays (I know, not really technically an essay at 200 words) have just blown me away. It's so different today compared to growing up in the 60/70's. Here's what I asked them to do:

Growing up I had a friend who’s family did not have a telephone. His Mom used to whistle (really distinctively and loudly) when she wanted him to come home. When he was over our house or we were out in the woods playing we were all tuned in, listening for her whistle. Everyone knew what it meant and she was good - to this day I’ve never heard anyone who could whistle like her. 

Times have certainly changed. I’ve had almost instant contact with my two children with text and voice over the past ten years. Most recently we’ve all got smart phones and we’ve been able to add email and social media (Facebook, Twitter, etc) to our mobile communications tool list along with video applications like Skype and FaceTime. Although some may disagree, the ability to connect or be connected with them no matter where they are in the world has a level of assurance I know my friend’s whistling Mom did not have 45-50 years ago. 

This week, prepare a 200 word (plus or minus 10 words) essay describing how mobile technology has impacted your life.

My friend's family did not have a television either!

FCC Connect America Fund Phase I Round Two

Last week, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) posted an interactive map (embedded below) showing the locations where new higher-speed broadband may be deployed as the result of the second round of Connect America Phase 1 funding.

Back in 2011, the FCC launched the Connect America Fund (CAF) and it has had limited success. Round one of funding only dispensed $115 million of $300 million in available funds. I'm not sure why the FCC has had difficulty giving this money out - currently the FCC defines broadband as 768 Kbps downstream and 200 Kbps upstream. In this next round the FCC has decided to offer two levels of subsidy in the current round - $775 per location to bring broadband into underserved locations (where broadband does not exist) and an additional $550 per location (where lower speed broadband does exist) to bring broadband speeds up to 3Mbps downstream and 768 Kbps upstream.

Coverage includes over 600,000 homes and businesses in the United States and the map shows the number of homes and businesses along with the amount of subsidy ($775 or $550) for each location.

Four rural telcos are receiving most of the funds:

CenturyLink - $54 million
Frontier Communications - $72 million
AT&T - $100 million
Windstream - $124 million

Interesting that Verizon Landline (with regional sell-offs over past few years) does not appear to be a rural player any more.

Verizon Trimming Some Wireline Limbs

I've been teaching Verizon technicians in a program called NextStep since the mid 1990's. The Next Step Program allows contract qualified Verizon associates who are members of the Communications Workers of America (CWA) or the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) to earn an Associate in Applied Science degree in Telecommunications Technology from a participating college. It's been a great opportunity for everyone involved to keep up and learn as the industry has transitioned.

This morning I taught my first class of the fall semester and we had some interesting discussion on where copper based landline services like DSL are going. The other night on Jim Cramer's show, Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam opened up a bit on the companies plans. Here's some back and forth from the show posted at  Stop the Cap!:

Jm Cramer, CNBC: “[Under former Verizon CEO Ivan Seidenberg, Verizon] took areas that really weren’t growth areas and sold them to Frontier and other players. Would you be able to get rid of some of your underperforming landline businesses to be able to increase [Verizon's] growth even further?”

Lowell McAdam, Verizon: “That is a possibility. [...] If you talk about opportunities here, now that we have One Verizon, [...] we are going to trim some limbs around the tree here. Things that aren’t performing will not be a part of our portfolio so we can invest in things that will drive the kind of growth we are excited to be able to tap here.”

In New Jersey and New York, Verizon is moving on a wireless landline replacement called Voice Link. It's optional for some customers but many are thinking it will replace copper services in there is approval from the states regulators. Verizon is calling Voice Link an improvement for voice customers dealing with repeated service calls.

Bloomberg estimates the Verizon wireless net worth is around $289 billion while Verizon wireline (landlines, FiOS and business broadband) is worth just $24 billion. Looking at revenue, Bloomberg says Verizon wireline totaled $39.8 billion last year which is down from $50.3 billion in 2007. During the same period, Verizon wireless revenue was up 73% to $75.9 billion.

It's pretty clear where this is all going - at least when it comes to Verizon wireline.

You can read a transcript of the complete McAdam interview linked here.

Crowdfunding a Super-Smartphone

Well..... it's been a while since I posted here. I like to think I took a little sabbatical for the past four months. Most of my summer was spent on the road so it feels pretty good to be back at home for at least a little while. Even though I was not posting here I was still keeping up with technology and the business of technology.

Today I wanted to write a bit about a company called Canonical that's run by Mark Shuttleworth. You may not have heard of Mark or Canonical but you probably have heard of a version of the Linux operating system called Ubuntu that Canonical makes. Ubuntu is used on millions of servers around the world - basically big high horsepower computers used to host websites, etc.

Mark has this idea to launch what many call a super-smartphone - basically a tablet computer that has all the functionality of a PC called the Ubuntu Edge.  Now, Mark happens to be a billionaire but decided back in July he wanted to crowdfund the project to the tune on $32 million using the crowdfunding website Indiegogo. Well long story short, Mark failed - at least with the crowdfunding idea. Canonical raised a little under $13 million ($12,813,501 to be exact) of the $32 million Mark was looking for.

The phone that was spec'd sounded pretty nice - a multi-core processor (fastest on the market), at least 4GB of RAM, 128 GB of storage, a sapphire crystal screen (only a diamond can scratch it), a high capacity silicon anode battery, GPS, gyro, accelerometer, proximity sensor, compass, barometer, HDMI interface for TVs and monitors, dual-LTE, dual band 802.11n WiFi, Bluetooth 4, and near field communications.

I found Mark's crowdfunding approach interesting because with Indiegogo there are two options - an all or nothing approach (that's the one Mark picked) or the second option where the company keeps everything pledged whether the stated goal is met or not.

Why did it fail? Mark may have been asking for too much. Donors that wanted to get one of the first phones made were required to pledge at least $725. Initially the campaign set crowdfunding speed records but in the end stalled once the buzz wore off.

Is it over? For Canonical it may be for now. Mark has said he will not use his own funds for the project. But Mark is not the only one with  super-smartphone desires - on July 16 (when I was in Poland right next door) Alexey Miller, chief executive officer of a Russian natural gas exporter called Gazprom offered to pay $3.7 million to anyone who could come up with one.

Open WiFi Networks and (Lack Of) Security

I get asked about open WiFi hotspots and if they are secure lots these days. Examples would be certain hotels, restaurants, etc. My short answer - these days many are not secure and.... regardless.... you should always avoid using them. Here's why. 

Most public WiFi hotspots do not encrypt information going back and forth in the air and are not secure. There's lots of free hacking tools that just about anybody can quickly learn to use to get any information you send back and forth when connected to these networks. Here's some good guidelines originally published by the Federal Trade Commission:

Use these tips to tell if a Wi-Fi network is secure:

• If a hotspot doesn’t require a password, it’s not secure.
• If a hotspot asks for a password through the browser simply to grant access, or asks for a password for WEP (wired equivalent privacy) encryption, it’s best to proceed as if it were unsecured.
• A hotspot is secure only if it asks the user to provide a WPA (wifi protected access) password. WPA2 is even more secure than WPA.

Use these tips for a safer Wi-Fi experience:

• When using a Wi-Fi hotspot, only log in or send personal information to websites that you know are fully encrypted. The entire visit to each site should be encrypted – from log in until log out. 
• To determine if a website is encrypted, look for https at the beginning of the web address (the “s” is for secure), and a lock icon at the top or bottom of the browser window. Some websites use encryption only on the sign-in page, but if any part of the session isn’t encrypted, the entire account could be vulnerable. Look for https and the lock icon throughout the site, not just at sign in.
• If you think you’re logged in to an encrypted site but find yourself on an unencrypted page, log out right away.
• Don’t stay permanently signed in to accounts. After using an account, log out.
• Do not use the same password on different websites. It could give someone who gains access to one account access to many accounts.

As a general rule of thumb, an encrypted website protects only the information sent to and from that site. A secure wireless network encrypts all the information sent over it. 

How do you get around the connectivity problem? I recommend using a personal WiFi hotspot with security implemented. You can get yourself a dedicated device like the one I have or most smartphones can be used as a hotspot if you pay an additional monthly fee. Here's more information from AT&T on different personal WiFi hotspot options.

Some Good Job Search Advice from Austin, Texas

I'm a member of Door 64, an Austin (Texas) High Tech STEM LinkedIn group. A recent college graduate posted the following question to the group a few days ago:

I have been looking for a new job for a few months now with only a few leads. If I could just get an interview I KNOW I would get almost any position. Any advice on job searches? Thanks!

Charles D. came back with a really good reply and he has given the ok to reuse. I wish I could have written something half this good. Here it is: 

Use networking to your advantage and play the numbers game. I was laid off 4 weeks ago and already have had 8 interviews with 2 more this afternoon. You seem to be somewhat knowledgeable about using LinkedIn and super connectors. However, have you created a plan of attack for getting the right career? Don't look for a job, this is your life you are talking about. Focus on a career. Let me break down some of these comments.  

Using networking to your advantage: 

• Get familiar with LinkedIn Signal apps. It will help out a lot if you use it correctly 

• Focus on positions with companies that have employees with connections to you 

• Ask your connections to submit your resume 

• Ask your connections to be make references for you to employees 

• Network with other people looking for work. I have two other dear friends that are also recently unemployed. I share information with them and they share it with me. 

Playing the numbers game: 

• I have applied to over 40 positions in the last 4 weeks. Many of them I was very well qualified for but still received rejection notices, however I manage to turn several of the applications into interviews. 

• Apply for contract, temp, full-time and positions in industries other than your primary focus. Think outside the box. Check Craigslist. One of my more recent positions was from Craigslist and one of my upcoming interviews is from the same source. 

Planning your attack: 

• I have created a spreadsheet and list every position I have applied for. I keep notes about dates, where I found the position, who contacted me, when, interviews, who interviewed me and some other notes. I don't have this information just for the fun of it. I use it to follow up, reapply if I have not heard from a company, send thank you letters, etc. 

• Use your network and follow up. I plan on being at the Doors64 event. I will follow up with anyone I have connected with recently and thank them in person. One super connector I connected with recently sent me a nice thank you letter because I personalized my connection request. He said that less than 1% of requests he gets actually do that. Wow, how amazing is that. People will remember you when you personalize. 

• Plan your game and game your plan. In other words, make tasks for everyday of the week. Things you will do each day to look for opportunities. Do them. Wake up with a smile and go to sleep with a smile knowing that you did as much as you could that day to find your next position. 

• Review your resume with others you trust and ask for feedback. Use the good feedback. Trust me, everyone has feedback, but it is not always good. You have to filter out what is good and what isn't by doing some of your own research.  

Finally, this is your career: 

• If you want a job, I can refer you to a dozen temporary placement companies that will help to get you a job. However, if you want a career, you have to think like that. What is your ideal career? What skills do you need for it? Do you have them? If not, how can you get them? This is your life you are talking about. Manage it with the positive thoughts and images that you believe you already have. 

• Always be positive, kind and grateful. If you do this with everyone, everywhere, you will find that the karma will be returned to you. 

Hope this information helps you out...... You will get what you want if you want it bad enough, plan well for it, try hard enough and thank everyone along the way who helped you out.  

Anyone who agrees with any of the above comments, feel free to reuse any or all of it in other postings for career searchers. It is not original, not unique, but just old time tested and true strategies and beliefs that may help others.

Excellent advice Charles - thank you!

Displaying Mac Hidden Files

I get the Mac OS hidden files question a lot from friends and thought it would be a good thing to discuss here. This is a pretty typical request:

I recently switched from the Thunderbird email client to Sparrow. When I removed the Thunderbird application from my computer I noticed I only had an additional 96 MB of disk space. What's up? I know I've got a ton of Thunderbird email taking up a ton of space on my hard drive still. I search around using Finder and cannot see any of it. How can I remove it?

Thunderbird (and Sparrow and thousands of other apps) are considered third party apps. When you delete them from the application folder you delete the application but commonly not any of the additional folders and files associated with the application. When removing an application like Thunderbird that means you are not removing the files and folders that contain old emails whcih can consume very large amounts of disk space.

These folders and files are typically hidden by the operating system to prevent users from easily accessing them and messing things up. If you want to get to them, you need to enable hidden files/folders in the Finder window. Here's a step-by-step how to do it with Mountain Lion (10.8.2):

[Note: proceed with caution and use procedure at own risk.]

1. Open Finder
2. Open a Terminal window. To open Terminal, click the Spotlight (little spyglass) icon in the upper right corner and search on Terminal. Terminal will be listed as an Application. Click it to open a window like the one shown below.
   
3. Copy and paste the following command into terminal and hit the Return key:
4. defaults write com.apple.Finder AppleShowAllFiles YES
5. Hold the alt key down and right click the Finder icon.
6. Select Relaunch from the drop-down menu and you will now be able to see all the hidden folders and files on your computer.

Be very careful and do not edit/delete/etc anything you are not sure of.