100 People, Venn Diagrams, Nails & Nails, All-In-One

Social Media Time Commitment...
It's difficult to keep up with all the social media.  Doing a good job at being contemporary pretty much demands that you do no work, do not read books but simply follow your feeds.  It's a relief that Google+ never found traction.  Facebook has too many cat pictures/videos.  Twitter is overwhelming (but good).  Pinterest, image-based, is great, but it always makes me feel like I'm missing out on the world.


Earlier today I saw a Twitter feed that a former co-worker had been named to a list of 100 people to know in the Twin Cities.  That was nice, I guess.  Quite certain that we were connected on LinkedIn I logged into that application and was browbeaten for a few screens about new features to increase my connections.  Opting out of most of them, I'm not sure that I did not receive a 'Really?' second chance...sort of 'you are an idiot if you don't take this option.'

Rather than using his company email (my former) I decided to do a LinkedIn message.  It's unlikely that he'll ever read the laudatory message.  I've found that every business person and coach suggests a LinkedIn account but people create them and let them go dormant.  LinkedIn then asked me to endorse my contacts for various skills.  There was no option to say "that's not their strong suit."  Then I was prompted with people who I should connect with and some jobs I might be interested in (I am) and then I started to feel guilty about not reading my LinkedIn feed every day.

There were 99 people on the list that I did not know.  I imagined people sitting around comparing how many they knew.  Not finding that interesting I thought about making my own list of "100 people I'm glad I know or have known." 

Venn Diagrams...
One of my Facebook acquaintances posted the following:

     Venn Diagram:  People who save gift wrap and people who save
    nail clippings.

This guy also likes superhero characters, extensively.  Was this good behavior, something enviable?  There was a time that I saved gift wrap, at least bows when I thought that mattered.  Any saving of nail clippings has been inadvertent. 

For a moment I was motivated to open Gimp or Inkscape and create a Venn diagram of 100 people I should know and 100 people I'm glad to have known but concluded not from geometry but set theory (probability?) that these would be disjoint sets.

Nails & Nails

As mentioned before any saving of nail clippings has been inadvertent, however...growing in the 1950s you could always find 'parts.' Everyone had a coffee can of used nails in the garage (they were in short supply during WWII and immediately after), extra car parts, pieces of metal stock, etc., all ready for the next handyman or ambitious kid project. I've worked to rid myself of computer equipment, extra cables and miscellaneous that probably will serve no 'handyman or ambitious kid project' going forward. What would I do with this Courier modem? Am I awaiting failure of the internet? How will I use this with cell phones replacing land lines? Can I get an acoustic coupler to connect my iPhone to my ancient modem? An who else would I communicate with? Who else may have saved a modem? The red box is for a USB drive that did fail a long time ago. I bought a replacement drive on eBay which ended up costing more than a new USB drive. Not visible is my Visicalc Manual from 1981. Clearly none of this rumination prose, like the previously mentioned items, is worth saving, hence Facebook or a blog rather than paper, all of which is all throwaway.  It's just like the Nixon tapes...unreadable.  

One of the blogs I follow is comprised of journal entries, pre-WWII, of a Canadian prairie farmer, documenting weather, farm maintenance, births, deaths and trips to town.  Once or twice I've downloaded all my Facebook posts (some worthwhile, interesting or humorous) and my blog posts.  Of course I've saved these as XML documents in (on?) 'the cloud.'  I should have just printed them out and stuck them in a coffee can.

HP 6210 All-in-One  

Prior to WD40 the go-to product for miscellaneous lubrication issue (mechanical for clarification) was '3-In-One' oil.  I've never know what the three in one was, perhaps "3 Fluid Ounces in One Container?"

The often referred to distinction between humans and other animals is the opposed thumb and the ability to use tools. Certainly other primates have similar ability as do candidates in election years but I'll let that go. Over the past few years I've cycled through a number of computers and printers. The HP 6210 OfficeJet probably purchased almost a decade ago has been a workhorse. While not having kept count I'm certain we've gone through at least 100 pairs of cartridges. 

This morning while responding to a cartridge message the left rear hinge broke. This appears to be a common problem. A replacement hinge from HP is $50.00. Following the path set by others when facing this problem I removed the six screws and removed the hinge, now replaced with a double layer of duct tape. Looking at the hinge I've been trying to determine what sort of mind would design a hinge this complicated, actually unidentifiable as a hinge. Tool-designed hinges  could be the issue.

For final clarification I do know what the three components of the HP Officejet 6210 All-in-One are but I'm going to think a bit more about this complicated hinge which the guy in The Martian could have described better than me.  He used the Mars equivalent of duct tape.  That would have worked fine there, too, as it did here had he needed a printer repair on Mars.