OK, so I'm on LinkedIn now.

("You are now connected with Jim Henderson". Eewww... it makes it sound 
so... weird. What is this, a hive mind or something?)

Any other random people want to be "connected" with me? o_O

-- 
http://blog.orphi.me.uk/
http://www.zazzle.com/MathematicalOrchid*

Post a reply to this message

On 5-5-2009 22:49, Orchid XP v8 wrote:
> OK, so I'm on LinkedIn now.
> 
> ("You are now connected with Jim Henderson". Eewww... it makes it sound 
> so... weird. What is this, a hive mind or something?)
> 
> Any other random people want to be "connected" with me? o_O
> 
try mine, I have no clue how to find you ;)

Post a reply to this message

Orchid XP v8 escreveu:
> OK, so I'm on LinkedIn now.
> 
> ("You are now connected with Jim Henderson". Eewww... it makes it sound 
> so... weird. What is this, a hive mind or something?)
> 
> Any other random people want to be "connected" with me? o_O

That's nothing.  I opened a fake account on twitter to wonder at the 
reaction.  People simply seem to "follow" you for reasons that are truly 
beyond me.  I believe it's the same reason why GUIs are a success or 
virus and trojans via email spread so fast:  people simply enjoy 
clicking stuff.

OTOH, there seems to be a lot of spam accounts in twitter right now, and 
most of my "followers" are those bots, possibly hopeful that I'll follow 
them too and then spreading more... :P

-- 
a game sig: http://tinyurl.com/d3rxz9

Post a reply to this message

"andrel" <a_l### [at] hotmailcom> a écrit dans le message de 
news:4A0### [at] hotmailcom...
> On 5-5-2009 22:49, Orchid XP v8 wrote:
>> OK, so I'm on LinkedIn now.
>>
>> ("You are now connected with Jim Henderson". Eewww... it makes it sound 
>> so... weird. What is this, a hive mind or something?)
>>
>> Any other random people want to be "connected" with me? o_O
>>
> try mine, I have no clue how to find you ;)

Clue: do a google search?q=A+B where A is a software well known in these 
parts and B a rather arcane computer language. The third or fourth link 
should give you enough information to look him up in LinkedIn ;)

G.

Post a reply to this message

"Orchid XP v8" <voi### [at] devnull> wrote in message 
news:4a00a65f$1@news.povray.org...
> OK, so I'm on LinkedIn now.

   Why are you on there? That's for business people isn't it?

>
> Any other random people want to be "connected" with me? o_O

     I would, but I'm sick to death of registering and creating passwords 
for nearly *everything* on the 'net now. I must have around 20-30 accounts 
by now, (I dunno, I'll count them), and I don't know if that's a lot or a 
small amount compared to others, but it's way too many for me. I'm not sure 
that this registering trend is the way to go.

      ~Steve~


>
> -- 
> http://blog.orphi.me.uk/
> http://www.zazzle.com/MathematicalOrchid*

Post a reply to this message

On 5-5-2009 23:29, Gilles Tran wrote:
> 
> "andrel" <a_l### [at] hotmailcom> a écrit dans le message de 
> news:4A0### [at] hotmailcom...
>> On 5-5-2009 22:49, Orchid XP v8 wrote:
>>> OK, so I'm on LinkedIn now.
>>>
>>> ("You are now connected with Jim Henderson". Eewww... it makes it 
>>> sound so... weird. What is this, a hive mind or something?)
>>>
>>> Any other random people want to be "connected" with me? o_O
>>>
>> try mine, I have no clue how to find you ;)
> 
> Clue: do a google search?q=A+B where A is a software well known in these 
> parts and B a rather arcane computer language. The third or fourth link 
> should give you enough information to look him up in LinkedIn ;)
> 
> G.
I am still no good with these search engines. :(

feeding info in linkedin gives a guy from milton keynes that claims to 
be a computer software professional. first bit of info matches, I am not 
sure about that professional ;)

Post a reply to this message

On Tue, 05 May 2009 22:33:58 +0100, St. wrote:

>> OK, so I'm on LinkedIn now.
> 
>    Why are you on there? That's for business people isn't it?

Well for business contacts - there's quite a variety of people from the 
IT field in there as well.  I suggested he join in order to expand his 
network of job prospects.

Now he needs to fill out the profile information. :-)

Jim

Post a reply to this message

> OK, so I'm on LinkedIn now.
>
> ("You are now connected with Jim Henderson". Eewww... it makes it sound 
> so... weird. What is this, a hive mind or something?)
>
> Any other random people want to be "connected" with me? o_O

It's funny, because just the other day one of my friends sent me an invite. 
So I made an account, and I seem to be automatically "connected" to my 
friend, but I have no idea how to find or add you...

Post a reply to this message

scott wrote:

> It's funny, because just the other day one of my friends sent me an 
> invite. So I made an account, and I seem to be automatically "connected" 
> to my friend, but I have no idea how to find or add you...

Yeah, my dad is similarly bemused. And so was I when a college at work 
added me a few years back.

The site is pretty unintuitive, for sure.

Post a reply to this message

Gilles Tran wrote:

> Clue: do a google search?q=A+B where A is a software well known in these 
> parts and B a rather arcane computer language. The third or fourth link 
> should give you enough information to look him up in LinkedIn ;)

The more I look into this, the more I realise I'm nowhere near as 
anonymous as you'd think.

I mean, you walk up to a random guy in the street and say "hi", and he 
now knows what you look like and what you sound like. But he doesn't 
know your name, where you live, who you work for, or anything.

Walk up to a random forum on the Internet and say "hi", and suddenly 
people potentially know quite a lot about you. o_O

Post a reply to this message

>> OK, so I'm on LinkedIn now.
> 
>    Why are you on there? That's for business people isn't it?

Some dude on teh intertubes told me it was a good idea.

>> Any other random people want to be "connected" with me? o_O
> 
>      I would, but I'm sick to death of registering and creating passwords 
> for nearly *everything* on the 'net now.

Yeah, I know what you mean...

Post a reply to this message

andrel wrote:

> feeding info in linkedin gives a guy from milton keynes that claims to 
> be a computer software professional. first bit of info matches, I am not 
> sure about that professional ;)

I love you too. :-P

Post a reply to this message

scott wrote:

> It's funny, because just the other day one of my friends sent me an 
> invite. So I made an account, and I seem to be automatically "connected" 
> to my friend, but I have no idea how to find or add you...

Heh, well well, let me see now...

The NNTP headers of your message record your IP address. A quick WHOIS 
query of the RIPE database tells me that this address belongs to a very 
well-known major electronics manufacturer. It also gives a location - 
Germany. (This vaguely fits what I remember you saying.)

Searching LinkedIn for a "Scott" located in Germany working for this 
company gives me a single hit - somebody working in the Munich area as a 
Senior Engineer, in the "automotice" field, educated at Cambridge. So it 
seems fairly likely that's you then.

But I need to pay money to send you an invite. ;-)

[Apparently this is an anti-spam feature. I like that; charging people 
money is a "feature".]

I'm not actually sure what information you'd need to be able to make 
contact. Maybe just my real name? (Which, as Gilles points out, is 
unfortunately trivially findable...)

Post a reply to this message

Do you know, LinkedIn as no less than 4 Phil Cooks living near 
Stourport? Indeed, two of them are web developers.

I'll bet none of them is the *real* Phil Cook though! ;-)



Hmm. There are quite a few Runes out there. And several of them live in 
Denmark. Ah, but only one has such an adorable photograph... And yes, 
the profile links back to runevision.com. It's him alright! :-D

[Oh, look at this: runevision.com links to LinkedIn anyway. Duh. I could 
have saved myself so much trouble...]



Oh well, I suppose I'd better go do some work now... :-/

Post a reply to this message

"Orchid XP v8" <voi### [at] devnull> a écrit dans le message de news: 
4a00a65f$1@news.povray.org...
> OK, so I'm on LinkedIn now.
>

Now you need to make your profile public, fill it with your resume, and 
well, remove "Official POV-Ray mascot" from your Honors and Awards List. 
That's cute for Myspace or FaceBook, but a little misleading for potential 
employers on LinkedIn ;) Ditto for the MathematicalOrchid hotmail adress: 
use a more professional-sounding one like firstname.lastname@gmail.com if 
you don't want to or cannot use the one at your workplace.

G.

Post a reply to this message

Gilles Tran wrote:

> Now you need to make your profile public, fill it with your resume, and 
> well, remove "Official POV-Ray mascot" from your Honors and Awards List.
> That's cute for Myspace or FaceBook, but a little misleading for potential 
> employers on LinkedIn ;) Ditto for the MathematicalOrchid hotmail adress: 
> use a more professional-sounding one like firstname.lastname@gmail.com if 
> you don't want to or cannot use the one at your workplace.

You're right of course. It's just that being the POV-Ray mascot *is* the 
only real award I have. But yes, at some point I'll have to somehow make 
this look like a real person, not just an excuse for one.

(BTW, how do you know my email address? I didn't think that was public...)

Post a reply to this message

> The NNTP headers of your message record your IP address. A quick WHOIS 
> query of the RIPE database tells me that this address belongs to a very 
> well-known major electronics manufacturer. It also gives a location - 
> Germany. (This vaguely fits what I remember you saying.)
>
> Searching LinkedIn for a "Scott" located in Germany working for this 
> company gives me a single hit - somebody working in the Munich area as a 
> Senior Engineer, in the "automotice" field, educated at Cambridge. So it 
> seems fairly likely that's you then.

Easy detective work, isn't it :-)

> But I need to pay money to send you an invite. ;-)
>
> I'm not actually sure what information you'd need to be able to make 
> contact. Maybe just my real name?

I think I found you, but I came up against the "you need to pay" thing as 
well.  Oh well, might have been useful.  Now I wonder if this place lets you 
delete your account?

Post a reply to this message

> Walk up to a random forum on the Internet and say "hi", and suddenly 
> people potentially know quite a lot about you. o_O

In a way, yes, but people still need to do some work to find out that stuff, 
and most people avoid putting their actual home address on forums and social 
networking sites.

In Real Life you can always just follow the person until you get to their 
house :-)

Post a reply to this message

> Easy detective work, isn't it :-)

Hello Senior Engineer, how are you?

>> But I need to pay money to send you an invite. ;-)
>>
>> I'm not actually sure what information you'd need to be able to make 
>> contact. Maybe just my real name?
> 
> I think I found you, but I came up against the "you need to pay" thing 
> as well.

Some profiles let me connect, some don't. Must be one of the various 
account settings that you can frob.

> Oh well, might have been useful.  Now I wonder if this place 
> lets you delete your account?

Account Settings > Personal Information > Close Account

Post a reply to this message

"Invisible" <voi### [at] devnull> a écrit dans le message de news: 
4a016ea2$1@news.povray.org...
> You're right of course. It's just that being the POV-Ray mascot *is* the 
> only real award I have. But yes, at some point I'll have to somehow make 
> this look like a real person, not just an excuse for one.
>
> (BTW, how do you know my email address? I didn't think that was public...)

It's in plain view in your profile. I do agree that the interface is utterly 
confusing but that's the case of all these social network thingies, it only 
makes sense if you hang out there 24/24.

G.

Post a reply to this message

scott wrote:
>> Walk up to a random forum on the Internet and say "hi", and suddenly 
>> people potentially know quite a lot about you. o_O
> 
> In a way, yes, but people still need to do some work to find out that 
> stuff, and most people avoid putting their actual home address on forums 
> and social networking sites.

Yeah. I did some preliminary research, and it seems that various Google 
searches will tell you my real identity and who I actually work for, but 
there's nothing anywhere that says where I live. (Thank God!) Even so... 
pretty disturbing, eh?

(Mind you, the expressed *purpose* of LinkedIn is to let people find 
you, so I guess it's not so surprising that it lets people find you.)

> In Real Life you can always just follow the person until you get to 
> their house :-)

In Real Life you can tell when somebody is following you. ;-)

Post a reply to this message

>> (BTW, how do you know my email address? I didn't think that was public...)
> 
> It's in plain view in your profile.

Hahahaha... *sigh*

> I do agree that the interface is utterly 
> confusing but that's the case of all these social network thingies, it only 
> makes sense if you hang out there 24/24.

24 hours a day, 24 days a week?

So *that's* how farming became so efficient! :-D

Post a reply to this message

>> In Real Life you can always just follow the person until you get to 
>> their house :-)
> 
> In Real Life you can tell when somebody is following you. ;-)

Only if they are not very good at it.

Post a reply to this message

>> In Real Life you can tell when somebody is following you. ;-)
> 
> Only if they are not very good at it.

Ah, you have some experience of doing this then? :-D

Seriously though - how many people are actually good at this?

Post a reply to this message

> Ah, you have some experience of doing this then? :-D

Hehe maybe :-) A certain society I was involved quite heavily in at 
University was based on a game where you get given 3 names at random of 
other people in the society, then you have to go and "kill" them.  Most of 
the time they were people you'd never heard of before, so some detective 
work was needed to find them.  Of course your name was on the lists of 3 
other people - so you had to watch out.  Was good fun.

> Seriously though - how many people are actually good at this?

There was one guy who managed to take out half the society (you get given a 
replacement name every time you kill someone, so you always have 3 people to 
go after until the end) and yet nobody I spoke to knew what he looked 
like...

Post a reply to this message

scott wrote:
>> Ah, you have some experience of doing this then? :-D
> 
> Hehe maybe :-) A certain society I was involved quite heavily in at 
> University was based on a game where you get given 3 names at random of 
> other people in the society, then you have to go and "kill" them.  Most 
> of the time they were people you'd never heard of before, so some 
> detective work was needed to find them.  Of course your name was on the 
> lists of 3 other people - so you had to watch out.  Was good fun.

Are you kidding me? That sounds insane! o_O

>> Seriously though - how many people are actually good at this?
> 
> There was one guy who managed to take out half the society (you get 
> given a replacement name every time you kill someone, so you always have 
> 3 people to go after until the end) and yet nobody I spoke to knew what 
> he looked like...

There's always one...

(Or is that "in the end, there can be only one"?)

Post a reply to this message

> Are you kidding me? That sounds insane! o_O

Warning - severe nerd/geek alert:

http://www.srcf.ucam.org/assassins/

Post a reply to this message

scott wrote:

> Warning - severe nerd/geek alert:
> 
> http://www.srcf.ucam.org/assassins/

It's heartening to know that my website isn't the *only* thing on the 
face of the Internet that's still trapped in a timewarp from 1997...

I still think this sounds... absolutely insane. I can't imagine how any 
sane person would think this is a good idea. But there we are.

Tell me, did you play while you were there? :-P

Post a reply to this message

> It's heartening to know that my website isn't the *only* thing on the face 
> of the Internet that's still trapped in a timewarp from 1997...
>
> I still think this sounds... absolutely insane. I can't imagine how any 
> sane person would think this is a good idea. But there we are.

It was good fun, plus most of those societies at University are just an 
excuse to meet new people and do lots of social events :-)  I have two very 
good friends now that I would have otherwise never met.

Post a reply to this message

>> I still think this sounds... absolutely insane. I can't imagine how 
>> any sane person would think this is a good idea. But there we are.
> 
> It was good fun, plus most of those societies at University are just an 
> excuse to meet new people and do lots of social events :-)  I have two 
> very good friends now that I would have otherwise never met.

Well maybe. But this particular society seems like a step too far.

(If I *wanted* random strangers to constantly harass me, I'm fairly sure 
I don't need to sign up to an assassins' guild...)

Post a reply to this message

> (If I *wanted* random strangers to constantly harass me, I'm fairly sure I 
> don't need to sign up to an assassins' guild...)

You can always lock your door - or better, leave it unlocked with some form 
of trap :-D

Post a reply to this message

scott wrote:
>> (If I *wanted* random strangers to constantly harass me, I'm fairly 
>> sure I don't need to sign up to an assassins' guild...)
> 
> You can always lock your door - or better, leave it unlocked with some 
> form of trap :-D

Dude, I ever go outside *anyway*! :-P Being in this insane game would 
just mean that I'm even more paranoid than usual...

Besides, the rules claim that a player's room is OOB.

Post a reply to this message

> Besides, the rules claim that a player's room is OOB.

It's not usually, unless you are hosting some official event in there.  As a 
general rule, anywhere you can't avoid going due to other commitments is OOB 
(eg lecture rooms, labs, libraries, organised sports events, etc).  That was 
how it worked in my day anyway...

Post a reply to this message

On 5/6/2009 1:23 AM, Invisible wrote:
> Walk up to a random forum on the Internet and say "hi", and suddenly
> people potentially know quite a lot about you. o_O

Woohoo!  I can stalk you now!

<maniacal laughter...>

-- 
...Chambers
www.pacificwebguy.com

Post a reply to this message

Chambers wrote:

> Woohoo!  I can stalk you now!
> 
> <maniacal laughter...>

Actually, I'm guessing you can't. :-P

Post a reply to this message

Orchid XP v8 <voi### [at] devnull> wrote:
> OK, so I'm on LinkedIn now.
> Any other random people want to be "connected" with me? o_O
>
I've been connected, but never made.

;-)

Post a reply to this message

Invisible wrote:
> But I need to pay money to send you an invite. ;-)

WTF really?!

Post a reply to this message

scott wrote:
> Now I wonder if this place lets you delete your account?

Yeah, right.

http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/000703.html

Post a reply to this message

>> But I need to pay money to send you an invite. ;-)
> 
> WTF really?!

Yep.

The idea, apparently, being that it stops random bots crawling the site 
and spamming people.

(The *real* purpose should of course be completely obvious.)

Post a reply to this message

On Wed, 06 May 2009 09:23:12 +0100, Invisible wrote:

> Walk up to a random forum on the Internet and say "hi", and suddenly
> people potentially know quite a lot about you. o_O

Well, I can mention it now since your company's DNS records were changed 
- but finding your e-mail address was a trivial exercise before the 
record was changed. :-)

Jim

Post a reply to this message

On Wed, 06 May 2009 09:15:13 +0100, Invisible wrote:

> scott wrote:
> 
>> It's funny, because just the other day one of my friends sent me an
>> invite. So I made an account, and I seem to be automatically
>> "connected" to my friend, but I have no idea how to find or add you...
> 
> Yeah, my dad is similarly bemused. And so was I when a college at work
> added me a few years back.
> 
> The site is pretty unintuitive, for sure.

Just takes a little practice.  The point to start with is in creating 
your profile - start listing things like languages you program in, the 
more information you can provide the better.

Have a look at my profile or others' profiles for the type of information 
that's of interest.

Jim

Post a reply to this message

On Wed, 06 May 2009 11:02:26 +0100, Invisible wrote:

> The NNTP headers of your message record your IP address. A quick WHOIS
> query of the RIPE database tells me that this address belongs to a very
> well-known major electronics manufacturer. It also gives a location -
> Germany. (This vaguely fits what I remember you saying.)

Yup.  But you also post from work. ;-)

Jim

Post a reply to this message

"scott" <sco### [at] scottcom> wrote:
> > The NNTP headers of your message record your IP address. A quick WHOIS
> > query of the RIPE database tells me that this address belongs to a very
> > well-known major electronics manufacturer. It also gives a location -
> > Germany. (This vaguely fits what I remember you saying.)
> >
> > Searching LinkedIn for a "Scott" located in Germany working for this
> > company gives me a single hit - somebody working in the Munich area as a
> > Senior Engineer, in the "automotice" field, educated at Cambridge. So it
> > seems fairly likely that's you then.
>
> Easy detective work, isn't it :-)

Hey, speaking of it: I didn't bother to do the NNTP header and WHOIS detective
work, so I'm not sure what that company may be, but what the heck: "well-known
major electronics manufacturer" doesn't sound too bad. As it happens, I'm
currently searching for a new job opportunity as an embedded SW developer in
the automotive business; any vacancies at your company these days?

I currently live in Cologne, so if your company should happen to have a
subsidiary near Ford Cologne with development activity there... hey, that could
be a major hit.

Post a reply to this message

On 6-5-2009 12:02, Invisible wrote:
> scott wrote:
> 
>> It's funny, because just the other day one of my friends sent me an 
>> invite. So I made an account, and I seem to be automatically 
>> "connected" to my friend, but I have no idea how to find or add you...
> 
> Heh, well well, let me see now...
> 
> The NNTP headers of your message record your IP address. A quick WHOIS 
> query of the RIPE database tells me that this address belongs to a very 
> well-known major electronics manufacturer. It also gives a location - 
> Germany. (This vaguely fits what I remember you saying.)
> 
> Searching LinkedIn for a "Scott" located in Germany working for this 
> company gives me a single hit - somebody working in the Munich area as a 
> Senior Engineer, in the "automotice" field, educated at Cambridge. So it 
> seems fairly likely that's you then.
> 
> But I need to pay money to send you an invite. ;-)

No, I have never paid anything. Unless things changed recently. I think 
there is a suggestion that you do, but that may be just to fool those 
that not regularly work with computers. ;)

[Apparently this is an anti-spam feature. I like that; charging people
> money is a "feature".]
> 
> I'm not actually sure what information you'd need to be able to make 
> contact. Maybe just my real name? (Which, as Gilles points out, is 
> unfortunately trivially findable...)

It is easy to find for a Gilles, I would never had found it. Yet that 
also means that anyone with not so good intentions probably would have 
found it too. While you though you were still safe. You can trace it 
back to one simple mistake you made. Here in the newsgroup you have been 
careful not to give your family name. I decided not to bother to try and 
hide my RL identity. The effect is the same I guess.

Post a reply to this message

Jim Henderson wrote:
> On Wed, 06 May 2009 11:02:26 +0100, Invisible wrote:
> 
>> The NNTP headers of your message record your IP address. A quick WHOIS
>> query of the RIPE database tells me that this address belongs to a very
>> well-known major electronics manufacturer. It also gives a location -
>> Germany. (This vaguely fits what I remember you saying.)
> 
> Yup.  But you also post from work. ;-)

Yes... At least our IP data doesn't have my email address on it. (It 
used to, BTW...!)

-- 
http://blog.orphi.me.uk/
http://www.zazzle.com/MathematicalOrchid*

Post a reply to this message

>> The site is pretty unintuitive, for sure.
> 
> Just takes a little practice.  The point to start with is in creating 
> your profile - start listing things like languages you program in, the 
> more information you can provide the better.
> 
> Have a look at my profile or others' profiles for the type of information 
> that's of interest.

I doubt anybody is ever going to rival the sheer volume of connections 
you have...

(Power-law distribution, much?)

-- 
http://blog.orphi.me.uk/
http://www.zazzle.com/MathematicalOrchid*

Post a reply to this message

>> But I need to pay money to send you an invite. ;-)
> 
> No, I have never paid anything. Unless things changed recently. I think 
> there is a suggestion that you do, but that may be just to fool those 
> that not regularly work with computers. ;)

Well, *some* profiles you can just connect with, others demand you pay a 
fee. I think it's a configuration option somewhere in the account 
settings, but whatever...

> It is easy to find for a Gilles, I would never had found it. Yet that 
> also means that anyone with not so good intentions probably would have 
> found it too. While you though you were still safe. You can trace it 
> back to one simple mistake you made. Here in the newsgroup you have been 
> careful not to give your family name. I decided not to bother to try and 
> hide my RL identity. The effect is the same I guess.

Carefully hiding my real name and my employer... and yet, it turns out 
to be trivial for anybody who actually cares to discover this 
information. (By *multiple* routes.) How precarious life is. :-/

-- 
http://blog.orphi.me.uk/
http://www.zazzle.com/MathematicalOrchid*

Post a reply to this message

On Wed, 06 May 2009 19:25:41 +0100, Orchid XP v8 wrote:

> I doubt anybody is ever going to rival the sheer volume of connections
> you have...

You'd be surprised.  I have people in my connections list that have 
thousands of personal connections.

I am selective in who I connect to - some of my direct contacts aren't, 
though.

I've also been on the thing for a few years now, too.

But browse the network - see any companies or job titles that look 
interesting?

Jim

Post a reply to this message

On Wed, 06 May 2009 19:23:18 +0100, Orchid XP v8 wrote:

> Jim Henderson wrote:
>> On Wed, 06 May 2009 11:02:26 +0100, Invisible wrote:
>> 
>>> The NNTP headers of your message record your IP address. A quick WHOIS
>>> query of the RIPE database tells me that this address belongs to a
>>> very well-known major electronics manufacturer. It also gives a
>>> location - Germany. (This vaguely fits what I remember you saying.)
>> 
>> Yup.  But you also post from work. ;-)
> 
> Yes... At least our IP data doesn't have my email address on it. (It
> used to, BTW...!)

Yes - actually, I knew that. :-)  That's how I managed to send a 
connection request to someone with your name in your city by mistake.  
You sure you didn't sign up before there?  Seems an unusual name to see 
two of in the same city.

Jim

Post a reply to this message

On Wed, 06 May 2009 19:28:24 +0100, Orchid XP v8 wrote:

>>> But I need to pay money to send you an invite. ;-)
>> 
>> No, I have never paid anything. Unless things changed recently. I think
>> there is a suggestion that you do, but that may be just to fool those
>> that not regularly work with computers.
> 
> Well, *some* profiles you can just connect with, others demand you pay a
> fee. I think it's a configuration option somewhere in the account
> settings, but whatever...

I think that's a feature of one of the paid accounts - to limit the 
requests coming in to people who only know your e-mail address (for 
example).

> Carefully hiding my real name and my employer... and yet, it turns out
> to be trivial for anybody who actually cares to discover this
> information. (By *multiple* routes.) How precarious life is. :-/

Well, to people who talk to you regularly, you've given enough clues.

Years ago, I managed to track down a deadbeat dad who'd gone AWOL (with 
one of his kids) from the US military.  His fatal mistake?  Having a 
CompuServe account with a membership in a D&D gaming forum that used his 
character name - a unique name (not something like "Caspian", but 
something that he'd created) that a friend of mine who gamed with him 
knew.

Turned it over to the authorities, and his ex-wife got to see her 
youngest son for the first time in something like 10 years...to this day 
she doesn't know that I was the one who found him.

Jim

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