Monthly Archive for May, 2008

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Google-Free Wednesday Catches-on

Published on May 14, 2008 in Google-Free Wednesday and Search Engines. 0 Comments Tags: , .

Phil Bradley’s article on some of the virtues of Exalead is worth reading.

10 reasons why librarians should use Exalead

It’s a search engine for people who like to use search engines, and it’s an engine for librarians. If you’ve not used it, I’d strongly recommend giving it a whirl next ‘Google free Wednesday’.

Handwriting & Knowledge Work

Published on May 13, 2008 in Handwriting. 0 Comments Tags: , .

There is a large communication component to information and knowledge work. Proper penmanship is part of that component.

Taking time to properly document your research and analysis often entails handwritten notes. These notes are in turn used to check the correctness of the finished report. That means your notes must be complete and legible.

Good penmanship is the product of practice and concentration. It is also the product of the proper tools. A proper pen for the size of the writing and for the speed of the writing. Paper that is smooth enough for the selected writing implement. Ink that does not bleed through or feather on the page.

Your note-taking must also allow easy photocopying and scanning. I often get faxed or photocopied notes that are illegible. Correcting this is also part of penmanship in the modern age.

I often hear people complain that their handwriting is poor because they have to write fast. This is a poor excuse. If you need to write fast, then learn a simple shorthand system like Quickhand.

Indexing a Moleskine

Published on May 12, 2008 in Methods and Notebooks. 0 Comments Tags: , , .

I use a lot of the large squared Moleskine notebooks. Sometimes I need to mark sections of the book for easy reference. Those little half grid-squares at the outside edge of the page are ready made for the purpose.

I use my razor sharp pocket knife and cut a few of the partial grid-squares away on the edge of 4 or 5 pages to mark the start of a section. I usually make this inverted tab about 4 or 5 grid-squares long and use a Pilot Hi-Tec-C to label it. If I don’t need to label the inverted tab, then I just use a single hole punch to make the inverted tab.

For less permanent markers I use book darts.

l’Ecole de Guerre Economique

Published on May 9, 2008 in Competitive Intelligence and Industrial Espionage. 2 Comments Tags: , , , .

I asked Guy Gweth what he valued most from my time at School of Economic Warfare of Paris (EGE). His answer is quite enlightening. The school assumes that the competitive situation will be asymmetrical (weak France vs. strong adversary) and that the U.S.A. is the chief adversary with China and Asia on the horizon as future adversaries. This does not represent anything unusual or unwise on France’s part.

However, the name of this school, l’Ecole de Guerre Economique, should make you wonder if this is just another Competitive Intelligence (CI) school or not. Continue reading ‘l’Ecole de Guerre Economique’

Competitive Intelligence Destroying the CIA

Published on May 9, 2008 in Competitive Intelligence. 0 Comments Tags: .

I don’t know the true origins of this “story”, but it is interesting.

Corporate Spies Killing The CIA

May 8, 2008: The CIA is having a growing problem with their analysts and spies being recruited away by corporations. One unpleasant, for government intelligence agencies, development of the last few decades has been the growing popularity of “competitive intelligence” (corporate espionage.) It’s a really big business, with most large (over a billion dollars of annual sales) corporations having separate intelligence operations. Spending on corporate intel work is over $5 billion a year, and is expected to more than double in the next four years.

The corporate recruiters have a pretty easy time of it, as they can offer higher pay, better working conditions and bonuses. The U.S. government is fighting back, at least on the bonus front. The big innovation is an old corporate one, “performance-based compensation.” Government employee unions usually fight this sort of thing, because it makes too many union members look bad. But there is no union at the CIA, and most other intel agencies. So the Director of National Intelligence is implementing a number of new personnel practices, in order to make it more difficult for corporate intelligence operations to recruit government operatives.

Get a Grip

Published on May 8, 2008 in Fitness and Lifestyle Management. 0 Comments Tags: , .

Now that your diet is under control and you are taking in fewer calories, burning more calories, sleeping better, and living a more active life, it is time to start exercising. This isn’t the type of exercise that would be recommended by your average personal trainer. This will actually work.

Purpose of this Exercise

If you want to be ready to prevail over an adverse physical environment, then you need certain physical abilities. Gaining these abilities will also bring about better health.

I will deal with these in order from easiest to the hardest to develop. The easiest abilities require the least energy to develop, but provide the foundation for the more difficult skills. The first exercise requires very little energy, but creates an important, lifesaving ability.

Hand strength is ignored by most people today because we don’t need superior hand strength in our daily lives. But strong hands are life-savers. It could be a fight, it could be climbing out of a stopped elevator, or climbing a rope. Hand strength is a survival attribute. It will help prevail in your desperate battle with the dreaded keyboard.

Crushing Hand Strength

There are two types of hand strength: crushing and pinching. You need both. Both are easy to develop.

Begin with crushing strength. You have seen the cheap hand grip exercising in Wall-Mart. This is for crushing strength. But these cheap things from Wall-Mart won’t get the job done. Go to IronMind and order one of their grippers. If you are a woman, start with the lowest grip resistance and work your way up to the Trainer model. Few women can close the #1. If you are a normal healthy man without tendinitis or similar problems, then start with the Trainer model and move up to the #1. Few men can close the #2 and fewer still the #3.

These are serious exercises that must be approached with deliberation and commitment. Do 3 sets of 10 with each hand, 2 or 3 times per week, and no more. It may take you quite some time to reach a full three sets. Remember, everybody starts from a different point and everybody has different limits.

Next week I’ll discuss pinching strength.

Phonetic and Approximate Spellings

Published on May 7, 2008 in Search Engines. 0 Comments Tags: , , .

Exalead Phonetic

The phonetic search option will give results sounding like the word you have entered. This works well when you don’t know how to spell a word, or there is more than one spelling for your search word. This can be done from the advanced search page or using the operator soundslike:type_word_here or soundslike:(type_word_here)

Exalead Approximate Spelling

This also works well when you don’t know how to spell a word for which you wish to search. This can be done from the advanced search page or with the operator, spellslike:type_word_here.

Use Google & Exalead Together

Use the Google Synonym search along with both the Exalead phonetic and approximate spelling searches to find the unknown spellings, similar spellings, incorrect spellings, and synonyms.

Remember, in normal searches, Google also identifies alternate words through stemming, abbreviations, combined and split words, and words with or without accents.

Power User 112 – Spring-Cleaning Ritual

Published on May 6, 2008 in Power User Tips and The Investigator's Computer. 0 Comments Tags: .

How often do you clean-out your computer? Do you give it a good spring-cleaning?

I must confess to being a Power User. I go everywhere on the Internet. I run applications until I run out of memory. Multiple screens don’t give me enough desktop for all the stuff I have running. This creates a problem if I have a problem with my computer. If something goes wrong, it is almost impossible to find the source of such difficulties if it is anything but a hardware breakdown.

Periodically, I format my hard drives. I then do a fresh install of my OS and applications from an Ghost image. After that is done, I install the latest service packs and upgrades if they exist. When everything is working properly, I create a new image. Of course, this ritual might be a nightmare for somebody who frequently adds and deletes programmes, or has a lot of updates to install that are not on CD.

Normally, this is is a spring cleaning ritual, just like cleaning-out the dust bunnies with a leaf blower and checking the fans inside the box. Getting the built-up dust out of the power supply is important to reliable operation of the PC.

The spring-cleaning ritual allows me to start with a clean slate. It provides the best defragmentation. It gets rid of all the garbage that accumulates on the hard drive that sometimes causes problems and slows the PC.

Chinese Spies in the U.S.A.

Published on May 5, 2008 in Espionage, Industrial Espionage, Intellectual Property Rights, Intelligence Services and Security. 0 Comments Tags: .

Chinese Use Front Companies, Students, Tourists, & Businessmen to Spy

Men with ‘highly sensitive’ cameras arrested at airport

Two men attempting to board a plane to China with nearly a dozen sensitive infrared cameras in their luggage were arrested on Saturday, a federal official said.

Yong Guo Zhi, a Chinese national, and Tah Wei Chao, a naturalized U.S. citizen, were arrested for investigation of trying to take thermal imaging cameras with potential military use to China without the proper export licenses, Weir said.

Israeli Private Investigators Convicted of Industial Espionage

Published on May 2, 2008 in Industrial Espionage and Private Investigator. 0 Comments Tags: , .

Four Israeli Private Investigators have been sentenced by an Israeli court on industrial espionage charges for their use of the Michael Haephrati’s Trojan software to steal commercial secrets on behalf of their clients.

Four members of the Israeli Modi’in Ezrahi private investigation firm including Asaf Zlotovsky, a manager at the firm was jailed for 19 months, with two other employees given 18 and 9 month sentences.

Dvorak Keyboard

Published on May 1, 2008 in Fitness and Lifestyle Management. 0 Comments Tags: , .

I’m tired of trying to do something worthwhile for the human race, they simply don’t want to change!

- August Dvorak

Perhaps August Dvorak didn’t understand how great a motivator pain can be.

The Dvorak Simplified Keyboard puts all the most frequently used consonants on the right hand side of the home row, and all the vowels on the left hand side. The only vowel on the home row of the QWERTY keyboard is the letter A. Every English word has a vowel, and with QWERTY that means you’ve got to spread your hands over the entire keyboard. The QWERTY layout also overstresses the left hand and wrist.

By putting all those keys on one row, the hands move about less and most words come from one row of keys with the Dvorak layout. This means less strain on the wrist, and greater typing speed.

While you may type faster, standard keyboard shortcuts won’t be in the same spot. (Ctrl-C and Ctrl-V won’t be beside each other, etc.)

The least costly way of addressing this ergonomic issue is to purchase a Microsoft Ergonomic Keyboard 4000 for about $70 and rearrange the keys to the Dvorak scheme and switch the OS into recognising the Dvorak keyboard.

I will be doing just this and I will report my experience with the transition to this keyboard.