I am performing research, writing, project management and web design functions for a number of clients. If you need some help in one of these areas, don’t be afraid to contact me about freelance opportunities!

I am looking forward to get back to blogging soon!

Josh

P.S. If you are wondering, the picture is of Kes and I chowing down on a variety of traditional Urhobo delicacies.

The post Kitlas.com is on hiatus appeared first on Kitlas.

In the world of technology and commerce, so much has changed, and so much hasn’t. I came across Project Code Rush | Click Movement (dot) org, the site that hosts the Project Code Rush movie,  via the OpenCulture’s excellent 500 Free Movies Online: Great Classics, Indies, Noir, Westerns, etc. page. The one hour documentary gives a firsthand look at the heady days inside Mozilla prior to their then revolutionary public release of their browser code prior to the AOL Netscape merger.

from http://clickmovement.org:
Code Rush. The year is early 1998, at the height of dot-com era, and a small team of Netscape code writers frantically works to reconstruct the company’s Internet browser. In doing so they will rewrite the rules of software development by giving away the recipe for its browser in exchange for integrating improvements created by outside unpaid developers. The fate of the entire company may well rest on their shoulders. Broadcast on PBS, the film capture the human and technological dramas that unfold in the collision between science, engineering, code, and commerce.

The post Project Code Rush – Open source film appeared first on Kitlas.

One of my favorite apps, PsyQic, had its official launch today in the iTunes store. It was pretty cool to see (part of) my face (and all of Kes’s) in the iPhone screenshots section!

This would also be a good time to note that I’ve been so busy with school, consulting and the job search that I haven’t had the time to keep up my top-2 position (as well as other things, LIKE BLOG POSTS)…but that will soon change

You can go here to download it.

PsyQic is an easy, fun, and social way to share predictions. You can make predictions on sports, politics, TV shows, movies, business, science, environment, technologies, and more. Flex those ESP muscles to improve your Qi score, indicating your “PsyQic” ability.

Features:
- Browse questions about the future that people are asking.
- Make your prediction and share it with others.
- View how other people are predicting.
- Compete with others on Qi scores.
- Ask questions about the future.
- Learn about future events that people are talking about.
- Find out what happened to your previous predictions.

NOTE: The current version of PsyQic requires a Facebook account.

The post PsyQic launch show off appeared first on Kitlas.

• 86 Helpful Tools for the Data Professional Plus 45 Bonus Tools
• Crowdsourcing: Improving the Quality of Scientific Data through Social Networking
• 25 Must-Follow Information, Data and Visualization Blogs and RSS Feeds for the Data Professional
• #140Cuse Conference Twitter Interview with @ChickFoxgrover
• IBM Information on Demand Conference Overview
• Winding down at the Smithsonian
• 16 Job Search Resources for Librarians, Students and Museum Personnel
• How to Make Information Graphics and Data Visualizations
• An Exploration of Submission-Focused Presentations
• #140cuse By The Numbers

The post Information Space Swan Song appeared first on Kitlas.

This guy!

My score was 78.24!

PsyQic is an easy, fun, and social way to share predictions. You can make predictions on sports, politics, TV shows, movies, business, science, environment, technologies, and more. Flex those ESP muscles and you can earn Qi points, indicating your “PsyQic” ability.

Details

The post Psyqic Pre-Launch Party appeared first on Kitlas.

In an experiment that is not quite bio-hacking but possibly enviro-hacking, I decided to go two months without taking a shower. For the past two months I used only a 2 gallon bucket of water and a couple drops of Dettol (a common additive to bath water in West Africa) plus whatever soap/sponge/shampoo inspired me to clean myself (once a day, twice on gym days or really hot days) .

The U.S. Department of Energy’s^[3] Federal Energy Management Program^[4] has an Energy Cost Calculator for Faucets and Showerheads^[5] (that’s a mouthful) that uses a 2.5 gallon per minute water flow rate as a default for US showers.

UK bathers have a mean shower time of 9.25 minutes and average UK shower sprays out about six liters of water a minute (roughly 1.6 gallons per minute).^[6] The average shower time in the U.S. is 7.5 minutes and with a flow rate of roughly 2.5 gallons per minute.^[7] This totals 14.8 gallons and 18.75 gallons of water per average shower in the UK and USA respectively.

These estimates do not include other water uses such as shaving, brushing teeth, etc., which adds a significant amount of both water and energy (heat).^[8]

For argument’s sake, lets say I took 2 showers per day over the last 60 days. My two gallon bucket shower times 2 showers per day (4 gallons) times 60 days equals 240 gallons of water used for showering for all of July and August. If I were in the UK, I would have used an even 888 gallons. If I were in the US, I would have used 1125 gallons.

I used 27% of what the average UK bathers use and 21% of what my fellow Americans use.

I think the impact speaks, rather loudly, for itself.

SOURCES

The post Water Stress in Sub-Saharan Africa and my Bathroom aka the Two Month Bucket Shower Project appeared first on Kitlas.

Make me an offer!

For questions or to purchase – Contact Me

INFORMATION MANAGEMENT

IST 621 Intro to Information Management

Information Systems for Managers: Texts and Cases [Hardcover]
Gabriele Piccoli (Author)
Price:     $126.77
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Publisher: Wiley; 1 edition (November 16, 2007)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 047008703X
ISBN-13: 978-0470087039

IST 659 Introduction to Database Management Systems

Modern Database Management (9th Edition) [Hardcover]
Jeffrey A. Hoffer (Author), Mary Prescott (Author), Heikki Topi (Author)
(10th Edition) Sells for up to $200
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Publisher: Prentice Hall; 9 edition (February 29, 2008)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0136003915
ISBN-13: 978-0136003915

IST 639  Enterprise Technologies

Introduction to the New Mainframe: z/OS Basics [Paperback]
Mike Ebbers (Author), John Kettner (Author), Wayne O’Brein (Author), Bill Ogden (Author)
Price:     $63.00
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Publisher: Vervante (March 29, 2011)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0738435341
ISBN-13: 978-0738435343

IST 565 Data Mining

Data Mining: Concepts and Techniques, Second Edition (The Morgan Kaufmann Series in Data Management Systems) [Hardcover]
Jiawei Han (Author), Micheline Kamber (Author), Jian Pei (Author)
from $26.89
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Publisher: Morgan Kaufmann; 2 edition (November 3, 2005)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1558609016
ISBN-13: 978-1558609013

IST 614 Management Principles for Information Professionals

The Essential Drucker: The Best of Sixty Years of Peter Drucker’s Essential Writings on Management (Collins Business Essentials) [Paperback]
Peter F. Drucker (Author)
Price:     $11.49
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Language: English
ISBN-10: 0061345016
ISBN-13: 978-0061345012

The 4-Hour Body: An Uncommon Guide to Rapid Fat-Loss, Incredible Sex, and Becoming Superhuman [Hardcover]
Timothy Ferriss (Author)
4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1,720 customer reviews)
Price:     $15.69
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Language: English
ISBN-10: 030746363X
ISBN-13: 978-0307463630

IST 618 Survey of Telecommunications and Information Policy

Networks and States: The Global Politics of Internet Governance (Information Revolution and Global Politics) [Hardcover]
Milton L. Mueller (Author)
Price:     $25.66
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Language: English
ISBN-10: 0262014599
ISBN-13: 978-0262014595

LIBRARY AND INFORMATION SCIENCE

IST 511 Introduction to the Library and Information Profession

A Day in the Life: Career Options in Library and Information Science [Paperback]
Priscilla K. Shontz (Editor), Richard Murray (Editor)
Price:     $40.90
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Language: English
ISBN-10: 1591583640
ISBN-13: 978-1591583646

IST 511 Introduction to the Library and Information Profession

Libraries in the Information Age: An Introduction and Career Exploration [Paperback]
Denise K. Fourie (Author), David R. Dowell (Author)
Price:     $45.00
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Publisher: Libraries Unlimited (April 18, 2002)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1563086344
ISBN-13: 978-1563086342

IST 605 Information Resources Users & Services

Reference and Information Services in the 21st Century: An Introduction, Second Edition [Paperback]
Kay Ann Cassell (Author), Uma Hiremath (Author)
from $31.00
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Language: English
ISBN-10: 155570672X
ISBN-13: 978-1555706722

The post iSchool book sale appeared first on Kitlas.

Connections are the core of a LinkedIn. The more you have, the wider your reach in the professional world.  Connections are made through invitations to connect and, for better or for worse,  I get a LOT of unsolicited invites. Anywhere between 5 and 20 per week. These invites come from professional groups, networking groups, or people looking to connect.

In addition to industry or professional interest groups, LinkedIn has many networking groups based on helping users bolster their connection base. They are often called LinkedIn Open Networkers (or LION) and are members who encourage connections from members, whether or not they have had a previous business relationship (more on this from Wikipedia if you are interested). There is a general rule among these groups to accept all invited and never IDK (acronym for I Don’t Know – which is a way of flagging invites from unknown people as LinkedIn’s version of SPAM). This is obviously a bad idea, but is the norm among LinkedIn users.

There was a period when I accepted all invites and even (briefly) tested membership of a LION group. No longer. What happened? There was one unsavory  character who wasted inordinate amounts of my time. This guy is an ex-convict/felon who through a series of name changes and reinvention gave the appearance of a legit person. A very legit person. So much so that he convinced some high-ranking executives that he was legit and these C-level executives wrote glowing reviews for him despite never meeting him. I believed them, met with the guy, and like I said, it was a huge waste of time. Though nothing terrible happened, it is an event I need to shield myself from in the future.

Now, when I receive an invite from an unknown professional, I reply with a rejection letter saying that unless I know you, you attended an alma mater of mine, or want to talk about a job opportunity or professional topic, I will not accept your request (I have included the form letter at the end of this post).

What happens when I respond with this rejection letter? Nearly 50% of the unsolicited invites turn into discussions and have developed into a worthwhile professional relationship as opposed to another number in my profile.

There are 2 main takeaways from this post:

• saying no to an unsolicited LinkedIn request may open up a  genuine dialogue which will in turn give you a chance to actually test a potential professional contact.
• do not ever accept an invitation or recommendation from someone you do not know.

I know this is basic and reeks of common sense, but it is a lot easier to just accept or reject invites than vetting them. Any thoughts?

My LinkedIn Rejection Letter——————————–

Thanks for your invite but I no longer accept unsolicited invites unless they meet one of the following criteria:

- employment inquiry
- want to talk about a professional topic
- you work in the recruitment/headhunter/search sector
- you are an alum of Syracuse University or American University
- you are a colleague (current or former)
- you are someone I have personally met

If you would like to know why I no longer accept unsolicited invites, I am happy to provide details. Essentially, there have been one too many unsavory  characters that have wasted inordinate amounts of my time. The worst being an ex-convict/felon who through a series of name changes and reinventions gave the appearance of a legit individual. A very legit individual. So much so that he convinced some high ranking executives that he was legit and these C-level executives wrote glowing reviews for him despite never meeting him. Though nothing terrible happened, it is an event I need to shield myself from in the future.

Please don’t hesitate to contact me for follow up if you have any questions or if you want to talk about a professional topic.

Best of luck,
Joshua Kitlas
kitlas.com

The post LinkedIn Rejection Letter: Why saying no opens doors appeared first on Kitlas.

What can I say – I love flexing that big piece of gray matter up there. Tests, assessments, teasers and the like take up probably too much of my time, but I guess it could be spent on worse things.

The Berkeley Personality Lab offers a FREE slew of free and anonymous assessments via the oddly titled http://www.outofservice.com website. You can take online versions of the assessments and get instant feedback.

I recently dug in and took the The Big Five Personality Test. The Big Five Inventory (BFI) is a self-report inventory designed to measure the Big Five dimensions. It is quite brief for a multidimensional personality inventory (44 items total), and consists of short phrases with relatively accessible vocabulary.

I was assessed with a  O95-C52-E48-A22-N37 (click the link for the in-depth report) in the Big Five. Apparently I’m relaxed, open to novel experiences, neither organized or disorganized nor social or reserved and find it easy to express irritation with others.

To learn more about the BFI, click [here]

In psychology, the “Big Five” factors of personality are five broad domains or dimensions of personality that are used to describe human personality. The theory based on the Big Five factors is called the Five Factor Model (FFM).

The Big Five framework of personality traits from Costa & McCrae, 1992 has emerged as a robust model for understanding the relationship between personality and various academic behaviors.^[1] The Big Five factors are:

• Openness (inventive/curious vs. consistent/cautious)
• Conscientiousness (efficient/organized vs. easy-going/careless)
• Extraversion (outgoing/energetic vs. solitary/reserved)
• Agreeableness (friendly/compassionate vs. cold/unkind)
• Neuroticism (sensitive/nervous vs. secure/confident)

References

1. Poropat, A. E. (2009). “A meta-analysis of the five-factor model of personality and academic performance”. Psychological Bulletin 135 (2): 322–338. DOI:10.1037/a0014996
2. http://www.ocf.berkeley.edu/~johnlab/index.htm
3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Five_personality_traits

The post The Big Five Inventory – I’m a O95-C52-E48-A22-N37 appeared first on Kitlas.

Get a chuck roast.

Rub it with your favorite spices.

Sear on each side for about 4 minutes in some coconut oil.

Chop up some onion and carrot.

Put onion and carrot in the bottom of your slow cooker.

Put chuck roast on top.

Add about a cup of water.

Cook until it smells awesome and the meat pulls from the bone and is soft enough for you (5-8 hours on high depending on the size of your roast).

The post Slow Cooked Chuck Roast appeared first on Kitlas.