Alumni Sites

FROM: Robert
DATE: Wednesday October 11, 2000 -- 10:06:40AM

I have the best entry on highschoolalumni.com. I told those bastards what I thought! There was no real reason for it but it makes me happy.

FROM: Terry Murphy
DATE: Wednesday October 11, 2000 -- 11:09:38AM

There's also classmates.com, which I believe is the most comprehensive (it has about 40-50 people in my graduating class listed)

However, I have found that the best way, by far, to hunt down high school classmates, is through NorthernLight. Through something like this, it is possible to find people who haven't registered with an alumni service. The only limitation is girls who have gotten married. I have found almost everybody I've needed to this way (a small handful of people remain elusive).

FROM: Ryan
DATE: Wednesday October 11, 2000 -- 11:29:17AM

Terry -- I totally forgot about Classmates. I have an entry there, as well, and they've been around for quite a while. THAT's one that I always lose my password for. :) Do they still require you to log in before you can even view names? IIRC, that's what annoyed me about it.

Robert -- How about a direct link to your entry? I'd like to see it. :)

FROM: Ryan
DATE: Wednesday October 11, 2000 -- 11:30:40AM

Terry -- Also, yes, Northern Light works well for hunting people down. I prefer Google, though, since a lot of times their "Cache" option comes in handy.

FROM: Robert
DATE: Wednesday October 11, 2000 -- 11:48:41AM

Ryan--I forgot that I changed it some a few months ago, but what I have still amuses me:

http://www.highschoolalumni.com/hsaweb?action=student&id=2485200

FROM: Ryan
DATE: Wednesday October 11, 2000 -- 12:02:20AM

Robert -- Nice. :)

FROM: Robert
DATE: Wednesday October 11, 2000 -- 12:53:52AM

I'm glad it worked.

FROM: Terry Murphy
DATE: Wednesday October 11, 2000 -- 1:12:56PM

Ryan -- Although Google's cache feature is nice, NorthernLight does have a more comprehensive engine (plus, it uses the one true operating system, while Google uses toy software to run). Actually, it is good to go to BOTH search engines, as there is actually little overlap for searches where there are only a couple of hits.

As far as passwords, I really wish web designers would settle on standards for passwords, and preferably have a shared password database. It is annoying when everybody has a different password, and a different standard for passwords, such that one password won't work everywhere because it will be too long, too short, won't have the required characters, or will have non-permitted passwords for whatever site you're on. This is especially problematic when you have to have an account to do almost anything, even to read NYT articles.

FROM: Ryan
DATE: Wednesday October 11, 2000 -- 2:24:53PM

Terry -- I'm pretty sure that Google has a bigger actual database than Northern Light, but Northern Light covers all those news sources, which is a nice added bonus.

With regards to passwords, another problem is the method in which a lot of them set cookies. With certain sites, if I click "Remember me" it does, period. With others, no matter WHAT I do, it won't remember me.

This kind of ties in with my Ping from the other day, but one other little system tray app that I use a lot is PasswordKeeper.

FROM: Terry Murphy
DATE: Wednesday October 11, 2000 -- 3:03:21PM

The problem with cookies is that they are specific to the computer. At home I quite regularly log on to the web from 3 different computers, and have 4-5 more which I log in from occasionally. At work, I spend much of my time working in a lab, and thus also shuffle between different computers (as well as my office).

PasswordKeeper looks promising, but is not a satisfactory solution, and only works on Windows. Perhaps the best solution would be to keep them in my Palm.

Cookies also have the added disadvantage that they assist you in forgetting your password. If you don't type your password for six months, and then you move to a different computer, you're not going to have any idea what your username/password is.

The only reasonable solution I can think of, is for there to be a central password service which people have the option to use. Then you only have to remember one password. But that will never happen.

FROM: Sheriff Buford T. Justice
DATE: Wednesday October 11, 2000 -- 3:49:52PM

Ryan, if requiring you to put your personal info in these sites bothers you just enter some shiznat.

My favorites are muhammed.ali@boxing.org
and
joe.smith@minnesota.timberwolves.org

Who knew Muhammed Ali was in my graduating class? :)

FROM: Ryan
DATE: Thursday October 12, 2000 -- 11:11:21AM

Yesterday I updated my bio on Classmates.com... I posted my e-mail address in it to protest their charge-for-anything-beyond-a-name policy in my own little way. This morning I got this e-mail:

We're sorry, but we cannot post your bio as submitted.

ClassMates.com is a member supported Web site. Contact
information including "Hi Notes" and Web site addresses
are provided to paying members only. We do not allow these
in the bio area. Please revise your bio with this in mind.

In addition for your own security, we recommend against
this open posting of contact data, including phone numbers
or postal addresses.

If you are a paid member of ClassMates and would like to
list your home page, login and click on "My Information"
on the blue bar at the top of the page. Next click
on "Edit" in the "About Me" section.
You will see the area for posting your web
address. You can revise your "Bio" in this area as
well or use the following link:

http://www.classmates.com/user/myprofile/personalinfo.tf#contact

FROM: Terry Murphy
DATE: Thursday October 12, 2000 -- 1:45:58PM

I put my e-mail address in my classmates.com bio also. They e-mail me about it every few months, but I've never changed it, and neither have they.

Even for paying members, they do not let you get other people's email addresses any more. They just have a "send note" thing (I don't want to send my ex-classmates a note, I just want to know where they work).

FROM: Ryan
DATE: Tuesday October 17, 2000 -- 5:19:54PM

Added one more alumni site to the list above...

FROM:
DATE: Saturday January 1, 2005 -- 2:51:15 pm