Thursday, May 29, 2008
ok so the photo post
ok so the photo post added a bunch of garbage pimping verizon & quicktime. I wonder if there's a way to avoid that.
photo post test
This message was sent using the Picture and Video Messaging service from Verizon Wireless!
To learn how you can snap pictures and capture videos with your wireless phone visit www.verizonwireless.com/picture.
To play video messages sent to email, QuickTime� 6.5 or higher is required. Visit www.apple.com/quicktime/download to download the free player or upgrade your existing QuickTime� Player. Note: During the download process when asked to choose an installation type (Minimum, Recommended or Custom), select Minimum for faster download.
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
Computer Spring Cleaning
I got this e-mail from one of the Microsoft newsletters I subscribe to that talked about cleaning up your PC. I expected it would just be about organizing files & icons, uninstalling old software, and backing up & archiving old data. (Find out if you're a "Digital Packrat" here.) While I did find that type of information with links like this one, I followed another link that had some pleasantly surprising results.
Microsoft posted an article written by Alyson Munroe that details instructions for physically cleaning your computer. It tells you what materials you'll need and how to clean your computer components like keyboard, monitor and mouse. However, it also talks about how to clean your computer case, inside and out. Anytime I open my case, I usually take a can of compressed air to it to get rid of all the little dust bunnies inside. This helps the fans (that helped to create the mess in the first place) perform their designed function of cooling the computers internal components better.
The average computer user seems to be more reluctant to open their computer than the hood of their car believing that if they can figure out how to open the case and succeed in doing so that it won't work right afterwards or won't be able to figure out how to close the case again so better to just not mess with it if it's working.
Well, my car continues to work with little to no hassle because I have regular maintenance performed on it so I don't have to shell out unexpected large amounts of cash for repairs down the road or even worse, have to be forced into getting a new car before I planned to. These types of maintenance steps outlined for your computer hardware will prolong the life of you computer and can increase your computers performance.
Speaking of performance, especially if you don't have Windows Vista or don't use the widgets bar, I've been running a free utility called Winbar and I can use it to see my cpu & memory utilization, adjust volume, monitor network traffic, and a variety of other options. It's small and unintrusive yet easily accessible. If the computer starts running slow, I can see quickly if my cpu or memory resources are getting used up then check task manager to find which process is the culprit. The reason I bring this up is after you clean the dust out of the computer and clear the fans, your computer should be able to run cooler thus providing better performance for your cpu. This is one reason some people choose to run liquid cooled computers.
Following basic maintenance steps for keeping your computer running well is easier than trying to fix a tv or kitchen appliance and harder to screw up than you might think. Keep your computer clean to have it run at peak performance and you could prevent a costly upgrade or replacement.
Microsoft posted an article written by Alyson Munroe that details instructions for physically cleaning your computer. It tells you what materials you'll need and how to clean your computer components like keyboard, monitor and mouse. However, it also talks about how to clean your computer case, inside and out. Anytime I open my case, I usually take a can of compressed air to it to get rid of all the little dust bunnies inside. This helps the fans (that helped to create the mess in the first place) perform their designed function of cooling the computers internal components better.
The average computer user seems to be more reluctant to open their computer than the hood of their car believing that if they can figure out how to open the case and succeed in doing so that it won't work right afterwards or won't be able to figure out how to close the case again so better to just not mess with it if it's working.
Well, my car continues to work with little to no hassle because I have regular maintenance performed on it so I don't have to shell out unexpected large amounts of cash for repairs down the road or even worse, have to be forced into getting a new car before I planned to. These types of maintenance steps outlined for your computer hardware will prolong the life of you computer and can increase your computers performance.
Speaking of performance, especially if you don't have Windows Vista or don't use the widgets bar, I've been running a free utility called Winbar and I can use it to see my cpu & memory utilization, adjust volume, monitor network traffic, and a variety of other options. It's small and unintrusive yet easily accessible. If the computer starts running slow, I can see quickly if my cpu or memory resources are getting used up then check task manager to find which process is the culprit. The reason I bring this up is after you clean the dust out of the computer and clear the fans, your computer should be able to run cooler thus providing better performance for your cpu. This is one reason some people choose to run liquid cooled computers.
Following basic maintenance steps for keeping your computer running well is easier than trying to fix a tv or kitchen appliance and harder to screw up than you might think. Keep your computer clean to have it run at peak performance and you could prevent a costly upgrade or replacement.
Thursday, May 22, 2008
Suburbanite Child
As we were driving through the middle of Missouri yesterday, my wife was commenting on how beautiful the scenery was and how there are other places that can have green landscapes. I like green landscapes myself but almost all my life I've grown up within somewhat close proximity to major cities, moderately populated areas, and places that were centers of business & technology.
Ok, so even out here in Podunk, Missouri (also known as Lake of the Ozarks) I do have decent internet access and Digital Satellite tv can be had almost anywhere so I have to give it that. But when I was younger the standard for whether or not a place was civilized or not was based on if the town had a McDonald's. These days my standards have really been raised allot and you can find McDonald's, Starbucks, and Subway just about everywhere. So when my wife asked me about things that needed to be considered for places I would live, I had to think for a moment. Then after some thought about what qualities need to be in an area before I move there (all of about 10 seconds of deep analysis) I told her I couldn't move anywhere that didn't have a Best Buy or something similar (not Circuit City, they have terrible customer service and I'm ashamed to even use those words in the same sentence) within 10-15 miles of my front door. 20 miles was just too far away. I didn't say it at the time but I think I would also like to stay the same distance from a major airport as well given how much I'd like to travel and/or have relatives visit.
Now that I've taken the time to check, there's actually more Best Buy stores around than I thought. On the way to Osage Beach, MO. we passed through the capitol of Missouri, Jefferson City (still about 50 miles away). Come to find out there's a Best Buy there. When we got off the plane in St. Louis, we drove about 90 minutes west to Columbia and there's a Best Buy there. Of course the University is also there (where my wife's brother is an ENT doctor.) So Best Buy's are not too far away but I'm not driving more than an hour to go to the airport in order to get from one major city to another.
Despite the amount of online purchases I make, it's not the fact that I shop at places like Best Buy a great deal either. I just know that if there's that kind of place around, it's going to be surrounded by several other places I like to go. Not only that, it's not that I do go to those places, there's some comfort in just knowing that the option is there and I can go if I want to.
Ok, so even out here in Podunk, Missouri (also known as Lake of the Ozarks) I do have decent internet access and Digital Satellite tv can be had almost anywhere so I have to give it that. But when I was younger the standard for whether or not a place was civilized or not was based on if the town had a McDonald's. These days my standards have really been raised allot and you can find McDonald's, Starbucks, and Subway just about everywhere. So when my wife asked me about things that needed to be considered for places I would live, I had to think for a moment. Then after some thought about what qualities need to be in an area before I move there (all of about 10 seconds of deep analysis) I told her I couldn't move anywhere that didn't have a Best Buy or something similar (not Circuit City, they have terrible customer service and I'm ashamed to even use those words in the same sentence) within 10-15 miles of my front door. 20 miles was just too far away. I didn't say it at the time but I think I would also like to stay the same distance from a major airport as well given how much I'd like to travel and/or have relatives visit.
Now that I've taken the time to check, there's actually more Best Buy stores around than I thought. On the way to Osage Beach, MO. we passed through the capitol of Missouri, Jefferson City (still about 50 miles away). Come to find out there's a Best Buy there. When we got off the plane in St. Louis, we drove about 90 minutes west to Columbia and there's a Best Buy there. Of course the University is also there (where my wife's brother is an ENT doctor.) So Best Buy's are not too far away but I'm not driving more than an hour to go to the airport in order to get from one major city to another.
Despite the amount of online purchases I make, it's not the fact that I shop at places like Best Buy a great deal either. I just know that if there's that kind of place around, it's going to be surrounded by several other places I like to go. Not only that, it's not that I do go to those places, there's some comfort in just knowing that the option is there and I can go if I want to.
Monday, May 12, 2008
Endless Activities
There's really so much to do and so little time. Many things I want to do but I try to make sure I get the things done I need to do. Things at the top of my list I need to do include family time and that's a big one that I try to make more of yet it struggles with the side of me that wants to do other things that are solo. Most if of those solo activities are centered around the computer, the internet, and online technologies. Still offline I'm trying to learn SQL (as I've mentioned before) and get back into digital video editing.
Perhaps one day I'll post the early video I did for my Dad for Father's Day a few years ago. It was just basically a slide show set to music with some nifty transitions and a few effects but it kind of depicted my Dad's life in chronological order and the pictures and music really went together well, especially the last song. If you haven't heard it (and most people haven't) click on the link above. It's by a local artist called 2NU.
There's also a part of me that hasn't entirely moved away from playing console and computer games and I haven't even played (let alone beaten) all the original Xbox games I have, nevermind thinking about a 360 even though a part of me would like to play the rest of the Halo story. I stopped playing WoW because the whole thing is just too time consuming taking away from many of the other above activities I'd like to do.
I haven't beaten Crysis yet partially because it's a resource hog and I know a better $200 video card would make it look so much better (and right now I'd like my funds to go elsewhere, like 2-way radios and other camping equipment). The game is fun but I went back to trying to finish F.E.A.R. One of the few games I haven't tried using cheats on yet. I'll play maybe once or twice a week when I need a stress reliever but generally speaking I know that a better use of my time is going to be activities that either teach me something, create memories, or helps someone. If I can get myself involved in an activity that does all of those things, then I'm doing pretty good and I feel happy about what I'm doing. So, the search continues for finding a balance and on that note, I'm off to Tai Chi.
Perhaps one day I'll post the early video I did for my Dad for Father's Day a few years ago. It was just basically a slide show set to music with some nifty transitions and a few effects but it kind of depicted my Dad's life in chronological order and the pictures and music really went together well, especially the last song. If you haven't heard it (and most people haven't) click on the link above. It's by a local artist called 2NU.
There's also a part of me that hasn't entirely moved away from playing console and computer games and I haven't even played (let alone beaten) all the original Xbox games I have, nevermind thinking about a 360 even though a part of me would like to play the rest of the Halo story. I stopped playing WoW because the whole thing is just too time consuming taking away from many of the other above activities I'd like to do.
I haven't beaten Crysis yet partially because it's a resource hog and I know a better $200 video card would make it look so much better (and right now I'd like my funds to go elsewhere, like 2-way radios and other camping equipment). The game is fun but I went back to trying to finish F.E.A.R. One of the few games I haven't tried using cheats on yet. I'll play maybe once or twice a week when I need a stress reliever but generally speaking I know that a better use of my time is going to be activities that either teach me something, create memories, or helps someone. If I can get myself involved in an activity that does all of those things, then I'm doing pretty good and I feel happy about what I'm doing. So, the search continues for finding a balance and on that note, I'm off to Tai Chi.
Thursday, May 8, 2008
E-Mail Chain Validation
I'm still surprised at times when I get an e-mail forwarded to me that claims something is true without anyone having checked the validity of the contents. I recently got an e-mail regarding this Dr. Dobson Petition and there were almost 3000 names on it already when it came to me. To me it should be common practice to people to do a quick & simple internet search to find out more information before blindly forwarding stuff to everyone on your contacts list. Even if the e-mail already has a link attempting to validate the information, I'm going to want more than one source reporting the same thing. One person forwarding an e-mail with 0-1 sources does not validate the contents.
I will usually copy/paste some main part of the text into Google and I'll typically quickly find several resources that discuss the origin and validity of the information in the e-mail. Then I will reply to all on the e-mail I got and post a few of those links letting them know where to find more information and encouraging them to do likewise in the future when they get e-mails like this and are tempted to forward them to people. I would like to encourage your circle of contacts (friends, relatives, community, etc) to squash useless e-mail chains instead of fueling them. What the world needs now is more useful information and less useless information to fill up our in-boxes, bog down the mail servers, and waste our time reading the garbage.
I will usually copy/paste some main part of the text into Google and I'll typically quickly find several resources that discuss the origin and validity of the information in the e-mail. Then I will reply to all on the e-mail I got and post a few of those links letting them know where to find more information and encouraging them to do likewise in the future when they get e-mails like this and are tempted to forward them to people. I would like to encourage your circle of contacts (friends, relatives, community, etc) to squash useless e-mail chains instead of fueling them. What the world needs now is more useful information and less useless information to fill up our in-boxes, bog down the mail servers, and waste our time reading the garbage.
Monday, May 5, 2008
Embracing Online Technology
The other day I was helping my brother with his computer issues. He had reinstalled his OS because of some buggy virus like problems. So we began to reinstall things and I took the opportunity to show him some nifty tools many people know about but still are new to some.
Since we were planning our end of the month camping trip, I wanted to show him the benefits of Google Docs to create and share text, spreadsheets, and presentations. That led to a tangent of documenting things online and I directed his attention to the Google Toolbar Beta 5 which has a button for Google Notebook which lets you make notes without leaving your current web page, clip links, and copy sections of the web page kind of like creating an online Favorites that you can share with others. Then of course we had to install Adobe Air (so we could install Twhirl), Acrobat Reader, and Shockwave. I then directed him to install Quicktime followed by Divx and Firefox.
He sat there thinking for a moment wondering what else he was forgetting to update his computer with so it would run with the technologies and programs he was used to using. With all these online tools and technologies available to us today, it's easy to forget what's working in the background to make everything work everyday so we can enjoy our online lives of business, entertainment, and a wide variety of other purposes.
As an offline tool for on the go, I showed them GOOG-411 and the competing free service from Microsoft, Live Search at 800-225-5411. I hadn't played with Live Search too much before but we liked how they would send you text messages about business you were trying to find and connect you for free to that business. Live search also let you find movies, weather, and other services for free from any phone by responding to your voice commands.
We agreed that we look forward to using these existing tools and waiting to see what these great minds will be bringing us in the future.
Since we were planning our end of the month camping trip, I wanted to show him the benefits of Google Docs to create and share text, spreadsheets, and presentations. That led to a tangent of documenting things online and I directed his attention to the Google Toolbar Beta 5 which has a button for Google Notebook which lets you make notes without leaving your current web page, clip links, and copy sections of the web page kind of like creating an online Favorites that you can share with others. Then of course we had to install Adobe Air (so we could install Twhirl), Acrobat Reader, and Shockwave. I then directed him to install Quicktime followed by Divx and Firefox.
He sat there thinking for a moment wondering what else he was forgetting to update his computer with so it would run with the technologies and programs he was used to using. With all these online tools and technologies available to us today, it's easy to forget what's working in the background to make everything work everyday so we can enjoy our online lives of business, entertainment, and a wide variety of other purposes.
As an offline tool for on the go, I showed them GOOG-411 and the competing free service from Microsoft, Live Search at 800-225-5411. I hadn't played with Live Search too much before but we liked how they would send you text messages about business you were trying to find and connect you for free to that business. Live search also let you find movies, weather, and other services for free from any phone by responding to your voice commands.
We agreed that we look forward to using these existing tools and waiting to see what these great minds will be bringing us in the future.
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