The Courtenay Times

Random Tidbit: A Thaw Block you already own

2010-06-16T21:04:00.002-05:00

Just learned a spiffy little trick that saved us almost $20. My husband and I had been considering buying a thaw block for quite some time. You know, little trays that you can put frozen food on and it will thaw super-fast. We always thought it seemed like some sort of miracle, but never really looked into it further when we discovered they cost so much. While the other day my husband was thawing something for dinner and discovered all it takes is a little metal. Preferably aluminum or steel. He just set the food in the metal pan and it melted really fast. It's easy and cheap to do with your own pan or a cookie sheet with a little aluminum foil on it. Makes sense too. Metal is a good conductor, so it transfers its heat to the frozen food faster than many other surfaces.

Organizing files

2010-03-22T20:51:00.002-05:00

Image via Wikipedia

I admit, I spent my weekend organizing paper files instead of digital ones. It does fit into my larger digital plans for making life more organized though. It's funny how used to working with digital stuff I have become that actually creating labels and putting them on hanging folders, flipping through manila stacks and sorting boxes full of things I had planned to file for ages now feels so cumbersome and outdated.

However, I've finally come up with a system that I think will work, but I'm sure it will undergo more refining the farther into this process I get. First I've divided my files into sections. The main ones so far are "employment", "finances" & "health". In each section I have multiple hanging files, each with one or more manila folders in it. All of the labels for files in a particular section start with the section name, then sub-section and the sometimes sub-sub section. For example I have "Finances - Home - Street Name - Inspections, Appraisals & Assessments" , then "Finances - Home - Street Name - Mortgage" as one file, and then "Finances - Home - Street Name - Purchase", "Finances - Vehicles - Car Model", "Finances - Vehicle - Truck Model", and the list goes on. Each folder is in alphabetical order under each section & sub-section. I admit, it's a little cumbersome & very detailed, but it sure makes things easier to find and way easier to file. I am thinking about replicating each of the major sections in a separate file drawer called "storage" that I can file things that I want/need to keep, but don't want to have at my immediate finger-tips and in my way. For example, in the storage drawer under employment I would move folders containing info from past employers in the storage "employment" section, or move past tax years that have already been filed with the government into the storage drawer under "Finances - Taxes - Past years".

My next step is to create a shared Google spreadsheet with my husband that has a master index of all of the file names with some explanation of what is filed in each. I highly doubt he will ever look at it, but in the event something were to happen to me, at least he would have a starting point. Needless to say, finances and organizing all of the mass of paperwork that comes with having a life isn't his thing. It's not really mine either, but I have way more interest in it than he does and I am eternally grateful that he likes cooking! It's a fantastic trade-off, especially because I LOVE to eat his tasty creations!

Media Share Setup

2010-03-07T22:34:00.016-06:00

Picking the device I wanted to use to store all of our media was a bit of a chore. I read about a lot of possibilities from Windows Home Server, with its excellent reviews, to various Linux options and much more. I actually ended up settling on an external 2 TB USB 2.0 external Fantom Green Drive that I could hook to my Linksys WRT610N Router to automatically create a NAS & FTP server. This was a much lower price than a comparable NAS external drive and also allowed me complete control over my media, rather than relegating it to a particular Media Server software decision up front, like the Windows Home Server would require.

Hardware set up was really simple: plug in power, plug in USB to router & turn on. To set up drive sharing, I logged in to my Linksys router vis https://192.168.1.1, put in my username and password to log in and then clicked "storage". This automatically took me to the "disk" sub-menu under "storage" where I could click "Create Share", enter a name for the shared resource, click "Share entire Partition" and save. From there I clicked the "Administration" sub-menu and created a new user with a unique password and admin privileges and saved the new user. I then went back to the "disk" sub-menu, clicked edit on the new share I created, added that new user to the share and saved it. Finally, I clicked the "Media Server" sub-menu, enabled the media server and saved the settings. I have decided to hold off on setting up the FTP server for now until I get everything set up and determine if I want FTP access to the drive.

To access the drive from my Windows computer, I added it as a mapped drive. To set this up, I opened a folder (any folder will do) and then opened the "Tools" menu and selected "Map Network Drive". From the window that opened I chouse to map it to drive location "M:" for "media" and clicked the "browse" button. It took a while to open all of the netowrk locations, but when they appeared I selected "WRT610N" as the location. (i.e. \\WRT610N).

In future posts I will discuss how I have organized the media on the drive and linked the drive to other computers, devices and software.

Getting the right router

2010-03-07T20:56:00.006-06:00

Image via Wikipedia

I'm still working out all of the details on how I want to set up our home media center, but I've started to make some progress. Step one was our new Linksys N router to connect everything in our house, and beyond. I've had a Lynksys router for years and couldn't be happier with its stability and ease of use. I ran across the WRT600N in a very informative youtube video that has unfortunately disappeared on me. After doing a little research I found the latest version was the WRT610N. The best deal I could find was on a refurb for only $100 straight from the Lynksys web site. Saving $60 was well worth the risk of a refurb!

Here are some key features that sold me:

Wireless N (fastest wireless around)
Simultaneous dual band (allows wireless on 2.5 & 5 GHz so a device like a new laptop that can pick up 5GHz will run completely independently on the super-fast 5GHz)
USB port to create a network drive/FTP server out of a regular external drive
push-button setup to add wireless devices like printers to the network (more on my wireless printer set-up later)
Energy Star certified!
Easy connection to the Dual-Band Wireless-N Gaming & Video Adapter
Cool visualization & management tool of all computers & devices connected to the network called LELA
Plus lots more

Getting back to blogging!

2010-03-07T20:33:00.004-06:00

Image via Wikipedia

It's been a long time since my last post, but I'm excited to get back to blogging again. I'm planning to do some more posts and get this blog moving again with my experience setting up my home media center, home automation, lifehacking, GTD and lots more. I hope it will be a big help to others out there who are looking to get their digital life in order and more self-sufficient. As I go through this process I will post my thoughts, findings and suggestions. Lets get started....

My Palm Pre WebOS 1.2 update Delay Speculation

2009-09-09T16:17:00.004-05:00

Those of you following the latest Palm news may have heard that the latest Palm WebOS 1.2 update has been unexpectedly delayed. According to Sprint's website, the new update was supposed to be available yesterday (Sept 8th), but no one has seen the update actually appear on their phone.

About the same time rumors (now confirmed) were swirling around the internet about the new Apple iTunes release that was supposed to break the Palm Pre sync once again. My guess (and I'll admit my hope too) is that Palm is delaying the update to include a new feature in their WebOs 1.2 update that includes a way to sync with iTunes once again.

I personally think the battle between Palm & Apple is quite amusing, especially since waaaay back when Palm was a big competitor with the wonderful, but ill fated Apple Newton. Now that Apple has grown up and fallen into the typical big company/big brother role that is basically inevitable for any successful tech company, Palm is challenging them once again. I do feel that it's critical for Palm to branch out with its syncing capabilities and not be dependent on iTunes alone, but I it's also a great marketing ploy to keep "the battle" going since it keeps Palm in the news every time Apple releases not only new versions of the iPhone, but iTunes too.

For those of you looking for other methods for getting data on and off your Palm Pre, especially backing it up, check out this great post on the PreCentral.net forums. Also see this older article from the Palm Infocenter blog

The Palm Pre rocks!

2009-07-21T17:55:00.005-05:00

We finally gave in and got ourselves full fledged smartphones. We have held off on this for a few years because of the insane costs of the required data plans. However with my phone officially missing after a month of searching high and low and the release of the very exciting Palm Pre, we could resist no longer. Even my husband, who is as anti-cellphone as they come practically leaps with joy when using it. He has now dubbed it the "Everything box" since it is not only a phone, but Internet, texting combined into conversations with instant messaging in one screen, tv, gps, a high quality 3Megapixel camera with flash that can take non blurry photos in very quick succession, an mp3 player and an online synchronizing device of our GMail, contacts, facebook, linkedin, calendars and so much more. We are also incapable of imagining how iPhone users can survive only having one application open at a time and not having a physical keyboard to type on. In fact I'm typing this post on the Pre with no problems and my thumbs can sense when I mistype something because of the nice keys. We couldn't be more impressed with the fantastic user interface which is not only intuitive, but fun to use and beautiful to look at. The phone itself is also a good size and in a beautiful case. If you or anyone you know are looking for a new phone, I couldn't give the Pre a higher rating, nevermind its lower phone & data plan costs compared to its competitors.

Fascinating Friendships

2008-12-07T14:17:00.004-06:00

A true polar bear hug!

Visit Animal Quarterly for more

A commentary on the subject of unconscious racism ........

2008-10-17T21:16:00.003-05:00

Image via WikipediaI wanted to share this with everyone. I wish I knew the source. Hopefully everything in it is accurate. You never know with un-sourced emails, but if anyone knows differently about any of the facts listed here, please let me know. Obviously there are negative things about Obama left out and positive things about McCain left out, but the idea is to compare the type of scrutiny and judgment people often place on minorities. I think the article does a great job of making people realize the types of double standards that still exist and the way stereotypes can influence not only people's individual lives, but the entire country and world!

It's truly sad that the color of someone's skin even crosses people's minds anymore. We unfortunately have a long way to go in this country, but there is still hope and progress being made! After all, we wouldn't even be talking about this if Obama wasn't the first African American to come this close to the US presidency! All I an say is that with McCain/Palin as the alternative, I have put all my hope in Obama!

Please read and pass this on:

A commentary on the subject of unconscious racism ........ What if things were switched around?

What if the Obama's had brought five children onto the stage, including a three month old infant and an unwed, pregnant teenage daughter?
What if John McCain was a former president of the Harvard Law Review?
What if Barack Obama finished fifth from the bottom of his graduating class?
What if McCain had only married once and Obama was a divorcee?
What if Obama was the candidate who left his first wife after a severely disfiguring car accident?
What if Obama had met his second wife in a bar and had a long affair while he was still married?
What if Michelle Obama was the wife who not only became addicted to painkillers, but also acquired them illegally through her charitable organization, narrowly avoiding a prison sentence after being represented by a top lawyer and causing a doctor employed by her to lose his license?
What if Cindy McCain graduated from Harvard?
What if Obama had been a member of the Keating Five? (The Keating Five were five United States Senators accused of corruption in 1989, igniting a major political scandal as part of the larger Savings and Loan crisis of the late 1980s and early 1990s. The five senators were accused of improperly intervening in 1987 on behalf of Charles H. Keating, Jr., chairman of the Lincoln Savings and Loan Association, which was the target of a regulatory investigation by the Federal Home Loan Bank Board (FHLBB). Lincoln Savings and Loan collapsed in 1989, at a cost of over $3 billion to the federal government. Some 23,000 Lincoln bondholders were defrauded and many elderly investors lost their life savings. The substantial political contributions that Keating had made to each of the senators, totaling $1.3 million, attracted considerable public and media attention. Senators John Glenn and John McCain were cleared of having acted improperly but were criticized for having exercised "poor judgment".)
What if Obama had trouble reading from a Teleprompter?
What if Obama was the one who had military experience that included discipline problems and a record of crashing seven planes?
What if Obama was the one who was known to display publicly, on many occasions, a serious anger management problem?
What if Michelle Obama's family had made their money from beer distribution?

This is what unconscious racism does. It distorts, rationalizes, and minimizes positive qualities in one candidate and emphasizes negative qualities in another when there is a color difference.

Educational Backgrounds

Barack Obama:

Columbia University - B.A. Political Science with a Specialization in International Relations

Harvard - Jurist Doctor (J.D.) Magna Cum Laude.

Joseph Biden:

University of Delaware - B.A. in History and B.A. in Political Science.

Syracuse University College of Law - Jurist Doctor (J.D.)

John McCain:

United States Naval Academy - Class rank: 894 of 899

Sarah Palin:

Hawaii Pacific University - 1 semester

North Idaho University - 2 semesters - Journalism

Matanuska-Susitna College - B.A. in Journalism

The not-so-rediculous "overhead projector" earmark

2008-10-17T15:26:00.002-05:00

Image by oceandesetoiles via Flickr

Every time McCain brings up Obama's earmarks for an overhead projector being wasteful, my husband and I laugh. We've been to the amazing Adler Planitarium in Chicago that was budgeted for, and we can tell you straight from the horses mouth (the man running the gigantic star machine that projects the entire sky above you), that their machine is at the end of it's life. In fact, they can't even get replacement parts for it anymore. We can't get over how McCain tried to portray the machine as your run-of-the-mill classroom transparency projector - ha!

Please read the following from an article on Wired Magazine to hear the real story:

During the Wednesday night debate, McCain once again brought up the issue of the $3 million "projector" that Obama asked appropriators for in 2007 as an example of an egregious earmark request. The "projector," it turns out, is Chicago's Adler Planetarium Sky Theater Projector, which is a complex piece of equipment used for public education purposes, and it was in severe need of an upgrade.

Obama never managed to land the money for the planetarium. But that's beside the point.

Numerous scientists, most notably the late Stephen Jay Gould, have said that it was public outings with the family to science museums as children that inspired them to go into the field.

After McCain made the same comment during the previous debate, the Adler Planetarium's chief Paul Knappenberger himself noted that the theater presents "an inspiring opportunity to get students interested in science, interested in math."

Great and Not So Great Animal Protection Charities

2008-10-16T10:04:00.006-05:00

Image via WikipediaThose of you who are regular visitors to the Friendster social networking site and other popular websites are probably familiar with the animal cruelty prevention ads by WSPA. Since I'm a big supporter of animal rights (both protecting endangered species and preventing all forms of cruelty) I thought I'd check out the charity on Charity Navigator to see how they rated. Unfortunately they only got 2 out of 4 starts. It got me thinking that I should look for what organizations doing similar work were rated as. I found a fantastic international organization doing lots of great work with a 4 star rating.

Please check out The International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW). I'm seriously considering adding them to my charity list.

I do think that WSPA should receive credit for making such prominent and catching ads. They really pull people in to helping the cause. It's just disappointing that they have such a low efficiency rating. Their executive and other employee compensations are ridiculously high compared to the much larger and better funded IFAW. Hopefully WSPA will work to improve this and help end the cruelty for more animals!

It's unbelievable how cruel and nasty people can be to our fellow mortals! I hope you will read more about what they do and how you can help!

Other great organizations for both animal and human welfare are:

Conservation International (See their Charity Navigator Report)
Human Rights Watch (See their Charity Navigator Report)
Oceana (See their Charity Navigator Report)
Defenders of Wildlife (See their Charity Navigator Report)
Doctors Without Borders (See their Charity Navigator Report)

and of course many more!

Don't you just love the double standards!

2008-09-04T11:45:00.002-05:00

I love this video. Hope you enjoy it too!

McCain & Obama are no shows at crucial Senate Vote on Green Energy!

2008-08-13T10:21:00.003-05:00

Image via Wikipedia Just as I predicted, both McCain (continuing his non-green record) and Obama were both no-shows at a crucial Senate vote to extend credits to make wind, solar and other green energies competitive with coal & oil. At least Obama has voted for it in the past, but this vote was critical! I'm extreemly disappointed. Without these credits, which end in December, our country is going backwards and investments in wind and solar are on hold indefinitely!

Please read the Eight Strikes and You're Out article by Thomas Friedman on the New York Times. He couldn't express what I'm feeling more accurately!

I also highly recommend Thomas Friedman's website for lots of great articles, books and more.

Please Watch & Join at wecansolveit.org

2008-07-28T11:39:00.008-05:00

Take Al Gore's Challenge at http://www.wecansolveit.org & make a difference to stop climate change before it's too late. If You haven't seen his documentary "An Inconvenient Truth", I really hope you will. Please see Gore's challenge in the video below. It brought me to tears. I really do believe we can solve this if we all work together!

Plastic taking over the oceans & killing many birds, fish & more

2008-07-16T21:29:00.004-05:00

This video is both very informative and very sad. It shows how the large amounts of plastic trash in the worlds oceans are killing off wildlife. Some of the discoveries are really shocking. I encourage you to watch the full video. If you plan to go on a cruise try to make sure the company properly disposes of its trash. Cruise ships are infamous for dumping!

It's Time for Some Campaignin'

2008-07-16T10:24:00.002-05:00

Send a JibJab Sendables® eCard Today!

Great Free Software

2008-07-11T19:33:00.001-05:00

Image via WikipediaJust a quick note to tell you all about some fantastic free software from Serif. I've been using Serif PhotoPlus 6 suite for several years, and it's a fantastic free way to get a lot of the same functionality as Adobe Photoshop provides. Unless you are a professional graphic designer, check it out. It seems to only be available in a Windows .exe format, but if you have a Mac that runs Windows, it should work. I've found it totally invaluable for editing photos! They also have lots of other great free programs like PagePlus which will work for most people as opposed to the very expensive Adobe Illustrator or Microsoft Publisher, DrawPlus for vector graphics and web animations, 3DPlus for creating 3D graphics and WebPlus for web site design. I haven't yet used DrawPlus or 3DPlus yet, but based on my experience with PagePlus and PhotosPlus, I'm looking forward to trying them out. WebPlus is also a very good web design program, but when it comes to any web design program I'm yet to find anything that really meets my needs. I'd really like to find any WYSIWYG program that doesn't alter your code every time you look at it in WYSIWYG mode! Doesn't seem to make a difference whose software it is, Microsoft FrontPage, Adobe GoLive, WebPlus, NVU, they all change your code and add all sorts of random and unnecessary stuff to it. Maybe there are new updates to those programs that have improved this, but I guess when it comes to web design I'm just a TextPad and Browser girl! If anyone out there has had some good experiences with WYSIWYG editors, please let me know. I think the only way I'd really like to have a comprehensive WYSIWYG program if there is something out there that will let me take a JPG, break it into parts and create clean CSS out of it. It seems like there just isn't anything out there that will let me lay a grid over an existing image, chop it apart into different images each with their own css
sections and add text and code from there. In my wildest dreams, I'd be able to combine all of this CSS/graphic design power with a totally customizable content management system (CMS). It seems like there are comprehensive programs out there for each of the individual steps (graphic design, CSS, CMS, AJAX), but no ultimately powerful program that lets you do it all, or even combine parts from existing programs into one. If anyone out there knows of anything like that, please let me know! If not, and someone out there knows a lot about actually building such a program, please let me know and I'd love to talk ideas!

For those of you out there reading this who are less into code, please don't be scared away from any of the free Serif programs that I mentioned above. They are fairly user-friendly for anyone who likes to work with photos on a slightly more technical basis. Serif also has relatively cheap ($10) upgrades to give you even more features on the programs. I hope you find them as helpful as I have!

"Our priorities for saving the world"

2008-07-07T19:31:00.001-05:00

I recently watched a presentation by Bjorn Lomborg on the TED website that talked about an economical approach to prioritizing the order in which we undertake solutions to fixing the major problems that face our world. Although the overall concept of picking a problem like AIDS, malnutrition, war and conflict, climate change, etc. and pouring all of our resources into solving them appeals to me, I feel his concept presents lots of problems.

I must admit, I haven't fully researched his plan beyond what I've watched online and a quick Wikipedia search, but I'm concerned with the black and white approach he takes to ordering the priorities. Here are my concerns:

1. How were the 10 biggest challenges picked? I agree that they are all important challenges to fix, but no explanation as to why these are the biggest and/or most important challenges to our world is presented. For example, why is eliminating AIDS any more important than eliminating any other major disease like Malaria, or for that matter all disease (communicable or not)?

2. It's nice to use cost analysis to prioritize solutions, but what about how big of an impact the solution will have on the world as a whole? In other words, maybe solving one of the problems that doesn't have the best cost/benefit ratio is actually more important because it will make the rest of the problems irrelevant. For example, is it really more "productive" to have saved millions of people from dying from AIDS only to have them die from drought related starvation because of climate change? (Note: Climate Change is placed on the bottom of his list because it costs the most to produce smallest amount of positive change).

3. It's not at all clear what the proposed solutions to solving these problems are, or how the cost of implementing the solutions was determined. If the idea is to solve malnutrition by throwing vitamin supplements at starving children, then that will cost a lot less, and probably be way less effective, than actually implementing sustainable farming practices and stable governments to support an economy and political environment conducive to a healthy diet. Also, some of these problems just don't have a clear solution. If everyone knew how to create world peace, we would at least have a starting point, but I don't know of any "solution" to conflict and war beyond solving the other problems already on the list. That is also assuming "solutions" for the other problems actually exist!

I hate to sound so pessimistic, but I feel like he is trying to break all of the world's problems into isolated little buckets that we can just add money to, and the problems will go away. I'm in total agreement that all of these challenges need to be addressed, but they are inexorably interconnected, so picking just one and "solving it" is not only impossible, it's irresponsible! I believe we need to work on solving all of these problems at the same time, otherwise we run the risk of failure because we are trying to extricate one problem from a web of problems that are all interrelated. I think a better approach is to come up with which challenges really impact all other challenges the most and/or have the overall biggest impact on our world, create a real plan for action on those challenges (keeping in mind all challenges are impacted by the solutions) and get to work. Of course the difficult part is to get everyone to agree on which is most important, how to actually solve the problems and getting the necessary funding.

I'm in total agreement with him that a scientist, politician, humanitarian, etc. are not individually equipped to determine what the biggest challenges are, or to determine which should have the highest priority, but I also don't agree that economists really hold the answer either. I think it's as a community working together and careful analysis of the interconnections between all of the worlds challenges that we can come up with better priorities.

I wish there was a quick solution to all of these challenges, but even if there isn't, I'm glad to be a part of the discussion on how to help make the world a better place for everyone and everything! I'm really encouraged by the new "green is cool" movement. Overall, I do think people are more aware and concerned about all of the problems we face. I think it is everyone's responsibility to help solve these problems. While a coordinated effort across the nations of this world would have the biggest and probably most effective impact, every small step helps!

Crazy photo blanket idea

2008-07-05T22:11:00.001-05:00

Image via WikipediaOk, so I must admit, I like to hang on to a lot of stuff for sentimental purposes! For years, whenever I've totally worn out a t-shirt or sweatshirt that represented something fun or meaningful in my life, I've tucked it away in a box. My plan has been to use the logos to make a "memory blanket" that I could take out on picnics or use to keep warm on the couch in the winter. It's become one of those projects that I've always been meaning to do, always wanted to do, but frankly I'm unlikly to ever do. So there sit all of my memories in a big box on a shelf in the basement!

The other day I was poking around some of the online photo websites (KodakEasyShare in particular), and I noticed that one of the products they sell is a photo blanket where you can upload a picture and they will print it right onto the blanket for you. This gave me the crazy idea of using my fladbed scanner to scan high resolution images of the shirt logos, import them into one of the online photo sites, make a collage of the images and have it printed right onto a blanket. Frankly, I'm still not likely to get to this project for a while, but it gives me a much higher probability of actually getting it done when I'm not faced with the prospect of using my barely basic sewing skills to design and make a blanket myself! Hopefully the idea will work and the images will come out clear and nice on the blanket itself. I figure I can always use the actual old t-shirts as rags so I'm not just throwing them in the garbage! If I ever actually get around to this project, I'll let you know how it goes!

Freecycle rocks!

2008-07-05T21:23:00.012-05:00

I ran across freecycle online not too long ago and decided to give it a try. We had some large pieces of fence that we didn't know what to do with and felt awful about just cutting them up and throwing them in the garbage. I remembered that I'd heard about an online movement where people could give things away they no longer wanted and could often find things they needed for free.I signed up for my local freecycle yahoo group, posted the fence pieces, and within several hours I had over 20 people saying they would be happy to come pick them up. We ended up giving the fencing to the first couple that got back to us. They were going to use it for additional fencing for baby goats they were raising on their farm. It's a great feeling to really help people out, and all for something we were about to throw in the garbage! I actually started feeling bad that I couldn't give the fencing to everyone who emailed me!We also really lucked out in getting a large bunch of beautiful ferns to plant in the shady part of our yard. We'd had it on our list for ages to get over to the garden store to buy ferns and next thing we knew someone posted on freecycle that they had tons of ferns they wanted to get rid of. We emailed them back, and were able to go get them the next day! The trick to using freecycle is that you've got to be quick to reply, otherwise you'll loose out on getting something you really want. Also, get use to people posting things that they would like, rather than what they are giving away. Although it can get annoying to see all of the "I want" ads, it has given me a lot of ideas for things I could get rid of to help unclutter our lives a little more.

Zemanta Review

2008-07-05T20:40:00.000-05:00

Back in June I blogged about a fun new tool for adding additional content to blog posts using a tool called Zemanta. Overall I'm finding it helps with efficiency, but I do have a few suggestions.

Pros
1. All Images are open source so it's easier to add pics to posts without having to search multiple copyright-free image sources
2. It is great for generating ideas for new tags, images and links to items I wouldn't normally think about linking to.

Cons
1. More images and links should be available to choose from and many times a lot of the images are pretty irrelevant
2. More media types should be easily available (ex. video, sound)
3. The articles section should provide pop-up previws and more options to choose from (ex. major news sources, blogs, etc.)
4. The ability to add more than one image to a blog from their interface is a definite must! Currently only one can be added at a time without switching to html view, copying the code, adding a new image via their interface, going back to HTML mode and pasting in the earlier copied code. Definitely not user friendly!
5. When I click on a link to add to my post, it should give me the option to add the link to all instances of that word in my post or just the first occurrence. Currently it only adds it to the first occurrence.

Despite my rather long list of cons, I'm really excited about the tool and hope the Zemanta team keeps adding new features. It's a great concept and makes blogging a lot more fun!

Now you don't have to use gas to get to the bookstore

2008-07-03T11:10:00.003-05:00

I just learned of a new website called Zoomii. It's like going to an actual bookstore where you can browse the shelves by section, see covers and even read more detail about the book. Nice thing is, you get Amazon.com prices and it all links to your Amazon account so you can save items to your Amazon wishlist, or even navigate to Amazon to "look inside"the book or read user reviews. All you need to do is brew up a nice pot of coffee and you can even skip Barnes and Noble :)

Fantastic post on Google & Microsoft Differences

2008-07-02T13:30:00.003-05:00

Image via Wikipedia

Sergey Solyanik wrote an excellent insight into the differences of working at Google vs. Microsoft. His post gives some fascinating insight into how the companies manage employees and projects. Check it out to learn more!

Google may have blocked anti-obama blogs

2008-07-02T13:04:00.003-05:00

Image via WikipediaThe New York Times has just reported that several pro-Hilllary opposed to-Obama blogs may have been blocked by Google. Luckily my blog didn't seem to get impacted, however that subject is just a small part of my blog unlike some of the blogs that appear to have been blocked. I don't care what your political views are, even if I disagree with them, you still have the right to express them! Lets hope they set this straight.

On a slightly related note, it's unfortunate that McCain has become even scarier than he was before. His switching around his position on offshore drilling and his potential influence over the Supreme Court are pretty scary. It's unfortunate that our only real choices for president are two people who seem to do whatever is politically convenient for themselves at any given moment. Not that most politicians are any different, but I feel I'm stuck picking between flip flopping lunacy and total inexperience with immaturity. We'll have to see what happens, but I'm still leaning towards writing in Hillary. I'll only vote for Obama if the McCain prospect is just too overwhelmingly dangerous for the country. If that happens I'll certainly not be voting for Obama, just against McCain. It's sad!

Courtenay's Blog: Best Free Windows Backup Program

2008-06-14T19:00:00.001-05:00

Courtenay's Blog: Best Free Windows Backup Program

Before I split my personal and more public blogs apart, I wrote a post on my personal blog about my favorite free Windows backup tool, Cobian backup. I thought I'd share that post with you here.

Further adventures in GTD

2008-06-14T18:07:00.000-05:00

Well, I've borrowed the official GTD book from the library and I'm starting to plow through it and set up my own system. Half of me is really excited and starting to feel the system may just work for me, the other half is feeling the system is way to complicated and makes it harder to keep track of everything in an easy to see list of priorities. To be honest, I haven't followed the instructions completly about collecting all of my stuff first, before starting to make my project lists and next actions, but I just needed to start creating some structure for holding all of my stray thoughts without having to write them down more than once.

For the time being, I'm using a wonderful online task program called Remember the Milk a.k.a. RTM, to help organize all of my GTD projects and next actions. Personally, although I guess it is possible to do GTD with a paper system, I think I would go completely mad trying to keep track of everything manually. Perhaps the reason so many techie types get into GTD is that it is really too overwhelming to do unless you use a fairly sophisticated program that uses tagging. At least from my experience so far, I don't think I'd be able to find half of the things I put into my system without all of the tags I've assigned them.

There was a recent guest post to the RTM blog by Doug Ireton, a Senior Platform Engineer on the Windows Server team at Nordstrom who uses RTM for GTD. I really liked his approach, and used it as my guide for starting out my system. I've made a few modifications to his system for my own use, but since I'm just getting started, I'm going to wait to post more details on my approach until I work out some of the glitches.

My only real issue with using Doug Ireton's approach in RTM (i.e. using a different list for each of my projects) is that there is no way to make sub-lists in RTM for any subprojects I have. Many of my projects (both work and personal) are quite large and I need to break them down into subprojects. What I've come up with so far is to create a new RTM list for each subproject and then in the main project list, create a task with the subproject name. For example, a project called "ps-finances" might have several tasks under it that were just regular 1-step to-do items, like "update Quicken" and "take checks to the bank" and also tasks that represent subprojects, something like, "sub: develop budget". Then I would also have a list called "ps-sub:develop budget". It's not ideal, but it gets around the lack of sublists in RTM for now. I have seen that there is a ffrefox add-on for creating sublists in RTM, but my only problem with that is it would have to be installed on whatever computer I was using, which poses problems when traveling without a laptop or using RTM on a mobile device. If I'm going to use a particular system for GTD, I need it to always be the same no matter where I access it from so it is always quick and easy to find things.

Well, I better cut this long post off for now, but Ill be back with more of my GTD adventures soon!

My Shared Items

2008-06-06T18:58:00.003-05:00

Just a quick note to let you know about the "Courtenay's Shared Items" in the side-bar of this blog. My shared items are from my Google Reader shared items. They are interesting articles or tid-bits I've come across on the web that I wanted to share, but didn't want to devote an entire blog post to. I sometimes leave little comments on them. Just click the "Read More..." link on the bottom of the list to see everything I've posted including my notes.

Hope you enjoy the posts to my shared items just as much as my regular blog posts!

Mars Phoenix Lander Twitters!

2008-06-06T12:23:00.005-05:00

Here is a fun little tid-bit from NASA. The new Mars Phoenix Lander is twittering. Twitter is a website that allows users to sign up and share what they are currently doing in 140 characters or less. Unfortunately, the mars twittering seems to have overloaded their system, so Twitter isn't up at the moment. Hope you enjoy hearing the latest from Mars!

The link to the twitter is: http://twitter.com/MarsPhoenix

On a related note, I also ran across this cool photo today of sunset on mars:

Sexism in America

2008-06-06T11:20:00.007-05:00

It's a sad day for me today. Hillary Clinton has officially decided to drop out of the race for the Presidency and support Obama. Strategically it's the best move for her and the party, and I'm glad she seems to be handling it way better than I am. I've been supporting her campaign for the last 6 months, although this primary season has been so long that it feels like it's been years!

One thing that has come out of this campaign is a realization, hopefully now on a more national scale, of the extent sexism is still pervasive in American culture. The thoughts of Judith Warner in her latest blog post to the New York Times, completely sum up my feelings on the subject. I too acknowledge that there were problems in the Clinton campaign that caused her campaign to loose support, but I don't believe it's possible to underestimate the role the media played in supporting Obama and undermining Hillary. I hope you take the time to read Judith Warner's wonderful post and take time to think about what kind of impact the pervasive sexism displayed in our media has on our society, and especially our children.

Here is the video from the Women's Media Center that Judith Warner refers to in her post:

Bill Moyers also did an excellent piece on the mainstream media implicit and explicit denigration of women in politics, in particular Hillary Clinton:

Bill Moyers: Media treatment of Women in Politics - Part 1
Bill Moyers: Media treatment of Women in Politics - Part 2
Bill Moyers: Media treatment of Women in Politics - Part 3

Blog additions by Zemanta

2008-06-04T09:45:00.004-05:00

I just ran across this fantastic new browser plug-in for enhancing blog posts with additional pictures and media related to the content of the blog post. I've just installed it and I'm playing around with it for the first time. As you type over 300 characters in your post, Zemanta will begin suggesting pictures, articles and more for your current post. If you want suggestions earlier than that you can click the button and it will start giving you suggestions right away. Additional features include suggesting relevant tags to add to the post, links to key words found in your post. For example, it recognized "Zemanta" and I clicked on the button and it automatically made the text of "Zemanta" a link. I also suggest looking at the Zemanta preferences. You can even have it automatically make any link you include to Amazon act as an affiliate link, so if someone purchases a book or other product through your link to Amazon, you get credit. Ironically the images suggested by Zemanta for this blog post don't really include anything useful, but hopefully they will improve this feature soon.

A Google Shell

2008-06-04T08:51:00.001-05:00

Ok, this is for all of the Unix geeks out there. There is an unofficial website that can be used to search google via "shell" commands. Check it out: http://goosh.org/

Enjoy the new shell web search, it's pretty fast and kinda fun!

Cheers,
Courtenay

Before You Donate to Charity!

2008-05-14T20:36:00.004-05:00

With all of the horrible disasters that have happened lately in China and Myanmar giving to the charities that will do the most with your money is extremely important. Go to http://www.charitynavigator.org/ before you donate to any charity and make sure they are worth giving to. It's shocking to find out how some of the biggest charities in the world have the worst records! There are also some absolutely fantastic organizations to donate to! Charity Navigator rates all charities in every category so check them out if you want to donate to cancer research, the environment, the arts or anything else!

What's GTD?

2008-05-14T20:24:00.000-05:00

If you have poked around some of the popular productivity blogs recently, you may of heard of "getting things done" (GTD). GTD is an approach to better manage everything in your life and be more productive, coined by the author and speaker David Allen. It has also really caught on in the techie/web worker world big time with people coming up with new software, web tools or just everyday "life hacks" for making life easier and more efficient.

I became familiar with GTD through the blog lifehacker, which I visit on almost a daily basis. I guess I'm one of those addicted GTD techies! I haven't yet read David Allen's book or the book by lifehacker called "Upgrade Your Life" which is a more practical and technical guide to GTD, but I think I'll be popping into my local library for them soon. I really got hooked when I finally forced myself to try the "empty inbox" technique. It's actually working for me and just that one small change has reduced my stress levels enormously.

I highly recommend checking out some of the GTD blogs out there to get a feel and see what you think. Some of the ideas are way more involved than I ever want to be in this, and some of the ideas I just haven't tried yet, but I find that the more I read, the more I slowly begin to get more productive. Ironically I think my only really big drain on productivity is reading about too many ideas :) I'll be posting some of my GTD hacks/approaches to this blog as I develop them further. Hopefully you will find some of the ideas helpful too!

Blogs:
lifehacker
lifehack
unclutterer
43 folders

Uncluttering!

2008-04-29T10:21:00.003-05:00

So we all want to unclutter our lives right? As they say, "less stuff = less stress!" Well, if any of you out there are like me, getting rid of things that are old, worn out, not really fit for decorating or display anymore but have sentimental value is really tough. I just ran across a great blog post that got me thinking about ways to preserve memories without getting swamped in stuff. The idea is to take pictures of objects that are of sentimental value that you don't really want to hold onto anymore. Then you can keep the photograph on you computer rather than the large bulky item.

I've actually done this once before a few years ago and it was really freeing and I have no regrets! I had a pair of sandals that had great sentimental meaning for me. They were the first purchase I ever made on my own as an exchange student to Indonesia and those sandals were with me everywhere I went. They represented all of the amazing adventures and travels I had done in my first year there and the journey I had experienced going from a kid fresh out of a U.S. high school to feeling like the real daughter of my Indonesian host families! I kept the sandals for many years afterwards, but eventually they just got too worn out and were taking up space that I really needed for sandals and shoes that I could actually wear. I ended up taking a picture of the sandals before tossing them in ye olde reycle bin several years ago and I recently ran across the pictures again a few weeks ago. It was a great feeling. I still had the memories right there, but no clutter and no smelly sandals to figure out where to store. I'm actually pretty sure I'll look at the photo more often than I would have ever pulled the old sandals out.

In fact, photographing lots of things, even if you don't plan to get rid of them is a good idea. It leaves things open for more possibilities. 1) if the item is lost, stolen or damaged you have a record of it for sentimental purposes, it's much easier to show a picture of missing items than to describe them & if you have a fire it could be the difference between getting the insurance money or not. 2) Photographing objects that you would have stuffed in a closet, box or drawer for the rest of your life allows you to use the objects in an easier way than you might otherwise. For example I could put the photo of my sandals into a collection of other photos I have from my time in Indonesia (even though I took the photo of the sandals long after I was in Indonesia) and use the picture to help do a photo journal/scrap book of my memories of my time there. After all, there's no fitting a pair of sandals into a real scrap book! 3) digital photos can be stored online or on a remote computer so if you do have a fire you at least have some record of your old items for insurance, sentimental reasons or even family history. 4) It can be a lot easier to organize a set of digital photographs into files or folders or tag them than it is to track a myriad of physical objects. Of course I'm not suggesting you get rid of everything sentimental, but it is a great feeling to be able to let go of it without worring about losing the memory that that special item.

So grab your camera & your recycle bin & unclutter your life!

Krugman on the Obama campaign!

2008-04-25T11:04:00.002-05:00

One of my favorite columnists from the New York Times, Paul Krugman, recently put into words exactly how I feel about the Obama campaign and their chances in the fall. I hope you'll take a look!

My My My I can't beleive how low he'll go!

2008-04-23T19:05:00.000-05:00

Unfortunately, the news media has decided yet again that covering Obama's huge mistakes, and in this case petty and immature behavior is being left to the obscure corners of the web. If you didn't already know, Obama was caught on tape giving Hillary the middle finger. Yes, that is correct. Obama "flipped off" Hillary. I can only image the outcry, the endless media coverage and total ruin of Hillary if she even suggested such an idea let alone did it unabashedly as Obama did! Frankly it's disgusting!

I've felt for a long time that Obama was only in this race for himself, and that has become more and more obvious every day. What is his plan, to flip off North Korea or China or Russia? Great move buster! How utterly diplomatic of you! When the going gets tough, pull out the middle school drama! Just what I've always looked for in a presidential candidate!

You'll hear plenty of people try to say that he was just scratching his face, but it is very obvious if you look at the video that he did it intentionally. Here are the reasons:

1. Early in the video he scratches his face with his little finger, NOT his middle finger
2. He pauses right after talking about Hillary in the debate that he "so cruelly suffered through", takes his time, puts up his middle finger slowly and deliberately and even after the crowd cheers frenetically for this childish move he keeps his head down
3. You can see the people directly behind him on the side that could see it, react instantly, and those on the other side not react.
4. When he looks up he tries to keep talking, but can't help but let out a ridiculous grin
5. Anyone, I mean anyone who has been on the campaign trail for president, or even at an interview for a job of a sales clerk would be keenly aware if they were doing anything with their middle finger! I'm sorry, but I've never heard of a more pathetic excuse. It's right up there with "the dog ate my homework".

I've felt for a long time that if Obama got the nomination I would not vote for him, but this signs seals and delivers it for me. I absolutely refuse to elect an immature sleazeball for president!

http://elections.foxnews.com/2008/04/18/did-obama-give-a-flip-response-to-clinton-attacks/

Dinner from a test tube?

2008-04-23T18:30:00.000-05:00

The editorial from the NYT on PETA's new 1 million dollar prize for generating edible meat In vitro (in a test tube) is a fascinating prospect. Their goal is to end cruelty to animals in the meat production industry by replacing the meat we consume with "in vitro meat". It sounds slightly unappetizing, and the editorial concludes with the prospect that these purely domestic animals will disappear if we don't continue to raise them for meat. PETA says it's better not to exist at all than to live and suffer.

While both sides have a point, I fall in the middle. I'm always excited by new scientific and technological breakthroughs, but more importantly I think if we can pull In vitro meat production off in a cost-effective and, most importantly, appetizing way, we will not only put a stop to a lot of the factory-style cruel animal raising practices, but we will also help the environment by massively reducing the carbon footprint (masses of manure) and land depredation (endless grazing land) that it takes to raise all of these animals. My guess is if it looks like chicken and tastes like chicken, has the same nutrients (and possibly more) as real chicken and doesn't cost any more than real chicken, then people will buy it and eat it and eventually it will be just another option for dinner!

The editor's fear that all livestock species will completely disappear is over the top fear-mongering. The probability that everyone is going to stop eating real meat is ridiculous! There will always be purists -- like there are in basically any area you can think of -- who will only eat "the real thing"! My guess is there will be smaller and more humane, "real meat producers" who fill this niche and keep the various consumable domesticated animal species going. After all, there is already a move towards supporting smaller local and organic farms. There may be reduced numbers of these animals with the introduction of lab meat, but that is probably a good thing for them and us! After all, think how many more livestock than people there must be for us to consume so many of them in our lifetime! Their vast, and totally beyond environmentally sustainable numbers consume unimaginable resources, time and energy!

This editorial reminds me of why it's always important to consider both sides and really think about the middle ground in all areas of life. It's easy to jump on one side of the argument or another, but isn't it more important to come to an agreement? The "anti In-vitro" side can't stop technology and progress, and the "PETA" side can't stop people from raising real animals to kill and eat, but look what can happen if both sides can co-exist; we can help reduce cruelty, help the environment, and let everybody choose what they want to eat for dinner, no matter how much we agree or disagree with it!

Kudos to FactCheck.org

2008-04-23T03:18:00.003-05:00

If you haven't run across factcheck.org yet, please take a stroll over to their website to keep up on the latest debunking of all of the political banter flying around these days.

I particularly enjoyed the article called Substance Abuse debunking that email flying around the internet at the speed of light that claims Obama's record is so much better than Hillary's. I was one of the people to pass this false email on to factcheck.org. I did just a basic search on the Library of Congress website and found that basically all of the facts and figures listed about Obama and Hillary were untrue - particularly that she had only sponsored handful of "meaningless bills". Factcheck.org did a fantastic job of researching all of the details in this ridiculous email. Please take the time to read the full article, it's very well researched and actually contains facts!

My Blog for Hillary Is Moving

2008-04-23T01:54:00.000-05:00

For those of you who know me or have been reading my other blog, you already know that I am a very avid supporter of Hillary Clinton for President! I started a blog for her back in February on her campaign website.

I'm now moving my Hillary blog over to The Courtenay Times and all new updates will be made here. I'm hoping that by consolidating that blog with this blog, I'll be able to better manage all of my posts. To view my past posts about Hillary, please visit my blog on her site, but stay tuned to The Courtenay Times for the latest updates!

Welcome to The Courtenay Times

2008-04-23T01:44:00.000-05:00

The Courtenay Times is a new place for me to share my views on everything from politics and technology to science, religion and more. I will continue to update my other blog and also reference articles between them, but this will help me separate out my personal updates, aimed more at friends and family, from my more detailed posts on specific subjects. I hope you enjoy this new blog and visit and comment often!