Tony Triolo's blog.

The new face of venture capital

2010-03-22T09:00:00.000-04:00

What to do when venture capital dries up? Crowdsource it, of course.

I guess you could call Kickstarter a micro-venture-capital-crowdsource platform. It provides a way for artists, musicians, designers, filmmakers, and people with just plain good ideas to get funding for their (sometimes) off-the-wall projects without promising their first born to a venture capitalist.

Here's how it works. If you have an idea and you need funding to bring that idea to fruition, you start a project on kickstarter.com. You then set a financial goal. Here's how the site describes the funding process:

How does funding work?
Every project has a funding goal (any dollar amount) and a time limit (from 1 - 90 days) set by the project creator. When the deadline is reached, there are either of two results:

1. Funding Successful: If a project has met or surpassed its funding goal, all backers' credit cards are instantly charged and funds go directly to the project creator. Project creators are then responsible for completing the project and delivering rewards as promised.

2. Funding Unsuccessful: If a project has NOT met its funding goal, all pledges are canceled. That's it.

Prospective funders/users can browse projects and make pledges instantly. Some projects promise a tangible item to the backers at the end of the project. It may be a T-shirt, a copy of a book, etc.

I think this site is pure genius. It allows creative people to pursue small projects that would never have been funded by larger patrons and it provides backers with a sense of contributing to something of value. These are the art patrons of the 21st century. The site also provides the intangible benefit of having a sense of community built around ideals. If you support something you like, you become a member of small community of like-minded people.

I love the idea...now, what to fund?

Life360 and the meaning of life

2009-12-02T15:04:00.001-05:00

Life360 Offers Family Safety 2.0 | Epicenter | Wired.com

This service looks like an interesting one, where you can plan for all sorts of disasters.
What I though was more interesting, though, was this passage from the article quoting one of the company's founders, Chris Hull:

“Literally, I joked with my roommate, ‘what if one of us got cancer and died and had never been anything else but an investment banker?’” said Hulls. “A week later, they found a tumor in my neck.”

I found it interesting that he thought investment banking wasn't a "meaningful" thing to do with one's life. What makes one career more meaningful than another? If you create things, is that considered meaningful? If you provide a worthwhile service, is that meaningful? Are some services more worthy than others?
All these questions lie at the heart of existential philosophy. Heidegger said that the first question of philosophy must be "why am I here?" He talks about the "authentic" life being superior to the "unauthentic" life. The difference between the two being that the former consists of a life where one analyzes one's self and one's existence instead of just participating in life.

New York Botanical Garden Holiday Train Show

2009-11-20T16:56:00.001-05:00

The NY Botanical Garden in the Bronx puts on a giant model train show (G scale) every holiday season that is supposed to be spectacular. They have recreations of many NY landmarks made completely from natural materials, including a towering replica of the Brooklyn Bridge.

The show this year runs from November 21st through January 10th.

How to share a streaming video on your own website for free

2009-10-27T13:58:00.001-04:00

Would you like to share a video with friends and family, but not share it with the world? I’ll tell you how to do just that in this post.

This article is written assuming that you already have a site hosted by one of the many hosting services out there, like 1and1, go daddy, host monster, etc. These hosting services usually give you many GB of storage space, but don’t usually make it easy to share your videos via a streaming server.

There are services out there that let you stream your videos without making them public, but you usually have to pay for these services. For instance, MotionBox charges $24.99/month(!) for a Pro account, and the free account has too many limitations to be useful.

The best option for streaming video from any regular web server is probably FLV video. This is the same format that the ‘big boys’ like YouTube use. You can plunk down $620 for Adobe Flash CS4 so you can create a streaming video, or you can cobble one together using a couple of free tools.

If you have your video in one of several standard formats (avi, mp4, wmv, qt, etc.), you can use Free FLV Converter to convert your video to the FLV format. This tool not only converts your video to FLV, but it produces accompanying SWF files and an html file you can put directly on your website.

The Free FLV Converter will create a video file with a name like VIDxxxxxx.flv (the xxxxxx is a date and timestamp). It will also create FLVPlayer.swf and Skin.swf which are required for the client browser to play the video. Also created is a VIDxxxxxxx.html file. This is a standard html file with all the code necessary to play the video. You can just place all these files on your web server and create a link to that VIDxxxxxx.html file on another page.

If you are like me, though, you usually wind up forgetting your good video camera when going out and have to shoot video on your phone. If this is the case, you probably have the video in 3GP format. Unfortunately, Free FLV Converter does not convert from 3GP to FLV. To convert a video from 3GP to one of the formats supported by Free FLV Converter, you can use the Free 3GP Video Converter to get the video into a more desirable format first.

Snow Leopard is still buggy.

2009-09-17T13:56:00.004-04:00

So, I took the plunge and installed Snow Leopard on my brand new MacBook Pro. Big mistake!

First, let me say that I love the way Apple makes people pay for minor upgrades. Upgrade 10.5.8 to 10.6 for $30; come on, it should be free! They did the same thing with the iPod Touch from 2.2 to 3.0 for $10.

As soon as I installed the Snow Leopard upgrade, my WiFi (or Airport, in Apple parlance) began acting up. Every time I logged in, the Airport status would show an exclamation point, meaning it couldn’t get an IP address. If I turned Airport on then off, it would work just fine. It would work fine, that is, until it didn’t.

I would be browsing away, and all of a sudden I would get the “Your computer is not connected to the internet” message in Safari. The Airport status said everything was just fine, but I had no connectivity in any network applications. Again, turning Airport off then on fixed the problem, until it happened again.

I reinstalled the OS, no deal. I tried some things listed in the forums where many people say they had the same issue (just google snow leopard airport problem), no deal. I talked to Apple support three times and tried all of their suggestions, no deal.

So, I downgraded back to Leopard and kissed my $30 goodbye.

“It just works.” Yeah, right….

Relative file linking in Word 2007

2009-09-14T12:39:00.006-04:00

Microsoft Word has been around for 26 years now, and it still lacks some common-sense features. For instance, you can’t use a relative path to point to linked documents. This means, if you put together a master document and use “Insert->Object->Text from file” to add a link to other documents, Word will insert the complete path to this linked document. If you move the master and linked documents to another folder, you will get a bunch of these: “Error! Not a valid filename”.

If you expand the field codes to see what is going on (select the item and hit Shift-F9), you’ll see that the link is pointing to the old path. If you edit the field code text and remove the path, but leave the file name, Word will prepend the path that is defined in “Word Options->Advanced->General->File Locations->Documents” (Oh, and if you’re wondering how to get to the “Word Options” menu, look under the oh-so-obvious Office Symbol at the upper left of the Word window).

So, here’s a work-around to enable relative paths to linked documents. You can create a custom document property that contains the path name to the active document’s path and include it in the file name of the INCLUDETEXT field code. This technique is mentioned here.

Linked files use the INCLUDETEXT field code to link to documents like this: {INCLUDETEXT “filename”}. If your linked file is RTF, it looks like this {INCLUDETEXT “filename” \c MSRTF}. You can embed a field code inside a field code to use a custom document property that contains a path like this: {INCLUDETEXT “{DOCPROPERTY pathString}\\fileName”}, where pathString defines the location of the document folder where the files exist, and fileName is the name of the file to link.

Now, you need to automatically set the custom document property pathString to the path of the active document. To do this, you can use a VBA script. You first need a method to write to a custom document property. Here is one that works well. Place that code into “ThisDocument” in you document's VBA editor tree (go to Developer->Visual Basic) to open the VBA editor. If you don’t see the Developer tab, go to the Office Icon->Word Options->Popular and check “Show Developer tab in the Ribbon”.

Now, place this code into the VBA script:

Private Sub Document_Open()

Call WriteProp(sPropName:="pathString",_
sValue:=ActiveDocument.Path,_
lType:=msoPropertyTypeString)

End Sub

Every time the document opens, it will assign the active document’s path to the “pathString” document property.

Maybe Microsoft knew about this super simple method and figured there was no need for relative paths;-)

meta-iPod: the iTunes Cleaner

2009-08-27T09:37:00.001-04:00

I finally took the step of giving the kids their own iTunes install in each of their accounts. As usual, with Apple's inflexible software, when doing things that are slightly different that what the designers thought you "should" do, the process was a bit painful.

I wanted to share my library with the kids, so we all had access to the same music. I first moved all my music to the "Public" folder in Vista, but then had second thoughts. If one of the kids mistakenly deleted a file, it would be gone from my library and I wouldn't know it until I tried to play it or sync it to my iPod. I then moved the files back to my own iTunes Music folder and enabled sharing. In this process, iTunes temporarily lost its mind and started to reorganize some files into folders based on their tags. This resulted in about 150 duplicate files. Arghhhh...

Since iTunes library management (including its pitiful, unconfigurable duplicate finder) utterly stinks, I had to find a better (automated) way to remove the duplicates in a way that made sense.

This is where meta-iPod came in. It did the job wonderfully and was a breeze to use.

meta-iPod: the iTunes Cleaner

Managing my digital life

2009-04-28T10:26:00.001-04:00

Over the past couple of years, I’ve gathered a set of tools for managing my digital life. Most of the tools were discovered by reading feeds from Lifehacker, gHacks, Download Squad, and Tech Crunch using a Netvibes start page in Firefox.

For managing my passwords, keeping encrypted notes about accounts, and automatically filling web based forms, I use RoboForm. It is by far, the best password manager and form filler out there. I just wish they had a mac version for my macbook.

For keeping general notes that sync across my multiple machines, I use EverNote. If you install the desktop app, you can clip any part of a web page (or any other document, for that matter) and include it in your note with a picture and a link. The notes are accessible via the desktop app, or the web interface from any computer. You can make multiple notebooks to organize things and can tag each of the notes.

For taking notes on the road, or when I can’t get to a computer, I use ReQall. If you call ReQall from a phone, you can add a note by just talking into the phone. ReQall will transcribe the note and email it to you. Right now, I just use ReQall for this purpose, but this only scratches the surface of what this free service can do.

To keep certain documents in sync across machines, I use the free version of Dropbox. It sets up a Dropbox folder on each local computer onto which you install the app. Whatever you place in the dropbox will be synced on all of the machines. The size limit for the free account is 2 GB.

Since I have many photos and other irreplaceable files, I perform daily backups using SyncBack SE. It is a great program for syncing local folders or doing backups. The free version is great for most things, but I liked the advanced features that were only available in the SE version. I prefer using SyncBack to the Windows backup utility because I like to have the actual files on the backup drive, not some compressed version of them. If I need to go back to get an old version of a file, I just browse the directory structure of the backup drive and pull out the file. I have SyncBack scheduled for daily and weekly backups in different locations.

To raise the paranoia level even higher, I think of the case where a fire takes out both my main machine and the backup drives. To avoid this kind of data disaster, I backup to a remote site using Jungle Disk. For large amounts of data, Jungle Disk is a bit more expensive than Mozy or Carbonite, but since it uses Amazon S3 and Rackspace servers, I think it might be more reliable. I have also found that upload/download speeds are better with Jungle Disk. Another nice thing about Jungle Disk is that your files are available via a web interface if you need to access them from another machine. If you are concerned about privacy, Jungle Disk gives you the option of encrypting the files with a private key that only you know (the upload/download stream is encrypted automatically using keys stored by Jungle Disk) .

Whenever I come across a site I like, or think I need to visit later, I use del.icio.us to bookmark it. I LOVE del.icio.us. I have about 1200 bookmarked sites right now. You can tag the bookmarks with categories, so you can find stuff related to a certain topic. You can share bookmarks with other del.icio.us users by just tagging it with for:username. You can choose which bookmarks are public and which are private. Most of my bookmarks are public, so I can easily share them with others by just linking to my page.

Well, that’s it for now. I’ll post again with some other ideas for streamlining you life online.

Firefox keyboard shortcuts

2009-04-28T09:52:00.001-04:00

Since my short term memory is totally shot, every time I learn something new, I have to write it down. Since some of the stuff I learn may be useful to others, I sometimes write it here.

Being that I’m remarkably lazy, I don’t like making making the extra effort required to move my arm 8 inches from my keyboard to my mouse to perform tasks while in Firefox. This is where keyboard shortcuts come in. There is a great list of Firefox keyboard shortcuts on the mozilla site. Some highlights:

Open a new tab: Ctrl-T
Close the active tab: Ctrl-W
Undo close tab: Ctrl-Shift-T
Next tab: Ctrl-Tab
Previous tab: Ctrl-Shift-Tab
Select the location bar: Alt-D or Ctrl-L

That last one is pretty useful when combined with Firefox quick searches. A quick search can be defined by right-clicking inside a search box and choosing “Add a Keyword for this Search…” from the context menu. You then get the bookmark dialog that looks like this:

You type in a name for the quick search and a keyword. Once this is out of the way, if you go to the location bar, type your keyword then a space followed by search terms, the search will be performed.

For example, if I associate a “g” keyword with a google search, I can hit Alt-D to get to the location bar, type “g tony triolo” and I get a google results page with results about me (and a bunch of other Tony Triolos).

If you have the google toolbar installed, you can get to the search box on the toolbar by hitting Alt-G. This keyboard shortcut for the google toolbar is not one that is easily found elsewhere on the interwebs. If you don’t have google toolbar, or you prefer using the built in Firefox search bar (at the upper right), you can hit Ctrl-K to put the cursor in there.

Seven Productivity Tips For People That Hate GTD | Zen Habits

2009-04-10T10:35:00.001-04:00

Seven Productivity Tips For People That Hate GTD | Zen Habits

For some reason, I’ve always shied away from the GTD system. It just seems to regimented for me. I’m much more of a “go with the flow,” creative kind of person, and GTD seems like too much of a creativity killer. I could be wrong. I haven’t wholeheartedly tried to implement the GTD system, but what fun would it be criticizing something with full knowledge. I much prefer to make snap judgments without being fully informed.

I like the tips put forward by Jonathan Mead in the article above. I especially like tip 4 “Allow yourself to suck.” I think that one really hit home for me. So much of what I do (or don’t do) is motivated by the fear of failure, or the fear of exposing myself as not being as smart as people think I am. I really need to suck more (since I am oh-so-perfect right now).

Choice

2008-12-03T08:28:00.003-05:00

I was just listening to the latest Radio Lab podcast -- which is a great show, by the way -- about choice. There was an interesting section about a man, call him Elliot, who had a section of his brain removed during a procedure to remove a tumor. After the surgery, Elliot could not make a decision, even about the most inconsequential things -- like which color pen to write with. After performing some tests, psychologists determined that Elliot had lost the ability to have emotion. They would show him pictures of scenes that would cause normal people to have an emotional reaction -- severed limbs, etc. He had no emotional, or even physiological reaction.

What psychologists learned from this case is that, contrary to what conventional wisdom says about using logic to make better decisions, logic alone does not allow us to make decisions that will make us happier. Even more controversially, maybe we should not make decisions at all using logic. We need emotion to make choices. Which is why some people say your gut reaction is usually the best one.

One of the Radio Lab hosts, Jad Abumrad said something that seemed very profound and accurate. He said that our emotions are a sort of shorthand for the average of our past experiences and wisdom. I guess when you think of it in terms of the evolution of our species, it makes some sense. How could we have survived this long if we didn't have these "gut" reactions. You need a kind of quick warning mechanism based on your past experiences to perform instinctual actions. You wouldn't have time to think about your possible choices in a life-or-death scenario. You would just need to react.

All of this is not to say that your emotional brain makes the best choices, though. In an earlier part of the show, they discuss the results of an experiement that showed how when experimental subjects had their reasoning center distracted with another action, like memorizing a 7 digit number, they made bad choices concerning unhealthy vs. healthy food.

Like everything else in life, you can't go to extremes when it comes to making choices either. You should use a balance of emotion and logic to make your like decisions.

Vocabulary Memorization Method

2008-06-10T15:12:00.001-04:00

Here is a method that I came up with for my daughter, who was having a hard time memorizing new vocabulary words. On the vocabulary test she took before using this method she got a grade of 11% on the test. After using this method to learn 20 words in 2 days, she got a score of 102% on the next test (there was some extra credit).

Here's the method that I came up with to help with the memorization. I'm sure it is similar to others out there, but I've never seen something like this laid out in a step-by-step method.

Create a note card for each word. We used 3"x5" standard index cards.
On the front of the note card, write the vocabulary word in standard spelling and, optionally, its phonetic spelling.
On the back, write the part of speech, followed by the word definition.
Also on the back, write a sample sentence using the word in a way that shows you know its meaning. For instance, for the word "glutton", you could write "Jim felt like a glutton after eating that meal because he thought he ate way too much."
Come up with a funny cartoon picture to go along with the word and draw it on the front of the card. The picture should have something to do with the definition and should also have something to do with a common word that rhymes with it. For example, using the word "glutton" again, you could draw a big fat cartoon button stuffing its face with food. The button will remind you of the original word that rhymes and the button stuffing its cartoon face will be a silly way to remind you of the definition. The sillier the picture, the more memorable it will be.
Create a deck of these cards for all the words you need to memorize and go through them one by one. Look at the front of the card and try to repeat the definition out loud without turning over the card. Then, try to come up with an example sentence using the word. Turn over the card and check your definition.
Once you feel confident about the words, have someone else quiz you on them without letting you see the picture.

Here's why I think it works: Spending all the effort to come up with these pictures (it's not that easy for some words) forces you to really think hard about the words in the short term. The pictures help you to remember them over the long term. For some reason, funny, incongruous pictures stick in your head. I can still picture some of the ones I used to memorize things when I was a kid almost 30 years ago.

It may not work fore everyone, but it is worth a try.

Affluenza

2008-05-29T12:30:00.003-04:00

After writing the post on wealth equivalence I started to think: "What is fundamentally wrong with spending money on lots of stuff? What is wrong with making you house look nice? What is wrong with having a fancy car and the best of everything?"

I think it comes down to this: When you are spending money for outward appearances, you are no longer satisfying your basic needs as a human anymore. You think buying things will make you happier, but why? Once you get beyond the basics, food, a shelter that comfortably accommodates you family, retirement savings that will allow you to live when you can no longer work, and maybe basic things that allow you to do activities that nourish your soul (music, art, writing, etc.), you are only buying things to impress others. Keep up, or surpass the Joneses.

Here's a definition of Affluenza from the website for the PBS TV series (which I haven't seen yet):

Af-flu-en-za n. 1. The bloated, sluggish and unfulfilled feeling that results from efforts to keep up with the Joneses. 2. An epidemic of stress, overwork, waste and indebtedness caused by dogged pursuit of the American Dream.

I think the first definition hits it on the head. You think you will be more fulfilled by buying more stuff, remodeling you kitchen, putting in a new deck, but will you really? Probably not. You'll just move on to the next "need"; be it a new pool, a new car, an addition to your house, whatever will give you greater status.

I am also guilty when it comes to this type of behavior. My house is probably too big, I have too much property, I have too many books, and too many guitars. I am taking the first step toward a cure, though. I am admitting I have a problem. The second step toward a cure is to realize that I can be fulfilled in ways other than by spending money. My first attempt at this is to start a practice of mindful meditation. I am currently reading Full Catastrophe Living and have read Wherever You Go, There You Are by Jon Kabat-Zinn in an attempt to gain more self-awareness. Dr. Kabat-Zinn also gave a good talk about mindfulness at the google campus that started me on this mindfulness path. I'll post about how it is going soon.

More Happiness Project

2008-05-29T11:37:00.001-04:00

I learned last night that I still have a long way to go toward achieving the goals of my happiness project. The dogs seem to be a constant test of how well I am following the principles of happiness I laid out. They chewed the leg of the brand new kitchen table and I ranted and raved for a good couple of hours.

We had our previous table since before we were married, so a bit over 15 years. It was not a great table and was much too small for the 6 of us. Maria finally found a new one, and it is very nice (all wood). The dogs chewed the foot of the table and destroyed the routed design on the edges. I had to spend about a 1/2 hour fixing it with wood filler and trying to make it look like it used to. It never will, since the grain can't be recreated with filler.

The damaged piece is near the floor and not that visible. I repaired it pretty well, if I do say so myself. However, the perfectionist in me comes out and I want to redo it to try to make it better and spend even more time obsessing. I must resist, though. I need to obey rules numbers 3 and 6 (as Maria kept reminding me): Let it go and Forgive

As a result of this and other things over the past couple of months, I think I need to add more happiness rules.

8. It's just stuff (to remind me that things don't matter, people do)

9. Don't take criticism personally

10. Learn from mistakes, don't dwell on them

I am going to try to put this list in the right column of the blog using the page elements tools on bloger so that it serves as a constant reminder.

Wealth equivalence principle

2008-05-27T14:22:00.001-04:00

I've come to the realization that if you change your perspective and resist falling into the trap of the American lifestyle and status treadmill, then there is an equivalence principle that can be applied to wealth. That is, it is possible to be wealthy in two, equivalent, ways. The first is by earning more money. In this model, the more money you earn, the more stuff you can (and will) buy. Outwardly, you will look wealthy. You will have the big house, the fancy cars, the new kitchen with the all-important granite counter tops, the big flat-screen TV, etc. ad nauseum.

On the other hand, if you reduce your consumption by keeping that old, but functional car, or by actually going outside to see nature instead of buying that HDTV on which to view it via the Discovery Channel, you can be just as wealthy. By wealthy, I mean your expenses do not exceed your income and you can put money away in savings. A difficult shift in attitude and a strong will are required to resist marketing, peer pressure, and pursuit of status, which you could argue in America is equivalent to pursuit of happiness.

It is amazing how many things you don't "need" when you change your lifestyle and shun the status-seeking, nothing-but-the-best, I-have-the-latest-gadget-therefore-I'm-better-than-you attitude.

I'll admit it, I'm a geek, so the latest gadgets appeal to me based on coolness factor. But, when I think about buying another gadget, I just think of all the other crap that is piled up in the house that looked cool at the time, but that I never use. I've become jaded and a bit more realistic when it comes to technology over the years. This is why I still drive a 14 year old Honda civic that gets 38 mpg highway, rivaling many hybrids. This is also why I don't own a single HDTV, or any flat screen displays at all. If my CRT TVs are functional, then I am keeping them. I barely watch TV as it is. I don't need to see Mythbusters in HD.

I've come to the conclusion that as Americans, the advertising industry and our quest for prestige have driven us onto the "status treadmill." You see people whom you think are wealthy and have status with the latest and greatest stuff, so you think "If only I had enough money to buy that cool thing, I would really be happy." In reality, you sub-conscience is saying "I only I had that cool thing, people would think I am rich and I would be a more important person." You then look for the better paying job that would double your commute time. Or the manager position that would increase your income. It doesn't matter that you love what you are doing now and don't really like managing people. It doesn't matter that with the increased responsibility comes increased work hours. All you can think of is that extra money for more stuff.

Once you take that new job or promotion and the extra money starts rolling in, an amazing thing happens. The bills and increased costs from the extra stuff you are buying put you right back in the same position. You have the same amount of money to put in savings at the end of the month, if any at all. You have more stuff that you can't use because your job takes up all of your time. On top of that, your job is not satisfying your soul and you have less time to spend with your family. Even more disappointing, you are no more "important" than you were when you made less money. Sure, your job title might make you sound more important, but important to whom? The company that would lay you off without batting an eyelash when times get tough?

I admire people that are brave enough to join the "downshifting" movement. The lawyer who was going to make partner, but decided to drive a truck so he could spend more time with his kids. The doctor who quits her practice to stay at home and raise her kids full-time. It takes a lot of guts to look at society in the face and say "I'm not playing the game anymore." I am important as I am, I don't need a fancy title, huge house, or nice car to make me important. We are all important in our own way. I doesn't matter if you don't fit the traditional "American dream" model. As Eckhart Tolle says in The Power of Now:

The most common ego identifications have to do with possessions, the work you do, social status and recognition, knowledge and education, physical appearance, special abilities, relationships, person and family history, belief systems, and often also political, nationalistic, racial, religious, and other collective identifications. None of these is you.

41 things to do instead of watching TV

2008-05-13T21:38:00.002-04:00

Here's a list I put together for my kids on a day when I told them to stop watching TV. When all the whining ended, they picked a couple of things from the list and actually had some old time, interactive fun.

Some of the items are specific to our household, but most a pretty general.

Read a book
Draw a picture
Play a board game
Go to the beach
Ride bikes/scooters
Play outside on the swings or in the sandbox
Make paper airplanes
Play school
Play the spelling game (TurboTwist)
Paint a picture
Make something out of clay
Play the piano, drums, or guitar
Do some science experiments
Write a kid's book
Write poems or songs
Make a fort
Make-up a new game
Play with Thomas the Tank Engine trains
Build a tower out of blocks
Make stuff with paper
Make a list of "things to do instead of watching TV"
Make a quilt, or sew
Make a tea party
Collect, or watch bugs
Collect leaves
Dance
Sing
Listen to music
Make a band (musical)
Make, and/or fly a kite
Watch clouds
Go to the park
Take a walk
Do origami
Play dress-up
Do a puzzle
Play with dolls, or Barbie dolls
Make a robot
Blow bubbles
Play card games
Play dominoes

Getting rid of books

2008-04-16T14:52:00.000-04:00

The Unclutterer blog has an article about getting rid of books you'll never use/read again or that are freely available online.

I have nearly 1,000 books and I think it might be about time to get rid of some myself. I don't know why I have so many books. I guess I am just an information junkie. Every time I see a book on some arcane topic that I am interested in at the moment, I feel like I need to buy the book just in case I can't find it again. That urge has lessened with the advent of the internet, which is why I haven't bought many books lately.

I just can't toss these books, though. I would feel very guilty about that. I was thinking of doing the Bookcrossing thing, but getting rid of one book at a time would take forever. Some people have suggested half.com and I see others selling on amazon.com. Is it really worth the trouble of selling books for less than $5 apiece (trade paper)?

Link: Unclutterer » Archive » Bringing your bookshelves back to order

» CES best of show winners | Between the Lines | ZDNet.com

2008-01-13T21:05:00.002-05:00

CES sounded like a yawn-fest this year, but ZDNet points out some of the bright spots. I thought the Bug Labs device looked pretty cool. It is essentially building blocks that you can use to make your own custom gadget. The blocks include a GPS locator, a digital camera, an accelerometer/motion sensor, and a touch sensitive LCD screen. It still seems a bit clunky and large for my tastes, but maybe eventually it will shrink.

The Lenovo IdeaPad series looks intriguing, too. It is a laptop similar to the business line of ThinkPads, but these are aimed at home users. They look like they've got a lot of bang for the buck.

My Hapiness Project

2007-12-28T16:00:00.001-05:00

After having a particularly stressful couple of days being annoyed at just about everything, I've decided to start my own Happiness Project as suggested and inspired by Gretchen Rubin's Happiness Project. As I was ranting and raving about a stupid inconsequential thing like the dogs being filthy after coming in from their pen outside, I thought: "why am I so angry?" To tell you the truth, I really couldn't figure it out. Sure, the dogs required a bath, which took some time, but it wasn't as bad as you would have thought after hearing me cursing and screaming. After thinking about it for the rest of the night, I came to the conclusion that my main problem is bad time management.

There are certain things in life that I really want to do. In order of decreasing importance: First, I want to be able to spend time with my wife and each of my kids, paying attention to to them individually on a regular basis. Somewhat related to that first item is to spend time with all of my family at once doing fun and rewarding things, like going to museums, parks, and other interesting places, playing games, watching movies, etc. Second, I would like time to be able to express myself creatively (writing prose, songs, art, etc.). That's about it.

There are then the things that I have to do: Go to work. Maintain our house. Take care of medical issues. Take care of the dogs. And other fairly unpleasant (to me) things. That last one is what set me off yesterday. The dogs encroached on the time I had set aside for the first set of "like to do" things. In the end, I was still able to do the "like to do" stuff, but when I had to set aside more time to clean the dogs and then their pen, it seemed like I wouldn't be able to do that good stuff. On top of that, we went roller skating and then were going to go to a restaurant, however, we had to first go home to feed the dogs. So, instead of getting to the restaurant at 5:30 when it wouldn't have been crowded, we got there at 6:30 and had to wait for 35 minutes with 4 very restless kids. Again, inconvenient, but not the end of the world and not a reason to be too annoyed.

If I had planned my time better, or thought about things a bit more before exploding, things would have been much more pleasant for me and everyone else.

These events combined with my frequent reading of The Happiness Project has led me to start my own Happiness Project. The first thing is to list my (insert number here) commandments. Here is a first shot at it (I'll discuss the specifics at a later time):

One thing at a time
Pay attention
Let it go
Go with the flow
Write every day
Forgive
Remember the golden rule

I'm bound to edit the list and add more, but for now, this is it.

Maxtor QuickView QVX Expander- Upgrade your Scientific Atlanta Explorer 8300 HD, 8300 MR and 8300 HD-MR

2007-11-18T16:21:00.000-05:00

Maxtor QuickView QVX Expander- Upgrade your Scientific Atlanta Explorer 8300 HD, 8300 MR and 8300 HD-MR

Instructions on how to get the Scientific Atlanta Explorer 8300 DVR into diagnostic mode.

There are two ways to enter the Diagnostic Mode:

Press and hold the Select button on the front of the unit until the Mail light starts to flash, then press the INFO button.

Press and hold the Pause button on the remote until the Mail light starts to flash (around 10-15 seconds), then press the Page Up (-) button.

The Fundamental Four

2007-07-20T12:37:00.000-04:00

Here are the four most important books recommended by Timothy Ferriss from The 4 Hour Work Week:

The Magic of Thinking Big by David Schwartz
How to Make Millions with Your Ideas: An Entrepreneur's Guide by Dan S. Kennedy
The E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don't Work and What to Do About It by Michael E. Gerber
Vagabonding: An Uncommon Guide to the Art of Long-Term World Travel by Rolf Potts

One more worth mentioning is:
Walden by Henry D. Thoreau

The 4-Hour Workweek

2007-07-20T12:29:00.000-04:00

I've been "reading" the audiobook version of The 4 Hour Workweek and it's been pretty interesting. I think it is just the kind of kick-in-the-pants approach that I need. I'm very, very tired of my job and this profession in general. Engineering is a treadmill that I wouldn't wish upon anybody. You usually work for someone else, so you don't see real monetary rewards from your hard work. You area always being paid for "hours of work", which is a foolish concept if you want time do do things you really love. The right way to go about making a living is to create something. I don't care what it is, as long as people are willing to buy it and it has a high enough profit margin to support your desired lifestyle.

If you want to climb mountains in Nepal, help the homeless in NYC, or anything else that needs both money and time, you have to own a business that can be on autopilot most of the time to generate cash for you. Notice that I didn't say run you own business. You want to be the owner who delegates all tasks to a bunch of competent people (preferably outsourced) that can run it for you. You have the idea and get things started and let other people do the rest.

One thing I learned from the book is that product creation does not have to be financially risky. In these days of online everything, test marketing campaigns can be performed with little cash investment. Credit card payment by your customers combined with Net 30 or 90 terms to your contract manufacturers leads to little risk.

So, I am brainstorming ideas for new products and hope to have a business up and running very soon.

Stay tuned...

Jensen Harris: An Office User Interface Blog : RibbonX Resources

2007-05-04T15:21:00.000-04:00

Jensen Harris: An Office User Interface Blog : RibbonX Resources

Here's some more info on how you can customize the Office 2007 Ribbon.

Jensen Harris: An Office User Interface Blog : Let's Talk About Customization

2007-05-04T15:20:00.000-04:00

I just installed Office 2007 and am not quite happy with it. First, I was very used to where all the commands were located in all of the old Office version. Well, the really changed the UI and totally did away with the standard menu bar. They've replaced it with "The Ribbon". The Ribbon is an area that contains many little icons for all of the things you need to do in Office 2007. Since this Ribbon is not arranged exactly as I would have arranged it, I spend quite a bit of time hunting around for commands. The most frustrating/infuriating thing is that the Ribbon is not customizable. It is beyond me how Microsoft developers did not include a "Classic View" option that allows people to go back to the old UI.

Anyway, the link below leads to a site that describes how developers can customize the Ribbon using dev tools (not exactly easy). If I fool with this stuff long enough, I guess I can eventually customize the Ribbon, but this is out of the question for the typical user.

Jensen Harris: An Office User Interface Blog : Let's Talk About Customization: "galleries"

It looks like there are ways to customize the Office 2007 UI. They aren't that easy to do, but it is possible.

How to move stuff in iTunes

2007-04-27T09:10:00.000-04:00

Apple does it again. Life would be so much easier (albeit, less interesting) if Apple actually allowed us dumb users to manage our stuff manually.

I want to move my iTunes library from an internal drive to an external one. Instead of just providing a button that says "relocate music files", I have to first edit the location of my music folder in the "advanced" preferences area of iTunes. Then, I need to quit iTunes. Next, I manually copy files to the new location. Then I reopen iTunes. All very simple. You can also use the very logically labeled "consolidate library" button to do something similar.

Now, if I want to relocate the actual library files (the ones that contain all the track info), i.e., iTunes Library.itl , iTunes Music Library.xml, and Album Artwork, I have to use the secret handshake...eh, I mean, secret keypress combo to choose a new library. This only works in iTunes 7, BTW. Also, on a Windows machine, you need to click on the iTunes icon on the desktop, then hold down shift while hitting enter and continue holding shift until you get the "Choose iTunes Library" dialog.

Again, wouldn't a GUI entry that says "location of itunes library data" be a bit easier?

Apple tries to be cute and user-friendly by hiding all kinds of advanced settings from the user. More experienced users can usually figure out way around their built-in roadblocks to prevent users from doing something stupid. Why not just put in some "very advanced" settings and warn users not to touch them unless they know what they are doing?