Ransu: May 2005

Secrets of the A-List Bloggers: Lots of short entries

I've read this twice so... must be meaningful to me...thought I should share.

Secrets of the A-List Bloggers: Lots of short entries

Dead Pixels Test

This hurt my eyes but revealed NO ISSUES on my new lcd monitor.

Dead Pixels Test

from http://www.lifehacker.com

computer info for kids - Jeff Sandquist - Microsoft Evangelist - Welcome to Bitman's Place

Jeff Sandquist - Microsoft Evangelist - Welcome to Bitman's Place

"donationware" The Form Letter Machine - Mouser - Software - DonationCoder.com

The Form Letter Machine - Mouser - Software - DonationCoder.com

Microsoft Office Templates: Microsoft Office Programs

Woody's Office Portal - wopr.com

a favorite of mine for office information. the people in the forums are very helpful and there are some great e-mail news letters.

Woody's Office Portal - wopr.com

a Creative Experiment

I'm currently trying out the Yahoo! Unlimited music service - they're offering a 7 day trial.
So, as mentioned in a previous post - I have a Creative Zen Micro and have been pretty please over the last few months.

In order to get the DRMd music to work, I had to download a firmware patch which is apparently in beta (Grabbed it here).
The application of the patch was pretty easy. As the instructions say - the device rebooted a number of times and it erased all my data (no concerns there).

Windows XP had no issue recognizing the device and offered to synchronize music after I plugged it in.

I tried the "Zen Micro Media Explorer" - a new icon added to my desktop as part of the install. Again, no issues seeing the device but the interface was nowhere as good as something like Creative MediaSource (and I'm not totally thrilled with that one either).

After having played with the Zen micro with some downloaded DRMd music from Yahoo! the biggest peeve for me is the DELAY, anywhere from 3 - 7 or more seconds, when I skip a song.
That is definitely not cool. And with all the music I can download from Yahoo! I end up having a few songs I don't really like or don't feel like listening to right at the moment.
If the speed were better, I would be very happy with the overall experience. Perhaps when the beta is complete the speed will be better. I will watch and wait for updates.

Slipstick Systems Exchange and Outlook Solutions Center

great site for outlook help, automation, information ---

Slipstick Systems Exchange and Outlook Solutions Center

projectified: Project Management Systems Don't Kill Project Knowledge, Bad Project Managers Kill Project Knowledge

projectified: Project Management Systems Don't Kill Project Knowledge, Bad Project Managers Kill Project Knowledge:

Any project manager that expects an Enterprise Project Management
application like Project Server to be the only avenue of communication
between themselves and their team is not only wrong, they are
TRAGICALLY WRONG!

Microsoft Office Training: Shapes I: Introductory basics you can't live without

Microsoft Office Training: Shapes I: Introductory basics you can't live without:

Rating: (370 votes)

great for the garage

probably never will though.
would be willing to pay someone to take it on though.

http://www.boneville.net/soda/

First Look: Netscape's Two-Headed Browser - Yahoo! News

Now I am really confused... honestly I'm ok with features in both browsers - don't plan to install this one anytime soon.

First Look: Netscape's Two-Headed Browser - Yahoo! News:

Like something out of Dr. Frankenstein's laboratory, the programmers at
Netscape have resurrected a browser that most Internet users had left
for dead. At the same time, they have created a two-headed monster of a
browser in the new Netscape 8, which lets you choose to view pages as
you would either in the Mozilla Foundation's Firefox version 1.0.3 or
in Microsoft's Internet Explorer 6.

Yahoo! Music Engine Plugins

If you're using Yahoo Music Engine - don't forget to go here....
i'm trying out their new 'unlimited' service.. more to follow.

Yahoo! Music Engine Plugins

The Game < WFP Foodforce - http://www.food-force.com

The Game < WFP Foodforce - http://www.food-force.com:

A major crisis has developed in the Indian Ocean, on the island of
Sheylan. We’re sending in a new team to step up the World Food
Programme’s presence there and help feed millions of hungry people.

Yahoo forces RIAA staff cutbacks… - Blog Maverick - www.blogmaverick.com _

I may have to sign up for this.
have not yet pulled the trigger.
Will have to upgrade my Creative Zen Micro (firmware).
hmmm

Yahoo forces RIAA staff cutbacks… - Blog Maverick - www.blogmaverick.com _

free software AutoStitch

not sure if this 100% qualifies for 'freeware' but it is free.
and it works. it does a good job of stitching together photographs in to panoramic views

AutoStitch

QuizFarm.com :: What philosophy do you follow? (v1.03)

I don't put too much faith in a brief quiz but thought it was interesting.
I'm satisfied.

You scored as Divine Command. Your life is directed by Divine Command: Your god and religion give you meaning and direction.

“Know therefore that the LORD thy God, he is God, the faithful God, which keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love him and keep his commandments to a thousand generations.”

--King James Version of the Bible

“Even as a tree has a single trunk but many branches and leaves, there is one religion--human religion--but any number of faiths.”

--Mahatma Gandhi

More info at Arocoun's Wikipedia User Page...

What philosophy do you follow? (v1.03)
created with QuizFarm.com

getting things done: affirmations - Napoleon Hill

getting things done: affirmations - Napoleon Hill

Like this quote - personal accountability is key.

50 Fun Things To Do With Your iPod (kottke.org)

Tactics - schopeng.
htm: Thirty - Eight Ways to Win an Argument, by Schopenhauer

schopeng.
htm: Thirty - Eight Ways to Win an Argument, by Schopenhauer

Christian daily excerpt - eManna - The Word of God Delivered Daily Via eMail

A good way to be reminded of biblical passages.

I'm not sure if my subscription to this news letter is correlated to an increase in spam or not. So, beware.

That being said, I do find it to generally be a good read.

eManna - The Word of God Delivered Daily Via eMail:

different - Moovl

I didn't have a whole lot of time to play with this but it looked like it could be pretty cool.

Moovl:

Warning: Don't get too attached to your moovl creations just yet.
In this preview of Moovl you wont be able to save your drawings
when you've finished playing.

ClearContext 1.1

First off, I'd like to express how happy I've been with the
folks over at ClearContext. I identified an issue with an older version of
Outlook, suggested a fix and they sent me a revised exe. That is awesome. So,
besides good support, what does this program do? Well, I can't say that I've
explored 100% of the functionality but am using portions of it every day. One
of the easiest and most handy functions (to me) is depicted below.

Before I jump in – an intro –

From my perspective, the main change to my day-to-day life
is the addition of a series of views, a new tool bar and the concept of ‘topics’
and priority using colors and rankings.

I loosely associate topics to categories but they do not map
to one another.

The tool bar shows up in the inbox view and in the message
view (the one problem I had was the icon on the message view).

In Outlook 2000, when starting a new message the icon would replace whatever I had on the clip board. Not cool when I was cutting and pasting information from one document to a new e-mail.
Very frustrating and I hope they include a fix in their next release.

Here is how I set up a rule for auto handling – expense related
items.

First, I select an item.

Second I click "Auto Assign" and a Dialog box will
pop up. This dialog allows me to select from a number of different options.

Name –
I name the rule… would be nice to know if I’ve used a name before.

Sender
– I can select a sender or multiple senders to which I can associate the rule.

Received
by – If I have multiple accts, I could associate rules to each one.

Subject
– I can select a string to associate with the rule – allowing me to either
have the full subject or a match to any “keyword” in the string.

Body –
similar to subject as far as the options go.

Actions –

I can associate the item to a specific topic and/or assign a
priority.

I like being able to select whether – the e-mail gets filed
immediately and to apply the rule to the inbox.

I’m unclear so far on the hierarchy of execution… e.g. if an
e-mail comes in that matches 2 or more rules, which one runs first.
I need to play with that a little more.

In this example, I’ve selected an item with the subject of ‘submit
expense’

I’ve clicked the “Message subject contains” item.

And have left it as the default value that was carried over
from my inbox.

Now I’m selecting from a list of “topics” that I’ve already entered.

Here, I’ve decided to file these messages immediately.
Who needs to look at this stuff again???

And as a last step – I’ve told ClearContext to file every thing in the inbox right now.

Now – under another folder called “ClearContext Topics” a folder is created with the same name as whatever I used as the name
of the topic. Easy!

Pros – automated, easy to use, intuitive, seems stable.

Cons – don’t like the icon/clip board issue above, has some
issues integrating with the “Getting Things Done” add in but I think this is
only for Outlook 2000.

Overall, I think it’s worth it.

Good luck automating.

interesting --- COMICS WITH PROBLEMS #1 - Introduction

COMICS WITH PROBLEMS #1 - Introduction:

freeware - MediaMan Central: Home

Is there a catch?

There's no privacy policy on the site??? wonder why

MediaMan Central: Home

Random stuff - King Tutankhamun on Yahoo! News Photos

Ok, so this is a little random, but I thought it was pretty cool.

King Tutankhamun on Yahoo! News Photos: "

"

Freeware - FlyakiteOSX - Modify . Simplify . Aquafy

Freeware software that looks like OSX for Win XP.
Have not tried it yet.

FlyakiteOSX - Modify . Simplify . Aquafy

if that site doesn't work -
try this one
http://www.osx-e.com/

it looks like you can find it there too (but not on the home page).

website - WhatIfSports.com: NBA Boxscore

I was just thinking about Shaquille O'Neal and how dominant he has been over the last few years. He's had his detractors and I'm honestly not a fan, per se, but I do recognize that he's had an impact.
I also enjoyed watching Michael Jordan during the peak of his career though I would root against him just because I like to root for the underdog. Anyway, I wondered how Shaq and Michael would match up against one another (along with their teammates). Browsing through the web I found this site that allows you to input different teams from different years, match them up and show the results. Almost exactly what I was looking for.

WhatIfSports.com: NBA Boxscore

freeware - HTTrack Website Copier - Offline Browser

HTTrack Website Copier - Offline Browser

From their site -

"It allows you to download a World Wide Web site from the Internet to a local directory, building recursively all directories, getting HTML, images, and other files from the server to your computer. HTTrack arranges the original site's relative link-structure. Simply open a page of the "mirrored" website in your browser, and you can browse the site from link to link, as if you were viewing it online. HTTrack can also update an existing mirrored site, and resume interrupted downloads. HTTrack is fully configurable, and has an integrated help system."

Generally easy to use but (if you leave the default values), but has some advanced options.

worldometers.info

"live" stastics about the world.
not sure how truly accurate it is but is an interesting use of java script.

worldometers.info:

The Darth Side: Memoirs of a Monster

The Darth Side: Memoirs of a Monster

Brings back fond memories of a youth spent wishing I could be like Han Solo or Luke Skywalker.

As a self proclaimed gadget geek, I really want one of
these. I have no idea what I'd use it for but I'd find something... maybe
I could print something cool on an ipod.

http://www.versalaser.com/english/laser_applications/operating_versalaser.html

VersaLaser^TM can transform images or drawings on your computer screen into real items made out of
an amazing variety of materials... wood, plastic, fabric, paper, glass, leather,
stone, ceramic, rubberÃÂ... and it's as easy to use as your printer.

Google-Yahoo Traffic Maps

It was only a matter of time.
This makes me want to learn more php, xml, scripting.
This is awesome - ok, I can't believe I typed that.

Google-Yahoo Traffic Maps