Category — Technology

I’ve been arguing with Pluck for about two days now about getting the stupid thing to sync the IE version of their RSS reader and the Web Edition, which has a lot of feeds and links I don’t have anywhere else.  IE only shows the local stuff and well Firefox isn’t showing ANYTHING even with the debug hack of merging local tree with server.  I’m not very happy right now and its ridiculous that you can import into the web edition yet can’t export?  Um okay.  Now I remember why I quit using Pluck in the first place.

LOL.  Sorry couldn't resist.  I'm trying out Flock and it seems VERY useful for those who live in a media-rich world.  Some minor issues-taking forever to load the favorites list (did a mass import of 3K bookmarks from IE, plus 8k from FireFox {most are duplicates}) and a serious lack of themes, but the default theme is pretty and useful.  It had no problem importing about 1,104 feeds from GreatNews and I really like the news feature they have.  Not to mention the handy-dandy blogging client built-in so I can write a post on the fly, or blog a neat post/site I see while browsing about, plus linking to my flickr account and even sharing my favorites/bookmarks.  

This Is Your Brain Online, How Video Games, Multitasking And Blogging Are Shaping The GenTech Brain - CBS News via digg

Interesting points yet oddly enough its not just teenagers who seem to do too much.  For instance, as I was writing this blog, I read a few comments on digg, ran a web search for something that wasn’t even related to the article, downloaded a new copy of Trillian, added a new extension to Firefox, and started Party Shuffle on iTunes, not to mention talk with my 5 year old.  

I think that the increasing availability of computers and the Internet, not to mention the increase in TV, movie and music choices is causing a corresponding rise in ADD-like behaviors/multitasking.  Then again I have ADD myself, so perhaps I’m merely filtering my observations through the ADD filter.  

I've been messing around trying to get my stuff together so that I have no distractions so I can settle down and get stuff done. Previously I've written about setting up a Control Journal a la FlyLady and various bits I've been trying to get my stuff in order and to keep myself from contanstly thinking of what I have to do when I would rather do the stuff and spend my brainpower on being a better mother, wife, daughter and writer. So I've decided to write down my toolkit that I've settled into.

• Control Journal
  • Routines-Morning, Afternoon, Late Afternoon, Evening, Before Bed and Weekly
  • Menus and Master Pantry, Household and Grocery Shopping Lists
  • Household Information: Passwords/User Names, Insurance Information, Phone List, Medical Information and Doctor's numbers.
• EssentialPIM Pro-calendar, to-dos, basic notes and contacts-in the middle of adding family address information to EPIM
• Evernote-notes, quotes, clippings, recipes from the 'Net
• GMail
• FireFox with 43 Extensions/6 Themes
  • Adblock 0.5.3.042
  • Adblock Filterset.G Updater 0.3.0.4
  • Always Remember Password 0.4
  • BBCode 0.4.1.3
  • Blogger Web Comments 1.3
  • Bookmark Backup 0.4.1
  • Bookmark Duplicate Detector 0.5.0
  • Bookmarks LinkChecker 0.6.8.2
  • BugMeNot 1.3
  • Colorful Tabs 1.4
  • Context Search 0.2.1
  • Copy Plain Text 0.3.2
  • CustomizeGoogle 0.49
  • CuteMenus 2 1.0
  • del.icio.us 1.1
  • Disable Targets For Downloads 1.0.1
  • DOM Inspector 1.8.0.4
  • Download Manager Tweak 0.7.1
  • DownThemAll! 0.9.9.5.1
  • EverNote Web Clipper 1.0.0.42
  • Fasterfox 1.0.3
  • File Title 1.1
  • Forecastfox 0.9.2
  • FoxyTunes 1.2.5
  • Google Notebook 1.0.0.5
  • Google Toolbar for Firefox 2.0.20060606W
  • Greasemonkey 0.6.4
  • IE View 1.2.7
  • Image Toolbar 0.6.3
  • Linky 2.7.1
  • LiveLines 0.4.5
  • MediaPlayerConnectivity 0.6.3
  • MR Tech Local Install 5.0.4
  • Performancing 1.2
  • Sage 1.3.6
  • ScrapBook 1.0.6
  • SecurePassword Generator 0.5.3
  • Tabbrowser Preferences 1.2.8.9
  • Talkback 1.5.0.4
  • TimeTracker 1.1.2
  • undoclosetab 20051204
  • UnPlug 1.3.1
  • WebmailCompose 0.6.6
  • Abstract PC 1.0
  • AquaFox 1.1.01
  • Aquatint 1.6.6
  • BlackJapan 1.15
  • Firefox (default)
  • iCandy Junior 2.0.5
  • Adobe Acrobat
  • Java(TM) 2 Platform Standard Edition 5.0 Update 7
  • Microsoft® DRM
  • Mozilla Default Plug-in
  • QuickTime Plug-in 7.1
  • RealPlayer Version Plugin
  • RealPlayer(tm) G2 LiveConnect-Enabled Plug-In (32-bit)
  • Shockwave Flash
  • VLC multimedia plugin
  • Windows Media Player Plug-in Dynamic Link Library
• Del.icio.us/Furl/Simpy for bookmarking and saving copies
• Bloglines-in the middle of cleaning up feeds and will mirror Omea
• Omea Reader-RSS/Bookmarks/Usenet-very handy especially with a Wordpress blog posting plugin-it was very slow on my computer and took FOREVER to close-now using Sage and Performancing.
• iTunes-Music
• Picasa-Photo Organizing and basic editing
• Media Player Classic-plays pretty much any video/music format when installed with K-Lite Codec Pack
• VLC Client-catches whatever MPC doesn't play
• Trillian Basic 3-IM-pretty much all my services except AIM which I haven't used since 2000
• Money 2006 Deluxe-right now using a trial version, will pick up full version soon

Spent Sunday afternoon helping the hubby disassemble two computers and create a new one using the video card and HD from the old one and putting them into the new to us computer. I like this one since the monitor is much newer(the old one was bought in 1996 and could only do 800×600.) and I have lots of space on the hard drive. Spent all day Monday (fromm 10 am Monday to 1:30AM this morning) installing Windows XP, the service packs, plus the security fixes (about 60+ in all) and getting the majority of the programs installed and moving files. I still have some disk housekeeping to do, mainly defrag, plus set up SyncToy to back up files/folders to the second HD which was the one out of the old computer.

I’ve started back into using Omea Reader for RSS/Usenet since I’m using Gmail’s web interface for my mail. I liked Thunderbird but got tired of the huge archive I was keeping so Copernic could index my emails. I’ve switched back to Google Desktop 4 for desktop search since I don’t have to have a archive on the HD which is not fun backing up.

All in all it was one of the easiest clean installs of XP I’ve done, since I had the files I wanted to move handy on another HD and I wasn’t concerned about settings (well except FireFox since I have passwords saved).

The Great HDCP Fiasco

Idjits. Hollywood, the MPAA, ATI and nVidia, not to mention Sony and Microsoft are all just a big bunch of money grubbing IDIOTS who seem to think making it *harder* to even WATCH what people f'ing buy will cut down piracy.
Bullfuckingshit.
They have farted around about HDTV, DRM and copyright and they who THINK they are the powers that be are merely bringing on a lovely little fight between people who want to watch or listen to what they buy *LEGALLY* and those who think that there are pirates around every corner. No they are in bed with those who give a nod and wink to piracy in China and other places and punishing the legal buyers of their products be it software, DVDs, games or music.
I for one, would be very pissed about not being able to watch a DVD on my snazzy new HDTV (not like I could afford one for a few YEARS) or hell play a game on my new PS3 (altough I'm seriously reconsidering that in light of my little run-in with MediaMAX courtesy of Sony/BMG) that I bought and paid for.
Of course the article has the disturbing news that the GPU manufacturers-ATI/nVidia- have been *advertising* a feature that the retail versions don't have but OEM versions that can only be in new computers, which is a bait and switch in my opinion.

I've been a bit puzzled lately with the v. odd behavior of my blog in FF 1.5. I've had two posts not show up properly in the main page but they show up in the archives and mix up comments etc. Very peculiar. I changed templates, updated any scripts, even disabled adblock. Showed up perfectly in IE but was odd in Firefox. So I tried a fresh profile in FireFox and voila-the issue was fixed. I'm keeping it fresh by installing extensions rather than copying the backups.

Wired News: Boycott Sony

I like Sony. I should after buying a PSP on launch day and planning on buying a second one soon, along with owning a PS2 and 2 PS1s, and planning on buying a PS3 whenever they launch. But, Sony did wrong in putting some nasty code on CD's, effectively opening PC's to attack and putting some spyware on Macs, which I think has also been mentioned. (Check, googles, yep they did install kernel extensions, by a different company, read article from Gizmodo, Sony Mac Rootkit,which makes it an equal oppotunity offender)

Wired is calling for a boycott of Sony. Does that include SCEA. or is it the Sony music label? Decisions, decisions. I don't like ANY company that installs crap on my computer be it Microsoft or Sony or hell even Apple. I don't like companies telling me what I can or can not do with the things I buy, emphasis on buy. I don't like licensing my software and I doubt I'll be buying any of Sony's CD's for a while.

The major media companues treat ordinary consumers like criminals whenever they buy digital media, be it games, CD's or movies. If Cd's were priced better and not loaded with crap like Sony pulled, maybe it just might make piracy less viable. Some people in this world can't afford to buy a new $15 CD just for a song they like or if they want to try an new group.

I've been beating (not literally) on this bloody computer. A lot of my problems could be classified as user error-lack of updated backups, not paying attention to what I'm doing, etc. Now I think of myself as intermediate in computers-I can do various things well but I'm not an expert by any means.
I think its my configuration-bought this PC from a system builder who used some seriously cheap parts with a lot built in-video, Ethernet, sound, modem. I have had issues with Ethernet-bought a new card when we had a series of errors caused by the combo of a SiS 900 ethernet card and a cable modem that didn't have a power off button with two days of intermittent power outages caused by a lovely thunderstorm. Next went the video-it was sharing 256MB and boy did it kill performance. So we bought a 64MB PCI NVIDIA MX-4000 video card. I found out that I can't uninstall the previous video card so I can only disable it. So any time I have to reinstall Windows which I had to do last weekend (Sept. 10-11), I have to be sure and check the Device manager and update drivers for the NVidia and disable the SiS software. The modem is always a bit of a problem. I always forget what kind it is, but I used my dad's PC and went online and found the drivers which are now on CD. I also found an IBM CRT monitor driver that works fine and made sure to get my sound drivers.
I've just now got around to getting music and video files put back into my files so I'm pretty much set. I've lost two video files and about 4-5 iTunes songs, which is a bit irritating but I can fix them.
I would be really happy if Comcast got off their hind end and upgraded the cable system in Vonore because they and DirecWay are the only ones who can do broadband in my area. I'm too far from the cetral office for DSL. DirecWay is too bloody expensive for the speed they offer-400Kbs versus the now 6meg Comcast has. I'm going to call them in a bit and ask when they would be upgrading the service, as I'm tired of the slow dialup and the feeling that I'm now a second class citizen on the net as I have dialup and want to play games online (NeverWinterNights), find AMV's and update my music collection by buying on iTunes or other places. Not to mention it takes forever to dl my Gmail POP mail, newsgroups and RSS feeds, and even general browsing.

I've been trying out Onfolio 2.0 for the past week or so and so far I really like it. I've been collecting files and webpages for afew years now on various things I'm interested in. So I've been copying files and links into Onfolio to have as a knowledge base/electronic brain. I especially like the fact that I'm not dependent on other program's file structure like how Firefox keeps the bookmarks in one folder and files in My documents with pictures, music and videos in the appropriate folders. For instance, I have a folder in My Documents labeled InuYasha, one of my favorite anime shows(how does one pluralize anime as in meaning one of many shows?). In it I have some archived fanfics I like and want to be able to read offline. In My Pictures I have two folders related to InuYasha images, one is Fanart which covers the small images from official and fanartists I like and another one is Wallpapers. In My Videos I have around 15-16 amv's (anime music videos-clips from a show or game set to music) In Firefox I have links to fanfics, fansites, the official site, links to AMV's I want to download, etc. In Onfolio I have have copies of the files and links all in one folder. I'm not dependent on desktop search to help me find all my things, although I'm going to keep using Copernic Desktop search as sometimes I'm not exactly sure where I saw something.
I'm also using Onfolio to read my feeds which is really nice. I can have nested folders and read a newspaper style view of all the feeds in a given subject area. I can also decide when to update and how long to keep things. All in all a very nicely done piece of software, one which I will definitely use for a while to come. I think it is useful in a GTD context as well, as it allows me to have electronic reference files to get reference stuff out of my head and where I can use it. I've been working on typing up my paper notes and filing them and will be adding them to Onfolio as I finish typing them. I plan on archiving the files on CD-R to save space on my HD and of course will keep Onfolio's collection file backed up in a safe place.
I got it as a promo version from O'Reilly and it was very nice. I had a problem with the capture of items though and Onfolio gave me great support and a fix for the problem in a matter of a day or so of emailing logs and detailing the problem.

del.icio.us Tags: GTD Onfolio

Tags: GTD Onfolio